“Tracking device has been disabled,” the computer replied without emotion.
“Disabled? What am I seeing now?”
“This is the last few minutes of her video footage,” Dorry answered behind her, pointing out the date and time of the footage.
Searching the screen, she tried to memorize anything she could see. Dark, jagged silhouettes shadowed the tent’s walls. And light danced wildly around whatever room she lay in. “Maybe a fire?” Lena said out loud, “And mountains. Where is she?” The shadowed man stooped toward Thora. Lena tried to identify him but only saw bits of a scarred face. She willed him to talk or do anything beyond rummage beside Thora. As if he read her thoughts, he started to speak.
“I’m sorry, Thora. This is going to hurt. A lot more than the tracking device,” he said. Lena felt surprised that his voice was calm and soft.
“What are they taking about? What is he doing to her?” Lena asked. Dorry shushed her and indicated to keep watching.
“I’m ready. Do what you must,” Thora said. Her voice sounded weak. The man picked up what looked like pliers. He leaned towards Thora. Her screams sliced through Lena’s ears, and then the screen went blank.
“Computer, bring her back,” Lena yelled. “Where’d she go?”
“Insignia no longer in service,” the computer replied, sounding cold and calculated.
“Dorry,” Lena asked. “What just happened?”
“It seems Thora had someone remove her wiring,” Dorry answered.
“Well, how do we find her? What was her last known location?”
Dorry slid toward the screen and started typing commands. “She removed her locating device before she left the facility,” Dorry said. “As for the video feed, it’s obvious she was on the run when it was removed. Even if you could locate where it was taken, she’s gone from there by now.”
“Okay, well now where do I go?” Lena asked
“You just keep your eyes open, Angel. The information will present itself. Just make sure you’re ready to act when it comes,” Dorry said.
“That may be easier said than done,” said Lena. “Gideon is sending me away.”
Dorry gazed at Lena over his glasses. “Well then, I see only one option for you.”
“What’s that?”
“Find Thora and run away before Gideon can send you away.” He held her gaze a moment longer before turning to his work station and picking up some wires and tools to fiddle with.
Exiting the dungeon, Lena thought about Dorry’s words. Lena turned toward Thora’s old room. Maybe Thora had left a clue to where she’d go. Rounding a corner, Lena saw Thora’s room at the end of the hall, its door wide open. Running toward the open room, Lena saw the kitchen’s two new servants, rummaging through Thora’s belongings. Not rummaging, but destroying.
“What are you doing?” Lena yelled, running to the edge of the door. “This is Thora’s room,” Lena cried, yanking a quilt from a startled servant’s hands.
Both servants froze in place. Trembling, they eyed Lena, her arms now filled with the quilt. Lena’s heart raged as she surveyed the room’s damage. Everything was broken. The old rocking chair lay in splinters. The stuffing from the mattress and pillows covered the floors.
“I will ask you again.” Lena spoke, strongly and slowly. “What are you doing?”
Both servants glanced away and pressed their lips together. The girl scooted towards the boy. She remembered his name being Turly. The girl started to cry.
Taking a deep breath, Lena softened her stance. She needed to change tactics if these two were to talk to her. “Turly. That is your name isn’t it?” she asked, trying to remain calm.
“Yes, recruit,” he replied somewhat shakily.
“Please, call me Lena,” she said. He nodded in reply. Turning her gaze to the wreck around her, her mind spun. What would Thora’s room possibly have that these two needed? Everything broke, any possible hiding place ravaged. Were they also looking for her?
“What are you looking for?” She put the blanket on the floor and stepped towards the two. “I’ve known Thora for a long time, I’ll help you look.”
Their mouths dropped and their eyes looked toward her. “You’re not going to turn us in?” Turly questioned, as the girl scooted even closer to his side. They looked like siblings. Both had the same olive skin and mousy brown hair.
Lena shook her head in confirmation and stepped toward the girl. “You don’t need to be afraid of me. I’m sorry I scared you. I overreacted. It’s just that Thora is my only friend. I was a bit shocked to find you here, destroying her things.
