by Неизвестный
After dressing in the clothing she’d worn here, she went out to the pile of wood chips to retrieve the knapsack. When she began to dig, she found the carry bag was gone.
Frantically, she dug in other parts of the loose pile of chips, but as far as she could tell, the spoils of her robbery had vanished.
Great Mother. What had happened?
She couldn’t imagine how the items had disappeared, but she knew she had to make other plans. She couldn’t go back to the house of the people where she’d stolen the objects. Not in broad daylight. Not when someone could see her.
Talon was gone. She could wait until dark, but now that she had made up her mind to leave, she felt an overwhelming need to return through the portal.
Was that her own will? Or was Vandar calling her?
She had no way of knowing.
With a tight feeling in her chest, she went back into Talon’s lodge. She had tried to avoid stealing from him. Now she gathered up some of the same things she’d taken from the other house. Nothing valuable, she reminded herself. Ordinary items that would interest Vandar.
Simply saying his name made a wave of sickness rise in her throat. If she could have run from him, she would have. But the compulsions in her head limited her choices. She had to go back and face whatever happened.
After taking a few things from the lodge and putting them into another carry bag, she walked rapidly into the woods again, going back to the place she had avoided since her arrival: the portal. Perhaps she was heading for her own destruction, but she hardly cared.
With a feeling of resignation, she pressed her hand against the trigger point that mirrored the one on the other side.
When she touched the cold rock, she felt a vibration under her palm. As the solid surface thinned in front of her, she felt her heart leap into her throat. Even though she’d been through it and was prepared, she wanted to turn and run. Instead, she stepped back into her universe.
SHE was gone. One moment Ramsay Gallagher had sensed the woman—somewhere far away. In the eastern part of the United States, he thought. He’d decided to travel east and try to find her. Now that was impossible.
Thinking he might be wrong, he put on a burst of energy, trying to reestablish the connection. But he knew it was no good. She simply wasn’t there anymore.
Was she dead?
It felt like her consciousness had winked out of existence. Like she’d been shot in the heart, and her life had snuffed out.
Should he be relieved?
Or alarmed?
It was a long time since he had been so uncertain, and he didn’t like the feeling.
KENNA took a deep breath and let it out. Now the air on her own side of the portal smelled strange, and the landscape made her chest tighten.
She had been living among beautiful, natural surroundings. The gray landscape here was like a jolt of horror.
Six of Vandar’s men were waiting for her. As soon as she stepped out of the cave that hid the portal, they surrounded her.
Three were guards, and three were the adepts who had brought her to this place.
All of them kept their distance from her, as though she might have some power that could harm them. Or maybe they thought she had picked up some disease from the other world, and she would contaminate them.
“You’re back,” Wendon said, looking her up and down with a critical eye.
She answered with a tight nod. Had he thought she could escape? Had he been assessing his own chances to break free from their master?
“Vandar wants to see you right away.”
“Yes.” She had come back because she was compelled to do it. Did he know she’d tried to break away?
If so, would she survive the meeting with her master?
Trying to keep her fear from showing, she said a silent prayer in her head as they marched her over the burnt ground to the cave.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
KENNA’S HEART WAS pounding so wildly that she was surprised it didn’t break through the wall of her chest. Struggling to keep her expression composed, she entered the great cave that housed Vandar and his slaves.
As she walked down the corridors, people glanced at her, then quickly away, and she wondered what they’d been whispering about her. Did they know where she’d gone? Or did they just know Vandar had sent for her, and maybe she was going to be his next meal?
That might still be true. She had no way of knowing. She shuddered, then tried to make her mind blank as she followed Wendon toward the master’s private quarters.
Her terror flared when they stopped at the door of his lair.
“Come in,” a harsh voice called in answer to the adept’s knock.
As he had done before, Wendon opened the door and pushed Kenna inside, then closed the barrier behind her, trapping her.
All at once she was facing Vandar, struggling to catch her breath.
In his guise as a handsome man, the master was sitting in the same easy chair, staring at her.
For a long moment he simply sat where he was, his dark eyes glittering as he looked her up and down, making her want to turn and run. But she knew that route was folly. He had superhuman speed, and he could grab her before she reached the door.
“I’ve lived among humans for a long time,” he said, and she was surprised by the words, because she hadn’t expected him to speak about himself. “A man and a woman found me abandoned on a mountainside. A small boy wandering through the scrubby vegetation, crying.”
She wanted to ask why he was telling her his story, but she knew that if he wanted to, he would explain.
“I had no memories of my own people. And no hint of what I might become. The year their crops failed and they had nothing to eat, they sold me to a neighbor who wanted a slave. My new master, a man named Halendor, worked me to exhaustion and beat me so badly I could barely do the backbreaking labor he expected. But one day, I lashed out in anger with my mind and he fell to the ground, convulsing in pain. Do you think that was fair?” he asked.
