Emerald Twilight: Bundled Edition

by Ashley, Celia

  Hallie.

  Hallie spun around, heart in her throat. No, not here, not here, it couldn’t be! And it wasn’t. It wasn’t. The voice came from outside in the corridor. Hallie raced to the door, yanking it open, and threw herself into Burke’s arms.

  “They’re gone!” she cried.

  “I know,” Burke answered harshly, clutching her tight against him. “We’ve got to go. Now. You shouldn’t have come here alone. I don’t know what the hell you were thinking. Calypso and Emil came in a little while ago and told me they’d overheard a conversation between several of the off-duty Quadrate Guard at a club where Emil was gambling.”

  “They weren’t in their room when I left?”

  “No.” Anger glittered in his eyes, and something more. Looking at him, her chest ached.

  “What were they saying, these guards?”

  He shook his head in impatience. “I’ll tell you as we run. If we don’t get out of here between this breath and the next someone’s going to be on us so fast your pretty little head will explode. Got it?”

  Hallie nodded, holding back as he tried to lead her toward the main exit. Had he just walked in? “This way,” she said. “It’s how I got in and we may yet get out undetected.”

  Leading him down the corridor, her hand in his to keep him from veering into the sight of the Eyes, Hallie glanced back toward Arad’s apartment. They’d forgotten to close the door. It didn’t matter now. Nothing mattered now but one thing. As she turned away the light bars dimmed as if someone had passed in front of them. She didn’t look back.

  “Hurry,” she whispered fiercely.

  IV.

  A TIME TO END

  Restless, Calypso fluttered up from her seat to walk to the door and back again. Hallie watched her from beneath her lashes.

  “You’re certain the guards said his family estate?” Hallie asked.

  Calypso paused in her pacing. “Family place, yes. They say he receive news, take, uh, leave absence, and go.”

  “And they didn’t say what news he received.”

  “It’s obvious what news he received, Hallie,” Burke interrupted the interrogation. She turned to look at him, feeling both haunted and resigned.

  “I know,” she said.

  “No one stopped me when I walked through the door of his building. I knew right away that was a problem. He may not have been expecting you to show up there, but he was certainly expecting me.”

  “Then why wasn’t someone waiting to take you into custody?”

  “I considered that myself and could only come up with one conclusion. He doesn’t want me incarcerated again. He has something else in mind, some other game entirely.”

  Considering the twisted fashion in which Arad’s mind sometimes worked, that could be anything, and none of it good. Hallie rubbed her eyes wearily with both hands. “The moding tubes don’t extend that far and overlands don’t run at night. Only official transportation runs at night and, as we know, I no longer have access to any of those.” She rested her forehead on the heels of her palms, staring down at the stark white tabletop beneath her elbows. Calypso moved silently to her side.

  “Follow you,” whispered the island dancer.

  Hallie shook her head against her hands. “This isn’t your fight, Calypso. There’s no need for you to be endangered.”

  “Not mean that,” Calypso went on. “But will do. Emil and me, we come, too. No leave behind.”

  Hallie frowned at Calypso through the loosened strands of hair falling across her brow. “What did you mean, then?”

  “Follow you,” Calypso repeated, growing agitated. “Follow you.” Hallie sat up, following Calypso’s gestures. Calypso tapped her spread fingers on her shoulders, waving them in the general direction behind her back. “One…one follow you!”

  Burke stood up from his seat. “I didn’t see anyone following us. I was surprised by that, but I very careful in checking, as I knew the possibility was there. I didn’t see anyone at all.”

  A child crept up Hallie’s spine. Her fingers closed around the drawstring bag against her breast. “What ‘one’ followed me, Calypso? Was it something from the planet?”

  Calypso’s eyes widened, sparked like flame, and then, like flame, went out. Where there had been color there was only blackness. Hallie leaped up, reaching for Calypso’s arm. A sheen of icy perspiration broke out across her brow as she waited for the dancer to speak. Calypso blinked, slowly. As her lids lifted the color returned to her iris, a color like molten gold.

