Forest Whispers

by Kaitlyn O'Connor

  Unfortunately, she didn’t know him well enough to know whether he was the sort of man who took his vows to heart or not.

  After further consideration, she decided that wasn’t strictly true. She did know him well enough to be fairly certain she hadn’t stepped over the line and into the middle of a domestic war. His position in the royal guard meant that he must be a man of strong loyalties, and, if that was his nature, he would be the same in his personal life.

  Not that it mattered to her, personally. If she was right about Sadin, she might be leaving this very night—certainly within the next couple of days. Within a few months, she probably wouldn’t even remember Corin’s name, much less any of the rest, except, maybe, as a fond memory, but it was a relief to think the possibility was slim that she was going to be leaving one—or two—very unhappy women behind who considered she’d been claim jumping.

  Except for killers, she wasn’t in the habit of trying to put herself in someone else’s shoes, but it seemed to her that Corin was an exceptional man. If he’d been hers, she wouldn’t take it kindly if some other woman tried to snatch some of the action, even if the woman hadn’t had any designs on trying to claim him.

  It was a shame, really, that her time here was so limited. Barbarian or not, he was a damned good lover—which was even more surprising considering the tool he carried around with him. It had been her experience that men with big dicks usually considered that was enough in itself and no finesse on their part was actually necessary.

  As if he could sense her speculative gaze, he turned to look at her. She smiled faintly. “Sorry I was so cranky this morning. Guess that’s why everybody calls me a bitch, huh?”

  Several emotions seemed to flicker through his eyes, one after another. Anger was the last and it settled. “You have had many lovers?”

  Lana looked at him in surprise for a moment before irritation surfaced. “Many, no. More than one, yes,” she responded tartly. “Guess you were a virgin, huh?”

  To her stunned amazement, he flushed darkly—and got angrier. “You do not understand our customs,” he said stiffly.

  “You’re not seri….” Lana broke off at the look he cast her way. “Obviously no better than you understand ours. I guess I should’ve listened to the entire data log instead of skipping around to what I thought was the important stuff … never mind! Sorry I brought it up.”

  They traveled in complete silence for a good while after that. It wasn’t a comfortable, or companionable, silence. Corin wasn’t making any bones about the fact that he was pissed off. Lana was intrigued by the notion that she’d been his first, but she could see it was something he didn’t want to discuss.

  After a while it occurred to her that she’d heard of primitive societies that associated sex with strength, or rather the lack of it, that believed that having sex somehow weakened a man. She supposed it did, at least directly afterward—women too. She didn’t think there was any scientific data to support the theory that the effect was lasting, however.

  Regardless, she could see a certain sense to it if these people believed sex weakened them. Warriors would want to remain at their peak strength.

  But, when he’d told her about the fifen, he’d mentioned ‘if they had no woman’. How would that fit in? Maybe the chastity rule wasn’t that strict? Or maybe it wasn’t a rule at all, but a belief, which some held and others did not? Or maybe it only applied to officers?

  She felt a little guilty now that she considered it from that perspective, wondering if she’d done something as bad, or worse, than tempting Corin to be unfaithful to a wife. What if she’d ruined his career?

  She tried to shake it off. People were responsible for their own actions. Maybe she shared the guilt for tempting him to break his vows, or whatever, but he was a grown man and ultimately responsible for his actions. All he would’ve had to have done was said ‘no’ and she would’ve backed off. For that matter, if he’d seemed hesitant, she would’ve back off.

  He hadn’t been and, moreover, he’d instigated sex the night before. She’d been perfectly willing to leave well enough alone after he’d pointed out that she was totally insensitive to the feelings of others.

  She sighed. It didn’t make her feel any less guilty, particularly when she knew she’d be leaving him to face the music alone … and who knew what the repercussions might be?

  “I did something wrong?”

  The question snatched her out of her abstraction, but she couldn’t make any sense out of it since it seemed to be following her own thoughts. “Wrong how?” she asked doubtfully.

  He flushed again, obviously tempted to let the subject drop—except that it was bothering him. “I did not do it right?”

  Lana stared at him blankly for several moments before it finally dawned on her what he was asking. She bit her lip, trying not to smile. “You didn’t see me complaining, did you?”

  He frowned thoughtfully, but he seemed to relax fractionally. “You did not seem to want to … do it again.”

  “Oh, well that was something else.”

  He fell silent again but not for long. “What?”

  Lana sighed. “Look, I think I really screwed up here. I didn’t mean to, but that doesn’t make it any better, I know. I’m not trying to be mean … just realistic. I’m not going to be here long. I figured, we’re two adults. We could scratch each other’s itch, and no harm done. But then you were pissed off about it, and I realized that you probably weren’t looking at it the same way I was. I thought it would be best just to leave it alone.”

  He studied her for several moments and finally nodded, looking away.

  Lana had a very bad feeling about it, though.

  Hopefully, she was wrong. She was too prone to becoming fond of people. That was not a good thing in her line of work and potentially hazardous, as well. That was the main reason she generally avoided even casual sex. Mostly, when she did indulge her needs, she tried to be sure she’d settled on someone she wasn’t likely to get too attached to, or vice versa.

