TICEES (74 page)

Shan exhaled in relief. “It is personal, my Lord.”

Korba glanced at Dar and then moved over to a desk and sat down heavily on the edge of it. He looked at the floor, seeing no point in continuing. The man was committed, and it was his right.

Dar looked up at Shan. He was not going to let things go so easily. “Does it have anything to do with your experience in the Dead Zone?”

This time both Dar and Korba caught the man’s tremor, and they glanced at one another. Korba studied the warrior. “Few men make it to the side of such a great man as Commander Toran. That brings into question why you would choose so easily to give everything up. Therefore, I think maybe you should tell us about it, Shan.”

Shan squared his broad, powerful shoulders. “No, my Lord,” he stated defiantly.

Korba’s breathing hitched. He was not used to being disobeyed, no matter how insignificant the request seemed. He shifted himself so that he faced Shan more directly. “Toran told us about you, and he says that he would like you back in your original capacity. He says that you need some time, but he wants you reinstated as his First Officer and primary wingman. Does that not appeal to you?”

Shan took a deep and uneasy breath. He looked down, unable to face the Overlord any longer. “No, Sire,” he whispered.

Korba thought for a few moments more. “You had applied for a transfer to RIBUS 7 under my command, and Toran quashed it. Could I persuade you to drop the Vixen mission by overruling Toran and allowing your transfer?”

Shan hesitated and finally looked at the great Overlord, remembering his promise to Chelan. But Korba did not need him for anything, including his protection. Serving under Korba would only open fresh wounds, and so far Shan had not been able to heal the old ones. “No, my Lord,” he stated flatly.

Korba stared at him. “I could order you off the mission, Shan.”

Shan’s eyes widened. “You could, Sire. But I would prefer that you didn’t.”

Korba was exasperated, and he looked at Dar and simply shrugged.

Dar remained silent for a moment, thinking very carefully. Finally he stood and moved in front of Shan. Dar glanced at Korba and then braced himself. He turned to Shan and watched the warrior closely, searching for clues. Dar picked his words carefully. “Word has it that you were attended by a Southern woman during your recovery. Would you like us to retrieve her for you?”

Korba’s eyes shot up at Dar’s forward assumption, but he, too, watched Shan intently.

Both men knew that they had struck pay dirt as the pallid look that crossed Shan’s face fleetingly, betrayed him. His eyes darted from one Warlord to the other. “No, my Lord!” he uttered almost frantically. Shan shut his eyes against Chelan’s image. “She is lost to me, my Lords,” he whispered.

Korba stood. He ran his fingers through his long hair as he walked over to Shan’s side. Then he placed his hand on the man’s shoulder. “Shan,” he began, his voice full of compassion. “I can tell you so much about the loss of a loved one.”

Shan’s reaction shocked both Warlords. He gasped as if the air had been knocked from his lungs by a crippling punch. Then, before them, the man sank to his knees.

Korba’s eyes flared as he looked from the hunched warrior into Dar’s stunned features. He was dumbfounded. He turned away as he tried to collect his thoughts as long-suppressed visions of Chelan lanced through his soul, crippling him all over once again.

But Dar was way ahead of his friend. His heart pounded and his throat constricted. He looked at Korba’s back momentarily and then down at Shan. He prayed that he had correctly interpreted Shan’s breakdown, and Dar sank to his knees beside the stricken man. He grabbed Shan’s shoulders tightly and forced him to look up. “Shan!” commanded Dar. “Was the woman in the Dead Zone Chelan?”

Korba reeled around in a flurry of black, outraged at Dar’s preposterous suggestion. But his guts turned, and his mind reeled.

Dar glanced up at Korba and then back down at Shan. “Shan!” he shouted, shaking him hard, his voice urgent and strained. “Was the woman Chelan?”

Shan hunched over. “Oh, Chelan, forgive me,” he wailed.

Korba felt his knees weaken, and he staggered backward, falling into a chair.

Dar stood quickly and pulled a seat over to Shan. He forcefully picked the man up and sat him down. “Shan,” Dar whispered, his voice pleading. “You’ve got to tell us where she is.”

