Storm of Arranon Fire and Ice (11 page)

Erynn stared up at him. “Why?”

Jaer took her arm with a gentle grasp.
“Please?”

She nodded and followed him into the hangar
bay. “What?”

“You scare the
Daheln
out me,
Kipa.”

Erynn jerked her arm out of his hold and
stopped. “Don’t call me that.”

He winced. “It is true. Why should I not say
Kipa?”

She shook her head. “You’re…You have a…”
Erynn turned away. “I can’t, Jaer I can’t be with you.”

Jaer straightened. “I understand. When you
want to hear my side, let me know.”

Erynn spun around to see Jaer walk away
between the Interceptors. Her heart shriveled, cracking another
centimeter. The pull in her chest ached, straining against the
emptiness Jaer’s absence left. They were both hurting.

I haven’t heard his explanation. Why don’t
I talk to him
?

“Hey, Erynn, I bet that kid in the Medical
Unit just got the thrill of his life. I know I did.”

Excited voices surrounded her, all describing
what they experienced vicariously through her.

Erynn wiped at her eyes with the back of her
hand, attempting a cheerful expression. She nodded. “Thanks. I
gotta go see Cace.” Her lip twitched with the effort of maintaining
a smile. “Thanks.” She hurried out into the main corridor. Her
breath hitched and the tears increased until she sobbed, running
away through the warrens. She kept up the pace, going nowhere, or
anywhere she could be alone. She thought about the high tower but
wanted to be in the dark, to let the blackness settle over her,
covering the bottomless chasm where her heart once beat, and still
loved.

She stopped running, composing herself. If
she didn’t get to the Medical Unit soon her absence would raise
questions. Questions she didn’t want to deal with. Cace waited for
her there, with his observation. He said the A and L were not
letters. He saw something else.

What
?
What had he seen
?

Nev would be there. His crooked smile flashed
in her mind. He obviously wanted a relationship with her. She
pushed him away, though, keeping his affections at a safe distance.
He persisted, chipping away at her defenses.

Is his attention a bad thing
?
Will
there ever be a chance for Jaer and me
?

She took in a deep breath, her chest
resisting the action. The tears had ended, but not the crushing
pain. She could imagine her eyes, puffy and red. “I’ll just stay
out of sight for a while,” she whispered in her exhalation. Erynn
glanced around, taking a tentative step forward. “Where am I?”

Marks at an intersection before her indicated
she was in a lower level, station ten.

But again, where
?

Rough stairs a meter ahead led down a short
set of steps into the dark. She reached in a pocket and pulled out
the small light she carried. Shining the meager beam, she crept
down stairs that opened onto a flat empty space. She surveyed the
area. Several small recessed openings on the far side stood out as
deeper shadows against the dark. Erynn swept the light across the
floor. Discarded boxes and old food packaging littered the space.
She stooped to pick up a wrapper. “Why would this be down here?”
She swung the beam above her to the damp, dripping rock. “Maybe
they used this area at one time to store garbage before recycling.”
Her voice echoed around the closed-in space. Foggy breath plumed
out, swirling in the white glow from her lamp. She tossed the
crumpled paper aside.

Cold penetrated her heavy flight suit. She
turned toward the stairs. Scraping, scrabbling noises came from the
far side of the space where the recessed areas were. Erynn whipped
the light toward the sound. “Meerats. I hope. Or maybe something
bigger.” Meervorines came to her mind. “Time to go.”

A loud crash of tumbling rocks clattered to
her left, followed by a thick rasping breath.

A prickling tingle began at the base of her
spine and reached with icy fingers to her neck. “Go. Now.” She
dashed up the stairs and into the tunnel without looking back.
“Well that was fun.” She continued in her rush to get to a more
populated area of the base. “Next time I go down there, I take a
staser.” She shook her head, slowed, and nodded to three women in
security uniforms turning from a side tunnel to walk in front of
her. “There won’t be a next time, ever,” she muttered.

Cace chatted excitedly about his experience,
his face flushed, eyes bright. “I actually felt like I was with
you, flying. And then we were spiraling up, into the sky. Oh, and
everything was so beautiful, the colors so bright.” His forehead
wrinkled. “Is it because you see things from above?” He didn’t wait
for an answer. “When you flew so low over the lake and the waves, I
mean, I thought we would touch the water.” He held tight to the
helmet, swaying right and then left, as if he were still
experiencing the flight, soaring high in the air.

