Waking Dream [Tales of the Citadel 23] (6 page)

Wiyra chuckled. “You are better.” She struck again.

“I am a mutated Oefric from Dender colony. I have been fighting since I could walk.” He took her hit without flinching and used her momentum to pull her off balance. “It isn’t that I don’t register the pain, it is just that it fades immediately. My body heals instantly, which is a handy skill when everyone around you can shift into an animal shape.”

She dodged a hit to her abdomen and swung away. “You can’t shift?”

“Nope. Shifting requires a change in physiology, the healing that my body undergoes locks me into this shape.” He turned her and pinned her arms against her sides. “Enough. We are good.”

Burin set his water aside and brought her a bottle. “Well done, Wiyra. My first day, Tero dropped me in two minutes.”

She drank the water and wiped the sweat off her face. “How long has it been?”

Tero peered at the chronometer on the wall. “Forty-five minutes? It was quite a dance. Thank you. I rarely get to do more than warm up.”

She snickered and groaned as she sat on the floor of the workout space. “Well, thank you for taking it easy on me.”

“Oh, I didn’t. You took all hits I could swing. Your body seems designed to spread the impact away from the strike point.” He squatted down next to her. “I would be happy to continue your training when you are at the base.”

She grinned. “That would be fun.”

Burin cleared his throat. “I am sure that you two are sharing a moment, but Tero, I am willing to try taking you down if you keep making moves on my partner.”

Tero sighed regretfully, “So, it’s like that?”

Wiyra chuckled, “No, it isn’t like that. Not yet. But it will be.”

Burin’s posture toward Tero relaxed.

“Well, partner, help me get my ass off the floor so I can waddle back to my room for a shower. I need to catalogue my growing bruises for posterity.” She held out her hand imperiously, and Burin helped pull her to her feet.

Tero grinned, “I can have some knives brought in for next time but not until you are in full body armour.”

She snorted. “Healer or not, if you think to best me with short blades, think again.”

Burin nodded. “I have seen her in action. You had best be wearing body armour as well, Tero.”

Tero nodded. “I stand warned.”

Burin walked slowly so that her bruised limbs could keep up. “You did very well.”

“So you said. However, I think my bruised ass would beg to differ. It is feeling very chatty at the moment.” Wiyra groaned and headed toward the stairs that suddenly seemed endless.

He chuckled. “We have a lift.”

He stroked the column that ran through the centre of the stairs and a doorway opened. “For occasions such as this.”

She grumbled and stomped past him.

He pressed the floor number, and they were silently whisked to their floor. She muttered to herself and palmed open her door.

Peeling her way out of the suit was awkward, but she stumbled naked into the lav and stood under the hot spray with a sigh of relief. Once her muscles were loose, she used the coldest water she could stand to reduce the bruising.

With her limbs shaking but a slightly improved ease of movement, she took a look in the mirror and admired the bruises on her ribcage and thighs. She twisted and admired the blackish blue on her shoulder blade, her twisting pattern of veins deep beneath her skin made the tissue stand out in reverse on the bruise itself.

She grimaced and headed back into the bedroom, seeking something else to wear that wasn’t coated in sweat.

The wardrobe yielded a generic bodysuit and deep amethyst robes. The suit was a close-enough fit, and she enjoyed twirling with the robes on, watching the fabric flare and twist as she spun. Of course, then, she turned the wrong way and limped over to the bed.

She looked across the room and saw the com unit. Groaning, she dragged herself over and keyed in the code for the Kwinto platform.

Seeing her cousin’s face and then speaking to her grandfather made her feel better. He laughed at her explanation of the testing she had just undergone. “I am surprised that he got the better of you, dumpling.”

“He is very good.”

“And your new partner, how is he?” The calculating gleam in Vecho’s eyes was unmistakable.

“He is very concerned for my wellbeing but equally willing to watch me get my ass handed to me, so he will let me stand on my own without hovering. I think we will work very well together.” She smiled and wrinkled her nose at him.

“I think so too. I have the list of baby names your great-grandmother left for you, I mean, just in case.”

