“Maybe too soon for me, but not for them. They had to have known, Luca. Why didn’t they warn me? Why didn’t they warn us? I would have stayed in my wing.”
Luca’s eyes darkened in anger.
Uncle Kagan sat to my other side. He pulled out his vid-screen. “Tavere, turn around and come home at once.”
“What are you doing? You….”
Uncle Kagan held up his hand to silence me. Then he said to Papa, “Give the order. Do it now. I’ll wait.” Uncle Kagan walked away from me toward the chamber holding Neema Valen. I could hear Papa yelling but couldn’t understand his words. “Sit down, and I’ll tell you everything.”
I watched as Uncle Kagan showed Papa my Momma. He stayed on the other side of the infirmary for several minutes. Clutching Luca’s hand, I remembered how hard I had taken it and feared how much worse it was for Papa.
When Zared entered and came over to stand beside me, feelings of anger and betrayal swarmed in my heart. Zared was my husband. Of all of the Laconian hybrids, he had to have known about the baby, and he should have told me. I would have been more careful. I wondered if I had killed my baby when I had kicked the man off of my blade.
“Teagan, it was nothing you did or could have prevented. We didn’t know about the child. There was no sentience,” Zared feebly attempted to explain.
I hid my face away from him against my pillow.
“Lord Zared, please allow me,” a doctor said sympathetically. Angry tears fell, and I couldn’t stop them. “Princess Teagan,” the Chief Medical Officer said as he took my hand. “I am deeply sorry for the loss you and General Braga have suffered. Neither of you are to blame. Had you been on bedrest and not lifted a finger, unfortunately the same tragic outcome would have occurred.”
“Why?” Luca asked in a choked voice. I squeezed his hand, grateful he had the strength that I lacked to ask.
“Your embryo had a chromosomal abnormality.”
“Can you put our baby in an amniotic chamber?” I asked hopefully.
The doctor sat beside me on the bed. “Teagan, the embryo you carried was unable to develop a nervous system. At four weeks, a healthy embryo would begin to develop a neural tube. At four weeks, an embryo is the size of a tiny seed. This embryo was not strong enough. In most cases when this happens, the mother does not even realize it has occurred. There is no reason why you and General Braga cannot have several healthy children.” He patted my knee and excused himself.
“Teagan, my darling, I’m so sorry,” Papa said. I hadn’t realized that Uncle Kagan had held the vid-screen so that he could see us. “Luca, you have brought my wife and Teagan’s mother back to us at great personal loss, and it will not go forgotten. Kagan, see to my daughter. Contact me when she is settled.”
Uncle Kagan pocketed his vid-screen and moved to pick me up. “I can walk,” I told him.
“Yes, but you aren’t going to. Rest that head of black hair against my shoulder and let me take care of you.”
I had forgotten about my black hair. Uncle Kagan carried me to my room in the Imperial section of his warship. It was comforting that it was identical to the others.
“Mommy sick?” Neema asked as she followed and crawled into bed with me. She grabbed a handful of my hair. “Oh, Mommy sick. I take care of you.” She curled up to my side.
“You’re already making me feel better.” I told her. I closed my eyes and breathed in the scent of her hair.
Zared brought Niklos to me and then Peter. Once I was covered in babies, my heart began to hurt a little less. Luca got into bed beside me, held Niklos on his lap, and began reading to him. Peter became a sleepy weight on my shoulder as he fell asleep. Neema sat between us and turned the pages of the picture book. A sound startled me. Reaching over to the bedside table, I answered my vid-screen.
I found a furious Nico looking back at me. “Why haven’t you responded? Where are you and the children?”
“She answered?” Yukihyo asked irately.
“What happened to your hair?” Nico asked.
Zared took the vid-screen from me and walked out.
“Teagan, may I put Peter down for you?” Pierce asked.
“Will his bed fit in here?” I asked.
“Yes, your majesty.” Pierce carried Peter’s bassinet into the room and placed it beside my bed.
