Arissa?
Arissa! Oh gods, answer me!
He threw himself over Danlen’s body, crawling in the direction he’d felt her. There was something else, monsters moving through the dark around her.
No, not monsters, men with monstrous thoughts. The clean fragrance of the forest and that awful burnt coppery smell . . .
That he could even know that—was sure enough to bet his life on it—burst into his awareness and left him gasping. In the next instant he shoved the shock, the astonishing wonder of it, brutally aside.
All that mattered now was finding her.
He couldn’t go through the house. Staying low, Jolar crawled forward. He had to get outside and that ruined wall of windows was the fastest way.
Jolar got to a crouching position and eased along the wall. He heard the sound of a blaster shot not far away and an agonized cry. The blaster fired several more times and he didn’t have to look to know that whoever these men were, they were intent on killing everyone here.
He pushed to his feet and ducked through the opening. As soon as he was outside he ran for the tree line. Probably only the position of the house and the close proximity of Danlen’s study to the forest saved him. Any other place on the estate and he would have had twice as far to cover.
Panting, he made it to the trees. Now that he was hidden by the foliage, Jolar turned back to look and his eyes went wide. There were two shuttles that hadn’t been there before and a number of cloaked figures moving around the property, blasters at the ready, hunting survivors. The woman who had served their supper broke free to run from the house and was cut down before she got five steps.
The house itself was afire. Even as Jolar watched, the fire spread.
Jolar gripped the tree he hid behind hard enough for the bark to bite into his palm. He forced himself to breathe, to think.
She could smell the forest! She’s not in the house!
Jolar made his way along the tree line. He didn’t bother with quiet. The screams, the blaster fire would cover his movements, it was far more important he stay hidden. He bruised his shin painfully on a rock he missed in the darkness and it took an eternity to circle to the back of the house. There was a garden here, a little patio next to the herbery and the ruin of the kitchen behind it.
Jolar jerked back, bringing his blaster up as one of the men came around the building.
The man stopped, looking at something on the ground in the garden. He kicked at whatever it was, then almost as an afterthought lifted his weapon and hit it with two blaster bolts.
The man moved on, the style of his cloak familiar from Xan-Tellar and for a moment the fire illuminated the high cheekbones and strong brow, the bronze cast of the man’s face.
He was Utavian.
The man continued his search and once he was out of sight Jolar moved to the edge of the tree line.
He swallowed hard as he recognized Cenon’s bright hair. Danlen’s wife was face down in the garden, unmoving.
Arissa wasn’t with her.
The house was engulfed now and he almost didn’t hear the shuttles powering up. The shuttles circled over the ruin of Danlen’s home once, then disappeared into the Sertarian night.
Jolar broke from the tree line and quickly reached the herbery but there was no one inside the ruined greenhouse.
She was outside! I know she made it outside!
But what if she hadn’t? What if he had run for the trees when he should have been making for the kitchen? What if she had died inside that inferno?
“Arissa!” he shouted.
He knew that the Utavians could have left someone here. The shuttles taking off would be an excellent ruse to draw out any survivors.
His grip tightened on the blaster. Right now he wouldn’t mind so much if someone had stayed behind though.
It would feel very good to hurt one of them.
“Arissa!” he shouted again.
He covered the garden quickly, crushing the plants beneath his boots as he searched.
She made it outside! Please tell me she made it outside!
She would have been with Cenon. Cenon was running for the forest.
Had Arissa run too but in another direction? Was she bleeding, dying, somewhere else?
If he lost her—
Arrena, Goddess, please, I’ll do anything!
He went back to where Danlen’s wife lay in one of the furrows of her garden. The wounds on her back rendered any assistance hopeless, her blue gown was gruesome with burns and blood. Her long hair spread out over the ground, her bright, bright hair golden by the light of the burning house and, against the ground, weakly reflecting the blaze, one black curl . . .
Jolar dropped the blaster and threw himself down to roll Cenon’s body to the side.
Arissa’s dark hair covered her face, her skin deathly pale, the back of her dress soaked with blood.
Jolar’s heart tore as he gathered her, limp and cold, into his arms.
Twenty-four
Arissa groaned and blue eyes flashed in her mind.
Jolar.
“Arissa? You’re awake?” he asked softly, his palm gently cupped her cheek. “Sweet, are you awake?”
“What the frack happened?” she croaked and tried to force her eyes open.
She heard his breath catch and he made a choking sound but whether he were laughing or crying she couldn’t quite tell.
Her head hurt and opening her eyes sure didn’t help her headache any. The room that swam around her was unfamiliar with a gray ceiling and walls that looked to have been cut from rock. There was a light flush against the ceiling above her and below her was the soft-firm feel of a mattress. She was dressed in just her halter and underwear and there was a blanket over her.
But she had the answer about the choking sound. He was doing both.
Jolar smiled down at her, tears running down his face.
“Where—” she began.
“In a minute. How do you feel?”
“Like a sular fell on my head,” she murmured. “What? What did I say?”