“He said you’d be in class. And you’d never know,” the girl sputtered, as her brother elbowed her in the ribs. “I’m sorry to ruin your friend’s things,”
“Trinity hush,” Turly commanded.
Running with her intuition, Lena replied, “Lucius says a lot of things to get what he wants.”
Trinity let out a sob and her brother put his hand on her back. “He said he’d have our family separated if we didn’t find it,” Turly spoke. “Our brothers and sisters are so young...” Turly wiped his own tears not finishing his sentence.
“Ok, I understand. But you guys are going to have to give me a little more information than that if I’m going to help you find something.” Lena kicked at the stuffing around the ground.
“Well, that’s the problem. He didn’t really tell us much,” Trinity rambled, causing Turly to glare. “He just said we needed to find things about you. Things that could connect you to your childhood or to the Captain. We’ve gone through your old room, and found nothing. The thought came that Thora might have information about you, so we came here.”
“I’m so sorry,” Lena said. “My home as a child was destroyed. All I have was given to me here, at this facility.” As she spoke, their heads dropped and Trinity started crying once more. “Hey, I’ll help you look anyway, okay. Maybe Thora will surprise us all.”
She spent the remainder of Tactics class looking through Thora’s old clothes and the scattered furnishings on the ground. Her arm throbbed and moving it sent a knife like pain down into her fingers. Trying not to baby it, she crawled on hands and knees across the floor, sifting through the destroyed furnishings but finding nothing. She caught Turly staring at her more than once as they searched the room.
Rising to her feet. She wiped her hands on her pants. “I’m so sorry I can’t help more with your search,” Lena spoke. “I have to get to class.” Trinity looked defeated.
“No worries miss.” Turly spoke with eagerness. “What I mean is,” he calmed his voice and lowered his eyes, “you don’t need to be helping us.” His eyes twitched toward her neckline. “We’ll tell Lucius we’ve found nothing. Thank you for your generosity.”
Trinity’s grateful but downtrodden look broke Lena’s heart. She reached for Trinity’s hand. “The Captain sometimes tutors me. I’ll see what he can do about your family.”
Trinity nodded, but the tears slid down her face.
Lena hurried to Physical Defense. She arrived as Ameena started yelling for recruits to warm up. Lena stretched her legs and uninjured arm. Ameena walked past her, examining her form.
“Recruit Lena, no jewelry,” Ameena yelled. Her eyes landed on Lena’s necklace. “Take it off.”
Lena stiffened. She hat forgotten that she was wearing it. Her only link to childhood, to Gideon, hung with shining clarity from the chain around her neck.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Lena sat on the stairway leading to the roof. Her feet rested on the step below her, causing her knees to jut up at an odd angel. She rested her arms on them. Physical Defenses had been a joke. She’d been so distracted by thoughts of Thora and her mistake with the necklace that she didn’t pay attention to her sparring partner. Jenna immediately noticed her weakness and took advantage of it. As a result the scab on her arm had tore all over again. The bleeding soaked through her jacket. Ameena questioned how she’d got it. She kept
her answer vague, just as Gideon had told her. Re-bandaging it herself proved harder than expected.
Now it was lunch, which she had skipped. She needed to be alone, to clear her thoughts. They were anything but clear. And now she was hungry.
Below her, a door slammed, and she heard heavy footsteps nearing.
“Lena?” Jonah yelled.
Breathing deeply, she looked at Jonah walking up the stairs. A knot formed tightly in her stomach as he came closer and sat next to her on the steps. Concern filled his eyes and his eyebrows furrowed as if trying to read her.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
She wasn’t. And looking at Jonah, she knew she could clear her head of at least one of her worries.
“I know about Cimmerians, Jonah,” Lena said.
Jonah’s expression turned hard.
“And what of it?” Jonah sounded more bitter than she’d ever heard him.
“I just think... I don’t know...” Lena said, unable to pull her thoughts together.
