Eye of the Ocean Book 3 Ji'jin Station

Eye of the Ocean – Book 3: Ji’Jin Station
added, realizing she would think he meant about his being too tired. “I find I
don't know you.” Delicate blue flowers and floor tiles that moved when he stared
at them. What had Eunni done?
“The bird is flying,” Alicia said, leaning back against the tiles. “We don't have
much time before everything changes again. The deal that Sarkalt made with
Gennady, do you remember it? It was Gennady's connection with Cassa that
Sarkalt needed more than the Ladybug as back up, and in exchange he got a
chance to influence the outcome by being there.”
“I've seen Garm's spins.”
“Then you have to understand what Eunni has done. Hic'lic says that she's
offered me this, that it's a gift, and I accept. My future, my connection to you,
like Oimit did with Tu'pin. My Alisim, maybe even this Alisim, will be real.
Regardless of what happens with you and Ulanda, I'll have something.”
He seemed to have missed that as well. Surprise opened his mind; he hadn't
realized that he had shut the world off that thoroughly. From Alicia came a fierce
possessiveness but mixed with it was a feeling of loss. Past, present and future.
As though she talked with a ghost. What had been asked while he was
unconscious at the Station Center and what hadn't? “I'm here,” he whispered to
her, stroking the soft skin of her shoulders with both hands.
On her face, beads of scented water shone like diamonds on cream and rosecolored
stone. Then she lowered her eyes as she reached to return his touch, and
the stone softened. “Oh, Rit. You've been one place and one only since we found
Ulanda. And before that...” She moved into his embrace, and the last words were
whispered against his skin. “I can't forgive you for not loving me, but I can let
you go.”
There was more, a scent to her that wasn't the almond or the flowers. “I said I
wouldn't leave...” he began, the words hiding that he was reaching deeper.
Stone... or was it only her strong will?
Scented fingers were against his lips and the taste drove his wits out. She had
a very strong will, the taste as sweet as it was strong. “Rit, it's all right,” she
said, a laugh in her tone, not desire or even seduction. “Don't you bother
analyzing anything. I want this moment, for us. Now.”
- 41 -
Ulanda leaned an elbow on the low table and chewed on a ragged thumbnail as
she thought. It must have been mid-afternoon when she had arrived here. How
many hours? Four? As many as six?
Laurel Hickey www.2morrow.bc.ca