Broken Wings (20 page)

Raea followed the woman past Leksel
and Cris sleeping on mats on either side of the sitting room,
blanketed from their chests down. The hard lines she had come to
know of Leksel's face had softened into a peace she wouldn't have
expected. Cris too looked at peace. Both slept soundly. She crept
past them, glancing down with a smile at each.

Inari muscle patterns were a little
different than humans, not much, but noticeable. She had seen it
first on Elis, when she'd treated the wound in his side left by
Pallin's knife a few weeks ago.

She wanted him now. Raea reached for
the crystal on its chain. Although bent and soaked during their
flight, she had let the small black feather dry on a towel while
she showered. The dry curl of softness caressed her
fingers.

Emotions lumped in her
throat and burned her eyes.
Elis…
She loved him enough to forgive him and spend the
rest of her life with him, especially if that life was cut short.
If anything, this adventure showed her that every day was precious.
She'd never take anything for granted again.

This was so not the time to cry about
it. She wiped her eyes and hurried through an arched doorway into
the light of the dining area.

Kayan set the plate on the oblong
table and sat down in a different chair. ["I had to reheat it. You
took a while in the shower,"] she whispered.

Raea sat down in the chair before the
plate. This wasn't the rehydrated stuff Corsa had served her some
time ago, but it was alien food. Very alien by the thin,
brown—plant?—things topped by slices of what appeared to be meat
and some type of seed or berry with a green sauce drizzled over the
top.

["I'm sure it's fine."] Raea poked at
it, but no surprises jumped out. Here went her taste buds. With
something like chop sticks, she managed after a few tries to lift a
few strings of the plant to her mouth and tried not to
cringe.

Oh, man! This was divine.

The only thing keeping her from eating
quickly was the utensils. Linds was the Chinese food expert. Raea
hated chop sticks.

["Sorry about the sticks. We don't
have anything fancy on the island."]

["No problem. This is so good!"] She
slurped a hanging piece of plant and froze to listen. The last
thing she wanted was to disturb Leksel and Cris by talking too
loudly. They needed their rest.

Kayan smiled and sat back, her
shoulders relaxed. ["It's nothing like they have in the
cities."]

["Oh, no. It's great.
Really…Thank you."] Raea waved away the other woman's apology.
["It's delicious, but I always preferred
salads
."]

Kayan frowned. ["What's
a…
salad?
"]

Ah, English words. She'd
slipped it in without thinking to make up for the shortcomings in
her Inari vocabulary. Did they even have a word for salad? This
strange dish resembled a salad more than anything. So, how
did
she explain what it
was? A salad could be lettuce or pasta.

["Nevermind."] Raea focused on
eating.

Kayan dropped her eyes.

Her stomach settled with each bite,
leaving her content and aware of her fatigue. The distant thunder
of the storm occasionally filled the silence of the
house.

["Your friends didn't say
much."]

If she meant Leksel, Raea believed it,
but for Cris not to say much? That was unusual.

Raea swallowed a bite. ["About
what?"]

["What brought you here. I understand
the empire is trying to gather all the shards of the Starfire."]
Kayan shivered and rubbed her arms, her eyes flicking past Raea to
the doorway. ["They said the Shirukan brought you through that
portal a couple days ago and they rescued you, and you've been
trying to escape since. Leksel wouldn't say much more."]

Typical. ["He's not much of a
talker."] At least not from what she'd learned about
him.

["He wouldn't let Cris say much
either."]

Of course. Leksel really had a problem
with Cris. Why did he keep him around? The two drove each other
nuts—one serious and focused and the other nonchalant and
rebellious. Complete opposites.

If only Corsa had stayed. She had
moderated the two.

["We lost another in the storm."]
Hopefully Corsa had survived, but Raea doubted it. The regrets
stopped her appetite, what little remained unsatisfied.

Kayan dropped her eyes. ["I'm
sorry."]

["It's not your fault."]

Silence hung in the air, until Raea
shoved the plate aside.

["If it's worth anything, I'm glad you
escaped."]

["Thanks."] Too bad about Corsa
though. Raea liked her best of the three.

Kayan flashed a quick smile and took
the plate to a basin.

Raea finished her cup of water and
sank back. With her stomach filled, the events of the day caught up
to drag her down.

["There's a mat in the room with your
friends for you. You'll want to sleep while you can. The boys wake
early to follow Dargilis out."]

["Boys?"] Raea hadn't seen any
boys.

Kayan smiled and led her to the room
where Leksel and Cris slept. ["Poor Silia will be the only
girl."]

The kids. Raea unrolled the mat in a
clear spot on the floor away from the two men. They stayed with a
larger family than she expected. The boys must have been asleep
already when they arrived.

["I can relate. She'll be tough."]
Growing up with two younger cousins had taught her to tolerate a
lot, although she'd never get used to cold showers.

Kayan smiled and handed her a blanket
and small pillow. ["Sleep well."]

Raea laid down and closed her eyes.
Kayan returned to the dining area briefly, switching off the light
so only the faint glow from a night light in the corner guided her
into the hall. Her steps faded, leaving nothing but the faint
breathing of the two men.

At least they didn't snore.

Stars twinkled in the
night sky, a band thick with them crossing from northeast to
southwest. The Milky Way.

A beautiful voice sang
with nothing but vague sounds and notes in a slow melody
reminiscent of tearful farewells and yearning love. Even the stars
seemed to shine brighter. Salera's white hair crossed over the view
briefly, then moved away, revealing her cloak billowing around her
leggings in the breeze. But she didn't move.

