“It’s so good to see you again, Mhavrych. I can’t thank you enough for what you did for my son. For both of my sons.”
“You’re welcome, Aegeus,” he said. “I was so relieved when I found out that you hadn’t died.”
The older man’s face darkened, but not in a way that made Mhavrych feel as though he were angry or upset by the comment. Instead, it seemed that he was angry at the entire situation, at the concept that anyone had been forced to think that he had died and that he hadn’t been able to get out of the imprisonment that had held him.
“What is the status of the war?” Aegeus asked, his voice solemn as though he was reluctant to actually hear Mhavrych’s response.
Mhavrych took a long sip of his coffee and set the mug down.
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about,” he said. “Casimir is still alive.”
“He is?” Aegeus asked, sounding both surprised and happy.
“Yes,” Mhavrych told him. “If you are prepared, he is. The plan is back in action. All he is waiting for is you.”
Mhavrych watched as Aegeus climbed from his stool.
“When can we leave?” he asked.
“Are you sure?” Mhavrych asked. “The stakes are even higher than they were before and the danger is much higher.”
“I have been waiting for this for decades,” Aegeus said. “There is nothing that could stop me.”
They rushed out of the kitchen and back to the passenger pod. Ellora was inside with Maxim and both turned toward them as they swept inside. Ellora’s eyes registered fear as she crossed the room toward her husband, her hands reaching for him.
“What is it, Aegeus?” she asked, her hands resting on his chest.
Aegeus took her hands, holding them against his heart as he looked into his wife’s face.
“I have to go,” he said.
“Go?” she asked.
Maxim stepped up beside his mother and looked at Aegeus.
“Where are you going?” he asked.
“The work that I started long ago is waiting for me,” he said.
“Must you really go?” Ellora asked. “I just found you again.”
Aegeus took one hand from Ellora’s and stroked along the side of her face.
“I know, my love,” he said softly. “But I have been waiting for so many years. What I fought for was never resolved. I have to do what my duty calls me to do. Please understand.”
Ellora reached up and wrapped her hand around Aegeus’s wrist, leaning her face further into his palm.
“I know,” she said, her voice tremulous. “I understand.”
Aegeus leaned down and touched a kiss to her lips.
“I promise you that is not our last kiss,” he said. “Protect it for me while I’m gone. Return it to me when I return.”
“I will,” Ellora said.
Aegeus released her reluctantly and then rushed around the room gathering what he could fit into his satchel to bring with him. As he walked toward Mhavrych, settling the strap of the satchel around his body and over his shoulder, Maxim stepped up to him.
“I’ll go with you, Papa,” he offered.
“No, Maxim,” Aegeus said. “You need to stay here.”
“But I can help you,” Maxim argued.
“I know that you could,” Aegeus said. He cupped his hands around Maxim’s face, holding it so that he could look into his eyes and then leaned forward to touch their foreheads together. “My son,” he whispered before pulling back and releasing him. “Your responsibilities are here, Maxim,” he said. “You must take care of Ivy and that new baby of yours. Protect them. If Ryan hears that she has delivered a child, he will become even more aggressive. Stay here and continue to raise up your army. I will be back and together, side-by-side, we’ll fight.”
Aegeus kissed his wife a final time and then he and Mhavrych rushed out of the room and toward the exit of the ship so that they could cross the desert and return to the frozen realm. Malcolm had already released Casimir from his bonds, but it was Aegeus who would bring him out of exile and back to war.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Linnea’s hands trembled on the steering wheel as she turned the car into the parking lot. Tall lamps created pools of light against the pavement and she was drawn to parking in one, but she resisted. She needed to remain as hidden as she possibly could. She hoped that she had slipped out of the house quietly enough that she hadn’t woken Nana. If this went the way that it was meant to, she would be back at the house and in her bed before the older woman noticed that she was gone. When she came into her room in the morning to bring her some tea, Linnea would by lying there as she always was, and Nana would never know the difference. If she didn’t know, she couldn’t be afraid.
Taking the keys from the carved wood board in the office had been easy, but Linnea had nearly lost her nerve when she left the house and rushed across the darkened grounds of the house to the garage. It was frightening being out in the open like that without anyone with her, and every small sound that she heard in the distance sent another shiver through her, but she kept forcing herself forward. She knew that she had to do this. There wasn’t an option for her to turn back and pretend that the urgent request that she had received had fallen on deaf ears.
She kept the car running for a few moments after pulling into a parking spot in some of the deepest shadows, allowing the slight rumble of the engine and the warmth of the heater pumping out into the cabin to reassure her that at any moment she could escape, though she knew that she would only turn right back. The weather outside was truly not cold enough to warrant the heater, particularly at the intense setting that she had put it on, but Linnea felt as though she couldn’t shake the chills that were running through her body. She looked around, trying to see any movement in the shadows that might indicate that she wasn’t alone in the parking lot.