  She saw now that she’d made a serious error in judgment with Corin. She should’ve been paying more attention—or just kept her distance. Clearly, the people, or at least the warriors, of Ata Prime considered displays of emotion unacceptable, but that didn’t mean they didn’t feel anything.

  Not that she thought there was much chance that she was going to cause Corin any significant wounds when she left, but she was beginning to think she might not come off completely unscathed herself, and she didn’t like to think she might wound him even a little.

  Finally, she dismissed it. There wasn’t much point in dwelling on things you couldn’t do anything about.

  Despite the fact that they only stopped a few times and even then for only a few minutes, the sun had already dipped below the trees by the time they came upon the clearing around Lianal’s cabin. By Lana’s guesstimate, and considering the season, she figured they had two to three hours of light left, but she knew that was probably stretching it. Much of that time, the light would be very limited.

  They saw Lianal going about his evening chores.

  Lana faced a moment of indecision. Either Sadin hadn’t arrived yet, or he’d found a position to wait and watch just as they had.

  Of course, there was also the third possibility that she’d picked the wrong cabin altogether.

  If that was the case, then the only problem was that they’d lost time they couldn’t afford to lose. If either of the first two were a possibility, however, Lianal could be in danger.

  Finally, they decided that Corin would circle back and catch the cart trail to approach Lianal and speak to him. That way they ran the least risk of arousing Sadin’s suspicions, and they would have a chance to discover if Sadin had been seen and to warn Lianal if he hadn’t.

  Lana wasn’t completely happy with the solution, but Sadin knew her. She couldn’t afford to show her face if there was even a remote possibility that Sadin was in the vicinity.

  As Corin
approached Lianal, she surveyed the area as far as she could see in either direction. Seeing no sign of Sadin on the trail, or in the fringes of the forest, she returned her attention to Corin.

  The two men approached each other as if they were well known to one another, possibly even friends, and she wondered if Lianal had been living in the cabin long. She couldn’t see him that well from the distance that separated them, but he looked nearly as old as the man she’d met on the farm a few days earlier—old enough that it seemed more likely that it had been a while since he’d seen service. The homestead, or fifen, also looked well worked and she didn’t think the improvements were anything that might have been done in a very short period of time.

  They talked longer than she’d expected. As tense as she’d been since they had arrived, her nerves tightened even more the longer Lianal and Corin stood in front of the cabin talking. She glanced toward the sun, gauging the time, and then looked along the trail once more.

  She was so focused on what was transpiring in the clearing before her that she didn’t sense the presence behind her until it was far too late.

  Chapter Six

  As well honed as Lana’s instincts were, she realized belatedly that she’d allowed herself to be too distracted by Corin for her reflexes to save her. Even as she leapt to her feet and whirled to face the threat, drawing her weapon in almost the same motion, something slammed into her head so hard blackness erupted around her almost instantaneously. Distantly, she felt a second blow to her gun hand, but she was barely conscious and the sensation of falling only vaguely reached her dulled senses.

  She thought she might have blacked out completely for a handful of seconds. The next thing that she was aware of was an arm wrapped so tightly around her ribs that she could barely drag a breath of air into her lungs. It took a supreme effort to lift her head and focus her eyes and even so her range of vision was so limited as to be almost useless. She caught sight of her pistol, however, as it was brought level with her face.

  “Not a sound,” Sadin growled menacingly, spewing flecks of spittle on her face and a cloud of hot breath as he spoke inches from her face. Bending, he dug his shoulder into her belly and lifted her from the ground. The blood rushed to her head as he stood upright once more, accentuating the dull throbbing in her skull to a painful clamoring. She gasped, trying to drag in enough air to keep from blacking out completely.

  Struggling against the blackness, Lana found her thought processes were so sluggish as to be practically non-existent, but one thought was crystal clear.

  She was going to be Sadin’s next victim if she didn’t gather her wits about her. When she finally managed to lift her head and focus her eyes, she could no longer see the clearing that surrounded Lianal’s cabin. That didn’t mean much. The forest was thick with undergrowth in this area. Sadin would not have had to carry her far for her to lose sight of the cabin.

  He was huffing like he was ready to pass out, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything either. She was dead weight and would’ve been a hell of a load to carry even if she hadn’t been. No doubt a part of his distress could also be attributed to the fear that one or both of the warriors he’d seen might be right behind him.

  The question was, where was he carrying her and how far would he try to carry her before he decided to either throw her down and kill her outright or try to drag her off under her own steam?

  She was no use to him as a bargaining chip, and they both knew it, unfortunately.

  He could’ve simply killed her when he’d sneaked up on her, so he obviously wanted her alive—for now.

  He’d taken her knife and her pistol, which meant she was down to hand-to-hand against a well armed man.

  Would it be better to play possum and wait until he decided to drop her? Or better to try to figure out a maneuver now?

  She did a mental inventory and decided her reflexes were probably as keen as they were going to get any time soon. She didn’t know what he’d hit her with, but she thought the possibility was pretty strong that he’d given her a concussion. The chances seemed pretty much in his favor that she wasn’t going to recover enough before he decided to kill her to be much of a match for him.

