By Anne Fraser and Barbara Zuchegna
With assistance from Sharon Pickrel and Jean Lamb
Copyright 1999

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Richard, with Adrian and Jake and half a dozen Sa'idi vampires, was waiting just around the corner from the main corridor to the harem. Directly across the mouth of the corridor, Will Scrope and another group of the Sa'idians, both mortal and vampire, waited and watched for Richard's orders. Sporadic bursts of distant gunfire revealed that more of the Sa'idians were continuing to find small pockets of resistance throughout the palace. So long as they did, they could not support Richard's group here.

There was no way to do this but to do it. They would have to charge the barricade that blocked the corridor; with the second floor to clear of guardsmen, Richard did not have the manpower to leave a large enough force here to contain the large group of guards behind the barricade. If they broke through into the harem, the fight to get them out would be bloody, and would probably kill most or all of the women there. They had to be removed, and quickly. There was no guarantee that more guardsmen would not find their way into this part of the palace and come at Richard's small force from behind.

Richard turned to Adrian. "Tell T'beth we will provide covering fire, but that she and her companion are to remove, as silently as possible, whatever they have used to block the harem entrance from the inside."

Adrian didn't bother to convey T'beth's response, "High goddamned time," to Richard. He merely nodded, to indicate that she had received the order. With a small gesture to Will, Richard set several of his own men and Will's to firing down the corridor toward the barricade, their heads and gun barrels extended as little as possible into the open. The response was immediate and overdone. Bullets sang down the corridor and into the marble wall behind Richard's people in far larger numbers than was wise, for so little provocation, showering them with stinging marble fragments. Clearly, no one was in charge of conducting the guards' defense. The response had been panic.

While it was going on, Jake reached out to touch Adrian's arm. His silent message was troubled. 'Adrian, you know our fearless leader is gonna be the first one around that damned corner, don't you?'

Adrian turned to look at him, startled. That would make no sense at all. Adrian himself, and the vampires from Sa'idi, could charge the barricade with a reasonable chance of receiving no wounds from which they could not recover. Richard couldn't. 'No, he won't,' he sent back to Jake. 'He's not an idiot, Jake.'

Jake was busy trying to keep flying marble fragments from taking out an eye. Around the upraised hem of his burnoose, he glared at Adrian. 'You didn't watch him over by the barracks, Talbot. I did. He only got that hole in his arm because he threw himself out in the open ... and Nasrin didn't need his help. She got knocked down, not shot. Adrian, I don't think he gives a shit what happens to him.' He was remembering the day after the fight with the border patrol, when he had inadvertently come across Richard in a moment when Richard had given way to whatever it was that drove him ... and before Richard could conceal it from him. Drawing that memory back now ... the look on Richard's face, he 'sent' the picture to Adrian as vividly as he could make it.

The gunfire had stopped. Richard was looking at Adrian, expectantly, and Adrian 'sent' a quick query to T'beth, and then nodded to Richard. T'beth was ready. As Richard turned away, Adrian looked back at Jake and nodded, and 'sent' him a brief, 'I'll take care of it.' But Jake was damned if he knew how. Richard wasn't going to be persuaded by anything Adrian had to say.

With a quick gesture, Richard ordered all his group forward, lined up on either side of the mouth of the main corridor. Jake was right, Adrian thought. Richard himself was right at the corner ... and he meant to go first. Carefully, Adrian eased himself as close to Richard as he could, and pulled Jake with him.

Richard took a deep breath, raised his hand, and bent forward, ready to go. All of his men tensed, prepared to follow. Richard didn't notice Adrian, beside him, locking eyes with Will Scrope and laying on his most powerful whammy: 'You will stay where you are. You will not charge the barricade.' Will's face went slack, his eyes vacant, just as Richard's hand fell abruptly and the Sa'idi vampires hurled themselves forward.

Richard did, too ... and fell headlong over Adrian's adroitly placed foot. Lunging across his prone body, Adrian slammed Jake down on top of him with one jerk on his arm, and 'sent' an ordered 'Stay!' with all the considerable power of his mind. Jake couldn't have disobeyed if he'd wanted to.

