“All right.” Carina watched Daniel plan, working through possibilities. “We can get at least to Silesia from there.”
Silesia was the last ’Verse before the Edge and the beginning of Federation territory. It was their face to the public; it was clean and well run, food in good supply, a high quality of life. At least near the portal city. Go out a few clicks, and it was a totally different story. Out there things were a less picturesque. A poorly policed mess of a ’Verse where chaos reigned far more often than calm.
“Many times Timus Barley, one of my father’s ministers, would tell him to send the Skorpios to Silesia. We can’t keep settlers there, you know. They have no police to speak of. The water there is in demand, but he can’t be bothered for some reason.” It seemed a waste to her to only polish up one part of such a large ’Verse.
“The water there is rich with minerals used in convalescence. The mercs do big business in it back on our side. It prevents children in some ’Verses from intestinal sicknesses that kill so many otherwise. But we can’t get it via trade. He won’t deal with us at all.” Daniel slathered another thick slice of bread with the preserves she found in a cold box.
Nausea was leaden in her belly. Infant mortality was not a problem in a great percentage of the Imperial ’Verses. But there were those, like the ones closer to the Edge, where poverty ran unchecked. The ’Verses didn’t have any infrastructure, no potable water, health services were scant, starvation was rampant. That those children who died by the thousands of intestinal ailments could be saved with some water in their own ’Verse, but her father was too lazy or careless to have protection for those who would work to procure it, brought shame to her belly, crowding around the nausea.
“You are not him, Carina. Don’t own guilt that is not yours.” Andrei stood up. “I have weapons. I’ll load the conveyance up. New papers for you.” He tossed a packet on the tabletop.
Daniel nodded, looking through the paperwork. “Subtle.”
She packed some food in a bag. He’d be hungry again before they reached the portal, so she’d be able to offer him a snack and please him. Hopefully. She could never tell when he’d be happy she was helping or annoyed. The man really was a puzzle sometimes.
“What’s subtle?”
He looked up, surprised by her question. “Nothing. We’re married, same names, Carrie and Neil. These mercs are trustworthy enough to arrange to get us a few ’Verses down the line, but that’s it. Don’t get drawn into conversation with them. Don’t tell them anything. You can’t trust them. Just follow my lead and don’t do that thing you do. Not today.”
Her brows flew up. “Thing I do? Like insist I’m not slow?”
“Don’t get upset.” He slung a bag toward the doorway and began to tie his boots. “I don’t think you’re dim. You like to talk. Normally that’s one thing, but you like to share and get to know people, and these are not people to get to know. They’re criminals, some of whom would sell you to the highest bidder.”
“Upset? Listen here, you could use some lessons in making friends.” She muttered to herself about his inability to deal with being human as she put the bag with the food near the other bags at the door.
He caught up, touching her arm. “My job isn’t about making friends. It’s about keeping you alive, and that’s what I’m going to do. I make no apologies for it.”
“Grr. Well that’s a good thing. It’s not your strong point. You’re so bristly. Where’s the man who woke me up last night to love me? Hmm? I like that man better than this one.”
He moved quickly, hauling her to his body, crushing his mouth against hers until she went weak. When he broke the kiss, he pressed his forehead to hers. “Good. That man loves to fuck you in the middle of the night. But the man you need right now is the bristly one. That’s the one who keeps your pretty ass in one piece.”
Curse him and his ability to make her all trembly. “Oh.” Still, she wasn’t stupid, just love-addled. “Did you do that to shut me up?”
His lips quirked. “Yes. But that was just one of the many positives of kissing you.” And with that, he began to haul things to the conveyance.
She stomped through the house, making one last pass to be sure they hadn’t left anything behind. The expulsion of all that energy left her feeling better, though admittedly it was that kiss she attributed to most of her improvement in mood. Not that she’d tell Daniel so.
“Are you ready?” He waited near the door as she came through. He held up a coat, helped her put it on. “It’s cold out there. Even down the mountain it’s snowing.” With a kiss to her forehead, he put a hat over her hair and took the bag she’d brought down.
“Don’t think you’re out of trouble,” she warned.
He held a smile back, but she saw the quiver of his lips. “I would never dream of it. This will just make us a more convincing married couple.”
“Laugh while you can.” One of these days they would be a married couple; he was just too male to know it. She sailed past, letting Andrei help her up and into the conveyance. That’s when she noticed Daniel wearing a blaster in a holster at his shoulder. Today he wasn’t trying to hide his ferocity like he had thus far.
“Let’s go, Andrei.” Daniel settled in on her other side so she remained in between him and Andrei. All that competent male strength in the cabin relaxed her, but she was still glad she had her weapons strapped on.
The drive was long and not always on the best of roads, but the scenery was breathtaking. They stopped midway to check for trackers and to stretch their legs after the bumpy ride.
Daniel stood looking out over the snow-covered hillside leading down to a valley. His breath misted as he finished a sandwich. She was content to simply watch him, loving the way he looked.
