Bastial Energy (47 page)

“What did he do to all of us?” Alex added. “Did you feel that blissful relaxation in the middle of everyone nearly killing each other?”

“Yes, what was that?”

And what in Bastial hell happened with Reela?

Chapter 48: Traitors

ZETI

Jumping over the fence was the worst part about returning to camp. After Zeti had walked a hundred and fifty miles in a week, with little sleep and less conversation, the wooden wall that bordered the Krepps’ territory looked daunting. It was built without doors. The only way through it was over it, which normally wasn’t difficult. A simple run and hop would get Zeti’s belly on it so she could swing her legs over, but even a simple task such as that was monumental in her exhausted state.

The fence actually was designed more so to slow anyone leaving than to prevent intruders from coming in. It gave the post guards a chance to chase after any Krepp who wasn’t permitted to go. Ever since the move to this new encampment, their huge Slugari leaders had been unreasonably strict about Krepps leaving the camp. She heard a Krepp had an arrow shot into his leg when he tried to climb over when all he’d done was forget to notify the post guard first.

During her team’s searches for the underground Slugari colony, most of her physical fatigue came from the poor company she had to endure, not from the miles they walked. It’s not that they didn’t speak, for they did—too much. It’s that they had nothing to say worth hearing. When they spoke, it was either to boast or belittle each other. When they asked a question of her, it was always one of three. The men without a
seshar
would try to convince her that they should be hers. The men with a
seshar
would ask why she hadn’t chosen one. And all would ask what it felt like to know her brother was a traitor.

Zeti found herself considering taking one of them as a
seshar
just so she wouldn’t have to deal with it anymore. Their nonstop annoyance made her welcome the nights. While the bumps on the ground sometimes kept her awake, at least they were silent in doing so.

Paramar, the chief of the search group, was the only one she could tolerate. Since their duel, she’d taken a small liking to him. He didn’t have much to say, but he was always willing to help. When they needed to hunt for food, he would always go. When they decided to make a fire, he would gather tinder and start it. And he was always the one to carry the chamoline—what could be the most important flower to the Krepps—acting as the replacement for Vithos’ ability to sense the Slugari, which they lost when he was labeled a traitor.

The chamoline flower had a friendly green color, five long petals, and a small tongue coming from the middle where the petals met. Paramar had told her of its power: It mimics the colors of some plants when there’s a high enough concentration of them around.

“It’s very susceptible to rujins, turning red if enough of them are nearby,” Paramar said when he showed it to her.

“Why does that matter?” she asked, not knowing what use the rujin flowers had.

“You don’t know about the Dajrik, do you? It’s something Doe and Haemon taught us.”

She’d never heard the word before. “Dajrik? No.”

“A giant with skin twice as tough as mine.” Paramar showed her his arm and clawed at it to demonstrate his point. “Dajriks might as well be made from rock, and sure look to be from how Doe and Haemon have described them. The Slugari have one. It wears an amulet with pure rujin fused as a gem. It needs to. Otherwise, it has terrible nightmares for whatever reason. Doe and Haemon think it’s because of its age. The older Dajriks get, the worse their nightmares, and this one is thousands of years old.”

It sounded like a fanciful tale to Zeti. But the way Paramar was describing it made it clear these were facts. It was hard for her to believe, especially because she’d never seen a giant or any creature with skin tougher than a Krepp’s.

“Why is it with the Slugari? I don’t understand.”

“The Slugari have the ability to create the gem it needs from rujins and of course the rujins to make it. The rujin gem doesn’t last more than a hundred years. Its concentration fades. The Dajrik doesn’t have the ability to make it himself. He needs the Slugari, so he protects them.”

Paramar twisted the chamoline carefully between his claws. “Now that we have this, we can find them just by standing over their hidden colony. It’ll become red because of the rujin gem the Dajrik wears.” He grinned in a way that would’ve sent Zeti’s heart jumping if she had any fear he might want to harm her. “The cowards can’t hide for long, even if the Humans don’t give them up.”

