Shades of Gray (72 page)

“Yes, but I value their Warrior skills more. There may be some among the Ch’almuthians. I intend to recruit from them as well since stopping the M’zullians is in their interests too.”

“Indeed.”

“As for training them, we can access their own teachers, and Conner.”

“They’re pacifists, and Conner is a priest,” Kezule objected.

“A priest with the lives of many warriors in his mind,” corrected Kusac. “If anyone can teach them how to use their abilities deviously, he can.”

“Then,” said Kezule, leaning forward to stub the remains of his cigar in the ashtray, “let’s go talk to him and the Ch’almuthian leader now.”

 

Giyarishis had no sooner learned that Kusac was beginning to piece together their manipulation of Kezule, and their network for Unity on Kij’ik and in the Palace than he sent a private call to Annuur, humming and chirping in utter terror.

“What do I say to him?” he wailed. “They raised violent hands to Kzizysus on their world, the same will be done to me!”

“You lose yourself,” said Annuur. “I send you home for rest. Join your Skepp and have long baths, good food, until I call for you. I shall deal with the Hunter.”

“Yes, Phratry Lord,” said Giyarishis, his instant relief evident in the mellowing tone of his humming.

“Send others home too,” Annuur ordered. “I will have them disassemble the Unity network on Kij’ik so nothing is found if they look. Now go.”

He’d just finished when Tirak stood framed in the entrance to the aircar.

“Annuur, we need to take the
Watcher
out tonight. Orders.”

“Out of question,” snapped Annuur.

“Orders, Annuur.”

“Mine take precedence.” Annuur shouldered his way past him out into the open air.

“What are you talking about?” demanded Tirak, following him. “You can’t have orders that don’t concern me!”

Annuur stopped dead, turning and rearing up on his haunches. “You forget I leader on my own world. For them, I act too, follow orders. You want to take to your Ghost to Kij’ik, put him on shuttle, go take him there, let him sneak off in landing bay.”

Tirak’s jaw fell open as he looked at the Cabbaran in shock.

“What? Think we not notice extra weight on trip here? Not sense an extra mind?” Annuur wrinkled his nose at Tirak, amused, briefly, at the other’s shock. “Do what you must this time. Not involve us in future. Do not do this again, Tirak. Violates our Family contracts.”

He dropped back onto all fours and headed for the city’s sally port at an easy lope.

“Dammit, you’d make Kathan himself pull out his beard!” Tirak called after the other’s departing figure.

 

“What kind of trouble?” M’kou demanded of the messenger after excusing himself from the King and Rhyaz. “There aren’t any civilians on Kij’ik now.”

“People have seen a shadowy figure walking the corridors,” said the youth. “They say it’s as if he’s lost.”

“A shadowy figure?”

“That’s what they told me.”

“How shadowy?”

“Um . . . they say he was almost transparent when he was first seen last night, but now he looks more . . . solid.”

“It’s their imagination,” M’kou said, beginning to catch up to the King again. “They still brewing that homemade Ch’almuthian rotgut up there?”

“I have no idea, sir. There’s something else you should know.”

M’kou stopped again. “What?” he asked impatiently.

“It’s a Sholan.”

M’kou stared at him. “A Sholan?”

“Yes. We all know that there are none up on Kij’ik, but . . .”

“Thank you. Tell them I will deal with it, and meanwhile they are to ignore him.”

“Yes, sir, but ...”

“That will be all!” M’kou spun around and headed back the way he’d come.

He remembered a shadowy figure that he and Zayshul had almost seen when watching Shaidan. It had picked the child up and shaken him, moments before Kusac had briefly died on Kij’ik. What had the child called it? Vartra.

“ZSADHI, where’s Captain Aldatan?”

“In the Temple with General Kezule, talking to the Human Brotherhood priest, Conner.”

 

“Did you show him the vision?” Conner asked Kusac.

“I didn’t need to. Attacking us in an attempt to destroy the Throne of Light is exactly what K’hedduk would do.”

“What vision?” asked Kezule, frowning.

“The one of the City and Palace being destroyed,” said Conner.

“I don’t believe in . . .” the General began, but Kusac cut him short, briefly outlining his idea of replicating some of the actions of the First enhanced Sholan telepaths to the Brother.