After some time, her voice
faded to nothing.

["You have a beautiful
voice."]

The scene blurred a
moment. It settled on a small interior space of the ship, a short
platform between the man standing within the open hatch and Salera.
In the lights of the airlock, Vodin smiled.

["General. I didn't know
you were there."]

He shrugged and stepped
onto the platform. ["I came to apologize, but when I heard your
voice, I didn't want to disturb you."]

["Apologize?"]

He glanced out at the land
and sea far below, his shoulders rising and falling with a deep
breath. ["I treated you unfairly two days ago. My temper bested me,
but not because of my crew. I worry about you."] His eyes fixed on
her.

["Me? Why—because without
me it'll take seven turns of
Lis
to get home?"] Her words snapped.

His cheek twitched. ["No…I
mean, yes, but not only that."] He paused and looked up at the
stars. ["It's nothing like home."]

["It's beautiful, in its
own way."] Salera didn't fall for his distraction.

["That it is."] When his
eyes settled on her, they brightened with his smile.

A moment later, he
straightened, his eyes fixed on something beyond her.

The picture shifted away
from the ship to a figure approaching in the sky, long golden hair
blown aside revealing a trickle of red to match the blotch on the
shoulder of her white gown. The ship came into view again as the
focus followed the commander, who fell to her knees on the platform
before the general, gasping and clutching her shoulder.

["Commander
Rafael."]

["Sir…"] She collapsed
forward. ["I failed."]

Salera hurried to her with
the general.

["What happened?"] Vodin
held the woman's head up, revealing the cut along her scalp by the
lights from the airlock.

["Barbarians. Brigands.
Spies. They…overheard and attacked."] She struggled to sit up and
something thumped onto the platform. ["We can't leave it here. It's
not safe."]

Salera reached for the
round metal around a glass center bearing a familiar streak of
green-blue.

Aquamarine fire consumed
the image.

The fire coursed through Raea, burning
her in its heat.

["Hey. Wake up."] She knew the voice
disturbing her dreams. Whoever it was gently shook her.

Raea gasped for a breath to
cool her and opened her eyes. Chris squatted before her, already
dressed in the black flightsuit. His bare hand warmed her
shoulder.
Meistal.
The resonance she detected; that must have warmed her. It
faded when he sat back. Memories of the day before shoved aside the
vision of Salera.

She twisted to check the room. Leksel
was gone. The house seemed empty except for her and Cris. ["Where
is everyone?"] She stretched and wiped her eyes.

["Outside, except for Kayan. She's
resting with the baby. You've slept half the morning."]

["I did?"] She yawned and stretched
her arms again, giving her wings a chance to stretch out the
cramps. Much better. Cris stepped back, a grin on his face. Raea
paused, suspicious of his thoughts. ["What're you staring
at?"]

He shrugged and leaned against a small
table. ["Nothing. Nothing. Oh. Kayan left your clothes in the
bathroom. She was kind to clean them for us last night. Of course,
you don't have to change there. I mean, you're free to do whatever
you want."]

As if she'd fall for that. ["Keep
dreaming."]

In that light-hearted mood of his, he
laughed.

He could chuckle about it all he
wanted. If he thought it was fun to tease her about seeing her
naked, he was wrong. So wrong. The idea insulted her, and she
disliked him worse each time he tried. At least Leksel never hinted
at anything suggestive. Elis had only shown her respect too. He
never forced himself on her.

Raea hurried to the bathroom, aware of
her bare back exposed to Cris, and shut the door.

Damn him. Sometimes his teasing went
too far. What a way to wake up. Why couldn't it have been Leksel?
For that matter, if Corsa had stayed with them, she would have been
preferable to the men. Raea could use a woman's company.

She hurried to pull on the flightsuit,
welcoming the fresh scent. Clean never smelled so good. The back
flap was another matter, but she didn't dare ask Cris for
help.

After a small struggle and pulling a
muscle in her shoulder, she secured the strap through the loops at
the back of the collar.

Now for her hair. She had no brush and
while sleeping with it wet, it had dried with odd kinks. She'd have
to borrow the same one Kayan had loaned her the night before, the
one on the stand by the shower. The activity yesterday had left her
hair in a horrible mess, even with it in a ponytail from her flight
with Nare. Today she'd braid it.

Satisfied with her reflection in the
mirror, Raea stepped out with a smile. The scent of food called to
her stomach, and her feet obeyed.

Cris sucked in a hissing breath and
let it out in a noisy sigh.

Whatever. Raea marched past him to the
dining area.

Kayan looked up from a steaming pan on
a flat section of the counter on one wall and smiled.
["Hungry?"]

["Very."]

["It's almost time for the midday
meal. Dargilis and the boys should be home soon."]

["Where are they?"] Raea hadn't even
heard them leave.

Cris stepped into the doorway and
stopped.

["He said something about
catching
dobriens
today,"] Kayan said.

["What's…
dobriens?
"]

Kayan blinked as if she'd said the
most ridiculous thing.

Embarrassment warmed through Raea. How
was she to know? But Kayan didn't know she came from Earth. Kayan
probably expected every Inari knew everything about their world,
like Elis had probably took it for granted that she understood
bonding.

In that light, she couldn't blame him
for not saying anything.

Cris stepped forward and
took a seat across from Raea. ["It's an animal that flies in large
packs. Dumb animals but tasty, especially the tender underbellies
and their thick tails. I haven't had fresh—or
any—
dobrien
in a
very
very
long
time."] His wings opened and sagged with his body, a satisfied grin
on his face.