CHAPTER 3
Time really flies when you’re immersed in learning about the culture and politics of a planet full of people, even when the facts are limited. After all, the Federation only had a half cycle to gather info before they were kicked off Madrea, and that was five cycles ago. But what they did get, along with what they pieced together from old records and added to the modern political brouhaha surrounding the new planet, was fascinating.
Madrea’s original settlers had boarded the Zodiac, one of the first privately owned colony ships to leave Centaurius.
According to Bureau records the human cargo had consisted of two groups that had stayed segregated after migrating to Centaurius from Old Earth. The first was a branch of the Romany people called the Bashalde, and the second comprised descendants of people from Spain, Italy, and France. The groups had only two things in common: a shared language and a hatred of modern technology. Each group longed for the days when life was simpler and work was done by hand. In other words, Dr. Daniels had been right. They were technophobes.
The Bashalde were nomads, their society pastoral. They claimed the southern deserts on the largest land mass of Madrea, traveling from city to city, selling or trading the animals they bred, offering up their crafts and performing.
Although they roamed separately in family groups, the Bashalde were one people, ruled by one man, Chief Lowden. In the Bashalde culture, he was the spirit and heart and law of the clan. Anyone not belonging to a Bashalde tribe was considered a Gadjee, or outsider.
The second group was basically a bunch of farmers, using their agrarian roots to turn the alien landscape into arable soil suitable for their Earth-normal crops. They claimed the northern part of the largest continent, and, as most social humans are prone to do, built cities.
The majority of these municipalities were small communities, with the only really big city being Bastion, where the king’s castle was located. After so many generations, they’d forgotten the city was named after Francois Bastion, the captain of the Zodiac, had even forgotten their ancestors originated on Old Earth. They barely remembered Centaurius. And the rest of the universe had forgotten them, until an exploration team stumbled across Madrea six cycles ago.
In itself, finding a lost human colony wasn’t that unusual. It happened every decade or so. What was unusual about Madrea was how closely they’d stuck to their original charter, barring anything that remotely smacked of high technology. Which was why, after the shock of first contact wore off, the king had arbitrarily banned the Federation from the planet.
That was his excuse, anyway. The Federation had a different take on the matter. As they saw it, King Politaus thought rule by democracy endangered his job security, and he wasn’t going to let his people get any bright ideas on the subject.
Whether or not to force the issue had been a hotly debated topic in the hallowed halls of the Galactic Federation, because it turned out that Madrea was rich in sunstones, which the Federation desperately wanted to get its hands on.
Since I’d been gone from the Department of Protocol for some time now, I’d only heard vague rumors of sunstones. I searched the files until I found an explanation. It seemed sunstones were an opalescent rock that produced energy in massive quantities all out of proportion for their size. The Federation scientists theorized that a two-pound rock could provide power for an area the size of eight city blocks on Centaurius for several cycles. Team one up with a surge crystal that amplified power and the possibilities were endless. Unfortunately, until Madrea was discovered, they were rarer than surge crystals and worth more, ounce per ounce, than Orpheus crystals.
And the native Madrean population had no idea what they were sitting on. They used the sunstones, which gave off a soft glow, as a light source. All over the inhabited continent of Madrea, billions of credits’ worth of sunstones, controlled primarily by the Bashalde, sat idle in glass lamps.
It was enough to drive the greedier element in the Federation Council to the brink of war. This faction was led by Helios One, a resource-poor system in the Perseus arm of the Milky Way Galaxy.
Although if you asked me, Losif Strand, the hereditary ruler of Helios One, was more interested in lining his own pockets than in helping his people. At one point, he’d been under charges for war crimes against the Federation, but his slimy, high-priced lawyer had slid him through a legal loophole and Strand had gone free.
I’d never met him, but I’d heard his speeches to the Federation Council and I’d seen him from a distance, across the grand ballroom at the social gatherings held after each council session.
He was a tall, hawkish man with dark hair and odd amber eyes. Not bad-looking, per se, just too austere and self-absorbed for my tastes.
But the law is the law, and Strand had to leave Madrea alone. And in case any of the worlds in his coalition got too bold, the more conservative worlds were standing by to enforce any breaches of the Federated Constitution. All in all it was a very touchy situation, and I could see why the Federation enforced the king’s ban on the planet. Just by being there I could tip the uneasy peace that was currently holding by a thread.
