“Now that could be a very good thing.” She returned his flirtatious look.
He brought her hand to his mouth and nibbled across her palm.
A bigger wave splashed against them, soaking her.
Khan gave her an appreciative stare. Then, with obvious reluctance, he looked away. “We need to introduce you to the waves. When a big one comes at you, make like one of your seapups and dive under.” He laughed. “I learned the hard way. Growing up near a desert doesn’t make for much wave riding.”
They waded out farther, the waves getting progressively larger, until a big one rose in front of them.
“This is it!” Khan yelled and dove below.
Daria took a deep breath and followed. Underneath she could feel the power of the water rolling over her and shuddering her body. She broke to the surface, gasping for air. “That was marvelous,” she called to Khan.
He swam over and took her in his arms.
Passion pulsed through her—a feeling of blissful aliveness that encompassed her feelings for him, the affect his touch had on her, and the idyllic paradise around her. She wanted to stop, to absorb every nuance, but Khan grinned and gestured at the next wave. They plunged under.
They played in the water, swimming together, and sometimes when their feet touched bottom, exchanging salty, wet kisses, and slippery caresses. They frolicked like seapups.
Khan taught her to bodysurf.
Being a better swimmer, Daria quickly surpassed him in long glides to the shore. She loved the freedom of hurtling through the water.
Finally they tired and stopped, treading water. They had to duck under another wave, but when they came up, by unspoken consent they swam closer to shore. They stopped when the water reached their waists.
The breeze caressed her wet body, sending chill bumps of excitement over her skin.
Khan swept her into his arms.
Daria shrieked with laughter, wrapping her arms around his neck.
He carried her up the shore, toward the foliage, but farther west.
“Where are you taking me?”
“There’s secluded lounges tucked away where the jungle meets the beach. Double lounges. We can sit and relax and watch the sun set.”
They rounded a clump of flowering trees, and there on the sand sat a cushioned type of chair-bed covered with red-patterned material.
Khan gently set her down. He crawled next to her, then dropped an arm around her shoulders, snuggling her close. He dropped a kiss on the top of her wet hair. “Daria, you bring me such joy.”
She tilted her head to smile up at him. “As you do me.”
He playfully tapped her nose. “Look at the water, I’m promise you a spectacular sunset.”
The tropical breeze stirred a blooming tree to shower blossoms over them. The perfume enveloped them as they cuddled together on the shore of the white-sand beach, watching as the sun went down.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
As the rose-and-amber rays of dawn crept through the round upstairs window of Khan’s house, Daria stirred from a sound sleep. For a moment, she lay snug in her bedroll, warm and relaxed from a pleasant dream. The urgency shadowing all their frantic preparations for today had faded. Rest had soothed her mind and body. She reached for a memory of the dream, but the recollection slipped away. Something about a white-sand beach, swimming, and cuddling with Khan.
She curled on her side. Khan still slumbered next to her. In repose, his handsome, dark face had a gentleness at odds with the fierce determination he’d been showing these last three days.
An intense longing squeezed into her dream-induced peacefulness. She wondered what life with him would be like if no threat of Thaddis hovered as a blade to cut them off from happiness. Or no Goddess to keep them apart for her own ends.
Slowly, she slid to a sitting position and stretched trying to unkink knotted muscles. But even with catlike stealth, her movement woke Khan.
His heavy eyelids rose. A sleepy smile and the sensual drowsiness in his dark-lashed brown eyes coaxed a tender response from her languid body. She had to refrain from leaning forward for a kiss, burrowing into the strength of his arms, and losing all awareness of the threat to their lives.
Khan blinked, his expression affectionate. “Good morning.”
“Day’s greeting to you.”
“I thought I’d toss and turn all night. But instead, I feel so rested.”
“I too. And I had the most wonderful dreams.”
Interest quickened in his dark eyes. “On a beach?”
“Yes. But the sand was crystal white, not green like at Seagem. So beautiful.”
