Hearts of Ishira (Hearts of Ishira Saga) (9 page)

He called out something in his tongue. The mount slowed and she opened her eyes enough to see tall walls of wood and stone above her. It was the exact building she’d seen from Hunter’s mind, which reassured her that he was what he claimed to be, merely a compassionate responder to the accident that had brought her group to this world.

People crowded into the courtyard, wanting to see what was going on. She could sense them, all male, and the growing excitement and interest pressed against her mind, bringing back some of the pain. All around her there was movement and sound, but she could do no more than close her eyes again and allow things to happen without her participation. She felt so weak, so listless. When faced with an emergency, Ri was capable, decisive, and strong. But as soon as someone else showed up who could take over and do a better job, Arianna could fall apart, be pathetic. It was no different now.

Her girls were safe within the walls of the compound. Hunter was organizing his men and the women were being taken either to the great hall or to the medical center. Ri was exhausted. But she had been strong when she needed to be. That was what mattered.

Her head was about to split open. There were too many minds bombarding her, all of them open and broadcasting, all of them in states of heightened excitement, good or bad. It didn’t help that the majority of the girls were terrified, now that they had reached their destination. Their emotional ‘noise’ was almost too much for Arianna. She whimpered and burrowed her nose into Hunter’s chest, trying to block out the worst of it. He stopped suddenly, looking down at her, as he realized that her distress was from the mental state of those around her, and not just because of her head injury. He gave the girls a thoughtful look then nodded, as though coming to a decision. Moving past the main group, he walked his beast straight to a smaller building off to the side of the main compound.

His stride was long, but not jarring, as he dismounted and carried her into what appeared to be a surprisingly advanced computer room or command center. He quickly sat her down in a stuffed chair, wrapped her in his cloak, and then rummaged around in a drawer for something. His eyes were bright with excitement as he held up a small electronic device and pressed it to her uninjured temple. There was a tiny little pinprick then she felt an odd sensation, as though something was entering her brain. She was very dizzy for a moment, but when her eyes once again focused, Hunter was watching her expectantly.

“Can you understand me?” he asked, clasping her hands eagerly. She gasped and nodded in surprise. She
could
understand him! The nod sent pain shafting through her skull, momentarily blinding her and filling her with nausea and dizziness. He reached out to touch her face and draw some of the pain away from her then took a few moments to soothe and hold her steady until she was able to focus on him once more.

“You are a Reader,” he said softly, in deference to her aching head.

“What do you mean?” she asked in a whisper.

“You know what others are thinking, feeling.”

“Oh…” she hesitated. In her world, empaths and psychics were still anathema among the general population. She didn’t know if admitting to the talent would mean trouble or not, on this alien world. She and Hunter had been communicating that way, yes, but was he an anomaly? Hunter smiled and winked at her, sensing her hesitation at admitting her special talents.

“No need to be concerned,” he said softly. “Readers are highly valued in our society, so there is no need to fear.”

“As you are?” she asked quietly, then grimaced at the absurdity of the question.

“Yes,” he nodded, as though her question wasn’t stupid at all. “All of our battalion and ship commanders are, as are all of our territorial and municipal leaders, counselors, and law enforcement. A Reader is always ranked as a Commander, no matter what career they have chosen.”

She blinked at the unexpected stream of information. Her head was reeling with everything that had happened and she had a feeling that she didn’t have much stamina left. Her eyes locked with Hunter’s for a moment, lost in the bright green irises, tiny flecks of blue, and the dark ring around them. Lord, he was gorgeous! He must be, if she was able to think about something like that, with as much pain as she was in. He chuckled, sensing her efforts to take in all he had told her.

“Your mental touch was, in fact, how I singled you out from your people, once we got to your group,” he told her. “You are the only Reader among your women, though I sensed an emerging ability in the little blond that was by your side. You are also the eldest and most of the girls seemed to listen to you, eventually. I surmised from those two things that you were probably their leader… though I will be the first to admit that age does not denote leadership abilities.”

“I… Well, no, I’m not really their leader. I don’t know any of those girls, other than the blond, Bev, and I just met her in the woods. She helped me.” Ri sighed, pausing to catch her breath. “I’m not their leader, though. I just kind of… no one else was taking charge or seemed able to think quickly enough, except Amy, and she was getting it all wrong, wanted to attack you guys, instead of the animals. So I took charge. I don’t know how we came to be together in a space ship, either.” She widened her eyes, as though it had just sunk in. “But I was on a space-ship, and now I’m on another world, with … aliens!”

He chuckled at her breathless wonder. Hunter had the distinct feeling that if she wasn’t injured, she’d be bouncing in that chair with excitement. He stood, getting back to business. She needed medical attention, and very soon.

“We only have this and one other intracranial translator left,” he said, tapping the device at her temple, “And you won’t be able to use it for long. But there are already subcutaneous neuro-translators in place in all of you. It will simply take them time to build connections with the communication centers in your brains, assimilate your language and sync it with ours. It will also take time and exposure to both languages for them to work more quickly. Unfortunately, for now, you and someone of your choosing will be the only ones that can understand us. I wish that we had more of these, so we could speak with each of your women immediately, but we don’t. Now, I need to get you to the medical center, but I had to be able to talk with you so you can help direct the women, as needed, until the translators work.”

“You probably should give the other one to Bev,” she laughed ruefully. “She seems really capable. And I am not their leader. I don’t know if they’ll listen to me, especially if I’m in the med center and they’re somewhere else.”

He shrugged, dismissing her objection. “They listened back at the crash site,” he reminded her simply. She wanted to protest more vehemently, but was too tired and in too much pain to dredge up the energy to do so. Besides which, he could feel her frustration. Why waste her breath?

