“Maybe we should rest.” He looked at her tawny skin. She was pale, but her jaw gritted with her determination to stay on her feet.
“We can’t stay here. Look.” She pointed toward the sky.
Damn it. He’d been so focused on her he hadn’t noticed the squad of aircraft heading their way. Unari. Six aircraft with guns forward and aft.
“Let’s go.” He kicked the fire apart, hiding all traces of their survival, except their footprints. However, it was still snowing, and in a few more minutes their tracks would fill in. “If we stay out of sight, perhaps we’ll luck out and the Unari will assume we died in the crash.”
She picked up a branch to use as a walking stick. But even with the extra support, Marisa required his help. Weak from loss of blood, she needed food and rest. Antibiotics and a doctor would be even better.
She didn’t complain and stepped forward gingerly. But as he slipped an arm around her waist, he could feel her trembling against his side. “We need to move away from the crash site as fast as we can.”
The hum of the aircraft grew louder.
“Can they see our heat signatures from the air?” she asked.
“They didn’t have that kind of technology when I left. But the smoking debris should provide cover.”
She nodded, then winced in pain. “But once we leave the area…”
“We have no choice.” Rion half carried her from the crash site. “If we stay, they’ll find us.”
“Which way?” she asked.
“Toward the trees.”
If Chivalri dies, then Honor is without her heart and will die, for the Goddess has withdrawn her soul from all the realm.
—CHIVALRI KING
18
Each step pounded like a hammer blow to Marisa’s head. Hot and cold flashes hit her at random. The drone of Unari ships grew louder. It seemed as though someone had been hunting her ever since she’d left Earth.
Rion hurried her through the forest, and the alien landscape lent a nightmarish edge to her pain. She didn’t think the taste of the smoke that made breathing painful would ever leave her mouth.
She had a hard time recalling when her head hadn’t throbbed, when the vegetation had smelled familiar, when the gravity under her feet didn’t make her unsteady. She wouldn’t have made the first hundred yards without Rion’s help. They kept a steady pace for at least an hour and finally stopped to drink from a stream. Rion helped lower her to the bank, then cupped his fingers so she could drink from his hands.
His kindness and the cool water revived her sagging energy. He’d sewn her wound, then half carried her from the crash site, their bodies pressed tightly together. Despite her need to protect herself and keep an emotional distance, intimacy was growing between them again. She’d wanted to drink in his strength. Lean into him for comfort.
She had to remain vigilant. Remind herself that he was helping her for his own reasons. That they could have no future together. Nevertheless, she would have been rude and ungrateful not to acknowledge he was half carrying her. “Thanks.”
He studied her with concern. “If I remember correctly, it’s not much farther.”
“Where are we going?”
“To the royal mountain house—Winhaven.”
Her pounding head didn’t prevent her from objecting to his plan. “Won’t Winhaven be the first place the Unari will look for survivors of the crash?”
He shrugged. “Not if they believe we died.”
She tied her fear into a tight, controllable knot. “But when they don’t find our bodies…”
His response was gentle yet firm. “You need food, rest, and shelter. I won’t have you sleeping on the ground.”
“Better the ground than a cell or a grave.” Battered or not, she couldn’t let his need to protect her from the elements ruin his mission. Trying to hide her weariness, she shot him a hard look. “If I weren’t injured, you’d never go there, would you?”
“But you are injured.”
She couldn’t refute his logic. Besides, arguing taxed her strength. Thinking was hard when her head felt like someone was using it for drum practice. She’d kill for an aspirin.
Rion wet a scrap of cloth in the stream, wrung it out, and placed it on her forehead. “Better?”
“Yeah—” She nodded, then winced as more pain flooded through her. Closing her eyes, she mumbled, “Note to self. No extraneous head movements.”
“We should move on.”
She agreed, but a five-minute nap would do wonders. “Just a few more minutes, okay?”
Sitting in the sun, the cool cloth on her brow, she felt her body grow heavy. Eyes closed, she rested her forehead against her knees and listened to the tweeting of birds, the fluttering of small squirrel-like creatures, and dozed off.
