From Across the Clouded Range (28 page)

When he had recovered enough to
reclaim his senses, he turned his attention to the motionless
bundle that he was struggling to hold above the water. Tethina
should have been gasping for the same air he was enjoying, but
there was no movement in her chest, no gasping, no sputtering. No
breathing at all.

In a panic, he looked at her. Her face
was a ghostly white disrupted only by the pale blue around her lips
and eyes. Her mouth was closed. Her nostrils were still. Nothing
moved to bring in the life-giving air that was now available. Dasen
was frantic. What else could he do? He forced her mouth open. Water
ran out, but no air rushed in to fill the void it left.

Without any idea of what else to do,
he turned to the last refuge of the hopeless: he prayed. He made
every promise he could think to make. He offered his wealth, his
knowledge, his unending service, even his own life, but there was
no answer. Tears welled in his eyes. He cried out in frustration,
unleashed a curse at the Order, and made a final plea to any
heathen power that may be watching. He squeezed Tethina’s middle as
hard as he could, refusing to let her go. Water bubbled from her
mouth, and with a tremendous gasp, her lungs filled.

Tethina pulled in the air with great
coughing gasps. Dasen made his own gasps of relief as he watched
her eyes flutter open, but she did not seem to see anything. For a
moment, she lay motionless against him, breathing deeply. Her chest
rose and fell, her nostrils flared to bring in the air that soon
returned color to her cheeks and banished the blue from her lips.
Her body was rigid, every muscle taught as her eyes searched the
sky with growing desperation.

Then she panicked. She flailed her
arms and kicked her feet. Her head pounded the water. Unprepared,
Dasen retracted as her heels struck his shins. He ducked to avoid
her head and ended up underwater. Tethina tore at his hands until
he nearly lost her. And she screamed, a terrible, angry scream that
seemed to shake the entire river.

“
Stop!” Dasen managed to
yell before his head was forced back under. “Stop or I’ll have to
let you go!” Again his head went under. He held Tethina with all
his might, put his every effort into keeping her above the water,
but she was too strong. He had to let her go or drown
himself.

Salvation hit him squarely on the
head. It nearly knocked him senseless. The trunk of a tree was
standing in the water, and he had hit it full on. Then the river
nearly sucked him under it before he was able to shift his grip
from Tethina. He clasped the trunk and looked for her. She clung to
a branch, sputtered, wiped the water from her face, then examined
her surroundings with wide eyes.

“
We’re okay,” Dasen
assured. “You had a close call, but it’s okay now.”

Tethina just nodded and clung to the
tree like an infant to its mother. Dasen strengthened his grip
against the current flowing under the tree and considered. He was
hanging on a large fir that had grown too close to the river and
tumbled into the water with its dislocated roots still clinging to
the bank. Just enough of the tree now stuck out of the water to
give Dasen a good lump and stop their progress down the river. The
tree trunk ran all the way to the bank a dozen or more paces away.
They could climb it to safety, but it was on the wrong side of the
river. They would be trapped on the western bank with no way across
except the bridge in Randor’s Pass.

A look across the river showed a
logging camp. Where there should have been trees stood only stumps.
A small wooden jetty had been placed in the water so the loggers
could maneuver the trees down the river. If they could get across
to that, they could easily climb out. There might even been shelter
and food in the camp. Maybe even men who could help them. If he
could get Tethina to calm down, they might be able to kick their
way across. He looked toward her, hoping to share his plan, but she
was gone.

His heart raced. Had she been sucked
back into the river? He search and found her just in time to see
her bound across the last ten feet of the log, leap from the roots,
and stumble through a patch of brambles out of sight. He cursed
silently but hoisted himself onto the log and followed. Feeling
every one of his countless injuries, he crawled down the log on his
hands and knees until he was on firm, dry ground. Another moment
was spent steadying himself as it suddenly felt like the river had
turned his entire body into water. Finally, he looked for Tethina
and found her on the other side of the brambles, sitting in a small
clearing with her head down, back to him, weeping silently. She
looked dreadful. The tattered dress clung to her. Water flowed from
her tangled hair. Her legs, sticking out from under the blue dress,
were lined with scratches. One of her small feet was bare. Her
shoulders shook, but she did not make a sound.

Watching her, Dasen felt his heart
break. It had only been a day, but he suddenly felt closer to
Tethina than to any other person in the world. Suddenly, he knew
what it was to want to hold someone, to drive away their pain and
fear, to protect them from all the hurt and sorrow of the world.
His sympathy mixed with his fear, pain, and fatigue to leave him on
the verge of his own tears. He moved through the brambles, ignoring
the way the thorns grabbed at his legs, and knelt beside her. He
placed his hand on the side of her head, ran it down her face in a
comforting gesture. Her eyes rose, and his hand froze on her cheek.
Suddenly, he could not move. Could not see, breathe, hear, or
speak. All he could do was look into Tethina’s stormy-blue eyes.
Eventually, it seemed an eternity, she pulled herself up, wrapped
her arms around him, and held him in a desperate embrace as she
unleashed her sorrow on his shoulder.

Dasen was stunned. He had started to
think that she was incapable of emotion, but she buried her face
into his shoulder and shook from her tears. He reached his arm
around her slim figure and pulled her closer still. His other hand
went to her head and stroked back her wet hair. He tried to think
of comforting words. None would come.

They held each other for a long time
in the twilight of the forest until Tethina's tears faded. She
pulled her head away from his shoulder, running her cheek along his
until she stopped with their faces inches apart. Dasen looked into
her eyes and ran his hand along her face. As their mouths met,
Dasen closed his eyes and cautiously kissed his wife.

