River’s End ch 34: Monsters We Have Vowed to Eliminate

The ceiling was narrower than the floor, like it was supposed to be a triangle but the top part was chopped off. The horizontal space was also a trapezoid. These offset, slanted-rectangular sections formed a zagged hallway.

The shape felt too familiar as I followed Togdy, his nails clicking on the floor grate. The catacombs of Menyaza were set up similarly. Those were cut into igneous rock, while these walls were smooth and metal, a brushed, dull gray. Tubes of white lights lined the junctions of wall and ceiling. The weightless fabric of my dress floated in the breeze that whispered from above and below.

It reminded me too much of adventures back home, where Fredo and I snuck through the tunnels, never knowing who or what waited around the myriad of corners.

I reached toward Fredo in my mind. It was still like being stretched too far, as if something constantly heaved at the back of my head. Distance wasn’t supposed to make a difference in a mykta’s bond, but maybe that wasn’t entirely true.

Maybe it was like your hand: Whether above your head or behind your back, it is still a part of you. It reports its feelings and obeys your commands, but stretch it to its limit, and you feel it. With time and practice, you’ll get used to it, but until then, it’s tender. It’s hard to ignore.

Fredo was not dead. That was what this meant, why I felt anchored back to Grenswa. He was there, alive and waiting for me.

How far from Grenswa was I?

Panic burst in my mind simultaneous with a breath-stealing epiphany. With every small step I took in this hallway, I traveled a fathomless distance in space. I might even have walked forward but moved backward, further and further from the world where I needed to be.

“[You okay?]” Togdy asked as I leaned against the smooth wall, a hand over my sprinting heart.

“[Yes, I’m just finding it hard to breathe at the moment.]” I didn’t entirely blame this on my train of thought. The air was much drier than on Grenswa and thicker than on Seallaii.

Togdy sat and gave me that over-patient look again. “[Don’t vomit. My pet says the ship is supposed to shift the gravity and atmosphere subtly between zones, but Togdy has seen so many puke their guts out—]”

“[You have a pet?]” I blurted. Had the gravity been as heavy as earlier, I would have fallen again, but he was right. It was lighter here. I could have pushed off the floor and swam through the dry air.

With an oversized nod, Togdy got up and resumed his trot. “[Togdy calls him Ishi, but he’s difficult to train, so we mostly let him do whatever he wants.]”

“[If he’s sapient enough to speak and explain how the ship works,]” I argued, following, “[then he shouldn’t be a pet.]”

“[Ho-ho, you’re funny.]” He didn’t look back at me, and I glared. Whoever this Ishi was likely didn’t want to be a pet any more than I did.

“[It wasn’t a joke,]” I mumbled, attention stolen as the hall widened into an octagonal room.

Except for being taller and wider, the space wasn’t really different from the corridor—plain walls, grate floor and ceiling, tubular lights. But it felt capacious, with a passage leading off each of the eight walls. My eyes focused on the two semi-circular desks in the center and their plethora of screens.

Screens like that meant information, and information was power, knowledge, the mightiest of weapons.

I scurried down the triad of stairs into the room and swiped a hand over a desk’s glass counter. It lit up, and Laysis letters reported mildly useless facts like the temperature. Cold. I already knew that. Today’s date…

I paused. This was a Sojourner’s date system. A whole number represented how many days had passed since launch, decimals breaking down partial days. A quick calculation put this ship at over five centuries old.

I shoved the notifications aside and navigated deeper into the file directories. Surely, the simple date system wasn’t unique to River Guardian Sojourners. Away from a planet with obvious phases, the years, seasons, and months meant little. The sleep cycle of the crew was the most important.

I found a map and pulled the file open so it took up the whole desk, showing all the fine details.

“[What are you doing?]”

I leaned over my discovery, fingers and eyes tracing more trapezoids and octagons. “[Research.]”

“[Boring.]” The Dossie’s tail thumped against the curved, hollow front of the desk.

It appeared to be made of thin, frosted glass, and I had an awful vision of him shattering it, screens crumbling and forever dark, never to answer my questions.

“[Togdy lets you out to do whatever you want, and you study. Seems like a legit Seallaii-ku thing to do.]”

“[This is an ark,]” I whispered.

“[Is that cool?]” Ears perked, Togdy jumped up to put his front paws on the counter. The map jerkily zoomed in and out in response.

