Authors: Charlotte Boyett-Compo
“What we should have done was extend that protective Net around the entire planet and not just over the area around the Citadel,” Lord Naois declared. “Had we done so, the first Ceannus ship would not have landed and the ghorets released.”
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Charlotte Boyett-Compo
“That oversight will need to be corrected but it will take a few months more to spread the Net to that part of the country. Charge pylons will have to be erected and that is no easy task,” Lord Kheelan told them. “But it has to be done. No other ships should ever land on Terra without our consent.”
“Nor leave without it,” Lord Dunham said.
At the mention of the ghorets—the deadly pit vipers from which one bite would instantly kill a human—Arawn sucked in an audible breath. “Have they brought more of those vile things with them?”
“We don’t know,” Lord Naois said. “But my guess is they did.”
“The first batch was brought here as eggs,” Lord Kheelan said. “They may be incubating for all we know.”
“We don’t think any hatchlings have been released,” Lord Dunham said. “Not as yet anyway.”
Cynyr ran a shaking hand over his face where sweat had suddenly formed. He knew all too well how bad a ghoret bite could be. It was something he wouldn’t wish on anyone—even Jaborn.
“If you have ships, why can’t you just go and bomb the hell out of the encampment and—?” Arawn began, but Lord Kheelan was shaking his head. “Why not?”
“Because the Ceannus are holding captives in the camp as shields,” the High Lord replied.
“Even so, we’re talking about many lives compared to a few,” Glyn Kullen spoke up. “I hate to have us lose even one human life but—”
“The captives are children,” Jaborn said quietly. He looked around at Kullen. “They are being used also for Sustenance for the
balgairs
.”
Aingeal looked sick as she put her hand to her belly where her child was growing.
“How many children?” Arawn asked Kheelan.
“We believe somewhere in the vicinity of a hundred, perhaps more,” the Shadowlord answered.
“What?” the Prime Reaper gasped. “How could that have happened? Where did they get that many children from?”
A brilliant white light pulsed through the room along with a howling wind that dropped the temperature at least fifty degrees. “From Me!” came an enraged voice. Morrigunia hovered just above the floor, Her wings outstretched so that they nearly touched each opposite wall. Her eyes were scarlet red and gleaming with a feral intensity that made the flesh on the arms of Her viewers stir.
“How did you let this happen, Ben-Alkazar?” the goddess screeched so loudly those gathered slapped their hands to their ears.
Seeing Lord Kheelan dropping to his knees beside his chair—his normally placid face strained with abject terror—was something the Reapers never expected to observe. 24
Prime Reaper
“
Mo Regina
…” he started to say, but the shrill shriek of the goddess cut him off.
“They took My children!” She screamed at him so loudly a crack formed in the concrete wall behind the Shadowlords and snaked its way from floor to ceiling. “They invaded the
guirreyder
and took My sons!”
Aingeal turned to her husband. “What does that mean?”
“Incubator,” Arawn answered for Cynyr. He shuddered as he and Cree stared at one another, the implication of what was being said clear to them both.
“I want My
guirt
back!” the goddess roared. “Do you hear Me?”
All three Shadowlords were on their knees before the wrath of the goddess. The Reapers were too stunned to do anything other than sit where they were until She swept Her vermeil glower over them. Each—including Aingeal—shot out of the chairs and knelt before Morrigunia’s fury.
“I want My
guirt
back! I want My hatchlings!”
“We will see to it,
Mo Regina
,” Lord Kheelan vowed. “I swear it to You.”
A hot wind swept through the room—bringing the temperature up to a blistering degree that instantly soaked the Reapers and Shadowlords with sweat. Another blinding light flashed and the goddess was gone, leaving behind in Her wake the terrible stench of brimstone.
For several long minutes no one spoke. They did not get to their feet but continued to kneel on the floor, each trembling at the rage that still clung to the room like a wet blanket. Hearts hammered in chests, breaths came out in quickened pants, blood had run cold to chill their very marrow.
“I guess this answers your question, Cynyr,” Arawn said in a shaky voice.
“What question was that, Lord Arawn?” the High Lord inquired in a voice equally as unsure.
Arawn got to his feet, plowing a hand through his hair. “He asked for what purpose the goddess would have stolen our sperm.”
