They sat and watched the guard for another half an hour, and eventually he turned and moved closer to the Stolen Store, but seemed to hunker down as if he'd switched most of the machine off.
“Like we were in the back of the transporter,” Garek decided. “Saving power.”
He moved back from their position, slowly enough for Aidan to keep up with him, and then quietly made his way to the border between the Illy and the Kardanx camp.
Unlike the Illian side of camp, where everyone slept, men still walked around, talking loudly, or simply sat in front of their makeshift houses to soak up the light of the Star.
“It's like they don't want to sleep,” Aidan said.
Garek shrugged. “Perhaps what they did to their women weighs on them in their dreams.”
Aidan looked at him. “Do you really think they did that?”
“Didn't you understand that from last night? That's the reason there are only six women on the Kardanx side.”
Aidan said nothing, and they settled in, watching a man walk listlessly between the shacks, with no clear destination.
“How can a society come back from that?” When Aidan eventually spoke, his throat sounded raw.
“Especially when they have the alternative, the Illian side, staring them in the face every day.” Garek wondered how much that had affected them. Seeing the Illian women, if not happy with their situation, coping just like the men, strong and determined. And the six women from their own side doing the same.
“Are you going to include them in the escape?” Aidan shifted, turning with the man they were watching as he stumbled and then reached out a hand for balance against a wall, and simply stood with his head hanging.
“That's not my choice to make. Kas, Taya, and the others will need to decide. I don't think they're a stable, united group. When you told that whopping lie about caring what happened to Pan Nuk to stir them up, you were much more successful than I thought you'd be. They were very quick to criticize their prayer man. Something tells me that's not usual practice.”
“Garek.” Aidan drew in a deep breath, and then blew it out. “All right, you've every right to feel aggrieved by my father's poor grasp of the problems in West Lathor, and yes, I was lying to stir things up, but what I said would have been true if I'd known about it. My father would also have been appalled if he knew about Pan Nuk, I promise you.”
Garek didn't respond. He watched the man eventually push away from the wall and disappear deeper into the Kardanx camp.
“I knew my parents loved each other, but I could never have believed my father would take my mother's death so hard. And my sister was the one who was supposed to be the next liege. She tried to take over when things started slipping, but it wasn't as if my father was dead. He kept insisting he was fine, that he could do it, so she was stuck, with no real power to act, but with the knowledge that things were getting worse. He started accusing her of trying to usurp him, when all she wanted was to keep things going, to make sure things didn't slide.”
Garek turned and looked at him, saw he was leaning back in a crouch against a wall, looking above the roofs of the Kardanx camp to where Barit hung, white and gray, on the far horizon.
“When she met Prince Hasi at a diplomatic event a year ago, it was as if she fell in love at first sight. He seemed to feel the same. They were almost never apart from that moment, and my father made life so hard for her, the idea of returning to the south east with him, to work with him in ruling Baltar, was a good use of her education and training, and it put her with the man she loved, and away from the heartache of watching my father fall apart. From the unfairness of him blaming her for becoming what he had trained and encouraged her to be.”
“But that left you alone to deal with the mess.” Garek didn't blame the princess. It sounded as though she'd made the best choice she could.
“Yes.” Aidan gave a half-laugh. “She felt a heavy weight of guilt for leaving me, but it is what it is. She stayed and tried to make it work for a year after she met Hasi, but eventually she conceded defeat. And in a way, she's carrying on the tradition of my mother. My mother was born a Nordren, she followed my father to West Lathor after he met her up north. She was the one who started the Iron Guard.”
Garek leaned back with Aidan, enjoying the heat of the Star light on his face. “That reminds me. You say the Iron Guard has deserted your father?”
“They were never my father's men and women. They were my mother's. When she died, they continued on for a while, but my father's orders were either erratic or non-existent. Rose Hanson, the general in charge, brought my father an ultimatum while I was with him. She said they were not players for his amusement, they were a weapon to be used wisely and strategically. That they couldn't justify the recruitment process, bringing new babies in, was how she put it, under the current terms. That if he couldn't behave like the ruler my mother had been, the Guard were falling back on the signed agreement with my mother and leaving for the homes some of them hadn't seen in ten years.”
“And your father's response didn't reassure them?”
Aidan shook his head.
“What does the Iron Guard do that's so special, though. Why wouldn't they have been home in so long?”
“I don't know. My father wouldn't discuss it.” Aidan rubbed at his forehead. “I just know that the Iron Guard's reputation has made West Lathor safe for a long time. And now the whispers have started that it's disbanded, greedy eyes are looking our way.”
Garek contemplated it for a while, letting the sounds of the camp settle around him, slowly getting quieter and quieter.
He wasn't sure when he sensed eyes on him, but he turned his head slightly, and saw a man in the shadows a few shacks away.
He rose to his feet in a fluid motion, and the man stepped out into the light.
Ketl. He recognized him as being the man tied to the tree yesterday.
Anticipation sang in his blood.
Aidan coughed quietly. “You're blurring, Garek. Stop calling the Change.”
