The Vulpirans' Honor: The Soul-Linked Saga (40 page)

“How’s Adori?” Lance asked Doc.

“She’s going to be fine,” Doc said.  “She has a few bruises, and Jareth has healed
her head injury.  She’s in shock now, though.  I want to take her to the clinic, sedate
her and put her to bed.”

“Please, Doc, take her to our home,” Rob said.  “She’ll be more comfortable there,
and we’ve extra heavy guards on the house.”

“Good idea,” Doc said.  A few moments later, after promising to return quickly, Rob,
Val, and Trey flashed out of the kitchen along with Doc, Adori and Jareth.  The kitchen
seemed empty all of a sudden with just them and Garen.

“Honey, let’s get up off the floor,” Vikter said, holding a hand out to her.  She
nodded and took it.  Once she was on her feet he led her to a stool at the counter
and lifted her onto it.

“Do you need anything?” he asked.  She shook her head. 

Merrick, Jerri and Tor appeared with a sleepy-eyed, but fully dressed, Michael.

“What’s going on, Honey?” he demanded as soon as he saw her sitting at the counter. 
“These guys refused to tell me anything.”

“Who is Shari, Michael?” Honey asked, pleased at how calm she sounded.

Michael’s face went white, then gray and he wavered slightly on his feet.  Merrick
reached out to support him, then led him to another stool on the opposite side of
the counter from Honey.

“Where did you get that name?” he asked in a hoarse whisper.  Honey slid the note
across the counter to him.  He read it without touching it, but they all saw the expression
of fear take the place of shock.

“She has Nica?” he demanded.

“She does,” Vikter replied.  “She killed Nica’s nanny, assaulted our housekeeper,
and left this note inside of this.”  Vikter placed the satin purse on the counter,
surprising Michael further.  He reached out with one hand as though to touch the purse,
then pulled it back.

“Talk, Michael,” Honey said.  “We need to know what is going on and we need to know
now.  Nica’s life is at stake.”

Michael nodded, opened his mouth, swallowed and tried again.  “Shari is, or rather
was, the First Princess of Terien,” he said.  Lance placed a bottle of water in front
of him and he picked it up and drank deeply while the rest of them absorbed that shocking
bit of information.

“
Princess Tahar-Sharila-Rahi, that’s Shari?” Honey asked.

“Yes,” Michael replied.  “I called her Shari.”

“
The woman you love
is who took Nica
,” Honey said.  “The one you intended to marry until Duke Rubai decided otherwise
and forced us to marry, instead.”

“Yes,” Michael said.  “There’s more to the story, though I didn’t know it at the time.”

“We have no idea how much time we have, Michael,” Vikter said.  “Whatever you have
to tell us, please tell us quickly.”

“About two years ago I heard a rumor that the Princess had disappeared.  It cost a
lot of money, and took time, but I eventually learned that she’d been declared insane
and locked away.  Not long after you and I got married, in fact.”

“Why?” Honey asked.

“The story I got was that she had some sort of psychic power and it drove her insane. 
So they drugged her to suppress the ability, and locked her away in a very nice set
of rooms in the depths of the palace.  But a prison is a prison, no matter how pretty
the wallpaper.”

“Did you see her?” Honey asked.

“I bribed one of the guards, a guy I knew in college, to let me watch her on the monitors. 
He was adamant that she not see me, but I agreed with that so it wasn’t a problem. 
She was obviously not in her right mind.  She’d drawn pictures of me which were tacked
all over the walls.  My name was written on every surface imaginable, including on
the furniture, even the floors.”  Michael gestured toward the little purse, but didn’t
touch it.  “She carried this purse, that I’d given to her as a birthday gift, looped
over her shoulder all of the time.  The only time she took it off was to bathe, and
even then it had to be in sight or she would go into a tantrum.”

“That’s when you really began focusing hard on getting that appointment to Earth,”
Honey said.

