strongholdrising

by Lisanne Norman

  “Yes,” he murmured, forcing himself not to taste the air for her scent. He experienced a jolt of surprise to hear she was married, and to Kezule. “Doctor Zayshul.”

  She nodded, passing close to him as she joined her husband. Her scent hit him then, making his senses reel briefly as it brought back memories of their night on the Kz’adul.

  “Sit down, Kusac,” said Kezule. “It’s been a long time since I saw you. How are your delightful sister and her mate? And your daughter, of course.”

  He clenched his jaw, then forced himself to relax. Kezule was only trying to wind him up. “They’re fine,” he said. “Let’s forget the pleasantries, Kezule. We know you’ve got two Sholans. Just give them to us and we’ll be gone.”

  Kezule lifted his chin slightly. “I thought we could make this reunion a little more pleasant, but if that’s what you wish,” he said, gesturing to the soldiers standing at the door. “Fetch her,” he ordered.

  Minutes later, a female Sholan carrying an infant entered, stopping abruptly when she saw them.

  “It’s all right, Rraelga,” said Zayshul. “They’ve come to take you home to Shola.”

  Clutching her cub closer, Rraelga looked from the Valtegans to them. “Home?” she said, voice barely audible, ears flattening out of sight in her short tan hair. “You’re from Shola?” The hope in her voice was frightening.

  Banner stepped forward. “We’re from the Brotherhood of Vartra, Djana, and yes, we’re here to take you home.”

  “The good Goddess be praised!” she whispered, stepping forward impulsively. She stopped, looking fearfully again at Kezule and Zayshul. “Not that we haven’t been well treated by the General and his wife.”

  “They understand, I’m sure,” said Banner, taking her by the arm and drawing her closer, into his protection.

  He turned to Kezule. “How did you get them?” he demanded.

  “They were picked up some time ago from a M’zullian vessel,” said Kezule. “Their presence on K’oish’ik only just came to my attention. They were victims of the same people who held you.”

  “You could have returned them through our Embassy. Why call us out here? Whatever you want, Kezule, you’re not going to get it.”

  “So discourteous. I want a little of your time, Kusac, nothing more,” murmured Kezule.

  “No deal,” he said. “Under the terms of the Treaty, they would have been returned to us anyway.”

  “Why don’t you wait and see what else I have before being so sure you won’t help me.” Kezule got to his feet and left the room.

  Seeing Banner talking to the Sholan female, he took the opportunity to approach Zayshul. “What’s this all about?” he asked in a low voice, trying to ignore the effect she was having on him. “It wasn’t their scents you put on the message. There was the scent of a cub older than that infant. What happened between us that night, Zayshul? What did you do to me— and yourself?”

  She looked away. “Kezule will tell you,” she said, her voice almost inaudible. “This is out of my hands, Kusac. He’s the one in command.”

  He opened his mouth to speak again, then stopped dead, suddenly sensing the presence of four minds, minds that even as a telepath he shouldn’t have been able to pick up. Forcing himself to continue, he said, “We need to talk privately, Zayshul. I know you did something to me that night and I want to know what.”

  Banner’s exclamation of shock made him turn around. He could only stare openmouthed as four kitlings, barely ten years old, crowded into the room.

  “Vartra’s bones,” he heard Banner say. “Where did they come from?”

  “These are yours too, I believe. As I said, Kusac, I want some of your time. Call it a gesture of good faith for our return of these children,” Kezule said quietly. He looked over to Banner. “Remain here with your people. Your Captain and I have private business to discuss.”

  “I don’t think so,” said Kusac.

  “I’ve more to show you, but it’s for your eyes only.” Kezule looked over to his wife, raising his voice slightly. “Tell him, Zayshul. Persuade your Sholan he needs to come with me.”

  Annoyed at being referred to in those terms, he looked back at her. Zayshul stirred but refused to meet his eyes. “Go with him, Kusac.”

  Her voice was still barely audible, and he could smell her apprehension. Whatever it was Kezule wanted to show him, it worried her.