Instead, she closed her eyes as a wave of midgets wearing coconuts for shoes galloped through her skull. Hunter caught the mental image, and his eyes softened on the small woman. In such pain and still able to maintain her humor. If he had not already decided he would be taking a personal interest in her, that alone would have made his decision. Sensing that she was nearing her breaking point, Hunter picked her back up and cradled her against his chest.

He was so very warm, vital, strong. Ri felt so safe and even cherished when he held her. It was ridiculous, especially under their current circumstances, for her to trust him, to feel so natural with him, but the honest truth was that she did. Sagging against him, she gave herself up to his care. He took her back out to the main courtyard, where she could address her companions. It only took moments for the courtyard to quiet. In that time, she repeated her mantra, hopefully for the last time that day.

Center. Open. Flow. Wait. One one-thousand, two one-thousand, three one-thousand…
By the time she was stronger, the courtyard was silent.

“The Commander has given me a translation device,” Ri said to the women, as loudly as she could, without preamble. “For right now, they seem to think I should be in charge, though God knows why. You’ve each been implanted with neuro-translators that are learning our language and will shortly be working so that you can talk to the men, as well. The more you interact with these people, the quicker your translators will work. But for now, if you need anything, simply ask for me. I’m Arianna, or Ri. You can ask for Bev, too. She’ll be my second for now.”

She paused to catch her breath and allow a wave of incredible thunder to pass through her skull. Panting through the pain now, she hurried to finish up. “If needed, the men will bring you to me or Bev and we can translate for you. Now, if any of you need medical attention, please follow us or ask for help to get to the medical center. If you’re not hurt, please try to work with these guys. They really do want to help us. They’ve already proved that there’s no reason to be afraid of them.”

The majority of the girls still looked a bit scared and not a little bit confused. A few even looked suspicious and rebellious, but they all nodded. What choice did they really have? Arianna tried to put herself in their place, with alien men surrounding her and a strange woman telling them what to do when she was too hurt to even stand on her own. She knew that they would need some time to process it all, and hoped that they would be okay until she could get some medical attention and hopefully be back among them to be their mentor, of sorts, until their translators were working.

That task accomplished, she couldn’t restrain a soft groan of agony as her leg, ribs, and head all seemed to realize that she was done being a leader and could now be a patient. Hunter felt her pain and growled low in his throat in protest at her discomfort. Her stomach lurched dizzily as he whirled and quickly carried her into what she assumed was the medical center.

CHAPTER FIVE

Minutes later, she had been given a shot that dulled the pain to a wonderful degree, though didn’t take it away entirely. Still, she was now feeling rather floaty and much happier about life than she had only ten minutes earlier. And she was loopy enough not to care very much that she was stark naked in front of alien men.

Hunter had swept his cloak away and settled her on a thick, absorbent pad on one of the beds. He and another medic were very gently washing the worst of the mud and blood off of her body. She was already covered with bruises. Two other medics were following behind Hunter, making sure her scratches and wounds were clean before slathering them with salves and bandaging them. Four incredibly handsome, well-built men around her naked body. If she hadn’t been so weak, she might have indulged in a bit of naughty fantasy. Instead, she closed her eyes and tried not to think about how she must look to Hunter at the moment.

She was embarrassed at her nudity for all of a few seconds. Hunter and the men tending to her seemed to completely ignore her girlie bits, other than to lift them out of the way as they cleaned her up and worked on the minor injuries. Once her breasts were rinsed, they placed a towel over her chest, providing her with a modicum of modesty. Either they had no interest in her bare flesh because she was an alien, she just wasn’t all that attractive to them, or they were simply disciplined enough not to look at a helpless, injured woman in a sexual way. She would have asked Hunter, but he seemed rather intent on getting her cleaned up and had his mind focused on that.

When they reached her feet and she was completely bandaged on the front, the four men lifted her and expertly turned her over so that they could deal with her back. Her face was over a small hole in the padding, allowing her to breathe and keep her neck from twisting. Then the process started all over again.

Ri sighed and closed her eyes. The shot of pain killer, the warm water, and the men’s gentle touch lulled her a bit. The men used nicely warmed, incredibly soft towels to dry her. Finally, Hunter declared her to be as clean as they could get her without actually scrubbing for now. He lifted her naked body against his once more, holding her for a moment as the handsome doctor from the forest adjusted some settings on what appeared to be a flat-bed medical scanner. At a nod from the doc, Hunter very gently laid her on the scanner bed, then stepped back as it went through the quick scanning cycle.

Once it was done, he scooped her up and deposited her in a nice comfortable bed that someone had thoughtfully turned down for her. Pillows were piled behind her, allowing her to sit up a bit, and Hunter tucked the soft blankets around her body. Her head was still aching a little, but it seemed that at least she wouldn’t be moved much more, if they were tucking her in. There was a flurry of activity as two medics hurried over to her with bags of fluids and IV kits. She barely had time to take a breath before she had IVs running into both arms. She wondered what was in them, fervently hoping that these aliens knew what they were doing.

Nearby, several other women were also either propped up or lying down, having already been tended to. A few had yet to regain consciousness. The others looked to be in various stages of shock, but that was only to be expected. Teams of medics hovered over each bed, taking care of the women, each man seeming to act as though he were a smaller part of a well-oiled machine. Occasionally, as she waited her turn for attention from the doctor, the men would ask her to translate instructions or questions for them, which she did, though a bit groggily.

Finally, Arianna watched as the tall, good-looking young doctor from the crash site strode to her bed and took a quick look at her leg. He gave her an injection near the wound and in several heartbeats, the pain in her leg disappeared. In a shorter amount of time than she would have thought possible, he and his men had set the bones, sealed the wound with some sort of laser, bandaged everything, and applied a new, sturdier cast. Her leg felt much better.