The Seer (Tellaran Series) (32 page)

“Oh, I beg your pardon,” Jolar said politely and tilted his head. “Perhaps you’re to kill me instead.”

The guard looked shocked. “My orders are to protect you, Your Highness.”

Jolar leaned back in his chair again, pretending to study the amber liquid in his glass. “Some of your people tried to kill me two days ago,” Jolar said conversationally then looked at the guard, his eyebrows raised. “Know anything about that?”

The Utavian’s nostrils flared. “My tribesmen would never act so dishonorably.”

“Some did. They killed the soon-to-be crowned Princess of Sertar. Her name was Cenon. She was a sweet lady. I buried her myself.”

The guard went still.

“You know,” Jolar continued. “It’s just plain dumb luck that I survived. We have a lot in common you know, your young prince and I. I think he, and the rest of your people, are being used to seize power for Jasa and Rekan.”

The guard’s face became closed and set. “We are allies. We will return to the old ways, the ways of honor.”

“Honor? Why, if I’m their prince, a man they claim they vow to follow onto death,” Jolar made a casual wave with the snifter toward the closed door of the sitting room, “am I not permitted to leave this room?”

There was hesitation in the guard’s eyes.

“I’ll tell you why.” Jolar hooked a finger to coax the man toward him. The guard took a few steps closer and Jolar dropped his voice to a confiding whisper. “Because Rekan wants my crown for himself. And pretty soon a few of your tribesmen, who are being used like you and I are, are going to come through that door,” Jolar said with a nod in that direction.  “to kill me and—since you happen to be standing in their way—they’re going to kill you too.”

The guard frowned.

“If you don’t believe me, go ahead and take a drink. Because if Rekan got the chance, all this,” Jolar indicated the meal and leaned forward to get the balls of his feet under him, “is poisoned. Either way, you and I are not going to live to see morning.”

At the sound of blaster fire in the hall the Utavian guard whipped his head toward the door. And that moment of distraction was all Jolar needed.

He had the Utavian down and the man’s blaster in hand before the bodies outside hit the floor.

Jolar reset the blaster to kill and shot out the window, blowing the plexisteel outward into the night in a shower of reflective shards. He was already on the windowsill, ready to jump to the garden below when the door behind him burst open.

With the muscle memory of thousands of hours of practice, Jolar turned to fire.

Arissa let her breath out slowly; keeping her own anxieties at bay was easy compared to blocking the fear pouring off Lian as they crouched outside Jasa’s residence. Kemma, sleekly dressed in black shirt and trousers, her russet hair drawn back, narrowed her eyes as she looked at the mansion. She seemed to be handling this far better than her protector.

But then, she and Kemma could see in a way Lian could not.

“How many of them are there?” Lian asked in a tight whisper.

“Four out here—”

“Nine inside—”

Even in the darkness Arissa could see Lian blanch.

“Are you out of your godsdamn minds?” His voice rose an octave. “We can’t take on thirteen armed gunman!”

“We don’t have to take them on,” Arissa promised softly. “We just have to stun them long enough to get Jolar out.”

“Stun them all
before
one manages to hit the security alarm or knocks us all out with a wide beam scald pulse.” Lian’s dark eyes snapped. “I don’t know if you ladies have noticed yet but we’re also
outside
their security shield with no way
in
.”

Arissa chewed the inside of her cheek. Lian was right. Above this short, deceptively decorative brick wall, the slight distortion extending over the house like a dome revealed a security shield that would surely block any blaster bolt. One touch against it and the thing would flash, alerting the guards in the yard to their location and likely setting off an alarm inside it too.

And there was also the matter of the four Utavian guards, each with a heavy duty, rapid-fire blast weapon swung around his shoulder, standing between them and the house.

“You’re sure Jolar’s in there?” Kemma asked grimly.

Arissa threw her focus toward him, tears stinging her eyes at the familiar feel of his mind. “Yes.”

He was in such mental anguish, flooded with anxiety that he would not live much longer . . .

“Oh gods, someone in there is going to kill him. We have to get him out!”

Lian tightened his grip on his blaster. He’d had three blasters at the house that they now carried; all meant for self-defense and not one looked like it had ever been fired. He looked at his shadow consort, his face grave. “I’m telling you, this is crazy, Kemma.”

Kemma’s jaw hardened, the blaster she held at the ready giving her a particularly fierce demeanor. “Lian, you can stay here or come with us but I am
going
to help Arissa.”

Arissa closed her eyes, sending her mind touch frantically toward Jolar hoping to discern something—anything—that might help them save him.

A well-appointed room, a feast before him, possibly only one guard . . .

There were others inside the house, most with the rigid determination of the Utavian guards out here. Two others, a man sulking as if smarting under a rebuke and a woman, proud and eager . . .

“We’re not even going to be able to get inside the shield,” Lian argued, jolting Arissa out of the mind touch.

Kemma gave the patrolling men a speculative look. “I have an idea.”

“Where are you going?” Lian hissed when Kemma started to easy away from them.

“Just stay here and be ready to shoot,” she whispered.

In the darkness Arissa could faintly follow as Kemma moved along the outer wall, the Ornament’s sense reverberating with a kind of manic glee.

In another moment Kemma had vanished from sight and Arissa felt Lian’s concern spike.

