Guilty Secrets (Campus Love and Murder Sorority Eyes Romance Book 1) (26 page)

I swallowed hard. "What are you going to do?"

He smiled. "Don't worry, Robyn, you won't feel a thing."

He nodded to Hemingway. "Is everything ready?"

"I need two minutes."

She handed her gun to Kublai and let herself out.

"Kublai, why kill Harry?"

"Now is not the time to explain. Let us just for now call it destiny."

"Kublai, if you leave now, I won’t tell anyone."

"My dear I believe you."

"So..."

"I believe you, because you're coming with me."

"To where?"

A floorboard creaked and Kublai whipped around. A shadow leapt at him and knocked him to the ground.

Ben stood over Kublai and asked, "Robyn, are you OK?"

"We need to go now."

"Ben, did you see her?”

"Who?"

"Hemingway, she's Shard."

Ben seemed confused. His eyes rolled into the back of his head. He fell to his knees. His hand went to his heart. He pulled it away and stared at the pool of blood in his palm.

I heard someone screaming, then realized it was me.

Hemingway stepped out of the shadows and kicked Ben in the back. He groaned and fell face down on top of Kublai.

Kublai rolled Ben off him and stood. I ran to Ben and cradled him in my arms.

"Ben, hold on, I'll get help."

I shouted to Kublai "Please, don't do this. I’m begging you to let me take him to a hospital."

Ben began to convulse in my arms.

"Ben, hold on."

He shook his head and reached up with his bloody hand to stroke my face.

Bubbles of blood popped on his lips. "We had good times, right, Rob?"

"What?" I shook my head. "Yes, yes. And we'll have more."

He sighed and stared right through me with dead eyes.

"Ben? Ben?" I shook his body until I felt a sharp pin prick in the side of my neck. Dark shadows filled my vision and then I had the feeling of falling head first into a dark abyss.

CHAPTER EIGHTY ONE

I woke to the sound of bird song and wind chimes as a gentle breeze caressed my face with warm sunshine. Tinkling splashes and hollow bamboo yawns held me in a state somewhere between the ignorant fog of sleep and the aching awareness of consciousness.

I slowly opened my eyes with visions of Ben dying in my arms and Harry's body, atom by molecule, rising into a sky of ashes.

I sat up with a jolt and caught a lungful of fresh mountain air that made my head spin. I fought to focus on a valley view below me and rolling away in all directions like an infinite carpet of a million shades of lush greens. I seemed to be in an oriental palace garden of dragon statues rising from lily ponds connected like daisy chains in full blossoms of pink and white.

The visions faded, drowning in waterfalls filling bamboo see-saws as multi colored kingfishers darted across the ponds and chased zipping dragonflies.

A soft focused silk kimono clad figure knelt before me. A bamboo cup seemed to float in the air about my dry lips. A kind female voice seemed vaguely familiar as it whispered in my ear.

She stroked my forearm. "Please... to purge the last of the drugs from your body."

I took a sip. The liquid was bitter.

"Please drink it all, Robyn."

The cup tipped back and I swallowed a few times. Suddenly my guts clenched violently and a series of spasms engulfed my body. I fell forward onto my knees and vomited for the next five minutes.

I sat back on my heels and gasped for the fresh air. I wiped my sweating brow with my sleeve and realized I was wearing a silk kimono.

Multiple pairs of gentle hands helped me onto a flat bamboo reclining chair covered in a deep cushion and wiped my lips with warm, damp tissues.

My vision fast improving, I peered into the orange ball in the sky and then at the kimono figures gathering around. They stood someway off, as it seemed the cup bearer issued instructs in rapid and authoritative Mandarin to them.

I turned to her and stared. Her face moved in and out of blurry focus. I tried to speak but my tongue seemed dead.

Eventually I managed a few slurring words, "You look just like a friend of mine," I said.

She nodded and bowed, revealing a gold butterfly clasp holding up her hair in a tight bun.

Then I realized she actually was her. "Mai?"

She bowed and whispered, "He has eyes everywhere."

"Where are we?"

Mai stared at the bamboo floor. "Kublai's retreat. He calls it his Pleasure palace."

"But where are we?"

