strongholdrising

by Lisanne Norman

  “Told you,” said Carrie, glancing at Kaid. “You owe me.”

  “A bet?” murmured Vanna. “Your family relationships have to be the most complex I’ve ever come across, Kaid.”

  Kaid smiled faintly. “I try to keep you Challenged, Vanna.”

  “You can tell me the truth. Who is he? Your father? The blood tests suggest he is. Must be very strange having a father half your age.”

  Kaid frowned. “I’m not that old, Vanna.”

  “Rezac’s only twenty-three.”

  “He’ll have his fill of fatherhood soon,” said Kaid. “Enough to age him! I wish him joy of it. It isn’t as easy as he thinks.”

  “You’ll feel differently about your own cub,” said Vanna confidently, her hand going instinctively to her own belly. “Only seven weeks left for Garras!” she laughed. “You males are as broody as us, though you try to pretend you aren’t! He can’t wait.”

  She leaned forward to scratch Carrie’s cub affectionately under the chin. “And don’t think you know it all because you’ve lived in the same house as Kashini,” she said. “When it’s your own newborn, it’s another matter entirely.”

  “I’ll take your word for it, Vanna,” he murmured, feeling even more unsure about the forthcoming major upheaval in his life.

  Carrie stood up, hefting Kashini onto one hip. “Can we get Kusac now? I don’t know why you wouldn’t let me bring Kashini to see him before now, Vanna. She knows he’s back and has been really distressed at not being able to see him. She’s been touching his belongings and whimpering.”

  “She’s too powerful a telepath, Carrie. Kusac might have his own residual psi ability suppressed, but we can still pick up his mental state. Until now, he’s not been settled enough to be in her company.”

  “Any news about Kusac’s test results at the Guild?”

  Vanna shook her head, ears dipping back. “Nothing we didn’t already know. The general consensus is to let his mind heal and hope that the tendrils die off or weaken of their own accord.”

  “Hurry up and wait,” Carrie murmured as her friend got to her feet.

  “I hear your father’s due here in a few days,” said Vanna, changing the subject. “Are you looking forward to seeing him? It’ll be the first official visit by a Keissian, or Terran, Leader.”

  “I don’t know, to be honest. He was never fully reconciled to my marriage to Kusac, or Kashini’s birth. Thankfully, Konis and Father Lijou kept the worst of the news from him until we reached Haven. It’s only a flying visit at least.”

  “He hasn’t seen your daughter yet, has he?” asked Vanna shrewdly.

  “Not yet. But he will.”

  *

  For Kusac, the days in Vanna’s ward had passed in a slow, repetitive haze. He found he hadn’t either the interest or energy to do much beyond lie on his bed watching whichever entertainment channel the nurse switched on for him each morning. A small part of him was aware that this was due to the medication he was given twice a day, but he knew the futility of arguing over it so he endured. It wasn’t till Carrie and Kaid came for him that he roused himself, and then it was only because of his cub.

  With a delighted squeal, his daughter launched herself at him, landing on the bed then scrambling onto his chest where she fixed her claws deep into his pelt, pulling herself up to reach his face. Anchoring herself with hind legs and one hand, she began to lick furiously at his face, purring loudly. Something inside him began to stir as he held her close.

  They’d brought a choice of clothes for him: the Brotherhood robe or one of his civilian tunics. He looked up at them blankly, incapable of making a decision.

  Kaid picked up the tunic and handed it to him. “Wear this. It’s hot outside. The robe will likely be too warm.”

  He accepted it from him but continued to sit there holding Kashini.

  Carrie reached out and took the cub from him amid loud protests from her. “I’ll hold her while you dress,” she said quietly.

  He was halfway through obediently putting his tunic on when the first spark of resentment woke. He quashed it and finished dressing, anxious to hold his daughter again.

  In an awkward silence they walked down the village main street till they reached the villa. Kusac was barely aware of the furtive stares thrown in his direction by the odd passersby as he concentrated on holding Kashini close, feeling her tiny heart beating against his chest.

  A hand touched his arm, bringing him to a stop as they entered the grounds leading up to the front of the house. Carrie: he’d forgotten she was there.

  “You can put her down now,” she said. “She likes walking and the ground here’s safe for her feet.”

