by Unknown
The lightning could easily have been a trick, but he knew of no way he could have pulled off that vanishing act. Creating the smoke would have been no problem, but he'd seen a vid of the spot where the man had stood, and he agreed with the man on the scene that there was no way the troublemaker could have disappeared as their witness had described.
Still, he knew that the drug wasn't perfect, even though it was close to that. Their captured witness could have seen what he wanted to see. The very fact that he'd been drawn there by rumors of a Warlock suggested that he expected to find one.
Miklos cast another glance at Jalissa Kendor as she turned her attention to the galactic news on the vid. His mind spun back to that time he'd first encountered her, then fast-forwarded to their meeting with the Torondis.
Miklos had spent enough time with Whisperers over the years to be very familiar with how they worked. He'd even seen the famous Petrov, supposedly their best until Jalissa came along. But there was something different about the way she worked. He'd been almost literally spellbound watching her.
He knew that Whisperers employed every trick in the book to disarm their subjects psychologically: body language, tone of voice, eye contact. He'd learned those tricks too, as part of his own training. But there was something beyond all that with Jalissa Kendor, though he couldn't say what it was.
And then there was the matter of the Torondis' reaction to her. He knew them well enough to know that what he'd seen wasn't normal for them. They were suspicious of strangers and they treated their women as little better than property. Not even a Federation uniform impressed them when it was worn by a woman.
Part of it could simply have been her talents as a Whisperer, but Miklos was unwilling to ascribe it all to that.
He continued to stare at her as she watched the news. Dark tales of Coven magic whispered through his memory, stirring up that fear he'd spoken of. But he was a man of science, and rumors notwithstanding, he didn't believe in the existence of the Coven.
What he did believe, though, was that Jalissa Kendor was rapidly becoming a very unwise obsession for him.
The snake was huge as it reared up on the forepart of its scaly body. Jalissa knew she couldn't outrun it. Any minute now, it would overtake her in the noxious swamp and grab her with its curved yellow fangs!
But even in her mind-numbing panic, it seemed to her that there was something she could do to save herself. What was it? What was she forgetting? It was there, tickling her memory but refusing to come forth.
She continued to run through the mucky swamp, but her legs kept getting tangled up in something, slowing her down. Surely the snake must be nearly upon her now! And then she heard a voice, calling her name! Miklos! Was he trapped too?
''Jalissa! Wake up! You're safe here."
Her eyelids seemed to be glued together. She could hear strange whimpers. Were they coming from her? Her heart was pounding so noisily in her chest that she thought it would burst.
"Jalissa! Wake up!"
Something touched her, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her gently. At first, still half-caught in the nightmare, she fought it, lashing out with her fist. But instead of encountering the snake's scaly body, she connected with hard, smooth skin and thick hair.
Her eyes flew open just as he cried out in pain, and a moment later, both her hands were imprisoned in one of his as he bent over her. The nightmare snake slithered away and reality washed over her, bringing with it a sharp awareness of him.
He was nearly naked, his bronzed body so close to her that she could feel its heat and see reflected in the low light of the cabin the curling golden hairs on his chest.
Even though he surely knew that she was awake now, he continued to hold her hands imprisoned above her head as he stared at her, his eyes dark in the dim light. The moment spun out into a seeming eternity. His gaze shifted to the wildly beating pulse point at the base of her throat, then back to her eyes once again. Very slowly, he started to lower his face to hers. Her lips parted, anticipating his kissand wanting it.
Then he released her and abruptly moved away from her. A small cry of protest died away in her throat as the moment moved beyond reach, leaving in its wake the aching emptiness of denial.
"You were having a nightmare," he stated unnecessarily.
She nodded, hating the tension that now filled a space occupied only seconds ago with a desire more powerful than anything she could have imagined.
"I'm sorry I woke you," she said with an attempt at polite formality in the midst of this intimate scene. Then, when she saw him rub his temple, she remembered striking out at him and apologized.
His mouth twitched with amusement. "I hope you were still fighting the snake when you did it."
She nodded, then shuddered as she recaptured the dream. "I was running through the swamp and I knew it was going to catch me. I kept thinking there was something I could do to save myself, but I couldn't re . . ."
Her voice trailed off as she realized what it was that her dream-self had forgotten. Of course! She could have 'ported her way out of danger! She frowned, realizing that the dream had a parallel in reality: that time on Temok when she'd almost been killed because she'd forgotten that she possessed the magic to save herself.
Then she realized that he was watching her, waiting for her to continue. She managed to smile at him. "I should have accepted your suggestion to use a sleep-drug."
"No harm done," he said, standing up and revealing all of his long, lean body, except for the part hidden by a pair of dark briefs. She averted her gaze quicklybut not before she saw what it had cost him to stop. And then she wondered why he had stopped.
"Maybe I'll take something now," she said, pushing off the tangled covers and getting out of bed. If she didn't, she was certain that the snake would be replaced by a very different kind of torment.
"Good idea," he said, his gaze passing slowly over her lightly clad body and then coming to rest on the crystal that nestled between her breasts.
