Qu’Baka, Citadel, Middle Ring, Bor’Dane’s House
John completed his patrol of the house in the small hours of the morning.
He turned into the upper east wing, less than impressed to have found that Bethany Anne and Michael were nowhere on the property. “How’s a guy supposed to do his job when the bodies he’s guarding take a midnight flit whenever they damned well feel like it? God knows it can’t be that difficult to answer when I call.”
Tabitha’s voice filtered from Peter’s room, guiding John to the right door.
It was a shame to interrupt their time together, but Bethany Anne hadn’t left him much choice.
John tapped on the door, keeping his voice low so as not to disturb anyone sleeping. “Pete? I’m heading out to the royal complex. BA and Michael went walkabout, I’m guessing that’s where I’ll find them.”
There was a shuffle, then Peter opened the door with a concerned frown. “You want company?”
John leaned around the doorframe and waved at Tabitha and Todd on the holoscreen. “Nah, I’m good. Just letting you know.”
He left Peter and Tabitha to their call and headed downstairs to the front entrance.
Mahi’ looked up as John padded through the front hall. She pushed her writing away and got up from the table to intercept him by the door. “Where are you going? It’s late. Or early, I’m not sure which.”
John grinned. “It depends on whether you’ve been up all night or you just woke up. Have you seen Bethany Anne or Michael? They’re not in their room.”
Mahi’ shook her head. “No. I’ve been here all night, and I haven’t seen anyone but Bor’Dane’s night staff.” She turned and grabbed a warm cloak from a stand near the door. “I should have noticed them leaving.”
John snorted softly as he opened the door. “Don’t feel too bad about it. Bethany Anne has been giving me the slip for longer than I care to remember.”
Mahi’ smiled. “That I can believe. I will walk with you. Perhaps the exercise will convince my tired mind to allow me some peace.”
John stepped outside and glanced around. “I’d appreciate the company as far as the gatehouse. After that, you’d have trouble keeping up.”
Mahi’ stole a glance at John as they walked.
John had encountered that look before. “If you can come up with a question your son hasn’t already asked, I’ll be shocked.”
Mahi’ broke out in laughter. “That’s my boy. It’s not so much a question as an observation I have. I am realizing there is a difference between the story and the reality.”
John frowned. “Huh?”
Mahi’ opened her hands, palms out. “The fearsome John Grimes, whose very name makes whole planets quiver.” She waved her hands to encapsulate John. “It is a myth, a tale. I had expected someone rather more aggressive. Instead, I find you to be a calm, caring individual.”
John grinned. “I don’t see the need to waste my energy stressing over the slightest thing. You don’t want to see what happens when I have to put my boot down.”
Mahi’ sighed. “My husband was the same. He could always be relied upon to rein in conflict, whereas I was always too quick to fight.”
John patted Mahi’ on the shoulder, at something of a loss in the face of her emotions. “I can’t guess what it’s like to lose someone you love. I came close recently with my granddaughter. It was enough to make me think Bethany Anne’s protective instinct isn’t so overboard.”
Mahi’ considered the comfort she had knowing Tu’Reigd was secreted away from danger while the Citadel was undergoing this unrest. Her reply was cut off by a flash of red light over by the gatehouse. “What was that?”
John recognized the flare. “Our missing Empress has returned.” He veered from the path to head Bethany Anne off, calling out before she vanished again.
The red light turned on him and Bethany Anne’s voice cut the night. “John? Is that Mahi’ with you? Perfect! Get over here, both of you!”
John broke into a jog, his initial alarm fading at the triumphant lilt to Bethany Anne’s voice. “What’s going on?”
Mahi’ passed him, her long stride getting her to Bethany Anne and Michael just before John.
Michael filled them in on the events leading up to Lu’Trein’s death. “All that remains is to spread the word to the people.”
Bethany Anne eased the unconscious Baka around her shoulders to the ground. “Oh, and Mahi’, Michael found this guy.”
