by Ciara Knight
At Ryder’s snicker, I huffed. “I’ve already taken care of the tracker.”
Paulson eyebrows rose to his hairline. “How?”
“I found it in my brain and melted it. Remember, my gift’s metal.”
His eyes shot wide. “Without damaging your brain?”
I nodded.
“All the more reason to make sure she is clean. Semara possesses amazing power. If I hadn’t witnessed her ability to neutralize the threat of the Wasters, I wouldn’t have believed it. And when I tell others, they’ll believe it’s a tall tale.” He bowed before us. “You three are truly the Triune and our only hope of winning the battle between Kantians and Neumarians. You must trust me, Ryder. Not just Semara, but Raeth and you are our hope for the future. I swear upon my family name, I will not allow anyone to harm Semara.”
“Thank you, Captain.” I faced Ryder and squeezed his hand. “Go with Penton and Raeth. They need your strength and gift. Don’t worry about me. I’ll join you soon.”
No sooner had I reassured him then a contingent of men boarded the boat and searched us. Unlike the UE’s guards, none of them wore a uniform. Instead, their civilian clothing had rips and was worn to bare threads.
As one of them approached Raeth, Penton shoved the guard away from her.
An older gentlemen raised a scanner. “Please, son, we must search her, but don’t fear, I won’t touch her. We’re only looking for trackers, communications devices, and weapons manufactured by the queen.”
Penton cradled Raeth against his chest as he followed the movements of each man. “Use your scanner, but hurry. Raeth requires the toxin cure immediately.”
When the man finished, he bowed his head to each of us. “It is an honor to meet you at last. Please, come with me.”
The captain stepped forward. “Semara will not be joining us. I’m having her transferred to the interrogation facility.”
The guard in front of me almost dropped his scanner before regaining his composure, throwing his shoulders back. “I must take her to General Harrison,” he said, meeting the captain’s unblinking gaze.
“If you question my decision, then contact him and tell him there is fear she is compromised.”
For a minute, I wondered if this would turn into a staring contest. As if knowing I was going to interrupt, Ryder squeezed my hand. The guard blinked first, then looked down at his scanner, lifted his gaze to me and touched his ear. “Sir, Captain Paulson believes Ms. Semara Valderak is compromised and wishes to transfer her to the interrogation facility outside the Arc.”
Silence.
My heart thrummed, waiting for my father to contradict the captain’s decision. I’d have to insist.
“No, sir, the scanner found nothing…But, sir…Yes, sir.” Visibly upset, he touched his ear again.
Before he could speak, I touched his arm. As I did, I felt Ryder send soothing energy into me which flowed into the guard. “Please don’t worry about me. Do as Captain Paulson commands. Even if you’ve been ordered to take me to the Arc, I won’t enter it. I refuse to risk you or your people.”
Frowning, he dropped his gaze to the floor then shot the young guard at his side an angry glare. “Escort her to the interrogation facility. Once she’s secure, General Bellator will join her.” With a jerky nod to the captain, he marched to the gangway, clutched the bar at the side of the door, and, after a brief glance over his shoulder, strode from the craft.
Chapter Twenty-Three
With each step down the grungy cement stairs, my anxiety heightened.
Pop!
I flinched at the exploding luminary, worried my emotions had raised the temperature to the point it shattered. However, considering the dungeon-esque feel to the place, the loss of a few lights only added to the ambience.
“Control yourself,” an old guard warned, shoving me forward.
“Take it easy, Major Stevens.”
“Yes, sir, Colonel Marks.” Major Steven’s raspy voice aired resentment, but I wasn’t sure if it was directed at me or the colonel.
I scanned my new lodgings. For a second, I doubted my sanity at forcing Ryder to accompany Penton and Raeth. Yet I knew I was safe, for now, and should Raeth not be cured, Ryder’s guilt over not being at her side would have destroyed him. I’d never forgive myself for not being by her side, but I had to face this…alone.
