“I’m not finished with this conversation.”
“I am. Now leave or I’ll release the video feeds on the local intelewave channel for everyone in town to see.” Eleri started toward the door of the clinic and pressed the button to throw the sliding panel wide open. Bright sunlight streamed in alongwith a healthy dose of blue dust. She was going to have to remember to run a cleaning cycle later. For a moment, Myla lingered, as if debating whether Eleri was going to make good on her threat. Even Eleri wasn’t entirely sure if she was bluffing or not.
“You’ll regret this.”
“Have a good day, Myla.”
“Just remember I tried to give you a better option,” Myla sneered at her, but she didn’t try to stay any longer. With the doors open, their words would be in the public domain. Anything Myla said would be heard. There was no power left in the secrecy of their private conversation. Myla made a rabid series of clicking noises but took the cue to leave. Eleri suspected she might be confronted again later, but the thought no longer filled her with an impending sense of doom.
With Myla gone, Eleri heaved a sigh of relief and was about to close the sliding panel when she noticed K’kaen sitting on the steps of the clinic, eyeing her with sharp interest.
“Should I follow her for you?” he asked.
“I don’t think she’s going to bother me again. At least not for a while.” Eleri glanced around, not seeing an obvious reason for his presence. “Is something wrong?”
“S’samph asked me to wait for you. I can drive you to your appointments this afternoon.”
“It might be a bit. My next appointment isn’t for another standard hour. I have some cleaning to do.” Eleri was about to send him on his way, but she suspected the stubborn latil’e would ignore her regardless of what she said. “Do you want to come inside?”
“It’s cold as the pit in there. No offense, but I’ll wait out here.” K’kaen’s tail flicked with amusement. “I don’t know how you tolerate it. S’samph’s nest is going to be a freezer when you move in. Lucky for me, that’s his problem, not mine.”
Eleri laughed. “Suit yourself then. I’ll be out soon.”
She pressed the cleaning sequence buttons on the control panel on the far wall and waited for the cleaning bots to do their work. One of them hummed past her feet, and she sidestepped to get out of its way. Eleri hopped up on the console table, perching on the corner to allow the cleaning bots to siphon away all the blue dust underfoot.
With the hum of the bots in the background she began to make a mental list of the belongings she’d need to move with her once she did join S’samph in his nest. There wasn’t much. Her few belongings fit neatly in a few drawers in her small bedroom above the clinic, and all hermedical texts were stored on a virtual drive. It wasn’t lost on her that she’d lost a good several days of studying, and the first phase of her licensing exams was swiftly approaching.
Once the bots had finished their work, Eleri checked the interface at her wrist. She would normally leave soon to make the walk through Laurus, but with K’kaen volunteering to drive her, the trip would be much faster. Maybe she could convince him just to drive her out to the boundary of the residential neighborhood, and she could go the rest of the way on foot. The idea of being escorted to her appointment by K’kaen seemed absurd, but no small part of her was grateful for the company. Her scalp still ached a painful memory of where she’d been attacked not a day before.
She hopped down from the interface console, knowing that Aglao would have disapproved if they were awake. Eleri was struck by the silence of their missing presence, but hoped they were having a restorative sleep. Her boots left a barely perceptible imprint of dust where she landed on the ground, but it wasn’t enough to make it worth running the cleaning cycle again. She considered restocking her medkit, but this was just a routine wound cleaning visit and shouldn’t require anything specialized.
K’kaen was still waiting in the sun-high heat, unbothered by the blaze overhead. Eleri adjusted the chin strap of her sun hat. “Ready to go?” she asked.
“F’fret,” he cursed as an alert pinged on his wrist interface.
“Something wrong?”
“Raviks have been spotted near S’samph’s fields. Well, he calls them fields anyway.”
Eleri frowned. She wasn’t worried for S’samph’s safety, but the increasing ravik appearance was worrisome. “Should I come with you? I can reschedule my appointment if I’m needed more urgently.”
“No need. Seems like they just need to be scared off, creepy things. Wait here. I’ll be back as soon as this is resolved,” he grumbled and took off without a helmet before Eleri had a chance to protest. She waited for the better part of a standard hour, but still no K’kaen. A worry nagged in the back of her mind. Hopefully, no one was injured. Her wrist chimed with a reminder. If she was going to make it on time, she needed to leave now. Eleri scuffed the dirt with the toe of her boot waiting for him to return. Another reminder chimed. She was going to be late.
She was reluctant to leave without K’kaen, but the worry of missing a patient visit warred with her anxietyof going out alone. If she hurried, she would be there almost on time, and it was unclear when K’kaen was going to return. There shouldn’t be any danger. Minio was contained. Myla had been subdued for the moment. S’samph and the others were patrolling around Laurus to ensure the raviks didn’t cause any more harm. Eleri took in a steadying breath and left the helmet on the post of K’kaen’s parking space before replacing her sun hat and heading off toward the residential neighborhood.
It would have been nice to have a ride. The heat of the suns seemed to be intensifying as they got closer to flooding season. When she reached the bridge, she passed a few urtazi females soaking in the canal to protect their skin from the heat. They asked for recommendations for hydrating skin cream, and she promised she’d look into stocking some at the clinic as soon as she could place an order out to Abwele.
The arid fields on the other side of the bridge rose up around her, indicating that she was getting closer to the residences. She fanned at the sweat seeping down the back of her neck with a brisk hand movement. Something rustled behind her. Probably K’kaen come to lecture her for leaving without telling him where she was going. Eleri turned to defend herself and dropped her medkit.
A klatch of raviks surrounded her, filling the air with their horrible churring and scraping approximations at language. She glanced frantically around for anyone in the vicinity who could help. Her stomach churned in earnest as her legs refused to take more than a halting backward step. She should have waited for K’kaen. Even if it meant being late. Things weren’t safe in Laurus anymore. Her fingers found the pulse point at her wrist, remembering to use it this time, and dug in hard to activate the panic alarm built into her interface. But this wasn’t Gaia. She wasn’t only a few kilometers away from the nearest IA peacekeeping outpost.
Eleri screamed as they drew closer to her. Something hard struck the back of her head, and she found herself falling fast before darkness came up to swallow her.
CHAPTER 25
S’samph
S’samph was long finished conversing with Minio by the time he was able to finish the required paperwork and head back to his nest. He’d grab a few things he needed and bring them over to the clinic if he intended to stay there for as long as it took for Aglao to awaken from their stasis. When he arrived home and found his nest in disarray, he realized S’kasia must have rifled through all his things when she was here the day before. It didn’t matter. The whole place would have to be rearranged and redecorated as soon as Eleri came to live with him.
