by Jaleta Clegg
Tayvis muttered something as he opened his pack. He pulled out a medkit. He reached for my foot, then hesitated. I saw the look in his eyes and almost started crying again. I’d hurt him, badly, when I’d told him to go away. I saw vulnerability in his face that matched my own. He cared about me, more than he had admitted.
“Your feet need to be cleaned and bandaged.” He looked away as he handed me the medkit.
I stared at it stupidly, blinking back tears in eyes that were gritty and sore. I shut my lids, huddling in his jacket. I didn’t want him to look at me so uncertainly. I wanted him to yell at me, call me stupid, call me anything. I wanted him to be in control, to know what to do. I didn’t want to see him hurting and know it was my fault.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, “for everything.”
He took the medkit back and sat down near my feet. “Give me the water.”
I handed it over. He washed my feet. I bit my lip at the pain.
“I never expected to be doing this again,” he said, picking slivers out of my foot. He’d done something very similar the first time we’d met.
“As long as you don’t dump me in the river.” My voice was too full of pain, it cracked and the joke fell flat.
“Dace, what are you mixed up in this time?” He didn’t look at me as he opened a tube of ointment.
“You should know.” I didn’t know if the physical pain was worse than the emotional pain. “Lowell sent you after me.”
“No, he didn’t. I haven’t seen him since Tebros.” Tayvis clamped his mouth shut. He wiped a cut on my foot, cleaning it with more water.
I noticed the insignia on his uniform for the first time. “Planetary Survey. What are doing with them?”
“I resigned from the Enforcers.” He dabbed medicine across a cut. I winced and jerked my foot at the pain. “Sorry,” he said and smoothed the ointment on more gently.
“They don’t let you do resign from your rank and position like that. A sector commander of the Enforcers just doesn’t get made an Ensign,” I squinted at the collar of his uniform, “third class?” My voice squeaked in surprise. I coughed and tried to clear it.
He bowed his head, avoiding my gaze. “Lowell’s idea of punishment.” His breath brushed over my bare feet, cool and soothing.
“Why would Lowell punish you?”
He pulled my other foot into his lap, wiping the pine needles away.
“He didn’t send you after me?” I asked, still not quite believing his story.
“Why should he? It didn’t work very well last time.” He stroked medicine over my other foot.
“So what are you doing out here?” The sky was a pale gray now, streaked with faint pink as the sun began to creep over the distant mountains.
“Counting bushies. What are you doing here?” He looked up, met my gaze. His brown eyes were dark and shadowed. “Who are you running away from? Last time you had a major crime syndicate, the Patrol, and an entire sentient species chasing you. Who’s after you this time?”
“Luke Verity.” I pulled his jacket tighter, hunching in and trying to hide. I didn’t want to see Luke again. Ever. I wanted him to be dead, but I wouldn’t believe it until I actually saw his corpse. I remembered him sprawled across the patio, a bloody rock next to his head. It couldn’t be that easy. I had to touch his body, feel him dead before I’d be free of him.
“Who?” Tayvis rummaged in his small pack, tucking away the medkit.
“He’s…” I had to stop and force myself to calm down. Just thinking about him made me want to vomit. “I don’t know who he is, really.”
“What did he do to you?” Tayvis sounded angry.
Tears threatened again. I didn’t want Tayvis angry at me.
“Dace? Tell me. So I know if I need to kill him or not.” He sat back, the contents of his pack spread around him.
“Why would you do that? You aren’t mad at me?”
“Because if he hurt you, I will kill him. I’m not mad at you, Dace. I love you.” He turned away from me, to hide his face. “I thought you’d figured that out by now.” He started stuffing things back in his pack.
He loved me? He’d actually said it? I stared at him, wondering if I was hallucinating.
“I don’t have anything to put on your feet.” Tayvis sat back, studying my face. “I have to climb over the ridge to get a signal from the base camp. That’s if my com works.” He kept his face carefully neutral, as if he hadn’t admitted anything.
“You love me?” I said, still unable to believe it.
