Conflict (5 page)

He flexed her faster, and Kaia whimpered as her climax approached at a roaring pace. She lifted her lips to his, and when she came, she cried out past his lips and into his mouth.

He held her tightly to him and worked her until she stopped shuddering around him. Thaxis kissed her deeply and returned her cry with a groan against her neck.

She could feel the length of him quivering inside her.

His chest was labouring, and she pressed her hand over his heart, feeling the strong thud as he calmed. She knew her own body was engaged in the same winding down, and Kaia leaned her forehead on his shoulder.

“If you are trying to tire me out so that the Raiders have an easier target, mission accomplished.”

He stiffened against her. “I will stand between you and danger, Kaia.”

“I am not asking you to do that, Thaxis.” She looked up at him, and his red eyes were calm and sober. She knew her freakishly pale eyes were as well.

“You do not need to ask. I am your mate. It is my right to stand between you and danger. The Heshi would not have forced us together so that fate could part us.” He cupped her jaw and caressed her cheek with his thumb.

“The Heshi shoved us together?” It should have surprised her more than it did.

“They do that from time to time. They find compatible people and steer them together when the time is right.”

Part of her mind was amused, she was sweaty, still connected to him intimately, and they were having a calm conversation as if nothing peculiar was going on.

“So, you were steered to me?”

“How else would I have known you were in danger of dying?”

She scowled. “How did you manage to transport into an orbital station you had never been to?”

He smiled and ran his hands through her hair. “I saw it in my dreams.”

Chapter Seven

Dressed and sitting at the kitchen table, she watched as Thaxis prepared everything that she had enjoyed the taste of the day before.

“I am never going to be able to eat all that.”

“This is just a bit of a taste of what Ikanni has to offer.” He winked and slid the first of many plates in front of her.

She sighed. “I will do my tasting later, when imminent death is not hanging over my head.”

Thaxis sighed. “You will be fine. The Raiders will not land here while I am on duty.”

Kaia looked at him with her head tilted to one side. “You have not asked me what they are coming for.”

“I presume it has something to do with the security of the station.” He flipped some fish in a pan and poked at some boiling vegetables.

She took a few bites of the first dish, a sort of minty green omelette. It wasn’t bad. The mushroomy things she had enjoyed the day before added a particular meatiness to the dish.

“It doesn’t have to do with the security of the station. It has to do with the security of the relay system, and through them, the entire Alliance.”

He paused and whistled softly. “From what I have heard, that is a fairly big deal.”

She chuckled at the understatement. “Yes, it is. I have the secure transmission codes in my mind. I was always good with numbers.”

“So, if they have you and they get the codes out of you…”

“They can disrupt communications in the Alliance for ten days or more. That is enough time to destroy an entire planet.”

“Can’t the Alliance change the codes?”

“They could, but it wouldn’t do much good. With a minor link, I can connect myself with the nearest relay, and from there, I could corrupt the whole system. It is why I was posted to Ikanni. It is a fairly one-way stream of data.”

“Thank the stars that they did. I don’t know if the Heshi could have stopped me from finding a mate for much longer.”

She felt a chill go through her. “Really? You were going to settle down with someone?”

He flicked the braid she had helped him with over one shoulder. “I was. I had a plan to steal a wife from a neighbouring clan and even had a few selected. I am very happy to have captured you instead.”

She frowned. “You hardly captured me.”

“We will decide it after we deal with the Raiders. I plan on challenging you to a fight.”

He was serious. She barked a laugh. “Why?”

“Because you want a fight, and I am willing to oblige.” He slid the final platters in front of her.

Kaia sampled everything and absorbed the change in taste from raw to cooked.

“I don’t know that I want a fight. I do know that I am in the strange position of being a Terran on a strange world when no authorization has been given for me to be there. I feel like I can be ejected at any moment.”

He sat down across from her. “I hadn’t thought of that. I know that Orriko’s father gave the Alliance permission for the listening post, which is how Bael Hislar got here, but I forgot that you are technically trespassing on sovereign land. Hmm…”

She kicked him under the table. “Stop thinking about punishing me. I am not one for spankings.”

