thefiremargins (41 page)

CHAPTER 12

From the safety of the bushes on the rear slopes of the village, he'd kept watch on the comings and goings of the inhabitants for several days now. He'd a good idea where she was— in a small cottage just to the right of where he was concealed. It was one of the few dwellings where the sole inhabitant was obviously ill. Once a day, in the evening, a neighbor would call with hot food. On the third day, by a stroke of good fortune, he'd heard the female call out to her.
Khemu!
she'd shouted.
I'll be late tonight! The Faithful have called a prayer meeting.
The next day he stayed hidden till an hour after sunset when all the villagers and Faithful alike closed their doors for the night. Slowly, cautiously, he climbed down the slope to the pathway at the back of her house. Staying close to the wall, he crept along to the partially open window. He stood up, slipping his claw tips between the shutters, easing the left one outward just enough to allow him to see the interior. Across from him there was a bed with a long mound in the center of it. He waited, watching to see if she moved. She didn't: she must be asleep.
Pushing the shutter open a fraction more, he vaulted quietly to the window ledge, balancing there momentarily till he could see what was in front of him. It was the sink, and it was empty. To one side of it was a work surface, also clear of any implements. Stepping onto the surface, he leaped quietly to the floor. After a moment or two's stillness, when he knew he hadn't wakened her, he turned and drew the shutters closed.

* * *

"Who's there?" she demanded, suddenly raising herself up on her elbow and peering toward the window. "I know you're there. Show yourself!"
Kaid turned round again and stepped out of the shadows, standing so the moonlight from the front window fell full on him. He should have known he couldn't surprise her.
Khemu sucked in her breath with an audible hiss. "Tallinu!"
He stayed where he was, unmoving. "I heard you were ill, Khemu."
"You haven't changed," she said abruptly. "How did you find me after all these years?"
"I didn't. Ghezu did."
"He's still around, is he?"
Kaid flicked an ear in agreement. "He's the Leader of the Brotherhood Warriors now."
"Huh," was all she said as she tried to push herself up into a sitting position.
Kaid came forward, reaching out to help her.
"I can manage. I don't need your help," she snapped, pulling away from him before he could touch her. "What brings you here anyway?"
"I needed to see you, to apologize for that night ..."
"Apologize?" she said, frowning. "Just how do you intend to apologize, Tallinu?"
Shifting from one foot to the other, he tried not to look away from her. He'd forgotten how piercing her gaze could be. "It all happened so quickly. I'd never been with a telepath before, I didn't know what could happen ... what would happen," he said, aware of how lame he sounded.
"You
knew
what you were." Her voice was unforgiving.
"Suspicions, nothing more. Dammit, Khemu," he said, trying to keep his voice as low as possible. "I knew nothing for sure! You ran off before I could speak to you— ask you what had happened! By the time I'd made some sense of it all, you wouldn't see me!"
"Vartra's bones, Tallinu! What did you expect of me? I was no older than you! We were just younglings then. You scared the life out of me! I couldn't cope with what you were— what you'd been."
"I realize that now."
"Then there was the cub. You left me pregnant, Tallinu!" Her voice cracked and broke, sending her into paroxysms of coughing.
Turning, he went to the stone water cooler by the sink and fetched her a drink. "Here," he said, sitting on the edge of her bed and handing her the mug.
Ears flicking in thanks, she took a couple of shuddering breaths. Her hand closed over his as she took the mug from him. She sipped the drink, not taking her eyes from his face.
"Did you find the cub?"
"Yes, I found him," he replied, moving his hand from under hers so he could reach up to touch her face. "No one guessed who he was except old Jyarti who let me foster him." He let his hand fall to rest on the covers beside hers.
She handed the mug back to him. Taking it from her, he leaned forward, placing it on the night table.
"I kept trying to see you. I called at the house daily," he said quietly. "I wanted to do what was right, Khemu. Not just for your sake, but for the cub's. Why didn't you ..."
"I'd no choice," she said, cutting him short. "My parents knew what had happened by then. They knew it was one of the Brothers and they didn't want any trouble with Stronghold. Because I refused to tell them who I'd been with, they kept me locked in my room."
Her voice had become as bleak as her eyes.
"Why didn't you tell them? Surely they guessed it was me when I kept calling?"
"Why should I tell them? You weren't the only one who came, you know. Ghezu called too," she said. "They weren't interested in who the father was, only in the fact that the betrothal arranged by the Clan Lord had to be canceled. They refused to let the world know of my shame. They told him I'd died ... in a climbing accident," she said contemptuously. "Me, mountain born and bred, killed in a climbing accident? The Guild believed it though, as did the Clan Lord."
"They did that because of our cub?" Anger surged through him.
