She nodded. “ByutbitaneQ.”
Troubled, he whistled. What was she doing carrying around such a powerful—and addictive—tranq? “Heavy-duty stuff.”
Her calm response was matter-of-fact. “I had to stop the seizures, besides which you were frighteningly disoriented. I thought putting you under for about twenty-four hours might give your system time to recover on its own from residual effects of the travel.”
He decided to let the subject lapse for now. But if she was addicted to such a vicious drug, he’d have real trouble on his hands when she started to detox. For sure the hidden cupboards of this odd dwelling didn’t contain any illicit feelgoods, or an antidote.
Rumbling from his stomach reminded him how long it’d been since he last ate. “I need some nutrition. Where did you say my gear ended up? I have a couple of high-energy bars in there.”
“I know. I hope you don’t mind, but I ate most of one last night. But the fruit is so much better.”
What was she talking about? He hadn’t packed any real food. “Fruit?”
“Outside.” She waved one hand in the general direction of the hall. “There’s a garden outside. It’s like an oasis. There’s even a small lake, fed by cold springs directly from inside the mountain.”
“We can’t touch the local food until we know if it’s safe for humans.” As his blood pressure rose, he realized he’d fallen into lecturing her the way he would a raw recruit. Mark reminded himself she was an unschooled civilian and he should make allowances. He moderated his tone. “I’ve had the antidote injects for a lot of poisonous things, but you—”
“I promise I didn’t eat anything unless I saw the birds and the ground rodents eat first, okay? And I had to drink from the lake. Neither of us has anything liquid in our bags. I don’t believe Lajollae would send us to a place where we were going to die if we consumed the available provisions. That doesn’t make sense.”
“None of this makes sense,” Mark retorted, a reluctant grin breaking out on his face. “All right, let me finish getting my boots on, and I’ll be glad to tour your oasis, or whatever this place is.”
“I think the lake has fish, so maybe we can figure out how to catch some dinner,” she told him a moment later, strolling out of the bedroom into the next chamber. “This is where we arrived yesterday.” She pointed at a raised, circular dais in the exact center of the room. His kitbag lay off to the side, her leather satchel lying next to it.
“Is that a second key?” he asked.
“I think so. I left it for you.”
He pivoted, assessing the place they’d been sent to through the auspices of the mysterious Lajollae. He saw no decoration anywhere, no inscription, nothing to provide any hints about who’d built the dwelling or why.
He wasn’t as comfortable in this place as Sandy seemed to be. Worry that they’d ended up in a trap of some kind, or even a shared hallucination, thrummed through him. But his bruises, aches, and pains felt real enough. Her assessment about the long-deserted aspects of the place summed conditions up perfectly. “Does anything look familiar outside? Do you have any idea what planet we might be on?”
“Nowhere I’ve ever been. I haven’t traveled much in my life, as you can imagine.”
“I’ve been all over the Sectors and into some of the Mawreg territory, but I don’t think any one sentient could possibly know all the worlds where humans can survive. How many moons does this place have?”
“I saw two rising by the end of the day yesterday.” She shrugged. “To tell you the truth, I was reluctant to stay outside and count celestial bodies. Once the sun set, I shut the door and spent the night sitting on the bed next to you, with your blaster in my hand.”
“I’m sorry you had to endure the night by yourself.” No wonder she had circles under her eyes. Mark guessed the long hours between sunset and dawn had been more unsettling for her than her calm recital would indicate. He’d forgotten how gutsy she could be. Pivoting in the hall to survey the small expanse of their new domicile, he said, “What’s behind the other doors?”
Tapping one fingernail on the portal she lingered beside, she said, “Here’s the door to the oasis. The next door over opens into some kind of huge, empty space.” Sandy frowned. “When I walked across the threshold, I became a bit disoriented, like Traveling almost, but on a smaller scale.”
Annoyed again, he didn’t bother to moderate his tone. “I wish you hadn’t done so much exploring while I was unconscious. What if something happened to you? I would have awakened today with no idea how to find you.”
