Stolen - Nhys Glover Page 0,26

sobs broke free, and I wailed out my pain, frustration and loss. It hurt my head, but I couldn’t have stopped if my life depended on it.

Was my whole life meant to be a series of abductions? Was I some kind of football being passed from one team to the next?

I just wanted to go home!

RIAN

We stared at the primitive dwellings surrounded by midden heaps so high and so foul-smelling, I couldn’t believe anyone could remain healthy in such a place. In the middle of that filth somewhere was my podmate, breathing in those noxious fumes.

We’d landed on the cliff-top above the settlement the day before, set the cloaking device, and hunkered down to wait, not knowing whether Jenna had arrived yet or not. No more than a few hours later, a ship landed near the settlement and disgorged the Zuaire and Jenna. The Keeda then took off once more.

Clearly, the village was not for the likes of them. Which worked in our favor. Without that threat, we had a chance of getting in and out without major obstacles.

‘Steady there, young Danan, we aren’t talking about going in there. This is recon, no more,’ Charsus had cautioned worriedly.

‘We can get down there and have a look around,’ I’d said, hoping the block on my thoughts was sufficient to keep him from seeing what I intended.

And so, after sending our report to my people, outlining the situation, we’d rappelled down the cliff face once darkness had fallen. That’s when we got our first whiff of the smell.

I’d dressed us in black, including a covering my mother called a balaclava so Charsus’ silver hair and pale skin wouldn’t give us away on the descent. During the trials I’d rappelled often, so I knew what I was doing.

The Theran spacecraft, although small and well fitted with equipment normally used for space-walks, still provided what we needed. All I’d had to do was attach the colorless ropes to the harness and the ship, set up the winch mechanism to operate off Charsus’ comms device, and make the jump. There had been plenty of rope to get us all the way down to the ground.

The only problem had been that Charsus’ body wasn’t as up to the rigors of such a long drop as mine would have been. By the time we’d reached the ground I’d felt every ache and pain in his body in a way that was totally unfamiliar to me. For the first time, I’d started wondering if trying to escape with Jenna now might not be the best idea. I just didn’t know what I could expect from this slim, fragile body.

By the time morning came we’d completed a full circuit of the settlement, laying surveillance devices strategically along the way, and created a blind of sorts, in a stand of scrubby trees not far from the hut we’d deduced Jenna was occupying.

Now, with the first rays of the single red sun lighting up the murky brown sky, I got a better look at our situation, and saw the source of the stench more clearly. As the heat of the day increased, I was sure the smell would get worse. How would Jenna stand it?

The Zuaire began moving about the village. Up close, they were even more hideous than I remembered. They stood about half as tall as me, either me, but almost as wide across as I was. No, as a Danan warrior was. They were twice the width in the shoulders as my current body.

They dressed in brown rags, stained part of their faces red—never in the same place as anyone else—and bound their knotted mess of black hair back with dried animal gut decorated with teeth and claws. If they ever smiled, we didn’t witness it.

Words drifted to us through our listening devices. “Master comes soon.” “Wait!” “He will be pleased.”

We assumed the master they spoke of was the Darkness. The fact they were waiting, with the expectation that he would come for Jenna and be pleased, told us that they were not yet aware the Darkness had been banished. This had to be good for Jenna. Although, once they discovered It was gone, they’d have no further use for her. They might kill her in retribution. I could only imagine the frustration they’d feel, to have finally succeeded in bringing the Darkness over, their plans for the destruction of Third Density well underway, only to discover It had been sent packing.

‘Have they ever succeeded in bringing It