Page 54 of Tharn's Hunt
The third sol begins badly.
Jah-kee wakes late, her movements sluggish and uncoordinated. Her eyes, usually so bright and alert, appear glassy and unfocused. When I offer her water, she drinks mechanically, without the usual eagerness.
"I don't feel so good," she vocalizes, voice hoarse and distant.
I help her to her feet, alarmed by how heavily she leans against me. The heat from her body strikes me like a lance. Too hot. Too much heat for a living being.
She tries to take a step forward and immediately sways, her knees buckling. I catch her before she can fall, lifting her easily into my arms.
She doesn't protest. Doesn't squirm about being carried again. Doesn't vocalize anything at all.
That, more than anything, tells me how serious her condition has become.
I press my palm to her brow again, a low growl of distress escaping me at the burning heat I find there. Her skin is dry now,not leaking those tiny droplets of water as it usually does. Her breathing is unsteady, too.
"'m fine," she mumbles, her eyes struggling to focus on my face. "Jus' need to rest a minute."
I rumble softly, trying to convey reassurance I do not feel. We need to find shade, water, coolness. I need to bring her temperature down before it cooks her fragile human brain.
But we are in the open dust, the next proper shelter at least half a sol's journey ahead. Ain's light will only grow stronger, hotter, as the sol progresses.
"Jus..." she mumbles, her head rolling against my chest. "Need to find Jus..."
Jus…her sister-female, Jus-teen.
“Yes,” I project into the mindspace. “We will find her.”
But her eyes have closed, her body going limp in my arms. She hasn't lost consciousness completely—I can see her eyes moving beneath their lids, her lips occasionally forming silent words—but she's no longer fully present.
Fear claws at my chest. This is beyond my knowledge, beyond my skills as a hunter. A tracker. She needs help that I cannot provide.
She needs her sister-female. She needs Rok.
And they are still at least a sol's journey away.
I adjust my hold on her small form, cradling her against my chest where I can feel each too-rapid beat of her dra-kir. Then I run.
The dust shifts beneath my feet, Ain beats mercilessly upon us both, but I do not slow. My muscles burn with the effort, my lungs working hard to keep pace with my exertion, but these discomforts are nothing compared to the fear driving me forward.
As Ain climbs higher in the sky, Jah-kee's condition worsens. Her breathing grows more labored, her body alternatingbetween terrifying stillness and sudden, violent shivering. The few times her eyes flutter open, they stare past me, seeing things that aren't there.
"S'all burning," she murmurs once, her voice cracked and dry. "Justine... fire everywhere..."
Then, unexpectedly, the mindspace opens between us.
It happens without warning. One moment, I am carrying her burning body across endless sand, the next I am plunged into a whirl of chaotic images and sensations.
A place calledEarth.A world of green and blue, so different from the dust. Tall structures reaching toward the sky. Crowds of humans, moving in unfathomable patterns.
Fear—a lurch, the scream of twisting metal, gravity tilting unnaturally. Jah-kee’s terror rips through me: the taste of copper, her sister-female’s crushing grip, and the detached voice of the metal beast: ‘Payload compromised.’
The images shift faster now. The transport we found in the dust with all the other females. Images of Jus-teen.
And then, abruptly,me.
I see myself through her eyes. Golden skin glowing in the darkness, copper-red hair gleaming in the sunlight, amber eyes watching her with an intensity that startles me.
With the image comes a flood of emotions so powerful they nearly overwhelm me. Fear, yes, but also fascination. Gratitude.Trust.
