"Then let her come in and don't give her anything to use against you."
She nodded. It was the only smart move. What could Janese do to her here, in her own office, surrounded by Rovers? She sat down at her desk and signaled for Piper to let her visitor in.
"Thank you, sergeant," Rhianni said as the door opened. She tossed a map to Petroc as Janese entered the office. "Memorize this. I expect you to get me around Core." She nearly choked when Petroc snapped off a military-precise salute. "I don't suppose you ate before you came in?"
"No ma'am, captain." He made his voice gravelly.
"Go get something for both of us and identify yourself to everyone you meet as my new bodyguard. The more people who hear about it here, the less trouble we'll have with resisters." She returned his salute and watched him go to the open door.
"Resisters?" Janese moved her considerable bulk to the chair facing the desk. "Trouble already?"
Petroc froze with his hand on the door control. He stared at Janese and his eyes flashed blue. Rhianni shivered and hid the motion by straightening out her tunic. She forced herself to smile and turn back to Janese. The door hissed shut.
What is it?
I don't know, but every hair on my body stood on end when she walked past me. Anni, be careful. She may have Janese's face, her body... A sense of queasiness passed from Petroc to her.
"Some idiots are all for military rule," Rhianni said, "but only if I do it their way. They're no trouble as long as everything is done by the manual."
Her thoughts skidded to a stop as she really looked at Janese. She fought to keep a neutral mask in place.
Janese was still hugely pregnant. Rhianni's trained medic's eye had judged her childhood friend close to giving birth the first time she saw her. That was two months ago.
Incongruous images slid together into a hazy, whole picture in her mind. Every high-ranking woman she had met in Core was either grossly fat, like her grandmother, or pregnant, like Janese. What were the odds of that happening on a colony as stunted as Mallachrom? What detail was she missing? Why had Petroc phrased his words that way, saying she had Janese's face and body--what didn't he say, or couldn't he put into words?
Rhianni needed more practice to carry on two conversations at a time. Brainstorming with Petroc would have to wait until they were alone together. She was grateful she had commandeered a private residence in Core instead of settling into the Enforcer barracks. Her grandmother had insisted Rhianni needed privacy. That could have been to set her up for ambush, but she didn't care. She would have privacy with Petroc tonight. They would need it.
"What can I do for you, Janese?" She forced her body to relax in her chair, when instinct screamed to run as far from her former friend as possible.
"Oh, what I want isn't important. Blame my condition, if I say I wish every Taken could be shipped off to another planet." Janese offered a tinkling laugh.
She had never laughed like that when they were children. Rhianni remembered Janese complaining that she sounded like a braying donkey when she laughed.
It's like someone took her out of her body and put someone else inside.
You think it's possible? Petroc answered. She had a momentary vision of him walking through the access tunnel underground to the mess hall.
Start asking lots of questions, Roc. I think I made one huge mistake, dismissing Janese as unimportant. Have Burkan check his records for birth rates, and see how many of these pregnant women in Core really are pregnant, and who their doctors are.
"Sorry. I don't have that kind of authority," Rhianni said, offering up a rueful smile. "I know how you feel. I'd like to flame the entire planet where my father died on duty, but I can't. Is there something I can do for you?"
"Not really. Not yet, anyway. I'm playing personal courier, to make sure nothing goes astray. Here's the latest batch of requested information from the Council." She put a sealed packet on the edge of Rhianni's desk. "I totally admire your restraint. If I were you, and I had the power you do, I'd have started executing everybody who insulted me in the last ten years." She grinned, making her words a joke.
A test? Petroc whispered at the back of her mind.
"Rovers prefer to err on the side of caution. Everybody sees the power Rovers hold, but they don't know anything about our self-imposed restraints." Rhianni sighed and slouched as if weary, when she felt so tense she could go a week without sleep. "I hate carrying this much authority. I'm going to do everything in my power to keep Mallachrom going the way it's been."
"But the bombings, the people who've been kidnapped or murdered or whatever over the years. What about them?"
