Breeding Ground Part 13

"The loma," Fija continued as she directed with a flick of her wrist for the group to resume walking, "are a lower order of predator than the Xandi. Not so advanced as the predator peoples, but brutal killers nonetheless. Perhaps more so."

Alex's mind was reeling with questions as she briskly walked to catch up with the topless, nearly naked Amazon. "You never told me about the Xandi either. I'm lost here. And I'd like some answers."

Fija sighed as her knuckles tightened around the pole she carried. The crystal-based weapon was about three feet long, six inches in diameter, and possessed an extremely sharp and obviously lethal tip. The pole weighed at least thirty pounds, yet her guide was able to manipulate it and keep it at the ready for hours on end without so much as a complaint, or even lowering it once.

"You confuse me, little warrior," Fija said, shaking her head. "How anyone cannot know of the loma, let alone the Xandi..." She sighed again, seeming to recall Alex's earlier confession to her. "Snake-worms are just as they sound...vicious snake-like belly crawlers that live below ground."

Alex's eyes rounded as she listened with rapt interest.

"They are carnivorous, exceedingly large, and perpetually hungry, so the Takuri avoid them at all costs." Fija scanned the horizon as she continued her explanation. "It is fortunate for us they did not pick up on our scents for we've only two females here to protect so many males."

"I can protect my d.a.m.n self," Alex heard Peac.o.c.k mutter from behind them. She ignored him this time, just as Fija did every time, for she was in Commander Frazier mode and was, therefore, far more concerned with extracting needed information than salvaging Lt. Williams's male ego.

Oddly enough, however, Fija chose this particular opportunity to actually break the social rules and answer Peac.o.c.k back for the first time. Coming to a sudden stop, she whirled around to face him. Her jaw clenched. "Are you human?" she snapped.

Peac.o.c.k frowned. "What do you mean, am I-"

"Answer the question and no more. Are you human or are you not?"

Their dark gazes clashed. "Yes," he hissed, "I am human."

"Then you need a female's protection," she said acerbically. "You haven't our biological prowess."

Alex's forehead wrinkled. She could tell by the way her crew was muttering under their breaths to each other that they had taken Fija's statement as an unwarranted slight against males. But a niggling suspicion told Alex that Fija had meant what she'd said in the literal sense, and that females in this world were able to do-something-that males physiologically could not do...

But what?

She wanted to know-badly. Whatever it was, it went without saying that Alex wouldn't have this evolved biological capability either.

Alex almost put the question to Fija, but thought better of it. She would wait until they were alone later, when the males of the Amazon's clan weren't around.

Alex recalled Fija's earlier warning not to reveal her name or the story of where the Methuselah crew had come from to anyone, so she was fairly certain showing complete ignorance of life in one hundred million and seven A.D. wasn't too brilliant as moves go. The harem males were probably already suspicious from her previous comments and questions, including the more recent ones regarding the snake-worms and Xandi. And, she recalled, they had already heard her speak her full name. Hopefully they thought she was joking.

"We will be completely out of loma territory within another hour," Fija dispa.s.sionately informed Alex as she turned around and began trekking uphill again. "Only then can we lower our guards."

Alex nodded. She found her gaze continually straying toward the slightly muddy red ground, not wanting any surprises to take her unawares. Living in almost absolute ignorance of what it was she was facing made her heart beat a little too rapidly and perspiration break out between her metallic cup-clad b.r.e.a.s.t.s. "And the Xandi?" she murmured.

"The Xandi." Fija sighed. "There is no safe place from our natural-born enemy, little warrior. Best accept that and be prepared to battle on a moment's notice at all times."

"But who are they?" Alex whispered, not wanting Fija's men to overhear their conversation. "What are they?"

"Your guess is as good as mine."

Alex looked at her quizzically.

Fija shrugged. "Verily, every female of the clans that has been captured by them has disappeared as though she never existed. No skeletal remains found, no nothing. Almost as if the ground opened up and swallowed them whole."

"How do you protect against them then?"

"We live up high in the furthest-reaching catacombs, dwelling in fortresses carved out of the sides of the great black mountains. The Xandi tend to strike from the air, so our shields are very rarely lowered. Not even when we needs lower them to save the life of one of our own species."

