The Dark Places

by D. Martin

  When he turned away and headed to the cabin’s door, I tentatively spoke. “Matt?”

  He paused on the opened door’s threshold without turning.

  “I tried to signal you upon the transmitter several times. I received no answer. I became worried. I had to go back out and find you.”

  Tense moments passed before he turned and stared without expression. I sat up with rising concern—he hadn’t removed his own water-beaded gear yet either.

  “Are you going out again?” My heart thudded in a rapid tattoo of apprehension.

  “No. I go to start lift sequence and to program the Stardancer for a new flight destination.”

  His voice had been harsh and uninviting of further inquiry, but Matt was right on one account: I did have headstrong tendencies. It sounded like he’d decided to change our next planned land fall. I proceeded to press for more details, despite all warning signs that he was furious with me and was likely to continue to be so for some time.

  “We’re not continuing on to Tivat? Where will the new destination take us?”

  Matt’s eyes narrowed and his lips thinned a moment before he grated out a hoarse response. “To the Branis System, where I will remarry you under my given name and under a closed-term contract—no matter what, Kai. No more flimsy excuses from you like the ones you produced on Sanbourne.”

  Oh! I gulped and felt flattered and discomfited at the same time. But I dared more questions and comments.

  “Why must we remarry in the Branis System? It’s an Inner System and farther away. Why not the Bileth System? You could save time. After we married on Tivat, you could take the stones to your friend, Seth, there and carry on with your other trade business.”

  “Branis, because as soon as the records status update for my given name is publicly registered, it will reach High Lord Rakeda’s notice and he’ll demand that we appear before him. He doesn’t care what I do under my trade name because it’s unconnected with his. However, he makes it his business to know anything done under my family name, so I’m saving us aggravation and time by being in the vicinity. He’ll want to assess you as soon as possible to determine if you’re worthy of upholding the precious, hallowed Rakeda family line,” he said with cold distance. His lips thinned and gold sparks flared in his dark eyes, but this time I sensed his ire wasn’t for me.

  His suppressed bitterness effectively silenced me. I withdrew into my blanket’s protective shelter and stared wide-eyed. Matt stamped from the cabin in a temper. I lay staring at the closed door a long while and vowed to avoid mentioning any subject that might allude to his autocratic parent in the future. Then I puzzled over what Matt had been doing inside the wrecked shell of the Fire Dawn.

  Exhaustion and sleep soon claimed my mind and body.

  Chapter Fourteen

  I nervously twisted the jewel-encrusted gold-and-platinum joining band on my left wrist. It was the traditional Drakisian symbol of my closed-term marriage contract with Lord Mattin Sian Rakeda. Matt had reclaimed his ring, assuring me this fancy joining bracelet was my own new ident-item for accessing the Stardancer’s navilog files.

  I stood before our hotel room’s wide window, staring with apprehension across the city’s busy thoroughfare below our tower wing. Matt had preset the window’s polarized glass with the remote currently resting on the inside ledge to allow me to look out, but prying eyes couldn’t see me or peer into the room. My gaze traveled across to the distant verdant hills and clear green skies of Matt’s birth planet, Drakis.

  Matt had left three hours ago to visit his family’s landholding residence upon his sire’s imperious request. As he had predicted, a daunting request had arrived by telebeam aboard the Stardancer soon after our arrival and remarriage upon Selak, an Inner World in the Branis System. I’d scanned the summons upon the comm unit’s display. Matt’s sire had ordered him to Drakis and to appear alone without his “nameless, upstart new bride.”

  At first I’d felt hurt and bewildered by the obvious animosity against me in the message—no, edict command—but I’d managed not to care after a while. I harbored no burning desire to meet the redoubtable High Lord Rakeda either.

  Matt had gone with smoldering resentment and reluctance to answer his father’s summons soon after our arrival on Drakis. Before leaving, he’d ensured that every detail for my comfort and security was well-established. He had given me credit voucher cards in both his given and his assumed name for me to draw upon for any reason or purchase. And he’d requested personal ident locks on the hotel door, instead of conventional entry cards. But Matt didn’t want me wandering around the city without him, so I stayed put. I hadn’t bothered dressing for the day either and had, instead, kept on my new, ankle-length gold satin nightgown that he’d purchased for me as a wedding gift on Selak.

