The Ilia's Lovers - Chapter Twenty-Six

The flyer rammed into the ground throwing up turf and dirt all around them. Over the pilots shoulder, Hadith could see the shield protecting them. He had no idea what knocked it out, but suddenly the front of the flyer concertinaed in and the pilot was gone, crushed.

Hadith allowed himself a breath as the flyer came to a stop and somehow, he and Elaine were alive.

She was gripping onto him crying, shaking. Hadith held onto her terrified to let her go in case somehow, the crushing continued or… or…

Get moving.

“Elaine. We have to go.”

She didn’t hear him. She was too overcome. Hadith stroked her hair and pressed her to him, allowing himself a breath. Allowing himself her heat, her warmth, her vitality to infuse him with purpose.

“Elaine.”

Hadith shook her. she looked up at him, her blue eyes appearing in stark contrast to reddened skin.

“They are coming, Elaine. We must run. Now.”

It took a moment to get through and then Elaine nodded. She turned and gasped when she sat the front compartment.

“There’s nothing we can do for him, Cadus is dead.”

Cadus is dead. He’d been Hadith’s personal driver for several years. His wife was Issa. His son Cade. Cadus beamed every time they spoke of his family and now they would never see him again.

Hadith grabbed the handle and dragged himself out of the flyer, pulling Elaine out with him and out of the gouge they’d cut in the ground.

“Dahnus, we’re down. Cadus is gone… Dahnus? Dahnus!”

Hadith turned to Elaine who, having heard him, was trying to contact Dahnus through her own device. She shook her head, her eyes widening. They were alone.

Judging from what little Hadith knew of Farim, they were in the south side of the city where the poorest lived. Where the homes were crushed together. They’d crashed in one of the few parks in that side of the city.

Hadith pulled Elaine into his arms and started walking towards a flux hub. Dahnus told Hadith to get to the centre of the city and where to hide where allies would find them and keep them safe. But if they had allies here, so too did their enemies.

Hadith could blend in, but Elaine stood out to the people watching them as they ran.

“This is like the tube,” Elaine said, as they walked down the stairs to the station. She sounded dazed and strangely flat, like she wasn’t entirely present. It scared Hadith.

“Everything is going to be alright, Elaine,” Hadith said, holding her closer. “I have you.” Hadith wondered if he was trying to assure himself more than her.

They walked over to a ticket panel and Hadith booked a pod to take them to the Duest, in the centre of the city. Dahnus had named an ally in Farim, telling Hadith to get to his apartment as quickly as he could. They just needed to go down one more flight of stairs and get in the pod and then they’d be on the way. Hadith was terrified that their enemies might be waiting for them when they arrived, but he would have to deal with that when he got there. He didn’t have Adunis sticks with him, but he was fully trained at Dahnus’s insistence.

They were halfway to the entrance to the pod level when Hadith saw them. Two males stalking back and forth, waiting.

Hadith turned.

“What’s wrong?”

“Our enemies are here. We have to go.”

What do I do now?

Hadith kept his back firmly to the two males as they made their way across the wide floor where Amarans, with the odd alien speckled here and there, made their way to the various pod levels to travel across the city and to the neighbouring suburban areas. When he heard someone call out, he knew they’d been spotted. Looking over his shoulder, he saw the two males, their eyes on him and Elaine, running across the station.

“Run.”

Hadith grabbed Elaine’s hand and pulled her as they ascended the steps. They were slower than the males, but had a good head start.

Out of the station, Hadith pulled Elaine across down the street. They dodged into an alley and hid in a doorway, hoping the two males wouldn’t look here, though now he thought of it, this was probably the most obvious place.

Maybe they would discount it because of that?

“Stay there. Make sure no one slips by.”

Vrok.

“We don’t have to hand them over straight away, do we? We can have a bit of fun?”

“They’ll let us have fun before, during and after.”

Hadith looked along the alley floor, but distressingly, the city kept the alleys and streets pristine.

In his arms, Elaine’s shaking increased.

He would not let her be taken again.

“Elaine, look at me.”

Elane tipped her head back, her beautiful blue eyes meeting his. Hadith stroked her face and smiled.

“Everything will be alright,” he said.

Elaine nodded.

He wasn’t sure either one of them believed it.

“Leave. This is none of your—”

The voice of one of their attackers was cut off.

