"Come here, baby," Teeg beckoned. Not understanding what he wanted, I stayed where I was.
"Reah, come here. Jusef, can you throw a snack together?" Jusef, who was fussing around the kitchen, putting away a pile of food he and Lenden had gone to a nearby market to purchase, nodded to me and began slicing fresh nannas. When I still didn't move, Teeg tried again. "Reah, you look almost green. Love, you need something in that empty stomach. That's what makes you feel sick—it's empty, baby."
His last words came from far away—darkness was already closing around me. I have no idea if I hit the floor or if he caught me before I reached it.
* * *
"Come on, Reah, it's not that bad," Jes was washing my face with a cold cloth. Sputtering at the dampness against my skin, I woke almost as quickly as I lost consciousness. "You just need to eat more often. That's all."
"Reah, now will you come?" Teeg was grumpy—I could tell that even in my semiconscious state. Lenden was also kneeling beside me—I was on the floor. Jes and Lenden lifted me and helped me walk to the island, where a dish of fruit and a flaky roll waited. Still unsure whether I wanted anything to eat or not, I ate part of what I was given under Teeg's watchful gaze.
"We'll be going to a remote area here on Shillverr," Teeg informed me as I forced myself to eat more fruit. Jusef placed a glass of milk in front of me, plus a small plate of cheese cubes.
Later, I dressed in my leathers again, hoping we weren't going to snow covered mountains to accomplish whatever Teeg planned to do. Astralan was going to fold us to our targeted area, just as before. Lenden was frustrated that Teeg wouldn't allow him to go. Farzi and Nenzi didn't like it either, but Teeg was in charge and he reminded all of them of that fact before Astralan folded us away.
"We need to do this quick," Teeg whispered in my ear as we kept an eye on the remote cabin in a deep vale. Thick woods surrounded the small building, but the solar panels covering the roof were collecting the abundant sunlight beating down on all of us. I was hot in my leathers—Teeg should have given me a better gauge on how to dress for this. Astralan had landed us the prescribed two clicks from the cabin, so it looked tiny from my vantage point, high on an adjacent hill.
"Your smaller Thifilatha should be able to walk beneath most of these trees," Teeg pointed out. Nodding and doing my best to ignore the feeling of wrongness leaching up from the ground and even through the soles of my boots, I swallowed with difficulty. Sunset was coming quickly to this part of Shillverr—I knew that even as Teeg nodded for me to change.
Walking through thick brush and closely growing trees carrying a tall man isn't the easiest thing I've ever done. Teeg grumbled more than once when he was slapped in the face with a tree branch as I lumbered along. Still, he clung to my back tenaciously while cursing softly. I didn't use my smaller Thifilatha often—when I did go Thifilatha, it usually required the larger one. No matter—we were closing in on our target and more and more I was beginning to believe that Teeg was right—these residents were home.
"Go to your larger Thifilatha and take the house down," Teeg ordered just before we exited the forest we'd traveled through. A tiny clearing surrounded the cabin—designed to keep the trees from blocking sunlight for the solar panels.
Well, Teeg could have told me this to start with, only he didn't. I wanted to kick him in the groin for refusing to give me information on this particular assignment. The ASD called it Need To Know. I called it callous, rude and unfeeling. Lendill and I had a few arguments about it through the years I'd spent working for him and Norian Keef.
Just for leaving me out of this part of our attack, I left Teeg hanging on a tree branch before going full Thifilatha and kicking an outside wall of the cabin, sending the whole structure falling over in a heap.
* * *
"Lendill?"
"Father? What do you want?" Lendill had to work to keep the heavy sigh out of his voice when Kaldill Schaff contacted him via communicator. Lendill leaned back in his chair with a suppressed sigh, waiting to hear what his father had to say.
"If Reah is returned to you, you must marry her immediately. Bring her here and the ceremony will be performed."
"What?" Lendill was shocked by his father's demand. Before, his father had only requested a meeting with Reah. Now he wanted the marriage ceremony? Where had that come from?
"Child, I cannot elaborate at this time," Kaldill's eyes were unfocused—a look with which Lendill was only too familiar.
