Until they reached the top of a staircase so long and dark, they couldn’t see the bottom by the light of the CommBand. Gael ran ahead and returned, panting hard.
“Thirty-five steps,” she gasped.
Pepper didn’t hesitate. She bounced Terence down the long staircase hoping to leave some serious bruises for him to remember them by. The tunnel under the moat, although no more than a few feet wide and fifteen feet long, was airless, as if it hadn’t been used for years. The effort of pushing the wheelchair made Pepper gulp for air.
Lily sidled up beside her. “You’re hogging him,” she said, as if Pepper was monopolizing a favorite toy. “My turn.”
When they reached the bottom of the stairs on the other side of the moat, Gael did reconnaissance again and confirmed there were just as many ascending steps. Only now they had to climb them. With tacit agreement, the three of them put their shoulders into the job and bundled the wheelchair with its heavy load up the sharp incline. They stopped at the top with two of the wheels of the chair balanced on the last step.
They allowed themselves a few minutes to suck some oxygen out of the fetid air and let their heartrates return to normal. Gael ran her light over the wall in front of them searching for the bio-reader spot. Nothing.
For a few panicked moments, Pepper thought they’d hit a dead end, that there was no way out on this side of the moat. Then she closed her eyes and let her hands search.
“Got it,” she whispered and the other two breathed audible sighs of relief.
Gael picked up Terence’s hand and touched his thumb to the spot that Pepper indicated.
The last door between them and freedom sighed open. They were in the sentry box beside the moat.
Pepper rammed the wheelchair into the wall in the tunnel. A satisfying cracking sound indicated Terence might wake with a bruise on his temple. The three of them exchanged glances and giggled.
With her chin trembling, Pepper poked her head out first, looking for anyone who might set up an alarm. Nothing. The three rides that had brought them to the Healing and Rehabilitation Camp were still there, parked in a tidy row beside the box.
Pepper turned to the others. “Well, we have the vehicles if we want them. The only problem is Lily and I can’t drive. Can you?”
“I can. More important, we need to disable the other two rides so no one can chase us in them.” Gael patted the patches on her skirt absentmindedly. “I wonder how we could do that.”
Pepper looked down at Terence. “I bet a syringe into the electrical circuit would do it.” She nodded to the tool belt Terence wore. “He has some metal nastiness in there.”
Lily crouched over him and searched his tool belt. She pulled out three syringes, loaded and ready to go.
“One finishing touch,” Gael said, reaching into one of the back patches of her skirt. “Untie his other arm and hold both his hands out flat,” she said to Lily, snapping on rubber gloves from yet another patch on her skirt. She opened a small pouch of herbs and started to rub a pink dust into Terence’s fingertips. It smelled like boot polish.
“What’s that?” Lily crinkled her nose.
“Disappearing powder. It will erase his fingertips for up to twenty-four hours so if he wakes up, he won’t be able to use the bio-reader to get out of here and put up an alarm.”
“We’ll leave you to it,” Pepper said. “Let’s go and pick a ride, little sis.” Her voice sounded confident although her knees were shaking. She wanted to persuade Lily that they were on one great adventure, even if she couldn’t stop looking over her shoulder.
They chose the vehicle that had brought them there, on the basis that it was probably the fastest and best armed, given the royal visitor it had transported. Disabling the other two rides was easier than Pepper thought it would be. The electronics in the control boards weren’t compatible with the electronics chips in the syringes from Terence’s tool belt. As soon they injected the chips, the control boards gave quiet pops and started smoking.
Gael came out of the sentry box, clutching part of Terence’s black shirt. “I’m afraid he had a rather bumpy ride back down the stairs,” she said. “Honestly I didn’t mean to let go but I was doing too much at once. I grabbed his shirt as he slipped away.” She tossed the torn corner of his shirt to Pepper.
Gael slipped into the driver’s seat. She touched her CommBand and the hovercar responded by turning on its internal lights. When she pushed the start button, the vehicle levitated to a normal city driving height.
