by Cara Bristol
“Wait…you can walk out?”
“We’re not locked in, if that’s what you mean.”
“Then what keeps you there?”
“Honor,” I said. “If a prisoner does not live up to his word, not only is a guard posted, the time will be extended—or the offender could be banished.”
“So, if there’s no guard, I can come visit you!”
“No, you can’t. I must remain there alone.”
“That’s not fair. You ought to be entitled to conjugal visits.” She tightened her grip around my waist and buried her face against my chest. “I’m going to miss you. I love you, Darq.”
“I love you, too. I miss you already.” I pressed my cheek to her head, and inhaled, trying to capture her touch and scent to carry with me into the ward. “Promise me, you’ll be careful,” I said. “No venturing into blizzards, no falling into latrines. Don’t go to the meeting place alone. Take somebody with you. And don’t try to hike there. Ride a skimmer. If you can’t get one, wait until you can. Go easy on your ankle. Starr can help you wrap it, and if you have any troubles, call Stovak, our healer.”
“I’ll be careful.”
“Two minutes!” Torg shouted from the main chamber.
“He’s quite the timekeeper, isn’t he?” she muttered.
“I’d better get some things together.” Reluctantly, I disengaged from our embrace, shoved a couple of changes of clothes into a drawstring bag, and slipped into my kel. “Walk me out?” I said.
“Of course!” She dove into our bed and came up with the animal totem. She handed it to me. “Take Mr. Buddy with you. To remind you of me.”
I slipped it into my bag. The totem carried her scent. I would have part of her with me.
Sunny donned her kel, and together we went to meet Torg.
He’d suited up, and so had Starr.
I clasped Sunny’s hand, and the four of us left.
People emerged from their huts to stare. “Do they know what happened?” I asked in a low voice.
“Yes.” Torg nodded. “Before departing, Romando and Polonio told everyone they encountered what had transpired. The tribe is expecting you to be banished.”
“You didn’t tell them I was being warded?”
Torg shot me a wry look. “I figured you should be the first to know. I’ll call a tribal meeting to inform them.”
I could tell he did not look forward to the encounter. He would be heckled and could be challenged to a muta. My suspicions were confirmed as we arrived at the warding cave, and I glanced back. Curiosity on onlooker faces turned to surprise and then hostility. My tribe held certain expectations of justice. Probably they imagined how they would feel if someone had stolen a mate meant for them.
“Don’t worry about it. I can handle it,” he said, and I realized then he hadn’t rejected banishment only to safeguard Sunny, but also to protect me. My older brother who’d raised me after our parents died in an avalanche had looked for an excuse not to banish me. I could see he wanted to hug me, now, but held back because of our audience.
My mate had no such restraints. She flung herself into my arms and meshed her lips to mine. Our kiss was deep, hard, and tasted of desperation as if we both feared there was more to this warding than what appeared. I hugged her and wiped her tears away. “Don’t cry,” I said.
“I’m not,” she lied.
“Time will pass quickly.” I lied, too.
We broke apart, and Torg cleared his throat. “I hope I don’t need to remind you of your honor. Your offense was very serious. If you leave the ward before your time is up, I will have to follow through and banish you.”
“I understand.” I kissed Sunny once more, and then I entered the ward.
Chapter Twenty-One
Sunny
I waited until Torg and Starr were fast asleep before tiptoeing out. Like an illuvian lamp, the damn moon spotlighted the compound. Anyone glancing out their hut door would see me sneaking to the ward.
Two weeks had passed since Darq had been sent to the big house, er, cave. They could call it a “ward” if they wanted to, but it was jail… Sunny marries a felon. Wouldn’t that be an exciting episode of the show?
I yanked the hood over my head and faked a masculine stomp so if some busybody was spying on me, he’d mistake me for a male. I carried a bowl of stew. If anybody asked, I’d been instructed to deliver meals to the prisoner. That was my story, and I was sticking to it.
