Lovers in the Woods (32 page)

Ranien stopped, hands on his knees, gasping
for air.

“
You have to pass through here, then you’ll
see where you are.”

Rayenne patted his shoulder.

“Thank you, Ranien. Are you sure you want to
stay? They’ll know.”

He grinned through the strain.

“She likes her gardener. There’s no one to
tell her more about all the herbs and what to do with them.”

“Like Talagg-bark?” Sajitar grumbled.

“Don’t even start,” Rayenne warned him.
“Let’s go.” She reached out for Saji’s hand once more when a bullet
from behind felled him like an axed tree. He slumped in her arms,
eyes wide open in shocked surprise. “No!” Ray grabbed his left arm
and pulled him up, eyes set on the four guards who appeared out of
nowhere, arms at the ready. “Damn it! Saji, get up!”

“You there! Stay where you are!” one of the
guards barked. The next shots went wide as if they had no time to
aim.

Sajitar made it back to his feet. His voice
was hoarse as he turned to Ranien.

“Lead the way, gardener. Get us out of
here!”

Ranien opened his mouth for a reply, but let
go when the next bullet almost hit him.

“
This way!” He grabbed Saji’s right arm and
pulled hard enough to cause Rayenne to stumble forward. She caught
her step and sped up.

The guards fired more bullets and it was
irony that none of Sananda’s hired guns were practiced shooters.
The bullets went everywhere, tormenting grass and flowers, but
because of the escapees’ zigzag approach no one got hurt. Sajitar
regained his strength and was about to run alone when suddenly the
air seemed to thicken around them. Saji cried out and pressed his
hands on his ears, but forced his body forward as fast as he could.
Rayenne felt sick as if someone had squeezed her intestines to a
hard ball, then the moment was over and, catching her breath, she
straightened to run on.

“We’re through!” Ranien shouted with
glee.

The land before them was flat as a tray, with
no trees to hide, not even bushes to seek cover. The moons shone
above, brighter than before. The landscape was illuminated like an
open air stage and they were nothing but easy targets. She cursed
under her breath, glancing over her shoulder. The guards emerged
behind them, only briefly distracted by the strange phenomena. They
stood and aimed and Rayenne realized that no matter if they ran
like rabbits, they would get shot sooner or later. The opponents
had enough ammunition to play the game the whole night.

“Stop and turn around!” the guards shouted.
“Or we’ll no longer just aim for your legs!”

Had
they?

The gardener stopped and raised
his hands high. Rayenne stumbled, shocked by Ranien’s sudden act,
and fell on her knee. Sajitar stayed at her side. They both looked
where the guards
drew closer, slowly, cautiously, their weapons at the
ready. One turned back as if he had not fully understood that the
area around them had changed.

“Are you mad?” Sajitar screamed.

Ranien did not even look at them, but only at
the guards inching closer. His lips were pressed tight.

“Don’t shoot me!” he shouted on top of his
lungs, waving his hands in the air. “I’m the gardener! You know me!
They forced me to help them!”

The guards took another step,
checking the surroundings, aware that the escapees might have
accomplices. In their dark red uniforms they looked threatening,
yet the young faces, though angry, ruined that appearance. Rayenne
wished that a police force would appear and yell,
hey, we waited for
you the whole time to show up!
But nothing happened.

Rayenne stood up and turned
slowly, breath rasping in her throat, sweat pouring down her
temples.
There has to be a way to get out of here. We are so damn
close!
She
let some tears flow, pretending to be unable to go on. Beside her,
Sajitar clambered to his feet, grimacing. The bullet had hit him
low in the back and would hamper his ability to run, even if the
chance occurred.

“Really, I had no choice,” Ranien explained
to the skeptic faces. His voice had the touch of hysteria. He
pointed at Ray. “She came at night, I wanted to sleep, but she
didn’t let me. It was terrible! You can’t imagine! Terrible!” He
waited for the first guard to come within reach. Suddenly, his hand
shot forward to grasp the weapon and twist it around. The guard let
go, surprised. Ranien flung the muzzle around and shot from the hip
as if he practiced the move every day. The guard fell back, arms
flailing. He was out for the count before he hit ground.

