The Tribari Freedom Chronicles Boxset

by Rachel Ford

  And in the meantime, she was utterly, entirely alone. She had no idea what to do to help Grel. She was still stunned by what happened. Protectors served the public good; they didn’t abuse and rape. Except, tonight, she’d witnessed the one, and almost been victim of the other.

  What did you do when the protectors no longer protected? What did you do when the protectors became the abusers?

  A sob caught in her throat, and she moved her hand to the panel to disconnect. She started, though, as the screen buzzed to life. Her mother’s face appeared, her eyes bleary with sleep. “Nik?”

  “Mer,” she cried. “Oh, Mer, thank the gods.”

  The sleep was quickly driven from Elsa’s face by the sound of her daughter’s voice. “Nik? What in the gods’ names is wrong?”

  Somewhere in the background, Luk’s voice asked, “What’s going on?” He sounded sleepy too, as if he was just now attending to the conversation.

  Words mingled with tears as Nikia poured out an explanation. Her father’s face soon joined her mother’s on the view panel, and she left out her own encounter with Protector Ridi. There were some things a woman could not share with her father, especially not when they were still so raw, when she could still feel where the protector’s hand had pawed at her.

  “I’m calling our shuttle now,” Luk decided. “Stay on the line, Nik. Don’t go anywhere. Elsa, love, get dressed.”

  “It might not be safe,” Nik protested. “If they come back…”

  “If they come back,” her father said, “they’ll have me to deal with. You stay on this line, Nik. You don’t go anywhere. If they come back, I want them to know I’m there. When the car’s ready, we’ll switch to a mobile call. But I don’t want to disconnect.”

  She nodded numbly. “What are we going to do? About Grel, I mean? They’ll kill him, der.”

  “I’m contacting my legal team now, sweetheart.” He held up a mobile communicator. “We’ll get a defender dispatched, stat.”

  Nikia sobbed. For the first time since she’d woke, she dared to hope. “Thank you, der.”

  For half a moment, he lifted his eyes to the screen. Then he nodded and returned them to his work. “Of course, Nik.”

  The call progressed in this fashion for a space. Her father traded spots with her mother, once she returned in her day dress, to throw on his own suit. Then, as he’d said, they transferred the call to their mobile comm unit and headed out.

  She, meanwhile, stood in place, shaking violently as the chilled evening breezes wafted in past the destroyed door. Whether she was really cold, or if it was all nerves, she couldn’t tell. Probably, it was both. Still, she pulled the robe tighter over her night dress.

  She would have to wait to get dressed until her parents arrived. Her der had been adamant that in the meantime, he wanted her in sight of the viewscreen at all times in case a second round of uninvited guests showed up.

  They made remarkable time. Their driver, she knew, must have been breaking every speed limit the city over. She was more thankful than words could express, though, at the sight of them.

  She terminated the phone call, and fell into her mother’s arms weeping and shaking. “Oh, mer.”

  Elsa hugged her and kissed her. Luk wrapped his arms around both of them. “Defender Leas is on his way to the Office of Protection,” he said quietly. “It won’t be long now, Nik.”

  She sobbed out her thanks, and her father squeezed her a little tighter. Then, he said, “You should get dressed, Nik. You shouldn’t stay here.”

  She nodded and stepped out of her mother’s embrace. Elsa gasped. “My gods, what happened to your face?”

  Nikia felt her cheeks flush crimson as the memories of Officer Ridi’s wandering paws flooded back unbidden. “One of the protectors,” she said, “he hit me.”

  Luk’s expression hardened and his eyes flashed. “He what?”

  “It was nothing, der,” she demurred.

  “Nothing? You didn’t tell me that he hit you, Nik. What happened?”

  Elsa surveyed her with a more perceptive gaze, though. She touched Luk’s arm as he started to speak again. “Wait here, husband. Come, daughter. Let’s get you dressed and packed.”

  He was about to protest when Elsa shot him a look that silenced him. Then, he nodded. “Alright.”