“Why don’t the Slugari stop making it if they know we can use the chamoline to track them?”

“They might not know. Anyway, Doe and Haemon say the Slugari would never let the Dajrik suffer through the nightmares. The Dajrik saved them from the destruction of their race—from two other Dajriks hundreds of years ago. It’s a long story, and I don’t remember all the details even if I wished to tell it. Just make sure you don’t harm the chamoline.”

“I wouldn’t dare.”
So much difference one plant can make
. She went to her toes to get a good look at it, holding Paramar’s arm in place. His skin was so tough it seemed as if it would chip rather than scrape.

“Once torn from the ground, these chamolines only last a week before they can no longer change color. We have many seeds planted, but they don’t grow well. There are only a few old enough to work right now.” He spat.

“We’ve just recently discovered the chamoline, I figure?” It was an answer as to why they chose now to send off Vithos—because he was no longer needed.

“Yes, our scouts did well.”

Maybe he wasn’t a traitor after all. But why did Zoke get dragged into this?

They’d searched the eastern side of Satjen with the chamoline but it hadn’t changed color. Now that they were back, they would have one night of rest, giving Paramar time to meet with Doe while Zeti looked forward to her quiet hut and bed.

Right after she jumped off the wall, she felt a sting to her lower back. The nick was just below her short leather shirt where her stomach was exposed. She spun to see what got her. Paramar was sitting on the wall. He must have sliced her with a claw on his foot.

“Your skin is still very soft,” he said, hopping down so close his chin would have hit her head if she were a neck taller. He reached his hand around her, pressing his palm into the fresh wound for a heartbeat. He brought his hand back to show her the small amount of her blood he took from her. “Even the small claw of a Slugari would open you up. I have to make sure your skin is tough enough for battle before we strike, otherwise you’ll be staying behind.”

“It doesn’t matter how soft my skin is if I don’t get touched. That’s what this is for.” She lifted her bow. “I can fight.”

“Paramar,” someone called. It was a voice she didn’t recognize. When she turned to see Keenu, the chief of the scouts, she took it as her cue to leave. She found it to be common for other chiefs to meet with Paramar and even saw him speaking with Doe and Haemon a few times around camp.

But Keenu stopped her with a hand to her shoulder as she tried to walk by him. “Zeti, right? Sister to Zoke?”

“Yes, what of it?” Whenever someone led with her connection to Zoke, the conversation never went well.

“Doe needs you and Paramar to come with me. Nebre has returned. Follow, and I’ll explain as we walk.”

Nebre…the one who was sent to Kyrro because he could speak their language?
He couldn’t have made it there and back already
.
What happened?

Zeti checked the thin cut on her back for blood as she started after Keenu. Her gray finger came back just a bit redder. She stuck it in her mouth to suck off the stain.
And what could Doe want with me?

Keenu spoke while they walked. “Doe and Haemon didn’t trust the Humans from Tenred because the Humans didn’t like our idea of threatening Kyrro to reveal the location of the Slugari. Instead, Tenred wanted us to attack Kyrro with them, take their cities, and use force to get the Slugari location out of them once Kyrro’s hope was lost.” Keenu spat. “But it would be thousands of Krepps in the frontline, risking their blood. Wisely, Doe and Haemon decided to give Kyrro a chance to avoid war. The three Tenred Humans were very displeased by that decision, so Doe and Haemon thought they might kill Nebre and dispose of his body to make it seem as if Kyrro had killed or captured him, forcing us to war because of the threat we issued. So they had me trail a day behind Nebre and the Humans from Tenred.”

This information wouldn’t usually be shared with Zeti, and that made her nervous. S
omething must have happened when he followed them, but how does it involve me?
She knew she would find out soon but was in no way eager.

