Hunting Julian

by Jacquelyn Frank

  “We are very glad to hear that,” Sydelle said, practically winking at him. Wait a minute, she did wink at him.

  What the hell?

  “Gatherer, we don’t understand your confusion,” Christophe said after a moment of studying his puzzled face. “Was this not your design? You wished to make it known in no uncertain terms that the human woman was indeed your kindra, and I must say you have succeeded stunningly.”

  “My design?” Julian’s mind raced as he rose to his feet and tried to search his memory of the night before. What had he done? Or rather, what had he failed to do to protect their privacy? Was all of this because of his time with Asia last night? Had the joining really been this powerful? He had expected perhaps the holding colony might feel the effects of kind, but had it really travelled so far and so fiercely? “Please excuse my confusion, Ampliphi, but there was no design to this. This was not at all my intention. In fact, I had no idea this was possible.”

  “To be candid, neither did we,” Christophe admitted. “Every one of the seven colonies, as well as the holding colony, is flush to overflowing thanks to you and your kindra.”

  “Every colony?” Julian could not help his shock.

  “Every colony, Julian. We never knew the coming together of kind could be so dynamic. You have proven your claim and then some. Now all that remains is for you to prove your kindra’s innocence in this accusation. She claims she laid no hand on your Companion. You have proof of this?”

  “I do,” he said grimly. “The evidence I have will show you that Ariel’s wounds were self-inflicted.”

  “She was stabbed in the back,” Kloe emanated with hostile fury. “You expect us to simply take her word that Ariel is somehow jointed in the way to accomplish that?”

  “I expect you to see the evidence that says she propped the knife between two shelves and threw herself back onto it for the express purpose of causing this reaction,” Julian said with his own hostility. “Her intention was to make my kindra nightfly, thereby clearing the way for her to remain my Companion.”

  “You mean to make us believe she nearly threw her life away for the sake of vengeance? Preposterous,” Rennin said. “Ariel knows there are hundreds of men among us who are ready to worship her every step and breath. The loss of one man is easily replaced by another.”

  “Gatherer Julian warned us the girl was unstable before this even happened,” Sydelle argued on his behalf. “And he has never been known to be dishonest with us.”

  “And yet he has spent years among the humans and has picked up other habits of theirs,” Kloe said.

  “My honesty does not have to come into the matter,” Julian said darkly. “The evidence will prove what you will not believe.” He turned to narrow furious eyes on Kloe. “And then perhaps after that we can ask you, Ampliphi, if you know why Asia was put into general population last evening. An evening when selection was to take place. The guard says it was by order of an Ampliphi.”

  “General population!” Christophe turned to Kloe. “Is this true? Were you responsible for this?”

  “No!” Kloe insisted. “I believe her to be guilty. All it would take was a matter of hours to prove her so! Why would I be in a rush to make nightfly out of her? It was going to happen soon enough!”

  “Not soon enough,” Sydelle took note, “to avoid Julian proving his claim of kind and thus removing himself from your service permanently. The only way you could keep him would be if she was made nightfly and his claim of kind was nullified…but it had to be done before they could be mated. Is that why you were in such a fury last night? You realized they had established proof of kind and there was nothing you could do about it?”

  “I was angry because I thought my orders were disobeyed! I didn’t even think she was in the holding colony!”

  “Well, she was, as ordered. If I had not gone back to the colony and paid the price for nightfly just to make certain she wasn’t among them, she might have been sold to the first man to make claim on her. She could have been raped and impregnated. Perhaps you thought this would be added insurance…to try and soil her for me with another man’s child?”

  “Julian!” Kloe surged to her feet, outrage edging every line of her body. “I will not tolerate these disrespectful accusations! You think too much of yourself if you think I cannot train another to take your place!”

  Kloe waved her hand at him and Julian suddenly felt fire racing over his skin, every inch of it, from the waist down. It was a pain he had felt only once before in his life, and like that time it brought him straight to his knees. He knew that beneath his clothes and all across his legs the runes that had been burned into his skin were now being burned away. Kloe was removing her mark on him.