“Yes,” Michael admitted.  “After seeing her, I knew there was nothing left for me
on Terien.  I wanted to get all three of us out of there so we could be free to live
our lives as we wished.”

“For that, I thank you,” Honey said, barely noticing that all of the men who had left
were popping back as she spoke.  “We must get Nica back, Michael, and this woman,
Shari, has already done murder here.”

“Yes, she is completely insane,” Michael said.  “I cannot imagine how she escaped,
let alone managed to travel all the way to Jasan.”

“Or how she even knew to find us here,” Honey added.

Michael’s eyes narrowed.  “Good point,” he said.  “Right now, we must focus on Nica. 
What do we know?”

“All we have is that note,” Honey said.  “Do you know what her psychic gift is?”

“No, I don’t,” Michael said.  “If we can get you close enough to her, you’d be able
to tell though.”

“She is not going near that woman,” Vikter said in a cold voice.  “We will now allow
her to risk it.”

“Allow?” Honey asked archly.  “Did you really just say that?”

“I apologize for my choice of words, Honey,” he said.  “But we will not risk losing
you.”

“Let’s jump that fence when we get to it, all right?” Honey said.  She turned back
to Michael.  “She doesn’t tell us where we are supposed to bring you.  Which tells
me she either forgot, or assumes you will know.”

“She does tell us,” Michael said, laying the paper down.  “Right here, she says
bring Michael home
.”

“She knows where you’ve been staying on the ranch,” Prince Garen said.  “I wonder
how long she’s been here?”

“I’ve been gone five days,” Michael said.  “So it has to be less time than that.”

“We will fly over the area and meet you at the lower road,” Garen said to Vikter. 
With that, the Dracons turned and left the house.

“Let’s go,” Vikter said.  “We’ll take the ground-car.”

Honey and Michael stood and followed the Vulpirans out of the house.  As soon as they
were outside, the Bearens and Falcorans all shifted into their alter-forms and headed
for Michael’s guesthouse while they climbed into the car.

“I’m sorry, Honey,” Michael said once they were on their way as quickly as Hunt could
drive on the gravel roads.  “I would never have put Nica in danger.  You know that,
right?”

“This is not your fault, Michael,” Honey said.  “If you had brought her here, knowing
she was insane, that might be different.  As it is, you cannot accept responsibility
for what another has done.” 

Michael started to say something, then shook his head and remained silent for the
remainder of the drive.  Hunt parked the car at the foot of the driveway leading up
to the guesthouse, and they all got out and walked the rest of the way, approaching
through the woods at the side of the house rather than up the driveway to the front.

“What in the hell is that?” Michael asked when the guesthouse came into view. 

Honey stared at the transparent, shimmering blue bubble surrounding the entire guesthouse
for a long moment before stepping closer to it, her hands out toward it.  Suddenly
she rose into the air and was pulled backward.

“What are you doing?” she asked Vikter who still had his arms wrapped around her.

“You don’t know what that is,” Vikter said, setting her on her feet.  “You can’t just
touch it.  It could be dangerous.”

“I wasn’t going to touch it,” Honey said.  “I’m just going to find out what it is.”

“We already know it’s a barrier,” Garen Dracon said as he and his brothers walked
toward them.  “The moment Trey touched it in his alter-form it forced him back to
his humanoid form, so it appears to nullify our magic.”

“It’s also impenetrable,” Jackson said as he, too, approached.  “You can run at it
at full speed and it just bounces you off.  Same with any magic you throw at it.”

“Anything else you can learn about it, Honey, without causing harm to yourself, may
be of use,” Garen said.

“It’s one of my abilities,” she said to Vikter.  He clenched his jaw tightly, but
released her.  She stepped forward again, held the palms of her hands close to the
barrier without touching it, and tried to relax.  It took longer than usual, but eventually
she man
a
ged to get a good sense of Shari’s abilities.  And the barrier’s. 

She stepped back and sighed.  “Prince Garen and Jackson are correct.  It repels both
magic, and anything solid, or physical.  The only weakness I can find is that it also
blocks sound.  She can’t hear us, but then, we can’t hear her, either.”

