by Ravyn Wilde
Two women—that left four in the underground chambers if Tala’s count was correct. Tonight, the shields around the fortress had been lowered, the low psychic barrier wouldn’t prevent Raj from location-shifting Nika and their three guards along with himself, into the underground bathing chamber. Since he’d already been in the room and it was beyond the corridor Brac’s guards watched, it should be safe to shift them all in at one time. Glancing over to the other team, he nodded at Tala. She too, had the ability to shift and she would take her guards into Brac’s chamber. Because she’d used far-sight and been through those rooms in her mind, it was felt she would have no problems.
Raj made Nika stand behind him and put her hands on his waist. One guard stood behind her and reached a hand over her shoulder to place it on Raj’s back and each of the other two guards stood on either side of him effectively blocking Nika from all sides, the orders were to protect her at all costs. A quick glance at Tala told him his brother had the same idea for his mate. Tala looked disgruntled but she had one guard in front of her and two flanking her back as they prepared to shift.
“Good luck, Tala,” Nika called out softly.
And, then, they were in the bathing chamber.
We are in the bathing chamber and there are only the two guards down here as we had hoped, Raj projected the thought to Mica.
Tala’s in, Mica relayed Tala’s progress to everyone. There is no one in the bedroom and both doors are locked. They’re going to try for Brac’s mate first.
Tala carefully surveyed the door before her, allowing her senses to reach into the room. There was definitely someone in there, the trick would be to get into the room and subdue him or her before they raised an alarm. Hopefully, they wouldn’t want or be able to contact Brac with their mind. The lock was simple, and it took one of the guards only a minon to breach it. Tala slowly eased the door open and looked around it. As she had suspected, there was a woman asleep on the bed. The same woman Tala had seen Brac bring to her claiming ceremony. Suspecting the woman to be Brac’s mate, tied to him with the unnatural link chains and hopefully grateful for the chance to be free of him, Tala didn’t want to make any assumptions.
Quietly she walked over to the bed as she motioned the guards back. She didn’t want the woman waking and seeing several large men looming over her. Tala moved to place her hand firmly over the woman’s mouth and shook her lightly, saying, “Don’t be afraid. I am Tala, Mica’s mate. I am not here to hurt you.” Tala paused as the woman came to startled awareness and looked at her from wide, fearful brown eyes. The woman would be pretty if she didn’t look so, well…worn. “If I take my hand away will you scream for help?” Tala questioned.
The woman shook her head no and Tala could feel Mica move in her mind. She is telling the truth. Mica was monitoring her. Of course Mica was monitoring her, she knew better than to think he’d leave her without his support no matter what else he was supposed to be doing.
Tala took her hand from the woman’s mouth. “Are you Brac’s true life mate or one of the women he has embedded with false links?” Tala asked bluntly.
The woman’s eyes widened further and she looked frantically around the room, her body went rigid when she saw the guards at the door.
“They are with me and they will not hurt you. In case you don’t recognize the outfit they are wearing, they are Tar’s private guard. We are here to stop Brac and the auction he has taking place below.”
“He will hurt us all when he finds you here,” the woman said sadly. “You must hurry and leave. There is no hope for me, I have been bound to him for almost five life cycles.”
Tala sucked in her breath and asked again, “Truly bound or false linked?”
The woman’s eyes filled with tears and she sobbed, “These chains did not come freely from my body. But it won’t matter. As long as he holds the device that governs them, he has the power to kill me with the touch of his hands.”
Tala gasped, “The black boxes can kill through the false links?” She immediately checked to see if Mica was still monitoring this conversation and she could feel her mate waiting for the answer.
“Yes, I have seen him use the device to kill a woman who refused to obey him,” she said sadly.
Ask her if each woman has their own device or if one box works on all? Mica’s question moved urgently through Tala’s mind.
“Does every woman Brac has embedded with the false links have to have her own box device or will one device work on all women?”
