Sweet Starfire (34 page)

The liquid felt wonderfully cool and bracing in the morning air. She even undid her frazzled braids and washed her hair in the bubbling stream. She arranged it loosely around her shoulders to dry in the sun. By the time she was finished, Cidra decided that she felt like a new woman. She put her trousers back on but decided to rinse out her shirt. Leaving it to dry on the green carpet, she picked up the pulser and walked to the edge of the circle to look for breakfast. Carefully she put herself into the trance that enabled her to become a hunter.

Severance yawned and stretched, distantly aware of an ache in his shoulder. He flexed it irritably and felt the pull of bandages. Slowly memory returned. He was stiff, and his head no longer felt nearly as comfortable as it had when he’d been sleeping in Cidra’s lap.

Cidra’s lap.

The thought opened his eyes. He saw the curving translucent wall rising above him, felt the green cushion under his back, and wondered how in a renegade’s hell he’d been so stupid as to let himself get used for target practice by a lockmouth.

Reluctantly he rolled onto his side, looking for Cidra. He saw her rise from the edge of the stream, her slender body nude from the waist up. Her sweetly curved breasts looked perfect in the primitive morning light. The dark brown fire of her hair gleamed damply in the sun. Severance stared at her in silence, absorbing the sight of her, and then he winced at the direction of his thoughts. He was definitely feeling better, Severance decided.

He was about to speak when he saw Cidra bend down, scoop up the pulser, and walk to the edge of the circle. At first he thought she had seen something to alarm her, and then he saw her sink down into a cross-legged position. She went very still, her slender back elegantly straight. Before long, there was a flash of movement in the bushes. As calmly and coolly as a lifelong huntress she squeezed the trigger. A hopper flopped to the ground within easy reach.

Severance stared at the scene with a sense of shock that quickly changed to admiration. He sat up as she reached out of the circle to catch hold of the hopper by its ears.

“Is this the same lady who can’t look a torla steak in the eye?”

“Severance!” She whirled around, the hopper in one fist, and gazed at him in delight. For an instant, relief and-happiness lit her whole face, and then she remembered that she wasn’t wearing her shirt. A tide of pink flowed into her cheeks and throat. She dropped the hopper and made a dash for the damp garment she had left beside the stream. “How are you feeling?” she asked as she turned away from him to put on the wet shirt.

“Like I’ve been hit with a freight sled.”

She turned around as she finished fastening the shirt and peered at him. “You look much better. I’ve been very worried, Severance. You were quite feverish from the wound.”

He shrugged his injured shoulder, assessing the pain critically. “I think I’m going to live. How much time have we lost?”

“We’ve spent two nights here in the circle.” She came forward slowly. “Do you remember any of it?”

He smiled. “Some. You have a very nice lap.” He started to get to his feet. Something sharp on the ground dug into his leg. He reached down and picked up a small, jagged object. “Where did this come from?”

Cidra glanced at the scrap of shell. “Now that,” she said, “is a very interesting story.”

“You can tell it to me while I clean the hopper.”

Her eyes brightened. “Do you feel up to cleaning it? I can’t say I like the job.”

He grimaced. “How many have you cleaned?”

“Two.”

Severance shook his head wonderingly. “Incredible. You’ve become a real carnivore.”

She made a face. “I prefer not to think about it.”

He held out his hand. “I can handle the pulser again too. Maybe not quite as well as you seem to be doing, but it would make me feel useful.”

She glanced down at the weapon in her fingers. “I’ve grown used to having it around.”

Severance realized that her reluctance to give him the pulser was real. Gently he took it from her and examined the charge window. “How many shots did it take to get the first hopper? The charge is way down.”

“Oh,” she said easily, “I’ve been shooting a lot of things besides hoppers.”

Her words sent a distinct jolt through him. A fleeting glimpse of a nightmare cropped up from out of nowhere. There had been something evil and dangerous in his fevered dreams, something that had demanded his help. The image flickered and died, leaving behind an unpleasant taste.

“I think you’d better tell me what I’ve missed,” Severance said.

