Broken Wings (25 page)

["I never loved anyone. Shirukan are
encouraged to satisfy sexual needs but never with the same person
twice. Bonding is strictly limited, and genetic matchings are
assigned. But our liaisons grew more frequent and we started taking
risks to be together. Within a year, we had bonded.]

["But we were discovered. She came one
night to warn me that my life was in danger. They'd intercepted a
message planning to use me to get to her and the rest of her group.
I had to leave all I knew behind. By then it didn't matter. For
most of that last year as a Shirukan, I didn't put my heart into
what I had once been praised for excelling at. I didn't want to.
Korali was right. She showed me the truth and how wrong Shirat
Marin was about Keepers, and she showed me files outlining plans to
take over all Inar'Ahben with timelines and details, including
plans for capturing a certain Crystal Keeper on Earth."] His eyes
focused on her.

Raea's heart stopped. This went far
beyond her.

["But apparently that failed,"] he
said.

["I had help."] From Elis. Her beloved
Elis. Leksel described feeling for Korali like she felt for Elis.
She would return to him, but she couldn't dwell on it. For the
moment, she didn't want to think about home. She wanted to hear
Leksel's story. ["What happened with Korali?"]

Don't stare at me like
that.
Man. He had a way of staring right
through her as if he could see inside her head. She hated
that.

["She showed me I was in trouble and I
knew I didn't have a choice. But I knew if I was in trouble, so was
my family. I sent a message to Cris to meet for dinner, but I sent
one of Korali's friends to meet him. I knew they'd be watching him,
and probably expecting me. I didn't reach our parents in time.
They'd already been locked away."]

["So, you joined the rebels then? What
happened to Korali?"] The answer clicked the moment she asked, and
she was sorry she did.

Leksel's jaw tensed. He closed his
eyes and pressed his forehead into his fists propped up before him
on the table. ["The group split. Many didn't trust me. Those who
stayed felt my experience as a former Shirukan would help them
succeed where they had failed.]

["But I didn't know everything. I
didn't anticipate my former colleagues' determination. It happened
a little more than a year ago. I told her it was too risky, but she
never listened. They shot to kill. One shot to her wing made flying
difficult. The second…"]

Leksel's eyes pinched shut. His jaw
trembled from the restraint, but the tears wanted to flow. Raea saw
it as he unclasped his hands and traced a line from his lower ribs
up. ["Split through her here,"] he said through clenched teeth. He
finished his line pointed up through his jaw. ["It happened so
fast, she didn't suffer."] He swallowed hard in the
silence.

From the counter, Cris spoke in a
quiet voice. ["It took four of us to hold him back."]

That she could believe. He barely
stopped in time to save Cris during their fight. And now he fought
to restrain his tears. The Shirukan were good at ruining lives.
["I'm sorry you lost her, especially like that."] And if they were
bonded…Didn't Nare say bonded partners shared pain and pleasure? He
probably felt her pain. That's how he knew she didn't suffer. Her
stomach twisted into a sickening knot.

Cris scraped something in the pan.
["This would be so much easier if these islanders had processors to
mix and cook everything."]

Footsteps halted at the doorway. ["Let
me do it."]

Kayan stepped in to take over, dressed
in leggings and an open-backed top. With a smile, Cris joined them
at the table. ["Gladly."]

["You two eat. We'll leave as soon as
you're done. We've imposed on this family enough, and I want to get
out of Imperial territory."] Leksel rose but stopped by Kayan.
["Thank you for all you've done."]

["It's our part to save this
world."]

He left without another word. Raea had
suspected he might have had some sort of fighting skills, but she
had never thought he was the kind of person to fall in love. He
never showed it, maybe because he still mourned, but kept it buried
inside. And her Starburst marks probably reminded him of the woman
he loved. That couldn't be easy for him.

After her experience, she thought all
Shirukan were monsters.

But Leksel wasn't Shirukan, at least
not any more. They'd ruined his life and his chance for happiness,
as they had for Elis and her.

Raea looked up at Kayan. These
"islanders", as Cris called them, seemed untouched by the misery of
the Shirat Empire. ["I'm sorry if we were a bother."]

Kayan smiled. ["No. It gives us hope
to know there's one less Starfire shard in that
machine."]

Yeah. Raea shuddered at the memories
the Starfire had shown her during the battle with Pallin. Worlds
exploded and living beings died. The Starfire would never allow
itself to be misused. As much as she hated the trouble it caused,
she couldn't let the Shirat Empire claim her shard.

__________

Go
West

Raea looked back at the island and the
family working among the tall stalks bearing the spores. Kayan had
sent a few with them to eat in flight. Leksel and Cris had made
room in their packs for a few each, but those packs were narrow
backpacks that fit snuggly in the space between wings. Not much
room to spare in them.

The island had drifted out of sight
from Naviketan. Open sky beckoned them to the next island. They had
a ways to go, though, to escape Imperial territory.

Leksel studied a hologram projected
from the device in his hand. Raea flew beside him, but not close
enough to see the details. They needed room for their wings not to
hit.

The steady winds carried them south
and west, the longest route to Starfire Tower, but the easiest,
according to Leksel. Long flights were always easiest with the
wind, which rarely changed from its normal patterns. At some point,
they could expect to find a straight west current.

They flew over a lower altitude island
much larger than the one they left. Machines and rounded,
artificial structures dotted the surface, which must have stretched
over five miles across. A smaller island drifted above them.
Islands everywhere!

And Inari. All colors, alone and in
groups. They even passed a squad of Shirukan in the distance.
Leksel ordered her and Cris into a tighter triangle formation
behind his point position. To her relief, the real Shirukan didn't
divert from their course.

