Not completely fair. Dillon had looked out for him, had kept people away from him, and had spent time with him. Their rooms were right next to each other, though Lazlo bet Dillon hadn’t lain awake listening to all the sounds that weren’t the Atlas. He’d probably slept like an innocent.
“Simon, are you all right?”
He glanced up to find he’d nearly collided with Samira. “What?”
She smiled brightly. “I came looking for you.”
“Oh, well, um, if you need the Storm Lord, he’s…” He waved down the hall.
“I know. How are you? You look upset.”
He barked a laugh and covered his mouth. “It’s a long story.”
“A great philosopher whose name I can’t remember once said, ‘All we have is time.’”
Some more than others. “Is there something I can do for you?”
“No. Why?”
“Well, you came to see me.”
She laughed as if he delighted her. “To see how you are! The question is, Simon, what can I do for you?”
“People don’t ask me that.” The words came out unbidden, and he wished he could stuff them back in.
She frowned as if that was the saddest thing she’d ever heard. He scanned her quickly, looking for deception and found none, his touch so light he didn’t think she could detect it.
She rallied, shaking her head and smiling again. “Do you want to meet some other healers? I don’t think any of them can match you, but you might find something to talk about. They’re usually in the courtyard this time of day. Have you ever communed?”
He had a sudden vision of people frolicking through trees and talking about their oneness with Mother Earth. He chuckled, and she seemed to take that as an invitation.
“This way.”
With all of his books back with Dillon, all Lazlo could do was shrug. “Why not?”
She led him down a hallway. Maybe finding someone to talk to was a good idea. Samira seemed kind enough. Dillon would have seen her as a willing source of information. Well, that and a collection of attractive body parts.
“Do you know how to make paper?” he asked.
“Uh, no.” When he didn’t answer her curious glance, she shrugged. “I know where you can get some. If you’re looking to learn, I’m sure the guild would be willing to teach you.”
“I’m just thinking of everything that can be forgotten, remembered, and then forgotten again. Enough people learn a thing so it doesn’t get lost, but not everyone has to know it.”
She nodded slowly. “True, at least until you don’t need it anymore.”
He asked her more questions about the people of Gale, and his fear ebbed away, so much so that when they stopped in a large courtyard, he had no idea where in the temple he was.
Panic tightened his shoulders, and his heart thudded in his ears. Several people sitting on benches around a wooden table glanced up, and as he used his power to calm himself, they studied him closely. He felt tendrils of their micro-psychokinetic powers slinking toward him, not intruding, just hovering. He gave their powers a little push, a subtle threat, and several of them stood, mouths open.
Samira touched his shoulder. “Everyone, this is Simon, the man I told you about.”
Two men and two women, they wandered closer, but they didn’t seem offended by his rejection, more curious. One of the men even smiled brightly. “You can scan us if you want. We don’t mind.”
It was like offering to grope each other, but he sent a soft brush of power their way, reading some telepathy to go with their micro-psychokinetic powers. They stared at him as if waiting.
“I, um, I just did.”
They shared another of those astonished looks. “I didn’t feel anything!” one said.
They babbled on top of one another, and he stepped back from their collective voices. Samira held up her hands and leaned in front of Lazlo, shielding him. “Give him some air!”
They laughed and stepped back. “You have to commune with us!” one woman said.
And there went the visions again. “I don’t know what that is.”
Curious glances this time. Samira gestured to them one at a time. “This is Leila, Horace, Will, and Kessy.” They nodded with their names, Kessy waving hello.
Horace gestured toward the others, a bright smile on his handsome face. “We’re the yafanai healers, though most people go to the regular doctors in town.”
Will rubbed his fingers together. “We only get the big money in here, though the docs will call us in for messy problems.”
“That boy with his ankle bone hanging out of his leg.” Kessy stuck out her tongue in disgust.
Leila shivered but said nothing.
