by Gwynn White
He smeared the remainder of the paste from his finger back into the baggie and replaced it in his pack. "I tend to trust people." He took out a bottle of water. "Torek says too much sometimes."
"That's not a bad quality."
"Well, in my business, it can be. I've put us in some tight places." He thought back to a time when a bounty they hunted pleaded for one last hug with her father, only for that man to stick a pistol out from her waist and shoot Cullen in the chest. Torek put the man down with a headshot and tazed the woman, before finding out later that the man wasn't her father, but another member of their scavenger ring.
"Okay." Ehli held her hand up. "Sorry. I guess I'm not as effective as blocking out thoughts as I thought. You looked like you were thinking about an example, and I guess my curiosity won over my will for your privacy. So you guys did what exactly?"
"Bounties for the Osuna and Esune, whoever paid better."
Ehli looked like she wasn't in complete agreement with that as justification.
"Since it's my ship, I make the calls on what jobs we take, and I only took jobs to capture people that I felt were a danger to the common person—people that I'd arrest if I still worked as MP for the Vijil Guard. We've had some that blended into vigilantism, and twice we've caught bounties only to lay traps where they were taken so that they could escape after we'd been paid and their release couldn't be tied back to us."
He thought back to a recent example. Kelvi Tul, a smuggler whom Cullen thought was too reckless in his ventures for the wellbeing of his island's safety and making them a spot on the Osuna radar for possible extraction into prison camps. Turned out, they would have been justified for being on that radar, thanks to the explosives and plans they had to continue a string of attacks against the Osuna fleet.
Cullen and Torek dropped him off at Orthu Station, then delivered a program into the security system designed to overload its mainframe and shut down the locks and power in conjunction with the timing of a tip Cullen had delivered to one of Kelvi's top women, Seba, who then came in and rescued him... but was captured not far from the station, and Cullen and Torek could only guess whether the interrogation that triggered would end in the next job they took, leading them into a trap and arrest. That had been a month ago.
Ehli smiled as she watched him. "How exciting. And you never found out if Kelvi or Seba gave you up?"
He shook his head. "No, but we didn't go through our normal channels to take this job, so there's no telling whether, if we'd taken one through the Verol network, it would have ended with our arrest and execution."
"So what channel did you go through?"
"Torek." Cullen thought back to Willo's claim that his partner couldn't be trusted, and how easily it would have been for Torek to set him up. Cullen had taken his word for it on this job, and didn't exactly keep tabs on Torek's net activity. They worked well as partners, leaving each other to do what they did best, and meeting in the middle when it best served their goals.
"Which goes back to you trusting too easily," Ehli said. Her smile was like a warm cup of coffee on a lazy morning.
He could get used to it in a way that could become dependent. If his life had taught him anything, however, it was that such pleasantries disappeared well before his desire expired.
You're cute, he thought, as clear in his mind as if her eyes had pulled it out.
Her silent reaction to his thought made his face warm, as he silently scolding himself for forgetting to better guard his thoughts.
"I'm sorry," she added. "But I don't think I could have stopped reading that thought no matter how hard I tried.... If I wanted to."
Her last remark eased the anxiety at having been exposed. He shook his head and chuckled. Her sea green eyes captured his attention, distracting him from what to say next.
"I'm not trying to lead you on," she said, her gaze backing off. "I guess my husband is still alive, and while I don't really know how that affects anything, or whose word to take on how he's behaved since I saw him last..." she focused back on Cullen. "It does have an effect."
A cold barrier grew between them, returning some of the anxiety her "wanted to" comment had relieved. This was why he didn't like getting involved in relationships.
"I'm sorry," she said.
"Don't be. You're right. Neither of us has much of a foundation to stand on. I'm not asking...."
"No, I know." She reached out and touched his arm. "I was just—I don't know, telling you not to be ashamed of who you are. It isn't your fault Torek tricked you, if that's what's happened. If you hadn't come, my son and I would still be in prison, and I've seen enough people not survive a day there that I'm more than glad to be out."
