Forest Whispers (7 page)

Not that she thought there was much chance
that she was going to cause Corin any significant wounds when she
left, but she was beginning to think she might not come off
completely unscathed herself, and she didn’t like to think she
might wound him even a little.

Finally, she dismissed it. There wasn’t much
point in dwelling on things you couldn’t do anything about.

Despite the fact that they only stopped a
few times and even then for only a few minutes, the sun had already
dipped below the trees by the time they came upon the clearing
around Lianal’s cabin. By Lana’s guesstimate, and considering the
season, she figured they had two to three hours of light left, but
she knew that was probably stretching it. Much of that time, the
light would be very limited.

They saw Lianal going about his evening
chores.

Lana faced a moment of indecision. Either
Sadin hadn’t arrived yet, or he’d found a position to wait and
watch just as they had.

Of course, there was also the third
possibility that she’d picked the wrong cabin altogether.

If that was the case, then the only problem
was that they’d lost time they couldn’t afford to lose. If either
of the first two were a possibility, however, Lianal could be in
danger.

Finally, they decided that Corin would
circle back and catch the cart trail to approach Lianal and speak
to him. That way they ran the least risk of arousing Sadin’s
suspicions, and they would have a chance to discover if Sadin had
been seen and to warn Lianal if he hadn’t.

Lana wasn’t completely happy with the
solution, but Sadin knew her. She couldn’t afford to show her face
if there was even a remote possibility that Sadin was in the
vicinity.

As Corin approached Lianal, she surveyed the
area as far as she could see in either direction. Seeing no sign of
Sadin on the trail, or in the fringes of the forest, she returned
her attention to Corin.

The two men approached each other as if they
were well known to one another, possibly even friends, and she
wondered if Lianal had been living in the cabin long. She couldn’t
see him that well from the distance that separated them, but he
looked nearly as old as the man she’d met on the farm a few days
earlier—old enough that it seemed more likely that it had been a
while since he’d seen service. The homestead, or fifen, also looked
well worked and she didn’t think the improvements were anything
that might have been done in a very short period of time.

They talked longer than she’d expected. As
tense as she’d been since they had arrived, her nerves tightened
even more the longer Lianal and Corin stood in front of the cabin
talking. She glanced toward the sun, gauging the time, and then
looked along the trail once more.

She was so focused on what was transpiring
in the clearing before her that she didn’t sense the presence
behind her until it was far too late.

Chapter Six

As well honed as Lana’s instincts were, she
realized belatedly that she’d allowed herself to be too distracted
by Corin for her reflexes to save her. Even as she leapt to her
feet and whirled to face the threat, drawing her weapon in almost
the same motion, something slammed into her head so hard blackness
erupted around her almost instantaneously. Distantly, she felt a
second blow to her gun hand, but she was barely conscious and the
sensation of falling only vaguely reached her dulled senses.

She thought she might have blacked out
completely for a handful of seconds. The next thing that she was
aware of was an arm wrapped so tightly around her ribs that she
could barely drag a breath of air into her lungs. It took a supreme
effort to lift her head and focus her eyes and even so her range of
vision was so limited as to be almost useless. She caught sight of
her pistol, however, as it was brought level with her face.

“
Not a sound,” Sadin growled
menacingly, spewing flecks of spittle on her face and a cloud of
hot breath as he spoke inches from her face. Bending, he dug his
shoulder into her belly and lifted her from the ground. The blood
rushed to her head as he stood upright once more, accentuating the
dull throbbing in her skull to a painful clamoring. She gasped,
trying to drag in enough air to keep from blacking out
completely.

Struggling against the blackness, Lana found
her thought processes were so sluggish as to be practically
non-existent, but one thought was crystal clear.

She was going to be Sadin’s next victim if
she didn’t gather her wits about her. When she finally managed to
lift her head and focus her eyes, she could no longer see the
clearing that surrounded Lianal’s cabin. That didn’t mean much. The
forest was thick with undergrowth in this area. Sadin would not
have had to carry her far for her to lose sight of the cabin.