The woman frowned as if she were having trouble understanding the question, then her eyes cleared. “One device works on only one woman,” she stated. “But you must get out of here before Brac or someone else finds you here,” she went on urgently.
“What is your name?” Tala asked gently.
“Zabeth.”
“Zabeth, do you wish to be free of Brac?”
“I don’t think that is possible,” she replied dejectedly. “I have tried to escape before, and this time he would simply kill me rather than beat me for any trouble I cause.”
Tala laughed softly, “Oh, no…Brac will never get his hands on you again. This I can promise you. I am not alone tonight. Brac’s reign of terror will end this moons rise and we will see you are rid of your false links and this man. I need to get the papers Brac has in the duca beside his bed. Will you dress and help me in this?”
“You would be able to take these horrid chains from my body?” Zabeth asked excitedly.
“I believe so,” Tala replied. “My mate and the Selven High Priestess will work together to heal you and all the other women we recover. We have already made arrangements for this. Now, I ask again, would you rather just wait with one of the guards until it is safe to leave or will you help me?”
The woman sprang up and gleefully clapped her hands. “I would love to help you! Oh, how I would like to help bring about his fall. Let me just throw this robe on, I do not want to take anything from this house but what you need.” Zabeth jumped up and threw an old robe over her naked body.
Tala caught a glimpse of bruised skin. “Are you up to this?” she asked with concern.
“If it gets me out of this place, I am up to walking many legions,” Zabeth said with fervor. “Just tell me what you need me to do.”
Mica relayed Tala’s success in freeing Brac’s “mate” to everyone and turned his attention back to watching the room. Nyssa had maneuvered herself close to the women, Tar wasn’t far from her and Mica slid into position across from Brac. There were six additional men present to bid on the women and two guards hovered in the back of the room. Mica didn’t like having only himself, Tar and Nyssa to deal with nine men.
Without the three women present, it would have been a different feeling—he would have relished the fight. But he and Tar would have to divide their attention between protecting the women and subduing the men. He had no idea what talents or weapons any of the nine might have and so he would wait as long as he could, giving the other two groups time to finish their jobs and send reinforcements.
Everyone’s attention focused on the small stage at the front of the room where two women, scantily draped in sheer blue fabric, were being displayed. So far Brac allowed the women to just stand there, heads bent while the men circled around them. Brac issued a decree that they weren’t to be touched…yet.
Mica would not allow them to be touched, period. He would wait as long as he could for the others. When they were able, they would send their guards to come assist at the glindash His first priority was to find the small black devices that controlled the women’s false links. Mica refused to allow them to suffer any more pain than they’d gone through already and the discovery of how the devices could be used to kill the women made their recovery more urgent. He would assume either Brac or one of the guards had them, and worked to find them before any battle began.
Raj moved silently out and along the corridor to position himself behind one of the guards at the entrance to the dark, cell-lined passage. Thankf
ully, this area was dimly lit and the men were facing the cells. The only noise he could hear was soft sobbing coming from one of the prison rooms down the long, dark corridor. The thought of Ahnika being kept in such a way for two life cycles horrified him.
Both men would have to be taken out quickly and without any chance they could somehow raise an alarm. Tar’s palace guards could fight and defend using psychic powers as well as more traditional weapons but, if they fought, there would be too many opportunities for Brac’s guards to alert him.
It had been decided Raj would try and use a restraining shield on the men. If they possessed little psychic power of their own, it would immobilize them and block any telepathic message they tried to send. The risk came if one or both were too strong for his shield to work. Well, all he could do was try and, if it failed, counter with a more physical attack.
Raj went completely still and focused his mind, working to build a protective screen of golden light. He watched as a dome coalesced in front of him and he mentally pushed it to cover both men. And waited. Neither man shifted nor spoke, but stood in rigid silence. They hadn’t been moving much before so maybe this wasn’t a good indication that his shield worked. Carefully Raj moved to stand in front of the two men with his flash wand drawn. He would kill them if he had to.
