They’d drugged him.
He looked around, blinking to focus.
They had him chained to the wall of one of the brick and mortar monk cells.
The posture felt familiar, in more ways than one.
With a little experimentation he found they’d left him enough slack to rest his hands on a table they’d dragged between him and the door. He could lie down, write, draw, even partially undress, awkwardly, if he felt so inclined. He might even have enough slack to throw the table at one of them, if he were feeling really industrious.
They’d shackled his ankles, set a bucket discreetly in one corner. They left him water, paper, pens that were useless against the semi-organic binders, a few of his books they must have pulled from Allie’s room.
They hadn’t restrained his sight, at least, so he spent the next however-long amount of time in the Barrier. He didn’t stop looking for her even when he got up to relieve himself in the bucket they’d left.
He couldn’t find her.
Which meant either someone had her, or she didn’t want to be found.
He knew he should probably be more worried about the former, but he strongly felt the latter to be the truth.
He couldn’t get Maygar’s words to him in Cairo out of his head… or the images he’d picked up from the other seers as they explained what that jurekil’a dule'ten dirtblood pup bastard had done to her. She might be furious with him. Knowing her, she might think he’d be angry with her, too. She might be embarrassed.
Whatever her reasons, he was getting increasingly frantic when he still couldn’t feel her about an hour later. He tried pinging her, calling to her, resonating with her light, apologizing.
He got no response. Nothing.
He didn’t come out of the Barrier at all until the door to his cell opened.
Clicking out, he focused abruptly on his visitor.
It was a different face than the one he’d been expecting.
Balidor stood looking at him critically, hands on his hips.
“Are you all right, brother?” he said.
Revik had thought it would be Vash. Even so, he relaxed after scanning the older seer. He didn’t feel any dire news on him. He had no complaint with the Adhipan leader himself. He’d tried to stop them, at least.
“Fine,” he said. There was no embarrassment in his voice when he added, “I’m hungry. And I pissed in there.” He nodded towards the rusted bucket. “So you might not want to get too close.”
Balidor entered further into the room. He motioned for the guard behind him to deal with the bucket in the corner.
“Good,” he said. “I’m hungry, too. I’ll request dinner for both of us.”
When Revik raised an eyebrow, Balidor merely looked around the small cell.
“This is unfortunate… this space,” he added, so that Revik wouldn’t misunderstand. “I hope you know that the restraints were a sign of respect. I knew you could get out, if I left your hands, or perhaps even just your feet, free. I didn’t want you getting in trouble for what happened today.”
He stood over the chair across from Revik, shrugging with one hand.
“They will excuse you when you are obviously out of control. But I knew that regaining rationality might not deter you. It would not me.”
He hesitated again when Revik didn’t speak.
“I wanted to update you on our search,” he added. “And to tell you there’s been a development. Several, actually.”
“Where’s my wife, Balidor?”
He held up his hands, a peace gesture. “She’s fine, brother.”
Apparently giving up on being invited, he pulled the chair out and sat, resting his arms on the water-damaged wood.
“We found her about an hour ago. She’s perfectly safe. She’s with Tarsi.”
“Tarsi?” Revik’s tension faded only a little. “How did she find Tarsi?”
Balidor gave a knowing kind of shrug. “I think it was the other way around. Tarsi claims she heard the girl ‘miles off’… called us all dogs. She gave Vash a real tongue-lashing, actually. Told him he’d raised a robot for a son, that he should have taken that ancient law off the books six hundred years ago. Vash tells me he’d never before felt her so angry.”
Revik grunted. He rested his chained hands in his lap. “Is she all right? Allie.”
“She’s fine.”
Revik shifted in his seat. After a pause, he gave the Adhipan leader an uncomfortable look. “Does she want to see me?” he said.
“I don’t know,” Balidor replied apologetically. “No one spoke to her, only Tarsi. Tarsi herself claimed she had important business with the Bridge and that no one was to come looking for her or to talk to her until she gave permission.” Pausing, he added, “Including you, my brother. I am sorry.”
At Revik’s silence, Balidor shrugged, holding out his hands.
“What could we do? It is Tarsi. We sent a guard…”
Revik gave him a sharp look.
“…Chandre,” Balidor finished, holding up a hand. “She wasn’t there for the claim, so the Bridge isn’t as likely to send her away. In addition to the more obvious reasons.”
“Where was she? Earlier today?”
Balidor gave him a puzzled look. His eyes cleared. “Chandre. Yes, she mentioned that you’d assigned her guard duty while you were away. Maygar must have foreseen this. He drugged her. She was out for more than six hours.”
Revik only nodded, but felt his muscles grow taut again.
The door opened behind Balidor.
In came two seers Revik vaguely recognized, carrying covered trays. It occurred to him that they must be Adhipan, too.
He felt a slight twinge of nerves, and glanced again at Balidor.
The man sitting before him was probably the best infiltrator the seers had ever had, on either side. If he were up to something, Revik would never know. Even with who Allie was, using the top of the food chain to guard and feed a house prisoner involved in a domestic dispute bordered on extreme.