"But father," Lendill shouted as Kaldill terminated the call.
* * *
Teeg had to kill two of the three with the ranos rifle he carried—the two wizards had nearly reached the perimeter of my spell-negating ability. The third had gotten trapped beneath debris from the cabin I'd destroyed and he was desperately attempting to spell his trapped leg away from the heavy beam that pierced part of it. Teeg lifted it off easily and slapped cuffs on the man before calling for Astralan.
Ordering me away from them so Astralan could do what he could to stop the bleeding in the wizard's leg, I walked away from them, still feeling the wrongness through my Thifilatha's bare feet. This world was leaking energy. I whirled swiftly to glare at the wizard Teeg and Astralan were attempting to save for questioning. It made me angry—I knew now who'd caused the energy leak—those three wizards. Now, all the planet's energy would drain from the core if something didn't stop it.
I was experienced with pulling energy from somewhere. But where? I couldn't pull it from Shillverr—the planet was already losing it at an alarming rate. Glancing up at the stars appearing overhead, I realized there was more than enough energy there. All I had to do was tap into it. Could I do it, by latching onto the light energy and pulling it to Shillverr even faster from so far away? If I couldn't, Shillverr would die.
Sitting down, I turned my head toward the stars, focusing on one. Stars and suns created energy constantly. They wouldn't miss what I needed now, if I could force it to my will. Closing my eyes, I held the mental image of the star in my mind and Pulled.
* * *
"Perhaps you should come see for yourself, Norian. They were delivered two days ago." Ildevar Wyyld smiled at his adopted heir.
"But how did they get here?" Norian was bewildered.
"I am not inclined to question at the moment. You have been looking for these for a while. They conveniently have confessed nearly all their crimes." Ildevar walked ahead of Norian, through dark corridors flanking the cells in Ildevar's dungeons. Ildevar seldom used them, unless it was to keep a prisoner until feeding day.
Norian stared and whistled at the three prisoners. He had been looking for these for a while. Thirty years, at least. The last remnants of Solar Red glared at him through the bars of their cells.
"Do we have to report them to anyone?" Norian turned to Ildevar.
"No, they were delivered straight to my dungeon while the note appeared on my desk. We are the only two who know they are here, other than the ones who sent them."
"Are we going to let anyone else know?" Norian smiled at Ildevar.
"Only if that is your wish, child."
"I don't wish."
"Good. I think I'll start with this one," Ildevar gave a nod toward the prisoner in the middle cell.
"When?" Norian was mildly curious.
"Two days."
"Good." Norian turned on his heel and walked away. These prisoners were never getting out of Ildevar's dungeon alive.
* * *
"What did she do? What did she do?" Teeg was shouting and fretting at the same time. Reah had done something—Astralan had said not only was Shillverr's energy drain stopped, but the core had been healed somehow. Reah was connected to this, only none of them could determine just how she was connected. Now, she lay unconscious on the grass, still in full Thifilatha.
"We have to get her turned back—we can't leave her like this," Astralan was fretting almost as much as Teeg. Teeg was glad Farzi and Nenzi hadn't come; they'd be having a breakdown.
> "Reah, come on baby, wake up. Please. For me. Do this for me, all right?" Teeg was begging. He was about to promise anything to her when she moaned softly.
* * *
Waking up flat on my back in the middle of the wilderness while night insects sang in the trees around me wasn't the best situation in which I've ever found myself. "Thank the stars," Astralan muttered from somewhere nearby. Teeg was standing on my left arm, peering into my face. "Baby, change back. We need to take you home so Jes can have a look at you."
"Teeg, I don't feel good." I covered my eyes with my free hand—Teeg was still standing on my left arm; I couldn't move it unless I wanted to knock him to the ground. My stomach was threatening to heave up its contents; if there was anything left to heave.
"I know, baby. Change back. We'll get you home and Jes will fix it. I promise." Teeg sounded upset, for some reason. My mind felt fuzzy—cloudy somehow, and I had to think for a moment before I could recall how to change back. Teeg jumped down the moment things looked to go back to normal.
* * *
"What happened?" Jes was fretting the moment Teeg showed up with me wrapped in his arms.