He leaned forward and brushed hair off my cheek. His eyes were still full of pain. “I thought you knew. When I didn’t hear anything from you, I thought…” He let it trail away. I knew what he thought. It was plain on his face. His fingers were warm on my cheek.
I cupped my hand over his. “I tried. I sent messages, I looked for you. No one would tell me anything. I was stupid, Tayvis. I shouldn’t have sent you away like that.” I was ready to cry again, except I had no tears left.
He leaned closer, his thumb rubbing my lip. I felt his breath warm on my face. He was going to kiss me. I couldn’t stand it. I jerked back, pulling my hand away from his. Memories of Luke clung too close. I huddled into Tayvis’ jacket and closed my eyes. I couldn’t stand to see the look I knew was on his face.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. I curled up against the thick root, my face tucked against it inside the jacket. I smelled wood and earth and a faint spicy scent that I knew was Tayvis.
“What did he do to you?” Tayvis pulled me around to face him. I resisted, I didn’t want him to see my pain. He was bigger than me, a lot bigger. His hands were gentle but insistent. He pulled me around. I hunched over, staring down at the dirt. He didn’t say anything else. He pulled me into his lap and just held me, stroking my hair over and over.
After a long while, I stopped shivering. The sun was fully up, golden light filtered through the trees. He leaned back against the tree, just holding me.
“Do you want to tell me now?” he asked.
“He kidnapped me.” My voice came out muffled by his jacket. He shifted it, pulling it away from my face. “He thought I was someone else.”
“You were in the mansion? I wondered what all the extra activity was about. And then last night when the fighting started I figured I should find out what was going on.”
“You really didn’t know anything about it?” It still surprised me that he wasn’t working for Lowell. “You really are with Planetary Survey?”
“Ensign third class. Although after the way I’ve bungled this assignment, I’ll probably be busted to kitchen duty.”
“Can you cook?” Anything to stay away from Luke and what he’d done to me.
“Better than you can.” He brushed his lips over my forehead. I stiffened. Then forced myself to relax. Tayvis noticed. He noticed everything. “Anything else you want to tell me about Luke?” He asked it too casually.
“He’s Rigellan,” I said, knowing I’d have to admit it eventually.
“I assume you didn’t find out because he told you.” His voice was tight, strained, a match to mine. His arms tightened around me, a promise that Luke was going to wish he had never been born. I was glad Tayvis understood without asking me the gruesome details. I didn’t want to remember them. I found more tears. Tayvis held me while I sobbed.
When I finally finished, I was drained, washed out completely. I’d been Miya too long. I wanted to be Dace again. I sniffled and wiped my nose on his jacket sleeve.
“Do I need to start carrying tissues?” he said. “For when I run into you. Since I never have any idea when that might be.”
“What?” I asked, confused.
“Never mind. Feel better now?”
I did. I nodded.
He shifted me out of his lap, onto the dirt in the hollow. “Good. I’ll call the base camp and have them send out a flitter. Or at least I’ll try.” He took a com out of his pack, then flipped it on. Nothing happened. He s
hook it and tried again. Still nothing happened. “I guess I won’t.”
I held out my hand. “Let me see it.”
He handed it to me and watched as I popped the back panel off. I poked inside before I put the panel in place again. I flipped the switch. The screen slowly came to life, blinking a no signal alert.
“Low battery,” I said and turned it off.
He took it back, his hand lingering on mine. He stood, stuffing the com in his pocket. He handed me the pack.
“You aren’t in any shape to do any hiking,” he said. “The only possible place to get a signal through is up on top of the ridge. You’ll be all right here?”
“Do I have a choice?” I looked away from him at the trees. Huge trunks blocked my sight in every direction.
“I’ll only be gone a couple of hours at the most.” He stood, com in one hand, studying me. “Promise me you won’t disappear?”
“Disappear where?” I tried to smile, it didn’t work. “I don’t plan on going anywhere.”
“Want me to leave you the rifle? It only shoots tranquilizer darts, but it’s better than nothing.”
“Just go, Tayvis. Get help and come back for me.”
