Time Raiders: The Protector

by Merline Lovelace

  But nothing could obscure the lethal note in her voice when she addressed Max. “Do you offer me gift, Lord Bro-dai from the Land of Night Sun, or insult?”

  “Gift, most gracious and beautiful queen. I bring you a seer with great powers.”

  Wu’s gaze shifted to Cassie. She clicked her gold-and-jewel-sheathed nails on the arm of the throne, then turned her attention back to Max.

  “What kind of powers?”

  “She foretells changes in weather.”

  “He speaks the truth, Majesty.” From his prone position, Li dared to interject an endorsement. “I tested her myself.”

  “Did you?”

  When the empress turned a thoughtful glance her way, Cassie’s heart thumped against her sternum so loudly she was sure the entire court could hear.

  Professor Carswell had picked this year, this month and this day for their jump for a specific reason. One of the major events in Wu’s long reign was fast approaching. At this point, she still governed in her husband’s name. Less than two weeks from now, she would declare herself co-regent and drop the pretense that he had any say in matters. If, that is, the omens were favorable and the gods sent good weather for the magnificent ceremony that would celebrate her grab at power.

  Cassie didn’t move, didn’t so much as breathe, while Wu Jao looked her over.

  “If she is a seer, why does she wear the rags of a slave?”

  “She is a slave,” Max answered. “We captured her during a raid.”

  “And she cannot use her powers to escape you?”

  “Not while I wear this.” He raised his arm to display the silver cuff around his wrist. “I took it from the high priest of her clan. She wears a similar band.”

  “Show me.”

  Cassie went into her sullen slave routine as Max yanked up her arm. The sleeves of her woolen shirt and linen shift fell back. He pushed them up farther and tapped the quartz oval in the center of her armband.

  “This crystal channels her powers to the crystal in my cuff. For better or worse, we are bound together until she passes into the possession of another strong enough to harness her powers.”

  “Such as I,” the empress said, not doubting herself for a moment.

  “Such as you,” Max echoed.

  Wu Jao’s gaze lingered on his face for several moments. “Before I decide whether to accept such a gift, I would hear more of her powers, and of the land from whence she comes. Tai!”

  The eunuch raised his head. “Yes, Most Heavenly Majesty?”

  “Find quarters for Lord Bro-dai and the slave.” The empress’s nose wrinkled delicately. “While I speak with him further, you will see that she is bathed. She stinks of camel and horse dung. Once she is fit for my presence, I will require a demonstration of her skills.”

  “Yes, Majesty.”

  With a last, telling look at Max, Cassie allowed herself to be led away.

  “Interesting that Lord Bro-dai’s stink didn’t offend the empress’s sensibilities,” she muttered to the eunuch when they’d exited the audience hall and started down a long corridor.

  “On some men, the smell of sweat and horse offends our most gracious empress. On others, it does not.” He slanted her an enigmatic glance. “She has varied and, some would say, strong appetites.”

  Uh-oh! Cassie could guess which appetites he referred to. Tai’s next comment confirmed her suspicions.

  “With the emperor no longer able to take her to his bed, it’s rumored she looks elsewhere for her pleasure.”

  “Rumored?”

  “Rumored,” he repeated flatly. “There is no way to substantiate the tales. There will never be. No man who enjoyed the empress’s favor would live long enough to speak of it to others.”

  Double uh-oh!

  Cassie had spent several sleepless hours last night trying not to bump up against Max. If asked, she could personally verify he came very well equipped.

  Then there was that wicked grin. And that damned wolf pelt. The man practically shouted hot, sweaty, down-and-dirty sex. The kind any woman, empress or otherwise, would drop her silk drawers for.

  Cassie just hoped to hell Bro-dai the Barbarian could keep his pants buttoned long enough to help her find the medallion!

  Chapter 5

  Those who cannot be taught, cannot be instructed. These are women and eunuchs.

