The next moment I stood on a teleportation platform located in the middle of a large cavern.
Light streamed through small skylights in the roof of the cave, illuminating the chaotic bustle of people organizing and unloading cages and crates of animals. These must be the ones taken from the Collector’s Arena.
I looked down where my hands rested on Dick’s unconscious face. I removed the cloak I’d been wearing and draped it over his naked body. As I did, I noticed slight scratches all over him and two deeper wounds where my daggers embedded themselves into his chest.
Last time, the wound I had delivered him remained through the transformation. This time, it seemed the damage had been reduced during the transition. It was another indication that whatever was taking him over continued to grow stronger.
“We’ll get him a medic,” Emery said, directing a couple of men nearby to help lift and transport the injured man.
“No need,” I said, placing a hand over the wounds I had created during our fight. “Salvere.”
Teleportation had a strange, little known effect on Zodians. The logistics of it were beyond me, but the best I could understand was that breaking our bodies down into pure energy and transferring it through the cosmos to another place somehow replenished our energy reserves.
My hand lit up with healing blue-green hue as I repaired Dick’s wounds. I channeled plenty of my new energy reserves into the incantation, focusing on spreading the effect into my own injuries, as well.
A moment later, the light faded and the wounds had all but disappeared. I knew from experience they’d still be a little sore as the energy continued to do its work over time. Dick stirred restlessly before opening his eyes. One arm crossed over his forehead to block the bright beam of light pouring in from the roof onto the platform.
“This can’t be good,” he groaned. “This is not the bathroom at the Desert Dryad.”
He lifted his head slightly and glanced down at his barely covered nudity.
“And my clothes are gone,” he finished, flopping back on the platform. “I don’t know what that asshole Lycan has against clothes.”
“If you can stand,” Emery said, “we need to get you clear of the platform and out of the warehouse.”
I stood and helped Dick to his feet. He looked ridiculous with my cloak wrapped around him like a dress.
“What are you smirking at?” he asked.
“Nice outfit,” I simply replied.
“It’s your outfit,” he pointed out.
“I think I wore it better.”
“Oh? In that case, here, have it back.”
He swung the cloak off his shoulders and held it out to me, showing off his naked physique to everyone in the cavern. Startled gasps erupted from several nearby females. Emery cleared her throat and looked away, blushing.
“Better?” he goaded.
“You’re making a terrible impression on our kidnappers,” I said.
“Wait, what? We’re kidnapped?” Dick asked incredulously, turning toward Emery.
“Please put your clothes back on,” she said through gritted teeth, refusing to look at him.
“You’re irritating her with your stupid antics,” I said. “Nobody wants to look at your dick, Dick.”
I heard Emery sputter, choking on a chuckle.
“Then why is everyone looking, huh?”
“I am not looking,” Emery muttered.
Dick smiled devilishly.
“Oooo, a prudish captor...they’re always the kinky ones. Whips and chains and all.”
Kiara chose that moment to assert herself, letting out a throaty roar as she bumped Dick out of the way and made her way to Emery’s side.
“Ho-oly shit!” Dick said, snatching back the cloak in my hand and covering his crotch in self-defense. “What the hell is that?”
“That is Kiara,” Emery said, scratching the majestic creature behind the ear. “Careful, she’s just a big kitty at heart. Likes to swipe at dangly things.”
With that she strode toward a large opening in the cavern, Kiara trailing after her. I laughed in Dick’s horrified face and followed. He redonned the cloak and joined us.
“And I didn’t kidnap you,” Emery said when we caught up with her.
“I’m pretty sure transporting injured and unconscious people to your underground lair without their consent qualifies as kidnapping,” I pointed out.
“You think the cage the Collectors had him in was bad?” Emery responded. “You can’t even imagine the type of treatment he’d get if any of the R&D corporations found out about his...condition.”
“You don’t have to say it like it’s an STD,” Dick responded despondently.
“I would have explained given time before transporting you here,” Emery continued, ignoring his comment. “But I had to act fast before any of the Collectors came barreling in and noticed what happened. It was just your friends in the arena when we departed. I assume they already know.”
I nodded. We had emerged into a large subterranean tunnel, big enough to support two lanes of traffic. There was also a sidewalk built in for pedestrian travel.
“I’m sure their facility has surveillance coverage, though,” I pointed out. “They’ll probably find out about it anyway.”
