Surrender (THE DRAGONFLY CHRONICLES) (19 page)

****

Kailin shimmied into her expedition trousers under the wool blanket. The sun was not yet above the horizon but filtered in grays and pinks enough to expose her. So she stayed beneath, tugging the tan cotton up each leg. What would Jackson think of her manly apparel?
I don’t care.
Where was he? One glance only revealed the lightly snoring guide. Certainly Qeb would tell the tale of her bizarre costume once he returned, of the white woman dressed as a man who threw sand with a thought.
I don’t care,
she repeated. Maybe one day she’d actually believe it.

She buttoned the pale blue-white shirt and sat up. The ends were too long for her, but it was the smallest shirt the merchant had in his shop. Pulling them tight in front, she tied a knot. That would do.

Kailin stood in the predawn light. One camel blinked in her direction but didn’t move otherwise. “Too early for you,” she whispered and ran a finger along its curved snout to between the beast’s ears. They flicked as she scratched absently. Kailin twisted to look behind her and stopped.

A large outline of a man stood along the ridge, wide-brimmed hat, broad shoulders, long nose of a gun held along a straight leg. Kailin stepped from the shelter of the camels and shrugged into the long jacket she always wore on expedition. It was tailored, cut like a woman’s riding coat, but it was formed from butter-soft leather. Her hair blew around her face and she caught at it as she stared in his direction. She inhaled the fresh, chilled breeze, feeling at peace in the open beauty of a new day. What would this one hold?

As if Jackson felt her gaze, he turned. The sun slid like a thin rail along the sand at his feet, burning upwards, breaking into dawn in the east. Their gazes connected for a long moment before Jackson turned once more for a quick scan of the surrounding dunes before step-sliding down the hill back toward their camp. Kailin scooted behind a dense set of bushes that they’d assigned as their privy and managed to relieve herself and wash before Jackson finished his round of the perimeter and returned.

“No villains?” Kailin asked as he stepped up. She worked fingers through her hair, weaving it into a loose braid to fall down her back.

Jackson’s gaze slid along her form from head to toe. A smile turned his lips. “None beyond myself.”

She half snorted. “We better get started.” She looked at Qeb. “Did you get any sleep last night?” She turned and bent down to catch her
kufiya
and snapped it to scatter away the sand.

When she stood, Jackson was still studying her with a humorous glint in his eyes. “Yes, sometime after midnight for a few hours.”

“Is something funny?” she challenged.

His eyebrows rose. “Quite the opposite. The effect your ensemble is having on me is definitely not funny.”

She glanced down and away from his roguish grin. She fought to control the marble of power that started to blaze in her chest. “It’s what I wear on expedition.”

“I hadn’t heard of it.”

“I usually only put it on when I’m working alone.” She raised her nose high. “It’s comfortable. Skirts are hindering. I’m convinced that the female costume is society’s way of holding women back from advancement. In a race to discovery, men would have even more of an advantage on top of physical strength.” She leveled a look at him. “How are we to run, dig, and climb in bustles, hoops, and petticoats?”

A full smile broke on his face. He shook his head. “I’m in total agreement.” He adjusted his hat.

Kailin frowned. He agreed but his smile was teasing. Was he mocking her?
I don’t care
, she repeated internally. She draped the
kufiya
over her head and around her neck.

“I will have to get you a Stetson when we return,” he said and bent to tug on the harnesses of the camels. He touched the brim of his tan hat. “Nothing keeps the sun and rain off the face better.” He nodded toward her outfit. “And it would match your gear.” Perfect white teeth flashed from his smile. He turned his gaze down to grab a bright-colored handkerchief from a bag.

Her tight mouth relaxed as she watched him tie the bandana around his collar. His smile was contagious. Perhaps he wasn’t laughing at her. Perhaps he liked her radical choice to wear men’s clothes, accepted her rationale without ridicule. Even Anthony had
tsk
ed her for her costume on expedition and asked her not to wear it in public. Could there actually be a man open-minded enough to accept her in trousers?

