Destiny's Lovers (28 page)

They were doomed, and Reid knew it. He had no
idea in which direction the shore lay, nor was he capable of
reaching it. He could hardly keep Janina and himself afloat. He
could not see the boat. For ail he knew it was at the bottom of the
sea.

Janina’s head lolled against his shoulder.
She might be dead already. They would both surely be dead within
minutes. He was filled with rage at their fate, with fury at the
unfairness of it after they had survived so much.

‘Tamat!” he screamed, his words half choked
by roaring water, “Tamat! Hear me! Help us! Help!”

“Help! Help me! Help!” When the lights came
on with eye-shattering brilliance, Osiyar was sitting up in bed,
shaking and shivering. “Help! Drowning! Help!” he shouted at the
people crowding into his room.

“It’s a delirious nightmare from the fever
he’s had for the last few days,” Herne said. “I’ll prepare an
injection to sedate him.”

“Osiyar.” Alla sat on the bed, taking both
his hands in hers. “Wake up. You were dreaming.”

“I am awake.” Behind Alla’s concerned face,
Osiyar saw Tarik with his wife Narisa, and Suria with her lover
Gaidar the Cetan warrior. Beyond them were two other members of
Tarik’s colony. All of them were in nightclothes. Herne had
disappeared. Osiyar looked into Alla’s grey eyes and shook his
head.

“It was not a nightmare,” he said. “It was a
vision. I saw Reid.”

“Where was he?” Her hands held his tightly
while he concentrated, trying to bring back what he had seen.

“In the sea,” he said slowly. “He was
drowning. He and Janina.”

“Please.” Alla looked as though she would
weep. “Help him, Osiyar.”

“I don’t know where he is.” Osiyar pulled
away from Alla’s clutching hands. If these people would only go
away and leave him in peace, he would be able to think clearly
about what had just happened and he might be able to make some
sense of it.

Herne bustled in with a treatment rod. Alla
rose and went to stand between Suria and Gaidar.

“This will put you right back to sleep,”
Herne told him. “Then the rest of us can get some sleep, too.”

“No,” Osiyar said, gathering his
strength.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Herne advised. “It’s
the best thing for you.” He bent over, took Osiyar’s arm and began
to lift his sleeve.

“I said, NO!” Osiyar stopped the physician in
mid-motion. Herne froze, unable to move from his bent posture or to
speak, though his furious eyes said all that his immobilized tongue
could not.

When they realized that Osiyar had asserted
some kind of control over Herne, everyone in the room moved
backward from his bed at least one step. Except Tarik. He came
toward the bed.

“Release Herne,” Tarik ordered.

“First forbid him to inject me,” Osiyar said.
“He can hear you.”

“No injection, Herne,” Tarik said in a loud
voice.

Osiyar nodded and Herne straightened.

“By all the stars!” Herne raged. “You
promised to harm no one here.”

“Have I harmed you?” Osiyar asked. When Herne
shook his head, unable to speak for sheer anger, Osiyar continued.
“I have the right to protect myself, even from well-meant medical
treatment. I do not wish to return to sleep. I need to think about
the vision I just had.”

“Can you help Reid?” Alla asked.

“I promise nothing,” Osiyar told her. “I do
not understand what I just saw and felt. Neither Reid nor Janina is
an overt telepath, yet I received a message.”

“You told us once that your High Priestess
believed Reid might have latent powers,” Tarik said.

“That is not true!” Alla cried, as she had
protested on the previous occasion. “Reid is no telepath.”

“Osiyar, if Reid were drowning,” Tarik went
on as though Alla had not made her outraged exclamation, “and he
were crying out for help with every particle of his being, might
you sense his cry?”

“It is possible,” Osiyar answered,
“especially if I were deeply asleep and thus unguarded and open to
such a cry.”

“Then he is dead.” Alla sagged, all protest
gone. Beneath the bright overhead lights, her thin face looked pale
and drawn. Gaidar put a brawny arm across her shoulders to support
her, while Suria took her hand and pressed it tightly.

“I think it very likely he is dead,” Osiyar
responded. “I regret having to tell you that. It is amazing to me
how deeply I feel your grief, Alla. I wish I had words to ease your
pain.”

