by Viola Grace
Using heat to skim along ice delivers her into the arms of a botanist who has more than a casual interest in her and her talent.
Kescu has been raised under ice. Under the surface of Wanlio 6, the locals live and thrive with the Ice Runner moving emergency and experimental supplies from one city and base to the other. Her talent is heat, but she channels it through metal plates, and she skates along the frozen surface of her world.
Lorvik is a new botanist who is assisting a researcher at another base to develop fast-growing fruiting plants for starving populations. When the Ice Runner first arrives in his base, he knows she is more than she seems, but a kiss and genetic testing proves that his path has led him to the right woman. His woman.
Negotiations do not go too smoothly, but Kes knows she is meant for another world. Life in the ice is beginning to hurt. She agrees to his suit, and he only has one more hurdle to pass. Her mother.
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Ice Runner
Copyright © 2013 Viola Grace
ISBN: 978-1-77111-493-6
Cover art by Martine Jardin
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.
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Ice Runner
Tales of the Citadel book 19
By
Viola Grace
Chapter One
Kescu Washley waited patiently in the antechamber. The researchers inside were preparing the samples and she was the courier that was taking them across the surface of Wanlio 6. The samples were only viable for six hours, so she had her work cut out for her.
Kescu checked her pack, tested the insulation and verified her food and water supply. Her body heat would keep the botanical samples from freezing, and the insulation would keep the majority of her supplies edible during the trip.
“Courier Washley, are you ready?” Dr. Senzer smiled at her as he emerged with the pack designed to her specifications.
“As ready as I will ever be. Frankly, I am more nervous about speaking at my sister’s primary school on Fiveday.” She hoisted the pack onto her back, and it settled above her supplies as neatly as if it had been designed for just that thing.
“You will do fine. Now, Teckaro Base?”
“Will be there in three hours. Two and a half if I have a following wind.” She shook his hand and said, “They will call you when I arrive. Don’t fret. You have your fretting face on.”
“Those are exceedingly rare samples, Kescu. Be careful.” He turned her around and gave her a swat to the backside before he backed off and left her to face the outer doors.
Three insulated airlocks kept the research station from the bitter cold. Her body started to shake in the second lock as her talent activated to keep her alive.
When the third set of doors cycled open, the frost built up on the outer door began to melt. As the inner door closed behind her, the outer door groaned open, dripping icy water.
Kescu started to sprint as her feet melted the ice beneath her. A strange motion of gliding kicked in, and her forward momentum sliding across the frozen surface took on a dizzying speed.
She cleared the valley in minutes, putting her on the open ice plane and allowing her to pause in order to check for wind. “Yes!” She quickly unfurled her kite, pressed the tabs on her heels that extended her skis, and funnelled more heat through her feet. The wind caught her kite, and she was on her way, expending far less energy than a straight run would have.
Kescu played with the wind, flipping and twisting as the kite dragged her across the surface of Wanlio 6.
She grinned as the cold tried to lash at her, but her talent for generating large amounts of personal heat was her own private shield. Her feet melted the ice beneath her just enough to allow her an almost frictionless slide across the glaciers and fields. Using the wind to pull her along meant she had to put more heat in her feet, but it was a more-than-even trade off.
She enjoyed the feeling of freedom that the kite gave her. When a chasm loomed, she jumped and pulled her legs in, twisting them to the side until she cleared the three-foot span.
Kescu landed with a thud and scanned the horizon for one of the few location beacons on the surface. Carefully moving her right hand to her left wrist, she pressed the pinger on her cuff.
Three pings, a pause and two pings. She was an hour out from Teckaro Base and making excellent time. She could have a nice dinner and be on her way home for breakfast.
She hit the door lock with her clenched fist. The light went from clear to blue, and the outer door slowly rose to full height. Kescu entered and waited patiently for the inner door to open.
She felt a scan and blinked up at the monitor pointed in her direction. “Hello, I am the courier, and I have time-sensitive samples from Yola Base. Please give me access and hold me separately from the samples, but they have four hours until they are no longer viable.”
A disembodied voice asked, “How can you have come here so quickly? We got the notice that the courier was on our way two hours ago.”
“I am the Ice Runner.” She fidgeted from foot to foot. When the door opened, she stepped forward, closer to warmth.
She stepped forward again into the final lock and waited.
When the inner door opened for her, she stumbled into the heat with relief. She knelt and put her hands on her head. “Call Yola Base and take the pack. I am expecting a bonus for this time.” She was tired and kept her gaze down.
Booted feet stopped in front of her.
“I am not going to shoot you. Lift your head.” She tilted her head back and had to keep looking up. A man wearing a thick bodysuit and a swirling robe was smiling down at her.
