Veiled (12 page)

A few minutes later, Owen sat down on a bench next to Luken. He dangled a beer between his legs with two fingers, and held a half-eaten sandwich in his free hand. “Maybe it’s time we cut Merl loose.”

Alex, who’d been ribbing Joshua about some event at the Blood and Bite involving two women and the red velvet booths, called out, “What the hell, Owen? The man just learned his team’s been chained up, probably for as long as he’s been here. We don’t need to cut him loose, we need to cut him some slack.”

Luken, however, didn’t jump on Owen, but asked, “Why did you say that?”

“Has it occurred to anyone else he might be feeding info to Yolanthe to keep his sister safe? Things about the black ops team? About Duncan?”

“
Merde
,” Jean-Pierre murmured.

Joshua warmed to the theme. “He might have been holding back teaching us what we need to know to battle on Third.” He now had two empty beer bottles lined up on the deck railing.

Because Josh’s observation was a real possibility, a weight settled on the team.

A few weeks back, Duncan might have suggested the same thing as Owen — just get rid of the problem. He might even have had the same attitude two nights ago. But something had shifted inside him, and instead of reacting, he moved away from the group, turning to face the grove of sycamores. He directed his attention inward, toward his vision power. Energy hummed through his body. He closed his eyes, aware he was probably emitting a faint gold light from his skin.

He focused on Merl and on the men he’d seen in the vision. He wanted to know more before Merl returned in case a decision had to be made.

Trust was the real issue. Duncan had always felt uneasy about Merl and not just because he’d once flirted with Rachel. He’d been hostile during training and withdrawn everywhere else. All of which now made sense. But could the team trust him?

What arrived suddenly in vision form, wasn’t a look into the future at all but well into Merl’s past and was comprised of a montage of images. He saw Merl in front of large groups of Militia Warriors, his expression almost as intense as Owen’s was right now. He was heavily involved in training Militia Warriors in many of the images, demonstrating battle skills, giving individual and group instruction on technique and strategy.

A few of the visions involved hundreds of warriors, all aligned against either Yolanthe or her father, Chustaffus.

Another set of images showed Merl, with his maroon leather battle harness and black kilt, doing battle with the same group of warriors Duncan had seen in Yolanthe’s prison. The men made use of the
cadroen
but wore what Duncan could now see was a traditional set of three braids on either side of the face, though pulled back into the clasp as well.

In these images, Duncan’s instincts were proved right since Merl always handed out the night’s assignments; Merl was the team leader. But instead of sending the men to dimensional Borderlands, as Luken would have done on Second Earth, he sent them to various ‘camps’ around the world. Merl had been in charge of the resistance movement on Third Earth.

He had the answer he needed and the vision dissipated. When he turned around, the team was staring at him, a couple of mouths agape. Glancing at Rachel, she said quietly, “Your
grayle
power was rising from your body in at least three streams of bluish smoke.”

He didn’t address their obvious combined astonishment, but related what he’d just witnessed. As he finished up with Merl’s leadership of the Third Earth Warriors of the Blood, he realized Merl now stood in the doorway, Endelle behind him.

He met the warrior’s light blue eyes. “Did you get all of that?” Duncan asked.

Merl nodded. “Accurate as hell.”

Duncan saw at once the warrior was changed. The revelations of the earlier vision of Yolanthe’s prison had stripped Merl’s façade away completely. He looked like a different man, more like the one in Duncan’s vision, a leader and a warrior.

Merl moved across the deck, placing himself in the middle of the team. “You must have questions. As the Creator is my witness, I’ll answer every single one of them.”

Owen rose to his feet. “I have a big one. Have you been serving as Yolanthe’s spy, telling her about us?”

“Not about the black ops team because she doesn’t know what I’ve been up to. Although I suspect that’s about to change. But yes, I reported information to her about Second Earth.”

Endelle moved to stand beside Duncan.

Joshua rubbed the tats on his wrist and directed his hard brown eyes at Merl. “Why the fuck didn’t you tell us what was going on? Why didn’t you trust us?”

“How could I have done that? I was protecting Katlynn and at the same time trying not to get any of you killed. I have to deliver reports once a month as it is.”

