Shattered Past

by Lindsay Buroker

  “They’re in here,” Vann said when the women stopped in front of him. He pushed the door open, his gaze snagging on the cracked window, a cracked window which would require more paperwork, since every bit of inventory that came up from the capital had to be accounted for. He grumbled to himself.

  The professor, who had been walking past him on her way into the room, must have caught the noise because she glanced up at him in alarm. Vann smoothed his face. He’d been told his under-the-breath grumbles weren’t much different from his growls, for which he was infamous, and he hadn’t meant to alarm her. Kaika quirked an eyebrow at him as she passed. Vann tightened his jaw and said nothing, not sure how he felt about her being here. Oh, he didn’t mind her as a person or as a soldier. They had been in the same elite forces unit for years, and had crossed paths often, even sharing a few missions. She was the one female soldier he had encountered in infantry, apparently there because of a special exemption from the king. What bothered Vann was the idea that she had been assigned to protect the professor not just from the prisoners but from him, as if he were some sex-starved troglodyte who would assault a woman. There was absolutely nothing on or off his record that justified that, and he knew he had General Zirkander to blame for the insinuation. And apparently, Lieutenant Sleepy. Damned pilots. They were the biggest whiners at the academy, just wanting to fly and not wanting to learn how to be real soldiers.

  He managed to keep from grumbling again as he followed the women into the room. Lilah beelined for the tarp on the table. Vann grimaced at the mess he had left the bones in, but he rubbed his fingers, remembering that there was a reason they hadn’t been organized.

  Kaika looked around the room, her gaze lingering on the cracked window, then watched the professor for a moment before shrugging and walking to the wall beside the door. “Guess I’m on lamppost duty for the rest of the night.”

  The professor—Lilah, Vann decided to call her, if only in his mind, because he didn’t want to be reminded of her last name—had already pulled a journal, several tools, and a loupe out of her kit. She hunched over the bones, her back to the doorway, immediately engrossed.

  “Just the night?” Vann asked.

  “Hm.” Kaika considered her charge, who gave no indication that she heard them. “Until she collapses? How long do you figure she’ll last?”

  Vann’s mind went to something that had nothing to do with standing up and looking at bones, and he glared suspiciously at Kaika, suspecting the double entendre, since most of what came out of the woman’s mouth was sexual.

  “I bet she can go until lunch tomorrow,” Kaika said, smiling innocently.

  He didn’t even remotely believe that innocence, and he kept his mouth shut, refusing to be drawn in to joking about the woman.

  “Though I suppose academics aren’t known for their stamina,” Kaika went on, her eyes twinkling, clearly not needing help to continue the joke.

  Vann was half tempted to defend the professor—and her stamina—especially since she was right there and could hear them, assuming she was paying attention. All he said was, “Zirkander should have sent a more professional bodyguard.”

  He grabbed a box of matches and walked into the room to light the handful of lanterns sitting on the tables and shelves. The remote outpost wasn’t plumbed for gas lighting, so it got quite dark after the sun went down. He didn’t know if the professor would be able to continue with her studies, stamina notwithstanding, but he brought the lanterns over to the table and perched them where they might help. He eyed the bones warily, wanting to ask her if magic was something to be expected when it came to dragon remains, but he was reluctant to sound stupid in front of a professor. A year ago, hardly anyone had believed in magic and witches, and he wasn’t sure if that had changed outside of the select few who had been dealing with the Cofah sorceress and the handful of dragons that had reappeared in the world.

  Lilah looked up when he set a lantern near her, seemed startled to find him there—or maybe to realize that anybody was still in the room—but recovered and smiled. She had a pretty smile, and normally he would have at least nodded in acknowledgment, but he thought of General Zirkander and the way his smiles were always mocking, at least when directed at Vann, so he caught himself staring at the woman as he tried to decipher whether hers was sincere or not. Her expression faltered, and she looked down, determinedly picking up another bone.

  He scowled at himself. Glaring at a woman, Vann? Not classy. He groped for a way to apologize without admitting that he had done anything wrong—it wasn’t his fault that she was related to General Mouthy.

  “Do they look normal?” he asked.

  She peered up at him, her brow furrowed, and didn’t respond right away. It was either a stupid question, or she’d thought their interaction was over. Maybe it ought to be. He couldn’t contribute anything here, and he had work to do.

  “The bones,” he added.

  Kaika stood quietly by the door without commenting, as a good bodyguard should, but the way her eyebrows lifted seemed to imply she thought he was being weird. No, he was just curious about the damned bones and whether they were a threat. Maybe he was slightly curious about Lilah, too, even if her relationship to Zirkander sounded alarm bells in his brain. He shuddered at the idea of having anything to do with that family. Even if he hadn’t loathed Zirkander, one had to consider his witch and that crazy dragon that followed her around.

  Still, Lilah was an attractive woman, and undesirable relatives couldn’t keep him from noticing that she had lovely curves that the long-sleeve shirt and trousers couldn’t entirely hide. She also had full lips and green eyes that contrasted noticeably and appealingly with her thick, reddish-brown hair, hair with a lustrous sheen that made a man want to run his hands through it.

