That roused him. They’d found Carrie. He prayed she was still in cryo because if she was, then it would be easier for him to face their inevitable deaths. “I’ll tell you nothing,” he said.
Another blow to his face sent him sprawling sideways across the bed.
“I didn’t give you leave to speak. Make no mistake, you’ll tell me everything I want to know. Eventually.” J’koshuk hissed quietly. “Especially if you want news of your Human female.”
As he pushed himself upright again, he realized what was wrong about this whole situation. J’koshuk had known his name. More, he knew about telepaths, and that Carrie was mentally linked to him. How had he found out? Surely none of the others would have told him?
“So she’s a telepath too?” The Valtegan’s voice was silky quiet.
He looked up sharply, realizing even as he cursed himself that he must have spoken aloud. What kind of drugs were they using on him? “She’s nothing to me,” he said, bracing himself for the pain he knew would come.
*
When it finally stopped, he lay there panting, waiting for the agony to subside.
“You lied to me,” he heard the priest say coldly. “I know that she’s your mate, that you’re linked mentally. You hurt only yourself by lying.”
“Then why ask me?” he gasped.
“Why did your people come to Keiss?”
If you’re taken, don’t try to play the hero, Kaid had said. There’s no one alive that can’t be broken, Kusac. All it takes is time and the right levers. Tell them what you can, what will do us the least damage. That way you might survive long enough to escape. It’s a game that you can only win by escaping or dying. Put a few lies in with the truth. Misinformation will help us, but be careful what you say because if you get it too wrong, they’ll kill you. They’ll know they can’t trust your answers, and you’ll no longer be of any use to them.
They mustn’t find out that Shola hadn’t been destroyed, that was what mattered here, not him, not Carrie. Their species’ survival was at stake.
“We were off-world when you destroyed our planets. We were looking for more of our kind when we found Keiss,” he said. He’d barely stopped speaking before the pain started again.
*
He felt disembodied, unable to concentrate on what the priest was saying as his hearing and consciousness kept fading in and out. Gradually he became aware of a throbbing in his face as he felt it being repeatedly slapped in an effort to bring him round. Eventually he found the strength to lift an arm to try and fend off the blows.
“We came to find missing crew,” he repeated slowly. “I told you, we didn’t know about the Humans.”
“How is it that you’re able to connect mentally and even breed with them?”
That was easy. “Vartra did it. He made us compatible.”
“Vartra? Who is this Vartra?”
“Our God. He did it. A blessing for some, a curse for others, to be Linked to a Human,” he mumbled.
“Was he your ruler? Did he die when we destroyed your worlds?”
He began to laugh as he squinted up at the priest. It hurt, but he couldn’t help it. Here he was, telling the literal truth, and no one in their right mind could possibly believe him.
“He’s dead all right, died over a thousand years ago!”
Pain exploded through his body again, but this time, mercifully, he passed out.
Stronghold, Zhal-S’Asha, 18th day (October)
He came to with a start, looking wildly around the room, needing to touch the table, then the chair on which he sat, before he could believe he was really in the Senior lounge at Stronghold rather than on the Kz’adul. A shiver ran through him as he tried to dispel the memories of the pain and humiliation he’d suffered at the hands of J’koshuk.
In a way, he was grateful to the priest for stripping away the last of his illusions. Up until then, he’d led the privileged and protected life of a telepath, been sheltered from the harsher realities. He now knew the only constant in life was pain, everything else was transitory, a break or brief diversion, like his Link with Carrie. While they’d been Leskas, he’d been freed from the debilitating pain ordinary telepaths experienced if they tried to fight— their own and that of those they hurt. That respite had gone, replaced by something worse— the inability to even try to use what remained of his psi abilities without experiencing the agony brought on by the filaments left embedded in his brain by the Primes’ implant.
Sitting up, he scrubbed at his face then ran his hands over his ears and through his hair, pulling it back from his face. Episodes like this one had been lessening recently to the point where he’d thought they were finally over: he should have known better. He looked at his wrist comm; barely an hour had passed. It had seemed longer. Dawn was still four hours away.