  “Not afraid, are you?” said Kezule, his tone gently mocking. “If I intended either to kill you or keep you captive, I’d have done it as soon as you got off your shuttle. You have my word you’ll be allowed to leave safely with your people. You’re far more use to me alive than dead, Kusac. Zayshul, come with us. Your presence may reassure our guest.”

  “Captain,” began Banner.

  Throwing him his helmet, he followed Kezule. The General’s behavior had him puzzled.

  They didn’t go far, only a matter of a hundred yards or so further down the corridor. An armed guard waited ahead of them, and as Kezule approached, he leaned forward to open the door, following them inside. More Primes, and these Primes were Warriors. Where had Kezule gotten Prime Warriors from?

  The lounge was small, with two worn soft seats and a low table in front of them. It was obviously a crew cabin. Yet another guard stood at the room’s inner door.

  “Wait here,” ordered Kezule, heading for it.

  He waited impatiently, annoyed that the presence of the guards prevented him talking further to Zayshul. He looked across at her, studying the face that had haunted him for so long, noticing features he’d taken for granted before. Like how the color of her eyes was enhanced by the rainbow hued skin surrounding them, and how her close fitting gray coveralls did little to conceal the muscular body beneath.

  He heard the door opening and, with an effort, turned back to look at it. The General stood in the doorway, his hand on the shoulder of a fifth Sholan cub. He blinked, unable to believe what he saw.

  The cub’s pelt was so dark that even in the reduced light of the room, it shone with the distinctive blue sheen peculiar to the Aldatan family. He felt the pull of blood between them, and knew in one terrifying moment of revelation that this was his son. As his eyes met Kezule’s, he realized that the General did too.

  Kezule’s nonretractile claws tightened on the cub’s shoulder. “This is Captain Kusac Aldatan,” he said in his own language, bending his head to speak to the kitling. “It’s my hope he’ll be joining us on Kij’ik. You may look at him so you’ll know him again.”

  As the kitling raised his head, amber eyes looking incuriously at him, he could see that round his neck nestled a close-fitting metal collar.

  “You can come closer, Kusac,” said Kezule.

  Like a sleepwalker, he stepped forward. It was like looking at a younger version of himself. He remembered to breathe, opening his mouth and flicking his tongue out to be sure of catching every nuance of the cub’s scent. Biting back a small noise of horror, he looked up at the General.

  “Return to your cabin,” Kezule ordered the cub.

  “As the General commands,” the kitling said in the same language as Kezule released him. Turning round, he began to walk back into the inner room.

  “Wait!” Automatically he reached out to stop him, but his son left the room without a backward glance.

  “What have you done to him?”

  Kezule closed the inner door. “I’ve done nothing to him, Kusac. Like the others, he was a prisoner of the Directorate. Take the Sholans I’ve given you back to your outpost at Haven, then return here in six days or you’ll never see him again.”

  “You bastard,” he whispered, hands clenching at his sides, all thoughts of revenge vanishing. “Give me them all, then we’ll talk.” His voice was harsh with emotions he didn’t dare show. Like the others, the cub looked to be about ten years old— how could he possibly have a son of that age? And what had Kezule done to his son to make him turn away from his own kind?

  “No, Kus
ac. That cub is my surety you’ll return. The Primes are a dying race, and the M’zullians and J’kirtikkians are psychopaths, equally as flawed as the Primes. If my people are to survive, we need to change. And you’re going to help me by training them.”

  “You think you can blackmail me?” He wanted his son— whether or not he was part Valtegan, he was still Sholan. “You think that I’ll help you keep your kind alive after what you’ve done to my family?”

  “You know what I’m holding,” said Kezule. “And you know the price I’m asking— your time as their trainer. Now go, take the children and the adult. Return here in six days, prepared to stay for as long as I need you or you’ll never see him again. Zayshul will escort you to your shuttle.” Gesturing the warriors forward to guard the door, he strode from the room, leaving them alone.

  Unslinging their weapons, the warriors made it clear he had no option but to go. Like an automaton, he let himself be escorted by Zayshul and one of the guards back to the room where Banner and the others waited.

  Just before the entrance, he stopped, glaring at her. “You’re allowing this?” he demanded in a low voice. “You’d let him hold the cub and force me to return?”