He tried to settle, but not that hard. He didn't want to settle. He wanted to feel the surge of anticipation and adrenalin he usually got before battle.
“You weren't on night shift, and you aren't on day shift,” the Kardanx said. “How is that?”
“They don't know we're here. Didn't the prayer man tell you after they visited us last night?”
“I worked the night shift.” Ketl scowled, and Garek felt the first touch of hope that there could be a compromise with the Kardanx. If they weren't even exchanging gossip with Ketl, then perhaps they had truly cast him out of their circle.
“How did you get here, then?”
Garek shrugged. “I brought down one of their sky craft and flew here.”
“Why?”
“To rescue the woman you tried to kill.”
Ketl stiffened, and Garek took a step forward.
“Just remember, we don't want to attract attention.” Aidan spoke softly.
“Your woman needs to learn to keep her mouth shut.”
Garek drew in a steady, even breath. “My woman is a person who's allowed to speak as much as anyone else.”
“So, you're here to rescue her. Why wouldn't I run to the sky raiders about this?”
“Why would you cooperate with the enemy?” Garek slid another few steps closer.
“She did,” Ketl spat. “She went straight to them.”
Garek simply shrugged.
“You planning to rescue the rest of us, too, or is it just her?” Ketl's eyes narrowed.
“More than just her.” Garek didn't know if they were taking the Kardanx, but he knew he didn't want to take this piece of garbage.
Something of his contempt must have shown on his face, because Ketl took a step forward into the open space between shacks, put his hands on either side of his mouth, and gave a shout.
“Guard!”
“Shit,” Aidan swore behind him, but Garek ignored him.
He
called the Change, ripping the air out of Ketl's lungs and forming a bubble around his head with air as thin as he could possibly make it.
Ketl's shout cut off, and his hands went to his throat.
“I hear the guard coming,” Aidan whispered. “From behind us.”
Ketl dropped to his knees, his face going red, his lips blue.
“You shouldn't have shouted.” Garek crouched in from of him. “I didn't make it all the way from Barit to have my plans destroyed by you. I risked my life to save Taya, do you honestly think I wouldn't sacrifice yours?”
“Garek.” Aidan had grabbed his arm, and was trying to drag him away.
He kept the air around Ketl's head thin as he let himself be pulled away. Aidan got him behind a shack just as the guard lumbered into the clearing.
Ketl was gasping and Garek gave another hard yank of air.
Aidan didn't speak, but he kept tugging and Garek allowed himself to be led away.
“Are you crazy?” Aidan pulled him to the hut closest to the river, so the sound of the running water drown out their conversation. “Why would you bring attention to us like that?”
“He threatened our escape plans.” Garek raised his brows. “You saying I should have let him get us and probably everyone else killed?”
Aidan took a deep breath. “You're right.” He loosened his shoulders. “But seeing him die like that, like that guard on the big ship . . .”
Garek put a hand on his arm. “He might not be dead. I'll need to go back to check.”
“What are you going to do if he's alive?” Aidan asked.
“What do you think I can do?” Garek asked. “Do you think he'll suddenly decide to keep quiet?”
Aidan shook his head.
“That's what I think, too. So I'll finish the job.”
Chapter 31
Taya didn't know how, but she knew Garek was watching her as she walked down the transporter's ramp. She forced herself not to look for him, just as she'd forced herself all day to present a calm, neutral facade, all the while hugging her joy close.
She bent her head and closed her eyes against the stinging, swirling dust as the ship took off behind her.
Kas and Min were walking, heads together, in front of her, and she slowed down even more, wondering where her lover could be hiding.
When an arm reached out from behind a wooden hut, she gripped the outstretched hand with a smile and swallowed the laugh of joy she felt as she was lifted up and swung around, set gently against a wall.
Kisses rained down on her eyes, her cheeks, and then stopped, so her eyes fluttered open and she saw Garek's lips hovering just over hers. He had shaved, and smelled of the spicy soap made from dala bark that Kas and Quardi used.
“My heart is too big for my body,” she whispered to him, rubbing her lips against his smooth skin, and he made a sound like the groan of a steel girder before it collapses, and slanted his mouth over hers.
She tightened her hold around his waist, kissing him back.
When he drew back, she saw black smudges on his cheeks, rubbed off from her face to his, and she stopped him leaning in again with a hand against his chest.
“I'm making you dirty. And I really need to go clean up.”
He eased back reluctantly and lifted up a small bag. “I've got the things you left outside the shack this morning. Let's go.”
He took her hand and tugged her along, and she followed him, bemused. “This isn't the way to the women's wash area--”
“That's because you're not washing there tonight.”
She let him lead her, happy to trust he knew what he was doing, and when he took her behind Quardi's forge, where she'd brought him the night before, her breathing sped up a little.
He moved a screen aside for her and then put it back in place when she'd stepped through.
He'd obviously already been here. Had set things up.
There were two screens, making the area completely private, and in the small area between the back wall of the forge and the river was one of the large basins Quardi used to cool the tools he created.