Owen entered the fray. “So, you’re a spy, and what did you tell the bitch about Thorne’s operations on Second? Holy fuck, you’ve seen everything.”

Luken rose to his feet as well, but addressed Owen. “Dial it down, Warrior. Give him a chance to explain himself. And remember, Yolanthe as a Third ascender isn’t going to be all that interested in things on Second. She’ll consider herself superior because, well, she probably is. Any arrogance she might have will work for us.”

The way Owen’s nostrils flared suggested he was still gearing up for a shout down.

Luken once more intervened. “Before Merl says anything, let me tell you what I think happened, then Merl can tell me if I’m wrong. So here goes: Merl either fed Yolanthe a pack of believable lies or reported inconsequential data. You’ve seen him, the martinis and cigarettes. Samuel told me the first time he met Merl, he wore some kind of silk dressing gown. He’s been playing this game for a long time and probably has Yolanthe suckered in.”

Owen scowled at Luken, but as he turned to Merl, he asked, “Does Luken have it right?”

Merl nodded. “Yolanthe has a deviant nature, sexually I mean, so I fed her lots of details about my supposed exploits on Second. When she learned I’d gotten close to Endelle, I fabricated an entire history for her.”

At that, he heard Endelle chuckle. “How much of a history?”

“Enough to keep her entertained and distracted. She seemed to enjoy my reports which I believe kept her from investigating further. And if it’s of any use, for years she was mostly focused on Darian Greaves and his ambitions. I happily told her anything I saw on TV.”

“Why did she give a fuck about Greaves?” Joshua swigged his third beer.

“She had a crush on him.”

For some reason, these words lightened the moment and laughter traveled around the group. Only recently, Endelle had battled Greaves out at White Lake, and ended his world-encompassing campaign to take over Second Earth. Of course, the army he’d built had splintered into three factions each headed up by a general full of a similar type of ambition. Second Earth was in a worse state now that Greaves was gone. And there was strong indication Yolanthe’s father, the powerful Chustaffus who’d enslaved two-thirds of Third Earth, was making a bid to rule Second as well.

Rachel entered the discussion. “What do you mean, Yolanthe’s deviant side?”

Duncan turned to her and answered the question. “I told you about her sex pool.”

“Sex pool?” Alex grinned. “This is getting interesting.”

Another chuckle went round the group.

Duncan grimaced, however. Yolanthe had kept his attention focused on all her activities through her Third Earth voyeur window and it had not been pleasant. He decided to set the record straight. “When you’re forced to watch for hours on end, believe me a certain monotony follows. I couldn’t shut her voyeur window down. And she used sex slaves, which enraged me since I couldn’t do a damn thing for any of them.”

He turned to Rachel. “I’m sorry about what happened, but I wanted you to know the truth.”

She lifted her chin and her lips curved. She took his hand in hers. “Spoken like the man I know and love.”

For several intense seconds, Duncan couldn’t breathe. The way Rachel saw him was the man he wanted to be. “Rachel,” he said softly.

“Oh, for Christ’s sake,” Endelle blurted. “The
breh-hedden
sucks donkey’s ass.”

Laughter traveled the circle of warriors. Even Merl smiled, a true smile, something he no doubt hadn’t done in a long time.

Freedom comes in a thousand different forms.

Collected Proverbs
-- Beatrice of Fourth

Endelle sat on the bottom row of the workout center risers at Apache Junction HQ. She’d changed into black leather pants because she kept flashing the warriors inadvertently in her red tulle skirt and small modesty slip. She didn’t mind, not giving a damn who saw the beauty between her legs. But Owen took a skin burn across his abdomen when Josh got distracted.

She just wasn’t much for keeping her knees together.

But she still wore the bejeweled dagger vest and her hip boots.

Her gaze drifted to Merl as she leaned her elbows back on the bench. The warrior had transformed into a dynamo so that between the efforts of Jean-Pierre who could enhance powers and Merl’s new motivation, the team had finally started responding. Each showed evidence of the
grayle
power, a Third Earth ability having several ramifications. All the warriors had improved in faster wing-release as well as wing-retraction and quicker response with sword and dagger-work.

