Love and Intrigue Under the Seven Moons of Kordea

by Helena Puumala

  There was no need to call Marlyss; she was already at the top of the stairs leading into the tower room, a couple of apprentices shadowing her.

  The Eldest of the Twelve took a quick look at the people in the room, and sent one of the apprentices to fetch some servants.

  “And tell them to bring clothes for those two,” she said, frowning at the two teens who were cowering together in their nakedness, seemingly ready to start howling like a couple of frightened children.

  Not that Jillian could blame them. They must have been in shock, suddenly transported to they knew not where from the scene of their sexual exploits. But she had no time for them. What was Coryn going to do and say, if Sarah’s life was the price of winning the battle with The Organization?

  Well, she knew the answer to the question. He would get on with his work, which in this case would be to take another Mission to the Settlement planet, this one to rescue the men stranded there. He would do it even if his heart was breaking; he was that kind of a person. He’d feel responsible for the plight of Joe, Texi, Jaime, and all the others, including Roland and Elli. Elli, the only one of the Mission women whom Sarah had not transported to Kordea, for the simple reason that she had not been in the Neotsarian Facility.

  Coryn would also set about rescuing Sarah’s father and brother, now that it was known that they were in The Organization hands. And the third man in the laboratory, even if he was a Neotsarian, at least nominally. He would not want to leave those three to perhaps rebuild the amarto-reflector, under Neotsarian threats.

  The Mission would not be complete until the rescues had been effected, and Coryn was not in the habit of leaving work half-done. Not even when his heart was breaking.

  *****

  “Coryn, can you come to Ferhil Stones, at your earliest convenience?”

  It was Marlyss’ voice on the communicator. The blinding afternoon was not far advanced, and Coryn had barely slept during this sleep cycle. But there was a curious combination of urgency and hesitation in the Eldest’s tone which immediately alerted the Liaison Officer to expect—he knew not what.

  “Has something happened, Marlyss?” he asked, forgetting to be formal in his address. “Should I be concerned?”

  “I’d rather not talk about it over the com,” Marlyss said, and now her voice sounded tired. “I’d like you to come and see—and hear—for yourself. But bring a flyer, not a flit—a couple if you can manage it.”

  “All right. I’ll get on it right away.”

  Now, that was odd, and alarming.

  He called the Port Emergency to put in a request for a couple of mid-sized passenger flyers, and a pilot for one of them.

  “A request from Witch Marlyss at Ferhil Stones,” he explained to the woman manning the com during the sleeping hours. “And no, I don’t know what is going on, but I’m pretty sure it has something to do with The Mission to The Organization Facility. I’m hoping for the best, but, Heaven knows, I fear the worst.”

  The woman agreed to have two Kordean-day-adapted vehicles ready for him at the Maintenance Parking in a half an hour, along with a trained pilot. Coryn thanked her and signed off, stumbling into the shower with the hope of reviving enough to make it through whatever would be coming at him during the rest of the day, and the work night that would follow.

  Curt and Dili were off, of course, so there was no freshly brewed coffee; he’d get a container of the so-called “unreasonable facsimile” which was available at the Port Maintenance, dispensed by a machine at all hours of the day. His servants would be scandalized, but he could live with it. Besides, he would no doubt be offered food and drink at Ferhil Stones.

  For one disturbing heartbeat, he thought that the pilot waiting for him to sign for the flyers was Texi; then he recognized him for one of the young Kordean employees of the Maintenance Sector, named Gen.

  Gen was carrying two containers of the “unreasonable facsimile”, and passed one to Coryn while the clerk on day duty processed the loan of the vehicles.

  “Thought that you might need it, Liaison Officer,” he said with a grin. “The clerk at Port Emergency said that things must have started happening on The Mission, what with Witch Marlyss requesting your presence with two flyers at Ferhil Stones. Maybe they need all the Circles brought in, or something. And your servants would be in their homes, sleeping, right now.”