The shuffled steps of the guards reminded me I wasn’t really alone, but the enormity of the situation left me feeling lost. At the moment, I longed for Raeth’s ability to check out, to detach from reality and make it all just go away.
My early memories were false, but they’d saved my sanity. Gave me something to cling to all those years. A hope of a happier life.
I knew deep down that Harrison hadn’t truly abandoned me. He’d left me in Bendar’s care, had trusted him to protect me as best as he could. And when the queen captured us, Bendar had implanted the false memories in an attempt to create a refuge from the horror facing me. It had provided me with the perfect escape.
Yet, uncertainty tore at the princess facade I’d perfected. Feelings of abandonment still scratched at my reasoning, but I squared my shoulders and continued following the guards into a dark tunnel at the bottom of the stairs. No matter what they did, it couldn’t be worse than what I’d endured aboard the queen’s ship.
On my sixteenth birthday, her techs had sliced open my chest to remove my heart and replace it with a mechanical one, while I lay awake, feeling every cut, smelling the blood and stench of burned flesh. But Ryder had rescued me, healed me, and finally, brought me back to life, in more ways than one.
I rolled my shoulders, surprised at the tickle that skipped along my nerves. The dimness lessened in the dank hall and I looked down, my eyes widening. Amber glowed from my fingertips.
That’s new, and just what I don’t need right now.
I shoved my hands into my pockets and focused on the earthy coolness of the underground tunnel. If my gift was morphing into something more, it couldn’t have chosen a worse time. I prayed the guards wouldn’t see my gift as a weapon that would be turned on their leader.
Regardless of what happened, I would face it bravely and with honor. I was bred to be a princess. The leader of the Neumarian rebellion was my father. I was Bendar’s daughter by my choice. I was part of the Triune. I was a survivor of the queen.
I would show no fear.
The last luminary exploded into dust beside us.
A moment later, Major Stevens shoved me into the first door on the right, then onto a chair near a wooden table secured to the floor.
“Told you to take it easy,” Colonel Marks warned.
The room only contained chairs, a table, a wooden box, and a dark window. Not a window, a one-way mirror, used to observe interrogations from another room. I’d witnessed many through such mirrors as a child on the queen’s ship. Her way of reminding me what would happen should I disobey?
Once seated, I noticed a series of scratches on the tabletop. I traced the marks, my fingers drifting to an unusual handle in the middle. The longer I studied it, the greater my anxiety grew. From my experience, it could serve only one purpose—to secure prisoners during interrogations or torture.
My hand shook, tapping my rugged-edged nails against the handle.
“Don’t touch that,” Major Stevens barked before waving two hulky guards forward.
Unlike my escorts to the underground, their matching dark pants and brown vests had the look of a uniform. But it was the several pairs of goggles hanging from their belts that worried me. Reaching us, they knelt, each slipping a drill from their belt.
Breew! Clank!
A guard smacked a run-away screw with his gloved hand, halting it by his knee. He pocketed it and reattached his drill to his belt. With the help of the other, they each gripped an end of the table, and removed it from the room.
Only chairs and the wooden box remained. I gazed at my reflection in the window. The image of a dirty, exhausted woman w
ith apprehensive eyes stared back at me. If I hadn’t known I was the only female present, I wouldn’t have recognized myself.
Licking my lips, I willed whoever stood hidden behind the glass, watching me, to reveal themselves.
“General Bellator will be with you soon,” Colonel Marks announced. With a thin, tight smile, he touched his ear piece, then reached down to the wooden box, opened it, and tugged free several meters of chain. At each end were handcuffs.
Inhaling, I rested fists on my knees, preparing myself for being shackled. It was nothing new. The queen had demanded I be manacled to a wall, with my arms and legs spread prior to receiving punishment. Being immobilized ensured the techs could repair the damage and no one would discover her cruelty when she used an energy whip on my back.
