Terian nodded somberly, those amber eyes as still as glass.
“He wants Revi’ still,” Terian whispered. “He wants him so much...so much it grinds in him, like stones. He wants the child, too...almost as much. Almost as much as he wants Revi’. You must not let him, Alyson. He can turn him, you know. Turn him. He’ll be so angry. So so angry at what you do. What you do to them both...”
Terian, or Feigran, or whoever he was, made a clicking motion with his fingers, right by his own ear.
“Flick the switch,” he whispered. “Make him bad again.”
I shook my head, feeling my jaw harden. “No,” I said. “No, Terry. That’s not possible.”
“If you take him away, if you steal him for good, the stars are aligned...”
“What stars? What does that mean?”
“The stars...when they fall in the sky...”
Terian’s voice faltered, then faded, even as another, even more distant expression crossed his face. His jaw grew slack as he gazed upwards at nothing.
I couldn’t help but stare at his loose face in bewilderment, coupled with a fascination I couldn’t keep entirely out of my voice.
“Feigran,” I said, softer. “Are you trying to warn me about something?”
His eyes clicked abruptly back into focus.
Looking down at me, directly that time, he nodded, his expression solemn. He had converted back into the hyper-serious schoolboy I remembered from when we first found him as Feigran in Seertown, living in the rubble of the House on the Hill.
“Find me, Allie,” he said, his voice pleading. “Even beyond the stars, it’s not safe,” he said, shaking his head at me. “Not safe for you...not safe for the girl. Careful about Daddy...careful. Careful, careful. Need to break the link. Need the Four for that. You can fix, but can’t really fix. Need me for that...need the Four. Do you understand?”
“No,” I said, bewildered. “Not in the slightest.”
I felt my jaw harden as I looked at him. That time, I couldn’t be sure if he’d meant Menlim when he’d said “Daddy,” or if he’d been talking about someone else.
Some part of me almost wondered if he’d meant––
“He warned you,” Feigran said, his voice a whisper once more. “A broken piece. Still broken.” He touched his own head, twisting his finger against his temple. “He doesn’t remember how they died. Ask him. Ask him about the girls...the women. Ask him about the teacher. The one who deflowered him...”
I swallowed, biting my lip as I stared at Feigran’s face.
“...He won’t remember,” Feigran finished. “Says he does. But he doesn’t.”
I could pick out pieces of that, but it hurt to think about.
I knew it couldn’t be a coincidence, though. The teacher. The one who deflowered him. He was talking about women in Revik’s past.
Women Revik’s uncle ordered him to kill.
Clearing my throat, I forced myself to speak.
“You mean Revik.” I cleared my throat again, feeling suddenly like a weight sat on my chest. “You’re talking about Revik now...aren’t you?”
Feigran nodded solemnly. “In through the out door. Further down. Below.”
“What door, Feigran?” I heard the fear in my own voice, but it came out mostly as anger. “You need to be clearer. You’re not making sense...”
“In through the out door,” he said, softer. “Stars will fall. He’ll kill you, too.”
“What?” I shook my head. “No. No...Revik would never hurt me.”
Watching me solemnly, Terian clicked his fingers again. From the look in his face, that was supposed to mean something to me, too.
“The out door,” he repeated. “The out door...”
“Feigran––”
“No. No more words!” Fear filled his eyes briefly, even as he shook his head. His voice lowered even more. “Ask him,” he said. “Ask him if he remembers. He won’t. He won’t remember that part. The last bit...when the light leaves. He’ll say he does...but he won’t!”
Suddenly his expression changed again, growing so serious I nearly flinched. He barked the next words at me, in a voice I’d never heard before.
“Find me! Find me, Allie! Please! You must go to Dubai, Allie! You must! It is imperative that you get there first! Before the stars fall...” His mouth hardened. “For fall they will. You cannot stop that now...not without sacrificing the girl...and you won’t. You won’t do that.”
I blinked up at him, shocked at the clarity I saw in his eyes.