“If she wants to speak with Michael, she’ll have to either come out, or let him in,”
Vikter said. 

“Correct,” Honey said.  “I doubt even a vox would work from inside that thing.”

“Anything else?” Garen asked. 

“Not that I found,” Honey said. 

“Then we will have to work with what we have,” Garen replied.  He turned to Vikter. 
“As you can see, the porch light is on, and the door partly open.  I believe that
is an invitation for Michael to enter.” 

“Honey, do you think she can open one spot for him to get in, or will she have to
remove the entire thing?” Vikter asked.

“I don’t think she can open a door in it, if that’s what you mean,” Honey said.  “It’s
a single object.  It’s either all thick, all thin, all there, or not.”

Vikter nodded.  “Lance, shift and go around to the back.  Hunt, shift and move back
into the darkness so you cannot be seen.  When Michael steps through, tell Lance so
he can cross in at the same moment.”

Lance and Hunt nodded and left.  The moment they faded into the darkness, Vikter turned
to Michael.  “You’re up, Michael,” he said.  “She wants you, so once you get inside,
get her talking.  Lance will work his way toward wherever Nica is, and get her safe
before taking Shari down.”

“You plan to kill her?” Michael asked.

“We’re going to try very hard not to,” Vikter said.  “Are you going to be able to
do this?”

Michael took a deep breath and nodded.  “Yes,” he said.  “The woman in there is not
the one I loved.  She’s insane.  Nica must be rescued.”

“Agreed,” Vikter said.  “Good luck.”

Michael nodded, then looked at Honey.  “Don’t worry,” he said.  “I won’t let her hurt
Nica.”

Michael turned and walked directly toward the light shining through the barrier at
the front door, then stood there, waiting.  They all watched intently, but there was
no movement through the partly open door that they could see.  Still, it was only
a few moments later that the shimmering began to dim.  Michael raised one leg and
stepped into the barrier. 

It was not easy.  He struggled for several moments, as though trying to push his body
through a wall of thick gel.  When he pulled free on the other side he stumbled and
fell against the porch, but got back to his feet in just a moment.  Without turning
back, he climbed the two steps to the porch, and entered the house.

“Go, now,”
Hunt said urgently the moment Michael stepped into the barrier.

Lance leapt forward, straight at the shimmering blue wall, pushing off the ground
with his hind legs as hard as he could.  The moment his nose touched the barrier he
felt himself begin to shift back to his humanoid form, but he continued pushing through
without hesitation.  Just as he pulled his foot free of the wall, he heard a soft
snapping sound and turned to see that the wall was brighter now, and seemed thicker
than before.  But he was on the inside.  That was all that mattered.

He studied the back of the building for a moment, but all of the windows were shut
tight.  He walked along one side, then retraced his steps, went around the back and
up the other side.  He finally found a kitchen window open just enough for him to
slip his fingers under it.  A moment later he was in the house.

He crossed the kitchen to the dining room doorway and looked around the corner.  He
heard Michael and the woman talking.  But where was Nica?  He crossed the dining room,
stepping carefully around the table and chairs, his feet silent on the tiled floor. 
He put his back against the wall beside the doorway into the circular entryway, remembering
the area clearly from the times they’d been in it over the past couple of weeks.

He listened to the woman talk, ignoring the words.  He only cared that her voice sounded
intent, which meant she probably had her eyes trained on Michael.  He held his breath,
then slowly peeked around the corner into the entry way.  What he saw nearly made
him growl out loud.

Nica was tied to a wooden chair with the same heavy rope that had been used on Adori. 
The chair was positioned with its back against the far wall of the entry way, Nica
directly facing Michael and her kidnapper.  Her face was stark white and tear streaked,
and there was a small bruise on her cheek.  Her large blue eyes stared blankly ahead. 
Shock
, Lance thought.  Perhaps that was for the best.