She pulled her hand free. “If your master doesn’t stick around to watch the poachers, how does he know if you’ve been captured? How does he know where you’ve been taken?”
“By this.” Cyrus peeled off his shirt confirming her earlier suspicions about his well-cut, wiry physique.
Max strode over with murder in his eyes.
Oblivious, Cyrus turned his back to her. “Implanted behind my shoulder blade is a tracking device.
Before she could stand up to run interference, Max stopped short. She sighed her relief.
“See the bump?” Cyrus said. “Touch it. Go ahead.”
She leaned in, Max crouched down and even Red Beard, who had lost interest in the conversation almost from the start, crawled over to inspect the small bump on Cyrus’s back.
Gently, so as not to hurt him, Addy ran a finger over the little bean under the skin. “It’s true.” She smiled up at Max. He wasn’t smiling back, but he wasn’t scowling anymore, either. “We’re going to be rescued.”
Cyrus turned to face her again, his blue eyes shining bright. Why hadn’t she noticed before how attractive he was? Though he had a young, boy-next-door face, his brown hair, cut short in true coplike fashion, had a few strands of gray in it. Maybe he was about forty. “All we have to do is wait for my master.”
“How long?”
“Should be some time tonight.”
Elation erupted and gushed through her body, like a geyser releasing its built-up pressure. They were going to be freed. She threw her arms around Cyrus, knocking him over, landing on top of him.
“Fickle bitch, isn’t she?” said Red Beard between snorts.
Sitting up quick, she shot him a dirty look, mostly to avoid seeing Max’s expression. His voice boomed deep with anger. “What will the HGC do with us?”
All eyes turned to Cyrus.
“First, they’ll check the database of lost and missing humans. If you’re not listed, they find your previous owner by matching your markings to your records on file.” Her confusion must have shown on her face because he continued. “You know, hair and body color. Familial birthmarks. If that doesn’t work they can match your DNA.”
“What if you don’t have records? “Say, you were born in the Tuniit village or in the wildlife refuge?” Or on an umiak.
“Tuniit’s brand their humans. They’re easily returned. Everyone else is recorded and put up for adoption.”
Duncan had said she’d been tracked all her life, so she most likely had records. Noah didn’t. She’d be returned to Ferly Mor and he’d be put up for adoption. That was out of the question. And what of Max? He’d said he was without an owner. Where would he go? “What about setting us free in the refuge?”
“Oh no,” Cyrus said as if that was an incredibly insane idea. “The Hyboreans never go there.”
“Why not?”
“It makes them crazy.” It was Red Beard. “I saw it happen. A Hyborean chased me through the river once, but when he grabbed me on the bank of the refuge, he let go and dropped to the ground. He covered his temples and thrashed around and screamed like no beast I had ever heard before. Well, seeing as how they’re telepathic, you know what I mean. It scared the piss out of me. He tried to get up and turn back, but he staggered and stumbled like a drunkard, fell into the river, and got swept into the rapids.”
Memories of being pummeled by the rapids on Klamath River flooded her mind. She had died then. For the first time. “What happened to the Hyborean?”
“Ultimortem,” Cyrus said as fact. “No one can survive the rapids.”
“But what happened to make him go crazy in the first place?”
“The island’s cursed,” Red Beard said. “Except for that one, no Hyborean has ever come into the refuge in the ten years I’ve lived there.”
“It’s not cursed,” said Cyrus. “It’s electromagnetic waves. Hyborean brain waves are different from ours, so the electromagnetic pulses in the ground there affect them. They are unable to think, to communicate, to function. That’s why that area has become a wildlife refuge. Humans and other creatures can live there but Hyboreans cannot.”
“Are you telling me they know how to travel a gazillion miles to Earth, yet they can’t step foot into a section of their own planet?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
That was ridiculous. People might not live under Earth’s oceans, but they could in a submarine. “Why don’t they make a machine that allows them to enter the refuge?”
“Think about it, Addy,” Max said, his voice relaxed now and void of his earlier anger. “Every piece of Hyborean technology is activated by thought. If their technology runs on the same wavelength they exist on, then all their technology will be affected by the same electromagnetic fields. We already know their equipment is sensitive. That’s why they disable the shock collars inside the exam rooms.”
