Night Quest

by Susan Krinard

  Stepping carefully over the guard, she looked out the door. The battle outside clearly hadn’t ended, and there was still no sign of colonists in this part of the compound. Backed by the river as it was, the eastern wall had been left untouched by the attacking Freebloods. But the sky had taken on the faintest tint of light, and soon the rogues outside would be compelled to retreat.

  She unlocked the door to Kronos’s cell. She didn’t waste any time dwelling on his changed appearance or their strange reunion, but quickly released the other four Freebloods. The two females and two males were clearly ready to move as soon as Kronos gave the command.

  “There will be no room for mistakes,” she said to them, hoping that Kronos had chosen his allies well. “We must get to the woods before daylight. We will go straight over the wall and into the water.”

  “We?” Kronos asked.

  “I am coming with you.”

  Chapter 15

  “You will abandon your human friend?” Kronos asked.

  “The guard didn’t see me,” she said, “but Daniel will certainly realize that I am the one who released you. If I allow Garret to defend me, I will put him in an untenable position.”

  Kronos nodded gravely. “And Pericles?”

  “We have no time to save him,” she said, fighting desperately against paralyzing grief, anger and guilt.

  “It is unfortunate,” Kronos said, “but I believe that he will gladly make the sacrifice.”

  Artemis grabbed one of the daycoats hung outside the cell and tossed it to Kronos, while his disciples claimed the others. There wasn’t one left for her, but she trusted in her well-honed ability to get to cover before the sun rose.

  “I will go first,” she said, “and try to distract the guards on the wall. Stay behind me until I give the signal.”

  She left the building as she had approached it, crouching low as she ran, and made straight for the eastern wall.

  “You!” she called, waving at the nearest of the four guards. Once she’d caught his attention, she said, “I was sent to tell you that rogues have gotten into the compound, and that all soldiers must report immediately to the front gate!”

  The dhampir hesitated, eyes narrowed as he studied her face. “Lady Aresia?” he asked. “Why did they send you with this message?”

  “No one else could be spared. Daniel says that you must come!”

  Someone behind Artemis darted forward, passed her in a blur and launched himself up the stairway close to where the dhampir stood. The guard never saw him coming. The dhampir fell onto the parapet walk, and the Freeblood crouched beside the still body, his expression tense with excitement and fear.

  Furious that the exile had acted without her signal, Artemis started forward. But the other three guards were charging the Freeblood, and Kronos’s disciples leaped up the steps to confront them. Artemis joined them in time to watch the brief struggle, prepared to interfere the instant one of the exiles acted too forcefully.

  But they were skilled, and kept Kronos’s promise. They took the soldiers down with carefully calibrated blows that rendered them temporarily unconscious, as she’d done with the guard at the storage building. She quickly checked the dhampir’s pulse, and found it strong and even. He would wake within minutes.

  “We must jump,” she said as Kronos came to stand beside her. He nodded and signaled to the others. Together, the six of them leaped over the wall. Shouts of anger rang from the stockade.

  Artemis rolled as she struck the ground and plunged over the riverbank into the water. The bridge loomed over her to the right. Kronos splashed down beside her, and she heard the others nearby. They turned left, wading parallel to the bank as bullets cut the surface of the river directly behind them.

  Then, suddenly, the barrage stopped. Artemis could no longer hear raised voices or the chatter of weapons. The sky was growing lighter. Trees bunched thickly along the riverside beyond the area the colonists had cleared around the walls, the only real shelter in sight.

  She and Kronos clambered onto the bank and ran toward the hills to the west, his followers on their heels. She began to feel ill halfway across the clearing, and by the time they made it to the trees she knew that her body was rejecting the blood she had taken from Johan.

  It isn’t the blood, she thought. It simply wasn’t the right blood.

  She kept running alongside the others as they weaved their way through the remains of a once-thriving city. Dawn brightened the sky behind them. At last they found an old warehouse with three walls, a back door and part of its roof intact, and settled deep in the shadows. Artemis found herself panting and sweating, her stomach struggling to empty its contents.

  “Have you not fed?” Kronos asked, crouching beside her.

  “How did they feed you?”

  “Animals,” Kronos said. “But of course that is how we have been getting our nourishment for some time now.”

  Artemis knew him too well to miss the slight curl of his lip when he spoke the words, but she was deeply relieved. Of course they had agreed on the need to end Opir dependence on human blood, but that had been a matter of philosophy rather than practice within the Citadel, where there were no other sources available. She could not have accepted his hunting humans outside it.

  “I am well,” she insisted. “But you must keep moving. It would be best for you to continue into the hills and wait for nightfall to cross the Willamette. The colonists will soon be after you, and they have the advantage of daylight.”

  He frowned. “Why do you say ‘you’?” he asked.

  Artemis realized that she didn’t know exactly when she’d changed her mind. It wasn’t the sudden illness, but she was just as certain now that she had to go back as, less than an hour ago, she had been about leaving.