  It proved nothing to him except how vindictive she could be. She had no choice now but to accept that he must leave her. That was the law the Ampliphi themselves had put into place. No one who was kind could be Gatherer. They were more valuable to the colonies if they stayed at home and took care of their partner.

  “Kloe!” Christophe warned her when Julian shouted out in pain from the demarking. “You could have warned him and seen him anesthetized! This is blatant cruelty!”

  Kloe shrugged and resumed her seat with all regality. “Perhaps next time he should think before throwing accusations around without proof.”

  “I have proof. The guard at the prison,” Julian reminded her through the clench of his body and the ferocity of his pain.

  “Bring him forth, then, and have him accuse me himself. Christophe, I will not stand for this! I am not the one on trial here!”

  “Not as yet,” Christophe relented. “Come, Julian, you will show us your evidence.”

  “B-before I do…” Julian took a breath, forcing down his pain and getting to his feet once more, “I want to discuss what will happen to Ariel.”

  “One stage of this process at a time, Julian. We will see to her punishment if what you say has happened is true,” Rennin said.

  “This is what I must know. Ariel is unbalanced. Clearly so. To make her nightfly will push her over the edge. There has to be a better way.”

  “There is no better way. This is our way,” Rennin said. “Unlike humans, we don’t do things in half measures and allow the guilty to go free unpunished. She will be nightfly and learn to live as such.”

  “But she has already tried to hurt herself once—”

  “All the more reason she needs to be in a controlled environment. I think you should worry less about your former Companion and focus more on getting your kindra out of the colony. You are wasting our time and hers with this.”

  Rennin was right. Every minute Julian spent arguing for Ariel was a minute longer that Asia was trapped in the dangerous nightfly colony. He wanted her out and he wanted her out now.

  “Please, Ampliphi. Come to my home,” he invited them softly.

  Chapter 15

  There was a soft rapping on the other side of the steel door. Since Asia was going a little stir-crazy just pacing back and forth alone in her rooms, she figured she’d do just about anything to spice it up. Even entertain opening the door. She’d ignored the first two times someone had come knocking on her door, but now it had to be coming around to about noon and she’d had just about enough of playing wait-and-see. Julian should have been back by then. And if this wasn’t him, she was going to start ripping her own hair out. She couldn’t stand the idea that her entire future was resting in someone else’s hands, even if it was Julian’s.

  Asia swept her wet braid back behind her shoulders, one downside of Beneath being there was no apparent need for blow-dryers. She supposed she ought to just be grateful there had been a shower.

  Asia went across to the door, opening it carefully. To her surprise it was Jewel standing there waiting on her. But Asia almost didn’t recognize her. Gone was all the makeup and adornments. Her face was scrubbed clean, except for the faintest traces of the tattooing that had been on her face last night. Her blond hair had been
swept up into a simple tail. She wore what Asia assumed was the Beneath equivalent of sweats and a tee. Only they were wide-legged pants made of a near-transparent material and tied to her body with a scarf for a belt, and the simple boxy shirt was made of the same fine material that seemed to cling to human skin like static. The color was an almost unattractive mauve, but Jewel was far too beautiful to look ugly even in the worst clothing.

  “Hi, there,” Asia greeted her. “How goes it?”

  “Not too bad.” She chuckled. “Wow, I miss that. Speech,” she clarified. “Idioms. People I can talk to who will actually understand me.” Jewel stepped over the door saddle when Asia stood back to silently invite her in.

  “I don’t know. A lot of people here seem to speak English.” Asia shrugged.

  “You’re spoiled, then. Emanation is the most common language here. It’s kind of like body language, only a little…harder. You get used to it pretty quickly, though. When I first got here I was afraid it was going to take brain surgery in order for me to talk to the natives. But it came. Eventually.”

  “Just like everything, I suppose.” Asia folded her arms over her breasts and eyed the other woman. “How’d you make out last night?”

