Icarus Unbound

by Bernadette Gardner

  Tears stung her eyes at the thought. The Icarians were her people. Icarus was her homeworld. How could she be less than anyone else who was born under these turquoise skies?

  "Damn you, Jaran." It shouldn't have mattered. Whatever he thought of her shouldn't have made any difference to her.

  Whether or not he loved her shouldn't have been so important.

  But it was.

  She'd asked herself over and over again if she was doing this for the committee, for Icarus or for Jaran, and finally she'd decided she was doing this for herself because she needed to do it.

  Therefore she wouldn't give up, no matter what.

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  126

  Icarus Unbound

  by Bernadette Gardner

  Chapter Fourteen

  Morning did not bring an end to the storm. In fact, the winds were stronger and the rain colder.

  Lara scanned the horizon from the safe vantage point inside her borrowed aerie. She sighed. "I suppose I could go back to sleep." The alor bedding was stale and stiff from lack of use, but at least it would keep her warm until the cold winds subsided.

  Flying in this weather would be lethal.

  At least she had plenty of food. She had set about building another small fire when she heard a cry from outside.

  The sharp yell seemed out of place on the empty island.

  Had she imagined it? It sounded like a man calling for help.

  "Hello?" Moving toward the entranceway, she bellowed between her cupped hands and listened for a response, but all she heard was rain and the pounding of the surf on the treacherous rocks below.

  Another sound reached her, truncated, desperate, and very clearly made by an intelligent source.

  Lara searched the sky. This weather was nearly impossible to fly in. She could barely see beyond the edge of the island, but clearly someone was out there and needed help.

  Swallowing her fear, she launched herself off the ground and spiraled down through the buffeting winds toward the jumble of volcanic rocks at the base of the island. Layers of fog and dense, moist air parted as she descended, her pace steady and wings held rigid to keep her course.

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  "Hello!" The answering cry made honing in on her destination easier. She saw him lying on the rocks, one gray-blue wing folded over his body to protect him from the elements, the other stretched out at a painful angle to one side.

  "Odan!"

  "Lara!" Jaran swooped out of the darkening sky and circled her, creating an updraft that allowed her to glide in another wide circle above Odan.

  "What happened?" she yelled over the rushing wind.

  Jaran aimed his body at a promontory near where his brother lay and sailed in for a precise landing.

  Lara followed suit, terrified that she would miscalculate and end up landing on the injured man. Jaran caught her and steadied her, preventing her bare feet from slipping on the slime-covered rocks.

  "What happened?" she asked directly into Jaran's ear so she could be heard over the roar of the surf. She clung to him while the waves assaulted the rock on which they stood and washed over Odan who moaned in pain each time the cold water rocked his broken wing.

  "An updraft slammed him into the rock wall, and he fell."

  Jaran's voice was thick with worry and grief. A broken wing was a devastating injury for an Icarian. It would take months for the symbion's delicate bones to heal, and longer if any of the creature's internal organs were damaged, even though many of them atrophied over the years since joining with its host. If the injuries were too severe, the symbion could die, 128

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  leaving the host to whither in agonizing pain until he too lost his life.

  Even under the best recovery circumstances, a broken wing this close to the beginning of the mating cycle could prevent Odan from being able to father a child with Jehri.

  "We need to get him up to the aerie," Jaran said.

  Lara leaned back and eyed the distance up the rock wall.

  The top of the island was at least thirty-five meters above them, and with each second that passed, the rain fell harder, drenching their wings and destroying visibility.

  "Here?" she asked.

  "If we can lift him between us, we'll have to fly straight up."

  "I have my radio," Lara said. "I'll call for the emergency shuttle."

  Jaran closed a hand over hers. "The research station has been trying to reach you for a day. The storm is interfering with the satellite signals. We can't call for help until the weather calms."

  Lara glanced at Odan. His face was pale, and his head lolled from side to side, attesting to the unimaginable pain he was in. If they left him where he was, at the mercy of the storm any longer, he would surely die before help could reach them from the distant research island.

  But if they tried to move him to the safety of the aerie above, they risked damaging his injured symbion beyond repair and succumbing to the same fate themselves if the winds picked up suddenly.

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  Determined, Lara spread her wings and aligned herself in launch position toward the nearby rock where Odan lay. "I'm ready when you are, Jaran. Tell me what to do."

  With a similar skeptical glance at both the rocks above and below them, Jaran mimicked Lara's posture. "I'll take his injured side. We'll lift him together."

  Lara nodded and kept her eyes on her mate.

  In tandem, they lowered themselves along the slippery rocks, and Lara waited while Jaran positioned himself to gently scoop Odan's left arm over his shoulder. After he'd positioned the unbroken human limb, she moved in and did the same with Odan's right arm. Once they lifted him, his wings would dangle behind him which would put painful stress on the broken one, so Jaran then had to support the wing on his side to minimize the damage their desperate flight might do.

  "I've almost got him," Jaran said, his voice nearly lost in the raging wind. "We have to lift off together."

