Comron turned a cold eye on her. “Listen, I am sick and tired of this place. I intend to do everything in my power to reach the shore today, with or without you two.” Having his say, he took off into the downpour.
Stung by his words and curt manner, Vaush didn’t move. Wensel touched her arm. “He’s the necessary evil that’s going to get us to the shore. Don’t let him get to you, dear,” he said with a fatherly smile. “Come on, we can’t lose him.”
It was all they could do to keep from stumbling through the underbrush or to avoid running into low hanging branches. Within minutes, the drops had turned into an unrelenting sheet of rain. Vaush could barely see Comron a few meters ahead of her.
“Hurry!” Comron called out.
Vaush quickened her pace, fearing they would lose sight of him altogether. The wind picked up, driving the rain hard into their faces. Without warning, Comron came to a dead stop, causing her to run into him.
“Look,” he yelled over the pouring rain and pointed downward through the branches before them. “The rain washed out our path.”
They were bordered on one side by the stream and on the other by dense forest. She turned her back to the rain and faced Comron.
“Now what?” No sooner had she spoken the words before the ground gave way beneath their feet. She reached for Comron, and he latched onto her arms, but her momentum carried them both down into the gulf along with Wensel.
Vaush screamed as they slid and tumbled downward in a thick mix of mud and foliage. They landed with a splash in the river below.
Comron popped up out of the water that rose chest high. He waded toward Vaush and Wensel.
“Are you hurt?” Comron inquired with genuine concern.
“I’m fine,” she said though a little shaken.
“Me too,” Wensel added.
Comron glanced at their supply bag floating downstream. He made after it, allowing the current to sweep him along. The strap hitched onto a stump sticking out of the water, and Comron easily retrieved it.
Letting the current carry her, Vaush drifted toward him, but then stopped when she saw something behind the prince making its way toward him in a serpentine fashion.
“Comron, behind you!”
He wheeled around just in time to see a huge reptilian creature swimming rapidly toward him. Its heavily armored skin and spikes were clearly visible. A crogodan. It had to be at least five meters long.
Comron leapt out of the way, scrambling up onto a large boulder to his left.
He turned to Vaush. “Get out of the water! There’re bound to be more of them.”
Wensel wasted no time making his way to the bank but Vaush remained in place. The crogodan temporarily lost sight of Comron. It circled the boulder in confusion, until its keen sense of smell detected him. With blinding speed, it lurched up out of the water, hurling huge snapping jaws at Comron. Instinctively Comron jumped backward barely escaping the powerful jaws. But the boulder only stood half a meter out of the water. It would be seconds before the crogodan heaved its bulk up onto the boulder.
Again, the crogodan struck dangerously close. Comron retrieved the rifle and aimed.
Still waist deep in the river, Vaush took a step back but hesitated as she watched the crogodan continue to circle the boulder. Comron opened fire and Vaush jumped as the shots rang out, three in all, but the crogodan maintained its relentless pursuit.
It heaved itself up onto the boulder with Comron, knocking him backward into the water.
“Comron!” She raised her blast gun and charged ahead splashing loudly in the water, yelling to get the crogodan’s attention. It took no note of her as it closed in on him, cornering him against the boulders. Its large snout rose up at Comron as he remained trapped.
“No!” Vaush screamed. She unloaded two shots at the crogodan, snapping one of its spikes.
The crogodan whipped its large head around, but her relief was short-lived when it dove back into the water and gunned for her. Panic-stricken, she tried running for the riverbank but was impeded by the strong current working against her. Its power virtually held her immobile as the crogodan bore down on her.
“Vaush, run!” Comron shouted from behind as he continued firing on the crogodan.
Vaush turned and the crogodan opened its jaws wide, revealing blunted teeth intent on bearing down on her. She twisted away just as she fired into the beast’s mouth. The projectile struck but did nothing to slow the attack. It lurched at her in a flash and Vaush screamed as the powerful jaws clamped down around her waist and dragged her under for the death roll.