She tried to swallow, but her mouth was too dry to speak.
“You tried to break away from me.”
When she still said nothing, he continued, “Tell me why I shouldn’t kill you.”
She raised her chin and found enough moisture to answer. “Because I know more about the world on the other side of the portal than anyone else. And if you want the information, you need me.”
A smile flickered at the corners of his lips. “Well said. You have spirit.”
She waited for him to ask a question; instead, he stood and glided toward her in a way that was so nonhuman.
Despite her resolve, she backed away. Then, suddenly, she was unable to take another step, as Vandar clamped his hand over her shoulder. As he held her in place, his other hand rose and pressed against her forehead.
She felt a jolt of pain, like the jolt when she had tried to tell Talon the truth about herself. The pain resolved into a sucking sensation, as though everything she knew was being pulled out of her brain.
“Don’t,” she whispered.
The terrible process went on and on, dragging the life out of her. Then, in blessed relief, the world went black.
“GOOD meal. I didn’t think you could make a decent stew from a package of dehydrated ingredients.”
“Technology is amazing,” Talon told one of the five men who had hired him to take them down the Clarion River from Ridgway to Cooksburg, a forty-five-mile stretch of easy-to-navigate water. It wasn’t a remote area. Several bridges crossed the river that had once been in danger of dying. Fortunately, careful management had brought the waterway back. Now he was gratified to see all kinds of wildlife. He’d pointed out warblers, ducks, and geese, and even an osprey and two eagles. And they’d also seen a mother raccoon with two youngsters, wading in the shallows looking for food.
The night before, they’d eaten fish they’d caught. Today Talon had seen the men were tired after a long day of paddling, so he’d gone for a quicker
option for tonight’s dinner.
Ed Bangle finished washing the dishes. Peter Welsh crawled into his dome tent and brought out his dopp kit, then headed for the place where Talon had set out a container of purified water.
Welsh and James Fitzgerald had taken canoe trips before. Bangle, Trent Dalton, and Jake Presley were all newcomers to the sport. But they were taking to it with enthusiasm.
“We want to get an early start,” Talon advised as he checked the stove.
“I guess we should turn in,” Dalton said. “I’m beat.”
The others agreed.
Talon crawled into his own tent, listening to the sounds of the men getting ready for bed.
When the camp had settled down, he climbed out and stretched, looking at the darkened silhouettes of the other tents. Standing in the quiet of the night, he listened to the familiar sounds of the forest. The insects. The animals who were drawn by the smell of food. But none of them had invaded the campsite.
Talon was doing his job, but his heart wasn’t in the trip. He hoped he was giving this group of men the experience they deserved, the experience they’d paid for.
He couldn’t be sure because he was functioning on automatic pilot. Half his mind was on Kenna. No, more than half.
He’d been angry when he left, and putting some distance between them had seemed like an excellent idea. Now that he could think more clearly, he knew he should have made sure she was safe before he walked out. And he should have given her his cell phone number, in case anything happened at the lodge.
Or would she even be there when he got back? When he considered the possibility that she might have walked away while he was gone, he had trouble breathing, and he admitted what he’d known for days. He had bonded with her.
With a woman he couldn’t trust!
Because she had secrets she was afraid to reveal. Or couldn’t reveal. He wasn’t even sure which was true.
He clenched his fists, fighting the impulse to tell the guys he had to cut the trip short. That there was an emergency at home.
But he couldn’t do it, not when he prided himself on giving his clients more than they’d paid for. And cutting the trip short wasn’t that easy. There weren’t that many road-accessible places to put boats into the water and take them out again. He’d arranged to have his van driven to Cooksburg. If they got off the river early, there would be no transportation for them.
But should he do it anyway?
Cursing under his breath, he slipped into the woods thinking he could change to wolf form and run off his frustration. He stopped when he was only a few yards from the campsite. The safety of these men was his responsibility, and he couldn’t just disappear into the night.
Too bad he couldn’t free himself from the agony coursing through his veins.
“Damn you,” he muttered, speaking to Kenna, because she was the source of his misery.
He had made love with her, and it had been different from his experience with any other woman.
More intense. More emotion-charged.
He’d been sure it had changed everything between them. Then the disappointment of discovering she still didn’t trust him had been like a knife plunged into his heart. So he’d fled. Now that he was alone, he knew he couldn’t run away from her. Instead he had to transform the terms of their relationship. Because there was no question about it. He had to make her trust him, or he was doomed to a life of agony.
SOME time later, Kenna woke. She was lying on a narrow bed, not in her old dormitory, but in the room where she had lived while she was being trained for her mission.
As she remembered the moments before she’d blacked out, she shuddered.
“You’re awake.”
She focused on the speaker, a woman she had seen around the compound who sat on a chair in the corner.
“He wants to speak to you again.”
“Can you give me a few minutes?” she asked, struggling for calm.
Instead of answering, the woman exited the room.
