Destiny's Lovers (29 page)

How, then, had she come to this desolate
beach? And where was Reid? Was he, perhaps, lying injured on the
other side of that broken pile of foam-speckled rocks to her right?
Or had his broken body been tossed by the waves onto the more level
outcropping on her left? She had to know. If Reid was anywhere in
her vicinity, she would find him.

The decision made, she quickly scrambled to
her feet, only to double up when a fresh wave of nausea overcame
her. She went to her knees, coughing up salty water. After she had
finished, she stayed as she was for a time, with her head bent,
waiting for the dizziness to pass. When she felt a little stronger,
she got to her feet again and staggered across hard pebbles to the
nearer pile of rocks on her right. She dragged herself slowly up
the rocks, not wasting her energy in calling out Reid’s name,
thinking only of the task she had set for herself, forcing herself
by sheer willpower to the top of that slippery heap. Waves smashed
at her, soaking her badly chilled body with more cold and wet.

Reid was not on the rocks. Beyond the pile
she had climbed there was only a second beach, stonier and narrower
than the one on which she had wakened. Beyond it, the solid rocks
plummeted straight into the water. Janina sat on the topmost rock
of the pile she had climbed and hung her head in disappointment and
suddenly renewed nausea.

A wave crashed over her, nearly dragging her
into the sea as it receded. Janina clung to the rock, fighting the
ocean’s pull. When the wave had gone, she climbed back down as
quickly as she could, and retreated above the waterline of the
beach.

She would have to search the rocks on the
other side. She stood wavering in her weakness, trying to collect
enough strength for the effort.

“Chon. Chon-chon.” The loud cry made her look
upward. Two large birds flew above the beach, wheeling and dipping
on the wind. They came closer and closer, until finally they
lighted at the very edge of the sea. One was blue, the other green.
More than a little frightened by their size, Janina watched them
with apprehension. They appeared to be looking directly at her. She
wondered if they would attack her, and how she would fight them off
if they did.

From above her came a low-pitched humming
noise that gathered strength until it blotted out the sound of the
sea. Oddly, the birds did not fly away from that noise. Janina had
the feeling that they were waiting for something to happen.

When she looked upward again, searching for
the source of the humming sound, there appeared far above her a
dark grey oval shape, pointed at one end, with a red stripe along
its side. She stared at it in fascinated, immobilized shock as the
shape descended until it settled on the beach. It was enormous,
bigger than any fishing boat she had ever seen.

She was comforted to note that the birds did
not move or display any fear of the object now resting on the beach
in sudden silence. If the birds did not think it would harm them,
perhaps it would not hurt her, either.

The grey object had barely stopped moving
before a door slid open in the side and a woman stepped out. She
was followed by three men. They were all dressed in brilliant
orange suits like the one Reid had worn the day she met him.

Greatly relieved to recognize humans, and
filled with renewed hope, Janina stepped forward. From their
clothing she assumed these were Reid’s friends. They must still be
looking for him after all this time. If she was right about them,
they would help her to find him.

The woman, who came toward her first, was
tall and slender, with short dark hair. She looked angry. Or
perhaps she was just worried about Reid. Janina hurried toward her,
stumbling over loose stones, forgetting in her excitement how cold
and miserable she was.

“Where is Reid?” the woman demanded. “What
have you done with him?”

Janina stopped short. After an instant of
surprise at the rude greeting, she thought she understood. The
woman looked remarkably like Reid.

“You must be Alla, his kinswoman,” Janina
said, putting out her hand. “I am—”

“I know who you are,” the woman snapped.
“Where is Reid?”

Janina glanced at the men with Alla to see if
they were as angry as she seemed to be. The man nearest to her was
slim, with sharp features, black hair, and deep blue eyes. He
looked serious but kind. The second man was large-boned and tall,
and wore a sour expression on his face. The third man, who was
leaning on a walking stick, was blond and incredibly handsome.
Janina could not believe her eyes.

“Osiyar?” she exclaimed. “Osiyar, where are
your bracelets? Is Tamat with you? Is she well? We saw the
volcanoes - Osiyar, tell me Tamat is well.”

