02 Quetzals Flock

QUETZAL'S FLOCK
bed. She pushed back the hood slowly. His heart started to thump, there could be no
mistake, it was Ajanta.
"Obeid warned me. He said it was not you!"
Kane jerked back in surprise, she had spoken in Solari. It was the first time he
had heard his tongue in the weeks and months since he had been snatched away from
Mars. She continued doubtfully.
"Is it really you, Kane?"
He found his voice.
"Yes, I am Kane."
It sounded inadequate - it was inadequate! She eyed him critically and he
could feel the tension building.
"You told me, during our last night together, when we both knew that you
would go through the Arch on the following day, that you would not remember when
you came again. I could not believe you, Kane. I have remembered, my love - even
your funny expressions about night and day. I have remembered - everything -
through two long days - my days!"
Kane tried to recover ground.
"Ajanta, I - "
His voice faded away and she interrupted.
"I wonder how it is possible not to remember our love."
Her voice was wistful.
"I never went to another man, Kane. I kept myself for those two long days. I
had many offers, many fine men who wanted me. You were my first love and my last.
Tell me, what do you think of our son? I gave him life in loneliness and grief, because
you were gone and I had lost you. He would never know his father - or so I thought.
What do you think of him?"
"Ajanta - He is a wonderful man. I could think of no one finer."
"You are kind, my lord. For his character, you must thank Obeid. He took your
place as a father. It was what he promised you when you embraced in farewell at the
Arch."
"I wish I could remember!"
He toyed with the idea of trying to explain to her that he had never met her
and that one day, he would meet her and that they would then conceive a child who
was now a man. It was in his future and he would be able to tell her of the present
time. What he couldn't do, was tell her of the passion she had experienced with him -
it had yet to happen. They stared at each other, helplessly entangled in a time knot
fashioned by the Masters of Psi.
Her face softened a little and she reached out her hand and took his. He tingled
under her touch. He knew himself too well. It would be very easy to fall for this
beautiful, eight thousand year old woman! She murmured.
"Poor, Kane. We know all about amnesia, it happens to us too. Someone gets a
knock on the head and they lose their memory."
He seized on it as a rational explanation and felt a mean bastard for doing so.
"Perhaps, you can help me to remember."
She nodded and continued to hold his hand. They stared at each other in
silence. She had a mane of black hair but he couldn't see how long it was, it was
hidden inside the Kous. She wasn't like Maia. Maia was golden, tanned and feline.
Ajanta was typical of her race, high cheekbones, thin nose, deep, black eyes, a full
mouth. In the half-light of the tent, her skin was dark. She broke the silence and asked
softly,
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