Esca let out his breath. “I know this. I… apologize. But what about the Etruscan threat?”
“That is to the north,” Aki said. “Einarr and I can take two of the men and find out what is going on there. If we can stop the invaders we will do so.”
Einarr nodded his agreement. “And you can take Ash and the women to safety.” He frowned. “Frey cannot walk far on her ankle.”
“We’ll manage. We’ll rig up something to carry our patients,” Esca said. “Once you find the Etruscan threat, which is closer to the full security network, you can call in backup from our military and then make your way to the Temple at Quoxor.”
“Agreed.” Aki bowed. Despite the danger, he felt more alive and more useful than he had since he’d first opened his eyes in this hellish new world.
Esca started issuing orders while Einarr sat down beside Frey and started binding her ankle. Aki remained in the center of the clearing until Elli came to join him. He cupped her cheek.
“You will take care of Einarr’s woman?”
She scowled at him. “I’d much rather come with you. I can fight, you know.”
“You are a fearsome warrior.” He smoothed her lower lip with his thumb. “Which is why I trust you to protect my twin’s mate.”
“She is my friend. I would protect her regardless.” She bit her lip. “I wish I hadn’t waited.”
“For what, my heart?”
“To share your bed.” Her eyes filled with tears. “What happens if I never see you again?”
Aki held her gaze. “I swear to you on Odin’s blood that I will stay alive and that we will be reunited at the Temple. Do you believe me?”
“I’ll try,” she whispered. “I’m not normally like this, I don’t know why I’m even crying…”
“Because you care about me, my heart,” he said gently. “I am yours. Do not forget that.”
She touched his face, oblivious to everything that was going on around them. “I’m scared to say the words. I don’t want you thinking I’m too intense. Last time I…”
“You can never be too much for me. I want everything you have to give.” He placed his finger on her lips. “I am a man of honor.” He went down on one knee and kissed her hand. “I will never betray you.”
He rose to his feet and took her hand again, drawing her into the shelter of one of the trees. Bending his head, he gently took her mouth until she moaned his name and kissed him back. He wanted to lift her in his arms and bring her down over his demanding cock, sealing their bargain for all time, but he couldn’t do it in such a public place and with so much to lose.
“
I am yours, Elli Slavin.”
He kissed her again. “
I will be waiting for you at the Temple. I swear it
.”
“Aki?”
Esca was calling him. With an impatient sound, Aki released Elli and walked over to him.
“I need to go. I’m leaving you Roberts and Bevan. They are both enhanced super soldiers.” He held Aki’s gaze. “I’m trusting you and your brother to behave yourselves, okay?”
“We will do your bidding and only that.” Aki nodded. “I wish you well, Esca. And I will send up many prayers to the Gods that your First Male recovers.”
“Thanks.” Esca saluted. “As they are a mated couple, Einarr should be able to hear Frey clearly despite the distances, so we’ll be able to keep you informed of our progress.”
“Aye. Take care of Frey and Elli.”
“Will do.” Esca signaled to the four men carrying Ash’s litter. “Let’s move out.”
Aki stood with Einarr and watched them go. Frey looked back at his brother for a long time, and Elli had eyes only for him.
“I feel as if someone has ripped my heart in two,” Einarr growled. “I am looking forward to meeting some of these invaders and expressing my displeasure to them in person.”
“Me too, brother.”
Aki turned to Roberts who was busy packing up essentials for their journey. “These Etruscans. Can we kill them?”
“They are here illegally. We’re supposed to round them up and hand them over to the proper authorities to be dealt with through diplomatic channels.” Roberts winked. “But Major Esca said we have his full permission to destroy the bastards who dared to hurt his First Male.”
Aki smiled. “Esca is a man after my own heart. What weapons do we have?”
“Not many conventional ones. This ship isn’t military. But we have you and Einarr who are weapons of a different kind.” He paused. “Bev and I are pretty damn lethal as well.”
“You are like Rolf?”
“Way better.”
“Then we shall easily overcome any assailants.”
“Can you share the feedback you are getting from the village as we move closer?” Roberts asked Aki as they paused to drink some water.
