Without a Front (46 page)

She fell back to cover Salomen, bracing herself on her forearms and looking into eyes wide with disbelief and horror. “I need you,” she managed, her breathing harsh with the effort. “I can't feel him anymore!”

Salomen nodded as she reached out. Their hands settled instinctively on the energy points that would allow the Sharing, and Tal closed her eyes as she rested her head against Salomen's. Their forehead ridges fit together, creating the final physical bridge for their empathic powers. She had thought there would be no flash this time, not for her, but the sudden white-hot flare as their minds joined was so powerful that she could still feel it even through her numbed senses.

For Salomen it was much worse. She arched up, gasping in pain, her intact senses scorched as the divine fire finally sealed itself. “Oh, Fahla,” she moaned. “Do it, do it now, I don't know how long I can hold this.”

When the flash faded, Tal found the pain in her body almost tolerable. With renewed strength she took control of both their minds, using her greater discipline to guide Salomen's raw power. Together they expanded their senses, soaring through the walls of the house and radiating out to the lands beyond.

The sensation of riding on Salomen's senses was glorious, and Tal mourned that their first Sharing should be so wrong. This should have been the ultimate moment of intimacy and trust, a time of loving exploration. Instead she was compartmentalizing the agony of her wrecked back while using their bond as nothing more than a tool to track down a criminal.

With their combined strengths, they found him quickly. His mingled glee and panic stood out like a beacon in the emotional landscape; for an assassin he seemed very little in control of his emotions. It made no sense, but even with Salomen bolstering her, Tal had no reserves to think logically about this puzzle. After hovering for a moment to determine his location, she brought them back in, lifted her head and opened her eyes.

Tears were flowing from beneath Salomen's eyelids, sliding down her temples in a steady stream. Her face was pinched with pain, her breathing too quick and shallow, and Tal could not fathom why she would still be feeling the effects of that flare.

She pulled her hands away and looked up at Micah, who was crouched beside them. His white face held an expression of naked fear.

“He's on foot, running for the west border,” she told him. “He should intersect it near the old hyacot tree.”

Micah raised his wristcom and barked out instructions, swiftly setting up an interception. As soon as he finished, Tal said, “I want him alive. With the weapon.”

Unexpectedly, Salomen spoke, her eyes still shut and her voice tight.

“It's Cullom Bilsner. I…recognized him.”

Though Tal was shocked by the name, she had enough presence of mind to tell Micah, “We cannot use her testimony. You
have
to catch him.”

Micah nodded. “We'll get him, Andira, don't worry. Right now we need to get you out of here.”

Tal wasn't listening. She was staring at Salomen, suddenly understanding the tears and the shallow breathing—and why the pain in her own body was not nearly as intense as it had been before their Sharing.

“Salomen,” she whispered. “Oh, my tyree…let me go.”

“I can't.” The answer came in an agonized groan.

“Yes, you can.” Tears ran down Tal's face; she was overwhelmed and humbled by this sacrifice. “Please. This is not your pain.”

“It should have been.”

“No. It was meant for me. Tyrina, let go. You must. You cannot hold this forever.”

Salomen opened her eyes at last, her suffering easy to read. She had no mental training to compartmentalize pain, and her tears were pure anguish.

Tal choked on a sob. “Salomen, please! It will be all right, I promise. I've been hurt worse.”

They stared at each other, the world around them forgotten, until Salomen gave a cry of despair and let go.

Tal dropped her head as the block was released, unwilling to let Salomen see the effect. Though it had hurt before, now it felt as if her back were still on fire. She inhaled deeply, using her breath to push back the agony, trying everything she knew to control it.

Nothing worked.

Her consciousness was contracting to a tiny point, and some part of her understood that she was going into shock. With the last of her strength she pushed herself to one side, determined to keep her weight off Salomen, but her arms gave out and she slumped onto a softness that moved beneath her.

