N'ashtar The Alien Prince Read online

  My brow ridges had started to furrow in fury when R’Asha chuckled. “Or so says your father.”

  I relaxed, my shoulders losing some of the tension. I knew I needed to stay as loose as possible in order to run for a while, otherwise I would tighten my muscles too much and it would cramp and be painful. “Father has many opinions about me having a mate,” I said finally, not sure what else to say. I knew no matter what I said, Father would not be appeased. Especially since I couldn’t really explain what it was about Dana that drew me so close.

  “Why do you fight him so hard?” R’Asha asked, his tone neutral. It was a question I had been asked many times but never given an answer to, not out loud.

  Inside me, I knew why I refused one. I was guaranteed a mate as the future leader of our tribe, and the others would be promised to good lineages. In spite of my father’s best attempts, I had not made friends purely with people who were of that blood. Instead, my friends included an orphan, a crippled warrior, the religious leader, and some of the other hunters in the tribe. I was friendly with everyone, although less so with the elders my father courted so heavily.

  I would be gifted a mate, and my friends’ lives would go on, alone with no family for them. I didn’t want to do that to them. Then there was the matter of the Caterri. I wanted no mate nor children while their lives still ruled ours. What if I had a daughter that had to be tithed? What if I had a son who all he knew was our bowing to the Caterri and did not possess my bold spirit to fight them? It was far too risky. It was bad enough for our people, I did not want to involve more littles in there.

  R’Asha clearing his throat reminded me he was there. I shrugged, and the resigned hiss he let out told me he knew I wasn’t going to answer. I hadn’t in the past, and I had no plans to change that. “I’m not going back,” I told him, letting my tongue flick out to taste the air. Dana’s scent was faint, but it was still there, at least for now. “I should have gone for her the moment she was taken.”

  There was a hint of amusement in R’Asha’s eyes, much to my surprise. Although he was the spiritual leader, they were expected to defer to the chief in the matters of…well, everything else. “I have no plans to stop you.”

  That wasn’t as surprising as it could have been. My stubbornness was not a secret amongst the tribe members.

  “Thoheria is named for our goddess, the original mother,” R’Asha said softly, his eyes flashing light gold. “A mother is supposed to be fierce, to challenge and help her sons grow. But there is a reward for them, too.”

  I didn’t want to remind him I was familiar with what he was telling me, because it was the same story told to us as children. We all knew how the world came to be, how we as a people came to be. What I wasn’t sure was how it had something to do with the now. “What are you saying?” I was cautious, the words tentative. He said he had no plans to stop me, but what if he had something else in mind?

  R’Asha chuckled. “The females are a gift,” he said. “We were destined to receive them, to get their help. It is fate that brought them to us, to prove that we needed to follow your heart and rebel.”

  There wasn’t much R’Asha wouldn’t attribute to fate, but I didn’t say that. O’Rrin was our skeptic, although I wasn’t far behind. After spending time amongst both my people and the Caterri, I had stopped assuming anyone knew anything about people. There was no predicting such things, not really. “So what you are saying is…” I prompted.

  “If the rebellion is to succeed, we will need the females at our side,” R’Asha said pleasantly. “Fate tells us it is so. So you must save Dana and return, or don’t bother coming back until you have a plan to defeat the Caterri without them at our side.”

  Well, that was more ominous than I had anticipated. Still, I nodded stiffly. Whatever happened, I knew I wasn’t coming back until I had Dana at my side. Even defeating the Caterri wouldn’t be enough, because I had more to think about.

  “May your scales be granted speed, brother.” R’Asha pulled me into an embrace, quickly doing the circular mark on my shoulder that represented good health and luck among our people. It was considered especially auspicious to do on our coming-of-age mark, so of course that was where he went.

  “Same to you,” I said, giving him a nod and watching him turn and head off. He didn’t race, didn’t run with any urgency, just walked back in the direction of N’Akkar. I watched him as long as I dared before I turned my attention back to Kohta and where I was heading. Since she had been taken by the Caterri, it was their likely direction. A female of any type would be most valuable there, especially as currency.