He wet his lips. “Arissa, look, I know you’re worried about Jolar but this is impossible. Maybe we should just call SerSec.”

Arissa looked at him in astonishment. “And tell them what?”

He shifted his weight as he squatted behind the wall. “I don’t know . . . maybe that Jolar’s comm unit cut out and he said he was in danger,” Lian gave a weak shrug at her astonished look, “or something.”

She felt her nostrils flare. “Even if we could offer up an outrageous enough bribe to convince SerSec to storm a private residence in
this
neighborhood, there isn’t time to get them here! We need to get Jolar out
now!
”

Lian began to retort when he spied something past Arissa’s shoulder that made his eyes widen. In the same instant the guards’ attention slammed around. Arissa twisted about to see what they were all looking at and her mouth parted.

Oh, my gods . . .

There, in the warm glow of light from Jasa’s house, her magnificent red hair cascading over her shoulders, Kemma stood as breathtakingly beautiful—and as naked—as the goddess of love herself.

“Excuse me,” Kemma called sweetly, waving to the guards who stared at her. She swayed a little then giggled, twisting a finger in her hair as unselfconscious as Arrena, and artlessly aware of her own splendor. “I was at a party over there—” She pointed, then looked befuddled, giggled again and pointed in another direction. “No,
there
. And, somehow,” she gave a careless shrug. “I’ve lost all my clothes.”

The guards’ attention was locked onto her with such lustful intent it made Arissa face go hot.

Kemma gave a little pout. “Does one of you have a jacket or—” she said, as if she just noticed their attire. “A cloak you could lend me?” She giggled again. “Just till I can figure out where my clothes went?”

One of the guards drawn as if by Arrena’s own power walked toward Kemma. Sensing his intention, Arissa quickly put her hand to the back of Lian’s dark head and pressed him down.  She ducked as the man looked around to be sure Kemma was alone.

“You should not be about so,” the guard scolded. “Come to the gate and I will let you in, foolish one.”

“Oh, thank you I—oops!” Stumbling against the wall she collapsed into giggles. Kemma put her hand to her cheek and looked up at him fetchingly. “I’m not sure I can make it that far.”

His gaze locked on her breasts as they quivered with her laughter. His bronze skin was now dusky to the hairline.

He cleared his throat and swung his weapon onto his back. “Stay there. I will lift you over.”

In the next instant the security shield glinted as it came down. Kemma smiled and opened her arms wide for the man to pick her up.

Arissa pushed to her feet and using her Seer’s senses instead of her eyes, snapped off several blaster shots.

In the same moment Kemma clamped her arms around the guard’s neck and yanked him toward her over the wall. With astonishing dexterity she freed his weapon from the strap around his body and pointed it downward to stun him then lifted it to fire at another guard.

There was a roaring in Arissa’s ears. It took her a moment to realize that all of the guards lay stunned and the night was again silent around them.

Lian was already running toward Kemma, who had swung over the wall and now stood inside the courtyard, her heavy weapon trained on the house, still unabashedly bare.

No alarms howled; the shield stayed down. Arissa threw her focus toward the house to find those within undisturbed. Probably the house’s insulation, designed to spare those within from the noise of traffic and shuttles flying overhead, had also blocked the sound of the blaster shots.

Arissa scrambled over the wall. That still left security eyes and the eight – not counting Jolar – inside to be dealt with. Kemma was already heading around to the less populated rear of the house and Arissa followed.

Lian caught up with them as they reached the garden. There was a door to the inside here at the back of the house and a half-floor above stood tall windows.

That was where Jolar was being held. 

Arissa frowned but she couldn’t see anyway to climb up there or to signal to him that she was here without also alerting whoever was in that room with him.

“They call Seers dangerous,” Lian hissed, shoving Kemma’s clothes and boots at her. “But in actuality they’re just absolutely
insane
.”

“It worked, didn’t it?” Kemma whispered, flashing a grin.

“How do you even know how to fight like that?” Arissa asked.

Kemma shrugged. “One of my protectors was an arms dealer and martial expert. He knew a lot, so now I know a lot.”

“You took them all out before I could get off a shot.” Lian shook his head. “Are you two personal friends of Jandar or something?” he asked. “Is the god of war patron god to Seers too?”

“Just for that, I’m going to say an extra prayer to Arrena later—in your name,” Kemma muttered, handing her weapon to Lian and shimmying into her clothes.

Apparently Ornaments could dress as fast as they could undress because in mere heartbeats, Kemma was fastening the last closure on her boot.

“Okay, we’re inside the shield,” Lian said. “Now what?”

“Get inside the house,” Arissa murmured.

“Great.” He wet his lips. “How do you—?”

Arissa held her hand up to silence him, and raised her blaster.

Sharply Kemma shook her head and while Arissa caught the lightest touch against her mind she couldn’t tell what her friend wanted her to do.

The door to the house slid open and in that moment Kemma sprung. In the next instant she had the Utavian unconscious. Arissa helped Kemma drag him a few steps back, then they eased the man to the ground.

Biting her lip Kemma signaled to Lian for the weapon she’d taken off the guard. She adjusted the settings and, pressing the muzzle to the guard’s belly, silently squeezed off a shot. The man convulsed for an instant, stunned.

“Okay, Kemma,” Lian whispered, his lips barely moving. “You are really starting to scare me now.”