Guardian of the Storm (4 page)

When she’d finished, she stood, contemplating the reflection of the moons on the water’s surface for a few moments and finally returned to the fire, settling on the opposite side from him and staring into the flames.

She hadn’t fully appreciated the stupidity of following Kiran off until now and wondered what had possessed her to act without fully considering the matter. Her parents had often chided her for being impulsive, but she had learned better, or thought she had, in the time she had been alone, knowing her situation was so precarious that she couldn’t afford to act without thinking everything through very carefully if she wanted to stay alive.

“I was … surprised, but grateful, that you were able to chase the grat off. This is strange. Ordinarily, they will turn and attack in such a situation.”

Tempest merely shrugged. “Surprised me, too, but I couldn’t think of anything else to do.”

“Perhaps the grat sensed that you were as ferocious?”

He smiled when he said it and she realized he was trying to lessen her sense of discomfort. As much as she appreciated the effort, however, it didn’t particularly make her feel better. She had encroached when she had no right to, made demands by following him off when she’d had no business doing so, and he’d slapped her hands. It would have been easier if she could’ve just disliked him and felt that it was her decision to leave and go back, if she could have blamed him for being a hateful bastard, instead of having to accept the fault as her own. “I should have bashed its head in,” she said, willing to focus her anger on the animal.

Kiran frowned. “I am glad you did not. It was a young cat, and most likely starved to desperation or it would not have attacked.”

Tempest immediately felt diminished in his eyes. She shrugged, trying to thrust the sense away, but felt a sudden empathy for the creature that had frightened her and pity as she realized that it
had
seemed terribly thin. She had never seen one of the animals at such close range. She supposed it might be the thick pelt of orange-red fur that ordinarily gave them the appearance of being fat and round. This one had had more of the look of an earth fox than a cat, though, and a hungry one at that, and she couldn’t picture it as appearing fat and round even at a distance.

The poor thing! It must have been hungry to take on something as big as Kiran.

Now that she thought about it, it was strange that the animal had run right past her and focused on Kiran. Maybe, though, that had been because he was kneeling by the pool and had appeared smaller at that moment?

“I’ve been thinking about what you said earlier,” she said, studying her toes instead of looking at him. “I think I will go back.”

He frowned. “You said that you could not find your way.”

Tempest shrugged, but refused to meet his eyes. “I lied,” she lied. “Nothing to it, really.” Not that she had any intention of going back. Regardless of what Kiran had said about this place, it was much better than the watering hole where she’d been, and she thought she might survive far better here.

“It will be best if I take you.”

“Not for you. And I don’t need your help,” Tempest said, keeping her voice carefully neutral with an effort. “You said you were on a quest.”

Kiran frowned. “This is a matter of utmost importance or I would willingly take you with me.”

Tempest nodded without looking at him. She was having a hard enough time trying to control her emotions as it was. “I got that impression. Look, don’t worry about me. I’ve been fine all this time.”

Kiran shook his head. “You are not fine, little grat. You are not much more than bones. I will have no peace in my mind if I leave you to find your way back alone. I will take you. When I am done, I will come back for you.”

Tempest couldn’t control the blush of embarrassment at his comment. The sense of hurt that had not diminished a great deal, flooded through her with a vengeance, bringing her closer to the urge to cry. An uncomfortable tightness welled in her throat. Bones? And she had flattered herself to think he found her attractive! Wishful thinking, she supposed. She ought to have known better. The pain and humiliation made her angry. She realized, however, that there was no point in arguing with him. He refused to see reason, and she certainly couldn’t stop the big ox from doing whatever he wanted to.

There was no hope for it if she wanted to stay here. She’d have to wait until he fell asleep and slip away and hide. Otherwise, he was going to drag her back to that pile of rocks where she’d spent the best part of two years. Without another word, she got up and unrolled the bedding. Spreading the blanket over it, she crawled in and turned her back to him. All things considered, she doubted very much that he would expect to share the bedding with her. She hoped not, anyway. It would make it much harder to slip off if he was lying next to her.