  I ran most of the day, stopping every so often to refill my water skin whenever fresh water presented itself. Like most N’Akron, I did not need much water to function, but it was a scarce resource so it was always best to have more than needed in case I could not find some. The pack I had slung over my shoulder had travel rations and more leathers, because I was not wearing much more than a loincloth despite the cold. Running like I did kept me warm, and I would only resort to those when I stopped for the night.

  It was exhilarating, going out into the wild with just my spear, water skin, two knives, and the travel rations I had bargained on my back. I kept one knife on me at all times in case of predators, but the rest was tied to me. It reminded me of my coming-of-age ritual. Among N’Akron males, when we fully develop the brow ridges that mark us as adults, we are sent out into the world with a knife and a spear and told to survive for a month without coming near another N’Akron. Males doing their rituals at the same time were not to meet up, to share resources. It was our proof that the male was ready to ascend to adulthood and contribute to the tribe.

  The travel rations wouldn’t last long, but I wasn’t particularly worried. Once I got closer, I could start to set small traps whenever I stayed for more than a day, try to catch, skin, and cook some of the prey that frequented this area. There were none of the juicy [goats], just the sleeker [rykon] and even smaller [notrats].

  It took a full menlin before I caught sight of our trail where we had fought the Caterri and saved the Setti not far from Kohta itself. The Caterri had clearly been in a great hurry and had not bothered hiding their trail, because their strange, bug-like feet were easy to pick out among the damp dirt. There was also the smaller print of a human, and a quick flick of my tongue confirmed it was Dana. Her scent was many cycles old now, but it was there.

  Wherever Dana was, she had been here at one point. Alive, too, since I smelled no blood spilled. She also wasn’t worth much to her captors dead.

  Another day brought me to a cold fire pit surrounded by the vague imprints of tents that had been there once upon a time. It was clear it had been abandoned at least two cycles ago, but it was proof that I was behind them. It made tolerating the nights easier, the frigid chill that got in my bones no matter how many layers I put on. Sometimes I skipped sleep and just kept running when it got particularly bad.

  I didn’t need sleep, not really. Rage and worry and hope fueled me, letting me dig deep into energy stores and run many hours without stopping. It also let me deal with the setbacks that were unavoidable in any tracking. I came to a forked path, where it was clear the Caterri had split into two groups. Yet both had a faint scent of Dana, while neither showed human footprints.

  Growling, I crouched down closer to the imprints. It was not possible Dana could have gone on both paths at the same time, but that was what my tongue was telling me. I hissed my frustration, though no one could hear me. I had to find her. I had to.

  Except I chose wrong. After a handful of hours racing down one track, it had cycled back to the original trail, leaving me no closer to Dana but a lot more exhausted. I sank down onto the ground with a frustrated hiss. I was maybe a handful of [distance] away from where the trail had split off, but the tracks were still visible. Somehow, they had managed to get Dana’s scent on both parts of the trail.

  Seeking the reassurance only her smell brought, I flicked my
tongue out to taste her and recoiled. It was clear the Caterri had started wafting something in the air, some foul-burning plant to destroy my senses. I clutched at my face, my scales feeling like they were drying off. It was not an herb I had experience with, and it was one I never wanted to see again, but it was important that I got a sample to bring back to N’Akkar with me. The healers would need it to see if there was anything that could be done to balance its effects.

  A quick glance at the sky told me night was starting to fall, and between the trail being obscured and the quickly darkening surroundings, I knew I had to give in and take a break. It was the last thing I wanted, but I was not at full strength, and I would be no help to Dana if I got taken out by a [bigthing] before I reached her to rescue her.