Shan clenched his fists and stilled himself. Then he took several deep breaths and dared to look beyond Dar into Korba’s stricken countenance. The Warlord’s eyes were unseeing, his body rigid. Shan looked back at Dar. “I swear that I did not know who she was,” he began, his voice hoarse. “When my ship crashed, she retrieved me. There is a series of caverns in the Dead Zone, and she was deposited into one of them by the storm that took her so long ago.”

Dar turned around and looked at Korba, but the man was unresponsive. Dar turned back to Shan. “Why did you not tell us about her when you first returned?”

Shan hung his head. “She made me promise to keep her existence a secret, my Lord.”

Dar looked down as he searched futilely for answers. “Why?” he implored.

Shan glanced over at the immobilized Overlord and swallowed. “For the same reason she entered the Dead Zone to begin with, my Lord. To protect Korba.”

Korba’s head immediately snapped up, his wild eyes burning holes into Shan. “To protect me!” he shouted. He jumped to his feet. “How can the fact that she chose willingly to walk out of my life be construed as something for my protection?!”

Dar swung about and confronted Korba directly. “I hardly think Chelan planned her suicide lightly, nor did she anticipate being dropped in on by Shan. If you would cool off and let the man speak, we will get to the bottom of this. But regardless of her reasons for leaving, Shan is not to blame!”

Korba dropped his head in defeat and toppled back down into his chair. “I’m sorry, Shan,” he breathed. “Dar is right. It’s just such a shock after all this time.”

“I understand, Sire,” he whispered.

Dar pulled up a chair and sat down beside Shan. He rubbed his hands through his hair and slumped forward. He felt just like he had been hit by a transport, and he sucked in a large breath. Collecting himself, he finally looked back at Shan. “You had better start at the beginning, Shan. You’ve got to help us.” Shan looked up at him, and Dar nodded his encouragement. “And you’ve got to help Chelan.”

Shan nodded and then looked at Korba. “It was purely by accident that my fighter went down only about a hundred meters from where she was hiding. The wingmen could not retrieve me because they were engaged and a storm was threatening. I was badly wounded. Chelan had heard the battle and had come to the surface after it was over.

“I’m not entirely sure how many days or weeks I was unconscious, but she attended me the whole time, and eventually I came to. Throughout the coming months, I could never get much out of her except that she was in the cavern by accident, and that she was a Southern woman. She said her name was Kayla and that her past was too painful to discuss. I had no reason to question her, so I did not pry. I did not want to make her uncomfortable in her own domain.”

Dar looked at Shan in bewilderment. “Did you not suspect that it was Chelan, with the Imperial uniform?”

“No, my Lord. She had hidden the uniform and her weapons before I came to. She was surviving on the Batex that are abundant in the caverns. She had learned to take them at night with the lazguns, although she told me originally that she had used stones. She wore the furs and the hides while she preserved the meat by drying it and freezing some. The caverns are fueled by internal upwellings, so she had plenty of warmth and water. She kept herself in superb condition …” Shan looked down. “And she was well, except for her morbid loneliness.”

Korba flinched but managed to contain himself.

“Go on,” urged Dar.

“I spent many months recovering, building my strength, and working my injured leg. I knew that eventually I would return here to continue my service.” Shan’s uneasiness consumed him, and he looked over at Korba. “With time,” he uttered, “I came to care for her more and more.”

Shan looked down, suddenly afraid to look at the Overlord. “And with my love for her came a reluctance to leave her alone, especially to allow her to live out her life in solitude. With more time I realized that I wanted her with me always …” Shan hesitated as he fought with his emotions. “I realized that I wanted her as my mate, and I asked her to return to the Empire with me.”

Dar glanced at Korba, but the man was motionless. Dar looked back at Shan and nodded to him.

Shan drew a deep breath. “She agreed to be my mate but said that she could not live with my people because she was too different. I did not press her because I thought that with time I could convince her to change her mind.”

Shan looked up at Dar for direction, and the Warlord nodded to him again. Shan looked down. “So, the time finally came when I knew I was strong enough to make it back. I had intended to arrive here and then return for her, but things went suddenly bad.”

Shan stopped as he looked down at his clenched hands, his knuckles white. Dar sank down further into his chair, his own pain beginning to surface. There was a long pause while Shan collected himself, and then he began again, his voice strained.

