"Domsal," I choked out, barely aware of my surroundings.
"Good," he said again while slapping me once more to keep my conscience. "You are a prince. The only prince left of Queen Sarak. Remember who you are. Tell no one, but Domsal. She will help you."
I grunted my understanding.
My eyes opened to see my commander, and possibly my father hovering over me. His wings were charred and peeling from his bones, half his face was melted, his teeth showing through his bloody cheek, as flesh dripped from his chin.
It must have been painful to talk, I thought as he heaved above me.
"I give my life for you. Don't let it be in vain," he coughed, blood spitting on my face. "The ship still works, but the landing gears are melted, you will crash land back on Krelis. This is one of the fastest ships of the fleet. Use the grappling arms to land as safely as possible. You will orbit the planet until you wake up to land. You will wake!" He slapped me on the arm that I didn't even realize was absent from my mind. I looked down to see it was black and purple, and my father had placed a medpack directly on the injury.
"Where are you going?" I begged as he crawled on his knees and hands with his wings deformed and melted at a grotesque angle.
"They need to know I'm dead, and they need to think that the melted remains of Aram are you. No one can know you survived. Queen Sarak named you Li-aq because you were her star directly from the Goddess Lenkal. Blood of Stars."
All my life I'd thought my name meant the tears of rock, and never thought about the other definition of Li-aq.
Nectar of the Stars.
I watched as my commander fell from the ship's door, and the engines roared to life. The land was scorched outside the ship, black tarnpul sand solidified too far to see beyond. The desert turned to glassy rock, steam rising from the surface.
One truth echoed in my mind. My commander, my father, covered me with his own wings to protect me. His own body melted from the radiation, and the only medpacks on ship covered my body, not a single one was used on himself.
The door screeched into place, blinding me from the outside world. One day the trill and the estrelds would pay for their part in trying to exterminate my species.
It was the trill that sent the virus to our planet, and it was the estrelds that protected him, while their clan had the cure held protected in their labs. If I survived this molt fever then my father was right, and the estrelds held the cure all along and let our species die. Let my whole clan perish. I was all that was left.
Chapter twenty-three
Hazel
Tworotationsofthelargest moon signaled another mating cycle was approaching, and as defeated as my clan felt, there was hope in the air. The krelins were shown the might of the radiation net, and with the destruction of many of their fleets they retreated. They were safer to return to their planet where the nano technology could replicate more within them to save them from the molt fever that they've come to call the Solusgors virus.
And with more time, Estreldez could replicate the Ganpan-Fal and protect ourselves from future outbreaks. It was difficult for estrelds with the radiation making the replication process slower, but it was working. Blood tests showed an increase of the anti-viral technology adapting to the radiation, and surviving.
And my sister was finally growing, though much more slowly than we'd ever seen a birth progress before. Luan was so small, and in no hurry to leave her egg. Almder feared that she would be a still birth and join the rest of our siblings with the goddess, returning the rock. Ezra has been monitoring Luan's progress closely but has seen enough growth to be hopeful.
Much of the clan visits the Almder to add their own radiation to her belly for nourishment and look upon the princess as a sign of the clan's prosperity.
As long as Luan lives, so too does the clan.
"You know you're a princess too," Faith says with a pout.
"You'll always be my princess, and that should be enough for both of us," I reply. "Unless you'd like us to announce to the krelins that you are the Almder's granddaughter and are somehow compatible with mating a krelin? I'm sure you won't be abducted and find a new krelin mate as soon as they recover."
"Mom!" she groaned. "That's really twisted. You know he died melted in the dark land desert."
"Is that what it's being called now?" I cringed.
"I wouldn't worry on it," Yueril said while wrapping his tail around my leg. The heat of his tincture oil made my thighs clench together. I glared at him playfully to tell him now was not the time with our daughter in the room. "With your mate dead, you'll be able to be more careful about who you choose to bite, but Loric brought up a good point that your ability to withstand the musk is a valuable asset to protecting the clan. I'm also working on a breathing apparatus that can be inserted into the nose and neutralize the musk."
"We can talk about this after the mating ceremony. You've been looking forward to watching one, haven't you? I remember my own mother tried to stop me from going, and it only made me want to see it more. You may watch, but you will stay with Loric and no using your oil to go wandering or I'll have to make sure you stay on Bina the next time there's a ceremony."
"I'll behave," she promised, though I could see the mischief in her eyes.
"See that you do," I said with a stern stare.
"I swear!"
