Shadows of Mallachrom, Book 1: Blue Fire

by Michelle Levigne

  "They're using it as an excuse to lock down," Petroc murmured. "We're the victims, but they're going to make us the aggressors." He closed his eyes as he spoke. He didn't want to think any more. He didn't want the responsibility that had just tripled in weight.

  "Like usual," Cae snarled. "Why are they sending a warning? They should be attacking, rounding up everyone they can on trumped-up charges."

  "Maybe they don't know what to do," Rhianni said. "Until now, they've gone by a plan. This went against their plan. They need to regroup."

  "So do we," Petroc said.

  "The most important thing is to keep up appearances," Burkan said.

  "And seek data." Rhianni finished, pulling out a plate and flatware for Burkan and gestured for him to pull up a chair at the table with them. There was more than enough food. Petroc remembered how her mother had always maintained that simple things, like plenty of good food, always helped reduce stress in dangerous situations. Every little detail helped. "Cae, you and Cianna will monitor my comm-set. Nobody would look inside my house, thanks to my grandmother."

  "What are we going to do?" Petroc asked.

  "I'm going back to Core. I have a study portal reserved for tomorrow, all day, and somebody will get suspicious if we don't show up. Just a few more dates, ships, names and loading lists and we'll have a case that'll stand up in any court."

  "I'm going with you." He stopped her protest by grasping her shoulders. "I'm Burkan's assistant. After what happened, it'd be suspicious if he didn't provide you protection. It'll give me a chance to contact some sympathizers who can get in where Taken can't and find out how things are in Core. Right under their noses."

  Chapter 14

  Rhianni sat back from the terminal and raised her hands to the ceiling, stretching. Shielding her eyes with her arm, she glanced around. The security camera made a slow sweep of the room. She grinned in relief. After all the data she had pulled, she thought the camera would fix steadily on her. Arching her back, she continued her survey.

  If someone monitored the records she accessed, they would miss the few dangerous pieces under the sheer weight of data: climate, past surveys, mineral deposits, wildlife migration patterns, imports and exports, ship routes and merchant activity, plus any references linking the merchant ship lines with the targeted Council members.

  Rhianni finished her stretch, satisfied she was still inconspicuous. She had everything she wanted. It was time to meet Petroc, make a quick good-relations visit to her grandmother's office, and take the sled home.

  She packed up her chips and notebook, put on her jacket and walked down the long hallway, past five security checks. From the computer heart of the archives to the main lobby.

  Petroc wasn't there. He wouldn't have allowed anything, even a clandestine meeting, to make him late. He was too concerned about her security to be lax about time. The warm feeling that gave her conflicted with the chill of apprehension.

  "Excuse me, I've lost my escort, assigned by my magistrate." Rhianni pulled out her credentials. Her grandmother's name was in bold face. It was a gift from Mistress Shoreel and Rhianni didn't scruple to use it.

  The guard started pressing buttons, checking her story. "You came in with a Taken this morning. Male, black hair, blood type three. Resident of QSE. Named Petroc Ash."

  "Yes. He's my magistrate's assistant. Have you seen him?" The hairs on the back of her neck lifted.

  "He was detained by a security sweep twenty minutes ago. By error, the message did not reach you."

  "Why was he detained? He's been running errands for me since we arrived." Rhianni called up frosty anger. "He can't have done anything in the few minutes he wasn't with me."

  "That information is not available. As we said, by error you were not informed."

  "The error was in detaining him at all. Whatever he's accused of, he's innocent."

  "He's a Taken." To the guard, that seemed crime enough. Rhianni resisted the urge to slap him and see if she could get some reaction besides bland, cool words and looks.

  "Where do I go to get him released?" She barely waited for the guard's directions before slamming out the door.

  Rhianni hurried down the street, careless if she pushed people aside in her flight. Her mind raced faster than her body and she fought rising panic.

  Security sweeps? Picking up innocent people on the barest excuses? Inside secured buildings? The enemy had just made the next move--but what did it mean?