“Feedback?” Aki frowned.
“The impressions you are getting in your mind. Just send them outward to me.”
“I will do my best. These ‘skills’ elude me.”
“It will help me pinpoint our enemies’ locations more clearly so that we will be able to kill them and not the innocent villagers.”
“A worthy cause.”
Einarr and Bevan had gone forward to scout out the approach to the beleaguered village, leaving Roberts and Aki behind to guard their gear and find a place to reconnoiter.
The light was fading and they were approaching what appeared to be the outskirts of a settlement. The smell of burning drifted toward them, making Aki’s throat raw. They’d heard sporadically from Frey that the other party had almost reached the medical center without incident and that Ash was still alive.
Aki focused on the mass of thoughts flowing from the village and pushed them to Roberts who winced.
“That’s very helpful, but I think I’ve got it covered now,” Roberts said. “I want to be certain we take out the right people.”
“What do the Etruscans look like?”
“The same as us,” Roberts said flatly. “But ninety-nine percent of them aren’t telepathic. You’ll notice that even more now that you’re used to being surrounded by telepaths. None of their males are telepathic. They have a few females who work with intrusion units.”
“Like Soreya. Ash and Esca’s mate.”
“Exactly. This is a Hakron village so you should be able to differentiate between them and the Etruscans.”
“How?”
“The Hakron tend to have green skin and they are advanced telepaths and fearsome warriors.”
“That is good to know.”
“I’m trying to key into a Hakron telepathic stream to warn them of our approach, but so far they are impenetrable.” His smile was wry. “They don’t react well to my particular brand of telepathy. They think I’m a machine.”
Aki drew his sword from his shoulder scabbard and carefully checked and cleaned the blade before sharpening the three additional daggers he’d taken from the ship. His axe was always honed to perfection. A whisper of a thought brushed his mind and he looked up.
Einarr was coming back through the trees with Bevan behind him. They both looked grim as they joined Roberts and Aki.
“Half the village has been slaughtered. There are bodies everywhere. It is obvious that they cleared a space in the center of the village and set up their rockets to fire at our airship.” Einarr said. “The remainder of the population are either being held captive in the great hall or have escaped.”
“How many Etruscans did you see?” Aki asked.
“Two dozen maybe?” Einarr spat on the ground. “May they rot in hell.”
“Do not worry, brother. If they are not true warriors then we shall not allow them the glory of a place in Valhalla even in death.”
“Amen to that,” Bevan muttered. “They are using the people trapped inside the hall as bait to get the others to surrender.”
A high scream reached them and was abruptly cut off.
“Then the sooner we get this over with, the better. No fucking prisoners. Shoot to kill.” Roberts shouldered his weapon. “We’ll surround them and take them out one at a time until somebody notices and then we’ll have to go in. Agreed?”
Aki nodded, as did the other two. He was not afraid anymore. For the first time since waking up in this strange future, he had a purpose and a just cause to fight for. He finally felt alive.
“
Let’s keep everything telepathic from now on in
,” Roberts moved forward. “
And shield because the Etruscans definitely have a telepath with them
.”
They went into the wooded area that surrounded the settlement and began to spread out. The sounds from the village grew louder, a horrible chorus of the dead and the dying that made Aki want to kill the Etruscans with his bare hands.
A thought slid past him, and Aki’s head went up just in time to see an arrow flash past his cheek and bury itself in the fabric of his shirt, pinning him to a tree. Before he could rip the arrow out, a male was on him, his dagger right against Aki’s throat.
Aki let out his breath. “
Hakron
?”
The huge male who had him pinned against the tree arched away until Aki could see his face. He had eyes the color of an angry sky, hair like soot and soft green skin, most of it uncovered apart from a swathe of checked fabric gathered with a belt at his hips. There was a bow slung over his broad shoulder and a dagger tucked into his belt.
“
We are friends. We come to help
,” Aki said.
The pressure against his neck didn’t ease, and the knife tip dug deeper, releasing a thin trickle of his blood.
“
You are not Pavlovan
.”
“
I’m from Earth.”
