by Celeste Raye
He had not even considered his own safety as he had run toward her, his legs and arms pumping and his eyes scanning the horizon for monsters as he had waded into the blood-warm waters that threatened to kill her.
He’d been so scared that she would die and so relieved that he had managed to catch a hold of her hand and drag her back to shore that all he had managed to say to her were a few curt and sharp words. She had stood there with her head down, not speaking as he had shouted those words at her and then she had quietly turned and walked away.
It had been that last part that hurt his heart the most. That she had been beaten down by life was so obvious. Equally obvious was that below all of that hurt and cowed obedience was a bright, articulate, and incredibly beautiful woman who made him have to turn away from her quite often to hide the telltale bulge in his trousers.
She had no idea of how powerfully potent she was, and that made her even more dangerous.
Taking her might indeed be a vast mistake. It was highly possible that once there, she would never want to leave again. Marik already knew that he had deep and true feelings for her, but if she did not return them it did not matter what his feelings were. If she had no love for the planet that she had found herself on and wished to return to her home, he could understand that as well.
He would let her go if he had to.
But only if he had to.
Talon said, “It’s settled then. Two healers are not what I hoped for but if that’s the best I can do, then that is the best that I can do. I will do my best to make sure that I bring you both back alive.”
Marik managed a smile but, deep in his heart, he was absolutely positive that he would be coming back alone.
He was in the med building several hours later when he heard footsteps approaching. His sharp nose caught the scent of flowers, and then he heard Jenny speak.
“Is it true?”
He turned his head to look at her. She stood there, clutching a bunch of what looked like flowers in a large silver bowl. Her eyes were a hopeful expression, and he had to turn away from that look. “Yes, it’s true. Old Earth needs a few healers, and since you and I are the only ones that can be spared, we’re going.”
He had not told her that she was a natural healer. She would have to find her way into that gift herself. She had so little confidence that he was sure that if he told her she would become a wonderful healer before they ever landed, she would never believe him, but he fully intended to make sure that she had all the education that she needed to be just that.
That knowledge that he intended to impart to her coupled with the knowledge that she already had of natural things, and how she’d come about that was a mystery to him, would make very well and sure that she was capable of helping her people.
He also had no intention of telling her just how he intended to give her that education.
Jenny drifted closer. His eyes went to the bowl. The flowers within had bright yellow petals clustered thickly around a small center. “What are those?”
She looked down and then back up at him. Her face colored a little bit. “I thought… Well, I thought that since we were gathering stuff for medicine, it would be okay if I gathered things for food as well.”
Surprise hit. His eyebrow lifted. “What do you mean?”
She looked back down the bowl, and a soft smile curved her lips upward, lighting up her face. An ache started in his heart. When she smiled, she had to be the most beautiful being in the entire universe.
She said, “Well, you see, I saw these before. My mother grew them because the entire plant is edible and it only takes a small plant to feed a person. They grow fast too. They’re actually a weed so all they need is a bit of earth and they will grow away.
“My mother actually sowed them in the seams of the floors in the tunnels that were no longer used back on Old Earth. They grew fairly wild and very well for a very long time. Until the Capo came in and destroyed the entire…”
She fell silent. His eyes rested on her face. Her lips drooped downward like the rim of the cup, and her shoulders slumped. There was real pain written all over her, and not just on her face but in her body language.
Something had happened to her parents. He knew how the Federation was. He knew, but he had to ask, “Was it not allowed to grow things there?”
Her head shook slowly from side to side. She pressed the bowl closer to her chest, and her fingers stirred the petals and stems again. “No. I mean I guess it was if you lived above ground but not where we were. We used them for food, and it wasn’t allowed. If one is to eat in the Below, one must use the credits extended to them from their work. One must… One must never have more than one is allotted by their station and class.”
Maybe Renall and Jeval were right to wonder why Talon was so dead set on helping these humans. It seemed like a great many of them weren’t even worth the effort.
But Jenny was a human. And she was worth so much more than she knew.
She looked up at him. “I don’t know how I feel about going back.”
He said, “I am not sure how I feel about going at all.”
His grin was wry, and hers was as well. Her shoulders came up and then her chin. She asked, “Do you think these would be welcome for food?”
“Yes.”
That smile came back again on her face, warming his heart. That such a small compliment could make her so happy was wrong. She was a woman who had deserved much better than what she had been dished out and now he was taking her back to the planet that had turned her into the shy and frightened thing that she was.
Maybe this was a mistake.
If it was, it was too late to do anything about it.
She said, “I’m going to take these to the food hall. I picked enough for everybody to have a little but there are so much more that we could probably eat them for eternity.”
He stepped closer so that he could see down into the bowl. The flowers had long slender green stems and bulbous pale roots. He asked, “The entire thing is edible?”
She nodded eagerly. “Yes, you have to dig the roots up, but if you want them to continue to grow and you don’t care for the root you can leave the root and just pick the stem and the flowers. They’re edible and quite delicious.”
