High-energy particles and radiation rained out of the sky. The gamma radiation attenuated fast and the energetic mesons underwent rapid decay into other particles, including muons, electrons, positrons, neutrinos, and fast neutrons. Enough of it survived to reach the racer, but the composite armored hull and magnetic shields protected the crew inside.
Jinn aimed to warn rather than destroy. She could have easily brought down the fighters; turning an Annihilator on them was like using nuclear weapons to fumigate a house.
"Holy mother!" The voice exploded out of Jinn's comm. "ISC racer, cease fire!"
Opsister!
I mentally shouted.
Back off! You'll kill the people we came to rescue.
I won't hit them. I can choose my targets with millimeter precision.
Then she added,
Someone is coming to us, ma'am.
Using the ship's cameras, I located several people running through the forest. The fighters in the sky had to make a decision. They could target the racer with surgical precision using lasers or smart missiles, but if they waited any longer to attack, they risked hitting the people running toward us.
The Allieds were jamming our sensors, and I couldn't make a clear ID on the runners. I didn't think the Annihilator shot had produced enough fallout to pose them a serious danger, but to reach us they would have to run through the area around the ship that had taken the worst of it. I hoped they had good health nanomeds patrolling their bodies.
The muscles in Jinn's face tightened. The runners were close enough now that if the Allieds fired, they would probably kill everyone. Was Roca with them? Ami? Kurjson? If they died, ISC would take it as an indisputable act of war, but the Allieds would achieve their purpose of keeping us from building a full psiberweb. Given that Jinn had fired an Annihilator, on-planet, from a supposedly unarmed craft that had violated who knew how many laws, the Allied response was obviously provoked. Had the situation been reversed, ISC would have crushed the intruding racer. For all that we portrayed the Allieds as the offenders, they had so far acted with a far more peaceful intent than we would have shown.
But we may have pushed them too far. They could kill my sister.
The runners had reached the ship.
Open!
I thought. In the same instant, Jinn shouted,
"Open airlock."
The airlock whipped open like the shutter on a high-speed camera. A woman scrambled through and threw herself across the deck, out of the way of those coming behind her.
Roca!
Without a telepresence link such as I had with Jinn, I couldn't reach my sister's mind from so far away. But I called her anyway, in instinct. My sister, Skolia's golden goddess, my heir, lay on the deck in rumpled blue leggings and an over-sized blue sweater, her face flushed.
I didn't recognize the older woman who clambered in after Roca, her white hair tousled, her lined face pale. Ami came next, a younger woman with brown hair. Kurj's widow. She held tight to her child, Kurjson, a strapping toddler with gold curls.
Then I saw the man.
He came last, jumping inside just before the airlock snapped closed. As the racer leapt into the sky, I had a good, clear view of him. He filled the cabin with his size and massive physique. Gray lined his metallic gold hair. He had inherited his mother's gold skin and classic features, but with a strong-jawed, masculine power. His thought thundered in my mind, booming and ragged, roughened with mental scar tissue, its massive force unparalleled, yet, incredibly, also gentle:
My greetings, Aunt Dehya.
Kelric had come home.
30
Never Home
This time I dropped out of the web fast and clean. I was unfastening myself from the Chair even before it finished descending to the floor. By the time the techs reached me, I had pushed out, past the control panels. Standing on my own, I barely managed to hold still while they did medical checks. As soon as one of them indicated they had finished, I took off running, my bodyguards striding with me.
Chad Barzun joined us at the entrance to the Triad Chamber. Ragnar was nowhere in sight, but I knew where we would find him. As I jogged down the ship's corridors, Chad asked questions, but I could only shake my head, too wound up to answer.
By the time we reached the decon chamber outside the bay where Jinn had docked the racer, my heart was pounding. Ragnar had already arrived with his aides. They greeted us with nods. Floating outside the chamber, clenching a grip, I waited.
Waiting.
Waiting.
Waiting—
The decon chamber opened.
When the woman first appeared in the entrance, I didn't recognize her. Her presence hit me too hard; I couldn't take it in. Then my mind caught up with my sight, and I propelled myself forward. As I reached her, she let go of the bulkhead and threw her arms around me. My momentum sent us back into the decon chamber, slowly spinning, but we paid no heed.
So I embraced my sister.
We hugged in silence, unable to speak. It wasn't until we bumped the opposite wall of the chamber that we separated, each of us giving a self-conscious laugh. I was aware of other people around us, but I could only see Roca. She caught a grip in the wall and put out a hand to keep me from floating away.
"Dehya." Her voice caught. "It's good to see you." Despite her smile, she lacked her usual glow. Dark circles under her eyes gave her a hollow look.
I spoke softly. "I am so, so sorry about your husband."
"People can't live forever." A tear slid down her cheek. She wiped it away quickly, as if embarrassed I should see her cry.
"Ah, Roca," I murmured. I pulled her into my arms again and made comforting noises. She cried more then, her emotions a heart-breaking blend formed from the unexpected joy of our reunion and a deep, abiding grief.
A commotion finally made us separate. Looking past Roca, I saw that Eldrin had arrived. He was embracing a big, gold man in the center of the chamber. Kelric. His "little" brother. They drew apart, and Kelric thumped Eldrin heartily on the arm, sending his older brother spinning away.
Eldrin laughed and caught a grip on the wall. "You're remarkably strong for a dead man."
Kelric laughed too. But his appearance stunned me. White streaked his hair, lines showed around his eyes, and his face had a weathered quality, as if he had seen too much life. A worn pouch hung from his belt. He was still huge, with the broad shoulders and well-built physique that had flustered generations of women. In his youth, he had been a stunningly handsome man. Age had added a depth. Now he looked like an Imperator.
