Climax of Passion

by Emma Darcy

‘This is far enough. We leave the horses here.’

  The black mare came to a stop next to the white stallion.

  ‘Why?’ Amanda asked. The peak looked so close now. Enticingly close. ‘Surely an hour or two more....’

  ‘The horses cannot go where we will go. This is the best place for them to rest.’

  ‘You mean we are to continue on foot?’

  ‘Exactly.’

  ‘So we save the horses and kill ourselves,’ she said with an attempt at ironic humour.

  ‘You cannot go on?’ he asked, his dark eyes scanning hers in concern.

  ‘Where you go, so, too, will I,’ she said loftily.

  ‘Good,’ he approved, taking her at her word.

  Nevertheless, he helped her off the mare and gave her some time to wash her hands and splash her face with the cold water from the stream while he saw to the horses, unsaddling and tethering them. She did her best to collect a second wind as she watched him swing a pack on his shoulders, ready to trek forward.

  He didn’t say anything. Neither did she. He took her hand in his, and strode off without a backward glance.

  They climbed.

  He assisted her, supported her, pushed her. Amanda went on like an automaton, beyond fatigue, holding on, moving one foot after the other. They came to a ledge which was blocked by a monstrous stone.

  ‘It’s no good,’ Amanda said. ‘We can’t go past it or get around it.’

  Upgrade took no notice of her. He dropped the pack from his shoulders, unbuckled it and took out two hydraulic jacks.

  ‘I will lift the rock sufficiently for us to bypass it.’

  He suited his actions to his words. Curiosity drew Amanda forward to observe. The rock had been cut at the base on either side, but one side much higher than the other in order to take the jacks.

  Upgrade manoeuvred them into place, then started the lifting process. One side was kept at the same level to form a fulcrum on which to lever the other.

  Amanda watched in fascination as millimeter by millimeter the great block began to tilt. It revealed a small crevice set into the rock wall.

  ‘You will crawl through that.’

  Amanda looked incredulously at Upgrade. He had to be joking.

  He waved her forward. He wasn’t joking.

  Amanda did as she was told with deep trepidation. What if the great block slipped off the jacks? The thought of entombment sent spears of horror through her. She tried to calm herself with the assurance that at least she wouldn’t be alone. He followed her into the narrow space, pushing her towards an impenetrable darkness.

  She could feel her throat choking up. She thought of Aida. How the two lovers had sung together after their entombment was beyond belief. That was opera. This was real life.

  Then there was no rock constricting her passage. She swept her arm around to make sure. There was nothing in touching distance. Very cautiously she rose to her feet and stepped forward into a sense of timeless, eerie space.

  She heard Upgrade straighten up behind her. Then there was a click and in the glow of torchlight she saw for the first time what her father had discovered.

  Only then did she understand why it had haunted him for the rest of his life!

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  THE illumination refracted from thousands of millions of facets of the crystal lining the cave, protruding from the walls in flower-like shapes, feathering down from the roof. It was like a magical fairyland, sparkling with ancient mystery and the promise of riches beyond belief.

  It was entrancing, enthralling, and as the torch swung in an arc, it magnified the effect of being encased in a fantastic prism that bathed them in glittering rainbows. It was all her father had described. More. The memory of it must have been burned into his mind...an inescapable torment, impossible to forget.

  Tears welled into Amanda’s eyes. To have the enormity of this discovery suppressed and disbelieved when he knew all along he had seen what she was seeing now... ‘It’s true,’ she whispered in an agony of apology for the doubts that had sometimes clouded her faith in his claims about the neodymite crystal caves. ‘All true.’

  She turned blindly to the man who had brought her here, instinctively reaching out to him in the darkness behind the torch. ‘I can’t tell you how much it means...’

  Her heart was so full she could not find the words to express all she felt. She stumbled forward and half fell against him. His arms swept around her, holding her to the strong, warm solidity of his body. She couldn’t help it. She wept, overwhelmed by this resolution to years of striving...trying to console her father, trying to bolster his cause with her belief, trying to work her way to proving the truth, once and for all.