  Lara nodded. Odan's head rolled onto her shoulder, and his cry of pain drowned out any further instructions Jaran might have made. She knew there wasn't time for discussion. She had to act, trusting Jaran and obeying him without question to save his brother's life.

  On his silent signal, she leapt into the oncoming curtain of rain and flew instinctively upward, careful to keep pace with Jaran so as not to pull Odan's limbs and cause him more discomfort.

  Between them, Odan hung, a limp weight that threatened to drag them down into the turbulent water. Lara wanted to 130

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  look at Jaran and gauge their progress up the sheer rock face of the island by his expression, but she didn't dare take her eyes off the jutting promontories for fear of accidentally clipping a sharp protuberance and throwing off their steady ascent.

  Odan moaned and began to kick in protest to the dizzying motion of their flight. Lara had to struggle to keep hold of his slick skin, and she feared she'd hurt him more if she had to dig her fingertips into his flesh to keep him from slipping from her grasp.

  A strong gust of wind swept down from above, pushing the three of them farther away from the rocks. At first it seemed like a blessing to be forced away from the jagged wall, but once the air current had passed them, a low pressure pocket slipped down the side of the island in its wake, drawing them back in again, almost in a mockery of the ocean tides. Both Jaran and Lara flapped their wings frantically to compensate, and after a harrowing moment, managed to prevent themselves from being dashed into the rocks as Odan had been.

  With only minutes left before the relentless rain left their wings too drenched to fan the air, they cleared the top of the island and glided on a rough air current toward the empty aerie. Despite their exhaustion, Jaran wouldn't allow them to rest when t
heir feet touched the ground. Supporting Odan a little higher on his injured side, he urged the trio forward through the driving rain until they reached the archway leading inside.

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  The sudden absence of the wind and water left Lara breathless, and she battled to keep her weakened knees from buckling as they pulled Odan along to the musty alor pallet that had been her bed the night before.

  Now she allowed herself a quick look at Jaran, whose features were taut and pinched with concern. She followed his cues, and together they settled their barely conscious charge on the stale fibers of the pallet. Jaran moved Odan's broken wing slowly so that it could lie flat with little pressure from his body to stress the torn ligaments and damaged muscles. The break was clearly visible—a bloody bump rising along the mid-joint. Fragments of the hollow bones within protruded from the supple skin beneath the feathers. The break would heal slowly, if at all, and might affect Odan's ability to fly even if his symbion survived the catastrophic injury.

  Now free of their burden, Jaran and Lara stared at each other.

  "What can we do for him?" she asked, mentally inventorying the items she'd packed in her pouches in hopes she might have something that would ease Odan's pain.

  Jaran transferred his dark gaze to his brother. "I'm not sure there's anything we can do for him here. I can try to reset the bone, but the shock still might kill him long before anyone reaches us."

  Realization struck Lara with as much force as the storm-driven rain. A sharp pain settled in the center of her chest and she bowed her head before lowering her weary body to the floor next to the pallet. "I'm sorry, Jaran. This is my fault.

  If Odan dies, I'll be to blame."

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  Jaran would have given anything to scoop Lara up in his arms and comfort her, but fear for Odan's life eclipsed all other emotions at the moment.

  "Odan insisted on coming to search for you, and he's the one who sent you on this errand to begin with. No one will blame you for this. I certainly won't allow it." There was so much more he wanted to say, but now wasn't the time.

  Swallowing the lump in his throat, he tried to ignore the tears mixed with rain that flowed down Lara's cheeks.

  "I see you built a fire. Can you rekindle it? We'll need to keep it warm in here. I'm going to try to set the break. If we leave it as it is, he'll bleed to death."

  Lara swiped at her swollen eyes and nodded. Clearly Jaran's words had done little to ease her guilt. Later he would make sure she understood that he would never hold her accountable for Odan's injuries. Right now, he had to make sure his brother survived.

  With gentle hands he pulled his mate up from the floor and pointed her toward the cool remains of the hearth she'd created.

  "Hurry. He's already shivering."

  She glanced at Odan, then hurried to the fire pit she'd arranged the night before. While she rummaged through her carrying pouches, Jaran eyed Odan's wing. "Jehri will never forgive me, of that I'm certain," he said under his breath as he approached the pallet. He had as much medical training as any Icarian, which amounted to just enough knowledge to keep a patient alive until a true healer could be summoned.

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  He only hoped the storm would let up soon and give Odan the time he needed.

  While a small flame flared in the tiny fire pit behind him, he settled on his knees and examined Odan's injury. The break was far from clean, and the thin bone fragments protruding from the break site glistened with fresh blood. At least Odan was unconscious. That would spare him the agony when Jaran manipulated his symbion wing in order to make the large sections of the broken bone nestle back into place.

  The shattered pieces would need to be surgically removed, and that would have to wait for someone of greater skill. A wing could not be splinted or put in a cast as an arm or a leg could be, so the symbion's own body would have to work to keep the bone pieces in place until new growth could occur.

