Also, Revik felt, in fleeting whispers of their alien minds, they thought he looked human. They weren’t close enough to him to see that his eye color was clear, not gray or blue, so to them, he looked like a light-eyed human, if a tall one.
Realizing he was staring again, and that it wasn’t endearing him to any of them, Revik shifted his gaze back to the long hut in front of him, with its palm-covered roof.
Most of the structure was open, to catch the breezes as they wafted through, he imagined, but they had created a private segment in the middle of it, so Revik couldn’t see past what looked like organic and cloth curtains that hung from the rafters inside the structure itself. He saw gourds hanging from the ceiling and what looked like mats on the floor, woven grass and more palms, unlike the organic and semi-organic cloths the Adhipan used in their own tents.
He continued to look around, feeling his light darting around in quick scans, when Dalejem wrapped an arm around him again, calming him with his light.
They will come for us now, brother, he sent, soft. She is asking for you. She wants us each to come alone, though.
Alone? Revik sent, tensing.
One at a time, Dalejem clarified. His hands continued to massage Revik’s back, almost without Revik noticing he was doing it. Calm down, brother. Her husband is there. The child, too. You won’t be alone with her.
Revik felt his irritation returning, but Dalejem blew more warmth over him.
That wasn’t an accusation. Calm down. You’re not reacting to what you think you’re reacting to, anyway... at least not from what I can tell.
Meaning what? Revik sent, looking at him.
Meaning, I think Kali was probably right, Dalejem said cryptically, his light still gently probing Revik’s. Feeling Revik about to ask, he answered before he could. ... In Vietnam, he clarified. About you reacting to her daughter more than to her. The Bridge.
Revik felt his jaw clench more.
He didn’t answer, though.
Anyway, he didn’t have time.
One of the local humans showed up at the opening to the hut, and pointed directly at Revik’s face. Revik found himself looking at the bright orange paint on the man’s skin, and the piercings and tattoos on his face and in his ears.
The man pointed to him again, saying something sharp in his own language.
Revik didn’t try to read him for the specifics.
Anyway, the message was pretty clear.
Nodding, then holding up his hands in a peace gesture, Revik started to move towards the opening of the hut, but Dalejem caught hold of him first, pulling him back before he got very far. Revik had only just turned around when the seer was kissing him, putting light into his tongue and hands as he clasped Revik around the waist. He coiled his light into Revik’s intensely enough and possessively enough that Revik let out a surprised sound, then got instantly hard.
He kissed the other seer back, losing himself in light, then pulled away when the male human started shouting at him again from the doorway.
When Revik broke off with Dalejem, looking over, the male human shouted at him again, gesturing sharply from the dark opening between the two wooden poles, then stomped his bare foot. Feeling more eyes on him as well, Revik glanced over at the fire pit as he took a step away from Dalejem, and saw the female humans there staring at the two of them, their eyes wide in dark faces, as if he’d just turned into a ghost.
He didn’t probe that any deeper, either.
Come back to me, brother, Dalejem sent to him softly.
Glancing at him, Revik nodded, swallowing a little as he released the other seer’s hand.
Then, hardening his light against any more outside impressions, he followed the painted human into the darkness of the palm-roofed hut.
THE HUMAN PULLED back the curtain, pushing Revik through the opening before he’d really wrapped his mind around entering, either.
Revik found himself standing just inside of the door, in a warmly lit space taken up mostly by an almost Western-style bed, where a woman sat, leaning against a wooden backboard. The mattress looked to be sitting on a frame made of the same type of wood as what formed the outside frame of the hut itself, although the mattress might have been more palm fronds stuffed inside cloth, or maybe something the seers had brought with them from the United States.
A man lay sprawled on the mattress next to her, looking down at a small bundle wrapped in a blanket who rested between them.
Revik realized that must be the baby.
He avoided looking at all three of them directly, especially Kali.
