Shalira laughingly refused to stir from the roaring fire, clutching her blanket closely. “There’s no attraction to me in proximity to the downpour.”
After making sure the fire was burning steadily, with a minimal amount of smoke, Mike clapped Saium on the shoulder. “Guess you were right about this cave having natural chimneys. I was dubious about making a fire in here, but I’m a believer now. You know these mountains like the back of your hand. We never would have made it without you today.”
Standing a little taller, his eyes gleaming, Saium snorted. “I roamed all over the Djeelaba as a boy. I loathed being confined and following orders.” Rubbing his chin, the guardsman said, “So then of course, I spent several decades cooped up in the city, constrained in every way on a daily basis by the palace protocols.”
“Good thing the storm didn't hit earlier, while we were trying to ford the river.” Mike pulled his collar tighter at his throat, glad the Sectors uniforms were water resistant.
“Mountain gales usually go on like this for a day and a night,” Saium told them. “We rest here tomorrow. Her Highness is a strong-minded woman, but I think she’ll benefit from the respite.”
“She’s been through a lot,” Mike agreed. “Still, if we can ride tomorrow, I’d risk it. Finishing our mission and getting off the planet in one piece is the safest thing for all of us.”
Saium watched the rain falling in sheets. “The day after will be clear, and we can travel onward. You’ll need to explain to me more exactly where this crashed ship of your comrades’ is.”
“The fix isn't too clear,” Mike admitted. “The beacon bounces off these mountains, making the signal erratic. Mineral deposits, no doubt. Which is why Command had to go to all the trouble of sending Johnny and me out here, rather than homing in on the distress beacon and doing a straightforward extraction. Care to make a rough guess how many days’ ride it’ll be to the general area, based on what we told you before?”
Closing his eyes for a moment, Saium wrinkled his brow, lips moving soundlessly as he calculated. “Probably three or four at the most.”
Mike nodded. “And you're sure we don't have to worry any more about pursuit?”
“Bandarlok’s clan salved their pride by making the effort to capture or kill us. Having lost five or six warriors, they’ll be more than satisfied about their honor.” Saium laughed, the most carefree sound Mike had ever heard from him. “From this day on, they’ll all be too busy fighting over the spoils of what Bandarlok held to care about us!” Cackling, he slapped his knee. “Maybe some other tribes will move against them, while there’s a lack of strong leadership. I can only hope.”
“What about the mountain people?” Mike asked, not sharing Saium’s interest in the downfall of the Bartuk Clan. “How will they react to us riding through their territory?”
Saium sobered, straightening and peering into the rain as if he expected the enemy to be sneaking up on them. “It’s true we must be careful. There are fierce warriors in the Djeelaba, with strange, cruel gods and bizarre customs. Luckily, when I was a boy, I always saw them before they sniffed out my presence, but now, thinking back, I marvel at the risks I ran. The overconfidence of youth. We can’t take chances with the princess.”
“Right, we'll have to be on guard and get our job done as fast as possible.” The solid weight of the Mark 27 riding at his hip was reassuring. Mike didn’t plan to be an easy target for anyone else on this planet.
“How about plotting a route through the mountains after dinner?” Johnny suggested. “I'm tired of stew, but this stuff Saium got started smells good enough to change my mind.”
“You two go ahead and eat. I'll do guard duty,” Mike said. “Save me a bowl if it's any good, will you?”
“Sure, but I’d be happy to take first watch.” The sergeant raised his eyebrows. “I’m thinking Shalira might enjoy your company more than mine or Saium’s.”
“I do need to talk to her,” Mike said. “But the conversation requires privacy, and a lot of time. So you two eat first, with her, and I’ll come along later.”
Saium caught some nearly invisible hand signal from Johnny and left them. As the old man sauntered away, whistling, Johnny gave Mike a measuring stare. “Want to talk about it?”
“I need to get my thoughts in order before I try talking to her. I blew it the first time she and I had this conversation, after the ambush at the tombs. I can’t afford to get it wrong now.”
