The Keepers Book Two of the Holding Kate Series

by Cole, LaDonna

  A strange light leapt up in her eyes as she talked about them painting her body. As if she wanted to speak the words to see their effect on me. “You’re not the Mother, then?”

  “No.”

  Something in her face betrayed the lie. It’s not true. She is the mother. Heaviness settled into my gut.

  “Kate, why are you lying?” I felt and sounded like dried leaves cracking under someone’s tread.

  Tears welled and spilled down her cheeks. “Corey, why would you say that? Of course I’m not lying to you.” She closed the distance between us, pressed her body against mine and threw her arms around me. She sobbed into my neck. “You must believe me.”

  My heart crashed. The truth eluded her. Did she believe her own lies? Her tears were real as they slid down my face. Yet a feeling crept up my spine. All is not what it seems.

  “Shhh, it’s gonna be fine, my love.” I kissed her hair and face.

  The Rhinoguard yanked on her chain and she made a choking noise as she flew backward into him. Trip and I both yelled at him and demanded they release her, to no avail. He yanked again and she stumbled to her knees. Dragging her through the dirt and before she could gather her feet underneath her, he hauled her into the cave. Trip and I bellowed our protests, and Eunavae wept silently under the painter’s ministrations.

  “I suggest that perhaps the reason that a particle’s outcome can’t be predicted is not because of randomness, but because every possible outcome does occur.” ~ Hugh Everett 1957

  QUANTUM PERSPECTIVE SOURCE (QPS): TRIP CARSON

  The stinkin’ Rhinodude stripped Trip’s clothes and it took three of them to hold him down while they painted a green dragon on his chest. He spat and struggled and cursed them all to the pit of hell. Then he heard Kate’s voice.

  He stilled and adjusted his position to see her. Lithe in form, she stood before Corey, kissing and talking to him. He couldn’t make out the words, but the sight of her whole and well overwhelmed him.

  “Kate!” Trip struggled with the Rhinoguards. “Kate.”

  She whirled around and a small gasp escaped her lips. “Trip!” It sounded like a whispered prayer. She pressed her warm body to his and sang sweetly in his ear words of love and comfort.

  Trip couldn’t think straight, his soul flooded with relief that she stood in front of him. But his body burned at her electric touch. A current built up between them, pleasant and not completely unfamiliar. Corey called her back to him, but Trip’s mind raced. He recognized that electric pulse coming off of her. Not as strong as before, it didn’t knock him on his rear, but present. It meant one thing.

  Kate was the Mother again.

  We are in big trouble. The dragons weren’t going to let her go anytime soon. Not without a fight. Something caught his eye at the cave entrance. He glanced over to see Donnie’s face disappear back into the shadow.

  Good, Donnie’s still alive and hidden. With a man on the outside, they had a better chance of breaking free.

  They dragged Kate back into the cave and Trip screamed at them for hurting her, a reflex. It occurred to him later if the Mother had taken over Kate again, then the dragging and all of it had been an act.

  What is she up to?

  QUANTUM PERSPECTIVE SOURCE (QPS): DONNIE DUDGEON

  The Rhinodudes dragged Kate just inside the cave opening out of sight. Donnie crouched lower behind a large boulder. She stood and in Ampelese began cursing at them.

  When did she learn to speak Ampelese like that? His prior attempts to teach her the language failed miserably. How long had she been stranded here?

  She yanked the cuff from around her neck and arms and threw them at the Rhinoguard. “You insolent fool! How dare you drag me through the dirt like a common slug?”

  Donnie shifted, agitated. Those Rhinoguards did not look like the type that would put up with her verbal bashing for long. About to jump out to defend her, Donnie checked himself, struck by the realization. She took off her restraints. The enormous beasts cowered from her. They knelt down and placed their faces to the ground in front of her.

  Kate is the leader.

  Kate’s jump to this dragon world must have lasted centuries. Maybe longer. How else could she be in charge of the dragons and the Rhinodudes? No longer the frail teen they had left behind, Kate had matured and grown into someone capable of dominating and controlling monsters. Mel and Tara’s Scriptorium experience played out in front of him.

