Winning Souls (3 page)

“Well, we are both here now. When we get to the aerie, would you care to go flying with me?”

She nodded again. “I really would. The view from above must be one that never gets tiring.”

“It is truly a sight that I wish I could share with everyone.” He winked as the rest of the tour rejoined them.

They filed back into the skimmer and were off into the sky in a matter of moments.

Enher was regretting her agreement to let Ulises fly with her in his arms. Her clothing wasn’t suitable for the high speeds, and she was forced to curl against him for warmth.

The raptors followed them, diving and swooping in a dizzying pattern, but they stayed out of the wingspan that Ulises had possession of, so it didn’t get frightening. They seemed to know when he was going to turn and how hard he would do it.

They banked and flew over the mountain ranges, the lift of the thermals in the valleys propelled them up, and Enher was glad that Ulises was not inclined to lose his grip.

“You are here at the behest of the Guardians?” His question was quiet in the roaring of the wind.

She nodded. “I am, well, at the behest of an associate. I am aware of what is going on here and am picking up a few clues as to what that could be.”

“Care to share?”

“Not with the birds so close. I have to retract the knowledge before anything else occurs or I expose myself.”

He nodded and slowly curled around, heading back to the observation decks covered with stands for the birds to rest on.

While they descended, she put the enjoyment of the flight into her forward mind and tucked the growing knowledge of a celestial presence into her inner core.

He set them down on an unoccupied deck. “Did you enjoy the flight?”

She grinned. “I did. Wait, incoming.”

He looked up, and to her astonishment, he did not set her down but, rather, knelt and shielded her with his wings while the variety of predators landed on perches and stands around them.

She felt the pressure of the air as the mass of birds settled near them, and she tucked herself as close to Ulises as she could.

When the animals settled, he slowly stood straight, but he kept her in his embrace. He folded his wings against his back and whistled softly.

Enher looked around at all the avian faces staring at her, and she was very glad that she was being held.

“Would you care to pet them? They seem eager and patient. They are all on their proper perches with no shoving.” He chuckled.

She swallowed. “I suppose it won’t hurt.”

Enher moved to the edge of the perches near the stairs and reached out to stroke the first of the birds. It held its head high and made a wonderful cooing sound as she stroked it. Enher smiled at the small trill of pleasure, and she moved on to the next beast, stroking it as well.

They had an hour to spend observing the birds, and she was able to stroke all of the animals twice before they returned to the skimmer.

The sun was setting as they took to the skies once again. Enher felt the irritated looks from the other tourists, but she couldn’t do anything about it.

The tour guide spoke up. “Ladies and gentlemen, some folks resonate more profoundly with the beasts of Nurmegar than others. Enjoy that your tour mate brings them in close and have your own experiences.”

They looked back at Enher, and she shrugged helplessly. With the matter out in the open, they headed for their final stop, the glowing night birds of Arenil and their dinner.

Instead of being off to one side, the group gathered around Enher and Ulises while they had dinner, and one by one, the night birds came into the circle for a visit.

The birds were small, phosphorescent and exceedingly friendly when Enher stroked them, as well as when the other tourists offered them approved food.

It went from being a tense moment to a magical event shared by all.

At the end of the night, Enher was exhausted and only too happy to be dropped off at her hotel. She shared her room data with Ulises if he cared to join her on the following day for an outing in the city. He smiled and wished her a night of fascinating dreams.

Enher-Dahl entered her room and headed for the shower. Somehow, she didn’t feel that dreams were going to elude her. She had enough fodder from the day to last a lifetime.

Her in-room com rang as she finished brushing her hair. Breakfast was a good way to meet new people, and she had just been on her way down.

“Hello?” she didn’t flick on the video.

“Good morning, Enher-Dahl. Would you care to join me downstairs for breakfast?”

She chuckled. “Of course, Ulises. I was just on my way down.”

Enher checked her reflection, made a face and headed down to breakfast.

Ulises was waiting near the lifts. “You are a vision.”

He offered her his arm, and instead of heading for the hotel restaurant, he led her out into the soft morning daylight.

“We aren’t eating at the hotel?”

“I am sure it is nutritious, but there is a lovely spot just down the street, and it will give you a solid impression of the locals.” He smiled.

Too handsome for words. That was the best way to describe him. She might be Reedamani, but she could appreciate beauty when it was in front of her.

The small café was indeed an excellent place to watch the locals. Enher and Ulises crammed into a small booth, and then, he went off to bring them a meal.

The pastries he returned with were flaky and crowned with a cluster of gooey fresh fruit that she enjoyed. A small pie had a portion of meat, and a series of tiny globes were filled with fresh cream, topped with more berries.

The caf was a rich, dark mix that she had never tasted before.

Silence reigned at their table while they ate, and Enher listened to all the conversations around her. The locals who worked at the hotels were inside and talking about some of the tourists, but it was all light gossip. There was nothing mean-spirited about the conversations and no signs of resentment at being in a tourist-run economy.

Enher finished her meal and looked to Ulises. “Is there a local museum of natural history?”

He finished his third meat pie and licked pastry from his lips. “On the outskirts. I can fly us there if you would like to go.”

She sipped at the last of her caf and sighed. “One more cup and then we can go. That was damned good.”

He grinned. “I will be right back.”

She watched him move through the crowd and admitted that he had an advantage. No one got in his way, the wings gently but firmly kept his path clear.

When she thought about being in the air with him once again, she shivered. It was best that she kept in mind the sheer difference in location that would kick in the moment they left Nurmegar. She worked in the Alliance, he worked in the Imperium, and they were quite the distance apart. It was best that she kept it in mind. Even if she chose him to father her one child, she would never be able to make the commute before her short season was over. This was a one-time thing.

