Shades of Gray (13 page)

“And when he’s on K’oish’ik?” he murmured. “Kuushoi can only reach him because of the cold between the stars.”

She smiled gently, letting him know she had other plans already in the making.

“What is it about Vartra that interests both of you so much?” he asked abruptly. “Why are both of you so obsessed with him?”

Ghyakulla shrugged, telling him in mental pictures that it was his mortality that made him so unlike Varza, who had preceded him. He was peaceful, gentler in every way than the Entity of War had been.
He is my natural mate
.

“Yet he refuses to choose between you and your sister.”

Her eyes clouded over, becoming distant as she looked to some time and place beyond him. “He will choose when it’s time,” she said, rising to leave.

MUCH to the annoyance of Carrie, Jo, and Kitra, Kaid had left the three females and taken the rest of their team down to one of the lower decks to run them through their battle suit and weapons’ drills.

“Absolutely not, it’s too dangerous to have you along. You don’t have the necessary experience,” was all he’d say about the matter before heading off to work with the others.

Knowing how angry she was about this, he was surprised when she interrupted him with a sending.

Sighing, he acknowledged her, knowing he’d have to deal with this himself since she was obviously refusing to do so.

“Run them through the drill one more time, Garras, then dismiss them,” he said, turning to leave. “Tell them to take their kit to their quarters so they can modify it where necessary.”

The older male nodded as he took over.

 

“They can’t have just disappeared,” Kaid was saying in frustration half an hour later, after talking to the cubs in the kitchens and searching their quarters for the missing pair.

“Apparently they have,” said Carrie dryly, continuing studiously to read the novel on her comp pad. “You’d better contact Toueesut and warn him.”

Ears flicking in annoyance, Kaid turned and stalked off down the corridors. When he was out of sight, he stopped and tapped in the code on his wrist unit for the Touiban’s personal comm.

“Toueesut, Zsurtul and Valden are missing again. Can you put out an alert on them?”

“Not needing one. They are in the comms room we set up for him to be reaching the M’zullians. Most amusing it is what they are doing.”

“What are they doing this time?” he asked with a now familiar sinking feeling in his stomach. How much more trouble could those two get up to before they met with Kezule? Letting Zsurtul go with Kusac was beginning to look more and more like an attractive proposition if it meant keeping him out of trouble, and Valden’s way.

Trouble and Valden are synonymous,
observed Carrie.

“Better it be if you are speaking to them for yourself,” chuckled the Touiban, signing off.

He called Jurrel up as he headed off at a brisk walk toward the elevator up to the comms room. “I thought I put you in charge of keeping an eye on Valden. How come he’s up to more mischief with our young Emperor?”

“You told me to report for battle dress drill and that I was to consider myself back on active duty,” Jurrel said reasonably. “I can’t do both, Liege. Not unless you put Valden on active duty too.”

“Hell will thaw first,” he muttered, half to himself, as he hit the call button for the elevator. “Keep him with you during training. May do him some good to see what the future holds for him when he’s finally graduated.”

“Aye, sir,” Jurrel replied.

 

The small room was filled with a press of fatigue-clad Touiban bodies, all twittering and gesticulating avidly to each other as they watched what Zsurtul and Valden were doing. At the Prince’s elbow, one stood out by his very stillness. At least, he assumed it was a male . . . both genders looked the same to him. Valden and Zsurtul were sitting at the room’s main console, their actions hidden from him by the press of bodies.

Glancing over the multitude, he could see no sign of Toueesut or any of his swarm.

“What’s going on here?” he demanded, lowering his voice and underscoring it with a faint growl of menace.

As one, the group began to break up and re-form into their own swarms—then, with much trilling, they surged toward the doorway with a complete disregard for his presence in the opening.

Hurriedly he stepped back into the corridor, waiting until their hasty exodus was over before stepping into the room again.

Valden and Zsurtul, heads bent together, were focused on the terminal at which the young Sholan sat, typing furiously. He could see a look of unholy glee on the youth’s face and a smile of satisfaction on Zsurtul’s.

“What the hell are you two doing now?” he demanded, striding over to them to look at the screen.

“A moment,” said Zsurtul, holding up a warning hand. “This is delicate.”

As Kaid swallowed his retort, Valden hit a final key then sat back in his chair with a sigh. “Done!”

“What have you done this time?” Kaid asked, his voice terrifyingly quiet.

“It’s like a tick, Commander,” said Valden, looking up at him, ears tilting in deference to his superior.

“A parasite,” agreed Zsurtul from beside him.

“It isn’t meant to be found, just to hide in various places and feed off the system,” explained Valden.

“Drawing energy from it, interfering with genuine messages and corrupting them ...”

“Sending people and goods to the wrong places ...”

