Eye on Orion (16 page)

“Let us have a seat and we'll get started,” Marshal said.

Jai led me to the sofa and we sat down. Everyone else joined us, including Ryad. He seemed to feel as comfortable as everyone else here. He watched Amira, and Jai watched him, but the expression on each face was indecipherable to me.

“
How are things with him?”
I asked Jai mentally as I glanced at Ryad.

“
He's still under constant supervision, but we believe he will cooperate with us. Marshal believes he was drugged, or that Shander used his talent of persuasion on him. I'm not sure yet. He could just be biding his time until he can get free of us.”

“Is he able to hear us?”

“No. We won't give him any Densinne until we are sure of him.”

I nodded and looked away from Ryad. I didn't want to know if he was angry at me.

Amira glanced between me and Jai. “Last night we discussed a lot of different possibilities. At first we talked about going right back to face Shander head on. That would be foolish since we didn't know for sure how many allies we might have. And of course we couldn't ask Jai to leave right now.” She smiled at me.

Jai squeezed my hand and I looked at him. I couldn't quite read what was hidden deep in his blue eyes. The feelings from him were more happy than sad, but there were other emotions too. He was nervous and frustrated and worried and excited and hopeful… and unsure.

It seemed strange to feel another person's emotions. I got distracted from the conversation as I thought about his feelings. When Jai turned to Amira I looked at her too.

Amira continued, “We also thought of going somewhere else here on Earth and starting over again, but that is out now Jai and Holly have Bonded.

“You would stay here because of me?” I asked. “You would put yourselves at risk because of this?” I looked at Jai and tried to pull my hand out of his. He didn't let go at first, but when I began to feel overwhelmed, he released my hand.

“We can't leave without more information. Staying here seems to be the best option right now,” Jai said. It felt like he wasn't telling me everything, but I didn't press for more.

Amira nodded. “As far as Ryad knows, there are no more of the raw materials to make the Travel medallions there in the lab. But, we know there are still two medallions held in reserve for when Father would send for us. Who knows how long it will be before Shander forces someone to tell him about them. Shander misinformed Ryad about the reason we are here and the reasons he wants us. He has deceived many people at home and is worming his way into power.” She shook her head like she was disappointed in her people.

“But what if Shander sends someone else like Ryad to find you?” I looked around the room at everyone then rested my eyes on Ryad.

“With my failure to return, I doubt Shander will trust anyone else to do this,” Ryad answered.

“Do you think he'd actually come himself?” I asked.

“I wouldn't put it past him,” Jai said. “Ryad said about half of the people are not completely comfortable with him ruling in the place of the king, unless he came to it legally. The people aren't likely to vote him into office. I'm pretty sure he wants Amira there to force her to marry him so he can become the legal king through her.”

“Not to mention he is still angry at me for refusing him,” Amira said.

“So what are you going to do now that I've complicated things?” I frowned. Jai took my hand in his again.

“You have not complicated things. It just added dimension to our experience here,” Jai assured me. Through our Bond, I knew he truly didn't hold it against me.

Even so, I was still worried. “Why didn't you have a vision of Ryad coming after you?”

Amira looked at Jai, and her cheeks grew redder. I couldn't remember ever seeing her blush before. Apparently he'd asked her the same question.

Amira sighed. “I woke up from my Vision before I saw everything. A soldier had raised an ax high and was bringing it down on someone's hand when I awoke. I missed the entire thing with Ryad's assignment to come here because I woke up too frightened.”

“Do you think you'll know if Shander makes the trip?”

“I hope so,” Amira answered, “but can't say for sure. We may not know he is here until he shows up on our doorstep. Ramal is the only one here who knows where we are. Even the ones who came before to test it out don't know our location. They know the planet we are on, but we picked an unimportant place to live so Shander wouldn't have any clue where to come. If he comes to Earth, he will have to go to Ramal first.”

“Unless there is someone else like Ryad that can find people,” I clarified.