  I listlessly turned from the window. Three hours had crept by and I missed him. I scornfully denounced myself as a lone moon hugging close to its planet. One thought cheered me—actually, two—and I didn’t care that Matt might find the transactions on his hotel account. I’d registered my new name with Alliance Credit Central and discovered Harry had transferred both my final pay, plus my Real Quiet One’s generous tips that I’d tagged on the Lilith’s bar comp. So, I’d taken further advantage of my solitude and used the room’s comm-net to type up and send a telebeam message to the Manning System and on to Harnaru. I kept it brief, mindful that the charges would go to Matt.

  Harry, don’t worry. I’m still alive and happily married to my Hot Date. Will contact you soon. Big hugs and many thanks for everything! Kai.

  I grinned, imagining Harry’s response when the message finally reached him in a day or two. First he’d rant because I hadn’t included any contact data, but I didn’t know where I’d be later. And then he would settle down and share the news with the Lilith’s staff.

  No message would be sent to Dearleth.

  I crossed the plush red carpet and sat on the wide, unmade bed’s edge. The closet door stood open. I had forgotten to close it. My dispassionate gaze roved over the garment assortment Matt had purchased for me on Selak, where I’d threatened to walk out of the store if he didn’t stop buying me things. He’d asked me to bring them along after we landed. I lay down slowly amidst the rumpled top sheet and placed my hand upon the pillow where Matt’s head had earlier rested.

  Events from the past eighteen standard days unraveled in my memory. Profound weakness had plagued Matt ten of those days after our sojourn to the MX-21ZG System. His anger with me had thawed. After the Stardancer had lifted from the dying world and had been on a flight path to the Branis System for several hours, I learned why he had been inside the Fire Dawn’s wrecked shell when I went seeking him in the ice storm.

  He’d slowly approached me while I’d stood before the observation window. I hadn’t turned. He’d forgiven me for maneuvering him into seeking Timirshil-ka, but he hadn’t forgiven me for endangering myself.

  Matt had spoken my name with a gentleness that had been absent from his tone since we left the dying world. “I had to retrieve this from the Fire Dawn before we lifted,” he had said. “I’d almost forgotten its existence. It belonged to my mother, then it was A’lia’s. This is yours now, doll.”

  I still hadn’t turned. I didn’t want to touch or own anything that had once belonged to A’lia, except her mate, and I didn’t particularly care much for him in that moment because of his earlier frosty disapproval.

  Matt had turned me to face him and given me a heavy frown before he held out a dagger. Precious gems encrusted the hilt, as did a finely detailed, embossed gold design. I stared, not reaching for it.

  “My mother’s people are a humanoid species. They occupied Drakis long before Old Terran colonists arrived. She was the youngest daughter of a regent in a small province domain. This was her ceremonial symbol of rank.” Matt had smiled wryly. “Her people weren’t a peaceful race, as you can surmise from this symbol. They regularly attacked Terran colonists for three centuries.”
Undaunted by my lack of response, he had continued extending the dagger.

  “Is your mother alive?” I hesitantly asked, still not touching the beautiful article. He’d referred to her in past tense as if it wasn’t so.

  “She is not.” He’d seemed to struggle with an emotion before forcing out his next words between clenched teeth. “Lady Thais Nevat Rakeda boarded her personal intersystem vessel alone after honoring her open-term, ten-year marriage contract with Lord Markan Rakeda, and calmly aimed her ship in a direct course into the golden sun at the center of Branis System.”

  I stared in stunned disbelief at his expressionless face.

  “She hated my father and she hated her life, for she had discovered two years before that she was dying from a slow, consuming disease. She gave me this dagger one day. She instructed me to give it to my wife when I married and that it would always protect her. Then she touched my forehead and told me not to cry or worry about her, for she was leaving all pain behind, and I never saw my mother again. I didn’t understand at the time because I was all of nine standard years old then. I only knew that no one ever laughed or smiled in our house.”

