WARP world (36 page)

“Why would he do that?” she asked, at last. She looked over at Seg, who twitched and moaned. “If he was able to get onboard the
Naida
, he could have used his machine to go home, he could have escaped, he…why did he come back here?”

“Ama,” Brin smiled softly at his cousin, “if you had seen the look on his face, when we first brought you here and we thought we might lose you…” Brin leaned in closer to her, “Even if there had been a hundred guards on that boat, he would have fought his way through them. Whatever he has told you and whatever he pretends to, that man is bound to you.”

Ama opened her mouth to speak but no words came out.

Brin lowered his voice even further, “Cousin, can I trust this man?”

The question surprised her. How was she to answer? Not very long ago, she would have answered no. A firm no.

He could have left her, but he had stayed. He had risked everything for her.

“Why do you ask?”

Brin took a deep breath, his brow furrowed into deep lines, “He’s made me an offer.”

Now it was Ama who looked concerned. “What has he asked?”

Brin explained the terms of Seg’s deal.

“I know, it’s a great sacrifice, but the truth is I could likely find a thousand Kenda men willing to lay down their lives to see the Shasir toppled for good if it could be guaranteed. If it weren’t for Perla and the children, I would volunteer myself.”

“I trust him,” Ama said, surprised to find that she did. “It’s strange,” she continued, staring at Seg, as he slept, “I find myself wanting to know more about him, about his world.”

“Well, I guess your father was right all along. He always said no man in the world would satisfy you. Leave it to Tadpole to find a man from another world.” Ama’s cheeks burned at the implication; Brin’s smile rose and fell. “He’s dangerous, isn’t he?”

“As dangerous as the Big Water.”

“Then you are meant to be with him as surely as Nen is your true father,” Brin raised his fingers and placed them just below Ama’s dathe. “Perhaps this is your destiny?
Kiera Nen
.”

“Don’t call me that,” Ama said, heat rising to the rest of her face.

“
Nen’s chosen one
? Why not? Why could it not be you?”

“Because…” her voice failed her. She stared away, past her cousin, “Because the Kiera Nen is a hero, a savior for our people. I’m just a selfish, stubborn girl.” Her eyes brimmed with tears and her throat grew hot.
Stevan
. She couldn’t say his name aloud but she sensed Brin understood.

“No, you’re not,” he wiped a stray tear from her cheek, and looked toward Seg, asleep in the corner. “Now,” Brin patted her hand, “you get some more rest. Perla will be stuffing you full of food soon enough.” She nodded and he climbed back out of the room, closing the trap door behind him.

Ama looked at Seg.
That man is bound to you.

He had every reason in the world to return to his people when he had the chance, but he had come back here. For her.

With a grunt, Ama forced herself upright. She used her good shoulder for support and swung her legs around until her feet were flat on the floor. It took several minutes but she managed to get off the bed, and onto floor. On all fours, she crawled to Seg’s side and fit herself along his body, inhaled and savored his scent. It was tinged with blood and dirt and sweat, as she imagined it would often be.

As she breathed him in, she drifted off to sleep again.

Seg watched his hand twitch without trying to restrain it. The tremors were mild, within acceptable parameters, and the hand was secured to his breastbone by a bandage wrapped in a figure eight around his shoulders.

He was functional again, and comfortably warm. Ama was curled into him. He made no attempt to pull away but, instead, studied her in her sleep. Pale, drawn, still worn, but according to the auto-med she was weathering well.

He reached into the bag at his side and his fingers fumbled past the weaponry he had recovered. For some strange reason, he didn’t want to wake her and took care not to disturb her. He dug out the nove and laid it next to her face, then settled back as he contemplated what to do with his new bodyguard of troops, when and if he acquired them.

Jarin often chided him for looking too far beyond the moment, wasting precious time and resources on the tenth step rather than focusing on the first.

Well, Jarin wasn’t here.

