Who is this stranger, Konner? Mum’s voice demanded in the back of his mind. Not Mum. The computer voice he had programmed to sound like Mum. He and his brothers had agreed that at times they needed her voice of authority to calm them when the IMPs were hard on their heels and all seemed lost. At other times they took immense satisfaction in telling the voice to “Shut up” and slapping the mute with enthusiastic vigor. Something they would never do in Mum’s presence.
Dalleena’s eyes opened wide and she bit her lower lip.
“You heard that?” he asked.
She nodded, eyes still wide.
He knew she was frightened, but she kept it under control. He liked that.
“Don’t worry. Mum won’t hurt you. At least not as long as you stay on this world,” Konner chuckled.
“Your . . . your m-mother? This dragon is your mother?” Her knees knocked together and her face grew pale.
“Nothing quite so simple.” Although to describe Mum as a dragon . . . Well, she did pretend to the wisdom of the ages and keep her own counsel. Margaret Kristine O’Hara could be as enigmatic as a dragon. She also defended her offspring with a ferocity reminiscent of a battle between a dragon and a behemoth.
Somehow Konner’s fingers became entwined with Dalleena’s.
Her other hand began to glow. And so did the hull beneath it.
Konner slapped his own hand atop hers, careful not to touch the cerama/metal scales. New warmth permeated his being from his points of contact with the strange woman.
“I expected the glow to be hot,” he muttered. Just flesh. All he felt was soft, warm, feminine flesh beneath his hand.
He suddenly found Dalleena’s lips very close to his own. She licked her lips. Their gazes met. The world seemed to stand still.
“Konner!” Loki called from the edge of the meadow. “Konner, we need you. Taneeo is missing.”
“St. Bridget, his timing is perfect as usual.” Konner broke free of the thrall of Dalleena’s luscious mouth.
“Go,” Dalleena whispered. She sounded more than a little breathless . . . and perhaps reluctant. “I will free myself. Somehow. They need you more than I do.”
With the last statement she stood taller, straighter, and thrust out her chin in stubborn resistance to his charm.
“Fine.” Inexplicable anger shot through him. Konner jerked both of his hands away from hers. The moment he was free of her, he regretted the distance between them.
Without thinking he clamped both hands around her right wrist, braced his feet, and pulled on her arm.
“If I can levitate a three-ton boulder, I can separate you from my ship and my life.” He shuddered in memory of the disaster that had forced him to use the latent psychic talent in order to rescue Raaskan.
He should concentrate on separating Dalleena’s flesh from the hull.
“Not so easy a task,” Dalleena chuckled. She remained firmly attached to the shuttle.
Had she referred to the now famous levitation or to freeing her?
“Not easy, but possible.” Konner shifted his weight and balance a little. With a firmer grim, he concentrated on the line of skin that met cerama/ metal.
A ripping sound alerted him. He caught her as they tumbled away from the shuttle. She landed atop him on the ground. Again her mouth was a bare breath away from his.
“Free of the dragon, but not free from me,” she said softly. Her gaze seemed concentrated on his own mouth.
Before he could reply, she brushed his lips with her own. Then she scrambled away from him.
He rose quickly, brushing grass and debris from his trousers and vest.
Now what? Clearly the woman wanted him. He could not deny the evidence that he found her very attractive. “St. Bridget and all the angels, I don’t have time for a relationship,” he muttered, hoping she would not hear him. “I have to get off this planet and claim my son. I have to find the beacon and keep the IMPs from finding us. I have to finish too many things before I get serious about a woman.”
“I will meet you here at dawn. We will hunt your lost bee-kan together,” she announced and stalked back toward the village campfire. Not once did she look back over her shoulder.
Konner pounded his fist into the hull of the Rover. Pain immediately cooled his ardor . . . but not his frustration.
CHAPTER 9
”I AM WAITING for an answer, Lieutenant.”
Commander Leonard drummed her fingers against her screen.
