Fire Margins

by Lisanne Norman

  “Have you ever paired with a telepath?” he asked. “A Guild-trained telepath?”

  Dzaka looked away briefly, ears flicking back then righting themselves in embarrassment.

  “They haven’t told you, then. Yes, Kitra. Kusac’s sister. It nearly cost me my life,” he said, looking up again. “She’d picked me as her first lover. While she was busy trying to get my attention, a couple of our people decided I was betraying the trust Kusac put in me. They already believed I was responsible for your capture and that just gave them the excuse they were looking for.”

  “So. What happened?”

  “Jack came along and they ran off. I had to go to Carrie about Kitra eventually, and the Clan Leader came to speak to me.” He closed his eyes, remembering the interview. “That has to be one of the most embarrassing moments of my life,” he said.

  Kaid began to laugh.

  Dzaka looked at him in faint surprise. He heard a knock at the door and rose to answer it. Kusac and Carrie stood outside.

  “We were passing and heard the noise,” said Carrie, looking beyond him. “What’s up?”

  Kaid, his laughter beginning to fade, looked over at them. “Dzaka’s just telling me about his audience with your mother over Kitra,” he said.

  “It must have been something to have heard,” agreed Kusac. “Ask Carrie. She was there too.”

  Kaid caught Carrie’s eye and began to laugh again.

  “I think we’ll leave you to it,” said Carrie primly, “considering you’re incapable of anything but mirth at the moment. Good night, Dzaka, Kaid,” she said.

  A coughing fit cut his laughter short and after Dzaka had provided him with some water, he calmed down.

  “I’m sorry, Dzaka, but…”

  “I suppose I can see the humorous side now,” said Dzaka, obviously a little put out. “Believe me, there wasn’t one at the time!”

  “Oh, I believe you,” he chuckled. “Getting a lecture on acceptable intimate social etiquette from Rhyasha would daunt anyone! However, I take it the answer to my question is yes, you have paired with a Guild-trained telepath. You’ll understand, then.”

  “What’s your point?”

  “Khemu was the first telepath I’d been with. It wasn’t till after we paired that I realized I might be too.”

  Dzaka looked at him in stark amazement. “You’re a telepath? A full telepath?”

  “Yes. Carrie confirmed it yesterday,” he said, his gaze holding his son’s eyes. “Because I’d hidden it even from myself for so long, when Khemu and I paired, my mind swamped hers, and she became pregnant with you.”

  He stopped to search in his jacket pockets for something. Not finding it, he looked over at Dzaka.

  “Would you mind looking in the drawer unit in my bedroom to see if they brought my stim-twigs with the rest of my belongings?”

  Dzaka reached into his own pocket and pulled out a packet, tossing it across to his father. “Have mine.”

  “I didn’t know you used them,” he said, pulling one out and beginning to chew the end.

  “I think there’s a lot we don’t know about each other … Father.”

  Kaid nodded his head slowly. “It’s time we found out, don’t you think?”

  It was Dzaka’s turn to nod.

  “Now you know what happened between us. As for the rest, the mental experience terrified both of us. She refused to see me or anyone else. When her family found out she was pregnant, they put around the tale that she’d died and imprisoned her on the estate for having a bastard cub—you.”

  Dzaka winced at the term.

  Kaid leaned forward to take hold of his arm. “You’re no longer a bastard. I saw to that! I owed it to both you and her. I knew she had conceived, but the first I knew for sure she’d had a cub was the night I found you outside the gates at Stronghold. She’d managed to escape the estate and took you with her. She stayed by the gates near you as long as she dared, then fled to avoid capture by her father. You could only have been alone a short while, Dzaka. She sent you to me to raise.” He sat back. “And I did it the only way I could.”

  “Why did you have to conceal the fact that I was your son from Ghezu? I don’t understand any of that.”

  “Ghezu and I were at each other’s throats for months following that night, then suddenly, everything was all back the way it had been. I thought he’d got over it. He hadn’t. When you turned up, Ghezu immediately suspected the truth, that you were my son by Khemu. Vartra must have been with me that day, because I refused to confirm or deny it. Ghezu made it plain that if he ever found out for sure you were our son, he’d kill you outright. He’d wanted Khemu and not only had I paired with her, but our pairing had prevented him from ever having her. I think that even then, his mind must have had the seeds of sickness in it. We heard later that she’d died in a climbing accident.”