“Tamat lives no more in this world,” Osiyar
said, confirming Janina’s fears. “I will explain later. I will tell
you everything you wish to know.”

A strong hand grabbed at her shoulder,
pulling Janina around to face grey eyes blazing with anger.

“Answer me, you stupid little fool!” Alla
raged, her face contorted with fury. “You are the cause of all my
cousin’s trouble. You are the reason he was cast adrift, the reason
his life has been in danger. And look at you - skin and bones and
not even as tall as my shoulder. You thought you were a fit mate
for Reid? I’ll see you torn in pieces first!”

“Alla, stop it.” The dark man came forward
and took Alla by the wrist. He had not raised his voice, nor did he
appear to exert much manual pressure, yet Alla dropped her hand
from Janina’s shoulder at once. But he could not stop her
tongue.

“Tarik, you know she is the reason Reid is
missing. If she hadn’t worked her wiles on him, he wouldn’t have
been set adrift.”

“I believe,” Osiyar said quietly, leaning
heavily on his walking stick as he came forward, “that it was Reid
who seduced Janina. But at Ruthlen it is – was - the custom to
punish both parties on the rare occasion when a priestess is
violated.”

“Violated!” Alla screeched. “Reid would
never—”

“Shall we forget our differences and try to
find Reid?” Tank suggested. “Janina, when did you last see
him?”

“On the boat,” she replied promptly, eager to
do anything that might help Reid. “There was a terrible storm. We
were nearly driven upon the rocks. Reid was trying to keep the boat
afloat. When it heeled over, I fell into the sea. I am afraid for
him,” she ended on a choked sob.

“Where was that?” Tank asked.

“I’m not certain. It was night, and I had
been asleep until Reid called me. He said something about a
whirlpool, or an eddy, that made him lose control of the boat.”

“While you slept!” exclaimed Alla. “Not only
did you cause all his problems, you were obviously no help to him,
you useless piece of baggage.”

“Alla,” Tarik said in a quiet, deadly voice,
“get into the shuttlecraft, take the navigator’s seat, and keep
quiet.”

Alla looked rebellious at first, then
shrugged and did as she had been told.

“She is worried about Reid,” Tarik explained
to Janina. She saw the sympathy in his dark blue eyes and
instinctively knew that while he would never say anything unkind
about Alla, he would protect Janina against the woman’s
unreasonable anger.

No, not unreasonable. Alla loved Reid, too,
and if in her fear for him she needed someone to blame, then Janina
could understand and would accept the temporary abuse because they
both had the same goal - Reid’s safe return.

“This is Herne, our physician,” Tarik said,
indicating the larger man. “I suspect he is growing concerned about
you.”

“It’s about time you remembered I’m here,”
Herne responded. “While we stand listening to Alla overrunning with
undeserved anger toward her, this young woman is rapidly becoming a
candidate for pneumonia and frostbite. Look at her. Her clothes,
such as they are, are soaked, and she can’t stop shivering.”

“I will be all right as soon as we find
Reid,” Janina assured him. “He isn’t there. I looked at those
rocks, but I haven’t climbed the flat rock on the other side of the
beach yet.”

“Do you mean you climbed all the way to the
top, with the waves washing over you?” Herne asked. “Young woman -
Janina, is it? - get into that shuttlecraft at once and let me
examine you.”

“I suggest you do as he commands,” Osiyar
told her. “Herne is a most determined man.”

“And you stay away from her,” Herne retorted.
“She has enough to contend with. She doesn’t need you to invade her
mind.”

“He can’t do that without my permission,”
Janina told him.

“So you say,” Herne replied with a snort.
Taking Janina’s elbow firmly in one hand, he began to steer her
toward the shuttlecraft door. “But he doesn’t need permission to
stop you in mid-motion and hold you there until he’s ready to
release you.”

At that, Janina looked at Osiyar, just in
time to see him exchange an amused glance with Tarik. She had never
seen a light-hearted Osiyar before, yet now Osiyar looked almost
happy and he seemed to be on friendly terms with Tarik.