  Nik walked, her mother’s arm around her, back to her and Grel’s bedroom. The door was still open, and she stared unmoving for a minute at the untouched mess that had been left in the protectors’ wake.

  Elsa urged her on. Then, when they’d entered, she shut the door behind them. “Nik, you tell me everything,” she said, and her tone was low but firm.

  “There’s nothing to tell, mer,” she lied, her eyes on her feet. She couldn’t meet her mother’s gaze.

  Elsa took her hands. “I’m your mother, baby girl. What happened?”

  She nodded miserably, and word by word, the story spilled out. Elsa was very grave, and nodded and went pale in turns.

  When she finished, she was sobbing again. Her mother wrapped her in a hug and held her until the weeping stopped. “My poor Nik. My poor, poor Nik.”

  After she’d dried her eyes, Elsa said, “Get your things, Nik. I will talk to your father.”

  “No,” she protested, her face flushing. “Please, mer. I…I don’t want him to know.” It was bad enough that it had happened in front of her husband. She didn’t need her father to know her shame too.

  Elsa put a hand on her shoulder. “My Nik, we need to report this.”

  “What will he think of me, mer?” Then she added, tears welling in her eyes, “What do you think, mer?”

  Her mother’s forehead creased with compassion. “Oh, honey. What happened wasn’t your fault.”

  Nikia tried to swallow the lump in her throat. Rationally, she knew that. Still, she felt somehow soiled, and the idea of baring that disgrace filled her with mortification. But Elsa persisted. “He’s your father, Nik. He needs to know how serious this is.”

  She thought of Grel, languishing in a cell, subjected to – well, gods only knew what tortures Ridi and the others would dream up. She nodded. “Alright.”

  Elsa kissed her on the brow. “Get your things, my love,” she said gently. “And join us when you’re ready.”

  Luk was waiting for her when she emerged. “Nik,” he said, pulling her to him in an embrace. “My little girl.” His voice was strangled, breaking.

  Nikia had resolved to be done with tears, but somehow she was weeping again at those tones. She felt her father’s chest rise and fall with silent sobs too. His pain was unbearable to her. It seemed to cut like a knife straight between her ribs to her heart. “I’m sorry, der.”

  “Sorry?” He held her now at arm’s length, so he could survey her. “You’ve nothing to be sorry for, Nik. It’s Ridi who deserves to be sorry. And, by the gods, if I can help it, he will be.”

  “I’m sorry for all the trouble, for you and mer.”

  “Don’t worry about that, darling. Don’t even think of it.”

  “We’ll be fine,” Elsa put in. “Everything will be alright, Nik. You’ll see.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Grel was almost delirious with pain and fear and thirst. His eyes burned under the searing light, but there were worse agonies blinding his senses. The prod wounds, in particular the one at his groin, ached with a pain that cut through his reason, through his control. He couldn’t know the extent of the damage; he’d had no chance to examine any of his injuries, and now he was secured into the interrogation station. He only knew that it felt like his lower body was consumed by flames, burning away at every square millimeter of skin.

  He struggled against his bonds, demanding now and again to be released, reminding his tormenters that he was a free citizen with rights and protections. If they acknowledged his protests at all, it was to laugh or ask how those rights were working out.

  When he would hover at the edge of consciousness, he’d be brought back sharply with a sp
lash of ice-cold water, or a smack upside the head. Eventually, the smacks were less effective than the water.

  And all throughout, the questions kept coming from behind that light.

  “How long had you been planning a riot?”

  “I want a lawyer.”

  “Who were you working with? Give me the names of your collaborators.”

  “By law, I’m allowed a defender.”

  “Is that wife of yours involved?”

  “Nik,” he said, remembering the last image he had of her, terrified and subdued. “Where’s Nik? What did you do to her?”

  “Was it your plan to riot? Or did that happen spontaneously?”

  The questions continued, for how long he didn’t know. Then he heard the far door open, and a set of footsteps enter. His interrogator paused mid-query, and for a moment he heard nothing. Then, two sets of footsteps sounded, and the door closed.

  “Hello?” he called. He could see nothing beyond the glare. “Hello?”

