The sensation of being watched faded. Immediately, he retrieved some of his personal belongings from Qalān and began to search them for a charm-sung lump of clear quartz.
Ah ha! he said when he found it. I knew I had it somewhere.
The crystal vibrated in his hand as if eager to do its job. He composed his mind and with a short string of notes activated the charm to shield his tent from psychic view. A second set of notes set an alarm that fizzed briefly against his exposed skin. Now he would be alerted if anyone tried to spy on his private space. The ensemble’s range covered his tent and a small perimeter quite nicely.
He dusted off his palms. “Now I can sleep in peace!”
It was nearly midnight when he was woken by the alarm and realized Lind was waiting outside.
“Where have you been? I expected you earlier,” he growled.
She hesitated. “I … I was busy. The others were watching. I couldn’t get away.”
He sneered. “I can read you as if you’re my slave already. The God-Emperor himself designed the slave collars and instigated their use. Does that make the pretty silver links the will of El? They sever spirit from soul … how you will writhe! Bow before you enter!”
She made a sullen bow. The hatred in her eyes was almost as exciting as his vision of her collared. He grabbed the base of her braid and pulled her close.
I am your emperor, he said. You want to live, don’t you? He made her head nod up and down. “Yess …” Perhaps I will kill my wife and marry you instead.
“El would never bless such a union,” she whispered.
He smiled a cruel smile and pulled her face close to his own. “What makes you think I would want the Blessing of El?”
Lind closed her eyes, ready to endure what she must.
Or perhaps I should just kill you.
“Kill me?”
“It would be so simple,” said Duvät Gok, “and so easy to hide. No close relatives? Who would receive your sad little death-cry, Lind? Who would care? Huldar rejected you. He’d be happy to have you gone so he can –”
“No … please!” Lind cried. “I’ll keep you happy … I’ll do as you say!
She gasped as the Overlord pushed her away.
“Pay attention,” he said. “When we’re done here, I have a task for you. It concerns Andel of Trianog and a certain stone – but I don’t want her to know that I’m interested. Understand?”
RETREAT
Following the summer solstice, the global winter’s relentless advance began more quickly than anticipated. On the Northern Shelf, bitter gales scoured the tents of the Uri’madu with hail and sleet that quickly turned to snow. Temperatures could plummet within seconds. Each day their range grew more limited. No one went anywhere alone or unplanned.
On their final day, the Uri’madu awoke to a campsite encased in ice and their door-flaps frozen shut. After breakfast, leather drummed as they beat the ice from their tents before packing them for their return south.
The marquee was last to come down and Huldar paused to watch. The baring of the hearth was always a poignant moment for him, as if a trust had been violated.
Andel crouched nearby, sorting geological samples into containers and labeling them with care. When she sensed his attention, he tipped his head in the slightest of gestures toward the beach.
She smiled and with an equally tiny nod, agreed to his suggestion.
On the quiet of the shore, she watched the horizon with narrowed eyes. Behind them, skies were dark, but to the south the sun was still shining. In the background they heard faint laughter as the demolition of their campsite continued.
Andel turned from her scrutiny of the seas and crouched to study the shingle on the beach. As he hunkered down to see what she was doing, his long, fair plait fell forward and danced in a sudden gust.
With one hand, Andel held her cloak firmly closed. The other stirred the air above a group of ice-worn pebbles as she pushed them to and fro into piles on either side. Whether her mind followed the gestures or vice versa, he couldn’t be sure.
At last, a single pebble remained exposed against the rock. Andel studied it for a moment, then lifted her finger to levitate it neatly into her upturned palm. The stone’s finely pitted surface was marked with alternating stripes like the shadows of claws.
She nudged it around her palm with her index finger. “It’s strange, isn’t it?”
“Umm …” He peered at the object in her hand. “The stone?”
