Emerald Twilight: Bundled Edition

by Ashley, Celia

  “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “Only I can stop you when the time comes,” said Shane. “Only me.”

  Burke’s eyes narrowed. An explosion of air escaped his lungs. Enough. He’d had enough. If it had been Calypso spouting out this sort of thing, he might have paid it some heed, but not Shane. “That’s it. No more. Whatever nonsense is circling around in that head of yours, keep it to yourself.”

  “Don’t you want to kno—”

  “Shit.”

  One of the creatures had glanced against Shane’s head, leaving a gash and the man on his knees, clutching a bloodied palm to the wound. Burke hesitated. If he was wrong, and the beasts hunted by scent, then at any moment they would descend on Shane and finish him. He could leave them to it, or hasten the man’s demise to prevent the pain to follow, he supposed. Still, that coldness was not in him anymore. Briefly he visualized Hallie’s face, the expression in her eyes. Frowning, he stepped forward, yanking Shane’s hand away. “Your wound is superficial. Get up.”

  “I don’t—”

  “Get. Up.”

  Shoving his hand beneath the man’s arm, Burke jerked him to his feet. He had seen something through the trees, a radiating light appearing and disappearing on a rotational basis, hard to pinpoint in terms of distance and height. He was certain it was manmade. If it wasn’t something out in search of them, then it would have been the beacon of a descending ship hunting the beam to draw it in safely to the landing pad.

  He had to act on assumption it was the latter. “Move,” he said urgently to Shane, and began to tow him in the direction he’d seen the light. After a moment he released his grip on the man’s arm and stepped back a pace, urging him onward from behind.

  “Care to make a wager, Shane?” Burke asked as he drove the Lucasian forward.

  “You’re mistaking me for Emil.”

  “Nope. Don’t think so. He, at least, has a conscience.”

  Shane snorted without retort.

  “See that light there?” Burke waited for Shane to follow the indication of direction and then nod. “I’m betting that’s a cargo ship, and from the size of this facility they likely come in on a frequent basis, so we might not have to hijack this one in particular. You know what else I’m betting?”

  “Couldn’t guess.”

  “I’m staking my reputation that despite your lunacy, you’ll keep your mouth closed when we get nearer and those miner’s eyes open and follow whatever instructions I give you.”

  “As Emil would say,” Shane muttered, “never bet on a sure thing.”

  “You’re learning.” Burke hurried him forward through the perpetual twilight.

  * * *

  Pushing off the wall, Burke dropped lightly onto his feet below. The docking bars glowed in a pattern across the pad, revealing a mist curling from their surface. Stepping back into shadow, he waited. Shane had preceded him over the wall and promptly disappeared. Burke scanned the darkness without luck, but he didn’t believe he’d gone far.

  A few moments later Shane reappeared, sauntering casually through the lighted section of the landing pad. Reaching out, Burke yanked him into the blackness beneath the wall as he neared.

  “What do you think you’re doing?”

  Shane eyed him with disdain. “I can’t be seen.”

  The man really was demented. “I can see you, and if I can see you any monitoring device can as well. We have to be quick.”

  Shane smiled, mouth held tight, the corners lifting stiffly. Blood welled as his lip split. Burke gave him a long look before turning to check their surroundings. As of yet, nothing was proceeding to their location. At the far end of the pad, tucked up beneath a massive overhang, the cargo ship sat at rest. If the cargo had been unloaded, it had been done so before their arrival. All mechanical evidence of that process was hidden. There was, of course, no sign of human activity.

  One thing Burke didn’t know, and that was whether the ship was piloted by man or computer. To overpower a human and take his place at the controls would be tricky, but relatively undemanding in terms of overriding security and seizing the ship. If, however, the ship was computer-driven, any number of measures could be in place making it virtually impossible for Burke to bypass, at least in the minimal timeframe he knew would be available for the process. The additional problem existed of being discovered during reconnoitering, a situation that would dash any hope of returning with Hallie and the others to complete the task.

  He turned his attention to Shane. “Here is where you start following instruction exactly, understand?”

