Green, Sharon - Mind Guest.htm

by Mind Guest

  times when nothing else will do. Sick or not, I growled low in my

  throat and tried to claw my way to a sitting position, but Fallan

  wasn't asleep. He jumped for me as soon as I began moving, and forced

  me down flat again with no effort whatsoever. I squirmed and fought as

  my arms were pushed under me and held down by the weight of his body

  and mine, but it was wasted effort. Bellna was mewling and trying to

  get me to bring him closer and somehow arouse him, and that was all I

  needed: someone else to fight. When I ignored her she began raving, but

  when I saw Fallan's hand reaching for the cup of battery acid, I did

  some raving of my own.

  "You misbegotten lowlife!" I screamed, tossing my head back and forth.

  "Had I my sword in my hand your blood would be upon the ground where it

  belongs!"

  "Then I am fortunate that you have no sword," he murmured, carefully

  moving the cup closer. "Will you drink or must I do the thing myself?"'

  At that point in time I would have died rather than give him the least

  amount of cooperation, but he didn't need my cooperation. When it

  became obvious even to him that I wasn't going to be drinking that

  swill on my own, he held my nose and waited until lack of air forced my

  mouth open, then began pouring the mixture down my throat. Amid choking

  and coughing I tried spitting it out again, but he was wise to that

  trick and held my jaw shut until I absolutely had to swallow. He

  emptied that damned cup to the very last drop before letting go of me,

  and by then it was too late. Wrapped in nausea, flattened and battered,

  I didn't even stay conscious long enough to see him leave the room.

  The next time the mists rolled out it was daylight again, but a lateafternoon

  daylight. I moved around on the ancient linen, stretching my

  muscles and testing them, then decided to see what sort of shape I was

  in. Sitting up wasn't impossible, but my hand still shook when I

  reached for the metal cup on the little table to see if there was any

  water in it. The cup turned out to be half full, so I drained it

  without spilling too much in my lap, then took a good look around at

  the room.

  The door to the other room was to the left of the bed I sat in and it

  was closed, leaving no way of telling whether or not Fallan was around.

  Since I heard nothing, there was a chance that he might have gone out.

  To the right of the bed, against the wall, stood a large wooden

  wardrobe, as old and as scratched as the small table directly next to

  the bed, but as beautifully carved as the one I'd seen in Prince

  Havro's lodge. The window, uncurtained and overbright with the sun's

  last efforts, was directly opposite the bed, and the carved, straightbacked

  chair had been returned to its place in front of it. Aside from

  these few things and the bed I was in, the room was totally bare.

  As I looked around my mind was working, and it didn't take long to come

  to a decision. I'd bee n on my way to pick-up when the fever had hit,

  and there was no reason not to take up where I'd left off. Granted I

  wasn't feeling any too steady, and my strength seemed to have drained

  out of my toenails, but I'd continued on in worse shape in my life. I

  threw the old blanket into a heap and swung my legs over the side of

  the bed, then waited a minute for the dizziness to go away. The fever was almost completely gone, the wound in my side was barely more than

  tender, and if I ignored the weakness I should be able to do what had

  to be done. When the room settled down I put my feet on the hare wooden

  floor and stood up, wavered a little, then decided to hold onto the bed

  for support. My ears were ringing faintly and Bellna was getting upset,

  but I still managed to walk to the foot of the bed without falling all

  over my own feet. Once there I took a deep breath and straightened up,

  then ran my fingers through my knotted hair. It wouldn't be a snap but

  I would make it, and as soon as darkness fell my trail would be

  obscured. The next step was finding out if my clothes were anywhere

  around.

  I had just let go of the footboard of the bed and had taken step or two

  toward the wardrobe on the far side of the bed when the door behind me

  swung open. Fallan started into the room with his usual broad stride,

  but stopped short and stared when he saw me standing in the middle of

  the room. He looked tired, as though he'd been working hard at

  something, and I cursed under my breath and wished he'd kept at it a

  little while longer.

  "You are awake sooner than I-" he began, obviously surprised at seeing

  me, and then he realized just where he was seeing me. "And you have

  left the bed. With whose permission did you leave that bed?"

  "With my own permission," I answered, ignoring the growing annoyance in

  his eyes. "I dislike this place and shall now leave it. You, of course,

  may stay as long as you wish."

  "How kind and generous of you." he nodded, folding his arms as he

  stared down at me. "And where, may I ask, do you think to go?"

  "You may not ask," I retorted, looking up to meet his eyes. "What

  destination I have in mind is none of your concern. And you need no

  longer waste your valuable time on me, Captain. You will receive no

  reward for the doing, nor even recognition. I do not return from whence

  I came."

  A statement which, I hoped, was a lie. I'd come from Dameron's base and

  I wanted to get back there, but I was quickly running out of strength.

