19. Chapter 19
"Ghan-Zahr, we heard you were taken prisoner," Dzur-Khan was the first of the khadahrs to approach me.
"Not quite," I responded with a laugh as we embraced, pounding each other's backs.
It took quite a while to exchange greetings with all the males, most of which I had known for a long while.
"We missed you at the Gathering of Khadahrs," Tzar-Than stated.
"You missed quite a bit," Dzur-Khan added ominously, throwing a glance at Dzar-Ghan. A human gallis stood next to him. Curiously, I appraised her.
"My khadahrshi, Jenna," Dzar-Ghan said.
Even though I had known that one day Dzar-Ghan would mate a gallis, the notion still stung that it wasn't Mynarra, my sister. Her loss hit me once again like a fist to the heart.
"I'm very happy for you," I said, trying hard to mean it.
"My khadahrshi, Gwyn," Tzar-Than introduced the human gallis at his side.
"And this is mine, Amber." Dzur-Khan proudly put an arm around a fierce-looking, tall gallis.
"Who is this?" Tzar-Than nodded at Rachel, who slowly moved forward.
"I'm Rachel James. I—"
"Rachel James, I remember you," Amber cried and took two steps toward Rachel. Because she was taller than Rachel, I stepped in between the gallies, unsure of her intent. "You're a reporter."
"I am. Doctor Wayland, nice to see you again."
At that, Amber blinked a few times.
"She's Doctor Wayland's twin sister. Doctor Wayland was killed by IC and—" Jenna filled us in, but Rachel interrupted her.
"Wait, what?"
"There is much to talk about"." Tzar-Than stepped into the middle. "We should make camp for the day and catch each other up. I'm sure the gallies have as many stories to tell as you and us"." He nodded at me and surprised me by speaking English.
Questions were burning on all our minds, but we agreed to put them on hold for now, until Amber spied Carl.
"What the fuck? That's Doctor Weidenhof!" She laughed. "For me? You shouldn't have"." She winked at me.
"Amber," Dzur-Khan called her warningly, but the gallis was already on her way to my prisoner, pulling out a knife.
Dzur-Khan sprinted forward, grabbing her by the waist and hoisting her in the air. The gallis was far from surrendering, though. "Don't make me hurt you, Dzur-Khan," she yelled.
Rachel stepped toward me; her hand flew to her lips. I liked the way she put her palm on my arm as if seeking my protection.
To my surprise, Amber was swinging the knife, intent on bringing it down on Dzur-Khan's arm. Tzar-Than grabbed her hand and, in a much more brutal way than I would have dared to touch the gallis, he twisted her wrist until the knife fell to the ground.
The gallis was spewing words, which I recognized as curse words but didn't all understand, while the rest of the group stood to the side as if this spectacle was nothing out of the ordinary.
Dzur-Khan carried a still cursing and struggling Amber off, while Tzar-Than slapped me on the shoulder. "Let's talk. They'll be a while before they'll join us."
"Do I need extra protection for my prisoner?" I asked dryly.
Tzar-Than stared off to where Dzur-Khan and Amber had vanished. "Couldn't hurt; she might get the better of him."
Open-mouthed, I stared into the wildlands before I called my warriors to set an extra male on duty to watch Carl.
"I need to talk to you"." Dzar-Ghan pulled me aside.
"I thought we would talk in a few moments, all of us," I responded, not ready to talk to him about Mynarra and his chosen khadahrshi, thinking this was where his words led.
"Sa, but there is something else you need to know."
His khadahrshi, Jenna, looked at me with a mix of pity and guilt.
"Look, I know that you had to choose a khadahrshi. The dead are gone and—"
"She is not dead," Dzar-Ghan interrupted.
I reeled. "What?"
Rachel moved in between us, once again placing her small hand on my arm, and once again, the magic of her touch calmed my thundering heart.
"Jenna managed to open the cave," Dzar-Ghan explained.
