Chapter 9
"Jeshed." The word came to her lips and although she had never heard it before, she realized it was a name. The name of the dragon.
"She's awake now." The woman's voice sounded as if it had come from far away.
"Good. Maybe we can get some answers to our questions."
Opening her eyes, Quynn blinked several times before she could focus. Awareness came to her slowly and her body felt numb, but that numbness began to wear away quickly so that she could raise her head and she saw that she was lying on a padded slab with a thin sheet covering her naked body. Looking around, she moaned with pain as the bright light from a window assaulted her eyes and she closed them before she could look at whoever was speaking over her.
"Close the draperies, my dear, Carrinda."
"Yes, my lord." Quynn heard the rustling of fabric before she dared to open her eyes, and this time she could keep them open long enough to see a woman who appeared to be human moving away from a window that was now covered.
"Can you hear me?"
Quynn turned her head to look at the man. At first she thought he might be Amyr, but that was because his hair and eyes were dark like Amyr, but once she focused she realized he was a much older man, that he was not quite human. His eyes reminded her of a serpent and his skin appeared to covered with very fine scales, but as he stroked his chin, he appeared human in every other way, a very attractive human.
He was waiting for her answer, so she nodded.
"Why is she moving her head like that?" he asked the woman who had come to the bed. "Is there something wrong with the language implant?"
The woman he had referred to as Carrinda came forward, and she reached down to sift her fingers into Quynn's hair. As she searched along her scalp for a moment, Quynn studied her. Carrinda was very beautiful, with long dark brown hair that she had tucked behind ears that were slightly pointed. She was darker skinned than Quynn, darker even than the alien man, and there were markings on her face that Quynn thought at first were tatoos, but the intricate scrollwork designs pulsed as she touched a tender spot behind Quynn's ear and she initially gasped from the pain, but it quickly dissipated.
"I think there is no problem with the implant. Apparently, my lord Mordrad, her culture uses gestures in their speech also, be they different from out own."
Lord Mordrad came closer to the bed. Quynn didn't sense any danger from either the man or the woman. They seemed to be trying to help her. "Woman, you have been unconscious for several days. Carrinda has patiently nursed you, so you owe her thanks."
"Where…where am I?" she asked, her voice cracking.
Carrinda offered her a cup of water, and Quynn drank as Lord Mordrad explained. "You are on the planet Norvana. Your ship crashed in one of my pastures several days ago and I brought you here for Carrinda to care for."
"My ship…where is my ship?" Quynn's only hope of returning home was by her ship.
"Your ship is safe. One of my men is working on it although he tells me that it needs extensive repairs. He is impressed by the design." He sighed. "Your landing was not smooth. Some of the parts will have to be ordered from a supply barge that does return to Norvana for several more months."
"Months!" Quynn felt sick to realize she would not be returning to her home any time soon.
Carrinda offered her the cup from which Quynn drank but then regretted immediately when she realized there was a bitter aftertaste and she knew that she had been given a drug.
"You are not feeling well yet," she explained when Quynn looked at her. "You need to rest."
Only a moment passed before Quynn felt as if she were floating and she no longer cared about returning home. She could hear Carrinda and Lord Mordrad speaking in the hall although they seemed so far away.
"She's a beautiful woman, Carrinda, now that you have cleaned her up."
"Do you have something planned for her?"
"Not at the moment, but she may prove useful."
A moment of silence passed, then she heard Carrinda say, "Not now, Mordrad. She may yet be awake."
"Do you think I care? I want to be with you, Carrinda."
Their voices trailed away as Quynn drifted into a sleep that was dreamless. How much time passed before she awoke, she did not know, but she realized she was feeling stronger. Carrinda had been right about needing rest. Quynn often suspected a person of saying that to the sick so that they wouldn't have to be bothered with them for a while, at least that is what she was sure of when her mother had said it when she was a child.
Her mother! Tears came to Quynn's eyes as she thought about how her parents must be feeling. By now they has realized that she had not gone back to L12 and that she was missing so they must think she was dead. Lord Duo might attempt to send a ship to the frontier, but Quynn had taken the only Calabrian spaceship capable of making such a long voyage reasonable. Stupid! She had been so blindly jealous and hurt that her actions had caused others pain! Her heart ached for all the people who mourned her.
The bracelet on her wrist was emanating warmth again. Curious, she lifted her hand to study the golden bangle, and as she did, she thought of the dream in which the dragon had arrived to chase off the one demon in her life. Was it possible that she had summoned the creature in her dream? If it were true, then did Malya steal this bracelet or did she lie about her past? Whatever the truth, Quynn could not remove the bracelet.
