by Shae Mills
Braedon pondered all of her words and then dared to speak his thoughts. “By Iceanean law, and by succession, Korba is still your Letted mate, my Lady.”
Chelan shook her head. “Oh god—I messed that up with Dar years ago,” she whispered wistfully. “Regardless, in the end, all of them died within me long ago.”
“No. Your love never died. It has not diminished for any of your men. The brutality of Korba’s act has merely temporarily snuffed that lingering flame. And through it, you lost Talon, not Korba.”
Her eyes hardened. “I lost Korba, Dar, and Fremma at Talon’s hands long ago. I have mourned their losses on a daily basis for years. Now the tide has turned, the ghost of my past slaying my future. And this time, I got to witness the indisputable end myself.” She rose to her feet. Methodically, she began gathering her clothes and supplies, stacking them all neatly on top of a large fur.
Braedon took a moment to comprehend what she was doing. Then he stood slowly, astonished. “Where are you going?”
Chelan did not look at him. “I am going back to the other cavern,” she said.
“But why?”
Chelan straightened. “Simply put, I am through with the Empire. Every man I have touched there has died a brutal death. I am not going to taint you with my curse.” She stopped and took several deep breaths, calming herself. “Look, the truth is, I need to be alone. I actually want to be on my own.” And she began to wrap up her belongings.
Braedon watched her as he sorted through his own emotions. Over the months, though they had shared the same sleeping spot at night, they had hardly touched one another. But he cared deeply for the Earth woman; his life in the caverns had been just that much richer for her presence. Finally, he grabbed her and turned her to him. “I don’t want you to leave me. I was merely trying to help you sort through your options.”
“Oh, Braedon. I have come to care for you too much to burden you with my troubles.” She looked deep into his eyes, and then her shoulders slumped. “My head is scrambled, and my emotions are even worse. This is so not fair to you.” And she turned away, quickly gathering her belongings into her arms.
Braedon watched in shock as she walked away from him. Then suddenly, it hit him: he was going to lose her if he let her go now. If he fully loved her here, where she felt safe, there was always the chance, no matter how remote, that she would stay with him, and he leapt for her.
Chelan had just walked into the connecting tunnel when Braedon caught her. He seized her arm and swung her to him. “Look. I want to share all with you. We can make this work.”
She shook her head adamantly. “No, I will not do this to you. I need to be alone. I want to get my head on straight before I make any important decisions involving you.”
“So, what—you just walk away to another cavern, you there and me here, and we never talk?”
“I will figure out what I truly want faster on my own. You cloud my senses. I just… I just…”
“You just what?”
“I just don’t want to be involved with any man right now. I have had enough.”
Braedon could see he was losing the battle. “Stay with me as a friend… as a colleague. I will give you all the time to yourself you need. Here, there are all the provisions, everything to make life more comfortable.”
Chelan shook her head. “But I will still be with you. I will still be confused. And I will still be tempted to get involved and maybe for all the wrong reasons.”
“So be it. Maybe the way to sort through this is by being with me. See what your life will be like with me here forever. I am willing to chance it. The one thing I know for sure is that I want you.”
Chelan sighed. “We both need to be alone for a while. Remember, you were originally here merely as a babysitter. You no longer need to fulfill that role.”
Braedon straightened and towered over her. “I am well aware of what my role was in the beginning, and I am well aware of what we could have shared just before Talon ripped you from my side. And I am well aware of what I actually want from you.”
“No, you are not,” she whispered.
“I want to show you what we can have together here and in the South. I want to be given the opportunity to make you forget the Empire even exists.”
“And I want—”
Braedon crushed her to him, kissing her hard and forcing her to drop all her supplies. She pushed away from him with all her force, but she was no match for him. He struggled with her arms and finally pinned them. Then he threw her over his shoulder and returned with her to the cavern. There he dumped her on the furs, but she struck out at him again as he knelt beside her.
