“It’s a shame you no longer have the fisherman’s body,” she said at length. “It might have been useful to examine it.”
“We have plenty of corpses you can play with,” Tawn said, his folded arms resting on the table. Jenna tried not to stare too much at his large biceps. “People are dying faster than the priests can seal them into the water caskets,” he clarified, his tone caustic.
“Hopefully I can change that,” Jenna said.
“That is why Earth sent me after all. I’m considered an expert in the field of pathology and vaccine research. You have my word Marna that I’ll do everything in my power to develop a cure.”
“I pray to the Sea God that you can my girl,” Marna replied sincerely.
“The common folk can not bear much more than this. There are too few people healthy enough to man the fishing boats and what with the failed harvests in the grain districts, our food stocks are dangerously low. What’s more, almost all of my royal council has been decimated and my army is at half strength. The mood is turning ugly and there is rebellion in the air. I’ve seen all the signs before. We must find a way to fight back at this plague before there is civil unrest!”
Jenna could see the anxiety in her haggard face, and Tawn sat tense and brooding. Anger simmered in his haunting blue eyes. Jenna felt a sharp pang of sympathy. Considering how bad the situation was here on Kastra, he had every right to be surly. Perhaps she had been too quick to judge him after all?
“We have prepared a laboratory as you requested,” Marna was now saying.
“As agreed with your government, if you can develop a cure, I will ensure Earth receives the minerals with the healing properties that it needs. You will have everything you need to help in your research, and Tawn will be with you night and day to aid you.”
Jenna’s tummy clenched at the prospect of spending more time with the gruff Defender.
“Oh, thank you Marna, but I don’t really need an assistant. I work much better alone.”
Marna let out a mirthless chuckle. “You misunderstand me. Tawn is no scientist. He has salt rock for brains. No, he is a fighter born and bred and that is what he’ll do for you. As Royal Defender, he makes the perfect bodyguard for me and now he’ll be bodyguard to you for as long as you are here.”
Jenna was stunned. “I don’t need a bodyguard,” she said carefully. “Thanks all the same.”
She shot a look at Tawn, hoping she had not caused offence by her rejection, but he was not even looking at her and wore an impassive look on his face.
“Sorry young earthling, but I insist on it,” the Queen replied, puffing on her pipe.
“Though we reached out to your world for help not all of my people are pleased that you are here. We only made first contact with Earth a few months ago and aliens are widely regarded with mistrust and suspicion. There is even a ridiculous belief that the plague is a curse sent by the Sea God for opening our world up to outsiders. My folk are a superstitious rabble and I cannot take the risk of you coming to any harm while you are here.”
She paused and gave Jenna a wary look. “I know it’s not what you expected, and if you want to leave now I’ll quite understand. I would deserve it for not being completely up front with you.”
“Don’t be silly, Marna, I have every intention of staying,” Jenna said with feeling. “I want to help your planet the best I can. I don’t mind a bodyguard if you think it’s necessary.”
Marna clapped her hands together in pleasure. “Good. That’s settled then. Don’t look so worried earthling. Tawn won’t be too much of a bother, believe me. I housetrained him myself.”
Jenna laughed nervously and made an effort to give the imposing bodyguard a friendly smile. Tawn remained unmoved, his eyes on the table, either oblivious or deliberately ignoring her gesture of goodwill. Jenna cringed inside. Being with him was going to be harder than coming up for a vaccine.
Chapter 3: A Growing Warmth
On the morning of Jenna’s second day on Kastra, Tawn escorted her from her assigned quarters in the palace to the city’s largest medicine lodge, which was now overrun with victims of the Screaming Plague.
After her meeting with the Queen, Jenna had been shown her lab and had started on some preliminary work for a potential vaccine before exhaustion from the journey and the stress of the accident caught up with her and she had finally gone to bed.
Tawn had been like a shadow, silent and sullen, and she had given up all attempts at conversation. She got the impression that he disliked her, and though she was still finding him quite attractive despite his coldness, she felt it was better that way. Emotional attachments were not her strong suit.
