She frowned. He’d said he was trading them for her. As insulted as she found that, she had to wonder why he’d changed his mind. It was his custom to pay a bride price. Had he decided there was no point in it since nobody claimed her? Since it wasn’t the customs of her own people? Or because he’d decided she wasn’t worth paying a bride price?
The last was a truly depressing thought. When he moved beyond her view, she sighed and flopped on the mattress, wondering what she would do with herself besides stare at the walls while she waited. She was tempted to go out to explore the new world, but not tempted enough to ignore the warning. Ja-rael had said not to leave the ship for any reason. She didn’t think he would’ve said it if he hadn’t thought it was dangerous to do so, and she had no idea what sort of wild life roamed the jungle that surrounded her.
She wasn’t anxious enough to relieve her boredom that she wanted to risk becoming some predator’s meal.
Finally, she decided to bathe. Ja-rael hadn’t laid down any parameters about water usage, but she was keenly aware that she was an extra on the ship that hadn’t been planned and she’d been afraid to use much when she had no idea how long it would have to last the two of them. They’d landed, so that was no longer an issue as far as she could see. The vaguely musky scent of their couplings still clung to her, or the cabin, or both. It wasn’t an unpleasant odor by a long shot, bringing back memories that still sizzled with passion, but it affected her in a way she didn’t currently find pleasing. She supposed it was only to be expected that they would find themselves on two sides of a fence at any time they weren’t having sex. She could only begin to guess how different their cultures were--she suspected she only knew the tip of the iceberg--but it was already obvious they differed in their outlook on just about everything.
Sighing, she tossed the robe aside and went into the head to kill a little time in the bath. Her preoccupation made her careless. She stayed longer than she should have. The water dropped to a mere trickle before she’d managed to rinse away the soap. Dismayed, she sloughed off as much of the soapy water as she could and shut the tap, staring at it uneasily.
She was out of water and Ja-rael was gone. And she’d been so busy spiting him for making her mad before he left that she hadn’t asked him when he thought he would be back.
Chapter Fifteen
Naturally enough, by the time Elise had dried and dressed, Ja-rael had long since disappeared. Elise stood at the porthole debating with herself for sometime, mentally imagining him moving further and further away and finally realized that her reluctance to go after him and admit what she’d done had condemned her to an uncomfortable wait.
He couldn’t be gone long, she reasoned. He must have known the water supply was low and taken that into consideration before he’d decided to leave her.
Of course, he probably hadn’t considered the possibility that she would go in like an idiot and squander what she had on a bath she could’ve waited on.
She hadn’t been thinking very rationally. In all the time since they’d settled on Tor, water had been too precious to squander and everyone had known to be very careful with their ration.
It was really amazing and disconcerting to discover one could slip back so easily into bad habits.
Not that that realization was going to help her one iota and, naturally, the moment it struck her that she had nothing between thirst and herself but a few drops of water she began to feel very, very thirsty. She paced for a while, staring at the tap each time she passed through the tiny galley. Finally, she stopped and searched through the equally tiny cooling unit. Without surprise she saw that no beverage had magically appeared.
She was frightening herself for nothing, she chided herself.
Ja-rael wouldn’t be gone long and if he was, well she wasn’t helpless. She was in a lush jungle. There was bound to be water nearby.
She was completely unfamiliar with this world, however, and she’d gotten lost on the well worn paths in a familiar area, she thought glumly.
Thrusting that thought aside, she moved to the nearest porthole and studied the growth carefully, looking for some sign of open water. She’d made the rounds from one porthole to the next several times before a glint happened to catch her gaze. Relief flooded her as she stared at the rippling glint and realized it had to be sunlight playing on moving water. There was a stream fairly close by. It was hard to judge the distance, but it couldn’t be far. Surely, if necessary, she could reach it and get back to the ship without any problem.
She wasn’t especially anxious to try it, though. The light was already beginning to dim. She might not know much about nature, but she did know that animals tended to find the nearest watering hole at dusk and she couldn’t think of any reason at all why that law of nature wouldn’t apply to Meeri as it had on Earth, and Tor for that matter.
Relieved of that worry at last, her mind turned to her stomach. She’d grown so accustomed to hunger since they’d reached Tor that she tended to ignore it. Now that the danger of finding herself without water had passed, she left the porthole and went to search for something to eat. As careful as she was with her water supply, by the time she’d prepared the meal she only had a little over a half of a container of water to drink with it. Sighing, she mentally kicked herself again for her carelessness. She was going to be damned thirsty by tomorrow, and as reluctant as she was to risk a trip into the jungle, she had no choice at all.
* * * *
Elise woke with a raging thirst. It took an effort to gather enough moisture into her mouth to swallow. As reluctant as she was to give up the last remnants of sleep, she finally rolled out of the bed and headed toward the galley in search of something to quench the craving for liquid. There was very little left. Ja-rael had only brought enough supplies for himself for the trip, which had been divided by two on the way back and had quickly dwindled to the least palatable choices. She finally decided on something that looked and smelled like some sort of fruit--and not particularly pleasing--because the fruit-like things were all that were left. It was as tart as it smelled. She ate it anyway and felt marginally better when she’d finished it--thirsty but not quite as thirsty as before.
