Conflict (6 page)

Gathy stared at her in shock. “What?”

“Yes, I know, it’s horrifying to think of so many little grey elves running around.” She snickered.

The signal went out for them to resume the harvest, so Kaia got to her feet and headed back to the field, tugging her gloves on as she went.

Gathy and Jorra stayed near her, but when others came by, there was a lot of whispering and giggling.

Kaia kept working, and when no one was looking, she sheared off several rows with her spinning blades.

Thaxis popped in next to her. “How long can you keep that up?”

She shrugged. “I don’t seem to be feeling any fatigue, and I think that the faster we can get this field cut, the better for everyone.”

He grinned. “That is what I am asking. Can you go two rows over and start shearing?”

“I will give it my best.” She finished the bundle she was tying and walked over to the third row. She sent one spinning cutting wheel after another through the grain until she learned to control the bladed to turn back toward her. It took a bit of effort, but it was easier than generating a new blade every time.

She had cleared the rest of the second field in one-third of the time that it had taken them to take down the first one. When she was finished, she sat on the edge of the field and caught her breath.

The laughing dark figures in the field made her smile. They also made her itch to have a set of watercolours with her. It was a surreal, idyllic scene, elves at harvest time.

Thaxis popped over with a bag of water and two cups. Sunset was threatening, but with everyone bundling the grain, the work was going at a ridiculous speed.

She drank greedily at the water and smiled. He had a smear of dust across his cheek, and she reached up to stroke it off his face.

His expression was boyish with its delight. “You did a wonderful job, Kaia.”

“Thank you. I am rather tired after all of that. If they attack tonight, I am going to be an easy target.” She yawned and smiled.

“Three more fields and we are done. Will you be up to it tomorrow?”

Kaia took a mental inventory. Her body was tired, but her mind was bright and her energy high. “It should be fine if I get some sleep.”

He sighed. “Too bad, watching you in action has definitely woken my interest in learning the stories of your battle marks.”

She looked up at him and chortled. “Tell you what, give me a rubdown and I will tell you one story. You pick the mark, and I will tell you the tale.”

“Come and have something to eat. The younglings have made dinner, and since you have done more than your share, you are first to eat.” He leaned down and lifted her in his arms.

She wanted to protest, but it was so nice to be off her feet that she snuggled in as he carried her without transporting to the large tables that were set up by the adolescents who had been on food-prep duty.

Kaia laughed as he tucked her onto a bench, and she was brought a bowl of stew, and a large platter of bread was placed on the tabletop within easy reach. The young man gave her a small bow and returned to prepping the food for four hundred hungry harvesters.

She ate the stew and used the bread to sop up the gravy when her bowl was just about empty. The young man reappeared and offered her more of the stew. “Yes, please.”

She smiled brightly as he filled her bowl again before she began to tear off pieces to dip into her meal once again. Long fingers snatched some bread from next to her, and before she knew it, Thaxis had cuddled onto the bench next to her and was stealing her dinner.

“Hey! I worked hard for that.”

He winked and continued to eat. “So did I and Arik will bring you more if you need it.”

She grumped but let him share her food as the tables began to fill. Men and women paired off, everyone wearing the sweat and dirt of a hard day’s labour. It suddenly occurred to her, “Who tends the fields?”

He grins. “That is my job. They sow them, and I make sure that they are watered and the sunlight is sufficient.”

“What about weeding?”

He rubbed the side of his nose. “I can send concentrated wind down the rows which rips up the weeds and the rest is done manually by the tenders.”

“Nice. Who does the fishing?”

He shrugged. “The fishers primarily, but anyone can take a net to the shore and pull something in if they like. I find it very meditative.”

“You fish?”

“With a net, yes. Most of the men find the icy water soothing on occasion.” He grinned.

She caught the reference. “So, that works for Ikanni, does it?”

He chuckled. “I think it works for most warm-blooded males.”

She had enough and shoved the bowl at him. He finished it in seconds, and Arik was there with more.