Ryad shrugged. “It is highly unlikely. My family did all kinds of research on this talent when they discovered mine. They never found any indication anyone else could do it.” He smiled at me. “They used to tease me that I was part dog because I could find people. Though it has nothing to do with a sense of smell,” he added.

Delilah spoke. “We have contacted Ramal and told him what has happened and to be aware things may be a little difficult here for a while. He will never willingly betray us. We are almost to the point where we will just have to wait and see what happens. Without knowing how things are at home, it would be foolish for us to return now. We could be walking into a trap, and we sure can't make Jai leave Holly. It will be torture to separate them eventually as it is.”

I looked at Jai and felt a quick wave of sadness from him. As I felt his sadness, I experienced sadness myself that, in return, intensified his. There was no way to question him without everyone else hearing.

Jai seemed to sense I wanted to talk to him. He stood. “I believe we have given Holly enough to think about for now. I will talk to her alone please.”

“Of course,” Amira answered for everyone.

They all got up and left the room. Jai led me out the front door, and we sat on the porch swing, still holding hands. We sat and rocked for a few minutes, not saying or thinking anything to each other. Curtis came out of his house and got in his car. He glanced our way but put his head down as if not wanting to be seen. I felt the smugness oozing off Jai as he noticed Curtis's behavior. I felt bad for Curtis, but couldn't help feeling relieved he finally left me alone.

Jai glanced at me and then looked out at the street as we sat quietly for a while. I marveled at the different sensations coming from him. What did he feel from me? I still wasn't even sure what my own emotions were. I was too interested in his feelings.

“How does this Bonding thing work?” I asked. “My awareness of you is almost too much. I don't know what to do with all these extra emotions.” I placed my free hand on top of our joined hands and lightly rubbed my thumb across the curve of his wrist.

I looked up at him. “I feel your happiness and your sadness and other emotions. I know where to find you without even seeing you. How can it be like this? It's more information than I would ever ask from you.”

Jai blinked and I hurried to assure him. “Don't get me wrong. It is nice to know how you feel about me and that you like to see me, but it almost seems like too much.” I stopped talking, wishing I could explain what I thought and felt, then realized he could probably feel my confusion and was trying to sort through it all too.

Jai didn't say anything for a moment as he looked at me. I knew he wasn't bothered by my questions, but thought he might not be sure how to answer them.

“Do you feel the same things coming from me?”

“I think so,” he answered. “It is new to me too, of course. I have only heard of a few of these matches before. There aren't many people who know how it works; but the love stories are almost like legends.”

“How many times has it happened?” I asked.

“Oh, I don't know for sure.” He shook his head. “The only one I know of personally is when Amira's and my great-great-grandparents Bonded. They were about our age when it happened. They waited to get married until their early twenties, but they were practically inseparable from the moment the Bonding occurred. I read about it in his journal a few years ago. I didn't pay a lot of attention to it then. I wasn't in a relationship and never figured it would be something I'd need to know much about.” He squeezed my hand, and another flutter of emotion from him swam through me. How could he be so happy? Even with all the stress it would cause him.

My heart-rate jumped, and my stomach fluttered. I was only seventeen. I did like him and felt things for him I'd never felt for anyone else, but when he mentioned the marriage of his great-grandparents it startled me. It was too much too soon. If he came from here and didn't need to protect a princess and could devote all his attention to me, I might be thrilled about it. I worried too much about my heart being broken when he left. There was no way my parents would let me marry him now, not that I wanted to, but who knew about what his culture was really like. Maybe he would want to get married right away. And yet, if he left, I couldn't follow him.

I knew he felt what I did through our joined hands. I recognized the changing of his emotions. It concerned him that our conversation bothered me.

Looking at our joined hands he said, “Great-great-grandfather wrote he and Great-great-grandmother took a while to get used to the flood of emotions they felt from each other. Sometimes it was a bit embarrassing when they would radiate feelings they would have rather kept to themselves. Eventually the sharing of feelings became as familiar as their own.”

