From Part 21 ...
Lois turned back to the water. She edged forward to the cliff and peered down. She could see that the sharp rocks continued under the water – confirming her belief that a person in the water would not survive being thrashed against the rocks.
Had Tek gone *into* the ground?
Lois looked to her feet and into the ground. Her vision was partial, as if patches had been blotted out. But still, she could see no sign of Tek.
What should she do?
Alert someone?
Was Tek in danger?
She hesitated.
Then she heard a deafening roar approaching from her left.
Lois turned to the noise, but before she had even grasped the danger, the huge wave was upon her and had encompassed her into its folds. It swept her from the cliff and plunged her into the dark choppy water below.
Part 22
The water surrounded her.
It seized Lois’s long gown, pressing against her body and tangling her legs. It jostled her and spun her in a crazy sequence of jerky movements. Then, it lifted her as if she were weightless and slammed her against something rough and inflexible.
In the rebound, Lois was flipped numerous times and lost all sense of spatial awareness. She managed to steady herself and peered into the gloom. She could see degrees of shadowy darkness, but nothing suggestive of light and air.
Air – she should need air by now.
But her lungs were not screaming for breath.
Had she died already?
Had she lost consciousness when she’d been swept from the rock?
Lois turned in a slow, controlled movement. Half a rotation later, she noticed an arc that appeared lighter than everything else. Could that be the way up?
Or were the stories true about the bright light of death?
Should she move towards the light?
Or away from it?
She didn’t want to leave Kal.
She *couldn’t* leave Kal.
Her death would devastate him.
She kicked her legs and swung her arms to manoeuvre herself towards the light. She kicked again, able to maintain a straight line towards her destination despite the continually swirling currents and the drag of her gown.
Gradually, the dimness of the water cleared.
Then her head broke the surface and she saw the cliffs looming above her.
Lois breathed in – not from desperate need, more from instinct.
Before she could decide her next action, a swell of water from below tossed her against the cliff face. Lois saw a ridge of rock and grasped it with both hands.
When the water drained away, Lois remained, clinging to the rock. With her foot, she searched for purchase, found it and hauled her body higher.
Moments later, she crawled over the edge and slumped onto the flat ground.
She had survived. She had battled a frighteningly formidable opponent and survived.
She was wet.
But not particularly cold.
Nor in any pain.
Lois sat up and skimmed her body, but found no evidence of injury. She didn’t feel battered ... not even bruised. She lifted her dripping gown and examined her legs. Nothing – no blood, no wounds, no pain. Not even so much as a scratch.
Rolling onto her stomach, Lois inched forward to the edge. She looked down into the restless ocean. A few yards below, a moving wall of water smashed into the cliff and the spray hurtled up and into her face.
Lois sat up and attempted to dry her face with her wet fingers.
She was *still* sure no one could survive the lethal combination of the rocks and the ocean.
Yet she had.
And not only survived, but survived with no ill-effects beyond extreme dampness.
Lois stood and moved back from the edge. In the distance, she could see the cluster of houses. She sighed with the realisation that she was going to have to walk back through the streets looking like a sodden scarecrow.
She scanned, hoping to see Tek. There were some moving figures near two of the drilling operations, but she was confident none of them were Tek. Where had he gone? Was he injured?
Did he come here regularly?
And if he did, why?
Lois gathered the skirt of her gown and wrung it until the flow of water had subsided to small drips. Then, she positioned it around her legs and with grudging acceptance, began the trek back to Kal’s building.
She had covered less than half the distance when she saw someone emerge from between the houses and run towards her.
“Lois!” she heard. “Lois!”
She recognised Kal and ran to meet him, her fears pounding. Did he have news that Tek was missing? That Tek had been found dead?
Her heart cried for Riz. And for Dom and Kip.
“Lois!”
The distance between them closed to nothing and Kal’s arms clasped her desperately against his heaving body. Lois could hear the thundering of his heart. She pulled back and looked into his face. “What’s wrong, Kal?” she breathed. “Is it Tek?”