"A little more work than Teeg wanted from her, that's what," Astralan murmured. Lenden was there and looked as if he were going to lift me from Teeg's arms. Honestly, I just wanted to spend quality time with the toilet. When everybody was talking to one another and leaving me out of it, my body decided to react in its own way. I heaved all over the floor, causing Jes to jump aside, Teeg to shout and Farzi, Nenzi and Jusef to quickly search for something to clean the floor.
"All gone now?" Teeg was beside me on the bathroom floor later, when it looked as if I might stop heaving up nothing.
"Hope so," I muttered. My throat was raw, my insides felt as if they wanted to become outsides and I just wanted to curl up and die somewhere.
"None of that; come on, sweetheart, let's get you up so you can rinse out your mouth."
"Teeg, I don't want to get up." I was hugging myself as hard as I could. Nauseous didn't begin to describe how I felt.
"I know. Lenden?" Lenden appeared in the doorway to the bathroom. "Help me get this one to the sink. We'll get to the bed after that." Lenden took one side, Teeg took the other and they lifted me easily off the floor. I was still trying to curl into a ball, but both of them forced me to straighten and shuffle toward the sink. Lenden propped me up while I weakly brushed my teeth; Teeg went to find clean pajamas for me. I was afraid to ask for a bath—most likely I'd fall asleep in it, anyway.
"You just spent too much of your energy," Jes said when he examined me after Teeg got me into bed. "And I'd like for you to drink a jumble. Jusef is making one now and cursing the rest of us in Amterean while he's doing it," Jes added.
"He is cursing in his native language," Lenden walked in, carrying the glass and a straw. "The last I heard, we all have mulch for brains."
"Can't argue with that," I said weakly as Jes accepted the glass and stuck the straw in it for me. Teeg chased the others out, pulled me against him in the bed and proceeded to hold the glass while ordering me to drink. I felt too ill to argue with him, rolling my head against his shoulder and closing my eyes after only a few sips.
"Baby, this will be over before long, I promise," Teeg whispered as I drifted off.
* * *
"I still don't know how she did it and there's two more out there, if we got the truth out of those two," Teeg held his head in his hands. "How can we put her through this? How are we going to ask this of her? You saw what it did to her last night."
"But the populations on those worlds will die if we don't do something," Teeg's assistant had come—courtesy of Galaxsan—to discuss things with Teeg.
"Tell me something I don't know," Teeg muttered. "Dee, tell me what to do. And make it something that won't kill her. And me as a result."
"It didn't kill her last night—it just made her weak and ill. What does the physician say? How long will it take her to recover from this?"
"If she starts eating, perhaps an eight-day. Maybe a little more."
"We have little time, unless we want more of these worlds to die. I've gotten intelligence on two other rogues that Zellar trained. Has the one you captured last night been able to talk?"
"Jes is working on him, trying to get him conscious for more than a few moments at a time. What if she's permanently harmed, Dee?"
"What will you do, if that turns out to be the case?"
"If I don't kill myself, Torevik Rath will kill me anyway."
* * *
"Em-pah's here." Those words greeted me when I woke—Teeg must have gotten up earlier.
"Huh?" I felt lethargic and weak. My eyes were refusing to open for some reason.
"Come on, little squirrel, let's get you to breakfast." Lenden was lifting me off the bed. Teeg hadn't come in the night before until very late. He'd barely wakened me while slipping in and wrapping his arms around me. Now, he was up early and off somewhere, leaving Lenden to carry me to breakfast. I wasn't going to complain—Lenden wanted to adopt me, somehow. Compared to the one grandfather I knew I had, this was more than different. Addah Desh wouldn't have shown gentleness if someone paid him to do so.
"Jusef, look what we have here." Lenden settled me on a barstool. Farzi and Nenzi came in and they sat to my left while Lenden sat on my right. Jusef served oatmeal with brown sugar and a bit of cream. It was good and helped ease my stomach. Farzi and Nenzi looked worried, but turned their heads away when I tried to catch them watching me.
"Where's Teeg?" I asked.