I forced myself to unclench my fingers and retreated behind the emotional wall of protection I’d erected years ago. In silence, I watched the man seated across from me as he twisted the chains into a ball. Without word or gesture, he strode from the room, the only noise coming from a few dangling links striking the ground with each step. The door squeaked shut behind him.
With the exception of being underground and surrounded by earth instead of metal, I might as well have been aboard the queen’s ship. Nothing was different—four walls, dim light, and the stench of hopeless desperation.
As the minutes passed, I felt more and more like a bug under glass. My solitary confinement wouldn’t be so bad, if not for the watchdog behind the mirror. Fighting to maintain my composure, I fantasized about my father, the great Neumarian General. I just hoped he didn’t resemble anything like the general on the queen’s ship. A sweaty brow, foul breath, and belly protruding beneath a stiff military jacket. Mementos of his acts of cruelty displayed as medals, marching across his chest.
Keeping my posture rigid, I rose and approached the dark mirror. Head cocked to the side and gaze narrowed, I focused all my energy on the glass before me, struggling to see into the darkness behind it.
Nothing. Not even the hint of an outline. I wasn’t surprised it hadn’t worked. The queen’s ship had similar mirrors that allowed her to spy, unseen, on her crew. She trusted no one.
I allowed a small smile to curve my lips, the glass reflecting the image of a princess at her most self-assured. “If my father, your general, is unavailable or too frightened to meet me until after I’m declared safe, then send someone in immediately to interrogate and clear me. Otherwise, I’m leaving. I’m sure you’ll know after debriefing Captain Paulson that I can leave this,” I motioned to the room, “establishment whenever I wish.”
I walked to the bolted metal door and pressed my hand against it. “I loath to melt this into slag, but I will,” I said dramatically, staring over my shoulder at the mirror as the rivets on the door began to glow red.
Immediately, the room behind the mirror became visible. I nodded, accepting their acquiesce to my show of power. Striding across the room, I halted before the mirror.
In the center of the room sat a man. His rigid posture resembled a Kantian with a metal back plate. His cold, hardened gaze met mine. If it weren’t for his silver blond hair and silver eyes which were identical to mine, I wouldn’t have recognized him.
“I take it you’re my father, General Harrison Bellator.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
“Hello, Semara,” he said, his voice as cold and distant as his eyes.
“A pleasure to finally meet you, General Bellator,” I returned in the same emotionless tone.
He didn’t flinch. There wasn’t a hint of surprise or sadness at my refusal to acknowledge him as my father.
A thin, yet powerful man faced me from the other side of the glass. It wasn’t just our eye and hair color that was the same. The angle of his jaw matched mine, too.
What do I say to this man who’s a stranger to me?
Yes, he’d abandoned me as a child. Yes, I’d been taken by the queen and had suffered. Yet, if I hadn’t, would I be the woman Ryder loved? Would I be part of the Triune? Somehow, I doubted it. Yet, the little girl who had lost her daddy cried at the sight of the man in front of her, studying her without a scintilla of emotion in his expression.
Disappointment welled up inside me, joining my frustration. “Why are you behind this?” I tapped the glass. “Worried your daughter might kill you?”
“Because you stated you’re a weapon for the queen. Precautions are being taken.”
“If I remember correctly, I never said that. When Captain Paulson said we needed to be scanned for tracking devices, I volunteered that I’d discovered the one Auntie implanted in my head. She couldn’t have me hiding from her when she wanted to punish me, after all. But I melted it without harming my brain months ago. Though, I did question how the queen managed to follow my friends and I with such precision, to be everywhere we were. For her to do so, means only one thing. You have a spy within your organization, Father.”
Finally, a reaction, though I hadn’t expected him to turn as white as snow. But I was willing to take whatever I could get if it broke his rigidity.
However, it didn’t last, his face soon returning to its original stony expression.
“How are my friends? Could your medics cure Raeth?”
“Raeth is recovering in the clinic with the boy named Penton at her side. The others are in the mess hall.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “Other than the Wasters, you’ve never been in any true danger.”