The only sounds were that of ravenous eating and the occasional request to pass bread or water down the table. It was a farm scene typical of any place on Earth or anywhere in the Alliance.

With her stomach full and her arms aching, she swayed in place until Thaxis put his arm around her. “The ladies will take you for a traditional ritual. They will bring you home afterward.”

She blinked. “What?”

“We have traditions, and you need tending to. They will see to it.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead.

“What about you?”

“The men have their own traditions.”

She scowled. “What about the kids?”

“The adolescents take care of them until their parents get home. We have a large crèche that monitors all the little ones.”

Gathy came to her side and took her hand. “Stop worrying. Everyone is taken care of, now take care of yourself.”

They transported and immediately walked through humid, warm air into a cavern lit by glowing stones. Huge pools of steaming water were everywhere in the football-stadium-sized cave.

“We shower over there, and then, we bathe until the day’s stresses are out of our systems.”

“Why don’t the men come here?” She looked around. There was plenty of room.

“They do. Tomorrow, we get the ocean and they get the pools.”

“Why separate?”

“We need our energy for the harvest. Too much time in the pools takes a toll on your strength but just enough is relaxing. Go on. Everyone has already seen what you have to offer already.”

Kaia smacked Gathy’s arm lightly but followed the trail of weary women to the lukewarm waterfall. Her hands fumbled at the ties of her gown, and she sighed in relief when she yanked her jacket and her gown off over her head. Her boots had to be pulled off while she was sitting, and when she was finally naked, she got back to her feet, rinsed off the dust of the day and sought out Gathy and Jorra.

It took a bit of peeping into bathing pools where good-natured women pointed out where the healer and shopkeeper were soaking out a long day’s labour.

“Finally! I thought that the gown would never come off.” She settled into the water next to them and groaned as the heat wrapped around her.

Gathy looked at her with a surprised look. “Didn’t you just transport out of it?”

Kaia blinked. “I am so tired, I forgot I could do that.”

She was overheard and laughter rippled through the pools as her comment spread in whispers, and before a minute was over, her admission had caused general hilarity in the exhausted women.

Kaia settled in the water, her neck cushion on the stone edge. Someone had taken the time to round the edge of the pool and it was exceedingly comfortable.

She dozed, and Gathy grabbed her by the shoulders. “I think you should go home now, Kaia. You are going to drown if you don’t leave.”

Other women were looking at her in concern, and to ease their minds, she nodded. “Okay. I will just get out of the pool and get my stuff and go.”

She lifted herself from the pool and padded along to retrieve her clothing. When it was bundled in her arms, she transported herself home.

She towelled off and crawled between the sheets. Thaxis wasn’t home from his dip in the sea, so she actually had a chance at restful sleep.

Chapter Nine

Warm hands caressed her spine, lips pressed against the back of her neck. “You promised me a story.”

She shivered as he massaged her sore shoulders and worked his way down to her wrists, one arm at a time.

She groaned. “Fine, pick a scar.”

He stroked her shoulder and pressed his hand against her shoulder blade. “This one.”

She chuckled and turned her head so that she could speak while lying flat on her belly. “That one was the residue of one of my first encounters of the bladed kind. I was working at a grocery store in the evening and an ex-boyfriend was stalking one of the girls I worked with that she had no further interest in.

“He followed us out of the lot and to her car. I was taking the bus home, so I waited for her to get in the car and drive off before I turned to leave. He had wanted to catch her before she got in the car, but since I had made things difficult for him, he decided to teach me a lesson. He jammed the knife into my shoulder, and it fell out, landing on the ground. I grabbed it and slashed at the back of his knee, and he went down.

“My co-worker called the police and ambulance, and it was declared self-defence. At that moment, I knew that standing between others and danger was what I was meant to do.”

Thaxis’s hands trembled as he worked on her lower back and butt. “I see. Did he live?”

“He did survive that incident. He walked with a limp and had a tracking bracelet for a few years. He did kill himself at the age of twenty-two though.”