  “Actually, they’re fossils,” Lilah said. “The organic part of the bone, including blood cells, collagen, and fat, broke down long ago—it’ll be difficult to determine exactly how long without access to my lab. What remains are minerals that seeped into the inorganic material from what I presume was the sedimentary rock they were found in. So, you see, what we have here is far more rock than bone.”

  “So are the rocks normal?”

  Kaika snorted.

  “I’m not sure what you mean by normal exactly, Colonel, but I haven’t had time to determine much of anything.”

  Lilah bent back over the bones, and Vann decided that had been a suggestion to leave her alone. Running his hands through her hair wasn’t likely to happen. He snorted at himself and walked toward the door, wondering if Bosmont wasn’t the only one around here who’d been without female companionship for too long.

  “I’ll be in my office if she needs anything,” Vann told Kaika, whose eyebrows were being entirely too expressive.

  “I’ll let you know the results of the stamina test,” she called after him.

  Grumbling again, he strode into his office.

  Chapter 4

  Lilah finished copying her most important notes onto a fresh piece of paper and pushed her chair back, leaving her journal open on the table so she could come back to it. Morning light streamed through the broken window. Good. Now, she could find someone to take her out to the dig site, where she could investigate more than the fossils. She hadn’t gone to bed, having given up on that idea when the sky started to brighten again, but she couldn’t imagine napping now, not when such a momentous find might be waiting for her. Besides, at one point when she had dozed off, her arms pillowing her head on the table, she had woken from a dream with a start, her heart racing, memories of being captured and eaten alive by a dragon fresh in her mind. That had dissuaded her from going back to sleep.

  Kaika, who had stayed in her spot by the door all night, aside from leaving briefly to find them food and water, stirred and yawned. A couple of times, she’d seemed to be dozing, but if she had been, it had been done standing up.

  “Time for some sleep?” she asked.

  “Sleep? No, I nee
d to see the dig site.”

  “Oh. I guess picking out a room was an unnecessary side trip then.”

  “Perhaps the colonel could assign some of his soldiers to wander around behind me, being bored.”

  “I wasn’t bored last night,” Kaika said. “I had my daydreams to keep me entertained.”

  “Was that before or after you started snoring?” Lilah waved the paper to dry the ink and headed for the door.

  “I wasn’t snoring. I know I don’t do that when I’m standing up. Occasionally, it happens when I fall asleep with my head hanging off the side of the bed, but I think that’s understandable.”

  “Perfectly. Do you know where this Bosmont might be?” Lilah asked. “Is it necessary to bother the colonel? I have some preliminary notes that could go back ahead of me, if a ship is due in soon.”

  “You may have to bother the colonel either way. He probably keeps Bosmont busy. As I recall from my other stay here, the outpost is perennially short-staffed, so I’m not sure if he’ll give up his engineer easily.” Kaika yawned. “I’m also quite positive he doesn’t have any replacement bodyguards to offer you. Besides, I’m irreplaceable.”

  “Is that so?”

  “Very so.”

  “Perhaps this Bosmont could just point us in the right direction, and we could find the site on our own. You sound like you could handle thieves if they’re out there, and I can take my rifle and handle wild animals.” Lilah supposed Kaika could handle wild animals, too, if not with her rifle then with whatever explosive ordnance she carried in that pack.

  “That would be fine with me, but we should still check in with Therrik. He’s responsible for us, and it wouldn’t go well for him if you disappeared and he didn’t know what had happened. Or if you disappeared and he did know what happened.”

  “I don’t plan to disappear, but even if I did, he shouldn’t be held responsible.”

  “That’s not how the army works. If you’re the outpost commander, you’re responsible for everything that happens on your outpost.”

  Lilah hesitated, frowning down at her report. Therrik hadn’t been rude to her, unless one counted that first exasperated outburst when he’d learned her last name, but she sensed that he didn’t care much for her and was probably annoyed to have a scientist roaming around his outpost. He hadn’t looked like he’d been enlightened or excited by her explanation of what fossils were, that was for sure. At least she’d kept herself to the short explanation, as non-academic people seemed to prefer.

  “He seemed to be somewhat interested in the bones—fossils,” Kaika said. “He might appreciate your report.”

  “He seemed interested?” Lilah stared at her.

  Kaika knew the man better than she did, but Lilah hadn’t gotten that impression at all. Mostly, she remembered the way he had glared at her when she’d smiled at him. She had been on the cusp of thanking him for lighting the lanterns, but the glare had made her falter.

  “Well, he asked if they were normal.”

  “That denoted interest? I didn’t even know what he meant. What would an abnormal fossil be? I mean, I guess I can think of some scientific examples, but I can’t imagine a layperson would have them in mind.”

  Kaika shrugged. “You’ve obviously found something.” She nodded to the paper. “Let’s give him the report and see if he minds if we go out on our own.”

  “Would you consider going out even if he did mind?” Lilah asked, curious whether the bodyguard she had been assigned had instructions to follow her orders or whether she had to obey the outpost commander since he outranked her. She had no idea how special assignments like this worked in the military.