  ‘Thank you,’ she choked out. ‘Thank you for doing this for me.’

  ‘No man could have asked more of a daughter,’ he said softly. ‘Your father has a right to be justly proud of you.’

  ‘But I’d never have found it without you.’

  ‘You had an unquenchable belief. Such beliefs move mountains. You would have found it, or lost your life striving for the unattainable. I merely took it into my head to save yours.’

  ‘You’ve been here before. You must have been.’

  ‘Once.’

  ‘Before the entrance was sealed?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Why did you decide to share it with me?’

  The hand on her hair moved to her face, feather-light fingertips caressing her cheek. ‘Would I be a true companion to you if I let you suffer the pain of never knowing what you wanted and needed to know?’

  His lips brushed her fringe aside and pressed a kiss on her forehead. ‘I want your mind to be at rest.’

  His hand dropped to the soft swell of her breasts. ‘I want your heart to be content.’

  His body moved more intimately against hers. ‘I want you to be at peace with yourself, and with me.’

  Amanda was transfixed by the beautiful simplicity of his words, the sweet transmission of giving implicit in his touch. It rippled through her body, washing away the lassitude of deep fatigue, stirring anew the deep womanly needs that called out to be mated with this man.

  She felt his physical response, the hardening thrust of his flesh against hers, the sense and urgency of his youth pulsing from him, reaching out to her, wanting. Her mind danced with a wild singing of yes...oh, yes, I want you...yes...and her heart took up the refrain with a rapid tattoo of affirmation.

  He expelled a deep sigh and turned away from the tempting contact, his arm curling around her shoulders to hold her close to his side as he moved forward. ‘I will show you all there is to see,’ he murmured, his voice strained with the necessity to complete the task.

  He was right, Amanda thought with a heartfelt rush of gratitude. This place belonged to her father. They were walking now where he had been before them, their feet crunching on orbs of crystal that had broken away and shattered on the rock floor. This was one of the great natural mineral repositories of the world...and the justification of her father’s belief in himself.

  ‘It’s magic,’ she whispered, as strange shapes loomed up ahead, some fluorescing under the light of the torch, others taking on the appearance of transfigured images. ‘How far does it go?’

  ‘There are many caves.’

  ‘All like this?’

  ‘Some smaller, some larger.’

  She thought it strange that the air did not smell musty. Perhaps she was intoxicated by the sheer splendour of light reflected into myriad fascinating fantasies by the crystals. Perhaps the crystals freshened the air.

  Or maybe she was light-headed from the excitement coursing through her at the continual brushing of her body against his, thighs, hips, the nestling of her shoulder under his arm. It made her feel small, feminine, protected. He hugged her more firmly whenever she stumbled.

  The caves were interlinked, apparently honeycombing a considerable part of the peak. She knew they were looking at untold wealth and could well imagine he
r father’s elation at having found one of the greatest treasures in the world. As a geologist he would have been in seventh heaven. Yet he had ended up in a personal hell.

  Her feet faltered to a halt. ‘I’ve seen enough for today.’

  ‘As you will,’ came the quiet rejoinder. ‘There is always tomorrow.’

  Amanda felt drained of the energy that had kept her going. All this had brought her father long-lasting misery. What had been done to him was unforgivably wrong. Her sense of injustice swelled as they started retracing their steps.

  ‘Why was my father’s discovery discredited?’ It was a painful cry of protest. ‘Why was the existence of the neodymite crystals suppressed?’

  ‘You realise it’s used as a catalyst in the manufacture of rocket fuel and other chemical processes?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Your father refused to comprehend the consequences of what he had found,’ came the quiet and unemotional reply.

  ‘I don’t understand,’ she pleaded. ‘There is a vast wealth for your country here.’

  ‘I see death and destruction.’

  ‘It could be used for good...’

  ‘Don’t be naive, Amanda.’ His voice hardened.

