Tani's Destiny (Hearts of ICARUS Book 2) (23 page)

His body language didn’t indicate alertness, and he’d done this repeatedly while she’d been watching him, so she knew it was now, or wait five minutes before he did it again.  The other guard stood outside the final bunkhouse door, watching the guard over at the office.  Tani took a slow, deep breath, then blew it out silently as she moved away from Steel, and the dark shadows she’d used as cover, and stepped into view.  The office guard had his back to her at the moment, so she focused on the other guard.  She moved quickly and silently, reaching a position half way between the two widely separated guards before the bunkhouse guard stiffened, a clear indication that he’d finally noticed her.  She instantly threw the
shuriken
in her left hand, knowing Steel wouldn’t be able to reach him before he hit the ground, but unable to take out the office guard because he still had his back to her. 

She drew another
shuriken
, the bunkhouse guard fell to the ground with a soft, barely discernable thump, and the office guard stopped and turned toward it.  She threw both
shuriken
, then started running straight toward him, two more
shuriken
already in her hands before he began to slump down.  Marbic caught him, and Khurda joined him a second later, so Tani stopped, turned around, and returned to the shadows where Steel now waited.  He’d been unable to catch the last bunkhouse guard, but he had been able to move him into the deeper shadows so he couldn’t be seen from the office. 

They watched as Khurda and Marbic carried the office guard off the porch and around the side of the building.  A moment later they rejoined Tani and Steel at the back of the bunkhouse and together they returned to the far corner of the compound where the rest of the men waited. 

The moment they appeared a low murmur broke out and Tani had to immediately silence them.  Then she waved four men off to get the beams to brace the doors on the Nomen bunkhouses before gesturing for everyone else to gather close so they could hear her whisper. 

“The guards are dead, but Brutus isn’t and he’s more dangerous than all the rest put together.  We need to maintain silence.”  Everyone nodded, some of them sheepishly, so she smiled to let them know that so far, they were doing well. 

A couple of minutes later the four men rejoined them, signaling that all four of the Nomen’s bunkhouse doors were now braced shut, locking the sleeping Nomen inside.  Her work finished, Tani stayed back, letting Steel direct his people.  While she waited she wondered about the clones and controllers.  Only three of the seven guards she’d observed had been alert, which made no sense if they all had controllers.  She wondered if perhaps the controllers were relaxed when the host had to do something that required conscious thought or reflexes, like fighting or guarding.  General Christoff, the Academy Director had run the school for no one knew how long before it was discovered that he had a controller.  He had to have been able to act and react as himself for a majority of the time, otherwise he would have been discovered much sooner.

Either that, or the new controllers were far more sophisticated than the old ones had been.  She shuddered at the thought, then decided she needed to discuss the matter with her parents when she saw them.

When Steel’s men began leading the freed men, women, and children to the far corner of the compound where the rest of them waited, Tani had to fight down another bout of anger.  The condition of the women and children was so bad that she was very afraid for a moment that her dracon would roar again and give all of them away.

They were all so thin, and so weak, that it was obvious they’d been starved.  And there were far fewer than they’d expected, too.  Steel had told her they’d be a hundred and thirty three women and children, but she counted only seventy one before one of the men told her that was all.  Had nearly half of them died?  It was an appalling thought.

Once she had her own emotions under control she worried about the men’s tempers, but needn’t have. They were all keeping it together, focusing on getting everyone to safety.  After the last of the women and children left, Tani saw that the men were arriving at the corner loaded with weapons, and smiled.  Khurda had come through, not that she’d had any doubts.  Time ticked by, and one after another the men shifted and flew away, while Tani waited, wondering why she’d agreed to stay in one place after taking the guards out.  She was thinking about going to find Steel when, finally, he returned with Marbic and Khurda.

“Did you rig the armory?” she asked Khurda. 

“No need,” he replied.  “We emptied it.”

She smiled as all three men stood facing her and shifted.  Khurda and Marbic spread their wings and leapt up just as Tani took a step toward Steel.  She’d learned from a very young age to always follow her instincts, so she didn’t hesitate at all when something warned her that Steel was in danger.  She turned mid step so that she was facing the compound, her arms spread wide so that she was covering Steel’s large body as much as she possibly could with her own much smaller form.  She’d barely gotten her arms up when she heard the high pitched hissing of a laser gun fired from somewhere in the compound, followed immediately by a blue flash of light and a sharp burning sensation that seemed to encompass her entire abdomen.  The burning sensation exploded into such mind numbing pain that she welcomed the dark embrace of unconsciousness that immediately followed.