Everybody should be asleep anyway, but that didn’t apply to the cameras. They were still operational, although they’d kept a low profile, and I didn’t see them often. However, I didn’t trust Apogee. After spilling the beans to Romando, my producer would rat me out to Torg in a heartbeat if he thought it would boost ratings.
To avoid leaving fresh tracks, I took care to step in the footprints already leading to the ward.
Arriving at the cave, safe and sound, I scooted inside.
It was a tight squeeze to get to a small roundish chamber tall enough to permit me to stand upright. A small fire that barely knocked back the chill flickered off damp walls spotted with suspicious-looking dark spots. The cave had all the appearances of a dungeon.
On the stony ground, Darq lay wrapped in a kel. He sprang up. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to visit you. Have you eaten? I brought you a file,” I joked, holding out the bowl of kel stew. He didn’t need to saw his way out; if he wanted to escape, he could walk out. A Dakonian ward brought new meaning to minimum security penitentiary.
“You shouldn’t be here,” he said, but took the bowl of stew, set it down, and hugged me. “I’ve missed you so much.” He squeezed so tight, I could hardly breathe. “Did anyone see you?”
“I don’t think so. It’s late.”
“You shouldn’t be here.” He kissed me. “It’s against the rules.” Kiss. “You need to leave.” Kiss.
I melted against him. The two weeks we’d been apart had seemed like months. I’d missed his big, solid warm body next to me in bed at night, his deep rumbling voice, his growls, his smell, his company. “I had to see you.”
“Is something wrong? What happened?”
“I was just going crazy without you.”
“I’m sorry for putting you through this.”
I shook my head. “We’re together because of what you did. Seeing you now will help me through the separation. Now that I know I can sneak away and come see you, it will be bet—”
“No!” He shook his head. “You can’t come again. It’s too risky. If you got caught, Torg might ward you.”
“Then we’d be together!”
“In a different cave. This isn’t the only one.”
“Oh.” My heart sank. I thought I’d discovered a perfect solution. The only thing worse than longing for Darq would be being stuck in a cold, dank cave while doing it. I hadn’t appreciated the extent of the modifications to our living cave until I saw this place. “Do they ever let you out of here?” I glanced around.
“Once a week, I go to the bath cave.”
“I could meet you there!” I said. I’d intended my visit to be a conjugal one, but the dampness, the mold, the hard cold stone caused me to rethink that idea. But the bath cave? That would do, quite nicely.
He groaned and hugged me. “I wish…I wish I could, but the chances of being caught there are much greater than here.” He set me away from him. “How are you? What have you been doing?”
“I’ve been doing the cooking, practicing sewing so I can help you with the kel. I did go to the meeting place one day—”
“Alone?” He glowered.
“Not alone.” I planted my hands on my hips and glared back. “I wouldn’t do that. Getting lost in a snowstorm and falling into a latrine once is plenty for me. Starr and Torg took me.”
“Okay. Sorry,” he said.
“I talked to my sister and Devon again. She did get accepted into the program and w
ill arrive in the next group of women.”
“I’m very happy for you. I’m looking forward to meeting them.”
“That’s all my news.” I didn’t tell him about my loneliness, how often I cried because I missed him so much. I tried to keep busy, but it was hard.
“And your show is over now?”
“Anybody’s guess,” I said. “Apogee said they’d keep filming as long as cameras were operational, but I don’t see them too often.” It was possible they were skulking around, but I’d written off Apogee and the show so totally, I’d stopped watching for the cameras. However, if one did cross my path, I’d make like a Dakonian and kill it.
“One has been visiting me. I’ve been talking to your…producer, is that what he’s called?”
“Yes. You shouldn’t talk to him. He can’t be trusted.”
“It helps to pass the time.”
“Well, then okay, but don’t tell him anything important.”
“He asks me about my life, how I felt when I saw you, why I picked you.”