She looked up. “Rock responds well to both force of mind and power of voice, but some things listen better to one or the other, not both. It’s as if all things,” she waved her free hand around her, “all these rocks and clouds and waves, all have life and make choices – just like you and I.”
Huldar was captivated by the intelligence in her sandy brown eyes, vertical pupils round-edged and dark with mystery. As the sky dimmed beneath a lazy cloud, the light of her Tsemkar fell softly on delicate cheeks. Her slight build and airy fragility made him long to shield her from the oncoming weather, yet when she was divining, power coursed through her bones and she walked as if imbued with the life of the planet itself.
For a long heartbeat she returned his gaze, then she bent again to the pebble nestling in her palm.
“Yet the same planetary energies flow through all things,” she said. She breathed onto it to brighten the colors then slowly traced her middle finger over its surface.
With a small, secret smile, Andel closed her hand around the pebble. Her Tsemkar glowed again and the stony shingle clattered back into place. She looked at him and it was as if she met his soul with a glimpse of her own. When she stood to return to camp, Huldar followed, still mute, wishing he could think of something to say.
In his pocket, he toyed with the opalized shell she had given him. Night after night he had picked at the dull stone that encased it and eventually the intricate ghost of a long-dead sea creature had been revealed in lacy filaments of opal that shone with all the colors of fire. With great care, he’d fashioned a leather clasp styled after the House Rune of Leth, just as his father had taught him. But the giving of such a gift was fraught with meaning. Tingling senses told him that Andel of Trianog welcomed his attention, but it was vital their small party remained harmonious. With many months of exploration still ahead and Lind still so sad, perhaps it was not a good idea to give her the opal just yet. But his heart raced as he walked behind her and the leather thong of the necklace tangled in his fingers as if refusing to be released.
All done, boss! Casco called out. Ready when you are.
Andel turned. Thanks for the break, she said, it was just what I needed.
She left with a smile, but her veil was tight and he sensed a wisp of disappointment. He desperately wanted to tell her of his feelings, but the time never seemed right. He fingered the opal in his pocket.
Casco came and stood beside him, watching as Andel made her way back to her collection of samples.
Give it to her! he said. Get the agony over with! What’s the worst that could happen?
The worst? Huldar imagined her small hand pressing the opal back into his own. Her expression pitying. Worse still would be the disruption within their group. Lind’s battered pride, team members taking sides …
That’s an extreme projection and you know it, Casco said. And Lind isn’t the type to hold grudges.
Huldar was about to answer, but when tent leathers began to flap free he ran toward the marquee.
“Ronnin!” he yelled. “Quick! Catch it!”
Casco shook his head as he followed. Later, he said. You and I are going to talk this through!
READY TO LOVE
The Uri’madu returned to the Southern Archipelago as planned, then, when snow started falling in earnest, they hurried back to the Eastern Foothills. There, the extended summer was slower to fade, but inevitably the weather turned and the cold caught up with them again.
On the western side of the continent, the shorelin
e receded fast as the ocean was locked in ice. Huldar took a last look at a massive iceberg trapped in the freeze and turned to leave. The ground crunched beneath his feet. Around him, hoarfrost hung from withered vegetation as if pretending to the life it had stolen. His breath steamed as he entered the portal, but as he stepped through it, the cloud vanished. Warmer air relaxed the skin of his face, and instead of ice he walked on mud. The campsite was only one hundred paces away, but his boots squelched in the heavy going.
Easy to see where the portals are, he thought. Just follow the slush!
As he paused to survey the savannah below, his gaze followed the shallow ridgelines of the stony dunes. Although the endless plains had been a desolate desert when the team had returned, at least it had been dry and warm. The water retained in Bush and Topper’s cisterns had seemed ample at the time and work had continued. But as the dry season stretched on, water had become scarce. Soaring daytime temperatures made the lifeless gravel shimmer, but with sundown the air chilled, and at night the ravenous cold sucked the heat from their bodies. Now the rains had turned to sleet and the Uri’madu were ready to return to the Central Continent.
