The Faarian Chronicles: Exile (21 page)

Chapter 24: The Return of Drazen

The Anakharu tracked me, stalked me through my dreams that
night. Like watching a bad horror movie – one shot in night-vision green that
was strangely blurry around the edges – I saw myself running, looking back,
screaming, and running more. But no matter how far or how fast I ran, I
couldn’t get away. He was calm, fast, powerful, with a cocky smirk, and called
himself Drazen. I couldn’t fight back because I was too much of a weakling,
couldn’t run anymore, and finally, couldn’t even move. I tried to scream again,
but suddenly his grimy hand was covering my mouth as he lowered his pointed
incisors to the vein in my neck….

I woke in bed with an angry jerk, punching and kicking at
shadows. Not afraid.
Furious
. I couldn’t shake the feeling that the
dream actually
was
the Anakharu, bragging like a little boy, telling all
who would listen what was going to happen the next time he saw me.

It felt so different from any dream I’d ever had, part of me
wasn’t even sure it had been a dream. My body, covered in sweat, cooled quickly
from the night breeze through the open window, but… I swear there’d been a
screen there.

I looked around warily, half expecting to see red eyes
glowing at me from the corner. But no, it would be blue, of course. One glowing
blue eye stared at me - and a row of four small eyes shone white below it, like
animals in the dark. The ugly patch of wrinkled scar tissue below his eye was
open now, like one large eyelid, and he seemed to have somehow grown several
more eyes in it, but not human eyes. The man-animal crouched in front of the
window like a huge frog ready to jump. Or more like… a spider. I stared for a
moment, unsure if I was still dreaming.

“Ah, good. You’re awake,” he said, a smile turning up the
corners of his gross, cracked lips. “Aren’t you going to scream for me again?”
he asked, revealing long, yellowed canines right before he jumped at me.

I rolled automatically, bringing my arms and legs up and
using his momentum to fling him and his fangs with a heavy thump into the wall
behind me, rolling away and landing in a crouch on the floor. Pain shot through
my swollen ankle, unhappily reminding me of its presence and knocking me off
balance. It was dark, still before the red sunrise, but I could see him clearly
and somehow knew that this was because my own eyes had shifted. He snapped his
jaws at me from the bed.

Stop staring, Sunny, and get
to your scy!
the voice in my head yelled. I only needed a weapon and
this guy was going down. The jerk thought he could break into my room, with his
weird eyes and his gross fangs? He had another thing coming.

I threw a quick right-left into his ugly face and spun
toward the door, where my scy and boots awaited my mother’s early morning
inspection. Unfortunately, my punches didn’t distract him long enough, and he
made a super-human lunge at me again, all the way across the room. He
capitalized on my bad ankle to tackle me to the floor in a choke hold, one of
my arms pinned into the wall next to the door. I tried to buck him off my back
but he was stronger than he looked, and he was grinding his boot into my
swollen ankle, while his bony forearm dug into my windpipe. This was definitely
not
the best grappling position for me.

“Thirsty,” he croaked, his rank breath panting into my ear.
Ewww! I used the flat of my free hand to smack into his ear, hoping to burst
his ear drum, and he reared away. I groped out the door for a weapon that I
couldn’t quite reach.

 “Don’t worry,” he hissed, slamming his weight back
into me, “I won’t take too much. Just a taste. My new employer wants you intact
when you arrive.” He grunted and pressed harder. “You know, I’m glad I didn’t
catch you yesterday. I didn’t know then how valuable you were going to be to
me.”

He clearly expected me to pass out any moment, but I had
not
survived an avalanche, trapped without air for two and a half hours, only to
pass out from a stupid choke-hold. I just had to get him to let up. I closed my
eyes and pretended to go limp.

“Finally,” he hissed through his fangs and loosened his hold
on my throat, but kept all his weight still grinding painfully into my ankle. I
could feel his disgusting breath on my neck, getting closer.

I reached my arm a little farther and felt something.
Finally, a bootlace. I pinched it between my longest fingers and yanked it
toward me, grabbing hold of the boot and smashing it into his nose while
jerking away from his gross fangs. He rolled away, protecting his head, and I
pushed off from the wall ready to pummel him back to the stone-age. Before I could,
a growling blur flew past me. A snarling, demon-woman with orange eyes tackled
him head first out the second story window.