“They call it a confessional—when you speak directly to the camera,” I explained. “They’ll dub in your interviews to explain the other footage they shot.” Apogee aroused my suspicion, but I couldn’t imagine they could cause any more damage. All our secrets were out. Darq was aware I’d come to Dakon for the show; everyone on his entire planet knew he’d misappropriated a chit intended for somebody else. All we had to do was wait out his incarceration, and we’d be home free.
* * * *
We kissed and hugged some more, but then Darq insisted I leave. He feared we’d get caught, and neither of us wanted to risk me getting incarcerated, his sentence being extended, or worst of all, him getting banished. He transferred the stew to his dish and gave me back the bowl to eliminate evidence of my visit. Seeing him had reassured me he was all right, but made me ache with greater longing. I’d be counting the days until his freedom, and we could get on with our lives.
Back in our cave, I listened outside the passage to Torg and Starr’s private chamber. Masculine snores drifted down the corridor. Nobody had awakened to discover I’d left. Good.
Too keyed up to sleep, I collected a towel, clean clothes, and body wash in hopes a hot soak would relax me.
At this time of night, it was unlikely anyone other than me would want to bathe, but to be sure, I dragged the three rocks in front of the entrance. I was no prude and had no body issues to speak of, but I wasn’t comfortable with the Dakonians’ total lack of modesty. Besides, I needed to be alone to mope properly.
It was steamy and warm at the mineral pools. Poor Darq. The ward hadn’t been freezing, but his tiny fire didn’t fully heat the cave. I’d asked him why he didn’t build a bigger one, and he’d said he had to ration the limited amount of firewood they brought him.
“Warding isn’t supposed to be comfortable,” he’d explained.
“Well, I’m going to have a word with Torg,” I’d said.
“And you’ll tell him you know what the conditions are like, how? Because you broke the rules and came for a visit? Besides, he knows. He can’t go easy on me, or the tribe will demand banishment.”
I slipped into the hot, frothing mineral spring and vowed to bring him another kel tomorrow night. He could conceal it under the one he had. I’d also sneak him a couple of logs. As long as he didn’t suddenly have a cord stockpiled, no one would know he’d gotten a few extra.
I understood Torg was caught between a chunk of ice and a block of frozen water. He had spared Darq the worst but had to maintain appearances with the tribe. However, if you couldn’t show a little favoritism to your own brother, what good was nepotism anyway?
I closed my eyes and leaned against the ledge. The swirling water warmed my body but did little to calm my mind. Thoughts and emotions ran on a loop through my brain. A big lump of loneliness and longing had formed in my throat. Being in the mineral spring reminded me of coming with Darq, how we splashed together, bathed each other, engaged in rip-roaring sex.
Don’t be such a wuss. Suck it up. You can get through this. Take it one day, one night at a time.
There was no point in lingering and getting pruney if Darq wasn’t here. I wiped off with the towel then donned clean clothing and my kel. I hadn’t dunked my head, but I used the illuvian-powered handheld heater to dry a few damp wisps. Once I’d gone out with wet hair, and even though I’d pulled up the hood of my kel, by the time I got back to the cave, icicles had formed. I’d learned to respect this planet and follow its rules. Be alert. Be prepared. Don’t go anywhere alone. Dry your hair.
Clouds had swallowed the moon. Large flakes tumbled from the sky. Another lesson learned: weather changed in minutes. Better get back to the cave quick! If anybody knew how easy it was to get lost, it was me. I set down my bag with the wet towel and old clothes so I could move the large, heavy signal rocks.
I stood up and reached for my stuff.
A hand clapped over my mouth, yanking me against an unforgiving body. My screams were muffled, and I was dragged, kicking and twisting, into the woods.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Darq
The last time I’d seen Torg’s expression so grim, I’d confessed to keeping Romando’s chit. I knew immediately he’d discovered my mate’s late-night unsanctioned visit.
I jumped to my feet. “Please don’t be hard on Sunny. I sent her away as soon as possible.”
Torg drew up short. “You sent her away?” Tense features relaxed. “Thank the fates. We thought she’d disappeared.” He cocked his head. “Where did you send her?”
