Regali (A Walker Saga) (2 page)

As Ria strode over to the main group she wondered why they’d allowed themselves to be caught. Fringe did not usually come in willingly.

A burst of noise had her spinning around and a vine snatched her up just as another large group of beras flooded the munks’ territory.

Their fur was speckled with blood.

From her secure position, Ria was able to send the rest of the vines to seize her people, saving them from the ferocity of the new arrivals’ attacks. Beras stood over ten feet tall, strong and brutal with razor claws and jaws full of massive teeth. For some reason more of this pack had defected to the fringe than any other.

After rescuing their members, the fringe disappeared into the jungle, taking with them the
munks’ supplies.

Ria followed using the sight of her plants, hoping to be led to their territory. The plants were her bes
t chance of keeping up with the fringe. The guards were in pursuit but were already a step behind.

And then midway through Artwon, as the
y neared the old waterfall, the fringe members simply disappeared. It was always the same, and she couldn’t understand how they hid from the jungle. She searched aimlessly for a few more minutes, but the foliage sensed no disturbance at all.

Pulling her energy from the trees she focused back on the scene in the
munks’ territory. The vines dropped her down and she rushed to offer help and comfort. The screams of grief were deafening as packs found loved ones dead.

Ria joined with those moving to tend to the injured. She spent many hours using her knowledge of healing and plants to fix wounds, poisons and breaks. Finally, as the moons shifted higher in the sky, the
y began to bury the dead and rest the injured.

Ria called for the vines with the two babies
. She had been keeping an eye on them and they had slept through most of the pandemonium. Reaching out, she gently captured the sleeping munks, their sweet little faces so peaceful. She looked around for the father, but he was nowhere to be seen. Finally, as she wandered away from the main gathering, she found him. He had been missed when they tended to the injured.

He was curled up beside his mate, one of his hands resting on hers, the other pressed tightly to the wound in his chest.

Ria’s breath caught in her throat.

T
he munk’s chest rose and fell very lightly, but she could see the torn damage to his chest was too much for a recovery. Tears pricked at the corner of her eyes. She glanced down at the innocence in her arms, tiny little faces with brown fur so soft and silky. They were too young to remember their parents, to realize their entire worlds had been ripped apart.

“Ria, why do you hold these young?” Klea, who had been her shadow for most of the battle, spoke from behind her.

“Their parents were killed.” She pointed toward the fallen couple, and as she spoke the male took his last breath, his body relaxing into the stillness of death.

She shed a few more tears, her life water falling into the soil.

“Let us finish helping their recovery and then we will return to the sacred tree,” Ria said, turning away from the heart-wrenching scene.

She needed to speak with the tree spirits about the fringe. This had to stop now
. Their ferocity was increasing, the carnage heartbreaking. It was Ria’s job to save her people, but she was making no inroads into stopping them. She just couldn’t understand why her plants hid these extremists from her.

“Queen.” A female
munk stepped in front of her. “I am Aralet, sister to Ara.” She pointed to the still body of the little ones’ father. “I will take the children and raise them.”

She spoke bluntly but with respect. Ria knew that even if Ara had no blood relatives, someone from the pack would have cared for these two young. At that moment the elder of the two children held out its arms to Aralet, and Ria could see they
knew each other. Leaning down, she laid a gentle kiss on top of their heads before she passed them across to their brethren.

“Care for them well
,” she said, before turning to follow Klea.

They had many more hours work help
ing to salvage and rebuild the munks’ territory. All of which had to be done before the red moon.

Ria was silent in her loft house, watching, waiting for the full crest of the red moon. The six smaller moons cast their shade of blue, but as the large red circle rose above the canopy, the world turned to purple. And at the peak of the red moon howls rang free. Ria threw back her head, savoring the spill of energy through her blood. It was rare that she ventured down to run with the packs. This was their time to be free and not feel their Queen was watching over their shoulders. But sometimes she wished to be pack. To lose all forms of civilized behavior for a short time.

“I have to go now.” Klea’s rough tone startled Ria.

She spun around to find the leon in mid transition. The skin was melting away to be replaced by fur and when Klea’s mouth finally lengthened into a muzzle she would no longer be able to speak in human tongue.

Ria nodded
. She knew Klea hated leaving her unguarded, but no pack member could ignore the call of the red moon. And she would be safe.

With a roar, Klea dropped to all fours and flung herself out of the doorway. Ria moved back to the edge of the trees
, watching as her jungle came to life. The noise below was almost deafening.

Ria never slept the night of the red moon
. The energy had her buzzing around her loft until the purple light faded and the large ball disappeared from the sky. The moment that the blue moons filled the sky, the packs quietened and proceeded to sleep off the night. Ria took advantage of this time, descending to the forest floor and moving freely through Artwon. She needed this moment to release her overload of energy. Each time power fizzling from her plants sprouted or burst to life. Large flowers bloomed, fruit blossomed, and she loved feeding her overflow back into nature.

