She reared back, grabbing his face between her hands, and looked into his eyes.
“They took you too?” she breathed.
His eyes widened and he shook his head. “No,” he whispered back. “They don't know I'm here. I've come to rescue you.”
And then he moved his head forward the fraction he needed to for their lips to meet, and once again, the world fell away, and she was right where she was meant to be.
Chapter 27
Garek swung Taya in his arms so that his back was to the avid, curious stares of the group, his body blocking her from view. Most were familiar, but some were new, and even those he knew had never truly approved of his pursuit of Taya.
She pressed her forehead to his and he felt the hot wash of her tears as they dripped down. For that alone he wanted to level this camp and slam every sky raider ship into the ground.
Her arms tightened around him, and careful not to crush her, he lifted her even higher so her feet were dangling off the ground.
She was thinner than she had been, more delicate, it seemed to him, but also stronger.
She laughed suddenly, leaning back a little to wipe away her tears and then stroked his cheek with her hand. “I am so happy.”
He smiled back at her, his arm supporting her back, his fingers tangled in the hair at her nape, lost in looking at her, breathing her in.
Kas coughed discreetly behind them, and he decided that was progress, too. Kas had been anything but discreet at trying to keep them apart before.
Taya sighed but didn't try to get out of his arms, so he turned back with her still held tight and faced the crowd.
Aidan's face was almost comical in his astonishment.
Garek grinned at him. “You wanted to know why I behaved as I did in Gara? This is my higher power.” He put Taya down gently.
For a moment, Aidan didn't get it, and then their conversation about Garek turning down offers of companionship from his fellow guards or the women of Gara came back to him and his eyes widened. Then he laughed ruefully, shaking his head.
Garek hesitated. He wanted to take Taya somewhere private, but he didn't know where was safe, and he knew he needed more information before he did anything.
Kas was looking at him with questions in his eyes, and pointed out a spare crate beside the fire.
Reluctantly, Garek clasped Taya's hand and walked to it. When he sat beside her, she snuggled up to him, leaning in so her head was on his shoulder, their arms looped around each other.
He didn't think he'd ever felt happier.
He was sorry Luca wasn't here with them. It would make the moment perfect.
He suddenly realized Kas would be worried about his son. “Luca is well.”
“You've seen him?” Kas moved so fast, Garek was reminded that Kas could call the Change very well, too. He crouched in front of Garek, and Taya put her hand out, resting it on Kas's shoulder in support and sympathy. “Where is he?”
“In Haret. They've taken in everyone from Pan Nuk who wasn't stolen.”
“The town master of Haret did that?” Taya sounded uncertain. “That's generous of him.”
“No, it's what he owes Pan Nuk.” Kas spoke almost viciously. “You spoke to him?” His eyes were wary now, as he held Garek's gaze.
“He told me Haret's lack of a strong Change guard was why I had to do two years. But he's right that Gara would have found some way to keep me, no matter what. Better Haret owed us the debt, and took everyone in.”
Kas leaned back, gave a nod. “Quardi says you weren't captured.” “That you found a way onto one of their ships and stowed away.”
“He stole a sky craft which he'd previously brought down over Gara,” Aidan said. “Then he flew us off Barit to the sky raiders' mother ship and from there, found a way for us to get onboard the transporter coming here.”
“That's truly amazing.” Kas rubbed his face and Garek noticed his knuckles were swollen and abraded, like he'd been in a fight.
“I was motivated.” Garek pressed his lips to the top of Taya's head.
Quardi laughed at that. “You make me proud, boy.”
“And who are you?” Kas rose up and turned to look at Aidan as he walked back to his seat. “What was your role in this?”
“He's the liege's son. Aidan of Juli.” Garek spoke before Aidan could pretend to be a simple guard again.
There was the sound of a few indrawn breaths, but Garek's attention was no longer on those around the fire, but on the small group of men who had come quietly through the camp from the Kardanx side and now stood just outside the fire's light.
Kas stood again. “Fayda?”
“Yes, it's me.” A man stepped forward, flanked by two men on his right, one on his left. He looked like a Kardanx prayer man, and probably was. Not as old as Opik, more Quardi's age, in his late fifties. Young enough to still be considered useful to the sky raiders.
“We've found the two who helped . . .” Fayda's eyes flickered to Taya and then went back to Kas. “Helped Ketl. We let the sky raiders know.”
“What's happened to them?” Kas asked.
“The sky raiders need them to mine, so my guess is they'll move them to night shift.” Taya tilted her head to look up at Fayda.
He conceded her words with a nod. “The punishment for the two we brought to them is that they'll work straight through for a full day, today's day shift and now night shift, and then they'll be on night shift permanently. Ketl is also on night shift. They untied him and took him this evening. Those three won't cause more trouble with you.”
“What trouble did they cause?” Garek asked.
“I'll tell you later.” Taya caressed his hand where it was resting on her thigh.
“I was coming anyway, to tell you about the two who confessed to helping Ketl, but I would have come to find out about the two Illians who sneaked into camp today.” Fayda nodded to Garek and to Aidan. “Two from our side saw them climb out of the sky raider guard machines in the transporter and then one from your camp created a distraction so they could disappear among the tents and shacks. Did I hear correctly that one of them is the son of an Illian liege?”