"Interesting," Alex whispered.

And just a bit frightening. Fija was, after all, scared of little to nothing. That a breed of predators could be so strong as to keep an entire fortress filled with warrior women too intimidated to lower their shields spoke volumes.

"But sometimes," the Amazon said softly, "sometimes they find a way in. On those occasions not even a mighty fortress is enough to stop them."

Alex swallowed past the lump in her throat. If nothing else, Fija was a great storyteller. She'd make an excellent addition to any camping expedition that involved sitting around a roaring fire at night, roasting marshmallows, and telling ghost stories-a human tradition far older than even the Methuselah's crew. "Has anyone ever tried to get the humans back after they are stolen? Surely anyone who has lost a son or daughter to them-"

"No sons."

Alex blinked. "I beg your pardon?"

Fija absently gripped the pole tighter, her biceps flexing. "They take only our women. Never the males of our protection."

Now that was weird. "Huh. I wonder why?"

"None can say."

And those who could were never heard from again.

Alex chewed on her lower lip as she considered that. "You said they are predators. Maybe they don't like the taste of male meat?" A dumb supposition, but quite frankly the only one that made a d.a.m.n bit of sense.

Fija chuckled, a rare grin denting her mouth. "Perhaps, little warrior. Perhaps." She shook her head slightly and sighed, a serious expression arresting her features. "Even if we thought we were strong enough to attack them outright, none amongst us would know where to look for the remains of our fallen warriors." She shrugged. "The war between Xandi and Takuri has raged on for over twenty thousand years, yet all this time later the location of their stronghold is still unknown to us."

The stronghold. Stronghold...

The word sparked a memory in Alex, a memory of a certain Zutairan man's holographic image preparing the crew of the Methuselah for the worst.

Tongor. The demons' stronghold, the Zutairan man had said, was in Tongor-Akron.

But that had been millions of years ago, Alex reminded herself as she walked in silence next to Fija up the twisting mountainside. Certainly these Xandi weren't the same demons the Zutairan had spoken of. From an evolutionary standpoint it didn't seem possible. However, she mentally conceded, they could be the evolved offspring of that mutated race, and therefore it was quite possible they'd maintained the same stronghold as their forebears.

Alex kept her thoughts to herself as the group made its way deeper into Takuri territory. Somehow she'd have to delicately probe for more information concerning the Xandi. She sensed that Fija knew more than she let on.

She sensed, too, the importance of getting the Amazon to confide in her.

Throughout the rest of the trek, curiosity bordering on obsession gnawed at Alex. She wanted to hear more about these predator peoples, the Xandi. Loosely translated, the word Xandi meant night-stalker. They were nocturnal hunters, Fija had explained. They mostly, but not always, stalked their prey by the waning moon, when a human female's senses were at their least acute, striking most often while she slept.

This information was the last the alpha female had spoken of her enemy. It left Alex with a lot of questions and no answers. Namely what in the h.e.l.l the waning moon had to do with a human female and her senses.

And how to best avoid getting picked off in your sleep by the enemy.

These thoughts and a team of others plagued Alex as the group made its way to an enclave Fija had called Zala Fortress. The village was cloistered into the side of a silver-black metallic mountaintop, the air so heavily red-tinted this high up that she had a hard time seeing through it. Fija seemed to be aware of her difficulty and, squinting her eyes as if trying to figure Alex out, decided not to ask. She shook her head again instead, sighing like a martyr-something she seemed to do a lot in the commander's presence.

Alex was disappointed that they'd arrived just as the sun was setting, because almost nothing of how the fortress looked was clear. She was able to make out a couple of vague snapshots of the overall region, but even that was hazy. One minute the red smoke cleared a bit and they were being greeted by twenty dour-looking female warriors standing guard inside the walkways that ran along the perimeter's high walls. The next time she blinked they were inside the capital seat of the Takuri, being steered down a confusing series of corridors and back entrances that led to only who knows where.

"I don't like this," Vlad muttered under his breath. "We know nothing of these people and yet we follow them as though they can be trusted."