Shadows of Mallachrom, Book 1: Blue Fire

by Michelle Levigne

"Not a risk. Necessary." She squeezed out the cloth in the basin of water and wiped at his face.

  "No."

  "Petroc, what does this scar mean?" She held her thumb upright in front of his face. "We promised nothing and no one would ever keep us apart again. Remember?"

  "Didn't mean it that way."

  "You keep the oath your way, I'll keep it mine." She dabbed at his face, wiping away more sweat stinking of sickness.

  "Feels good," he whispered. He closed his eyes under her touch. "It was a big risk."

  "The bigger risk was leaving you there to spill your guts." She held his chin between thumb and forefinger until he had to open his eyes and meet her gaze. She waited until she saw acceptance in his gaze, then decided it was time to change the subject. "Hungry?" She was perversely delighted when he shook his head. "You have to eat. You need fuel to purge your system."

  "I'll puke."

  "Probably." To hold an intelligent conversation with him felt wonderful. "At least drink something?"

  "Tea. With lots of sweetening." He made a wheezing attempt at laughter. "Didn't mean to order you around."

  "That's fine with me. You stay here, and I'll be right back." She sprang to her feet and ran to the door. Petroc didn't laugh at her lame joke, but she saw him smile.

  "How is he?" Cianna asked when she ran into the kitchen.

  The Taken Empath sat at the table, grinding herbs in a pestle for another one of her healing brews. The kitchen smelled like a Taken pharmacy. Rhianni liked it. The smells were of life, of strength and healing, not a concession to sickness and death.

  The rest of Mallachrom smelled like danger, corruption and death, she realized. Especially in Core, around The Hall. Did it smell like the air around the Black Pit? She couldn't remember. Gut instinct said yes.

  "Awake. Thirsty. Arguing with me." She knew she looked ridiculous, with a trembling smile and tears ready to spill.

  "That's Petroc." Cianna watched her fill a mug from the pot of sweetsoul tea kept warm on the back of the stove. "He was that way from the first day the Shadows rescued us. He never let himself relax, never let himself enjoy anything unless everybody else was taken care of first."

  "That sounds like an overly idealistic Rover recruit." Rhianni winced at the sour tone of her voice.

  She felt a dropping sensation in her stomach. Hadn't it been that way when they were children? Wanting to be Rovers like her father, begging him for bits and pieces of Rover traditions and stories of grand adventure. The things her father had taught Petroc had saved his life when he became a Taken. Had the same lessons made him want to die rather than risk his friends?

  "How's the news?" She tapped the floor with the toe of her slipper, indicating the hidden room where Cae scanned the communications bands, changing channels and listening for anything that might sound interesting or dangerous.

  "They're searching outposts in case anyone escaped. No mention yet of the weapons used or descriptions of the people who broke into detention. Most of the concern is for the destroyed security files."

  "Good."

  "No one believes Taken did it. Where would they get the weapons? But someone very high up is swinging the others around to their view."

  Rhianni nodded. She had expected that. The Taken had been warned to stay quiet and close to home all day before and after the rescue. They gave no one any excuse to suspect them.

  Cianna gestured at the cooling mug of tea on the tray. "Are you going to give him anything else with that?"

  "Lots of liquids until I know his stomach is settled."

  "Shaina sent word, to tell you and Petroc the Pit is stirred up like a hurricane." She shrugged. "I could have told her that would happen."

  Rhianni nodded as she headed upstairs with Petroc's tea. Her mind switched into hyper-speed. Was the disturbance in response to what they had done, rescuing so many Taken? Or a warning of another drastic move?

  It was time for her to act instead of reacting. Whatever she did, she wouldn't give Petroc a hint of it until he was on his own two feet.

  Chapter 16

  Petroc lost most of the first mug of tea. Half of the next. But he kept down the rest. Rhianni gave him fruit juice an hour later. Then broth. For supper, she gave him two slices of bread soaked in broth. In between, she kept his mug filled with Cianna's purifying and cleansing brews.