Not to mention what would happen if it were discovered that Madrea’s abundance of quartz had suddenly turned the world into a potential secondary source of Orpheus crystals, thanks to the Sumantti’s presence on the planet. And one not controlled by the Buri at that.
Immersed in the data as I was, five days zipped by almost without my noticing. My only breaks were for meals, sleep, and the brief time I was on ZT Twelve, picking up my Bashalde clothes.
A word to the wise: never take a dragon bird on a space station filled with boutiques and jewelry stores. They have an affinity for anything that glitters, and no concept of payment for goods received. It took some fast talking on my part to keep from being arrested for shoplifting fifteen minutes after we stepped out on Level Six.
And to add insult to injury, I ended up paying for the gaudiest necklace ever created just to keep the creature happy and occupied while I finished my business. It had flowers the size of Peri’s head in garish colors, and the center of each flower was a fake gemstone. It was also long enough to wrap around her five times, so I had no idea what she planned to do with it, except gloat like a miser over his gold.
“Are you ready?” Lillith’s question interrupted my attempts to forget we’d reached Madrea and I was about to be dumped in the mountains, in the dark, surrounded on all sides by raw, uninhibited nature. Let’s face it. Being created for the Department of Protocol and raised in a crèche with other GEPs of the same bent just doesn’t prepare a gal for this kind of thing.
“No. Not that it makes any difference.” I gave my image one last glance in the mirror. Not bad, if I did say so. The pale beige skirt was just thin enough to give a hint of legs and just thick enough to conceal all the pertinent parts, including a close-fitting weapon sheath attached to my calf. The material swirled around my ankles every time I moved, soft and sexy.
A wide, lemon-yellow belt of soft leather nestled low on my hips, showing off my belly button and stomach. The silky halter top matched my belt, and also served to hide the Imadei, which I’d tucked beneath the silk. It nestled between my breasts, a warm, living stone. The gold bangles on my arms and ears jingled when I walked.
“Are you absolutely certain they don’t have the technology to spot your landing?” I asked Lillith.
“I’m sure. Remember, the original colonists signed a charter shunning any form of technology they couldn’t make with their own hands. They wanted a strictly agricultural world. Now the king keeps all the Federation’s toys away from Madrea, so there’s no detection equipment capable of spotting me. The only ships that land here belong to the black-market scum whose main business involves selling information. And even the black marketeers are few, since they have to get by the Federation outposts without being stopped and searched. The only way to get close is to jump right into the system the way I did, which is very dangerous for ships that don’t have an artificial intelligence in control. Most black marketeers can’t afford AI ships. But to be safe, I just did a scan and there are no ships currently in the area, so no detectors.”
Suppressing a shudder of anxiety, I picked up the artificially aged leather pouch from my bed and tossed a cloak over my arm. “If there are no detection devices, why can’t you drop me closer to the city?”
“Because, even with my lights off, there’s too much risk of someone seeing me closer to the city. I’ve scanned the area where I’ll drop you and there’s no one around. It’s not that far a walk, so stop griping.”
“What if I get lost?” I made my way to the command deck with Peri following. “Seriously, one tree looks pretty much like another to me.”
“I’ll be right above you in a geosynchronous orbit, tracking you through your transmitter chip. If you start going the wrong way, I’ll tell you.”
Nervously I lifted a hand to touch the tiny scar behind my right ear. This particular type of chip was nothing like the biochip used as ID on Centaurius. This one had been implanted shortly after Alien Affairs bought my indenture, and it served as a voice transmitter, receiver, and tracking device for my ship. I’d been heavily trained in its use. Learning to communicate through subvocalization had been one of the hardest things I’d ever done, but now I was thrilled I’d mastered the ability. Being able to talk to Lillith without anyone knowing gave me a sense of security. Sort of.
At least it would allow her to locate my cold, lifeless body when some huge beast had me for breakfast. Or a small beast. Or a bug.
“What if my chip breaks?” I fretted.
“Echo, it’s not going to break. It’s too small to break. And if it were going to fail, it would have done so long before now.”
“If I die, it’s your fault,” I muttered.