“Stop it!” he yelled. “Just stop it!”
“Get away!” she hollered, but Braedon grabbed her arms. Then her knee came up sharply and caught him in the abdomen, knocking the wind from him. He ground his teeth and clutched a length of nearby leather. Grabbing her wrists roughly, he bound them tight. Then he straddled her as he tied the other end of the leather to a large rock column.
Chelan tried to twist out from under him. “Let me go!” she yelled.
Braedon was beside himself, her agony becoming his. “You are not leaving me like this! And I am sure as hell not giving up on you. I am not your babysitter anymore. Being with you is no longer a dictate. It is my choice! We are going to comb through this mess together, one way or another. You are going to figure out if a life with me is what you want, and you are not going to figure that out rotting away in a cavern by yourself!”
Chelan tugged on her bindings one last time and then stilled, staring up at him in disbelief.
Braedon nodded down at her. “Now, if I have to keep you bound like some unruly Batex in need of a little discipline, so be it. But you are not going to go live in absolute solitude if I can help it. You will sift through things a lot faster by talking matters through with me than by staring at blank rock walls on your own. Am I right?”
Chelan finally went completely limp. “You are right.” She sighed. “I will stay. There is plenty of work to do here, and who knows—I may even enjoy a trip or two with you to the South.”
Braedon slipped off her and sat by her side. With one smooth motion, he grabbed his knife and severed her bindings. Then he extended his hand to her. “Truce?”
Chelan took his hand and squeezed it. “Truce. But I warn you, my head is not on straight yet.”
Braedon chuckled. “Understood. We will take things one day at a time.”
Chapter 26
As the days passed, Chelan began to blossom in her new home. To Braedon, her happiness now seemed genuine, her recessions into periods of quiet depression fewer and farther between. She also spent long hours with a small computer he had supplied her with. With it, she studied the data he had obtained on the caverns, adding her thoughts on the theories concerning the caverns’ existence.
With her well-being infusing his soul, he couldn’t believe the peaceful calm that now surrounded him. They were together, seemingly floating in an oasis of bliss, sheltered from all that swirled around them. Their conversations covered everything from the past Empires, to his life in the South, and hers on Calley. Together they worked out, swam, explored, conversed, and studied. And at night, they embraced each other and slept.
As days turned into weeks, Braedon found himself longing for more from the pretty woman, but he never pressed their union. He was all too aware of the inner turmoil that still bubbled just below the surface of her emotions. She had lost her loves, her children, her homes, and both Empires. And what was worse was that all the circumstances surrounding her losses were completely out of her control. She would never be able to totally come to terms with the calamities that had given rise to her pain because she was not complicit in any of it. There was nothing she could sort through as far as her own actions were concerned, for she had done nothing wrong. Every injustice had been done to her, not by her.
Though Braedon had originally been planted to watch out for her, he now cared for her
deeply. But he was wary: she was still broken, still confused, still languishing between lost loves and uncertain futures. Where her heart truly lay was yet to be revealed.
Then one morning, he awoke to find her sitting quietly, staring at Talon’s urn. Braedon sat up but remained silent, unwilling to interfere with her thoughts. Finally, for the first time since their arrival in the caverns four long months earlier, Chelan touched the urn.
Slowly, she picked it up and carried it to the pool’s edge. There she set it down and looked at it for a long time. Then, tenderly, she unsealed it and reached for its contents. She withdrew her first handful of the dense, gray ash and clutched it tight for a moment before she held her arm out and let it trickle slowly into the pristine pool. After each addition, she waited and watched as the temporarily murky water flowed downward, carrying with it Talon’s remains.
When the last of his ashes had disappeared, the crystal clarity of the water returning, Chelan rinsed out the urn and set it to the side. She stared into the bottomless pool for a long time and then allowed her body to relax.
Braedon dared to move by her side and sat next to her. He touched her shoulder, and she looked at him and smiled. “He had made this planet his home. Now these waters will carry the last of his physical being to her heart.”
