Chapter Five
Zhor was torn between anxiety and suspicion regarding his woman.
He was no physician, but he had very carefully examined her for any signs of serious injury and he had seen no reason to be particularly concerned over her health and well being. She was scraped and scratched and bruised to hell and back, but there were no broken bones that he could detect and no cuts deep enough to be a serious threat.
Therewasthe possibility of internal injury, he knew, but he thought that was unlikely or he would have seen some outward sign in this time.
In any case he could do nothing at all about that and saw no reason to worry over it or think about it.
He had been relieved when he found nothing that seemed it might be a point of deep concern, but she had been unconscious more than she had been conscious for nearly the entire week since he had rescued her.
Mayhap he should consider finding someone who knew more about medicine than he did?
He had heard that there was azorphwho lived in the high woods near the forks of the twin rivers that was knowledgeable about herbs and such. It was not likely that he was a true physician since there were no longer houses of knowledge where such things were taught and had not been in a very long time, but it was notimpossible that he had learned from a physician if the medicine man was as ancient as he had heard.
Regardless of his anxiety or the positive things he had heard about thezorphof the high woods, though, taking her was no easy decision.
In the first place he had no idea if he could trust the man to treat his woman. He waszorphafter all and they had been enemiesbeforethe fall. They had certainly not become friends since!
And his woman was neitherzorphnorkerri, nor conkerrie,so the oldzorphwould have no knowledge specific to her kind and might end up doing more harm than good, regardless of intentions.
Then there was the danger he would have to expose her to on the trip there and back, the very real threat that someone would see her and try to kill him to take her.
Or some of her people might be looking for her and try to take her from him.
Finally, though, he decided that he would risk losing her anyway if she truly was injured inside and he did not want to watch her die slowly.
He could fashion a harness to carry her against his chest so that he could move freely and evasively if necessary and bundle her up so that no one would know at a distance what it was that he was carrying.
That decided, he began his preparations, finding atrelhide that was already beyond most of its usefulness and slashing it to make it into the harness and then pouches for carrying water and food for a couple of days in case of need.
When he had secured the harness and supplies, he moved to the entrance to his habitat, removed the bolt, and began to roll the massive door out of the way.
He caught a flash of movement from the corner of his eye before he had moved it into the fully open position so that he could lock it in place. Annika moved so swiftly and silently, he barely caught a glimpse of her as she darted past him and dove out the door.
He might have dismissed it as imagination until it was too late to act except that she had barely cleared the door when she let out a shriek that made his hair stand on end.
He leapt into the opening without waiting to lock the door in place and just barely managed to dive through the opening before he was caught by the thing as it swung back toward him. He scarcely noticed. His woman was half way down by the time he managed to spot her and falling faster than he would have thought possible.
She had gained such speeds that by the time he managed to catch up to her they were both traveling so fast the collision nearly knocked both of them senseless. It certainly stunned him, but thankfully only briefly.
Annika pierced his stupor, literally, with the slice of her nails as she clawed for a hold to save herself.
Zhor was in no position to defend himself when it took every ounce of strength and concentration just to slow their fall even a little. He didn’t know what the maniac was trying to do—climb over him or claw a hole through him—but it was touch and go for many moments while he fought to restrain her and catch an updraft that would prevent them from splattering on the hard rocks below. They plummeted at such speed that they were within a hair’s breadth of death when he finally managed to capture an updraft with enough strength to avert disaster.
He was badly shaken by the near miss, furious both that she’d scared the ever loving shit out of him and that she’d tried to destroy herself to escape.
But it didn’t occur to him once, even briefly, to let her go to save himself.
Once he had subdued her enough to glide, she plastered herself to him so tightly that she impeded his ability to fly. Weak already from the adrenaline rush that flooded him at the peak of the crisis and then abandoned him almost as abruptly, he fought his way up the cliff inch by inch and finally simply fell into the opening with her.
By the time he’d managed to catch his breath—long before he managed to gather the strength for it, fortunately—rage flooded him and the desire to beat the fuck out of her for nearly getting both of them killed.
He honestly didn’t know what the plan was when he started trying to pry her loose. He simply felt an overwhelming need to put some distance between them before he did anything he would regret.
She wouldn’t allow it.
Shaking as if she was almost too weak to breathe, she nevertheless maintained an unbreakable grip on him. Every time he managed to pull one hand loose, she tightened the other until he began to think she was trying to strangle him.