"It really is you," I said, floating forward.
Kelric grinned, his teeth flashing against his golden face. It still caught me off guard how much he looked like a powerful, male version of Roca.
"Tummy hurts," a young, disgruntled voice announced in Iotic.
Startled, I looked around. Ami was floating nearby, gently holding her son. He seemed uncertain what to think about all these people hugging and crying around him. I smiled at him, and he hid his face in his mother's arms, then peered out at me.
I still didn't recognize the older woman who floated near Ami. She resembled a Majda matriarch, with strong features, high cheek-bones, and a square chin. But her face had a rugged, weathered aspect that suggested years of hard work with no treatments to delay aging. I estimated her age at about sixty, though she had the lean, fit body of someone younger. Her nose had been broken sometime and never fixed.
She kept glancing at Kelric. I wondered if she was an employee from the AUC in Sweden. It wouldn't surprise me if she had helped Kelric escape. He had always charmed women out of their good reason, an appeal that came from more than his good looks. He worked an empathic magic, picking up their attraction and giving it back to them multiplied. I didn't think he realized he did it, but it made people fall in love with him. I hoped she wouldn't be disappointed when she realized how many others wanted him.
Kelric floated toward me, bringing the woman with him. Her unease washed out as they came up to me.
"My greetings, Kelric." I glanced at his companion.
"My greetings." Kelric drew the woman forward. "I would like to present my wife, Jeejon." He turned to her. "Jeejon, this is my Aunt Dehya."
Wife?
I had no idea how to respond. And Kelric had spoken in Eubic, a Trader language.
Jeejon gulped. "I am muchly honored by your presence, Pharaoh Dyhianna."
"I am pleased to meet you." Good gods. She spoke Eubic like a taskmaker. She had been a Trader slave. And Kelric had made her the Imperator's Consort. Hah! I would love to see the Trader reaction to this.
I beamed at her. "Please call me Dehya. You're my sister-in-law now."
She murmured an appropriate response, but her puzzlement showed. I supposed I should have said niece-in-law, given Kelric's introduction. I hoped she didn't ask about our convoluted family relationships. This didn't seem the best time for explanations.
Ragnar and Chad were also in the decon chamber, greeting everyone. For all their obvious gratification at the success of Jinn's mission, they exuded an almost visible tension. We didn't have much time; the longer we hulked around Earth, the more abrasive our presence became.
We may have already stayed too long.
* * *
"Del-Kurj?" I lowered my mug of kava and stared at Roca. "Your son?" If I remembered correctly, Del-Kurj was the third oldest of her children, a rangy man with lean muscles and a wild, hard edge. He had been born a few minutes prior to his twin sister, Chaniece.
We were seated around a table in my suite: Roca, Eldrin, Kelric, Ragnar, Chad, Jeejon, Jinn, and myself. My bodyguards stood around the walls, silent and discreet. Ami had taken Kurjson into my bedroom for his nap.
Ragnar spoke to Roca. "Why would the Allieds take one of your sons from Lyshriol to Earth?" A scowl creased his narrow face. "Haven't they done enough to your family already?"
"You would think," Roca said tiredly. She warmed her hands on her mug. "They wanted to split up the power centers of the Ruby Dynasty. They brought me and Del-Kurj to Earth because I'm one of the highest-ranking members of the Rhon and Del-Kurj was the eldest of my children on Lyshriol. They took us away from our home only a few months after…" Her face was shadowed. "After my husband died."
Ragnar swore under his breath. "Bastards."
As much as I wanted to agree with him, I saw why the Allieds had done it. Put too many of the Ruby Dynasty together and we could cause Earth all sorts of problems, at least from their point of view. With care, I asked, "And they also separated you and Prince Del-Kurj on Earth?"
"Yes." Roca rubbed her eyes. "Del is in America. They wanted him to help in questioning Seth Rockworth. They had me try it before Del. They were going to send Kelric next."
I stiffened. "Question Seth about what?"
"Those foster children of his that disappeared."
I leaned forward. "Then they don't have the children?"
Roca shook her head. "No one knows where they are. Or who."
"What did Seth say?" I asked.
Instead of answering, Roca glanced at Eldrin. The subject of Seth had always been awkward for him, given the unresolved situation.
Eldrin didn't look uncomfortable, though. He himself asked, "Did Seth know his foster son was Jaibriol the Third?"
"He says no." Roca swirled her kava. "The Allieds wanted me to talk with him because they know my expertise in reading people."
It made sense. As Rhon psions, we had an almost unmatched talent at discerning what people thought. Roca's years as an Assembly Councilor had honed that ability.
"Do you think he's telling the truth?" I asked.
She spoke quietly. "Yes."
Her answer disquieted me. I felt as if a handful of gold dust were trickling between my fingers, dispersing in the wind, impossible to call back. My models all pointed to Eldrinson and Seth as the ones who knew the truth about the children. Eldrinson had taken his secrets to the grave. Roca read people better than most anyone I knew… and yet, I didn't believe Seth. I
knew
him. He might fool even Roca. Of all the people alive, I was the only one with both the Rhon strength and personal familiarity to go beyond his defenses. And I had less chance than a kiss in a quasar of convincing the Allieds to let me see him.
I turned to Ragnar. "What are our chances of pulling out Seth and Del-Kurj? And the children, if we can find them?"
He grimaced. "We've already pushed the Allieds too far. If we try again, I'm almost certain they will attack."
"Earth has been recalling her forces from other star systems," Chad said. "Reinforcements arrive every day. We're painfully outnumbered now. And they're starting to break the security on our computer networks. The longer we stay here, the worse it gets."
