Prime Imperative (The Prime Chronicles Book 3) (34 page)

“No, it won’t,” Cas spoke up. “I told Z’es we needed the packs with inflatable boats and paddles. He handed me two. Cred and I are carrying them. We’ve paddled in those rapids before. We know the tributary’s tricks.”

“Good job.” Iolyn looked over his shoulder and was happy to see Wulf, V’niko, and A’nan had joined them. Wulf had picked up some additional climbing gear as had V’niko and A’nan.

As he kept pace with his sister-kin, who seemed to have the stamina of a long-distance runner and the pacing of a sprinter, Iolyn kept touching Bria’s mind. Each time he found no sense of awareness, he grew madder until his skin felt as if it would split open from the pressure within. He couldn’t let his wrath loose now; he’d need all that unrestrained energy later when he got his hands on the enemy who’d dared to take his mate.

Iolyn finally received something from Bria as he carefully picked his way across a rockslide. Her mind was filled with crazy images of ancient weapons and dwarves. She was barely conscious, but he saw what her unfocused eyes took in around her. Then he recognized where she was in the fortress.

“Bria is starting to wake up. I’m seeing Tenar’s library.”

Wulf came up on Iolyn’s shoulder. “Can you see Melina? My little one is still unconscious. If Bria is rousing, why isn’t my
gemate
?”

“I don’t see her yet.” Iolyn chanced a glance at his older brother. “As soon as Bria responds to me, I’ll find out about Mel. They’ll be fine.” Iolyn’s words were more confident than his feelings. He prayed to the One they’d be true.

“Yes.” Wulf growled low in his throat, setting off the other Prime in the group. “They have to be. Because if they are not…”

“…death will reign this day,” Iolyn completed his brother’s thought.

Wulf nodded, then called out, “Nadia.”

“Yes, Wulf?”

“Take Huw and scout ahead since you’ve been this way before. Travel light so you can move faster.” Nadia had already begun handing off unnecessary gear to Bre and his brothers. “Huw, report back on alternating Com Code XX 56.”

“If we find anyone lying in wait for us?” Huw asked as he too shed gear and handed it off to V’niko who’d moved up to partner Bre.

“Kill them.”

Huw nodded and then turned to catch up with Nadia who moved like the wind over the rocky ground, heading for a dark hole in the mountain barely covered by brush.

Iolyn watched as both Huw’s and Nadia’s headlamps went on just before they disappeared into the black maw leading underground.

Chapter 22

Tenar Caradoc’s Library

Dwarves? Ancient weapons? And lots of dark wood and a fireplace large enough to roast an ox-steer. Where was she? Middle Earth in a Tolkien adventure? Was she dreaming? She couldn’t ever recall dreaming about twentieth century Earth fantasy novels before.

“Bria? Mel?” Her mother-kin’s voice called to them. Her voice was strained, filled with exhaustion and…fear.

That was unacceptable. Lorinda should never be afraid. She was Iolyn’s honored mother.

“Bria.” Lorinda’s voice was closer now.

A cool hand soothed Bria’s achy head. The motion reminded her of her mother. But her mother was on Gliese 581C, wasn’t she?

“I can see your eyes glinting gold between your lashes. Wake up, darling girl. We’re in big trouble.”

Peata
! Wake up. Now! Tell me you’re all right.

“Iolyn!” Bria sat up on a leather sofa. The room, and Lorinda’s face, swirled around her.

I’m fine.

Bria!
His sigh was filled with relief.
Finally, you’re awake. Where’s Mel?

She looked around and found her friend on a couch across from hers.
Mel is rousing. Your mother’s here.

We know. Is she okay?

“Lorinda, did Tenar kidnap you?” Bria squinted at her mother-kin and found no surface injuries. But the older woman’s eyes held despair, sadness, and fear.

Your mother looks unharmed. We’re in what appears to be a library.

You are. I recognize it. I’m with you. Just touch my mind when you need to. Stay safe. We’re coming.

“Tenar invited me to tea with you girls.” Lorinda’s eyes filled with tears. “I can’t believe he’d do this. He wants revenge, he said, because I marked with Ilar and not him. He told me some horrible things he’s done. He’s evil to the core.”

Bria patted her mother-kin’s trembling hand. “I’d already guessed as much.”

“No,” slurred Mel, “you made brilliant connections and deduced it. But it’s always nice to have it proven.” She sat up and swayed side-to-side. She braced herself with one hand on a sofa cushion. “
Diew
, if I weren’t already sick to my stomach, this room would make me. Where are we?”