“What d’you mean you can find no trace of the TeLaxaudin or their equipment?” K’hedduk asked, his voice ominously quiet. “You were allowed to head the Palace Security only because you claimed you could do the job.”

“I can, Majesty, but not even I can find them if they’re no longer here.” Kezain hesitated for a moment and glanced at his other five colleagues around the Council table. “We think they left before you claimed—rightfully of course—your throne. They weren’t at the banquet the night of the attack, and usually one of them attends.”

K’hedduk noted the faint trace of Kezain’s fear scent in the air and the way the other department Directors kept their attention on their comp pads—all save his Head Inquisitor.

“Impossible. I made sure all shuttles were grounded before I acted,” he hissed. “They’re here somewhere, and so is their technology!”

“Not if they left by other means,” said Kezain nervously. “Means we cannot fully imagine.”

“Don’t make excuses for your own incompetence. They can’t have vanished into thin air! Lufsuh, take over questioning the captives. Have the Palace and the City searched again. I want them found.”

“I’ve had the Palace searched three times, Majesty, and the City,” blustered Kezain. “Even Inquisitor Lufsuh is finding it impossible to extract information from the Pretender’s remaining counselors! There are rewards posted on every street corner here and in the City and villages outside ...”

“Enough!” K’hedduk snarled, bringing his hand down hard on the table. “Find them! Or Fabukki will replace you!”

“Quick! Hurry! We have very little time,” said Ayziss, draperies fluttering as he stalked around the research labs, following the three armed U’Churians as they hurriedly placed translocator units on every piece of equipment that the anxious TeLaxaudin pointed out to them.

“Do you want to take everything, Researcher?” asked one, stopping to look at him. “It would make our job faster if we just took the lot.”

“Yes, yes do it,” hummed the small alien. “Make sure you take all records! Nothing must be falling into their hands, nothing. I go see how my colleagues are doing. Tell me when done.”

He ran off unsteadily on his spindly bronze legs, passing quickly along the corridor to the medical labs area. Through Unity, which was working overtime right now, he knew they were well on the way to completing their tasks, but he felt safer with the others in case they were discovered. Pushing open the door, he found another six U’Churians busily marking all the many breeding tanks and ancillary equipment for retrieval.

Shoawomiss looked around as he entered. “Is it complete?” he asked. “Are you finished?”

“Not yet. How long before the Sand-dweller attacks?”

“Unity says they are on their way,” said Kouansishus, eyes swirling as they focused on him. “Not needing to disturb us for this, ask yourself you could.”

“Is worrying, waiting till last minutes like this,” hummed Ayziss. “What if Unity be wrong? What if someone finds us?”

“Camarilla watching, we be brought instantly home,” said Shoawomiss in disgust. “You fear too much. Go do your job! Do you not trust Unity when it comes to us?”

“Yes, yes, Unity I trust, just not these perfidious Sand-dwellers!” said Ayziss, wringing his hands together, emitting a scent that he knew was fearful but was unable to stop. “This one is the worst of them, he cares nothing for life ...”

“Then you know who to support on the Camarilla,” said Shoawomiss quietly. “It is Isolationists that get us to this state with their insane schemes.”

“Enough!” said Kouansishus sharply. “Have job to do! Unity says they draw very near!”

“Waaaa!” Ayziss’ humming rose plaintively into almost a shriek as, wringing his hands even harder, he began to fold down into as small and compact a shape as he could.

Suddenly darkness and a coldness as deep as that of space folded around him. Just as suddenly light and warmth returned, and with it the familiar scents of home.

“Come, Researcher Ayziss,” said the gentle voice of his U’Churian homekeeper as she leaned down to help him to his feet. “Warm scented oil baths to soothe your shattered nerves are waiting for you all in the Arrivals room.”

“Such a coward you are, Ayziss,” said Shoawomiss with disgust as he turned to thread his way past their U’Churian troops and through the piles of equipment now lying in the huge warehouse.

“Not understanding the trauma I suffer,” began Ayziss, accepting the U’Churian female’s hand to stand up.

“Shh, we will be there soon,” she said, ushering him before her to the exit. “They probably felt just as traumatized as you but managed to hide it.”

“Such a comfort to me you are,” he hummed.

Lufsuh stirred and reached for the carafe of water in front of him. “Majesty, Kezain may be right,” he said quietly as he refilled his drinking bowl. “I’ve seen how much equipment is missing. For it to be removed in any normal fashion would have disrupted the lab area, the Palace, and transport to the landing pad outside the Palace walls for at least a day. That didn’t happen. Our resources are limited. If you want the turret defenses and the force field that surrounds the Palace repaired and working, we’ll need everyone we can spare—unless you wish to draft more of the City’s population into the Palace?”