Zosma and Regina chuckled at Porrima’s display, their quiet laughter settling the room. Even as Porrima’s rage flared, the rest understood that this was not the moment war would begin.
Dee flexed her hands nervously. Her eyes flitted from the back of her would-be parents’ heads to Porrima, to the Soldiers, and back, a dance of study so she might better interpret their past relationships that set them against each other. Throughout her travels, it was obvious that very little of what happened was a reaction to what was happening but rather projections to events long past.
While unfair to her, she knew it would do little good to bring it up. Hadn’t Daniel laughed at her about fair? Or had it been Hamal?
Hamal and Daniel.
She’d managed to divert thoughts of them while underneath the press of more present problems. Porrima was here to take her to Zibanitu, the very Master who lorded over those originally assigned to her. Would it be worth going just to see them again?
The scathing sentiment from her inner-voice shut down those thoughts.
Focus back on the emissary, Dee wondered if she was allowed to make demands. Could she make conditions about how long she was gone? Could she negotiate to bring her Shadows along? Could she dictate the place they went so she wouldn’t be imprisoned in yet another Rishi’s compound?
Her attempt to get Regina’s attention pulled Porrima’s focus to her instead. “It wishes to speak, does it? I was wondering if maybe you weren’t just some automaton. With so much excitement surrounding your existence, I’m disappointed by your—docility.”
-You didn’t kill Hamal when I said, but can we please kill this one?-
While Dee’s brain buckled with how best to react, Zosma barked, “That is quite enough! Porrima, it is long past due for your departure. I’m sure you’ll report as you will to your leader so I won’t bother giving a message.”
He turned his back to the delegates. Regina motioned for Dee to take her arm as she took Zosma’s with the other, so they might move from the room as a single unit. Zosma’s Soldiers moved forward to close the passage if Porrima was bold enough to try and follow.
“Would you re-think this decision if I told you that the rest will stand against you if the girl doesn’t come safely with me now.”
Porrima’s words stopped the group’s retreat.
“They have never stood as one about anything. Why should I believe you?”
Dee sensed Porrima’s shrug, a smugness in her words that made her wish she’d listened to her homicidal ego a moment before. Frightened the vainglorious messenger might get her way, Dee stood stiff, staring ahead while she waited for Porrima’s response. When no answer came, Zosma turned to study Porrima’s face. Whatever their brief communication held had him stalking back towards the visitors until he stood nose to nose with Zibanitu’s flunky.
Porrima’s height met Zosma’s at chest level, but it didn’t diminish her tenacity. Her fierceness seemed heightened by it, her arrogant smirk extenuated by the complete calm in Zosma, a calm that screamed beware rather than entice serenity. Porrima didn’t seem to notice the warning in it, reveling in her near-win of this battle.
A breath before Zosma turned his back yet again, Regina squeezed Dee’s arm, speaking to her mind to give her a second’s warning. It is truth. We can not risk standing against the collective, but we promise to fight to bring you back to us.
Wrapped in Regina’s bone-crunching embrace, Dee scrambled to make sense of the words.
“We will abide by the Air God’s decree, for now. Desiree, don’t worry, you’ll be back here before you know it.”
Dee barely registered Zosma’s words as Regina whispered in her ear that they wouldn’t abandon her, they wouldn’t leave her to rot with the others, and they wouldn’t let her become a pawn in Zibanitu’s game.
Part 6
18
Dee found herself trudging through the heat-hazed desert towards another aircraft that would take her to parts unknown. Her stomach rumbled with nervous energy. How many times would she face the same situation before it would stop making her anxious?
-If you’re smart, never.-
She held onto that. That the fear was an alert system that kept her vigilant rather than telling of her cowardice. Still, she was tired of being afraid. Tired of how normal it felt to have butterflies live in her stomach. She remembered when the most excitement in her life was dinner with Mike.
Mike.