She looked up with tears in her eyes. "Robyn, we're in China. In the Pleasure Palace of Kublai Khan, the chosen may enter, but you can never leave."

"We're prisoners?"

She glanced around her with fear in her eyes and silently nodded.

“Mai Ling, how did you get here?”

She pointed to a pretty Asian woman. It took me a while to recognize her out of her maid uniform.

“Sui Xang?”

I turned back to Mai.

"But why am I here? Why are you here?"

Mai avoided my gaze. "Mai? Please!"

She looked up with tears welling up in her eyes. "It is my job to prepare you for your wedding."

"My what?"

"You are to marry him."

"Who?"

"You are expected to be his Queen. To continue the dynasty."

I gripped her shoulders. "Tell me who the Hell I'm supposed to marry."

"Kublai. He's obsessed with you. It's been his plan all along."

"He told you this?"

She nodded.

"When?"

"When we arrived in China. Three days ago."

I bit my lip. "Mai, we have to get out of here."

She took my hand and helped me slowly stand. "Come."

She led me to the edge of the wall garden and pointed out across the valley. "See for yourself, Robyn."

She pointed out the perimeter of the gardens. A thick stone wall encircled us. Beyond it, a sheer drop of thousands of feet. We perched on a mountain top.

The only thing connecting us to the mainland was a narrow footbridge swaying in the high altitude winds. On the far side of the footbridge I could just about make out a guard tower.

Mai turned to me. "No one knows we're here, Robyn, there is no escape. Unless you can sprout wings, accept your fate, as I have."

There was no way I was going to spend my life as a slave bride. I studied the eyes of the servants watching us.

"We'll see about that. Take me to Khan."

CHAPTER EIGHTY TWO

I ran to the iron gates of the palace gardens. Beyond it was a meandering path leading to the main building. A mountain mist swirled along the narrow street.

Two guards blocked my path. They wore ancient ceremonial dress and held long handled axes. One sliced through the air and stopped abruptly before my eyes.

Black eyes peered through the visor of his helmet.

A voice barked in Mandarin and the two guards stood aside. A man dressed in green silk stepped out of the street. They bowed.

He held out his hand, "Robyn, may I escort you?"

As I recognized him I felt my hands clench into fists. "Khan. You can't do this. You can’t keep me a prisoner."

His eyes narrowed. "Allow me to explain and then, if you wish to leave, you are free to do so."

I tilted my head as if I hadn't heard him right.

"Have I not always treated you fairly, Robyn?"

He took my hand and led me back through the iron gates and under a long arch of cherry trees in full blossom.

We seemed to be moving towards a large bamboo framed three story house.

"You were going to explain."

"My distant ancestor, Emperor Kublai Khan, built a summer palace. The Pleasure Dome."

We reached a translucent silk screen wall. It moved aside and we climbed a dozen steps to it. Inside a large room was lined with candles and a strange, intoxicating scent.

He turned to view the sky. He pointed out the orange fireball of the sun as it fast slipped over the horizon.

"The Sky Dragon's journey is fast ending. There's only a little time left. We must hurry."

At one end sat two gold thrones of intricately carved dragons. He asked me sit in one as he took the other. We faced another silk screen, beyond which were dozens of silhouettes of kneeling figures.

Khan clapped his hands twice and the screen moved aside revealing a hundred or more young women of various nationalities. All dressed in silk kimonos and wearing their hair elaborately braided and pinned to the tops of their heads. They kept their kneeling position and bowed, kissing the bamboo floor.

"Welcome to my Pleasure Dome."

"Who are these women?"

"My courtesans. Women who showed promise in all fields of endeavor. Women who excelled. Women of beauty and intellect and daring. Unconventional women who dared to push boundaries to achieve success in a life that challenged them. But, alas, in comparison to you, they failed."

"Failed what?"

"They failed the final hurdle to becoming my Empress."

"I'm nothing special. How did they fail?"

He shrugged. "They were not you."

He clapped his hands twice more and a screen against the far wall moved aside. A hundred guards carrying long handled axes ran into the hall and each took up a position behind a kneeling courtesan. They raised their axes in the air and looked across to Khan.

"Khan, what’s happening?"

"That, my dear, is for you to decide."

