When he did speak, Brave’s voice came out as a shaky whisper. “You told me that I was being protected by you, that my family was in danger.”
“And that was true. I never lied to you, Brave. Your family was in danger. I just didn’t tell you that they were in danger from us.”
He thought back to his defense when Lana felt betrayed. I never lied to you, Lana.
“You’ve been holding me hostage, while leading me to believe I was a prince. That’s just… it’s just… ” He searched for the word and then it came to him. He knew if Lana was there she would say it was just wrong. “Wrong.”
“It wasn’t personal, Brave. Over time we came to love you. We’ve found you and your ideas both useful and entertaining.”
“Useful and entertaining,” Brave repeated drily. “Is my family alive? My real family?”
He couldn’t be sure, but he thought he saw something flicker in Abide’s eyes when he said ‘real family’. “As far as I know.”
“And all this time that I thought they were either dead, or that they’d abandoned me…” Brave tried to prioritize his questions as he fought to process in a rational way, even though he was overwhelmed emotionally. “Why do the Reinlitegen want me?”
Perry spoke for Abide who seemed to be more and more uncomfortable with the whole subject and with Brave’s accusatory tone.
“Same dance. Different song. They want to use you to coerce Roanald to use his research to exterminate us. They think you would be sufficient incentive to get Roanald to splice DNA so that all demons except Reinlitegen are born with developmental defects, or fail to procreate altogether then die off.”
“Could he do that? My, ah…” Even though Brave was stunned by the truth of the masquerade he’d been an unintentional part of, and even though he was angrier than he thought possible, he still couldn’t bring himself to look into Abide’s face and call another man, Father. “Roanald?”
Abide sat back wearily and shrugged. “I don’t know. But we’re not willing to take the chance.”
Perry spoke up from his post by the door. “Reinlitegen are even more malicious than most of us thought possible. They’ve been capturing young demon females of different subspecies, including Callii. Sources say that they plan to inject them with this theoretical splice of Roanald’s, then release them back into the population without telling anyone that the females are carrying the equivalent of a genocide bomb.”
“How have they been capturing demons?”
“Surprise when slipping dimensions,” Perry said. “They use a liquid spray with crushed farsi in it. You’ve probably never heard anything about it. Farsi dust alters our equilibrium so that we can’t find our way in the passes. As a nasty side effect, it also affects our ability to bend light. We think pechs must be mining it for them.”
“I don’t get it.” Brave looked between Abide and Perry. “Why do they want to be the only demon species left alive?”
“Some sort of master race delusion. They’re caught up in it. If you tell a lie enough times, it starts to sound familiar, and who doesn’t like familiarity?”
Brave leveled his gaze at Abide. “I need Lana. I’m asking you, if you ever cared anything for me at all, you’ll get her away from them.”
Abide inhaled a big breath, slumped back into his chair, and shook his head. “If you have any ideas about how to do that, I’ll be glad to listen.”
Seeing that there was nothing else to be said, Brave stood abruptly and stalked toward the door. Peregrination earned himself a death glare by not moving out of Brave’s way quickly enough.
Back in his own quarters Brave paced the floor. He knew he could think more clearly if he could just quiet and control his emotions. The turmoil and cross-currents were definitely interfering with logic.
He tried to concentrate, but kept picturing fuzzy glimpses of the house he remembered living in before he was taken, and the garden where he’d played. He was sure he didn’t have siblings because, he reasoned, that was something he would remember.
He tried to form an image of his parents’ faces, but couldn’t quite manage it. When he pictured his mother, he had an impression of dirty blonde hair and a carefree laugh, but it wasn’t nearly clear enough to be labeled a bona fide memory. He recalled thinking that his father was a giant, but he couldn’t get a visual of either one of them that was vivid.
As he continued pacing, his mind bouncing between Lana’s captivity and his need to rescue her from the Reinlitegen, his anger at all the Callii, but especially Abide, and what he could remember about the family who was being controlled by his captivity. Suddenly that vortex of thoughts coalesced into a plan.
