Shades of Gray (44 page)

“He should be with the others, not here,” said Kaid, frowning.

I’m not leaving my father!
The sending was so loud and clear that even Banner heard it.

The door opened suddenly, and Kusac stood there, clad in a colorful Prime wraparound robe that reached his knees.

“We’ll talk tomorrow, at the evening banquet,” he said. “You’ll meet Shaidan then.”

Kaid stared at him, shocked by how thin he was and how he leaned against the doorframe for support.

A wry smile briefly lifted the corners of Kusac’s mouth, and he flicked an ear in acknowledgment of Kaid’s observations. “Healing takes a lot of energy, you both know that.”

Even as Kaid watched, the pallor around his swordbrother’s eyes and nose began to fade, and he seemed to stand straighter.

Kusac glanced back into the room. “Shaidan, no. Keep your energy for yourself. You’re too young to be trying to help me,” he said sternly.

Without thinking, Kaid reached out to put his hand on Kusac’s shoulder.

“No, Kaid.” Kusac batted his arm away. “You’ve none to spare either. You got shot in the arm.” He hesitated a moment. “I’m glad T’Chebbi isn’t badly wounded. I’ll go see her too as soon as I can.”

Kaid nodded. “Burn wounds on her back, but not severe since the suit treated them fast. She’s more uncomfortable than anything else.”

A slightly distant look crossed Kusac’s face. “Send a unit to the sewage plant, Kaid—there’s a group of collaborators there now with a couple of the missing Inquisitors.”

Kaid cursed softly and turned to leave, but Kusac reached out to stop him. “ZSAHDI, relay orders now and in future from Captain Tallinu to his troops.”

“As you command, Captain Aldatan,” said the AI.

“The AI has receptors throughout the Palace. If you want privacy, just tell it,” Kusac said.

“How can we trust it—or Kezule?” asked Carrie.

“The Lord General Kezule is honorable,” said ZSAHDI, its tone as full of rebuke as was possible. “It is beneath his dignity to stoop to using me to spy. Unless you request my services, I do not monitor private quarters or conversations.”

“I’m tired of answering that question,” said Kusac, frowning. “What would we do in the same situation, Carrie? My presence here with my son should be proof enough of his good will. You don’t need to verbalize to communicate anyway! You’re here because of Kaid’s rank and as a courtesy to me. If you prefer to berth outside the Palace, in the City, you’re free to do so.”

Kaid had kept one ear on their conversation while relaying orders to the nearest patrol. Finished, he turned his attention back to them.

“Here is fine,” he said, putting a hand at the small of Carrie’s back to urge her not to inflame the situation further. “We don’t know Kezule as well as you do. Our last dealings with him personally were when he kidnapped Kashini and Dzaka. Carrie’s just anxious, as any mother would be, to make sure that Shaidan is fine.”

Kusac’s ears tilted back and his tail, which had been flicking slightly in irritation, stilled. “I haven’t said who my son’s mother is. Now is not the time to discuss it,” he said, turning back into the room. There was finality in his tone neither of them missed. “I need to sleep. We’ll talk tomorrow, as I said.”

As the door closed firmly behind him, they were left looking at Banner, whose face and the set of his ears was a study in blankness.

“He’s changed,” said Kaid.

“He’s very protective of Shaidan,” agreed Banner, examining a hangnail. “They’re very close.”

Carrie swung around, pushing Kaid aside to stride down the corridor toward their suite.

“You . . . men!” she snarled in English. “You’re all alike!”

“What did I do?” asked Kaid, throwing a puzzled look at Banner before following her.

“You trained him to be like you!”

 

Shaidan was bursting with questions. As he limped past where his son sat at the table, the board game for now abandoned, Kusac stopped to ruffle his hair. “We’ll talk tomorrow, Shaidan, I promise. Right now, I’m too exhausted to even think straight, let alone answer your questions.”