“Ah, you were with me in Hawaii.”
“Hawaii?”
“Yes, a beach in…” He frowned. “Tonight, after this is over, I’ll have a lot to share with you.”
“I do know something about Hawaii,” she teased.
“We were outside of time,” he said slowly. “We didn’t think of Thaddis, the destruction of Seagem, Goddesses….” He sat up and directed a quick worried look at the statue in the niche.
“What’s wrong?”
“I’m not sorry for a thing we did.”
“Then what?”
“I just hope we didn’t offend Her. Today of all days, we need Her.”
Daria frowned a warning. “Just remember not to place your trust in Her, and then we won’t be let down.”
He shook his head. “I can’t think that way.”
The light increased. The amber glow haloed Khan.
Daria stood. With the stiff soreness of an elder, she walked over to the window. The soft breeze flowing over the garden brought as a gift the scent of greenery and fresh-turned earth, without any tang of the sea, or arid smell of the desert.
Shir and Shad flew through the air, grabbing the dawn-flying beetles that made up their breakfast. As every morning, the sun’s rays illuminated the statue until the Goddess gleamed.
Wistfulness tugged at Daria. Perhaps the Goddess, like a puppetmaster, pulled strings attached to her limbs, calling her to worship. But for the first time, today’s heartcall didn’t bring forth her anger with Yadarius, only a sadness that her connection with Him no longer existed. Still, she resisted the urge to melt her body into a traditional morning ritual to a Deity. She’d made the choice not to bond with Khan’s Goddess. Yet, this morning, the loneliness of her choice weighed on her soul.
Khan joined her at the window. Silence settled between them—sweet, with a hint of bitter melancholy. But neither spoke of what lay ahead. Instead, they watched the radiance fade from the statue until the lady seemed to be only carved marble.
Daria took Khan’s hand. “Come. We will be warriors instead of laborers today. There is a series of stretches we must do to loosen up.”
They rolled up their bedrolls. In the cleared space, Daria led Khan through the yah-dar-sae, deliberately shutting her mind to the prayer rituals that wanted to seep into each pose.
Some of the positions caused Khan to grimace and mutter “yoga classes” under his breath as he tried to twist his body in the same ways hers flowed. But he persevered until the end.
When they’d finished, she crossed the floor to where her sword hung in its scabbard hung on a peg. “Why don’t you get a meal together while I practice the nis-alt-du?”
“Nis-alt-du?”
“The nis-alt are individual sword dances. The nis-alt-du is the first one. It’s been several weeks since I’ve performed one. Not since…” She fell silent, remembering the killing in the high desert, the soldiers she’d have to slay today. Micfal had been at her side then—a mighty warrior. She wished for his strength and wisdom with an ache that brought tears to her eyes.
Today, she’d face the enemy alone. No matter what, Khan needed to stick to shooting arrows. A sword in his untried hands would be worse than useless. But she’d seen his prowess with the bow. He’d have his share of killing, too.
She forced a smile, trying to hide her pensive mood from K
han. But she could see by the solemn look in his eyes that he’d felt her musing with his othersense. He understood. The knowledge warmed the tears from her eyes.
He reached out to touch the pommel of her sword. “You dance. I’ll watch.”
Daria nodded and unsheathed the blade. Because she knew he observed her, she started by throwing him a flirtatious smile, and then transitioned from playful to deadly with the first swing of her sword.
As she moved through the passes, she caught glimpses of the awe and pride on his face. And for a few moments, there was nothing but the dance.
And them.
~ ~ ~
Khan crouched within a cubby of brick and stone strategically piled so he could see out, but still remain hidden. A step around the corner from his hiding place loomed the entrance to their trap, across which one of the strange alloy gates he’d removed from the shrine canted open in an apparent drunken slant.
Shad and Shir swooped around the ruins on patrol, ready to fly with a warning of the approach of Thaddis and his men. Because of her experience in the high desert, Daria was concerned that her othersense might miss the enemy’s appearance.