“Eggs, Severance. Those stones were some creature’s eggs. Really nasty little renegades too. The one you were clinging to tried to eat you alive the second it hatched. Don’t you remember anything at all about going back into the safehold to bring out one of the stones?”

Severance concentrated on the task of butchering the hopper. “No.” Then he hesitated, his jaw tightening. “There were some dreams, though.”

“Dreams?” Cidra waited, aware that he was struggling with himself. She couldn’t decide if he was trying to remember or trying to forget.

Severance paused with the knife in his hand and stared unseeingly into the jungle. “I remember having to do something. It was important. No, it was imperative. Something’s life depended on it. And if I obeyed, I would stop freezing. I was so damned cold. That’s all I remember.”

Cidra wasn’t sure she believed him, but she did believe that was all he wanted to remember. “You insisted on going back into the safehold. I tried to stop you with my Moonlight and Mirrors routine. I might as well have been trying to dance with you.”

His head came around quickly, eyes alarmed. “Did I hurt you?”

“Knocked me flat,” she assured him cheerfully. Seeing the expression on his face, she relented. “Don’t worry about it. I’m fine. You weren’t out to hurt me, you just wanted to be left alone. The interesting part about all this is that when you went inside the safehold to get the egg, you didn’t trigger the illusions.”

“How do you know? Perhaps I was too far gone to know what I was seeing.”

“I know because I went in after you, and I didn’t see a thing.”

“You went in after me?” He sighed as if in resignation, but he didn’t launch into a lecture. “Go on.”

She told him about the hatching of the egg and her decision to destroy the rest of them. “The illusions didn’t stop me when I tried to leave the safehold after finishing off those eggs, either. I think they were tied to them somehow. A protective device. I wouldn’t be surprised if the idea was that the illusions trapped the prey close to the eggs.”

“Food for the hatchlings?”

“And perhaps a source of warmth for them. No telling how long those eggs have been in there. It wasn’t until you curled around one that it hatched. What kind of creature could it have been, Severance? From everything we’ve seen nothing else on this planet except us has crossed the boundary of this circle or gone into the safehold.”

“Except the Ghosts themselves,” he pointed out.

“I refuse to believe that those blue things are related to the Ghosts in any way.”

“You’re the well-educated member of the crew, Cidra. You should know by now that refusing to believe in something doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.”

“Those egg creatures are something out of a nightmare,” she insisted. “The Ghosts were a gentle, civilized people.”

“Who at one time conquered this very ungentle, uncivilized planet. They might have become soft at the end, but they sure as hell weren’t at the beginning.”

“I’m not going to argue with you about it. I just know that those blue things aren’t related to the Ghosts.”

“Maybe they were watchdogs for the Ghosts,” Severance suggested thoughtfully. “Guardians for the safehold?”

“I don’t think so. There’s something wrong about those eggs and the creatures inside them. They don’t fit in here on Renaissance.”

At that comment Severance laughed shortly. “Anything that can kill its own food and eat it raw fits in just fine here on Renaissance.”

Cidra folded her arms across her chest, pacing restlessly around the circle. “It wasn’t just that they were vicious and ugly. Lots of things here seem to be vicious and ugly. But even the worst of them, that lockmouth for instance, seem to belong in some way I can’t explain. Those eggs don’t. Or didn’t. Remember when we first went into the safehold, you said there was a feeling of alienness?”

“Yeah. You didn’t agree, though. You were too wrapped up with Ghost stories.”

“It wasn’t the Ghosts who felt alien. But the presence of the eggs might have bothered your instincts on some level.”

“My instincts are fairly basic, Cidra. Chiefly focused on staying alive, eating, sleeping, and, uh, one or two other fundamental matters. They’re not the elevated, intuitive instincts of a Harmonic. I don’t see why I would have sensed the eggs in some special manner.”

She stopped pacing at the edge of the circle. “Well, whatever they were, they’re gone now.”

He stood up, leaving the skinned hopper on the ground near the edge of the circle. Coming up behind Cidra, Severance said softly, “Thanks to you. I’m not sure I’m paying you enough. I’ve never had a crew member quite like you, Cidra Rainforest. Loyalty and resourcefulness above and beyond the call.”