Inhaling deeply, I ran my hand over his head and back before putting him down. Thunderdrop, wary of Neema, decided to rest above Peter on the bassinet’s hood. Lorca and the chef each carried in a tray of food for Luca and me. We shared our meals with Neema and Niklos. They ate most of our potatoes. When Zared returned, Nico and Yukihyo were no longer angry with me, but I didn’t feel like talking to them.
“Daddy, Daddy, Coco, Mommy sick. See?” Neema held up my hair and frowned.
“Are you taking care of Mommy?” Yukihyo asked.
Neema said, “Yes. Where Fip?”
“Phillip is right here,” Yukihyo said.
“Fip, Mommy sick. Where you at?” Neema scowled at Phillip.
“I’m on my way home, Creampuff. I’ll meet you there, and we’ll get Mommy all better.”
“Okay. Look, Fip.” Neema showed him my hair.
“I see that.”
“Her hair got sick,” Neema explained sagely.
“Make her stay in bed until it gets better.”
“Okay. Bye,” she said.
I spoke up. “Niklos, tell Daddy what you said. Can you say Ma?”
“Did my boy say his first word?” Niklos asked.
Niklos patted the vid-screen where Nico’s face was. “Da,” he said.
Neema said, “Yes, Coco.” Then, she kissed his cheek.
Nico had a grin from ear to ear. Luca held Niklos on his lap. He kissed the top of his head and told him, “Your daddy has a good boy.”
“What about Neema?” she asked jealously.
Luca said, “You are the smartest and cutest little princess who I have ever seen.”
Neema nodded wisely and said, “Yes.”
Chapter Eighteen
When Peter woke in the middle of the night, I changed his diaper and then carried him into the sitting room to nurse. The claws at the ends of his fingers and toes had become thicker and darker in color, almost the shade of coffee. The tips were not as sharp as I once feared they would be. Peter was wide awake and wanted to be held on my shoulder. Once there, he held onto my hair and put his face close to mine. Peter touched our noses together. Remembering the greeting I had exchanged with King Rorgowyn, I inhaled slowly and then exhaled. Calm filled Peter.
I rubbed his back under his gown, stood, and went, as though drawn like water into a sponge, to the infirmary. My mother wasn’t dead? Nathan Green had murdered her. He had been executed for it. When I stepped inside of the infirmary, I saw senior medical officers studying monitor readings to either side of Neema Valen’s stasis chamber. Uncle Kagan sat across from her with his elbows on his knees.
“Over twenty years of her life have been stolen from her,” he said.
Walking over to him, I sat on the floor at his feet and held Peter. I used his clean baby scent to calm myself. “What about Nathan Green?” I asked as I leaned my back against his knees.
“He believed he had killed her and called his commanding officer for clean-up. He stabbed her over and over again. They must have put her in stasis before she died.”
“Why didn’t they call a doctor?” I asked. “Why?”
“They must have decided that Neema was easier to handle like this,” he answered.
“What are we going to do with the men responsible?”
“We don’t have them all, yet. The men you captured on your mission will be carefully interrogated.”
“Did we catch the one in the video?” I asked. That was the one that I wanted.
“No, but he wants us at war with the humans.”
The chief medical officer approached us. “Admiral Valen, we have administered the nanites. The regeneration of tissue w
ill be hampered by the Empress’ already stressed immune system.”
“What can I do to help my sister?”
“May I take a blood sample from you for analysis?”
“Yes.”
“Me, too,” I said. Uncle Kagan and I were led over to exam beds.
“Admiral, a few pints of your blood would….”
“Do it,” Uncle Kagan said without letting the doctor finish. Uncle Kagan laid back against the exam bed.
“Princess, thank you. However, Admiral Valen is a better match,” the chief medical officer said. “Sir, one of our main concerns for our patient is the severe damage to her liver. If you were to donate a small portion of yours, it would regrow quickly with the use of nanites. However, even with nanites, the Empress suffered too grievously to repair her own. With accelerated growth, we could transplant a healthy liver to replace her failed one in a few weeks.”
“Do it. Do whatever it takes,” he said. I kissed Uncle Kagan’s cheek.
The doctor said, “The sooner we begin, the better. Would you consider halting the fleet for the procedure? We only need a few hours.”