He shifted his eyes up, instead, to look at the netting that surrounded their little enclave, seeing human fabrics wound in and around with the organic cloths that kept out the insects. He followed the construction with his eyes, seeing where the cloth hung from rods and created a makeshift roof, like they’d built a full-sized tent inside the hut.
It was cooler in here, so the fabric must have properties with which he wasn’t familiar.
Someone had hung what looked like indigenous religious totems of some kind over the bed, too, along with a Christian cross, something that looked old, and an image of the sword and sun. The more local-looking totems evoked protection somehow, so were probably meant to keep out bad spirits. Revik studied them briefly with his eyes and light, then felt a ripple of amusement from the bed, from what had to be Kali.
“Do you plan to acknowledge me at all, brother?” she said, even as he felt it.
Feeling at least two sets of eyes on him now, Revik tensed, his face warming despite the cooler air inside the tent compared to outside.
He lowered his gaze reluctantly, and found Kali smiling at him.
She looked genuinely happy to see him, which threw him a little, too.
Clearing his throat, he bowed, formally.
“I hope you are well,” he said, a little stiffly.
She laughed at that, and he flinched a little.
He remembered that laugh. It sent a shiver of memory through him, of standing on the banks of the Saigon river with her, flagging down a boatman so he could get her the hell out of there. He pushed the memory from his mind, even as he glanced at the male lying next to her.
He had looked up from the bundle on the bed, although his fingers continued to stroke a small arm Revik could see there. Feeling a strange pain in his chest at the sight of that pale skin, Revik flinched, then looked up, and found the male staring at him warily.
Revik shifted his weight on his feet, and then looked back at Kali.
“You wanted to see me?” he said lamely.
She laughed again. “Gods, brother! Do I warrant so little warmth from you? Won’t you come here at least? Give me a kiss?”
Revik shifted his weight again, glancing at her husband. “I would rather not, sister. No offense.”
At that, the male grunted, what was almost a laugh.
“I won’t hurt you, pup,” he said. “Not that I want to discourage that concern in you,” he added, a bit more darkly. He glanced at his wife, sharply enough that Revik got the sense she’d poked him with her light. Rolling his eyes at her, he clicked under his breath, then gave Revik a somewhat measured, if marginally more friendly look.
“I am Uye,” he said.
Staring down at the tiny fingers wrapped around his thumb, Revik swallowed again.
He still didn’t make any move towards the bed.
“You are with someone now,” Kali said.
Revik turned, looking at her again, and saw her green eyes studying him shrewdly.
“You are,” she said, glancing up at his face. “Are you not?”
He nodded. “Yes.”
“Will we meet this mystery person?” she said, quirking an eyebrow at him. “Why did you not bring them with you?”
Revik felt his confusion worsen.
Hesitating, he glanced behind him, at the curtain that covered his exit. At a loss, he looked back at her, his voice uncertain.
“He
is here,” he said. “Outside.”
She smiled. “Why did you not bring him in?”
Revik’s frown deepened. “I was told you wanted to see each of us alone.” Seeing the confusion in her light, he said, “You asked to see him. He is here because you summoned him, sister. I thought you knew.”
Kali’s lips pursed, right before she glanced quizzically at her husband.
Revik saw the male shrug, no expression in his blue eyes before they shifted back down to the bundle lying before him. Once he was looking there, his eyes grew instantly warmer once more, holding a love Revik could almost feel.
The feeling of protectiveness emanating off the other male was so tangible that Revik felt it as nearly a physical force. He found himself noticing that Uye had a bruise on his neck, too, and cuts on his hands and arms. He remembered he’d been in a human prison then, and that he’d only been released from it recently, and probably not the easy way.
Looking back at Kali, Revik found her looking at him again, that denser scrutiny back in her eyes.
“Why did you want Dalejem then?” Revik said. “What do you want with him?”
There was a silence.