  For a space, he received no answer. He sat alone, agony taking over the forefront of his mind again. Fire seemed to be consuming his flesh, burning deep into the tissue even now. Let me die, he prayed. Let me die before they come back.

  But he didn’t die, and they did come back. Footsteps reached his ears, and in a moment the blinding light disappeared. He blinked into what seemed absolute blackness. His eyes began to adjust, though, and the room came into focus.

  There were four protectors there. They were out of their tactical gear, so he could see their faces. Ridi, he recognized at once. The others he did not know. There was a man in the garb of a civil servant or a clerk, too.

  “You heard the sergeant,” one of the men said. “Uncuff him.”

  The civilian added, “This is disgraceful, gentlemen. My client looks like he’s been through a war or two.”

  Ridi shrugged. “That’s what happens when you resist arrest.”

  “I didn’t resist,” Grel said. His voice sounded weak and faraway. “Neither did Nik, you son-of-a-bitch.”

  Ridi’s eyes flashed and his fist clenched. But he made no move toward him. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, terrorist.”

  “Release him,” the first officer said.

  Protector Ridi pulled a face. “Aye, aye, Captain Pyr.”

  There was a sardonic emphasis on the title that made the younger man’s face flush. “Let’s just get it done,” he said.

  Ridi said no more on the matter, moving to Grel’s side and freeing his constraints, one by one. “On your feet.”

  Grel tried to push himself up, but couldn’t. White hot agony burned through his senses as he tried to use his legs. “I…can’t…”

  Ridi grinned and reached over to pull him to his feet. He leaned in close and lowered his tone. “That’s right. Well, maybe I’ll stop by some time. That pretty little wife of yours is going to need someone to take over your husbandly duties now.” His grin broadened, and Grel would have given his right arm to be able to put a fist through his teeth.

  But he was barely conscious, and that only with the greatest effort.

  “Move,” another officer said.

  “He’s going to need a chair,” Ridi offered, with a satisfaction that was noticeable even in his delirious state. “He’s not going to be able to walk out of here.”

  “This is an outrage,” the defender said. “This man was in your custody, he was your responsibility. You can’t expect me to believe that leaving him unable to walk was necessary to ask a few questions.”

  “Another suit telling us how to do our job.” Ridi shook his head. “Take it to the sergeant, Leas.”

  “I will, officer. I promise you that.”

  At her father’s insistence, Nikia had remained in the shuttle with Elsa. “Where are they?” she wondered. “It shouldn’t take this long.”

  “Patience, Nik. Your father knows what he’s doing. There’s no need to fret.”

  Fret, of course, was all she’d been doing since they got the call from Leas. The defender had secured Grel’s release. Apparently, there were no charges being filed. “Not yet, anyway.” The morning raid had been to take him in for questioning. “They’re saying they had to arrest him, because he refused to cooperate with the investigation,” Leas had phoned in.

  “That’s a lie,” she’d protested. “We did everything they said – everything!”

  “You stay inside with your mother, Nik. I’ll go get Grel. And then me and Sergeant Dru are going to have a long, long conversation.”

  That had been half a bell ago, and her father still hadn’t returned. Neither had Grel emerged. At length, though, a trio of figures stepped out of the Office of Protection. At least, two of them stepped. Nikia cried out at the sight of the third. It was Grel, in a wheelchair, being pushed by the defender. Luk was with them, his face grim and set.

  Elsa had to grab her daughter’s arm to stop her from exiting the vehicle. “Remember what your father said,” she cautioned.

  “That’s my husband, mer.”

  “And they’re bringing him to you. Stay, Nik.”

  The furtive glance her mother threw at the building, and the sight of a few officers watching from the windows, convinced her to comply. “What have they done to him?” she wondered. “What have they done to my poor Grel?”

  It seemed an eternity before the chair reached their shuttle. Luk’s chauffeur had exited the vehicle to open the door for them, and Nikia fought to stifle another cry as the barrier was removed, and she beheld her husband clearly for the first time.

  He was bruised and bloodied, and his eyes seemed glazed over. Still, he recognized her. “Nik.”

