by Regine Abel
“You seem rather casual about all this,” I said, baffled. “Are you not going to warn me to be cautious, like I warned you? Do you not distrust her like the others?”
Qae shrugged again. “Lydia doesn’t distrust her, so why would I?”
My eyebrows shot up. “But she was angry!”
“Yes,” Qae said before blowing some rock dust off the mold he was carving. “Thinking of Lucie or Dr. Sobin always makes her upset. That doesn’t mean she faults Kira for their actions.”
A heavy weight I hadn’t realized I’d been carrying lifted from my shoulders. Kira had been right in her assessment of the affection the Northern Valos felt towards Lydia. If she rejected Kira, the entire tribe would as well until she had earned their trust.
“It upsets me, too, but Kira put things in perspective,” I said before relaying to him my conversation with her.
“A fair argument,” Qae conceded with a slight nod. His eyes sparkled and he smiled. “Are you paired then?”
My heartstone flared and I stopped cutting the stone to scratch below my navel. “No. We haven’t even kissed.”
Qae’s eyebrows twitched with laughter again. “Really? You two seemed rather tightly wrapped around each other on your way here. I believe Zak said ‘tightly stitched to each other’ or something along those lines.”
“I was merely keeping her from falling. She’s afraid of speed.”
My own excuses sounded hollow to my ears and, to my chagrin, the twitching of Qae’s eyebrows increased.
“Bite me,” I mumbled, using one of Lydia’s expressions.
This time, Qaezul burst out laughing. “I have no desire to bite you, my brother. Why my mate dares me to do so still baffles me. She always fears every creature on Sonhadra wants to eat her, and then she issues this challenge. Strange female,” he concluded, affectionately.
“Humans are strange and confusing,” I said, agreeing wholeheartedly. “How... How did you know what pleased Lydia? Things I thought would please Kira seem to irritate her.”
“Things like what?” Qae asked, blowing more dust off his mold.
This reminded me I should be putting a bit more effort into my own task. Targeting the moisture in the air near the crease in the stone, I pushed my frost into it, turning the moisture to ice, thickening just enough to chip away at the stone. I repeated the process until I sliced off a block of stone from the slab.
“She was bored during the blizzard, so I offered for us to build a Frosty to entertain—”
Qaezul’s laughter interrupted me. I harrumphed in annoyance, but didn’t otherwise speak.
“I’m sorry, brother. I should have warned you that everything Lydia did that day was to mess with my head, mainly, but with the rest of us as well,” Qae said, his shoulders still bouncing from his chuckles. “My mate likes to tease and play tricks. I hope you didn’t ask her to make a snow angel, too?”
My heartstone burned.
“No,” I mumbled, scrunching my face.
“But you thought of it?” he asked.
“Maybe.”
He chuckled some more, put down his mold, and then looked me straight in the eyes, his expression sobering.
“It is natural for you to take my experience with Lydia as a reference, but my mate is not Kira. You and I are friends, brothers almost, but we are not twins, and we do not share the same tastes in many things. The same is true of our females. I seduced Lydia with what I knew and loved; art. She seduced me with her courage, and her quirky personality. Show your female who you are, and ask her to show you what she likes.”
My female...
He had given me logical and sound advice, but my mind remained stuck on him calling Kira mine.
“But how would I go about that?”
Qae blinked. “Have you never wooed a female before?”
I snorted in annoyance. “Of course, I have, but our females are simple to understand. Humans, though...”
Qae laughed again. “You were alone for three days with her. Did you not learn anything that she enjoys?”
I scratched my navel again. “Well, after her initial annoyance at my suggestion of building a Frosty, we ended up making one and she enjoyed it, especially when I taught her how to best use her frost.”
“There you have it!” Qae said. “Teaching her how to master and benefit from what was done to her is a wonderful way to bond. Don’t forget, she is new to Sonhadra. The heat of The City in the Caldera kept her locked inside. She’s free now. Show her the beauty of our world. See what brings her joy.”