  "Stop it," she whispered. Luckily, she was alone on the steps as she reached the lower level of the plaza. "You're a Rover. Think like a Rover. Feel like a Rover."

  Rhianni concentrated on cooling her blood and stilling the racing of her thoughts and emotions. Then she started calculating all the things she might have to do to free Petroc.

  Visiting her grandmother was the most dangerous thing she could do. If Mistress Shoreel knew she was friends with a Taken after all the warnings the woman had given her, it would ruin any future chances she had to use her grandmother's influence.

  The front desk was quiet when Rhianni entered the lobby of the central Security offices. Too quiet, judging by past experience with security departments on other worlds. The front desk should have been noisy with the racket of domestic complaints and people asking for information, officers coming on and off duty and the usual bustle of business and paperwork. Two men sat in front of terminals, working on something, but they were alone.

  "Excuse me, I'm looking for a man brought in on false charges." She reached into her pocket for her credentials. The two men on duty exchanged glances before turning to face her. She couldn't tell if their hesitation was a reaction to the anger still radiating from her, or something else.

  Rhianni filled out the form they gave her and fumed. She changed her line of attack a little, turning her anger to ice when informed that processing her inquiry would take several hours and they would contact her.

  "You can't run a list of names and find out where he is? Security monitors can verify his location until some stupid sweep picked him up without a word of explanation."

  "Sorry," the clerk said. He didn't sound sorry. "A sweep is run when a crime has been committed, to pick up all Taken matching the general description. They'll be held until the criminal is caught."

  "I'm Mistress Shoreel's granddaughter. I can vouch for him."

  "You really expect us to believe she'd let you run around with these animals?" a guard cackled. "Tell us a new one."

  "You will call this number and corroborate my story." Rhianni held out her identification card.

  "Don't order us around, little girl." The threat in his voice sent ice through her. Rhianni called up all her Rover control. One wrong move or word would have drastic consequences--for Petroc, if not for her.

  Petroc gagged on the stink of disinfectants and sickness that filled the holding cell. The security guards had put him there, where he could see and hear the traffic out in the main office, and yet no one could hear or see him. They had known Rhianni would come looking for him. They had put him there to taunt him.

  "Would you have picked him up if he hadn't been a Taken?" she asked, her voice slightly gentler than it had been a moment ago. Petroc silently cheered her self-control.

  "Standard procedure."

  "Double standards."

  Stop, Anni. He wished their minds could touch, as he had imagined in his dreams. They might arrest you for being nice to a Taken. That's a crime now.

  "We haven't caught the Taken we were looking for," the guard standing behind him said. "Funny, how much you match his description."

  "I was with Captain Day or in full view of security officials the entire day. There are witnesses," Petroc replied in as cold and controlled a voice as he could manage.

  "Might take a while to get those witness statements. You're a suspect, so we can't let you go. No matter who she claims to be."

  "How bad will it be for you when you find out she's telling the truth? You think Mistress Shoreel w
ill let you get away with bad-mouthing her granddaughter?"

  "Hmm. You know, you look like the Taken who shot two Enforcers last year. We'll have to hold you for resisting arrest and endangering citizens, too."

  In the other room, Rhianni forced a partial smile onto her face. "Here's where you can contact me. I do have work to continue, after all." She snatched at the message pad, nearly yanking it from its power socket, and swept up the stylus. In moments, she turned and stomped away from the desk.

  Petroc stepped closer to the window to catch one last glimpse of Rhianni as she left. The guard clipped him at the base of his skull. His legs threatened to buckle. He heard a muffled snicker. A shiver of warning ran through him.

  Before he could turn, a guard grabbed his arm. The cold prick of a needle rammed through jacket, shirt and flesh, nearly to the bone. Ice shot through his veins, straight to his head. He struggled to catch himself as he fell.

  Nothingness enveloped him before he hit the floor.

