The one before them stood upon a different scooter, no targeting visible. If he had weapons, she wouldn't have known, but judging from the open ports on the front width of steering columns on the others and those ominous displays absent on the one, she guessed he was innocuous.

  The blue-gray alien before them was also dressed differently. While the others all wore the same gray and black leggings and metal chest pieces with the same intricate design as their head pieces, the lone greeter wore a simple cape with this leggings, exposing his broad, tattooed chest.

  "We are here—"

  "I know who you are and why you are here." The alien cut off Karik and looked down his wide nose at them with a sniff of contempt. "I am Kinyin Raou Tormac. If you will step on the platform, I will escort you to Premier Raou Salos."

  Platform? She didn't see any platform.

  One of the upper pair of arms—the lower two held the steering controls of his floating scooter—motioned with a swish of flair to the footing before them.

  She saw it then, the circle. Circles all around the perimeter of the landing area.

  A steady grip on her shoulders guided her to the nearest circle, the Lereni pressing in around her to fit on it.

  Their escort's mouth twitched into a hint of approval before he turned his scooter towards the buildings across a length of bridge.

  A sudden lifting and forward movement startled Krissa. At a loss for balance, she latched with each hand onto the nearest objects.

  After recovering her breath, she dared a look down at the ground passing beneath the metal circle on which she stood with the Lereni. Her confidence in her balance renewed, she turned aside with the intent to apologize for digging her nails into the arm of one of the crew.

  And felt her insides go cold.

  Although he only looked down at her hand, Karik's notice of her grip on his sleeve was like a bee sting.

  She snatched her hand away and turned to her other side.

  Korr gave a tip of his head that assured her he took no offense.

  But that she had grabbed at Karik set her insides tumbling in dread. How would this play out with the Tah'Na if he despised her action?

  "Torik?" She dared not twist around, fearing the loss of her balance and sending them all tumbling.

  A warm hand landed on her shoulder. "Behind you," his gentle voice said.

  She reached up and grasped his hand in reassurance.

  They rode the length of narrow walkway from the ship to the city structures, the guards hovering in accompaniment around them. The highrises grew as they approached the bases, making her feel like a bug among blades of grass. Her only comfort came in having her friends around her. Their escort hovered before them, leading them to the buildings. Others of their kind walked or hovered about on similar scooters, all as elaborately attired as their escort.

  Feeling more self-conscious under their curious stares, Krissa wanted to hide amidst her Lereni friends but could only squeeze Torik's fingers and Korr's arm.

  They rode in silence, her anxieties about this trade growing. Without comment, Raou Tormac led them through a gate before a vast expanse of courtyard before the pyramid she recognized from their display.

  Her breath caught in her throat as much in awe of its resplendent beauty, a class far above the ancient pyramids of Earth, as in fear of what would soon come.

  She didn't want to leave her new friends, not even Karik.

  But they deserved to have their freedom, and only she could make that happen.

  Guards stood in perfect lines facing the road to the large front doors at the base of the structure.

  "Stand proud," a voice whispered from behind as Torik withdrew his hand. "You are the daughter of Chancellor Naperi. You deserve their respect."

  Easy for him to say. He wasn't on display being judged.

  Despite her trepidations about the nature of the Tah'Na to uphold such dignities, she set her shoulders and lifted her chin.

  "Better," a voice from beside her muttered.

  She almost faltered in a moment of confusion at the realization but straightened her posture and supported herself while floating through the doors into a hall of dark stone even more extravagant than the exterior.

  They continued past pillars of light that touched streaks of gold in the black stone and set them blazing. If the Tah'Na sought to impress guests, they certainly knew how to stun in their architecture.

  Krissa stared in astonishment and hardly noticed that they stopped at another double door, until her eyes rested on the figure languidly draped over a chaise at the top of the dais at the far end. Pillars supported a veranda above it in the tall hall of stone cast in light from the high windows all around. Several guards stood on different levels of the dais.