"A small group of people. Rebels. Maybe even pirates who came to ground. There was always lots of pirate activity in this sector when we were children, Janese. You remember?"
"Oh. Yes. I remember. Pirates. How could I forget?" Janese smiled and nodded. "We're so lucky you're here to help Mallachrom and not take it over."
You're right and you're wrong.
The only way to help Mallachrom was to remake the entire world.
"Have you thought about investigating that anomaly your grandmother is worried about?"
"Anomaly?" She stayed slouched when every nerve stiffened to alert. "Oh, right. I haven't even had time to look at the report, let alone think about going out into the middle of nowhere. Maybe when things settle down."
"Of course." Janese smiled, and Rhianni could have sworn twenty degrees of tension slid away. Didn't Janese want her to visit the Black Pit? "That's the smartest course. I can't understand why your grandmother is so worried about it in the middle of this crisis." She leaned forward, rested an elbow on the edge of the desk, and lowered her voice as if sharing a secret. "I really worry about your grandmother. I think she's imagining danger where there is none. If it wouldn't hurt her feelings and embarrass her so, I'd recommend you, well, convince her to take a vacation." She giggled again.
Rhianni forced a thin smile. Was this a division in the enemy ranks? And if so, how could she use it?
Petroc swallowed a groan when Piper passed him yet another datapad of electronic forms requiring his signature. The Rovers inflicted more damage to their own through paperwork than they ever did to the enemy with actual blasters, pyrotechnics and plasma arcs. It escaped him why he had to fill out all this paperwork just to be Rhianni's bodyguard.
"Read slowly, sergeant. Of very high importance to the captain," Piper said. She winked as she walked back to her desk, leaving Petroc alone in the shadowy niche next to Rhianni's office door.
He frowned. He had met the Rover tactician at that first meeting with Rhianni's command team. Piper only seemed to be twenty, but she was ten years his senior. She had come to Mallachrom to help her brothers settle, as far as their neighbors in their outpost thought, but their 'family' was a Special Forces team. Petroc liked her, but what was that wink for?
Sighing, he called the document up on the screen, and nearly dropped the datapad.
Rhianni had registered them for marriage. All he had to do was sign his name and it would be official.
What's wrong? Rhianni asked. Petroc fumbled the datapad again, but still didn't drop it.
Are you trying to get us killed? The moment someone sees our names--
Nobody is going to read those files until after this crisis is over. By then, we'll either be the winners or dead. I wanted something official in case...well, you didn't exactly ask me, but a girl needs something official.
I asked you, just not with my voice. Petroc bit his lip to keep from bursting out laughing. He picked up the stylus and signed his name.
You're not getting cold feet, are you?
Just wait until I get you alone, Mistress Ash.
Promises, promises. A silvery ripple of laughter passed between them. This is kind of fun.
Nothing compared to what I have in mind for you.
Please, Roc, I'm on duty! Oh, bafrookshi, she snarled, her light mood and the sensual images suddenly sha
ttering. Petroc caught his breath, startled for her. I just got a summons to check out some new prisoners. Time to play bodyguard, sergeant.
Yes, ma'am. Petroc sighed and closed his eyes for two seconds. He glanced down at the datapad, pressed the commands to process and save, and took it back to Piper's desk.
She smirked and waggled one eyebrow. Petroc didn't know whether to be embarrassed or irked that this woman knew what Rhianni had been up to. One consolation was that she seemed to approve.
Then Rhianni's summons came through the office intercom and they had no more time for their personal lives for the next four hours.
En route to the makeshift detention center, Rhianni sent orders for the next step in undermining Mallachrom's corrupt government. With enough small feints, she could distract her enemies, confusing them enough they wouldn't notice her forces at work until it was too late. So far, she had done the expected: curfews, quotas, schedules for announcements, and security stepped up in public areas.
Now she did the unexpected. No more 'routine' questioning under drugs. No prisoners held more than four hours only on suspicion. No more unwarranted stop-and-search of citizens. When her opponents were distracted and started to roar about those orders, she would change the inspection procedures for the ships leaving Core.
