Queens' Warriors (27 page)

Not knowing if her earlier attempt to contact her husbands had worked, Shari began the mental process once again, wondering how effective it would be through the pain she was now in. She hadn’t wanted to contact Shan Lin and Vincent. She had done her best to blank her mind of all thought where the two men were concerned. But the words Queen Sara had whispered in her ear during one of her more lucid moments had sent an icy spear of terror running through Shari.

“Once you’re gone, they will die. Do you know what madness a mated trio feels when one link is severed?” Shari had shuddered at the joyful malice in Sara’s voice. “No? Oh goodie! I not only get to break this lovely body, I also get to enjoy the fear you’ll writhe in as I enlighten you.” Sara had mockingly straightened her clothing and gracefully sank into a kneeling position directly in front of Shari.

Shari could barely manage to still the twitches her body involuntarily made from the pain the woman had inflicted. A sudden determination came over her to still any reaction to the words as the Queen began to speak.

“At first, you grieve just as any other person would who has lost their loved one. The hours of, I should have… I could have…why didn’t I just…if only I had the chance to do something differently. To once more hold a beloved, to have them with you one last time, selfish as you think it is, you would give anything to have them with you once again. You pray to your maker, you make deals, you beg. I’ll do
anything
if you’ll only return them to my loving embrace. Then the anger sets in. You feel betrayed by the one entity, who has in effect, taken your life from you. While this is supposed to help you through the steps of your grief, it never does. You slide deeper and deeper into your anger. You vacillate between why have you forsaken me,
Riad
, and how dare you take from me! And that is only the beginning.”

Sara had shifted slightly reaching her hand out to stroke it through the blood sliding down Shari’s left hip. Shari had had to bite her cheek to stop the painful hiss from escaping.

“And just when you think nothing could be worse, the mate still living turns on you. How long do you think highly trained Warriors would survive trying to beat each other to death hourly? Hmmm?” the Queen asked in a falsely pleasant voice. “Especially the most advanced trained Warriors. From my knowledge of the two, I can tell you they would literally tear each other to pieces. Sharp blades hacking at limbs. The mental pain the two could inflict upon each other…” The heavy pause from Queen Sara had the weight of sexual tension strumming through the room.

Shari lifted her veiled lids in time to see the lust sliding through the other woman’s eyes. It had been all she could do not to vomit on the woman. Swallowing back the rising bile, she quickly dropped her eyes back to the floor she had been staring at.

Remembering it now still had the power to make her gag. It was all she could do to stifle the urge and focus her mind on finding a way to contact Shan Lin and Vincent. There was no way in hell she would allow Queen Sara to destroy her husbands. To prevent that from happening, apparently, she had to live.

It took more than one try for her pain-wracked mind to focus as she lay on her side, panting from the effort.

Standing was painful, but out of necessity, she bore the pain. If there was any way out of this cell, she would find it or go down trying.

* * * * *

Shan Lin and Vincent both cursed loudly, simultaneously, and with great effect, if the stares and snickers sounding around them were anything to judge by.

Both men were wishing the direst actions on their aunt and in the most inventive ways they could conjure. Queen Sara had demanded their presence at her behest for the last time. They would never again be taking orders from the woman.

The men were making their way to Shari with all possible speed when they met up with Dorian. Exhausted and barely able to speak, Dorian had told Shan Lin and Vincent how Queen Sara’s retainers had come to their home and demanded Shari come to the Palace.

Knowing he could do nothing to stop it, Dorian had done the only thing he could. He had sent Jolan with her and admonished the young man to follow Shari and make sure nothing happened to her. If something did, he was to send a message to Dorian, who would then find Shan Lin and Vincent, and inform them while Jolan did everything in his power to help Shari escape Sara’s clutches.

“Why didn’t you see this earlier? We could have prevented it!”

Even as Vincent spoke the question, he already knew the answer.

“You know I can’t foretell the future of our lives. I’ve never been able to. Only those around us.”

Frustrated, Shan Lin did his best to inject a note of calm in his voice he wasn’t feeling.

“I wouldn’t even have seen this if Turing hadn’t bumped into me. It was a fluke, purely accidental. They all know they shouldn’t touch me if they don’t want to have knowledge of the outcome of their lives. Turing especially. He’s been with us the longest and is always most adamant about not wanting to know what’s going to happen. “

Shan Lin swallowed visibly.
The image of their wife passed out on the floor of the palace. Bloodied, broken, he and Vincent raging in despair and futility at not being able to help their wife.
He shuddered in horror.

“We’re damned lucky it happened period. Just give thanks to
Riad
it
did
happen. Now we no longer have to deal with this wild goose chase. Let’s move on.”

Sighing in frustration, Vincent did his best to stop his feeling of sheer terror from over riding his common sense. Shari would be fine, and they’d get there in time to prevent anything from happening to her.

“You’re right, and it’s no fault of yours. My apologies, brother mine. It’s just…”

Seeing the contrition in his brother’s heart, Shan Lin did his best to reassure his brother.

“I know. It’s only… Queen Sara now has power over the one who has become our life. I feel the same as you.”

Nodding his agreement, Vincent urged his mount faster, for once not caring what had to be done to insure the safety and well being of their wife.

“We should never have left her. We should have just taken her with us and to Hellios with what we knew was the right thing.” Vincent railed at his brother as their mounts rode hard toward the castle.

“And you know what would have happened if we did. The Queen would have taken her anyway.” Shan Lin shouted back.

They were less than half a mile from Aranak and would gain the town soon. Their ride through the streets would undoubtedly cause speculation and possibly panic, but neither brother cared. Let the whole damned town know what their Queen had finally done. The depths to which she would stoop to keep a throne that no longer belonged to her.

