by Autumn Dawn
"Hard day?"
"Good hunting, but we had to go to the edge of the swamps to find it. The lands have been badly over-harvested. It's going to take time to rebuild the wild stock. The meat we brought back is in the cellars, hanging. Tomorrow, we'll process it."
"Glad we got them cleaned for you, then."
"Thank you." He got into bed and took her in his arms. He stiffened as his hand touched Lionheart. "What is it doing in the bed?"
Annoyed, she frowned at him, well aware he couldn't see her in the dark. "He's just a baby. Where else would I put him?"
His fingertip smoothed the lines between her eyes, surprising her. "Your little pet will one day weigh as much as I do. Are you certain you wish him to sleep on the bed?"
Grumbling, she tossed the covers off, felt around in the dark with her foot for her discarded clothes, and gently placed Lionheart on them. She gave him one last pat, turned, and slammed her toe into the bed steps. "Ouch!"
"Would you like me to open the curtains to let the light in?" he asked in sympathy.
"No, but I'd like a pair of night vision goggles for Christmas," she snapped. Living with a Haunt was proving hazardous to her health.
This time she got into bed without mishap.
"Goodnight, wildflower." He snuggled her close.
"'Night, hon."
"Hon?"
She yawned. "Ask me tomorrow," she mumbled, and quickly fell asleep.
* * * *
An unholy racket woke them in the morning.
"I said get out!"
Mathin leapt out of bed, grabbed his sword, and opened the door wide just in time to see Raziel thrust outside the door of the room directly opposite. Buck naked, he held his clothes in his arms, his muscular backside to Mathin as he argued with Matilda.
"I was only there to sleep, woman," he groused irritably, tossing his mussed dark hair back. "Had I wanted anything else you would have known it."
Matilda, red hair equally disheveled, but attired in a flowered nightgown, stood in the doorway and glared at him. "Decent men don't crawl naked into my bed when I'm sound asleep!"
Raziel inclined his head. "What about indecent men?" There was a hint of laughter in his voice.
She slammed the door in his face.
Raziel turned and grinned at Mathin. He shrugged. "We had no other beds here. What could a man do?"
"What's going--eek!" Andrea ducked back under Mathin's arm and hid her flaming face in her palms. "Don't you guys have any modesty?"
Mathin shook with silent laughter. "Are all humans this prudish?"
"Prudish!"
"Sensitive, then," he amended. He closed the door.
She scowled at him. "Aren't you going to say anything to him? Matilda has a right to be mad. Raziel can't just go crawling into any bed--"
"He didn't. He chose Matilda's."
As if that explained his attitude! "Why is that okay?" she demanded, annoyed on Matilda's behalf. "Is this a guy thing or a Haunt aberration?"
He snatched her up in his arms and tossed her on the bed, then pounced on top of her. "Maybe I should explain it." He nipped her ear.
It was a very long and thorough lesson.
When they finally made it downstairs for breakfast, Raziel was in high spirits.
Matilda was as grumpy as a bear.
Feeling rather chipper herself, Andrea decided to test Mathin's theory. She waited until they had a quiet moment alone in the garden before saying casually, "You must have gotten quite an eyeful this morning."
Matilda paused in her weeding to give Andrea a dirty look. "It's not funny. I woke up to find myself completely tangled with the dratted man." Color stained her cheeks, as well as a certain degree of guilt.
Andrea was willing to bet it hadn't been a completely unpleasant experience. Not with that look in her eye. Just to be sure, she prodded, "He didn't hurt you, did he?"
"Of course not!" Matilda exclaimed indignantly. "He never would. It was just so presumptuous of him, and so very...." She waved her gloved hand in the air. "Outrageous."
"Has he kissed you?"
"Andrea!"
Undaunted, Andrea shrugged. "What do you expect after the way you threw me after Mathin?"
"That was different."
"Uh huh. So has he?"
Matilda looked sheepish. "I haven't let him."
Andrea shook her head and plucked another weed. "Might want to rethink that one, Grandma."
Examining the dirt in the bed they were clearing, she asked, "Are you sure you wouldn't mind?"