  My knees were vibrating when I turned away from Fallan toward the

  wardrobe, but his hand came to my shoulder before I could move toward

  it.

  "You believe I care for you for no other reason than reward or

  recognition?" he asked, his tone unexpectedly quiet. "Is it not

  possible that I merely care for one who is in need of such care?"

  "It may perhaps be possible." I shrugged too tired to wonder why he

  wasn't feeling insulted. "After my recent experiences with the men of

  this area, however, I prefer to disbelieve the possibility. And I

  prefer, as well, to continue on alone. The presence of one of the male

  persuasion makes me uneasy."

  "An understandable attitude," he said, still sounding unreasonably

  reasonable, still holding my shoulder. "You, however, must understand a

  thing as well. Though I am a man and therefore suspect in your eyes,

  you must continue to remain with me till you are well. At that time I

  will see you safely to wherever you wish to go. Is it agreed?"

  Oh, sure, all the way back to base. Dameron would just love that, and

  I'd be guaranteed first prize in any unusual souvenirs contest they

  might have.

  "No, it is not agreed," I said, turning back to look at him and

  knocking his hand from my shoulder. "I do not wish to remain here and I

  shall not. I do not care to have your company upon my Journey, and I

  shall not have it. Is it so supremely difficult for you to understand

  that I wish to be alone?" I wasn't feeling too well and was therefore in a lousy mood, but Fallan

  didn't come up with the fight I was looking for. Anger flashed briefly

  in
his eyes when I knocked his hand away, but by the time I asked my

  question the anger was gone.

  "The language is, I fear, a trifle too difficult for me," he agreed

  with a sigh, then moved forward fast and scooped me up off the floor

  into his arms. "It will be best, I think, if I return you to your bed

  till I am able to puzzle out your meaning. You require rest and I mean

  to see you have it."

  I had the strength and the time to pound at him only once before I was

  back in that bed, flat on my back with the old blanket pulled over me.

  I struggled up to one elbow and glared at his grin, but all he did was

  pat me on the head.

  "It pleases a simple man such as I to see acceptable obedience in a

  girl child such as you," he said with a good deal of amusement. "Your

  departure now would be beyond reason, and although you seem to have

  grown to your present size without acquiring a drop of reason, you

  shall not continue further without it. I will be pleased to teach you

  reason in our time together during which time you will also mend and be

  restored to full health. I go now to fetch a bowl of the thin gruel I

  have prepared for you. Your body requires the moisture and nourishment.

  Do not stir again from that bed."

  He gave me a hard-eyed look to go with the order, then turned and

  walked out of the room. If I'd had the strength I would have been

  furious, but all I was up to was a glare at his departing back. He

  thought I was being unreasonable by insisting on leaving right then,

  but I didn't give a damn. I could damned well be as unreasonable as I

  felt like being. He was nothing but a cheap, for-hire mercenary, and

  had no business ordering me around. He probably would have been damned

  good in bed, but his constant crowding was beginning to turn me off. I

  wanted out of there and I would get out of there, and nothing he said

  would stop me.

  I pushed the blanket away and got to my feet again, then headed for the

  window. Passing the open doorway I could see Fallan bending over the

  hearth, messing with a pot and a bowl. I wasn't in the least hungry,

  and wouldn't have wanted anything made by a low-born like him even if I

  were. I reached through the dusty sunlight to the side of the window,

  opened the latch, then pushed the window wide against a small amount of

  resistance. My clothes in the wardrobe were probably still wet, so I'd

  be better off forgetting about them. The nightshirt covered me well

  enough, and would certainly do until I got where I was going. I leaned

  out the window to see how far it was to the ground, pulled my head back

  in and hiked up the nightshirt, the -

  "There is clearly one of us who is incapable of understanding simple

  speech," Fallan growled from behind me, all traces of patience gone.

  "Take yourself from that window and do so now!"

  I glanced back over my shoulder to see him standing there with a full

  bowl in his hands, his dark eyes flashing with such strength and

  dominance that my body attempted to respond. I had, however, already

  decided to leave the good Captain Fallan, and right then, when his

  sexiness couldn't reach me, was the best tune. I turned back to the

  window and threw a leg over the very narrow sill, started to swing outbut

  was caught before I could free my second leg. Fallan pulled me back

  in with very-little effort, his arm wrapped tight around my waist. I

  screamed and kicked, but he still reached out and pulled the window

  shut.

  "In all fairness, you should be taught a good lesson for such foolishness," he growled, fighting to hold me still. "Were you not hurt

  and ill, I would-uhh!"

