Stud, p.30
Stud, page 30
“But he was the best friend I ever had!” Terufen wailed. “I’ll never forgive myself if I don’t try.”
“And he would never forgive you if you died trying—especially if there’s no way to save him. And there isn’t. Not unless he saves himself.”
Tarq’s words were brutal, but they had the desired effect. Tears filled Lucy’s eyes as Terufen sagged hopelessly in Tarq’s grasp. The night was quiet once again, with only the muted sounds of flowing water, the wind in the rigging, and Terufen’s sobs to break the silence.
Walkuta stepped forward and took the Norludian’s hand, leading him away from the edge of the raft. “Come. Together we will mourn our friend’s passing and send his spirit on to his maker.”
Tarq nodded at Vertigan, and the east wind swiftly died. The raft sailed on, leaving Kotcamp behind.
***
There were no further attacks during the night, but the next day dawned on a very subdued and mournful crew. Vertigan showed his brother how to steer the raft while the rest of the company sat in silence, deep in their own private thoughts. Terufen had finally gone to sleep but was awake now and still seemed stunned. Lucy could scarcely believe it herself. To have come so far through so many dangers and then lose one of their friends in such a way was unthinkable, and yet it had happened.
The storm had passed by to the north, leaving behind a fresh breeze that drove them downriver even faster than the day before. The current was stronger too, and having seen maps of the region, Lucy knew that the river would take a bend to the south not long before reaching the falls. Tarq had said they needed to make for the northern shore, which would allow the best passage down past the falls to Noklar, but thus far no one had said how they were going to do that. Even with Vertigan to control the wind, she was beginning to believe that a watery grave awaited them all.
Lunchtime came and went and Lucy tried to nap, but even with her head pillowed in Tarq’s lap, she couldn’t relax enough to fall asleep. Finally abandoning the attempt, she sat up, rubbing the stiffness in her shoulder. Glancing upriver in the forlorn hope that she would see Kotcamp waving at them from the water, she spotted a huge fish swimming doggedly behind them, its dorsal fin knifing through the waves. “Look at that!”
Crilla nodded. “I’ve been watching it for a while now. It doesn’t seem to be fast enough to overtake us, and I’d hate to think what it would do if it ever did. It’s certainly too big to catch and eat.”
“It’s probably just waiting for the raft to sink so it can eat us,” Natasha said nervously.
No one seemed willing to say what they were probably all thinking, which was that it had already eaten Kotcamp and was now following the raft, hoping for more tasty morsels to fall overboard.
“Think we should shoot at it?” Faletok asked.
“We should not kill a fellow creature on suspicion alone,” Walkuta said wisely. “Its presence here may have nothing to do with us at all.”
Lucy doubted that and so, apparently, did Natasha. “I’m getting sick and tired of everything and everybody trying to do us in. In fact, I’m not even sure I want to go back to Yalka. Seems like the whole damn planet is against us.”
“My friend Dax can take you anywhere you want to go,” Tarq said. “If all goes well, he may even be waiting at the spaceport.”
“Not sure how we’d ever be able to afford space travel now,” Natasha said. “It’s not as though any of us has any money.”
“I do,” Lucy said. “I could loan you some.”
Tarq shook his head. “No need for that. Dax wouldn’t charge you much anyway, and like I said, he’s a friend of mine.”
Faletok snickered. “Must be a really good friend.”
Tarq chuckled softly. “Well, I’ve known him since he was two years old, and he’s only alive today because I found him and took him with me to the refugee ship right before Zetith got hit by an asteroid.”
Faletok recoiled as though he’d been slapped. “Ah… yes,” he conceded. “A very good friend.”
Lucy cocked her head, listening. Something was different. “What’s that sound?”
“The falls,” Tarq replied. “We’re getting close now.” He stood up, directing his gaze downriver. “I can already see where the river bends.”
“Guess I’d better steer toward the north shore, then,” Traldeck said.
Tarq nodded. “Even if we beach the raft here, we can still walk the rest of the way. The water looks pretty rough up ahead too. There’s bound to be a helluva current the closer we get.”
