Brave took her hand and ran straight toward the cliff edge.
“What…?” The question stopped in her throat when she saw that he was leading them to, “No fucking way,” a rope bridge. “Is this escape beginning to feel at all cliché to you?”
Peeking over the edge, she could see that the rushing current of black water and white foam was roughly a hundred feet down. She pulled her hand away, shaking her head vigorously and backing up. “No! Drawing a line. Right here. Right now. You go that way if you want. I’ll find another way.”
“Lana!” He glanced behind her. “It’s not an option. When the straithgard get here, and that won’t be long, we need to be gone. And me going without you? You need to just stop saying that because it’s stupid and it’s also not happening.”
He reached for her hand.
She took a step back.
“Are you afraid of heights?”
“Not more than average, but I do have a healthy interest in self-preservation.”
“Is it that you don’t know how to swim?”
“Swim?” She started laughing. “Are you insane? Nobody could swim in a current like that. But why are you asking that question? Do you have a reason to think the bridge wouldn’t hold us?”
It was his turn to shake his head. “Just trying to figure out what you could possibly be more afraid of than what’s chasing us.”
She stared at him for a few beats turning that over in her mind. “I see your point.” She looked at the bridge and back at Brave. “I do know how to swim, but you better see to it that I don’t have to.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
He held out his hand again. When she took it, he led her to the edge of the bluff, which was also the beginning of the bridge. Though the distance across was probably only seventy feet, it looked like miles from Lana’s perspective.
“You go first. There’s no reason to be scared. I’ll be right behind. Just put the center of your foot on the next slat and don’t look down.”
“How am I supposed to put the center of my foot on the next slat if I don’t look down?”
“Well… Don’t look down longer than you have to,” he said quickly. “Good. Ready? Let’s go.”
“Wait! How do you know it’ll hold both of us? Maybe you should go ahead by yourself and test it first.”
He narrowed his eyes. “We’re going together. All for one. One for all. Right?”
She narrowed her eyes in return. How dare he throw her own words back at her!
He was herding her toward the edge with his big beautiful stubborn body while she had hold of both his arms, trying to hang onto the sensation of solid ground until the last possible second.
He pinned her with his gaze. “If you don’t turn around now, you’re going to be taking the bridge backward and, while I think that would be an awesome trick, I’m not going to recommend it.” His eyes flicked down to her throat when she swallowed. “I know what you need.”
“What?”
“Since survival isn’t enough motivation for you, let’s sweeten the pot. Hurry across as fast as you can, but be safe,” he warned, “and there will be a prize waiting for you.”
“What kind of prize?” She sounded interested, with a touch of suspicion, and her voice was a little shaky.
“Me!” He grinned proudly. “Get us to the other side and I will let you have your way with me.”
She looked dumbfounded and was mentally running through a list of possible replies when she heard the sounds of the straithgard over the churning water below and decided the time for talking, and hesitation, was done.
Grabbing the corded rail, she put her foot on the first slat. When she felt the give in the fiber and the sway of the free-hanging construction, she had to suppress the urge to scream.
“That’s it, Lana. Looking like a professional bridge walker. Just keep going.” Brave looked behind them. “And hurry.”
By the time she’d taken four steps her legs were shaking so badly that the entire bridge was responding in time. She felt Brave come up behind her, felt his breath on the back of her hair.
“One step at a time. Just keep doing what you’re doing,” he said in soothing tones that seemed way too calm for the circumstance at hand. “But do it faster.”
Brave looked behind them, then yelled to be heard above the noise. “Sorry, Beautiful. We’re out of time. Looks like we’re going for a swim.”
“What? Why?” The shaking in Lana’s legs was so exaggerated that the entire bridge was swaying in a twenty degree arc by that time.
“They’re here. I’m going to have to cut us loose.”
“Brave, you can’t. Please tell me this is another one of your jokes. We can’t go into that water. If the fall doesn’t kill us, the cold will. If the cold doesn’t kill us, the current will.”
“Just look at it this way. You were talking in your sleep about wanting a bath and clean clothes. Well, you know what they say. Be careful what you wish for.”
She worked up just enough courage to look over her shoulder and wished she hadn’t. He was cutting through the rope with the knife he’d stolen right before they left the fortress.
“Brave, you’ve got to stop.”
“Too late. It’s done. On a count of three we’re getting dunked. Don’t worry. When you come up, I’ll be right there.”
“Brave!”
“Don’t worry. We’re going to make it. And be free.” He stepped up behind her. “You have to let go, Lana. If you don’t, when the bridge gives, you’ll be smacked into that rock wall and that will kill you. Let go. Hang onto me.”
She was too panicked to say anything more. Brave had to forcibly pry her hands away from the rails and had just succeeded getting one free of rope and attached to him, when the bridge began to give way. As a reflex reaction, Lana let go of the rope rail with the other hand and grabbed onto Brave at the same time they began falling. He was sure her scream broke his eardrum, but he held on tight nonetheless.
She heard Brave yell. “Lana! Take a deep breath!”
