Mustering her dignity, Nimri straightened and smiled at Larwin. “You’re back.”
Jaws clamped so tight that a muscle jumped in his cheek, Larwin gave a curt nod. She looked him over. He’d picked up the Staff of Protection and held it as if he never intended to let go. Anyone willing and able to hold the staff claimed its power and became the Keeper of the Peace. Despite the personal rejection in his gaze, her heart leaped with happiness for her Tribe and Larwin’s obvious willingness to fight for them.
She should never have doubted his ability. Doubted him.
“You must be GEA-4,” Thunder said from behind her, “and Larwin.” He thrust out his arm.
Larwin grasped Thunder’s forearm in the proper greeting and nodded, but seemed more like he was testing Thunder’s strength than giving him a polite greeting. Nimri moved to the side, so she could study Larwin’s face. Even now, his mouth was flat with anger. Her only solace was that he was glaring at Thunder, not her.
“I’m afraid you have me at a disadvantage.” Larwin’s voice was deadly calm. “My guide never mentioned your name.”
“Thunder Cartwright.” Thunder paused for a moment and glanced at her. “Friends, like Nimri, call me Thunder.” Thunder smiled at her, then looked back at Larwin. His demeanor was as welcoming as Larwin’s was hostile. “She spoke of you.”
Larwin shrugged, as if to say that Thunder was so insignificant that she hadn’t mentioned him.
Nimri laid her hand on Larwin’s arm. “I thought the dragon had killed you.”
He jerked and stared at her. “You know about the madrox?” Larwin demanded in surprise. “How?”
Nimri paused. Madrox must be his word for dragon. Would she ever understand him completely? And why was he still testing her when their world was in such peril? Did the answer have something to do with the cause of his anger?
She shrugged. Larwin was here. He was powerful enough to carry the staff all this distance without collapsing from exhaustion. Everything would be fine.
Larwin’s hand closed over hers. Despite the aloofness of his look and touch, a tingle went from her fingertips to her toes before he brushed her hand aside.
“I’ve never seen one behave the way this one does,” Larwin said.
“Dragons are familiar to you?” Thunder gestured for them to sit on the seating rocks. “They were a problem on the first world, but most of the information has been lost over the years.” He gave Larwin several sections of fruit, but seemed to know intuitively that GEA-4 existed on the sun’s magic.
Larwin plunked down on the stone bench. “There are no madrox near Guerreterre, which is located in Alif Sector. Madrox are mainly sighted in the Guy-N Sector.” Larwin popped a wedge into his mouth. “The planetoid I crashed on is on the outskirts of Guy-N.” A buddleia branch caressed his shoulder.
Nimri sat down on the far end of the bench and let Larwin’s gibberish wash over her. Thunder sat on the stone he’d occupied when she first came into the strange garden, but instead of facing the table, he twisted to face them. If she had to choose between the two men, she’d put aside her feelings and chose the one she’d given her word to; just as she’d scaled the face of Sacred Mountain, to keep her word to another man she’d given a vow to. She stifled a sigh and promised herself that if she survived this, she’d never make another vow as long as she lived.
“But you know how to deal with them,” Thunder said.
“They’re rare.” Larwin focused on Thunder, who was acting the perfect host, and appeared relaxed. “I’ve seen two others, but they were harmless.” Larwin unconsciously took her hand and caressed her fingers. “Most of what I know, I overheard from captains of Kalamar’s eepyllihg tankers.” He gave a slight shrug. “They tend to take the attitude that the Dragons are a nuisance.” Larwin frowned. “The one in the wormhole seems to be a destructive loner.”
Nimri’s gaze darted to GEA-4, but she watched the insects feed, as if nothing else mattered.
Kazza rubbed against Thunder’s thigh. He tickled him behind the ears, with a familiarity that suggested he’d done it countless times before. Nimri looked away rather than allow Thunder to read her confusion. Why did her enemy seem so familiar and act like such an important part of her past? Did Kazza actually know him, or was the apparent closeness simply part of Thunder’s reputed bond with animals?