Traldeck eased the rudder over and the front of the raft nosed to the left, heading for the shore. Moments later the raft gave a lurch, followed by a loud crack, and then began to spin completely out of control. “I think we hit a rock,” he shouted. “The rudder’s broken.”
“Must be shallower here than we thought,” Faletok said. “Look at the turbulence ahead. Rapids.”
Natasha let out a scream, waking Vertigan, who scrambled to his feet, heading for the now useless rudder. Walkuta began to chant, Bratol had something akin to a seizure—wheezing to the point that Lucy was sure he would stop breathing altogether—while Terufen moaned and rolled onto his side—the only sound he’d made all day.
“We may have to swim for it,” Tarq said.
Lucy gauged the distance between the raft and the shore. She wasn’t sure she could swim that far. Not against such a strong current.
Crilla voiced a similar concern. “I don’t know how to swim.”
“Then we’ll move on to Plan B,” Tarq said with unflappable calm. “Vertigan, can you get the wind to blow from the south?”
“I can try,” Vertigan replied. “Not sure it’ll be enough against this current, though. Guess we should have beached this thing sooner.”
“No shit,” said Tarq. “These rapids weren’t part of my vision.”
“Sure would have been nice if they had been,” Vertigan said.
It was a testament to the shift in Vertigan’s attitude that he hadn’t taken the opportunity to make some disparaging remark. Lucy was still waiting for it when she finally realized it wasn’t going to come. The wind shifted, presumably due to Vertigan’s intervention. If she’d had any doubts that Vertigan’s aim was not to supplant Tarq, but to join him as Lucy’s second husband, they were now put to rest.
Tarq nodded. “That’s the trouble with visions. They don’t always tell you everything.” He stooped down to pick up the long pole they’d used to launch the raft. “Might be able to touch bottom with this and at least keep us off the rocks.”
The raft suddenly dipped into a pocket of current so rapid, Lucy thought the whole thing was going to slide right out from under her. Wedging her fingers between the logs, she clung like a leech, riding out the wild bucking of the raft. When she stole a glance at Tarq again, she saw that he already had the pole in the water and prayed that he would hit something with it and not simply follow it over the side, plunging into the turbulent depths.
Her prayers were answered. The pole grated on rock and Tarq managed to lever the raft a little closer to the shore, which they were racing past at an alarming speed. The falls were in sight now; they’d taken the bend in the river without even noticing it. Terufen was helping Tarq with the pole, his sucker-tipped fingers fusing to the wood with a grip so tight he was dangling from the end. The raft jerked sideways, nearly unseating her again.
“That wasn’t a rock,” Traldeck yelled. “Something hit us.”
Lucy looked for any sign of flotsam that might have been washed through the rapids along with them but only saw a thick gray dorsal fin. The strange fish that had been swimming in their wake all day had finally caught up with them. Rising up from the water like a prehistoric monster, it rammed the side of the raft and then slid back, gathering force as it drove in again, its teeth-studded jaws agape as it bit into the water-softened wood. Lucy had never even seen a picture of such a creature before. It was as though this valley had been cut off from time itself, and a species that had died out in other regions eons ago had lived on in seclusion.
Vertigan snatched up his bow and nocked an arrow, aiming for the blunt-nosed head.
“No!” shouted Tarq. “In trying to kill us, it’s actually pushing us toward the shore. Let it be. Just keep that wind blowing.”
Tarq was right. Between what he and Terufen were doing with the pole, the fish butting its head against the raft, and the force of the wind in the sail, they truly were getting closer, finally running aground on the rocks near the northern bank.
“We can make it from here,” Traldeck said. “Not much current and fairly shallow.”
“I am not getting in the water with that creepy fish sitting there waiting to eat me,” Faletok said with a sniff.
Lucy glanced at the fish, which seemed to have broken off its attack and was now swimming into the shallows. As she watched in speechless horror, its fins stretched to become long fingerlike projections that gripped the rocks to heave its pale body out of the water. What it would do next was anyone’s guess, but Lucy had an idea she was about to become dinner.
Chapter 27
Except it wasn’t a fish.
It was Kotcamp.
