Jeanne G'Fellers - No Sister of Mine by Jeanne G'Fellers (reading tree TXT) 📗

your feet dry.” He pulled a boot over her good foot, lashing the gaping top shut with a strip of the twisted belt leather. The second boot refused to slide over her misshapen ankle. “I’ll fix that.” Trazar split the hide shaft and peeled it apart to the sole. “Now you’ll stay dry.” He carefully wrapped the open boot about her foot and secured the top as tightly as he dared.

“We ready then?” She eyed the rising water.

“Almost.” Trazar draped the Iralian’s cloak over her and snapped the neck closed. Its padded shoulders fell nearly to LaRenna’s elbows, giving her the appearance of a girl playing dress-up. “You’re certainly small to be Taelach.”

“Like I haven’t heard that before.”

“Don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with your size.” Trazar fastened the front of her wrap. “In fact, I’m glad you’re small. It would be hard to carry you otherwise.” He shoved their meager supplies into his pockets and tossed her the plasma bow. “Is it usable?”

LaRenna examined the weapon then handed it back to him. “The power housing has a hairline crack. The charge could reverse if it’s fired.”

Trazar immediately disposed of the weapon. He knew little of Taelach-style weaponry but enough to be wary of the weapon’s potential for radiation poisoning. “Won’t it leak if the housing is busted?”

“There’s a safety cage around the core tank but I’d rather be safe than sorry.” LaRenna shivered again and sneezed. “I think the weather is getting to me. Let’s go.”

At the suggestion, a torrential downpour began to blanket the area. Trazar pulled her close and hurried away from the rising waters. The going was slick, every direction they took ending in an incline too steep to climb without the use of hands.

“I think we may be trapped down here.” He brushed the wet hair from her face. “How’s your swimming?”

“Taelachs don’t swim,” she replied through her stuffed nose. “We sink well though.”

Trazar took the ill-timed jest seriously. “We get out of here, I’ll teach you.” He lowered her to the forking branches of a squat tree and stared up the mud-caked slopes. “I can’t carry you in my arms and scale these walls. You’ll have to ride on my back. Feel up to it?”

“Do I have a choice?” LaRenna wiped at the tickling stream that dripped off her chin.

“No.” Trazar bent to her level so she could wrap her arms and good leg around him. He stood up slowly, shrugged to redistribute her weight, then shifted to take the brace into consideration. “Here we go.”

LaRenna twisted her hands into his tunic and leaned into his ear. “When we get to the top, head north. The Taelach Training Grounds are in that direction.”

“You’ve been to Saria Four before?” Trazar latched on to a protruding rock and began his ascent.

“Schooled here.” She stifled another sneeze into his back. “We’re in the Glory Lands.”

“Glorious is not the term I would use. Does it always rain like this?”

“Just in the spring.” LaRenna gritted her teeth as her leg skidded across a projecting stone.

“Sorry.” Trazar continued their dangerous climb. Behind them, the water had risen until it lapped several inches deep inside the launch. LaRenna looked over her shoulder and shuddered. Sharing her fear, Trazar picked up his pace, climbing stone to stone. When they reached a fair-sized outcropping, he set her against the stone face so they could rest.

“You all right?” He squeezed the water from his tunic.

“Freezing.” LaRenna followed his lead, wringing some of the moisture from her weighted cloak. Her hands were streaked in color. The thorough soaking was removing the semi-permanent dye from her skin, returning her to Taelach paleness. She rubbed at one hand with the tail of her wrap and held it, palm forward, to her brother.

“You’re washing away!” He pushed back her hood and repeated his surprise. Her face was streaked in the same fashion as her hands. He jerked his tunic cuff over his wrist and rubbed at her skin, LaRenna flinching when he mashed the tender bruises spotting her face.

She pushed his hand away. “Stop it. You’re pinching my nose.”

“Be still. I’m almost through.” Trazar scrubbed all the dye from her face except in the immediate vicinity of her stitches. “So that’s what my sister looks like.”

“Minus the dark hair and bruises.” LaRenna rubbed her nose.

“A little more rain and the hair color will be gone, too,” he replied. “The dye’s streaking down your neck.” Thunder shook the canyon walls, pelting the roof of their temporary roost with a shower of small pebbles. “We’d better climb out of here before we end up in a landslide.” Trazar kicked away several rocks that had landed near his feet.

LaRenna’s death grip properly entangled in his tunic, he shimmied up the outcrop’s ironstone covering. A gusting wind began to blow, slathering them mercilessly with mud and small, biting stones. Trazar cursed their luck and strained to pull higher. Below, the launch bobbed in the current.

“I can’t go much farther in this wind.” Trazar blinked the water from his eyes. “Start looking for a spot we can wait this out.”

LaRenna looked upward then released her hand long enough to point to their upper right. “What about there?”

“No matter what it is, it’ll have to do.” Trazar began climbing in that direction. The climb seemed easier the nearer they came to the opening, as if a rough ladder had been carved into the canyon wall.

“Wait a second!” LaRenna touched the eroded symbols etched between the handholds.

“What does it say?” A violent gust blasted away any answer she may have given and LaRenna clutched his tunic as he scaled the last ten meters to safety. Trazar crawled several lengths into the opening before she would consider loosening her grip and then still held a handful of his dripping tunic.

“Crazy climb, wasn’t it?” Trazar peeled her loose then dumped the water from his boots. “What were those symbols?”

“They’re Taelach markings of a safe haven.” LaRenna gazed around their new surroundings. “This is a Hiding Cave.”

“Hiding