“And what exactly should I have done while you slept? Nothing happened to me. So, obviously, my decision was fine.” She pointed her finger at him, and her tone grew a bit strident. “Don’t treat me like a breakable, helpless imperial princess. Don’t expect me to be anything but an equal partner on this weird adventure we’ve been flung into.”
“I never treated you as if you were like the other women in the imperial family.”
“Well, don’t start now.”
“Truce.” He held up his hands as if warding off a blow. “What about the last door?”
“It doesn’t open with the key. You can feel a vibration in the rock, and I think I heard humming, like machinery.”
“I’ll take your word for it.” Rubbing his chin, wishing he could shave, Mark said, “Could be the mechanical room for devices keeping this place functioning.”
“And the tourists aren’t allowed in to mess with the settings?”
He nodded. “Exactly. Right now all I want is to see the outside, breathe some fresh air.”
“Right this way, then.” Eyebrows raised, a mischievous smile on her face, Sandy waved the key. “Ready?” With a flourish worthy of the best magician, she held the lavender key toward the center of the portal. The panel slid aside.
Warm, scented air and the inviting sounds of a breeze, birds calling, and water flowing drifted in through the opening.
He walked onto a wide ledge of variegated stone, his senses assaulted by the richness and beauty of the surroundings. Lush greenery dotted with exotic flowers of different colors, and trees laden with unidentifiable fruits stretched as far as he could see. A lapis lazuli sky arched above the peaceful scene. There were no clouds, not even wisps.
“A yellow sun,” he observed as she joined him on the ledge. “Only one?”
Shading her eyes, she stared at the planet’s star for a moment. “There’s a small binary companion with a different orbital cycle. Come on, I want to show you the whole complex, and especially the lake!” She flashed the key at the doorway, shutting off access to the interior.
“Damn it, all our things are in there.”
Spine rigid, face unsmiling, she keyed the door open again. “I’ve been in and out a dozen times. The key works, all right? You have to extend some trust here.”
“Didn’t you say you wanted to show me the gardens?” he parried, not willing to get drawn into another debate.
Sandy stepped off the ledge and walked across the thick green turf.
Sighing, he followed her for a tour of their private oasis. She led him to the small lake first, pointing out iridescent fish swimming in its shallow depths. Along the way she picked some fruit, handing Mark a tempting red sphere so juicy he found it hard to avoid making a mess of his tunic. Mood improving, he sat beside the water to eat.
“I didn’t dare go deeper into the oasis on my own yesterday,” she said, picking another piece of fruit for herself and joining him on the soft turf.
Tossing the core into the bushes, Mark leaned back to eye the mountain rising so far above them the peak was lost in the clouds. “I think our pocket paradise was built into a plateau. Took master builders to carve all this. Let’s explore the boundaries, shall we?”
After another few moments of walking through a haphazard orchard of various types of fruit trees, they reached the outer wall. A ten-foot wall of stones stacked together with no mortar, yet linked perfectly, formed th
e barricade, running in both directions as far as he could see. He couldn’t insert so much as a fingernail between the blocks. Troubled, he gave her a look. “The zoo-like aspects of this bother me.”
“Zoo?”
“Perfect human habitat enclosed by a stone wall, male and female specimens trapped inside. The confined surroundings don’t concern you?”
Eyebrows raised, she stared at the wall. “Now that you mention it, yes.”
“I still have my antigrav pads. Let’s see what’s beyond the edge of our enclosure, shall we?” Suiting action to words, he activated the boots and rose to the top of the stone ringing the pocket oasis. A long, low whistle escaped his lips, and he descended, holding a hand out to her. “You have to see this. Let me lift you to the top.”
“What is it?”
“I think we might have this planet to ourselves after all. There is nothing, but nothing, anywhere.”
