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Despite my bad-tempered outburst in the cave, the memory brought a smile to my face. I was lucky to have Andreu. I drew strength from him. Since I was a little girl, he’d been my tutor, my advisor, my friend. Over these long months on the run, he’d kept me alive. He and Jaden and Zeke.
I marched back and forth, beating a path through the dense jungle foliage hiding the mouth of the cave until I’d regained a vestige of self-control, then headed back inside. All three men were careful not to look at me, fearful of setting off another firestorm.
I sank down on a log near the pitifully tiny fire. We dared not build a fire out in the open and anything bigger would have filled the cave with smoke.
Jaden had speared some unrecognizable carcass on a spit. He was nursing it carefully, turning it every so often so as not to sear the flesh and render it completely inedible. He lifted the stick from the flames and held one end out to me. “Hungry?”
I stifled a sigh. I was tired of living on half-cooked skinned rodents. I’m sure he was too, but he and Zeke refused to take down a larger animal that would require a raging fire to cook. Every step we took in the wilderness, every branch we broke, every wisp of smoke from a fire, could lead trackers straight to our hideaway.
“Yes, thank you,” I said, as graciously as I could manage.
I knew the men wouldn’t eat until I did so I choked down every bite. Besides, I’d need food in my belly to keep going, though it was the last thing I wanted to do. If I grew too weak to walk, Zeke and Jaden would simply carry me through the jungle rather than abandon me. It wouldn’t be fair to heap another burden on them.
Many a night I’d wished I could lie down and die. I had no home, no family except for Andreu and these two weary warriors. My father had ordered them to spirit me away if anything happened to him, making them swear to put my safety above all else.
They took their responsibility seriously. It was Jaden who had clapped a hand over my mouth and dragged me to the ground the night Thane’s forces launched a surprise attack. He kept me hidden from their view, silent and immobile. But he couldn’t keep me from seeing my father fighting valiantly as a dozen men charged him all at once. Or seeing Dyllan—my Dyllan—rush to his aid, only to be slaughtered along with him.
I fought too that day, scratching and clawing and kicking. But no matter how frantically I attacked him, Jaden refused to let me go. He took the beating I gave him, then held me in his arms just as tightly when I dissolved into deep racking sobs after our enemies dragged away the mangled bodies of the men I loved.
Forcibly I put the image out of my mind. Giving in to sorrow and despair would dishonor the sacrifice Gaius had made. I had a responsibility to the men with me and to the rebels who’d managed to survive. I was my father’s daughter. I had to live—to take up the burden of leadership and one day lead the fight.
* * *
“Stay here,” Zeke ordered.
As if he needed to. I knew my place. Move from one refuge to another in the dead of night. Remain hidden until our allies arrived.
Zeke and Jaden went out on daily reconnaissance missions, searching for any sign of the Thelians. They’d been doing that ever since we landed on this primitive planet. But as the weeks went by, I began to doubt if our desperate cry for help had even been received. Our cruiser had been badly damaged when a Federation destroyer fired on us as we escaped. Before we lost contact with our allies in other worlds, we managed to send out a final message, telling them we couldn’t make it to Thela and we’d been forced to divert to this uninhabited jungle world.
We all teleported to the surface of the planet and Jaden programmed our cruiser to plummet into the sea, so there’d be no trace of it. We had to leave most of our supplies behind, bringing only weapons and basic survival gear.
Though I griped about it, my life wasn’t much different now from the way I’d lived back home. For years, my father and I traveled from one rebel base to another. I’d have loved an unlimited wardrobe, maybe even a sexy pair of shoes, but personal possessions were a luxury I couldn’t indulge when everything I owned had to fit into a backpack light enough for me to shoulder while on a dead run. So I dressed like all the other soldiers, in a drab gray uniform and sensible boots, wearing flowing silk gowns and delicate dancing shoes only in my dreams.
I made an exception for two things—the locket my father had given my mother on their wedding day and my underwear. I didn’t have to pack the locket since I never took it off. It hung on a gold chain around my neck, tucked out of view under my shirt. And I justified the extra pair of wispy black lace panties stuffed into the bottom of my backpack by telling myself they weighed much less than the white cotton underpants issued with my uniform.
Dyllan had loved seeing me clad only in those black panties. But he’d made me feel beautiful no matter what I wore.
I brushed away a tear and tried to make myself busy. In every camp we made I’d developed a routine to help the long hours pass more quickly. I cleaned and checked our weapons daily, and Andreu and I sparred, practicing hand to hand combat until I was drenched in sweat.
This location was better than most. Not only did we have shelter, I had the luxury of running water. At least that’s what I told myself when I retreated to a damp corner of the cave where it trickled over the rocks, forming a muddy pool on the ground. I washed as best I could, then rinsed out my uniform, swapping it out for the one I’d laundered the day before.
I’d stripped down all the weapons and was cleaning a photon blazer when Andreu appeared in front of me. He held up a hand, motioning me to be silent, then signaled that he was going outside. I hadn’t heard anything, but the old man had ears like a bat.
He slipped out, disappearing into the dense foliage. Despite my promise to remain hidden, I crept to the mouth of the cave.
A solitary figure appeared at the far edge of the clearing. He bent to study the trampled undergrowth, sniffed a broken twig, then stared straight at the dark crevice in the rocks where I crouched. Though I was certain he couldn’t see me, I shrank back.
He stood upright on two legs, with no discernible tail or horns, which ruled out several dozen alien species. Built like a human, his frame was solid and packed with muscle. From this distance he looked to be roughly a head taller than Jaden or Zeke. A pair of pants made from dark rough cloth hung low on his hips. Over his bare chest he wore a fawn-colored open vest fashioned from the hide of an animal I didn’t recognize. A tangled mane of dark hair hung down to his shoulders, held back from his face by a narrow strip of hide tied around his forehead.
He moved into a patch of sunlight and I got a better look at him. His skin was smooth, the deep bronze of someone who spent most of his time outdoors. Crude weapons hung from a wide belt around his waist. The double-headed one with a thick wooden handle had a sharp blade on one end and a flat blunt surface on the other, capable of wielding deadly force in both the forward and backward swing. A long knife made of shiny black stone looked like the obsidian blades I’d seen once in a holographic exhibit of ancient Mesoamerican tribes. He turned slightly away from me as he scanned the clearing and I saw he had a bow and a quiver of arrows slung over one shoulder.
I felt insulted. Instead of the trained mercenary from a highly evolved world that I expected, the Federation sent a primitive hominid species to track me down. This creature with his archaic weapons was no match for our superior firepower. Did Thane think I could be defeated so easily?
The alien must not have sensed any danger, because he moved again, coming closer to the cave entrance. So close I could see piercing blue eyes, with a surprising spark of intelligence in them. His features were well-defined, with a high forehead, chiseled cheekbones, and a strong jaw, unlike those of aliens farther down on the evolutionary scale. If he’d been dressed in decent clothing and had a good haircut, he’d have been quite handsome.
I had no clue what planet he hailed from.
He froze, as though he’d seen or heard something in the thick foliage behind him. A moment later, I heard it too. Rustling sounds, then muffled thuds as though someone—or something, possibly a large beast—was moving fast through the jungle. The planet was home to many species of predators.