“You are in my library, Melina.” Tenar walked into the room followed by several dark-uniformed guards armed with lasers and battle-blades. Several other men remained in the shadows just outside the doorway.

Bria’s nerves jangled. Something bad was about to happen, not that what had already happened wasn’t bad. But this would be something worse. She shot a glance at Mel, who’d also gone hyper-alert. Lorinda looked between the two of them and frowned.

Bria shook her head as her mother-kin opened her mouth to speak.

Lorinda nodded.

“You invited us to tea,” Bria said. “Why are you treating us this way?”

“Because Ilar’s sons cannot produce any more heirs for the leadership position.” Tenar moved to sit in a large wingback chair covered in some animal hide. “I was always meant to rule. Ilar stole that from me. Then he stole the only woman I ever loved.” Lorinda inhaled sharply, but said nothing. “He needs to feel pain and then he needs to die. His sons, while good boys, must also go—except Wulf. He’s mine, isn’t he, Lorinda? Wulf is my son and heir.”

The man was bat-shit crazy.

Lorinda’s indignant gasp underlined just how delusional Tenar was. Her mother-kin fisted her hands on her lap. Her face, formerly pale, now blazed with anger. As the older woman moved to rise from the sofa, Bria grabbed her arm and held Lorinda back.

Tenar’s guards had raised their weapons and had Lorinda in their sights.

“I was a virgin when I mated with Ilar.” Lorinda snarled. “You are a liar. A traitor to our people. A murderer of innocent unborn children. And a defiler of our environment.”

Tenar’s eyes gleamed with a crazy light. “Ah, Lorinda, I am all of those things and more. And it was you who made me.”

Lorinda moaned and Bria hugged her mother-kin to her side and muttered under her breath, “He made himself. Don’t let him get to you.”

Mel snorted loudly. “Well, Bria, the crazy old coot just proved all your deductions were true.”

Tenar turned his demented, wrath-filled eyes away from the woman he professed to love and looked at Bria, then Mel. “Explain yourself, Melina.”

“Bria figured out you are behind the rebellion, the damage to the Prime women’s immune systems which in turn caused the lower birth rate, and the purveyor of misinformation about the
gemat-gemate
bond.”

Tenar grunted and bowed his head at Bria. “Very intelligent, aren’t you?”

Bria bowed her head. “And you are a sick fuck.” The man’s foul presence created a bad taste in her mouth. A soothing, minty sensation replaced the funk. Iolyn was with her, caring for her, providing what she needed to get through the ordeal.

Tenar waved his guards back as they moved in Bria’s direction. “Most likely.”

“You set out to destroy the Prime race because you wanted what your brother had,” Bria accused.

“Yes, I did. And I did a very good job, don’t you think?” Tenar laughed.

Bria didn’t answer, instead, stalling for time, she asked, “Joining the Galactic Alliance and Mel’s appearance were the catalysts to accelerate your revenge, weren’t they?”

Tenar clapped. “Very good, Doctor. Too bad I have to get rid of you.” He looked at Lorinda. “I would have treated you like a queen. Those boys should have been mine.”

“You,
apayebo.
” Lorinda spat out the word.

Bria squeezed Lorinda’s arm and her mother-kin quieted. “So, are you going to kill us?”

“No, no, never.” He rose from his chair and gestured toward the doorway in a come-hither motion. “Come in, gentlemen, and meet the merchandise.” He turned back to the three women. “I’ve sold you to these men. It’s very expensive running a rebellion, you know. Melina and Lorinda, they plan to use you most cruelly before selling you to a brothel on Mars. As for you, Brianna, one of them has chased clear across the galaxy to find you. He wants to keep you and use you in unspeakable ways, I’m sure.”

Tenar smiled, his expression twisted and lascivious.

“Jotak!” Bria inhaled sharply as the large Dornian entered with five other Dornians and another group of men. Two of the latter group looked familiar. For Iolyn’s benefit, Bria looked and pointed. “Holtsclaw and Joelo are the men who tried to kidnap me on Oz Space Port.”

They’re dead men.
Iolyn’s mental voice sounded as if he were chewing on titanium rivets.

“Yes…” Tenar replied. “They’re mercenaries in my employ. I knew if you started digging into the fertility issues on my planet, you’d find a cure. I couldn’t have you ruin my revenge, now could I?”