  “Not as good as you did, from what I’ve been hearing. You’ve found your kindri. The whole colony is talking about it. Last night was…wow. Like, a crazy aphrodisiac! I’ve never seen the main pavilion clear out so fast in all the years I’ve been here.”

  “All right. Is that a good thing?” Asia frowned. “I don’t see how any of this can be a good thing. You’ve been turned into a…a…”

  “Nightfly,” Jewel supplied, smiling a bit wryly. “Sounds a bit nicer than whore or prostitute, huh?”

  “Not if it means the same thing,” Asia said.

  “It’s not really. More like a mistress. But I suppose that’s all semantics. The fact is, it’s not so bad as far as a way to live. I think the hard part will come when I have to give birth and then give the baby away. I kind of lucked out so far. My first five-year contract was kind of a dud, not for lack of trying. He blamed me, of course.”

  “Of course.”

  “Truth is, a lot of these men were made infertile from the same disease that killed off all their women. That’s a little bit of information they don’t readily share with us humans. But what do you expect from a society that’s predominantly male?”

  “Damn. It’s like there’s something out to get these people,” Asia observed. “It’s a wonder they have any fight left in them.”

  “You gotta give them credit for being a tenacious bunch, cherie, that’s for certain.”

  “Actually, I feel kind of sorry for them.”

  “True that. One man from one plane stepping where he didn’t belong and like that”—she snapped her fingers—“an entire civilization was all but destroyed.”

  “It kind of reminds me of white explorers bringing white diseases to the jungle tribes of the Amazon. It’s so stupid and unnecessary…and for what? To satisfy a curiosity? Have you seen their children? Their elderly? They can barely move.”

  “Not today. Today they are dancing in the streets. That’s because of you, cherie.”

  “Maybe that’s true of the people in this colony, but—”

  “All colonies, cherie. Word gets around fast about these sorts of things,” she explained at Asia’s doubtful look, “and we don’t have much to do around this place other than primp and gossip. Seems you’ve made a very powerful connection.”

  “Does your rumor mill have anything to say about when the hell I’m going to get out of here?”

  “No. But there’s a pool. High odds say you stay here. There’s odds against you making it to the end of the week alive.”

  “Yeah? Well, don’t take that bet,” Asia warned her. “You’ll lose your shirt.”

  “I rather figured that out for myself, cherie. Who do you think is running the bet?” She smiled wolfishly. “Which brings me to why I’m here.”

  “I was wondering if this was just a social call.”

  “Oh, it is, cherie, it is!” Jewel moved a little farther into the suite, reaching a finger out to check the dust level on a nearby shelf. “We’re just two gals sittin’ around and having a chat.” She reached out to touch the material on one of the couches, pushing at it for a moment before turning and sitting on it, testing it out for comfort and seemingly finding it passable. “Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but your man is a Gatherer, isn’t he?”

  “Yes, he is. How did you—?”

  Jewel waved her off, clearly feeling that was a self-answering query at that point. “The thing about Gatherers is they are quite the precious commodity. Did you know that each colony has only one Ampliphi and one Gatherer?” She lifted a brow when Asia nodded. “Here’s how it works. The Gatherer goes to the Earth plane and, using a variety of unique talents, farms energy from human resources. Now, there’s all kinds of Gatherers and they take in all kinds of energy. They feed that energy to the Ampliphi…and at this point I am talking plural. All of the Ampliphi. Then each Ampliphi feeds their colony. Then, whatever is left over gets tossed to the penal colony, rather like tossing scraps to the dogs.”

  “I see,” Asia said with a dark frown.

  “Well, we have other ways of obtaining energy. Don’t you worry about us,” Jewel assured her. “But the real fascinating part about this is the variety of specialties the Gatherers bring. For instance, your Julian. His speciality was passion. He farmed energy by manipulating the passions of the human women he found. Occasionally, he found a woman worthy of bringing here to this little slice of heaven that he felt could hack it. He’s the only one allowed to do that, by the way. The rest are strictly into bartering energy. Now Shade…Shade’s a precognitive when he’s on Earth. He has the power to see into the future. He uses that to find and manipulate the kinds of energy he wants. They say he likes to pose as a fortune teller and tells people just enough to stir up a mess of trouble. Then he harvests the fallout and sends it here.”

