took the next watch, CeCe fell into my arms, and we fell asleep within moments. I awoke to the aroma of hot food and the murmur of quiet voices. Nudging CeCe, I watched her gentle waking like the first blush of a spring bloom, and when her dark eyes sparkled in the low light, I pressed my lips to hers, inhaling her life’s breath and tasting her sweet kiss.
“Mm, I could get used to that,” she said with a wide smile before pulling my head down to kiss her again. Letting my hand mold to the curve of her jaw and cheek, I explored her mouth with my tongue as she did mine, and it felt like I poured my love into her with every kiss and touch. She returned my fervor until we were both breathless, and then eased apart, our eyes and smiles saying what words could not … for now.
“Good, you guys are up!” Amity said. “Esra and I made an egg dish, and we have toast!”
“Oo, toast?” CeCe said with enthusiasm. Then she looked at me and touched my hand. “Could you make some of that white bark tea please?”
Did she know I would gather up all the stars into a basket for her if she asked?
“Ik,” I said, pleased to give her this small thing. As I prepared the tea under CeCe’s watchful eye, I glanced at the others. The humans had sidled closer to us while my brothers grinned.
“Raxthezana, the humans gather around you like flies on a kill,” Natheka said on a laugh.
“Oh, that’s a terrible visual,” Esra said with a scoff.
“They are as the awaafa gathering to sup at the brine flower’s nectar,” I said, and the women cooed and laughed while my hunter brothers groaned and threw bread crusts at me. “Nay, you cannot sway me, my brothers,” I said, keeping my voice stern though I laughed inside my heart. “You know it is true.”
“If the tea is the nectar—“ Hivelt said— “then that makes you … the brine flower? I don’t see it.”
“They’re just jealous,” Amity said. “You keep making us that Predator Planet coffee, Brine Flower.”
“If they want to compete, all they have to do is figure out which tropical plant can be made into chocolate,” Pattee said, and CeCe laughed the harder.
“Confession time,” Esra said with a half-smile. “When I was missing humanity the first few days, you know what I thought of? Cheeseburgers! I never realized how shallow I was!” She laughed and the others joined her.
“I definitely miss my family,” Amity said with a nod and a sad smile. “But sometimes I just want this dish my mami used to make with corn and beans and spices.”
“Food was a challenge in the Agothe-Fatheza,” Joan continued, thoughtful. “I was on an island, so my choices were limited to these purple reeds that tasted like bland potato but smelled like broccoli.”
“Oh my God, no wonder you have trauma!” CeCe yelled and pulled her into a tight hug amidst even more laughter.
As everyone ate and drank, my hunter brothers and I smiled and sat, simmering in our mates’ heated banter as they argued about descriptions of tastes or favored dishes.
Peace had settled over our group, and my heart was full.
We cleaned and packed our gear, and then it was time to face the final descent and after that, the Black Mist Chamber.
But our spirits were buoyed by togetherness and full stomachs, and our bonds had been strengthened by goodwill and community.
“Thank you for this,” CeCe tugged my hand and whispered in my ear, her breath tickling my hair fronds and sending thrills racing down my spine until I clenched my teeth and flared my nostrils, inhaling the essence that was my CeCe, a blend of spice and sea grass, and I closed my eyes and shuddered.
She pulled back, concern etching her brow.
Grasping her where her shoulder met her neck, I leaned to whisper in her ear. “Your nearness drives me to distraction. Would that I could devour you this very jotik until you are inside me and I am inside you.”
Her eyes widened and the distinct aroma of arousal wafted to my nose.
Grasping my neck, she stood on tiptoes to nip my ear and replied. “I’m right there with you, big guy.”
Groaning, I held her to me as long as I dared before we began our trek.
In silent accord, everyone’s conversation was kept to a minimum as the Narrows lived up to its name, lights penetrating the walls toward which we headed and often creating optical illusions. Climbing over rockfalls, we feared the moment we discovered the trail buried for good, necessitating a long and rigorous retreat. But our luck held, and we reached the final crevasse in one and a half zatiks. We had to anchor our own bolts, but our mates were expert miners, and they made two lines with ease and were soon at the bottom.
All was well until Natheka missed a step ten veltiks from the ground. He fell, and a decided snap rent the air around us.
“Natheka!” Amity shouted and ran to him, Esra close behind.
“I have some experience with broken bones,” Esra said, her voice calm, and Amity moved aside so she could kneel where Natheka lay and inspect his leg. “Your ankle?” she asked him, and he nodded, his scowl matching the fire in his eyes.
“I should have double-checked the foothold,” he said, self-recrimination coloring his tone bitter.
“Will the shel help this to heal?” Esra asked and he nodded.
“If I can rest for three zatiks, it will be nearly as good as born,” he said.
“Ik,” Raxkarax agreed. “I suffered a similar injury in the Agothe-Fatheza. It will heal.”
“Let me wrap it,” Amity said and took Esra’s place at his side. Esra handed her a roll of cloth.
I pinged Naraxthel’s channel. “What should we do?” I asked.
“I hate to split our group,” he said. “Yet I am eager to close out this quest.”
“I feel the same,” I said. “Amity will stay with him. Should we leave others as well?”
“Let’s take a water break,” he said. “We will ask what they desire.”
Uncapping our canisters, we drank and reviewed my maps. After a suitable time, I turned to Natheka and Amity.
“Do you desire anyone to stay with you while we continue?” I said.
“We join the company,” he said.
