When?
I don’t know. I don’t know where you are, but I’m going to keep looking. Just be patient. The Mother wishes it, I added on a stroke of genius. It was the only thing I could think of that might keep this powerful, unruly child in check.
There was a hesitation, then a tired sigh. I will try.
I needed to get my mind and body back together, fast. The thought was barely formed when there was a twisting motion in the darkness, and suddenly I was alone.
My return to consciousness wasn’t a slow spiral upward, but an abrupt, fully alert awakening. It was a good thing, too, because my room in Marcus’s house was full of concerned people. What if I’d blurted out something I shouldn’t have?
When my eyes did pop open, I almost screamed. Peri was gripping a section of the headboard with her hind feet, dangling upside down so she could stare at my face. From two inches away. Assured that I was awake, she gave a merry gurgle, flipped over, and flew to perch on the windowsill, where she could keep an eye on the proceedings.
The commander was sitting beside me, holding my hand tightly while Leddy waved something that smelled Zin-awful under my nose. Near the end of the bed, Marcus and Jancen stared at me, worry clear in their expressions.
Even Treya was there, glaring at the way Reynard hovered over me.
The room was small to start with. Now it was so tightly packed I barely had space to breathe.
Pushing Leddy’s nasty concoction away, I sat up and swung my legs off the bed. “I’m fine. Really, I’m good. Did I faint? How did I get back here?”
Maybe if I babbled out enough questions it would distract them from the ones I didn’t want asked. Questions I wasn’t at all sure I could answer, even if I wanted to. Surreptitiously, I touched the Imadei with my free hand and barely stopped myself from biting my lip. I’d expected the stone to do something, just not this, and I wasn’t sure how to react.
Reynard arched a brow at me, then let go of my hand and stood. “Apparently the knife attack affected you more than we believed. When you fainted, I carried you back here. Jancen sent a messenger to Chief Lowden, explaining why you couldn’t keep your appointment to meet with him.”
He was covering for me. Probably wanted to grill me all by himself and then toss me in the dungeon, I thought sourly.
“Did someone really throw a knife at you?” Treya asked, her eyes wide.
“It missed me by this much,” I told her, holding my fingers a centimeter apart.
“I don’t understand. Why would anyone want to kill you?”
Marcus patted her shoulder. “We think it might be someone who had a grudge against Echo’s father. Since August is dead, he’s taking his anger out on Echo.”
“If it’s one of our people, I will find the culprit,” Jancen said. “It’s a disgrace to attack a woman, and they’ll be punished accordingly.” The twinkle in his eyes had turned to a steely glint and his voice held a menacing note. Suddenly I could see why he was head of the Lovara family and on the chief’s council.
There was a clatter from the front room, and Leddy looked toward the door. “There’s Bim. I sent him for soup.” She waved her hands in a shooing motion. “Now, everyone out. Echo may think she’s fine, but she needs to rest and eat.”
Everyone filed out except the commander. He gave Leddy a dark stare, daring her to object. “I’m staying. I’ll see to it she eats.”
We both waited silently until the door in the front room banged closed, then I stood and checked to make sure everyone was really gone. The commander followed me into the main room, watching as I peeked out the front window. Peri was close behind us. She landed on the table, strutting its length while she cooed at the commander.
Marcus, Leddy, and Treya were heading next door to the Terpsichore, and Jancen toward the gathering. Bim stood solidly at the end of the crushed stone walk with his back to the house, thick arms crossed over his chest as he suspiciously watched every male who went by. As if one look at the axe strapped across his back wouldn’t scare away any sane person, innocent or guilty.
Forcing a smile, I turned. “Alone at last.” And then sputtered in shock as Reynard crossed to me in two strides, lifted me in his arms, and let his lips crash down on mine.
For a surprised minute, I just hung on and tried to keep breathing. Then, as he gentled the assault, his mouth moving against mine, I decided breathing was overrated anyway.
