Chapter 10: Cold Deck

Lindsay awoke the next morning still sitting at Sirix's table, a blanket she didn't put on covering her shoulders. In front of her was a half-full cup of juice with bugs perched around the rim. "Get away from that!" she said, waving them away with her hand. She downed the remaining liquid in one gulp.

"Morning, Indsayee," Sirix said from his desk, his voice gruffer than usual. He took a drink from a new bottle.

"Have you been up all night?"

"I would have been, anyway. At least last night might come to something useful. I've got my first plans." He plopped a small stack of papers in front of her. "I hope you're ready."

She took the plans and looked them over. "I am."

"Good, we'll head over to see Nol, then."

Sirix and Lindsay arrived just as the small army was finishing their breakfast. "Nol!" Sirix shouted.

Nol came jogging over. "Yes, Bona Serat Corsar?"

"Indsayee and I have been talking, she thinks she may have a way to help us with the raids. I want you to do as she says. Get my soldiers. We have training to do."

Nol stood at attention. "Yes, Bona Serat Corsar. As you order." She jogged off toward the others who were lounging about, not really talking, with a vaguely funereal air to the scene. Not that Lindsay could blame them, the final losses had been twenty-four, more than half of those soldiers.

"All right, get off your butts! Time to get to work!" Nol led the group to where Lindsay and Sirix stood. "The Bona Serat Corsar says Earth girl here is going to be helping us train. You'll do what she says or you'll have to answer to me. You got it?" She punched a fist into her hand to make the point clear.

Lindsay gulped nervously. There had to be at least one hundred men and women gathered in front of her. She wasn't sure what made her more nervous, that there were a hundred or that there were only a hundred. A hundred left. How many more raids like yesterday could they take before there weren't enough to defend the camp? Two? Three? Sirix hadn't put her in charge because he believed in her, but because he was completely out of options. She was his Hail Mary pass. If she couldn't make this work, if she was wrong, it was over.

She took a deep breath. "I want you to form four equal lines!" she shouted. "Each of you needs to be two arms' lengths apart from each other!"

By the end of the day, Lindsay was exhausted. She had underestimated exactly how disordered they were. It took them almost ten minutes just to form four lines. It quickly became clear they'd never done anything like an exercise drill, so a good portion of her morning was spent simply teaching them how to do jumping jacks and push-ups, by evening they were able to do most stretches. Tomorrow she would start running drills.

Tomorrow. Ugh! She laid her head against the table, nested in her arms.

"Rough day, Earth girl?" Nol said, laying a plate of food beside her.

"You were there," Lindsay groaned, not bothering to even lift her head to look at the meal.

"You did good for your first day." She gave Lindsay a light cuff on the shoulder. "Tomorrow will be better."

Lindsay groaned and turned her head to look at Nol. "I was kidding myself to think this would work. I'm trying to train an army and I don't know the first thing about fighting."

"Then I'll teach you."

Lindsay sat up straight. "You will?"

"Of course I will. We can start right now if you want."

Lindsay had an idea. "Nol? Will you help me train the troops? I can't handle a hundred on my own."

"Sure, you just show me what you want them to do, and I'll make sure they do it. Now come on, let's hit the training grounds."

The next week flew by in a flurry of training exercises. With Nol taking half the troops, they were able to train in shifts. It wasn't long before the soldiers were moving as one. Sirix came by as Unit Two jogged off with Nol in the lead.

"Well, I've got to say, I never thought I'd see them running together like that," he said.

"I told you I could do it."

"Well, now I believe you."

"I thought you believed me then," Lindsay taunted.

He gave her a sidewise look. "We both know I didn't. I just figured you couldn't make things worse."

"Watch this. Unit One! Second Position!" The soldiers instantly stood from their meals and drew their harpoons, thrusting them forward. "Fourth position!" They thrust the harpoons up toward the sky.

Sirix's head bobbed up and down. "I have to admit, I'm impressed."

"You should see their throws. Unit One! Stand down!" The soldiers put their weapons on their backs and went back to eating as though nothing had happened. Lindsay put a hand on her hip and smiled at him. "You really shouldn't underestimate me."

"I'll try to remember that. So, are they ready?"

"I'm hoping in another week or two we can start maneuvers."

"That wasn't what I asked."

"It's only been a week!" she cried.

He shook his head, arms crossed against his chest. "I expected more from you, Indsayee."

She grinned. "No, you didn't. You expected that by now I'd be back with Kalo, crying my eyes out."

"Well, I didn't expect the crying part. But, then, I've only seen you cry once. You didn't even cry when you had a spear through your side and you thought we were about to eat you."

