Stranger King (15 page)

Chapter Twenty-Five

Thegn woke
later as the door slammed open. He rose quickly, reaching for the weapon left him, even if he was still unclear how to fire it. He looked up, seeing Lena lead in a group of humans from the compound. He could hear some of their young crying, and he saw an infant strapped to one’s chest. He put the weapon down and went to Lena’s side, assisting her bringing in the wounded.

When the group was inside and the door shut behind them, Thegn retreated to the corner of the room. Things would be discussed that he had no right to be part of. The tension between Kozol and Lena seemed higher than before, the two glaring at each other the moment they saw the other.

“We can’t stay here,” Kozol stated, as Janiya began handing out rations.

“What do you suggest we do?” Lena replied. “There’s no other shelter anywhere nearby that was as stocked as ours. We could always raid their base and get some of our supplies back. That might be an option.”

“You know what we need to do, Lena,” Kozol demanded. “We’ve been avoiding it now since they settled here, but now we don’t have a choice. They’ll keep attacking us. They’ll pick us off like they did the others. You know that. We have to strike first for once. Let’s hit the bastards where they live.”

There was a murmur of consensus among the group and Kozol looked over at Thegn.

“Priest,” Kozol said. “I need you to sketch out the compound and give me coordinates. Understood?”

Thegn nodded, but Lena interrupted.

“No,” Lena said.

“No?” Kozol asked in surprise.

“We have children here,” Lena said softly. “And not all of us are capable of fighting. If you need to have this suicide mission, fine. But let the others go south. There are other bomb shelters. They’ll find somewhere else to live and survive this winter. We can have a rendezvous point, fine. But let them go.”

“And you would have your priest go with them?”

Lena glanced at Thegn. “He’s not my priest. He goes wherever the hell he wants. If he wants to go back to the bastards, then let him. If he wants to go south, let him.”

“They came for him,” Kozol stated. “You must have figured that out. That’s the only reason so many of us got away; they were terrified of accidently hitting him. It’s not safe to keep your little pet with us anymore.”

“Then I should go back,” Thegn said quietly. “Let me go back to them and explain. I have no secrets I can give them now. I will return to my people and you will be safe.”

Thegn continued, “I’ll go, give you a few days head start. Get out of this area. They’ll find another group and I can make my report.”

“You’re the only ace card I’ve got left,” Kozol said, “I’m not letting you out of my sight, priest. You say you want to help us? Then help us get our people and equipment back. I’m tired of hiding in the woods. If we’re going to die, let us die like men. I say we attack them. And if you have a shred of honor, priest, you would help us do it.”

“Will you fight?” he asked Lena.

She paused and glanced at Kozol, “Yes. Yes I will.”

“Then I will go with you,” Thegn replied, bowing his head.

“Have you all lost your minds?” Calvin argued, rising to his feet. “I hate to be the one who suggests this, but maybe we should turn ourselves in? How much better is this life than the one we would have with them? This guy wasn’t too bad. Maybe he can talk to them. This pride of yours is going to get us killed. We didn’t survive the last two years by being noble, we did it by hiding in a hole. That seems to be working out for us for the most part.”

“Coward,” Kozol sneered.

“Realist,” Calvin argued. “We may be the last humans. Do you know what that means? These kids here may be the last generation we get. We owe it to them to not get ourselves killed off.”

The two men glared at each other as the others argued among them. Calvin finally turned to Thegn and asked, “If we stand down, what will your people do to us?”

Thegn thought about this carefully and replied, “I do not know. You will be taken into captivity, perhaps to be studied or to be sold to private collectors. There is a small community there, they were … I do not know. Maria would know better than I.”

The group glanced at her as she rose to her feet, shaking, and Elias stood beside her to translate into English.

“I was captured six months before I managed to escape,” she said. “I was fed once a day. They tried to breed me a few times with another man, but we both fought them off. Then I was Thegn’s servant. He was good to me. The others … not as much. They beat me. They… they…” she trailed off as Elias put his arm around her. She took a deep shaky breath and he kissed the top of her head.

Elias concluded, “It is not an option for us.”

“Then we should run,” Calvin concluded. “If we attack their compound, we face death or worse.”

“Calvin, you should lead a group east,” Lena said. “We’ll meet you at an agreed-upon set of coordinates with whatever we salvage. If we’re not there in three days, keep going. We’ll go in a small team. Maybe they’ll think we’re the only survivors. It’ll buy you time at the very least.”

Calvin said softly, “Daniel, please don’t do this to me. Just come with us.”

Kozol ignored him as the group discussed among themselves where to go. Maria came up to Thegn then and took his hand.

“I cannot go back there,” Maria said. “I cannot face it again. I know you will go and I hope you are safe. I will miss you, friend. May God’s love be with you.”