Braedon hugged her to him. They lingered together in silence. Then finally, he looked down into her eyes. “The supply ship comes today,” he informed her softly.
“So soon?”
“Four Iceanean months, my Lady.”
Chelan shook her head. “That long already.” Then she gave him another small smile. “What will it bring?”
Braedon shrugged. “I don’t know. We didn’t put in any orders.”
“No, we didn’t, but I guess we could.”
Braedon smiled. “How about some of the fine liqueur you used to like so much?”
Chelan looked at him coyly. “Think you can handle it?”
Braedon batted at her playfully. “If I can handle you, I can handle anything.”
Chelan took a swipe at him and then held his hands. “What time?”
“Noon, barring any storms.”
Chelan looked up. “Do you think that upper shaft provides most of the ventilation here?”
Braedon was surprised at the 180-degree shift in the conversation. “Yes, in fact, the air flow through there is quite strong. It maintains the somewhat precarious equilibrium that keeps that ice lens clear most of the time.”
Chelan smiled. “Good, because with the next supply run, I want some very dry wood.”
“Why wood?”
“With wood, we can have a fire, and with a fire, I can introduce you to an old American tradition called the weenie roast.”
“The what?”
But Chelan ignored him and furrowed her brows. “With the Batex, I can come up with something akin to wieners, but the marshmallows may be a problem.”
“Marshmallows? What are marshmallows?”
Chelan grinned at him. “Pure decadence, my man. Nothing but useless calories, but they are well worth the sin when roasted over an open fire.”
Braedon was dumbfounded. “What are you babbling about?”
Chelan licked her lips. “In the South, do you have sweet things?”
Braedon nodded. “Yes, of course.”
Chelan faced him more directly. “Marshmallows are a kind of puffy, sugar candy. They are sweet and sticky. When you roast them, the sugar caramelizes on the outside, and the inside melts into the most heavenly goo. To get them like that, you stuff them on a stick and hold them over a fire and then tell ghost stories.”
Braedon hesitated. “Ghost stories…” he repeated quietly. “What are ghost stories?”
Chelan shook her head at him. “Oh, Braedon, you haven’t lived until you have heard a good ghost story.” She looked around the cavern and lowered her voice. “And in here at night, I could come up with some dillies.”
“Ah, another Earth delight, I assume?”
“You bet. I would stake my life on the fact that I could come up with enough ghosts and ghoulies, werewolves, and vampires to scare even you out of your skin.”
“You make play out of fear?”
Chelan laughed. “It can be great fun.”
Braedon didn’t know what to say. He just stared at her in awe.
Chelan slapped his knee. “Never mind the details right now. We need the wood, the wieners, the fire, and the marshmallows before I can introduce you to the ghoulies.”
Braedon finally cracked an amused smile. “I look forward to this… I think.”
Next, the two of them ate breakfast, cleaned up, and finally dressed in the Imperial uniforms and shrouds that would afford them the protection they needed for the trip to the surface.
The trek through the caverns was short, both of them having practically memorized every step, the small orbs lighting the way. Over the months that they had been underground, the ice cap had once again frozen over to its maximum thickness, but Braedon had no problem breaking through it with a lazgun. Then they climbed to the surface and sat. They didn’t have to wait long before Braedon spotted the ebony fighters, and both of them sprang to their feet.
Within seconds, several black birds of prey descended upon them, each keeping a safe distance away, their sleek underbellies just above the glaring ice.
Chelan looked up into Braedon’s concealing shroud. “How come so many?”
Braedon shrugged. “Maybe Lethiason bestows upon us numerous Imperial gifts?”
Chelan’s brows rose. “Maybe.” Then the canopies slid back on three of the fighters, and a man descended from each of the cockpits, opened the underbellies, and piled small, cylindrical capsules full of yet undetermined supplies in front of the ships. When the men had finished, they returned to their fighters. From a fourth ship, a solitary figure approached them. The man removed his hood. Then he took off his helmet and his face shield.