Shaidan tried to keep his ears upright as he slowly nodded his head.

“Patience, cub,” Kusac smiled, bending down to rub his cheek against his son’s before continuing into the bedroom where Zayshul waited.

Finally he could let go of the self-control that was all that had kept him on his feet. As he sagged against the closed door, she was there to help him over to the bed.

“You should have let Banner deal with it,” she scolded, lifting his legs up and placing the injured one back on the supporting cushions.

“I did what I had to,” he said, settling against the wedge of pillows. He shivered, looking across to the open window, and pulled the covers over himself. He shivered again, putting his hand up to brush his face as an eddy of cold air touched it.

“Nights, even in late spring, can be cold,” she said, moving over to close the window. “I brought the complete meal drinks you asked for. The Touiban was most helpful.”

“They’re good people. We’re lucky to have them as allies,” he said as she returned to the bedside and took a canister out of the night table’s cupboard to hand to him.

“You need to eat solid food as well,” she warned, sitting down beside him. “That isn’t enough on its own.”

“I will, I just need to boost my reserves right now.” He popped the can open and took a long drink.

“The crisis is over. It’s time for you to recover properly. I’m taking you off duty for the foreseeable future, and I shall tell Kezule that.”

“There are some things I have to do, like speak to the prisoners.”

“No patrols and no leading missions,” she said firmly.

He chuckled. “Yes, Doctor. Going back to what we were talking about . . .”

“Yes, I had noticed that though the scent marker is slightly fainter, it’s still there, but the compulsion isn’t.”

“I removed that, but we can’t admit it if we’re going to find out what’s happening to us.”

“You removed it . . . Just like that?” she said slowly.

“I can’t explain it,” he said awkwardly. “I just sensed where and what it was and changed it. No one else will notice, though, so we still need to be seen to be taking time alone together.”

“Do you know anything about the threat?”

“Not yet, but whatever it is didn’t want me to help King Zsurtul. Something is trying to control my mind, and I think it’s succeeding occasionally.”

“But why would anything—anyone—want to control you?”

“I’ve no idea. It isn’t as if I’m that important here.”

“Oh, but you are,” she said. “You’ve been placed second only to Kezule in charge of the military and security on K’oish’ik. You’ve volunteered to head a mission to rescue Zhalmo, Kezule’s favorite daughter and, if King Zsurtul is serious, his future Queen.”

Kusac chewed at his lip thoughtfully. He hadn’t looked at it from that perspective. “Oh, he’s serious, but I have no idea what prompted me to say we could rescue her . . .”

“Kusac. . .”

He looked up at her. “I
do
have a plan, Zayshul. I owe her. Like M’kou, she was always honest with me, even when I tried to use her.”

She gave him an old-fashioned look. “I don’t even want to ask about that.”

There was a gentle scratching at the door.

“Shaidan,” said Kusac. “We’ve been alone in here long enough to keep the rumors going. It should be reasonable enough for you to leave now.”

“I don’t smell of you, though,” she said, rising to her feet.

He beckoned her to lean down toward him and when she did, rubbed his face and jawline across her cheeks and neck. “That should do it,” he said, letting her go.

“You have scent glands there?” she asked, surprised, as she stood up.

He smiled briefly. “Oh, I meant to ask, does the Palace have a pool?”

“The Emperor—King Zsurtul I mean, has one in his private gymnasium, and there’s a public one over on the other side of the Palace, in the living quarters.”

“Might be an idea to go there too,” he said. “Explain the lack of our scents on each other.”

“I still have my old apartment here.”

“Could be useful,” he nodded. “Thank you for the drinks, Zayshul. Can you let Shaidan in and ask Banner to come in too?”

She nodded, going to the door and letting Shaidan in as she left.

The cub stood at the entrance uncertainly. “Lieutenant Banner says it is time I got ready for bed, Pappa. Where am I to sleep?”

“With me, of course,” said Kusac, holding a hand out toward him.

