Beulah waited patiently as the spaceship landed not far from her hut. On the veranda her husband, Sinya, leaned against the rail, his hands braced against the rough wood, the billowing sleeves of his shirt fluttering in the breeze that swept across the empty spaces around them.
The ships door opened and a robed figure came down the little ramp. The veil covering the lower half of her face fluttered in the breeze. Behind her came Cormac, her own husband and ex-bounty hunter. He sent Sinya a hard look and the space pirate sent him a cheerful wave.
Beulah greeted Learta with a hug. “I am glad you’ve arrived.”
Learta’s sky blue eyes were sombre above her veil, one eye drooping from the scar that slashed through it to disappear behind the veil. “I felt it.”
“The spirit plane has a hole in it.” Turning towards the river that flowed nearby, the waters sparkling in the sun, Beulah started to walk slowly over the path that shifted behind her feet, reforming into a slightly different pattern after she’d passed over it.
“My Father has allowed someone to be taken that he shouldn’t have.” Learta strode gracefully beside her, her robes barely touching the path.
“She can’t go back.”
“No. There is no going back for the warrior.” Learta looked across at the sparkling waters. “Phemar thinks he can control her destiny.”
“I haveate0">“I felt her soul.” Beulah took a deep breath and turned to look at Learta.
Learta saw the stars in her pure black eyes. The witch-woman’s irises were gone, no whites showed, just pure blackness of a night sky and the stars shimmering within them. Learta waited in respectful silence.
“She will fight him,” Beulah continued, and this time her voice seemed to come from overhead, a whisper in the breeze. “Her soul isn’t naturally dark. He will break her, destroy her in his ignorance. His darkness hasn’t shown him what she really is.”
“Is she truly lost to us?”
Little shoots of grass sprang in the wake of Beulah’s footsteps and flowers started to scatter over the path behind her. “Lost to the light, yes.”
Learta sighed.
“But she doesn’t have to remain in the darkness completely.”
“There is a shift in the balance of darkness, can you feel it?” Learta held out one hand and the air around her hand shimmered like a heat wave, shadows playing across the light. “There is a struggle for power.”
“There’s an old saying,” Beulah said softly. “Caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.”
“The blue sea hides many vicious predators.”
“And someone needs to guard the deep blue sea. Predators have their role to play, too.” Beulah stopped and looked at Learta. “There is one thing we can do.”
“That’s why I’m here,” Learta said softly.
~ * ~
Bounty Hunters’ Ship
Two days it had taken her to finally walk properly. Ceri leaned down, stretching the muscles in her legs gently but firmly. Straightening, she bent from side to side at the waist, easing the kinks. Stretching her arms up, she arched backwards, and finally rolled her head forward, back, side to side, and finally forward again. Feeling her strength almost back to full force was a relief. It didn’t leave her feeling so vulnerable.
Taking a deep breath, she tossed the towel aside and dressed carefully in her normal clothes, yanking the split skirt up and over her hips. The vest she secured with quick skill, lacing the rawhide and tying it in a secure knot. Finally she reached for the comb and dragged it through her damp hair, teasing out the knots until it fell in a damp fall of rapidly-forming ringlets to the small of her back. Picking up the hair fastener that Abra had given her, she made to tie her hair back, only to stop and first remove a long strand of black hair from it.
Holding the strand up, she eyed it. Obviously Abra had used the fastener for his own hair at one time. Personally she thought he should just shave the mohawk off and be done with it, but it was the way of his race. They all had mohawks, including the women.
Flicking the strand away, she gathered her own hair at the nape of her neck and secured it with the fastener.
Back in the cabin, she slid her boots on and placed her feet one at a time on the seat of the chair while she laced the rawhide strapping around them, securing the boots just below her knees.
She heard Abra enter just as she finished fastening the rawhide and dropping her booted foot to the floor she straightened and turned to face him.
For several long seconds they weighed each other up assessingly.
