Beyond the Next Star

by Melody Johnson

  The bed started to vibrate from the force of her renewed shivering, and damn it all, her eyes began to leak.

  “What is all this? What has you so inconsolable?” He reached out a shaking arm to stroke her cheek. “Are you that relieved to see me well? Is that it? The worst is behind us now. I’m—”

  She grabbed his wrist with a swift snatch, turned her face into his palm, and sank her teeth into his thumb.

  He jerked back, and she released him nearly as quickly as she’d turned on him. He stared, stunned. Her teeth were blunt and couldn’t break the skin, but her jaw was stronger than he would have predicted. He squeezed his hand into a fist to ease the sting. She’d bitten him.

  She’d actually bitten him.

  He raised his hand to hit her—no matter her fear or relief or whatever all this was about, he couldn’t let that go unaddressed—and she stopped trembling. Her eyes closed. Her whole body stilled, and her lips curled up at the edges.

  Torek blinked. She was smiling. She was relieved and unafraid now that he was about to beat her.

  She was very good.

  Torek lowered his hand, shaken.

  After a moment, Reshna opened her eyes. Her gaze darted between his lowered hand and his face. A wrinkle creased the skin between her brows.

  “I risked my life for you, little one.” Torek tried to moderate his voice into gentle, encouraging tones, but he was frustrated and shocked and exhausted. No matter his effort, the words still emerged as a growl, but they needed to be said. “You were unconscious. Your head was cracked open. Your leg was fractured. Your hands were scraped raw. And you were lying on the frozen Zorelok River. I didn’t just risk my life by stepping out onto that ice for you. I risked the lives of everyone in that ravine. For you. Do you understand the significance of that?”

  Her frown deepened.

  “Even without the avalanche, we risked a great deal for you: our lives for yours. The least you owe in return is a little honesty.” Torek reached out, and this time when he nudged her chin with a brush of his finger, she didn’t bite him. Her lips quivered, and her eyes resumed their leaking. But she met his gaze, resigned.

  She opened her mouth, her throat strained, and for a moment, Torek doubted his sanity. What was he expecting? Even with the evidence before him, was this really the most likely explanation? How could she possibly—

  “I am sorry,” Reshna whispered.

  Torek gaped, her words like a punch to the gut.

  Reshna could speak.

  “I not meaning to bite you. I just thought—” Her lips suddenly snapped shut into a thin line. She swallowed and tried again. “I-I not meaning to. I am sorry.”

  Reshna couldn’t just speak. She could speak in full sentences. Kind of. Her words were soft, carefully spoken, and oddly formal. Her voice was childlike and her pronunciation strange, but even without the proper inflections, her words were understandable.

  “I accept your apology,” Torek murmured, still reeling. He knew several lorienok who couldn’t manage to feel remorse and admit their guilt, but his animal companion could do both.

  He needed to push past the shock and remain calm if he wanted answers. She was skittish enough for both of them. Her eyes were back to darting around the room, from the door to him, to the window, to the door, back to him. She was still terrified, despite their being alone.

  For the first time, Torek considered the possibility that he wasn’t the source of her terror.

  “Reshna, look at me. It’s just us. Just you and me.”

  She looked. She didn’t want to. She actually kept her face turned toward the door, but she flicked her eyes sideways and met his gaze.

  “How long have you been able to speak?”

  She looked down for a moment, breaking eye contact again.

  Torek strained to keep the frayed ends of his patience from unraveling as he waited her out.

  “I learn Lori during the, the”—she hesitated, thinking— “during the ride from Earth to Lorien.”

  “You know more than just calls and commands. You understand full sentences. You can speak full sentences. You, you’re…” Torek shook his head in disbelief, and for the life of him, he couldn’t stop staring at her lips and blinking. “Are you fluent in Lori?”

  Her leaky eyes just stared back at him.