The room blurred around us and time seemed to stop. Without knowing how it happened, my arms were around his neck, and I was returning the kiss with all the passion I’d felt since I first laid eyes on him.
The heat he roused had me tingling from my toes to the top of my head. I was dizzy with need, and more than ready to head back to the bedroom.
A groan sounded from deep in his throat, and he drew back, lightly nipping my lower lip as he went. It was hard to tell which of us was more shaken, him or me.
I’d been kissed before, naturally. Lots of times. Kissing was pretty much de rigueur in the Department of Protocol. I’d had friendly kisses, serious kisses, nice-to-see-you kisses, even let’s-find-a-dark-spot-fast kisses. But none of them caused the turmoil inside me that Reynard’s kiss had, and it was a little scary.
Trying for nonchalant and failing miserably, I gazed up at him. “Does this mean you aren’t going to arrest me after all?”
His mouth turned up on one side in a half smile. “I’m reserving judgment. But I’ve wanted to get my hands on you from the minute I first saw you, sneaking into my room. Today, when you suddenly went limp, I thought I’d permanently been denied the opportunity. I wasn’t going to waste this second chance.”
His arms were still around me and I was leaning into his hard, muscled body, in no hurry to move. “Scared you, huh? Well, apparently, I’m pretty hard to kill, so you don’t need to worry.”
“Apparently? You aren’t sure?” Reluctantly, he released me and stepped back to put some distance between us.
I clasped my hands behind my back to keep from reaching for him again. “Oh, I’m sure now. But I didn’t realize I was like Kiera Smith until very recently.”
That eyebrow arched again. “How could you not know?”
With a shrug I walked over to examine the soup Bim had brought. It smelled wonderful and I suddenly realized I was hungry. “Because no one told me, and my job with the Department of Protocol didn’t require me to perform feats of superhuman strength, move at super speeds, or get into life-threatening situations that would require me to heal near-fatal wounds to my person. And if anything out of the ordinary had happened, I probably would have just chalked it up to being a normal GEP.”
I ladled up two bowls of thick chunky soup and gestured to the chair across from me. When we were seated, I continued. “Then, when I was transferred to the Bureau of Alien Affairs and went into training, I thought the instructors they assigned to me were simply inferior.” Taking my first taste of the spicy stew, I chewed thoughtfully for a second. “Maybe I really didn’t want to know, because the signs were there during training. I just ignored them. It wasn’t until I’d completed training that Kiera Smith suggested I was probably like her, and to tell the truth, I wasn’t prepared to believe anything she told me.”
“You know her?” Reynard had paused with his spoon halfway to his mouth when I mentioned her name.
“We’ve met.” I scowled at him. “And if you start telling me how wonderful she is, this soup is going to end up on your head.”
He merely smiled and continued eating for two beats. “You said you were not an empath like her.”
“That’s right.” I was still scowling, and I’d lost my appetite.
“Then what is your mental ability?”
The spoon I was holding hit the bowl with a clatter. “I don’t have one. No one can make me have one, I don’t care how much Marcus goes on about verge sickness or how Lillith keeps insisting the tests say I do. If I had a psi ability I’d know it.”
“The same way you k
new you had these other abilities?”
I leaned back and crossed my arms in irritation. Why did everyone want me to have psi ability? “It’s not the same at all.”
He took in my closed-off posture and slowly nodded. “Tell me why you’re here.”
With a sigh of relief at the subject change, I told him about the Sumantti, how we were sure now it had been stolen, about the Imadei choosing me, and how it had indicated the Daughter Stone was on Madrea. He listened patiently, never interrupting, and it was with some surprise that I realized I’d finished my soup while I talked.
For a moment after I completed the story, his fingertips drummed the table and he stared fixedly off into some distant place I couldn’t see. Finally, his gaze returned to me.
“King Politaus is an honest man. He would have nothing to do with stealing the Sumantti. Is there a reason you believe it’s in the castle?”