  “Do not know. Not think so. I see…something.” The dancer shook her head and gestured again, loosening her arm from Hallie’s grip. “Thing around you, behind you, follow to you. Do not know.”

  Hallie released her breath, thinking of moving shadows in Arad’s apartments. They may have been meaningless, but in light of what Calypso was saying she thought not. Nevertheless, nothing had harmed her there. She wasn’t going to worry about it, about what it might have been or at what Calypso was hinting. If not one of those creatures from the planet, which surely could not have survived space flight outside the ship and had not been located inside—and would likely have killed her besides—then whatever Calypso meant was going to have to be ignored. Hallie needed to focus all her concentration on what lay ahead. She turned to Burke.

  “We might be able to go out into the streets now and find someone operating a black market transport using a fraudulent government tag. I don’t think we’d ever manage the currency to pay for something like that, though.”

  Emil, who had been quiet up until that point, hoisted himself from his chair and sauntered over. Reaching into the pocket of his trousers he tossed a glittering object onto the table. A gem, a precious stone as wide across as the ball of Emil’s thumb, rolled erratically to a stop nearly at center point. “Think that’ll do the trick?”

  Burke, quite familiar with the workings of the black market, nodded beside Hallie, his face creasing into a grin, the first she’d seen in a long while. “Yup,” he said. “And a hell of a lot more.”

  * * *

  In the pre-dawn light Burke studied Hallie’s position on her knees facing the horizon. She had made no discussion about her religion, but he knew she was following every Talian’s custom, religious or not, of facing Arias as she rose. She sat very still, the lovely curve of her buttocks resting lightly on her heels, back arched, hands together in her lap, her braid centered over her spine, head slightly back. She looked patient, calm, at peace. He knew she wasn’t any of those things.

  Turmoil was evident in her eyes, anxiety and guilt and a simmering anger. He would have reached out to stroke her hair, her arm, the curve of her hip, but he left her alone, turning his attention instead to the broad avenue leading up to the domed residence in the distance. The pilot of the illegal transport had assured him he would stash the overland vessel into hiding to await their next request. The low-born Talian had not yet received payment and was, no doubt, anxious to please. The fellow had seen the gem, though, even been permitted to examine it, and then it had gone back into Emil’s pocket. Both the gambler and Calypso were waiting with the driver, on the alert.

  The stone had secured another item, which he had kept to himself. Moving his hand, Burke touched the strap beneath his trousers and above his ankle, fingers circling the familiar shape of an impulse. Conscious of Hallie’s generous attitude toward life he had set the instrument to stun. However, if need be, it could as easily be returned to its deadlier mode.

  His gaze slid to Hallie once more. What had possessed her to try to go against her former husband alone? She probably thought to protect him in some way, but she hadn’t elaborated. Burke’s lips turned up in a small smile as he watched her shimmering in the gray-gold dawning. Inside he felt a physical ache at the danger into which she placed herself, had been placing herself, on his behalf. He had done nothing to deserve such selfless disregard from her.

  Breathing deeply and evenly, Burke flexed his muscles, loosened them, dip
ped his head from side to side to alleviate the kink in his neck. Courage and strength and determination rejuvenated, his mind cleared, his resolution steadied. He felt very much himself, but for one aspect. With Hallie in his life a certain basic perception had been altered and would never again be the creed by which he existed. He was glad for that.

  Like a glittering bolt over the shifting dunes, Arias rose into the sky. Hallie stood up, turning to him. “Ready?”

  Burke nodded, pushing up from the ground. She stood beside him for a moment, not speaking, not touching, eyes bright. She held her gaze steady on his, her mouth curving slightly.

  “I’m going now,” she said.

  “I don’t like that part of the plan.”

  “I know, but there’s no sense in both of us being caught. I’ll deal with Arad, one would hope reasonably, but I’m not counting on it. In the meantime, you look for Lese. I think this is best, even though you don’t.”