  Witnesses said Petroc had resisted arrest months ago and threatened the safety of a group of school children. Reading the report, Rhianni's anger grew. The facts had to be trumped up, manufactured to give an appearance of legality. Her show of anger had likely made things worse for him. She studied the reports to find some recourse while she listened to Burkan and Gan make calls, trying to pull every string available to them, transmitting multiple copies of records and reports to prove Petroc hadn't even been in Core on the date in question. Anything they could think of to get him released.

  "This is where my father would put together a raiding unit and go in blasting," Rhianni said. She gave Burkan a headachy grin. "I've done everything I could think of." She took a deep breath. "It's nearly noon, I've called Grandmother's office four times, and she hasn't returned my call. I guess she's punishing me for my bad taste in friends."

  "We'll find a way." Burkan came over to the desk to perch on the edge. "I haven't run out of people yet. Just the legal connections. And my voice," he added with a grin.

  "Petroc would strangle me if I put anyone in danger for his sake." She mentally slapped herself yet again for waving her grandmother's name around like a flag. It galled her to realize how easily she could have ruined months and years of preparation and patient waiting. Just for the sake of her best friend.

  She wanted more than friendship from Petroc. Thanks to her dreams, she had become too painfully aware of him as a male. The male who completed her, awakened her as a female. She wanted Petroc to be her lover as well as her partner for life.

  She had to put those considerations aside for the duration.

  I am not a good Rover.

  "We'll simply have to be careful, now, won't we?" Burkan squeezed her shoulder. "I think you need something to eat. You're long overdue for breakfast."

  "I couldn't."

  "The moment Petroc gets out of detention, he'll scold you for neglecting yourself. You mean more to him than he's let on, you know."

  Rhianni's heart jolted. "What makes you say that?"

  "He changed when you came back to Mallachrom, a little more alive. Petroc lives for the Taken, but he's never had anyone who belonged to him, to live for and dream about. Danil is the best thing that ever happened to him. Should have seen him the first time the boy called him Dada. But you...I didn't realize how much he wanted you to come home until you actually showed up. You should see the look in his eyes when you're around and he thinks nobody is watching."

  Rhianni choked on a denial and shook her head. Something deep inside spread its wings and leaped to the stars to soar.

  "He was sick a few years back. Took a bad wound, had him delirious for almost a whole day. Your name was the only coherent word on his lips. Let's get this finished so you two can be together, eh?"

  "Yeah. Sure." She sighed and felt the weight of the planet press down on her again.

  He held out a hand, waiting with a teasing frown until Rhianni finally gave him her hand. When he tried to swing her arm around his neck to walk her to the kitchen, she pulled away with a laugh.

  "I'm all right. I think. Any tea left?"

  "That's the spirit. Make something for both of us while I dig up some more calling codes." He winked and returned to work. She headed into the kitchen.

  A knock on the kitchen door made her stop short. Burkan came running to join her at the sound. Rhianni wondered who it could be. Gan was out setting up a meeting with the Taken leaders that evening. Burkan stepped around her and opened the door. The man outside nearly fell through with the force of his knocking.

  "Is it true?" His voice and face were familiar to Rhianni. His coloring should have been dark instead of golden. He wore a uniform she didn't recognize. "They arrested Roc?"

  "Unfortunately, yes." Burkan glanced at Rhianni behind him.

  "You have to get him out. I just heard double bad news." He continued into the house, pulling the door closed. "The Council is talking legislation to have all Taken under arrest held for testing. Nobody gets out of detention, whether guilty or not."

  "I doubt any of them are," Rhianni said. She continued trying to place him. In his turn, the man stared at her.

  "Ah... Rhianni, you remember Tam? Roc's brother?"

  Tam Ash stared. His mouth worked a couple times but no sounds came out. He swallowed. "Rhianni Day? If I'd known you'd turn out so..." He shook his head. "You have to do something."

  "With this new threat, I might get some action." Burkan nodded to them and stomped back to his office.

  "What happened?" Tam turned to Rhianni.

  "I need tea." She gestured for him to sit and told him the whole story while she heated water and put tea in the pot.

