A Little Rhine Must Fall (23 page)

“The witch raises an interesting point,” he said. “Are your people on the way to our planet now? We have not seen evidence of their arrival.”

“My mission was to discover a planet that could grow food for us. Earth is a close match to Endrung, and, when I send that message back to my world, they will launch ships to come and conquer your world.”

“So,” Deerhurst mused, “you have not yet sent the message.”

“I have not. I wanted to offer you the chance to surrender before the spaceships arrive. If you surrender peacefully, your slavery can begin with a minimum of lives lost.”

I had to admit that the witch had a point. If it weren’t for the whole “blowing up the moon” thing, I’d be tempted to whack the alien myself.

“Any attempt to harm me and my spaceship will explode, destroying your moon and causing irreparable harm to your planet. I would regret the destruction of most of your coastlines, but, once your people are removed from the planet, less food would need to be grown.”

By “removed” she meant “killed.” And “less food” meant, since we would be dead, we wouldn’t be eating. Logical.

Eckhart stood up and I could feel the anger radiating off his body in heat waves. “Big words,” he snarled and I took a comforting step closer to Cecily as his face elongated and started to grow fur.

“How do we know that you’re not bluffing?” Nimlae asked.

The alien blinked. “You could attempt to kill me and see what happens.”

Eckhart finished his transformation in a blink of an eye and his tattered clothes lay in pieces under his gigantic wolf body. He growled, a low rumble that shook the floor. Muscles quivering, the wolf stared with golden eyes at Deerhurst, who seemed to ponder the situation before nodding.

Oh, crap. They weren’t buying it. These arrogant, supernatural
freaks
were going to risk the lives of everyone on the planet because they couldn’t believe that they were facing a stronger power.

“Do something,” Cecily whispered, and it took me a second to realize that she meant
me.

Eckhart had launched himself at my sister’s look-alike before I could wrap my brain around the idea that we were all so very, very dead if he killed the alien. “Stop!” I screamed with the Voice.

The wolf snapped his jaws shut in midair and tried in vain to alter his trajectory. Instead of hitting the alien with his teeth and claws, he twisted and merely bowled her over with his shoulder.

The Synod members leaped to their feet as one. Dhodrim was crouching, fingers like sharp claws, ready to attack. “You
dare
to interfere, human?” she spat.

In for a penny, in for a pound. “Shut up,” I commanded her. Behind me, the alien was struggling back to her feet and the wolf was standing in front of her, the ridge of his spine bristling, but still obeying my order to stop his attack.

Run away!
a voice screamed in my head, but I managed to ignore it. Time would tell whether that was a wise or foolish decision. Deerhurst was glaring at me and his eyes had turned blood red. Creepy and not a good sign. One person shifting to a wolf was bad enough. This pagoda didn’t have room for a full-sized dragon.

“Tread carefully,” he growled and a flicker of scales ran over his skin.

Sometimes, my mouth takes over my brain. I’m not proud of the fact. Mostly I can keep all my sarcastic and stupid thoughts locked up inside my head and only let out the ones that are polite and socially acceptable. This time I’d been pushed too far. I was scared and when people are scared they do silly things.

“Can it, Elliot!” I snapped, and I saw Cecily cover her face with her hand. It might have been a gesture of despair, or she might have been hiding a smirk, I wasn’t going to turn around to check.

I stepped backwards, not turning my back to the row of predators who were longing to tear my head off, and gave the alien a hand up. “I believe that she is telling the truth. You think she’s bluffing. There’s got to be a better way to see who’s right. My family lives on one of those coastlines that could be wiped out if the moon is destroyed.”

The Naga chairman sat back on his cushion. His eyes were still red but at least his skin wasn’t shifting into scales. “Prove that you are telling the truth,” he said to the alien, “and we will discuss what to do with your offer of surrender.”

Alien/Karen shook her hand free of my grasp and spoke, “Had your dog attacked me, this would have happened on a much larger scale.” She lifted both hands over her head and spoke a word in a clicking, chirping language.