Adrian Talbot, a far cry from the suave and sartorially elegant professor from Toronto, filthy and bloody and with his idiotic black headband canted across his forehead, led the Sa'idi vampires into the hail of bullets the panicking guards fired, just as T'beth threw open the harem door and opened up on them from behind. Ravan, the female vampire who had accompanied her to the harem, was right beside her, with an equally eager look on her dark face.

With Richard squirming violently beneath him, and using language Jake had never heard from him before, Jake could only watch the assault. He saw T'beth, grinning like a ravening wolf, throw aside her smoking rifle and hurl herself, bare-handed into the chaotic mass of guardsmen, with Ravan on her heels. T'beth was wounded, and paying no attention to it at all. Jake saw her bare foot take one guardsman's head half off his shoulders while the edge of her hand hit another just above the bridge of his nose hard enough to fracture bone and send the broken pieces deep into the brain. Both men fell like deflated balloons and T'beth whirled after anyone else she could reach just as Adrian and his Sa'idians came scrambling over the barricade and into the melee. Jake clearly heard her snarl, "Goddammit, Talbot ... not yet!" But it was too late, and Adrian's troops were already savaging the hopeless guardsmen.

Richard had twisted under Jake and did something with his foot that seriously jeopardized Jake's prospects of future progeny. With an agonized scream, Jake rolled away and Richard scrambled to his feet. But the shooting had abruptly stopped, and it was obvious that the Sa'idi vampires, and Adrian, needed no help ... and no interference. Even T'beth was snacking. Seething, as furious as Jake had ever seen him, Richard stalked down the corridor into the mess, grabbed Adrian with one hand, and hauled him off the guardsman who was serving as the entree du jour. With everything that was in him, Richard swung a roundhouse right that took Adrian right in the mouth and dropped him like a stone. Jake could see the blood flying from Adrian's mouth as he went down.

Richard didn't wait to see the effect. He turned on his heel, walked back to help Jake to his feet, and said, his voice surprisingly normal, "Forgive me. I didn't realize he was compelling you, Jake, until it was too late to stop the blow. Are you all right?"

Jake couldn't straighten up. He was damned if he was going to hold his privates ... but he surely wanted to. Trying to sound as calm as Richard did, he said in a strangled voice, "I will be. That was a nasty trick for a king to pull, Richard."

Richard's smile was grim. "A king who is smaller than most of his adversaries had better learn a nasty trick or two. Be grateful I did not have a sword in my hand."

Adrian, spitting his own blood, came up behind Richard and spun him around. "What was I supposed to do, you damned fool?" he said, aggrieved. "Let you run out into a hail of gunfire and get yourself killed?" Adrian himself had suffered several wounds, none of which was still bleeding. Behind him, T'beth, liberally splashed with other people's blood, was smiling almost contentedly.

"You were supposed," Richard said icily, with no forgiveness at all in his voice, "to allow me to see to my own welfare as I see fit. I have given you no leave to serve as my nursemaid!"

Adrian's already healing face was thrust forward into Richard's. "If I'd waited for your leave, you'd be splattered all over the damned corridor! If you want to get yourself killed, Richard, go do it on your own fucking time. You came on this trip to help me, and I'm not gonna have you using me or T'beth to off yourself like some pouting kid!"

Jake had forgotten all about his various aching body parts. He watched Richard's face go deathly white, and he fully expected Richard to throw himself at Adrian ... who could easily tuck Richard under one arm and cart him off before they made any more of a scene for the avidly watching Sa'idians ... and probably would. But Richard seemed to realize it, too, and his furious frustration was building to the point where he was going to say something Adrian would never be able to forgive.