“Wait—what are you talking about? She disappeared? Where is she?”
A muscle twitched in his cheek. “We don’t know. She was not in the cave this morning. We searched the entire camp. It appears she took a bath last night—we found her bag buried in the snow. Men are out looking for her. One team has gone to the meeting place.”
“She promised she wouldn’t go there alone.” Why would she have done that? Even if she didn’t heed my admonitions, her own experience should have made her cautious.
“I don’t have a reason to believe she went there, but it’s the only place I can think of where she might have gone,” Torg said.
“Is everyone else accounted for?” I paced the small ward, feeling like I could leap out of my own skin.
“Yes.”
“You’re certain she’s not in camp?”
“Yes. We’ve checked every single dwelling, hut, and cave. Did she mention last night what she might have had planned for today?”
“How did you kn—”
“I was awake when she left. I heard her moving around the main chamber, clattering crockery, and I got up to investigate, thinking maybe a harebit was rummaging for food. I watched her head this way.” He seemed neither shocked nor angered by her visit, and I realized he had deliberately turned a blind eye to enable us to be together.
“She gave no indication she intended to go anywhere today.” I did up the toggles on my kel and flipped up the hood. “I have to find her.”
Torg barred my path. “I can’t let you. I’m sorry, Darq. I know how difficult this is, but if you leave before completing the warding, I won’t have any recourse. I’ll have to banish you.”
“Banish me, then.” I pushed past him. I would face the consequences when Sunny was safe.
She has to be safe. She has to be. How can this have happened again?
The mid-thigh snow impeded my charge across the compound. I recalled how I’d almost missed Sunny in the latrine. Men had already been through the camp, but I would double-check before expanding my search.
How long had she been gone? Had she left before or after the latest storm? I turned to Torg who had followed me out of the ward. “What about the skimmers? Are they still here?”
“They were. She didn’t take one,” he replied. “Men are using them now to look for her.”
I combed every
alcove of our cave for clues. I checked the bath cave and peered into each pool, feeling no small measure of relief at not finding her body at the bottom. I banged on every dwelling, talked to every single person. I went to the tribal larder, storage hut, woodshed, and kel-tanning hut.
“Sunny! Sunny!” The shouts of other searchers echoed from the woods.
I ran all the way to the meeting place and joined the men there. Did they know to check the latrine? But she wasn’t in the hole, nor in any of the buildings. She hadn’t ventured into the landing field, or made it to two nearby camps.
I retraced my steps and searched everything again. By nightfall, my body was so cold, I could barely shiver, and I’d lost my voice from shouting. I couldn’t even call her name anymore. Torg and two men dragged me back to camp and forced me into our cave. I swung at one of them, but my body had become so weakened, I nearly fell over. They shoved me into a chair.
My brother peered down at me. “Everyone is looking for her. They will find her. You need to warm up before you kill yourself,” he said.
“I don’t care!” I tried to get up.
He pushed me back and leaned over, his face inches from mine. “I know what you’re going through. If anything happened to Starr, I wouldn’t act any differently. But it won’t do Sunny any favors if you die of hypothermia and exhaustion. When we find her, she’ll need you. Don’t you want to be there for her?”
“What if we don’t find her?” I dredged up the courage to voice my terror. Where could she have gone? Why would she have left? Our last conversation reeled through my mind, and I racked my brain for clues. She had vanished.
“We have to stay positive.” Torg stepped aside to allow Starr to press a vessel of hot tea into my palms. I held it with my shaking hands, filled with self-loathing for accepting the warmth when my mate was out there alone.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Sunny
Romando gagged me, trussed me up like a phea prepared for the spit, and loaded me onto a sled-like travois he’d rigged behind a skimmer. Then my moron kidnapper shot through the woods with no concern the machine threw the displaced snow on top of me. He would have hell to pay when he let me loose. He would rue the night he abducted Sunny Weathers!
