Beached

by Ros Baxter

  ‘Now,’ Rania said, moving to Carragheen and taking his hand.

  Lunia’s face was pale and her eyes huge and dark as she moved across to stand in front of the lovers. ‘My darling daughter,’ she whispered, placing her fingertips over Rania’s eyelids. ‘I would tell you to be careful, I would tell you all that is in my heart, but it is open to you.’ The two women stood like that for a few seconds, both sets of eyes closed. Silver tears lit up Lunia’s cheeks. Finally, she spoke. ‘Do you feel my love?’ she asked. ‘Do you feel the endless rolling depths of it?’

  Rania nodded, biting her lip.

  Lunia stepped forward and pressed kisses where her fingertips had been. ‘Keep yourself safe for me, my love.’

  Then she turned to Carragheen. ‘And you,’ she said, ‘man who has proven himself so worthy of my daughter’s love. I know you fear that inside you lies a kernel of your father, that once-great man who was brought so low by his fear, and his ambition.’

  Carragheen made a noise in his throat, something like a growl.

  This time Lunia placed her fingertips on his eyes. ‘But there is nothing of his darkness in you. Only his brilliance, and his light. We all make choices, and by our choices shall we be judged. The choices you have made, time and again, are ones of which you can be proud. You chose to take on Leisen, and her baby, even though they were your father’s responsibility. You chose to seek out Imogen, when she was missing. And—’ Lunia stopped, and took a steadying breath. ‘—and you chose to love my daughter, and protect her. Be sure to go to your mother when you return home. Connect with her, and let her hold you. She will need that, in the days to come, whatever they may hold for us all.’

  Carragheen nodded under her fingertips. Lunia again placed kisses in their wake. Then Carragheen’s eyes opened, and he looked into Lunia’s face. ‘You know I will protect her with my life,’ he said, grasping Rania’s hands and bringing them into the crook of his arm.

  ‘Of course.’ Lunia smiled. ‘As she will you.’

  Lunia stepped away, and Lecanora moved into the space where she had been.

  ‘Sister,’ she said, holding her arms out to Rania, who moved into her embrace. ‘Take no risks that are not needed until we can be there with you. Stay together; stay safe. And—’ As she thought of her home, her throat began to constrict and she had to swallow several times to remember the trick of air-breathing. ‘—and tell my mother I love her more than my life. And I will be there with her soon, to bring her good news of an alliance with The Land.’

  ‘I will,’ Rania said into her sister’s chest. Then Lecanora turned and walked with the pair into the bathroom. Carragheen turned on the shower, and he and Rania undressed. None of them felt any shame as they stood together.

  Rania and Carragheen stepped as one into the shower, and Carragheen wrapped Rania in his arms. ‘Stay not only with my body,’ he said to her in his dark growl, ‘but with my brain. I will lead the song; you pick up the note.’

  Rania rolled her eyes at Lecanora. ‘Aegirans,’ she laughed. ‘Always gotta be in control.’ But Lecanora could hear the exhaustion in her voice. She was not arguing with him, not really. Carragheen opened his mouth to sing a single, perfect note. They both closed their eyes as Rania joined him in the song.

  The ancient ritual, the familiar note, breathed life into Lecanora as she watched them, full and solid and real one moment, before their outlines began to blur and dissolve, and then they were gone, only the whisper of a note hanging in the air where they had been.

  Lunia stepped forward, and wrapped her arms around Lecanora. She reached forward and switched off the tap. ‘We will be with them soon,’ she said.

  * * *

  ‘Everything is ready,’ Doug said, his voice clipped and hard. ‘And just so you know, I don’t give a flying fuck what you want, we’re not going in that other room.’ He motioned with a brutal thumb yank to the adjoining door. ‘We’re gonna be in there.’ He pointed to the large closet. ‘And if I hear so much as a peep from anyone, the whole show’s over. Check?’

  ‘Check,’ Lecanora and Lunia said as one.

  Doug eyeballed them both carefully.

  ‘She said she was coming alone?’

  Lunia nodded. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘She was very clear about it. Said she would prefer if we did not tell anyone.’

  Doug nodded.

