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  She sipped the water, listening.

  “Our fates are intertwined with Anshan’s and through the planet, yours,” he finished. “You are already dying. Why not die trying to heal the planet?”

  I wanted to be on Anshan. He made more sense than anyone in her life at the moment. Unable to accept A’Ran’s rigid duty-first logic at times, she was finding it hard not to empathize with the man who wanted only to save his people.

  A’Ran had been in the same position when they first met. He was an exiled prince whose people were scattered across the Five Galaxies. He saw in her what this Yirkin did: the secret to healing Anshan.

  “Even if I succeed, A’Ran won’t let you stay,” she pointed out. “And he’ll do whatever it takes to find me.”

  “We spent six weeks experimenting with the right combination of factors to let us leave Anshan. I lost forty of my warriors to the toxic surface,” he replied. “I will deal with what happens after you save my people. It is said he destroyed his planet for you. He will free a few Yirkin for the same reason.”

  Kiera nibbled on her lip. Was it wrong for her to be just a little relieved at being on Anshan, the place she’d wanted to go for weeks to see how she could help the planet? Was it wrong to want to help the enemies of A’Ran? To get rid of the suffering of those who didn’t deserve it?

  Her fear and anger melted as she considered what he was asking her to do. The Yirkin wanted her to do what she’d felt she was supposed to since she first crash landed onto Anshan. How was it the only person willing to let her try was an enemy of her adopted people?

  “I really don’t know how to help Anshan,” she said after a long moment of thought. “I’m not from the Five Galaxies. I don’t understand how a nishani can be bound to an entire planet. It’s not like that where I’m from.”

  “It’s not like that anywhere,” he replied. “We are not from the Five Galaxies, either. We ventured here when we heard of the plentiful resources and relative peace.”

  “You can’t stay here,” she said without thinking. “I mean, assuming we survive. You can’t have Anshan back.”

  “You wish to make terms with me now, before we have healed the planet?” A flicker of amusement was in his eyes.

  “Well … why not? You all leave the Five Galaxies when this is over.”

  “And you save our lives.”

  She shifted uncomfortably. “If I can.”

  “What other terms would you have?”

  “Um, I’ve never negotiated with another um … people. Planet. Whatever.”

  “Then I recommend you request immunity to Yirkin war law for you and your friend.”

  Kiera wanted nothing to do with war crimes in another galaxy. “Agreed. And for A’Ran. You can’t seek revenge against him and his people.”

  The Yirkin scowled.

  “He’s my lifemate. If you think I’m going to help you with a guarantee, then –”

  “Your terms are acceptable to me so long as you will guarantee the safety of my people as well,” he interjected. “Your dhjan is not likely to look any more favorably upon us as we are him.”

  “I can do that,” she said. If she healed the planet, she’d do whatever it took to convince A’Ran to spare the people trapped beneath its surface. They were what the Yirkin claimed: innocents. Women, children and vulnerable members of a colony who hadn’t been able to escape in time and didn’t deserve to pay for the crimes of their leadership.

  “We’re agreed? You on behalf of Anshan and me on behalf of the Yirkin?”

  She nodded, uncertain if she was supposed to make deals in A’Ran’s name or not. But she had little choice, if any of them were going to live through this.

  “Good. Your friend will be provided a suitable resting space.” He stood. “Come with me.”

  Her stress level was rising with the stakes. Kiera trailed him out of the spacecraft, scared for Evey despite the deal. She at least had something the Yirkin wanted, even if no one knew how to access her connection with the planet. She caught up to him, self-conscious about the stares.

  “You brought families with you to war?” she asked.

  “We colonized the planet. Families accompany the warriors after the planet has been taken.”

  “But why colonize it at all? Why not stay on yours?”

  “We have no planet of our own. It was destroyed many, many cycles before.”

  “So you all just roam around. You’re like space gypsies.”

  He gave her a displeased look. She didn’t know if it meant he was offended by gypsies or the translator hadn’t caught the word correctly.

  “Why not just buy or conquer your own planet and stay?” she pressed.

  “It is not our way.”

  “But you can change that.”

  “Do you speak this nonsense to your dhjan? About changing his customs and traditions?”

  “Every day.”

  The Yirkin said nothing more but continued walking. They entered the tunnel network once more. This one slanted upwards and was narrow with a ceiling low enough for him to hunch over to walk through it.

  “Where are we going?” she asked.

  “It will be clear soon.”

  “Do you have a name?”

  “What does it matter?”

  She rolled her eyes. He was unfriendly considering he’d asked her to save his people. “If we’re going to be working together, I thought it’d be nice to know.”

  “Turi.”

  “I’m Kiera.”

  “Like the moon.”

  She smiled sadly at the reminder. She’d been gone from A’Ran for half a day and already ached for him. He had always been fascinated by the fact she bore the same name as the larger of the two moons orbiting Anshan. The sight of the Yirkin refugee camp left her confused about whether or not what she was doing was right or wrong. It felt right to help innocent people, but they were so different, from a society that viewed it as acceptable to steal someone else’s planet. What if they found Earth one day and uprooted her people as part of their customary gypsy ways?

