Erin M. Leaf (11 page)

“My lord, you have come home!”

****

Bea twisted around, heart pounding.
A man stood in the entrance to the cave, long white hair done up in braids and
bits of leather. His light grey eyes stared unerringly at Gideon. In his right
hand, he held a slim wand that flashed silver-blue in the light, like mercury
captured in a straw.

Sensibly, Ella moved back, pulling
Ivy with her closer to the wall. The man stepped forward, free hand
outstretched. He looked from Gideon to Theo and then he stared at Bea so long
she began to feel uncomfortable. There was something odd about him.
Maybe it’s because he’s not human?
she
wondered. She didn’t like the way he loomed over them. Theo stood up, clearly
just as uneasy with the situation. When the man’s eyes finally went back to
Gideon, she exhaled. Gideon shifted his weight and she knew his thigh was
throbbing. Her training kicked in. She opened her mouth to ask the man for
help, but then decided against it. They had no idea if he was friendly.
Instead, she stood up, helping Theo haul Gideon to his feet.

Inexplicably, the man went down to
one knee. “My life in service to House Cearvall.” He put his fist to his heart
and bowed his head.

After everything that had just
happened, Bea couldn’t make sense of this. Why was he kneeling? She glanced at
Gideon.

“Who are you?” Gideon asked.

The man raised his face calmly. “I
am Eran ap-Cearvall.”

Gideon frowned. “ap-Cearvall—I
remember something…” He trailed off.

“I was bodyguard and counsel to
your bonded fathers,” the man said, still unnaturally calm. “You don’t remember
me. You were very young when I brought you to Earth.” He looked at Gideon
steadily.

“When you brought him— Wait. Where
are we?” Bea asked. Theo tightened his fingers around her arm in warning.
He
already knows,
she thought, frustrated.

“You are on the planet Terrene.”
The man made no move to get to his feet.

Before Bea could wrap her mind
around his words, Ivy’s shocked voice echoed through the cave. “Are you
serious?” She moved forward, shaking off her mother’s hand. “And you’re using
Gideon’s name. Why?”

From the
mouth of a babe
,
Bea thought, happy someone was asking questions.

Eran nodded. “I am entirely
serious. And I’m honored to bear his name through my long service to his
family.”

Ivy twisted her hands together and
frowned down at him. “Whoa.”

Eran smiled gently. “Indeed.”

Bea sighed, her apprehension
sliding away into the exhausted haze of her body. Sure, they might be on
another planet, but at least there were no giant bugs trying to kill them here.

“Can you help us? I have injured
men to tend,” she said, grabbing her courage and stepping forward. Theo let go
of her arm and she turned to Gideon, checking his color. He seemed stable, but
she’d be happier if she could get a better look at his leg. Theo’s too.

“Of course, my lady. The transport
is just outside.” Eran stood up. The tiny beads on his silver hair chimed
against each other. Though she could tell he was at least in his seventies, he
moved like a man thirty years younger.

“Follow me,” he said, bowing again.
The cream-colored fabric of his tunic barely moved.

Gideon let out a breath when she
glanced at him. “Yeah. It’s okay.”

“You don’t know that,” Theo
objected.

Bea watched Gideon stare at Eran’s
departing back.

“I
do
know.” He turned to
Theo. “I remember him.”

****

Bea stared out at the desert. The
vehicle they rode in was disc-shaped and had no wheels. When Eran got inside,
using the silver wand in his hand as a key, it flashed silver and hummed as it
hovered above the sand. The seats inside were white and basic. The rest of the
transport had no distinguishing features. No seatbelts or buttons, except for a
simple lever in front of Eran. When they were all settled, a sort of
bubble-shield rose to protect them from the dust of the desert. As far as the
eye could see, the land around them was all reds and golds and burnished
auburns. Fantastic shapes rose out of the distance. Eran told her they were
sand pillars, formed from the wind. The sand itself was soft as silk to the
touch, but irritating if it got in the eyes.