“Do we have any telepaths capable of doing this on K’oish’ik, either Primes or Ch’almuthians?” he asked when he’d finished. “The First were not Warriors. Even being near violence made them experience the victim’s pain and crippled them with intense nausea.”

Conner sat down on one of the seats that had been reclaimed from storage and scratched at his beard thoughtfully. “I’m sure there are,” he said. “Are you asking me to locate some? Whether or not they’d be willing to help us is another matter.”

Kusac looked at Kezule, who nodded.

“Yes, I’m asking you to locate them for us,” said the General.

“Could you give them extra training?” asked Kusac.

“I don’t know what your Firsts did,” said Conner. “I’ll help in any way I can, of course.”

“We have one of the Firsts with us.”

“You have?” Conner and Kezule said simultaneously.

“Two of them were trapped in a stasis device here,” said Kusac. “It’s a long story, but we ended up rescuing them on another world.”

“Who?” asked Kezule.

“Rezac,” said Kusac, sending to Carrie and asking her to bring him to the Temple. “Kezule, Conner, his identity
must
remain secret.”

Moments later, Rezac, accompanied by Carrie and Kaid, entered.

“So you’re one of those who brought about the Fall,” said Kezule, looking Rezac up and down. “I remember your kind well. I had one, if you remember, Kusac. We held you in contempt because you were so weak. Apparently you were stronger than any of us.”

Rezac froze, then he shrugged, mouth widening in a smile as his hands moved nonchalantly to rest on his knife and gun. “It was different back then.”

You better have a damned good reason for telling them,
sent Rezac, his thoughts dark with anger.

How could you tell Kezule who is he is?
demanded Carrie.

“Peace, Carrie,” said Kusac, reaching out to draw her to his side. “Trust me, Rezac, there’s no need for violence. We need help that only you, as one of the First, can give. And Kezule, don’t taunt him, please.”

“Play nicely, children,” murmured Conner. “We fight a common enemy today.”

Was this wise?
asked Kaid.

Vital,
Kusac replied shortly.

“Please, sit,” said Kezule, moving to take a pew seat himself. “Conner’s right: We’re not enemies.”

Rezac sat, but warily, Kaid beside him.

“What you want to know?” he asked.

“How did you manage to infiltrate the fleet and military commands?” Kezule asked.

“That was the easy part. Your Emperor ordered that we be captured on Shola and brought to his Court. He thought we made good pets and gave us as rewards to his favored Admirals and Generals, as well as to the Planetary Governors. The fact that we were telepathic made us valuable. We could be used to spy on their enemies and rivals, but you know that because you had a pet telepath spy yourself.” There was barely suppressed venom in his tone as he said that.

“I’m not the person I was then, Rezac,” said Kezule, his tone cool. “I had no choice in the matter: He was appointed to me by the Emperor. You didn’t refuse anything given to you by him and live. I only know you were considered dangerous, despite your inability to fight. Incidentally, how did that change?”

“The Talent didn’t breed as strongly to future generations,” said Kaid. “Plus, there was a virus that infected us all, allowing us to fight.”

“Carry on,” gestured Kezule.

“We influenced the Emperor to see us as desirable status symbols,” said Rezac. “After that, they stopped killing us and just rounded us up instead, shipping us out here. We let ourselves be caught.”

Kezule raised an eye ridge. “You impress me. Unable to defend yourselves, you voluntarily became slaves?”

Rezac nodded. “It was a suicide mission, we knew that. I think Zashou and I were the only survivors, and that was an accident. We did leave children and the more frail of our numbers on Shola to ensure the next generation, of course.”

“I thought nothing else I could learn about the Sholans could surprise me,” Kezule said. “You, however, have just done so.”

Rezac and Kaid exchanged glances.

“Could we repeat your plan on M’zull?” Kusac asked Rezac. “Using Primes or Ch’almuthians instead of ourselves?”

“I’ve no idea,” said Rezac. “We became a visible status symbol, as I said, because we looked so different and because of our Talent. As I understand it, only your females are telepaths, General, and M’zull keeps the females incarcerated in harems, as your people did.”

“You’ll not be able to work on K’hedduk’s mind as you did on Q’emgo’h’s,” said Kezule, frowning. “When I was taken to his research facility, I saw what he’d done to his Sholan captives, and they were telepaths. It was beneath contempt. If you’re caught, you won’t meet a pretty end. You’ll be lucky if you can commit suicide. Those I saw weren’t able to.”

