“I didn’t disbelieve you, Noni,” he said soberly.
“And this last panel,” she said, now at the top end of the sarcophagus. “Have you looked at this?”
“We can’t make sense of it,” said Lijou. “It’s just crystals set randomly into the black background.”
She laughed, looking at Kaid as he slowly stretched out his hand to touch the dark panel. “He knows what it is, don’t you, Tallinu?”
“Haven,” he said softly. “It’s Haven and the stars of the Alliance. The new Alliance.”
“It can’t be,” said Rhyaz sharply, coming round to see. He frowned, moving one way then the other. “Well I’ll be damned! You’re right! The crystals are the stars! And that painted one is Haven. How did they know about that in those days? We hadn’t even gotten beyond our own moons then.”
“Some of our telepaths had. They’d been out to the Prime worlds,” Kusac said. “We know Rezac could send as far as Shola before he became gene-altered. They must have sent images of the Valtegan Empire back home.”
“There’s more to it than that,” said Noni, standing back. “I’ll wager this panel is where His head is, isn’t it?”
“Judging by the carving of Vartra on the lid, yes,” said Lijou.
“You’re going to have to send a part of Him to Haven,” she said. “He can’t retreat from Shola then! And in space, He can help us even more.”
“Break up His body?” said Rhyaz, his voice almost inaudible.
“You can’t do that!” exclaimed L’Seuli, horrified. “That’s desecration!”
“We don’t know for sure He’s in there,” said Lijou calmly. “It could be just what we’re saying, a sculpture to honor Him.”
“He’s in there,” said Kaid, reaching up to push the lid aside. “Help me, Kusac.”
While Rhyaz and the others looked on in shocked silence, Kusac put his weight against the lid. Then Lijou joined them.
Held by a decorative metal spike at the bottom end, as the three of them pushed it, the lid began to pivot. The scent of nung blossoms filled the air as, with a grating sound, the lid slowly slid aside, exposing the interior.
“Don’t just stand there, lad,” Noni admonished Rhyaz. “Get me something firm to stand on!”
Kaid stopped, hands on the edges as he looked down onto the cloth-wrapped body lying on its bed of long dead nung flowers. This was the body of the Male who’d shaped not only his life, but that of his friends; the Male who’d spoken to him— appeared to him— from beyond the grave. A wave of light-headedness passed through him. Beside him, he heard Noni grumbling and the chair creaking as Rhyaz helped her up.
“It looks like any body ready for cremation,” said Kusac, breaking the silence.
“Cut the wrappings,” ordered Noni. “L’Seuli! Get your ass over here with that vid recorder of yours!”
“Cut it?” asked Lijou, looking across the coffin at her.
Kusac pulled his knife from his belt and handed it to Kaid.
“Cut it,” she confirmed. “See that lump there on His chest? It’s a crystal. We want it.”
“How d’you know that?” asked Lijou, peering into the coffin.
“Found references to it in some of those records we been looking through,” she said, looking up at him. “Back then, when their leaders were dying, they gave them a special crystal, one of the kind I use for mind workings. They did it so what they wanted folk to remember of them after they were gone could be recorded. Then when they died, they buried it with them. That’s why to this day we still put a crystal in with the ashes up here in the Highlands.”
Taking the knife, almost in a daze, Kaid leaned forward and carefully slit the thick shroud. It parted easily, revealing the desiccated remains of a male Sholan. Between both hands lay a large faceted crystal.
With a muffled cry of shock, Lijou stepped back.
Noni looked over at him, grinning evilly as Rhyaz averted his face. “What’s the matter, Father? Not afraid of a dead body, are you?”
Lijou, ears invisible against his head, said nothing.
Hands shaking, Kaid stood up and returned the knife to Kusac. His sword-brother was right: it looked like any other corpse ready for cremation. Somehow, he’d expected something more. He looked over at Noni. “Don’t ask me to pick it up.”
She nodded, stepping down from the chair with Rhyaz’ help and coming round to stand beside him.
