Rayne's Return (Hearts of ICARUS Book 3) (23 page)

There were several light kisses, usually before she went to bed, but they were careful to keep things from growing hot and passionate again.  She understood that it was important to them to wait until she got stronger, and she accepted that since when she wasn’t with them or eating, she was sleeping anyway.  She also understood how much more difficult it would be for all of them if they didn’t keep a little distance between each other.  What mattered most to her was that she’d begun to think of them as
her men
, and she had no doubt that they wanted her as much as she wanted them.  It was enough. 

She drank the
sasuna
every day as prescribed and was stunned by the results after just a few days.  She was still too thin, but her body was filling out, her muscle tone was improved, and her color was returning.  She had a little way to go yet before she was back to normal, but she no longer doubted that she’d get there.

She’d been sad when Landor and Con had told her that Pip had a Controller, but at the same time it relieved her worry on that subject.  It was unfortunate that they hadn’t been able to learn much from it, but at least they’d been able to order it to deactivate the suicide protocols. 

As she’d expected, Pip had been devastated to learn he had a Controller.  Since he didn’t completely trust that it would remain inactive, he’d confined himself to his quarters and asked that guards be posted outside his door, just to be safe.  He communicated with his medical staff through Blake and the vid-terminal, and refused to let anyone visit him except for Landor, Con, and Ari for fear that the Controller might use him to harm someone.

The bulk of her memories seemed to be returning in chronological order which was beginning to frustrate her since her newly surfaced recollections were of experiment after experiment being performed on her while she was helpless to do anything but scream in silence.  She saw no reason to upset Landor, Con, and Ari with the details, so she glossed over them, saying only that the Doftle had done a lot of experiments.  She was relieved that they didn’t try to press her, and happy that they trusted her to tell them anything they needed to know.  She just hoped that she’d get past this phase of her captivity soon so she could remember something helpful.

On the day they reached Onddo she woke up feeling completely rested for the first time since her return.  She also had a new memory that did not include an experiment, but she wanted time to think about it before she shared it because it made so little sense to her.  She drank her morning
sasuna
, took her walk on the treadmill, then showered and dressed before meeting the guys for breakfast, following their newly established routine.  Seeing that she was preoccupied, they spoke quietly among themselves throughout the meal.

“Thanks, guys,” she said when they got up to leave. 

“You’re welcome,” Landor said.  “What are you thanking us for?”

“For being so patient,” she said.  “I love how you always give me time to think about things without pushing or rushing me, even though I know your curiosity must be about killing you.”

“I wouldn’t go so far as to say that it’s killing us,” Landor said, opening the cafeteria door and waiting for her to step through.

“I would,” Con said with a deep scowl.  Rayne laughed at him, then went up on her toes to give him a quick kiss.  He had to bend down so she could reach him, but he didn’t seem to mind.

“That’s not fair,” Landor grumbled.  “Why does he get a kiss when I was clearly much nicer?”  Rayne rolled her eyes, then kissed Landor and Ari. 

“Now, if everyone’s happy for the moment, I have a question,” she said.

“Certainly,” Landor said.  “What is it?”

“I seem to remember you telling me that you had a piano onboard.  Was that a dream, or do you really have one?”

“It wasn’t a dream, and we do really have one,” Landor replied, turning to walk up the corridor with her at his side and Con and Ari behind them.  “Would you like to play?”

“Yes, I would,” she replied.  “I’ve had this bit of music playing over and over in my mind since I woke up, but I couldn’t remember at first where it came from.  It was familiar, but not.  Do you know what I mean?”

“Sort of,” Ari said, pressing the elevator call button.  “Did you remember where it was from?”

“Yes,” she said quietly as they entered the elevator.  Landor felt her worry even though she did a good job of hiding it even without her shield.

“We’re all right,
Kisu
,” he reassured her. 

She looked into his eyes for a long moment, then nodded.  “I kept thinking that I’d get past the memories of the experiments and remember more important things.  Well, I did remember more, at least.  But what I remembered is that I was kept immobile and connected to those machines for eleven months.”