Resting his arms on the table, he lowered his head to rest on them and closed his eyes. He needed some sleep before he left for the spaceport, but he couldn’t sleep, not while Carrie was in labor bearing the cub she and Kaid shared— the cub whose very conception had saved the lives of all three of them.
The mixture of drugs and the neural disruptor in the collar he’d worn on the Kz’adul had isolated him completely from his Leska Link with her. She’d not been so lucky. Awakened long before him, the time bomb that was their compulsion to mate every fifth day had been ticking away slowly from the moment they’d brought her out of cryo to operate on the near-fatal wound she’d received on Jalna. Only the fact they’d kept putting her back in a reduced stasis field had enabled her to survive.
As soon as they’d awakened him from cryo, because of their separation, their deaths would have been inevitable had it not been for the fact they were a Triad. Unable to reach him mentally, Carrie’s mind had subconsciously found Kaid’s and begun to bond with him. He’d been there when time had finally run out. Pairing with him wouldn’t have been enough; what had swung the balance was her fertility because of the Primes’ removal of her contraceptive implant. He owed his life to this cub, he had to wait till she was born, not least because as her Triad-father, he felt responsible for her.
He remembered when Carrie had given birth to their daughter, Kashini. She’d been so afraid, and in such pain. He remembered it well because he’d shared it through their Leska Link. He should be there now, sharing her pain with Kaid— he needed to be there! Anger and resentment flared as he thought of the message that had arrived at Haven a week ago. Damn them! All he’d wanted from life was to raise cubs with her and run his estate, instead of which, there she was with Kaid doing just that while he was the one heading off alone on a mission that was probably nothing more than an elaborate trap!
The torc around his neck began to vibrate gently, warning him. He clasped his hand to it, forcing himself to take slower breaths and turn his thoughts inward to the litanies, trying not to think of Kaid, the sword-brother who had taught them to him a lifetime ago. Slowly, very slowly, he became calmer and the vibration ceased.
*
Dawn was lighting the sky when he heard the door open again.
“Word’s just come from Noni. The cub’s been safely delivered and Carrie’s fine. It’s a daughter,” said Rhyaz.
Tiredly, Kusac lifted his head to look at the Brotherhood Warrior Master. His night’s vigil, haunted as it had been by memories, had exhausted him. “I know. Are the others ready?”
“They’re at the spaceport, yes, but we still haven’t got access to the Couana yet.”
“Then get Captain Kisha onto it,” he said, pushing his seat back from the table and getting to his feet. “If you can’t do it, I’m sure he can find an excuse to get Shaayiyisis out of the Couana long enough for your people to get my crew and supplies on board. Someone’s going to have to so we can take it. Just make sure it’s fully fueled. Three-day jumps drain the reservoirs.”
“We’ve a day’s margin yet, Kusac. There is no need to accelerate the mission like this.”
“I’m leaving now,” he sa
id, ignoring the censure in Rhyaz’s tone as he brushed past him into the corridor. He stopped, turning round to look at the Brotherhood Warrior Master. “Do you really want to run the risk of Carrie’s mind automatically Linking to mine again now her cub’s born? You’re the one who insisted I go on this mission in the first place!” He put all the anger and sarcasm he could into his tone.
“That’s a million to one chance, Kusac,” Rhyaz said uncomfortably, refusing to meet his gaze. “If you’re going, you’d better leave now. I’ll speak to Captain Kishasayzar. The disruptor will only give you a two hour window in which to launch the Couana without being tracked and followed by the Forces.”
“I thought as much,” he said, reaching out to place his hand on the Guild Master’s chest. Slowly he extended his claws and grasped hold of Rhyaz’ tunic. “You owe me for this, Rhyaz, and I’ll be back to collect, no matter what happens. Remember that.”
Shola, Zhal-Zhalwae, 22nd day (May)
“You didn’t have me brought all the way out to Stronghold for a social chat, Lijou. I think it’s time you told me what this is about,” said Konis as he settled himself in the easy chair. “It can’t be bad news or you’d have given it to me at home.”