  “I can’t go,” she said. “I should have stayed and tried to explain.”

  “They will never believe you.” Kronos cupped her cheek as Garret had done, but his touch seemed icy on her flushed skin. “You say this only because you believe you will slow us down, but I will not lose you again.”

  “I’m sorry.” She got up, swayed and straightened with a hand braced against the crumbling wall. “I must go back.”

  “No.” He rose and stood in her way as she moved toward the remains of the fallen wall. “Whatever you feel for this human is not worth your life.”

  “There is shade enough in the forest,” she said, “at least for a time. If I cannot stand by my convictions—”

  Kronos jerked up his head, silencing her with a raised hand. The sharp rustling of leaves outside the warehouse walls brought the other Freebloods to their feet.

  “Human,” Kronos said. “He is not making much effort to conceal his approach.”

  He. She took a breath and shivered. “Go,” she said. “I will meet him.”

  “Artemis—”

  “Go!”

  With a slow shake of his head, Kronos gestured for the others, who still wore their daycoats, to follow him out the back doorway. Artemis emptied her stomach, cleaned her face and waited tensely.

  Garret stepped across the rubble of the fourth wall, his silhouette framed against sunlit trees. He wore heavy clothing, his pack, and her bow and quiver. The VS was slung over his shoulder.

  She caught a flash of relief on his face, and then his expression hardened. He looked toward the rear door. “Where are the others?” he asked.

  “Gone.” She shivered again. “I take full responsibility for their escape.”

  “Why did they leave you behind?”

  “I stayed of my own accord. I had hoped—”

  “Don’t hope,” he said. “And don’t try to explain. The attack on the colony is over, and there are already two patrols out searching for you and the prisoners. Since they believe you’re my wife, I said I’d loo
k for you.”

  “How did you explain...?”

  “I didn’t.”

  “I will not resist,” she said, starting toward him.

  “I’m not taking you back.”

  “If we return, I can try to explain, and you will not become a traitor to your friend and his people.”

  “I won’t let them treat you like a criminal.”

  “Did I not betray you?” she asked.

  “You must have had a reason for what you did.”

  “And if you cannot accept my reason?”

  “I’ve made my choice.”

  He held her gaze for an uncomfortable length of time. She stared down at her feet, utterly vulnerable to the emotions he unconsciously projected so powerfully.

  He knew what he was doing, and what it meant for his own future.

  And still he chose her.

  “We’re getting away from here as fast as we can,” he said into her silence. “We can’t cross the Willamette at Delos, and if we go west to one of the closer bridges we could run right into the patrols. We’ll have to try the northwest St. John’s Bridge.” He unslung the rifle, removed the pack and her weapons, and then pulled off the heavy, hooded coat and tossed it to her, revealing his usual heavy jacket. “We have about six miles to go. Don’t let that slip.” He nodded at her bow and quiver. “Get your weapons.”

  Breaking into a jog, he headed northwest parallel to the river. Artemis pulled on the coat, retrieved her weapons and fell in behind him.

  “I cannot let you do this,” she said.

  “You can’t stop me,” he said, “unless you plan to leave me here half-conscious, like those guards.”

  “Are they all right?”

  “Yes. I’m guessing you did your best to make sure of that.”

  She felt light-headed. “I am glad,” she said.

  He stared straight ahead. “I think we’d better pick up the pace. Can you keep up?”

  “I was not injured.”

  Garret began to run, choosing the clearest path between the trees and dodging the thick patches of undergrowth. Artemis listened for pursuit and heard movement some distance behind. She had no idea if the followers were rogue Freebloods or colony soldiers, and she didn’t want to find out.

  What had become of Kronos?

  “We’re coming to the end of the woods,” Garret said, slowing down as he spoke. “Put your hood up.”

  She did as he asked. The woods ended abruptly at the edge of a vast expanse of fallen buildings, disintegrated asphalt and cracked concrete, through which smaller trees had forced their way. Sunlight beat down on the broken surface like a hammer.

  Garret grabbed her arm and roughly pulled a pair of oversize gloves over her hands. “With luck,” he said, “the rogues will stay well away from here, and Daniel’s patrols won’t expect us to cross open ground. We may get a little farther ahead of them.”

  “Garret—” she began.

  “Let’s go.” He took her hand, and then they were flying across the urban plain, Garret pulling her along as if he were some unstoppable machine. She nearly fell several times, and only his desperate strength kept her on her feet. They paused once or twice in the shade of structures that hadn’t completely crumbled, but he kept them moving with relentless determination.

  When they reached the wooded area on the other side of the tract, Artemis was only slightly burned where the coat and hood had slipped once or twice, but she was weak from her reaction to the blood, and the world rushing by began to tilt and spin. Garret slowed, swept her up in his arms and continued to run until it was obvious that he had exhausted his own strength.

  They collapsed near a thicket of densely interwoven brambles. She could smell the river nearby, but the scent only made her empty stomach heave again. Garret drew his hunting knife and hacked at the branches, making a shallow hollow into which he could push her. She resisted, realized it was futile and let him tuck her into the cramped space. Breathing hard, he laid the rifle on the ground beside him and pulled off his pack.