  —Confucius

  W hen the cell phone clipped to her waist broke into the Marine Corps anthem, Bev glanced down. The sight of her neighbor’s name flashing up on caller ID made her grimace.

  She’d been at the lab since early morning, hoping against hope either Max or Cassie would signal that they’d recovered the fourth piece of the medallion and were requesting an immediate return.

  It was far too early for those hopes. Bev knew that. Yet she’d hung around the lab anyway, and passed the hours by reviewing folders on potential future jumpers. The last thing she was in the mood for right now was a conversation with her prissy neighbor.

  Her cell phone belted out another stanza of “From the Halls of Montezuma.” Sighing, she unclipped the instrument and flipped up the lid.

  “Hi, Parker. Did you get your car fixed?”

  “I did. And I’d like to thank you for coming to my rescue yesterday by inviting you to dinner tonight.”

  “That’s not necessary. Neighbors are supposed to help each other out.”

  “I insist. Shall we say seven o’clock, my place?”

  “I’m up to my ears in work right now—”

  “You have to eat. Seven o’clock,” he repeated, with more firmness than Bev would have expected from a man who minced around in a pink Burberry scarf. “I’ll cook my famous bucatini all’Amatriciana.”

  Whatever that was.

  “It’s pasta like you’ve never tasted before,” he gushed, as if reading her mind. “With a light, spicy sauce made of pancetta, red pepper flakes, sun dried tomatoes and grated pecorino cheese. See you at seven.”

  At the other end of the connection, the entity posing as Allen Parker flipped his phone shut. Behind the rimless glasses he’d appropriated from Parker’s corpse, his eyes gleamed with satisfaction.

  Tonight, Kentar thought. Tonight he would confront the woman who’d caused him so much trouble.

  It had taken him long enough to find her. He’d sent hunters as soon as he’d gotten wind that earthlings were searching for the medallion pieces hidden by the Pleiadian Council so many thousands of years ago. After all his efforts to suppress development of the star navigator potential in earth women, he wasn’t about to let them unlock the keys to developing that potential now.

  Each of the hunters he’d sent to sabotage the search had failed. One had even gone over to the enemy. Rustam would pay dearly for his defection when Kentar caught up with him and the earth woman he now mated with.

  As would this Beverly Ashton.

  She, he’d discovered, was the driving force behind the search for the pieces of the medallion. The other woman, the professor, had deciphered the Ad Astra journals and developed her inherent ability to project through time and space. Carswell couldn’t have done either, however, if Ashton hadn’t provided the funding and the volunteers and the sheer muscle to keep the professor’s experiments on track.

  Kentar would crush them both, starting with this retired general. But first he would enjoy her.

  His nostrils flared, and the coarse, residual hair of what was once a mane prickled all along his neck and upper spine. He could feel himself hardening, lengthening, until the urge to cover her, to subdue her, all but consumed him.

  “Lord Kentar.”

  A starburst of energy from his control center in the Centaurian galaxy leaped into his head. He powered back a reply.

  “Speak.”

  “We’ve received a signal. Hunter Third Rank Taikin thinks he may have stumbled across one of the searchers.”

  “Where?”

  “At the court of the Chinese rulers, in earth year AD 674.”
r />   “Why does he think she’s a searcher?”

  “The male accompanying her claims she has special powers. And they both wear silver cuffs like those other searchers have worn.”

  By the stars! How had Carswell and Ashton managed to send another team so quickly? The last pair had escaped his hunter’s clutches only weeks ago!

  “Tell Taikin to watch her closely. If she leads him to the medallion piece and he takes possession of it, he has my permission to take possession of her, as well.”

  Astonishment rode on the next burst of energy.

  “Do you mean…? He may breed her?”

  It was an extraordinary concession. Only Kentar, as the alpha male of the vast Centaurian race, could breed at will. The lesser stallions required his permission to plant their seed, and he usually gave it only to those who had distinguished themselves in battle.

  But Ashton and her crew had already recovered three sections of the medallion. He couldn’t allow them to claim another.