It didn’t look like anything had changed as they walked together out of the palace and across its main courtyard. Tawn remained infuriatingly silent and it was starting to drive Jenna crazy.
“The weather is very pleasant today,” she said at last, desperate to break the through the barrier of ice that sat between them.
Tawn let out a non-committal grunt, and Jenna knew she was fighting a losing battle. Her eye snagged on a neatly tended parterre where a group of tulip-like flowers the colour of a lush emerald green grew.
Jenna was struck by how delicate they looked and was attracted by the patina of sparkles, which covered their petals and glittered in the sunlight. “Those flowers are really wonderful,” she exclaimed coming to stop by them. “What are they called?”
Tawn frowned. “They’re Sea Sparkles or Sea Jewels, I’m not sure which. They grow up in the hinterland and get imported in especially. The Queen loves them.”
“I can see why,” Jenna said, running her finger along the silky petals of one of the flowers.
“Your world is very beautiful, what I’ve seen of it, anyway. You’re lucky to live here.”
“If you call living on a world that has been ripped apart by civil wars for the last two hundred years and is now gripped by a pitiless and incurable plague lucky, then I guess I am,” Tawn replied dryly.
Jenna left the flower alone, feeling stung. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean it like that. I was just speaking in general.”
“Shall we be moving along?” Tawn drawled. “You wanted to see the medicine lodge.”
Jenna nodded and they carried on in silence, and now Jenna preferred it that way. Passing through the main gate of the palace, they went down a hill flanked by impressive mansions of different coloured coral.
At the bottom of the hill was a long single storey building of white coral with a domed blue roof which Tawn informed her was the medicine lodge. They went up to the door and Tawn was going to go through, when Jenna stopped.
“What is it now?” Tawn asked, not bothering to hide his irritation.
Jenna bit down the urge to demand why he was giving her all this hostility. Instead, she forced herself to stay calm. “Are you sure you want to go inside?”
Tawn looked perplexed. “What?”
“I mean, are you not worried you might get infected?” Jenna clarified. “According to the med scans Earthlings are immune to the plague, but you’re different. I don’t want to put you at greater risk than you already are.”
Tawn shrugged his big shoulders. “If I get it, I get it,” he said bluntly. “It is down to the will of the Sea God. He saw fit to spare me a glorious death in battle during the Kingdom Wars. Perhaps, this is the fate he has in store for me instead. Whatever, I have my duty to do.”
“Still, it might be better if you stay outside,” countered Jenna, “just to be on the safe side.”
A stubborn look crossed Tawn’s handsome face. “My orders are to stay with you at all times,” he said fiercely. “Where you go, I go.”
“Still, I don’t think – ”
“Where you go, I go,” he snapped, his voice lashing out like a whip. He cut her dead and Jenna felt her face getting flushed.
She gave him a brief nod and entered the lodge without another word. True to his own word, Tawn shadowed her.<
br />
Pushing aside their spat, Jenna focused her attention on the dimly lit chamber on the other side of the door. What she saw shocked her to the core.
A medicine lodge was Kastra’s version of hospitals on Earth, but this seemed more like a charnel house. Plague victims lay unattended on ragged mats strewn across the dirty floor, trapped in various stages of pain.
Some were curled up in pitiful silence, while others writhed around uncontrollably, moaning and screeching at the top of their voices giving Jenna a visceral example of how the illness had earned its name as the Screaming Plague.
Any kind of sanitation and hygiene seemed non-existent, and blank-faced attendants wearing the yellow robes that marked them out as the eunuch healers pointedly ignored the cries for help from their patients.
For a moment, Jenna couldn’t move. She was overwhelmed with horror and pity. None of the reports had prepared her for this, and she felt tears spring in her eyes.
A hand suddenly touched her shoulder and she snapped her head round to see Tawn standing next to her. His large physical presence was suddenly a deep comfort to her.
