Page 131 of Planet Zero
She smiled with irony. “It won’t be the first time I have to start over.” But she wasn’t alone this time. They would go together.
“My brother will go with us.”
“Would he? You may want to ask Oh’nil about that. You know… Qalae.”
It was the first time she voiced what the brothers carefully skirted around.
“He’ll go,” Zoark said. “It is now she who will have to decide. He’s given her plenty of time.”
“Where would we go?” Addie asked.
“Across the Olzol Mountains.”
So Zoark wanted to take them back to the Valley of the Rare Flowers.
“At least there were Teks to tidy us over.”
He grinned. “That’s what I was thinking. And speaking of Teks,” he surged to his feet and pulled Addie up with him. “I saw signs of their activity on my last scout. I want to look again.” He picked up his ever-present spear off the ground, his intent toward the Teks clear. “I’ll see you home… ” he abruptly cut himself off and twirled around, dropping into a fighting crouch.
“Zoark?” Addie’s heart began to thump.
Zoark wasn’t paying her attention, his ears pointed.
She never heard a sound. Or maybe they never made a sound. But Zoark did, cursing as he went into a full-body lunge. The Yuux screeched from above like banshees, but they were too late.
And all hell broke loose.
Several bodies leaped at them from behind the rocks. Zoark collided with one, driving his spear toward the man, but two more jumped him from behind.
Addie whipped into action just as a pair of strong hands closed around her. She screamed and struggled, but the hands gripping her were iron.
“What is she?” She heard uttered in hoarse low For.
“A funny-looking little bitch.”
The smell of unwashed bodies and rank animal hide hit her nostrils. She didn’t need to look to know they were marauders.
She kept struggling, to no avail.
“Be still!” The one who held her shook her hard enough to rattle her brain. “You too, cripple! Or I’ll kill her right now. Do you understand?” A brutish face with a snarling mouth came within inches of her own. “Nod that you do.”
Zoark ceased fighting, surrounded by three big males, and his knife was wrenched out of his hand, leaving him defenseless.
“Hey, she doesn’t understand!” A man chirped from behind Addie, his voice young like a teenager’s.
“She does. That lame bastard spoke to her.”
Understanding that she and Zoark had been under surveillance from these men, perhaps when intimate, was demoralizing.
Eyes wild and breaths choppy from fear and adrenaline, Addie took stock of the marauders. Five in total, they were predictably tall and burly, dressed in typical For garb of woven garments, tall furry boots, and crude skin cloaks with slits that left their arms bare. Leather belts that held assorted weapons cinched their waists.
Unlike the tribal For, these five went all-out with bling. Braided leather necklaces hung in batches from their necks, with small rocks and carved pieces of bone dangling off them, clacking dryly when the men moved.
Their hair had been, in some distant past, braided, but they didn’t appear to be bothered to take care of it often. Two men had peculiar designs scrolling down their cheeks and forearms, but whether they were painted or tattooed, Addie couldn't say.
The marauders’ weapons reflected the uncontrolled, malevolent war energy that shimmered around them. Their spears were rubbed with something, likely the dark Nipi juice, to a glistening black sheen, and etched along the length. A club clutched firmly in a giant fist bore stains that looked like crusted blood. The most fearsome of all was the axe one man was holding, ebony-black and shiny as if oiled, inlaid with fragments of bone on the handle - surprisingly intricate workmanship - and topped with a slate-gray sharpened stone.
All their weapons bore multiple chips and notches that were not part of the design but a testament to their frequent and heavy usage. And their owners’ bodies sported as many scars.