  “If it was to save you from risking your life, probably, but listen.” Kaika held up a hand to block the doorway, even though Lilah had stopped walking several moments ago. “Don’t put me in that position, please. Therrik is all right when you’re properly respectful—as long as you don’t have any dragon blood in your veins—but sometimes, it’s hard to predict how far you can push him. And when he snaps, he’s scary ferocious. I don’t want to be in front of him if that happens. You asked if Ridge picked me because I can beat him in a fight. Hells, no. He just likes me more than most of his soldiers, so he’s less likely to clobber me if I irk him, but I don’t go out of my way to irk him.”

  “You’re not making me want to go talk to him,” Lilah said, smiling to lighten the tone. Kaika hadn’t displayed much of a serious side during the brief time Lilah had known her, so seeing her this way was discomfiting. “But I wouldn’t want to cause you to irk him, so I will talk to him.” She was less willing to dance around the man and worry about being properly respectful, but there was no reason to go out of her way to rile him.

  “Good.” Kaika extended her hand toward the hallway. “Shall we see if he’s in his office this fine morning, or if he’s out pummeling some hapless private?”

  “Is that actually encouraged in the military?” Lilah stepped into the hallway. Her limited experience with the military came from novels and the handful of chats she’d had with Ridge over the years. She gathered that pilots were in their own special division and perhaps not representative of the common experience. The fictional Commander Asylon also might not be representative of the common experience.

  “He usually offers pointers while he’s pummeling you. Yes, he likes to take out his aggression in the boxing square, but he genuinely seems to want his soldiers to improve their skills. He’s from the old-fashioned school of thought that people best learn to avoid fire by being burned. It’s not untrue. It’s just...”

  “Violent?”

  Kaika shrugged and nodded toward the door a few feet away, the one at the end of the hall. Lilah hadn’t realized Therrik’s office was so close. She bit her lip, wondering if she should have spoken more quietly. If he was in there, would he have heard them talking about him?

  Not obviously concerned about this, Kaika knocked on the door.

  “What?” came a growl from within.

  Lilah wouldn’t have considered that an invitation, but Kaika opened the door and strolled in.

  “The professor has some preliminary results,” she announced.

  Therrik stood behind a desk, a pen in one hand and a coffee mug in the other, his jacket on the back of his chair. Once again, he wore the black shirt that so nicely conformed to the powerful muscles of his torso. Lilah reminded herself that he didn’t like her and that Kaika’s information made that a relief rather than a disappointment. The pen was a poor fit for him. He looked like he should be flipping daggers, perhaps similar to the ones tattooed on his forearms. Seven gods, he looked like a man out of a prison yard, not someone a wholesome and distinguished teacher of students should be eyeballing.

  “What is it, Professor?” Therrik asked, his tone not quite as surly.

  She jerked her gaze up to his face, realizing that she had been, despite her silent admonitions, staring at his chest.

  “I’d like to take a look at the dig site this morning,” Lilah said, speaking quickly as if that could distract him from the wandering eyes that she hoped he hadn’t noticed.

  “I can’t spare Bosmont to take you out there today. There was an incident this morning, prisoners attacking soldiers and trying to escape. They managed to break one of the machines that run the tram. I’ve got Bosmont fixing that. It’s a priority, and I get to write a report explaining why two more prisoners are dead.” He scowled down at the papers on his desk.

  “I understand that you’re busy, and I’m sorry to hear about the incident,” Lilah said. “Since Captain Bosmont is busy, Captain Kaika and I are prepared to go out on our own, if you’ll give us directions.”

  He frowned at her and then at Kaika, as if this might have been her idea. “I’m not going to have our guest roaming the mountainside without a guide. You’ve never been outside the fort walls and tunnels, Captain.”

  “No, sir. The rest of the place was still covered with snow when I was here,” Kaika said
. “But I’m sure we can make it to the site without running into any trouble we can’t handle.”

  “But not without running into trouble.” He snorted. “There may be more thugs wandering around out there trying to steal those bones. Those fossils,” he corrected, glancing at Lilah. “Wait until tomorrow. Bosmont should be done then.”

  Should be?

  “Colonel,” Lilah said, using her firmest, brooking-no-arguments teacher’s voice. “I don’t plan to spend my entire summer break up here waiting around for men to be available to serve me. Captain Kaika has offered to watch my back while I poke around, and she seems sufficiently capable for the task. We will go out to research the site today.” She met his gaze, trying not to think about Kaika’s comments regarding his temper.

  Therrik’s eyebrows rose slightly. Captain Kaika stood with her hands clasped behind her back and facing his desk. She didn’t argue further on Lilah’s behalf, but she didn’t deny that she had made the offer.

  “Fine, go,” Therrik said. “I’ll walk you to the end of the valley and show you the trail, such as it is.”

  Lilah wanted to protest and say that he need not leave his office at all, but there could be dozens of trails out there. It would be best to know for sure which one to head up.

  “Thank you, Colonel.”

  “What’s the hurry?” he asked, glancing at the report in Lilah’s hand. “You find something that implies a need for urgency?”

  She hesitated, remembering the way he had asked if the fossils were normal. For some reason, she also thought of her weird dream.