“So I tracked them,” Keenu continued, “following the footprints of a Krepp and the shoes of three Humans all the way to the center of Satjen to make sure the plan was followed, and it was. They didn’t kill Nebre. The Humans continued west to Tenred, Nebre went south. Then I found something strange. Remember, I was a day behind to ensure I wasn’t seen, so I can only tell you about the footprints and not what created them.”

“More footprints of shoes?” Paramar asked. “Humans coming back to kill Nebre?”

“There was one shoe print, but it was different than the other three. A cruder form of leather, like from the shoes Vithos wore. Next to his footprints were that of a Krepp, someone walking close to him. They trailed Nebre together…” Keenu gave Zeti a long look. His yellow eyes said it all.

“You think it was Vithos and Zoke,” she said for him, holding back spit. “You think Zoke is a traitor.”

“I know it was Vithos and Zoke,” Keenu answered flatly. “Nebre confirmed it.” Their next few yards passed in silence. “I’ll let Nebre tell the rest.”

Zeti felt her heart speeding up.
Even if it was Zoke and Vithos, what am I supposed to do about it?
“Where are we meeting Doe?” she asked.

“The judgment chambers,” he answered with a soft voice, clearly aware what he was implying.

The judgment chambers
, she repeated in her mind,
should be called the burning chambers
.

Since their move to the new camp without Vithos, she’d heard the judgment chambers had been taken over by Haemon, with Doe making an appearance every so often. Judgment was no longer part of the process. There was only punishment. If you didn’t complete your task, you received a burning, simple as that. The more you missed your quota, the worse the burning. If you broke a rule, you got a burning. Any dispute between Krepps needed to be resolved by those involved, otherwise each received a burning. From what she’d heard, no one left the chambers without a burning, and now she was to be brought there.

While the new judgment chambers kept the same name as the old, everything else had changed. There weren’t even four walls, just one crude stone wall and a few chiseled rocks to sit on. The Krepp to be burned would stand in front of the only wall. Its sole purpose was to block the fire from reaching anywhere else but the accused’s skin. After the burning, the Krepp would leave, and the next awaiting judgment would file into place.

She heard there was no sitting for deliberation anymore. Doe and Haemon couldn’t sit anyway, Zeti figured, as they didn’t have legs. Or maybe that meant they couldn’t stand. She didn’t care to think about it.

But when she entered, Doe surprised her by pointing to a rock with his gnarled Slugari claw and telling her, “Sit.” His fat face was contorted with a grimace, his beady eyes nearly devoured by lumps of flesh around them. His two small antennae hung limply atop his head, as they had the last time she’d spoken to him. Somehow, he seemed even longer and wider than before, his bulbous tail rounder and fatter, barely thinner than the rest of his body now. It slowly swished back and forth as he glared, waiting for her to sit.

She sat, and Paramar sat on the rock beside her. She noticed then that Keenu hadn’t gone in with them.

Then she noticed Nebre. He no longer had the nervous squint in his eyes, the one he’d had when he was the only Krepp to raise his hand after Doe shouted to the tribe asking who spoke the language of the Humans.
No, now he looks like a different Krepp, one with resolve.
And he was looking right at Zeti, but not in the same way other Krepps stared at her. He looked ready to jump from his rock with a knife. Then she saw the waxy white line across his wrist. It looked fresh.
He’s just been burned
, she realized.

“Tell them what happened,” Doe said to Nebre, slithering close to the Krepp. With Nebre sitting, Doe was well over twice his height. Nebre kept his eyes on Zeti but did seem to wince when Doe looked down at him.

“It was brother to you,” he pointed at her. “Him and the Elf. They’re both traitors.”

She felt a twitch in her legs. It nearly stood her upright, but she ignored it and sat forward with her arms crossed. She remained silent, waiting what felt like days for him to continue.

“I had the note, the one for the King of Kyrro,” Nebre said. “Not long after I split from the Tenred Humans, I was chased down by Zoke and Vithos. They insisted on knowing my business but wouldn’t say why. The Elf was so close, I had no chance to lie without him knowing. I thought they were going to kill me.” He took a quick look at Doe.