“Ronan.” She gasped his name. Larger-than-human amber eyes focused on him. Small abrasions marred her limbs and face. A cut along her shoulder wept blood and clear fluids. “Need help.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Linse and I hunt.” Her breathing was erratic, her movements jerky, her hands never straying far from the short broad-blade sword at her side. “Linse hurt.”
For the normally articulate Auilan to speak in clipped sentences, he knew her younger brother had to be in trouble. He gathered his equipment and stowed it in the medikit. “Where is Linse now?”
She pointed to the forest along the eastern mountains.
“What happened?”
“Talehons attack.”
The Azein and Talehon clans had been warring over territory for almost a year. Linse was young, only in his early teens, and for Dah’Te to risk leaving him to seek Ronan’s aid, the kid had to be in really bad shape.
Ronan grabbed his medikit and hurried for the ladder. Concern for the downed Auilan temporarily overcame his anxiety as he maneuvered around the roof’s yawning pits. He ignored the calls of the workers, shouldered his kit, uncoupled his safety line, and swung onto the ladder, foregoing the rungs and sliding down the rails.
As soon as his booted feet hit the dry ground, he sprinted for one of the nearby solar-rovers. Dah’Te landed a few yards away, stirring a dust cloud with her wings as he climbed into the vehicle’s open cab.
“Flying faster,” she said.
Visions of free-falling to his death through a cloudless blue sky invaded his mind. His stomach clenched and he shook his head. “We’ll need the rover to bring Linse back here.”
She hesitated for a moment and then clambered onto the flat-bed cargo area. Holding the roll bar, she pointed to a trail that sloped steadily upward into the mountains. “That way.”
The rover lurched forward and bounced over the construction site’s uneven turf.
It was foolish to head into the forest with dusk approaching, and even more so to go in search of an injured alien. But if the Talehons found Linse, they would surely kill him.
Ronan and Dah’Te sped through the forest trails, passing through swathes of deep shadow where the canopy thickened. More light filtered through the thinning trees the further they drove from New Denver.
After what seemed like hours, Dah’Te tapped his shoulder and pointed to a small clearing. Ronan slowed the rover.
Broken branches littered the ground and the clean scent of fresh sap filled the air. Downy white-and-
brown feathers drifted on the breeze to settle in clumps among the bright orange and blue wildflowers.
He stopped the rover, powered down the motor, and picked up his medikit. As he stepped from the vehicle, he hesitated, unsure about bringing the small plasma gun hidden beneath the dash. His oath as a doctor to cause no harm warred with his desire to help Dah’Te’s brother. Sighing, he released the locks, pulled the gun free, and strapped it to his thigh.
Dah’Te crouched by a tree’s base and he joined her. “I left Linse here,” she said, her speech improving now that she’d had time to calm down a bit. She gestured to a dark patch of bark. “He was bleeding and his wing was broken.”
Ronan studied their surroundings. “He can’t have gone far.”
“Unless the Talehons took him,” she muttered, and stood.
“Don’t think like that.”
She shrugged and moved away. Her wing brushed his arm and he shivered as a small jolt shocked his spine. “I’m being realistic, Ronan.” She glanced skyward from the clumps of feathers on the ground, and back to the feather trail. “Talehon clan won’t hesitate to kill a youngling like Linse.”
He heard the hitch in her voice as she spoke. “Dah’Te,” he said softly and grabbed her arm to stop her.
Like all Auilans, she was petite, the top of her head barely reaching Ronan’s shoulder. He stooped to face her squarely.
Tears glimmered in the corners of her wide eyes.
“We’ll find him.” He cupped her cheek. “I promise.”
She stepped close and slipped her arms around his waist, resting her cheek against his chest. Her wings folded to encircle him in a double embrace. “You shouldn’t make an oath you may not honor.”
The thrumming beat of wings drew Ronan’s attention to the treetops in time to see three male Auilans plunging toward them.
“Down!” He pitched himself to the ground, pulling Dah’Te along with him as the men soared overhead in a flurry of black-and-red wings.
Dah’Te sprang to her feet, drawing her sword, and launched into the air in pursuit of the Talehon clan attackers.
He scrambled to his feet, calling and running after her. He hurdled fallen trees and sidestepped debris piles where vipers often hid. Brambles tugged at his pants. Branches slapped his arms and chest and left stinging welts. Ground-covering roots snagged his feet and slowed his chase.
Sharp bird-like cries and the metallic ring of clashing swords ricocheted through the forest. Shifting shadows underneath the sprawling canopy cloaked the Auilans’ dark wings, making it difficult to pinpoint their locations. The sound of rushing water soon reached Ronan as he followed the trail of broken branches and drifting feathers.
A thrashing ball of wings and limbs crashed into Ronan, knocking him off balance. He tumbled into a bramble patch, thorns raking and slicing his skin, as he slid down a steep incline. His shoulder clipped a boulder, spinning him into the base of a large tree, which prevented him from falling into the swift current of the river below.
Groaning, he sat, braced his back against the tree, and pulled free the plasma gun. He searched for signs of his assailants or Dah’Te.
A flash of red to his right. A call from the left.
His instincts screamed for him to run. He forced himself to remain still.
Silver glinted as a black-and-red-winged Talehon dropped to the ground in front of him, swinging a short sword at his head.
He ducked, twisting to land on his back as he raised the gun, and fired. A bolt of superheated plasma lit the forest and skimmed the Auilan’s side before tearing through an outstretched wing. Feathers blazed.
The Talehon shrieked and retreated in a trail of charred feathers and smoke.
Ronan needed to find Dah’Te. He pushed to his feet.
Another Talehon swooped into view.
Ronan fired and missed.
The Auilan barreled into him. Taloned hands ripped into his shirt to grip flesh. With a few powerful wingstrokes, they were airborne and gliding over the river.
Ronan’s stomach dipped and his head spun as the Auilan rose steadily higher. He briefly registered that he still had the pulse gun. He didn’t dare use it, however, as an image of his own broken and twisted body floating away on the river’s current danced before him.
A quickly moving shadow darted over them. The Talehon grunted and dropped several feet as something slammed into his back.
Ronan cried out in pain as one of the Auilan’s hands tore free. He caught a brief glimpse of Dah’Te on the Talehon’s back, ripping at his wings, before the Auilan released his grip, and Ronan was free-falling.
The icy river water shocked his breath. The rapid current tore the plasma gun from his hand. He kicked for the surface and gasped a fresh air supply before the flow pulled him under. His body slammed painfully into submerged boulders. The heavy medikit on his back weighed him down. He shrugged out of it only to have it also ripped from his hands as the current tossed him into another boulder.
He struggled through the water, broke free, and managed to grab a low hanging branch. Holding onto it, he kicked against the powerful flow and inched toward the safety of the bank. He pulled himself on shore, gasping and coughing to clear his lungs of water. His entire body ached. His chest and shoulders were on fire where the Auilan’s talons had slashed him open. Darkness clouded his sight.