"What do mean?"

"For their failure they must pay the ultimate price."

I gazed at the wavering ax heads of steel reflecting the orange fireball of the dwindling sun."

"At sunset they shall die"

"You can't. It's barbaric."

"Only you can save them, Robyn. As my Empress, my Queen, you can pardon their offenses and save them. Or you can take your freedom and leave now. Your choice."

I looked out at the bowing women and recognized the butterfly clasp in the hair of one in the front row.

He looked out at the rapidly sinking sun "Only choose quickly for the Sun Dragon's passage across the sky is almost over."

CHAPTER EIGHTY THREE

A life in a gilded cage married to a despot or the deaths of a hundred women like me on my conscience.

I looked in Kublai Khan's eyes and watched the last ambers of the dying sun spit up at the sky in defiance.

"Why me, Khan?"

"From the first moment I saw you, I knew I'd do anything to possess you. To bond with your unyielding spirit in divine love and ensure the continuation of the greatest dynasty on earth. This was my end game."

"Why did you help save Harry from the poison blade, only to have him killed?"

"The Red Queen was a possessive witch. If she couldn't have you, then she intended to make sure no one could. I needed Harry to save you from the Red Queen's jealousy."

"You knew Harry was at the Ice Ball in disguise?"

"Of course. You are all pieces on my chess board, my queen."

Then it all became clear to me.

"The Red Queen was your rival. Jealousy compelled you to kill her. You needed Harry to end the Red Queen. After that he was useless to you. Harry was a barrier preventing you from getting to me?"

"Harry was a pawn who played his part in the End Game. His sacrifice ensured the continuation of my dynasty."

"Your dynasty of psychotic jealousy?"

"Time is up."

I took a deep breath as a hundred axes twitched.

"You win Khan. Spare them and I shall be your bride."

He clapped twice and the guards lowered their axes and stood to attention. As quickly as they had arrived, they disappeared behind a silk screen.

Khan's eyes were ablaze with victory.

"Tomorrow we wed and a new dynasty shall be born."

He shouted out, "Prepare her."

The hundred courtesans silently rose to their feet and walked towards me. Pulling me off the throne and carrying me aloft. Dragging me out of the court of Kublai Khan.

I was taken to a bathroom the size of a tennis court. Mai stood in the center of the bamboo floor as steam rose from a large sunken marble bathtub.

She approached and clapped her hands. All the courtesans left except for five. Their gently insistent hands removed my kimono and left me naked.

"Mai, I had a chance to escape, but I couldn't."

Her eyes seemed to fill with understanding. "We are all grateful to you for sparing our lives."

She reached for the necklace that Harry had given me.

"No, please. It's the only thing I have that reminds me of Harry."

She reached around the back of my neck and fiddled with the clasp.

"When Kublai makes love to you and finds you wearing this, his jealousy will kill you just as it killed Harry."

"I'm counting on it. With my death, his insane dynasty of kidnap and murder ends."

"Death and rebirth."

"Excuse me?"

"He believes he is the reincarnation of the first Emperor Kublai Khan. And that you are the reincarnation of the first Empress, his queen."

"He's mad. He has to be stopped. Even if it means..."

Mai's hands dropped to her sides. She parted her kimono. She was naked beneath. She let it slip from her shoulders. She took my hand and guided me, descending the marble steps into the steam pool.

The other five women slipped off their kimonos and followed us into the pool. They each held sponges and soaps and began to gently scrub at my body.

"Mai, where is the wedding to be held?"

"At the temple of the Lake of Dragon Fire. An hour before dawn the ceremony begins. When the first dragon fire rises up into the sky, you will marry Kublai."

"Then we don't have much time. Will you help me?"

"I can give you something that will help make the ceremony bearable."

"How?"

"Some drugs invite kind spirits. They make the pain tolerable."

"Hallucinogenic? I don't need drugs. I need a plan for revenge."

Mai whispered, "I handpicked these courtesans. Each of us will follow your command to our deaths, my queen."

CHAPTER EIGHTY FOUR

An hour before dawn I was led by armed escort under the arches of cherry blossoms, through the iron gates and out across the footbridge. Down a winding road our long precession walked to a temple built on a lake.