Chapter 3

Cheri was attending to her duties at the Temple when a Ranger came in and asked to speak with her.

“Is this about Rillen? Is he okay?”

“Yes, it is about him, and he’s not okay, though he will be,” the man, who identified himself as Captain Thompson, said. “The healers have patched him up. Once he regained some strength, he asked to speak with you.”

“Oh, Goddess gentle and strong!” she said. “I need to let the priestess know...”

The duty priestess had been alerted by another, though, and was already there. “I heard, Cheri. Go!”

Captain Thompson led her at a trot to the hospital and to Fendirillen’s room. The healer was there already, and she intercepted the humans before they entered. “The captain already knows this, but he’ll be fine. He did lose quite a bit of blood, but we’ve been pumping him full, and he’s no longer in danger. He’s still going to be under the effects of the painkillers, though, so he may say things that he normally wouldn’t.”

She then led Cheri into the room where she saw Rillen, who was clearly awake but just as clearly still a tiny bit loopy.

“Rillen? How are you? Well, I suppose that’s a stupid question given the monitors and tubes and everything.”

To the others, he said, “Can you give us a few minutes alone?”

After the others stepped out of the room, he said, “Thank you for coming, Cheri. I wanted you to know why I might not come visit like I promised Ginny. I also wanted to explain something that happened the night you were attacked.

“Cheri, When you asked to take my scent and weren’t repelled, that was the first time. Ever. Even at the Temples and here in the hospital, all the dizyntk avoid me if they can. Even my parents can’t stand to be near me for long. I just wanted you to know how much that moment meant to me.”

When he started to cry, she began stroking his head, a gentle gesture that simply said, ‘I’m here for you.’ When the tears had subsided a bit, she said, “None of us know what the future will bring, but I will say that Ginny and I want to be your friends. We’re lucky and we know it. We’ve had each other for most of our lives. I can only imagine what it would be like to be shunned or avoided all of the time. We won’t do that to you.”

“Thank you, Cheri. I’m looking forward to spending some time with the two of you, when I can.”

Neither of them had heard the captain and healer come back in after Fendirillen calmed down. Now the captain spoke up. “You’ll have more chances for that than you might think, Fendirillen. Your healer has told me more about your injuries, and insists that you won’t be back on the job for at least two weeks, and you’ll be on barracks duty for a while after that.

“Beyond that, we’re pulling all of our dizyntk back for the moment. The woman who shot you survived and has talked under interrogation. There’s a group out there trying to discredit dizyntk and run them off Eckleston. The police, the Rangers and the military are all getting involved.”

Cheri put a hand to her mouth. “Oh, my word. I wonder if anyone has let them know that Princess Feyalisa and her family will be here next month?”

Captain Thompson nodded. “Yes, they’ve let us know, and we’re coordinating with the Royal Guard as well. We don’t yet know all of the details, but those will follow when they have them worked out. It’s not widely known, though. If you don’t mind my asking, how did you learn of it?”

“Revered Sister Linarti mentioned it to me the other day. She knows that I’ve met the princess’s bonded mate, Sister Velakari, and thought I might want to see her when she’s here.”

The captain and the healer, who was also human, seemed to think that explained it. Fendirillen looked puzzled, but held his peace.

The healer went on to explain that Fendirillen would be released in two days, but was not allowed back on the job for two weeks after that.

Cheri asked, “Will he need special care during that time?”

“No, he’ll be completely mobile. He’ll just need to avoid straining himself, and he’ll need to spend time getting his strength back.”

Cheri turned back to Rillen and said, “Please come stay with us. We have the room, and we do want to get to know you better. Ginny’s a great cook — the restaurant she works at has a full dizyntk menu, so she’s learning to cook dizyntk dishes, as well.”

Even if he were at full strength, Rillen doubted he could have resisted the hope in her eyes. Still a little out of it on pain relievers? He had no chance at all.

“That sounds wonderful, Cheri. I’ll be very happy to spend some time with the two of you.”

With a smile that lit the whole room, she leaned over and nuzzled him before leaving to prepare for their guest.

“Okay, Rillen, as the healer said, you’re not to strain yourself. You are supposed to get up and walk around, for increasingly long periods, as you recover. So, shout if you need something, most especially companionship. If you want to go for a walk by yourself, that’s fine, but if you want some company we’ll be happy to accompany you.”

After Cheri’s little speech, Ginny sat down on the edge of the bed and took Rillen’s hand.

“She can be kind of pushy, can’t she?” she said, speaking fondly of her mate. “Relax. You’re here for two reasons. One, you need to recover, and we feel that helping you recover is a way of partially repaying our debt to you for saving Cheri. Please don’t argue about that, we understand what might have happened if you hadn’t intervened. Second, you’re here because we like you, and we’d like to get to know you better. Hopefully, you feel the same way.”

Rillen’s jaw was hanging open by that point. Not at what they’d said, but that they’d said it in Dizyntilin. In the same language, he replied, “I do want to get to know you better. One of the things that I would love to know is how you learned our language so well? I’ve never met a human who was half that fluent.”

Ginny held up her left wrist, laughed a little and said, “We were working hard to learn because we wanted to be bonded. All of that went out the window when we went to the Temple. Rillen, we had a vision of the Goddess. After the vision, we found we were completely fluent.”

Rillen shook his head and said, “Cheri asked me not to kneel when she told me before, but it’s hard when you meet someone touched by the Goddess.”

Cheri laughed at that and said, “Just imagine what it’s like at the Temple! I’m the one to whom the Goddess appeared. She gave me the gift of your language. It turned out she also gave me the gift of knowledge of the ways of a priestess and the Temple. When we’re learning new things, it’s almost like I’m just remembering them. But I’m still just a human who recently turned fourteen cyankas old and, apart from my love for Ginny, I’m still trying to find my way in the world.”

“I believe I can understand what you mean. I’m about the same age and have been cut off from what it means to be a dizyntk in so many ways. I, too, am just now finding my way in the world, and searching for an understanding of who I am.” Standing, he pulled Cheri into an embrace, then used his tail to urge Ginny to join them. Standing there, Rillen felt his heart swell. The feeling of being accepted and appreciated without reservation brought tears to his eyes.

To one side, Ginny said, “I can almost feel the Goddess in this moment. I think she wants us to find our way together.”

Four days later, Ginny was at work so Rillen paid her a visit. She waved excitedly at him and told him to grab a seat near the back corner.

Ginny raised her voice and announced to the room at large, “Hey, everyone! This is Fendirillen. He’s the Ranger who helped Cheri with that fundamentalist a few weeks back. He got hurt on the job just recently, and we’re putting him up while he recovers, so you’re likely to see him around a lot!”

Rillen was surprised how many people came up to him to personally thank him for saving Cheri. One of the locals explained it to him. “Cheri and Ginny grew up just up the street, and most of us have known them for years. They’re sweethearts who always seem to have time for all of us, so when we heard she was attacked, well, it’s a shame the authorities got those two off planet. We all wanted a piece of them. Some people around here are rethinking their attitude about your people after that. Thank you.”