Through the Veil (40 page)

Bron beat a quick retreat, and Kalen muttered under his breath, “Don’t worry, kid. I’m not going down here.”

Not yet. Not now. Lee was waiting for him.

The discordant music of the gate jangled in her head like a kid banging on piano keys. Lee wanted to hide under a pillow, plug her ears—anything to drown out that harsh, dissonant melody.

It sounded ill. Weak. Almost like a death scream. Part of her understood why—the gate was being pushed too hard, too fast, and it was resisting. It was like somebody had taken a piece of clay, and instead of gently molding it into shape, they had grabbed at both ends and jerked.

The resulting work was a mess—ugly, brittle and weak.

But she sensed the power of the Sirvani working underneath that mess, strengthening the gate, shoring up the weak points. The gate wasn’t going to fall. Not yet, at least. Not without help. Part of her wanted to reach out, find the weakness and the frailties, the evil strains and the darkness hidden within the gate power, find them and fix them. She could even feel that weird yet familiar gift unfurling and reaching out.

Something within the gate recognized and reached out in return. The magick in Lee recoiled, and something immense seemed to open up around her, recognizing the dual magicks within her and wanting them. Lee tore herself away.

She shivered. Morne had paused by her shelter briefly and tucked a blanket around her. That had been hours ago, and although he hadn’t approached her since, she knew he was watching her. Watching over her, while Kalen was still overseeing the battle waging outside the Gap.

Sunset had come and gone, and with the sun’s disappearance, demons came boiling up out of the forest like ants, striking in organized little hordes and trying to break the line of troops. So far, they hadn’t succeeded. People milled around Lee, their voices a raucous cacophony in her ears. So many people, so close—realistically, she had known Kalen was in charge of this many people.

But knowing it and actually seeing it were two different things.

She hadn’t ever seen so many people in one place, not at a rock concert, not at a ball game. It was maddening.

It was also the chance she’d been waiting for. From the corner of her eye, she watched Morne, and finally, he edged just out of sight. He’d left two men watching her, and one of them was busy trying to fix a jammed pulsar. The other kept one eye on her and the other on the aperture in the mountains. Sojourn Gap, the last stronghold Kalen’s men had.

Getting out and into the gulch was going to be a challenge, but with all the fighting she could hear going on, she could manage. Her chance to slip away had come too quickly and she wasn’t ready.
You won’t ever be ready,
Lee told herself.
Might as well get it done now.

She slid away, melting into the crowd of people and keeping her ears pricked for any sign that somebody had noticed her absence. She’d almost made it through the crowd when a hard, strong hand closed around her arm. Morne jerked her to a stop, and she looked up into his furious face. “I told you not to try,” he warned her in a pitiless voice.

He started to drag her away from the aperture, and Lee jerked furiously against his hold. “Damn it, Morne. Don’t you get—”

Thunder boomed overhead. Over the past few hours, the quakes had settled to tremors, but now the earth started to shudder again. It felt like one of those moving floors in a funhouse, though, not a real earthquake. From the corner of her eye, she saw Morne turn his gaze to the west. Lee imagined he couldn’t see much over the foothills and the trees, but she saw what held his attention.

Since the sun had set, the brilliant blue of the gate had cast neon shadows against the sky, illuminating the clouds. But now the brilliant blue was fading, and fading fast. A slight smile curled Morne’s lips and he muttered, “That’s a good little witch.”

“What witch?” Lee demanded as he once more began dragging her through the crowd.

But he didn’t answer. He kept pulling on her arm, takingher farther and farther away from the narrow crevice that was the only exit. Sheer rock cliffs surrounded them on all sides. Sojourn Gap had one way in. One way out. Water was supplied through an underground source, and Kalen had long since had the foresight to prepare all the strongholds for a day such as this.

Damn near impenetrable, Sojourn Gap could be protected simply by placing troops along the steep slopes of the gulch and picking off invaders as they came through. But the very things that made it such a safe haven were the very things that were going to keep Lee trapped here.

The cave in front of her yawned like a big, black mouth and Lee struggled in earnest, but Morne ignored her. “I’m not going in the fucking cave,” she snarled.
Have to get out . . . have to have to have to . . .

Voice cold and uncaring, Morne responded, “Oh, yes. You are.”

When she stopped walking, he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. Lee continued to struggle and buck and squirm, and he let her, doing nothing to stop her until she managed to land a kick in his midsection. Then he clamped an arm around her thighs. “Any more and I’ll spank your pretty butt, Lelia. Kalen might kill me later, but it will be worth it.”

She just fought harder. For all the good it did her. The man had a grip like iron. And apparently, absolutely no tolerance for disobedience, Lee realized. He dropped her down on the cave floor and backed up. Lee surged to her feet and started forward, only to realize they weren’t alone. At Morne’s back stood twelve of Kalen’s troops. She recognized each and every one of them.

They stared at her with a dead-serious cast to their features, and she sank back down to the floor.

She wasn’t going to be able to slip away again.

Sleep came on her like a summer thunderstorm, totally unexpected and turbulent. Vivid, brilliant dreams, like the ones that had plagued her for so long, followed her once more.

In her dreams, she stood at the narrow entrance to Sojourn Gap, staring out at the rocky, uneven path that led out of the Gap and straight into hell. The gate seemed larger than life, and on the other side, she saw her father. He stared at her, and for some reason, there was sadness in his eyes. Regret, even.
Too late, Daisha. I was too late to save you. You must run.

Run where?
she asked him, bitter and angry.