  “Grel. Oh my gods, Grel, what did they do?”

  Luk stepped into view now, leaning into the shuttle interior. He spoke to Elsa. “Elsie, he needs medical attention.”

  “I’ll call Doctor Kel.”

  “I’ve already done it. The driver’s going to bring you there. Kel will take him right away.” Now, he turned to Nikia. “Go with him, Nik. Both of you. I need to stay here.”

  “You?” Elsa was alarmed.

  But he nodded reassuringly. “I’ve got unfinished business with Sergeant Dru,” he said. “Me and Leas.”

  He stepped aside now, and the defender and the driver helped pull Grel out of his seat. Elsa got out of her own to make way for him, and Nikia took his shoulders and guided him.

  He grimaced now and again as he was jostled. He seemed dazed, though. When he was in, she drew him to her, and he said, “Oh Nik.”

  She held him, and her father continued to speak. “Get him to the doctor,” he repeated. “I’ll take care of things here.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Grel had slipped in and out of consciousness during the ride to Dr. Kel’s office. The first time had terrified Nikia, until he’d awoken with a start at her exclamation. Then, she let him sleep. She could see singes all over his body from the submission prod, and great, swollen welts and bruises. He was still bleeding, too. Her frock and hands were stained blue. He’d wrapped a hand around her arm, and now and again, he’d wake and ask her, “Nik, you’re alright?” Or he’d say, “I’m sorry, Nik. So sorry.” And, “I love you, Nik.”

  It was everything she could do to stop from weeping again. But he needed her strength right now, more than she needed the release of tears. So she would reply, “I’m fine, love. I’m fine,” and, “You’ve nothing to apologize for, my darling,” and, “I love you too, Grel.”

  Dr. Kel’s staff was waiting, and as efficient and professional as she’d ever seen. They had a gurney ready, and they moved her husband to it gently and with care. She felt suddenly very cold now that his form was not draped over hers, wrapped tightly in her arms. She pressed her own arms around herself, and shivered.

  Elsa wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Come on, Nik.”

  They followed the gurney. Elsa waited outside the examination room, but she went with Grel. Dr. Kel’s manner was grave but kind. �
�Nik,” he said, “this may be difficult. Perhaps you should wait with your mother.”

  She shook her head. “He’s my husband, Doctor Kel.”

  He nodded. “Understood. If it gets to be too much, though…”

  “I know. I’ll go.”

  Kel cut away the soiled pajamas, and Nikia found herself biting the back of her fist to suppress a cry at the sight of Grel’s body. He was a patchwork of purple bruises and black charring and deep blue lacerations.

  The doctor scrutinized each of the wounds, one by one. Grel woke twice, asking first, “Nik?”

  “I’m here, love.”

  “Where am I?”

  “At the doctor’s office.”

  “Oh.”

  The second time, Dr. Kel was examining a gash across his lower neck. “Will I live, doctor?” he said, with the faintest hint of a grin.

  “You’ll live, Mr. Idan,” Kel nodded. “Though you’re going to be in enough pain these next weeks that you may wish you didn’t.”

  When the examination concluded, Kel took Nik aside. Grel was asleep again, this time because the doctor had administered something to ease his pain. “I’m going to have to operate,” he told her.

  “Operate?”

  “Your husband has been subjected to an intense amount of trauma. To be honest, I’m amazed he lived through that many hits from a stun prod. That would have stopped more than a few hearts.” He put a hand on her shoulder as he saw the impact of his words. “That’s a good thing, Nik. It means he’s strong.

  “He’s going to need to be. He’s got two broken ribs, a fractured sternum, and a ruptured testicle.”

  “Oh gods.”

  “I’m going to try to salvage the damaged tissue, but I expect he will need an orchiectomy.”

  “A what?”

  “Removal of the impacted testicle.” He shook his head. “A direct hit with that much electricity doesn’t leave much to work with.”

  “Oh gods,” she said again. She thought for a moment that she’d be sick. She couldn’t begin to imagine all that he’d suffered.