“Eleven months,” Con said softly, shaking his head as they all stepped out of the elevator, then paused in a small group to continue their conversation.  “Were you conscious the entire time?”

“Yes,” she said simply, and left it at that.

“How did you keep your sanity?” Ari asked.

“That’s where the music comes in,” she said.  “I wrote a full concerto.”

“You wrote music in your mind and memorized it?” Ari asked.  “An entire concerto?”

“That was part of the challenge I set for myself.  To write it, and remember every note.  Unfortunately, I only remember a small bit right now, but I’m hoping that if I play it, that the rest will come back to me.”

“If it doesn’t, it still served its purpose in keeping you sane,” Con said.

“Yes, it did,” she agreed.  “I recall thinking it was pretty good though, so I’d really like to remember it.  Do you have something I can use to record what I play?  Just so I don’t forget again before I get a chance to write it down.”

“Knowing that you enjoy composing, we’ve had a full recording system installed, including a program that will convert whatever you play into written format,” Landor said.

“You guys really went all out,” she said, smiling up at him.  “Thank you so much.”

“It was our pleasure,
Kisu
,” Landor said, turning her gently with a light touch of his fingers, then guiding her up the corridor.  He stopped just a couple of doors away from the master suite to let Ari unlock the door and open it. 

“Oh my,” she whispered as she entered the room.  The history of keyboard instruments, particularly the piano, had been a hobby of hers since she was a child, and she knew immediately that the full sized grand piano in the center of the room was something special.  The deep blue lacquer finish gleamed in the soft overhead lights as she walked all the way around it, inspecting each detail, shocked by the slow realization of what she was looking at.  When she returned to the front of the piano and raised the fall to confirm her suspicion, she gasped aloud and stepped back, almost afraid to touch it further.

“This isn’t a copy,” she said.  “This is an original Steinway
Starshine
circa 2200, Earth.  If I remember correctly, there were only twenty five of this particular design made, and fewer than half of those are still in existence today.  The inlaid stars are rhodium with diamond accents and the keys are hand carved…where did you find this?”

“You like it?” Ari asked, grinning at the expression of wonder on her face.

“Like it?” she asked.  “I’m in awe of it.  I’m not sure I’d have the nerve to play it though.  This instrument deserves a gifted pianist, which I’m not.  I only play well enough to write music for gifted pianists.”

“It would be a shame if you didn’t play it since it belongs to you,” Landor said.

“Me?” she squeaked. 

“Of course,” he replied, smiling down at her as Ari and Con chuckled.  Her reaction was all they’d hoped for, and more.  “We certainly don’t know how to play.”

“It’s too much,” she said.  “I don’t need anything this rare and beautiful.”

“As you are rare and beautiful to us, we find that it suits you perfectly,” Con said.  “Also, it’s a work of art.  We hoped it would inspire you in the creation of your own art.”

“I don’t know the right words to thank you for this,” she said.  “A simple everyday
thank you
just isn’t enough.”

“Yes, it is,” Landor said.  “Well, that and the sparkle in your eyes.”

She smiled, then sighed as she watched Ari pull the bench out for her.  “It seems that I’ll be spending the remainder of my life aboard this ship just so I can play this instrument whenever I want.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Con said.  “There’s another piano already installed in our home for you.”

“You can’t possibly mean another one like this,” she said.  “Can you?”

“The shape is similar,” he replied, “but it’s made of Favlian glass.”  He grinned when her mouth fell open in shock.  “It has honeysuckle imbedded in the glass, and to be honest, it’s my favorite of the two.”

“Are you serious?” she asked.  “True Favlian glass?  Really?” 

“Yes, really, and yes, it’s true Favlian glass,” Landor said, all three of their faces lit with happiness as they watched her responses to their gifts. 

“Favlian glass pianos are considered to be the finest keyboard instruments ever created in the Thousand Worlds, past or present,” she said.  “They’re not actually glass at all.  They’re a unique type of crystal which gives them a depth and richness of tone that cannot be reproduced by even the most advanced synthesizers.”