He didn’t want to do this. To actually touch Vartra’s corpse, move those desiccated hands and take His crystal from Him was not at all what he wanted to do.
Kusac bent over the edge of the sarcophagus and, carefully unfastening the mummified fingers from the crystal, picked it up. As he overbalanced at the unexpected weight, Kaid had the presence of mind to grab him by the belt and haul him upright again.
Kusac turned and held it out to him. “Here.”
He eyed it warily, not quite sure what it could do to him. Cautiously, he closed his hands round it, his fingers touching Kusac’s as he did so.
*
Light flared, blinding him with its intensity. Kaid’s presence exploded in his mind as a power greater than the gestalt flooded through them, forcing down both their mental barriers, paralyzing their bodies.
Alone for so long, his mind, suddenly bonded to Kaid’s, was filled with a voice they both knew well.
Blood to blood, Kusac. I hear your call and answer it, whispered Vartra.
Suddenly released, pain flared briefly down his arms making his hands spasm and break the contact with Kaid. At the same moment he let go of the crystal, so did Kaid. Frozen, they watched in horror as it slowly began to fall. As it hit the ground, a single, clear note rang out and it split down the exact center.
The air between the halves seemed to shimmer, moving, swirling, coalescing into the shape of a crouching male. As it solidified, the male rose sinuously to his feet. Tall and slim, the short dark gray tunic he wore did little to conceal the muscles that rippled beneath the surface of his tan pelt. As he looked from Kaid to Kusac, his hand automatically went to rest on the pommel of the sword that sat on his left hip.
The narrow ears flared wider as he spoke. “You called kin-right on me, Kusac Aldatan,” he said, his voice low, the accent holding more than a touch of the Highland in it. “You’ve found my tomb. What is it you wish of me?”
He took a step backward, feeling the hard surface of the sarcophagus behind him. His mind, still reeling from the shock of contact with Kaid, refused to take in what was happening.
“We called you,” said Lijou, his voice trembling as he stepped forward. “We need your help, Vartra.”
The faint blue glow surrounding Him shimmered as Vartra lifted His right hand, gesturing to the priest. “Be silent. Only one of my blood has the right to call me.”
“We need you to stay with us, Vartra,” said Kaid. “Don’t follow the other Gods into…”
“By what right do you presume to ask anything of me?” demanded Vartra, eyes flashing as He turned to look briefly at Kaid. “You’re no kin of mine!”
“He’s my kin,” said Kusac, pushing himself away from the tomb and taking a step forward. He forced himself to remember that what stood before him right now, no matter how strangely He’d arrived, was the flesh and blood Male he’d met before. “Our Third, bonded to me and my life-mate.”
“Bonded by blood to your mate, but not yet to you,” said Vartra, eyes still glowing, voice still harsh. “For the third time I ask, why did you call me? What is you wish of me?”
“Shola needs You. You fought the Valtegans before and won. We need Your help again. I ask it as my kin-right.”
“My war is done,” He said. “I brought Shola peace. Valtegans no longer walk on our world.”
“You formed the Brotherhood,” said Noni from behind him. “Led them down into the plains as Warriors with the Telepaths to reunite the people after the Cataclysm. I know what You are, Vartra, and what You did.”
“You! I should have
known you’d be here,” He said with a low rumble of anger as He turned toward her voice. “The pledge is gone, Noni. You have no power in this, Guardian or no.”
“I’m Kusac’s negotiator,” she said. “You owe them it, Vartra. You used Tallinu, shaped him to form the future, and he did what You asked. He forged their Triad strong enough to withstand what the Primes did to Kusac, strong enough to bring them here, together, before You. It’s time You repaid them for their loyalty.”
“Repaid?” Vartra roared, making Lijou and the others in the room retreat hurriedly. “Repaid, Noni?” He took a step toward her, the blue nimbus darkening briefly. “I repaid you! I gave you back Tallinu and his Triad! They have their lives because of me!”
