by Speer, Flora
One glance over his shoulder showed Reid the source of her renewed terror. She could see by his face that he was frightened, too. He leapt away from the tiller just as the monster raised itself out of the sea and, with a loud sound of splintering wood, thrust itself across the stern.
Two tentacles wrapped themselves about Reid’s left ankle. Two more fastened around his right leg at the knee, and the huge creature began to draw him toward its mouth. At the same time it began to sink back into the sea, the weight of its body lowering the stern to a level dangerously close to the water. A wave splashed over the stern and into the cockpit. Reid caught at a line with desperate strength, pulling hard, swinging the sail to a new position as the monster relentlessly dragged him closer to the stern and that waiting, open mouth. His face contorted with pain, Reid held on to the line, fighting the inexorable pull of a creature many times his size.
Janina began jabbing at the tentacles with the fish spear. Her fear was gone. All she could think of was Reid. She had to make that hideous monster let him go. She stabbed again and again until, after what seemed to her an incredibly long time, the hold of the tentacles slackened. One tentacle suddenly released Reid to snake around Janina’s bare left wrist. Flaming agony shot up her arm. She was now too close to the creature to use the spear effectively, but with a wail of rage and pain she grasped it near the sharp end and forced it upward into the gaping mouth.
The monster released Reid and an instant later let Janina go, too.
“Push it back!” Reid shouted, trying to stand up. “Push it into the sea.”
She pulled the spear out first, ignoring the gushing black blood that turned the deck slippery. Then, forgetting any danger to herself, she put both hands on the cold, scaly head and pushed hard. The monster’s tentacles grabbed at her again briefly, then loosened as it returned to the water.
Now Reid was at her side, looking over the stern, but not at the creature sinking below the waves. He was staring at the rudder.
“It’s badly damaged,” he said. Turning away, he began to limp about the deck in obvious pain, flexing first one leg, then the other, wincing as he did so. But in spite of the discomfort he was clearly feeling, he continued his assessment of what the sea monsters had done. “The dinghy is gone, too. The creature must have smashed it to bits. It was certainly big enough to destroy it easily.”
“Reid, if they come back,” Janina began. He did not let her finish the thought.
“I don’t believe they will,” he told her, pointing. “See there. I think the first creature must have gone after the second one you wounded.”
A short distance away, the sea was a-churn with two writhing bodies. The sea monsters were fighting each other, and Janina could see it would be a duel to the death.
“We will have plenty of time to get away from here before the winner of that battle can finish its meal,” Reid said, his arm across her shoulders, holding her close for a moment before he let her go so he could limp to the stern again for a second inspection of the rudder.
“How can we sail if the rudder is damaged?” Janina cried.
“We will just use what we have left,” he replied. “Fortunately, the wind is rising. That will help to move us away from this area even if we do nothing, and we can try to steer with the sails.”
There was no time to tend to their injuries. Reid rubbed his legs a few times, after which he seemed to forget they pained him. Choosing to ignore her own sore arm, Janina jumped to obey his commands. For all of that terrible day, she marveled at his sailing skill as he fought to keep them afloat and on some kind of steady course while the wind blasted at them, the sea rose in gigantic swells, and the rain pounded down. The monsters disappeared from sight and temporarily from Janina’s mind. There were more urgent problems to confront. With the sky cloaked in thick, dark clouds, they could not tell in which direction they were being driven by the raging storm. They did not know whether they might be blown toward the northern pole and dashed upon the rocks at the cape they had just rounded, or tossed upon the inhospitable nearby shore - or, worst of all, forced so far out to sea that they might never find their way back.
The storm abated as night fell in a pall of total darkness. There was no light anywhere, no sign of moons or stars through the thick clouds still covering the sky. Reid refused to allow a light on the boat for fear it would attract more sea monsters.
They had little to eat, for, with the exception of the flour and a small quantity of other food stored in the drybox, everything on the boat was soaking wet. At least the viscous black blood spewed by the sea monsters was long ago washed away by the waves that had swept across the deck from side to side during the worst of the storm. That was the only advantage Janina could find to the beating they had taken from the elements.
“Reid,” she said after the sea had calmed a little more, “go below and sleep. You are half dead from weariness after the last three days. I’ll stand watch.” She did not add that it would do no good, that neither of them could have seen anything in the enveloping blackness. She could barely make out Reid’s form. If the sea monsters attacked again, she and Reid would not know it until too late.
“I’ll stay here with you,” Reid said. Knowing how exhausted he must be, she gave him a none-too-gentle push toward the hatchway.
“I’m not afraid any more,” she told him. “Go below.”
She thought she saw him nod because a moment later she heard him stumbling down the ladder in the dark. After he had left her, she felt her way to the seat next to the tiller and dropped onto it, rubbing her left wrist. The place where the sea monster’s tentacle had wrapped around it ached with a fierce, burning pain. She had been able to put it out of her mind while she and Reid fought to keep the boat from capsizing in the storm, but now that the immediate danger was over she could think of little except her discomfort.