How long had it been since she’d talked to him? She’d played off her sudden disappearance after promising a house-hunting trip on the other side of the country well enough. He continued to believe her story that she’d picked up a job through a contact she’d made while in her years away. Too excited by her decision to enter the real world, Mike gave her zero grief over the demanding schedule she feigned.
“Let’s move this along. I’ve spent too much time in this god-forsaken place as it is.”
With gritted teeth, Dee allowed Porrima to push her forward onto the plane.
The air-conditioned interior of the craft gave Dee some relief, and when Porrima disappeared into a private room further inside, Dee allowed herself to relax. Taking her time to glance around, partitioning her attention between observation and relaxation exercises, she took stock of what she could see. The pilots spoke quietly, involved in their pre-flight checks. Except for them, there was no one else in sight. She sensed Soldiers elsewhere on the plane, a few outside, but here, she was alone to take a few unobserved breaths.
Turning her attention from the pilots, she noted this plane, Zibanitu’s private jet, was not as nice as Zosma’s. No gold trim or mahogany finish accented the oversized seats, but fancy adornment wasn’t necessary for comfort. Taking a seat in the center of a row five deep and three across to test this theory, she was not disappointed. The oversized chair molded to her form. Lulled by the solitude, she leaned back, closed her eyes, and indulged the pull of sleep. Afraid to leave herself so vulnerable, she stood fast. Not here. This was not like her trip to Zosma’s. This was not a trip to a safe haven where she might find allies.
Turning to where Porrima had disappeared, Dee stared at the partition that came from the right-hand wall to section off the plane. The wall left an opening to pass through, and through it, Dee saw a couch that looked more comfortable than the bucket seats. Indulging her curiosity over the sense she should stay put until someone explained what was expected of her, she stepped through the door into this next section of the plane. Finding a giant television with gaming console tightly secured to the stand brought the first real smile she’d given in months. From all she’d heard of Zibanitu, from what she’d seen of Porimma, the last thing she expected was anything fun.
“Weren’t expecting that, were you?”
She spun to greet the grinning Soldier. She took a step to run to him for a hug but stopped fast. He’d been her bodyguard. She didn’t know if they’d ever actually been friends. So she froze, one knee on the couch, grinning at the member of Zibanitu’s House she’d met when she’d fired a clip of 9mm rounds at him.
She shook her head in answer, unable to find her voice.
He smiled wide. “Glad they didn’t let you have your weapons. Wouldn’t want to get shot again.”
She stood to face him. “You wouldn’t have gotten shot at this time.”
“Oh no? You might want to wait before you make a verdict on that.”
Dee wasn’t sure what to make of this comment, but shrugged, maintaining her position across the small space. “Whether or not I’ll want to shoot you later, it’s good to see you now.”
His eyes moved over her, and she found herself standing still so he could process whatever it was he was looking for. “You seem good. When we heard Zosma stormed the Twins’ fortress—that you’d disappeared—rumors flared. Some guessed you were dead.”
This last came out quiet.
Dee tilted her head. “Daniel? Is that concern I hear?”
He feigned shock with a dra
matic inhale and a hand on his chest. “I thought you knew me better than that.”
Turning to hide her shifting emotions—was she flirting?—she motioned to the TV. “Anything good to play?”
She sensed him tense at the same time she felt a flare inside her skull that told of other Soldiers approaching.
Pursing her lips, she turned when the trio entered. That Daniel stood at attention had her assessing the group. Putting Daniel on his best behavior seemed a mighty feat. Based on how the newcomers felt in her head, she guessed the dark-skinned male as the leader. By the way the Asian male’s eyes brushed the room, she knew the title went to him. His dismissive glance straightened her spine. She contained her impulse to stick out her tongue. Or slide a sword through his heart.
-Definitely one of Porrima’s.-
She agreed, his bad attitude like a stench that overpowered the room.
