Bound to the Commander

by Libby Campbell

  There was an unattended reception desk topped with a large bowl of red apples that infused the room with their sweet autumn scent. Pepper smiled. Every fall Mama used to fill the fruit bowl with the new harvest. The smell of apples always reminded Pepper of happier times.

  None of the closed doors to the treatment rooms gave any clue as to which one was occupied. The three of them stood without speaking, hushed into silence by the serene atmosphere of the room. Pepper realized that Axel and the guards hadn’t followed them inside, and she was grateful for their discretion, knowing this would be an emotional reunion.

  Then a door on the left opened and Pepper’s most secret and improbable wish came true. Her mother walked out. Pepper released the breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding and stood, rooted to the spot, slack-jawed and speechless. Mama looked strong, healthy. Under her white treatment jacket, she wore the same black shirt and gray pants as everyone else.

  “Mama!” Lily threw herself into Bernadette’s arms.

  Bernadette’s eyes widened as she looked over Lily’s shoulder first to Pepper then to Gael. She raised an eyebrow at Gael as if she might have forgotten who she was.

  Gael whispered, “No, you don’t know me.”

  “My babies,” Bernadette sighed. She opened her other arm to embrace Pepper. For a moment the only sound in the room was a quiet keening of disbelief, of wounds reopening and healing, of love finding its home again. Pepper inhaled the apple scent of her mother and the years apart vanished.

  Bernadette gave her daughters one last squeeze before pushing them away, to look at them more closely. “What’s happened to you? Why are you here? Are you ill?”

  Lily, refusing to be detached from her mother, took her hand and held it tight.

  Pepper dashed away the salty tears that had started to flow. “We weren’t brought here. We came here ourselves. I traded favors to find the location and...”

  She pointed to Gael, “Princess Gael used her royal privilege to make the Tribunal Guards bring us here.”

  “Oh, my dear girls. What have you done?” Bernadette sank onto one of the sofas, covering her face with her hands. Lily sat beside her, wide-eyed with sudden terror.

  Of all the reactions Pepper expected from her mother, this wasn’t one of them.

  As she opened her mouth to speak, the door to the treatment room opened again. Clinic manager Anna McGilvery stepped through. She blinked a couple of times. A low moan escaped her as she hugged Pepper.

  “Who brought you here?” she asked Pepper plaintively.

  “We’ve come to bring Mama home.” Pepper’s voice trailed off. Why was Mama sobbing? Why had an air of tragedy settled on Anna the moment she saw Pepper and Lily?

  Gael stepped forward. “Sister Anna McGilvery? I’m Crown Princess Gael Vasa from Senne. Pleased to meet you. Pepper has sung your praises to me.”

  Anna swallowed hard before shaking herself hard. “Please to meet you, your highness,” she said with a slight bow. “I suspect your life is about to change dramatically.”

  Bernadette looked up from behind her spread fingers, as she’d just processed who Gael was. “Princess Gael?”

  Pepper and Gael exchanged worried looks. This reunion wasn’t going according to plan.

  “Mama,” Pepper said, sitting beside her. “What’s wrong? We thought you’d be happy to see us.”

  “Of course I am.” Bernadette stifled another sob. “But you don’t realize what you’ve done.”

  “Which is—?”

  “You’re at the Healing and Rehabilitation Camp now.” Bernadette laid a warm hand on Pepper’s shoulder. “No one leaves the camp. Ever. Even the drivers who deliver the new residents don’t come through the gates. They deliver to the edge of the drawbridge. Once you’ve passed under the portcullis, you know too much. You’re here for life.”

  “Nonsense!” scoffed Gael. “I’m the crown princess of Senne. They can’t hold me.”

  “If they let you leave, you’ll be the first.” Bernadette blew out a breath that sounded worn and anxious.

  “I don’t believe that.” Pepper shook off her hand. “I don’t believe I need this either.” She tore off her mask and jumped to her feet. She stomped toward the door, led by Gael.

  “Where are you going?” Bernadette asked, drawing Lily closer.

  “To find Axel and get to the bottom of this.”

  “Good luck with that,” Bernadette said.

