Spirit Walk_ Enemy of My Enemy (Book 2) - Christie Golden [83]
He looked around for Moset, who had fallen in the first few moments of the fight. But at some point the Cardassian had obviously recovered and fled.
Go after him, Gradak urged. And Kaz wanted to, badly. But his first duty was to his patients. He suddenly remembered something that had happened in the heat of the fray and stumbled to his feet.
“Oh, Sekaya…” Kaz said softly.
Sekaya lay on the bed, her eyes still shut. Several enormous slashes lacerated her abdomen. She had never regained consciousness.
Sekaya frowned, vague discontent creeping into her awareness even as she leaned against the warmth of Blue Water Dreamer.
“Something’s wrong,” she said, although it still felt as though everything was perfect with the universe. Reluctantly she lifted her head and saw with a shock that the cord had disappeared.
She bolted upright, crying, “Chakotay!”
Blue Water Dreamer’s hand on her shoulder tried to soothe her. “He is fine,” her beloved said. “Chakotay has returned to his body. He will be tired, but he will be all right.”
Sekaya turned to stare at him, and then dawning realization swept over her. “If we are no longer connected by the cord,” she said slowly, “and he’s all right,…that means that I’m…”
“Dead, as you understand the word,” said Blue Water Dreamer with infinite tenderness. He stroked her cheek. “That’s why I came for you. I wanted to be the one to be with you. So that you wouldn’t be afraid.”
“I’m not afraid,” Sekaya replied, and realized with mild surprise that she spoke the truth. But there was a strange resistance.
He rose and extended a hand to help her up. “Look there,” he said, pointing to the north. “See the pine forest? That’s the barrier, according to the traditions of the Lakota. That’s the Land North Beyond the Pines.”
He turned to her and his heart was in his eyes. She felt herself tremble. “Come with me, Sekaya, my Sky. Walk along the Star Road with me. You’ll still be able to visit Chakotay from time to time, when he needs you. Every time he looks at the stars, he’ll see those of us walking the Star Road.”
It sounded so beautiful, so perfect. And yet, she hesitated. Seeing her doubt, Blue Water Dreamer said quietly, “I came to you first in your spirit walk, when you wanted to know if you should reveal everything to Chakotay. I came to you a second time in your dream, where you relived our first kiss.” He ran his fingers through her hair. “And now I come to you a third time. Among our people, if one who has passed into the Land North Beyond the Pines appears three times to someone still living, that person must come back with him.”
Again Sekaya looked toward the waiting Land, and knew what she needed to do.
“I am not of your tribe, Blue Water Dreamer,” she said.
He laughed softly, so close that his breath stirred her hair. “That ever was the problem between us, Sky.”
She let him fold her close, hugging him in return.
“When the true time comes…will you come for me?”
“Of course I will, if you want me to.”
Sekaya closed her eyes and inhaled the scent of him. “Then I will never be afraid to die.”
At last he let her go and stepped back. Spreading his fingers, he gently placed them on her belly.
“Here is where the wound is,” Blue Water Dreamer said. “I will hold it so that you suffer no more harm, until your doctor can heal you himself.”
Sorrowfully Kaz went to the body of the beautiful young woman. He pressed his fingers to her throat, confirming what his eyes told him: There was no heartbeat. Sekaya was dead.
As he regarded the body, something seemed…off about it. When he realized what it was, he was utterly confused. The blood should have spilled all over the place. Instead, it never seemed to have flowed at all. Again he leaned beside Sekaya and touched the blood; it was warm and wet, but somehow it wasn’t flowing—
As if time were standing still.
No, more like…somehow, Sekaya