Wind Demon Triology: Book II: Evil Wind

by Charlotte Boyett-Compo

  Four of his own bloodsons were interned within the Titaness as well as one each of his cousins’ offspring. The gods only knew what tortures the men had undergone.

  "Ghrian Tohre, Eachan Gehdrin, Toryn Belial, Killian Kiel, and Comyn Coure,” Sern had reported.

  There were bloodsons of all seven of the original Reapers still alive and Kamerone wanted to make sure it stayed that way. Their fathers had died in the very place where he now sat and that knowledge hurt him deeply.

  "Please don't abandon us, Alel,” he prayed to his god then looked up at the heavens. “God and Mother of my lady's god, please grant us Your aid, as well. We need all the help we can get."

  One of his bloodsons was missing and he could only hope Sajin was somewhere safe and unlikely to be snared in the Multitude's net. The only consolation he had concerning that particular bloodson was if Sajin did manage to get caught, LeJong Kym would somehow keep him safe.

  Forcing his mind from thoughts of the other Reapers, Cree took a deep breath and released it slowly. He pictured Bridie in his mind's eye and held her there, his mental touch lingering on her beautiful green eyes, her sweet smile, and her lush body that held him in such rapt desire. Slowly he closed his eyes and imagined he could feel her soft hand upon his aching brow to soothe away the crippling pain. He pictured her walking beside him in a field of tall grass and even thought he could smell the sweetness of newly-mown hay drifting under his nose. Focusing on Bridget, he could almost feel her fingers entwined with his as they walked through the grass. He could almost sense the pulse of her heart beating in tune with his through their touch.

  How he longed to hold her, to kiss her, to lie beside her once again. The ache in his heart was like a living entity as it called out to her. She was his very life and without her he simply existed. Life would not begin again until she was in his arms. If he could not return to her, he did not want to go on living.

  "I love you with all my heart, Bridget,” he said. He squeezed his eyes together in concentration and sent his emotions out into the megaverse, flinging them toward that small blue-green planet on which his lady and his son dwelt. “You are my heart."

  He imagined he could hear her laughing as she tugged at his hand to draw him up a hill covered with wildflowers. A soft wind plied her lovely body and wafted her hair behind her as she led him on. The leaves rustled. Birds sang. Crickets chirped.

  "Come on, slowpoke!” he could hear her say.

  They had almost reached the top of the hill when she let go of his hand and kept running, hiking her long skirt up, bare legs flashing as she called out to him.

  "Hurry up, Kami!"

  "I am coming, Bridie,” he said aloud. “I...."

  A deep resonating gong rang out over the courtyard and Kamerone's eyelids flew open. He lifted his head. Twice more the gong sounded with a slow, deep cadence. After a few seconds pause, the gong sounded three more times.

  Instinctively knowing something was about to happen Kamerone got to his feet. He walked over to the bars of the cage and curled his fingers around the cold iron. There was no sign of movement in the buildings surrounding him, no women roaming about. For the third time the slow, methodic beat of the gong echoed three times over the empty courtyard. Cree had counted ten beats between the second set of tones and the third. Once more he counted to ten and on the eleventh beat a loud, pealing bell began to toll.

  The first woman came out of the Titaness. In her right hand she carried a tall staff with a crescent moon perched on its top. Dressed in scarlet robes, the woman was barefoot, her long brown hair swinging almost to her knees as she walked slowly toward the poles.

  "It's too soon for this,” Kamerone said to himself. The executions weren't to begin until later in the morning.

  From the Titaness four more women came—each dressed in a scarlet robe. They seemed to be marching to the steady peal of the loud bell reverberating over the courtyard.

  When he saw his blood daughter Kate dressed in a long, flowing white robe, he pulled savagely against the bars. “No!” he yelled for the young woman's wrists were tied in front of her. There was no doubt in his mind that the female Reaper was marching to her death. “By the gods, no! Kathleen!"

  Four more women clad in scarlet robes marched behind Kate as the young woman was led to the center pole in the line. No one looked his way or appeared to hear his shouting.

  "Don't do this!” Kamerone shouted, jerking against the bars. “Kathleen!"