  Gael, who was already at the door, turned back to look at Bernadette. “We’ll find Axel and the guards and tell them we want to leave now.”

  “Axel will be long gone by now.” Bernadette leaned back into the sofa.

  “So, we’ll find him,” Pepper insisted.

  “Don’t think so, my love.” Bernadette’s voice was almost a whisper.

  “He brought us here and waited outside for us to have our reunion.” Even as she argued with her mother, Pepper was filled with a sense of dread.

  Bernadette tipped Lily’s head to her shoulder and started stroking her hair. “I hope you’re right.”

  “Let’s go,” Gael said. “We’ll be back in a minute.”

  It took longer than a minute. First she and Pepper tried the gate they’d entered through. It was locked. There was no sign of the guards or Axel. They called Axel. They called the guards.

  No one answered.

  They combed the perimeter of the complex before searching each of the houses and trying again and again to unlock the gates back into the main part of the camp.

  Finally admitting defeat, they dragged themselves back to the Healing Cottage, frustrated and more than a little confused.

  Anna, Bernadette, and Lily were seated in the waiting room. All the doors leading off it were open now. There were two treatment bays, a bathroom and a small kitchen. There was a pot of tea on the table, along with a tray of cookies, and three cups of tea.

  Anna jumped to her feet. “I’ll make some more tea.”

  “I’m fine, thank you anyway,” Gael said. “What exactly is going on here? Where is Axel? Why have my guards disappeared? They were armed!”

  “Sit down and get comfortable. It’s a long story,” Bernadette said. “This old castle predates human arrival on this planet. It has many hidden passages and corridors that are only accessible by people with the right keys.” She picked up a cup of tea and blew on it. “And by right keys I mean bio-keys. Axel is one of them. I suspect he’s called on some of the security force here and had your guards taken back to the main tower. They will be drugged and microchipped to hold them within the electronic dome of the Healing and Rehabilitation Camp.”

  “Electronic dome?” Pepper asked, dreading the answer.

  “The camp, and all the land around it, is guarded by an invisible force that imprisons everyone here who has been microchipped. Anyone who tries to escape, who steps outside the dome’s perimeter, is instantly crippled with excruciating pain. I’ve seen powerful men and courageous women try to leave, only to return howling in agony. Even fully sedated they continue to scream. It takes weeks of our most advanced medicine to return them to functional health.”

  Pepper’s gut clenched. She’d been so determined to be reunited with her mother she hadn’t thought what price that reunion might come at. She’d thought the only price she’d have to pay would be a severe spanking from Quinn. Now she would welcome that, if it was all she had to face.

  “What are we going to do?” Lily rocked back and forth, humming quietly.

  “When will we be chipped?” Pepper asked.

  “Normally it’s done when people are in transit, drugged and lost to the world. But you came here fully conscious. I’m guessing they’ll drug your dinner tonight and come when you’re asleep,” Bernadette said. “Please stop humming, Lily. It really doesn’t help.”

  “Do you live here?” Gael asked, indicating the Healing Cottage.

  “Sometimes. When new arrivals are very ill, I will move in until they are stabilized. Or when I know t
hem. As soon as I saw Anna’s name, I volunteered to move in immediately. Besides, this is much nicer here than our usual quarters.”

  “Have you seen anyone chipped?” Pepper asked.

  “Several times. You’re not the first people to come here, searching for loved ones.”

  “Did you stop it then?” Disbelief crackled in Pepper’s voice.

  “I tried. Just once. For my efforts I was dumped at a spot just beyond the dome’s perimeter. That left me crippled by pain for days. It was two weeks before I could walk without help.”

  “Why don’t you cut the chip out?” Pepper asked.

  “They are placed in a highly vascular area on the neck. Only a skilled surgeon could possibly remove them without endangering the patient’s life.”

  A thick layer of silence blanketed the room.

  Pepper was the first to break it. “If we can’t get the chip out once it’s in, then the three of us must make sure we aren’t chipped at all.”

  “How will we do that?” Lily asked.

  “I say we fight fire with fire.” Pepper stood and started to pace. “Mama, tell us what happens with the nighttime chipping?”

