Chapter Seven
Lina leaned back into the fabric chair, utterly relaxed. Pleasantly tired, she napped lightly. As she lazed, the heat from the sun seeped into her and ease her minor aches. When she was awake, she let the sun caress her face. They had come back to Nariu Minor in the Sendar early in the morning after the formal joining.
Some things hadn’t changed. Shard and Kaleb wanted their marks on display. To avoid alterations to her wardrobe, she wore a sleeveless, thin-strapped green shirt and a long black skirt. She was just glad that she had something other than her flight suits to wear. If they kept mangling her wardrobe, it could get costly. To further aid their continued good humor, she had bound her hair in a tight braid.
She turned her head as a crash broke the relative silence of the camp. Nerisa stormed out of the Dura-tent she shared with the man who had claimed her. She secured the fastenings of her green dress as she stalked away from the large tent. The dark-haired man hurried after her. He stopped her a few steps away from the camouflage-patterned, hi-tech shelter.
“I don’t understand and I never will!” Nerisa shouted, trying to wrench free from the man’s grip. “They hurt her, but she was smiling, cuddling into their arms when they got back from the Ovian. She just sits there now as if nothing was wrong.”
“You will understand when—” the man began.
“Don’t try to tell me that again.” She fought him, yet now calmly sat there as if she had always been a part of the thent, as if the Ardin didn’t tackle her and pin her. “You say they didn’t hurt her. They left marks on her.” Nerisa stabbed her finger in Lina’s direction.
“Those are mating bites.” Medina hesitantly stepped closer to the couple. “They are natural, a physical sign of the mating. When you are full Santir, it will happen to you as well.”
“No…” Nerisa adamantly shook her head, a look of fear crossing her face.
Before Nerisa’s mate could react to that denial, Shard’s hand landed on his shoulder. “Lina, why don’t you go for a walk with Nerisa? Talk with her. Tell her about things.”
That wasn’t a suggestion, Lina noted. She stood and went into the Dura-tent she now shared with Shard and Kaleb. As she thought about the problem, she could understand part of their reasoning. She was the woman Nerisa saw as mistreated. Her bag had been brought from the Sendar along with a few of her personal things. Out of habit, she picked a few things from the bag to take with her and stuffed them into different pockets on her skirt.
She gave a brief nod to Shard and Kaleb just before she walked past them. Kaleb’s hand reached out and patted her rounded ass. Lina ducked her head to hide the quick blush rushing up her cheeks.
“Nerisa, would you like to come for a walk with me?” Lina stopped before Nerisa and her mate. She wasn’t so sure that she was the right one to talk about this with the woman. Gods, she knew she wasn’t. Not only hadn’t she been reared in a thent, she wasn’t so sure about the mating stuff herself. She had only formally met the woman after they’d come back down to the planet. “We can talk about what scares you so much.”
Nerisa nodded, stepping forward to Lina’s side. Lina led the way out of the camp. She remained silent until they were surrounded by lush thick bushes and the vetin and darasi trees of the towering forest. She chose a path away from the Santir camp and that of the researchers.
“I really don’t know if I’m the one they should have sent to talk to you about this. Everything still feels a little unreal to me and I haven’t made up my mind about anything.” She shook her head. In truth, she still felt a little in shock over everything that had happened.
“Well, you’re here.” Nerisa slanted a glance at her, but continued walking beside her.
“Yeah, I’m here, but I have no idea what to tell you. I’m just sort of going with the current right now as far as the mating thing goes, because everything’s happened so fast. I didn’t want a mate and don’t know what to do with the two men who’ve claimed me. I need time to think.” Lina kept her eyes on the foliage around them, not wanting to blunder into anything poisonous.
The truth was she was scared. She’d seen their closeness. Even on a vid-screen it was obvious that there was a lot more than sex and friendship there. She didn’t know just where she was supposed to fit in their life or if she even could. She wanted to be more than just easy sex to them. Pushing aside a branch, she saw a small lake surrounded by trees. She led the way to a flat rock and took a seat. Nerisa slid onto the rock beside her.
