Chapter Thirteen
Stubborn
Ellanara woke up with a start and raised her head up sharply only to groan with pain. Her neck was so stiff that it hurt to move it to either side.
“I’m sorry about that.” Came an extremely deep masculine voice from somewhere in the darkness.
With a gasp Ellanara sat up looking around her in search of the voice. She didn’t see him, but she felt him and ripples of dangered awareness had her rising to her knees ready to flee, but to where?
What was this place?
Her voice sounded tremulous to her own ears as she quivered out, “Who’s there?”
The darkness of the room was lit up enough by the outside night sky for her to discern that it was circular in shape with scattered pillars here and there. At her words the room began to brighten in an exciting way. The surrounding walls were glass or something like it.
A twisting intertwining light cord pattern that represented the leaves of an arbor vine with radiant multicolored blooms began to work its way up the glass walls of the circular room in an intricately random pattern. When the vines of color reached the tall ceiling they twined over to the four massive columns in the room and started down them. As the cords of light descended down one of the four columns it illuminated her captor.
In awe stricken terror she watched, as he became clearly visible and then she started to scuttle backwards across the floor. She was jerked to a stop, as a rope tied around her ankle grew taut. She looked down at the unrelenting restraint and whimpered in fright. This wasn’t happening to her! It just couldn’t be, but it was!
The big man just stood there studying her and then she sensed what he was up to. He was using her fear, which had relaxed her mental blocks, in order to delve into her mind. She just couldn’t allow that and she fought valiantly to swallow down her fear and strengthen the blocks again. He’d managed to get past some of her defenses, but he hadn’t seen anything vitally important, at least she hoped not. His mental war on her was in some ways even more imposing than just the physical sight of him.
Together the physical and the mental aspects of her captor had combined into her worst nightmare. He was a man, who could dominate her both mentally and physically. She was without control over any part of the situation she found herself in. She’d never felt more vulnerable on every level, then she did right now, in her whole life.
Her captor spoke, “Impressive.” He said, as he separated away from the pillar and started to walk toward her.
Ellanara had never been more afraid of anyone in her life than she was of him and fervently she whispered in a desperate plea, “Oh God please help me!”
She watched in a sort of silent horror as he approached. He had to be almost, if not, seven feet tall! Her eyes glanced down to his thighs, as he took a step toward her. His thigh looked almost as thick as her waist!
Ellanara glanced up from the massively muscled legs to his powerful torso and beyond. His arms and shoulders were bare and his skin was blacker than the night. She’d never seen anyone so black before. The muscles of his arms rippled in grand display and she followed them up past massive shoulders to his powerful and ruggedly sculpted face. His face may have been handsome once, but now it was hard and she saw no softness in it. His expressive eyes that seemed to burn through her were the only outward signs of any emotion that she could detect. His black hair fell to his shoulders in tiny little beaded knots that must’ve taken hours to do.
She had thought that the pinkish random lines on his arms and face were tattoos of some sort, but then she realized that they were scars. There were a lot of scars. He was a warrior that much was clear to her, but what else was he? Tentatively Ellanara reached out with her mind to delve into his, but his was completely closed off to her.
“I’ve learned my lesson little Queen.” He said tapping his head with a finger.
Ellanara just stared back at him blankly, what did he mean by that statement?
He squatted down briefly beside her ankle in one muscle rippling motion. He pulled out a knife and her breathing sped up even more. What did he need a knife for, when he could choke her to death with one hand if he wanted to?
“This was only meant to keep you from running off before I got back. You’re choking off your circulation, ease your foot back a little.” He said, but she remained still.
Ellanara watched, as he tugged on the rope around her ankle a little, which scooted her whole body back to him slightly. He slipped the knife in his other hand between the rope and her skin and sliced the rope off. She then scooted back as far she could go, until she was stopped by the glass at her back. He loomed close over her and she couldn’t escape, as he kneeled down beside her.
On a panicked indrawn breath she watched both of his hands come to the sides of her head and abruptly she felt the onrush of his thoughts into her consciousness. His thoughts were overpowering, but she couldn’t let him have her thoughts!
By sheer force of will she held onto the crumbling wall in her mental focus that she didn’t even quite understand herself. She’d only replicated the one he’d given her and messed it up a little in an attempt to make it her own, but apparently she’d done a good job of it, because she sensed great frustration in the thoughts that bombarded her in search of a way through. He was a master at this and she felt woefully inadequate of being up to the task of stopping him. It felt like her very mind was heating up and then there was pain.
