Chapter Five
My eyes slitted against the cold wind of the southern end of the planet I looked about at what had once been my people’s home for hundreds of years. All that I saw was ice and it was so cold that the only true way to describe this barren landscape was to say it was the essence of cold itself. Cold in temperature and cold in bleak formation.
I stepped forward my boots crunching on the icy ground, as snow pellets stung at my cheek. Fire and ice. I wasn’t sure which side of the planet I preferred over the other. Either way you looked at it there was little to welcome home a long-lost son of the land.
Brightness in the dark drove me to head off towards my right and before long I came across a flow of molten rock. The blast of heat was welcome, but the chill at my back didn’t abate any in intensity. I needed to find shelter and quick.
I moved along the hissing stream of lava, as close as I dared to, in order to feel its warmth. As I made my way along I couldn’t help but wonder why of all places Zayri had chosen to jump out over these ice fields.
There was more water than the desert side for sure, but I found the freezing cold no more hospitable than the lizards of the dry side of the planet. To have jumped out into such a desolate landscape as this bespoke of confidence and perhaps some knowledge of the land. How would she have had such knowledge?
Could she be a former slave descendent? If she was of my people then I had perhaps stumbled upon my first solid means of convincing her to help me.
She was a thief and rumored to be a loner so any allegiance she might have would be thin at best. Still it was something.
The lava flow made a gushing noise up ahead and glancing forward I watched as steam rose up from what appeared to be a precipice of some kind. Carefully I made my way to the edge and looked down over what indeed was a cliff.
It seemed that I was at the border of an ancient sea or perhaps a lake. A flat plane of ice stretched out for as far as I could see in the semidarkness.
At the base of the cliff was the only place I saw water actual moving. In fact it was boiling. The lava flow kept an open hole punched through the ice, as it cascaded down over the cliff and into the body of water at the base of the cliff.
I noticed something peculiar then. A large pipe led up out of the open hole in the ice and led off along the surface of the ice toward the opposing shoreline of what appeared to have once been a natural harbor before the ice had taken over.
That pipe meant one thing. People.
Hurriedly I looked for a way down off the cliff top to the ice sheet below. Seeing a way I started down.
Distances were deceptive. It took me upwards of an hour to get down off the fifty foot rise above the frozen water. The ice plastered to everything made the simplest of movements hazardous.
I stepped out over the ice towards the pipe and about did a split. Cowboy boots were not my friend here. A pair moccasins would’ve been better, but the thought of nothing but a piece of leather between the ice and my foot sent a shiver up my spine.
Reaching the pipe I saw that the end of it elbowed down into the boiling water. Touching the metallic pipe my hand felt warmth. They were apparently pumping the water out of the hole and using it for something.
I shook my head as the ingenuity of what they were doing occurred to me. They were using the warm water as an unlimited heat source.
Beneath the cloak I wore I slipped the trigger guard off my gun and began flexing my frozen fingers in order to get them to work for me if needed. I followed along the pipe hoping it would lead me someplace warm and sheltered away from the wind.
I stopped a hundred feet or so offshore from the opposing cliff of what I felt sure had once been a harbor in better days. There appeared to be a series of old sea caves in the cliff face before me now.
Airships of a medley of differing designs were parked within them. Taking a close look at the airships I came to a very unwelcome conclusion. This was a pirate cove.
They were using the inhospitableness of this world to hide their base of operations from forces of the law. I had not just one thief to contend with, but perhaps a hundred or more.
I stood there in the cold wracked by indecision as to what to do. I really had no choice, when it came down to it.
I stepped out toward the one cave that had been fronted over with metal siding and that had a door in it. It was where the pipe disappeared to as well.
Stepping up to the door I tried it and found it unlocked. I stepped in briskly and slammed it shut behind me.
Warm air welcomed me, but that was where the relief stopped. I was in a cavern like room that bore an uncanny resemblance to a typical Western-style bar back on Earth. Some things didn’t change.