Grimacing at the need to bring more water onto an already drenched boat, she dipped a bucket over the side to fill it. Once she had it on board, she plunged her left arm into the icy water. After a while the ache in her wrist lessened. She wasn’t certain whether the salty water had actually helped or whether the injured part was just numbed by cold, but she didn’t care which it was. She took her arm out of the bucket and rested it across her lap. She felt with her foot for the fish spear, pulling it closer in case she needed it again. Then she sat staring into the empty blackness.
She wasn’t afraid any more. She hoped never to meet another sea monster, but her abject, unreasoning terror of the creatures was gone. She had dared to fight two of them, had injured both and caused the death of one. The sea monsters were not immortal, not impervious to all attacks. Even a single fish spear could serve as a weapon against them in determined hands. She had proven that. She might not be a telepath, but she was a valiant warrior. She had saved Reid.
She straightened her shoulders and sat a little taller, feeling as though a great weight had dropped from her heart. She felt free, capable of facing any challenge. She wished Tamat could know. Tamat would be proud of her.
Shortly after sunrise the clouds dissipated. Janina searched the horizon, eager to find land. There was nothing but calm, purple-blue sea, broken here and there by small white waves. The air was much warmer than it had been the day before, but she could tell by the position of the early morning sun that the boat was headed in the wrong direction, back toward the polar regions. She struggled with the damaged rudder and with the single sail Reid had left raised, but she lacked his ability to make the boat obey her wishes. Nothing she did had any noticeable effect on their course.
The noise of her efforts must have wakened Reid, for he stuck a tousled head through the hatch, then climbed into the cockpit. When he crossed the deck to her, Janina saw that he was limping.
“Sea water helped my wrist,” she said, assuming he was suffering from the effects of the sea monster’s tentacles. “You might want to soak your ankle and leg.”
“I will have a chance to do that at once,” he replied,
leaning over the stern and reaching down to test the rudder. He pulled out a handful of wood fragments. “We have to repair this while the sea is calm. The rail is splintered, too, but that is an easier repair.”
“You should eat first,” she advised, wondering if the solar heating unit would still work. If it did, and if the flour was unspoiled, she could heat water for hot dhia and make some bread.
“Later. Come with me. You can’t do anything here, so we may as well drift for a while.” He paused in the galley to set the solar unit on recharge and pick up a few tools. Then he led the way to the hold. The supplies they had stored there were awash, but Reid seemed unconcerned about that. Wooden planking ran down the center of the hold, forming a short walkway that made it possible to get to the stored items. Reid knelt and began sawing across one of the planks. When he had finished, he reached below and hammered upward on it for a while until the portion of wood came loose. This he gave to Janina to hold while he searched among the coils of rope piled in one cargo bay.
“This will do nicely.” He had selected a thin line, and this he carried back to the stern of the boat. While Janina watched, he used another tool to shape the plank into a crude imitation of the rudder.
“You will have to help me,” he said, removing tunic and trousers. “Take off your clothing, Janina.”
She did not hesitate. She stripped off her own damp clothing and spread the garments with Reid’s on the forward deck to dry in the sun until they needed them again. Then she followed him down the ladder and into the water. She was concerned that the sea monsters might return, but she no longer felt the paralyzing horror she had once known at the mere thought of those huge creatures. If they came back, she and Reid would fight them off as best they could, but she would not waste time speculating about something that might not happen. For the present, she owed Reid all her attention so they could lash the wooden board he had prepared onto the damaged rudder. They worked together, treading water, Janina holding the board in place against the original rudder while Reid wound the rope around and around both, binding them together.
Before long they were out of the water again, standing in the stern, shivering in the bright sunlight and looking at each other. Around Janina’s left wrist was a wide, angry red welt. Reid had similar marks on his right knee and left ankle. Each of them showed many bruises, both recent and old. Reid had the beginning of a rough, dark beard, and Janina’s long hair was matted and tangled.
“We are certainly no beauties,” Reid said, touching her bare shoulder lightly. “We need a quiet harbor with fresh water, where we can dry out and rest for a day or two before we go on.”
“First we have to find land,” she replied.
“At this time of year, the sun is low in the sky because it is moving southward,” Reid said, squinting upward. “We will keep it on our starboard side. Eventually, we should come closer to land.”
“Eventually.” She put her arms around him and felt his instant response.
“Thank you for everything you did yesterday, and for your help today,” he murmured, his face pressed to her damp, salty hair. “You saved my life, Janina.
“You are freezing,” he said a moment later. “Come below. Let’s see if we can find some dry clothes.”
There was nothing that was not wet. Even the thin mattresses on the bunks were sodden.
“Can we move them on deck?” Janina asked. “Will they dry in the sun?”
“It’s worth trying,” Reid replied.
Together they dragged the mattresses out and spread them across the roof of the cabin, along with blankets, pillows, and a few pieces of clothing.
“This boat looks like a sailing laundry,” Reid said, laughing.
“The clothes I laid out before we fixed the rudder are almost dry,” Janina said, lifting Reid’s tunic. “We can put them on again.”
“Not yet.” Reid took his tunic from Janina and placed it on the deck on top of hers. “For just a little while, let me love you. There were moments yesterday when I thought we would never hold each other again.”