She laughed. “Let’s let me learn his full name before we go on planning offspring.”

Vecho shrugged. “It will happen. She has not been wrong yet. When I read what my children were to be called, I was surprised, I had always thought to have a big family. Two sons were all that was listed and that is all that I had. They both did me proud, and I love all the grandchildren that they provided. When you are ready, your file is here. Be safe, be warm and keep breathing.”

She echoed the traditional farewell of the platforms and disconnected the call.

“How long were you listening, Burin?”

“Deskillian Burin of the Wyoran trading families. Third son, twelfth grandson, only boys in my family it seems. Now, what file?”

She chuckled. “I did tell you that one of my great-grandmothers was a seer. She wrote down the names of all the family children for generations. I have a file with the name of my children, if I am to have any. Given my grandfather’s comments, there are actual names on that list.”

She rubbed the back of her neck. “I actually thought that it would be a blank slate.”

He grinned. “Does it list the father?”

She shook her head. “It does not, at least not that I know of. No one sees the list but the person who is about to have a child.”

She got to her feet and walked up to him, slowly and carefully. “So, Deskillian, huh? Fancy name.”

“Family name. I am told it goes back nine generations.”

“I think I need a cup of caf and a comfortable place to sit. Possibly a visit to the healers.”

He was at her side immediately. “Are you badly damaged?”

“I should have waited for the armour. My circulatory system makes me much more prone to subsurface bleeding. Yes, I think the healers first is a good idea.”

He wrapped an arm around her waist and helped her back into the lift. Her vision was blurring intermittently, and she was more dead weight than companion when he made it to the medical area.

She was scanned and two contact healers grabbed her hands, working in tandem to stop the bleeding. She tried to allay Burin’s concern. “Prishkin veins. They look neat, but they are very inconvenient at times. Don’t tell Tero. I don’t want him to feel bad.”

After the first round of treatment, they stripped her so they could monitor and focus the healing. One of the healers politely put a drape across her breasts and another across her hips. It was fine until she had to turn and they gasped at the damage.

“Sorry for this extra work, healers.” She twisted her lips and breathed through the pain of the healing.

“Don’t worry about it, Specialist Kwinto. It is a pleasure to work on a Prishkin. You don’t see this kind of biology much.”

Laughing, she buried her head in the pillows. She was a learning experience. Lovely.

“Enjoy the moment, healers. I am not letting Tero get me on my ass again.” She smirked.

“You went up against Tero and this was all the damage you have?” The healer on the left who was working on her shoulder whistled softly.

“It was a skills assessment.”

Burin’s voice broke in, “She lasted forty-five minutes and walked out.”

The healers spoke excitedly and continued on until her body was clear of damage. They helped her ease back into her suit, and once she was robed again, she bowed her thanks. “That is going to help me get some rest tonight.”

Burin laughed as the healers discussed and made notes on their data tablets, ignoring their healed patient. The dining hall waited.

Chapter Ten

The next day was taken up by auditing courses given at the Citadel. She acknowledged that she did seem to have most of the characteristics of a hunter. She may as well take in a few courses on legal procedures.

Burin had to teach, and his class was about supplementing a talent for tracking with all the technology available. The different everyday medical scanners that each shuttle carried could be wired into the long-range scanners to seek out floating pods with missing personnel.

He was a good instructor, and from her position in back, she could still see the expressive features that gave life to his topic.

The following day, she retrieved her armoured suit from Hydel and proved to him that she knew how to turn the nodes on and off that he had wired in. She could leave her body like normal if the suit was passive, but when she activated anyone of the twelve nodes he had installed, the rest of the suit was activated, and she was locked in her form.

“The nodes are set up so that if someone is using your suit to confine you, you can still turn the suit off on your own with deliberate pressure. This is not a prison, it is a tool.” Hydel was very proud of himself.

She twisted and moved in the suit, pleased with the mobility. She jumped in surprise when she felt an impact near her waist, and there stood Hydel with his blade broken against her suit.