Her world spun out of control. As the water bubbled around her, her lungs burned and she pounded futilely on the crogodan’s snout. Another body moved next to her, a moment later three muffled shots sounded. Instantly, the crogodan released its death grip. Strong arms wrapped around her, dragged her from the water and up onto the riverbank.
Coughing up water and gasping for air, she leaned against Comron. He supported her and brushed the hair back from her face.
“Vaush,” Comron said anxiously as he stared at her. “Let me look at you. Are you all right?”
Trembling, she let him examine her torso. The crogodan’s teeth were more designed for grabbing and holding, rather than tearing and severing. Other than bruises and scratches, no serious damage had been done. She glanced back at the water, now red near the floating crogodan carcass. Comron must have shoved the barrel of the rifle down the beast’s throat and fired the shots. She rested against him, afraid her legs would give out.
“That was very courageous of you,” Wensel said guiltily. “Surely, Zelo had you under his wing.”
“Shut up!” Comron shouted and turned to Vaush. “What in the blazes were you thinking doing such a foolish thing?” His voice was angry with concern. “You could’ve been killed!”
She felt his heart pounding as madly as hers. “I don’t know. I didn’t think.” She lifted her eyes to his. “I just … I couldn’t let it hurt you,” she said softly.
Comron’s brow furrowed as he stared intently at her. She felt the deep emotion shared by two people who’d proven themselves willing to sacrifice their self for the other. But then he glanced at Wensel and the moment fled.
“Ignore my orders again, and you’re on your own,” Comron said in a harsh tone, but darted his eyes at Wensel.
Vaush saw it but was growing impatient with Comron’s need to maintain this fiction. If they simply explained the situation to Wensel, she was certain he’d understand and keep the matter to himself.
They all turned at the rustling in the brush. Vaush stepped back and something crunched beneath her boot.
“Egg shells?” Wensel said. The ground was covered with them and several mounds of dirt with hollowed out tops.
“Mother’s bitch!” Comron said. “We’re in their damned nesting grounds.”
The baby crogodans emerged from hiding, hissing and wailing to alert the adults to the intruders. Behind them, water splashed and they turned to see three more large crogodans rapidly making their way up the bank toward them.
Comron clutched Vaush’s hand and ordered Wensel, “Run!” Vaush was nearly yanked off her feet when Comron dashed ahead with her in tow. Blindly they dashed through the forest in the wind and rain. They knew that the crogodans were just as deadly on the ground as they were in the water, especially when their young were threatened. Vaush spared a quick glance over her shoulder; behind Wensel were five or six crogodans in hot pursuit, hungrily flicking their tongues.
Comron’s grip tightened around Vaush’s hand as he darted around a tree and leapt over a fallen log. Vaush struggled to keep up nearly tripping over it, but Comron pulled her up and kept them moving.
Wensel cried out in terror as the crogodans closed in on him. Only then Vaush realized she’d lost her blast gun in the river, not that it would have done much to stop a charging crogodan.
The ground ahead sloped upward impeding their progress but, thankfully, it had t
he same effect on the crogodans. But they kept up their pursuit hissing and snarling at Wensel’s heels.
“Run, Wensel!” Vaush called out. The incline gradually increased to a slippery vertical wall, but, with the crogodans at their backs, they had no other choice but to climb it.
“They can’t follow us there!” Comron said, lifting Vaush up onto the wall and guiding her hands to strong holds. He turned to Wensel as he began his climb. “Come on!”
Wensel leapt up onto the wall, his hands thrashed madly for a grip as he cried in terror. “Help me, please. Help me!”
“Climb, damn it!” Comron said as he looked down at him. “Keep going,” he ordered Vaush.
Vaush clung to the cliff side, carefully choosing her next move. But she inevitably looked down and saw Comron extending a hand to Wensel. Relieved she started up the cliff hopeful that they would all escape a horrible death.
“Wensel!” Comron yelled in panic.
