Stud (42 page)

“That wasn’t a rock,” Traldeck yelled. “Something hit us.”

Lucy looked for any sign of flotsam that might have been washed through the rapids along with them but only saw a thick gray dorsal fin. The strange fish that had been swimming in their wake all day had finally caught up with them. Rising up from the water like a prehistoric monster, it rammed the side of the raft and then slid back, gathering force as it drove in again, its teeth-studded jaws agape as it bit into the water-softened wood. Lucy had never even seen a picture of such a creature before. It was as though this valley had been cut off from time itself, and a species that had died out in other regions eons ago had lived on in seclusion.

Vertigan snatched up his bow and nocked an arrow, aiming for the blunt-nosed head.

“No!” shouted Tarq. “In trying to kill us, it’s actually pushing us toward the shore. Let it be. Just keep that wind blowing.”

Tarq was right. Between what he and Terufen were doing with the pole, the fish butting its head against the raft, and the force of the wind in the sail, they truly were getting closer, finally running aground on the rocks near the northern bank.

“We can make it from here,” Traldeck said. “Not much current and fairly shallow.”

“I am
not
getting in the water with that creepy fish sitting there waiting to eat me,” Faletok said with a sniff.

Lucy glanced at the fish, which seemed to have broken off its attack and was now swimming into the shallows. As she watched in speechless horror, its fins stretched to become long fingerlike projections that gripped the rocks to heave its pale body out of the water. What it would do next was anyone’s guess, but Lucy had an idea she was about to become dinner.

Chapter 27

Except it wasn’t a fish.

It was Kotcamp.

“Sorry about being naked,” he said as he stood up, though his smile wasn’t the least bit apologetic. “Lost my toga when I transformed.”

Terufen let out a whoop and leaped from the raft, splashing through the water to throw his arms around his friend. “We thought you were dead!”

Kotcamp returned the hug with equal gusto. “Yeah, well, I thought I was too, until I finally got my wits together enough to morph into a fish. Almost forgot I could do that, but it was either that or drown. I was trapped under that damn vrelnot for ages. Blasted thing sank like a stone!”

Terufen gave him a quick punch in the arm. “You could’ve at least changed back long enough to wave at us. Here we’ve all been so upset—”

“Hey, it was all I could do to keep up with you as it was. Didn’t want to risk it. Besides, I sort of came in handy, didn’t I?”

“Yes, you did,” said Bratol, who had recovered from his wheezing fit. “I’ve never been fond of boats, but this trip was almost the death of me. And I never even got my feet wet.”

“Hold on a sec.” Lucy took down her blanket from the mast and tossed it to Kotcamp. “There you go. You can wear that. We wouldn’t want you scaring the tourists.”

“Tourists?” Tarq echoed.

“Oh, yeah,” Lucy replied. “Never been there myself, but the falls are one of Noklar’s biggest attractions.”

Tarq cut off a length of rope and handed it to Kotcamp for use as a belt. “Must’ve missed it when I was passing through town.”

Kotcamp draped the blanket over his shoulder. “I’ve been here a couple of times. Nobody ever climbs up this high, though—too dangerous. In fact, it’s roped off. We’ll probably get arrested.”

“Who cares as long as we share a cell?” Terufen said. He gave Kotcamp another hug, smiling broadly. “I’d hate to break up this little band of ours any sooner than we have to.” He glanced at Vertigan. “I’ll even share a cell with you—that is, if you’ll promise not to take potshots at my best friend—especially when he’s trying to help us.”

Lucy waited for another retort from Vertigan that never came. “Sorry. Stress got to me.”

“Which is why Tarqy-poo is a better leader,” Terufen said with a sniff. Obviously he wasn’t going to let Vertigan off the hook that easily. “Never lets it affect
him
.”

Lucy nearly choked on her tongue.
“Tarqy-poo?”

Terufen waved dismissively. “Term of endearment. Or a nickname. All good leaders have them, you know.”