Ama moaned and stirred. As she shifted her body slightly, she reached out with her good hand and picked up the nove. Fingers curled around the soft leather, she held the collar to her face. “You’re a crazy drexla,” she said, and turned to look up at him.

“You’re welcome,” he said.

“I still hate you.”

Their faces were close. Not touching, but close enough to feel the heat rising from each. Seg brushed a stray lock of hair from her face. What a pair they made, similarly useless. He shifted slightly; sharp pains from his shoulder stabbed him as he moved and he cried out.

Ama moved to help him, then let out a cry at her own injury.

They exchanged a glance and Ama broke into low laughter, her body rocking against his. Then the laughter stopped, and once more it was as if they were back in the squall. The veneer of civility fell away, Seg’s eyes ripped into her, Ama’s lips parted.

The trap door flew open and Perla sailed down the stairs with a platter full of food.

“You two must be hungry by…”

She stared at the empty bed, then turned her head to see her two wounded guests huddled together in the corner. Perla turned her head to the side, though not in time to hide the smile that crept onto her face. “I’ll just leave this for you,” Perla said, depositing the tray on the table.

“Thank you, Perla,” Ama said, inching away from Seg, her cheeks red, “for everything.”

“Just rest and get better. Both of you. And I’ll find you some clothes, cousin.”

Ama looked down at the tattered bodice of the dress. She opened her mouth to speak but Perla was already on her way up the ladder.

“I could eat an entire gresher right now,” Ama said, then pushed up from Seg and moved as quickly as her broken body would allow. Just as she reached the tray, loud beeps sounded from the auto-med sleeve.

“Stop,” Seg ordered.

Ama froze in place, eyes darting to the sleeve.

Seg had hoisted himself up and was making his own slow progress to her side. He glanced at the readout then pointed to the bed. “You’re over-exerting. Lie down and rest.”

Ama took a longing look at the tray of food then lowered herself to the bed, and settled in. When she was in place, Seg checked the readout once more and frowned.

“Is it bad?” Ama craned her neck to try and see what he was looking at.

“It will be if you do not do as you are ordered. For once,” he answered with a pointed stare.

Seg sat down on the bed, broke off a small piece of cake and held it to her lips. Ama swallowed the bite of food quickly.

According to everything he had been raised to believe, his life was more valuable than hers. Nevertheless, “You performed well in getting us away from the temple.” To cover for the awkwardness of praising an Outer, he fed her another bite.

“It was my fault, the trouble. One of Uval’s men must have survived. We’re wanted for his murder.” She looked up at him with genuine regret, “I’m sorry.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” he said, took another bite and chewed mechanically. “When I disposed of the bodies, I didn’t ensure they were all dead.”

For a moment, they ate in silence. Seg took care to feed Ama only small bites, offering her water as well, with occasional glances to the auto-med.

“The situation has changed,” he said, breaking the quiet intimacy, “I must return to my People. I have no way to communicate with them.” He silently cursed himself for leaving the digipad behind. It had been stored in his quarters, not far below the nove he had been so set on retrieving in the moment. “If I am not at the designated rendezvous point in fifteen days, they will return to the World without me.”

Ama nodded and then raised her head suddenly. “If you don’t make it back…”

“I will be stranded here and the Kenda will know no protection when my People return to attack your world. And they
will
return.”

“Your people!” She sat up abruptly, “I need to talk to Brin, I’ve made a huge mistake.”

He felt his heart shudder as he stared at her. “What did you do?”

“I didn’t understand, I didn’t know if I could trust you,” Ama began, her voice catching in her throat. “On the globe you showed me, I saw where your team was headed. Brin’s sent men to hunt them down and capture them.”

He froze in place. “You’ve killed Brin’s men, very likely.”

Ama deflated before his eyes. “Brin can stop them, he can send runners, call them back.”

“If Kerbin hasn’t killed them already.”

“I was only trying to protect my people.”

Seg slumped back and stared at the ceiling for a moment. “My mission. My responsibility. I tried to do too much.”