  Matt had studied my face in the ensuing silent seconds before he slid the dagger into a worn leather sheath and laid it aside. He spoke in a distant tone. “I once said that you were almost like A’lia in spirit, Kailiri. I was wrong. You’re most like the Lady Thais in your spirit and determination. I hadn’t realized the similarity until you tried redirecting the Stardancer to the dwarf sun system, and also when I saw you standing below the Fire Dawn’s wreck in the storm.”

  He’d frowned, and I’d defensively crossed my arms and then narrowed my eyes. Not that again.

  “Kailiri—you could have gotten lost in that storm. I might not have found you in time,” he’d thundered. “And you could have been hurt by the Fire Dawn’s old ramp! It wasn’t working properly. The path interference sensors weren’t functioning, and nothing would have stopped that ramp from crushing you.”

  I’d understood then that Matt’s anger stemmed from his fear of losing me. Two women he’d loved had gone into death’s darkness. I also realized then that my husband cherished me. My heart soared. I had given him a sunny smile and then rose on my toes to kiss him. Passion had followed, healing over and resealing the temporary rift between us.

  Afterward, when I’d lain cuddled in his arms, Matt moved away with a promise to return and brought the dagger to me again.

  “A’lia disliked my mother’s dagger and wouldn’t touch it. She didn’t believe it possessed protective powers. Despite that, I usually carried it for her whenever she traveled on the Fire Dawn. Perhaps, she was right—it didn’t save her when the ship crashed. My mother’s people were great believers in talismans. I’ve always found comfort in believing that before my mother left on her chosen end, she’d given me her symbolic protection and love through this. In turn, I’m offering you my protection and heart with Lady Thais Nevat Rakeda’s dagger now, Kai.”

  I hesitated another moment, then reached to take the small, beautiful dagger. A warm, tingling prickle shot through my fingers before vanishing. I’d promised Matt I would carry it with me whenever we traveled.

  My memories faded. I stared at the open closet. The dagger lay protected in its leather sheath, cushioned between some unpacked clothing in a flight bag. I was no believer in superstition, but I would cherish anything Matt gave me that linked me to his past and helped me understand the mysterious dark places I was still discovering within him, even without Timirshil-ka’s puzzling life essence. I turned on the bed, facing away from the closet, and stared across at green Drakisian skies through the polarized window.

  I had been married to Matt Lorins under an open contract term for fifty-three standard days—seven-and-a-half weeks—but I’d only been married to Lord Mattin Sian Rakeda for two days. I didn’t know which of his aspects I preferred, but I couldn’t forget that it was Matt Lorins I’d first loved. It would take me longer to reconcile him with his other aspect as a titled hold lord in this world’s society.

  I raised my right arm and frowned at the tiny pale spot where I’d had the apparently useless Fertipressor implants removed at a medi-center on Selak after confirming my pregnancy. I didn’t want anything to compromise my little one’s development. The physicians had tested the implants and sworn there was no defect in them. I clasped my arms tightly over my still flat stomach and sent warm, encouraging thoughts to the little new life before I rose from the bed.

  My restless thoughts drove me to the window once more, where I stared out toward the distant green hills beyond the city limits. Suddenly, I knew I would always prefer Matt Lorins over Lord Mattin Sian Rakeda. Our traders’ life upon the Stardancer had been intimate. We had long, solitary days to ourselves to love each other, but there would soon be a child. Instinct warned me that Matt’s concern about his son’s upbringing would likely lead to him insisting our child be firmly planet-based—probably here—and not a starship baby.

  Clicking accompanied by a low hum caught my attention. The security locking mechanism on the door was unlatching. I turned expectantly. Matt stepped across the threshold and looked at me before he secured the door. It was all I could do to restrain from flinging myself at him. I forced my body to wait with assumed composure by the window.

  He strode to the middle of the room and stopped as if he knew my internal struggle. I was certain he did, if our pesky imprinting and his mind-reading abilities still worked. Matt gave me a maddening, teasing smile. I was determined not to move one millimeter toward him. Just to show him.