  Shane eyed him with a slow, deliberate look, unresponsive until a insignificant nod of his head. “All life’s a risk,” he said. “What did you have in mind, Conlan?”

  “I have in mind that you stay an arm’s length in front of me. No disappearing, no sudden moves, and if I tell you to do something, you do it. I want to get close to that ship without being detected and then I want to get the hell out of here and back to where we left the others. Any problems with that?”

  “None so far. You should let me go ahead, though. If you’re trying to avoid detection, I’m your man.”

  Burke’s jaw muscle twitched. “You’re not invisible, Shane. I don’t care what’s going on in that head of yours, you’re right here in plain sight.”

  “Because I choose to be.”

  “If you’re going to be difficult, I’ll toss you over the edge of this building.”

  “You can’t do that, Conlan. Killing me is not an alternative. You’ll see.”

  Sucking a long breath through his nose, Burke curbed his impatience. Shane was right. Killing him was not an option at this juncture. If he needed a diversion to get away, he planned on using the Lucasian to that end. Cold, yes, but it wasn’t murder. If Shane was captured, so be it. He would have one less worry.

  And countless more, he couldn’t help but remind himself, as the indication of one prisoner abroad would probably spark a detailed search.

  “Move,” he said. “Stay in the shadows. I just want to get close enough to see exactly what sort of ship this is. I’ll decide what else needs to be done once that’s accomplished.”

  Shane shrugged and moved off, staying an arm’s length in front of him and in the shadows. Burke didn’t trust the redhead’s compliance as anything but a sham, but for the moment it was all he had.

  III.

  OF HOPE AND MADNESS

  Hallie woke with a start, eyes flying wide onto nothing but blackness. She hadn’t meant to sleep, but had nodded over her lap as she sat watch. The little she’d had to eat before night fell had digested long ago and her stomach growled. Clasping her hand to her abdomen, she stared into a darkness in which objects were gradually taking shape, black against black. Some of them were moving.

  Snatching up her fallen lathesa, Hallie hesitated to wake the other two, biding until she was certain danger approached. The shards glowed at either end of her weapon, brighter than they had the night before and making a double-nimbus of light to mark her position. Hastily she lowered the weapon back to the ground, shoving it down into the humus, her fingers hard around the shaft.

  The moving figures stopped.

  Were they humanoid in shape? Hallie lowered her brows to squint into the night. Yes, yes they were, but far too many to be Burke and Skelly returning. Between them they seemed to support another, half-dragging it across the terrain. She had to wake Emil and Calypso.

  As she tried to open her mouth her jaw felt tight, the only sound issuing across her lips a stifled whimper. What was the matter with her? Her limbs refused to cooperate with the urgency rushing through her blood. The glowing shards had ignited the humus, tiny flames leaping into the night drawing the attention of the strangely human-like creatures approaching. Hallie struggled to call out, to warn her companions. Nothing formed in her throat, on her tongue. And yet she could hear voices. Voices calling her name.

  Hallie.

  Hallie.


  Hallie.

  “Hallie!”

  Hallie woke, arms flailing, and felt the tiny hand of Calypso on her mouth.

  “Hush. You fall asleep. Could not wake you.”

  Eyes wide, Hallie looked at the lathesa lying on the ground. The shards glowed cold and blue. The twilight beyond was empty.

  Scrambling up onto her knees, Hallie clutched the weapon horizontally across her abdomen, trembling all over, skin slick with sweat beneath her uniform. “Burke’s in trouble. He needs me. We have to go, right now.”

  Calypso nodded, her mutable eyes burning like coals.

  “Wake Emil. He carries the pack. I can’t do it anymore. I need my hands free.”

  Silently Calypso went to do as she was bid. Hallie stood. She had no idea how long she’d been sleeping, how long Burke had been gone. It didn’t matter. She couldn’t wait any longer. Her skin felt charged, her nerves stretched thin, and her mind seemed to be seeking out a connection with Burke of its own accord. He needed her.

