A Girl From Nowhere (The Firewall Trilogy #1) - James Maxwell Page 0,25

tell?” Taimin asked.

“Mantoreans make the best mystics but they only train females. Don’t ask me why. There’s none with the group. Females have an egg sack, just below their waist.”

Taimin looked curiously ahead. The eight figures had stick-thin bodies and sat on the ground with their limbs folded unnaturally beneath them. Wedge-shaped heads turned to display black eyes. The three humans were nearing the summit and would soon be within speaking range.

“Wait here,” Lars muttered. He held his palms out and stepped forward to approach the group resting in the shade cast by the huge leaning rocks. One of the mantoreans rose and left the others, and Taimin had his first good look at the insect-like creature.

Lars had confirmed that the mantorean was male. His body was eerily thin and his head was shaped like an upside-down triangle, with two multifaceted eyes just below his hairless crown. A pair of antennae twitched above his eyes, while two vertical scars formed nostrils halfway down his face. His mouth was tiny, and Taimin knew from Abi that he only ate plants and insects, never large pieces of meat. While the mantorean wore no clothing, a belt at his waist bore an array of tools, and a bow and a few arrow shafts poked from behind his shoulder.

Abi’s voice sounded in Taimin’s mind. A mantorean’s advantage is speed. Fortunately, they aren’t aggressive, and prefer to talk rather than fight. They have a knack for finding water, and the females will do anything to protect their eggs, so some humans keep a female captive for just that reason. They prefer to fight with a bow and arrow, but if you do find yourself in combat, try to cut off its antennae. The pain they feel is unbearable.

Like Lars, the mantorean also held out his hands to show he was unarmed.

“Greetings with peaceful intent,” the mantorean said in a scratching, clicking voice.

Taimin glanced at Selena, who was also watching the exchange. Griff whimpered, and Taimin put his hand on the wherry’s back.

“Greetings,” Lars said. “Will you trade?” He pulled a folded skin out of his pack, along with the ripe-smelling skin of the lizard Taimin had caught earlier. “I have skins.”

The mantorean came forward to examine the skins. Taimin heard Griff growl; the bigger skin came from a wherry. The mantorean rubbed a skin between his fingers. “We have need. Will you add one more skin to your trade?”

Taimin realized the mantorean meant Griff. “Not on your life,” he said flatly.

Lars made a pushing motion with his hands. Taimin glared back at him.

“What is it you need?” the mantorean asked Lars.

“It is for you to offer,” Lars said.

As the bargaining began, Taimin turned to Selena, who was lifting one of Griff’s paws. She plucked out a stone and then patted the wherry on the flank. Griff gave her a grin and butted his head against her torso.

“You’ve spent time with wherries?” he asked. He glanced again at Lars but had the sense that the trade had only just begun.

She nodded. “He’s smaller than some of the others I’ve seen.”

“My aunt said he’s a runt. One of the wherries that never become wyverns.”

“I’ve heard it said people can ride wyverns too.”

“Ride wyverns?” Taimin was incredulous.

“I’ve never seen it, but it’s what I’ve heard.”

“Who from?”

She scratched Griff in the place he loved, just behind his floppy ear. “One advantage of moving around is that you pick up a lot of skills. I lived for a few years with a hunter and took care of his children. He had a wherry.”

“What happened?”

Selena continued to pat Griff, even as she stared into the distance. “I told him I’d seen some trulls heading our way. He didn’t believe me. But I knew. He found me with his children, a boy and a girl, five and seven. We were running. I was taking them away.” Her eyes were tight but her tone was matter of fact. “He beat me and took his children home. The trulls came. They killed him and his children. I was weak, but I made my way back. I loved those children. I’d watched them grow. I buried the bodies. Then I left and never looked back.”

Taimin’s mouth was open. “But didn’t he know you were a mystic?”

“I didn’t know myself. I was only twelve.” Selena gave a slight shrug. “It was a long time ago.”

“What made you keep going?”

“I have a dream,” she said simply.

Taimin opened his mouth to ask her what it was, but she