  “Thanks,” Coryn replied, taking the offered beverage, and downing a hot swallow immediately. “I don’t know what’s up, Witch Marlyss refused to say; didn’t want to talk over the com. But for her to ask me to head out as soon as I could, in the middle of the day.... I’m worried to be honest.”

  “Well, let’s get going, then. The sooner we get there, the sooner you’ll find out.”

  Coryn smiled at the young man, thinking, once again, how much he liked working with the young Kordeans the Port habitually hired. They were always ready to do what needed to be done.

  *****

  “Jillian, what the hell?”

  A hooded manservant had ushered Coryn and Gen into the stone building which was the Ferhil Stones’ main structure, and they had been busy peeling off their cowled garments meant to keep them at least somewhat protected from the harsh rays of the hot sun, when two women had entered the anteroom through an inner door. Marlyss Coryn had expected, but Jillian Ashton? Shouldn’t she have been on The Mission halfway across the galaxy? He was so taken aback that he forgot to ritually greet the Eldest of the Twelve.

  Jillian glanced at Gen without answering, and swallowed.

  “You brought two flyers, then, Coryn,” she said. “As Witch Marlyss asked you to. Good. We can get some of the people who ended up here, to Trahea. You don’t mind if I settle at least some of them at the Official Residence, do you? Lots of room there, and Curt and Dili will take good care of them. And I wouldn’t mind getting back to the Office to contact the Agency Headquarters. We need to determine the next step to be taken, and I mean to be in on that.”

  Coryn stared at her. What was with Jillian?

  “What’s going on here?” he asked, directing his question at Marlyss.

  “Sarah transported a whole roomful of women, some amarto-sensitive, some not, from The Organization Facility to our workroom here,” Marlyss answered.

  “Sarah transported...?” His head reeled. “Using the power of the amartos in the cache?”

  There was a sick sensation in the pit of his stomach.

  “Where is she now?”

  He looked from one woman to the other. There were tears in Jillian’s eyes, he realized, but she was keeping a stiff upper lip. Marlyss, straight-backed, strong Marlyss was looking at him with eyes filled with concern.

  “I’ll take you to her,” she said quietly. “Jillian can arrange the visitor transport; she’s perfectly competent, as we both know. And there are lots of people who’ll help her.”

  With that she took hold of Coryn’s arm and began to steer him into the building’s innards. Why was he not in the least surprised to find them heading towards the Stronghold Infirmary?

  *****

  The scenario in the Infirmary was agonizingly familiar.

  Sarah lay on a bed in a lovely room, covered up to her neck in soft, plaid blankets. Coryn was not certain whether it was the same room in which she had been kept the last time she had been comatose in Ferhil Stones, or another one very like it. There was a mat on the wooden floor, and the window did not have the usual heavy, daytime drapes, because the thick-skinned foliage growing outside kept the sunlight from penetrating inside. There was a table, with a chair, under the window, and an open door to a washroom, across the room from the bed. A comfortable chair had been settled beside the bed, and Witch Dian was sitting in that chair. Beside her and the chair lay the Greencat; seeing the animal there had Coryn’s heart skipping a beat. The scene was entirely too reminiscent of the time when the Circle of the Twelve had tried to bring Sarah back after she had escaped from mental powers chasing her, by crossing the boundaries b
etween realities!

  The moment Coryn and Marlyss entered the room the Greencat stood up and padded over to them, and to Coryn’s surprise, reached to nuzzle one of his hands. He reached to run his other hand over the animal’s sleek fur on its nape and back, though his eyes were on Sarah’s face which looked frighteningly empty. Dian rose from the chair and came over to the two at the door as well.

  “I’ve been keeping your chair warm for you, Coryn,” she said. “We thought that someone should be here with her all the time, just in case.... Although the Greencat’s a faithful companion to her, too.”

  “What happened?” His voice sounded shaky even to himself.

  “Their machine—the amarto-reflector—held her and me, the two sensitives that they had got hold of previously, and Jaime, and the other three men in the lab, as prisoners. It was draining Sarah’s and my amarto-energies, strengthening itself while weakening us. The tremendous amount of power in the amarto-cache allowed Sarah to break through, tearing apart the reflector-refractor at the same time.