Her eyes came up, and his went to hers. They stared into each other’s eyes for a few moments and Marik forgot to speak. Finally, he found his voice. “Why would you leave the roots? Is it simply so that more can grow?”
“That too. The roots can be a little bland and starchy. Not many people care for them. They can be bitter too if they’re not cooked properly. They’re best if you just boil them a little bit or bake them.”
His eyes went to her mouth. He wanted to kiss her. He glanced away from her full lips quickly. It didn’t matter, her face—all sharp angles and big blue eyes that were a little too large for her face, a short straight nose, and a small rosebud mouth—stayed there, imprinted on his brain.
He said, “If nobody else will try them, I will. Though I’m sure everyone will. It’s not that food is in short supply; it’s that we all have to figure out what it is that we can and will eat here.”
He turned to see her staring into the bowl again. Her voice was hushed. “If I choose to stay… That is to say, if I choose to stay on Old Earth, would I be allowed to?”
The pain that lanced through his heart nearly felled him, but he managed to stay upright. “But of course. You are free, Jenny. Nobody owns you.”
Her head came up. Her nostrils quivered. “The Federation owned us. Did you know that? All my life, everything that we did or said or ate or wore was by Federation rule. I want to go back and make a difference. I need to make a difference there. I’ve seen that there can be beauty and… And… And I want to tell them that if they’ll just… If they just remember that even though the Federation rules over us, they don’t own us, we can all have good lives.”
He was wrong. He had been wrong anyway. There was a warrior below her mee
k exterior. He had just caught a glimpse of the woman that she might be, given the chance. That revelation struck him so hard that he found he could not form words for a moment.
Jenny took his silence as dismissal. She said, “I shall see you at dinner then.”
She turned and started for the door. He found his voice. “Jenny.”
She turned around, “Yes?”
He said, “You will make a difference. You will. With the knowledge that you have and your willingness to make a difference, you will.”
She gave him another one of those radiant smiles and then she was gone.
Chapter 3- Marik
Jenny stood in the communal food hall, helping to prepare the dandy weeds that she had picked. Alana, a cheerful fellow human who had wound up as part of the wrecking crews clean up detail through sheer luck, and the fact that she and her husband had been aboard a ship that the wreckers had taken, said, “I have heard of these, but I’ve never gotten to eat one.”
Jenny stared down into the simmering pot that held the roots. “I never asked you before. Did you live above or below?”
Alana said, “If I had lived above I would not have been on a ship bound for an outlying colony. We got pawned, my husband and I, by our in-laws. We were still young enough that they had full control of our persons.”
Jenny said, “What did they pawn you for?”
Alana said, “Food, of course.”
Both women stared at the array of food on the counters. There were a full dozen people working in the hall at that moment. The monstrous fish from the ocean, several of them weighing at least a hundred pounds each, needed to be deboned and smoked in order to save them for later.
Some of the fish needed to be cleaned and prepared for the meal that they would have later that night. Not every meal was taken in the communal food hall. Everyone made their own way for their first and second meals of the day, but the last meal, dinner, was always communal.
It would not always be that way because eventually there would be too many of them, but for now, and in order to foster a sense of community, that’s the way it was. Jenny found herself mourning the loss of those meals even though she had not yet departed for Old Earth.
Alana said, “What did you do?”
Jenny looked at the floor. “Nothing. My parents were executed by the Capo. My mother was a healer who grew food, and someone turned her in. My father tried to save her. He offered himself in her place, but they said no, and then when he tried to stand between her and the Capo, they took him too.
“I was alone but for my betrothed. He hid me for a very long time in case they wanted to kill me too. I thought they had forgotten all about me. I thought…” The pain and misery came back in, crushing her to small bits inside. “I thought that they had decided that I was not guilty of any crime.”
Alana’s hand rested on her shoulder. There was sympathy in her voice. “But you were wrong.”
Jenny nodded. “I was walking down the tunnel when they just rushed at me. They scanned my chip and then said that I… that I was to go on a bride ship. They never gave me the reason, but I guess it was because of that. I don’t know what else it could be.”
Alana stirred the pot with a long-handled spoon. “Well, I don’t know that I’d want to go back if I were you.”
Jenny managed to breathe. “I have to. I have to help Marik heal as many as possible. It matters to me that people do not die. It’s not just that though, I… I need to know if my betrothed is alive or dead.”
Alana said, “Oh, I see.”
Jenny nodded and busied herself scraping the scales off of the fish. Alana said, “I hope you find him well, Jenny.”
Tears stung Jenny’s eyes. She hoped she did as well, but the conflicting emotions that she felt weren’t just due to her fear that she would go back to find her home planet just as terrible as it had been when she left and her very real wanting to stay there on Revant Two.
She loved Ben. She did. But she was torn because that was something so intense about the things that she felt toward Marik.
