Stardust Dreams (32 page)

The woman led her down the
side corridor and made several turns. She finally stopped in front of an animal
hide that hung on the rock wall from about Cherry's thigh level to the ground. Lifting
a bottom corner, the woman motioned Cherry through an opening barely large enough
for her to crawl through.

As small as she was, it was
no problem, but she knew Gallant would have a difficult time squeezing in. She
also realized that meant several of the barbarians would not make it through at
all, which seemed to be a positive factor under the circumstances.

Before Cherry knelt down,
she pantomimed to the woman that she needed something to drink.

"That is good,"
she responded. "You are not only a decent fighter; you learn quickly. There
is a container of refreshment inside. Be sure to leave most of it for your
master."

As soon as Cherry crawled
through the opening, the hide flap was lowered behind her. She was relieved to
discover the floor had been padded with plush furs. The dim blue light
emanating from the walls allowed her to see that the niche was about the size
of Gallant's room on his ship, though not high enough to stand in. More furs
were folded in a pile against one wall, and a ledge on another wall bore a
quart-size ceramic pitcher and a small bowl.

A peek inside the pitcher
told her it was filled with liquid, undoubtedly the refreshment the woman had
spoken of, and her nose said it didn't smell any worse than the cavern itself. Her
thirst demanded she take at least one sip. She poured a bowlful and finished it
all. It was neither good nor bad, and it was close enough to water to quench
her dry mouth. She figured one more bowlful would do the trick.

She wished she knew what to
think. Gallant had promised to be honest with her, and had made her promise to
trust him.

But Gallant had lied
before.

He had seemed disgusted by
his heritage when he had told her about it.

He also seemed to have
become one of them without the least difficulty.

Which was the actor, and
which was the real man?

He had told the princess he
had known what he was for some time. Had he been referring to his planet of
origin, or the fact that he was heir to a kingdom of warriors?

She took several more
swallows of the liquid straight out of the pitcher. When a few drops dribbled
down her chin and onto her chest, she was reminded of what a mess she was. There
was nothing she could do about her stained, dirty jumpsuit, except to get out
of it, so she did.

The woman had warned her to
save the refreshment for her master, and one glance inside the pitcher let her
know there was less than one bowlful left.
Her master!
That'd be the
day any man was her master.

She poured the remaining
liquid into the bowl. Searching through the pile of furs, she found a linen
sheet and dipped a corner of it into the liquid. A long soak in a hot bubble
bath would have been her first preference, but wiping the wet cloth over her
skin was better than nothing. Strangely, the moisture evaporated almost as fast
as she applied it. With each stroke she felt increasingly refreshed. In fact,
she could feel herself smiling despite the lack of cleanliness, despite the
brutal fight… even despite Gallant!

All of a sudden a wave of
dizziness assailed her and she tossed aside the cloth to hold on to her head. It
occurred to her that she might have been injured in the fight and not realized
it at the time. Or she hadn't had enough to eat for how many calories she had
burned. At least she was certain she had consumed enough liquid.

The moment she thought
about the liquid, a possible reason for her dizziness
and
the smile
came to mind. It had been ten years since she had consumed an alcoholic
beverage, but the memory of how her system responded to alcohol stayed with
her. And the way the liquid had evaporated when it touched her skin certainly
acted like alcohol as well.

She was drunk! And damned
if it didn't feel great. Tomorrow morning she might feel like one giant
headache, but for a short while, the pains and bruises were numbed. She looked
down at the thigh Vella had chomped on and saw the teeth marks clearly, but the
niche's blue cast prevented her from seeing if it was already discolored.

Why in the world had
Gallant allowed that fight? Could he have really been as entertained by the raw
violence as he had appeared? And why did he insist she be taken away afterward
like a naughty child? Considering what she had just gone through, he could have
at least allowed her to sit quietly in a corner and listen to the rest of
Josep's story. Perhaps he knew what was coming and didn't want her to hear it.

Of course, she realized
that she was somewhat to blame. There would have been no excuse to fight if she
hadn't tripped Vella. But the girl had—

What had she done? She had
tossed her a rib, in the same manner the others were doing with each other. No
one at the table seemed to be aware that trays could be politely passed around
any more than they would know what to do with plates or silverware. If she had
simply caught the thrown rib, maybe nothing would have happened.

A little voice laughed at
her rationale.

"It wasn't that."
Cherry glanced around the area before realizing she was the one who had spoken.

You were jealous
, the voice
teased.

"That's stupid. I've
never been jealous in my life."

You were.

With a disgusted frown, she
decided to ignore the voice and make up a bed with the extra furs. Since he had
ordered her to stay awake, she wanted to be certain she appeared to be sound
asleep when he got there. Then she could pretend to wake up to deliver a
tongue-lashing he'd never forget. As soon as she lay down, however, her eyelids
drifted shut.

"I wasn't
jealous," she mumbled to herself. Everyone knows you have to really care
about someone to be jealous.

You care.

Cherry turned onto her
uninjured side and, nestling into the furs, let the effects of the refreshment
send her to a place where she couldn't hear the irritating little voice.

Gallant crawled through the
small opening prepared to immediately hush Cherry until his escort was out of
hearing range. The sight that awaited him swept away all such practical
concerns.

By
drek,
she was a
beauty. Stretched out naked on her back, her fair skin gleamed against the dark
furs beneath and scattered around her. Her small breasts moved with each
shallow breath and one knee was bent just enough to give him a full view of the
place that fitted him so perfectly.