“Logic, for the most part,” I told him. “The ordinary people on Madrea wouldn’t even know the crystal existed, much less have a way to steal it. It has to be someone with power, enough power and opportunity to put men aboard a Federation vessel and then arrange their escape from that vessel with the Sumantti. Believe me, it wouldn’t be an easy feat. Any other ship approaching a Federation vessel would be treated as an adversary until they could prove differently, and then they’d still be closely watched. The most sensible option would be to have a man planted on the ship as a crewmember. If he found some way to contain the Sumantti, he could pass it off at one of the ports when the ship docked. I think that’s what happened, and it would take someone with power and influence to pull it off.”
That reminded me of something. “Lillith,” I subvocalized. “Can you find out where Kiera Smith is? I need to talk to her.”
“Of course. One second, please.” I’d barely drawn a breath when she replied, “Max is currently jumping from ZT Twelve to Orpheus Two. Their estimated time of arrival is late tonight, our time. We should be able to contact them first thing tomorrow.”
While talking to a ship during jump wasn’t impossible, the lag made it damn annoying. I resigned myself to waiting.
Unaware of my side conversation, Reynard continued. “That still doesn’t mean it was the king. There are others on Medrea who have the power to do something like this.”
“Like who?” I asked.
“Chief Lowden, for one, or the heads of the Bashalde families. There are even those among the king’s court who might manage the theft.”
I reached across the table and covered his hand with mine. “Reynard, I know you owe the king a lot and that you’re loyal to him. But even if he didn’t actively participate in the theft, he has to know about it. Not only does he order people to stay inside on the nights they arrive, the ships bringing the girls are landing behind the castle, and the children are taken inside.”
He stiffened, his gaze sharpening as he pulled his hand from mine. “What children?”
“The Sumantti is useless to whoever has her without a Shushanna to wield the crystal’s power,” I reminded him. “Whoever has the stone knows that. They’ve been bringing in young girls with psi ability and forcing them to make the attempt. But without being prepared by the Orpheus crystals, anyone trying to use it will die. So far, they’ve killed four girls. Two more were brought the same night I arrived.”
“How do you know?”
“I know because Lillith tracked the last ship from the instant it came out of hyper-drive. She recorded its landing, and the party who debarked, and she scanned the children, one of whom appeared to be drugged. The information is now permanently stored in her archives.”
“And the other four? She saw them also?”
“No, I got that data from another source.”
“You will tell me who this source is.”
His tone indicated he would brook no argument, but I hesitated. So far I hadn’t told anyone about my conversation with the Sumantti. Oh, what the hell. I’d already told him enough to ensure I was fragged if he didn’t believe me. Might as well trust him with the rest, especially since I needed all the help I could get.
I inhaled slowly and then let it out. “You know when I fainted today? Well, I didn’t really faint. The Imadei made contact with the Daughter Stone. I was talking to her, and she told me four girls had attempted to become her Shushanna, but that they all went away. The Sumantti is very young and I don’t think she realized the girls were dying. She promised me she’d try not to reach out for this next one, but I’m not sure she can help herself. She said one of the girls feels stronger than the others.”
Lillith let out a screech that had me wincing. “Why didn’t you tell me this?”
“Because I haven’t had time,” I told her, watching Reynard.
He stood so abruptly the chair almost turned over, and began to pace around the room. “This is an abomination,” he ground out through clenched teeth. “It must be stopped immediately.” His hands fisted as he turned to face me again. “Did the Sumantti tell you where the girls were being held?”
“No, she doesn’t know. It’s dark and for some reason she can’t send out colonies.”
“And what of the children?”
Again I hesitated, and then sighed. “I think they’re in the castle somewhere. A few days ago I tried to use the Imadei to locate the Daughter Stone and instead, I saw the girls. They were in a small room with only a bed. There were no windows, so I couldn’t tell where it was located.”
