Page 46 of Elanie & the Empath
“What did he say?” I eventually asked. “The voice?”
With a barely perceptible shudder, she said, “Join us. Never be a servant again. Be free, Elanie. Join Golgunda and be free.”
The skin along my neck prickled, the hairs along my arms rising in a slow wave.
“I don’t want to join them, Sem.” She nestled into me, curling her fingers into my shirt, holding on for dear life. The rare show of vulnerability rattled me more thananything else had so far. “I don’t want to be free. I want to go back to our ship. I want to go home.”
“I know,” I said into her hair, running my hand up and down her back, over the soft silk of her pajama top. “I know. And we will, I promise.”
I just had to figure out how.
17.SEM
Sweat dripped from my brow,my arms shaking, palms stinging, blisters forming.
“Sem.”
It was the second time she’d said my name and the second time I ignored it. Redoubling my efforts, I grunted like a caveman. Which, I realized with an exhausted and mildly hysterical laugh, I kind of was.
“Sem, honestly.”
My stick snapped in half. “Shit.”
I gazed up, and laughter danced in her eyes. “You are very stubborn.”
“I just wanted to be able to do one thing,” I grumbled. “Just one.”
This was the longest I’d ever gone without using my empathy. And maybe it was the same as when any being lost the use of one of their senses, but the lack of emotional input was making me pay closer attention to what I saw and heard and felt. For instance, the grin she was giving me, it was loud. That’s the only way I could describe it. Loud and clear amusement with a side of pity.
She held out her hand. “Let me try.”
Reluctantly, I surrendered my makeshift fireboard and a fresh stick. Then I sat back on my heels and watched in wordless awe as she twirled her hands at bionic speeds, creating an ember in seconds.
“That is completely unfair,” I muttered, sprinkling dry pine needles over the ember. When I leaned over to blow gently on the tiny flame, I glanced up, catching her eyes on mine, her lower lip tucked between her teeth. And while she looked away quickly, I didn’t. I lingered on that full lower lip, the way it slipped from her teeth, wet and glistening in the dim orange glow.
Twenty minutes later, the fire was roaring, and I was still thinking about that lip. But the change inside the cave was miraculous. Heat. Light. That nostalgic crackle and pop reminding me of warm nights spent camping on the beaches of Portis. The relief of knowing that I wasn’t going to freeze to death. And, maybe most importantly, the knowledge that we could finally eat.
Holding up our MREs, I asked, “Aquilinian spiced veg or New Earth cheeseburger stew?”
“Cheeseburger,” she replied, running her fingers through her hair like it might be tangled, even though it still looked smooth and silky to me.
I ripped the packages open with my teeth, then I walked them outside to fill them with snow. When I gazed up at the sky, I took a breath, filling my lungs with cold, clear air.
The days on Golgunda were short, just over sixteen Standard hours, and the pink and purple clouds of evening streaked above the sun as it sank below the southern horizon. The wind was calm tonight, and the creak of lake ice refreezing after the warmth of the day tickled my ears. It was beautiful, peaceful. I wanted to call Elanie out to join me,but we needed to eat. And then I needed to get the comms working. And she might try to strangle me again if I did, so…
“This is actually pretty good.” She stirred her stew with a spoon she’d whittled out of a spare branch. Well, not so much whittled as forced into compliance using sheer bionic strength. A thing that was, quite frankly, terrifying to watch. And made me realize how much modern bionics hid their actual strength from the worlds.
“Really good,” I agreed, digging in with the spoon she’d made for me. “And when we’re done, we can use the empty packages for water.”
“Good idea.” The fire illuminated her face, shadows and light playing over her skin.
While the fire sparkled in her eyes, she asked, “Are you happy being a doctor?”
“Happy?”
“Yes, happy,” she said. “It’s a sensation of pleasure or contentment?—”
“Two jokes in one day!” I held out a hand for a high five.
