“Eating will help the effects of the venom,” she whispers rapidly. “You need to beat it as soon as you can. What Dyana has planned for you and your mate can’t happen, and there are plenty of us in this colony who don’t want it.”
There’s a sound from behind her. I chew down on the meat.
“I’ll bring you more when I can,” she says, rapidly rising as she looks over her shoulder.
I’ll take what I can get, but I know the look in her eyes. This female wants something too. And unless it is to free me and my mate, she will not have it. Once I’ve rid my system of the venom, I will take my vengeance on these females.
I will ensure they know exactly what happens to Sarkarnii who take what is mine.
GILLIAN
The cage sways from side to side in the breeze high up in the canopy. I’m not sure if the Sarkarnii females have hoisted me up here because perhaps they think humans can’t fly so they can’t climb or if they’re trying to intimidate me.
In fact, it’s giving me a good idea of my surroundings. We’re not so far from the ship, I can see the occasional glint of metal through the leaves, and from the occasional gust of wind, I’m sure I can smell the sea. That’s presuming alien planets have saltwater seas. If not, I have no idea what I can smell.
I shift from one buttock to the other. The cage floor is not comfortable, being just bars suspended over a void. My heart squeezes in my chest.
What have they done to Dalox? From what Dyana said, they’re not going to kill him, but it’s what else they might be planning which concerns me. After all, she’s already bitten him to incapacitate him. Allegedly Sarkarnii are pretty indestructible, but when they’re fighting each other? I don’t know how that works.
I feel like I probably should have asked more questions. Although, I could ask questions until the end of my days. I’mnever going to understand this new world I’m living in more than my own.
Still, I have significant doubts I’m safe with Dyana. I’ve seen the look in her eyes in the eyes of others in the past. There’s a cold, raw hatred which cannot be assuaged. She would die rather than fail her objective, whatever it may be. And she will take as many of the rest of us with her when she does as she can.
“Female!” A voice rings out above me, and I see something land in the vegetation above, causing the tree around us to swing wildly, setting my cage in motion.
I don’t respond, and eventually a familiar face comes into view. Dyris, the Sarkarnii who seems to be Dyana’s second. I turn my back on her.
“I brought you food. I trust you can eat meat,” she says.
I continue to ignore her.
She moves around the outside of the cage until she is in front of me. “Here.” She thrusts a rough Hessian-style bag through the bars.
I don’t take it. She releases it, and it falls through the bars, down and down to the forest floor. I stare at her. She shrugs.
“Suit yourself.”
“What’s the point in eating. You’re only keeping me alive for your own ends.”
“I’d have thought you’d want to stay alive for your male,” she says, with a slight curl of her lip.
It’s my turn to shrug.
“How do I even know he is alive? Or if Dyana is going to keep him that way.” I look down below me at the ground and the bag of food, a tiny splotch of beige. “How do I know Dyana is going to do what she says she will do?”
“Dyana is very…focussed,” Dyris says. “She helped saved all of us when no one else cared. I’m only here because of her.”
“And keeping me and Dalox captive, when we’ve done nothing to you, is a price worth paying her, is it?” I query. “Because from where I’m sitting, it seems like misplaced loyalty.”
Dyris bares her fangs. “It is the fact Dalox did nothing which is the reason he is in chains and you are here,” she snarls. “Doing nothing is what male Sarkarnii are famed for. He will pay. All the others will pay too. And if we ever find Deus…”
She swings away from me, wings sprouting from her back.
“I hope it’s all worth it,” I say quietly. “I’ve seen the death…on the ship.”
Dyris stills. “What do you mean?”
“I’ve seen what you went through. I saw the bodies. I saw how hard you fought. I hope more death is worth what Dyana wants.”
