Shades of Gray (82 page)

“It would seem so,” said Zsurtul. “The TeLaxaudin have always been a law unto themselves, coming and going as they saw fit, but always they have aided us. I can find no fault with any of their actions on K’oish’ik at least. I can’t speak for the
Kz’adul
, but as soon as your captivity was discovered, Giyarishis was anxious to help you, Kusac.”

“I wasn’t in much of a state to notice anything at the time,” Kusac said.

“I did inform Carrie you were both safe,” Zsurtul added. “Likely she’ll join you at the pool. Until later, then.”

“We’ll meet back here at 18:00 hours,” said Kezule. “You can update us on your talk with Rezac.”

Dismissed, they left the library and headed for the entrance to the pool.

“He’s taken to this kingship thing well, don’t you think?” said Kaid.

“He was born to it,” said Kusac. “He’s making a good king, though. And he’s a Warrior.” The last held a note of fierceness in it as he looked at Kaid, almost daring him to disagree. “It was always there; it just needed our culture to bring it out.”

“Indeed,” said Kaid. “You won’t find me disagreeing with that. I believe more Primes could be fighters if they weren’t brought up to believe the opposite.” He let a small silence fall as they passed through the guard point into the corridor leading to the King’s private gym and pool.

“That was some wild ride you took.”

“I had no choice. I knew I wasn’t going to make it to safety. My claws hurt,” he said, flexing those on his hands unconsciously. “I had a hard time holding onto that damned beast.”

“Let me check them,” said Kaid stopping abruptly and holding out a hand.

“They’re fine, just tender.”

“Let me judge. You know how easily they can be permanently damaged if you let an injury go.”

Sighing, Kusac allowed Kaid to examine them, pressing them out of their sheaths to examine the claw bed.

“You’re lucky,” he said, letting his hands go. “You’ve a couple of bruised ones on your right hand and a slight tear at the nail bed on your left index finger. I’ll dress the finger after our swim, and you can use the bruise ointment on the others. You do have some left in your first aid kit, don’t you?”

“I ran out of it on Kij’ik,” he admitted as they went through the door into the pool area.

“No problem, we’ve plenty of our own stores on the
Tooshu
. That’s one thing we’ll need to see issued to all our team. Better take that dressing off your forearm too, it’s filthy now.”

Kusac glanced at the dressing. “Yeah, it is a mess,” he agreed. “It’s almost healed now. Just like old times, eh?” he added, breathing in the familiar smell of the heated mineral water as he led the way to the changing area and showers. “Getting ready for a mission.”

“You’re thinking of Jalna,” said Kaid.” You seem to know your way around.”

“The pool rooms are all built on the same design—either this one or the one at their Summer Palace,” Kusac replied, unbuckling his belt and hauling off his tunic, wincing as he did so. “Dammit, I hurt everywhere,” he muttered, throwing his tunic down on the bench.

“You took a hefty fall when you leaped off the beast.”

“You saw it?” he asked in surprise.

“Couldn’t miss it. Your ride through the market square cleared everyone out of the way,” he chuckled. “Granted I was running after you as soon as the way cleared, but I had a good view of you.”

“Did you see Annuur disappear?”

Kaid hesitated. “I thought I saw Annuur running off with you in pursuit, but I couldn’t be sure. I only saw you jumping off the beast. I believe he was there, though.”

“Why? Because of the pouch?”

“That and because on the
Kz’adul
, the TeLaxaudin and the Primes would suddenly appear and disappear. Until now, I’d forgotten about that. And that matches what you said happened to you on Kij’ik.”

“I
will
remember what they made me forget,” Kusac said. “And when I do . . .” He left the sentence hanging and sighed. “You’re right, I must focus on the job ahead of us. Time enough for that when we return.”

“Aye,” said Kaid, slapping him on the shoulder. “Leave it till then. There’s nothing we can do right now with them all vanishing like that. Maybe they’ll get careless while we’re away, leave a clue or two as to where to find them. Now let’s wash this dirt off ourselves and then go soak in that warm water.”

 

The pool room was smaller than the one in Kij’ik, but then it was constrained by the size and age of the Palace.