Cullen nodded. "I'm glad you're out, too."
She dropped her hand, offering a look of acceptance and absolution.
Ehli took some time to absorb the weight of her changed life. She'd mourned Schaefer years ago. She would have given anything to get him back. Now that she had the chance, it wasn't an easy decision: pick up where they left off, or move forward on this new path with the cute pilot. Everything hinged on how Schaefer might have changed—or how little I knew him in the first place.
She sat down in the dirt, legs tired from their walk, and body still fatigued from the snake poison. Her head throbbed and her muscles felt thin and deflated. "I'm gonna have a seat while we wait. I don't know if that makes me a bad mother that I'm not running to meet my son."
Cullen laughed and sat against the wall beside her. "I'm sure he'll understand. How's your leg?"
She hadn't thought about her hamstring since the treatment Ocia gave her on the train, which was a good sign. It was a little sore, but no worse than the other leg. "It's okay. I'm more of an all-body worn out, like I could lie down and ask to be pampered for a few days before I worry about anything else."
Cullen chuckled. "I imagine it's been a while since you've had that luxury."
"Oh no," she said with a straight face. "The warden at Setuk regularly offered foot rubs after long days. Really nice guy."
Cullen's chuckle grew louder. "Wow. I guess maybe an apology is in order, or was that your way of suggesting I start unbuckling your boots."
"Well, if you're offering...."
Cullen's face grew serious in a way that made her wish he would.
"I'm just kidding. I've gone long enough without any pampering. I wouldn't know how to relax for longer than two seconds." She took out a bag with a screw top from her backpack. The label said Vitamin C on an orange background. She squeezed the contents into her mouth, and a wash of cool citrus followed through. After swallowing, she asked, "That was cold...." But the bag was not.
"Have you never had a cool pack drink?" Cullen found one in his pack and unscrewed the cap. "Wonderful little technology the Esune figured out from the Osuna. Not that they would ever have volunteered such a non-vital enhancement. The pack gives off a small nitrous burst when the skin crinkles, causing the juice to cool as it rushes out."
Ehli squeezed another mouthful of the orange juice with a hint of lemon, cool as it filled in her mouth, and washed smooth down her throat. "I could've gotten used to these on Setuk. Our vitamins were mixed in with our water, and that didn't taste anything like fruit. Nor was it ever cold."
Cullen twisted his cap back on and offered it to her. "Here, have mine. I've had plenty, and—"
"Oh no. You keep it. I'll be fine. Thank you."
Cullen didn't retract his offer. "I know I will be, but I'm still not taking it back. Please. I'm the one who's been pampered on a ship docked at port with anything I could order. Nor was I recently bitten by a snake."
Ehli rolled her eyes at his cheeky smile, and accepted his drink. She set it by her pack and lifted her container, cap off. "Where'd you grow up?"
"In the city."
"But where? What did it look like? I've never seen a city. Pastures and mountains are where I grew up and began a family."
A world of shining buildings reflecti
ng the sun opened up in Ehli's mind. Flying cars flowed around them like streams through interweaving channels. Their speed and motion seemed impossible to control, and yet they danced without crashing.
"Wow."
Cullen chuckled.
"What?" Ehli asked.
"If you expect to find a girl who'll just read your mind without you needing to tell her how you feel, you're gonna be waiting a long time," Cullen thought.
"You have to wait long?" Ehli asked, and winked.
"You heard that too." Not a question. An admission. He shook his head, smiling. "Torek told me that. If he'd added, 'and she'll be married,' then that really would have been prophetic."
That dampened the mood, but she fought against it, wanting instead to see more of Vijil. "What was your family life like? I haven't heard anything about your mother."
A woman with lovely blonde hair tucked in tight weaves on top and hanging free to her shoulders appeared, standing on the other side of a wall of bars. Her blue eyes, rimmed with red and brimming with the gloss of tears, pierced hers as she gripped the bars and looked between them. The point of view rose as hands—Ehli looked down to match them to Cullen's—cupped over the woman's. His mother's, she realized. The beautiful woman wept and rested her head in defeat against the bars.