  This changed things. He didn’t know what to do now. He used her stream of profanities to cover his foot tread as he crept away into the dark recesses of the cave to think.

  QUANTUM PERSPECTIVE SOURCE (QPS): TARA JOHNSON

  The Rhinoguards pressed the team into service, and Tara recognized the lilted English that the Darchori spoke as a group of them passed her, carrying tools toward the tall ladders.

  “Excuse me.” She stopped them or the English did. “Are you Darchori?”

  They nodded and cast furtive glances around.

  “I am Tara, friend of the Cianti Todura.”

  Their eyes lighted up and their shoulders straightened a bit.

  “He’s here, you know.”

  They began to look around.

  “There.” She pointed to Corey. “He has come to rescue Kate of a Thousand Years from the overlords, here.”

  They began to murmur amongst themselves. Tara leaned over to one of them. “How did you get here?”

  “We were captured by the Kiarnusk. They found us in our forest home.”

  “How long has it been since Corey left?”

  “Fifty two years ago the Cianti Todura went home with Kate of a Thousand Years. We still celebrate the Tondo Festival and tell the Great Love Story in their honor. Five years ago the Kiarnusk invaded our forest and began taking us as prisoners.”

  “Kiarnusk. Those guards are Kiarnusk?”

  He nodded then scurried up a ladder. Tara heard a commotion and scanned for the source. Turning, she found Corey and sucked a breath between her teeth. A wicked reed weapon slashed across his back, blood splattering the boulder he leaned against. Again and again, the Kiarnusk whipped him, ripping shreds from his back with each stroke.

  “Nooo.” Tara growled and moved toward him. Trip grabbed her arm and stopped her with a firm grasp and jerk of his head.

  The Darchori rattled and shifted. Angry murmurs grew, “Cianti Todura.” Tara yanked her arm out of Trip’s grasp and scanned the crowd, worried they would revolt. She also worried they wouldn’t and Corey would be beaten to death. She and Trip both started to move toward him when the lashes stopped. They drew up at the point of a prod and seethed as the guards forced Corey into labor. Gradually calming, the slaves returned to work, agitated with fury.

  Trip returned to his load and Tara watched to make sure Corey was okay. He gave her a terse nod and she resumed her slave labor.

  She passed by Eunavae on her way to refill the water bucket and whispered. “Darchori among the slaves.”

  She nodded. Later, Tara saw her pass a message to Dirk.

  With the right amount of influence, and just enough luck, they might be able to rile these slaves into rebellion. Tonight would find them engaged in subterfuge.

  QUANTUM PERSPECTIVE SOURCE (QPS): TRIP CARSON

  Trip had seen angry mobs in the arena. When their handlers would do something so unfair to Tara that it caused their champion physical distress, they would rebel.

  He remembered one incident specifically. They had been fighting a two headed lioness and a pack of wolves and were holding their own. Hours had worn away their strength and stamina, but they were down to the last wolf. The bodies of their victims piled high around them. The crowd boiled, in a frenzy. Tara had that effect on them. Just as she delivered the deathblow to the last wolf, the gate opened and three jaguars lurched out at them.

  The spectators went hysterical, turned over seats and spilled out into the arena to kill the jaguars before they could reach their champions. Trip and Tara stood, pa
nting and leaning on each other while the mob tore the jaguars apart. Then they turned on the arena attendants and killed thirty men before they were subdued.

  This crowd appeared just as lethal. Trip worried that any spark might set them off. The Rhinoguards pressed shoulder to shoulder to keep the horde of slaves back.

  When the guards stopped beating Corey, the crowd settled down a bit. They dragged Corey to the work yard and strapped a rod with two buckets of water on either end to his shoulders. They prodded him up the ladder. As he passed by, Trip asked, “Why the thrashing?”

  “Dagan,” he muttered under his breath.

  “Dagan?” Trip looked around. “Is he still here?”

  “In the cave with The Mother,” he grunted as he ascended the ladder, balancing the buckets with the rod across his slashed skin.

