Taming the Queen of Beasts

RIKA

"That's what I figured," Jared said lightly. "Now both of you stay here and don't move. I have to go review a couple of things and get some advice, then I'll be back with more questions."

Rika thanked him again, ducking her head and rubbing her arms now that they were free. To her relief, the other two walked out with him so she was left in the tent with Reece.

​ She opened her mouth, but Reece shook his head and glared at the tent flap. Rika nodded, understanding the warning. She sat with a heavy sigh, hands in her lap, and waited, watching Reece.

Eventually, after several minutes, he relaxed.

Rika looked back over her shoulder, but when no one entered, she said under her breath, far too quietly for a human to hear, "So… they were listening to see if we would talk?"

Reece nodded.

Rika swallowed. "Are there guards outside?" she breathed.

Reece nodded, his focus still on the tent flaps behind her, but he didn't tense again when she opened her mouth.

"Can you warn me if they start moving towards us? Just cough, don't say anything in case they hear you."

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Reece's eyes dropped back to hers. He nodded again but gave her a warning glance and she lifted a hand to soothe him as she stood.

Rika crept out of her seat and straight to the table to examine the devices strewn across it. She didn't recognize two, but that meant they were likely to do with the apparent military presence that was now running this show. A quick scan made it clear Jared hadn't left his command device—not that she was surprised about that. And the others were all just tools and data collectors for the logs. Unable to do any damage to other devices with these, Rika flipped each of them over and tugged at the connection lines between the battery and the small solar panel each device had on its top.

It wouldn't stop them from working right away. But if no one noticed it would mean that the following day those devices wouldn't work. Was there a way to turn off the battery warning, she wondered? As she thought about it, it might be a better plan to just drop the battery on as many devices as they could if they didn't get close to a command device. After all, they wouldn't know for hours that any device had been tampered with. If she could figure out how to stop each of them from giving the warning about the low battery—

Reece coughed and Rika hurried back to her seat pretending she was only shifting to see them enter when Jared and the other guy shoved the tent flap aside and came back in.

Jerad strode straight in to stand in front of her, staring, his arms folded, and waited, while the man who had brought them in from the field stood off to the side. They both looked stern.

Rika looked back and forth between the two men. "What?"

"You were correct," Jared said quietly. "There do appear to be a few traps being set for our vehicles at the edge of the forest."

"The WildWood," she said quickly. "That's what they call it."

He didn't respond. "There has been a lot of activity, but only from a small number of Anima. Though we do believe there is also a small army gathering behind the edge of the forest and within it, though we don't have numbers yet, it appears they are growing."

Rika smiled. "See! I told you. I was there when they got word from their messengers. They know about you being here, though they don't know how many or where you are. But they figured out that you hadn't crossed the desert yet, and they're sending their fighters to—"

"How did you get here?"

Rika hesitated. Did they already know about the birds? "I'm not entirely certain," she said, swallowing hard. "I think we flew."

Jared's brows rose, encouraging her to continue.

"I just know that I was tied in a… like a canvas hammock. I couldn't see anything, but it got cold and quiet and there was a lot of wind, and… birds calling.

"So you can confirm there is an Avian variety?"

"I believe so, yes. But as I said, I was wrapped up—"

"So I need you to tell me what their plans are. How many are gathered in the forest, which species, and do they have birds among them to travel from that point or were the birds just ferries from their settlement to here?"

"I… I don't know. It was only a small group that I came with. Maybe twenty? The birds though, I mean, it took two of them for every one of us. But I don't know the numbers, Jared. I wasn't trusted by them, not really. And we were at the front. With the leaders. That's what I'm saying. They keep their leaders out front."

"What species came with you?"

"I don't know!" which was true. "I only got to see one of them shift and he was… he was a huge lion."

Jared cursed, then looked at Reece, then back to the guy who'd brought them out. "Take him out of here and have him tested and swabbed. Then we'll talk."

Reece stood easily and followed without complaint when the soldier took his elbow, but Rika's blood ran cold.

"What are you going to do with him?" she asked quietly when Reece had been taken out of the tent.

"We're going to test his blood and make sure he's human," Jared said, his eyes sharp on hers.

"Oh, good call," she said, holding his gaze and not wavering.

But… Fudge.

Jared looked at her and she got the feeling that he wanted to smile. What she couldn't tell was whether his amusement came from sharing the joke with her, or because he was amused by her attempts to lie. She just stared at him like she was a little confused but eager to please. She prayed that her nerves convinced him of her innocence, rather than her guilt.