Healing Eden (16 page)

Ludan grunted and stowed his dagger, but kept his captive’s arm locked at a painful angle. “Maxis didn’t dig deep for you boys, did he?”

“You two are lucky he’s in a good mood.” Eryx stepped between the kneeling men. “You get two choices. Get us to the heart of this beehive or take your chances with my moody somo. What’s your pick?”

The men wide-eyed it with each other.

“I’ll take you,” Shell-shocked said.

The other one flinched and glared at his partner. “Maxis will kill you.”

Ludan wrenched his arm again and crouched close. “I won’t. But I’ll make you wish I had.”

The two kept the silent eyeballing up for another second or two before Ludan’s captive relented and ducked his head.

With his dagger hand, Ludan motioned Shell-shocked to his feet. “You lead.”

The four of them headed down the tunnel. Not-so-tough guy shuffled behind Eryx as best he could with Ludan twisting his arm between his shoulder blades.

Eryx nudged Shell-shocked in front of him. “How many more of you?”

The warrior cast a guilty glance over one shoulder, but trudged forward. “There are three entrances, two men at each entrance and one near the pens.”

Ludan chuffed. “Shit for security.”

“We had more,” Shell-shocked said. “Uther’s pulled most out on some big—”

“Neil
.
” Not-so-tough lurched from Ludan’s grip and aimed for his fellow warrior.

Ludan intercepted and a sick crack rattled down the dark corridor.

Not-so-tough slumped to the rock in a lifeless heap, his head at an all-wrong angle.

With a careless step over the body, Ludan rolled his shoulders and got up close to Neil/Shell-shocked. “You were saying?”

“Later,” Eryx said before Neil could answer. He jerked his chin toward the blackness. “I want this over with.” He switched to tell-coms.
“You’re up, Ramsay. Got another entrance we need to cover, two men at each one. I want prisoners.”
He stepped alongside Ludan and raised an eyebrow.
“Not dead men.”

Ludan shrugged, though it was shallow enough to admit he might have been trigger-happy.
“He was about to shut our source up.”

Ramsay’s chuckle wound through their open link.
“Guess I’m not the only bloodthirsty bastard. I’m heading up the ramp. Wesley’s hunting for the other exit.”

Eryx followed Ludan and Neil around a wide corner and the tunnel opened to a thirty-by-thirty circular room. A lifeless fire pit sat at its center, squat oak chairs arched around one side, and a tall-backed, onyx wanna-be throne at the other. Otherwise the place was a big zero.

“Not feeling all that impressed.” Eryx strode toward the black tunnel on the other side of the room. “Where’s that go?”

Neil swallowed and the color drained from his face. “The pens.”

“I’m thinking not the animal variety.” Ludan stepped up tight behind Neil. “Am I right?”

Neil nodded, but the action looked damned pained.

Eryx motioned with his head. “Move it.”

Hustling around the far side of the fire pit, Neil took up point.

“Report,”
Eryx said to Ramsay.

His brother sounded a whole lot more pissed off than he had a few minutes ago.
“Wes found the second entrance. Men are contained.
Got a talkative one who said Maxis took off five, maybe ten minutes before we got here and didn’t look so good.”

Fuck. Not fast enough. The lights in this tunnel were fewer, the dullish red glow barely enough to cast a shadow. Eryx stepped up the pace.
“Anyone with him?”

“Not a soul.”

Well, that was a plus, he hoped. “How much farther?”

Neil ducked around a sharp curve, then V’d to the left. “Fifteen yards, on the right.”

Eryx opened his emotional senses and damned near tripped. “He’s here.”

“Who’s here?” Neil drew up short and his eyes widened.

“Not your fearless leader, that’s for sure.” Ludan shoved Neil forward. “Move.”

Eryx shot forward and Ludan cursed behind him.
“Follow my link,”
he said to Ramsay.
“Target the emotions if it helps. The damned place is a pain powder keg.”

He rounded the last turn and stopped. “Shit.”

Ten scarred wooden doors lined a crude hallway, five on each side. Agony pulsed from each one, the impact enough to churn his stomach.

“Almost there,”
Ramsay said.

Ludan pushed Neil toward the center. “I’ll take the right.”

Eryx nodded, eyes to Neil. “You really think this kind of shit’s right?”

Neil shook his head.

“Then make yourself useful. Get ‘em open.”

