Lovers in the Woods (24 page)

Her legs dangled over the
ground. She saw the mighty legs of the beast drill holes in the
muddy ground, but
that did not hamper its progress uphill. After fifty feet,
the top of the hill appeared out of the darkness. Rayenne squinted,
but her sight was limited to the mere outline of the first Horlyn.
It hovered over a small form on the ground. Rayenne wanted to
struggle free and see what it had done, but she had to wait for the
Horlyn to release her on the ground. Gasping for air, she knelt on
the ground and touched her ribcage to make sure she was still in
one piece. Breathing caused pain, but she pushed it aside like
someone who had lived through an accident and only later realized
how severe the wounds had been.

She crawled to Sajitar while the beast turned
to march downslope once more.

“
Saji? Are you all right?”
She did not care for the female Horlyn standing close. She did not
even care for its antennae reaching out to touch his body. “Please,
hey, say something!” She felt for his pulse, desperate to learn
that he would wake up any moment. Rain pelted down on his face. She
wiped it away, caressing his cheek. “Come on, give me a sign!
Something!” His pulse was strong and even, and she could not detect
any wound caused by the crude transport. She let out her breath,
realizing the Horlyn could have killed him.
Thank you, whatever
god watches over him.
Only then did she turn to see that the second
Horlyn carried the tent stakes and their belongings to put it down
beside her. It took her a moment to search for the B-horses and
hear their snorting somewhere behind the female Horlyn. When
Sajitar did not wake up, she crawled to the heap of sleeping bags
to drill the stakes into the ground and erect the tent once more.
When the tips of the stakes glowed, the Horlyns stepped back,
giving her room to maneuver the sleeping bags and Sajitar into the
tent. Their clothes were wet and muddy, so she undressed him before
she closed the sleeping bag around him. She caressed Sajitar’s
face, coaxing him to wake up and sighing with relief when he moaned
and turned his head. It took him a moment to open his eyes and when
he did, she forced a smile on her face.

“Welcome back,” she said with feeling and
placed a light kiss on his lips. “You okay?”

He swallowed and took in what had
happened. “The Horlyns?”

“
Saved us. The B-horses are here and we got
our stuff.”

“Come here.”

“Do I want to know what you have in
mind?”

“I’m sorry I passed out. The assault was…
never mind. Come, you’re cold and shivering.”

Rayenne turned to see the male Horlyn
return. She had no energy left to still be afraid, so she just
watched his movement until it came to a stop. Stones clanked on the
ground and rolled to her feet. Rayenne carefully reached out to
examine them. They warmed her hands. She smiled like a child that
had just found a treasure lost for a decade. She gazed up, feeling
foolish for her childlike gratitude, but it was exactly what she
had needed to cheer up.

“Thank you.” She turned to Sajitar. “Look
what we’ve got!”

Quickly, she spread the stones in the
sleeping bags, close to Sajitar. Then she shed her clothes and
slipped in beside him, the warming stones between their bodies. She
sighed, content for the moment. Looking up, she saw the Horlyns
still standing like sentinels, undisturbed by the
downpour.

“It’s warm,” Sajitar mumbled.

“Yes, really warm.” Rayenne glanced at the
rain-streaked roof, created by an energy field. Sajitar pulled her
close as their sleeping bags melted. Their combined body heat soon
got warmer than the stones and he sighed with relief. When he
kissed her hair, she laughed.

“What’s so funny?”

“
You know what they say, that a
near-death-experience enhances the ability to love. And if this is
not a strange stone, your abilities are just growing.”

“You would not want to misuse the situation,
would you? We just escaped rain and wind and lie here in our
sleeping bags, together. I bet you want to sleep right away.”

“
No.” Rayenne met his gaze. “I want to know
if the theory is true. Don’t you?”

“If my lady commands, I will serve to prove
your theory.”

“It’s not—” A kiss interrupted her reply and
between sighing and laughing they shed the terror of their narrow
escape.