Her question had surprised him. “Tek?” Kal asked.
“Yes,” she said impatiently. “Tek. Is he all right?”
“Tek is fine,” Kal said, still puzzled.
“Then why are you so distressed?”
“Because I couldn’t find you.”
“It was *me* you couldn’t find?”
Kal nodded. He carefully pushed back the clinging clumps of her hair and brushed the lingering moisture from her face with the pad of his thumb. “I couldn’t find you,” he murmured. “And something inside me was sure you were in danger.”
His fear had not left his eyes, nor had the tension eased from his jaw. Lois slid her hands along the ripples of his cheeks. “You were worried about me?” she asked softly.
“Worried!” he exclaimed on a gushing breath. “I was frantic. I knew you were in danger. I knew you needed help, but I didn’t know where you were and I couldn’t find you ... and I was so scared for you.” He glanced down. “I was so scared for me.”
Lois raised her fingers and ran them through the dampness of his hair – the dampness that had come from her. “I’m fine,” she assured him. “I’m absolutely fine.”
He grasped her shoulders with his still-quivery fingers and stared down at her. “What happened?”
Lois hesitated for a moment, considering giving him a breezy, abridged version. Quickly, she realised she couldn’t do that - she had to tell him – and tell him the whole truth. “I was swept into the ocean,” she admitted.
“You went up the cliff?” he asked incredulously. “And you *fell* into the water?”
“Not *fell* exactly,” she hedged. “A big wave knocked me off the rock and into the water.”
His face held an equal mix of disbelief and horror. “You were *in* the water and you got *out*?”
Lois nodded.
Kal’s hands slid the length of her arms. “Where are you hurt?” he asked. “I’m taking you to the Medical Centre.”
Lois dropped her hands to the upper slopes of his chest. “I’m not hurt,” she told him. “I’m not hurt at all.”
“That isn’t possible,” Kal said. “I’m taking you to the Medical Centre.”
“I don’t need to go to the Medical Centre.”
“Lois, I’m worried,” Kal persisted. “Please let me take you to get the medical treatment you need.”
Lois considered agreeing just to ease his anxiety. Except, she was going to feel acutely foolish when they diagnosed nothing more serious than excessive moisture – with perhaps a dash of recklessness. “Take me to your bedroom, Kal,” she said. “I don’t need to go to the Medical Centre.”
“Lo-is,” he said, not convinced at all.
“When we get to your bedroom, I’ll check and if I find anything at all – even the smallest scratch – I’ll go to the Medical Centre without the slightest argument.”
Kal still wasn’t convinced. He took his coat from his shoulders and wrapped it around her. “Come on,” he said. “You must be freezing.”
She wasn’t.
But that didn’t really surprise her.
It certainly wasn’t the most bizarre aspect of her outing to the Eastern cliffs of New Krypton.
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Kal was finding it impossible to drag his eyes from Lois.
The fear still constricted his heart, surging periodically with the sheer terror of the thought of losing her.
He hadn’t been too concerned when she wasn’t in his room for the planned meeting about their marriage – he figured she was probably visiting Riz and had forgotten the time.
Then he’d noticed her uneaten lunch on the desk and his mind had conjured a procession of alarming images – until it had not been possible to merely wait for her to return.
He could not go back to a life without her.
His former existence had reduced him to little more than a shell methodically attending to the demands of his position.
But now he knew there was so much more.
And it wasn’t just that he yearned to keep the things she had brought to his life – the holding and the touches and the hugging and the kisses and the smiling and the laughter – he treasured all of them. But without her, they meant nothing.
So, he had run from his gates in a driven, mindless panic. Then, he’d seen her and his world had righted itself again.
Kal followed Lois into the bedroom and shut the door behind them, his eyes fixed on her.
She turned and gave him a small smile. “I’m sorry I scared you, Kal,” she said. “It was silly to go up on the cliffs and very careless to allow myself to be caught by the waves, but I am fine. Really.”