Sobbing and pulling at his hands she tried to get free, but he didn’t budge and then abruptly he let her go. Slowly opening her eyes as the pain departed Ellanara heard him sigh then watched as he got up and went to a pillar in the center of the room. He looked mad and her observation was confirmed when he slammed both fists into the pillar.
The glass behind her back rattled, as did the whole building. The man’s strength reminded her of what Sampson from the Bible must’ve been like to behold in the flesh. A quiver of something else went through her other than fear and she quickly shoved it away out of embarrassment and in order to focus on what hadn’t happened.
He hadn’t gotten what he wanted from her, which she didn’t understand. She had seen quite clearly just how much he had been holding himself back from delving into her thoughts. Why? Why would he hold back?
Her eyes widened, as the answer came to her. He had stopped because he would’ve hurt or killed her. He wanted her alive and uninjured, which was good, but it didn’t answer why? Who was he and how had he gotten past everybody including Abby to take her from off the ship?
Confounded, difficult, stubborn, little female, I angrily raged to myself, as I let my head fall forward against the pillar. All the information I needed was housed not twenty feet from me and I couldn’t get to it! I winced. That wasn’t the truth.
I could get what I needed, but I would’ve had to break her beautiful mind and I just wasn’t going to do that. I hadn’t become that cruel and uncaring yet. “Thank God!” I whispered out slightly in profound relief.
Positive self revelation or not I needed to know what she knew, but the only way I would get what I needed was if she told me. How was I going to get her to tell me? She would have to like me, even trust me to divulge such secrets, as I knew that she held.
I glanced back at her to see her still recovering from the shock of my invasion of her mind. I turned my head back to the pillar. She wasn’t going to tell me anything soon, if ever. She was absolutely terrified of me and I didn’t blame her.
In her eyes I was nothing but a beast. I sighed deeply admitting in some ways that was exactly what I had become. I needed to be more sensitive and civilized for lack of a better way of putting it.
I had gone about finding out what I needed entirely the wrong way. First I had scared her to death in her room, then I had kidnapped her, and then I had let her fear of me run rampant, because I thought it would be enough to weaken her resolve to protect her secrets, but it hadn’t been. She’d been very courageous in how she’d fought my invasion of her thoughts and last of all I had caused her pain, which in a way was a confirmation of all her fears about me no doubt.
I in all reality in her eyes was a strange exotic looking monster that had dragged her off to be devoured later in my cave. Not a good beginning. Who was I kidding? It was a completely hopeless beginning!
I sighed heavily, even as that may be I still had to try. The security of my people could depend upon it and there wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do to protect them and secure a hopeful future for them. Then why don’t you break her mind and take what you need came a thought into my consciousness. I answered it, because I’m not a monster ,even though I have behaved as one for many years.
I turned away from the pillar and walked halfway toward her. I stopped right about the point where I figured she might get up and start running from me. “I’m sorry that by my actions I have scared you and caused you pain. I have lost more of my humanity than I’d even thought I had, but still enough remains for me to see the wrongness of my actions. I’ll take you back to your ship and your people in the morning, but for now may I offer you my lodgings for the night and what food I have?”
She blinked several times at me and I found myself once again mesmerized by her unique eyes. She didn’t move so I moved away toward the door.
“Who are you?” She asked calling out behind me.
I turned back to her and saw her get to her feet gracefully. “Salanicus.” I said before I finished walking to the table near the door. I picked up my staff and intentionally I let her see it knowing that it would attract the curious side of her.
My staff was a simple black color, but it culminated in a large roundly faceted crystal that shot out rays of ultraviolet colored light, which twined down the staff and inlaid itself into the black background in an ever-changing pattern of intensity. I glanced out of the corner of my eye at her and was quite pleased to see her attention quite hooked onto the staff’s peculiarities. She was the type that yearned to know what made the unexplained tick.
She hadn’t come any closer though and I decided to use a bluff, “If you would prefer you can stay here and I’ll be back in the morning to take you to your ship, but don’t wander out into the ruins at night. Night is when the zanzars prowl and I would hate to see you fall prey to them.” I turned and went through the door, as I did the solarium went dark behind me.
“Wait! I’m coming!” She called out on a desperate note.
I smiled to myself, but I made sure the smile was gone when I glanced back to see if she was following behind me in the dark. She was, but she kept a short distance between us. I couldn’t but help notice how sure footed she was in the dark, as she stepped over and around obstacles that lay in her path.