“I know who can help us learn Reid’s fate for
certain,” Tarik mused, “if they are willing to explore a part of
the world far from their usual range, and if you will give them the
information they will need.”

“The Chon,” Osiyar said softly, meeting
Tank’s searching look with no evasion. His eagerness must have
shown in his face, for Tarik’s night-blue eyes were filled with
curiosity.

“It is almost dawn,” Tarik said. “The Chon
will waken soon to begin fishing in the lake for their morning
meal. Get up, Osiyar, and we will go out to meet them. Herne said
you would be well enough to get out of bed later today. A few hours
won’t make much difference to your health.”

“I’m not sure that’s wise,” Herne grumbled.
“If he is well enough to do what he just did to me, then we ought
to keep him under some kind of restraint and well sedated.”

“It’s you who ought to be restrained,” Osiyar
said, swinging his feet to the floor. “Restrained from forcing
unwanted treatments on patients who don’t need them.” He stood up,
then promptly sat down again, shamed by the weakness in his
legs.

“How do you expect to stand?” asked Herne
crossly. “You’ve been in bed for days and your broken leg is still
healing. You will have to help him, Tarik, and he’ll need a crutch.
Or perhaps Gaidar can carry him outside. I’m certainly not going to
touch him again.”

“There is no need for either you or Gaidar to
go along. Just bring him the crutch.” Tarik turned to his wife.
“Come with us, Narisa. You have a special affinity for the birds,
so you may be able to help. The rest of you go back to bed or begin
your day, as you wish, but stay inside the building for now. I
don’t want you to disturb the birds.”

“Let me go with you, too,” Alla begged, and
after a moment’s consideration, Tarik nodded his permission.

With Osiyar hobbling on the crutch Herne gave
him, and Tarik helping him when necessary, the four of them walked
to the beach on the side of the island nearest to the cliffs where
the Chon lived. The sun was just rising.

Osiyar caught his breath at the beauty of the
landscape before him. The island lay at one end of an immense lake.
On the mainland to the left rose the cliffs where the birds lived,
while to the right the forest ended in a white sandy beach. The
warm season was waning, so trees and underbrush were tinged with
gold and bronze and deep, glowing reds, all of which were reflected
in the placid waters of the lake. In the far distance rose a single
mountain capped with snow that, as the sun moved higher, changed
color from pink to gold to pure, glistening white, shining against
the purple-blue sky. Behind the little group on the beach lay the
lush growth of the island, with the white headquarters building at
its center.

Tarik had told Osiyar how he and Narisa had
found the island on their first visit to the world they called
Dulan’s Planet, and how they had returned with their comrades to
establish a small colony to monitor the activities of the Cetans.
Tarik’s wife Narisa had explained how the Chon had helped them on
that earlier visit. Now Osiyar waited to meet the birds that had
once been companions to his people, the birds the telepaths had
long believed extinct through Cetan violence.

From openings in the cliffs high above them,
graceful green or blue forms swooped, winging their way across the
lake. Osiyar watched, touched beyond speech by the sight.

“They fish in the early morning and again at
evening,” Narisa said. In the softness of her voice, Osiyar sensed
her understanding of his reverent mood.

“Will they come at your bidding?” he
asked.

“Almost always. Do you want to try to call
them?”

“You do it,” Osiyar decided. “Let them grow
accustomed to me before I attempt to communicate with them.”

Two birds came, a blue one with an old scar
on its beak, and a green one. While Osiyar watched them, moved
almost to tears by the appearance of beings from an ancient legend,
they landed on the sand near Narisa. They were beautiful, with
fine, richly colored feathers and long beaks, and they were tall.
Standing, they were almost Narisa’s size. She touched the green
one, stroking its wing.

Osiyar could not make himself wait any
longer. Filled with an excitement he had never known before, he put
out his hands, palms up, and opened his mind. There was a confusing
surge of impressions at first, then a steadying as the birds’
inherited memories awakened and they allowed a portion of Osiyar’s
consciousness to touch a part of their awareness. It was not the
same as the mind-linking he had experienced with Tamat and Sidra.
Because of differences in their patterns of comprehension, complete
linking with this other species would be difficult and dangerous
for both man and bird. But these representatives of the Chon did
understand that he was a descendant of their telepathic friends of
long ago, and for a time he stood bathed in their joy at his
presence.

