"Now you"re delusional." His second laughed. "She"s a good kid."
"Yeah. The women of the family are quite exceptional," Bronse noted absently, his gaze drifting to Ravenna as she sat with Devan, rubbing the youngest girl"s back in comfort. Rave had to be exhausted. She hadn"t slept either, really, and that was entirely his fault.
Well, partially my fault, he thought with an irrepressible grin.
"Wow, that is some goofy grin you got going on," Lasher mused.
"Shut up. You"re lucky I don"t discipline you."
"I won"t if you won"t," Lasher countered.
"Pervert," Bronse retorted.
"Deflowerer." Lasher laughed.
"Shut up and get them ready to go. You"re giving me an ulcer."
"Aye, sir!" Lasher said cheerfully.
Kith was fuming.
It hadn"t taken him long to feel the ma.s.sive waves of connection that had developed between his sister and the commander. The s.e.xual attraction between them had more than tripled overnight, it seemed, and the way they kept looking at each other was sending off huge bursts of erotic emotional energy between them.
It didn"t take a rocket scientist to figure it out.
Appalled by his sister"s behavior and downright infuriated by the commander"s, Kith took out his anger on the easier of the two targets. As they marched through the wilderness in a line, Kith hurried to catch up with Ravenna.
"You slept with him!" he hissed at her in introduction.
Ravenna was startled by the accusation for all of a second, then she flashed angry eyes at him, whispering, "Keep your voice down!" She glanced back at Ender who was following up the rear of the line.
"Why? Are you ashamed?" Kith sneered.
"Hardly that," she snapped. "I just don"t want my business announced to the whole world! And that is what it is, you know. My business. Not yours!" Ravenna punctuated every word with the cadence of her marching feet as she followed Bronse"s back with enthusiasm.
The problem with empaths, she thought, was that they were entirely too nosey and too sensitive. Male empaths were by far the worst, she was sure. Males were horrible when it came to handling their own emotions. Imagine that and the emotions of others! Add to it Kith"s emotional immaturity and his persistent need to see himself as the man in charge of their family, and it made for a serious ego problem.
And once again it forced Rave into the position of having to set him down a few pegs. Every time Kith flared up like this, acting too big for his own good, he left her no choice. Not only was she the eldest and the head of their sectioned-off little family, she was also the high priestess of the temple. Just because they were abandoning that temple did not mean that sovereignty was going to alter between them.
"I think it is my business when it affects all of us here! If he"s spending all of his time chasing your skirts, just how good will he be at keeping us alive and getting us the h.e.l.l out of here?"
She stopped and turned on him, her face aflame with fury. "If Bronse was having the worst day of his life and was plagued with twenty different distractions, he"d still have a better chance of getting us all out of here than you would! I swear to the G.o.ds, Kith, if you don"t quit this puffed-up att.i.tude, you"re going to force me to pop that big head of yours like a balloon! You mistakenly think you"re in charge around here when you most certainly are not. I"m in charge of the Chosen Ones. They are my responsibility. Not yours!"
"Don"t you know he"s using you?" Kith railed back at her. "Men like him pick up girls everywhere they go. You"re just another port to park it in, Sis."
That remark compelled Rave to do something she"d never done. She whipped out her hand and slapped him hard across the face. The sound of the strike cracked through the forest like a shot, and the entire line jolted to a halt. Ender, however, had seen the source of the sound, so he cut his fingers over his throat and shook his head at the others.
"How dare you!" Rave spat, not caring that they had drawn everyone"s attention, including Bronse"s. Kith was nursing a hand to his abused cheek and he recoiled, looking at her with utter shock. For all his empathy, he had not seen that coming. "You who tosses up the skirts of any comely servant girl! After I expressly asked you to be more discreet and caring of your choices! Think you I don"t know what occurs in my own temple? You foolish, arrogant boy! Think you there are no repercussions to what you do so casually? So carelessly? You puff and preen and think to make yourself the man among us. No true man would spill his seed left and right with no thought or qualm as to what may become of it. Do you know what it does to those girls when they have to beg Ophelia, a mere child herself, to give them the herbs that will purge your b.a.s.t.a.r.ds from their wombs? Do you think about what it does to Ophelia-when all she wants in the world is to save and protect life-to be the method by which they must destroy a life?