  “After doing that she transported all the women in the building, here. The idea behind that was to make certain that the Neotsarians—as The Organization people call themselves—would not be able to reactivate the machine, no matter what, since they no longer had any sensitives with Stones, at hand.

  “Only, what she did required a tremendous burst of energy. She got lost in it, I believe, and ended up, we don’t know where. Now we’re just waiting for her to figure it out for herself, and to decide to work her way back here.”

  “It’s not like the last time,” Marlyss said. “She now knows how to build bridges between realities, and can enter her body without any coaxing. Assuming that she wants to do so.”

  “Assuming that she wants to?” Coryn felt sick. “What do you mean, assuming that she wants to?”

  “Some of the other realities can be—alluring,” replied Marlyss. “Sometimes a person who finds herself, or himself, in one of those, decides to stay there, thereby ending her or his journey in this reality.”

  “When she spoke of her dream she mentioned a place she called Eden.”

  “One of the most delightful realities,” Marlyss said softly. “Often thought of as a place of rest, but they do take in travelling souls who want to stay.”

  Coryn’s head swam. He wasn’t sure whether it was because he hadn’t eaten for hours, or for some other reason. He realized that Dian was leading him to the chair beside Sarah’s bed. Gently, she pushed him into it. Marlyss handed a box of wipes to her, and it was only as she began to dry his cheeks that he realized that they were wet with tears.

  He was barely aware of Marlyss and Dian when they left the room, leaving him alone with Sarah, the Greencat and his heartache. At some point the Greencat came to sit beside him, laying its head onto his thigh, and staring at him out of its beautiful eyes. Sometime later, Dian came in with a tray of soup and bread, and a large mug of the spicy, chocolaty, hot drink which Kordeans preferred, and stood over him imperiously until he had consumed most of it.

  “Jillian told me to tell you that there’s still a lot of work to be done,” she said, before she left with the dirty dishes. “She said that you could be counted on to do your duty, no matter what.”

  He managed a weak smile, and Dian coaxed the Greencat to leave; it needed to eat and drink, and to look after its other needs. He stared at Sarah’s empty face, fighting back the tears that were threatening again. If only he had told her how much she mattered to him! Why hadn’t he, anyway? Had it been his sense of duty, or just foolish pride, because she had been toying with him, and it had annoyed him? She was seven years younger than he was, still a girl at times, and had the right to play games with the men who took an interest in her. He ought to have understood that, and made the necessary allowances!

  “So many women in my life,” he muttered aloud. “And only the one who truly matters. And I never even got to kiss you, Sarah, never mind to hold you in my arms, or anything more than that. Will you please come back to me, beloved, and let me do my best to stop being such an idiot?”

  There was no one in the room to hear his pleading, of course. And Jillian was right about him doing his duty. He would continue the necessary work—go off, this time, with whoever else was going, to fetch the people who had been left behind when Sarah had done her transporting trick. He just needed a little more time to sit in this room, next to the husk of the woman he loved. Just a little more time—a few hours, maybe.

  *****

  “What the fuck just happened? My wife disappeared!”

  Joe stared at the empty space in the hallway where Jillian had been standing, shouting that the invisible barrier was suddenly gone.

  “Probably the other women are gone, too,” Jeb said, heading for the lounge door.

  He pushed it open and looked in.

  “Yeah, only Jaime is left in here, and he’s waking up,” he added. “Look in the lab; see who’s left in there. Probably just the men. Our Witches must have transported the women to safety. Maybe that’s why Sarah needed all those Stones loose.”

  Texi had the laboratory door open and was staring inside.

  “Yeah, there are only the three guys here,” he informed the men in the hall. “My wife’s gone, too. And the crazy machine that I remember from the other day is just a pile of blackened parts.

  “Now what?”

