Heart's Lair Read Online Free PDF Page B

The blaster had done its work with deadly efficiency. The flesh was seared, the muscle torn, the sinew severed from the bone. Under normal circumstancesthat is, Agrican circumstancesif Karic lived, he'd be a cripple.
    But for once Bellator could help rather than destroy. She would heal him in body and mind, until he was the same strong, powerful man as before. First, however, she must get him to a shelter, where she could tend his wounds the conventional way before performing her psychic healing.
    Liane knelt beside him, laying a heavy cloak over his trembling form. At the feel of the cloth Karic's struggles ceased, and he tensed. "Karic, it's me, Liane." She tentatively touched him. "It's safe now."
    "No," he groaned. "Nothing's safe for you. Go away . . . away from me . . . before it's too late."
    She grasped him by the shoulders and turned him over, cradling his head in her lap. He'd begun to shiver now, great wracking spasms that shook his entire body. Only now, secure in her arms, was he at last able to let go.
    The realization stirred something deep within Liane. "It's already too late," she whispered. "I've betrayed my people for you. I can't leave."
    Bits of leaves and dirt caked his bruised face. Liane gently brushed away what she could. She pulled a small flask from the pocket of her cloak, unstoppered it and put it to Karic's blue lips.
    "Drink, Karic. It'll give you strength for a short time, time enough to get you to my forest hut."
    He looked up at her, his expression dazed. "I have no strength left, sweet femina, and you cannot carry me."
    Liane knew he was dying. She raised his head and forced some of the contents of the flask into his mouth.
    "Drink," she ordered, in the tone of a mother admonishing a disobedient child. "Swallow it, Karic."
    He obeyed her, emptying the flask. With a deep sigh, Karic fell back.
    Liane carefully laid him on the ground. It would be a short while, she knew, for the potion to take effect. In the meantime, she busied herself with removing Karic's bonds.
    The coils that wound about his forearms were beryllium-impregnated and impossible to sever. She needed the key control to unlock them, which was what had taken so long to procure upon her return to Primasedes.
    It had not been easy to sneak down into the analysis lab unnoticed, for it was not her assigned work station and seemed busy horas a sol. As time ticked by and she thought of Karic lying wounded, perhaps dying in the forest, she'd gone nearly mad, waiting for the right opportunity. At long last, it had come.
    ''I'm going to roll you over and remove your bonds," she explained. "I know it'll be painful after such a long time, but I'll try to be as gentle as I can."
    His nod was the only sign that he had heard her. Liane turned him over and pulled down the cloak that covered him. A small push of a button on the key control and the metallic bonds fell away. Ever so carefully, Liane brought Karic's arms down to his sides and turned him back over.
    His face twisted in pain at this new addition to his torment, but he didn't utter a sound. His arms flopped limply at his sides, cold and pale. Liane took both of his hands in hers.
    "I'm going to have to hurt you now, Karic," she said. "I need to massage some feeling back into your arms. Can you bear just a little more?"
    "Yes," he gasped, already in the throes of that special agony of returning circulation. "Do what . . . you have . . . to do."
    Liane steeled herself to his torment and began to rub life back into his arms. Never once did he utter a sound, though his strong white teeth drew blood from biting down so hard on his lower lip. He was like some wild beast, Liane realized, bearing his pain in silence, expecting neither aid nor comfort save that which he could dredge from within himself.
    An urge to take on his pain, to ease a little of his torment, overcame Liane. She felt the healing aura leave her and seek its union with the one in distress. She wanted it, more