She stood her ground, staring belligerently up into the face of the enraged Entity. “What good are their lives on a dead world, Vartra? Because if You follow the other Entities into hiding, that’s what Shola will become! The Pledge has another part to it, one I discovered a few days ago. You alone of the Entities have a geas placed on you…”
“Enough!” roared Vartra. “You try my patience, Old One! I have not yet refused!”
“You told me you wanted Shola free of the Valtegans,” said Kaid. “You told me to find a way for You to stay with us when the other realms closed. I’ve done what You asked. What more do You want?”
“I asked nothing of you for Myself!” he said, pointing at Kaid. “All I did was to ensure you were where you could best help Shola. I’ll stay, not because of the geas, but because My kin demanded it of me! You and I will have words later, Tallinu!”
The blue glow intensified, then vanished, taking Vartra with it.
For several minutes, no one moved, no one spoke. Then Rhyaz broke the silence.
“Why did you anger Him, Noni? There was no need. We almost…”
“Shut up, Rhyaz,” said Lijou. “You’ve never dealt with Vartra before. Noni knew what she was doing.”
“You noticed it too?” she said, sitting down suddenly on the chest. “He needed to be forced to stay. What He said went cross-grain to what He told Tallinu earlier. Put the crystal pieces in the tomb, lad, then close it,” she said to Kaid. “I reckon we should start our work now, then we can get that thing,” she waved a hand at the sarcophagus, “upstairs to its new home. I’d like to get back to my bed before dawn!”
*
“I can still go to Noni’s for tonight,” said Kaid, following him into the suite.
“I’ve told you it’s all right,” he said tiredly, unbuckling his belt as he headed through the lounge for the bedroom. “It was your suite. They only put me in here because we’re sword-brothers.”
Throwing his belt on the bed in passing, he began hauling off his tunic as he made for the bathing room.
“Want a hand?” he heard Kaid call out. “That dust will have settled deep into your pelt.”
“If you like.” Turning on the shower, he flung the filthy tunic into the bath, aware he was actually glad of Kaid’s company. The encounter with Vartra had left him as exhausted mentally as he was physically. He remembered trying to get the dust and plaster out of his pelt when he’d been helping rebuild the villa. He hadn’t been looking forward to trying to get clean on his own, and he couldn’t face the communal bathing room.
Stepping into the cubicle, he leaned his forehead against the back wall, letting the hot water cascade down his back while he waited for Kaid, remembering how good it had been, for even a brief moment, to not be alone in his own mind. Then he felt Kaid’s hands on his shoulders.
“You all right?”
“Exhausted, that’s all,” he said, bracing his hands against the wall as Kaid began to rub the liquid soap deep into his back.
“It took some courage to talk to Vartra like that.”
“You and Noni did most of the talking. I just remembered the person we met in the Margins.”
“That wasn’t a person,” said Kaid, soaping his hair. “That was the Entity.”
He said nothing, too tired for a discussion on deities. Kaid’s hands moved lower, one tapping his inner thigh to tell him to spread his legs.
“You know we were Linked, don’t you?” Kaid said, hands running across his hips and lower back.
“Yes, I’ve— missed that contact,” he said hesitantly. It hurt to talk about it, but he and Kaid hadn’t talked for so long.
“So have I. To have thought you dead, then to find you like we did…” He let the sentence tail off and concentrated on scrubbing. “Did you feel any pain during our Link?”
“I dropped the crystal because of it.” Obviously he had.
“I hoped you hadn’t,” said Kaid.
“What did Vartra mean we haven’t shared blood?” he asked at length as Kaid indicated he should turn round.
Kaid’s ears tipped backward briefly as he poured more soap into his hand before putting the bottle back on the shelf. “When you and Carrie married, you shared blood, just like Kitra and Dzaka did.”
“I know that,” he said as Kaid began to soap his chest. “And I know you and Carrie shared blood on the Kz’adul.”