She turned, aware of a deep feeling of pleasure. She dipped her head formally. “It is as nothing, Teague Severance. Do not concern yourself. All is serene.”

He grinned, a brief flash of teeth that disappeared quickly as his eyes grew serious. “Still a few remnants of Harmonic ways left, hm? Amazing. How are you handling the transformation, Cidra?”

Her flush of pleasure faded. She thought about killing hoppers and little blue monsters. Memories of trying to stay awake with a sick man lying in her lap and a pulser in her hand flooded her mind. “There has not been a great deal of choice in the matter.”

He looked at her oddly. “No, there hasn’t, has there? I haven’t given you much choice.” Abruptly he turned away to set up the flamer.

Sensing his inner withdrawal, Cidra stood quietly, watching his efficient manners. “Your arm seems much better this morning.”

“Yes.”

“Severance, while you were delirious you said I was like Jeude. But I’m not, am I?”

He studied the flame he had started before answering slowly.

“Jeude had great courage. He would have done what had to be done. But it would have torn him apart.”

“It hasn’t torn me apart.” She made the observation almost to herself.

“You shouldn’t have had to face what you’ve faced since you shipped out with me. You weren’t raised to confront murderers and monsters. I should have followed my instincts that first night and packed you off to Clementia.”

“You didn’t have that choice, Teague Severance. I make my own decisions.”

“Let’s argue about it after we get back to Try Again.”

She wanted to argue now. Cidra lifted her head proudly, prepared to defend herself and her rights. But she stopped cold as her eye caught a flash of movement at the edge of the circle.

“Severance!”

He was on his feet at once, the pulser in his fist. “What is it?”

“The hopper. The one you just finished cleaning. It’s gone.”

He swore, striding toward the spot where the carcass had lain on the ground. “I left it inside the circle.”

Cidra’s eyes widened. “I know. Something with a long orange tail just reached into the circle and grabbed it. Severance, in all the time we’ve been here nothing has come inside that circle.”

“Either there’s something else besides us that’s immune or…” He dug the toe of his boot into the invisible line of protection. A small worm slithered to the surface and disappeared again. Until now there hadn’t even been any worms inside the protected area. “Or the circle is shrinking.”

“Why would it start shrinking now?”

“How should I know? It might have been a lot bigger once than it is now. It might have been gradually shrinking all along but at such a slow rate that you haven’t noticed.”

“Or perhaps it started fading when the mind call was activated one last time. It’s probably all connected.” Unhappily she stared at the edge of the circle. “I hope everything we’ve found isn’t going to disappear. There’s so much to learn here, Severance. So much to be explored.”

“We can worry about that later. Right now we’ve got another problem.”

“What problem?”

He absently massaged his shoulder. “I was thinking of spending one more night here and leaving in the morning. But if this circle is shrinking, I don’t want to risk it. The whole reeting thing could disintegrate in the middle of the night, and we’d be left in what would definitely qualify as an awkward situation. We’ll have to start back to the campsite today.”

“Do you feel up to making the journey?” Cidra asked anxiously.

“My shoulder’s stiff, but I feel fairly normal.”

“I would have thought that the fever would have left you feeling exhausted.”

“I know. But maybe the fever wasn’t caused by the wound,” Severance said thoughtfully. “Maybe it had something to do with what happened in the safehold. If I’ve been as sick as you’ve said, I shouldn’t be feeling this good so soon. But my shoulder feels the way it should after two days of that antiseptic. And I’m not weak the way I should be after spending several hours in a delirium.”

“You think the eggs caused the fever? I wonder. What if they were capable of sensing your weakness after the lock-mouth clawed your shoulder? Perhaps they sensed the blood and somehow focused on you. Something drew you back into that safehold. And when you came out, you wouldn’t let go of that stone.”

His mouth tightened. “I think our luck here is running out.

We’ll be better off making a try for the campsite than sitting here waiting for the circle to collapse. This time around I’ll make it a point to stay alert on the trip out. Let’s get our stuff together.”

Cidra obeyed, collecting the water bag and the knife as Severance repacked the utility loop. She paused when she spotted the stone shard on the ground. “I think I’ll take this back to Desma. She’ll find it interesting.” She dropped it into her pocket.