* * * *
We have problems
, Raen announced grimly when he rejoined Jadin in the observation room.
Jadin’s good humor vanished as he studied Raen’s face.
What kind of problems?
he asked uneasily.
The kind of problems we thought
they
represented
, Raen retorted shortly, studying the prisoners.
The good news is we do not have to worry about them revealing our
presence here
, he added dryly.
The humans already know.
Jadin frowned.
You think they alerted them?
Raen shook his head.
I am fairly certain they detected the approach of the mother
ship. These people were focused on nothing more than amusing themselves. I think they
only happened upon us by chance—More accurately, I suppose, they got caught up in the
dome.
What are we going to do with them? Let them go?
Raen shrugged.
Not before I have questioned them. The council will be convening
before long. They will want answers—they will
need
answers before they can make a
decision.
This is sounding worse and worse.
It is about as ‘worse’ as it can get. We will have a war on our hands if we are not
damned careful.
Jadin sent him a startled look.
You think they would do that? The humans, I
mean?
Raen studied his friend with grim amusement.
Does that seem out of character
for them to you?
No,
Jadin responded slowly
, but their capabilities ….
… Are a lot more of a threat than they were the last time we looked.
But … if they are advanced enough now to present a problem, surely they are less
aggressive?
Raen uttered a sardonic laugh.
Do not deceive yourself! They will
never
outgrow
their aggression. It is too deeply ingrained. It is
why
they are so territorial.
Jadin shrugged.
So are we. If we had not been we would not have settled so far
from them. We would have welcomed the trade, instead of trying to discourage it.
That is about to change. We are either going to have to arrive at some sort of
agreement with them or find a new home.
The
council
…?
31
… Does not know anything about the situation yet, or have any clue of what they
will be up against. That is why I am going to question these outlanders—to discover if
they will have any chance of negotiating with the humans.
Jadin frowned angrily.
I have lived here my entire life—Generations of my family
have. This is just as much our home now as it is theirs!
I am not sure they will agree,
Raen responded tartly.
And therein lies the
problem.
He shook his head when Jadin would’ve said more.
This is a problem for the
politicians,
he said pointedly.
We are soldiers. The decision will not be ours. Prepare
rooms for them. I want them separated before I start questioning them.
Grim amusement filled Jadin’s eyes at that
. Be careful with the woman.
Raen felt his color heighten at the remark but resolutely ignored it
. Which
woman?
Jadin laughed.
I have known you too long, Raen det Kira, to fall for that!
Raen’s face hardened.
Ap Aquinox,
he corrected
. Kira rescinded on the eve of the
disaster.
Jadin’s brows twitched together. He studied his friend speculatively.
It may
anger you to hear it, but, to my mind, she did you a favor.
Aye,
Raen agreed
, but unwillingly. You may be certain her motives were not so
unselfish
.
Not that it would have mattered in the end. I could have set her aside.
Jadin studied him in surprise.
A woman has autonomy. The council would never
have allowed you … She refused to bear your offspring?
He responded in sudden understanding.
Raen grunted instead of verbalizing his disgust.
Jadin’s eyes narrowed.
You are certain?
She told me.
Which means exactly nothing. She would lie when the truth would have served
her better. She would have said anything to wound … especially if it was you. She was
like that. You never seemed to see it, but it was not difficult for anyone else to see.
Tell me again why we are friends?
Raen asked caustically.
Do you think you are the first male that has ever fallen for a beautiful female and
been too blind to see her for what she really was? You were young. If a male can not be
stupid in his youth, when is it allowed?
Raen gave him an irritated look.
Thank you. I feel so much better!
Jadin studied Raen uncomfortably.
I do not suppose it matters now, but I have
never felt comfortable not telling you. I did not—at first because I thought you would not
believe me—and later because it could not be changed. You accepted her without
questioning whether she could provide offspring or not. You could not have sought a set
aside under those circumstances even if you had known. But she could not bear a child.
Maybe that accounted for her mean spiritedness, some of it, anyway.
Raen stared at his friend in shocked disbelief.