“You okay?” Gideon asked, touching
her thigh. His fingers brushed against her knee, making her shiver even through
her pants.

She nodded. “Tired, but okay.”

“Liar,” Theo said from her other
side. He had one hand on the side of the vehicle and another on his weapon. He
hadn’t relaxed at all. She couldn’t blame him.

“It’s okay, Theo. I swear,” Gideon
said. He leaned across Bea and touched Theo’s arm. “Relax.”

Theo gave him a look.

Bea hadn’t known them long, but
even she understood the expression on Theo’s face. He was thinking:
No way.

“Why do I feel so heavy, Uncle
Gideon?” Ivy asked.

From the control seat, Eran smiled
faintly at the girl. “The gravity of Earth and Terrene is slightly different.
Not enough to be that noticeable, but enough that you might get tired more
easily for a few days.”

Gideon nodded. “It’s nothing to
worry about, I promise.”

“Are you really from here?” Ivy’s
voice was hushed.

“Yeah, I am, though I don’t
remember much,” Gideon replied. He shook his head. “I was very young.”

“You were three cycles old, my
lord,” Eran said, guiding the transport into a natural canyon. “That would be
about three and a half, maybe four years old in Earth years.” The sunlight
dimmed as he dipped into a ravine. Tall sand pillars rose up around them.

Everywhere Bea looked, all she could
see was sand. Shifting, sifting, mountains of sand and glittering clear sky.
The twilight felt slightly odd. The colors were different—more blue and less
violet than on Earth. No settlement broke the lines of the planet as far as she
could see. “Where are we going?” she asked, hoping they hadn’t made a mistake, going
with Eran.

“To the Cearvall compound.” Eran
eased the transport around another curve. “It’s not far.”

“I can’t see anything,” Bea said,
squinting against the sunlight that was now in her eyes. The giant red ball was
bigger than Earth’s sun, but slightly dimmer. It sat just above the horizon
like a giant disc suspended in darkness. Behind them, stars winked into the
black sky. There were no clouds. Sunset here felt like a slow, fading tide of light.

“There. Up on the ridge,” Eran
pointed.

She followed his arm. A huge sand
pillar rose above them. The very top had a circular piece cut out of it, as if
someone had stamped a hole right through it. It looked… alien.

“God,” Gideon said, his voice hushed.

Theo glanced at him. “That’s your
dream?”

Gideon nodded. “Yeah. Except I
remember more lights. Transports.” He frowned. “I don’t remember everything
being so quiet.”

“You remember it from before the
Great Irruption,” Eran said.

“What was that?” Ivy asked,
ignoring her mother’s attempts to shush her.

Eran glanced at the girl. “What
happened on Earth?”

She shuddered. “Giant alien bugs
destroyed everything.”

“That’s called an irruption. A long
time ago, people lived in peace here, on Terrene. The Numah were a great
warrior society that lived and fought and died and created beautiful art and
technology. The Numah discovered other worlds with people very much like those
here. Your Earth is one of them.” He paused, flying the transport into the
shadow of another huge pillar. “And then the Sitnam came. They were fought to a
standstill, but could not be eradicated completely.”

“Jesus, I think I remember that,”
Gideon said.

Eran shook his head. “No. There
were more than a hundred battles over a thousand of your Earth years. You only
remember the last one. The battle we lost.”

“The Great Irruption?” Theo asked.
He’d relaxed slightly, Bea was happy to see.

“Yes. And when they fought past
Cearvall’s last defenses, Lord Cearvall and his bond-mates bade me smuggle
Gideon to Earth. They opened the portal, the tesseract rima for me. Those are
artificially created openings in the rift of space-time. They’re very difficult
to construct and must be permanently anchored. That is what you used to travel
here.” He glanced back for a moment, his eyes dark and impenetrable in the
deepening twilight.

Bea tried to read his expression,
but it was impossible.