He leaned over and kissed me quickly on the top of my head. And then he was gone.
I leaned against the tree and helped myself to his supplies. I managed half a ration bar and more water before my stomach told me I’d eaten enough. It was getting hot. The air was still. I used his jacket as a pillow and lay down. I drifted off to sleep.
I thought I was dreaming when I heard the voices. They echoed through the trees, faint but shrill. I sat up, looking around. The hot air buzzed with insects. Nothing seemed to be moving. I rolled over and closed my eyes. At least it wasn’t another nightmare.
The voices came closer. And louder. My eyes opened, the familiar knot of fear twisting my belly in knots. Those were not nice voices. They complained and swore. I scrambled back against the tree. I bumped one foot and bit my lip to keep from screaming at the pain.
“What was that?” one of the voices called. It was close, just around the tree.
Silence, sudden and ominous fell in the forest. I held my breath, clutching Tayvis’ jacket and hoping the voices would go away. Something high up in the tree cackled and squawked.
“Dumb animal,” the voice muttered.
I pulled Tayvis’ jacket up and tried to hide.
The voices complained again as they crashed through the bushes next to my tree. I tried to pretend that if I couldn’t see Luke’s men, they couldn’t see me. They saw me and stopped.
“Hello, Dace,” Dysun Farr said, with a nasty grin. “I know someone who wants you real bad. He offered me quite a bit of money if I brought you to him. Shall we go?”
“I should have shot you when I had the chance,” I answered.
“And I should never have trusted you.”
“You’re a cheating pirate, Dysun. You sold me out. Trusting you was the dumbest thing I’ve ever done.”
He slapped me, hard. “Watch your mouth.”
“You used to be nice.”
He hit me again. “I’ve learned better. Prison is good for teaching you to be tough, but you wouldn’t know that, would you?”
He waited for me to fight back. I kept my face turned away. I didn’t have the strength to deal with him. Luke had stolen that. But if I could keep him here long enough, Tayvis would come back. And Tayvis had a rifle. Except I was sitting on it.
“Say something else, Dace,” Dysun taunted.
What little hope I had shriveled into nothing. Tayvis had no weapon and he was hours away.
“Bring her,” Dysun ordered one of the other men. He stepped away.
The man reached over the tree root to drag me out. I clutched Tayvis’s jacket, keeping it with me.
Dysun saw it and snorted. “Still sleeping with the Patrol. Look where it’s gotten you, Dace.”
I said nothing.
He narrowed his eyes. “What? Nothing to say? That’s not like you.”
The man holding my arm shoved me towards Dysun. I couldn’t hide my wince as I stumbled.
Dysun glanced at my feet. “At least I know you won’t try running away this time. Let’s go.” He started walking, back towards the mansion.
The man behind me pushed me. I took a step and wished I hadn’t. It was agony trying to walk. My feet were scraped and bloodied and Tayvis’s medicine was starting to wear off. The man shoved me again.
“Carry her if she won’t walk,” Dysun said without looking back.
The man gave me an evil look. I limped after Dysun, my pride and sense of self-preservation winning over my sore feet. I only hoped that Tayvis could follow their trail and that he would think to look for it. That he would guess I hadn’t gone on my own.
Tayvis said he loved me. I held that thought, treasuring it, using it to chase away the nightmare my life had become.
Chapter Twenty-Six
The tunnel was old, dusty and full of skittering insect life. Rinth ran ahead, waving his thick hands and keening. Lowell ran to keep up, holding his lantern high. Footsteps echoed behind him. Wherever the creature, Rinth, was taking them, Lowell would have some backup.
Rinth darted past intersections, loping through the maze without pausing. After the first few passages, Lowell quit looking. Rinth was faster than he appeared. Lowell was hard pressed to keep up.
The cross passages ended. The tunnel stretched unbroken, carved from solid rock. The walls were unfinished and rough. Lowell had to slow down to keep from tripping on the uneven floor.
Rinth glanced back, his breathless keening fading. “Find miya,” he said, his voice a desperate squeak.