  “Captain, we should leave,” Banner said from within the room.

  Zayshul took hold of his arm, pulling him out of sight of his Second. “You must go,” she whispered, gesturing the guard behind them to wait. “And don’t even think of going after Kezule. He’ll kill you before he’ll let you have the cub.”

  “Kusac!” Banner’s tone was sharp this time, making him look round. His Second was leading the cubs and the Sholan female out of the room. “We have to leave.”

  He nodded and pulled himself free of Zayshul, following them down the corridor toward the landing bay, Zayshul walking silently beside him. This close, her scent was too strong, was making him too aware of her as a desirable female, and the mother of the cub he’d just seen. His thoughts were in a turmoil; he wanted to stay now, never mind leave and return later.

  The fresher air as they neared the landing bay helped clear his mind. He turned to her again. “How?” he asked quietly. “How can I have a son of that age?” Now was the time to ask the question he’d been dreading to have answered. “Who’s his mother, Zayshul?”

  “Why should you think Shaidan is your son?” she whispered. “How could he be?”

  He stopped dead, anger surging through him as he grabbed her by the arm. “Don’t lie to me, Zayshul!” he hissed, keeping one eye on Banner and the others walking ahead of them. “I know he is— his scent, his looks— everything about him tells me he’s mine! His blood calls to me! Who’s his mother?” This close, he scented and felt her panic as if it were his own. “Are you?”

  “Your armor, you’re hurting me,” she said, face creasing in pain as she tried to pull free.

  He let her go. “Tell me the truth, dammit! I trusted you!”

  “He’s your son,” she whispered, not looking at him. “I was only trying to save you from becoming Kezule’s pawn.”

  “Tell me who his mother is!” He needed her to admit that she was the mother.

  She glanced at the soldiers behind them. “I can’t speak now, Kusac. You must go, but when you return…” She left the sentence unfinished as the guards moved closer.

  He bit back an angry retort and nodded once, briefly. “Don’t betray me again, Zayshul,” he warned.

  *

  Several containers lay on the deck near the entrance to their shuttle.

  “What’re they?” he demanded of Zayshul.

  “Their toys,” she said. “Open them if you want. I swear they’ve not been tampered with.”

  “They stay behind,” he said unequivocally.

  She looked at him, her wide mouth parting in a slight smile. “You’ve never travelled with bored children, have you? Don’t take your anger out on the cubs, Kusac. The toys are only toys. It would be cruel to deprive them of amusement on their journey home.”

  He hesitated, remembering the sheer number of toys they had for Kashini, then gestured to Banner. “Check them out once our passengers are on board.”

  “Where we going, Aunt?” asked the small gray-pelted cub, catching hold of Zayshul’s hand. “Are you coming?”

  “No, Gaylla,” she said, bending down so her face was level with the cub’s. “Speak in Sholan as I taught you. These are your people. They’ll take you home to your own parents.”

  “But I see you soon?”

  Zayshul ruffled the cub’s ears gently. “I’m afraid not. It’s time for us to say goodbye.”

  Gaylla began to sob, throwing her arms round the doctor, her doll falling forgotten to the deck. “I not want to leave you!”

  “She’s a hybrid!” he exclaimed in Valtegan. “Vartra’s bones, how in Hell’s name could you find hybrid cubs?”

  Equally distraught, Zayshul stood up and thrust the sobbing cub at Kusac. “Take her and leave! Go now, before they stop you!” She turned and fled into the interior of the ship, leaving him holding the screaming child.

  Shocked, he heard the distinctive sound of Valtegan energy rifles powering up and saw the soldiers begin to advance. Bending down, he scooped up the doll and ran up the ramp where an equally shocked Banner had just looked up from his toy inspection.

  “Go!” he ordered, aiming a kick at the box his Second was examining and sending it skittering through the airlock.

  Banner dived in after it, slamming the hatch shut behind them.

  “Get us out of here, now!”

  “Aye, sir!” Banner was already halfway to the cockpit.