Did he say that to reassure me, or himself?

“I suppose it will take a while to get used to this.”

“I feel terrible you are in this situation in the first place. I wouldn't blame you if you feel angry at me at any time for what I have done to you.”

“I'm not angry with you,” I explained with a sigh. “But I am a little concerned. What will happen to us when you leave?”

The feeling of sadness from him almost overwhelmed me.

“That bad?” I whispered.

He took a moment before answering. “I can't say for sure, but the thought of it just about tears me apart. From the first night I saw you, I knew there was something special about you. I tried to fight my interest, but couldn't help myself in getting to know you and wanting to spend time together. At the end of each day, I wondered how I could bear to leave when the time came to take Amira home. Now I honestly don't know what I will do. It will be torture for me to leave you, but I don't know for sure what it will do to you.”

I felt his love for me as I held his hand. His misery at the thought of leaving me was overpowered by the feelings of love. I marveled again at the strength. How could he love me this much in so little time? My own feelings for him were getting stronger, but they were nowhere near the same intensity as what came from him. I wished I could give him the same feelings he gave me.

I looked down at our joined hands. “When we're touching I feel your emotions. Does it work if we're not touching?”

“I'm not sure. Should we see?” He let go of my hand and slid over slightly so we didn't touch at all.

I still felt his presence there more than just the awareness of him being next to me, but the strength of the emotions was gone.

“I believe the contact of our skin allows us to communicate that way,” he said. “I think the more we get to know each other, then we will be able to feel things without touching. It's even more intrusive than hearing each other's thoughts, isn't it?”

“Yes,” I agreed. “But I guess since the Bonding is related to love, then it shouldn't be too bad if we know how the other feels. Hopefully we'll never hate each other,” I teased.

“I don't think I'll ever feel badly toward you,” he replied.

“Oh I'm sure you will eventually,” I told him with a chuckle. “But this kind of communication would sure let us know when to fix things.”

“That is a mature way to see it,” he said.

“Oh, I'm very mature for my age,” I replied with mock seriousness, adding a smile at the end to let him know I was kidding, just in case he still didn't get my brand of humor.

“Do you mind if I come closer again?” he asked shyly. “I miss the feeling of holding your hand. I can't seem to get enough of you.”

I slid over closer to him, tucking my arm under his. I laid my head on his shoulder and breathed in slowly. “You know, the first time we touched, when you took the cookies, I felt a shock from you. Did you feel it too?”

“You did?” he asked.

“Yeah, and then when we shook hands, I felt a tingle. I couldn't stop thinking of you afterward,” I admitted, looking up at him.

“I didn't feel anything.” He furrowed his brow and frowned. “If I had, I may have known Bonding was a possibility. I would not have kissed you then, and you would still be free of me.”

“No! That would be awful,” I said, sitting up straight, turning and staring at him. “You'd have tried to stay away from me, and I'd have never gotten to know you guys.”

He wrapped his arm around me again, inviting me to lean back into him, then squeezed my arm softly, giving me a taste of his emotions. I knew he was still glad we'd gotten to know each other, even with the complications involved. We sat in silence for a while.

My mind was spinning. I didn't fully understand my own emotions and the added feelings from him took a lot of concentration to sort it all out. I was falling for him more every second, but was afraid to let myself go completely.

“Tell me honestly what you plan to do,” I said. “I don't want to let these feelings get any stronger and then find out you are leaving tomorrow. Wouldn't it be better if we didn't let this progress?”

“Maybe.” He nodded. “You are probably right. If your feelings aren't too strong right now, it would be better for you to not see me too much.”

I felt his sorrow. What he left unsaid I translated from his emotions. He was completely in love, and no matter when we parted, he would be devastated. He didn't want to cause me any more pain or stress when he left for good if he could prevent it by causing himself the pain of early separation now.