"Working with the prisoner," Lenden replied. "Little girl, don't worry yourself over that. He's bad and deserves whatever he gets."
"I know," I answered wearily. Jes must be with Teeg, since the rogue warlock had been wounded. Wouldn't do to let the man die before he answered all of Teeg's questions.
"Eat your breakfast. We'll be taking care of you today," Lenden rubbed my shoulders as I went back to my oatmeal.
* * *
"They split up," Kastalt's voice was shaky but he couldn't help himself—he was answering any question these two asked. The physician had given painkill; that helped some. "They sold the information on Zellar, Nidris admitted that when I saw them last. Didn't matter, we were tired of looking at him anyway."
Teeg knew about that—Zellar had been disfigured nearly forty-five years before.
"The names? Besides Nidris?" Teeg pushed.
"Qwan. Halmus."
"The ones we sent to Karathia," Astralan said softly. Teeg nodded.
"Where did Nidris go? Do you know that?"
"Said he was heading home for a while until he wasn't hunted any longer," Kastalt was fading fast. Teeg looked at Jes, who shook his head. He'd given a higher dose of painkill than should have been given, just to keep Kastalt awake and talking. Kastalt was near death as it was—this was going to finish him off.
"Do you know where Nidris' home is?" Teeg gentled his voice.
"Alliance," Kastalt whispered. "Tulgalan."
"But there isn't anyone with talent on Tulgalan," Astralan denied Kastalt's claim.
"Hasn't been there long. Family," Kastalt grunted with the effort to speak, "moved there twenty turns ago. Hiding power. Hunted by Karathia. All of them." Kastalt slumped in his chair. Jes went to check the pulse and looked up at Teeg, shaking his head. Kastalt was dead.
"Get rid of that," Teeg ordered. Stellan came forward to take the body.
"What now, Boss? We won't get into the Reth Alliance."
"Not in any normal manner, no. We also need more information on Nidris. I'll send a message to Wylend Arden." Teeg stalked from the back room of the warehouse where they'd held Kastalt.
* * *
"Erland, look at this." Wylend handed him the note from Teeg San Gerxon.
"What is it this time?" Erland was frustrated—Teeg had managed to capture more rogue warlocks in a matter of months than Erland and his spies had managed to hunt down in decades.
"He's asking for information on Nidris. Says he received information from Kastalt before he died that Nidris had received training from Zellar. Says Kastalt told him that Nidris had gone to Tulgalan—that his family had relocated there to get away from us."
"Nidris," Erland almost growled the name. He and Wylend had reason to loathe Nidris Hazlan and his entire family. The one highly placed family who'd plotted to kill Wylend's father and then managed to escape. Wylend and Erland had seen the others executed when Wylend wrestled the throne away from them.
"And now he's draining cores, more than likely," Wylend heaved a frustrated sigh. "Who knows what he might do with the power that will give him?"
"We need to notify Norian Keef," Erland was motivated, suddenly. "If that fool has started draining Tulgalan or any other Alliance worlds, this could be disastrous."
"I will come with you—I haven't seen Lissa in days and my grandson is still missing. I don't know what I might do in her place."
Chapter 7
"Wylend and Erland are coming for a visit," Lissa announced as she walked into Norian's office; he'd been going over reports with Lendill.
"Is there a reason we should know this?" Norian looked up at Lissa.
"Yeah. Em-pah Wylend got a message from Teeg San Gerxon. Says that he captured one of those rogues Zellar trained. The note said that one of the rogues has possibly slipped into the Alliance, to meet with his rogue family of wizards, who are reportedly living on Tulgalan."
"You're joking." Norian was standing in a blink. "You don't think they're draining Tulgalan, do you?"
"No idea, but Em-pah seems to think that this particular wizard would do just about anything to keep away from him and his network of spies. Erland says they'll explain that completely when they get here."
"We're here, now," Erland and Wylend folded into Norian's office. "Nidris Hazlan and his family are murdering scum," Erland went on. "The Hazlan clan led the coup against Warlend, Wylend's father and killed him to take the throne six thousand turns ago, give or take. The Hazlans would kill their children if it would get them what they want."
High Demon 3 - Demon's King Page 10