“
Yalla
!” Jackson called and kicked Qeb’s foot. The guide snorted and jerked upward, his blurry eyes scanning the camp like he’d forgotten where he’d bedded down for the night. He scratched his head and stretched. His hands interlocked above his head, he froze when his gaze fell on Kailin.

He rubbed his eyes and rattled off some comments in Arabic, all the while staring at her.

Jackson glanced her way and clipped something back about digging in dirt. Qeb shook his head but turned to rise.

“I don’t know exactly what he said.” Kailin looked at Jackson. “And I don’t want to, but if he says it again I just might have to bury him up to his neck in sand.”

Jackson chuckled and sent a warning toward the guide who seemed to scurry out from under Kailin’s icy gaze.

After a quick bite of bread and figs, Kailin stepped up to her camel. The camel’s saddle had been made for riding astride even though her skirts had forced her to ride sidesaddle the first day. She stretched down first to touch her toes. Even standing on the overturned crate used for mounting, she would have a hard time leaping upon the tall animal without a little help. She made mental contact with the pebble of magic she’d confined to a spot near her heart and glanced over her shoulder.

Jackson stood near his camel, arms crossed, legs braced, watching. Qeb was nowhere to be seen. Before she could turn back Jackson was already striding across the distance.

“I’d be happy to help,” he offered.

“I’ll be just fine,” she bent her knees and pulled upon the pebble from behind her breast bone. Until it dissolved away instantly and completely. Jackson’s hands, on either side of her hips, lifted her swiftly up and across the colorfully tasseled Arabian saddle. She huffed as her stomach hit the saddle pad. “I could have done that.” She frowned down at him as she flung her leg over, draping it even with the first on the other side.

“And let Qeb and anyone else who may be watching know how unnaturally high you can leap.” He gave one shake of his head, and his gaze darted down to where he pulled on the saddle’s straps, adjusting and tightening, brushing against her calf. He glanced back up, the grin on his unshaven face giving him the look of a scoundrel. “You’re as light as a boy in those britches. Those layers of skirts and fluff must feel like manacles on a woman. I think your theory about being held down by men might very well hold water.”

Was it the way his eyes sparked when he said “held down” or had he added a slight emphasis to the words to infuse scandalous images in her mind? Or was that just the effect of his hand skimming along her leg as he smoothed the woven saddle cover? As soon as his hand retreated, Kailin’s magic swelled with the ridiculous blush he roused in her so easily.

She closed her eyes and compressed it. The magic still fought with her for control, but it packed together back into its pebble-shape easier this time. Mayhap the spirit-woman’s advice was working. When she blinked open, Jackson was staring up at her. He nodded once and moved to his own camel. Qeb was already seated and waved the back of his fingers as if he shooed them forward.
Good Lord!
Had he been watching all along?

Kailin shielded her eyes against the piercing sun where it glared just over the dunes now. She would keep the sun to her left this morning, in the east as they traveled south toward the outcropping of rock at the end of the hills that snaked back in toward the Nile’s banks. To a sunken spot where the Nile had probably flooded hundreds of times since the tomb she and Anthony had been trapped in had originally been dug.

In fact the flood waters may still be too high to attempt the original entrance. Each year the Nile flooded to its highest in September. It was now October, but the flood plains would still be full. She would have to enter close to where she exited twenty years ago. A small shiver tickled through her. Arms numbing to the tips of her fingers, her heart jumped into a pounding race.
Not me
, she corrected and breathed deeply. That was Jackson’s job.

Kailin tapped her camel with the small crop and it rolled forward, blinking its long lashes. She made clicking noises and patted its neck. She liked camels. Their stubbornness was often just the slowness inherent in these long enduring vessels that could maneuver through the extremes of the Sahara with relative ease. The camel’s body swayed as his wide toes padded across the shifting sand.

They climbed out of the gully and into the brightness of another crisp autumn morning on the Egyptian desert. As Kailin buttoned her leather jacket against the chill, she knew that she’d be shrugging out of it before too long, once the sun baked the crystals beneath them.