“When we commune,” Samira said, “we use our powers together, let them flow.” She waved. “It’s hard to explain, much easier to do. Those with similar powers commune together, but I can stay with you. I’ve communed with almost everyone anyway.”
Kessy winked at her. “You make it sound dirty.”
Samira gave her a playful shove and looked back to Lazlo. “We’ll get started, and you just jump in when you’re ready. It’s very relaxing.”
He nodded slowly, but he was enjoying watching them. He kept his senses open for deception, for innuendo, for the sniping and politics that were always at play on the Atlas, but he kept coming up empty. They sat around the table again, Samira beside him. They didn’t link hands as he expected, but they did close their eyes, and he felt their power flow. He studied their faces, lingering on Horace’s: the curve of his jaw, the way his dark lashes lay against his cheeks.
Lazlo shook his head to get it together. He couldn’t go falling apart every time he saw a handsome man. He focused on their powers instead. Their abilities hung in the air without purpose but full of potential, winding together as they flexed their mental muscles. Weak, not a tenth of what he could do, but it must have seemed miraculous to them. He didn’t want to overwhelm them, so he let his own power trickle amongst theirs and kept his eyes open, studying each of them. They seemed so relaxed with each other. Horace even sighed, the soft planes of his face relaxing to the point where he seemed almost asleep.
At first, they didn’t seem to notice Lazlo’s power. He let himself be known slowly, not wanting to swamp them. He could shut off their abilities with a snap. They gasped and explored his power, not following it back into him but sliding over and around it, and he felt their awe. With a relaxed chuckle, he closed his eyes and let himself bask in their adoration.
*
Dillon made himself stroll through the doors of the Paladin Keep. He shook hands with soldiers and slapped backs. He’d collected a few people on his way through the city, and he had them wait outside so as not to crowd everyone. They seemed happy to obey without Lazlo’s help this time. Maybe he’d proven to them that he was always coming back.
The soldiers greeted him warmly, not yet tainted by Carmichael, but who knew how long that would last? “Which way to the captain’s office?” he asked.
They pointed up the center staircase from the large central room. “But she’s not up there right now, Storm Lord,” one said. “There’s some problem with the drushka, and she’s meeting with them.”
Drushka, eh? He had yet to see one, though he knew Gale had an ambassador. He wondered if this new problem had something to do with the boggins and the research station. Probably. Maybe Carmichael was paying the drushka to wipe the boggins out rather than going in and doing it herself. That could have been what she’d meant by “handling” it.
He followed the directions and made the room in time to see three paladins going in, people he vaguely remembered from armor training, though he couldn’t recall their names. Two men and a woman, all young and strong, exactly what soldiers should be, even though they were meeting behind his back at Carmichael’s direction. He caught the door to their room before it could shut and stepped inside.
At the head of a large table, Carmichael’s eyes went wide befo
re she brought her cool expression back out. He’d enjoyed watching her struggle to keep her face neutral in the Yafanai Temple, and she’d either been practicing, or being on her home turf made her more relaxed.
Nearly everyone else in the room gawked, from the three soldiers he’d seen to Lieutenant Ross—the mayor’s niece, that he remembered—to three more human men. The three drushka stared, no emotion he could read on their narrow, lined faces. They made the whole room smell like plants.
“Storm Lord,” Carmichael said, “what can we do for you?”
The bald man made a strangled noise and nearly fell out of his seat. It took the red-haired drushka’s arm to keep him in place.
Dillon motioned for everyone to stay seated. “Just here for the meeting. I like to keep abreast of current events.”
Carmichael’s eyes narrowed, and he could almost see her trying to figure out what he knew and how he knew it. “Please, sit.” It sounded a little strangled as she gestured to the other head of the table. “Storm Lord, this is Mayor Ross and Ambassador Reach. Nettle, Shiv, and Ambassador Higaroshi. Lieutenants Ross, Brown, Lea, and Carmichael. Sergeant Preston.”
