She watched him, fascinated, horrified. A man of his station did not come ringing her door bells without good reason. And when a warrior moved, cities fell and people died.
He teased out one card, pushing it with his finger towards her.
“Warrior, remember to think of the problem assailing you, before you choose each card.”
He smiled grimly. “I think of nothing else, witch.”
Witch. She let that insult pass.
He pushed two more cards to her, touching each with his fingertip, as if he were afraid of contamination.
She lifted the first card and turned it face up, revealing the half man, half cat reclining on the throne. “This is the emperor card. It represents yourself.”
His grey gaze was flint hard upon her. She dropped her attention to the new card and twisted it over: a single-towered citadel among ruins and at its base, seven cats clawed the foundations. She set it diagonally across the emperor card. “You are besieged.”
He inclined his head.
She turned up the last card, shocked. “This is the Fata Morgana. The woman of flowers. She is the sign of destiny. Your destiny.”
He sighed and leaned back in is chair, causing the fragile wood to again creak. “My fate is not determined by a woman. I make my own destiny.”
“You need allies. The citadel shows your enemies are closing upon you. You will rule, but—”
“I am not the emperor. I have no desire to sit on that throne!”
“But others will elevate you for their own reasons. You need to protect yourself. Find a realm of safety. Choose your allies well and you will survive. Choose them unwisely and you will be destroyed.”
“I need no card reading witch to tell me this. Tell me something I do not know.”
The pulses throbbed at her temples and her stomach churned. How she hated these effects of her divining gift. “The fate of your kingdom will rest on a kiss.”
He laughed and pushed himself to his feet. “Your kiss, perhaps?” He leaned across the table and lifted her chin, ran the pad of his thumb over her mouth, parting her lips. “I have never kissed a witch before.”
“Nor shall you.” She tossed her head, freeing herself, but his hand clamped around her chin, lightning fast.
“Truly?” He smiled and kissed her, stroking the point of his tongue along her lips.
The touch was like nothing she had ever experienced. Not even the mage-power could prepare her for this man’s mind-strength.
Smiling a secret male smile, conceited and satisfied, he pulled back from her.
The three cards slid across the table to rest against her hand. She stared down at them, then up at him. What did this warrior have to do with her? What need did she have for any barbarian?
“Ah damiselle, if you have to ask such a question, it is a challenge. And do you know what I say to such?”
She stared at him. He had read her mind! She swallowed against the panic, and the unfamiliar sexual awareness racing inside her.
He lifted a brow, his grey eyes narrowed, intense, predatory. He went to speak, but outside the tent they heard voices, the scrape of steel being drawn from scabbards. She pushed herself to her feet, even as he spun to face the intruders.
The soldiers rushed forward, scimitars drawn.
She invoked a spell and the dreamscape rippled around them.
They found themselves in a white marble fortress, but not the citadel of past dreams. It was the palace of an Arabian prince, of curved arches and domed ceilings strung with filigree bronze lamps, tasseled cushions and thick rugs spread across the floor. A brazier in the center of the room burned pungent jasmine incense.
A dull thud echoed around them and in response, the walls shuddered and the floor trembled. Outside she heard shouts—challenges and insults traded back and forth.
She followed the warrior through the archway and onto a battlement. Peering over the wall, nearly forty meters below, she saw armed warriors: all of them starlords, dressed in metal-studded black leather suits.
“My lord?” a voice demanded.
She turned in unison with the warrior.
A cat-wing assassin stood there, a brown leather bandoleer across his chest that bristled with knives and poisoned darts. Two curved swords were strapped to his back, a bow and quiver of arrows in his right hand. Blood oozed from a myriad of scratches over his arms. “They have breached the outer bailey.”
Something scraped against her clenched fist. Unfurling her hand, she saw the three cards materialize on her palm. “Steel is no answer to what assails this fortress.” She touched the warrior’s wrist. “Come with me.”
“Witch, I have no time—”
“No, warrior, you do not. Come with me.” She turned on her heel and returned to the chamber and settled on a cushion, cross-legged. She waved him to sit before her.
“The fate of this world will depend on a kiss. The kiss of power.”
He frowned at her, eyes narrowed, as sharp and hard as steel.
“Hold out your hands to me, palms up.”
He did as ordered, but she sensed the conflict within him. A man of action, he would have preferred to gird himself with weapons and fight to the death on the battlements, or in the bailey below, than submit to the authority of a woman. She had command over him—for perhaps a moment. And a moment might be all that was needed.
She put her hands palm down over his and laced her fingers through his.
“Close your eyes, warrior. Concentrate on me.”
He did so and she touched him, mind to mind. She sent the first tingle to him, a mind-kiss that made him shudder. More. He groaned and trembled, his body tensing, aroused.
She drew symbols before him. Mage spells made of sparking purple light. She called upon the fire, the earth, the sky, the water, the stones and the stars, each symbol erupting like a nova as she invoked their elemental spirits.
No! The voice of the starlord intruded and for the first time she heard terror in its voice.
“Listen to me, warrior. The fate of the universe lies with a kiss. My kiss.”
NO! The scream of the starlord reverberated in the dreamscape, tearing it asunder.
