Chapter 3
Talon started to get anxious when Cat still hadn’t emerged from her trance after a good half an hour. He had seen her body freeze before when she had jumped into someone else’s head, but those instances had only lasted a few moments. Now, she was lying in his arms, her eyes closed as if she were sleeping, and the only way you could tell that she was alive, was by watching her chest rise and fall.
Only five more minutes, he told himself. If she isn’t back in five minutes, then he would… what? What could he do? Slap her face, so her spirit returned to her body? Damn it, he just didn’t have enough experience with such things! He could shift into an unscrupulous predator. He could fight and kill. He could do anything a man needed to be able to do, but nothing in his life had prepared him for a situation like this. Talon forced himself to stay calm as he kept an eye on the Krak around him. This was not an easy feat, because he had to watch Cat at the same time, reassuring himself that she was still breathing.
Her eyelids fluttered. A soft moan crossed her sweet lips. He couldn’t look at them without wanting to kiss them. The ocean beasts had taken up their irritating swaying again. At least they were silent, because the buzzing in his ears had been unbearable. That was a sound that could drive a man insane. Maybe his ears were just too sensitive for that particular frequency, or maybe it had just been the annoying chorus that made him lose it.
Four more minutes. His inner clock worked perfectly. What else could he distract himself with? His eyes fell on one of the Krak. Had they come in closer? He growled threateningly, but Talon himself knew that he didn’t stand a chance against the sheer number of them. His growl, however, didn’t seem to impress the Krak, because they didn’t react to the sound at all.
Three minutes. Had it really only been two minutes since he had started counting? Time passed in slow motion around him and Cat, so they were subjected to more suffering than the others. Never in his life had he experienced something as hard as staying patient right now.
Two minutes. He had passed the halfway mark. What should he do when the next two minutes were up, and Cat was still somewhere else? In his head, he went through his options. Pick Cat up and throw her over his shoulder, and then jump over the Krak in one huge leap – this was the only option he had.
One minute. A minute that turned into the longest of his life. He could feel the predator prepare. One minute, during which Cat’s eyes rolled, an anxious motion under her lids, and it seemed as if it was getting faster.
And then Cat opened her eyes.
At first, all he could do was stare at her, stunned. They were her eyes. They were alive and filled with light, intelligence, and something else, looking up at him. Without knowing what he was doing, he squeezed her tight against his chest and covered her face with kisses. Come what may, the two of them would fight against anything that stood in the way of a future together. Cat’s muffled cough tore him from his overflowing joy. He didn’t dare ask the deciding question, but then he saw what had happened since Cat’s surprising awakening. The Krak were pulling back.
This time, thanks be to the powerful Harkubis, they weren’t moving as one. Every one of them shuffled, slid, and swayed back to where they had come from, and that caused the mighty Talon fear. No, fear wasn’t the right word. It made him uneasy. Fear was what he had felt when he was counting the minutes.
The retreat could mean only one thing.
Cat had been right. The Krak wanted something from them, and Cat had given them whatever that was. He froze while she desperately fought for air with a gurgling sound he never wanted to hear again in his life. She coughed, and he held her with one hand. With the other, he grabbed a handful of snow. The white stuff melted in his hand, and he gently let the water drip into her slightly open mouth.
She was so pale. This business had driven her to exhaustion. Talon wondered how he was going to make it back to the library before Cat lost consciousness or froze. There was another option, but did he dare use it? The rite wouldn’t take more than a few minutes. It contained nothing more than words that, through mutual understanding, rose to a magical level, even though he didn’t know how. He looked at her in despair, at the blue circles under her eyes and her blood-starved lips. She needed strength and warmth. Should he risk it? He closed his eyes, desperately trying not to react too emotionally. This damned Earth atmosphere was not good for his usually even temperament.
Thoughts were racing through his head. Talon was used to making hard and quick decisions, but never before in his life had anything seemed this difficult. The decision he had to make would not only affect him. If he made Cat his companion with those few words, then they would be bound to each other irrevocably for the rest of their lives. He had seen what happened to one part of a couple when the other died. Just as they shared vital energy with each other before, so they also shared death. If the vital energy of one faded, then the other’s days were numbered, too.
Cat was still taking breaths, but they were markedly shallower. He didn’t need to put his ear to her chest to know this. Her pulse was stuttering irregularly and skipped a few beats. The cold worried him the most, because it was taking over her limbs. To buy a little time, he rubbed her hands in his, but without much success. They stayed ice-cold. He put his head back and let out a desperate cry.
He made his decision when Cat opened her eyes. Her eyes had gone from taking him in to staring ahead without seeing. They rolled back, until all he could see was white.
He sat on the ground, ignoring the wet and biting cold that spread through his body. Talon closed his eyes and pulled Cat to him, holding her limp body against his chest. He needed to say the words. He had no choice. It was this, or Cat would die in front of his eyes.
Talon concentrated. He pictured the warm desert wind blowing through his hair and chasing the cold from his bones. In front of him, he saw the flickering sun that never went down completely, and felt the sand under his claws. Then he raised his voice. Loud and without hesitation, he said the words that would bind Cat to him forever.
I am today.
I am yesterday.
I am tomorrow.
Striding through my recurring births,
I remain youthfully strong,
Until one of us goes to meet the sun.
He saw and felt the sun that surrounded them both for a precious moment, and let out the breath that he had been holding, in a misty cloud. Harkubis had accepted her, even though she was a woman from an alien people. Thank you, he thought silently.
The most fervent prayer of his life consisted of that one word.