Stud (29 page)

Nat nodded. “They call them draniks around here, but they’re a lot like deer. They feed on the shrubs growing farther down the eastern side of the mountain. We don’t often see them up this high.”

“Maybe we could stun them with my pistol,” Lucy suggested.

“We should probably save that for when we’re shooting at people,” Tarq said. “I used to be pretty good with a bow when I was a kid. I might be able to get one.”

Nat looked at him curiously. “A bow or a dranik?”

Tarq gave her a wink. “Both. Be back in a bit.”

Lucy watched him go, feeling an immediate sense of loss.

Nat tapped her shoulder. “Where’s he going?”

Lucy shrugged. “To get a bow and a dranik, I guess.”

“He can do that?”

“He can do lots of things—always full of surprises.”

“C’mon, then,” Nat said. “Let’s fix you two a place to sleep.”

She led Lucy over to their stockpile of bedding and they each gathered up a big armful and took it over to the spot Tarq had chosen. He’d certainly made sure that no one would question the two of them bedding down together, though the reason for his assertion that she was his mate was obvious. If he was going to be around her, inhaling her pregnant scent, his need for sex would drive him crazy without release. Unfortunately, this ruined her chances with anyone else—not that most of the others appealed to her in any way—but Vertigan was unattached and more human in appearance than Tarq was. Too bad she wasn’t attracted to him.

She couldn’t explain why that was. There was nothing wrong with him; he was handsome and appeared to be a strong and capable leader. All in all he was a decent sort of man, if a bit domineering, but she didn’t feel one scrap of interest in him.

That was Tarq’s fault. He’d spoiled her completely. In fact, he’d spoiled her to the point that she wouldn’t even take him to task for telling such a big fat lie, though she knew she probably should. She still couldn’t believe he’d said it. The one thing she’d wanted to hear more than anything, and he’d sprung it on her out of the blue. For one brief shining moment, she’d thought he truly meant it, but then reality set in. Knowing it to be a lie, she couldn’t even enjoy the fact that no one else had any reason to dispute his claim. Among these people, they could live together as husband and wife. The tough part would be explaining why Tarq would eventually leave Talus without her—assuming they ever made it to Noklar. After that, Vertigan might start to look better to Lucy—particularly when she had triplets to care for. A good provider would be a definite plus, provided he would be kind to Tarq’s children.

Lucy spread the dried grasses out on the cave floor. “So, Nat, if you could get through these mountains to Noklar, would you go?”

“Any place is better than this,” Nat said as she added more of the bedding. “In fact, Traldeck would like to leave Talus altogether and go somewhere with a more liberal attitude toward nonhumans.” She shook her head sadly. “You’d think that in this day and age prejudice would be a thing of the past, wouldn’t you? But it’s alive and well in Yalka. Wasn’t always like that, though—not openly, anyway.” She nodded toward the two Vetlas. “They were run out of town in the middle of the night, chased with whips and stones. At their age, it’s a wonder they survived.”

Lucy was horrified. “How awful!”

“Vertigan has a house in Madric, but he was staying with us the night they burned us out. Otherwise he might have been spared all of this. Walkuta won’t say what happened to her. In fact she hardly speaks at all. Bratol and Terufen were having a drink at a local bar when someone must’ve stunned them. They don’t remember anything until they woke up out here, so they weren’t in too bad a shape. Kotcamp saw what was happening and changed into human form and followed them, hoping to help. Knowing he was probably next, he decided to stay here too.”

Lucy pulled a blanket out of her bag. “He? I thought he was an ‘it.’”

Nat took the other end of the blanket and they placed it over the pile of bedding. “I’ve picked that up from Terufen. He always uses the male pronoun when referring to Kotcamp, and ‘he’ sounds much nicer than ‘it.’”

“True. We had a Tryosian named Neris working at the café. I’ve always thought of her as a ‘she.’ Gets confusing sometimes, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah. But that Tarq is very definitely a ‘he,’ even with all that pretty hair.”

