Seer Wars Season One: A New Earth (Part II): A Romantic Science Fantasy Saga by JC Andrijeski

Author:JC Andrijeski [Andrijeski, JC]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: White Sun Press
Published: 2024-05-29T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 20

STOPPED

“HALT!”

River felt Valek tense behind her.

She felt his leg muscles tense, his abdomen, his chest. She felt that light he wove into and around hers grow dense. Through that same cloud of his light, she felt his arms tighten, his fingers, even his face. She also felt him keep his hands off her with an effort.

He sent an impulse to the nalici.

The animal came to a stop.

For the first time, their slightly winded and increasingly grumpy dragon-horse let out a growl of open protest. It lashed its tail. It let out a sound she hadn’t heard from it until then, a screeching, angry, hissing cry, followed by another dense growl.

It was hungry.

It was really, really hungry.

It was tired and grumpy and annoyed and hungry.

River could feel how hungry it was, how angry and frustrated it was at the humans now barring its way. They were less than a hundred yards from the main doorway to the nalici barns. They’d nearly made it inside.

River had just begun to relax.

She’d started to think they would make it inside, that they were going to make it all the way back to the mounting platforms without being stopped. Valek guided the nalici carefully through the jungle in the dark. He’d had them skirt more than one patrol. He’d wound them through the trees and past scattered groups of soldiers to get them here.

And they’d almost made it.

Then a group of humans stepped out of the shadows on either side of the open doors.

The one in front had spoken.

Orange light poured out of that sixty-foot high opening.

It bathed them in its glow.

After that pitch-black ride through the trees, the comparatively bright light blinded her completely. River couldn’t see the face of the male who’d spoken, not when he first called out to them. When she looked down at the people standing there, she saw only dark outlines.

She made out eight of them.

She watched, muscles tense, as the guards barred the animal’s way. They blocked it on three sides, and the animal screeched a second time.

They felt human.

All of them felt human. No seers.

Even so, they definitely picked up on the animal’s surly mood.

River watched a tall female soldier position herself directly in front of their mount.

She stared up at the nalici’s eyes. She watched its lashing tail warily.

In her hands, she gripped a blood-red, metal pole, maybe eight feet long with a black ball at the end. Without knowing precisely what it did, River’s mind likened it to a cattle prod. The human brandished it at the nalici aggressively, her muscular legs braced in a fighting stance. She looked as if she was preparing for a one-on-one duel with the horse-dragon.

River admired her bravery.

She didn’t think much of the woman’s chances against the hungry nalici, though.

She glanced at the woman’s face and flinched.

The female human was glaring at her.

Not at the nalici… at her, River herself.

The woman stared at her coldly, unwaveringly, like she knew her.

Then those dark eyes flickered to Valek.

The recognition that time was much easier to see.

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