About to leave the glade and step into the scene in front of her, Taura paused, believing she’d heard her name called. Turning, she saw the image of Jadrian in the center of the circle, staring at her with so much longing, his golden eyes glowing, that she was compelled to take an involuntary step in his direction despite her resolve.
Reaching out to grab at the nearest tree to steady herself, she said, “If I go, can I return? Will he be here?”
“His heart is true. Will your steps lead you along the same path and bring you full circle to where you left? Who can say? Life is risk.”
Hesitating, Taura was torn. She could commit to life here on this planet and stop chasing her memories. But was that a fair choice? To be unsure who exactly she was? “Not fair to me or Jadrian. I’m doing this for both of us and he knows it.” Taking a deep breath, she wrenched her attention away from the vision of Jadrian and crossed the threshold into her bedroom on Dardanel Three.
“You all right, babe? You’re as pale as if you saw a ghost. Here, have a drink.” Farsriu stood in front of her, holding out a serious feelgood from the dark color of the liquid in the crystal goblet and the fizzing sparks of other intoxicants leaping from the surface.
Taura blinked, glancing at the party goers around them. How did I get here? Was all that other stuff real or is this? Confused, she took the glass without thinking too much and drank a large swallow. The liquor burned her throat, with an odd aftertaste, but cleared her head to some extent. Farsriu pulled her close for a sloppy kiss.
“That’s my girl. Are you ready to meet my, uh, special friends? I’ve told them all about you and how much I think you can help us with the work—they’re eager to discuss the possibilities.”
She ran a hand down her elaborately embroidered bodice and smoothed her skirt, finding the beading and colorful stitching oddly captivating. Much more her style than the beige jumpsuits…beige jump…beige…she never wore beige anything. Disoriented, Taura fluffed her hair. “Sure. Let me just run to the ladies room for a sec then I’m ready. I’m so excited to finally meet your friends.”
After a year spent in this hellhole setting you up to give me access to them, yeah, you can say I’m ready. She ignored his fleeting frown, set the glass on the nearest table and made her way through the crowd to the deserted lounge area.
Taking a deep breath, she scolded herself for giving in to whatever that weird daydream was about. Checking her appearance in the mirror, she pulled out her makeup applicator and repaired her chosen palette for this evening. Stay frosty, don’t blow this.
Tonight would be the biggest coup of her entire, long career in the undercover service, with more to come once she was fully embedded in the core of the operation. It’d been a twisting path from her childhood in the Star Guard Orphanage, but all the sacrifices were worth it to help take down an operation benefitting the Mawreg. The Mawreg who’d destroyed her colony and killed her family. Revenge long delayed but sweet.
Oh yes, her message to her Sectors handlers tomorrow was going to astonish and delight.
A knock startled her, and Farsriu poked his head into the room. “Babe, you look totally glam, which I appreciate, but my associates don’t care about appearances the way you and I do.” He walked over to her, catching her close.
Taura had to fight not to shove him away. Farsriu was a pig at the best of times, but she’d made peace with the sacrifices her job entailed. Hadn’t she? Why was a man with glowing golden eyes hovering at the edge of her mind’s eye? “I think the feelgood you gave me was too strong for this girl,” she said, laughing. “My head’s spinning.”
He took her hand and tugged her toward the door. “They’re getting impatient. I’ve told them so much about you.”
The statement had a strange emphasis, as if there was a double meaning and his derisive laugh worried her, but she walked with him, although her nerves were keyed up. The corridor was deserted, and he guided her to the left, away from the crowded ballroom where the party was being held.
Farsriu led her into another cross corridor and stopped in front of a door, knocking on it in a stylized rhythm. He held her hand tightly.
As the portal opened, he dragged her inside the room and slapped the controls to close the door.
The whole setup felt off. “Maybe I’d better take a raincheck tonight. My stomach is upset from the drink, and I don’t want your friends to think I can’t hold my feelgoods.” Taura attempted to free her hand but his fingers were like a manacle.
