Beowulf's Children

Justin hurled a shoe, then another, then his balled-up underwear. Nice grouping.

Jessica swam with powerful strokes. The hole was only ten meters across, two meters deep at its deepest. The water was crystal clear, right down to the rocky floor. No nasty surprises lurked in the darkness.

With an uncomfortable bit of self-awareness Justin noted that Jessica's strokes were actually more masculine than his. He tended to be more fluid, almost elegant. Aaron had both qualities, and it was one of the things that let him swim rings around—

Dammit, he refused to let things get complicated. Right now life was good. The sky was very blue, and the clouds were very white. The twisted trees framed the swimming hole beautifully. "Race you," she said. "Ten laps."

He sighed, but gritted his teeth. All right. He was faster on the land, but swimming was a toss-up.

Justin bore down, blanked his mind, and began to cleave the water. In the effort, in the struggle, both of them forgot everything but the effort, and it was a glorious day. Jessica slid up next to him in the water, and shoveled a wave into his face. He splashed back, the race completely forgotten.

For the moment, both of them were completely content.

They swam twice more, and on the last attempt, he beat her. She gasped for one more race, and he declined. He was completely drained. His breath came in great sobbing gulps, but he dragged himself up onto a rock, and looked down at her.

She looked up at him, and laughed, and suddenly something in her eyes changed. "Justin," she said. "Look at your side."

Something nestled against his ribs that looked like a mass of plastic blood. It was pale, almost transparent, but was shot through with veiny structures. As he watched, the veins pulsed and engorged with blood.

"Jesus," he moaned. "More of these jellyfish things?"

She climbed out of the water. "Stop complaining. At least they're not toxic. They just want a little blood. You're being childish and inhospitable."

"Hah hah. Why don't you come up here and help me be even more inhospitable still?"

"At your service," she said, and climbed up.

The leech-things were fairly harmless, transparent, not much thicker than leaves. They only became visible when engorged with blood. Many of the rivers and lakes had them—in fact, the entire continent was generously supplied with parasites—but none had transmitted any amoeboids or other bacteria. They just stole blood.

Jessica went for her backpack, opened it, and took out a saltshaker.

She sprinkled salt on the leech.

There was no pain, and Justin had time to look at her. Dammit, he wished his mind would stop that. Somehow, it just seemed as if her face had changed, or as if he hadn't ever really looked at her before.

She tucked her knees up, and wrapped her arms around them.

"Now we wait for a minute," she said.

They had been close like this many times before, ever since childhood.

Nudity was nothing new or unusual for them. But now...

Now the curve of her back, the shape of her smile, even the dampness of her hair seemed so inviting, so...

Before he knew exactly what he was doing, he leaned over and kissed her. He held it for a moment. Her eyes went very wide, and then she drew back, startled.

Her eyes narrowed. "What was that for?"

"Just a passing thought."

"Uh-huh." He couldn't tell, but he thought that her mouth, that ta

The silence between them grew strained. Justin's body had several map-shaped red splotches where the parasites had fallen away. Antiseptic was swabbed on, and he felt fine now. But somehow, neither of them had remembered to put their clothes back on.

"You need to take better care of yourself," Jessica said. She ran her finger along the horseshoe ridge of muscle on his upper arm, and then, as if a sudden thought had interrupted the first, she leaned back, and turned away.

Justin leaned forward, and kissed her shoulder. Then softly, he rubbed his cheek against it. A day's stubble gave a sandpapery edge to the motion.

Then he kissed it again, and pulled back.

Their eyes met, and it was one of those moments where the rest of the world drops away into nothing, where the rest of the sights and sounds and smells of the universe simply vanish. There was nothing in the entire world but her eyes, and then her lips, and the fresh, salty taste of her mouth, and her hands whisper-soft upon his shoulders.

It was a vortex. I

The heat was just begi

She laughed, and stood, tossed her hair, and ran into the woods.

It was a challenge as old as time, as old as the man-woman thing that drove all human life. It wasn't a race. It was the race. And the grand prize was...

He jumped off his seat and ran, laughing, into the woods, the tangled, knotted vine-hung woods that grew here on the far side of the mountains, and he saw that he could catch her. There were three reasons—one, he was a little faster, except over long distances. Second, she had to break the trail. All he had to do was follow.

Third, and most importantly—she wanted him to win.

He lost sight of her for a moment and—

There she was, just ahead of him. She turned her head around to see him, gave a little squeak, and...

Collided with a spider devil nest.

Chapter 33

LOVE AND FEAR

Death, in itself, is nothing; but we fear

To be we know not what, we know not where.

JOHN DRYDEN, Aureng-Zebe

They had crossed the ridge and were back in the forest. Sylvia stepped out to pass Cadma

"So... you come up here often?" she asked lamely, surprised that she was able to get that much out between labored breaths.

He smiled down at her. "I try to get up into the hills as often as possible," he said. "It gives me a chance to feel in synch with the land."

"This... is really what you wanted all along."

He nodded. A small, warm smile creased his lips. "Isn't it what you wanted? All of you?"

"I suppose so." She walked along with him for a time, wondering how to broach the one question that burned in her mind. "Aaron... you and I have never had much time to talk."

"A couple of wonderful di

She knew that she had invited him to the house, but for the life of her she couldn't remember what had been said, or eaten, or done. And that was a terrible pity. Her child, but she couldn't be completely certain of any single interaction. She was struck by a wave of remorse so powerful it shocked her.

"Did it... bother you?" she asked. "That you never had parents?"

He laughed. "What are you talking about? The whole colony was my family, remember?"