“Your eyes do they help you see in the dark?” I asked curiously.
She glanced up at me and after a moment nodded.
“Then they are functional as well as they are beautiful, a rare combination to have in life.” I said softly before turning back around and continuing on down the trail. I didn’t see her reach up to touch her face near her eye for a moment and it wouldn’t have occurred to me why that was significant even if I had.
I entered the underground floor and made my way through the shattered ruins, until I came to a door, which I opened and held for her. Warily she moved past me and entered into the room, which lit up at her entrance. She gasped at the visual array of artifacts that lay around the room.
I’d found them throughout the ruins at various times in the past and I had saved them. I’m not sure why, perhaps out of some attempt to hold onto all that once was, but would never be again. While the artifacts were next to useless for my purposes I could see that they held nothing but fascination for her, which is what I had intended to happen by bringing her here.
She wandered about the room keeping a wary eye on me, as I put what food I did have out onto the room’s only table. I pulled a chair out and I held onto it not in any hurry to disrupt her exploration. I was also in a way proud that I had managed to remember something of my manners from bygone days.
She saw me standing with the chair pulled out and blushed. It was different seeing a woman with such white skin. I hadn’t thought I would be attracted as much as I was to a white woman, but I was. She was very beautiful and the rosy red flush to her cheeks was quite eye-catching. My eyes fell from hers to the chair I held for her. This was a test.
I could’ve pulled out the chair and left it, but I want to see if she would come with me holding it. Reluctantly she did and she sat down having to turn her back to me when she did. This was an improvement!
I started to go to my side but abruptly stopped. The top of the table came to just below her chest. My eyes rose from the table to hers and sheepishly I said, “It’s a little big isn’t it?”
She met my gaze and I was intrigued to see a slight glint of humor in her eyes that almost overwhelmed me with the appeal it added to her in addition to what she already had.
“I can get you a cushion to sit on.” I offered.
“No, this will be fine thank you” she said quickly.
The food was kind of simple, but it was good. Hopefully she thought the same; at least she was eating it. I couldn’t really remember when the last time had been when I had shared a meal with someone. I had forgotten how nice it could be to share something such as food with someone.
I heard her gasp and I looked up to see her feeling around at her neck. Not finding what she sought she turned her accusing blue-eyed dagger stare on me and I knew what she was after. Out of a pocket in my leather vest I pulled out the necklace with its two rings.
“Those are mine! You had no right to steal them from me!” She said angrily.
I rose up from the table placing the rings in the palm of my hand, as I went to stand at her side of the table. I undid the delicate clasp of the necklace and I lifted it to drop it before her on the table. Her eyes lifted from the necklace before her up to mine in open question, as to why I still had both rings.
“That is all I stole from you. These are not yours to have. They are my peoples and have been since just after their creation a long time ago on a world far from here.
“What are you talking about? Tadias my great ancestor passed those rings specifically on to me!” She accused self righteously.
I glanced down to the rings in my palm, “Yes, Tadias had the rings, but they were given to him by my father before your people left this galaxy. They are mine, but I will abide by my father’s wishes and give you one of them.” I said, as I laid the small ring on the table next to the piled up necklace.
“The other ring I keep for myself as is my right.” I picked the bigger ring off of my palm and slid it onto my ring finger. The carved engravings came to life and shown a fiery gold color that pulsed with the beat of my heart.
Ellanara starred in shock at the ring pulsing on my finger. Shaking her head she said, “I don’t understand? I need these rings! I’m supposed to……” She broke off in midsentence and I could tell that she was starting to put it all together.
“Two houses? Two peoples?” She said, as she touched the white skin of her arm and then she looked over at the black skin of my arm.
“Little Queen.” She whispered out with baited breath.
She looked up at me and I saw misery in her eyes, “You’re a warrior, a great warrior aren’t you? The greatest to ever have lived in a thousand years?”
The depth of misery was so great in her eyes that I almost wanted to deny the truth, because I hated to disappoint her, but I had to tell her the truth so I nodded yes. Her eyes dropped from mine to stare at the ring on the table.
My eyes widened a little, as she suddenly screamed, “No! No! No!” She said, as she pounded the table with her little fist in time with each declaration.
Wow! This girl had a temper to match her glorious hair! Perhaps we were a well-placed match after all.