“Aren’t you scared of them after what Ardin Shard did to you?” Nerisa tossed a questioning look at her, impatiently brushing her brown hair back over her shoulder when it fell into her eyes.
“No, they would never hurt me.” Lina took a deep breath and ran a frustrated hand through her hair. She felt like a fraud. She wasn’t even sure she would be staying with her own mates yet she was supposed to convince Nerisa that everything was fine and normal. Well, she wasn’t going to lie to the woman. “But I am a little afraid of the situation. I’ve never lived in a real thent. I know most of the rules, but I don’t know if I can take all of the restrictions that go with it. I am willing to give it some time.”
The damn men should have sent one of the women who’d been mated for years. One of them would have no problem with explaining everything and would be certain that most women could make a very satisfying life among the Santir. That woman could have easily told Nerisa the soothing platitudes she’d need to hear without hesitating. Lina didn’t know where to begin.
Nerisa’s eyes lowered to Lina’s shoulders. “Avick told me that I would someday understand how you can seem so happy after what happened. They hurt you. How can you stay with them when they hurt you?”
“You mean these?” Lina frowned and lifted a hand to her shoulder and ran her finger over one of the bite marks. “I didn’t even feel them when they were made. I was so lost in the pleasure that was hitting me that I didn’t really know about them until I could think clearly. Even then, they didn’t hurt.”
Nerisa cast her doubting look.
“I know they’re there. It’s a small ache, but it hurts no more than some of my muscles. I like the way it feels. It’s a link to Shard and Kaleb,” Lina explained.
“That’s the truth?” Nerisa was cautious in her belief.
Lina nodded, unsure of what to say next. She had plenty of questions of her own. Would they let her have enough freedom? She didn’t know if she could handle it if they wanted to know where she was and what she was doing at all times. Even now when she’d decided it would be best to just give herself some time, part of her mind was weighing the options. Go or stay. Live on the run or face a future full of uncertainties with them.
“What…” Nerisa’s next question died when an arrow stuck in the ground between them.
Lina didn’t waste any time with hows and whys. She scrambled lithely to her feet and began pulling Nerisa back into the forest. Her eyes scanned the surrounding area and she listened even as she moved. She saw movement and heard breaking branches. There were three of them, maybe four, and two of them blocked the way back to camp. Muted thumps of the arrows from the men’s bows sounded as the sharp points buried in trees around them.
“Shouldn’t we go back to camp?” Nerisa resisted Lina’s tugging hand as she rushed away from the Santir camp. “Maybe we should call for help.” She pulled a palm-sized square com-link off her belt.
“They are between us and the camp.” Lina ignored Nerisa’s light resistance and towed her deeper into the forest. The combo communication-location device would be perfect if it worked, but she doubted that it would. “You can try that com-link, but they have probably blocked most methods of communication. They’re using primitive weapons to keep the Santir in the Ovian from knowing they’re here. If either of us had a stunner, we could get sure help with it—one blast and that big ship would sense it and inform the Ardin.”
Nerisa tried to open a communication channel, but got nothing, just
blank silence. Her pleas received no answer. At the absence of reaction, she began to run beside Lina.
“What are we going to do?” Nerisa finally gave up on the com-link, stuffing it into her pocket.
“They’ve gotten closer. We can’t go around them as I intended. Is there somewhere we can go, a ruin we can hide in near here, maybe?” Lina’s mind ran through all the options.
She could easily outrun them herself, but she wouldn’t leave Nerisa. That left getting somewhere she might have a chance of gaining the element of surprise, an edge over her enemies.
“Yes,” Nerisa panted, but continued running. “I’ll show you.”
They ran through the forest, up a slight incline as they approached the mountain. Lina saw the shape of a building sticking up out of the side of the hill as they ran through the trees and brush. It didn’t look very big. Bolts thudded into trees, behind and around them.