  She wished she could talk to A’Ran about what she was doing or perhaps even Evey, who had more of a political sense than Kiera cared to learn. She enjoyed the battle strategies because it was a challenge, but politics were better left to those who had thicker skin, such as A’Ran, or those who could smile when they were sad, like Evey.

  “You know nothing of the connection between you and Anshan?” Turi asked as they walked through the winding tunnels.

  “Nothing.”

  “Even if you have one?”

  “That much I know,” she replied. “I’ve seen the proof of it. I’m not sure how to heal the planet, though.”

  “What proof?” He stopped walking and faced her.

  She knelt without hesitation and placed her palms on the ground. Seconds later, grass tickled her fingertips. She lifted her hands. The vibrant green was a cross between the hue of grass she knew and the emerald of Qatwali. “This is pretty much all I know I can do for now,” she said, unable to help her smile at the grass. It was spreading rapidly outward from the spot where she’d touched it.

  “How did you come about this ability?” Turi crouched beside her, a look of surprise crossing his hardened features. He touched the grass with the back of one hand.

  “It’s always been that way,” she said with a shrug.

  “Before the dhjan destroyed the surface, there was water. Did you call forth the waters from the depths of the planet?”

  “Not on purpose but yes.”

  “And you do not know how you did this, either?”

  “Well.” She hesitated. “I awoke the planet in a chamber beneath the surface, where the dhjan and nishani go to bond with the planet.”

  “There was a ceremony?” He studied her hard.

  “No. A knife and a flower,” she replied awkwardly. “I cut myself and dropped blood into the pot where the flower was and stuff happened after that.” She shrugged.

 
Turi appeared pensive, somewhat doubtful.

  Kiera waited, hoping he knew something more about Anshan and her connection to the planet than she did. “Does that mean anything to you?” she prodded at his quiet.

  “It might.” He stood and started walking once more.

  She hurried after him. “What?”

  “The nishanis that came before you. They were alive past becoming mates to the dhjan?”

  “As far as I know. A’Ran’s mother had four children with multiple cycles between them.”

  “The blood awoke the bond but is not required to sustain it.”

  “I suppose.”

  “The planet should be able to stabilize itself.”

  “I can’t imagine A’Ran destroying the surface is helping things.”

  “But your bond runs deeper, to the life force. The surface mines should not disrupt the planet’s life force.”

  I’m not entirely certain what a life force even is. Kiera was once more frustrated as she ran in the same circles as always about how to help Anshan.

  The tunnel grew narrower until they could no longer walk side by side and the space between lamps longer. She stayed behind him, not liking how much darker it was now than when they started out.

  “What exactly is a life force?” she asked finally. It seemed easier to ask Turi than A’Ran or his sisters, whose expectations of her ability to help the life force of the planet were so high, she felt like she constantly disappointed them.

  “It has a spirit. Do you have these where you are from?”

  “Theoretically,” she said.

  “The Yirkin believe every living person has a spirit. The Anshan believe the planet holds the spirits of all its people, and these form a single spirit that is the planet’s life force.”

  “And that’s how the people’s lives are connected to the planet,” she said, unable to help her surprise at the simple explanation offered by an alien who had no knowledge of Anshan before fifteen years before.

  “It did not accept us for this reason,” he added. “It would not let us farm it, and the mines, such as this one, were pulled deeper underground to keep us from mining them. The planet did not want us to take any part of it away, because we do not belong.”

  “How can I belong when I’m from somewhere else, too?”

  “I do not know this,” he replied, sounding irritated. “But you do belong, and your life force is shared with the planet. This was what the Anshan told us.”

  “That’s kind of cool.” And maybe a little creepy. Like the Yirkin, she had grown up to believe her soul was in her body. That the planet held those of its people was as magical and enigmatic as the planet being truly alive. A’Ran had claimed the planet chose her.

  She looked anew at the walls of the tunnel, unable to imagine how an entire planet was a single living entity but awed by the idea it was the case for Anshan.

  The wail of the storms on the surface of Anshan reached her, a distant roar in the otherwise quiet tunnel. The air was growing staler as well, and it was too warm to be comfortable.

  “Where exactly are we going?” she asked.

  Turi didn’t respond.

  Unease churned in her stomach. If they didn’t need her alive to help the planet, she’d be concerned about his ulterior motive in escorting her away from everyone else after kidnapping her.

  A’Ran will find me. He’d do whatever he had to in order to rescue her. Although, there was a tiny part of her that wanted a chance to try to fix the planet before he did arrive to take her back to the moon.

  Turi stopped before a dead end consisting of a gray metal door. “The Yirkin must be an adaptable people to survive on so many different planets,” he said. He planted his hands on the door and ran them along the smooth metal as he spoke. “Each new home is mysterious when we first reach it, and we must figure out how to survive no matter where we are. You are newer to this world than we are, but I feel this is the same for you. You must connect with the planet before you can survive it.”