  Forcing liquids and herbal detoxifiers into him worked wonders. Petroc sweated the drugs from his system, evidenced by the soaked sheets stinking of poisons and sickness, which Rhianni and Cianna changed twice after he regained consciousness. He was able to sit up without getting lightheaded and had regained enough feeling and control in his arms to hold his own mug and the spoon to eat his soaked bread. In another twenty hours, he might be able to walk.

  Rhianni looked forward to that with edgy anticipation. She wanted Petroc to rest, but he might need to move quickly, and soon. Random house-to-house searches had started at the outposts closer to Core.

  When Cae climbed the stairs to fill Petroc in on the current situation, Rhianni ran down the street to Burkan's house to see if he had any different information. She couldn't call and risk someone unfriendly being in his office to overhear.

  Danil attacked her when she walked through the mudroom door. The little boy was a squirming, tear-soaked, red-faced bundle of terrified fury. He climbed up to her arms before she could pick him up and wrapped his little arms tight around her neck. She could barely make out his pleas to 'find Dada'.

  "I was going to call you," Burkan said, appearing in the doorway. "It's been pretty bad over here, between all the inquiries from Core and people demanding answers to the rumors, and this one tearing the place apart. If Petroc didn't have him so well trained, he would have run away yesterday to look for his father."

  Rhianni knew that was a bad sign. Burkan could have asked in cryptic words Danil couldn't understand. He could have brought Danil to her house to see his father. Then she heard men talking in Burkan's office. The unfamiliar voices explained everything.

  "I wish I could take him home." Rhianni cuddled the boy. "I have a few injured men at my place. He'd probably get in the way. They're doing much better, though."

  Burkan nodded. His normally neat, freshly-pressed appearance had suffered neglect--clothes wrinkled, stubble on his chin and cheeks, smears of sleeplessness under his eyes. Rhianni doubted Danil's tantrums were the cause. Burkan could handle the boy without Danil ever realizing he was being good. Maybe Burkan let Danil be especially bad as a distraction?

  "Find Dada?" Danil lifted his head from Rhianni's shoulder and tugged on her braid to get her attention. "He's gone. He promised he'd come back!" More tears burst out.

  "It's all right, Danil. I'll take care of you." She stepped into the kitchen. The odors of burned bread, greasy meat and scorched coffee almost made her choke. What had Burkan been doing in his kitchen the last two days?

  "Well, who might you be?" The stranger's cold, hard voice made Rhianni tighten her arms around Danil and turn to face the doorway into the next room.

  The man was thin, gray-haired, gray-eyed, dressed in an Enforcer uniform with the hash marks that made him planetary equivalent of a full colonel. He had to be the commander, or close enough in rank the difference didn't matter.

  All she had to do was flash her credentials as a Rover captain and this man would have to obey her. That was a comforting thought, but now was not the time to use her trump card, especially if things were so bad that the local Enforcers didn't care about the line of authority. However, Rhianni suddenly knew how to use this encounter to her advantage.

  For a moment, it felt like Petroc was in the room. She thought she heard his quick, indrawn breath, as if he knew the schemes that filled her mind.

  "I'm Rhianni Day." She stepped closer and shifted Danil to one arm so she could reach for her identification card in her hip pocket. The man raised an eyebrow as he read it.

  "That your sled out in the field?"

  "No." What was
all this about? "It's a loan from my grandmother while I'm visiting Mallachrom. Mistress Shoreel of the Council."

  "Oh, that Rhianni Day." The commander gave her a flat smile and nodded. "We had a suggestion to check on you, but we didn't realize it came from her."

  He was the worst liar Rhianni had ever had the displeasure of facing.

  "Visiting?" he continued.

  "Rhianni is on rest leave from the Rover Corps," Burkan supplied. "Her father died on a mission and she's been granted emotional leave."

  "Anni," Danil whimpered. "Find my Dada?"

  "I'll try." She stroked his hair. "Commander, do you have any word yet on what happened to the men at the detention center? Petroc Ash was innocent and he would have been released and home by now if someone hadn't bombed the place." Her tone of righteous exasperation and the pique of someone used to having all wishes carried out seemed to have just the right effect on the man.

  "No one knows anything, Mistress Day." He stood up a little straighter. Respect, which was more precious to her right now than fear.