“For the life of me, Captain, I can find no record, ever, of this space configuration,” First Lieutenant Kohler said, shaking his head. His fingers never stopped moving across his screen.
“Sir,” Kat interrupted. Never good to jump into a conversation with senior officers too quickly.
Commander Leonard nodded for Kat to proceed.
“Sir, there is a habitable planet. Fourth from the sun. We are too far away to read signs of life. It looks green. No man-made satellites. One moon. And I’m getting a faint echo of the beacon.”
“Communications, you picking up any traffic?” Commander Leonard swung her chair around to face Ensign James Englebert and his array of screens.
“Nothing coming from any of the planets, sir,” he replied. “Except that beacon. But my instruments cannot pinpoint a location. It seems like it’s coming from everywhere and nowhere.”
“Any other habitable planets?” Commander Leonard asked.
“Not without artificial habitat,” Kat replied.
“I would guess that if people lived on the inhospitable planets, they’d have radio traffic,” Englebert said.
“If our quarry did indeed come to this system through that wild jump point, then my guess is they would head for the one place they could breathe. Helm, take us in. Slowly, with due caution.”
Kat smiled to herself. She set course for the little green planet. “Now we’ll see what kind of audacity and courage the O’Hara brothers truly have. I’m sick of following legends and rumors. Time to bring them to justice.”
“We’ll find you, Taneeo,” Loki said. “One skinny, young priest couldn’t run too far away. There aren’t that many places you could go.”
He jammed a long branch into the green fire at the center of the village. The fat-soaked moss bound to the tip flared immediately. He pulled it free and held it up. The eerie light illuminated a small section of the compound beyond the evening gathering space.
Just on the edge of the light was the doorway to the large square cabin he shared with Konner. Kim and Hestiia had built their own home adjacent to this one.
Primitive. Logs crossed and stacked, chinked with moss and mud. Lots of the moss. For many months the thatched building had been home. A place to call their own. A home Mum had not invaded and stamped with her personality. He liked that. When he returned to civilization, he would insist upon a home of his own, a place where he could take Cyndi. A place where Mum had to knock on the front door to gain entrance.
Suddenly he wanted nothing more than to get away from the people of his village and their demands upon his time, his energy, and his integrity.
But first he had to find Taneeo. He was eldest. It was his responsibility. “It’s not like Taneeo to be gone for more than an hour or so,” he said.
“He’s not well,” Hestiia added. “Where would he go?”
Kim raised his own torch and illuminated another sector of the village.
“St. Bridget, I hope Taneeo hasn’t been kidnapped by the ghost we encountered in the caves,” Loki muttered. Surreptitiously, he made the sign of the cross. He found no comfort in his mother’s ward against evil. What he truly wanted to do was cross his wrists and flap his hands in the gesture used by the locals to ward off the winged demon Simurgh.
“We could rescue him from kidnappers. Let’s just hope he doesn’t run into that big red bull who hangs out in the far meadow beyond the wetlands.” Konner added his own torch to the pool of light.
“The priest is that way.” The new woman, the Tr
acker, pointed in the direction of the wetlands and the bull. She started walking. Each stride was strong and confident, like a man’s. She did not look back, as if she expected them to follow her without question.
“How can she be sure?” Loki asked. The hair on his spine bristled. Who was this woman to come into the village alone and start giving orders.
“She knows what she knows,” Konner said. He followed the woman with the same long, determined stride.
“Konner?” Loki scrambled to follow, more worried about his middle brother than the little bit of dignity he forfeited with his hasty, ungraceful steps. “Konner never follows anyone. Not even me—or Mum.”
“Looks like he found Mum’s equal,” Kim said with a chuckle. He and Hestiia paced alongside Loki, Hestiia taking two steps to every one of Kim’s.
“I like Dalleena,” Hestiia commented, a little breathlessly. “She will be a good addition to the village. To all of the Coros.”
“Hmf,” Loki grunted.
He caught up with Konner just as they all came alongside the woman. She kept her right arm outstretched, palm facing forward. Kim and Hestiia stayed a few steps behind, holding hands.
