She pointed at him.
She clapped again, and Ben smiled.
“Okay,” he said with a nod. “What’s next?”
Chapter 12
The sun was just starting to peek over the mountains and into the draw when Alacea lifted her head from the green and grey blotched garment it had been resting upon as she slept. Blinking, she rubbed the sleep from her eyes. She must have fallen asleep up at the sentry point with her Tesho. Looking around, she found, not him, but the dark-skinned Dark One, giving her a sudden start.
Burgers smiled at her. “Good morning,” he said, trying to stomp some of the morning chill from his boots. “Sleep okay?”
The priestess wasn’t sure how to respond. She had a connection with her Tesho, but wasn’t sure about the other Dark One soldiers. She licked her lips and spoke.
“Gib…son?” she asked.
“Yeah, he’s down there,” Burgers told her, pointing down into the canyon. “I guess you were asleep when his watch ended. He didn’t want to disturb you.”
It was all just alien noises to Alacea, but the finger pointed down into the canyon was all the answer she really needed anyway. She bowed to the Dark One in thanks and started back down into the canyon, careful of her footing.
The fox girl looked around. Most of the Va’Shen were eating food they packed for the journey or preparing for the day’s march. She saw a couple of Dark Ones conversing amongst themselves, but she saw no sign of her Tesho.
Turning back to Yasuren, she made her way to the two vixens. She could tell this was more than a breakfast invitation by the way the tip of Bao Sen’s tail whipped from side to side in short jerks. Yasuren’s tail and ears betrayed nothing, a benefit of years of training that came with being a noble’s daughter.
Alacea’s eyes moved from the huntress’s to Yasuren’s.
The priestess held up a hand.
Yasuren took a troubled breath.
Bao Sen moved closer to her, her voice dropping to just above a whisper.
Alacea thought on this for several moments, her tail waving lazily from side to side in thought.
Yasuren and Bao Sen looked to one another, realizing that Alacea still didn’t understand what they were asking her.
The priestess turned from Yasuren to Bao Sen and saw the huntress’s ears flick in agreement. Alacea’s blood turned cold. She grit her teeth and growled at Yasuren, her pointed canines bared as if she were about to lunge at her friend’s throat.
Alacea turned on her, coiled like a snake to strike. she declared.
The attack took some of the wind out of Alacea’s sails, but she rallied. she said.
Alacea asked, dumbfounded.
Alacea leaned away from the older woman as if expecting Yasuren to suddenly attack her out of the blue.
Yasuren’s ears twitched.
Alacea’s ears flattened against her head, sensing the coming trap, though not sure yet what form it would take.
Yasuren continued.
Alacea sat there, blinking in awe as to how Yasuren talked her way into making such an argument make any kind of sense.
Yasuren’s ears twitched in bemusement at the young vixen’s confusion.
Alacea thought hard about what Yasuren had said. Could she make an argument like that to the Gods and win? In certain cases, yes. If her Tesho truly meant what he said about letting them live in peace, but his superiors acted in a way that contravened that wish, then acting against them would be supporting her Tesho. And if he had lied about giving them peace, then any betrayal she made against him would be justified by his betrayal of the Requirements.
But any action she took must come from one of those two positions.
The priestess stood up and brushed the dirt from her monpei. she said.
Yasuren’s ears twitched faster, sensing her victory.
The two Va’Shen watched Alacea walk away, and Bao Sen turned to Yasuren. she admitted.
Ben watched as Burton lifted the bandage on his leg wound and examined it. The wounded medic nodded appreciatively and applied a new dressing to it as he sat on the front of the ATV.
“Good?” the captain asked him.
Burton nodded. “No sign of infection… yet.” He pulled the end of the Israeli bandage and clasped it tight. “You never know on these alien planets.” He pointed a finger at Ben and went into lecture mode. “That’s why everyone needs to take their broad-base inoculations. Remember Popeye?”
“Well, either way it looks like you’re getting a trip up to Jamieson,” Ben told him. “Be ready to take shopping requests from the entire camp.”
The medic nodded, simultaneously turning his attention to his MRE breakfast pastry. “No one get shot ‘til I get back.”
“You need anything?” Ben asked him.
“A better travel agent,” Burton quipped. He shook his head a moment later. “No, Sir, I’m good. Thanks.”
Ben turned to leave and stopped as he saw Alacea come from around the bend in the canyon. He raised his hand and offered her a wave. He could swear she saw and missed a step but kept walking as if she hadn’t.
He lowered his hand, not taking it personally. Yeah, despite the language barrier they had seemed to get along well last night as the priestess taught him as much Va’Shen as he could absorb… which wasn’t much. But as someone who studied a lot of history, he knew she was probably in a delicate position. In the dark, out of view of her people, she might be free to be cordial with him, but in full view of the Pelle Va’Shen, she probably wanted to keep her distance. It would be easy for some overzealous fire-eater to brand her a collaborator, and that was trouble neither of them needed.
The Ranger looked at the hand he had waved, the two bright red marks where her teeth had pierced his skin still tingled painfully.
