“Yes.”
“I was a good student. I learned well. And I knew that my duty was to serve. I was trained to fight the evil mind vampires and other horrors that visit the earth.”
“It was hard work?”
“Yes, but I was good at it. Some . . .” She let her voice trail off and start again. “Some left us before they finished.”
“What happened to them?”
“We thought it better not to ask.”
“Who were your teachers?”
“Men and women who had served for long years.”
“Not the gods?”
“We never saw them as you would see another person. They were beings of light and energy.”
“Who were they?”
“I think they don’t consider themselves gods in the sense that we do. Perhaps they are from far away in the universe. Or from somewhere else entirely, but they want humanity to succeed. They don’t talk about themselves, but we knew they served a higher purpose than we can understand.”
“You grew up in that . . . training school?”
“Yes.”
“What was it like?”
“Like a temple in a park.”
“Were your teachers good to you?”
“They were kind to us.”
“And they took care of you when you were sick?”
“We didn’t get sick. We were always in excellent health. And it wasn’t all work. We played games and had entertainments. We had sports to keep our bodies fit. We learned about art and music.”
He dragged in a breath and let it out, knowing he had to ask the question that had been in the back of his mind since she started talking. “And what year was it that you were taken to the temple?”
“Long ago. I think you would say my family belonged to the ancient Roman era. But we did not worship the Roman gods. We lived to the east, at the very edge of the empire. Probably it would be Romania today.”
He nodded, struggling to take it all in. “You have been alive all that time?”
“In the other plane, time is not the same. But yes, I am very old.”
Another man might have dismissed her story as a fantasy or delusion. But he had seen too much—experienced too much in the past few days—to dismiss it.
“Where are the others who studied with you?”
“We each live on our own.”
“Is it forbidden for you to marry?” he asked in a voice he couldn’t quite hold steady.
Her face took on a look of wonder. “You are thinking of that?”
“Yes.”
“I never considered that I could. I had my mission, which I love. It is a sacred mission, to protect those who cannot protect themselves. And I have my beautiful house where I can . . . recharge, I think you would call it.”
He brought the conversation back to his question. “You can’t marry, even if you want it?”
“No man ever came into the other plane with me before. And when I was in your world, I was always invisible.”
“So it must mean something important that I saw you.”
She answered with a small nod.
“Take me to the place where you were trained. I want to ask the gods for your hand.”
She stared at him in wonder.
“You would do that?”
“Yes.”
“Most men would be afraid.”
“I would dare anything—for you.”
Hope and fear flickered across her face. “And if they say no?”
“I will try to persuade them.”
“I knew you had determination—and bravery—when I saw you attack Lilith the first time. But I think you do not know what you are facing.”
“I’ll chance it. Can you take me there now?”
“If that’s what you truly desire.”
“Yes.”
She climbed out of the wide bed, and it changed, along with everything else, so that they were back in the hospital room. He sat up and reached for his prosthesis.
“You can have two legs there,” she murmured.
“No. I want them to see me as I am.”
He secured the prosthesis, then went to the closet and got out the neatly pressed dress-white uniform that had been hanging there, unworn. He put it on, with his Bronze Star, his Purple Heart, his Meritorious service Medals and service ribbons over the pocket.
Then he squared his cap on his head. He worked his leg, making sure he was steady on his feet. When he looked in the full length mirror on the back of the closet door, he saw Ariel standing in back of him. She had changed from her sari into a simple white gown.
“You look very handsome,” she said as her gaze moved over him.
“And you’re beautiful.” He reached for her, pulling her into his embrace and holding tight for a long moment before easing away. “How do we do it?”
“I can travel easily between the worlds, and I can take you with me. Grasp my hand.” She knitted her fingers with his. He gripped her tightly as he saw the room around them shimmer. From one second to the next, they were no longer in the Naval Medical Center. Or in the jungle where he’d landed last time.
Instead they stood in a bleak landscape like a place in some far northern country where there was no grass or trees, only gray rocks. They were on a high, wide ledge overlooking a valley shrouded by mist. The ground below their feet was strewn with rubble, with patches of snow. Jagged mountains loomed in the background like giant shark’s teeth, and the sky was a leaden gray.
Beside him, Ariel gasped and pressed against his side as she looked around at the bleak landscape.
Frank slung his arm around her shoulder, holding her close as he took in the desolation, wondering if the two of them had made a serious mistake. “Where are we?” he asked.
“I don’t know.”
“You’ve never been here before?”
“No. It looks like the end of the world.”
He had the same thought.
When the wind picked up, buffeting them, he rapped her more tightly in his arms, hunching over her to give her as much of his body heat as possible. The wind cut through his uniform jacket now, like icy fingers trying to rip the fabric from his body.
