The Dragon Circle (32 page)

Loki checked both of his brothers where they slumped in the cockpit of the lander. The king stone rested snugly in crash webbing. Why had Konner insisted on bringing the monster? Escape would be so much easier without the crystal.

Kat fought her force bracelets from the jump seat where Konner had deposited her. Her wrists had already turned raw. At this rate they'd soon bleed.

“Will you please give me the codes to override the captain's seal on the bay doors?” Loki asked Kat with a veneer of politeness.

“Go feed yourself to your dragon,” she spat and tried to kick him.

He dodged her blow and caught her knees with one hand. Slowly he lifted, throwing her balance back against the bulkhead.

“This is the last time I ask politely, baby sister. Mum always taught us to be polite. Will you please give me the codes?”

She glared venom at him.

“Okay, we do this the hard way.” He dropped her knees abruptly. Her feet landed with a thud. She winced from the pain of the force bracelets.

“I have a little Tambootie left in my pocket,” Kim said. His voice sounded strangled. All three of them were exhausted and hurting from too strenuous activity in too heavy gravity.

“What is this Tambootie?” Kat asked.

“Give it to me. We need those codes.” Loki put out his hands.

Kim deposited one partial leaf and several fragments into his palm. He kept the largest piece for himself, chewing on it hungrily.

Loki's skin begin to tingle upon contact. One layer of fatigue washed away from him. He popped all of the pieces into his mouth. He sucked on them a moment, moistening the dried leaves and drawing out any lingering oils.

A now familiar rush of sensation sharpened his focus. A layer of energy emerged from atop every object. Mostly he saw a white after shadow. But when he looked at Kat, flares of bright red shot forth from her brow and the top of her head. With her red hair, she looked like a sun's corona.

Or the lava pit boiling beneath the blown-out volcano.

Loki banished thoughts of that place. Too many bad memories crowded out what he had to do.

“What are you hiding, baby sister?” he asked quietly. Immediately her corona of colored light shrank and blanched to a mere glare.

Loki clenched his eyes closed a moment and shook his head.

“Breathe deeply,” Kim coaxed him. “Inhale long and hard. Exhale long. Get rid of all the air inside you. Good. Now inhale. Exhale. Again.”

Loki obeyed the soothing voice. More layers of fatigue and worry slid off of him. He opened his eyes again.

Kat sat before him. If he looked closely, he could see through her skin to subcutaneous fat, muscle tissue, and bone. Her jaw muscles tightened. She ground her teeth.

Fascinating.

“Deeper,” he whispered to himself. “Deeper.”

Her skull seemed to dissolve before his gaze. He thought he saw tiny bolts of lightning firing across the surface of her brain.

“Past the brain, into the mind.” Deeper he went, following chains of synapses into the center. The chains became tunnels. They took on colors. Yellow for muscle reactions, blue for autonomic functions. Green for memory. Red for knowledge.

And a black wall standing between him and the piece of knowledge he desperately needed.

“Open,” he commanded. A few bricks seemed to fall away from the wall.

She threw up new ones as fast as he tore down the old.

“She's blocking me,” Loki said. At least he hoped he said it.

“Relax a moment. Gather your resources,” Kim instructed. His voice remained quiet, calm, soothing.

Loki withdrew to the outer surface of her mind. Then Kim began talking. He spoke of fathers and sons. He whispered about the sweetness of holding his baby son when the child arrived. He spoke of Konner's loneliness, missing his son, and needing to get back to Aurora in time for the custody hearing. He talked of Mum's obsession with finding her missing daughter.

The black bricks began to crumble and thin. Kat had held firm against frontal assault. She dissolved under the subtle pressure of her own need for family.

How did Kim know what to say to her? He'd taken the Tambootie. It must have opened his telepathy.

Loki turned his attention back to his mission. The moment he sensed Kat relaxing, he dove through the barrier in her mind.

A beautiful black rose opened before him. The lush velvet petals spread. Each one contained a string of numbers. Some made no sense to him. But deep within the rose he found what he needed. Three words followed by six numbers.

“Got it.” He pulled out. Dizziness and disorientation. The cockpit looked strange, harsh, unreal. Nothing fit. He put out his hand expecting to brace himself upon the back of the pilot's chair. He missed by three centimeters. The rest of the cabin tilted to the right by the same distance.

Konner slid an arm beneath Loki's shoulder. Kim just sat and grinned.

“Breathe, Loki. You have to breathe. It takes a moment to clear your mind after an intense session,” Kim said quietly.

“You've been practicing,” Loki said. His words sounded slurred.

“You should, too. And so should Konner. We have to be able to control these powers.”

“Let's worry about that after we get out of here.”

Loki opened an interface with
Jupiter
's computer. He scanned the menu presented on the screen.

“Is it voice activated?” he asked, keeping his back to Kat.