  ‘Whoever controls the source of neodymite controls the future,’ she expostulated.

  ‘Do you imagine any of the world’s great powers would care what happened to Xabia and its people while they fought for their share of what is here?’

  ‘Mining the crystals could be managed for the benefit of the people,’ she insisted, not wanting to accept his dark view of inevitable consequences.

  ‘Xabia will not become another Kuwait,’ he went on remorselessly. ‘Neodymite crystals are more valuable than the black gold that motivates war. There would also be the price of corruption.’

  The cold certainty in his voice dampened her ardour for argument. ‘Yet it cannot forever remain a secret.’

  ‘No geologist will ever be allowed to venture into this area again. Every trace of this discovery has been expunged from the records. It will remain so.’

  It stirred a fierce resentment in Amanda. ‘You have no idea what that did to my father.’

  ‘Your father was blindly obsessed. He would not see the danger.’

  ‘He was an orphan. A homeless, Irish orphan. The butt of cruel jokes. You wouldn’t know what it’s like to be put down,’ she said heatedly, smarting from the memory of all her recent treatment from Charles Arnold.

  ‘We must all rise above such things.’

  ‘Dad wanted recognition. Nothing more. It would have made him worth something to himself,’ she defended. ‘Xa Shiraq killed that in him.’

  ‘Xa Shiraq was right, Amanda,’ came the remorseless reply. ‘Your father was wrong.’

  ‘Not in my view,’ Amanda said fiercely. ‘Not by my standards. Xa Shiraq wasn’t prepared to reach for the stars.’

  She was stepping forward as she spoke. He stopped. His arm dropped from her shoulders. Amanda hesitated, glanced back. He stood absolutely still, a dark and suddenly menacing figure. The atmosphere in the cave seemed to thicken. She sensed turbulent emotion coursing through him, emotion that focused on her with frightening force.

  Before she could do or say anything to appease it, he stepped forward, and played the torch once more over the cavern of crystal about them.

  ‘What do you see, Amanda?’ he demanded harshly. ‘Fame and fortune? Is that what you crave?’

  ‘No,’ she cried in protest.

  ‘Does your father’s greed run in your blood, too?’

  ‘It wasn’t greed!’

  ‘Power is very seductive...’

  ‘It’s not so,’ she denied vehemently.

  ‘Look at them. Millions of neodymite crystals twinkling their temptation. Beautiful and deadly. For thousands of years they have glittered unseen, storing up energy, waiting to shower it upon the world. Do they whisper to you to release it?’

  It was strange. What she had initially seen as a magical fairyland now seemed to glint coldly, malignantly. She shivered. He pulled her against him, her shoulder blades meeting the firm masculinity of his broad chest, her bottom crushed to rocklike thighs.

  ‘Xabia is prosperous,’ he stated bitingly. ‘There are no beggars in the streets of Alcabab. We have schools. We have hospitals. The people are not in want. Of what benefit are more riches, Amanda?’

  She didn’t know the facts well enough to dispute what he claimed. To speak out of ignorance could only earn his contempt. It was true what he said about the capital city. It had been surprisingly clean and orderly compared to other cities she had visited in the Middle East. Even the enterprising Mocca and his extended family had no complaint about their lot in life.

  ‘As for the stars,’ he continued mockingly. ‘Isn’t the space above our planet already filling with the debris of our rocketships? Why should mankind interfere with the stars? They have been more constant companions to me than anyone else. Leave them alone, I say.’

  Amanda’s heart sank. She had failed him. He had gambled on her seeing things his way, gambled she would give up her quest in favour of a greater wisdom. He had opened his mind to her and instead of sharing his perceptions, she had clung to her father’s cause.

  Amanda closed her eyes to her father’s lost treasure and felt the pained thump of the heart behind her. ‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered. ‘I’ve lived with this secret...for so long...to put everything right...’

  ‘The decision is now yours, Amanda. To reveal or not to reveal. That is the choice I have given you.’

