Dragon Fire (23 page)

“What language were you speaking?” she asked, making a face at the tea. It smelled like rancid butter.

“Tibetan.”

“But what do you usually speak with Dawa then?”

Pemba’s smile disappeared. “We speak Draagsil. The language of our ancestors.”

“Oh. But weren’t they Tibetan?”

“No.” Pemba drank some tea. “Do you like it?”

Anna tasted it and choked. “It’s awful. I mean—”

Pemba’s laughter interrupted her. “It’s made with yak butter. And it smells like the herds.” Pemba inhaled deeply. “It’s perfect.”

Anna smelled it again, wondering if she could smell the herds. But it was just salty and pungent. And definitely rancid. “I don’t know,” she said, not wanting to disappoint Pemba. “I guess I prefer coffee.”
Without butter.

“We can get some later.” He finished his bowl and took hers. “But this is better.”

“If you say so.” Anna tried not to grimace as he drank her tea. “Where’s Dawa?”

“She’s out.”

“And your parents?”

“They don’t stay here,” Pemba said. He put her bowl down.

Anna stared at him blankly. “Where do they stay?”

Pemba took her hand. “You’re cold and I said I’d teach you how to stay warm.”

She understood from his crisp tone of voice that the subject of his parents was off limits. Confused, she looked at his Maii-a. It glinted like a treasure on his bronze-colored skin. His energy was like a coiled snake about to strike and it reminded her of the blue painting. He touched the Firemark and a searing heat flashed inside her. She didn’t know if she should run away or throw Pemba on his back and tackle him. Anna closed her eyes and gripped his hands tighter, unable to tear herself away from his naked chest that was only inches away from her… begging her to dig her nails into the undulating muscles that lined his stomach, to sink her teeth into his neck and…

“Do you want to?” Pemba asked, his hands clutching hers.

Anna pulled back, startled, until she realized that he meant teaching her to stay warm, not ripping him apart. “Ah, okay,” she mumbled, her blood still pounding in her tangled desires to possess him with a violence that made her distrust herself.

Pemba smiled and turned his hands so that their palms were touching. Anna felt a tingling at the base of her neck, just like when the void had been filled the other night at the snow screen. She looked questioningly at Pemba. But he was looking out the doorway at the stairs. Suddenly several voids were being filled in rapid succession. There was a crash at the top of the stairs followed by total silence. Only one filled void was left, and it was vibrating angrily.

“Dvara,” Pemba said, his body as tense as a panther about to pounce on his prey.

“Dawa? I thought she was out?”

Pemba’s attention snapped back to Anna. “She was. Stay here. I’ll be right back.” Pemba bounded up the stairs, his bare feet making no noise.

Anna stood, her whole body on edge as she watched Pemba turn out of sight at the top of the stairs. She heard him snarl something in Draagsil. There was a second crash and then Anna heard a door open and caught the sound of two people yelling at each other. And then emptiness.

Pemba was gone.

Anna panicked. She flew up the stairs, the wood creaking loudly under her feet. She turned and looked wildly around for any sign of Pemba. But all she saw was a shadowy figure lurking at the end of the dimly lit hallway. For a minute Anna wondered if she was seeing things. But she could clearly feel the pulsing energy that was sizzling with anger. The shadow figure, whatever it was, was real.

“Where’s Pemba?” she yelled, but she knew without waiting for an answer that he had gone through the multi-colored door across from the shadow figure. She could feel Pemba, faintly, as if he was very far away. Or hurt. She rushed to the door, her eyes focused intently on the handle.

The shadow person lunged at her. Anna felt a horrible wrench of cold as the shadow passed through her. She stopped, gasping in pain. The door was only inches away. The thought of Pemba pulled her onward. She stumbled forward. The door flared with stinging sparks of energy. She grasped the handle and flung herself through the doorway.

A
FTER ONE HORRENDOUS MOMENT OF SIZZLING
pain that felt like being skinned alive, Anna stepped into the room and slammed the door behind her. There was a moment of stunned silence as three pairs of eyes fixed upon hers.

