“Apologies. It was very tempting and I have been alone a very long time.”
“Was it frustrating when your healing skills couldn’t keep the plague at bay?”
He sighed. “All the healers could do was to restore the ill to health and they re-infected immediately. We didn’t have any chance to get on top of the disease and turn the tide.”
She patted his calf. “I am sorry. It was a rude question.”
“No, it was a valid one. And as one healer to another, it is important.”
She yawned again. “Oh, this is horrible. I am only going to be in your mind for a few days and I am nodding off.”
“It is the side effect of your hypothermia and the sedative I put in your tea.”
Sno scowled. “Why?”
“You need rest and you weren’t going to take it, so rest within my mind and all will be well.”
She leaned heavily against his leg, trapped by the will of his mind and the rules of his dreamscape. If he wanted her to sleep, she would sleep, it was that simple.
She woke with a start and checked the signals her body was sending. Half the time had passed, three months were gone and that meant she had been asleep the total of a day. The cocoon of blankets kept her toasty warm, which was good because the door opened as she peeped out.
Kyron put the wood next to the fireplace. “Good, you are awake. I was tempted to join you.”
She snorted. “Well, then, don’t sedate me next time.”
“Fair enough. Your clothing is dry.”
He gathered her clothes together and brought them over.
Considering that he had seen it all, she flipped off his shirt and pulled on the blouse that went under the bodice. Her skirts went on next and finally all the lacings of the bodice were pulled tight.
“If we were not in the dreamscape, I would be at your feet in a moment. We had statues on Edinar that were not half as perfect as you are.” There was honest admiration in his tone.
She snorted. “Men do not cast themselves at a Horalthian woman’s feet. We prefer them to stand next to us and pledge themselves to walk at our sides. We try for a meeting of equals, though it is rarely properly achieved.”
“What would you look for in a man?”
She sighed and paced with her skirts swishing. “A man who worships the ground I walk on. I know it is conflicting, but I am a bit of an old-fashioned girl. I want a man to admire what I do and tell me when I could do better.”
“That sounds like a minefield.”
She grinned at him. “I am complicated.”
Kyron threw back his head and laughed. While he was laughing, there was a tremor.
She blinked. “How long was I asleep?”
“A day, maybe two.”
She turned toward him. “It looks like you will be in the physical world very soon. That was the warning for me to prepare.”
He came to her and took her in his arms. “I don’t want to leave you.”
“It’s fine. You will be alive and running around in the physical world soon. Women will fall at your feet.”
He lifted her until she was staring him in the eye. “I don’t want them at my feet. I want her standing next to me and telling me where I can do better.”
She laughed and gave him a quick kiss that was all the prelude to her fading that she got. Someone was pulling her out and she could not hold herself inside Kyron’s mind.
Sno bolted upright and pulled off the leads. She croaked. “How is he?”
Hands tried to hold her down, and she fought them with atrophied arms.
She turned her head to watch the six-man team lifting Kyron’s form out of the cryo tube, and she stared as he was wheeled past her.
Kyron lifted his hand from the gurney and reached for her, but her flailing hand missed his by inches. He was gone.
“Come on, Sno. You are going to get your ass kicked for this, but it seems to have come out all right.” Her friend looked at her from inside his helmet, and with a few moves, they loaded her onto a gurney of her own for her physio to begin.
The Edinar were in one area, the monitors were in another. She might never see Kyron again outside of work.
She was depressed as she entered her temporary quarters and settled down for the first assessment visit from her trainer.
Sno wondered why she could remember Kyron clearly, but then, nothing about their link had been normal. It was no surprise that it shouldn’t have gone according to plan.
* * * *
Kyron wanted nothing more than to find Sno, but they wouldn’t let him. He used his healing ability to generate repairs to his muscle tone, working out without moving.
The sooner he was up on his feet, the sooner he could find his little Sno. The image of her reaching for him while he was wheeled away haunted him. Her hair was indeed gone, as she had predicted.
* * * *
Sno looked at the medic who came in. Something was wrong. The medic was wearing a bio-med suit.
She knew what he was going to say before it was said. “You have acquired the Edinar plague.”
Sno leaned back and winced. “Wonderful. What can be done?”
“Well, we can put you into treatment. Apparently, you are carrying some of the Edinar genes that are most affected.”
Sno ran her hand over her lightly fuzzy scalp. “You are kidding me.”
“No. You will have three or four days and then you will begin exhibiting symptoms.”
Sno sat quietly for a moment. “Can you let Healer Kyron know?”
“Why? He will not remember you.”
Sno waited while he realized what she had said.
“Wait. How can you remember him?”
“I don’t know. He did something while I was in there that bound us. I think it was my sleeping in his mind.”
Sno rubbed the back of her neck. She had a definite ache in her bones, but she wasn’t going to mention it.
“I will be back shortly.”
Sno waved him off and got up to pace on wobbly legs with one hand on the wall.
It took two days to come up with a plan of attack, but it was certain, she was heading into the wheel and taking the place of one of the Edinar. She would have her very own monitor to keep her sane through the pain.
She didn’t even get to see her mind’s partner. They knocked her out and she drifted off to her dreamscape.
* * * *
Sno’s dreams were always a little odd. She had fanciful animals wandering through brooks, pools and meadows. Everything girly and relaxing under an unchanging sun.
She lay on her back in a loose blouse and skirt, with bare feet. The sun baked her with warmth, and she could almost pretend that the hair on her shoulders was hers again and not in a garbage bin in the monitor centre.
Footsteps came toward her, and she leaned up on her elbows. She blinked and rubbed her eyes. “No way.”
Kyron was walking toward her, wearing a white shirt, tight trousers and knee-high boots. It said more about her taste than his.