Before she could think any further on the subject, the door creaked open and Carrinda entered carrying a tray. The smile the exotically beautiful woman gave Quynn conveyed warmth and kindness that instantly earned her trust. "I heard you stir and thought you might be hungry."
Quynn struggled to sit up and felt a dull ache in her head. She reached up to touch the spot that had been tender. "Did I hit my head again?" she asked. Under her fingers she felt a tiny disk that seemed to be attached to her skin. "What is this?"
Carrinda came to the bed, and after setting the tray on a small table, she gently pulled Quynn's hand away. "You will get used to it. Removing it will cause no small amount of pain, and once that subsides, you will not be able to understand me."
Lord Mordrad had referred to it as a translator implant and Quynn remembered that Malya had one as well. "Is this how I can understand you?"
"Yes," Carrinda answered as she offered Quynn what appeared to be bread. Although it was coarse in texture, Quynn thought it was tasty and found it quite filling. "You mumbled a great deal when they pulled you from the wreckage of your ship, so Lord Mordrad had the chip implanted immediately. Some research had to be made to determine the language you used, but eventually a close relative of one of the languages you apparently know was found in the database and it was programmed into the chip."
"Calabrian," she said aloud.
"Calabrian? No, I believe it was an old form of the language of the planet Zayron, the forbidden planet." Carrinda raised her brows. "How is it that you speak the language of those people?"
"I am not from that planet," Quynn told her with a frown. "I do not even know…" Quynn suddenly realized that the language she had spoken must have been Malya's. Like the Guerani, did Malya pass her essence into Quynn in that moment before she died when she had placed the bracelet on her arm? Or was the bracelet responsible for her knowledge? What else had Maya bequeathed upon her without her knowledge or consent?
Carrinda smiled at her. "You are still confused. I think you need more rest. According to Mordrad, you will have plenty of time to recover. Your ship won't be going anywhere any time soon."
The other woman left her alone, and Quynn wasted no time in filling her belly. The food on this planet was a bit more palatable than the fare on Calabria. Although Quynn hadn't found anything wrong with the Calabrian cuisine, this was more like the food on Earth, so Quynn felt more at ease in eating. Once she was done, she worked at the bracelet again, but she could find no catch on it to release it from her arm. After what seemed like hours of futility, Quynn finally gave up. She had no way of removing the bracelet without cutting it off, so she resolved to ask Carrinda if there was some way of doing so when they next spoke.
Carrinda thought the request odd. "I assumed it to be a treasured bauble."
Quynn understood how she could believe that because the bracelet was beautiful. "It does not belong to me. I am afraid it may…" She paused wondering if she was going to sound deranged to Carrinda, but she decided to forge ahead. "I am afraid it may hold powers I do not know how to control." She thought of the dragon of her dream and she shivered. Quynn wondered again what else the bracelet was doing to her if she could speak and understand a language she had never heard.
The other woman did not laugh at her. "What sort of powers?"
Taking heart that Carrinda didn't seem surprised, she repeated the story Malya had told her shortly before her death. Carrinda listened sympathetically, and when Quynn finished, Carrinda said, "You may not agree with me, but I believe you have been bequeathed a gift by Malya of Zayron. There are very few summoners in our part of space anymore, but she sounds as if she was one."
Quynn wondered if Malya had lied about what had happened to her. She accused her husband's lover of being a summoner, but she had not admitted to possessing the same ability.
"Are you afraid of magic?" asked Carrinda.
"I know Guerani healers," Quynn told her.
"There are no more Guerani in this part of space," Carrinda told her.
"Then the few that remain are on Calabria and Bayman in the binary system," remarked Quynn. "Are they feared?"
Carrinda laughed softly. "I am the last person who might frightened, either by Guerani or by summoners." She lifted her hand and pulled back her dark hair to show her the elaborate tattoo outlining her face. "I wield many magics."
Magic! Quynn closed her eyes to the madness. Surely she had bumped her head and was now living out one of her grandfather's virtual fantasy games.
Carrinda smiled as she rose from the side of the bed. "You need your rest. When you are feeling better, Lord Mordrad will escort you to your craft where you can do a thorough inventory of what you might need."
Quynn didn't feel well enough to leave the bed for several days after which her head finally stopped hurting from the implant. Carrinda informed her that there were many different languages spoken in the village alone, but Quynn would be able to understand those and many more she might encounter in this region of space because of the implant. Quynn would be able to go anywhere in this system and she would be understood – apparently her own implant transmitted her language code to others – and she would understand anyone. Unfortunately, that didn't stop the discomfort of having or knowing that the device was attached to her. Eventually she knew she would probably forget about it.
