Captured (9 page)

“Ekkatt Vom Baerkah Elae, son of Baerkah, son of Elae, requesting permission to lift off.”

“Permission granted, Ekkatt Vom Baerkah Elae, son of Baerkah, son of Elae.
 
Fly safe.”

Ekkatt lifted off as though he had all the time in the world.
 
He rose straight up, and when he reached flight altitude, he made a sharp left and raced to the cabin.
 
He had to get home.
 
He prayed to Mari’s helpless, ineffectual god that she still lived.

* * * *

Darkness had long since fallen by the time Ekkatt landed in the clearing.
 
He was glad to see that for all intents and purposes, the cabin appeared to be shuttered for the winter.
 
Mari had heeded his warnings, but at the same time, his chest felt tight, and he was afraid of what he would find when he unlocked the door.
 
He stepped over the threshold, closed and bolted the door behind him.
 
All was quiet.
 

“Mari,” he called out.
 
“Mari, where are you?”
 
He didn’t want to frighten her if she was sound asleep.
 
“Mari,” he repeated.
 
There was no answer.

Ekkatt didn’t see her curled up in his big chair, nor was she in her own bed.
 
He’d told her she could sleep in his bed if she got cold.
 
While the chill in the cabin didn’t affect him, Ekkatt imagined it would be uncomfortable for one such as Mari.
 
Ekkatt’s species could see very well in the dark, so he had no trouble making out the small lump in his bed, quilts piled over the top.
 

“Mari,” he said softly, “I’ve returned.”

The lump didn’t move.
 
Ekkatt approached the bed and rested a hand on top of the lump.
 
“Mari.
 
I’m here.”
 
Still nothing.

“Mari…”
 
Ekkatt lifted the quilts with hesitation in his movements.
 
Mari lay there, covered by the thick wool blanket he’d wrapped her in many hours ago.
 
She didn’t appear to be breathing, and the thought that she might be dead cut through his chest like a knife.
 
At that moment she sucked in a ragged breath.
 
Ekkatt sighed with relief, but his relief was short-lived.
 
He touched her cheek, and he knew.
 
Tist Fever.
 
Fuck.
 
Fuck.
 
Fuck
.
 
He had to lower her temperature, fast.

“Mari,” Ekkatt threw back the quilts and heard her moan, “Mari, you must wake up.
 
Mari, do you hear me?”
 
When he pulled the blanket off her, she began to shiver.
 
“Mari, I must get your fever down.
 
I will bathe you, and you must wake up and take…” he searched for a word in her language, “medicine.
 
You must take some medicine.”

“No…” she muttered, her eyes closed, “No. Cold.
 
No.”

Ekkatt lifted her in his arms and carried her to the kitchen.
 
He kept a washtub in there for use in the winter.
 
He could feel her shivering increase until it became quaking.
 
Her head lolled against his shoulder.
 
Ekkatt balanced her in one arm while he reached into a cabinet.
 
He pulled out a vial of brown colored liquid.
 
He managed to open the lid and suck up a dropper full of the thick stuff.
 
He sat in a chair and arranged Mari’s limp body on his lap.
 

“Open your mouth.”

The human merely whimpered.

“Mari, open your mouth, and take this medicine.”

She tried to follow his instructions, but the effort seemed too much for her.
 
Tugging down on her chin, Ekkatt slipped the dropper into her mouth, squeezing out the liquid.
 
Mari grimaced but she swallowed.
 
Ekkatt then refilled the dropper and made her swallow again.
 
He grabbed a towel and laid her down on the floor while he filled the washtub, mixing hot water heated on the stove with cold water from the spigot.
 

From experience, Ekkatt knew the normal human body temperature was ninety-eight point six degrees, a full degree lower than that of his species.
 
Judging by the feel of her skin, Mari’s temperature was pushing one hundred and four.
 
Over years of harvesting, he’d gotten quite good at estimating body temperature even without his hand-held monitor.
 

When he guessed that the water was tepid for a human, Ekkatt pulled his shirt off her small body and submerged her in the tub.
 
Her eyes flew open, and she let out a yelp as the water covered her.
 
He knew it must have felt icy in comparison to the heat she gave off.
 
The woman stared into his face, as if seeing him for the first time.
 
Her green eyes grew big and round.
 
He noticed that her pupils were not merely green but the green contained specks of gold. They resembled the rivers of his world in the summer. They were a transparent emerald green with flecks of minerals that caught the sunlight.
 
He knelt on the floor beside the tub, and propping her up with one arm, sponged her face, neck, and chest, even wetting her hair.
 
Her head fell against his shoulder.

“Ekkatt…” she spoke his name around chattering teeth.
 
“Wh…wh…why?”

“Because you are sick, Mari.”

“You…you came back…came back for me.”

“Yes.”