Erynn understood. She glanced at Nev. He
watched her, a frown spreading across his features.

Is Nev angry
?
Did I push the limit
of what Cace can handle right now
?

She kept the flight easy and the time short.
It could have been much wilder. When Cace stopped for a breath,
Erynn cut in. “What did you see over the lake, Cace?”

Cace nodded. Those aren’t letters. They’re
symbols.” He let go of the helmet with one hand and reached to his
nightstand, producing a reader. He flipped the device on, a faint
hum rising with a silver light. The holographic pages opened to a
predetermined spot, and he handed it to Erynn.

What looked like an A lying flat and crossed
over an L glowed up at her. She gazed up to Cace, grinned, and
raised her eyebrows and her shoulders, shaking her head.

Cace chuffed. “It’s the old language. You
don’t know Comhra, though, do you?”

“What do they represent?” Erynn’s brow
knitted, and she stared at the symbols. She recalled similar
markings on a statue above the underground entrance to the portal
of water. The one portal she’d located and actually been through.
Symbols also covered the walls in precise lines in the chamber
below the strange statue.

Were these similar
?
Could they be a
marker for another portal, as she had thought
?

“It’s the symbol for air,” Cace said, shaking
his head.

Erynn frowned. “Air? But it’s in the water.”
She bit her lip.

“It’s the symbol for air,” he repeated, his
voice strong.

Erynn nodded. She would check this out now
that she had more information. She leaned in to Cace. “As to my
knowing the ancient language…Mide feath lafhar an teansa.” She
picked up the reader and frowned at the symbols. “Mide bode leagh
se toraith mide meas.”

Cace blushed and ducked his head. “I’m not
sure what you said. I’ve never heard the old language spoken. I can
only read Comhra.”

Erynn nodded, her grin widening. “I see.”

Nev was on his feet. His gaze darted between
Cace and Erynn.

“What I said was, ‘I do speak the language. I
don’t read it well, I guess.’” Erynn frowned, considering the
implications. Her innate ability to speak and understand Comhra
fell short when it came to reading the symbols, increasing Cace’s
importance to her and Arranon.

“Wow. I’ll teach you to read Comhra if you’ll
teach me to speak it.” Cace tipped his head, his eyes
narrowing.

Erynn held out her hand. “Deal.”

Cace laid his cool, dry fingers over hers and
grasped them. “Deal.”

Nev moved forward. He turned to Cace. “Enough
excitement for today. I want you to rest.”

Cace still held tight to the helmet and
reluctantly pushed it toward Erynn. “You’ll want this back.” He
stared at the rumpled blankets on his bed.

“I’m not carting the helmet to you every time
I need you to fly with me. You’d better keep it.” Erynn took a step
back.

“Really?” Cace all but squealed. “Thanks,
I’ll take good care of it. Promise.”

Nev turned on Erynn. His smile showed he
wasn’t angry. “You’re not helping.” His whispered voice rose
slightly on the last word, accenting both syllables. He nodded to
the hall. “Can I talk to you?”

“Sure.” She preceded him into the
corridor.

“What’s wrong? What happened?” Nev asked as
soon as Cace’s door slid shut.

Erynn gazed down the empty hall. “What makes
you think anything’s wrong?”

Nev took her chin and turned her face to his.
His voice was low, gentle. Again, he invited her to talk. “You’ve
been crying. Was it Jaer?”

CALE GLANCED UP FROM HIS DESK as Erynn
entered his office. “Erynn, it’s good to see…” His brow drew into a
layering of creased Vs. “Hmmm.” He stood up and met her in the
center of the small room. “What’s wrong?”

Erynn smiled. “I keep forgetting I’m not the
only one who can sense emotions.”

He guided her to a chair in front of the desk
and leaned against the edge, arms crossed. “You want something.” He
wasn’t asking.

“Yes.” She glanced down at her hands and then
back to Cale. “I want to leave the base for a while.”

Cale nodded. “I see.” His blue eyes studied
her, and his lips drew into a thin line. “How long?”

She twisted a string from her jacket around
her finger and bit her lower lip. “Just a few days.”