She
lied
to me? She said she had
aborted the child.
Jadin shrugged uncomfortably.
She could not have, because she could not
conceive to begin with. It was my woman, Sedimay, who told me and she would know.
Mayhap she only told you that to make the break easier for you?
he offered tentatively.
Raen shook his head
. Not Kira. She delighted in tormenting me. The gods only
know what her motivation was, but kindness certainly was not it.
32
You are bitter and who could blame you? But you do yourself no favor by
believing the worst anymore than when you would believe nothing but the best.
It does not matter … not now,
Raen responded.
She set me aside, and she is long
gone to her rest so I will never know, and I do not think it would matter to me anyway.
It will matter to you if you are now dead set only to see the worst!
Jadin argued.
It can not hurt that I have learned caution,
Raen said dryly.
Jadin rolled his eyes but allowed the subject to drop.
You were going to caution me regarding the woman?
Raen prompted after several moments, eyeing his friend with amusement.
Jadin gave Raen an irritated look
. Obviously, you have no need to be warned.
You are armed with your bitterness now. I can see I have no reason at all to be
concerned that you might lose your heart to the wrong female a second time.
None,
Raen agreed, smiling grimly
. You do not mean to tell, then?
Jadin considered it thoughtfully and finally shrugged and grinned.
I was not
worried you would be taken in. I only found it amusing. She has designs on seducing
you to convince you to free her and her friends.
Raen’s eyes narrowed as he turned his head and focused on Cassie’s image on the viewing screen
. Does she now?
he asked slowly, speculatively. His expression was unreadable when he looked at Jadin again.
Have the men prepare the rooms.
What do you mean to do?
Jadin asked uneasily.
Raen lifted his dark brows.
Let her.
33
Cassie had long since passed from uncomfortable to miserable. They’d been kept in the room for hours and she’d be willing to bet she wasn’t the only one who had an aching bladder, although no one had complained. Beyond that, there was no where to sit but the floor, and beyond that the room was warm and stuffy and she was sticky from salt water. If not for the conversation they’d had only a little earlier, she would’ve peeled the wetsuit off to get more comfortable.
Now, if she did, they’d think she had decided to give seduction a try and she wasn’t about to either give them that impression
or
to try it.
It wasn’t that she was against the idea of tempting the merman. There was no getting around the fact that that brief kiss had just primed the pump, intrigued her enough that her heart sped up every time she thought about it or thought about the possibility of trying it again.
The idea was almost as scary as it was appealing, though.
She couldn’t do it. She was tempted, far more than she wanted to let on. It was unnerving how much she wanted to cross the barrier between the known and unknown and discover if this stranger actually had had the effect on her she thought he’d had, but she’d never been the sort of woman who could just walk up to a guy and start something, and that was in situations that weren’t nearly as fraught with the potential for embarrassment as this was.
The mermen returned without warning. One moment the strange door was clear, the next eight of them had stepped through it, all armed with those wicked looking tridents she’d seen the merman with.
Her rescuer was among them, was, in fact, the first to step through the door.
Cassie’s heart commenced to leaping against her chest wall the moment she saw him.
“Psst!”
Cassie turned and looked at Linda at the sound. Linda jerked her head a couple of times in their direction, waggling her eyebrows and gesturing with her eyeballs.
Cassie glared at her.
Linda gave her a look.
Cassie narrowed her eyes.
Linda’s lips tightened.
“You do it if you’re so convinced it’ll work!” Cassie hissed in a low voice, coming to her feet.
It wasn’t until she’d looked away from Linda that she discovered that the contingent of soldiers included five women and three men. Disconcerted, she glanced at Shelley and Linda questioningly as the three men advanced on them.
The men, she saw without surprise but with a good deal of irritation, were looking the merwomen over as if they’d been pole-axed. Without a whimper of protest, like lapdogs, the men allowed the merwomen to lead them off.
“Come.”
34
Cassie jerked her head toward the merman in surprise when he spoke. “You speak English.”
His hard mouth curled faintly. “I am wearing a translator.”
Cassie blinked at him in surprise, her gaze flickering over him in search of the device. “Where?”