Kim watched her. He was better at reading faces. He'd alert them all to minute changes in her expression.

No answer from either of them.

“Konner, hack into the system. I need to override voice and go to manual.”

Konner swung around and began working the copilot's screens. Some of the worry lines had eased around the middle brother's eyes. “Good to go. You have a manual connection to the central computer.”

Loki typed in the three words and the string of numbers.

Access Denied.
The words flashed before him.
Access Denied. Begin countdown to automatic defense system.

Loki gulped. He swung around to face his sister.

She smiled blandly at him. “I'll die before I give you the correct codes. We'll all die in thirty seconds.”

”W
E HAVE TO HIDE!” Dalleena said as she slithered backward on her belly. She'd moved only a few feet when her bare feet touched mud. She shuddered. She hated swamps. The murky water and unknown depths hid bloodsucking creatures, flesh-eating reptiles, and plants with leaves as sharply edged as one of the new iron knives.

Or so she believed.

Taneeo and his followers continued to march toward the intruders, weapons and communications devices still proffered as peace offerings. The men's eyes did not focus. They stared blindly ahead, walking as if bewitched.

Taneeo grinned widely. He almost sauntered in triumph. The limp evaporated with each step.

“I must stop the idiot,” Raaskan said. “How did he escape Pryth's vigilance?” He tried to stand. Once more, Poolie held him in place. Nearly as tall as Dalleena, she was strong from long hours of working the fields and spindle.

Raaskan glared at his wife.

She returned his gaze levelly and with meaning.

“Taneeo has to learn that not all problems can be solved with peace and compromise,” he hissed.

“Especially when it means he's betraying us,” Dalleena muttered. She didn't care if the others heard her or not. She was leaving. One of them had to remain free and safe to tell Konner and his brothers about Taneeo's betrayal and the defection of half the men from the village.

Gritting her teeth, she dared the swamp. At least the mushy edges of it.

When her knees felt soggy, she risked rising to a crouch. From that position Taneeo and his men were clearly visible. The intruders still gathered twenty paces away. They carried their weapons warily and balanced on the balls of their feet, ready to run forward in attack, or flee as events evolved.

Neither group seemed to notice the rustling grasses where Raaskan and Poolie crept toward Dalleena. Beside a rotting tree snag they peered around, seeking the best path. Dalleena motioned retreat.

“Big Red,” Raaskan whispered. He jerked his head toward the shaggy wild bull that had risen to its feet.

It plodded toward the marshy verge of the pasture. Morning sunshine showed the sharp tips and smooth curve of his horns. From tip to tip, those horns spread as wide as a man could spread his arms. Big Red's cows shifted their grazing closer to the tree line, away from the village and the armed intruders. Their red fur seemed to fade to gray and shadow as they merged with the protective cover. Movement alone would betray their presence to predators.

Big Red, on the other hand, drew attention away from his cows. He pawed at the ground and bellowed his annoyance at the proximity of so many people.

The bull stood between Dalleena and safety. He made enough noise to attract the attention of the intruders, across three fields and a swamp. Laughter from the intruders at the bull's antics. They did not fear it. They should.

“Stillness,” Raaskan said under his breath. “The hunted stands so still he blends into his cover. The hunter cannot see him until he moves.”

Dalleena took a deep breath and willed herself to obey. Every instinct in her body told her to flee.

If only Konner were here to protect her.

But he, too, needed to stay free of the invaders.

If only she could hear the words passed between the Others and Taneeo.

The priest made a gesture and each of his followers moved forward in turn and deposited the weapon or communicator he held at the feet of the foremost guard. Other intruders crept out of the village. The ones with the most decorations on their clothing grabbed guns and comms from the growing pile first.

When all of the stolen gear had been returned, the intruders, as one, turned their weapons upon Taneeo and the others.

They crumpled to the ground, startled looks frozen on their faces.

Fine thanks for their act of goodwill.

Dalleena swallowed back the bile that threatened to choke her.

Poolie rested a hand upon her shoulder in mute comfort. “We saw much the same actions from Hanassa before the Stargods liberated us from him. But Hanassa drew blood and gloried in death. The invaders have only stunned the traitors. These weaklings fear death and do not kill lightly. We must use this against them.”

“Yes, we must,” Dalleena agreed. “I will watch. You two go and gather the others. You are more used to hunting stealthily than I. Go in secret. After sundown, before moonrise, we will liberate our neighbors. Also in secret.”

But Konner and his brothers would return before then. She had to warn them. She would not allow them to stumble into a trap as wicked as a patch of devil's vine.

How could she watch the village and wait for Konner at the place he told her he would return?

“Read the codes back to me from right to left,” Konner demanded. His voice sounded harsh, bruised to his own ears. He didn't have time to worry about it.

Twenty-four, twenty-three.
The computer counted down the seconds.

“Um, 763997 Alpha, um,” Loki stammered.