“You want telepaths placed in the Fleet, with Generals in their homes, and in the Palace?” asked Kaid.

“If we can,” said Kusac.

“Then you need to recruit the wives, assuming they are sentient.”

“I had thought it might be easier if we made their husbands jealous, made them see K’hedduk as wanting their wives for himself,” said Kusac. “Likely all their wives are from Ch’almuth anyway.”

“That could work,” agreed Rezac. “If they are telepaths. You need to infiltrate the homes and harems first, though. That would take time, and we don’t have a lot of that.”

“If we could place a small group of guerrillas on M’zull,” said Kusac, “one that included drone look-alikes who could find places in the homes and harems as servants, then they could start influencing the minds of the husbands and could recruit those telepathic wives we could find to help us.”

“There are only a few people with the experience to do that,” said Carrie, “and they’re all Sholan.”

“There may be a solution to that,” said Kusac hesitantly.

“No, no, no!” said Carrie, pulling free of his hold and turning to face him angrily. “I’m not losing you again so quickly! Don’t you
dare
plan to remain on M’zull!”

“That would indeed be suicidal,” said Kezule. “There’d be nowhere safe for you, nowhere you could hide. I couldn’t allow that, nor would King Zsurtul.”

“It isn’t going to happen,” said Kaid firmly. “This idea hinges on the availability of drones who are telepaths. They just don’t exist.”

“I know, but if I can show our people how to create the illusion of being a drone, we could succeed.”

“It took both of us to do that on Keiss, Kusac! And the disguises slipped if we had to defend ourselves. This is far too dangerous to even attempt!”

“You know my abilities are enhanced now. If a small group of us remained hidden and powered the others’ illusions, it could be done,” he argued. “I’m not trying to minimize the danger,” he said hurriedly holding up a hand in negation, “but it is possible.”

“Not even I would attempt that, Kusac,” said Conner, “and I have access to more power than you can imagine.”

“What’s this talk of illusions anyway?” asked Kezule. “How can you create an illusion of being something other than you are? Surely that would take some advanced technology.”

“Yes!” said Carrie, enthusiastically, turning to Kezule and leaning down to grasp him by the arm. “Maybe the Touibans can construct some kind of chameleon suit your commandos and some Ch’almuthians could wear! That would be far more sensible than you, Kusac, taking a group of Sholans and others and trying to hold an illusion.”

“When we were on Keiss, we had to infiltrate the main Valtegan base and send out a rescue message to the
Khalossa
,” Kusac explained to Kezule. “Carrie and I discovered we could create the illusion of me appearing Valtegan and so get into the base.”

“Was Carrie also Valtegan?” asked Kezule, obviously intrigued.

“No, my twin sister worked in their recreation Center,” said Carrie shortly. “I pretended I was her. And Kusac, as a Valtegan soldier, was escorting me to one of the officer’s quarters.”

“You two are just full of ingenious ideas, aren’t you?” said Kezule with a slight smile. “I’d like to see this illusion you’re talking about.”

“No, Kusac,” said Carrie, firmly. “Kezule, no matter what you see, it isn’t an option. It took both of us just to disguise Kusac, and we are a Leska pair, at least four times stronger than two single telepaths. It takes far too much energy, makes us weak very quickly, and can’t be sustained for long. And the minute we were attacked, Kusac was exposed for what he really is, a Sholan. We don’t know if anybody but Kusac and I can even do it!”

“It might be worth finding out, just for the sake of it. One never knows if it could come in useful one day,” said Kezule.

“I’ll show you,” said Kusac, moving a few paces back from everyone. “Don’t any of you help me by giving me any extra energy. I need to try to do it alone.”

“I don’t think the cubs should see this,” murmured Kaid, turning to look at the door as he sensed the youngsters approaching with Kitra. “It might frighten them or, worse, give them ideas.” He signaled to her to leave.

As he began to slow his breathing, Kusac could sense that even Kaid was intrigued. Remembering what Conner had said about drawing energy from the very earth itself, mentally, he reached down through the soles of his feet, searching for it in the flagged stones of the temple floor. He found it and felt it suddenly surge through him, making his pelt and hair rise about him where his clothing did not hold it down.