I ran - okay limped - over to the window to see my mother
standing over his body below, prodding at him with her boot. His neck was at an
odd, unnatural angle against a rock. Dead. Somehow, that part didn’t really
bother me.

“Dang it, Mom!” I yelled. “I had him!” She looked up at me
with one eyebrow raised in disbelief, her eyes already faded back to hazel. She
was no longer Telal-ursu, demon-warrior, but was back to being my mother again.
Okay, so maybe it hadn’t looked like I had him from her position, but I did.

 “Just get dressed and come down, Veridian,” she yelled
the order up to me. My mother, the General.

I huffed again and slammed the window in frustration,
changed clothes in a rush, and grabbed my crutches to head downstairs after
this latest disaster.

I glanced out the living room window on my way out the door
and paused to see a shiny flying saucer arrive and land out front, this one
glossy new and tinted red. Two women in matching red uniforms exited the craft.
They had to be police. That was quick.

I crutched my way downstairs as quickly as possible, having
to take the long way to avoid the tower ladders. I glanced out another window
to see the women pushing a long, white box toward the ship. Well, one woman was
pushing; the other was trying to keep Micha at bay. She was pacing agitatedly
next to the hovering casket, shoving it with her shoulder and jumping up on it like
she was trying to push it over.

As I watched, one woman snapped at Micha and shoved at her
to get off the box. What was she, crazy? Micha was like, a thousand-pound
tiger; you didn’t push her around.

As one red-clad woman blithely invited death, the other
opened the lid. From my angle, I couldn’t see inside, but I did see the second
woman quickly reach into her pocket, produce something shiny, slip it into the
box, and then return it to her pocket. If I’d blinked, I would’ve missed it.
Micha simply shouldered aside her antagonist and jumped up to put her front
paws on the edge to peer inside. She cocked her big, furry head, snorted in
disdain and hopped back down.

Penthe arrived a minute later looking troubled. She reached
inside the box for a few moments, shook her head and lowered the lid. The
red-uniformed women then pushed the box up a ramp and into the ship.

I hurried the rest of the way downstairs to see what was
going on. Despite the early hour, the Kindred was abuzz as I approached the
main corridor outside the Great Hall. I recognized my mother’s voice, but
couldn’t make out what she was saying until I got closer.

“Tell Veridian I’ll be back tonight,” I finally made out as
I turned the corner into the entryway to find my mother, Ethem, Penthe, and a
few of the warriors standing in front of the main door. Two more women in dark
red uniforms stood on either side of my mother. Micha stood back and off to the
side, quietly growling at them.

“I’m right here. What’s going on?” I asked, crutching my way
forward.

“Give me a minute, will you?” she said to the women in
uniform as though asking permission. What the heck was going on here? One
nodded respectfully and took a step back from my mother’s side. The other
paused and grudgingly followed her partner’s example. They both stared at me as
if I were an exotic new species: the defenseless, half-breed gimp.

“Veridian, I want you to stay with Teague and Sarosh today.
Help them out, learn more of how the farm runs, that sort of thing. I’ll be
back tonight.” A look passed between my mother and Teague and she nodded in
unspoken agreement.

“I have to go with the police…”

“Mol police,” I thought I heard someone cough.

My mother sent a look over at Myrihn and continued, “…right
now to answer some questions. Don’t worry about anything, I’ll take care of it
and I’ll explain everything when I get back tonight.” With that, she turned on
her heel and strode arrogantly between the two policewomen and out the massive
front door. She was almost gone when I noticed the handcuffs holding her wrists
together behind her back.

Alten, as acting head of the Kindred with my mother gone,
took me into mom’s office immediately so she could question me, something the
red police hadn’t bothered to do. She sat heavily in one of the chairs in front
of my mother’s desk, facing me and thoughtfully rubbed her expectant belly as
she listened to my story. Micha sat quietly in the background. I told them
everything I could think of, hoping it would help; how I’d woken disoriented
from a dream to find the Anakharu in my room, how he’d attacked me, what he’d
said about his boss wanting me, how I’d misjudged his strength and he’d pinned
me to the floor, and how I’d gone limp to distract him. How he’d almost bitten
me, and I’d smashed my steel-toed boot into his head. How I’d never forget
Mom’s orange eyes as she tackled him headfirst out the window.

And when I was done, one question after another tumbled out
of my mouth.

“Alten, what’s going on? Why did they take her? Where did
they take her? Was she arrested? Is that man dead? Did he have extra
eyes?”