  “But you don’t listen to my calls and commands half the time,” he argued, as if any argument could refute the evidence of her actually speaking in full sentences. “If you’ve known what I’m saying this whole time, why don’t you listen?”

  Her face flushed a bright, patchy red. “I get full.”

  His nostrils flared. “You get full? What’s that mean?”

  Her eyes rolled into the back of her head. “You can only feed me so many treats before my stomach fills.” She patted her belly. “Then I stop listening.”

  “You ignore my commands on purpose because you don’t want any more treats?”

  She crossed her arms over her chest. “Yes.”

  He frowned. “Then why didn’t you listen to me on our run through Graevlai? I wasn’t overfeeding you then.”

  “When I not listen to you?”

  “I commanded you to run, and you refused to keep up.”

  She barked out a laugh. “I never run a day in my life, except in jimklas,” she added on a snort. “You know, drill—but that not count. Without practice, you want me to run forever at your pace, in the cold, with heavy boots, over a mountain?” She shook her head.

  Her pronunciation was truly atrocious. Understanding her accent at the tripping cadence in which she delivered her sentences was a challenge. Some of what she said didn’t even make sense, but even so, he could decipher her meaning. “When did you have drill?”

  Reshna snapped her mouth shut with an audible clack.

  “You called it jimklas.” That pressure around his chest, which had just begun to ease squeezed again. He rubbed the skin over his heart as if he could force it to pump at a regular, steady rate. “Did you—” He swallowed and tried again. “Did you have drill on Earth?”

  Fifteen

  Delaney tried to knuckle the frustration and fear from her eyes, but the pressure only intensified her headache. She’d already conceded that she could speak Lori. If Torek surmised anything more about her intelligence and her life on Earth—like that she had attended gym class, for instance, implying that Earth wasn’t inhabited by animals but educated people—he would undoubtedly begin to question why she had pretended to be his pet. Why would she stand by after being abducted by aliens and allow those aliens to enslave her under the mistaken assumption that she was an animal?

  The answer to that question was a death sentence.

  She lowered her hands and glanced at the shut door, the slim barrier between them and discovery. If anyone—Petreok, most likely—overheard their conversation, they would face an entirely different challenge. Imagine the publicity: Captain of the Onik Guard Thinks He Can Speak to His Animal Companion! Would she have the courage to remain silent as Torek was accused of insanity, or would she speak up, effectively pulling the trigger on them both?

  “Reshna.” Torek clipped her name in a warning growl.

  Delaney tore her gaze from the door and met his eyes. He looked so much better than just a few days ago. His eyes were direct and intense as they focused on her. His mind sharp and present. His body would eventually regain its strength, just as his mind had. He would recover. He would recover after all.

  “Answer me,” he demanded.

  Fuck, had there been a question in all this?

  “Did you have drill on Earth? Is that why you couldn’t keep up with me on our run, because I had deprived you of your routine? Did you lead a less lazy life on Earth?”

  Delaney was startled out of her confusion at that last question. “No, actually, I led a very lazy life on Earth. I not keep up because you bigger and stronger than me,” she said drolly. “And even at my pace, I never want to run that path, let alone tha
t early in the morning in that weather. I not like to run.”

  “You don’t like to run?”

  “I not want to run. I not enjoy to run.”

  Torek snorted. “I don’t particularly want to run either, but it’s good for my health. How else will I keep up with the first-kair cadets?”

  “Good for you, but I not needing to keep up with any cadets. You run if you want, but not taking me with you.”

  “I admit, integrating you into my morning workout might have been a mistake.”

  “You think?” she muttered in English.

  “But we can integrate a different workout into our itinerary, one modified specifically for you.”

  “Jesus Christ,” she snapped. “Just feed me less treats.”

  “Jeezuskryst?”

  Delaney waved away his question. “Forget it. Just forget all of it. I not needing a workout.”

  “Changing your diet alone isn’t enough. Brinon Kore’Onik says you need to build up your strength.”