“Once we speak with Brin, we’ll figure out how to get back onboard the
Naida
. It’ll be tricky slipping past the authorities and we’ll have to travel at night, but it can be done. I can have you back at the Banks in three days if the sky’s clear and the wind’s in our favor.”

“Your vessel is no longer functional.” Seg picked a piece of cheese off the platter, looked at it, then held it out to Ama. His appetite had vanished.

“No longer functional? What does that mean? What did they do to my girl?”

“I destroyed your boat.”

“You?” Ama pushed Seg’s hand away from her face. “Why? Why would you do that?”

“Necessity,” Seg said. Then, seeing her confusion and shock, he added, “The risk of others discovering the items I left behind was unacceptable. Now eat, you need it. The auto-med tissue regeneration requires a high caloric intake.”

Ama took the cheese, her brows drawn together.

“I would suggest another boat, something Brin could arrange to have us smuggled out on, but the authorities will have every port sealed up and down the coast, and I can’t ask anyone else to risk running at night. Any boat coming or going will be torn apart. So, there’s no chance of that. We’ll have to go over land; that won’t be easy. I wonder…” she turned her head to the stack of shelves that held supplies. “Help me up,” she said, shifted to one side and extended her good hand.

“I ordered you to rest.”

“We need to plan. We don’t have much time,” Ama said, and grunted as she tried to stand again.

Seg offered his good hand, “You won’t be any use to me if you don’t heal.”

“And you won’t be any use to me if you don’t find your people,” she said as he helped her over to the shelves. Her eyes skipped across each of the items. “Good,” she said, when she located a stack of maps and charts. With her able hand, she thumbed through the pile, pulled out three maps and, with Seg’s help, carried them back to the table where Perla had set the platter of food.

With awkward movements, the two of them wrestled the tray to the ground. Together they bent over the maps, unfolded each one and lined them up on the small table, to form a complete picture of the land from T’ueve to the Banks. “Where are you supposed to meet your people?” Ama asked.

Seg gave the maps a quick appraisal; they were primitive but well detailed. “Assuming they are still alive…here,” he said, and touched his finger to the spot he and Kerbin had pre-arranged for the meeting.

She knew the place, a small valley, with a sparse and widely scattered population of Welf, on the south side of the Humish mountain range.

“Is it feasible?” Seg asked. He leaned closer, searching for the scale of the drawing, then noted the distance between where they were and where they needed to be. “Can we make it?”

“Maybe,” Ama said, and pulled out a chair for Seg. “The distance isn’t a problem so much as the terrain. Mountains, rivers, gorges…” she traced her finger across the various obstacles on the map. “Let’s just say it’s a good thing our legs weren’t injured; we have a long walk ahead of us.”

Seg refused to rest. Sleep eluded Ama as well. Perla hadn’t returned, nor had Geras paid the visit Brin had warned him to expect. There was no way to know what was happening above and leaving the safe room was out of the question.

They had passed much of the time poring over the maps and the possible routes, calculating distances, considering alternatives, relentlessly scrutinizing every detail as Seg transferred the information to his digifilm. Eventually, though, even the planning was exhausted and they had sunk into a tense silence.

A noise behind the far wall startled them out of their brooding. Ama reached for her knife. The wall slid open; she stepped in front of Seg and held the blade outward, as the figure of a man appeared.

“Stay where you are,” Ama warned. He spoke something in the Kenda tongue, and Seg rose.

“Hult,” Seg said, and pulled Ama gently to one side. “Where’s Brin?”

“Ah!” Viren said, his eyes moving between Seg and Ama. “You found her. See, just like I told you.” He brushed past Seg to the half eaten platter of food, where he scooped up a piece of trettle cake and swallowed it in one bite. “You kids have the authorities hopping faster than cold drops of water on a hot skillet, I’ll say that for you. Brin is having a friendly chat with our good friend Head Constable Dagga,” he said, wiping crumbs from his beard.