“It must be an inside room, then, or below ground in a cell.”
He spun and marched toward the door. I caught him just as he reached for the handle. “Wait! Where are you going?”
He looked at me as though the answer should be obvious. “To organize a search for the girls, of course.”
CHAPTER 9
“You can’t.” I pushed my way between Reynard and the door and put a hand on his chest to restrain him.
A growl rumbled deep in his chest as he stared down at me and I could feel the tension in his muscular body. If I didn’t convince him fast, he was going to walk right through me. Or at least he’d try, and I really didn’t want to hurt him.
“Please, just listen to me for a second. If you organize a group of men to search the castle, whoever’s holding them will figure out what you’re doing. They could move the girls, or even kill them and dispose of the bodies. After all, they’ve already brought in six girls, so it wouldn’t be much of a problem if they have to kidnap a few more.”
His head tilted slightly and some of the tension left his body as he listened. I took heart and kept going.
“They already suspect who and what I am. That’s why someone has been watching me, why they attacked this morning. But they don’t know I’ve confided in you, and that you believe me. That gives us a real advantage. You have access to the castle that I don’t, and you can question your men, subtly, so they won’t wonder what’s going on.”
From her position on the table, Peri sent me waves of encouragement. I took it as an affirmation that I was getting through to the commander, since she was apparently picking up his emotions, too.
“Reynard, I promise you, I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure they don’t hurt these children the way they have the others. And while I don’t like it, I need the girls to stay where they are for now. If I can continue to contact them, it may help us locate the stone. Because the most important thing we can do is find the Sumantti and return it to the Federation. Without the crystal, they have no need for the girls. We also don’t need them to move the crystal to an even more remote location.”
His hand fell away from the door’s handle and he nodded. “You’re right. When we find whoever is doing this you may retrieve the Daughter Stone. But justice for the children is mine.”
From the look on his face, I wouldn’t want to be in the culprit’s shoes when he found them. But there was one more thing that had to be settled before I agreed.
“And what if your king is in
on the whole thing? Will you be able to dispense justice for him?”
His jaw clenched, but he spoke clearly. “He’s not. He would never participate in such an atrocity. But if he is, I will deal with him accordingly.”
“Madrea is your world, the laws they’re breaking are yours. Therefore, you may deal with them however you deem fit, with two exceptions.” When he started to protest, I held my hand up and he stopped.
“One,” I ticked the points off on my fingers. “If any of them are citizens of the Federation, the Federation will deal with them. And two, if I’m attacked, I reserve the right to defend myself regardless of who might have jurisdiction. Agreed?”
Reluctantly, he nodded. “Agreed.”
“Good. Then why don’t we sit down and have something to drink? I know Marcus has a bottle of wine here somewhere.”
Apparently recognizing that the crisis had been averted, Peri warbled and then shot into my room, heading for the open window so she could visit the flowers. Which reminded me of something I’d wondered about.
“Tell me, why are there so many flowers on Madrea?” I asked while rummaging in the cabinets. “Your people grow them like they’re a work of art.”
“They are.” He moved to one of the chairs in front of the fireplace and sat just as I located the wine. “According to the old records I’ve found, the flowers the colonists brought to Madrea had a difficult time with the alien soil, and there was no indigenous insect to provide pollination. They brought bees with them, but something about this world disagreed with the insects and they died out quickly. Most of the flowers also had medicinal qualities, so they couldn’t afford to lose them.”
I poured the wine into glasses and joined him. “It looks like they succeeded in saving them.”
He took the glass I held out and sipped. “Yes, people learned how to do the pollination themselves and made the soil more acceptable, but not before numerous species were lost. At first it was merely a race to save as many as possible, and each success was met with much fanfare. But as generations passed, the reasons for saving the flowers became buried in the past while the prestige of growing them remained. Now they have become not only a status symbol, but also a form of art. No self-respecting Madrean would have barren gardens and walkways.”