Night Quest

by Susan Krinard

  “And he...” She hesitated, and then rushed on. “He knows of my connection to you, and he does not completely approve.”

  “I gathered as much. The feeling is mutual.”

  She released his hand. “Garret, I will not be fought over as if I were a—”

  “Serf?” he said, injecting a little humor into his voice for her sake. “Does he think I’ll hurt you, or just that I’m not good enough for you?”

  “I do not know what experiences he has had since he escaped Oceanus. He never mistreated humans there, but now he knows what it is like to be hunted by them.”

  “Why didn’t he try to contact you once he escaped?”

  “He did not exactly escape. They believed that he had been killed, as I did. I was exiled only after he was declared dead, because of my attempts to carry on our work.”

  “I’d like to hear about your work,” he said, “when we have time for a longer conversation.”

  Her lips curved in a smile, and he knew he’d said the right thing. “I am glad,” she said. “I can tell you that I believe without doubt that Kronos means to resist the Bloodlord in the north and help us find your son, if you permit it.”

  “And you think he was telling the truth about the people at this post?” he asked.

  “Kronos is not a killer.” She took his hand again. “But if you choose to go on alone, just the two of us, I will support your decision.”

  Garret cursed silently. Of course she would. But he would be crazy to reject any advantage that could help him get to Timon, first impressions be damned.

  “No,” he said. “As long as you think it’s safe, we’ll take him up on his offer to travel together.”

  He bent quickly to kiss her, irrationally driven to remind her—and himself—that they had an alliance Kronos could try to break only at his own peril.

  They stepped onto the bridge, passing by the post and continuing over the water. It was black as oil to Garret’s eyes, and he could just make out the bulk of the island ahead. They walked through the dense woods and reached the other side of the island without meeting Kronos and his followers.

  The second span had been repaired many times, and one fallen section had been rebuilt with wood that had begun to rot. Garret wondered if the Bloodmaster in the north would see to its continued repair to ensure that the flow of children wasn’t cut off.

  The thought made his stomach churn with rage. As always, Artemis caught his mood. She took his arm.

  “We’re almost to the other side,” she said. “They’re waiting for us.”

  “They must have decided that you’d persuade me to take Kronos up on his offer,” Garret said drily.

  “He said they had to hunt. Perhaps their need is urgent.”

  “I suspect that your needs are getting urgent, too,” he said as they stepped off the road. “I don’t care where you get the blood, as long as it does the job. Why don’t you join them?”

  “I can’t leave you alone.”

  “If I set up camp close to the bridge, I can watch for anyone coming from the south.”

  “You will need to sleep.”

  “I can do that when you get back.”

  “I will bring you food. I’ll speak to Kronos and let him know what we have decided.”

  They kept going, Garret behind Artemis as they followed the road. As she had predicted, Kronos and his band had stopped not far ahead.

  Kronos didn’t comment on Garret and Artemis’s arrival except to smile at his former vassal and favor Garret with a brief but amiable nod. Artemis spoke to Kronos briefly and returned to Garret.

  “He was about to go after the Freebloods he sent to scout for game,” she said. “I am welcome to join them.”

  “Good,” Garret said. “Tell him that I’m heading back to the bridge to keep watch.”

  “He will probably wish to send one of his Opiri to watch with you.”

  “Tell him that this human can take care of himself. And that it would be better if none of his people suddenly show up when I’m not expecting them.”

  Her gaze fell to the VS. “I will.”

  With obvious reluctance, she returned to Kronos. The Bloodlord looked at Garret, gave a very human shrug and beckoned her to accompany him.

  The sight of them together triggered irrational jealousy in Garret, and he quickly walked away. Once he’d chosen a place from which to watch the bridge, he made himself as comfortable as possible with his blanket over his shoulders and his back against a tree trunk.

  Tired as he was, he didn’t intend to be taken by surprise the next time someone approached, friend or enemy. Without the constant distraction of immediate danger—or of Artemis’s engaging, alluring and often frustrating company—he had plenty of time to think of what had happened, and what was yet to come.

  There had been too many delays in his search for Timon, and he blamed himself for that. If he’d been more alert, he and Artemis would never have been taken by Delos’s patrol. There would have been no questions from Daniel and no trap set for Artemis.

  But she also wouldn’t have seen, with her own eyes, what it could mean when Nightsiders and humans lived in harmony and produced children together...wanted children, raised with love.

  He rose abruptly, peering into the darkness toward the bridge, and swung the VS into firing position. Two figures came into view—a male and a female—their eyes catching the moon’s faint light like those of night-prowling cats.

  Freebloods, Garret thought, but coming from the north. Kronos’s followers. They continued to approach until they were a dozen yards away.

  “You watch well, human,” the male said. “Better than most of your breed.”

  “What do you want?” Garret asked, holding the rifle steady.

  “Why, only to more closely observe the human with whom Artemis seems so enamored,” the female said. “Kronos has many questions.”

  “You weren’t with him in Delos,” Garret said.

