Marcus rested another few seconds and before pushing off the wall. He took a step toward Tenessa, who watched him warily. With a gasp, Marcus cried out, grasping his chest with both hands. He fell back against the wall and slid back down onto his butt.
Karl dragged himself toward his best friend. "Marcus, what's wrong?"
Marcus's face with clenched in agonized grimace, his eyes squeezed shut. "Maggie," he gasped through closed teeth. "She's dying."
Karl clawed his way to his feet and grabbed Tenessa by the arms, shaking her. "You know what kind of neurological sedatives they would use. How long before I can Travel?"
She gazed up into his face, her usual defiance utterly absent. She didn't look afraid. "Not long. Five to ten minutes."
"That army will be here in two," Marcus growled from the ground, hands gripping handfuls of the shirt stretched over his chest. "Maggie might be dead by then."
Karl racked his brain. They’d have to keep going. March back out of the cave and down the canyon. The second they walked out, the Arachnimen would attack. There were no two ways about it. The three of them would simply not make it out of the canyon on foot. The Arachnimen’s footsteps grew louder by the second.
"We can use our Echo Shield to hide you for a few minutes,” Tenessa said, sounding more urgent than before. “We can hold it long enough for the sedative to wear off, and then the Separatist can Travel away."
Karl frowned at her. “What?”
She glanced at him impatiently. “We’ll step outside the cave. The Union Guards will think the Separatists have left. Abandoned us. Our Echo Shield will cloak your neurochemical signatures.”
Anger rose so sharply in Karl’s gut that he balled his fist and punched the rock, showering all three of them with a spray of tiny pebbles. Tenessa’s eyes flew wide at his reaction and even Marcus looked up in surprise.
“You told me your Echo Shield only blocked sound,” he roared. “You said it wouldn’t mask neurochemical signatures. You said—”
“We lied!” Tenessa yelled.
Karl straightened his spine, letting the silence stretch. “Why?”
“Because we didn’t want the Separatists to know the extent of our abilities. We hid them, and lied every time the Separatists asked us. The white-haired Separatist was correct in his hypothesis. We can mask neurochemical signatures. We can make you completely invisible to the Union.” She heaved a deep breath, her composure returning. “And we will. So the Separatists will live.” She looked down at Marcus to include him.
Marcus, still laying against the rock wall, tiny rivulets of sweat running down his face, watched the exchange with wariness. “They’ve already seen us,” he said, addressing Tenessa. “Your Echo Shield can’t make us invisible. All they have to do is look in here—”
“They won’t,” she said firmly. “The Union Guards are not innovative. They don’t take initiative or think outside their training. They will do a neurochemical sweep of the cave. When they don’t sense the Separatist, they’ll assume we are alone. They’ll take us and go.”
Karl’s stomach began to tie itself in knots. "If they catch you, they'll kill you."
Tenessa shook her head. "The Union will not slay us. They need us to hurt her. To hurt…you." Her voice cracked, and Karl's eyes widened. The next moment she’d regained her composure. "We are the Trainee. We can convince them to let us return."
"Tenessa —"
"We’ll offer them the information in our head. They'll take it. They can kill us if they are displeased, so we are not a threat either way.” She stopped to swallow. “The Union will want to know what we know."
"You just saved my life, Tenessa. Again. Do you honestly think—"
"Only the Cimerian witnessed us save the Separatist. He's dead. We felt him die.”
Karl eyed Tenessa, feeling distrustful. "Why do this, after working against us all this time? After undermining our plans?”
Tenessa studied the ground, refusing to meet his eye.
“Why help us at all?” Karl persisted. “It’s forbidden.”
She raised her eyes to his. They’d grown misty again. “Sometimes we must do forbidden things.” She swallowed, before looking him dead in the eye. "Say…our name again."
Karl stepped closer. Pain lanced across his abdomen and his balance was shaky at best. He ignored both, looking directly down into Tenessa’s face. His heart pounded against his rib cage. Not from adrenaline, or because their death marched only yards away, outside the cave. His heart pounded because of the way Tennessa gazed at him.
