Twilight's End Read online

  She discovered when she’d finished that Khan hadn’t so much as moved a muscle. When she looked up at him and then followed the direction of his gaze, she saw why.

  The tunic he’d given her was up around her waist and she wasn’t wearing any under pants. She closed her legs so quickly her thighs slapped together like a hand clap.

  Stiffly, he rose to his full height. “I will heat food while you take care of your needs.”

  Dionne, still more than half asleep, merely gaped at his back as he moved away from her and squatted down in front of the fire, stirring it to life with a stick. It dawned on her finally what he meant, however, and she struggled to her feet, looked around the lodge and finally went outside. The sky seemed lighter, though it was obviously still very early. No facilities magically appeared, however, and finally she went to search for privacy among the bushes.

  She couldn’t eat. The food had actually tasted very good the night before, but her stomach simply couldn’t face meat stew this early in the day.

  Khan disapproved, but he didn’t argue.

  The other hunters looked both surprised and disapproving when Khan settled her on the front of his horse as he had the night before and vaulted up behind her. He ignored them, settling one hand on her waist to steady her and kicking his horse into a brisk trot that quickly left the village pathways behind.

  The cats followed. Dionne ordered them back--twice--but she strongly suspected they merely fell back, disappeared into the brush, and continued to follow despite her command to the contrary.

  Dismissing them from her mind, she peered around at the dark forest, trying to figure out how Khan knew where he was going. Finally, she decided the horse could obviously see well enough to miss the trees even if she could barely penetrate the gloom.

  No one spoke. She couldn’t decide if it was because they all knew what to do and where to go, if it was because they were afraid talking would frighten the animals away--which didn’t make much sense to her considering the noise the horses made--or if it was simply a disinclination to talk because they were as wickedly tired as she was.

  Finally, when she’d begun to think the jogging of the horse was going to drive her spine through the top of her skull, Khan pulled back on the reins, lifting an arm in signal to the others.

  Everyone stopped and dismounted. From their horses, the men gathered bows, quivers with arrows and spears.

  Dionne’s stomach clenched as she studied the stone tips of the weapons, trying to imagine what it would feel like to have something that dull rip through one. Being bludgeoned to death might almost be preferable.

  Swallowing a little sickly, she made a mental note--long range killing capabilities, and spears for close contact, possible defense.

  On foot, they moved away from the horses. Dionne followed as quietly as she could, but she couldn’t help but notice that the men moved like ghosts. Her own progress was marked by a good deal of rustling and kept earning her censorious glances. She shrugged apologetically, and focused her attention on her feet, trying to move more carefully and quietly. That helped until she smacked into a tree and nearly knocked herself senseless.

  Khan grabbed her arm, examined her head and then, obviously fighting the urge to grin, signaled for her to follow him, placing her feet as he did.

  Resentment surfaced, but she did her best to comply--no easy task considering how much longer his legs were than hers.

  They stopped at last at a slight rise. The hunters flopped onto their stomachs and began to sort of ‘slither’ along the ground. Frowning, Dionne did her best to imitate them, wondering even as she did if this was some joke they’d concocted between them.

  She wouldn’t have put it past them.

  She hadn’t noticed them conspiring against her, however.

  “Moos,” one of the men near her whispered on a breath of sound.

  Moos? Curious, Dionne crawled up beside Khan and peered around at the meadow just beyond the tree line. Cows. They’d returned to the wild. As scruffy and rangy as they looked, however, she could see that that was what held their attention.

  No one moved. It occurred to her after a while that they must be waiting for one of the animals to wander a little closer, within range of their arrows. She fell asleep waiting and missed the kill.

  Fortunately.

  Watching them bound across the meadow and stab it with the spears was bad enough. She stayed where she was as they settled down and began to skin and butcher it.

  She was glad she hadn’t eaten. Dry heaves were bad enough.

  After wrapping the bloody chunks of meat in pieces of the animal’s hide, they trudged back, looking tired but pleased with their kill. Dionne managed a tight smile when she saw that Khan was looking at her expectantly. “Moos--uh--cow. Is this what you usually hunt?”

  Khan frowned, obviously not convinced that she was suitably impressed. “When we are fortunate. They are not easy to find. But one will fill many cook pots for days.”

  They had no means of preserving food. They would have to spend most of their time hunting, she realized.

  They were all liberally coated with the animal’s blood. She was surprised the horses would even allow the hunters near them, but apparently they were used to the scent of blood. They whickered and shifted uneasily when the meat was settled across their backs, but they didn’t try to bolt.

  Khan gathered moss and leaves and dabbed at the blood, but he was still sticky with it when they mounted again.

  Dionne did her best to ignore it, but she was immensely relieved when they reached the village again.

  Hearing the returning hunting party, the villagers began to pour out of their lodges, smiling and laughing and chattering excitedly when they saw that the hunt had been successful.

  Leaving the other hunters to distribute the food, Khan urged his horse through the village and along a narrow path at the other end. “Where are we going now?” Dionne asked curiously.

  “To bathe.”