Hard eyed stares greeted my arrival from both men and women alike. It was a hard looking lot for sure. I could only applaud this group of brigands for their cunning in flying so cleverly under the radar.
Experience had taught me that there was only one way to play out such a deck of cards as I had just been dealt. One had to be upfront, because if for even an instant one projected a spirit of fear before such a cut throated mob as this, you could expect to be dead just as quickly.
I made my way through the crowded place and up to the bar. Digging a gold piece out of my pocket I slammed it down on the bar and said, “I’ll take some of your lava water. Warm preferably.”
The bartender, a balding man, with an eye patch over his left eye to go along with the atmosphere of the place picked my gold piece up and bit into it.
Studying his tooth impression in the coin he nodded approvingly and put a glass of murky looking water on the bar top before me. I seized a hold of it and drank the whole glass down.
It wasn’t water per se. Firewater would’ve been a better name for it. I hadn’t had a drink of alcohol in years, but for now I was somewhat grateful for the bite of the drink as suddenly I wasn’t cold anymore.
“I know this man! I seen him off-world twenty or thirty light years from here. He’s a law man!”
The pointed anonymity of everyone within the place rose a notch and in the silence that followed the man’s ascertation of who I was I turned and faced the room. Boldly I said, “That’s right, I’m a law man and I’ve come to arrest you all. Put your weapons on the bar and line up to be cuffed.”
There was a moment of silence then, which was shattered by the sound of laughter by almost everyone in the room. I wasn’t deceived though. I knew what was coming.
A man close to me with a curled mustache of epic proportions swung a bottle at my head. I ducked and grabbing one end of the handlebar mustache I pulled and the man followed along screaming.
His face met my uplifting knee and the crunch of his nose was a sickeningly audible sound within the room. There was a moment of shock then before all hell broke loose.
They came at me from all corners and I did my best not to give them a still target to focus on. It was to my advantage that half of them were drunk, but there were far too many of them to be able to realistically overcome.
The odds didn’t matter. It was in my nature to fight. In fact I enjoyed it.
*****
I’d taken several hits to the head that had jarred a few less grounded thoughts loose to bat around within the recesses of my mind. The smoky hint of pain faded to be replaced by an analytical appreciation on my part for the joy of a no holds barred fight.
I slammed a kick into a downed man’s rib cage. Dodged a woman’s out thrusting claws and made sure to push her forward into a man’s punch that had been intended for me.
I really frowned on hitting women, but there were those times when a man had to do what he had to do. I gripped a brunette by the hair that had just smashed a chair across my back and swinging her up I threw her bodily at three onrushing men. All four of them went down.
I was grabbed from behind by a choking hold of an arm about my neck. I sent both my elbows backward to smash into the man’s ribs and with a wheeze his hold on me slackened and I stepped out of his arm lock only to be knocked upside the head by an unseen right fisted punch that had power to it.
The fight went badly for me then and it became increasingly hard to give out as much as I was receiving. In fact, I was wincing at the expected impact of a drawn back fist, as I was held for the moment immobile by two others.
A women’s voice, I knew only too well, rang out, “Tarken stop!”
The muscled pirate before me gave a befuddled blink before dropping his fist to stare at the woman issuing the order. In general the fight against me had stopped.
It would seem that Zayri had garnered quite a bit of respect among her thieving brethren, which was of no surprise to me as she was the best thief that I had ever run across. The two men holding me let go and I stood unsteadily on my feet, as I weaved about slightly in my effort to remain standing.
Everything hurt. I hadn’t been in a fight like this since the Civil War, only I’d been a lot younger then. I spit out a mouthful of blood and felt about my teeth with my tongue, only to gratefully find that they were still all there. Call me vain, but I had no desire to join in with the ranks of those who featured the toothless look.
My hands were bleeding badly from where I’d worn the skin off the knuckles and from deflecting the punches of others. Wiping at my face I dryly noted that I’d put more blood on it than I had wiped off.
My one eye was swelled shut, but the other was able to focus enough to see Zayri now standing close by. I felt her slip my pistol free of its holster with a light touch and her words soon followed, “Why didn’t you use your gun Marshal?”