"I almost never cry. You should consider yourself honored."

He stared at the soldiers eating. "Or horrified that seeing those things don't make me cry."

Lindsay put a hand on his arm, standing silently with him for a few minutes.

"Come by my tent later," he said. "I have some plans I'd like to go over with you."

She arrived at his tent as the night set in, leaving the two moons burning brightly. The small white one was now at its farthest point from the larger orange one. A drop of rain plopped onto her nose. Then a few more. She hurried under the flap to find Donil standing quite close to Sirix.

Lindsay felt a momentary flare of jealousy inside of her. She should just go. She didn't want to interrupt. But she was already picturing Donil on the bed, long white hair and long blue legs spilling over the sides, body moving up and down in the bed. Sirix on top of her, gripping the wooden sides with white knuckles as he pushed in deeper and harder.

"Lindsay! You're hurt!" Donil cried. She rushed over to her, her gentle blue hands turning Lindsay's face to get a better view of the cut on her cheek.

"It's nothing, don't worry," she said, batting Donil's hands away.

"It'll just be a moment, Lindsay." She took out a cloth from her hip sack, poured ointment on it, and dabbed Lindsay's cheek.

"Wait..." Donil's words finally dawned on her. "You said my name!" She grabbed Donil and hugged her as though she had told her she'd won a new car on The Price Is Right. She kissed her cheek. "You called me Lindsay!" Donil blushed a pale white but made no attempt to free herself.

"She wanted to surprise you," Sirix said. "She's been working on it since she first learned your name."

"Thank you, Donil!" Lindsay said, pulling back but still holding Donil's hands, she looked her right in her starry indigo eyes. "You have no idea how much it means to me."

Donil's cheeks whitened further. "I just wanted you to feel like you had a home here."

Lindsay wrapped her in an embrace again. "Thank you," she said into Donil's ear. It felt nice to hold Donil again. It had been so long. She felt warm and soft and caring, like being enveloped by the very feeling of love. She hadn't felt anything like love since she'd gotten here and she didn't want to let it go. But she had to. It was probably getting weird. She let her go. "I'll come by tomorrow evening, I'm sorry I've been away so long."

"You're trying to help save us, I don't mind."

"I know you don't, but I still want to see you and have our talks."

Donil smiled. Why did she have to have that perfect, genuine smile that would stun anyone regardless of gender? Lindsay thought.

"I'll look forward to it," Donil said. She handed Sirix a clipboard type thing and walked out.

Sirix smiled at Lindsay. His smile was so opposite Donil's. It held in it a knowing mockery, taunting words that hid behind the oversized canines. It was rough, lips stretched between scar tissue. A glint in his eye teased her. And suddenly, in her mind, it was her in the bed. Her legs spread so they hung over the sides, her long hair splayed out like a corona around her head, her red lips parted in moans. He picked up her legs in a fluid motion and she wrapped them around his waist. She felt the hardness of his cock brush against the entrance of her vagina, and then it was in! The head parting her soft, tender flesh, pushing deeper, pulling out and then pushing in again.

Damn! Why did even his smile have to ooze sex! Wasn't his body enough?

She smiled and ran her fingers back through her hair, taking a seat on the table. "So, what was that all about?" she said, trying to play it off that she'd caught them in an intimate moment, trying to hide what her own mind had just flashed before her. She crossed her legs, the sliding between her labia telling her what she wanted.

He put the papers on his desk. "Donil was just reporting on the injured." He sighed. "We lost one. But the others are recovering well."

"You seemed a little close for just a report," she said, suggestively. She wanted to know and yet she didn't. It wasn't as though she didn't know they were having sex, so why did she care?

But they looked so close! Like real lovers. Wasn't it right that they should be? And yet she hated the thought of it. Wanted more than anything the confirmation they weren't. That it was just sex. Because if it was just sex... No. She couldn't think that way, not about him.

But god! She needed some just sex right now! It had been months! She hadn't gone this long without since her sophomore year! But still, he was an alien. He was a one-hundred-year-old alien. She shouldn't be thinking about sex with him, shouldn't be wanting it so much.

He leaned on the table beside her. "She was teaching me how to say your name." He turned to her. "Li-ind-zee," he said slowly, each syllable controlled, intentional, as his tongue formed the sounds.

A giant curse word flashed in her mind. She was done. She was undone. Her heart melted. She wanted to turn him around, wrap her legs around his waist and have him right there on the table.

Charming? He was lethal!

"Why?" she managed to ask as she fought back her racing heart.

"It's your name. You're helping us in our fight. You're one of us. It's only right that we should be able to say your name."