“Wh…what do I have?”

“The Tist Fever.
 
It is common among my people.”
 
Now was not the time to tell her how deadly it was to humans.

Mari fell silent as he continued to pour water over her.
 
Her skin gave off so much heat that he almost expected to see steam rise.
 
The teeth chattering continued unabated.
 
Ekkatt hoped the medication would begin to work and reduce her fever.
 
He’d have to give it to her every four hours along with the baths.
 
Even if she survived the fever her lungs might fill with fluid, and she would suffocate.
 
That was how the disease killed humans. It filled their lungs until they drowned.

“Ekkatt,” came her weak voice.

“Yes, little human?”

“Perhaps you should…should kill me now.
 
It might be kinder.”

Ekkatt lifted her head from his shoulder and looked into her face. He was astonished at her words.
 
He saw the corner of her mouth turn up, and she managed to wink at him before she closed her eyes.
 
He realized she was teasing.
 

“No, little human,” he said. “You will not die.”

“
Little human
,” she murmured.
 
Mari didn’t speak again for three long days.
 

Chapter 8

“No, I can walk by myself.
 
You don’t have to baby me, Ekkatt.”

“You sat up for the first time yesterday.
 
There is no need for you to walk to the b’yat.
 
I can carry you.”

Mari crossed her arms, and what he’d come to recognize as the stubborn look came over her face.
 
“I will walk.
 
It’s good for me to walk.
 
I need to move around, make my lungs work a bit.
 
I told you, I am no stranger to illness.
 
I’ve had something like this on earth.
 
It’s called Influenza A, and when you catch it, believe me, you wish you would die, but you don’t.”

“Because you are lucky.
 
Most humans die of Tist Fever.”

“Oh…now you tell me this?”

Ekkatt actually grinned at her.
 
“I did not wish to frighten you.
 
My people say that if one believes he will die, very often, he does indeed die.”

“Mind body connection.
 
We say the same thing on my planet.”
 
Mari stared straight ahead.
 
“Sometimes I forget,” she said.

“Forget?”

“That this is not my home.”

Ekkatt made no reply.

“All right.” Mari pushed herself to her feet. “I’m walking to the b’yat.”
 
She shuffled toward the small building. The long blanket he’d wrapped around her naked body trailed after her.
 
Ekkatt followed to make certain she didn’t trip and fall.
 
When she reached the outhouse, Mari turned and looked at him.
 
“Go,” she said. “Sit over there.”
 
She pointed to the step.
 
“If I need help, I’ll call you.”

Ekkatt sat leaning back against the cabin.
 
He closed his eyes, letting the warm sun wash away some of his weariness.
 
He’d barely slept in a week. He’d been determined that this woman would live.
 
Between the medicine and the baths he’d been able to manage her fevers, but then she’d begun to cough.
 
He feared she’d reached the end of her strength, and the disease would take her.
 
On the fifth day, miraculously, she’d rallied and swallowed some concentrated nutrient broth.
 
Now she coughed only in the mornings, and she’d been able to eat and drink for the past two days.
 
The woman had lost flesh.
 
He would help her gain it back.
 
She needed to be strong when the snows arrived.

Her body, while much more slender than the women of his own race, was otherwise the same, Ekkatt mused.
 
It was only her hair color and eye color that were different. Her skin did not contain quite as much pigment, but then he knew that the skin tone of human women varied.
 
It was considered a curiosity.
 

Most of the species in his region of space were singular.
 
His own species, the Attun-Ra, all had yellow eyes, blue-black hair, and light bronze skin.
 
His people were taller and stronger than humans although he had noticed the occasional human who was every bit as tall and strong as an Attun-Ra.
 
Her people were softer though.
 
Those he harvested were generally quite fleshy.
 
Mari was not one of those, but her skin felt very soft to the touch.
 

He’d come to enjoy the sensation of her beneath his fingers.
 
He’d found pleasure in the silk of her hair, and he’d taken comfort in the smoothness of her skin.
 
Ekkatt knew his own religious leaders would call such feelings a sin against nature.
 
Their opinion on the subject had come to matter nothing to him.
 
The little human, on the other hand, had come to matter a great deal.
 

“Ekkatt?”

“Hmm?”
 
He kept his eyes closed, the sound of her voice caressing him like a soft breeze.

“I’m going to bathe properly in the hot spring, and then I’ll help you into bed.
 
You haven’t slept in days, and I don’t want you to get sick.”

Ekkatt opened his eyes and smiled.
 
“You will help me into bed?”

Mari grinned at him.
 
He knew she felt much more like herself.
 
“Yes, I’m putting you to bed. And you’re going to sleep until you’ve recovered.
 
All I need you to do is let me lean against you while I brush my teeth…and maybe give me a shove up the hill.
 
I can get down myself.”