Shades of Gray (69 page)

“An Emperor can only be legitimately crowned here, on the Throne of Light, can’t he?” asked Carrie.

“Yes.”

“To destroy the Throne, the Palace, and everyone in it,” said T’Chebbi as she started up the aircar and took off, heading over the City walls toward the Palace.

“That’s what I was afraid of. Plan for both contingencies and we’ll discuss it at the meeting.”

“Rhyaz is here. He arrived late last night,” said Kaid.

“Is he? I have a bone to pick with him.”

“Not in public, Kusac,” warned Carrie. “Believe me, Kaid and I had a good set-to with him. If I remember right, Kaid threw him over a chair!”

“You did?” Kusac looked at their Third in surprise.

“Yeah,” said Kaid, flicking his ears. “Made me mad to realize what a fool I’d been to believe you meant the things you said.”

“Water under the bridge now,” said Kusac quietly, grasping his friend by the shoulder.

“Looks like we’ve got some packing and moving to do, T’Chebbi,” said Carrie. “My stuff in with Kusac and yours in with Kaid.”

“I need to speak to Zayshul—and Kezule—about that,” Kusac muttered, sure it was not going to be a pleasant experience for him despite the good news.

T’Chebbi landed in the lower courtyard and they got out, leaving the aircar in the charge of one of the guards.

“The scent marker is gone now, I take it?” asked Carrie, cocking her head to one side and raising an eyebrow at him as they walked toward the Palace entrance.

“Completely. I turned it off some time ago. I only left the scent there to keep whoever caused it from knowing what I was capable of doing.” He hesitated.
I’m sorry I had to lie to you about it, Carrie. I honestly thought it would protect you if I kept my distance.

“Good,” was all she said.

“You do know you’ll have to share the bed with me and Shaidan a couple of nights a week?” he said, a slight grin on his face.

“Only for a short time, until he gets used to us living together,” she replied. “Then, when he feels secure, we help him set up his own room in the suite.”

Kusac nodded his agreement. “I’ll leave you and T’Chebbi to your moving for now. Conner’s back in the Temple, and I need to see him. Zayshul is busy at the market with her daughter, so I’ll catch her later.”

Carrie stopped and reached up to pull his face down to kiss him. “I’ll see you later, then.”

He caressed her face, reluctant to let her out of his sight now that they were one again. “I’ll pick Shaidan up this evening and order dinner in our suite,” he said. “See you later, cub.” For some reason, it gave him an enormous amount of pleasure to say
our
suite, and he felt her agreement.

 

Conner was in the Temple teaching his group of young male and female acolytes how to cleanse the altar and the small statue of their Goddess. He dismissed them as he saw Kusac walking down the main aisle toward him. As they passed him, each one bowed and murmured a greeting.

“You came,” said Conner, smiling and walking toward him. “And there is a difference in you today. You feel more whole.”

“I have my Leska back,” Kusac said, unable to keep the smile off his face. “I’m no longer lacking the other half of me.”

“This is great news! Come, we’ll talk in my office.” Conner led him back toward the altar and the door off to one side. “You were taken to the Realms, weren’t you? Met one or more of the Entities? That’s why you asked me about people as swords.”

Kusac waited as Conner opened the door, then followed him inside.

The room was medium sized, square in shape, and lit by a series of small windows high up near the ceiling. He frowned, trying to remember the geography of the Palace—he didn’t think there was enough room between the rear of the Temple and the next building for bright sunlight to reach them.

“Mirrors,” said Conner, gesturing him to a chair as he took another himself. “This is one of the oldest parts of the Palace. Originally they were polished sheets of metal, of course.”

“Clever.”

The walls looked, and smelled, freshly painted. The King and a procession of various craftspeople followed a trio of priestesses around the room to where their Goddess of Fertility, La’shol, sat enthroned.

“A vast improvement, isn’t it?” smiled Conner. “The choice was theirs, of course. But tell me about your vision, or visit, to the Realms.”

Kusac told him what he’d experienced, ending with, “As L’Shoh beat the blade, I felt every blow, not as a great physical pain, but as if he were forging me.”

