Necator was standing near the control panel. He froze. Shock, then rising terror, widened his eyes. Karic made a quick visual search of the room. Aside from the pilot, busy readying the craft for take-off, there was no one else present.
"Where's Liane?" Karic demanded, his voice low and deadly. Necator nervously smiled. "She is safe." As he spoke his hand moved behind him. "She'll come to no harm if you leave now."
"I'm not going anywhere without her. Tell me where she is"
A blaster appeared in Necator's hands. Fire spewed from the gun. Karic barely lunged aside. Behind him, something exploded. Nimbly diving onto his stomach, Karic fired his own blaster. It missed Necator, taking out the pilot and the base of the control panel instead. The man shrieked, then slumped forward. With a deep, throbbing surge of the engines, the transport craft began to rise.
Without a pilot to guide it into level flight, the craft lurched unevenly, twirling about in the huge bay like some wildly drunken dancer. It ricocheted off one wall, then another, throwing its occupants about like helpless bits of debris. Karic was flung hard against a wall, the force of impact nearly knocking him unconscious. His blaster flew from his hands to slide out of sight down the hall.
Through a sparkling, spinning whirl of lights he saw Necator crawl toward him, a triumphant, evil grin on his face. In the deepening smoke he saw a dagger flash. Reflexively, Karic lifted an arm to protect himself.
Pain, deep and agonizing, tore through him. The lingering haze cleared. He saw the bloodied dagger raised high again, and an armhis armspurting blood. It was an arm he barely felt, useless and limp. With a savage cry Karic kicked out with both legs, slamming into Necator's chest.
Bones snapped with a sickening crunch an instant before the man was propelled backward across the room. He struck the section of control panel shattered by Karic's blaster, his back impaling on the twisted, extruding metal. A startled look passed across Necator's face. His mouth opened in a silent, contorted scream. Then he sagged forward.
Karic staggered to his feet, clutching his bleeding arm. The blood, he thought groggily, he was losing so much blood. The transport craft lurched crazily, unbalancing him. He fell to his knees. Karic crawled over to the dead pilot. Smoke billowed in the room, choking him.
Low, he told himself. He must stay low to keep the smoke from his lungs. Karic pulled the pilot down to him. With his good hand and teeth, he tore a long strip of cloth from the man's shirt and wrapped it above his elbow to form a tourniquet. The bleeding slowed to an ooze. Ripping loose another piece of cloth, Karic made a cursory attempt at binding his wound.
There was little time for anything more. Even now, the damaged craft was in danger of exploding. Pain, deep and relentlessly throbbing, clouded Karic's mind, bathing his body in a cold sweat. He wanted to vomit. But he had no time to give in to the agony. He must find Lianeand quickly.
Time ceased as he made his tortuous way down the hall, until his whole universe centered upon the one thing that kept him going. Liane. His mate. His love.
"Liane?" he cried. "Where are you?"
"Karic?"
A soft, sweet voice rose from the darkness just beyond his blurring vision.
"Karic. Is it really you?"
He moved toward the voice, blindly, desperately. A hand touched his face.
"Liane," he thickly mumbled. "You must get out. Now, before it's too late." "I can't. I'm tied."
Karic wearily lifted his head. "Where?" he rasped. "Where are you tied?"
"My hands. Here, to this post."
Karic's fingers groped for the knots, then realized he hadn't the strength to untie them, much less the use of the other hand it would require. He unsheathed his claws and tore at the thick cords.
The bindings fell free a moment before the craft again slammed into something. The collision sent Karic shooting across the room to a far wall. His wounded arm took the brunt of impact. This time Karic couldn't stifle a groan.
Liane crawled to his side. "Karic, what's wrong? Are you hurt?"
She could barely see in the smoke-filled room. She ran her hands over his body. Fear coiled within her as Liane noted his cool, damp skin and his shallow breathing. He was wounded, perhaps mortally so. She found his arm with its tourniquet and makeshift bandage. Beneath the cloth Liane's expert fingers felt the depth of Karic's wound.
Sudden terror replaced the fear. She quickly must get him to safety. Liane slid an arm beneath his shoulders.
"Karic, listen to me," she firmly instructed. "We must get out of here now. Help me get you to your feet."
He weakly shook his head. "Itit's too late for me, femina." His words sounded hollow and spiritless. "Go. Save yourself."
"No!" Liane frantically tried to tug him to his knees. "I won't leave you!"
"You must."
He turned to gaze up at her, his eyes dulling even as he spoke. ''If not for yourself, then for the sake of our child. You . . . promised . . . if anything happened to me that you'd save our child."
Tears burned her eyes. At a time like this, how could he remind her of their child, while he lay here in her arms with his life bleeding away? It was unfair to tear her heart in two opposite directions, between a fledgling sense of duty to an unborn child and her love for him.
A sudden realization tore through her. Her daughter
their
daughter! Were her healing abilities as potent as her psychic powers? It was almost too much to hope for from such a tiny, barely developed being, but it seemed Karic's only chance. And he wouldn't need a full healing, just a little more strength to get him to safety. Liane's hand slid to her belly.
With all the power she possessed, mother called to child. For a long moment Liane felt nothing, not even the slight stirring of life she'd noted before. Then a sound, resonant and comforting, filled her mind. It reverberated through her brain until its meaning engulfed her in warmth and power.
Her hand lifted from her belly to touch Karic's face. His eyes were closed, his breathing ragged and weak. She tenderly stroked him, his forehead, cheek, neck, gradually trailing a path of healing fire down his body.
He stirred, and his lids lifted. Somewhere in the depths of his dying being, life flickered with renewed heat, flickered and burst into flame. Awareness of a dramatic change, a surge of strength, flared in Karic. He levered himself to a sitting position.