I hurt all over and I wasn’t entirely sure I was fully conscious, but strangest of all was that I couldn’t get over how good she smelled. Shrugging I about fell and one of her hands was on my arm constraining me from completing my trip to the floor.
From busted lips I muttered, “Didn’t see much point in killing anybody. Not what I came for.”
“You didn’t answer my question Marshal.” I heard her say softly.
Blinking I stared at her confused out of my one good eye. My thinking admittedly was slow, but her statement made no sense. Then, I realized, looking into her eyes that she was referring to me not shooting her when I’d had the chance to back on the hovercraft.
I didn’t have an answer, other than there was something about her I found undeniable and never wanted to see harmed.
Her eyes on me were too intense to keep meeting in direct contact. My eyes drifted down to the warm looking upper exposed contours of her breasts and I darted my gaze back up to hers hoping my attraction to her wasn’t as much of an open book as I feared it was.
Too late. I saw the realization in her eyes and immediately I wondered how she would use it against me. Incredibly though, I saw her step closer to my blindside and then I felt her loop my arm about her shoulders, even as her hand came around my back to press against my far side for added support.
I tried to resist, but there was little left in me to protest against anything, least of all the soft feel of her skin and form pressed up against my side.
“I’m bleeding on you.” I said huskily, as she directed me toward a doorway, as her arm around my back urged me forward.
“It will wash.”
I let her lead me on and taking a moment I looked about the bar only to see that the place had been quite demolished in the fight. Pulling my remaining money free from my pocket in an action that hurt my chaffed knuckles I tossed the remaining gold pieces on the counter before the bartender, “Sorry about the mess.”
“Don’t be! Haven’t seen so much excitement in years! Would you like some more lava water?”
I knew the alcohol would burn, but right now the thought of something to help numb the pain was a temptation I couldn’t resist, but before my lips could speak Zayri spoke out instead, “The Marshal doesn’t drink.”
The bartender blinked and in a puzzled tone I asked, “How do you know?”
“I make it my business to study all the habits of my adversaries. When you came in here you really didn’t want alcohol, but you made the mistake of asking for it because we call Barney’s concoction of rotgut, lava water. However I don’t recommend drinking seawater in its place.”
“No, I imagine not.” I said, a bit befuddled by everything going on.
Had Zayri really stepped in and broken up the fight and was she even now helping me? She certainly looked and smelled real. As my Aunt Ruth would’ve said, “The good Lord surely does work in mysterious ways.”
“Can I have my gun back?”
“No.” She said coolly.
“Am I a prisoner here?”
“It depends.”
“Depends on what?”
“Why did you come? And what are you going to do with the knowledge of this place?”
I squeezed her shoulder lightly, “Relax. I’m out of the law business.”
“Oh really. How come?”
“I found something better to do.”
“You intrigue me Marshal, but you still haven’t answered my question of why you are here.”
I really didn’t feel that now was the best time to go into my reason for being here. I wasn’t in my right mind so to speak and I felt the grave need to pass out and be dead to the world for a day or so.
She stopped her progress down the long hallway, which forced me to a halt. Groaning I realized I had no choice.
“I need your help.”
She was silent, but she started walking again.
We entered a room with a decidedly feminine touch to it despite the rocky walls. I saw a chair and headed for it. It hurt to stand let alone walk. Someone had smashed something across my one knee and my one hip hurt abominably from where someone had kicked me.
Zayri shifted me in a different direction and I saw a narrow bed along the one wall. I shook my head puzzled, “Why are you helping me?”
“Someone needs to. Goodness knows you don’t have the good sense El Elohim gave to a gnat to come walking in here like you did.”
Far from being insulted at being referred to as of less social status than a gnat I chuckled instead. Oh my ribs hurt!
Cringing I lowered myself down onto the bed. I lay there for a moment blessedly free of a lot of the discomfort of being upright.
Looking up at her standing there I tried to remember what we had been talking about, but so help me I couldn’t. Instead honesty came from my uncontrolled fogginess of mind, “You’re beautiful.”