As Bria was about to ask Tenar to explain how he’d compromised the Prime women’s immune systems, she was cut off—

“There are supposed to be four women.” The merc leader, a rough-looking hominid, probably from Umbraxi solar system, stepped toward Tenar and snarled, “Where is the tall fair-hair you showed us? She would bring lots of money. Much more than these dark-hairs.”

“Yes, well, you’ll have to wait.” Tenar looked at his personal guards, who shook their heads. “My people are searching the mountains for her.”

“Then we wait. We aren’t leaving without the fair-hair,” the Umbraxian merc said, obviously the leader of the motley gang.

Jotak turned to glare at the merc leader. “I want to leave now. We can’t take the chance that a rescue might succeed. I must get Brianna away from here.”

“Dornian scum,” spat the mercenary. “My ship. My rules. We stay.”

Bria, there are caves under the house. They’re accessed through the basement.

Bria squeezed Lorinda’s hand and muttered “get ready to run.” She looked at Mel, who nodded and had a slight twist to her lips and a gleam in her eye. Wulf must’ve fed her the same information.

Their men weren’t close enough and the emotions in the room were getting ugly. Fast. If a fight broke out between the mercs and Jotak and his Dornian friends, the women had to get the hell out of there—or take the risk of getting killed in the crossfire.

Weapons. She needed a way to defend herself—and the others. She searched the room for some nice sharp blades she could grab on the way out and saw several in a display case against the far wall. Tenar really wasn’t all that smart. For good measure, she slipped a jewel-encrusted ceremonial knife from a side table into her pocket.
Really
not that smart.

Mel watched the arguing men closely. She stiffened, shot Bria a piercing glance, and mouthed, “Ready?”

Bria nodded and showed Mel the knife she’d acquired.

Mel lifted her hand and revealed a short battle-blade slid up her sleeve. Her sister-kin must have had it strapped to her leg under her dressy go-to-tea slacks.

The argument had escalated, and the war of words only needed a small spark to have it explode into a conflagration.

Iolyn’s tension had escalated about the same time Mel’s had. His “be ready” whispered through her mind.

A man in the uniform of Tenar’s private guards appeared at the open doorway. His eyes filled with fear. “Elder, the Alliance Military is at the front gate. Your brother is demanding to speak with his
gemate
and his daughter-kin.”

Jotak roared. “See? We should’ve left as soon as the women were taken.” Then he shoved the merc leader.

Crap.
Jotak was certifiable, poking a stick at a wild beast.

The merc leader charged Jotak and grabbed him by the throat. The two began to fight. The other mercs rushed the Dornians.

Tenar got out of the fighting men’s way and moved toward Bria, Mel, and Lorinda, his guards at his side. But Tenar and his men got caught up in the melee.

Bria, get out of there.

“Now,” Mel yelled and threw a glass globe at the head of the guard on Tenar’s left. The man staggered and clasped his head.

Bria threw the fancy knife at the guard on Tenar’s right, and the finely honed knick-knack lodged in his throat. Blood spurted with each rapid beat of his heart.

At the same time Bria had thrown the knife, she pulled Lorinda off the couch and urged her toward a side doorway which looked to lead to a back hallway.

As Bria hurried after Lorinda, she grabbed the knives she’d spotted earlier, stuffing them in her pockets, and grabbed a mid-length, ancient battle-blade off the wall by the door. Lorinda gathered likely weapons also, muttering under her breath, “Thank the One, Ilar taught me how to knife fight.”

Mel snickered at Lorinda’s words as she joined the two, and they exited into the hallway. “You two are bloodthirsty. I think you have more knives than there are bad guys.”

“You should talk.” Bria sniffed. Mel had just as many weapons as she had. “By the way, nice throw with the tchotchke.”

Mel grinned as if she were having a grand time. Her sister-kin was nuts.

“Children, are we going out or down?” Lorinda interrupted their byplay.

“Down to the escape tunnels,” Mel said. “Do you know the way?”

“Yes. When Tenar, the
bak
, courted me. He gave me a tour.” Lorinda’s smile was venomous. “Probably the only thing I’ll ever be grateful to him for. Go left at the next hallway.”

“Is anyone following us?” Bria asked as she jogged to keep up with Mel while at the same time keeping Lorinda between them. She didn’t want to slow down to look back.

“Not yet,” Mel said. “They’re fighting—but that won’t last long enough.”

Lorinda shoved open a door and descended steps illuminated by lights along the stairwell. “
Diew
.” She panted as she took the steps faster than Bria thought was safe for the older woman. “He did all this because I marked with Ilar. I can’t believe it. I told the
bak
I loved Ilar. I loved Ilar even before we marked.”