Their eyes met. "Let's get out of here," Karic said. Liane followed him out of the room, her hand firmly clasping his to maintain transfusion of the strengthening power. Their progress was slow as they crawled down the hall. Time and again the craft crazily lurched about, flinging them against the walls. Explosions rocked them, until Liane thought the force would literally rip the ship apart, but somehow, someway, it held together.
At last the outer doorway loomed before them, blackened and gaping from the spent electrical fire. They hesitated there, waiting for the right moment to jump, as the craft constantly rose and fell to erratic heights above the floor in its wild flight about the bay.
"You go first," Liane cried. "Your strength will fade as soon as I stop touching you. If I leave before you, you might not be able to get out in time."
Karic studied her for a brief moment, loathe to risk leaving her behind. Then he nodded. There was no time left for arguing.
"Come after me quickly," he ordered. Karic gave her hand a squeeze. "Promise?"
She smiled. "I promise."
The craft dipped low. Liane shoved him forward. "Go!"
Karic leaped from the doorway, striking the floor to nimbly roll over and over before coming to a halt on his feet. Weakness immediately tore through him. He sank to his knees, his gaze fixed on the ship.
Another explosion shuddered through its metal bulk. Liane was thrown backward, disappearing into the interior. Stark terror ripped through Karic, and he began to crawl forward.
Gage reached his side and pulled him back. "Liane," Karic whispered. "I've got . . . to go to her."
"There's nothing you can do," Gage grimly muttered. "She must get out on her own."
Karic slumped in Gage's arms. There was indeed nothing more he could do. He could barely move.
The transport craft careened off yet another wall. This time the trajectory of impact sent it barreling straight toward the open bay door.
"Liane!" Karic roared with the last bit of strength he possessed. "Jump!"
In that last moment before the tortured hulk of metal shot out to crash to the streets below, Liane leaped from the transport craft. For several secundae she lay on the floor, motionless. Then she looked about until she found Karic. She waved.
Karic waved back, then promptly lost consciousness.
Liane gazed out of the palace window upon a gloriously warm and bright morn. She was happy, content.
She looked at Karic, propped up in the huge bed, his arm swathed in bandages and sling. He had improved so much in the past few sols. At first, there had been doubt if they could even salvage the limb. When Karic wasn't unconscious from the pain, it required the strongest drugs of the palace healer to control his agony.
Ultimately they had saved the arm, and though the healer had said only time would tell if Karic would regain full use of it, Liane knew he would. Their child had told her.
Drained as both were from the horrible events of the palace overthrow, neither Liane, as conduit of power, nor her child had the psychic energy left to heal. To even attempt to do so might risk both their lives, so Liane had not even brought up the possibility to the others. Time enough to explain it all to Karic laterabout his healing, their daughter . . .
"Liane?"
With a smile she turned from the window to the man who was her love. "Yes, Karic?"
"I have a pain," he began.
Her smile faded, and she reached for the vial of narcotic on the nearby table. "Here, let me give you"
"The pain is of the heart, sweet femina," Karic laughingly interrupted her, "not the body. I need you beside me."
She shook her head in tender exasperation, but willingly joined him. With his good arm, Karic pulled her down to lie against his chest. His lips gently caressed her forehead.
"My father and men leave for the lair this morning," he said. "I wish we were going with them."
Once more, the memory of Morigan's earlier visit stirred Liane's unease. "Your words to your father," she finally began. "You would never return to your lair if they refused to accept me as your life mate?"
"I meant what I said, Liane."
She lowered her head. "But you might come to hate me some sol for such an act and regret our love."
At the thread of tortured uncertainty in her voice, Karic slipped his hand from her grasp. Taking her chin in his palm, he gently lifted her eyes to his.
"Never. Do you hear me?" he hoarsely whispered. "Never will I hate or regret loving you. And I will never give you up, either. You have proven your loyalty, your courage and your fitness to rule at my side. Nothing anyone can do will change that."
His grip tightened on her jaw. "Do you hear me, Liane? Do you understand what I say?"
She smiled through a sparkling blur of tears. "Yes, Karic, I hear and understand."
"Good." A smug grin tugged at his lips. "It's past time anyway that you learned to obey your lord and master."
Liane gasped in mock outrage, but before she could respond Karic pulled her down to him. Even the strength of his one good arm was enough to subdue her half-hearted struggles. With a contented sigh, she relaxed against him.
"My poor, unfortunate mate," she chuckled. "You can barely control one femina as it is. What will you do when there are two?"
Karic nuzzled her tumbled ebony mane. "Two? There is no other femina but you in my life. Why do you speak so?"
He paused and turned her face to his. A dark brow cocked quizzically. "Our child is a male, isn't he?"
"
Is
he, my lord?"
Karic scowled. "Liane, if you know something . . ."
She laughed. "We're to have a daughter, my love. A daughter who possesses all of my former powers."
"Then it was she who gave me that surge of strength in the transport craft," he said, after a moment of thoughtful consideration.
"Yes."
He lapsed into silence.
"Are you displeased?"
"About what?"
"That our firstborn will not be a son." "Ah, yes," he lazily drawled, shooting her an amused glance. "And it equally displeases me that I'll have a daughter as lovely as her mother, with psychic and healing powers that will aid her people. A daughter who'll be wise and kind and good, as her mother is. A daughter who'll adore her father, just as her mother does. A daughter"
"Oh, hush, Karic." Liane lay a silencing finger upon his lips, her deep blue eyes sparkling in exasperation. "I think I get your meaning."
The teasing light in Karic's eyes faded. "I love you, sweet femina. It matters not to me whether our child is a son or daughter. As long as you're happy, and never stop loving me."