  Again, he found himself obediently about to disentangle his daughter’s hands from his tunic, and stopped abruptly.

  “No,” he said, shocked by his own boldness. “She wants to be with me. Why didn’t you bring her to see me sooner?”

  “I couldn’t, Kusac. Vanna wouldn’t let me till today.”

  Kaid put a hand on his shoulder, making him look around sharply at him.

  “She said you needed to rest, Kusac. You were very ill with a brain fever for two days.”

  He looked at Kaid, narrowing his eyes against the glare of the sun. Vague memories of being pushed down a long corridor on a floater came to mind, then they were gone, lost in the haze.

  “Let’s get you in out of the sun,” said Kaid. “It’s too hot for any of us after the time we’ve spent on air-conditioned ships.”

  He nodded slowly, letting the other male urge him on toward the house. Once inside, he followed Kaid to the den, pausing on the threshold and looking past him down to the lower level.

  T’Chebbi looked up from the small comm unit she’d been using. “Look lot better than last time I saw you,” she said, mouth dropping in a smile. “How you feeling?”

  “Better,” he agreed, trying to hide the surprise he felt at finding her in the private inner sanctuary of his home. He looked around the den.

  Sunlight filtered in through the fine muslinlike drapes that hung over the clear doors leading out onto the garden beyond. The dark paneled wooden floor and walls were broken up by the brightly colored rugs and tapestries that he remembered so well. All was as it had been— before— but it no longer felt like his place of refuge.

  Kashini touched the still tender scar on his neck, painfully drawing his attention back to her. Flinching, he reached up and took her tiny hand in his. “I’ll take Kashini upstairs,” he said, turning away from the room.

  “I’ll come with you,” said Carrie.

  “No!” he said sharply. “I want some time alone with my daughter.”

  Let him be alone, sent Kaid. We both have bio-monitor alerts and Vanna said we didn’t need to keep a close watch on him provided we know he’s taken his medication. He needs time to adjust to being home again.

  The door shut behind him with a finality that made Carrie shiver. “It’s like he’s shutting us all out,” she murmured, walking down the steps into the lower level.

  “He kept to himself even on the Couana,” said T’Chebbi. “Last time he saw me I was yelling at him and making him throw up. Maybe I should leave, go back to Brotherhood house in village.”

  “No, I want you to stay,” said Carrie, touching her friend on the head gently as she passed her. “You have every right to be here, you’re Kaid’s Companion, and family.”

  T’Chebbi closed the comp down. “Can come visit me nights you want to, can’t you Kaid?” She grinned at him as he came down into the room. “Like old times, eh?”

  “Carrie’s right, there’s no reason for you to leave,” said Kaid, going over to the hot plate. “Kusac has to get used to being among people again. Better he does it here with those he knows and trusts.”

  CHAPTER 6

  Shola, Zhal-Ghyakulla 17th day (June)

  “HE does nothing but stay in the nursery,” said Carrie in exasperation. “Dzaka and Kitra have had to move out and go live at th
e main villa. I can’t get him to show a spark of interest in anything but Kashini!”

  “What about the estate?” asked T’Chebbi, wiping a piece of bread round her plate to mop up the last of her egg yolk.

  “Tried that. Says Garras is doing a better job than he could.”

  “Training?”

  “Too tired, yet he sleeps when Kashini sleeps, which is most of the day and all night!”

  “The Touibans?”

  “Says it needs a telepath to work with them and Mara’s coping, plus his father wants her to train up in AlRel. I’ve tried everything I can think of!”

  “The digging in the hill?” persisted T’Chebbi.

  “Again, too tired! This lethargy isn’t right, T’Chebbi. Vanna’s drugs are too strong. They need to be reduced.” She thumped her mug down on the table.

  “Then speak to Vanna about it,” said Kaid calmly. “I think the dose is right, for now at least. You’re just getting wound up over the arrival of your father.”

  “I won’t have him see Kusac in this state,” she said. “That is, if I can pry him out of the nursery in the first place!”

  “Speak to Vanna,” he repeated. “You’ve a couple of days before your father arrives. That should be time enough.”