She embraced him and Thegn let himself curl around her as she cried into his chest. She let go of him as Elias shook his hand, putting his arm protectively around Maria. A quick look between them showed Thegn the connection they had, the gentle hand on Maria’s belly indicating the life growing there. Thegn still knew little about human anatomy, but he knew enough to doubt that the child growing in her was the priest’s.

Thegn wanted to wish condolences, wanted to apologize. He had not protected her, had not kept her safe. But this man could. Perhaps he could even love the changeling child. Thegn prayed this would be so.

He wanted to say his farewells to the priest, even if their last conversation had gone so poorly, but as Elias’ gaze met his, Thegn simply looked away. He knew in his ghele he had made the right decision for himself, but he had lost Elias’ trust. Thegn regretted suddenly the loss of their friendship. The human would never look at him the same again.

*

They waited until nightfall before the group separated into two. Thegn watched from the side as the exchanges occurred.

He watched Lena approach Janiya, the smaller woman hugging her tightly as they whispered together. He felt guilty, and satisfied. Lena had been his, despite being this woman’s.

When they had said their goodbyes, a soft kiss between the two of them, Lena returned to his side. She took his hand in both of hers, smiling at him weakly.

Part of him wanted to beg her to go with Janiya and the others, to flee and run and find a safe haven. To live and fight another day. But he was not nearly noble enough to give voice to the words.

“We have to go,” Lena said quietly to him.

He looked at her, and looked at Janiya leaving the shelter with the others. He held his thoughts to himself and followed them out into the winter.

Chapter Twenty-Six

“I have
a bit of an awkward thing to ask you,” Lena stated.

Thegn stirred from his rest, looking up briefly at the others sleeping in the tent. He shifted closer to her and said, “Go ahead.”

She asked quietly, “Do I have to worry about being pregnant? Most likely I can’t be anyway after all the radiation, but am I going to wake up nine months from now with a baby with a tail?”

Thegn paled. As ghelu, he had been fed and raised for optimal fertility; one of the practical reasons celibacy was required among his kind. He remembered the discussion of the scientists, the frankness that had made his ghele cool and his appetite wane. There was almost no chance she would not conceive from their encounter. It was not something that had worried him greatly. She would have known of the risks, particularly if Maria were already carrying a Mokai child.

“Yes,” he said, “There is a small chance. When I was at the compound, they told me of the extra-mating. Our kind has an adaptation. We are able to mate easily with other species. Our genetics mutate, changing to best impregnate the female of any species. It is why our kind can mate with the Septun, who is not Mokai. So you must be very careful. The child will look like you, yes, but I do not know when they grow older. If they catch either of you, I cannot guarantee what would happen to you. I pray to the Goddess you are not.”

“Thegn,” she hissed, “why didn’t you mention this before? Why didn’t you warn me?”

“I thought you would know,” he replied, “I thought you were aware of the risks of procreation. Surely, your kind takes these variables into consideration before mating. I thought you were willingly choosing the risk.”

She said nothing, tears streaming down her face.

He had done something wrong again, and yet he did not understand what exactly she feared or how to comfort her.

He thought of the Mokari singing to him at night. Whether he believed in them or not, there was a likelihood that he did not have much time left with Lena. He wished to protect her and yet he might not have the choice.

“I … I want to give blessing,” he said quietly, “If I do not survive this, I want you to be loved. To be free. To be happy… If there were to be a child, for there to be another parent. I do not want you to be alone. I do not wish for you to be bound to my memory. I know you care for Janiya, she cares for you. What is between us might end tomorrow, one way or another. But with her, you can be happy. And I want you to be happy.”

Lena shivered and Thegn said softly, “We will protect each other, whatever needs to be done. But this is bigger than we are, we both know that. We both must do what we can.”

Lena whispered, “I need some air.”

He watched as she left the tent, walking out into the sunlight.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

As the
evening grew in on them, the six of them moved in on the compound. Kozol went first, taking two others, weapons pointing forward. As they neared the complex, Kozol dragged Thegn to the front, walking with a weapon pressed against his throat.

As the exterior lights of the compound lit up, an alarm triggered, and the five humans spread out, weapons firing at the guards that poured out of the gate to confront them. Kozol tossed Thegn to the ground, sending him sprawling in the snow.

Thegn looked up, seeing the gunfire, he crawled the best he could to a mobile unit within the compound. He let the scanner examine his irises and he was allowed into the section. When he came in, he saw three pregnant human females attached to a pole in the center. They wept as he came closer, one begging him in French to leave her alone.

He undid their bindings, then raised his hands in the sign of peace he had learned from the humans. He turned to the one who spoke French and warned her of the battle occurring outside the door.