Astonished, Andrea stared at her. "Mind? Why would I mind?"
Matilda shrugged.
"Grandma...." She floundered for words. "I want you to be happy. If Raziel can make you that way, I say go for it."
"I don't know...."
"Besides, if you don't grab him someone else will."
Her advice seemed to fall on fertile soil. It was later that very morning when Andrea passed a seldom used hallway that she heard giggling. Thinking it might be kids, she went to investigate. Just before rounding the curved wall, she stopped in her tracks. She knew that voice.
"Ohh ... Raz," her grandmother's breathy moan sounded. Another giggle.
Too stunned to move, Andrea stood as if petrified to the spot.
"Ohh, oh yes! Please!"
Swallowing hard, Andrea quietly hit reverse.
"You like that?" Raziel's voice was full of male satisfaction. Slightly breathless.
"Your fingers! Yes, please."
Caution be danged! Faster than a speeding bullet, Andrea cleared the hall.
"What's your hurry?" Mathin asked, about to enter the same hall.
She grabbed his arm. "Don't go in there!"
Puzzled, he cocked his head. His gaze shifted as if he were hearing something. A broad smile broke over his face. "Hm."
"Don't you say it," she said through gritted teeth as she took his hand and drug him away.
"It's possible he could just be giving her a massage," he suggested, trying, and failing, to maintain an innocent expression. He grinned.
"Hah!"
Oddly enough, when next they saw the pair, neither looked happy.
"Please pass the salt," Matilda asked Andrea at dinner. They were still using the makeshift table.
Raziel reached in front of Andrea and plucked up the salt server, making a show of giving it to Matilda. "Anything else you desire, sweet?"
"Nothing you've got," she shot back, snatching the server. She plunked it down and vigorously salted what Andrea knew to be tough meat. They still hadn't found a decent cook.
Wishing to change the subject, Andrea sawed at her steak and observed, "Lovely weather we're having. How long before the storms come, do you think, Mathin?"
"Hard to tell about storms." Raziel answered, looking over his cup at Matilda. "The weather sweeps from fair to foul here with dizzying speed."
Matilda glared at him. "Perhaps you shouldn't make unreasonable demands on it. Besides, from what I've seen you Haunt can't make up your minds what you want."
Raziel's eyes flashed. "I told you the woman accosted me, not--” He broke off and looked at the very interested Mathin and Andrea, who seemed to be fascinated with her tasteless meal. "We will discuss the weather later."
"We will not." Matilda gripped her fork, her jaw set.
"Later." Nostrils still flared, Raziel all but snapped at Mathin, "So what do you intend to do about your cousin?"
Mathin frowned. "You know I've sent messengers to the lands around us. Should my cousin be so foolish as to show his face here, I will deal with him. I do not think he has the metal to do so."
"Perhaps." Raziel stabbed at his meat. "The scouts are in place. You would know within the hour if he stepped foot on your land."
"What of your lands?" Mathin raised a brow and rested his forearms on the table. "You show great concern for my situation, and I thank you, but your estate is nearly as extensive as mine."
"I've sent men to
look it over." Raziel's face shuttered. "My overseer is more capable than Tomlin ever thought to be. All remains under control."
Mathin shrugged. "It's your choice." His careless tone didn't match his expression.
Raziel looked at him suspiciously. "Since when did you care what became of my lands or any other? Jayems practically had to order you here."
An ironic smile lifted a corner of Mathin's mouth. "True. Maybe I just don't like to see anyone else so enjoy their freedom now that I've lost mine."
Andrea frowned at him.
"Not you, my love." He kissed her lightly on the lips. "Never you."
She smiled softly and rubbed her head against his shoulder. Just a word from him could make her feel so good. She hoped his cousin would never come.
* * * *
She wasn't feeling well.
They'd only been at the citadel a couple of days when she began to feel tired, almost drained. Mathin was very busy and Matilda was still in a snit, so it was easy to hide it at first. Andrea took care to eat right, but it wasn't helping, not as it should. No matter how much she slept she still felt tired and listless. Finally the morning came when she surrendered to the inevitable and summoned the local medic.
