Sarai, стр. 17

Chapter Five

JAMIE STAREDAROUND the garden morosely. It was a beautifulplace, an atrium garden in the center ofClan Furis’s mountain den. It reminded him of pictures he seen ofold Roman villas, airy, full of light. A Roman villa would havebeen easier to escape from, though.

He didn’tget to do anything much on his own, except brood. He was bored,frustrated and still furious — at fate, at the Zill, at the Naferi,at every damn thing.

He stared atsome flowers. They reminded him vaguely of the roses growing in hismother’s garden. He wondered whether the garden was still okay. Ithad been pretty close to the house, and the house was probably justa pile of ashes and twisted, blistered metal.

That startedhim thinking of his brothers again. He was worried sick about them,knowing they thought he was dead — they’d lost their parents in acar crash three years earlier and they were pretty damn close.They’d had to be, with the farm and all the work it required. Matt,his oldest brother, had been adamant that Jamie should go touniversity — he wanted to be a doctor and his first term atuniversity was due to start after the summer break. Matt hadalready hired a couple of farmhands to replace him and Theo aswell, when he took up his new teaching job. Guess that was anotherdream shot down the missile tube thanks to the Zill.

Jamieshivered, the warmth of the day receding as he remembered thecreatures that had come after him.

The Zill.Giant insects, with carapaces harder than steel. They still lookedand behaved more like wasps, rapacious and cunning.

Thank godfor Alekyn and his pard. Even trapped here, so far from home, hecouldn’t help but be grateful — here he was, experiencing somethingno-one, as far as he knew, from Earth had ever experiencedbefore.

Alien life.

It wasmind-blowing. People had speculated and argued aboutextraterrestrial life for centuries, and it turned out to be, well,more or less, like life on Earth. People — okay, aliens — doingexactly the same sorts of things people — okay, humans — had alwaysdone. Being born, living, loving, fighting, dying. And all the bitsin between.

Instead ofnothing being new under the sun, it really was a case of nothingbeing new under any suns, in any galaxy, in any universe,anywhere.

Which didn’tchange his basic problem. Getting home. He stared morosely atsomething bright and suspiciously butterfly-like fluttering aroundthe softly pink and mauve roses and sighed heavily. It wasn’tAlekyn’s fault the Zill had come for Jamie. It was his fault Jamiewas stuck on this planet god-knew-only how many light years fromEarth. So far, Alekyn hadn’t said anything more about Jamie seeinghis brothers, only that he was talking to his superiors about anumber of things, including Jamie and his desire to gohome.

He wasbeginning to think he’d never leave the damn den let alone find hisway home.

But thatwasn’t the worst of it.

No.

The worst ofit was that he was fast falling totally in love with Alekyn — thenights spent in his bed curled up comfortably together, theunbelievably good sex, which happened more or less whenever theylooked at each other, with or without a handy nearby flat surface.He grinned wryly. So far Alekyn’s pardmates — who were also hishousemates and brothers, as it turned out — hadn’t interruptedtheir lovemaking, but that was increasingly embarrassingly likely.He wouldn’t have said he was backwards coming forwards about sex —he was pretty darn normal, a nineteen-year-old male whosepreoccupation with fucking was high — but lately sex had become anobsession.

Sex withAlekyn, his catman. He couldn’t keep his hands off Alekyn. Evenjust thinking about his Sarat, made threads of desire twist in hisspine and lower belly and his dick tent the front of the loosepants he wore.

To distracthimself from thinking about sex with Alekyn, he thought about thegenetic modification his body had been subjected to — he didn’tfeel any different and as far as he could tell he didn’t look anydifferent. No boobs or, he paled, periods. He was getting a bitsoft around the midriff, quite a distinct little pooch going onthere — he needed some exercise but Alekyn didn’t seem to mindJamie’s thickening waist: he just rubbed it thoughtfully and purreda little Naferi love song, which had reduced Jamie to a pile ofcompliant goo.

Hedesperately wanted to see more of this new world than he could seefrom the exterior windows, which just showed an orderly streetscene complete with gardens and nice-looking residences, but Alekynand his pardmates didn’t seem willing to take him anywhere. Maybethey thought he’d make a run for it, but where exactly was he goingto run? It wasn’t as though he could just stick his thumb out andhitchhike home. As far as he could tell, the Naferi didn’t usecars, although he’d heard two of them — Bram and Eled, he thoughtthey were — talking about riding maffen, whatever the hell theywere. Some kind of animal, he gathered, but since he’d never seen amaffen and wouldn’t know how to ride one if he fell over it, it allseemed a bit moot.

“Shit,” he muttered and stood up.He was going