For the first time since she’d come to this planet, she finally had an advantage. A weapon, really. The Hyboreans couldn’t enter the refuge without risking death. The prospect of emancipation hit her with electrifying excitement. It was as if she had awakened fully, rejuvenated by a rush of adrenaline. “So you mean that once we cross that river, we’re free? I mean
really
free? We won’t have to live in fear of the Hyboreans? We won’t have to hide in foxholes when they come looking for us?”
“No fear. No foxholes.”
Max’s reply took her breath away, and she sucked in air as if she’d just finished a race. And won it. Noah wouldn’t grow up living in terror. He’d be protected inside the refuge. She was about to burst from renewed hope and the possibilities of a life in a safe haven. If the other men weren’t there, she’d jump into Max’s arms and kiss him. But she had to keep her composure. They weren’t free yet. “Then we have to figure some way out before Cyrus’s master gets here. We are
not
going back to HuBReC.”
“The next time the vehicle stops, I’ll kick out the cage bar we cut. You and Noah will squeeze through and head southwest toward the river.”
“Oh my God,” she squealed, and couldn’t stop herself from jumping up and down. So much for keeping her composure. “We’re almost free.”
Max’s head cocked to the side as he fingered her hair. His green eyes filled with regret and longing.
“What’s wrong?”
“I can’t go with you.”
“What?” Panting, she stepped away from him. “Why not?”
“I don’t fit between the bars.”
H
er chest tightened. Max couldn’t escape and it was all her fault. She had been responsible for the Hyboreans finding the sword. After all he’d done for her; after all they had been through together, she’d be out on her own and Max would return to...where? HuBReC? A race master?
She couldn’t bear thinking of him in the harsh arctic world forced to slay man and beast, or worse, being slain. He should be with his son. He should be with her.
But he couldn’t escape.
Because of her.
What if she stayed with him? After the Hyboreans gave her back to Ferly Mor, she could somehow try to communicate with him. There had to be a way to convince him to keep Max, too. After all, he had no owner. They could make room in Duncan’s house for him. Regan wouldn’t bother her, knowing she was Max’s woman.
Max’s woman.
She liked the sound of that. “If you don’t go, then I’m not going, either.”
“You’ve been courageous all along, Addy. Don’t be stupid now.”
“You can’t call me stupid until the end, remember?”
“If staying with me isn’t stupid, what would you call it?”
What would she call it? Loyalty? Honor? Love? Not love. How could she love the barbarian gladiator who almost killed her? Yet, how could she
not
love the compassionate man who cared for her and nursed her son while she lay dying? Though he still struggled with the beast within him, she knew given time he’d slay it for good. But he couldn’t do that on his own. He needed her.
“Loyalty,” she said, knowing the word didn’t quite express her heart. “We’re teammates, remember.”
“You forget. I tried to ditch you. Twice.”
“Sounds like you’re trying to make it a third time. You can’t get rid of me that easily.”
She caught his brief smile before he fixed his mouth in a hard line.
Too late, Max. You want to be with me. I know you do.
She wanted to be with him, too, and not because she needed his protection in the wilderness—though she was grateful to have it. She’d grown up in the woods. She had great respect for Mother Nature’s ability to immediately change weather and beast from tame to ferocious. She understood that world and it caused her comfort, not panic.
In fact, she had imagined Max and her building a shelter in the refuge, where together they’d hunt, fish, gather, and raise Noah—and perhaps a few other children. Cramps tightened her belly as she remembered giving birth. Okay, forget more kids. They’d just have to be safe when they made love.
Love. There was that thought again.
Max’s mouth softened. “I need to know you and Noah are safe. Besides, I’m not smilodon chow yet. I’ll escape and find you in the refuge.”
“Promise?”
“You have my word,” but his eyes told a different story.
Two beasts can vow not to eat each other,
he had said.
What’s an animal’s word worth to you?
She now understood what he’d meant. How could he keep his word when he fought tooth and nail to live? How could he promise an idea when his life was a consequence of actions?