He lifted an eyebrow when she indicated the man who shared her name, probably her son. There were probably lots of family professions in Gale, never mind that there was one Ross paladin and one Ross mayor in this room alone. He wasn’t surprised to find Rosses in politics. They’d held positions of power all over space. It was where the ross in Pross Co. came from, after all.
“Catch me up,” he said.
“Well,” Carmichael said, “Storm Lord, the boggins have now attacked the drushka in their own home.” Her accusatory glance rested on him until Ambassador Reach struck the table.
“Killing a fourth of us.” Reach curled her hands into fists, and he wondered if her claws could puncture her skin. She glared at Carmichael. “You have done this.”
Interesting. Carmichael hadn’t told them about her orders. “A fourth of your kind are dead?” he asked.
“Ahwa, just of our tribe,” Nettle said. “If the old drushka are plagued by the chanuka, we do not know it, but as we are, we cannot stand alone.”
Reach slammed a hand down again, and Paul Ross took her wrist, rubbing it. Well, well.
“How did you get away?” Dillon asked. “You didn’t kill them all, or you wouldn’t be here asking for help.”
“The swamp saved them,” Reach said.
He nodded slowly. “Cryptic. I like it.” They gave him unreadable looks, all except for Reach, who glared like rage incarnate. They didn’t seem weak. The boggins must have gotten smart indeed. What a boon they could have been if they’d been brought to heel. He wondered whose fault that was, what fuckup had let them loose.
Carmichael cleared her throat. “Four squads led by Ross, Brown, Lea, and myself.” She handed a piece of paper to Preston. “Get your gear together. Pick your grunts. Lieutenant Carmichael, you’re with Ross.”
Lieutenant Carmichael nodded, didn’t seem to care that he was the only lieutenant in the room without a squad. Dillon could have had one, too, if he wanted. All he had to do was give the word, and he’d be leading an armored pack into the swamp tomorrow.
Without Lazlo? There was no way in hell he could convince Lazlo to march into a mire with dangerous alien creatures, and without Lazlo, Dillon would be susceptible to everything this planet had to throw at him. He pictured making everyone wait while he threw up into some sinkhole because the wrong mosquito had bitten him.
Carmichael stood as if to dismiss everyone.
“I will not leave until I have my answer,” Reach said. “Tell me what you have done to these creatures and why you have done it.”
Carmichael’s gaze flicked toward Dillon. He waited, wondering what she would do.
Paul Ross cleared his throat. “It was supposed to be a swamp study. That’s what we all signed off on.”
“It was a study, in a way,” Carmichael said. “We…I wanted to know if we could increase the intelligence of the boggins. I ordered the researchers to feed them the same drug that gives the yafanai their abilities.”
Dillon almost leaned forward as she took all the responsibility on her own shoulders. She could have blamed him without revealing his human nature. Was she afraid he’d demote her? Kill her?
Had he ever mentioned Lessan to her?
“For what purpose?” Reach said.
“Gale needs metal.” To her credit, she met everyone’s gaze. “And we need help to get it.”
Cordelia Ross frowned hard. “You were going to get them to work for us?”
“Slaves?” Paul Ross said. “Just smart enough to follow orders.”
Carmichael sighed. “We didn’t know how violent they’d become.”
They all sat silent, digesting this. A soft sound, as if someone ran a brush over the walls, grew into a drumming. Rain. He hadn’t heard the rain in so long. Did he call it without realizing?
“So,” Carmichael said, “now you know.”
“I should take your miserable head,” Reach said.
Carmichael sat back in her seat. “You can try.”
Reach leaned forward, and Paul and Cordelia Ross called for peace at the same time.
“We’ve got a plan,” Cordelia said. “Let’s just do it.”
Paul nodded. “Right. We make sure the drushka are safe, and then there will be plenty of time for discussion.”
“What of the old drushka?” Nettle asked.
Carmichael shrugged. “They contacted us, offered to catch the test subjects we needed. They said they wanted to make peace.”
Dillon frowned. She had told him something about the drushka, but he hadn’t paid much attention.