Brave rushed out of his quarters to find Abide. After checking Court and Abide’s personal chambers, he found him playing Caegong with some other males from the Ministry. The always watchful Peregrination intercepted Brave near the entrance to the games hall and wordlessly asked him to state his business.
Brave lowered his voice. “I have a plan.”
Perry’s chin jerked up like he hadn’t been expecting that. With all the grace one expects from an athletic demon, Perry moved behind Abide and leaned to whisper in his ear.
“Your son has a plan.”
Abide’s eyes slid to Brave. His expression gave nothing away. He said something to Perry and began the process of extricating himself from the game, which was very much like Backgammon. Very few people know that Backgammon was created by demons. But it was.
Perry rejoined Brave. “He will join us in his private conference room.”
Brave nodded, glanced at Abide, and left with Perry.
They hadn’t waited long before the regent appeared. Abide sat in his chair heavily and turned the weight of his attention, which was considerable, on Brave.
“I’m listening,” was all he said.
Brave began to shape his proposal in the form of a deal, knowing that deals were the one thing demons couldn’t refuse to consider. And, since deals were sacred to demons, once the contract was struck it wouldn’t be broken.
“It’s complicated. As the humans say, it has a lot of moving parts. But I know it will work.
“If you will get Lana back and agree to let me go, by that I mean return me to my human family, I will reunite with them and convince my father to trick the Reinlitegen with a fake serum. Since Callii only ovulate once every hundred years or so, both Roanald and I will be dead long before the Reinlitegen realize they’ve been duped.”
“It’s not a contract if it’s a fake serum, Brave. You understand demon law.”
“I do, but I’m not a demon.”
Brave let that statement hang in the air for a moment with only the sound of the fire, while they absorbed his meaning.
“You’re saying that you can make a deal with the Reinlitegen that involves a fake serum because you’re human. They have to keep their end because they’re demons, but you… don’t.”
Brave’s eyes shone with defiance as he demonstrated to his father that he was more human, including the dark side of humanity, than demon.
“Exactly.
“As insurance, you can send invisible escorts to observe my interactions with Roanald. That way you will know that my plan is legitimate and that you are not being tricked. The only thing you have to lose is allowing a few insignificant humans access to the passes and that has got to be preferable to watching a Callii genocide.
“If the Reinlitegen believe their plan has been implemented, they won’t be seeking out another scientist. It may not be a long term solution, in light of an average demon lifespan, but it would buy time to come up with another strategy.”
Perry looked at Abide and said, “Devious.”
“Indeed,” said Abide. “What’s the risk to us?”
Perry pursed his lips and shook his head. “I don’t see any.”
“Neither do I.” Abide turned to Brave. “A brilliant plan, my son.” Brave’s jaw clenched noticeably when Abide said ‘my son’. “But we’re
still left without a plan for retrieving your female. What do you propose?”
“You said you can’t get into the cell because it’s been warded.” Perry nodded. “I’d place a bet that it’s been warded against demons.”
Abide and Perry waited. Finally, Perry said, “And…”
“Again. I’m not demon.”
Perry studied Brave. “Lay it out.”
“If you can get me close enough to get the keys to the cell, I can bring her outside the warded area. They probably just left the keys on the hook that we’d installed for that purpose because, as we all know, Reinlitegen are not known for being inventive.
“We’ll hide while we send a scout to determine when the hallway outside her cell is clear. When we get the signal, we go in and get her.”
Abide looked at Perry, who shrugged. “Could work.”
While waiting for Abide’s response, Brave must have been holding his breath because, when Abide gave a nod, he inhaled like a man who’d been dunked under water after falling from a broken slat bridge.
“When?” Brave asked.
“Well…” Perry began.
“Now,” Brave said. “I don’t know how she’s being treated and humans are fragile.”