“I’ll keep us as low as I dare until we’re out of the valley,” she said. “And we’ll run without any lights until we’re over the first hill so you two keep your eyes peeled for any obstructions or hazards.”
Lily and Pepper glued themselves to their windows and squinted into the darkness. Once their eyes had adjusted, they found that the two half-moons in the cloudless sky provided ample light past the livestock paddocks and over the fallow crop fields.
When they cleared the first ridge, Pepper murmured with relief that the Healing and Rehabilitation Camp was behind them at last. Gael threw on all the navigation lights, making the trip over the mountain peaks as easy as sailing in broad daylight.
The three of them relaxed in their seats. Pepper looked at the rag she’d been clutching since Gael had climbed into the car.
“Where are we going, by the way?” Pepper asked idly, studying the flash on the shoulder of Terence’s shirt. She’d been concentrating so hard on getting out of the camp, she hadn’t thought beyond escape.
“Rosemoor,” Gael answered. “We must take Lily home before heading to Rosewyld.”
“And then?” Pepper asked.
“I guess we’ll have some explaining to do. You more than me, I think,” Gael said. “Did you ever tell Quinn that we were leaving Rosemoor?”
“No, but I think what we found at the camp means he has some explaining to do too,” Pepper said with more conviction than she felt. She remembered the paddle and tulip chair and her buttocks clenched.
She squinted at the flash on the shoulder of Terence’s shirt. For the first time she got a close look at the image on the chevron. Two wings rose on either side of the image of a woman’s heart-shaped face. Pepper recognized the sculpted cheekbones and the wide, gently curved mouth.
She started to shake with fear and sudden dread.
Gael caught the change in her aura immediately. “What is it?”
“The woman on the military flash. It’s Daedra Mazrant, Minister of Citizens’ Services.”
“One of the three most powerful people in Elsinania?” Gael asked.
Pepper nodded, unable to speak. Gael shivered but her attention was concentrated on following the navigation commands on the dash as they cleared one the highest peaks in the mountain range.
Lily gasped. “What’s that?” She pointed to the far horizon where four sinister-looking vehicles were racing toward them.
“Helicopters.” Gael stumbled over the word, a note of worry in her voice.
“Real live helicopters! Awesome,” Lily said as if this sight was a party trick sent to entertain her. Then, with a frown, she added, “Does Elsinania even have helicopters?”
“No,” Pepper said flatly.
“Our naval ships have helicopters,” Gael said.
No further words were needed between her and Pepper. They both knew it was a search team launched by Kai, with either Quinn’s blessing or at Quinn’s request.
“I do believe we’re in for rough weather.” Pepper sat back and waited to see what would happen next. One good thing: she could finally share the secret that Quinn demanded she tell him. At least she’d avoid the daily butt plug ritual. Hadn’t she?
Within seconds, the helicopters had reached and surrounded them. Gael’s CommBand lit up. She pressed a button and Kai’s voice filled the ride. “Gael, is that you driving the white ride that we are now escorting?”
“It is.”
“Who’s with you?”
“
Pepper and Lily Thornback.”
“That’s all?”
“That’s all.”
“No guards?” Disbelief rang in Kai’s voice.
“No guards. It’s kind of a long story,” Gael said.
“The closest center is Littington. Change your course to due south.” The chill in Kai’s voice sent goosebumps running down Pepper’s arms.
“Got it,” Gael said, punching a change of course into the trip console.
One of the helicopters sped ahead of them. Pepper guessed it was going to find a landing field where the fewest possible people would be able to observe them. The other helicopters flew in formation, one in front, one beside, and one behind them.
* * *
No one in the white ride said a word all the way to Littington. Pepper’s mood swung from relief at having escaped to dread that Quinn might be the power behind the camp. Finally a gut-wrenching fear over what the punishment would be for this caper settled in the pit of her stomach.
