Hollister reined Rose to a stop, then walked her toward a small stand of aspen and dismounted. Shaniah pulled up next to him, a curious look on her face.
“I thought we might let the horses graze awhile. The grass is good here,” he said.
Shaniah slid easily off Demeter’s back, stroking his mane and patting him gently on the rump. Unlike most stallions Hollister had seen, he showed little interest in Rose and took immediately to the grass.
Hollister walked to a spot beneath a large aspen and stood looking at the valley. It was about an hour before sundown and the view was gorgeous. The mountains surrounding them were still snow covered at the peaks, the trees were a gorgeous green, and the grass and wildflowers dotted the landscape with brilliant splashes of color.
“Your home,” Hollister said. “It’s in the mountains, in Europe, you said?”
“Yes,” she said.
“What does it look like?”
“Why do you ask?” she said.
“No reason, I just… we… you and I survived a pretty horrible ordeal in Absolution and I feel like we’re friends…”
“Friends?” she interrupted.
“Well… yes… I’d say if you survive a fight to death and you save each other’s lives a couple of times, that qualifies as friendship.”
“Is that how humans choose their friends these days? It is not how I remember it,” she said.
“I just thought…” Hollister was thoroughly confused. “I only asked… I just wanted to know more about you… that’s all.
… I didn’t…”
Shaniah stepped forward and kissed him. It was a nice kiss, soft at first, and Hollister was instantly aroused. She broke it off and stared at him, her hands on his shoulders.
“So, I guess this means we are friends?” he asked.
She laughed and kissed him again, pushing him back against the tree trunk. She removed her cloak and it fell to the ground at her feet.
“What about the sun?” he asked, concern in his voice.
She held a finger to his lips. “It is behind the mountains to the west. Do not worry.” The kiss was different this time-more passionate and forceful. Her hands went to his cheeks and she ran them through his hair. She stopped again to look at him.
“Friends don’t stop,” he said, his breath coming in gasps.
What happened next, happened fast. She kissed him again, and then her hands were everywhere, pulling at his shirt, running over his chest. Her fingers probed the scars on his chest and back, the places where he’d been shot and stabbed during the war, but he was glad she didn’t stop to ask him about them then. Time for that later.
The last thing he had any control over was pulling her to him, this time kissing her, his hands running through her long hair, his fingers pulling at the buttons of her blouse.
When he came to or woke up or returned to reality-for he didn’t think he’d been unconscious but he couldn’t swear to it-they were lying next to each other on the ground beneath the aspen. The sun had set; he had no idea how much time had passed and didn’t care. His entire body ached, but not in a bad way. During the war, after battle he often felt a curious blend of fatigue and exhaustion, his body sometimes so sore it hurt to move. When you were fighting for your life, the aftermath left you completely spent. So tired you believed you’d never be able to stand again, much less fight.
Hollister felt like that now, except he wasn’t sore or fatigued. The exhaustion and soreness was there, but he felt unlike he’d ever felt in his life.
Shaniah lay next to him, naked and apparently not caring. Another reason Hollister decided he liked her.
“Can I ask you a question?” he murmured.
“Yes, of course. Anything,” she said.
“This… what we just did…”
“Lovemaking?”
“Yes… sure… we can call it that… lovemaking,” he stammered. “Is this the… usual way… of ‘lovemaking’ for your people?”
She tried not to laugh. “Yes, I would say it is ‘usual.’ ”
“Dear Lord,” he muttered under his breath. “And do you have a
… over there, or back home, are you married or do you have a custom of… I guess what I’m asking is, do you have a husband?” Then he winced; this was probably the absolute wrong time to ask this question. He wanted to kick himself. Except he was too damn tired to kick anything.
If the question bothered Shaniah, she didn’t show it. In fact, it didn’t appear to affect her at all.
“I did once. No longer. We do marry; we take mates, for life. But in some cases our unions can be dissolved by the Council of Elders.”
“I didn’t mean to pry, but what just happened”-he turned on his side to face her, trying every way he could not to groan with the effort-“and what we just did was… trust me when I say it was indescribable. I just wanted to be sure… it was rude of me not to ask before… I…”
She interrupted him. Shaniah could not help but be charmed by his manners. “You broke none of our rules, Major Hollister, and you are right, it was quite indescribable.” As she turned to face him, she pushed him onto his back.
Try as he might, Hollister could not help but let a small groan escape from his lips. Then everything started again, and despite it all, he found himself quite capable of feeling “indescribable” again.
This time, when it was over, Shaniah stood and dressed.
“It was you, wasn’t it?”
“Me what?” she said.
“On the ridge in Wyoming. When Malachi attacked me and my men. I was unconscious for a while. But I saw a face. A woman. Beautiful, with long blond hair. It was you.”
As she was pulling on her boots, the train whistle sounded.
“It would appear our timing is impeccable,” she said. Hollister studied her and knew she wasn’t going to answer him. He had just had one of the greatest days of his life. Why press it?
“It would,” he said. He made his way to his knees and tried to stand using the trunk of the aspen tree for support, hoping like hell she wouldn’t notice that it took him almost five minutes to get his pants on.
“Are you all right, Major?” she asked.
“Right as rain,” he said. He somehow managed to get his arms into his shirt and he stepped into his boots. He wanted to throw his gun belt over his shoulder but he knew if he rode up to the train like that, Monkey Pete and Chee would take all of three seconds to know what had happened. Finally, he was ready. Shaniah was dressed and sitting atop Demeter, looking everywhere but at him, trying to be polite so he wouldn’t feel self-conscious. He wanted to tell her it was already too late for that.
Before he mounted up, he walked over to her and took her hand. He kissed it gently, and then with his arms holding her, pulled her slowly out of her saddle until she stood in front of him. He kissed her, a soft gentle kiss.
“Whatever you need. Whatever you’re looking for. This thing you must do. I’m going to help you see it through. All the way. Do you understand me?” He looked at her, his dark eyes fierce and proud, seeing nothing but her at that moment.
It wasn’t possible, it couldn’t be. She was an Archaic, not a creature of emotion; but she felt a tear form in her eye.
She nodded and he kissed her again.
“All the way,” he said.