Larwin turned toward her, then stiffened and dropped her hand. He looked past her. His pupils dilated. Nimri peeked over her shoulder. A Yeti blinked at her from behind the buddleia bush. Kazza made a guttural sound, then he bounded toward the Yeti. The Yeti hurdled the bush. Nimri leaped out of the way in one direction, Larwin went the other.
Kazza and the Yeti collided in a vigorous crush, which toppled them to the sandstone paving in a heaving, whining fray. They rolled over and over making a horrendous uproar. Larwin pointed at them, with a small gray thing in his hand. He looked ridiculous as his arm moved with every movement the animals made.
Thunder ate a section of fruit and acted like the interchange between a cat and a Yeti was a normal event instead of a life and death struggle. Nimri bit her nails and wondered what to do. Then, the Yeti bit Kazza’s neck. He yowled.
Thunder laughed. “Cut it out, guys.”
The wrestling match stopped. Kazza rolled over and winked at Thunder before he got up. The hairy beast cooed like a dove.
Nimri became even more confused.
Thunder focused on Larwin, who was slipping the gray thing under his tunic. “Have you ever known of anyone killing a dragon?”
Larwin imitated Thunder’s attitude of ignoring the Yeti. “Conventional weapons don’t work against them—instead of harming the beasts, proton blasts invigorate them.”
Nimri sprinted to Kazza. Keeping a wary eye on the hovering Yeti, she ran her fingertips over his neck, searching for the injury. Kazza purred and appeared to wink at the beast. There didn’t seem to be any wound. Nimri hid her confusion and resumed her seat near Larwin. “Do you think Pearl might be right about water killing them?” she asked.
Larwin shrugged. “I would have flooded the tunnel if any was available.”
“It’s our best bet, but we can’t afford to ignore any possibilities,” Thunder said. “What about using alkali against it?”
“Hypothetically, that is a possibility,” GEA-4 said.
Thunder clapped GEA-4 on the back. “We need to pool our knowledge. Surely, we can come up with a solution.”
If they didn’t, it wouldn’t matter if she didn’t want to choose between the two men, she would be dead.
“I think we should look for a way to block the Star Bridge, as Larwin wanted, instead of wait for it to break through,” Nimri said. Through her unshed tears, Thunder and Larwin both looked determined as they looked toward the barely discernible peak. GEA-4 leaned closer to a buddleia bloom, as if it held the answer to fighting dragons.
“Impossible,” Larwin said.
Yes, it certainly was.
“So, we must begin immediately.” Thunder stood up. He looked at Larwin. “Do you know how to make a throwing machine?”
Chapter Seventeen
Larwin followed Nimri’s handsome friend through a cleft between two massive stones that formed the entrance to a large hollow chamber. The space reminded him of the huge underground amphitheater-like space at the end of the long debris-filled tunnel. But while the tunnel had been filled with soot-covered piles of debris; this room held sturdy stone tables. Some were empty, but most held strange metal, stone and wood things, grouped by basic shape and assembled in military precision. Primitive, but tidy. More oddities hung from pegs on the walls. Larwin shrugged the strap for his haversack off his shoulder and left it next to the doorway. Thunder handed him a long, thin, jagged piece of metal, which had sturdy pieces of branch lashed to each end. Like the other bits and pieces in the chamber, it was barely discernible as a tool.
Thunder made a sweeping gesture with his arm. “My shop.” His tone held pride. “We need to s
tart on the catapult.” Thunder went to a relatively uncluttered table, where he grabbed a chunk of bark-like stuff, then proceeded to draw on it with the tip of a blackened stick. Larwin watched over his shoulder. “There was picture of one in my mother’s favorite book. I think it was something like this.” With an economy of movement, Thunder completed the crude sketch.
“Do you have the book?”
“It was lost in the river.” A look of anger darted over Thunder’s expression. Just as quickly, he rose and moved toward a pile of squared wood. “Can you grab that end?” Thunder picked up one end of a long, straight piece of waist-thick wood. Larwin lifted the other end and stifled a groan. Either he had the heavy side, or Nimri’s friend was stronger than he’d suspected. “I need it there, on the sawhorses.” With a tilt of his head, Thunder indicated that they needed to lay the log on top of two matching triangular hunks of wood, which bore close resemblance to massive, elongated wedges.
