Captured (10 page)

“No,” Ekkatt stretched.
 
“I will accompany you.
 
I need to bathe as well.
 
Besides, this is the mating season for the giant durra.
 
They are very hungry this time of year.”

“I swear you’re making that up,” replied Mari.
 
“I think a giant durra is a beast your people use to frighten children, like our bogey man.”
 
She sank down on the step next to him.
 
Her arm pressed against his.

“What is a bogey man?”

“He’s a very bad man who comes at night and steals children away…” she stopped suddenly.

“A man like me.”

“No, Ekkatt,” Mari touched the side of his face with delicate fingers.
 
She rose up onto her knees.
 
To his surprise, she leaned over and pressed her lips against his.
 
“You are no bogey man.”
 

He watched her eyes fill with tears, and the water leaked down her cheeks.
 
He reached a hand touching the wetness as he’d done on the ship.
 

“You are crying for me.
 
Why?”

“Because,” she leaned her forehead against his, “because you’re a good man, Ekkatt.
 
A good man.
 
I see how you struggle with your conscience.
 
I can see it in your eyes.”

“I took you from your home.
 
I stole you away.
 
There were so many. I took so many…” his voice broke.

Mari wrapped her arms around him. She held him and comforted him.
 
Ekkatt slid his own arms around her narrow waist and pressed his cheek against her chest. He wanted the comfort of her body almost as much as he wanted her absolution.
 
He knew she was offering both.

“Mari, I would break you.”

“No, Ekkatt, there are men on my planet as big as you, bigger.
 
You will not break me.”

“My people…the religious leaders say it is a sin to mix with other species.”

“Listen to me,” Mari knelt before him.
 
“You’ve seen my people.
 
We come in many colors.
 
Two hundred years ago, a hundred years ago, even fifty years ago, it was against the law for humans of different color to marry, to fall in love.
 
Even today, some of our religious leaders preach that it is a sin, that mixing of the races is evil.
 
But it’s not, Ekkatt, it’s not a sin.
 
They are afraid.
 
They are afraid of change, afraid of the
other
.
 
Does this make sense to you?”

Ekkatt didn’t know how to respond.
 
He almost laughed.
 
A human, lecturing him.

“My planet has a violent past.
 
We’ve spent centuries killing each other over religious differences, cultural differences, hair color.”
 
Mari grinned, and he knew she was teasing him a little.
  
“People just like me have murdered millions of other people just like me.
 
And they believed they were justified.”

“But what I’ve done cannot be justified.
 
Nothing can be changed.
 
I cannot return you or stop the harvesting.
 
It will go on without me.”

“I know.”

“Then why do you not hate me?
 
Why do you not loathe the sight of me?
 
Were I to stand in your place, as you challenged Pana to do on the ship, I would want you dead.
 
I would want to kill you with my own hands.”
 
He’d said it. He’d finally spoken aloud the words that had been eating him alive.

He heard Mari make a choking sound.
 
He thought she would begin to cough, but instead she began to cry.
 
“You are not a cruel man.
 
I knew when I saw you that first day, when I was so frightened and you were kind.
 
You were gruff, but you were kind.
 
You heard my words, and you didn’t put me back to sleep.
 
You brought me a tunic…you gave me that dignity, that face.
 
I knew then that you didn’t see me as an animal.
 
You’ve made a terrible sacrifice for me and because of that, you can’t return to your life either.
 
We are both in exile.
 
Don’t you see?
 
Neither of us can go home.
 
What will your people do to you if they find out?”

“I will be put to death.”

“Well then, we’ll have to make sure they never find out.
 
Can we do that, Ekkatt?
 
Will it be possible to hide away from your authorities?
 
Does anyone know you took me?”

“No one.
 
It is assumed you died of the fever, and your body was thrown into the incinerator before anyone began the count.”

“Ewww…”

“What is this
ewww
?”

“It’s an expression that means ewww, disgusting…”

Ekkatt grunted.

“All right, enough,” he heard her say in a firm voice.
 
“Enough recriminations.
 
I want to brush my teeth, take a bath, and go to sleep in your bed. I’m too tired to do it by myself.
 
Come.
 
Help me.”
 
She rose to her feet, tugging at his hand.

Ekkatt resisted, holding her hand tight in his.

“You fought me.
 
You fought hard.
 
It took three of us to subdue you…at the house of eggs.”
 

For the space of a few heartbeats, Mari kept silent, her face a blank.
 
Finally, her voice as quiet as his, she said, “I have no memory of what happened.”

“I removed it.
 
I did not want you to remember that particular fear.”

“Why me, Ekkatt?
 