He stepped aside for her to pass him in the small cabinbut for one explosive moment, it seemed that he wouldn't move and she would walk straight into his arms. She hurried into the bathroom and closed the door behind her, then leaned against the sink and waited until her body had become her own once more.
Jalissa stared down at the world she called home. It was still mostly obscured by clouds, but as often happened at this time of year, the layer had thinned out somewhat, affording a glimpse of craggy peaks covered with dense, dark forests and narrow valleys bisected by swift-running streams.
As always, she felt a powerful tug of contradictory emotions. She'd been dragged unwillingly to Tevingi and left in the care of strangers at the age of .
And yet, within weeks, she'd stopped crying herself to sleep at night, and within a few months she would have fought any attempt to send her back to her true home with its subterranean city.
A child lives in the here and now, with little thought of past or futureand Jalissa had been no exception. She didn't forget about her past life in the Coven; rather, she just set it aside, as a child plays with a toy and then discards it.
The woman she had become was ashamed of that child's callousness, and each time she came back here, Jalissa was reminded of that. And she was also reminded of the very great difference between her life as a child of the Coven and the very different life she discovered on Tevingi, where children were raised by doting parents and encouraged to be children, rather than being forced before their time to accept heavy responsibilities.
All of these feelings flowed through her now, as they orbited Tevingi, and so it was with some effort that she reminded herself of the dangers of this particular trip.
Panera was very eager to learn if the man they sought was in fact Tevingian. At his request, she'd sent a message to her adoptive parents, informing them of her visit and its purpose.
She assumed that they knew by now of the Warlock's escape from the Coven and of his activities. There were alway
s Coven members on Tevingi who could receive telepathic messages and then pass them on to families like the Kendors who had been allied with the Coven for many centuries.
Tevingi spacecraft still visited the Coven's world, but only infrequently, since they risked discovery by the Federation military, who would certainly question their presence on a barren, lifeless planet.
Miklos Panera appeared suddenly at her side and informed her that they would begin their descent in a few minutes. He remarked that the cloud cover seemed thinner than he had seen it in the past, and she explained that this often happened in the spring.
As they talked, Jalissa found herself edging away from him, even as she was being drawn to him. She had foolishly hoped that their forced intimacy on the small craft would allow her attraction to him to dissipate. But instead, their polite formality toward each other and their attempts to avoid each other had only heightened the sensual tension between them.
How he truly felt about her remained a mystery, however. She was no longer so certain that she'd seen true desire in his eyes, though her instincts continued to tell her this was so. This ambivalence was very frustrating to one who'd learned long ago to trust those instincts implicitly.
Even as she stood here now and felt the powerful, invisible webs of sensuality that bound them together, she reminded herself that it could all be a part of a very careful seduction for the sole purpose of discrediting her.
They began to settle gently to the surface of Tevingi, drifting down through the cloud cover until the dark, rugged surface was fully revealed. Before long, she could see their destination: the huge Federation base that sprawled across one of the few flat, open areas of the planet, completely filling the space between the tall mountains.
The base was a world unto itselfcompletely self-sustaining since its construction a century ago over the violent objections of the Tevingians. In the early years, any Federation soldier leaving the base was risking his or her life. Now they were grudgingly tolerated by the Tevingians, but they still tended to keep to themselves. And while there were Tevingians in the Federation military, they were never posted to their home worldwhich was not the case at other bases. The base abutted the vast landholdings of her adoptive family, and much of it had once belonged to the Kendors: a particular sore point since it occupied some of the most fertile land on the planet.
Thinking about this uneasy history, Jalissa wondered if it could be true that Tevingi was plotting to leave the Federation and ally itself with the Outer Ring. Certainly, Tevingians had risen to powerful positions within the Federation, but she knew them well enough to know how they still burned inwardly at the conquest by the Vantrans long ago.
A short time later, Jalissa and Miklos disembarked, and she smiled with pleasure when she saw her tall, slim, gray-haired adoptive mother among the group waiting for them. But a slight frown crossed her face as she hurried to greet her. Where was her father?
Neesa Kendor answered her unspoken question as soon as they embraced. "Your father couldn't come because there's been an explosion at the new mine. He received word just as we were leaving to come here."
Jalissa had paid scant attention to the others in the welcoming party, but she turned to them now as a Vantran general spoke, gesturing to the sky behind them.
"Here come the first of the casualties now."
They all stood and watched as three swift hov- ercraft settled down on the roof of a large building that Jalissa assumed must be the base hospital. One craft bore the distinctive coat of arms of the Kendors and the other two were Federation craft. She was rather surprised at this, since the base hospital was normally off-limits to Tevingians.
On other worlds, it was quite common for Federation medical facilities to treat natives, but on Tevingi, the old separation was still maintained. Apparently seeing her surprise, Neesa explained that when they'd called the base to inform them of their delay, the commander had kindly offered his facilities.
They watched as the victims were off-loaded and carried into the hospital. Then Neesa Kendor turned and introduced herself to Panera before Jalissa had the opportunity.