He knelt on the deck, pulling Janina down to him. They lay upon their still-damp clothing, naked bodies stretched out in the sun. Reid’s hand brushed her hair back from her face, then caressed her cheek, traced the pure line of her throat and shoulder, and came to rest upon one breast. Suddenly Janina wasn’t cold any more. When his mouth and hands had teased her breasts to aching fullness, warmth exploded inside her. She touched him, too, wanting to warm him, feeling his hard muscles beneath her searching hands.
There was a difference in this loving. She was no longer an inexperienced girl, terrified by her inner rears and the perils of their journey. She had fought the worst of her fears and overcome them. She was now a woman who knew what she wanted from her mate. She felt no shyness at all about kissing him with growing fervor, or about reaching down to handle him boldly. She laughed in delight at his ecstatic groans, and climbed atop him with no invitation, using his body freely, joyfully allowing him to use hers in return. Still laughing, she let him roll her over until they were perilously close to falling into the sea.
“There was a time,” he whispered, his deep voice husky with love, “when you never laughed. I thought then that I would never hear that sound.”
“Oh, Reid.” She looked up into his beloved face, almost a silhouette against the purple-blue sky, and saw him laughing down at her. Then his mouth covered hers and they gave themselves to each other completely, Janina reveling in his hard, assertive masculinity, Reid treasuring her deeply receptive femininity. It seemed he could not get enough of her, for he stayed with her, taking her to repeated heights of pleasure before allowing his own release. Even then, he held her tightly in his arms, rolling them away from the edge of the deck, back onto their crumpled damp clothing to rest there in relative safety.
Janina felt the sun on her back and Reid’s warm chest beneath her cheek and knew utter contentment. This was where she wanted to be; with Reid, in his arms. No danger was too great to face, no journey too long, if the effort made would keep them together.
His hands stroked down her back. She pressed herself closer to him, enjoying the pressure against her thigh as he became aroused again.
“Once more before we stop,” he whispered harshly. “It’s the danger that does this, that makes me so hungry for you. I need you, Janina.”
“I thought it was because I’m irresistible,” she teased, sliding a hand down between them to catch at him.
“You are,” he said in a choked voice. “I love you with all my heart.”
“Then stay as you are and this time let me give you pleasure, to show you how much I love you.”
She pushed away from him to kneel, straddling his thighs. She played with him, teasing, bending forward to nibble at his nipples, running her hands over his body, caressing his rigid manhood with a gentle touch that made him moan and gasp. He offered no resistance, but lay spread out upon the deck with his eyes closed while she did whatever she wanted. His growing excitement was evident, but still he let her set the pace. He did not touch her. He let her do it all.
The astonishing thing was that even without his usual caresses, her own arousal was rapidly becoming an unbearable ache. Suddenly, she had to have him inside her. At once. That instant. She moved forward, raised herself a little, and then lowered herself onto him. She felt as though she was inside him at the same time he was inside her. She leaned forward, balancing on her hands and moving the way Reid moved when he entered her.
He opened his eyes and smiled at her. She smiled back; she was so happy she could not keep from smiling. It was beautiful. Incredible. Amazing. Each was part of the other; they were together in body and heart and mind. She watched his moment come to him, saw his face shine with joy just before she was swept away by a climax so rich and fulfilling that she collapsed onto him in mindless ecstasy and lay there for a long, long time, sobbing in breathless happiness.
“My love,” Reid murmured over and
over again, “my love, my love…”
* * * * *
They tacked back and forth, progressing only slowly until Reid accidentally steered the boat into a cold current that apparently flowed from the polar region toward the equator. After that, they shivered constantly, and even the wind seemed colder, but with the help of the sweeping current, they traveled more rapidly. Halfway through the second day, they sighted land again. It did not look very welcoming.
“This northern part of the continent is nothing but mountains and cliffs,” Reid muttered.
Janina said nothing. In growing disappointment and frustration, she stared at jagged peaks of grey rock ramming upward in row upon row as far as they could see. There was no green at all, and when they drew nearer, no beach or inlet where they could anchor.
“We keep going,” Reid said, answering her unspoken question.
They rode the current all night. At Reid’s insistence, Janina slept a little, until she was awakened near dawn by a howling wind and the sound of breakers crashing upon rocks. Above all the noise, she heard Reid shouting for her. Tumbling out of her bunk, she pulled herself up the ladder.
Reid stood at the tiller, holding it with both hands, trying to control the spinning, wheeling boat.
“The current is pulling us toward the rocks, and I can’t get out of it,” he shouted. “There must be some kind of whirlpool or giant eddy ahead. It’s too dark to see anything but the breaking waves.”
Janina could just discern the white foam beyond the bow. The wind, and an implacable current, were driving them forward. Reid struggled with the tiller. Janina leapt to the sail, following his shouted orders, as they tried to tack away from the rocks. The boat heeled over, the deck tilting dangerously.
Janina lost her footing. She grabbed at anything she passed, trying frantically to slow her fall into the water. For long, agonizing moments she clung to a line. Then a huge wave smothered her, filling her eyes and nose and mouth with salty water. The force of the wave tore her hands from the line. She made a last desperate effort to catch it again before she sank into the foaming, raging sea.