  “He may breed her…but only if she leads him to a piece of the medallion.”

  When Taikin received the signal, he almost tripped over his own feet.

  “Ay yah!”

  At his excited exclamation, the woman beside him glanced up in surprise. With a vicious effort of will, Taikin beat his jubilation into submission.

  He was Tai Kin Su, he reminded himself fiercely. Planted at the Chinese court to keep watch on the empress, who had seized the reins of government against all odds. Powerful women like Wu Jao disrupted the natural order of things. Worse, their strength of will indicated they might well possess the starship navigator gene. For that reason Kentar had dispatched him to Wu Jao’s court.

  Unfortunately, Taikin had been forced to assume the form of a gelding in order to gain access to the inner workings of the imperial palace. But this female, this creature with the red hair and stubborn eyes, would provide him the means to revert to his Centaurian form at last.

  If she led him to a piece of the medallion, he would go home a hero! He’d have his pick of broodmares. He could bask forever in his place in history.

  He would take her with him, Tai decided. He hadn’t felt so much as a stir of arousal since he’d arrived at this accursed court. But she…She piqued his interest as no woman had in longer than he could remember. Relishing the feeling, Tai escorted her through a maze of corridors and stopped in front of a red lacquered door.

  “These apartments are always kept ready for visiting dignitaries. You will find them more than adequate.”

  “They have to be better than the dirt-floored cell I spent last night in,” she murmured.

  “See for yourself.”

  He lifted the latch and ushered her into a walled garden with an ornamental pond, a stone shrine with a statue of the goddess Guan Yin and pebbled walkways done in black-and-white designs.

  Five interconnected chambers surrounded the small courtyard. One was a gathering area elegantly furnished with a low, black-lacquered table and cushions for eating, a couch for reclining and reading and a water clock that marked the twelve animals depicting each hour. The adjoining sleeping area contained a platform bed draped with rich furs and a tall, painted chest to store guests’ belongings. Decorative scrolls embellished the walls and oiled rice paper covered the windows, to keep out the cold while letting in light.

  The remaining chambers consisted of a kitchen with a ceramic stove for brewing tea, a bathing room and a small, windowless dormitory for the slaves assigned to the quarters. These appeared promptly, drawn by the sound of the courtyard gate slamming shut.

  “You!”

  At Tai’s bark, a slight female in a Japanese-style kimono bobbed nervously. “Yes, Chief Eunuch?”

  “Tell the slaves tending the bath fires to bring hot water. And you…”

  He pointed to a second servant, this one clad in a short jacket and long gown.

  “Go to the palace of the concubines. Tell fourth-level concubine Jung Lo that Chief Eunuch Tai commands her to give you three sets of silk robes and undergarments. And slippers,” he added, with a glance at Cassie’s mud-and-snow-stained boots. “Two pairs.”

  When the maid scuttled away, Tai lifted his gaze to that of the searcher. He could see himself reflected in her emerald eyes. The prospect of mounting her made his excitement rise up and almost choke him.

  “How are you called?”

  “Cassandra, in my own land.”

  “What does it mean?”

  Cassie barely contained a grimace.

  In Greek mythology, Cassandra was the daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy. Because of her stunning beauty, Apollo lusted after her and tried to bribe her into his bed with the gift of prophecy. When she didn’t yield to the god’s advances, however, a furious Apollo decreed no one would ever believe her predictions.

  Cassie’s mother wasn’t into Greek mythology. She’d just heard the name on a TV show and liked it. Talk about ironic twists of fate!

  “It means seer,” she informed Tai.

  “It is too long,” he said with a frown. “Too difficult to pronounce. I will call you Bo Fei.”

  “Spring Leaf?” she translated.

  “Spring Leaf,” Tai confirmed. “As your eyes are the color of mulberry leaves when they first open. Ah! Here is your bathwater.”

  “That was quick,” Cassie murmured as a small army of servants trooped in with steaming buckets and marched across the courtyard.