“Our what?” Owen sputtered.
“Cynyr was given my Queen when his succumbed to the ghoret bites. Because I still had fledglings of that Queen inside my body, I will forever have an attachment to Cree, one that runs deeper than just the sharing of our blood. When Morrigunia offered him Her blood to help him heal faster, I was an unwitting witness to memories that were in Her mind, memories she never meant for Cynyr to remember. I saw Her take him and as I did I knew each of us had been taken in the same way, our sperm captured by Her body. She took the sperm to create a pure kind of Reaper, even more powerful than we are.”
“Then the children in Calizonia…”
“Are our sons,” Arawn whispered.
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Charlotte Boyett-Compo
Chapter Three
“Did you know about this?” Bevyn asked the High Lord.
Lord Kheelan sat down heavily in his chair. “Aye, we knew. Now I suppose we know why She did not answer us when we called.” He let out a ragged breath. “She had gone to check on Her
guirt
.”
“Which is where, do you think?” Cynyr asked.
“Somewhere beyond time and space,” Lord Kheelan replied. “But obviously somewhere Raphian knew about and could send His minions to steal them.”
At the mention of the depraved demon, the Destroyer of Men’s Souls, who had created the first evil Reaper, those gathered shivered.
“Can’t She just go after the Ceannus like She did in the mountains? Take Her dragon form and destroy them?” Iden Belial, the youngest Reaper, asked.
“And risk harming the
guirt
?” Arawn asked. “I would think not.”
“Does
guirt
mean the children?” Aingeal asked.
“Aye,” Cynyr said. “It translates as the hatched.”
“Obviously the children were not inside Her body,” Lord Naois said. “Like the ghorets, they were brought here as embryos and have now come to full term.”
“Then they are just infants,” Aingeal said, worry creasing her beautiful face.
“How old would you say the children you saw were, Jaborn?” Arawn asked.
“I know little of children but I believed them to be around nine years of age,”
Jaborn replied.
“How can that be if they have just been born?” Aingeal asked.
“Because Reaper children mature at a much faster rate than human children,” Glyn Kullen said. “Think ten years to your human one, Aingeal.”
“At least ten years,” Owen agreed.
“Think on this,” Lord Naois said. “We don’t know how long the Ceannus camp has been in Calizonia. We haven’t had any reason to send a Reaper to that territory for a long time.”
“And while we were just discovering them in the mountains above Haines City and discovering a way to catch them if they tried to land another ship on Terra, that camp in the southwest could have been there for quite some time,” Lord Kheelan added. “If that is the case, they have had plenty of time to plan their attack on us.”
“So what do we do?” Bevyn asked.
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Prime Reaper
“We must get the
guirt
back for Her or She will wreak havoc the likes of which this world has never known,” Lord Dunham told them. “The Burning War will have seemed like a child’s game compared to what She could do here.”
“And if they’ve unleashed more ghorets?” Cynyr asked quietly.
“Ghorets mate like rabbits and their gestation period is far shorter than most reptiles,” Lord Naois said.
“How short is short?” Iden asked, fear making his amber eyes gleam.
“Half of a Terran reptile’s,” Lord Dunham reported. “A month at most.”
“The land between here and Calizonia could be teeming with them in a few months’ time,” Glyn whispered.
Aingeal listened to the men arguing amongst themselves about the likelihood of the venomous creatures slithering their way across the territories and how long it would take them to kill the humans in their path. She held up her hand to quiet them. “Don’t snakes hunt sensing the warmth of its prey?” she asked.
“Aye, but what does that have to—?” Lord Kheelan snapped.
“Don’t snakes have heat in their bodies too?” she interrupted him.
“Every living creature has heat,” Lord Naois said. “No matter how cold-blooded the beast.”
“And you can track that heat, can’t you?”
The High Lord glared at her. “Wench, what are you trying to ask?”
“Can your flying ships detect heat?” she demanded.
“Of course they can. What—?”
“If the ghorets are writhing their way from Calizonia this way, would your flying ship be able to detect them?” She put her hands on her hips. “There are a lot of unpopulated miles between Calizonia and Nemcone. Could the flying ships pick up the movement of the ghorets along the desert sand?”