“When I was a boy, we lived in the middle of the desert. It would get so hot during certain times of the year that you couldn’t be outside for longer than a few minutes for fear of heat stroke or skin burns the heaviest of lotions couldn’t protect against. Snow is such a funny thing. A miracle.”
Oh, he made her so gushy inside when he was like this. “I’d always thought Ravena was covered by metropolises broken by large swaths of natural landscape. Lakes and such.”
“Ravena is a wonder. I’ve been to many ’Verses, and it remains my favorite. The outback, where I grew up, takes up roughly a quarter of the landmass. The vents that power the cities are hyperactive there, making it very warm all the time. Only certain kinds of plant life can grow out that way.”
“What sorts of jobs brought men out there? Keeps them there? What did you do that you lived there?” She knew her barrage of questions amused him, but true to his promise to teach her about the world, he answered.
“The region has mining and some of the energy from the most active vents is harnessed for power to the outlying areas. My father was a teacher in one of the schools there for most of my childhood.”
“Really?” She ducked her head. “I am, too. A teacher, I mean. Of a sort.”
He cocked his head. “You are? That explains a lot. What do you teach?”
“Explains a lot? Pfft. The children who live in the compound and surrounding village can only attend school if their parents pay a quarterly fee. The farmers and merchants can easily afford this, and the schools are quite good. But the laborers have a more difficult time. They can’t pay the fees, and their children remain illiterate. I set up a school for those children whose parents don’t have the credits. It’s nothing fancy. Reading and sums. I’ve been able to get some of them odd jobs around the area so they can make up the difference and get into a proper school.”
“That’s what my father used to do. He taught kids like that as well. Only schooling until age seventeen is paid for by House Lyons. He’s a right bastard in most ways, but he changed a lot of kids’ lives.”
“Not yours?”
He shrugged. “Not in a way I’d say was positive.”
“That’s a shame.”
??
?Nothing as tragic as all that.” Daniel brushed his pants off. “We need to get back inside. It’s too cold out here.”
She allowed him to steer her back, but once they were all inside and had started driving again, she leaned against him. He adjusted her, telling her he had to keep access to his sidearm, but he kept her close.
She wondered about his father, wondered if he was like her own. There were other types of men, different than her father, she knew. There were families in her father’s court. She used to study them, trying to figure out the whys of it. There were men who were kind to their wives and affectionate with their children. She saw it in the children she taught.
Of course, she had left them. Who would teach them now? What if the information she carried enabled the Federation to defeat them and they invaded? Had she just made a mistake that would harm millions?
Daniel noticed her tense up as they approached the town run by the mercenaries. “Keep behind me and never more than an arm’s length away. Don’t let them take your weapons.”
Her eyes widened for a moment, and then her features smoothed. “All right. What do I do if they insist?”
“Kill them while screaming for me.”
“Is that supposed to be comforting?”
He liked that she looked annoyed rather than scared. She had guts. “Sure it is. I’ll get there before anyone kills you.”
She huffed but nodded her agreement. He and Andrei shared a look. Daniel held up three fingers; there’d been three guards on towers as they entered the main part of town. As mercenaries go, this group wasn’t too bad. There were a few who did military for pay, but mostly they smuggled goods and most likely weapons. Out here he was always Neil, and he’d never disclosed his marital status, so that should be fine.
“I wonder if they have gardens on the rooftops. I see people up there.” She said it in an amused voice, the dry, very haughty facade she’d worn when he first met her. And she said it about the guards on the rooftops. Smart and sexy, his Carina.
“I don’t know if folks around here are much up to farming. But it could be.” Daniel pointed at a trailhead, and Andrei nodded, parking the transport.
Their contact had told them to head up the trail, and they’d be met by the mercenaries and escorted to the portal. Daniel didn’t like that much. This particular group was only marginally connected to the one he trusted far more. But he didn’t have much choice at that point. The longer they remained behind enemy lines, the more dangerous it became. Official portal transports were being closely watched. All known private portals were also being watched. It was only a matter of time before they got caught, and he wanted to avoid that outcome at all costs.
“Stay close to me,” he told her. “Never know what kind of wildlife is out here.” She tried to pout when he took her bag, but he didn’t care. She’d already been injured in a knife fight, and he wanted to be sure there wouldn’t be a repeat of that event. She was going to let him help her, going to listen to him, and that was that.
Daniel took point while Andrei took the rear, keeping Carina directly between them. The forest around them was unnaturally quiet, the only sound the crunch of snow under their feet. There were men out there, watching and waiting. He felt it on his skin. Wary, but not hostile, which suited him just fine.
“Ho there!” Ahead on the trail a man shouted to them with a lift of his hand. His walk was seemingly casual, but Daniel knew a warrior when he saw one. The man’s eyes were those of a predator, and he carried weapons on his body.
Daniel nodded. “Hello. We’re looking for the falls. We hear tell from a local, Duan, that they are something to look at.”
Just like that, the cheery facade slipped, and the path filled with men. “All right then. We’ll need those weapons.”
“I’m sure you think you do. But we both know that’s not going to happen. You have my word that we will not draw weapons unless we are provoked.” Daniel stood tall, his feet apart, braced for violence, but giving the other man a way out with some measure of honor.