She put her head to one side, raising her eye ridges. "Our cub?" she said. "I suppose he is. I never thought of him as mine, only yours. They took him from me as soon as he was born."
"Why?" In part he already knew the answer. The depths that families could sink to in their quarrels were no surprise to him. Too often he and others from Stronghold had been called in to settle disputes in a manner that forbade further argument.
She shrugged. "Since I was dead, how could the cub exist?"
"What did they do with him?"
She sighed, moving restlessly, trying to get comfortable. "They gave him to the estate nursery. He grew up there, in the charge of whoever was on duty."
"I know what it's like to grow up on the wrong side of the hearth," he said, his voice betraying an anger he was finding increasingly difficult to control. "I saved him from as much of that as I could at Stronghold. Who brought him to me?"
"Some time after he was born, they sent me to a house near the Clan village. My father's punishment was for me to see the cubs every day but never be able to speak to them. When he was old enough to play outside, I could tell which cub was yours: he was always alone or being picked on. So when I finally managed to escape, I took him with me."
He caught her eyes but with a flick of her ears, she looked away. "I couldn't leave him there. All that pain and hurt in one so little. Yes, I suppose I did care for him," she admitted quietly. "I did what I could to wipe out his memories of the time on the estate so he could have a fresh start. The rest you know. My family couldn't admit I was still alive so they couldn't search for me or him."
Ever alert, Kaid heard a slight noise from behind. Ears pricked as far sideways as they could go, he urgently signed for her to be silent. Turning his head to look over his shoulder at the open window, he leaned forward, ready to spring into the shadows by the front door.
"Don't bother, Kaid," said Dzaka's disembodied voice. "Move, and I
will
shoot."
Kaid relaxed, his left hand slowly inching toward the knife concealed at the back of his jacket. He was glad the wait was over.
The muzzle of the gun appeared first, then Dzaka vaulted through the window to land on the work surface. The sound of a soft footfall and he stood in the room with them.
"Who the hell are you?" demanded Khemu angrily. "Are you one of Fyak's people?"
"No. I'm Dzaka."
She glanced from him to Kaid then back.
"He's our son," Kaid confirmed.
"You might have taught him better manners. What the hell do you mean by entering my house like that without leave?" she demanded, looking him up then down.
Their attention safely diverted for the moment, Kaid palmed his knife under a fold in the bedcover.
"I've been appointed to protect you," said Dzaka, his gun still trained on Kaid as he stepped closer to where they sat.
"By whom, and against whom?"
"Leader Ghezu told me Kaid intended to harm you because of his guilt over his actions toward you in the past."
Kaid could tell by the constant movement of Dzaka's ears and the occasional jerky flicking of his tail that his son was balanced on a knife edge. Dzaka had psyched himself up to the point where he was prepared to kill him if he thought it necessary.
"Just what did Ghezu tell you?" asked Khemu.
"He said Kaid had drugged you with faka juice so you'd go with him that night."
"Drugged me?" She looked at Kaid. "He certainly hasn't inherited
my
brains!" She turned back to her son. "Tallinu didn't drug me, youngling. How old are you now? Thirty?"
"Thirty-four," said Dzaka stiffly. "What's my age got to do with it?"
"You've known Tallinu thirty years and yet you believed Ghezu?" She gave a snort of disgust. "I didn't know I'd given birth to a fool! Ghezu's Talent is to cast a glamour over what he says. You've been duped, boy!"
The nose of the gun barrel had begun to droop and a confused look crossed Dzaka's face. "You mean he didn't drug you?"
"That's what I just said, isn't it?"
"But why did you ... How did I come ..." He broke off, obviously at a loss to know how to ask his all-important question.
"That's none of your business!" she snapped, beginning to cough again. "How dare you ask me that!"
Kaid realized she'd staggered Dzaka, making him doubt what he'd been told. Now was the time to push the advantage home. The risk was still there, but it was acceptable.
"I'm going to give her some water, Dzaka," said Kaid, slowly stretching out his hand for the mug. "Either use that damned gun and get it over with, or put it away."
He held the mug to her mouth and this time, when she'd done, her fingers remained curled round his and she leaned against him trying to regain her strength.
"How much longer?" he asked her softly, his other hand reaching up to smooth the hair away from her face.
"Days, a couple of weeks at most," she said, her voice barely audible. "If I'm unlucky."
He pushed aside the grief. It served no purpose now. "Tell me where your medication is and I'll get it for you."
"I've none. They won't let me have any."
He began to growl deep in his throat, ears flicking sidewards with the anger he could no longer contain. His hand tightened round hers protectively. "Are you in pain? I have something with me that I can give you."
"I can just control it," she said, pushing herself upright again. "You can't be weak in the desert. It either strengthens you or kills you. Looks like it's done both to me."
"Leave with me, Khemu," he urged. "I've a vehicle not far from here."
