Rosamund felt a wave of shock roll over her, but she kept running through the jungle, letting the Feerbas lead her away.
* * * * *
Kodran soared above the trees, struggling to remain in control of his Draell. He wanted to burn the forest to the ground with his rage, but he did not dare, because Rosamund might be down there, and he might hurt her.
Where could she be? Who would have taken her from him? It couldn’t have been a cyborg attack – they would have left behind nothing but an enormous crater. And his clan’s security team had equipment that specifically scanned for cyborg ships, constantly. He didn’t think that cyborgs would have been able to approach undetected.
Sekari might have tried to disrupt his mating ceremony…but he was showy and ostentatious in everything he did, and he wouldn’t have snuck up and kicked in a door, he would have brought an entire fleet of ships.
He was getting nowhere just flying around. He was wasting time. Glancing at the jungle below, it occurred to him that perhaps the Feerbas had seen something.
He flew back and landed next to the cobblestone cabin with a heavy thud.
Then he forced himself to turn human again. It took all his strength. Normally it was a smooth transition, but right now his beast was enraged and panicked, and fought him every step of the way.
It was agonizing. He felt every crack of bone, and his skin burned as if it were on fire as he forced the scales back into his skin. But he would have endured that, and a thousand more agonies, to save Rosamund.
He would not be able to speak to the Feerbas if he was in dragon form.
As soon as he had returned to his human form, a swarm of Feerbas rushed out of the forest, leaping from tree branches and darting out of bushes. They waved and yelled.
“Come with we, come with we, the girl braid, she coming,” they said, and Kodran felt a wave of relief wash over him.
He hurried into the forest, and within minutes they’d led him to Rosamund, who was jogging along towards him.
“Oh, thank God,” she said, gasping for breath. “Darfan and his men grabbed me. But the Feerbas somehow organized this whole huge rescue with all these other jungle creatures… Whew…” She leaned forward, resting her hands on her knees.
Kodran helped her sit down. Her feet were bleeding, and there were twigs tangled in her hair, but she looked mostly unhurt. He struggled to contain his beast, using all his strength to cage it within his skin.
“I will kill Darfan and his men. I will burn them to ash and then burn the ash,” he raged.
“No, don’t. They’re only here because Lukan ordered them to bring me back. ”
A Feerba stood next to her, patting her arm anxiously.
“I’m fine, and you saved my life,” she told it.
The Feerba smiled and patted the braid in its hair, then turned and hurried off into the jungle again. Within a minute, all the Feerbas had vanished.
“I cannot allow them to get away with this,” Kodran said, his voice hoarse with anger.
She looked up at him, and he didn’t like what he saw in her gaze. “Darfan said you’re being investigated by the Galactic Federation, and he said you bought equipment to repair cyborgs. Is that true? Are you collaborating with cyborgs?”
He had to choose his words very carefully. “I do not know if I am being investigated, but I have nothing to fear from any such investigation. I am not doing anything that would cause harm to the Galactic Federation or any of its members.”
She stared at him, a look of shock on her face.
“You seriously aren’t going to answer me?”
“I cannot.”
Tears filled her eyes and spilled down her cheeks, and Kodran wanted to die. He wanted to set himself on fire. He wanted to scream his rage to the heavens.
“Take me back to Agora,” she said.