When both men stood completely immobilized, he smiled with the realization he wouldn’t have to kill them. They didn’t so much as blink when Raj placed himself before them—they were frozen and incapacitated. Testing the strength of the shield, he lifted his hand and pushed against it and was rewarded with no movement. Glancing over the men, he saw no keys or any evidence of torture devices. Locking the shield in place, he called to Nika and the guards and watched to make sure the safeguard held firmly in place as they joined him.
Leaving two palace guards to watch over the captive men, he and Nika began their search for keys to unlock the cells. Finding the actual keys would be faster than using psychic power to unlock each room and they wouldn’t run the risk of Brac sensing a disruption in the psi-alarms. If he’d bothered to set them.
“Here,” Nika whispered excitedly. “I think these must be the keys.” Nika turned from one of the open chambers with a ring of keys in her hand. Raj glanced in the room and clenched his jaw. It was the chamber Nika described being taken to on a number of occasions. A room with arm and leg shackles attached to the walls and an assortment of whips and other pain-causing instruments scattered about. Being confronted with the reality of her past experiences almost brought him to his knees. If he did nothing else, he would see this building destroyed as soon as possible. The psychic pain emanating from the walls would make it uninhabitable anyway.
Turning, he followed Nika down the hall and stopped her when she came to the first cell door. “Don’t bother with that cell, there is no one in it.”
“Which then?” she asked.
“Here.” Raj pointed as he took the ring of keys from his mate and worked to find the right key. Slowly he opened the door and glanced in to ensure the occupant was female and would be no threat to his mate before he let her in before him.
“Don’t be afraid,” Nika called softly into the room. “We have come to rescue you.”
Chapter Thirteen
Mica sighed. It was done. The women in the chambers below had been released from their cells and moved onto the waiting transportation cids along with Brac’s false mate and several boxes of papers which appeared to contain information to help them find the women already sold into mate bondage. Tala and Nika had been convinced to accompany the women back to the Ruling Place. They had gone very reluctantly.
The time had come to finish this.
Before Mica could intervene, Brac moved to the women on the platform and said, “The proceedings will start. I will, of course, demonstrate the women’s submissive training and how you can control them. After this example, you will be allowed to examine the attributes of each woman much more closely.” At this, he leered out at the crowd and moved to pull two controlling devices from a robe pocket. “I am happy to say if you don’t find anything you like this bi-non, I have several additional females who will have completed their training by the next full moons and I should also have a couple new females delivered to me by the end of the setnon.”
This gave Mica pause. Brac claimed he had more women being captured and he hadn’t even considered that possibility. Shivet! How could they find out where Brac’s men were raiding and stop them from gathering more women? It would have to wait, as he couldn’t contemplate the future now. At the minon, he needed to stop this nightmare.
Mica concentrated on the boxes in Brac’s grasp and pulled with his mind. Yes! He had them within his own hands.
Brac yelped as the boxes flew from his hand and into Mica’s. “Who dares…” he started to demand when he saw the tall robed figure and watched with a look of disbelieving anger as Mica lowered his hood and Brac realized who threatened him.
“Brac, you are under Royal Zylan arrest for the crimes you have committed here,” Mica stated darkly. “As are all of you present for being involved in the torture and torment of these women.”
Before Mica finished his pronouncement, Brac screamed in rage and the air in the room trembled in reaction to the power he unleashed. Violent blue arcs of lightning flew from his hands and clashed with the shields of energy Mica rapidly projected. Without taking his eyes from Brac, Mica knew Nyssa had pushed the women to the floor and was hovering over them. “Tar!”
“Got it. Focus on Brac.”
Mica smiled as he felt the pulsing force of a protective shield flow over all three—Tar had seen to the protection of the females. Without dividing his concentration, he added another layer of strength to the psychic safeguards over Nyssa—nothing could be allowed to happen to her, she carried the future of Zylar in her womb.