T'beth, as aware as Jake of how close these two were to destroying a friendship that had come to mean quite a lot to both of them, slipped suddenly in between them and, draping her slim body over Richard's, with her arms around his neck, set her mouth firmly against his. She knew him; no amount of anger with Adrian would make him be discourteous to her. He was not enthusiastic, but he suffered her kiss without resistance, and when she murmured against his mouth, "Temper, temper ... wanta go fuck it off? You won't get a better offer..." Richard stared at her for a long moment and then, incredibly, laughed out loud.

Will Scrope, who had come out of Adrian's whammy and, like Jake, had been expecting mayhem from Richard, now moved past him and headed for the harem. Will was the caretaker, Jake thought, and the women there must be seen to and protected. Jake looked at Adrian. "What now?" he asked, aloud.

It was Richard who answered. Turning to Jake, with T'beth's arms still draped around his neck, he said, "A sweep of the entire main floor must be made, Jake, and each stairway to the second floor guarded. Then we will do the same up there, to be certain that we have removed all the guardsmen." He looked across T'beth's shoulder to Adrian. "I would appreciate it if you would take this group and start from this end of the building, and 'send' to one of the Sa'idians with Ed that he and his people are to start from the barracks end. As they pass each stairway, two men are to be left to guard it. When that is done, we will move on the upper floor and then the basement."

Adrian hesitated. Jake groaned inwardly. 'Don't blow it, Talbot,' he thought. 'He's not gonna apologize, and that's as much of an olive branch as you're gonna get.'

If Adrian heard him, he gave no sign of it. After the smallest hesitation, he just nodded, and went to collect his men.

T'beth stepped back from Richard, sudden anger flaring. "All the boys go off to play, and I'm supposed to go sit in some damned corner and wait for the great big mans to protect me? Not bloody likely, Rick."

There was genuine affection in Richard's smile. "Lady, you are to participate in whatever part of this process you wish. I thought that you would prefer not to be under Adrian's or Ed's command, as you are a far more accomplished warrior than either of them."

T'beth studied his face for a moment, not entirely certain he wasn't being sarcastic, and then smiled back at him. "Thank you," she said sincerely. "In that case, I think I'd like to check out that basement before anyone else gets down there to spoil the fun."

She had already started to move away when Richard caught her arm, and she paused, eyebrows raised inquiringly. "Take care," Richard said. "It would be a great embarrassment to us all if you were to suffer misadventure now, lady, when it was to secure your safety that this entire endeavor was set in motion."

"Bullshit," T'beth said succinctly. "This entire endeavor was set in motion, Richard, because you needed something to do and fucking me seemed like a good idea at the time." She leaned back toward him and brushed her lips against his warmly. "It wouldn't have been half as much fun if Talbot had come to rescue me by himself. See you, Rick."

Unarmed, except for the crossbow slung over her shoulder, T'beth waved at Jake and took off, running lightly, back toward the harem and the nearest stairway to the basement.

The first thing Lily was aware of was Stephen's familiar masculine scent, that pleasant mix of aftershave, tweed, good whiskey and the gel he used to control his thick black hair. Her eyes opened ... not easily, and after a moment, the blurred form looming over her resolved itself into Stephen's concerned face. He turned his head away for a second to say, "Doni?" and then smiled down at her. "Back with us? About time."

Lily tried to answer and was dismayed to realize that she couldn't. Her mouth opened, but she could not form words. Worse, when she tried to lift her hands, she found them as limp on the bed beneath her as if she had been totally paralyzed.

Paralyzed. The thought terrified her. She couldn't remember, and yet she couldn't move...

Doni appeared beside Stephen, and immediately said, in her best brisk, no nonsense manner, "Settle down, Lily. You're okay. Wait a minute."

She felt Doni's mind slip into hers, and just that quickly, she had full control of her body again. Anger, immediate and blazing, bloomed as she struggled to sit up. "What in the hell have you done to me?"