“Is this about Jaer…and Nev?”

“No.” Her gaze dropped. She studied the dark
veins running through the gray stone floor. “Well, maybe a
little.”

“Would it help if I talked to them? Asked
them both to—”

“Don’t.” Erynn’s head jerked up, and she
watched his eyes. “Please. There’s more to my request than personal
issues. But thanks.” He was quiet, giving her time to gather her
thoughts, waiting for her to finish her request.

She chuffed. “Based on what Cace said, I did
some research yesterday…and last night, and most of today. How can
the symbols in the lake represent air when they are under
water?”

Cale shrugged. “What do you think?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know. It doesn’t
make sense.”

He crossed one booted foot over the other.
“Where do you want to go? The lake? I’ll go with you. We could
explore the area during the day and return to the base at
night.”

Erynn was quiet. She took in a breath. “I
don’t believe the answer is there, at the lake.”

“Then where, Erynn?”

“Deanaim.”

Cale considered her answer for a moment.
“Deanaim? There’s nothing there but ruins. The place is probably
overgrown beyond recognition.”

“Deanaim is the oldest known archeological
site on Arranon. If the symbol at the lake is a marker to another
portal, I need to know. I just want to check out the fortress. What
if the locations of all the portals are recorded there, somewhere.
Cace will help me with the interpretation of what I find when I
return, if I find anything.”

Cale continued to lean against the desk.
Graying red-brown hair fanned across one shoulder. “Have you had
any visions or dreams recently?”

“None.” Erynn sighed. Her gaze shifted back
to the stone floor. “Not since the one telling me about Kira’s
attack.”

“What if I say no?”

She raised her head slowly. Her jaw
tightened. “I wish you wouldn’t.”

He sucked in a noisy breath and narrowed his
blue eyes. “I’m beginning to understand a little of what Damon must
have gone through raising you.”

Erynn opened her mouth to protest.

He held up his hands, stopping her. “I don’t
want you to go alone.”

She barked her held breath. “Who would go
with me? Jaer? Kind of defeats part of the purpose for this trip.”
Erynn stood up, stepping in front of Cale. “I want to go alone,”
she pleaded. “I’ll be all right.”

He reached out, pulling her into a hug.

She wrapped her arms around him, hugging him
back. “Thanks. I needed that.” Her voice was muted against his
chest.

“Let me think about it. Give me until
tomorrow,” he said against the top of her head. “And anytime you
need a hug, I’m here.”

Another dream, another tunnel of the base.
Section ten, the same alcove Erynn had found herself in after her
confrontation with Jaer. She recognized the marks on the wall, and
the short set of steps were just ahead.

A woman glided toward a shadowy figure
moving ahead of her in the dim light. Quiet laughter that was
definitely male drifted from the shadows. The chuckle comforted,
enticed, promised. He descended the stairs and beckoned the woman
to follow. She stepped down onto the first rough tread. They both
disappeared, swallowed in darkness
.

A distant, high-pitched scream tore through
Erynn’s mind.

“No, don’t go!” Erynn jerked upright, fully
awake. She untangled her arms and legs from the twisted covers
imprisoning her and jumped off the bed. Her feet hit the cold
stone, further bringing her to awareness. Her hair was a tangled
mess, and she raked it away from her face. “What?” She glanced
around the dark room. “Lights. Low.” A dim glow filled the space.
“I’m not in the tunnels. I’m in my quarters.” The dream had seemed
so real, like she was there, watching, participating.

Jaer is in the next room. He would
come
—

“No.” She cut off the thought. Her voice was
soft, drawn out. She closed her eyes and shook her head, arms
hanging limp at her sides. The cry from the dream reverberated from
the depths of her thoughts. Her heart pounded out a rabid beat. She
gritted her teeth. “What if it’s real? Last time I ignored the
warning, a woman died. I won’t be responsible for another
death.”

Erynn threw on some clothes and left her
quarters. She tiptoed silently past Zach, who slept in an oversized
chair next to the warm, popping fire in the common room. The
corridors beyond were empty. She ran. At the alcove where the
tunnels merged, she slipped into shadows as three men and two women
walked past. They spoke of work and what they would do on their
days off. Erynn envied them. Her life would never be simple. She
hurried on after they’d passed.