  “I’m doing this for Kusac’s sake,” she said. “It isn’t fair my father should see him so brought down by medication. Not just that, he needs to get an interest in life here again. He needs a reason other than Kashini to live.”

  Kaid reached across the table and placed his hand over hers. “I understand,” he said quietly. “And you’re right. In the long term, he does need to take up what he can of his old life. But he also needs time for his mind to heal, without pressure from us. I’ll come with you to see Vanna.”

  “Thanks,” she said. “I’d appreciate that.”

  Kaid gave her hand a gentle squeeze before letting it go and looking over at T’Chebbi. “You should feed yourself better,” he said, knowing her tendency to skip meals when she was staying in the Brotherhood house. “Or move back here. How are Rezac, Jo, and Zashou settling in at Ruth’s?”

  T’Chebbi’s mouth dropped open in a slight smile as she pushed her plate aside. “Well, Jo needs Humans around her even more because of the cub,” she said. “Ruth’s so practical, she’s just what all three of them need. As for Rezac, he’s taken to training with Garras like one born to it. Can see where you get it from,” she grinned at Kaid. “We got Zashou up at the diggings with Touibans. Great help her knowing where everything was, what used for. Bodies and vehicles confuse her, though. As she says, they left monastery for Stronghold. Remains are nothing to do with them, so whose are they?”

  “I’ve been thinking about that,” said Carrie. “There were members of Zashou’s family who refused to leave, non-telepath members. Perhaps it involved them.”

  “Perhaps, but remember, the floods came within two or three days of us leaving here for Stronghold. Whatever it was happened almost immediately after we left,” said Kaid.

  Carrie nodded. “Vartra’s people left partly because of our warning that the remains of a firefight had been found. There were Valtegans posted nearby, in a city called Khalma. Zashou said the small peninsula it was on was destroyed in the Cataclysm, washed away by the tidal waves. The Valtegans knew what was coming. What if some of them who couldn’t be evacuated headed here as the nearest high ground? And the Aldatans would head there. That gives you the reason for the fight.”

  “You could be right. We may never know unless Zashou recognizes something among the belongings we found with the Sholan remains. Has she been shown them?”

  “Not yet, but Jack said he’d show her today. Any news yet on what’s happening with Ambassador Taira’s attempted abduction of Kate and Taynar?”

  “Falma helped them write out affidavits which they then swore with Konis as the local Judge. They’ve been sent to the Chief Protector at Shanagi. He’s preparing a special warrant ordering the ambassador to attend a hearing the day after the new ambassadors arrive. Shola’s hosting the Allied Worlds Council for the next two years.”

  “I thought Taira had diplomatic immunity.”

  “He has, but I don’t think any of the other Alliance Worlds will support him when he complains. Abducting minors of any species is a serious crime on every world. My gut feeling is that the others will see the possibility of it happening to them and will uphold the warrant. Especially as they’ll all know about the Chemerians withholding knowledge of the Free Traders from the Alliance and passing off Trader imports as their own goods. The Chemerians can’t deny that charge when members of the U’Churian and Cabbaran worlds are sitting opposite them.”

  “What about the Primes and the TeLaxaudin?” asked T’Chebbi.

  “The Primes are a special case. We can only grant them Associate membership in the Alliance at this time, though if all goes well, I’m told their status will be reviewed at the end of a year,” replied Kaid. “They’ll join Earth and Jalna round the table at a lower level of discussions on Alliance policy and trade. We can’t afford to take chances with them. The TeLaxaudin are due later this month.”

  “Glad they’re being so cautious,” said T’Chebbi. “Was afraid Primes’d be granted full status and be privy to defense plans against Valtegans.”

  “The Primes are Valtegans,” said Carrie, her voice hard. “Am I the only one to remember that?”

  Kaid sighed. “No, but we need them, Carrie. It was only one faction that was responsible for what happened to us, not all of them.”

  “I want to find out exactly who else was involved and if they’ve taken samples from us for a breeding program.” She looked from Kaid to T’Chebbi. “You do realize what we’re talking about here, don’t you? The possibility that they may use those samples to create hybrid cubs. They’d be our cubs— yours, Kaid, and mine and Kusac’s, as well as Rezac, Kate and Taynar’s!”

