by Celeste Raye
Fear shot through her like a bolt of lightning. Had he died in the rebellion that Talon and Jessica had created? Was he down on Old Earth right now suffering and hurt, injured by weapon fire or even dead? Would she ever know?
Marik said, “Tell me, Jenny, have you seen any plants and the like that you thought might have medicinal purposes?”
She didn’t dare meet his eyes. “I haven’t looked. I don’t know why I didn’t think to.” She had not thought to because she had not considered that she would be sent to this particular building for the task ahead of her.
She had no idea why she had not considered it anyway though.
Part of her knew that it was an ingrained thing, that she had been taught to hide her knowledge for so long, that the idea of admitting it or showing it had never entered her mind.
Marik said, “Well, we have no patients today, so I think we should go look. The rest of you stay here in case a patient comes. If it is a serious emergency, then shout as loud as you can before you ring the bell in the center of town. I don’t think we will go too far but if you can’t shout us back, then ring the bell.”
The others nodded their agreement. Jenny’s heart sank. The last thing on earth she wanted to do was go wandering around with Marik!
Marik began walking, and she followed him. The sun struck her again, warm and pleasant. She paused for a moment, letting it soak into her skin down into the bones below. Marik paused, and she glanced over at him a trifle guilty.
She began walking, and he fell into step beside her. He said, “You seem to enjoy the sun.”
Her fingers twisted together. She had always been shy and quiet. She was very timid as well. Speaking up like she had inside the med-bay building was not something that she was used to doing, and she wasn’t used to talking a lot either.
“I’ve never really seen it before. I’d never really seen the sky until we were on the ship and space is a lot different.”
She glanced over at him expecting to see disbelief there. Instead, there was a kindness written across his face that startled her. Below that kindness was something else. Understanding. He said, “I remember when I first came out of the mines. I hadn’t seen sunlight in so very long. Not that you could look at the sun there; the entire surface was so scorching that it would burn you alive if you try to cross it. We were on the ship for quite some time after that and the first time that we set down on the planet that had a sun, I stayed out underneath its rays for so long that I burned my skin.”
She had known that he had been in the mines of course, but she had not realized that he had been trapped there and had not been out to see the sun. She said, “I’m sorry.”
She was. She knew exactly what that felt like, to be kept away from the things that all beings craved. Light and fresh air and the smell and scent of things growing in a natural fashion were those things.
Her heart hurt for him a little bit as she spoke the words, and her heart hurt even more when he said to her, “I’m sorry that you didn’t get to see it before now.”
Confused and not sure what to say to him, especially given how often she had had those little daydreams about him, she pointed to the hills up ahead. “Maybe we should try up there.”
Marik said, “That sounds like a good idea.”
Jenny struggled for words. She had never felt the things that she felt whenever she was around Marik, and those things often left her tongue- tied and confused. He made her heart race and her pulse as well. He made funny little flushes of heat start in her belly and go writhing up along her chest as well. It was nothing that she had ever known, and she wasn’t sure if perhaps she had some sort of allergy to him or if it was those daydreams that she had about him kissing her that caused it.
Either way, being that close to him was uncomfortable.
They walked in silence, but it wasn’t an awkward silence. Marik stopped occasionally to survey a plant or tree but he always walked on, and she did as well. At the top of the hills, they came to a long flat meadow ringed by a thick growth of various trees. There were plenty of creatures about, little insects that danced through the grass, winged creatures that landed on the branches of the trees and then flew away again, and animals that gathered away from them when they caught sight of the two beings entering the meadow.
Marik said, “That is the tree that we took the bark from.”
She followed the direction of his pointing finger. Her mind went back to the book, and she squinted at the tree. “I think… I think you can boil that bark and use it for coughs but not for pain relief.”
She spotted a slender tree not far away from that one and said, “Can we go look at that one, please? I believe that has the stuff that I am looking for.”
Marik said, “Of course. Here you’re free to walk wherever you want to.”
That understanding was back in his voice again. She flinched away from it. Oh, how she wished she was a bolder person, one who could simply put the past behind her and move forward with real bravery. She nodded and said, “Thank you.”
He followed along behind her as she headed for the tree, discomfiting her even further. When they reached it, she put a hand to it and then used her fingernail to peel away a small section of bark. Excitement hit. She exclaimed, “See? I believe this is it!”
Marik leaned in close. She caught a whiff of the scent: a clean and fresh smell that made her want to lean in closer to him. She backed away instead, her hand curling over the small shred of bark that she held in her palm. Marik’s eyes lifted away from her hand to her face. His eyes fastened on hers and that feeling that she always got around him came racing back in, making her shift a few times from foot to foot.
Marik said, “So what can we use it for?”
She gulped and turned her gaze away from his face to the tree. “It works well for pain and fever. If it’s boiled away from the bark and then left to cool a sort of thick white stuff forms at the top of the liquid. You have to skim it off, and you can dry it and give it out as a powder, or you can allow someone to drink some of the liquid. But it can be strong.”
