Page 2 of Stone Awakened

Despite that, my muscles went tense, my senses on alert at the blatant way she was defying Morkan’s authority. The Krektar male was a cowardly, sadistic bastard, and true to form, he blew himself up in front of the weaker target. With a meaty fist, he slapped that finger away, “None of your damn business.”

Maybe she wasn’t as weak a target as I thought, with that steely look on her face, and her severe way of dressing. Morkan turned on Jett and a second, much smaller boy standing behind my son. The moment he did, the female moved, stepping in front of them and blocking his access, her chin firmly raised. Interesting, maybe looks were deceiving.

The Krektar male kept on glaring at her until I made a sound, “So, are you going to tell me what my job is or what?” I demanded. My eyes darted to Jett as I spoke, I could just see his face as he peeked out from behind the long wide skirts of the female. They went wide and heat warmed me at the elated recognition I saw there, then his brows lowered and he gave me a determined little nod. Stars, what a brave, smart boy.

Morkan turned around to level me with a glare, but a little flare of my wings was all it took for the male to back down. “Just guard duty, and training, if you feel like it. But these two are the last remaining of the batch, and they are runty…” I bristled in anger at hearing my son being called a runt. He was young right now, but he’d be twice the male this guy was when he’d grown up a little more.

The Krektar stalked out of the courtyard without another word, good riddance. I was now alone with the two little ones, the stern female, and another guard who was sitting on a bench, staring at us with disinterest. I was extremely aware that my son was staring at me with huge eyes, trying to contain himself, and risk giving away my ploy. I gave him a nod, offering a small smile, then I turned and stalked over to the guard, as I knew would be expected of me.

The male was a Rummicaron, which was good. He wouldn’t be sensitive to moods or good at reading facial expressions, I could use that to my advantage. As I quickly discussed my new tasks with the male, it was obvious that he was a lazy bastard happy to stick me with all the responsibilities. I also realized that the stern female, a human female, was a different problem. She was watching me like a hawk and she’d already forced my son and the even smaller blue boy to return to their exercises.

I had to admire the fact that she’d been protective of her wards in front of Morkan, but she was going to be a tough one to circumvent. I worried that she’d be the one to stand in my way and though she had taken on a terrible job, and no doubt deserved it, I didn’t relish the thought of having to hurt a female. I would though if it meant freedom for my son. And I supposed the other boy too, I wasn’t going to leave him behind when I broke us out.

My eyes flickered to the chunky pain-collars that hung around the small necks of either boy. The sight of it made my stomach turn. It was a struggle to keep my anger off my face, to keep my hands relaxed at my sides as I watched their routine. Soon, I’d get them out real soon.

Chapter 2

Agatha

For two whole days, I watched with tense nerves as the new guard would arrive and take up his post against one of the courtyard walls, watching us. He watched Jett most of all and it was scaring me a little, was it because they were the same species? This huge newcomer was a Tarkan like Jett was, but he was never out of his battle-form.

It was probably mean to think it, but this new guy was one of the ugliest males I’d ever seen. Well, except maybe Morkan, but that Krektar had an impressive amount of warts covering his face. The Tarkan in his battle-form was the kind of creature that wouldn’t look out of place perched on a Gothic church back on Earth. With a crown of horns glittering black around his skull, tusks protruding from his mouth, and deep lines carved into his face that exaggerated each feature almost grotesquely.

Watching Jett in his battle-form as he practiced punches against a dummy I realized that he had the same crown of horns, but his face was all soft curves still. To me, Jett looked like himself, a bit more exaggerated, his skin hard as stone. I wondered if the new guard was an old guy, like he’d gotten weathered or something.

I stood with my arms crossed and my spine straight so nobody could tell how my knees trembled each time the new guard walked by. I wanted to go over to Amar and give the little fellow a big hug, he was doing so good today, trying his best to follow Jett’s lead. If it weren’t for the two guards watching our every move, I would have done it. I resolved to make up for it later when I was putting the two boys to bed.

Yesterday, the new guard had summoned Jett over to one corner of the courtyard and they’d practiced together. The way Jett had glowed when we sat down for dinner later that night, I could tell the male had done something right. But that didn’t mean I trusted him, he was much sharper than the other guard. He was watchful all the time and it was making me nervous.

Today I was going to keep an even sharper eye on things. If the Tarkan male was going to single out Jett again, I wanted to hear what was going on. He was already in the courtyard that morning when we arrived so I hadn’t even had a moment to give a pep talk to my clever boys.