“Your words are wise. Thank you, my brother,” I said, touching two fingers to my heartstone.
“It is my pleasure,” Qae said with a nod. His eyes sparkled and his lips stretched in a teasing smile. “Consider taking her to places that require a bit of sliding. Physical proximity, while I cared for my Lydia, did wonders for us.”
My heartstone flared and pleasant heat spread in my belly. Memories of Kira’s delicate, cold body wrapped around me, her breath on my neck, and our skin touching in so many places had my abdominal muscles clenching.
I hastened to finish my work while mentally listing the many places I would take Kira to visit.
Chapter 8
KIRA
The sound of the bathroom door opening startled me. I whirled around, somewhat shocked that Duke would be intruding on me while he knew me to be naked. In spite of my limited knowledge of their culture—and their obvious comfort with walking around barely covered—I believed he knew of humans’ more prudish dispositions. It wasn’t actually an issue for me to the extent that I had been to nudist camps in my ‘previous’ life. However, exposing my nudity to others remained my choice, not someone else’s decision to make without my consent.
The harsh words on my lips died before I could voice them as Lydia’s statuesque frame walked into the room. She kept her eyes respectfully averted, but that didn’t alleviate the knot tightening in my belly. Was she coming here as a friend or foe?
“Forgive me for invading your private time of R and R,” Lydia said, looking everywhere but at me. “I just wanted to let you know that I’ve brought you some food and extra clothes. I kind of ambushed Duke and didn’t give him much of a choice in letting me in. When you’re done, maybe we can have a friendly chat? I will wait out front.”
I blinked, thrown by her apparent timidity and obvious discomfort. Relief flooded me as I swam towards her. Stopping by the edge, I propped myself up against the iced edge of the pool.
“It’s okay,” I said. “You startled me, but I wouldn’t mind some company. No need to avert your eyes. I’m not shy, and I don’t have any bits that you don’t see daily in the mirror.”
Lydia chuckled and walked to the left side of the room where she gracefully sat on one of the benches around the pool. Her eyes flicked this way and that, taking in the décor of the room. From her mesmerized expression, I realized she’d never been inside this room before. That pleased me a great deal.
“This is beautiful,” she whispered. “I’ll have to show you what Kai did with ours.”
“I’d love to see it,” I said, once again finding myself liking her.
She had a way of making people feel instantly comfortable. There was a certain air of innocence and wholesome kindness that emanated from her and drew you in.
Charisma.
And those stunning eyes of hers sparked with mischief or amusement at some secret joke. It made me feel ashamed for all the times petty thoughts about her had crossed my mind.
“Did you call your mate Kai? I thought his name was Ky?”
“Err, you just pronounced it the same way twice? And yes, it is Kai.”
“I didn’t. You say Kai, I say Ky?”
She blinked then gave me a blank stare. Was she not hearing the difference between the ways we each pronounced it?
“You say it like tie or die,” I explained, “while I said it more like kahi.”
Lydia chuckled and shook her head. “Honestl
y, I’m not hearing a difference. But the proper way to say his name is actually closer to Kwy, although I never got it right.”
It was my turn to blink.
“As for your man,” Lydia continued, “the right way to say his name is Duewek. But he, too, says I don’t pronounce it right. So I told them both to bite me, and now I stick with Kai and Duke.”
I couldn’t help laughing. She beamed at me, her eyes sparkling.
Yep, I could see myself becoming friends with her.
A very nice prospect with us being the only two humans here in E’Lek.
“That was clever, icing the water. We didn’t think of it before Kai could withstand the heat.”
“All Duke’s idea,” I said, without hiding my pride in my man—her words, not mine! “I would have been content to go to the river, but he wouldn’t hear of it.”
“Of course not,” Lydia said. “He likes you.”
“I like him, too.”
