Twilight's End

by Kaitlyn O'Connor

  Khan frowned. He was ready to go at once. He had already stayed far longer in the strange place than he liked. It made him uneasy. Before he could forbid whatever it was she was talking about, however, she touched the wall and vanished through a hole that opened and closed so fast it almost seemed as if she’d been gobbled up. Stunned, he simply stared at the wall for several moments, and finally moved toward it, feeling along the surface with his fingertips. He found a fracture finally that was regular, about the width of a hair and roughly the size of the opening to his lodge. He did not immediately find a way to open it, however.

  When he could find no edge to grip or pry against, he found the edge of the opening and began to feel along the wall. The wall opened as abruptly as it had before. He was too surprised by his success to react immediately, though, and before he could recover, it had closed again. When he found the spot the second time and the mouth opened, he leapt inside before it could close again and looked around, his attention caught by the sound of running water.

  He surveyed the strange room, but he was less curious about the room than the whereabouts of his woman. When he’d finally determined the direction of the sounds, he moved to a wall that was much like the one where she had entered, running his palm over the smooth surface until he was rewarded with an opening.

  He leapt through immediately, glancing around in surprise at the heated cloud of mist that filled the room. The current of air that had followed him whipped at it, sending drifts of mist swirling away and creating a path before him.

  The goddess Dionne was bathing in a water fall erupting from high on one wall. Desire flooded through him like fire as he stood watching the water flowing over her beautiful body, making her skin glisten, making his mouth water with a thirst that set his mind on fire.

  For several moments, his mind filled with the image of closing the distance between them and pulling her against his length to fill his senses with her. In that vision, she responded with a desire for him that equaled his for her, moaning with pleasure as he lowered her to the stone at her feet and covered her body with his own.

  He’d already taken a step in her direction when another image entirely filled his mind, of her curiously passionless examination of him in the other room. That banished the previous images so quickly that he felt more lightheaded at the rush of blood from his groin than he’d felt when the blood rushed to it.

  Baffled irritation replaced his ardor of moments before.

  She was a strange creature. He wasn’t certain what to make of her beyond his admiration of her flawless beauty. Her gaze when she looked at him was frank, open, interested--even curious. She seemed to suffer no fear of him, and yet at the same time she was cool and distant. One moment she enchanted him with her lively chatter and husky chuckle, the next she insulted him by behaving as if he was an inferior animal--or a superior animal, not a man.

  It seemed inescapable that she considered him beneath her in some way, perhaps every way.

  He frowned, partly from anger and partly in confusion. She had not claimed to be a goddess, and, truthfully, he simply did not believe in such magic anymore. He had seen nothing to support such thoughts, and much to disprove it.

  As much as he did not understand about this place, he did understand that there was no magic here. He had seen similar things when he had found the city of the old ones in the forbidden lands. Those things had not worked, but in breaking they had revealed that they were things made by the hand of man.

  He suspected she was from that long forgotten world and time, not a goddess, but he could not quite figure out how it had come about that she had emerged from that thing that held her alive, young, and strong.

  After a few moments, he shook those thoughts off. It would take time to unravel it in his mind, if he could do so at all. He wasn’t as interested in understanding in any case as he was in staking his claim to her.

  She jumped when she emerged from the water and discovered him as he reached the edge of the platform she stood on. “Almost done. I just have to dry.” She stepped off the platform and onto another. Air began to rush around her.

  Her complete obliviousness of his intent halted him in his tracks as nothing she could have said. Nonplused, he watched as the air pelted her from every direction. After a few moments, his curiosity gained the upper hand and Khan lifted a hand to feel the air, discovering with surprise that the air was warm against his skin.

  As he watched her, she gathered the long mane of hair in her hands and began twisting it to wring the water from it. “I don’t understand this. The chemicals were supposed to retard this sort of growth. Of course, I was in the bio-pod far longer than anticipated, but the nails didn’t turn into great gnarled tangles,” she added, studying her fingers. “But I don’t suppose it really matters now. I feel fine. I’ll do a bio scan in a day or so and check everything,” she added thoughtfully.

  When she stepped from the second platform, she strode past him to a table attached to the wall. Above it was a surface that reflected her image. Khan moved closer, peering at it and finally placed his hand on the reflecting surface that produced a perfect image, without any blurriness or wavering. As he watched her, she opened a cavity beneath the table, which he saw was a box of some kind. After a quick search of the unfamiliar contents, she took a strange devise from it that resembled two knives joined at approximately the center. Slipping her fingers into the curls at one end, she grabbed the hair trailing down nearly to the floor and began to work the knives up and down over the lock she held in her hand.

  The beautiful hair began to fall all over the floor.

  “No!”

  She glanced at him in surprise. “It’s just hair. It grows.”

  “It is beautiful. You can not simply destroy it,” Khan said, outraged at the sacrilege.

