Chapter 47
It was the early hours of the morning and Zion had just returned from his trip. He sat at a table piled with papers in the military supplies depot—a shipment had arrived earlier and, without Kaori, no one really knew what to do, so he'd had to help sort things out.
As he finished logging the imported crates, giving instructions on where to store each item and who should receive it, a crease formed between his brows.
The general was worried and trying in vain to get his thoughts in order.
Strange things were happening beyond the walls and, to make matters worse, animal attacks had gone from rare to frequent.
At least one soldier was taken each week, and it was keeping the squadrons on high alert around the clock.
That night, Zion had returned from hunting the animals, but as always, they couldn’t find anything beyond a few tracks that vanished at the edge of the Emir River. It was frustrating.
Beyond the deaths, another matter was keeping Zion awake: the level of toxic elements in the water of the lakes and streams around Drutes city was rising every day.
The humid air inside the forests carried the metallic odor of toxic algae, which had begun to spread uncontrollably throughout enemy territory.
The army could no longer trust the old freshwater springs, and now, on top of fearing the supposed chimeras, the soldiers worried about accidentally drinking contaminated water and being caught by enemy squadrons while hallucinating.
All of this was suspicious, and he spent all day searching for answers to the sudden changes in the biome.
The changes weren’t normal—he knew something was wrong and believed that, somehow, the chimeras had a direct connection to the water.
Whenever they attacked, the metallic smell grew worse.
Either way, he decided to intervene before the situation deteriorated further.
He asked the king for water shipments to be delivered to the soldiers at the border and, for the first time, Elitium granted a request without stalling or making a scene.
The army would receive bottled water arriving by electric truck, and the crates he had dispatched moments before were the first shipment.
On top of all the problems with the animals, Kaori wasn’t in the forests to organize the squadrons, and Zion had spent most of his days checking supplies, listening to complaints from the soldiers, and smoothing over disagreements between the Vinturis and Ampér squadrons.
Sometimes Ampér annoyed the Vinturians with their loud, boisterous, laughing ways.
Other times, it was Vinturis that annoyed Ampér with their rules, their discipline, and their speeches about honor.
When it wasn’t one or the other, it was the gorgons, dissatisfied with the food, with the men, or with anything at all.
And without Kaori leading them, they were always irritated.
They didn’t take orders from the men—only from Zion, and that was more out of fear than obligation.
“The last delivery truck is heading out to the border, general! Do you have anything else to send?” Dante, the captain of the 3rd squadron, asked Zion, pulling him from his spiral of negative thoughts.
“No, Dante,” Zion said, stretching his tired back and gathering the paperwork into a thick stack. “We’re done for today.”
The man saluted and hurried away, climbing into the back of the vehicle. Then, looking around the empty warehouse, Zion finally stood up to leave. He had already filed the shipment paperwork and called the job done when a rookie soldier called out to him:
“What about these, general?” The boy opened a door on the side of the warehouse—the small room for special materials requiring careful storage—and pointed to six wooden crates stacked on a table.
Zion frowned as he studied the objects. He could have sworn he’d crossed off every item on the enormous list of imports.
He set the stack of papers containing the crate identification numbers back on the table and searched for the records he’d missed.
After a few minutes of reading and rereading all the paperwork, Zion couldn’t find any number matching the shipment.
He decided to open one to see what was inside, and as soon as he broke the seal and lifted the lid, he realized why there were no records: the crate was full of small electronic devices. They were black discs the size of a bottle cap, each containing a circuit board in the center.
“Send these to the Yamamoto laboratory,” Zion said, pointing to all the crates. “Have them leave them in Kaori’s room.”
The boy nodded and jotted down the instructions on his own papers, then hurried off to carry them out.
Zion studied the six crates a while longer.
He had no idea what that pile of discs was for, or why there were so many, but he was glad to know Kaori had gone back to working on her gadgets.
When they were young, shipments of electronics without identification numbers were always arriving for her or Akira, since the two liked working on projects for Yamamoto Industries.
