Redemption of Light (The Light Trilogy) (28 page)

Angrily, he shoved his chair back. It squealed across the stone floor. He hadn’t realized until now how much he’d perspired while telling her the story. The pungent scent of his own sweat encircled him. “Why would I lie to you? I’ve no reason to.”

“Because you’re trying to use my ancestry against me. You’re tying to force me to—”

“
I don’t give a damn about your ancestry!
The prisoners on Tikkun were innocent civilians, Amirah! The Magistrates rounded them up and subjected them to experiments which destroyed critical centers of their brains. They claimed—Lichtner claimed—the neurobiologists had discovered some physiological anomalies in the temporal lobes that explained why Gamants are ‘irrationally’ aggressive. Something to do with the rewards system. I don’t know if that was true.” He paced, reliving the wrenching memories. Her hands knotted in front of her.

Cole quietly said, “You shouldn’t be worried about me using your ancestry against you. Worry about the Magistrates. If they find out, you’ll be locked up in some very unpleasant—”

“You’re a liar!” she raged. “A liar and traitor! You’d say anything to make me—”

“I’m telling you the truth! You’re just too blinded by the official propaganda. …”

He barely noticed her subtle shift, as she turned sideways ever so slightly, her bound hands disappearing for a split second. The blow came out of nowhere, taking him in the chest. Amid the white flash of pain that blasted through his skull, he stumbled and she spun, leveling another double-fisted slam at his lower back. He dove out of the way, rolling to knock her feet out from under her—but the impact sent his pistol flying out of his holster to land several feet away. She tumbled across him and landed a hard elbow to his gut. He punched her in the solar plexus and wrenched her bound hands up above her head. She bashed him in his wounded thigh with both of her knees. He straddled her, holding her legs firmly between his while simultaneously pressing her hands to the floor over her head.

She let out a close-mouthed cry of rage.

Panting, he observed, “I thought we’d established that I’m better at this than you are.”

“Get off of me!” she shouted in rage.

“I’m going, just relax.”

Carefully, he got up and slumped to the floor a few feet away. He grabbed up his pistol and pointed it at her menacingly. His chest ached as though someone had plunged a burning sword between his ribs. A trickle of blood ran warm and sticky down his belly. Gingerly, he probed the area with his fingers. It hurt so badly he thought he’d faint every time he took a deep breath. “Goddamn it,” he muttered. “I think you broke one of my ribs.”

“Good! I hope the bone punctures a lung and kills you.” She swiveled her head to look at him and he saw for the first time the tears on her lashes. He cocked his head, wondering if the pain had torn them from her iron hide, or if the discussion about Gamants had affected her after all.

“Oh, you’re a real sweetheart,” he observed. “I take back all those amiable and sympathetic thoughts I’ve been having about you. When I’m dead and there’s no one to feed you, I’ll bet your conscience twinges.”

He probed again and winced. The pain flared every time his heart beat. “Goddamn it,” he repeated, more weakly this time. Slowly, he got on his knees and staggered to his feet.

He swayed as he made his way to sit on the edge of the table. Casting a glance heavenward, he called, “Did you think I was serious in my dreams last night, Jeremiel, when I said I liked this woman so much I half-hoped you’d win the battle and forget about me? Well, I’m wide awake now, and damned ready to be rescued. Are you listening, Baruch? I don’t have any med supplies down here. Not even …” He accidentally took a deep breath and bent double. “… Not even any godforsaken painkillers.”

Amirah sat up. He tried not to notice how the firelight accentuated the tears in her slit eyes.

But when Amirah glanced at the door, Cole quickly warned, “Don’t get any ideas. Even if I can’t breathe, I can still shoot.” To reinforce his words, he leveled his pistol at her middle. “Why don’t you come over here, Amirah. Sit down next to me and we’ll have a pleasant chat while I bleed.”

She painstakingly crossed the floor, moving her bound feet in tiny steps. Her robe billowed around her long legs like a cloud of gold. “How bad is it?”