Cynyr stared at his lady, his face filled with pride. “And wouldn’t those ships be able to fire some kind of weapon to incinerate those slithering beasties?” he asked, grinning at Aingeal.
“Fire laser pulses that would burn those bastards to a crisp?” Arawn joined in. Lord Kheelan’s mouth dropped open. Once more Aingeal Cree had backed him up against the proverbial wall and—just as she had the first time—she allowed him no quarter. Naois and Dunham were looking at him. The Reapers were watching, waiting, breaths held. He had no choice but to answer her, to acknowledge her question and once again, the High Lord gave ground to the slip of a woman facing him.
“Can you do it, milord?” she queried.
“Aye, wench,” the High Lord said quietly, his voice husky. “We can do all that and more.”
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Charlotte Boyett-Compo
“Then I suggest while your Reapers are en route to Calizonia to whip the asses of the Ceannus, you clear the way for them by ridding the land of those slimy vipers.” She cocked her head to one side. “Don’t you agree?”
Cynyr Cree hid his amusement behind a hand hastily clamped to his mouth. His golden eyes were dancing, his lips pursed tightly together to silence the whoop of delight he longed to emit. From the corner of his eye, he could see Arawn’s lips twitching and Bevyn’s smug look. Even Jaborn was grinning at Aingeal’s audacity. Lord Kheelan arched one thick sandy brow. “You won’t be accompanying them, Lady Aingeal,” he said.
“Of course not,” she agreed. “Someone has to stay here to keep you on your toes.”
“Whoa!” Cynyr said before he could stop himself. Pride beamed from his gaze. Arawn knew he should reprimand the Reaper but he was too astonished to say a word. No one had ever spoken to the High Lord in such a manner—not even the other Shadowlords—and he could tell by the look on Lord Kheelan’s face that the man was shocked by Aingeal’s brazen retort.
Lord Naois stepped back quickly as the High Lord came to his feet. Lord Dunham did the same, both coming down from the dais as though afraid of the emotions that had turned Ben-Alkazar’s face a fiery red color. Joining the Reapers, the Shadowlords waited for the explosion they knew was about to erupt.
“Any other sage comments you wish to make before I have my say, Lady Aingeal?”
Lord Kheelan growled in a tone of voice that was meant to cower the female but which only made her smile.
“Aye, there is one other thing,” she said.
“Wench, you’re pushing it,” Cynyr warned in a low voice.
“And just what would that be?” the High Lord grated, eyes narrowed. Despite her husband reaching out a hand to stop her, Aingeal strode to the dais and stood there looking up at the Shadowlord. “It concerns precautions you should make before the men leave,” she said.
“What kind of precautions?”
Aingeal propped her elbow on the edge of the dais. “Remember when my husband nearly died from the ghoret bites?” she asked.
“I’m not likely to forget it,” Lord Kheelan snapped.
“His Queen died and one had to be taken from Lord Arawn or my husband would have died along with his hellion. You had two men who were weak and unable to do their job down at the same time until the hellion took firm hold in one and an alpha hellion grew to maturity in the other.”
“What has that to do with anything?” the High Lord grumbled.
“Would it not be a good idea to have hellions taken from each of the men in order that they be available should one of the men ever need a fully mature one again?” she asked, bracing her chin in her hand. “When you send them out into the field, could they 28
Prime Reaper
not have a healer accompany them as a member of the team with one of their hellions in hand should it be needed while you keep the other hellion safely here at the Citadel?
Even if you won’t allow the healer to accompany them into battle, could you not at least have him close by—say in Haines City, for instance—where one of the men could fly quickly to retrieve the hellion from him?”
Arawn slipped an arm around Cynyr’s shoulders in a brotherly embrace neither man would have considered doing before they had met this stalwart woman. She had brought them together not only as brothers in arms but as friends. Because of her, there was no longer any stilted aloofness that once had branded them Reapers. Lord Kheelan blinked several times as he contemplated Aingeal’s suggestion. His gaze was locked on the woman, and from the expression on his face, no one else save the two of them were in the room. He slowly took his seat, never taking his eyes from her.
“Does that include you, Lady Aingeal?” he asked. “Will you donate your hellions to Healer Dresden?”