“Veridian… Sunny,” she began, closing her eyes and pinching
the bridge of her nose wearily. “Yes, he’s de-,” she stopped and looked at me.
“Extra eyes? What do you mean extra eyes?” She looked at me like I was crazy.

Oops, I must’ve skipped that part. I explained the eyes in
the scar tissue under his blue eye.

“Huh, I’ve never heard of anything like that,” she said.
“Are you sure? I mean you were just waking up.”

I clenched my teeth. “I’m sure,” I replied. Wasn’t I? Yes.
Yes I was. I nodded decisively.

"Okay, well,” she looked at me skeptically. “At least
you won’t have to worry about him coming after you again.”

“Good, but that’s not what I’m worried about.”

“I know. I’m doing my best to figure out what’s going on
with the General. They weren’t from the local police station at Inmar, so she
must have been taken to their headquarters in Glass City. Right now, all we can
do is take her at her word that she’s being questioned and she’ll be back
tonight, alright?”

I nodded.

“Good, now go on patrol like normal and be sure to stick
with Teague and Sarosh like your mother told you.”

After she shooed me out and shut the door to talk with
Micha, I remembered the question I should have asked: who would have called the
police?

Chapter 25: Marked

I never knew how alone I could feel while surrounded by
hundreds of people. Over breakfast, I thought again about running away like I’d
told Dad, getting away from here, but… things had changed. I couldn’t leave
while I didn’t even know what was going on. And as much as I really hated her
complete disregard for what I wanted, I couldn’t take off while my mother was
under arrest for helping me. When she returned maybe, but not now.

All morning, the people around me served up the silent
treatment, with glares of resentment liberally peppered in. Myrihn looked
almost smug at my public disgrace. And every time Thal and I got close enough
to talk, someone would call him away for one reason or another.

I looked up Sensei’s number on my link and stared at it for
what seemed like an hour. I sure could use her advice, but I didn’t want to
admit to her what a mess I’d made of everything in such a short time. After
running from, and now almost getting eaten by a "harmless" Anakharu,
most of the people here seemed to have formed the conclusion that I was weak
and helpless. And that made it my fault that Mom had been arrested for killing
the Anakharu attacking me. Which was plain nuts all around.

I remembered one of the last things Sensei had said to me:
that I would have to prove myself here.
What’s our mantra?
her voice
said in my ear.

“Anything worth doing is worth doing well,” I repeated to
myself for the millionth time, for once not rolling my eyes like I would have
back home. Prove myself. Yeah, but how?

Teague and Sarosh both went on patrol with my team of
novices while their Ahatu partners continued patrol with the rest of the
warriors. All they would say about what was going on with my mother was that
Alten had the investigation underway and we’d all get answers when they became
available. Still, that didn’t stop people from whispering together in small
groups, shooting dirty looks in my direction, and stopping their conversations
whenever I got near. Even the twins didn’t say a word to me. They just flicked
me on the head and tried to trip up my crutches whenever they got the chance.

We patrolled the fields out toward Etmar that morning, with
me riding an auto-pilot hover-tractor that towed the cart of food supplies this
time. I thought the group would have been happy not to have to pull it along
themselves, but instead I heard several people grumbling that I couldn’t even
keep up on foot. I tried my best to ignore them and acted as a spotter for the
bright blue eggs.

Not far into our patrol, I heard a rumble and turned to see
Micha nodding regally to Teague and Sarosh as she passed them, before stopping
next to the hover-tractor. She projected a loud, throaty purr at me that
resembled a jackhammer in my head. I got the distinct impression it was meant
to reassure me, although mostly it just gave me a reassuring headache.

“Uh, hi?” I said, scooting away slowly. Part of my brain
told me to run, while a strange place in the back of my head whispered
recognition and a sense of safety. The resulting confusion froze me in place. I
looked around for someone to help me out. Teague and Sarosh weren’t paying
attention, the twins were gaping, several other people were watching with
interest… and Thal was grinning and giving me the Macawan equivalent of two
thumbs up: his fingers held up like football goal posts.

Micha hopped up onto the hover-tractor, making it sway and
tip crazily under her 1,000-pound weight until it regained equilibrium. I let
out a squeak of, not terror exactly, but close as I held on tight and tried to
keep my balance. She made that laughing, rumbling sound deep in her chest as
she walked around me, rubbing up against my body like Meowman rubbed against my
legs. Except Meowman didn’t almost knock me over when he did it. All the while,
she purred her max volume, projected purr.