“Cenon fell on you,” he said grimly. “And when she did, she saved your life.”
“Cenon?” Arissa wondered then her eyes went wide. “Oh, gods, Jolar!” she cried, reaching out for him. “There are men, armed! You have to—”
“It’s all right,” he said quickly, cradling her hand gently. “That was yesterday. They’re gone now. “
“Yesterday?” She looked him over. “Are you all right? Did they hurt you?”
His blue eyes were steady but there was an echo of deep pain in them. “The initial attack knocked me out but I wasn’t hurt.”
He brushed a lock of her hair away from her face.
He hasn’t done that in so long . . .
“I’m all right and we’re safe here, okay? Now, you said your head hurts. Anything else?”
Arissa shifted her body carefully. She could feel her fingers and toes and nothing seemed to be broken. She ached all over though.
She wet her lips. “How are my eyes?”
“Are you having trouble with your vision?” he asked, waves of fear flowing around her.
“No, I mean are my pupils different sizes? That could mean concussion.”
He peered closely into each eye. “No, they’re the same size. I’d bet you do have a concussion. I thought—” His pain rolled over her. “I couldn’t wake you.”
“I want to sit up.”
“Let me help you.”
He was gentle as he eased her into a sitting position but she winced all the same. Her hand went to her temple. “Oh, I can definitely say that my head hurts.”
“There’s some analgesics in the medkit. Hold on.”
He placed the medkit on the bed beside her and rifled through the contents. The room was sparse with this large bed in the center of the space and a couple of storage units around the room. There were no windows but through the open doorway she could see another room beyond this one with the sam
e ceiling, walls and utilitarian lighting but that one had a table and metal chairs.
“Where are we?” she asked.
“Danlen’s emergency shelter.”
“Oh.” She frowned. That didn’t seem like information you would give a guest who had just arrived. “He told you he had one?”
“No,” he said, placing the pain patch on her upper arm. “Give that a minute. If you feel dizzy or nauseous, tell me right away.”
“What time is it?”
He shrugged, closing the medkit. “It was almost nineteen hundred hours last time I checked. But that was a while ago. Feeling any better?”
The headache was slowing retreating and the pain patch was helping with her achiness too.
“Is there anything to drink?”
In response he went to the other room and brought back a metal cup filled with cold water.
“Hey, not so fast,” he objected at her thirsty gulps. “Just sip, okay? We aren’t going anywhere for a while.”
“Where are we again?”
“A shelter about a kilometer outside the estate.”
“If Danlen didn’t tell you about it, how did you know it was here?”
“I didn’t. Our shuttle was destroyed, the house was on fire and you were,” he swallowed, “hurt. I was just sitting there with you on the ground trying to figure out what the frack to do. Cenon was lying there in the dirt next to us and I suddenly wondered why. She knew Danlen was in the house so why run outside and not to him? Then I thought about how you said Danlen loved her. He wouldn’t have left her, not in his business, without providing for her safety. Maybe she wasn’t just running from something but to something.”
He sat down on the bed beside her. “So if she were supposed to just cut and run in case of danger then that’s where she was heading when she was killed.” He closed his eyes briefly. “As much as I didn’t want to leave you, I couldn’t help you by sitting there. I managed to find a working hand light and went in the direction that Cenon was headed. I didn’t find anything but forest. But Danlen would have made sure Cenon could find whatever it was even in the dark. So thinking it might be easier seen in the dark I shut off the light.”
“And that’s when you saw it?”
He gave a half-smile. “No that’s when I tripped. I caught myself against a tree, thank the gods. Remember the gendara trees? On the ship?”
“The one you wouldn’t let me touch?”
“It was a gendara tree.”
She frowned. “Okay.”
“A gendara tree,” he repeated. “On Sertar. A tree that you’d know even if you were blind and deaf because—”
“Because you’d feel the sting,” she finished.
He gave a nod. “And Danlen was Gensoyan. So I just followed the gendara trees and I found the door hidden into the side of the hill.”
“The door was unlocked?”
A pained look crossed his face. “No. I needed Cenon’s palm print to open it. I had to carry her out here. But as soon as the door was opened all the systems automatically came online. We have heat, fresh air, food, water. We could hold out here for months.”
“You aren’t planning to stay here that long, are you?” she asked, surprised.
He gave a faint smile. “If I did, would you stay with me?”
Arissa looked away. “Is there anything to eat?”
She’d hurt him. Why did it always come to this? She couldn’t be any part of his life without wanting all of him. To see what she wanted before her and never have it would be agony and staying with him as his mistress would make him despise himself. If she were gone at least he would keep his self-respect.
And someday maybe it wouldn’t hurt so much.
“Yes,” he said. “Think you’re up to walking? I can carry you if you’re not.”
He must have carried her here too but thankfully she didn’t remember that. She didn’t think she could handle having his arms around her right now without breaking down.
“I’ll walk,” she said quickly. “I’m uh, going to need something to wear and probably a shower too.”