“I regret that it must be this way.”

Tempest didn’t bother to answer, merely nodding that she understood.

He was silent for some moments. “I am curious about your name. Does it have meaning?”

Tempest was tempted to pretend she’d drifted off to sleep and ignore him, but decided she didn’t want to appear too sullen. It might make him suspicious. “I doubt you’d understand if I explained it.”

“Why?”

“Because you’ve probably never seen one. Actually, I haven’t either, but I know my Earth history so I at least have some idea of it.”

“Explain.”

Tempest turned over and looked at him. “It’s a storm. On Earth, water would fall from the sky. They called it rain, and when it was driven by hard wind, it was a tempest.”

Kiran’s face went perfectly still. “What?”

“I told you you wouldn’t understand.”

He shook his head. “It is the same as storm?”

Tempest shrugged. “I guess. I think it’s more like the word for a particular kind of storm, though.”

He said nothing and Tempest considered leaving it at that, but she was determined to act as if she had nothing important on her mind. “Does your name have a meaning?”

He frowned. “It means ‘guardian of the storm’.”

The comment knocked the breath from her. Tempest’s brows rose. “Really? That’s weird, huh?”

Kiran didn’t answer, however. He seemed deep in thought and after waiting for several minutes to see if he would pursue the conversation, Tempest settled once more, this time facing him. He was still staring into the fire when she lost the battle against weariness and dozed off.

Kiran lifted his gaze from the dancing flames and stared at Tempest when he sensed that she slept. As the shock wore off, denial sprang up to take its place in his chaotic thoughts. It could be no more than a strange sort of coincidence, he assured himself, though uneasiness persisted and refused to be subjugated. The legend had been committed to his memory long ago and although he had repeated it over and over to himself as he sat staring into the fire, searching for truth, he could not recall a single passage that had led him to the conclusion that
the Storm
, like himself, would be a man, a native of his own world. And yet, everyone, even the ancient ones, the Keepers of the Memory, believed
the Storm
the legends foretold would be a warrior such as himself … greater even than himself.

This … female … was barely old enough to even be considered a woman. To his mind, she was more child than adult, and beyond that, as frail a creature as could be imagined. She was not even Niahian!

Was it at all possible that everyone had misinterpreted the prophesy?

He shook that doubt off. The Keepers had studied the prophesies endlessly, pondering each word, debating each meaning. They could not
all
be wrong.

He was to go to the sacred mountain so that he would be shown the way to
the Storm.
The prophesy had made that much clear
…
and, that being the case, he knew he must simply be allowing his imagination to take hold of him.

Perhaps her family had heard the legend and had simply decided to name her that? He knew very little about the star people. Perhaps it was common to name females such names. She’d said the word was from her own world. Perhaps they had chosen names for their offspring to remind them of their world?

The uneasiness receded. Finally, realizing that he was weary and it was growing very late, he lay down next to the fire and forced himself to relax and seek his rest.

* * * *

Tempest wasn’t certain what woke her, but she became abruptly wide awake. Sitting up, she looked around the campsite. Kiran, she saw, appeared to be sleeping. She studied him for several moments and finally decided that he really was asleep.

A faint sound caught her attention and she turned toward it, gasping when she saw two angry red eyes peering at her from the darkness beyond the firelight. She relaxed only fractionally when she realized it was the grat. For several moments they merely stared at one another. Finally, Tempest felt around on the ground for a good sized rock to pitch at the animal. She was on the point of doing so when she remembered what Kiran had said.

Well, she didn’t feel sorry enough for the grat to allow it to gnaw on her!

After a moment’s debate, she moved quietly toward the bundled food and unwrapped it. Tearing off a piece, she tossed it toward the grat. The eyes disappeared, but she could see no sign of the animal moving to retrieve the offering. She shrugged. It was wild. Most likely it wouldn’t come near the meat, but at least she’d tried.