He tipped his head, flicking his long, black hair over his shoulder and allowing her to look at his ear. A jolt went through her when she saw his ear was pointed at the top, almost elf like. The discovery distracted her for several moments before she could focus on the device hooked over his ear.
It looked like nothing so much as the tiny ear piece cell phones, but obviously it wasn’t. He hadn’t spoken English before. Regardless, she was damned if she could figure out how the thing might work. His lips moved in sync to what was said and it was his voice saying the words in English.
Shaking the thoughts off when she saw everyone else had left, she moved away from the wall and toward the strange looking door, which she hadn’t approached before because it unnerved her. She stopped when she reached it, lifting a hand to explore it.
A shiver went through her when she realized it was exactly what it looked like—a wall of water. How they could make it form a horizontal sheet, she couldn’t imagine.
He moved up behind her, so close she could feel the brush of his skin. His hand settled on her lower arm between her elbow and wrist, his fingers curling around it.
She’d felt the warmth of his nearness even before the light contact and a faint shiver went through her.
“Hold
your
breath.”
She glanced up at him over her shoulder sharply.
A gleam of amusement entered his eyes. “Unless, of course, you would prefer I breathe for you?”
Heat surged into her cheeks at the reminder, her throat closing at the suggestion in sudden want. Her gaze automatically flickered to his mouth. With an effort, she dragged her gaze from his hard mouth, clearing her throat, trying to sort her chaotic thoughts. “It won’t take long? I can’t hold my breath long.”
“Only a few moments,” he promised as she dragged in several deep breaths, gathering her nerve to step through.
And I am here if you need help,
said an amused voice inside her head even as she stepped through and found herself surrounded by water.
Slipping past her, he drew her up close and propelled the two of them down a long corridor. Fear gripped her as they rushed along the darkened hallway, the fear that he’d lied, the fear that she wouldn’t be able to hold her breath long enough. She clutched at him uneasily, digging her fingers into his flesh.
He dragged her through another doorway.
It was as well he was holding her. She stumbled as they went through, disoriented by the transition from water to air. The sound of dripping water assailed her.
Glancing around, she saw it dripping from the ceiling and running along the walls, as if the room had only moments before been emptied of water.
“You’ll be more comfortable here, I think.”
Cassie looked at him as he spoke and realized that she was still standing in the circle of his arm. Feeling vaguely embarrassed, she moved away from him. There was a bed in the room and little else. She stared at the bed, wondering if it was as damp as the 35
rest of the room. She couldn’t imagine that it wouldn’t be. Obviously, the room had been flooded with water only a little while before he’d brought her to it.
“There are facilities there.”
She glanced at him again and saw that he was pointing to a narrow doorway in the wall not far from the door they’d entered. This one didn’t have the watery door, however—it had
no
door at all as far as she could see.
She hoped by facilities he meant toilet.
She wasn’t going to ask him, though.
“How long are we going to have to stay here?” she asked when she saw him turn toward the door to leave.
“Until we have questioned you.”
Cassie chewed her lip. “Couldn’t you just do that now? I mean, I’d really like to get it over with and get home before dark.”
“Too
late.”
She frowned at him in comprehension. “It’s night?” she asked finally.
He nodded.
“How would you …? Never mind. I’d still like to go home.”
“In time,” he responded implacably, moving toward the door.
“I didn’t do anything.”
He paused again, turning to study her. “You trespassed.”
She blinked at him in surprise. “But … there weren’t any signs, no fences! How were we supposed to know we were trespassing?” she demanded indignantly.
He lifted his dark brows. “Do you live here?”
Cassie felt her face reddening. “No.”
“Then you should have known.”
“Wait!” she gasped when he reached the door.
Again, he paused. This time he looked impatient when he turned to look at her.
“What’s your name?”
He tilted his head curiously. “What’s yours?”
“Cassie. Cassia Pendell, actually.”
“I am Raen.”
“Rain?”
“Sentinel Raen ap Aquinox, Captain of the guard.”
“Where
am
I?”