  “Now we take the guys in the lab with us and get the hell out of here,” said Jaime, rushing out of the lounge. He appeared to be in fine form in spite of the stretch of inactivity which he had suffered. “We’re gonna get shot at with more than stunners, if we don’t. Sarah pulled the women out, but not even she, and using a whole cache of amartos, could transport everybody across the galaxy. She took the women, since that was the fastest way to get the amarto-sensitives out from the Neotsarian hands.”

  “Which leaves us, the y-chromosome cohort to make our own way out without the women’s help,” said Joe, grinning sardonically.

  He joined Texi at the lab door.

  “Come on, male lab workers, whoever you are!” he shouted. “We’re leaving, and we’re not letting you stay here to recreate that infernal piece of equipment for the Neotsarian jokers!”

  “What’s the best way to get out?” Texi asked no one in particular, looking down the hall, both ways in turn.

  The three in the laboratory were up on their feet, and making for the door within seconds.

  “We go out the way we came in,” Jaime said, pulling his stunner out. “Jeb killed the cameras along that route, besides which we need to get to our flyer. Pity about the vehicle parts that we never did get, Joe and Texi.”

  “We did get the most necessary stuff, yesterday,” Texi replied. “Too bad the girls didn’t leave their stunners, though. The lab workers could have used them.”

  At that the younger of the black-haired men came to an abrupt stop. He turned around, and ran back to the desk at which he had been sitting; pulled open a drawer. He grabbed three items from the drawer, banged it shut, and returned to the hallway.

  “Here, Dad, and Jerold,” he said, handing a small weapon to each of his companions. “Pity they’re only stunners, but Les did not have permission to kill any of us in the lab. Me, I’d like to take a laser pistol to the cursed Neotsarians, especially the Elites, considering what they’ve done to my life.”

  “Then it’s a good thing we don’t have any laser pistols available,” Joe commented. “It’s not good for the soul to kill people, especially when your blood’s boiling. Learned that from my Agent wife, who, herself, can get pretty pissed off at times.”

  “Jillian’s a smart woman,” Jaime said. “So everybody’s armed—Stu, Roge, right? Let’s go—that way.” He pointed, for the benefit of the three new men.

  “How did he get to take over?” muttered Roge, giving Jaime a baleful glance.

  Jaime was already leading the way.

  “Probably because he’s the genius among us,” Jeb answer
ed Roge’s query, “and was in rapport with the Witches, so he knows a few things that the rest of us don’t. Suits me just fine, having Jaime in the lead.”

  Joe thought that the way Jaime was moving showed something other than mere academic genius. He travelled quickly but warily, stopping at the first bend in the hall to carefully reconnoitre the next stretch, warning the others behind him not to show themselves while he studied the path around the corner from a low, crouching position.

  “Methinks that Jaime has studied some guerrilla tactics, somewhere, somewhen,” Joe muttered to Texi in a low voice, as the two of them herded the new fellows, while allowing Jaime and the true Agents to take the lead.

  “He’s leading us the same way Jillian did, on the way to the lab,” Texi agreed. “And she’s a trained Agent.”

  They had no time to discuss the matter further, since Jaime was now hurrying on, while beckoning the others to follow.

  The stretch of hallway past the bend was clear, as was the next straight, although Jaime checked it out, too, before broaching it.

  “I expect that they’ve concentrated their forces—probably are short of manpower—at the outside door,” he said to the others, after a scan of the last straight stretch of hall. “We’ll have to get through them there, and short the fence, to get to our flyer.”

  “Short the fence?” asked the sandy-haired one of the new men.

  “Yeah. It’s electrified,” replied Jaime. “No doubt that was done to keep you guys in—and, now, us, of course.”

  “If we can toss a large metal object against it, that should do the trick,” Joe said. “It ought to ground the current.”

  “Except that we don’t have a large metal object handy,” objected the sandy-haired man. “And from what you guys are saying it sounds like we’ll be fighting our way ahead once we reach the door.”

  “Don’t worry about the gate,” Jeb spoke up. “Just concentrate on fighting through. I’ve got a few more tricks up my sleeve—and settings on my stunner. Leave the fence to me.”