“He doesn’t know that, though,” Dread argued.
“I think he does.”
The bristling hum of wings prevented me from speaking further. Letting go of Dread’s shoulders, I looked over mine to watch Rogue approach and then make a smooth landing next to us. Black hair and a darker shade of grey skin than Dread and I, he was the first living son of Meredith, Chaos’s first human Soulcatcher. She’d been abducted alongside my mother on the raid of Dojenia. At twenty-nine, he was two years younger than me, and three years older than Dread. Although my mother had borne the General many other sons, after Dread, Rogue was the brother I felt the closest to. Despite his name, he was no assassin or infiltrator, but our Chief Medical Officer.
“Am I interrupting?” he asked with his incredibly deep baritone voice that clashed terribly with his eternal baby face.
“I want you to oversee the evacuation of Umbra,” I said to Rogue.
“But to go where?” Rogue exclaimed, taken aback. “Arkonia is far from ready, and we haven’t even opened peace talks with the Coalition. They would kill on sight half of our people for merely being what they are—what the General made them.”
“They can’t stay here,” I said in a mulish tone. “The General knows of this place. If my suspicions are right, while we are escorting our mothers to his new lair, he will raid Umbra to make sure we haven’t left anything hidden from him here. He wants us and anything we care about under his thumb. That’s why he’s willing to jeopardize the lives of our youngest brothers, even though they will struggle to breathe on Zekuro.”
“Fuck,” Dread muttered, finally understanding where I was coming from. “If he finds out about the Scelks…”
“He’ll kill us all,” Rogue finished for him.
The Scelks had been one of the most horrible experiments Khutu had performed on the peaceful and primitive people of Janaur. He’d mutated an inoffensive local insect, turning it into a parasite that took over control of the host’s mind and nervous system, eventually killing the soul of the host. Their psychic powers had nearly brought the Vanguard to their knees and could very well have wiped them out. But we’d stepped in and turned the mature ones to our side, while eradicating the young before the General could unleash them upon the galaxy. He believed them all dead during the cleansing of Janaur. If he ever found out over two hundred of them followed my command, he wouldn’t hurt me directly, but exact revenge on those I love.
“He also believes Silzi died after Ayana ‘escaped’ capture,” I continued. “In light of his successful experiment on her people, if he finds out about her, he’ll want to mutate her as well.”
“Is he seriously planning on giving you her sisters as your queens?” Rogue asked, bewildered.
I hesitated. “Honestly, I’m not sure what to think. There’s no question he would want offspring combining their mimic abilities with our soul-transfer and bioengineered powers. But he pretty much stated that he’s worried I would use my sons to depose him. He would never put this much power into another’s hands. So, I’m leaning towards him planning on killing all of us, but first, he needs me to bring you to him.”
“So, what’s the plan?” Dread asked with resignation.
“We bring all of our young brothers to the Brides Ship. Khutu will scan us for a headcount. If any of them are missing, he’ll know something’s afoot,” I explained when both my brothers gave me a disbelieving look. “It is a top of the line vessel made to resist the most brutal assaults. Therefore, it will be the easiest and safest way to transport all of our most vulnerable people away from Kryptid space while the rest of us give them cover to make a clear getaway.”
I turned to Dread, my gaze boring into his. “Divide our warriors in as many of our best ships as possible. Have two sets of Shells ready for everyone in case we need it. We will rendezvous with the breeding ships, transfer our siblings, and escort them peacefully up to the Nolusk region. That’s when we will take out the Kryptids. I need you to make the assignments as to who will escort our mothers to Arkonia and who will battle. Either way, I want Storm piloting the liveship. So, make sure he gets ‘left behind’ on the Brides Ship after he’s transferred our young there.”
“Got it,” Dread said.
“Rogue,” I said turning to face him, “prepare the rest of our people for evacuation. I’m not sure if Khutu is already monitoring us so they must begin the move no sooner than three hours after we’ve left. All of them in stealth. Since all of us must join the breeding ships escort, the Scelks will lead our people to our new home.”
“The Scelks only listen to you,” Rogue cautioned.
I swallowed back a sigh of irritation. Unfortunately, dealing with our ‘extended family’ had many challenges. The Scelks, like every other experiment the General had performed, were meant to be ruthless killing machines who only obeyed one master. He had intended that to be him, but turning the tables on my sire came with its downsides, too.
“Right. I will speak to Varnog,” I said in a conciliatory tone. “Let’s get to it. We must be en route for the rendezvous point by first light tomorrow morning.”
My brothers nodded, their dark scales creasing with worry beneath the half-moon shaped, black Deynian horn adorning our foreheads. If only I could take away their burden… But right now, the survival of the people I’d been fighting for my entire life rested on my shoulders. And I wasn’t so arrogant as to think I could carry it alone. Without a word, they spread their wings and flew away. Summoning my own wings, I welcomed the slight burn as they protruded from my back.
“Bane!” a feminine voice called out before I could take flight.
Turning around, I saw Silzi walking hastily towards me, the small rocks and packed dirt crunching beneath her feet. She nervously flicked her black hair over her shoulder as she closed the distance between us, revealing the vertical gills along the right side of her neck. The Mimic’s normally light-blue skin had taken a darker hue that indicated she hadn’t been in a large body of saltwater for far too long. My stomach knotted with the need to better care for her and all those who looked to me for protection.
With Silzi’s people on the verge of extinction, I’d rallied the Mimic to our side after the General had sent her on a mission to assassinate the Soulcatchers within the Vanguard HQ itself. She’d been more easily swayed, knowing what kind of barbaric corporeal punishment awaited her for having failed to fulfil that mission. Having been on the receiving end of such beatings and floggings for my own ‘failures’—which had in fact been deliberate sabotage—I probably wouldn’t have been able to stand by idly while Khutu brutalized her. My body would be a network of scars had it not been for my occasional rebirths in a new Shell.
“What is it, Silzi?” I asked in a gentle voice.
“Is it true?” she asked, her stormy grey eyes flicking between mine, searching.
“I am sorry,” I said with sincere sorrow.
“All of them?” she asked with a sob in her voice.
I shook my head. “No. I do not have the exact number, but many of your sisters of mating age have been changed, including Shuria. But they are alive, as are the others that are still unchanged.”