  Her father was dead. He was beyond hurting any more. It tore at her heart. To admit he had been wrong in pursuing what had been forbidden him was unthinkable. Yet...

  ‘Success and failure,’ she whispered, ‘both at the same time.’

  ‘I have known it often.’

  She believed this enigma of a man. The crystal caves belonged to the people of Xabia. Yet they could not use them. It was the paradox of life.

  She would not take it upon herself to change anything for them. To right the injustice to her father was to wrong others. Let justice be done though the heavens fall, he had said with grim irony.

  She would not let the heavens fall.

  ‘Amanda...’ It was both a demand and a growl of need, dispensing with choice as he turned her in his arms and tilted her face to his.

  His mouth claimed hers before she could utter a word.

  The swift infusion of his passionate energy dispelled the limp feeling of defeat. It smashed the tormenting spectre of a promise that would not now be fulfilled. It stamped another promise into her mind that seduced all reason, then into her heart, allowing room for nothing else but the stampeding pulse of togetherness.

  Take me, his kiss said. There is no fame or fortune or power in the world that could compensate for what would be lost if you choose another path.

  He reforged the link between them with tempestuous fire, welding the softness of her body to the burning rigidity of his, his hands sliding over her in pressure patterns that secured a fierce and intimate contact. He was rampant male, compelling submission to his will, yet inducing a yielding that exulted in his forcefulness, and the yielding brought its own harvest of response from him.

  She felt the straining of his muscles, the tremor of need that rippled through him, the pounding of his heart, the endless thirst for her giving of herself to him. He had waited, restrained himself to breaking point, but now the floodgates of wanting were cast open and a torrent of desire swept all before it.

  ‘Does this make up your mind?’ he demanded hoarsely, his breathing as tortured as hers between kisses. ‘Tell me it does. Give yourself to me.’

  ‘Not here,’ she pleaded, her voice raw with her need for him, yet the thought of the crystals surrounding them—her father’s crystals—was abhorrent to her at a moment which should be clean of the past.

  ‘This is not the place for us,’ he agreed.

  He swept her along wi
th him, Amanda’s feet barely touching the ground. He virtually carried her through the shimmering kaleidoscope of caves, back the way they had come, unerring in his sense of direction, urgency driving his every step.

  Amanda was riven by her desire to go with him wherever he led. The knowledge she was leaving her father’s dreams forever behind her was submerged. It had to be so, she told herself. She had her own life to live. The choice was made. There was good reason for letting things be as they had been for time immemorial. Her father had been the disturbing influence. This was her final farewell to him. She hoped he would understand.

  They reached the entrance to the tunnel that led out to the pure mountain air, to a clear vista of the country so loved by the man who would be her lover, to a future she couldn’t yet envisage, but it was waiting out there for her.

  ‘Go ahead,’ he urged as she knelt to crawl through to the crevice in the rock-face. ‘I will follow in a minute. There is something I must do for you first.’

  She couldn’t imagine what it might be, but she didn’t protest or linger. She hated the claustrophobic feeling of the narrow passageway and manoeuvred herself through it with driven haste, emerging on the open cliff ledge with an intense sense of relief.

  She didn’t touch the hydraulic jack near her feet. She was certain afterwards she did not. The weight it was supporting must have caused an overload in its mechanism. There was a loud crunch. The huge block of stone started to tilt towards her.

  The shock of it robbed her of any wits at all. The instinct for survival must have taken over, forcing her feet to scramble out of harm’s way. It was only when the massive stone rocked into its resting place, sealing the exit from the crystal caves that she began to scream, the horror of it bursting through her mind, clawing at her heart.

  If he had not been crushed to death, he was sealed inside the caves...entombed with no way out. In irrational panic she rushed at the monstrous rock, tried to free the crushed hydraulic jack, tried to push the massive weight aside. She wept, she sobbed, she called out to him again and again.

  There was no answer. Not a sound issued from the mountain to assure her she was heard, that all was well with him.