Page 20 of I Married Amreth

She had the face of a goddess, with high cheekbones, a delicate nose, plump and sensuous lips, with stunning eyes whose color I couldn’t quite define. Her file labeled them as gray, but they were too dark to truly be described as such, but too pale to be black. Her brown skin looked good enough to lick, it contrasted in the most wondrous fashion with the silky strands of her silver-white hair. Under the light of the early afternoon sun, they shone like a sea of diamonds. Despite being very generic, her field uniform hugged the perfect curves of her body in just the right way. It took every ounce of my willpower not to land my vessel right away and run to her.

Seeing Ciara raising her right hand and caressing her right cheek before sliding her palm down the side of her neck snappedme out of my dazed fascination. It was the sign indicating that they were unharmed and not in any danger. I sent a signal back acknowledging their response, as they continued to pretend to be casually chatting while stretching their legs.

They lingered a few seconds longer before going back inside. One final scan confirmed that there was no one else inside the laboratory with them. I only detected two female simians in the dwelling next to them. The superficial readings seemed to indicate that they were asleep. A single guard was casually standing watch by the gates closing off the inner courtyard where the doctors were detained.

After one final fly over to assess the best way to break them out, I flew a relatively short distance away—approximately a ten-minute winged flight for me—to a tall rock formation with a sturdy overhang upon which I landed my vessel still in stealth mode. I couldn’t risk leaving it in the forest or any other open area where the locals or an animal might run into it.

Anyway, I wouldn’t break out the prisoners just yet.

First, I wanted to enter the village, possibly set up a few diversions to help their escape, and ideally speak to one of them to get a better sense of what was happening. Before leaving the ship, I sent a message to Maeve with the coordinates of the village as well as the data and photos gathered so far from my scans. As there were no relays nearby, the message would travel for a while before it eventually got picked up.

And yet, a part of me suspected someone might conveniently be lurking in the vicinity of Kestria, ready to intervene should things truly become dire. Although I had limited interactions with the Enforcers on a daily basis, I had seen enough reports involving some of the foulest convicts incarcerated in my Sector to know what creative methods were used to capture them. The Enforcers rarely left things to chance. They simply excelled at finding workarounds to maintain plausible deniability. Thesame way they enabled me to come here, I didn’t doubt they had someone else ready to pick up any trail that could lead them to the identity of the Sectarians threatening the sovereignty of our borders.

Even without proof of that speculation, it still provided me with some measure of comfort. If things went belly up for me, at least someone would know for certain where my mate was so that they could take her to safety.

I opened the hatch of my vessel, activated my personal stealth shield, then took flight. Once again, I marveled at the beauty of the landscape. It reminded me of home, with the lush forests, colorful flora, clear skies, and fresh air softly laced with the sweet aroma of fragrant flowers. The sun caressed my wings with its warm rays, the weather perfect for an extended stay outdoors without the type of crushing humidity that could ruin places such as these.

As much as I wanted to fly directly into the courtyard, I couldn’t risk the sound of my flapping wings giving me away. Although my stealth shield also had a strong sound dampening feature, it didn’t fully mute it. I didn’t know enough about this species to dismiss the possibility of them having highly sensitive hearing. The position of the guard by the gate would make it nearly impossible to land without getting noticed.

Anyway, the goal of today’s infiltration was mainly to see how I could walk them out safely or make plans to fly them out individually at the most appropriate time. I landed in the forest located in front of the village, the tree line beginning about one hundred meters in front of the last row of their farm field.

I started walking carefully towards the village. At least twenty-three males and four females were working the fields on each side of the wide path that led to the gates. I welcomed the noise they were making, which further drowned the very discreet sound of my own steps. Even without it, they wouldn’thave been able to hear me from this distance and with the dampening effect of my shield. But you couldn’t have too many things on your side. They were harvesting what appeared to be some sort of corncobs, although the shape slightly differed, as did the color. Others seemed to be pulling out weeds and working the soil.

However, it was the color of their aura that retained my attention. During my flight, it had a bluish white hue that had been quite safe. Considering the distance and the blocking effect of the vessel itself, it wasn’t uncommon for our readings to be impacted or skewed. Now, in person, they all had a pale, yellow tinge that made me uneasy. As it remained far from anything that could remotely translate as danger, I continued my advance, my eyes flicking this way and that as I observed them, looking for any sign of potential trouble.

That they all focused on their work, aside from the occasional chatting, lessened some of my tension. Halfway through the path, I noticed the first shift in the color of their auras. The yellow tinge noticeably intensified. It had not turned orange or red—which would have been terrible in the latter case. It still made me consider aborting the mission. I hated not having a baseline for the color palette of these people’s emotional range.