"No, I've lived here too long to want to leave now," she said.
Kaid had been keeping a portion of his mind focused on Dzaka and knew he was no longer a threat. He reached into a pocket with his left hand, wincing as the almost healed wound on his arm was stretched.
"What have you done to your arm?" she asked, concern in her voice.
"It's nothing," he said. "An accident. Take this." He put a small blue capsule into her hand, closing her fingers around it. "For when you choose to end it. Bite the capsule and swallow the liquid. It acts in minutes and is painless."
Opening her hand, she looked at the capsule lying in her palm. "You've just given me my freedom."
"I've one other thing to give you. Please don't refuse it." He hesitated, wishing Dzaka wasn't there. "I said I hoped to make things right. When I realized there'd be a cub, I had a bracelet made for you. I carried it with me each time I came to your estate, hoping to get the chance to offer it to you."
He saw a surprised look cross her face then felt the gentle touch of her mind against his for a moment.
"You really did," she said. "Why? We didn't love each other, Tallinu."
"I know, but I had hoped for a relationship with you, not just one night. And the responsibility for our cub was mine; I didn't want him to grow up as I did, with no registered father."
She looked past him to Dzaka. "Yes," she said thoughtfully. "Why not? I'll take your bracelet, Tallinu. Do something useful, brat. Fetch me the box you'll find on the top of that chest on the far side of the room."
Dzaka, still with a stunned look on his face, was putting his gun away. "Ghezu lied to me. Everything he said was a lie," he said, looking from one parent to the other.
"I tried to tell you," said Kaid. "Ghezu and I fought over Khemu that night and when she refused him, he got abusive with her."
Khemu nodded. "He'd heard me ask Tallinu to accompany me home. While his friends restrained him, we left." She began to cough again, bending over and putting her hand to her throat to ease the pain.
"More water?" asked Kaid.
She shook her head. "Let's get this done, then you must leave. You've been here long enough as it is. You risked too much in coming here, both of you," she said. "Fetch the box, Dzaka." She turned to Kaid. "You chose the name?
Brought-in-from-the-cold.
Apt."
"It's a traditional mountain name, one that's fallen into disuse now," said Kaid, pushing back his right sleeve so he could take off the silver bracelet that lay concealed beneath it; the bracelet he'd worn for nearly thirty-five years.
As Dzaka came over with the box and handed it to her, she grasped him by the wrist. "Stay, brat. You're a lay-priest like your father. You can witness your own legitimization." She let him go and took the box from him, laying it on the bed beside her.
"Just put the bracelet on me, Tallinu. No messing about, hear? We're long past the need for all that ritual."
As Kaid took her hand and placed the bracelet round the painfully thin wrist, he could almost see again the young female he'd known all those years ago. Her face seemed to flesh out and her hair and body fur were once more the soft luxuriant gray of her youth.
He heard Dzaka let out a gasp of shock, and the image was gone, replaced by the thin, frail female she'd become.
"Memories never age," she said, her mouth opening in a faint smile. She opened her box, taking out a bracelet only slightly narrower than the one she now wore. "You can have this one. It has my family crest on it. Wear it and damn them for me, Tallinu!" she said, reaching for his hand.
"Oh, your father'll be damned, never fear," said Kaid grimly.
"No," she said, pushing the silver circlet over his hand and down onto his wrist. "Go to him, take Dzaka with you, and show him
your
bracelet. That will break his pride more than anything."
He turned his hand over, clasping hers. "If that's what you wish. We are one now," he said.
"We are one." She released him and picked up the box to hand it back to her son. "Here, take this with you, Dzaka. Everything that's in it is yours now. You have two families, always remember that. The Arrazo and Tallinu's. Be sure to honor both, and wear my family crest for your grandfather to see!"
She froze, ears swiveling toward the door. "Go now!" She pushed Dzaka and the box away from her. "Fyak's warriors are coming! You've a chance if you leave immediately!"
Dzaka hesitated.
"Go!" said Kaid, picking up his knife and pocketing it as he rose to his feet in one fluid motion. "I'll be behind you. If I don't make it, leave without me. My craft's in the arroyo two kilometers west of here." He knew his son would be hard pressed to reach it ahead of Fyak's warriors— unless he bought some time by creating a diversion.
Dzaka staggered backward as an image of the location of the craft flashed briefly in his mind's eye.
From the street outside, the sound of running feet and low voices could now be plainly heard.
"Go, I said!" growled Kaid, heading for the door. Grasping the heavy wooden latch, he slammed it into place. Pulling his gun out, he returned to Khemu's side.
Dzaka turned and ran for the window, jumping up onto the work surface. He turned for a last look at them, then Kaid was beside him, thrusting a coin into his hand before pushing him through the opening. Already Fyak's guards had reached the door and were pounding on it.