Keir (11 page)

Every nerve in his body snapped taut and his breathing faltered. Her mouth remained curved in a gentle smile, rose colored against her pale skin. There was a hint of blue in her gray eyes he had never noticed before. A strange thrill coursed through his veins and he jerked himself free of her, to stand with his fingers clenched into restraining fists.

As if it were possible to retreat from this new and dangerous sensation, he took a step back.

If she noticed, she said nothing as she rose and dusted herself down. “Come on, we have an appointment with Surei.”

“I would have thought I would be the last person she wishes to see,” Keir said gloomily, falling into step beside her as they returned to the warmth and brightness of the base.

“She wanted me to ban you from practicing with Sky, and with good reason,” Quin agreed. “You don’t need to end up in medical every time you fight to prove how hard you’re trying. It isn’t a test.”

“But there is so much to learn.”

“And there’s plenty of time. You’ve only been here two months. You’re expecting far too much of yourself, after everything you’ve been through.”

“I do not want to disappoint you.”

“You won’t. You haven’t.” She stopped, compelling him to do the same. “You don’t have to justify yourself to me, Keir. I already know how special and talented you are. You’re the one who needs to accept it.”

Special?

Warmth filled him at her words. Was that really how she saw him? Her voice rang true and he sensed no deception from her. He considered the possibility as he followed her to the medical center.

* * * *

Sky met them in the corridor en route and Quin let the two men walk ahead, discussing tactics Keir could try in the next session. She noted with some satisfaction how Keir had filled out from the starved wretch he had been, how muscle bunched under the close-fitting combat suit as he walked. For an instant her eyes lingered on his back, admiring the way he moved, before she shook herself out of it. That was no way to be thinking about someone she considered a friend, however close the link that bound them. Still, it was hard not to notice–and appreciate–the difference in him. The tangled mess of his hair had been cropped. It was easier to coax a smile from him and he moved with a new assurance, his conversation with Sky animated by enthusiasm for the subject. Sparring with the haemovore had done more for Keir’s confidence than she could have hoped for, and had sparked a friendship between the two men.

But for all the progress he had made, there was still so far to go. Inwardly she sighed. At every stage Keir drove himself relentlessly, pushed himself beyond his physical limits until he required Surei’s care on a regular basis. Even though he had proved a quick study, every forgotten word, every mistake–each time he failed to reach the perfection he sought of himself–plunged him back into a burning quest to redeem his imagined sins. Despite the joy she took in his development, she fretted over his future. She prayed the forthcoming search for Rulk would finally purge him of that need before it consumed him.

Why am I such a sucker for tortured souls?

As they arrived at the medical center, Taler pounced joyfully on Keir and took him aside for his assessment, but Surei gestured Quin into her office.

“I need to speak to you, Quin.” Surei waved for her to sit. “It’s about Keir.”

“Why? What’s wrong?” Quin stared through the communicating window at the young haemovore chatting brightly as she waved her scanner across Keir’s chest. He wore a tentative smile, clearly amused by Taler’s attention, which Quin took as a good sign. Her reservations aside, it seemed he was adapting as well as could be expected. Interactions like this could only be good for him.

“I did a psychological assessment yesterday and, frankly, I’m concerned. Do you realize how dangerous he could be?”

“We all have that potential, Surei. It doesn’t mean anything will come of it. He doesn’t have any of the Sentiac’s powers. His telepathic ability is on par with mine, although that’s mostly because of the link, and, honestly, I just kicked the Hades out of him in training. Am I missing something?”

“He’s suffered some of the most horrendous injuries I’ve ever seen in a humanoid, been ill-treated and ill-fed most of his life. He may have recovered from the physiological damage, but the mental trauma and scarring he’s suffered are huge. He’s disturbed, Quin. Borderline unstable. Anything could push him over the edge.”

Quin leaned back in her chair, tipping it onto its back feet. “Ah, Surei, come on. I would’ve been shocked if your assessment had revealed anything different.” Surei frowned, and Quin let the chair bump back onto the ground. “Okay, listen, I’m not dismissing what you’re saying–you’re the expert and I know from experience you’re damn good at your job. I’ll watch him.” Surei’s frown didn’t ease. “You have my word.”

Finally, sighing, she seemed to give in. “Quin, I’m telling you this because you’re the only person who can spot an issue before it becomes visible. If you even suspect something may be wrong, tell me. Let me deal with it. I won’t allow him to become a risk to our community, even at the cost of our friendship.”

“It won’t happen.”

“You said that about Jared too.”

Quin bit back a retort.

“I hope I’m wrong, Quin.” Surei shook her head. “I have to tell you, if Keir wasn’t involved with the Sentiac, I wouldn’t let you take him. As it is, I’m still not certain…are you sure you’re doing the right thing?”

“I am. He asked to come with me. I can’t tell him no.”

“You could go without him. How would he follow you?”

“Oh, yeah, great idea! That would do wonders for his trust issues.”

The avian medic threw her hands up in despair, and Quin laughed.

“Then I wish you luck.” Surei glanced questioningly at her junior medic, who nodded. “You’re both cleared.”

* * * *

When Quin finally called at Keir’s door, he was ready to go and followed her wordlessly. Sky waited in the gateway room to see them off, a handful of packages wrapped and ready. Quin and Keir both wore good quality hooded, knee-length cloaks in dark brown, and long, leather boots. In defiance of the local dress code for the time, Quin wore tight leggings to match her companion’s and Keir had put on gloves to hide as much of his skin as possible. With the hoods up, no one would be able to spot anything alien about either of them without close examination. In any event, they planned to arrive after the evening curfew had begun, when the streets would be empty apart from the body collectors and occasional passing guard.