Ehli forced her mind free of that memory, closed her eyes and pushed away. "I'm sorry. That's not the image I meant to evoke."
"It's okay." Cullen touched her shoulder. "I embrace that moment because it is the epitome of all my mother's love for me. It hurts to lose, but I've seen plenty since then who've never known such love. She blessed me for as long as I'll live with that memory. Sure, it came with sadness, and there are times when it can hurt still, but I can't believe she'd want me to take that memory as a source of pain to live with. As confusing as it was and how angry I was at my father for letting the council take me away, I at least knew that my mother had tried everything. That moment, in her sobs, she told me everything I needed from her—that she loved me, and that she gave everything to stop what she inevitably couldn't."
"And now you're here and you find out your dad had a plan, and you might get home after all. How does that change how you feel?"
"It makes me wonder if Mom knew." He chuckled. "And if she'd have killed my dad when she found out."
"I might have," Ehli said, laughing.
"You might have. Because you're a great mother."
Ehli smiled. "You could tell that because I let someone I met in prison turn me and my son into telepaths, and then lose him in a jungle?"
"Or lose your son to exile," Cullen chimed in. "Situations outside of her control don't make her a bad mother. I know that her love and efforts were often everything she had to give. And I know the same goes for you and your son."
At the thought of losing her son to exile, a swell of weakness embraced by love left her unable to speak, and fighting back tears. She looked Cullen in the eye, and saw a man wiser than his youth. It took her back for a moment, seeing him as more than a captain of a ship who was probably more arrogant than he deserved to be—and saw him as an equal. "It's good to have you on our side in this." A stubborn tear loosed from her eye. She cut it off at her cheek with her knuckle and laughed. "Sorry, what you said about your mother—she'd be so proud of you to hear that—it made me think of losing Emmit like that."
"You won't, if I have anything to say about it. And I will."
Ehli took a breath. "Thanks." Then took a drink of her juice, finishing it off, then watching Cullen smile at her as she took his.
"That's right. Enjoy." He turned around and checked the hall leading into the tunnel. "Can you feel him coming?"
She couldn't. At least, the idea that he was probably coming wasn't the same sense as she'd get by telepathically connecting, was it? "I don't know. I don't think so."
"I'm sure he's close. Schaefer hasn't said anything to you, has he?"
She shook her head and finished lifting the juice to her mouth. The citrus wash fizzed over her tongue, leaving a wave of sour aftertaste.
He was thinking of their holding hands. With the juice container blocking her view of his face, she hid the smile at his bashfulness, and how he knew what he should say but was holding it in. Poor guy. Didn't wake up thinking you were going to fall for a telepath, that's for sure.
She lowered the empty juice container and cuffed off a sliver left on her chin. He pretended to look in his bag for something she knew he had no intention of finding; he just didn't want to look her in the eye, and a slight wall of muffled thought indicated resistance to her reading his mind. Except, in his case, he also liked it. He just didn't know how to react, or hide from it.
"So, I've got an idea," she said, and grabbed his hand. As soon as their skin touched, she knew Emmit was less than fifty meters away, jogging, with Adi right behind him. The sudden awareness hit like an angry headache. She snatched her hand back from Cullen. "Ow."
Cullen rose to help.
Ehli waved him off. "I'm okay." The headache throbbed, but its sharpness faded. She stood and brushed the dirt off her butt and pants. Why did that hurt?
"What happened?" Cullen asked.
"Mom? Are you okay?"
Emmit's voice drowned out something Cullen said. She saw his lips move, but only Emmit's voice made it to her ears—better, his voice was like the only sound in a vast cavern that was her head. I'm not sure, hon. Please, just wait until you arrive. Then we'll talk.