“You did,” Aidan said.
One of the men to Fayda's right made a sound in his throat, as if he were going to spit phlegm. He angled his head to Fayda. “You tell us that Kardai is better, but here we are, taken whenever the sky raiders wanted more workers, forced to do unthinkable things, while the Illians have such good protection the sky raiders have to take them from remote villages. And when they are taken, the Illians don't just sit back and thank the Mother that at least they are safe, they send a warrior and the liege's own son after them.” The man pointed up, jabbing his finger to where Barit hung in the sky. “They sent people from Barit all the way to Shadow. The people we live next to as neighbors. They managed something none of us could ever have dreamed of before the sky raiders came.”
“Are you a warrior? One of the Changed the Illy use to protect themselves?” Fayda watched Garek, his face tired, his words heavy.
“We are called guards, but yes, I call the Change, and I walked the walls of Garamundo.”
“And how did you do it? How did you get here?” The man on the left's voice was low and very intense.
“I brought down a sky craft when I was protecting the city. When I learned that my home village had been taken, I worked out how to fly it and came looking.”
“And why did the liege's son come with you?” Fayda turned to Aidan again.
“We take the loss of any West Lathorian seriously,” Aidan said. “But a whole village? That was unacceptable to us.”
There was silence, nothing but the crackle of the flames.
Garek resisted giving Aidan an incredulous look. He knew what the princeling was up to. Stirring the discontent everyone around this fire would be deaf and blind not to realize was fomenting on the Kardai side, holding up West Lathor and the Illy as the model of good government.
“You have a p
lan to rescue your people?” The second man on Fayda's right spoke for the first time.
“We have some ideas. Right now, we're just greeting Garek, because he's been fighting the sky raiders for two years. Quardi is his father, and Taya is his intended, and none of us have seen him for a long time.” Kas shifted, and Garek could see he was unwilling to promise the Kardanx anything yet.
“Will you factor the Kardanx into your plan?” Fayda asked. “Will you involve us?”
“We'll speak to Dom,” Taya said.
There was another silence at that. Garek could see her words were not welcome, to Fayda at least.
Kas said nothing. He didn't contradict her, he simply watched her, letting her take the floor.
“Why him?”
“I think you know.” Taya's eyes glittered in the light, and there was that angle to her jaw, that tilt to her head, that told Garek nothing would move her on this. She would dig in as deep as she had to, she would not change course.
Fayda stared at her, and something in her face must have made him realize arguing would be futile. He nodded.
“We'll come to you when we're ready,” Kas said, and his words were not what the Kardanx wanted to hear. Garek could see them shift nervously.
They understood that they were being brushed off for the moment, and might never be included.
“We could make things difficult,” the one on the left said.
“You could,” Garek agreed reasonably, memorizing the man's face.
He seemed to understand the scrutiny was not a good thing and shuffled so that Fayda mostly blocked him from view.
Fayda gave him a furious look over his shoulder. “We will do nothing of the sort.”
Kas nodded at him, Garek simply stared, blank-faced, and then the Kardanx turned and left.
There was silence as they waited for them to get out of hearing distance.
“Is what he said true?” Taya asked, looking over at Aidan. “About the liege caring we were taken?”
Garek barked out a laugh. “He didn't even know the whole of Pan Nuk had been taken until I told him this morning.”
Everyone stared at Aidan.
The princeling looked ashamed for the first time since Garek had known him. “I don't think anyone but Garek could have conceived a plan as audacious as this one, but we should have known about Pan Nuk. Word was sent to Gara?”
Garek nodded. “The town master of Haret sent word. Not that Utrel passed it on to me. I had to find out when I came home to a deserted village.”
“Well, that lie you told certainly stirred up trouble for Fayda.” Kas said it in a way that told Garek he wasn't sure yet if that was to their benefit or not. “Why did you come, princeling, if you didn't even know what Garek was up to?”
“He jumped into the sky craft at the last minute, trying to stop me from taking it.” Garek hugged Taya closer. “And even I didn't know how far this journey would take me. I simply followed the clues to Taya.”
Taya turned her head to look at him, her eyes so full of warmth and delight he wanted to drown in them.
“Eat.” Quardi rolled up to them, interrupting, holding out two plates piled with delicate fruits, warm bread and skewers of bobber roasted over the fire.
Taya took the plates, smiling at his father. “You must be as happy as I am, Quardi.”
His father laughed. “Perhaps not quite as happy, but happy enough.”
She passed a plate to Garek, kissing the side of his neck as she did so, and then settled back against him to eat.
“What was that for?” He realized his voice had gone guttural again.
“Because I can.” She paused with one of the delicate green grapes from West Lathor held just in front of her lips. “We should eat.” Her eyes conveyed mischief. “Then I'll show you the lay of the land.”
The smile he sent back to her was hot and slow. He didn't think he could speak anymore, so he concentrated on eating.
Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Aidan watching him.