When she opened her eyes, Rion was carrying her, striding through the forest as if she weighed nothing. A warm tingle spread through her and into her core. After that crash, who would have thought her battered body could even produce such a hormone? Even her fear of the Unari catching them couldn’t mitigate her attraction to Rion.
She watched the sun setting low on the horizon, trying once more to maintain an emotional distance. There was no snow. She estimated several hours had passed. Several hours with her breasts snuggled against his chest and her cheek cradled by his shoulder.
“Feel better?” Rion asked, his voice a silky male purr.
“The rest helped. You don’t have to carry me. I’m awake now.”
“I didn’t mind.” He set her down as if she was cherished, priceless. As if he feared she might still topple, he kept a hand on her waist.
His tenderness overwhelmed her. She refused to meet his eyes. Didn’t want him to see the desire coursing through her.
Get a grip. She took in a deep breath and let out the air on a long sigh. “Any sign of the Unari?”
“None. But I haven’t heard their ships fly off the mountain, either.”
Which meant the Unari remained on the ground. Probably searching for them. “It’s been a long time. You think they’re still combing the wreckage for our bodies? Or are they now hunting for us?”
“If they’re trying to track us, they won’t find signs of our passing. Or pick up our scent.” He grinned down at his wet boots, clearly pleased. “I walked downstream for a few miles.”
If she had to be stuck on an alien world with an enemy hunting her, she couldn’t have asked for a more skilled or caring companion.
“The royal house—Winhaven? How much farther is it?” She tried to keep the weariness from her voice.
“I’m not sure.” His brows narrowed. “I’ve only been there once, a long time ago, and we flew in.”
“Are you saying we’re lost?”
He peered at the setting sun, then over his shoulder at the highest mountain peak, getting his bearings. “I know where we are. I’m not sure where Winhaven is.”
“Maybe we should head for civilization.”
“We’re in the Jalpani Mountains.” He pointed toward the setting sun. “If we walk that way, we’ll enter the capital city of Chivalri.”
“How far would that be?”
“Twenty miles. Maybe twenty-five.”
She bit back a groan. Her stomach rumbled with hunger. But she’d been sleeping all afternoon while Rion, who’d expended large amounts of energy carrying her, had been walking for hours.
He pointed to a distant outcropping of trees. “I think that bluff might be the western edge of Winhaven.”
She looked in the direction he’d pointed, hoping it wasn’t far. Her gaze picked up a familiar silhouette against the sky. The owl had survived the crash, but like Rion could have been flung far away. Or like Marisa, could have been injured. Yet Merlin looked fine, and she was happy to see him again. “Hey, there’s Merlin.”
The owl swooped toward them, circled over their heads, and then flew off about twenty degrees to the right of Rion’s familiar bluff. When they continued to stand and watch hi
m fly, he returned and circled them again before repeating his flight path.
“He wants us to follow him,” Marisa said.
“Let’s go.” Rion handed her a walking stick. “After he gave us the key to that spaceship, then steered it, I’m thinking there’s more to Merlin than we know.”
Marisa followed Merlin’s flight. “I wish I’d asked Cael or Lucan more about him, but I thought he was just a pet.” Watching Merlin fly and cover so much ground with so little effort, she longed to do the same. “If we dragonshaped, we’d be at Winhaven in minutes.”
“No. Don’t even think about dragonshaping.” Rion’s voice turned harsh.
Surprised, she looked at him, but kept walking, following Merlin. “Why not?”
“If the Unari are around, we’d be too easy to spot as dragons. And”—he hesitated, as if there were something he didn’t want to say, then continued—“after the crash, my webbing tangled in a tree. I had to dragonshape to free myself. I got a taste of the Tyrannizer’s pain.”
His face turned hard, and his eyes blazed with anger.
“I’m sorry.” What in God’s name had the Tyrannizer done to him? She couldn’t bring herself to ask about the pain.