Quin adjusted the clasp on Keir’s cloak and gave him a reassuring grin. He knew he was radiating anxiety even though he had tried to lock his fears deep inside. There was a certain excitement at knowing they would be wandering unseen under the noses of Adalucien’s beleaguered citizens, at taking his first steps toward understanding his strange origin and the reasons behind it. It took the sharp edge from his apprehension, dulling its intensity, but could not completely untangle the knot in his chest.

Sky gave him a fanged smile before passing his packages to Quin, the largest first. “Smoke bombs for camouflage, two small incendiaries for a distraction,” he told her. “Don’t mix them up. There’s a ten second delay on them, with a pressure-activated fuse.”

“Thanks, Sky.”

The haemovore nodded to them both and left.

“Ready?” Quin asked

Speechless, he nodded. Quin seemed calm, but underneath it he could sense her trepidation, which only added to his own. He might be fearful at the prospect of facing the ghosts that haunted his past, but she was terrified of meeting the monster that had destroyed hers.

Quin stretched out a hand to the wall and opened her fist, palm outward. The vast psychic force she was using to create and open the gateway echoed through him. He felt a surge as though caught in a sudden tempest as she twisted the dimensions in order to forge a pathway through time and space. The hand gesture seemed so simple, yet it was only a pale symbolism of the powers she manipulated. Energy poured through her from an unknown source and, for a moment, he thought he glimpsed a spark of bright-blue flame in her eyes, before dismissing it as illusion. She turned to smile at him, aware of his presence in her thoughts.

“Do you feel that?”

He nodded, sharing the trace of euphoria.

Her smile broadened and she opened her mind further, letting him feel the gateway through her, like gentle flames on his skin. He shivered as the sense of pressure built. Strands of fire shot across the surface of the wall in front of them and the gateway unlocked, easing the lines of tension that had bound him.

Without hesitation, she stepped inside and pulled him through. His first voyage through a gateway had been taken on the verge of unconsciousness. This time, he was awake and sensitive to the mechanics involved. There was a pause on the threshold, a moment of absolute stillness in which he could see the universe laid out at his feet, the pathway a corridor made up of thin, silvery threads that seemed completely insubstantial. Then a blaze of white light swallowed him up and all physical sensation ceased.

Reality slammed into him with a painful thump less than a heartbeat later and he stepped out, unable to resist glancing back. Stars and galaxies filled a black rectangle standing in the middle of nowhere, without connection to anything around it.

In front of him, in stark contrast, lay a dark and narrow street full of shadows and small, shuttered buildings. A scorched, smoky smell hung in the air and a dull-orange light reflected off the heavy clouds blocking the stars. The city was eerily silent, held in the grip of plague and curfew.

According to the historical records the compound archivist had managed to reconstruct, a third of the population had already succumbed and General Corizi had imposed martial law. Fires raged in the Western Quarter where soldiers burned bodies and property alike to try to control the disease. Behind locked doors and stone walls, the ailing denizens of Adalucien cowered in fear, no doubt waiting to see which of their family or neighbors would be felled next. And somewhere, close by, was the being that had destroyed Quin’s past and cursed him to a life as the Blue Demon of Adalucien.

* * * *

Quin hesitated as she took in their surroundings, as unsure of her bearings in the city as she had been in the wilderness beyond its walls. Together with Keir and Surei, she had spent the past few days examining holographic maps of the city, marking those areas riddled with plague with red symbols and making a calculated guess at Rulk’s location. The final choice rested on a stack of shaky estimations and a quick prayer to good luck. A single mistake and they could be hopping backward and forward in time for the next few decades.

She sighed and took out her tracker. Schematics wove bright lines across the flat black screen, assembling into a three-dimensional overview of the city. Impatience had her biting her lip as she waited for it to finish its scan cycle, with Keir hovering at her shoulder. At last a blue icon blinked inside a line of buildings to the west of their position.

She exhaled silently in relief.
“This way.”

They edged through the dark streets, the unnatural silence dragging on her nerves. Quin heard a woman sobbing as they passed, and her heart clenched in sympathy. So many would die tonight, and so many more in the days still to come.

Keir hesitated as they reached a junction.
“I hear something.”

Quin strained her ears. A faint clattering and squeaking drifted toward them.
“A cart, maybe?”

Keir nodded, and Quin glanced back. The street they had come from had no alleyways or open buildings for them to retreat to. The thoroughfare ahead offered nothing better. Nowhere to hide.

They huddled against a wall as the cart rounded a building at the far end of the street and crawled toward them. A pony drew it, led by a man in a tattered cloak. Soldiers rode to either side, cloth tied over their faces in the hopes of keeping the plague at bay. All three animals had padding lashed over their hooves to muffle their steps, and the two wheels of the cart appeared bound in rags.

“To keep them silent,”
Keir told her as she puzzled over it.
“So that those breaking curfew or looting empty homes will have no warning of their approach. If such men were to escape the soldiers, they might spread the plague further.”

Quin shivered. The procession drew closer, and the guards were looking everywhere, intent on their duty.
“They’re going to see us!”

As one they moved back from the junction and Quin felt a gap open behind her. A doorway, shallow enough that they would have to squeeze together to have any chance of hiding, but it gave them their only hope. She pressed into it and tugged Keir inward, tightening her grip on his cloak as he jerked away from her.
“It’s this or nothing!”

Keir froze against her, his breath coming in short, ragged pants as if she were crushing him. She tried to ease herself away, but body contact was unavoidable.

The carter came into sight leading his pony. Quin dropped her hand to the tell-tale bulk of the smoke bombs then moved to the explosives.
Please don’t make me use these.

The cloth-wrapped wheels rolled past, and the mounted guards paced into view. As the group moved away, Quin saw the nearest turn his head to look down the street but not to where they huddled in the doorway.