Authors: Lisanne Norman
"Some things are not dependent on me, Tallinu," Vartra murmured, mouth opening in a faint grin. "That rather depends on your actions, doesn't it? Cubs are Ghyakulla's gift to us all."
"You know exactly what I mean," Kaid growled. "No confusing me, sending me fevers or visions so that I lose my senses when I'm with her."
"Do you think I did all that? You give me more credit than I'm due. Agreed, on one condition."
"No conditions, Vartra. This is my deal with you, remember?"
"One. You work at this Triad, Tallinu. No taking the easy option and letting it die. You work at it. You owe me that much at least by the oaths you swore to me when you paired with her the first time, and at the cub's Validation. What was it?
I'll do anything you ask, only let this be real.
"
Kaid regarded him impassively. "I have never been foresworn in my life. I have no intention of going back on my oaths now."
"Yet you leveled similar accusations against me. I want to hear you swear that you will work at this Triad of yours."
"I swear." A low growl accompanied his oath. "Tell me what you want me to do, then we can get this over with."
Vartra pushed the other beaker toward him. "Drink," he said. "You must be thirsty by now."
Kaid hesitated. He still didn't completely trust Vartra.
Again the other gestured to the beaker. "It's safe. I'm drinking it."
He picked it up, sniffing the contents suspiciously. "It's water," he said, surprised.
"Of course."
Cautiously, he sipped it, making sure it was indeed water before taking a longer drink.
"I need you to lay aside your mistrust of me, Tallinu, and finish the healing you began at Noni's. I know how much you suffered, not only at the hands of Fyak, but also Ghezu. But you're En'Shalla now, the Brotherhood and all of Shola look to your Triad as the public face of our Order."
Kaid continued to sip at his drink. He was finding it suddenly hot and airless in the room; the palms of his hands were becoming filmed with sweat. He leaned forward, straining to catch Vartra's every word as the God's voice became fainter.
"I need you all to be strong, stronger than you've ever been before, because for the sake of Shola, to beat the Valtegans, you will need to make a pact with the Liege of Hell Himself. Be prepared, Tallinu, for it may cost you your life, or that of one you hold dear."
He jerked in bed, shouting out in fear as he came instantly awake.
"What is it?" demanded T'Chebbi from beside him.
"A dream," he said, shuddering as he passed his hands over his brows, pushing his ears flat against his hair. The dream memory held him still in claws of steel as it dragged him back, even though awake, to relive the last portion.
"This is what I know, Tallinu, what you may have to face. I wish I had more to show you, but so far from Shola, we Entities hold little sway."
Hands bound behind him, he was being dragged toward a large window that gave onto the room next door. The hand holding his scruff pulled his head painfully back, claws gouging his flesh as he was hauled to a stop.
"Look, even now they betray you in this act of reproduction!"
He looked, seeing enough to know that one of the two figures in the bed was Carrie. The other— was Sholan, that was all he could tell. He turned his head aside, saying nothing.
A hiss of anger from his captor and he was flung against the transparent screen, his face pressed painfully against the cool surface.
"You'll watch till I say otherwise! That is your mate, linked mentally to you! Would you die for them now? You're a bigger fool than I thought!"
He shuddered again as the vision finally left him.
"More cryo nightmares?" T'Chebbi asked sympathetically.
"Yes." He'd told no one about this vision from Vartra, managed to hide it even from Kusac and Carrie when they had been intimately linked. Then the potential danger had seemed distant, avoidable. Now, out here in the dark between the worlds, with Carrie and Kusac both lying in cryo units, he wasn't so sure anymore.
The memories were fading so fast he couldn't visualize them enough to remember any more details. It was the first time they had recurred since Vartra had shown them to him all those months before. Why should they come to his sleeping mind now?
T'Chebbi's hand touched his arm, and with an effort, he turned to look at her. He tried to force a smile to his face in a reassurance he couldn't give himself.
"I'm fine now," he said, sliding back down under the cover. He closed his eyes, focusing his mind, trying to recall the scene, desperate for any clue that would answer the questions it had generated.
T'Chebbi remained sitting up. "I don't like this, Kaid. Something is wrong."