I winced, covering my ears. “Do you have to do that so
loudly?”

She looked at me with her head cocked to the side and
lowered her mental voice to a dull roar.
You are
an interesting one, girl-child. Is that better?

I nodded.

You know, you are more like
your mother than anyone realizes.

I didn’t know how to respond to that.

Don’t worry for her,
girl-child. She is strong. She will prevail, I have no doubts.

She grinned toothily at me and hopped off the tractor,
making it tip and roll crazily again. I fell over on my side and held on till
it steadied. What was that about? Reassurance? Really, I could do without the
sudden display of creepy affection.

By the time we took a break for lunch, Teague and Sarosh
were in a pow-wow over something on their links. Apparently one of the haratchi
hibernation dens marked on the map was ready to erupt soon and the warriors
were planning their attack without their General. I snuck away to text Thal. He
was right across the clearing from me, but I knew if I walked over there one of
the adults would be nosy and interrupt.

Hey Thal, you there?
I
thought texted, which was harder than it looked. I had to tell it to erase four
times before organizing my thoughts enough to say what I wanted. Every time I
put my thumb to the squishy, nubby pad, a random jumble of thoughts appeared on
the screen with a box blinking ‘Send?’ at the bottom.

Sunny, sorry we couldn’t talk earlier. I’m glad you’re
okay. And Micha marked you, that’s awesome!

Um, yeah, thanks Thal.
Marked by a giant, alien symbiot tiger. Awesome.
I’m fine, except that no one will tell me
anything. Do you know what’s going on with my mother?

My response took me forever. It would be so much easier if I
could type it, but noooo, they were so advanced here, no one typed anymore. It
was all voice or thought activated. And I couldn’t talk into the thing, because
someone would notice. It was ridiculous that they could make a device like the
link, with its mind reading and stretchy polymers, but Penthe didn’t have some
sort of high-tech healing ray to fix my ankle. Her prescription: ice baths, Ace
bandages, and ibuprofen.

Yeah, those jerks. This
isn’t your fault,
Thal replied quickly.
Don’t look over here or one of them will probably
interrupt us again. Anyway, I overheard my mom talking with Alten earlier. She
said it looked like that Anakharu hit his head on a rock and died when your mom
tackled him out the window.
Was it the texting, or was he being really
blasé about this?

But she was protecting me! He broke into my room
and attacked me! How could they arrest her for that?

I know. Believe me, I don’t get it either. Anyway,
Alten sent the security tapes to the police this morning, so they probably
won’t be able to keep her.

Probably?

Uh… oops. I mean, won’t be able to keep her. Too
bad there wasn’t a recording device in your room. Only the ones outside.

But the police knew what
he was, right?
I asked.

Well, yeah. So?

So it’s not okay to kill
vampires? Er, Anakharu?
I corrected.

Uh, no. It’s not. Are you thinking of your untrue
Earth stories again?

Well, yeah I was, but...
But
he tried to bite me! They’re killers!

Well no, not usually. Even rogues don’t attack
people with chlorophyll, which is why this is so weird. But it’s hard to tell
what he would have tried to do with you if he’d succeeded.

I shivered.

Anyway, Alten didn’t seem to think your mom killed
him on purpose.

But the cops sure did, otherwise she’d be home.

Hey Thal, how do you think the police got here so
fast? Would someone here have called, er, linked them?

Huh, I don’t know. I don’t think so. Usually the
red police are pretty non-existent this close to the Great Desert. I can’t
believe anyone here would go over the General’s head and link them.

Not even Myrihn or Nico?

He seemed to think about that before replying.
No, not even they would stoop so low.

I remembered Thal had said that most of the government had
been taken over by the Molinidae.
Are the
police run by the Molinidae?

He nodded.
They are
Molinidae.

So people here don’t trust them.

He shook his head.

Ugh, this is so frustrating! I don’t even know how
the system works here.

Yeah, neither do I.

I gave him an incredulous look across the field before
quickly looking away.

The red police have always left us alone. If
someone out here breaks the law, the Kindred Council deals with it. But…

They didn’t trust the
Council to deal with their own General,
I supplied.

Yeah. There has to be someone we could ask, someone
who wouldn’t brush us off and tell us to be patient, they’re working on it.
Someone like…

John,
I said.