"Tenessa,” he whispered. Her eyes quickened, as they’d done dozens of times now. Something clicked into place for him. He’d always known the quickening meant a euphoria in her brain when he said her name. She liked having an individual identity. He failed to realize that it didn't happen when other people said her name. Only when he said it. How did he miss that?
Karl dropped his voice to a whisper. "Your turn. Say my name."
Tenessa looked away. "Karl." She said it so softly, he almost didn't catch it.
"Look me in the eye and say it."
Tenessa swallowed and peered up at him. That direct, truthful look again. Her voice still came out as a whisper. "Karl."
Karl leaned inward, until his mouth hovered inches from hers. “And how do you feel about outdated expressions of affection, used only by Separatists?”
“It is forbidden,” she whispered.
"The Separatist must go,” she said, a quiet desperation in her voice. “The Union comes."
She wasn’t wrong. The footsteps of the Arachnimen were so loud as to seem almost on top of them. Karl growled in frustration. "I don't get it! After everything, you’d throw it all away? Go back to the Union?"
Tenessa’s eyes widened in surprise. "We don't want to."
Karl raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"We," Tenessa sputtered. "We do not wish to go back anymore."
Karl stared at her. Despite what she’d already said, he couldn’t make himself believe he was hearing her correctly. Did she truly want to stay? "Why?"
Tenessa studied the ground and took a deep breath before raising her eyes to his again. "Because we saw the other Separatist’s death. The one called Nat. We witnessed how the other Separatists mourned him."
Karl frowned. What kind of answer was that? “I thought emotions, especially negative ones, are destructive. Evil."
"We don't care anymore. We don't care if it's forbidden. The Separatist has made us not care. We want to be remembered, want to be mourned. If we go back, we will never feel this…quickening again."
"They're coming,” Marcus growled through clenched teeth.
"We will go out,” Tenessa straightened her spine and cleared her throat.
"No!” Karl snapped. "We can figure this out.”
Tenessa stepped up to him and raised a hand. She touched his jaw softly, running her three middle fingers softly over the dark stubble on his chin. “We understand better now the meaning of the word ‘intimacy.’ But it is something we can never have.”
With the final sentence, she stepped back, and Karl felt only horror. “You…of course you can. Why couldn’t—”
“It is forbidden.” Her face took on an agonized expression and her voice was thick with tears. “Terror, loneliness, desolation, madness.”
Karl staggered toward her. “Joy, and pleasure,” he finished for her.
She nodded. “We don’t know what these things mean, but we want to. With the Sep—with you. Only with you.” She stepped back again, always staying out of his reach.
“Don’t step out there, Tenessa,” Karl begged. “We'll find another way. I'm telling you, they’ll kill you."
"We don't think they will," Tenessa gave him a soft smile. The first she’d ever given him. It lit up her face and accentuated the smattering of freckles across her nose. “And perhaps, our bond with the Separatist will keep—” she looked down, as if struggling for words, and placed her hand on h
er own chest. “—the optimistic part of us from dying as well.”
"And what if they do?"
Tessa studied the ground. "We suppose, being mourned is more important than surviving. It is selfish, but we cannot fight it anymore."
"Not selfish, Tessa," Marcus said quietly. "Human. Individual."
Karl sensed Tenessa gathering energy to herself. He couldn't see it because the Echo Shield ability was unique to her. He lunged forward the last few steps and grasped her arm, afraid if he wasn't touching her, she would simply disappear. "You're not going."
"The Separatist is too weak to Travel or stop us. Both the Separatists are.” Her glance included Marcus. “We must relinquish the bond now.”
Karl blinked. It took him a moment to realize she meant the Cupola bond they shared. For to relinquish the bond, she had to…
“The Separatist said it would leave part of us in him, and part of him in us. That's all we will have now. All we can give."
Karl felt the bond between them begin to ebb and flow as Tenessa bonded herself to him more deeply.
*******
The young man with the yellow light in his eyes turned a pitying gaze on David. “Accept the dark night of the soul; the Executioner’s dark-tinged goal. Her brother’s turn, betrayal at its worst.” He paused. “The Executioner’s heart…shall burst.”