“You think I’m involved with the Cimmerians. You think that I’m getting close to you because I know you’re valuable to Nagar and I can use it for my benefit,” his words slivered with sharpness. “I wonder who put that thought into your head,” he snapped.
He squeezed his fists together, which seemed to calm him. “My family was involved with the Cimmerians when I was a child. I didn’t even know exactly what they did. When I was eight, my father shipped me to boarding school off planet. When the Priestess found out who he was associated with, my father turned on my family and the Cimmerians. To save his own life, he provided the Priestess with the names of the Cimmerian leaders. He even turned in my own mom, his wife. She was killed, after getting caught trying to leave the planet with my sister. He turned my sister over to the Priestess. I don’t know where she is now. And recently, he dragged me home and volunteered me into this insane army all to prove his loyalty to the Priestess and save himself. But because of his choices, I’ve lost everything.”
Her heart fluttered upon finding the answer. “I’m sorry, really I am. I should never have thought that.”
Jonah let out a stream of air, and then took a deep breath. “Lena, it’s okay,” Jonah said. “I’ve been around long enough to know that people aren’t always what they seem. You’re just being cautious. In fact, I’m glad you know. If I could find out about whatever secret you held in your past, I would.”
He looked at her seriously now. His blue eyes glistened. “You want to know why I like you?” Her eyes jumped to meet his. “It’s because I watched you be thrown into a life you don’t want, and yet you shine. It’s because I know there is at least one person who, like me, is haunted by a past she had no control over, and I feel like if anyone will ever understand me, it’s you,” he continued. “Lena, it doesn’t matter to me what led you here to this place, or that you’re a servant, or a soldier. What matters to me is this: I don’t think I’d be able to live if you were taken from me as well.”
Her face crinkled in complete shock at the unexpected answer.
“Lena, honestly, I think you’re the most amazing person I’ve ever met.” He reached over and swiped a loose piece of hair out of her face. “You have a strength to you that I doubt you even realize.”
“Strength? I feel anything but strong.”
“I knew the first moment I saw you, laying flat on the cafeteria floor, that you were more than you seemed,” he said. Wrapping his arms around her, he kissed her cheek. “Then, you remember that day Lucius attacked you in the servants’ hall?” Jonah asked, bringing her in closer.
“How can I forget?” Lena added. “It kind of changed my life.”
“I was certain then, that you were someone who could change my life,” Jonah said. Leaning toward her, he kissed the side of her cheek, then the other. He brought his hands to the back of her neck and slipped his fingers into her hair. Pulling her towards him, he kissed her. This time, she kissed him back. The whole time trying to dismiss the uneasiness she felt.
Chapter Thirty
Wiping the fog from the steam filled mirror, Lena stared at her towel-covered body. She only needed to stay hidden for another few weeks before Tarek would be taking her away. Away from Mir. Her chest tightened thinking of it. She sucked in air and blew it out, relaxing herself. If there was any possible way for her to fight against the Priestess, she wouldn’t let Tarek take her. She’d run away. But first she needed to find out why she was so important to the Priestess. If she could find Thora, maybe she’d help. If she could communicate with her. But that also bore the question, if she did find Thora, would Thora still insist on keeping everything secret?
She didn’t want to make any rash decisions. Planning two escapes seemed like the most rational thing to do. One with Tarek, to some unknown destination where she would live hidden the rest of her life. The other to Thora. If Nagar and Lucius and even the Priestess herself, didn’t get to her first.
Turning sideways, she surveyed the damage to her arm. Barely raising it caused a shooting pain to spread down and up her arm and into her shoulder. Stiffness settled in her muscles, and the wound looked swollen and oozy. Lena cleaned it the best she could, but now, looking at it in the mirror, she knew she’d need something more. Resting her eyes on the clock, Lena hustled not to be late to her morning training session.
Arriving at the outdoor training field, Lena waited for her tutor.