  *

  The access ramp was still retracting as Banner accelerated out of the M’zayik’s bay. Staggering, his arms still full of the struggling and sobbing cub, he was trying to come to terms with what he’d seen.

  “Give her to me, Djani,” said Rraelga, passing her infant to the young kitling in the seat beside her. “She’s not as bright as the others, she takes things more to heart.”

  With relief, he dumped the cub on her lap. He stopped, his enhanced sense of smell bringing the scents of the others to his nostrils. Unsealing his glove, he reached out to touch the cubs one after the other, barely aware of the few words of comfort he murmured to them. They were all hybrids, and the scents of two of them were disquietingly familiar.

  Unlike Shaidan, they didn’t wear collars and he was able to absorb the feel of their minds— the mental signature that, like Human fingerprints, made each of them unique but also held a flavor of the parents. Deeply disturbed, he headed up front to join Banner.

  “What happened back there?” asked his Second. “What did you say to the doctor?”

  “She got twitchy,” he snapped, patching a link through to the Couana. His son’s existence, and the fact that the others were hybrids, was something he wanted kept quiet right now.

  “Couana, code 3, 9, 0, Red. We have passengers, four cubs and an adult Sholan female with her infant. Lay in a course for Haven. We leave immediately.” He cut the connection in the middle of Jayza’s startled acknowledgment, concentrating on his piloting.

  “What did Kezule want from you?”

  “Me. He wants me to train his people, and he’s keeping one of the cubs as a hostage to make sure I go back.”

  Banner glanced at him. “You’re going to return, aren’t you?”

  “What option have I?” he snarled angrily. “I can’t leave that cub with him. Kezule kept a telepath as a pet, Banner! I can’t leave him there!”

  “Rraelga says they’ve all been well treated by Kezule and his people, especially the doctor. They were rescued from some experimental facility on the Prime homeworld.”

  That could explain the hybrids, but not his son. “Did she mention the fifth cub, say anything about him?” he demanded.

  “Shaidan? Only that he was hurt in their escape. Doctor Zayshul kept him with them, nursing him back to health herself. Rraelga says she treats him as if he was her own child. He’s not in
any danger, Kusac. We should inform Stronghold, let them decide what’s to be done next. Our mission’s over.”

  “Not till I have Shaidan. I’m going back for him, alone if necessary,” he said in a tone that brooked no further discussion.

  Shaidan. His son was called Shaidan. At least it was a Sholan name. If the Primes could breed M’zullians and Shaidan, then they could breed Sholan hybrids. He found the thought of the Primes taking genetic samples from his Triad terrifying, as terrifying as the fact that the resulting cubs were now ten years old. Obviously Zayshul had been deeply involved in the whole procedure— and for reasons of her own, had made his contribution one of a far more personal nature. At least she’d not left their son in the experimental facility. Maybe that was why they’d left K’oish’ik.

  Kaid’s home, Dzahai Mountains, the same day

  “I want us to go home today, Tallinu,” said Carrie. “All of us, you included. Before the winter storms really start. I can’t cope with Kashini and the twins without you.”

  Kaid got to his feet and began to pace the lounge restlessly. “I’d prefer to stay here until we hear more about Kusac,” he said finally, stopping beside the recently acquired sofa on which she lay. “I told him I wouldn’t return to the villa until he apologized, and I won’t.”

  “He isn’t there, Tallinu, but your daughter will be, and she needs her father,” she said gently, pushing her own pain at what Kusac had done aside, aware that Kaid’s anger and hurt went as deep. “Dhaykin needs you too. We’re a family.”

  “Then stay here with me. Let’s be a family, yes, but in my home.”

  She held her hand up to him, tugging him down beside her when he took it. “You know that’s not practical. You’ve only one bedroom and this lounge— thank God T’Chebbi and Kashini went home several days ago. The nurse has to be flown in by you from Dzahai village every day because there’s nowhere for her to sleep, and I miss Kashini and T’Chebbi. I love my cubs, Tallinu, but now Dhaykin is in no danger and is gaining weight, I need time to myself. I know what Kusac said hurt you, but you’re not the only one he hurt. He left without coming to see me and our cubs— before he could be told he had a son.”