The man there was a complete stranger to me.
And yet...weirdly...he wasn’t.
“Feigran?” I said.
But he blinked, too, as if coming out of a trance, only his clarity went in the other direction. The fogged look returned to his irises, a disconnect, leaving him childlike once more. I watched in bewilderment as Feigran motioned upwards in soft flicks and waves of his fingers and hands, as if imitating some invisible smoke drifted up to the ceiling of the tank through his fingers. I was still staring at him, biting my lip as I tried to decide what to ask him next...when he turned his head sharply, staring backwards over his own shoulder.
He froze, staring without moving at something on his side. Something I couldn’t see.
“Gods,” he whispered. “Daddy.”
“Feigran––”
“Meeting over,” he said. His voice remained fearful, distracted, even as he motioned at my body under the sheet. “We’ll do lunch. Exchange pleasantries. Next time, have him tie your legs apart, too, dearest...it’s much more aesthetically pleasing.”
Feeling my face flush in anger, I opened my mouth.
But before I could make so much as a sound...
Feigran disappeared.
11
NOT KIDDING
I JERKED MY head sideways even as the power came back on around me, as the floor lights rose, and the monitor switched on. I flinched at the volume, then spoke out a command to put the speakers back on the silent setting.
I looked towards the door into the tank, just in time to see the light over the opening switch from green to red. Feeling another irrational stab of fear, I scrambled to tug more of my legs under the sheet that still only wrapped halfway around my naked body. Then I just sat there, my uncuffed arm wrapped around the sheet I held against my chest.
At that point, I figured it was Revik. I figured someone must have found him by now.
Even so, I wasn’t about to chance it, all things considered.
As it turned out, it’s a good thing I didn’t.
When I saw Balidor standing by the door, soon to be followed by Chandre, Pagoj, Chinja and Jorag, I must have given them a pretty blank look.
“My gods, Alyson!” Balidor walked towards me, holstering his gun, even as he motioned to the others in the room to check it. “What did he do to you? Are you all right?”
“I’m fine...” When he didn’t slow his steps, I raised my voice, and my hand, indicating for him to stop. “‘Dori, I’m fine.”
“You said it was virtual,” Balidor said. “How did he lock you to the wall? Did he take control over the organics of the room...?”
“He didn’t do this,” I blurted.
Balidor froze, stopping in mid-motion as he’d been about to reach for my cuffed wrist.
I stared up at him, momentarily speechless as I realized what he’d assumed––what they’d all assumed upon seeing me locked to the wall after a breach alarm went off and I told them that Terian had projected himself into the cell. It occurred to me, even as the thoughts sifted through my mind in a disjointed stream, that I couldn’t get out of this one.
I couldn’t get out of explaining this part of it to any of them.
Or, well, maybe I could have...but that moment had already departed.
Looking up at Balidor’s suddenly tense face, I shrugged with my free hand, seer style, then returned it back to gripping the sheet around me.
“It’s all right,” I said.
“Really, ‘Dori...I’m okay.” Hesitating, I stripped my voice of even more emotion when I added, “The breach was purely virtual. No Barrier contact that I could feel. He had access to the electronics, including the power source. He must have piggybacked the signal. That’s how he got to the alarms and the electricity, too, I’m guessing...”
I trailed, still fighting to keep my voice as businesslike as possible.
Even so, I felt my face grow hotter, the longer I spoke.
“...Everything’s fine in here,” I finished lamely. “You should probably go talk to the hacks.”
Glancing up, I realized Balidor remained half-bent over the headboard by my cuffed arm. When I caught his gaze that time, though, he straightened rapidly, moving as if he’d been burnt. Or maybe as if I’d told him I might explode.
When he still didn’t speak, I sharpened my voice.
“You don’t need to be in here,” I said. “It was a network hit. That’s tech. Right? He used the monitor, but other than the ID, there’s nothing in here that can help you.”
I bit my lip, once more out of words.
The room fell silent.