Face lighting up with a grin, Shaidan scampered over to his father, scrambling up onto the bed beside him.

“Pappa, is it now?” he asked, amused, wrapping his arm around him as Shaidan leaned against him.

“Mm,” the cub nodded. “It’s what the others call their fathers.”

“I suppose you can pick them up again now.”

“Only Dhyshac. He says he’s a Brother now. Will I be one too?”

“Yes, but you’ll also help your sister Kashini rule our Clan.”

“You wanted me, Kusac?” said Banner from the doorway.

“Yes. I wanted to be sure they’ve given you and Jayza quarters of your own.”

“Kezule put us in the suite next door. I got Jurrel posted there too, as you said.”

Kusac nodded. “We’re going to sleep now. Take the night off, go mingle, find out what they do for entertainment. You know the drill, get a feel for them and the mood of the people.”

“What about Shaidan?”

“He’s old enough to get himself ready for bed. Zayshul put his things in the drawers over there. You go, we’ll be fine. There’s a guard outside the door, and if I need you, I’ll call you on my wrist comm. Go,” he said as Banner hesitated, a dubious look on his face. “Report to me tomorrow morning. I’d be doing it myself if I weren’t so damned exhausted.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow, then,” said Banner.

 

Dusk was approaching as Kusac, dressed in his Brotherhood black robes, accompanied Shaidan up to the rooftop gardens.

“We’re not to be disturbed by anyone,” Kusac told the guard on duty at the elevator.

As the doors opened, Shaidan let out a long drawn-out “Oohh” of wonderment and clutched his father’s hand tightly.

“That’s a fountain,” said Kusac as he drew the cub with him out of the elevator toward it.

Shaidan had never seen anything like it before. Ahead of them, from a rectangular pool, sprays of water from half a dozen jets arched upward into the air for about six feet before curving earthward again and falling in a misty spray of water.

“It’s beautiful,” he whispered, almost afraid to break the silence. “I can smell the dampness in the air! Can I touch it?”

“Not today. You’re dressed up for the banquet.”

A gentle breeze ruffled Shaidan’s pelt, tugging at his tunic hem, sending the shorter hairs at the sides of his head that had escaped from the braids, across his face. He brushed them aside, turning to look up at his father. “That’s the wind?”

Kusac nodded and led him toward the western edge of the garden where trees hid the fencing. “It’s gentle now, but it can get very strong.”

Shaidan closed his eyes as they walked into the breeze, feeling it pass over his face and limbs like a gentle caress. Traces of foreign smells came to him, and opening his eyes, he widened his nostrils, sniffing deeply of the scents carried on the evening air.

“There’s so much to smell,” he said. “Scents I’ve never smelled before. It’s so different from looking at it in picture books or on your comp pad. It’s nothing like Kij’ik!”

“This is a world, Shaidan, not an enclosed station in space.” Stopping beside a shrub, Kusac pointed to the flowers. “Smell them. Flowers are often scented.”

Shaidan reached for the flower, holding it carefully in his hand as he sniffed deeply—then promptly sneezed.

“You aren’t meant to stick your nose into the pollen,” his father laughed, taking a handkerchief out of his pocket and handing it to his son. “Your nose is all yellow with it now.”

Shaidan wiped his nose vigorously and shoved the hanky into his tunic pocket. “Look, that bush has red flowers . . . They’re a different color and shape! Can I go look?”

“Yes, but look up at the sky first.”

Shaidan looked up. As far as his eyes could see, there stretched the sky and the land.

“Look, something’s on fire!” he said, pointing toward where the dull red orb of the sinking sun disappeared behind the garden’s trees.

“That’s the sun. It’s a star far up in space that heats this world. I know you learned about them on my comp.”

Shaidan followed as his father pushed the greenery aside to make a path for them to the railing. “I remember, but I never thought it would look like this!”

Now they had a clear view of the sunset.