  "That's Captain Day."

  A smile turned his face into something almost pleasant. He was a slightly better actor than he was a liar. Rhianni knew then he had been sent out to do more than check on her.

  "We could use your help, if you wouldn't mind. Just some advice. Nothing really active."

  "If I could, I'd leave Mallachrom right now." She turned her back on him and stomped over to the cold box--stomped as well as she could with Danil in her arms. "This little boy's mother died because she didn't receive adequate medical care. Because she was a Taken. Now his father is missing because your people can't tell innocent from guilty." Rhianni glared at the man. She knew she was winning the mental battle when he had the grace to look away. "I think I'm going to take Danil with me."

  "Wanna find Dada!" Danil shrieked. He wriggled in her arms, upsetting her balance as she knelt to get a container of cold soup from a bottom shelf. "My Dada!"

  "Danil!" She slid backwards, landing on her bottom.

  Rhianni had to release him to keep from falling back further and hitting her head on the wall. The boy scrambled away, heading straight for the door. Burkan caught him. Danil kicked and screamed for his father until Rhianni regained her feet and took him into her arms again.

  "I'm sorry," she whispered, and tucked his head into her shoulder as he suddenly collapsed, sobbing. "It's okay. We'll find Dada."

  His cries changed to muffled gulps and sobs as he dug his fingers into her jacket. Rhianni imagined the tears and runny nose smeared into the cloth. She counted it penance, for leaving the little boy to worry and cry for so long.

  "We'd appreciate all the help you can give us, Captain," the commander said. "Rovers are probably the only ones who could handle this sudden downturn throughout the colony."

  Sudden, nothing, she mentally snarled. The only thing sudden about all this was that the victims were fighting back. The authorities had been trying to condition them for years to roll over and docilely present their throats for slaughter.

  "Council Member Shoreel does have a request," he continued. "If you're up to it, Captain."

  Rhianni shivered, positive she heard Petroc snort that bitter laugh of his. Did he have some kind of spy tap installed in Burkan's house?

  "Up to what, Commander?"

  "An anomaly discovered out in the wilderness. No one's quite sure what to make of it, but she thought with your sciences background and your experience with alien life forms, you might take a look at it."

  Don't, Rhianni, Petroc growled in her ear. She almost felt his breath against the back of her neck. He means the Black Pit. They've known about it all along. I have to get to the house and warn her.

  Petroc? Can you hear me? Rhianni wondered if the stress of the last few days had finally made her snap, mentally.

  Yes.

  A silence that seemed to stretch out to the furthest recognizance satellites rang between them. Rhianni sensed beyond that silence a roar of exultation that shook the roots of the planet.

  She thought she had slipped inside Petroc's mind and experienced the numbing and delirium dreams with him. What if that hadn't been weariness, but a bond formed between their minds? She put the theories aside to think about later. If there was a later.

  I won't do anything stupid, believe me. If Grandmother wants me at the Black Pit, that's the last place I'll go.

  The mental exchange took only a heartbeat. Rhianni forced a puzzled frown onto her face and nodded, as if she had merely spent the last few seconds thinking over the commander's words. She sensed the enemy had just handed her a weapon. Could she use it, or would it blow up in her face?

  "I'll consider it. When I have time. Can you give me the coordinates? I might fly out on my own. It's faster going alone, rather than dragging an entire team of scientists with me."

  He gave her the coordinates, confirming Petroc's suspicion. It was definitely the Black Pit, and the man seemed delighted at the idea of her going solo. At the back of her mind, Rhianni sensed Petroc fussing. She tried to send him an image of her returning to the house soon. It was hard to carry on two conversations at once.

  How could she use this new talent? Had she entered the Taken Merger?

  "I'm taking Danil back to my house, Burkan. This atmosphere isn't good for him. And maybe you should start processing custody papers for me." She made a hushing gesture and stroked Danil's back. The boy had drifted into a stupor and didn't seem to hear her. "I'm taking Danil away with me. This entire planet isn't good for children. Any children."

  "You're probably right." Burkan sighed. He winked with the eye the Enforcer couldn't see. "I'll start on it right away."