Mr. Yoshihiro had encouraged their technological research and even built a laboratory in the gorgon neighborhood.
After Akira was gone, the shipments dwindled until they stopped completely.
That was why, in that moment, Zion felt hopeful about what this new shipment might mean.
Still lost in thought, he turned off the lights in the empty warehouse and materialized in Kyller’s room.
The girl was asleep, arms wrapped around Kiara’s neck. He leaned stealthily against the glass wall but accidentally kicked a sneaker in his path. It wasn’t loud enough to wake his partner, but Kiara’s ears instantly perked up and her eyes glowed as she stared at him in the darkness.
“It’s just you,” she grumbled, twitching her leonine whiskers. “Marking territory again?”
“I’m not marking territory,” Zion said playfully.
“That’s exactly what a male marking territory would say. Why don’t you just piss around the room? It’s effective, I can guarantee.”
Zion had to stifle his laughter to keep from waking Kyller.
“I’m not an animal that goes around pissing on things, Kiara.”
“Then what are you doing here? I can smell you sniffing around our girl—you smell different when you come to the room. Sure you don't want to mark your territory?”
This time Zion snorted softly.
“Stop being nosy. I just came to ask if you wanted to go for a walk.”
Kiara's eyes—previously apprehensive and sleepy—lit up with interest. Without hesitation, she got up carefully so as not to wake Kyller, and Zion smiled at the depth of affection he saw in that gesture.
In silence, the two walked along the outer wall, where they liked to run without anyone watching them with curious eyes.
When the first ray of sun touched the imposing barrier, reminding them both that it was time to return, Zion's phone rang.
Looking at the screen, the general straightened up when he noticed the hospital's name on the caller ID.
He answered quickly, fearing bad news. The receptionist got straight to the point: Kaori had woken up and was asking for him.
Zion took a deep breath, but this time, he was relieved.
His friend was alive and had just woken up—that was all he'd wanted since her surgery.
“Kiara?” The creature stared at him, tilting her head slightly. “I need to visit a friend. Do you want to come along or head back home?”
She snuffled in response, indicating she'd come along.
Holding Kiara by the collar, Zion transported them through the more remote streets.
Halfway there, he wondered if it would be rude to show up empty-handed.
The Yamamoto family was strict, and he'd already made a terrible impression five years ago.
He thought that maybe if he brought some flowers—as Vinturian tradition dictated—things might go more smoothly.
He stopped at a small flower shop on the way and bought hydrangeas.
He knew Kaori's favorite flower grew on a tree called Sakura, typical of Vinturis, but he couldn't exactly bring an entire tree.
Blue hydrangeas, her second favorite, would have to do.
That was a detail she'd drilled into him for more than two centuries.
He was certain she'd be pleased to see her efforts had paid off.
With the flowers in his arms and Kiara pressed close to his side, he materialized at the door of Kaori's room.
The chimera sniffed the air and seemed nervous beside him.
He stroked the top of her head, figuring she was bothered by the smell of medications and sick people.
He knocked on the door, wondering if the gorgon would be alone or with family.
To his relief, only Kaori's voice answered from inside, asking him to come in.
Zion entered and immediately felt out of place and awkward with those flowers in his hands.
“Wow! One more minute and I would've come after you myself,” Kaori complained.
Zion couldn't help but smile and shake his head at how natural this felt. He was the general and she was his second-in-command, but given Kaori's fierce temperament, it could easily have been the other way around.
“I came as fast as I could. You should work on that impatience.”
He walked across the room and added the flowers he'd brought to others already arranged in a vase on the bedside table. There was also a small device full of gears, along with the triple-lens magnifying glasses his friend used when working on her projects.
“I try, but it sucks, Zion.” She gestured at the room and the bed, holding a small screwdriver. “They won't even let me get up to use the damn bathroom. I'm rotting in this bed.”
“Half your head exploded—what did you expect? That they'd let you run around?” He leaned against the sky-blue wall near a beige armchair.