Emery shook her head. “We disabled all the security in our raid. With any luck, they’ll think I’ve taken you and the rampaging monster with me.”
“That’s hurtful,” Dick interjected, he looked at his hand, flexing it between a fist and a claw. “Accurate. But still hurtful.”
“I thought freedom was king here and slavery intolerable,” I said. “You want me to believe one of the corporations would hold him against his will and experiment on him?”
Emery laughed bitterly. “Freedom for all. That’s a beautiful ideal the colonists like to peddle. I’m sure some of them believe it, but like most things, it’s better in theory than in practice.”
“Colonists?” Dick asked.
“It’s what we, the native clans of Rodan, call the ones who came here, established large metropolitan areas and claimed our homeland for their own,” Emery said. Her voice was hard and indignant. She was silent for a moment, briefly lost in her own musings before continuing.
“Anyway, the colonists would find a way to justify it, I’m sure,” she said, shaking off her mood. “The same way they justify the fighting arenas and the animal experimentation by saying they don’t fall under their ideals of freedom. Public safety, most likely. You did kill a lot of people.”
I could see how much her last statement affected Dick, though he was quick to hide it. Deciding to change the subject, I pointed around at the large transportation tunnel we were traversing.
“This place is huge, how many native clans are there?”
We had come to a large terminal that housed the entrance to another area. Large sliding steel doors blocked passage and looked like it required authorization to enter.
Emery showed her credentials to a tall Leopardian woman who waved us through. We stood on a security platform in front of the doors and an energy barrier appeared around us like a half shell, enclosing us against the door. Slowly, the large metal doors began to retract.
“There are more than a dozen native clans on Rodan, but ours, the Everwyld Clan, is the only one that lives here at Hidden Spring,” Emery finally answered.
“Why do you call it Hidden Spri—” Dick’s question died on his lips as the doors finally parted to reveal an even larger skylit cavern than the first one we emerged into.
A lush tropical rainforest covered every inch of the large interior. Flowering vines draped gracefully from the roof. Several large waterfalls gushed forth from the stone walls, creating small streams and rivers that meandered through the jungle terrain and converged into a centrally located lake. It was hard to tell where the water went from there, perhaps back into the subterranean channels.
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“Well, I guess that answers my question,” Dick said. “It’s breathtaking.”
For the first time since meeting her, Emery pushed back the hood of her robes that obscured her head and face. She had thick, long turquoise colored hair pulled back into a braid. She was very pretty. A lot more beautiful than I could tell from her shrouded visage. Emery smiled warmly at Dick’s comment, this place seeming to have changed her temperament significantly.
“This is the main community cavern,” Emery said. “Most of the clan lives here among the trees and forest.”
Large wood and metal homes adorned the trunks and tops of the giant tropical trees. Sturdy-looking metal and cable bridges connected the buildings with each other and stone homes on the ground. Several bigger, non-resident looking buildings lined the lake, creating a sort of town center for the community.
My stomach growled loudly at the smell of roasting food on numerous fires going at the lake shore. Dick and Emery both turned to look at me with amusement. Kiara curiously turned her head sideways to look at me.
“Sorry,” I said sheepishly. “It smells wonderful, and I haven’t eaten today.”
“Let me get you somewhere to sleep for the night and some clothes for you,” she said, nodding to Dick. “When you’re settled and freshened up, we can meet down there for the evening meal.”
She pointed to a plateau overlooking part of the lake. Several buildings were arranged in a circle around a central outdoor eating area. The atmosphere down here was cool and refreshing, unlike the harsh climate on the surface of Rodan.
We took a rope lift to one of the treehouses nearby. It was sparsely furnished but very clean and inviting. It was a singular, round room with a bed, couch and partition to dressing privacy.
“It’s small but I’m sure you guys can make it work,” Emery said. “We don’t get a lot of visitors, and, quite frankly, the ones we do don’t usually get to stay here in the main sanctuary. This is all we have available. You’ll find some clothes of various sizes folded behind that partition.”
“It’ll do great,” I said. “And we don’t plan to stay, too long, anyway. Our friends will be worried about us.”
She nodded and departed with a wave. As soon as she was gone, Dick whirled toward me and grabbed me lightly on the shoulders. He started running his fingers lightly over my arms, shoulders, midriff and legs.