  Lecanora knew it was wrong to be thinking so much about what Doug was wearing when the situation was so deadly serious, but it was hard to tear her eyes from him. He’d changed into tight black pants and a close black T-shirt. His feet were bare and he had a pistol strapped to his chest with a tight brown leather strap, and another to his inner thigh. His face was closed and focused, but his lips were full and red, and his eyes dark and deadly.

  He looked every part the killer he was.

  And she wanted him. More than she had ever wanted anything.

  The doorbell sounded, and Larry and Doug leapt to attention, retreating to the closet and closing the door softly.

  Lunia motioned to Lecanora. ‘You go, darling,’ she said softly. ‘This is your show. You will be Queen. You must make the connection.’

  Lecanora filled her lungs with air and headed for the door, going over the lines she had practiced in her head. I know this must all be so very confusing for you, Mrs Murray...

  As she tugged the door open, she also pulled a smile onto her face to cover over the fear she felt for her home, and the uncertainty that tugged at her heart, asking whether she was really able to do this. She felt the breath pour oxygen into the cells of her body and the wonder of being able to traverse two places. She smiled into the eyes of the visitor.

  But it wasn’t Susan Murray.

  * * *

  ‘Let me go.’

  It was hard to speak with the gag over her mouth. Lecanora writhed and kicked, but the binds were too tight, and the room was too dark to see much beyond his face. Another hotel room, just like the one she had left. Except for one critical difference.

  She was alone.

  It was like her foster-mother had always said. You always knew, when someone was out to cause you harm. You could smell it on them, feel it rising from them like heat from the waves. It was how you learned the way of the predator. Watching, trusting your sense. Why had she not trusted hers with this man? She had seen the cruelty in him, seen it from the first.

  ‘I’m going to ask you again, pretty girl,’ the secret service agent said. ‘What do you want with the candidate?’

  Lecanora’s brain scrabbled for the right response. She could not imagine that Susan Murray had sanctioned this. She had been dragged from her room by the figure with the black mask over his face, fast and lethal. Too fast for Doug and Larry to act, although she had briefly heard their cries as she was dragged into the stairwell. Then the wet cloth he had put to her mouth had silenced her mind and her voice, and when she had woken she was here.

  In her underwear. And alone.

  It was dark, but she had felt his presence sitting in the chair beside the bed, watching her. Waiting for her to rouse, but also watching her with enjoyment.

  ‘Take it off,’ she mumbled, trying to make herself heard through the gag, and trying to sound as calm and commanding as she could.

  The cruel man paused for a moment, and then leaned forward to untie the thing. As he did, his arm brushed her breast and she felt herself recoil from him. ‘Now talk,’ he said, with a thin smile.

  ‘I don’t want anything from Mrs Murray,’ Lecanora said. ‘It is she who wishes to see us.’ Again, she tried to sound as calm and focused as possible. She would not let him see her fear. She had learned much about sadists, back on that bathroom floor. ‘You should let me go, or I do not think she will be very happy. She called, she wished to meet with us.’

  ‘Oh, I know that, sweetheart,’ the man purred. ‘I heard it on the phone tap. But what I want to know is why. I know something happened, back there in that bathroom. I’ve never lost one, you know. And I’
m not about to start now. Bad for my reputation, and I always knew that goddamned woman was going to cause me trouble. She just doesn’t play by the rules. Something fishy about her. Has been from the start. I’ve been checking you out, and you know what? Nothing. There’s nothing on you. No-one knows you exist. Oh, your friends, sure, the Mayor, and the hot daughter.’

  Lecanora gasped a little at how much he had managed to learn in such a short time.

  ‘But not you,’ he went on. ‘You’re not a relative, or a friend. Not a townie from that Buttfuck Nowhere shithole. But you are here. You know what that makes you?’ His voice purred a little and he leaned closer as he said it. ‘It makes you no-one. No-one I need to worry about. No-one I need to take special care of. Just someone I can do what I want with.’

  He moved closer, and trailed the gun in his hand down the soft skin of Lecanora’s stomach. Her skin prickled at the contact with the cool steel. ‘And what might I want to do with someone like you? Hmmm…’ He leaned so close she could smell his breath—peppermint and something salty. Her gut recoiled from the smell. ‘Well now, what wouldn’t I want to do? Been so busy on this goddamn campaign, been a real long time between drinks.’ He sighed. ‘But first, we need to talk.’