  “Drink,” he said, pushing a canteen into her hands.

  She held the canteen and stared at it blankly. “You should go back,” she said. “Daniel said he would help you find Timon.”

  He turned his head just enough so that she could see his strong profile against the dim light filtering through the trees. “We can’t stay here long,” he said. “It would be better if you rest.”

  “Did he blame you for my escape?” she asked.

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  “But I want you to understand. One of the prisoners was the Bloodlord who saved my life over two centuries ago, when I was human, after the Opir who nearly drained my blood left me for dead.”

  “It sounds like a long story,” he said. His voice was heavy, and she realized how fantastic the explanation must sound.

  “I know it seems to be an amazing coincidence,” she said earnestly. “But I had thought him dead for years. I was not only his vassal for decades...he gave me reason to live when I had lost everything.” She leaned toward Garret. “You have always wondered why I maintained such faith in my fellow Freebloods. Kro—” She paused, remembering that Kronos was using an alias. She felt she had to respect his wishes, even with Garret. “Nomos wanted to alter the inequitable structure of Opir society. The work he and I carried out together was based upon the idea that Freebloods might be taught a better way than they know in the Citadels, and that such a way might lead to peace with humanity and true freedom for all.”

  “A way that didn’t involve dependence on human blood.”

  “Yes.”

  Garret ran a hand through his stiff hair. “I knew he couldn’t have been a Freeblood himself.”

  “He had his own Household in Oceanus, but he was compelled to leave the Citadel because of his teachings. He has been posing as a Freeblood to evade his enemies. Believe me, Garret, he was the last Opir I ever expected to meet.”

  The emotions she sensed from Garret were so contradictory that she couldn’t begin to untangle them. Fresh queasiness settled in the pit of her stomach.

  “Did he tell you that I questioned him?” he asked.

  “Yes. He said he tried to convince you and Daniel that he was opposed to the stealing of half-blood children.”

  “We had no reason to accept his story.”

  Her throat felt as if invisible hands had slipped a rope around it and were tightening it bit by bit. “Nomos is a good Opir, Garret.”

  “He wants to prevent another war...or so he said.”

  “That has always been his goal,” Artemis said. “And mine.”

  For the first time since they had made love again, Garret’s aura flickered to life, dancing wildly around his body. “I was sure you felt you had a good reason for helping them escape.” He looked up through the tattered leaves at a patch of bright morning sky. “Do you know where Nomos has gone?”

  Just for a moment, she doubted him. She considered the possibility that he wanted her to tell him so that he and Daniel could track Kronos down, recapture him...

  Garret’s aura contracted like a wounded animal seeking shelter. He looked at her, a peculiar expression on his face.

  Then his emotions hit her all at once, and she knew how badly she had wounded him with her unfounded, unforgivable doubts. Doubts he had felt as clearly as she felt his pain. The queasy sensation in her belly turned to full-blown nausea.

  He had not only sensed her feelings the way he sometimes seemed to do when they were closest, she had projected, pushing her emotions outward without conscious effort. He could not have defended himself from them without learning to build mental barriers of his own.

  The emotional bond made it so simple to forget that she could do such things as easily as she might brush his skin wit
h her fingertips. Their link was by no means growing weaker, in spite of her efforts.

  And now she knew that accepting other human blood was not the solution. The blood-bond had already taken hold, in spite of her best efforts. The empathy had made it all the more powerful.

  But she didn’t dare tell Garret. Not yet. It would be possible to subsist on animal blood for the time being, though it would not be pleasant.

  She crawled out of her shelter, determined to face her fears, and projected her regret, hoping that he would absorb and accept it as easily as he had her ugly distrust. “I only know that he also intends to travel to the north,” she said.

  The tension eased from Garret’s face, but his aura remained flat and inert. “If you trust this man so much,” he said, “then maybe you’d be better off rejoining him. I don’t hold you to your agreement to help me find Timon.”

  The words seemed angry, but she sensed no blame. He was not trying to punish her. Still, she nearly doubled over with sickness.

  “You want me to leave you?” she asked.

  Denial sent Garret’s aura into another turbulent dance. “I want you to understand that I know I’ve been hard on you,” he said. “I had no right to expect you to be other than what you are.”

  “I did fail you,” she whispered, “but not because you expected too much.”

  “I put you in an impossible position,” he said. “I won’t do it again.”

  Artemis turned her head aside and retched again. At once Garret was with her, his arm around her, supporting her head with a gentle hand.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked, nearly smothering her with his self-recrimination.

  Weak and shaking, she tried to push him away. “The sun,” she said.

  “No.” He stroked her hair away from her face. “Artemis, I know you took blood in Delos, but clearly something went wrong. You’re not keeping it down.”

  She wondered how he had learned about Johan’s donation. She sensed no anger or jealousy from him, only deep concern.