Not that Marik returned those feelings. That was obvious. He thought she was a simpleton, probably. In fact, he had said as much that day she had accidentally fallen into the sea, and he had saved her life.
As she cleaned the fish, she found herself wondering if she’d be better off just refusing to go at all. That thought brought so much guilt that she could barely finish the task.
Those feelings of both guilt and wanting to stay, of confusion about her feelings toward Marik, continued. She woke the morning that they were to part with a heavy heart and a lot of misgivings.
Jessica had come to her the night before and given her a tunic and trousers, and Jenny had stared down at the things with real hatred. “I much prefer my dress.”
Jessica, ever practical and no-nonsense, had replied, “I’m sure you do, but it’s not something that you can wear down there. You know this. People will begin to start deciding their own dress soon enough, but for right now you need to wear the tunic and the trousers. For one thing, it’ll protect you from the dust and from being cut by flying shrapnel.”
Jessica had left before Jenny could ask what that meant, but she had a good idea anyway. It was a war down there. She was going into a war zone! She had heard the stories told by all of those on Talons crew, and she knew that the humans who had survived the invasion of the Gorlites were busy fighting each other for whatever scraps they could manage to get into their grasp.
She dressed hurriedly and stepped out of the building. She carried nothing with her because she owned nothing but the small sea shells that she collected and the small and delicate glass jar that Marik had brought to her a few days earlier. She had stared at the jar with real wonder, and he had said to her, “You could put flowers in it.”
He had left before she could ask him why he would give her such a precious and beautiful gift. She had considered, quite seriously, taking it with her but the fact that the glass was so precious and that had been given to her by someone who aroused emotions in her that were traitorous to Ben made her leave it on the shelf. As she stepped out of the hut, she found herself longing to stay there. To not get on that ship. Then her shoulders straightened, and her chin came up.
Those were her people down there. She was terrified, of course, but she would do all she could to help because to do nothing would be inhumane and wrong.
Marik spotted her as she walked towards the place where the ships landed, a special dock that had been built over the water. He said to her, “Are you ready for this?”
She studied him covertly. “I don’t know. I’m very scared but… but I have to go.”
She did. She had to find Ben if nothing else.
She continued, “I really thought about saying no to this but then I remembered something.”
He was walking very close to her, and his body brushed against hers. Another of those sharp little thrills that she had felt the day their fingers had touched while collecting the plants went racing across her skin, and she deliberately took a small step away from him. He didn’t seem to notice. He said, “What did you remember?”
She said, “I remember thinking, when I lived there, how unfair it was that so many people had so much and I had so little. I remembered thinking that if I ever somehow managed to get out of that I would help those who got left behind. I did get out, maybe not the way that I imagined, but I did. And I have to help them now.”
She looked over at him as she spoke the last few words. He stopped walking, and a look of sheer admiration came upon his handsome face. He said, “You are far less frail than people believe. Maybe even more than you believe.”
A short laugh came from her mouth. “I don’t think I’m frail. I just think I’m scared.”
Marik said, as they started walking again, “I’m a little frightened too.”
Her mouth fell open, and her eyes went wide. “You are?”
He chuckled. “Of course I am. I’ve seen way too
much bloodshed and war in my lifetime. All I want now is to live in peace. I want nothing more than to tend to the everyday aches and pains and scrapes and accidents, even the everyday deaths that stalk us all. I don’t want to attend to the gruesome injuries that come from war and from weapons. I’m afraid that it will break my heart. I’m afraid that I will lose courage.”
Her hand came up unbidden and went to his arm. The thick ridges of muscle there nearly made her heart stop. Her mouth went dry, and she quickly dropped her hand away from him. “Thank you for saying that. Oddly enough, it makes me feel better.”
His laugh was warm and rich. That laughter called to her and made her feel like laughing too. Before she could stop herself, she was! She sputtered out, “Well, I mean, think of it. If someone as big and terrifying as you can be afraid, then certainly there’s no shame in my admitting that I am afraid as well!”
His body leaned into hers. That heat came flushing down her skin, making her face grow red and hectic. He asked, “You think I am big and terrifying?”
She cast him a sidelong glance. “Well yes.”
Marik said, “But I am the smallest of all my brothers! And I am probably the nicest too!”
She burst into more laughter, surprising herself. “I can admit that. All of your brothers terrify me.”
He said, “When I was little, they used to scare me too.”
They were approaching the ship now, but it was still just the two of them. For some reason, that small talk, that small admission of his, had made him seem far less stern and forbidding. She found herself not only enjoying the conversation, but able to continue her part of it. “Why?”
Marik said, “Because I was not like them. Talon already knew that he wanted to be a ship captain. Renall was so smart and prepared to take on the responsibility of rule after our father left this world, and Jeval, for all his smiles and easy banter, is lethal. Even more lethal than, Talon to be honest.”