“Quickly, the guards are distracted. You must run. There’s a group here that will take you east. You’ll be safer with them.”

The three looked up at him without saying or doing anything and Thegn stood there, uneasily.

Thegn said angrily, “I’m doing the best I can. Do you want to stay here or do you want to leave? I want to help you. Tell me how I can help you.”

The French woman merely glared and said, “Go out there and die with the rest of them.”

Thegn was about to respond when the mobile unit shook. The women were thrown to the ground and Thegn held onto the door as he tried to anchor himself.

“Get out of here,” Thegn said finally, “Go, have a chance. Get out of here.”

The three naked women fled out into the snow, holding hands as they ran into the wilderness. Thegn watched as one of the other humans guided them toward the mountains. He expelled his breath slowly as he made his way back into the battlefield. Somehow, Lena found him in the chaos and he was relieved to find her safe.

“Where are they keeping the rest of them?” she yelled over the roar of gunfire.

The ground shook around them and Thegn met Lena’s eyes. He looked up, seeing fire breaking out in the compound.

“They’re bombing the complex,” she shouted, “We need to get as many out as we can before the fire takes everything.”

Thegn led her to the human quarter. He saw others already helping naked humans out through the broken walls as the fire consumed the buildings around them. Lena ran on ahead as Thegn held back, trying to recall any other entrances into the compound. He heard the click of a weapon and he turned around, palms up, to face Kozol standing in front of him with a gun pointing between Thegn’s eyes.

“I don’t even care if you knew they would start bombing,” Kozol growled. “I was a fool before. I’m sorry, priest. I knew from the beginning I had to kill you. I didn’t think you were going to make it so damn easy for me to do it.”

Thegn raised his palms. “Please, you don’t have to do this. There’s something I can do first, something to protect all of you.”

“Start talking, priest.”

“I can send out my report. It may not do anything, but it may help. Please. Let me do this first. Just let me do what I came here to do.”

Another explosion rocked the compound and the two men tried to hold their ground without falling into the snow.

Thegn saw Lena in the crowd, her face covered in ash and soot as she helped to pull the last living humans from the building. She looked up at him and the world seemed to freeze as their eyes met. He watched her long black hair, matted with blood, flow around her shoulders. Her false violet eyes met his with a strange intensity.

“Daniel!” Lena screamed. She pushed through the fleeing bodies, trying to reach them.

He longed to change his mind, to kill Kozol and sweep her into his arms. But he had to do this one last thing.

“Please, Kozol. Let me do this for her. Then I don’t care what you do to me.”

Thegn saw Lena’s expression change, as if she, too, understood. Kozol grabbed Thegn’s arm, “Fine. But I’m not letting you go this time.” He dragged Thegn toward the compound’s main door. Thegn unlocked it with the scanner, and Kozol pulled him inside, the door sliding shut behind them and Lena yelling for them to stop.

Three Mokai were standing on the other side, waiting for them. They stepped out from the shadows and attacked.

Kozol shot two of them. Thegn reached out and snapped the neck of the third before they could fire on Kozol. He shook as he looked down at the body, his hands trembling as Kozol yelled at him to keep going.

He had never killed a creature before and now he had done so in cold blood. One of his own. He recognized the utori, a woman from his own home world. She had been kind to him, asked after his health a few times on the trip over.

Now she lay bleeding at his feet.

He was not given any time to mourn as Kozol shouted at him to keep moving. Thegn kneeled by the bodies, crossing their arms across their chests and making a quick blessing over all three.

As he rose again, Kozol yelled at him to find cover. Thegn hid in an alcove, watching the scene as his ghele beat faster within him. Shots were fired, the zap of the electric weapons fired toward them.

Kozol kicked a weapon over to Thegn and he held it awkwardly in his hands. He leaned forward into the hall and he lined up the weapon with his target.

Despite himself, he heard in his mind what Lena had told him once before. As he saw the Mokai aim for him, he remembered Lena’s hesitation, the thought that the one on the other side of the barrel might also want peace.

Thegn lowered the weapon and stepped out into the hall. Kozol screamed at him as he dropped the weapon, raising his palms in a sign of peace, of humility, and desperation. It was a symbol that both Mokai and humanity should universally understand: I mean no harm.

There was a quiet instant until the shot rammed through his body. Thegn fell as the firefight continued. He saw his blood seeping to the ground, through his fingers. He watched in strange amusement, shock running through his body.

When it was safe and his own kind lay dead around him, Kozol pulled him from the ground.

“Where do we need to go, priest?” Kozol words seemed softer than before. Thegn nodded his head in the direction, the communications room wasn’t far.

Thegn rested slightly on the man’s shoulder as they continued down the hallway. A siren blared suddenly and Thegn watched in disbelief as the door in front of them started to lower.