“Find Miya,” Lowell agreed, breathing hard. He looked behind him, holding the lantern high. Paltronis and three of her squad followed him, looking grim in bandages, dust and blood. Paltronis nodded, signaling her readiness for whatever happened.
“These aren’t the same tunnels?” Lowell asked.
“We were farther down, they were more finished. Lasered through the rock,” Paltronis answered. “Are you sure you should be trusting that thing?” She waved her gun at Rinth.
“You have a better idea?”
Paltronis shrugged, setting her extra ammunition to rattling. She shifted it with one shoulder.
“You come now,” Rinth said. “You come. You come.”
“Yes, I come,” Lowell agreed.
Rinth took off again. His feet made quiet scurrying noises in the dust-filled passage. Lowell hurried after him. Rinth wasn’t running as fast now. He slowed to a fast walk and then a slower one. He trailed his three fingered hands along the base of the wall, thick fingers probing any crevice. Insects fled from some of the holes. Rinth ignored them.
“Where is it going?” Paltronis asked.
“Shh,” Lowell quieted her.
Rinth bent over, listening intently to something. His round ears swiveled. His fingers traced out holes near the floor. Rinth made a quiet hooting sound and stabbed his fingers at the wall. He pulled his fingers back out, sucking them and rocking slowly side to side.
He turned his gray pebble eyes on Lowell. He removed his fingers. “You come now?”
“I come now.” Lowell touched the creature on its furry head. Rinth’s ears went completely still, his eyes blinked once.
“You hoouraroo man,” Rinth said.
Lowell pulled his hand back, rubbing it along his leg. Something grated farther along the passage. A breath of air stirred dust.
“You come.” Rinth scuttled down the passage.
A new door gaped in the wall near the end of the passage. Rinth paused, glancing back and hooting before he disappeared into the new passage. The hallway beyond the door was smooth. Vents in the wall hinted it was a ventilation duct. It was only about three feet high. Rinth crouched in the tunnel.
“Quiet. You come now. You come now quiet.”
Lowell bent over and followed. He barely heard Paltronis and her
squad as they followed him.
He was feeling his age by the time Rinth finally stopped. He sank down against the side of the duct, rubbing kinks out of his knees and the back of his neck. Rinth watched him with his blank pebble eyes, squatting in the dust of the vent. Paltronis and her men also took advantage of the break to sit, although none of them would admit to aches and pains.
“Where now?” Lowell asked Rinth.
“Quiet,” Rinth breathed. He pointed one thick finger down through a grate.
Lowell peered through the slits into a small hangar that held two flitters. One of them looked like it wouldn’t fly ever again. Parts were strewn across the floor around it. He glanced over his shoulder at Rinth.
“You watch,” Rinth said, rocking back and forth. “Find Miya. Not punish Rinth.”
“No, not punish Rinth. Good job.” Lowell stroked Rinth’s soft fur.
Rinth blinked, then patted Lowell’s hand. “Good hoouraroo man. Find Miya.”
Paltronis and her men moved to the other vents. One of them slid past Rinth to look out one on the far side. Paltronis settled next to Lowell. They both looked down into the hangar.
A group of men straggled through the main door. Luke Verity strode in behind the others. Dried blood splotched one temple, like a ragged spider. His blue hair was dusty and matted with more blood. He wore a ferocious scowl. The other men with him were dressed in everything from full formal evening dress, now ripped and dirty, to mechanics coveralls, also ripped and dirty.
“How soon?” Luke demanded.
“This one, never,” one of the mechanics said.
Luke raised a gun. Then thought better of it.
The mechanic pretended not to see the gun. “The other one will take about an hour, maybe more. I just got the parts yesterday.”
“Then fix it.” Luke turned on the other men.
“Some party, Luke,” the man in evening dress said. “I don’t remember seeing the Patrol on the guest list.”
“Shut up, Mahoney,” Luke snapped.
Lowell made a mental note of the name; it was familiar to him. Mahoney was one of the top negotiators for the Blackthorne Conglomerate.