“It’s not something I want to ever experience again. No one should have to bear that agony. It’s savage.”
She placed her hand in his and squeezed. “We’ll stop them. You, Merlin, and I will find a way to stop the Unari.”
“Goddess help us if we don’t.”
Marisa’s stomach knotted. She could do this. Stay strong. “To use my group telepathy to communicate with the dragons, I’ll have to link minds with them. I won’t just feel my own pain, I’ll feel theirs, too.”
Rion stopped walking and looked at her. “Back on Earth, you remained in human form when you communicated with the dragons.”
“And my efforts failed.” If not for Rion’s dragonshaping and placing himself between her and the angry dragons, she wouldn’t have survived. “I can get through to small, receptive groups of dragons in human form. But to send a message worldwide or to deal with fighting dragons or ones in terrible pain, I need my full telepathic powers. I have to dragonshape to communicate effectively.”
“You’ll feel all their pain?” he asked.
“Yes.” She hoped she had the courage to do what was needed. Because if she didn’t, not only his people but all of Earth might be doomed, as well. “The link—and the pain—won’t be as intense if I remain in human form, but I can communicate with larger groups and with more authority if I dragonshape.”
He shook his head. “In dragon form, the pain is unbearable.” He spoke briskly, without inflection. “You can’t dragonshape until after we find and destroy the Tyrannizer.”
“Are you sure?” she asked, even as relief slid through her.
Eyes gentle, he cupped her face between his hands. “I wouldn’t ask that of you… or of anyone. Because it’s impossible. No one can endure that much pain.”
Up ahead, Merlin hooted, clearly growing impatient with their slow pace. She gazed into Rion’s eyes and saw his fear. For her? Or fear that she would fail his people? Or both?
Her doubts lingered. She wondered if she would ever completely trust him again. After her failed marriage, it had taken her a long time to think she would ever love again. She’d lost faith in herself, in her own judgment.
At the moment, she was already up to her neck in indecision. And yet she couldn’t deny she had feelings for Rion.
He was resourceful, caring, and gentle. He was the kind of man she admired. Even considering whether to trust him again was dangerous—especially after he’d told her they could have nothing permanent together. Ever since the crash and his learning how his people were suffering, he seemed more responsible, more determined than ever to free them, which made him even more attractive.
Perhaps that knock on her head had skewed her perceptions. In her experience, people’s character didn’t change. Yet who would have thought her adventure-loving brother could happily marry and settle down? Lucan’s domestication had proved anything was possible.
“Where’s Merlin?” Rion interrupted her thoughts.
She’d been focused on putting one foot in front of the other while avoiding thornbushes and hadn’t been paying attention to the owl. She peered through the trees, and her hopes rose. “Is that a fence?”
A stone wall about waist high meandered between thick shrubs and towering trees along the steep hillside.
“It’s Winhaven’s perimeter. We’ve found it. Merlin led us straight here, but he’s disappeared.” Rion slowed his pace. “Why don’t you rest and let me check out—”
“No.” She recalled when he’d left her behind in the space museum and the time she’d spent worrying. She didn’t like him leaving her behind. “We’ll go together.”
“Don’t move,” a voice called out. A group of men, wearing ragged camouflage clothing, stepped from behind the trees, weapons aimed.
Rion stepped in front of Marisa. She held her breath and peeked around his broad shoulders.
These men had the chiseled angles from living hard and lean. Rion couldn’t defeat all of them, especially with their blasters pointed right at him.
Icy fear rooted her feet, and she could only stare at the collection of massive chests, powerful arms, and long, lean hips and wait. If these guys were the Unari, then she could understand how they’d infiltrated society from the inside out.
“Who’s Merlin?” The stocky leader with the glinting baby blues moved forward, a ring of command in his tone. He stared at them over the barrel of his weapon, suspicion and hostility in his eyes.
Before Rion had an opportunity to answer, the blue-eyed leader fired orders to his men, his voice low and deep. “Find their friend, Merlin. He must not escape, or we’re all—”
“Lexiathon,” Rion called the man by his name, “there’s no need to waste energy chasing an owl.”
