The cave fanned out in an oval, carved with jagged walls and natural shelves. A stuffed mat had been rolled and stuck in the corner, just in case she ever needed to stay the night. Freeze-dried foodstuffs were buried in a sealed container, as were medical supplies.
“You’re going to kill me, aren’t you?” Karre frowned and set the light on the ground. Stark, ghoulish shadows formed on his face, but she read the truth in his eyes. “There is no point in denying it. We both know how this game is played.”
“Indeed,” he agreed.
“What about the Starians? Will you let them live?”
“There’s no reason to hurt the Starians. They have proven to be quite useful for a dumping ground. You, Jayne Hart, Lilith Grian.” He chuckled. “It worked better than I could have ever hoped. Marriage as a prison. You have to admire the serendipity.”
“You are the reason we…?” She frowned. “What did they do?” When he looked like he would refuse to answer, she added, “What does it matter if you tell me? I’m dead anyway.”
“Jayne ‘The Sweet’ Hart lost a fight and in the process lost me a substantial bet. Lilith Grian was a foolish data analyst, logging her little historical notes. She was easily expendable.” Tomes looked over Karre. “The other two we sent saw some of our men coming through a portal. Funny how the Starians sent them back. Even if they do talk about what happened to them, no one on their plane will believe them.” He started laughing, his eyes tearing up with mirth. “We once kidnapped a bunch of people from some half-developed plane dressed as these gray, big-eyed, big-headed creatures, probed them anally and then set them down naked in random fields. They told the other inhabitants on their plane they were taken by aliens. They still don’t know what all that anal probing was about. I swear, we were so drunk. Now that was a video file you should have stolen. It is unforgettable.”
“You’ve got issues, you know that, right?” Karre didn’t find the same amusement in his sick games as he did.
“You still don’t get it. When we discovered how to jump to new planes, we discovered the potential to become gods. We can go anywhere, do anything and they can’t stop us. Sure, some of the corporation tries to install rules and moral codes, but those of us willing to claim our right as gods are truly free.”
“I was wrong. You don’t have issues—you’re just insane.” She backed away from him, toward the jagged stone of the cave wall.
His laughter died and he frowned. “Now it’s your turn. What made you think you could fight us?”
“You kidnapped people and took them to the gladiator rings,” she stated. “You took the wrong person.”
“The fights?” His eyes swept over her in new consideration. “We wouldn’t have taken you for the rings. I never sent women to that plane. Someone else, perhaps? A friend? A lover?”
“My father.” Her hand gripped so tight she wondered if she would be able to make her fingers work. She felt the tears in her eyes, tears of anger, tears for the past.
“Your father?” His initial shock turned to disbelief. “You’ve caused me all this trouble because I ordered your father taken to the gladiator plane? How did you know it was me? Those files were destroyed.”
He’d ordered it? Karre couldn’t move.
“Enough small talk.” His gun hand jerked, as if holding back his barely contained urge to shoot. “Where’s the stuff?”
“Why should I tell you? I’m dead anyway.”
“Do we really need to do this?” He scowled. Then, almost bored, he said, “If you cooperate you die fast. If you don’t you die slow and painful. Either way I get what I want.” He sighed heavily. “I always get what I want. I’m a god.”
Karre fingered the knife in her closed fist, ready to unfold the blade as soon as he turned his back. Her throat dry, she whispered, “Behind that rock.”
Keeping his gun trained on her, he moved to look where she pointed. Karre held her breath. Without realizing it, she had begun to shake. Tomes smiled and she knew he must have seen the glint of light coming from a small hole. He reached in to grab it.
A loud pop sounded and she jerked, knowing he had touched the device. The knife dropped from her fingers. Tomes screamed, his body convulsing as it electrocuted him. The portal device on his wrist sparked and smoked. His finger tightened on the trigger and a pulse of light shot out. Karre jumped to the side, but it grazed her flesh, searing her arm. She fell to the ground with a moan, her whole body sore from his earlier beating.
The gun went off a second and third time and she closed her eyes tight, curling into a ball. She jerked with each shot, knowing it’d be over soon. The electrical charge would not only kill Tomes but it would fry the portal on his wrist. No one knew where she was or where to look for her. She would be trapped there. Alone. Her husband would never know what happened to her.
Vidar, I’m sorry.
Tomes stopped moving and the cave became as silent as a tomb. After a long moment, she crawled toward the rock Tomes had reached behind. She avoided looking at his still face. He had been an arrogant fool. Karre had security protocols set up all over the cave. Did he really think she would risk losing everything she had worked so hard for?
Pulling out a small box shoved in the back, she held it close and went for the key on the other side of the cave. She leaned against the wall, ignoring the pain radiating over her body, and opened it. A single button waited inside. She hesitated before pressing it.
It was done. Her father was avenged. Every piece of information she’d collected over the years went out through a tiny portal, duplicated and sent to predestined planes. There would be no hiding Divinity’s secrets now. It was not how she wanted to disperse the information. She had intended to extract a slow, thought-out revenge. This box was her last-option button. And now that it was pressed, everything she’d worked so hard for was done.