Kaid stopped and looked at him. “Yes.” He reached up and touched Kusac’s jaw fleetingly, a strange expression on his face. “I didn’t know you were there, that you were forced to watch us,” he said, the pain evident in his voice as he let his hands fall to his sides. “I’d had a vision about it, I knew it would happen, but I was the captive. I never for a moment dreamed it would be you! If I could go back and change the past, have been the Primes’ captive instead of you, I swear I would, Kusac.”
“It can’t be changed, Kaid,” he said awkwardly. “We’ve each got our own destiny. I know the situation we’re in isn’t easy for you either. How’s Carrie managing? I don’t like to ask her.”
“It’s difficult for us all, but she’s coping. And forget what Vartra said about us sharing blood. I’m sure it isn’t necessary.”
He nodded, sensing Kaid’s sudden uneasiness by the set of his ears. “I can finish myself off,” he said, aware of a similar feeling. This conversation was getting way too intense. He reached for the bottle, noticing the other’s torc for the first time. “I didn’t know you wore a torc,” he said. “From Noni?”
Kaid nodded. “It was her brother’s.”
He handed him the bottle. “Some things have worked out well, for you at least. Start on yourself, I’ll do your back when you’re ready.”
*
Sleep hadn’t come easily as he lay in bed listening to Kaid’s quiet breathing. His upbringing as a telepath had isolated him physically from all but close family members and lovers. Nothing had prepared him for the intense mental Link he’d had with Carrie and Kaid. Part of him craved the company and the physical contact it brought, the other part rejected it because of the fear of the pain and of harming those he loved. He wished it was Carrie in his bed, wished he could just hold her, feel her warmth against him. Sighing, he turned his back on Kaid and began to mentally recite the litany for relaxation.
Stronghold, the next day, month of Zhal-Vartra, 13th day (July)
When he woke, he found himself curled round Kaid’s back, Shocked, he moved instantly away and lay there, heart pounding, praying he’d been first to wake. When Kaid didn’t stir, he slid carefully out from under the sheet and padded silently across to a drawer to get a clean tunic before going into the bathing room to dress. When he emerged, Kaid was up and, apart from washing, ready to leave for first meal.
A message was waiting for them on the desk comm in the lounge. They were to report to Rhyaz and Lijou in the Warrior Master’s office after first meal to discuss the training of the Prime younglings.
*
Rhyaz had decided to relocate his office to the west wing of the building, near Lijou’s. Apart from any other consideration, the western rooms faced down onto the Kysubi Plains while Ghezu’s old office had been above the reinforced munitions and weapons store set into the mountainside itself. He’d wanted a clean start
for them all after Ghezu’s traitorous leadership.
The meeting was formal, with Rhyaz sitting behind his heavy wooden desk and Lijou seated to one side.
“The Prime younglings are being housed on the Warrior Guild estate at Nazule. Kusac, I think you should accompany Kaid and help train them,” Lijou said.
“I don’t want to work with them,” he said flatly.
“The matter’s been decided,” said Rhyaz. “The Primes are part of the Alliance now, albeit junior members. It was J’koshuk who was responsible for what actually happened to you, Kusac, not the Primes, though Chy’qui authorized it. The Primes are almost a different species from the M’zullians. Even Vartra said last night there were no Valtegans on Shola now. It’s time you made an effort to differentiate between them.”
He felt his hair beginning to stir and fought to keep it from rising. Kaid’s tail tip touched his leg briefly, warningly.
“It might be too soon, Lijou,” said Kaid. “If it doesn’t work out, can he return here?”
Lijou hesitated, looking from one to the other, then to Rhyaz who’d remained silent.
“Kusac is Brotherhood,” reminded Kaid quietly. “He asked to come here to train on the religious side. You accepted him. He has a right to remain here at the Temple until his training is complete.”
“If it doesn’t work, he can return,” agreed Lijou. “But Kusac, try it. Please.”
Again the warning flick from Kaid. “I’ll try,” he said reluctantly.
“You can choose your own team, Kaid,” said Rhyaz, leaning forward and handing him a comp pad. “Here’s the schedule we worked out. If you need to make any changes to it, call me. They’re expecting you sometime tomorrow.”
strongholdrising Page 43