"Fed you," Doni said calmly. She took Lily's arm and helped her to swing around and sit on the edge of the bed. "Fed you, and messed with your metabolism a little so that you could put to use a bit more quickly than normal the nutrients I've been pouring into you." She hung on easily as Lily tried to shake her arm off. "And I've shot you so full of appetite stimulants that you'll probably chew the leg off of anyone who stands still too long, if you don't have access to anything more palatable. Lily, settle down." Her voice hardened, and she squatted in front of her best friend, taking both shoulders in her hands. "You're okay. I promise you. I just had to immobilize you for a while to tend to a few things you were messing up. The muscles resist; so you're knotted up and it will take a few minutes for the tension to ease. The baby is fine ... and contentedly asleep, probably for the first time in weeks. Don't try to stand up yet."

Lily's great brown eyes were furiously accusatory. "Damn you, Doni, you had no right..."

"Yes, I did. I'm a Healer, and you were an entity badly in need of healing. Two entities, for that matter. I had absolutely no choice; you know that. You were about to zap yourself out to your damned king, and you weren't strong enough to do it safely. I had to step in."

At the mention of Richard, Lily forgot everything else, and probably didn't hear the rest of what Doni had said. Her eyes turned inward at once, seeking him. Doni could see the panic reawakening, and tightened her hold. If Lily tried to go anywhere, Doni was going with her. More softly, Doni said, "Where is he, Lily? Do you know?"

Lily shook her head miserably; she had connected with him now, and she was feeling some small part of what he felt. "Somewhere far away ... it's nighttime there when it's day here. I've found him in caves, in tents ... I don't know."

Doni sighed. "Well, obviously, he's still alive, and if he's hurt, it can't be too serious. Do you know what he's doing?" She couldn't know exactly, but it was possible, even with her one-sided link, to get impressions.

Lily's eyes were unfocused. She said, "He's fighting, I think ... he was shot ... his arm..."

"And you were going to go to him?" Exasperation roughened Doni's voice again. "Lily, sweetheart, if he's in the middle of a serious fight, do you really think he needs to be distracted by having you pop up out of nowhere? You might have got him killed." As this got through to Lily, and her shoulders loosened in Doni's hands, Doni looked up at Stephen. "Get Liam here. At least we can try to find out where the damned man is."

Before Stephen could send his mental call out, there was a soft knock at the door. Dinah didn't wait for anyone to invite her in. She opened the door at once, juggling the tray she was carrying, and then backed around the edge of the door and into the room. "I thought maybe somebody could use some coffee," she said defensively, her eyes avoiding Doni's. "Unless you'd rather just zap some up on your own?" Her eyes were on Stephen, challengingly, but her concern was for Lily, and for being left out of what was happening with her.

"Coffee?" Doni straightened, standing. The aroma was unbearably seductive. At home, Kate had been refusing her real coffee for so long...

"Excellent coffee, as it happens," Dinah said. "Mac is nothing short of a genius with some beans, a grinder, and a pot of water. And he won't tell me his secret." She set the tray down on the dresser and began to fill cups, but her eyes strayed to Lily. "How y'doing?"

"I'm fine, Dinah. And I'd love coffee." She looked up at Doni. "This once?" And Doni nodded.

When everyone was served with a steaming mug, Dinah came over to sit beside Lily on the bed. "You look better," she conceded.

"I feel better. Comes from choosing my friends carefully." Lily looked up at Doni again, and the expression on Doni's face as she took her first sip made her smile. "Now, if I could just get them to stop sniping at each other..."

There was a sudden whoosh of displaced air and Liam was standing beside Stephen, looking harried. "What is it?" he said irritably. "Stephen, you know we're buried under with all the New Ones..." He stopped, inhaling deeply. "Is that fresh coffee?" His eyes followed the scent to the pot on the dresser. "May I? It smells wonderful."

Dinah started to rise. "I'll get another mug..."

"No, no, m'dear. Don't trouble yourself." Liam had a mug in his hand as he reached for the pot.

As always, watching one of the Awakened create an object out of nothingness irritated Dinah, but Lily was her overriding concern at the moment, and she said nothing. Doni didn't wait for Liam to try his coffee. She said, "Liam, we need to locate Richard before our girl here gets him or herself killed. Apparently, he's in some kind of fight, and if we can locate him, maybe we can help before Lily does something really stupid."