Vaush turned in time to see Wensel fall into the midst of the hungry crogodans. His horrified screams rose up as the crogodan’s erupted into a vicious feeding frenzy, clamping down on limbs and ripping them from Wensel’s body. His cries stopped abruptly when one of the crogodan’s snapped his neck.
“Oh God!” Vaush cried and trembled in fear.
“They’re still down there. You’ve got to keep moving,” Comron told Vaush. “Follow me.”
Vaush took a deep breath to steel her nerves and then began the climb again. The rain made it nearly impossible to find a solid foothold; even those holds were slick with mud. Regardless, Vaush’s rugged determination kept her fast on Comron’s trail up the embankment. But at well over two meters tall, Comron’s reach exceeded Vaush’s, causing her to improvise where she couldn’t reach.
Halfway up, her arms and legs burned from the strain. Her foot slipped, sending debris cascading down into the gaping jaws of the angry crogodans. Hardly any sign of Wensel remained.
“Keep climbing!” Comron admonished her.
The crogodans seemed to know that her strength was waning and she would soon fall. Their tails began wagging in agitation and their enormous heads swung back and forth, flicking out their tongues in anticipation of another warm meal.
“No,” Vaush muttered under her breath as she stretched to grab hold of a root jutting outward. With her last bit of energy, she took hold of it and pulled herself upward.
A horrific snap sounded and she slid roughly downward along the bank toward the crogodans.
She screamed and Comron turned as she clung to the wall just above the snapping jaws.
“Vaush!” Comron cried as he rapidly descended the embankment. “Don’t move. I’m coming.”
One of the crogodans’ tongues touched her foot, and Vaush jerked her knees up, causing the branch to give even more.
“Damn it, Vaush!” Comron yelled. “Stay put, I’m almost there.”
Within seconds, he was at Vaush’s level. The crogodans grew more agitated. Comron secured his grip on the embankment and then reached his hand out toward her. “Give me your hand.”
Suddenly, Vaush remembered Comron doing the same thing with Wensel. Comron didn’t want him around as a witness. Was it possible that he caused Wensel to fall?
Vaush glanced down at the crogodans.
“Give me your hand!” Comron barked the command.
The power of his voice was like the crack of a whip, demanding her attention. She saw the depth of fear in his eyes.
Without further hesitation, she stretched toward his hand. Comron grasped hers firmly and then pulled her sharply toward him. Terror gripped her heart as she was forced to release the root and, for a split second, she was suspended in midair over the crogodans. But Comron pulled her in, pinning her firmly against the embankment.
For a long moment, they remained that way, both breathing heavily from the exertion. Pressed between Comron and the wall, she could feel the steady rise and fall of his chest and the pounding of his heart. An overwhelming sense of security enveloped her, as if being in his arms was the safest place in the world. And yet the intimacy of their positions sent fiery heat through her body. She could feel Comron’s warm breath upon her cheek as his lips grazed the top of her ear. “Are you ready?” he whispered.
She swallowed. “Ready?”
“To climb.”
The fog lifted from her head. “Yes, yes of course.”
“You go first this time. I’ll direct you.”
Under Comron’s direction, they slowly progressed up the embankment and over the top to flat ground. His sense of relief was overwhelming as the tension melted from his neck and shoulders. He peered out over the edge and watched the crogodans disappear into the forest.
“They’ve given up,” he said.
“Poor Wensel.” Too exhausted to say anymore, she rolled over onto her back, closed her eyes, and allowed the rain to wash away the mud.
Comron turned to gaze at her as she lay next to him. Seeing the sublime look of serenity on her face, he could have believed her to be an angel who’d lost her wings and fallen among the mortals. He could spend an eternity here with her in this moment.
“Comron,” Vaush said, then opened her eyes and looked directly into his. “Thank you for … for everything. I am forever in your debt.”
He held her gaze but made no reply as the rain poured down. There was no appropriate remark that he could possibly make without completely betraying his feelings for her. All of the years of training couldn’t forestall the onslaught of crippling fear he felt at seeing Vaush fall toward the crogodans. It was as if time had stopped and all that mattered was saving her … as if his life depended upon it.