Mahi’ gasped and fell to her knees in shock when she recognized him. “Fi’? My love? Is it really you? It can’t be.” She wept unashamedly as she brushed Fi’Eireie’s fur out of his face, her tears staining two dark paths down her cheeks.
She looked at Bethany Anne in confusion when Fi’Eireie didn’t react. “Why isn’t he waking up?”
Bethany Anne gave Mahi’ an apologetic smile. “He was pretty out of it when he saw us. Michael put him into a deep sleep.”
Fi’Eireie awoke at Michael’s touch. His eyes fluttered open and he looked at Mahi’ in confusion for a split second before glancing at the Empress.
Mahi’ was there in an instant to comfort him. “Fi’, it is me, your Mahi’. Look at me.” She gently turned his head.
His eyes were full of confusion. “No. Lu’Trein killed you, and he took our son. This is a trick!”
Mahi’ put Fi’Eireie’s palm to her cheek before he could pull away. “See? I’m really here. It is not a trick. I thought you were dead, Fi’. I took Tu’Reigd away and raised him far from here.”
Fi’Eireie hesitated, still not completely trusting his senses. “Mahi’?”
Mahi’ leaned in to take Fi’Eireie in her arms. “This is real, my love. We are together again.”
Bethany Anne touched Mahi’ to get her attention. “Call if you need anything. We’ll just be inside.” She slipped her arm through Michael’s and turned them toward the house. “Let’s leave these two to their reunion.”
Michael bumped Bethany Anne with his hip as they walked. “That is how you reunite with your lost love.”
Bethany Anne’s mouth lifted at the corner. “I don’t know. I liked our reunion just fine.”
Qu’Baka, Citadel, Inner Ring, Royal Complex (the next day)
The people of the Citadel mourned their losses even as they celebrated their freedom from the cult of the Seven by tearing down the symbols of their occupation.
The fighting had been brief in the wake of the video proving Lu’Trein’s betrayal and the true nature of the “gods.”
Bethany Anne had left the palace in hopes of finding a quiet space to check in on the search for Demon. The demolition of the ziggurat took care of that.
Michael joined Bethany Anne when she reached the semicircle of heavy machines parked around the base of the bottom tier’s steps. “No Baka wants the crystal around to remind them of the Seven.”
They mounted the stairs, Bethany Anne slowing to match Michael’s more considered stride. “The video lit a rocket in their asses, that’s for sure. It’s only been a couple of hours since Mahi’ spoke.”
Michael shook his head. “If anything, the people redoubled their efforts at the news of her return. It was all Bor’Dane could do to get them to hold off on beginning demolition here until the building has been thoroughly searched.”
“Did we find Lu’Trein’s records?” Bethany Anne asked.
“That’s why we are here,” Michael explained. “There’s a sealed chamber below the surface.”
Bethany Anne raised her eyebrow. “Oh, yeah?”
“It has a telepathic locking system.” Michael smiled at Bethany Anne’s reaction. “I guessed that would interest you.”
Bethany Anne inclined her head. “That sounds like Kurtherian technology. Lead on. I’m intrigued.”
Michael guided her down to the dungeon level and turned into an empty corridor. “I felt a change in air pressure when I Mysted through here looking for hidden cells.”
Bethany Anne examin
ed the opaque crystal brickwork. “A hidden vault.”
Michael indicated an unassuming spot on the wall. “Your mystery vault.”
Bethany Anne ran her fingers along the invisible seam. “I’d never know there was anything here. You said the locking mechanism is activated telepathically? I assume you mean by the Kurtherian we no longer have access to.”
Michael nodded thoughtfully. “I’m thinking TOM might be able to spoof the system into admitting us.”
Bethany Anne stepped back, recalling the entity behind the Kurtherian’s eyes. “Worth a try. TOM, do your worst.”
It’s not very difficult to replicate a brainwave pattern when you have a recording of it, TOM replied. At least I got something useful from that guard.
You didn’t mention he was a guard, Bethany Anne murmured distractedly as the section of the wall moved inward and to the left.