Neil turned for the far end on the left side, notably as far as he could get from Ludan.

Eryx took the first door on his right.

Metal latches clanged up and down the rock walls as they unlocked the doors, and quiet sobs and gasps sounded in their wake.

No light shone inside the first one. Eryx stepped in and nearly buckled at the stench. He coughed, covering his nose with the back of one hand, and lit the room with a steady flame from the palm of the other.

A woman lay huddled on her side, naked. Long, matted black hair covered her face and shoulders, her skin a sickly color. He crouched beside her and touched her arm. Dead. “That son of a bitch.”

Ramsay barreled in behind him. “You find—” He stared at the lifeless woman, his jaw slack.

“Yeah.” Eryx stood. “Hopin’ they’re not all this way.”

They checked more cells and found seven other women, all with a pulse. Barely. None had clothes, and all were curled into tight, defensive balls. Ludan stroked a shorthaired redhead’s back, her tremors so violent Eryx thought she might be mid-seizure. Neil cradled another weeping woman’s head on his lap.

Two more doors to go.

“I’ll get one, you get the other.” Ramsay headed to the next to the last door, leaving Eryx the corner cell.

Eryx pulled the latch, bile and doubt churning in his gut. At this rate, he wouldn’t eat for a week. If Ian wasn’t here—

Nope. Not going there right now. He fired a thin flame from his palm.

Another woman cowered as far from the door as possible, her knees pulled up tight to her chest. Her voice cracked, thin and desperate. “Please.”

Ramsay shouted from the cell beside his. “Eryx.”

The woman flinched and ducked her head.

“It’s all right.” He scooped her up and hurried out to the others .

Ludan met him at the door and took his burden. “I got her. Go.”

Two steps into Ramsay’s cell, Eryx froze. It was Ian all right, but he’d seen roadkill in Evad look better.

Ramsay crouched beside him, two fingers at his carotid. Third degree burns circled his neck and his belly was bruised and bloated, a marquee for internal bleeding. “He’s got a pulse, but it’s thready.”

Eryx kneeled beside him. “Go help Ludan. Get the girls out and get them home.”

“I’ll help—”

“Get ’em out and get ’em home.” He met Ramsay’s stare. “Take care of Lena and Reese, and get the prisoners in zeolite. I want this place cleaned out and Maxis unable to track anyone. Got me?”

“What about Ian?”

“I’ll handle Ian.” He’d already broken the laws. He’d be damned if he fucked up Ramsay’s future too. “Now go.”

* * * *

Maxis cracked one eye open and the harsh orange and red-rimmed Myren sun blasted across his sensitive retinas. He squeezed them shut and a tear slipped down his temple. Cool air dusted one cheek, dry, gritty soil beneath the other.

He tried to push upright. Pain stabbed his lower neck and shot across his shoulders and arms to tingle in his fingertips. Sweat broke out along his forehead. Where the fuck was he? The last thing he remembered he’d been in the air and headed for home, burning through Reese’s cortex via link.

The presence. Somewhere along the way, another energy source had intervened. Maybe more than one. The next second, he’d been trapped, pulled taut between two anchors before a mix of fire and ice cleaved him down the middle. He’d been a good thousand feet in the air, his muscles unresponsive to any command, pain stabbing through his limbs and brain.

Voices sounded in the distance. Serena, maybe, and someone else.

Uther.

Fire burned up his neck and face, legs desperate to push upright. He couldn’t be caught this way. Serena was one thing, but not Uther.

Nothing. Not so much as a twitch from his thighs or feet.

“Maxis?” Serena’s urgent voice rang out and her slippered feet padded against the hard dirt. “Uther, hurry.”

Maxis tried to speak, but all that came out was a chortled cough.

“Don’t move him,” Uther said.

A shadow fell across him, and the sun’s glow behind his eyelids went dark. Uther’s voice rumbled close to Maxis’ ear. “Brace yourself.”

Pain, fierce and unforgiving, darted up and down Maxis’ spine, and then blessed, forgiving black.

Reese shifted in his bed and a cool spring breeze brushed his naked torso. Galena’s flowery scent wrapped around him, her softness pressed against him.

Perfect.

Whoa, wait. Galena? He opened his eyes.

Galena lay nestled in the crook of his arm, her hair trailing over his skin and onto crisp, white sheets. Morning sun shone through a large, arched window with panes thrown wide to let in fresh air. The room was huge with stone walls that soared a good ten to twelve feet high and quality accents that spoke of limitless wealth. Definitely not the homestead.

