Page 43 of Rifted Hearts
Kaveh crouched down, and Remi gave him a wan smile then coughed.
“Tonight’s gone downhill since I saw you last,” Remi said.
He squeezed Remi’s hand and forced himself to concentrate on a quick trauma assessment. After ruling out a neck injury, Kaveh got to work. He cleaned and stapled the laceration on Remi’s scalp, then did a more detailed assessment with a living crystal bioadapted to provide feedback on individuals with Riftworld physiology. Thankfully, nothing more serious showed up.
Other than the cut and a mild concussion, Remi wasn’t badly hurt. Jessie had been right to question smoke inhalation, but a short time later, Remi was propped up on the ground, breathing normally and eating a cheese snack bar provided by one of the Goat Sisters.
“Snow is my hero.” Remi waved the snack bar at the bird, who fluffed his feathers in pride. “He flew out to get help. Raion rescued me before I became barbecue, and he put out the fire.”
Jessie and the others filled Kaveh in on the attack, withRemi adding in rather nonsensical details that didn’t shed much light on what had happened. He also didn’t make much sense when Kaveh asked him why he was here in the monstertown, mumbling about needing some nighttime video for his wrap-up stream tomorrow. Despite the man’s brave front, Kaveh was worried Remi had lingering post-concussive effects.
One thing was clear—this had been a ratkind attack. Maybe Remi had been in the wrong place at the worst time, or maybe his association with Kaveh had made him a target. He needed to get the man somewhere safe.
“I think you’re okay to travel.” The best option was to have Jessie bring Remi back in the town ambulance, which was a modified horse-drawn carriage. Once they were past the new rift boundary, they could call a city ambulance, and Remi would get a full hospital evaluation. “We’ll get you back to the ranch. I’ve got to check out the damage and make sure the ratkind who did this don’t attack anyone else.”
“No, I want to go with you.” Remi stood up, wobbled, then pressed close to Kaveh, dropping his voice to a whisper. “I need to talk to you. In private.”
Kaveh put an arm around Remi’s waist and waved off several well-wishers. They walked a short distance away, Kaveh’s sense of unease growing.
“It’s about Kat.” Remi ran his fingers through his hair then grimaced as he touched his scalp wound. “I’m starting to remember now. I overheard the two burglars talking about a hostage and the military base.”
The Colony had abducted Kat.
Cold, sick dread filled Kaveh. He couldn’t think of a better place than the base for them to hold him. The barrier keeping the phantoms inside the inner core relied oncomplex drakone technology the matriarch herself had put into place. He knew little about it, except that it was forbidden for any of the clan to enter the facility. That could disrupt the cordon and risk the release of the ferocious invertebrates.
“Thank you.” Kaveh clasped Remi’s shoulder and was surprised when the man flinched. He pulled away, upset at himself for losing focus. Remi was injured and manhandling him was inexcusable. “I’m sorry. You’ve been through too much tonight. I’ll get Jessie to bring you back, and I’ll inform my clan. We’ll save Kat.”
“This can’t wait.” Remi twisted his hands together, his face pale. “The information is time sensitive. I mean, we need to go up there now. I can help. The person who’s holding Kat—he’ll listen to me.”
Kaveh raised his hands in a soothing movement and was about to insist Remi lay back down and rest when a voice grumbled behind him, rough as gravel.
“My apologies, Kaveh-san, for the interruption.”
Kaveh turned to see that Raion had taken on his humanoid alter form, which he did only when he needed to communicate more complex information to anyone not a komainu. Jessie stood by his side, her eyes wide.
“Kaida has contacted me.” Raion bobbed his stone head. “The sparkleflies have detected an issue at the base. The cordon around the phantoms has weakened.”
Sparkleflies were Riftworld insects capable of conscious thought as a mass hive mind, and they lived in the abandoned base. They served as an early warning system for threats from there, and the guardians could communicate with them.
This wasn’t good.
If a rift storm broke out, enhancing the phantoms’power, they could break free and attack the monstertown. At least they couldn’t cross the rift boundary and threaten the ranch. They couldn’t modify their Riftworld bodies enough to become a threat outside the riftland.
“Has Kaida-san notified the matriarch?” Kaveh tried to push down the fear rising in his chest. If the phantoms escaped into the outer part of the base, Kat and whoever held him captive there would die terrible deaths. The ratkind had played a dangerous game, and now everyone could lose.
Raion gave a somber nod. “Kaida must now return here to protect the town by my side, and no one in the keep can enter the base without destroying the rest of the barrier.”
“Can I enter?” Kaveh asked. Raion and Kaida were the only ones outside of his clan who knew about his true background as an Azdaha. Maybe one good thing could come from his birth family’s bloodthirsty history. His birth clan was so different from the aerial drakones that it might be possible for Kaveh to go inside and not disrupt the containment system for phantoms.
“Possibly.” Raion’s stone face reassembled into a frown. “You are young, Kaveh, and have not transformed yet into your drakone alter form. It would be a great risk.”
“I can go inside the base.” Remi swayed, grabbing Kaveh’s arm to steady himself. “It’s not like I can mess up any dragon whatchamacallits, and I’m sure the rat people will listen to me if their lives depend on it.”
Raion looked skeptical.
Kaveh shook his head. “Go with Jessie. You need a hospital.”
“If those monster jellies are out there, Jessie and I might not be safe traveling to the ranch.” Remi tightened his hold on Kaveh. “At least let me go out to the gates with you. Icame here on Amanita, and you need all the help you can get.”
