Page 13 of Redeeming Captivity (Human Pets of Talin #7)

Chapter 13

Tarquin

Waking up in pain wasn’t new to Tarquin. Waking up without a clear memory of what caused the pain was a novel and unwelcome experience.

“Tarquin?” The hesitant, soft voice made him force open his eyes despite his throbbing head. Weak, predawn light allowed him to clearly see the bruises and dried blood on Lena’s face. Whoever attacked her had tried to kill her. One of the spots in the front were an owner put a thumb to unlock the collar was smashed. If she hadn’t been wearing the collar she might’ve grievously injured or killed!

Rage made him forget his pain and sit up with a roar.

“Who did this?”

Startled, she scrambled back until she came up against a boulder.

Boulder? He looked around at the familiar spot he’d set up for Lena. But that was…

Pain shot through his head, making him feel dizzy and nauseous. He needed to figure out why they were back between the boulders and why his head hurt. Before anything else, he needed to care for Lena.

“You’re hurt,” he said. “Can I see to your injuries?”

Lena’s brows wrinkled in confusion, then she shook her head and pointed at his. “You’re worse.”

Lifting a hand, he felt the side of his head, finding a trail of dried blood and a soft spot on his keratin plating. He must’ve received a severe blow to be this injured and suffering memory loss.

“Was I in a fight?” he asked, dropping his hand from his head and holding it out to Lena. “Did I fail to defend you and that’s how you got hurt?”

Lena crawled back into the nest but ignored his hand. She pushed it aside so she could get closer to his body.

“Rocks,” she said as she ran gentle fingers around the impact site.

“Rocks?” he repeated, flummoxed.

She sat back on her heels, gazing up at him with worry. “Windstorm?” She picked up a nearby rock and pretended it was flying through the air. Then had it hit her face. She exaggerated the blow. “Rocks.”

Wind? Rocks? What was she talking about? Had someone thrown rocks at them or did they get caught in one of the planet's common rockslides?

He focused on the last thing he remembered.

He’d finally finished with his meeting and inspections and rushed back to Lena. He’d found her asleep and laid down with her. Had they gotten caught out in the winds trying to return to the barracks?

No! There were spy-scouts at the barracks. They’d been forced to flee back into the deadly windstorm to avoid assassination. He could clearly picture the spy-scouts blowing up parts of the guest barracks to get to him.

No matter how hard he focused, he couldn’t remember returning to the shelter, but it was clear both of them had been battered during the journey. Trying to find the memories made his head pound even worse.

Lena moved to a pile of items in the corner of their shelter. Rummaging around, she pulled out a basic medication kit and knee-walked back to him. Opening it up, she pulled out a wafer and held it to his mouth.

He accepted the familiar analgesic wafer and let it dissolve on his tongue. It only took a submark for the pain in his head to ease.

“Are you in pain?” he asked. “Half of a wafer would work for you.”

She nodded and broke one in half to pop in her mouth. Her relief was evident by the way her shoulders relaxed and she sighed out a long breath. Then she looked back up at him and tilted her head in that questioning way.

“I can’t remember getting here, but I don’t think I’m permanently damaged,” he answered her unvoiced question. Going slow, he tested each limb. “Nothing’s broken, and besides some discomfort, my mind is working fine. The memory loss is unfortunate but not dangerous.”

Lena didn’t look convinced but didn’t say anything. It wasn’t as if they could call for the healer. Going forward, everyone on this planet had to be considered the enemy.

“We’re in a bad spot,” he finally said, unclipping his Ident. He’d shut down the location feature when he first arrived. A quick look through the messages found several asking where he was, why he was late, and if he needed to be retrieved. The messages continued throughout most of the night, all sent with location requests. If he’d answered any of these, then the sender would know his location.

“Very bad,” Lena agreed, scooting close and rubbing his leg. “I save. Always.”

He blinked down at her, a soothing rumble slipping out of his chest box. “I don’t deserve you, brave Lena.”

A cheeky grin flashed across her face. “Probably.” She tapped his Ident. “Help?”

Her words were coming easier now, and he’d normally be ecstatic, but under the circumstances, he hoped he wasn’t trading one trauma for another.

Holding up the Ident, he sounded a negative rumble. “If I try to contact anyone using this, they’ll know where we are.”

“Bad-bad,” she agreed.

His Ident pinged with a planetwide announcement. It was sent on the automated emergency system so it played without him doing anything.

Be aware Envoy Inspector Tarquin is a wanted fugitive. He’s suspected of murder. Warning: he’s highly skilled and might be armed. Terminate on sight.

Terminate on sight! That was an order usually reserved for times of battle or extreme circumstances. They were determined to keep him from leaving this planet alive.

Shutting down his Ident, he looked up to Lena. “It’s all lies. I haven’t murdered anyone.”

Far from looking scared, Lena snorted. “I know.”

Of course she knew. She’d lived with these people for several solars now. She was well aware of what they were capable of.

Dropping the Ident in his lap, he rubbed his hands over his face. The wafer had done a lot to dull the pain, but he could still feel the strain of last night throughout his body. Whatever their next move was, it needed to be less strenuous.

“I’m not sure what to do,” he admitted, dropping his hands.

Lena pointed straight up. “Friends, right?”

“In a way,” he said. “I sent a coded message to Holian requesting for us to be picked up by whoever is closest. That means they won’t be Talin and they’ll be sending a coded message with the pickup time and place. I’m not sure my Ident is powerful enough to receive messages from a ship.”

She nodded and gently ran a hand through her mane, tugging when her fingers caught on a tangle. He leaned forward and gently extracted her fingers.

“Please don’t do that,” he said with a soothing rumble. “We’re already battered enough.”