Duncan’s vision had delivered a brutal blow to the one-time leader of the Third Earth Warriors of the Blood. Merl’s secret about how he’d ended up on Second had finally come out. But after all was said and done, the result had put him on the right course.

Apparently, Yolanthe had kidnapped his sister, Katlynn, and used her to send Merl to Second to serve as Yolanthe’s spy. She’d even paid for his personal portal, the one in the wall of his living room, which the black ops team used to enter the darkening grid. But she’d held the threat of Katlynn’s death over his head for fifty years.

What he hadn’t known was that Yolanthe had afterward lured his What-Bee team into a trap, though Merl still didn’t have a clue how she’d done it. Yolanthe’s ability to somehow take control of so many extremely powerful Warriors of the Blood at the same time and hold them for five decades, spoke volumes for the woman’s natural level of power.

Yolanthe’s apparent obsession with Greaves made less sense than anything else Endelle had heard, but,
whatever
. Although the thought of Yolanthe and Greaves together sent a shard of fear wiggling her tailbone. Thank the Creator Greaves was locked up on Fourth. From Beatrice’s last report, Endelle’s former Nemesis was suffering acutely in Beatrice’s redemption pools.

Endelle smiled. Imagine Greaves developing a conscience.

Merl called out a new drill and each of the warriors, including Rachel, lined up, knees bent, eyes forward. He was improving their wing-mounting speed. A lot of Third Earth powers seemed to be connected to the wing-locks, including the
grayle
power.

He called a three-count and on three, each of them released their wings at Third Earth speed and it was magnificent. She almost applauded. Only Owen was late, a full three-seconds after the others.

She considered Owen for a moment. Damn, but he was good-looking with his hazel eyes and a lick-able cleft chin. His hair was brown but with blond streaks like Jean-Pierre. The latter was with him now, a hand on his shoulder, feeding Owen his bump-up power surge to help bring his lagging abilities forward.

Owen scowled, however, and wouldn’t look at Merl. The chemistry was really off between these two warriors in particular and nothing about the recent revelations had softened Owen’s attitude. Endelle had asked him what bug was still reaming his ass, and had gotten a clear response, ‘I can’t respect a man who gets his team imprisoned. How can I trust him now?’

Endelle knew she could offer no words to alter Owen’s opinion. Time would hopefully change things, but Merl had a lot of proving to do.

The next drill involved retracting their wings, but at the same time holding onto the wing-release power in order to jump-start the
grayle
abilities. Both Joshua and Alex had
grayle
smoke rising from their bodies and Merl gave a shout of triumph because of it. Joshua’s had a violet hue and Alex’s leaned toward silver.

Endelle shifted her gaze to Luken. He stood with eyes closed, concentrating fiercely. The next moment, a heavy stream of smoke emerged swirling from his wing-locks, three colors at once, all flowing together: gold, violet, and teal.

One-by-one, each of the warriors turned to stare.

A shiver traveled across Endelle’s shoulders and down her spine. What was she looking at? She felt confused and amazed at the same time.

“Merl, what does this mean?” she called out.

Merl shook his head. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen multi-colored smoke before.”

Luken. Again. Another sign something extraordinary was going on with him.

Luken asked what they were talking about, then looked up and his eyes widened. “Sweet Jesus, what the hell is that? I don’t get it. Why three colors?” He shifted his gaze to Merl.

Merl shrugged. “I don’t know. Power, I would guess, perhaps to match your physical dimensions.”

Alex added his two cents. “Tank-like smoke for a tank-like warrior.”

Laughter rolled through the team.

But Endelle couldn’t even smile. Instead, the familiar pressure inside her head increased suddenly as her gaze remained fixed on Luken. She rubbed her forehead. The damn headache hadn’t let up and she’d even contacted Jeannie at Central to see if a storm was moving in to account for the persistent pain.

No storm, however, just one nagging headache, something she rarely experienced given her self-healing abilities. She even contemplated hauling Horace over to Militia HQ just to get some relief. But she hated bringing him in when he spent every night patching up those warriors engaged in battling at the Second Earth Borderlands. They fought death vampires dusk to dawn. So, she waited. But if the pressure didn’t abate by daybreak, she’d call him to the palace once he was done for the night.