  He grunted with the pain of my elbow into his middle, a blow I

  remembered just in time. His arm loosened enough from around me that I

  was able to put my leg behind his before pushing with my hip, and he

  actually went down! I couldn't help giggling as he sprawled flat on his

  back, but I didn't have time to giggle long. The door to the room was

  standing open and that would be the easiest way to go, so I started

  toward it-just as Fallan reared up, threw an arm around me, and pulled

  me down to the floor on top of him.

  "No!" I screamed, furious that he refused to acknowledge the way I'd

  defeated him by staying down the way the others had. "Release me at

  once!"

  "I am to release you so that the long series of accidental mishaps

  which have descended upon me since first we met might continue?" he

  demanded, forcing me face down across his folded legs. "I knew well

  enough that they were no such thing, yet chose not to press the matter.

  It is now time to cause a mishap of my own, one that has been much too

  long in the coming."

  He held me across his knees and pulled the bottom of the nightshirt up,

  and I didn't know what the hell he was doing. I struggled and fought to

  get loose and then howled with the first swat from his big hand on my

  bottom. It stung less than the second smack, and the second less than

  the third, and after that I lost count. I couldn't believe he would

  dare do that to me, that he would dare spank me, but that's exactly

  what he was doing. It began to really hurt and I began to cry, but that

  didn't stop him. He continued to hold me down across his lap and spank

  me, and I couldn't stand any more. I had to get away and then

  everything suddenly changed, but only inwardly. Outwardly Fallan was

  still spanking away, but inside nothing I'd done seemed all that right

  any longer. Somehow the Bellna presence had gotten the upper hand

  without my realizing it, and this time I was really stuck with the

  consequences. I'd never been spanked before, not even as a child, but

  it was much too late to stop it. All I could do was squirm against his

  leg as I stared at the dirty wooden floor, while Fallan paid me back

  for everything I'd ever done to him and what Bellna had done as well. I

  really felt it every time his big hand reached my bottom, and it didn't

  stop reaching my bottom for what seemed like a very long time.

  When the bastard finally let me go, I crawled off his lap and knelt

  there with my hands behind me, the tears streaming down my face. Bellna

  had started the crying but I couldn't seem to stop it, not with the way

  my backside stung. It wasn't that the pain was so terrible it was

  nothing compared to the way I usually got hurt on the job but the

  humiliation was more than I could stand. If I could have stood straight

  right then I would have broken Fallan into small pieces but I couldn't

  stand straight. Fallan did the standing instead, and then looked down

  at me.

  "You may now return to your bed," he said, sounding all through with

  playing games. "Should I find you out of it again without permission -

  my permission- you will find sitting a vair even more' difficult than

  it currently is for you. Now, go."

  I swiped at my eyes with the back of my hand and then tried standing

  up, but I still couldn't do it. Somehow Bellna had used my body as

  though there were nothing wrong with it, and with her out of control I

  had nothing left. Walki
ng wouldn't have been very comfort-able after

  that spanking Fallan had given me, but in order to walk I first had to

  stand up. I couldn't stand up, I couldn't walk, and it slowly became harder even to kneel. The things in the room started swirling around

  gently, and suddenly I was heading face down for the floor. A big arm

  caught me just before I hit, and then it and another arm lifted me into

  the air.

  "You would indeed have done well on your own," Fallan's voice came, the

  dryness impossible to miss. "After a few brief moments of activity, you

  seem near to a faint."

  He put me into the bed and covered me with the blanket again, and

  although my head was already beginning to clear, he wasn't far wrong. I

  did feel as though I were about to pass out, with or without the

  dizziness. I'd been more than eager to be on my way to rendezvous, but

  I really hadn't intended killing myself doing it. Insisting so

  stubbornly had been Bellna's idea, that and getting so rough with

  Fallan. She'd managed to pry loose a couple of simple techniques, and

  hadn't realized how stupid using them on someone like Fallan was. After

  watching him fight that house guard, she should have had som' idea as

  to what it would take to put him away. She was huddled in her usual

  corner of my mind, \sniffling and hurting from the spanking we'd

  gotten, nicely intimidated but almost as aroused as she'd been d'aring

  training with the slavers. She wanted Fallan more than ever, but I

  wanted him less than ever. He'd had every right to get even for what

  I'd done to him, but not by humiliating me like that. I would have

  faced him if that was what he wanted, with or without weapons, but he

  wasn't interested in facing me. All he was interested in doing was

  humiliating me, and I'd get him for that.

  "You will eat some of this, and then you will sleep," Fallan's voice

  came, and then his arm was under my shoulders and raising me up. "We

  must strengthen you if you are to journey alone."

  "I cannot sit so!" I yelped, trying to twist away from his arm. "The

  sting-I cannot sit so!"

  "Then you had best swallow this quickly, so that you may lie down

  again," he said, making sure I couldn't slip free. "Or do you mean to

  disobey me?"

  I looked up into his eyes as he said that, and what I saw there made me