  “So you told everyone you wanted to foster me.”

  Kaid nodded. “Old Jyarti, the Head Priest then, got me transferred to the religious side so I could legitimately remain on Shola to raise you. I’m almost certain he knew you were my son.”

  He sat chewing his stick for a moment. “The God knows, Dzaka, I wanted to acknowledge you. I wouldn’t have wished illegitimacy on you if it had been in my power to stop it. Having gone through it myself, I knew how it felt to grow up the wrong side of another’s hearth. I had no choice, though. I did what I thought best.”

  The silence lengthened until Dzaka broke it. “So that’s why Ghezu has played me against you this last year. Because he still thought I might really be your son. All the lies, her death, your imprisonment … all of it because he wanted Khemu?”

  “Essentially, yes.”

  “Why did you get expelled from the Brotherhood?”

  “That I can’t tell you. I’m still oath-bound. Not for much longer, though.” His voice carried beneath it a low, angry growl. “The day I kill Ghezu, my oath is over.”

  “I’ll always remember that day …” began Dzaka.

  “Forget it, I’ve had to,” his father interrupted. “If I hadn’t, it would have eaten at me the way not getting Khemu has eaten Ghezu.”

  “We’ll get him, never fear.”

  “No! He’s mine, Dzaka. I’ll tolerate no interference on this. He owes me—all your childhood, and the last ten years of my life, as well as what I endured at Stronghold. I will have him, Dzaka!”

  *

  “If he can laugh, he’s healing,” said Kusac as they went into their suite. “I’ve been worried for him, cub. His eyes have seemed so empty at times. How does he seem to you? You’ve felt more of his mind than I ever have.”

  Taking her gun from her pocket, she laid it on their bed. “He’s still Kaid, whatever’s happened to him,” she said, beginning to unfasten her robe. “Yes, I’ve seen his mind, all the dark corners and the bright ones, because he sent it all to me.”

  She sighed, sitting down on the bed and looking up at him. “I don’t know what’s fair to tell you, Kusac. His inner strengths are unchanged, but he’s never faced a fear like this before. He’s coping with it by refusing to look at it for the moment. It won’t pass till he’s faced it, and for him, that means facing Ghezu.”

  “That what I thought,” he said, stripping off his robe and throwing it over the bed. “Then Ghezu didn’t break him?”

  “No,” she said, getting up. “He didn’t.”

  “Thank the Gods for that,” he said, heading for the shower.

  Slipping off her clothes, she joined him.

  He moved over, making room for her. As his hands touched her, she felt the familiar electric current of pleasure run through them and knew that he felt it too. She was drawn closer to him till their bodies touched and his face lowered to meet hers.

  This is our time, he sent. Ours alone.

  She reached up for the hair that grew at the side of his neck and pulled his face down till her mouth could reach his.

  You’re my Leska, my bond-mate, and my love, she se
nt. This magic we share, nothing can match it, or you. She knew the question he tried not to ask.

  He’s Tallinu, and Kaid. He’s not you, just as I’m not Vanna. We have each other and this.

  He lifted her bodily in his arms and stepped out of the shower. Opening the towel closet, he pulled the pile of towels out, letting them tumble to the floor as he knelt down.

  Carrie began to laugh gently, then turned her attention to his neck and cheeks and ears.

  Holding her close in one arm, he hastily spread the towels about and laid her down in the nest he’d made of them.

  “Each time is as urgent as the first,” he said, his voice and the purr mingling till she couldn’t tell them apart. “I have to hold you, feel you touching me …” His voice tailed off as he began to lick and gently nip his way down her throat and across her breasts. His hand went to her belly, stroking the curve that held their cub.

  They both froze at the same instant as Carrie felt a butterfly movement within her. She held her breath and Kusac lifted his head to look at her in disbelief. The tiny movement came again, then a third time.

  She’s moving! he sent.

  I know! Her own hands went down to touch her belly, waiting for it to happen again. It did, and she began to laugh and cry at once, her arms going round him and holding him close. “She’s really there! I’m really going to have our child!”