“I began making trips to the surface in preparation for my leaving, and on one of those trips, I found her uniform and weapons. It wasn’t until that time that I knew her true identity. What little she had told me about herself ingeniously protected her. Her story was flawless, although incomplete.”

Shan rubbed his eyes. “I decided that I would leave the next morning, my duty to Korba dictating that I disclose her whereabouts. I tried to hide my discovery from her but … but … she just knew. It was then that she begged me to keep her secret, saying that its disclosure would result in Korba’s death.” Shan looked up at Korba, but the black-haired Warlord remained eerily quiet.

Dar leaned forward. “Did she say why?” he asked softly.

Shan looked down, and immediately every muscle in his body tensed. “Yes, my Lord,” and Shan’s voice became low and ominous. “After RIBUS 8 was dispatched, she had no one here save Ticees, and he treated her royally, taking her on reconnaissance missions and changing all his schedules to accommodate her. Chelan did not know it, but Ticees had planned all along to make her his, and he intended to swing her to him with love and kindness.”

Shan looked cautiously at Korba and he saw the Warlord’s eyes begin to narrow. Shan froze.

Dar glanced at Korba and drew in a deep and uneasy breath. Dar looked back to Shan. “Please, continue.”

“It seems that his desires for her were being constantly thwarted by her because of her love for Korba. She knows now that she frustrated him more and more as time went on. And though they were becoming closer, she still would not yield to him. But she had come to trust him, and she did enjoy his company. One morning she went to see him, and he was very agitated. He told her that he had been upset by something that had occurred in the training fields. Chelan—” Shan exhaled sharply and rubbed at his jaw in agitation and anger. “Chelan made the mistake of touching him … consoling him.” Shan shuddered. He looked at Korba and cleared his throat. “He tried to take her.” Shan watched as Korba’s eyes closed, and the warrior winced. “She rebuffed him, but in doing so she enraged him. He accused her of false loyalties and hypocritical values because though she said she loved Korba and adhered mostly to Earth values, she still lay with Dar and Fremma. Since she did that readily, Ticees told her that she would submit to him. He told her to come to him that evening and to lie with him willingly. If she did not, he threatened her by telling her he would arrange back-to-back missions for Korba, and that she would never see him again.” Shan took a deep, shaky breath, and looked to the ceiling. “She was forced to comply.”

Korba rubbed his brow. Both Shan and Dar watched him carefully. Then he leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, his head hung. Finally he looked back at the two men. “She would not have left these halls because she lay with Ticees, no matter how despicable and degrading she felt the act to be. He coerced her. There was no fault with her.”

Shan bit at his cheek. “But that was not all,” he whispered, and he saw Korba become very still. “She went to him that evening out of her love for Korba, totally unaware of what Ticees had actually planned. Somehow he had managed to pinpoint her estrus and knew when she was receptive.”

The pall that descended over the ebony Warlord froze the atmosphere and turned all the men’s marrow to sludge. Korba straightened, and his eyes became calculating slits. A low, guttural rumble emanated from deep within his chest.

Shan had to work at his own composure, squashing the almost irrepressible urge to burst in upon Ticees and slay the man with his own hands. “When she arrived, she knows now that he slipped her a dose of the Letting drug, just to make sure she complied. And when she was incapacitated …” Shan’s rage began to fester. He sat up straight, his jaw set and his eyes on fire. “When she was vulnerable to him, he let in some Breeding Guild members to witness his supposedly cooperative and mutually agreed-upon insemination of her. Ticees had planned the evening all along with the Guild.” Shan looked at Korba, his voice low and restrained. “He then took her in front of them.”

Korba was instantly on his feet. He cried out in a violent rage, grabbing a chair and hurling it against the wall, breaking it into kindling.

Dar was on his feet, too, but he knew not which direction to turn. He was concerned over Korba’s state of mind, but at the same time he was trying desperately to deal with his own fury. He watched as Korba slumped over a table, gasping for breath. Dar whirled around and faced Shan. “Did he succeed?” he growled.

“No, my Lord, not ultimately. Chelan remembers struggling, but she could not remember if he completed the act. Two of her months later she bled, but she did not know if she was pregnant for sure. She does feel that the Guild members knew that she was forced.”