He saw her cringe and followed the direction of her gaze. She was staring at blinking lights above them in the sky like a helicopter with the view of the machine blocked by clouds.
“What is it?”
“Perhaps the gods. They must have brought us here.”
“Why?”
Wordlessly she shook her head, her teeth chattering. She was barefoot and wearing a thin white gown, and she was suffering from the cold. He looked around at the bleak landscape. Some of the boulders were as tall as a two-story building. If he could get behind one to shelter them from the wind and brace his back against the vertical surface, he could lift her up and hold her in his arms.
He tried to lead her toward a clump of rocks, but the wind began to blow from that direction, forcing them back every time they struggled forward a few feet.
The gale grew stronger, tearing off his cap and flinging it away as it shoved them relentlessly toward the edge of the drop-off.
In his mind, he heard a voice saying, You can save yourself. Let go of her, and flatten yourself against the rocks.
No.
Let her go, and save yourself, the voice repeated.
“Fuck you,” Frank answered in an angry growl.
“What?” she gasped.
“They’re trying to make me give you up. But I won’t.” He wrapped his arms more tightly around Ariel, thinking that whatever happened, the most important thing was hanging on to her.
The wind blasted them relentlessly toward the edge.
“Can’t you stop it?” he shouted above the roaring around them.
“I’m trying.”
The howling around them increased so that they might have been at the center of a tornado.
He brought his mouth to her ear, trying to make sure she heard him above the
din. “Whatever happens, remember that I love you.”
She squeezed his hand, and he knew that she had caught his words. Her arms locked around him. “I never knew what love was between a man and a woman until I met you, but I do now,” she gasped out, just as the wind grabbed the two of them, spinning them off the edge of the cliff and into space, as though they had jumped out of a plane from high above the earth.
They spun around, the sickening sensations worse than a parachute jump because no one but a fool would chance it in these wind conditions.
The gusts tried to tear Ariel away from him, but he closed his eyes and hung on to her as they plummeted through the freezing air. He felt his skin turn to ice so that he could no longer sense his own body, and he knew that they were both going to die. Together.
He waited for them to crash into the valley below, unable to stop himself from picturing the shattering impact. But somehow their descent slowed. It was like a layer of warm air had materialized under their feet, wafting them to the ground.
To Frank’s surprise, they landed on soft earth, and he raised his head. He saw tropical vegetation, dense foliage, flowers hanging on vines. It looked like they were in the jungle where he had first forced his way into the other plane.
Ariel turned her head, taking in the scene. Her breath caught as she studied their surroundings.
He reached for her hand. “Did you mean it when you said you loved me?” he asked. “Or did you just say it because you thought we were going to die?”
“I meant it, with all my heart.”
“That’s the most important thing. I mean—that I love you and you love me.”
“Maybe not.”
The way she said it tore at him.
“Why not?”
“It is out of our control.” She took his hand. “We must go.”
“Where?”
“To the temple—to face them.”
He didn’t like the resignation in her voice, but he knew that the two of them couldn’t stay here. If the gods had conjured a bleak and dangerous landscape a while ago, they could send a green- and orange-striped tiger charging out of the jungle—or anything else.
They walked side by side, holding hands, following a path through the dense vegetation. To confirm his earlier speculation, Frank heard rustlings and warning growls in the foliage. And when he looked up, he saw a huge bird circling overhead.
Ariel followed his gaze and cringed.
“What is it?”
“They come for the dead,” she whispered.
Through the trees he could see a massive white building. They came out of the green foliage to face an enormous structure that towered far above the jungle.
He had thought Ariel’s house was grand, but this building was like no other he could imagine. In front was a wide marble plaza, leading to a facade carved with pictures depicting life in all its richness—animals, people, plants. Some scenes were peaceful like shepherds tending a flock or parents and children cuddling together. Others depicted violence—battlefields with men tearing at each other or cities burning. They were from prehistory to modern times.
As with Ariel’s home, there were arched doorways leading inside, not to a courtyard but to an immense open space with a ceiling held up by slender columns that looked too fragile to support the domed roof.
High above, windows let in rays of light that shone down on a rectangular black stone about two and a half feet high and four feet long in the center of the huge space.
“What is it?” Frank asked, gesturing toward the stone, although he was afraid he already knew.
“A sacrificial altar,” Ariel murmured.
He heard words buzzing in his head and knew they were for Ariel. Approach, servant of the gods.
She jerked and pulled her hand away from him.
He tried to hold her back, but her slender body was stronger than it looked. She ran from him and knelt beside the black stone. When she laid her head on the horizontal surface, sick fear leaped inside him. Involuntarily, he looked up and saw something awful hanging in the air thirty feet above her. An enormous blade like the business end of an executioner’s ax.
