by Bianca D'Arc
Jana scrunched her eyes shut. As if that would help. “Sometimes,” she admitted in a broken whisper.
It was her deepest fear exposed—that somehow she would be sucked back into the collective. She would rather die than let that happen. The fact that she could still hear them murmuring in the back of her mind, no matter how hard she tried to block them out, petrified her.
“That’s why you turn on the reflective field when you’re in here,” Darak said quietly, figuring out why she hid away whenever she could.
“It’s the only thing that shuts them out completely.” She decided to just come clean. He had to know that she was the weak link on the Circe. If anything happened… “Promise me one thing.”
“Anything.” Darak’s quick response lifted her heart a tiny bit.
“Don’t let them take me again. If they try…” She trailed off, unable to put her fears into words.
“It won’t come to that.” Darak moved closer and took her into his arms. His embrace offered comfort, and she took it gladly.
“But if it does…”
“I won’t ever let them take you again,” Darak swore it like an oath, and she believed him.
CHAPTER EIGHT
After the change of course, the mood on the ship changed, too. For one thing, the pleasure cruise feel of the voyage took on a much more serious tenor. For another, Jana was put through her paces by Agnor, under Darak’s supervision. She was given the first test of her Talent, and Agnor assessed her at Mage level.
It was quite a coup, as she came to understand things. Apparently, nobody passed first test at Mage level unless they were particularly gifted in specialized areas. In such cases, the Talents almost always turned out to be Specitars at their first rank assessment and excelled only in one or two main areas.
But Jana didn’t have any of the limitations associated with most Specitars. She did seem to have more proficiency in healing and telekinesis, but she also had moderate telepathy, though it was untrained, and a few other skills. Each day, she spent a few hours with Agnor and Darak—mostly together, though, at times, only one of them would act as her teacher for the day. They trained her relentlessly in the use of her Talent, and little by little, she began to gain skills.
It also became easier for her to use and focus her Talent. There had been pain associated with using it while she was healing, but it seemed she had healed fully now and was able to use her Talent again without fear.
She stayed away from some of the more sexual situations on the ship, opting instead to spend a lot of time alone in her room. The reflective field she invariably put on when she was in there was a blessing. It cut off the murmuring of the collective, which seemed to be getting louder, the farther away they got from Geneth Mar.
Or maybe that was just her imagination. She didn’t mention it to Darak or Agnor. They were already watching her a little too closely. She was either in her cabin or in training with one or both of them. In between, she took her turn on bridge watch.
They also spent a bit of time trying to figure out what effect the blue crystals had on her Talent. Agnor had already done some diagnostic tests and come to a few conclusions. The three of them were sharing a meal while they discussed his theories.
“I think it was Jana’s strong healing Talent that caused the crystals to fuse to her skin,” he said, startling her with the radical idea. Darak nodded, seeming to agree. “Her Talent flowed through the crystal, and the collective’s power flowed back toward her from it, as near as I can tell. I think it was the fact that her Talent was so closely linked to the crystal—was being siphoned off by her close proximity to the crystal—that when it hit her body, her natural defenses thought the crystals were part of her. It carried her energy, so her body decided it was part of her body and incorporated it into her skin when her Talent for healing flared out of control in those first few moments after the crystal shattered.”
“But I almost died. If my healing Talent kicked in, wouldn’t it have healed me completely?” Jana wanted to know.
“Your Talent was untrained, Jana,” Darak reminded her. “When Jeri brought you to the Crice, most of the shards of crystal had already fused into your skin. I couldn’t get them out without causing more damage, but you were bleeding from so many places, they were the least of my concerns. And then, when there was time to consider removing the shards, they were already so deeply embedded it would have hurt you much more to remove them than to just let them be, for now.”
She knew it went without saying that, at some point, if the crystal shards proved to be a problem, they’d have to consider cutting them out of her body. It wouldn’t be pretty, and it could kill her, but if the collective could control her through the shards, she would be better off dead, anyway. There were still a lot of unresolved questions around those blue sparklies in her skin.
“It makes sense that, if your healing Talent flared between the time you were impacted by the shards from the control crystal and the time Jeri got to you and brought you back to the Circe, it would have resulted in an imperfect healing. It fused the chunks of crystal into your body, as if they had always been a part of it, but because it was an uncontrolled burst, it didn’t do much more than that,” Agnor explained his theory further.
They had many such conversations in the days that followed as they made their way to the planet she had once decimated. Trini spent more time on the bridge as they approached her home planet. Her excitement to see Liata again was obvious, whereas Jana’s dread was something she tried to keep hidden.
When they finally made orbit around Liata, Jana could put off the confrontation no longer. She knew it was cowardly, but she really didn’t want to go down to the planet and see the scars of the devastation she had wrought.
But, as Darak had reminded her several times, the message from her sister had been addressed directly to both himself and Jana. She had been more or less ordered by one of the highest-ranking Talents in the universe to revisit Liata. Even though Jeri was her sister, the directive to go down to the planet could not be ignored.