Considering the exterior size of the
shuttlecraft, the cabin inside was unexpectedly small. That, Herne
informed her, was in order to leave space for cargo, or, if
necessary, for stretcher-beds to transport injured people who could
not sit. He made Janina stand in the narrow aisle while he waved a
silver rod around all of her body from head to toe. Then he read
off the information provided by an oblong grey metal box fitted
with an amazing array of dials and winking lights. She did not mind
the rather impersonal examination. In spite of his gruffness, she
sensed that Herne wanted to take care of her. Besides, the
shuttlecraft cabin was warm and well protected from the bitter
wind. The worst of her shivering had stopped.

“She appears to be in good condition,” Herne
said to Tarik, “except for some congestion in her lungs. That is
probably from inhaling sea water. She has a low-grade infection of
some kind, but no fever, so I won’t worry about the infection until
I can perform a better examination at headquarters. I suggest we
put her into dry clothes and let her sleep a while.”

“I can’t sleep,” Janina objected. “I have to
help you find Reid.”

“If you are like most women, you’ll do
whatever you want regardless of what I say,” Herne responded. “At
least put on dry clothing.”

He found an extra orange suit for her and
then turned his back, standing so his bulky frame blocked her from
the view of anyone else in the cabin while she changed out of her
sodden tunic and trousers. Janina was too uncomfortable in her wet
clothes to worry about modesty, but she thanked Herne once she was
dressed, and thanked him again when he helped her turn up the
too-long sleeves and legs of her new suit.

“Better sit down,” Herne said, pushing her
into a padded seat and fastening an elastic strap across her
shoulders.

“No, I have to get out,” Janina objected. “We
have to search for Reid.”

“We have a faster way to do that than by
climbing over wet rocks,” Herne said, seating himself beside her
and adjusting his own elastic strap. “Just watch the
viewscreen.”

Janina saw that Osiyar had limped into the
shuttlecraft to take the seat behind hers. Tarik and Alla were in
the first pair of seats. Tarik was doing something to a wide panel
in front of him that had more knobs and blinking lights than
Herne’s grey box. When he pulled a lever, she felt vibrations shake
the shuttlecraft, followed by the sensation that her body had been
lifted into the air while her stomach remained on the ground.

“Watch there.” Herne indicated a large blank
square set into the wall of the shuttlecraft just above the panel
where Tarik was working. A moment later the square was blank no
longer. Janina could see the beach where she had been, and the
rocks she had climbed. The beach grew smaller. The ocean appeared,
and the high rocks backing the beach. She saw the two large birds
flying along with them. Then, suddenly, she could see a long
stretch of coastline.

“How is that done?” Janina cried.

“With machinery, not with the mind,” came
Osiyar’s dry, oddly humorous voice from the seat in back of her.
“When I first saw it, I couldn’t believe it, either.”

“We can look for Reid this way,” said Herne.
“With all of us watching the screen, there is little chance we’ll
miss any sign of his presence. And the birds will help us, too.
They directed us to you.”

“First we are going to search the shore near
where we found you,” Tarik explained, speaking over his shoulder.
“If he’s not there, we’ll try to find the whirlpool you
mentioned.”

He adjusted a dial, and instantly Janina felt
as though she had moved much closer to the land, but she understood
that this was some trick of the machinery. She knew they were
flying through the air, yet she was not afraid. In fact, she was
exhilarated by this new experience. If only Reid were there to
share it with her!

By watching the screen, she could see when
Tarik turned the shuttlecraft away from the coast and moved it out
to sea, with the birds still accompanying them. At first she saw
nothing except heaving waves, but then she noticed the water
swirling into a gigantic circle with a depression at its center.
Off to one side of the whirlpool a long spur of rock reared upward,
and flung onto the rock, broken into pieces…

“That’s it, that’s the boat!” Were it not for
the safety harness, Janina would have been out of her seat. “Tarik,
that’s our boat!” she repeated.

Tarik turned the knob he had used before and
the rock appeared nearer. Another twist of the knob, a slight
adjustment of focus. Janina held her breath. Below them, the birds
circled the rock.

“There!” Alla cried. “There he is, next to
the wreckage.”

“Reid?” Janina could hardly speak, could
barely breathe. The figure she saw on the rock looked so small and
broken - and so very still.