It occurred to him to wonder if, with Allie gone, and the information he had on the Rooks pretty well used up––
Balidor slapped the table smartly with his palm.
“No!” he said. “Absolutely not.”
Revik gave him a wary look. “No disrespect meant, brother,” he said.
“I’m not offended. But you’re completely wrong about my intentions.” He smiled. “And, if you don’t mind my saying it… a little paranoid.” His smile widened. “Maybe a lot paranoid. But you come by it honestly.”
He waited for the two seers to finish arranging trays of food. They removed the wooden covers and exited the cell silently.
“Not everyone here wishes you harm,” Balidor added, picking up chopsticks as the door closed behind them. “Not all of us are equally ignorant, either. I know what you did for us, by infiltrating the Rooks. I know your mate got the succession order from you… after you sacrificed thirty years of your life and much else of yourself to get it.” He paused. “Do not think we are all your enemies, Revik. Quite the contrary. Some of us admire you a great deal.”
Doing a quick hand-blessing over his meal, he filled his chopsticks with greens, taking a drink of thick, milky tea.
He added, “I do wonder why you haven’t allowed Vash to enlighten the rest of our community as to the role you played in the events of the last year…?”
“No.” Revik made the same hand-gesture over his food, copying the other out of habit, even though he hadn’t done it in years. He pulled apart a piece of curried chicken with his fingers. “Respectfully, no. I’d prefer it if that remained between us. I’m sure Vash had his reasons for telling you––”
“He didn’t,” Balidor said. “…Tell me. I trained you for that assignment.”
He smiled at Revik’s surprise.
“Don’t worry,” he added. “I have not told anyone, not even my own people. Before, it was a security issue. More recently, Vash cautioned me that you di
d not want it widely spread.” Watching Revik eat, he added, “I do wonder, though. Would it not improve your situation here, if it were known that you joined the Rooks, not as a traitor, but as a warrior for your people? It would legitimize your courtship and marriage to the Bridge, if nothing else.”
“No,” Revik said, clicking softly. He finished chewing, then swallowed. “It would not improve my situation to tell them. Or,” he amended. “I suppose it depends on your definition of ‘improve.’ From my perspective, I see no improvement if those who have enjoyed condemning me for the past forty years suddenly wished me to come to their house for dinner.”
At Balidor’s open laugh, Revik shrugged.
“I figure I owe Alyson a certain level of civility,” he added. “But, since none of them pretends to like me anyway, I can hardly do her social damage if I drive social climbers and opportunists off our property with a gun.”
“Indeed.” Balidor laughed again. “And good. It makes my job easier.”
Revik paused, chopsticks full of greens halfway to his mouth. He finished the motion, chewing and swallowing.
“Which job is that?” he said.
“Recruiting you, my young friend. I would like you to join the Adhipan.”
Revik froze again in mid-bite. He stared at Balidor, replaying his words, still not believing them. The Adhipan almost never recruited adult seers. Revik would have been overjoyed to have been given such an honor, even a year ago––much less ten.
Now it seemed a little suspicious, given who his wife was.
Balidor took a bite of his own, chewing and swallowing before he continued.
“You won’t remember this, of course,” he said. “But you made a deal with me, all those years ago, that you would join us once your stint with the Rooks was completed. I plan to hold you to that promise, whether you remember it or not. It would be much easier to keep your involvement a secret if everyone thought you unreliable. Or, at the very least, capable of corruption.”
“Everyone is capable of corruption,” Revik said.
He was still staring at Balidor, wary.
Raising an eyebrow, Balidor smiled, shrugging with one hand.
“Perhaps,” he conceded. “But I have talked it over with Vash, and he agrees with my assessment of you. Now that you are finished with your assignment in safeguarding the Bridge, I would like you with us. Assuming you would not be adverse.”
His eyes grew more serious.
“And on that note, I have an immediate opening. A job for which I would like you to accompany my team.” He paused, taking another mouthful of greens. Chewing, he washed it down with tea.
“…Today, I mean. It will not obligate you.”
Revik stared at him.
Then he gave a short laugh, letting the chains fall loudly to the table.
“A job, huh? How interesting.”
“I know this likely seems calculated, my friend. I assure you, it is not.”
“Really?” Revik leaned against the wall. “So is this meant to distract me, then? Or simply get me off the compound legally?”
“Neither.” Balidor smiled. “Although it did perhaps occur to me that you could use some distraction right now. Tarsi says she will have your wife for at least a week. All I ask is a few days. I thought the timing rather opportune.”
Revik grunted. “For you, perhaps.”
Balidor did not laugh. “Actually, no. It is not for me, either. This is not a pleasant excursion on which I am inviting you. And I did not mean to make light of your situation. I assure you, the timing is coincidence only. I find myself short of people at a critical time, and this is an area in which you have demonstrated your expertise already.”
He leaned over the table, his elbows on either side of his plate.
Seeing that Revik was thinking about his offer, he added,
“I will leave some of my people in the woods, to back up Chandre, if you like.” He hesitated. “All females, if you prefer. I have more working for me than I generally make public.”
Revik glanced at him, then nodded. “Thanks.”
“You will do it, then?”