  "Enter," a voice said with an air of annoyance.

  It sent a shudder through Krissa to the same effect as metal scraping against metal.

  The sudden start of the platform beneath her stole her attention from the sprouting distaste for the Tah'Na and the thoughts it inspired of how she could turn on them what they imposed on others like the Lereni. Once again, she had to focus on her balance, until the platform came to a stop several paces from the base of the dais.

  At the top, the figure moved, dropping feet and sitting up.

  The platform beneath them lowered to the floor.

  "The Lereni, as you expected," Tormac said in their language and bowed his head to the other.

  "Premier Raou Salos. We bring the daughter of Naperi in exchange for our world, as agreed," Karik said with that unforgiving tone that bore an edge of growl.

  Salos stepped down from the top level wearing an open robe with a metallic sheen in stripes of rich blues, reds, and greens separated by gold stripes. His eyes seemed to curse the Lereni and her, as if they were all nothing more than irritants under that gaudy, thick collar of his.

  He came to a stop at the bottom of his tower and gave a simple motion of his hand that excused Tormac, who rode his scooter out.

  From the way the blue-gray alien peered at them down that wide nose, she saw that the Tah'Na were worse than the Lereni had described. She had seen that snooty impatience more than she liked in her lifetime and she had always turned her back and disregarded it; but this time, she was defending friends. She couldn't walk away and continue her life. She wouldn't leave them to suffer.

  "You promised to leave Leisil," Karik said.

  "In due time."

  At the raising of a hand from Salos, two of the nearest guards stepped towards them and aimed the staff weapons threateningly.

  Around her, four Lereni tensed.

  "I see you wish to fight. Very well." Salos turned his head and several more armed guards surrounded them.

  "If I come, you will let them live?" she asked.

  Tah'Na eyes narrowed on her and his lip twitched. "Yes."

  "No—"

  She put a hand before Torik, trying her best to hide the fear for herself and them in the light of the Tah'Na arrogance and reported dishonesty. "I will be all right." She lied, and he knew it, but to hear it said held some power. Torik backed down.

  Krissa took a breath to calm herself and took a step towards the premier.

  A firm hand clamped onto her arm stopped her. She followed it up the arm to the face she didn't expect.

  Karik pulled her back towards the others. "No." As he released her arm, he caught her eyes and his expression softened. "Not like this."

  As other hands grasped her upper arms, his eyes lifted and his head dipped in a miniscule nod before he turned to stand with his back to her before Salos.

  "You will fulfill your promise to leave Leisil."

  Salos chuckled. "Look around. Are you blind? You have no power, Lereni. You are outnumbered."

  Arrogant…If not for the grip on her, she'd march up to Salos and wipe the smugness off his face herself.

  Karik had the same thought.

  Before the guards in their humor realized it, claws came out and Karik took down one of them. A blast from a single weapon ended his attack before he reached Salos.

  Krissa stared in stunned silence at the figure lying on the black stone floor. Above Karik stood Salos with all four arms crossed and a sneer on his ugly face.

  "Leisil will burn for your insolence!" He pulled a knife from his belt.

  "No." Torik's claws stopped her from rushing to protect Karik from the cruelty.

  "Stop!" The feminine voice echoed from across the chamber with the clatter of multiple feet.

  Krissa froze and turned. At the startling appearance of the four figures, she blinked. "Angels?" she muttered in English.

  "Any aggression against an Onduun or her protectors will be considered an act of war." The woman spoke Lereni. She and her entourage stepped past the Lereni and guards to confront Salos.

  The lead woman in the gray coverall with the flowing green robe over it glanced down at Karik. Dark brown hair hanging over her shoulders matched the wings at her back. Another woman with lighter brown wings and short hair wore the same attire. They were accompanied by a man and a woman in military-style uniforms of blue and black with weapons holstered on their belts.

  Weapons? Angels didn't carry weapons. Something was wrong with that picture.