After a while, Osiyar let them know that two
humans were lost and in danger. He tried to envision the far
northern country, to show the birds where Reid and Janina might be,
but, never having been there, he could not form a picture in his
mind. He sensed the birds’ fear at what lay on the eastern side of
the continent, and he understood that to protect their reduced
numbers from possible future Cetan violence they had restricted
their range to the area between the lake and the far side of the
prairie.

All at once Osiyar felt another presence
intruding on the communion he had established with the Chon. With a
shock, he recognized Alla. Her desperate fear for Reid was
communicating itself to the birds. Her love and concern for her
cousin, memories of Reid as a small boy, and her pride in his
accomplishments poured out of Alla in a flood of emotion that
Osiyar found painful to bear. He wondered how the birds could
tolerate it. And he wished there had been someone in his life who
cared for him so much.

Unable to fight off the emotional battering
of Alla’s hopes and fears for Reid, Osiyar closed his mind again,
breaking off contact with the birds. He had not really been well
enough yet for the sustained effort of contact with another
species. A wave of weakness washed over him. He shook his head,
staggering, and came to himself to find Tarik holding him upright.
He was about to scold Alla for her foolish and uncontrolled
interference, when she turned to him, her face alight.

“You’ve done it,” she said. “They will
help.”

“Is this true?” Tarik asked.

“Of course it is.” Alla answered for Osiyar.
“They will search this side of the grey mountains, to the end of
the land, where all is ice and cold. And they will search the sea
beyond, for as far as they can fly. Thank you, Osiyar. I knew you
wouldn’t fail us.”

Osiyar said nothing to that. Instead, he
admitted to the fatigue he felt so they would ask him no questions.
After they had seen him safely back to his bed to rest, he began to
wonder about Alla and how she had known what the birds were
planning to do. As he thought about her, he remembered how she had
told him shortly after he was rescued that she was absolutely
certain Reid was still alive. Had some telepathic connection
between them convinced her of that improbable fact?

Tamat had believed Reid possessed some latent
portion of the Gift. Alla was Reid’s first cousin, with much of the
same genetic material. Might she also have some part of the Gift?
If so, Osiyar doubted that she was consciously aware of it. She
would have denied it in any case, because in the Jurisdiction, her
native part of the galaxy, telepathy was forbidden. But if she did
possess a portion of the Gift, she could pass her unsuspected
abilities on to future generations.

Osiyar wondered with growing excitement if it
might be possible to begin anew, to breed a new population of his
people, trained to use the Gift for the good of all and linked in
co-operation and affection with the Chon. He would have to lead
them, for there was no one else who had the experience and the
training necessary to accomplish such a purpose. So far as he knew,
he and Janina, who under certain circumstances was capable of
prophecy, were now the only descendants left of the original colony
of telepaths. Reid and Janina, if they were still alive, would
willingly provide the new genetic material Tamat had wanted, for
they were lovers bound together more completely than even they
realized.

As for Alla, that slender, difficult, oddly
attractive creature who seemed to care for no one but Reid - might
Alla, if properly approached, consent to be Osiyar’s mate? Did he
want her if she would agree? It was a possibility that ought to be
carefully considered.

From that morning, Osiyar began to watch the
tall, dark young woman with a very special interest.

When Janina regained consciousness, she was
lying on a narrow, stony beach. Towering grey rocks piled on all
sides blocked any possibility of escape from her forbidding refuge,
and an icy wind was blowing, making her shiver in spite of sunshine
and blue sky. She was half frozen, and she felt nauseated and
dizzy.

She was completely alone. There was no sign
of Reid or of their boat. She remembered falling overboard. She
clearly recalled the sensation of plunging downward through endless
ages of freezing water, knowing she would never breathe air again,
yet wanting with ail her heart to rise to the surface, to find
Reid. And she remembered understanding that she would never see him
or hold him in her arms again, that she would die in the sea.