  That being the case, she decided she’d just as soon take a quick laser blast than allow him to carry her far enough he could play with her for a few days.

  Gathering herself, she jackknifed upright, catching his head in an arm lock as she threw herself backwards. Her weight and momentum flipped them both over. She landed on her back with Sadin on top of her, but the surprise and the blow loosened his grip on her legs. Bolting upright, she slammed the edge of her hands down on either side of his head against his ears, trying to draw her knees up at the same time. His weight on the lower part of her body prevented the attempt to knee him under the chin, but he howled in pain and rage as her hands made contact with his ears.

  Unfortunately, the blow seemed to enrage him far more than it debilitated him. Heaving upward, he caught her around the throat with both hands. Instead of grabbing for his hands, Lana slammed her palm into his face. That maneuver, too, failed since she couldn’t get the angle just right. Instead of driving the bone and cartilage of his nose into his brain, she merely broke it.

  Before she could make another attempt to break his grip, something slammed into Sadin so hard and so suddenly that she was lifted from the ground as he flew off of her. Gasping for air, massaging her bruised throat, Lana struggled to rise and found she couldn’t. She was dimly aware of a scuffle nearby, then Corin was bending over her, his face taut with rage.

  “Get him,” she gasped hoarsely. “Don’t let him get away.”

  “You’re hurt.”

  “Go, damn it! I’ll be all right.”

  Abruptly, he stood and left her. Gathering herself, Lana finally managed to roll onto her side, but she felt so nauseated when she’d done so that she gave up the effort to rise and rolled onto her back again. Minutes passed while she drifted in and out of awareness. She wasn’t certain of how long, but abruptly Corin was back. Kneeling, he scooped her into his arms and lifted her from the ground. “Catch him?” she asked hoarsely.

  “He vanished.”

  Lana sighed. “Shit!” she muttered, but she was too ill to feel a great deal more than the pain and nausea. “Need my pack.”

  She wasn’t certain if he heard her. She managed to loop her arms around his neck, but then blackness claimed her. The next thing she was aware of was being settled against something soft. She opened her eyes with an effort and saw that she was in a room. Corin was staring down at her, his expression a mixture of anger and concern. “My pack,” she said hoarsely, wincing at the pain of trying to talk through her abused throat.

  “I’ll get it later.”

  “Need it now.”

  “Rest. I’ll get it.”

  “Die if you don’t,” Lana muttered, wondering dimly if she would. She couldn’t gather enough energy to be unduly concerned about it, but she felt that she might be in serious trouble if she didn’t have the pack.

  To her relief, he returned with the pack several minutes later. She reached for it. “The map I showed you.”

  Frowning, he dug it out and handed it to her. Lana searched the surface blindly until she found the button she was looking for. She pressed it. “Medical emergency these coordinates,” she whispered hoarsely.

  “Identify.”

  “Ranger Lana Eloy, number ER9652007830.”

  “ETA five minutes, Ranger Eloy. Standby.”

  She dropped the map.

  Corin pulled it from her lax grip and she turned her head to look at him. “Ship’s coming. Will you take me to it when it gets here? Louise will know what to do.”

  She never knew whether he answered or not. Days passed before she was conscious enough to know where she was again.

  She had difficulty adjusting her sight when she opened her eyes. She blinked several times, trying to bring the world into focus. It didn’t help much. Everything
was still blurry, her mind was fuzzy and she couldn’t figure out where she was for several moments.

  “How do you feel, Ranger Eloy?”

  “Like hell, Louise. What am I doing here?”

  “You were injured in the line of duty, Ranger Eloy.”

  Lana frowned, trying to jog her mind. When memory flooded back, she made an aborted attempt to sit up, discovering she was in the ‘tube’. “Damn it! How long have I been out of it?”

  “Three days. You suffered a concussion and a bruised larynx.”

  Lana lifted a hand to her head. “I don’t remember getting here.”

  “You were brought by the barbarian male.”

  Lana frowned. “I suppose by that you mean Captain Corin Thantos, of the royal guard? I didn’t realize you were a bigot, Louise.”

  “I am a computer. It is impossible for me to be a bigot. I merely identified the male who brought you.”

  “Right. And you don’t feel the least bit superior because you’re the only computer on Ata Prime?”

  “It is a primitive world. I have never fully understood the human tendency to arbitrarily decide that certain words are insulting when they are used properly and in the context that they were intended.”

  “Never mind. I want to get up.”

  “You are not sufficiently recovered to return to duty, Ranger Eloy.”

  “I didn’t say I was returning to duty. I only said I wanted to get up.”

  “But that is what you intend to do, is it not?”

  “Don’t start, Louise! Sadin’s got a three day lead on me now.”

  “That is what I thought.”

  Lana felt the sedative the moment Louise pumped it into her blood stream. “Damn it, Louise. I’m going to pull your plug one of these days,” she muttered.

  “That’s a completely illogical response, Ranger Eloy. If you did that, I would not be able to attend your medical needs.”

  As Lana felt herself drifting away, a sudden thought leapt into her mind. “Where’s Corin?”