I yanked it free and lifted it in front of our faces, my chest muscles protesting fiercely against the motion. “This mighthelp,” I said. “Felicia, you must take it and attempt to clear a path to your ship.” She eyed the small knife dubiously, and I understood why; it hardly seemed big enough to be of help. “I’ll set it to overload, or it won’t be fast enough, so you must be careful.” It was a very risky plan, one that could result in it blowing up in her hands, literally. We were all out of options, though. I’d fix her up. I’d make Erish fix her up—he was the best healer—when all this was over.
“I’ll try,” she whispered. Taking the knife I’d modified to be the equivalent of a live bomb in her hand, she slipped away again. This time, I was distracted by the urgent need to call the Shaman Council and Haven, to call Serqethos and tell them to take shelter. I wanted to watch her as long as I could, but I had a duty to my people—to protect them, to warn them. I picked up the communicator and started dialing.
It was Codish again on the Amarathas, his image badly distorted and static twitching across the line, so I could barely understand what he said. Felicia’s ship had to be causing terrible interference; it was a miracle this worked at all. He took my message grimly and ran off to warn the others. I called Serqethos next, but Kaylass did not answer. The signal simply wouldn’t connect. I feared the worst already. They’d just survived famine after the lake emptied, now this? I’d try again after I’d reached Haven and hoped that the Shaman Council was going to try to inform all the others scattered across the planet.
It was Zathar who answered my call, the leader of Haven. I knew that only because I recognized that particular shade of azure. That was the royal blue of the Thunder Rock Clan, or at least, of the former royal family. It was unmistakable, even if the image was completely warped. Then the image shifted, and the colorsdid too, and I began to doubt myself. That could be anyone. “Zathar? Artek? Corin? Anyone?” I said, and the image jumped so wildly it made my head spin.
“There’s great danger. You must take your people and hide inside Ahoshaga. We found a human ship at the North Pole, and its engine is tearing the planet apart. You must hide.” The call had already dropped, and I had no way of knowing if enough of my message had gotten through. I could only hope.
I tried Kaylass once more, but it was impossible to get through at all now. My communicator was dead, unresponsive. I tucked it back into a pouch I could still reach anyway, more by rote than need. Trapped, all I could do was wait until Felicia returned and reported whether she’d made it or not. I could only lie there and listen for the sound of the scalpel exploding—or not. Wait for the trembling of the ground beneath me to stop.
Auby was still pawing at the slab of ice on top of me. He was so determined to help, but he was so tiny it was impossible. He might be able to do it if he had several hours, but it felt like we only had moments. Either I got out now and made a difference by getting Felicia to her ship to stop this, or I was forced to lie here and do nothing at all.
A bubble of fury sparked anew in my bloodstream, warning me that whatever was in the air wasn’t done agitating me. I wanted to rage and howl, slam my fist into something, but I was pinned, helpless. How could I let my mate do the fighting, even if it was against ice and a failing ship?
The sound of snow shifting drew my attention, and I tried to lift my head to see if it was Felicia returning. It wasn’t her, and Aubyscreeched in fear, his lights winking out as he burrowed into a pile of snow next to me to hide. I didn’t need his lights to see, though; there was just enough of something glowing down at us from the hole above. My eyes tracked movement to my right, where snow shifted and a pale shape rose.
A Naga, the very Naga that had tangled with me just as I’d leaped after Felicia when she fell into the hole. A strong male with large shards of pale blue ice rising from his shoulders and snow-white hair dusted with snow and braided with pale gray leather. He swayed upright, clearly not pinned the way I was, but bleeding profusely from a wound at his temple.
He swung his head around, trying to make sense of his surroundings. His bleary gaze located me in the dark, locking onto my face. I saw the rage descend over him like a veil, as if his brain had only one way to be: angry. He lunged for me, an easy, unmoving target. This was it. I’d die, and then he’d kill Felicia after she came back from disabling the ship. I’d die knowing we’d saved the planet. See, I knew there was a reason I’d soaked up every moment of her presence. She’d known it too; she’d kissed me like it was our last. I realized that now.
He abruptly jerked to a stop and screamed with rage when he discovered that he was pinned after all. Ice had fallen on him too, but only on the very tip of his tail, which was not quite as long as mine but thicker, probably to aid in keeping him warm. His body was also covered in that thick, strange pelt—shaggy fur that covered his chest and arms and smoothed all the way down his tail in white and blue ripples. I wondered if he even had sigils that could glow, a strange, useless thought in the moments before death.
“Yeah, that’s no fun, is it?” I husked, the compression of the ice on my chest starting to get to me. It was getting hard to breathe. Felicia wasn’t back yet, which was a good sign, I hoped. Now I hoped she’d stay away, because this bastard was going to hurt her the moment he saw her. I couldn’t protect her, not like this. “Auby,” I hissed. “Sneak around him and warn Felicia. Go.”
Auby’s lights winked out, and he vanished, disappearing into a snowdrift. He was very good at that, and he was a very protective little Revenant. Perhaps Felicia would be all right with him as her shield. That was good. That made it easier to accept my fate, and harder for the rage that still simmered in my veins to get hold of me.