Reach lifted her hands and dropped them. “You should have told me! They hoped you would create your own destruction, and so you have.”
Right, there was some kind of schism in the drushkan ranks. “Do you think they wanted to get rid of you at the same time?” Dillon asked.
They all looked at him as if just remembering he was there. The three drushka sucked their teeth, a sound and sight that almost made him laugh. “Well, if your former comrades wanted to kill the rest of you,” Dillon said, “maybe they sabotaged the experiment.”
“The brittle cages.” Cordelia looked to Nettle, who sat forward eagerly.
“Ahya. They wanted the creatures to get loose, but to wish our deaths?” Nettle stared along the table. “Our leader thinks they want us to return to them.”
Dillon shrugged. “Maybe they thought that if there were only a few of you left, you’d have no choice but to come running back.” He lifted an eyebrow at Reach. “Sounds as if they’re just as responsible for your current predicament as we are. And we’ll help without trying to keep you under our thumb, or whatever your old comrades want to do with you.”
She sat up straighter but said nothing. Good, maybe she’d have something to think about besides revenge. Carmichael might be a pain in the ass, but she was a human pain in the ass. He had to take her side in any species disagreements.
“Well, now that we’ve got that sorted out.” Dillon stood. Funny how he’d originally come to give Carmichael a dressing-down, but he couldn’t do that now that she’d taken all the heat. Maybe that was why she’d done it, to appease him. Or maybe she would remind him of this moment if he tried to give her another aide. Well, he’d just done that to see how she’d react anyway. He’d have to try to find her amusing again, not let her bother him.
“Let me know how it goes,” he said. “Captain, care to walk me to the door?”
She stood warily, and he almost grinned. He’d keep her waiting for the other shoe to drop, make her good and nervous, and keep her from fucking with him again.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Cordelia watched her god walk out the door and hoped he wasn’t disappointed in his paladins, their captain, or her. Carmichael had finally admitted that she knew what had gone wrong with the boggins, that she was responsible. She’
d fed them the yafanai drug when she hadn’t known what the results would be. She’d trusted the old drushka. And all so Gale could bend another race to their will? What the fuck had she been thinking? It made Cordelia’s stomach turn, made her ashamed to be a paladin, and that hurt her even more.
Reach paced beside the table until Paul led her to a corner and spoke softly to her. Preston read over the papers Carmichael had given him. Higaroshi was staring at nothing, his lips pressed together in a pale thin line. Lea and Brown sneaked peeks over Preston’s shoulders.
Shiv and Liam seemed to be having their own sexy version of a staring contest. They exchanged such heated looks, Cordelia wouldn’t have been surprised if the whole room got pregnant. Nettle also watched Liam and Shiv, her expression somewhere between worried and amused.
Liam got up and slinked to a small table. He poured himself a glass of water and took a sip, and Cordelia would have sworn he was a sex ad.
“Anyone else?” he asked.
“Depends,” Brown said, “you offering water or a piece of your ass?”
Cordelia snorted a laugh.
Liam chuckled as he rejoined them. “And how much would you pay, Jen?”
“Why buy when I’ve had the free sample?” Brown nodded to Shiv. “Not that you should turn it down. It is nice.”
“Thanks,” Liam said just as Lea muttered, “He’s not a piece of meat.”
Shiv wrinkled her nose. “Ahya.” But what she was agreeing to, Cordelia had no idea. “Perhaps I will have the water.”
Liam got up again, staring after her as she crossed the room. “I’ll help you.” He bent to Cordelia’s ear. “And you should have your own conversation before Carmichael comes back.”
Cordelia looked to find Nettle watching her. They both looked away at the same time, and Cordelia wondered if Nettle felt the presence of others as keenly as she did. Brown was watching, too, so Cordelia got up as non-sexily as she could manage, walked around the table, and plopped into the chair next to Nettle, leaning in so Brown and Lea couldn’t hear.
“Hi.”
“I was wondering if we were to speak,” Nettle said.
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