  “Makes sense,” she said.

  “We found many underground chambers such as you described when we were exploring the tunnels.” He brushed dirt away from a false compartment in the metal door and smashed it open with the hilt of a knife. “But we could not open all the doors.” He gripped her wrist and pulled her closer.

  Kiera didn’t have a chance to react before he’d touched the sharp edge of the knife to the soft padding of her index finger. She winced. Turi squeezed out several drops of her blood onto the blade then released her and tapped the knife against the edge of the compartment until the drops slid into its depths.

  The door groaned and shook.

  Kiera hopped back as it wrenched one way then the other before freeing itself from years of dirt and cracked open.

  Turi gripped the edges and wrenched it the rest of the way open. He stepped into the room that light bright as day the moment Kiera entered.

  “Was the chamber you found like this?” he asked.

  She gazed around with a frown. Compared to the chamber she’d once visited, the room was plain and bare. No paintings adorned the blank surfaces, no giant flower or thrones against the far wall, and no fountain of any kind was present. A set of tall double doors was across the empty space from them. It appeared to be more of a foyer than anything else.

  “No,” she said.

  “Then we move on. Perhaps we will rediscover it or another like it.”

  His footsteps echoed in the chamber as he strode to the double doors.

  Kiera trailed, wishing she knew more about Anshan history than she did. A’Ran’s ancestors had kept underground chambers for some reason. Had they experienced an event similar to this before and moved beneath the surface of the planet? Or had the mining people connected the network of caverns running beneath the surface as they uncovered them?

  As she neared, she realized the two doors were ajar with one of them off its frame.

  Turi gripped the edges of one door and pulled until there was enough room for him to slide more of his body between them. He braced his back against the fixed door and shoved the other open. Sweat popped out on his forehead.

  Lighting from unknown sources flickered on as she crossed the threshold. They walked through to a long corridor with at least six intersections she was able to see.

  “You think one of these chambers holds the key to helping Anshan?” she asked, walking with him.

  “I have exhausted every other possibility.”

  She glanced at him, hearing the grim tone. Turi was in his forties, in warrior shape, with tightness around his eyes she guessed came from concern about his people. She hadn’t given A’Ran’s enemies much thought. It struck her as odd that she was in the company of one of them – and he wasn’t the monster she expected to find.

  “We’ll figure it out,” she said softly. “I want to help Anshan, too.”

  He gave a brisk nod and started down the corridor. “We must explore this place quickly. There is only a five day air supply left for my people.”

  If there was one thing she knew about the aliens she’d met since leaving Earth, it was they were far tougher than she thought she’d be in their shoes. His calm pronouncement of his people’s fate left her speechless and urgent to help him.

  Chapter Six

  Finally. The moment A’Ran set foot into his home on the moon, he knew something was wrong.

  The normally calm D’Ryn’s eyes and nose were red as if she’d been crying, and his youngest sister, Talal, was openly sobbing.

  He assumed the news of Kiera disappearing had reached them and strode past them towards the battle station where Kiera had learned to fight, trailed by Mansr, several Anshan warriors, Romas and his advisors. His instincts tingled, however, and he paused at the door, waving for the others to enter ahead of him. His sisters hung back, as was customary, without leaving. When the last of Romas’ warriors had entered the battle command room, A’Ran stepped towards D’Ryn.

  “We�
��ll find her,” he reassured her. “I do not wish to be disturbed.” He turned to join his guests.

  “Brother,” D’Ryn ventured. “I must speak to you.”

  “It can wait.”

  “It cannot!”

  A’Ran paused, unable to recall when his oldest sister had spoken out to him. He turned, frowning, unable to imagine what warranted his attention now when his nishani was missing. “What is it?”

  “Gage. She … left,” D’Ryn said in a tight voice.

  “Left,” he repeated.

  “She said you were planning to exile her, so she left before you could send her away.”

  “When?”

  “This morning.”

  “Did you alert the local battle commander?”

  She nodded. “I took him the news and he told me about nishani.”

  A’Ran cursed silently, hating to know Gage was alone and vulnerable – and so was Kiera. “We will find them both,” he told her.

  “I know where she went.”

  Talal appeared terrified while D’Ryn took a moment to recompose herself. He waited, unable to imagine how his life turned from incredible to a nightmare in such a short amount of time.

  “She went to Anshan,” D’Ryn whispered.

  “Gage did what?” he demanded, louder than he intended. “The surface is toxic!”

  “She knows. She … she told Talal she didn’t deserve to live after … Ne’Rin.”

  A’Ran tensed, horrified to think his sister truly meant to kill herself rather than face exile. “Tell me everything she said prior to fleeing.”

  With halting words and many breaks, D’Ryn obeyed.

  There was no mistaking Gage’s intent. His own sister had feared being banished enough to risk dying on Anshan. Without another word, A’Ran spun and went to the command center.

  “Mansr,” he called and waved his uncle out of the chamber. “Gage has fled to the surface. Ready a rescue mission to leave immediately. You are to bring her back. I’ll head the search for nishani.”