At the end, Dalejem tested him on a time jump, too, using one of Dalejem’s own past ops as their target.
By then, Revik found he was actually enjoying himself.
Well, at least until he saw too much of the evening after the operation itself, and a fleeting imprint of Dalejem spending the night with Yumi, which caused another argument between them. Revik finally shut his mouth when Dalejem pushed back, then pointedly started asking Revik questions about Mara, and then about his time under the Rooks... and finally about his fixation on Kali, and how Revik had acted towards her in Saigon.
Somehow that argument ended in them fucking, too, although Revik couldn’t remember who started things that time, either. He only knew that halfway through it, he’d almost forgotten why he’d been angry in the first place, and by the end he didn’t care at all.
Then, when they ran into Yumi, Dalai and Ontari on their way back down the hill, Revik found himself remembering why and got jealous and annoyed all over again.
They’d more or less sorted that out by the time they got back to camp, however.
Anyway, as Dalejem reminded him, more than once on the walk back, it was normal for seers to get angry with one another while setting boundaries around a new arrangement. They would both be touchy for awhile, assuming they decided to remain exclusive.
Revik knew that was true, too.
He knew it, but still had to bite his tongue when Yumi winked openly at Dalejem on that trail, right before she smirked down at where the two of them held hands.
“Have a good afternoon together, brothers?” she had asked them with a smile. “You look... disheveled,” she had added, her smirk growing more apparent.
“Please just let it go, brother,” Dalejem said, when Revik saw him next. “I did not keep anything from you. It was nothing... a bad night with too much pain.”
Standing there, Revik only nodded, biting his tongue.
He’d brought two mugs of chikre over from the kitchen, a kind of meal-like soup in lieu of dinner. Carrying them back to where Dalejem sat on the log, saving the two of them a spot to sit, Revik stretched out his hand, offering one of the mugs to the other seer. Smiling up at him, Dalejem caressed Revik’s thigh through his pants, accepting the offering with a pulse of warmth.
“Is that really all you want?” Revik asked him, gruff.
When Revik sat down next to him, Dalejem wrapped a muscular arm around him.
You don’t have to worry about me, brother, he told him softly. Truly.
Revik nodded, forcing his shoulders to relax.
Balancing his arms on his thighs, he exhaled again, then forced himself to let it go.
When he glanced across the fire, he saw Mara watching them, a hard look in her hazel eyes. Revik didn’t let his gaze rest there for long, however.
Even so, he felt Dalejem stiffen slightly.
“Don’t play these games with me, brother,” Dalejem murmured, gripping him tighter.
Revik shook his head, clicking softly. “I’m not.”
“I mean it...”
“I’m not,” Revik cut in, looking at him seriously. “I promise you. You don’t need to worry about me, either. I swear it.”
Dalejem studied his eyes briefly, then nodded, visibly relaxing.
“Okay.”
Revik watched the seer drink the chikre, and a sliver of pain touched him again. He looked away, feeling that they were being watched by others in the construct... but not before Garensche burst out in a low chuckle from a few yards away.
“They are disgustingly cute,” he boomed in his deep voice, ostensibly talking to Vikram, but grinning directly at Dalejem and Revik. “I wholeheartedly agree, brother. It is quite vomit-inducing. In fact, I think we should seriously consider banning them from sitting with the rest of us...”
From the other side of the fire, Ontari laughed.
“That is not too extreme, brothers?” he called out, winking at Revik when he caught his eye.
“I do not think so,” Garensche said, his voice still loud. “If they won’t share, then I think they should take their toys into the other room...”
“Don’t call the ex-Rook a toy in front of Jem,” Mara said, her voice holding a darker bite. “He tends to get a little touchy about that kind of thing.”
Revik saw Ontari put a hand on her thigh when she said it, shaking his head perceptibly, and she gave him an annoyed look, pursing her lips.
Dalai smiled at Revik from the other side of the fire, too. “Now that the Bridge is born, maybe the fact that Dalejem has a companion is another sign of the impending Displacement?” she suggested, leaning against the chest of Nulek, who sat on the log with her.
Garensche laughed, but Revik found himself staring at Dalai, turning over her words.
He didn’t want to ask, but found himself looking at Dalejem anyway.
The male seer nodded, making a “more or less” sign with his hands.
“Yes,” he said neutrally. “They are saying it is her now. The Bridge.”
Revik nodded.
He felt the information catch in his throat, however.
Remembering what Kali said to him by that swimming pool in Saigon, Revik fought with a sharper pull in his light, what felt almost like claustrophobia, mixed with a darker feeling he didn’t want to probe close enough to see clearly. Whatever it was, he couldn’t quite shake it off, not entirely... nor could he eradicate the memory from which it came. Rather, something about what Kali had said to him that day felt more like prophecy than it ever had.
It didn’t make him feel special, though.
More, it felt like a train was bearing down on him in the night, one he couldn’t outrun, or even avoid by changing direction.
