"That's about the size of it." He nodded. "And it protects us from its own extremities as well, don't forget, with the adaptations." He gave her a delicate nibble on the back of her neck to punctuate his remark.
"That didn't ultimately provide enough protection for La-velle," she reminded him, trying to sound rational when all she wanted to concentrate on was how to twist in order to nibble him back.
"It can only protect its people here, Yana. Miracles are seldom things."
"Will I grow the adaptations? The-what was that ugly term?-brown fat and the protective layer under the skin?"
"If you need them."
She pressed a thumb roughly across his bare forearm and gave him a quizzical look.
"Oh, yes I have it," Scan said comfortably. "And a few other accommodations you'll just have to find out for yourself. Some of us are more fully adapted than others. I, for instance, am even more a creature of Petaybee than Lavelle."
"I don't believe it! You don't look different. And you don't carry an extra ounce of flesh anywhere," she said, almost accusingly. She was remembering his body all too vividly.
"Are you sure?" he said in a teasing voice, and his hands began to wander across the skin of her back and arms.
That was the first moment she realized that she was as naked as he was. When had that happened? Yet their nudity did not surprise her, seeming as natural as if they had just shared a sauna- and she had wanted to see his finely muscled body again. Did this damned planet grant three wishes? Had she taken hers without knowing what she really wanted?
Of their own accord, her hands began to caress his warm silky flesh, the muscles excitingly firm beneath her fingers. Then Sean added the persuasions of his lips to those of his hands, and Yana responded with an ardor she thought she had lost too long ago to ever regain it. He was so silky, so strong, so agile, suddenly so demanding, and she found she had a few demands of her own. His chuckle seemed to beat against her diaphragm and against her breasts, forcing an echo from her as he rolled himself into her with a speed and skill she had to admire. He filled her as she had never been filled before, and the ascent into ecstasy was almost more than she could bear… than they could bear, for Sean, in mind and body, was subtly, and impossibly, linked to her in a way that she had never experienced before. She was herself, matching the urgency of his rhythm; she was him, sheathing and unsheathing with a power that he, too, had never encountered in a long life of couplings.
They both called out at the same time, in the same voice of joy that was colored with an agony of regret for so ephemeral a moment. As they clung to each other, breathless, unbelieving, that moment seemed uncannily elongated-and all too brief.
"Yana!" Sean murmured in her ear, his tone reverent.
"Oh, Sean!" With strengthless arms, she pressed him against her, burying her face in his neck. The million things she wanted to tell him remained unsaid, for words would shatter the sense of bonding and she felt she had to preserve it, extend it.
For the first time in her adult life, sleep overcame her after sex. Sometime later, Sean shook her gently by the shoulder, kissing the corner of her mouth.
"Hmmmm." She didn't wish to move. She wanted more of him and put her hand out to pull him back to her. But he was dressed. That effectively brought her fully awake.
"We must leave now, Yanaba," he said, his eyes tender and his hand gentle as he began to dress her.
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 off-planet-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.
Still, the relief behind Bunny's joy reinforced Yana's recognition that not everyone found the communion wonderful, or even pleasant. The cave-no, the planet-could and did damage those it rejected, or those who rejected it; she wasn't sure quite what the criterion was. She was just immensely glad to have been found satisfactory.