When Vella had offered
herself to him, he had purposely taken his time looking her over. She was
young, voluptuous, and would encourage him to be as forceful as his primitive
nature demanded. Yet all he had found himself doing was comparing her
attributes to Cherry's.

He was a bit surprised that
she hadn't stayed awake, if for no other reason than to argue with him.

The look on her face as she
left the main room had promised swift retribution. He was certain his
explanations would have calmed her… if he could have gotten her to listen at
all. In a way, though, her falling asleep was the best thing that could have
happened. He needed a few hours to digest all the information he had been given
in the past hours and decide what he was going to do about it.

As he stripped off his
clothes, he noticed the pitcher lying on its side and grinned. He had had one
tankard of the brew served with dinner and his faculties had been dulled. Cherry
would have had no way of knowing what she was drinking, until it was too late. If
nothing else, she was guaranteed a sound night's sleep.

He lay down beside her,
intending to leave her in peace. And he would have, if she hadn't immediately
turned toward him… or if she hadn't instinctively reached for him. His arms
enveloped her and pulled her close. As usual, when he came in contact with her,
he was instantly aroused. Yet when her fingers skimmed that part of him, he
gently moved her hand to a less sensitive area.

Their couplings were always
desperate and unbelievably satisfying, even when they were both half-asleep. But
for tonight, the only thing he truly wanted was to hold her close.

Thinking that he could have
lost her made his chest tighten, as it had several times since they landed on
Lore. Though he knew he would have to give her up eventually, at least it
wasn't going to happen tonight.

* * *

Cherry felt Gallant's leg
and ami weighing her down before she was fully awake, but she could also tell
he wasn't the only thing holding her down. There wasn't an inch of her body
that wasn't aching. She parted her dry lips to tell him to get off her, but all
that came out was a cross between a groan and a croak.

"Lie still," he
told her, moving away. He was back beside her in a moment, helping her to sit
up and bracing her with his arm.

She felt him press
something against her lips and she raised one eyelid to see what it was. The
sight of a bowl filled with liquid only made her groan and reclose her eye.

Gallant chuckled.
"It's only water, with some restorative herbs in it. Drink up."

Figuring she couldn't
possibly feel any worse, she took one swallow then another, until the bowl was
drained. But her voice still cracked when she tried to speak. "I hate
you."

"Hush, woman," he
said in a low whisper. "We can't let anyone hear you speaking to me. Anyway,
between the drink and that wrestling match, you're in no condition to fight
with me yet. I'll make you a deal. You let me talk while I take care of you,
then when you feel better, you can call me any names you want… as long as you
whisper them into my ear."

Her answer was another
groan. Taking that as her assent, he insisted she drink another two bowlfuls of
water. She could almost feel her dehydrated body tissues plumping back to
normal as he lowered her to the furs again.

"I had a servant bring
me a few items before you woke up. The water was one. This was another."

She couldn't see what he
was referring to, but when his fingers lightly rubbed something warm and slick
onto her bruised thigh, she guessed it was a salve, and hoped it had some
magical restorative powers as well. She let out a sharp gasp as he pressed a
bit too hard on one spot.

"So, it feels as bad
as it looks, huh? This stuff should help. Anywhere else?"

"Everywhere
else," she
whispered back, not even trying to be stoical about it.

"In that case, I'll
just start at the bottom and work my way up."

As his hands smoothed the
salve over one of her feet and his fingers massaged each toe, she decided she
would let him do this service for her. Even though she was angry with him about
the fight and didn't know whether to trust him or not, he owed her this much. "I
can't believe I once said Illusians should be given a chance to prove they've
changed. The Consociation should forget the barrier and just send them all to
hell."

"Ho, would you kindly
remember that you're including me in that condemnation?"

"I couldn't very well
forget,
Your Majesty."

He cleared his throat
nervously. "I
am
sorry you had to fight."

"Hmmph."

"Anything I might have
done to stop it could have put us both in serious jeopardy. You must realize
that. And please note how I'm not blaming a certain injured party for causing
the problem to begin with."

She opened one eye to glare
at him, but his fingers worked their way into her calf muscles, and it felt too
good to voice her annoyance.

"Someone at the table
was communicating with me telepathically off and on the whole time, advising me
how to behave to win the council's approval. In fact, it was that person's
suggestion that I send you off the way I did."

Cherry opened both eyes and
lifted her head to look at him. "Are you serious?"

"Sh-sh," he
sounded, touching his index ringer to his lips. "No talking,
remember?"

She lowered her head, but
didn't close her eyes again. With the pounding in her head subsiding, plus the
fact that he wasn't wearing the patch, she was able to note his expression as
he spoke.

"I don't know which
one it was, but I was warned not to show any concern for your welfare and
ordered to let you fight your own battle, or else the council would consider me
a weakling. You might have picked up on the fact that they don't tolerate
weakness very well." His hands moved to her other foot to work on that leg
next. "I don't think I've ever had to do anything quite so
difficult."

He looked and sounded
completely sincere, but she reminded herself of how believable he had looked
and sounded last night as well.

He winked at her. "But
you did better than I ever expected. I'm thinking of exchanging one of my arms
for one like yours."

This time she remembered to
whisper her question. "If you weren't really ashamed of how I fought, why
did you want them to take me away?"