Abide looked at Brave, then Perry, and again gave a nod.
Brave knew he had to nail down the particulars. He looked Abide in the eye and didn’t blink. “So we have a deal?”
After a few seconds, Abide said, “We have a deal, Bruce the Brave.”
A few minutes later, Brave had been injected with the demon blood Lana called magic juice. He insisted that they would keep it simple. Just Perry, himself, and Dart.
When Dart arrived, Brave regarded him coolly. “Did you know?”
“Know what?” asked Dart.
“No. He didn’t know, Brave. The truth about your presence as foster child of the regent was on a need to know basis and, certainly,” Perry looked down his nose at Dart, “he did not need to know.”
Dart turned to Brave. “Know. What?”
Brave shook his head. “It’s a mess of complication. Right now, just help me get my girl back.”
The three came to rest in one of the dark subterranean passages that Lana and Brave had first used to exit the fortress. Dart was assigned scout duty and would determine when it was safe to deliver Brave to the cell.
“I’ll be back.” Dart left with a bad impression of the famous Terminator line leaving Brave to wonder when and where Dart might have been watching human movies.
It was almost an hour before Dart returned and whispered that no one was present on the dungeon level. Brave materialized right in front of the keys hanging on their hook, just as he’d predicted.
It was at that moment, when Brave had grabbed the keys, that Litha arrived for the check-in visit she’d promised Lana. Litha took form in the exact spot where she’d left Brave and Lana.
“Litha,” Brave said off-handedly.
“Hi Brave. Where’s Lana?”
“Right over…” His sentence was cut short when he saw her. Lana was lying on the damp stone floor, curled into as tiny a ball as possible. She was facing the cell door with her back to the wall, but didn’t appear to be aware of them. Even at that distance, Brave could see that she hadn’t fared much better than he had at the hands of Reinlitegen captivity.
“For fuck’s sake, Brave. What have you done?” Litha was outraged.
“I didn’t do this, Litha! We’re here to rescue her from the Reinlitegen.”
“What?”
She glanced at Perry, then looked at Dart, who responded with his best charming smile. “Hello again, beauty.”
Litha ignored Dart and turned her attention to Brave, who had already opened the cell door and rushed to Lana’s crumpled form. He gathered her in his arms and carried her out of the cell, trying not to panic when she didn’t wake up, or even rouse. He carefully placed her into the cradle of Dart’s large arms and reached for the syringe, which he buried in the muscle of Lana’s thigh.
“Just a minute. What’s going on here?”
Brave turned to say something to Litha, but his eyes went wide when he saw a dozen Reinlitegen coming down the corridor behind her. Litha glanced over her shoulder to see what had caught Brave’s attention that was more important than answering her question.
When she saw the advancing Reinlitegen, she summoned a ball of fire to her hand. She then used the magickal side of her nature to suspend it in midair while rotating it clockwise with the movement of her fingers. As the fiery orb turned in the air it grew larger and larger. Within seconds it was big enough to stretch from one side of the hallway to the other. When she clapped her hands together and shouted something undeterminable at the same time, the ball headed straight for the Reinlitegen like a mad dragon in pursuit.
Wisely, they turned and ran. Even demons can be burned by mystical fire.
Dart and Perry gave each other a look.
Litha turned back to the rescue party. “I told you I did not want to get involved in a demon war!”
“Nobody asked you to come!” said Brave. “Well, maybe Lana did ask you to come, but all we wanted to do here was to get in, get her, and get out.”
Litha stared at Brave.
Perry put in. “Let’s make a decision, shall we? Indecision killed the cat.”
Brave looked at Litha. “We need to get out of here. You can come with us and finish this discussion.”
“She cannot do any such thing,” said Perry. “The whole point of having a secret stronghold is that it’s secret. Right?”
Brave stepped right in front of Perry and looked up to him. “She’s coming. I’ll vouch for her.” His eyes shone with a wicked gleam worthy of a mischievous demon. “Until I’m told otherwise, I’m your prince and you’ll do as I say.”