Kal stepped closer to her. “You’re not hurt *anywhere*?” he asked anxiously.
She pulled up her sleeves and showed him her arms. Then she raised the bottom of her gown until it was level with her knees. “See,” she said. “Nothing. No scratches, no bruises, no bleeding.” She laughed. “I’m just wet.”
“I will go and get you dry clothes,” Kal offered.
That earned him a smile. “Thank you,” she said.
Kal hurried to her room, his mind rife with questions. How could she have survived? He couldn’t believe it was mere luck. Was it possible it had something to do with her ability to see through walls? How could the two possibly be linked? How did being able to see through solid objects translate to being able to endure the brutal ravages of the ocean?
There were no answers – nothing remotely logical, anyway. But Kal knew he had to continue crowding his mind with any possibility – regardless of how implausible it seemed.
Because if he didn’t – if he allowed himself even the tiniest gap in his thoughts - his mind would flood with the image of how Lois’s wet gown had clung to the mesmerizing curves of her body.
And he was certain that was a path just as perilous as the cliff edge.
+-+-+-+
Lois waited for Kal to return with her clothes, her mind in overdrive.
Firstly – Tek. He had walked with purpose – as if with a clear destination in mind.
Did he go to the cliffs regularly?
Why?
How had he disappeared?
And, most importantly, was he safe?
Secondly - her own survival.
She had carelessly allowed herself to get into a dangerous situation – a level of carelessness unusual even for her - and then had ... simply ... climbed out of it.
Lois shook her head.
Could she possibly be dreaming?
She didn’t think so.
Kal walked through the door and handed her a towel and a bundle of clothing. “I’ll wait outside,” he said. “Call me when you have changed your clothes.”
“Thank you,” she said with a smile.
Lois slipped the wet gown from her body and did a quick inspection to confirm what she already knew. Her body bore not the slightest suggestion of having been violently thrown against a rocky cliff.
She dried herself and then unfolded the bundle of clothes Kal had brought. Deep in the innards of the rolled-up gown, she found her clean underwear. She smiled at Kal’s thoughtfulness.
When she had dressed, Lois picked up the towel and began to dry her hair. She felt a fleeting self-consciousness about Kal seeing her with still-wild hair, but concluded she couldn’t look any worse now than she had when he’d met her on the lower slopes of the hill. “Kal,” she called.
He entered so quickly, she had the impression he’d been waiting impatiently at the door. “Did you check everywhere for injury?” he said before he was even fully in the room.
Her heart melted at his obvious concern. “Yes,” she assured him. Then she grinned. “If you ask me one more time, I’m going to take off this gown and let you check ... just so you stop bugging me.”
His brief shock was quickly replaced with a wide grin. “I don’t understand ‘bugging’,” he said. “But I understood *exactly* the rest of what you said.”
“Do you *want* to check?” she asked, only half-joking.
“Yes,” he admitted. “Because I find it impossible to believe that you could get out of that water without serious injury ... but I know that I can’t check, so I’m going to have to believe you.”
Lois edged closer to him. “Is that the *only* reason you want to check?” she asked. “So you can be certain I am unhurt?”
Kal tried, with very little success, to drag his grin under control. “You *know* it isn’t the only reason,” he said. “But for now ...” He took the towel from her hands. “Can I dry your hair?”
“Sure.”
Kal sat on the bed. “Would you sit here?” he asked, motioning to the space next to him.
She did and Kal began gently rubbing the wetness from her hair.
Lois felt herself relax under his touch. “That feels wonderful,” she said.
He continued long past the time needed to dry her hair, then laid aside the towel and placed his hands on her forehead and slowly eased back through her hair. “From when I first knew you, I was completely fascinated by your hair,” he said. “It is so dark and so shiny and so soft and I used the Translator wound as an excuse just to touch it.”
Lois spun around. “You did?” she asked.
