"But Teeg say you be upset about moving."
"Probably, but I'll be upset with him, not you. How's that?" Nenzi was leaning closer to me. "You want a kiss too?" Nenzi grinned. He got his kiss on the cheek. We went shopping for sleeveless shirts and shorts after that. Jes' workouts must have produced muscle I didn't have before—clothes fit tighter so I got different sizes. I certainly had more muscle and definition in my legs now. I bought sandals for all of us, Lenden included, when he said he was coming along. He was surprised that I'd even think of it.
"Well, you need something too, don't you think?" I looked up at him. He just shrugged. "Besides, Teeg's paying." I grinned and flipped the chip bracelet on my wrist.
"Now see, Farzi was supposed to tell you so you'd be over your mad by the time you got back," Teeg said. He was pulling his shirt off to go shower—he was taking me to dinner. Kiasz was going to cook for us and we'd be served in one of the private rooms in the restaurant.
"You wanted me to be mad at Farzi instead?" I had my hands on my hips.
"No, I just thought you'd be calmer if the news came from him." Teeg let his pants drop. The underwear followed. At least he picked up after himself.
"You're not going to tell me where we're going?"
"No. I may not tell you when we get there. You might figure it out for yourself, though."
"Great." I flopped onto the bed, feeling a snit coming on.
"Reah." Teeg came over and pulled me up again. Leaned down to kiss me. His naked body was telling me what it wanted, even if he never said. We were nearly late getting to dinner.
* * *
Teelas. That's where we landed. It was hard to wrap my head around the fact that it actually existed. Hot as a desert most of the time; the rains came in late afternoon or early evening. If it were hot enough, the cold rain hitting the hot stones that made up the roadways often steamed and sizzled as it hit.
Teelas was a paradox. Tales said that it was created by wizardry of some sort. Lush trees and plants grew in small oases around the equator, where most of the population lived. Of that population, which numbered around ten million, two-thirds held some sort of power. Rogue wizards or warlocks found it easy to blend in, there. Teeg must have gotten information from the two he'd captured, leading us to Teelas. The two captives were already gone when we left for Teelas—I had no idea what Teeg had done with them.
All four of Teeg's warlocks were with us and quite happy to be on Teelas. Farzi and Nenzi had come—the other reptanoids had stayed on Campiaa. Lenden, Jusef, Marc and Jes made up the rest of our party.
"Little girl, do you remember anything about your mother?" Lenden sat down heavily at the bar that fronted a spacious kitchen; Teeg had rented a spacious, well-appointed home for us. I handed Lenden an iced fruit juice blend and he sipped it as he watched me prepare other drinks for Jusef and Marc.
"My mother died shortly after I was birthed. I have no memories of her," I said, wondering why he wanted to know. "You can ask Teeg—he probably has more information on that than I do. My father, whom I thought was my brother for the longest time, managed to plot with his mother to get Raedah killed. That's all I know." I could have asked Lendill for the entire file and the court transcripts. I didn't. Edan and Marzi had confessed to their crimes, and that was enough for me. They were still in prison.
"What about you? They didn't treat you very well, did they?"
"That I know more about," I nodded. "I was happy to get away from all of them when the conscription notice came."
"You're an Alliance conscript?"
"She's ASD. She probably won't tell you that, so I will." Teeg came in with Astralan and sat with us at the bar. Marc and Jusef got their drinks, so I started working on something for Teeg and Astralan.
"Can I get a little Sardof in mine?" Astralan wheedled. I looked at Teeg; he nodded benignly. I poured a shot of the clear alcohol into Astralan's drink. I started to pour some into the drink I made for myself but Teeg slapped his hand over my glass. I sighed and put the top back on the bottle.
"What do you do for the ASD?" Lenden was still curious.
"She won't tell you that either. Or the fact that she's High Demon. Or that she has two other mates who are likely going crazy right now, since I have her."
"Thanks, Teeg. Difik," I muttered and walked angrily out of the kitchen.
* * *
"She called you an idiot," Lenden lifted an eyebrow at Teeg.
"I know what difik means," Teeg grumbled, watching Reah walk away from him. He shouldn't have mentioned her other mates—that was a sore spot and he was digging into it.