  Lecanora pulled carefully at the ropes holding her to the bed. He had done a thorough job, but he didn’t know her strength. She remembered the seat belt, and wondered how long it might take her to loosen the binds. The problem was how to do it without him noticing. He would not hesitate to use that gun on her if he thought she was trying to escape. She knew it; she could see it in his eyes. Eyes that gave nothing of his humanity away. She suspected there was nothing there.

  She took in the tattoo on his forearm. She could see it because his sleeve was rolled to mid-arm. It looked like some kind of combat insignia, a sword and a shield, dripping with blood. The words ‘Brothers in Arms’ were written in a swirly scroll across the bottom.

  He spoke again, this time his voice was a little louder, a little harsher. ‘You know, I never liked blondes much,’ he said. ‘But for you, I could sure make an exception. So come on, sweetie, tell me. What are you after the candidate for?’

  Lecanora licked her lips, and watched him watch her mouth as she did.

  ‘Maybe,’ she said. ‘Maybe we could talk a little. I haven’t got anything to hide. But do you think you might just get me a drink of water first?’ She saw it all in her mind. If he would just leave her, just for a few seconds, she knew she could get free of these ties, and then she could try to take him when he returned.

  He grinned at her. ‘I know your sort, you know,’ he said, and he seemed to drift off someplace else for a few seconds. ‘All that lip-licking, and oh sir, can you please, and really you’re scheming, under those big eyes.’ He paused, considering her carefully, strapped to the bed. ‘Okay, you little bitch. I don’t really see what harm it can do. If it’s going to make you more friendly.’

  He got up from the small stool beside the bed, placed his gun on the bedside table, and padded over softly to a small kitchenette.

  Lecanora pulled hard at the binds and focused on the strength in her cells. She channeled her rage, at being plucked from the room, from the plan, and brought here. She thought about Carragheen and Rania, waiting for them in Aegira. She thought about the Queen, and Manos’ plot. She thought about her mother and Larry and Doug back in the room, surely frantic with where she had gone and how she had been taken. Doug. At the last thought, a bolt of strength surged through her and the ties on one side snapped, just as she heard the tap flick off and the man move back towards her.

  She pulled hard on the ties on the other side now, as he moved like a panther back to her, in no hurry, utterly sure of his dominance. She watched his slow smile as he eased himself back down into the seat.

  ‘Here you go,’ he said. ‘Service with a smile. Anything else, while I’m at it? Muffin? Cigarette?’

  She tried to smile at him, uncertainly, but with eyes she hoped communicated a certain respect and fear. ‘Perhaps you could…help me sip it.’

  His chest expanded as she blinked up at him. She was a mermaid of the deep sea. An Aegiran. Her sense of smell was sharpened to detect and categorize species of fish under an ocean of water. She could smell the testosterone and lust rising off him like smoke.

  ‘Sure, sweetie,’ he said, leaning across with the glass.

  As he did, she pulled herself up, joined her now-freed hands and slammed then down into his chest, spilling the water and surprising the breath out of him. She twisted away from his grasp and pulled with her legs, trying to free them of the ties also. He grabbed for her arms, but she let out a great bellow of rage and shook him off her. She swung with one hand and connected a strong blow with the delicate tissue of his temple. He swore as he reeled back. One leg was free, and she was working on the other as he recovered his balance. He slammed the full weight of his body onto her but she knew it now—she was stronger than him. She could shake him off. She could fight him off. She would get out of here.

  But she hadn’t reckoned on the thing. He slammed the gun against her forehead, making her head fill with sparkling lights as he hissed into her face. ‘You crazy little slut. Do you know what this thing does?’ He held the gun to her temple.

  The problem was, she did. She did know what the gun did. She knew that it killed and maimed, and needed no superior strength to do it. She remembered the night outside the jail, all the blood, the broken bodies. She knew she could not fight it.

  At least, not like this.

  He smiled as she stilled underneath him.

  ‘Ah now, that’s better.’

  He stroked the gun down her face.