Nodding, Johnny sat on a boulder across from Mike. “Hard to know sometimes what a woman wants to hear from a guy, what the magic words are.”
Leaning over, Mike scooped up a handful of pebbles and started tossing them into the rain. “Yeah, so far my record on this job isn’t too glowing. I’ve killed two men, neither one having a damn thing to do with our mission. I got drawn into local matters totally removed from what we came to accomplish. Hell, our involvement breaks a hundred regs on a closed world. Gonna be a hell of an after-action report.” He gave his cousin a sideways glance.
“The emperor gave us no choice about traveling with Shalira. Would have taken a heart of stone to leave her with Bandarlok once we understood the truth of the situation.” Johnny shrugged. “Last time I checked, neither one of us has gotten that jaded.”
“I’d be the last person to disagree with your assessment, but the kind of mistakes and decisions I'm making would have gotten us killed on any other mission.” Mike threw away the rest of the pebbles in disgust. “What's the matter with me?”
Tilting his head, Johnny winked. “Other than being in love?”
Mike gave him a half smile but said nothing.
Leaning against the rock, the sergeant pulled a new piece of wood from his pocket to carve, drawing his small knife and flicking it open with an efficient motion. He rotated the wood over and over in his long fingers, searching for the spot to make the first cut. “We've both lost our edge—I don’t have to tell you that. The last deployment was one too many, now here we are again.” Focusing on his carving, Johnny said, “We're Special Forces till we die, but we ain’t in the mind-set any more. It was a mistake for Command to pull us out of the retirement queue and insist we take this job.” The pile of wood shavings grew on the cave floor next to him.
Crossing his hands behind his head, Mike leaned back, trying to relax. “I’d say it was a mistake for us to agree, no matter how many extra allotments of veterans’ acres they offered us. Or how much they talked about possible survivors trapped in the mountains. Of course, if we hadn’t come, I’d never have met Shalira.” He rubbed the back of his neck and sought a more comfortable position on the boulder. “Hard to imagine life without her now. I always wondered what it’d be like to fall in love, how I’d know I’d met the right woman.” He rolled his shoulders.
“And?”
“You just know. She gets under your skin and becomes more important than your own life. I can’t explain it any better.” He stared into the rain. “Her time with Bandarlok would have been short and hellish, and I never would have known.”
“Lords of Space move in mysterious ways, all right. She’s tough.” Johnny raised his eyebrows and nodded to himself. “I admire her. She was shook up by what Bandarlok did to her, but she rode like a trooper when we were escaping those revenge-happy thugs. She managed all those long hours in the saddle, then the river crossing. Drugs helped, but most of it was her stubbornness. Strong lady.” Johnny held up the small carving, which Mike could already tell was going to be a rearing horse. “This is for her, a souvenir of today’s wild ride. You planning to marry her?” His cousin bent over the tiny horse, shaping its mane.
Mike sat up straight and nodded emphatically. “As soon as we complete this mission, if she agrees. That’s why it’s so damn important I don’t blow this conversation, now I have a second chance to make my case with her. Once Shalira’s my wife, she's a Sectors citizen and no one can touch her, or send her back to Mahjundar against her will.”
Johnny set the horse
on the stone. “Yeah, I understand your plan.”
Mike picked up the miniature equine, admiring the details in the fading gray light, which posed no barrier to his enhanced night vision. “I'm expecting you to be my best man, you know.”
“Dress uniform, I suppose?” Grinning, Johnny brushed a hand over his less than inspection-state utilities, sending wood shavings flying. “For my wedding present, I'll help you pay her spacefare home. And Saium’s. I think they’re a package deal.” He took the carving from Mike’s hand. “But for now, I’ll give her this.”
Before Mike could say anything, his cousin strolled into the cave in search of dinner.
Happy to be alone for a while, Mike found it soothing to sit and watch the rain beat down on the forest outside the cave. Saium was probably correct—–no one in their right mind would venture out in this torrential rain, but he had to maintain vigilance. An occasional bolt of lightning or rumble of thunder broke the endless hissing sound of the rain. He was glad the cave was situated so no runoff came inside.
