Beauday trailed his partner silently through the fragrant, ring-bright night, downwind, blending with the shadows of the wood alongside the path the hunter followed. Doyaal moved at an easy flowing canter, long legs making light work of the gradual incline to the top of the hill, mane and tail a flame in the pale light. He was a delight to watch, in motion or at rest, Beauday thought to himself, smiling. Then the smile faded into frustrated anxiety....
Doyaal hadn't been right since his rescue from Bedemnos. Oh, he was healing just fine: even the last deep claw-wounds on his shoulders would be gone without a trace in another week. But every night he woke sweating and shaking, wrenched from sleep by nightmares. To start with, Beauday had been able to soothe him back to sleep, holding him, talking quietly and stroking his mane. But these last few nights the hunter had insisted on taking himself off for a run. He always returned before dawn, tired but unharmed, and slept late into the morning, but he wouldn't tell his partner where he'd been or what he'd done.
And Beauday was worried and a little hurt, not just because his partner was keeping something from him, although that was bad enough. But anything that affected their private relationship affected their working relationship too, and while Koorlee had given them both time off - Doyaal to recuperate and Beauday because he couldn't (or rather, wouldn't) work with anyone else, although in any case Koorlee would expect him to care for his partner while he was recovering - the controller wanted them back on standby next week. Whatever was wrong, it needed to be resolved - and soon.
At the top of the hill Doyaal paused for a moment, a graceful shape silhouetted against the rings arching across the sky, then headed down the far side. Beauday followed as discreetly as he could.
As he topped the rise he saw his partner reach the small tarn nestling in a hollow on the hillside. Doyaal lowered himself lithely to the moss beside it, trailing a hand in the silvery water and gazing out over the moorland that dropped away to the broad, slow-flowing river in the sweeping valley below. Beauday watched for a moment, quietly appreciative of the scene, the warm gold of his partner's body almost glowing against the dark turf - then sighed and made his way down to the pool.
Doyaal didn't bother turning his head.
"Suppose you want to talk."
Beauday settled himself beside the hunter, not quite touching, uncertain of Doyaal's tone.
"We have to. Koorlee wants us back soon." He hesitated for a moment, then laid a hand gently on Doyaal's foreleg. "And I want my partner back."
The hunter turned sharply, eyes wide in the ring-light.
"You never lost me."
"Then tell me what's wrong."
Doyaal lowered his head, plucking at the moss. He was, Beauday realised incredulously, nervous. The heavy shifted a little closer and frowned.
"It's something to do with the nightmares, isn't it?"
Doyaal nodded, refusing to meet his eyes. Beauday hazarded a guess.
"Bedemnos?"
"No."
"What then?"
"You."
Beauday jerked backwards. "Me?"
Doyaal looked quickly up at him, hand raised.
"Sorry, mate. I didn't mean it like that. You're not what's in the nightmares. But you are the cause." He snorted, shaking his head, aware of Beauday's horror-struck expression. "I'm not makin' a very good job of this."
"You've started. You'd better carry on. I need to know what I've done wrong."
"Nothin'."
The heavy shook his mane, exasperated.
"Sunshine, will you at least try and make sense?"
Doyaal lowered his head again, gazing at his hands. He sighed, and tried again.
"When Bedemnos... when... you arrived. In the nick of time."
Beauday rolled so he was facing the hunter, his face serious.
"I would have given anything to have been there sooner. Anything."
Doyaal looked up and smiled softly. "I know that. S'OK - you were in time." The smile faded, and he lowered his gaze. "But I wasn't."
Beauday frowned. Doyaal licked his lips and refused to meet his partner's eyes.
"When you were grabbed... I wasn't there... I didn't arrive in time."
Beauday shrugged. With Bedemnos's death a lot of private demons had also met their end.
"That was hardly your fault."
Doyaal grabbed the heavy's shoulders.
"But he... hurt you."
Beauday smiled grimly. "He did more than that."
Doyaal groaned and let his hands drop.
"How many times?"
"I lost count. You do, after a while."
"How do you bear it?"
"No choice." Beauday cupped his partner's chin in one large hand and raised his face, gazing into the wide green eyes. "Are you feeling guilty? Because of what happened to me?"
"I came that close to losin' you. And even before it got to that stage, you were bein'..." He caught the heavy's wrist. "I didn't know. I just didn't know what it would feel like, being that helpless. If you hadn't arrived..."
"Now we're going round in circles!" Beauday sighed. "Look - if you hadn't found me, I'd have died. Forget what went before. Just remember that fact. I'm still in your debt. If it wasn't for you I'd be dead."
Doyaal shuddered, closing his eyes. Beauday moved his hand up to stroke the hunter's face.
"That load of guilt's going to break your back, you know."
Doyaal opened his eyes and frowned, his attention focussed inwards. "No, but it could make me make mistakes. And that'd be dangerous for us both." He glanced at Beauday. "You sure you're OK?"
The heavy grinned and shifted to lie alongside his partner, arm across his back, and rested his chin on one lean-muscled golden shoulder, nuzzling at the hunter's neck.
"Never better..."
A week later they reported back to Koorlee. Doyaal still had the occasional nightmare, but they were decreasing. And Beauday was always there, and now they talked... He'd be OK. What he needed - what they both needed - was a good hard assignment to get them back on track...
"You must have made a fair impression on our Aethan."
Doyaal frowned at the controller. Koorlee's lips were pursed as he read the documentation scrolling down his desktop screen.
"Sir?"
Koorlee glanced up briefly.
"He's applied to join ILEA."
Beauday snorted to hide a chuckle. He could just imagine what that little bundle of contradictions would do to discipline! Koorlee fixed him with a steely glare, and he forced his face into a sombre expression. The controller nodded.
"But we'll not worry about that right now. You two have to get yourselves ready."
"New op?"
"Of a sort. I'm sending you to Terra."
Beauday frowned at his partner.
"Small place. Bit uncivilised. Only really just gettin' involved with the rest of the galaxy in the last twenty years." Doyaal muttered. Beauday looked blank, and the hunter grinned. "You know. Where the bars are!"
Beauday grinned back, but before he could express an opinion Koorlee interrupted, scowling.
"Not that you two will get a chance to check them out. What I have in mind is more in the nature of a diplomatic mission."
"Oh." The heavy nodded, resigned. Another boring assignment, then...
Koorlee leaned back in his seat and regarded them both. "You're to be seconded to the Terran onworld security force - CI5. The controller - a human called Cowley - is looking to become associated with ILEA. I want you two to examine their set-up and report back to me with an assessment of their operation and fitness for inclusion."
Beauday's face was a picture of dismay.
"That's hardly our sort of thing, now, is it sir? Can't you send someone else?"
"I could, but I'm not going to. You both need more experience in internal affairs." He glowered at them before Doyaal could interrupt. "You're to be partnered with two of CI5's top agents."
"Great..."
"Oh, I think you'll get on with them."
The hunter inclined his head. "What are they?"
Koorlee smiled, recalling what he'd read in the files. At a guess, Beauday and Doyaal had an interesting experience ahead of them.
"Humans. Their names are Bodie and Doyle..."
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