walker saga 06 - dronish (10 page)

Striding over to us, the long-legged female Walker indicated we should exit the tent. It was time to gather some information.

We were standing in the shade of the large temporary shelter. We had to watch our words, as there were many milling around in hearing range. Not that any of this information was classified, but still, we erred on the side of caution.

Heidi wasted no time. Her mild accent was easy to understand even with the rapid chatter she seemed fond of. “The sacred animals are built of original energies. They’ll bond with each of you half-Walkers and they’ll be a source of protection. They’re each strong, powerful, and absolutely lethal if you wrong them.” She glanced at our two beautiful creatures. “Don’t underestimate them because they stand here looking domesticated. They’re the very definition of wild and won’t hesitate to deliver swift and brutal death to any that threaten their Walker.”

“Can they come to Dronish with us?” Delane asked. “Or will their energy be detected?”

The edges of Heidi’s lips curved into the slightest grin. “They’ll not be detected unless they want to be. You don’t have to worry. They can be whatever you need them to be. Take them with you wherever you go now. They can hold their own even against the Seventine. They’re a gift and it’s only by the grace of the mother that they’ve come back to us.”

It was probably in response to the lalunas overstepping their place in the star system.

I wondered why Cerberus had never left pixie land. I had no doubt now that there had not been enough power to hold him there, so why had he stayed? Was there a reason we were yet to uncover? Or had he been waiting for me? It couldn’t be a coincidence that it was only after I found him that the other animals started to appear.

“What are the other sacred animals?” Fury asked.

And I could just see that she was hoping she’d get something big and badass as a companion. Probably a dragon, knowing her. A match for Dune’s dragoona.

“I can’t tell you. They change shape and structure over the years. What they were at the beginning isn’t what they’ll be in the end.”

Helpful.

“And Dronish; not a lot is known of this world anymore. Walkers can’t occupy their world for too long or we’re mobbed by literally thousands of the inhabitants. They’re vampires of a sort. They drain the life-energy of others to survive. Parasitic in nature, when their hunger overcomes them they lose all reason.”

Talina’s emerald hair wrapped comfortingly around her as she entered the conversation. “What is the climate of the world? What do we need to prepare ourselves?” 

“They’ve drained the energy of all but one moon,” Heidi said. “So it’s dark, freezing and there’s not much oxygen, but you’ll have enough initially and your bodies will adjust quickly enough. The inhabitants – Drones – are … different. You’ll be immediately recognizable as aliens.”

“What do you mean: different?” I narrowed my eyes at her.

They weren’t going to be real vampires, right? With fangs. Surely that had been created on Earth.

Heidi shook her head. “They have only one eye, and a long sucker which extends out from their mouths and attaches to whatever they’re draining.”

Great, I’d prefer the fangs. And could I have a minute here to say … what the eff?

“I would recommend using a hood or cloak that hides your faces. Since they’re a secretive and sneaky race, they won’t find this odd.”

And it would help with the cold.

“How’re we going to find this half?” Talina’s brown eyes were so wide they looked huge. “This world sounds like it’s going to be the most difficult.”

“Actually,” I said, “I have a bit of a plan this time. When I tether to all of you I can feel the other unknown girls there. I think that if I’m close enough I might be able to trace where the power is coming from. So providing we don’t get mobbed and captured …”

I trailed off, and Heidi jumped in to speak again.

“I’ve seen you all use your power together once – very impressive, by the way – and that type of energy will be felt by every Drone in no time. I would make sure you’re not too close to the main city, and don’t stay tethered for long.”

Delane interrupted. “The most time-efficient path would be for us to call all of these … Drones by using our power. Then when we have them all there, we’ll easily find the half-Walker. She’ll look different.”

Fury threw her hands in the air. “Yes, but how do you plan on getting her to leave without us all being suckered by their little … sucker things? We need time to explain everything to her, convince her that she needs to help us.”

“And hope like hell she’s not as difficult as Fury was,” Talina snorted.

Fury flipped her off but didn’t argue. She knew she’d been an asshat.

I wasn’t sure what way to go with finding the Dronish half. This was the sort of thing that I usually decided on the spot. I was a bit of a ‘wing it and hope for the best’ kind of Walker. Which was not something that sat easily with Delane or Ria. They were strategic … planners. Talina and Fury were different again. The Spurnian was flexible, go-with-the-flow, and she trusted me implicitly. The Crais half was hotheaded. She always threw herself in without thought.

“I’m sorry, I’ve no idea how to help you with that decision,” Heidi said. “But I wish you all the luck. We’ll continue the fight back here.”

I reached out and halted her before she left. “What’s Gerry’s problem? He should have no grief with us yet.”

She pursed her lips, her eyes roaming my features. Finally she answered. “He doesn’t feel that he rightfully earned the mantle of Princeps. Gaining the leadership in this manner, especially from someone like Josian, who’s so beloved, well, it’s made him overcompensate in trying to bring all of Doreen under his command.” She rubbed at her forehead in a rapid movement. “He hasn’t said anything, of course, but my guess is that he’s afraid that no one will take him seriously, respect him. So he’s kind of going off the deep end.”

She turned her head to take us all in again. “And you five are really outside of any command. We all know that in the end you trump us, which he’s fighting against.”

She shrugged and there was so much written in that movement, so many unspoken words.

“Good luck. I wish you the best on this voyage.” She went back into the tent.

“Well,” Ria said, looking around, “looks like we’re going to need some coats.”

I loved the way they voiced no further concerns about the new Doreen princeps. I could feel that the half-Walkers agreed with Heidi. He did not control us. No one controlled us. I just had to make sure our masses of power never went to our heads. We couldn’t lose our good intentions; we had to stay grounded. Which, considering the level of power each half-Walker added to our group, was going to get harder in the next little while.