I was looking up and saw the bright explosion on the surface of the moon. A visible hunk of rock was launched into space where it quickly turned into a falling star, burning its way through the atmosphere towards Earth.

Chapter Twenty-Two:

War

My jaw dropped open. How
could
she? I had just saved her miserable little alien life, and
this
was how she repaid me?

“Karen!” I screamed, forgetting that this was not my beloved older sister.

“What?” she was puzzled.

We all stood, watching the chuck of moon blaze through the night sky. I’m really horrible with spatial reckoning, but I would have said it was at least four times the size of any “falling star” I’d even seen before. If I was to make a wish, it would be to stay alive. Being able to see the rock in the sky meant that it was going to hit near me. Not good.

I don’t know what I expected, an earthquake? A brilliant flash of blinding light? A wave of debris flying towards us? When the rock hit, none of those things happened. Just before the light disappeared behind the horizon, I heard the familiar sound of the sound barrier being broken. Just like a shuttle entering the atmosphere in Florida, the rock created a sonic boom that lightly shook the temple. Then, silence. Several seconds later, we heard a louder blast. Impact must have occurred many miles away.

The sound faded from our eardrums and we all stood in shock, staring at the alien. She blew up part of the moon! She blew up
part of the moon
!

“What did you do that for?” I yelled. “You didn’t have to do that!”

Alien/Karen looked at me and frowned. “The Chairman asked for me to prove that I was capable of destroying the moon. I thought destroying a small part of it was a better example than destroying the whole moon. Was I wrong?”

I was hopping up and down I was so mad, and there was a definite red tinge to my vision. “You didn’t have to blow up
any
of the moon, you stupid alien!”

Deerhurst sat back down once again and motioned for the rest of the Synod to join him. He looked shaken. That scared me more than anything else. Anything that can shake a Naga is something serious.

I was still screaming. “People
died
over there! You
killed
people! Probably
hundreds
if not
thousands
of people! How could you do that?”

The alien cocked her head to one side. “Did you know these people?”

I was shaking in rage. “No, I didn’t know them! I don’t live in Thailand. But they were still people! What is
wrong
with you?”

Deerhurst raised a hand. “Mrs. Cavanaugh.”

“What?” I shrieked. I was losing it big time.

“Please,” he pointed to a cushion. “sit.”

I stood quivering for a moment. I wanted to punch someone. Scream. Pound my fists into the railing of the pagoda. Hurt someone. Destroy something. I did
not
want to sit.

Cecily took my elbow and gently pulled me down. “Think of the baby,” she whispered. “Stress cannot be healthy for him.”

I gave her look. My
life
was stress. I’d love to have a day with just the normal stress of raising toddlers. She had the grace to look a little ashamed. “Fine. But if you call the Chairman ‘Elliot’ again I am concerned for the safety of you both.”

Now it was my turn to blush.
Pete’s Dragon
had been one of my favorite movies when I was a kid. Funny how things stick in your mind and pop out at completely inappropriate times.

While we were having this quiet discussion, the members of the Synod were also talking together. None of them looked happy. Svobadova, the vampire, was even paler than usual. She looked like a marble statue. Dhodrim’s eyes were blank with shock, and Eckhart, still wolf, was growling, and Nimlae was shaking his fist in the air and yelling. Deerhurst sat quietly, thinking. I hoped he had a plan to save the world, because I was all out of ideas.

The alien spoke clearly. “Now that you see that I am not bluffing, I offer you the choice again. You can surrender to my people and become our slaves or you can all be destroyed. I would prefer you to choose the first option. I would hate to see resources wasted.”

“We would like some time to talk together,” Deerhurst said respectfully, the tone of his voice clueing me into the fact that he took this very seriously.

Alien/Karen nodded and stood up, brushing off her clothes. Dhodrim gave me an evil look and I decided that I would really like to see the rest of the temple complex. It was
not
my fault that aliens were trying to take over the planet, but I was familiar with the idea of shooting the messenger.