His prognosis was grim. "You're pregnant."
She gaped at him. The examination had taken place in her room, since she felt too tired to even walk to the village, and they were along. Right then she wished it wasn't so. "P-pregnant?"
He gave his head a short, affirmative jerk and put away his things. "It is not going well."
Irritated with his abrupt manner, she snapped, "Is that all you can say? Is there something I can do?"
At touch of pity on his face, he nodded. "Prepare to lose the child. Human women always lose Haunt children."
Andrea paled. "Jasmine--”
"Was a fluke. She was healthy and had a full symbiont. You have half. You are weak." His expression softened and his tone gentled. "Tell your husband. Rumors say he is not like his father. He will care."
Shocked that he would say such a thing, she demanded, "What do you mean?"
He shook his head. "Call me when the bleeding starts. I'll have my equipment ready."
She lay there after he'd left, staring at the ceiling. The details wavered in front of her damp eyes. The medic was wrong! She wouldn't lose this child.
Mathin's baby.
It seemed like only moments passed before Mathin burst in the door, his face pale and frightened. "Andrea!" He rushed to her side and took her in his arms. "Why? Why didn't you tell me?"
Instead of answering, she burst into tears.
* * * *
"You are crazy!" Raziel hissed, grabbing Mathin by the shoulder. He spun him around. Their faces only inches apart, he ground out, "The storms are coming, Mathin. Think! I know you're desperate, but--”
Mathin jerked away and readied his gear. Bloodlight had already been saddled. "You're in charge until we get back."
"If you get back."
Mathin rounded on him. "It's the only chance we have, Raziel! Would you have me stay here and lose the baby?"
"It could happen anyway." Raziel was brutally honest. "You don't know that the Ronin will even help you."
"They will."
Frustrated by Mathin's refusal to consider the cost, Raziel got in front of him. "What should I tell your people?"
Mathin looked him in the eye. "Tell them that I love my wife more than my life. Tell them that I will come back, and that my wife will have a healthy son."
Shaken by the resolution in his eyes, Raziel let Mathin pass. Eyes downcast, he considered what he would need to hear if it were Matilda and his child who were ill. "Mathin?"
He turned around.
"My prayers will follow you."
For the first time since Mathin had heard about the baby, he smiled.
* * * *
Andrea didn't remember much about the journey. Cold rain, impressions of big trees and the sensation of riding were all she knew. Mathin pressed food on her she didn't want, fussed and sometimes shouted at her until she ate almost all of it just to ease his mind. Thunder often split the sky, and strong winds often made travel hazardous. When the bad storms struck he would take them to what shelter he could. Sometimes there was none to be had and they made camp where they could. At such times she could hear Mathin praying.
His wife might have been too foggy to suffer much from their travels, but Mathin was not so lucky. He lived in constant fear that fierce winds would topple a tree or send a flying limb in Andrea, killing her. Almost as important was keeping himself in one piece. She wouldn't survive without him.
He'd never cared so much for his own well being.
Six days into their journey he picked up signs of the Ronin.
"Mathin?" Andrea lifted her pale face and peered at him through the mists.
Blasted swamps! If it wasn't raining on them it was foggy. "I'm here." He moved to where she sat slumped on Bloodlight and touched her legs. "I found traces of the Ronin, my love." He smiled for her. "Soon you'll get to meet them."
"Good." A ghost of her old grin tried to surface. "Tell them I said they need to be more welcoming for guests."
"You tell them." He mounted behind her and got Bloodlight moving. "You'll be seeing them yourself, soon."
"Yeah." Her voice was barely audible.
He wrapped his arms around her and moved faster.
* * * *
Mathin had felt the eyes on them for a good hour by the time he stopped that night. All but unconscious, Andrea lolled in his arms as he dismounted and gently lifted her down. Careful not to jar her, he lay her down on a tarp he'd tossed down on a patch of high ground and covered her with a blanket. "It's going to be all right," he whispered, and kissed her. He stroked her cheek and stood up.
Looking up in the trees, he called out, "All right, come out. Don't you know better than to stalk a Haunt upwind?"
