Skolian Empire - Skyfall Part 4

She might come closer in mental style to this Bard than the others in her family, but she hadn't found a good comparison. It left her without a way to understand him. He descended from stock that had evolved independently of hers, producing a psion unlike anyone in the Ruby Dynasty.

Roca became aware of the Bard behind her. He knew she was studying him. That startled her. Neither Kurj nor Jarac would have realized it. If Kurj had somehow guessed she was a.n.a.lyzing him, he would have tried to influence her conclusions. The Bard made no such attempt; he had just waited patiently.

"You are quiet for a long time," he said.

She leaned back so he could hear her better. "Why you tell me nothing about yourself?"

"You never asked." He traced his finger over her ear.

It unsettled Roca to realize she liked it when he touched her. She knew why; psions produced pheromones targeted for other psions. Nature compensated for their high mortality by driving them together with chemical c.o.c.ktails, spurring them to make babies. But knowing that in theory and dealing with it in practice were two very different matters. Disconcerted, she pulled her head away from him.

Disappointment came from his mind, but he answered her unspoken question. "I am Eldrinson Althor Valdoria." After a pause, he added, "You may call me Eldri."

"I am Roca." Too late, she caught her mistake. Odd that she was so fl.u.s.tered. "I mean Jeri."

"Roca is a good name."

"Jeri."

He laughed. "Roca. I know."

"No you don't."

"I do indeed. I know when people lie."

That piqued her interest. "How?"

"I just do."

"Something they do? Their voice?"

"No. I don't think so."

"So how you know?"

He s.h.i.+fted behind her. "It doesn't matter how."

Roca had no doubt he felt it in their minds, especially hers, given the bond they were forming. She didn't think he realized what he was doing, though. "You have good English," she said.

His laugh rolled out, deep and chiming. "Better than you."

"True."

"Why can't you speak your own language?"

"Is not mine. I am Skolian."

"I have never heard of Skolians."

Roca frowned. The Allieds had better be able to answer for this, moving in here without telling the natives their origins. From what she understood, the Allied port had been here for three years. That was plenty of time to inform her people about this rediscovered colony.

It occurred to her that Eldri must have developed his fluency in English in only three years. Or less.

"How speak you English so well?"

"I listen to Brad, the Reversed-Bard." He laughed at his joke.

"I listen to many. For years. I not speak like you."

"Why do you ask how I know things? I just do."

Softly she said, "Psion pick up language fast."

"Psion? I don't know this word."

"Empath. Telepath."

"I don't know those, either."

"Empath feel emotions. Telepath read thought from emotion."

His grip on the reins tightened so much that his knuckles turned white. "It is not true!"

His vehemence surprised her. She indicated Garlin, who was riding up ahead. "You feel when he has anger, yes?"

"Always." Now he sounded amused.

"You feel my mind at port, yes?"

Silence.

"Eldri?"

"No! I am not different!" His thoughts surged, erratic and upset-and his mind opened to her. For one moment she felt the deep-seated pain that caused his reaction. Then his natural barriers snapped back into place. Roca didn't understand what had just happened. She wanted to know more, but she held back, afraid if she persisted, she would alienate him.

They had been riding toward a line of needled mountains in the northwest. Looking back, she saw clouds of bubbles floating in the air, released by the riders as they crossed the plains. Glitter dusted the animals and people. It made her hair and Eldri's eyelashes sparkle.

"We go back to port," she said.

He spoke with reluctance. "Very well."

Relief washed over her. "Now, yes?" She didn't want Eldri to leave, though. "You stay a little, yes? We visit with Brad."

Eldri snorted. "He is too busy for visits. His flying machine broke again. He must fix it." He s.h.i.+fted her in his arms. "Come visit my home in the mountains."

"Why mountain? Village closer." Also safer.

Sadness came over him. "It is only a ride."

His response puzzled her. She picked up no more from his mind except his conviction that he couldn't reveal the truth. She didn't think it had anything to do with Brad or his flyer, but that was her only lead.

"You no help Brad's flying machine?"

"We don't know how." Eldri brushed her hair back from her face. "But we would if we could. He is a friend. Besides, he lives in Dalvador. That makes him my responsibility, even if he thinks he belongs to this Allied Skolia of yours."

She blinked at his tangle of misunderstandings. "Brad come from Allied Worlds of Earth. I am Skolian.

Is different." She checked her node for the words she wanted. "And if you are his liege, why you bedevil him?"

He chuckled. "We don't. We just play with him."

Roca doubted it amused Brad to have a Skolian citizen hauled out of his port. "Eldri. Tell this animal take us back."

"Lyrine."

"Say you again?"

"The animal. It is called a lyrine."

"Tell lyrine take us back. Brad worry."

To her surprise, he reined the lyrine to a stop. She twisted around to look at him, maneuvering her leg over the animal so she was sitting sideways. That would make it easier to jump down if he started up again. She was aware of the other riders gathering around them, milling among the drifting bubbles, but she couldn't stop looking at Eldri. Nor did he disguise how much she unsettled him. Or maybe she knew it from his mind; she was becoming so sensitized to him, she had trouble separating his moods from his behavior. She told herself it was pheromones, but she suspected her response went deeper than chemicals.

