WarriorsApprentice (3 page)

He turned and began packing up the training equipment. “I’ll
make my report as soon as we get back. Your training’s over. You’re ready.” He
paused and spoke over his shoulder. “And this fight never happened.”

* * * * *

Huon marched silently in Tybor’s wake. Even if Tybor had
been the chatty type, which he most emphatically was not, Huon couldn’t have
thought of a thing to say. Getting a hard-on at a time like that! One minute
wanting to pound Tybor’s face into the dirt and the next minute wanting to… He
couldn’t say it, even to himself. The Dvalinn didn’t do that. Sex was a brief
encounter between a man and a woman. It was physical or designed for
procreation. It didn’t involve emotions. It didn’t explain the strange,
breathless feeling he got around Tybor.

The awkward silence continued. Huon had no idea what to say.
Better to take the explanation Tybor had offered and ignore the heat making his
skin feel tight and uncomfortable.

The muscles of Tybor’s hips flexed with each determined
stride. Pine needles and dust clung to his oiled back, the soft gray coating hiding
the skin darkened to a deeper brown by his time on the surface. Huon huffed out
a sigh. He had always hated his own white skin, paler than anyone’s he had ever
seen, marking him out as different. Combined with his skinny frame it had made
him a target for all the schoolyard bullies who’d picked on him while he was
growing up.

He supposed he ought to be grateful to them. Their taunts
and blows had driven him to make himself the best he could be. He couldn’t
change his color, couldn’t thicken his slender build, but he could push himself—lift
weights, train to the point of injury, back off until he recovered, then train
again. He still looked fragile but his appearance had deceived more than the
stubborn man ahead of him.

Tybor reached the portal point and waited for Huon to catch
up. He stood, feet planted wide, arms folded across his chest. “That was our
last training session. Tomorrow you’ll start your assignment.”

Before Huon had a chance to react, Tybor shimmered away.
Huon took a last look around the clearing and followed him.

When Huon rematerialized, the captain of the guard stood
side by side with Tybor, waiting for him, their grim-quotient ramped up to
maximum.

Because he was still confused and pissed off with Tybor,
Huon refused to snap to attention in spite of the glare the captain directed at
him.

“The boy hasn’t got a good grasp of military discipline,”
Tybor said. “So there’s no point waiting for it.”

“You were supposed to train him,” the captain complained.
“If you’ve failed…”

“He hasn’t failed,” Huon responded. “You tell me who to
fight and I’ll kill him. I’ll be fucked if I salute him first, though.”

Tybor’s lips twisted into a smile. “Insubordinate as usual.”
Then he sobered. “He’s right, though. He’s as good a fighter as you’ll see.”

“Then he’s ready?” the captain asked.

When Tybor didn’t reply, Huon turned pained eyes on him.
Surely after all this he didn’t still have doubts?

The captain turned to Huon. “You’ve heard of Brian
Hopewood.”

Tybor leaned against the wall, his dark-brown eyes staring
over Huon’s head, arms crossed over his chest in a gesture of disengagement.
Only the muscle flexing beneath the two-day stubble covering his jaw gave the
lie to his detached posture.

“The most dangerous Gatekeeper the humans have ever
produced,” Tybor said.

Huon’s teeth clamped together and he nodded, the name coming
as no real surprise to him. The list of known Gatekeepers Tybor had drilled
into him always began with Hopewood. The most rabid and fanatical of the
Gatekeepers and the most determined to destroy the Dvalinn.

The captain kept speaking and Huon’s brain raced, trying to
fill in the gaps left by his distraction.

“There have been three separate, devastating attacks in the
last month. Three communities entirely wiped out.”

“Entirely? All gone?” Nausea roiled in Huon’s stomach but he
bit down on it. He would not betray Tybor’s training by showing weakness in
front of the captain.

“Why haven’t I heard about this?” Tybor’s air of detachment
vanished and he snapped to attention, radiating power and rage.

The captain looked up, lips pulled into a straight line. “We
deliberately suppressed the news to avoid panic. Only those with a direct need
to know were told. Now
you
need to know.” The captain’s narrowed lips
whitened. “It was carnage. Babies, women, the old and sick…Hopewood spared no
one.”

