strongholdrising

by Lisanne Norman

  “How long are we staying?”

  He sat down at the table opposite her. “Six months to a year at least. It could take nearly that long to get this place up and running, but it does make a good base of operations from which to go looking for the other resources I need.”

  “When are you going to contact the Sholans?”

  “When I’m sure this place really is habitable and there’s no hidden faults in its systems. A week or two at most.” She was as unsettled as the young ones he realized. And working herself up to saying something important.

  She turned away from her comm to look at him properly. “Kezule, Kusac was scent marked by one of the females on the Kz’adul,” she said quietly.

  He sat back in his chair and regarded her carefully. He’d wondered when she’d tell him. “Was he now? Scent marking. We didn’t have that in my time, not with feral females. As I understand it, it’s placed by a female to mark a male out as a desirable partner, isn’t it?”

  “That’s right. Chy’qui sent a female to Kusac his last night on the Kz’adul to collect breeding samples from him. For some reason best known to her, she scent marked him. Chy’qui had her killed so she couldn’t betray him.”

  “Then I don’t see the problem.”

  “Kusac thinks it was me who went to him that night,” she said, looking away. “It affected him differently from the way it would one of our males. We’d be able to tell which female had done it, he can’t.” She glanced back at him. “As a Sholan, he shouldn’t even be able to smell the nuances in our scents. The pheromones must have heightened his sense of smell. I had to agree it was me for fear he’d tell his people what had happened and they’d figure out about Chy’qui taking breeding samples. Keeping it secret is academic now that we’re giving the cubs to them.”

  “So he thinks you came to him that last night. This is better than I’d hoped.” He began to smile, a plan forming in his mind already.

  “What?” she asked, surprised.

  “I knew he’d been marked in some way as soon as I smelled his scent on that chair on the Kz’adul. I’d intended to use it to bring him here, but to find out he thinks he’s spent the night with you is even better. We’ll use your scent on the message, along with his son’s, as the main lure.”

  “You can’t do that!” she hissed, trying to keep her voice down. “That marker attracts the male to the female who placed it! He’s focusing on me as a desirable sexual partner!”

  “We can deal with it,” he said urbanely.

  “Kezule, he has to be released from it!”

  “Why? I have his son, and I have him attracted to my wife. He’s in my power already, he just doesn’t know it yet. And anyway, how can you release him from the marker placed by a dead female?”

  “It can be done. He’s suffered enough, Kezule! He lost his telepathic abilities because of Chy’qui and his damned priest, and he lost the mental link he had to his mate! Have some compassion! He’s a decent person, I won’t have you tormenting him! What you plan to do to him through his son is bad enough!”

  He raised his eye ridges at her. “Do I detect an affection for him?” he asked quietly. “You’ll do what I tell you to do, Zayshul. Don’t forget he and his companions kidnapped me and brought me forward to this time! I need him and his skills to train our people. When he’s done, I’ll let him go. I’m not that vindictive.”

  “What about his son?”

  “Ah, Shaidan,” he said, looking over at the young male. “Now he’s another matter. That depends.”

  “On what?” she asked angrily.

  He looked back at her. “On how well you perform your part.”

  “You bastard! I won’t lead him on!”

  “I don’t intend to ask you to,” he said coldly. “There are plenty other females here who can do that if necessary. Let’s just get him here first.”

  the Couana, Zhal-S’Asha, 22nd day (October)

  The last few remaining memories clamored at the edges of his mind despite his best efforts to stop them. Somehow he managed to make it through the remainder of his shift, grateful that he’d shortened them for today. He headed back to his room and privacy, only to find the lock on the door no longer worked, a legacy of his suicide attempt.

  Sighing, he settled himself on the bed prior to trying to relax and let the memories return. This time, following some instinct, he took off his torc.

  Stronghold, Zhal-Nylam, 20th day (September)

  “So this is where you’re hiding! Come you here to me this instant, boy! How dare you make Noni come traipsing round this labyrinth of a bird’s nest looking for you!”