  The woman lifted her eyes, which turned cold on Salos; but it was more than that which struck Krissa. She had a calm bearing but the confident poise of someone who could cut through the tension with a shrug, someone who inspired respect from her very presence.

  In an instant, Krissa both admired her and envied her.

  "How many violations of the Salnouan Kiitrak charter would you like to face, Premier? Five more?" she said with a sharpness that made Krissa wince. "The Tah'Na have walked a fine line for generations, but this will not be excused."

  Salos's rage twitched indecisively, but he finally sheathed the knife.

  Not waiting for an answer, the woman knelt next to Karik.

  "The Inari have impeccable timing," Salos muttered.

  Inari!

  Krissa stared dumbfounded while the woman gently rolled Karik to his back amid his wincing. Krissa winced in sympathy, especially upon seeing the bloody wound in his left side. It was that wound where the woman set her hands with the splotches of aquamarine glowing from the backs and from beneath.

  All fell silent while she closed her eyes and breathed deeply.

  Karik inhaled sharply and winced, but a few breaths later, relaxed.

  The woman removed her hands from a cauterized and much smaller wound. "I wish I could do more."

  With the unsteadiness of a wounded man, Karik climbed to his feet and bowed his head to the woman. "I am honored, Keeper."

  The woman tipped her head to him in return. A second later, her eyes focused on Krissa, leading all others to her in a spotlight of attention that made her want to hide, especially while wearing so little.

  "This is the daughter of Naperi?"

  "It is," Torik said.

  The woman's lips twitched into a smile and dark eyes regarded Krissa with a welcome like the warm sun on a winter day.

  "You still bear the appearance of the humans of Earth, but I suppose you were too young to know any different." The angel spoke with a soft accent of her Lereni.

  "How would you know? Um…How should I look?" She supposed an Onduun might look different, although these Inari looked human to the smallest detail, minus the wings and maybe the hand marks, but the guards behind the robed women didn't appear to have marks on their hands. They must have been the angels she had heard about in recent news reports.

  The woman's eyes regarded her with a hint of amusement gleaming in them. "We are Elousar Tourein Ramini—" She pointed at herself and then turned to the other woman in a matching robe. "—And Elousar Joren Talees. Although we resemble humans, we are not, but we can only hide our wings. You—"

  "Krissa."

  "Irilin. You are Onduun. We monitored your life signs among the Lereni on the landing ship, which is how we corroborated the report with our Earth operatives." A hard glare fixed on Salos, but softened once more when her attention returned to Krissa. "This is not your outward appearance. The Onduun are mimics at a touch, which is why you appear human, for now."

  "They—we—are?" Torik and the others had neglected to tell her that part.

  "Yes. It is how you were delivered to your host family for hiding by one of our emissaries. Your true form will be revealed soon enough. Our principal will be pleased."

  "Principal?" Krissa uttered the question, although her mind still tried to assimilate all the facts.

  The woman's smile brightened. "Chancellor Naperi is expecting you. She will arrive soon."

  Naperi, as in the one Torik had said was her birth mother? Krissa swore her head grew light. This couldn't be real; at last, after all these years, she would meet her real mother; but her real mother had given her up. She looked down at the bracelet, all the questions lumping in her throat.

  "Enough! Where is it?" Salos snatched Krissa's wrist and pulled her close to his disgusting body. Krissa didn't have a chance to think about pulling away until he held the bracelet to his face. One of his free hands traced the symbol on the stone of her bracelet.

  She swallowed her anxieties while he turned her wrist around in his hands to study the bracelet.

  "I have no idea what you mean," Ramini said.

  "The shard. You entrusted Naperi with one of the shards." In his rough yank, Krissa tried to pull away, but he only pulled her next to his disgusting body. "Don't try to deny it. Where is the shard?"

  "I don't know what you're talking about," Krissa said.

  "Then what is this…this Inari symbol doing on your wrist?" He held it before her and the woman leaned close.