Lucy smiled. “It
is
nice, isn’t it? And yes, he’s
definitely
a male.”

Her next question was one Lucy had already prepared an answer for. “So, how’d you meet him?”

“He came into the café for lunch one day, and we sort of hit it off.”

“I’ll say you did! And I’m so glad you finally left home. I always figured when you decided to rebel it would be in a big way. I guess I was right.”

Lucy snickered. “Yeah, my father didn’t like him at all. Wouldn’t surprise me if he—” She stopped there, staring down at the makeshift bed openmouthed. “Oh, my
God
…”

“What is it, Lucy? What’s wrong?”

“Oh, surely not…” She felt faint, as if all of the blood had drained out of her head.

“Lucy!” Nat’s eyes were as round as saucers.

“I think my father told Fred to be on the lookout for Tarq. In fact I’d bet money on it! I can’t believe it!”

“You don’t know that for sure,” Nat said. “Your father doesn’t hate aliens, does he?”

“Not in general—after all, Jublansk and Neris aren’t human and they’ve worked at the café for years—but he took an instant dislike to Tarq. Didn’t want him talking to me—even as a customer. When Tarq went there for breakfast the morning after I left, he accused him of having something to do with my disappearance.”

“Well, he did, didn’t he?”

“N—yes.” Lucy almost swallowed her tongue, realizing how close she’d come to spilling the beans. “But he only did that to, um, throw everyone off my trail. Maybe Father told Fred about Tarq and figured that was all he needed to do to get rid of him.”

“But if you were already gone, why would he do that?”

Lucy shrugged. “Who knows? Like I said, he didn’t like Tarq, and Tarq said my father was very angry.”

“It’s a wonder he didn’t come after you himself.”

Lucy shook her head. “Tarq heard him say that he wouldn’t waste time on hunting me down. Said I’d come home when I got hungry enough—but that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t casually mention to Fred that a Zetithian was in the area—though Fred might have seen one of Tarq’s advertisements.”

“Advertisements?”

Lucy grimaced. She was digging herself in deeper with every word she spoke. “It has to do with the kind of… work he does.”

Nat nodded and Lucy prayed she would let the subject drop. She didn’t. “What kind of—” Nat stopped, listening closely.

Lucy heard it too—a loud hammering noise coming from outside the cave. They weren’t the only ones. Everyone scurried toward the entrance and exited the cave. Lucy spotted Tarq up in a tree a little farther down the mountainside. Using Fred’s hunting knife as a chisel, he was chipping away at a stout limb, hammering the knife with a club-shaped piece of wood. Moments later, the limb gave way with a loud crack and fell to the ground. With the knife in his teeth when he wasn’t using it as a piton, Tarq climbed down from the tree, making it look much too easy.

When he turned and saw everyone staring at him, he laughed. “When I said I was going out to get a bow, you didn’t think I was going to the store, did you?”

“Um, no, we didn’t,” Lucy said. “Guess you found the right kind of wood, huh?”

“That’s right.” Shouldering the limb, he carried it back up the rocky slope to the cave. Dropping it on the ground, he sat down and began stripping off the bark. “The inner layer of the bark has long fibers that can be used to make the bowstring, which is actually the hardest part.”

Once all the bark had been removed, he hacked off the smaller branches until he was left with a pole about a meter and a half in length. Using the side of the knife blade as a chisel while he pounded on the blunt edge with the wooden club, he began splitting the wood. Lucy watched him with interest. His movements were fluid and precise—and totally sexy. After a few moments, she stole a glance at the others. Vertigan and Traldeck were clearly fascinated, while Nat and the others viewed him with frank admiration.

He’d been at work for twenty minutes or so when he stopped to test the bow’s flexibility and looked questioningly at his audience. “Don’t you all have anything better to do?”

Traldeck shook his head and Vertigan cleared his throat rather self-consciously. “No, this is far more interesting than skinning rock rats.”