During her run she’d never seen any living creatures, so an unexpected movement between two lanta trees had her grinding
to a halt.

Pack members required at least twelve hours
’ sleep after the red moon, so it could be none of them. Ria scanned the dense vines and trees as she wandered under the large brown trunks that formed the structure for the tangled venus vines.

There was no more movement, but she knew something had disturbed the land
; she could feel the unease from the plants.

Deciding that whatever it was must be long gone, she was turning to continue her journey when he stepped out from between a section of large vines.

Ria gasped.

S
he knew this man.

H
er mother had given her dreams of the father she’d never known. The father who was now standing before her.

She took an involuntary step forward, her eyes cataloguing every detail. He was
much taller than she was, his hair the same silky brown color as her own, his skin much darker but still tawny. Ria had always known that her unusual eye color was from him, but his were even more dramatically set off by stunning purple square-shaped marks running along the right side of his face and neck.

Except for these marks, she was the female version of this man. Well
, the marks and the ivy print in her hair, which was courtesy of her mother.

They examined each other
. Ria could see the vines curling around his arms and legs, the same way they did when greeting her. And then as she continued to stare at him the marks disappeared off his face, as if they’d just melted into his skin. How had he done that?

“You are very impressive.” He finally spoke, his accent heavy and unfamiliar.

“What are you doing here?” Ria asked him.

“I have watched you for a long time
. Your mother asked that I leave you alone.” His purple eyes flashed, reflecting off the blue moonlights. “But things are changing in the First World star system. It’s no longer safe, so I’m here to warn you.”

Ria’s unease grew, which had her plants wrapping tightly around her for comfort.

“Warn me about what?” she asked.

He held out a hand to her. “It would be better if I showed you.”

Ria hesitated. She knew nothing of him or his intentions. But despite this she found herself stepping forward and reaching out to place her smaller hand into his.

“Show me the threat to my people.”

Ria stared at the bunkers under the roots of the massive
rairing tree, energy roaring inside her. She had the barest sliver of control over her anger.

Her father, whose name she
had learnt was Nos, had shown her how the fringe had been evading her detection.

They wore the skins of the dead.

That was why when she scanned the forest for them they went undetected: the skin of all those they had killed surrounded their den like a large camouflage, and they also covered themselves in the skins. The deads’ fur gave off its own aura, hiding the living who wore it. And they had hundreds of furs, many more dead than she’d ever realized.

“As terrible as you may find this, I did not bring you here to mourn your dead.” Nos spoke quietly. “These nuisances are the gateway to something much worse that could spell the end of Artwon and Regali.”

He definitely had Ria’s attention now. She waited for him to continue, but he seemed content to sit beside her in the high branches. Patience was a skill she’d worked hard to develop in her many years, so for now she just continued to observe.

The fringe had numerous members
. Hundreds came and went through the veil of dead.

Ria sat upright, her senses firing as a group emerged from the underground burrow. They weren’t pack. They looked like her, but short and sturdy, the
dwarvin. She had heard of these creatures. They lived in the lands of the north; the flat plains.

“What are they doing here?”
she muttered.

“War is coming to your doorstep, Ria. The fringe are gathering rebel factions from all corners of Regali
. They plan on taking Artwon first.”

His words sent shockwaves of panic through her. There had never been war between the countries before
. As a rule, everyone stuck to their own area.

“They could not have organized this on their own
,” she said, knowing the fringe did not have the manpower or the resources.

The
north men disappeared into the trees. She was tempted to send out her vines and steal back her dead brethren they wore, but she knew now wasn’t the time to tip them off.

“That is why I have come
,” Nos said. “You have a Walker problem.”

Six days.

We’d been stuck inside the moonstale dome for six days
, and in this time it was abundantly clear that while Walkers were powerful they were mostly – what was the right word? – oh yeah, asshats.

Most of them had no clue how the modern world worked and they threw their dominance around like bully
ing children in the playground. And, speaking of children, I’d finally asked about Walker young.

There
were none at this gathering. Brace said their rare offspring were protected and would never be involved in mass Walker events. I had a strange longing to see the power, majesty and beauty of Walker children. Something told me they would be mesmerizing.

The last six days of the gathering had been a power play amongst the clans. It was so frustrating
. Everyone knew that the older clan members held more information than could ever be recorded. And if we could get them to stop hoarding their thoughts we might have some clues to defeating the Seventine. Easier said than done. I was starting to worry that the entire gathering was a fruitless endeavor.

Right
at that moment I was hiding away in the trees by the lake. Some of the very old Doreen members were scattered close by, but unlike their newer models, they mostly left me alone. I was sitting in the forest worrying about everything. The clans, the Seventine and lastly Lucy.