I am not permitted to feel these things!
He sat up abruptly and spoke tersely, “We’ve wasted enough time. We should be on our way.”
Reluctantly, Vaush climbed to her feet and stood next to him. “I’ll do my best not to hinder you any further.”
CHAPTER 19
In silence, they covered six more kilometers before dusk arrived. He finally surrendered to the idea that they would not reach the shore today, meaning he would miss the opening social engagement at the banking conference. But, even worse, it meant he’d be forced to spend another miserable night laying so close to Vaush, but unable to touch her. Never before had he experienced such intense desire for intimacy, to know her and to be known.
How has she affected me so quickly? She’s like a drink so sweet to the taste, but deadly to the body.
“We’ll camp here for the night,” he announced gruffly as they emerged into a clearing.
“Good, I don’t think that I could’ve gone another step.”
She glanced over at him and noticed that the bandage on his abdomen had a pinkish-brown stain on it.
“Comron,” she said, reaching for him. He backed away. “Your wound has been aggravated. Does it hurt?”
He pulled away his shirt to examine the spot just below his rib cage. “I’m fine,” he muttered, though he winced upon touching it.
“No, you’re not. Let me help you.” But, when she reached toward him again, he clasped her wrist in an iron grip.
“I said I’m fine, and I don’t need your help!” he yelled before thrusting her aside out of his path.
She stood astonished, holding her wrist. She’d never encountered anyone with such dichotomy of manner. How could he, in one instant, show such selfless compassion and then treat her so atrociously in the next? Wensel was no longer here to bear witness to their truce. What else could explain his erratic behavior? Why did he still feel the need to force this distance between them? After all they’d been through, his cruelty hurt her far more than she was willing to admit.
She watched in silence as he repaired his wound with the mend-tech. He was right; he was perfectly capable of taking care of himself.
Resigning herself to this, she decided to get some much needed rest and hoped she’d be able banish the images of Wensel’s last moments from her mind.
But as soon as she took a step toward Comron to lay her bedding down, he waved her off. “No! Sleep over there,” he ordered. “I don’t want you anywhere near me.”
That was it! “Why the hell are you being such an enormous ass!” she fired at him.
His eyes lit up and his face contorted in rage. “Because I’ve had enough of you!” he roared. “You’ve been nothing but an anchor around my neck this whole time. You’ve no idea what lingering with you has cost me. But maybe that was the Bastionli plan all along, to cause Nethic to lose the board seat!”
She forced down the pain his words inflicted upon her and let her own rage supplant it. “For all your bravado and courageous acts,” she said with disgust, “you’ve got to be the most cowardly man I’ve ever met.”
Her insult landed like a stiff slap in the face.
“How dare you—”
“Now that you’re so close to being rescued and being back with your own people, you’re suddenly ashamed of our truce and that we have taken care of each other. So you’re being intentionally belligerent to push me away, you despicable coward!”
He glared daggers at her and spoke derisively, “I haven’t taken care of you. All I’ve done is repay a debt. If your silly little mind reads more into it than that, it’s your fault.”
Vaush tried to hide her anguish as she weighed the truthfulness of his words. But then she remembered the terrified look in his eyes when he’d almost lost her. The hell he hadn’t cared for her! “You’re a pitiful coward and a piss-poor liar. And that is all I will remember of you when I leave this place.”
It gave her some pleasure to see how her words cut him. Nobody spoke to the Prince of Nethic that way.
“You ungrateful, tiresome little—” he raised his hands and shut his eyes as if struggling for control. “You know what? As I told you from the start, you’re not worth it. Tomorrow morning we’ll reach the coast, be rescued, and never lay eyes on each other again.”
How could he say that and not be as torn apart at the prospect as she was? Why did he have to persist in being so cruel and intractable when this was the last night they would have together? It was too much for her to bear after all they’d endured.