“Sorry about being naked,” he said as he stood up, though his smile wasn’t the least bit apologetic. “Lost my toga when I transformed.”
Terufen let out a whoop and leaped from the raft, splashing through the water to throw his arms around his friend. “We thought you were dead!”
Kotcamp returned the hug with equal gusto. “Yeah, well, I thought I was too, until I finally got my wits together enough to morph into a fish. Almost forgot I could do that, but it was either that or drown. I was trapped under that damn vrelnot for ages. Blasted thing sank like a stone!”
Terufen gave him a quick punch in the arm. “You could’ve at least changed back long enough to wave at us. Here we’ve all been so upset—”
“Hey, it was all I could do to keep up with you as it was. Didn’t want to risk it. Besides, I sort of came in handy, didn’t I?”
“Yes, you did,” said Bratol, who had recovered from his wheezing fit. “I’ve never been fond of boats, but this trip was almost the death of me. And I never even got my feet wet.”
“Hold on a sec.” Lucy took down her blanket from the mast and tossed it to Kotcamp. “There you go. You can wear that. We wouldn’t want you scaring the tourists.”
“Tourists?” Tarq echoed.
“Oh, yeah,” Lucy replied. “Never been there myself, but the falls are one of Noklar’s biggest attractions.”
Tarq cut off a length of rope and handed it to Kotcamp for use as a belt. “Must’ve missed it when I was passing through town.”
Kotcamp draped the blanket over his shoulder. “I’ve been here a couple of times. Nobody ever climbs up this high, though—too dangerous. In fact, it’s roped off. We’ll probably get arrested.”
“Who cares as long as we share a cell?” Terufen said. He gave Kotcamp another hug, smiling broadly. “I’d hate to break up this little band of ours any sooner than we have to.” He glanced at Vertigan. “I’ll even share a cell with you—that is, if you’ll promise not to take potshots at my best friend—especially when he’s trying to help us.”
Lucy waited for another retort from Vertigan that never came. “Sorry. Stress got to me.”
“Which is why Tarqy-poo is a better leader,” Terufen said with a sniff. Obviously he wasn’t going to let Vertigan off the hook that easily. “Never lets it affect him.”
Lucy nearly choked on her tongue. “Tarqy-poo?”
Terufen waved dismissively. “Term of endearment. Or a nickname. All good leaders have them, you know.”
Kotcamp laughed along with the rest as he waded toward the raft. “Let’s get you all off that raft and get going. We’ll be in Noklar in time for dinner.” Morphing into his Herpatronian form, he took Lucy in his arms and carried her to shore.
Tarq gathered up his gear and jumped off the raft. Dinner in Noklar? After all they’d been through, the thought was as exhilarating as it was terrifying. But perhaps he didn’t have to declare himself right away. It’d be pretty silly to ask Lucy to be his mate when everyone else sitting around the table already thought it was a done deal. Maybe he should wait. Give himself more time to pretend…
Looking back, Tarq realized he’d let the perfect moment slip right past him when he’d saved Lucy from the vrelnot. True, they’d had several close calls since then, but he would have taken on a dozen vrelnots with far more confidence than he felt asking Lucy to spend the rest of her life with him. Would she have him in spite of his past and his inability to read, or would she decide Vertigan was a better choice? He was forced to admit that he truly had no idea what she would do. True, Lucy had done a lot of things that made him feel as though she loved him, but it could just as easily have been an act. She’d never said the words, not in front of the others and certainly not in private.
“I think the first thing we should do is tell the police about Fred and his gang,” Lucy was saying. “We need to get the ball rolling right away.”
“Even before dinner?” Terufen rubbed his belly. “Couldn’t that wait until tomorrow?”
Lucy shook her head. “It would carry more weight if we all arrived at the police station as soon as we hit town—and looking like we’d been trekking through the mountains—rather than after we’d spent the night in a hotel.”
Hotel. Tarq could share a room with Lucy. A room where they could be alone. Together. No one listening, no one able to barge in on them or interrupt intimate moments. Suddenly restaurants and police stations held no appeal for him whatsoever.
“Okay,” said Terufen. “Police station first, restaurant second, and then a hotel.”