She was silent for a minute. She hoped she looked like she was thinking about the words he'd just said instead of fighting back the image of his scarred blue lips sucking on her nipple. "It'll be weird not hearing you call me Indsayee," she finally said, trying to sound nonchalant.

"I can always call you Indsayee in private, if you'd prefer that?" he said, teasing.

In private. Her mind swam. It was unfair of him to do this to her!

She stuck her tongue out at him.

His brow raised in surprise. "What does that mean?"

"Humans do it to tease each other." Human children! Why had she done that?! Oh god, she was flirting! But not like an adult; like she used to do when she was sixteen! He'd turned her into a teenager with a crush again!

"I'll have to keep that in mind."

She shifted her position so she was leaning toward him, recrossing her legs. Damn she was wet! "So, was that what you wanted to show me?"

His head jerked up from staring at her knee. Maybe it was just because it was odd and alien to him, but she felt gratified anyway.

"No." He strode over to his desk and took a large rolled-up piece of paper from one of the shelves. He laid it out beside her. "This is a map of our continent, Kirith, my grandfather managed to save." The land was long with something of a diamond shape that was wider at the bottom than the top. The upper part of the land was largely covered by a giant forest. "This is Mt. Sabor where the majority of the Bonat live." He pointed to a large mountain that was drawn as jutting out of the forest. If the map was accurate, it was probably twenty miles wide, at least.

"Where are we?"

"We're down here." He pointed to an area close to the bottom of the forest. "And here is the gate you came in through." He pointed to a little circle drawn just south of the forest. "These are the lands of the Nobillo and the Korsuch." He indicated a wide swath of land nestled in a range of mountains that took up almost the entire south of the land with words next to crudely drawn buildings that likely were key cities if she remembered that first day correctly with those tall towers jutting up to the sky in the distance.

"And this is the Vyykyer Strait." He indicated a strip of water that separated the top of the main land mass from a little tip of land with another circle on it and a drawing of more buildings, at the center of which was one very tall one.

"What's that building, there?" She pointed to it.

"That was the Citadel. It was the tallest building in Kirith. As you can see, the Bonat were a thriving people with cities on both sides of the Vyykyer Strait. When the Citadel fell, those from the city took to the ships to escape across the strait, but only three made it. Three out of one hundred." He shook his head. "And those three only because some of the younger Desni stepped in and ate the Nobillo attackers."

"Ate them?!"

"Oh yes, I haven't told you much about the Desni yet. They are an ocean dwelling race." He drew a quick sketch of a very small Bonat and then something much, much larger that resembled most, to Lindsay, a massive humpback whale with extra flippers at its front, three eyes, and a mouth full of teeth. "The seas are entirely under their control and any incursion into open water is taken as an insult that is punished immediately and with prejudice."

"What kind of punishment?" Lindsay couldn't help imagining some kind of giant whale courtroom.

"To put it simply, they'll eat your ship. But, because the Vyykyer Strait is too shallow for the adult Desni, we were always able to cross there. But the adolescent Desni, who often frequent the strait, were inundated by sinking ships, they were annoyed and began jumping out of the water and snatching the Nobillo from the air and eating them."

Lindsay wasn't sure whether she found that thought funny or terrifying. She scanned the map, when something caught her eye. "What's that area to the east that looks like a desert? It looks like it was pasted on."

"That's where the Kingdom of the Olaru used to be."

Lindsay felt sick remembering their fate.

"We have five encampments in these woods, this is the largest of them. But the others are around, though they rarely come this far south. Our job, unfortunately, is to serve as the easy target so they are left alone."

"Why are you showing me all of this?"

"I have my reasons." Sirix smiled enigmatically.

Again with his saying things and refusing to explain them! Just when she was beginning to feel like she was part of his inner circle, he shut the door. She couldn't hide the irritation in her voice as she said, "Is that all?"

"No, I also wanted to show you this." He produced a second piece of paper. "It's a trap for the next Nobillo raid. Do you think you can make this happen?"

She looked it over. "I'll have to discuss it with Nol, but I think so."

"Good, I'll let you to it, then." He sat back down at his desk and began to write.

She walked out of the tent. "I'll let you to it, then," she repeated in a mocking tone.

"What did you say?" Sirix called from within.

"I said, have a good night," she said, her face flushing crimson.

"Goodnight."

She stuck her tongue out at the tent and stomped away.

She spent the next hour jogging, trying to erase the thoughts of Sirix and her and, failing that, trying to exhaust her body so that when she finally returned to her tent she could only muster enough strength to fall into bed and sleep.