When he’d been tortured, his survival had depended on being able to escape mentally to a place where the Khieevi tortures couldn’t touch him. Unfortunately, when he was in deep pain, he still retreated to that place. Acorna couldn’t reach him there, and the healing power of her horn could not touch him either.
She tried, but she could not read Aari’s thoughts, ‘which were jumbled and incoherent. But the feelings that rolled from him were all too clear-deep dread, loathing that was kaLinyaan in its repulsion. It was as if Aan had been flung down into some dark and nightmarish place he could not escape from. He no longer knew where he was or who was with him. She could only hold him, her horn buried in his mane up tight against his scalp, trying to exude enough soothing energy to overpower the spiraling horror that gripped him in its vortex. Time seemed to slip away as she tried to give Aan some relief from the mental demons that gripped him. And then, as she reached the point of exhaustion, everything slipped away from her and the world faded to black.
When Becker returned to the main deck, he and the KEN unit both sticky with the foul-smelling sap, he looked in to see that Aari and Acorna both slept, she with her arms wrapped tight around him, he at last relaxed, though his face was still damp with tears. Becker saw that Acorna’s golden horn -was looking a little transparent, as if the effort of trying to comfort Aan had drained her healing energy. Past experience had taught him that this was how it -was with Linyaari who pushed their limits of endurance. He had seen that all too clearly from the effects of the tortures inflicted on captured Linyaari by Edacki Ganoosh and Admiral Ikwaskwan. But normally it took a long time and a lot of injuries to deplete a horn to any degree. The fact that Acorna’s horn was already translucent instead of a healthy gold told him that poor old Aari had to be in a world of hurt.
RK, who had spent the time Becker and the KEN unit used to round up the salvage getting the sap off his fur, plopped himself within the tangle of Linyaari feet and buried his face in his own paws. The cat had apparently decided that a vigil was in order.
Becker looked at Acorna lying there, and thought that if her knuckles weren’t already so pale they’d be white from hanging on to Aari. She was clutching him like a lifeline. He was hurting, and she “was bound and determined that he -was going to stop hurting. That was all very well on the surface, but Becker -wasn’t sure Aari was ready to be out of pain, or ready to let Acorna in to heal him. He wasn’t sure that, even with the Linyaari’s legendary psychic abilities, Acorna had enough experience of men to understand how complicated her caring for Aari could be for both of them.
He touched Acorna’s shoulder gently and -woke her, so that she turned toward him and relaxed her grip on Aari. He didn’t need to do anything else. As soon as she saw -where she -was and what she -was doing, she rose, not as if she -were ashamed, but like she knew it -was the prudent thing to do.
“He was very frightened of something out there,” she said. “Khieevi must have attacked that ship, Becker. Aari’s mind was screaming about the Khieevi, and he was reliving his torture when they captured him again. It was very hard for him.”
“It was no picnic for you, either, Princess. Better hit your berth and strap in. I’ll strap him in, too. I’ve got all the salvage stowed. We can look at it at our leisure once we’re back in space. I don’t want to sit down here any longer than necessary and give those plants time to get so relaxed about having the CorSor among them that they decide to make us part of the scenery. Know -what I mean?”
It was an image she could visualize all too well. She nodded sleepily and stumbled off to her berth.