I frowned at him, but amazement kept my eyes wide. “[This ship is of Sojourner design, but I didn’t know one had actually been made, and to be this old…]”

I turned back to the schematics. They had zoomed out far enough to display the whole structure.

Imagine a giant kite, one large enough to cover ten sprawling cities. Slice it into tiny strips but leave a thin stem down the middle to connect it all. Then twist it like a strand of DNA to create a spiky spiral.

Arks were meant to save scraps of dying worlds. Which world was this one meant for?

I zoomed up on the map again and inspected the zones, searching for matches to the habitats of Shlykrii.

That vedia was on this ship, wasn’t she? That Seallaii-na vedia. Did Seallaii have something to do with this after all?

My head hurt. My vision swam, and my stomach roiled. Bile rose in my throat.

One of the ship’s decks was labeled Nexok Mountain Range, another the Chuan Sea, another the Apim Forests—all well-known areas of Shlykrii. The deck below that said Abductee Holding Area.

I magnified the image further and looked for any mention of an Opal prince.

“[Hide,]” Togdy hissed. His claws scratched the glass as he got down and scrambled toward one of the hallways. “[They’re coming, and if they see you, they’ll put you back in Alaysq’s room.]”

As he disappeared through the doorway behind me, voices blended by echoes poured into the space. With a grimace, I closed the map, wishing for a tablet to load it on so I could take it with me. At a tap of the sleep button in the corner, the counter darkened, and I swung under it.

Footsteps cascaded into the room.

“[Where are the watchmen that are supposed to be stationed here?]” asked a steely, feminine voice, and they all paused.

As if in response, a shout and a yelp rang from the corridor where Togdy had gone. “[There you are!]”

The Dossie reappeared as an orange streak, and a Shlykrii-na trotted behind, tackling him as they reached the desk opposite the one I hid under.

“[Do you know how long we’ve been looking for you?]” he growled through a sneer. Conical wolf ears flattened against his head, and slender arms wrapped the Dossie’s waist.

I backed further under the counter. Hopefully, he wouldn’t look this way.

Togdy squirmed. “[You’d have been bored otherwise.]”

The woman cleared her throat. Togdy and his captor looked up, two sets of ears perking. Togdy’s were still floppy, framing either side of his furry face, while the Shlykrii-na’s stood straight, the same yellow-brown as his shaggy hair.

“[Commander Ferrina,]” he squawked as he scrambled to his feet, grip tight on the scruff of Togdy’s neck.

I tried to peek at the commander, but the desk’s frosted glass reduced the scene to a blur of colors. Probably a good thing since I didn’t want them seeing me anyway.

“[Ishiyae doesn’t appreciate it when you harass his pet.]”

The visible Shlykrii-na straightened, and most of the wrinkles in his soft tunic vanished. “[With all respect, Ma’am, his pet is not supposed to be roaming the corridors either.]”

“[Neither are you. Explain why both you and your partner left your post.]”

Shoulders drooping, he slid behind the desk, feet a handspan from my knees. Could he see me if he looked down?

Level with my face, Togdy winked at me.

“[Togdy messes with the programming of things when left loose, Ma’am. We’ve spoken with Commander Ishiyae about it, but if you could—]”

“[Ishiyae was severely injured on Grenswa. He is recovering, but he does not need to be bothered with your trifles, Watchman.]”

Armor clinked, and her shadow’s arm elongated on the floor. The watchman lifted Togdy, and the Dossie’s fluff billowed in the light gravity. His tail curled up over his belly as he disappeared above the counter.

“[Let Togdy go, Ferrina, or Togdy will curse you.]”

Imagining his bared fangs, I shivered.

“[Curse Ferrina with your cute Dossea-ku superstitions? We shall sweat into nothing from worry.]”

“[Togdy means it.]” His voice was further away, punctuated by a horde of stiff footsteps. “[We have a friend called a purritirr monster, and she won’t like your treatment of Togdy.]”

Ferrina chuckled. “[Stories have entered these ears about purritirr, invisible, always attacking the feet first so you can’t run away. How did you ever make friends with one?]”

“[Same as with everyone else. Togdy just introduced himself, and she happened to be nicer than you.]”

Was it a good thing that they were leaving? Togdy would be okay, right? Him getting caught wasn’t that big of a deal. They’d just lock him in a room, and he would escape again.

I, on the other hand, now faced the predicament of hiding under a desk within sneezing distance of a watchman’s feet, a watchman who would be none too pleased to find I had been snooping around his computer.

