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

She was on her side, taut and wheezing against the cold ground. “Krell!” His second cry brought her screaming awake.

“What’s wrong?” Tatra rubbed her eyes.

“I’m not sure.” Firman comforted Krell as best he could, speaking quiet reassurances as she clutched the slick grass beneath her. “She’s scared near senseless.” He drew close to absorb the tremors wracking his sibling. “Is it LaRenna? Krell? Krell?”

“They took her.” Krell sobbed against him.

“Slow down.” Tatra took a position on Krell’s other side, her slender hand clasping Krell’s. “You’re hyperventilating. Slow breaths—one—two. That’s it.”

“Who took her?” Firman asked as Krell began to regain control. “Took her where?”

“The bar on Langus. The Creiloff twins. Cance’s scratches.” Words couldn’t describe the horror Krell was feeling—LaRenna’s horror. No wonder LaRenna had been reluctant to look up when they had spoken. She had been ashamed of something totally beyond her control.

“They raped her,” grieved Tatra, close to terror herself. “It must have happened on Langus before we escaped.”

Krell could only nod. “I could feel her fighting. They forced her at the same time. Tortured her, drugged her, procked her, tied her to the counter. I could see it through her eyes—feel the pain. She wished they would kill her so it would stop.”

“But they didn’t.” Firman pulled Krell to his shoulder. “You couldn’t have stopped it, Krelleesha. There was no way you could have known.”

“I could have prevented it from happening at all.” She collapsed into his embrace. “Brandoff followed her the morning we met on the beach. She watched us. I thought I saw someone on the pathway, but dismissed it as stress. I should have stopped her from going back.”

“Could haves and should haves aren’t important at this point,” said Tatra. “All that matters is that you understand what she experienced and that you help her get past it.”

“How could I not? I feel I suffered with her.” Krell still shook. “They ravaged her, took everything she was, and all she could think about was how it would hurt me. She cried for me. Prayed for me. Screamed for me! And I wasn’t there!” Krell’s voice rose as the angst began to twist once more.

“Don’t work yourself up again.” Firman tightened his hold. “Stay near me. If you have another episode like that, I want you to be close enough so I can knock it out of you.”

Unable to complain, Krell relaxed against him, quickly falling into the same dreamless sleep as LaRenna. Firman chuckled as his sister began to snore.

“She still snores.”

“And hogs the bed.” Tatra looked about for a dry piece of ground. “Where do I sleep now?”

“I snore, too. Gotta problem with that?” Firman extended his arm. “Come on. I have room for one more.” She accepted his offer and soon both Taelachs were sleeping soundly against him. “Look at you,” he sighed, his chin resting against Tatra’s flaxen hair. “Two women and no one about to brag to. You’re getting soft in your old age, Firman Middle.”

In the Hiding Cave, Trazar held his own sister in much the same way. He cooled her face with damp cloths, trying to calm the scourging memories that penetrated her delirium. She became restless and irritated, fighting against him as he removed her blankets to help combat the fever.

LaRenna howled and moaned for Krell, begging her to make “them” stop hurting her. The pleading proved so sorrowful it made Trazar mindful of the fact his sister might not fully recover from her assault, physically or mentally. “You’ve been through more in the last quarter-cycle than one person should endure in a lifetime.” He wiped down her brow again. “But you’re strong, LaRenna, so keep fighting.”

Eventually, her nightmares ended, allowing her to drift into a deep slumber. Trazar placed a fresh cloth on her head then went to the cave entrance to replace the nearly extinguished marker lights. “I don’t know why I bother,” he grumbled while spacing the fresh rods. “They probably aren’t visible more than ten or twelve paces in this fool rain.”

The rampant canyon flood was audible in the cave mouth. Staring through the darkness, Trazar was positive the launch had washed downstream any number of kilometers. That alone reduced their chances of discovery. Now their rescuers would have to search the entire flood path for them. Trazar prayed they wouldn’t be assumed drowned and the search abandoned.

“Trazar!” LaRenna’s weak voice brought him running to her side. He laid her back on the bedroll and replaced the cloth on her red-hot face. “I woke up and you weren’t here and—”

“I was changing the marker lights,” he soothed, aware her fears were being fed by her fever.

“Still raining?” She reached for the water bottle he had placed beside her.

“Yes.” Trazar took it, cradled her neck, and held it to her mouth. “Drink. It’s good for the fever.” She swallowed several times then gagged, fighting to inhale against the pain.

“When won’t my damn ribs hurt anymore?” She gasped when the air returned.

“Soon. Try to sleep.” He retrieved an unused bedroll and spread it beside hers, LaRenna watching silently from her angled headrest. She had so much she wanted to share with Trazar, but conversation was just too difficult.

Trazar covered up and lay facing her. “You’ll be okay. They’ll find us tomorrow. Wait and see.” LaRenna smiled and reached out to him. He clasped her hand and curled his fingers around hers.

“Please tomorrow,” she whispered, “ ’cause I’m so tired.”

Chapter Thirty-Two

Raw and hard the wind does blow

Bleak into the caves

The springtime floods they wash away

The ones the Autlach slays

—Taelach poetry

“First an entire team goes rogue, now this!” Belsas puzzled over the two bodies lying underneath the awning of the morgue tent. She knew they had been part of a recovery team but not the circumstances of their deaths. “What happened?”

Chandrey gave a cheerless look to the cadet who had recovered the bodies from one of the flooded canyons. “They drowned, didn’t they?”

“No ma’am,” replied the flare-jawed young guardian.