I stand and spots swim before my eyes. I weave, only to be pulled against a hard chest. He murmurs something in my ear and offers the food again, but I push it away. I’m not being picky. I cannot physically eat the stuff. I accept the water he pushes into my hand, and I drink it, but it’s not going to last me. Maybe I can convince Vektal to go back to where he captured me so I can hunt for my seaweed bars. At this point, I’m so hungry I’ll eat them even if they’ve turned to a block of ice overnight.
He leads me out of the cave, watching me as I follow him. A new powder has fallen overnight, and I look at the deeper snow with despair. So much for finding my old supplies.
Vektal gestures at his shoulders, bare of any sort of cloak since I’m wearing it. He kneels and indicates that I should climb onto his back and put my arms around his neck, piggy-back style. Well, this is humiliating. But I’m so tired and weak that I don’t protest. I put my arms around him and cling to his back, wrapping my legs around his waist. He pats one of the arms around his neck, says something soothing, and then he starts racing down the side of the mountain.
I’m stunned for a moment at how fast he is. He’s unaffected by the snow, his boots driving through the powder as if it’s nothing. He burns like a furnace inside, too, his skin so warm to the touch that the parts touching him are toasty warm and the parts exposed to the wind are like sticking a hand in a bucket of ice. It makes me burrow down even closer to his body once I realize he doesn’t need the cape at all. He’s just fine in this wintry landscape without it. So I push my head against his neck and press my cold face into his warm hair. He smells good, too.
Great, now I’ve got Stockholm syndrome.
He pushes down the mountainside, moving down the steep slopes as if they’re nothing. We pass through another copse of trees, and I realize for the first time that we’re heading the wrong way from the crash site. I haven’t been paying attention, dazed from hunger and cold. But this is wrong. Everyone up there is waiting for me, shivering and starving. I can’t leave them.
“Wait,” I say, tapping on his shoulder. “Vektal, wait!”
He pauses, and as he does, I slide off his back. I shiver immediately at the bitter cold, but I make him turn so I can point up the hill, back to the direction that I came. “We have to go that way and rescue the others.”
He shakes his head and points down the hill. In the direction he’s pointing, I can see thick trees and more greenery. He wants to go down the mountain.
But I can’t leave everyone behind. I insistently point back up. “Please. I need to go up there. There are more people. More women. They’re hungry and cold and don’t have anything.”
Vektal shakes his shaggy head and mimes eating. Then he points at the forest below us, down the snowy slopes.
I waver. Do I let him take me farther away to eat? Or do we immediately go up to the others and still starve? I hesitate. They probably already think something’s happened to me.
My stomach growls again. Vektal gives me an exasperated look. He says the food word again. “Kuuusk.”
I bite my lip, thinking. I glance back at the mountain. Everything in me says I need to insist. But I’m feeling so weak and starved. I can convince him to go back later, can’t I? Once I’ve gotten something to eat?
And won’t it be better to show up not empty handed?
With a heavy sigh, I look back at him. His glowing blue eyes seem to be burning holes into me. “Kusk then up the hill, okay? Let’s get enough kuusk for everyone.”
Maybe a belly full of food will swallow my guilt.
? ? ?
VEKTAL
When my mate climbs atop my back again and wraps her small, soft limbs around me, I have to fight my pleasure. She’s cold and hungry and upset over something. The need to please her eats at my insides. I’ll bring down a meal for her so she can gorge and regain her strength. Right now, her pale skin is even paler, and I worry she’ll sicken and be too weak to accept a khui.
I have plans for my sweet mate. Whether she likes it or not, she’s going to take a khui. I’m not about to lose her now that I’ve found her.
The valley blossoms with teeming wildlife. I can tell from my mate’s easy grip on my neck that she doesn’t see the skulking snow-cats in the distance or the form of the sickle-beak hiding behind a nearby tree. My hunter’s gaze picks them out, and I search for a safe spot in which I can leave my mate without worry for a short time. She’s too weak to hunt for her own food or to defend herself if something should attack.