Gasping, Sam awoke, snapping her eyelids open, finding herself returned to the real-world prison nightmare. She sat in the center of the room, cross-legged. Clutched between her hands were the three cards Warrior-Hari had selected in the dream.
Harimal opened his eyes and for a moment she saw him struggling to orientate himself.
“Sam?” he asked, in a trembling whisper. Then his gaze rested on the cards. “That’s impossible.”
“What is?”
“You can’t bring dream-scape images into real-world time and space.”
She spread the cards on the rug before them. “They feel real to me. Look it, too.”
“This is no laughing matter.”
“Was I laughing?” She stared down at the cards, unlike any tarot deck she had seen. The borders were geometric Chizan symbols, but as she peered closer, she recognized some of the writing as Ancient Egyptian hieratic. The Emperor card resembled Hari, long waist length violet-black hair, sapphire eyes and a smile to devastate. He reclined on a throne, his arm draped across its back as he contemplated something, or perhaps someone before him. The citadel card was a tower from the Chizan palace, subtly altered. The woman in the third card had tangled red hair. She wore a green kaftan that highlighted the gold specks in her eyes.
Harimal lifted the card. “This is Fata Morgana. The woman of flowers. The faery.” He returned the card to the spread, placing one on top of the other. “This makes no sense.”
As Sam went to speak, the cards began to glow, the border symbols flaring. She picked up the Fata Morgana and felt a tingle of power transfer from the card to her fingers.
Harimal frowned. “I know these…”
“What? The symbols?”
“Mm. Power. Magic.”
“Magic isn’t real.”
“No
?”
Sam stared at him. His enigmatic smile would have made the Sphinx proud. “What are you hiding, Hari?”
“I’ll tell you—”
“This is forbidden!” the starlord’s voice rang out and moments later both Sam and Hari writhed on the floor, as fire seared their every nerve. Hari flung himself against her, taking her into his arms, drawing to himself the worst of the pain, trying to spare her. But this time it did not work.
Through her tears, Sam saw the door slide open and Andy and four humodroids rushed into the room. She was dragged free of Hari’s embrace and hurled back onto the floor. Andy stood over her.
“Give me that card, bitch, or I’ll break both of your hands this time.”
Hari leapt forward sending Andy crashing against the wall.
Sam felt the pain level increase two-fold, but Hari did not lessen his grip around Andy’s throat.
The starlord swept into the room, its chair screeching to a halt. “Stop fighting, felinus, or the woman will suffer. Yes, both her hands will be broken. Your choice.”
Harimal dropped Andy and spun to face the monster, shielding Sam with his body. “Goddamn you.”
“Oh yes, many gods have damned me.” The starlord grinned. “Pick up those cards and give them to me. Not you, cat, the woman.”
Slowly, Sam did as ordered and set the cards on the starlord’s palm.
“Interesting,” the monster said. “You have brought a new level to the dream-scape. But these are forbidden you. There is no power in the universe except that which I allow.”
“What are you afraid of?” Harimal demanded. “The magic in the cards? I’ll fry you—”
“There are many paths to power, felinus, pain is just one of them.” The starlord flicked a switch and Harimal fell to his hands and knees before the starlord. His hair spread around him like a cape and for a moment Sam saw violet lights sweep the length of every strand. Her imagination—surely?
“Ah, felinus. That power is not for you to remember. Forget!”
“The Fata Morgana…” Hari began before the pain level robbed him of consciousness.
The starlord tore the cards to shreds with his talons. “And as for you, woman-mine, you will forget this moment, too.”
“I won’t forget one moment of this prison or what you’ve done to Hari. Not one…” Screaming against the slicing pain, Sam pitched forward, her last thought was to reach Harimal…
“I guess we found it,” Taren said, eyeing the viewscreen.
John nodded. “Clever bastard.”
“Thank you.”
“Not you, the monster…the collector…using an asteroid swarm to hide from intruders. It’s gonna take hours to find our way through that field.”
Taren grinned. “Watch this.” He snapped on the particle beam and a bolt of plasma spewed from the ship’s arsenal. It took out fifty chunks of rock.
“I thought assassins prided themselves on being subtle.”
“Sam’s out there. And Hari. I don’t have time for subtle.” More beams jolted out of the arsenal, consuming rocks. Slowly, the ship pushed forward, opening up a path towards their goal—the large flat topped asteroid two hundred kilometers distant.
The Chizan fleet followed behind the assassin’s ship, blasting more rocks to dust.
“If the enemy didn’t know we were here moments ago, they know we’re here now.” John glanced at Taren.
“I am not in the mood to sneak up on anyone. You want to play cat and mouse, fine, but some other time.” Taren flapped his wings.
“Don’t ruffle your feathers at me, bird-brain.”
Taren grinned, but not from humor. John saw his clan-brother’s eyes. He had only seen that look once before and someone had died—badly. “Fry that bastard’s whiskers, Tar! But I want the pleasure of killing him.”
“It is your honor,” the assassin replied, pulverizing more asteroids.
The door slid open and two humodroids strode in, their lasers aimed.
“The woman is summoned. Stand away, felinus.”
