‘Very well,’ he replied, but made no move to accompany her, and deliberately kept his attention on the front opening of their cave, the only direction from which threat would be likely to come. He heard Glimmer exit at the back, into the chamber where they had found a spring leading into a rock pool.
While they had been new to Haddash he had accompanied her there, intent on protecting her from danger, perhaps from unknown creatures that could traverse solid rock or live in the sulphurous air outside. But instead of danger, Kert had found awkwardness, and an embarrassing struggle to stop his eyes straying to her pale, slender form as she bathed in the warm pool. A faint breath of ahroce petals, the floral scent Kert instinctively associated with royalty, permeated the cave.
That scent had easily distracted him, reminding him of Lenid’s baths, the exuberant splashing and slippery antics as Kert tried to wash him, Lae waiting nearby with a towel, smiling at the mess her son had made — Kert soaked from hair to boots and laughing with them. Fatherhood had brought Kert carefree joys he had not imagined, and an unexpected happiness that made his loss all the harder to endure. When he could not bear to think of Lenid a moment longer, he would force his thoughts back to the protection of Glimmer who bathed nearby.
Now that he was confident that their cave system was safe, however, Kert no longer accompanied her to her bath. Although often while he waited, his mind would recall her damp hair falling down the tender curve of her back, or the soft splashes and sounds of contentment she made while her hands worked the water over her body.
Once Kert had been angry with himself for letting his attention stray to her innocent movements, yet now he wondered whether there could have been some art in them designed to tempt him. For surely if there had been, it had worked. Even now, in the next cavern from her and unable to see or hear her ablutions, he could not purge from his mind the thought of her standing naked in the warm water.
Life had been simpler when he had been Mihale’s Champion. Threat had been easy to recognise and his temperament had lent itself to the basics — kill or be killed. There had been no grief to suffer, no desires to fulfil save that of blood lust.
No conscience to placate.
Kert closed his eyes, rested his head back on the wall of the cave and tried to concentrate on his breathing. In. Out. Clearing his mind. Yet still a soft noise intruded. He tried to block it, to keep Glimmer completely from his thoughts, then his eyes snapped open. The sound he had heard was a click of metal. The only metal they had was the dagger in Kert’s boot. He reached down to touch it. Still there.
He withdrew the sharp blade and silently pushed himself up the wall, then edged around the cave to the front entrance where he waited, praying his charge would remain in her bath and not make her presence known. Seconds became minutes while Kert resisted the urge to reveal himself by looking around the corner. At last he heard a soft footfall and a stream of light entered their cave. He tensed himself to spring. A heartbeat later the intruder cleared the entry and Kert lunged, knocking the metal bludgeon out of its hand. Light danced around the walls. He grappled the trespasser to the ground and tore the strange hood from its head. A mass of short black hair sprang out and the face of a woman was revealed. Her skin was darker than Be’uccdha black, so dark that her eyes shone like large discs and her teeth glowed.
At first she gasped, her eyes widening. She appeared to be holding her breath and Kert wondered at that. Could she not breathe without the hood? He had restrained one arm but now the other flailed, the hand rising to her throat where she tapped a circular device that began to tick, hissing air.
Was it a weapon? Kert shoved her hand away and tore at the device, ripping open the front of her tight bodice. He threw the ticking metal piece out of the cave, back the way she had come, then he dragged her to her feet and shoved her back against the wall. ‘Are there others with you?’ he hissed, wondering whether he should not simply kill her now. But if there were others and they found this one’s slain body, they might track her murderer relentlessly. If Kert was killed, who would protect The Catalyst? He may have railed at his confinement on Haddash, but Kert was still a royal Champion.
‘Speak,’ he said and slapped the woman’s face.
She drew in a long shuddering breath, then another slower one. ‘I … breathe,’ she said at last. ‘You purified air?’
‘I have done nothing to the air,’ he said. ‘Are there others with you? What was that metal device?’ He pointed to the cave entrance where he’d thrown the ticking object.
‘Air filter.’
‘Are you alone? Answer me!’ He shook her.