  That one elusive dimple I’d discovered weeks ago, which rarely appeared, was on display when he closed the distance and halted a pace away before me. “Well, doll? I leave you for a few hours, and you treat me as if I was a stranger when I return?”

  I stepped close and entwined my arms around his neck. His warm lips closed demandingly upon mine. He was still my Matt Lorins. He loosened one hand on my waist long enough to touch the window control. Heavy red brocade drapery slid across the window to further ensure our privacy. Then he slipped the thin straps on my gown down my shoulders and arms. The gold satin cascaded onto the carpeted floor. I wore nothing underneath. His hands caressed my breasts and lower abdomen before he swung me up in his arms, carried me to the bed, and made gentle love to me.

  ****

  “Do you feel like exploring a bit of my world with me, doll?” he asked. I lay in his arms with my head resting drowsily upon his chest.

  I trailed one languid hand around his navel area, tracing the tantalizing dark swirling pattern that the soft hairs above his groin formed there. “Where?” I mumbled, wanting to remain where I was for the rest of that day and night. But Matt was restless by nature, and he still seemed not to require as much sleep as other mortals—even without Timirshil-ka’s essence adjoined within him.

  “Dinner first at a secluded restaurant,” he said, “then we’ll explore.”

  “Are we walking or will we go by a land flitter upon this exploration?” I murmured into his shoulder and tried not too hard to keep my eyes open.

  “Both, I think. But wear something nice from your new wardrobe. I want to show off my beautiful, precious treasure today.”

  “Umm…,” I answered with a big smile and settled more comfortably into his arms.

  Matt laughed and held me away from his shoulder. “You cannot sleep now, doll. We must be up and about if we wish to go before the sun leaves the sky.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  I kept a transfixed stare on gently rolling green hills and flat, cultivated lands of the open country, wondering where we were going. Matt had been curiously silent as he guided the land flitter out of the city limits. He hadn’t mentioned his meeting with his sire while we’d dined upon tastefully prepared foods native to Drakis.

  “Look over there, doll.” He took a hand from the steering control, gently grasped my velvet-covered arm, and turned me to the left.

 
; I peered far across the lands until I spied a sprawling gray stone edifice with several slender turrets and towers. He guided the flitter off the narrow track road and stopped the engine. Matt stepped out of the flitter, and I followed, looking about with bewildered interest. The temperature outside was pleasantly balmy—I’d never been surrounded by that much greenery—and yonder stood my first sight of a real land hold fortress. There had been no landed gentry on Dearleth. The mining corporations had owned the land.

  I tried to imagine what it must have been like for Matt to grow up on a land hold. Did he run across green fields like those as a young boy? Dearleth had precious few green lands coexisting in odd geographical places alongside the winter-locked continents. And Harnaru had even fewer green oases, existing on its mostly desert-like main continents.

  We walked a short distance away from the roadside into a nearby field covered with short-cropped grasses. When my heels didn’t sink into the loose reddish-brown soil, I congratulated myself for opting to wear the brown suede ankle boots with high, squared heels to accompany my new burgundy velvet sheath dress. I’d even worn my amethyst necklace.

  The sheathed dagger belonging to Matt’s mother lay inside the small burgundy suede clutch that I carried. I don’t know what made me grab it at the last moment and slip it between the clutch’s silk lining. My promise or mere superstition? My gaze roved past the sprawling land fortress across the seemingly endless verdant fields that spanned toward the horizon in all directions. I hoped we didn’t have to range farther infield.

  “That’s the Rakeda Hold fortress. It was built four hundred and thirty standard years ago by the Rakeda family when they settled here after the Great Expansion from the Terran System. Hostile Drakisian provinces surrounded it, and the fortress withstood attacks from warlords for almost three centuries until an Alliance Treaty stopped the conflict. Everything that you see around us belongs to the Rakeda landholdings, which amounts to twenty thousand acres. Seven thousand of those acres that aren’t visible from here have rich mineral deposits with mining operations. Three thousand five hundred acres are forests and yield lumber. The rest are towns and farmlands tenanted out in parcels to other settlers.”