I watched the ice Naga struggle with the block pinning his tail down, saw him sway as if he was dizzy. The rage in his eyes dimmed, and when he looked at me this time, I saw something else: confusion, fear. On impulse, I brought the handheld healing device out of its pouch. It was on my other side from the communicator, unharmed and easier to reach. I slipped it over my hand and then held it up very carefully, so I knew he could see it. It was very unlikely he knew what it was, and I couldn’t demonstrate on myself.
“To heal,” I said, and made a pass with the device over my own chest before touching the side of my head where his wound was located. He wasn’t so wild and savage by choice; the rage in my veins—a fight to subdue even now—was proof of that. Something on the North Pole, and probably Felicia’s ship, was driving him—driving us—to be that way. Meddling with our minds. It was our responsibility as Shamans to care for every Naga on this planet, and that included him.
He cocked his head and stared, but stopped the low-pitched growl. Then the ground rumbled and rocked beneath him, and it got the better of him. He lunged forward, claws outstretched, and he would have gouged furrows into my arm if not for the purely incidental reflex. I’d thrown up my arm to protect myself, but the high tension in my body caused the healing device to engage. I usually had good control of the machine, but this time the healing light blasted out of it at full power.
The Naga male reared back, the blow halted in its tracks, and reached for his head. The healing light had bathed his face, probably blinding him, but I realized immediately that wasn’t what stopped him. No, it was the instant halting of the blood dripping from his head wound. “Healing,” I said, and I lowered the device but did not dim its light entirely.
He stared at me; I stared back, and it felt like I was staring into the eyes of a predator. Keen intelligence, all bent to one purpose: to kill and eat his prey. Fear of the unknown predator he was facing, and a powerful sense of survival, ran under it all. This male was not like me, but he also was not bad, and did not deserve to die. Unless he laid his claws on my mate. Then no amount of bloodshed would be enough.
Like my thoughts had summoned her, Felicia appeared with her light and the laser-knife in hand, behind the savage. Her face was still painfully pale, her eyes wide and scared. She stared at the savage, who turned slowly to watch her approach, then shook her head. “I tried, Levant. God knows I tried, but I still can’t manage to get through.” Then her eyes settled on the savage again, and I saw the wheels turn in her head.
He snapped his teeth at her, hand raised as if the light hanging from her belt blinded him. When he twitched forward as if he meant to attack her, I roared, and the fury I’d managed to keep banked lit in my veins. No, he wasn’t touching my mate.
Chapter 24
Felicia
The savage Naga only twitched toward me, but seemed to control the impulse to attack at the last moment. That didn’t matter to Levant. He roared with such fury that the walls trembled and snow rained down silently on us. It felt like a quake rumbled beneath my feet in response, but that could have just been the echo playing tricks on me.
My pinned, injured mate lunged beneath the slab of ice that held him down, fighting to get free, to rise and protect me. His sigils lit all over his body. Though much of it was covered by the warm furs he wore, some of them were still visible—like along the very tip of his tail, which lashed furiously through the air, cracking like a whip toward the savage white Naga.
I held out my hands, hoping to look like I was no threat. “Easy! Easy, Levant. He’s not attacking. Right, big guy? You’re not going to attack me, are you? You’re going to help me get us out of this mess, aren’t you? Like a good savage Naga.” He cocked his head, then tilted it to look at Levant. I didn’t see him move, but his hand snapped out so fast it blurred. He caught the tip of Levant’s tail in his fist, and I screamed and lunged forward myself on instinct before I could stop. “No! Don’t hurt him, don’t hurt my mate!”
Auby was right behind me, and I heard him translate, calling out what I’d said in the native Naga language. It was a very dumb move on my part to throw myself at a savage alien who wanted nothing better than to tear me to shreds. I’d done it now, though,thrown myself between Levant and him, arms spread wide as if that was going to protect my mate. “I don’t think he understands what I’m saying, Felicia. I don’t think he has the capacity for speech. You should get out of there. He will kill you.”
What was the point? If I couldn’t get to theFuture, I could not destroy the ship. We were all going to die, and even if Ididget to my ship, we were still going to die, because the self-destruct would take us with it. This appeared to be the calm before the storm, but I wasn’t fooled, any moment now, it would engage. Precious seconds were ticking by.
The savage Naga released Levant’s tail so suddenly that I almost missed it. He moved back right away, out of reach, and then he hunkered down and stared at me. His eyes were so pale they looked like ice, but his body was doing something that almost, almost, looked like an attempt at submission. Levant had told me how the Naga females in the other Clans were the ones in charge, that Serqethos was the exception to the rule. Perhaps this male was used to his females being far more aggressive than he was, and he thought he had no choice but to obey. Whatever it was, it had kept me alive, and now I was going to make it work in Serant’s favor. This journey, and Levant’s injuries, weren’t going to be for nothing.
I moved around the savage slowly, keeping him carefully in my sight as I took each shuffling sideways step. I felt the time trickle by, like each second was going to be our last. It was running out fast. Levant had subsided too, but I heard him panting, clearly in terrible pain. When I reached the block of ice that pinned the savage Naga’s tail, I flicked on the overloaded laser scalpel and aimed. This block was big and heavy, but it was not structurallysound the way the slab lying atop Levant was. A single blast was all it took to splinter it apart and free the guy.