He raised himself back up on one elbow. "You sense danger?" All Brotherhood members had a gift, hers was the foreknowledge of approaching danger.
"Yes. No— I'm not sure, Kaid," she said, clutching her arms across her chest. "Not yet, maybe not at all, but there's something out there. Something and nothing."
Vartra had said as much. He lay back, staring up at the ceiling, remembering the words that had followed the vision. He'd still been groggy from the water he'd been given.
"The water is from Ghyakulla's fountain, Tallinu. The purest you'll ever taste. It opens the inner eye that lets us see what may be. You needed to take it to see the vision. Darkness is gathering between the stars, threatening the lifeblood of Shola. All that stands between us and it is your Triad."
"Who told you that?"
T'Chebbi's voice made him jump. He hadn't realized he'd spoken aloud. "Vartra. It was a warning." He turned toward her, pulling her down beside him. "Tell me if the feeling of danger grows stronger. You're sure it isn't here now? Because of Carrie's injury and us being on the U'Churian ship?"
"The warning would have come sooner. This one is just beginning."
"Yet you sensed nothing before the fight at the spaceport." It was a statement, not a recrimination.
"Maybe because there was no serious danger to her once she was put in cryo."
"Maybe." He wasn't convinced. Tirak was honest enough in his intent to take them to their rendezvous, but he felt that any species that trusted another to navigate their military ships was worthy of suspicion. Their current situation involved two unknown variables— the U'Churians and the Cabbarans.
"What is it the Cabbarans do that's so different?" T'Chebbi asked sleepily as she curled up against his side.
Recently she'd shown a knack of following his thoughts that would have disturbed him if everything else around him wasn't so volatile. "They can navigate during jump, allowing them to do two jumps in one flight. That's why we can reach Tuushu Station so quickly."
"How?" She was instantly awake. "And why only two jumps?"
"Tirak says it's a natural ability, a skill they use when planet healing and one they found useful when they got into space. As for only doing two jumps, they can't make a hull for their craft that is strong enough to withstand the stresses caused by the time it would take to jump a greater combined distance."
"They have a psi talent?"
"Sounds like it, but they're not telepathic, I checked. It may just be a convenient lie to mask their technology. Tirak was certainly keeping something back when he told me."
"Think of the military advantage that would give us over the Valtegans when we do find them."
"I have. That's why I requested the interview with Annuur."
"And?"
"And if his sept is only a commercial one, then I'm a jegget. Tirak's mission was military, he admitted it. If this were an Alliance undertaking, Annuur would have an equal rank with the captain— if we used another species to navigate for us." Talking about this was preventing him from thinking about the remainder of his meeting with Vartra.
"So what did you do?" she prompted, nipping his jaw in frustration at the delay. "Don't spin this out!"
"Made a formal application for Treaty talks to begin between the Cabbarans and the Alliance on Jalna," he said, grabbing her chin to prevent her nipping him again. "I also spoke to Captain Kisha, as you call him, with instructions on how to contact the Cabbaran home world." He released her.
"Two new allies. The Alliance will be formidable when we do meet the Valtegans."
"Three if you count the TeLaxaud, but first we have to find them. They trade only rarely at Jalna, and there's no one who knows how to contact them."
"Curious, considering they helped build the port."
"It happens that way with people, why not with a species?"
"So what woke you?"
He bit back the answer just in time. She'd nearly caught him by switching the topic so abruptly. "I told you, a dream of danger. Now sleep," he said, reaching out to kill the night-light.
Sleep took some time in coming, and when it did, it was laced with more of the memories he'd tried to avoid.
"Before the effects of Ghyakulla's water wear off, as a measure of my good faith, Tallinu, I can show you the answer to one question," Vartra had said. "What, from the future, do you wish to know?"
He'd been light-headed and not thinking too clearly then. Foremost in his mind was his determination not to share his cubs with her, or anyone. An image had begun to form almost immediately, one he'd seen before.
* * *
The room seemed to lurch and he was looking at the newborn cub in Noni's arms, unsure what to do or say.
"She's yours, Tallinu," the familiar old voice said. "Your daughter. Take her from me, for Vartra's sake! Let her know you accept your child!"
He reached down to take the child from her, holding the little one awkwardly in his arms.