“Why didn’t you tell her to stay where she was?” hissed Dawa.

“I did,” snarled Pemba.

“It doesn’t matter how she got here,” said the last person Anna would have expected to encounter in Pemba and Dawa’s rooms. “She’s here.”

Torsten’s indigo eyes bore into hers, making her vision blur. But she didn’t have to see him clearly to know it was the man she had met at the snow screen with June and Haakon. And for one mistaken moment thought was Pemba. “Torsten,” Anna said, clutching the doorknob behind her back.

“Torsten? Who’s Torsten?” said Dawa, spinning to face Anna in a flash of red.

“Let me see your arm,” said Torsten. He moved towards Anna. “You’re hurt.”

“Don’t touch her,” hissed Dawa, blocking his way. “Let Pemba do it.”

Anna felt Pemba’s mind-touch wrap around her even before he had touched her, gently washing over the pain that gnawed her flesh like the embers of a fire. Anna sighed in relief as the pain receded, leaving only the pulsing memory of its passage.

“How do you do that?” she asked, seeking refuge in his arms.

He nuzzled her hair. “You should’ve stayed downstairs.”

“You disappeared,” she answered, choking on her own words. She buried her face in his neck. “You smell like you again.” She breathed in his deliciously spicy smell that made her forget everything else. Almost. She pulled herself together and sought Pemba’s eyes. “What is that shadow thing?”

“What shadow thing?”

“You saw Kariaksuq?” interrupted Torsten. “She should have been invisible to you.”

Anna’s attention snapped back to Torsten. “What are you doing here?”

“I think you’ve mistaken me for someone else,” said Torsten calmly, his face unreadable. “We’ve never met.”

Anna glared at Torsten. She’d recognize the intense fizzy pattern of his energy anywhere.

“This is my boyfriend, Tenzin,” said Dawa, linking her arm through Torsten’s, but the tension between them was anything but romantic. “He just showed up this morning.” Dawa’s voice was accusing as she glared at Torsten. “He’s supposed to be in Tibet.”

“Well, girlfriend,” said Torsten, pulling Dawa against his chest with a determined grin. “I think you have some explaining to do.”

“I’m still free to do what I want,” retorted Dawa, struggling to get out of his arms.

Torsten held her tighter. “Are you?” he asked, his voice dark with barely controlled anger. “I’m not so sure.”

“Uh, maybe we should go downstairs,” Anna said, nudging Pemba.

“No, stay here,” said Dawa. “We’ll go to my room. Unless you have any objections,
Tenzin
?”

“It will be my pleasure to have you alone,” said Torsten in a way that sent icy shivers down Anna’s back.

Pemba called out to his sister in Draagsil as she stormed to her room. She turned and rolled her eyes. “Stop worrying, Pemba. I won’t hurt him.”

The silence that descended once the door was shut underscored the tension that had raged between Torsten and Dawa.

“Is she going to be okay?” asked Anna. She glanced at Dawa’s door.

“I think so.” Pemba cupped her face. “Are you?”

Anna nodded and held back the tears that welled up. Pemba pulled her in close and she lost it. “I couldn’t feel you anymore,” she barely managed to croak through her sobs.

“My feeling only faded,” Pemba said gently. “There’s a shield on our rooms.”

“Because of Kariaksuq?” Anna stiffened at the thought.

“No. T’eng—, ah, Tenzin did it to protect Dawa from other… suitors.”

“But… that’s like living in a cage. Isn’t she free to choose?”

“I don’t know anymore.” Pemba leaned his head on hers. “And I don’t want to think about it right now.” He wrapped his mind-touch around her and she floated in it until the cobalt blue light of the late afternoon brought her back down to Earth.

“I should probably go,” she said, snuggling in closer to Pemba. “My mother is expecting me for dinner.”

“Not until Kariaksuq leaves. I don’t want her to know where you live.”

“But then how am I going to go home?”

“She’ll leave with Tenzin.”

Anna felt her blood drop to her feet. Torsten already knew where she lived.