Amar was bouncing on his feet, his wild mane of bright blue hair floating around his head from static. It got that way sometimes and with a pang I remembered how his mother, my dear friend Kimar, would sigh and rub it, trying to make the unruly strands lay flat. I wish right now that I could reach out and do that, to offer that familiar gesture, but with the new guard watching my actions like a hawk, I didn’t dare.

When I spotted some leftover crumbs of food on Jett’s cheek, I hurriedly reached out and scrubbed them off. If the Tarkan guard saw that I’d given the kids some of my food again, would he report me? My furtive move wasn’t lost on the guy of course, but he titled his head at an angle and frowned at us without saying anything.

“Come on boys, we need to get started,” I told them. I made myself sound stern, but I turned my back to the male so I could smile and wink. Amar giggled adorably, closing both his eyes as he tried to mimic my wink and failed. Jett poked with his elbow at the younger child, fighting to contain his own grin, “Yes ma’am.”

As I helped the two kids get started with their exercises, the eyes of the new guard kept boring into my back. I was terrified that I’d been found out, that I wasn’t behaving the way I was supposed to. For the life of me, I couldn’t force myself to act meaner. These boys were so young, and though I’d repeatedly explained that it was just an act, that I was doing that to keep them safe, they didn’t deserve that kind of treatment.

Uron stumbled into the courtyard halfway through the first routine, his eyes bleary as he squinted balefully at the sun. There was a bottle of liquor in his left hand, it smelled foul, and wafted some kind of purple fumes. Immediately, the Tarkan’s wings shifted when he made himself huge, facing off against his colleague. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing, bringing that shit in here?” he growled.

I stepped in front of the two kids protectively, expecting them to be scared of the threatening display. Jett was grinning this shit-eating grin, his dark eyes glittering in what I could only call admiration. Amar was holding Jett’s hand, taking his cues from his older friend, he was too young to understand the tension, but he mirrored Jett’s admiration for the big guard.

Okay, I could deal with that, later. I really didn’t like it, this admiration for a guard at this crazy place, they were the bad guys. Right now, I just needed to make sure this confrontation didn’t end with one of us getting hurt. “Back up sweethearts,” I murmured at my little wards, and with my hands on their shoulders had them step back.

The Tarkan’s wings twitched as we moved, the long lion-like tail at his back twitching in agitation. He lowered his head, almost like a bull preparing to charge. I could see a little of Uron through a gap between his wing and his body. The Rummicaron with a huge mouth full of shark-like teeth just kept staring balefully at the Tarkan, clearly too drugged out of his mind to really appreciate just how dangerous the winged male looked.

It wasn’t unusual for Uron to be on something when he came in here, but this was the first time the male had actually brought his drug of choice inside. He wasn’t impressed with the Tarkan taking issue with it, though I felt like he should. Uron was a total washout, whereas this guy looked like he could benchpress a freaking car.

“Or what Sunder? You’re not my boss. Actually, I’m your boss now so you can’t say shit about this,” he made some kind of rude gesture with his hand and trotted over to the furthest corner where a stone bench stood against one wall. He threw himself down on it, and while staring with cold, flat-gray eyes at the Tarkan, took another swig of his brew.

Sunder, as he was apparently called, stood staring after the male, his shoulders heaving as he struggled to contain his emotions. Then his wings snapped back against his spine with a crisp noise, and his tail stopped its agitated movements, coming to hang at a graceful curve. I stared at his bare shoulders, at the wide muscles that shaped his biceps, his thighs, clad as he was in little more than a leather pleated kilt. Practical, when clothing was ill-suited to accommodate his alien body.

He spun around so suddenly that he caught me staring and to my great surprise I felt heat steal across my face. Whoa, I was thirty-eight, when was the last time I’d blushed? I couldn’t remember, never mind that this man was the enemy, even if the kids thought he was cool.

His brow was still lowered in a deep brow but it shifted when he saw us in a huddle in the corner, as far away from their confrontation as we could get. A corner of his mouth tilted up, a grin spreading across his face. He broke into a trot as he came our way and I wondered if I needed to brace myself for another confrontation or not.

“Boys,” he rumbled when he halted in front of us, his clawed feet digging into the sandy ground. “Jett, why don’t you show Amar that move I taught you yesterday?” Jett nodded eagerly, taking hold of Amar’s hand he started to drag the boy with him to the practice dummies. Sunder stopped them by unfolding his wing in front of them, “No, in that corner over there.” It was the corner furthest away from Uron and his foul fumes, where the kids would be the least affected.