Page 26 of Taken to Nobu
“Okkari,” she says suddenly and I drop to my knees, allowing autopilot to control our direction for the moment as we fly over the ice, racing towards our home.
“Hexa, Xiveri. I am here.”
Her eyes are closed and she is thrashing. The temperature of her skin is raised already from the effects of the poison, which are much farther along and seemingly destructive to her than they are to me. Delirious, she says a name, and then repeats it. “Mom…mom…”
“Kiki?” Beads of sweat are already formed on her smooth, rounded cheeks. The color has darkened around her eyes, yet the rest of her is so pale it is as if the Mudan who guides the way to the Ocean After has come to collect her himself.
Emotion chokes me. I am Okkari yet I could not stop this.Just as I could not stop the Drakesh invasion then either. Weak. I am weak.I bellow a roar to no one but the dead warrior in my ice glider and the dying Xhea beneath me.
She blinks and her eyes are bloodshot, half-moons lowering. “Okkari?”
“Hexa, Kiki. You are alright. You will survive the effects of the acid. I will restore you in merillian…”
“I don’t hate you.” Startled, I have no answer for her. She blinks up at me. “I hate me.”
I plunge my fingers into her hair and shake her, furiousbut only because I fear so deeply. Low, I growl, “Kiki…you are feverish. Calm yourself. Save your breaths…”
“And him.”
Stalled, I freeze again. “Who?”
She licks her lips and nods. “Mhm. Bo’Raku. I hate him too. I hate him the most.”
She quiets, leaving me alone to stew and to fear and to seethe.Bo’Raku. What could she have with that putrid conspiring welp? The one who tries to sell human females to the vicious warlord of Kor and his pirate Niahhorru.I don’t understand and I try to coax more intelligible words from her — to keep her lucid, hexa, but also because I. need. answers. — but she is unresponsive after more than a few mumbled words that speak of the living and the dead.
My home comes into sight and as I gather the Xhea to my chest, I call up my life drive. Orders are issued to my tribe with how to treat the injured, the fallen and the hevarr. And another two requests are sent. These go to Rakukanna and to Svera, the human advisor and female who conspired with the Rakukanna and Kiki. They will meet with me on this solar because I have never needed answers so desperately. I need to know everything about my Xhea. Why would she run? For whom does she grieve? Why does she speak Bo’Raku’s name? Why does she fear me? Why is she sick with a hate that poisons her?
I shake my head. My hair hangs forward as I stare down at my Xhea’s face, so tortured even in sleep. My soul shivers and shakes.Answers.I will have them despite my exhaustion. If it takes me through the lunar. If it takes me the rest of my life.
11
Kiki
Warm. I’m swimming again. I’m swimming so slowly.Don’t they know I don’t know how?I smile to myself and my cheeks pinch. I haven’t smiled in a while.
My toes zing. Pins and needles.Pins and needles.Svera sewing a dress — one for me this time. That year, me and Miari got matching ones for Christmas from Svera and her family. Miari made hers into some gadget but I wore mine and everyone told me I looked beautiful in it. It felt good to feel beautiful.
It feels good. Syrup coating my limbs. Slow wakefulness. I’m comfortable. So comfortable.Wrapped in the arms of a male. His skin shimmers in the low light from the strange decorations zigzagging across black walls. Coccooned in a nest made from the skin of an animal he hunted, his breath warms my neck as he breathes, Xivoora Xiveri. It doesn’t matter what the words are. I know them already. From another time, from another galaxy, one much gentler than this…
I take a breath and air punches into my lungs like I’ve been beat. I gasp and try to find my arms, but they’re lost. I’m touching…ah stars, it’s more of the goop.The goop is real?It clings to my body like stains do, like scars. Goo. Purple weird goo that tingles every place it touches, and it touches me everywhere. My skin, my eyes, thickening my hair, making my head feel even more weighted. I can feel it even on theinside of my body, making my privates feel like they’ve just been rubbed in peppermint.
Get the fuck away from me,I think, but I open my mouth and I choke.Fight fight fight.I cough and focus on getting my feet beneath me. From there, I can find a weapon. With a weapon, I can kill just about anything. Maybe not the goo, but anything else.
But I just fall back into more goo. My head goes under, and when my face breaks the surface of the liquid, I gasp in air that tastes like sour licorice. Can I breathe? Am I breathing?Fight fight!Just calm down…I need to calm down…Fight!Now stand. Stand! Open your eyes.No. I’m scared.I’m not scared of anything. I’m scared of everything.
“Shh. You’re safe. You’re safe…” Soft fingers touch my hairline and my eyelids flutter.
“Svera?”
But my fuzzy vision reveals a face that isn’t light brown like Svera’s is, but green. As green as the sacred trees that grew outside of the human colony in the uninhabited place. That grow there still.How would I know? I’m not there anymore.And then it comes back to me. The Mountain Run. Defeating him. Being defeated. The need. The pain. The monster on the ice. Aliens dying in my name…
“Fuck. What is this? Where am I?” It’s so dark in this room. There’s a few of those weird lights swirling across the ceiling and the smell of minerals.I’ve been here before.
“You are in the bathing chamber, in a merillian bath where you have slept the past several solars. Your wounds were not extensive, so you healed quickly. Apologies, but it is deep in the lunar now and the ioni are at their darkest. I have been informed that it is difficult for humans to see in dim lighting.” A bright lamp is illuminated against the far wall, this one looking very much like an oil lamp we used once on the colony before the oil ran out and Merdock started charging too many rations for more. “Here, is this better?”
Kuana’s face comes to life before me. Wide, black eyes, bright white hair, soft lips, so unsure as she watches me, fearing me.
The purple that coats my arms looks like jello. Big, fat globs of it. Only it feels the teeniest bit like…it’smoving.“Merillian?”I remember this word. He said it before, up on the ice, when he was delivering me the most intense pleasure I’d ever felt…