“We talked about it,” Amity replied, glancing at Natheka then meeting my eyes. “He said he can put some weight on it, and he doesn’t want to slow us down. We want to get the Holy Waters and go topside. We have shit to do.”
“Very well,” I said and Naraxthel nodded his assent.
A cursory glance at the humans revealed some skeptical brows, but if they were concerned, they didn’t say anything out loud.
Our pace slowed, but not because of Natheka’s injury. This part of the cave trail had been rendered nearly impassable by rockfalls. Picking our way up and over fallen stone and crushed rock, the evidence of Ikthe’s travails would not be ignored.
“Shit,” one of the women said. “Dammit.”
“What is it, Joan?” CeCe asked.
“The air sampler is busted,” she said. “It must have been during the last quake, but I didn’t notice it until now.”
Pattee jogged to Joan’s place in line and inspected it. “I think I can fix it. Give me ten minutes.”
We paused and regrouped, quiet conversation lending a calm ambience to the narrow trail, but I was on edge. In less than a zatik, we would be at the shaft leading down to Black Mist.
“VELMA,” Esra said. “Are you still with us?”
“So far so good,” she said.
CeCe held my hand and stood close, though we said nothing. The peaceful morning was a distant memory replaced by anxiety and concern and the fear of the unknown.
“Fixed it,” Pattee said, and CeCe blew out a gust of air.
“Thank God,” she said. “I have no desire to be the canary on this trip.”
“Canary?” I asked.
“In ancient times, miners took pretty little birds down into the mines with them. If the bird died, they knew the air was toxic and returned to a safer spot,” she said.
“I would have guessed my race to be the more brutal one,” I said, and CeCe shook her head.
“You don’t know the half of what humans are capable of,” she replied, and her words carried the weight of an entire planet.
“Mayhap you will tell me someday,” I said, noting a distant pain in her wood-fired eyes, a pain unrelated to her recent torture at the hands of my people’s Queen.
“Maybe,” she said with a slight frown and petted my hand with one of her long fingers. “Maybe every sentient species is capable of atrocities, just because of will.”
“Think you VELMA is capable of atrocities?” I asked.
“God, no,” she said. “Not in her current iteration. Hopefully never. That’s why I had to get rid of VELMA-X. As soon as you start putting a number value on life, you’re forced to solve equations, and computer brains are excellent at solving equations.” She shuddered and I wrapped an arm around her shoulders though I knew her reaction wasn’t from the cold air in this tunnel.
Pattee and Hivelt brought up the rear preceded by Raxkarax and Joan. Natheka and Amity were in the center, and Naraxthel and Esra followed CeCe and I at the front.
CeCe squeezed my hand and released it, and we commenced the next taxing climb.
Steady beeping erupted from CeCe, and I saw she carried the air sampler. “Joan gave it to me since we’re in the front,” she said. She banged the side of it. “Pattee? How do I know if it’s working?”
Before Pattee could answer, CeCe cursed and held the sampler closer to her helmet; I presumed she studied the readout.
“We’ve got toxicity,” CeCe said. “Helmets stay on until otherwise noted.”
“Confirmed,” the humans responded, and the hunters followed suit.
“Joan, it’s reading positive for methane but also organics,” CeCe said. “Is that your mushrooms?”
“It could be,” Joan said in our helmets. “But it could also be rotting vegetation, like in the bog. Without a pod, VELMA can’t do a deep scan.”
“Damn,” CeCe muttered. She didn’t say anything else, but she quickened her pace.
I knew she desired to complete our quest as much as everyone else, but there was a sharpness about her. I suspected it was the shel, but I wouldn’t know unless I asked.
“What troubles you?” I asked on our private channel.
“Everything feels off,” she said, and I heard the frown in her voice. “It’s probably just the shel since I haven’t been able to run or exert myself for the last twenty-four hours. But I’m irritable and on edge. I just feel … agitated.”
“It is unfortunate we can’t move faster,” I said. “Certainly, a quest is not an ideal situation in which to learn how to navigate shel armor.”
“Thank you,” she said, tossing me a look, though all I saw was the black visor of her helmet, of course.
The final shaft lay at the bottom of another fall of cracked and broken rock. Standing at its edge, I shone my light down into the black hole, but the darkness swallowed the beam. I could send a flare down, but I suspected it would reveal nothing—such was the atmosphere in the Black Mist Chamber.
CeCe held her instrument over the shaft and a low whistle pierced our group channel. “The gauge is off the chain over here,” she said. “I’m serious. It could be at a rave.”
I didn’t recognize some of her words or their usage, but when I peeked over her shoulder, I saw the readout’s numbers changing so fast as to be unreadable, though I wouldn’t recognize the symbols regardless.
“Maybe it’s still broken?” Joan said.
“I don’t think so,” CeCe said. “I think there’s a lot of particulate activity going on in this shaft. And by default, the chamber it leads to.”
“Guess that means we’re going in,” Amity said without irony.
“It’s not like we have a choice,” Esra responded.
“Let’s go,” Pattee said.
Joan sighed.
Compassion tore at my heart for a jotik, and I looked back at Naraxthel. He dipped his helmet, and I knew what he was thinking.
The quest was a curse and gift, and we had better get on with it. We could live or die, but we could never turn back, not even for our mates. Leaving CeCe’s hand with a final squeeze, I accessed the panel that held my climbing gear and anchored the first bolt. Knotting the end of my rope skein and attaching my harness, I lowered myself into the shaft first. I would lay the line. And I would be the first hunter in fifteen revolutions to visit the Black Mist Chamber.