Natasha’s moan bordered on orgasmic. “I can’t wait to take a real shower—and put on some different clothes! I’ve been wearing the same outfit for almost four months!”
“No you haven’t,” Lucy said dryly. “That’s one of my shirts you’ve got on.”
“Oh, you know what I mean,” Natasha said. “I’m just so ready to get back to civilization!”
Tarq wasn’t sure he shared this sentiment. There were, after all, many things about civilization that tended to sap his self-confidence. Mentally kicking himself for missing the boat as it were, he settled his bow on his shoulder and threaded his fingers through the handgrip on the atlatl. Just because they hadn’t seen any other predators upriver didn’t mean there weren’t any down here by the falls. Maybe he could rescue Lucy again. Then he would ask her. No matter who was listening.
***
The climb down was treacherous, but their journey through the Eradics had prepared them well—not that it wasn’t tricky. Tarq led the way, with Traldeck bringing up the rear. Though Lucy had started off protesting that she would distract him too much, he kept her close beside him. He wasn’t about to let her take a tumble just because she made his dick hurt—not without him there to save her, anyway—and giving Vertigan the opportunity for any heroics was out of the question. Unfortunately, though Tarq did have to catch her twice as she slid past him, nothing was anywhere near dramatic enough to warrant a proposal.
Darkness had already fallen when they reached the base of the falls and ducked under the barrier. No one was there to notice where they’d come from; apparently the falls weren’t visited much at night, possibly due to the fear of vrelnot attacks this close to the mountains. Following the river, they walked on into the city, drawing a few stares along the way, though not as many as one might expect. Unlike the picturesque villages of Madric and Reltan, Noklar was a bustling spaceport city, and as such, there wasn’t much that the inhabitants hadn’t seen before. Tarq had spent some time in Noklar when he first arrived on Talus Five, but not enough to know his way around. “Where do you suppose the police station is?”
“Hel-lo,” Vertigan said with a touch of sarcasm. “There’s a sign right there.”
Tarq glanced where Vertigan was pointing and all of his old insecurities came crashing back on him. Though the jumble of letters eventually resolved themselves into words, Tarq knew he’d have to stand there a good five minutes before he figured out exactly what they said. And he’d been looking right at it too. Here we go again…
His vision had only shown him the way to Noklar; it was no help at all when it came to navigating the city streets. He might be able to hold his own in the bedroom and out in the wilderness, but without the information in his speeder to guide him, in a city this size, Tarq was flat-out lost.
Natasha snorted a laugh. “If we walk around town carrying bows and spears long enough, they’ll probably pick us up and take us there.”
“If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather not be arrested right off the bat,” said Lucy. “We need to get there and make our statement as soon as we can. Then we can get on with our lives.”
If Lucy’s life didn’t include him, Tarq didn’t see much reason for that moment to come any sooner than need be. But he had to at least feign enthusiasm—and he had to let someone else take the lead. Not that this had ever been a problem for him before, but he’d been among friends who cared about him then, not with Vertigan whom he still viewed as something of a competitor whether he’d wanted to be Lucy’s second husband or not. Sharing a mate was unheard of for a Zetithian. For Tarq, it was all or nothing.
When Tarq didn’t make a move, Vertigan was more than happy to lead them on to the station. Upon their arrival Vertigan stalked inside, his commanding demeanor drawing a few appreciative glances from the females present—some law-abiding and some not. He asked a few questions before they were directed to another desk where the officer listened patiently to his statement, everyone else chiming in with their own versions of how they’d been harassed and hounded out of Yalka. Natasha and Traldeck’s story seemed to have the most evidence to support it, but Tarq was dumbfounded when the man finally spoke.
“Not that your statements don’t fit with quite a few others we’ve been hearing lately, but there’s some proof surrounding his story at least,” he said with a nod toward Tarq. “Some friends of yours have been looking for you. They picked up the signal from your speeder in Yalka a couple of days ago, and when they didn’t find you with it, they reported you missing. We impounded the speeder, asked some questions, and made several arrests, but, generally speaking we don’t send search parties into the Eradics, which is why no one has found you before now. Not that they haven’t looked.”