Hadith turned to see the other attacker closer than he’d realised and behind him, Zinif and Thalvuten were walking into the alley, Thalvuten carrying the body of the other attacker by the throat, his body limp, his neck broken.

Hadith saw the attacker move towards Elaine and covered her body with his, forcing the attacker to choose him instead of taking his beautiful little mate. The male had pale lime green eyes. They fixed on Elaine, a snarl on his face before he pulled Hadith in front of him.

“Take another step and I’ll vrokking kill—”

There was an impact and the male yelped in shock. Over his shoulder, Hadith saw Elaine had jumped onto his back, one arm wrapped around his throat, the other scratching at his face.

“Get off me, you vrokking human—”

A huge cream hand wrapped around the Amaran male’s throat and squeezed.

“It is alright, my lady. I have him.”

Hadith saw Elaine let go and drop to the ground.

“Now. Let go of my lord Hadith, and I will give you back the ability to breath.”

The male let go of Hadith and he saw his face, bright teal.

“That’s it,” Zinif said, relaxing his grip. Then he jerked his hand. A crushing snap filled the alley and the male dropped to the ground.

“Let’s get these two in that waste disposal, where they belong. Then we’ll get you to Duest.”

“Are you in contact with Dahnus? Hadith asked.

Zinif shook his head.

“I was. Then it cut off. I think they’re thrown a dark net over this region.”

“A dark net?” Elaine asked.

“A technical term my lady. When communications in an area is suppressed, they call it a dark net.”

“So we can’t get anything out from around here?” she asked.

“No one can,” Thalvuten said.

Hadith pulled Elaine back into his arms. She stared as Zinif and Thalvuten dropped the bodies in the waste disposal.

“I’m sorry you had to see that, my lady,” Zinif said, his eyes down. He knew Elaine still wasn’t entirely comfortable around him and treated her extra carefully because of it.

“I’m not,” Elaine said. “They’re with the people who killed our guards. I hope they all die.” Elaine’s voice was hard as she spoke. “Thank you for coming for us.” She said then, meeting Zinif’s eyes. He looked at her and nodded.

“Always, my lady.”

“Right. First, we need weapons,” Thalvuten said.

“What happened to yours?” Hadith asked.

“They were in the back of our flyer, which was destroyed we had to eject,” Zinif said.

“We headed to the nearest flux hub and then Zinif got a feeling about the two males entering the ally.”

“I can’t begin to thank you,” Elaine said.

“We’ll get you to safety first,” Thalvuten said.

“You can thank us when we’ve got you both back at the palace.” Zinif nodded in agreement. “Right now. Let’s get you somewhere secure.”

“We can’t use the flux. We have to assume they have them,” Hadith said, trying to think like Dahnus.

“Then we need another way. Steal a flyer, or some other method of transport.” Zinif looked out on the street.

“You won’t find many flyers around here. They’re too expensive for most residents.”

“The fewer people we come across, the less likely we are to be betrayed,” Thalvuten said. He was walking over to the waste disposal.

“These things, they go under the city?”

Hadith looked at the waste disposal unit. It was like a big dumpster, only really it was the entrance way to the system of tunnels underground which relayed waste to different disposal centres.

“Yes,” Hadith answered hesitantly.

“And you can walk these things, can’t you?”

Hadith nodded.

Thalvuten looked at Zinif and together the two males worked on ripping the system open and exposing the entrance.

*****

Dahnus wasn’t through the door of his friend Vamin’s home before he’d established Hadith and Elaine hadn’t yet made it there. He got the location of the crash from Weston’s security forces and he and his guards left, leaving Danari and her forces at the rendezvous point in the city to wait for Elaine and Hadith in case they made it there first.

Beside him, Hemian was vibrating with anger. Dahnus knew exactly how he felt, he felt the same way. While they were away for the Varosai festival the council had pulled Hemian and his team from Elaine’s security citing the cost to the Amaran people. Dahnus was working on re-establishing her rights to security, but it was taking time. The attackers knew exactly when Elaine was at her most vulnerable. The need for her lovers became all the more urgent.

They made the short journey across the city and landed at the crash site. Immediately Hemian led a group of his people into the neighbourhood ask nearby questions. Dahnus knew it wouldn’t be easy. This was the kind of area where people kept themselves to themselves for fear of attracting attention from the wrong kind of people.

While they were doing that, Dahnus approached the flyer with Elithan and at his side.