“Woman has a bite like a grizzly bear,” he muttered.
“Sir?” Burton asked.
Ben shook his head. “Nothing. Yell if you need anything. We’ll be leaving soon.”
“Yes, Sir.”
He started down the canyon toward the main path, passing a fire where Ramirez had decided to sit down and have breakfast. The marksman offered a jaunty salute from his perch on a rock just big enough to serve as a seat, and Ben gave him a nod, continuing on his way.
Ramirez continued eating his breakfast of MRE spaghetti, anything to not have to eat that omelet, and looked up as someone took a seat next to him.
His eyes widened slightly as Bao Sen sat on her ankles and looked at the fire, her mouth lazily tearing into a piece of dried meat. He looked around, wondering if he had accidentally sat in a spot the Huntresses had reserved for themselves, but none of the Va’Shen’s friends were in sight.
He cleared his throat and turned to her. “’Zup?” he asked.
Bao Sen looked at him and gave him a respectful nod.
Ramirez turned back to his spaghetti, adjusting his place on the rock. Bao Sen continued to look at him, her expression unreadable.
The marksman looked at her, incredulous that the vixen would start a conversation with him. “Sorry,” he said. “I don’t…” He shook his head and gave up, turning back to the fire.
“Do I shoot?” he asked. “Do I hunt?! Oh! Yeah!” He mirrored her miming of the bow.
Her ears twitched.
“Am I hunting you?” he asked, dumbfounded. “I never heard it called that before, but… um… I mean if you’re down with that…”
Bao Sen’s ears flattened. There was just something about the alien’s tone that made her think he didn’t understand what she was trying to say.
Ramirez stared at her, not even trying to pretend he understood.
The vixen’s ears flattened against the top of her head, and her tail slapped the ground. She pointed to herself, then to her eyes. She pointed at the marksman and then made the bow motion.
“You… see… me… hunt,” Ramirez spelled out. A light bulb went off as he remembered their “conversation” the previous evening. “You wanna go hunting?” he asked. “Shoot, I’m down with that!” He pointed at the two of them and did the bow motion to show he understood.
Bao Sen’s ears twitched happily.
Ramirez grinned. “Didn’t get slapped, didn’t get screamed at, and… I think I’m going hunting.”
Bao Sen, meanwhile, made her way back to where the Huntresses were gathering, rather proud of herself.
If the Na’Sha could not bring herself to take advantage of her relationship with the Dark One, Bao Sen would merely create her own relationship to leverage.
The morning’s march went off without incident. No more yarl attacks or injuries, and Ben started to recognize some of the scenery as close to where they had left the vehicles. The path was narrower and kept in shadow by the foliage, forcing them to walk, at most, two abreast.
Ben found Ramirez, who was walking point, and tapped him on the shoulder. Upon getting the Ranger’s attention, the officer pointed down the path.
“Take Shinzato and go on ahead of us,” he directed. “Let Saber know we’ll be at them soon. I don’t want any touchy trigger fingers causing us issues.”
“Yes, Sir,” Ramirez answered. He waved at the other Ranger further down the line. “Hey, Shinzato! Hustle up! Let’s go!”
The two Rangers to
ok off at a trot down the path, and Ben took over leading the line of villagers. It was there that Patricia found him, jogging up to the head of the column to walk next to him.
“Sir,” she greeted.
“LT,” he replied. “Everything okay?”
“No worries, Sir,” she said jauntily. “I was just kind of wondering… What happens next?”
“What do you mean?” Ben asked.
“Well,” the intel officer continued, “They go home and then what?”
The Ranger shrugged. “Then… they’re home, and we handle the next issue. The important thing is they’re safe, we’re safe, and we all know what’s what.”
“Do we, though?” she asked, almost in a whisper. “I mean I thought I knew what they were like from the intel and culture briefs, but what I’ve seen in the last couple of days just makes me wonder how much we don’t actually know.”
“Does it matter?” he asked.
“Well… yeah…”
Ben took a breath, thinking about the lieutenant’s question. At the end of the day, they were all here on, at least, a one-year deployment. Patricia would finish her three-sixty-five and get orders somewhere else. The Rangers from Persephone, however, were still trying to figure out what they would do. Most of them had been fighting for three years. It was only the destruction of their planet and the immense expense of moving people across the galaxy that kept them on Va’Sh. They literally had nowhere else to go until the Army decided what to do with them. But eventually they would all move on, be reassigned or discharged. Was it worth worrying about the finer details of Va’Shen life?
“Just roll with it, LT,” he finally said. “It’ll be over before you know it. And then it won’t matter anymore.”
Patricia looked down at the path in front of them, and Ben could tell his answer wasn’t satisfying to her. He decided to change the subject.
“Hey, so I asked earlier why Alacea calls me ‘tesho,’” he began. “And you said it means ‘leader’ or something right?”
She nodded. “Yes, Sir…” She paused. “Based on the context.”
The Vixen War Bride Page 24