  “Come on,” she murmured in a whispered plea to Burke to hold on, to wait for her, to not succumb to the dread thing circulating in sentient knowledge through her veins. Clutching her wrapped ribs, Hallie glanced over her shoulder to make certain Emil had awakened and that he and Calypso were prepared to move. Without speaking, the other two came to stand beside her.

  “If you can manage it, grab something to eat from the pack as we walk,” Hallie instructed as she took her first step in the direction Burke and Skelly had disappeared earlier. “We won’t be stopping anytime soon.”

  “You eat, too.” Calypso managed to fumble in the bag on Emil’s hip as they strode through the gloom. “Need your strength. Here.” The woman pressed something into her hand. Hallie glanced down with a nod of thanks and popped the bit of nutrient bar onto her tongue. Her dry mouth made the food difficult to swallow. She was dehydrating. They all were.

  “I thought Conlan told us to wait,” Emil said in confusion.

  “No wait,” Calypso answered for her. “Burke in trouble. Hallie know. I know.”

  Calypso’s declaration caused a tremor to pass up Hallie’s spine beneath her grimy uniform. She uttered a soft entreaty under her breath. “Please, please, please let him be all right.”

  Hallie moved slowly but determinedly onward, the other two dogging her steps. No one spoke. Around them the nighttime hunt was abating. Hallie assumed that morning, what passed for morning on this planet, was not far off. Nearly the entire night had passed and Burke had not returned. She couldn’t shake her unexplained knowledge of trouble.

  “Hallie?”

  Hallie turned to Calypso, alerted by the vibrant color of her eyes. “What’s wrong?” Beyond the tiny island mystic Emil moved in silence, seemingly unaware of anything but the placing of his own feet. He did not appear to be paying attention to his surroundings, his face ghostly in the darkness.

  “Hear things,” Calypso whispered.

  A chill shifted Hallie’s skin, punishing already aching flesh with the movement. “Who? You or Emil?”

  “Me,” Calypso stated. “I hear.”

  “What things?” Hallie’s thoughts went to the beast that had hunted them from above and nearly killed her when it dragged her over the cliff. She had no assurances the creature had died in that process or that there weren’t more of them hunting the same stretch of ground.

  “These things,” Calypso said, with a beautiful, graphic motion of her hands to illustrate her meaning. Hallie pictured the small prey of the larger winged creatures and nodded, wondering how Calypso managed to hear such a sound. She could hear nothing.

  “And others,” Calypso went on.

  “Others?”

  “From beyond.”

  “From beyond what?” Hallie’s skin turned to ice at the words.

  But Calypso just shook her head. “From beyond…here.” And then she was silent, moving with determination alongside Hallie. Hallie loosened her grip on the lathesa. A tight grasp on the pliant branch would only decrease its efficiency as a weapon. She needed mobility, flexibility, swiftness, and was already hampered by her injuries. Tension would not help.

  Beyond here. What did that mean? Was the woman hearing creatures at a great distance or was she talking about something else, something beyond the corporeal? Remembering the dancer’s ability for spectral cognition, Hallie shuddered again. Breathe deeply, she commanded herself. Stay calm. Find Burke.

  “Damn it,” she swore out loud despite her intention. Calypso looked at her, then away.

  As they drew closer to the facility, carcasses of the ethereal beasts littered the ground, torn and desiccated. Walking slightly to Hallie’s rear Emil drew a sharp breath at the sight of them, but said nothing. Calypso made a small noise in her throat.

  “Don’t worry,” Hallie said. “I imagine those hunting have eaten their fill for now.” Nevertheless, the fury of the hunt she had observed the night before had been terrible to witness and was even more disturbing to recall. Calypso stumbled to a halt against her arm, inhaling with a long shudder.

  “Hear their dying cries,” she whispered. “And hear that. The others. Listen! You not hear?”

  Hallie strained to hear, but nothing came to her ears. She shook her head, frustrated and alarmed. “I don’t hear anything different. Let’s just keep moving.”

