“You can’t go with them,” Faruk thundered. “It isn’t safe. For all you know, they could take you behind the next hill and cut your throat.”
“They won’t do that,” Emily replied. “Chris is really nice. She’s on her way back to the village anyway, and she was on the same ship with me when we crashed. We might as well be sisters.”
Faruk frowned. “You can’t do this.”
“This is the reason I came out here,” Emily told him. “This is the best thing that could have happened.”
Faruk threw up his hands and turned away. He snorted, but he didn’t say anything.
“I thought you’d be glad about this,” Emily went on. “I thought you would be relieved to get me off your hands. You didn’t want me to come along, and now I’m leaving with someone else. You can go back to patrolling the border with your hardened warriors.”
He spun around and glared at her. “Is that what you thought?”
“Why wouldn’t I think it?” she asked. “That’s what you said.”
She barely heard him. “That was before.”
She stared at the back of his head, but before she could say anything, he walked away, back to camp. She glanced back toward the stream. Chris and Turk were waiting there for her. She ought to walk away and join them now, but she couldn’t. She had to square things with Faruk first. She owed him that much.
She hiked back to camp, but he wasn’t there. She found Marlo, the man who waited for her on the trip. “Where’s Faruk?”
He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “He went up the ravine.”
“What’s he doing?” Emily asked.
“I think he went hunting,” Marlo replied. “He took his reciprocator with him.”
Emily hesitated. She ought to leave him alone, but something pushed her forward. She followed the Marlo’s directions and headed up the draw. She found Faruk peeling the bark off a stick with his blade. “Did I say something to offend you?”
“Not at all,” he replied. “I just wasn’t expecting you to leave so soon. I thought you would stay here for a while.”
“I wasn’t expecting to leave so soon, either,” she replied. “If we hadn’t met those people, I would have been here for months, waiting for someone to show up who could relay our message to the Lycaon. Now they’re offering to take me to the village where my sisters are staying. It seems like a dream come true.”
He snorted. “A dream come true. Yeah.”
She stared at him. “I don’t understand you at all. I was as relieved by this for your sake as for myself. I never wanted to impose on you.”
He shot her a hard look, but as fast, he turned away and went back to whittling. “You never imposed on me.”
“I really appreciate you bringing me out here,” she told him. “I never would have met up with these people if you hadn’t.”
He didn’t look up. “I hope you find what you’re looking for.”
“Is there any way I can thank you?” she asked. “First you saved my life, and now I owe you another debt. If I can do anything to repay it, just say so.”
“You don’t owe me anything,” he replied. “I don’t want your gratitude.”
“What do you want, then?” she asked. “I don’t understand you at all. I don’t understand what I did to make you mad.”
“I’m not mad,” he replied.
“Then why don’t you look at me?” she asked. “You haven’t said a civil word to me since I came back from the river.”
He flung the stick away and rounded on her with his teeth bared. “Isn’t it obvious? I don’t want you to leave.”
Her jaw dropped. “But I thought you did. You said you didn’t want the responsibility of bringing an untrained person to the border where I might be a danger to myself or one of your team.”
“I told you, that was then,” he replied. “I.....I changed my mind.”
She stared at him with her mouth open. “Are you saying.....are you saying you actually want me to stay?”
“Isn’t that what I just said?” he asked.
Emily swallowed hard. “You don’t want me to leave.”
Faruk threw up both hands and whirled away. “Oh, for pity’s sake! Can you stop repeating that over and over again? I didn’t want to bring you because I didn’t think you would be able to handle yourself out here. I thought you would lag behind, and weep and moan about the track being too rough, and the team moving too fast, and have to stop for rests all the time. I thought you would make a fuss about our camp and staying so far away from the city. I thought you would break down and run back home the first chance you got.”
“But I didn’t do any of that,” she replied.
He nodded. “I was surprised....and impressed. I....I guess I was looking forward to spending some time with you out here....with no one else around, without Aria holding your hand all the time.”
Emily blinked. “Oh.”
He pursed his lips. “So that’s it. Now you’re leaving, so forget all about it. Go ahead and go, and forget I exist.” He took a few strides away.
Emily scrutinized his back. Of all the possible outcomes she expected, this was the last. Now what was she going to do? She walked up behind him and placed her hand on his shoulder. “I won’t leave.”
“You should,” he replied. “You should go find your sisters.”
“I won’t leave, now that I know you feel that way,” she replied. “I didn’t know before, but now that I know, I won’t leave.”
He shook her hand off. “Don’t stay out of pity for me. I couldn’t stand that.”
Emily smacked her lips. This time, she put both hands on his shoulders and turned him around to face her. “I won’t leave, Faruk, and I won’t stay out of pity. My sisters aren’t going anywhere. Wherever they are, if they’re alive or dead, I can find them later. This is more important.”
He frowned, but didn’t answer.
“I felt the same way about you,” she told him. “I was looking forward to spending the next couple of months here and getting to know you. If I leave, I’ll probably never see you again.”