As her vision dimmed, Salomen's voice sounded in her ear, panicked in a way she could hear but not feel.

“Don't you leave me, Andira. I just found you, don't you dare. Andira! Stay with me!”

I wish I could, she thought.

Other voices spoke around her, oddly distant and unintelligible. With the last of her senses fading out, two whispered words echoed through her mind.

Don't go.

No choice, she answered.

She never knew if anyone heard her.

END VOLUME ONE OF
WITHOUT A FRONT

The Adventure Concludes In:

WITHOUT A FRONT II

The Warrior's Challenge

 

 

 

For more Information about the Series,

Chronicles of Alsea:

 

www.chroniclesofalsea.com

GLOSSARY

UNITS OF TIME

piptick:
one 100th of a tick (about half a second).

tick:
about a minute (50 seconds).

tentick:
ten ticks.

hantick:
10 tenticks, just shy of 1.5 hours (83.33 minutes). One Alsean day is 20 hanticks (27.7 hours) or 1.15 days.

moon:
a basic unit of Alsean time, similar to our month but 36 days long. Each moon is divided into four parts called
ninedays
. One Alsean moon equals 41.55 stellar (Earth) days.

cycle:
the length of time it takes the Alsean planet to revolve around their sun (13 moons or approximately 17 stellar months).

Alsean days are divided into quarters, each five hanticks long, which reset at the end of the eve quarter. The quarters are:
night, morn, mid, and eve
. A specific hantick can be expressed in one of two ways: its place in the quarter or its exact number. Thus
morn-three
would be three hanticks into the morning quarter, which can also be expressed as hantick eight (the five hanticks of the night quarter plus three of the morning). In the summer, the long days result in sunrise around morn-one (hantick six), lunch or midmeal at mid-one (hantick eleven), dinner or evenmeal at eve-one (hantick sixteen), and sunset around eve-five (hantick twenty).

UNITS OF MEASUREMENT

pace:
half a stride.

stride:
the distance of a normal adult's stride at a fast walk (about a meter).

length:
a standard of distance equalling one thousand strides (about a kilometer).

GENERAL TERMS

ADF:
Alsean Defense Force.

AIF:
Alsean Investigative Force.

artisan:
honorific for a crafter.

ba:
short name for bondparent (either bondmother or bondfather).

bai:
short name for birthparent (either birthmother or birthfather).

bondmate:
a life partner.

boren:
deer-like grazing animals.

cintek:
the Alsean monetary unit.

deme:
honorific for a secular scholar.

dokker:
a farm animal similar to a cow. Slow moving and rather stupid, but with a hell of a kick when it's angry or frightened.

dokshin:
vulgar term for dokker feces.

Eusaltin
: the smaller and nearer moon of Alsea.

evenmeal:
dinner.

Fahla:
the goddess of the Alseans; also called Mother.

fanten:
a farm animal similar to a pig, used for meat.

front:
a mental protection that prevents one's emotions from being sensed by another.

gender-locked:
an Alsean who is unable to temporarily shift genders for the purposes of reproduction. Considered a grave handicap, denying the individual the full blessing of Fahla.

grainbird:
a small black and red seed-eating bird common in agricultural fields. It is known for singing even at night, leading to an old perception of the birds as lacking in intelligence—hence “grainbird” is also a slang term for an idiot.

grainstem powder:
powder derived from crushed stems of a particular grain, which yields a sweet taste. Commonly used in cooking; also used to sprinkle over fresh bread.