For the hundredth time, Khan reviewed their plan. They’d gone over the sequence, step by step. The last three nights he’d even lived their actions in his dreams.
The horror of his nightmares had continued to shadow him during the day. Nothing he tried would shake them away. So he buried his dark visions by focusing on the work at hand. Now in the stillness before battle, the dream snaked through his thoughts, enlarged by pictures of all the explosions he’d seen in movies and on television. He couldn’t help the intuitive feeling that using the weapon would be terribly, terribly wrong. On the other hand, allowing Thaddis to capture Daria would also be terribly wrong. And it wasn’t as if this were an intact city, teeming with humanity. But still…
To distract himself, he thought of Daria. They’d worked side-by-side for the last few days, focused on their goal. But sparks of their incredible chemistry kept igniting between them. Even though he’d tried to be true to his vow to the Goddess, he couldn’t escape his attraction to Daria. Just their othersense connection alone…. Their psychic bond would certainly play a part today.
Soon.
Lured toward Daria like moths to a flame, Thaddis and his men would ride down what would appear to be another city street. Ahead of them, the riders would find a short, wide corridor flanked by the most intact set of walls remaining in the city. Khan and Daria had laboriously filled any gaps with loose rock.
When the soldiers turned a blind corner, they’d find their path blocked by a landslide of broken rubble. On top of the landslide, he and Daria had constructed a natural-looking barricade for Daria. Although possible to climb, the attempt would be difficult with the stream of arrows she’d pour down on any who’d attempt it.
Behind them and out of their sight, Khan would shut and secure the gate, the only exit from the trap. Then he’d sprint to his stakeout position, a sheltered wall at the outer bend in the road, with enough of an edge of broken flooring to provide a protected balcony. His bow and arrows, all dipped in reptile-dog poison, lay piled and ready there.
Daria would have a chance to fire first, aiming for Thaddis. She’d probably have time for a few more shots before Khan reached his position and joined the attack.
They hoped the poison would neutralize any enemy soldiers nicked, without having to seriously wound or kill them. And if necessary, for a last resort, there was the bomb. He knew from his dreams that a one-quarter turn of the knob would set the weapon to spray deadly rays, up to a height of six feet, culminating in a massive explosion.
Once the bomb was set off, decimating the enemy, Daria and Khan would have seconds to run from the protection of the walls before the brick and stone would be seared away by the explosion. They’d mount the horses already saddled and waiting out of sight on the next street and gallop for the safety of the shrine.
No matter how carefully thought out, plans often don’t survive the first engagement of the enemy.
How many times had he read different versions of that phrase? A logical idea when safe in bed reading a favorite science fiction author, but not at all reassuring when one was about to experience the reality.
His stomach tightened, and every ache in his exhausted frame throbbed at once. He’d worked hard in these past six months, developing a body that was all muscle. But these last days he’d pushed himself to the extreme—honed himself into a knife, waiting to strike the throat of the enemy.
~ ~ ~
Daria leaned back against the barricade, her hands clasped around the case holding the telescope. She’d closed her eyes against the burning sunshine, the better to concentrate on the link with her enemy. Her stomach churned. She could feel Thaddis, malicious and eager, picking up the pace of his golden horse, as if he knew his prey lay close at hand.
Almost time.
Standing, she pulled out her telescope, holding the lens to her eye and aimed it toward where she thought the men would appear.
Nothing.
She panned the lens across the sweep of ruins and beyond into the desert. The sand gleamed golden under the amber rays of the sun, beautiful in a harsh way. She focused back on the city, zooming in to the place where she thought Thaddis would be.
Shir squawked, tail twisting in a warning pattern. She landed on a rock near Daria. Sand slipped under her claws, and she fluttered her wings for balance, blue eyes annoyed.
“Good girl.” Daria patted her before resuming her visual search.
A glint of gold and black appeared against the gray-and-dun colors of the ruins.
Thaddis.