  Doing her best to ignore the expression on Calypso’s face, the color of her eyes, Hallie marched onward, senses alert to her surroundings. They were near enough to the facility that she expected their movements could be detected by any monitoring. The closer they moved to the prison the more precarious their position would become, but she knew this was where Burke had been headed. Somewhere along the monstrous dimensions of the facility, Burke was in dire need.

  She had never seen a building as large and didn’t care to dwell on the number of occupants within. She could do nothing to help any of them at this point. That task was difficult enough with the immediate band of escapees. However, if she managed to return home, she would see what she could institute in terms of reform, if nothing else. A system that permitted incarceration for an exchange of credit was appalling. A man who would stoop to utilizing such a system was even worse than the system itself.

  Hallie thought of Arad as she trod onward in search of the man he had hired to condemn her. She thought of the humiliation she had endured over the years of their bond-marriage and of the acts and actions that were nothing if not cruel. Her contemplation moved on to Burke’s daughter. Silently, and not for the first time, she sent up an appeal to the Deity to keep Lese safe from harm and tried hard not to let her anger at Arad color her thoughts.

  Burke, hold on, just hold on and wait for me. I’m coming.

  Unnerved by her perception of danger, Hallie glanced at her companions moving silently beside her. Calypso’s tiny face was set and grim, her lowered lids partially shielding the anxious yellow glow of her eyes. Emil walked with stoic determination, testing the ground before him with the end of a stick. The spear Hallie had fashioned for him was held in the tight circle of his left fist. Hallie felt a flare of warm affection for the two of them, and fear for them as well. There was no guarantee which, if any of them, would survive their bid for freedom. She was set on all of them surviving and escaping this place, if she could manage it. But that was one very large ‘if’.

  With a ragged breath Hallie walked on, listening for any sound to indicate Burke’s whereabouts. He would have been making his way to a landing pad or port. She had no idea where that might be and operated on instinct and the pull of this elemental thread that had appeared in the long hours of the night between the two of them.

  “We find him soon,” Calypso said.

  “We have to.”

  “No. I mean we find him soon. Burke not far.”

  Hallie bit back a sob of relief. “Do you know where he is?”

  “No. But see him. In here,” she added, tapping two fingers to the ridge of her pale brow.

  Hall
ie grimaced. A gift and a curse. “Is he—?”

  “He alive.” The implication of her tone was unmistakable. Hallie bit her lip, resisting the urge to run in whatever direction Calypso might indicate. It wouldn’t do Burke any good if she got herself killed by some hunting beast while in the process of his rescue.

  “Calypso, I—”

  “Shh.”

  Hallie clamped her teeth together hard in response to Calypso’s sharp command and the movement of her hand. She paused beside the islander, reaching a hand out to Emil’s arm to stop his plodding stride. “What do you hear?”

  For another moment Calypso continued to listen intently, the detail of her eyes suddenly invisible as the color went from the yellow of flame to the black of night. “No go closer, Hallie.”

  “No go—” Hallie checked, head pivoting. There. She could hear something now. Not out loud, but the way one hears a voice speaking in one’s head while dreaming or thinking. She couldn’t understand the words, or if they were even words at all. She felt a brief panic, a lack of lucidity, then mentally shook herself.

  “I have to go closer, don’t I?” she whispered to Calypso. “I really haven’t much choice.”

  Indicating the other two should stay close behind and silent, Hallie moved forward. The voices grew louder in her head until she wanted to shout to dispel them. She compressed her lips and concentrated on the task at hand. As she drew nearer to the point of origin, the crystal shards bound to the tips of the lathesa began to glow as brightly as they had in her dream.

  Was she dreaming again? That uncertainty formed and solidified and nearly took over, causing her to ground herself forcefully once more in the reality of the moment. But was it real? It was all so nightmarish. Maybe that’s all it was, one interminable, horrible nightmare.

  No. No, it felt like reality. And yet she seemed to be fighting to maintain her recognition of that fact. Frowning, she glanced back over her shoulder at the others, trying to discern through the gloom if they were feeling the same confusion. The color of Calypso’s eyes was still hidden. As for Emil… Hallie’s frown deepened. He had stumbled to a halt, swaying on his feet, head moving from side to side.