“Mineral waters?” asked Kaid as they walked along the lounging area.

“The primordial pool of their religion,” said Kusac absently, heading for the ramped entrance to the water. “They believe life on their world started in such a pool. Although they’re warm-blooded reptiles, they do share some characteristics of their ancestors. They can absorb the water and minerals, to an extent, through their skin.”

“It’s hot!”

Kusac grinned at him as he waded into the water. “It’s a volcanic mineral pool, Kaid, of course it’s hot.”

“You mean the original was,” said Kaid, following him in.

“So I’m told. It’s out by their Summer Palace, up in the mountains, where it’s cooler,” he said, submerging his body and treading water, letting the heat begin to ease away his aches.

“This is a cross between a bath and a swimming pool,” said Kaid, starting to swim. “I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed either. What’s on the island?”

Kusac looked over to it. Like the one on the Outpost, it was planted with bushes and shrubs.

“Not sure,” he said, pushing off from the bottom and beginning to swim over to it. “Kij’ik had small clearings among the bushes and a jet pool. This may be the same.”

“Jet pool?”

“A small, hotter pool fed by jets of water that massage you,” said Kusac.

They’d reached the shallows at the edge of the island and left the water. As soon as they stood up, they could see the jet pool, and Kusac headed straight for it.

Climbing down the steps, he moved around till he found a ledge that suited him and sat down, letting the jets play over his aching shoulders and sides.

“You should try it,” he murmured, closing his eyes and resting his neck on the padded rim of the pool.

“I will in a minute,” said Kaid. “I want to see the rest of the island first.”

Kusac grunted a reply and relaxed, letting himself drift in the hot water. He was almost asleep when a loud splash, followed by his son’s mental voice, made him sit up, suddenly alert.

Shaidan, what are you doing here?
he asked, watching as his son swam over to join him.

It’s second mealtime, and no. You’re here now,
the cub sent, scrambling out of the water and running over to him.

“You shouldn’t be wandering around the Palace on your own, cub,” said Kaid, emerging from the bushes.

“I don’t, but I knew Pappa was here,” Shaidan said, sitting on the edge of the jet pool. “This is important.”

Kusac moved around beside him. “What’s so important you had to sneak away from Brother Tanjo to tell me?”

“Gaylla will have told him I’m with you so he doesn’t worry,” Shaidan reassured him. “I found something that shouldn’t be here.”

Kusac glanced at Kaid who squatted down beside them. “What did you find?”

“I don’t know what it is,” he said, “but I know you will.”

“Then how do you know it doesn’t belong here?” asked Kaid.

“It’s not part of ZSADHI, and it’s the same as the one on Kij’ik.”

Kusac stiffened. “In what way?”

“It links places and information together. I remember thinking it was odd on Kij’ik, because it didn’t go to anywhere, like to a processing unit. It just . . . was.”

“Where was it on Kij’ik?”

Shaidan shrugged. “Everywhere, Pappa. It ran behind the walls.”

A memory surfaced, of sensing such a network when he was on his way up to Challenge Kezule and demand his son and freedom for him and his crew. He’d sensed it near the elevator he’d used. Then events had rushed upon him. He’d been injured, shot by a civilian Prime for no reason anyone had determined at the time or after. The shot had been intended to kill him—it was sheer luck it hadn’t. Had Giyarishis, the TeLaxaudin on Kij’ik, controlled that male through this network? Yet Giyarishis had helped him heal.

“What’re you thinking?” Kaid asked quietly.

He shook his head, signaling
Not yet,
to him. Grasping the edge of the pool, he hauled himself out of the water.

“Show me,” he said to Shaidan.

“It was in the back wall here,” said Shaidan, leading him away from the pool and among the bushes.

 

They’d felt their way along the whole back wall, both physically, and mentally, but had found nothing.

“It was here a week ago,” said Shaidan, close to tears. “It was!”

“I believe you,” said Kusac, ruffling his son’s ears. “But it’s not here now.”

Shaidan pulled away and ran to the far edge of the small island, where it joined another wall, and began passing his hands across it.

“Shaidan, it’s time you went back to Brother Tanjo and had your meal.”