“Good afternoon, Sno. I will be your monitor today.” He grinned and dropped to the ground next to her. “So, this is your dreamscape.”
“It is. A stark contrast to yours, but mine involves a lot more skinny dipping.” She grinned.
“That sounds promising. May I join you?”
She shivered at the thought of romping with him, naked, once again. “Of course.”
He got to his feet and pulled her up next to him. “Which way do we go?”
She pointed down the hill to the stone falls and grotto that she kept for bathing on lazy days.
He took her hand, and they walked down together. “Your mind is quite bright but surprisingly calm.”
She snorted. “You are here after the unicorn stampede. My mind is a fanciful place and it shows from time to time.”
A cascade of bright flecks in the air cruised past them, and Kyron reached out to touch one. The bright fleck unfolded and a tiny woman stood on Kyron’s fingertip.
“What is this?”
“A mythical creature from across the stars. A pixie. A tiny woman who flies like an insect.” The cloud circled her and then the small creature joined her friends, making their way up the meadow.
“Where did you imagine such creatures?”
She stopped at the edge of the grotto and slipped free of her clothing. “I am a member of a family with an interest in history, and I had a nanny that had come from a race no one had seen before. She told me endless stories, and I remembered each one. Creatures from imagination from all over the stars have come to rest in my mind.”
Sno took careful steps and eased into the water. Once up to her breasts in the cool liquid, she turned and watched Kyron enter the pool with a lot less care to modesty.
Seeing him in the bright light was far different from that of the dim cabin. She had a polar bear in her mind somewhere and that was the closest creature in size and colouring to her new friend.
He walked easily to where she was standing on her toes, leaned in and placed a short kiss on her lips, and then, he dove under the water, swimming easily into the depths nearer the waterfall.
Sno wanted nothing more than to lie on her back and float, but she was a little put off by the thought of being on display. Sighing at the realization that he had already seen it all, she rolled to her back and let the sun warm her while the water supported her weight.
Every now and then, she felt Kyron swimming under her, but she paddled slowly around the pond using only her hands. After she had had enough sun, she pulled herself onto one of the flat rocks of the grotto and rested her head on her knees while Kyron continue to frolic like a giant otter.
Eventually, he tired and he came to sit next to her. “If I had a place like this in my mind, I would never leave it.”
She snorted. “This meadow only shows up when I am worried.”
“Why are you worried, Sno?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Perhaps it is because I have contracted a plague that has no record of passing the Edinar barrier. We don’t even know if the cure will work on me.”
He reached out and took her hand, bringing it to his lips. “I will be with you every step of the way, just as you were for me. We will get through this.”
“Well, one of us will. I am glad that you are strong enough for this.” She squeezed the hand that still had control of hers.
“As am I. When they asked me if I knew your name, I was a little surprised. I pressed them and they informed me of your state.”
“How did you press them?”
“I opened their minds and pulled out what I needed to know. They are fine. I swear.” He held up his hands in reaction to her expression.
She huffed. “That was just rude, Kyron.”
“Time was an issue and they did not want me to join you.”
Sno stared at him with wide eyes. “You bullied your way into position as my monitor?”
“Of course. No one else is going to be inside you while I live.”
The double entendre made her blush. “Um, thank you?”
He laughed and slipped back into the water. “Swim with me?”
She sighed at his earnest expression and slipped into the water with him. They swam together until her limbs were tired, and she yawned enough to splutter when water rushed into her open mouth.
“That is my cue to end this interlude.” She swam to the shore and stood up when it was shallow enough to do so.
She stepped onto the grass and spread out her skirt, waiting in full light for the sun to dry her skin.
Kyron joined her, far more interested in her nudity now than he had been previously.
He stepped slowly toward her and took her in his arms. She shivered as he kissed her and held tight to his broad shoulders.
Kyron lifted her and carried her to a bed covered in white flowing sheets that appeared in the meadow. Sno blushed. It was her instinct that drove the appearance of that inviting structure.
Body to body, mind to mind, they joined over and over, rolling across the bed and back again with intense concentration.
At the end of their frenzy, Sno lay on top of him, catching her breath and slowly letting her senses reset. “I would appreciate if you would leave this out of the monitor report.”
He chuckled and stroked her back with one huge hand. “As far as I know, no one can clearly remember what happens between monitor and patient. How could we be different?”
She propped her chin on her fist. “You know very well that we are not like the others. I can feel it when you touch me that this is not what I was trained to expect.”
“I am very glad that you decided to skip convention and join me. It was definitely a welcome moment.”
“Even though I ran through the snow and nearly froze to death?”
“It gave me a fine appreciation for the delicate silk of your skin.” He ran his hand along her spine once again.
“Well, how much time do we have left?”
He closed his eyes for a moment and opened them. “You are healing quickly, but two months seems to be an estimate for your recuperation.”
Sno grinned and shifted to straddle him. “Good. Now, I believe I need some more appreciation.”
“As long as you don’t expect my body to keep up with my mind, I will always appreciate you in as many ways as possible.”
She laughed and leaned down, brushing his lips with hers. Her hair formed a dark curtain around them and blocked out the light. With that small moment of privacy, they explored each other once again.
It was a very long day and Sno didn’t regret a moment of it.
She fell asleep in Kyron’s arms.
Waking was a shock. The air was cool and her body was stiff in on the gel bed. Another series of medics were bustling around her, but the shock was Kyron standing next to her with a look of concentration on his face.
The medics stood back while the stiffness left her muscles and she managed a weak smile. “Hello, Kyron.”
He stroked her cheek, but the medics gathered around him, bustling him onto a gurney and down the hall.
To Sno’s surprise, she was trundled down the same hall and given a room in the Edinar quarters. Daily testing for traces of plague would make up most of her interaction with others, but in the meantime, she was able to catch up on the news she had missed and the progress of the monitor program.