Revik saw understanding flicker in her eyes then, even as she and her husband exchanged another brief glance. Then Kali looked up at him, smiling, and Revik found himself reacting to the warmth in her light in spite of himself.
He saw Uye give him a sharper look, and shielded himself more carefully.
“Do you not want to hold the baby, brother?” she said, her voice holding affection again.
“No,” Revik said, unthinking.
Uye grunted another laugh, glancing at his wife.
“You do not?” Kali said, puzzled once more.
Revik shook his head, once. “No.”
That pain returned to his chest then, sharper. Revik saw Uye staring at him once it had, a harder look in his blue eyes. That time, when he looked at his wife, Uye frowned. Revik saw the male look at the baby on the bed, then back at Revik, right before Uye’s light thickened perceptibly, enveloping the baby lying on the bed in an even denser shield.
Kali clicked at her husband, a gentle rebuke.
Revik could tell by the expressions on their faces that they were probably talking.
“Did you want something from me, sister?” he said finally.
Both of them looked over, as if he’d interrupted them.
Realizing he had, Revik made an apologetic gesture with one hand.
“I am sorry,” he said, short. “I don’t know what I’m doing here.”
Kali sighed a bit, sitting up more on the bed. Shoving the covers aside then, she swung her legs over the side, and Revik saw that she was wearing a pale green skirt, lighter than her eyes, along with a tunic-like shirt. The style of them almost looked Indian in origin.
She got to her feet a moment later, and walked up to him.
Revik just stood there when she embraced him, closing his light even as his eyes flickered nervously to the male on the bed.
When Kali smacked him lightly on the chest with her hand, Revik looked down, startled.
“I thought you would want to see her,” she said reproachfully. “I thought you would want to see me,” she added, her voice holding an even sharper rebuke. “Instead you stand there, refusing to say hello, acting like I am torturing you, brother, by even inviting you here. Is Uye really so frightening?”
The male on the bed chuckled softly, glancing up. Smiling at Revik for the first time, he rolled his eyes a little, looking fondly at his wife.
Revik found himself relaxing slightly, too.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
She smacked him again, and he jumped.
“Don’t be sorry!” she scolded. “Say hello.”
Revik rolled his eyes a little, clicking under his breath. “Hello, Kali.”
“Are you glad to see me?”
“I am glad to see you are well,” Revik said, feeling his jaw harden. He glanced at Uye again before adding. “I was worried about you. I am glad you will be leaving soon... all three of you,” he added, seeing Uye’s quirked eyebrow.
“And you are afraid of my daughter, too?” she said.
He shook his head. “No.” Fighting to think, he sighed then, clicking more normally. “Kali, I feel strange. What you told me in Vietnam... how am I supposed to react to that?”
Uye grunted from the bed again, glancing at his wife.
Revik distinctly got the impression it was an “I told you so” type of look.
Kali only laughed however, sliding her arm around Revik’s waist. “You don’t want to hold your future love interest in your arms then, brother?”
“As a baby?” Revik retorted. “Not particularly, no.”
Thinking about her words, he felt his frown deepen. Meeting her gaze directly that time, he let her see it, even as he shook his head.
“I’m not comfortable with this, sister. I think I should go.”
Kali released him with a sigh, but he saw a knowing look in her eyes, too. “Because you are in love now?” she asked him gently.
Revik felt his face warm.
Glancing behind him, at the blank wall of curtain at his back, Revik clicked again, hearing the irritation in the sound he made.
“Stop picking on him, wife,” Uye said from the bed. “I’d just as soon he not have an interest in our daughter just yet, if it’s all the same to you...”
Kali rolled her eyes at her husband, her mouth firming, then looked up at Revik, studying him more carefully with her leaf-colored eyes.
“Brother,” she said gently. “I am happy for you. Truly.”
Revik shook his head again, but more because he didn’t know what to say.
He glanced at the bundle on the bed again, in spite of himself.