How would I get out of here without him noticing?

If I got caught, would they put me back in Lady Alaysq’s room? Or did a darker fate await a fake Grenswa-na prisoner wandering about this mysterious ark ship?

Not quite to any of the doorways, the commander crooned, “[Togdy, you know Ferrina likes Ishiyae, right?]”

“[You and everyone on this ship,]” the Dossie grumbled.

“[So, you know Ferrina would never hurt you because he would think ill of her.]” Her syrupy voice became clearer as she turned to face the desk. “[But the watchman here might hurt you if someone ordered him to, someone who would remain anonymous.]”

The watchman’s hand slid to the laser pistol on his thigh, and his fingers tightened around the handle.

“[Togdy would tell.]” His voice strained as if he struggled to get free.

The clink of armor sounded again. “[You’re a burden to Ishiyae, a burden to this ship. Watchman, shoot him.]”

Within a breath, the watchman’s weapon rose level with his shoulder. I slammed an elbow on his foot.

He shouted a word I didn’t know and stumbled back. A light shattered behind Ferrina and her captive.

“[Watchman!]”

He looked down and saw me, of course. Not like I was all that hard to spot, like a fire in the dark bedecked in red, orange, and gold.

“[What’s a Grenswa-ku doing up here?]”

I didn’t have an answer to that, to anything, only motion, so I launched myself at him. I grabbed his arm and twisted it behind him. He ducked and threw me easily in the weak gravity. I sailed over the counter and into the waiting arms of the four armored Shlykrii-nas that trailed Ferrina.

They weren’t normal Shlykrii-nas. They were huge, like the ones that had defeated me on Grenswa, unaffected by my kicks and grips too strong for me to wrench away. All I got for my efforts was a twinging side and the worry that the wound on my hip was worse than I had thought.

“[I am a Seallaii-ku River Guardian, and you will unhand me at once.]” This was an ark of Sojourner design. Surely that authority meant something here.

Ferrina raised an eyebrow at me, a thin russet line disappearing beneath bangs of the same color. “[If you’re a River Guardian, why do you look Grenswa-ku?]”

“[She doesn’t smell Grenswa-ku.]”

Ferrina’s right ear tilted toward Togdy. Hers were semi-floppy, tips pulled low by the weight of several golden hoops.

One of my captors sniffed my arm, and I grimaced.

“[Smells like Grenswa.]”

Togdy gave them the same patient look he had given me, and I was glad to see it wasn’t reserved for my level of ignorance. “[Yeah, she smells like she’s been around fish, but does she smell like she is a fish?]”

“[Grenswa-kus aren’t fish,]” the watchman huffed.

“[But they smell like they are, a bit. What does she smell like she is?]”

“[Fruit,]” the guard on my right answered, and the one on my left wondered, “[Does she taste like fruit, too?]”

I didn’t like this sudden downturn in topic.

Ferrina came closer, calculation in her large eyes. Her irises were deep and somewhere between red and brown, pupil a lightless slit down the middle. “[If you are Seallaii-ku, tell Ferrina to do something.]”

Gaze locked on hers and jaw clenched, I let out a slow breath, pouring my soul into the words, “[Let Togdy go.]”

She gasped. Her pupils widened, and her eyes fluttered closed. Her fingers uncurled, and Togdy plopped on the grate floor.

With a detached, nonchalant stance, she watched him scramble away. “[That is a problem.]” She turned back to me, focus narrow and as intense as a quasar’s flames. “[We’ll show her to the king. He’ll want to meet her.]”

She turned, knee-length tail flipping wildly, and the protective, bird-tail like flap of armor that dangled from her belt waved like a loose sail.

The guards followed her, holding me between two of them. My toes dangled above the floor.

Curiosity stilled me anyway, so I glided along, lost in a cascade of thoughts. Ferrina had asked me to give her an order, and her obeying it confirmed my Seallaii-na status. Did that have to do with my charisma?

I had tried to be as compelling as possible, but I hadn’t expected it to work and especially not to have the euphoric effect it had garnered. Could I order them to do anything? Did I want to see this king? Would my charisma work on more than one of them at a time?

My gaze fell to the elongated rifles strapped to each of the four soldiers’ thighs. Could I order them to take me to a shuttle, protect me, or forget me? Could I compel this king of theirs to turn the ship around and return to Grenswa?