Revik hesitated. Glancing out the one window in the cell, he fought back a reaction in his light. The thought of leaving her here, even if he couldn’t see her, physically hurt. After that morning, it would be worse… even without what Maygar had done.
But the leader of the Adhipan was making a personal request of him. Revik had already been told he wouldn’t be allowed to see her, even if he stayed.
Hell, he didn’t even know if she wanted to see him.
They might keep him locked up if he remained here.
Logic tried to assert itself, but pain coursed through his aleimi, making it hard to think. He felt Balidor withdraw, giving him space.
Eventually, though, reason brought him back to the same conclusion.
Glancing at Balidor, he shifted his weight, nodding.
“All right.”
“Good. It is settled, then.” Balidor put down the napkin. “I must leave you bound until the plane lifts off. But then, providing you promise not to hijack my vehicle, you will be a free man.”
He rose to his feet, and Revik stared up at him, still holding chopsticks.
The Adhipan leader folded his arms. “Can you be ready in a half-hour? I will have one of my people pack you a bag.”
“Where are we going?” Revik said.
“Sikkim,” Balidor said.
TWO HOURS LATER, Revik found himself approaching a small dirt airstrip in a beat up American sedan. After a ninety-plus minute drive down the mountains and through the human town of Dharamsala, the car he shared with two of Balidor’s Adhipan left the main road, just south of the human airport. It bumped along a frontage path to a secondary field past a long stretch of banana trees.
Entering a fenced-in segment through automatic gates, the driver sped them out to the airstrip as two more seers locked the gates closed behind them.
The sedan came to a stop in front of an ancient and beat up looking Ilyushin Il-14 Russian military transport plane.
Glancing at the two seers, Revik returned their polite bows.
He got out of the car when they opened the door for him, his hands still bound in front of him. When the older of the two seers pointed him towards the plane’s open door, he walked directly to the metal staircase and began to climb.
He paused only once, to glance over the scarred wings of the plane itself. Frowning slightly at the ancient prop engines and scoring on the metal plating from bullets, he entered the oval door.
Ducking his head under the rim, he waited for his eyes to adjust to the absent glare and looked for Balidor. The Adhipan leader was alone on the plane so far, so Revik walked down the aisle and slumped into a seat across from him.
“You couldn’t have found a new plane?” he said.
Balidor glanced at him, a faint smile playing at his lips.
“We find these older models are less likely to raise questions.” He raised an eyebrow. “You aren’t afraid of flying, are you, brother?”
Revik propped his cuffed hands on the seat in front of him. “Afraid? No. Cautious when it comes to flying in things I shot at sixty years ago? Yes.”
Balidor laughed, even as he glanced back at the others now boarding. “We have made a few repairs since then.”
Revik’s eyes followed his as seven more seers entered through the same rear-wing door. They scattered themselves over the thirty-odd seats inside the plane’s cabin.
Two were the males who had driven him from Seertown. They’d been friendly enough on the way down, talking to him about the work they’d been doing tracking Terian bodies and the status of the human war.
Even so, the collective demeanor of the group put his nerves on edge. They didn’t laugh or joke, or even act like they were on the job. They all looked grim, even emotional. A pall hung over the squad, even with them shielded up tighter than any group of seers Revik had ever encountered.
> All were male but one, and, from what Revik could tell, all were older than him, the next youngest being at least three hundred years old.
The one female walked up the aisle to sit with Grent, the only seer on the plane with whom Revik had spoken more than a few words before today. Catching Revik’s eye, Grent gave him a welcoming wave. Then he glanced up at the female and his face changed, sliding from grief into a smile as she leaned over to kiss him on the face, caressing his cheek with her hand and then kissing him again.
Revik noticed the telltale then, woven into a structure of aleimi over each of their heads.
Mates. Interesting.
Revik found his mind drifting towards Allie, and shifted his focus back to Balidor.
“So what is this?” he said. “Where are we going?”
Balidor’s humor faded at once. He gave Revik a grim look. “To investigate a mass killing. A bomb of some kind. Likely several, actually. The damage is pretty phenomenal. Hundreds were killed.”
Revik nodded. He didn’t get it though. That didn’t explain the mood of the group.
“Seers?” he said, glancing around at the others.
“Brother,” Balidor said gently. “…They were children.”
There was a silence. Revik felt a knot form in his chest. Instead of loosening, it worsened with time, like someone had grabbed one of his lungs and squeezed it with their bare hand.
“Seer children,” he said. It wasn’t really a question.
“Yes. At least five hundred. Maybe as many as seven.”
Revik felt light-headed. He didn’t move for a moment. “Seven hundred.” His voice sounded far away. “It’s verified?”
Balidor nodded. “We have feed images. Underground, of course. None of the human stations are carrying it, at least not yet. We got the intel from an operative in Darjeeling. Some of the survivors fled there. We got amateur footage from the team who picked them up.”
“Source?” Revik said.
Balidor flipped his hand sideways. “Unknown. None of the ID’d Terian bodies were anywhere near the area. They’re all accounted for… the ones we know of, that is.”
Balidor hesitated.
Shield (Bridge & Sword: Awakenings #2): Bridge & Sword World Page 12