by Speer, Flora
Rest, Janina. Osiyar’s thoughts removed themselves from hers and set her free.
A pearly-grey mist drifted through her mind, a soft, opalescent mist. When it faded, she knew nothing more.…
Chapter 19
She was walking through a meadow, hand-in-hand with Reid. Yellow and white and purple flowers starred the long grass, while blue butterflies skimmed from blossom to blossom, sipping the sweet nectar they offered. The purple-blue sky arched cloudless overhead, and a gentle breeze blew. A short distance away the rippling river flowed, with their boat rocking lightly at anchor in the cove.
Janina wore a long white gown and flowers in her silver-gold hair. Reid was in his orange treksuit. He had left it open at the neck, so she could see the beginning of the dark hair on his chest.
She knew that when their walk ended at the beach beside the cove, they would lie down upon the vines that covered the gravel and there they would make love. But first she had something to tell him, a surprise to delight him and turn his fierce grey eyes soft with tenderness and joy. She had never been so happy. She would wait no longer. She would tell him now.
She stopped walking and caught his other hand in hers, turning him to face her. They stood among the flowers and the blue butterflies, hands linked, a tall, dark man with broad shoulders, and a small, slender woman whose pale hair streamed down her back.
“I love you,” he whispered, and began to fade.
“Don’t go,” she pleaded. “I have to tell you…”
He was gone. He had disappeared and yet he was everywhere, in her and around her, filling her heart and mind, her very soul.
The beautiful landscape faded away as Reid had, leaving Janina in a white-walled hospital room where Reid’s body lay encased in an oblong, pale blue bubble.
Had her walk with him been a dream, or had their minds in some mysterious way linked again to return to the place where she had first experienced freedom and joy with him? Certainly he was gone from her now. Through the translucent material surrounding him, she could just barely make out his profile. There was no movement at all within the bubble, and no sound. The lights on the panel behind his bed no longer blinked; they just stayed lit, and the flashing numbers did not change.
What the outcome of the suspension treatment would be she could not guess, but she was certain that Reid was, for the time being at least, safe under Herne’s care. She had been with Reid, she had touched his mind, and he knew how much she loved him and wanted him to come back to her. Now she would have to be patient and wait.
She turned her head a little and saw Osiyar lying on a hoverbed with his eyes closed.
“He is sleeping,” Suria said, moving into Janina’s line of vision. “How do you feel?”
“I’m not sure. I’m light-headed. My thoughts are still fuzzy.”
“That was to be expected. You had a severe allergic reaction to the antitoxin,” Suria said.
“Did Reid?” Janina asked at once.
“No. We were afraid he might, after what happened to you, but Herne said we had no choice, we had to give him the injection. Reid had no adverse reaction at all. After the injection, Osiyar helped him into the suspended state, which is why Osiyar is sleeping now. He was completely worn out after finishing with Reid.”
“Yes, I remember.” Seeing Suria’s curious look, Janina shook her head, realizing that her new friend could not understand all that had happened while Osiyar’s mind was linked to Reid’s.
“If you want, I will bring you something to eat,” Suria offered.
Janina was ravenously hungry. She quickly ate everything Suria gave her, before falling asleep again. She wakened to find Reid’s condition unchanged, but Osiyar and the hoverbed were gone.
“He’s by the lake, with the Chon,” Herne said in answer to Janina’s question. “You may get up if you want. You are perfectly healthy now, though you will probably feel weak for a day or two. Go on, the fresh air will be good for you. There is nothing new to report about Reid, so for the moment think of your own health.”
She found Osiyar in communion with the Chon. She was tempted to try to communicate with them as he did, but when she would have opened her mind to them, she suddenly felt sick and dizzy. By the time she had recovered, Osiyar was standing before her, looking worried.
“I thought if I could touch them,” she said, “then I might be able to reach Reid, too.”