  “Of course you are,” he said, confused by her reaction.

  “You don’t understand,” she said. “She’s not been real till now! Now I’ve felt her move, I can believe in her too!” She began to cover his face with tiny kisses, her hands pulling him close again. “Love me, Kusac. Just make love to me,” she said as she gently caught at his lower lip with her teeth.

  He didn’t need to be asked a second time.

  *

  Unusually, it was Kusac who dreamed that night. At first he was only aware of the darkness around him. Gradually the faint noise grew, rising till it surrounded him, sounding like the quiet breathing of some huge sleeping beast. Growing louder, a new tone began to emerge—a gentle whistling that gained strength until it reached the point of a full-blown howling.

  His hair, caught by the force of the blast, was whipped over his face, into his eyes, making him blink. He turned his face into the wind, letting it tug the wayward strands back. Cold was penetrating through his borrowed coat, touching him with its icy fingers as the wind gusted round him, making him sway with its rhythm.

  The darkness was suddenly lightened as the twin moons swam out from behind the clouds. By their reflected light, he could see his surroundings.

  “What are you thinking of?” a quiet voice asked him from behind.

  “Them,” he said. “My people. Those out there, beyond the moons. They’re fighting our battle, one they must win, yet when they do, it’ll condemn them to death or permanent exile. They’ll never return home.”

  “They knew that before they left, Vartra,” said Zylisha, joining him. “My sister and her Leska went willingly, as did all the telepaths.”

  “I should be out there with them on the plains, not kept here out of harm’s way!” There was anger in his voice.

  “To what purpose? So you can be killed? No, we need you alive, Vartra. The people look to you, you have to live if we’re going to succeed!”

  “I’ve got no choice, have I?” He turned and pointed out three dark shapes. “They guard me like a prisoner!”

  He lapsed into silence again, staring out across the forest to the plains beyond. In the distance, they could see sporadic flares of light and hear the sounds of explosions coming from the city of Khalma.

  “Even I felt it begin,” he said. “The signal came like a wave, gathering strength as it rushed toward us from space.”

  “I know,” she said, holding onto his arm and pressing herself close to his side for comfort. “We all felt it.” A small silence. “I thought I felt my sister’s presence, and Rezac.”

  “I wouldn’t know,” he said morosely. “I’m not a telepath, only a sensitive at best.” Then he thought of her. “Likely you did, Zylisha,” he said, freeing his arm to put it round her shoulders. “Likely you did. They were the ones who had to give the signal to attack, after all.”

  From their left, the comparative silence was shattered by a deafening explosion. They swung round to look.

  “The battle’s been joined at Nazule,” she said.

  All around them now, the night was filled with the sound of dulled explosions and flares.

  “Leave the fighting to those who know how,” said Zylisha. “Finding people willing to fight and die for freedom from the Valtegans was easy. Finding a leader capable of taking us from the ruins and rebuilding us into a free nation once more, isn’t.”

  “How many of us will survive?” he demanded. “I can do nothing if all the telepaths die! We need their talents to convince the survivors not to degenerate into looters and bandits! I’m only a figurehead, Zylisha, I can’t do anything by myself—except send people out to die!”

  She tugged gently on his arm. “We must go in. I can sense reports of Valtegans taking to the air. We’re sitting targets out here.”

  He let her pull him round toward the monastery, then stopped dead. “Look!” he said, pointing upward. “What’s happening? Isn’t that the Valtegan warship?”

  In the night sky, a point of silver light shot toward the smaller moon, disappearing behind it. Moments later, a faint glow began to build until its light paled that cast by either moon.

  “Tiernay sends that it was the Valtegan warship. The Leska telepaths on board couldn’t take control and it crashed. All on board died.”

  “Dr. Vartra,” a male voice said from behind them. “We need you below now. We’ve been warned to expect aerial attacks.”

  “I’m coming, Goran,” he said, turning again and walking toward the monastery entrance.

  They climbed the steps into the building, passing through the heavy wooden doors, then through the crimson curtain into the shrine itself. Ahead of them, the draft their entrance caused gusted smoke from the braziers to either side of the God’s statue. The bowl of Living Fire in His hands flared, making shadows dance on the walls.