Revik felt Dalejem’s hands grow stronger on him once more, massaging his back, trying to get him to relax. Avoiding the seer’s gaze, Revik looked into the fire, following the sparks and flames with his eyes.
He didn’t look up until Yumi spoke, and then only in reflex.
She seemed to be staring at him when he raised his eyes. The tattoo on her face appeared to move strangely under the liquid orange of the flickering firelight.
“It won’t be long now, brothers and sisters,” she intoned softly, her voice less joking than the others’ had been. “It won’t be long, so we should enjoy this time, this quiet before the storm. It won’t be long now. I feel it very strongly tonight. Since we got here, really.”
There was a silence after she spoke.
Then Ondati broke it, smiling at her, his own cup of chikre clutched in his muscular hands.
“It won’t be long for what, sister Yumi?” he asked her.
“Before our lives change again,” she said at once, smiling back at him, that more serious look still in her eyes. “With the Bridge here, nothing is certain any more, my brothers and sisters. Nothing.” She made a sharp gesture with one hand, then looked back at Dalejem and Revik.
That time, the smile reached her eyes.
“Only love is certain,” she said then, her voice warm, along with her light. “Only love can take us through these times. Remember that.”
Revik tensed at her words, even before he fully understood them, feeling them lodge somewhere in his chest, along with Kali’s words from five years before. Yumi continued to smile at him as he sat there, that deeper meaning shining out from her dark eyes.
“Only love is always,” she said, quoting the same passage as Dalejem had, earlier that day.
Revik sucked in a breath, staring at her.
Next to him, he felt Dalejem’s light react, too.
Yumi only smiled though, her eyes flickering away, roaming over the rest of them.
“Treasure it, brothers and sisters,” she said then, speaking to all of them.
She raised her mug in a toast. Revik watched, unmoving, as the other seers around the fire followed suit, raising their mugs as she did, their faces serious now.
“Treasure the always moments,” Yumi said, her v
oice solemn, almost a prayer. “For they are rare. And while forever, they are fleeting, too. Especially in these uncertain times.”
A more serious mood fell over the small group around the fire.
Revik watched as the rest of the seers raised their cups in a silent salute, drinking to seal them within their hearts.
Even Dalejem joined them, his mouth and eyes as serious as the rest as he took a long drink of the chikre Revik had given him.
Only Revik sat there, unmoving, his fingers clamped around his own metal cup.
He watched them all drink, feeling that dread settle deeper into his light.
15
BIRTH
“...BECAUSE SHE WISHES you there, brother,” the seer said, frowning at Revik where he sat at a wooden table. Revik saw the Adhipan leader glance at Dalejem, who sat next to Revik and somewhat behind him on the long bench.
Then Balidor looked back at Revik himself.
“She wishes you there,” he repeated. “So you will go.”
Revik shook his head, without looking up from the plate in front of him on the table. Resting his arms on the wooden planks, he shook his head again.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Revik said. “I don’t want to go.”
“She asked for you,” Balidor said, exasperated. He looked at Dalejem again. “She wants to speak to both of you, actually...”
Revik looked up at that, his face taut. “What?”
He’d moved his body slightly in the pause, almost without knowing he’d done it, inserting himself somewhat between the Adhipan leader and the man sitting next to him. He’d done it with his light even more than his body, and from behind him, Revik heard Dalejem smile, even as his fingers gently squeezed Revik’s shoulder, rubbing the muscles in his back.
It’s all right, brother, he murmured. Relax.
Revik glanced at him, feeling his face warm slightly, then looked away from both of them, gazing off into the jungle without really seeing it.
“What does she want?” he said finally.
“She wants to see you,” Balidor repeated, his voice holding more of an edge. “It is a great honor, Dehgoies, to be asked for by name like this. She has given birth to an intermediary being, it is confirmed that it is so. It has been almost three weeks now, and she is finally safe to be moved, so she wants to see certain people before she goes. She asked for you specifically, brother. You were the very first name on her list...”
When Revik didn’t look up, or change expression, Balidor’s voice grew openly exasperated again.
“Brother!” he said. “There isn’t much time. She will go into hiding after this! You must know that. Do you have any idea how many seers would jump over any obstacle to be granted the honor you have been given? Do you understand the smallness of this time window, as well, given what this birth means... to all of us?”
Revik felt his jaw tighten more, but didn’t look over.
“Then they really do think it is her?” he said. “The Bridge?”
“Kali thinks so, yes.”
“What about the Council?” Revik said.
“Vash has not made an official pronouncement,” Balidor began more warily. “I am not sure I am at liberty to share his impressions, brother...”
“Do you believe it?” Revik said, looking up at him almost accusingly.
Balidor clicked at him, but some of the charge dissipated from his light.
“I have seen things to make me believe it, yes,” he answered, his voice more subdued, but more sincere-sounding, too. “And I am learning to trust her... your Kali.” He ignored Revik’s wince at his phrasing. “She is definitely a seer of far-reaching sight. I feel no duplicitousness in her at all... so yes. I believe she is telling us the truth.”
“Assuming she knows the truth,” Revik muttered.