  The Nightsiders exchanged glances. “We were not taken prisoner with the others,” the male said.

  “Well, you’ll have plenty of time to satisfy your curiosity,” Garret said. “Artemis and I will be traveling with you.” He smiled. “Assuming you have no objections.”

  “Why should we?” The male’s gaze fell to the vicinity of Garret’s throat. “Are you not from one of the colonies where humans willingly donate their blood to their Opir allies?”

  Garret knew that look, and the intent behind the words. “Originally,” he said, “but we had a slight difference of opinion.”

  “Perhaps you would feel safer with company,” the female said, flashing her teeth. “The night holds many dangers for your breed.”

  “I’m fine. And I’m sure Kronos will appreciate your help in the hunt.”

  Nodding curtly, the male Freeblood made to pass by Garret. Garret turned to keep him in sight, but all at once the female came at him, attacking with superhuman strength and speed.

  Chapter 17

  Acting even before he could think, Garret reversed the rifle and swung at her. The butt struck her a glancing blow across the forehead, and she staggered. But the male was almost on him, and he had just enough time to turn the VS and jam the rifle’s muzzle into the Nightsider’s stomach.

  The male snarled at him, and the female bared her fangs as she recovered and lunged toward him again. All he had to do was pull the trigger.

  Kronos walked up behind the female and casually struck her across the neck. She gagged and fell, alive but disabled.

  “You disappoint me, Flavia,” Kronos said. He cast the male an icy glare. “Are you all right, Garret?”

  “In perfect health,” Garret said. “I assume you don’t want me to shoot this one?”

  “Xenophon has broken my law,�
� Kronos said. “It is your right to kill him, if you wish.”

  “Step back,” Garret said, pushing Xenophon with the rifle. The Nightsider backed away, glanced at Kronos and then ran.

  Garret let him go.

  “Your mercy does you credit,” Kronos said. He glanced down at the female. “I doubt that Flavia will give us any further trouble now that her companion is gone.”

  Garret lowered the rifle. “They meant to take my blood,” he said.

  “Yes. As I said, in attacking you they disregarded the rules I have laid down for my followers.” He nudged Flavia with the toe of his boot. “Get up,” he told her, “and join the others.”

  She scrambled to her feet and sprinted away.

  “Where’s Artemis?” Garret asked.

  “I had hoped that you and I might speak in private.”

  “About her?” Garret asked, tensing up again.

  Kronos strolled away, his hands clasped behind his back. “About what she and I have worked for and still hope to achieve.” He stopped to gaze at the bridge. “She told you of our relationship and my feigned death in Oceanus?”

  “She thought you were dead, but instead you abandoned her.”

  “Yes,” Kronos said, regret in his voice. “I did not learn she had been exiled for some time, and I was unable to search for her until recently.”

  “Recently? As in before you were captured by the colony patrol?”

  “Yes.” Kronos faced him again. “She had been a close companion for two centuries, devoted to our cause. She spoke of that, as well?”

  “She mentioned it.”

  “Ah.” Kronos’s eyes crinkled. “I confess that I do not fully understand the nature of your relationship with her. It does surprise me, however.”

  “That she could think well of a human?” Garret rested the VS against the tree and squatted beside it. “I picked up on your skepticism.”

  “She can be very loyal to those to whom she feels she owes a debt.”

  “Like the debt she owed you?”

  Kronos brushed a fallen leaf from his shoulder. “I like your directness, Mr. Fox,” he said, the formal address a kind of mockery. “I confess that I didn’t learn to view humans as much more than chattel until I left Oceanus and experienced more of the world as it is now.”

  “You were involved in the War, weren’t you?”

  “On the sidelines, like most of my rank.”

  “Was Artemis forced to fight?”

  “She didn’t tell you?”

  “I never asked.”

  “You do surprise me.” Kronos ran a long-fingered, almost delicate hand over his loose hair. “We were fighting for what we perceived as our very survival, but all we desire now is peace.” He nodded toward the rifle. “You do not seem so committed to peace, Mr. Fox. Neither did your fellow humans in Delos.”

  “You had something to say about Artemis?”

  Smiling ruefully, Kronos bent to pick up a branch fallen from a nearby tree. “She told you that I saved her life. The Bloodlord who attacked her in the early nineteenth century had no interest in converting her.”

  “Neither one of you went into hibernation in ancient times with the rest of the Opiri?”

  “No. And for most of the centuries until the Awakening of our kind, those of us who had remained active during the Long Sleep kept few servants and moved frequently. The Bloodlord had nearly drained her dry when I found her, healed her and converted her.”

  “Did she have children?”

  Kronos’s gaze was far away. “I believe she had a single child, and that it was given to a relative to raise.”

  “And you gave no more thought to it, or how she felt about it.”

  “As an Opiri, she could not have kept the child with her, nor remain with it.” He focused on Garret. “Why? Has she spoken of it?”

  “No,” Garret said, concealing both his anger and his pity.

  “Her old life came to an end, and I took her with me on my travels,” Kronos said. “I came to see how remarkable and intelligent she was. She was my constant, loyal companion.”