"No! You never think," she answered for him. "I love you dearly, Kith, but sometimes you disgust me! How I shudder with agony some nights when I see you all, my children, growing to become less than what you are capable of. Domino and his jaded heart are not my burden because it happened before he came to us, but you ... and now Fallon, who refuses to use his gifts. Ophelia who overuses hers. Poor Devan, who looks up at all of you in confusion, seeking a path to follow, and none of you can satisfy her. Her temper notwithstanding, the only one who gives me no grief is Vivienne. She, thank the G.o.ds, is a woman of strength and independence and has a heart made of Delran platinum. If anything happened to me, Kith, she is the one who would step into my place. Certainly not you! So you take a moment, just this once, and think before you stand there trying to dress me down!
"You are an empath, but you are the least in touch with true emotion of anyone I know. At least Domino"s jading comes from his heart being hurt by the deceptions he sees day in and day out. He is sensitive, despite what he would have the rest of us believe, and that is why his power hardens him. I thought, for a moment when we were in prison, that there was hope for you. I had not seen Kith my brother in so long, and I had missed him sorely. But that moment of agony and torture for me was almost worth it because I felt him again! The child I had once known who is lost to me now! Go! Leave my sight! I have other things to deal with that are much more important than the self-centered acts of a boy!"
By the time Kith stormed off in high temper and low shame, Bronse had come to Rave"s side. Without hesitation he enfolded her in his embrace. He hushed and soothed her.
"Easy," he said. "Pay him no mind. He"s no more or less a c.o.c.ky b.a.s.t.a.r.d than any boy his age. What is he? Twenty? It"s all hormones and thinking they know everything at that age."
"I know." She turned and began walking again at his urging, both of them keenly aware that they did not have time for internal squabbling. "It"s like suddenly having a stranger in your house. I mean, he has always been moody. His empathy is very difficult to manage and very hard on his psyche, but there"s no excuse for his callousness. He has had a good life in the temple. Perhaps too good a life. Perhaps some of the hardships of this outside world will temper him. But I do fear that it might make matters worse. This could be an issue for all of us. We have been relatively isolated for all of our lives. To be thrust into heavily civilized worlds may be too harsh for the young ones to handle. Especially Ophelia. She cannot bear even the smallest suffering without wanting to fix it. She would heal the world if she could. But we have no choice, and it"s up to me to take them safely through this change." She bit her lip. "And things have been changing for me as well."
"Wow. That makes me feel like s.h.i.t," he said grimly. "You have so much on your plate and I-"
"No!" she cut him off quickly, grabbing hold of his arm with both her hands and sliding down it until she had his hand in hers. "You"ve done nothing wrong. You"ve saved all of our lives and we are grateful for it."
"I haven"t saved anything yet. We"re still in danger." That said, he hurried her on a little faster. "But I will get you out of here. My problem becomes what to do with you afterward. I can"t show up at base with a ship full of civilians. Especially not a military base. If they found out about you and what you could do-"
"What? What would they do?" she asked curiously.
"Find a way to harness you. A way to use you for military purposes."
"And that"s a bad thing? But you are military. They have harnessed you."
"Well," he hesitated, not knowing how to best explain it to someone as naive as she was, "being part of the militia is something a person should be allowed to volunteer for, not be forced to do. The military can be a little too coersive when it comes to certain things."
"You mean abusive? Like the Nomaads?"
"No! Not at all like that. But there are ways to make a person do things without being physically abusive."
"Like using the children against me."
Bronse looked at her with surprise. Maybe he was not giving her enough credit. "The militia is a hard life. You certainly wouldn"t want Ophelia exposed to the things we do to keep peace on all three of our planets, not to mention all the s.p.a.ce in between. She doesn"t seem like the type who could bear that."
"Ophelia has borne more than you realize," she said sagely. "She has had to heal violence on many, many occasions, ever since she was a child. And Kith ... Kith might do well to have such structure and discipline as you seem to have."
Bronse could see she was thinking, her mind churning over possibilities.
"Let me be clear about something else though," he said softly to her, keeping his voice low enough for her ears only. "The military has its flaws. One in particular is part of the reason there has been so much danger for me and my crew. Someone ... someone has been trying to kill me. My last two missions have been traps set just for that purpose. We were running from one of those traps when I found you."
"But why?" she demanded to know. "What could you have done to warrant such a thing? Your own people are trying to hurt you? How can you possibly go back there?"
"Because it"s not "people." It"s one person in particular. He"s working hard to make it look like a failed mission, which means he doesn"t want it to trace back to him. He doesn"t want to get caught with my blood on his hands."
