Lydia
My friends look at me.
“Goodbye?” Scarlett queries. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t know.” My face heats up, and the ever present tears are still hovering in my eyes. “It was like…something was wrong, and I can’t put my finger on it. And I did what I always do. I ran away,” I say, lifting my chin.
“You did what you did to protect yourself. Don’t ever be ashamed of it,” Maggie says, matter of factly. “Let’s say, for the benefit of the doubt, Deus is not a massive douche, and a traitor, and there really was something wrong which is why he treated you like dirt and then disappeared.”
“Oh, thanks,” I grumble.
Maggie holds up her hand.
“Perhaps if we go back to the scene of the crime, or rather the seat of the douchebag, we might find something out.”
“Won’t the other warlords have already been there?”
“They can’t enter the forbidden sector,” Rosalie says. “Or only Dante can enter it, and I know he hasn’t.”
“We should go,” Scarlett says. “I love a good mystery.”
“It’s hardly a mystery,” Kerra responds.
“There’s a disappearance.” Scarlett lowers her voice to a gravelly rasp like a movie trailer announcer. “A woman left behind. What ever happened to the Sarkarnii warlord?”
“You’re an idiot.” Rosalie chuckles.
Scarlett shrugs and turns to Cestapal, our Paralnyi friend. “Can you watch the kids while we go check out Lydia’s love nest?”
“Wait. No,” I say. “Not love nest.”
“Has a great ring to it. Lydia’s love nest.” Maggie grins. “Because I presume you have done the nasty with Mr. Dark and Brooding.”
If my cheeks were hot before, they are flaming as if I’ve walked into a stream of Sarkarnii fire.
“Well, I never.” Rosalie gasps.
“It’s always the quiet ones.” Kerra laughs.
I open my mouth but nothing comes out.
“Deus and Lydia sitting in a tree,” Scarlett chants. “K-i-s-s-i-n-g.”
“That’s quite enough of that.” I finally find my voice. “And you lot could have prepared me better for it.”
“We tried.” Maggie sighs. “We tried so hard, but you wouldn’t look at my bum gallery.”
“No one should have to look at that,” Kerra says. “Especially now it’s all Driok.”
“And exactly what are you saying?” Maggie bristles.
“I’m saying let’s go do the whole Scooby Doo thing before Lydia changes her mind,” Kerra retorts. “If Cestapal doesn’t mind.”
“I assume Lydia knows all about the dangers in the forbidden sector,” Cestapal says. “And she can keep you safe?”
“I do and I can,” I reply.
Cestapal nods sagely, as she often does around us, even though I know she thinks we’re all bonkers.
“What dangers?” Gillian asks.
“Killer plants,” I deadpan.
“Why am I not surprised?” Scarlett sighs. “Okay, if Cestapal doesn’t mind.” She hands over her baby to the little Paralnyi, who takes him with her paws.
There is a round of smooches to sarkarnling faces, and I have a veritable army of friends at my back as we make our way through the neutral sector. We get a few puzzled looks, given we are not accompanied by any warriors and at least two of my friends are quite pregnant.
“This way.” I press my hand against the airlock, and it hisses open. A wave of humidity hits us as the door spirals away into the wall.
“Why does Deus’s sector smell of old socks?” Maggie grumbles.
“It…shouldn’t,” I say, puzzled as we head down the short tunnel and out into the light.
Maggie attempts to turn the wrong way, but I grab hold of her arm and steer her down the right path.
“Not the cave then?” she queries.
“Deus might have seemed feral, but he didn’t keep me in a cave,” I respond.
“Lucky you,” Kerra huffs. “He took me there.”
“He saved you, if I remember rightly.” I look over my shoulder at her.
“He did,” she says with a sigh of resignation.
“Okay, if you’re going to batter us over the head with it, Deus isn’t all bad, except when he’s plotting to betray all the Sarkarnii to a mad female one,” Maggie says loudly.
I don’t respond. The only way I’m going to convince them, and myself, that Deus isn’t the Sarkarnii everyone thinks he is, is by finding him.
And getting to the truth.
Even if the truth might break my heart.
We reach the cabin relatively quickly, even with my chattering friends in tow.
“This is nice,” Scarlett says. “Not what I was expecting.”
“Better than the cave,” Kerra says.
Maggie eyes the dwelling carefully. “He must have moved it,” she says. “It’s the same one Driok took me to, only that one was near an outdoor aquium.”
I’m not sure what to say because I’ve never asked Deus about Maggie’s visit, assuming he perhaps didn’t know and I didn’t want to upset him.
“Maybe he did,” I respond, going up to the main door, before stopping dead.
“What is it?” Kerra comes up behind me.
“This…isn’t how I left it,” I say, my voice a whisper.
The inside of the cabin is a wreck. The furniture is torn, there are holes in the internal walls, and occasionally, sparks fizzle from the damaged areas.
“Oh wow,” Scarlett says. “Something went down here.” She covers her mouth and nose with her hand. “And what is that smell?”
She’s joined by Rosalie, Maggie, and Gillian. Together we stare at the ruin, all of us covering our noses. The chemical stench is almost overwhelming.
“Deus couldn’t have…” Rosalie starts her sentence but stops when we all look at her. “No.” She shakes her head.
“There was a fight here,” Gillian says, stepping into the cabin and avoiding the worst of the mess.” “A vicious one.” She looks at me. “I’d say Deus did everything he could not to be taken.”
“Taken?” Maggie queries.
“What do you mean, taken?” I say, my voice hoarse.
“Look.” Gillian points to the crushed items on the floor near the doorway. “This is where he fell.” She points further into the bedroom. “And this is where they dragged him.”
“Who?” We all stare at Gillian.
“How should I know?” She raises her hands. “Something or someone who can disable a Sarkarnii the size and weight of a brick outhouse.”
Kerra looks at me. “It’s true. Deus is a big male. He’d take some felling.”
“We need to know what took him,” I say urgently. “And we have to let the warlords know.”
My heart is singing again, singing like a canary in spring. Deus is not a traitor. He didn’t leave me.
But then reality sets in. Hard.
He might not be a traitor, but the fact he was taken against his will…that can’t be good. Ice fogs up my insides.
Something took down Deus. Something which waited for me to leave.
“We need to let them know now.”