I saw a slight flush highlight her features and some part of my willful consciousness cringed. I shouldn’t have said that.
She turned away and was gone. Darn it! I’d offended her.
Suddenly she was back and sitting down on the bed beside me. I looked at her in surprise, but it was hard to keep my one eye open.
“Don’t fight it Marshal. I promise to not take advantage of you while you sleep.”
Strange my normal self would be affronted at the thought of being at this woman’s mercy, but right now I really didn’t mind the idea at all of being at her mercy. That was alarming, but all I felt was peace.
She had a warm wet rag and she was wiping at my face with it. It hurt and felt good at the same time.
“I’m sorry.” She said softly.
“Sorry for what?” I asked dreamily, as I felt unconsciousness begin to close around me.
“For not stopping the fight sooner.”
She was sorry about that? How odd.
My shirt was being pulled away from me and I heard her gasp so loudly that I came to full awareness and half started to rise to see what the threat in the room was, but she pushed me back down.
“What’s the matter?” I asked thickly, as my one good eye had already fallen closed again. I was so tired.
“What happened to your side?”
“A Ranzer took a swipe at me. I was bleeding out so I packed volatile sand in the wound.”
She swore loudly and my hand rose blindly to feel at her face, “Don’t swear.”
My hand fell from her face and slid down to lay conformed around the warm contour of one breast. She always dressed so provocatively and I’d hated her for it, because of the temptation she offered, but right now I couldn’t care less.
I should take my hand away, but it remained as if it had a will of its own. The comforting feel of her was the last thing I remembered.
*****
Zayri looked down at the Marshal’s intimately possessive hold on her. She should move his hand away, but he seemed to be drawing comfort from the touch of her so she remained not moving within his grasp.
Her eyes left his hand to look down upon his bruised, but impressively muscled physique. He’d called her beautiful, but as a man he was beautiful to her.
That beauty was now in part marred by the angry swath of burned flesh along his one side. Quite unbidden she felt tears slip down her face.
She’d been attracted to the straightlaced marshal for years and what was more was that she respected him as she did few men. She hadn’t wanted him to die, but he’d gotten to close to capturing her and she’d had to do something to throw him off her trail.
Stranding him in the desert had been the best compromise she could make. An act that wouldn’t outright kill him, but most likely would have led to his demise in time.
He’d survived though, as she thought he might and now he was here in her room. What was she going to do?
She heard noise and looking up she saw Marcy step into the room. Marcy was a tall robust blonde that now featured a black eye, but otherwise seemed none the worse for wear.
Coming closer she observed the sleeping Marshal’s grasp of her and smiled before saying, “It looks like the long arm of the law has finally caught up with you Zayri.”
Zayri looked from her to the Marshal as a flush once again warmed her features. Marcy’s hand settled warmly on her shoulder and squeezed before she leaned down to whisper in Zayri’s ear, “I wouldn’t let this opportunity slip by you. The life of a thief, howbeit, a necessary one for some of us, doesn’t have to be the only avenue for all of us to ever venture into in life.”
Marcy left closing the door and Zayri was left with a choice to make. She shook her head as a soft smile played about her lips.
This was so unlike anything she’d ever heard about this man. She was witnessing his true emotions right now. It would likely be a different story when he woke up.
Looking about the room she took in the bare sparseness of the room’s furnishings. The life of a thief, while it had its moments of glamour and excitement, in the end it was an often empty and bare experience.
The warmest thing in the room was the Marshal’s hand on her. He needed her help. That alone was exciting.
And as for glamour she’d had her fill of it. Whatever it was that he wanted she’d do it, but she wanted something in return.
She wanted more of what he was giving her right now, a loving touch. She’d only felt the harshness of others expressed towards her in life in terms of touch. His touch was the first that actually seemed to give back more than it took.
Looking at him she acknowledged that she had deep feelings for this latest stranger to come from Earth into the outer worlds. He’d hunted her and now he’d caught her.