“Consider it done. Teagan, everything will be okay. We will have Neema back.” I nodded to him but couldn’t speak. It was all too much to hope for. “Go on. Go rest,” he said cajolingly to me. Then, he began giving orders to his second in command.
As I left the infirmary with Peter, thoughts of how my mother had suffered, how her life had been stolen from her, how those men had spoken about her, and how Nathan Green, the man who I had thought was my father, had stabbed her repeatedly filled my mind. The person behind it all was still out there. I called out to my Omnes Videntes.
Into their thoughts, I said, “Collect Eli and Drex. Order them to return to our ship. We aren’t done, yet.”
I carried Peter into Lorca’s room. He was asleep in his bed. “Lorca, wake up,” I whispered as I touched his shoulder.
“Princess?”
“Lorca, I need you and Pierce to take care of my children for me. Will you do that for me?”
“Yes, but why?”
“I have some unfinished business to complete. Hold onto this for me,” I said as I placed my wedding ring on his palm. “If Neema asks you where I am, tell her that I am getting well and that I love her very much.” On an impulse, I kissed Lorca’s cheek.
In my room, I dressed in the closet. Zared wasn’t in the bedroom. I hoped that he was already aboard the vessel.
“What are you doing?” Luca asked. Startled, I jumped.
“I’m going after that bastard in the video. He knows we have some of his men. If we don’t go after him now, we might never catch him.”
Luca grabbed my arms. “It’s too dangerous.”
“Yes, it is. That’s why I’m leaving the children here on Uncle Kagan’s ship where it’s safe. Stay here and protect them, Luca. I have to do this.” I gazed into my husband’s brown eyes willing him to understand. We would never be safe until this danger was eliminated.
Luca moved back a fraction to look me fully in the eyes. “I’d never let you go into danger without me. I’m your husband and will protect you. I’m going with you. Don’t argue.” Luca let go of my arms and was dressed in seconds. “Does your uncle know about this?”
“No, he’s busy donating some of his liver to my Momma. Nathan Green stabbed hers too many times.”
“Chitter chitter chitter chitter chitter!” Thunderdrop complained angrily and loudly.
“I want you to stay here and protect the babies,” I whispered.
“Chitter!”
“Fine. Hush.” I was forced to relent with Thunderdrop as well as Luca. Otherwise, my spider would alert the entire crew.
Closing my eyes, I reached out with my senses and felt Zared. He and the others were on the vessel. They used their telepathic abilities to turn notice away from Luca and me. Still, we hurried across the flight deck. They couldn’t do anything to hide our departure from the cameras or the ship’s logs. Zared, Drex, and Eli waited for us just inside of the hatch.
“Did I wake you?” I asked them.
“No, we have continued to discover other members of the anti-Parvac organization and have formulated a plan,” Eli said.
“Then let us execute it,” I said.
The hatch closed. We went up to the merchant vessel’s bridge. I took a seat and listened as Drex talked our way out of the warship. He easily convinced Uncle Kagan’s first officer that he was on a secret mission. After obtaining clearance to disembark, Drex flew us from the warship and out into the darkness of space.
Sara Eos had been roaming the streets of Amphictyon for days. It was morning. However, the tall buildings hid the grungy sky like angry, dead, metal trees. Thunderdrop’s claws scratched at the back of her neck under the black hooded cape she wore to keep them both dry. A transport zipped past splashing drops of water from a growing puddle over her black boots. Garish signs, advertising for businesses that tried to attract customers, blinked and flickered for as far as she could see. She had already picked up a nifty piece of tech for herself. Secured to her right earlobe, it looked like a gold stud earring that was attached with a thin gold wire to a second, smaller gold stud at the top of her ear. Pressing the smaller stud while moving her hair behind her ear, the “earring” began recording and sending everything that she saw and heard directly to whomever was linked into her signal. She assumed it would be Luca.
Sara Eos was the bait in the center of an elaborate web, and each time one of the men who called themselves Earth Loyalists was caught, she could feel it as he became stuck. At the moment, Rozz was the strand that was vibrating.