There were two more and nothing else.
She was going to be really pissed if Ja-rael didn’t make it back soon, she thought irritably.
As tempting as the thought was to grab some containers and head for the little stream she’d spotted the day before, she decided to wait a while and see if Ja-rael came back before she was forced to the necessity of going into the jungle by herself. She spent most of the day pacing and watching for him. As the sun began it’s downward trek, she was forced to accept that Ja-rael probably wasn’t going to make it back to the craft before dark and she didn’t think she couldn’t handle another day without water.
Dismissing her qualms, she located the largest container she could find and moved to the mechanism that controlled the gang plank. When it had settled on the ground with a muted thump, she moved to the opening and glanced around uneasily. A cool breeze wafted across her skin. Elise shivered, her attention caught by the reviving coolness. She’d grown so accustomed to the miserable heat of Tor, she hadn’t realized that it had grown uncomfortably warm inside the craft.
Glancing around with more interest now, she took a few, tentative steps down the gangplank and studied her surroundings cautiously again. The air filling her lungs was sweet, clean and blessedly cool. A sense of pleasure, carried by the pleasant breeze, wafted through her. “It’s beautiful,” she murmured in surprise. Was this unusual, she wondered, or typical? She couldn’t recall ever feeling such a perfectly balanced temperature, not even manmade.
Feeling a sense of wonder, she moved down the gangplank and studied the world of Meeri for the first time with growing happiness. Who’d have thought such a world existed so close to the awful one their computers had guided them to?
Briefly, dudgeon filled her. “Typical! We could’ve had this! Instead, the frigging co
mputer lands us on that miserable rock?”
She pushed the brief irritation aside. It was pointless. Undoubtedly, Meeri had been out of range when the computer had settled on Tor and just as certainly they had been beyond a lot of choices by that time. The ship hadn’t landed gracefully. There’d been damage. It hadn’t seemed to matter because they’d felt certain Tor was the best the universe had to offer them. Everyone was going to be severely put out when she got back and told them they’d landed on the hell side of Eden.
Or, maybe she wouldn’t tell them. What would be the point? Making them more miserable? It wasn’t like they had any way to change their situation.
Shrugging off her thoughts, she looked around again and saw that the sun was already lower than she liked. She shouldn’t have waited so long, but she had no choice now. She was horribly dry. She couldn’t wait until tomorrow to get water, or go back inside and hope Ja-rael made it back and could fetch water for her.
The jungle around her looked like a wall, though. She studied it for some time, trying to recall just where she’d seen the water. Finally, she remembered she’d seen it from the forward viewing port and moved around the vessel. There was no path, and no sign of the water from ground level. The stream hadn’t looked like it was far away, though. Moving to the edge of the vegetation, Elise listened, peering through the gloom created by the thick tangle of growth. Finally, after studying the craft and the jungle, she decided she had the direction right and began to make her way cautiously through the undergrowth, glancing back every few moments to make certain she could still see the craft.
She’d been struggling against the tangle for perhaps fifteen minutes when she reached the point of no return. She could just barely catch a glimpse of the ship. If she moved deeper, she would lose sight of it and she could get lost. After considering it for several minutes, she looked around and decided to maintain the distance and move around the vessel. The stream had to be close.
She’d managed to break through about two yards of undergrowth when she tripped over a root and sprawled out, losing her grip on her container. The metallic clang sounded loud in the wooded area, seeming to echo almost as far as her squeak of surprise. “Well, if there were any animals around,” she muttered as she picked herself up again, “that racket should have taken care of the problem.”
It took her almost ten minutes to find the container again. By the time she had, though, she had heard the sound she’d been searching for--the musical tinkle of water trickling over the ground. Excitement went through her. Her throat almost closed with the thought of finally getting a decent drink of water. Throwing caution to the wind, she hugged her container to her and half fell and half stumbled through the undergrowth toward the sound. The water, she discovered when she fell in, was icy. She jumped up, gasping to catch her breath. Fortunately, the stream was shallow, stopping shy of her knees.
A chuckle of relief escaped her. Ignoring the leaves floating on top, she brushed them aside and drank until pain exploded behind her eyes from the deep chill of the water. Pinching the bridge of her nose, she fought a sudden wave of dizziness and looked around for the container she’d dropped when she’d sprawled headlong in the little stream.
Her heart stopped in her chest when she saw two golden, glowing eyes in the brush not ten feet from where she stood in the middle of the stream.
Chapter Sixteen
Elise’s first, terrifying thought was that it was a predator. It was, but not a four legged one. Her second, the moment he stood up, was that it was Ja-rael, but that brief spark of hope didn’t last more than a split second. Her mind went into shock, refusing to support her with any sort of suggestions. Instinctively, she backed slowly out of the stream. His lips curled in a feline grin that sent a jolt of adrenaline pumping through her bloodstream. She let out a scream like the wail of a siren and leapt from the stream and up onto the bank. She was too panicked to think. Blindly, mindlessly, she fled back the way she’d come.