It landed with a solid thud.
Feathers in his hair fluttered from a tiny whoosh of wind. Thunder didn’t appear to notice how heavy the piece was or that the odd adornments gave him an effeminate look. Much to Larwin’s disgust, they were the only sissy things about the man.
“The sawhorses are wide enough that we could each work on a limb.” Thunder gave Larwin a speculative look, as if baiting him to say that he didn’t want to hoist a second piece.
Instead, Larwin grabbed another end. Once the pieces lay side by side on the sawhorses, Thunder carefully measured the length with a slender vine and marked the bark, so that both pieces were marked the same length.
“Can you use a saw?”
Larwin shrugged. In another silent challenge, Thunder plucked the long jagged metal strip from the pegs. Carefully, he moved to the opposite side of the logs and passed one of the branch-handles to Larwin. “Since we’re in a hurry, we can save time if we cut these with one movement.”
Larwin gripped his handle the way Thunder did and tried to match the man movement for movement. Pointy end down, they moved it back and forth across the two beams.
Slowly, a thin trench began to form beneath the metal points and brown crumbles collected under each log. This ridiculous contest to see which man was better was going to take forever.
Something thumped the wall. Larwin jerked and looked to see what caused the sound. Sharp points bit into his tunic and thigh, instead of wood. The small rent in the fabric was bigger than the dent in the thick log. With a curse, Larwin hefted the device and studied its jagged teeth. “This will take forever.”
“Not forever, but maybe longer than we have.” Thunder rubbed his temple. “You didn’t have to do this; I can get a carpenter.”
Right, like he would step aside and let lover-boy get all the credit if the weapon succeeded. Nimri already looked at the man as if she couldn’t stop thinking about him. Of course, he’d known that the moment he’d seen the two of them seated on the stone bench and staring at each other as if nothing else in the world existed. Larwin’s teeth clenched. Kues, but the longhaired, feather-wearing freak was fast when it came to seduction. But then, judging by their level of intimacy, their relationship might not be new. Perhaps it was simply something she never bothered to tell him about.
Larwin flexed the saw blade. It emitted a high, whining warble. Thunder looked at him, as if he was demented.
Larwin slammed down the tool. With a barely audible sigh, Thunder chose a one-handled saw from the wall. Larwin held up his hand. “I’ll cut them. You go find some other aspect of the project to work on.”
He stomped to his haversack and dug into it. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Thunder shake his head as he went across the workshop and hoisted a smaller block onto the stone table. So, he thinks he’s won, does he? Larwin opened his haversack. Pretty boy could do things his primitive way, but as he’d pointed out, this was a matter of life and death; not who was the better guy for Nimri.
There was another loud thump. “Gunda come,” Thunder said.
Larwin applied a quick antiseptic spray to his thigh, then he reached under his tunic and removed his laser-cutter from the pant’s pouch. As the hairy ape-like creature ambled into the chamber, Larwin adjusted the setting to plastoid, aimed at the wood across the room and fired. Thin red light zipped through the wood. With a flick of his wrist, the ends of both logs thudded to the floor.
The creature squealed. Thunder’s mouth dropped open.
For the first time since he’d seen Nimri affectionately touching the handsome stranger, Larwin felt superior to him. Trying to appear casual, he turned to his rival. “My way is quicker than yours.”
Blood had spurted over Thunder’s bare chest. A knife-like tool lay where he had dropped it. As if his injury didn’t matter, Thunder applied pressure to his wounded wrist. He didn’t take his attention off of Larwin’s palm-sized las-cutter while he walked to the severed beams. Thunder knelt reverently and ran a finger along the two-inch deep gouge in the workshop’s stone wall. The thin, bloody trail simultaneously pleased and repelled Larwin.
“Such power,” Thunder said.
“Yeah. Too bad its energy only nourishes madrox.” He looked pointedly at the wrist Thunder had injured. If the guy died, it would be him and Nimri against the madrox. Larwin glanced at the doorway. “GEA-4 is a decent field medic and I’ve got a fully stocked med-kit.”
