Shadow Over Avalon (47 page)

“I wanted Kai healed. I don’t remember beyond that until I woke up here,” Arthur said.

“Are you sure? Kai says he remembers floating.”

“I don’t. What happened? Why are we in Sanctuary?”

“You know where you are. That’s good.” Ector took a deep breath. “The Archive has gone. All high rank psi powers are detailed to central control, and I’m to report as soon as I have enough strength to help run Avalon. It’s chaos.”

“Can I see Kai?”

“Absolutely not. He’s to return to the surface where he’s needed.”

Whoever ruled now didn’t want Kai and Arthur joining up. What had they done that made them so dangerous together?

“This gestalt . . . who witnessed it?” Arthur asked.

“Ambrose. He’s still wetting himself every time he’s asked to recount. Will you try very hard to remember? If we don’t get some answers, we can’t restore the Archive, and we’ll be stuck with assuming all its duties ourselves.

Arthur didn’t like the sound of that, nor the Archive’s restoration. He feigned fatigue, shutting his eyes and Ector left him to sleep.

Scanning the building, he touched the thoughts of some seers, running around in collective hysteria. They were picked off, one by one, for administration duties, despite heated argument. To see seers forced to bow before the overwhelming needs of the community amused him. The heartbeat of Avalon fluttered while order gradually restored essential services with the conscription of psi powers. They didn’t need him, not really. His contribution would simplify matters, but it wasn’t essential, which left him open for other possibilities.

Kai had said Brethren-controlled forts had reverted to Nestines and suspected a traitor. So, without the presence of the Archive as prime suspect, how did matters now stand? Arthur wanted to see for himself. He reasoned he wouldn’t be requisitioned until he could prove all his powers had returned, and this meant he would be tested. After a supposedly fatal gestalt experience, expected to kill both of them, some damage might be expected.

This set off another strand of thought. What happened to them both? What scared Ambrose so much? He remembered Kai reviving, and a sick sense of melting. The rest ran through his mind like a sensory playback speeded to the point of making all the data meaningless. He couldn’t get a glimpse of those images to make any sense of what happened. Arthur considered raiding Ambrose’s mind, but something held him back, some reluctance to see the gestalt as others had witnessed it. Another streak of flashing images in his brain tired him. He let sleep come on soft wings.

A faint aroma of soap with an undertone of leather warned Arthur of another presence as he awakened. No one else smelled quite like her, he decided, as he lay with his eyes shut, feigning sleep. That unique mixture of cleanliness coupled with the tang of Brethren battledress identified Shadow as his guest without any need to touch her mind. Arthur shied away from a mental probe to raid for the reason she visited. He had an uncomfortable feeling she possessed a psi factor strong enough to block him and instigate a counter raid. Best not to tempt fate.

“Arthur?” Shadow’s voice sounded half-amused and half-irritated. “Boy, will you stop trying to hide from me? I know you are awake.”

His eyes snapped open to meet her steady gaze. “How? My breathing didn’t change.”

“Your expression did.” She leaned forward, reaching to brush a tendril of hair from his eyes. “A slight tightening of facial muscles betrayed you.”

“My thanks,” he propped himself up on one elbow to give her an ironic neck bow. “I will bear that in mind for the future.”

“You’re still evading me, Boy.”

“My name is Arthur,” he said, annoyed for rising to her bait. “How is Kai?”

“Regaining his strength. He will be shipping back to the surface in a day or so.”

“Can I see him?” Arthur wanted more time with his brother. They had plans.

“We don’t think that is a good idea.” Shadow looked away, a firmness settling around her mouth. “We want to be sure you have no mental connections remaining before you meet each other again.”

“What if I want to go to the surface?” Arthur let it come out as a general, disinterested inquiry.

“Not possible.” Shadow met and held his gaze. “Kai is trained as a warrior in Brethren style. He can live off the land and blend in with surface-dwellers. You can do neither.”

“Other Submariners work with Brethren,” Arthur objected, guessing she expected argument.

“They are not the son I lost, and have now found.” She caught his hand in her small one, exerting a gentle pressure. “This is not a punishment, Arthur. I am not asking you for more than I am prepared to give. Avalon needs all the strongest of us in order to function.”

“What if I don’t want to become a second-rate Archive?” He glanced around his sterile room, taking in the blandness, the lack of odor and color. He thought of Circe, and how she had tricked him into caring.

“Perhaps you should have considered the consequences of destroying the Archive. Now, what do you remember of the joining with Kai?”

So here it comes, another interrogation attempt.
He let his facial muscles slide into a vacuous searching mode as if he wanted to remember. Looking her straight in the eyes, he said, “Nothing beyond what I have already told.”

“Surely some memory?”

“I remember sucking in strength from all of you, a few fragments after that, and then waking up after.” Arthur yawned.

“Enough for today.” Shadow released his hand and stood up, preparing to leave. “Maybe you will remember more tomorrow.”

Arthur closed his eyes as he settled back in his bed. He needed to think through all possible strategies. Did his need to surface stem from selfish reasons? Did he possess the strength needed for turning this war to the death around? Brethren, with Rowan in command, lost ground. What if a splinter group formed, a third independent force to strike at random? Nestines concentrated on Rowan and his Submariner allies; Arthur had found a blind spot in their vision.

The change of air pressure alerted him to a medi-tech coming to check up on him. He relaxed his face muscles to endure an examination without betraying his consciousness. The plan worked, and the man left.

Rolling over on his side in apparent sleep mode, Arthur continued to explore his problem. Returning dribbles of horrific data sucked at his soul, demanding action. Now if he had Kai at his side . . . there was a thought: one brother to recruit Brethren and the other to suck in Submariners. With Kai around, he could live off the land. All depended on how much Kai retained of their shared experience. He refused to alert others of his plan by trying to contact Kai. Shadow feared their joining as something dangerous. What if the links between them directed Kai to the same conclusions? They both needed to recover for what he had in mind. He let himself drift down into healing sleep once again.