  “They wait for an hour or so after you’ve eaten. Then they come in and check you for lack of consciousness. When you’re out cold, it’s easy. A syringe right here.” Bernadette lifted Lily’s braids and pointed to a spot. “You wake up in the morning, wearing one of these lovely uniforms, in a narrow cot in a soulless dormitory. You find a note in your pocket welcoming you to your new family.” Sorrow etched her face and she looked one hundred years old.

  “Why do they do that?” Lily asked.

  Bernadette gave a rueful laugh. “Why do people do bad things? For power. For greed. Not that anyone has shared the plan with me.” She shook her head. “As if I can’t put two and two together. Did you notice our lovely wardrobe selections? I never thought I’d miss my midi-dresses, but these uniforms are all that we get. They remind us that we are part of a rebel militia. As if daily drills for every able-bodied resident don’t reinforce that.”

  “To what end?” Gael’s eyes were hooded as if she knew the answer.

  Bernadette twisted a lock of hair around her finger. “I think that whoever is in charge of this camp is planning a takeover. While the rest of our country has only minimal military forces, this old castle holds about four thousand people, all of whom are becoming highly skilled with weapons and fighting.”

  “What if people refuse to train?” Pepper asked, speculating on what she might do in their situation.

  “A day, an hour, even a few minutes on the other side of the dome is an effective way to change people’s minds. I don’t know about others, but I’ve been biding my time here. Hoping that whenever we are called upon to fight, I can escape then.”

  Pepper crouched in front of her, bringing her face close to Bernadette’s. “Mama, I can’t take you out of here now, but I promise I will do everything I can to get you released.” She kissed her mother’s forehead and stood. “I have some influence in Rosewyld. It may not be enough, but I will fight tooth and nail for you and everyone in here. Did they even tell you why you were brought here? You weren’t sick, were you?”

  Bernadette shook her head, too overwhelmed by emotion to speak.

  Anna put an arm around her. “I think your mother may still be in shock from seeing the two of you again. She told me that one moment she and your father were having a wonderful time at Elsinania Lighthouse. The next thing she knew, she was here in this compound, with a splitting headache. Axel personally delivered the cold news that Ellery had died, and she was here to recover from her grief. For reasons she couldn’t explain, she didn’t believe Axel. She’s tried to find out what happened to Ellery ever since.”

  “Does she know now?” Pepper asked, gutted at the sight of her mother so diminished by renewed sorrow.

  “Yes, Lily told us while you were trying to find Axel... What sort of heartless bastard is Commander Garrick that he would divide families like this?”

  “I don’t know,” Pepper said. “And I don’t even know if he’s aware of how this camp is run but I intend to find out—and to make a lot of noise in the process.”

  Gael said, “I’m with you. If people hear how Axel planned to trap me here, it could be an international incident.”

  “So what is the plan?” Lily sat up, despondency sliding off her at this first glimmer of hope.

  “I’ve got us out of many scrapes over the years,” Pepper patted Lily’s shoulder as reassurance. “I’ll find an answer for this too.” Pepper had helped her out many scrapes over the years.

  * * *

  That evening when the chipping master, Terence, slid through a secret door into the quarantine compound, he found Bernadette and Anna sitting on the front porch of Anna’s temporary lodgings. The sun had set an hour before and there was a slight chill in the air. Both women were wrapped in thick sweaters.

  At Anna’s smiling invitation, he took the empty chair beside her.

  “Hot chocolate?” she offered, indicating a heated jug on the table. Both she and Bernadette had half-finished cups in front of them.

  “Don’t mind if I do,” the Kedrant man said. He had tiger-striped hair, mismatched blue and gray-brown eyes, and a catlike way of moving that made him perfect for the job of creeping into the bedrooms of unsuspecting people. He picked up three cookies from the plate on the table, accepting a mug from Anna.

  He slurped some marshmallows and chocolate down, followed by half a cookie. “This is some of the nicest cocoa I’ve ever tasted.” Greedily he gulped more. “You’re looking well,” he said to Anna. “Obviously Bernie’s skills as a massage therapist are just what you needed. I guess you’re glad you came here now.”

