Anuata laughed wryly. “And if our roles were reversed? Would you betray Atlantis for me?”
“I can’t answer that,” he said. “What I can do is offer you a place fitting your rank among my troops. If you’re willing?”
“Later. Let’s see if we can get out of here with skin intact, shall we?”
“Why should I trust you?”
“You shouldn’t.” Anuata laughed again. “But what choice do you have?”
“Good. Sleep make healing.”
Ree opened her eyes to see the now familiar octopus. She was reclining on a bed of thick moss beside one of the bubbles. Her first thought was that only a few moments had passed since she’d last seen the healer leave by the doorway, but when she glanced down, she found that she was wearing a different garment from the one she remembered putting on. Then, before she could pose a question, her stomach growled, and she realized that she was ravenous. “I must have dozed off,” she said.
The octopus produced a sound that could only be an amused twitter. “Not to have alarm,” the voice in Ree’s head said. “Rest and nourishment aids recovery.”
Suspicion curled in the far corners of her mind. “How long were you gone?” she asked.
Her physician waved a tentacle. “Our time has not yours. Worry not.”
“How long did I sleep?”
The octopus shrugged. “Your injuries terrible. Your heart, especially, needed time to heal.”
“My heart?”
“From missile? Shooting weapon?” The physician spread two tentacles in a human-like gesture. “Pee-stall?”
“Pistol?”
“Yes. Pistol missile.” The octopus shook its round head. “Heart beyond saving. Time it takes to regrow from cells.”
“You’re telling me that my heart was destroyed and you replaced it?”
“Your own biology.” Again the shake of the head. “Human heart have you still. A pity. Not so strong as Lemorian or even Atlantean. But adequate.”
Ree stretched and stood up. “I feel fine. Wonderful.”
“Have you hunger?”
She nodded. “I’m starving.”
“Good. Nourishment you shall have. No more need you me. Time only. With time you stronger grow.” The octopus patted her arm with a long tentacle. “Pleased am I to treat your kind. Never before a human. Other species, but not human. Much you add to my knowledge.” The healer swam effortlessly toward the doorway. “Be of peace. Food I order for you.”
“If it’s more seafood, could I have it cooked?” Ree asked. “I love sushi, but a steady diet of raw fish ...”
The physician chuckled. “Strange are ways of humans, but see I will what preparers can find.”
“Thank you, and thank you for the ... the new heart.”
A final wave of a tentacle and the healer swam away.
Ree counted to two hundred before trying the opening that the octopus had exited. It was an arched doorway leading to a hall. It should have been no problem for her to pass through. Nothing barred the way but a spray of bubbles, but when she tried to go through, an invisible barrier sealed the space from floor to ceiling. The material was warmer than the surrounding water and smooth. It even gave a little under Ree’s touch, but when she tried to force her way through, the substance was impenetrable.
Suddenly, she felt more prisoner than patient, and she didn’t like the feeling at all. Deciding that there had to be multiple entrances, Ree began a quick examination of the walls. The possibility that this was a dream tugged at her, but she brushed it aside. She’d spent a lifetime trying to separate reality from the intangible, and she’d learned to take every situation deadly serious until it proved otherwise.
It bothered her that she couldn’t remember what had happened just before she’d been shot. Normally, her memory was photographic. She should have sensed Varenkov before he reached the deck. Something had blocked her ability to pick up on his intent. It was unnerving. And everything that she’d experienced since waking up here in this room stretched the bounds of sanity. Not that she hadn’t seen her share of craziness, but a
talking octopus
? A new heart? At what point did she assume she’d taken a bullet to the brain and was suffering from a loss of gray matter?
But despite whatever had happened during and after the fiasco on the deck of the
Anastasiya,
she seemed to be thinking clearly now. And every ounce of self-preservation told her that this wasn’t someplace she wanted to be. Something was wrong here, and the sooner she got out, the better.
She’d passed by two bubbles, both empty, but the third was filled with a pink liquid. Suspended inside the eight-foot-high capsule was what appeared to be a large maroon and yellow jellyfish. It was football-shaped and definitely alive because she could see pulsating organs, rather she assumed they were organs, and she could see the multiple trailing tentacles writhing. Each tentacle seemed to bear rows of cactus-like mouths. The thing gave her the creeps, and although she couldn’t see any eyes, she had the distinct impression the coelenterate was staring at her with malevolent intentions.
