Forbidden Planet

by Rinelle Grey

  Marlee shuffled up beside him, and held out a large wooden serving bowl. She held another one in her other hands. Tyris took it, his brain too fuzzy to follow. Why was she bringing him a serving bowl at a time like this?

  As she dug the edge of the bowl into the soft snow and threw it over her shoulder, understanding dawned. He began to dig with renewed hope.

  Time stood still as they dug feverishly side by side. The door opened wide enough to get their hands out, and as they pulled, snow fell into the gap from the outside where it was higher.

  Tyris bit his lip, and laughed hysterically when he realised that it was so cold he couldn’t even feel it.

  Marlee stared at him, the wind whipping her hair around her face. “Tyris?” The wind tore the words out of her mouth. Her face was deathly pale, and her lips held a hint of blue.

  He sobered. He needed to hold himself together. To get her to safety. He nodded, and continued digging.

  He pulled on the door one last time and threw the bowl aside. “Come on, that’ll have to do.” He slipped into the gap sideways, pushing as hard as he could. The bulky clothes he wore wedged him in for a few moments. Marlee pushed him from the other side. He slipped through with a suddenness that sent him tumbling into the snow.

  He shoved away as much as the snow as he could from this side then reached his hand back and pulled Marlee through.

  Adrenalin rushed through his veins. They’d made it!

  Then reality set in. Wind howled around them, the snow was still waist height, and he couldn’t see past the end of his hand. He’d best save his relief until they were actually safe.

  Holding Marlee’s hand, he struggled through the snow in the general direction of Beren’s house. How far away was it? Surely they must be nearly there. He couldn’t feel his fingers or toes. It took him a moment to realise that Marlee’s hand wasn’t in his anymore. Where was she?

  He turned and felt a moment’s relief that his back was to the wind. He hadn’t realised how much snow was blowing in his eyes. He rubbed them and stared back into the snow. Marlee slumped in a heap just a few steps back. He stumbled back through the snow and pulled at her. “Marlee!” The wind tore the words from his mouth, but she looked up.

  She reached out a hand and it took everything he had to pull her to her feet. They stumbled on.

  Worry seeped into Tyris’s fuzzy brain. They should have reached Beren’s house by now. If they’d been turned around in the blizzard, they could end up anywhere. He stopped, and tugged on Marlee’s hand. She sunk into the snow at his feet. He stared all around them, looking for anything that stood out in the swirling snow, anything that might give him a clue which way to go.

  There. Was that a light? He strained his eyes. To the right, there seemed to be a faint glow. If it wasn’t just his imagination. He turned, and headed in that direction pulling Marlee with him.

  The light grew. He hadn’t imagined it. He was too exhausted and cold to even feel relief. He just focused on putting one foot in front of the other, over and over. Marlee began to shout next to him, and while his brain cheered her actions, his mouth wouldn’t join her.

  He heard a door open and voices rise. And a few moments later, hands pulled them inside the house. Now they were safe. He collapsed onto the floor, not even having enough energy to make it to a chair.

  “What happened?” Rejan asked, his voice high.

  Tyris tried to focus. What was Rejan doing here? They must have missed Beren’s house in the snow, and gone past it to Rejan and Jenka’s. “Roof... collapsed.” he managed. “Had to... dig... our way out...” His voice gave out.

  “We need warm water and blankets.” Jenka’s voice sounded distant to his ears, much quieter than his racing heart. Now that he’d stopped moving, shivers wracked his body. He couldn’t stop them, no matter how hard he tried. He wanted to lift his head. Wanted to check that Marlee was okay. But he couldn’t make his muscles obey.

  Blankets covered him, and someone began to pull of his wet clothing. Tyris struggled to sit up to help. “Take it easy,” Rejan said. He put his hands under Tyris’s shoulders and helped him into a sitting position, wrapping a blanket around his shoulders.

  Now that he was upright, he could see Marlee receiving similar treatment from Jenka beside him. She smiled weakly at him. Her face was still white, and she couldn’t stop shivering either.