A bored-looking seer sat by Arthur’s bed when he awoke. He knew this man, Anwar. A high-ranking individual with delusions of grandeur he couldn’t possible fulfill.

“Now you’re alert, I need to see if there are any lasting effects from your criminal behavior, apart from the temporary madness caused by gestalt. No, don’t argue with me,” he said, as Arthur opened his mouth to protest. “No sane individual would even think of destroying the key to Submariner existence. Were you aware the purpose of Shadow’s mission was to discover data to control the Archive? Open your mind to me, or I’ll call in as many seers as I need to force the issue.” Anwar locked himself into a probe trance in preparation.

Arthur countered by burying his secrets in great wads of trivia, while still leaving enough to satisfy.

By the time Anwar had finished, he looked at Arthur with pity. “Well, I can report you’re physically recovered, if not mentally. Perhaps recreation might trigger the higher awareness into response without a return to insanity. Is there anything you would like to do?”

“Maybe if I could revisit some of my haunts as a cadet in the Elite,” Arthur suggested, opening his eyes wide to assume a look of innocence.

“I’ll make arrangements,” the man agreed.

Five days of pointless wandering earned Arthur freedom from a discreet observer. Each new day brought a return of more memories and increased the urgency of his mission.

A small food dispenser by a docking port had a few tables and chairs arranged to the side of the walkway. He had been sitting facing the port for over an hour, working on the individual responsible for external traffic processing. Not a strategic port, this facility took one man, and that one was just about ready for what Arthur planned. The man neared the end of his shift in a low traffic time and showed every indication of boredom. He had cleared and restocked a transport that now sat empty, and he plodded through deliberate make-work in an attempt to keep himself amused. He even started rearranging furniture.

When the little man ran his hands through his thinning hair again, Arthur guessed the work placement was one deemed suitable for a low psi rating of limited concentration and intelligence. No doubt someone far sharper would replace him for busy periods. Timing mattered for his plan to work; he had just begun to concentrate when another sat at his table.

Kai grinned across at him. The building lights gave deep tones to his copper hair.

“What took you so long?” Arthur smiled back.

“Have you rummaged through my mind, Brother?” Kai made a play of running his hands over his head.

“No. I guessed you would resent your allotted role as much as I resented mine.” Arthur settled deeper into his chair, stretching out his legs. “I figured that you’d use your fey ability to find the best way out. I would have been worried if you hadn’t shown up soon.”

“Now what? Do we blend in with the next outgoing load?”

“This port is a cargo bay. We take a ship that’s empty.” He pointed to the dark outline of a transport latched onto a docking bay nipple, a twelve-man craft, from the shape seen through Avalon’s dome shield.

“Won’t a theft alert security?” Kai scanned the dock for officials.

“Answer yourself. Have the odds of success just gone down? I’d doubt it. No one steals in Avalon, so the security force isn’t equipped to deal with it.” Arthur looked at the little man in his glass booth and sent a sleep suggestion. The man began to yawn. “I think we are almost ready to make our move. Traveling light, or have you kit stowed nearby?”

“I’ll supply any needs for both of us once we surface.” Kai swiveled in his chair to punch in his credit code and collect a handful of protein bars from the dispenser. He grinned. “My father insisted each of us had several hidden caches. He assumed any captive from a fighting triad would crack under torture, if he didn’t manage to fall on his sword first. Even Mother doesn’t know the location of mine and yes, I am aware she can mind raid as easily as you, but I can sense her presence when she does. She respected my father’s wishes on this one.” He looked up from stowing his rations. “I know Elite often have implants. I assume . . . ?”

“I don’t need power packs. What I have will function on normal electrical body discharges.” Arthur watched the little man’s head slump on his hands at his desk. “We’re away.”

They sauntered onto the craft as if by right. Once aboard, Arthur loaded a false destination with central departure, completed docking formalities and had them powering away from Avalon.

*

A door hissed open behind her, but Shadow kept her attention on her console, where the image of a vessel slid away from Avalon through the deep waters. She knew who entered her office. Ector had a certain way of walking when he was angry, as now.

His hands rested on her shoulders. “The boys are missing. I’m sorry. I have four squads out looking for them.”

“I know.” The tail light of the craft dimmed with distance. “They stole a submersible.” She gestured at the screen. “That one.”

Ector reached over her for a comm-switch. She caught his hand, stopping him and turned in her chair to face him.

“No.” The word struggled for freedom. Shadow wanted Ector to have them brought back; the pair of them being together frightened her after the gestalt. Evegena thought they should never meet. More than the fear, she needed to bond with Arthur. Their last meeting still held a flavor of discomfort from both her and the boy.

Taking both her hands in his, Ector drew her to her feet. He frowned, his mouth compressed. “Why?”

“Arthur needs an escape from the seers, and he isn’t going to get one if he stays.” A hard knot formed in her chest. “Kai should have a clean break from Rowan, too. Haven isn’t the place of safety it was since Rowan considers Kai a threat.”

“What about you?” Ector hugged her. “Damn it, you’ve just found Arthur. He should be spending time with you.”

“If I force his return, will he think of me kindly? Arthur and Kai want to be together. How will they feel if I separate them?” Tears blurred her sight. “They made a choice and have accepted a hard life by their actions. This is a man’s decision from both of them. I’ll not stand in their way.”

*

“Smooth, very smooth. The next time I need to steal, I’ll make a point of inviting you along,” Kai said, his face lighting up with a wicked grin.

“This wasn’t a challenge.” Arthur shrugged. “Where theft is norm, it would be different.”