In the Shadow of Mountains: The Lost Girls Read online

Chapter Seven

  The Passing of Time

  Making love to Soo-Kai was an experience Rolf never tired of. From the first time that day, on the mattress before the fire, to the night they celebrated their fourth anniversary together, it was exciting, rapturous, and deeply ethereal. Each time was as if they had never known one another before. It was always new, always fresh, and always an adventure to be enjoyed.

  Soo-Kai responded to Rolf in a way he could never have imagined. Not that he could judge on her performance. Even before he came to the Court of King Edmund, he had never been very successful in love. He hated to admit it, but three girlfriends and one night of passion was all he could call on for his lifetime’s achievement. Things had been far worse when he left the village of his birthplace in Halafalon and came to Ellerkan. At Court he had very little to offer except his youth, and there was little demand for that. And most of the ladies he had considered had turned their noses up at him. They could do better than a mere tailor. No, his experience was limited, but even he knew that Soo-Kai was exceptional.

  It was because she knew her own body so well. She had explained it to him. She had complete control over her body, and she could sense every fibre, every blood vessel. From her head to her toes, she could sense, feel and control all of it. It was part of the same process that allowed her to detach and control her sword. It meant that when she became aroused, she really became aroused. She felt every touch and stimulation in a magnified way, and what she felt, she blew right back at him.

  At first it had alarmed and frightened Rolf. Soo-Kai’s wounds were still fresh, and he thought she would injure herself, so great were her exertions. He had tried to calm her, but she would have none of it. She didn’t seem to care, so lost was she in her ecstasy. And soon, even Rolf was too absorbed in what they did. Afterwards she had been dismissive at his concern.

  She told him that her control over her body was so complete, that when she was injured, she could even constrict the blood vessels that fed the damaged skin and muscle, limiting the blood loss. That was why she hadn’t bled to death in the forest until Rolf had returned for her that night. And that was why she was so tireless in her lovemaking. What she could constrict and reduce, she could also expand and increase. She could expand her airways, and draw in more air, widen her blood vessels, and pump more blood. It was necessary in battle, to run, to fight, and to be able to kill even when wounded. But that same ability gave her an almost inexhaustible energy during lovemaking. She called it copulation, Rolf called them marathons.

  That first time had lasted until the sun went down. She had been relentless in her pursuit of satisfaction. And her insatiability was reflected in him. She never failed to arouse and stimulate him, no matter how tired he became. They had swapped around and changed positions countless times, and when they had finally finished, Rolf could barely stand. But in the end, all their exertions came to nothing.

  For Soo-Kai, sex was not just for pleasure, although she gained much from it. It was about procreation. But it was her choice who she would procreate with. When Prince Carl and his men had raped her, she had virtually shut down her body, cutting off her sensations and her responses. They had sensed and felt nothing that Rolf had experienced. But the knowledge of it had become legend, and it was this, more than anything, that had kept the Hunts popular. For Soo-Kai, the liaison had been unwanted. That made it meaningless. She rejected it as she rejected them. The genetic material they gave her was also rejected, voided, and discarded.

  This was not the case with Rolf. What he gave, she kept. And as soon as Rolf had staggered away in search of sustenance, she had started the mental analysis and manipulation of the genetic material she had received from him. She had remained on the mattress, curled up in a ball. She whimpered and fidgeted, her eyes tightly closed in her concentration. Rolf returned and held her. They had lain together on the mattress, warming before the fire. He fed her and gave her water, but as the time passed, her distress became ever clearer.

  At first, Rolf was unsure of what it was that ailed her. During their lovemaking she had been so strong and vigorous, and now she seemed as fragile as a newborn kitten. When she finally relaxed and explained to him, he was deeply saddened.