“Really? Someday, we must discuss yours and my differing definitions of danger, especially when the queen saw me as her plaything for ten years.”
Once again, he blanched.
“I see Bendar’s told you of my life aboard her ship. At least, we have that out of the way. Saved me the embarrassment of explaining all the scars.” My fingers unconsciously brushed my last birthday present from the queen, a faded white line running from my lower sternum to my neck.
I knew my smile looked hallow, reflecting how I felt.
Fatigue swamped me, my body weakened by the effects of hunger and no sleep for several days. In an attempt to maintain my nonchalant facade, I leaned my shoulder against the mirror and crossed my arms over my chest. “If you’ve known where I was all this time, did you also shove a tracker in my brain before you abandoned me? Did you send me to the queen so that you could infiltrate her council to win the war? Is that all I was? A pawn?”
He stood and, with a heavy step, approached me. With a shaking hand, he grasped the molding around the window as his breath misted the glass.
“I see I hit a nerve. So, the almighty General of the Army was so cunning he used his only daughter to gain inside information on the queen. Do the Neumarians worship you? Do they believe you’re some paragon of virtue and honor your undying love for your murdered wife?” I continued to hold his unflinching gaze. “Don’t worry. I won’t tell your secret, how you abandoned me to my homicidal aunt. And I don’t expect you to play Daddy either. Bendar’s all the father I’ll ever need.”
I jerked when my communicator buzzed and searched the room for an intruder.
There was no implant or tracker, Semara. It was never needed. I never truly left you. We’re linked mentally, though you weren’t aware of it. While you can’t read minds, I can. He let out a heavy sigh. As for an interrogation, it’s unneeded. Your anger allowed me to bypass your shields and learn the truth. Despite your controlled, royal demeanor, I’ve seen how my actions have hurt you, which you’ve turned to unbridled anger.
I faced the window, my hands pressed against the glass. “Get out of my head. You’re invasion of my mind is a violation I can’t accept. Get out of my head and stay out.”
Perhaps I’m more of a father to a teenage girl than you realize.
“You have no rights as a father over me. Those belong to Bendar.”
Memories of Old Chicago, Mags saving us from the queen’s assassins, and spending the night wrapped in Ryder’s arms rolled through my mind. They were so real, I felt as I did when
I first experienced them.
My eyes widened then narrowed. Mounting waves of outrage tore through me. “You have no right. Those memories are mine alone. Stay. Out. Of. My. Head,” I snarled, banging the glass as I said the last five words.
“I have no interest in your romance with that boy.” His palm flattened on the glass, overlapping mine. “However, I do want to know what happened when you escaped the queen’s ship.”
“You want to know?” At his nod, I suppressed the smile that threatened to break free. I’d not only let him see what had happened, but experience every second of terror I’d endure during my decade with my aunt.
Closing my eyes, I brought the memories to the forefront of my mind.
Raeth’s torture…the sound of the saw…the blood…my failure as a friend…her near death…my pushing her from the air ship. Acid burned my throat as it rose with the images of the general’s pawing and beatings. I was alone, with no one except a little man hiding in the ventilation system to protect me.
The memory surfaced of the woman I’d believed my mother ordering a total slag conversion for any perceived betrayal. Strapped to a metal frame, a laser sliced through my chest wall, exposing my heart as the stench of burned skin permeated the air.
Stop! His voice blasted through my mind.
I ignored him. Over the past few months, I hadn’t dwelled on the preceding ten years. There hadn’t been time. But there was now, and with luck, I might exorcise some demons.
Knowing we were still mentally locked together, I forced us both to return to my aunt’s cruelty and relive the atrocity together…my near death. Smears of crimson covered the floor as I sought release from the torment through willing myself dead.
A ventilation cover crashed to the floor. An unknown man, wearing a slave collar, jumped from the tube. Blurs of movement as techs rushed to push alarms. Then crippling cold surrounded me. Techs dropped dead to the floor. I was hoisted and dragged through the ventilation system. Then blackness crowded my vision. And nothing.