Lijou handed him a mug of c’shar before sitting down opposite him and placing his own mug on the small table beside them.
“We’ve had news from the Profit about your son.”
Konis sat up, hands clutching the chair arms, ears flaring wide to catch every nuance. “Get on with it, then!”
“I couldn’t tell you sooner because, until last night, we only knew that Carrie and Kaid were safe,” he began, but his friend interrupted him.
“Not Kusac? What happened to him? Is he all right? Where was he?” His questions came tumbling out in a rush.
“Konis, please hear me out,” said Lijou reaching out to touch him briefly. “When I’ve finished, you can ask all the questions you want, even speak to Carrie yourself.”
“Dammit, Lijou! Get to the point! How is my son?”
“He’s safe. We got him back last night during an exchange of hostages.”
“Hostages? They were captured then?” His friend’s voice was hushed now, and laced with fear.
“The Profit flew into a Valtegan trap just before it was due to go into jump. Then, barely a day later, both ships were taken by another craft that had been watching the Valtegans.” He stopped, wondering what to say next. “To cut it short, Konis, it turned out this larger ship belonged to another faction of Valtegans, the Primes, from the world that spawned them originally. They were on their way here seeking a treaty with us against the Valtegans that destroyed our two colonies and took Keiss from the Humans.”
“There are two worlds of Valtegans?” Konis asked faintly.
“More, four in all, but we can discount the fourth. Since their Cataclysm, it’s stayed at a technological level similar to that of the Jalnians. The Valtegans we encountered at Keiss are known as the M’zullians, and they’re at war with those from J’kirtikk, their third world. The ones that took the Profit and the Valtegan ship are very different from them. For a start, they don’t have a psychotic hatred of us.”
Konis blinked in confusion, obviously making a visible effort to absorb what Lijou was saying. “It was the Primes who took them and held them prisoner?”
Even as Lijou flicked his ears in an affirmative, he realized he was not making a good job of this explanation. “Yes and no. As far as the Commander of the Kz’adul was concerned, the crew and passengers of the Profit were guests kept confined to their quarters. It was the M’zullian Valtegans who were the prisoners.”
“Then how did my son come to be a hostage?”
“It seems one member of the Prime crew, a Dr. Chy’qui, the medical officer in charge of some of our people, had other plans. An adviser to their Emperor, he was against this hoped-for treaty with us. He used his privileged position on the crew to imprison and antagonize our people to the point where he hoped the treaty would be impossible.”
“Antagonize? How? And how did this result in Kusac being a hostage?”
“It’s complicated, Konis. Carrie was brought out of cryo and healed of her injuries but Kusac was awakened much later and kept separate from everyone.”
Konis closed his eyes. “Their Leska Link! How did they survive?”
“The only way they could, just like Mara and Josh did when Zhyaf died. Because of their Triad, Kaid was able to form a Leska Link with Carrie.”
“And my son? What about him? You said he was alive. Zhyaf had to die for Mara and Josh to form their Link.” His ears were folding back against his skull and his fear was an almost palpable presence in the room.
“Kusac is alive, Konis, I assure you of that. He was kept separate from them because, according to this Physician Chy’qui, he had a series of life-threatening seizures as they revived him. He took the drastic step of implanting Kusac with a TeLaxaudin device in the hope that it would stabilize him. Apparently it did.”
Konis sat there as if carved in ice while everything around him seemed to slow down. Little things suddenly became vital to him, like the sound of birds cooing, the chirping of their chicks, and the ray of sunlight that suddenly fell on Lijou’s face, highlighting the streaks of white in the hair and pelt framing his face.
“Implanted where?” he asked finally in a hushed voice.
Lijou realized Konis had already guessed the answer. “In his brain. They saved his life, Konis,” he said quickly, leaning forward. “But it seems as if he’s lost his Talent.”
“You mean he can’t…” Konis stopped, unable to say the words.