  ‘That’s what I like to see. A little healthy respect. You know what? I don’t think you’re going to tell me anything at all. I think you’re really no good to me. I think I might as well do what I like with you. That bleeding heart bitch would never understand what I’ve done, to try to keep her safe. I’m going to have to get rid of you now. And, oh man, after that little display, I’m real sure I’m gonna like it.’

  He quickly retied the tethers on her hands and feet, pulling them viciously so they bit into the flesh of her wrists and ankles. As he made his way up from her feet, he stopped at the smooth, black underwear Rania had lent Lecanora for the cocktail party. ‘Nice,’ he grunted, taking a knife from his pocket and cutting them off in one swift movement.

  Lecanora had never felt any shame in nudity. It was as natural as breathing. But she knew the danger of what he was doing. She felt it, deep inside her.

  Her hips bucked as he finished removing her underwear. ‘Yeah,’ he said, his words slurring a little. ‘Do that. I really like that.’ He stood up beside her and spoke very quietly. ‘If you scream, I’m going to use this on you.’ He waved the gun in her face. ‘And then, I’m gonna go find your hot little friend, and maybe that sexy Mayor, and do the same to them. We agreed?’

  Lecanora nodded, frozen by the predatory look in his eyes.

  The man unzipped his pants and lay down on her. She felt him grope in his pants as all the breath bled from her lungs. She closed her eyes and tried to close her mind, remembering that nothing anyone does to you can touch you unless you choose to let it. But her skin was sizzling with the feeling of him lying on her, and she wanted to rail and scream.

  ‘Hold tight, baby,’ he whispered in her ear. ‘I’m not going to make you wait long. Here it comes.’

  Just as Lecanora felt the tip of his flesh poke against the softest part of her, a loud crash assaulted her ears. The world was a blur as the man stood up, upending covers and leaving her exposed on the bed. Before she fully understood what was happening, Doug was beside the bed, twisting the man’s arm behind his back, his face a snarl of fury. He slammed a fist into the man’s chest, twice, before the man slipped from Doug’s grasp and brought the gun to rest once again against Lecanora’s temple.

  ‘Back off, Rambo,’ the man said, smiling that slow, sick sm
ile at Doug this time. ‘Or your little girlfriend here is toast. I know all about you, buddy. I know what you can do, so just go real careful, okay? The government might need you for some things, but we don’t need this little bitch.’

  Lecanora heard a gasp from the doorway, and managed to lift her head enough to look over. Susan Murray stood there, with Larry holding her hard by one arm.

  The cruel man sighed.

  ‘How did you think we found you?’ Doug’s voice was low and precise.

  ‘Captain Schwarz, what in God’s name are you doing?’ Susan Murray’s voice was fast and breathy.

  But the man did not seem disturbed. ‘I’m leaving here, now,’ he said, ‘with this girl as my insurance. And if you try to stop me, I’m going to waste her.’

  Doug slowly backed away, his eyes never leaving Lecanora’s. She felt like he was trying to tell her something, but she had no idea what. She yearned to have a telepathic connection with him, to know what she could do to help. ‘We’re going,’ he said. ‘Larry.’

  He turned and started to walk slowly towards the door. The cruel man, the one Susan Murray had called Captain Schwarz, turned back to Lecanora, one eye still on Doug and the others. He began to fiddle with her ties. ‘Get up, Princess,’ he said, and she almost choked on her breath as he said it.

  And then, in the milliseconds in which he looked down to unfasten her hands, something happened. The big man who had been working on Lecanora’s ties slumped beside her and Susan Murray screamed. Lecanora did not know what it was at first. She heard a noise like a muffled crack. She looked quickly at Doug, who was still facing the door. Then she looked back at Schwarz again and she realized what Doug had managed to do. He had retrieved his weapon and fired it, all while walking in the other direction. He was at the bedside in a second, untying her hands and feet, and kicking aside the body of the man who had held her. He pulled her up and into his arms, wrapping the cover around her as he did. ‘Are you okay? My God, Lecanora, are you okay?’ Doug’s voice was cracked and harsh. ‘I’ve been crazy, I’ve been crazy with worry. Did he hurt you?’