Still looking for other doors, Ree moved past another empty capsule and then one with an injured dolphin inside. The dolphin had evidently gotten the worse of some encounter because it had several jagged wounds around its head and midsection. The dolphin had eyes, but they were closed, and the animal appeared to be sleeping or in a state of unconsciousness. The liquid in that bubble was a pale green. Ree felt none of the apprehension concerning this patient that she had with the jellyfish.
Abruptly, an inner warning went off in Ree’s head. She took shelter behind the dolphin’s capsule and crouched down to conceal herself from whoever was coming.
What
rather than who was accurate. Ree’s heart lodged in her throat. She hadn’t expected
this,
but what this was, she wasn’t prepared to make a guess.
Had the man been human, Ree would have classified him as a Pacific-Islander, probably Samoan or Maori. He was six and a half, maybe seven feet tall and wide as a tree trunk, spiky green hair cropped short, hands and feet like canoe paddles. His gorilla nose was cut in two by a grotesque scar; his teeth were filed into sharp points, and the coral war club in his hand could have battered down a house. But the thing that burst into the infirmary wasn’t human. Ree was certain of that. Not only wasn’t it human, but it definitely wasn’t friendly.
“Shit,” Ree muttered under her breath as she looked around for some kind of weapon. But the only thing she saw within reach was a tiny blue and silver sea horse bobbing up on the outside of the dolphin’s capsule—hardly an equalizer.
Stand back. I’ve got a sea horse, and I’m not afraid to use it.
“Double shit.”
Whatever this thing is, it hasn’t come to bring me candy and flowers.
Ree rose to her feet, her gaze locked on the Samoan. He had stopped just inside the doorway and was scanning the room. He tilted his ruined head back and sniffed, as though trying to catch her scent. Then he lunged forward, coming at a full run, directly toward her hiding place.
Discretion was the better part of valor. Ree remembered that from her earliest lessons. She turned to run and slammed into the arms of her blue man.
CHAPTER 5
T
he woman’s eyes widened when she caught sight of him, and she tried to duck away, but Alex caught her and pinned her against his chest. She was far stronger than he would have expected from one of her species. He grunted as she drove a hard knee into his groin and attempted a potentially fatal strike with the flat of her hand to his throat. He caught her wrist and pinned it behind her, which only made the physical contact between them more intense.
Her assault hadn’t hurt him; Alex couldn’t help admiring her pluck. Someone had taught this little human a thing or two about combat.
But more than her defiance, what surprised him was his own reaction to having her body pressed intimately against his. A red tide of lust flooded his veins and he forced himself to take a step back from the intensity of his desire. Fighting his thoughts and his male reaction to the intimacy, he yanked his attention back to the immediate danger—his brother Caddoc’s man coming toward them swinging a war club over his head.
“Hold her!” Alex shouted to Anuata as he shoved the human out of the path of Tora’s charge and into Anuata’s arms. “Don’t hurt her!”
“Let me take him!” Anuata countered, but she caught her as he moved to intercept the enraged Samoan.
“Stand off or die!” Alex warned his attacker.
Tora’s answer was to swing the coral-headed club at Alex’s head. Alex danced aside and the club crashed down, shattering the nearest bubble and spilling an acrid yellow fluid into the room. Tora twisted and drove the club at Alex’s belly. For all his primitive appearance and limited intelligence, the Samoan moved surprisingly light on his feet. Tora was fast and powerful. His cold, expressionless eyes reminded Alex of those of a hammerhead shark that he’d once battled with off the coast of Fiji.
Alex had exchanged blows with Tora before, and he knew not to underestimate him. Given the slightest chance, the man would crush his skull with that club or disable him by smashing a leg bone before ripping out his throat with his pointed teeth. Caddoc had once boasted that Tora was a cannibal who preferred flesh raw. Alex could well believe it.
Growling deep in his throat, the Samoan charged again, and again Alex wove and dodged the attack. Alex kept his gaze locked with Tora’s. His fighting master had taught him that a man’s eyes always signaled his next move. But that might not be true of Tora. From what Alex had seen of him over the years, he might be more beast than humanoid. He made another rush, pivoted, and struck at the left side of Alex’s head.
Close,
Alex thought.
Too close.
He twisted out of reach of the murderous blow and kept distance between them, the better to tire Tora before he made his move. A year ago, this same brute had attempted to kidnap his sister just outside the great library of Alexandria. For that, if for no other reason, Alex had a good reason to kill him. But Alex hadn’t survived as long as he had by acting first and thinking afterward.