"You're telling me the gallies in the cave aren't dead? But that's impossible. They were in there for ten years, they—"
"Weren't in there for ten years," Dzar-Ghan shut me up.
"What are you talking about?" Despite Rachel's hand on my arm, my temper flared, and anger sparked.
"The priests sent Temple Guardians into the cave ten years ago," Tzar-Than voiced, keeping a wary eye on me as if afraid I would attack Dzar-Ghan, and rightfully so.
"They killed all the older gallies and took the younger ones prisoner. They were kept at the Temple. Dzar-Ghan figured most of it out, but it wasn't until Jenna opened the cave that we saw…"
I took a shaky step back. "The Temple Guardians killed our gallies?" I hardly recognized my voice.
Tzar-Than's head moved up and down. "Sa. Dzar-Ghan called a Gathering, and when we arrived… he set the gallies free."
Ten years ago, the ground had trembled underneath my feet so hard that I had fallen to my knees and crawled toward the cave as a hail of rocks closed the opening. This time, the ground wasn't shaking. Still, I felt as if my knees would give in, and I would have to crawl over the ground.
"Mynarra?" I asked in a husky voice.
"Is alive and well. On her way to Bramwell"," Dzar-Ghan assured me. "My brothers and sisters are with her, as well as a hundred warriors to keep the gallies safe."
His words penetrated my ears, even reached my brain, but my heart was closing up, unable to believe that Mynarra was truly alive.
"I have to go see her," I mumbled, turning.
"We need to end the human invasion"." Tzar-Than stopped me.
"It seems you have given us a weapon to do just that," Dzar-Ghan's gaze moved to Carl.
The urge to run through the wildlands to Bramwell and Mynarra was strong, but Tzar-Than's words held me in place. If it was true what the khadahrs were saying, and I had no reason not to believe them. Mynarra was alive, and she would still be alive in a few weeks or months, however long it would take to finish the human threat. Tzar-Than was right. It needed to be dealt with once and for all.
"What is your plan?"
"It's still developing. Right now, Matt—" He pointed at a human male I hadn't noticed until now, but before he could finish his sentence, Rachel exclaimed, "Doctor Bauer!"
"I'm sorry, do I know you?" The human male reached our group, and a strange sensation of possessiveness over Rachel overcame me. I barely held a growl back as she greeted him with an outstretched hand.
"I don't think so. My name is Rachel James. I'm a reporter, and I wrote a story about you a couple of years ago on the anniversary of your… disappearance. I'm glad to see you are alive and well."
"Thank you, Miss James, it's a pleasure to meet you." Doctor Bauer seemed uncomfortable and, for some reason, didn't look up or in Carl's direction, not even when Carl called him.
"Doctor Bauer, Matt! Look at me dammit!"
"I have to go," Matt mumbled and walked away. His retreat didn't seem strange to the others, but Rachel and I exchanged a glance of shared bewilderment.
"He has his reasons," a woman said behind us and when I turned, I saw Amber and Dzur-Khan, who didn't look worse for the wear, appear. Both of their hair was tousled and… I smirked. It looked like Amber's shirt was crookedly buttoned. My gaze moved to Carl.
"Don't worry, he's safe. For now"," Amber assured me.
I raised my eyebrows and looked at Dzur-Khan for confirmation. "Forgive me if I find that hard to believe."
Amber laughed. "No need. I get it. But I won't harm him until you guys give me the go ahead."
One more time, I turned to Dzur-Khan, who grinned good-naturedly at his khadahrshi. "She's a bloodthirsty warrior khadahrshi," he filled me in. "But she's smart enough to see reason when necessary." His last words earned him a glare from Amber, but he only laughed it off.
"All right, will someone please explain to me what is going on?" Rachel asked, staring straight at Amber.
Tzar-Than directed us to a grouping of narran trees the warriors had felled so we could use them as chairs as we gathered around the fire, which had also been erected, courtesy of the warriors. From somewhere else, meat and vegetables roasted, and I even made out the smell of baking bread. It seemed we would hold a feast tonight.