Thirty
“Are you sure you wouldn’t like to come along with us, captain?” Enya asked. “It’s a truly beautiful place.”
Looking up from the paperwork Zevon had forced upon him, Reza shook his head. “No thank you,” he told her, smiling. “I appreciate your offer, but I have much to do here.” He knew quite well that she fervently hoped he would say no, for purely personal reasons of her own. “Perhaps another time.”
“Are you sure, captain?” Eustus asked valiantly, also hoping against hope that Reza would say no, but he felt honor-bound to ask. “Zevon always has you doing too much paperwork crap, you know.”
Reza fought to keep from smiling. Sometimes, he thought, being able to sense the emotions of others must be more interesting than actually reading their thoughts. Eustus was helplessly, hopelessly in love with the young woman standing close beside him, and Enya felt the same about Eustus. The Marines had only been planetside for two weeks, but the changes had been little short of miraculous, especially after Counselor Savitch had arrived to oversee things. Sensing something malignant in Belisle’s mind, Reza had assigned two of his best Marines to be her bodyguards, despite Savitch’s vehement protests. They went with her everywhere, including the bathroom (both Marines were female). He had since gotten the sense from Belisle that whatever he had been plotting would not be put to the test, but there was something else about him that Reza was missing, something the man knew that fueled an inner fire of arrogance and patient vengeance. But what?
“That
“No, no! Not that!” Eustus cried with mock horror, raising his hands to his face as if to ward off some nightmarish creature.
“First Sergeant,” Reza said formally.
“Sir?” Eustus asked, suddenly confused by Reza’s tone of voice.
“Dismissed.”
Smiling, relieved, Eustus saluted. “Aye, sir,” he replied.
“Captain,” Enya said, bowing her head.
Watching the two of them leave together, Reza felt a sudden weight upon his heart. Where was Esah-Zhurah now? What was she doing? Was she thinking of him? Was she even still alive?
But there were no answers to his questions. He pushed her beautiful face from his mind and forcibly immersed himself in the jumble of paperwork that Zevon pushed at him to sign.
Outside, Eustus and Enya mounted the horses that waited patiently near the command post. Riding through the company compound, Enya smiled at the Marines who went about their daily routine. Some exercised or practiced hand-to-hand combat, others washed or shaved, several groups were clustered around the gigantic tanks that now lay in great pits dug into the ridge, working noisily on some mysterious mechanism inside the huge vehicles. Yet others, those who were off-duty and on free time, simply lay in the sun, getting tanned and doing what soldiers often loved above all else when granted the time: sleeping. Still others, whom she did not see here, had passes to go into Mallory City and take advantage of whatever hospitality offered itself.
Eustus had chosen to spend his two-day pass entirely with her.
Once outside the perimeter, Enya took them to an easy trot, leading Eustus into the woodlands that had once provided all the needs of her people. They rode on, paying no attention to time, but taking in the sights, smells, and sounds of what had to be one of the most beautiful worlds in the Confederation, if not in all the galaxy. They spoke in the language of those who knew they were in love, but had not yet confessed it to one another. Idle banter, mostly, that avoided hinting directly at what they felt inside. The day was warm, the air clear as it always had been for as long as any human had known, and both were having some of the happiest days of their lives.
At last, they came to Enya’s favorite place, a small crystal lake, surrounded by majestic conifer-like trees that lay next to a sheer rock face that rose hundreds – perhaps thousands – of feet above them, its top hidden in a wreath of clouds.
“My father used to bring me here all the time,” she explained as they dismounted and left the horses to graze in the hardy grass. Brought by Therese Ranier’s settlers as pets, the horse had been their single greatest positive contribution to the lives of the Mallorys, who kept stock of their own in the forests beyond the Raniers’ reach.
“Enya, this is absolutely fantastic,” Eustus said in awe as he looked up at the rocky face. It soared up… and up… and up. Finally looking down into the water, he only saw the rock face again, this time reflected from the water’s smooth surface, for there was no wind, not even the slightest breeze. “I’ve never seen anything like this in my life.”
Enya smiled, taking his hand and leading him along the shore of the lake. “We were told as children that this is a magic place,” she said as she plucked off her shoes so she could walk barefoot in the cool, wet sand along the water’s edge. “Sometimes you can hear voices, my father used to tell me. I’ve heard them, too, singing in the rock. They always sound so sad.”
Eustus looked at her skeptically. “Voices in the rock?” he said.
Enya smiled, tossing her head playfully, her silken hair brushing Eustus’s shoulder. “I know it’s only the wind moving through some kind of tunnels or something. But when you hear them… it… it doesn’t sound like the wind at all. They sound like sirens in mourning, or maybe lamenting a lover’s loss.”
Eustus stopped, conscious of the warmth of her hand in his. “Sounds romantic,” he said as she stepped close to him, her breasts brushing his tunic.
“Yes,” she breathed, “it does, doesn’t it?”
The kiss, when it came, was all that Eustus had anticipated, and more. They held each other for what seemed a long time, and when their lips finally parted, Enya silently led him by the hand to a bed of soft grass, pulling him down to lay on top of her.
“Are you sure…?” Eustus breathed between her increasingly passionate kisses.
“Stop procrastinating,” she whispered in his ear just before her lips and teeth began to work their way down his neck, her hands unfastening the clasps of his uniform.
Eustus raised himself up enough to bring his fingers to bear on her blouse. Cursing his own clumsiness, he finally exposed her breasts and their erect nipples, and Enya sighed as his lips made contact.
They continued to wriggle out of their clothes like two butterflies, struggling to emerge from cocoons that were bound together, their frantic breathing echoing across the still water and the towering rock beyond.
“Ow!” Enya gasped, rolling over so quickly that Eustus toppled over onto his back beside her, his pants shoved down around his knees.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, terrified that he had done something to hurt her. “Did I–”
“No, no,” she said, shaking her head. A scowl on her face, she reached underneath herself with one hand, feeling around until she had found what she was looking for. She held up her hand to Eustus and smiled. “Just a dragon’s claw.”
“A what?” Eustus said, taking the object from her hand. It was the length of his index finger and really did look like a claw, curved and pointed, except that it was flat and completely black. The surface was fairly smooth but pitted, like a piece of rock or metal that had been sandblasted or weathered with age.
“A dragon’s claw. People have found them all around here. Nobody knows exactly what they’re made of. Some kind of weird rock, I guess. They’re supposed to bring good luck.” She paused as Eustus looked at the scythe- like piece of rock. “Do you feel lucky?” she whispered huskily, one of her hands stroking Eustus’s flagging erection back to life.
