Crystal Tomb (Starfire Angels: Dark Angel Chronicles Book 3) (29 page)

He had nothing to lose asking. A
minute ago, he had assumed all Risaal hated him and wanted him
tortured or dead. Now it seemed one might not.

"You're not like the others," he
said.

In the light from the pod, her lips
twitched, but her eyes fixed on a scanner in her hands. "You're not
like the Inari from our time."

What did that mean? How was he
different? "Your time?"

"Twelve thousand Earth
years."

Yes. They had told him; they had
followed the Miru and the refugees to Earth. "Right." One other
question bothered him, and she might be willing to answer it. "How
many…Risaal?"

"Twenty-six, including
myself…As Kalas explained, our ship was nearly falling apart by the
time we came out of slipstream and our engines were damaged beyond
repair. We set the autopilot to track the trajectory of the Miru
ship and went into stasis for the months of travel to reach this
world. Without full power, the ship crashed and never woke us. It
took a team of human miners discovering our ship to wake us. By
then, the power cells had depleted to support only thirty-five out
of over two thousand. We lost three more while settling on this
world in this time and searching for the refugees, those who
escaped and were suspected to have the
D'Nuvar
. You and your mate took out
six more."

That explained everything, except one.
"You're willing to tell me this?"

She twisted around to stare at the
door for a few seconds. No one entered, but someone could have been
waiting outside, or even inside in their camouflage.

When she turned back, the skin of her
neck broke apart into spikes and reformed, and she leaned close.
"You have to understand," she said in a low voice. "I am the only
one who survived. You're right—I'm not like the others. I was part
of a reform movement. This never should have happened. We thought
you were better protected from invasion. The others...They intended
to rid the Nakor of their power, but it had to go off our world, to
disappear. Your consular visit provided the perfect opportunity. We
didn't think your world would fall so easily. I'm sorry for the
trouble we caused."

An Inari consular visited their
homeworld? Rebels sent the Starfire with them? Something didn't fit
together.

"You are—were—controlled by a dominant
clan?"

"Yes."

"And they used the
Starfire—
D'Nuvar—
to
claim power over the others."

"Yes."

"And some rebels sent the crystal with
an Inari ambassador."

"Yes, as a gift. We thought it would
be safe from the Nakor on your world…We were wrong." Her hand
touched his, the fake skin cool against his.

"So…you'll help me?"

Dar Lorel inhaled deeply
and returned her attention to the scanner. "I'll do what I can, but
Nakor Surik must not suspect. His second,
Rikku
Ronur Kalas, is no better. I
suspect he seeks power for himself, but he believes I am on his
side."

Wow. She played all sides against the
middle. "A bit dangerous."

The spikes along her neck
broke apart again, shifting along a segment from low on her neck
upwards. "My life is irrelevant. Keeping the
D'Nuvar
from returning to our world is
all that matters."

Okay. This could work to his
advantage. "Then you're on my side?"

"You could say that."

Good enough for him. Elis let out a
heavy sigh, which melted all tension from his body to be replaced
by the comfort of relief. She was an ally, not the enemy. Perhaps
all was not lost. "After I decipher the monolith, will you help me
escape to reach the Starfire first?"

She hesitated and glanced back to the
door again. "I only wish the others not to claim any parts of
it…Help me destroy this base and the others and you will never be
troubled again."

His stomach twisted at the prospects
of taking so many lives, especially when not all sought to kill
Inari. No matter the trouble they caused, they deserved a chance to
build a better future. Nor could he destroy the monolith, a doorway
to the past of his species.

"There must be another
choice."

"No. Half are Nakor. The others gather
behind Kalas, eager to take over and become the
masters."

Nothing was ever simple. Two groups
sought dominance, neither better than the other, if what Dar Lorel
said was true. She was little better in her willingness to
sacrifice so many of her own kind. The Risaal were a violent
species. Perhaps everyone was better off if they were
gone.

But it wasn't his place to judge them.
He was one. Surely there must have been some good in the species,
or his people would not have made the effort to establish
diplomatic relations.

Besides, Inari were no better with
their periodic uprisings for power causing wars throughout their
history. The rise of Shirat Marin and her elite Shirukan soldiers
was only the most recent. They were in no place to claim
righteousness.

"If you wish peace for you and your
mate, both must be destroyed."

She was probably right, but Keepers
didn't kill. All Inari valued life, except those who followed
Empress Marin.

"Are there no others who share your
ideals?"

Her eyes dropped and she shook her
head. "None among the survivors."

Interesting. If he read between the
lines, there had been other revolutionaries on their ship who
wanted only peace for their world, but she was the only one with
those beliefs among the crew who had survived stasis. "I'm
sorry."

"It is too late for
regrets."

Her head jerked up and turned again to
the door. Silence surrounded them among the hum of machinery
powering the two pods.

"No more," she whispered.

After a couple seconds, the door
handle clicked.

Another Risaal entered in
their natural form. Dar Lorel bowed her head. "
Rikku
Ronur Kalas."

"How is he?" The slits along his face
widened and narrowed. He stopped next to Dar Lorel, who returned
her attention to the device in her hand, but her eyes flicked to
Elis for a brief instant.

Elis took the point—pretend nothing
happened. She was on his side, and if he wanted to survive, he had
to pretend he knew nothing of it.

Dar Lorel pointed to something on the
device. "His bones are still weak here. Those will take longer to
heal. The tissues are mending quickly. At this rate, in two days
the wound will be completely sealed, but the bones will yet be
weak."

