"You could pop there and pop somewhere else?" Sally asked.
"If I had somewhere to pop, yes. But it would have to be a place I knew. None of you can pull me there."
"Would you have to know the place?" I asked. "Or a thing at the place?"
"I haven't tried that," she said. "I don't know. But I would have to own the place or have permission from the rightful owner."
"I've never been anywhere in the palace area, just these towers," I said. "Perhaps a test would be appropriate." I turned to Andrea. "May I have permission to pop back and forth?"
"Of course," she said.
I popped to my bedroom and grabbed the comforter off the bed. I popped back. "Someone take this somewhere I've never been, and Renea, can you give me temporary permission to travel there?" I paused. "I've made love on this comforter enough times, if this is going to work, this should be sufficient."
Renea turned to Kelly. "Kelly, you may have free roam of my house. Please take that somewhere and set it out. Do not tell anyone here where you put it."
Kelly collected the comforter and stepped out of the room, opening and closing a door behind her. She was gone several minutes, during which time we made small talk. She came back and said, "I put it somewhere in the house."
"May I, Renea?" she nodded. I popped home, then started thinking about the comforter and the things Petra and I did on it. The first time I got a false jump into Petra's arms, which surprised everyone.
"Oops," I said. "Sorry."
I popped out amidst the laughter and tried again, this time without so much thinking about Petra.
And found myself in a bedroom. On the bed in front of me was my comforter. I looked around at what I presumed was Renea's bedroom. It was actually fairly simple but tasteful. There was a picture of a man, women, and two children on the night stand. I picked it up as well as the comforter and popped home, then back to Andrea's tower. I dropped the comforter and handed the picture to Renea.
She stared at the photo for a moment. There were tears in her eyes. "My daughter, her husband and children. I'll never see them again." She stood up and hugged me. "It worked."
"It worked," I said.
"We have one option, then," Petra said. "All we need is to get one of us somewhere to buy or somehow claim a home, then come back here and collect personal items. We can all port there, even Kelly and Renea, as long as it's ready and we don't wait too long."
"Run away and cede the castle," Andrea said. "Then do it a few more times until we're so far from here Vincent would never be able to find us."
"I do not consider this a sure fire solution," Petra said. "Felicia had an orgasm on that comforter only a few hours ago." I blushed. "Her memory of it may be especially strong. We don't know if it would work after a week or a month. And we don't know if Renea can do the same thing."
"Was it a good orgasm?" Beth asked me.
"Can we stay on topic?" I asked.
"I think the quality of the orgasm might matter," Beth said. "Maybe a good orgasm is more powerful than a bad one." We all stared at her. "I'm just saying," she said, grinning at me.
"So we have one option to pursue," Renea said. "And we can formulate a few plans for enacting it. What are our other choices?"
"Kill Vincent," Petra said.
"I like that plan," said Andrea.
"Before we go down that path, I need to ask a question," I said. "Sally, if we discuss killing Vincent, is that conspiracy to commit murder."
"Yes," she said. "Although unless you actually kill him back on Earth, no one is going to know. It's not like any of us could report it without visiting the psych ward, and if our conversations are always here, I don't know what the rules would be for jurisdiction."
"I am unwilling to propose murder unless we try diplomacy at least once more," I said. "But I am not willing to accept a solution that requires Renea and Kelly to die. And that is what is on the table here."
"So that's option two," said Renea.
"Bribe him," I said. "Pay him off."
"We tried," said Petra. "Several million dollars. He wasn't interested in even discussing it."
"Bribe him with the castle if he lets us leave," I suggested.
"We offered that, too," said Renea. "But we should offer it again. He may be more willing to discuss it now that our forces are deeper and the cost of taking the castle is higher."
We went around and around. Finally I said, "Jeremy and Vincent both have a fatal flaw."
Everyone turned to me.
"Pride. I bet they both would love a little revenge on me. Can we use that?"
"No," said Petra. "Whatever you are thinking. No."
"I was thinking of a wager."