Kotcamp laughed along with the rest as he waded toward the raft. “Let’s get you all off that raft and get going. We’ll be in Noklar in time for dinner.” Morphing into his Herpatronian form, he took Lucy in his arms and carried her to shore.

Tarq gathered up his gear and jumped off the raft.
Dinner
in
Noklar?
After all they’d been through, the thought was as exhilarating as it was terrifying. But perhaps he didn’t have to declare himself right away. It’d be pretty silly to ask Lucy to be his mate when everyone else sitting around the table already thought it was a done deal. Maybe he should wait. Give himself more time to pretend…

Looking back, Tarq realized he’d let the perfect moment slip right past him when he’d saved Lucy from the vrelnot. True, they’d had several close calls since then, but he would have taken on a dozen vrelnots with far more confidence than he felt asking Lucy to spend the rest of her life with him. Would she have him in spite of his past and his inability to read, or would she decide Vertigan was a better choice? He was forced to admit that he truly had no idea what she would do. True, Lucy had done a lot of things that made him feel as though she loved him, but it could just as easily have been an act. She’d never said the words, not in front of the others and certainly not in private.

“I think the first thing we should do is tell the police about Fred and his gang,” Lucy was saying. “We need to get the ball rolling right away.”

“Even before dinner?” Terufen rubbed his belly. “Couldn’t that wait until tomorrow?”

Lucy shook her head. “It would carry more weight if we all arrived at the police station as soon as we hit town—and looking like we’d been trekking through the mountains—rather than after we’d spent the night in a hotel.”

Hotel.
Tarq could share a room with Lucy. A room where they could be alone.
Together.
No one listening, no one able to barge in on them or interrupt intimate moments. Suddenly restaurants and police stations held no appeal for him whatsoever.

“Okay,” said Terufen. “Police station first, restaurant second, and then a hotel.”

Natasha’s moan bordered on orgasmic. “I can’t
wait
to take a real shower—and put on some different clothes! I’ve been wearing the same outfit for almost four months!”

“No you haven’t,” Lucy said dryly. “That’s one of my shirts you’ve got on.”

“Oh, you know what I mean,” Natasha said. “I’m just
so
ready to get back to civilization!”

Tarq wasn’t sure he shared this sentiment. There were, after all, many things about civilization that tended to sap his self-confidence. Mentally kicking himself for missing the boat as it were, he settled his bow on his shoulder and threaded his fingers through the handgrip on the atlatl. Just because they hadn’t seen any other predators upriver didn’t mean there weren’t any down here by the falls. Maybe he could rescue Lucy again.
Then
he would ask her. No matter who was listening.

***

The climb down was treacherous, but their journey through the Eradics had prepared them well—not that it wasn’t tricky. Tarq led the way, with Traldeck bringing up the rear. Though Lucy had started off protesting that she would distract him too much, he kept her close beside him. He wasn’t about to let her take a tumble just because she made his dick hurt—not without him there to save her, anyway—and giving Vertigan the opportunity for any heroics was out of the question. Unfortunately, though Tarq did have to catch her twice as she slid past him, nothing was anywhere near dramatic enough to warrant a proposal.

Darkness had already fallen when they reached the base of the falls and ducked under the barrier. No one was there to notice where they’d come from; apparently the falls weren’t visited much at night, possibly due to the fear of vrelnot attacks this close to the mountains. Following the river, they walked on into the city, drawing a few stares along the way, though not as many as one might expect. Unlike the picturesque villages of Madric and Reltan, Noklar was a bustling spaceport city, and as such, there wasn’t much that the inhabitants hadn’t seen before. Tarq had spent some time in Noklar when he first arrived on Talus Five, but not enough to know his way around. “Where do you suppose the police station is?”

“Hel-
lo
,” Vertigan said with a touch of sarcasm. “There’s a sign right there.”