Kozol swore and threw Thegn forward. The door closed behind him and Thegn banged his fist against it in a vague hope that it would open at his touch.

“You have to go, priest,” Kozol shouted at him from the other side, “Go do what you promised me. I’ll watch your back.”

Thegn closed his eyes, still hearing the fighting outside of the building, hearing the humans freeing their own kind.

As he leaned against the wall with his eyes closed, he thought of Lena. He prayed she had gotten away safely. His breathing slowed as he tried to slow his ghele, tried to stop the blood from leaking out of his body. Exhaustion was taking over. He struggled to keep conscious, struggled to keep his life from slipping away.

He stretched out his hand, opening his eyes to look at the three suns tattooed into his palm. He did not hear the Mokari sing now.

Thegn pushed to his feet and stumbled down the hallway.

He held his side as he made it to the communications chair. He prayed he remembered correctly how to use the transmitter, prayed that the interference would be minimal enough.

He sat in the chair, sighing as the pressure leaked more fluid from his wound. He found the data he had collected before he was captured. Incomplete, but hopefully it would be enough. Enough to prove their sentience certainly, but not enough to convey how worthy humanity was. They were brave, they were adaptable, and in their darkest moments, capable of great sacrifice.

There was the sound of gunfire from the corridor behind him and he knew he had run out of time. He punched in the coordinates as he heard the door open behind him.

He turned his head and saw the captain standing behind him, gun pointing directly at his head. Thegn slowly lifted his hands from the controls.

“You’ve gone native,” the captain accused, laughing.

It did not help Thegn’s defense that it took him a moment to register the Mokai words. He looked up at him and said, “Let me do this.”

“You’ve brought in a crew of wild Toolas to pillage our compound. Why should I let you use my equipment when I should shoot you on the spot?”

“So why haven’t you?”

The captain said, “I want to give you a chance to defend yourself. Have they corrupted you? Bribed you? I can call my people off. I can get you back home, ghelu. We have a surgeon here; we’ll get that wound looked at right now. Just whatever you’re about to do, don’t. I know you. You are a good man. I don’t want you to make a rash decision.”

Thegn replied, “You know what’s happening here. You recognize it just as I do. You’re older than me, so you must remember what the Elchai did to us. Do you remember the chemical attacks? Do you remember what they did to us when they captured us? Do you remember what we did to those we thought had submitted? We’re at peace now, but how many of us had to die first before we gave in? How much did we lose to them? You worship a faith that almost no longer exists. How many of your kind died in that war? We hardly remember the songs we sang in worship. We hardly remember the lullabies we sang to our children. Now we’re using those exact weapons and tactics they used against us to invade another world. How can we justify that to ourselves?”

“We have the right to expand,” the captain replied, “We have the right to create a legacy that even they can’t take from us. We have the right to survive.”

“We don’t have the right to commit genocide,” Thegn shouted.

“You’ll condemn your own people and let us find justice at their barbaric hands?”

“I want to give the humans a chance to live. Don’t let us turn into the Elchai, Captain. We’re better than this. We need to learn. We need to stop this pattern. The humans do it too, it seems all sentient beings do, but we have the chance to choose, to learn from our mistakes and grow wiser.”

“It’s too late now,” the captain said, gently.

Thegn shook his head, “Please. Please just help me now.”

The captain watched him for a moment, his hands trembling slightly as he pointed the weapon at Thegn. Thegn held his body taut, putting as much pressure as he could on the wound.

The captain hesitated and said, “Get your wound looked at first. I’ll help you transmit the message myself. There’s no reason to die for it.”

“You’re wrong,” Thegn said. He turned back to the controls and let his fingers input the commands to send his message.

*

Lena waited as the others ran past her, the freed people running for the hills and the promise of shelter and freedom.

Despite her best survival instincts, she decided to go back into the compound. Near the entrance, she found Kozol. His body was slumped against the exterior door, his chest rising and falling shallowly. She kneeled beside him, pressing down on his wounds. He looked up tiredly at her and he grasped her hand tightly.

“Daniel,” she whispered, tears falling down her face.

“Go before they see you,” he murmured. “Tell Calvin I’m sorry. Tell him I tried. Take care of our people, Lena. I couldn’t.”

He breathed out deeply as his pulse stopped beating under her fingers. She closed his eyes and kissed his forehead before rising, tears streaming down her face.

Kozol was dead. Thegn had been taken or killed. Neither mattered. She wanted to be dead herself, right there and then. But she thought of Janiya. She thought of Stiar. She thought of her father.

Without another word, she ran.

She did not stop running until she made it back to the forest line. She barely processed the others running past her until she stopped to vomit into the ash-covered snow. Then she trudged onward, holding her stomach as she stumbled.