Her eyes darted around the cave behind him. ‘Dome destroyed. Earthquake. Crawled through dust storm. Sulphur air. Thought I die.’
‘You still may,’ Kert said, glaring at her.
She looked back at him, her eyes widening, the terror of asphyxiation obviously replaced now by fear of his dagger at her throat. ‘Pale skin? Who …?’
‘I ask the questions,’ Kert said. ‘Are you an underling of the Fire God?’
She stared at him. ‘Fire … who?’
‘The Serpent of Haddash. The ruler of this world.’
She looked at Kert as though his wits had fled. ‘No Serpent God. No serpent religion.’ Her gaze dropped to his hand, then back to his face. ‘You offworlder? Other worlds outside haze barrier? I not astrotech, but knew —’
‘Silence.’ Kert replaced the dagger at her throat with the fingers of one hand. He squeezed to show his intent. ‘Are you alone?’ he asked again and she nodded, clearly intimidated by his violence. Then her gaze slid away from his, as though considering for the first time how that admission could endanger her.
He returned his dagger to its boot sheath, and with his free hand he patted her strange one-piece uniform of a tight black shirt and warrior pants, searching her for weapons.
‘What are you doing?’
Glimmer was behind him. She came to his side and drew in a sharp breath.
‘A minion of the Fire God, I am sure,’ Kert replied, ‘despite that she denies it.’
The woman transferred her frightened gaze to Glimmer, who was staring at the exposed breasts below Kert’s restraining hand.
‘You are undressing her,’ Glimmer said. ‘Touching her.’ Her incredulous tone held an undercurrent of anger.
‘I am searching her for weapons,’ Kert replied.
‘Then why have you freed her breasts to your gaze?’ Glimmer demanded.
Kert glanced instinctively at the torn front of the woman’s uniform. Black skin flowed over fist-sized globes, and for an instant he was caught in memories of his fantasies about Lae with her dark brown skin. Many a night had he lain in his bed at the Volcastle remembering how his necklace had clung to her delicate throat, wondering if the skin of her breasts would be as fine, if the colour of her nipples would match the blushing hue of her lips.
‘Your eyes tell the tale,’ Glimmer said. ‘I see desire in them.’
Kert’s fingers on his prisoner’s throat tightened as he turned to face his young charge. ‘She is my captive,’ he replied, keeping his voice calm in the face of Glimmer’s outrage. ‘She can give us information about this world.’
‘Take your hands off her. Now!’ Glimmer demanded, not with regal authority but with the petulance of a child. Her hair stuck to her hot cheeks and her eyes were wild. ‘If you do not, I will kill her myself.’
‘You will not touch her.’
‘Yet you do,’ Glimmer spat. ‘Here, if you want to look at breasts, look at these,’ and before Kert could stop her she pulled her Magorian-hued shirt over her head and threw it to the ground.
Kert reached out with his free hand and slapped Glimmer’s face.
Her lips parted in shock and he noticed her pale and perfect breasts rose and fell quickly in agitation. ‘You struck me,’ she whispered, her eyes searching his own. ‘You … touched me.’
‘I was trying to awaken you to sense,’ Kert replied. It had not been a ca
ress, yet Glimmer’s eyes were now full of some heat that could not help but stir his own blood, despite that he still had a prisoner in his grasp. ‘Put on your shirt,’ he commanded.
She shook her head, took a half-step towards him. The scent of ahroce petals warmed the air between them, confusing Kert further. An image of Lenid came and went from his mind. He tore his eyes away from hers and looked to his captive who was glancing towards the cave exit, as though gauging the distance to sprint if she had the opportunity. Should he simply kill her? She appeared to be alone so there would be no repercussions, and it was his duty to protect The Catalyst.
‘Kill her,’ Glimmer said, as though she could see the decision in his eyes. ‘You don’t need her.’
‘I would question her further’ Kert could not explain even to himself why he had changed his mind, except that he would not be commanded by a sixteen-year-old girl.
‘I can tell you anything of this world you wish to know,’ Glimmer argued. ‘She will lie.’
‘When we came here you told me you knew nothing of this world.’
Glimmer’s heated breaths slowed and she glanced away.
