Shadow Over Avalon (34 page)

“A collection of cells, altering daily—too small to scan for identity without risking damage. I could’ve forced entry into Sanctuary. I didn’t because I knew how futile such a gesture was, given that we didn’t know the father. How would we know if seers managed to create siblings for Shadow? Her father is an unknown Submariner, and yet I’ll bet they know who he is. She did what was necessary. That child will never bend to their wishes.”

“I didn’t know. She never said.”

“Shadow doesn’t discuss Boy. Not ever. The hurt goes too deep. Tell me again how inhuman a cyborg is, and I’ll ram your teeth down your throat!” His mouth set in a thin line of fury, Ector marched out without a backward glance.

Shadow blanked off the screen, shaking. He told.
How could he?
The service shaft signaled its need to be emptied of edibles, which she ignored. A console direct interface snaked up to her head despite her having no port to give linkage. It battered against her cheeks until she grabbed the umbilicus, furious at the intrusion. The Archive seeped into her mind, impervious to her instant attempt to block it.

He needed to know, Shadow.

“No, he didn’t. A cruel and unnecessary act.”

Copper couldn’t see the individual past the implants. Now he understands humanity exists beyond alteration. You were willing to die for this alliance. Why complain at a lesser sacrifice?

“Death is an end. This must be endured.”

Are you so certain of this fact? Outline experiences of death.

“Point conceded. So what?”

Copper is part of my plan. He is currently trying to disassemble the console in his unit in an attempt to escape. I estimate his survival prospects at zero, should he manage to remove the top panel.

“He can sense danger.”

From inanimate objects?
The tone sounded smug.

Fear lent wings to her feet. She flew down those corridors separating her from Copper. He was just about to lift the panel when she burst in.

“Don’t!”

“So Ector was right,” he said, moving away from the console. He sank into an easy chair to watch while Shadow repaired the result of his interference.

“Why?” she asked.

“It brought you running, and we need an understanding.”

“Was there some small detail Ector missed?” Shadow asked, snidely enough to bring the Outcast to his feet.

“Errors in judgment occurred on both sides. Now that the air is cleared, we should begin afresh as comrades,” Copper said in as near an apology as Shadow had ever heard from him. He got up, moving over to face her. “I am making that an order.”

“I am under Ector’s orders,” Shadow began, startled when Copper grabbed her arm to force her banded wrist into full view.

“As long as you wear this judgment, you are mine—my subject, my sister, part of my army. Haven is our place of freedom, not Avalon. Only Haven is safe for the likes of us.”

“Avalon is, too.” She pried his fingers from her wrist.

“Really? Seers stole your son. Seers would take me if I ventured out. Shades have no more freedom than fort dwellers. This society is as rotten as the one that discarded us, so what are we going to do about it?”

“Avalon fights Harvesters.” Shadow eased away to read his expression. His face wore a controlled, lazy anger.

“We’ll fight with them for as long as it suits us. Should the common enemy be defeated, we’ll see. I’ll not replace one set of masters for another.” He pulled her to him and put a finger to her lips. “Oh, I know Ector and his like don’t intend dominion. Is that true of seers? Can our fey brothers avoid their slimy clutches in the aftermath?”

Not possible, since seers had their own concerns. Trusting them was the same as walking into a blanket bog during fall, blindly trusting vortai weren’t particularly hungry that day.

“See?” he insisted. “I’ll fight this war because it serves Brethren. I’ll make alliance for the duration, but I want the right to live as I see fit afterward. Are you with me, or still perched on that branch wondering which way to jump?”

“No seers on land. I’ll side with your camp.”

“That’s
my
Queen speaking. Now we can start afresh. No more hiding or pretending between us, agreed?”

“Agreed.”

“Say why you withheld truth?” he said.

“I wear the band, yet I am not as you. I scan thoughts, though I possess no Shade scales. I have an arm that is not. What is my place? To whom do I belong? There is only one like me in all creation: my lost son. What is wrong with wanting to be accepted as normal, knowing disclosure will result in rejection?”

“What’s wrong? I have never fainted in my life before. That is what was wrong. Yes, I had a problem accepting and forgiving. Shadow, you are mine. I staked the first claim in Menhill, and you wear the mark of Brethren on the inside. Shades will never fight to the death as we do, since they have much to lose. Brethren have nothing, even if we win. Will forts ever accept us back into the fold? No. We have only this moment to savor. Our past and future have no meaning. This is why you wear the mantle of full sister.”

“Truly?” Shadow wasn’t quite ready to believe his assurance until he embraced her, holding her to him as he had once before, with kindness.

“Now tell me what I can reasonably demand in barter from these people.”

The chronometer on the console said one hour had gone while he lived Shadow’s reality. For a moment he contemplated continuing. Backing away hurt as much as a kick in the guts, but he kept thinking about Shadow’s lost son.

How could seers keep such an individual secret? The boy had to stand out from the rest of the Submariners by simple virtue of the pink skin of his parentage. Was there some part of Sanctuary that housed a lonely prisoner? Could the boy be dead? Arthur wanted answers. He sent a mental command to resume playback.

*

Earth Date 3874

After a charged policy meeting, Ector cornered Copper on the way back to his room. Although Shadow had excused herself from attending to check on Helga, the extent of her switch to Copper’s side created big problems.

Ector faced down the Outcast, ready to fight. “Well, barbarian, how did you manage to turn a logical, functioning member of Elite Corps against us?”

“Opened her eyes to who she is. I provided insight, nothing more. Shadow made her own decisions.”

“Insights to poison her mind against us.” Ector’s hands itched to hold a weapon, or to close around Copper’s arrogant neck.

“I gave her an opportunity to compare. Was that so wrong? She has the right to judge those with whom she has contact, even me.”