Steam rose up from it.
“A hot bath?” Her fingers tightened around his.
He smiled, pleased with her reaction. “I asked my father to heat some water for you, then I carried it back here when he finished for the day and the guard left.”
This was beyond thoughtful.
She kicked off her boots and pulled off the filthy shift she was wearing. When she stepped knee deep into the hot water, she let out a gasp at the feel of the soaking heat on her poor feet.
She let her head drop back as she wiggled her toes, and then raised it again when she realized Garek had gone quiet.
He was staring at her.
“You are beautiful.”
She saw the heat in his eyes, and felt a responding blossom of heat in her belly.
Suddenly shy, although she didn't know why, she crouched down and then sat, reacting to the sudden heat of the water with a shiver.
“You have soap?” she asked, her voice husky and low.
He lifted it out the bag he had set on the ground.
He walked toward her, and she realized they'd never been this intimate before.
They'd made love in the meadows above the village, they'd walked hand in hand down the street, had stolen kisses in doorways and in her garden, but last night was the first time they'd ever slept the night in each other's arms, and he had never been inside her bathroom while she bathed.
He moved around the basin and crouched behind her and she immersed herself completely in the water, coming up with her hair wet and sleek against her skull.
He seemed to hesitate a moment, as if he, too, suddenly realized how intimate this was, and so she reached back and drew his hands down to her head, and he began working the soap into her hair.
“That you did this, created this little piece of luxury for me, makes me love you even more, when I didn't think that was possible.”
“It was my pleasure.” He leaned forward, cheek pressed against hers, and she felt him smile. “Seeing you standing naked in the tub . . . That turned out to be just as much a gift for me as for you.” She laughed softly as his hands worked the lather through her hair, firm and gentle, and then strayed down to her breasts.
And then, suddenly, she wanted out of the tub now, and into his arms. She rinsed her hair out and then took the soap from him so she could quickly finish.
When she stood and turned, water cascading off her, she saw he'd stepped back and taken off his clothes.
He was magnificent.
Strong--he'd always been strong--but in the last light of the day she could see the sleek muscles, the way he'd grown even more into his powerful frame in the two years he'd spent in the Guard.
Steam wafted off her skin, and everything felt hot, inside and out.
His hands shook as he stepped closer and lifted her out of the tub, let her body slide down his.
She reached down, gently closed her hand around his erection as he bent his head to her breast.
“I can't wait,” she whispered, and she thought he might have muttered “Thank the Star” as he lifted her up against the wall of the forge.
Then neither of them spoke again, for a long time.
His father had made excuses for them, something Garek never thought he'd see in his lifetime.
Certainly not when what he was excusing them for was the most incredible sex of Garek's life. Watching Taya as she'd stood, naked and uninhibited in that tub . . .
He had to concentrate on moving the food from his plate to his mouth, because that image kept wiping his thoughts clean of anything but the warm, sweet-smelling woman tucked up against his side.
He looked up and found Kas staring at him, hard-eyed. He stared back, and eventually Kas concentrated on his food.
After the small talk, everyone ate the meal in relative silence, anyway. They were tired and hungry, but there was a tension among them, too.
&n
bsp; “You watched us land this evening?” Kas scraped the last scraps from his plate and set it down on the ground.
“Aidan and I wanted to see what the security protocols were so we know what we need to overcome if we're going to take the transporter for ourselves.”
Taya lifted her head from his shoulder. “And?”
“And if they had protocols at the start, they're not bothering with them anymore.”
“They think we've got nowhere to run. They seem to be unable to consider that we would take to the skies,” Taya said.
“That's exactly it.” He wound his hand in her wet hair and lifted it off her shoulders. “They don't understand their own impact on us. They've expanded our horizons with their existence and their technology, but it's like they're incapable of realizing that's given us new options.”
“What else did you do?” Noor asked.
“We spent the morning checking the weaknesses Eli has already noticed, then ...” He rubbed a hand on his thigh, “then we had a run-in with Ketl.”
There was a general intake of breath.
“He sought us out, and he threatened to tell the sky raiders I was here, that I planned to help you escape.”
Kas's eyes glittered fury in the firelight, and beside him, Taya seemed to vibrate.
“He started shouting for the guard--”
Quardi sucked in a breath. “That's what that shout was?”
Garek nodded.
“We wondered.” Pilar looked between him and Aidan. “Do you think he told the guard anything?”
“I think he would have. I killed him before he could.”
There was silence.
“How?” Kas asked. “The day shift is off the hook, but if the sky raiders look for the perpetrator, some of the night shift might be under suspicion. If they decided to search--”
“I didn't lay a hand on him,” Garek said.
“Then how?” Kas frowned.
“He sucked the air right out of his lungs.” Aidan spoke with a calm he hadn't had earlier. “Garek did the right thing. That bastard was going to throw us all over the cliff, just to get petty revenge.”
“I didn't realize you could suck the air out of someone's lungs,” his father murmured.
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