Even Chinja, who’d been speaking quietly into her headset from the other side of the room, froze as she was about to open an access panel into the wall organics. I saw her stop speaking in mid-sentence to whoever she had on the other end of the line, her face turning sharply towards me with wide, orange-tinted eyes. I saw those eyes click back into focus right before she murmured some excuse into the headset and clicked it off.
Averting her gaze, she flushed, rearranging her hands on the rifle she held.
Somewhere in that, I looked down at myself.
I knew, as soon as I did it, that it was a mistake.
I felt their eyes follow mine down to my relative state of undress, then up to my arm cuffed to the wall. I felt my skin turn a few different shades of red as I felt it click for them abruptly, for every seer in the room, what it was they were really looking at.
Of course, I saw Balidor’s face change, too.
He backed away even more from the bed.
I saw his gray eyes flicker down over me in the pause, saw him take in the length of my body where I sprawled, obviously naked under the single sheet I’d only managed to half-assedly wrap around myself, even now. I hugged that sheet to my chest, unable to hide in any way the wrist obviously cuffed to the wall.
As I watched Balidor’s face, I couldn’t help thinking the Adhipan leader quite possibly turned even more different colors of red and pink than I had. Although, yeah, I couldn’t exactly see myself right then...to compare the two of us, I mean.
“I’m okay,” I said, when it became clear that they weren’t going to speak. “Really. You can go. The breach happened through the network...not in here. Go take care of it.”
I trailed, feeling my face flush hotter when none of them moved.
Glancing around at faces, I felt my jaw harden, too.
Jorag was openly gaping at me. He’d also flushed, but I didn’t get much of an embarrassment vibe on him, not the way I did with Balidor. Jorag looked more like he’d just walked onto a sound stage in the middle of a porn shoot and was hoping he might be called in as an extra. I saw his eyes focus on my bare feet, poking out from under the off-white sheet. Feeling my face warm more, I pulled them closer to my body, along with my legs and my one free arm.
Chandre averted her gaze a lot faster than Chinja or any of the three men. Even so, I saw her cheeks flush dark red, which may have been a first, at least from my perspective.
When none of them spoke, I cleared my throat.
“Revik’s not here,” I said, unnecessarily.
Balidor wasn’t looking at me anymore, either. He cleared his throat, too. If anything, his skin turned even darker than before. He glanced at Chandre, then Jorag and Pagoj, even as he began backing rapidly away from the bed.
“Apologies, Alyson.” Balidor cleared his throat again. “...Esteemed Bridge. We were concerned for you. We thought you were under attack...”
“Aren’t there, like, sensors...?” I said, my voice more openly testy that time.
“He shut them off,” Balidor began. Trailing, he made a vague gesture with one hand in my direction, his voice still at a loss. “...Before. I imagine.”
“Before what?” I said. “Who shut them off? Terian?”
“The Sword,” Jorag blurted.
When I looked at Jorag again, I saw he hadn’t stopped staring at me. His blue eyes looked nearly distant now, and it struck me that I was in pain, which probably wasn’t helping...nor was Revik’s absence, considering it probably only made that pain worse. Since Jorag and I currently shared a construct, however briefly, I felt pain on him, too, enough that I grimaced, averting my eyes when he didn’t avert his. Looking back at Balidor, somewhat incredulously that time, I tugged the sheet higher up my body, gripping it with my free arm.
“Um...get the fuck out?” I said, letting them hear my annoyance that time.
For a second, all six of them just stared at me.
Then they all seemed to move at once, shuffling backwards and sideways and essentially walking into one another and banging their rifles together to get back through the door to outside. It might have been funny if I hadn’t been handcuffed to a wall. As it was, I could only sit there, watching them, feeling like I’d been transported into some black and white slapstick comedy, like my dad used to make me watch with him about a hundred years ago.
I don’t think I let out my held breath until the door shut.