  Bernadette bristled when he referred to her as Bernie, an annoying shortening of her name that Axel had started. But she didn’t correct Terence. She knew how pointless that effort was after three years of trying.

  “So did the young’uns eat their dinner like good children?” Terence asked, wiping his lips with the back of his hand. He stuffed an entire cookie into his mouth. Crumbs flew everywhere.

  Bernadette indicated a stack of dirty dishes on the table. “Last time I saw them they were in bed and not moving.”

  “They won’t be going anywhere for a while,” he said, tipping back more hot chocolate. “This is the perfect drinking temperature. You were obviously waiting for me. You ladies probably wish you had a man around here, someone to look after proper, like a good woman should.” He gave Anna a lascivious wink.

  She smiled back at him as if she approved of his innuendo.

  “That’s good,” he said and refilled his mug without asking. “I should let you make me hot chocolate every night.”

  Anna and Bernadette watched as he guzzled the next cup. Behind the bedroom doors, Pepper, Gael, and Lily were lying, fully clothed under blankets, ready to bolt at the signal that their victim was ready. None of them had touched the meals that had arrived from the main kitchen that night, each one carefully labeled for its intended target.

  Gael and Lily had buried the food in the flower bed while Pepper prepared the hot chocolate. She’d made individual cups for her mother and Anna. Then she tipped almost all the FalseSilver herb that Gael had given her into the jug before filling it with just enough hot chocolate to look like two cups had already been poured from it.

  All they had to do after that was wait for Terence’s well-known love of chocolate to do the rest.

  The FalseSilver didn’t disappoint them. In less than ten minutes, Terence’s head lolled to one side.

  Anna ran and got the wheelchair from the treatment center. Bernadette knocked on the bedroom door to signal the coast was clear. From her pocket she pulled the map that she’d drawn from memory the one and only time she’d been able to sneak into Axel’s office. She’d found a map of the tunnel system in a hidden compartment in his desk and had quickly traced a copy of it.

  Chapter Tw
enty-Five: Out of the Frying Pan

  Once Gael and Anna wrestled Terence into the wheelchair, Bernadette tied him in place with long white bandages. Pepper pushed him along the bumpy ground to the back of the houses. Bernadette stopped in front of what looked like more of the same stone wall that surrounded the Quarantine center.

  “This is what you’re looking for,” she said to Gael, pointing to a small dark circle that at first glance looked like a shadow. “They can make the doors disappear into the wall seamlessly but the oil on their skin always indicates where the bio-reader is.”

  With that she lifted Terence’s limp hand and pushed his thumb on the well rubbed spot. A hidden door in the wall groaned open.

  “Here’s a flashlight,” Bernadette said. “It’s the only one I’ve got, I’m sorry.”

  “We don’t need it.” Gael shook her head. “My CommBand will give us enough light.” She took the map from Bernadette and stepped into the dark tunnel.

  Pepper and Lily hugged and kissed their mother and their old friend Anna before following Gael into the darkness of the secret passageway.

  Bernadette and Anna would now mix the last of the FalseSilver into their cocoa mugs and let the herbs induce sleep. That way, when they were found in the morning and Terence and the visitors were missing, they would be convincingly drugged and confused in their responses.

  Pepper gave her mother one last affectionate look before pushing the wheelchair farther into the tunnel. Even though Terence was a stout man, the chair made him easy to move along musty halls. The tunnels were much longer than Pepper anticipated and the effort of pushing Terence, along with her terror of being discovered, soon had her covered with sweat.

  Every few minutes, they stopped and listened for any sound that someone might be coming after them through the labyrinth of tunnels. Most of the time they heard nothing but once or twice different noises bled through the walls. Once it was a class of some kind reciting a lesson in dull, mechanical voices. Another time they heard men’s voices arguing before dissolving into clouds of scornful laughter.

  Fortunately, the map that Bernadette had drawn was easy to follow. They quickly learned that the hash marks indicated stairs and they worked together to move the wheelchair up and down those small challenges. Progress was steady as they put distance between themselves and the Quarantine Center.