I dove under the water, both to hide my embarrassment at having confessed my feelings, and to do a final rinse. I swam to one of the four staircases out of the pool, one in the center of each side of the large roman bath the size of a basketball court. Climbing up the steps, I wrung the water out of my hair. Lydia got up and met me halfway, extending a large towel to me.
“Thank you,” I said with a smile.
I rubbed it through my hair first then wrapped it around me to cover my nudity.
“It’s been ages since I’ve used a towel to dry up,” Lydia said, musing out loud.
“How so?” I asked, surprised.
“I just flare up, and the heat of my skin evaporates the moisture.” She suddenly scrunched her face. “Kai is giving me a hard time about it now, though. They’re all terrified anything even remotely related to heat will harm the baby. However, they seem to forget he’s half-human and that Sobin attuned me to fire.”
“He?” I asked. “You think it’s a boy?”
She made a face. “I don’t know, to be honest. Sometimes, I’m convinced it’s going to be a girl and other times, I just know it will be a boy. I’ll be happy either way, although I suspect the valos would prefer a girl. Even with the lost tribes you found, they’re a little short on women.”
I nodded and gestured for her to have a seat again. Turning towards the pool, I practiced what Duke had shown me and began to unravel the ice around the edges. Lydia’s gasp had me looking at her over my shoulder. She leaned forward, eyes wide with wonder as she observed me. Puffing my chest with pride, I pursued my efforts, but this time showing off a little. The need to prove myself or even one-up her confused me. I’d never been much of the braggart before, having known plenty of personal successes and having received plenty of acknowledgment and praise from both my parents and peers. Yet, here I was, making a show of what I could do.
“Duke has been teaching me,” I said, moving ahead to another iced section. “He says my powers are almost identical to that of the Northern Valos and he will show me how to master it.”
“That makes you a perfect fit then,” Lydia said with warmth.
Although nervous about opening that can of worms, I seized the opportunity to ask her the questions burning my tongue.
“Am I? Will the valos allow me to be?”
Lydia sobered. “The valos already allowed you in. Finding the lost tribe alone guaranteed your welcome. The obvious relationship blossoming between you and Duke only reinforces your standing here.”
“But?” I asked, moving farther down but not touching Frosty, yet.
Lydia heaved a sigh and appeared to ponder how to respond. That had my nerves rioting in no time.
“Despite your appearance, you were received as a hero. But you’ve hurt yourself with that Lucie comment,” she said.
“Despite my appearance?” I paused my work to stare at her, feeling a smidge offended. “What does that have to do with anything? So, Takheen, Tara... whatever the fuck her name was, and her minions may have been white-skinned, but according to Duke, that’s where the resemblance ended. Our features are nothing alike. I’m not a Creator. I’m just some random white girl looking for a break. They can’t just assume the worst of me or that I can turn evil at any time just based on the color of my skin!”
Lydia blinked, made a show of looking at her brown skin, then raised an ‘are you serious’ eyebrow at me.
Right...
“What the hell am I supposed to do?” I asked, aggravated beyond words, even though she wasn’t responsible for this mess.
“What we’ve all learned to do,” she said. “You will have to be more careful about what you say and do, because coming from you, everything will be met with more scrutiny to assess if you have some underlying meaning, or agenda of a nefarious nature. It sucks, but in their case, it’s not random paranoia or ignorance driving their misplaced caution. They only awakened a handful of months ago from a life changing trauma. Give them time, and they’ll stop seeing the skin and start seeing the person.”
I harrumphed and resumed my work. I’d never imagined finding myself in such a situation. The sense of helplessness overwhelmed me.
“It would also be best that you don’t sing Lucie’s praises. It doesn’t play in your favor.” Resentment seeped back into her voice.
Although it wasn’t aimed at me, my tenuous hold on my temper snapped. “You all need to cut Lucie some slack,” I hissed. Lydia startled and gaped at me, wide-eyed. “Yeah, what she did was messed up but we all did what we had to in order to survive in that hell hole.”