Marik said, “Good to know.”
He moved away from the tree, and she moved in a direction away from him. Her heart pounded again as she sneaked to glance over her shoulder at him to see him kneeling by a patch of flowers, a look of utter concentration written all over his handsome face.
She was betraying Ben. Or was she? How could she betray a man who was not even there? A man who might be dead? A man who might have already found another?
Realization hit, hard. Jenny’s mouth opened and then closed as she realized that the reason she was so uncomfortable around Marik, the reason she always felt that she was betraying Ben when she was near him, was simply because she had some sort of attraction to him.
That left her feeling dazed and bruised. That was not something that an engaged woman should feel for another being! Especially one who was not even human.
She turned her attention away from him and toward the fields. A bright flash of purple caught her eyes and excitement mounted in her as she raced towards it. She bent to examine the small roots and stems of the plant, and that excitement rang out from her voice when she called out, “Marik! Come here! I think I found something!”
She was still kneeling on the ground, her knee pressed into warm dirt and grass when he appeared at her side. She looked up at the length of his body, and her heart did another fast series of pounds in her chest. Her mouth went dry. The sun lit his hair and shone around him in a soft gold nimbus that outlined every inch of his powerful body in a way that made her aware that he was very definitely male.
He knelt down beside her, one long finger stroking the leaves and blossoms of the plant that she had discovered. “What is it?”
Jenny gave him the name and then said, “It works to heal bones that are broken. You can use it as a poultice or as a drink.”
Just then, the sound of ships flying overhead caught their attention. Jenny looked up to see a bat
tered ship circling, and she said, “It looks like Talon and Jessica have returned again.”
Marik nodded. “We will gather some of these plants and some of that bark and then head back. There’s plenty of time to collect more things later.”
Their hands touched as they began to harvest the plant and a slow thrill ran up and down her spine. That that was sexual attraction had never occurred to her before. She had heard of it of course, but she had never felt it, not even with Ben. That she felt it now made her feel even worse.
The plant gathered, they stopped and took a small bit of bark from the tree then headed back down the hills. Marik walked faster than she did due to his long legs and she had to hurry to keep up. The sound of the ship died, and it dropped from view, letting her know that it had landed.
As they approached, they saw the crew, as well as Jessica and Talon, exiting the ship. Renall stood nearby, a frown on his face as he watched the battered group disembark.
Marik said to Jenny, “Go back to the med–bay, if you don’t mind, and put those things away. I need to go see what’s happening.”
She nodded and took the flowers and stems and bark that they had collected and headed for the building, casting one last look over her shoulder. Her heart gave a painful throb and she wasn’t sure if it was because it was breaking over her betrayal of Ben or because she felt something new growing in the place of the emotions that she had for Ben.
Chapter 2- Marik
Talon strode angrily around the room, his fist smacking into the palm of his hand, and Marik watched him quietly. The four brothers had all adjourned to this one hut where they could speak in semi-privacy.
Talon said, “It’s a disaster down there. The Federation promised aid to Old Earth, but they haven’t given any yet beyond the scant amount of food and drinkable water that ran out way too fast and is long gone now. There are so many people dying from simple illnesses and injuries from the rebellion and the fight against the enemies. We’ve done all that we can. We need more healers.”
Renall shook his head. “We can’t spare them from here, and you know that, Talon.”
Jeval interjected, “And why would we even want to? Do not say that it is because your mate and Renall’s mate are from there. That’s not reason enough to jeopardize the health of the people here.”
Talon slumped into a chair. His hand found a small pitcher. He lifted it then poured a tall glass of water. He set the pitcher aside and drank the water in long and greedy gulps, his throat working as he swallowed it down. When he set the glass aside, his face wore a solemn and pinched expression.
He said, “I would never offer that up as reason enough. The humans have never been our major concern. They aren’t now either, to be honest. What is my concern is that the Federation has lied once again. That planet is not the only one suffering the weight of the Federation’s lies.”
Jeval said, “All of us know what it is to suffer under the Federation. We can’t extend to them what we do not have.”
Marik looked down at his hands. He was a natural healer, one who could heal by touch. His gift was always needed, but he had to be careful how he dispensed that part of his healing abilities because using it too much could kill him. Other than his natural healing powers, he also possessed a wide and vast knowledge of healing thanks to having been raised by a mother who was also a natural healer, as well as a skilled and taught healer. He had also trained with the science makers when he had been very young, and he had deliberately spent a century studying medicine after his escape from the mines.
His voice was soft. “If we turn our back on those who are suffering, does that not make us just as guilty as the Federation?”
Renall said, “No. It makes us smart. We are too few, and if we want our population to grow, we already have to mix our blood with the blood of others. If we want to keep any part of our race alive, we have to maintain this planet. It’s our last sanctuary. It is the only place left for us. We cannot afford to send those who are needed here to Old Earth.”