  The comment pleased her in more ways than one. It would be a relief to be rid of the sight and smells of the hunt. She was also happy, though, to discover that good hygiene hadn’t died with civilization. It was an excellent sign and probably accounted for the overall good health of the Kota people she’d seen.

  He took her to a small stream. Instead of stopping when he reached it, however, he turned his horse and followed the bank. Rounding a sharp bend, they came upon a wide area where the stream had formed a pool.

  Dionne looked at it with a sense of delight. A hot shower would have been better, but the pool held its own appeal. Khan scooted off the horse’s rump and swung her down, catching her arm to stop her as she headed toward the pool. He pinched a fold of the tunic between two fingers. “This will draw up if it becomes wet.”

  Dionne looked down at the tunic a little doubtfully then twisted, trying to look at the back. She couldn’t see any blood, but she strongly suspected it was there just the same.

  A splash brought her attention back to the pool just as Khan surfaced.

  His loincloth had been deposited, she saw, on a large, flat stone near the water.

  Shrugging, she pulled the tunic off, dropped it beside the loincloth and waded in.

  The water was cold, icy in fact. Chill bumps erupted all over her, depriving her of all desire to join Khan in the water. Undoubtedly, the pool was spring fed, nothing else that she could think of would account for the temperature of the water.

  Squatting down, she began to dab at her hands, arms and legs. Gasping each time she splashed cold water over her warm skin. She didn’t know how Khan could stand it, couldn’t imagine how anyone could ever get accustomed to such a drastic temperature change.

  She was surprised he wasn’t on the bottom after such a shock to his system.

  Having disappeared again for several moments, he emerged a few feet from her. When she glanced up, she saw that he was watching her disapprovingly. “You will not get very clean only splashing in the water.�
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  “I wouldn’t get very clean without soap anyway,” she retorted, deciding to ignore him.

  It was a mistake. She’d though he had decided to get out. She didn’t realize until he grabbed her that he meant to make certain she got in. Uttering a gasp that hovered between fear and outrage, she wrapped her arms and legs around him before he could toss her into the water.

  Grinning, he merely fell backwards.

  The cold water sucked the breath from her lungs. She came up sputtering and coughing and trying to shove her wet hair from her face. When she managed to catch her breath, she saw that Khan was studying her worriedly.

  It was just as well for him that he wasn’t grinning like a jackass. She glared at him, balling her hand into a fist and taking a swing at him.

  Surprise registered on his face. He leapt back out of range only a split second before she could connect. The move sent him off balance, however. His arms pin wheeled, failed to right him, and he disappeared under the water again.

  Satisfied, Dionne trudged from the water and bent to retrieve her tunic. She sent a threatening glare over her shoulder as she heard him break the surface again.

  “You are angry.”

  “You are so observant!” she snapped, refusing to turn around as she heard the wet slap of his feet against the stone as he climbed from the pool.

  She tensed as his arm slid around her waist while she was still struggling to pull the tunic over her wet skin.

  “I am sorry.”

  “You should be!” she retorted, but she was slightly mollified by his tone. He did sound contrite. She sent him a petulant glance over her shoulder, studying him suspiciously for any sign that he hadn’t been sincere. Seeing none, she relaxed fractionally. When he released her, she straightened the tunic and sat down on the rock to pull the boots on again.

  Khan, she saw when she finally glanced at him, had his back to her. She saw that he’d grabbed a handful of damp moss and was dabbing at the blood that had spattered the leather loincloth.

  Guilt began to replace her anger.

  There had been no malice in what he’d done, far from it. Right up until she’d snarled at him, he’d been smiling.

  He’d been flirting with her, she realized abruptly. The realization created a chaotic mixture of remorse, pleased surprise, disappointment--and more irritation.

  She felt mean and that irritated her. “The water’s cold,” she finally said uncomfortably. “I wouldn’t really have minded otherwise.”

  He glanced at her as he finished tying his loincloth in place, reddening faintly. “It was--a childish trick. I am too old for such silly games.”

  She couldn’t agree more, but that only made her feel worse, particularly since she could no longer be in any doubt that he had been flirting.

  They were both subdued as they climbed onto the horse again. When Khan settled behind her, he placed a palm on one of her cheeks, urging her to look at him. “I would never cause you harm,” he murmured, his expression earnest.

  She searched his gaze. “It didn’t once cross my mind that you would.”

  She saw as they passed the point where the path intersected with the stream that the other hunters had come to bathe--which she decided probably explained why Khan had taken her to the pool.

  He’d already said he didn’t like the other men looking at her body.

  The cats were stationed on either side of the opening to Khan’s lodge when they returned, looking for all the world as if they’d been waiting patiently for her return.

  She didn’t believe it for a moment, particularly since Nomi was grooming her paws.

  She could hardly object. They’d needed to find food themselves, after all, since the food supplied for them was back at the lab.

  She wanted nothing so much as to crawl back into the furs and catch up on the sleep she’d lost in joining the hunt. She ignored the urge, however, and spent most of the day strolling around the village, observing the day to day lives of the Kota people. Without a good deal of surprise, but with considerable pleasure, she discovered the fields where they grew food. She’d seen that they were not nomadic and surmised they had some skill in cultivating, but it was still very happy to discover evidence that she’d been right.