“I can give you a dress. You can have the shower as long as I’m in there with you.”
“Jolar, I really don’t think—”
“First off,” he interrupted. “You just woke up after being out way longer than you should have been for a concussion. It may have something to do with being a Seer or you could have suffered such a bad blow that you have a cranial fracture. I just don’t know. I don’t know much beyond basic aid and I don’t have the equipment to diagnose, let alone treat, you. I’m not about to let you get into the shower when you could lose your balance and suffer another injury.
“Second,” he continued. “I don’t think there’s a part of you I haven’t seen so there’s really no reason I shouldn’t be in there with you.”
“I guess I’m not going to get a shower then.”
His lips thinned. “Have it your way. But I’m telling you now, until I’m sure you’re all right, you aren’t getting in there without me.”
She choked back hysterical laughter, her hand tight on the blanket over her. Just sitting with him, feeling the warmth of his body had her breath quickening. But both of them naked with warm water running over him . . .
Sitting here with him on the bed, when under this blanket all she had on was her underthings wasn’t helping either. “Can I at least have something to wear?”
He went to a storage unit in the room and dug through it. He shook out a gown and offered it to her. It was a simple pale green dress of soft fabric. Pull-over style, the dress had a wide neck, three-quarter sleeves and a tie belt—and no doubt had belonged to the much-taller Cenon.
It was also going to be about as flattering as a festering sack.
“Isn’t there anything else?” she asked, looking at it with dismay. “I’m going to be swimming in that.”
Hitting her head must have knocked the good sense right out of it.
He’s betrothed to someone else! The last thing I should be worried about is trying to look pretty for him!
“I want something that’s going to be easy to get off you.”
She blinked.
“I mean if you get dizzy or sick to your stomach,” he added.
“Fine,” she mumbled, holding her hand out to take it. “Give it to me and turn around.”
He pulled it away. “No, and don’t bother arguing. I’m not going to turn my back the first time you stand up, Arissa. I need to be ready to catch you if you fall.”
“Jolar, I’m fine.”
“Good. I really don’t want you to fall.”
She glared at him.
He raised an eyebrow. “You’re the Seer, what would you say the chances of me giving in on this are?”
She sighed.
“All right,” he said when it was clear she wasn’t going to argue further. “I’m going to help you stand up. If you’re steady, I’ll put the dress on you.”
This really was ridiculous. He helped her to her feet as if she were a complete invalid. He kept hold of her while he put the dress over her head and had her stick one arm through then the other. He tied the belt around her waist himself.
“All right?” he asked, his hands still at her waist as he peered into her face.
“If you’re like this now, as a father-to-be you’ll be completely insufferable,” she grumbled.
There was a sudden silence and her throat tightened. Just the thought of him and Jasa having . . .
“Come on, let’s get you to the table,” he said.
He half-carried her to the next room, despite her protests that she was perfectly all right to walk, and helped her sit.
“We have some the finest meal pack selections in the quadrant,” he said with forced brightness. “What sounds good? Onka cakes? Sular stew?”
“What are you having?”
“I was going to try the stew but it doesn’t matter,” he replied. “They’re individual packs so you can
have whatever you like. There’s spring medallions, how about those?”
“Okay,” she said, taking the opportunity to look around this room while he got their meal ready. This room was twice as big as the bedroom and contained this table, a small kitchenette, a couple of comfortable looking sofas and chairs and a computer terminal. What appeared to be the door to the outside was sealed and neatly organized on the wall behind her, between this room and the bedroom, was a complete arsenal of weapons.
“Are there external security systems?” she asked.
He followed her gaze. “Oh, yes. We have infrared cameras, mounted pulse cannons, proximity detectors that will go off if anything larger than snouse runs by.”
“A man with a lot of enemies,” she murmured.
He placed the medallions in front of her and, smiling, placed next to it a metal cup holding a fizzy pink concoction. “We even have several months worth of ingredients to make shooting stars.”
She swallowed hard realizing that he’d just recreated their first dinner out on the Queen’s Light.
It hadn’t been an accident either.
“Is it all right?” he asked quietly.
“It looks great,” she managed. She took a sip of the drink. “It’s great, thanks.”
Jolar sat across from her and they ate in silence for a while.
“If the shuttle’s been destroyed, we’ll need a way back to Tano,” she said.
“There’s a groundcar in a storage room off this one, if I can get it running it will get us to Patim-Sertar. We can get transport to Tano from there.”
“You don’t seem very concerned.”
“Getting us back to Tano has been the least of my problems.”
“You mean that someone just murdered another one of your suspects?”
“And I didn’t learn a fracking thing about Danlen. Oh, except that he was willing to pay me ten million credits for a contract that would be worth maybe a tenth of that to him.”
She blinked at him. “That was his offer?”
“We shook on it right before someone blew the room apart.”
She shook her head. “Why would he do that?”
“I don’t know. I was hoping that you would be able to tell me but then—” Jolar rubbed his hand over his eyes.
The Seer Page 21