  “Thank you. It’ll still be beautiful short and far less trouble.” She hesitated though, studying his expression a moment. “Shorter. I’ll leave it to here for now since it seems to upset you,” she added, examining the new length, which stopped near the tops of her thighs. “Besides, it’s something to cover me until I can find clothes,” she added, more to herself than to him.

  When she had raked a comb through it and removed the tangles, she turned to him again. “Now we can go.”

  Frowning, still both angry and more than a little unhappy that she had cut so much of the beautiful hair, Khan followed her in tightlipped silence as she left the room and returned to the main room. Summoning the two beasts, she crossed to the other side and reached up to touch the wall again.

  Since he now knew what that meant, Khan, who’d been stalking along in angry, wounded dignity, sprinted forward to keep her from disappearing again. He misjudged the distance, however, and slammed into her backside when she halted abruptly, apparently waiting for him. The impact launched her forward, but he managed to catch her before she sprawled out on the floor.

  Peeling his palm off of her breast, she threw him a reproving glance over her shoulder and headed down the tunnel they had found themselves in. It was a short tunnel, far shorter than the two he had used to find her. At the other end, she stopped and began to play the signing box. Nothing happened.

  Khan glanced around a little uneasily, wondering if her notes would summon the death eyes again, but there was no sign of them, and he finally decided that that was because it was her playing the song. She belonged here. The death eyes somehow knew that, and they would not rain death so long as she was nearby and might be hurt.

  She frowned and played the tune again. The structure groaned, like an animal in agony. Very slowly a crack opened. As it did so, sand began to pour through. Fortunately, the gateway only opened a matter of inches.

  Dionne stared at the sand in consternation. “How did this get here?”

  Khan shrugged. “This lodge rests in the lifeless valley. The sands shift like waves upon the water.”

  She stared at him, obviously thinking. “This may explain the elapsed time,” she
said finally. “The computer was to analyze the surroundings and awaken me when the world renewed itself. There was no anticipation that this would become desert.” She studied over that for a time and finally moved past Khan, heading back the way they’d come. “We’ll have to go out the way you came in.”

  Khan followed as before, trying to tamp his impatience. A thought occurred to him as they reached the main room, however, that he found lightened his mood considerably. “The beasts will not be able to come.”

  She was staring at the ceiling, he saw. “Lois. Disable the security. We’re going out.”

  “Affirmative.”

  Khan glanced at the ceiling, but saw no one. “She is coming also?”

  Dionne bit back a smile. “No. Just us. I told her so the lasers wouldn’t activate and turn us into a pile of ash.”

  Khan’s brows rose, but he knew she must be speaking of the red death eyes. It was much as he’d thought. She commanded them. “But not the beasts.”

  “Them, too. Cougars can climb. They’re here to protect me. I couldn’t leave them if I wanted to, and until I see how hostile the world is, I don’t particularly want to. ”

  Khan frowned, not particularly pleased by the comment, but then he wasn’t convinced that the beasts she called cougars could climb the tunnel.

  He allowed Dionne to go first, thinking that he could catch her if she slipped and fell. He very quickly discovered the situation had both advantage and disadvantage. He almost fell himself when he looked up and saw her cleft winking at him with every movement she made. For many moments, he simply froze, mesmerized, feeling a blinding wave of lust move through him. It wasn’t until she stopped and looked down that he came to himself. He glanced down, as well, partly on impulse because she did, and partly because he didn’t want her to know that he’d been simply staring at her woman’s place, transfixed.

  When she began to move again, he returned his attention to the object of his fascination, missed the next rung and nearly took the quick way down. Catching himself with an effort, he concentrated on making certain he had a firm hand and foothold before he allowed himself another look. He was breathing like he’d run many miles when he reached the top, however, his blood pounding in his brain and his groin until he felt like one or both might explode. She looked him over curiously, and not very approvingly. “You’re not as fit as I would’ve thought,” she commented.

  He wasn’t certain what she meant by that, but he strongly suspected it wasn’t a compliment. Ignoring the comment since he couldn’t think of anything to say in his defense, he leaned out to look down the tunnel. He was less than delighted to discover she had been right about the beasts. They didn’t seem any too happy to make the climb--he could see the one in the front shaking--but neither beast seemed to be having the trouble he had expected and hoped for.

  Chapter Three

  The moon had risen when Dionne stepped from the bio-lab onto the soft sand of the desert. It was full. Dionne stared up at it for several moments, feeling a relief she hadn’t expected. The moon, at least, had not changed. The world obviously had, a great deal, but the glowing mass above her was a reference point, a familiar landmark that gave her a sense of belonging.

  Whispers and gasps from hundreds of human throats dragged her back to the present and she searched for the origin of the sounds with interest. A dark ridge rimmed the desert in a crescent shape. Along the top of it, she could see shifting shadows, some merging into unrecognizable blobs, others standing apart, silhouetted by the moon’s glow.

  Uneasiness moved over her at their stillness. She glanced at the man, Khan. “Tell me your people don’t have some sort of taboo about nakedness.”

  He stared at her uncomprehendingly and she searched her mind for other words he might be more familiar with. “Will my being the way I am create violence?”