Lenden wanted to tell Teeg how much Reah looked like Queen Belarok, her great-grandmother. He didn't. It wasn't time to tip his hand. He wanted Reah to trust him. Perhaps to care for him as she did those others—the ones with the eyes of reptiles. They were humanoid in every other way and Reah loved them as if they were family. Lenden was family and he wanted to tell Reah that more than anything. I will be patient, he told himself. Over and over until he believed it.
* * *
"What's wrong?" I sat on a chaise in the enclosed courtyard next to Jes, who spoke after noticing the angry frown on my face.
The square courtyard was surrounded by the rest of the house, and held a pool, a patio and a lush garden with tropical plants. I'd gone straight to the patio after Teeg upset me with his callous references to Tory and Aurelius.
"Teeg. Just—Teeg," I snapped.
"What did he do?" Jes made to rise from his chair. I motioned for him to sit back down. Jes wanted to be friendly—more than I wanted him to be.
"He won't let me have alcohol. I didn't even get a glass of wine with my meal last night."
"It's not good for you—you're still convalescing."
"Surely a little wouldn't hurt." I couldn't believe Jes was siding with Teeg.
"Reah, just bear with us. All this will go away after a while. In the meantime, you have to keep up your strength in case Teeg needs you to go out with him."
"Oh sure—let Reah get shot at but she sure won't get any alcohol. Which is more dangerous, Jes? You're the physician, tell me." I was grumpy and out of sorts and I knew it. Teeg's dig about Tory and Aurelius had capped off my anger with him. If it weren't for the fact that he held Gavril, I'd have walked out of the house and gone anywhere else right then.
I wanted to shout at Teeg for taking my mindspeech away. Shout at him even more about taking my skipping ability away. But more than anything, I wanted to shout at him for kidnapping Gavril and then holding me captive. I was so upset after only a few moments I wanted to weep. I got up and threw my glass of juice against the stone fountain nearby, shattering the glass to tiny pieces. "I hate you!" I shouted. "I hate you!" I stormed out of the courtyard, brushing tears away that I wanted to hold back.
* * *
"What the fuck happened?" Teeg was there within ticks, taking in the shattered glass and Jes' stunned expression. "What did you do to her?"
"I?" Jes had his fingers at his chest. "I didn't do anything. She complained that you wouldn't let her drink, sat down for a few moments, got up, threw her glass against the fountain, shouted I hate you twice and then ran off crying. I did nothing."
"She was shouting at you? That she hated you?"
"No—I got the idea she was talking about you." Jes leveled his gaze at Teeg.
"Fuck." Teeg started to go after Reah. "Clean this up," he said to nobody in particular, waving a hand vaguely toward the shattered glass and took off down the corridor leading to the bedrooms.
* * *
"Reah, I can break this door down if I have to." Teeg's muffled voice came through the locked door.
"Go ahead," I shouted. "Break down the door. Do whatever the fuck you want, Teeg. That's what you do!" I shouted back at him. I heard him cursing through the door. I might have shouted at him again, or thrown something at him if he'd come through the door any other way. As it is, he performed his invisibility trick and walked right th
rough it instead.
"Now, Reah, care to tell me what this is all about?" His arms were crossed over his chest as he materialized in front of me.
I was sitting on the side of the bed—it was the spot I'd chosen to do my crying. Now he was interrupting me. "You," I stood and jabbed a finger into his chest, "are the one who brought up my mates, like they mean nothing to me. That Gavril means nothing to me. That you get to do whatever you want with me and that's supposed to be all right. It's not all right. You never tell me anything, yet you go off and tell everybody everything about me, like it doesn't matter." I was really crying now. I didn't normally do that. Was it the stress? I'd been stressed before and hadn't broken down like this. I had no idea what was wrong with me.
"Reah, you're allowing your emotions to get the better of you."
"My emotions are not the problem!" I shouted. Yes, I shouted at Teeg San Gerxon. Would it harm Gavril? I was suddenly terrified.
"Reah, I'm not going to try to reason with you right now—I don't think that's possible. When you're ready to talk rationally, then come and find me." Teeg left the same way he'd come in. I threw the lamp at the door. The base was metal, so only the shade was damaged. It did make a satisfying thump against the door when it hit. The door was dented pretty good too—my strength was coming back.