  Trip craned his neck around to see if he could spot the dragon, but couldn’t. He made eye contact with Dirk and got a silent command. Oh yeah, Trip would be keeping his eyes wide open. Something smelled very wrong in this stink hole.

  QUANTUM PERSPECTIVE SOURCE (QPS): EUNAVAE MONTGOMERY

  It took six hours of grueling labor for Eunavae to get over the idea that everyone stared at her nakedness. By then sunburn scorched every inch of her skin. She didn’t even feel naked anymore, just tender and wearing a bright pink leotard. At least that is what she told herself.

  She passed Corey as she climbed down for a load and he strained to go up.

  “Eunavae, smear your skin in mud. It will give you some cover from the sun.”

  Taupe mud covered his chest and shoulders. As he passed, she saw gashes from the whipping also covered in dried mud. Clenching her teeth, she prayed he wouldn’t get an infection.

  When she came back down the scaffolding, she knelt near the water hole, scooped up a handful of mud and smeared it across her chest. “Oh,” she sighed and smoothed the cool and soothing paste over as much skin as she could reach. Hands on her back disconcerted her. She turned to see Trip smearing mud across her shoulders. If her face hadn’t already been red from sunburn, she would have blushed to have his hands on her bare skin, but the cold mud felt so good she just sighed a thank you to him.

  He nodded and moved on.

  Each time she approached the mud hole she would smear another layer where the prior layer had dried and cracked off. She and Tara synchronized their work to bring them to the mud at the same time so they could smear each other’s back. When they couldn’t, one of the guys found a way to help them. They covered each other in this way.

  At the end of the day, without signal, the slaves dropped whatever load they carried and ambled toward the cages. The Keepers, startled at the programmed behavior, hung back. When a Rhinodude pointed his prod in their direction, they moved into the last cage. The five of them and a Darchori family shared the space. They seemed a little awestruck to be in the same cage as Corey, the Cianti Todura.

  They bowed low as he entered the cage.

  Corey addressed the elder. “What is your name, Father?”

  “I am Whistleu and these are my sons, Fanthor and Klickart. This is my daughter Aliar.”

  “It is a pleasure to meet the Cianti Todura.” Fanthor touched his forehead then kissed his fist and tapped his chest.

  “The pleasure is mine.” Corey forced his lips into a smile at the familiar Darchori greeting, but his eyes were preoccupied. “This is Eunavae, Tara, Trip, and Dirk.”

  They all nodded to each other. Eunavae’s heart ached as she realized these could be her grandchildren.

  They sat down and waited for the Kiarnusk—Tara informed them of their official name—to serve weak gruel and some water.

  “I have been able to talk to Dagan a bit throughout the day.” Corey sipped his water as he spoke in hushed tones. “He has carried a grudge against us his whole life for stealing The Mother. At the same time he insists the Mother has always been with them.” He shook his head. “He’s not making sense.”

  “Maybe the short time that Kate occupied the Mother’s chair she powered the source for all this time,” Tara suggested.

  “Maybe.” Corey frowned.

  “Corey,” Trip growled. “Kate is definitely the mother now.”

  Corey turned his face away from the bamboo bars and studied Trip. “What do you mean?”

  “Do you remember the electricity that she zapped us with when we tried to touch her on our first jump?”

  Corey nodded.

  “I got a little bit of that when she hugged me earlier. It didn’t have the power like before. No pain, just a gentle vibration, an electrical current. She tried to shield me from it, but I could still feel it.” He dropped his face. “I uh, it was uh, stimulating.”

  Corey’s face turned bright red and he clenched his teeth together, but Eunavae knew Corey. Trip didn’t anger him. Corey ground his teeth because Trip spoke the truth and it bothered Corey on several levels. He turned his back to the Keepers and leaned his head against the bars of the cage.

  Eunavae crawled over to him and cleaned his wounds with her water rations. He didn’t say anything, just handed her his own water and squeezed her hand. The expression in his eyes broke Eunavae’s heart. He didn’t want to think Kate of a Thousand Years could betray all of them so completely, but all of the evidence pointed in that direction.

