Page 70 of I Married A Syllen

My mate’s scanner helped us safely navigate a path to our companions before quickly leading us to the entrance. To my shock, it didn’t have the strong metal doors that we had encountered in my tribal lands. Here, there were no mechanical locks, and the door stood wide open.

As if to lure us in…

I grabbed Mirella’s upper arm, stopping her when she made to enter.

“What is it?” she asked, confused.

“Something doesn’t feel right,” Athusa said, echoing my thoughts.

We exchanged a look. The same suspicion burning in my gut shone brightly in his eyes.

“What do you mean?” Mirella asked him.

“This feels like a trap,” I replied in his stead. “Why is the door open when they went through so much trouble locking the cave on our land? Why are there so few bushes hiding this entrance? Here, you can see the soil was disturbed. I believe they deliberately removed some of the vegetation to make it easier for us to find this place.”

Athusa nodded.

“Even without your scanner, we would have stumbled upon this entrance in the next day or so. Our scouting efforts were headed this way,” the Thesh of the Ungaro Tribe said grimly.

“I see,” Mirella replied, looking distraught.

“And the burnt smell I caught in the fissure further makes me believe this is a trap,” I added, to which my companions nodded or murmured their agreement.

Mirella glanced at her armband before peering ahead into the darkness beyond the open door. She chewed her bottom lip, a frown creasing her brow as she reflected heavily.

“What is it? What does your technology tell you?” I asked.

She tapped on her bracer, and the luminous screen she had displayed the first time we scanned our lands appeared above it. My companions recoiled, taken aback by that unusual phenomenon. Oblivious to their reaction, so focused was she on her task, Mirella pointed at dark shapes a short distance in.

“My scanner is not powerful enough to precisely identify what this is. But it seems like it might be Kaldran trees…” she said pensively. “Well, not exactly trees, but something made of that wood.”

My heart leapt.

“There had been no Kaldran tree in our cave,” I said, hope audible in my voice. “We need to send those mechanical eyes to see what’s inside.”

“Yes, Maeve is coming,” Mirella responded. “Then she will—”

A thundering sound interrupted her. As one, we jerked our heads up to see one of the windows created by the golden giant. Except, instead of appearing on the ground a short distance from us as had previously been the case, this one opened very high in the sky above us. A mix of shock and anger coursed through me when a shuttle flew out of the window before heading towards us for landing. Cedros flew in after the shuttle, then the window closed behind him.

My fellow Syllens cursed, expressing the same emotions I felt, but also held a layer of awe. When I had described the golden giant’s powers of opening windows through space, they hadn’t challenged my statements but struggled to comprehend how such a thing could be possible. Had the roles been reversed, I too would have been confused and maybe even dubious.

But the lingering trauma of our past dreadful experience with the Settlers made the presence of the shuttle a major source of distress. Too many horrible memories flooded my mind. Every time one of those wretched vessels appeared or landed, it would either be followed by a rain of fire against us, or armored humans pouring out with long-range weapons to try and kill us. So much death and pain had ensued due to their greed for a land that never would have accepted them, anyway.

Seeing Athusa and Orian step forward, their hands dropping near the weapons on their belts snapped me out of my somber thoughts. I hurried in front of them, making it clear they were to follow my lead. While we didn’t really have hierarchy, we always deferred to whoever had the most experience on a given matter. In this instance, I had interacted with these off-worlders. The last thing we needed was to create an unfortunate incident with so much at stake.

To my relief, Maeve was the first to step out of that metal cage. Seeing her immediately dimmed a great deal of tension from my companions. The UPO had been wise in sending someone kindred to us. A beautiful female followed in her wake. I couldn’t tell whether she was also a human who had mated with an Edocit, or merely the female of the Utzac breed of the Edocits. Contrary to Maeve, this female possessed yevins like us, and a small version of the antlers that adorned Torokso’s head. She also had a skirt boasting a stunning bluish-green color, although her panels had a different shape and texture from ours, and descended in a much longer skirt. Only the Utzac breed had skirts among the Edocits, which implied they were the species linked to ours.

“Hello, Taelen,” Maeve said, the warmth in her eyes shifting to worry as she took in our rough appearance. “Are you okay? You all seem injured!”

“Some unfortunate event just occurred. We’ll update you in a minute,” I said distractedly, my attention focused on her female companion who was staring in my direction with a shocked expression.

“Please meet Lily,” Maeve said hesitantly when she noticed my interest in her companion. “You’ve met her father, Mares.”

My eyes widened in delight realizing she was Torokso’s hybrid daughter with his human mate. However, the welcoming smile that was starting to stretch my lips froze. I finally realized she was looking past me when Athusa uttered something unintelligible behind me.

I glanced at him over my shoulder right before the glowing in his eyes faded.

“Seriously?!” I said, completely floored.