  Tyris looked down to where Rejan was pulling off his socks. His toes were white, and when Rejan pressed on them gently, he couldn’t feel anything. He shivered more violently. The blanket slipped from his shoulders, and his frozen fingers wouldn’t obey him enough to hold onto it.

  He didn’t dare ask if there was permanent damage. Rejan covered his feet with a wet towel, though Tyris couldn’t feel if it was cold or warm. Next Rejan wrapped his hands in another wet towel and adjusted the blanket around his shoulders. “It may take a while for your fingers to warm up again, but the skin is still soft. The damage doesn’t look too severe. I don’t want to risk warming them too fast without Karla around.”

  “Should we try to get to Karla?” Jenka asked, her voice worried.

  Rejan shook his head. “Not in this weather. As soon as the storm eases, I’ll fetch her, but for now, our first aid will have to do.”

  The crease between Jenka’s eyebrows didn’t disappear, but she hurried to the fire and brought back two cups of tea. Tyris reached out his hand for one, but Rejan took it instead. “When you have feeling back in your fingers you can feed yourself, until then, I’m not going to risk you spilling it.”

  Another shiver shook Tyris, and he had to concede to the wisdom in Rejan’s words. When the man held the cup up to his lips, he drank gratefully.

  Rejan helped him up into one of the chairs that had been pulled back from the fire. Tyris tugged the blanket around his shoulders as he watched Rejan pick up Marlee and sit her in the chair next to him. His fingers and toes began to sting and itch, but when he moved to scratch one instinctively, Jenka stopped him. “Don’t scratch or rub, you could break the skin and let infection in.” She replaced the warm towel around his hands, examining them briefly as she did so.

  “How’s Marlee?” he asked quietly.

  Jenka smiled. “She’s no worse than you are,” she assured him. “A little warmth, and a good sleep, and I’m sure you’ll both feel a lot better.”

  Tyris nodded and looked around the room. The house was smaller than Marlee’s and all in one room. The bed stood at the end furthest from the fire, a small cradle beside it. Water dripped from the roof into a bowl on the table, and a wooden bucket caught another drip in a corner.

  Despite the lack of room, Rejan pulled a pallet out, and Jenka spread a quilt from their own bed over it. They had so little, yet they shared what they had without question.

  A cry went up from the cradle, and Jenka hurried over to lift up her daughter. She sat on the end of the bed and lifted up her top. Tyris averted his eyes quickly. Jenka chatted to Marlee, not even noticing his discomfort. “I hope Lianna doesn’t wake you during the night. She sleeps in the bed with us, and she doesn’t cry much.”

  “We won’t mind if she does,” Marlee assured her. “We’re sorry to impose on you, as soon as the storm clears, we’ll find somewhere else to stay.”

  Hell, where would they go? Fear gripped Tyris’s heart. Could Marlee’s house be repaired, even once the storm had blown itself out? He had no idea. If not, where would they stay?

  He looked around Jenka and Rejan’s house and thought about how readily they made room for them. They would find somewhere. No one would leave them out in the cold.

  He tried to ignore the tingling in his hands and toes and let himself relax into the friendly atmosphere of the house. Little Lianna’s head blocked his view of Jenka’s breast, and he didn’t feel too bad letting his eyes linger on the picture they presented.

  Jenka paused in her conversation to look down at her daughter, a sweet smile curving the corner of her mouth. She brushed a hand over the
little girl’s downy hair. Rejan moved closer to put his hand on his partner’s shoulder and smiled down at her.

  Tyris’s breath caught in his throat. He wanted what they had. He glanced over at Marlee and saw tears in the corner of her eyes as she watched them too. He wanted to reach out for her, to hold her hand and assure her they’d have it one day too.

  He couldn’t believe the roof had fallen at just that moment, right when he was going to explain about his contraceptive implant. If only he’d told her earlier, before they slept together, but he hadn’t been able to bring himself to do it.

  He was kicking himself now. He shouldn’t have let himself give in to temptation. Not without telling her. She said she didn’t care about a baby, but that was no excuse. She deserved to know, if for no other reason than to relieve the further doubts about her fertility that would arise when no pregnancy eventuated.