Ector pulled up short. Some of his anger died as he regarded the man before him. An incredible possibility occurred to him. “I thought Brethren were all assassins, incapable of gentle feelings. If you allowed Shadow to judge you . . . How many others have such courage of perception?”

“All of us, to a greater or lesser degree. So what?” Copper’s face wore skepticism and surprise. He crushed a roach underfoot as if to hide this sudden lapse.

Ector reached out to grip Copper’s shoulder. “There is in you a precise, cutting logic. Forget Shadow for a minute, this is important. How many other Brethren are capable of reasoned decisions for the greater good? Think, man.”

“Everyone. We function as individuals, or a collective.” Copper turned to leave in the direction of his room. “How could it be otherwise with such as us?”

“I don’t believe anyone has bothered to show you the ‘marvels’, as Shadow would say, of Avalon from a high perspective. Would you like a look?” Ector offered a lie couched in the form of a peace overture, a fact he thought Copper recognized, but did the Outcast appreciate the ruse to get them out from surveillance?

Copper’s face settled in lines of polite interest. “That would be interesting.” He made all the appropriate comments on the way up to the roof, an awed spectator to the wonders of technology beyond his comprehension. Once there, Ector ignored the view, cutting straight to the point.

“Could any Brethren act in your place?”

Copper sat down, selecting the duct of an air purifier for a backrest. “Our leader comes from among fey brothers.” He focused on the plasglass dome dividing Avalon from the sea.

“Who decides policy?” Ector squatted in front of him.

“Me, with input from all concerned. I can’t lead without general support.” Copper dragged his eyes from the blue light to regard Ector.

“What happens to dissenters?”

“Their opinions are carefully weighed in council.” Copper’s brows snapped together. “Each objection is thoroughly investigated before any policy becomes general. Sometimes the concerns of an individual are more important, based on personal experience in the area in question.”

“You command a force comprised of freethinkers able to rise above mundane orders to function as independent warriors.” Astounded by the implications, Ector sat down on an air intake pipe near Copper. “Each fighting unit can work alone or in unison with his fellows. That doesn’t happen in the surface armies. They’re mindless weapons directed at a perceived aggressor. If I had a group of freethinkers on the loose, I would try to ensure there was no way they could link up. I would want to isolate this dangerous force from my easy targets so that they would be permanently separated. Given mind control, this wouldn’t be a problem. I could arrange for each potentially dangerous individual to perpetrate some crime, putting him or her outside the considerations of my easy targets. The plan would be so sublime that I wouldn’t have to worry about detection from my victims, or their families. My main threat would be minus fangs and claws, any objectors silenced by due process of law. Am I hitting the target?”

“Harvesters.” Copper’s face now held the stillness of purpose that Ector recognized as killing mode.

“Precisely. Shadow told me about your re-banding.” He had to get through to this warrior before rage destroyed the opportunity. “Just out of curiosity, what sort of a fort king would you have made?”

“About average, I suppose, unless . . . no, I would have challenged them in some way, or made life difficult for their priests.” Copper looked shaken by the revelation forced on him.

“I’d be interested to learn how many other Brethren were in a position for direct confrontation before their status change.” The implications staggered Ector. Submit to herd mentality or suffer extinction.

“The results will come your way.” The Outcast looked at Sanctuary’s twin towers, standing darkened as a reminder to all those condemned to the perpetual daytime of Avalon.

“Shadow will be our link on this subject.” Ector followed his view, pushing down a shudder of distaste at memories of years in that place. “She has the strength to hide her data from general circulation. It will not help our cause for these facts to become known.”

“Seers unman Submariners,” Copper suggested, one side of his mouth rising in a mocking smile.

“Those of us who object are many, but few of us have the strength needed to fight. If it weren’t for this war, they wouldn’t have the stranglehold they do. Seers grab every talent at an early age. Once they have possession—”

“Shadow’s Boy.” Copper made it into a statement rather than a question. He looked at Sanctuary again. “Why doesn’t the child stand out from others? From what I have seen, all Shades have the silver-toned skin scales.”

“Boy is an unknown quantity. We know his psi rating is extraordinary, or Shadow couldn’t have been blocked.” Ector wondered where the seers hid the child. All newborns resembled Terrans for the first few weeks, but after that, the mutation appeared. “I have access to Sanctuary, not that I’ve tried to penetrate their crèche yet. With a heritage three parts Terran, hiding him will be difficult. If they subvert him, it will be his wish as much as theirs. I don’t think that will happen,” Ector said, looking up. “What do you know of the sire?”

“Dragon could easily be one of us.” Copper smiled that slow Brethren smile Ector recognized from Shadow. “He had a hard passage to keep his duchy. Maybe that’s why he has a sense of kinship with Outcasts. No other fort welcomes Brethren. No other ruler treats us as people. He is within a heartbeat of being as good a fighter as I was.”

Ector looked up, catching the past tense. His eyes ranged over the lean Outcast, looking for obvious wounds. “How is he likely to react to Shadow?”

“Not well. He’ll try to claim her.” Copper’s hands clenched. “I kept them apart at High Fort, but it was a close run thing. He knows she lives, or lived. He thinks she died escaping. Now he blames us, and I had plans for Tadgell.”

“That’s the fort you intended to overrun?”

“Yes, it was. Now I’ll need to start over in hostile territory.”

Ector caught a trace of irritation from the Outcast. “A good fort to choose, but too near other forts to retain acquisition. My target fort was more isolated.”

Copper shifted position to lie back. “Point taken. Where was your target—Grimes?”

“Yes, and equally ruined by Shadow’s involvement. The area is under constant patrol by sky ships. We’ve checked.”