  "Good day, commander." Rhianni turned her back on both men and went back out through the mudroom door. Outwardly calm, her insides churned.

  That was too close! Why hadn't she noticed the landing of the shuttles? Or had the men come overland? She took the long way home to get a good look at the landing field. Two sleek shuttles filled most of the landing field. Civilians gathered around it in little groups, talking. By their clothes, no one was a Taken.

  Rhianni wondered how many Enforcers were at QSE, and how many had moved out to search the settlements. Had her warning gone out soon enough to warn the Neelys and others who had children and pregnancies to hide? It was a struggle not to run all the way back to her house. Her mind raced at triple speed, making plans. She couldn't count on the commander's sudden respect to make him leave her house alone. He would search. Eventually.

  Petroc... She cuddled Danil closer and tried to move faster without looking like she did. We might be getting company.

  We're working on it already.

  This is convenient, being able to talk like this. Do all Taken talk so clearly, without losing consciousness?

  No.

  There was something in his tone, too guarded, that kept her from asking further questions.

  It took half an hour for the Enforcers to get to Rhianni's house to search. She led the commander and three Enforcers upstairs to her hastily arranged sickroom. As she had told Burkan, two men waited, tended by Cianna. The room smelled of a nauseating mixture of herbs and rancid moriphus, made worse by the fumes from a solid fuel block hidden under Cae's bed. The protective coating had been slashed to let the volatiles evaporate. Petroc and Cae looked positively gray from the stink.

  Petroc wore a jury-rigged back brace. What little of his hair that emerged from the bandages encasing his head had been dyed silver. His one visible eye glared at the intruders when they first walked into the room, then he turned his head and refused to acknowledge them.

  "This is Cianna Corsi," Rhianni said, gesturing at the woman working on Cae's leg. They had fashioned a convincing ulcer that ran the length of his left leg, red and glistening yellow and threatening to erupt infection. "She was a medic in Core, but after that fire, she decided to close up shop."

  "Smart move," an Enforcer said. His commander quelled him wit
h a single glare.

  "Why are these men here, Captain Day?" He gestured at the two beds crammed into her parents' former room.

  "I'm a trained medic. These men work here at QSE, where I was born. It's a debt I owe. Rovers always help out wherever they can." She met his eyes for three long seconds, daring him to contradict or mock her, and he turned away first.

  "There's a greater need than just playing medic."

  "I know." Rhianni sensed Petroc watching her and willed him to stay quiet. The commander had just walked into her trap. She hoped. She glanced back and forth between her 'patients' and the Enforcers. "Cianna, could you handle things here for a few days?"

  "Well..." Cianna stood up, wiping her messy hands on her apron. Two men looked nauseous at the sight of the yellow and red mess smeared on the cloth. Rhianni bit her lip to keep from laughing. "I think so."

  "Good. Commander, I'll be taking my sled to Core to see my grandmother. How soon will you be returning?"

  "We'd be delighted to be your escort, captain."

  "Your hair's all silvery, Dada," Danil said with a giggle. He settled more comfortably into Petroc's lap and took a tighter hold of his father's shirt front.

  They were settled downstairs in the front room. The upstairs room had to be aired out to get rid of the fuel fumes. The ruse had worked. The invading Enforcers had gone back to their post and both Petroc and Cae were safe.

  Rhianni had gone to Core wearing her Rover black dress uniform. Petroc guessed her plan, and didn't like it. His worry covered the irritation in his scalp from the hair dye.

  "Yeah, it's all silvery. You were turning my hair silver anyway, so why wait?" He made a face at his son, prompting more giggles.

  Traces of his hours of misery still showed on the boy's face, but he was making a fast recovery. Petroc's heart ached at the memory of Danil's first sight of him. The boy had leaped from Cianna's arms, fell flat on his face on the floor and picked himself up to run to his father, ignoring the blood streaming from his lip. He had clung to Petroc, trembling and babbling about the bad men and Rhianni was taking him away and Uncle Burkan was mean to him. Petroc would have laughed if his chest and head hadn't hurt so badly.