Jeanne G'Fellers - No Sister of Mine by Jeanne G'Fellers (the rosie project .txt) 📕

“Then hurry up,” said Cance in a strangely helpless, girl-child’s voice. “I’m just short of it now.”

“It’s not here.” Trazar smoothed her cloak over her body. “Must have blown off in the crash. What else can I do to make you comfortable?”

“Bring my woman!” Cance’s chest began to tighten. “She must know how much I love her.”

“Love?” He tried to shush her cries with his hand. “That was love?”

“As I only know and can give. Where’s your compassion, man? This is my dying wish. She’s mine. Bring her now!”

“No. Quiet yourself.”

“I will not!” The tightness had become crippling, pushing Cance into the dirt. “If you won’t bring her, then strike me and end it. Do it now! You know you want to,” she gasped. “There’s a joy in taking another’s life, a high greater than prock, more satisfying than forcing yourself on another.” She stared at him a moment, then summoning up the last of her strength, bellowed at him, “Do it, Trazar! I won’t be silent until you do.”

“I know the high.” He held the brace above his head. “It’s a gruesome, sickening feeling, a whisper for more. I sense it now. But I’ll not do it for that reason. Not for pleasure or vengeance. Not because you warrant it.” The brace pierced Cance’s chest. She arched, flexed into the blow then collapsed, Chandrey’s then LaRenna’s name escaping in her final breath.

“There must be peace. She has to know you’re gone.” He withdrew the brace, cleaning it against the grass. “May the Taelach Mother forgive me.” He took Cance’s knife then scurried back to the launch, pulling a large piece of debris over the open window to deflect some of the deluge. “Miss me?”

LaRenna opened her eyes. “Did you find her?”

Trazar nodded his wet head in her face, glad he could respond in a way that would provide relief. “She’s dead.”

“Not soon enough.” LaRenna closed her eyes again, covering them with her hands as tears began to fall. Unsure of what else to do, Trazar pulled her to him. She fell against him when she was touched, shuddering violently, mumbling incoherently. Eventually, and as the pain in her sides became great, her quiet sobs eased then ceased all together. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled, clearing her eyes.

“Better? At least a little?” He brushed the hair from her face.

“Somewhat. I—I’m sorry I broke down like that. I don’t know what came over me.”

“It’s called trauma, LaRenna, and no one, even a Kimshee, is above its effect.” The emergency lights flickered as wind began to rock the overturned launch. “We’d best wrap your foot before the lighting gives out.” Trazar settled her into a corner, then took Cance’s dagger, using it to slice off portions of Talmshone’s trousers. “Don’t think he’ll be needing these and we need the rags.”

“Guess not.” LaRenna smiled at him for the first time since the night they met. It was a mere speck of a turn, but a vast improvement over her earlier state.

“You smile like your older sister Mercy.”

“I do?”

“Yep.” Trazar undid her splint. “You’re an aunt.”

“Really? Tell me about our family.” LaRenna appreciated the distraction. “Are our parents still alive?”

Trazar fumbled through the launch’s emergency stores. “Dah is, though I’m not sure how he’ll handle the news of you.”

“What do you mean?”

He placed a small medical kit and two blankets by her side. “Your name is listed on the Death Stone above our farming compound. Everyone thinks you died at birth.” Trazar held the hatch brace to her shin. “I’m going to immobilize your leg.”

“He listed me as dead because I’m Taelach, didn’t he?” LaRenna could tell by her older brother’s sullen manner she was correct.

He gazed at her then shrugged, his reply flat and somewhat embarrassed. “On Vartoch it’s commonplace to list Taelach children as deceased. Most Autlachs where I’m from have an outdated view of the Taelach, LaRenna. Bearing one mars a family’s reputation. Your people are still very much feared.” He returned to the emergency stores case and handed her a bottle of water and ration pack. “Here, you need the strength.”

“What about you?”

“I want to finish this first.” Trazar turned his attention to her injured leg. He irrigated open wounds with liquid antibiotic from the medical kit, expressing mild surprise when LaRenna failed to react to the cold liquid’s bubbling action. Next, he wrapped the ankle in a rolled bandage and positioned the brace on the underside of her leg. LaRenna watched with detached interest as he shredded one of the Iralian’s trouser legs into binding strips and used them to secure the brace.

“All done.” Trazar patted her good leg, understanding when she unconsciously jerked away. “You didn’t feel a thing I did, did you?”

“No. And I know that’s not good.”

Trazar nodded then separated the ration pack her hands couldn’t manage. “Eat something.”

“You, too.”

“All right already!” Trazar laughed. “Geez, you act like my sister or something.”

“I’m not only your sister,” she reminded him, her head at a subtle tilt that suggested teasing. “Sentry Commander Laiman, I am also your superior officer. So eat. That’s an order.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Trazar saluted her and took a bite of dried meat. “This is really bad. It’s old.”

“Tough, too.” LaRenna choked down a half-chewed bite and shoved the rations away. “I can’t eat this. It hurts my jaw.”

“Then eat your fruit preserves and crackers. They’re still reasonably edible.” He traded her meat for his tin of Taelach sweet rations. “Now I’m going to pull a little rank. Your big brother says to shut up and eat, so you’d better mind.”

LaRenna stuck her tongue out in her typical mild defiance but did as he asked, finishing the first tin and half of the second by the time he had worked through one meat pack.

“Take this.” She pushed the tin at him. “I can’t eat anything else.”

“Drink your water.” Trazar cleaned out the second tin. “Then try to rest. Your eyes are burning in your head.”

She slid down, stretched