  A small cave provided a place to stay, and I used some chunks of rocks and remnants of trees to block the wind some. The cave was circular enough that my body heat was warming it, and without the outside air causing havoc, I could almost breathe easily. I downed the last of my travel rations, making plans to hunt in the morning. If properly cleaned, most catches could last long raw in the Thoherian weather due to the frigid cold. It would be an easy thing to catch, clean, and then hook some creatures to my belt for when I needed them.

  Even while doing the rituals I was familiar with, my mind flickered to Dana. I needed to sleep, needed to rest and recover, but all I could wonder about was if she was okay, if she was dealing with the Caterri or if they were fighting her spirit. Dana was a fierce warrior, although she was human, and I hoped they would not beat that out of her. It was simply part of what made her who she was.

  I curled into a ball to protect as much of me as I could, a knife close at hand, and focused on drifting off to sleep. It was not easy, and when I did finally sleep? It was with an image of Dana’s face in my mind.

  2

  Dana

  The worst part of hanging out with the Caterri was all the time for self-reflection. I had plenty of time to think about how charging into the fray with a spear was probably not my best decision ever. Did I regret it? No. I’d seen the Setti surrounded, the way the Caterri treated them like objects instead of people, and it had short-circuited my sense of rationality. I knew too much what it was like to be taunted by someone who got off on the fear they caused in their victims. My stepfather liked his alcohol, and when he was drunk, he liked to make my mother cry. When she wasn’t around, he’d go after me. He never hit me, or her, but words could do just as much damage as fists. Bullies were bullies, whether they were here or on Earth.

  I’d also realized that the Caterri were just as bad as N’Ashtar had made them out to be, if not worse. It wasn’t that he was traveling to tithe a breedable female because he thought it was a good idea, it was because he didn’t have a choice. If they refused, it was more than likely the Caterri would treat them the same way they did the Setti. It didn’t take a genius to see that he wasn’t thrilled with the choice, either. That I understood less. He was their ‘prince’, the son of the chief. If anyone had the power to make change, he did.

  Then there was the whole fact his tribe was very low on fertile females, mostly because of the whole tithing thing. He didn’t have an exact timeline for how long it’d been going on, but it had been long enough that it was all he knew, which wasn’t good for the tribe. I’d admit, I had been hella dubious of his intentions at first. If they didn’t have many females, then the main reason he was talking to me was pretty obvious, right? I was a walking vagina. But the more I talked to him, the more I had realized there was something else underneath it all. Not that I would do anything about it, because I was leaving the planet as soon as possible. Yup.

  If I kept thinking that, certainly I would believe it at some point.

  Not that I thought all of my crew would be leaving with me. O’Rrin was N’Ashtar’s best friend, or so I’d gathered, and he was obviously affectionate to Hetta, the astrobiologist of the ship we’d been on. When they had mentioned the Setti, I had thought they were this planet’s equivalent of cattle. Huge, dumb creatures that provided nourishment for those who needed it. But the Setti we had come across were anything but. Instead, they were bipedal, self-aware people who had been screaming for help in a way that needed no translation. And the N’Akron had been ready to avoid it completely! The thought still made rage burn through my veins, even days later.

  But Hetta had said no, had been prepared to fight for them, and O’Rrin saved them and killed the Caterri, no matter the consequences. And the consequences had been dire. O’Rrin had been poisoned, and another troop of Caterri had hunted us down and kidnapped me. All because we’d saved a group of sentient people from suffering at the hands of another.

  Well. We hadn’t. I’d stood back and watched like the other humans, a fact that made bitterness taste sour in my mouth. I had trained my body and my mind to be a weapon back on Earth, having a black belt in judo and karate because, let’s face it, humans were assholes. While my drunkard of a stepfather had never touched me, this had ensured that he wouldn’t ever try. Yet I’d watched them fight and stood back like I was a damsel in distress, too afraid to do something.

  Fear was a pointless emotion, one that served to make you weak and vulnerable. I never wanted to be vulnerable again, didn’t want to be seen as weak to anyone who might take advantage of it. I was strong. I could take care of myself, and anyone who wanted to argue could go jump off a bridge.

