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The ukkur could not say how he knew this exactly. He just sensed it. A gnawing intuition at the back of his mind that refused to be ignored.
It was all his fault. He had gotten too close to her last night, and she had been tainted by his curse. Now she was being led to her doom, just like every other person Hruk had ever cared about.
For a long moment the ukkur remained welded in place, uncertain of what he should do.
He faced a dilemma. If he followed and intervened again, it would only make matters worse in the long run. His connection to the human female would be strengthened, and with it the power of his rotted curse.
Yet at the same time, Hruk could not remain behind, knowing that the woman was being led to her demise.
In the distance, the skriks topped a rise and then disappeared down the other side. The creatures were fast. Far too fast for an ukkur on foot ever to catch them. But Hruk could follow their trail easily enough, especially in the tall grass.
The ukkur stood up and spat.
“Rot,” he muttered.
Then he took off, sprinting through the high grass in pursuit of the skriks and the human riders.
CHAPTER 9: SERENITY
Serenity held tightly to the reins of her skrik as the raptor-like animal galloped across the grasslands.
This was a freedom the likes of which Serenity had not experienced in far too long. For the past six months, her life had been more or less confined to the narrow world of the canyon, closed in on all sides and above by the canopy of trees. But now the wide open prairie stretched all around her. Rolling hills shimmered in the moonlight. Stars glittered in the sky overhead, and the warm prairie wind whipped her hair and filled her nose with the aroma of alien grass that smelled oddly similar to buttered popcorn.
She was escaping.
She was free.
Yet she could not quite shake the feeling that something was wrong. A tingle in her spine, faint but impossible to ignore.
She twisted in her saddle and glanced back over her shoulder, half expecting to see the massive ukkur racing after them. The big one who had saved her last night. But she saw no such thing. Just the empty grasslands undulating in the breeze, and beyond that, receding into the distance, the mesa where the canyon and encampment lay.
“Something wrong?” Patrick called to her nervously. His skrik was running abreast of Serenity’s.
“No,” Serenity replied.
From atop his mount, Patrick flashed a grin and his teeth shown white in the moonlight.
“Don’t worry. You’re not going to miss that place,” he said, referring to the canyon and the camp.
He was right, of course. Serenity had hated living there, and she had wanted nothing more than to get away. But there was still that nagging feeling of guilt. And something else. Some other anxiety that she couldn’t quite place.
She told herself there was nothing to worry about. Patrick had worked everything out. The smugglers would take them back to Earth, and they would even help them get fake identification after they got back. There would be a fee of course, and since they had no money, they would have to work it off, but it would be worth it.
As long as they got back to Earth. That was the only thing that mattered.
Serenity’s eyes drifted skyward, studying the glittering stars overhead. Her destination lay out there somewhere in all that darkness and space.
She shifted her eyes to Patrick, who was focused intently on the horizon ahead. In addition to his usual loincloth, he wore an animal-skin satchel strapped around his upper body, and it bounced at his hip as he rode. Serenity didn’t know what was in there. When she had asked, Patrick had been cagey about it. He said it contained supplies, but he didn’t offer any information beyond that.
Probably nothing to worry about.
Serenity did her best to relax and focus on the landscape ahead.
Before long, a dark shape appeared before them. At first, Serenity thought it was just a small hill. But as they drew closer, she was able to make out the antennae and vents and other mechanical objects covering its surface.
It was the smuggler ship!
That ship was their ticket to freedom, and the sight of it made Serenity’s heart hammer with excitement. But at the same time, it reminded her of the last spaceship she had ridden in—the nith cargo ship—and that memory sent a shiver of repulsion up her spine.