“I’ve handled first-time agents in conditions a lot worse than this and they survived to tell about the experience. Besides, you’re a Gertz GEP. The only way someone can kill you is a direct shot to the head or heart. Anyplace else and you’d heal right up in seconds. All you have to do is pay attention to what I tell you and stay out of trouble.”
“Fine, Oh Great One. Speak.”
She let my sarcasm slide and concentrated on the details. “As you know, Madrea was one of the earliest planets colonized by Earthlings, but their ship’s tracking devices went awry and no one knew where they went until six cycles ago. So any animals you encounter will be of Earth origin. Do you have your knife?”
I lifted my skirt enough so she could see the sheath clinging just below my knee. It held a knife with a wickedly sharp twelve-inch blade. Then I gasped as what she’d said sank in. “You don’t expect me to actually fight an animal with nothing but a knife, do you?”
“You probably won’t have to. I’ll let you know if there’s anything dangerous in the area. However, even with infrared scanners I can’t see inside caves, holes in the ground, etc. If the unexpected occurs, wouldn’t you rather have a weapon?”
Indignantly, I let my skirt fall. “I’d rather have a cannon. Or at the least, my blaster.”
“It’s too dangerous. One glimpse of a blaster and everyone would know you’re Federation. Now, I’m going to drop you in a valley about forty-five minutes before sunrise. Wait there until it’s light enough to see where you’re going, and then walk toward the rising sun. When you reach the top of the hill, you’ll be able to see the spires of the castle. Head straight for them and you’ll avoid the outlying farms. You should reach the city late in the evening.”
“What? I thought you said it wasn’t that far a walk!”
“It’s not. Remember, even though their weeks are eight days long, the Madrean days are two hours shorter than Centaurius’s. And if you jog part of the time, you’ll get there faster.”
I glanced down at the sandals strapped to my lower appendages. “I’m pretty sure jogging is not an option in these things. They wouldn’t last a kilometer, and there’s no way I’m getting nature on my bare feet.”
A clanking noise caught my attention and I looked around in time to see Peri stagger out of my quarters dragging that stupid necklace with her. She must have realized we were getting off the ship and gone back for it, and it was too heavy for her to carry when she was flying.
“Oh, no you don’t,” I told her. “You’re going to be hard enough to explain even without you hauling that thing along behind you. You’ll have to leave it here.”
For the last two days I’d picked up her emotions, faintly at first, then stronger. Now she glared at me and rebellion rolled off her in waves.
“Okay, look, will you leave it here if I promise to let you play with my bracelets when I’m not wearing them? Lillith will take good care of the necklace for you, and it’ll be here when you get back.”
She studied my bracelets for a second, then gave a happy cheep and took the necklace back to my quarters.
“If anyone asks about her, tell them she came from the Dark Continent. None of the Madreans have ever been there and lived to tell about it, and occasionally, odd creatures from there wash up onshore. No one will know the difference.”
“Why haven’t they been there?” I moved to one of the windows and looked down at the planet as the ship began a rapid descent. Peri came back, flying this time, and landed on my shoulder.
“Superstition, probably. There’s a mean current off the continent, and lots of submerged rocks. The Madrean ships aren’t sturdy enough to handle being repeatedly bashed into stone. The ones that tried were likely wrecked and never heard from again.”
Before we reached the atmosphere, all the ship’s lights went off and our speed picked up. “Hang on,” Lillith told me. “This landing area is going to be a tight fit.”
I gripped the console in front of me as darkened treetops rushed toward us, my breath catching at the sudden conviction that we were crashing. Before I could comment—or scream—there was a gentle bump and I heard the air lock doors open. I tried to move, but it felt like my feet were glued to the deck.
“Go!” Lillith’s urgent whisper got through to me and I darted through the tube and down the stairs she’d extended.
The stairs withdrew, the doors closed, and the ship silently lifted from the ground. Before I could blink twice she was gone, leaving me all alone in the dark with no company except a tiny dragon bird.
“You aren’t alone.” The ship’s voice came from the chip behind my ear.
“What? You’re a mind reader now?” I subvocalized. My eyes were straining to pierce the darkness around me and my skin was clammy in spite of the chill night air.