“I see. He was a predator then, an inept one.” He worked his way down her thighs until he reached the backs of her knees. His touch grew light and teasing.

She chuckled. “That he was. It was my first real experience in pain, and the fear that I felt was not for me but for my friend if he got to her. Laura was terrified, but she eventually married a good man who had the patience to help her back to confidence again. It was a very long process.”

“What are the small punctures on the sides of the wound?”

“Stitch marks. I come from a fairly primitive species. We pull the flesh together with string.”

He paused. “It’s barbaric, but I suppose that if you don’t have contact healers, you have to do what you can.”

“That and we don’t have Heshi to speed the healing process along.” She laughed and then groaned as he slid his hands up her back to start all over again.

He paused and put something on his palms before pressing them against her shoulders. Whatever it was eased his hands as he rubbed and soothed her muscles.

He continued to work at her over and over, and as her body relaxed, she fell asleep once again.

Dawn woke her with a start. The instant light touched her eyes, she jerked awake and leapt out of bed.

Thaxis sat up and shoved the tumble of hair out of his eyes. “What is it?”

She sighed and climbed back into bed, her heart pounding. “When the alert went off on the station, light would flash across me to speed my waking. As the light touched me, my reflexes kicked in.”

“I will get thicker drapes.”

She looked over at the glass panes. “Any drapes would be good.”

He kissed her. “Are you ready to get to work?”

She groaned. “I am going to need a change of clothing after this is done.”

“There are four changes of clothing in the wardrobe but none better for this purpose than the one you were wearing.” He got out of bed and reached down, pulling her to her feet.

“Fine, but I am starting on the mowing right away.”

“Wrong, breakfast first. I will make it during harvest, but afterward, I expect you to at least try.”

She snorted. “I was a very good cook back home. I just have never been able to get my hands on raw ingredients. That does not look like a problem here.”

He grinned as he walked out of the bedroom and to the kitchen. “Do you think I will be able to digest your cooking?”

She looked around for something to throw and found a hairbrush. It smacked his back with a satisfying thud.

He turned around slowly. “If you are going to handle a brush, tame my hair. It’s a mess.”

It took her a bit of manoeuvring to get into her dress, but she managed it. Her boots went on with a few sharp tugs, and the jacket slipped on without trouble.

She grabbed the brush from where it fell and brushed her hair into a shiny blue and green blanket.

Thaxis was whipping up an omelette so she went behind him and brushed his hair. When it was smooth and rippling in a snow-white waterfall, she put the brush down and twisted his hair into a thick braid. With an impish gleam, she plucked a hair from her head and used the pink and blue and green to tie up the braid. It glowed against his hair, and she wondered idly if the nanites would find an Ikanni hospitable.

“Thank you for your assistance, Kaia.” He turned with the plates in his hand, and they sat to eat in companionable silence.

She smiled brightly. “You are welcome, Bael Norwen.”

He paused. “Why are you calling me that?”

“If you want to give commands, you are Bael Norwen. If you are the man who gave me a massage that relaxed all of my tension, then I will call you Thaxis.”

He winced. “I am the Bael, and you will have to obey orders sometimes.”

“And when I do, I will. But for now, we are here alone, and if you want me to continue to live here, you will remember that I take orders from my superiors, not my lovers. Not unless there is something for me in it too.” She smirked.

He leaned back in his chair. “I will have to remember that.”

She grinned. “I am not the only one who is having to learn how things work. I am one complicated piece of extra-terrestrial personnel.”

She finished her meal, cleaned up the dishes and smiled at Thaxis. He was shrugging into his leather jerkin, and he gave her an evil grin.

“Why are you smirking like that, Thaxis?”

“Because tonight, the women hit the ocean and the men get the hot pools. Enjoy your icy bath.” He reached out and pulled her close, kissing her as he transported her to the first field of the day. “We can’t work unless you do.”

She groaned and stomped to the edge of the field, sending the blade spinning, returning and spinning again. When the first row went down, the crowd cheered, and as the second fell, they started tying bundles with a vengeance.