“Do not even think of it,” he commanded. “You cannot wake your portion of the Gift by the ordinary discipline most telepaths use. You are different.
“Janina,” he said with a quiet confidence that reminded her that he had once been a High Priest, “after my experience with you and Reid, I am convinced that your portion of the Gift is buried so deep within you that it can only be released by artificial means. It was released the first time after Tamat prepared the potion for your Testing. The second time was when you received the antitoxin Alla made. Perhaps the two mixtures were similar in some way. But let the Gift rest where it is. Reid will not think any less of you, nor will anyone here, including me, if you cannot function as a telepath.”
Janina nodded agreement, knowing he was right. Nor would he have accepted thanks for what he had done for her and for Reid. His help had been only what was expected of a High Priest of Ruthlen, and her thanks would have been as insulting as an offer to pay him.
But whatever Osiyar or the others might think of Janina, there was one on that island who did not like her at all. When she and Osiyar turned to walk back to the headquarters building, Alla stood blocking their way.
“I see you are fully restored to health,” Alla said in a provocative tone of voice. “While poor Reid lies immobilized, you are free to go wherever you want.”
“I wish with all my heart that I were in suspension, and Reid was standing here on the beach,” Janina cried.
“Of course you do,” Alla said in the same tone.
“Alla, there is an important fact that you should know,” Osiyar told the angry woman before them. “When you and Herne were lost in the forest near Ruthlen, it was Janina who finally convinced Tamat to let Tarik know where you were so you could be rescued. She saved your lives, Alla.”
“How generous of her,” Alla sneered. “Yet she kept Reid in Ruthlen for herself, didn’t she?”
“She begged Tamat to let him go. Janina loves Reid enough to want to see him freed from a situation that was making him unhappy, even though his leaving would have broken her heart. It was not Janina, but Tamat, who told me this,” Osiyar said, when Alla would have interrupted again. “That is love, Alla - to be willing to sacrifice what you want for the good of the loved one. Perhaps you ought to think seriously about Janina’s example.”
“I thought you knew nothing about love,” said Alla, and then fell silent. Osiyar motioned for her to walk ahead of him and Janina. The three of them took the path to the center of the island.
“Tell me,” said Osiyar, one foot on the first step leading to the great double doors, “have you opened the safe stone yet?”
“What stone?” Alla asked.
“Tell her, Janina,” commanded Osiyar with what Janina considered an astonishingly mischievous smile. Though Alla stood puzzled and frowning by the doors, Janina knew what Osiyar meant. She answered his command promptly, wondering as she did so just what he was planning.
“If this building is like the temple at Ruthlen and like the pavilion in our sacred grove,” Janina said, “the stone just behind the third step as you walk to the entrance will open. It is traditionally a safe place to hide the most important documents, those that must never be lost. Under both stones at Ruthlen, there were medical supplies for any emergency, along with a map showing the way to Tathan, the old city. Tamat used to tell us there was a map beneath the safe stone of every building the original settlers erected.”
“The only information we found here was on the computer-communicator the telepaths left behind,” Alla said. “There are rather cryptic directions
to the old city, but no map, and we have been unable to locate the city using the directions.”
“Have you looked beneath the stone?” asked Osiyar.
“How could we?” Alla snapped. “We didn’t know about it.”
“Janina, will you ask Tarik to join us?” said Osiyar. As Janina disappeared into the building, he knelt to push hard at the end of one of the smooth white stones at Alla’s feet. “Alla, help me. It has been six hundred years since this stone was last moved.”
Alla was on her knees beside him, pushing on the stone with him when Janina returned with Tarik. Tarik got down on the steps with Alla and Osiyar, to grab at the slightly raised edge opposite the spot where the other two were pushing. After a good deal of straining, the stone finally swung open. Within the space now revealed lay a packet wrapped with smooth, shiny fabric. Tarik lifted it out.
“We will open it inside,” he said, his face alight with excitement.
