That, too, was a novel experience, being dressed by a lover. She helped him even though she didn’t want to.
When she was jamming her boots on, he took her hand, pressing it against his leg, and with his free hand, tilted her chin up so she met his eyes. She had to catch her breath against the lovingness in their silvery depths. He stroked her cheek with a touch that reminded her of another one.
“Sean, if you were taken offplanet-if they hauled you in for questioning like Lavelle? Would you die, too? Torkel was-”
He put a finger to his lips. “I know. And I can’t stay here-” And she knew he meant Kilcoole, not just this cavern. “But I will return to you”-and the slight emphasis made her heart bump- “whenever I can, Yanaba Maddock.” He dropped his hand to her breast, over her heart, and pressed in hard. “Am I in yours as you are in mine?”
“Yes.” Why she could admit it so easily she didn’t know. Except that it was true. And it didn’t matter if he never did return to her. She would love Sean Shongili for the rest of her life.
His lips brushed hers as gently as he had stroked her cheek.
“Come, we have to hurry.” He turned abruptly and led the way out.
As they moved up the slope, it seemed to her that the light behind them gradually dimmed. It was dawn when they ducked out from under the cascade. Dawn of which day, Yana wondered.
Chapter 12
Yana was still pleasantly disoriented from the experience in the cave and bemused by lovemaking as they walked back to the village. She was not exactly sure how far they had come from the hot springs when Scan pressed her hand in farewell and disappeared into the trees. Considering their conversation and his sudden insistence that they leave the cave, she was hardly surprised.
The sky resembled a healing bruise, staining the morning with yellow-brown haze and, even out here in the woods, smelling like a spaceport, which was unusual. Mostly the smells about Kilcoole were delicate and crisp, refined by the cold to mere essences, but now the stench of hot ship-shielding filled the air and cast a pall over the woods. How many troops had landed since she left SpaceBase?
As she walked out of the woods and into the long clearing preceding the village, one of Clodagh’s cats-the one who lived in her own cabin? she could never be sure-trotted up to her, and a short time later Clodagh appeared.
Her beautiful smile livened her face as she embraced Yana and kissed her cheek. “Welcome, neighbor. I knew there would be no problem for you.”
“Scan’s gone, Clodagh.”
“Very wise. You should find somewhere to go, too, Yana. The soldiers are all over the village now. They came the morning we returned from the chant.”
“When was that, Clodagh?”
“Yesterday. Don’t worry. It didn’t take you long for an offworlder. Giancarlo has gone up to Sean’s place with the others, but he was asking for you, too.”
“I need to find Torkel Fiske before Giancarlo finds me. Is he here, too?”
“I don’t think so. Bunny will know.”
“Where is she?”
“Somewhere between here and SpaceBase. They been keepin’ her and Terce and Adak all awfully busy. Adak will know where she is though.”
As it turned out, they didn’t need to go to the snocle shed. They met Bunny, accompanied by another of the cats, coming down the street toward them through a village that had changed during the time Yana had been in the cave. Snocles ferried uniformed and parka-clad figures up and down the streets, and similar figures wandered between the houses, trying to look as if they were patrolling something. Snocles were parked willy-nilly along the streets. Many of the vehicles were loaded with equipment, and Yana saw two trains of the machines heading away from the village. Several houses farther on, winter-uniformed corps members were slapping together another of the prefab buildings.
“As you can see, we’ve been invaded,” Clodagh said. “Slainte, Bunny.”
“Slainte, Clodagh. Yana! Oh, Yana, you did great. Isn’t it wonderful?” Yana was momentarily confused all over again as Bunny gave her a welcoming hug, then realized that the girl’s words referred strictly to the earlier portion of Yana’s encounter with the cave, not to the more private events occurring afterward.