Every torment, every jibe, every unreasonable request Tybor
had made of Huon had prepared him for this moment. Huon’s fists clenched by his
sides but he spoke with quiet control. “I’ll find him and I’ll kill him.”

The captain shook his head. “It’s not that simple. Hopewood
has gathered together a group of Gatekeepers under his control, in a central
location.”

“What the fuck?” Tybor’s expletive burst into the room.
“Gatekeepers
always
work alone.” Tybor pulled himself away from the
wall. “Why has that changed?”

The captain shook his head. “We don’t know. Nor do we know
how Hopewood assembled the members of his team or why they have agreed to work
together. We don’t even recognize the weapon they used. It delivered a massive
bolt of destructive energy and was something far different from the guns and
explosives we associate with humans.”

“Don’t tell me what you
don’t
know,” Tybor burst out.
“You must have some information about these fucking massacres.”

“We sent spies to the surface after the first attack. One
reported back with some information. The other two were captured and used as
conduits for the second and third attacks.”

“What information did your spy get?” The shakiness in
Tybor’s voice echoed the horror Huon felt.

“The weapon Hopewood used was developed by a post-graduate physics
student Hopewood brought onto his team.” The captain swallowed, his Adam’s
apple bobbing sharply. “With the help of this physicist, Hopewood is able to
penetrate the wards the Dvalinn place around themselves when they go to the
surface world. He must be stopped.”

“Why not send someone who has had more experience, someone
who has fought against Gatekeepers before…and survived? Send a whole contingent
of fighters.” As soon as he spoke, Huon realized his words could be
misinterpreted. “I’m not afraid. I just want to know, why me?”

“Your particular characteristics… No one else…” The
captain’s face turned a mottled red. He cleared his throat, opened his mouth,
then shut it again.

Tybor took a step forward. “What the captain is unable to
say is… The Gatekeepers know what we Dvalinn look like. You don’t conform to
that image.” Tybor poked a finger at him. “You are…”

A familiar acid burn started in Huon’s stomach. He held up a
hand. “Don’t say it. I’ve heard it all my life. Too pale, too skinny, too
weird.”

“But that’s the very reason we chose you for this mission,”
the captain interjected. “While there are human beings who look just as we do,
there are
no
other Dvalinn who look like you. You look so different to
the rest of our kind.” The captain’s brow knitted as he tried to explain.
“Human forms and features vary greatly. Generally speaking, ours don’t. You
don’t fit the Gatekeeper’s experience of what the Dvalinn look like. You will
be able to move among them without arousing their suspicions.”

Tybor had once more distanced himself, remaining silent, his
gaze fixed far beyond the rock walls of the cavern.

“So my job is to find the Gatekeeper headquarters, wait
until they’re all gathered there and blow it up,” Huon said with as much
confident assurance as he could muster.

“It’s not that simple,” the captain retorted. “Hopewood’s
headquarters are in the middle of a city. We can’t risk the Dvalinn being
discovered and we prefer not to endanger innocent human lives.” He lowered his
voice. “Our first priority is to protect our people. Before you kill Hopewood
and those who work with him, you have to find out how those weapons work and
whether he or his physicist has made the information known to anyone outside
the circle of Gatekeepers. Once you have that information, you are to take them
all out in the quickest, most expedient way possible. This threat must be
totally eradicated.”

Although the captain spoke matter-of-factly, his shifting
eyes, refusing to meet Huon’s, revealed how much more there was to this task.

“I know you picked me for this mission because I don’t look
like the rest of the Dvalinn,” Huon said bitterly, “but that doesn’t mean I can
just walk into Hopewood’s headquarters and ask him everything I need to know.
Even if I broke in without being caught, I wouldn’t know what to look for or
where. How am I supposed to get that information? Just because I don’t look
like a Dvalinn doesn’t mean I’m capable of using torture.”

A small spot on the cuff of the captain’s jacket seemed to
occupy all his attention. His finger rubbed over it restlessly. “No Dvalinn can
do that. No one expects it of you. You will…” His voice faltered and he cleared
his throat. “Our reconnaissance suggests the most vulnerable target would be
Hopewood’s physicist, who both lives in an apartment above the Gatekeeper
headquarters and knows all the technical details of the weapons. Your orders
are to access that information.” He coughed. “By, ah…forming an intimate
relationship with the weapons developer.”