She made the short ascent in his arms. The two of them stood on the wall, staring across the rugged landscape. As far as Mark could see, stretching all the way to the horizon, was a semi-arid expanse, close to being a true desert. A solitary bird—hawk, eagle, some kind of predator—circled in the sky, drifting on the thermals, the only other living thing besides them anywhere. There were no roads, no signs of any other habitation, no lights. Mark lifted off and floated beyond the wall, both to assure himself nothing prevented him from doing so and to assess the possibilities of using the grav boots or attempting an old-fashioned manual descent.
“Sheer walls as far as I can see, disappearing into the clouds.” He staggered a bit as he landed next to her again, the antigrav flickering off in one boot. “Well, we won’t be using antigrav to escape. One pad by itself doesn’t provide enough lift, and I wouldn’t risk it failing on us.” Reaching down, he yanked the useless antigrav insert from his boot and flung it out into the void. “I’m glad you like it here so much, because I’d say we’re marooned.” He eyed the bird, far above even their perch. “Unless we grow wings like he’s got.”
“Where would we go anyway?” she asked.
“I object on principle to being cooped up anywhere I can’t get out of, no matter how beautiful. Makes me wary.”
“Maybe the Travelers had some way of going to another place when they got tired of this one,” Sandy suggested as she started walking back to their new domicile. “We can’t fault them after the fact just because we don’t. Now we know it’s not a zoo. Don’t try to scare me.” She patted his arm as he walked beside her, taking some of the sting out of her warning. “You’ll figure this out. We won’t stay trapped in the oasis for the rest of our lives.”
“Fair enough.” He had no idea at the moment how to escape this beautiful cage, but was pleased by her faith in him.
Even if some of the features of the dwelling built into the cliff were for cooking, it was beyond either Mark or Sandy to find anything to use. Around twilight, he gathered fallen branches, built a stone fire ring, and coaxed a small blaze into existence on the broad patio outside. He roasted the fish he’d managed to spear with his combat knife while wading in the shallows of the lake. She sat, watching him in companionable silence. The primary sun had gone down in a raging blaze of scarlet and purple skies before he could prepare the main course. Fruit served as an appetizer.
“I’m sorry you got dragged into all this,” Sandy said, taking the last few berries and rolling them in her palm.
Mark slid one of the fish off its skewer and onto a broad green leaf, placing the offering in front of her. “I got dragged into this, as you elegantly express the concept, one hell of a long time ago. The present adventure is nothing but another chapter in a long tale.”
“Smells terrific.” She broke the fish apart and started removing fine bones. “We can’t avoid the subject forever. Do you know what my grandmother did to you?”
Her question broke a dam inside his heart, and the answer poured out. “Had me arrested, tortured, my brain scrubbed clean by her damn, clumsy techs, and then had me dumped in the Sectors as part of some half-baked sleeper-agent experiment. I was a seriously confused person for a lot of years, almost psychotic, with two sets of memories. A set on the surface making sense for the Sectors. One even more vivid set buried but trying to get out. I’d have flashes of recall at the weirdest times, couldn’t control it.”
“And you’ve been in the Sectors ever since?”
Rolling his shoulders, he said, “Her agents planted me in a destroyed colony, as if I was the only survivor of a Mawreg attack. I sure believed it for quite a few years. The Sectors authorities who process older survivors said I tested off the charts for military aptitude. Not surprising, since I’d been in training as a warrior in Outlier since I could walk. My body remembered even if my mind couldn’t. And of course Outlier human stock age somewhat differently, so the Sectors authorities pegged me as younger than I am. The bureaucrats recorded me as having been a cadet in the militia on the destroyed colony and sent me to the Star Guard Academy.”
Head tilted, she eyed him clinically for a moment. “But you obviously regained your true memories. How?”
“It happened the first time I underwent treatment in their rejuve resonator. I was in critical condition after a tricky mission, so the medics authorized the treatment. I argued with them about keeping the scar along my ribs. I knew the mark formed an essential part of my identity, a link to something, even without access to my memories. My commanding officer ordered the medics to comply with my demand just to get me to shut up. He wanted me to take the treatment before I bled out and died. I came out of the tissue-regeneration field with complete memories.” Instinctive caution had made him keep his mouth shut in that bleak moment even as his mind had reeled under the assault of his true Outlier memories.