As I took the stairs down from the pagoda, I looked back, and the look of despair on all of their faces told me more than I wanted to know. There was no quick solution to this problem.

I’d been hoping that the Synod would be able to fix this. They were the biggest, the strongest, and the most terrifying of their kind. I’d seen Deerhurst turn into a huge
dragon
for crying out loud! A dragon should be able to take care of a measly little alien!

I wished … I don’t know what I wished for. World peace? Safety? A nice hole in the sand to hide my head in? This kind of stuff wasn’t supposed to happen to
me
. Children starving happened to people in
other
countries. Soldiers coming into your home and executing your family happened in
other
countries. I was an American. The worst thing that was supposed to happen to me was being cut off in traffic, or Walmart not carrying my favorite brand of ice cream.

This alien thing was going to affect
all
of us. The whole planet. There was no moving to a better location, or keeping your head down and living life as normal. Our lives were going to drastically change … for the worse.

I heard a step behind me and realized that I was standing on a scenic overlook with the whole city laid out at my feet, lights, and movement, and, very faintly, noise drifting up to my ears.

“You seem distressed.” It was the alien.

I angrily wiped a tear from my face. Darn those pregnancy hormones! “You think?” I asked sarcastically.

“Yes. That is why I said that you seem distressed.”

I laughed, a hollow sound. “You take things so literally. Maybe your people really are Vulcans.”

She studied me for a moment. “I would say that I already told you that we are the Endring, but perhaps you are making an obscure cultural reference that was not covered in my briefing.”

I leaned against the railing and closed my eyes. A slight breeze ruffled my hair and caressed my cheek. How could a place so calm and peaceful be the starting place for Earth’s downfall?

“
Why
are you distressed?” Alien/Karen asked.

Boy. Where to start? “You’re going to enslave humans,” I said. “And you’re threatening to destroy the moon. How could I
not
be distressed?”

She stared at me some more and, even with the familiar face, I couldn’t read the expression. “I will have to think on this, Piper Cavanaugh.” She turned back the way we had both come. “I think it is time to return and hear what the Synod has decided.” Very tentatively she laid a hand on my arm. “I truly hope, for your sake, that they have decided to surrender peacefully.”

“Gee. Thanks,” I said dryly. “I’m touched.”

“No, really,” she insisted, “I do not wish harm to come to you or your family.”

“A little late for that,” I muttered.

“I beg your pardon?”

“Nothing.” I patted her back awkwardly and gave a wry grimace. “You’re just doing your job.”

“I am happy that you see that. I would hate for our friendship to altered by …” she searched for the right words.

“By your people enslaving me?” I suggested helpfully.

“Yes! You have such a way with words.”

It was like talking to someone from another planet. Probably because I
was
talking to someone from a different planet. She was confident that the Synod would agree to surrender peacefully when the alien ships arrived. I was pretty sure that there was no way arrogant beings like the Synod members would ever agree to willingly place their necks inside a slave collar. Nope. They were going to fight.

Honestly, it seemed like the best option to me. Sure, alien/Karen could take out the moon, but we were
humans
, even the ones of us who weren’t. Humans didn’t give up and surrender when faced with overwhelming odds. Humans fight. Where there’s life there’s hope. Where there’s a will there’s a way. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. And countless other idioms that describe the sheer stubbornness of the human race.

A few days of hanging out with my family was not enough to show a visitor from another planet that humans never lie down and take
anything.
If pigheadedness was a virtue, we’d all be saints. The Endring might wipe our kind off the face of the Earth, but they were going to have to fight for every square inch of dirt.

So, when we climbed back up to the pagoda and stood before the Synod, I was not surprised at all to hear Deerhurst politely decline the offer of surrender and his less polite counter-offer of war.

I
was
surprised when he had a special message for me.

“Mrs. Cavanaugh,” he said, “We are very sorry to inform you that the time for hiding is over. Your membership in the United Supernatural Beings has been revoked and humans will no longer be protected.”