For the first time, he opened his light a little. Just enough to feel... something. Maybe to convince himself he wouldn’t.
Instead, that pain in his heart worsened, grew unbearable.
He felt the familiarity there.
He felt it, and found himself fleeing from it.
“I have to go,” he said. Hesitating, he leaned down, kissing Kali on the cheek. “I wish you all health and happiness, sister,” he said, and meant it, even as he closed all three of them out of his light. “I am sorry I did not try to thank you sooner, for what you did for me in Saigon.” Hesitating, he looked up then, meeting Uye’s gaze. “I am sorry for my behavior with your wife, brother... truly. I was sorry even then, even in that state.”
Uye grunted at that, but his blue eyes softened somewhat.
“I appreciate that, brother,” he said, once again caressing the arm poking out of the bundle on the bed.
Revik hesitated, then nodded, looking down at Kali. “I should go.”
She nodded, a faint sadness in her eyes as she looked up at him.
“Brother,” she said. She laid a hand on his arm before he could move. “Remember your promise to me. You cannot tell her.”
Revik frowned, staring down at her. “Tell her? Tell who?”
Kali clicked at him softly, even as Uye made an amused sound from the bed. She gave her husband an annoyed look, pushing her long, dark hair out of her face.
“I apologize,” she said to Revik, glancing again at her husband. “He says I always leave out about ten words out of twelve...” When Revik’s confusion only worsened, Kali clicked again, seemingly at herself that time. “Our daughter. You will meet her, brother, and when you do, you cannot tell her about us.”
“Why not?” Revik said, frowning.
She shook her head. “You just cannot. She cannot go looking for us. It would be very dangerous for her... if it were to happen too soon. So you cannot tell her.”
Revik felt his confusion worsen. “Look for you?” he said. “Why wouldn’t she know where you are?”
“None of your business, pup,” Uye growled from the bed.
Kali clutched Revik’s arm though, giving her husband
a hard look.
“Be polite, husband,” she scolded him. She looked back up at Revik. “I cannot explain it all, brother. I really cannot... or I promise you, I would. Just remember that I said this, and promise me that you will do as I ask. If you truly want to repay me for what I tried to do for you in Vietnam, then promise me you will do this for me.”
Looking down at her, Revik exhaled in a sigh, nodding.
“Of course,” he said. “I vow it.” Hesitating, he continued to look at her eyes. “Is there anything else you want of me, sister?” he said. He glanced at Uye. “...Either of you?”
From the bed, Uye let out another half-laugh.
Kali only shook her head, smiling at him.
When Revik turned to go, however, she stopped him again, clasping his hand. Revik turned, and was startled to see tears in her eyes.
“You are loved, brother,” she told him softly, clasping him tighter. Her words turned almost fierce. “...I hope you know that. You are very deeply loved.”
Revik nodded, feeling his confusion worsen, along with a denser pain.
Even so, he didn’t understand what she meant.
Nor did he want to.
Feeling another pulse of light off the bundle on the bed, he found himself struggling to breathe, feeling suddenly claustrophobic again. He wanted to get the hell out of there, then, but he didn’t want to jerk his hand away from the female seer. He glanced at Uye, and saw the male watching the two of them, no expression on his face. Giving him a last nod, Revik turned to go, disentangling his fingers gently from Kali’s.
“I should go,” he said, softer.
Kali only nodded that time, releasing him.
Revik turned, reaching for the cloth door again, when Uye raised his voice.
“Revik!” the seer said.
Revik froze, then turned, his hand already grasping the organic curtain. He met the gaze of the male seer on the bed.
The blue-eyed seer stared at him, zero compromise in his ocean-colored eyes.
“You may be loved,” he said, his voice holding a soft lilt of humor. “But you hurt my daughter, brother, and I’ll hunt you...” he said. A pulse of that protective light shimmered off his prone form, even as a smile touched his lips. “...No offense.”
Allie's War Early Years Page 68