The kiss was tentative, little more
than a peck, but it grew in intensity as their inhibitions were
lost. They replaced their miseries with that warm embrace, and
though it was clumsy, neither of them knew any better. In that
moment, there was no pain, no fear. The men in the village were
forgotten, the fiery coach was ages away, and the river sounded
like a symphony rather than a monster that had nearly killed them
only minutes before. The moment was wonderful.

It was also short lived. Tethina
jumped back without warning and pushed Dasen away from her with
frightful force. He fell backward and lay reeling. He looked at her
for an explanation but found only reprisal in her cold eyes. What
had he done? Had he touched her the wrong way? Had he pressed
himself too close? Had he accidentally bitten her tongue or lip?
She had seemed to find no protest before that moment, so what had
changed? He rattled through questions. His tongue, still burning,
stumbled to say anything at all.

Tethina glared at him. The same look,
he realized, that he had seen in the coach. But this had been her
as much as him. He had not done anything to force her. He had not
touched anything but her back, had done nothing more than kiss her
and received the same in return.

"What do you think you were doing?”
Tethina finally asked, her voice as hard and sharp as her eyes.
“What made you think you could kiss me like that? Just because you
pulled me out the river doesn’t mean I’ll lay with you here in some
clearing. What is wrong with you?” She paused as if she actually
expected him to answer, but he could not make a sound, let alone
words. “Well, I will tell you something, if that’s the kind of
reward you expect, then next time you can leave me in the river!
Understand?"

Dasen did not. He did not understand a
single word she had said, but they hit him like stones. Stunned, he
looked for an explanation in her cool eyes, but nothing was offered
beyond the same hard stare. Finally, he stopped stammering and
simply turned away. There was nothing he could say, so he just
fought to conceal his pain, to remain upright despite a world that
seemed intent on crushing him. Most of all, he fought to forget the
way that kiss had felt. The last was the most difficult by
far.

Choking back tears with grinding
teeth, Dasen felt all the compassion he had felt a minute ago
turning into bile. She was nothing but a mean-spirited, heartless
beast. No wonder the villagers hated her. How could anyone love
her? Teeth clenched, face set, he rose to his feet – a difficult
task given the fatigue that gripped his muscles to the point of
shaking – and returned her cold stare with one of his own. He had
been nothing but caring, had done nothing to deserve her scorn, and
he refused to let her believe otherwise. He would not apologize
this time. Let the vile girl hate him. He had done nothing
wrong.

Tethina held his eyes for a long time
before even her resolution began to waver. Her bottom lip crept up
under her teeth, and she turned away. "Well, come on. We can’t just
sit here all night.”

Chapter 14

Pine needles stabbed the bottom of
Teth’s foot with every other step, but she just kept walking,
walking away from the river and from Dasen. She could feel his eyes
boring into her as if trying to blame her for what had happened.
Shoes or no, she was not going to put up with that. The boy was
lucky that she had lost her knife in the river, or she would have .
. . .

She realized that she did not know
what she would have done, but she knew that it would have been
unpleasant. She could not believe his audacity. If any of the
village boys had tried that – and upon occasion they had – she
would have broken their fingers – and upon occasion she had. So why
could she still feel his arms holding her, his lips, his. . . . She
stopped herself right there and expelled the thoughts from her
mind. Certainly, it had been nice for a moment, but she knew enough
about boys to know that they never had just kissing in mind.
Kissing only opened their minds to other things, and Dasen’s mind
was already far too open.

Turning her attention to the task at
hand, she realized that she had come to a stop for dread of the
next step. Her right foot already ached from the few barefoot steps
she had taken, and her eyes were searching without luck for
somewhere soft to end the next. Everything around her seemed to
have a sharp point, and they were all pointing up.

"Aren’t you going the wrong
direction?” Dasen yelled from behind her. “We’re on the wrong side
of the river. We need to swim across to the logging camp. They may
have food and shelter there.”

Teth cut off her search to glower at
him. “Since when do you have any idea where we are? We are right
where we should be. Besides, the Exiles couldn’t get me back in
that river. If you want to swim, and end up half-way down the
river, be my guest, but good luck getting anywhere without
me.”

Dasen huffed, obviously considering
his argument. Teth watched him with arms across her chest,
expression flat. “So how do you plan on getting across the river?”
he finally asked. “What are you planning to walk across the bridge
into the arms of the bandits?”

Teth snorted. “This is the forest, not
your university. You’re not the smartest person in the room
anymore. In fact, you’re an imbecile. You don’t know a damned
thing, and the sooner you realize that, the better off you’ll be.
This is my world. I am the professor here. If I say we are where we
need to be, you believe it. You nod and follow. Or I leave you here
to starve. Got it?”

Dasen recoiled. His teeth clenched. He
drew the breath to continue. Teth squared her shoulders, ready to
fight. She held every card. He was as good as dead without her, but
he was a boy, so he would still have to argue, would have to feel
like he was in charge, like he was the one saving them. Well, she
wasn’t going to stand for it. She was too tired to save them and
stroke his pathetic ego at the same time.

“
Whatever you say, then.”
Dasen’s eyes blazed. His mouth twisted with anger, but his voice
remained low. “You’re right. We’re in your world, but just
remember, it won’t always be this way. Someday, we’ll be back
in
my
world, and
you’re going to want
my
help.” His eyes never left hers as he walked
past, brushing her rudely aside as he did. “Come on, then. If you
know so much, lead!”

Watching his square back
bobbing through the trees before her, bum knee making the defiance
of his stride into a stagger, Teth felt all the air leave her. She
choked as surely as if she were back in the river.
What have I done? By the Order, he hates
me.
She had turned him completely against
her just as she had the villagers. It was starting all over
again.

“
Are you coming?” Dasen
yelled from in front of her. “Apparently, I am an imbecile, so
where are you professor?”