  His nostrils pinched as he reminded himself what she was willing to sacrifice, if need be, for his sake and his daughter’s.

  “Hallie…”

  She touched a fingertip to his mouth. “Remember this, Burke. It’s not all your fault, it’s not all Arad’s doing, though he made the conscious decision to do this grave wrong. If I had stayed on a course true to who I am, remained strong, as I was raised, and brave, Arad would never have found me burdensome. I would have walked away from him long before he sent the communication to you indicating a need for your services. I would have absorbed the ridicule, the shame, the disappointment of those who claimed they held my best interests, with my head held high. My family would have welcomed me back then, proud of my strength. I don’t think I can ever repair the breach of my own weakness, but I can only hope in time that they will understand. But if not, and we survive this, I’ll still have you. Won’t I?”

  He nodded without speaking.

  “I know this is not how you would have handled getting your daughter back. You’re very much the type of man who has never relied on anyone else. But I think Arad will be looking for you to come after him, ripped up by your own emotions, and reckless. I’m not so certain he’ll expect me. We need to upset whatever plan he has.”

  They had gone over this ground before. Hearing it again, although making sense in his head, made no more sense in his heart. He had always listened to his head, his gut instincts, and left his heart the hell out of it.

  She kissed him then, throwing the length of her body against his with a quicksilver heat, her arms around his neck and every inch of her pressed squarely against him, and then she stepped back. “I’ll see you soon,” she said.

  “If I was Emil I wouldn’t be taking that bet, because you know he never bets a sure thing,” he answered, trying to make light of the wrenching feeling in his guts. She walked away from him into the white light of the morning, her boots sending up a light spray of sand as she crossed the open area. When a pair of guards appeared, almost as if they had materialized out of the air rather than stepped out from beneath the long, shadowed verandah, Burke nearly charged after her. It took all the will power at his command to hold his hidden position beneath the shifting vegetation. Hallie halted in front of them, her chin lifted, posture straight and certain. She spoke. Burke couldn’t hear the words, but the one bodyguard, the female, jerked as if startled, stepping closer. Both guards then spoke in a rapid exchange while Hallie waited calmly. If she had announced herself, which had been the plan, then it was quite obvious these two hadn’t been expecting her. In that, Hallie had been right.

  After a brief, triangular conversation all three went into the building. Burke backed away from the roadside, heading deeper into the artificial oasis to circle around behind the residence. Hallie had given him detailed instructions to the location of an underground passage there.

  * * *

  Hallie stood to one side of the cool, dim interior of the building in the tiled, high-ceilinged central hall. One of the guards stood beside her while the other, the female and a mixed blood like herself, went in search of Arad. She didn’t recognize either of them, nor had they recognized her, but they knew her name and their shock at her appearance at the estate was genuine. Good.

  Hallie looked around the hall without moving her head, noting with the same dull disconcert she had felt in the governmental apartment that nothing had changed. But why should it have? Between the trial, the subsequent incarceration and events that followed she had not been gone so very long, despite how it seemed. Yet even without recognition, she felt oddly removed from it all as if the life she had lived in these places had actually been another’s and not her own.

  The guard at her left elbow eyed her with open speculation. She supposed she was lucky he hadn’t thrown her into a chamber and secured the door. After enduring his scrutiny for several moments longer she turned to face him.

  “Is there something you wish to say?”

  He had the grace to appear embarrassed, but spoke anyway. “She does not look like you.”

  “Who?”

  “The little senna.”

  Senna was not the kindest of terms when referring to a child, but the intimation was obvious. “You mean Lese?” she asked, hoping Arad had been calling Burke’s daughter by her given name.

  At her question, the guard grew bolder. “Who else? The Revered said that the senna’s father would come looking for her, but not you. The Revered did not think you would have the nerve to come for your daughter, now that all know of your crime.”

  Anger surged. Hallie’s head pounded. So, Arad was passing Lese off as the product of a long-standing liaison with Burke, was he? “Well, the Revered was wrong.”