After he had unwrapped the document inside the packet, he carefully unfolded it, spreading it out on the table where they usually took their meals.
“There,” Osiyar said, one finger hovering just above a line of delicate writing on the aged, cracked piece of fibrous material. “That is where Tathan lies. Shall we visit the city of my ancestors, Tarik? As you can see, it is near the equator. The coming cold won’t matter there. If we leave quickly enough, the expedition members can escape the worst of the winter storms and will have no difficulty traveling.”
“Using a shuttlecraft and this map, it wouldn’t take long to reach,” Tarik agreed. “Yes, I will consider it.”
“So close to this planet’s equator, there will be new varieties of tropical plant and animal life to discover,” Alla mused, her eyes on the map.
Janina saw Osiyar’s humorous glance resting on Alla. Later, after Tarik had refolded the map and stored it in a safe place, and after Alla had gone into her laboratory, Janina drew Osiyar away from the other people now in the central room.
“Thank you for diverting Alla and giving her something else to think about besides Reid and how much she dislikes me,” she said.
“I plan an even longer diversion for Alla,” Osiyar told her. “It will not be difficult to make certain she goes on that expedition.”
The venture to Tathan was proposed to the assembled colonists that evening and was enthusiastically agreed upon. Within a day, preparations were under way, though no participants had yet been chosen.
The autumn days passed slowly. Janina recovered completely from her ordeal on the sea and from the adverse reaction to the antitoxin, but she continued to suffer occasional bouts of nausea. Finally, during one of the frequent examinations Herne insisted upon, she mentioned her problem to Suria.
“Most pregnant women experience some nausea in the beginning,” Suria said. “It will disappear in time.”
“Pregnant?” Janina, watching Suria’s expression change from amusement to shock, thought she must have looked equally shocked. “Pregnant,” she said again.
“I thought you knew,” Suria cried. “I detected it the first time I examined you, but it is such a private thing I never mentioned it to you or anyone else until you were ready to speak of it. I thought you didn’t want to talk about it because you and Reid have no permanent arrangement and because of the Jurisdiction regulations about childbearing. I just assumed that Herne knew and was advising you, but I haven’t had a chance to discuss all of my medical findings with him because most of his time is taken up with Reid, and we have been dealing only with immediate problems. Oh, Janina, I am sorry I was overly discreet! But of course, if you were trained as a virgin priestess, you probably never considered the possibility, did you? Nor thought of ways to prevent it.”
“I wouldn’t have wanted to prevent it. The child is part of Reid, and therefore precious to me. Suria, I think I did know. When I was so sick, when Osiyar -” she stopped, recalling the tiny flutter she had felt when she and Reid and Osiyar were caught in that terrible black vortex. She had sensed another presence there, an entity not yet fully formed. And there had been the wonderful secret she had been about to share with Reid when they walked in the meadow. Yes, she had known. “Could the antitoxin have hurt the baby in any way?” she asked, suddenly frightened for the new life within her.
“That is a good question, and one I did not ask earlier because your life was in danger and there was no doubt you needed the antitoxin. Let me do a more complete examination on this child of yours.” Suria took up the diagnostic rod and adjusted it. A few minutes later she reported, “All is well, Janina. There is nothing to worry about.”
“A baby.” Janina put her hands on her still-flat abdomen. “What a wonderful thing to tell Reid when he wakes up. He will wake up, won’t he, Suria?”
“We can hope for the best,” Suria said evasively. Then, taking Janina’s hand, she went on. “I want you to know that I am a midwife. Herne and I both will be available to you when your time comes. Your child will be born safely.”
In the current atmosphere of hushed concern for Reid that pervaded Tarik’s headquarters, Janina’s happy face brought puzzled looks until she revealed her good news to Narisa, and then to everyone else.
“That’s wonderful,” Narisa said, hugging her.
“If you were living in Jurisdiction territory,” Alla informed her coldly, “you would be severely punished for conceiving a child without permission.”