  To reproduce, Soo-Kai had to combine the genetic material she received from Rolf with her own DNA. She had six ova waiting to be fertilised. It was a mathematical race. She took Rolf’s DNA and split it, cutting out gene sequences that were familiar and acceptable. These short strings of DNA she then spliced into a sample of her own DNA, cutting out and replacing the existing, corresponding gene sequences. She did this as often as she could, until she was left with a complete X-chromosome assembled from a combination of her own DNA and that of Rolf’s. This she then used to fertilise the ova. It was a delicate and exact process. Too little of Rolf’s genetic material, and the ova may fail to divide and grow, too much, and the tolerance levels would be exceeded, and the ova would risk rejection by her own body.

  If successful, she would give birth to six infants, all female, all Destroyers like herself. Their DNA would take the best of what Rolf had to offer, without diluting the Destroyer influence and purpose. In three years they would have grown to adulthood. In three more years they would have been sexually mature. It was a growth rate and a method of reproduction that was necessary for war. It had proved to be very effective.

  Normally, breeding with a member of the Navak race would have been easy, but Rolf was the result of generations of inter-breeding with Ellerkans other humanoid race. Although both races were compatible to one another, each was not compatible to one or other of the Destroyers. The Navak were compatible with the Insiders, like Soo-Kai, but not with the Outsiders. The reverse was the case with the other humanoid race. They were compatible with the Outsiders, but not with the Insiders. If the races had been kept apart, both Insider and Outsider Destroyers would have been able to breed successfully. But with the genetic stock now mixed, both sets of Destroyers found procreation to be almost impossible.

  At first the decline had gone unnoticed. But generation after generation saw the number of Destroyer births slowly reduced. And even with their accelerated birth and growth rates, their population fell. Their aggressive nature meant that the numbers killed in battle never declined, and their eventual defeat to King Stephen was due more to their lack of numbers than to his prowess in war. The Hunts did the rest. Now the Destroyers had almost disappeared, and the only reason any of them still existed on Ellerkan at all was because of their longevity.

  At first, Rolf tried to dismiss it as unimportant. It had been their first time together, and he was sure they would be more successful next time. She too was positive. She told him that, mathematically, it was still possible to procreate. She had known other Destroyers that had managed to do so. But the numbers were few, and the results were not always acceptable. Rolf wanted to believe her. But as time passed, and the results were always the same, it began to eat into him. Soon he yearned for children. It was the only blight on their relationship.

  Soo-Kai knew how it hurt him. It hurt her also. She was bonded to Rolf, he was good to her, and their relationship grew and strengthened with the passing of the years. But the purpose of the bond was to reproduce. The time was passing, and each year was wasted with no offspring.

  After each time she made love with Rolf, Soo-Kai’s attempts to conceive successfully grew more tortuous. But her attempts to get the right mix of her own DNA with that of Rolf’s would always fail. Always the ova would receive too little from Rolf, or too much, and always they died or were rejected. Soon she began to hate her body and the limits her instincts imposed upon her.

  They are incorrect! They must die!

  But Rolf wants them so!

  You want them! They are incorrect! Mutated! Kill them! Kill them!

  Rolf could never understand why it wouldn’t work. He understood when the ova died, but he questioned what she meant when she said that they were rejected. She told him
that she had to discard them when they exceeded the limits set within her body. He was appalled. She told him that she had no choice. But he couldn’t understand the power of her instincts, and the control they had over her to maintain the purity of her race. She had to reject them; they were incorrect, imperfect, and deviant. It almost broke Rolf. He became withdrawn, and for a time he avoided her.

  It was the weakest time in their relationship. Soo-Kai feared that she had turned Rolf from her, that he would never again love her as he once had. But another fear tortured her. As each year passed, her memory was compressed. She forgot things. And the horror of it was that she forgot what she forgot. It just disappeared. Early history, the name of the race that exterminated the Tun-Sho-Lok, all gone. Planets she had visited, food she had tasted, other Destroyers she had known, even those she had once given birth to in her early life, all vanished.

  It was a dark time. Rolf silent and brooding, Soo-Kai fearful and lonely. Then came Mai-Zen.