Without considering his own safety, he sprang forward, losing his balance with the sudden movement. But he managed to catch himself against the stone and press the upper part of his body over Ariel’s head and neck.
How dare you interfere. Go back, the voice boomed.
His heart was pounding inside his chest, but he stayed where he was. “No.”
We saved her when she was dying, and she has broken her agreement with us. Her life is forfeit.
He stayed where he was, feeling her body quiver under his as he looked up. “Why? Because I somehow got into this plane of existence and met her? I didn’t intend it. She didn’t intend it. But we met. And we became important to each other. That must mean something to you.”
When we saved her life, she dedicated herself to serving us.
“And she was only a child. She knew nothing of the world or of what her agreement would mean. She only wanted to live. She has served you. For more than a thousand years.” He gulped as he said it. “Isn’t that enough? Must she be your slave forever? Let her come back to the world with me.”
She can only visit your world. She cannot live there. She would die.
He hadn’t understood that, and he heard himself cry out in protest. But there was more.
And if we allow her to live in this plane of existence, you will give her up?
Every fiber of his being recoiled from the cruelty of what they were asking. His hand clamped on Ariel’s arm. It might be the last time he ever touched her, but he would suffer her loss to save her life. “I will give her up,” he said in a voice he struggled to hold steady.
He held his breath, feeling a vibration in the air. He heard words echoing around him. It was as though beings he couldn’t see and couldn’t understand were arguing with each other.
Yet he caught the gist of the argument.
She has defied us.
The situation was not of her making.
He spoke truth. She was only a child.
She dared to give herself to the man.
After long and faithful service.
Frank held his breath, listening to the voices boom and vibrate. Sometimes they spoke of Ariel and sometimes of him.
He proved his bravery.
He has suffered much.
Can he be trusted?
He couldn’t stay silent. “Was there ever a man who walked between the worlds as I have?”
The voices raging around him went silent. Then one spoke directly to him.
We saw the tendency when you were young, and we blocked it.
He caught his breath as he thought about his early flashes of something outside the world when he’d played in the orchard back home. He’d seen them as a child. Then they’d simply stopped.
But it came back—the night you heard Gordon scream for help. Perhaps you are something new in the universe.
Frank Decorah, something new in the universe. He tried to wrap his head around that. Then he tried to use it to his advantage.
“For a reason. I came into this plane before Ariel arrived. I saved a man Lilith would have killed. I can do similar services again, if Ariel can stay with me and tell me what is needed.”
Long moments ticked by, and he thought he might go mad waiting for a response.
Finally, one of the voices said,
It is a reasonable scheme.
Just as relief flooded through him, he was hit with one more warning.
She is forbidden to marry. You would give up a normal life for her? You would give up marriage and children?
“Yes,” he answered in a strong voice.
We will hold you to that.
And suddenly from one blink of an eye to the other, they were no longer in the temple. They were back in the house where he had visited her, both of them, together.
He looked around in confusion. �
��What happened?”
She raised her head, and he saw tears shimmering in her eyes. “They gave us permission to be together—when we can.”
Overcome with emotion, he embraced her.
“And you can help me in my sacred mission.”
“I want to.”
“My work is important to me. There is so much evil in the universe, and if I can hold it back just a little, I know I have won a victory.”
“Yes.”
She lifted her face to his and looked him in the eye. “It will not be easy—this arrangement.”
“But as long as I know I have you, I can do it.”
He held her tightly, and she molded the contours of her body to his.
“I love you,” he murmured. “So much.”
“And I love you.” Her voice hitched. “But can you live the life we must?”
“Yes,” he answered.
She kept her gaze on him, her face serious. “You defended me with your life—against the gods. That was either very brave or very foolish.”
“I had to fight for you.”
“I never thought anyone would do something so heroic for me.”
“You had done nothing wrong.”
“But I did.”
“You only loved me.”
He lowered his head, and as their lips met, he knew that he had almost lost her. Or lost himself, or both.
He pulled the gown over her head, and she tugged at his uniform jacket.
“Do it with your magic,” he managed to say.
“Gods. I forgot about that.”
In a moment, he was as naked as she. Standing on two legs, because he was whole and uninjured in this place.
Naked, they swayed together in the center of the room, both of them having difficulty staying on their feet.
They made it to the bed and sank onto the mattress together where they came up to their knees, stroking and kissing, both of them so hot that he expected to see the flames spring up around them.
They lay down, and he dipped his head, pressing his face against her breasts, then taking one hardened nipple into his mouth, sucking on her before sliding down her body to press his lips to the hot, swollen folds of her most intimate flash.
ON EDGE (Decorah Security) Page 7