“She is not in the Jurisdiction, she’s under my command.” Tarik came to Janina’s defense. “If she and Reid want a child, that is their concern, not yours.”
“Reid is unable to say whether he wants this child or not,” Alla cried. “Who’s to say it really is Reid’s? Who knows what happened at Ruthlen, or what kind of life she led there?”
“I am here to say that Janina was never touched by any man until Reid came to Ruthlen,” Osiyar declared.
“Of course you will take her side,” Alla said spitefully.
“Come with me, Alla.” Osiyar’s voice was soft. “I would speak with you in private.”
Alla looked rebellious, but she followed Osiyar outside the building. Behind them, Tarik looked at Janina with raised brows.
“Is he controlling her?” Tarik asked.
“Not in the way you mean,” Janina replied, adding, “He would never harm her.”
“Perhaps it’s Osiyar’s safety that ought to concern us,” Tarik said with a laugh, and turned back to his work.
* * * * *
When they came to his favorite spot on the beach, Osiyar stopped, facing Alla. Behind him rose the cliffs, with the Chon flying in and out of their homes in the rock.
“This behavior is unworthy of you,” Osiyar said with blunt sternness. “Your childish jealousy is evident to everyone who hears you attack Janina. Leave her alone. She and Reid have been bound together since she foretold his coming to Ruthlen.”
“What nonsense! Reid was my cousin first, before ever he met that fool of a girl,” Alla stated with a stubborn forward thrust of her lower lip. “But now she is having his child. It will never again be the same as it was between Reid and me. She has won, and I have lost him.”
“You speak as though you owned him. No one can own another person,” Osiyar told her. “What you need is someone to fulfill your desires, including the desires you are not aware you have.”
He was pleased when she did not pretend to misunderstand him.
“There is no one among the colonists that I would be interested in,” Alla responded with a lift of her proud chin.
“Do you know what I’m thinking?” Osiyar asked.
“Of course not. I’m not a telepath,” she said with some sharpness.
“I’m thinking that I am not one of the colonists,” Osiyar said. “I’m thinking that you are a beautiful woman. And a lonely woman. As I am alone.”
“Is this a declaration of love?” Alla scoffed.
“I have never loved.” Osiyar smiled a little. “But lately I have known frien
dship - for Reid and Janina, for Tarik, and even for Gaidar. I can offer you friendship.”
“Only friendship?”
“Don’t laugh at friendship. It is a rare and unusual thing.” Osiyar took a deep breath before he went on. “My old life is gone. All the vows and expectations that bound me while I was in Ruthlen are dissolved now. It is time for me to make a new beginning. It is time to take a mate.”
She was silent, looking away from him, watching the birds fly across the lake to fish. When she spoke again, he knew her brilliant mind had leapt to the important issue behind his unemotional proposal.
“Will your children be telepaths?” she asked, still not looking at him.
“If I chose the right mother for them,” he replied.
“Such children would be difficult to raise.”
“Not if both parents take part in the raising.”
“What you suggest is, in fact, an experiment,” she said, sounding interested in the possibility.
“In interplanetary zoology,” he added with apparent seriousness. “It is your specialty, is it not?”
“That, and botany.” She did look at him then, right into his eyes with fearless curiosity. “What happens when you mate? Do you invade your partner’s mind?”
“Not at first. Not until you are ready for the stronger bonding. I would instruct you, so you would know what to expect. It is not a thing to fear, Alla.”
“I’m not afraid.” She sounded almost defiant. “I was only asking a question.”
“Beyond your justifiable concern,” he said, “lies a deeper intimacy than you have ever known, and delicious, unimaginable pleasure.”
“Intimacy?”
“Do you fear it?”
“I always have,” she responded honestly.
“Except for Reid, who is your close kin, and therefore forbidden to you. And therefore safe to love, for you will never be disappointed in something you cannot have.”