“He was,” said Conner thoughtfully. “Not your body, but your soul. What did he say again?”

“The forging was done, and you would finish the making of the sword.”

“I thought there was more I had to do here,” he nodded. “You’ve already acquired great power, Kusac, more than any mortal Sholan has ever had. You need to learn to temper that power. Use it seldom and wisely.”

“What’s the point of it if I use it seldom?”

“It’s for those times when nothing else will suffice. You do realize how rare it is to see L’Shoh, don’t you? He’s chosen you to be His instrument of Justice in the coming war.”

“Hmm.” He wasn’t sure he considered it an honor.

“What would you do? Go from world to world and destroy what didn’t meet your criteria of just, fair, and civilized?” asked Conner.

“Gods, no!” he exclaimed. “I hope to return to my home and Clan as soon as the M’zullian issue is cleared up.”

“It’s going to take longer than you think.”

He growled gently. “If it were up to me, once Zhalmo has been rescued, I’d destroy M’zull!”

“What about the innocent M’zullians—the children, drones, and females?”

“There are no innocents,” he said flatly.

“You don’t know that,” said Conner gently, leaning forward. “On my world they say you can’t know a person until you’ve walked a mile in his shoes or been inside her head. You need to understand what it is to be a Prime, a M’zullian, a Touiban.”

“I can find out what I need in a moment!” This was beginning to irritate him.

“No, you can’t,” said Conner. “Do you remember using skill transfers? You learned the skill, but you still had to practice it to know how to use it.”

“I remember,” he admitted. “But what has this . . .”

“To do with being the epitome of Justice? You have to learn to look at both sides, to make decisions without prejudice, to be ruthless or compassionate as the moment demands, and to understand the natures of the people with whom you deal. There are many species here. Go out and learn to walk in their shoes, be a passive Traveler, then take over for an hour or so and
be
them. You’ve only ever done this as a lesson in your Guild or to get information, not to understand them as people.”

There was some sense in what he said. “Very well, I’ll do that. But Conner, I don’t want to be an arbiter of Justice!”

“You have no choice, I’m afraid, Kusac. All you’ve become since you met Carrie has led you to this point in time. Incidents will happen, and people will look to you to make decisions—as you did when you violently weeded out K’hedduk’s agents.”

“There needed to be a swift punishment,” he said.

Conner held up his hand. “No need to be defensive, Kusac. Distasteful as it was, you were right.”

“Have you ever sensed something here trying to affect your mind?” he asked, abruptly switching the topic. He didn’t want to remember that unexpected coldness with which he he’d treated the prisoners.

“Indeed I have. It had no effect on me and eventually stopped. Why? Have you felt it too?”

“Many times, here and on Kij’ik. Why didn’t you tell me? What, or who, is causing it?” He was annoyed with Conner for keeping silent about this.

“You didn’t ask me,” said Conner, reasonably. “I was unaware anyone else felt it. I think you’ll find it has ceased since you became aware of it.”

“I want to know who’s behind it. They tried to make me let Zsurtul die, they forced me apart from my Triad!”

“That isn’t your task right now, Kusac. You have Zhalmo to rescue. She and Zsurtul will found a dynasty that will bring peace to all the Valtegans by blending them into one people again. You are pivotal in making this happen. I will monitor this seditious presence, set traps for it should it return, and keep you informed when the time is right.”

“What can you do against it that I couldn’t? It kept making me forget what I’ve learned about it!” He was getting really annoyed now. The safety of his own family was as important to him as rescuing Zhalmo.

Conner smiled gently. “You forget who I am,” he said, raising his hand and plunging the room, briefly, into utter darkness.

Kusac felt power flowing from the stones of the floor to Conner, and he shivered as the darkness faded.

“It’s a perfectly natural use of the Earth’s energy,” said Conner. “Come to think of it, I need to teach you that too. However, go Traveling for now and come back in a few days to let me know what you’ve learned; then I’ll teach you how to garner more energy from natural sources.”

“We’re going to be extremely busy, Conner,” said Kusac, standing up. “I’ll do what I can when I can. I am taking your advice and telling Kezule to arm the weather station and to not only get the Palace force field up, but also see what we can do to protect the whole City and the village outside.”