David gasped. The prophecy. The very passage he’d had trouble with. He’d gotten that one word wrong. Her brother, not a brother. That’s where the feminine element came from. It was possessive. It gave the line a whole new meaning.
The previous passage had been about the Healer, so David assumed he himself was the ‘brother’ who did the betraying. It had never been about him.
Her had to mean Maggie, but Maggie wasn’t a Healer. Then again, she’d absorbed Karl’s ability, and possibly others, so perhaps she really was. Her brother’s turn; betrayal at it’s worst.
Doc still talked to the drone that was obviously inhabited by B. David whirled toward him."We have to go get Maggie. Now!"
*******
“We have to get Maggie, now!”
David’s shout struck fear into Doc’s chest. “Why?” he asked, afraid to hear the answer.
Even as he asked it, he stared down at the bracelet showing the life signs of his team. Tristan’s had long since gone out. Marcus and Karl's had become weak. But not to the point of them being in danger of death. Rather, they’d become weak from exertion, and probably needed help.
Maggie's vitals were another matter. She hovered on the cusp of death, her heart barely fluttering in her chest. Flashes of memories of being on the Pacific island and seeing Clay’s vitals do the same thing flashed in Doc’s head. He crushed them ruthlessly.
Jonah's life signs did something Doc had never seen from the bracelet. The light pulsated, as though he died, then lived. Died, then lived. That made no sense, of course. Either the bracelet malfunctioned, or Jonah had died.
An anger unlike any Doc had ever known filled his chest. First Nat, now Maggie. Perhaps others. Clay back on the island. “No more,” he whispered.
He turned to the Bartholomew drone. The light in its eyes still looked paler than usual, which meant Bart wasn’t completely present in this body. Doc had no doubt his brother would hear his words, though. "You’ve forgotten one thing, brother,” he said loudly. “The Binding worked both ways. I can hurt you too."
With the speed of thought, Doc conjured an energy he’d never used before, because he'd always thought it immoral. He no longer cared. If there was ever a time for immorality, it was now. He fashioned the energy into a spear, using particles from the surrounding ether to harden it. Another heartbeat passed before Doc slammed the energy-spear into his brother's brain through the ear canal. The Bartholomew drone screamed as Bart was Drilled, and fell to his knees.
Doc used the neurological spear to keep Bart there, on his knees. He could feel his brother’s mind, his essence, pinned into this drone. Or at least partially so. Some part of it also seemed to be pinned to another entity far away, in another part of the Canyon that Doc couldn’t see.
Bart pushed back against the spear neurologically. Doc felt it. Each time the rebellious energy rose, Doc drove the Drill deeper.
Looking over his shoulder, Doc screamed at David. "Go save the others with Salla! I’ll hold Bartholomew here. Maggie needs your help. They all need your help."
David stared at Doc a few seconds before shaking his head. "I'm not leaving you alone."
He turned to Salla, and Doc heard his words, but barely registered them. It took all of his concentration to keep Bart pinned in the drone’s body.
“Go get Maggie and your sister’s group,” David instructed. “Take them back to Interchron. Then go get Karl and Marcus. I’ll stay here and protect Doc. What he’s doing will allow you to get the others without him attacking you. Go quickly! Come back and get Doc and I when the others are safe. Go!”
Salla flinched, then disappeared.
Chapter 43: Bone-Deep Rage
Joan sobbed, tears streaming down her face. Maggie lay dying in her arms. The dagger, still couched in her chest, acted as a stopper for the blood trying to seep out of Maggie's body. Rivulets of blood escaped around the hilt, and dripped down Maggie's torso and onto Joan’s arms and legs. Joan couldn’t Heal, but she could do medical scans. Maggie's heartbeat grew fainter by the minute. If they didn't get her to a Healer, she would die.
The blond female drone, her eyes still shining with B’s yellow light, smirked down at Maggie triumph in her countenance. She didn’t seem to register Joan at all.
Beside the blond, Jonah also hovered over Joan and Maggie. His face remained still as a boulder. Not angry, not smug, but cold. Almost indifferent. He hadn't moved to hurt anyone else. Joan wondered if he planned to stare down at them until Maggie's heart stopped.