Something was going on with her
; she was keeping a secret from me, which was very unlike her. I was worried that it might have something to do with Colton. He’d been sniffing around my best friend like the wolf he was, and I was contemplating a way to neuter him.

I’ll be finished soon, Red. Then I’m coming for you.

I shivered as the deep tones of my mate brushed across my mind. It had been a long six days for Brace also. His father’s death had left his Walker clan, Abernath, in a state of disarray. Brace was now on the verge of becoming Abernath’s next Princep, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about this. He wasn’t even the ruler yet and I’d barely seen him over the past week. I missed him.

Promises, promises
,
I teased him.
What if you can’t find me?

He laughed.

You’re in a moonstale dome that you can’t escape
. I don’t think that will be a problem.

The Walker gathering was scheduled to last for seven
days and in that time no one could leave this area. It had made for some interesting fights and challenges, but so far nothing too major had happened. But that might all change tonight. This was the final meeting and all the Princeps had agreed to reveal their collected information about the Seventine. So far they had been less than forthcoming, no one wanting to just give their knowledge away for free.

I was hoping that we
would discover something which could be used to swing the battle-of-the-star-systems in our favor. Right now we had too little time and information and we were running against the clock. I had to finish gathering the seven half-Walker girls before the Seventine were all released. Right now I had Talina from Spurn and Fury from Crais. And tomorrow I was off to Regali, the planet of the beasts. Meanwhile the three freed Seventine were around severing tethers and exploding Walkers. Luckily for us, we hadn’t seen any evidence that the third had stuck around after killing Que.

“Abbs, I need to tell you something.”

I spun around at the sound of my best friend’s somber tone. One look at her face had panic zooming through my veins. I’d known she was keeping something from me but this was bad, really bad.

“Oh
, my god, Luce, what the hell happened?”

She opened her mouth but I kind of lost my mind as the worst case scenario I could imagine jumped into my thoughts. Damn Colton.

“You’re pregnant, aren’t you? Shit. I’m going to kill that mangy flea bag.”

I knew what I was saying was crazy
, but I couldn’t stop myself turning away and marching into the Doreens’ area. The horror spreading across Lucy’s face only increased my panic.

“Colton
,” I bellowed as I strode from the forest and into Doreen. He was somewhere with Brace. “Get your hairy butt out here.”

“Abby!” Lucy was at my side. “What the crap are you doing? I’m not pregn
–”

“Are you looking for me?” Colton strolled over, his perfect face relaxed.

“You have some explaining to do, rug man,” I said, my annoyance fueling my words.

I’d warned Lucy to stay away from this Walker, but clearly she hadn
’t listened.

“Rug man?”
he asked, raising his brows.

“Yeah, because you’re about a minute from becoming a pelt on my floor
,” I spat out. “What did you do? Lucy has been keeping a secret from me and there’s only one thing that would freak her out that much.”

His white blue eyes flicked across to lock on Lucy’s face.

“She thinks I’m having a litter,” Lucy said, raising her brows.

I couldn’t even think how this
had happened. I mean, I knew
how
it happened, but it wasn’t that simple with a Walker. Half-Walkers aren’t supposed to exist, except the seven of us who were needed to save the worlds, but I couldn’t think of any other reason why Lucy had been avoiding me for days. And I knew it was early, she wasn’t showing or anything, but I assumed she’d found out in a vision.

Colton’s features hardened. “Why does she think that?” His tone was deadly calm. “Have you been doing something to get pregnant? Who?” He threw his hands in the air. “I
’ll kill him.”

Shit, sounds like it’s not Colton’s.

Lucy narrowed her eyes at him. “Listen, pound puppy –” she started but he interrupted her.

“I’m a damn wolf
,” he growled before stomping away.

“I’m not pregnant
,” Lucy said, her smile tired. “I wish it were something as simple as that.”

Had
she just declared pregnancy simple? That was always my worst case scenario when I jumped to a conclusion.

“Then why did you say that to Colt?”

She laughed. “He just rubs me the wrong way, being all gorgeous and demanding and arrogant and freaking sexy.”

I joined her laughter. “Welcome to the world of Walkers.”

We continued along the path.

“You look tired, Abbs.” She reach
ed out to capture my arm and hug me close.

I hadn’t been sleeping much, and even though the enlightenment of my Walker powers had given me increased speed, strength and stamina, the dreams were starting to take their toll. I was being tormented by infrequent, but frustrating dreams of the end of First World. Something was trying to give me a message I was yet to figure out.

“Don’t change the subject, Luce. What do you have to tell me?” I shook back my long mane of blood-red curls.

I wasn’t ready to discuss my dreams, not even with Brace. I had the terrible feeling they were linked to Lucas, the First
-World Emperor, and my responsibilities to him. And I had too much to deal with already.

“We should sit down
,” Lucy said. “And we need total privacy.”