“No retreat now, babe.”
She heard a sound behind her, as if something sticky had slapped the floor and been pulled loose. Adrenaline spiking, she hit Farsriu and broke his hold, running toward the door. A thick, cold tentacle wrapped itself around her ankle, sending her crashing to the floor. Twisting, she kicked at it with her other foot, trying to drive the spike heel into the flesh, but her blow had no effect.
More tentacles slithered their way across her body as she writhed and fought, including one over her mouth. The slimy taste made her gag, and she fought her instinctive revulsion so she wouldn’t throw up and choke herself. She was hauled to her feet to face her captors. Two Chimmer stood there, surveying her with their dead black eyes. Farsriu stepped in front of her, slapping her across the face so hard she saw stars and would have fallen but for the merciless grip the Chimmer had on her.
“Sectors bitch. Thought you had us fooled, but we turned the tables.”
How long has he known? What gave me away?
Farsriu continued his rant. “Yeah just too bad for you one of my guys met you before when you were undercover on another operation and tipped me off last month.”
“Silence, human,” the Chimmer on the left said, his voice a gurgle, like water flowing over sandpaper. “No need to tell her anything.”
“Hey, I gotta get my satisfaction before you take her away and cut her open to spill all her secrets, let the bitch know this so-called fool played her for a fool.” Farsriu laughed.
A green tentacle lashed out from the alien’s body, forming in an instant, wrapping around the terrorist leader’s throat like a striking snake and squeezing mercilessly. “You talk too much, to her, to others. We have no further need of you.”
Eyes bulging, tongue protruding and blackening, Farsriu fell to the floor bonelessly. His body lay twitching in death throes.
The Chimmer lifted Taura into an obscene embrace, holding her close to its gelatinous body, tangled in tentacles. Her mind was growing fuzzy. What was in that damn drink Farsriu gave me?
Fighting hard not to panic as the aliens carried her outside and toward a waiting flyer, Taura reached deep inside her mind for the checkout code, the ultimate solution for any Sectors operative caught in a situation from which there was no escape possible. The numbers and symbols flickered but refused to solidify and line up properly in her head.
As the Chimmer holding her glided up the ramp into the flyer, it said, “Trying to kill yourself? We’ve taken precautions against the fatal outcome this time. You will give us your secrets, human. We’ve hired experts who’ll enjoy the process of peeling your mind open for us. Our allies take pleasure in what they do.”
Frantically, she realized she wasn’t going to be able to defeat the enemy in the standard fashion. She defaulted to the next level of security and deployed a mental shield, unbreakable according to the Mellurean Mind who’d created it for her. “Even you won’t remember,” the alien had said, “Not until the right code words are uttered to release your memory.”
Taura took a deep breath as her mind went curiously blank.
She was floating in a sea of green, no memories, no cares, nothing.
“A powerful and ancient magic indeed was gifted to you by the one who hid your memory, with hints of energy known to me,” said a voice in her head, sounding like a rush of wind. “Well crafted. Yet nothing capable of prevailing against me in my own place. The past shall be restored to you, make of it what you will.”
“Wait
“Do you wish him to be, now you’ve obtained your objective? Does he still matter to you?”
“Nothing is worth losing him.” Taura knew that with stone cold certainty. Her previous life was dead and gone, over. Jadrian represented promise, everything she never had, never dreamt she could have, in her single-minded pursuit of revenge back in the Sectors. He was hers…if she was brave enough to reach for him. Unless this goddess intended to break the bond. “He’s meant to be mine—we belong to each other, you said so.”
Gentle laughter, like a quick patter of rainfall on a sunny afternoon. “You didn’t wish to believe me before.”
“I had to find out who I was, to be fair to us both.” Taura harbored no regrets about her decision, especially because now she had a lightness of spirit, knowing all the good and bad in her past. No more fear of lurking secrets.
