TICEES (65 page)

Shan felt the blood run down into his torn and tender tissues, stretching his flesh mercilessly. He called on his Imperial training, stilling his heart and reducing his blood pressure. Then he closed his eyes and willed away the pain as much as he could. He took several deep, slow breaths, gradually putting weight on the leg, increasing the force until his weight was equally distributed. Then, incrementally, he began allowing his cardiovascular system to return to normal. His heart pounded, and the blood surged through his arteries, his tissues protesting. But he persevered until fatigue began to sap his reserves. Carefully, he lowered himself back down. Once seated, he immediately lay back on the barren floor and let his head tip back.

Chelan began to quake, and she raised her hands to her mouth as her eyes watered. She saw the perspiration on his body, and she ran to him. “It’s too early,” she breathed.

“No,” he exhaled. “The longer I wait, the stiffer and the more deconditioned I become.” He looked at her. “I knew it would do this. The other day in the pool I had to keep the thigh elevated. In addition to the tearing and the infection, whatever happened to cause all the damage also compressed a large area. Crush injuries just take time.”

Chelan looked down and found that she was automatically stroking his powerful chest in an attempt to soothe him. “From now on,” she began, “we do this in the pool. That way we don’t have to worry about future injuries in case you fall, and the water can provide the support that I cannot.”

Shan was finally catching his breath. “Good idea.”

Chelan jumped to her feet. She returned to him quickly and began swabbing down his salty body. But this time she did not stop at his waist, and she slid the soft pelt over his powerful legs and between them. When she was finished, she moved over and straightened the furs on his bed and patted it. “Over here,” she ordered. “I’ll get you some food and water.”

Shan watched her as she retrieved the water and a large quantity of meat. He moved to the bed as she returned to him, sitting beside him and joining him in the late morning breakfast. With his pain abated, he could barely take his eyes off her.

Chelan in turn was also having a hard time keeping her eyes off him. She had been so terribly lonely, and now that things were stable between them, she felt long-lost happiness once again welling up from her soul.

Finally she nodded to his leg. “I wonder if there is some nerve damage somewhere. Your femoral artery was severed. Maybe the lack of blood—”

“There is definitely nerve damage, especially from the crush. But the damage is not the result of the severed artery, unless both arteries were cut and I lost circulation for an extended time?”

Chelan tried not to betray her surprise. They had two femoral arteries? If that was true, then that was one of the reasons he had not bled out. “No, no, only one was damaged. I was just speculating.”

Shan nodded. “So, tell me, how did you get here?” he asked without preamble.

Chelan hesitated. “By accident,” she stated.

Shan continued to eat. “What kind of accident?”

Chelan looked to the floor. “It’s not something that I like to think about,” she uttered honestly. She glanced at him half, expecting a barrage of questions, but she seemed spared.

Chelan had her story pretty well worked out, but she knew that if he was in the Imperial service he was far from stupid. If she talked too much he would eventually find a flaw in her tale, and she could not allow that. Finally, she looked back up at him. “How did you get here?” she returned.

Shan laughed heartily. “By accident.”

Chelan laughed with him. “So I saw.”

Shan became serious. “Actually, I was on a fairly routine patrol, scanning the Dead Zone just before a storm. We encountered some enemy craft and, quite honestly, I’m not sure what happened. I know I was shot, but there had to be more to it. The ship should not have gone down.”

Chelan watched him eat as her heart took a telltale twist. “I’m glad it did,” she said, and she looked away quickly.

Shan stared at her. Slowly, a smile crept across his lips, and he swallowed his food. “I’m glad, too,” he whispered, and he watched with delight as she blushed.

Chelan took several deep breaths, avoiding his brilliant eyes. She decided to play ignorant in an effort to quell her raging curiosity. “You serve the Emperor?”

Shan simply nodded. “Ultimately,” he began. “Actually, I’m under the direct command of one of the Warlords, Toran.”

Chelan tried to keep eating as if she was unaffected by the familiar names and faces. “One of the Warlords,” she repeated. “How many are there?”

Shan selected another piece of meat and straightened himself slightly. “Many thousands, but there are only three Primary. And Toran is one of them.”

Chelan took a sip of water, wondering if she dared to ask more. “Are they great men?”

“The greatest,” he commented. He paused. “Just as great as the Lord God Emperor, in my estimation.”

Chelan smiled. “Have you met him?”

“Him, who?”

“Him, the Emperor,” she replied, chuckling.

“Uh huh, once,” he returned smiling.

“Was it exciting?”

Shan laughed and tugged at her hair playfully. “Why? Do you want to meet him?”

Chelan felt a cold spear lance down her spine, but she recovered instantly. She shrugged coyly. “Oh, you never know.”

Suddenly, Shan stopped eating and looked deep into her brown eyes. “Actually, he’d probably fancy you, Kayla. You are of his coloring.”

Chelan found herself suppressing a shudder. Then she sought to distract herself from dire thoughts of her ordeal. “My coloring,” she repeated. “The coloring of the Southern people?”

Shan put his meat down. “Is that where you are from?”

Chelan looked at him intently. “Where else would I be from?”

“I guess only you know that for sure. But I was unaware that the people of the South produced such demure beauties as you.”

Chelan looked down. “Well, they do,” she commented solemnly, “but we are not exactly prized.”

Shan suddenly stiffened and went to question her, but she interrupted him.

“So, tell me of the Emperor.”