Feminine laughter echoed through the swamps. A line was cast down from the heights and moments later a woman slid down. Hands on hips, the tall blond surveyed him with a crooked grin. "Mathin. Finally found yourself a woman, have you?"
In no mood to jest, Mathin nevertheless found a faint smile on his lips. Leo had visited the Haunt with her brother a couple of years ago, the first--and last--ever diplomatic visit of the Ronin to the Darklands. He did not remember her being so outspoken.
She was armed with a holstered gun, secured by a strap to her thigh. A knife was sheathed at her side and she had a nasty-looking rifle over her shoulder. Still, he didn't hesitate to introduce her to Andrea. "My wife," he answered gravely. "My human wife.
Leo's violet eyes widened. She looked at Andrea in surprise. "Another sylph? From Jasmine's world? How...." She trailed off and frowned, the scarred brown leather of her jacket creaking as she moved closer. "She's sick." She gently pulled away a corner of the woven blanket, looking for wounds.
"She's pregnant." Mathin clenched his teeth. "Our medic says she will lose the baby."
Stricken, Leo looked at him. They might not know each other well, but Mathin could tell she felt sympathy for him. "You brought her to us?"
Almost desperate, now that hope was so close, he nodded. "Your people saved Jasmine." Jasmine had almost died after healing a Haunt. Her symbiont had absorbed too many toxins and hadn't been able to bleed them off except through Jasmine's system. It had taken one of the Ronin's big symbionts to heal her.
Leo blew out a breath and let the blanket fall. "Yeah, but...." She shook her head. "I can try." She sat back on the heels of her laced brown boots and looked around. "My symbiont's off hunting right now, and we're a little far afield. We'll have to wait until it comes back before I can do anything." She squinted at the gray sky. "It will be night soon. We should move to higher ground. Can you bring her?"
"Lead the way."
Leo's idea of higher ground was to lead them to the ruins of an ancient temple. "This is a good place to wait out the storms, if there are any ton
ight." She hacked through the vines covering the lower entrance with her machete "Snake spawned vines! I just cleared these last month. They grow faster than a nest full of rodents."
"Doesn't anyone else come here?" Even in the gloom Mathin could still make out the flat-topped pyramid's vegetation covered outlines.
She shook her head and sheathed her blade. They were under the shadow of a deep impression in the base, almost like an entranceway, except it had no door, only a black block wall where one would be. "No one else likes to come here." Her lip curled. "Especially my brother. He doesn't like to be reminded that our enemy might be anything other than savages."
Mathin made Andrea comfortable on his bedroll. She was barely breathing. To distract himself, he asked, "You don't believe that?"
Her eyes moved to Andrea, watched the way he stroked her cheek. "My people would prefer to believe that you are nothing but monsters, too."
He snorted as he remembered certain things about Leo. One hand dangled over his knee as he sat on the ground. The other played restlessly in Andrea's hair. "Would you mate with a Haunt?" At her expression of horror, he laughed. "Perhaps you aren't as unbiased as you'd like to think?"
Leo rolled her eyes and sat down. "Maybe not, but at least I don't feel like shooting every Haunt I see. Some of you seem decent." She pulled a small lantern out of her pocket and activated it. No bigger than a man's fist, the perforated metal ball nevertheless put out a surprising amount of light.
Expanding on her views, she leaned back on one hand and gestured to the three of them. "Are we not peaceful enough right now? You even love your wife, if I'm not mistaken?"
"I love her."
She nodded. "You see? It can be done." Her eyes shadowed as she stared at the lantern. "War is just a waste of life."
Reluctant to pry, Mathin held his peace. Besides, he agreed with her. Too bad more of their people didn't think the same.
A swishing sound brought him to his feet, his hand on his sword.
"It's all right." Leo stood as well, one hand cautioning him to wait. Out of the trees came a silver hover-bike. Its edges somewhat indistinct, the gleaming silver being slowed as it came abreast of Leo and slowly settled to the ground with something like a soft sigh.
Leo grinned. "Ate well, did you?" She stroked the seat. "Come. I have a sickly friend I'd like you to meet."