  “But I thought negative emotion was not good for these people.”

  “Hey, when you’re starving you take what you can get. Besides, the Ampliphi can filter a lot of it. They have to. Some of it…Some of it’s pure terror. That’s Adrian or Daedalus, usually. Daedalus harvests from disaster areas. All that death and destruction, all the grief that comes with it. And Adrian.” Here she shivered and it was clear it wasn’t for dramatic effect. “He can walk in dreams and uses his power to create the couche mal. Bad dreams, cherie. He can make the vilest and most frightening nightmares possible in the human mind. The way he makes them scream…. They say it takes everything the Ampliphi have to filter it, just to make it palatable. Even so, they can’t feed that to just anyone. They say Adrian’s a beast. As twisted as the nightmares he harvests from. He’s Ampliphi Rennin’s Gatherer. I suppose I’d be a little twisted if I was Rennin’s Gatherer.”

  Jewel seemed to realize she’d taken a tangent and shrugged off everything she’d just said. “I do have a point here,” she assured Asia. “I mean to say, you coming here has disturbed a very delicate process. But I suppose that doesn’t matter much when you and Julian can put out the kind of power you do. Though I dare say you can’t let it all go all of the time like you did last night. You’ll burn yourselves out. Julian should have had more care. You may have fed the world, but being Beneath takes it out of you as it is. Keep throwing away your energy like that and you’ll be dog tired and sick before you know it.”

  “Wait, are you saying that humans can get sick like they do for lack of energy?”

  “Sure. The longer you stay here, the more susceptible you become. Never on the scale they do, but it’ll run you down right quick.”

  “Julian didn’t tell me that,” Asia said with a frown.

  “Oh, cherie, don’t be hard on him. Seems to me he’s got his hands full running a colony and dealing with Kloe besides. Now he has you to manage as well. Plus he and Kloe are going to have t
o hunt the colony for a new Gatherer. Well, Kloe will anyway, but since Julian knows his men better than anyone, he will be her best guide.”

  “And this is what you wanted to tell me? To be careful with my energy?”

  “That and to give you some insight into how things work around these parts. Now if I thought you’d be staying here, my advice to you would be very different. But I can tell you’ll be gone soon. They aren’t going to want to lock up kindra. They need you too much. If there’s even the slightest reason to get you off, you’ll get off. And count yourself lucky. The law here is a harsh mistress. You can take that from me.”

  “Oh, I believe you. I’ve already learned that the hard way.” Asia paused for a moment, considering her next question. “Jewel, are you here for the rest of your life?”

  “No, cherie. They figure since my murder was self-defense, I only have to stay here ten years…or rather two contracts. That leaves me with five years to go. And I found me a nice pliable gentleman last night. Rich as Midas, too. I’ll be real comfortable these next few years.”

  “My God, Jewel. It seems so harsh! How can you just take it like this?”

  “Well, one, because I don’t have a choice, cherie. And two…well, it suits me. I like being kept in comfort, spending the day relaxing and prettying myself up for my man in the evening. And I like sex. You pick them right, get one that won’t smack you around, maybe one that knows what he’s doing in the boudoir…and I stay safe, clean, warm, well fed, and basically content. You can bet that wouldn’t be the way of it in a women’s prison on Earth.”

  “But, Jewel, there’s danger here, too,” Asia said. “Maybe from the guards, certainly from the other women. Most of them are violent offenders, aren’t they?”

  “And that’s where having the most power comes in handy. I know this place like the back of my hand, know how to get what I want when I want it, and that’s valuable to even the meanest bitches here. I’m not saying there aren’t those who’d like to knock me down from my spot as head bitch in charge, but I can take care of myself.”