Page 15

CHAPTER

ELEVEN

CORVAK

We are being followed.

My senses prick as we travel, constantly on alert for danger.

Not that I think the other gladiators are anywhere nearby.

They were a clumsy lot, lacking stealth and subterfuge.

But there are other dangers out here. As we have descended from the cliffs into lower territory, I have seen great flying birds big enough to swallow Aidy whole.

I have seen tracks in the snow made by animals bigger than my mind can comprehend.

And right now? Right now, I am picking up a brand-new scent.

Aidy has not noticed anything yet. She is in a good mood today, her smile as bright as the sunlight overhead.

Today she is not fretting about her lack of memories.

Instead, she asks me about the races I am spliced from.

She is unfamiliar with mesakkah and praxiian both, and those are my primary sources.

I suspect I have traces of other races as well, but which ones, I am uncertain.

She asks about my tail, and giggles when the stump of it flicks with irritation.

I much prefer Aidy's laughter to her tears. If she needs her pussy fondled every morning to put her mood to rights, I would be honored to do so for her.

"What do you have in mind for our fortress? Are we thinking a cave or something more like an igloo?" she asks, even as the wind drifts with the scent of…something. It is not the gladiators, nor a human, or any species I am familiar with. The smell is foul and growing stronger by the moment.

I glance over at Aidy, unsure if I want to ruin her mood just yet. It might be nothing. I have not heard anything. "I will know it when I see it."

She makes an exasperated sound, glancing over at me. "It would be nice to have a plan of some kind."

"I will plan based on what we have been given. I cannot bet on a cave if there is no cave to be found."

"Mmm, okay, you have a point." She holds onto my arm as we move carefully down a gravel-covered slope and nearly loses her footing. I hold onto her until she straightens, and then she makes a face. "I wish they'd dropped that pack closer to us. What do you think it was?"

I turn my head ever so slightly, looking for scents again. "Whatever it is, we want it first. If nothing else, so we can keep it out of the hands of the others."

"You're scaring me with that kind of talk, Corvak."

I nod, even as my thoughts race about what could be dropped here in a supply crate. All of my ideas of what it could be are terrible ones, though. "I will not lie to you, Aidy. If it is a crate of weapons, we do not want the others to get them."

Her hand tightens on my arm. "Kinda makes me want to run back into the mountains. Just find a nice gopher hole and never come out."

I do not point out that most weapons have heat sensors and targeting, and they would find her easily.

Instead, I pause. "Do you want to find someplace to hide?

" Normally I would hate this idea, but normally there is not a strange scent in my nose, telling me that there is something headed in this direction.

I do not want to lead Aidy into danger. "If you want to separate, I will find my way back to you. "

"What? No. Not at all." She continues to hold onto me. "We're in this together."

I smile at the sincerity of her response.

No wonder they put me on suppressants. I am oozing feelings right now.

Aidy's smile broadens, and her gaze flicks to my mouth.

Is she going to try and eat my face again?

At some point she has to realize it's strange, doesn't she?

Her gaze slides to the side and she stares at something over my shoulder.

"Is that a bit of smoke in the distance? "

Turning, I scan the sky. Sure enough, a tendril of smoke is staining the clouds in the direction we are heading. Is that the package? "I'm not sure supplies should be smoking."

"Maybe it's something else? Or maybe someone else already got there?" Aidy shoots me a worried look.

"Either way, we need to check it out," I tell her grimly.

Our hiking takes on a hurried edge. I push her harder than I mean to, but I am worried as to what that smoke means for us.

If someone else retrieves a weapons cache, it is all over.

It's an advantage I won't be able to counter, no matter how crafty I am.

We move steadily toward the tendril of smoke, keeping it in our sights.

The valley we are traveling around loops and winds throughout the rocky mountains, and I grow impatient to see what it is we're chasing.

With Aidy following my lead, I direct her to climb the next cliff instead, so we can get a good look at what exactly is down below.

All the while, that pervasive, strange scent fills my nose.

We climb to the top of the ridge. To my relief, we can see down below, where the source of the smoke is.

It looks like nothing more than a scorched stain on the side of a neighboring cliff.

Whatever hit left a mark on the rocks and tumbled down to the snows below, melting everything in its path.

There's a large bare circle in the snow, yellowish with plants of some kind, and in the center, a black… something.

"What is that?" Aidy asks, panting, as she moves to my side.

I honestly have no idea. I squint, wishing my sight was better. It is excellent, but from this far away, I have my doubts as to the accuracy. "It looks like a rock."

"So a meteor, not a drop?"

"A what?" I ask, puzzled.

"You know, a comet? Space debris? Something falling from the skies because it made it through the atmosphere."

I have no such word in my memories, but perhaps those who created me did not see the need for it. "We should go examine it."

"What? No! Look, it's still smoking!" Aidy gestures at the "rock" below. "That thing is going to be molten hot. And it might be radioactive. Space is full of radioactive waves." Her expression turns to one of confusion. "At least…I think it is?"

I do not know what radioactive is either. Her warnings are valid, though. If it is not a gift from whoever is running this game, it might be something to avoid. "Perhaps…"

I trail off as the wind changes, and then the smell overpowers us. Aidy gags, her hand going to her mouth. The smell is rancid and foul, with a kind of stink I have never experienced before. I whirl about, ready to confront whatever sort of wild animal it is that smells like death.

But standing at the base of the slope, gazing up at us, is not a wild animal.

It is a stranger. A native people of some kind.

The newcomers stand on two legs, their arms long and thin, their bodies covered with a filthy pale fur and no clothing.

The strange faces have large, rounded eyes, and a small tearing beak for a mouth.

There is not just one waiting for us, but a dozen, maybe more.

Aidy's hand goes to my arm and she steps closer to me. "Are…are those the gladiators you said you saw?"

"No," I say. "They are an entirely new problem."

"Shit." She glances behind us. "I don't think we can jump and make it. What do we do now?"

I sling the pack off my shoulder and check my weapons.

This is the moment I have been waiting for—to display my prowess to my female.

Yet I didn't anticipate that the enemy would be so close to Aidy, or that there would be so many of them.

I want Aidy far away from these aliens, somewhere safe…

.but that is not an option. "You stay here behind me. I will handle this."

And I step forward, bracing my legs slightly apart so they know I am the one to fight.