“I don’t have to be. I know you. There’s nothing to worry about. The only life forms nearby are so small they’ll be more afraid of you than you are of them.”
Life forms? Eeek! I whipped around wildly, trying to see anything that might be creeping up on me. From off to my left came the sound of a splash and I jumped high enough to nearly make it back on board the ship.
“What was that?”
“A fish. There’s a pond in that direction.”
I tried desperately to slow my heartbeat. “Ew. You mean a real, live slimy fish? Not the kind that comes on a plate?”
A sigh sounded in my ear. “None of them start out on a plate. Now take a deep breath and try to relax.”
Following her advice, I inhaled deeply and then coughed. “Good grief. What’s that smell?”
“It’s called fresh air,” the ship told me caustically.
“Yeah? I’ve heard of that.” I took another sniff and wrinkled my nose. All kinds of unknown odors assailed me, and I didn’t know what to make of them. Some of them were kind of tangy and intriguing. Others were damp and nasty. I tried hard not to breathe those last in, and concentrated on my surroundings.
“Why is it so cold? I thought you said it was late spring.”
“It is, but you’re at a higher elevation, where the nights are still cool.”
Right. I knew that.
I reached for my cloak, but before I could get it unfurled Peri took off, the dark closing around her immediately. Hastily, I whipped the cloak open and swung it around my shoulders. “Peri? Peri, you come back here right this minute!”
She popped out of the night right in front of my nose, and I recoiled in surprise before she cooed at me in reassurance. “Don’t do that again,” I scolded her. “You scared me. Until I can see where we are, you stay on my shoulder.”
“It shouldn’t be long now,” Lillith said as the dragon bird returned obediently to her perch. “The sun is coming up.”
My eyes were finally getting used to the dark, and I realized she was right. The tree trunks were now visible as ghostly black hulks against a deep gray background. I huddled inside my cloak, taking comfort from Peri’s presence, and waited quietly.
Overhead, the sky went from black and star filled to a midnight blue, then gradually lightened until the stars faded away. Fog swirled around my feet, adding an eerie quality to the setting I could have lived without.
Abruptly, the top edge of the sun appeared over the hill in front of me and fired golden beams of light into the valley. I blinked in surprise at how close the trees were and how small the clearing was. It was a miracle Lillith had managed to squeeze into the space.
Squaring my shoulders, I set off gingerly through the dew-drenched grass. Peri launched herself from my shoulder and hovered above a patch of flowers, humming in pleasure before she dived in and delicately sipped nectar from a blossom.
Walking carefully to spare my sandals, it took the better part of an hour to reach the top of the hill, and by then the hem of my skirt was damp and sagging. I held the material away from me so the morning breeze could dry it a bit as I paused on the summit to look out over the land below.
The downward side of the hill was rockier than the climb up had been, and the trees were smaller and fewer in number. At the base, the land sloped into green pastures interspersed with cultivated fields and areas of forest. Here and there I saw large animals grazing, and way off to my right, there was a small cottage with a wisp of smoke coming from its chimney.
The air was pristine, with no smog or dirt to hinder the view. Far to the north, sunlight sparked off the tops of battlements and towers that glittered as if they were jewel encrusted.
“Lillith? Why does the castle sparkle like that?” I asked.
“Quartz,” she replied in an ominous tone. “The stone for the castle was cut from it.”
Great, just great. That meant the Sumantti would try to colonize the building. “Can you tell if any of it is infested with the life form that inhabits the Orpheus crystals?”
“Not without examining a sample under a molecular microscope. Besides, I doubt the Sumantti has been here long enough to send her colonies out very far. Are you picking up anything from the Imadei?”
I pulled the stone from under my top and curled my fingers around it, eyes shut to enhance concentration. Nothing happened.
I opened my eyes and tucked it away. “No, not a thing. I haven’t felt anything from it since it indicated the Sumantti was on this world. The crystal could be anywhere.”
“Well, the castle is the most logical place, and you have to start somewhere. Now get a move on. Time is wasting.”
Peri whizzed by me, her iridescent feathers flashing shades of blue and green amidst the purple as she flew. She was radiating happiness at finding so many flowers. Even though Lillith had stocked a good supply of nectar in hope that Kiera’s dragon birds would visit so she’d have an excuse to contact Max, Peri apparently preferred finding her own food.