"Can he move?" Ronur Kalas's eyes
dropped to him. Elis tightened his fingers into fists, struggling
to restrain the desire to fight. He wasn't ready.

"He is weak and needs nourishment.
That will aid his recovery."

The slits on the Risaal's face widened
and narrowed while spikes extended down his neck to his chest and
shifted before settling back to the dark green. "Do it. He must be
ready today or we seek the female. No more waiting."

Cold eyes met his with a menace that
sent a chill down Elis's spine. He tucked his wings close in
defense of the threat before him. While his heart pounded in his
chest to stop the Risaal from recapturing Raea, he tried to sit up,
but Dar Lorel pushed him down. Too weak to fight her and wracked
with pain, he laid still.

"Leave her," Elis growled through
teeth clenched in pain. He couldn't let them hurt Raea. Never would
anyone hurt her again.

"If you cooperate." Satisfaction
hissed from the Risaal's voice. Ronur Kalas said something in their
language to Dar Lorel, who gave a curt nod of acknowledgement.
After giving Elis a long look, Ronur Kalas left, the door clicking
shut behind him.

Dar Lorel set her scanner
aside and looked down on him with a frown. "Do not provoke
the
Rikku
. They
will not hesitate to kill anyone who challenges them."

"What are
Rikku?
" Their ways were
alien to him, like their language.

"He is our
commander.
Kan Rikku
Nakor Surik would be our supreme commander. They bear the
authority over us. The guards will not hesitate to obey
either."

"These are the ones who oppose each
other?" This might work to his advantage, if he could figure out a
way to use it.

"Yes." She straightened, the faint
light from the pod casting eerie shadows upon her human features.
"Rest now. I'll send food for you. If you wish to regain your
strength, you must eat and rest."

No. He needed to get up and regain his
bearings, but for now, he'd wait for food.

Elis said nothing but lay still on the
soft mat. Dar Lorel watched him a few seconds before spinning on
her heel with unnatural grace and leaving him alone in the dark
room. The door clicked behind her.

Soon, another Risaal entered bearing a
plate of food and a bottle of water and helped him sit up. Like his
other meals in their care, the food was bland or tasted odd. He ate
it anyway and washed it down with the water. Dar Lorel was right
that he needed his strength, but he wouldn't wait for her
approval.

Elis waited for the server to leave,
and the moment the door shut, he slid his legs off the cushion. The
only way to regain his strength was to work for it.

He slid to the floor, leaning on the
open pod to balance himself. While the room didn't spin, his chest
ached from his efforts. He could live with that.

Elis clamped his teeth on the pain of
moving and focused on taking one step at a time. Although each
movement threatened a twinge of pain in his chest, he continued the
effort to cross the room one step at a time.

After a short distance that seemed
enormous, he set his hands on the warm shell of the other pod for
balance. Inside lay one of the Risaal in their natural form, its
skin blackened along its front. Probably one he and Raea had
blasted in their escape.

One that had survived—a mixed blessing
knowing he had killed one less since it was one more to attack them
later.

Dar Lorel's request resurfaced. She
wanted to kill them all. Keepers didn't kill, at least not unless
they had to, but even that was a stain upon their conscious. They
had the power, but a power to be used to serve, not to dominate and
destroy.

The Risaal would destroy if they had
the power. Like the Shirukan of his homeworld, they sought to use
the Starfire to subjugate others to their will.

He couldn't allow that either. There
had to be a way to keep them from Raea and the other
shards.

He and Raea could return to the
homeworld. There the Risaal could never reach them, but the
Shirukan could.

Dammit!

Elis pounded his fist on the glass
with a dull thud. Why did this happen?

He needed the shard of the Eye if he
would have a chance of protecting Raea. To find that, he needed to
escape, and to start praying the human God was real and led the
entities of the shard to accept him. Three very big problems,
especially when the second wasn't likely and the other two
presented some big risks.

What could he do?

Hope to escape to find the Eye. That's
where he would start. Before that, he had to heal and regain his
strength; and now he knew he had an ally, one more determined than
him not to allow the Risaal to reclaim any pieces of the
Starfire.

He glanced into the pod with the
injured Risaal. One less death at his hands, but one less guard to
interfere when the time came to act.

Time to move.

He turned and started back across the
small room, his chest aching, especially as he lifted his wings to
aid his balance. While he stood at the midway point, the door
handle clicked.

Crystal fire. Elis jumped towards the
open pod, but his rushed attempt to reach it sent the room spinning
around him. Before he realized he fell, his shoulder smacked the
cement floor.

A hiss and something in the Risaal
language warned him of trouble before rough hands dragged him up.
Oh, no. His stomach twisted and turned, threatening to give up the
recent meal.

"So, you're better." Through the black
spots mottling his vision, he made out the human face belonging to
Ronur Kalas. "Lorel underestimated you. If you can walk, then it's
time to return to your task, Inari."

No. Not yet. He wasn't
ready.

A dark figure on each side shoved him
toward the door into the dim hallway. He was too weak to fight
them.

Desert Mirages

The silence of the house surrounded
Raea, choking her in the solitude of the room in which she stood,
her hand rubbing the vinyl back of the desk chair. His chair in his
room. Elis.

He should have been there with her. He
should have been the one to survive. Her life was empty without
him; she was only a shell now with one purpose. Once she completed
the mission to rescue the Starfire in the monolith, nothing else
mattered. Nare could take her shard and pass it on to another
Keeper. Raea didn't care. Without the Risaal to worry about, Raea
could go on with her life.