The Rover computer techs were poised and ready to reprogram the satellite security system around the planet. Soon, it would be under their control and reveal the truth about Mallachrom.
"Where are we going?" Rhianni fought the sudden clenching of panic through her body when a glance out the viewport window revealed the sled headed away from Core. Not that she wanted to go back to her stifling office, now that she had taken care of the new prisoners. Still, duty called--and the sooner she finished this mission and got out of the Rovers for good, the better.
"Something you need to check out, captain." Petroc didn't look at her and his voice was entirely too calm. That set off alarms. He had been like this when they were children. Rhianni had to remind herself that Tam was the one who played nasty tricks and Petroc had been the one to untangle her from traps and pound his brother for her.
"Does Piper know I'm not coming back to my office?"
Petroc tossed her the microphone wand and keyed in the sequence to connect with headquarters. Rhianni was half-tempted to not play along, but he rested his hand on her knee. The jolt through her body from that simple touch nearly stole her breath. She knew she stumbled through the explanation, but Piper accepted her lack of information.
"Could be overnight," Petroc whispered. He squeezed her knee and moved his hand a few centimeters up her thigh, and that nearly drove all the air from her brain.
Somehow, she repeated his words, assured Piper yet again that things were fine, and cut the connection.
"Petroc Ash, you could get court-martialed for touching your superior officer like that."
"Not touching my superior officer. I'm touching my mate." He stayed focused on the forward port, studying the forest below them. Just the slightest smile curved the corners of his mouth.
"Oh." Rhianni sat back in the co-pilot's chair and tried not to grip the armrests so hard her knuckles turned white. "Where are we going?"
"Don't you trust me?" He gave her a teasing look from the corner of his eye and pointed the nose of the craft down into a clearing on the edge of river shallows.
"That depends."
"The most privacy we're going to have until this whole mess is over. We're married now, Anni, and I don't plan to waste a single night of it."
"My quarters are private enough."
"Yeah, with guards in the house." He snorted, and the craft touched down with a gentle thud.
"Why does that matter?"
"Have you ever made love, Anni?"
"No." She choked on the admission.
"With Taken, the first time is forever." He landed the craft and shut off the engines. "I was waiting for you, even if I didn't know it."
"Roc..." She froze when he turned to her. His eyes were blue, glowing in the dimness of the cockpit. Mesmerized, Rhianni let him pull her to her feet. He held her tight against him, shoulders to hips, and kissed her thoroughly.
Yet, not nearly long enough.
"From what I hear," Petroc whispered, and paused to put emphasis on the last word, "it can be very, very noisy."
"Oh." She finally opened her eyes.
"Madame, Mistress Ash, Captain Day..." He turned her to face the hatch as it slid open. "The Shadows gave us this place. When Taken marry, it's special. Important. They haven't told us why, but I guarantee this is the safest spot on the entire planet."
"My dreams," she whispered.
Rich colors in jewel tones filled her vision. To her right, the river slid past, smooth silver and streaked with crimson from the sunset. Ahead of her, enormous trees arched over a hollow in the landscape, the branches intertwined and forming a canopy she doubted rain could penetrate. Flowers clustered everywhere. The perfume drifted in through the hatch, soothing away the stink of hot plastic and metal.
"Yeah, our dreams. I don't know how many times I brought you here in my imagination, until it hurt too much, so I tried to stop." He wrapped his arms around her from behind and drew her back against him. His chin fit perfectly into the hollow where her shoulder met her neck. She started to melt and sag, just a little, before she could quite catch her breath.
"Tried." She smiled, remembering how her dream-lover swept her off her feet and carried her into a place of cool green, thick and soft against her bare skin, sweet contrast to the heat of his flesh against her.
He sighed, his breath brushing warm against her neck, making her shiver. "I love you, Rhianni."
"Love you... Petroc," she moaned, as his lips brushed her neck, then worked up toward her ear in little nibbles.