Andel’s tent was close to the path. Earlier, she had been writing notes about samples and findings, but now she stood with one hand shading her eyes as she gazed at the faded grassland, while the other rested on her sagging guy-ropes. She acknowledged his approach, but did not turn from the view.
“After the drought broke, I could feel the energy in the flowers,” she said. “The fire of life, their joy of being – but now they are gone.” She turned to him. “Do plants have more awareness than we believe? Does Asheru sing them home to bathe in the Breath when they die?”
“Maybe …”
He looked at her poorly tensioned guy-ropes. Water pooled in the bowing leather panels. How was it she could feel their surroundings with almost the same acuity as his own and divine with such power, yet maintenance of simple tent charms seemed beyond her?
“Perhaps I could sing these tighter for you,” he offered. “I know you have a lot to do before tomorrow’s move.”
“Thank you,” she said. “That would be most kind, Shamkarun Huldar.”
She smiled and he felt his heart skip a beat, then with a quick nod, she turned and strode toward the work she had started. He liked the way her hair glinted red in the afternoon light. While the sun was shining she preferred to work in the open air, and he saw rows of containers and chunks of rock spread out in neat lines.
He rested his hand on the rope where hers had been and watched her bustle over her samples. Her fine fingers traced invisible lines in the air as small pieces of rock flew from box to box. Levitating several at once was a complex task, and the fingers seemed to help her keep track. Then her directing hand paused and the rocks waited in mid-air as she rifled through a sheaf of papers. “Got you!” she murmured. Huldar smiled when he saw a highly detailed list, similar to an accountant’s ledger.
“For a Trianogi,” he said, “you have a Cantori-like obsession with order.”
A Cantori! Andel poked her fingers at him.
He grasped his ribs and twisted his mouth in mock pain. All right! I’m doing it now. He pretended to limp as he turned to sing her guy-ropes tighter, but the notes he needed were slow to come.
We’re moving back to the Central Continent tomorrow … He pictured tropical sunshine, cool drinks and brightly colored vegetation.
Yes, I know, she replied. The flights of her samples resumed.
And all our tents will be dismantled, he continued. His heart raced. It was hard to keep his mind veiled in a polite state of calm.
Andel kept working.
Perhaps I could take yours down for you instead of fixing it? he blundered on. You could share mine …
Andel’s samples froze mid-flight once more as she turned to look at him. Her face revealed little. He waited. Suddenly it seemed she had been silent for too long. His mind raced … He had been absent for long stretches without contacting her. Why did he think she would be interested in him? They had hardly spoken in months! He had been too forward. He was a fool and Casco had been wrong – but then her veil began to glimmer. A shy smile came to her lips and he could think of nothing else.
“Well, take it down then,” she said.
“At once, my lady!” He jumped to obey before she could change her mind.
That night as they gathered for the evening meal, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Bush and Topper joked about the food and Arko jumped to Tam’s defense. Ronnin and Nachiel played ashut in a quiet corner, Lind discussed herbal remedies with Ubaid and Alis, while Sari and Andel chatted by the fire about what changes they might find on the Central Continent. For Huldar, every moment dragged unbearably, yet part of him wanted it to.
It was not uncommon for sexual encounters to occur while on assignment, and as fully trained Naghari Healers both Ubaid and Alis were well versed in the twenty-seven rules of touch. But it was rare for him – very rare.
He watched as Lind joined Andel and Sari. For a moment, their eyes met. The glance seemed knowing but her true emotions were tightly held, yet when Sari said something that made the three giggle, the tone of Andel’s voice drew him again. For Lind’s sake, he tried not to stare, but Andel’s presence burned against his soul. The life force within him seemed to have doubled and was only barely contained by his skin.
Said something to her, haven’t you? Casco brushed his fingers in the air. Your haze …
Huldar closed his eyes and regained control of his psychic emissions. Better?