He rolled his head on the pillow and a sharp, stabbing pain pierced the back of his neck. Maybe moving wasn’t such a great idea. What the hell had he done?

The meet point. Galena had been there, so much pain on her face he’d nearly dropped his plans and his pride to hold her. He’d taken flight instead and been lashed with something every bit as powerful as a thunderbolt.

“You’re a blessed man.”

Reese tensed and Clio shimmered into view at the foot of his bed. How in histus he’d kept from jumping out of bed on instinct was beyond him.

“Because you know my voice,” she answered as though he’d spoken aloud. “Your mind recognizes me as one of its own.”

“Is there anything in my head that’s a secret to you?”

No answer, but her smirk said plenty.

Shit. Reese tightened his hold around Galena and tried to shift more protectively around her. Aches radiated from every joint.

“She’ll not come to any harm by my hand, nor can she hear my voice.” Clio touched the blanket just above his waist, and an instant peace settled over him. “Be at ease. I’d say you’ve earned your time with her.”

Reese kept his grip anyway, her soft curves against his length an opportunity he wasn’t passing up no matter who walked in. “What happened?”

For all the glow and glitter that surrounded the spiritu, her aura wavered. “One of the dark spiritu found you. A rogue by the name of Falon. We’d protected you, veiled your spirit to hide you from the rogues, but your relations with Galena made you vulnerable.” She grinned, lightness twinkling in her eyes once more. “We probably should have accommodated for that contingency. Free will has a tendency to throw wrenches in the best laid plans.”

So she saw that too. Kind of brought a disconcerting spectator aspect to any kind of intimacy. “I don’t remember anything. Just a blinding jolt, nothing but piercing white behind my eyes.”

“He attacked you.”

“Falon?”

Clio paused, her mouth pursed. “Your brother.”

The news shouldn’t have fazed him, but somewhere along the way he’d begun to hope he might actually make a difference. “So I failed you.”

“No. You haven’t failed.”

“But I didn’t talk to him. I didn’t even see him.”

She smiled, soft like the first bit of sun over the morning horizon. “There are always new opportunities. The Great One willing, a new intersection will present itself. At least that is what we’re hoping for. Such a chance may be the only way to stop what the dark rogues are working toward.”

“What’s a rogue? I thought there were only dark and light.”

Clio lowered her head and trailed her fingertips along the foot of the bed as she floated toward the open window. “The law of reciprocity allowed me to tell you only so much.” She folded her hands at her waist and studied the green landscape before facing him. “With the steps Falon has taken, I now have more leeway. Not that I wish you or any of your race to be caught up in his schemes.”

“Whose schemes? Maxis’? Falon’s?” The second his question was out, he regretted it. He’d lived through an undertaking he barely hoped to survive and Galena was stretched out beside him. The idea of additional risk didn’t much appeal.

She shook her head. “Both, though Maxis is more of a pawn.”

“Maxis? A pawn?” Reese slowly combed his fingers through Galena’s hair, and the scent of flowers strengthened around him. “Maxis makes pawns, not the other way around.”

“He’s too blind to see the situation clearly. Falon is a powerful spiritu. Of the dark contingent, he’s one of the most advanced.” Clio drifted toward the side of the bed. “Your brother is the tipping point in bringing the light and dark passions out of balance. If left unstopped, his plans for slavery will snowball throughout the human and Myren races. Panic will rule the human realm, and greed the Myren realm. Once tipped, the scales will be near impossible to rebalance.”

“Then why have me talk to Maxis? If he’s the linchpin, why not just kill him like I wanted in the first place?”

Clio settled beside them and smoothed Galena’s hair from her face. “You’re so quick to draw your dagger.” She folded her hands in her lap and fixed her attention on him. “Think about what you’re advocating. Murder, however necessary, feeds the dark. And, while its act is simplistic, its weight is significant. The only way to counterbalance the weight of murder is to sway your brother via his conscience, to appeal to the goodness inside him. To win through persuasion carries more weight than if you kill him, weight that falls to the side of the light.”

“You’re saying the pen is mightier than the sword?”

She lifted one eyebrow, a look reminiscent of his mother the first time Reese had dared lie to her face. “Every courageous act has a different weight, just as every darker act has its own. The balance between the two is cumulative.”