"Difik," I muttered.
* * *
I didn't talk to anyone when I got up the next morning. I made my own breakfast and then went back to bed, huddling there and reading a book on the comp-reader Jes had given me. Nenzi and Farzi came looking for me after a click or two.
"Reah, you getting dressed today?" Farzi asked quietly.
"No." I thumbed the comp-reader, getting to the next chapter in my book.
"Teeg want to hunt rogues this morning."
"Does he?" I kept reading.
"Yes. He say that." Nenzi was nodding.
"Nenzi, if he wants me to know something, then he should have enough manhood to come and tell me himself. I love you and Farzi both. I know Teeg sent you. I'm not speaking to Teeg." I went back to my book.
Farzi and Nenzi looked at one another before leaving my room quietly. Teeg hadn't come to bed with me last night, so I was claiming the room as mine.
"Reah, what is this?" Teeg was there moments later, looking like a thundercloud. I didn't say anything to him.
"Reah, get up this instant and get dressed—we have to go out."
I still didn't speak to him, but I did get up and get dressed. I walked out of the bedroom, Teeg right behind me. Astralan was waiting for us, as was Lenden. Astralan folded us to a building somewhere within the city where we stayed.
"She's not talking," Astralan said after a while. Teeg appeared to have some destination in mind but he hadn't said what it was.
"She'll burst if she doesn't talk after a while," Teeg muttered. I wanted to give him a hard elbow to the ribs. Teeg turned down an alley after we walked for a quarter click. The buildings on both sides were placed so closely together, only a small amount of sunlight found its way into that narrow space. It was quite dark there after leaving the brightly lit street behind. I could see an open courtyard farther down that was brighter, but for now, we walked down a narrow, darkened cobblestone tunnel between stucco walls reaching upward for three or four stories.
I wanted to tell Teeg he was leading us into a trap. With my training and ASD experience, I would have approached from above, just to check if there were any enemies waiting for us around either corner where I couldn't see. Since I wasn't speaking to Teeg, I moved forward until I was even with him. I missed my knife and pistol. No sounds came as we neared the open area in the alley.
Teeg may have been relying on sound to tell him if anyone was waiting there for us. I didn't rely on sound, but I did catch the barest hint of shadow. The sun was just right overhead, so when the rifle was noiselessly raised, I caught the tiniest bit of darkness cast on the ground. I snatched Teeg's wrist to hold him back. He stopped dead still. I gave him the hand signal that all ASD agents use—the two fingers up that meant hold steady where you are. Teeg didn't move. I looked up the side of the stucco wall—it had gouges in it.
Taking a deep breath, I leapt upward as noiselessly as I could, digging my fingers into the deepest and best chipped-out slots I could find. Still making as little sound as I could and hoping that the noise from the street continued, I kept climbing until I had the ledge gripped in both hands. I pulled myself over, sending the I'm fine signal down to the others. Then, ducking down and running quietly overhead, I peered carefully downward over the back of the building and into the open courtyard below.
Three men with ranos rifles were backed against the wall waiting for us. Hoping mightily that Teeg knew the Alliance fingerspeech, I ran back until he could see me well enough from overhead. I gave him the signal for three men with rifles and then sent fingerspeech, telling him I thought they were ranos rifles. I had a hard time seeing anything in the darkened alley below, so I hoped he'd gotten the message. I pointed toward the back of the building again, telling him I was going to attack from overhead.
When he didn't move or do anything else, I headed toward the open area again from my high vantage point, lifting two square blocks of stone that a tenant had used to hold a roof patch in place above his apartment. His patches were going to blow away in the hot air that stirred around me, but right then, I needed the heavy blocks more than he did. Stopping short of the back of the building, I peered over the edge to make sure Teeg and the others were coming. They were.
In my physics lessons, I was taught that in a vacuum, two objects, regardless of weight, would fall at the same rate of speed. I was about to see if two very similar objects, dropped at the same time, would provide similar results. Aiming carefully and doing my best to time it with Teeg's arrival, I dropped the stone blocks. Both my targets were hit squarely and fell to the ground, unconscious. I ducked immediately when they were hit; the third man was shooting at me quickly and knocking chunks off the top of the building when Teeg landed a very good hit to the shooter's jaw. He dropped like a sack full of redfruit.