  “Varza’ll drink deep of those damned lizards’ blood tonight,” said Goran with satisfaction as he slung his rifle over his shoulder.

  His vision seemed to blur, and feeling momentarily dizzy, he stopped, swaying on his feet. “He’ll drink deep of Sholan blood, too!” he said as around him the shrine, the God—all seemed to fade.

  Kusac was chilled to the bone and the blanket that was laid around his shoulders was welcome. Above in the clear winter sky, the two moons shone down on the balcony where he stood. He frowned, studying the smaller one. Something was different about it.

  “Kusac, come in,” said Carrie, touching his arm. “It’s bitterly cold and you’re frozen.”

  He hardly heard her, so intense was his concentration on the moon. Further along the balcony, another door slid open. Kaid stood there looking down toward them. Then he, too, looked up.

  “The shape has changed,” Kusac said. “The warship hit the moon and damaged it. The explosion would have blown chunks of rock and dirt into space.”

  “The Cataclysm,” said Kaid, coming toward them. He stopped several feet away.

  Kusac frowned, turning his head to look at him. “What?”

  “A chunk of debris from the explosion must have hit Shola.”

  “The Cataclysm,” said Carrie. “A time of fire and flood when the sky itself was on fire. It fits.”

  “It’s what Fyak preaches,” said Kaid.

  “We both sensed your dream,” said Carrie. “Now we know what happened.”

  “We know more,” said Kusac. “We know exactly where we’re going, and when.”

  “When?” she asked.

  “We must arrive on the night of my dream, before the rocks hit Shola,” said Kaid. “Once they do, all hell’s going to break out. The debris th
rown up could cause a cloud of dust to encircle the planet for months, if not longer. If it hits the sea, which sounds likely given the quotes about flooding, you’ll have massive tidal waves, and earthquakes. The world they knew will cease to exist. They’ll have to rebuild almost from scratch, probably without any advanced technology.”

  Kusak began to shiver. “Will you ask Dzaka in the morning to find out what he can about such a disaster? None of us should be out here any longer.”

  “I’ll ask him,” said Kaid, turning to walk back to his room. “Good night.”

  “Good night,” said Carrie.

  Chapter 19

  Vanna was in the lab with Jack when Garras arrived back. “Hello there,” she said, as he came over to her. “Did everything go well? How are your family?”

  “Fine, to all your questions,” he said. “I see we’ve got two sects of Touibans with us.”

  “You met them?”

  “It wasn’t me they were interested in. It was the Terrans!” His mouth opened in a slight grin. “They didn’t know what to make of them. Why are they here?”

  “We got the steel door in the upper cavern open,” she said. “They were brought in to try and get the information off some ancient computer data recording disks we found. And, more important, Kaid’s back on the estate.”

  “I know. Ni’Zulhu told me when I flew in. How are the Terrans getting on?” he asked in an effort to change the topic. Looking around, he grabbed the nearest stool to sit on.

  “Fine. Garras, don’t you want to know how Kaid is?”

  He sighed inwardly. She wasn’t going to let it go. Now he knew that Kaid was safe, the hurt over his lack of trust throughout all the long years of their friendship had returned. “How is he?”

  “Oh, he’s fine now,” interrupted Jack. “He’s recuperating over at the house with Carrie and Kusac. It’s just a matter of time. I believe Dzaka’s there, too.”

  “They resolved their differences then?”

  “I believe so, Garras.”

  “Jack!” said Vanna.

  “Not now, lass,” he said. “Maybe you’d look at this, Garras,” he said, holding out the collar with its broken piece of green stone still set into it. “Kaid found this collar in the lock-releasing panel for that steel door in the upper chamber,” he said, putting the collar down on the bench. “This stone has some remarkable properties. It’s resinous and formed from the sap of a plant—possibly an off-world plant. The stone and the drug both have psychotropic properties. When an electrical current is passed across the stone, or it’s broken, it releases as a vapor the chemical trapped within it. That acts as a pacifier to any Sholan wearing the collar. Makes them lethargic, that kind of thing. As for the sap, its narcotic properties seem to allow the user to either teleport or bi-locate.”