I watched the light over the door as it turned from red back to green, indicating that the seal on the construct was back in place. I was still lying there, staring at the ceiling in a kind of disbelief, when the earpiece I’d tossed on the table let off a low tone.
Rolling my eyes, I let go of the sheet, half crawling to that side of the bed so I could scoop the danged thing up in my hand.
“Hello?” I said, my voice deliberately annoyed that time.
“Alyson, I sincerely apologize...”
“I know, ‘Dori...forget it.”
“No, I am very, very sorry. I should have contacted you via the transmitter before we broke in. You had already told me it was a virtual invasion. We have the tech team working on it, of course, but I thought you might be in danger, especially if––”
“‘Dori, forget it,” I said, sighing. “Does Revik know yet?”
“I do not know. I saw him upstairs earlier, but not since the breach. He said he had some errands to run before he went downstairs. I told him I needed to check some of the sensor units inside the tank...”
“You told him you were coming down here?” I said, hiding my annoyance less well that time. “And he let you? Seriously?”
“No,” Balidor said quickly. “No...not in the way you mean. I did not specify when I would be doing this. We spoke of other things, too, tests of his light, and different dates were proposed for those, as well. So, it is natural that he assumed––”
“Yeah,” I sighed. “Okay. I get it.”
Even so, I knew Balidor. A little, anyway. Even when I couldn’t feel his light, which rarely helped me to read him, anyway, I could sometimes tell when something was up with him.
“So why did you come now?” I said. “...You obviously were coming down here to check the tank now, right? That’s why you were handy when the breach alarm went off, instead of being upstairs?” I paused, feeling my jaw tighten as I remembered our conversation of the day before, out on the dock. “I mean, you waited until Revik was out, right? Were you thinking I would be out, too, ‘Dori?”
Silence fell over the link connection.
Before he could answer, I let out a more expressive sigh.
“What is it?” I said. “What’s going on?” Remembering Terian’s words, I felt my jaw harden. “You know something, don’t you? About Revik’s light?”
“No, no, Alyson...nothing like that.”
“Then what? Clearly you
don’t want Revik to know, whatever it is.”
At the other man’s silence, I exhaled again, clicking in overt annoyance.
“I see. And am I supposed to keep this secret from Revik, too? Because you know how well that goes over, when he finds out. And he always does, you know...find out...sooner or later.” Biting my lip, I added, “I’m already in the doghouse for keeping things from him. Even when I’m dead, apparently, this pisses him off. I don’t really want to do it again. Not unless there’s a damned good reason, ‘Dori.”
The silence on the line deepened.
That time, I strongly suspected he was exchanging meaningful looks or actual thoughts with the seers who accompanied him into the construct cell. When that pause finished, Balidor cleared his throat.
“Are you going to tell me what Terian said to you, Alyson?” he said.
I let out a snort. “Really? Really, ‘Dori?”
“You know what I mean,” Balidor said. “I am asking, could we discuss this later, Esteemed Bridge? In private? Perhaps in the same conversation where I tell you of my own concerns, and the reason I went to your husband’s quarters while I thought them unattended? I will say, in preface to that discussion, that my actions were precautionary only, in the wake of what occurred in Macau, and prior to our discussions around Dubai. I merely wished to not alarm the two of you by creating an issue before I had any reason for true concern...”
Clicking under my breath, I exhaled loudly, in open irritation. “Fine. When?”
“Are you available later today?”
Looking up at my cuffed wrist, I felt my jaw harden. “I can only hope.”
That time, I heard the other man let out an involuntary snort of laughter, along with what had to be a smile. “You know you’ll never hear the end of this, right?”
Rolling my eyes, I retorted, “Yeah, well...you know Revik has a tendency to be a bit traditional when it comes to his subordinates seeing me in compromising positions. Maybe you and your pals should just restrain yourselves. For a change.”
“Are you threatening me with your husband, Esteemed Bridge?” Balidor said. “Perhaps you envision a duel of some kind? Is he fighting battles for your honor these days, too?”
Allie's War Season Four Page 83