Jalissa saw his gaze go from her "mother" to her and back again. There was no resemblance at all between them, but fortunately she did bear a slight resemblance to her adoptive father, whom she now saw coming toward them. Apparently, he'd been aboard one of the hovercraft.
He embraced Jalissa warmly, then began to explain the situation to them all. "No one was killed, thank the gods, but there are some serious injuries. We don't know yet what happenedand we may never know, since the entire shaft has collapsed. If the explosion had occurred five minutes earlier or later, there would almost certainly have been many deaths. But it happened during a shift change, when there were only a small number of miners in the shaft."
The Vantran general assured him that they would do their best to save the miners, and Joeb Kendor expressed his gratitude, then introduced himself to Panera. Jalissa watched the two men take the measure of each other. Joeb was the descendant of what had for centuries been the most powerful clan on Tevingi, and was every bit as proud and arrogant as the Vantran. It was not at all difficult to see why these two peoples had never warmed to each other. The Vantrans certainly had the edge with their science, but Tevingi didn't lag far behind.
Joeb then suggested that they go home, and turned to Panera.
"Will you be joining us, Agent Panera? You're very welcome to do so."
"I would be very pleased to visit you tomorrow, if that's convenient," Panera replied. "I told Jalissa that I'd like to try to ride a madri."
"You're welcome to try, but I'm sure that Jalissa had warned you that they rarely accept offworlders."
"Perhaps I'll be lucky." He gave Jalissa a slight bow. "Good-bye, Jalissa. Enjoy your visit. I'll see you tomorrow morning."
Chapter Four
"He's very handsomeand quite charming for a Vantran," Nessa Kendor remarked as they took off in their hovercraft.
"Especially a Panera," Joeb chuckled. Even out here at the edge of the galaxy, that name was quite well-known.
"The general is his uncle," Neesa went on. "His mother's brother. He told me while we were waiting."
Jalissa said nothing. "Charming" was not a word she would have applied to Miklos Panera. She wondered what her adoptive parents would think if they knew about her dangerous attraction to him. Probably they wouldn't believe it even if she told them. Nowhere in the galaxy were Vantrans less tolerated than on Tevingiexcept, of course, among her own people.
The conversation turned to the accident. By tacit agreement, no mention was made yet of her purpose in being here, or of any messages from the Coven. No one was certain just what the Federation's capabilities for spying were, so it was assumed that they could overhear any conversations taking place onor, in this case, overthe base.
At the time of her last visit, Joeb had told her that he wasn't sure that the Federation might not be listening in to conversations within the house, using the comm unit as some sort of transmitter. Tevingians weren't quite so awed by the Vantrans' science as many others were, but they still had a healthy respect for it. Because of this fear, secret conversations were carried on only in the beautiful gardens and wooded glades surrounding the house.
Soon the base was behind them and they were flying low over newly planted fields and open meadows where livestock grazed and wildflowers nodded in the breeze. Jalissa cried out with pleasure as she saw a herd of madris, grazing placidly on the blue-green grass they favored.
''Bellou has been told of your visit," Neesa said. "She was out in a far pasture, but now she's staying close to home."
Jalissa's smile widened. No one was really sure just how intelligent the madris were because they were stubborn creatures who resisted any attempt to test them. But every time Bellou was told of Jalissa's impending arrival, she hung around the home paddocks, waiting.
The madris came and went pretty much as they wanted. The pastures were fenced in for
other animals, but of course the madris could simply unfold their great wings and fly over them. In the heat of high summer, they favored the cool mountains, and could often be seen drifting above the peaks on the thermals. When winter came, they spent much of their time in their comfortable stables.
Jalissa was eager to see the new foals. Pregnant mares always came back to the home paddock to give birth, and then remained there until their offspring had mastered the art of flying and could clear the fences. The stallions never came inside the birthing paddock, but they often flew over it or pranced about beyond the fence, calling to their mates. Madris mated for life, and if one died, the other never took a new mate.
But as much as she wanted to see her beloved madris, Jalissa decided that she'd better concentrate first on the business that had brought her here. So as soon as they landed in front of the huge stone house, she suggested a walk in the gardens.
"Has the Coven contacted you about the renegade Warlock?" she asked as soon as they set out on the pebbled paths. "Yes. We're all very worried about it," Neesa replied. Joeb had gone inside to call the hospital and check on the condition of the miners.
Neesa gave her a worried glance. "We were told that you had been instructed to stay away from this matter."
"That's truebut there's no way that I could. For me to have refused this mission would only cast suspicion on me. Besides, it's important that I be the one to find him. I may be able to persuade him to return to the Coven."
"But what about Panera? We know his reputation, Jalissa. He's a very dangerous man."
Indeed, Jalissa thoughtand in more ways than one. But she didn't reply because Joeb was hastening along the path to join them. He reported that all the miners would survive, and then Neesa repeated their conversation.
Joeb nodded. "I think you have the right of it, Jalissa, but I'm not so sure that you'll be able to persuade him to go back to the Coven. In fact, we think it's possible that he might have left with their blessing."