Once she didn't feel too dizzy, she visited her ship with the affable Lord Mordrad, a flirt and a rogue, who teased her mercilessly about her lack of piloting skill. She wondered if she should believe him when he told her that he expected to be repaid for the damage she had done his fields. After a quick inspection of the landing site, Quynn was surprised both she and the craft had survived. A huge strip of land had been torn asunder, trees knocked down and boulders dislodged. Her grandfather had designed the craft, and knowing that she was going to pilot it, he had used the strongest materials and safest design. If he were any less than a genius, she would have been crushed on impact with the surface.
As it was, her craft was in need of repair. The hull had been dented and scratched and looked like a can that had been kicked around. Still, it was in one piece with no compromise in structural integrity. Unfortunately, so many circuits suffered on the inside that Quynn thought it would be impossible to salvage. Lord Mordrad, however, employed an army of technicians, for what purpose she wasn't sure, who insisted that with the proper materials and time, they could fix anything.
Because she knew all there was to know about the ship and its design, she spent the next couple of weeks with Mordrad's men helping them catalog the damage to the ship's internal systems and making a list of supplies to purchase to repair it. During that time, Quynn came to realize that Lord Mordrad was a respected landowner, well-loved by his villagers and the people of his estate, not the least his kind wife, Lena, mother of his three grown children who were on living and working on other worlds. Lena and Carrinda were dear friends so Quynn concluded that the relationship between them was similar to the old Calabrian custom of taking concubines. Having decided that Mordrad's relationship with both women was oddly special, Quynn was surprised to see him with another woman, then another and another. Apparently he didn't believe in exclusive relationships. Just another Amyr.
Carrinda had been visiting the village with Quynn one day when they saw Mordrad trying to coax yet another female into his arms. Quynn was afraid Carrinda would be angry, but the other woman did not even seem to notice as she continued along her way to the market without commenting. Later Quynn brought up the incident, wondering still what Carrinda thought.
The other woman seemed surprised. "I have no hold on Mordrad, nor he on me." She laughed. "He's just a bit of fun now and then."
Quynn didn't detect any false bravado in the other woman. "I could not be so blithe with my affections as you." She thought of Amyr with the serving girl and she shuddered. No, Quynn could not share her man, and because Amyr didn't seem to want an exclusive relationship….
What the hell was she thinking?! She was unlikely to ever see Amyr again! Quynn was trapped! Trapped on another planet in a galaxy far away from Calabrian space, and by the time she returned back to where she belonged, Amyr would be married to another foolish woman with children around his feet.
The supply ship arrived several weeks later than expected, and the manager couldn't promise he would be able to find everything she needed, but he assured her that he would do his best, especially for Lord Mordrad. Many people would bend over backwards for Mordrad, so Quynn counted herself fortunate that her ship crashed on his land.
Dejected, Quynn returned to Carrinda's cottage where she had been living now for what would be a couple of months. Quynn really had no way of marking the passage of time. Even her biological clock seemed to have stopped working because she hadn't had to worry about what she was going to do when the time came to take care of her more personal monthly needs. Now she found Carrinda standing behind her cottage, her hand to her head as she mumbled a spell, and Quynn held her breath as the wind suddenly picked up around them.
Sensing her presence, Carrinda ended the spell and walked to Quynn. "I was practicing. Lord Mordrad has received a request for our help."
"What kind of help?" asked Quynn curiously.
"We are hunters," she told Quynn.
"Hunters?" Quynn pictured in her mind, unruly bears and snakes.
"Creatures that sometimes defy explanation," said Carrinda. "We do what little we can to drive them away from innocent people."
"You and Mordrad?"
Carrinda laughed. "Don't be silly! We have several people in our group, people of many different skills. I have the ability to use magic."
"Is it an ability you were born with?" asked Quynn curiously as she sat on a nearby stump. She felt strangely tired and a little dizzy. When had she become such a lightweight?
Carrinda came to sit beside her. "We all have an innate magic ability, but few can tap it. You have seen it in the Guerani who have the ability to heal and nurture. I have spent many years learning to perfect many magics, including healing spells that are very powerful. Unfortunately I do not have the psychic powers of a Guerani." She took Quynn's hand. "I do not need them to know that you are not feeling well. You have spent far too much time doing useless work at your ship when you should be resting."