  “Hot water is always near at hand. You have only to ask. Come, we will rid you of those rags and cleanse you.”

  Ooo-kay, Cassie thought. No need to feel goosey about getting naked with a man for the second time in as many days. This one, at least, was harmless.

  She accompanied him across the courtyard. When Tai slid open the door to the bathhouse, a billow of steam rolled out to envelope them both.

  “Well, what do you know!” she exclaimed as she stepped inside. “Our own private sauna.”

  “I do not know this sauna,” her escort said with a shrug, “but the bathing room is for use by you and the one who accompanies you, until the empress decrees otherwise.”

  Delighted, Cassie eyed the oval wooden tub occupying place of honor in the center of the chamber. Beside it was a low wooden platform with a stack of neatly folded bath sheets and an array of colorful bottles. On the other side of the tub, a square box held stones arranged in an artistic design around glowing coals.

  “You!” Tai barked at the timid maid. “Ladle water onto the stones.”

  The girl leaped to do his bidding. More steam hissed and rose in clouds to surround the tub, which the other servants filled with hot water. Tai himself added a bucket of cold and tested the temperature before gesturing imperiously.

  “Now, Spring Leaf, you may soak away the grime of your journey.”

  Cassie hesitated, but the muscle-bound eunuch didn’t look as if he was going anywhere, and the idea of a bath was too, too tempting to resist. Not only did she carry the stink of camels, she still ached from her hours in the saddle. Peeling off her clothing, she sank to her neck in the warm water.

  The little maid folded her legs and knelt beside the tub with liquid grace. “May I wash your hair?” she asked in her soft voice.

  “Please.” Sighing with pleasure, Cassie surrendered to the maid’s nimble fingers. “What’s your name?”

  The girl looked at the eunuch for permission before replying.

  “In my own tongue, my name means Unfolding Petals of White Peony. Here I am called simply Peony.”

  Tai was still there, watching with those keen dark eyes, when Cassie finished her bath. Reminding herself again that he was harmless, she rose from the tub wearing nothing but her armband and a satisfied smile. That slipped a little when Peony enfolded her in a drying sheet and Tai pushed the maid aside with a careless hand.

  “Lie on the changing table,” he instructed Cassie. “I will rub lotions into your skin.”

  “Isn’t that a little below you
r pay grade?”

  “I do not take your meaning.”

  She gestured to the maid standing with downcast eyes. “Shouldn’t she perform such menial tasks instead of a chief eunuch?”

  “She will, henceforth. Lie down.”

  Cassie was getting a little tired of having men throw that particular order at her. Still, she had to admit she wouldn’t mind having this big, muscular male knead out the aches she hadn’t quite soaked away.

  She kept the sheet draped around her as she sat on the edge of the wooden platform and swung her legs onto it. She was barely facedown before Tai tugged the covering away.

  “I have put my hands on women before,” he drawled when she protested. “Many women.”

  “I bet you have. Just not this particular wo…Oooh!”

  Warm oil splashed onto her shoulder blades. Tai’s palms followed. Kneading, squeezing, stroking, he worked the kinks from her sore muscles.

  “God, that feels good.”

  “It will feel better.”

  He dribbled more oil onto her spine. His strong fingers massaged her aching lower back before moving to the parts that had taken the worst beating from the wooden saddle. Her bottom, her thighs, her calves, even her ankles and toes got meticulous attention.

  Cassie closed her eyes and gave herself up to the sheer ecstasy of his clever, clever hands. She could feel the tension seeping from her pores as he worked his way down one leg and up the other. Then his fingers slid between her thighs and she almost came off the table.

  “Hey!”

  “Be still.”

  Tai enforced the order by planting his free hand at the small of her back, pinning her to the table. His other hand probed the slick folds of flesh at her center.

  “Unclench your legs,” he urged. “Let me pleasure you like this…until I can pleasure you in other ways,” he added in a rough whisper.

  What other ways?