Kal grinned. “I did.” His hands drifted the length of her hair. “How do you get it so straight?” he asked.
Lois went to the desk drawer and retrieved the comb Riz had given her. She offered it to Kal. “With this.”
He took it and examined it. “What is it?” he asked.
“A comb. Haven’t you seen one before?”
“No.”
“How do you get the knots from your hair?”
“With my fingers when it is damp after I have washed it.”
“Is that *all* you do?”
He looked a little perturbed. “Yes,” he admitted. “Why?”
“Because your hair always looks great.”
He grinned. “Thank you. I’m glad you like it.”
There’s a whole lot I like about you, Lois thought. She sat in front of Kal again – keeping him out of her line of sight was less hazardous given her vision gizmo thing – and he began to carefully comb through her hair.
“Am I doing it right?” he asked.
“Yes.”
He worked until her hair sat straight and untangled. Then he leant forward and kissed the top of her head. “I’ll order us some beverage,” he said.
Lois turned with a smile. “Can you ask for some ‘puddings’ too?”
She saw his surprise and also his quick acquiescence. “Sure.”
“Good. They are yummy.”
“Yummy?”
Lois laughed. “You’ll know when you taste them.”
Kal left to order their food and Lois gathered her wet things, rinsed them in the little basin and arranged them on the desk to dry.
When Kal returned, he asked, “Are you well enough to talk about our marriage?”
“Of course.”
“Good. As soon as Tek brings our beverage, we will begin.”
Tek! “Are you sure Tek will bring our beverage?” Lois asked.
Kal nodded. “I just saw him. He will be here soon.”
Moments later, the door opened and Tek arrived with a cup of beverage and a plate containing two of the ‘puddings’. Lois watched him closely, but could find nothing out of the ordinary in his demeanour.
“Thank you, Tek,” Kal said.
Lois waited until Tek had left the room. “What does Tek do for you?” she asked.
“Whatever I order him to,” Kal replied.
“What do you ask him to do?” Lois persisted.
“He brings my food.”
“And?”
“And that is all I require of him.”
“Why?”
For the first time ever, Lois saw the shadow of evasiveness on Kal’s face. “Because he is a servant in name only,” he admitted.
“So you ensure he has plenty of time to do other things?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know what *other* things he does?”
“Some,” Kal said. “I don’t require too many details of him ... then if the Cabinet asks me what he is doing, I can truthfully be vague.”
Lois felt her mouth gape. Kal *did* understand something of the game of politics. “He developed an annex for the translators,” she said.
“Yes.”
“What is he working on now?”
“I don’t know.”
Lois contemplated Kal and concluded he was telling the truth. His trust in Tek must be absolute. “Why does he go to the cliffs?”
“That is where his father died.”
“Is today the anniversary of Kip’s death? Or any other special date?”
“Not as far as I know.”
“Then why did Tek go to the cliffs?”
“I don’t know,” Kal said.
“Any ideas at all?”
“Perhaps he feels close to his father there,” Kal said wistfully.
Kal’s loss – so patently displayed – stalled Lois’s line of questions. “You wish you knew more of your father, don’t you?” she asked gently.
Kal nodded. “And my mother.”
“Maybe I can locate your globe.”
“I doubt that would be poss-.“ Kal stopped suddenly and his grin surfaced. “Maybe *you* could,” he said.
Lois nodded. She sat on the bed and offered him the plate. “Try one of these,” she suggested. “It is a Kryptonian specialty, known as a pudding.”
Kal brought the chair close to the bed and sat down. He took a pudding and bit into it. After he had swallowed, he said, “That *is* good.”
Lois took hers. “Yes, it is.”
“I lived within such limitations,” Kal said. Then he grinned. “Until you dropped onto my planet.” He leant forward and kissed the very end of her nose. “That was the best day of my life.”
Lois smiled back. “You know something, Mr Supreme Ruler?” she said. “It was the best day of my life too.”