She almost ran headlong into a second Meeri. She didn’t stop to think it over, but ducked, changed directions abruptly and managed to elude him. Behind her she heard a thud, the unmistakable pelting of flesh and realized the one from the stream and the one she’d almost run into were fighting--over her. She’d paused to catch her breath and glance around frantically for the craft when she spied yet another, or one of the first two, poised on the limb of a tree at no little distance from where she stood. Panting now with both terror and the need for oxygen, she changed directions again and plunged onward.
She found the small clearing where the ship sat by virtue of tripping over a root and plowing up the ground. When she’d come to a dazed halt, she saw a patch of bare ground. Scrambling to her feet, she raced mindlessly around the vessel, hoping against hope that she wouldn’t find yet another one waiting for her and blocking her from the only safety she knew of. There wasn’t, but one rounded the end of the craft racing straight toward her even as she pounded up the ramp. She slammed into the bulkhead, unable to slow her headlong dash enough to prevent the collision and frantically tugged at the retracting lever. The gangplank began to rise with agonizing slowness. It had only cleared the ground by a few feet when one of the Meeri landed on the end.
Elise stared at the man rounded eyed, trying to remember if there was anything even remotely resembling a weapon on the ship. Nothing came to mind, but as she glanced around for an alternative her gaze settled on the cooking vessel she’d used the day before. Grabbing it by the handle she raced down the rising plank. Two hands appeared about halfway down as another of the Meeri leapt up and grabbed it. With barely a pause, she swung the vessel, catching him on the side of the head with a loud clanging noise. He dropped like a stone. At almost the same instant, the one that had first threatened caught her around the waist. She butted him with her head, catching him on the nose. He released her abruptly, his hands going to his abused appendage. Before he could recover from his pain and surprise, she whirled around and swung her weapon again. It was a glancing blow, catching him on the shoulder before it impacted with his head, but the force was enough when coupled with the rising gangplank to knock him off balance. He fell, catching hold of the edge of the gang plank with one hand even as he toppled over the side. Elise dropped to her knees, whacking him a few more times for good measure and he finally fell free.
She slid into the ship off the rising gangplank and sprawled in the gangway, gasping for breath, but she saw with relief that the plank was almost vertical now, and mere inches separated her from safety. It closed at last, sealing her in and she breathed a sigh of relief.
Too weak and shaken even to consider trying to get up, she lay back against the cool metal, struggling to catch her breath. Her heart was still banging frantically against her chest, however, and it was some moments before she realized all of the pounding she was listening to wasn’t internal. Finally, she struggled to her feet and hobbled to the nearest porthole. She couldn’t see anything, but there was no doubt in her mind that the Meeri she’d met in the forest had followed her.
Shivering, she moved away from the porthole. They couldn’t get in. Even if they knew the ship well enough to figure out where the external release was and how to bypass the code for the gangplank, she could block the manual operation and keep them out.
The only problem was, she was trapped inside and she had no water.
* * * *
Despite the skill Ja-rael had mastered with his herding stick, the animals were so terrorized by their ordeal in the hold of his ship that he had trouble controlling them. At first he was merely annoyed, but when dusk began to descend upon him and he still hadn’t reached the buyer an uneasiness began to creep over him that he had trouble shaking. He wasn’t accustomed to indecision, particularly when he knew he’d thought a situation through carefully and considered every conceivable possibility, but he found himself worrying about Leez in spite of every effort to dismiss it as unfounded.
His abstraction cost him. A beast broke
free and he lost more time rounding it up again. Dark caught him still in the woods and miles from his buyer. When visibility became so poor the animals kept running into the trees, he allowed them to rest and settled beneath a tree to sleep until the twin moons of Meeri rose. As short as the rest was, it refreshed him and he made far better time when he set off once more, arriving at his buyer before the moons had set.
The sun had risen by the time he’d completed his business and set off again. As weary as he was from little rest, though, he made far better time without the beasts to contend with and reached the city late in the afternoon. Anxiety had caught up with him again, largely he suspected, because of his weariness, but he had expected to reach the city early in the day, find what he needed to for Leez and return to her sometime in the evening. Already he had been away a full day and a half. Even if he rushed to complete his business and made good time going back, two full days would have passed.
With an effort, he dismissed his qualms, concentrating on the task of finding clothing he thought would please Leez that were fine enough to be worthy of his mate.
He discovered it was not as easy a task as he’d thought it would be. He did not care for the color of this. The workmanship of that was poor. The quality of the fabric of this robe was far too rough for her delicate skin. Finally, he settled not very happily on the best that he could find, had his purchases bundled and glanced at the market clock. His heart failed him. The sun was already dipping toward the horizon and he very much feared that, with the best will in the world, it would be morning before he returned to the ship.
Ja-rael was in such a rush to leave the market, he slammed into a man heading in the opposite direction. Begging pardon, he took a step back and tried to go around. It was several moments before he realized the man was deliberately blocking his path.
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