If the Samoan was here, Caddoc must be as well, and Alex wondered if his half brother would suddenly appear eager to strike at his back while he was concentrating on Tora. No one had seen him or heard of Caddoc since he’d fled Atlantis soon after his attempt on their father’s life. If Caddoc had taken refuge in Lemoria, it might mean that he hadn’t abandoned his scheming to seize the crown of Atlantis. And if he was whispering treachery in ’Enakai’s ear, it could well mean war between the two kingdoms.
“Watch out!” Anuata yelled.
Alex caught the gleam of a blade as Tora followed up his swing with the war club with a quick strike from a short-stabbing sword in his left hand. Alex blocked the blow with his own sword, and sidestepped the jab aimed at his knee. “Drop your weapon, and you’ll swim out of here alive,” Alex said. As much as he wanted to rid the seas of the Samoan, there were questions he wanted answered first.
Tora’s small eyes narrowed and he snarled, revealing a jagged cavern of a mouth. Alex hadn’t expected an answer. Someone had cut out the Samoan’s tongue long ago.
Behind him, Alex heard Anuata cursing. He supposed the woman was giving Anuata grief, but he couldn’t worry about that now. Tora hadn’t known he was here, so he must have come for her. Was it possible that Caddoc had sent him to snatch her? Or had he been ordered to kill her? And if he had, why would his brother want her dead?
Tora came in hard and fast, dropping low at the last moment and swinging his club at Alex’s knees. Alex leaped high enough for the blow to pass harmlessly beneath him and delivered a slash to the Samoan’s left shoulder that laid it open to the bone.
“Mother of Vassu!” Anuata yelled.
Tora should have gone down, but the Samoan was too stupid to know how badly he was hurt. With a bellow of rage from his thick throat, he lowered his head and charged, bowling into Alex and knocking him backward into another capsule before he could free his blade from Tora’s body.
The walls of the bubble collapsed under their weight and the hapless patient, a naked Lemorian courtier, thrashed wildly out of the chaos, gasped, and ended tangled in several lines of clear tubing, his life’s blood pumping out into the water.
Locked in combat, Alex and Tora rolled free of the capsule. For a moment, Alex was on top, but then the Samoan wrapped his powerful legs around Alex’s and flipped him over. Seemingly heedless of the pain and blood loss from his injury, the Samoan drove the club into Alex’s chest and tried to gut him with his short-sword.
Alex struggled for leverage to bring his own weapon down as the Samoan’s massive hands closed around his throat. Black spots floated before Alex’s eyes as he fought to deliver the coup de grâce to the nape of Tora’s neck. But an instant before his sword descended, Tora’s body went rigid and thick fingers released their choking grip. Convulsing, he fell away, and an oily black substance obliterated Alex’s vision.
Shoving Tora off him, Alex scrambled upright to find Anuata standing over Tora’s twitching corpse, her curved sword dark with the Samoan’s blood. A second mouth gaped below the Samoan’s jagged one, and Alex realized that Anuata had cut Tora’s throat from ear to ear.
“Why?” Rage washed over Alex.
Anuata shrugged. “You looked like you needed my help.”
Alex gritted his teeth. Tora had committed enough foul acts to warrant the death penalty several times over, but his life ending in this manner left a bad taste in Alex’s mouth. “I didn’t. I had him.”
“If you say so.” Anuata didn’t look convinced.
“I expect the members of my team to obey my orders.”
She looked faintly amused. “I understand the chain of command, my prince. I began my career as a common soldier-at-arms. But you gave no order. I assumed that allowing an enemy to kill my team leader on my first watch would be poor judgment on my part.”
“I had questions to ask him.”
She glanced at the dead man. “A little late, I’m afraid.”
“Next time, when I want your help, I’ll ask for it.”
“Understood.” She motioned toward the doorway. “But you might save your sympathy for him. That scum butchered a healer on his way in. No Lemorian would dare to commit such a crime. Our healers are defenseless, forbidden to take lives, even to defend their own.”
Alex glanced into the passageway. The mutilated corpse of what appeared to be an octopus floated just outside the hatchway. Several tentacles had been hacked away, and its head was distorted. “That’s the physician?”
She nodded. “You mean
healer.
It’s a species you may not be familiar with in Atlantis. Highly intelligent, despite its primitive form. Not related to the common octopi at all. The
jysynarr
are descended from beings that traveled here with the starmen.”
“I’ve heard of them, but I’ve never seen one.”