* * * *

When the rain intensity lessened, she woke
and sleepily moved out of the tent. The Horlyns were still there.
She saw a gleaming surface downhill, black and shining like
polished marble in the early morning light. It took her a moment to
discover that the depression had filled with water. She pulled on
some clothes and busied with brewing tea, marveling at nature’s
force and the strange saviors.

Sajitar stirred and slowly
turned to the side. His hair was a wild mess that worsened when he
rubbed his head. Rayenne smiled, so full of love she thought she’d
burst.
If he
had not survived the night…
She shook her head. They were both alive and
well
—that was
enough for the moment.

“Ray?”

“Get up, sleepy head. I’ve got some tea for
you and a new landscape.”

Sajitar blinked, sat up slowly and
disentangled from the sleeping bag. Rayenne had a great view of his
lean body with all accessories. She smacked her lips, then, as if
to hide her interest, took a sip of tea.

“New landscape? What are you talking about?”
He took the cup she offered. “Thank you.” He sipped the hot tea.
“It’s good. Your own harvest?”

“
Some of it. I learned a lot, those weeks
in the village.”

“
I know. Me, too.” Sajitar searched for
some dry clothes. The morning was clear and chilly, the ground
still wet. Rayenne watched him gaze down the slope. “We would both
have died down there.” He shook his head, suddenly shivering.
Rayenne put down her cup to embrace him.

“I hadn’t thought of the ground caving in.
Looks like a bowl that always fills with water after the rain. My
fault.” He groaned and she could not tell if it was out of pain or
self-accusation. “I’m sorry, Ray. This would have ended badly.”

She cupped his cheek.

“Hey, we’re both alive. That’s
something.”

“
Your optimistic nature is astounding,” he
said honestly, holding her hand to his face. “With you, I’ll make
it through a lot more than this. Anything you want to do before we
ride on?”

“Besides drink lots of tea?”

Sajitar put down his cup to look at her
innocently.

“Cuddle?”

Ray laughed. Maybe a night like they’d
just spent was not so bad.

Chapter
Eleven

Another
long week passed
before their journey came to an abrupt halt. Sajitar grimaced and
got off Tessla to inspect the large canyon spreading before them.
For miles there was no end to the gap that looked as if a giant had
forked the soil to leave room for a water stream. But it had not
come. Instead, plants were growing along the steep slope and at the
bottom, dotting the soil with flowers of red, blue and orange. Even
a few trees had taken root and were about to claim the depression
for themselves. A trickle of water shimmered in the sun and insects
as well as birds with large, leathery wings flew up and down,
parading their lightness. A sea of flowers in dark orange climbed
the opposite side of the canyon, waving softly in the mild wind
like a blanket hung to dry.

Sajitar put his
hands on his hips, blowing air across his forehead.

“What’s up?” Rayenne said behind him and
shook her head, exhaling. “That’s one difficulty too much.”

“Yeah, after floods and trees that tried to
throw us off and wild Tusk-turners hampering our way. You are
right, we could have done without a fucking canyon on the road
home. If there is a home ahead.”

Rayenne shaded her eyes to look west and
east.

“There has to be an end to this canyon. After
all, the road passes through in the east.”

“Sure. If we ride another, say, four weeks
along this fricking joke of nature, we will reach the road and meet
all the nice people we’ve tried to avoid for weeks.” He looked at
her, angry with the obstacle and his lack of knowledge. “Want to
make some arrows and a bow?”

Rayenne hung her head.

“Isn’t there a chance of a bridge
somewhere?”

“No. No settlers ever got this far. We are
pioneers. Isn’t that great? The only chance we have is to follow
the canyon and maybe, maybe find a better spot than this to climb
down.”

“You don’t sound hopeful.”

“We might make it down, but what about the
B-horses? We need a better way down to save them.”

“Save them? Well, they can stay behind. If we
take off saddle and bridle—”

“A B-horse always stays with its owner. Why
do you think they stay close to the tent at night?”

