Free Stolen Dreams by Marilyn Campbell Page A

Snow covered the hilly
ground and icicles hung from barren trees. It made no sense. Even if
they had arrived in the winter season, winters in the First Province
were mild and rarely yielded more than a few snow flurries on the
coldest days. Only seconds had passed, yet Shara could already feel her
toes going numb.
     
With chattering teeth, she looked up at
Gabriel. "What do you th-th-think?"
     
"I think we're going to
freeze to death if we just stand here. Maybe you'd better take us back
and re-check your programming."
     
She
hadn't realized how much his body had been protecting hers until he
released her and moved away. Her hands trembled as she tried to reverse
what
she had done. "It's not responding, and I'm af-f-fraid I'm g-g-going to
t-t-touch the wrong thing the way I'm sh-sh-shivering."
     
Gabriel
shook his head with a sigh. "All right. Give me a minute." As he
lowered his satchel to the ground and opened it, he asked, "Do you have
any idea where we are?"
     
She rubbed her arms and stepped in
place to
keep her blood circulating. "According to Lantana's n-n-notes, we
sh-sh-should be exactly where we were, only in a d-d-different time
p-p-period." She watched him remove several squares of silver material
and two short metal poles from his bag. With a flick of his wrist, the
two poles telescoped out to a little over a meter in length. Within a
matter of minutes, he had constructed a small tent with an inflated
mattress for a base. Before her eyes, the silver turned white and was
effectively camouflaged against the snow.
     
Gabriel was digging
something else out of his satchel when a loud roar echoed around them.
With the howling wind blowing gusts of snow in her face, it took Shara
a moment to locate the source of the beastly sound. Less than a hundred
meters away, atop a high rise, a bulky creature tipped back its head
and roared again. Another roar, then another answered the first as
several more dark shapes lined the horizon.
     
They were unlike
anything Shara had ever seen, with their squat bodies and long horns
curving upward out of the sides of their heads. Shaggy brown hair
concealed the legs and face entirely.
     
"Wartbulls? Don't move a
muscle!" Gabriel ordered Shara as he slowly straightened and faced the
animals. "They may only be—" He didn't bother to complete his sentence
as the pack of animals charged down the hill. "Get behind me!"
     
She
dashed to his back as fast as her frozen feet allowed. Staring at the
animals, she flung a mental order at them to stop, then sent an image
of them turning around, but neither method had any effect on the
primitive creatures.
     
Gabriel was braced with legs apart and
both
hands clasped around the grip of a paralyzer rod. Choosing the animal
in the forefront, he pointed the weapon and fired. The red beam hit the
beast between the horns. It stumbled, momentarily confusing the others
in its pack as they slid to a halt around their leader. A few seconds
later, however, the leader recommenced its roaring charge.
     
Gabriel
had no choice. He increased the setting and fired again before the
animals could close in on them. One creature after another collapsed in
a hairy heap as they were hit by the lethal blue light. In seconds the
snow was littered with carcasses.
     
Shara's violent trembling
was now
caused as much by fear as the cold. She had never felt so utterly
helpless in her life. "Th-they would have k-k-killed us," she muttered.
     
Gabriel
didn't waste time responding. He shoved his satchel and her bag into
the tent, then transferred the antigravity device to the outside. "Get
in and sit still while I move us away from here. Who knows what sort of
creature will come to prey on our welcoming committee?"
     
Shara
hurried to do as he said and instantly felt some relief once she was
out of the icy wind. She was surprised to discover that the material
was transparent from this side. The entire tent abruptly
     
rose,
tipping her sideward, but she tried to remain