"What did you do to anger him so?"
"Nothing that I know of. It"s one of many questions I need to answer, and yet another reason why I wouldn"t want to bring you onto the base. I wouldn"t feel that you were safe until after I see this man brought to justice. And for me to see that done, I need to think clearly and find evidence."
"And I keep you from thinking clearly?" she asked.
Bronse didn"t want to lie to her, but neither did he want to upset her. Still, he was truthful. "In a way, yes. You make me do things I never thought I would do. Things that could be costly mistakes. But at the same time, if it weren"t for you, we"d all be dead right now. And to tell you the truth, I"d rather have you close by where I can protect you and keep an eye on you. If I drop you off somewhere, I won"t be able to control what happens to you. It"s a d.a.m.n untenable position I find myself in."
"I don"t know why," she said baldly. "It seems very clear to me what you have to do."
He looked at her and raised a brow. "Oh?"
"You need to bring us with you. You need to tell them who we are and what we can do. That will give you and me the power to keep all of us on the base together where we can keep an eye on one another. I can see to it that the children are well protected even against the pushier tactics the military might want to try. There are things I can do that you don"t even know about yet. Trust me, we are very capable of taking care of ourselves." She nodded her head. "Yes. That"s what we should do. The Chosen Ones should be brought to the militia. It seems to me you would be rewarded for bringing us to them."
He would be. A great deal, in fact. The intelligence division would go crazy for the things Ravenna alone could do. But he wasn"t looking for rewards. And certainly not at her expense.
"I would never forgive myself if we did this and you became unhappy."
"This isn"t about you, Bronse," she said, her tone very matter of fact. "This is about me trying to find a place for my brood that will be best for them. Can you think of a place where we would be better protected than on a military installation?"
No. He really couldn"t. "But you realize I"m an active soldier," he hedged. "I"m off the station just as much as I"m on. I wouldn"t always be there to protect you."
"I don"t need you to protect me. I"ve already told you, we"re quite capable of protecting ourselves."
"Is that how you ended up getting whipped by the Banda?" he shot out harshly.
She turned her pretty face to him and gave him the most unusually enigmatic smile. "That happened because I made a choice to wait for you. I knew it would mean the least amount of injury and death to those who were holding me captive. They may have wished harm on me and Kith, but I did not wish the same on them. But believe me, had I wanted to, I could have found the opportunity to free us. I simply was not willing to pay the price it would have cost while knowing that there was an alternative."
"But you did pay a high price. They really hurt you."
"They did. But they are victims of their own ignorance."
Bronse shook his head. "I don"t know if you"re disgustingly n.o.ble or just plain out of your mind."
"Think what you will. Just do not mistake me for a victim."
"I"ll be sure not to do that. I have to go catch up to Justice and take care of a few things. Let me know if you need anything."
She already had everything she needed from him, she thought as she watched him leave her and hustle up to the front of the line they made. Kith"s audacity in treating her like she had been a wh.o.r.e to Bronse-a man who had treated her more preciously than any other when Kith himself was infamous for using women and discarding them as easily-had galled her, but she considered the source. Kith hadn"t even bothered to search beyond the s.e.xual desire she had felt for Bronse. Had he thought to dig further, he would have found the deeper emotions. He may even have found them in Bronse, too, if he had bothered to look. She was not certain yet, but she suspected that Bronse was coming to care for her deeply and quickly.
It was Bronse"s acts of uncanny tenderness and thoughtfulness that told her she was more than a bed partner to him. He watched, sensed, and acted, always considering her best interests. She was confident that she was first in his mind at all times because he proved it with incessant consistency.
She did look on herself with criticism though. She shouldn"t have lost her temper with Kith to the point of violence. She was a much better person than that. She simply did not like herself much when she lost control. Violence should always be used with complete control of thought and total lack of raw emotions, she felt. It was a concept that she believed Bronse epitomized. Even when he had been emotionally distraught over her captivity and the violence that had been done to her, he had never used it as an excuse to get out of hand and commit uncontrolled mayhem. He was trained to think with his head and not his heart. It was a quality she found commendable in situations like this.
After Bronse had consulted with Justice, he drifted back down the line again and walked beside Ravenna. They broke through the brush, and he occasionally took her hand to help her over a rock or a fallen tree, but he kept his attention and his rifle trained before him. Everyone was silent as they moved toward the pasture that they were looking for.
They broke into it all of a sudden. It was not flat-it was rough and littered with fallen trees-but it was just big enough to suit Bronse"s needs.