“Because we hobble them.”

“No. I never did. They could wander off far
and let us search for them in the morning. They are bred like this.
Once you own a B-horse, it becomes connected to you. It understands
you and your feelings. Tessla trusts me as much as I trust her. I
won’t leave her on this side of the canyon. Don’t ask this of
me.”

Rayenne sighed. Right where she stood, the
slope was by far too steep to even think about leading the B-horses
down. Both humans and B-horses would tumble and fall and break
their necks.

“All right, let’s go then. Which way?”

“
East and pray that we come up with an
idea.” Sajitar turned to see the Horlyns between the trees. If they
had human expressions, he would have expected them to hoot and
cheer the inability of mankind.

The canyon’s inner walls varied, but were
still too steep to walk down when they made a break at noon.
Frustrated, Sajitar ate and took a drink from his waterskin.

“
What will you do after this Wang case is
solved?” he asked, to divert from their so far fruitless
search.

Rayenne was re-doing her ponytail and
spoke when she had no ribbon between her teeth anymore.

“I’ll get a new crime to solve, I
suppose.”

“Do you still want to stay on Belthraine with
the forces? You could do better. Get more money.”

“I joined the police to bring justice to the
people. Why should I throw this away?” She took out her waterskin
and turned to watch the Horlyns, who kept a respectful distance.
They were gnawing on some branches.

“Your father has a large corporation. Why
didn’t you stay with him?”

“I wanted to do something different.”

Sajitar cocked his head.

“You don’t talk about your parents or other
relatives. Don’t you like them?” By her painful expression he knew
he had hit a nerve. “Did they come to Belthraine with you?”

“
Yes, my father and my brother. They wanted
to see how I fared in the wilderness of Belthraine. A fatherly
joke.” Rayenne exhaled noisily. “And that’s all I will tell
you.”

“So I can share your bed but you won’t share
your family news with me? I’m disappointed.”

“
Be as disappointed as you like. Could we
get back to the main problem, please?” She thrust back the
waterskin into the saddlebag and pushed a strand of hair off of her
forehead. “We are still on the wrong side of this damned canyon and
I don’t have the slightest idea how we could change
this!”

“
Let’s go on for a little while longer.” He
took Tessla’s reins and passed Ray by, avoiding her glare. He knew
instinctively that something was wrong with Ray’s father or brother
or both of them, but for his life he did not know what it could
be.

* * * *

Rayenne
looked down into the
canyon and watched the light change while the day waned. She was
angry with herself for having lost face, almost saying too much.
Yet she should have anticipated his question. She knew about his
parents and grandparents. Sajitar had openly shared the history of
his family as well as anecdotes with her. It was reasonable that he
wanted some information in return.

She remembered the jokes her father had made
about Belthraine and that she would not want to stay another moon
phase on this boring piece of wood in a galaxy that offered so much
more. She had courageously replied that she was old enough to make
her own decisions, totally unimpressed by her brother’s boasting or
her father’s teasing.

She cleared her throat, thinking about how to
save the situation with Sajitar, when he suddenly turned.

“Look! Here we might make it down! The slope
gets better halfway. The B-horses are sure-footed enough.”

Ray swallowed the sentence coming to her mind
and followed his gaze.

“Fine, what about me?”

He shrugged, beaming at her.

“You’re a trooper, Ray, a brilliant scout.
And you're not wearing your high heels today. So what’s the
worry?”

She took a deep breath.

“
Sorry to say, but even if we make it down
here—and I admit, I doubt it—there’s still the question how we get
back up on the other side. Do you see it? There’s no path, and over
there the slope collapsed, probably due to the heavy rain. It will
give the moment we try to climb it.”

“Then we march on the bottom of the canyon
for a while and search from there.”

“If there’s no proper spot to climb up we’re
caught.”

He turned to her, blowing out air,
squinting. “Do you want to cross, or to search for flaws in my
tactics?”