12. Relentless Pursuits
12
Relentless Pursuits
Ki’REMI
T he village’s central fire burned, waning and waxing with gusts of wind over its embers.
In the shade of the mighty branches of the yhanba, under the pale glow of the Allorian moons, Ki’Remi stood, arms crossed.
Eyes on Issa as she knelt beside yet another fevered child, her palms pulsing with illumination in time with the child’s shallow breath.
The power she wielded glowed with white-hot heat.
Twas ethereal because it did not burn its recipient. It healed.
More patients gathered under the massive branches, waiting their turn, hunched in pain.
She worked the line methodically, running those miracle hands over their bodies.
The Rider noted she wasn’t just restoring them.
She was imbuing them with peace, assuaging their suffering, and chasing away their worries and fears.
It unsettled him.
That’s when he narrowed his meta vision on the creases on her brow and the haggardness around those nebular starred eyes.
A stab of guilt hit at his misplaced assumptions.
She meant well. That was clear.
Her face was serene, but there was a strain at the corners of her mouth, a tremor in her fist she tried to hide.
The healing was costing her.
He saw how her skin dimmed after every act of restoration, how she sagged to her knees between interactions, and how she brushed an arm over her sweaty brow.
That’s when he caught sight of her chrono, the ticking time bomb on her wrist.
He jolted as it all came together in his mind.
It wasn’t just compassion that drove her; it was compulsion.
Fokk, was there a relentless power that had a hold over her?
Forcing her to wield her power?
As the villagers murmured thanks, color returning to their cheeks, their health restored, Ki’Remi’s stomach turned.
He recalled the relentless obsidian attackers and shadow-wrought ships that fired ancient tech on them.
He deduced they were hunting her. Why?
More emotion roiled in him because, along with her mystery, her approach to healing reminded him of the archaic purpose he had rejected.
Legends he’d buried beneath the cold, unwavering logic upon which he built his life.
This impossible, maddening woman forced him to confront what he had long denied: that his healing gift had more components than its frigid, fact-based ascetic stratagem.
As much as he wanted to turn away, as much as he desired to tell her off, give her a hard time for her unauthorized doctoring, or better still, rid himself of her particular blend of complicated, he couldn’t.
No matter how hard he tried to fight it, there was a whispering truth in the back of his mind:
She embodied everything he spent his life avoiding, what he needed to embrace to find the peace that had long eluded him.
ISSA
When the last villager left the informal clinic, Issa sighed.
She pressed a hand to Zera’s shoulder, an informal nurse who’d remained at her side through the night. ‘Go home, beautiful. You did well asking for my help. Now, these people and their families have hope.’
‘You’re the one we all thank.’
Issa gave her a soft smile and sent a memory nudge as Zera nodded and raced off, disappearing into the gloom.
Unfailingly, she’d mind-wiped all her patients, unwilling to risk further rumors about her.
A prickle ran along the back of Issa’s neck.
Someone was watching.
She sighed, guessing who it was.
She turned to find Ki’Remi in the shadows of the enormous tree. His arms crossed over his broad chest, his eyes dark and unreadable.
Of course.
He didn’t speak or move.
He gazed at and through her, his silver aureate eyes glowing from the gloaming.
Issa lifted her chin, matching his stare with one of her own.
Without a word, she sauntered toward him.
When she drew near, he raised his sinewed hands and, to her surprise, placed a blanket from their banda over her shoulders.
‘ Sante ,’ she murmured, giving a shot of appreciation.
She tended to shiver with cold after dispensing her Ssignakht powers.
‘Anytime, Elaris.’
A jolt went through her at the softness in his expression and rasp.
The fokk? Was he easing off his hard stance on her?
‘After you,’ he added, gesturing for her to lead the way.
Their footsteps fell in unison over the stone path.
He didn’t speak.
Neither did she.
The night wrapped around them, thick with unspoken questions.
They let the silence stand until they reached the compound where their banda stood.
He slowed to a stop, and she sensed he wanted to talk.
She turned to face him, head and eyes tilted to him.
They stared into each other’s eyes for a long moment.
She swayed, drawn to him, fokk , wanting him.
This man was just beauty, and she yearned for all of him.
Why, though, given his ire at her, was incomprehensible to her.
His meta eyes glittered at her, and her nipples pebbled when she recognized the same need reflected in his gaze.
‘How long have you been watching me?’
Her husky whisper was unbidden.
His lips twitched. ‘Long enough.’
She took a jagged inhale, tamping down the tension of his never-ending scrutiny. ‘You’re relentless.’
‘Always,’ he said, in a deep rumble, his expression even.
She shook her head at him, exasperated, and he responded with a phantom smile.
‘Do you ruthlessly search for the truth until you find it?’
‘Isn’t that the best and truest nature of a dedicated surgeon and medic? Seek the certainty of what causes our patient’s suffering so we can grant them relief?’
‘So you understand what drives me. It’s not so different.’
‘I’m not so sure,’ he growled, glancing at her ticking chrono. ‘That number resets every time you heal someone. Who has a time bomb on you, and what happens if and when you run out of time?’
She didn’t offer a reply; she just stared at him.
Their chest rose and fell, breaths forming between them in the darkness of night.
He stepped into her, dipping his head with genuine concern.
He reached a lean finger, tracing it past her ear shell.
Over her lobes and her mesmerizing jar-shaped pendant earrings that swirled with luminous red, pink, and gold ions.
His fingertip ended beneath her chin, and he raised it so her eyes met his.
‘See, kidaya , I think you hide your grief, suffering, and a freakin’ burden behind smiles and that bouncy attitude. But I see you, and I believe you’re under some fokked -up duress against your will. Am I right?’
Her mask dropped, and sorrow leaked from her eyes.
She didn’t say a word for a moment, unable to.
Instead, she let his words wash over her. Her heart was thumping so hard that its pulsing was about to overwhelm her.
However, the word he’d used on her anchored her.
As did the endearment he rasped, and the tenderness in his tone gave her a rush of emotion.
Even though she didn’t know its meaning, the fact he’d used one on her left her knees weak and came close to undoing her.
‘Who hunts you?’ he went on, with even more softness she almost melted into him.
She pulled her jaw from him and took a step back. ‘Don’t worry about me, Sable. As you’ve seen, I can take good care of myself.’
He stepped into her, eyes blazing down on her, almost protective. ‘You are extraordinary, and like you said, I will get to the truth of all that you are. My problem is that by not sharing, you might resign the people around you to collateral damage.’
‘I won’t let it get that far next time,’ she breathed.
His lips quirked once more. ‘So there will be a next time. Your pursuers are relentless, ay?’
She didn’t breathe a word.
He sighed. ‘What are you running from?’
His timbre reverberated, and her heart started hammering again.
She gave him a wry smile to mask the significant jolts cascading over her.
More silence.
‘Fine,’ he rasped. ‘Have it your way, but not for long. If more of those fokkers attack us again, and you can’t or won’t tell me who they are, you’ll be out on your ass.’
‘I dare say I’ll be gone before then.’
‘Is telling me the truth so abhorrent to you, Elaris? What are you?’
‘The last person you should trust with the answer.’
With that, she shot him a slight, weary-tinged smile and strolled toward the banda, disappearing into its shadowed interior.