Any Price

by Faulkner, Gail

  “Music?” Kenna asked in surprise as she heard the echoes of pain painted on notes swirling through his soul. In him was music that wept with a purity that could only be plucked from heaven’s halls as well as the crashing anguish from the depth of hell’s despair. It was so much a part of him that there was no concealing it. He didn’t try. Music lived in him and he let her see him.

  “I am as you see me,” Synth answered. Instead of being an obscure statement most would not understand, coupled with the view of his heart, the statement made perfect sense.

  Tears streamed down Kenna’s face as she smiled. In the music was a small melody of joy. Rising above the pain, this new strain was the family he’d just discovered. There had been no joy since he’d lost his brother.

  Both Kenna and Lore sucked in a breath. “Brother?”

  Synth had let her in with shocking honesty. The honor of that openness came with great caution and respect. They had wondered how he survived alone and he’d let them see the cost of living. The dark places that were his reality held many surprises but Kenna had no intention of disrespecting his gift by plunging into them. However, this he had wanted to share.

  “Yes. He chose the sleep of our people,” Synth answered. “The cost of being alone made him a creature he was losing control of.”

  In saying those words, Synth conveyed such a wealth of despair that it became a venomous demon. Showing Kenna what drove his brother, what he, Synth, had almost surrendered to. “That is what we are, what we grow to be without hope. You have given me hope, little sister. The dark creature that I have become is now the guard at your gate.”

  The pledge was more than the words. Synth’s ability to communicate made them more. Kenna’s gift, a light in the endless life of darkness and a charge he willingly embraced. Her unconditional acceptance was a sweet, new experience, novel in its effect. There was nothing beyond family bonding and yet there was no power stronger to their kind. A mating bond was simply another facet of this strength. All of them knew it as they felt the shift in alliance.

  She empowered Synth in an entirely different way than she did Lore, however the outcome was the same. An ancient hunter was unleashed on the world. This male who had been the sum of all human fears while holding his destructive nature on a tight leash was now in pursuit of prey. There would be no holding back this time.

  “Good hunting,” Kenna breathed into Synth’s mind.

  “Sorrow is ours, little sister. Be assured it will visit those who have taken what can never be restored.”

  Synth withdrew from them on that promise.

  Tiredness overwhelmed Kenna. Her body relaxed, easily surrendering to sleep. Lore held her. He needed the feel of her in his arms, the reassurance of each breath she took. The number of things clamoring for his attention seemed to increase by the minute but none of them was more important than this.

  Being the source of power like the world might never have seen was not a choice she would have made. All of it had been thrust upon her in a very short period of time. Somewhere along the line she’d come to terms with it and now the woman in his arms was changing in a big way.

  He’d seen this change before but it’d been different. His years in the military had shown it to him over and over again. A man could complete every type of training imaginable but he wasn’t a warrior. Real combat, where winning was determined by being alive instead of an instructor’s checklist, eliminated the weak and educated the strong. Physical strength had little to do with it. The mind made an operator out of a replacement.

  One of Lore’s most valuable gifts was being able to read which way combat had taken a man. Often a recruit survived combat because his unit was made up of warriors. The woman in his arms had lost much more than her innocence to the consequences of this conflict. Death had stalked her. It had stolen life from her body, but instead of killing a part of her soul it had awakened the warrior.

  “Acceptable losses” was a phrase used by people who never lived on a frontline of conflict. There were no acceptable losses. If it was not the enemy dying, death only served to strengthen determination to make each life lost count in the ultimate victory.

  The fire gathering strength in her was that will to win. She was sleeping but only because it would make her stronger.

  Lore closed his eyes. Their children would never know their mother’s love or their father’s protection but they would not be forgotten. Never be lost souls without a home in the universe. Every Keeper saved, every victory won in the future would be their monument. Their mother was going to see to it.

  Power was the unknown force flowing through Lore, the weapon he had little knowledge how to wield. It came from her in a way they didn’t understand. It occurred to him that he’d been asking all the wrong questions, focusing on the details instead of the purpose.

  It was an elemental lesson in any military training. Combat was not about the weapons involved, it was about the minds behind the tools. The power flowing through them was all about the minds wielding it. What they were becoming was something new and very old. The weight of every life lost to this battle shaped them, molded them. There were no pointless deaths, future or past.

  His big body shuddered as the golden glow of her power folded into him instead of flowing through him. The result surrounded them with the blue flame of unbending steel. Not the cold steel of a heartless weapon, they became a forged blade that carried within it the fire of life. They were the One, and there was no other name for them in current language.

  He slept off and on that night. Not needing rest as she did made it easy to pass the time in a light combat doze. He was fully aware when she woke at four a.m. and left the bed for the bathroom. Not asking her if she needed help was difficult. Knowing she needed to feel strong kept him silent.

  Kenna felt grubby. The steaming shower couldn’t wash away the horror of yesterday, couldn’t erase death’s touch from her child’s life. She wasn’t done mourning that loss but nor was she going to disrespect the sacrifice by letting grief paralyze her.

  By the time she emerged from the bathroom Kenna felt a little worn out. That weakness of body irritated her as she slid beneath the covers beside the man who was aware of her every emotion. She could feel him cautiously waiting for her response to the situation this morning.