“She’s not going with you again. Ever. Look at her. She’s depleted—”
Sam put her hand on Hari’s wrist, fingering words. Trust Me. Love. You.
“Samantha?”
She turned away, afraid if he saw her face, he would read her intent. As it was she had carefully built the mind-lattice, so that no one suspected. Especially Hari. She aimed to keep it that way until it no longer mattered. But Hari was a clever cat and he might slip through her defenses, so now she kept her distance, her gaze averted.
Straightening her shoulders, she strode from the room, the door sealing behind her with a hiss. Just one more time. How she hated that sound! Just one more time to endure it.
The humodroids’ metal feet clicked against the floor of the steel corridor and at the end of the passage a door slid away. Sam smelled that mix of ozone and musk—the starlord’s chamber was ripe with it, making her gag, yet again.
She entered the room and halted before the starlord on its chair.
“You sent for me, master?”
“Yes. For once it will be I who gives you a diversion. Look.” He waved his talon over the control arm of his chair and the VDU on the far wall flickered into life.
Sam gasped. Huge star destroyers and smaller vessels were weaving about in space, blasting asteroids to smithereens. She recognized Taren’s hunter ship and her heart lurched. The other vessels were emblazoned with the royal device of Chizan.
“Amusing, don’t you think, that they would dare attack me? I have prepared for all contingencies. The asteroid field is but one line of defense. I will keep some of these invaders alive because my zoo does need replenishing. What say you, damiselle, which ships shall I spare and which ones die?” His talon hovered over his control pad. “Choose for me.”
Taren’s ship darted between two lumbering rocks, firing simultaneously at each. Another bolt spewed forth, reaching across the void. The VDU screen image was engulfed in a fiery wavering light as the machine relayed a direct hit on the starlord’s base. Around her the chamber shuddered and the lights dimmed.
“Have no worry, damiselle, they cannot breach my security. You are safe. We are hidden far below the ground.”
She heard the dull thwack of explosions overhead.
A light flashed on the console, followed by a piercing beep. That had to be an alarm. Sam glanced at the starlord and saw its pupils dilated, felt its horror.
“Not so impervious to attack as you think, master?” She laughed. “You’re going to die.”
“I have heard that before.”
“You’re dying even as we speak.”
“All life forms die, Samantha, it is just a question of when and how. Except for me. I am immortal.”
She tossed her head and lifted her chin. “I killed you two days ago.”
The starlord’s front fangs protruded from his mouth in a grimace if ever there was one. “Indulge me with an explanation. I sense you want to savor your victory and make me cower and beg for mercy. We are so alike, Samantha. We long to conquer. We thrive on the fear we build in others.”
“I’m nothing like you.” Sam shuddered, because she suspected that the starlord was right. She wanted this bastard to squirm and squeal in terror. “When I gave you the last touch of passion, I also pressed the opposite side of your ankle. The delayed assassin’s touch.”
“Ah, the sarensen-zaer.”
Sam gaped. “But…”
“I know all there is to know of my creations. I study my enemy. Damiselle, I am not dying, by your hand or any other human.”
Harsh male laughter sounded behind them. “That’s what you think you fucking lizard-bait!” Andy strode forward, his hands fastened around a large laser pistol.
The starlord grinned, revealing its fangs. “Shoot me if you want. I know you have dreamed of it for years, ever since I tugged your ship out of earth space.” He eyed Samantha. “That is how I found him, spaced out in all ways and at my
mercy. I used the transporter and brought him here.”
“Transporter?”
“Do you think I rely on such a tedious device as a star ship to travel the galaxy? Too slow and cumbersome. I leave such to my minions. As a god, I travel—”
“He’s got a matter transporter and you and I are going to use it, Sam, and escape.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” Sam snapped.
“You’d rather die?” Andy demanded.
“Than be with you?” the starlord retorted. “You have to ask? Look at her face. She loathes you more than me and that is saying something.”
“Shut up!” Andy leapt forward and grabbed Sam by the arm. “There’s not much time. The place is getting fucked. The starlord’s lost control. Even as we speak, every door in this complex is opening. I know how to sabotage conduits.”
She struggled against his hold, fighting him every step as he dragged her across the room. He leaned against the main console next to a black-glass booth and flicked switches with his rifle muzzle. Lights flashed on the screen and the booth erupted in brilliant red light.
“I know how to use the transporter. First stop Earth and after that, you and I are going places, babe.”
Sam tore her nails across Andy’s face and he yowled, releasing her. Before Sam could recover he had grabbed her, slapping her across the cheek. She reeled back, more than was necessary. The force of the blow was less than she had previously suffered from him. Andy was losing his touch.
She allowed the momentum to spin her across the room, reaching the starlord’s chair. She used it as a shield as Andy advanced upon her.
Around them the room shuddered from more overhead explosions. Consoles crackled and some shorted out as circuitry imploded.
The starlord’s chair, linked by neural circuits to the main frame, began to vibrate. Flickering green light pulsed over its length, while acrid smoke curled up from beneath the chair. Flesh was burning—starlord flesh she presumed.
“Lizard boy’s gonna fry. Lizard boy’s gonna fry!” Andy chortled.
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