Hra size="e was wearing his usual clothes, plain shirt tucked into dark pants and boots. His mohawk was neatly braided, the length falling down his back. His dark eyes were hard as they swept over her.
Bounty hunter and Reeka warrior, it was a hell of a mix. Ceri wished she still had her sword but it was somewhere on the ship. Abra had simply ignored her request for it, so she’d find it herself. Meanwhile, she now had to go out and mix with the other hunters.
If Rani had been with her, she’d have been laughing her arse off.
Rani.
“You ready to eat?” Abra broke the silence brusquely.
She nodded and followed him in silence from the cabin. The walk to the dining cabin was short. She could hear the low murmur of the hunters’ voices as they talked and when she followed Abra inside there was a brief lull in the conversation. They all looked up at her.
Oh yes, she knew them all. She’d only seen them briefly at different times as they’d brought her food while she lay in the bunk or walked slowly a short distance up the corridor and back, regaining her strength gradually. At different times a couple of them had helped steady her but their faces hadn’t shown any friendliness. In fact, their expressions hadn’t given anything of their thoughts away. About the only thing they all had in common was their wariness when around her, and when it dawned on them that she wasn’t going to attack, they simply accepted her.
But they didn’t trust her.
She could live with that. She trusted them even less.
There were only two chairs left empty at the table, one at the head and the other beside it. Abra sat down on the head chair, so she slid onto the other chair. Plates were already laid out which surprised her. Spotless glasses were on the table, shiny knives and forks, and clear covered bowls of hot food sat on warmers in the centre of the table.
Ceri glanced around. Anyone would think this was a family dinner.
“Surprised to see us so civilized?” Ricna drawled from opposite her.
“I rather expected to see a feeding trough,” she returned, looking across at him with one brow arched.
“Abra made us be on our best behaviour. The trough we bring out when we’re on our own.”
“Thank the stars for small mercies.”
Pulling one of the bowls towards him, Abra took the lid off and laid it on the table. “Meat,” he stated, digging out a piece with his fork and then sitting back to wait for her with an expressionless face.
Picking up her own fork, Ceri took a piece of it and laid it on her plate.
Putting the lid back on, he pushed the bowl back into its place and reached for another. Spooning out a heap of mashed potatoes, he waited again for her to serve herself before replacing the lid. And so it went on.
By the time they’d finished, both had impressively heaped plates.
It was the weirdest feeling, sitting down with hunters and eating. Ceri glanced around at them. To her these hunters were still enemies, only they weren’t now. It was the oddest sensation of displacement.
“So,” Vane said from beside her, “this must be pretty exciting for you, being amongst those who hunted you.”
Abra didn’t even look up from his plate.
Nat, t,e="+0">Jarvis and Menac regarded her with hard eyes while continuing to eat steadily.
“Do I sense the carrion eaters circling?” Ceri took a bite of meat and chewed slowly.
“Only around outlaw
s.”
“Couldn’t be me, then.”
“And ex-outlaws.”
Ceri forked up potatoes.
“Reekas fetched a good price once,” Vane stated.
Abra glanced up but said nothing.
Nat, Jarvis and Menac continued to eat and observe.
“A real good price,” Vane added. “Must seem like yesterday that you were running from hunters, warrior.”
He was baiting her, poking a sore wound.
“Yes,” she said. “It just seems like yesterday.” And she moved fast. Exploding out of her chair, one fist wrapping in his shirt front, she hauled him up with her, flinging him around to face her. Yanking him against her, she glared down into his startled face and snarled between clenched teeth, “Don’t make a mistake and think me too weak, hunter. Nor think me a fool. I know I’m surrounded by bounty hunters, I know I was once your prey.”
“Might still be again one day,” he sneered.
“Do you like playing with death, hunter?” Twisting her fist, she pulled the shirt tight against his throat and added pressure, watching as his face went a little red. “Want a little taste of the lights going out?”
Even as she focused on him, she was aware of the hunters at the table. None moved, all watched silently. Abra continued eating without missing a beat but she wasn’t fooled. She could feel the tension emanating from the men.