When he returned with the caf, he paused. “What is that expression?”

She smiled and took the cup from him. “Just filing a few things in their proper places.”

Enher sipped at the caf and all traces of soft pink vanished from her skin.

Going to the museum might have seemed boring, but Ulises made it fun. It wasn’t he precisely, but the expressions on the women’s faces as he moved through the museum and pointed to the different displays.

His enthusiasm for history was contagious. She trailed after him and watched him play the enthralled tourist while she enjoyed the spectacle.

The meteor strike was particularly interesting. The vid records were blurred, but the energy discharge in the oceans, the mountains and the plains was obvious. Power had broken, and if it was a large-enough chunk to leave ten-kilometre-wide craters, it might have been a piece of a broken sentient world or even a star.

To her surprise, the outbreak of coma patients then began on Nurmegar. They had a record of the outbreak and a note on the memorial that the patients aged to death and their physical forms passed on.

She stared at the records, and a sick horror ran through her as she realised that twenty thousand local lives had been given to this strange power and no one had done anything. It had spanned generations, but now, there were only two hospitals dedicated to the maintenance of those who had been taken from their bodies. Five hundred locals were slowly dying and no one had found a cure. As far as the reports indicated, no one was even looking for a cure.

Ulises was onto the next display while Enher’s mind whirled. The souls were not removed at once. There had to be a connection that allowed whatever was using them to grab them after the fact.

“Enher, come see this. It is a record of the first tourist attraction on Nurmegar.” He grinned and beckoned her over.

She wandered over, and he pulled her against his side, putting his wing over her back. “What was it?”

“The first attraction was a brothel, but they soon replaced it with a casino, and after that, it was the nature tours.” He smiled, but his eyes were conveying that this information was important.

“So, lust then excitement and finally relaxed enjoyment. It was quite the evolution in tourism.” She nodded; she looked up at him. “I wonder what it would take to stop the loss of souls.”

He grimaced. “I am wondering the same thing.”

They walked together through the memorial walls that were reflections of the memorials all over the world. Entire villages had been lost to this outbreak of theft, and no one had bothered looking for the thief. That was the mystery here. They had a killer among them, and no one was looking for it.

It was a conspiracy of secrecy, and they were paving the road with strangers who were only coming for fun, sex or relaxation. If it was a hunger, it needed to be satisfied; if it was lonely, volunteers could be acquired.

Enher knew that there was a fit volunteer for any project. She was the perfect example, and those who were injured or in agony would welcome the opportunity to leave their bodies behind.

Taking those who did not wish to die in such a way was cruel to them and their families. Pleasure was not a fair trade.

Enher paused and turned back to the original display of the meteors. The three sites that they had visited the previous day were in the strike zones.

There were nine others, and Enher knew she needed to see them all.

She returned to Ulises’s side, and they walked through the rest of the museum, including modern fashion, ancient fashion and the development of propulsion through the ages.

When they finished their tour, bought their souvenirs and gotten a snack, they walked through the city and enjoyed the companionship.

Enher asked him idly, “Did you notice what was missing?”

“I don’t know. You tell me.”

She chuckled and moved in close to his body so that it looked like she was cuddling. “I think first contact is a rather noteworthy event in a planet’s history. I know my world recorded it with deep reverence. It is a moment when we are assured we are not alone in the universe. I wonder what happened to the first landing teams.”

He nodded. “Good question. Do you think the answer is on one of those other nine sites?”

“I think so or, at least, a chunk of rock large enough to question.”

“We are too late today to book a cross-continental tour. It will have to be the day after tomorrow. How about tomorrow we head to the casino and we can work on you giving me a kiss for luck?”

She snorted. “Follow my lead and you won’t need luck. Reedamani are excellent gamblers.”

“You don’t have sex and you are excellent gamblers. Where do you leave things to chance in your life?”

Enher smirked. “When I walk with a strange Enjel through alien cities as dusk is taking over. That is a pretty good chance.”

He inclined his head. “I stand corrected. You do have a spirit of adventure and risk.”

She grinned. “It comes and goes. Now, where should we get dinner?”

He steered her through the streets to a noodle place a few blocks from her hotel. The broths were rich, the meat was well cooked and separated easily from the bone, and the noodles had just enough bounce to make them fun to slurp.

When she returned to her hotel room, it was hard to fight the grin that wanted to stay on her features. It had been a really fun day of espionage and noodle fighting. Though, she was in desperate need of another shower. Her hair had two noodles stuck to it and her shirt was a lost cause. Ulises was deadly with the eating sticks. She would get her revenge tomorrow when they were at the casino. He would never be able to match her game for game.

“Wedging in like that has to be uncomfortable.” She sipped at her caf and flicked her fingers at his wings.

He shrugged. “When you travel away from home, you get used to it. The tendons and bones have a certain amount of flex that lets me get comfortable anywhere.”

“That is handy.”

“I think so.” Ulises smiled. “So, casino today?”

“I believe it is a logical step. I have to go see them sometime.” She smiled.

He inclined his head. “Well, today is that day.”

They finished their breakfast and walked down the streets arm in arm. The nearest casino was in the city centre and walking distance from all the hotels.

Two pairs of greeters flanked the entryway. Each pair was a stunning example of Nurmegar beauty of each gender. The couples welcomed them in with friendly smiles and invited them in to play the games offered at the casino.

Enher blinked as the man leaned in and kissed her lips. It was an intrusion that got him a hand to the chest and shoved backward by the flick of one of Ulises’s wings.

Enher pressed a hand to her lips. “I do not kiss.”

The greeter paled as Ulises snarled at him.

“Apologies. It is our custom to give a kiss for luck. I was unaware of the cultural dissimilarities until you mentioned it.” The greeter remained back, and the woman next to him cleared her throat.