Steel grabbed Tani and leapt up, his wings beating the air as he fought for altitude and distance, trying not to think about how limp she felt in his arms, or the warmth of her blood against his skin, or the fact that she’d jumped in front of him, taking the shot that should have been his.  He never heard another shot fired, but he didn’t slow down until he knew he was out of range anyway.  Then he looked down at Tani, smelling the blood more than seeing it against the black of her clothing, and roared his fury and anguish to the heavens. 

Marbic and Khurda flew on either side of him, staying close.  “
What happened?”
Marbic asked.

“Tani’s been shot,”
Steel replied. 
“It’s bad.”

“Was it Brutus?”
Khurda asked.

“I don’t know, but whoever it was only shot once, and didn’t raise any kind of alarm, so I doubt it.”
 He pulled Tani closer to his chest. 
“It was meant for me.  She threw herself in front of me and took a shot that should have been mine.” 
Tears ran unnoticed down Steel’s face as he looked down into Tani’s pale face.
  “Why would she do such a thing?”

“Because she cares about you,”
Marbic said simply.
 
Steel could only stare at his friend for a long moment, uncertain how to respond to that.

“
I’m going back,”
Khurda said
.
 

“Why?”
Marbic asked.

“Because I have half a dozen grenades that might do enough damage to their ship to keep them off of us for a little while at least.  There’s no reason not to make a bit of noise now.”

“I’ll join you,”
Marbic said, holding up a bag filled with grenades
.  “Keep going for home, Steel.  We’ll be right behind you.”

Steel nodded and took off, straining to fly as fast as he could while Khurda and Marbic turned around and flew back toward the mine.  The feel of Tani’s blood against his skin terrified him in a way that he’d never been terrified in his life before.  It was only the slow rise and fall of her chest, the feel of her breath against his skin that kept him from losing his mind.  She lived.  That’s what mattered.  That’s all that mattered.  It was the only thing in the entire universe that mattered at that moment. 

He looked down and saw Wily looking up at him beseechingly.  “
It’s going to be all right, boy,”
he thought toward the tiny wyvern, uncertain if it would do any good. 
“I’m not going to let her die.”
  The wyvern tilted his head.  “
Can you understand me?”
  Wily tilted his head the other way, then mewled softly.

“Good boy,”
he said, then checked Tani’s breathing again.  His heart stuttered when he realized that it was much shallower than before.  He’d be lucky to get her back to the caves alive and he knew it.  Even if he did manage that much, there was no one there who knew enough about healing to save her life.  Both of the women who’d been learning from the med tech had died in the mines.  He knew because he’d looked for them specifically.  So many had died…but he couldn’t think about that right now. 

He looked down at Tani and wanted to roar, but if the last sound she heard was his voice, he didn’t want it to be in anger.  He looked back at Wily whose orange eyes were still fixed on him. 
“If you have any idea what to do to help her, I’m willing to try anything.” 
It wasn’t that he really believed that the tiny newborn creature could help, because he didn’t.  He just felt the need to talk to someone, anyone, and he was completely alone in the night with Tani bleeding in his arms, and Wily.  So, when the wyvern lifted his lips and bared his teeth, he was more than a little surprised.

“You don’t have to threaten me,”
he said.

Wily mewled, then bared his teeth again. 

Steel watched him for a moment, then, feeling a little foolish, he asked a question. 
“Do you think biting her will save her?”

Wily mewled, looked at Tani with the saddest eyes he’d ever seen, then looked back at him and bared his teeth again.

Steel thought for a few moments, remembering that Tani had spoken to the wyvern on a few occasions and had appeared to get some sort of response from it.  It was tiny, and newborn, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t intelligent.

“You love her too, don’t you?”
he asked, wishing he’d had the courage to tell Tani how he felt about her.  Wily mewled. 
“Do it,”
he said, making up his mind. 
“Just don’t fall.  If anything happens to you, Tani will kill me.”

Wily stared at him for a long moment with what Steel interpreted as surprise.
 “Go on and do it, Wily.  She’s barely even breathing now.”