When Johnny finally reported for duty four hours later, Mike was ready to eat, his stomach no longer tied up in knots.
“The others asleep?” He slid off the rock and stretched.
“Shalira’s waiting for you with a bowl of stew. Quite domestic,” Johnny teased, ducking the blow Mike feinted in his direction. He caught Mike’s sleeve. “Listen, I don’t know if it makes any difference but I’ve got a theory about her blindness, about how she got her sight back in the tomb and all.”
“I snagged a few pieces of the medicine jar before we bugged out,” Mike said. “Figured on having the substance analyzed once we got back to the Sectors.”
“Waste of time.” Johnny shook his head. “I’m no doctor but I do know whatever she drank didn’t magically restore her vision. She did it herself.”
“Wait a minute, she’s not faking this disability, if that’s what you mean.” A spurt of anger shot through him.
But Johnny was holding up a hand. “No, I agree she’s blind most of the time all right, but I believe it’s not true blindness, not like your niece Cheryl. Saium told you Shalira was found unconscious at the scene of her brother’s murder, right? Maybe was assaulted herself? Injured anyway.”
Mike nodded, trying to curb his impatience, wondering where Johnny was going with this.
“And then woke up blind? Right, well there’s a thing called conversion disorder, where a person has had something so awful happen to them, that their mind deliberately blanks out their sight, or maybe paralyzes them, or makes them mute. It’s a form of escape from something too big to handle. I ain’t criticizing. Hell, you know I have my own problems after that last mission, so I get it.” Johnny rubbed his forehead. “I did some research for my own reasons then, fell over this conversion disorder thing. Stuck in my mind, probably because of Cheryl, although her case is different.”
“Can this disorder be cured?” Mike’s mind was racing with possibilities.
“Maybe. Better if it’s treated right away and her highness has been told she’s blind for what, fifteen years now? Don’t go getting your hopes up and don’t go talking to her about it, you gotta promise me. This is a delicate thing, gonna need experts, not just a field medic like me, who’s guessing. But I do remember reading about some things that can be tried. The fact she had her vision back in the tomb, no matter how it happened, might be helpful when the time comes to open the subject.”
“Thanks for telling me about this. I promise not to say anything to her until we’re home and I can consult specialists.” Even thinking about how to raise the subject with Shalira was daunting. Mike wasn’t tempted at all to break his promise to Johnny. How do you tell a woman who’s blind that maybe there isn’t a physical reason for her condition? Now wasn’t the time or place, especially with so little information to go on, only Johnny’s half remembered research. No use to stir up her hopes until he knew more. “I guess I’ll go have that dinner now. She and I have plenty of other things to discuss, trust me.”
“Good luck.” Johnny picked up a new stick and began peeling the bark off in long strips with his pocketknife.
Shalira sat cross-legged by the fire’s embers, stirring the stew from time to time. At the sound of his footsteps, she glanced up, a huge smile on her face. “I’m so glad you’re off duty now.” She ladled out a big bowlful of dinner for him before rising gracefully to her feet. “Come into the side chamber Saium prepared for me. We can have some privacy.”
Muttering in his sleep as if responding to his name, the old man stirred and rolled over in his blanket before resuming stentorian snoring which echoed in the cave.
Taking the bowl, Mike clasped the fingers of his free hand around hers. “Let me guide you.”
Stepping carefully past Saium so as not to awaken him, he took her into the alcove set aside for them. He noted that a single sleeping place had been prepared, his Sectors bedroll under some blankets, topped with the fur Shalira had taken from the nomad camp. A small Sectors-issue lamp was set on low on the cavern floor beside the bed. “You should be getting some rest,” he said as she made herself comfortable on the bedroll, wrapped in the fur, legs curled up under her.
She leaned back. “I’ll be fine. Johnny gave me some more of those wonderful painkillers. I’m sure all three of you are just as tired and cold as I am. I wanted to wait up for you, because we’ve had no chance to be private today until now.”
Seating himself cross-legged on the end of the makeshift bed, he sampled the stew. “You've had a grueling couple of days.”
