“The three of us will not be able to fight that many raviks alone. Not to mention whatever is happening inside here.” He traced the blurred area with a clawtip. “This will require stealth. When the second sun rises, we go to stake out the perimeter and search for weaknesses.”
“We don’t have enough firepower,” K’kaen glowered. “I’d rather not get my tail blasted off by a bunch off’fretraviks.”
“I still don’t understand why they would take Eleri. She is a human, and she poses no threat to them or their autonomy. Even with Myla’s meddling, if they wanted her out of the way, they would just kill her outright.” K’kaen’s tail lashed, matching S’samph’s obvious frustration and anxiety.
“Eleri is a healer,” S’kasia said. “Healers are valuable.”
"It matters little,” S’samph interjected. “We retrieve Eleri and deal with Myla’s scheming as soon as she is safely returned." He turned toward the door. “I will speak to Pyo about taking supplies from the town’s armory. K’kaen, speak to the other patrols and see if they will be willing to create a distraction to help us breach the raviks’ camp.”
“I’ll go now.” K’kaen hurried past him out of the nest, leaving S’samph alone with S’kasia. In the silence with his clutch-sister most of his stoic bravery dissolved. His shoulders slumped as he passed a hand over the datapad, making the projection vanish. The weight of planning for an invasion was so much heavier than it had ever felt before.
“I should hurry,” he started toward the door. “We are wasting moments of Eleri’s life.”
“This is not Latilla.” S’kasia’s voice was gentle as she followed him out of the nest. “We will get her back. She will be well.”
"She is my mate." S’samph’s voice trailed into silence. “And I have failed her.”
"Then let us get her back with haste."
"If she is dead—" he began.
"She is not dead," S'kasia interrupted. "They would not have taken her alive only to kill her immediately. She has value to them. Or perhaps Myla promised them something in return for removing Eleri from Laurus."
S’samph’s frill raised in a warning. If Myla had truly orchestrated this, he would see her answer for it. But first, Eleri. Everything else could wait.
The night air carried the scent of approaching rain. Within days, the flooding season would begin, trapping them all inside until the waters receded. If they were going to act, it had to be now.
"We will get her back," S'kasia said quietly.
"Yes," he said. "We must."
CHAPTER 26
ELERI
Eleri woke with her tongue plastered to the roof of her mouth and a throbbing headache. Dehydration, no doubt, but she couldn’t for the life of her figure out where she was. It certainly was too hot and dusty to be her room above the clinic. There was a ratty gray tarp overhead with large holes in the fabric letting in strands of sunlight. An exit was held together with hastily wrapped lengths of twine. Eleri’s vision doubled as she tried to orient herself. She rubbed her eyes and then her forehead. The only time she could remember feeling worse was when she’d woken up after stasis. It had taken at least three days for her to feel like a person again. This time, however, she suspected the discomfort had more to do with the lump on the back of her head.
As Eleri assessed the damage, she tried to get her bearings in what seemed to be a makeshift tent. Minor concussion, probably, judging by the headache and nausea. Otherwise, she seemed unharmed physically. She rubbed grit out of her eyes as the memories came spinning back into focus.Raviks. There had been raviks on the road. They’d spoken at her in an atonal, incomprehensible string of language. She’d tried to run. She’d dropped her medkit and her hat and sprinted, but they’d swarmed her. In a single moment of clarity before she lost consciousness, she was almost certain she would die. But she was still here, and everything ached.
Her surroundings shifted into clearer focus with the dust and grime wiped away from her eyes. The medkit in question sat haphazardly on its side. Its electronic monitoring interface was cracked beyond repair. Many of the contents were temperature sensitive, which meant they’d probably long expired. Did this mean the raviks had brought it here for her? Eleri kept her groan to herself as she popped open the side compartment, fishing around for the emergency hydropods she kept in there. When she found them, only four were left intact. The others must have burst on impact when she dropped the kit. She pressed the first one between her lips, and the gush of liquid flooded her mouth with relief and a layer of silt. Although it was tempting to consume all three of them at once, shehad no idea where she was or when the next time water would be readily available.
Once she steadied herself enough to hobble to her feet, Eleri braved a peek outside the tent and found a cluster of four raviks keeping guard. She’d never seen one before until they’d snatched her outside of the village. When a horde of them had surrounded her with gnashing teeth and raised spikes on their bodies, it had been much more terrifying than the four nearby now. Even still, she wasn’t going to call attention to herself. She shoved back inside the tent structure, but it was clear they’d already registered her consciousness by the uptick in choral voices outside. “Here… Coming… Again… Again… No… No… Waiting… Waiting… Waiting…” The three of them spoke in tandem, their words winding over each other in incoherent patterns. Eleri scrabbled to the floor as they entered the tent. The strange chorus of voices continued until one of them raised an arm, and the sound cut off into an eerie silence.
One of them moved forward, sniffing the air around her. They said something in their garbled voices, but Eleri could only pick out a word or two as they all spoke over each other. She shook her head, hoping to indicate her lack of understanding, but they continued speaking with the same rapid-fire intertwined voices.
“I can’t understand you,” she finally interrupted them to get a word in. “Please, can you speak one at a time?”
The raviks stared at her, then each other. At first, she wasn’t sure if they’d understood her, but they pushed one of the smaller members of their group forward.
“Am oldest. Speak without klatch.” The ravik approached her. “You here…” It trailed off, glancing at one of the others.
“Medical helping,” the tallest one in the back supplemented the end of the phrase.
“What kind of medical help?” Eleri asked. “I don’t have most of my supplies here. My help will be limited without medication or supplies.”
The three of them blended their voices together as they discussed before, finally one voice came through clearly. “Get. What need get.”
She paused before responding. It was a long shot, but if she could just convince them to let her go back to Laurus for her supplies, then she could do the necessary medical treatment on neutral ground. They probably thought she was dead back home. Someone had seen her be snatched, and her throat was still sore from the screaming. It was worth a try. She didn’t want everyoneto worry about her. S’samph certainly would have noticed that she missed their appointment that morning, and if she knew anything about him, he would be furious and trying his very best to hide it. Her stomach sank. She wasn’t much of one for diplomacy, but getting back to Laurus, back to S’samph depended on her not doing anything too risky or impulsive.