His close-cropped hair was platinum blond. Shorter than Daniel’s two-plus meters, he was fit without any of the bulk a lot of the other Soldiers carried. In her life before the crazy, she would have been intimidated by him, but so much time with the Rishis had reset her bar. Still, she didn’t try to stare him down when he settled that attitude on her. Her not being scared of him wasn’t the same as wanting to start a fight, even if her muscles twitched to do just that.
More Soldiers stacked into the space behind the trio, fanning out to fill the room. They stood at attention in wait for their commander to give his orders. When the room settled to the quiet of militant breathing, the commander stepped at Dee. Her hands clenched at her sides to stifle the urge to step into him. It said much about Pollux’s training that her instinct was to step forward rather than away. She knew she could face any of them in a fight, even if they didn’t allow her her weapons.
His piercing stare gave new meaning to the phrase talking down to. “I trust we’ll have no incidents?”
“As long as you keep The Ophiuchus from taking the plane, that’ll probably be true.” The words were out of her mouth before she’d thought to filter them.
Sure her eyes widened just enough to give away her panic at her audacity, she bore down on their eye-lock, refusing to give in to her moment of second-guessing.
The commander narrowed his eyes with a humph of derision.
With a final once-over, he turned to his troops. A nod of his head sent all but three farther into the plane. Daniel remained, along with a male and a female dressed in charcoal-colored tactical clothing. Dee smiled at this, realizing she’d been given the first tag at recognizing these troops from others.
While the commander addressed those people behind, Dee turned to poke through a meager selection of games and movies. A not-so-subtle throat clear by the commander alerted Dee she should turn around. She paused, steeling her face against her annoyance, not sure she succeeded.
With a slow pivot, she turned. Maybe forcing a fight was a good idea. Maybe it would make her further encounters less tedious if she showed one of them what she was made of. Or, they would imprison her in a more literal definition. Her dreams of playing video games would be staunched.
So, she would continue to play nice. To play meek and weak.
“I was instructed to keep Daniel as a part of your personal escort team, despite my objections. With him will be Boots and Amrae. You are their priority if something should happen en route. If you happen to become the problem, they have instructions on how to deal with that as well.”
Her eyes flitted to Daniel, who continued to stand stiffly behind his commander. The twitch at the corner of his mouth told of his effort to keep from laughing.
Afraid she might laugh, she focused her attention on the commander whose heavy steps towards her brought him nose to nose with her. She waited in a patient coil of anticipation. Her inner-voice murmured its glee that the opportunity to unleash her pent-up frustration on this arrogant fool might arrive.
Whether he saw this threat in her features or was simply finished with his own posturing, the commander pivoted, moving out of the room without a word.
His absence pulled the tightness from the air.
Dee stared after him. “He’s fun.”
“Kang? Yeah.”
Daniel studied the pair with them for a moment before shrugging at some internal question. He paced over to pluck the game Dee had chosen from her grasp.
Dee watched, holding her tongue from voicing the questions she wanted to ask. Seeing him, someone she knew, someone she—trusted?—loosed something tight inside her.
-There is no sense to trusting this one. He’s one of Zibanitu’s. He’ll abandon you or choose his own over you.-
The war she waged on the matter went on in her head behind a mask of quiet watchfulness while Daniel judged her taste in games. She ran her eyes over the corded muscle hidden beneath a jacket and t-shirt. His brown hair was shaggy, a blemish against the rest of his polished appearance she wondered was mandated or just his way. She realized how little she actually knew about him. About any of them. Even Hamal had never talked about himself. It was always ever about her.
“Only two players can multi with this one.” Daniel commented on the game she’d chosen.
He leaned around her to open a panel under the television that housed more games. She stiffened at his closeness, watching as he replaced the game she’d chosen for another. “This game, we can all play.”
He paused, looking her over again. Whatever he observed, he let it be.
She moved away in small increments while Daniel loaded the game. She sat on the center of the couch across from the TV while Danial fished four controllers from another hidden cubby.