  Turning into his arms, she relaxed as he surrounded her, his body molding hers to its hard contours, shifting so it was his back to the door, covering her. He did that naturally with no thought. Even if he were not the body of power that he’d become, he’d always been the wolf who chose to guard the sheep from his own kind…hunters.

  If there was one thing she did not want to be, it was the one forcing him to put his back to the door to protect her. She wanted to face the door with him. Kenna shivered slightly, steel arms tightened.

  “I’m not cold.”

  “I know.” Lore shifted slightly, gathering her more securely into his body. “I need this.” The skin under his hands was silk. Feeling life beat through her was a gift. It overwhelmed him.

  “We’re going to be all right,” Kenna said softly.

  “Yeah? Found a way to look into the future?” his deep voice rumbled in her ear.

  Kenna closed her eyes. Her body needed rest. “I found you, didn’t I?”

  Lore couldn’t follow her reasoning as she slipped into sleep. From the edge of unconsciousness she sent another thought.

  “You never quit a battle. You don’t give up. We’re going to be okay because you believe it the same way you refuse to lose.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Three days later

  It was two in the morning when Synth contacted Lore and Kenna. “I’m coming back with Celina. We must take her to Vivian.”

  “Excellent. Who is Vivian and why do we need her?” Sleep evaporated and Lore was immediately alert to the underlying stress in Synth’s voice. This ability to communicate was more urgent than getting a phone call at this hour.

  Synth sighed in
to the open line, letting them feel his strangely mixed feelings as he explained, “Vivian is the castle you know as Kenna’s ancestral home. It’s more than a structure but not an actual being. She has knowledge of our kind far greater than mine. Celina needs her.”

  “Wait. Explain this castle thing after you tell me what happened to Celina? Kenna asked urgently. “Is she okay? How did you find her?”

  “Celina is not okay. Her physical injuries are many but not life threatening. The real damage is much deeper. As to finding her, sufficient to say our adversary was not aware one he calls a god walks the Earth. He will not make this mistake twice. Sadly the Asp did the one thing that allowed him to escape alive. Leaving Celina deeply wounded stopped me long enough for him to disappear. Bringing her home is more important.

  “Vivian has always preferred women to males and I’m hoping a Royal Keeper in need will trigger her protective, healing responses.”

  “Explain Vivian to me,” Lore inserted calmly. “What do we need to know about this entity?”

  “Vivian is the entire structure. If she chooses to communicate in words, she often uses a body image, more substantial than a hologram, but not a biological entity. She can communicate without human form and seems to enjoy scaring the shit out of uninvited humans.

  “It appears she is the work of the people who left two children in cryo chambers, but once again, her purpose is a mystery. She is not a teacher. Getting information out of her is impossible unless she chooses to tell you. Her one response to how she came to be there is, ‘I’m where I was meant to be. You are not’.

  “My brother and I were awakened from the cryo chambers by a very sick human woman who died shortly after. The cryo equipment was concealed deep in a cave. Several hundred years later I came back and there was Vivian over the opening. She was a structure visually natural to the era but not quite true to it. The surrounding humans were already a generation away from when she’d supposedly been built. There was little information on how she came to be.

  “She revealed herself to me in a limited fashion. Over the years we’ve developed an understanding. I get to be frustrated that she withholds information and she gets not to care what I think.”

  “So the castle is a hostile?” Lore asked.

  “No. The castle is a moody woman,” Synth corrected, “but a friendly. Kenna, did you feel welcome in her?”

  “Very much,” Kenna concurred. “The only reason we are not there now is I’ve been too weak to travel and Gregory is making an ass of himself.”

  A rumbling growl emanated from Synth. “Your Gregory needs dealing with, little brother. He is the source the enemy used to enter your home.”

  “I’m aware of that. However, we must continue to live undetected in a human world. Condemning him with no physical evidence is not the way to deal with him,” Lore responded as he pulled on clothes. “I have a lease drawn up and will have it presented to him after we exit the city. He’s already refused to lease the property, being forced to do so should push him to attempt his own plan of instigating a revolution. He has no idea how down range his pride and that idea are.” Lore lapsed into military jargon he was most comfortable with. Down range was the target area and not where a smart individual wanted to find himself.

  “Gregory is under the misconception that his people will encourage his claiming of both thrones.” Lore smiled darkly. “He’ll find out differently. This way we can handle him with complete support from both Keepers and the regular citizens.”

  Kenna lay on the bed watching Lore dress as they spoke with Synth. She didn’t move mostly so she wouldn’t worry Lore. He was fanatical about her resting as much as possible. Pulling on some clothes would only take her a few minutes, so it didn’t worry her. Lore was the one involved in intricate plans.

  “I’m concerned about the break-in at the old castle,” Lore continued. “Do you get any feeling from this Vivian if it was the work of our enemy?”

  “Yes, I do. That’s why I think she’d be moved to expend some of that precious knowledge to help Celina. Vivian is mad as hell. I think she’ll know both Kenna and Celina have been attacked by the same force as soon as they enter her doors.”