Her
words restarted my internal freaking out. I led her across to this small inlet of the pond with its own waterfall. The gushing water was loud enough to hide our words. She sat on the rock next to me, her hands clasped in her lap as she stared down at them. I waited, for once striving for patience. Although I might have been slowly going insane on the inside.

She laughed without looking up. “I can feel your urge to reach out and strangle the information from me.”

I shrugged. “What can I say? I need to know things. Anything really that’s of interest to me. Something tells me your secret is of great interest to me.”

“It’s bad, Abbs, really bad.” She sighed and lifted her eyes to meet my gaze.

My heart was racing.

“Is it Quarn?” I whispered.

My guardian was at the castle with Lucas, helping with the ceremonies for the recently departed Emperor and the crowning of Lucas as the new ruler of First World.

Lucy shook her head. “No, Abbs, stop guessing. You’ll never get it right and you’re going to drive yourself insane.”

I was literally thirty seconds from reaching out and shaking her until she spilled her secret. But just as I lifted my arms she spoke.

“I had a vision about the final battle.”

I stilled, the slightest rise of my chest from my shallow breathing my only movement.

“We lost. The Seventine were all free, and they killed everyone but you.”

I could hear her words but they sounded like they were coming from far away. I had recently freed the third Seventine to save Brace, but in doing so I broke the lock keeping them from destroying all the worlds. A safeguard that had been instilled by the original seven Walkers. And now Lucy was telling me that my choice would cost everyone’s life. She was staring at me, a look of despair etched across her porcelain doll-like features.

“Did …” I had to clear my throat. “Did you learn anything which could help to change this fate? Surely you had this vision for a reason, so we could learn h
ow to win the final battle.”

She laughed out in a hoarse croak. “The first Seventine said that because of your melding with Brace – where you split powers with him – you
would never have been strong enough to defeat them.”

When we’d first started to talk I’d shut down the connection between Brace and me. In case it was something bad that Lucy didn’t want public knowledge. Apparently it was even worse than that. I jumped to my feet.

“Are you telling me that my
unbreakable
bond with Brace is the reason we all die?”

A bond so important that I’d literally made a deal with the devil to reinstate.
She nodded, her lips forming a thin line. I just stared at her. The world around me started to spin in a strange dizzying motion. Were the trees closing in?

Lucy opened her mouth again.

“Abby?”

I could see the question on her face as she said my name, but the words were all distorted and echoing. Was I having some type of breakdown? I closed my eyes in an attempt to quell the insanity fluttering around me.

“Abbs!” Her tone was more demanding now.

“I have to tell him
,” I whispered, opening my eyes. I needed to know what we should do.

“No!” Her response was strong. She waved her hands at me. “You can’t tell Brace
. My visions indicate that if you reveal this nothing changes.”

I shook my head a few times. “I am going to tell him, Luce. I learned something important when I
freed the Seventine. Secrets do nothing but cause trouble.” I sighed. “It goes against my instincts but I can’t save the worlds alone.”

And Brace and I were a team. I’d hate for him to keep important information from me.

“Please listen to me,” she implored. “He loves you so much. More than anything else, including the worlds. He’ll destroy them all to keep you. At least don’t tell him straight away.”

M
y heart warmed and swelled at her words, which was odd because my blood felt as if it had turned to ice.

“Have you told anyone else this?” I asked.

“No, Abbs, I haven’t said a word.”

She was so somber for Lucy. I could see the whirling portal of fear, panic and exhaustion in her blue eyes. And desperation
. It was the real emotion blaring at me.

“Okay, Luce, just for now I won’t tell him.”

It was wrong and I wasn’t happy, but I’d give us a little time to try to find a solution.

A few leaves drifted down to rest in our hair
. Six months ago we would never have believed it was possible to be sitting in a forest. For almost eighteen years I had been stashed on Earth, in New York, which was urban living at its worst. Derelict buildings, gangs and a compound of abandoned girls. But I was a true First Worlder. And if it was all going to end soon, at least I’d escaped to see my home planet.

“What the hell do I do now?” It wasn’t in my nature to roll over and die
. I just needed a new plan.

“I don’t know
,” Lucy finally replied.

A burst of energy had me kicking a pile of leaves at her.

“Okay, enough depressing talk. We will not give up. We will continue on the way we started. I’ll keep gathering the half-Walkers.” I took a deep breath. My voice shook. “And if we don’t figure out something better we can try and find a way to break the bond.”

Although I knew that would probably kill Brace and me, but if Lucy’s vision held true
then there was no choice.

Lucy nodded once, the despair evaporating from her features.

“Dammit, you’re right. I let that damn vision get to me, but it’s not over until I say it is.” She jumped to her feet, a fierce determination now overshadowing her words and voice. “Let’s head back now. I don’t want to miss a moment of this last gathering.”