Away. Away. Away.
He kept saying it over and over, until a red flower blossomed on his chest. A closer look revealed it wasn’t a flower, but blood. She could just barely make out the knifepoint protruding through the front wall of his chest. Another Warlord appeared beyond his shoulder, and as her father fell down, the new Warlord took his place. He looked at Lee with cold, clinical eyes that made her feel like she was some specimen on a lab slide.
You’ll do,
he told her, his tone bored, almost indifferent. Then he looked away, staring at somebody she couldn’t see.
Finish it, man. I’m ready to leave this forsaken rock and plant a child in her.

Finish what?
Lee asked. But she already knew.

They came storming through the gate. Hundreds. Thousands.
Millions . . .
Warlords and Sirvani, the Sirvani with the smooth, naked scalps and the Warlords, their pale hair bound away from their faces. Each of them had a blue stone that glowed either on a harness crossed over the chest or set in an elaborate collar around the neck.

Leave none of them alive. We’re done here.
The Warlord looked at Lee and smiled.
Come, offworlder.

Lee shook her head.
No. I won’t come if you plan to invade.

He laughed.
Like you have a choice. You didn’t truly think you were meant to save an entire world, did you? One lone woman? Pretty you might be, but you aren’t worth that much.

She turned away from him, wanted to run. Her legs felt weighted down and she couldn’t even move. She wasn’t supposedto, Lee decided. What she was meant to do was find her father and stop this damn invasion. End it. All of it.

Lelia
—
this isn’t the way.

It was a woman’s voice that spoke, coming from nowhere and everywhere. She looked around, searching for the speaker, and there was a soft, husky laugh.
You won’t find me out there
—
I am within you. Just as the power to end this lies within you
—you
, not in your womb or between your legs. But inside you, where two powers meet. The gates shun power. They gobble it down like children with sweets, but then they jerk away, hiding before they can eat their fill.

The balance is within you
—
use it, push it through the Veil, push your power into the gate.

Lee nodded. Little of that made sense, but she understood the gate. She had to find a gate and get to her father.

Perhaps . . . perhaps—she couldn’t leave here and make her way to the permanent gate. But she just might be able to make one.

After all, her father had.

No, Lelia. That isn’t the way
—

The woman’s voice was still echoing in Lee’s ears as she forced herself to wake up.

THIRTEEN

It wasn’t over. Not by a long shot, Kalen knew. But as he stood at the entrance to Sojourn Gap and mopped the sweat off his face, he breathed out a sigh of relief. The relative quiet would be short-lived, he knew. Elina had only bought them some time, but that time had allowed him to get most of his troops into the Gap, with minimal casualties.

Now he just needed to find Lee, bury his face in her hair and sleep. Just an hour. If he could get an hour’s sleep, he’d be ready to go again. He paused by Sanchez, one of his lieutenants, and left orders for the cleanup. He passed by the huge shelter that would serve as a communal dining area and had the galley workers start preparing some field meals for those who would keep watch for what remained of the night.

There was precious little of it. His bones ached with every step he took, and there was a burn low on his right hip that was going to need treatment before too long. The Ikacado had gotten close enough, just barely, to leave a mark on Kalen before Kalen turned the cold-beam on the thing and blasted it into the next life. Sweat, grime and blood covered him, and he paused just long enough by one of the many streams to splash water on his face.

There was a waterfall at the far end of the Gap, and as soon as he could find the time, he was going to take Lee there. Scrub every last inch of his body and then make love to her under that waterfall.

But right now—sleep. That was all that mattered.

The ripple of power that rolled through the air filled him with dread. No. Kalen stopped dead in his tracks and shot an angry look up into the heavens. “Can’t You give us a little time to catch our breath?” he asked. “Just a little?”

He turned to go back to the front line, but something caught his sight. Just out of the corner of his eye. Something flickering a pretty, bright blue—a blue that was damn near the same shade as Lee’s eyes, he realized. Why hadn’t he noticed that before . . .

“No.”

It was a gate. Not the powerful, permanent bitch that was the source of so much grief for his world, but a small one. Temporary, only big enough for a few people to pass through at a time.

Or in this case—one person. Lee. They’d found her.

Kalen started running, shouting for Morne, then calling his other troops to his side. The thunder of hundreds of feet surrounded him as they all converged on the source of the light. It was coming from one of the hundreds of shallow caves that dotted the rock face.

And right in front stood Lee.

A startled breath escaped Kalen, and he froze in his tracks. It wasn’t a Warlord lifting the gate. It was Lee. Horror flooded him as he realized what was happening. The gate was being forced open—from this side. Power swelled in the air, making it feel heavy and thick. It spun in the air, unseen by the naked eye, but he could feel it. Sense it. The hair on the back of his neck stood up, and goose bumps broke out all over his flesh. His gut knotted, his muscles were tense and ready, all over something he couldn’t even see. It was like a monstrous cyclone was forming all around them and they were caught in the maelstrom.

And in the center of all that horrible, fascinating power was Lee—her head tipped back, gazing up at the sky as though she followed the direction of some unseen guide, spinning a gate out of nothingness. Kalen stared at her, trapped in place and mesmerized as the power formed in front of her. Lee stood right at the mouth of the cave, and as Kalen watched, the shimmery gray of the Veil appeared between them, obscuring her features.

With every breath, the Veil solidified. She stood with her arms spread in front of her, palms facing out, and an unseen wind tore at her clothes. Kalen could smell the hot desert air, and he knew Anqar was just a breath away.

He came to a halt at the mouth of the cave, just an arm’s length from Lee, but he didn’t touch her. Kalen wanted to grab her and haul her away from the forming gate, but that power was too unpredictable. He was forced to watch and wait—although if she tried to go through that gate, he was grabbing her and consequences be damned.