Wily crawled out of the safety of the pouch, his little claws grasping tightly to Tani’s sweater as he made his way up to her neck.  Steel tilted her body toward his chest a little more to provide as much shelter from the wind as he could for the wyvern.  He couldn’t see Wily any more, or what he was doing, but there was no help for it.  After a few interminably long minutes that was in reality less than a minute but just felt longer to him, Wily crept back down to his pouch and climbed in.  Once he was safely inside, Steel relaxed his hold a little and waited for Wily to pop his head up again. 

“You did it?”

Wily mewled, which felt like a
yes
to Steel.  “
We’re going to have to teach you to nod your head up and down for yes, and shake it side to side for no.”

Wily’s head immediately nodded up and down, startling Steel more than any of the other communications he’d just had with him. 
“Okay, I got it, you’re smart,”
he said as he checked Tani’s breathing again.  It seemed to be a little better.  Or maybe it was wishful thinking.

“You’re going to stick with me through this, right?”
he asked Wily.  The wyvern nodded his head up and down, then lowered his head on his front feet and fixed his eyes on Tani. 
“Good boy.  You keep an eye on her for us both, Wily, and let me know if there’s a change.  I’ll get us home.” 
Wily nodded again, and Steel turned his attention to flying.  He hoped he hadn’t made a mistake. 
No
, he told himself sternly. 
I will not think that way.  We did what we had to do.  Whatever happens next is out of our control.

Chapter
5

Tani opened her eyes, surprised to find herself standing on the mesa above the caves.  She looked down, frowning when she didn’t see any people at all.  None on the cliff face, none in the valley below.  As she stood there, wondering what had happened to everyone, her view slowly began to change.  She watched, both fascinated and confused, until she realized that she must be asleep, and this must be a dream.  There was no other possible explanation.  With that, she relaxed and watched the scenery around her transform from the dry, dusty red sand and rocks to something else entirely.

The earth and rocks were still red, but the view now was beautiful.  A broad river ran through the valley, and there were plants and trees everywhere she looked, most of them a dark, deep green.  More surprising than anything else were the dragons that slowly materialized until they were everywhere she looked.  There were big ones, little ones, medium sized ones, and a few were simply enormous.  They were different colors, too.  Green, yellow, blue, white, brown, and every color in between.  Some flew through the air, some splashed and played in the river, some laid out on the rocks, their faces to the warmth of the sun. 

“This was our world, then, in the time you now see
,” a voice said into her mind.  She turned her head slowly to see a huge red dragon watching a group of small dragons fly in and out of the clouds overhead, her orange eyes sad.  “
You’re not afraid of me,”
the dragon said. 
“I find that curious as humans have ever been fearful of dragons.”

“My parents are what we call
dracons
.  Dragons, but mammalian rather than reptilian.”

The dragon raised one scaly foot, then paused. 
“May I?”
  Tani nodded, and laid her hand on top of the dragon’s foot, the deep red scales silky smooth and cool to the touch.  The dragon closed her eyes for a few moments, then lowered her foot back to the ground. 
“I understand now.  Your family are shifters.  Your dracon greatly desires escape, but she hasn’t the strength.  That makes you sad.”

“I’ve only just realized she’s there, but yes, it makes me sad,” Tani said.  She looked up at the dragons playing in the sky, then back to the red dragon beside her.  “The Xanti destroyed all of this.” 

The red dragon bowed her head in agreement. 
“I am Magda, and you are called Tanjelia, is that correct?”

“Yes, it is,” Tani replied.  “Am I dreaming?”

“In a sense, yes,”
Magda replied. 
“That doesn’t make this any less real though.”

“No, it doesn’t,” Tani agreed.  Magda nodded her huge head approvingly.

“The Xanti wanted the metal in our land, so they took it.  But first, they set our world on fire because we had nothing to offer them.  Or so they thought.”
  The dragon lifted her lips, then relaxed them in a smile.  “Not that we would have given them anything to begin with, but that is neither here nor there.”

“The Xanti turned this world into a barren desert so that they could mine for metal,” Tani said, shaking her head.  “I’m so sorry, Magda.”

“It was not our destiny to die, nor was our world meant to become what it now is,”
Magda said. 
“But we were lucky in that three of us lived.”

“Three?”