Michael gestured at the opening with barely concealed impatience. “Care to light our way?”
Bethany Anne smiled and sent a ball of soft white energy ahead of them into the vault. “You can’t make an energy ball?”
Michael raised a hand to show her the energy crackling over his skin. “I could, but it would likely end in a fire.”
Bethany Anne brushed his arm with her hand as she passed to enter the vault. “It’s not like you to get so emotional.” She glanced around the neatly organized storage space and headed for the nearest locked cabinet to begin stripping its contents. “We should have brought an antigrav cart.”
Michael found a cubby stacked with boxes of cleaning supplies. He emptied a couple out onto the floor and took them to the where Bethany Anne was sorting the contents of a drawer into two piles on the top of the cabinet.
Bethany Anne indicated the much smaller pile of papers and holofiles. “That stuff is coming with us. There’s documentation on everything Lu’Trein did here.”
Michael smiled and moved over to an ornately carved chest. “This is fine craftsmanship. I don’t want to damage it.” He picked up the ugly lock and superheated the metal to melt it.
Bethany Anne agreed the chest was beautifully made. “It’s not going to matter once demolition starts. Unless you want to carry it out of here?”
Michael dropped the lock onto the floor and opened the doors. “Not necessarily.” He eased out the topmost tray and lifted the glass lid to extract a clear blue crystal from the rows of identical crystals in the velvet-lined tray. “This is interesting.”
He held the crystal out to Bethany Anne. “What do you think?”
Bethany Anne left the cabinet and took the tiny crystal between her thumb and forefinger. She frowned as she turned it in the light to get a better view of the inside. “Definitely a chip of some kind. I haven’t seen anything this intricate outside of our technology, and we don’t use crystal as a storage material.”
TOM spoke up so as to be heard by them both. That’s an external memory drive for a Kurtherian computer.
Michael swept a hand toward the seven trays in the chest. “There are thousands of them in here.”
Bethany Anne pressed her lips together. “Do we have any way of getting to the data on them?”
Building an interface to read them shouldn’t be that difficult, TOM answered.
Bethany Anne placed the chip back on the velvet with care. “Can the chips survive a trip through the Etheric?”
I presume so.
Bethany Anne touched a finger to the chest and pushed it into the Etheric. “Another item on the list of shit we haven’t got time to figure out just now. It can wait until we’re done here.”
She gathered the pile of documents to be taken with them and added them to the box. “The sooner we’re done here, the better. I haven’t heard from Addix in a while.”
Michael indicated the cubby he’d found the boxes in. “There is a bench just past the opening,” he told her. “I can take care of this. I’d rather have an update on Demon.”
Bethany Anne made her way to the bench and opened an audio-only comm link to her Spymistress. “Addix, where is my husband’s mountain lion?”
“We wouldn’t know,” came the reply from Izanami. “We tracked her to a river, where she looks to have gotten into a fight with another predator over her food. We’re still looking.”
“How are things going in the Citadel?” Addix cut in. “Izanami’s reports are somewhat underwhelming in their detail.”
Izanami’s reply could have cut diamond, even over the audio link. “You are just in a foul mood because you can’t keep up.”
There was a wave of annoyance from the Ixtali. “I could keep up just fine if you’d choose a route I could travel without getting tangled up.”
Bethany Anne raised an eyebrow at the bickering. “What’s going on with you two?”
“Addix is at the limit of her endurance,” Izanami complained. “Yet she refuses to rest.”
“Because we are in the middle of a search and rescue!” Addix retorted.
Bethany Anne cut across them both. Enough. Rest, Addix. Izanami can search without you.
She dropped the link and returned to find Michael was all but done stripping the vault of information. “That was fast.”
Michael flashed a smile as he picked up one of the boxes. “I couldn’t miss your conversation with Addix and Izanami. I thought you would appreciate it if we could leave immediately.”
Bethany Anne grabbed the other box and stacked it on top of Michael’s. “You guessed right. I want to get those chips to the Baba Yaga soonest. No room for error that way. Meet back at Bor’Dane’s house after I’m done. There’s something I want to talk about.”