I went down the slope after her, giving a couple of small, nasty looking lizard-like creatures a wide berth. It wasn’t easy navigating the loose gravel while keeping a wary eye on them in case they attacked. Sliding as much as walking, I was soon out of their reach. It didn’t take long after that to reach the bottom, and when I was on solid, relatively flat ground, I reached into my pouch and took out a high energy Zip Bar, eating it as I walked, my nose wrinkling with every bite. If it hadn’t been covered in chocolate, I couldn’t have swallowed the nutritious gunk.
By noon, I’d shed the cloak. I folded it into my pouch when I stopped to pull out the water skin and take a drink. So far, I hadn’t met any people, but signs of civilization were becoming more frequent. I’d crossed several dirt lanes, and stumbled across a rock building that must have served as a barn, from the smells it emitted, hidden among a grove of trees. Animal shelters became more frequent, too, and unlike the first barn, the stables were occupied. I could hear snorts and the shifting of large bodies inside.
From the data Lillith had, the Madreans relied on horses for transportation and heavy work. I suppose it made sense to keep them close to the city.
I’d often escorted dignitaries and their families to the Earth Zoo on Centaurius, so I knew what horses looked and smelled like. And I knew that where there were stables full of horses there had to be handlers, but so far, I’d seen no humans.
The sun was going down when I finally entered the outskirts of Bastion City, and I was getting hungry again. I’d only brought one Zip Bar because it wouldn’t do to let a local get their hands on the Federation rations, and the scent of cooking food drifting on the air made my mouth water.
Setting my hunger aside, I looked at the buildings with interest, surprised at how neat they all looked. They were small but well built, with stone walls rising to thatched roofs. Flowers of all colors and shapes lined the fronts on each side of the doors, making Peri hum with excitement.
Oddly, the houses weren’t lined up with any symmetry. It looked like some giant had gathered them in his fist, given them a few shakes, and then tossed them to the ground, letting them fall where they may. And that was where they still sat. Narrow cobblestone streets wound around and through the city like pebbled snakes. The effect was strangely agreeable to the eye and made me feel like I’d been dropped into a fairy-tale kingdom.
It took a few seconds for me to realize there was an eerily still quality about the city. I could hear low voices inside the homes, but no children were outside playing, no men coming and going, no women visiting with neighbors.
A sudden rash of goose bumps crawled down my arms, and I rubbed them to soothe the sensation. “Lillith, what’s going on? Why aren’t there any people out?”
“I don’t know. Something isn’t right.” She paused for a second. “Maybe there’s a danger I don’t perceive. There are too many soldiers on patrol in the streets. It might be a good idea to avoid them until we find out what’s going on.”
“Any suggestions on how I’m supposed to do that?” I called Peri back to my shoulder, afraid she’d attract unwanted attention.
“There’s a building with no heat signature and a recessed door not far from your location. Turn left at the next intersection, then right. The building is three down. Wait there until it’s full dark.”
I followed her directions and found the building with no problems. It was a huge edifice, made of square-cut stone, and it dwarfed the houses around it. Even in the twilight it had a dark and eerie feeling. The front of the building faced away from the setting sun, so the entry was full of shadows. Moving all the way to the back of the entryway, I took my cloak from the pouch. It was a dark blue and would help conceal me.
Pausing in the act of putting it on, I stared at the face etched on the door. It was a woman—a beautiful, devastatingly sad woman. A cowl covered her hair, leaving only that perfect face to draw the eye.
“What is this place?” I asked Lillith, unsettled because it felt like the woman was watching me in sorrow.
“I believe it’s a church,” she answered. “There are dozens of similar buildings scattered throughout the city.”
“I don’t remember seeing anything about religion in the files.”
“That’s because you skipped that part. The original colonists practiced Catholicism, but over the centuries, the father and son got left behind. Now they only worship the mother. The sociologists believe it evolved in that direction because men outnumbered the women settlers by five to one. The balance between the sexes is still skewed on Madrea, so motherhood is revered as the highest calling a woman can have, with girl children being highly prized. The Bashalde practice a totally different type of religion. They have so many gods it’s hard to keep track of them.”