“I bet you put a lot of lights out in your time,” he rasped against the pressure on his throat.
“Oh yeah, hunter. Quite a few of your fellow packs felt the bite of my blade or the burn of my laser.” She felt him move but moved faster, wrapping her other fist in his shirt and lifting him up into the air to dangle with his feet off the floor.
Startled, his eyes widened, and she realized just how young was this hunter.
“What’s the matter, Vane?” she said tauntingly. “Never been on the receiving end of a real Reeka warrior? Didn’t believe we could really be stronger than most men?” She gave him a shake. “I bet you were still hanging on your mummy’s apron strings when we were outlawed. Maybe it’s time to introduce you to a Reeka properly.”
“Cut it out you two.” Abra’s voice was calm but cut through the tension like a hot knife through butter. “The food’s getting cold and I don’t like my peaceful mealtimes disrupted. Sit and eat.”
Vane made a choking sound when Ceri twisted her fist just a little more.
“You’ve made your point, Ceri,” Abra stated, an edge of steel to his words. “Vane, sit down and shut up. You want to push her and get your head smacked in, do it after she’s returned to the Reekas. I won’t have a finger pointed at us. Ceri.”
Instinctively she reacted to the quiet order, dropping Vane so that he landed on his feet with a thud. Reseating herself, she met Abra’s gaze. He gave a barely discernable nod and continued eating as though nothing had happened, which was fine by her.
And he was right. She had made her point, not only to the hunters but outhuntersalso to herself. A reminder to them that she wasn’t to be pushed, that she was a warrior, and a reminder to herself that she was strong enough to take them on.
In her heart, they were still the enemy hunting her. The situation she was in was still bizarre.
Now she felt the absence of Rani keenly. But she also felt stronger, more in control.
Emotions were funny things.
Vane huffed and muttered and cast her resentful glances, and she did a slow, quick study of him when he was looking elsewhere. The hunter was young, no more than twenty two, so he’d have been a mere boy of about eight years when she’d been an outlaw. No wonder he’d wanted to try her out.
The other hunters were older, mostly in their thirties and forties. Older, wiser... and deadlier. Vane was an annoyance, but these other hunters were a threat if they chose.
Meeting Abra’s gaze once more, Ceri acknowledged that this pack leader, this silent, mohawked Mracan, would be one of her biggest threats because he seemed to see right through her. Because he was unpredictable. He was calm and controlled. Deadly. She had no doubt he’d kill her if she was a threat to his pack.
Now that she respected.
The meal was finished without further disruption and they both pushed back their plates at almost the same time.
“Ready to talk to Reya?” Abra stood up.
“Yes.” She’d been putting it off, not knowing quite how to talk to the girl she’d once known.
The girl now her leader.
Ceri had half expected Abra to get annoyed when she’d refused the first few times he’d asked, but he’d simply shrugged and strode away to do his own thing. The hunter really didn’t give a vagrat’s arse what the Reekas did. What a surprise. But she couldn’t put it off any longer, and she had to admit to a certain amount of curiosity at seeing Reya again, seeing how she handled the role of leader.
Abra led her to the control cabin and motioned to a chair near the console before turning on the viscomm. Within seconds he was in contact with a rakishly handsome, brawny giant, who smiled at her and left the screen. It wasn’t long before someone else took his place.
Reya. Ceri would know her anywhere, even though she was older. The same wild curls as she herself had, though her niece’s were red/gold rather than her own blonde. The ice green eyes were Vulya’s, but the coldness in them was something Ceri didn’t remember from the past. It looked like her niece had lived hard and seen a lot.
Hadn’t they all?
“Reya,” she said softly, aware at the same time that Abra had left the cabin.
Reya smiled, though her gaze was searching. “Ceri. ’Tis been a long time.”
“Apparently so.”
“I’m so glad to see you. We all are. It took all my persuasive powers to get everyone to stay behind while I came for you.”