His gaze flickered over her face. “I thought you had guessed that already.”
Cassie stared at him blankly while her mind scrambled around trying to gather the implications of that statement. He stepped through the door and disappeared from view just about the time her brain finished collating the information and arrived at the answer she discovered she didn’t actually want.
They’d been listening, to everything. It was the only explanation.
Maybe they’d been watching, too?
She wondered if there were cameras and microphones in this room.
Turning away, she stared at the door to the ‘facilities’ yearningly for several moments and finally headed that way. She saw when she looked inside that it was a fully furnished bathroom. She hoped it was also fully functional.
36
Trying not to think about the possibility—the likelihood—that this room was wired like the other, she began struggling out of the wetsuit.
There was no damned door, but no guarantee of privacy if there had been. Using her wetsuit as a privacy tent, she relieved herself and then studied the shower. Very likely the only water she’d get out of it, if she got any at all, would be salt water, but she thought it was worth a try. She couldn’t feel more sticky and uncomfortable than she did already.
It worked. To her surprise, hot water shot out of the showerhead. Wondering where it had come from and how they’d managed to pipe it in, she stripped her swim suit off and stood under the water until she felt clean. Raen was standing in the doorway, one shoulder propped against the door frame, studying her unabashedly when she stepped out of the shower dripping.
As his robe clad form materialized out of the steam, Cassie let out a shriek and jumped all over, frantically trying to cover herself.
His eyes gleamed. His lips quirked upward at one corner. He extended a hand, though, and she saw that he was holding something that didn’t look like a towel but must be something for that purpose. Snatching it from his hand, she scrambled to cover herself with it.
“I thought you might need this.”
She glared at him. “I thought I might have privacy!”
He shrugged. “You said you were ready to be questioned.”
“Yes, but …,” Cassie broke off her indignant complaint, realizing belatedly that she wasn’t making any points in her favor by being hostile. In point of fact, it also occurred to her, forcefully, that she’d just flubbed what might have been the perfect opportunity to offer sexual favors in return for leniency.
Not
that she’d considered trying such a thing for a moment, but the realization that she’d missed the opportunity left her feeling like she’d just missed her bus and was going to miss out on a really good job opportunity—as if she’d screwed up something she was going to regret. “Can I get dressed first?”
She noticed for the first time when she spoke, because it was the first she’d actually looked at him—that he was wearing clothes—sort of. It was like a long, flowing robe. He produced another, smaller version, for her that she also hadn’t noticed he was holding—because both robes were white.
She took it, staring at the robe, though her mind wasn’t on the robe at all, trying to decide if she actually had the nerve to even
attempt
to be the sexual aggressor. And if she could command herself to do something what sort of something should she try? She was still trying to get up the nerve when he pushed away from the doorframe and moved into the room beyond.
The moment he did both relief and disappointment filled her.
More than a little irritated with herself, she unfolded the robe and examined it, discovering that it was made to simply slip over her head. There were no fastenings at all. Shoving her arms into the loose sleeves, she dragged it over her head and allowed the hem to drop to her ankles.
She felt almost as naked after she’d put it on as she had before because she was naked underneath and acutely conscious of it. She stared at her swimsuit, debating, and finally simply grabbed up the bottom and shimmied into it.
37
She was halving it—unable to make up her mind whether she actually wanted to make overtures or not. She didn’t feel quite as naked with the swimsuit bottom on, and still didn’t feel entirely comfortable without the top.
Coward, she chided herself, examining the robe more because she was in no great hurry to leave the bathroom than because she had that much interest in it. The material was strange, she discovered, more paper-like, or maybe like plastic, than fabric, but soft for all that.
It was too long. Holding it up to keep from tripping, she went into the bedroom.
Raen gestured to a chair against the wall near the bed that she had barely noticed before.
She moved to it, settling cautiously until she discovered it wasn’t, as she’d expected, wet. When she’d settled, she looked up at him questioningly. It disconcerted her to discover she had his full attention, that he was standing, his feet braced slightly apart, his hands clasped behind his back, barely three feet away. She had to tilt her head back to meet his gaze.