She was on the point of bundling the meat up again when it occurred to her that she’d probably be hungry herself before she managed to find food on her own. Tearing off half of what was left, she tied the bundle once more and tiptoed quietly away from the campfire, heading away from the grat.

One of the moons had set and it was a good deal darker than it had been earlier, difficult to see more than a few yards away. Tempest regretted falling asleep. If she’d only managed to stay awake, she would’ve had a far easier time of finding a hiding place. As it was, she had to move slowly and very carefully just to keep from making noise that might wake Kiran. Finally, she decided she had put enough distance between herself and the campsite to move more quickly and less cautiously and she began to scramble over the rocks more rapidly. She didn’t have much time to find shelter. The small moon was dipping toward the horizon and, except for the feeble light from the stars, she would be left in total darkness before much more time passed.

Relief filled her when she reached the desert floor at last. She hesitated, wondering it Kiran would bother to look for her or only be satisfied that she had taken herself off and relieved him of any responsibility for her. Finally, she decided that being followed by Kiran was probably the least of her worries. There was no point in wasting more time to try to throw off a pursuit that was unlikely. She knew one grat inhabited the oasis. It didn’t seem likely there would be another one since they were territorial, but there might well be other, even more dangerous animals. With that thought prodding her, she hurried along the desert floor, studying the rocks above her for some sign of a crevice or cave.

She had walked and searched for more than an hour and the small moon was already dipping below the horizon when she spotted what appeared to be the entrance to a cave about half way up the jumble of rocks. It was difficult to be certain from this distance and might be no more than a slight crevice, but since she was running out of options, she decided to climb and hope for the best.

It was almost pitch black by the time she reached the general area where she’d spied what she thought might be an opening in the rock. Almost blind now, she felt around, searching for it and finally discovered the opening by falling over a rock and into the mouth of the cave. She froze as she hit the ground, listening for any sounds of an inhabitant. When she heard nothing, she felt around for a handful of rocks. Backing away, she tossed the rocks inside before scrambling up onto one of the boulders at the opening. She could hear the dull thud of the rocks striking other rocks but, to her relief, no growls or sounds of scurrying feet.

Satisfied, she crawled inside, feeling her way carefully and finally settled with her back against the smoothest, flattest stone she could find. It gave her the creeps, sitting in a darkness so thick she could almost feel it, but she was out of the wind and relatively warm. Once it was light she could explore the cave more thoroughly and decide whether she wanted to remain or look for other shelter.

It comforted her to see that, now that she was inside the cave, the starlight made the world outside look far brighter. Dropping her cheek to her knees, she focused on the light outside. Her eyes were just beginning to drift closed when movement outside jerked her awake once more.

It was the grat … and it was heading straight for her.

Chapter Four

The grat stopped just outside the cave entrance, sniffing the air and then dropping its head to sniff at the ground. A low growl rumbled from its chest and then it slunk forward until it was just inside the entrance of the cave, its red eyes glowing malevolently, staring unblinkingly into Tempest’s.

Either her luck was running true and she’d managed to wander around the pile of rocks until she’d found the grat’s cave, or the grat had followed her because of the meat she’d brought with her. At the thought of the food she’d brought, two things occurred to her simultaneously—she did not want to be holding something that was going to draw the thing closer, and, if it had followed the smell of the meat, then tossing it to the grat might appease it.

Tearing a small piece off, Tempest threw it. The tidbit landed almost directly between the grat’s forelegs and it jumped back, startled. Cautiously, it eased forward again, sniffing the cave floor in tight little circles until it found what it sought. It looked up and directly toward her once more even before it had finished eating it.

The second piece Tempest tossed hit the grat on the forehead and bounced away, rolling to a stop only a few feet from Tempest’s foot and her heart skipped several beats as the grat scrambled after it. The idea had been to get the thing away from her, preferably away from the cave entrance altogether so that she could escape, not tempt it closer. She knew she had to wait until she had the grat’s attention again before she threw the last of the meat, however, otherwise it might be hard to convince the thing that she didn’t have it anymore.