  Odan would be kept frustratingly immobile until then.

  Times like this, Jaran wished that symbion physiology could be separated from host physiology. A quick examination of the rest of Odan's body turned up only minor scrapes and bruises. If the bird could have been successfully removed from Odan's back, he might have been able to recover in a few hours, but because his nervous system, now twenty years linked with the symbion's, could not function without the alien creature, his brother experienced all the searing pain the injured bird did.

  He would feel bone scraping against bone as Jaran set the wing and he would suffer from the shock and the inevitable infection that would come once the dirt-encrusted wound began to heal. It seemed so unfair, but the alternative was 134

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  death. The symbion was part of Odan, and his suffering would be far worse without his alien companion.

  "Lara, we'll need to clean the wound as soon as I'm finished. Do you have a cloth we can soak in hot water?"

  "I do. And I have some instant broth, so we can get some food into him to build up his strength as soon as he can swallow."

  Jaran allowed himself a thin smile. His mate had already proven herself beyond a doubt. She was more than worthy to be the tribe's co-leader.

  With that thought buoying his flagging strength, Jaran laid his hands on Odan's wing. He grasped the damp skin and feathers and prepared himself with a deep breath before he pulled the two sections of cracked bone straight. The ligaments protested, but those same internal workings would help hold the bone in place once it was settled in the right position. With a final pull, Jaran set the bone, causing a few of the sharp fragments to retreat back through the symbion's skin. The wing convulsed on its own, proving the symbion felt just as much pain as its host.

  Odan let out a strangled cry as Jaran finished stretched his wing into place. Apparently the pain was sharp enough to cut through his unconsciousness. Though he didn't open his eyes, his lips worked, and a sheen of sweat broke out across his entire body.

  "Jara ... I ... don't..."

  "Don't waste your strength, Odan. Just rest until help arrives."

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  As Jaran released pressure from the limb, Odan's eyes flew open. His hand shot out and closed around Jaran's wrist, tightening with the conviction of his words. "I never wanted to rule," he said before his eyes closed and his entire body, along with that of his symbion, went limp.

  Behind Jaran, Lara gasped. "He's not..."

  "No. He's alive, just very weak. Let's do what we can to make him more comfortable."

  "The storm will end soon," Lara assured Jaran. She put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. "We'll get him help before morning."

  Jaran nodded. "Of course." No doubt the storm would end through the night, the radio would begin to work and help would arrive by daybreak. He only hoped his brother would survive to see the light of day.

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  136

  Icarus Unbound

  by Bernadette Gardner

  Chapter Fifteen

  Hours passed while the storm raged outside the aerie.

  Only Lara's small fire kept the increasingly cold winds at bay, but the feeble heat seemed to do little for Odan, who shivered uncontrollably in the throes of a fever.

  Lara had given up trying to get Jaran to sip some of the broth she'd made for Odan. There was little chance the injured man would be able to drink any, so it made sense for Jaran to eat and keep his strength up, but he refused. Instead he sat vigil at Odan's bedside, watching each labored breath as Odan struggled to fight the pain of his symbion's injury.

  Together they'd attempted to clean the wound, but their ministrations had only brought Odan more discomfort. He'd remained se
mi-conscious, calling for Jehri and seemingly unaware that Jaran and Lara were with him.

  Lara sighed and watched the brothers from the far side of the aerie's main room where she could sit and look out the window at the storm. She found herself wishing it had been Odan's leg or arm that had been broken. At least then he wouldn't be at the mercy of the symbion hormones.

  Unfortunately, no matter how long one of the birds spent joined to an Icarian, they still reacted with their animal brain when sick or injured. The symbion, who could no longer see through its own eyes or experience the world through its own senses, was terrified of its own immobility. Its fear was in part responsible for Odan's condition. Without treatment by an experienced Icarian healer, he would very likely die from 137

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  shock caused by the stress of the symbion, even if ultimately the injury itself was not as severe as it looked.

  Several times Lara had tried her radio and gotten nothing but static as a response. She kept staring at the small device, hoping the air would clear just long enough for her to get a signal through.

  "Jaran, you should rest. I'll watch Odan for a while," she offered finally, hoping a turn at the window watching the relentless rain fall might lull her mate to sleep.

  He ignored her, and she was just about to rise and physically drag him away from the alor pallet when she noticed a bright spot among the waves. Leaning out the window into the deluge, she strained her tired eyes to focus on what appeared to be a sliver of moonlight hitting the churning water in the distance. Could it be a break in the clouds? Maybe the eye of the swirling storm would give them enough of a clear window to get a transmission to the research station.

  Lara tried her radio again, but only static answered her frantic call. She refused to be deterred though and rose quickly to head out the archway.

  If Jaran noticed her leave, he gave no sign. Outside, the cold rain lashed her and the wind stole her breath, but in the distance to the west she could now clearly see a break in the clouds through which the light of Icarus's single moon shone.