The anger melted away and dissolved into deep wrenching sobs, as she seemed to fold over on herself her head dipping forward, until it almost touch the edge of the table. Her crying was awful to listen to and I wished it would stop, but I didn’t know what to do to help calm her, as I couldn’t change the circumstances that bound us together.
I just stood there helpless to do anything to fix the situation, as her sobs tore through me like knives. Was I that terrible? She certainly seemed to think so!
Her crying had finally come to register as a lingering quiver throughout her body and I had no sooner relaxed than she abruptly straightened up in her chair. Her shoulders went back and she wiped at the tears on her face in an almost angry fashion, as she tried to regain her composure. She then resolutely reached out and picked up the ring and brought it to her finger.
“Wait! If the ring initializes with you it will never come back off. Only in the event of your death or the removal of your finger will the ring come off. Take a moment and think about what and who you’re about the bind yourself to for forever.”
She looked up at me and starred into my eyes for a long moment then glanced down to the ring poised in front of her finger, “I made a promise and I’m going to keep it.” She said, as she slid the ring on all the way.
The ring lit up and initialized just as mine had. Such a thing had never occurred to my knowledge to anyone not of Sallaconese blood before. I watched Ellanara jerk, as the full meaning of the rings came to her.
Her eyes turned up to mine in horror, “We’re linked now aren’t we? You have open access to all my thoughts!”
I nodded somberly. I hadn’t forced her to put the ring on, but neither had I told her one of the side effects of doing so.
Sullenly she said her voice full of bitterness, “So why haven’t you already taken what it is that you want to know so badly from me? It’s not like I can do anything to stop you now!”
It was all there before me. No walls, easy open access to everything I needed to save my people. My fists tightened, as I strained against the temptation to just reach out with my thoughts and take what I needed from her memories. Perhaps she had been caught in a trap not of her own making, but the same was true of me. It wasn’t just about my people and their continued survival anymore. It was also about her people. When I had slid that ring on and allowed her to slide hers on I had in effect taken responsibility for both of our peoples, thus fulfilling my father’s wishes.
The past history between our peoples was gone now and it had been hard to let it pass, but if we were to get anywhere into a better future than that was the price to be paid. This woman was now my wife and she was worthy to be treated as such, as the ring had fully initiated with her, thus confirming her suitableness to rule by my side.
It would take some convincing of my people though to accept her as a leader over them. My people hated people of white color and they had good reason to. First there had been the cowardly betrayal of their one time friends the Vallians and then my people had almost been brought to the edge of extinction by the Orlandian’s, who while not all white were mostly so.
Despite whatever reservations my people might have they would listen to me and get over it if they wished to survive any further in life. My father had been a greater strategist than even I had realized, as I admitted sourly to myself upon reflection on how neatly he had managed to box me in.
Ellanara glanced up at me in a questioning way. She no doubt was surprised that I hadn’t delved into her thoughts yet to discover her secrets so I decided to put her at ease with my newfound truth, “A husband and wife, which we now are, should have respect for each other. Your thoughts are your own, until you wish to share them with me. I have nothing to hide and you may look as you wish through all my thoughts.”
She stared up at me in open surprise and I was distracted for a moment by her lips, as they fell apart. She was so beautiful, on the tails of that thought came another. She was now all mine. It had been a very long time, but now was not the time. In an effort to refocus my sudden rampaging desires for this woman I asked, “There is one thing I must ask of you that I require an answer to. Roughly 10,000 of my people remain alive scattered over several worlds in this system. Do you have a way of conveying such a large number of additional people off world in search of a new one, where both our peoples can start over again as one?”
“Yes.” She responded softly not putting up any fight or denial of telling me anything.
“I will need to know more about how that is when the time comes. I’m trusting you to let me know when that time is.” I said somberly, as some part of me couldn’t comprehend why I just didn’t take the knowledge I needed from her open consciousness.
Wordlessly she nodded in agreement still looking surprised.
“If you are tired you can rest in my bed over there. I have some things that I need to attend to. You will be quite safe here, but do not venture out into the ruins, as many parts of them are unstable.”
Nervously she stood up and moved back from the table a slight distance, “Where will you be sleeping?” She asked trying to appear calm.
I smiled and she took another step backward, “I rarely if ever sleep. I’ve gotten more than enough rest to last me for several lifetimes. I will see you in the morning Ellanara.” I said, as I walked across the floor to the door, which I closed behind me shutting off view of the beautiful woman within the room. Closing the door had been a very hard thing to do.