As her shock began to subside, she was dimly aware of a small fussy looking man stalking towards her, his long robes billowing behind him.
“You must be the Earth woman,” the man said in a high fluting voice. “I am Kromaj, Chief Healer of the palace and head of this lodge.” He gave her a haughty look. “Are you well? You look very pale.”
“I’m fine, thank you,” Jenna said, collecting herself. Tawn’s hand had vanished from her shoulder before Kromaj had got to them, and its absence had left a cold chill.
“I am Doctor Jenna Landis. I’m pleased to meet you, Kromaj.” She extended her hand to shake his but he made no move to take it. Instead, he looked her up and down with obvious disdain. What was it with the men on this planet?
“The Queen informed me that you were coming,” he replied in a clipped tone, “though I don’t see what good it will do. These unfortunate wretches are beyond help now.” He gestured lazily to the sick Kastrans lying in their own filth.
“They are in the hands of the Sea God now.”
The man’s attitude made the hackles on the back of Jenna’s neck rise up. “Nevertheless, we must do everything we can to find a vaccine, before the plague spreads to the rest of the population,” Jenna said coldly.
She lifted her medical kit, which she was holding in her right hand. “With your permission, I’d like to take some blood samples of some of the sufferers to help with my research.”
“The Queen has ordered that we must accommodate you in every way,” Kromaj sniffed. “I must bow to her will.”
“Thanks,” Jenna said, pushing passed him.
She had decided she disliked him more than Tawn. She spotted a little girl cramped up with pain and her heart went out to her.
“Kromaj,” she said, turning back to the unpleasant man. “I’ve got some morphine pills in my med kit as well. Could your healers distribute what I’ve got with me to as many people as you can, please? They are only small tablets and they will dissolve easily in water. They won’t combat any of the plague symptoms, but at least it’ll give these people a little bit of relief from their pain. I’ll make some more up when I get back to the lab later on.”
Kromaj folded his arms and scowled. “That is quite impossible.”
Jenna was taken aback. “What? Why for crying out loud?”
“The Sea God in His infinite wisdom has decided to strike these people down with the Screaming Plague because they have sinned. They must suffer if they wish to achieve salvation in the next life.”
Jenna couldn’t believe her ears. “Kromaj, the Screaming Plague doesn’t care if people are sinful or not. It strikes without rhyme or reason. There’s no pattern to who gets infected or the incubation period, that’s why I’m here to find out what it is and stop it. At any given moment anyone can fall victim to it, including you and your healers.”
“Yet neither I nor my healers have been struck down,” Kromaj retorted imperiously.
“The Sea God recognises the purity of our souls and keeps us safe. My people must surrender themselves to His divine mercy and that alone will ease their torment.”
The little girl Jenna spotted was now moaning and rocking back and forth. Blood was dribbling down her chin. She narrowed her eyes and fixed the eunuch with a cold stare.
“Whatever. I don’t have time for this. I’ll give out the pills myself.”
She was just about to walk away from the unpleasant man, when he lashed out and grabbed her arm. “You will do no such thing!” he thundered, his face darkening.
“The Queen wishes you to focus on finding a cure only, not usurp the duties of my healers. You will remember your place while you are here!”
Fury bubbled up inside Jenna and for a moment she couldn’t speak. She suddenly felt Tawn’s powerful body moving forward and his hand shot out and grabbed Kromaj’s arm. The smaller man squealed girlishly and released his hold on Jenna.
“Do as the woman says,” Tawn said in a low, menace-laden voice. “Order your healers to give out the pills.”
“You dare lay hands on me!” Kromaj shrieked. “Release me, you savage!”
Jenna saw Tawn’s big hand tighten round Kromaj’s podgy arm. The Chief Healer’s beady little eyes began to water. A terrifying smile spread across Tawn’s face.
“Give out the pills or I’ll teach you that there are worse things in life than being a eunuch.”