“Which is exactly why we procured one for you,” Landor said.  When she opened her mouth to argue, he silenced her with a touch on the cheek.  “We didn’t do this because we think you expect it, Rayne.  Nor did we do it to impress you.  We did this because we wanted to see the look on your face when we showed them to you, and because we want you to have the best, most beautiful instruments in the galaxy.” 

“Well, you certainly got that part right,” she said.  “Thank you.  So much.  I never would have dreamed that I would one day have the opportunity to touch a Favlian glass piano, let alone play one.  And this Steinway.  How did you manage to find this?” 

“It took a couple of years, actually, but eventually we found one owned by a collector on Terien who was willing to sell,” Ari said.  “It wasn’t in very good shape, but it was a certified original.  We had it sent to the Steinway factory on Earth, and they restored it using the original design plans, which took another couple of years.  Like the concerto you wrote, this project gave us something to do while we were waiting for you.”

“And the Flavian piano?” she asked curiously.  “Is it an antique as well?”

“No, that one we had designed specifically for you by none other than the great Johannis Turner,” Landor replied.  “We purchased the rights to the design, too, so no one else in the Thousand Worlds will have that same piano.”

She swallowed hard, struggling to hold back tears.  “It’s beyond words,” she said, hugging Landor, then Ari.  “
Thank
you
will never be enough.”

“The expression on your face and in your eyes is all the thanks we could ever ask for,” Con said after she hugged him.  “Come, sit down and play for us.  We had it tuned just before leaving Jasan, and this room is climate controlled, so hopefully it will sound as it should.”

Rayne gave him a brilliant smile, then sat down on the bench and took another moment just to admire the keyboard.  Then she raised her hands, laid them lightly on the keys, and began to play.  The notes were so rich that it almost surprised her into stopping.  She’d played good instruments before, even owned a synthesizer that mimicked the tones of different types of pianos almost perfectly, but nothing she’d ever played came close to matching the warmth and beauty of the Steinway in sound, touch, or sight.

The melody that had been running through her mind all morning seemed to flow through her fingers, and into the piano, filling the room.  But as she tried to remember what came next, she faltered.  She began again, this time closing her eyes and letting herself relax into the music, feeling rather than thinking, and it came to her.  A few minutes later, when she was finished with the first movement, she stopped and looked up at the Bearen-Hirus who stood along one side of the piano, watching her.

“You wrote that music while unable to move, completely under the Doftles’ control?” Landor asked.

“Yes,” she replied, unable to decipher the expressions on their faces, and too nervous to remember she could reach for their emotions.  “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong,
Kisu
,” he said.  “It’s beautiful, as is everything you write.  But what you just played is joyful and lighthearted.”

“Good,” she said, smiling.  “That’s what I hoped for.”

“I don’t understand how you could write something that evokes such happiness when you were in a place where such feelings could not have been yours.”

“That was the whole point.”

“Meaning?” Ari asked.

“It would have been easy to write music that was sad, devoid of hope, or even tragic,” she said.  “Since the reason for doing it at all was to occupy my mind, I needed to do something difficult, something I really had to work at.  So, I wrote music that was happy and uplifting.” 

“I can’t imagine how difficult that must have been for you,” Con said.

“It wasn’t easy, I admit,” she said.  “But based on what little I remember so far, I think I might have succeeded.”

“You certainly did,” Landor said.  “Is that everything you remembered when you woke up?  The music, and the time you spent immobilized?”

“Yes, but I remembered more while I was playing,” she said, closing the fall and getting up from the piano.  She slid the bench back into place and turned to face them.  “I remembered Wolef.”

“Who is Wolef?” Landor asked, trying not to scowl.

“He’s a dragon.  He could talk to me, in my mind I mean, and I could talk to him, too.  The first time he spoke to me was just a few days before I returned.  I was still connected to the machines at the time, and had no idea how much time had passed, or how long I’d been there, until he told me.”

“Was Wolef a prisoner too?” Landor asked.