  None of the women—including Kate—glanced his way. As Kate was lashed to the pole, her eyes were straight ahead of her.

  "What did she do?” the Prime Reaper called out. “You made her what she is and now you're punishing her for it?” He yanked viciously on the bar, the iron rattling but holding. “Don't do this! Please don't do this!"

  "Rest easy, my sire," Kate sent to him. “Your enemies are dead and will not cause you further grief."

  "Kathleen, no,” he whispered, laying his head on the iron bars.

  She turned her face toward him and a smile hovered on her pretty mouth.

  "They were going to betray you yet again," she told him. "That I could not allow."

  He saw it all in a flash across his subconscious. Kate had gone to the room of the Prophetess-Mother to kill her and had overheard the evil woman planning with Delyn Sorn to poison the Reapers with garlic concentrate and Maiden's Briar before they could be burned the following morning. They had wanted to take no chance a rescue could be undertaken or that Kamerone Cree would escape the death they had planned for him as well.

  "I could not allow it to happen," Kate sent to him as the scarlet clad women moved away from the platform on which Kate was bound.

  Kate had taken the lives of both Cyle Acet and Delyn Sorn before going after the woman sent to poison the other Reapers. It was as she attacked the woman that she had been discovered and arrested, condemned by her crimes despite LeJong Kym's attempt to save her.

  "Do not blame the new Prophetess-Mother," Kate said. “She did all she could to help me."

  "Kathleen,” he said again, his heart breaking. “I am sorry."

  The woman with the staff pointed it toward Kate.

  "I'm not,” came his blood daughter's last words.

  Fire flashed from the staff's crescent moon and the white silk gown covering Kate's body went up in immediate flames, burning much brighter and hotter than they should have. No doubt the material from which the gown had been made had been drenched in some kind of accelerant.

  Tears ran down the Prime Reaper's face and as the first horrific scent of burning flesh wafted to his nostrils to take him forcibly back to his cousin's hideous deaths, he turned his head and threw up, sagging to his knees, his palms scraping down the rough surface of the iron bars.

  As the body of the female Reaper burned, the women in the scarlet robes turned and began filing back into the Titaness. Not once had they turned their eyes toward the grieving man whose sobs could be heard in the still morning light but every woman in the courtyard was aware of his grief, of him slamming his forehead against the bars in anguish.

  "Do you hear?” one woman whispered. “He is crying."

  "Reapers don't cry,” another said and swiped at the tears streaking down her own cheeks.

  "That one does,” the first woman said brokenly.

  "And it breaks my heart to hear it,” the other woman stated.

  From the window of her office LeJong Kym had watched the horrific execution. She had not been able to prevent Kate's punishment for the girl had been caught red-handed by the guards, defiantly bragging of the three lives she had taken. It was bad enough she had killed Sorn and Sorn's henchwoman but to have assassinated the Prophetess-Mother had called for the young woman's immediate execution. There had been no saving Kathleen. Shaking her head, Kym turned away.

  "Milady?” Shei-Ling inquired, taking a step toward her mistress.

  Kym held up her hand to stay her. “No,” she said, her shoulders drooping.

/>   "It was better to have sacrificed one life than to lose twelve,” Shei-Ling said softly.

  "I know but even one is too many,” Kym whispered.

  "All is in readiness and as soon as the young Reapers are secured to the poles, the extractions can begin and this will all be over."

  "Were the disruptors put into place on the other starships in the docking hub?” Kym asked.

  "As you ordered,” Shei-Ling said. “It will take close to an hour for the damage done to be repaired. By then, the Alluvia and those ships guarding her will be long gone."

  Kym raised her head. “Make sure any ship that tries to stop them is put off line quickly. I want them to have a clean getaway."

  "It will be as you order,” Shei-Ling said with a bow.

  "And the wormhole?"

  Shei-Ling frowned. “I wish you would reconsider closing it. What if...?"

  "No one will go after him again,” Kym said, her eyes blazing. “I will not have him looking over his shoulder waiting for another team to fuck with his life! He has had enough pain and torment. He needs no more!"