  "People kept telling me I was the lucky one, stuck in the bunker under the hospital when the Talroqi landed. Lucky because I wasn't a Taken. I wish I was like Petroc, I really do." Tam cradled his cup between his hands, staring down into the steaming dark depths of the tea.

  "You work security. Won't that help?"

  "Merchant district security. Won't get me anywhere with detention security." He shook his head. "They've changed procedures. If a prisoner isn't released within ten hours, they prepare for drug interrogation. Takes a series of shots over the course of two days. Taken are allergic to the interrogation drugs. They're paralyzed, spreading from the feet up, the longer the drugs stay in them." Tam shuddered. "Some Taken die after the fifth shot. You have to get him out soon."

  "It's nearly ten hours now! Can't you go in and slow things down? Stall them? He's your brother."

  "Rhianni, if I could help, I would. My job is in danger because my brother is a Taken. Petroc said he was making plans, big secrets, and if anyone suspected, things would get bad. Well, somebody suspects."

  "Or they're gearing up for an explosion," she murmured.

  "Look, I can't take chances. I have to think about my family. Petroc would understand."

  "It's all right." She didn't know whether to pity him or be angry with the pleading in his voice. "Please, Tam, I need to be alone."

  Her head ached, the tea had not helped and talking with Tam had only made it worse. Yet she had to think, had to plan. The thought of never seeing Petroc again terrified her. She smelled the stink of it in her sweat.

  I am not a good Rover.

  "Sure." He stood. "I know my way out."

  Rhianni closed her eyes, listening to his steps as he hurried to the door, and the throbbing of her heart. Her thoughts swirled, racing and tumbling over each other. She kept her eyes closed and rested her head on her crossed arms on the table. It felt good to lose the world in blackness.

  She heard Burkan speaking in his office. Something thudded on the mudroom door. Before she could get up to answer it, Aric burst in.

  "What are you doing to get Petroc out?" he demanded. "We can't just sit and wait for some miracle, some foul-up to set him free."

  "Hold on, son," Burkan said, coming back from the other room. "We're pulling every string available to us, and we're callin
g a meeting of all the leaders, as soon as it's safe to get together. In case you haven't heard, things are a little jumpy in Core, thanks to that ruckus in the science wing."

  "So you're sitting and talking?" Aric reached for the door, ready to storm out. "We have to find some way to get him out of there now!"

  "And get yourself arrested, too?" Rhianni spat.

  "I suppose you have a plan? Why haven't you used it? You're a Rover!" he shot back. "Why aren't you doing anything?"

  "We're trying everything we can think of." Burkan caught Aric by the arm and pushed him hard, so he stumbled and sat down crooked on a chair. "Rovers don't have a reputation for rushing in with all weapons blasting, do they?"

  Aric glared at them until Burkan's steady gaze broke through his anger. He slowly shook his head.

  "It might come to a raid, but I don't want that. I don't want to wait too long, either." Rhianni rubbed at her eyes when they grew hot and wet. "What if Roc is deathly allergic to the interrogation drugs?"

  "If Petroc died, he'd be lucky," Aric whispered. "We'd be lucky. Rhianni, he knows everything. The stuff they use is for total recall. It doesn't allow a moment of thought or control. Think it, you say it." He slammed his fist down on the arm of the chair. A high-pitched crack echoed through the room as the arm snapped off. He didn't even flinch. "He left instructions, if this ever happened. Petroc wanted us to try to kill him, if we couldn't rescue him."

  Chapter 15

  "It's the only option," Mal Tarn said. Rhianni saw the pain on his face, but she hated him for admitting Aric's words were true.

  "How long do we have before he reaches the danger point?" she asked.

  "You mean the lethal reaction, or when he starts talking against his will?"

  Rhianni saw pity in his gaze and she felt as if her secrets were in the open, as if she had taken the drug. Did everyone know how much Petroc meant to her? Could they even read the hungry dreams that haunted her?