No one said anything right away. Finally Renea asked, "What sort of wager, Dear?"
"I don't know," I said. "But if it involves humiliating me, they might take it. Jeremy certainly would. Vincent might. He certainly loved being an asshole to me."
That received some discussion that didn't go anywhere.
"Let's go back to option one," Renea said. "Ideas?"
"One or two of us could try to sneak out and buy a cottage somewhere," Andrea said. "That might be difficult without speaking the language, but if started out right away, we might be able to get far enough from the castle that Vincent won't realize where we were. He could spend months still focused on the castle."
"Or you could get followed and not know it," said Petra.
"We don't speak the language, either."
"Bindi does," Kelly pointed out. "We could send him." She paused. "He's kind of sweet on me. He might do it to save me."
"Or he could go straight to Vincent," Sally said.
"Everything is a risk," Kelly said. "We could offer to make him very wealthy. Give him enough gold to buy a cottage someplace. It doesn't need to be a lot. I'm sure I can explain enough for him to understand what we want."
"Have you been leading him on?" I asked. "If he figures out you're with Andrea, he might change his mind."
"He already knows," Kelly said. "But I've been kind to him, and I think he cares."
"Do we trust him enough to come up here and talk to us?"
Renea, Andrea and Kelly looked at each other. "Kelly, would you bring him here?"
While she was gone, the rest of us discussed the option. None of us felt that good about it. Erika finally said, "Kelly has spent time with him. And I get the impression you only hire people you trust. So why are you second guessing her now?"
That ended the conversation. Kelly returned a minute later leading a somewhat cautious Bindi. He walked into Andrea's tower and seemed awed. When he saw Petra he pointed to her and said, "French fry lady." His accent was thick, but I understood what he said.
Petra laughed and nodded.
Kelly poured him a glass of wine. "Wine," she said. She picked up her own and drank from it. He tried it and seemed to like it.
"Bindi," Kelly said. "Vincent wants to kill me." She drew her finger across her throat in emphasis. "Vincent wants to kill Renea." She walked over and drew her finger across Renea's throat."
"Vincent not kill," he said.
"Vincent wants to kill," Kelly said.
"Yes," Bindi said. "Vincent wants. Vincent not kill. Bindi help."
"I trust him," I said immediately.
"It's not your life on the line, Love," Petra said gently. I didn't respond.
"Well, it's my life on the line," Kelly said. "And I trust him."
Renea stared at Kelly and Bindi for a minute. "Erika is right. Hire good people and trust them. If Kelly trusts him, then I will. Kelly, can you explain what we need?"
It took a while to explain. He didn't understand why.
"Should we demonstrate?" I asked. "It might startle him."
"May as well," Kelly said.
"Andrea, it's your tower," Petra said.
Andrea nodded and walked over to Bindi. "Bindi," she said. "This tower is mine." She crouched down and patted the floor, then put he
r hand to her chest. "Understand?"
Bindi pointed to the glass in Kelly's hand. "Glass is Kelly." He pointed to his own. "Glass is Bindi." He pointed to the tower. "Tower is Andrea."
"Yes." She walked to the wall and made a door. Then in the outer wall she made a window. "Bindi," she said. "Watch." Kelly brought him over to the window. Andrea descended the stairs and moved out into the courtyard where Bindi could see her. She waved, and he waved back. Then she disappeared and a couple of seconds later, reappeared in the tower.
Bindi gasped, staring out the window. "Where Andrea?"
"Here," said Andrea.
He spun around, gaping. He pointed back and forth.
It took more explaining, but in the end, he understood what we wanted. Travel for a week in any direction and buy a house for Kelly. Lay out Kelly's comforter in the house. It took more explaining, but we were able to determine how much gold he would need.
"I don't have it," Renea said. "Not in local currency."
"Krugerrands," I said. "There is undoubtedly a gold dealer in Minneapolis who can sell us Krugerrands."