He dropped a controller in Dee’s hands. “Let’s go, champ. Let’s show these stiffs what you can do.”
She chuckled, not sure her skills in the virtual world would compare to those in this one.
Daniel took a seat next to her, holding the remaining controllers towards the pair of statues staring blankly over the room. “I know you want to play.”
The male Soldier, Boots, looked at the controller, then at Daniel, before shooting a searching glance at Dee, then back to his stare into nothing.
Daniel jiggled the controller at the end of an outstretched arm. “C’mon. We can do just as good a job protecting her from the couch as we can standing at the edge of the room. Who’s going to get to her here? You secured the plane, didn’t you?”
“Kora’s team did.” Boots’ voice was gruff. Dark eyes took in his surroundings with intelligent inspection, and the scars on his arms and hands told a history of his experience with fighting. History that developed him into the power Dee felt knocking in her skull.
“If anyone can secure a plane properly, it’s definitely Kora.”
Amrae gave a quiet laugh, hesitating only a second before she followed Boots to the couch and took an offered controller. “Alright, let’s do this.”
Dee watched the female take a seat next to her much larger partner, posture stiff. Her features told of an origin somewhere in Eastern Asia. Dee wondered how old she was and the story that had landed her as one of the most powerful creatures to walk the Earth.
Shaking questions from her head, Dee settled her controller in her hands and prepared for war.
19
In the mere moments they’d had to prep Dee for her trip to Zibanitu’s, Regina had explained some things about what to expect, especially about Porrima and her notorious attitude.
Long ago, Porrima abandoned her own House to better help Zibanitu fight for harmony between the others. On paper, Porrima seemed the epitome of selfless, as she’d forsaken her position of power to serve a greater good. In reality, she was simply a busybody who couldn’t bear being outside the sphere of decision making. Zibanitu, long the one looked to for final assistance in problem-solving, had excepted her as his right hand, thus securing her importance. Whether because of the weight she gave her standing, or because she secretly hated her place as almost-in-charge, her disposition was meddlesome a
nd domineering.
“She’s overly critical of everything. Don’t let her down-the-nose-glare rattle you. It’s Zibanitu’s opinion that matters. He’s not known to be unjustly harsh.”
They were interesting words, especially as Dee had grown to understand Zibanitu as an enemy of Zosma. She supposed even an enemy had redeeming qualities, and Regina and Zosma were enlightened enough to admit those of theirs.
Despite the significant gaps in Dee’s knowledge, she was glad for any information. Every piece of history she gathered might one day be put together into a greater whole that would assist her in claiming her life.
As if conjured by Dee’s thoughts, Porrima’s cold power pressed towards them. Stifling a sigh, Dee put down her controller, triggering complaints from the others. Her chin nod towards the back of the plane was enough of a heads-up for the trio to rush to their feet. While Dee reclined on the couch, her guards settled around the room, perfect models of professionalism.
Porrima stopped just over the threshold to the area with a disdainful sniff. Ready for the Rishi’s scorn, Dee met her eye with a raised brow, daring the Rishi to explain her problem. Not giving in to the challenge, or not noticing Dee’s silent inquiry, Porrima turned away. Dee watched in confusion until the Rishi’s voice commanded, “Are you coming?”
Dee hated herself for scrambling off the couch.
Taking a right through a narrow door down a narrow hall put the pair in a small office. Porrima moved directly to the high-backed chair situated behind a polished desk. A bank of television screens took up the top half of the wall across from the door, and two high-backed chairs in front of the desk filled the rest of the room.
Gestured to sit in one of the empty chairs, Dee hesitated only a fraction of a second before obeying. Pulled more by the smell of coffee and sugar set between the chairs than by Porrima’s command, Dee set her attention on the plate of pastries rather than the Rishi across from her. The smell of coffee pushed Porrima’s behavior from an eight to a four.
We Are Forever (Rishi's Wish Book 2) Page 13