The silence between them was charged, then the woman spoke. ‘I not lie,’ she said and they both turned to look at her. ‘I came shelter. No weapons.’
‘What of the bludgeon in your hand?’ Kert demanded.
She frowned. ‘Torch? Projects light, not hurt. I no threat.’
Glimmer made a boiling noise in her throat and Kert suddenly realised he was restraining the wrong woman. Probably trusting the wrong woman as well.
‘I want to leave your world,’ he told the intruder. ‘Is there a portal that will return me to my own?’
‘I will return you to Ennae,’ Glimmer said. ‘Kill her now or —’
‘I grow tired of waiting for your powers to return,’ Kert snapped, keeping his attention on his captive. ‘She may serve me better.’
‘No!’ Glimmer shouted.
Sparkles of glittering light enveloped the woman beneath his hand and she disappeared. Kert’s knuckles hit the rock wall, propelled by the momentum of the pressure he had been exerting on a throat that was no longer there. It took him several seconds to realise what had occurred. He turned to Glimmer, outraged. ‘What have you done?’
‘I sent her away. I hate her.’
‘Where have you sent her?’ If the woman was on Ennae, Kert swore he would kill Glimmer where she stood.
‘She is outside the caves. Forget about her’
‘The air is poisonous there.’
‘You were going to kill her anyway.’
‘I had not decided.’
‘Yes you had. I saw the …’ Glimmer trailed off, and then wrapped her arms across her chest. ‘Don’t look at me like that,’ she said.
‘As though I’d like to kill you next?’ Kert struggled to retain the threads of his temper. ‘Bring her back.’
Glimmer’s belligerent pout faded. She closed her eyes. ‘You like her better than me.’ She clutched her shoulders more tightly and turned away.
Kert was about to tell her that she must be more stupid than he had imagined if she thought she could woo him with this display of childish pique. But the woman’s time was surely running out. The mask he had ripped from her face would have been her protection. Without it she would be suffocating. ‘Bring the woman back now … or I will walk outside the caves and find her myself.’
Glimmer shook her head violently, snow hair spilling around her bare shoulders.
‘Very well,’ he said calmly, and stepped past her. But before he could exit the cave, sparkles of light rose from the floor in front of him then blinked out. The woman was back.
She was gasping and choking, deep hacking coughs that set even Kert’s eyes to watering.
He crouched beside her. ‘Repair the damage you have done,’ he commanded, and after only a moment’s hesitation on Glimmer’s part, the woman’s tensed body slumped back onto the ground, her breathing even. Her eyes were open but she was clearly exhausted from her ordeal. ‘That’s better,’ he said.
‘Why is it better?’ Glimmer demanded. ‘Why do you want her so badly? She is older than me and —’
‘Stop!’ Kert said, and rose to glare at his charge. ‘I do not … desire this woman.’ He couldn’t speak more plainly than that. ‘My only desire is to return to the service of my king.’
‘Perhaps it’s her attire,’ Glimmer replied, turning to the woman, recklessness hot in her eyes. ‘If she was more suitably dressed …’
Kert heard a gasp and saw yet another spray of sparkling light. He turned, ready to berate his charge anew, only, what he saw robbed him of breath. Their intruder had been stripped of her awkward uniform and reclined on plush cushions, wearing a collection of joined veils that revealed far more than they hid. Intricate silver jewellery adorned her fingers, toes and the edges of her scant coverings. Her short cap of hair had become long and lustrous, curving over her shoulders like a lover’s caress, and her skin glowed as though it were satin.
‘What have you done?’ he whispered, his anger evaporating into shock. Strangely, this new whim was more frightening than condemning the woman to death outside their cave.
‘She pleases you, doesn’t she?’ Glimmer demanded. ‘You desire her now.’ This was said not in satisfaction but almost fearfully.
Kert dragged his eyes from their confused intruder to his charge. ‘Are you mad?’
Glimmer’s chest again rose and fell in agitation. Her eyes would not meet his. ‘I am giving you what you want. You have shown no interest in me, so I can only assume that you desire an older woman.’ She challenged him with a glance. ‘You showed interest in this one. So have her. I leave you in privacy.’ With that, she marched back into their bathing cave.