Why me?”

Ekkatt sighed.
 
“I saw the sun glinting off your hair.”

He felt her legs go, and he scooped her into his arms.
 
He sat with her on the stoop, holding her, while she cried the salt tears against his chest.
 
Ekkatt comforted Mari the best he could, singing a song that mothers sang to their small children, and in time, she quieted.
 
Still, she did not lift her head while tremors shook her.

“I fought hard?”
 
He heard her ask in a soft voice.

“Yes.”

“Did I hurt anyone?”

“Yes.”

“Did I hurt you?”

“No.
 
I am good at what I do.
 
You gave Pana a bleeding nose, and the other, Sitwa, a bleeding mouth.
 
And we were all covered with the eggs.”

“I’m glad I hurt them.
 
I should have given you a black eye.”

“You may give it to me now, if you wish.”

Mari lifted her head meeting his gaze, her face tear-streaked, her smile crooked.
 
“I don’t wish.
 
We can’t go back, Ekkatt.
 
I have a second life.
 
It began on the day I woke in the cage.
 
On the day you spoke with me.”

Ekkatt hesitated before he replied.
 
“I do not know that I could be so forgiving.”

“Do you know what survivor guilt is, Ekkatt?”

“No.”

“You live with the guilt of what you’ve done.
 
I live with the guilt of what I haven’t done.
 
I didn’t help them.
 
The rest of them…the other women on that transport, they died, or they will die soon.
 
That’s the guilt I must accept.”

“There was nothing you could do for them.
 
Their fates were sealed the moment I captured them.”
 
He heard Mari sigh.
 
She snuggled deeper into his arms and the feeling was one of comfort.
 

“Red hair, huh?”
 
Mari teased.
 
“You’re partial to red hair?”

Ekkatt could feel blood rush to his face, and he swore he was blushing like a human.

“If I’d known that, maybe I would have worn a hat.”

Ekkatt snorted as he understood her joke.

“Can you…can you help me bathe, please?
 
I’d like to shampoo my red hair, brush my teeth, and then…I think…I think I need to sleep for a while.”

“Yes, little human.
 
I will bathe with you today.”

Mari raised an eyebrow.

“And I will carry you to the spring.”

* * * *

Ekkatt lifted her with ease and carried her up the trail to the hot spring.
 
He set her down on the edge, removing the blanket she’d kept wrapped around her.
 
This time when Ekkatt looked at her, Mari knew he saw her as a man sees a woman, despite the fact that she wasn’t at her best. Even before the bout of Tist Fever, she’d begun losing weight, but Ekkatt gazed at her body with tenderness, admiration, and yes, unveiled lust.

He reached a hand toward her, his fingertips grazing her nipple.
 
He smiled as he watched it tighten into a small, pink bud.
 
Mari sucked in a breath. Her eyelids instantly grew heavy, but she forced them up, and she smiled back at him.
 

“Your nipples,” he said. “They are so sensitive.
 
Many things make them grow erect.
 
The chill of the air, the touch of my shirt against your skin, the brush of my fingers, even the sight of the setting sun, and the rushing river arouses you.
 
His fingers traced a path across her chest, brushing the other nipple, eliciting the same response.
 
“It is automatic, this response?”

Mari didn’t trust herself to speak.
 
She nodded.
 
She watched Ekkatt’s nostrils flare.
 
She knew he could smell her arousal, could hear how wildly her heart pounded at his touch as his fingers traced the contour of her collarbone, and stroked the side of her neck.

“Your pulse is fluttering, here.”
 
He pressed lightly on her carotid.
 
“Mari, I do not wish to hurt you.
 
Your body is frail.
 
It is not sturdy like the females of my race.”

“Ekkatt, do you wish to be with a female of your race right now?”
 
Her voice was low, hoarse with desire.

“No, Mari.
 
I wish to be with you.”

Mari lifted up the corners of his shirt.
 
Ekkatt ducked so she could pull it over his head.
 
She tossed his shirt away.
 
This was the first time she’d seen him bare-chested.
 
Ekkatt had always been fully clothed in her presence.
 
Mari gazed at him in awe.
 
The man was hard and lean and sculpted, with a set of broad shoulders, a muscled chest, and a taut abdomen.
 
Mari noticed that just like a human, he had a navel.
 
Without thinking, she leaned forward and ran her tongue across it.
 
Ekkatt jerked but he didn’t move away.
 
Mari wondered for an instant how the sexual practices of his people differed from hers.
 
Perhaps they didn’t use their tongues or their lips, but when she stroked his chest and saw him close his eyes, she knew he didn’t care about any differences.
 
Nor did she.