Less than an hour later we were ready to leave again. We’d procured very long, thick, heavily insulated hooded coats. And also gloves, boots and thermal underclothes. Right then, on First World, I was sweating my butt off, but apparently even with all the layers we’d still be cold on Dronish. On top of that we were strapped down with weapons. Which was Delane’s contribution to the outfits. Apparently you can never have enough weapons.

I glanced at the other four. “You all ready?” I could not make out their faces buried deep in the heavy hoods, but the nods answered my question.

Cerberus and Lina both let loose their calls: one was a bark, the other like a horse’s whinny. I took that as agreement that they were ready too.

I retrieved the mental image that had been gifted to me earlier by Brace. Arotia, the last city of Dronish. This was where all the surviving Drones should be, our best bet to find the half. I called a doorway and it appeared before us. The dark, scary vortex was familiar territory now, and as a group we stepped forward to traverse the vacuum. I didn’t hesitate to make the final leap out into the unknown. Dronish. The vampire planet.

Here we come.

On the other side it took a few moments for my senses to adjust. It was so cold that it literally felt like there was no warmth at all in this land. The air was heavy and musty, and on top of that it was so dark that at first I couldn’t see anything. But eventually my eyes adjusted – Walkers could adapt to anything – and I started to see the world before us. I had opened the doorway just off to the side of Brace’s image of Arotia. It was a strange-looking town, small and circular with a large wall surrounding it in a protective manner.

From our vantage point – outside and up on a slight incline – there looked to be only ten or eleven large buildings inside the barriers. They towered high into the air, similar to the skyscrapers that had once dominated New York City. Cerberus trotted next to me, and just as I was about to reach out and pat him, he started to shrink. He continued, getting smaller than I’d ever seen him go before … smaller than a normal-size dog ... then smaller than a kitten.

Eventually he stopped; he was about the size of a little bird. Crouching down, I held out a hand to him, and he ran up my arm and rested inside my coat on my shoulder. Sort of snuggled into the crook of my neck. Hidden by the huge hood.

“Unbelievable.” Fury’s voice sounded from a cloak to my right. “He’s undetectable now.”

I glanced over at Delane. Lina was no longer at her side; she must have shrunk too. No wonder Heidi wasn’t worried about our animals going with us. These creatures were even more adaptable than Walkers.

Ria’s voice was shaky as she stumbled closer to me. “This world is more than cold. There’s almost no plant life here. I want to call them to me, but I barely feel an iota of a living environment.”

“I’m guessing they need more warmth and sustenance than that sliver of moon is providing.” Talina pointed toward the smallest speck of moon.

We spun around as Delane took off to the side. In a flash of movement she had her sword in her hand. As we started to follow her, I pulled my own samurai-style sword free, a weapon I was proficient in but had never had much training.

Delane was fast, pulling ahead.

We continued to follow as she cleared a few of the planes and came up on the side of a mountain. It was here that she dropped down and started to move on her forearms and knees. Army-style crawl. The dark cloak blended her right into the ground.

The four of us followed, getting low to the dehydrated ground also. I knew I wasn’t the only one wondering what the hell the Angelica was doing. But as I continued climb-crawling and my head rose over the top of the crest, it all became startlingly clear.

Shit.

Delane had ears like a goddamn eagle. She’d heard the sounds of battle that none of us had even remotely picked up. The Drones were at war, and I mean majorly at war. There seemed to be a mass of fighting going on. It was weird, though. They didn’t have any weapons, instead they were …

“Oh, my freaking giddy Earon.” Talina burst out. “What the hell is that thing that just came out of its mouth?”

We could see them quite well from where we were positioned. Some of them drifted close to our spot as they fought amongst each other. Heidi’s description of them was all too clear, but despite knowing of the sucker and single eye, seeing it was an entirely different thing.

Of any of the planets, the inhabitants of Dronish were the strangest I’d seen, and that included the Spurnian fish people. The Drones were tall and thin, that ultra, ultra thin, without one ounce of shape, muscle or tone. Almost as if they were just skin draped over a piece of cardboard. They wore long shapeless sheets over their bodies, leaving their heads and arms exposed.

Their skin was translucent, which meant I could see there wasn’t much beneath it in the way of blood or organs. Some – I guessed they were the males – had weird stones embedded into their bald heads. The other more feminine ones had these random tufts of hair on their heads. Oh, and they had just one large, blood-red eye. But the final and most disturbing piece of the freakish cake was the tongue-like projection which extended from their mouths. When they attacked, this sucker would attach to whoever they were battling. That was how they fought, with their tongues.

Gross! And on top of gross: what the eff?

I held my breath as I watched one such attachment scene right in front of us. Within moments the one who had the tongue attached stopped struggling, before fading right out and collapsing into nothing. Pretty much disappearing right into the black sheet. The other one, who was rolling his ‘tongue’ back into his mouth, was suddenly flush and full of life. Slicks of oil seem to roll right off its weird-ass face. Right, well the vampire name was starting to make sense, but I guessed it wasn’t blood these suckers were after. Energy.

Fury crawled across to my side. Her hood shifted left to right as she followed the action in front of us. “Can you connect and find the female?”

I knew which of the girls was which from their energy. Their elements gave them distinct power.

“She shouldn’t be hard to recognize if we can move in the general direction … I mean, if she has two eyes and all.” I didn’t care if she had one, two or six eyes; it wasn’t important.

And in fact the single eye was large enough that it actually didn’t even look that weird. Okay, it was a little weird.

I gestured for the girls to move closer to me. We snuggled together.

“I’m going to tether to you all. We’ll probably find ourselves with a little too much attention, but if you all don’t mind a bit of battle, well, who am I to argue?”