He raised his snowy eyebrows. “You could read my thoughts?”

She shook her head. “No, your expression. You are surprisingly easy to read.”

A knock at his door brought her head around. She relaxed with an effort of will.

Thaxis went to answer it, and when he opened the door, it was Gathika and her husband.

They were very diffident as they spoke with Thaxis. “Bael Norwen, we are ready to begin the harvest.”

Gathika winked as she looked at Kaia. “We have had several good days of weather. It is perfect conditions.”

She would have blushed if she could have. Days of good weather were being attributed to her, and she hadn’t even been there a week.

Thaxis smiled. “Good. Have everyone head for the fields. We will join you once Kaia has finished her lunch.”

She felt for all the world like a child just learning to use utensils.

Gathika waved. “See you out there, Kaia.”

Torrimak inclined his head in her direction. “Good to see you up and about, lady.”

“Good to be up and about.” She raised her cup of tea in a toast.

Torrimak and Thaxis spoke quietly for a few moments and then the healer and her husband left.

Thaxis grinned, “It seems your punishment today will be manual labour. Eat up, you are going to need your strength.”

She looked down. “Is there a better outfit for that?”

He shook his head. “You will have to deal with what you have on. Consider it a test of your adaptability.”

Kaia narrowed her eyes. “You know, if I am tired, I won’t be up to any bedroom athletics?”

He shrugged. “Harvest time isn’t extensive. We have it down to a fine art.”

She shrugged and got back into her meal. She sampled everything and was stuffed to the gills by the time she called a halt. “Enough. Any more and you will be seeing it again very soon.”

Thaxis grinned and worked his way through the food. “It is pretty good, I think. I am not the best cook, but I haven’t starved yet.”

She burped delicately, covering her mouth with her fingers.

He paused and burst out laughing. “Well, it is not a resounding endorsement, but I will take it.”

She grimaced. “Sorry. I think that I have been doing more exercising than eating this week. This might get ugly.”

He grinned. “Well, I will be working on the cutting station. You will be stacking and flipping.”

She gave him a considering look and lifted her right hand up, bringing the energy spike into being. “Can I try cutting? I think that the crops might be my best bet for practice.”

Thaxis cocked his head. “I believe that it might be a good idea. Just remember, you are part of this community. You will work as long as we all do.”

“I have no objection to hard work.” She smiled. “I used to work on an assembly line when I was back on Earth. It was hard, boring, dirty, manual labour.”

“Really?”

“Yes. It is still a common job for a common person. I was nothing exceptional or so I thought. The Volunteer coordinator proved me wrong. I have better-than-average reflexes and that makes me an excellent guard.” There was a bit of pride in her tone.

“Why an unmanned station guard?”

“I can tolerate large chunks of stasis and come out of it on a moment’s notice. It is why I am put on stations in danger zones. As you saw, it is not always effective.”

He grimaced and finished the food.

She got to her feet and collected the empty dishes. She took them to his sink and started to wash the dishes and put them on the drying rack. By the time he completed chewing and swallowing the last mouthful, she had caught up to him and was ready for his dishes.

“Ready to begin the harvest?” she asked as she washed the final dish and the eating prongs.

“Ready when you are.”

She had no sooner put the last dish in the rack then he grabbed her and transported them to one of the grain fields. Women and men alike were standing and dividing into work clusters.

The dark elves turned and nodded their heads to their leader. “Thaxis, we are ready.”

She asked him, “Why Thaxis now and Bale Norwen every other time?”

“I am about to work alongside them. It would be awkward for them to continue to use the title.”

Kaia saw Gathy waving at her. “Can I go with the ladies?”

He nodded with a smile. “Of course. Come to me if you need anything.”

Thaxis went his way, and she walked over to Gathy. A round of introductions later and she had caught onto the importance of the gathering for the unity of the community.

Gathy handed her a pair of leather gloves. “The first row of grain is harvested by women on one side and men on the other. It’s a speed test.”