Chaos arose within the chamber as the men either tried to flee or joined in the fight. Mica grinned as Raj appeared suddenly with several palace guards to join in the fight. Returning his attention to Brac, he saw the man’s face was strained with the effort he poured into throwing the sizzling bolts of energy. Mica played with him a bit, hampered because he didn’t want to kill Brac, but sought to keep him alive for questioning. So he worked on countering Brac’s mental onslaught while keeping damage to a minimum.
Mica’s robe shredded easily from the psychic strikes and small streaks of blood appeared across his chest. Tala was going to be upset. Brac seemed to crow with his assumed victory. Mica’s muscles bulged with the power he harnessed as he aimed a brilliant ball of focused energy toward Brac. Shrieking in pain, Brac fell to the floor while trying to shift his form. Mica could only assume he intended to try and fight as an animal predator. With a flick of his wrist, Mica settled a dark cloud over Brac, preventing any shape shifting and knocking him out cold.
Mica quickly fashioned a restraining collar from the air around him and placed it around Brac’s neck. The collar would keep Brac from using any psychic abilities and, if he tried, the collar would cause extreme pain. Mica hoped he would try. It would give the man a taste of his own depravity. Then he bound Brac’s arms and legs with Zylan restraints and turned him over to one of the palace guards.
He checked to make sure the shield still kept Nyssa and the two women sheltered in its protective embrace and then turned to watch as Tar and Raj battled the remaining men. Brac’s two guards had disappeared. Mica knew the sentinels Tar placed around the fortress would make sure they didn’t escape justice, so he didn’t worry about them.
Two other men were unconscious on the floor, Mica moved to restrain them so they couldn’t wake and rejoin the fight or flee the melee unnoticed.
Raj backed another two men into a corner and played at trading psychic shocks with them. Deflecting those shocks sent toward his body, he gleefully returned the sharp energy with an added bite. He was in no danger.
Tar had one man psychically pinned to the wall while he used his fists against the o
ther. Mica laughed out loud, his deep chuckle sounding very strange in the room. A quick glance at Nyssa told Mica that Tar’s mate enjoyed the fight. She’d shifted to a sitting position within the protective bubble and mimicked her mate’s actions by throwing punches at the air. Tar had indeed found his true mate.
Tar had always preferred to fight with his fists. He said he liked the satisfaction of hearing the smack of skin against skin. Mica had better help the poor man before Tar beat him to death. Moving up to Tar, he tapped him on the shoulder. As Tar turned to him, the man he was fighting threw another punch. Mica caught the hand in his own grip and quickly dropped the man into a sound sleep. Swiftly fitting the fallen man with restraints, he turned to Tar. “I think we are done here. Let’s round up these prisoners and turn them over to the guards so they can be transported back to the Ruling Place. I will make sure Brac is settled nicely in his new quarters and join you and the others back at the palace. We still need to see to the women’s health tonight or I would let you keep on pounding these poor men,” Mica said with a grin.
Tar sighed. “You always like to ruin my fun, Mica. But you are right. I need to get my mate and these last two women to the palace.” He glanced at Raj and grinned. “You going to tell Raj he has to stop playing?” he asked.
“Raj!” Mica bellowed. “Wrap them up in pretty little packages so we can get home to our mates before Nika and Tala start going through Brac’s papers and decide they are going to go rescue someone else without us.” Mica enjoyed playing with his brother, he watched as Raj turned white as a sheet and, with the snap of fingers, had his two prisoners bound and gagged.
Raj blanched, thinking Mica could be right. In a quick and efficient move, he put the two men to sleep and restrained them. All of the men except Brac were turned over to the guards. Mica would take Brac to a special psychic holding cell that could withstand any attempt he made to break free. The shielding collar would be left around his neck as a further precaution against his escape.