On the outside of Littington there was a big field where the helicopters hovered as Gael parked the ride, guided by sailors wearing illuminated vests. Then the black machines, like giant dragonflies, lowered themselves beside the white hovercar.
Quinn was the first to disembark. He walked over to where the three ladies stood and smiled as if he had personally arranged this meeting. He approached Lily first.
“Lovely to see you again, Sister Lily.” He gently wrapped her in an embrace. “Congratulations on your vows.”
“Thank you, Brother Quinn.” She smiled sweetly. “Brinley’s a wonderful man. I’m so lucky.”
“And he’s waiting for you now in Rosemoor. Tell me, Sister Lily.” Quinn nodded at the fierce-looking black machines. “Have you ever ridden in a helicopter?”
Lily lowered her eyes shyly, shaking her head. As Quinn led her away, Pepper heard her laugh at something he said. Grateful for his kindness to Lily, Pepper reminded herself that it might just be an act. She still didn’t know if he was responsible for Mama’s indefinite incarceration. Until she knew his part in that, her feelings for him would continue to swing from love to hate.
Kai approached Gael with a slightly amused expression. “When you said you were going to the next town to investigate another case, I don’t know why but I assumed you meant in the morning.”
Gael shrugged, giving him a sassy smile.
“You didn’t say that the next town was the Healing and Rehabilitation Camp. I guess in my own simple way I assumed you meant a town, like Littington here. It is, after all, the closest town to Rosemoor.”
Gael’s smile broadened.
Kai stood so close to her that even though she was tall, she had to bend her neck to meet his eyes.
“You and I are going to have a nice long talk about this, aren’t we?” His voice simmered.
“That would be lovely,” Gael said.
Even in the darkness Pepper could make out the angry wash of red that colored Kai’s hair for a few seconds, followed quickly by the black tinge that signaled arousal in Devmaerean males. Gael seemed unperturbed.
“We have so much to tell you and Quinn,” Gael said. “There are major injustices happening in this country.”
“You mean there is something here worse than the Teardrop?”
For the first time, Gael hesitated.
“Much worse,” Pepper supplied, even though she had no idea how bad the Senne lighthouse was.
“Much worse than what?” Quinn asked, coming up and hugging Pepper from behind, dropping a kiss on the top of her head. “Little sparrow, I’ve been worried about you.”
Kai smiled. “Pepper thinks the Healing and Rehabilitation Camp might be worse than the Teardrop Lighthouse.”
“Perhaps she needs to visit the lighthouse sometime to make an informed decision,” Quinn suggested.
Pepper stared at her shoes, feeling trapped for the second time that evening.
Quinn moved to her side, an arm around her waist. “I suggest we take these women back to the hotel and try to get to the bottom of what happened here tonight.”
* * *
Two guard vehicles, like the ones that had taken Pepper and Gael to Rosemoor and beyond, waited for the couples. Pepper barely noticed the scenery as they flew through the ancient streets of Littington. The sprawling residential sectors seemed to stretch forever before they reached the center of town.
When the ride stopped outside the Littington Inn, Quinn spoke for the first time since they’d left the landing field. “The admiral and princess are right behind us. This is going to be an interesting evening, I’m sure.”
They had adjoining suites on the top floor of the Inn. Littington County was the main wine-producing region of Elsinania, and the resultant prosperity was reflected in the luxurious fittings of its rooms. Pepper took in the details of their well-appointed suite with indifference, thinking listlessly of how this opulence would have impressed her not so long ago.
Now it seemed like evidence of something tainted: a system that condemned its free-thinking people to transportation to a hostile and dangerous country. A system that incarcerated people for illnesses they couldn’t avoid. A system that forced some people to obey rigid rules at a rudimentary standard of living while others enjoyed freedom and lavish comforts.
Standing in front of her was the man who headed that system. A man she’d been stupid enough to fall in love with. The urge to rage at him, to beat him with her fists, conflicted with the urge to cling to him and weep with relief that she’d escaped the misery of the camp.
