by Raine Thomas
As her head popped out of the top of her sundress, she saw lieutenant Jean-Marc standing not even ten feet away. She froze. Her sisters saw him at the same time.
“Do not speak. You have ten seconds to decide whether to follow me without sounding an alarm,” he said, holding up a vial. “I hold one dose of the antidote to the drug that was in your water and fruit juice. The other two doses are on the travel platform we need to get to. While the drug will probably not kill you, it will abort the babes you carry. We are blocking your powers, so you will be unable to heal yourselves. If you try to fight us, we will destroy the antidote. This way.”
Skye realized with a flood of panic that she couldn’t hear any thoughts aside from her own. She also now felt the dampening of her power. Fear for their unborn children had all of them moving quickly after Jean-Marc. When she turned her head, she noticed they were being followed by Alastair and Tristan. Both Gloresti were armed. How many others? she wondered as the cramps in her abdomen gripped her more savagely.
The travel platform was only a hundred feet or so from the spring, behind the waterfall. She had never noticed the platform enclosure before. Only when Caoilinn stepped out from behind a shadowed niche and waved her hand, generating a shimmering mirage of rock to cover the tunnel they had just entered, did she understand.
A nonphysical, deeper kind of pain radiated through her when she saw the Lekwuesti commander…someone she considered a friend. Then she noticed how large Caoilinn’s pupils were.
“You are no longer needed,” Jean-Marc told her. “Go back to your previous tasks.”
Caoilinn didn’t comment or gesture, just turned and walked away. Skye understood then that the Orculesti lieutenant had her under some kind of mind control.
“Onto the platform,” he ordered. “The antidotes will be administered when we are away.”
“Let’s see them,” Olivia returned.
Skye noticed her sisters were also both pale and sweating. She imagined they were as ill as she felt.
Jean-Marc stepped onto the platform and reached into a bag that rested there. Holding up all three vials, he gestured them on board. When they still hesitated, Tristan shoved Skye from behind. Normally, the push wouldn’t have affected her much. But the drug in her system threw off her balance. She stumbled beside the platform and fell to her hands and knees. The skin on her palms shredded on the stone floor, making her gasp in pain.
“I could kill you six ways right now,” Amber growled at Tristan as she and Olivia reached down to help Skye up. “Touch any of us again and I will. I swear it.”
“So noted,” Tristan said tonelessly. “Now get on the platform before your bodies fully reject the growths in your bellies. I am no expert, but I would say you probably have a matter of minutes.”
Chapter Forty-Three
Tristan’s harsh and foreboding words had all of the sisters moving onto the platform.
“This is wrong,” Alastair said from his position a few feet behind Tristan. He sounded confused.
Skye realized his nose was bleeding. His pupils were also unnaturally large. Her heart feared for him when Tristan and Jean-Marc turned to glare at him.
Jean-Marc’s eyes flashed a brilliant shade of dark green. Alastair cried out and dropped his sword. He fell to his knees and clutched his head. Skye flinched at his obvious pain. Tears filled her eyes.
“I told you he was resistant,” Tristan said to Jean-Marc, getting onto the platform. “He started resisting you the moment you made him fire that arrow at Olivia.”
“Leave him,” the Orculesti lieutenant ordered. “His brain is bleeding now. He will not remain conscious longer than a minute or two, and I do not care whether he survives.”
He reached into the bag and pulled out restraints as the platform left the docking station. Skye watched with growing terror as they left the safety of Central.
“I will secure each of you before you get the antidotes,” he said.
She realized as her hands were bound that Jean-Marc was actually afraid of them. But that realization offered her little comfort. Because she also realized that despite their training and layers of security, he had managed to kidnap them in less than two minutes.
“What should we do this evening?” James asked as they stood waiting for the sisters to get changed.
“I think a visit to the cats is in order,” Gabriel said. His eyes, like his brothers’, moved around the area in an alert scan, though his tone was casual. “Amber has mentioned Loki several times in the past week. It’s been about that long since we last fit in a visit.”
Caleb nodded. “Skye would enjoy that, too.”
“Sounds good,” James agreed. “We can head to their paddock next if the girls feel up to it. Olivia seems rather worn out, though.”
“Yeah. Amber, too,” Gabriel said with a thoughtful frown. “All that time in the water, I guess.”
Caleb’s gaze remained focused on the waterfall. Something had his intuition tingling. Ever since he had avowed with Skye, his already sharp Gloresti senses had been heightened to a new level that he still didn’t quite understand. Something was telling him to get to her. He didn’t want to look foolish or overprotective to his brothers, though, so he figured a more subtle probe was in order.
Everything all right back there? he thought toward Skye, deliberately keeping his tone light.
His thought bounced back to him.
“Something’s wrong,” he said, breaking into a run toward the waterfall.
His brothers didn’t question him. They were right behind him when he reached the other side of the waterfall. They all saw the sisters’ bathing suits on the ground, but no sign of them.
Where would they go? Why can’t I hear her?