“Or four,”
Magda said with another tiny smile.
 “Myself, two others, and one tiny egg of the wyvern, the smallest of our kind.  We hid deep below the surface, and although we were by no means untouched, we yet lived when the Xanti brought humans to Garza to mine their metals.  We waited and watched to be sure the humans were honorable, and would use the gifts we would bestow upon them wisely, but we could not wait long because they were dying so quickly.  Our only chance to salvage something of our race, and theirs, was fast running out.”

Magda tilted her large head, her orange eyes meeting Tani’s. 
“I would have you know that we did not expect the humans to become as we once were, or to take our place.  They were their own race, with their own souls, but their destinies had been altered as ours had been altered.  Since their new destiny, like ours, was untimely death, we felt it would not be too unforgiveable for us to change them if we also saved them in the process.”

“If it helps, I think that they would agree with you on that, Magda.”

Magda nodded slowly. 
“Yes, Tanjelia Dracon, it does help, very much in fact.  I thank you.”
  Tani looked up at the young dragons playing in the sky, careful not to see the moisture in the dragon’s eyes.  After a minute or two, Magda resumed her story.

“Our intention was to pass along something of ourselves, some of our essence, so that we would know our existence had not been for nothing.  In doing so, the humans would become strong enough to survive.  If luck held, they might even be able to rise up against those who enslaved them one day.  Perhaps we were selfish and self-serving and used that as an excuse, but the fact is that without us, they would have all died within another season or two anyway. 

“We believed the humans to be honorable and worthy, so we began.  The earth dragon, the weakest of us, cast her essence upon the women because they were the ones who planted the seeds to grow the food to feed their people, which spoke to her heart.  The air dragon cast his essence upon the men because they were forced against their wills into the ground, and they longed for the freedom of the open skies above them. 

“Both perished afterward, as we’d expected since one cannot live without one’s essence, of course.  It was left to me to finalize their gifts with magic, but we had waited too long, and my end was upon me.  I was dying, and had neither the strength nor the time to fulfill my task.  I needed another, someone strong of will and heart and body to finish what had been begun.  But there was no one else.  Only me, and the egg of the wyvern.  I had no choice but to infuse the egg with my essence.  With my final breath I laid a spell upon the egg such that if, and when, one with the strength of heart and mind to complete my work drew near, it would hatch.”

“So that’s why it hatched when it did.” 

“Yes, that is why, and you accepted my essence into your body.  Will you, Tanjelia, use that essence on behalf of the Khun, and complete my work for me?”

“Yes, Magda, if I’m able, I will,” Tani said.  She hadn’t realized how tense Magda was until she relaxed after hearing her answer.  The dragon all but slumped to the ground. 

“I’ve no words to express my thanks, Tanjelia,”
she said.

“There is no need,” Tani said.  “It will be my honor to do this for you, and for the Khun.  What must I do?”

“It will come to you when the time is right,”
Magda said. 
“In return for your aid, I would offer you a small gift of understanding.”

“Understanding?”

“You have a question with no answer,”
Magda said, her eyes going to the pendant resting on Tani’s chest.

“Yes, I do,” Tani said, reaching up to touch the ruby dragon with one finger.  “Is this changing me?”

“No,”
Magda said. 
“It only enhanced what was already there, for your benefit.”

“Enhanced,” Tani said.  “You say that in the past tense.”

“Because its work is complete,”
Magda said. 

“But why?”

“You are the honorable and deserving namesake of one who is powerful, even in the beyond,”
Magda said. 
“She would have you find happiness rather than sorrow, and saw this as the path to that end.”

“Thank you for telling me this, Magda.  And if you ever see Riata, please give her my thanks.”

“I shall do as you request, of course, though there is no need,”
Magda said with a knowing smile.  “
She already knows.”
  The red dragon looked up at the baby dragons playing in the sky one last time.  “
Know that your name, Tanjelia of the Dracons, shall be forever remembered and honored by the souls of all dragons, wherever they may be.”

Magda vanished as soon as she finished speaking, which startled Tani.  She still had so many questions.  She looked around and saw that the other dragons were fading away as well, and knew that no more questions were going to be answered.  At least, not for the time being.  She looked around and wondered what she was supposed to do now.  Then she smiled.  If this was a dream, all she had to do was open her eyes and wake up.