“Get up.”
She pulled the releases on the cargo box and handed it to him. “Here you go, the botanical samples.”
“Excellent. Now, get to your feet. I am making dinner, and it is as easy for two as for one.” He reached his hand down and gripped her forearm.
He hissed and released it. “You are hot!”
“Why, thank you. You are rather attractive as well.” She grunted and got back to her feet. “I am thermally active. That is the polite phrase for it.” He chuckled. “Well, hot stuff. Come this way. You can heat my greenhouse for a while.” She snickered and staggered after him. “Sorry, I am less than graceful after a run. It takes me a while to cool down.”
He was cradling the box and brought it into the greenhouse, leaving the door open for her. He wasn’t kidding. She really was invited to see his research.
She closed the door to the greenhouse behind her and enjoyed the humid air after she finished coughing.
“Are you all right?”
“Yes, the air outside is exceptionally dry today. The humidity comes as a bit of a shock to my lungs.” Kescu righted herself and was surprised to see the researcher with a glass of water.
“Here you go. Melted and filtered. It should be at room temperature.”
She took the glass and drank greedily. “Thank you. My supplies are cold right now.”
He chuckled. “I can imagine. My name is Dr. Lorvik Wender. I specialize in force-grown botany.”
“Kescu Washley, courier and Ice Runner.” She put the glass in her left hand and extended her right. He gripped her hand with his, his skin hot against hers, which meant she was cooling down rapidly.
Kescu quickly removed a ration bar and started chewing. She detached her water tube and clipped the business end to the front of her reinforced suit.
She would need it quickly as the rations started to expand in her belly.
“I am guessing that the heat burns calories.” She nodded and kept chewing. The bars she had each contained a daily dose of calories for an average member of the Alliance and half of what someone on an ice world should eat during a day.
“I need to work with the samples, would you care to watch?” He smiled and walked toward the bench where he had placed the cargo pack.
When he glanced at her, she nodded and smiled with her cheeks stuffed with rations.
He lifted the insulated pack out of the exterior shell and removed it with reverence. “Yola Base is working on fast-growing seed pods, but even the fast-growing ones take quite a while to germinate. I am a botanical talent, and I can accelerate the growth in the correct conditions.”
As he spoke, he took a seed with a tiny green sprout and set it in a huge container of growth medium. His finger caressed the green leaf.
As Kescu watched, the plant began to grow into maturity with only a few light strokes.
“The key is to know when to stop accelerating the growth. It can continue on far beyond my intended time if I put too much power into it.” He pulled his hand back and watched the plant as roots spread and anchored into the large container.
Kescu watched, fascinated, as the plant matured and sprouted before her eyes. “That is amazing.”
Dr. Wender smiled and ducked his head shyly.
“Thank you.”
She looked more closely at the doctor as he cleared his throat and started on the next seedling.
Deep mahogany hair was tied neatly at the base of his neck and ran down his back in a neat column.
His skin was a soft gold with a light green sheen, and his eyes were the same green as the leaves he was working with.
That his manner was shy and introverted was in direct contrast to the pure beauty of his features.
Kescu smiled and sipped at the water tube. It was still cold, but her body needed it.
She watched him perform the same miracle with the other ten samples. He had had everything waiting for her.
“Why did you get on your knees and surrender when you arrived?”
She chuckled. “One or two of the bases like to greet me with weapons and keep me confined until I can be on my way the next day. Apparently, their research is top secret.”
“If there is such secrecy, why do they use you?” Kescu shrugged. “I am the fastest means of transport between bases. If they don’t want to run it through the tunnels, they are stuck with me. It really bugs them that I can’t take anything over thirty pounds, though. That I can tell you for certain.”
He chuckled. “If they are crafting weaponry, I am sure that the weight concern is frustrating.”
“Tough. If they could move as fast as I could on ice, they wouldn’t need to use me.” She swayed a little.
“I see. Well, I am done here for now. I need to make that call and wait for the flowers to open. That should leave us time for a meal.” He smiled.
“Thank you, Dr. Wender.”
“Lorvik or Lor, please.”
“Kes on my part then. Kescu is what my mother calls me. Well, part of what she calls me. When she really gets riled, I get all my names back to back.”
She chuckled and then clamped a hand over her mouth. “Sorry. It’s after-run rambles. Who needs to get drunk, I just need to get tired.” She giggled, and he helped her out of the greenhouse and into a living area. “Are you alone here?”