20
Why doesn't she want me to talk to her? Emmit thought to himself, blocking it from his mother, per her wish. Did I hurt her? Prior to her linking with his mind, he was following a map shown by his father. Now, he knew exactly where she was—as though her location was the distance between a hand and foot. He cut a fast corner in the narrow corridor. "Hustle up, Adi."
He found his mom sharing a look with Cullen, standing close enough to alert a sense of jealousy for his father.
She saw him, and ran to greet him in a strong hug that almost made him fall backwards.
"What's happening, Mom?" He wanted to add, "Are you okay?" but the first question needed priority.
She pulled back. Her eyes rolled as she seemed to gather her thoughts. "I don't know. I'm sorry. I... somewhere, I should have done something differently. I must have seen the signs. I should have taken you away."
"What are you talking about?" Emmit asked. "Is there something wrong with me using telepathy with you? I felt it hurt you a minute ago."
She kissed his forehead and rose to her full height. "Hi, Adi. Come here." She gave him a hug.
Cullen watched, reminding Emmit of how Jonas's stepfather used to look at him and Jonas when they came in from playing. He read anxiety about how he fit in with their lives.
Mom said not to talk to her, but didn't say anything about him, he considered. He probed into Cullen's mind.
No words. Only a sense of empathy for his mom, Adi, and himself.
Cullen immediately bent over, clutching his head. "Agh."
Emmit let go, taking a stomach-full of guilt for his misdirected anger. Cullen was willing to sacrifice himself for the three of them. Why, Emmit didn't know.
His mom glanced at Emmit as she started back toward Cullen. He didn't need telepathy to know she judged him responsible.
Cullen let go of his head, but remained hunched on his knees as he caught his breath.
"I'm sorry," Emmit said, and started toward them.
His mom looked back. "What did you do?"
Suddenly it was her and the captain against him. How did that happen? He considered the value of truth in this moment, or if it should wait.
She took the captain's hand and a spike of sun, energy, or light, opened in his mind, so forceful he had no chance of stopping it. "I asked you a question."
I.... There was no hiding thought from thought when they both held equal rights to the territory of his mind. In a flash, he recapped the memories, from finding the moss-covered entrance to his sus
picious invasion of the captain's mind.
And then the light left, leaving his head in a smaller circumference, heavier, and aching from the strain of being stretched beyond normal.
His mom let go of the captain's hand and stood straight. "Cullen saved my life."
The way she said his name, something had happened between them since he saw them last, and it irritated him for his father—if he truly was waiting at Fel Or'an. Emmit put on his best appreciation face. "Way to go, Muscles."
"You're welcome, Emmit."
Well played, he thought, acknowledging the captain taking the saving of his mother's life seriously.
"So, are we leaving now?" Emmit asked. "Dad, or some representation of him, showed me a massacre at a village I assume is near Fel Or'an."
"Massacre?" Cullen and his mom asked.
"Yeah. He said."
Ehli touched his back in a gesture meant to calm, but the contact spread like electric shock.
Emmit and his mom jumped away from each other—more like fell, as Emmit couldn't stop the inertia sending him over, and landed on his side. Cullen caught his mom, who shook her hand as though it were on fire. Emmit's back radiated with heat in the after effect of her touch. "What was that, Mom?"
"I... I don't know. I'm so sorry, Emmit." She walked over and leaned to help him.
"No." Cullen pulled her back. "I'll do it."
Emmit put out a hand to stop him. "I'm good." He slowly stood, easing muscles tightened in defensive mode. He licked his lips as he noticed a buzz itching in his mouth. "Here I thought there might be some good to telepathic abilities."
"Can I show you a theory?" Cullen asked stepping closer to Emmit, palm out.
"Mind explaining it first?" Emmit asked.
"When your mother and I touch...."
The words twisted against what little Emmit liked about the guy.
Cullen seemed to read that and rolled his eyes. "Relax. It's not like that. When we touch." He put his hand on Ehli's shoulder. "It extends her ability to those she is in contact with," he said without moving his lips, but as clearly as if he had spoken, "as well as enhances that ability such that we don't hear either you or Schaefer unless we touch."