Varken Rise by Tracy Cooper-Posey Read Free Book Online Page A

Jovanka?”
    Catherine hesitated.
    Bedivere saw her pause and scowled. “When have you ever not been able to talk to me about anything?”
    “You’ve been under huge stress the last few days and this, it’s…. She drew in another breath and girded herself. “You’re right, if we can’t talk about anything we want, then this stops working.” She briefly outlined everything Kemp had said. She held nothing back. “I hate that he made me doubt myself,” she said fiercely. “I hate that he’s made me question anything about you.”
    Bedivere took her head in his hands and kissed her. “Kemp is right. There is room for doubt there. That is, if you only work with the information that he has. You’re forgetting something, though. Jovanka couldn’t have been as old as he thinks she was. There were things she did not know. Words. Human interaction. It was all new to her. If what Kemp is saying is true and she had been working with the Cartel to hide her from the rest of the core worlds, then things such as manners and words would have been known to her.”
    Catherine realized she was biting her lip and made herself stop. “What if she really was delusional?”
    Bedivere looked at her steadily. “If she was, then we may have to face the possibility that dementia is the fate of all Varkan. Including me.”
    Catherine gave a soft moan. Her eyes were stinging. “Don’t say that.”
    “Why not? If it is a possibility, then we should be braced for that.” He gave her a small smile. “I am not prepared to acknowledge the possibility until we look into the details. I think we should make the trip to Soward. Then we bribe, cheat and steal any information we can, from anywhere we can, that will answer your doubts.”
    Something shifted inside her and Catherine felt a great sadness. “He has discolored things between us. I hate him for that.”
    “Don’t mistake the messenger for the message,” Bedivere reminded her. “Besides, it’s about time we had an argument.”
    “We argue all the time!”
    “About trivialities, yes. This is different.”
    “You want us to be troubled?”
    “I would much rather see nothing but love in your face. Entropy is insidious, though. Nothing stays the same forever. If we are not moving forward, then we’re regressing. If we weather this, then we will have moved forward. We’ll be stronger. For that reason I welcome it. If the trouble comes from outside us, then that’s something I can fight. I can do something about that.”
    Her yawn caught her by surprise.
    “Tomorrow,” he added.
    * * * * *
    Bedivere’s thrashing woke her. Catherine sat up. “Lights.”
    The house AI bought the lights up to a level that was just enough to see the bed. Dark shadows hovered all around it.
    Bedivere’s eyes were closed, the pupils underneath moving rapidly. He tossed his head on the pillow, which was sweat stained. His body glistened as he writhed.
    Catherine grabbed his shoulder and shook furiously. “Bedivere!”
    He moaned. The sound was that of a man in torment. She shook again, harder.
    This time, she roused him. He woke with a jolt that shook the bed. He breathed heavily and his gaze found her.
    “I think you were actually having a nightmare,” she said. “You said you didn’t dream.”
    He licked his lips and swallowed and laid his arm over his head to shield his eyes from the light. “I don’t dream,” he said. His voice was croaky. “At least, I didn’t until now.”
    “Do you want to talk about it?”
    His breathing slowed. “It was horrible….” He spoke in a near whisper. Then he said no more.
    Catherine laid her hand over his. “Was it about me?” That seemed a likely possibility.
    Bedivere’s gaze moved back to her face again. “And Kemp.” He looked away again.
    “That jealousy thing is a bitch, isn’t it?” She kept her voice light. There was no need to add to his horror. The nightmare would’ve delivered its own punishment.
    Bedivere sat up and pushed