Chelan lunged at him. “Stose!” she shouted.
The doctor hugged her tight. “It is so good to see you, my Lady.”
“Oh god, Stose, I never thought I would see you again.”
“Well, I am alive and well. I have to be in order to look after that rogue back at the Palace.”
Chelan’s smile waned a bit. “How is he?”
“Physically, he is doing quite well. His wounds were some of the most grievous I have ever seen, but he has won that battle for now. His total recovery will be a long way off, however. It will be a tough road.”
Chelan became edgy. Korba was the most superb Iceanean specimen to have ever been conceived. His recovery should have been relatively swift. But it was not her business anymore, so she nodded uncomfortably and attempted to change the subject. “What brings you here?”
“You, my Lady.”
Chelan’s eyes sparkled. “Well, it is good to see an old friend.”
Stose’s face became more serious. “I am not just here as a friend, Chelan. I am here as a doctor also.”
“Oh! How come?”
Stose nodded to her. “Korba sent me, my Lady. He wanted me to check up on your health, both physical and mental.”
“Why?”
“Believe me, my Lady—he has no hidden agenda. He simply fears for your well-being, as do I.”
“Well, you can tell him that I am quite fine.”
Stose sighed. “Please, he ordered me to tend you. I cannot disobey him.”
Chelan looked at the waiting fighters. “So, what is the plan?”
Stose glanced at Braedon and then back at her. “If you would permit me to stay a few hours, my Lady, that is all. Then I will go my own way and leave the two of you alone.”
Braedon looked at Chelan. “It is a good idea. I want you to be healthy also.”
Chelan looked back at Stose. “Okay,” she conceded.
Stose returned to his ship, and the pilot tossed him a small container. Then the ships rose soundlessly, and within an instant, they were gone
.
Braedon nodded to Stose and Chelan. “Look, you two go into the cavern and get started. I can manage the supplies.”
Chelan grabbed his hands. “Are you sure? There are a lot of things here.”
Braedon smiled. “Go on. Help Stose down. I will come along in an hour or so.”
Chelan reached up into his hood and kissed his cheek. Then she stepped back and beckoned to Stose in the battle language she had once used so proficiently. Her own use of the simple gesture momentarily confounded her. It seemed so natural to use the sign language with someone from the old Empire. But Talon’s people never had the language, and Chelan had allocated it to the recesses of her memories until this very moment. Stose immediately followed her silent command.
When they arrived in the cavern Chelan called home, she spoke. “It is not as pretty or as bright as the first cavern, but it is bigger and warmer.”
Stose nodded. “It is still beautiful. But unfortunately, on my only other journey here, all I saw was a very ill young woman.”
Chelan peeled off her shroud and sat down. “You saved my life.”
Stose smiled. “I am glad I did. I just wished I had arrived a little earlier.” He swung off his shroud and sat down next to her rather rigidly.
Chelan kept a wary eye on him. “So, I know what all assessing my physical health entails. But what is it you wish to know about me otherwise?”
Stose paused. “We go back together a long ways, Chelan, almost fifteen of your Earth years. I will not pry into any aspect of your life that you do not wish me to. You have already been through far too much. I would simply like to converse with you over the next little while. It is a conversation I have waited years for.”
Chelan’s lip quirked. “Yes, I guess I kind of lost you in the shuffle.”
Stose laughed. “You sure did, my Lady. RIBUS 7 was gone so fast with you on board, I had no hope of catching up.”
“Well, I paid for my impetuousness. I had to get used to a whole new doctor.”
“Serves you right!” And they both laughed.
Then Stose looked down at the rocky ground. “I am genuinely glad that you are well, Chelan. I can only begin to imagine all that you have been through over these last few years. Our warring ways can be rough on the most hardened among us.”