Rayenne used both hands for the attack,
disarming the guard in front of her by dislocating his elbow. The
man screamed and was shot in error by his partner when Ray pulled
him close to her body as a shield. The numbed guard slipped from
Ray’s grasp, leaving her unprotected. Sajitar lunged forward,
grabbing the next man to throw him on the ground, wrestling for
control over the gun. The fourth guard aimed low for Ranien, but
missed.

While Sajitar lost the fight and was
numbed by a hard blow against his head, Ranien pulled the trigger
again, but the weapon jammed. He threw it away. Seeing the guard
aim at Rayenne, he darted her way, taking the already launched
missile in the chest. Crying in shock and pain, he slumped to the
ground.

Rayenne shut off thinking and reacted to the
threat as she had learned. She rolled over the ground, evading the
man’s aim, hitting his knee with her foot and sending him tumbling
on the ground. She fought with the hand holding the weapon, but he
was stronger than she had judged by his slender built. With his
free hand he knocked her over. She brought up her knee in his
stomach, yet not fast enough. She saw the fist coming and, cursing
under her breath, knew the fight to be over.

Chapter
Fourteen

Rayenne
woke to the fuzzy
feeling of many hairy arms cuddling with her. She brushed at them,
but they returned, as if they could not get enough of her. She gave
up without opening her eyes. Too many strange things had happened
to her to make a fuss over soft and gentle brushes along her arms
and back, a nice trick she credited to Sajitar. The thought of him
made her smile.

With a start, all memories returned like
an army on the call of attack. She jerked her eyes open and sat up.
Panting, she focused in the dim light to take in her surroundings.
A headache built behind her forehead and she knew it would be worse
within the next hour. Cursing, she rubbed her temples.

If her abode had been luxurious while she
had been in the favor of Mrs Wang, this room was at the other end
of the spectrum of how to live in a large wood house. It was small,
had a barred door and a small, barred window right behind her. The
walls were roughly hewn, the ground consisted of tamped sand. She
sat on a hard mattress, and behind her along the wall were the many
hairy arms that touched her frequently. They had a fixed end
between the wooden planks and stretched long like dark orange
tentacles to keep in touch with her skin. She pushed them away to
no avail and gave up, sparing her attention for more important
inhabitants. To her left on a pallet lay Ranien, to her right
Sajitar. Both men were still in the land of forced dreams and she
sighed, relieved that they were still alive. Her imagination ran
wild with the threat that Sajitar would have been killed because
she had given him away. Tears welled up, but she forced them back.
She had to think.

She outstretched a hand to touch Sajitar
when one of the hairy arms quickly wound around her wrist and
pulled her back against the wall. She shrieked and tugged with her
free hand at the hard cord. Only when she gave up struggling did
the hairy arm let go so she could move again. Exhaling, she tried
to get away slowly, more controlled, but the result was the same.
If she left the closeness to the wall, one of the arms shot forward
and pulled her back. She had no room to maneuver and the arms of
the alien animal were much too fast to evade. She looked around for
something to be used as a knife, but the sandy ground was empty.
Not that she had expected help, but it would have been nice,
anyway.

“Sajitar?”

She watched his slack face, the
slightly parted lips, the thick brows that could express so much
mockery, and his strong and masculine chin. She flinched.
When did I fall in
love with this man? When did my heart take over and refuse
intelligent arguments and basic thinking?
She had always stood by her morals,
even though it had not always been easy.
Why not with him?

Watching Sajitar’s face and reveling in
memories did not make the tethers go away. His wrists and ankles
were caught in wooden pillories that were closed with hatches. If
she had been able to move she would have released them easily. It
was a miserable trap and therefore worthy of Sananda’s cruel
character. To her chagrin, the gardener was tethered the same way.
Though he looked at peace with himself, even smiling, he was a
prisoner who would go nowhere without his captor’s
allowance.

“Ranien?”