  “They need a female Human or Sholan to implant any fertilized eggs into, Carrie. We’ve been through this,” said Kaid. “Without a host, they can do nothing beyond observe early cell division. No embryo has been successfully grown in an artificial womb.”

  “Not on Shola,” she corrected.

  “Not on any Alliance world— the old Alliance at least, but I doubt that the other species have managed it either. And even if they had, they’d have to duplicate our hybrid womb environment, not use a Valtegan one, or a TeLaxaudin.” Kaid pushed his chair back. “Father Lijou and Master Rhyaz are dealing with it, Carrie. If there’s anything to find out, they’ll find it, believe me. You’re getting yourself worked up about nothing. Why don’t we head over to Vanna’s now and talk her into coming to see Kusac?”

  *

  It was the third time in the last week that Kaid had called Noni. As the comm screen cleared, once more he found himself facing Teusi.

  “May the sun shine on you today, Tallinu,” Noni’s apprentice said.

  “And you,” said Kaid automatically, trying not to let his impatience sound in his voice. “Where’s Noni?”

  “Unavailable, I’m afraid. I have passed your messages on to her.”

  “And what did she say?” he asked, ignoring the slight note of reproach in the other’s voice.

  “She’ll get back to you when she can. She’s very busy right now, setting up the new surgery at Stronghold.”

  He frowned, eye ridges meeting above his nose. “She’s avoiding me, isn’t she?” he said, angry now that he was having this conversation with Teusi. It wasn’t Noni’s way to let Teusi deal with callers, and certainly never him.

  “I’m afraid that isn’t for me to say,” replied Teusi, keeping his voice and expression carefully neutral.

  “Dammit, Teusi! Stop giving me the runaround!” he snapped. “I know her well enough to recognize when she’s avoiding me! What I don’t know is why!”

  “I’m afraid I…”

  “Teusi,” said Kaid warningly, clenching the edge of the desk out of the other’s line
of sight. “I need to know. One way or another, she’s refused to speak to me since I got back from Haven. What’s up?”

  “You invoked kin on her.” This time the unspoken reproof was noticeable in the set of his ears as well as his voice.

  “That’s why I want to talk to her.” He hadn’t missed the slight movement of Teusi’s head to one side.

  “You had no right to…”

  “I have every right,” he interrupted. “This is none of your concern. I know she’s there. Tell her I brought kin of hers, and mine, back with me from Jalna.”

  “She has none.”

  “Not from this time,” said Kaid. “But then neither am I.”

  “Who you brought back with you, boy?” Noni’s voice demanded harshly from off-screen.

  “Rezac Dzaedoh.”

  Teusi disappeared to be replaced by Noni. She stared out of the screen at him, brown eyes almost black with anger.

  “I’m listening.”

  This was a Noni he’d never met before. He’d seen her as angry with others, but never him. “He’s my father, Noni. He’s the one we went to Jalna to rescue, whose mind touched Carrie’s here on Shola as Jo’s team released him and his Leska from the stasis cube. He’s from the time of Vartra and the Cataclysm.”

  “I remember,” she interrupted. “You said nothing about him being my kin.”

  “I didn’t know myself till we rescued them.”

  “How do I know you’re not lying?”

  His ears flattened to his skull in a mixture of anger and disbelief that she could accuse him of such a thing. “I’ve never lied to you, Noni,” he said. “Taynar Arrazo asked him his clan name, in front of all my people.”

  She snorted contemptuously. “Then he’s lying.”

  “Why are you trying so hard to deny the relationship?” he asked, realizing she was attempting to manipulate him through anger. “I think it’s time you gave me some answers, Noni. Why did you take an interest in a cub found abandoned near Vartra’s Retreat when you were known to dislike all younglings? Why let him come plaguing you every day with his questions till you started teaching him your craft, taking him on walks to learn the plants for healing, showing him how to make up the potions and salves? You kept that interest in him over the next twelve years to the point where you even made him your apprentice.” He dropped his voice. “Why did you help him escape the Protectors when he killed his foster father? Why go to the Brotherhood and persuade them to find him, pull him from the heart of the Claw Pack in Ranz, make him one of theirs and have the Protectorate wipe his slate clean? Why did you do all that for someone who meant nothing to you— unless you felt the pull of blood, Noni?”