Maybe I should have studied the files a little more, I thought, trying to get comfortable in spite of the woman looking down on me. I’d barely settled when Lillith’s voice whispered in my ear. “There are two soldiers coming your way. Don’t move.”
My breath froze in my lungs and I did my best to shrink into the wall. Time seemed to stand still as I waited for them to discover my hiding place.
They sauntered into view and I lowered my gaze, unwilling to take a chance they might feel my stare. But I’d seen enough to know they weren’t acting like men expecting trouble. Both were dressed in tight black pants, knee-high boots, and ocher tunics topped by brown leather vests. The only weapons they carried were swords attached to belts around their waists.
One made a low-voiced comment and the other laughed. Neither slowed nor so much as glanced at my refuge as they went by, and my puzzlement deepened.
The sound of their footsteps faded into the distance, and as soon as I was sure it was safe, my breath whooshed out in relief and muscles I’d tensed went limp.
“None of this makes sense,” I told Lillith. “It’s like they’re out for an evening stroll.”
There was no answer.
“Lillith?” Incipient panic tinged my voice.
“Wait.” She was silent for another second as the twilight deepened. “I think I know what’s happening.”
“You want to clue me in?”
“A ship just came out of hyper-drive and is approaching the planet. No Federation markings, and the outer lights are off. It’s armed to the teeth.”
Alarmed, I straightened. “Can they see you?”
“No. I’m parked beside a large asteroid. If they used detectors, they’d think I was part of the rock. But so far, they haven’t scanned the area. I’m betting King Politaus ordered everyone to stay inside tonight so they wouldn’t see the ship land.”
“The soldiers will see it.”
“Yes, but he can control them better than he can the entire population. He probably wants to keep rumors to a minimum. Unless he’s stupid, which I doubt, he must know the Federation has spies in the city. The good news is, the soldiers don’t expect anyone to be out, so their guard is down. If you stay in the shadows, they’ll never see you. Now, go right.”
I slipped away from the door, clinging to walls and darting across the open spaces in the descending darkness. Twice more I had to dodge soldiers, one pair coming so close my cloak fluttered in the wake of their passage.
Long before I reached the castle, full night arrived, and the huge building was more something I felt than saw. It loomed over me, deeper patches of darkness indicating the many angles and ells that made up its exterior.
Instead of approaching the front, with its wide stone steps, colonnades, and well-lit massive doors, Lillith directed me to the western side. At this point, my only plan was to get inside and hope the Imadei would let me know where the Sumantti was hidden. With that in mind, I tiptoed along the wall, searching for an unlocked door.
“The ship landed,” Lillith told me.
I paused in a pool of shadow, a locked door behind me. “Did they unload any cargo?” For a fleeting moment, I wondered if they might be bringing the Sumantti, but they couldn’t be. The Imadei wouldn’t have indicated this star system if the stone hadn’t been here yet.
“No cargo. Three men and two female children got off. They entered the castle through a door in the back. Without a full medical scan I can’t be one hundred percent positive, but it appears that the larger girl was drugged. She wasn’t unconscious, but acted dazed and sluggish, as if she’d just awakened and was still disoriented.”
I pondered the information, not sure what to do with it, if anything. Before I could reach a conclusion, the door behind me swung wide and a man stepped out, flooding my hiding place with light. Blind panic swept over me as he halted, his gaze locked on mine. His mouth opened to yell, but he didn’t get the chance.
Abruptly, my reflexes took over and time slowed to a crawl. My cloak and pouch went flying as I spun, lashed out, felt my foot connect with flesh and bone.
He crumpled at a snail’s pace, the words still trapped in his throat, his body giving the appearance of a rag doll with part of the stuffing removed.
Frantically I looked around for other attackers, only to realize something odd was going on. Off to my right, the cloak and pouch were inching their way through midair, and Peri’s wings moved in slow motion on the beginning of the down stroke she’d started when she first launched herself from my shoulder.
Damn.
I inhaled a shuddering breath and shut my eyes, convinced I was imagining what my sight insisted was true.
Damn.
Slowly, I got my heart rate under control and relaxed muscles primed for action.
Damn.
Immediately, everything around me resumed its normal pace. Peri gave a squawk of surprise just as I heard the pouch hit the cobblestone.