“We don’t know you.”
“You won’t after the trip either. But you know who I know, and that’s got to be enough. I’m not giving you my weapons.”
Two men flanked the one right in front of Daniel and he knew behind him, Andrei had his back. He only hoped Carina took what he said to heart and stayed quiet.
And there was her fucking voice! He wanted to spin to look at her, but only years of doing the job enabled him to keep his composure and stay face-to-face with the other men.
Carina knew the look on Daniel’s face, even if she couldn’t see it. But this was stupid. She saw the older man standing off to the side, knew the marks on his face. “I visited Ulta once. It’s quite beautiful. I’d never seen hot springs like that before.”
The man’s features lost some of their wariness at the sound of her voice, at the way she nailed the regional accent so perfectly. She should have, her mother was from Ulta; Carina’d heard it her whole life.
“I miss it. Get back there now and again; most of my family have scattered.” He smiled.
This was moving in a good direction. The man lost some of the stiffness in his spine.
“I understand. I don’t see my family as much as I’d like either. Sure is pretty out this way.”
The man warmed, moving closer. Carina felt Andrei move up behind her, but he said nothing.
“What brings you here?” he asked.
“My husband and I,” she paused to indicate Daniel, “are trying to get to his family. They’re on the other side, you see. I’ve never met them.” She smiled sadly. “The transports are full of Skorpios, and while we’ve nothing to run from, they scare me so much Neil, that’s my man there, and his cousin Ander,” she indicated Andrei, “said we could travel this way instead.” She grinned for effect. “Now, boys will be boys, so I’d wager there will be some business on this trip, but I suppose that’s safer this way, too.”
“Oi, you up there, let’s keep it moving,” the old man called out to the other at the head of the group, this time in standard rather than his native tongue. “They have places to go; we have a transport to take them there. There are enough of us to deal with any problems should that one up there break his word and draw a weapon.”
After some grumbling, they began to amble up the trail again. Andrei reached up, squeezed her hand and went back to walking.
The fact was, she wasn’t prepared for what she saw next. Her father’s private portal was out in the open and maintained, guarded by his troops. As they crested the hill, she saw a tree canopy, but the closer they got, the more apparent it became that the canopy was protecting the sight of the portal from the air.
Two transport ships of midsize sat, waiting to be boarded. The energy from the portal swept through the area. No wonder the mercenaries had taken the town and settled around this space. There was no way something like this would go unnoticed by a passerby.
“Here we go. Ready to board. We’ve got a full complement, so once you’re settled, we’ll be leaving.” The man she’d been talking to motioned to the ramp up into the ship. “Safe trip, ma’am.”
She smiled at him before taking Daniel’s outstretched hand. “Thank you.”
He said nothing as they walked down the deck toward their cabin. Andrei was right next door to them. She figured he’d be in with them, so that came as a surprise. Not that she’d complain about time alone with Daniel. Unfortunately, Daniel at work was even more taciturn than Daniel was normally.
He opened the door and motioned for her to go in. He nodded at Andrei. “We’ll see you after we set off. There’s a cantina here; we can have a meal later.”
Andrei agreed, sent Carina a brief smile and headed into his room before Daniel sealed them inside their own.
Without preamble, without words, he sat her on the bed and began his usual sweep of the room. He crushed two listening devices that must have been poorly positioned or of low quality because he made that sort of fa
ce when he found them, as if their subpar existence offended him. He put signal jammers out, set extra security on the door and at last turned to her.
“You did a good job.”
She jerked, surprised. “Thank you. I thought you’d be angry.”
“You saw something you could help with, and you did it. You used your skills to help get us on this transport with our weapons and without any more posturing. That saved valuable time.”
“I get the feeling sometimes that you like catching me off guard.” She smiled up at him.
He got to his knees and moved to her slowly, stealing her breath. “Do you?” he whispered.
She swallowed hard and tried not to feel cornered, and failed. But it was a delicious sort of not-fear. Anticipation. What would he do to her next?
“You wearing a knife on your calf makes me hot.” He slid a hand up her leg, beneath her pants.
The pull in her belly was only partly due to the transport lurching forward and making the first slip through the portal.
He must have felt her muscles tense at the noise level. It was far greater than the other times she’d traveled. Portal accidents weren’t unheard of, and when they happened, it most often meant the death of everyone on board.
“Shh, it’s all right. Private transport like this through these rogue portals is far less comfortable than the licensed portal travel. But it’s safe. These mercs probably do more maintenance on this vessel than the official vessels receive. They can’t run goods under the noses of the authorities otherwise.”
She looked down at him, sliding her fingers through his hair. “Good to know we aren’t on the way to being crushed and dead.”
He surged up and onto her, bringing her to the bed with his body on hers. He licked the shell of her ear and then said quietly, his breath against the sensitized skin, “Where did you learn to speak Ulta so well?”
She might have sounded more authoritative if he hadn’t then slid one hand up her belly under her shirt, unerringly to her nipple. She arched, and he took advantage of that, licking up her neck.