She knew he wished to live free in the refuge, but his reality would be dictated by his ability to survive.
As would hers. And she needed him to survive. Not to survive the wilderness—though his skills were markedly better than hers. She needed him to help her survive parenthood. She needed him because he was the only person she’d ever learned to trust fully. She needed him because...because leaving him behind would mean leaving behind a piece of her heart.
That was it. If she was escaping, than so was he. She got up, gripped the bar next to the cut one, and pulled with all her might.
* * *
With determination like no warrior he’d ever seen, Addy yanked on the cage bars. “What are you doing?” he asked.
“I’m bending the bars so you can escape. Help me.”
Though he appreciated the effort, he knew it would never work. He didn’t have the heart to tell her. Better she learn on her own. Max braced himself, and on three, he and Addy pulled.
She grunted. He struggled. The bar didn’t budge. Of course, he had known it wouldn’t. He’d had many past occasions to try.
“Help us,” Addy snapped to the other two, who were looking at them like they were fools. Surprisingly, they obliged. They must have thought the same thing he did: better to humor her and let Hyborean technology let her down than to argue. And who knew—maybe they’d get lucky.
The four of them pulled with all the strength they had, but as expected, the damn bar didn’t budge. Someone had the idea to brace their feet against the bars and push with the strength of their legs, so they did.
The bar bent about a quarter inch. Strained grunts gave way to cheers. With renewed hope, they continued until exhausted and all they had to show for their efforts was a bar that bent a pitiful half inch.
As everyone sat down to rest, Max heard a distant roar and perked up his head. The trees thinned and the forest flora surrendered to mountainous canyon rocks striated with red and gold and flecks of silver mineral that flashed in the sunlight like cameras at the Olympics.
“I’ll be damned,” he said, as the sound roared in his ears.
Addy had come to stand at his side. “What is it?”
The vehicle stopped on a small peninsulalike section of a gorge where a white-water river—at least a mile wide—raged and snaked its course below. Upriver he watched thousands of gallons of water surge over a cliff, disappearing into a white mist resembling smoke rising from hell.
What ironic shit was this?
“What is it?” Addy repeated.
Her gentle touch on his arm brought him out of his cursed thoughts. His eyes focused on the trees on the opposite bank. “The refuge.”
“What refuge? All I see is Niagara Falls and class six rapids. Maybe class seven or eight if the scale went that high. This can’t be the river you were all talking about. How can anyone cross those rapids?”
“I don’t know. This is the closest I got to freedom last time.”
“Oh. This is where they captured you.”
By the anguish in her voice, he knew she empathized with his long, perilous journey that ended one mile from freedom. What she didn’t know was that he’d do it all over again if it meant saving her and Noah.
Max stared at the churning water remembering the last time he stood at this exact spot. “Xanthrag was on our heels.” He didn’t look up from the untamed rapids. “I knew he wanted me bad. After all, I was his undefeated alpha gladiator. I won him major coin, right? So I raced through there.” He turned, pointed to the thick vegetation and trees opposite the gorge. “Giving Kedric a chance to find a way across the river. Xanthrag chased me down, caught me, and ceased his search.”
“Xanthrag killed you.”
It wasn’t a question. She no doubt remembered the story he told her in the breeding box.
“Yes.” He neglected to offer any detail about being starved, humiliated, or beaten until he was fucked up beyond recognition as a warning to the other gladiators. Three times in three weeks he had suffered in constant agony until his body finally crapped out. Then he was brought back to life to continue his punishment. After his third reawakening, Xanthrag mercifully sold him to the Hyborean subclass.
Thinking back on the pain always brought about a surreal feeling. With no visible scars to prove it, sometimes he felt as though it could have been a horrible nightmare. Maybe he’d have convinced himself of that, too, if it weren’t for the scars emblazoned in his soul.
“They tortured you.” Addy regarded him with her freckled nose scrunched up and her gray eyes overflowing with sorrow.
How she always read his mind, he didn’t know—perhaps she was part Hyborean—but he liked her knowing his thoughts. It saved him from having to express them. He nodded.