“Maybe it’s for the best,” he remarked.
Emily shook her head. “No, I’ll stay. I don’t know when I’ll get another opportunity to cross into Lycaon territory to find them, but something will come up.”
He studied her. “Are you sure about this?”
She nodded, and she couldn’t stop a grin from spreading across her face. “I’m sure. I’ll just go tell Chris I’m not coming. They want to get started toward their village. They won’t want to wait around.”
She started to walk away, but he caught her by the hand and held her back. “Wait.”
Her eyes widened. “What?”
All of a sudden, they both became aware of their hands joined in a bond. Faruk glanced down at her hand in his. Emily shifted from one foot to the other, but neither broke that bond. They would never let go of each other again.
He didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to. He fell in at her side and they strolled down the draw toward the Ursidrean camp. They walked right through it and kept on walking. Only Marlo saw them, and he smiled when they passed.
Faruk sat down on a fallen log overlooking the stream, and Emily sat next to him still holding his hand. They sat in silence and listened to the water running over the stones. The sun played on the turbulent current.
Emily broke the silence. “They’re out there somewhere.”
“You’ll find them, sooner or later,” he replied. “You’re determined to find them, and you will.”
“I don’t mean them,” Emily replied. “I meant Chris and Turk. They’re on the other side of the border somewhere, waiting for me.”
“Go find them and tell them you aren’t coming,” he told her.
Emily shook her head. “Not yet.”
At the same moment, they turned to face each other, and an eternity of meaning passed between them
in one glance.
“Is this why you stay away from the city so much?” she asked
“I always told myself I wanted a woman from the border patrol,” he replied. “I always thought, if a woman couldn’t do this work, I didn’t want her.”
“Do women work on the border patrol?” she asked. “I thought the teams were all men.”
“Most teams have at least one or two women,” he replied. “Some of them even have women commanders. We’re the exception. We lost the women we had in that battle with the Lycaon.”
“That must have been hard,” she remarked. “Did you have any relationships with those women?”
“Relationships?” he repeated. “What do you mean?”
“Did you have any special connection with the women who died?” she asked.
“I had special connections with all of them,” he replied. “They were my comrades on the border for years.”
Emily blushed. “I mean was any one of them your special companion—I mean, an intimate companion?”
“Do you mean like a mate?” he asked.
“Yes. That’s what I mean,” she replied.
“No, I never had a mate,” he murmured.
“Never?” she asked. “How is that possible?”
He paused until she though he wouldn’t answer. “I never had a mate. I knew a few women back in the city, but I never stayed long enough to develop any long-term connection with them. And once you’ve been comrades with someone on the border patrol, you start to think of them as family, like your brothers and sisters. You would never mate with anybody like that.”
“Then you would never find a woman on the border patrol to be your mate,” she pointed out. “You’d be in a double bind.”
He chuckled. “That is true.”
“It’s getting late,” she murmured. “We should get back to camp. The sun will be down soon.”
“Are you hungry?” he asked. “Marlo will be cooking the evening meal now.”
“I’m not hungry,” she replied. “But you don’t really want to spend the night out here, do you?”
“I wouldn’t mind,” he replied. “I don’t want to let you go yet.”
Chapter 6
Emily sat up. The first cold streaks of dawn lighted the hut. Mist shrouded the camp, and only one other man was awake. She carried a basin to the stream and came back with it full of water. Faruk stood in the doorway of his own hut.
“I didn’t expect you to be up so early,” she remarked.
Faruk surveyed the camp. “I’m coming with you.”
Emily froze. “Coming where?”
“To the Lycaon village,” he replied. “I’ve been thinking it over. You shouldn’t squander this chance to find your sisters. That would be foolish. Neither of us wants to separate, so we’ll go together.”
She started to protest, but stopped. This was the perfect solution to her problem. “What about Turk? He wasn’t happy about you crossing the border.”
“It’s all right,” he replied. “One Ursidrean does not an invasion make. He’ll understand that, and if he doesn’t his mate will help him understand it.”
Emily grinned. “It seems like the women call the shots on Angondra.”
Faruk sighed. “It’s always been like that. I’m sure the other factions are the same as the Ursidreans. We have Alpha males, but it’s the females who make the decisions and guide the people.”
Emily glanced toward the stream. “I wonder if they’re still here.”
“They’re here,” he told her.
“How can you be certain?” she asked.
“I can hear them.” He pointed toward the gravel bed where Chris and Emily met. “They’re down there, getting water for their morning meal.”
“How can you hear that?” Emily asked.
Faruk shrugged. “I can hear it.”
Emily headed down the hill. “I better go tell them you plan to come with me.”
He laid a hand on her arm. “I’m coming with you. From now on, anywhere you go, I go.”
Her eyes widened, but she didn’t argue. They strode down the hill together. Emily cast a glance back at the camp. “You better tell somebody you’re leaving. Somebody will have to take over.”
“Marlo already knows,” he replied.
“When did you talk to Marlo?” she asked.