“No, wait! There’s something here,” the cub said, looking over his shoulder at them.

Reaching out with his mind, Kusac felt it immediately. It was like a small section of a net, crisscrossing in all directions, made of filaments thinner than a hair. It felt almost alive, and there was something familiar about it beyond the fact that it was what he’d sensed on Kij’ik. Suddenly, it was gone.

“What the hell!” exclaimed Kaid, running over to where Shaidan stood, closely followed by Kusac. “I
felt
that, and I felt it disappear!”

“I haven’t told anyone but Carrie this,” said Kusac grimly as he ran his hand over the wall, making sure the small piece of web was indeed gone. “That day when I got knocked out near Annuur and his sept in the new town, I sensed this then. It wasn’t physically there, but it connected their minds—the Cabbarans and the TeLaxaudin. It was part technology and part organic. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that now Annuur has left, so has the last of their network. In fact, I think I was knocked out because I sensed it.”

“So do I,” said Kaid, equally grim.

“Have they been spying on us?” asked Shaidan.

Suddenly remembering his son was there, Kusac cut their conversation dead. “Well done for noticing that and telling me about it, Shaidan, but now you have to get back to Brother Tanjo and your classes.”

“But why was that network there? Were they spying on us?” Shaidan persisted.

“I don’t know, Shaidan,” Kusac replied. “But it’s gone now, and that’s what really matters. Come along, I’ll walk you back through the showers and get a guard to escort you to Brother Tanjo,” he said, putting his hand on his son’s shoulder.

Wait here, I’ll be back shortly,
he sent to Kaid.

 

When he returned, Kaid was relaxing in the jet pool.

“They’re not just spying on us,” he said as he climbed in beside him, “they’re actively affecting what we do, manipulating us!”

“How do you figure that? Not that I’m disagreeing.”

“We know Kezule’s been altered quite considerably, and not all of it has been the Primes. He’s been given ancient memories to fuel his desire to recombine his people into one race again.”

“Agreed, but it’s a benign change.”

“How about the changes in me? They are due to Annuur and Kizzy, and both of them were on the
Kz’adul
as well. How do I know that the whole implant business wasn’t a way to ensure they could ‘cure’ me?” he demanded.

“I think you’re being a little paranoid,” said Kaid carefully. “If they had, they’d have monitored you on the way home, made sure you didn’t . . . harm yourself. I’ll agree they took advantage of your loss of Talent, but not that they caused it.”

Kusac grunted, angling himself so that the jets hit the source of pain in his right shoulder. “You’re probably right,” he said reluctantly. “But what else are they responsible for?”

“That scent marker of Zayshul’s?”

He considered it briefly. “No, that was K’hedduk’s doing, however it may have suited them for Zayshul to start believing it was her. To be fair, it may also have been my insistence that she was lying that made her eventually believe it was her.” He sighed.

“You thought she was,” Kaid reminded him. “How would that be of use to the Cabbarans and the TeLaxaudin? What’s their agenda anyway? If we can work that out, we’ll have an idea of how they’ve interfered.”

“I don’t know!” he said testily. “But I do know I felt that I was being pushed at Zayshul!”

Kaid sat up abruptly. “That might be the key,” he said. “Pushing you at her could be assumed to alienate us. It certainly annoyed Raiban when Kezule trusted you more than any other Sholan.”

“Kezule’s reaction was also far from typical,” said Kusac thoughtfully.

“Speaking of atypical, so was your treatment of the prisoners.”

“There were times,” said Kusac slowly, “when I felt I was two very different people.”

“You were. We thought you were on the edge of a breakdown, but we couldn’t get near you to help,” said Kaid seriously.

“Another way to alienate me from you,” said Kusac, suddenly realizing the depths to which he’d been manipulated. “How did they do it? And why? When he was on Shola, Annuur made no attempt to turn me against you.”

“I don’t think it was Annuur or even Kizzy,” said Kaid. “I think it was the other TeLaxaudin, or at least a faction of them.”

Slowly Kusac lifted his right hand, staring at his palm. “You’re right. Annuur gave me something, something to help me against the M’zullians.” He remembered catching Annuur by the neck and shaking him, and he remembered the pouch.