glass. No sense of worrying about it. No doubt she would find out eventually. “To new friends.”
The chorus spread through their little group as everyone downed their drinks. Charlie felt the warmth from the whiskey rush through her blood and grinned as Doug lifted his hand to order another round. Getting good and drunk felt like a good plan.
Chapter 4
Claws dug into the stone, sending pebbles falling as pale green eyes narrowed on the strange settlement. The offworlders were busy working alongside enormous machines that chewed up the soil with loud, rattling sounds. Preparing for planting fields, no doubt. Bulbous metal-covered heads were bent as they labored. The watcher snorted with amusement at the thick material covering their bodies and the helmets that showed only a transparent strip.
Eyes turned, searching the expanse of the flat lands. Fur bristled. All that noise was foolish, as were the helmets that muffled the world and kept them separated from it. The many wild children of Inara Tahli were disturbed for those who did not know the ways. Not that sympathy was an emotion to be expended toward the strangers. First it was few, and those few were monsters. Now the creatures came in greater numbers, crawling over the face of the land. The ground still bore the taint from when the first among the offworlders soaked it in the blood of Tak’sinii young slain to feed their madness.
The anger of the Tak’sinii was great, and the a’sankhii, the guardians of the Tak’sinii, the hands and eyes of Esh’nahahl, were watching and waiting.
Long ears turned toward the offworlder who shouted as it strode to a group of others covered in strange full-body material. Their form resembled the Tak’sinii, but this was not strange in their histories. Many offworlders once walked Inara Tahli from the before times who often bore some similarities. However, none in memory had stained them as much as these. These were at’sahl, the bloody ones. They would know true fear before the a’sankhii, the terrible ones, guardians of the Tak’sinii.
Long fangs bared in a smile, lips pulling back to draw the air through the mouth, tasting it with delicate receptors. The at’sahl would know pain and blood for that which they had delivered.
The blood of the at’sahl had wetted the hands of the a’sankhii before, and drenched the dirt of Inara Tahli.
Eyes narrowed on the one who approached the other members of its clan. The offworlders were shifting in and out, a group being loaded into a vessel that would take them to a building at the far end of the fields. Every few hours, the offworlders rotated in a confusing series of shifts that seemed to serve no purpose. Much to the a’sankh’s displeasure, the building the offworlders disappeared into in great numbers was impenetrable without risking discovery.
There was something foul about that building, and the entire stretch of fields reeked of death.
None of the offworlders seemed to be pleased to be out there, and even less to go into the mysterious building at the end of the field. This offworlder who approached the others, however, smelled of aggression, musk, and a sour scent even from the distance. The pungent odor stung his nose. Far more interesting, however, was the authority in its tone and bearing as it barked out its strange clipped language of hard sounds strung together. The other offworlders paused in their work, the machine powering down as they turned to listen to the commands.
There was definitely some sort of hierarchy in place. The clan members appeared submissive, dropping their heads, their scents a confusing medley that could only be described as an anxious uncertainty. It was weakness—and weakness was a point of exploitation. This was good to know. Authority would be the place to attack to bring down the offworlders as a whole. Eyes trained on the barking one, who, having delivered its orders aggressively to its pack, departed with a certain pride back to its place of safety within the sealed settlement.
Large paws stepped carefully to disturb as little of the wildlife as possible. Closer. Draw closer. More information was required.
Chapter 5
To Charlie’s surprise, she wasn’t assigned to work in the fields, nor in the entertainment sector or any other public labor position. Instead, the assignment from her comm sent her into a cool, sterile building. Part of her was still expecting to be sent somewhere unpleasant, even as she waited in the tiny lobby until she was finally escorted in to meet the head