He opened his eyes, took a deep breath and
quickly understood what had happened. He turned his hands in the
wooden enclosure and stretched like a cat after a long nap,
yawning. The move ended in a grimace when he felt his breastbone
ache from the bullet’s impact.

“I suppose, our escape has come to an end.”
He craned his neck to look at her and smiled amiably. It took
Rayenne a moment to understand that his interest was aimed at the
hairy group behind her. “Oh, Falinies. They are very sensitive.
Please, don’t lean against the wall. You might kill some of
them.”

“Kill? Ranien, are you out of your mind?”

“Oh, no, Falinies are a rare species on
Belthraine. They live of the sweet nectar of Olino plants that you
carry on your arms and shoulders at the moment, I suppose.”

“You mean, someone smeared me with a stuff
these things want to eat?” The hair on her arms and neck stood on
end. She shuddered with disgust.

“
Yes. Otherwise they wouldn’t stay. I
brought them from the woods to breed them here. As I see, I was
very successful.” He took in the surroundings, much less concerned
than the time Ray had asked him to help with their escape. His
voice was as normal as if they were sitting with a cup of herbal
tea in his garden. “I’ve been here before. They added that
mattress, but otherwise it’s still the same.”

A guard passed by, casting a hard glance
at them and walking on with impressively heavy steps.

“
What does a gardener have to do in here?”
Rayenne whispered when the man was gone. “Does Sananda have flowers
in here, usually?”

“No, she had me in here.” Ranien’s pride made
Rayenne’s stomach turn around. “I haven’t worked as a gardener the
whole time, you see. The lady needs someone to take care of her
estate. In return, she entertained me and sometimes she still does.
Maybe not after today,” he added, sighing.

“
That’s what you call it, Ranien? Being
bound and—”

“
You look disgusted, and I don’t understand
that. If I get it right, your friend over there carries the same
branding. He must have been here for a while, too, and not to his
discomfort.”

“Please, could we change subject?” Sajitar
asked quietly and moaned when he tried to move. “I feel sick.”

“Saji, you’re awake! How’re you feeling?”

“Head double its size, brain’s shaken, bound
like meat on a stick, but, hey, otherwise I feel great.” He turned
his head very slowly, squinting when sunlight hit his eyes. He
smiled nevertheless. “I saw you fight. You’re a predator,
lady.”

She did not know where he got his
strength, but his attempt moved her to try and return the
smile.

“Would’ve loved to get you before the judge.
Sorry that it didn’t work.”

“There’ll be another time.” He took in the
room, sighing. “We are no longer in Sananda’s favor, hmm?”

Ranien bared his teeth to a wide grin.

“There were times when I would not have said
that. But in our case—” His grin faded. “You may be right. By the
way, I did not answer your question last night. I did indeed find
out about Talagg-bark. And several other potent extracts of plants
and flowers, I may add. The lady has always stocked up my supplies
when I told her what I needed.”

Sajitar grimaced and was ready for a
brassy reply, but Rayenne was faster.

“What kind of extracts?”

Ranien turned up his eyes like a teacher with
an unteachable child.

“I already told you, I spent much time in the
forest before I left. I was interested in a hundred things, and my
parents taught me everything they knew.” He furrowed his brows.
“They were learned in herbs and much more and wanted to live
without the aid of others, but…that’s another story. I made
experiments. I wanted to learn so much that finally my pa couldn’t
teach me anymore.” His attempt at shrugging was meant to fail. “So
I walked on alone and found out the many secrets of the woods.”

“And for sharing those secrets, Sananda made
you her…” Rayenne searched for a word that would not insult Ranien.
“Her special employee.”

Ranien laughed. It was a merry sound that did
not quite fit the crude surroundings.

The mere thought of Sananda Wang touching
Sajitar made Rayenne’s innards cringe with disgust. Though she knew
the woman to be his former lover, she felt the urge to rush her the
moment she entered the cell and looked at both men with longing,
hungry looks. She wore a clever combination of red cloth that fell
soft and lush around her shoulders and down to her knees. It moved
with every step and granted a view of her breasts as well as her
well-shaped legs. The cloth smoothed around every curve and left
little open to imagination.