  “Well, I say I not needing to build my strength.”

  “Considering that he has several degrees in the caretaking of animal companions, I’m thinking we’ll listen to him over you.”

  “Oh, and you listen to everything your doctors say for your health?”

  “I certainly do. They—”

  “So Shemara Kore’Onik does not, how you say, waste an hour of your life every week to torture you for her own pleasure?”

  “She certainly does! But you’re here per her prescription, aren’t you?”

  Delaney crossed her arms. “Am I such a…a weight?”

  “A weight?”

  “When Shemara say your head is healthy, will you leave me for good?”

  Torek’s frown was fierce. “I won’t leave you at all.” He shook his head as if to clear it. “Why are we even arguing about this? I’m your owner, and I say we’re adding exercise into your daily routine, and that’s that.”

  Something snapped inside Delaney—her sanity, most likely—and suddenly, none of this was about exercise or hiding her intelligence. “But you did leave me. Your precious little Reshna. You leave me on the cold mountain with strange people on a strange planet in the middle of nowhere, and you wonder why I not keeping up? Why I not listening to your commands?”

  Torek blinked at her. “You’re angry with me.”

  “Of course I angry with you!”

  “No of course. I saved you up on that mountain.” He shook his head again. “Graevlai isn’t a mountain. It’s—”

  “I save you.” She poked her finger into Torek’s chest. “Do you know how high your fever is? How long before it break, and if it not break, how long before you die? Do you?”

  Torek opened his mouth and closed it before opening it again to say, “I’m not a doctor.”

  “I not a doctor! For five days, you lay here. I feed you and clean you and brush you and pray to a-a-a Lorien I not believe in to spare you as you lose more and more fur. Your stomach fur is so thin, it can barely be brushing, and you just…” She covered her mouth before she embarrassed herself further and just shook her head.

  “Hey there. I’m all right now.” Torek viurred. He reached out to cup her shoulders, drew her down to rest against his chest, and wrapped her in his warm embrace.

  She breathed in his clean, fresh vanilla scent deep into her lungs and held on tight.

  “I’m not losing my fur because of the fever,” Torek murmured. “Genai is coming. The weather will be warmer soon, and in preparation for that, lorienok shed their fur.”

  “Really?” Delaney eased back slightly, just enough to frown up into Torek’s face. “Lorienok on the ride from Earth to Lorien not shed.”

  “They do, just not during space travel. Federation ships are climate controlled to prevent shedding. Could you imagine venting all that fur?” He shuddered.

  But Keil had never even mentioned shedding. He’d spent nearly five years educating her on lorienok culture. You’d think something that substantial would have warranted a paragraph on anatomy day!

  What else had he conveniently forgotten to mention?

  “Petreok not appear to shed,” Delaney muttered doubtfully.

  Torek let loose a mild chuckle. “He’s a young, strong, strapping lad. He’ll shed soon enough, shortly after me, I’d wager.”

  “Being young, strong, and strapping affect his shedding?”

  Torek nodded. “Everyone sheds in their own time, depending on their age and health. Children and elderly won’t shed until mid-Genai, if at all.”

  Delaney tugged on a lock of fur on his chest. “What happen on the mountain?” she asked. “After I fall, I mean. You come back for me?”

  Torek didn’t look down at her. The wall had suddenly become fascinating. “Yes.”

  “And?”

  He shook his head. “And what?”

  “And what happen after?” she snapped. She knew her Lori was difficult to understand, but it wasn’t incomprehensible. “On the mountain after I fall and you return for me. Then what?”

  “All right. Just calm down. Let’s not start up again.” Torek smoothed his hand over her back. “As I said, we weren’t on a mountain. We were running in Graevlai, a public, very ordinary place to visit. I only clarify because I didn’t abandon you to the wilderness as you seem to think—”

  “Strangers chase me. And you not—”

  “But I can see how it would seem that way from your perspective, having never walked so deep within Graevlai before.”