  That was why I’d grabbed that spear and raced forward, determined to not need protecting. Except it turned out I had, which was how I’d gotten my ass kidnapped and was now surrounded by creepy, leering bug-people. Just my freaking luck. The trio that had grabbed me had quickly raced back to a small cart-like hovering thing, watched by several Caterri that seemed smaller in stature. Kind of like the servants to their master, or a squire to a knight. Except these servants still held power over me. As we traveled, their oily smiles slid over me and the malice that glinted in their black eyes was hard to miss.

  We’d walked without a break for countless hours, enough that the suns rose in the sky and beat down on us. At least I was wearing clothes, because at that point, it was the little things that made it tolerable. Except then the weird-ass Caterri started racing off in different directions, some with something that looked suspiciously liked aerosol cans and others just trotting along like nothing was wrong. I’d stared at them for a while before it had hit me. Some were creating false trails, and from the acrid, burning stench of whatever they were spraying, they were masking all of our scents with whatever that was. I didn’t know how sensitive N’Akron noses were (or was it their tongues? They seemed to flick those out an awful lot), but it had to be a problem for them if the Caterri were going so far to hide things.

  “Is the smell a problem?” One of the squire Caterri came up beside me, watching me with careful, inquisitive eyes. I hadn’t thought black eyes could look inquisitive, but I was proven wrong.

  I stared at it for a long second, because it sounded almost concerned. Given the Caterri looked like a vampire crossed with a fly, I hadn’t thought concern was even in their wheelhouse. The Caterri were tall, at least six foot, with normal torsos but darkly scaled, bug-like legs. I half expected to see antennae buzzing at me, but instead they had long white hair that never seemed to bother them or tangle. They also seemed underdressed for the weather, with leather-like vests and pants that didn’t look nearly thick enough for how cold it got at night. Hell, I was wearing clothes from the ship and a blanket I’d found in the bottom of whatever cart they’d shoved me in and I was still freezing.

  Walking with them would have helped, but I wasn’t allowed to, probably because it would have spread my scent too much. Whatever creepy-ass bug people they were, they were smart.

  “You can’t like that smell, can you?” I finally asked the Caterri, not sure what to make of it. “It’s like paint thinner.”

  The Caterri’s frown was thoughtful. “I do not think we have this thin paint you speak o
f.”

  I fought a smile despite the situation, another tick on the list of things I had never expected to happen. That a Caterri would make me smile or even consider a chuckle or a laugh (beyond the hysterical sort) hadn’t seemed to be on my radar. Or anyone’s radar, I figured. “It’s how you paint walls back home, sort of. You use paint, and if it’s too thick or you need to clean some up, paint thinner can help. But it smells nasty.”

  The sound the Caterri made was close to a fly buzz, but they didn’t look alarmed. “Where are you from?”

  I mentally dubbed the Caterri Squire, because it was getting exhausting referring to it as ‘the Caterri’ every time I stared at it. “A planet called Earth,” I answered truthfully. “What about you?”

  “I am from here,” Squire said with an oddly human shrug. “I was born in Kohta, as is all of our race, but I serve at the Cordelain outpost.”

  “The what now?” I wasn’t even certain that was a word. Still, I had my supervisor distracted, so I needed to take advantage of it. I scratched at my head, trying to seem nonchalant at the behavior while trying to pluck out single strands of hair.

  “Cordelain. Are you well?” Squire moved closer, which made me freeze, but it didn’t seem annoyed as much as alarmed. “Does your head ache?”

  “My species scratches their scalp frequently,” I told it, figuring that was as good of an excuse as any.

  “Very strange,” Squire said, but simply nodded. “Do you have many other Earth customs we should be aware of?”

  Instead of answering its question, I flicked a strand of hair over the edge of the cart nonchalantly, as if I was just getting some air for my hand. Squire didn’t seem alarmed, which I was grateful for. “We Earth beings have a lot of strange customs,” I said. “Such as wearing lots of furs because we have limited coverings.”