And so it was that Jana stood next to Darak, ready to be translocated down to the surface. It was just the two of them. Trini had left hours before—when they first made orbit—eager to see her family. Jana, by contrast, had spent the time hiding in her room, dreading the moment Darak would request her presence. Thankfully, they had to wait a few hours, for the planet’s rotation to bring daytime in the region where their contact was located.
They had a name and a location, but not much else regarding the mysterious Zane they had been told to meet. Jana assumed Zane was male, but really, this Zane could be anyone.
Darak had greeted her with a smile when she finally dragged herself to the bridge. They would depart from there, leaving Agnor in charge of the Circe. Jana faced the viewscreen that showed one of the deep scars her armada had left on the planet below. Her gaze was glued to the visible evidence of destruction, her mind reeling with the undeniable proof of what she had done.
“Hey.” Darak’s deep voice sounded quietly near her ear. “It’ll be all right.”
Too late she remembered his empathy. She had no doubt that he was picking up on her emotions at seeing Liata for the first time as a free woman.
“I don’t want to go down there,” she admitted, feeling shaky.
“I know,” he crooned, in a tone one might use to soothe a frightened horse. “But I’ll be with you. Trust that Jeri wanted you down there for a reason. She’s a Sha now. She sees things that we mere Mages cannot fully understand.”
She looked up at him and gave him a lopsided smile. “You’re a Master.”
It was as if flames reached out and licked her from his gaze. “Glad you realize it.”
And, suddenly, she knew they weren’t talking about Talent, anymore. They’d roamed into uncomfortable territory, just like that.
“Shall we get this over with?” It seemed easier to get going, rather than deal with Darak’s unpredictable mood.
Darak gave her a formal half-bow and then turned to nod at Agnor. A second later, she was looking at the blue-green surface of Liata.
* * *
Zane was most definitely male. And he was only half Liatan, or so the pale indigo of his skin seemed to indicate. He was definitely part pink and part blue, which made for a stunning purple sheen to his skin that intrigued Jana on some basic level she didn’t care to examine too closely.
Darak seemed to get along well with the other man. They had greeted each other with wary suspicion, at first, but over the past few minutes, they had been talking, each seemed to relax by small fractions as basic information was shared and evaluated. They were rapidly building a rapport while Jana watched, intrigued.
She didn’t have those kinds of interpersonal skills. In the collective, one simply followed orders. She had never had to think independently about whether or not to trust someone. In the rare moments her own mind was free, she had been too frightened to do much more than just keep it together, without screaming herself hoarse.
As a result, Jana’s social skills were next to nil. She had been learning since being freed, but this kind of interaction was well beyond her. She still wasn’t sure why Jeri had insisted Jana go down to the planet, but she had to trust that her little sister had a good reason.
Darak and Zane were both built on the large scale Jana associated with warriors. Both were muscular and both moved with smooth, controlled motions. Darak’s physique held her rapt attention, but she could appreciate Zane’s form, as well. From a purely aesthetic viewpoint, she assured herself.
“You are the Star Killer,” Zane surprised her by saying as he finally spoke to her directly.
“The what?” Jana was nonplussed by the title she’d never heard before.
“Jana Star Killer. Your exploits are well known among Wizards. You destroyed Plectar’s second sun.”
“I did what?” Jana had no true recollection of her years in slavery to the collective, but some of the words Zane spoke brought back fragments of images to her confused mind.
“We heard about Plectar on Geneth Mar,” Darak said, standing quietly at her side. “The binary star system was failing, and the second sun would have destroyed all life in its solar system. We’d heard the collective had solved the problem, but we didn’t know exactly how. Nobody has destroyed a sun before. It was thought impossible, though there seemed to be no other explanation for what happened there.”
“I was there,” Zane stated. “My mother is Plectaran. I was visiting her family, trying to figure out how to get them away when the armada arrived. We watched from the surface as best we could, while the Star Killer organized an effort the likes of which I may never see again. She and her twenty ships did a job no one thought possible.” Zane looked at her with something like awe. “We still don’t know exactly how you did it, but the results were undeniable. Within a week, the planet and all its people had been saved. Plectar went from a desert world to something a lot more comfortable. The changes are still ongoing, even after a decade of work, but the people are prospering as never before. My mother’s family, and all those on Plectar, sing praises to the Star Killer.”
Zane floored her by bowing his head. Jana didn’t know what to do. She looked at Darak for guidance, but he merely shrugged. She looked at him again, more emphatically, and he seemed to finally understand that she had no idea how to deal with something like this.
“Does that mean you’ll help us?” Darak stepped in, saving her from having to respond to Zane’s outrageous story. “Where do your loyalties lie, Zane?”
She didn’t really remember any of it, though vague memories were stirring in the back of her mind. It was as if Zane’s words had conjured up images of her past life that even she hadn’t known had been in her mind.