Liam's eyes came to rest on Lily with warm understanding. He had long since formed his own suspicions about what was happening with Lily, a girl he deeply loved and admired, and her reaction, in the infirmary, to the dreams of the man she had married had only reinforced those suspicions. He wasn't at all surprised to have them confirmed. "How much of a connection do we have here?" he asked.

Lily started to answer, but Doni's voice cut across what she had been about to say. "Don't ask how, but she's bonded with him." As Liam's eyebrows rose, she added, "And no, he hasn't been Awakened. It's a one-way link."

"That's not possible." Liam's eyes went from her to Lily and back. "That's never happened."

"Tell her," Doni said. "Maybe if she'd known it was impossible, she wouldn't have done it."

Liam was frowning at Lily. "And he isn't aware of it?" She shook her head, the heavy blonde curls swaying across her back, and he sighed. "Lily, dear, we will have to straighten that out."

Doni interrupted again. She was very much in Healer mode, and anything that wasn't to the benefit of her patient was extraneous. "Liam," she said, "first, let's find him and get him back alive. I've got a woman and a baby here who aren't going to survive if he doesn't, so let's take first things first."

"Yes ... yes, of course." Liam glanced around and then said, "Stephen, if you'd bring those chairs over here and join me ... I may need your support."

Stephen obeyed, bringing the two straight-backed chairs over to the bed, and settled down beside Liam. Doni, watching, stood behind them.

Liam reached out and took Lily's hands in his. "Just relax, Lily dear. Go to him, and I'll follow."

Dinah hated this. She had tried all her life to remain independent of the Awakened, had felt an anger and resentment toward them as a group that she was well aware probably wasn't justified. Despite affection for individuals, like Lily and Stephen, everything about the Awakened, in the exercise of their powers, caused the hair to rise on the back of her neck. It did so now, as Lily's eyes drifted closed and her mind went seeking ... and Liam, closing his own eyes, went with her. The sudden ... emptiness of their bodies was uncomfortably eerie.

It was very still in the room for a few minutes. Lily seemed hardly to breathe at all, and Doni and Stephen were watching her with fierce concentration. Liam's head had fallen forward against his chest. And then, with a heavy sigh, he was back inside himself again, his head lifting. Lily took a bit longer to return.

Liam didn't turn his head to look at Doni; although he was speaking to her and to Stephen, his eyes stayed on Lily's. "I can't tell you where he is. I could go there, with her, but I can't identify a locale. He's in a large building, something like an Arabian Nights palace, and there's fighting of some kind going on ... distantly, now, from him. He is not alone; there are two other men with him, and they seem to be searching." He turned his head, now, to look at Stephen. "I could, perhaps, trace him if I could go to wherever he was last that we know of."

"Toronto," Stephen said. "The note he sent to Will came from Toronto."

"Do you know where in Toronto?" Stephen shook his head, and Liam shrugged. "Then I don't know how..."

"Richard!"

Lily's agonized scream stopped all of them dead. The look of horror on her face was crystal clear. Doni, standing behind Liam, couldn't get to her in time. With a small popping noise and a quick inrush of air, Lily was gone.

"What happened?" Dinah demanded, thoroughly demoralized. She'd seen Lily do this before, had seen other Awakeneds do it, but never so unexpectedly. "Where is she?"

It was Liam who answered. "She has gone to him. The connection was broken, and she has gone to where it was."

Dinah was frowning fiercely. She looked up at Doni and saw the sudden, shattering grief there. "What does he mean, 'the connection was broken?'"

Tears were welling in Doni's dark eyes as Stephen reached out a steadying hand to her. "Dinah," Stephen said, "he means that Richard's mind shut down; Lily couldn't feel him anymore."

Dinah's eyes darted from him to Doni, to Liam, and back. "Shut down?" she said. "Are you saying he's dead?"

But nobody answered this time.