The unseen goddess appeared to be in agreement. “True, as you perceive the world to be, you did. Since you petition me directly, let no one put you asunder from your mate. But I warn you, there must be a mutual claiming to ensure the bond remains seated in your human nature, as it would for a Badari. For Jadrian.”
“I’d do anything for him.” The vow came from the core of her being and she had no slightest doubt she’d take any action required to make Jadrian happy, keep him safe, make sure he knew he was loved.
“Go in peace then.”
The wind ruffled her hair. Taura closed her eyes and thought of Jadrian.
She crouched in a corner of the Khagrish cell, coughing violently as the smoke continued to spiral into the closed room via the air duct high above.
A soldier with golden, glowing eyes knelt beside her.
“You came,” she said, reaching for him.
“Always.”
She stood in the center of the Great Mother’s circle, the grass tickling her knees, Timtur’s song filling her ears. A faint, sparkling golden ribbon the color of the soldier’s glowing eyes extended from an aura surrounding her, threading outward through the trees. Jadrian?
Taura?
“I remember everything,” she said as she slowly slid to the ground and rolled over to stare at the sky.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“I’m hungry.” Her empty stomach was her first concern when she awakened in a cave bedroom she didn’t recognize, but obviously on the Badari planet. Finding Jadrian was more important, however. Food could wait. The room was empty, but voices came from the next chamber. She rose, grabbing a robe lying across the foot of the mattress, slid her feet into waiting slippers, and walked to the door. “Hello?”
“Oh good, you’re awake!” Jill, the Alpha’s wife, left her chair by the fire and came rushing to her. “Let me help you to a seat, you must be woozy. How do you feel?”
“I think as her doctor, that’s my line,” Megan Garrison said in a joking tone as she came to join them and support Taura on the other side. “Nice of you to wake up while I was here anyway.”
“How long have I been asleep?” The smell of tea and freshly baked bread was nearly irresistible as she placed herself in the low slung chair. She glanced around, faintly alarmed not to immediately see her mate. “Where’s Jadrian?”
“He’s been sent out on a time critical mission,” Jill said. “You’ve been asleep for three days since the trip to the grove. You don’t remember him saying good bye? Or us waking you up enough to force you to eat and drink a few times?”
“Not really.” Taura took the cup Megan handed her and gulped half the tea before reaching for the rolls on the table. “I remember everything else, though. All about myself, all the way to childhood. And the mission I was on when the Chimmer captured me.” An involuntary shiver ran through her as she recalled the moment Farsriu betrayed her to the enemy. She closed her eyes, swallowed hard, and took five deep breaths. I will not freak out over anything in the past.
“Did you see the Badari goddess, if I may be so bold as to ask?” Jill poured herself more tea and leaned forward, eyes wide.
Taura shook her head. “I heard a voice, a breathtakingly beautiful voice, like the wind calling to me.” Words failing her, she realized she wasn’t going to share the further details of her experience with anyone. Except Jadrian.
“Timtur said he got through the third verse of the blessing song, and you suddenly said you remembered everything, then fell over in a dead faint at his feet,” Megan said. “The Badari rushed you back here, and I was waiting at the landing field, fearing the worst, but you were in a genuine deep sleep as far as I could tell.”
Megan took another roll and added jam. “Thank you for not readmitting me to the hospital. I’m sorry, but that place has bad associations for me.”
Megan shrugged. “Jadrian insisted you had to be cared for in a different location.”
“Aydarr’s half-annoyed, half-amused at how pushy Jadrian’s become over matters to do with you,” Jill said. “He’s a senior soldier but in the pack structure he ought not to be able to withstand direct orders from Mateer, much less Aydarr himself. To break the impasse, I offered to take care of you here, since we have extra chambers, and Megan drops by daily anyway. None of us wanted you alone in Jadrian’s cave quarters while he was out on deployment, and it’s yet to be seen if you’re ready to move into the women’s dorm.”