Zane straightened from his bow. “I was raised on Liata. I am a Council soldier. My loyalty is to the Council, but my heart lies with the Plectarans, also. I’ve heard their tales of the Wizards Tithe, and I’ve seen the way their world is controlled by the collective. If I had been raised there, I would have been part of the Tithe—given to the collective because of my Talent. I am ranked Dominar.”
Darak nodded in understanding. “I see.”
“No, you don’t. Not fully.” Zane smiled to soften his words, focusing on Darak. “For all the evil of the collective and the way they subjugate weaker minds, they also do good things from time to time. Saving everyone on Plectar was probably the greatest thing the collective has ever done.” Zane’s violet gaze shifted back to Jana as if expecting her to say something.
“I don’t remember it,” she admitted finally. “I’m sorry.”
But Zane’s reaction was unexpected. He stepped closer to her and took her hands in his.
“I know you were under their control, and for that, I am sorry. But, even within the collective, I have seen instances of free will being expressed. I believe the masters allow it when it is for the good of the collective. Everyone on Plectar remembers you, Jana. You were the voice and the face of the collective during that time. And you were also acting independent of their orders on several memorable occasions, to save lives that they would have sacrificed. We all knew it. And we all knew you would face punishment for what you did to save our people. After the second sun was destroyed, you were recalled, and nobody saw you for months. When you returned to duty, it was clear your memories had been altered. Plectaran agents were watching you from within your army, looking for ways to help you. Plectarans remember.”
He squeezed her hands and then stepped back, releasing her. The moment was tense, but she had to be honest.
“I wish I did,” she finally said, giving in to the gallows humor that seemed to be her new companion since being freed of the collective.
Zane smiled sadly. “It’s all right, milady. We will remember for you, until you reassemble your past—if you are ever able to deal with it all.” Zane reached into his pocket and pulled out a data crystal. “This is for you.” He handed her the small crystal, much to her surprise. “It is everything the Plectaran underground has on your past history, including detailed reports from within the army that you led.”
“But how?” Darak asked, clearly surprised by the turn of events.
Zane grinned at him. “Not every soldier in the collective’s massive army is Talented. Most are conscripted from worlds under the collective’s rule. Plectar, in particular, is known for its warriors. Many are taken into the collective’s army each season. In fact, they are also part of the Tithe. All Talents and as many warriors who want adventure in the stars. They try to watch out for the Plectarian Talents who get sucked into the collective, but it’s mostly a lost cause.”
“I had no idea,” Darak admitted. “But it makes a lot of sense. I’m glad to know that at least one planet that is subject to the collective tries to look out for its people.”
“They try,” Zane agreed. “But it’s not often they can do much for the Talented children who have been taken in the Tithe.” Zane shook his head. “The one small comfort they can offer the families is to give them occasional updates on where their children are and what they’re doing. The warriors keep up a sophisticated network through which information flows back to Plectar about their missing citizens. And they’ve been doing it for many years.”
“And you’re plugged in to this network?” Darak asked.
“Not completely. I was raised here. I’m only half-Plectaran, though I have made contacts there through my mother’s family. In this instance, they reached out to me.” Zane pulled another data crystal out of his pocket and handed it to Darak. “This is why you were summoned here. It is a dossier on the man we believe ordered the attack on Liata. His name is Kol, and he is
a native of Liata who left to join the collective of his own free will.”
Jana cursed. She had been fighting memories of a blue man for most of her recovery, but had comforted herself with the thought that no Liatan—for they were the only blue-skinned race in the stars—would ever be part of the collective on such a high level. It seemed she had been wrong. Her memories started to coalesce around the blue man, and she had a sudden, horrific knowledge of who and what he was.
“He is not merely another member of the collective,” she spat. “He is one of the masters. He is part of the Voice.”
Zane looked at her with compassion in his violet eyes. “He tested at Mage Master before he left Liata many years ago. It was thought that he would probably rank as high as Vizier some day with his level of raw Talent.”
“It makes sense. The collective would probably have the strongest minds on top of the power structure,” Darak reasoned.
But Jana was beyond reason. “He is evil,” she whispered, remembering Kol’s leering blue face above her…as he raped her. Repeatedly. Many times. Over several years.
It all came back to her in a rush, and she staggered. Darak and Zane both reached out to steady her, but she flinched at their touch.
One didn’t have to be empathic to realize Jana was hurting. As it was Darak’s empathy flared to life as she became more and more distressed. The way she’d rejected his touch hurt him, but her feelings were more important, right now.
Darak looked at Zane accusingly.
“I’m sorry,” Zane said. “I’d heard she may have worked for him, but nobody knew for sure. Kol is very secretive. It’s hard to observe him, even for the most highly placed of the Plectaran spies.”
“I think I understand,” Darak said as comprehension dawned. If Kol was one of the masters who had worked closely with Jana, he was most likely one who had brutalized her, as well. “Is there anything else?” he asked Zane impatiently.