Demon Lost (5 page)

That became my life for the next two eight-days. Rising early to prepare meals—not finishing until late at night. Guards patrolled the entire post while I slept; I knew that. I couldn't say whether it made me feel safer or not, I just knew that it was. The women had started asking regularly for extra plates of food for the evening meals until it reached twelve in number. I automatically prepared an extra twelve meals, now. My three helpers only showed up for meals, disappearing immediately after and never bothering to take their plates and glasses to the sink for washing. I came to think of them as pigs and figured I knew why they were being punished.

My third eight-day began and I had yet to receive time off. It made me wonder if slaves weren't entitled. Breakfast was over for the morning and I was starting on the midday meal when the back door into the kitchen opened with a thump and Bel walked in, followed by three others. Not my three—I saw that right away. What excited me was what they carried—wooden boxes loaded with redfruits and other vegetables.

"Think you can do something with this?" Bel's eyes twinkled and he was grinning as I stared at the fresh bounty with astonishment.

"Yes—yes, of course," I did my best to keep the bubbling excitement from my voice as I wiped my hands on a towel. "I can certainly do something with this." The boxes were set on the stone tile floors of my kitchen. The three who had hauled in the fresh produce were all dressed similarly in white tunics and trousers. They also wore close-fitting white caps on their heads. I'd never seen such dress before, but it made sense for the desert, I think.

"Are there enough redfruits to make something for the entire outpost?" Bel looked hopeful as the three men hauled in another load. Nearly three hundred troops manned the outpost. I eyed the fruit with a critical eye.

"Perhaps," I said. "If I stretch it as much as possible. When did you want this?"

"Is dinner tonight too early?" Bel kept his hopeful expression.

"If I begin working now," I said. One of the three men hauling in the produce covered his mouth with a sleeve as he coughed. One of the others said something to him in a language I didn't understand very well. It was a dialect of the common speech, but heavily accented.

"Where are those three louts who work with you?" Bel asked, waving at the three men who took off out the door.

"They only show up for meals," I said, pulling crates of redfruit toward the sink for washing.

"You've been doing all this yourself?" Bel cursed creatively when I nodded. I was used to hearing words of that nature—Edan could curse with the best soldiers I'd ever met.

"Yes, Ranger Bel. I didn't know whether to report them or to whom," I answered truthfully, piling fruit into a wire basket and turning on the water taps. I would have to peel and slice the fruit quickly, then roll out pastry dough and add spices and sugar if I were to have a dessert ready with the evening meal.

"Reah, how old are you?" Bel held his hands behind his back. That frightened me. Edan often hid a heavy wooden spoon or a metal ladle behind him before striking me in the past. I swallowed nervously as I did my best to meet Bel's eyes.

"Nineteen turns," I admitted, lowering my eyes and my head. If he were going to beat me, I didn't want to see his hands coming.

Bel cursed again, only this time he was calling Chlind and Seval names I hadn't heard before.

"Little Reah, the only reason we allowed you to stay after Delvin and I got a good look at you was the way you cook. We reasoned that no child could cook like this. No female below the age of twenty-five is allowed at any outpost. I will have to talk to Commander Aris about this." Bel whirled and strode through the back door so fast it rippled the leafy vegetation in the crates.

I wanted to cry. Just sit in the floor right there and then and let go. I'd held it back since weeping my eyes out inside the pod. If these people turned me out, I had no place to go. Nobody to go to. That would let me live, anyway. What was I going to do? Instead of weeping, I began to peel redfruit.

I didn't see Bel again until the kitchen was nearly clean after dinner. "Come with me," he ordered and I followed him as he strode down a lengthy hall of thick, whitewashed stone into a wing of the post I hadn't explored before. Truthfully, I'd been so busy in the kitchen I hadn't had time to wander. I was too frightened now to pay much attention to my surroundings. I kept my eyes focused on Bel's broad back and tried to fight off my fear.

"Reah, this is Commander Aris." Bel moved aside once we were inside the spacious office, and I received my first look at the outpost Commander. He stared at me for moments as I stood before him. I was so frightened, I was afraid I'd burst into tears. Aris was a lion of a man with thick, shoulder-length dark-gold hair, swept back from his forehead. He didn't stand as his rank dictated, otherwise I think he would have dwarfed Bel, whom I thought was quite tall. The Commander's shoulders were broader, too and I imagined that he'd gained his rank by working for it.

"Reah, how did those two miscreants bring you here when you were underage?" Commander Aris asked me after moments of silence. He sounded as if he'd just gotten his voice back.

"They found me and told me I should come with them," I hung my head. I nearly jumped when I imagined that I heard a voice inside my head. I'm sure it was my fear—giving me hallucinations when there was nothing there.
Hush, no harm will
come
, the voice said. I drew a shaky breath and managed to put it out of my mind. The voice didn't come again.

"Do you have someplace to go?" Commander Aris' voice sounded almost harsh against the gentleness of the voice inside my head.

"No, Commander. I have no family here." That was the truth, sad as it was. I didn't really have family on Tulgalan, either. None that wanted me, anyway. I had to steer myself away from those thoughts. The tears might come despite my efforts.

"Bel, what do you think?" Commander Aris turned to the Ranger.

"I think those redfruit pastries we had tonight were the best I've ever tasted," Bel said. "Sir."

"Then let's keep this between us," Commander Aris said. "I'll make sure our little cook is off limits to the troops and you, Bel, will hunt down those three and make it clear to them that they are to work off their punishment, not laze about and receive better meals than the others. Reah, you have been feeding the highest-ranking officers here the past two eight-days. Did you know that? This is what the extra twelve meals were for. I am sorry I did not think to check on this sooner. I was enjoying my food without realizing where it was coming from."