He grinned. “It gives out contrasting harmonics that shatter a piece of metal. I just thought of it yesterday.”

Delighted, Wiyra hugged him and was treated to a hug in return. He let go, flustered and said, “It is also wired into your com system, so once you set your frequency, you can be located within ten thousand kilometres of your shuttle.”

“Thank you, Hydel. It feels wonderful.”

“It should. It is fully insulated, has a water recycler and will keep your body warm when you are not in it.”

“All this and safety too? You are truly a master craftsman.”

“Thank you. It is nice to be appreciated. I grow all these suits from scratch, so incorporating the armour and wiring is the most complicated part of the procedure.”

“You grow these suits?”

“Each Citadel has their own secrets. I am the secret of Citadel Reevish.” Hydel smiled shyly.

“You are an excellent secret. I promise to report to you every adventure that your suit has.”

“It is your suit now, Wiyra.”

“It will always be your suit, Hydel. Now, I must meet Burin for lunch. He had a tricky class today, so I have to be on my way. Thank you again, Hydel.”

She waved farewell and sprinted back to the Citadel with her old suit wadded up under one arm.

Burin met her in the courtyard. “We have an assignment, Wiyra.”

She blinked. “So soon?”

“Apparently, the place we are going does not enjoy alien visitations, but they need help finding someone. They fear that they won’t locate them in time to stop them from suffocating.”

She nodded. “Of course. To the shuttle.”

He looked delighted. “To the shuttle.”

She opened the door and watched the sand of the beach that she knew only in her memory as the surrounding coastline framed it. Burin had seen the tracks left by the lost couple, and he had given her the information she needed to find them. The urge to look at the embankment that framed her parent’s photo with her own eyes had been irresistible.

“Back away from the door, Wiyra. There is a bit of a wind kicking up.”

His words followed her as she pitched out the door as the shuttle wobbled. It was a fifteen-foot fall to the cliff, and she thudded to the sand with a complete lack of grace.

“Ow.” She waved at the shuttle then used the com. “I am fine, Burin.”

“Good. Now, go find those missing people. The entry is up and to the left.”

She slogged to the door in the cliff face and pressed the code. As the door slid upward, she beckoned the couple inside to emerge. “Get out of there.”

The couple ran forward, and their clasped hands led to forearms with the same vines and scripts that marked Wiyra.

“Burin, we have a problem.”

“What is it? They are free.”

“Yeah, but they are Prishkin, and unless I miss my guess, I just stuck my foot in the temple of the gods. That isn’t allowed.” She sighed. “Park somewhere safe while I deal with the elders.”

The couple was pale and shivering, blubbering gratefully at her as she walked them up the beach to the path that was so often in her field of vision. Her parents had been here at least once in their lives, and she wasn’t even allowed to enjoy the contact with her departed progenitors.

They met the villagers on their way out. Apparently, even a Prishkin could follow the sight of a hovering shuttle. Burin parked in a bare field and walked toward them, standing at her side.

She felt the strength that he was going to offer, but she froze in place when she saw the woman leading the villagers. She swallowed and continued onward.

The rescued idiots were surrounded by friends and family and whisked away.

“Elder, I apologise for touching my feet to your soil. I beg forgiveness for entering the temple of the gods with one foot.” She stood straight and stared at her maternal grandmother.

“I know you child, don’t I?” Elder Miyan looked at her carefully.

“I am Wiyra Kwinto.”

The elder reeled in shock. “You can’t be.”

“I can and am.” She opened the seal on one of the tight sleeves and showed the marks on her skin that mimicked Miyan’s.

“My daughter died.”

“She left two sons and two daughters.”

Elder Miyan blinked rapidly. “You are obviously familiar with some of our traditions, so you know that there must be a sacrifice for the trespass.”

“I know it.”

“Good, it will be arranged. Follow us to the square where you may make the sacrifice.” Elder Miyan walked away abruptly.

Burin followed with Wiyra. “She is really your grandmother?”

“One of them. The other was an Uhn. Grandpa was nervous, but he was well-loved.”