He sensed his brothers’ thoughts and registered that he could hear them but not Skye. He also registered the fierce pounding of his heart and the soaring of his Gloresti energy as his fears were confirmed. They quickly split up and began scouring the area to try and figure out what had happened. Before long, he knew, they would have every member of the Gloresti class currently at the homeland flooding the area. There would be no stopping that result with two or more of them projecting an internal alarm.
Caleb followed his instincts toward a wall of rock south of the waterfall. He heard voices begin to echo throughout the open-air chamber housing the spring as the elders and their fellow Gloresti found them. Thinking of their game of Marco Polo, he closed his eyes and focused on the sound in the chamber.
And he realized the noise didn’t bounce off this particular rock like they should.
Over here! he sent to his brothers. He began feeling along the rock, trying to detect a difference in the texture. He heard running footsteps behind him.
And then, not even six feet from him, Alastair crawled right out of the wall.
Gabriel, being the first one to approach who could do so, healed Alastair. Then they all hurried into the docking station hidden by the false rock face.
“But no one knew this was here,” Sebastian said with disbelief as they entered. “This docking station is kept secret. Only elders arrive here.”
Which meant it would be private and unmanned, Caleb thought. He realized this was the loading dock at which they had arrived with the sisters upon their first visit to Central. And Sebastian hadn’t been the only Lekwuesti to greet them upon their arrival.
Caoilinn.
“What happened, Alastair?” Gabriel asked, grabbing the young Gloresti by the shoulders. “Your sword is here. You were bleeding. What do you remember?”
Alastair’s eyes were wide as he looked from Gabriel to Caleb and James. “I am sorry, archigos. I remember nothing before waking—except for the pain.”
Gabriel made an almost primal sound in the back of his throat as he released Alastair’s shoulders. His eyes had been dark blue since Caleb first realized something was wrong, and he now looked to his fellow elders.
“Alastair, I believe someone has influenced your min
d,” Malukali said as she stepped forward. “I would like to scan your recent memories.”
“Of course, archigos Malukali,” Alastair said, bowing his head. “Anything I can do.”
She stepped forward and touched both sides of his head. Dark green light glowed from her touch. “I am calming your emotions as well as your thoughts.”
“Yes, archigos.”
“Do you know where you are?”
“A loading bay.”
“What are you doing here?”
“I walked here with Tristan. We followed lieutenant Jean-Marc. He…” Alastair hesitated. His brow was drawn.
Caleb wanted to shake him to release the rest of the story from his mind. He also wanted to run to the closest platform and leap on it in pursuit of Skye. But he knew that the platform meant to transport the elders could conceivably go anywhere on the plane. He had to try and maintain patience that he simply didn’t think he had as they tried to figure out where their wives had been taken.
“It is okay, Alastair,” Malukali was saying in her calm voice, though she was surely stunned by the mention of her class’s lieutenant. “You were not acting under your own influence. Everything that happened leading up to the time on this platform was done at the command of someone else. What brought you here?”
Alastair’s eyes were blank under Malukali’s power. His tone was unemotional. “I stood near the waterfall with Tristan. We were watching them and waiting.”
“Waiting for what?”
“For lieutenant Jean-Marc to give the command. He was waiting for the sisters to change their clothing. He suspected their avoweds would give them privacy for this.”
Caleb closed his eyes against the words. Their one moment of faith in their fellow Estilorians—the two minutes they had given their wives to change—was all it had taken.
“And when they had changed their clothing?” Malukali prompted. Her brow was dotted with perspiration.
“Lieutenant Jean-Marc told them about the poison.”
Now Caleb stiffened.
“What poison?” Malukali asked.
“The poison commander Caoilinn put into the water and juice.”
Exchanging looks with his brothers, Caleb fought back an outrageous rush of rage and fear over the Lekwuesti’s act of betrayal.
“The poison is intended to abort the babies the sisters carry,” Alastair continued in his monotone.
The words sliced through Caleb. He realized hazily that commander Balduin and archigos Ini-herit had reached out to support him.
Alastair continued his narrative. “The sisters did not look well. The lieutenant gave them all ten seconds to decide whether or not to follow him to receive the antidote to the poison. They had to do so without calling out for help. He used his Orculesti power to prevent them from healing themselves.”
That same ability would have kept the girls from using their telepathic connection to their husbands, Caleb realized as he swallowed hard against the pain searing through his chest and throat.
“They followed him. Tristan and I walked behind them. We had our swords. Adelfi Skye looked back at us. She looked…” Alastair trailed off, looking ashamed. Caleb clenched his jaw when he heard her name. “We were supposed to stop them if they tried to escape. I do not know why.”
“That is not important, Alastair,” Malukali said. There was a tinge of impatience to her voice. “We understand that you were influenced to behave as you did. Please continue.”
“We walked to this platform. Commander Caoilinn was here. As soon as we were all inside, she used her power to produce this illusion.”
Gabriel and Sebastian exchanged looks. Caleb thought his brother looked murderous.
“Her eyes were different,” Alastair said then, causing everyone’s heads to turn attentively. “She did not respond at all when lieutenant Jean-Marc dismissed her.”