“It’s as if he’s mind-dead,” said Lijou quietly. “I’m sorry, Konis. I wish the news hadn’t been so dark, but at least we have him back alive.”
“Without his Leska and his Talent, he might as well be dead,” said Konis numbly, looking away from his friend. “What kind of life is that for him, Lijou?”
“It may not be permanent. During the exchange there was an incident, an attempt on the life of our hostage, Prince Zsurtul. One of the M’zullians was controlling Kusac through the implant to make him aggressive. Kusac— neutralized— him by drawing on the energy of our other telepaths and triggering that gestalt he and Carrie have.”
Konis looked up at Lijou. “Neutralized? You mean killed, don’t you? Perhaps he suffered a backlash, or maybe fear of what he did is blocking his Talent.”
Lijou could hear the hope in his friend’s voice. “This is my thought, and Carrie’s and Kaid’s. With the help of the TeLaxaudin physician, the implant has been removed and Kusac is no longer being controlled by it, but it has left components in his brain. Components that even the TeLaxaudin physician can’t remove, though he’s working on it for us. We’re doing everything we can for him, Konis, but we don’t have any Telepath medics at Haven.”
“Then there’s still hope,” said Konis, his ears beginning to rise again. “We have the best Guild Physicians on Shola available at Valsgarth, Lijou. If anything can be done, they’re the ones to do it.”
“They are. We’ve had some good news, though— the TeLaxaudin home world has contacted us. They’ll meet us at Jalna in a few days’ time to sit at the negotiating table. That means a treaty with them, and an exchange of ambassadors. Which also means an official channel through which to ask them to continue their research into helping Kusac regain his Talent.”
Konis leaned forward to take hold of his mug, taking a sip from his drink. “They had a three-way Link, Lijou. One far stronger than Mara and Josh had with Zhyaf.”
“I know, Konis. That Link’s what saved them.”
“There’s always a chance that when his Talent returns, his Link with Carrie will reestablish itself.”
“There is,” said Lijou, hoping his friend was right. To have had a love so closely bound to oneself that you knew her thoughts from moment to moment, then to lose that Link…He hoped they’d be able to keep Kusac sane for long enough to help him
; he hoped that the same thought didn’t occur to Konis or Rhyasha.
“I want to speak to him, Lijou,” said Konis decisively, putting his mug back on the table.
“That isn’t advisable, Konis,” he said. “Talk to Carrie or Kaid. They can tell you more than Kusac at this time.”
Konis frowned. “Why not Kusac? What haven’t you told me, Lijou? Surely there can’t be worse to come?”
“He was only operated on last night, Konis. He’s still under sedation in the IC unit to make sure he has no more seizures, that’s all.”
“That’s not the whole truth, Lijou. I can tell you’re keeping something back. And you said these Primes were after a treaty with us. As head of Alien Relations, why wasn’t I informed?”
“Because we had no word on Kusac,” said Lijou quietly. “I couldn’t tell you that Kaid had led a successful escape, unaware that Kusac was still alive and on the Kz’adul. By the time they contacted us, they’d found out about him from their hostage. The blame is mine for keeping that information from you, but I couldn’t see you live in hope your son was still alive only to have it dashed if he wasn’t.”
“Just how long have you known that Kusac was alive?”
“Five days, but we didn’t know what state he was in.”
“State? I want the rest of the truth now, Lijou,” said Konis, his voice deepening in anger. “Kusac’s not mentally impaired in any other way is he? You said he’d been kept separately. What else was done to him? I had your word you’d tell us the moment there was news of him— I trusted you to do that, now I find you waited five days!”
“His mind is sound, Konis. I told you as soon as we knew the state of his health,” said Lijou. “Till then, we only had a vision of Brynne’s, or the word of the Valtegan Prince Zsurtul to depend on. Frankly, as I’ve already said, I didn’t want to tell you he was alive on the strength of either of those. You’d have done the same to me had our positions been reversed, Konis, you know you would. I was only trying to spare you pain if the worst had happened, which, thank Vartra, it didn’t.”
strongholdrising Page 3