Kert watched her leave, trying to grasp what he had just witnessed. The Catalyst had no difficulty manifesting clothing or moving a body around Haddash. Very likely she could return him to Ennae, and could possibly have done so at any time. It was equally clear that she could kill him in an eye-blink.
‘Happening?’ a small frightened voice said from behind him.
He turned back to look at the woman, then began unbuttoning his shirt.
‘No touch!’ she shrilled and scrabbled about herself for a weapon.
Kert was near the end of his patience. He unclasped the last button and shrugged out of his shirt, then threw it at her. ‘Cover yourself with this.’ Clearly Glimmer was the only threat, and this stranger may even be of assistance to him.
The woman snatched his shirt and pulled it over her head, yet even as she struggled with her newly long hair and the diaphanous veils bunching around it, the shirt disappeared. She gasped and crossed her arms over her breasts, as though fearful that all her clothing would evaporate. Kert watched her back up against the cave wall and pile cushions around her as a covering. They stared at each other in silence until she said, ‘How move me?’ and glanced around the cave. ‘Matter transfer? No machinery.’
‘I believe she merely needs to think a thing and it is done,’ Kert replied, gazing at the woman speculatively, trying to devise a plan to use Glimmer’s jealousy to his own advantage. ‘Her magic is strong,’ he warned.
‘Magic?’ The woman laughed in short, nervous barks. ‘No.’ She shook her head.
‘You do not believe what you see with your own eyes?’
‘Vision deceptive. Reports flying serpent …’ She trailed off, gazing back at Kert. ‘You spoke serpent.’
‘The Fire God who rules this world is a winged serpent.’
She shook her head. ‘No “God”. Outmoded construct delays emotion maturity.’
Kert did not understand her words but the disbelief in her eyes was plain enough. ‘Whether you accept it or not, the Fire God exists. We are fortunate that The Catalyst’s presence on this world prevents him from entering it.’
The woman raised an eyebrow. ‘Can’t prove?’
‘Nor should I bother,’ h
e said and turned away, tiring of her adversarial conversation. ‘Your ignorance is of no consequence to me.’
She was silent for a moment, then said, ‘Sorry. Start new. Name Darten 5.’
He turned back to look at her.
‘Fifth Darten my genealogy line.’
‘Kert Sh’hale.’
‘Offworlder.’ It wasn’t a question.
Kert crossed his arms and leant back against the cave wall. ‘I’m from the Earthworld of Ennae,’ he said, drawn into the conversation despite himself.
‘You fighter?’ She nodded at his knife, now back in its ankle sheath.
‘A royal Champion,’ he said, and was surprised at the surge of pride the words elicited. Though he had been born to nobility, Lord of the House Sh’hale, Kert had wanted nothing more than to champion a king. And that he had done to the best of his ability, although two kings had died under his protection. ‘And you?’ he asked to distract himself from that unpleasant thought.
‘Dometinter,’ she said.
Kert had no idea what this meant, but after much explanation and several hand pictures he understood that Darten worked on protecting her people from the sun of their world which was too fierce to be experienced directly. The domes were full of what she called ‘scientists’ who specialised in different tasks — filtering the air, growing plants ‘hydroponically’, extracting moisture from deep below the rock surface of their world. They knew nothing of the Maelstrom or the Fire God who ruled their world and so Kert told her what he knew and she made an effort to hide her scepticism. He found her clipped speech pattern difficult to follow, worse than The Light, Khatrene’s, had been on her return from Magoria, which apparently had many mechanical marvels. Was there a connection between mechanised societies and abbreviated dialogue?
‘Why here?’ Darten asked when the conversation lulled. ‘On my world?’
‘I am her captive,’ Kert replied, acknowledging the truth aloud for the first time. ‘She has brought me here, expecting … certain things.’ Any doubt of that suspicion had been conclusively laid to rest. ‘She will be disappointed.’
‘Things?’
He glanced away, embarrassed.
Glimmer in the Maelstrom: Shadow Through Time 3 Page 12