"I don't think she's had any time off, Commander." Bel offered.

"I know this. Have meals sent to the women on last-day from the other kitchen. Reah, that day will be yours to do for yourself. I will arrange for extra clothing as well." That statement made me blush—I had three outfits and they hung off me. I'd managed to stain them, too, with this or that while I was cooking. I had no aprons to wear over my clothing to prevent it.

"You have permission to approach me if you have problems or questions," Commander Aris added. I was shaking by that time and clenching my hands to keep it from showing. "Bel, take our cook back to her kitchen before you go in search of her unwilling help."

Bel nodded to the Commander and herded me from his office. I wasn't sure how I'd come out of that meeting alive. Not just alive, either, but intact and with an open invitation to come to them with problems. My cooking skills were finally being recognized and for now, they were keeping me alive on an alien world.

Chapter 4
 

My three helpers showed up clean and on time the following morning to prepare breakfast. I learned quickly that they didn't have much in the way of cooking skills. I set them to cracking and beating eggs with dry milk for the egg dish I was preparing. The cooked egg would be folded around chopped meat and vegetables. It was a good, healthy breakfast, made better with the bit of sauce I ladled over it at the last moment before sending it off to be eaten. I worked on bread dough while my three cleaned up the dishes and countertops after breakfast. I let them eat first and they liked what they received very much. They weren't talking—I'd curtailed their small vacation, somehow, and they resented it. That didn't keep them from eating, though.

"Where did you learn to cook?" The youngest of the three ventured to ask over the evening meal that we shared, sitting around a tall counter on stools.

"I learned from my family. They're all gone now." That much was true, in a certain sense. They were gone from me—most likely forever. Mandil was non-Alliance and didn't look to join during my lifetime. Mandili shared the same sun as Tulgalan, but always held themselves separate. What little I knew about them said they condoned slavery, had wizards with real power among the population and many other, unusual facts. Information from non-Alliance worlds tended to be spotty at best, so I had no idea whether any part of what I remembered from my classes could be counted as truth. I didn't want to tip my hand, either, by asking about any of it. I had to keep my eyes and ears open, just so I could learn as much as I could.

What made me most curious was why the outpost was needed. I didn't get the idea that any of the surrounding desert villages were staging uprisings. There had to be some reason the troops were stationed here. And the Rangers? They went out to scout the local areas—Bel had come and gone several times during my stay—I'd overheard the women discussing it. They liked Bel and Delvin quite well, it seems. What were the Rangers scouting?

"Reah, what do you have in the way of extra food?" The old soldier who'd shown me the kitchen came through the back door as we were finishing up.

"I can put something together—how much do you need?" I asked.

"Enough for these three." The older man, whose name was Galdi, told me, leading in three children. The oldest couldn't have been more than nine turns.

"I can certainly find something for them." I slid off my stool and pulled two more stools over. Galdi helped get the children settled on the stools as soon as we'd helped them wash small hands. I pulled leftover food from one of the keepers—it hadn't had time to chill completely—and served roast fowl with a gravy and baked potatoes. A bit of fresh juice was provided, too—I used the last of the citrus fruit brought in with the redfruits. The children ate hungrily, eventually chatting with Galdi and my three helpers.

"Their parents handed them to us—their headman wouldn't let the adults leave but they were frightened for their children," Bel came in moments later. He'd been speaking with Commander Aris, I learned. Bel had sent the children off with Galdi to be fed before sitting down with Aris.

"What will you do with them?" I whispered urgently. Why were they in danger? Was there something in the desert that I should worry about?

"They'll be taken back to Crown City," Bel replied. "We have fresh troops coming tomorrow, so the transports will take the children and a few of ours back with them. They'll be cared for." Bel patted my shoulder lightly. I stiffened when he did that. Bel noticed and dropped his hand quickly.

* * *

"I don't know what she was more afraid of—what's hiding in the desert or my touching her," Bel paced before Aris' desk later.

"Just be careful around her, I think she's afraid of any man. It isn't you," Aris attempted to calm his Ranger.

"What caused that? Do you have a guess?" Bel turned his gaze to the Commander. Aris did have a guess but it wasn't something he wanted to discuss, even with his second-in-command.

"I don't wish to speculate," Aris replied instead. "Don't worry; I'll find a reason for this, eventually."

* * *

The children ended up spending the night in the women's quarters down the hall. They were taken right in by several, hugged, kissed and put to bed. It made me sigh. That had never been my due, growing up in a large family that should have known better. I crawled into bed after cleaning the kitchen a second time. I'd wanted to ask Bel about the danger in the desert, but that would have revealed my ignorance. Most likely, the others knew all about it; they just hadn't discussed it within my hearing. Sleep wouldn't come right away as it normally did and I tossed for hours before the voice visited me again in my exhaustion.
Sleep, little love
, the voice whispered. I slept.

I felt off the following day but decided it was due to a late night and lack of sleep. I had difficulty rising the day after that. Feverish best described the third day and I ached all over. The youngest of my three helpers, Stef, asked me if something was wrong after a while. I stared at him stupidly before dropping to the floor as blackness enveloped me.

* * *

"One of those three that brought the vegetables and fruit had the fever—Galdi remarked on it," Bel said later. Reah had been brought to the outpost physician who'd placed her in his tiny hospital. She was his only patient at the moment.

"I didn't even think to ask if she'd been inoculated—all the others were," Bel added.

"Chlind and Seval," Aris growled angrily. Bel worried whenever Aris growled. That low, threatening sound was a sign that Aris was extremely angry.

"I'll be happy to knock their heads together if we see them again," Bel agreed.

"I'll knock their heads together." Aris stood outside the door to Reah's hospital room. The physician was administering fluids through an IV. Poor Reah hadn't wakened since fainting in the floor.