“Vidar,” she whispered, knowing the plea was hopeless. She dropped the box as a burning light began to flood the cave. Closing her eyes tight, she tried not to cry. “Come get me. I want to come home.”
Chapter Eleven
But he could not save her and all the pleasure of brief release was replaced by his sense of failure.
She did not return.
Vidar welcomed the hardness that slowly crept over him. It radiated from his broken heart. Hopefully, given time, stone would replace the organ and he’d be free of the pain that now followed him wherever he went. Questions dogged his every moment—both in wake and restless sleep. Where had she gone? What happened to her? Was she alive? Dead? Why did she leave him? Why wouldn’t she send word? What should he do? How could he find the unfindable?
Not knowing was slowly killing him. Not having a plan of action to make it right was killing his soul. Warriors needed to act, to fight. He didn’t know how to deal with his helplessness. Nothing in his life had prepared him for it.
The only reprieve he got from his torment were those brief moments in his dreams where Karre would come back to him—smiling, naked, soft and warm. She would wake him with her kiss, the caress of her hand, the brush of her body. The dream was so real, he could feel the press of her pussy against him, wet and inviting. He felt her breasts in his palms. He saw her rising over him, taking him in, crying out for more. As the dreams faded, he heard her voice whispering from far away, “Vidar. Vidar. Come for me. Save me.” Then he’d come, spilling his seed in his bed.
But he could not save her and all the pleasure of brief release was replaced by his sense of failure.
* * * * *
“Don’t you think you should report it to the king?” Oskar asked, joining Vidar on the battlements.
Vidar stiffened at the man’s words, knowing what his friend spoke of—the missing Lady Karre. He’d spent hours on the fortress wall, looking out over the surrounding countryside, watching the far trails for a hint of Karre walking home to him.
“No,” Vidar stated flatly.
“We have searched everywhere for her. It’s as if she dis
appeared off this plane, even though we know it’s impossible. The only way she can leave is through a fairy ring—and we don’t have fairies—or through one of those alien portals. There are no tracks in the forest, no word of her at Battlewar Castle, no sign of her since she walked away from the courtyard. I’ve been discreet, but people are beginning to talk. The servants whisper about the lady, saying she’s run off and that she’s been taken.” Oskar said. “You cannot bury the truth forever. Something must be said. It’s been weeks since—”
Vidar growled, turning on the knight. He grabbed Oskar’s tunic and forced him back against the low wall. “What is the truth? I care not what people say.” He let go and stepped back. “We will say nothing.”
“As you wish.” Oskar straightened, not retaliating. Vidar wished he would. He could have used the fight more than the look of pity in the man’s eyes.
“I wish for you to do as I say and saddle the horses.” Vidar strode away from him, calling over his shoulder, “If a battle does not come to us, I will go to it.”
Perhaps in a good death is where I will find you, my lady. For I have looked everywhere else.
* * * * *
Karre could barely move, yet she somehow managed to crawl on top of the uncomfortable pile she had made from all her treasures. She had to use the tarp over the cave entrance to secure it, so now sand blew in to choke her lungs. Hugging her limbs around her treasures, she tried not to breathe too deeply. It had been days since she had eaten—a fact that her stomach wouldn’t let her forget—and she had drunk the last of her water the evening before.
Tomes’ body lay outside, buried by sand. She found it fitting to leave him where no one would come looking, eternally alone. Once concluding he was in charge of the gladiators, she could connect him to other crimes.
But she couldn’t think of any of that now. She had to concentrate. The wrist portal hung loose around her arm. There was no guarantee that she had gotten it to work. Or if it did work that it would even send her to the right dimension and space. She could end up in a boiling river or stuck inside one of Spearhead Fortress’ walls. Regardless, she had to try. It was her only chance.
“Vidar, I’m coming home,” she whispered, activating the device. Light radiated from the wrist portal and a fire burned into her flesh. Defensively, she tightened her arms around herself and closed her eyes. Every cell in her body felt heavy. She couldn’t move. No matter how many times she went through, she would never get used to the sensation of being pulled apart at a molecular level. But this time it was worse. The device was unstable and she felt as if her limbs were being ripped off. “Oh please, let me go home.”
* * * * *
Vidar strode across his chambers to grab a sword. Oskar waited for him outside with a small contingency of men. Taking it from atop his trunk, he slid the sheath over his shoulder with practiced ease. He would fight every Caniba he came across until he found his wife or died trying.
As he turned, a strange blue light caught his attention. He frowned, watching the bottom edge of Karre’s chamber door. Blue shifted to pale green and he rushed toward it. Throwing open the door, he found the source of the glow at the foot of Karre’s bed.
Vidar lifted his hand, shading his eyes from the brightness. On instinct, he gripped the hilt of his sword. Suddenly, a solid mass formed in the light, hovering over the ground before dropping a couple inches to thud onto the floor.
As the light faded, he dropped his arm. “Karre?”
Could it really be her? His heartbeat quickened in relief and worry. Confusion made it hard to move, but he still found the will to step forward.
She didn’t answer, didn’t move or make a sound. Her face was turned from him and she lay on top of a strange, uneven mass. Smoke curled from a bracelet on her arm and he smelled the unmistakable stench of seared flesh. He hurried to her side, pulling the hot metal from her skin. It had burned its shape into her arm, blistering the flesh.