He was huffing like he was ready to pass
out, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything either. She was dead
weight and would’ve been a hell of a load to carry even if she
hadn’t been. No doubt a part of his distress could also be
attributed to the fear that one or both of the warriors he’d seen
might be right behind him.

The question was, where was he carrying her
and how far would he try to carry her before he decided to either
throw her down and kill her outright or try to drag her off under
her own steam?

She was no use to him as a bargaining chip,
and they both knew it, unfortunately.

He could’ve simply killed her when he’d
sneaked up on her, so he obviously wanted her alive—for now.

He’d taken her knife and her pistol, which
meant she was down to hand-to-hand against a well armed man.

Would it be better to play possum and wait
until he decided to drop her? Or better to try to figure out a
maneuver now?

She did a mental inventory and decided her
reflexes were probably as keen as they were going to get any time
soon. She didn’t know what he’d hit her with, but she thought the
possibility was pretty strong that he’d given her a concussion. The
chances seemed pretty much in his favor that she wasn’t going to
recover enough before he decided to kill her to be much of a match
for him.

That being the case, she decided she’d just
as soon take a quick laser blast than allow him to carry her far
enough he could play with her for a few days.

Gathering herself, she jackknifed upright,
catching his head in an arm lock as she threw herself backwards.
Her weight and momentum flipped them both over. She landed on her
back with Sadin on top of her, but the surprise and the blow
loosened his grip on her legs. Bolting upright, she slammed the
edge of her hands down on either side of his head against his ears,
trying to draw her knees up at the same time. His weight on the
lower part of her body prevented the attempt to knee him under the
chin, but he howled in pain and rage as her hands made contact with
his ears.

Unfortunately, the blow seemed to enrage him
far more than it debilitated him. Heaving upward, he caught her
around the throat with both hands. Instead of grabbing for his
hands, Lana slammed her palm into his face. That maneuver, too,
failed since she couldn’t get the angle just right. Instead of
driving the bone and cartilage of his nose into his brain, she
merely broke it.

Before she could make another attempt to
break his grip, something slammed into Sadin so hard and so
suddenly that she was lifted from the ground as he flew off of her.
Gasping for air, massaging her bruised throat, Lana struggled to
rise and found she couldn’t. She was dimly aware of a scuffle
nearby, then Corin was bending over her, his face taut with
rage.

“
Get him,” she gasped hoarsely. “Don’t
let him get away.”

“
You’re hurt.”

“
Go, damn it! I’ll be all
right.”

Abruptly, he stood and left her. Gathering
herself, Lana finally managed to roll onto her side, but she felt
so nauseated when she’d done so that she gave up the effort to rise
and rolled onto her back again. Minutes passed while she drifted in
and out of awareness. She wasn’t certain of how long, but abruptly
Corin was back. Kneeling, he scooped her into his arms and lifted
her from the ground. “Catch him?” she asked hoarsely.

“
He vanished.”

Lana sighed. “Shit!” she muttered, but she
was too ill to feel a great deal more than the pain and nausea.
“Need my pack.”

She wasn’t certain if he heard her. She
managed to loop her arms around his neck, but then blackness
claimed her. The next thing she was aware of was being settled
against something soft. She opened her eyes with an effort and saw
that she was in a room. Corin was staring down at her, his
expression a mixture of anger and concern. “My pack,” she said
hoarsely, wincing at the pain of trying to talk through her abused
throat.

“
I’ll get it later.”

“
Need it now.”

“
Rest. I’ll get it.”

“
Die if you don’t,” Lana muttered,
wondering dimly if she would. She couldn’t gather enough energy to
be unduly concerned about it, but she felt that she might be in
serious trouble if she didn’t have the pack.

To her relief, he returned with the pack
several minutes later. She reached for it. “The map I showed
you.”