My telepathic brothers spanned the city around me. While keeping me under their scrutiny, they wandered through the city and window shopped in the minds of the strangers around us, searching for our enemies. After losing their bargaining chip and suffering losses, the Earth Loyalists had decided to lay low. They didn’t want to draw attention to themselves by fleeing too quickly from Amphictyon. So far, we had lured out and captured four of them in this way. Then, our inquisitors used their own methods to learn more. Their objective was to find the man I wanted, the one who had called my mother an “it.”
Sara Eos carried a bag of tech that she had purchased from a few stores. That was her reason for systematically roaming the city streets. She passed over the threshold of a café. Like some of the more profitable stores, it had an open storefront without a door. Instead, as customers walked through the entrance, shielding shimmered out of place and then reformed.
An AI robot, with blinking metal eyes and a white plasti body, that hovered three inches off of the ground, took my order and scanned my credit chip. Even though there were two humanoids working inside, the brunt of the work was done by robots. Sara stood to the side, put her bag on a table, and waited for her large chocolate coffee. A man came from behind the counter and handed it to her.
“Um, miss? A man gave me ten credits to tell you to meet him out back in the alley. He says you’ve been looking for him.”
Sara gave him a sexy grin. “Right, I get that a lot. Does this pervert have a description?” she asked while stalling for time.
“Human, pale skin, brown hair,” he said.
“Thanks.”
I picked up my bag, dropped my coffee lid to the table, and watched as the self-cleaning table pushed it over the edge into the built-in incinerator. With such sanitary businesses, it was surprising that Amphictyon had such a serious rat problem, like the one Sara was walking out of the back of the café to meet.
“I am here, but sense no one,” Zared said. “Do scans pick up any lifeform readings?” he asked.
“To her right as she exits, powerful neural blocker,” Xavier answered through our earpieces.
Sara dropped her bag and waited for the storeroom door leading out into the alley to open. Then, as she stepped out, she flung her coffee with her right hand and drew her blaster with her left. She fired repeatedly at the figur
e made visible by the brown, dripping fluid. Zared jumped down from his perch high above on a windowsill onto the man. Soon, Zared had the man’s visual displacement shield deactivated and had him in restraints. A hover bike sped toward us. It paused long enough for Zared to heft his captive onto the back seat and secure him before it sped away.
“Was that him?” I asked.
“No.”
“Zared, I’m sorry.” We began walking along the dark alley.
“My love, there is no need.”
“There is. I blamed you. I blamed all of you when I lost the baby. It wasn’t your fault.” My eyes heated, and my nose tingled, but I didn’t cry.
“It was a terrible loss for us all. I was never angry with you. However, you need for me to say it, so I will. All is forgiven.”
Sara Eos gave Zared Ponidi a quick kiss.
“Take cover!” Xavier screamed into our minds.
Zared and I raced hard for the closest business door. It wouldn’t budge. Then, we saw them. Hurling through the air at chest level were blaster missiles that had us targeted. We ran harder. Zared fired at them as we turned a corner. I rammed against doors with my shoulder trying to get inside. Finally, one opened. I felt Zared as he barreled into my lower back. We went flying through the storage room. I hit a metal shelf with my right hip, knocked it over, and sent it skidding around in circles across the floor. When I hit the floor with Zared on my back, we slid until my right shoulder hit the wall. The percussive boom had left my ears ringing. Zared was heavy on my legs.
“Zared?”
I couldn’t sense him. All around me, all that I could sense was shocked horror. I searched for Zared empathically.
“Zared?”
I twisted my body and crawled. Stone and mortar fell like hail as the back of the building continued to crumble.
“Zared?”
My husband’s eyes were a solid glassy black, staring at nothing. His long, dove-grey hair was red with his blood where it stuck to his back.
“Zared!” I screamed. “No, no, no, no, no.” Thunderdrop crawled from my neck and hopped down to the floor. I rolled Zared from his side to his back and felt his neck. “No, no, no.” I put my mouth to his and pushed air into his lungs. Then, I began chest compressions. I repeated my actions over and over again without effect until Xavier arrived with a medical kit. “He’s not dead. Tell me he’s not dead,” I pleaded.
The Spider Queen (The Space Merchants Book 5) Page 23