There was something slightly ticklish about the prickles and chills that flowed through her body. For seconds at a time, she saw the world through Petroc's senses. Everything she felt reacted to and echoed the emotions that tightened his muscles and sent adrenaline racing through his blood. Every sense heightened and his pulse and respiration doubled pace.
"What are you thinking?" she whispered, as she slowly turned in his embrace to face him.
Petroc shook his head, just smiling down at her. He slid one hand up her back until he could tangle his fingers in her hair. He tipped her head back gently and she closed her eyes in anticipation as he lowered his mouth to hers. Blue sparks swirled through her mind and she tightened her arms around him, trying vainly to draw them so close together they melted into each other. A low cry of frustration escaped her when Petroc pushed her back to arm's length.
"What--"
"You're still wearing that gisseg shell, aren't you?"
"My shock suit?" She remembered his remark about tearing it off with his teeth. "Not up to the challenge, Master Ash?"
"I can waste my energy on that, or..." His sly grin grew downright nasty when she blushed. He gave her a gentle turn and shove toward the hatch. "I'll set up camp. Why don't you wash up and leave the Rover behind for tonight?"
"You're saying I smell bad."
Rhianni grinned. Petroc had no idea what a body encased in a shock suit could smell like at the end of a battle or a stressful day. Not the kind of memory she wanted to make on their first night.
He merely yanked open a cargo bin and tossed her a bulky cloth bag. Rhianni opened it and found soft herbal soap, towels, her robe and a change of clothes inside.
"Somebody's been ransacking my quarters."
"Bodyguard has to make sure everything's secure." Petroc's gaze lingered on her like a palpable touch. "Go on, Anni." His smile tightened.
He was nervous, she realized. Rhianni could empathize with that. No matter how scorching her dreams, her memories of her dream-lover, making it reality somehow seemed like the largest hurdle of her life. She clutched the bag and headed down the hatch steps.
Chapter 19
A convenient scre
en of bushes shielded the river shallows from the hollow where Petroc lugged several duffels and a crate. Rhianni shivered and looked around, expecting to be watched. They were only half an hour of flight from Core. Strange to realize that this place, a haven for Taken, was so close to the nest of their enemies.
She peeled out of her uniform, kicked off her boots, picked up the bar of soap and stepped into the river still wearing her shock suit. Rhianni preferred standing in a hot shower when she opened up her shock suit to blunt the electric, sour smell that had fermented against her skin all day. She went down on her knees to the smooth sand bottom, so she was immersed up to her neck in the cool flow of water. It was a matter of moments to unseal the shock suit, pressing the magnetic seals on collar, wrists and ankles. The electrical field, sustained by her body heat, shut down. The suit opened like a flower, going as lax and limp as half-melted plastic. Rhianni wriggled out of it, still clad in her camisole and briefs, and stayed kneeling, swishing the suit through the water until she felt sure the accumulated sweat and filth of the day had rinsed out.
Starfire appeared on the bank when she scrambled out long enough to fling the shock suit toward the bushes. Rhianni froze, stunned and yet strangely relieved to see the Shadow there. She had the uncanny sense her childhood playmate and guardian was pleased she had come here with Petroc.
Shivering from the breeze on her wet, bare skin, little better under the camisole and briefs, Rhianni slid back into the water and started sudsing. She rubbed the soft herbal soap into her hair and moaned at the sensation that layers of grit and stress and exhaustion rinsed away in the river water. Maybe she would ask Petroc to bring her here every night, if a simple bath in this water could do her so much good. She smiled as she planned just how she was going to thank him for his thoughtfulness.
"Save some of that soap for me."
Rhianni muffled a scream, turning so quickly at the sound of Petroc's voice she stumbled. Arms crossed over her breasts, she ducked down in the water up to her neck. The current was slow enough that it didn't stir up any sand. Combined with her camisole and briefs, the lengthening shadows stretching out into the water didn't provide nearly enough cover.
Shadows of Mallachrom, Book 1: Blue Fire Page 20