She was warmed by the information her warrior had been watching over her, even to the point of again challenging his Alpha. Now if he was only here so they could talk. The need to be with Jadrian was like a restless twitch under her skin. She wouldn’t be able to relax until she was with him and told him all the details of what she’d experienced, as well as the words the Great Mother said. Looking at the friendly faces around her, she sighed and said, “No one was afraid I’d attack you during a flashback?”
“I take great care to ensure Jill’s safety.” The confident voice emanated from a glowing metallic ovoid as it floated into view from the other side of the fire. “Had you any antagonistic intent to harm Jill, you would be neutralized.” An aqua blue ray shot from the top of the ovoid, vaporizing the tip of first one stalactite, then another, before dissipating. “Demonstration.”
Jill laughed. “He loves to give demonstrations. Anyway I was in the Sectors Special Forces—I can take care of myself.”
“Okay, I consider myself duly warned by both of you.” Taura accepted a plate of scrambled eggs from Megan. “You must be the wise and powerful MARL I keep hearing about.”
The ovoid floated closer, emitting a pale pink sheet of color washing over Taura in the blink of an eye and vanishing. “Are you and Walt related?”
Surprised by the non sequitur, choking on the eggs, Taura took a minute before she could answer. “No, we’re certainly not. Why do you ask?”
“You and he have identical, highly sophisticated technology embedded in the same generally inaccessible area of your brains. What is the purpose of this enhancement?”
“Who has an enhancement?” Aydarr stood in the entrance to the cave, Mateer looming behind him.
“I do,” Taura said, her memory on the point crystal clear. “And Walt.”
“Glad to see you awake,” the alpha said to Taura before moving to greet his wife with a kiss. Mateer likewise moved to hover next to the chair where his wife Megan sat.
“Thank you for taking me to the grove,” Taura said fervently.
Aydarr seated himself next to Jill. “The Great Mother willed it, so the task became mine to accomplish. Your memories were returned to you?”
Taura saw no reason to lie. “Everything, all the way to childhood. I think I can recall every single day of my life now, if I was foolish enough to want that.”
Golden eyes glowing, Aydarr seemed to understand. “There are always things best left deep in the unconscious mind. Otherwise it can be a challenge to function.”
“I agree.”
“I’ve no wish to pry into what happened between you and the goddess,” he said to her relief. “Such curiosity isn’t my place. I would like to have a general report of who and what you are, though. I need to know who lives in the sanctuary valley, as well as what capabilities they may possess to help our cause against the Khagrish. And now you raise intriguing questions for me regarding Walt, to add to the ones I already had—he’s been quite close mouthed on his background—so I’ll need to ask more on the topic.”
Hesitating, Taura voiced her concern. “I’d like to tell Jadrian first, if you don’t mind.”
Aydarr stared at her. Mateer seemed to be hiding a laugh behind his hand. Taura kept her gaze focused on the alpha with difficulty, stubbornly resisting his influence. Finally, he nodded. She blinked and allowed herself to look away from his face as he won their staring contest but did concede on his demand to a degree. “Fair enough,” he said.
“I can promise you I didn’t learn anything about myself which poses a danger to the Badari or this place,” she said after rapidly reviewing her past. “Depending how long I’ve been here on this planet, anything I was doing before I was captured is moot now anyway. But I owe it to Jadrian to share who and what I was with him. Where exactly is he, by the way?”
“He and a small team have returned to the lab where we rescued you, actually. His review of the intelligence on the captured handhelds made it clear there was a high priority project being conducted there, specific research the Chimmer had asked for and wanted very badly. Since we believe the Badari were the Chimmer’s most critical assignment for the Khagrish, it’s vital we find out whatever we can. I sent him in to search for more information, other records, any related materials in the ruins. Even though the place was partially burned, it’s surprising what survives. A risky mission because we’ve had reports of sporadic Khagrish activity on the ground near there, but we need to know.”
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