“Tell me that there is more to it than that. We can’t hide in just one room.” Lina shot a glance over at Nerisa.
“It goes deep underground. It’ll be dark in there and we have no light. We’ll probably get lost.” Nerisa warned.
“We won’t. I have a light and an inborn sense of direction.” Lina dodged around a sapling in her path.
Lina screamed as one of the bolts hit her in the thigh. She staggered, but kept her feet. She continued running in spite of the tearing pain each stride brought. She clenched her teeth to keep from groaning or screaming again. She didn’t want to give her enemies any more help in tracking her.
They made it to the ruin without further incident. They continued their hurried pace as they moved through the entry passage. As soon as darkness surrounded them, Lina pulled out the small light she had brought. It provided no more than a thin beam of light, illuminating a small section of the sandy colored floor and walls, but they used it and ran deep into the ruin. They put many twisting labyrinthine hallways between themselves and their pursuers.
“We can stop here for a moment.” Lina circled Nerisa’s wrist with her hand and stopped her. “Help me tear some strips off my skirt.”
“We can use some of mine, too.” Nerisa went to work on the task at hand.
When they had enough strips of cloth, Lina broke off the end of the bolt and pushed it through her thigh. They wrapped the strips around her thigh tightly to staunch the flow of blood. Lina tied the ends of the cloth and leaned back against the wall.
She dug into her pocket to see what else she’d brought, because she couldn’t remember. Most of what she had grabbed had been taken out of sheer habit. She hoped that the same habit that had urged her to grab the light, had given her a tool to get aid. Come on, be here, she chanted silently as she checked her pockets. Pulling out a slim cylinder, she shook her head and continued her search, but she was running out of pockets. She hardly ever went anywhere without it. She held her breath as her hand closed over a small rectangular case.
She pulled the case from her pocket and looked at it. Relief flooded through her. She flipped open the small case and with a smile pushed the power button. She began entering codes.
“Luckily I brought this. Hopefully I can get us some help.” Lina lifted the pad slightly as she continued putting in codes. She’d never tested it in these conditions. “This doesn’t work on a communications wavelength. Maybe it will pass the dampening fields.”
“Why didn’t you use it before?”
“I wasn’t sure I had it. I just grabbed stuff out of my bag without taking notice of what I had. Anyway, I couldn’t have done this on the run. The codes are too complicated. If I’d dropped it, there would have been no hope for help.” Lina snapped the case closed and slipped it back into her pocket. “We’ve got to move deeper into the ruin now.”
“What is it?” Nerisa shot a glance down at the pocket in which Lina had put the small device.
“It’s a link to the Sendar. I’ve used it on occasion to get myself out of bad situations.” Lina led the way deeper into the old building. “Maybe it will bring us help this time.”
At a partial collapse of the walls, they scrambled over the mound of debris and into the corridor beyond. The loose pile of cream-toned stone would provide warning that their pursuers were near if they chose to follow. Here and there chunks of wall had fallen, revealing the dark gray stone of the mountain behind the tooled stone. Lina continued down the old corridor, turning onto another hallway to put some more distance between their pursuers and to get out of sight.
“You could probably slip past them in your tiron form,” Nerisa offered in a low voice.
“I’m not going to escape, leaving you at their mercy.” Lina urged Nerisa into a large room with other doorways. “They probably don’t have any.”
Lina intended to do something about their pursuers. She checked the other doors and made sure that they led into usable passages. She wouldn’t leave Nerisa in a room with a single exit. If anything should go wrong, she would make certain Nerisa had a good chance of getting out of the room.
“We could both die here.” Nerisa sat down against the wall and propped her head in her hands.
“We’re not going to die.” Lina walked over and knelt beside her, squeezing her hand to reassure her. “As soon as I’m sure this bleeding has stopped, I’m going hunting. They won’t get to you. I saw several interesting places as we traveled through this section. Although I won’t be able to see them until they get close, I’ll be able to find them. I know the path we took and one of the Santir talents is an ability to recall dimensions.”