The touch of authentic concern in her voice made him laugh. “Oh, I think you can be proud of that kick. Yes, indeed. I’d give you a score of ten.” In Academy, a ten was the highest rating you could get for a single move.

“A ten would have killed you immediately,” she corrected.

“Okay, a nine.”

She halted about five feet away, standing tall and straight. The draft that penetrated the cave from the hallway fluttered blonde hair about her shoulders in gorgeous disarray.

“Sit down, Amirah.” He gestured forcefully with his gun.

She eased into a chair. “Where does it hurt?”

“Right now? Everywhere. But I suspect once things settle down it’ll mostly be my upper half.”

“Do you need a doctor?”

He squinted at the irrelevance. “Probably. What difference does that make?”

She leaned forward with deadly geniality. “Free my hands. Let me call my ship. My hospital staff is the best in the fleet. I
guarantee
your safety! As the captain of the
Sargonid
I give you my word that you’ll be—”

“Oh, my dear Amirah.” He bowed his head and smiled indulgently. “You’re so naive. A captain’s guarantees mean nothing unless the Magistrates back them, and in my case I’m quite sure they’d override you. But don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the offer. Did you mean it?”

“Yes.” She twisted in her seat so she could brace her shoulder against the chair back. With her hands bound, almost any position felt uncomfortable. “Did you mean it when you said you liked me?”

He grinned. He almost answered,
that was ten minutes ago. I’ve changed my mind since then,
but the guarded, waiting expression on her face made him choke back the comment. Instead, he sighed, “Yes, Amirah, I meant it. I like you more than I’d feel comfortable telling you.”

She hastily stood up. “Take off that robe and unbind my hands! I want to look at your ribs. I can’t set them here, but I could wrap them so they’d shift less.”

He pulled back suspiciously. “First you break my ribs, then you want me to take off my clothes? You certainly know how to win a man’s heart. No, thank you. I think I’ve had all of your touch I can stand in a day. But there is something you could do for me.”

“What is it?”

“I’ll remove the restraints from your feet—but remember, this pistol has a full charge.”

She sat down again and lifted her feet up to him. He took the key out of his pocket and waved it over the thin bands. They broke open. Amirah’s slipped them off and set them on the table.

“Very kind of you,” Cole commented, taking them back and tucking them in his pocket. “Now, if you please, could you get me a bottle of wine? I daresay I’m going to be needing it sooner than I thought.”
Like five minutes ago.

She walked across the room and rummaged through one of the crates to pull out a dusty bottle of alizarin. Bringing it back, she set it on the table and opened it, then filled a goblet for him and set it within his reach.

Cole switched his pistol to his left hand and retrieved the wine with his right. “Please sit down again, Amirah.”

She sat.

He took a healthy swig of the earthy-flavored concoction, praying it would dull the pain without dulling his wits too much.

“Cole?”

The nausea had begun, sending foul messages to his brain. He gulped his wine. “What?”

“What you said about Tikkun—was any of that true?”

“All of it, I’m afraid. It still gives me nightmares.”

She reached up and poured herself a glass of alizarin. “Let’s talk alternatives. Are you able? Is it possible that Lichtner had gone rogue? That the Magistrates knew nothing about his operations in Block 10?”

“Seriously doubtful. The doctors employed at the camp were top quality, straight out of Palaia’s science departments.”

“For example?”

“Oh …” He searched his memory, trying to recall the names of some of the physicians he’d seen in the 19118 file. He’d read it in great detail after Rudy Kopal had picked them up off Tikkun. “Jonathan Creighton, Ranold Hyde. Several others that I can’t remember.”

She stopped with her glass halfway to her lips. “My God. You’re sure Creighton was one of them? He’s in charge of the entire Hall of Sciences at Palaia now.”

“Makes sense. They promote swine like him.”

Sweat rolled down his face, stinging in his eyes. He blinked ferociously to keep his vision clear. Refilling his goblet of wine, he guzzled it down, then refilled it again and drank half the glass. His position on the table had caused one of his legs to fall asleep. He tried to sit up straighter and gasped, squeezing his eyes closed against the pain. A shudder attacked him. He willfully controlled it. When he opened his eyes, he found Amirah staring at him worriedly.