Casco nodded and returned to his conversation with Gento and Cobar. Across the room, Ubaid met his eyes with a wry wink. Huldar smiled and a wave of humor compressed his lungs. He was behaving like a young one at first awakening. Then a wisp of sadness spilled from beneath Lind’s veil and his mood levelled.
Soon afterward, he left the marquee for the safety of his tent and surveyed the interior, wondering if it was neat enough. With soft voice he tweaked its screens into perfect order. He didn’t want Andel to think he was a poor housekeeper. A simple, collapsible desk held some interesting seedpods, the gossamer wing of a slug, a piece of ice-worn bone and some bright blue lizard scales from the Southern Archipelago. These were illuminated by a light-crystal enclosed in a web of fine curving branches. It had been grown by a friend on Haaseen, the Rukhish homeworld.
As he straightened his bedroll he remembered that he had no spare pillow so he took the fur-lined blanket from the top and rolled it into a tube. First he doubled it over and put it beside the pillow he already had, then he unfolded it and took the pillow away but it still didn’t look right and besides, if the night became much colder they might need the extra warmth on the bed. He shook it out again and laughed at himself. Fancy inviting the female of his dreams then asking her to bring her own bedding! He could sleep without a pillow.
He scanned the marquee. She was still there. Perhaps she wouldn’t come …
With a sigh, he pulled a book from Qalān and read the same line several times before closing it again.
When at last she left the gathering and stepped out into the night, his finely tuned senses came to life. He waited by the central tent pole and tried not to appear nervous.
She scratched the leather of the door-flap. “It’s me, Andel.”
He froze inside, unable to think how to answer. Why couldn’t he just laugh and say, “Of course it is!” as if she were Casco, or another friend? After a brief pause, she stepped in without waiting for a reply.
Their eyes met, and suddenly he was trying not to laugh.
Her cheeks colored. “I brought my own, just in case.”
She followed his glance toward the empty space at the end of the bed and grinned. He watched her place her pillow beside his, then floundered, trying to think of something suave to say. It was as if his brain had ceased to function. Then she stood in front of him, and for a while they just looked at each other.
Her min
d brushed his with tentative contact. I haven’t done this before, she said, not here.
Neither have I, he replied. Well, I have … well, no, what I mean is … but his words turned to mush again, lost in the fire as their hazes touched.
She reached for his hands.
I thought you’d say no … he said.
Andel shook her head lightly. You hoped I’d say yes, and I have. She stepped close and slid his hands inside her shirt and held them against her breasts. Skin to skin, her touch was almost overwhelming. A flood of subliminal messages poured between them. Without thinking, he bent his head to kiss her. She was so small and sweet, he was afraid to overwhelm her, but then she reached behind his head and pulled him down, and he kissed her again, harder.
The Mark on her forehead glowed softly and a light pressure tickled against his abdomen as the laces of his trousers pulled themselves apart. She smiled and searched downward with fingers inquisitive and warm.
How often had he imagined this moment, alone with her at last? He wanted to please her more than he had wanted anything in his life, but all the moments he had fantasized – what he would say, what he would do – all those charmed moments fled as the real charm took hold.
Her trousers dropped to reveal lithe and shapely legs and he met her gaze again, still mute with wonder. She laughed and drew him toward the bed. Her eyes would not release him. Her breathing was as ragged as his. With a gentle shove, she pushed him onto the fur-lined blanket and held him down.
Time later for play … she whispered, and all vestiges of awkwardness were vaporized as instinct took hold.
Much later, wrapped in the warmth of his blankets, Huldar gazed down at her sleeping face and touched her cheek, softly so as not to wake her. Her features were delicate, he decided, but not pretty. Her ears stuck out a little too far, and her nose definitely had character … but she was herself, and she was beautiful. The workings of her mind were an utter fascination – thoughts wound and twisted as if every surface of every single thing needed to be examined and assessed in a web of connections most could never imagine.
Planet Walkers Page 17