The little girl with the tattered, red-flowered headscarf and brown, diamond-covered pants, still knelt where the Cimerian had disappeared. She still screamed at the top of her lungs, but neither Jonah nor the B drone seemed to notice her at all. Joan couldn't imagine how the child could keep screaming like that without losing her voice. She couldn't begin to think of comforting child.
Lila stood beside Joan, gaping at Jonah in complete shock, as though struggling to wrap her mind around what she’d just seen.
Joan felt another presence at her shoulder. She turned her head enough to identify Kristee. The young Traveler kept her eyes worriedly on Jonah, but leaned close to Joan’s ear. "I'm going to get us back to Interchron. The Healers can help Maggie." Eyes still watching Jonah warily, Kristee raised her voice to get Lila's attention. "Lila, come here. You need to be touching me when I Travel."
As though a switch flipped, Jonah lunged at Kristee. He tackled her from Joan’s side, landing on top of her.
Joan screeched when Jonah’s weight slammed into the young Traveler. Kristee needed help, but Joan couldn’t bring herself to leave Maggie. Even the movement of laying her on the ground might kill her.
Jonah sat up, straddling Kristee’s waist. He wound his fist back, bringing it level with his ear, preparing to strike a blow that surely would have shattered Kristee’s face.
Lila jumped onto his back. Jonah abandoned Kristi to focus on Lila. He threw his body to one side and then the other, trying to fling her off.
“Lila, no! Jonah, stop!” Joan screamed. She needed to help her daughter. She began shifting her weight to lay Maggie down in the grass, but the first, tiny movement made Maggie’s body jerk, and her heartbeat slowed down significantly. Joan froze, feeling utterly helpless.
Kristee kicked away from where Jonah and Lila struggled, looking horrified and shell-shocked. She moved jerkily, whimpering each time she did. obviously hurt.
Reaching over his own shoulder with one hand, Jonah grabbed a handful of Lila’s hair. Collapsing his shoulders, he used her hair to yank Lila off his back, throwing her into a tree four feet away. Lila hit the trunk with a sickening th
ud and slid down it.
“Lila,” Joan screamed.
Lila remained conscious. As soon as her body lay fully on the ground, she attempted to get up. Pushing up unsteadily onto her hands and knees, her muscles quivered, and then collapsed under her.
A blood-curdling screech brought Joan’s head around. It came from the B drone. The blond woman’s body had gone rigid. Looking like she battled tetanus, she’d gone up on her toes. Every muscle in her body quivered as though painfully contracted. She clutched her arms, ramrod-straight, to her sides and both hands into fists. Head thrown back, a high-pitched screech, like that of a hawk, except so loud it hurt Joan’s ears, emanated from her throat.
What the hell was happening?
Even Jonah turned to stare at the drone, his face grim.
The blond drone stopped to take a deep breath, then let out a second, ear-splitting screech. It still sounded hawkish, but this time Joan also heard the word, “Go.”
Jonah stared down at Lila, his face still terrifyingly cold, then turned to walk toward the oncoming Arachniman army.
“Why?” Lila demanded loudly, before Jonah got two paces. Rather than try to push herself up again, she’d rolled onto her back and sat up on her elbows. Her face looked pinched with pain and a sheen of sweat covered her bow. Her breathing came raggedly.
Jonah stopped, turned, and walked back to where Lila lay. Falling into a squat in front of her, he leaned down so their noses nearly touched.
Lila trembled from head to foot, but she stared defiantly—and somewhat sadly—into Jonah's face.
Joan prayed silently that Jonah wouldn’t hurt her daughter any further.
Jonah stared angrily at her for what felt like an eternity before answering. “Do you think it matters? Do you think I care about you?”
He started to turn, and Joan felt relief.
Lila’s face hardened. Rebellion in her eyes, she struggled, amid grunts and soft cries of pain, to her feet. "Tell me why," Lila snarled, then swallowed, seeming to check herself. "This isn’t you talking, Jonah. I know it's not. Tell me how the Union has done this to you."
Dark Matter (Interchron Book 3) Page 50