When she saw that they were nearing the water, her muscles went rigid, bracing for the shock of cold that was sure to follow, but thankfully her body did what it was told and filled her lungs with air.
The force of impact with the water separated them, but only for a few seconds. Lana’s first thought when she went under was that it wasn’t cold. In fact, it was so close to body temperature that it could almost be called pleasant. Her second thought was that they had survived the fall and the water temperature and if the speed of the current didn’t drown them…
When her head popped up, she still had air and wasn’t desperate. She was moving fast, but didn’t have the sensation that the rushing water was trying to push her under. The moment of panic came when she looked around and didn’t see Brave.
“Brave!”
She yelled out when she felt his arm come around her waist from behind.
“Right here.”
She looked around. They were moving rapidly, but they were floating as effortlessly as fat people in salt water.
“We’re floating,” she said.
“Yeah.” He smiled. “It’s kind of fun. Do you like it?”
She had to think about that for a minute, but the answer was yes. Yes, she did. She laughed out loud.
“Are we safe?”
“We will be soon.”
After a half hour the canyon widened. The water became both shallow and calm enough that they could stand up and walk out.
She lay down on a grassy berm. “Looks like a good place for a nap. What do you say?”
Brave looked at the other side of the river. “Let’s get a little further away. Just to be sure. When it starts to get dark, we’ll stop and sleep. Maybe build a fire.”
She turned her head toward him. “How are you going to do that?”
“Find a fire hornet?”
He started to pull pieces of a mess from his pocket that may once have been bread.
“So. No dinner tonight.”
He shook his head at her. “Always so negative.”
“I’m not always negative.”
“Okay,” he said dismissively.
“I’m not!”
“Whatever you say.”
“Ugh!”
“What is that?”
“What is what?”
“Those monosyllabic words you like to use. Ah. Duh. Gah. Meh. Ugh. They were not in the books.”
Lana’s head canted to the side as her expression changed to quizzical. “What books?”
“At least I don’t think they were.” He ignored the question and seemed wrapped in his own thoughts. He looked over at Lana. “We also need to try to see about getting you dry before it gets dark. The best way to do that is to keep walking.”
He turned his back and started walking.
“Here’s another one for you. Ooh!” she said to his back as she curled her fingers into claws and made raking gestures with her hands. When he didn’t turn around, she reluctantly plodded after him.
The sun was getting low on the horizon when she decided she’d punished Brave with the silent treatment for long enough.
“When are we stopping?”
“Soon as we get to the Yelta Caves.”
“That tells me nothing.”
He stopped and turned to look at her so that he could explain, but froze into a stare.
“What?” The look on his face was making her nervous and self-conscious.
“Your hair.”
She picked up the ends and brought them to her face in an effort to see what had brought Brave, Force of Nature, to a standstill. “What about it?”
“It’s different. Wavy.”
“Oh.” She dropped her hair. “That’s because I fell into a river and blew dry au natural. With real wind, no brush, no smoke and mirrors. It’s WYSIWYG wild. If you don’t like it, don’t look.”
“I do like it.” He took a step forward suddenly and picked up a lock of her hair. “So much. Why would you ever do that other thing?”
“Straighten it? Because it’s fashionable.”
He was still rubbing her hair between his fingers, but staring at her mouth. “The river water made it shine.”
“Um, thank you.”
“You still mad at me?”
“I never was mad at you, Brave. I get stressed in life or death situations. Maybe I take it out on whoever is available. It’s probably a character flaw. In this case you’re the one who’s available. But it’s not like you deserve it. You saved our bacon.”
His lips twitched at the same time he cocked one brow and pulled his gaze up to her eyes. “Our bacon?”
“It’s an expression that means…”
“I can guess.” He lowered his head. “You’re welcome. I’m very fond of your bacon and will protect it with my life.”
“Let’s hope that doesn’t become necessary. Right? Shouldn’t we go? You were going to tell me about the Yelling Caves.”
“Yelta Caves.” He looked over his shoulder. “It’s not far. We’re going straight through a loke orchard and they’re in season. We’ll be able to grab some off the trees and take them with us. Dinner tonight will be fresh as it gets.” He grinned and started walking again.
“An orchard? You mean like fruit trees that were deliberately planted by someone.”
“That’s what orchard means.”
“So there are people, or demons, around here who are farmers?”
“Farmers? Yes. Demon farmers? No. They’re immigrants. Species that are not human, but human-like. Nothing for you to worry about, though.”
“Well, we might be able to get a match at least to start a fire when it gets dark.”
“You mean ask somebody for help?”
“Yes. You make it sound like an alien idea.”
“We won’t need to. The Yelta Caves are warm.”
“Warm caves. Sounds like an oxymoron to me.”
“They’re warmed by volcanic fissures. You have to find just the right spot in the cave. If you get too close to a fissure, it’s too hot. If you’re not close enough, it’s too cold. So you have to find the place that’s…”
“Just right.”
“Yeah.” He smiled.