At Rion’s words, the men paused and looked to their leader. Lexiathon frowned, stepped closer, and stared at Rion, his eyes wide open and direct. “How do you know my name?”
“I am Crown Prince Rion Jaqard of Chivalri.”
“Lies. Our king is Shepherd Jaqard.”
“Shepherd is my father.”
“If Sir Shepherd resigns or dies, then the throne goes to his son, Erik.”
“Erik is my cousin and not the direct heir.”
“That’s impossible.”
“Please hear me out. You’ve heard that King Shepherd Jaqard has flashes?”
“What of it?”
“In one of his visions he saw that his infant son would die from an assassination. So shortly after my birth, he had Erik and me switch places.”
Lexiathon didn’t lower his weapon. His stance widened and his back snapped straighter. “Erik wasn’t assassinated.”
“My father changed the future by his actions.” Rion stepped forward and held out his hand. “I have seen you by my side in the future many times. I am happy to finally meet you, Lex.”
Lex didn’t budge. “I’ll need more proof than your word.”
Marisa swallowed back a hysterical laugh. Rion had finally revealed his true identity, and his people didn’t believe him. If the Honorians had DNA records, she supposed that, in time, Rion could prove his claim to the throne.
Rion dropped his hand, but he kept his smile. “You are Chivalri’s rebel leader.”
Lex held Rion’s gaze, his stare level. “You could have heard that anywhere.”
“You protect children in Winhaven’s basement.”
The rebel leader narrowed his eyes. “So one of my men talked.”
“You dream of a woman. Pendra. She’s the leader of another rebel group, and you admire her—”
“Enough,” Lex snapped.
Rion didn’t smile. “I don’t think you’ve told anyone about her, have you?”
Lex remained silent, doubt in his eyes.
“Darian,” Rion called
to another man, with short blond hair shaved close to the head and the body of a world-class wrestler. “Your lady is pregnant. You’d best marry her soon.”
Darian’s perfect square jaw dropped open. “She just told me this morning.”
“It’s a boy, and he’ll become a man of whom you’re proud.” Rion faced another of the men, the tallest and most powerful of the bunch. “Mendle, your mother—”
“Is dead.”
“When the Unari burned her house, she fled. You will see her again… but it may be some time before you reunite. That vision is still in your future.”
Mendle gasped. “I buried the Unari arsonists in the backyard and told no one for fear of reprisal. But I didn’t know my mother… still lives.” Tears of happiness shone in his eyes.
Lex lowered his weapon, dropped to one knee, and bowed his head. “Sire, only direct descendants of the royal line have such an ability.”
His men kneeled, bowed their heads.
Rion reached down and grabbed Lex’s forearm. “Rise. All of you. My flashes are snapshots of the past, present, and future. However, the more I share, the less control we have over those events. Sometimes change is good. Sometimes it’s not. This time the goal is clear—I would join you to rid Honor of all Unari.”
“Yes, sire.”
Rion rarely mentioned his gift. It was the longest explanation she’d ever heard Rion give at one time. His commitment to these people was set in stone.
“Until all are free,” Rion continued, his tone regal, “I would swear you and your men to secrecy about my identity.”
“You have our word, sire,” Lex agreed.
“I ask that you address me as Rion. No titles, no special deference should be given to me—except as a rebel leader.”
“Understood… sir.”
Rion placed his arm over Marisa’s shoulders. “This lady has come from far away to help us.”
Marisa nodded a greeting, pleased the men’s attention remained on Rion. In wartime, people didn’t take kindly to outsiders. If she hadn’t arrived with Rion, these people would never have taken her in.
“Is there a place the lady can rest?” Rion asked. Before anyone answered, he continued, “It’s possible that Unari are looking for us.” As they walked along the fence, Mendle taking the point, Darian covering the rear, Rion explained how they’d crashed and had been on the run ever since.
Rion Page 15