  He stiffened, outraged at being addressed like this in front of the juniors he was teaching, especially the young Human male, Kai. The shouted command was almost immediately reinforced by a mental one that gripped his mind like a vise as it delivered its imperative.

  “No sweat, Kusac. I can finish showing you this another time,” said Kai, glancing over to the library door where the elderly Sholan stood.

  “I want to continue,” he said through gritted teeth as he fought against Noni’s control of him.

  “Uh, if you don’t go, she’ll start on me next, and no offense, but it’s you she wants. That’s one tough old bird there.” Hurriedly he saved the program they’d been working on onto a data crystal, grabbed it and got to his feet. “See you later.”

  He barely heard the youth as his mental barriers began to fall like toppling dominos before Noni’s onslaught. With a roar of rage, he flung the chair back and leaped to his feet, making the juniors gasp in shock.

  A reserve of energy deep within him he hadn’t known was there suddenly flared, enabling him to throw her out of his mind and snap his barriers back into place. But it was too late: she’d gotten what she wanted from him.

  “That’s better,” she said mildly, standing her ground as he advanced on her, hair out like a mane and tail lashing from side to side. “Thought you’d turned soft on me, Kusac. Go get the elevator for us. We’re going up to my surgery.”

  “You meddlesome old crone! You have no right to go into my mind like that!” he snarled, afraid of what she’d found.

  “I haven’t, haven’t I?” she said, grasping him by the forearm and latching her claws into him. “Tell me, when you were in the military and on the Khalossa, did you have regular medical checkups? And did the Telepath Guild Mentor send for you every now and then?” She drew him inexorably with her as she turned to leave the library and head for the elevator.

  “You know we did. What of it?” he demanded, unable to pull away for fear of knocking her over.

  “This is your checkup. The Brotherhood is older than the Forces, they copied us.”

  “I don’t believe you!”

  “Your privilege. I’m ordering you, as Stronghold’s Healer, to accompany me to my surgery,” she retorted. “Refuse that if you dare, you arrogant cub!”

  He snarled softly, aware of the futility of arguing, and went with her.

  *

  Noni’s surgery wasn’t what he expected, but then with Noni, nothing ever was. It was a regular white tiled treatment room with an examination bed and all the paraphernalia associated with it. The only difference between it and the standard ones was it was all laid out so Noni could sit, not stand.

  Still smarting at her blatant disregard of his right to mental privacy, he sat down in the chair beside her desk. “I was medically and mentally examined three weeks ago by the TeLaxaudin physician Kzizysus, Noni,” he growled. “There’s no need for this.”

  “I think there is,” she said, placing her walking stick in a holder beside the desk. “You been hiding from your life-mate for the last week, Kusac. You’re distressing her needlessly. I’m telling you this as her birther: you risk her having the cub too early.”

  “Because of a row?” he asked uncomfortably. “You’re exaggerating, Noni. She brought it on herself. She knew how I felt about Zsurtul. Why didn’t she think of me before arranging
the visit?”

  “She did. She thought it would help bring those memories back for you. Why do you see Zsurtul as a threat? Tell me, what harm can he do to you and your family? You’re not thinking this through properly, Kusac, you’re just reacting like a youngling, not a mature male.”

  “Letting him visit my estate made it look like I’m endorsing his presence on Shola and I’m not!”

  “No one gives a damn about how you feel about the Primes,” she said tartly. “You’re the one who’s left the trail. Everyone but you has accepted the Prime presence on Shola.”

  “The Telepath Guild has been using Attitude Indoctrination through the media and you know it, Noni! I can see them for what they really are.”

  “You want Father Lijou to send you for a course of that yourself?” she demanded. “Or worse, have them think your mind’s not recovered from being programmed by Chy’qui?”

  “What?” He looked at her, hardly able to believe what she was saying.

  “You heard. Carry on like this and he’ll send for a Guild Telepath to adjust your thinking for the public good.”

  “He wouldn’t,” he said, hearing the note of uncertainty in his voice.