  Delaney bit her lip, remembering the lor with the knife.

  “I was frustrated because I thought you were being deliberately disobedient and dramatic, collapsing into every snowbank we passed.”

  Delaney stiffened and opened her mouth to defend herself.

  “Now I know you’re just weak and couldn’t keep up.”

  That didn’t sound much better, but at least it was the truth. She stroked his chest fur between her thumb and forefinger with gentle pinches.

  “When I reached the end of my workout and realized my foolishness, I returned for you, but you’d already fallen down the ravine and onto the ice. Those strangers all banded together, linking themselves into a chain down the slope to reach you. If they chased you, it wasn’t to harm you. They were trying to help. They did help, at great risk, I might add, to themselves.”

  “They not all help,” Delaney murmured. “One holding a knife.”

  Torek’s hand stilled on her back. “What?”

  “A lor approach me with a knife while I trying to find you. I see the knife and run.”

  “Did he attack you?”

  “I, well…” She frowned. “No. I run first.”

  “Because you felt threatened.”

  Delaney nodded.

  Torek remained silent for a long moment, but his hand was warm and gentle as he stroked her back. “There was a large crowd at Graevlai that day.”

  “Yes.”

  “People don’t normally attack at close range in such a crowd. Too many witnesses.”

  “You not there. People push and shove, trying to grab me, and as I dodge their hands, it easier to attack without notice than you think.”

  Another bout of silence.

  “I know what I see,” she insisted.

  He nodded. “A close-range, opportunistic attack on my animal companion would require a powerful motivation. Someone who’d want to hurt me deeply.” He made a low, humming noise in the back of his throat. “I don’t have any enemies.”

  Delaney rolled her eyes. “What happen when you return? You find me on the ice?”

  Torek heaved a heavy sigh. “Yes. I climbed down to you and pushed you to safety.”

  She frowned. “Why push me?”

  “The zorel, attracted by the scent of your blood, I think, tried to break through the ice to reach us. The vibrations of her persistent ramming caused a zivook.”

  “A what? I not know that word.”

  “A deadly fall of snow
. It would’ve buried us, but I pushed you to shore.”

  An avalanche. Delaney stilled. He’d saved her from an avalanche. “What about you?”

  Torek’s arms tightened around her. “I’m fine now. Thanks to you.”

  “It bury you?” She leaned back to properly glare at him. “Why you—”

  “It buried me. Past tense. In the present, I’m fine.”

  Delaney scrunched her nose at him. “Funny.”

  “How about you try? Buried.”

  “I not care about that. I care about you and why you—”

  “Buried.”

  Oh for the love of— “Bury.”

  “Deeper. With more grit. Buried.”

  “My throat physically cannot growl low enough for Lori past tense.”

  “Hmmm.” His lips twitched.

  She swatted his shoulder. “You trying to distract me.”

  He grinned, completely unabashed. “Is it working?”

  She pursed her lips and tried a different tack. “What is the zorel? You say it try breaking through the ice?”

  He nodded. “The zorel is an animal. She, her mate, and their litter roranok beneath the ice during Rorak.”

  “They what beneath the ice?”

  “Roranok. They sleep all winter.”

  Ah. “Ramming the ice not sound like hibernation.”

  Torek huffed. “Genai is nearly here, and with the scent of your blood—” He shrugged. “I’m not surprised she tried to attack us.”

  “Zorel attacks happen every day, do they?”

  “Only during Genai.”

  Delaney tensed, feeling suddenly disturbed. His position as commander, the castle high on the mountain, his punishing workouts, their military force… Was it all to protect against a hibernating ice fish?

  “What happens in Genai?” she asked.

  Torek blinked. “The ice melts.”

  She exhaled, letting it go for now. She didn’t understand, not really, but she didn’t have to. She had enough problems to deal with at the moment. “And then what? Back on the mountain, you get out from under the snow?”