“Doesn’t surprise me. We’ve been through hell together...” Ceri stumbled to a halt. “Or, we did.”
“Aye, we did.” Reya smiled slightly. “I had to pull rank or you’d have ended up with the whole settlement flying like hell through space to get to you. They’re looking forward to having you home.”
Ceri knew she should be touched but hell, it seemed like jus Cemed likt a few days ago that she’d been fighting for her life in that cave. The missing fourteen years just didn’t seem real.
Unable to think of anything to say, she finally settled on, “All are well, then?”
“Aye. The survivors of the Outlaw Years live on Comll, though some of us wed and live on Daamen, too. Mind you...” Reya stroked her chin thoughtfully. “There are a couple of warriors who wed and they all live on Comll.”
A trickle of amusement went through Ceri as she studied her niece anew. “You wed a Daamen.”
“’Aye.”
“I’d have known by the way you talk.”
Reya looked uncomprehendingly at her.
“You say some words the way they do,” Ceri pointed out.
“Oh.” Reya smiled. “It rubs off on some of us.”
“Share a bed, share their life, you’re bound to pick up something,” Ceri replied.
They both laughed, a momentary understanding of similar humour. When it died away, however, there was a wealth of unsaid things between them and Ceri felt uncomfortable, something she’d never have felt before when facing another sister warrior.
But hell, this particular sister warrior, her second cousin, was almost a stranger yet not. Damn it, fourteen years missing crapped up a lot of things. Where the hell was the fifteen year old girl she remembered? How could she possibly relate to this woman who now ruled?
The silence stretched out as they eyed each other.
“You’ve seen the recording of the Reekas’ pardon?” Reya finally asked.
“Yes.”
“I hope it makes you feel easier about being aboard a hunters’ ship.”
“This wouldn’t be my first choice of transport.”
Leaning back in her chair, Reya studied her intently. “Th
ey are looking after you?”
“As tenderly as if I was still worth a fortune.”
A cold glint of amusement showed in Reya’s eyes. “Trust me, this is something that even they don’t feel totally comfortable with.”
“I don’t think Abra could give a vagrat’s arse.”
Reya shrugged. “I don’t care. As long as they return you safely to us ’tis all that matters.”
“You’ve changed,” Ceri said bluntly.
“And you haven’t.” Reya continued her steady regard. “I am so sorry that we couldn’t save Rani.”
“Do you have any idea where her body was taken?” Ceri asked.
“Nay. I wish I did.”
“I don’t know why they’d want her. She was dying.” Unconsciously, Ceri gripped the armrest of the chair. “As soon as she was thawed out, she’d die.” Or maybe she wasn’t dead.
“’Tis another mystery,” Reya stated. “How you thawed out in a freezer unit. By all accounts you should be dead and still frozen.”
“Yes.” Ceri wasn’t going to refute it.
“But you’re alive and you did thaw out.”
“Living proof right here.”
Reya’s expression was thoughtful. “Do you have any idea what h+0" idea wappened to you? Any explanation?”
“Just a cold snap that came through the floor, that’s the last thing I remember. Well,” Ceri arched one brow, “that and crawling out of the freezer feeling like an ice block.”
Reya gazed unseeingly at something just off the viscomm screen and Ceri could just about see her brain tick over. Now the Reya she remembered was a deep thinker so obviously some things didn’t change. It was a welcome observation. This mature Reya still had some of the young teen she remembered in her. It helped steady the strange displacement sensation.
Reya blinked and looked back at Ceri. “Once you’re back on Comll, I’ll send a party of warriors to the cave to see if they can track anything—”
“No need,” Ceri interrupted. “I’m going back as soon as I can. In fact, I won’t be meeting with you. I’m going back as soon as Abra can drop me off somewhere.”
“Nay.”
“Yes.”
Reya took a deep breath. “Ceri, you’ve been through an experience that has taken fourteen years of your life away. Away from us. We want you home.”
Shattered Soul Page 8