Jackson’s camel strode briskly toward her, wide steps that caught up with her slow sway. “So where was your ghost last night?” he asked. “We could have used her.”

Kailin shrugged. “She seems to show up when it suits her agenda.”

“Do you believe her agenda? Saving the world from demons?”

Did she? “She is passionate about it. Those who have a passion for something are either enthralled by that something or insane,” she said with rebuke.

He chuckled and adjusted his hat. “Is that your definition of passion then? Something that enthralls you or makes you insane?

Kailin shrugged as she looked straight over the head of her camel. “Perhaps. Both make you lose control.”

Jackson rode for several steps without a word. “You can’t abide the loss of control, can you?” he said softly, his voice like rough velvet.

“The loss of control is weakness.” Her gaze blinked toward him but then back out across the desert. “You’ve seen what my weakness can do.”

“So you avoid all passion.”

“Unfettered emotion is passion and insanity.” She shook her head. “I practice control for the sake of those around me.” She lifted an eyebrow and looked sideways toward him. “For the sake of the world.” She smiled grimly. Let him think on that for a while. He didn’t know how much power she had inside. She barely knew herself. How could she safely explore it? No, it was best to practice constant restraint. Maybe Drakkina knew the extent of the damage she could render.

They rode through the day, even eating in the sway of the gentle beasts that seemed like they could meander forever. Sometimes Kailin swore her camel seemed asleep as his knobby legs propelled him forward across the baking sands. She’d removed her jacket but was glad for the long linen sleeves to keep the sun from burning her skin. The
kuyifa
shielded her face and neck with its white gauzy length. Occasionally Kailin would glance over at Jackson who swayed casually in the saddle like a man accustomed to the boredom of a long ride across sameness. His hat sat low over his brow, shielding the sun from his eyes. A white bandana wrapped around his neck with the same protective affect as her
kuyifa
.

Kailin turned her attention back to the blue sky, the rays of sun shooting down, the smooth hills of wind-blown sand, the outcropping of rocks and occasional discarded remains of past expeditions. Her mind lost interest after four hours of the same sight, the same rolling gait, the same sultry sun. Even the constant watch for the villains from the night before dulled as time rocked onward with the steps of the camel.

A curl, teased by the breeze as it touched her cheek, tickled across her lip. Kailin caught it, returning it to the confines of the
kuyifa
. She ran her tongue over her lip to banish the itch the tickle had started. The memory of Jackson’s taste stirred in her mind. His tongue had touched her there, explored her lips and the line in between. Strong yet gentle, he’d teased a response from her easily.

She cast a glance toward him. His gaze was on her and Kailin held tight to the pebble that pulsed with her heartbeat inside. She caught her breath for further control. Just in case. Jackson nodded, touching the front brim of his hat.

She jerked her gaze back out to the rolling hills of sand.
Good Lord!
It was as if the blasted man could read her thoughts. Had he seen her lick her lip, her blush rising up in her cheeks, her sideways glance that revealed the slant of her thoughts? She let her breath out in a long, silent sigh, determined not to think about the cut of Jackson’s shirt across his wide shoulders, the thickness of his wheat-colored hair, the strength of his jaw and hands. She exhaled once more and purposely focused on the terrain.

Ugh! How did Anthony stand it? Hours and hours of watching nothing but sand? Her gloriously green Scotland was far superior in transitions. Mountains, forests, weather, all of it full of challenges and changes. Here the challenge was sameness, cut edges of tan sand, chasing winds, slow ups and downs of stinging crystal that moved under the invisible hand molding the hills and valleys. Slow endurance saved the soul on the Sahara.

Kailin reached into the leather bag tied to the camel and retrieved her favorite novel,
Pride and Prejudice
. She flipped through the worn pages until she found the description of Elizabeth Bennet’s loud and hectic family: four sisters, an abysmally inappropriate mother, and a patient father. Large and mostly accepting of one another, Kailin read the familiar words half with envy and half with curiosity. What a different life hers would have been if she’d indeed been surrounded by her sisters, sisters that did exist out there somewhere in time, somewhere Drakkina could travel and possibly take her to.