She watched him come into view. The biting rays of the desert sun had burned his fair skin and chiseled his face to a tightness that hadn’t been present a few days before when she’d seen his image in the Goddess’s shrine. In spite of his obvious exhaustion, his expression hadn’t lost one bit of his habitual arrogant cast.
The medallion glittered against his black-clad chest, seeming to Daria’s othersense to pulse with a balefulness that shuddered a shiver of fear down her back. Quickly, she shifted her vision to the soldiers.
Focusing on the first man in line, Daria perused his form, then she caught a glimpse of her father’s decapitated head. A cry of pain erupted from her before she could suppress the sound. Daria almost dropped her scope. She averted her eyes, but the severed figure danced across her mind. No matter how prepared she thought herself, the sight of the desecration unnerved her.
As Thaddis intended.
She squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep breath to still her rising gorge. Her fingers crept to her throat, touching the ruby flower necklace she wore under her shirt. The connection to Khan settled her stomach and gave her the strength to open her eyes and lift the telescope.
I will avenge you, Father, or die trying.
This time, when she peered through the lens, she studied each of the men. After three days in the desert, they looked either red-faced or pale with heat, their bodies shrunken in the stifling black uniforms. A film of dust covered the horses, and they plodded with drooping heads. Daria remembered the feeling from crossing the merciless desert.
The time has come.
She collapsed her telescope, ducked down behind the barricade, and opened her othersense to Khan in the signal they’d practiced. He acknowledged her message and sent back a feeling of support, as if he’d just squeezed her hand. Her heart lightened the tiniest bit. If they survived to have a life together…
Daria fingered the sword in the leather scabbard at her waist. No more running and hiding. These last months of being a fugitive were over. She’d live free, or she’d die—if necessary by her own hand. At that realization, a burden lifted from her mind and calmness seeped into her heart. Relaxed and ready, she waited for her enemy to ride into the trap.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
An alert tingled along Khan’s othersense—Daria’s s
ignal that she’d sighted the enemy. He tensed, looking through the peephole he’d carefully camouflaged into the piled rocks of his post.
Nothing in sight yet.
Shad noisily flapped down in front of him. The absence of vocalization and the rapid whirling of his two tails must mean the soldiers were closing in.
Khan inhaled a few deep breaths so he could project back calmness and power, not exactly what he was feeling at the moment. But Daria didn’t need to worry about him. As both Thaddis’s target and the person who’d initiate the warfare, she had enough to think about. He didn’t want to distract her.
His tightness eased a bit when he sensed her eagerness for the confrontation. A quick burst of pride in her knocked away some of his fear.
Using his othersense, Khan reached for the Goddess. Although She’d remained silent throughout their preparations, he’d hoped that at least She’d communicate with him before the battle. But only an ominous stillness answered him.
He didn’t have time to worry about the way of the Gods. The beat of hooves caught his ears, and he crouched lower, putting one eye to his peek hole. His heart thumped in time to the pounding rhythm.
Make sure they’re all there, he reminded himself. Thaddis and ten men.
The lead pair of the soldiers appeared, obviously positioned to guard Thaddis’s front. But the ruler rode next, alone. Thaddis covered his medallion with one black-gloved hand and halted his horse just before the gate, a few feet outside Khan’s hiding place. “She’s just ahead,” he called in a low tone. “We have her now.”
Why wasn’t the man heading into their trap? Khan kept the curse he wanted to utter firmly behind his teeth, instead taking in the details of the group before him.
Sand dusted the gold of Thaddis’s mount to a dun color. Dark rivulets of sweat streaked the horse’s hide. Khan hated the thought of having to shoot the magnificent creature—he’d rather aim for the master—but the act might be necessary.
Thaddis wore a black cloth wrapped around his head, but the headcovering didn’t provide much protection. Khan could see that even through the reddened skin of what looked like a painful sunburn, the man hadn’t lost his look of cruel pride. The desert had yet to humble him. But perhaps he and Daria could take care of that.
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