Shan took in a deep breath, not sure he wanted to leave her comment alone, but obviously she wanted it left. “Well, actually, Ticees is an off-worlder, so he does not have our Northern features.” Shan looked at her carefully. “But most people know that, even the people of the South. They are our enemies. They know us and the Emperor intimately. How is it that you do not?”

Chelan stopped eating. “I was not afforded the opportunity of vast amounts of education, and in turn, I did not ask questions. But he does sound interesting.”

Shan bit off another piece of meat. He has bursting with questions, but he was afraid of scaring her back into her shell. He stared at her intently. “Yes, I suppose he does,” he commented almost absently.

Chelan realized he had as many questions about her as she had of him, but she dared not get too bold. She had already edged out on thin ice by identifying herself as a Southerner, a group of people she actually knew little about. And she was well aware that she would be obligated to answer his questions if he answered hers, so she summoned all her restraint and kept quiet.

Shan continued to watch her, her words troubling him. The words “not prized” and “not afforded an education” bothered him. Shan frowned. Was she considered inferior by the people of the South because of her small size or light hair? She would be considered weak by his people because of their rigorous breeding standards, but the people of the South had no such criteria as far as Shan knew. But what irked him more was the fact was that they treated her as an outcast. If she had been born to the people of the North, she would have been accepted, even if not allowed to reproduce. But if he was interpreting her correctly, she had been shunned totally by her people.

She suddenly stood, startling him from his thoughts. He watched her intently as she moved to the pool to clean her hands. “No more questions?” he asked.

Chelan turned and smiled at him. “No, I guess not. The Empire doesn’t really affect me out here.”

She watched him as he lay back on the furs. If he only knew how the Empire had affected her so far. His presence in her life comparatively was far from significant, but he would never know that, and Chelan smiled wryly. He would come and go from her life like all the others before him. As always, it was just a matter of time before she would be alone again.

The days turned into weeks, and the two captives spent their time in peaceful coexistence. Chelan continued to help Shan with his recovery and to entertain him with her light conversation and good humor. He never spoke specifically of the Empire again, and Chelan was afraid to ask about it, but he in turn never pressed her about her past, and no problems arose.

With each day he grew stronger, and he had finally begun to walk stiffly on his injured leg. Chelan was ecstatic that the limb functioned at all, and with time, she knew that Shan would be able to resume nearly a full range of motion.

Shan was also pleased with his leg’s progress, and he was even happier about the leisure time he was able to spend with Kayla. His only source of frustration was his inability to break through the young woman’s defenses and her inherent shyness. Deep down he felt she was hiding something from him, but he had no reason to question her. So he respected her privacy and talked only about things that seemed to interest her.

Chelan sat on her fur and watched him on this morning as he massaged his thigh to loosen it up. Slowly, he began stretching and flexing it until he was ready to stand. He rose to his feet and began to walk about the cavern. When the leg was warm, he took himself through a couple of deep knee bends and then sat down to massage it some more.

Chelan knew that normally she would have been happy to see the strength returning to the injured limb, and in her heart she was, but today she finally came to face his true goal in convalescing. She had known it all along, but for some reason her thoughts today were translated into stinging reality. He was working toward his eventual departure and his return to the Imperial service.

Shan sat up straight and drew his knee up to his chest. Then he extended his leg out and repeated the motion several times.

With each passing moment Chelan was feeling more melancholy. She dreaded her imminent loneliness, but she knew there was no choice. He was an Imperial warrior, born and bred to fight, born and bred to serve, and she had no right to try to restrict him. Nor did she want to. Though she had saved his life, he owed her nothing.

She looked back over to him as he continued to work out, now going through a series of slow isometric movements that worked his upper body. Chelan bit her lip. His size, his bronze skin, the hard lines of his body, his muscles of plated steel, the blue-black hair and azure eyes ... he was so much like her long-lost love that it pained her to watch him. Yet, she was fully aware that he was not Korba, and she had to admit that she had grown to love the warrior for who he was, without comparison to her lost mate. Thoughts of him leaving her ripped through her mind again, and her throat began to constrict.

Shan had noticed her mounting sadness, but he had deliberately chosen not to bother her. He wanted her to come to him if she needed help, and in the meantime, he would not interfere with her hidden thoughts.

Chelan finally stood. She needed the warmth of the everlasting pool, and she walked directly to it. Standing numbly in front of it, she took a deep breath and began to untie her tunic.

Shan glanced over at her and then faltered with his movements. His eyes widened, and he held his breath.

Chelan was oblivious of him, her mind mired in her past and present pain. She pulled her tunic over her head without so much as a glance at him. She stared at the water as she removed her top and then slid out of her bottoms. Taking a deep breath, she stepped off the edge and plunged into the pool.

Shan sat motionless, stunned by her uncharacteristic openness. She had always been so self-conscious and so careful in his presence. Yet she had now just stripped in front of him without even flinching. Something was very wrong.

He stood and approached the water. He sat down quietly on the edge and dangled his legs in. He watched as she swam around, never once acknowledging his presence, and then she disappeared beneath the surface.

Chelan wanted to stay submerged forever. She languished in the waters’ enveloping warmth, finding solace in the fact that the shimmering pool would never leave her. Finally she surfaced, and she looked at him.

“Are you okay?” he asked, his voice soft and low.

Chelan smiled as she neared him. She thought of saying yes, but that was so far from the truth that there was no way she could lie. She moved over beside him and folded her arms on the pool’s edge. She laid her head on her hands and stared at his legs. “No,” she whispered.

Shan hesitated and then pushed off from the edge. He moved to her side and rested his head on his arms as did she. He stared into her deep brown eyes. “Do you want to talk?” he asked quietly.