“What are you—” I started to ask, but then yelped in discomfort as his fingers hit the tender spot in my calf. His eyes snapped back up to me and narrowed slightly with concern.
“Sit down,” he said, moving me toward the couch.
“Would you stop, I don’t need you fussing over me like a mom,” I argued, but let him pick up my leg to inspect it. The fabric of my body suit was ripped where the Lycan’s claws had punctured through my calf. The skin underneath was healed but still angry-looking and red.
“Where else did I hurt you?” he asked, then looked up at me with stark shame in his deep blue eyes. “How many people did I kill?”
I pushed him away, gently but forcefully and knelt on the floor to face him where he was crouched before me.
“Stop it,” I said sternly. “I’m here. I’m okay. Everyone we care about is okay. That...” I pointed toward the wound on his exposed chest, “is where I tried to skewer you with both of my daggers. I wasn’t going to let you kill me.”
I decided not to tell him how close I was to almost biting the dust, despite my best efforts.
“You did not hurt anyone; you did not kill anything; and you have got to get over feeling like it’s your fault every time that damn thing takes over.”
“Besides,” I continued. “The people it killed mostly had it coming.”
Dick stared intently back at me for a moment. Finally, his shoulders sagged and he let out a deep sigh. I could tell he was still feeling responsible, but hopefully, he felt a little relieved to know nothing irreparable was done.
“How did you get me out of it?” he asked. “Tranquilizers?”
“No,” I said, pushing to my feet and pulling him along.
I shoved him behind the partition and indicated he should find some clothes before my stomach started eating itself. While he dressed, I washed up in a nearby water basin. I hadn’t overlooked the fact that this tree house had no bathroom or lavatory. Camping had never been my favorite thing as a young person. Ascella used to take me, and I’d complain the entire time.
“Cash hit you with two of the tranquilizers, it didn’t make a difference,” I told him while I washed my face in the basin.
“So, it’s getting stronger,” he observed. “Then how did you break me out of it. You said your daggers?”
“Barely phased you,” I said. “Actually, it was my healing ability. Somehow, I accidently zapped you with it and the Lycan immediately receded.”
“It’s that easy?” Dick said. “I just need healing to keep it in check?”
“That’s probably a question more suited for Vomero or Cash,” I said. “We’ll have to talk it over with them when we get back.”
“How long do you think we’ll have to be here?” he asked.
“Hopefully, just the night. I have no idea where we are and how likely it would be for us to be teleported back to New Iberia. I get the sense that this place is far from the city. They needed an advanced type of locator beacon to teleport us out here.”
“Those are usually used for long distance teleportation,” Dick said, emerging from behind the screen. He was wearing brown trousers that hugged his ankles and a gauzy white tunic that fit tightly around the shoulders and chest but tucked loosely into his pants.
I nodded my approval at his look and we headed out to find something to eat.
Emery met us near the lake shore plateau. Upon closer inspection, the buildings here were more like stalls crafted of wood and stone that looked like it had been there a thousand years and would be there a thousand more. Food was being prepared underneath many of them. Emery got us food wrapped in large leaves. We sat at stone tables and benches overlooking the lake while we ate.
“This is delicious,” I said, biting into some type of grilled wrap filled with vegetables and other ingredients. I suspected the meat-like item in the dish was not actually meat.
“I’m glad you like it,” Emery said. “All of the food we consume here comes from plant sources. There are caverns this size in our settlement dedicated just to growing, harvesting, and producing the food we need to survive.”
“Your society sounds like a commune,” Dick said. “No payment or trade, just a community dedicated to its own sustainability and survival.”
Emery nodded. “That is very much how it is for the Everwylds. Many of the other clans are similar, while others are not. Our people have a deep reverence and connection to beasts and creatures of all types. Some of us can sense their emotions, even their thoughts with enough training. It’s why we choose to hold them in such high regard. Other clans have other things they revere or respect, other ways of life they’ve chosen. We do not interfere with each other very much.”
“It’s a very different philosophy from the way New Iberia operates,” I pointed out. “I supposed that’s why your clan likes to raid their establishments.”
“Most of my people, all of the clans, in fact, consider them no more than trespassers and vultures of our planet. The old ones especially prefer to avoid them and live independently of them. Some have never set eyes on New Iberia, for example.”
That bit of information confirmed for me that we were a long way from the city.
