* * *
"We have somebody you might be able to help us with," Kooper said later, as I was led to a sitting room surrounded by glass windows. Adam's home at NorthStar was situated on a hill and through the tall windows I could see groves of dark-green fruit trees below. Gishi fruit trees.
"What do you mean?" I sat on a comfortable sofa between Kooper and Trevor. They each held one of my hands in theirs, as if they were afraid I might get away. My cheeks remained in almost constant flush at the attention I was receiving. Kooper's thumb was gently stroking my hand, and I had to force myself to concentrate on what was being said instead of what I was feeling.
"Do you know who Teeg San Gerxon is?" Trevor asked.
"Yes," I nodded. "He's the Founding Member of the Campiaan Alliance." I'd done my homework.
"His agents brought in a smuggler, but he thinks there's more to this man than meets the eye. Strangely enough, neither Teeg nor his warlocks can get any information out of their prisoner."
"So you need me," I nodded, wondering desperately how they'd known to ask. I resolved to let it go for the moment. "I have to tell you, though, until you and Kooper came along, I'd say I can read anybody. I can't read either of you."
"Is that a bad thing? Sometimes a little mystery is nice," Kooper squeezed my fingers.
"How are we getting there? Avendor is a long way from Campiaa," I pointed out. Kooper's attention threatened to produce a full-blown blush.
"I'll take you—I want to speak with Teeg anyway," Adam said. He sat across from us, his back to the wonderful view through the windows. He was probably used to the view by now and paid it no mind. I couldn't take my eyes off the dappled sunlight filtering across miles of trees.
"When?" I asked. My question wasn't answered. Instead, I was lifted to my feet by Kooper and Trevor shortly before we disappeared from NorthStar and appeared inside Teeg San Gerxon's private study on Campiaa.
* * *
"Bro, you need to come for dinner. Soon." Trace spoke with his brother Trajan on a comp-vid. He wanted to see his brother's face rather than sending mindspeech.
"When? And why?"
"Oh, let's just say that I want you to meet somebody."
"Well, let me know when might be a good time and I'll tell Bill not to cook." Trajan grinned at his brother's image.
"How is Director Bill, anyway?"
"Irascible. Says he needs a new lemon zester."
"Ever since he took up cooking, there's no containing him."
"We may have to build a bigger kitchen."
"No kidding."
* * *
Breanne's Journal
He didn't look like much. Brown hair, pale-blue eyes; in fact, he had the same feel to him that Rathik Erwin did—obsessed in some way. And what he wouldn't tell anyone else I read in his face, as plain as it was.
"Karathian warlock. Left Karathia six hundred years ago. Name, Eddle Cree." Trevor, Kooper and one of Teeg San Gerxon's warlocks were busy with comp-vids or mindspeech as I made my announcement. "And," I continued. That's as far as I got before prescience kicked in. Reading the future was a rare event for me, but I was reading it now. "They're coming!" I shouted. "Now! They're coming now to get him!"
What happened then I can't describe fully, because the initial blast knocked me against the concrete wall and rendered me unconscious. I was told later that Stellan Starr wasn't prepared to take on all six warlocks who stormed the holding facility, but he did put up a good fight and kept Kooper, Trevor and me from being killed. Unfortunately, the prisoner died in the exchange and his body disappeared during the fight.
* * *
"Welcome back." A face smiled at me and for the second time I blinked to bring it into focus.
"Karzac Halivar. Physician. Mated to the Queen of Le-Ath Veronis," popped out of my mouth unbidden.
"I hear you're talented, but I already know those things," Karzac chuckled. "Your cuts and bruises have been tended, young woman."
He could call me young woman if he wanted; he was more than fifteen thousand years old. I kept myself from announcing that fact to the world.
"Are Trevor and Kooper all right?"
"They are fine, as is Master Stellan. All three have been asking about you."
"Where am I?" I attempted to sit up.
"At Teeg's palace. They are waiting dinner for you."
"They should go ahead without me. I feel queasy."
"And dizzy, too, no doubt. You missed a midday meal and were not strong at the beginning of the day. Come. Food will help, and then Adam and Merrill will transport you back to NorthStar."
"What about those Council meetings?"
"Are you worried about those? Merrill will bend time if he deems it necessary." Karzac's green-gold eyes smiled kindly at me.
"I really don't want to be there, but some people think it's important."
"I understand. Others should have understood as well. Nevertheless, we will deal with more important things, first. Come." He held out a hand and I took it.
Karzac has light-brown hair, in addition to green-gold eyes, and he is a kind, caring and often curmudgeonly physician. I wobbled beside him as we made our way through a warren of hallways and into a massive kitchen.
All four Starr brothers sat around the island, but one of them I couldn't read—Stellan, the warlock who'd been with us outside the holding cell. I couldn't read him before, and thought perhaps it was because he was so powerful. I could read his brothers easily as it turned out, but not Stellan. A few fading bruises remained on his, Trevor's and Kooper's faces. They'd gotten hit just as I had, but it could have been so much worse.
"Here." I was settled between Kooper and Trevor again. Teeg San Gerxon, who studied me with dark eyes, waited to ask a question. I wanted to tell him what I saw when I looked into his face. I didn't. The Queen of Le-Ath Veronis was his mother. His father was Gavin Montegue. Mentally I reminded myself not to judge the son by his father.
"Did you get anything else from Eddle Cree?" Teeg accepted a delicate bowl of soup from a servant.
"He was helping with an assassination plot," I said as a bowl of soup was set in front of me.
"Assassination?" Kooper stared at me in alarm. "Who?"