  “Wouldn’t he? You’re risking your Triad cub’s life— maybe even Carrie’s— with this attitude, and you’re endangering interspecies relationships by antagonizing the Prime Emperor’s son!” She looked at him from under meeting eye ridges. “I’ll say this for you, Kusac, you never do things by half! So tell me how this youngling Prime is a threat to you or your family.”

  “His people were responsible for me losing my Talent! That’s reason enough!”

  “Is it? If not for the Prince intervening, Carrie would have been more than raped by J’koshuk. Zsurtul fought for you to be released as soon as Carrie was fit to travel. You’d never have been found either. Zsurtul didn’t have to do any of this, he did it because he knew it was right. So what does he threaten? Your mate? I think not. He has his own female with him at the Embassy. Your liberty? He’s the one who has to be protected from the Valtegans on the Nezule estate!”

  “His scent sets my teeth on edge!” he spat at her, knowing she knew this already.

  “Ah, his scent,” she nodded. “You don’t like how he smells. Funny, I hear that mammals smell very different to the likes of him, yet for all he’s a youngling, he can live alone among us and put up with our scents. And when you gave him a beating in the exercise hall at Nezule, he was prepared to let it go rather than make an incident out of it. Time you measured yourself against this Prince, Kusac. He’s acting more like an adult than you are for all he’s only lived ten years! You going to let your senses rule your head, boy?”

  She was making him angry with her comparisons. “His people were responsible for our welfare on their ship! They claim we were supposed to be guests, yet they didn’t prevent Chy’qui from using my Triad for his experiments, didn’t stop J’koshuk from torturing me!”

  “Zsurtul went out of his way to save your lives when he knew what was happening,” she said. “He is a civilian, not a Court employee. He had no responsibility for you at all! In fact, he has more reason to hate you than you have him!”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” he demanded. “I never did anything to him!”

  She sat back in her chair and surveyed him. “Apart from beating him up, you tried to kill him during the hostage exchange at Haven, Kusac.”

  He opened his mouth angrily, then the truth of what she was saying dawned on him. “That wasn’t me,” he muttered. “That was Chy’qui’s programming.”

  “So?” she countered. “He sees you personally try to kill him at Haven after blasting this J’koshuk with mind power, then attack him during a training session. He has never raised a hand against you. Think this through, Kusac. Keep up this attitude to Zsurtul and the Primes and just maybe they’ll look closer at how you killed J’koshuk, especially now you have your Talent back. Use your brain on this for once!”

  Her talk of how he killed J’koshuk worried him. It had been mentioned briefly between himself and Kaid but with no one else, and there had been no official enquiry into it.

  “You know the penalty for using your Talent to kill, don’t you?” she said quietly, leaning forward in her seat. “They destroy that area of your brain. We’re talking about your attitude toward the Crown Prince of the Primes here. The ally who can talk to the M’zullians when we can’t because of their psychopathic hatred of us. We’re talking possible interstellar war if you harm him. Those who knew what you did at Haven covered it up because you’d lost your Talent then, they knew it was unlikely you’d ever be able to do it again. Now you’re in the process of regaining it. You keep this up and they’ll be forced to do something drastic, Kusac. You’re in AlRel, you know they can’t ignore it. You want to lose everything you’re in the process of regaining just because you don’t like his scent?”

  As she spoke, fear had hit him like an icy shower, shocking any vestige of anger from him. “I hadn’t realized,” he stammered. “Have they…”

  “Nothing’s been done yet,” she said, patting his arm reassuringly. “Nor will it be if it’s up to me. That’s why we’re having this talk. Carrie had a good intuition of what could happen if you didn’t overcome your dislike of Zsurtul, that’s why she did what she did. Though she’d not be able to tell you that’s why.”

  “What do I do, Noni?”