That was true. Marik knew it was true. He also knew that he was not willing to leave people to suffer and die if he could help it. Every part of his being rebelled at that. “Some may volunteer.”
Talon faced him. “Would you?”
Marik shifted in the chair he had taken. “I would. I don’t necessarily want to, don’t get me wrong, but there are two other natural healers here on the planet. True, they are young and still untested, but they have the ability. I have taught many. Some are very skilled already. Then there are the old ones who escaped the destruction of our home planet and who were already master healers then.”
Renall threw his long hands up in the air. His silver eyes glinted with anger. “We have given enough to the Federation. Now you would have us do their job?”
Talon spoke. “It’s still a battle zone down there. Humans—I don’t even know what to say. There are still those who would try to re-institute the caste systems all over that planet. Right before we left, we found a band of former Capos destroying the belongings of the ones who came up from below the ground. It’s a disaster. It’s a recipe for an even worse disaster.”
Jeval asked, “How will sending healers do any good at all? If they can’t even stop fighting amongst themselves, what makes you think that they’ll start attending to their own?”
Talon said, “There are plenty of good people down there. They want what’s theirs by birth, and I don’t blame them for that. They are doing their best to care for the wounded and the sick and elderly and the very young. They’re running out of ideas and ways to do it.”
Renall snapped, “And you expect us to teach them?”
Talon stood so fast that the chair shot across the room. His fists balled up and his face went red with anger. “I expect you to be better than the Federation! I expect you to have some speck of kindness and compassion! I expect you to understand that if you have a child with your mate, then your child will have a history that goes back to that planet. How are you going to look at your children and tell them that you let others of their race, because that will be their race as well, die because you were unwilling to do something?”
Marik stood. The air simmered with tension. He knew where it stemmed from. Renall had suffered more than any of them. He had been the one to take all of the punishments in the mines, usually pushing his younger siblings aside and standing there stoic and white-faced as the whips came down on his back and belly. He had often made use of cunning tricks in order to give them his rations of food, if what they had been given to eat and drink in the mines could be considered food at all.
He had taken the most risks. It did not seem that way, as it was all of them on the ships doing the wrecking in the taking down of the ships that had given them the credits necessary to purchase the planet. But it had not all come from just the wrecking of the ships. It had been Renall who had handled all the rest of their businesses, making himself the front man so that if the Federation decided to execute any of them for the shady things that they had done, it would be him who took all of the blame.
This planet had been his dream ever since they had stood on the shores of their home planet and watched it being destroyed by the Federation’s greed. For him, the thought of sending away his people to Old Earth was a betrayal of all that he had done.
All that he had suffered and lost and sworn to avenge.
He was afraid that there were too few of them left and too few on the planet to make it work, to have a decent life there.
Marik understood those things, but he also understood exactly what Talon was saying. His older brother may not have wanted to admit it, but now that his mate was pregnant, one day he would have to face down those children and explain to them what happened to the rest of their race.
Marik said, “I shall make this easy for you. I want to go. I am a healer. If I do not go, that thing inside me that demands that I heal might shrivel up and die.”
Jeval shook his head in disgust. “Yo
u’re a fool then.”
Renall’s words were even harsher. “What if you die there? Will it be worth it to you?”
Marik said, “I believe the question would be is it worth it to them.”
Talon took a deep breath. “Marik…”
Marik held up a hand to silence his brother. “I will go, and I will take the girl from the slave ship with us. Jenny, that’s her name. She may not be happy about going back, but I think she’ll be of great use.”
She would be. She was human, but she had a natural healing ability. She didn’t see it yet, but he did. It showed in her aura, a bright golden thread running through her otherwise placid and calm white aura.
Talon said, “We’ve brought plenty of supplies, such as building supplies and the like, from some of the trade planets that we stopped at along the way back. I can only stay a few days and then we have to get back.”
Marik said, “I shall be ready. I shall see to it that she knows that she is going back as well and that she will be ready.”
Renall gave up. His face wore a look of both resignation and worry. “I understand what you’re saying about my children. I do. I can’t say that I’m happy about having you go. Talon, you spent far too much time there as it is. You are still one of us, and yet I often feel as though I have lost you to that desiccated and ruined planet.”
Talon grinned at him. “You have it. It’s just that…”
Renall said, with a slight smirk, “Your mate is a mighty warrior who is dead set on seeing to it that her people are free. You are dead set on being at her side, so her mission has become yours.”
All four of them burst into laughter. It was true enough. Talon was madly in love with Jessica, and that she was a warrior had never been in doubt.
Marik’s thoughts turned back to Jenny. Jenny was no warrior; she was soft and sweet and very shy, like one of the flowers that bloomed only in the morning, raising its face to the sun for a few hours and then withdrawing as soon as anyone attempted to touch its petals.
He knew taking her back to Old Earth was risky. She might choose to stay there, and that was the last thing he wanted for her to do. He had never considered that he might have feelings for her until the day he had seen her being pulled out into the ocean by the fierce tides.