And we had a plan. Monday we would buy twice the amount of Krugerrands than we needed. Bindi would leave immediately after. He would get as far as he could in six days and buy whatever cottage he could buy, in Kelly's name. On the seventh day, Kelly would transport over and claim it, then if it worked, invite the rest of us.
We hoped it would work.
"Now, about diplomacy and a wager," Renea said.
Diplomacy
Monday at ten AM, I stepped into the office where I had worked just last summer. I was dressed very professionally and much better than I had when I worked for Vincent. People recognized me, and I said "Hello" to old coworkers. "Is Vincent around?" I asked. "I wanted to talk some business with him."
He made me wait nearly an hour but ushered me into his office and closed the door.
"If you kill me," he said. "The entire office will know it. You'll never be safe on Earth again."
"I have no intention of killing you, Vincent," I said. "That would be murder."
"It wouldn't be the first time," he said.
I didn't respond to that but instead said, "I came to ask you what it would take to get you to leave us alone."
"Nothing much," he said. "The castle should be mine. It was my father's, and it should be mine. And Renea doesn't deserve immortality. If you give me the castle and Renea spends a few hours at a party at my house, I'll let all the rest of you leave."
"She'll die," I said.
"With any luck," he said.
"You can't take the castle," I told him. "You might be able to take the courtyard, but you couldn't take the towers, and as long as we hold the towers, we can kill anyone you send after us."
"You have clearly never heard of siege weapons," he said. "People have been destroying castles for a very, very long time, and I have all of history to draw on for advice, plus modern materials. Are you familiar with a ballistae?" I nodded. "Imagine making one in a modern machine shop with steel torsion springs."
"That won't punch through three foot rock walls."
"No, but once we use the trebuchets for a while, there won't be any rock walls. The ballistae are for any defenders still standing." He paused. "But here, I have a photo around here somewhere. Perhaps you might care to see it."
He actually had a photo. He showed it to me and took great delight into describing it in detail.
"Your operators won't live long enough to use it."
"How many can you kill?" he asked. "Ten? Twenty? Fifty? I have that many now, and I'm recruiting more."
"So much work," I said. "Wouldn't it be easier to let us leave? Perhaps you would care to make another proposal in which no one dies."
"Give me the castle and allow me to watch Renea die, and the rest of you can walk away," he said. "Otherwise you can all lose your little retreat and join the vast majority of humanity in mortality, and I'll still get the castle and know that Renea is dying or dead."
I looked away for a minute. "There's nothing you want instead?"
He leered at me.
"Right, like you'd give up your revenge for a night with me."
"Who said anything about one night?" he asked. "I was thinking a year."
"You're insane."
"A year of you as my obedient little sex slave in exchange for immortality for you, Renea and all your friends. But I still get the castle."
"You'd let them all go if I promised myself to you for a year."
"Oh no," he said. "You give me a year and at the end of it, I let them go."
I laughed. "I believe we have a trust issue over that agreement."
"But you expect me to trust you?"
"They would have a year to escape your spies. I'd be buying them time to get far enough away from you."
"Interesting. No, I don't think so. As tasty as the possibility you would give me your sweet ass, I don't trust you enough to think you'd pay off."
I stared him in the eye. "It's too bad you're such a fucking pansy or we could enter into some far more interesting negotiations."
He glared at me.
"Afraid of a girl my size," I said.
"I could break you with one hand," he said.
"Yeah, right. Fucking. Pansy." I licked my lips. "You got off on bullying me when I worked here, but you're afraid of me now. You were worried I might try to kill you. With what? My bare hands? I'm five-two and half your size, and you're afraid of me. Pansy."
"I'm not afraid of you, you fucking dyke."
"Big man, but afraid to prove it."
He slammed his fist on the desk. "Shut your smart mouth."
"Pansy." I spelled the word out. "Prove it. You and Jeremy against Petra and me, a week from Friday, a nice little wager settled the old fashioned way. Personal combat."
"Oh yes, your black belt instructor," he said. "I don't think so. You and Renea, now, that might be interesting." He paused. "We will wipe the floor with you." He looked away. "The castle is mine. You're fighting to leave. When we win, everyone else leaves, but you will give me that year. Your smart mouth around my cock sounds good to me."