“The Numah managed to keep Earth
and the other allied planets secret from the Sitnam. I had to leave you on
Earth.” Eran paused. “It was a difficult thing to betray my oath to your
family. I could not have done it if your fathers had not forced me. When I
returned, I discovered that I was one of the few remaining survivors. My lords
had died in my absence.” He sighed. “The remaining Sitnam were driven off, but
not before most of the population had died.”

“Why didn’t you go back for Gideon?”
Bea asked.

He shook his head. “I couldn’t.
Only those who are triply bonded can open the tesseract rima to other planets.”
He glanced at her. “The runes on the wall respond only to the master of
Cearvall. There are other portals, but we have so few bonded lords now that we
are all but trapped here.”

Bea was silent, trying to take it
all in. Gideon hadn’t been abandoned, he’d been smuggled away? To keep him
alive? She put her hand over his and he closed his fingers around it tightly.
He wasn’t nearly as relaxed as he seemed. And what did Eran mean when he’d said
that the tesseract rima only worked for people who’d bonded?

Ivy leaned forward. “The Sitnam,
were they giant bugs?”

“Yes,” Eran said, expertly
maneuvering the transport into a tunnel. “They are.” The sudden darkness made
Bea feel as if they were suspended in nothing—sensory deprivation almost worse
than the elevator—but then lights clicked on. They burned a soft yellow, gently
illuminating a tunnel carved from the sand. The transport slowed. “We are here.”
He stopped the vehicle near a level platform. The transparent shield whisked
back. Warm air wafted over her face and she tilted her head up, trying to take
in the scent of an unfamiliar planet. It smelled a little like ozone.

“They’re the same aliens who
invaded Earth?” Ivy persisted as she climbed out of the transport.

Eran nodded. “Unfortunately. I don’t
know how they found their way to Earth.” He shook his head.

Bea thought about the hospital,
burning in the darkness, and firmly pushed the image out of her mind. Now was
not the time. She had to survive first, and then maybe she could grieve. And she
was still hungry, tired, and worried about Theo and Gideon’s injuries. “Is
there somewhere I can look at Gideon’s leg?” she asked.

“Forgive me,” Eran said immediately
with a slight bow in her direction. “Please, come this way.” He used the silver
tube to open a door that she hadn’t realized was there, then ushered them into
a wide corridor. It wasn’t well lit, but from what she could see, it was
beautifully maintained. Somehow, whoever had built this place had managed to
form different layers of sand into patterns that soothed the eye.

“I apologize. The tower does not
have full power anymore,” Eran murmured. He led the way down the corridor.

As they walked, Bea sensed the
immensity of the place pressing down on them.
Or maybe it’s just the
increased gravity,
she thought, running her hand along the wall. It felt
like sandpaper. She let her fingers drag until the tips stung. When Eran led
them through an archway, she stopped short. Spread out before them was the
inside of an impossibly huge tower. They stood on a balcony that overlooked the
hollowed-out center. Small pinpoints of light here and there lit other
archways, and she realized that they were in the middle of the sand pillar
she’d seen from the portal. Cearvall had been carved out of the desert using
technology she couldn’t even imagine.

“God, it’s huge,” Ella said,
speaking for the first time since they’d got on the transport.

“I remember this,” Gideon breathed,
staring into the abyss. “There were more lights, though.”

Bea hesitantly walked forward. “This
is where you lived?”

He shook his head. “I was so
little, I only remember the hollowed out pillar. And the lights.” His eyes had
gone dark and Bea knew he was trying to remember what it had been like when
more people lived here.

She understood his frustration and
loneliness. She felt it too, ever since her sister had died.
Is this what he
meant by bonding?
she wondered, wishing she could soothe the pain in his
heart.

Theo moved forward, bumping
shoulders with Gideon. “You’re not alone anymore. You haven’t been alone in a
long time.”

Bea moved closer, too, touching his
hand. He’d placed it on the curved silver railing, as if he could hold on and
bring life back to this place.