When she was finally satisfied that there was no one else there with her, she turned the ignition to silence the car. The headlights extinguishing deepened the shadows even further, but instead of feeling more vulnerable in the darkness, she felt somehow more concealed. Her hand wrapping tightly around the access chip that she had been given, Linnea climbed out of the car and started toward the building ahead as fast as she could move. All around her she felt like eyes were watching her, tracking her every moment as she approached the building. If they were there, if they had witnessed her arrival and were now seeing her running toward the small illuminated rectangle that was the only light in the darkened silhouette of the building, she knew that her time was incredibly limited. She needed to get inside, do what she needed to do, and then get back to the house.
The illuminated rectangle grew larger as she got closer to the building. Her lungs were burning with the exertion, an unexpected reminder of the changes that her body was going through. Though her pregnancy was not as far progressed as the other women and she was only just beginning to really show, the baby within her was bluntly obvious to her. It was never far from her mind and there always seemed to be something else that brought to mind that the child was growing inside of her but that she knew so little about it. The thought that she didn’t even know what her child would look like made her feel like a bad mother, a sentiment that in of itself brought her pause. Was she truly a mother? Just because she was carrying this baby and would in a matter of months deliver it into the world, did that justify her thinking of herself as its mother, or was she nothing more than how Ryan had described her… a shell he could use to develop the soldiers he designed?
The thought was still hanging heavily within her as Linnea got to the door and pressed the access chip in her hand into the keypad beside it. She half expected the chip to be rejected or for its use to immediately announce her presence and trigger a swarm, but the door clicked and she was able to push it open. A slight sense of relief came over her as she stepped out of the darkness and into the light of the building. This was not the light of the building itself. Instead, she coul
d see that a lightstick had been fastened to the wall across from the door so that it would provide enough light to be seen from a distance. That was how the plan was meant to unfold. She had been told to look for the light and follow it, that it would bring her where she needed to go.
Linnea reached up and took the lightstick from the wall so that she could use it to guide her way through the darkened hallways. She had never been to this place before, but it sent chills through her in the same way that the laboratory had. Around her the building was quiet, only the distant hum of equipment taking the sharp edge off the silence. She had ventured down the hallway for several yards when she saw the slightest hint of light on the floor ahead of her. Linnea quickened her steps to approach it faster and turned a corner to find another lightstick on the wall much like the first. She took that one as well, turning it off and tucking it into her pocket. She continued on this way for several more minutes, moving through the corridors guided only by the occasional lightstick. Finally, she found one attached to a door.
Pressing the access chip to the keypad again, she heard the door click and opened it. The room was dark except for the light that she held, but she could see the silhouette of a figure inside. Fear drummed in her heart, but the figure stepped forward and when she saw his face she relaxed slightly.
“Linnea,” he said. “Thank you for coming. Did anyone see you?”
“I don’t think so,” she said.
Linnea reached into her pocket and withdrew the handful of lightsticks that she had tucked there and held them out to the man. He accepted them with a grateful expression and walked a few steps to a table where he put the lightsticks into a bag.
“Did you bring everything that I asked for?”
Linnea released the buckle on the strap that held a narrow case to her back and took it off, handing it over to him. The man took it and brought it over to the same table. He placed the case on the table and opened it, his eyes scanning over the contents quickly.
“Is there anything else that I can do?” Linnea asked.
The man walked back toward her, leaving both the bag and the case on the table.
“Can you tell me where I am right now?” he asked.
“At the Izalux factory,” Linnea told him. “The others are still here, too.”
“They haven’t seen me?”
“No. Not that I know of.”
“And Nana? She hasn’t suspected anything?”
“She hasn’t mentioned anything to me. She is going on exactly as she did before they left.”
The man nodded, looking away slightly as if he was thinking through something, checking off items within his mind. She wondered how long he had been waiting for her and what had happened to him before his arrival.
“And Aubrey?” he asked, sounding slightly frantic now.
Linnea could almost feel time ticking by around her, minutes slipping past and disappearing without them being able to hold onto them and stop them from dropping away too quickly. They were strictly limited, counted like the grains of sand within an hourglass and they were sifting away far too fast. He had begun to pace now and the sight of him walking back and forth in front of her was heightening her nervousness. He raked his hands back through his hair, leaving the strands standing up wildly as he turned and stalked back in the other direction. She needed him to stop, to look her in the eyes and explain what had brought her here.
“She hasn’t been born yet.” She reached out and grabbed onto his arm, forcing him to stop and turn to face her. “I need you to tell me what’s going on, Jonah.”
To be continued…
The Alien's Tensions Page 24