“I’m not dying,” he assured her, forgetting for the moment that she’d hoped for that.

“No, you’re going into shock. Let me help you, Cole. Please?”

He wondered why he hadn’t thought of that. She was right, damn it. He grabbed his pistol and pointed it at her. “No, but thanks for the tip.”

In agonizing slow motion he slid off the table and stood on weak knees. “Please go over and stand by the fireplace. I’ll be right behind you, so don’t get brave.”

She went. He followed, every step a white lance of fire through his chest. By the time they reached the hearth, he could barely stand. “Sit down,” he ordered. “I hate to do this to you, but I’m afraid in a few minutes I may not be able to keep as close an eye on you as I should. I think I’m bleeding pretty badly internally. I don’t know how long I can stay conscious.”

She stretched out on her stomach and obligingly brought up her feet, bringing them as close to her bound hands as she could—obviously anticipating his instructions. She knew the prisoner-of-war routine. Every officer did. But why she was making it easier for him was an intriguing mystery.

“No,” he said regretfully. “That would be safer, but I don’t know how long I may be out. In that position you’d be in agony in an hour. Sit up and put your back against that ring that protrudes from the wall.”

“You never did operate by the book,” she commented as she slid backward.

“Not when I could avoid it.”

Cole knelt and cuffed her hands to the ring, then guardedly cuffed her ankles together, waiting every moment for a kick he doubted he could counter. When he’d finished, he felt sick. Breathing had become agony. He tried to stand and reeled sideways, landing hard on the floor. Pain shot through him in hot waves.

“Tahn, why don’t you tran your ship? Tell them you’re in trouble.”

He sat gasping. “I can’t take the chance that such a communication … might be picked up by your people. Besides, when the battle is over … if things go well for my side, they’ll tran me. Until that time, it’s too risky to send any sort of message.”

Patiently, an inch at a time, he edged back to lean against the wall. Cold, he felt so cold. He shivered and held his broken rib while he extended his legs. His boots grated on the rough sandstone floor. The wine had finally soaked into his veins. His head felt pleasantly light though his body still burned like a blazing torch.

His gaze drifted back to Amirah and he soothed himself by watching the firelight dance with a brassy brilliance in her hair.
Oh, you’re a prize. Feeling desire when you haven’t even got the strength to breathe.
Idiotically, he smiled at her. “You’re very beautiful, Amirah” he said. “And I do like you, too much.”

He brought his pistol into his lap and leaned his head back against the wall, closing his eyes. If he could just sleep for a little while, escape the pain, build up his strength….

Three hours later, Amirah sat quietly, watching the green light flash on Cole’s belt com. His people had been trying to contact him for over an hour. But he’d been lost in a nightmare world, talking in his sleep, reliving battles, moaning. He frequently called for two people, Maggie and Carey. And Amirah knew both names. Maggie Zander—his love in Academy. She’d been killed during the Pegasus Invasion of Old Earth. Captured and imprisoned in a light cage only a few feet from Cole’s, reports stated that Zander had reached out to Tahn with her last ounce of strength, trying to touch him before she’d died. The other was undoubtedly Carey Halloway. The way Tahn called her name made Amirah ache. He must love her. When Amirah had thrown out the taunt about a relationship between them earlier, she hadn’t even suspected it might be true.

But it gave her a useful piece of knowledge.

Cole groaned and, illogically, Amirah clutched up inside. She ought to be hoping he’d bleed to death. But instead she was praying he’d be all right. His brown hair and beard both glimmered damply in the ruby glow of the coals in the hearth. Had his stories about Tikkun really been true? She’d been chasing them around her mind. He
didn’t
have any reason to lie to her—at least not that she could fathom. But if the Magistrates had committed such heinous crimes on Tikkun, the rumors circulating about their experiments on the satellites around Palaia might be true. And if they were true….