She discarded a tiny bone on the side of the leaf. “And then?”
“Got sent on another mission.” He concentrated on filleting his fish for a moment to buy time. He never talked about himself. He kept those doors in his mind shut, and no good ever came of peeking behind them, in his experience. Yet how could he refuse to answer her questions? She was the cause of all his misfortunes. “I did my twenty in the Sectors Special Forces, got mustered out recently, in fact. The brass decided my skills and resistance to orders I didn’t like made me too spooky for them, too unpredictable. I didn’t know what to do next until your grandmother had me kidnapped. Ekatereen and I had a cozy little reunion – I’d have probably killed the old witch if she hadn’t had half the palace guards in the room. I hope the snatch-and-grab job on me cost her a solar system’s ransom.” Bitterness burned in his throat. He wanted the empress to suffer, even if nothing would ever compensate for all she’d done to him. “She set me up as a mercenary, thanks to your madcap journey with Portuc.”
Dropping her fish, Sandy recoiled. “She paid you to bring me to Throne?”
This discussion was veering perilously close to emotions he’d locked away in order to survive. Hurtful words came to his rescue. “Why else would I have bothered going to Freemarket? She offered more credits than I could spend in a lifetime.” He chewed his fish and hoped his surliness would end the conversation for now.
Sandy pushed away her plate.
“So, most of those years in the Sectors, you knew who you were? But you made no attempt to return to Outlier? To me? Until someone—my grandmother, of all people—paid you?”
Listening to the shock and pain in her voice made him remorseful, so he offered a piece of the truth. “I didn’t even know who the real Mark Denaltieri was until long after I graduated from the academy and commenced active duty, carrying out missions. If the Sectors authorities ever suspected me of being an Outlier soldier, I’d have been thrown in prison and never let out.”
“But you weren’t tempted to come for me before this?” Her voice was tight, and she eyed her dinner away as if the food had suddenly spoiled.
“I didn’t know what your situation was. News doesn’t filter from Outlier into th
e Sectors, especially not about minor members of the imperial family. You’ve no idea how impossible it is to travel from the Sectors into Outlier. Sectors citizens are expressly forbidden to cross the border. It takes huge piles of credits, connections, and sheer luck. Even if I’d somehow gotten to Throne, what could I have done? Empress Ekatereen would have had me executed the moment I crossed the Outlier border.” Why couldn’t she see he’d had no choices? He’d done what he had to do to survive. How could she blame him for all the things out of his control that blocked him from returning to her? “I made the best of my situation and persevered in the Sectors. At least I had a place there, a purpose.”
“You could have come for me.” Keeping her voice low, Sandy averted her face, contemplating the rising quarter moon, a glowing reddish dot, far over the horizon.
“You were the direct cause of my losing everything.” Mark tried one last time to explain. “My final memory of you was the fight we had because I wouldn’t join your household guard, remember? For all I know, you betrayed me to the empress. The secret police arrested me not two hours after I’d left our secret spot. The empress supervised my torture personally—did she tell you that? And one of the things she threw in my face while her men were doing their damnedest to break me was the information that you’d decided I wasn’t worth risking yourself and your status for any longer.”
“Do you really believe I’d betray the man I loved to her secret police?” A sob caught in her throat. “Why would I do such a thing?”
He couldn’t maintain his self-imposed distance any longer. Rising, he touched her shoulder, turned her around to him. Back straight, she remained stiff against his body, her fists pushing against his chest. His lips close to her ear, he said, “Once I had my true memories firmly in place, I thought about you all the time. In some ways, remembering what we shared hurt worse than your grandmother’s physical torture. If there’d been one single hope in seven hells of seeing you, of asking you to tell me the truth, I’d have found a way to get to Outlier, or died trying.”
Lady of the Star Wind Page 4