I went on to tell her about how Sobin blackmailed Lucie and then me. She had a general idea of Lucie’s story, but I filled-in the blanks.
“Truth is, Lydia, if not for my intolerance to heat, I’d have been forced to do the same thing as Lucie. And you know what?” I asked. “Given the choice between sticking you with a needle or facing rape and torture at the hand of Jonah or some other guard for refusing, you better believe I’d have given you that shot. You’d have gotten it anyway.”
Lydia pinched her lips and gave me a stiff nod. I ran frustrated fingers through my still damp hair and sighed.
“Look, I hated Lucie, too, while on the Concord, but life on Sonhadra has taught me to let go of things that don’t matter and that can’t be changed.” I walked over to Lydia’s bench and sat next to her. “You are one of the few innocent people that didn’t belong there. The rest of us all screwed up one way or another to land us in prison. But we’ve paid that debt, a hundred times over, with what they put us through. Fate, God, luck, or whatever you believe in, gave a second chance to those of us who survived. Don’t put us on trial again. Let us start with a clean slate.”
She recoiled at those words, a troubled look descending on her beautiful face.
With an unexpected boldness, I reached out and took her hand in mine. “We are the last humans any of us will ever see again. We should be helping each other. Leave the past where it belongs.”
Lydia didn’t pull away as I feared, her fingers tightening around my hand instead. It gave me hope.
My gaze dropped to her mostly flat stomach. “Your baby and hers will probably be the first two human-valo hybrids on this planet. Now more than ever, you should be coming together. She’s trying to save the Fire Valos like you are—and mostly have—with the Northern Valos. If your mate fails with those casings, they will be our best bet to save the sleeping tribes. Let’s not burn bridges.”
I didn’t quite understand why it mattered so much for me to convince her. This was Lucie’s battle to wage and yet, deep down, I knew we needed to put this to rest. The Fire Valos had offered me my first home. The Northern Valos were now my new family. But in the end, I considered both as my people.
“I hear you, Kira,” Lydia said before snorting in self-derision. “I don’t know when I became this vindictive. It’s never been in my nature. Torture does weird things to you. But you are right in more ways than you know. We’re not qualified to fix the lost tribes.”
&nb
sp; “You don’t think Ky will succeed?” I asked, my heart sinking.
“Kai,” she corrected automatically, her face taking on a somber expression. “No, I don’t. He’s a talented artist but this is too much precision work. He has no experience with blacksmithing and, despite his increased tolerance to heat, Kai is going to suffer through the entire process. We don’t have the right materials, tools, or even knowledge on how to do this. The valos are going through the motions because we need to do something. But deep down, I think everyone knows this is a lost cause.”
Sadly, her words reflected the thoughts crossing my mind since the beginning of that discussion on the plaza. It only reinforced my conviction that we needed to bridge the relationship between fire and ice. We’d never rescue the lost tribes on our own. Not unless we had some high technology like a 3D printer or...
I stiffened, my mind racing.
Yes, a 3D printer would be absolutely perfect for this. It would scan the casing and produce an exact replica in however many copies we needed. The Concord had a number of them. Smaller ones in most of the labs served to create organs and tissue for the experiments, but were big enough to also replicate the casings. We’d had similar ones back on Earth so I knew that technology well. The Concord possessed a few significantly bigger 3D printers used to create replacement parts for the ship and any other item or tool that might be required over time. It made sense considering that, with us up in outer space, the crew simply couldn’t walk to the local hardware or spare parts stores.
“What is it?” Lydia asked, a slight frown marring her forehead.
I snapped out of my musing and refocused on her. The creases of her frown deepened when I delayed to answer.
“It’s nothing,” I said. “I just—”
An angry growl rose from my stomach, saving me from the lame excuse I had intended to give her.
“Oh shoot!” Lydia said, looking mortified. “You’re starving. Here I am, talking your ear off, keeping you from dressing or eating. Duke will kick my ass. Come, come!”