“Recruit, warm up,” Gideon said. She hadn’t seen the Captain since the weekend. Hearing his voice caused her heart to jostle.
“Captain.” Her eyes rested easily on his, and they both quickly glanced away.
“How are you today?” he asked as he started stretching.
“I’m actually having trouble with my arm. I’m wondering if you possibly could look at it again.”
“What seems to be the problem?”
She wanted to scream at him besides the fact that it’s been shot instead choosing the more appropriate response. “It seems to be infected.”
Concern flared in his eyes. “Follow me. This matter will need to be taken care of in a less public setting.” Standing in the frost-covered courtyard, it never occurred to Lena how many people could be watching. She felt unprotected.
Following in military fashion, she felt surprised when they headed toward the staff’s private quarters.
The Captain’s ever-perceptive eye looked at her calmly. “Don’t worry. They’ll just think you’re my mistress. No one will say anything.”
“What!” Lena said.
Gideon laughter. “I’m kidding,” he said.
Politely letting her enter first, Lena inhaled sharply at the extravagance of the Captain’s room.
“Sometimes it pays to be Captain,” he said shrugging his shoulders. He directed her past his mahogany bed and over expensive rugs to his private bathroom.
She gawked at the decor. Gilded mirrors and exquisite paintings adorned the richly papered walls, its ceiling edged with carved wooden borders. Her wide eyes caught the Captain’s attention.
“Gosh, Eves, it’s like you’ve never seen anything nice before.”
Self-consciously she brushed the loose hair away from her face. “It’s been awhile,” she answered. Giving the room another look, Lena noticed the dramatic difference between this room and the richness she grew up with. The captain’s room held nothing personal in it. No pictures of home or friends. No trinkets reminding him of his adventures. Only one photo sat, facing away from her, on the nightstand by his bed.
Turning the bathroom light on, he reached under his bronze sink and grabbed a first aide kit from under the cupboard. Pointing to the vanity he softly ordered her to sit on the cold quartz countertop.
“You’ll have to take your jacket off so I can get a look at it.”
Something about the richness surrounding her made Lena’s self-consciousness soar to new levels. Still, she stripped her jacket to reveal her black worn out tank underneath.
He stoo
d closely enough that his breath warmed her shoulder as he examined the wound. “Ya, it’s infected. I was afraid that might happen.” He pushed and prodded at it. Lena gasped as he pushed out some of the infection.
Gideon pulled out another bag that looked like a razor kit. Shuffling around in it, he found scissors. With knowledgeable precision he bandaged her wound. “Let me get you some more pills for pain and some antibiotics,” he said, leaving the bathroom.
She heard him rummaging through the closet in the other room. Grabbing his razor kit she looked into it. Pushing around its contents, her finger came across a large man’s ring. Pulling it into the light, her mouth dropped open. Carved into a quartz stone, the image of the Angel and Warrior gleamed from its surface. Gideon returned. He looked at her and then at the ring now hanging loosely from her middle finger. He walked toward her and stood so close she could smell his woodsy aftershave. He grabbed her hand in his and bent towards her ear.
“Not really your style,” he said, sliding it off her finger. Letting go of her hand, he held the ring up to the light. “My friend Tarek made it for me. I think he made it as a joke. For years he saw me doodling the image and questioned me about it. I never told him. But after he made it, I told him about you and about the crazy mystic we bought your necklace from. He’s the friend I told you about that’s coming to the port.” Gideon pointed to the picture on the nightstand.
Curiosity consuming her, she walked over to the table by his bed. Grabbing the frame, she couldn’t help but gawk. There stood Gideon in full dress uniform. On one side of him, another boy stood, also in uniform. She assumed it was Tarek. But it was the girl on the other side of Gideon that caught her attention. Her wide eyes and ebony hair were beautiful-nearly as beautiful as her diamond-encrusted gown. Her arm draped itself through Gideon’s. The smiles on all three of their faces left no doubt they were having a good time. Gideon wore the ring in the photo.
The Mir Chronicles- The Complete Series Page 17