Pemba glanced at his sister’s door. “They seem to have cooled off a bit. He’ll probably leave soon.”

Anna looked anxiously at Dawa’s door and tried to hear what was going on. But all she could hear was her own shallow breathing.

“I can protect you,” Pemba whispered. He put both hands on her face and searched her eyes. “If you’ll let me.”

Anna looked into Pemba’s eyes that had taken on an orange hue in the fading light. “What is Kariaksuq?”

Pemba dropped his hands. He walked over to the window that had multicolored Tibetan prayer flags hanging across the top. “I can’t tell you that, Anna.” He turned to face her. “But I promise you that I will when this is over. If you still want me to.”

“When what is over?” Anna asked, a sick feeling weighing in her gut.

“Anna,” he said, coming back and taking her hands. “Can you just trust me enough to let me shield you, please?” He rubbed her Firemark. “Even if you don’t know why? Kariaksuq is bad enough, but her master is worse. He’ll do anything to get what he wants.”

Anna wavered. She could feel the power rippling through Pemba’s sculpted body and had a sudden feeling that he didn’t just work out the way most guys did. He didn’t practice a martial art, he trained to fight. She looked at his hands. They were soft and supple, and yet they could probably rip someone apart. And maybe already had. Anna looked back up into Pemba’s pleading eyes. His need to protect her was palpable. As was his need for her to trust him. And yet he still couldn’t trust her enough to tell her what was going on.

Pemba nuzzled her neck and she felt a slow flame flicker deep within her. A moan escaped from her throat as Pemba’s mind-touch embraced her. Her mind-touch flew forward of its own accord, throwing itself around Pemba as if she could take him inside her. Her arms wound their way around his neck as she stretched the length of his body, wanting to feel every part of him merge with her own.

“I trust you, Pemba,” she said, her voice husky with a mix of passion and fear. “Protect me.” She felt Pemba’s relief followed by a wild fervor that erupted around her in a dizzying array of sparks. He held her tightly and wove a net of entwined lines of energy that she couldn’t even begin to comprehend.

When he had finally completed the shield he pulled his mind-touch back and leaned his forehead against hers. “You’ll be safe,” he said in a voice thick with emotion. His lips were so close to hers that she could almost feel them.

Anna tingled in anticipation, her body alive with the contact. Her lips parted and she swayed in his arms, waiting for him to kiss her.

“Let me get changed,” he said. “I’ll walk you home.”

Anna stumbled back as Pemba padded silently to his bedroom, the tip of his long black braid swishing across his lower back. Her face burned with shame. He wasn’t attracted to her.

* * *

Ulf blew the whistle for the game to start again, tapping Dvara’s butt at the same time. Rakan growled in the bleachers. Ever since Dvara and T’eng Sten had had their discussion last week, she had been recklessly out of control. She had even sought the twins out for lunch, dropping her tray on the table between theirs. It was as if she no longer cared if she lived or died.

Rakan felt the cool tingling of a void-trail appearing and turned to face it. Moments later Liv walked into the sport hall. Her pace was hurried as she approached Erling sitting on one of the lower bleachers. She stopped a few paces away and waited until Erling motioned for her to approach. Rakan sat up. He focused his sight on Liv and strained his ears to hear what they were saying, but it was too far. Erling said something and Liv nodded faintly, the way someone would if they were bowing to their Kairök in front of humans. And then Rakan knew. Erling was the leader of the void-trails.

Abruptly, their attitudes changed and Liv sat down next to Erling, acting like they were just friends hanging out. Rakan looked around, wondering what had happened until he saw Haakon walk in with a big blond guy. He immediately recognized him as Red, Anna’s cousin. Rakan let his mind-touch slip forward, sensing the energy around both Red and the slender brown-haired girl on his arm to confirm what he already knew. They were unarmed humans.

Rakan looked back at the court, his eyes going to Anna who was intently focused on the game. He wanted to wrap his mind around her and feel her as she ran across the court, giving her best shot at a first wave score. Rakan smiled. She wanted to win, and he liked that.