Kenna’s chest tightened. She didn’t want to be anywhere near Vandar, but at least she was still alive. That must mean something.
When she pushed herself up, she had to fight a wave of dizziness. But the pressure inside her bladder made her climb out of bed and stagger across the sleeping chamber to what passed as a bathroom in the cave. There was a kind of toilet with a collection pot underneath. She used it and grimaced as she thought how primitive it was, compared to the other universe. Well, she’d better get used to it, because this was her world again.
Feeling grimy, she glanced toward the door, then took off her clothes and washed quickly, using a cloth and the bowl of cool water on the washstand. A change of clothes hung on a rack at one side of the room, similar to what she’d just taken off.
Her brow wrinkled. Why was she supposed to dress like a woman from the other world?
At least she didn’t have to put on her slave’s white tunic—yet.
After pulling on her clothes, she slicked back her hair and inspected herself. There were dark circles under her eyes, and her skin looked pasty.
When the door opened, she tensed, expecting Vandar to walk in, but it was only her guard, returning with a covered tray. “You must eat.”
As the woman spoke, Kenna’s stomach growled, and she realized she was starving. “How long have I been sleeping?” she asked.
“Three days.”
Kenna tried to absorb the information. Three days! That seemed impossible, but she assumed the woman wasn’t lying to her. What would be the point?
The guard set down the tray on the table across from the bed. When Kenna pulled off the cover, she found roast chicken, some cooked vegetables, and a mug of water. Because she knew the woman was watching her, she tried to eat slowly. But once she started, it was almost impossible not to gobble the food—not that she tasted much of anything as she ate.
When she finished, she wiped her mouth with the cloth.
“Come with me,” the guard said.
With no other option, she stood and followed her escort out of the room. She thought she was going back to Vandar’s private residence.
Instead, they walked into another part of the cave. As she stepped through a doorway, she gasped, feeling a wave of sadness and wonder. She was standing in Talon’s kitchen.
“How?” she whispered as she hurried toward the counter. As she approached the stove, she realized that it wasn’t real. It looked like the appliance she remembered, but on closer inspection, it seemed to be a wooden box with painted controls and burners.
There was a drawer next to the stove, and she pulled it open to find knives, forks, and spoons. When she picked them up, they felt real.
In the cabinet underneath were pots and pans but not exactly like Talon’s. Above the counter were plates, cups, and bowls, similar to his.
Moving to her right, she came to the sink. When she turned the faucet, no water came out. The refrigerator was similar. Although the door did open, the interior was not cold. And the “food” on the shelves was only a representation of the expected packages.
Taking out a loaf of bread, Kenna held it up to the light and saw that it was made of some kind of composite that she guessed wasn’t even edible. She had just put it back when she heard a noise behind her. She whirled around.
Vandar was standing in the doorway, dressed like a man from the other universe: he wore jeans, a button-down shirt, and running shoes. Although she wanted to cringe and turn away, she straightened her shoulders.
He tipped his head to the side, studying her. “You’re looking well.”
“Thank you.”
“What is this place?” he asked.
“The kitchen in Talon Marshall’s lodge.” She pressed her hands to her sides, then said, “If you don’t know what it is, how did you build it?”
“From your memories. I know it’s his kitchen. I want you to tell me about it.”
She dragged in a breath as she remembered the terrible s
ucking sensation before she’d blacked out. He had dragged this picture from out of her. Not just a picture. It was more like . . . She thought for a moment and came up with the words: “stage set.” And workmen must have scrambled feverishly to construct it.
Before she could think more about it, he went back to asking questions.
“What is a lodge?”
She struggled to put the word into context. “It’s like a house, but bigger. He has a lot of spare bedrooms because he has guests,” she answered, thinking that he had gone off on an expedition without the guests assembling at his headquarters.
Had her presence altered his behavior?
Before she could ponder any more about Talon, Vandar made another demand. “Tell me the functions of the furnishings of this room.”
She looking around. “Everything?”
“Yes.”
As she thought about the daunting task, he crossed to the sink and pulled the lever up, then pointed to the spigot. “Water comes out of here?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“There are pipes under the sink. They bring the water. I don’t know where it comes from.”
“I suppose not. Long ago there was something like that in this universe. In the houses of the rich.”
“There was?”
“Yes. And toilets that flushed. Like the ones at Talon Marshall’s house.”
She nodded, wanting to ask about the past of her own world but knowing that Vandar wasn’t here to give her information. Instead, she went around the kitchen showing him the various appliances and smaller things like the packages of food and cans of soup.
She fumbled to explain the microwave. And the dishwasher.
Finally, Vandar waved a hand to cut her off. “I wanted to see the kitchen for myself. As I thought, the other universe is a better place to live. Much more comfortable, with all sorts of conveniences like running water, central heat, and air-conditioning.”
He continued, sounding like he was speaking to himself, not her. “And the population will be completely unprepared for anyone like me.”