They stared at each other for what seemed like forever.
A knock on the door ended their standoff. Quinn answered it, ushering Kai and Gael into the room. There were two large armchairs and one small loveseat. Quinn pointed at the loveseat. “Sit, ladies.”
He and Kai took the armchairs.
Quinn gave them a look as hot as white light.
“Princess Gael,” he said slowly. “You are in my country now, under my jurisdiction. Kai and I have agreed that I will decide what happens to the two of you. Let’s start with an explanation of when and why you decided to infiltrate the Healing and Rehabilitation Camp, followed by how you managed to do that. I don’t care who speaks first but one of you had better start talking. Now.”
Chapter Twenty-Six: Confession & Consequences
Pepper bent her shoulders, trying to calm herself. “I’ll go first. But before I do, can you tell me how you knew where we were?”
“Your CitizenBand.” Quinn said patiently. “Did you forget that it’s a tracking device?”
Pepper ignored the question. “Anyway,” she said, wanting to blow through her own artless stupidity. “Gael was just helping me, one friend helping another. That’s all.”
She gave both the men a meaningful look, hoping they respected loyalty and friendship as much as she’d come to. Then she straightened her shoulders and sat up taller.
“Three years ago, my sister Lily and I were told that our parents were killed in a freak accident on Lighthouse Island. I was twenty. Lily was fifteen. We had no other living relatives and, if it wasn’t for the kindness of my clinic manager Anna McGilvery, I don’t know how we would have managed. Recently she disappeared from Rosemoor.”
Pepper’s throat thickened. She coughed before continuing, with her eyes trained on Quinn. “A few days ago, I learned that my parents didn’t die. They’ve simply been eliminated from the population register.”
Quinn sat up, open-mouthed, half-frozen in disbelief. He looked like he’d had suffered a major electric shock.
Pepper closed her eyes and exhaled slowly. He hadn’t known. Thank god.
The man she loved wasn’t a monster.
With a much lighter heart she continued filling in the details. When Quinn asked who gave her the black market CommBand and directions to the Healing and Rehabilitation Camp, she refused to name Hugo, the same way she refused to name Wynne when she said someone had told her that her father had bee
n transported to Silvelea.
“I don’t want anyone else to be in trouble like I am now. All they did was give me what I asked for. I was the one who chose to act on it.”
Gael took her hand and squeezed it. “We chose to act on it,” she said in a voice so imperious it would have made lesser men tremble. Quinn and Kai appeared unmoved.
Quinn nodded at Pepper, indicating she should continue so she talked about waiting until the rest of Rosemoor was asleep and their strategy of not telling the guards where they were going more than a few miles at a time. She told them about the long trip in the slower guard cars and the reception at the Healing and Rehabilitation Camp fortress.
When she described seeing Mama again, the memory of her apple scent and warm hands triggered huge tears that ran down her face.
“She’s still there. Perfectly healthy but she’s a prisoner. She can’t leave. No one can.” She pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to stop her weeping. She reminded herself that Mama was alive. She should be happy, not grieving for the lost years.
It didn’t work. The tears flowed harder and faster. Quinn leaned forward and handed her one of his broad white handkerchiefs. His eyes shone with sympathy and something darker.
“I’ll take it from here,” Gael announced. She stood for her audience because performing was second nature to her. She mimicked Pepper stirring enough FalseSilver to stop a troop of soldiers into Terence’s hot chocolate. Then she mimed the three of them navigating the stairs with the heavy Kedrant man in a wheelchair. She pretended to let him go then catch him again.
“We used the only part of him that was good for anything,” she said with a suggestive grind of her hips. Then she held up her hands. “His thumb.”
The men exploded with laughter, like fireworks going off. Even Pepper smiled through her tears. Gael wasn’t really that funny, but her antics released the tension in the room. Taking a slight bow, she sat down.
Bound to the Commander Page 20