"Why stare you so?" she asked.

"I am sorry." Eldri brushed her cheek. "I have never seen a woman with gold skin or gold eyes." His touch on her eyelash was so tender she barely felt it. "They glitter. But they are soft. Not hard like metal."

"We shouldn't-" She broke off. He looked as if he could take her into him, mind and body.

"Nor have I ever seen a woman so beautiful," he added, as if it were the most original compliment ever uttered instead of one she had heard too often. She knew she should discourage him, but it was hard to remember that when he gazed at her this way.

Roca cleared her throat. "Pheromones."

"What?" His smile lit his face. And hedidhave freckles across his nose.

"We go to port." She felt like a repeating audio loop. "In two day, I leave on s.h.i.+p."

He touched a tendril of hair curling around her face. "Why?"

"A meeting of my people comes. I need be there. If not, we have war."

He didn't look surprised. "I too would go to war for you."

"Eldri, no." She tried again. "They not fight over me. Leaders of my people meet. We vote about war. I must vote no."

"Ah! A meeting of Bards and Memories. And you vote? This makes sense. You are a Memory. Yes, I see that. You are a woman of intelligence." He tapped her temple. "I feel it here."

Roca blinked. "Memory is t.i.tle here of woman who leads?"

"Of course." He paused. "Are you sure you cannot miss this meeting?"

"Sure." Her node found the right word. "Absolutely sure."

His mind nudged hers, though Roca could tell he didn't realize it. Her instincts prodded her to strengthen her barriers, but she kept them down. She projected her mood to Eldri, both her concern that she not miss her s.h.i.+p and her interest in developing ties with him and his people.

He spoke carefully. "You would know my people better?"

"We would like that."

"I have a proposal."

"Yes?"

"Your s.h.i.+p comes in two days?"

"This is true."

"Be my guest tonight at Windward. It is true that Garlin says I must know your people better." He hesitated. "Or Brad's people. Or whatever he represents. Even if Brad p.r.o.nounces his t.i.tle wrong, he is the only Bard here from the place he calls Allied Worlds. And you are a Memory from a different province." He stopped as if confused by his own reasoning. "Anyway, let me offer you the hospitality of Windward. You and I will begin relations between our people. Tomorrow morning I will bring you back to the port. You will have plenty of time to meet your s.h.i.+p."

Roca reached out to his mind, trying to gauge his intent. She sensed no deception. It was a well-made offer, given the limited conditions they had to work with. But she shouldn't have linked to him; she also felt how much he wanted her. Erotic images of her without clothes were playing out in his mind. Her face heated. He certainly had a prodigious imagination. Rather than putting her off, though, as such fantasies would have with anyone else, his excited her.

Fl.u.s.tered, Roca snapped up her barriers, breaking contact. Eldri tensed, though she didn't think he consciously realized they had been in a link. His desire was simple arousal enhanced by his fascination with her, much as she felt about him. No political calculation tainted his interest, none of the s.e.xually charged avarice that edged the minds of the men, and sometimes women, who coveted her. Power was one of the most potent aphrodisiacs in existence, far more than her face or dancer's body. Eldri had no idea of her power; he just plain wanted her.

He smoothed her hair. "Come visit my home."

Roca tried to stop imagining what he could do with that hinged hand of his. She moved his hand away from her hair. "I accept invitation. But only for business."

"Yes!" His smile blazed. "We can do that."

She gave him a stern look. "No personal. And we send message to Brad."

"Any message you would like," he promised.

Roca pulled a clasp off her belt that regulated the temperature of her clothes. She fooled with its chip until she managed to program in a message. She wished she could have kept better comm equipment, but she couldn't risk carrying anything Kurj could use to trace her.

She gave the chip to the rider Eldri chose, and the man headed back to the port. The rest of their group took off for the Backbone Mountains, thundering across the plains.

As they went, Garlin shot her a hard look.

The path crumbled under the hooves of Eldri's mount, and rocks clattered down the cliff. With her heart beating hard, Roca turned her gaze forward so she wouldn't see the drop-off to their right. The cliff went straight down for hundreds of meters. It astonished her that Eldri and his men took this so casually. She felt as if they were going to end up very dead, very soon.

They had climbed high into the Backbone Mountains. The stark peaks reminded Roca of spindles, and the upper ranges truly did resemble the skeleton of a giant. Their path wound along the edge of a mountain, following a trail barely wide enough for the lyrine to go single file. Another cliff rose on their left. The iron ringbolts driven into it would allow travelers to string ropes along the way or continue their trek when the winds became tricky, but nothing protected them from the drop-off to the right, no rail, fields, or cables.

Roca's body ached from the long ride. Although her jumpsuit had kept her skin from being rubbed raw, the material was wearing thin. Another hour of this and her clothes would shred. Eldri had given her one of the furred jackets they all wore now, but the cold still made her s.h.i.+ver. She thought with longing of the temperature chip she had sent to Brad that would have regulated her clothes.

Eldri wrapped her in his arms, the reins held loosely in his hands. His lyrine seemed to know the route without guidance. "Are you all right?" Eldri asked. He didn't seem the least bothered by the ride.