  “You call that mate of yours and apologize. Tell her she was right, that you’re on your way back to see her. Stay a couple of days, maybe even visit the Nezule estate and see Prince Zsurtul— you suggest it! Just remember what’s at stake, Kusac. We Sholans are more than just our base instincts, you know. And when you come back, come to me and we’ll see if I can’t do something to start those memories resurfacing properly.”

  He got to his feet, barely noticing that her steadying mental influence had stopped his shaking. “I’m in your debt, Noni,” he said quietly.

  “No,” she replied. “We’re family, Kusac. That’s why I’m here.”

  the Couana, Zhal-S’Asha, 22nd day (October)

  He could see how blind he’d been to reason and that he should have realized what was happening to him. He’d been too close to the problem and everyone else had lacked the piece of information only he had; that he’d spent a night with Zayshul and somehow it had changed his perception of Primes.

  Going back to the estate to see Carrie and Kaid hadn’t been as difficult as he’d thought, but visiting Zsurtul had proved impossible. When he’d returned to Stronghold, Noni had not been pleased. As she’d said though, better he came back than made a fool of himself if he couldn’t handle it.

  Despite Lijou’s personal objections, he’d gone to stay with her at the cottage. He’d learned all he could from them, it was time to let Noni try.

  Inside her home, with the psi damper on, he’d finally been able to access the beginnings of his returning Talent and start retraining. It hadn’t been much, because nothing could be done to help his fragmented memories become whole, but she’d helped him overcome the fear that reaching out for her mind and trying to send to her would trigger the pain.

  Yawning, he closed his eyes for a few minutes, unwittingly drifting into an uneasy sleep.

  Shola, Governor’s Palace at Shanagi, Zhal-Nylam, 21st day (September)

  Falma ushered the Prime Ambassador into Konis’ office and indicated the less formal chairs round a low table.

  “I’ll be with you in a moment, Ambassador,” said Konis from his desk. “I’m nearly finished. Falma, take this to Father Lijou, will you, please?”

  “I’m grateful to you for seeing me at such short notice, Clan Lord Aldatan,” said M’szudoe, taking the seat indicated and settling himself comfortably. Curious, he looked around. This was the first time he’d visited the head of Alien Relations in his office. Usually his business was conducted in council chambers or informally over a rushed meal in the refectory.

  Two fans, one
at either end of the room, spun lazily in the high ceiling, circulating the cooler air that came in through the open portico that formed one wall of the AlRel office. It was beside this that he was sitting. Brightly colored murals depicting the various Alliance species meeting and conducting business on all their worlds covered the office walls. At the far end, he could see the section where his people had been added. A portion of the wall still remained blank, painted the almost impossible deep turquoise blue of the Sholan sky, so that other new species could be added one day.

  “You indicated it was important, Ambassador. Unlike some representatives, you’ve not been one to take up my time without reason.” Konis held out an envelope and a hastily scribbled note to Falma. “Tell Lijou it’s the funding he’s been waiting for,” he said in a low voice. “Say I advise him to bank it immediately, before Raiban gets to hear about this.”

  Falma smiled. “Yes, Master Konis.”

  As he left, Konis got up and joined the ambassador. “I see you’re admiring the murals,” he said, sitting down opposite him. “Beautiful, aren’t they? I have to admit I’m glad I work in AlRel and not in Transport or Industry. I couldn’t live with industrial scenes. These constantly remind me of the wonderful diversity of our universe.”

  “Beautiful, indeed,” said M’szudoe. “It has been educational for me coming to Shola. Until now our contacts with other species have been mainly limited to our TeLaxaudin allies, and they don’t permit Ambassadors to their world.”

  “I’d noticed,” said Konis, choosing a widemouthed glass for the Prime and pouring out a drink of lightly flavored water. He offered it to the Ambassador then poured one for himself. “Glad it isn’t just us. Anyway, Ambassador, what can I do for you?”

  “Emperor Cheu’ko’h has asked me to approach you on a matter of great delicacy, Clan Lord,” said M’szudoe, taking a sip. “General Kezule has left K’oish’ik taking with him one of our small destroyers, the N’zishok, and a number of our people.”