"Reah, come down here please." Teeg was staring at our would-be attackers. He didn't sound happy.
My journey down would have been so much faster and infinitely easier if I could have skipped down. Instead, I had to find more handholds and make my way down slowly. I hopped the last few hands distance to the ground.
"Lenden, would you mind carrying her now? I might be persuaded to swat her ass a couple of times," Teeg grumped. "Astralan, can you carry these back to the house and lock them up?" He jerked his head toward the three attackers. "Ask your brothers to keep an eye on them. Make sure they're not power holders." Astralan nodded and folded the three away. Teeg was still glaring at me as Lenden lifted me up. He carried me carefully as Teeg made his way toward a doorway at the back of the open area. Teeg knocked on a door to the left but there was no answer.
Cautiously he tried the door—it pushed inward as he touched it lightly. It was his turn to use fingerspeech—I learned he knew it well. He told us to tread softly and follow him. We did. What we found inside the home, if that's what it was, was a bloody battlefield.
Six people looked as if they'd struggled before they'd died. Blood was everywhere. I'd seen similar scenes before, but this time the smell combined with the sight of the bodies made me gag. While Teeg went through the place, room by room, Astralan came back with Stellan. As I did my best to hold my breakfast down, Teeg went from one body to the next, checking for any signs of life. He didn't find anything.
"Clean it up," he whispered to the two warlocks. I was feeling more ill by the moment, but I did my best not to show it. Lenden still held me, so I wrapped my arms around his neck and buried my head against his shoulder. He rubbed my back gently as he watched the two warlocks do their job.
We were folded back to the house shortly afterward, and the moment I was set down, I ran. Straight to the bathroom in my suite I went, sliding to the toi
let on my knees and losing everything I'd had for breakfast, heaving until there was nothing left. And then heaving past that for a while. Teeg came in while I was coughing up the last bit of my stomach's contents. I wanted to tell him to go away. Shout at him to go away. He didn't. Teeg stayed until the very end, when I could finally let go of the toilet and flop miserably onto the floor. I lay there, curled up and unwilling to move. I might have been moaning, too—I can't say for sure.
"Reah, sweetheart?" Teeg was washing my face with a cool cloth. I shuddered. "How long were you sick, baby? Did you hold this back all that time?" Moaning again, I huddled into a smaller ball. I still felt ill—thought I might have to heave again.
"Shhhh, it's all right, Reah. Come on, let's get your mouth rinsed out and put some clean clothes on. Then we'll put you to bed. Marc will bring something to put in your stomach—it doesn't need to be empty, love." Teeg was stroking hair away from my face—it had tangled while I heaved and was now in a mess. Lifting me off the floor, Teeg did just as promised, holding me up while I rinsed out my mouth with shaking hands. Then he pulled my clothing off and put me in clean pajamas. Marc brought in clear broth and crackers. Teeg sat beside me while I did my best to eat some of it. He got me down for a nap, then. Jes was peeking in the doorway most of that time, but Teeg waved him away.
"Go to sleep, baby," Teeg put his fingers against my forehead and I was out immediately.
* * *
Gavril swept up sawdust and wood shavings. Dormas had put him to cleaning up after he'd sanded cabinet doors most of the night. "It always pays to clean up before starting again the next day. Don't ever leave a mess behind," the old vampire advised. "If you work hard the next six eight-days, I'll show you how to varnish what you're sanding." Gavril leaned on his broom for a moment, feeling weary and ready for bed. He nodded to the old vampire and went back to sweeping.
* * *
"Sweetheart, wake up, it's time for dinner." Teeg woke me up from an extended nap. My stomach still felt uneasy, as if the slightest thing might set it off again. I brushed my teeth and used mouthwash—my mouth still tasted awful. Teeg hovered while I changed and dressed. He didn't even argue when I braided my hair and tied it at the end with a ribbon I found in my things. I was barefoot when Teeg lifted me and carried me to the kitchen—I still hadn't spoken to him.
High Demon 3 - Demon's King Page 8