  "Protection," Ramini said and shrugged it off. "A gift to Naperi in the Onduun-Inari Alliance nearly forty years ago. An heirloom."

  After several seconds of fuming and tightening his grip on Krissa's wrist until she whimpered, his other hands squeezed her shoulders and free arm. "Tell me where it is or Naperi doesn't see her daughter."

  Ramini's eyes went cold with those of her colleague, but she put a hand aside in a signal to her guards that had them cease reaching for their weapons. Or was it something else? The marks on her hands glowed as they had in healing Karik. "The shard was not meant for you."

  "Where is it?!"

  Afraid of what he might do, Krissa tried to pull away; but the four hands tightened on her.

  At a move by Torik to come to her, one of the blue-gray hands went to her throat. "Don't!"

  "The consequences for killing the child would be far more devastating for the Tah'Na."

  Krissa held her breath. She had come to sacrifice herself for the Lereni, thinking the Tah'Na would be reasonable, but they couldn't be trusted, even with the Inari present.

  But Karik had expressed a fear of her, and Torik had said she had the power to influence others. It must lie within her. If she was truly one of the Onduun, there must have been a way to use that to convince Salos.

  In the thickening silence, she took a deep breath and focused within, clearing her head and fighting the panic to find the calm.

  "You should listen to the Inari," Krissa said. "You have this empire but risk it all for one shard that isn't here."

  "Even if it was, the Starfire chooses its Keeper. One must be blended to even be considered," Talees said, lifting her hands to show the marks. "We were not considered worthy, and we are Keepers."

  Keeper…Karik had addressed Ramini as "Keeper". Was that what it meant?

  Something more Krissa hadn't known. Although she didn't understand, she assumed there was far more to this than they were saying. If she survived, maybe she'd learn.

  "You lie! Inari will do anything to keep the power to themselves."

  "It is not our choice but the Starfire's," Ramini said. "The shard would be useless to you, but you would start a war that could end with your people losing everything."

  "Release the Onduun, Salos," Torik said with a quick glance to catch Krissa's eyes in reassurance. "Release Leisil. Honor the agreement of your house. We brought the child as requested. We have fulfilled our part of the agreement."

  "Is this true?" Ramini still held out her glowing hands as if ready to do something, her head aside to address the Lereni while keeping an eye on Salos. "You swore to remove your occupation of Leisil in exchange for the life of Naperi's child, because you thought it would get you a Starfire shard?"

  Salos was silent, but by the movements of his fingers where they gripped, he was thinking. Krissa watched the others, hoping this didn't end in darkness for her.

  She caught Torik's eyes for a hope of some way to save her. The Inari stood with their hands still glowing. Were they going to heal the next person to be injured?

  "I want the Starfire. I don't care about her life," Salos hissed, emphasizing his point with a tightening of his grip on her throat. "Give me the Starfire."

  In the next instant, a dark shape sent her backwards with Salos. His hands loosened and she was rolled away. Several hands helped her up as she twisted to look back in time to see Karik with his claws at the premier's throat.

  "Stop!" Ramini said as Krissa croaked out "Karik." One of the guards pressed the end of his weapon to Karik's skull. The neck of the Tah'Na was nothing compared to the brute strength of the Lereni. He couldn't not care that he would die with his revenge.

  "Karik," she said more clearly, "you're better than them."

  The fury burning in his eyes turned to her for just long enough to see the pain fueling that fire.

  "Killing him will not bring them back."

  After a solemn silence, Ramini spoke in a voice that could have been a gray cloud: "The Inari will not help monitor the Tah'Na retreat if you do this."

  At that, Torik and the others turned to her. "You would oversee the withdrawal?"

  "We have been working in the Salnouan Kiitrak to convince the alliance to support Leisil's release from Tah'Na occupation," she said without taking her eyes off the two. "If he kills the premier, that support will evaporate. The Lereni may have had some violent customs, but they were honorable and valued trading partners. The Tah'Na knew this and the value of their world's resources to us and others, but we would rather not declare war."

 

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