Uncharted allies. Combining two worlds, part 1(Un-edited version)

RHAN (Part 3)

With a weary gesture, Rhán rubbed his burning eyes with his palms. He had had virtually no sleep for the past three nights and it was beginning to take its toll. Ever since the little woman had appeared to him, her face kept tormenting him at night.

During the day he could easily put his thoughts of her aside, for all his attention was focused on organising his team for departure for Europe, which was no easy task.

Sasha, Ellen's granddaughter, had come to tell him that she also wanted to come to Europe, and his first instinct was to refuse her. But the little lady had probably already seen his rejection coming, for she had her arguments ready, and frankly he had no choice but to agree. He did however had one condition, Ri'kil had to agree too.

Rhán had not been blind, for when he had seen the two youngsters together for the 'first time', it had been abundantly clear to him that there was more going on between them than they let on, something that Baska had clearly not seen, for he had challenged Ri'kil to a duel to woo Sasha.

Looking at his tired face in the mirror, he sighed and felt a little sorry for the young challenger. Ri'kil was an excellent warrior and Baska hadn't stood a chance, especially since he was so obviously interested in Sasha, something that irritated Ri'kil to no end. Ri'kil had slammed his opponent to the ground, so hard in fact that the young man had broken his jaw, upper arm and four ribs. Later that evening, however, he had found Sasha and Ri'kil in such a close embrace that he no longer doubted that the two had been together for much longer.

A pang of jealousy ran through his heart as he saw the girl's loving gaze as she looked up to his best warrior.

He never thought anyone would ever look at him like that and suddenly there she was..., standing in his shower... his ghost women... Without hesitation he would give his right arm to see her again....

Last night, Vsar had summonded everyone who was aware of the planned takeover to Ellen's house, the place where he stayed after his alleged resignation.

Gh'ara had missed the daily check-in twice and now they had to decide whether to leave for Europe tonight or in two days.

Since the Ikat's life was almost certainly in danger, the decision was quickly made, Rhán's group would leave for Europe by the end of that same evening.

From that moment on, everything accelerated.

Vsar and Ellen would contact Kayla to ask her to find a good hiding place for Rhan and his hundred warriors and Baska and the medical team.

Rhán was still amazed at how Vsar had known that Baska could be trusted and had confided in the young man instead of Ghorul. Despite the young man's loyalty to his mentor, his loyalty to his Tároc was many times greater. Unbeknownst to his mentor, Baska had managed to find six reliable medics who were willing to secretly cooperate in the seizure of power in Europe.

Birgg had gone to his new private quarters, Vsar's old quarters, to prepare a message that, as soon as Rhan left at the end of the evening, he would send to the other Taroc whom Vsar had labeled "most likely" trustworthy. After that he would call in another, larger group of warriors to prepare as additional assault troops for Rhan.

He himself had gone to every warrior he chose to join the attack on Latarji's clan. The men had to be stronger, faster and more deadly than the men of the Taroc, and these hundred were his very best warriors, for his group would initially have to face the superiority of Latarji's clan alone and who knows, maybe a few other Taroc had joined that kanjiité uami, it was a risk but there was no other choise, he could only hope that Gh'ara's men were loyal to him instead of Latarji.

Anyway, he trusted in the strengh of these men, and knew what each of them was worth, after all, he had trained these men, along with Birgg, himself.

After he had finished his visit to the warriors, he'd disappeared to his quarters to prepare for the attack.

Abruptly Rhan turned away from the mirror and strode into the shower, which he set on the hardest and coldest setting. It was vital that he kept his head set!

After he took over the leadership in Europe he would start looking for the woman that occupied his mind at night, but for now he couldn't afford being distracted!

It was still dark when Rhan and the rest of the group took their seats in the various airvessels. He saw Sasha climbing on board one of the ships close by, this meant that she'd persuaded Ri'kil, and he couldn't help but smile. His protégé would have a hard time with this lady in the future.

During the flight to the European continent he kept in touch with Vsar and Birgg. According to Vsar, Kayla knew a perfect place for him and his group to hide, at least where Baska's group could hide, and where Rhan could leave the extra weapons.

From what he understood, the site was large enough to accommodate wounded men, a weapons depot and a base, although he couldn't imagine what that place might be like and he shrugged...he would just have to wait and see...

A watery sun was already low on the horizon when Rhan's troops arrived. He had slid open one of the cargo doors to see if he could spot Kayla on the floor. At first he saw no one, until his eyes fell on a small female figure emerging cautiously from her hiding place.

As a precaution, he ordered the pilot to scan the area, which was hampered by something in the bottom, and he began to grin. This was probably why the woman had chosen this place as his base of operations.

Rhan had the pilot land the ship a few feet from the woman and stepped out of the loading area first.

He noticed that the woman was slightly taller than Ellen and her wives, she had a pale and tearful face. He walked up to her with big strides and he saw that she took a few steps back in shock.

"Kayla, I take it?" He tried to make his voice sound as friendly as possible.

"My name is Rhán and we are here to help Gh'ara."

A desperate smile appeared on her face. "I'm glad you're here, I really didn't know what to do anymore!"

Rhan cocked his head to the side and looked at the woman intently, a feeling arose that something else was going aswell. "What's going on, has something happened?"

The woman unexpectedly began to sob heartrendingly. "They've captured my daughter as well and I'm terrified they'll hurt her!" She spoke with a strangled voice.

From the undergrowth came a rustle and immediately Rhán got into raised his gun. "DON'T SHOOT! DON'T SHOOT!" With both hands in the air, a girl emerged from the bushes.

Kayla looked at the girl with wide eyes. "What the hell are you doing here Lisa?! Didn't I tell you to stay in the cave! I don't want you to get caught too!"

Rhán lowered his weapon and gave Kayla a hard look. "I thought you said they captured your daughter?"

The little woman nodded. "Yes, my other daughter Nina."

Ashamed, Rhán looked at her. Ofcourse..., the woman had two daughters, Nina was the one he had first contact with. "I'm sorry Kayla, I completely forgot. I want to get my people to the hide out first, then I want to know exactly what happened, okay?"