St. Bridget! They’d been married two months and they still held hands, and smooched at any excuse. Sooner or later Kim would come to his senses and realize he had to leave the girl. Better sooner than later. If they did not find the beacon soon, they’d have to leave. Crystals or no crystals.
Loki did not want to be around to deal with the copious tears that would fall upon the departure of the Stargods.
Dalleena stopped short at the stone wall that divided the wheat field from the wetlands. The wheat had been reduced to stubble over the last week. She stepped forward, barked her shins upon the piled rocks, then backed off one pace. Then she repeated the process, seemingly blind to the obstacle.
“Doesn’t she see the damn wall?” Loki growled.
“Apparently not. I guess that she has fallen into a tracking trance,” Konner mused.
“Trance?” Loki asked. “Like when Kim does his healing magic?”
“Or like you when you eavesdrop, or like I do when I ‘commune’ with the ship’s crystals.” Konner sounded so calm, so trusting of this strange woman.
“This way,” Konner said gently, taking Dalleena’s arm. He led her to a crude stile over the wall. She followed docilely. But her right arm shifted to maintain her bead on whatever she sought.
Loki hung back. He did not want to leave the perceived safety of the cultivated fields. Primitive as they were, these fields represented civilization. Beyond was wilderness, the unknown. Disaster.
He knew it. He knew it as clearly as he knew his own name, and Cyndi’s name, and how anxious he was to return to her and claim her hand in marriage.
Once clear of the retaining wall, Dalleena moved her arm back and forth, scanning, as if her hand were a sensor. Then she started off, faster than before. Her pace increased until she ran. She stumbled often, heedless of the rough ground and soggy patches. Konner was always there, steadying her, guiding her to an easier path.
Kim and Hestiia hastened after them.
Loki had no choice but to do the same. They had to find Taneeo. Had to protect their friend.
One thing Loki had learned over the past few months was that the Stargods did not let their people down. He’d be glad to get rid of that responsibility when he returned to civilization.
They circled the wettest of the wetlands. Not as soggy or dangerous now as when the brothers first landed on this remote little planet.
Konner’s torch burned low. Loki’s and Kim’s didn’t fare much better. The moss had its limits after all.
Dalleena kept moving. Could the woman see in the dark? Off to their left a series of barely perceived lumps shifted. One snorted and stood. The shaggy red bull warned them away from his harem.
Their path took them past the cattle and back around toward the cultivation.
“We could have gone straight through the barley to get here faster and safer,” Loki complained.
“She follows the path that Taneeo took,” Hestiia explained.
“Does she detect his scent?” Loki asked, intrigued despite his reservations.
Hestiia shrugged, as much as she could while keeping up the pace.
And then they were back in the middle of the barley. Loki dug in his heels. He nearly catapulted onto his face. The lump in the center of the field loomed menacingly. But this was no cow. This was a rock. A rock that might be sentient. The rock that Konner had lifted with his mind to free Raaskan and save his life.
Taneeo sat at the base of the rock. He rested his back and head against the solid granite. His face was streaked with dirt, his trousers and vest ripped. His leg stuck out in front of him, twisted at an odd angle.
“We didn’t kill him. We can’t kill him,” Taneeo whispered.
“Kill who?” Kim knelt before the village priest. He ran his hands over him assessing his injuries.
“Hanassa. Only the dragons can kill Hanassa.”
The blood drained from Loki’s face. The ghost of their greatest enemy was real.
Kim concentrated hard. His hands burned every time he came close to an injury on Taneeo’s battered body. Two cracked ribs that would heal with time and tight bandaging. One eye swollen shut. The Bruise Leech® would take care of that. But that leg.
“We’ve set broken bones before, Kim,” Konner reassured him with a firm clasp on his shoulder.
“Yeah. But I need the portable ultrasound unit. And some splints, and a stretcher and a bunch of stout men to carry him on the stretcher back home.” A quick look around told him that Loki, as usual, was edging away from them—useless in a crisis. The oldest brother tended to charge into situations and then leave Kim and Konner to clean up the aftermath.