Yeah, maybe. He and his family are the only
Molinidae I know. It’s worth a shot.

I started looking up his number to text him.

But if I were you,
Thal continued,
I’d wait until you can do a
holo-link and actually talk to him. Your thought texts are kind of a mess.

I stuck my tongue out at him.
Gee, thanks Thal.

No problem.

I put my link back on my hip, lost in thought. In my book,
monsters that attacked people and climbed into girls rooms at night to suck
their blood were bad. Period. End of story. This whole “oh no, you can’t kill
the evil vampire” crap was garbage.

A short time later, Teague and Sarosh got the message they
were waiting for.

"Okay, everyone, Etmar will have to wait,” Sarosh
announced. “There’s a den erupting and we’ve got to go. I’m sending you the
coordinates now.” My link buzzed and others pulled theirs out too.

“Sunny, keep up on the tractor,” Teague added. “The rest of
you are responsible for making sure she gets there.”

I looked in bewilderment at the array of dials and read-outs
on the hover-tractor controls, then back to Teague, but she and Sarosh were
already gone, leaving only dust trails into the desert. Everyone else started
running at normal speed after them.

“Hey, wait!” I yelled. “I don’t know how to drive this
thing!” But the others were too eager to get to the den to care.

“No problem, I got it!” Thal said, jumping up into the
driver’s seat. “We just program the coordinates and GO!”

I grabbed for the back of the seat as the hover-tractor spun
around and took off after the runners.

“Geez Thal, some warning!” I exclaimed when I got my feet
back under me.

He just grinned and said, “Hold on!” The hover tractor
quickly passed the runners on foot.

“Hey! We want a ride too!” Lyta yelled as we passed the
twins. Thal only waved over his head and kept going.

“Those dummies,” Thal laughed. “We’ll get there way before
they do.”

A few minutes later we arrived in the middle of nowhere and
stopped to stare at nothing - from a hundred yards away. Thal checked the wind
direction and nodded to himself before landing the tractor and turning it off.

I could see the warriors and their Ahatu hunting partners in
the distance. “Do we walk from here?” I asked.

“No, we watch from here,” he replied in a whisper, getting
down from the tractor and peering over it.

I followed to stand beside him. “Here? How will we see
anything this far away?”

“Shhhh,” he replied and grabbed his link, stretching it to
notebook size. “Distance view,” he whispered. His link zoomed in on the group
of warriors and Ahatu prowling around a flashing red post in the distance.

I pulled my link off my belt to try it myself. It was like a
camera with a telephoto lens.

“What are they waiting for?” I asked. “Where’s this den? I
don’t see anything. And why are we whispering?”

“Wait for it. The chicks burrow, remember? After they feed.
They hibernate for years, and when they emerge as adults they have really good
hearing. See that flashing red beacon there?” he asked pointing. “That marks
the den’s last known location. The beacon starts out yellow for a few days,
then orange on the day of eruption, and finally red. It doesn’t blink red for
long, so we’re just in time, and when it turns solid red, well, there it goes.”
He pointed and seemed to hold his breath, watching.

For a moment, all I saw was Micha doing some strange,
undulating dance, like she was possessed. Then I realized the ground below the
tiger’s feet was actually heaving and rolling. Everyone jumped back and circled
the mound as it started to crack and split open. The hairs rose on the back of
my neck, and I found myself holding my breath and zooming in even more on my
link.

Bony, four-fingered hands broke through the sandy soil and
then the whole pulsing mound exploded in a shower of dirt and rocks, leathery
black, and pale iridescence. That color jangled in my brain. No plant or animal
in nature was meant to be that oily greenish-blue color.

DANGER!
my instincts
screamed.
KILL! FIGHT!

“SUNNY!” Thal hissed, grabbing my shirt collar and jerking
me back. I hadn’t even realized I’d started to move around the hover-tractor to
join in the fight.

“What are you doing?” He yanked me around to face him and
froze. “Wow, look at your eyes!” he whispered. “Hey, don’t snap at me! Get a
grip! You’re not trained to fight adult haratchi, remember? Put your scy away
before you do something crazy.”

I made myself do a breathing exercise and tried to calm
down, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the scene. I’d felt a similar rush of
instinct with the egg sack, but that felt like ages ago, and this was ten times
stronger. I felt out of control and shaky. It was taking everything I had to
stay put behind the tractor. I felt Thal tug my scy out of my hands and
cautiously put it back in the holster on my belt.