  There was no way to tell her now. The crowded house left no privacy for such conversations. He’d have to wait until... he didn’t know when it would be. But as soon as he could, he’d tell her.

  Chapter 20

  For a moment, Marlee let herself pretend that the sleeping child in her arms was actually hers. What would it be like to have the warm little body tucked next to hers at night, to dress her in the tiny clothes, or have her nuzzle at her breast?

  The baby gave a soft burp and sucked on her fist. Marlee’s heart ached. If only things had been different.

  She looked over to where Tyris pointed his bandaged hand at a spot on the cradle. “Nail it here. It should stay together then.” His white wrapped hands were a chilling reminder of how close they had come to serious damage. She only had minor frostbite on her hands and feet, but Tyris had fared worse, with large blisters covering most of his fingers.

  Marlee shivered every time she remembered him digging in the snow blocking the door. His gloves had been soaked in minutes and his fingers must have been freezing, but he hadn’t stopped. Guilt nagged at her. She’d left him and gone back for the bowls, saving her own fingers, but it had probably saved Tyris’s as well. Though he was in pain, the blisters were clear. No sign of blood. They would heal.

  And then what? Outside, the wind howled with less ferocity than it had just a few hours ago. Soon, someone would suggest that Rejan go find Karla, with the unspoken addition that they find somewhere else to say. Marlee didn’t blame them. The house was beyond crowded with five of them in one small room. But though she’d wracked her brain to think of somewhere they could go, only one solution presented itself.

  She shied away from the thought, bringing her attention back to the baby in front of her. Blue eyes stared up at her around a fist stuck into a small mouth. Marlee couldn’t help but smile. “I think she’s hungry, Jenka.”

  Holding the small baby had stirred up so many thoughts, thoughts she also tried to avoid. It had been three days since her birthday. Three days since she and Tyris had slept together. Far too early for her to be experiencing any pregnancy symptoms. So why did she keep analysing every twinge in her stomach and every trip to the bathroom?

  She’d sworn she wouldn’t believe in this, wouldn’t hope for something that would never come. So why did happiness bubble up in her every time she thought of it?

  Why did she want to hope so much, when all it would bring was pain?

  Jenka took the baby and settled into the seat opposite Marlee. With all the practice of one week, she lifted her shirt and attached Lianna to the breast. She looked over at Marlee. “How are your fingers feeling?”

  Marlee flexed her fingers, glad of the distraction. They hurt only a little, and much of the swelling had gone down overnight. Within a few days, even the red and white splotches would be gone. “They’re a lot better today.”

  “I’ll still be happier once Karla can check them,” Jenka said with a slight frown.

  There it was. Marlee took a deep breath. It was easier to say the words herself than wait for someone else to say them. “The storm sounds like it’s dying down. Soon Rejan can fetch her.”

  Jenka nodded. “Yes, and then I suppose you’ll be able to find somewhere else to stay. It’s been nice having you here though.” Her gaze drifted over to where Rejan was nailing the cradle together under Tyris’s watchful eye. It glided smoothly now, instead of rocking off kilter.

  “It’s been nice to be here,” Marlee said. “But you must be looking forward to having some space again.”

  Jenka nodded slowly. “Yes, it is a little crowded. Rejan’s been talking about adding another room in the spring. We’re going to need more space as Lianna grows.” She paused for a moment then looked at Marlee. “Where will you go?”

  Marlee shrugged. “Back to Mother’s, I guess.” She hoped the dread she felt in the pit of her stomach didn’t show on her face.

  Jenka sighed. “I’m sorry, Marlee. I really wish we had more room.”

  Marlee reached out and patted Jenka’s knee. “That’s okay. We’ll be fine.”

  She should have known Jenka would understand. At seventeen, most young couples remained in their parent’s home for a few years, but Jenka had been as eager to get away from her father as Marlee had been to get away from Weiss.

  She wished she’d escaped as early as Jenka had. She shuddered, remembering her first year at home with Remmy. Would they have had more chance of achieving pregnancy if they hadn’t lived with all that stress? Probably not. It wasn’t as if she’d been able to get pregnant since anyway. Living with Harlow’s family had been better but still not as comfortable as sharing her own home with Nelor.

