Talon took a deep breath. “Marik…”
Marik held up a hand to silence his brother. “I will go, and I will take the girl from the slave ship with us. Jenny, that’s her name. She may not be happy about going back, but I think she’ll be of great use.”
She would be. She was human, but she had a natural healing ability. She didn’t see it yet, but he did. It showed in her aura, a bright golden thread running through her otherwise placid and calm white aura.
Talon said, “We’ve brought plenty of supplies, such as building supplies and the like, from some of the trade planets that we stopped at along the way back. I can only stay a few days and then we have to get back.”
Marik said, “I shall be ready. I shall see to it that she knows that she is going back as well and that she will be ready.”
Renall gave up. His face wore a look of both resignation and worry. “I understand what you’re saying about my children. I do. I can’t say that I’m happy about having you go. Talon, you spent far too much time there as it is. You are still one of us, and yet I often feel as though I have lost you to that desiccated and ruined planet.”
Talon grinned at him. “You have it. It’s just that…”
Renall said, with a slight smirk, “Your mate is a mighty warrior who is dead set on seeing to it that her people are free. You are dead set on being at her side, so her mission has become yours.”
All four of them burst into laughter. It was true enough. Talon was madly in love with Jessica, and that she was a warrior had never been in doubt.
Marik’s thoughts turned back to Jenny. Jenny was no warrior; she was soft and sweet and very shy, like one of the flowers that bloomed only in the morning, raising its face to the sun for a few hours and then withdrawing as soon as anyone attempted to touch its petals.
He knew taking her back to Old Earth was risky. She might choose to stay there, and that was the last thing he wanted for her to do. He had never considered that he might have feelings for her until the day he had seen her being pulled out into the ocean by the fierce tides.
He had not even considered his own safety as he had run toward her, his legs and arms pumping and his eyes scanning the horizon for monsters as he had waded into the blood-warm waters that threatened to kill her.
He’d been so scared that she would die and so relieved that he had managed to catch a hold of her hand and drag her back to shore that all he had managed to say to her were a few curt and sharp words. She had stood there with her head down, not speaking as he had shouted those words at her and then she had quietly turned and walked away.
It had been that last part that hurt his heart the most. That she had been beaten down by life was so obvious. Equally obvious was that below all of that hurt and cowed obedience was a bright, articulate, and incredibly beautiful woman who made him have to turn away from her quite often to hide the telltale bulge in his trousers.
She had no idea of how powerfully potent she was, and that made her even more dangerous.
Taking her might indeed be a vast mistake. It was highly possible that once there, she would never want to leave again. Marik already knew that he had deep and true feelings for her, but if she did not return them it did not matter what his feelings were. If she had no love for the planet that she had found herself on and wished to return to her home, he could understand that as well.
He would let her go if he had to.
But only if he had to.
Talon said, “It’s settled then. Two healers are not what I hoped for but if that’s the best I can do, then that is the best that I can do. I will do my best to make sure that I bring you both back alive.”
Marik managed a smile but, deep in his heart, he was absolutely positive that he would be coming back alone.
He was in the med building several hours later when he heard footsteps approaching. His sharp nose caught the scent of flowers, and then he heard Jenny speak.
“Is it true?”
He turned his head to look at her. She stood there, clutching a bunch of what looked like flowers in a large silver bowl. Her eyes were a hopeful expression, and he had to turn away from that look. “Yes, it’s true. Old Earth needs a few healers, and since you and I are the only ones that can be spared, we’re going.”
He had not told her that she was a natural healer. She would have to find her way into that gift herself. She had so little confidence that he was sure that if he told her she would become a wonderful healer before they ever landed, she would never believe him, but he fully intended to make sure that she had all the education that she needed to be just that.
That knowledge that he intended to impart to her coupled with the knowledge that she already had of natural things, and how she’d come about that was a mystery to him, would make very well and sure that she was capable of helping her people.
He also had no intention of telling her just how he intended to give her that education.
Jenny drifted closer. His eyes went to the bowl. The flowers within had bright yellow petals clustered thickly around a small center. “What are those?”
She looked down and then back up at him. Her face colored a little bit. “I thought… Well, I thought that since we were gathering stuff for medicine, it would be okay if I gathered things for food as well.”
Surprise hit. His eyebrow lifted. “What do you mean?”
She looked back down the bowl, and a soft smile curved her lips upward, lighting up her face. An ache started in his heart. When she smiled, she had to be the most beautiful being in the entire universe.