“Scorch marks on the rear and flanks,” Dahnus pointed out as they approached the crater.

“The front is crushed. Cadus couldn’t have survived that.” Elithan jumped down into the crater before them and looked inside.

“At least it was quick,” Elithan continued.

Vrok. Poor Cadus.

Dahnus grunted in agreement.

“Only two sets of prints in the fresh turned earth. Looks like they made it out of the crater on their own anyway.”

“Got that,” Elithan said, obviously speaking to someone else in their security detail.

“Three other crashed flyers. Four of lord Efari’s security are in hospital. The one containing the two guards for Lady Franklin was destroyed, but the passengers seem to have ditched first.”

“Tell your men to ask about a Raqhan and Nuulan. There is no way anyone missed them.”

Elithan nodded and climbed out of the ditch as he updated his people through the translator which doubled as a communicator.

“My Ilan?”

Dahnus turned to see one of the guards who’d gone with Hemian approaching him.

“Aldin?’

“We have a lead, my Ilan. Hemian is talking to an adala near the flux hub.”

As one, Dahnus and his entourage ran over to the flux station several hundred feet up the street. He spotted Hemian talking to the adala at the entrance of an alley. As soon as the adala saw him, her eyes widened before averting.

“My Ilan. This adala, Keela saw Lord Efari and Lady Franklin enter the alley, followed by two males.”

Vrok.

“Then the Raqhan and the Nuulan entered. I saw them kill the two males.”

Relief thundered through Dahnus’s body.

“Then what happened?” Dahnus turned to the slight adala.

“They dropped the bodies in the disposal, then ripped it out of its moorings and after a few minutes, they disappeared into it.”

“Into the disposal system?” Dahnus asked.

Keela nodded, her bright green eyes flecked with yellow looked fearfully around them.

“Keela, thank you so much for helping us. Will you be safe here?’

Keela looked down at the ground and shook her head in a barely perceptible movement.

“Aldin.”

The guard reappeared at Dahnus’s side.

“I want you to take Keela to the palace. Have my staff install her in Tyne’s old suite. I want her well taken care of, and see that anything she wants from her home is brought to her.”

Dahnus looked down at her. “Do you have any family you need to bring with you?”

Keela shook her head, there was a conflict of disbelief and relief in her eyes.

“I am alone. I have been since I was very young.”

No wonder she was willing to help. She had nothing to lose and everything to gain.

“You’re not alone anymore. We will take care of you and help you to find your way.”

Keela managed to stop herself from crying, but she was trembling as Aldin led her away.

“Others went down after them,” Keela shouted when she was a few dozen feet away. “They were followed.”

Vrok.

“Thank you, Keela. How long ago?”

“Less than half an hacri.”

Dahnus nodded his thanks.

“We have to go,” Dahnus said, walking over to the waste disposal, guards surrounding him and together they pushed it, revealing the tube leading from the disposal to the system underground had been ripped apart. The disposal led into a clear tube under the streets, which itself was inside a larger service walkway. Elithan and three guards jumped down first, then called up when they were certain the way was clear.

Dahnus jumped down next, followed by Hemian and all but four of his guards whose job was to secure the entryway from further enemies.

The accessway was clean and well lit, just like the city above. Dahnus knew these places existed in cities and towns across Amara, but he’d never been inside one before.

The tube was currently clear with no blood in sight. It ran from the inner city of Farim, out to the various waste and recycling centres on this continent. When rubbish was dropped inside, it was carried through pneumatic tubes to a hub where it was broken apart, categorised and each element was sent to different centres for processing. Everything from dirt to industrial waste. Even bodies, apparently, considering the lack of the two Amaran males in the tube. Unless the people who came after took them away with them.

Small bins stood on the streets at regular intervals, the larger ones in alleys, like the one through which they’d entered, were for civil works. Farim was designed with the system fully integrated into every building, as all modern cities were. Corus had to ad hoc the system as best they could because the city, spread across various mountains and peaks, made it unmanageable.

“Spread out. Try and find evidence of which direction they went.”

Dahnus did the same, even as his guards spread further afield, keeping him in the centre, under their protection.

Dahnus realised he was clenching both his fists. He released them slowly, feeling the muscles, tendons and ligaments painfully releasing the tension that held his entire body, his entire being together right now.

They had to find them. They had to find them safe and sound. There was no other way it was acceptable for this to end.