She huffed out a laugh before her face turned serious. “Town…empty town…. No far. Empty.”

He held up a hand to stop her when she started looking frustrated. “Do you have the silent tapping language of the Norka in your INT?” he asked, saying the same thing in Norka with his hands while speaking out loud.

She looked fascinated but shook her head. He felt dumb for not thinking of it sooner. Being able to speak with her hands would make it so much easier on her, although they were managing for now.

Her face lit up and she made a little impatient sound, rummaging around in the nest. She unearthed the information square she’d been determined to save last night and started typing. Her fingers flew over the character stack faster than he thought possible.

Soon she was holding up the square so he could read it.

There’s an abandoned town about twenty kie-fields away from here. It’s right next to a massive canyon that opened up next to it and swallowed most of the place. There are a few buildings still on the edge of the canyon. We could go there. We’ll at least have shelter while we wait for your people.

It would be hard, but they might be able to cover twenty kie-fields before nightfall. It would depend on how many surveillance bots Jafinium sent out to find them.

“I don’t remember hearing about a destroyed town,” Tarquin said.

Lena turned the square and started tapping again.

It was an Ossiso town, set up fifteen solars before the Talin got permission to build a base here. The Ossiso rebuilt in the town we went to and made it illegal for anyone to go to the town. Almost thirty Ossiso died during the event, and it’s considered a burial site. Disturbing the dead is against Ossiso law.

“Does that mean we’ll both be criminals if we go there?” he asked.

“Partners,” she agreed with a smile.

Lena

It was hard to pack because she wanted to take all the comforts of the shelter with her. She’d spent so long with almost nothing that leaving anything behind made her feel panicky.

The mat covering the rocks was easy to deflate and fold up into a small packet, but all the pillows and blankets weren’t, not without the shrinking bags usually used to reduce their volume for easy transport. They’d unfortunately lost the shrinking bags during the windstorm.

“I’m sorry, Lena, but this is all we can take with us,” Tarquin said after they arranged and rearranged everything multiple times. Even with a small pack put together for her to carry, they had to leave over half the bedding behind.

She was trying hard not to cry. It was only pillows and blankets.

“It’s okay to be upset,” Tarquin said, drawing her against him. Gratefully, she leaned into him and relaxed. “I need you to remember I’ll always do my best to provide all the things you could want when we are away from here and safe. For now, we are going to need to make sacrifices.”

She didn’t point out that getting away was an if not a when .

“Why is there a blower attached to one of the boulders?” Tarquin asked. He must have only just noticed it. He stepped closer and tugged at the rope still threaded through the top of the blower. Seeing the rope made her want to pack it. All rolled up, it wouldn’t take up much space, and it might prove to be useful later.

It was too bad they couldn’t take the blower. It was a cheaper single-use model so the attachment base needed to be replaced if they wanted to use it again.

Moving past him, she messed with the blower until the rope released then started winding it up.

“Gathering tensile twine doesn’t answer my question,” Tarquin said with an amused rumble. Lena shrugged, pointed at his feet, then held up the twine and pointed to the blower.

Understanding made Tarquin’s eyes go wide. “Did I collapse before getting us into the shelter?”

She nodded her head, and he looked to the rope then the blower. “And you used these to drag me into the shelter. That explains why my ankles hurt in a strange way.” He started purring. “Thank you for saving my life, brave Lena. I’ve known experienced soldiers who wouldn’t have thought to do this under the pressure of the windstorm we faced.”

Tarquin’s praise made Lena’s face get hot. Unable to meet his gaze, she smiled to herself and focused on rolling up the twine and tucking it into the pack she was carrying.

The sound of something overhead made them both look up. Tarquin sounded a rumble of worry.

“That’s a search bot,” he explained. “I’m sure they’re all over the skies looking for us.”

“Bad?” Lena asked. Would they make it to the abandoned Ossiso town with the search bots looking for them?

“The speed of the bots tells me they don’t expect to find me hiding. They’re probably hoping we died in the storm. Even if I did, they need a body to send back to Holian, otherwise there will be an investigation.”

She tilted her head in a question.

“Yes, they’d see us if they passed over, but they’re not in stealth mode; it'll be easy to hide until they pass.”

Rummaging around in the bag he was carrying, he pulled out two flat squares. After re-securing the bag, he grabbed a corner of each and shook them out. They unfurled, bright white.

She lifted an eyebrow. The blankets looked like flags.

“I promise, these will hide us from the bots,” he said, handing her one. “All you need to do is crouch and cover yourself. The fabric of these blankets will make us look like rocks to the bots. It wouldn’t work if they were doing a real search, but for this, it’ll fool them.”

She accepted the blanket and put it around her shoulders, tying it in front. It was so light she barely felt it.

“Ready?” Tarquin asked.

Lena hefted her small bag over her shoulder and stood tall. She was wearing her magic boots and had a sack full of possessions she didn’t need to leave behind. Most importantly, her information square was tucked safely in the middle of the bag.

“I guess that is a yes.” Tarquin tucked the blanket in his belt and lifted his bag. “Which way?”

Lena stepped out of the shelter and looked around. She found the mountains made of boulders and rocks in the distance. She pictured the map Jafinium had in his office and figured out where they must be.

She pointed. If they headed parallel to the mountains, they’d find the crevasse. Then they would turn left and follow the canyon to the ghost town.

Purring, Tarquin held out his hand. She wrapped her fingers around his two middle ones and they left the safety of their shelter.

It was hard, but Lena kept herself from looking back.

I’m not leaving important things behind, she reminded herself. I have my bag and Tarquin. That’s all I need.

That made her realize Tarquin was home for her now. It was easier to leave the two boulders that housed the leftover bedding and items because he was with her.