Free The Age of Light (The Ava'Lonan Herstories Book 1) by Ako Emanuel

merry laugh. A
long, relaxed, conversation. A soft/hard body and soft, warm lips... That was all
that remained of she whom he would not remember.
    He went outside to get the hardwood branch he had
chosen for his new spear shaft. He took it to the fire pit and began carving
away at it, peeling great furrows with furious sweeps of his knife.
    And this one - will I be able to forget her, too? He knew that he could not, no more than he could have left her in the
unprotected wilderness after touching her. He would not forget her - he knew
her too intimately, knew her body inside and out, learning it in his struggle
to save her life. He knew her mind as much as her training permitted. And he
knew a deep, warm, loving place inside her that he had touched purely by
accident when he had dragged her, body and mind, away from the clutching hands
of death.
    Why did I touch that part of her? Why didn’t I just
let her go? Her fever had been so high that her brain was malfunctioning, her heart
arresting, the poison destroying tissues and organs almost faster than he could
heal them. He had felt her mind unraveling, her soul straining away from her
body toward loving hands that beckoned. Beloved hands that promised peace. In
desperation he had opened himself completely to her, reached out with all his
strength and touched that glowing entity that was her with his own innermost
self. It had only lasted an instant, one searing, blazing, light/dark instant
of delectable contact, but it had been enough. Enough to seal her forever in
the dark recesses of his mind, in the warm places in his soul. It fed the thing
that rode him. He had brought her back from the brink; but after that, touching
her always seemed to yearn toward that instantaneous caress of selves, that momentous
sharing of souls. It reminded him of a time with that other...
    His thoughts were mercifully interrupted by a dry
cough and a weak request for water. He set down the mangled branch and rose
swiftly in answer, filling a calabash bowl and
using a touch of ‘ rita to cool it. He
entered the room were she was, his sleeping chamber, and lit the large standing
candle.
    She tossed and turned, her lips visibly dry as she
whispered for water again. She was not awake, however, not really. He sidled
onto the bed and leaned forward to lift her up a bit, held the bowl to her
lips. She drank deeply, nearly emptying it. Then, with a murmur of thanks she
bundled trustingly against his lower chest. A smile curved his lips. Her warmth
swept through him with devastating effect, redoubling the rage of molten
emotions and soul-depth yearning coursing through him. Without a second thought
he picked her up and lay on his side, letting her stretch out along his
fore-body, his arms protectively about her. She tucked her head under his chin
and sighed, sounding content.
    He echoed her sigh as the rush of newly discovered
emotions and newly touched selves bathed him in brilliance.
    What
will I do when you are gone...?
     
    the
darkness turned...
     
    Av’dawn stripped away the darkness as it turned, unwinding it in sensual
twisting steps, flinging it pale green across the sky. He rose with Av,
extricating himself from the desi and the loving
folds of her limbs. Her arms clung, silently pleading for him to stay. He
smiled, gently stayed her hands, covered her when she curled into a ball like a
kitling.
    He went about
his morn routine, basking in the warm glow of the memory of her nearness. He
managed to rouse her enough to feed her a light broth, then again a little
later to give her medicine and bathe her as he always did, at midmorn. But she
would not fully come awake.
    At zenith he looked in
on her and frowned. She needed to wake up, to come to full consciousness. Had
he overdone his help when he had blocked her pain the turn before? He touched
her, probed her mind, felt his influence still holding her. He carefully drew
some of the influence away, draining it slowly back into himself. The spark