  She was too exhausted by the time she finally climbed into Khan’s furs to spare much thought for his intentions.

  He was gone when she awoke the following morning. Stretching, she pushed the furs back and tugged the boots on that Khan had given her. Deciding he must have left to hunt again, she got up and studied the crude structure.

  The light filtering through the smoke hole in the roof still left the interior in dimness, but she could see more than she’d been able to see before. She would’ve liked to explore, but her body’s needs drove her from the lodge to search for privacy to relieve herself.

  The villagers looked at her curiously, but also fearfully, as she strode through the village, but she thought perhaps that was largely due to Sachi and Nomi, who escorted her.

  When she’d taken care of her needs, she directed the cats to lead her back to the bio-lab and struck off at a brisk walk. Along the way, she studied the flora and fauna, identifying what she could. Not surprisingly, there were new varieties that were unfamiliar and she made a mental note to analyze them for their usefulness. It seemed probable that nature, in attaining balance, had produced new life to replace what was lost, but whether the replacements would work as well in the chain as its predecessors had was another matter.

  Regardless, she reminded herself that retaining balance was as crucial as identifying the building blocks. If she touched off another imbalance in nature, her efforts could be for nothing.

  The security pad had been destroyed. She’d been too unnerved at the discovery of the gathering along the ridge above the bio-lab to notice when she and Khan had emerged from the lab. She looked up at the cam. “Lois, open the hatch and deactivate security.”

  The door opened and she strode down the corridor to the junction and descended.

  When she reached the main room, she immediately moved to the sensors to begin a check. “Activate the bots, Lois, and have them clear the debris from around the lab. It’ll be impossible to move all of the equipment I’m going to need via the emergency access tunnel.”

  “Processing request.” There was silence for several seconds. “Dionne?”

  “What?” Dionne asked absently.

  “There is no egress for the bots.”

  Dionne frowned, glanced up from what she was doing and considered it for several moments. “They’ll have to go out the way I did,” she said finally. “Program the bots to use a wench and pulley to pull themselves up the escape shaft. They can get what they need from storage.”

  “Affirmative.”

  When the bots came in some twenty minutes later, Dionne broke off what she was doing long enough to watch their progress. Once she’d seen that the first had no difficulty hauling itself up the shaft, she returned to her work, pausing now and then to rub her aching head, tired eyes, or the cramp of a muscle.

  The news wasn’t good and she checked and rechecked the data each time she discovered another seed that was no longer viable. There was no denying the readouts, however, and by the time she’d made it through a quarter of the seeds entrusted to the care of the bio-lab, she’d determined a loss of 30 percent.

  Dropping her tablet to her side, she glanced around the bio-lab, wondering if the same would be true of the units that lined the other three walls.

  She jumped when her gaze encountered Khan, who was standing at the foot of the escape shaft, his arms folded over his chest, his entire stance aggressive with anger. “I told you that I would bring you,” he said when he finally had her attention, his voice tight with barely suppressed anger.

  Dionne’s brows rose and then descended as she probed her mind for the memory. “Yes, you did. I remember,” she responded agreeably. Returning her attention to her tablet, she moved to the next wall of u
nits.

  “Then why are you here?” he demanded after several stunned moments of silence.

  “I decided not to wait,” Dionne said without turning.

  “It is not safe for you to wander the wilderness alone,” Khan growled.

  Dionne sent him a wide eyed look of surprise. “You are angry,” she observed unnecessarily.

  He glared at her. “Because you endangered yourself when there was no need.”

  Amusement dawned. “There was no danger. I am the goddess, Dionne,” she said with a touch of humor. “At least, that is what everyone seems to think. Anyway, I had Sachi and Nomi.”

  “Dumb beasts! You are lucky they have not turned on you.”

  Dionne stopped and turned to study him. “They are not dumb beasts. They were genetically engineered, as I was, and given a good deal more than natural to their species, including higher intelligence. Beyond that, they were trained in stasis. If they had the ability for speech, they could speak. They can’t, but they have no trouble at all understanding and they are programmed to follow my orders without question--unless the order would endanger me.”

  “They made no attempt to stop me from entering,” he pointed out.

  She shrugged. “Then they have decided you can be trusted.”

  He looked more irritated rather than less when she countered every objection with a perfectly reasonable response. After a moment, he changed tactics. “Why are you here?”

  “Because I must be here to begin the job I was sent to do.”

  He fumed for several moments. “What are you doing?”

  “Checking to see how much still lives. So far I’m seeing at least a 30 percent loss and these seeds may well be irreplaceable.”

  “Seeds?”

  “Mmm.” She glanced at him. “Of all living things that inhabited the Earth in the days before the asteroid struck the planet and brought about global extinction of many species, plants and animals. The planet stabilized long ago--I can only guess, but probably at least 500 years ago--but many different things were lost and I don’t know yet what will be needed--maybe none of what I have here, maybe all.”