Still, Leksel led them on. Raea didn't
breathe easier until the other Shirukan disappeared on an island
below.

In the distance, another city loomed
darkly against the bright sun. They avoided it and continued
flying, until Cris complained.

["Leks, can we rest? I'm not used to
this much flying. Besides, being used as your fighting dummy didn't
help."] He turned aside to her. ["No offense, Raea. You did a great
job with the healing."] His voice reached her clearly on the
tri-comm attached to her cheek.

["None taken."] She was just glad it
had worked, but as she discovered, healing wounds didn't improve
endurance. ["I could use a rest too. How long have we been
going?"]

["Almost two hours,"] Leksel said.
["We're coming up on a small island above. We'll rest
there."]

They followed him, although she could
have done without the winds shifting every forty or fifty feet and
threatening to throw her like a piece of paper. Cris lagged a few
feet behind her, but they all reached the island above, a smaller
island than the one they had left that morning. This one couldn't
have been more than half the size, if that.

A couple families flew above it,
circling a cluster of flying creatures with nets.

Raea touched down near the edge of the
island, watching the activity. ["What're they doing?"]

Cris landed next to her. ["Netting
something. I'm not sure. I can't see clearly."]

["They've seen us."] Leksel spoke with
a tone of caution.

Too true. A woman and man glided down,
while two other adults and a few adolescents tied off the net full
of winged creatures thrashing to escape.

The man wore a simple brown coverall,
his black hair tied back. For a moment, Raea pictured Elis, but
this black-winged man didn't have the purple eyes or the lanky
height. He was Cris's height with an oval face and dark
eyes.

The woman's green eyes narrowed, her
hands on her hips and her pale green wings out of sight behind her.
Neither looked happy, but her stare pierced Raea like a spear.
Clearly not supporters of the empire and the Shirukan.

Leksel stood unmoved.

["What do you want here?"] the woman
said.

Raea swallowed. The snap of the
woman's voice stung.

Leksel's wings lifted slightly behind
him, but relaxed again. In a level but firm tone, he said, ["A
place to rest for an hour. Nothing more. We're not here for
trouble."]

As if anyone would believe that. The
three of them were dressed as Shirukan, not exactly beloved by
anyone, from what she understood.

["We're traveling."]

The woman's eyes narrowed, piercing
them with suspicion. ["One hour."]

["We appreciate it."]

The woman's eyebrow arched, her cold
glare melting with the slight lift of the corner of her mouth. She
gave a nod and tapped the man with her, before taking flight to
rejoin the others, who landed with the net on the opposite end of
the island.

Leksel lifted his wings in a relaxed
posture.

["What was that about?"] Raea
asked.

["Shirukan are known for demanding
whatever they want."] His voice quieted at the end.

Hearing that hint of something piqued
her curiosity. ["Did you?"]

His cheek muscles twitched, and his
wings shifted behind him. Without a word, he strode
away.

His lack of an answer made her more
curious to know what he could have done yet afraid to know the
truth. Raea looked from him to Cris for an explanation.

Next to her, Cris shook his head and
shrugged. ["Some things he refuses to talk about to anyone. We're
probably better off not knowing."]

Cris was probably right. But maybe
Leksel felt guilty for what he did as a Shirukan. She wanted to
believe that. She wanted to trust Leksel, but he made it difficult
when he refused to talk.

They followed him to a patch of brown
plants speckled with tan. Not dry, as she expected, but soft and
curled like a tangle of vines. She saw nothing green or vaguely
familiar to what she recognized as healthy vegetation on these
islands but sat down with the men onto a pleasant surprise. The
thick curls of vines cushioned her seat.

Leksel and Cris removed their packs
and pulled out the food they'd brought.

Raea took the two spores Cris handed
her. ["This is it?"]

["It's enough. We should be
out of Shirukan space by tonight if we stay on the
Tashei
current. We'll be
safe to rest in a free city, where Keepers are given all they
need."]

If that was the case, why did they
pretend to be Shirukan? Obviously the people on this island didn't
like them. ["Why didn't you tell these people?"]

["They'd talk. News could reach the
Shirukan,"] Leksel said.

Good point.

["Eat and rest. We need to keep
moving. We've been lucky so far."]

Raea eyed the fruit in her hands, or
what looked like fruit. Searoot spores. The connotation from her
biology class studies made her shudder. Yuck. Spores usually came
from fungi in a two-part reproductive cycle. Why would she want to
eat giant spores?

Cris wiped the juice shining from his
chin. ["What's wrong?"]

["I…haven't had these before. On
Earth, spores aren't exactly a good thing."] Even bacteria formed
spores to withstand poor conditions.

Cris chuckled and held up the juicy
spore where he'd bitten into it, revealing a hint of darkness at
the center of the orange-purple flesh. A seed? ["They're good. Give
it a try."]

It looked good, and this was a
different world, one whose resources her body was made to consume.
Raea took a small bite of one of the two in her hand. Sweet, but a
watered-down sort of flavor. And different. She had never tasted
anything like it. ["It's good."]

Cris forced a quick swallow. ["Told
you."] He finished his first spore and set the dark seed core
aside.

Raea ate her first spore and tossed
the seed away.

["Don't."] Cris hurried to retrieve
it.

["Why? It's just a seed."]

He sat down and set the seed with his.
["Drop them back in the ocean."]

["Why?"] She'd seen half a dozen
islands during their flight. There seemed an abundance of searoot
islands.

Leksel offered her a bottle of clear
water. ["It takes a few dozen spores to grow enough roots to lift
an island. Without the islands, we can't survive."]