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“So the pupa in the chamber are the among the last?” My breath caught, each inhale revealing a burgeoning revelation.
“Yes,” Vennox nodded, “and they are hoping for the next queen to be among them.”
“We must destroy the pupa inside the chamber and?—”
“And the queen along with them,” Tyrk finished my thought.
“I will remain behind.” Vennox's jaw tightened, resolve steeling his features. “Make sure the queen is dead.”
“I cannot leave you behind,” I stepped inside the cage prepared to pull Vennox out.
“No. You need to rescue the others held captive inside the mine." Vennox shook his head and took a step back. “Uri’s chambers are just there.” He pointed to a door on the opposite side of the room. “I’ll lay in wait and once I’ve killed her, the guards will sound the alarm. With the queen dead, the Gorken guards will come here to protect the pupa.” The main entrance will be left unguarded.”
“I’m not sacrificing a single Valosian on a half-cocked plan,” I uttered hotly. “And that includes you, Vennox.”
“If I leave now, the guards will know something is amiss and lock down the palace,” Vennox rushed out. “I escaped once and they set off a blaring alarm. Gorken guards swarmed in from every direction. If we alert them too soon, you won’t have a chance of getting those people free of the mine.”
“He’s right, Gunnox.” Tyrk pressed his comm and blaster into Vennox’s hands. “Lay low until you hear from us.” Tyrk showed Vennox how to operate the comm and gave him a wicked blade he had tucked inside his boot. “We can get inside the mine cloaked. Once inside, we use daggers to quietly dispatch the guards. Ruze said there were only four of them the last time you were inside. Vennox, I’ll ping you on the comm when the guards are dead, that’s when you make your move, but be quiet about it. Once she’s dead, hail me on your comm.”
“What about the pupa chamber?” I asked. “And once Vennox kills the queen, we need to get him out of here.”
“Easy. We use the conveyor to deliver a hydrosonic bomb into the chamber. I can remote detonate it.” Tyrk shrugged. “Vennox can use the chute, then access the conveyor tunnel inside the pupa chamber.” Tyrk turns to Vennox. “The conveyor tunnel leads directly to the ore cavern where we will be. Do you think you can make it there on your own?”
"Yes," Vennox stated with unwavering confidence.
“Once the queen is dead, don’t hesitate,” Tyrk said. “Get the fuck to the conveyor tunnel. Once that alarm sounds, we all need to be running for the ship.”
“If you run into trouble—” I began.
“Leave without me.” Vennox lifted his chin defiantly. “Don’t wait and chance being caught.”
“No!” I growled. “You ping Tyrk on the comm and I will come for you.”
“A Trisess warrior coming to the aid of a Huren one.” Vennox grinned. “I never thought I’d live to see that.”
“Valose is much changed in your absence,” I stated earnestly. “The lines that once divided our clans have been erased. We are all warriors of Valose fight as one.”
“Then it has changed for the better.” Vennox's ears perked, picking up the same footfalls drawing closer as me. “Go now before you’re caught.”
Without another word, Tyrk and I engaged our cloaking devices and slipped into the corridor, our footfalls as quiet as we could make them as we navigated through the palace and out the main door. Soon, my people and the humans would be free and the Gorkens' reduced to ashes.
Chapter Nine
SARAH
The blaring alarm jerked me from an exhausted sleep. My eyes snapped open as panic seized my heart. The guards' mandibles rapidly clacked in response to the urgent summons, a cacophony of clicking and grinding echoing through the cavern. Their communication devices were embedded within their jagged slits, the metallic pieces seamlessly integrated into the hard carapace of their faces.
The males halted their relentless hammering on the ore, forming a shielded cluster, their movements synchronized in a defensive stance as we waited for the swarm of guards that never came.
The last time the alarms blared, a horde of guards rushed in and closed off the main entrance into the cavern. Had the Valosian Queen Uri singled out on our first day escaped again? I sure hoped he got away this time.
Still barricaded behind our electrified bars, the other women stirred around me, their haggard faces pinched with worry as we huddled closer together for comfort as the harsh siren continued to blare. The shrill sound reverberated off the stone walls, we winced and pressed our hands against our ears in a futile attempt to block it out.
Four Gorken guards suddenly went silent. Their bulbous eyes glazed over as one by one, they reached up to claw at their throats. Dark, viscous fluid seeped between their scaly fingers. Within moments, they crumpled to the floor in a hideous chorus of gurgles and gasps.
I blinked at the gruesome scene, unable to process what I was seeing. The guards were all dead. Butchered without a sound or any visible trace of an attacker.
“What just happened?” Leah gasped next to me.