Frowning, he dug it out and handed it to
her. Lana searched the surface blindly until she found the button
she was looking for. She pressed it. “Medical emergency these
coordinates,” she whispered hoarsely.

“
Identify.”

“
Ranger Lana Eloy, number
ER9652007830.”

“
ETA five minutes, Ranger Eloy.
Standby.”

She dropped the map.

Corin pulled it from her lax grip and she
turned her head to look at him. “Ship’s coming. Will you take me to
it when it gets here? Louise will know what to do.”

She never knew whether he answered or not.
Days passed before she was conscious enough to know where she was
again.

She had difficulty adjusting her sight when
she opened her eyes. She blinked several times, trying to bring the
world into focus. It didn’t help much. Everything was still blurry,
her mind was fuzzy and she couldn’t figure out where she was for
several moments.

“
How do you feel, Ranger
Eloy?”

“
Like hell, Louise. What am I doing
here?”

“
You were injured in the line of duty,
Ranger Eloy.”

Lana frowned, trying to jog her mind. When
memory flooded back, she made an aborted attempt to sit up,
discovering she was in the ‘tube’. “Damn it! How long have I been
out of it?”

“
Three days. You suffered a concussion
and a bruised larynx.”

Lana lifted a hand to her head. “I don’t
remember getting here.”

“
You were brought by the barbarian
male.”

Lana frowned. “I suppose by that you mean
Captain Corin Thantos, of the royal guard? I didn’t realize you
were a bigot, Louise.”

“
I am a computer. It is impossible for
me to be a bigot. I merely identified the male who brought
you.”

“
Right. And you don’t feel the least
bit superior because you’re the only computer on Ata
Prime?”

“
It is a primitive world. I have never
fully understood the human tendency to arbitrarily decide that
certain words are insulting when they are used properly and in the
context that they were intended.”

“
Never mind. I want to get
up.”

“
You are not sufficiently recovered to
return to duty, Ranger Eloy.”

“
I didn’t say I was returning to duty.
I only said I wanted to get up.”

“
But that is what you intend to do, is
it not?”

“
Don’t start, Louise! Sadin’s got a
three day lead on me now.”

“
That is what I thought.”

Lana felt the sedative the moment Louise
pumped it into her blood stream. “Damn it, Louise. I’m going to
pull your plug one of these days,” she muttered.

“
That’s a completely illogical
response, Ranger Eloy. If you did that, I would not be able to
attend your medical needs.”

As Lana felt herself drifting away, a sudden
thought leapt into her mind. “Where’s Corin?”

“
Captain Thantos is not currently on
the ship. Shall I summon him?”

“
Yes. And open the damned tube. I
don’t need it now.”

It took a strenuous effort to remain awake
until she felt Corin’s presence beside her. She opened her eyes,
looking up at him. “Don’t go after Sadin without me.”

He leaned down. “It will be best if I go
alone. I only waited because I wanted to be certain that you would
be all right before I left.”

Lana struggled and finally managed to grab
hold of his hand. “We can’t afford to be separated now. He’s seen
your face. He knows we’re together.”

Corin frowned. “You will be safe here.”

She tightened her grip on his hand. “You
don’t understand. We’re both more vulnerable to his attack now. A
year ago, Sadin killed my partner, Patrick. He morphed into a
perfect likeness of me, walked right up to Patrick, and blew his
head off before Patrick realized it wasn’t me. We didn’t know,
until then, that he was a chameleon, and Patrick and I had been
working together for three years. We trusted one another.

“
If you leave me here, he can get to
both of us. He’ll know that even if we suspected, we would
hesitate, and that would be all he would need.”

Corin frowned. “I would know you. His
subterfuge cannot work when we know his capabilities.”

Lana sighed, but she was too near drug
induced sleep to allow room for much irritation. “Then you will be
safe,” she muttered. “I won’t be. I let you get too close. I
wouldn’t take the chance that I was wrong.”