Chapter 24
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
AIRIK
They reached the river just before nightfall, Airik’s ship now distant in memory and proximity. Pink, purple, and blue hues trickled through the colored leaves, bathing them in light as the suns mercifully descended.
Though he questioned the integrity of the navigational charts torn from Ed’un’s compendium—it had omitted city-destroying waves and burning rain—he had no choice but to follow it off the river’s trail.
An irrigation channel led them to what he hoped could be shelter for the night—a small circle on the charts labeled simply as land and life agricultural research.
Clearing a path through branches and green, tube-like tree shoots that Nora called “alien bamboo,” he led the three of them—unfortunately, Lucky still followed, though the animal had started to protest loudly—into a clearing containing a shimmering pool of water, with small huts arranged around it.
Airik tensed, now understanding of Lucky’s resistance. All the huts, except for the largest one, glowed a sickly yellow green. Kudra, still powering research equipment.
But they had no choice. They could use the tile-lined irrigation pool for water and bathing. He yanked on Nora’s pack to keep her from being tugged back into the forest by Lucky, inadvertently catching part of the rope of her hair.
“Stop.” Airik spoke to Lucky in the common tongue, so Nora couldn’t understand. “She is not yours to take. I know this frightens you, but this is the best we can have. Obey me, or leave. I will not hesitate to sever the bond you’ve wrongfully made with her by terminating you.”
Lucky whimpered, his ears flattened against his head. He wrapped his tail around Nora’s body.
“Everything good?” Nora gave Airik a questioning look, petting Lucky’s head to soothe him. “You better not have said anything mean.”
“I say what is needed to keep us alive,” he warned, his finger twitching, caught in her hair. “Do you remember I said this planet was dead causing?”
She went still, not yet noticing he’d been trapped by her. “Yes?”
“It is because of kudra. A thing like glass that breaks easily. It can hold power forever. Normally it is safe. But sometimes it changes into something worse. Here everything has changed. The kudra here will kill you if you get too close and breathe it. Or if it gets in your blood. It is a weapon now. Why I need to break the planet.” He tugged on her collar, making her turn to him.
His finger finally slipped out of her hair, freeing him. “Do you know what I am saying?”
“Yes.” She eyed one of the huts. “That’s kudra glowing in there?”
He nodded.
“Then…shouldn’t we go somewhere safer?”
“Animals are afraid of it and will not come near it. And I need a roof for you. If we do not get too close, we will be okay.”
Nora gave a hesitant nod, then followed him to the largest hut, the only one without kudra glowing from within. The metal sliding door creaked as he pushed it aside, motioning for them to get in. When he tried to pull it closed, the bearings cracked loudly, and then it locked up.
He sighed. They’d have to sleep with the door open, unprotected from any animal that was somehow immune to the innate fear of kudra’s glow.
Lucky dashed ahead of Nora, sniffing the corners. Vexing animal. But careful.
The room must’ve served as storage, filled with tools needed to tend a farm—blades, bags of soil, and decommissioned drones whose systems must’ve been remotely terminated.
The metal roof and walls were made of a rust-resistant material, which was sufficient to keep them safe from rain, save a hole he’d burn so they could have a fire without suffocating.
“We will sleep here tonight,” Airik said, taking Nora’s bag from her. “If you want, go to the water to clean. You will be safe.” He shot Lucky a warning look. “The ooshi and I will make sure of it. The Veynari will want you in one piece when I give you to them.”