"Ildevar Wyyld," I sighed. I didn't add that I couldn't read the obsession itself—this information Eddle had received in a comp-vid communication, and that I could read easily from him. Who knew what the obsession involved?
"Who else is involved?" Teeg asked after several moments of stunned silence passed.
"I only got two images—the rest seem to be comp-vid contacts with no names or images given."
"Who else?"
"Someone named Dorlan Ritt and Jendy Platt."
"Dorlan Ritt is a warlock, too. In fact, Ritt may have been one of the six who attacked," Stellan sighed. "Ritt is powerful enough, and he can throw out fireblasts."
"I'll never leave just one of you in the holding cells again," Teeg muttered angrily. "What do we know about Jendy Platt?"
"Petty criminal." Trevor had been busy with his comp-vid and handed it to Teeg. "Nothing like this in his background, so he's likely been paid to spread false information to hide the real criminal."
"Eddle wasn't particularly bright," I said, sniffing the soup.
"Yours is vegetarian," Kooper grinned and rubbed my shoulders. "Go ahead and eat."
"Eddle wasn't strong enough to be hired muscle," Astralan Starr, Stellan's older brother, remarked.
"He was a pawn. And obsessed about something," I sighed. "I just couldn't see what the obsession was."
"Stell says you gave a warning, there at the end." Teeg studied me carefully. His remark frightened me. They already knew too much—all of them, and I still didn't know exactly how they'd arrived at the information about me to begin with.
"That part doesn't work on command, if that's what you're talking about," I muttered, staring into my bowl of soup.
"You're saying that you can see into the future—sometimes," Teeg guessed.
"I don't know what it is." I wanted to leave the table, but that probably wasn't a good idea. Teeg made me uncomfortable, and it wasn't because his father had made me vampire.
"Where did your unusual eye color come from?" Here was a difficult question, and it would only lead to more questions. Questions I couldn't answer or that upset or embarrassed me to answer.
"I don't know." That was the truth, and I hoped they'd leave it at that.
"Your parents didn't have it?"
"I never met my parents." I rose from the table. "Excuse me," I said, and walked away.
The palace on Campiaa was a work of art. It wasn't half as big as the palace on Le-Ath Veronis, but it didn't exist in constant darkness, either. The sun was down when I walked through a back door somewhere and found an expansive patio with a pool. Tropical plants and flowers were everywhere, as was outdoor furniture. It probably was heaven to sit on the patio in the sun and have a drink.
"You just walked out on the Founder of the Campiaan Alliance," Stellan Starr said behind me. He'd gotten up to follow me when I left the table.
"Are you saying he'll imprison me, now?" I gazed levelly into Stellan's brown eyes. I couldn't read him, but I'd read his brothers. All three had the same past. Some of it was violent. Some of it made me shudder. If the other three had the same past, it was a good bet that Stellan Starr shared it as well.
"He only does that if you walk out a second time. Come back to dinner. We don't mean to be rude or ask uncomfortable questions."
I wanted to tell him that many people weren't intentionally rude or hurtful. Some were. I didn't want to place Teeg San Gerxon in the wrong category, just because his father had treated me as he did. "I'll come back." Stellan put an arm out to touch me as I walked toward him. I shied away from his touch.
* * *
"So, a long day yesterday, when we should have been talking instead." Kevis Halivar was waiting for me after breakfast at NorthStar the following morning. "I'm Doctor Halivar."
"You look like your father," I said. Kevis was Karzac's son. He was also the Alliance equivalent of a psychiatrist. They thought I needed treatment. After the attempted suicide and everything that had happened before then, they were probably right. I just didn't want anyone prying into my personal life.
"My mother says the same thing." Kevis smiled. "And Adam said it was foolish to try to keep anything from you."
"There are things I won't discuss," I said.
"What things?"
"I said I wouldn't discuss them."
"That's all right; we'll skirt those topics for now. I hear you never met your parents. Who raised you?"
"That's one of the things I won't discuss."
"Then this will be a very short session," Kevis informed me. I shrugged. "Tell me about the beating, then," he suggested. I blinked at least twice before I realized he was talking about Skel Hawer. Relaxing as invisibly as I could, I answered.
"I don't remember much. He knocked me out with the first punch. I only woke briefly while he was beating me, before losing consciousness again."
"What about the time you spent in the dungeon afterward? Do you remember that?"
"I remember pain." I refused to look at Kevis as I answered. Whether pity or indifference showed in his face, I had no desire to see either.
"Why won't you look at me?" he asked softly.
"Because I don't want to see your reaction," I replied honestly.
"You've spent your entire life seeing everybody's unvarnished reaction to everything, haven't you?"
"Yes."
"That must make things difficult for you. People often lie to spare other's feelings. Or choose their words carefully to hide their true feelings. You see past that, don't you?"
"Every time," I agreed, keeping my eyes down.
"Have you ever met anyone you couldn't read?"
"I've met three recently," I said.
"Who are they?"
"Sheriff Trevor, Kooper Griff and Stellan Starr. Stellan, though, I can read his brothers. They share a past. Some of it isn't pretty. I figure Stellan's past is the same."
"You're saying that even though you can't read Stellan, as you put it, you still know about him through his brothers?"
"Yes." I raised my head and blinked at Kevis.
"A talent like this must make it difficult to have friends," he pointed out.
"I don't have any friends." Kevis wanted to sigh at my answer. I lowered my eyes again to keep from reading any further. He shifted the comp-vid on his knee and considered his next question.
"Tell me about Gavin. When he turned you."
"He asked if I wanted to be vampire. I said no."
"You said no?" Kevis seemed surprised by my answer.
"I said no twice. He did it anyway. I have no idea why."
"Did he teach you? Vampire sires are obligated to teach their children."