  “But you didn’t free her from vassalage.”

  “She would have been at far greater risk as a Freeblood. So many vassals and Freebloods died during the beginning of the War that Bloodlords and Bloodmasters began converting large numbers of humans to replenish our ranks of fighters. After the Citadels were founded, it was soon apparent that there were insufficient resources to accommodate all the Freebloods who did survive.”

  “Not enough serfs, you mean,” Garret said.

  “Even when the Armistice called for the human Enclaves to send their lawbreakers to serve in the Citadels, the majority was claimed by the elite. The number of public serfs available to provide blood to the lower-ranked diminished, as well. I saw that the life awaiting Artemis—a life of constant conflict, fighting her way to the position of a Bloodlady of property or dying in battle—was not worthy of her.”

  “And why would you, one of the elite yourself, feel concern for Opiri your kind consider little better than serfs?”

  “I came to realize that our treatment of Freebloods was a rot within the Citadels, a barbarity that had to be changed if we were to survive as a race. That was when I freed Artemis and we began to work together to encourage those changes.”

  “It obviously didn’t work out quite as you expected.”

  The stick in Kronos’s hands snapped with a loud crack. “Change requires sacrifice, Mr. Fox, and can only be accomplished in small steps if it is to last. I spoke out on behalf of the Freebloods. I suggested that it would soon become necessary to redistribute our resources more equitably. I was blamed for fomenting rebellion among them.”

  “So the leaders of Oceanus arranged your death?”

  “I was challenged again and again in rapid succession, as my enemies attempted to wear me down and eventually kill me. Fortunately, I had allies who were able to help me feign my death and get me out of Oceanus. I had hoped that Artemis, with her bravery and skill, could carry on with my work.”

  “Even though you must have known her life would be in constant danger.”

  “You underestimate her strength.”

  “That’s the last thing I would do.”

  “Has she taken your blood?”

  The question was both unexpected and intrusive, as if Kronos were asking for the intimate details of his and Artemis’s lovemaking. “How is that any of your business?”

  “Because she was fully committed to ending the traditional consumption of human blood.”

  “She never expected that to work in the Citadels,” Garret said.

  “We had been discussing that very problem when I was challenged,” Kronos said. “I know that she wished to set an example for her people. Now that she is outside the Citadel, any violation of her principles would arouse great conflict within her.”

  That, Garret knew all too well. “She’s not taking my blood now,” he said shortly.

  “I am glad to hear it. We would not want further misunderstandings between you, Artemis and my disciples if we are to travel together. They are forbidden from taking human blood as long as they follow me, but Flavia and Xenophon were provoked by the belief that Artemis had sole access to you.”

  “You can tell them they’re wrong.”

  “Yet my followers will continue to see you and Artemis in close contact.”

  “They’ll have to get used to it.”

  “You seem to be losing your temper, Mr. Fox. Is it possible that you have something to prove, not only to Artemis or to me, but to yourself? Do you wish to possess her, perhaps to display your ability to control one of my kind? Or can it be possible that you actually believe you love her?”

  “I’m damned sure that you don’t feel a
nything like that for her.”

  “You are dodging the question. Of course you must realize that Artemis cannot return your feelings, but she is committed to standing by you for the time being, and she will constantly feel obligated to protect you from any of our people who express the slightest hostility toward you.” Kronos plucked a dangling yellow leaf from a branch overhead. “You will be prepared to do the same for her, but though you have an abundance of courage, you lack our strength and speed.”

  “She’ll let me know if it becomes a problem. I trust her judgment, or we wouldn’t be here now.”

  “Perhaps that is true, Mr. Fox. You are not totally lacking in experience with Opiri females.”

  Garret felt for the rifle and stopped, clenching his fist. “What are you talking about?”

  “Believe me when I tell you that I do regret the loss of your wife.”

  “Artemis told you?”

  “There are other ways of learning such things, especially when you have my connections.”

  Making certain that the VS remained within easy reach, Garret got to his feet. “Do you know who killed my wife?”

  “Not at all. But her work to aid human serfs was known even outside Erebus, and with so many rogues running wild, rumors spread. It is no small matter to take the life of a Bloodlady of her status.”

  Garret began to shake. “If I ever find out that you know anything about this...”

  “Your threats do not impress me, Mr. Fox. But I assure you that I will inform you if I hear anything at all.” Kronos looked to the north. “I only ask you to remember that such relationships between Opiri and humans are by nature both complex and dangerous. And where Artemis is concerned, you have not faced the final test. Her true devotion is to her people. Will you stand in her way when she does what she must?”

  Before Garret could answer, Artemis arrived, a brace of rabbits slung over her shoulder. She looked from Garret to the Bloodlord with an arch of her brow that conveyed worry more eloquently than any direct inquiry.

  “I have brought you dinner, Garret,” she said. “I hope I am not interrupting.”

  “We have had a most illuminating discussion,” Kronos said. “But now I will leave you to your meal.”