Dalejem squeezed his shoulder again, exuding reassurance.
Clicking softly to himself, Revik fought with his own light.
He was still sitting there, silent, when Dalejem pulled him closer, wrapping his arm around his waist. Revik felt the other seer look up at Balidor, but he still jumped when Dalejem spoke, his words decisive, uncompromising.
“We will go,” he said, ignoring it when Revik stiffened.
“We will?” Revik retorted, looking at him.
“Yes,” Dalejem said, smiling at him. He winked, then his eyes flickered back up to Balidor. “When does she want us?”
“Two hours,” Balidor said at once.
The Adhipan leader hesitated, as if about to say more, then seemed to think better of it, and simply walked away, moving fast that time.
Revik watched him go.
Once he had, Revik turned his head, frowning at the green-eyed seer who sat beside him. His anger lost some of its charge when he saw the other man’s expression, and he found himself studying the violet rings around the cooler shade of green in those sharp, intelligent eyes.
“You are speaking for me now, brother?” he said finally.
Dalejem chuckled. Leaning past him, he tugged Revik’s fork out of his hand, scooping up and then taking a mouthful of the pile of beans and salsa Revik had on the plate in front of him. Revik couldn’t help reacting a little, watching the seer eat his food, so he just watched him, silent, trying to decide if he was angry or not.
Chewing and swallowing, Dalejem paused to kiss Revik’s neck.
“Don’t be afraid,” he said. “You’ll be fine, brother.”
Feeling what the other meant, Revik tensed more, giving Dalejem a harder stare.
“You think I don’t trust myself with her?” he said angrily.
There was a pause where Dalejem studied his expression cautiously.
Then he shrugged, placing the fork back on Revik’s plate.
“I think you are worried about offending me, yes,” he said, his voice matter-of-fact. “I think you are a little worried about her husband, too...” Feeling Revik’s anger sharpen, Dalejem cut him off by winding his arm further around him, pulling him tighter against his body. He silenced him also with his light, even as he sent warmth into his limbs, massaging his chest.
“I also think you are happy,” Dalejem said, his voice a murmur against his neck. “...I think you have not been happy for some time, brother, but you are now... as am I. I think you do not want to do anything to fuck that up. And I don’t, either.”
Revik stopped struggling at that, thinking about his words.
He couldn’t help but hear the truth in them.
He lost his train of thought when the other male started massaging him more deliberately again, his hands moving lower on his body.
“You won’t,” Dalejem murmured then, kissing him again. “You won’t, Revik.”
Revik frowned, thinking about that, too.
“How do you know that?” he said finally.
He heard the bitterness in his own voice.
He didn’t look back to see if Dalejem heard it too, but he felt the other seer’s smile anyway, right before he pressed his face against Revik’s neck.
“I won’t let you, brother,” he said, kissing him again.
Thinking about that, too, Revik found himself sighing, relaxing into the other man. After another pause, where they simply wound into one another’s light, he sighed again, nodding that time, even as he closed his eyes.
“All right,” he said, reluctant.
“All right?”
“Yes,” he said.
Dalejem laughed quietly again, kissing his shoulder as he slid his hands under his shirt. Revik felt the other seer wanting sex. He knew they were supposed to help Ontari and some of the others scout a Barrier anomaly that had some of them concerned, what looked like a larger force coming out from someplace in South America. He also knew that probably wouldn’t take two hours, at least not to do the preliminary work.
Even so, he didn’t move, or try to remind Dalejem of that fact.
For a long moment he just sat there, feeling the other seer breathe, lis
tening to his heart beat against his back. His mind flickered to the handful of seers talking by the fire not far away, and then to the fainter sounds of birds and monkeys coming from the jungle.
He was happy, he realized.
More than anything, the realization surprised him.
REVIK STOOD OUTSIDE a long, hut-like structure, overly conscious of stares as a group of indigenous humans watched him warily from a nearby fire pit.
Dalejem stayed close to him, wrapping him in his light, but Revik couldn’t help but be nervous, considering what he knew waited for him inside the hut itself, in addition to the suspicious and not particularly subtle stares of the humans.
He’d already been warned against pushing these humans.
He couldn’t even push them to look away.
While this particular tribe had no contact with outside humans at all, Kali was an honored guest here, having some tie that went back to her earlier years, which Balidor explained had been spent in part in South America. Revik didn’t ask how long ago that was, but he definitely got the sense that the ancestors of these particular humans, rather than the humans themselves, had been the ones to forge that particular treaty, and likely long before any Europeans made their way out here, at least in large numbers.
It occurred to him he didn’t know how old Kali was, that he’d never thought to ask her that question during their brief time together in Vietnam.
In any case, being an intermediary, she likely had the ability to create and cultivate alliances that differed significantly from those accessible to more run-of-the-mill seers.
These humans were protective of her.
That much, Revik could feel without any ambiguity whatsoever.
They stared at Revik and Dalejem more in fear for her and her child than for themselves.
Allie's War Early Years Page 67