  Something flickered in his eyes that was a combination of comprehension and, possibly, amusement. “Only if I have to kill them for staring at you.”

  Startled, Dionne merely blinked at him as she tried to follow his line of reasoning, wondering just how barbaric the customs were. “You would kill them for looking?”

  He looked disconcerted that she had taken him so literally. “I will not like it. But since I have nothing to cover you with, I can not see that there is anything I can do about it.”

  She considered that for several moments and finally decided that there might be a possibility that he was feeling possessive about her for some unfathomable reason. That was not good and could lead to more complications that she would have to deal with.

  Perhaps she should consider moving on when she had the things she needed?

  She could not do that at once, though, she realized. There were tests she needed to run, studies to be done. In truth, she would need a guide to take her where she needed to go next since the geological and atmospheric changes had altered the landscape into a place completely unrecognizable to her, and very likely she would need more protection than the cougars could give her.

  She would have to reserve judgment until she had studied the situation, but there seemed little in the way of civilization left--or progress made in that direction since the collapse of it.

  An escort under those circumstances seemed essential to accomplish her mission. She was not to awaken the others until she had carried out phase one and two of renewal. They were the major part of phase three. It seemed to her that her chances of success would be greatly increased with the escort and protection of a man of Khan’s stature, who was not only impressively tall and muscular, but who also happened to be a leader of his people.

  “It is a very good thing that I did not cut my hair too short then,” she responded finally, striving to infuse a positive note into the remark. “It will offer some coverage. Which part of the female body most incites the males?”

  He stared at her blankly.

  She combed her memory for other words and since it was impossible to guess what words might have survived, what words might have been corrupted, or what euphemisms and slang might currently be in use, she reeled out all that came to mind. “What part of my body is most likely to attract the attention of the males with--uh--mating in mind? Sexual intercourse? Copulation? Fucking? Scrogging? Bumping uglies?”

  He studied her speculatively and she saw that gleam in them again. “Your toes,” he said finally.

  Dionne blinked at him as she assimilated that. “My toes?” she echoed.

  He nodded. “The top of your head--and all between.”

  “Truly?” Dionne asked, studying his expression. “Oh! You are being facetious? This is humor? Funny? Joke? To make one laugh?”

  He smiled wryly. “Only in part.”

  Dionne thought that over for a moment. “Perhaps we are going about this wrong. Which part do you want me to cover?”

  “Every part,” he responded promptly, but before she could demand to know how she was to accomplish that, he caught her hair and pulled it forward over her shoulders, carefully smoothing it over her breasts and belly. To Dionne’s surprise and discomfort, her body responded to his touch with immediate arousal.

  She directed her mind elsewhere until he seemed satisfied and removed his hands.

  As they climbed the rise above the desert floor, people gathered near the edge to stare down at them, but the moment Dionne stepped onto the plateau at the top, they scattered back. Stunned, Dionne looked around at their frightened expressions and finally looked up at Khan.

  He stepped behind her, placing one large hand on each of her shoulders. “This is the goddess Dionne. She has come to bring the Eirt to renewal.”

  “Oh but …,” Dionne began, startled by the announcement.

  He calmly placed one hand over her mouth, cutting her off. “This is what they expect,” he said, low, against her ear. “They will be more comfortable with your presence if they see it as the favor of the gods.”

  Dionne nodded understanding, but she wasn’t entirely comfortable with th
e role he’d bestowed upon her.

  “These beasts are her guardians. They will not harm you so long as you do not approach the goddess Dionne without permission.”

  The people crowding in a circle around them stared at the two cougars for several moments and abruptly went to their knees, bowing their heads low to the ground. Dionne stared at them for several moments in confusion before enlightenment dawned. She sent Khan an accusing look. “This is not acceptable,” she whispered, both irritated and unnerved by their behavior. “I can not do what I was sent to do if the people are afraid of me and falling down to worship every time I am near them.”

  Ignoring her comment, he caught her arm and led her away from the group, who skittered to one side to make a path as they approached. Dionne glanced back several times, wondering if the worshipful would follow and relieved when she saw they weren’t. At the bottom of the low hill, she saw animals grazing--or perhaps sleeping. As they neared, one of the animals lifted its head and whinnied. “This nay beast is mine,” Khan said, leading her toward it.

  “Nay?” She repeated blankly, searching her mind for the source of the strange name which wasn’t even a corruption of the original name. “You call it for the sound it makes?”

  He nodded. “My people have captured these for many generations and trained them.”

  Dionne sent him a wry glance. “Poor beasts. They were destined to be beasts of burden, I suppose. They were called horses in my time, but they did not roam free so there was no need to capture them--and they had not been used as transportation for several hundred years.”

  He looked a little put out by her comments--those he understood--and she realized with a touch of amusement that he thought his people had come up with the idea.

  It wasn’t the most ideal sort of transportation, particularly since she was bare bottomed and the horse had nothing but a very coarse blanket over its back. The horse’s hair might actually have been less uncomfortable.