"That"s going to be one tight squeeze," Lasher mused as he surveyed the area.
"And a b.u.mpy landing," Ender remarked.
"But both are doable," Justice said confidently, whipping out her remote pilot pad and seating herself on a boulder at the edge of the glade.
"Okay, Lasher, Ender, cut a perimeter around the glade twice. I don"t want any surprises today."
"No more dances with Hutha lions?"
"Exactly," Bronse said grimly. "Domino, Kith, take these." He held out two pistols to them. "Do not fire unless you"re staring an enemy in the eye. You got me?"
"What, no guns for the girls?" Justice asked with a smirk. But what looked like chauvinism to her was just keen thinking to him. Rave and the females under her care would not resort to violence if it could be avoided, and if someone came up on them, it would no longer be a matter of avoidance. Despite Rave"s statements of confidence, he didn"t see that she had it in her to do what was necessary. These females had been raised with a different sort of deference than Justice had been.
Bronse saw Kith"s surprise that he had been handed a loaded weapon and trusted to use it. Kith should look that way. Given a decent choice, Bronse would have done neither. But he needed to reconnoiter behind them and see how close the enemy was, how many there were, and if he could learn their intentions. So, leaving Justice to maintain order until Lasher and Ender returned from scouting out the perimeter, he moved to backtrack their progress.
"Wait." Ravenna made the command softly, but there was power in her grip as she clasped Bronse"s biceps and pulled him to a halt. "I know you do not have to answer to me, but I would feel better if you told me where you were going."
He hesitated long enough to give the request serious thought. She was as much a part of this mission as any of them now. But he couldn"t escape the urge he had to protect her from the starker truths of their situation.
"Bronse, I have a family at stake here," she reminded him.
"Of course. You"re right. I"m sorry. I"m scouting back to see how far behind us our pursuit is."
"Alone?"
"One man traveling fast and silent. Trust me, this is my job. I"ll go out only as far as I need to and will be back before the ship lands. I need to rea.s.sure myself that they are far enough behind and that we"re protected long enough."
"Okay. I understand. I"m sorry to sound as though I"m questioning you."
"It"s okay." He smiled, giving her cheek a sweep with a single finger. "Stay with the girls. I"ll be right back."
Ravenna reached up suddenly, flinging herself against him as she wrapped her left hand around his neck and laid her right on his heart. She dragged him down for a deep, desperate kiss that she refused to relinquish until she was satisfied. She stepped back at last, wiping her finger over her moist lips and meeting his eyes. She saw him narrowing his thoughtful periwinkle gaze on her, and she flushed.
"We"re going to talk about that later," he chided her. He turned and ran into the woodlands.
Feeling at ease, despite his warning, Ravenna returned to the others.
Bronse gritted his teeth at what he saw. The enemy was much closer than comfort would allow. He should have sent Ender to recon, but he was the faster runner. Ender would have strung out some nice tricks for this bunch to run into. And it was a bunch. Fifty strong and far too well armed for mere Nomaads in a backwater world. Ravenna had seen them loud and clear in her sleeping vision. Bronse could also tell that their rambunctious att.i.tude was that of soldiers who had had a recent victory, and a lot of fun pulling it off. Their morale was sky-high.
The village.
He couldn"t let himself worry about the villagers. Hopefully the warned servants had been able to get some villagers to safety, but he doubted it would have been very many. There was nothing his crew could have done to help them. They would all be prisoners by now, or worse if they had tried to defend the indefensible.
Bronse slunk out of range of contact and then ran light and silent back to the makeshift landing field.
"Justice, we"re out of time!" he shouted as he ran into the glen.
"Two minutes tops, Commander."
"Make it thirty seconds. The minute they hear the ship fly overhead, they"ll be after us."
"Coming in now, sir."
They could hear the scream of the ship"s engines as she brought it in fast and heavy. Bronse and the men pulled the kids to their feet and corralled them together. Ender and Lasher kept their eyes on the forest where Bronse had come from.
Justice landed the ship in the bracken with a loud and awkward thunk. They didn"t wait for Jet to open the bay doors before they went running for it. Bronse hauled Ophelia off her feet, and Lasher grabbed Devan, tossing the girls aboard before the ramp had even touched down. They all raced on board, and Justice threw herself into her seat. The ramp was closing when the whine of laser fire could be heard. Bronse shoved everyone deeper into the ship.
"Now, Justice, now!"