  "But what if we find his last bloodson?” Shei-Ling asked. “There will be no way to send that one to the Prime."

  Kym shook her head. “That can not be helped. Kamerone is more important to me than any of his bloodkin. I will see that man safe and out of harm's way once and for all!” She walked back to the window to stare down at the Reaper.

  Cree was sitting cross-legged with his head down, his fingertips massaging his temples.

  Kym's brow furrowed. “I am worried about his headaches,” she said.

  Shei-Ling glanced out the window. “How so, Your Eminence?"

  "I know his anatomy like the back of my hand and I have studied the data on the micro-receivers they placed in his brain. I fear one—maybe more—have migrated and are causing these severe migraines."

  "Is there anything to be done?"

  "I am going to collect all the disklettes that pertain to him and his bloodkin, anything that might be of help to them, and turn the data over to Kahmal. I will also include the biomaps and instruments needed to remove those implants. Perhaps Beryla Dean will find a way to take out the M-R's so these men won't have to live with those debilitating headaches.” She laid the palm of her hand on the glass as she watched Cree. “With him, I am so afraid there is much damage being done to his neuropathways from those gods-be-damned implants."

  "Will not his parasite heal him?"

  "Aye, but there is no need for him to be suffering when it can be eliminated.” Kym sighed. “Go take him his morning Triso. Draw up a half again as much as normal. When you've done, come back here. I have another task for you."

  "Aye, Your Eminence,” Shei-Ling replied and hurried to do her mistress’ bidding.

  "I will take care of you, Kam,” Kym said as she sat down at her desk, unlocked a drawer where she'd stored the box of disklettes for Kahmal and the brass-studded box that contained the specialized instruments used in the implantation process. “By all that is holy, I will."

  Chapter Twenty

  Shei-Ling approached the cage cautiously, looking around her for any suspicious eyes that might be watching. “Milord Cree?” she called out.

  The Prime Reaper lifted his head. He saw the vac-syringe in her hand but didn't even protest as he got to his feet and walked over to the bars. “My morning joy juice, eh?"

  "With a little extra kick to try to knock out that headache,” she said.

  He stood still as she swabbed his neck and quickly administered the burning liquid, barely flinching for his mind was elsewhere.

  "All is in readiness,” Shei-Ling said as she withdrew the needle. “I am sorry for the loss of your blood daughter."

  He nodded and rubbed absently at the stinging pain in his neck. “Tell LeJong I am grateful for all she's done.” He looked into Shei-Ling's eyes. “And for everything you've done, milady."

  "I've one last errand to run before the festivities begin,” Shei-Ling said. “I will extend your goodbyes to Her Eminence."

  "Aye, do that and tell her.... “He half-smiled. “Tell her I wish for the Wind to be always at her back."

  Shei-Ling reached through the bars and laid her hand on his cheek. “As those of us from the Multitude wish the same for you, Milord Cree."

  Cree watched her hurry back into the building and was still watching when she came out again and headed for the docking station. He saw she was carrying something in her hand and wondered what Kym was sending to Kahmal now.

  "Thank you, LeJong,” he whispered, closing his eyes to send the subliminal to the woman who had risked so much to keep him and his safe.

  * * * *

  Kahmal shook hands with Shei-Ling and asked her to extend blessings to the Prophetess-Mother. “Tell her all is in readiness and we will not fail."

  Shei-Ling frowned. “Did anyone from the Festival committee come to assign you places of honor in the courtyard?"

  "Some fat bitch did, but I told her we would have a better seat watching from our vid-com than being pushed and shoved in the courtyard with thousands of other women,” Kahmal said with a snort. “When she would have protested that at least I as the one who captured Kamerone Cree should be attendance to watch his bloodkin executed, I reminded her Amazeen warrioresses did not like to be rub shoulders with those we consider beneath us and I let her know by my glare how I felt about her. She hastened to leave."

  "So no one should question why you are not highly visible."

  "Even if they do, it doesn't matter,” Kahmal stated.

  Shei-Ling grinned. “May the Wind be always at your back, Major, and the goddess with you."

  "She will be,” Kahmal replied.