His hand started to slip and she caught it. Pressing a kiss to the scabbed over knuckles she debated about what to do.
He’d be a different man when he woke up, but now she knew the truth of what she’d glimpsed on the transport craft before she’d jumped. He couldn’t resist her.
That fact most likely made him angry she mused to herself. So what to do?
It would no doubt make him happy that she would willingly cooperate with him. But with the mystery job done he’d probably go back to drifting again. Like her he was always moving on, but she didn’t want that life anymore.
She wanted to be in the sun running from nothing and experiencing love and devotion from a real man. How then to make him settle and stop his drifting pursuit of bringing justice to the stars?
He’d said he wasn’t in the law business anymore. That was curious.
She laid his hand down on the bed as a plan emerged. It was simple really. She’d seduce him.
She’d have to be careful though. The Marshal was a very straightlaced individual. Being too overt in her seduction would be no good. She’d have to make him think being with her was his idea, which meant she needed to provide the proper amount of playful resistance, while at the same time putting herself out as a prize not to be denied.
Right now however in his unconscious state he was fair game. Going to the door she locked it.
She could only imagine what the others must be thinking of her actions. Marcy had probably already blabbed everything she’d seen to one and all.
It didn’t matter. Her crew was loyal to her and would accept any decision she made. She’d set this hiding place up and she’d been the one to put forward a plan of action that had seen them all profit greatly in the past few years. Her exodus now from the scene, while missed, wouldn’t be crippling.
She came back to stand beside the bed. Despite the excitement of the moment she was tired. The Marshal however took up most of her bed with his large frame.
Smiling, she slipped her dress off. She liked pretty things and her undergarments were perhaps among the prettiest in the galaxy. It helped her to feel feminine to know how she looked beneath the clothes she wore, when constantly surrounded by the roughest elements of the criminal world.
Another thing she liked was to smell nice. Going to a little table she pulled free a small bottle from a drawer that had a blend of essential oils held within it.
The blend of oils was extremely rare. She’d traded an entire collection of diamonds and rubies just for this one bottle. It had been worth it.
Still smiling, she took one drop and dabbed it onto her chest, which she then rubbed into the skin. It was a temptation to take everything off, but that would be too much.
Going to the bed she pulled his boots off and set them on the floor and then climbing over him she fit herself into the narrow space between him and the wall. Pulling the blankets up over both of them she lay on her side staring at him.
Smiling she listened to him snoring. She’d never cared about the sound of men snoring, but with anything that was him she was completely captivated by it. Acknowledgly, she was growing completely infatuated with him and in the here and now she was reveling in the experience of being so close to him and not having to fear that he intended to haul her away in chains to some dank abusive prison world to serve out her many crimes.
Staring at his lips she could barely refrain from kissing them. She wouldn’t have refrained at all except for the fact that they were both split and that if she kissed him like she wanted to she might cause him pain and maybe cause his lips to start bleeding again.
Leaning forward she contented herself with kissing the goose egged knot over his one eye. Pulling back she watched him sleep in a mixture of fascination and sensual tension.
She wanted him, but she’d have to wait. Idly she flexed her ring finger. Would a man like him ever marry a woman like her?
She hoped so. He began to stir slightly and in alarm she watched him move beside her. If he woke up right now it wouldn’t be good!
His eyes didn’t open though. He’d turned on his side and with an instinctive motion he pulled her to him.
Eyes wide open she now lay still within his arms. His breath ruffled her hair, as her cheek was pressed to his chest. Tentatively she hugged him to her with her upper arm, while being careful not to let her arm lay on the burned flesh of his side.
She breathed in the heady aroma this man had, while laying still in the bed, yearning all the while for more. She’d never experienced anything like this before.
She only had a vague memory of a mother holding her as a child and then it had been a rough-and-tumble life of managing to just survive. The muscles against her cheek and the arms about her were security itself and his smell was reassuring as much as it was intoxicating.
“I think I’m falling in love with you Marshal.” She breathed out closing her eyes, as she relished the closeness of him finally being near to her.