Within sight of the city, the brothers, along with five other riders from the Queen’s Guard who had ridden into the small village along the coast with them, pulled up their horses and stopped.

“There it is. You know what must be done. At all cost, the Queen must be driven from power so the True Queen can assume the throne.” Shan Lin spoke with a certainty the others around him never doubted. This hadn’t been the first time Shan Lin had seen the outcome of something the others had no notion was happening. There were very few who questioned the man anymore when he told them of events soon to take place.

Quietly, the men watched as Vincent turned to them and stared each one in the eyes. “The Queen’s Most Vicious Warrior” now stared back at them. The look in his eyes was one few ever saw up close and lived to tell about it.

“Not one of you needs to accompany us. You are free to do as you see fit. I’ll not ask anyone to go against what they believe is right. If I hadn’t seen what I did and known that Shan Lin has never been wrong, I’d be questioning this move myself.” Pausing again to let them take in his words, Vincent turned to look at the structure that towered over the modern city.

“But know; if you stay, you’ll have to hunt us both, and if you go with us, you’ll be hunted too. The decision has to be your own.”

Vincent turned to Shan Lin, and both men nodded once in unison then kicked their mounts into action never looking behind them.

* * * * *

Shari’s body shook and her head reeled with pain, but she never stopped pulling at the boards she’d found in the side of the wall, all the while thanking all those Hollywood producers for having secret passages hidden in the walls of castles in their movies.

She had been desperate when she began to knock on the walls of the cell. There was no way out of the room short of producing a key, or blowing the door off. Since she had no explosives, key, or lock picks, this was the only other thing she could think of.

She had begun by pounding a fist every few inches against the wall and making her way around the room. Positive she was grasping at straws, she had been stunned when one area had suddenly rung with a hollow sound. Scraping her hands and nails bloody, she had used every bit of the last of her strength to get this far.

Now she could feel the board finally giving way, and at the sound of a snap, she gave out an exhausted yelp of joy.

Panting and drawing breath from her effort, she closed her eyes momentarily before finally opening them to peer through the opening she had revealed. But the more she looked, the less she understood what she was actually seeing.

Just on the other side of the broken plank she had struggled with was a square opening sealed shut with concrete. Closing her eyes once more in disbelief, she brought her hands to her eyes and rubbed them. She had to be hallucinating due to all the pain she was in.

Opening them once more, she knew at last there was no escape out of the room.

Dropping down the wall suddenly in defeat as her weakened legs gave way, Shari put her head in her hands and became resigned to what was about to happen.

Sitting there, she could only thank her divine maker for the chance he had given her to meet two of the most loving, giving, and strongest Warriors it had been her pleasure to know.

She was so lost in thought it took her a few moments to realize she was no longer alone. Taking her hands away from her face and looking upward toward the door expecting the Queen to be there gloating about what was to come, she barely registered it was a friend.

“My Lady? It’s Jolan. Please, My Lady, you must get up and come to me. I cannot enter the room or I will be discovered. There are sensors in the room.” The words were whispered, but urgent as well as apologetic.

Unbelievably, someone had come to help her. At least she hoped it was the case. She had to believe he wasn’t here to take her to her own version of Hell.

She opened her mouth to answer when Jolan put his finger to his lips in the universal sign for silence. Painfully, and with the last of her strength, Shari used both hands against the floor and the wall to brace herself and slowly, very slowly rose to her feet all the while screaming to her body to cooperate.

She gained her feet and began to talk to herself to get them to move.

Just a few more steps, then you’ll get help and it will be easier. Promise.

Looking down, she ordered her injured leg to take a step and found the measly piece of cloth she’d used to staunch the flowing blood had barely slowed the tide. Her head reeled from the blood loss, but she ignored it as best she could.

Finally, after what seemed like hours but was actually only as few seconds, she both felt and watched her legs move. She sent encouragement to herself as if she was urging on an exhausted marathon runner.

That’s it. You can do it! Go little feet, go!

Before she knew it, she was at the doorway and through it. As soon as she had cleared the doorway, she felt Jolan’s arms come around her.

“We have to hurry. I’m so sorry, but we have to move fast. Even as small as you are, I can’t carry you through the halls. There would be too much talk and we don’t want any help from those inside.”

“Wha…what-t-t do you me-e-ean?” Shari stammered the question through the throbbing in her face.

“What? I’m sorry, I can’t understand you.” Jolan barely stopped as Shari tried her best to use a mouth that felt as if someone had shot it full of Novocain, then took away the pain killing sensation, leaving an inability use it.

“Wh-why can’t you-u-u hep’ me?” She said carefully as she continued to concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other.

“Oh, because if I was to carry you, we’d be headed the other way, toward the healer. Since you’re still on your feet, the inhabitants of the castle will assume you’ve been told if you can walk, you can leave. It’s the normal procedure of the Queen’s.”

Shari thought about nodding her head to signal she’d heard him, but her leg chose that moment to buckle. The only thing keeping her upright was Jolan, who continued to hold onto her.

“Keep going, My Lady. Lean on me as much as possible, but keep going.”

Even through her pain, Shari knew she had only minutes, if not seconds, and she was going to pass out. But she kept going with one single litany running through her head.

I’mgoingtokillher. I’mgoingtokillher. I’mgoingtokillher. I’mgoingtokillher…

Just then, a man holding linens and two women holding pails of water rounded the corner about ten feet in front of them. Behind them, Shari actually saw sunlight and knew she was going to make it. Even if it was just to the front door. She
would
get out of this place.