Perry narrowed his eyes. “Yes, Your Eminence.”
Before Brave could register that Perry had taken hold of him, they were coming to rest in Brave’s chambers.
“Get Fortuity,” he shouted as Dart laid Lana down on Brave’s bed. Her skin was pale, her color grayish, and it sickened Brave to think this had been brought about because of his desire for her. He leaned over, tenderly brushing the hair back from her face.
When Fortuity arrived, Brave reluctantly moved aside so that she could attend to Lana. He knew that he’d been treated in the human world with tubes and machines and he hoped that his demon physician had more humane methods available for Lana.
Fortuity sent her assistant back to her workroom for two vials of something Brave had never heard of. When the assistant returned, Fortuity said, “Hold her head up, Brave. I need her to respond by swallowing a little bit of this.”
“What is it?”
“It will revive her. When she wakes, she will be thirsty. The second vial is full of nutrients that will restore her. We will add it to water and encourage her to drink as much as she can.”
Fortuity poured a tiny bit of potion between Lana’s lips. Lana coughed lightly and spluttered, but she did not swallow and the precious liquid dribbled away.
“This time massage her throat gently, Brave. It may cause an auto-response.”
“I think we should take her to Edinburgh to the clinic that treated you,” Litha said to Brave.
Again Fortuity poured a small dose of her potion into Lana’s mouth. She coughed, but Brave, while massaging her throat, felt her swallow.
Her eyes were partway open. They seemed both vacant and staring at him.
“Lana. You’re safe. You’re with me,” Brave said quietly before glancing at Fortuity. “Are you thirsty?”
Lana’s eyes seemed to focus a little and she nodded. Brave watched Fortuity empty the other vial in a pitcher of water and swirl it around. She poured some of the mixture into a goblet and handed it to Brave.
Lana refocused on the goblet and began to look more present. She tried to reach for it. Brave pulled her to a sitting position and climbed on the bed behind her, using himself as a prop t
o hold her upright. He talked to her as she drank, coaxing her to take as much as she could, under Fortuity’s supervision.
When she’d drained the pitcher dry, Fortuity looked at Brave and smiled. Then she looked at Litha and smirked, proud that she could claim her methods were superior to those used in the human clinic that Litha had suggested. It would have been a personal affront if her patient had been taken from her care. “This is good. Let her sleep. The next time she wakes you can give her thick warm liquid.”
“Soup,” said Litha.
“Yes. Soup.”
Brave and Lana were left with Litha. Brave stayed where he was with Lana in his arms. In a quiet even tone of voice, he told Litha everything that had happened since she had dropped them off the week before.
When he’d finished, she said, “No wonder the girl looks like death.”
Litha heard Brave’s voice hitch when she said that. “Sorry. It’s just an expression. I can see that Lana will be fine, but since I brought her here and left her, I feel responsible. Do you think that, if I leave her here for three days, you can manage to keep her safe and stay out of trouble that long?”
“That’s both my plan and my desire.”
Litha simply nodded, then vanished.
Dart scratched on the door and poked his head in. He looked around. “Where’s the ditch?”
“What?” Brave wasn’t in the mood for games.
“Litha. She said she’s half demon, half witch. Right? Or I guess she could be a wemon, but that would sound silly.”
“And you think ditch doesn’t sound silly?”
“I guess you want to be left alone?”
“Thank you for going on the mission, Dart.”
“What are friends for?” He left without expecting an answer.
Brave was happy to be alone with Lana in a room that was silent except for the sweet sound of her breathing. He knew in his bones that she would recover and, one day soon, she would blush at something he said or laugh about some human thing he either didn’t know about, or got wrong.
As she slept, he studied the way her lashes lay against her cheek. The way her chest rose and fell. The way her hand in repose looked tiny compared to his.
Prince of Demons 1-3, Box Set Page 24