There was astonishment again on his face, as if he still couldn't get his mind around this new Garek he was seeing. But there was something else there, too.
If Garek were to guess, he'd have said it was envy.
Chapter 28
Anticipation made the reality all the sweeter.
Since Garek's arms had closed around her at the fireplace, Taya had imagined how it would be when they were alone.
Now they lay side by side on a piece of canvas spread over the patchy grass between the back wall of Quardi's forge and the river.
It was the most secluded place in camp.
She'd imagined a hot, passionate coming together as soon as they had some privacy, but instead they both lay still, arms and legs entwined. Her hand gently smoothed over his chest, and his tangled in her hair.
She looked upward, at where Barit hung above them in the sky, a shining reminder of how far he'd come for her.
“I didn't get any of your letters.” Garek's voice was a low rumble against her palm.
“I guessed that.” She felt a brief, hot fury at Kas, but that faded as soon as it rose up. “I didn't get the scarf you sent. Well, I did, but Kas didn't tell me it was from you.”
“Who did he say it was from?” She felt the tension in him under her palm.
“He said he bought it from a trader coming over the pass.”
Garek relaxed again. “I got the clothes you made me. Whoever delivered them told me my father had sent them, but I knew better.”
There was a smile in his voice.
She smiled, too.
A thought occurred to her. “If you didn't get the letters, how did you know about them?”
“Luca told me when I got home. I took three. One of the first, one from the middle, and the last one. I read them on the way here.”
She turned, found him watching her with an intensity that sent a shiver through her.
“I missed you more than I ever thought possible.”
His words cut straight to her heart and she wriggled, going up on her elbow to lean forward and brush her lips against his. Her hair fell in a curtain around them. “To me, it felt like a wound I couldn't heal from.”
He slid his palms up to cup her face and angled his lips over hers.
Heat washed over her, making her limbs tremble and her heart stutter, and then they were pushing at each other's clothes, desperate for each other. As she raised her hands to help him pull her dress over her head, Taya didn't feel the chill of the night air, she was surrounded by Garek, his skin hot and smooth under her fingertips.
He caught her sighs in drugging kisses and she caught his groans the same way.
They had been too long without each other and every touch, every caress made them burn faster, like a pyre doused with oil.
His hands and tongue, the thrust of his body, brought her to a shuddering, gasping release faster than she wanted, and his came right on the heels of her own. But afterward, as she lay against him, soaking in the heat of him and letting herself float on the happiness having him back brought her, just the smoothing of Garek's hand up her side was enough to stir her desire again.
He rose up over her, calmer now, his lips following the line of her neck. He nipped at her collarbone with his teeth and she arched into him. Her hands traced the smooth skin over hard muscle on his back and they were both lost again, holding each other close, rocking a slow, tender rhythm to a deep, soul-clenching climax.
When they lay still again, sated and happy, Garek pulled her half onto him, so her thigh lay across both of his, her head on his chest. “I'll never let anyone separate me from you again.”
He stroked down her back; long, languid caresses from her shoulder to the curve of her buttocks and she kissed his chest, listening to the steady thump of his heart.
“I'll never allow it, either.”
They lay quietly, but she could tell he was as awake as she was. She was just happy to be holding him again, but she knew the mome
nt his mind turned from the beauty of the moment to other things.
“Was this what the Kardanx did to you?” Garek's voice was calm, but when she lifted her head, she saw the steady burn of rage in his eyes as he noticed the healing scrapes on her side.
“In a way.” She kissed the tip of his chin. “But I managed to do my own rescuing. Well, Kas got him tied up, but between Min and I, we saved ourselves.”
He held her gaze for a moment, and then relaxed again. Nodded. “I still want to know.”
“Do you know much about the Mother religion?”
Garek shifted beneath her carefully. “A little. There's a small community of Kardanx living in Gara.”
“Well, one of the passages in the Guardian is about protecting women at all costs. Even if you have to kill them to save them from torture or dishonor.”
Garek's eyebrows rose. “He tried to kill you? To save you?”
“No. Well, yes, he tried to kill me, but not because of that. What I'm trying to say is that you'll notice tomorrow that the Kardanx here are mostly men. Only six women were spared, one because her son saved her from his father.”
“Dom?” Garek guessed.
She smiled at him, because despite two years apart, he still knew her so well. “Yes. Dom. But the point is there aren't many women on the Kardanx side, so Ketl tried to grab Jerilia one evening. Kas and some of the others tried to get her back, and I persuaded the sky raiders to intervene.”
“They stopped him?” He sounded surprised.
“I told them it would slow down production, so yes, they stopped him. He didn't like it. Then later the same day, the sky raiders insisted that the Kardanx and the Illy keep to their sides of the camp, and Min chose to join the Illy. Her father was Illian and she calls the water Change, so she was in constant danger on the Kardanx side. Ketl didn't like that, either, and again, I managed to get the sky raiders to stop him.”
“Taya.” Garek lifted her chin and she realized his fingers were shaking.
“I know, I'll drive you to an early grave. Kas already gave me the lecture, but I wouldn't let Min go back against her will.”
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