Great Belt:
the equator.

holcat:
a small domesticated feline.

horten:
an Alsean delicacy, often used in soup. It comes from a plant that, once harvested, stays fresh for a very short time and must be processed immediately. Due to that short window of time, fresh horten is very expensive and usually served only in the nicer restaurants.

hornstalk:
a very fast-growing weed.

hyacot:
a tree whose twigs, when snapped, provide a pleasant and long-lasting scent. Used in fine restaurants and as a room freshener.

joining:
sexual relations. Joining is considered less significant than Sharing between lovers. The two acts can take place simultaneously, though this would only occur in a serious relationship.

kiral:
honorific for a warrior serving in neither the Guards nor the Mariners.

kyne:
honorific for a builder.

magtran:
a form of public transport consisting of a chain of cylindrical passenger carriers accelerated by magnetic fields through transparent tubes.

marmello:
a sweet, orange fruit.

midmeal:
lunch.

molwine:
the curved apex of the pelvic ridges on both male and female Alseans. A very sensitive sexual organ.

molwyn:
Fahla's sacred tree. It has a black trunk and leaves with silver undersides. A molwyn grows at the center of every temple of decent size.

mornmeal:
breakfast.

mountzar
: a carnivorous animal that lives at high elevations and hibernates during the winter.

panfruit:
a common breakfast or dessert fruit.

probe:
to push beyond the front and read emotions that are not available for a surface skim. Probing without permission is a violation of Alsean law.

raiz:
honorific for a producer.

reese:
honorific for a merchant.

Return:
the passage after death, in which an Alsean returns to Fahla and embarks on the next plane of existence.

Rite of Ascension:
the formal ceremony in which a child becomes a legal and social adult. The Rite takes place at twenty cycles, after which one's choice of caste cannot be changed.

shannel:
a traditional hot drink, used for energy and freshening one's breath. Made from the dried leaves (and sometimes flowers) of the shannel plant.

skim:
to sense any emotions that an Alsean is not specifically holding behind her or his front.

Sharing:
the act of physically connecting the emotional centers between two or more Alseans, resulting in unshielded emotions that can be fully accessed by anyone in the Sharing link. It is most frequently done between lovers or bondmates but is also part of a bonding ceremony (in which all guests take part in a one-time Sharing with the two new bondmates). It can also be done between friends, family, or for medical purposes.

shek:
vulgar slang for penetrative sex. Usually used as a profanity.

Sonalia
: the larger and more distant moon of Alsea.

sonsales:
one who is empathically blind.

thantane
: a potent pain reliever, on a level with morphine.

tyrees:
Alseans whose empathic centers share a rare compatibility, which has physiological consequences. Tyrees can sense each other's emotions at greater distances than normal, have difficulty being physically apart, and are ferociously protective of each other. Tyrees are always bonded, usually for life.

warmron:
an embrace. Warmrons are shared only between lovers, or parents and children—and only until the child reaches the Rite of Ascension. A warmron is too close to a Sharing for it to be in use at any other time.

weeper:
a soap opera.

winden:
a large six-toed mammal, adapted to an alpine environment. It is wary, able to climb nearly sheer walls, and the fastest animal on Alsea. Winden travel in herds and are rarely seen.

wristcom:
wrist-mounted communication device, often used in conjunction with an earcuff.

zalren:
a venomous snake.

OTHER BOOKS FROM YLVA PUBLISHING

www.ylva-publishing.com

The Caphenon

 

Fletcher DeLancey

 

ISBN: 978-3-95533-254-9 (mobi); 978-3-95533-255-6 (epub)

Length: 165,000 words (374 pages)

 

On a summer night like any other, an emergency call sounds in the quarters of Andira Tal, Lancer of Alsea. The news is shocking: not only is there other intelligent life in the universe, but it's landing on the planet right now.

Tal leads the first responding team and ends up rescuing aliens who have a frightening story to tell. They protected Alsea from a terrible fate—but the reprieve is only temporary.

Captain Ekatya Serrado of the Fleet ship
Caphenon
serves the Protectorate, a confederation of worlds with a common political philosophy. She has just sacrificed her ship to save Alsea, yet political maneuvering may mean she did it all for nothing.

Alsea is now a prize to be bought and sold by galactic forces far more powerful than a tiny backwater planet. But Lancer Tal is not one to accept a fate imposed by aliens, and she'll do whatever it takes to save her world.