“I am. For my work, I don’t need a team. The Citadel has sent me here to work with Yola Base, and together, we are testing the seeds that they are producing. If we can come up with a reliable plant that can consistently be grown in laboratory conditions and from there planted into the tunnels, we will have something that can feed millions of under dwellers around the Alliance.” She watched him putter around the kitchen and describe his work to her in detail. She was still dizzy, but the blurting part of her was mercifully quiet. She settled in to have a nice dinner and then find a nice corner to take over and nap in.
Hopefully, Lor wouldn’t insist on her witnessing the last of his experiment.
Chapter Two
“So, you have to pollenate each one?” Kes tried to keep her voice chipper and encouraging.
She stifled a yawn.
“Yes. Even in our high-tech world, we can’t create self-pollinating plants. Well, we can, but they don’t taste very good and don’t produce fruit.” He went around with a swab and a brush dipped in different pollen, tending to each one of the twelve plants in turn.
She turned idly on her chair and took in the expanse of the greenhouse. Some of the plants were bearing fruit, some looked familiar and some looked downright dangerous.
“Do you eat any of this?”
“Some. The researchers at Yola transported the living plants to me through the tunnels, but it is faster to have a courier bring them. I can send them my results within a day instead of weeks.”
“Nice. Why weren’t they using me before?”
“I asked Dr. Senzer that when I confirmed the delivery. Apparently, you are very expensive.” Kes sat up and wiggled her shoulders happily.
“Yes, I am. That was my mother’s idea. She said that since my skills were so specific, I needed to get paid for their exotic nature. How can you two afford me now?”
He snorted. “The Citadel is picking up the tab and charging the Alliance.”
“Very nice. I am guessing that a run between Teckaro and Yola might become a regular thing.” Mentally, she rubbed her hands together as she contemplated the extra funds. Her sister, Eera, was going to be getting a new tunnel sled for her birthday. It may not be the most lady-like present, but Eera was years from having to worry about being classed as a lady.
He gave her a piercing look with his bright green eyes. “I think it just might.” She blinked rapidly, and a heat that had nothing to do with her talent crept through her body, resting in her cheeks.
To distract him, she asked, “So, why are you the only one here at Teckaro Base?”
“I am the only one that was needed. It is a small project, nothing to require additional personnel.” Lor smiled as if he knew what she was doing.
She nodded, watching him complete the pollination. “Is there a place for me to bed down for the night? I am a little tired after my time outside.”
“Are you staying the night?”
She sighed, “Yes. I can only run during the day. At night, the temperature is too cold and the air too still. I can manage short runs, but I prefer to only make one venture outside per day. Frankly, the cold is very hard on the system.” He finished his work and put his tools away.
“How long have you lived here?” She snorted. “How do you know I am not local?”
His laughter shivered the plants all around them. “I guessed.”
She lifted her hand and scowled. “I guess I am a little on the pink side compared to those born naturally on Wanlio 6.”
“Every local I have met or spoken to so far is a charming shade of blue. Face it, you stand out in a crowd here.” He laughed and put his kit away under one of the benches, double-checking the progress on the plants as they closed their orange flowers for the night.
He stretched, and suddenly, Kes was exceptionally hot. Even with the robes flowing around him, his physique ha
d just the right combination of muscles and lithe dexterity.
“How did you get tapped to show up here to work?”
“As a member of the Citadel, I travel from world to world using my talents where I can to propel the growth of designed food species.” Lor shrugged. “Normally, I am on worlds that have just been reformed for habitation. Ice worlds are a new environment for me.”
She laughed. “Fun, aren’t they? How long have you been here?”
“Four months. I don’t know who was in this base before I was, but they left it very tidy.” He offered her his hand, and he helped her hop off her stool.
“Dr. Holiatic. He moved to one of the cities. Being out here was too hard on his sensibilities.” She snorted and tried to take her hand back.
He resisted for a moment before he released her. “You can take my room. I will take the couch.”
She shook her head. “No. I won’t. I will be up at dawn, and I tend to heat up in the middle of the night. I will take the couch, and next time, set a cot up for me in a cold room.”
He paused. “That is unacceptable.” She let some of her heat bleed out into the room. “That is the way it will be.” Lor scowled. “Fine. I will get you a blanket.” She laughed. “I don’t need it.” His lips twisted. “Fine. I will see you in the morning.”
She watched him exit and moved to take her seat on the couch. With a little squirming, she was comfortable, and with a full belly and shelter around her, she embraced sleep.
Kes was up and making breakfast out of supplies she scrounged up in Lor’s cupboards. He walked into the main room, and she had to admit that he even looked good in the morning.
Her hair had fought her when she woke up, but it seemed that his knew when to stay still and lie flat.
“Morning, Lor. Pardon my taking liberties with your kitchen, but I need to fuel up before heading back to Yola.” She fixed two plates and brought them over to the table.