They still paid me no mind. A couple of the males and a female picked up the heavy crates filled with vegetables to bring them to a chariot by the entrance of the village, before returning to their spots. The effortless way with which they carried them testified to their tremendous strength. It also told me that their females—at least this one—were as strong as the males. Then again, although more slender and with narrower shoulders, the females were at a height with their counterparts, the muscles in their arms well-defined like those of a fitness model.

Just as I was closing in on the last five meters to the village’s entrance, where the gates lay wide open, the color of their aurashifted again, this time with a hint of orange. My stomach dropped, and I stopped dead in my tracks. There was no way this was a coincidence. While the original yellow only told me that I should be on my guard, the increased intensity hinted that they might have been plotting something. But this was the color my convicts usually displayed when they were waiting for just the right moment to spring a trap on their unsuspecting target.

I didn’t know if these colors had a different meaning for these people, but my every instinct was yelling for me to get out of here. Silencing my urge to move forward and make contact with my mate, I slowly started to back away, my eyes fluttering in every direction for any sign they were onto me.

And did it ever come.

I had only taken three steps backwards when every single simian jerked their heads in my direction. My blood turned to ice when they all made direct eye contact with me. I instinctively glanced at my shield to make sure it was still active. And it was. Somehow, they could see right through it. As one, they dropped their gardening tools and ran towards me.

I flapped my wings and darted towards the forest. To my dismay, they ran at impossible speeds, closing in on me. Their perfect coordination accompanied by an eerie silence—other than the thumping sound of their feet—made it even more frightening. My heart skipped a beat when a male with a circlet jumped at least four meters high, his fingertips brushing my left heel. Only a couple more centimeters, and he would have grabbed my ankle to yank me back down.

I flew even harder as an odd tingling sensation manifested itself at the back of my eyes. My initial plan of losing them in the forest was quickly thwarted as they all leapt at insane heights, latching onto the first lower branches of the surrounding trees, swinging with incredible strength over a few meters onto the next tree. Many were climbing at the same time. A coupleof them released a high-pitched shout, reminiscent of those emitted by monkeys. They didn’t sound random, but appeared to act as some sort of tactical direction to help them better coordinate their attack.

With the growing discomfort in the back of my eyes, it took me too long to realize that they were attempting to get enough height to be able to jump on me and tackle me to the ground.

I immediately soared, hoping to put enough vertical distance so that the upper branches would be too weak to support their weights, giving me a chance to escape. But no sooner did I begin my ascension than a loud noise exploded inside my head. My vision blurred, and I suddenly found myself struggling to control my movements. It sounded like an unnatural white noise, confusing my synapses and scrambling my motor system.

I started falling and barely managed to recover enough to go into a glide so that I wouldn’t plummet to the ground. The noise lessened, partially restoring my control over my wings and senses. But as soon as I tried to outrun them again, the noise came back with a vengeance, making me falter some more.

Having no choice but to land or risk grievous injury, I flew towards the ground but brutally crashed, my blurry vision making me miscalculate the distance. My teeth rattled in my head, but I rolled with the momentum and jumped back onto my feet. The unrelenting noise made my eyes water and my muscles tremble. I tried to focus on the silhouettes closing in on me as I invoked my Lumiak. My fingertips tingled with the electrical energy half a second before it fizzled. My knees buckled, and I fell down. A wave of dizziness crashed over me. Kneeling, my palms resting on the forest floor for support, I struggled to remain conscious.

In one last desperate effort, I blasted mybakaan. If nothing else, it might keep them from killing me. I couldn’t tell if it succeeded, but after multiple thumping sounds of the Simiansjumping down from the trees and landing all around me, the noise in my head dimmed as they all stood still.

“A calming aura?” a male voice said with a hint of amusement. “That must be a useful talent to have with turbulent infants. But there is no need to appease us. We are not your enemies, Obosian. You may calm yourself and drop your shield. We expected you.”

How in Tharmok’s name did they know what I was when I had never heard of their species? How could they possibly expect me? How did they speak Universal so fluently? And especially, how the fuck could they see me?

In a way, that last question was stupid. Clearly, they possessed some form of psionic powers. I, as an Obosian, had the power to see souls, even through camouflage. They apparently shared similar abilities.

My mind still reeling, I deactivated my shield. I looked up at the tall and muscular male that seemed to be their leader, if only judging by the circlet on his forehead that none of the others possessed.

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