There was a pause as Alastair frowned. Caleb looked from him to Malukali, willing the rest of the story forward.
“They were told to get on the platform if they wanted to receive the antidote. Adelfi Olivia asked to see the two remaining antidotes, as only one dose had been shown to them to entice them to the platform. Lieutenant Jean-Marc produced the two remaining vials and prompted them forward. But they hesitated. Tristan struck adelfi Skye then. She fell hard.”
Caleb took a deep breath. It didn’t do much to calm his out-of-control emotions. His gaze shifted to the edge of the platform where dark smears of blood dotted the stone.
“I knew it was wrong,” Alastair said. “I said so after kyria Amber threatened Tristan. I do not remember anything more.”
“Thank you, Alastair,” Malukali said, reducing the glow of her power and releasing him. “I am sorry you were so misused by one of my class.”
“Where did they go?” Gabriel demanded, moving closer to Alastair.
“I do not know, archigos.” Alastair’s eyes were now shining with moisture. He reached up to rub them, obviously not understanding what was happening to him. “I am sorry.”
Just then, Caoilinn hurried into the chamber. She obviously registered the mood in the atmosphere, as her face fell into serious lines as soon as she looked around. “What is it, archigos Sebastian? I came as soon as I received your summons. What has happened, and how can I help?”
Skye watched the coastline grow closer. She and her sisters were bound in restraints that tied their wrists to their ankles. While they were sitting, it wasn’t too bad. But once they reached land, she thought it would be beyond uncomfortable.
They had also been gagged. She could only assume it was because Jean-Marc and Tristan didn’t want them communicating with each other verbally or mentally, as they certainly weren’t going to alert anyone else with cries for help out in the middle of the ocean as they were.
At least they had been given the antidotes, she thought. She no longer felt any cramping and was otherwise feeling back to normal except for the dampening of her powers. She had to wonder just how long Jean-Marc would be able to maintain the damper. Sure, he was fairly powerful. From what she understood, he was essentially the fourth most powerful member of his class. But he would have to stop at some point, even to sleep. Wouldn’t he?
As they got closer to shore, her spirits sank. There were more dots along the sand than she had ever imagined. She didn’t understand how that was possible, as she had thought the location of the platforms to be secret. But someone must have known enough to convey this location to the Mercesti.
Soon, the platform hit the water. She felt her fear lurch into her throat. She focused on Amber, using her eldest sister’s calm demeanor to help center her.
They bounced on the waves, the wind whipping their hair as they rapidly advanced toward the shore. It was a minor miracle, to her thinking, that she and her sisters didn’t bounce right off the platform, seeing as they had no ability to grip anything. As it was, Olivia would have gone overboard if Jean-Marc hadn’t managed to grab her in time.
They soon came to a stop. It was a very eerie and bizarre feeling to be sitting just yards from the beach filled with Mercesti, yet not being visible to them. Skye looked at Jean-Marc, wishing he would reconsider.
“I am going to bind you together at the ankles,” the Orculesti lieutenant said. “I would not recommend resistance, unless you want to risk injury to your sisters.”
She sat while the two males connected her to her sisters. She had never seen the milky-colored binding they were using. It chafed, but wasn’t as hard as metal or as coarse as rope.
Once they were joined, they were told to stand. They realized as soon as they did that their hands could rise no higher than their thighs. They couldn’t even swing their arms unless their legs moved, too. And then, as though those hindrances weren’t enough, Jean-Marc tied ropes around their waists, securing their arms as tightly as he could manage to their bodies.
She might have found their precautions flattering if not for her towering fear. She did what she could with her medi
tative abilities to calm herself when the males off-loaded her and her sisters into the thigh-high waves. Unfortunately, she didn’t feel much calmer after her efforts. Her gaze centered on the approaching shoreline as they waded through the warm water. They moved toward it at an agonizing pace due to their constraints.
At last, they stepped onto the sand. Jean-Marc led the way, followed by Amber, Olivia, Skye and then Tristan. And when they finally reached the point of visibility of the Mercesti, Skye saw their leader smile.
“Well, well, well. Hello, girls,” Grolkinei said.
Chapter Forty-Four
“Where did the platform go, commander?”
Caoilinn wept as she told them the coordinates. She was under Malukali’s power so she could help them piece together what happened. She had already revealed that she had been communicating information about the sisters and their Gloresti to Jean-Marc for some time, though she hadn’t realized it. She also admitted to adding the poison to the beverages in the picnic lunch.
“Did they share any more of their plans with you?” Malukali asked.
“Only that they intend to draw us into battle using the sisters.”
“Thank you, Caoilinn,” Malukali murmured, easing her hands from the Lekwuesti’s head.
Choking back a sob as she blinked back into focus, Caoilinn looked at Gabriel and his brothers. “I am deeply sorry.”
“Caoilinn, you didn’t have any control here,” Gabriel said in a voice that sounded harsher than it was intended. “You’re a victim, too. We don’t have any idea right now how many others were used as you and Alastair were, and anger is useless. If you want to help us, you need to regroup and begin outfitting every Estilorian who is ready for battle with armor.”