When they reached the loke orchard and started up one of the rows, Brave said, “Get the pink ones. They’re ripe and ready.”
By the eagerness in his tone, Lana surmised that Brave was fond of lokes and wouldn’t feel put out to have a fruit supper. They were rounded, about the size of a pre-engineered peach. Lana gathered as many as she could carry by hitching up her skirt. The occasion called for setting modesty aside. Besides, she reasoned, some people wore tights like pants.
At the end of the orchard row, Brave said, “We just have to duck through here,” meaning a copse of trees, “and the caves are on the other side.” Sure enough they walked right into a rock wall, white and pockmarked. “Ladies’ choice,” he said.
“Closest one with a soft mattress, clean sheets, and room service.”
Brave looked serious for a minute. “I’m going to give you that when this is over, Lana. I promise.”
“I was just kidding. How about a clean sand floor and enough warmth to get a little sleep?”
“Done.”
He walked along the wall until he spotted the one, apparently. The arched entrance was about the same height he was, so that he was able to walk in without ducking. She followed, noting that there was light coming from the fire of the fissure further into the cave. It was almost dark outside, but they weren’t going to spend the night in pitch black.
So they walked closer to the fissure. When Brave stopped, she said, “Too hot.” They walked back toward the entrance. When she reached a point where she missed the warmth, she shook her head to indicate that they’d gone too far. Brave took a couple of steps further in and looked at Lana. She smiled and said, “It’s just right,” while thinking to herself that she had always wanted to say that.
They sat on the sand floor with their backs to semi-smooth stone wall and began to dig into the pile of lokes. Brave withdrew the knife from his belt. “Some eat them peeled. Some like the peeling.”
“Which are you?”
“I like both.” He smiled before biting into a pink loke. It didn’t make a crunchy sound like an apple, but it wasn’t totally silent like a banana. It sounded like biting into a ripe peach. Sure enough, juice ran down his chin, but didn’t stop there.
It dripped onto his chest and continued to make a path down his abs to the waistband of his pants. She’d been momentarily hypnotized by the trail of fruit juice and realized that she was staring with her mouth open.
When Brave saw the look on her face, he stopped chewing and looked down. Lana knew she’d been caught fantasizing about helping her companion with his errant juices. She had a tongue in perfectly good working order and, after an hour’s soak in the river, she knew his skin was clean and would be supremely lickable under the juice.
She covered by saying, “Tell me about the tattoos.”
“What about them?” His expression was unreadable.
“When did you get them? Why? What do they mean?”
He studied her for a few seconds while continuing to eat lokes.
“Some of it is personal. I started getting them when I went through puberty. It’s a custom here. Each one signifies a ritual of passage. Some of them are in the script of my world of origin. Some of them are demonic symbols. Some are what they call elemental glyphs.”
“Did it hurt?”
He barked out a laugh. “Yeah, Lana. It hurt.”
She picked up a loke and bit down. She’d been right about the consistency. It was a lot like a ripe peach, but even sweeter with a hint of liqueur-type flavor that could possibly become as addictive as chocolate.
“Hmmm,” she said. “Good.”
Brave turned his head in her direction to agree with her, but just as she had, he became lost in the sight o
f juice running down her chin to her open-necked, still-damp satin blouse and disappearing between the teasing bit of cleavage that was visible. He swallowed.
Either he didn’t have Lana’s control or didn’t want to. He leaned over and slowly licked the juice on and around her mouth before easing his fruit-swollen lips over hers. Lana forgot all about quenching her thirst and hunger with lokes. Her hunger for Brave was so powerful that it overrode everything else. And that was shocking to her. She’d never before been so affected by a man. Her body seemed to have disconnected from her brain and developed a mind of its own.
She dropped the loke she was holding to put her hand on Brave’s head and pull him even closer. He responded to that encouragement by urging her to straddle him without ever breaking their string of serial kisses. It seemed they were equally eager to explore each other’s mouths with their tongues and each other’s bodies with their hands.
Brave’s hand cupped her breast as he lowered his face to her chest, where he began alternately kissing and licking loke juice. Lana’s skirt was around her waist as she ground her body into his erection.
She wasn’t promiscuous, but she’d been with enough guys to know that what she was feeling was more than just sexual excitement. In just three days she had formed an attachment that was so much more potent than anything she’d ever experienced before. Brave’s ready grin and determination to see them safe had managed to etch a place in her heart that had never before been occupied.
Lana was thinking she could be a goner if she wasn’t careful.
The other thing she knew was that she would have given just about anything for the soft mattress and clean sheets she’d joked about. As much as she wanted Brave, she knew that there was no quicker way to ruin love making than adding sand to the mix. She was about to tell him so, when they heard voices. Before there was time to react to having been caught, bright lights were shining in their eyes, blinding them.
Brave lifted her away, got to his feet faster than she would have thought possible and put her firmly behind him.
It would have been Lana’s first real look at the demons, except that it was dark. All she could really see was that they were tall, almost a head taller than Brave, which meant she was dwarfed in comparison.
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