  And now her home was gone. Tears welled up in her eyes. Not only her home but the beautiful presents she had received and the food she had spent much of the summer preparing. After three days in a snowstorm, could any of it be salvaged?

  A knock at the door startled her. What was anyone doing here? The storm was easing, but with no reason to suspect a problem, people would stay indoors until it was completely gone. Unless something else had gone wrong?

  Lianna began to cry when Jenka jumped suddenly, but stopped abruptly when she offered her the breast again

  Straightening up, Rejan exchanged a look with Jenka then crossed to open it.

  Tyris stood up and came to stand behind Marlee, resting his bandaged hand on her shoulder.

  “They’re in here,” Nerris called over his shoulder.

  Yasmyn pushed past him into the room. Beyond them, Marlee caught a glimpse of several other villagers with shovels over their shoulders.

  Marlee stared at her mother. “What are you doing here?” This couldn’t be happening so soon, she wasn’t ready. She needed more time to mentally prepare herself.

  Tears glistened in her mother’s eyes. “I’ve had this uncomfortable feeling since the storm started,” she said. “And when the weather began to let up, I needed to see your house. I thought, when I did, everything would be okay. So I walked as far as the well, and the snow cleared for a moment, just long enough for me to see your house.”

  Her mother’s face was pale, and her hands shook. Marlee jumped up and threw her arms around her mother. “I’m okay, I promise. Tyris looked after me.”

  Tyris smiled at her. “I thought you were the one looking after me?”

  Her mother turned to him. “I’m so glad you were there. When I think about what might have happened if Marlee had been all by herself...” A shudder shook her body.

  Marlee hugged her more tightly.

  Her mother continued her voice unsteady, “I couldn’t face going over there alone, so I brought Nerris along. When we got to your house, we couldn’t find you anywhere. Nerris said you’d be at Beren’s, but when we got there, you weren’t there either. I didn’t know if you were buried under the snow, or...”

  She was crying now, and Marlee didn’t know what to do. She’d never seen her mother so upset. This couldn’t be the same woman who’d told her to get over it when she broke her arm falling out of a tree as a child. “We’re okay,” Marlee repeated
.

  Her mother hugged her to her chest and took a deep breath. “Yes, you’re okay.” She turned to Jenka. “Thank you so much for looking after them.”

  “It’s been a pleasure,” Jenka said quickly. She glanced over at Rejan, who came and stood behind her.

  “Well, what’s the problem?” Karla’s gruff voice broke into the room. “I hope I haven’t been dragged all this way in the snow for nothing?”

  Her keen eyes took in the bandages on Tyris’s hands and his bare feet as she walked to the chair Marlee had vacated and lowered herself into it. “Let me see those hands, young man.”

  Tyris obediently held them out. “They’re barely sore now, but Jenka insisted I had to keep them bandaged to prevent infection.”

  “Good.” Karla nodded, unwinding the bandages. She examined Tyris’s fingers silently, and Marlee held her breath. She didn’t think the frostbite was serious enough to cause permanent damage, but she’d feel better when Karla confirmed it.

  The nurse examined his hands, turning both of them over and then nodded. “You’ll heal. I was right. No need to drag me out here in the cold.” She turned to Jenka, “You did an excellent job. I couldn’t have done better myself.”

  Jenka turned pink with pleasure. “Thank you,” she mumbled.

  Karla beckoned to Jenka, “Bring that baby here. I might as well check her while I’m here.”

  While Karla checked Lianna, Yasmyn said, “As soon as this storm clears, we’ll dig a path into your house for you to fetch some clothes and anything else you’ll need. You can stay with us for the rest of the winter.”

  Marlee wanted to argue, wanted to insist they would stay with someone else. But there was no one else. She bit back a sigh. “Thank you, Mother.”

  Before she knew it, they were bundled up in blankets and pulled across the snow in a sled, despite their objections. Karla insisted they needed to stay out of the snow for a few more days until their feet were completely healed. Getting them wet or cold again at this point could cause further damage.