Tarq shrugged and went back to work. When he’d finished shaping the bow, he cut notches in both ends. Then he sat down and began stripping the fibers out of the bark. When he had accumulated a large pile, he twisted them into long strands which he then knotted together and tied to a tree branch. Inserting a small stick in the free ends, he used it to twist the separate strands into one long piece of string. Taking it down from the tree, he tied a loop in one end and then tested the bow for length and made another knot in the string and strung the bow.

Terufen immediately began applauding and the others joined in with enthusiasm.

“Very impressive,” Vertigan said. “What about arrows?”

Tarq nodded toward some of the smaller trees. “The water sprouts that grow straight up from tree limbs make great arrows. Of course, arrows will be a lot easier to make if you can get some of your bird friends to donate a few feathers.”

Vertigan grinned. “I believe that can be arranged.”

“What about you, Traldeck?” Lucy asked as a new thought struck her. “You’re a full-blooded Mordrial. Can you talk to animals too?”

Traldeck shook his head. “No, Lucy. My talent is reading people.”

Tarq’s heart nearly stopped beating. As it was, he dropped the knife. He wasn’t about to ask Traldeck to explain further; however, Lucy wasn’t quite as reticent.

“You can read minds?”

“Not exactly,” Traldeck replied. “I can’t read actual thoughts the way Vertigan does with the animals. I sense emotions.”

Tarq breathed a little easier upon hearing this, and he stooped to pick up the knife. You could tell what emotions most people were experiencing just by looking at them. Being able to read them wasn’t that neat a trick.

“I also control fire,” Traldeck went on. “Vertigan is a master of the wind.”

“What about the fire that burned down your house?” Lucy asked. “Couldn’t you put it out?”

“I can only
start
fires, Lucy,” Traldeck said sadly. “I’m no better than anyone else at putting them out.”

“I did try,” Vertigan said. “But there’s a limit to how hard I can make the wind blow.” He smiled his apology. “Mordrial powers vary in strength from person to person. Some can call up a hurricane, while others, like myself, must content themselves with the lesser winds.”

As much as Tarq was sweating, he wished Vertigan would send a breeze in his direction, but the air was surprisingly still. He left the group of onlookers to their conversation and went to cut wood for the arrows. Making arrowheads wouldn’t be difficult; there were plenty of rocks lying about, some of the sort that would chip and flake easily. The wood fiber string could be used to tie them to the arrows, though once he brought down a dranik, he could use the sinews that attached muscle to bone for the job. More antlers would be a definite plus. He could make all sorts of tools—and weapons—with them, and the bones could be used for a lot more than spits for roasting meat.

Though he doubted the others would believe it, Tarq was actually enjoying himself. He’d loved the freedom of the outdoors as a child; unfortunately, the war and his subsequent life aboard the refugee ship had put an end to that. After the liberation, they’d landed on Terra Minor, which was a nice enough planet, but he hadn’t felt like he belonged there and had never really understood why. As a result, he didn’t have to think long before agreeing to go to Rhylos to work in the brothel with his friends. His work there had given him more than sexual satisfaction; it was a useful occupation—at least, according to his clients—but making his own tools and living off the land also appealed to him. He felt more at home and confident out in the wild perhaps because, as with his work in the brothel, he was seldom called upon to read anything.

Gathering up his arrows and several of the stones, he went back to the cave. Vertigan was sitting outside skinning rock rats, Natasha and Crilla were gathering berries, and everyone else, including Lucy, must’ve been out collecting firewood.

“We have to get all this done before dusk,” Traldeck said as he approached, carrying a load of wood. “After that, the vrelnots come out and it isn’t safe.”

“Is that why you haven’t gone any farther?”

Traldeck nodded. “We’ve scouted out a few more caves, but this is such a nice one—much bigger than the others we’ve found—and not knowing if there are any we could reach in a day has kept us here.” He smiled. “But of course that was before the gods sent us you.”

“Me?”

“Oh, yes. You know the way through these mountains, don’t you?”