Huon felt the heat rise in his cheeks and fought to get his
breathing under control. “You want me to have sex? With a human? A human male?”

The captain’s cheeks reddened. “If necessary…you may have to
use sex, yes. The future of the Dvalinn rests on this mission. You are young
and I assume the idea of sex per se is not abhorrent to you. As for sex with a
human… Many humans look much as you do. You may find you enjoy being with
someone who does not feel you are…how did you put it?
Too pale, too skinny,
too weird.
And we do
not
forget you are Dvalinn, regardless of your
appearance. We would not ask you to have sex with a
male
. No Dvalinn
could contemplate such a thing. Hopewood’s physicist is a female.” He glanced
at the orders he held in his hand. “Her name is Judie Scanlon. She is twenty-three
years old, which in human terms puts her quite near to your age.”

Huon licked his dry lips. “You want me to meet her, seduce
her, steal her information and use her to gain entry to Hopewood’s
headquarters.” He glared at Tybor. “I don’t recall you including this in my
training.”

“My orders were to train you to go up against Hopewood,”
Tybor said through gritted teeth. He pulled himself off the wall and took a
step forward, confronting the captain face-to-face. “No one mentioned that
Gatekeepers now work in groups and I certainly wasn’t told about this insane
plan for Huon to stay above ground and whore himself out to a human woman.” His
grim voice reverberated in the room. “When I first saw the orders I thought
sending a stripling like Huon up against Hopewood was doomed to failure, but he
surprised me and turned out to be the best warrior I’ve ever trained. If anyone
could kill Hopewood, he could.”

The unexpectedness of Tybor’s praise sent a wave of pleasure
and pride through Huon but before he could say anything, Tybor went on, “But no
one, no matter how good, could do all this on his own. It’s a death sentence.
And expecting him to do it by seducing a human female… It won’t work.”

Huon agreed. The idea of him seducing anyone would be
laughable if it weren’t so close to disastrous.

The captain took a step back, away from Tybor. “The
circumstances justify it.”

“There has to be another way,” Tybor insisted.

“There’s not,” the captain said with finality.

Huon ignored the confrontation between the two men and tried
to focus his swirling thoughts. “If I… Once I succeed in…ah…infiltrating the
group, do I return here daily to report, or only when I’ve found new
information?”

“No. That won’t be possible.” The captain ran a finger
around the collar of his shirt. “Before you are taken to the surface your
telekinetic abilities—including the power to transport to and from the Dvalinn
domain—will be stripped from you.”

“What?” Huon and Tybor spoke in unison.

Tybor’s head snapped up, his color rising in his rage. “This
wasn’t in the orders. You
can’t
remove his ability to transport.”

The captain’s Adam’s apple bobbed up and down but he held
his ground. “If he can’t transport Hopewood can’t use him to attack us, even if
he does somehow identify him.”

“If he can’t transport he can’t
escape
. You have to
leave him that ability.” Tybor looked hard at Huon for the first time. “I would
never have agreed to train him if I’d known.”

Huon shook his head, unable to answer. There was more Tybor
didn’t know.

The captain picked up his hat and put it on. “When his
mission is completed, we’ll send a team to bring him back. Your task was to
train Huon to be fit for that mission and you have done that. Nothing else is
your concern.” He turned to Huon. “Come with me. You need to be provided with
clothes, money, instructions on how to procure temporary accommodation and
notes on ways to arrange an introduction to Judie Scanlon.”

He held out a hand, waiting for Huon to precede him out of
the door. Huon walked into the corridor. Behind him he heard Tybor cursing.
Huon stopped.

“I left something behind. I’ll be straight back.”

Tybor stood facing the cold rock wall but he turned when
Huon reopened the door. His dark eyes looked troubled.

Huon gave him a shaky smile. “Don’t worry too much. I don’t
think I’m ever going to meet Brian Hopewood.”

Tybor’s arched brow lifted. “No?”