“Karre?” Vidar pulled her toward him, cradling her in his arms. He brushed the hair from her face. She was thin, her skin tight against her face. His heart beat hard and his fingers shook as he lifted them to her throat. He felt her pulse. “Karre, look at me. Open your eyes.”
Lashes fluttered but then settled. Without opening her eyes, she moaned. He gasped to hear it, relieved that she lived. Nothing else mattered.
She asked weakly, “Did I make it? Am I home?”
“You’re home, love, you’re home,” he murmured, holding her tighter.
You’re home, love, you’re home.
Karre heard his voice, as it came from far away. Another dream? Or was he real? Vidar would never call her “love”, but she was too weak to fight the small grain of hope. If she were dying, then why not let the warmth of his arms and the sound of his loving voice be the last thing she felt? It beat pain and starvation.
Her body ached, her arm burned and the rough trip through the portal made every inch of her insides feel as if they had been ripped apart. She was lifted up and cradled into safety and warmth. Her mind slipped, content to fall into darkness.
* * * * *
Vidar did not leave Karre’s side, not when he carried her toward the hall, ordering a servant to find a medic and bring food, not when he laid her on his bed, not when he gently bathed her, not when her eyes opened and they forced broth into her, not when she whimpered throughout the night. Between burns, cuts, bruises and starvation, she had been through a terrible ordeal.
It wasn’t until the second night that she managed to keep her eyes open and her thoughts coherent. Seeing her looking up at him as he stroked her cheek, he couldn’t help but smile. “You’re alive.”
“I don’t feel very alive.” She chuckled. Her hand landed gently on his, holding it to her cheek. “Tell me I’m not dreaming. Tell me you’re really here and that I’m really home.”
Pleasure erupted inside him when he heard her voice. It filled him with a joy he had never known. It was hard to be demanding and angry about her leaving when she was in his arms, looking at him with those seductively beautiful eyes.
“You’re not dreaming. I’m here. You’re here. We’re together,” he assured her. “Where did you go, Karre? I looked for you. I searched everywhere, but we couldn’t find any tracks. Why didn’t you tell me you were leaving? Was it because I tried to stop you from going?”
“No. It’s not your fault. It had nothing to do with our argument or that stupid incident in the courtyard. I’m almost embarrassed thinking of how ridiculous we were being. I just wanted so bad to help you, help the people of Staria, help make Spearhead safe.”
Vidar leaned his forehead against her temple. “Can you understand that I can’t allow you to fight the Caniba? Everything I’ve ever learned says I have to protect you. If something happens to you, I will have failed in my duty as a warrior. My honor demands I do not fail you. But it’s more than that. I couldn’t bear it if something happened to you. I’d rather fight to the death a thousand times than let you walk within a hundred yards of Sorceress Magda.”
“I understand.” She nodded. “But it is not in my nature to do nothing. I won’t try to infiltrate her encampment. However, I would like to help.”
“My lady, I—”
“I won’t do anything without coordinating with you first,” she assured him.
“There is time to discuss this later. Right now I would hear where you went. What happened?” He didn’t want to let her go so he held on tighter.
“There was no time. I didn’t have a choice. I had to go,” Karre sighed, dropping her hand from his to rest on the bed. “There was something I had to take care of.”
“Because of Magda?”
“No, I had to go to another plane. I needed to finish what I started. I sent files detailing several of Divinity’s underhanded deals to my contacts and various media centers on numerous planes. I gave the dimensions proof. Now it is up to them to do something about it.” She closed her eyes. Vidar listened as she told h
im of Divinity’s Director Tomes, of how he’d come for her and forced her to go to the dead plane where she’d kept the hidden treasures now in her room. She told him of how she’d avenged her father by causing the death of the man responsible. “The portable jump prototype was fried when Tomes’ sins came back to him. I managed to fix it for one last jump by scavenging parts from the other devices I’ve collected.”
“The thing on your wrist?” He lifted her arm to kiss near the healing burn.
“Yes. I wasn’t sure it would work.” She caressed his face. “I cannot believe it did work. I really thought I would never see you again. The odds of my ending up here,” she coughed, her eyes watering. “I should have gone to another dimension. I should have ended up trapped in a stone wall. I wasn’t even sure I had the directions inputted right.”
“I told you the gods have their reasons. They brought you to me a second time. They know that you belong with me.” Vidar kissed her forehead. “And I belong with you. None of those other things could have happened because we are fate.”
“Fate?” She moaned softly. “I like the sound of that.”
“So do I.” Vidar brought his lips to hers.
Karre drew strength from his presence. She was still sore from her ordeal, but it didn’t matter. The wounds would heal. By some miracle, she had made it home to him and that’s all that mattered. She dug her fingers into his hair, gripping tight, as if he might slip away into a dream and she would wake up alone.
“I thought I’d never see you again.” She pushed at him, drawing strength from his nearness. Rolling him on his back, she tugged at his tunic, needing to feel his flesh.
Taking Karre (Divinity Warriors 4) Page 16