Michael raised an eyebrow. “Something to be concerned about?”
Bethany Anne recalled that emotionless stare again. “It will wait until we’re sure everything is going to be okay here when we leave.”
19
Qu’Baka, Jungle
Addix glared at Izanami when Bethany Anne dropped the link. “That’s just great. Now what are we supposed to do? If I stop to sleep, Demon could be lost forever.”
“The search will have to continue while you rest, as my Empress commanded,” Izanami told her firmly. “You will be of no use to Demon if you collapse from exhaustion.”
Addix hesitated, hearing the sense in Izanami’s argument. “Fine. I will just stay here and sleep while you flutter off to who-knows-where.”
Izanami dissolved into a shower of golden sparkles and shot off through the jungle without another word.
Addix stared after her a moment before setting off, her mandibles opening and closing in annoyance. “I should have stuck to being a tutor. It beat slogging through this jungle. Where that cat is heading is a mystery.”
Izanami sighed. It will be a solved mystery since I’m leaving a trail for you to follow.
Addix blinked away the golden sparks that danced into her vision. “Thank you. I appreciate that.” She wove herself a hammock with the vines and climbed in reluctantly as the sparkles settled on the leaves around her. “Don’t forget to wake me if you find Demon.”
As if I would, Izanami replied. Sleep well.
Addix woke suddenly, almost falling out of her makeshift hammock. It took a moment for her to clear the confusion of waking up in a strange place before she recalled why she was there. “Izanami?”
You are awake.
“How long was I asleep?”
Six hours, Izanami informed her. I am getting close. I am detecting a feline scent. However, the DNA I have found deposited in the scent markers belongs, impossibly, to a cat from the genus Smilodontini in the Machairodontinae family. She paused when Addix didn’t react to the information. Demon’s rival is a sabretooth tiger.
Addix felt cold inside. “That is not good. Is there a chance you’ve made a mistake?”
No, Izanami confirmed. I double-checked, and the closest match is with a fossilized sample from the Earth archives.
Addix spotted a few sparkles in the air and set off in that
direction. She knew little about feline ways, but if Demon’s territorial nature was anything to go by it was likely this male had taken exception to the intrusion. “Demon might be injured if she’s been fighting.”
Izanami didn’t voice her fear of the situation being much worse. Demon’s scent is here, but fainter than the male cat’s. Follow the trail I left you.
“That’s the plan,” Addix replied softly. “Keep trying her chip. I’ll get to you eventually.”
Just wait until I get my hands on her, Izanami promised with vehemence driven by worry. There was nothing in our agreement about her keeping her neural chip switched off.
Addix continued her careful progress through the canopy, her eyes peeled for the trail of golden particles Izanami had left for her to follow. It was too tempting to blast the vines with what little Etheric ability she had. However, she restrained herself from expending her precious energy.
It wouldn’t do to require another nap in the middle of rescuing Demon from whatever situation they found her in.
Addix had her ways that didn’t involve throwing Etheric energy around. Mostly they involved a fair amount of cursing and a determination to avoid getting tangled in the vines. Still, progress was difficult, and the only light in the canopy came from Izanami’s trail of sparkles.
Izanami spoke up around an hour later. Addix. I have Demon’s location.
Addix stumbled, distracted. “Is she…”
She’s alive and uninjured, Izanami assured her. As far as I can tell.
Addix sliced the vine that snarled her back leg in her distraction. “How far away am I?”
Around three kilometers, Izanami replied.
Addix put on an extra burst of speed, using her arms and all four of her legs to eat up the distance between them. “Wait for me.”
Izanami’s trail let out at a chasm.
Addix emerged from the canopy at the craggy wound in the ground and headed for the slight glow that indicated Izanami’s position in a stand of crooked trees.
Izanami pointed into the chasm as Addix arrived by her side. “They’re down there.”
Enter Into Valhalla Page 19