“Hunting?” Nerisa’s brown eyes widened. “Shouldn’t we wait to see if your link thing worked?”
“There’s no guarantee that it will. They’ve probably divided to have a better chance of finding us. If they come this way, I can take them one by one.”
Chapter Eight
Kaleb glanced up and looked around the camp, pausing in his perusal of the progress on the buildings being constructed on the other side of the planet. Everything seemed to be as it should be. Most of the people were busy and others relaxed or talked in small groups. Shard was in the artifact tent, trying to find some clue as to where to look for their Thent’s Seal.
Any of the thents built in this area could conceivably hold the Seal. Finding it was going to be hard. This area had been home to some large, powerful clans, some of which had occupied several of the structures at different times. The ancient Seal of Karach Thent had last been seen in one of those thents. Their only problem was the lack of information on just which one had last held it.
Beyond the array of shelters, the Sendar 4 silently raised the steps which had been left in the lowered position. Power levels climbed, systems switched to an auto-homing program. Almost undetected, it ascended to hover for a moment above the trees.
“Ardin, the Sendar!” Jaksen yelled and pointed.
Shard rushed out of the tent and searched for Jaksen. He found the man and saw him pointing. He followed the direction of his arm and saw the Sendar hovering over the trees. Kaleb dropped the computer he had been holding and ran for the skimmers.
“Vellis, Caron, Vador, Belan, and Avick, come with us. The rest of you stay with the women. Keep them in camp.” Kaleb made it to the row of skimmers first and jumped onto one of the sleek machines.
It had taken only a breath to dispel the initial incredulous reaction. The only person even possibly capable of doing something like that was Lina. He was almost certain she wouldn’t try to leave them. She’d accepted that they were her mates, even if she hadn’t consciously acknowledged it yet. Something must be preventing her from using the com-link they had given her and she had used the Sendar to bring help.
They followed the ship as it flew over the treetops. It came to a stop above a tree-covered hillside. Landing the gliders in the dense vegetation was tricky, but in moments, they were on the ground. As they searched the area, Kaleb saw a man running into the trees. He simply pointed and one of his men ran after the fleeing man.
“Do you think we’ll find either of these two alive?” Kaleb sniffed, inhaling the mixture of scents.
“I think it depends on how threatened Lina feels.” Shard clicked on the light attached to his belt. “If both men took the same direction Lina and Nerisa chose, then we’ll probably find both men dead.”
“You think that they’re together, Ardin?” Avick looked hopefully at Shard.
“There isn’t a doubt in my mind that Lina kept Nerisa with her. Lina has a strong protective streak in her.” Shard paused as they came to an intersection of two hallways.
The scents mingling in the slightly stale air were unmistakable. One man had followed Lina and Nerisa. The other had chosen the other hallway.
“Vellis, Belan, take the one who chose the wrong path, alive if possible.” Kaleb could feel the hair prickling under his skin. The knowledge that Lina was in danger enraged the animal within him.
“Yes, Ardin.” The two men moved down the hallway at a steady pace.
Kaleb and Shard continued to follow Lina’s scent trail. They found a bloody bow bolt on the floor in one hallway as well as a few drops of blood. Shard knelt and ran his fingertip over the bolt. He raised his finger and sniffed.
“The blood belongs to a full Santir.” Shard looked over at Kaleb. Kaleb saw Shard’s muscles tense, his shoulders shift.
Kaleb fought the change, the need to rush to protect his mate. Lina had been injured. In pain and forced into hiding, she would definitely consider the man following her a threat, especially if she took tiron form. The instinct of the animal would be much more dominant since she was hurt.
Kaleb knew that none of these men were from the research camp. The location of each of the humans with that group was carefully monitored. The mystery of where these men came from, who they were and how they got here was irrelevant at the moment. That issue would wait until he was certain that Lina was safe. If they managed to take any of the men alive, it would be one of the questions that would be asked.
Between Two Tiron Page 8