  “You’ll be returned to Zebulon where you deserve to stay until you die.”

  “At least I’ll see Lese before I go.”

  “Not likely.”

  “Isn’t she here?” Hallie questioned, hoping they hadn’t been misled by the information Calypso and Emil had overheard. The guard noted her distress with some satisfaction.

  “Naturally she is. The Revered keeps her by his side always, though I cannot understand his generosity. I do not believe he will let you see or speak with her before you are taken away, though.”

  “We’ll see.” Hallie turned her head in deliberate dismissal of the man. He made a movement in anger before subsiding. Ignoring him, Hallie considered the respect with which she had been treated in the past, both by members of the Officials and those whose task it was to guard or serve them. That deference, of course, had been based solely on her position as Arad’s bond-mate. Unlike the accouterments of the residences she and Arad had once shared, attitudes had altered considerably if this guard’s was any indication. She should not have been surprised or bothered by it, but she was.

  The female guard returned, reaching for her arm. Hallie allowed her to take it just long enough to indicate in which direction they were headed. Assured she wasn’t about to be grappled to the ground, Hallie politely extracted her elbow from the guard’s grasp with a nod of compliance. The woman made no further attempt to physically control her movements.

  “This way.”

  Outside the arboretum, a scaled-down version of the one in the Quadrate, the female guard came to a halt, signaling the other to stand with her.

  “Inside.”

  The muscles of her abdomen tensed in recollection of the trap Arad had staged at the larger arboretum. She wondered if this was only another, set in a similar location for his perverse enjoyment. Steeling herself, she descended the two steps to the stone floor and walked slowly toward the center of the domed room. The panels were glazed to keep out the intensity of the desert’s white heat, making the interior of the arboretum cool, serene and slightly surreal. As she approached the fountain she saw Arad rise from a seated position on the other side. Despite herself, her heart thundered in her breast.

  “Resa,” he said, his tone hard-edged and tightly controlled. The use of the name she had known for more than ten years star
tled her.

  “It is Hallie now, Arad.”

  The depth of each breath he took stretched the fabric of his one-suit. He stretched out his hand in an inattentive matter to the falling water, letting it spray from his fingers onto the front of his clothing, then wiped his wet hand along his thigh. This was very unlike him. He was usually quite fastidious.

  “Why are you here?” he said.

  “Why do you think I’m here?”

  “Don’t answer a question with a question, Resa,” he snapped. “You escaped a prison that was deemed unescapable. How?”

  Hallie remained silent. On the other side of the fountain Arad’s eyes narrowed. He turned on his heel and strode swiftly around the circumference of stone. Immobile by sheer dint of will, Hallie watched him come.

  Pausing at a point of threatening physical proximity, Arad looked down at her. “I thought I had assured I would never lay eyes on you again. What are you doing here? I would have expected you to be anywhere but where I could find you, and instead you’re brazen enough to march right up to my door. My door, Resa. Yours no longer. I don’t know how you dared.”

  Hallie lifted her chin. “I’ve come for Burke’s daughter. I expect you to give her to me.”

  Her former husband jerked in surprise. “Burke, is it? You two hit it off in prison, did you? Precious. And ironic, too, eh?” He tried too hard to sound as if that concept didn’t trouble him. “Why didn’t he come himself?”

  “I wouldn’t let him. I was afraid of what he would do to you. Afraid for him, not for you. About you I could care less.”

  An ugly red hue crept into Arad’s fleshy face. “I won’t give her to you.”

  “Why not? You’re trying to pass her off as mine. Mine and Burke’s. Isn’t anyone questioning why you would keep her near? They don’t really believe you’re that magnanimous, do they?”

  A vein popped up above his temple, and then he laughed. Harsh and forced, it was not a pleasant sound. “You are a bitch. I could kill you right now and prove myself justified. No one would believe you came here with altruistic motives. Vengeful and violent intent, yes?”