Tarq glanced where Vertigan was pointing and all of his old insecurities came crashing back on him. Though the jumble of letters eventually resolved themselves into words, Tarq knew he’d have to stand there a good five minutes before he figured out exactly what they said. And he’d been looking right at it too.
Here
we
go
again…

His vision had only shown him the way to Noklar; it was no help at all when it came to navigating the city streets. He might be able to hold his own in the bedroom and out in the wilderness, but without the information in his speeder to guide him, in a city this size, Tarq was flat-out lost.

Natasha snorted a laugh. “If we walk around town carrying bows and spears long enough, they’ll probably pick us up and take us there.”

“If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather not be arrested right off the bat,” said Lucy. “We need to get there and make our statement as soon as we can. Then we can get on with our lives.”

If Lucy’s life didn’t include him, Tarq didn’t see much reason for that moment to come any sooner than need be. But he had to at least feign enthusiasm—and he had to let someone else take the lead. Not that this had ever been a problem for him before, but he’d been among friends who cared about him then, not with Vertigan whom he still viewed as something of a competitor whether he’d wanted to be Lucy’s second husband or not. Sharing a mate was unheard of for a Zetithian. For Tarq, it was all or nothing.

When Tarq didn’t make a move, Vertigan was more than happy to lead them on to the station. Upon their arrival Vertigan stalked inside, his commanding demeanor drawing a few appreciative glances from the females present—some law-abiding and some not. He asked a few questions before they were directed to another desk where the officer listened patiently to his statement, everyone else chiming in with their own versions of how they’d been harassed and hounded out of Yalka. Natasha and Traldeck’s story seemed to have the most evidence to support it, but Tarq was dumbfounded when the man finally spoke.

“Not that your statements don’t fit with quite a few others we’ve been hearing lately, but there’s some proof surrounding
his
story at least,” he said with a nod toward Tarq. “Some friends of yours have been looking for you. They picked up the signal from your speeder in Yalka a couple of days ago, and when they didn’t find you with it, they reported you missing. We impounded the speeder, asked some questions, and made several arrests, but, generally speaking we don’t send search parties into the Eradics, which is why no one has found you before now. Not that they haven’t looked.”

Relief washed over Tarq knowing that Dax and Waroun had been searching for him, but as he’d said when Kotcamp fell into the river, sometimes you have to save yourself. “Do you know where they are?”

“Probably at the spaceport,” the officer replied. “They’ve done some flyovers but didn’t spot anything, which isn’t too surprising. It’s a wonder you all made it out alive.”

“We probably wouldn’t have if it hadn’t been for Tarq,” Lucy said. Tarq’s heart warmed as he detected a touch of pride in her voice. There might be hope for him after all.

Natasha nodded her agreement. “Yeah, we’d been holed up in a cave for months until he showed us the way through the mountains.”

“He ought to get a medal,” Terufen said firmly. “Bravery, resourcefulness, you name it.”

Tarq thought this was a ridiculous notion. He’d only done what his vision had told him to do. He didn’t want a medal. He only wanted Lucy.

The police contacted Dax and Waroun, who then picked them up at the station. After visiting a bank where everyone was able to access their funds to provide for their trip home, Dax took them all back to his ship to clean up. The
Valorcry
had enough rooms for all, though with the others still around, Tarq knew he could still have an excuse to share one with Lucy. He debated telling Dax the whole story, but there were plenty of other tales to tell. That one could wait.

After what Natasha exclaimed to be “The most wonderful bath I’ve ever had in my life!” they were provided with new clothes by Kots, the
Valorcry
’s housekeeping droid, and then went to dinner at a local restaurant. Not wanting to risk letting Lucy get away from him any sooner than he could help, Tarq had hoped they would dine aboard the ship. He’d even considered telling Dax the same story he’d told the others. That way, he might have been able to persuade him to take off with Lucy still on board so he could hang onto her a little longer. She couldn’t very well avoid him if they were on the same ship.