Tawn’s pale blue eyes became orbs of ice that bore into Kromaj’s skull. His large fingers squeezed deeper into the eunuch’s flesh. Jenna’s body tightened up in the tense silence, and Kromaj went very pale. He licked his lips and nodded.
“Very well,” he said in a defeated voice, “but I will be reporting this outrageous behaviour to the Queen.”
Tawn released him and sketched a mock bow. “You do that, Chief Healer.”
Kromaj clutched his arm to his chest and massaged it. Shooting black looks at both the Defender and Jenna, he waited for her to take the container of morphine pills from her med kit and hand it to him. He snatched the container from her like an ungrateful child and stalked away.
“There wasn’t any need to do that,” Jenna said in a quiet voice as she watched him go.
“No need to thank me,” Tawn said, sounding extremely proud of his actions. “Eunuchs need a firm hand or they get ideas above their station.”
Jenna rounded on him. “I’m not thanking you. You shouldn’t have interfered!”
Tawn looked dumbfounded. “I just helped you. Kromaj is giving out those stupid pills isn’t he?”
For the first time since meeting him, his voice pitched above its usual deep timbre and he had lost his air of casual nonchalance.
“They’re not stupid,” Jenna said icily. “I could have handled that situation myself.”
“Huh, you forget you’re an alien and a female. A man’s hand is needed when dealing with Kromaj’s sort.”
“I am not some little woman who needs a big oaf to blunder in and sort out my problems. If I want your help, I’ll ask for it. Understood?”
Jenna heard the shrillness in her voice at the end of her tirade and cringed inside. She hadn’t meant to get so mad at him, but his coldness and surly behaviour yesterday and today was grating on her nerves and this display of machismo had been the last straw.
She expected him to lash out now, and become as hostile and contemptuous as Kromaj had been, but her dressing down was met with silence. His face had become closed and dark but his eyes told a different story. They bled with hurt.
They spent the rest of the day in silence, and Jenna soon became engrossed with her work, taking blood samples and making sure the plague sufferers were made as comfortable as possible.
Seeing firsthand how bad conditions were for them, she now wished that a whole medical team had come with her. They could have set up a mobile hospital and provide proper care for these people, rat
her than the pious cold comfort offered by the eunuchs. But all she could was focus on creating a cure. That was all that mattered.
Once she’d done all she could at the medicine lodge, she went straight back to the lab. Tawn followed her like a buzzard, silent and grim, and she was relieved to leave him out in the passageway and shut herself away in the sanctuary of her laboratory.
She felt bad for speaking to him the way she did, especially when she saw the look in his eyes, but she refused to apologise. He had undermined her credibility by resorting to force to let her get her way, and that made her blood boil.
She wanted to be respected on this planet in her own right and not have to depend on dumb muscle when tact and diplomacy was more effective.
Still, a less civilised part of her had been thrilled when Tawn had stood up for her. Perhaps it meant he did like her just a little bit after all.
She tried not to think about that. It was too complicated, and Tawn was too much like hard work at the moment. It was more likely he just wanted an excuse to humiliate Kromaj.
There was obviously little love lost between the two men. Tawn’s actions today had nothing to do with his feelings for her. Or did they?
Soon though, her research took precedence and she pushed surly bodyguards and spiteful eunuchs to the back of her mind. She made little headway and it was deep into the night before she decided to stop and get some sleep. Rubbing her aching neck and shoulders, she headed to the door and suddenly remembered Tawn hunkered down outside. With a sense of impending dread, she opened it but found the passageway empty.
Jenna huffed. So much for him guarding over her night and day, anything could have happened to her while she was alone in the lab.
Perhaps, he was complaining about her to the Queen as Kromaj had vowed to do. He might request to be taken off bodyguard duty and she’d be lumbered with somebody else. Jenna wasn’t sure how she felt about that though.
Royal Defender: Her Space Guardian (Celestial Mates Book 9) Page 2