“That’s excellent news,” said Conner with a smile. “Perhaps Llew will let me rest easy now.”

“I welcome the day when we all can,” said Kusac dryly.

“Leave the other matter to me, as I said. I will keep a watch on your family with you. There’s no point in rushing in, swords and guns flying, until you have all the facts. Besides, it might just be of some use to us.”

“Very well, we’ll do it your way, but if it threatens my family ...”

“That goes without saying,” said Conner, rising. “I believe we have a banquet tonight for Rhyaz and his Leska, Alex.”

“Quite likely. I’ve called a Council meeting for this afternoon, I’ll find out then.” Kusac stopped, listening to ZSA-DHI’S voice in his small ear-receiver.

“General Kezule requests your presence in the Council chamber, Captain.”

“On my way, ZSADHI. Conner, thank you again,” he said, turning and leaving.

 

Heading left outside the Temple, he took the covered walkway between several office blocks, turning left again in front of the Utilities building. As soon as he turned into that section, he saw that several of the lights were out and sensed someone hiding in the shadows. His hackles began to rise, and as his hand reached for the knife at his left side, he stepped into a pool of darkness against the far wall. The junction ahead, by his turn for the elevator, was in total darkness.

He hooded his eyes, trying to prevent the light ahead from causing them to shine. Common sense would have been to back off and send to Kaid for reinforcements, but someone had gone to a lot of trouble to set up this trap, which made it very personal.

Like a shadow, he inched slowly forward, ears pricked for the slightest sound. His enhanced senses could smell the sharp scent of anticipation from the Sholan out of sight around the corner, and his ears picked up the tiniest movements as his would-be attacker shifted his weight impatiently.

Reaching for his assailant’s mind, Kusac found it a turmoil of emotions—lust for the kill, and revenge soon to be accomplished: killing this one would make Kaid suffer more—then the thoughts stopped, the mind becoming still as he sensed Kusac’s presence.

Suddenly Kusac’s foot touched a pebble, making it rattle against the cobblestone pathway. He felt the air move and knew a knife was spinning toward him. Just in time, he dove low for the other side of the narrow passageway, using the wall to bounce off and to propel himself in a forward roll that sent him crashing into the legs of the assassin.

They both leaped to their feet at the same time, facing off with knives drawn.

“Come on, then, mind reader,” sneered the other. “Kaid taught you, did he? We were always better than him. You’re dead meat!”

Each sentence was punctuated by a slash of the knife as his attacker lunged forward.

Kusac backed away, keeping his guard up, and reached for the other’s mind again, this time in an effort to control it; but it was filled with roiling hate and anger—there was nothing sane there to control.

So hard was he concentrating that he didn’t sense the cut that came too close, slicing his forearm. The sting of pain banished any desire but to stay alive. The lack of sanity made his attacker doubly dangerous, and despite the army uniform he wore, Kusac knew he was fighting a seasoned Brotherhood Warrior.

Again, he backed off hurriedly, into one of the better-lit areas, letting his attacker think he had the advantage. He faked a stumble, drawing him nearer so he could reach out and grasp his opponent’s knife hand, using his strength to pull him in close before slamming his own knife up under his chin. They stood locked like that for a moment, then Kusac wrenched his knife free and allowed the other to fall, dead, to the ground.

Wincing in pain as he bent down to wipe his blade on the assassin’s tunic, he realized he’d taken another cut along his right side, one that had sliced through his jacket.

He quickly searched the body, finding nothing except a few coins in the pockets. He retrieved the knife, but it wasn’t a Brotherhood one. No way to trace the owner of that blade.

“ZSADHI, is Raiban in the Council chamber?” he demanded. The slice to his side was beginning to burn and hurt almost as much as his forearm did.

“Yes, Captain.”

“Good,” he muttered, cursing at the pain again as he picked up the corpse and slung it clumsily over his good shoulder.

 

He exited the elevator, ignoring the flustered security guards who trailed after him as he limped painfully to the Council chamber. Flinging the door open, he headed straight for Raiban and dumped the still bleeding corpse in front of her as they all leaped to their feet with exclamations of shock.