“That doesn’t mean that we stay completely separated from them,” Emery continued. “Some, like me, choose to spend time in the cities to gather information, find ways to circumvent the evil their factions commit on our lands. We work as a task force to be more proactive in our dealings with the colonists.”
“You mean you scout out targets to hit,” I said, flatly.
Emery merely inclined her head in ascent as she chewed on her food.
“Yes, and to make connections. Find allies,” she said. “The younger generation of Everwylds doesn’t believe we can continue to avoid and ignore the things happening in the colony cities. We also aren’t above meeting new people and making friends.”
I knew she must be telling the truth. There were various species of people living among the Everwylds. If her history was true, though, they should all be one race, much less species. The vast majority of the species represented, I noticed, were those known to have a cultural or biological affinity for animals, as well, like the Leopardians. I mentioned as much to Emery.
“They are all Everwylds, part of our clan by choice rather than by birth,” she said.
“And where do we come in?” Dick interjected. “I imagine you must have to keep this place a secret. How in the world do you have a tropical forest in the middle of the godsdamn desert? But you’re here spilling all your secrets to us and claiming that we’re free to go?”
“Hidden Springs was created farther back than any of us can remember,” she said. “It is generally kept secret for our safety, but it is also fortified and highly defensible. How it came to be is a mixture of ancient mystery and modern technology. The magic that causes the very stones of this desert mountain range to produce water is the mystery part. The way we harness it for our own use and defense grows more advanced every generation.”
I looked out on the lake where Everwyld children of different species were splashing and playing. It really seemed like they’d established a sort of paradise in the middle of hell.
“So, why risk it?” I asked. “On us? On raids that are sure to draw attention to you and make you enemies?”
“We thrive under this bountiful existence because of our beliefs,” Emery said. “What good would that be if we turned our blind eye toward things that are the antithesis of those beliefs?”
She nodded over at Kiara, who was sleeping contentedly in a shady spot nearby.
“I found Kiara five years ago in a lab raid of a big corporation called Solum,” she said.
“Never heard of it,” I said. “But that explains the wings. I have never encountered a species of lion with wings.”
“They experimented on her and several others. Disposed of the ones they didn’t need. It’s all about breeding certain genes that they can harness for whatever questionable goal they’re trying to reach,” Emery informed us. “You may not have heard of Solum. They’re a shell company for AdvanTeck. New Iberia is full of shell corporations funded by big, galactic brands to research and develop new technologies at any cost. They come here because the colonist government of Rodan poses no restrictions on their methodology.”
“So, they do the research and then present it to their bigger corporation in a package people will swallow,” Dick finished.
AdvanTeck was indeed a company most, if not all, would recognize. They dealt in biometric augmentations like Cash’s as well as several other bio-tech fields such as cryosleep and biostasis.
“Again, what does that mean for us? Are you asking us for something in exchange for passage back to New Iberia?” I asked.
“Of course not,” Emery said, sounding annoyed. “I know it’s hard to trust people and to believe that someone might have genuinely been looking out for your best interest. But I brought you here because I knew leaving you there would expose you to the same kind of treatment Kiara endured as a cub.”
The cat in question turned over on her back and wiggled contentedly in the soft grass, fast asleep.
“I’m telling you all this about the Everwylds in hopes that maybe one day you’ll consider yourselves allies, as well.”
“We have...other obligations and don’t expect to be on Rodan very long,” Dick said, carefully. “But you’ll always have my gratitude for your help.”
“And mine,” I said, thinking of how she dove into the arena after me to help. “I mean, I had the situation under control. But it was nice of you to offer help.”
My tone purposefully betrayed my bluff. Without her help, I would have needed to depend on dumb luck to survive the encounter with the Lycan.
“But as you can tell, Dick is unwell,” I said. “We have to figure out what’s doing this to him and fix it before...something more drastic happens.”
“She means before I accidently kill someone I care about,” he said, bluntly.
“I wish I could help more, but what you were was no animal,” she said. “Like I said, some of my people can commune with creatures and beasts of all types. I am one of those people. When you were in that state, all I could sense was a murderous rage. It was not like any animal I had ever seen.”
Dick and I shared a long, hopeless look.
“All the more reason to get back to New Iberia,” Dick said, gazing tiredly out at the children on the lake. “I don't want to be the one who brings the devil down to this paradise.”