Thunder waved his hand dismissively. Larwin squinted at the bloodstained skin, but couldn’t see a wound. It must have been his other hand. But that one wasn’t spurting, either. Nimri’s arm had healed miraculously, too. Larwin turned his attention to the channel in the rock and tried not to show his confusion. “Sorry about your wall. I thought wood’s density would be similar to plastoid.”
Larwin frowned. Wood and yellowish rock were obviously very deficient products. Larwin lowered the laser-cutter’s setting. He leveled up the other ends of the two logs, and trimmed them. Then, Thunder helped him roll one beam off and heft another onto the thick wedges. Thunder’s expression was thoughtful as he watched Larwin calculate his next cut.
“When we merged our auras, I discovered that Nimri’s anxiety over your safety helped her overcome some of Rolf’s mind blocks.”
Though Thunder’s tone was conversational, terms like aura and Rolf confused Larwin. Not that he’d let Thunder know that. He didn’t need an interpreter to understand the concept of a man and woman merging, though. Thunder didn’t need to remind him how intimate the two of them were. Larwin’s jaw still ached from holding back a curse, when he’d seen the woman he wanted above all others hanging onto Thunder’s hand, as if letting go meant death.
Larwin clamped his lips together and vowed not to get baited into a fight over Nimri. At least not until after their alliance had defeated the dragon and then a med-tech verified that she was safe to touch. After that, she’d be worth fighting for. Right now, it was a fight for his life and future.
Thunder absentmindedly stroked his injured hand.
“GEA-4 could stitch your wound for you.” Thunder grinned and shook his head. Fine, let the man suffer. Perhaps his smile covered anticipation of how Nimri would fuss over him. Bitterness curled through Larwin’s stomach. He turned back to the beam. “Do you believe this catapult will work?”
“If we believe it will, then it will be so.” Thunder patted the wood with the same hand he’d touched the wall with, but it didn’t leave a bloody mark.
Larwin blinked. Radzuk, but their body chemistry was different. No wonder Nimri burned him. It would be great to have a body that could go from pulsing blood to completely healed within ten minutes.
Of course, half the joy of having their alien DNA would be the ability to touch the woman he loved instead of being forced to watch her smile at another man. Not that they flaunted their relationship, but anyone with eyes could tell there was a deep bond between them.
Acid indigestion gnawed his insides. Larwin gritted his teeth and picked up his laser-cutter.
Thunder s
hrugged. “If belief fails and the alkali doesn’t slow or distract the beast or I am unable to control the weather-” He stopped in mid-sentence and frowned. “Why do you avoid speaking of Nimri?”
“This is your world.” Larwin knew his voice sounded strained. “You two obviously have something going. I’m not a threat to that. I’m in this because I don’t want this planet’s resources ruined.” Larwin turned his back to Thunder. At least for now. He sliced the beam.
Eventually, when he didn’t turn back, Thunder returned to his workbench and proceeded to manufacture the delicate components. As the day passed, the pile of rough wood took on the shape of an archaic catapult.
Outside, there was another thump. This time, Larwin investigated. A large pile of dusty white cloth bags had materialized. Larwin looked around the area and saw one of Thunder’s hairy beasts shambling down the path he’d followed Kazza up; its dark shaggy fur was dusted with white.
Hunkering down, he touched the bag’s powdery coating, then sniffed his finger. Sweet. Lime.
The arsenal that Nimri and the creatures were building was as pitiful as the plan.
Still, as long as Nimri insisted on combating the beast, instead of seeking the safety of the mist, Larwin knew he’d fight by her side. The idea of choosing to go into battle and picking his strategy was a novel concept; almost as insane as risking his life for a woman he couldn’t touch.
How many of Guerreterre’s battles were as senseless as fighting for love? Larwin sat back on his heels. He studied the sun-baked rocks, then looked up at the impossibly blue sky. How many battles would he have participated in if he’d had a choice?
All of them. At first, he would have been afraid that if he didn’t fight, he’d be viewed as a coward. Later, it had become a way of life and a matter of pride over being in the best fighting unit. At least when he’d fought for Guerreterre, the odds had been in his favor.
Star Bridge (Chaterre Trilogy Book 1) Page 26