“I didn’t have to talk to him,” Faruk replied. “He saw us together yesterday. He’ll understand we left together.”
“Are you sure?” Emily asked. “Don’t you want to explain it to him?”
“No,” he replied.
They found Turk and Chris standing across the stream where Faruk said they would be. Turk bristled when he spotted Faruk, but Chris smiled at Emily. “I was wondering where you got to. Are you ready to go?”
Emily waved her hand. “Faruk is coming with us. I hope you don’t mind.”
“An Ursidrean can’t cross the border,” Turk growled.
“One Ursidrean does not an invasion make,” Emily told him. “Besides, you two might cut my throat as soon as we get around the next hill. He has to come with me to make sure nothing happens to me.”
Turk glared at her. “We wouldn’t waste our time cutting your throat behind the hill. If we didn’t want you entering our territory, we wouldn’t take you.”
Chris touched his arm. “If he wants to come, let him come.”
“The warriors won’t like it,” he told her.
“You can explain it to them.” Chris wiped her hands on a cloth. “If you’re ready to go, we can go now.”
“We’re ready.” With one step, Emily crossed the border into Lycaon territory. A shiver ran up her legs, but her feet stood on the same solid ground as in Ursidrean territory.
Faruk hesitated to cross. Chris murmured under her breath. “Maybe this isn’t such a good idea. We don’t want to create an incident.”
Emily stepped forward. “It’s all right. He’s been guarding the border for years, and now he has to cross it.” She held out her hand to Faruk.
He fixed his eyes on her face and took her hand. In an instant, the unbreakable bond holding them together forged a link across the stream, and he stepped across the gap. His foot anchored on solid ground, and the party moved up the hill.
At the top, Emily looked back. Ursidrean territory stretched out of sight to the mountains beyond. Marlo stood on the hilltop across the stream. He raised his hand, and Emily waved back. Then the trees swallowed her up.
Emily settled in for another long day of hiking through the thick forest, and they didn’t stop until sundown. Chris and Turk made camp on a ridge overlooking a river valley running down to wide open plains. “That’s it.”
Emily looked around. “What is?”
Chris pointed to a mist hanging over the forest canopy. “That’s the village.”
Emily frowned. “It’s a cloud.”
Chris laughed at her. “It’s smoke, silly. It’s the smoke from their fires. When there’s no wind, it collects between these ridges and doesn’t blow away so it looks like mist.”
Faruk came to her side. “It’s still a long way down. We won’t get there until late tomorrow.”
“It seems so close,” Emily remarked. “You could put out your hand and touch it.”
“I should warn you,” he told her. “The Lycaon live pretty rough. They don’t have power, and they heat all their water for washing and cooking on open fires.”
Emily gazed down at the mist. “I guessed that from the smoke.”
“They don’t have the comforts you’re used to in Harbeiz,” he told her.
“I’ve spent time in the mountains before,” she told him. “Besides, from what you say, it doesn’t sound much different from your camp on the border.”
He shrugged. “I guess not.”
“Have you seen the Lycaon village before?” she asked.
“No, I’ve never seen it,” he replied.
He shifted from one foot to the other. “I guess I don’t, really. I only know what I’ve heard.”
“Who have you heard from?” she asked. “Have other Ursidreans visited Lycaon territory?”
“Not that I know of. We only heard things.....” He trailed off.
“It sounds like a typical case of prejudice,” she told him. “You don’t really know anything about them, so you make up stories about how they live rough, without power, and cook on open fires when you do the same thing. That’s how wars get started.”
He changed the subject. “How did you wind up spending so much time in the mountains? How did you come to work on the mountain search and rescue?”
“I took a first aid course in high school,” she replied. “That led to a more advanced first responder course. At the end of the course, the instructor told me I should go out for search and rescue, so I did.”
“You must have been good, to stay with it as long as you did,” he remarked.
“I suppose I was good,” she replied. “I loved it, and I went to all the trainings. I never got tired of learning new things and challenging myself.”
“Was the rest of your family involved?” he asked.
She made a face. “No, none of them was ever interested in that sort of thing. My family was always very sedentary. They never did anything physical, and they never understood why I loved search and rescue so much. They used to make nasty jokes about it.” She turned away.
Faruk followed her gaze down the hill. “I’m sorry to bring it up.”
“Don’t be,” she replied. “I’m glad to put that part of my life behind me.”
“You can spend all the time you want in the mountains here,” he told her. “The Ursidreans belong to the mountains. That’s what makes us different from the other factions.”
Emily cocked her head. “Do you want to know something interesting? My dad used to say the same sort of things about search and rescue that you just said about the Lycaon. He couldn’t understand why anybody would want to sweat and puff to hike all the way up some mountain, just so they could camp in a flimsy tent with no power and no hot water and no cable TV. He thought anybody who did that must have some kind of mental disease.”
Optorio Civil War Complete Series Box Set (Books 1 - 6): A Sci-fi Alien Warrior Invasion Abduction Romance (Optorio Chronicles Book 2) Page 46