She gave a soft mewl, mind and hands reaching out for him. He offered her a finger and she took it, holding onto him firmly as she began to purr. He was totally unprepared for the flood of emotions that rushed through him as he stroked the tiny brown-furred hand. Gathering her closer, he laid his face against her tiny head, taking in her scent, bonding to her. Suddenly, this cub he'd tried so hard to avoid conceiving because of his love for her mother, was even more precious.
"A daughter," he said, looking over to where she lay, exhausted from the birth. "We share a daughter."
Light, streaming in from the small window in Noni's main room, blinded him.
"I know," she said, her voice tired but holding a purr beneath the words.
Still dazzled, he moved his head in an effort to see her clearly. As he blinked, his vision cleared— and the image was gone.
* * *
Day 3
General Kezule, Chosen of the God-King, Emperor Q'emgo'h, stirred, took a deep breath, and was instantly awake and squatting at the mouth of his lair. Peering through the bushes that concealed the entrance, he scanned down the slope in front of him toward the margins of the Taykui Forest. It was dawn. He blinked once, slowly, lashless green lids closing over his large eyes. Forked tongue flicked out, tasting the air for any Sholan scent, no matter how old. Nothing. The air was clean.
He relaxed, sitting back on the pile of grasses he'd made his bed while he slept in his laalgo trance; not to heal, but to pass the time until it was safe for him to venture out into the forest once more.
For perhaps fifteen minutes he sat there, constantly surveying the countryside, watching for anything that might betray the presence of Sholan hunters. He'd had a near miss a couple of days ago. They'd been out in force, their soldiers quartering the last three miles at the edges of the forest, obviously determined that if he tried to make a break for the plains, they'd catch him. He'd concealed himself in the tree canopy, and only the fact that they'd disturbed a pack of wild felines with young cubs to defend had saved him from discovery. The soldiers had had to scatter for safety themselves, several of the slower ones getting badly mauled in the ensuing chaos.
A flock of birds rose suddenly, squawking and bickering, making him tense, but it was only a carnivore after a meal. He relaxed again, continuing to watch.
The trances served another purpose. When in that state, there was no chance his would-be captors could pick up his thoughts with their telepaths, and he could save the power cell in his wrist unit. Thinking of that reminded him to switch it on. He'd taken it from the Sholan he'd found in the hut by the swamp at the beginning of this journey. He gave a hiss of amusement as he remembered him. After the treatment he'd received from the Sholans while in captivity, the groveling terror of the male had soothed his ego— briefly. Fear of not doing one's duty was one thing, but the abject terror displayed by the Sholan was that of an incompetent officer waiting for his underlings to turn on him and rend him to pieces. There was no dignity in witnessing either, especially as he couldn't afford to let him live. Scuttling the swamp vehicle had saddened him; he'd enjoyed using it.
He checked the unit, making sure it was still emitting the signal that would prevent them from sensing his mind. It had been relatively easy to do. If they'd known in his time what the Sholan telepaths had been capable of, this disaster would never have befallen his people and they would still be in their rightful role as overlords of this world.
Sighing, he reached for the other comm, activating one of the news nets. Fifteen minutes later, he'd learned nothing much of interest and his stomach was growling with hunger. It was time to venture out and hunt. Pity he'd had to leave the female: her scent had helped mask his for the short while she'd been with him. He frowned, remembering her fear of him. That had angered him beyond reason at the time. He'd never abused her, why hadn't she trusted him? All he had intended was to cleanse his own system and fulfil his obligation to her by releasing her from the compulsion his bite had caused. He'd wanted to mate with her as little as she'd wanted it, but it was the only way to neutralize the chemicals his teeth had injected into her. There had been no pleasure in it for him. It was yet another of the indignities their captivity had imposed on him, and for that, those who'd brought him to this time would suffer!
When he reached their estate, then he'd begin to redress the balance— once they'd returned them all to his time. What they had done to him would be nothing to the sweet revenge he'd take on them!
He took a deep breath, forcing himself to remain calm. Anger was good, but not yet. Later, when he had the Human female and the two male Sholans to vent it on— and maybe that hatchling of theirs, too. Time now to hunt, eat, and move cautiously onward to the Valsgarth estate.