"If I'm giving you a year, then everyone else gets to leave."
"Everyone but Renea."
"If we win, we walk away and you don't follow us."
"Agreed. Bitch."
"Fine. Noon, a week from Friday. How about the field next to the village where Jeremy killed all the villagers? I think you know it. Swords and knives only."
I got up and walked out. "Don't be late. Pansy."
Bought It
I walked into Petra's office. "He bought it. But."
"But what?"
"He won't fight you. He wants Renea. You can summon Sally and Karen, so she should be able to summon me. Will she be able to defend herself while I kill them?"
She smiled. "Oh yes." She started laughing. "Renea has had almost fifty years in Siriena. She has magic that Vincent can't match and won't expect." She paused. "And his intelligence obviously sucks, as Renea is an excellent swordswoman, far better than I am."
"Well, I did make him angry."
She summoned Andrea to her office. The three of us discussed the details. I didn't tell Petra I'd promised to give myself to Vincent if we lost. We weren't going to lose, so why let her worry about it?
I turned to Andrea. "Boss, I would like time to visit my parents before next Friday."
They both stared at me.
"Please, don't make a big deal of this," I said. "Just, you know. In case."
Andrea looked at me kindly. "Of course, Felicia. Take whatever time you need."
"I'll go next Tuesday," I said. "And take the fast flight back Thursday morning." I turned to Petra. "You are mine on Thursday. Plan on a lot of shared orgasms." I paused. "Aren't we due in the dojo?"
* * *
We all popped to the castle that evening. We brought practice swords and teamed up, Renea and me against Petra and Andrea.
&nb
sp; "You two go all out," I said.
"They aren't as good as we are," Petra said.
"I don't care. I'm betting Vincent can't throw Jeremy, and even if he can, once Vincent is dead, Jeremy is going to run or die. Which of you is Vincent?"
"I am," said Andrea.
"I am also betting Jeremy doesn't give a shit about Renea and wants me to suffer," I said.
Andrea and Petra started at one side of the courtyard. Renea and I were at the other. Kelly stood well clear and dropped a scarf.
I instantly popped home and Renea had me immediately behind Andrea, but I was facing the wrong way. By the time I spun around, Andrea's sword was at my neck. Petra didn't see I was out and rushed Renea. They performed a serious exchange before Andrea could call a halt. Petra and Renea glanced at me with Andrea's sword resting against my neck.
I walked back to Renea and told her what had happened. "Try it again," she said.
The scarf dropped, I ported out and began a spinning strike for an opponent behind me. I popped back halfway through the strike, but Andrea parried and readily disarmed me before I could even think to pop away from her.
I walked back to Renea. "Put me in front of her, a half step outside striking range. Expect me to pop away. If so, put me behind her. After that, pull me back and we'll work at her flanks and back."
Renea nodded.
The scarf dropped. I popped home and began a series of lunging steps. I popped just outside striking range and did a hop-hop-lunge. I actually caught Andrea by surprise, but she recovered before I could strike and I barely parried. I popped away and began a spinning strike for her behind me, which she parried easily and tried to riposte, but I presume her sword slipped through where I had been, as I popped home again. Next I appeared about midway to her, reviewed her stance, and immediately popped away, hoping that Renea saw the same opening I had. I began a strike for an opponent on my left, but Renea popped me to the other side. I barely avoided Andrea's swing and popped home.
Renea didn't pull me back. Finally I was pulled back and could tell it was Petra doing it. She put me on the field opposite Kelly. I turned around and saw both Andrea and Petra in front of Renea, Renea's sword on the ground.
We consulted. "As soon as Petra engaged me," Renea said, "I was no longer able to pull you. I was fighting for my life and couldn't spare the attention. Petra didn't need to beat me, just keep me busy until Andrea added." She paused. "The two of you are amazing together."
Pulled to the Dark (The Siriena Series) Page 27