“Loki, he needs the US unit and the Leech. Can you get it for us?”
Loki bristled and clenched his fists.
“That is, unless you’d rather set some bones and . . .”
“Never mind. I’ll get what you need,” Loki grumbled. He turned sharply and set off across the acres of barley at a brisk trot.
“I’ll go, too,” Hestiia said quietly. “Pryth and Raaskan can help.”
Kim’s heart swelled. He knew she’d do her best to calm and soothe Loki. She was good at that. But would even Hestiia be able to ease Loki’s mind tonight?
Firing the lethal needle rifle at Hanassa had cost Loki a great deal of emotional stability. Taking a life . . .
Kim shook his head to clear it of his own memories of the one time he had caused another man to die. Years later he still had nightmares about it.
Now to find out that perhaps Hanassa had not died must upset Loki’s equilibrium.
Dalleena produced a skin of clean water. Kim accepted it gratefully. He took a long drink, offered some to Taneeo, and used the remainder to cleanse the priest’s face.
“I tried to keep him out,” Taneeo whispered. Suddenly he grabbed the fronts of Kim’s vest with a strength that belied his injuries. “I fought him as hard as I could, Stargod Kim. I promise you I tried. But he is strong. Much stronger than I thought.”
Taneeo swallowed with difficulty. Kim brought the guttering torch closer. What he had thought were streaks of dirt on the young man’s face and throat turned out to be bruises. In the shape of fingerprints.
Kim’s vision fractured and he suddenly saw ghostly hands clasping his friend’s throat. He shook himself free of the frightening sight. He needed some Tambootie to make the vision clearer.
“Drink, Taneeo.” Kim offered the skin of water once more.
“He punishes me. Even now he punishes me,” Taneeo whispered. He clawed at his throat. Somehow his hands precisely fit the bruises.
Again Kim had to separate himself from the sight of a second hand atop Taneeo’s guiding it, clenching it.
“Who? Who punishes you?” Kim pressed. He felt cold with the certainty he knew what was coming. If only he h
ad some Tambootie, he could sort this out.
“Hanassa.”
“We killed Hanassa. The flywackets dumped his body into the lava pit. No one, not even a dragon could survive the heart of the volcano,” Kim insisted.
“Dragons are not limited to the life of the body,” Taneeo squeaked.
“Dragons can’t shapechange into humans,” Konner insisted. “They can shrink to the shape of a flywacket, a flying house cat. If they choose human form, they have to—borrow a body. I wonder if they can later move from one body into another.” He hunkered down beside Kim. The little lines around his eyes deepened and his shoulders arched toward his ears, sure signs of inner stress he did not allow to reach his voice.
“I have an awful feeling they can.” Kim swallowed deeply, then turned back to Taneeo with resolution. “Whose body did Hanassa take?”
He had a sudden sinking feeling in his gut. How long could the ghost of Hanassa linger in the caverns before it forced its way into a human body? Which human?
Taneeo’s eyes opened wide, staring into the distance. He gurgled and choked. “I fought him. I continue to fight. He will not have me!” Then his eyes rolled up and he slumped into unconsciousness.
A second aura appeared around his head, separated, and drifted free.
CHAPTER 10
DALLEENA STUDIED the white dragon. The rising sun cast interesting shadows upon the gleaming scales. Was that a slight indentation in the shape of a palm and fingers? She wanted to trace the outline with her finger, test the perceptions of her eyes with touch.
Resolutely, she crossed her arms under her breasts and buried her hands in her armpits. No sense tempting fate and permanently bonding with the dragon that was not truly a dragon.
An inner voice told her to leave. Leave the village. Leave the influence of the Stargods. Leave the all-too-handsome Stargod Konner. She had to forget his gentle touch, the way their bodies seemed to fit together when she landed atop him. No good would come from continuing.
But she had promised to track a lost one.
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