Was that even a good idea?

I could instead find Hent and the others taken, load them in a shuttle, and fly that back to Grenswa.

Maybe I’ll run that by the king, with all my hope poured into it.

Pieces fell into place. Shlykrii-nas like Ambassador Lafdo were immune to Seallaii-na charisma, but that impassive nature was not natural for their kind. Long before Shlykrii-nas had ventured into space, their world had been different, with a strict hierarchy based off a pheromone system similar to our charisma. A drug had been developed to dampen their susceptibility to that kind of manipulation, and the lower castes had wiped out their rulers.

For centuries, every Shlykrii-na was dosed with this serum, termed Equal, and capitalism had reigned rather than birthright.

What if these Shlykrii-nas were without Equal?

That explained the watchman’s eagerness to fulfill Ferrina’s request despite knowing it would get him in trouble. Ferrina was higher ranked by birth, by physically having the pheromones of a higher caste than the watchman. Obeying her gave him a deep sense of pleasure, like an addict getting his fix.

Was that why her armor was different? I had seen a female Shlykrii-na on the battlefield dressed the same as the male soldiers, so Ferrina’s gender had little to do with her difference in attire.

Modern Shlykii-nas of high class valued lengthy fringe and delicate lace, and her armor displayed similar attributes. Her gear was less bulky than that of the giants surrounding me, less overlapped and more woven, intricately so. Her tail guard was long, hanging nearly to mid-calf.

Doors hissed open, and I blinked, assaulted by the scents of a rich banquet: warm fruits and basted meats, aromatic pastries and cakes. Tables lined the walls to either side, partakers loitering and laughing around them, all robed in soft silks and furs with many dangly, sparkly pieces.

Across the room, engines burned blue behind clear panels. Distant stars speckled the transparent ceiling. I might have thought it was awesome had my heart not pounded in my ears, trying to keep afloat in my raging torrent of terror, curiosity, confusion, and hope.

Basically, I was a mess inside.

At least I was appropriately dressed for a party. A Grenswa-na party.

Everyone’s stares turned to us. On the awkward scale, this was a fifteen out of ten. I still couldn’t touch the floor, so I couldn’t have run even if that brilliant idea had occurred to me.

“[Cousin Ferrina!]” The bellow rang through the room like a gong, and I flinched, gaze jumping to the speaker.

He looked like her, with the same russet hair and eyes slightly redder. His features were just as round, but a lot more of him was round. Did he wear an inner tube beneath his floor-length robe? Maybe he was just paranoid about drowning.

Lighter garb might have helped with that. The tassels that draped from his shoulders would have still reached the floor if he had stood rather than lounged sideways on a padded throne at the back of the room.

“[This Grenswa-ku must be special for you to have brought her to the king’s banquet.]” No malice rode his address, simply apathy tainted with mild intrigue and a bit of disdain.

“[She is not of Grenswa, Our King. Rather, she is Seallaii-ku.]” Ferrina’s eyes locked on the monarch. “[River Guardian.]”

Everything stilled. Silence swept the room like a swift assassin.

The king’s burnt-crimson eyes fixed on me. “[Is this true?]”

“[Wow, you must not trust Ferrina very much.]”

He threw her a brief glance. “[No, the king does not, and being a River Guardian is a serious claim. You have a Grenswa-ku’s scales.]”

I shrugged. “[Maybe they’re fake.]”

He stood and glided toward me as if floating atop a pond. “[Perhaps you believe River Guardians are the saviors of the universe, and you think they will save you now, will save your world.]” He stopped, tassels settling a moment later.

“[Seallaii will save Grenswa.]”

He grinned, sharp teeth like a host of daggers shining in the starlight. “[If they rise to the bait and try, what do you think awaits them?]”

“[Are you saying all this is a trap?]” I struggled against my captors to no avail.

At a backhanded wave from the king, they released me and filed behind Ferrina.

“[A trap and the strategy of a genius. Our purpose is to end the tyranny of River. We will destroy the River Guardians. That is why we call this ship the River’s End.]”

My heart hammered so loud, surely it shook the walls, but no one else seemed to hear it. I tried to swallow and couldn’t, a horrible burn in my throat. I couldn’t say anything.

The king took another step closer. “[Now tell us, are you truly one of those monsters we have vowed to eliminate?]”

Continued in chapter 35: I Know These Flames

Thank you for reading!