"I am recovered from the crash," Quynn told her. Yet she did feel tired.
"I am not talking about your injuries." Carrinda smiled at her strangely, as if they were now sharing a secret. Quynn felt oddly uncomfortable and more than a little apprehensive. "Go in and take a nap. When you awaken, I will have a good meal for you. You haven't eaten much lately either."
The food hadn't been as agreeable to Quynn's digestion as she first thought, and she hoped that Carrinda didn't know that each morning Quynn's stomach emptied what she had eaten the night before. Now she didn't have the will or energy to do anything other than what Carrinda suggested.
She didn't wake until evening, and she saw that Carrinda had left her a dried crust of bread and a pitcher of water. Quynn's stomach was rebelling so she was glad that Carrinda was able to sense the bland nourishment was all she could handle. The aroma of whatever Carrinda had cooked earlier was making her queasy, so she waited until her stomach settled before she grabbed the bread and moved to the window. The open air felt good, and for a moment she could believe she was on Calabria because there were two moons in the sky, but soon enough another moon rose.
Unbidden, memories of the dream of Amyr came to her mind. She would rather just forget, the dream in which Amyr took her to the heavens then threw her right off their cloud. Her heart ached as she thought of the words he said that had ended the dream. Quynn had loved him and he hadn't felt anything toward her but his obligation to please the imperial court! Amyr didn't have to say that he was making the best of what he probably considered an unpleasant situation. He hadn't wanted to give up his freedom, but he was doing what he felt he had to and she was heartsick to know that she was just an obligation. While it had been a dream, her subconscious had put all the facts together and presented to her the conclusion she would not consciously draw because of her feelings for him. She hurt now even more than when she had seen him in the garden with another woman.
Voices below her window drew her attention, and Quynn noticed that a handful of men sat around a fire with Carrinda and Lord Mordrad. They were discussing their upcoming trip with enthusiasm. Apparently they had been on Norvana for several months resting after their last mission. Poking her head out the window, Quynn saw that the men were sharpening all manner of weapons while Carrinda sat perched on Mordrad's lap with an unrolled scroll.
"This is useless," Mordrad's voice carried. "My magic will never be as strong as yours."
"There is one magic of yours that is very strong," joked one of his men.
Mordrad barked with laughter. "That kind of magic isn't going to do us much good in battle!"
They all laughed including Carrinda. Quynn even smiled as she thought of his ease at seducing women.
"What about the new girl?" queried another of his men. "She is a summoner. That could be very handy for us."
Quynn realized that they were talking about her. Did they expect her to join their monster hunting expeditions? And why did he think she was a summoner?
Mordrad wanted to know as well. "How do you know she is a summoner?"
"She wears a summoner's band."
"Such a thing is myth!" exclaimed another.
"I've seen it with my own eyes!"
Mordrad snorted. "There hasn't been contact with Zayron for hundreds of years, not since the barrier was erected by the Zayron government to keep everyone out. Even then the existence of summoners was only a rumor."
"The legends record Prince Raygo finding such a woman and using her to subdue his people."
"Until he cast her off."
"And she retaliated, but I don't remember the details of that part of the legend."
That was too bad, thought Quynn, because she was coming to realize that Malya had not been truthful with her.
A moment of silence followed in which Quynn imagined they thought about the legend. She hoped someone remembered more, but not one spoke until Carrinda said, "Regardless of her summoning ability, I have determined that Quynn has the potential for strong fire magic."
Quynn was surprised. Magic? Her?
"Then why haven't you been training her?" demanded one of the men. "We could use another sorceress!"
"I won't be able to train her for some time. She is with child, and I am afraid that dabbling in magics will do the babe harm."
With child? Quynn backed away from the window, dizziness making her stumble. That was not possible! She had never even been with a man! Carrinda must be mistaken!
Yet as Quynn fell weakly back onto the bed, she knew the facts supported Carrinda's belief. Quynn was exhibiting all the signs of impending motherhood although one very important factor was missing, and that was a father. How could she be having a baby?! Aside from her dream, Amyr had never been intimate with her thanks to Taeron's vigilance, and Quynn hadn't even been close with any of the men she had dated on L12 while finishing her tour of duty for the Cinq Kingdom.
Then Quynn remembered Malya's last comment about a child and her subsequent apology when she had taken her to that shrouded place and put the bracelet on her wrist.
With horror, Quynn realized what Malya had done to her. She would probably never understand how, but she certainly understood the vengeance that answered why. Quynn was carrying Malya's child!