The women lifted sickles that were remarkably like the ones used back on Earth.

Kaia grinned. “I think my Heshi may have given me a built-in sickle. When do we start?”

The sun was rising high, and the Ikanni stared up at it, waiting for whatever the signal was. A clap of thunder was enough of a starter, and the women rushed forward as one body to begin hacking down the grain.

Kaia knelt at the edge of the row and whistled sharply. She extended her hands and visualized a blade spinning through the grain just above the ground. Power pulsed and shot out inches above the dirt, and the grain shuddered as it fell over.

When the row was down, Kaia called a halt to the blade, and it dissipated into the air.

Gathy gathered some ties and handed a bunch to Kaia. “Tie them up and stack them. You have given us the head start we needed. We may win this after all.”

Kaia started to move with the other women, bundling and tying over and over. “What do we win?”

“The men have to cook and serve the harvest dinner if we win. We don’t even have to do the dishes.”

“I had better get moving then.” She laughed as she moved with the women, over and over until the row was done and complete.

The women let out a howl of triumph, and when Kaia looked over at the men, they were only halfway through their row.

The men literally popped over to verify their completion, and Thaxis looked at Kaia with a rueful smile. “Did you have something to do with this?”

She shrugged. “I am guessing my inner Heshi had a previous life as a farmer.”

He advanced on her until he was standing right in front of her. He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled him to her. He gave her a thorough kiss and released her, whispering in her ear, “Cheater.”

Kaia pressed her fingers to her lips, but she was smirking. “Whatever it takes. I always fight to win.”

Chapter Eight

Jorra and Gathy shared their meal with her as the afternoon wore on. A pleasant rhythm had been set up. The men would mow, and the women would gather. They cleared one field in a matter of hours and were onto the second one when they broke for lunch.

The few children that the village had were on beverage service. They ran back and forth down the rows with cups on strings and bags of water.

Jorra, a village shopkeeper, had two children. The little boy and girl were completely charming. Jeera and Nerco were nine and six, respectively, and while the little boy held the tray of sandwiches in his hands, his sister kept a close eye on him.

Jorra sighed as she looked at them. “I sometimes wish that I met Navin earlier, just so that these little ones could have been around longer.”

Kaia asked, “If it isn’t impolite, how old were you when you met him?”

Her new friend smiled. “I was ninety-five when we met. He grabbed me at a funeral, and we have been together ever since.”

Gathy smiled. “It was thirty years before Jeera made her way into the world and that was a helluva thing.”

Jorra laughed and Jeera smiled. The little girl said in modulated tones. “I came out sideways.”

Kaia winced, and her lady parts flinched. “Ouch.”

Jorra gulped some water, caught in the memory. “You have no idea.”

Once the ladies had been fed, the little Ikanni wandered off to make sure that everyone had all that they could eat and drink.

“There aren’t a lot of kids around for this many people.” Kaia worked on the sandwich she had been given.

Her two companions looked at each other and laughed.

Gathy said, “It is the largest population boom in generations. Why would you think there should be more?”

It seemed that close to four hundred adults were working in the fields. There were twenty children at most. “I don’t know. It just seems like there should be a larger population. This many Terrans in a space for a few generations would have overflowed the valley already.”

Gathy’s eyes widened. “Are you serious? How early do you mature?”

“Is this a healer asking?” Kaia raised her brows as she finished her meal.

“Yes. I may need to know if you are to have a safe delivery.” Gathy stuck her nose in the air with fake pomposity. Her grin broke the serious nature of her words.

“Fine, miss nosey. Terrans run through puberty as early as eleven. We can gestate any time after that.”

“How often do you go into season?”

Jorra was staring at her as if she had grown two heads.

“Every twenty-eight days.” This was not the first time she had explained the human reproductive cycle to a species not her own. It was appalling to older races that Terrans could out-breed them. One of the reasons that Terrans had the reproductive clause in their contracts was to get their genes out into other species to see what would happen.