“
Ah
.” The Hakron male slowly smiled. He had flowers and leaves braided into the left side of his hair. “
Like Ian Mac?”
“Yes.”
Aki was sure he’d heard that name somewhere. “
Our plane was taken down from the sky by the Etruscans in your village
.”
There was a pause, as if the male was communicating with someone, and then the dagger was drawn away from Aki’s neck.
“
Welcome, Human. I am Morek
.”
“
I am
Aki. There are three others here with me
.”
“
I know.”
Morek smiled. “
We have you all
.”
Aki allowed the Hakron to take him deeper into the forest. Despite his size, the man moved with the light grace of a hunter, meaning Aki struggled to keep up. Eventually, they reached a clearing with a set of four equally spaced boulders at the center.
Aki hesitated before entering the circle, and Morek glanced at him.
“You can sense that this is a holy place
?”
“
Aye
.” Aki put out a tentative hand to touch the stone and snatched it immediately back.
Morek studied him closely and then spoke out loud, his accent as melodious as his movements. “The stones like you. Can you hear them?”
Aki nodded as the swell of sounds washed over him. This place was even older than he was, but it also seemed to understand and welcome him. He touched the stone again and felt the pull of emotion and countless experiences. It reminded him of the cave where he and Einarr had crossed the waterfall and been frozen in time.
“Aki.”
He blinked as Morek touched his arm and the resonance of the stone seemed to flow through him and consume Morek, too. For a moment they were all one and Aki groaned as his mind was filled with so many images and feelings and…
“
Aki.”
Morek dragged him away from the stone and held him upright against a tree. “Are you well?”
He looked into the other man’s worried gaze and managed to nod. Whatever had just happened, he would never forget it. The stones knew his history and somehow that made his loneliness much easier to bear.
Morek slowly smiled at him and cupped his chin. “You are extraordinary. I knew you would be.” He bent his head and kissed Aki full on the mouth and then stepped away, looking to his left. “The others are coming.”
Aki remained pressed against the tree like a mindless fool still caught in the magic of the stones and the sense that Morek was somehow part of it. Was it normal for Hakron warriors to kiss other men? Not that he objected. The snap of attraction left by the stones had made him more than willing to be touched by the other man.
Einarr emerged from the trees and like Aki, halted before the stones.
“Touch them.” Aki said. “They know us. They are ancient.”
The male beside Einarr looked questioningly at Morek who shrugged. “I do not understand it, Ungar, but Aki is right.”
Morek turned to Aki. “This man is of your family?”
“Einarr is my twin.”
“As Ungar is mine.” He gestured at the man with Einarr who nodded at Aki. “We are both bodyguards to the Oracle when she resides in the Temple of Quoxor. Luckily, we were on our way home for a family celebration when the Etruscans struck.” He slammed his fist against his palm. “They have killed many of my people. And now they are using the young and the old as hostages to force us to lay down our weapons.”
“How many of you are left out here?” Roberts and Bevan had also appeared in the clearing accompanied by one Hakron male and one female.
“Just us four.”
Roberts smile was cold. “Then between us we should have no problem killing every single one of the Etruscans should we?”
Ungar’s answering smile was savage. “We are still few but we will die trying.”
“I’ve no intention of dying,” Roberts replied. “All we need to do is come up with a plan and carry it out.”
They had paired off, each of them with one of the Hakron who knew the area better than they ever would. Aki was crouched beside Morek on a small rise behind the village, which gave them an excellent view of the main hall where the captives were being held. The Hakron village was comprised of simple stone and thatch structures that reminded Aki of his old home.
Between the eight of them they’d already taken out four Etruscans who had been sent to patrol the forest, leaving twenty or so of them left to deal with. The plan was to move in closer and take out the secondary guards before launching a full assault on the remaining soldiers guarding the hall entrance. The telepathic Hakron inside were well aware of what was happening and would be quick to help their rescuers if the opportunity arose.
Morek notched an arrow as one of the Etruscans wandered away from the watch fire and toward the forest. Within a second the man fell quietly into the lush foliage, an arrow straight through his throat.