  Turning to go, Shei-Ling stopped then snapped her fingers together and spun back around. “By the way, the other ships here on the hub have been disabled so no one will be following you out the iris. You don't have to worry about it cycling open, either. That's been taken care of. As soon as the last Reaper is shackled to the pole, engage your engines and snatch them up. There will be enough noise that no one will notice you blasting out of here."

  "Let's hope not,” Kahmal said.

  "I believe you can count on it, Major,” Shei-Ling assured her.

  * * * *

  Prince Kamau Taborn and the members of his Necromanian crew were just outside the gravitational pull of Rysalia Prime with the Scaan technology cloaking in place. Not a single ship had been aware of the LRC as it sat there on the edge of orbit.

  "Fifteen minutes until the festivities begin,” Prince Kamau's Com Officer reported.

  "Power up our weapons,” Kamau ordered, “just in case.” He looked to the Navigational Officer. “Are you locked on to the other three ships?"

  "The StarRaider is about four clicks larboard,” the Nav Off reported. “The DarkWind and the Diabolusian ship are two clicks beyond them to the starboard."

  "What of the Amazeen ship?"

  "It's still in its docking harness inside the hub and the engines have yet to engage."

  Kamau bit down on the cuticle on his thumb nail. It was a nervous habit his men knew all too well. “And the princess Zainabu? Is she safely on the Amazeen vessel?"

  The Nav Off nodded. “Aye, Your Grace, she is."

  Breathing out a long breath at that news, Kamau nodded. “Good. As long as she is safe."

  The Nav Off and Com Off exchanged glances. Everyone on the Necromanian ship was aware how the princess felt toward the J'Bai of Prince Lares Taborn.

  * * * *

  In the cargo hold of the StarRaider Raphaella Constantine and Maeve Lynne McGregor were going over the cases of Triso and Sustenance the Amazeen had had the foresight to include among their supplies.

  "There should be enough but perhaps we might take on more before we set out for Terra,” Maeve Lynne suggested.

  "Before we left I told the lab people to brew more just in case and to have the ancillary step up on collecting Sustenance,” Raphaella said. “
I hope I thought of everything although I certainly didn't count on there being another Reaper.” She tapped her foot. “Perhaps we should have another con cell or two added once we get back to Corinth."

  "Captain Cree should be proud of you, Raphie,” Maeve Lynne said. “You are looking after him and his bloodkin."

  "Better than that Terran healer ever could,” Raphaella snapped. “When we get to Terra, I plan on ridding him of that bitch Caitlin!"

  Maeve Lynne made no reply for everyone knew once a Reaper mated, it was for life. Getting rid of Caitlin Kelly would make no difference in how Khiershon Cree would feel toward the Amazeen—and especially not if Raphaella harmed Caitlin in any way.

  "Let's head for the bridge,” Raphaella said. “The show is about to begin!"

  * * * *

  Khiershon Cree was pacing the bridge of the DarkWind. Iyan had taken the command chair with the former admiral of the Rysalian Fleet Command sitting beside him. He was worried about the Triso and Sustenance on their ship. He had not given his bloodkin a thought as he prepared to go after them and that had been a major mistake that could lead to an even bigger calamity.

  "What if one of my bloodkin is in Transition or near to it?” he asked, stopping to stare at Iyan.

  "Let your bloodsire worry about that,” Tylan said. “Once he has them on the Amazeen ship, he can assess the situation and will let you know if he needs to put one or more of them into confinement."

  "Will he have Triso do you think?” Caitlin asked. She was sitting beside Tylan Kahn in the chair reserved for the ship's healer.

  "By the gods I hope so because I have very little with us,” Khiershon said.

  "We can get more on Corinth,” Iyan reminded him.

  "Is that why you're digging a hole in the deck?” Caitlin questioned. “Are you worried there won't be enough Triso to last us to Terra?"

  Khiershon plowed a hand a hand through his thick brown hair. “That and Sustenance."

  "Sustenance shouldn't be a problem,” Iyan said. “Between the Amazeen crew, the crew from the Orion, Admiral Kahn and his men, as well as any others willing to go to Terra with us, the issue of Sustenance is handled."