  Lore stopped moving, hands on lean hips in a commanding pose that came naturally to him. He appeared to be frowning across the room at a wall. In reality he was calculating how comfortable he was with entering an unknown entity and potentially exposing Kenna to danger. He was profoundly uncomfortable with the unknown power Synth indicated.

  A new voice entered the conversation to everyone’s surprise. “Bring my girls home.”

  “What is this, Viv? Getting bold in your old age?” Synth taunted her. “Since when do you speak to strangers?”

  “Synth, I hear your delicate lil’ feelings are hurt. I’ll try to be nicer if you try to be smarter. Okay, muffin?” Vivian responded. Then allowing disdain in her voice, she continued. “The magic was powerful and I needed to know how strong this threat is so I let the disgusting one do his little tricks to the window. I was undamaged in any significant way. He entered the kitchen, nothing else.”

  Lore cautiously joined the conversation. “Hello. How would you prefer being addressed? Lady Vivian?”

  “Please, honey, just Vivian.”

  “Fine, thank you.” Lore continued, ignoring her condescending tone. “Do you know the name of the one who entered the kitchen and can you tell me exactly what he did?”

  “Of course I know his name. It was on the documents in his wallet. He came through the window, beamed his flashlight around and went to the hearth as if he were a hound on scent. He used his jacket to sweep the soot. Soon as he uncovered the face of the lady, he left.”

  “Jesus!” Lore spat. “Naturally he went straight to the hearth. He was looking for the thing that didn’t fit. Odd thing became the only spot in the room that was not swept and dusted. The carving’s likeness to Celina would have told him everything else if this was the Asp.”

  “His name is Simon Dahshur. His blood says he comes from the low countries,” Vivian stated. “Now bring my girls home so I may see to them.”

  “We’ll be there in the morning,” Synth informed them. “Lore? Will you and Kenna be there?”

  “You are that confident?” Lore asked again. “I dislike taking Kenna up there with no recon and a new power of unknown origins.”

  “Find your answers in my experiences. We don’t have time to be squeamish about these things. Celina must go to Vivian and I suspect Kenna would benefit as well.” Synth sent his knowledge to Lore on a flash push.

  Absorbing that much knowledge and experience in this method showed Lore how much he didn’t know about his own abilities. There wasn’t time to marvel. “We’ll be there. It’ll be camping for the first few days.”

  “Fine,” Synth responded. “We’ll be there in under six hours.”

  Two hours later Kenna and Lore mounted the steps leading to the Gray Lady’s massive front door. This time no one stepped in front of them. At that predawn hour when dark was thick with night’s deepest shadows, the castle glowed with flickering lights within.

  Lore pushed open the door and they were faced with a huge fire in the mammoth hearth across the great hall. Around the wall every torch bracket had a burning torch. Above them the wheel chandelier had a lit candle in every holder.

  “Looks like a welcome to me,” Kenna said as they looked around. There wasn’t a speck of dust visible this time.

  “She certainly left the lights on for us,” Lore agreed. He felt this place in a new way, and what he felt didn’t seem to be a threat. Yet he could not let caution lie down for a feeling. Entering alone with Kenna was as friendly a gesture as he was willing to make. The others outside had been vehemently opposed to the two of them entering alone. Lore had finally pointed out that he commanded power none of them could match.

  Behind them the door swung as if to close, but didn’t, leaving a small opening. Lore didn’t glance at it but a half smile pulled at t
he side of his mouth. Not closing the door was a sign of respect. A friendly gesture, if you will.

  Across the room beside the hearth a figure of a woman materialized in a slow fade-in. She stood perfectly still as they regarded her. She was neither young nor attractive. Dressed in a simple gray dress straight out of the forties, her ample figure was neat but not remarkable.

  “Welcome to your home,” she stated simply.

  “Vivian?” Lore asked.

  A smile changed her plain features to beaming warmth. “I have waited a long time for you to be where you should be.” She was looking at Kenna.

  “I didn’t know,” Kenna answered.

  The woman nodded, her hands clasped in front of her as satisfaction and peace flowed around her. “Now you do, dear. My purpose is to protect you and yours. For now, I’ve provided light so we could chat, but you realize we’ll have to do things in a way people understand in the future. Between you and me, if there is anything you need, I will be happy to supply it as long as it doesn’t scare the natives. I believe your man understands this.”

  Lore nodded as he watched the exchange. The woman turned to him and pointed to a door off the main room to the left. “In there you will find a control room with tools you are familiar with. I am providing the security systems you know and some you don’t yet, however, they are yours to command.”

  Lore raised a brow. “How do I know everything in that room and everything it shows me is not an illusion?”

  “Because the two of you are the One for this place. You are where you should be and I can at last do what I am meant to do. I am a tool, not as simple as one of your computers, but the concept is close.”

  “Again the question of belief arises,” Lore responded.

  The woman chuckled. “Put your hand on the wall, the floor, anything indigenous to the structure and tell me what you feel.”

  Moving Kenna with him, Lore went to the wall on the right, away from the door the woman had indicated. Placing his hand on it was touching a humming motor, every molecule active and yet solid. Then he felt the power moving under his palm.