“There are few left. This one was Grenjiy-Xtzn, a healer of the highest order. Very old and very wise. Her skill saved your human.”
Alex slid his sword back into his belt. “Where is my human? I thought I told you to hold her.”
Anuata folded her brawny arms over her bare breasts. The intricate tattoo pattern on her face made it appear that she was peering out at him through a mask. “She can’t go far. Other than the way we came in, which she’d never find, this is the only entrance. This is a sealed unit, for disease control.”
“And you just happened to know of a secret doorway.”
“I should. The palace is full of hidden passageways, and I’m head of security.” She grimaced. “Or I was, before you showed up and put an end to my promising career.”
He rubbed at his shoulder. He’d taken a blow from Tora’s club that had torn away some of his skin and flesh, but the wounds would heal soon enough. “You can still change your mind. Let them think someone else helped me escape.”
Anuata shook her head. “If a prisoner escapes, the ultimate responsibility is the captain of the guard’s. And the penalty for that is an unpleasant death. I’ll take my chances with you, Atlantean—even if you are squeamish about dealing with your enemies.”
Alex looked up at the dangling patient who’d been so abruptly knocked out of his healing capsule. “Is he ...”
“Dead,” Anuata said. “We won’t have to worry about him telling anyone we were here.” She glanced back at the entrance and brushed her lavender scalp-lock back over her shoulder. “We shouldn’t remain here any longer. Another healer or one of the novices will come to check on the patients, and they’ll raise the alarm.”
“Let me get the woman, and we’ll—”
“Leave her. She’ll only slow us down.” Anuata wiped the blade of her sword on a length of material before slipping it into a sheath at her belt.
“We came here for her. I’m not leaving without her.”
“As you wish, but ...”
“What?”
“I’ve not been trained as a sex provider, but if you have need, I can give you release.”
Alex’s gut clenched as he thought of sharing bed pleasures with Anuata. “Thanks for the offer,” he said. “But if we were lovers, you couldn’t serve under my command. It’s against my—”
“Who said anything about lovers? I know enough about Atlanteans to realize that your species’ weakness is an intense need for sexual—”
“As you said, it’s time we made ourselves scarce. Unless you care to join me in that cell?”
“You don’t need to worry about that. If they catch us, neither of us will live long enough to go back into the dungeon.”
Alex moved down the rows of capsules. “Where are you, woman?” he called. “There’s nowhere for you to hide so—”
She stepped out from behind a bubble containing a large orange and purple sunfish. “Stop calling me woman. My name is Ree. Ree O’Connor.”
“Fair enough.” Again, Alex felt a ripple of admiration for her bravery. Doubtless she’d seen the fight and Anuata’s death stroke. She should have been cowering in a corner, but instead she faced him, as bold as a new tide. Heat coiled in his belly as he took in her restored body, no longer quite as human and vulnerable as it had been, but delicate as coral lace compared to Anuata.
“Who are you?” Ree asked. “What is this place, and how did I get here?”
“It’s a long story—too long to go into now,” Alex answered. “You’ll just have to trust me. We mean you no harm.”
“Right.” Ree glanced at the Amazon who appeared to be trying to outflank her on the left. “I’m not going anywhere with either of you, until I get an explanation.” So far as she could tell, the only exit was the one that the Samoan had come through, the one she’d tried to leave by without success.
“You’ll come with us if he still wants you,” the warrior-woman said.
Ree ignored her. She couldn’t take her eyes off the blue man. He was the same one she’d seen on the ship. And if he wasn’t as solid as her own right hand, someone had given her some very good drugs—or bad ones.
As she studied him, he wasn’t really blue. It might be her eyes playing tricks or the way the light filtered through the water. What she was certain of was that he was the most magnificent example of a male that she’d ever seen.
He was beautiful and terrible—big, tall and muscular, sinewy shoulders and a massive chest. His legs were long and equally muscular, almost too perfect to be real. The man staring at her possessed a haunting, almost classical allure to go with the to-die-for he-man physique, golden blond hair, and glittering green eyes that penetrated her to the core. He was the most handsome man Ree had ever laid eyes on, but there was nothing soft about his movie-star looks, his high, chiseled cheekbones, square chin, and strong nose. Instead, Ree felt almost a visceral attraction.
He was as delicious as a box of Godiva chocolates, and she wanted to savor every bite.
“You’ll have to trust me,” the blue man said.
“Trust you?” she countered. “How can I trust you? I don’t even know your name.”
“I saved your life back on the
Anastasiya
. Or don’t you remember that?”