  What would the Darchori think if they knew that Kate of a Thousand Years betrayed the Cianti Todura? Eunavae didn’t think it would be a pretty sight, she prayed they never found out.

  Tara suggested a plan that would incite a rebellion amongst the slaves.

  “There aren’t that many Darchori in the ranks. Do you think there are enough of them to make a difference?” Dirk asked.

  “I am hoping their bold behaviors will elicit response from the others.”

  The Darchori father spoke from the corner he and his adult children had taken refuge in. “It was a grave injustice to witness what they did to the Cianti Todura.” Their eyes all fell on Corey, and Eunavae could see the insult still brimming in them.

  “Do you think it is possible, Whistleu, to incite a rebellion here?” Tara asked.

  “I think it is very possible. You saw the reaction today. But I caution you, be very careful, it could get out of control quickly. The slaves are already at a breaking point. It will not take much to push them over the edge.”

  “Have you seen the task master?” Eunavae asked him.

  “No, they say she stays inside the cavern. We have never seen her. The green dragon speaks her will to us.”

  “It is a woman, then,” Dirk confirmed.

  “Yes. They call her The Mother.”

  Trip’s and Corey’s eyes sought one another, and then quickly turned away. How strange to be in love with the same woman, and yet be bonded as brothers? Eunavae felt their overwhelming anxiety and utter hopelessness.

  She sank her forehead into Corey’s shoulder and reached for his hand.

  “Ssst.” They snapped their heads up and peered into the shadows. The sound emerged from the cave opening above them.

  Something flew out of the shadow, straight through the bars and hit Eunavae in the chest. She caught a white note wrapped around a tube of antibacterial ointment. She let out a squeal in the back of her throat.

  Yes! This could help prevent infection in Corey’s wounds. She unwrapped the note and read.

  I heard the plans. Standing by and watching out for your needs.

  Donnie

  “Thank you, Donnie!” she whispered and passed the note to the others. They read it as she slathered the medication into Corey’s wounds, then buried the tube in the corner so they would have it the next day.

  “Couldn’t he chuck us a few rations,” Trip complained as he popped the note into his mouth, chewed and swallowed.

  For two weeks they followed a daily routine: wake, get painted, smear mud on their bodies, work all day in the hot sun, clean Corey’s wounds, drink gruel water, report on individual progress with the revolution, and
sleep.

  Occasionally, Donnie slipped them something useful, extra water, pain medication, or notes. Eunavae wondered how he got around without getting caught. He moved in shadow and silence. One night he brought them a feast of tender and flaky white fish. Eunavae never savored a meal so much in her long life. He caught enough for the whole cage, and they ate quickly and licked their fingers clean.

  They spent their days seeding dissent amongst the slaves. Corey had become a figurehead, even to those who were not Darchori. Dagan had ordered him whipped three more times, and his back looked like ground meat. Eunavae did what she could to keep it clean and infection free. He refused to complain, or cower. He walked straight and tall with dignity.

  Underneath the calm exterior lived a man in torment. Heartsick to know more about Kate, he hid his anxiety well. Eunavae knew better, she slept near him and he talked in his sleep.

  “Kate! Why?” He sat up, startled awake every night from the same hellish nightmare.

  “Corey.” Eunavae rolled over, slid next to him, and put her arm around his shoulders. “It’s okay, just a bad dream.”

  He shuddered. “Gah, Eunavae, I need to know. If Kate is lost to us, I have to know.” He pressed the heels of his palms into his eyes and wound his fingers into his hair. “This is torture. I have to save her.”

  “Let’s ask Donnie to spy on her,” Eunavae suggested.

  “I am sure he has already tried,” he whispered, shoulders drooped, despair saturating his words. “If he had good news, he would’ve let us know. I can’t imagine my Kate would allow us to suffer like this. If it were in her power to save us, she would. Either she is given totally over to the Mother, the dragons are manipulating her, or she is actually a prisoner.” His ocean deep eyes brimmed with horror as the moonlight reflected in them. “Eunavae, none of those options is acceptable.”