“No more than any of you.” She took her hair down from its loose coils and spread the tendrils over her shoulders, combing out snarls with her fingers, as she’d done many times on the trail to the Valley of Tombs.
“Pretty busy, running from Bandarlok's warriors then searching for this cave in the downpour.” Mike set the mug aside. The meal was lukewarm and too spicy for his taste. “Saium says it’ll rain through tomorrow, so I’ve decided to spend the day here, rest the horses. We drove them pretty hard, especially the pack animals. Then maybe four more days until we reach the wreck. Depending on the location and how badly smashed the ship is, maybe another day working onsite. Set the horses free, call for extraction and bug out.”
“If you’re not going to eat the stew I stirred so diligently,” she said, “come and keep me warm, won’t you?”
“Now, how do you know I’m not wolfing down the cooking?” he teased, reaching out to tug on a strand of her silky black hair.
“I heard you place the mug on the ground after only one or two swallows.” She patted the blankets beside her. “Please?”
Scooting closer, he put an arm around her shoulders. “You're not getting chilled, are you?”
“No, I changed into dry clothes Johnny was kind enough to lend me from your gear, and I’ve been by the fire all this time. Surely you must have been admiring this outfit since you came inside?” Laughing at her own joke, she snuggled contentedly by his side, one arm draped around his waist. “And after you find this wreck you seek and we ‘bug out’ as you so elegantly express it, then what?”
“We go home. Eventually, we’ll have to travel across the Sectors to my planet, Azrigone. Which reminds me, there’s something I need to return to you.” Unfastening his pocket, he brought out the enameled locket, which gleamed even in the scant light the lantern was throwing.
Tilting her head, she extended her hand, palm up, and he laid the necklace in the center. Drawing a deep breath, she closed her fingers over the precious possession, holding the pendant to her heart for a moment. “Will you put it on for me?”
Awkwardly, he reached to loop the chain around her neck.
Shalira adjusted the locket so it sat on top of the Windhunter collar. As she fiddled with the jewelry, she said, “What happens to you and me next?”
“Are you sure you want to have this conversation now?” he asked.
“We left words unspoken between us befo
re.” Her voice was low, almost a sigh. “It’s only by the grace of the goddess we were given a second chance. We mustn’t waste her gift. Tonight we’re safe. Tomorrow?” Sketching a small sign in the air with her fingers, as if warding off possible bad fortune, she shrugged. “Who knows?”
He rolled his shoulders. “After what you endured at Bandarlok’s hands, I was concerned you might not want to worry about these matters tonight. I don’t have to sleep in here unless you want me to.”
“Yes, you did say in Bandarlok’s tent you were performing a rescue without strings.” She smiled. “I’m more grateful for your help than I can ever express.” She began braiding her hair. “There’s no haven for me on Mahjundar any longer,” she said. “Even if my father lives, he’d be the first to order my execution, for breaking the treaty with Bandarlok. He’d lose face if he didn’t. And Maralika hates me.”
Mike reached out, catching her hand. “Don’t braid it tonight, okay? I like it down, around your shoulders.” He let the silken strands flow through his fingers. “I’ve never seen such beautiful hair. Each filament practically glows in the firelight.”
“Oh.” Smiling, she folded her hands in her lap. “In that case—”
Taking a deep breath, Mike said, “Let’s begin at the Valley of the Tombs, when I was completely out of line, what I said to you. I do understand your actions, going ahead with what you felt was your duty.”
Shalira stared straight ahead. Twining her fingers through his and squeezing gently, she pressed a kiss on the back of his hand before rubbing her soft cheek against his palm. “You were so angry. And then we had no chance to talk. What were you offering me, there in the tomb?”
Lords of Space, why is talking about this stuff so hard? He’d rather charge into battle naked than talk about his emotions but this was his chance with her and he had to find the words. “Time to breathe, time to make another decision for yourself, time to fall in love with me maybe? Although, as it turned out, with Bandarlok arriving, it was a futile gesture on my part.”
Mission To Mahjundar (A Sectors SF Romance) Page 17