“You went into overdrive!” Lillith’s voice was tinged with awe. “It was like you vanished.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” I snapped, turning my attention to the soldier. Zin, was he dead? Had I really gone into overdrive? My heart started pounding again, and my head joined the party.
I’d never exhibited any abilities beyond what was normal for GEPs before. But then, moving at super speeds wouldn’t have done much for me on a dance floor, and nothing had ever frightened me enough to trigger an automatic reaction, either.
What else was I capable of that I’d never had occasion to discover?
Pushing the confusion away, I leaned down to check the man for a pulse. To my relief I found one. I certainly hadn’t meant to kill him. I hadn’t even meant to hurt him. It was like my body had reacted with no conscious direction from my mind.
“You! Halt!”
The voice came from the hall on the other side of the still open door, accompanied by the sound of pounding feet. Three men were charging toward me, swords drawn and murder in their eyes.
“Run!” Lillith yelled in my ear. “But don’t go into overdrive. It’s dangerous!”
I didn’t hang around to argue. Besides, I’d read Kiera Smith’s journal, too. I knew what the physical results of going into overdrive would be if I kept it up. Without stopping for my cloak or pouch, I took off along the side of the wall, only to be brought up short by an angry screech from Peri.
Whirling around, I was just in time to see her eyes go bloodred with rage as she dove at the front-runner, beating him with her wings, her small talons scratching his face.
Oh, Zin. She was trying to protect me.
“Peri,” I yelled. “Follow me!”
She shot into the air, barely avoiding a wildly swung sword, and came after me.
Once I was sure she wouldn’t attack again, I turned and kept running.
“They’re gaining,” Lillith informed me grimly. “You need to find a place to hide.”
I rounded a corner, too busy to reply, and saw a door ahead with a lamp shimmering over it. That door was my only chance. If it was locked, I was screwed.
Still on high, I grabbed the handle and wrenched. To my stunned amazement, there was a splintering reverberation and the wood tore loose from the hinges.
Holy scritch, had I done that? Maybe the wood was rotten.
“Stop gaping and go!” Lillith yelled at me.
The sound of feet hitting the cobblestones, mixed with loud yells, had me squeezing through the gap between the door and the frame. Once inside, I paused long enough to see that the hallways made a T with its stem stretching out directly in front of me. Since that was the obvious choice, I turned right, for all intents doubling back in the direction I’d come from.
Peri zipped by over my head and darted into a smaller side passage just as the yells of my pursuers were answered by others already inside. They seemed to come from all directions at once, and I slowed as I followed the dragon bird into the dimly lit corridor, trying to determine where the soldiers were located so I wouldn’t run straight into them.
“Lillith, which way?”
“I can’t see you anymore,” she wailed. “Try to find an empty room you can lock from the inside. Maybe you can hide and wait them out.”
Wonderful, just wonderful.
There were three doors along the hall and I tried each in turn. All were locked, and for a second I was tempted to try tearing one of them from its frame. Unfortunately, that would be a clear indication of where I was hiding.
The castle was like a maze, halls extending in every direction with no rhyme or reason. I chased Peri through three more turns, by now so disoriented I didn’t have a clue where I was. But I had to go to ground, and soon. The noise of the soldiers was getting closer, and it came from both behind and in front of me. Somehow, they had neatly boxed me in.
Only one more door lay between me and the next hallway, and I could hear the sound of many feet coming from just out of sight in the passage. Peri was hovering anxiously in front of the last door as though urging me through.
Taking a deep breath, I silently lunged the remaining few feet and tried the handle. Hallelujah! It opened.
Keeping one eye on the end of the hall, I slid through and held the door just wide enough for Peri to follow me inside. Gently, I eased it closed, ignoring Peri’s satisfied squeak while I looked for a lock.
There! A metal latch was positioned on a pivot in the center of the door. When swung down, it would fit perfectly into a corresponding notch on the frame.
I lowered it softly and then turned to face the room. And came to a shocked halt, my gaze locked on the naked man who was frozen in the act of stepping from a tub of bathwater.
Standing before me in all his unabridged glory, mouthwatering rivulets streaming down his bare, lusciously bronzed skin, was the one man I was supposed to avoid at all costs.
Reynard du’Marr, commander of the king’s guard.