Tempest Rise (revised edition 10/2013) (Treborel) (22 page)

None of them heard the door open or the King and
Commander Connor enter.  They were so intent on their discussion; they had not realized the danger of Chelsa’s words until it was too late. Only when Joah straightened and glance behind them, did they realize they had been overheard. Connor moved into the small group as they rose from the table to meet him. Speaking in a low tone, he smiled evilly at Chelsa as he neared saying, “My darling Chelsa, I’m afraid you’ve become confused. Being from Treborel you may be accustomed to refusing a monarch and living to tell about it. Here in Bantor refusing the king's command is considered treason.”

“I spoke out of concern for the children.” Chelsa face
d him, her voice breaking under his iron smile.

“I’m sure you did.” His smile changed to an amused grimace and he added, “That really doesn’t matter now. I’m afraid the twins will have to continue with one less empathic healer.” Stepping to one
side, he extended his arm toward the door.

Joah’s voice broke the tense silence as he addressed the King, “Your Majesty, we need Chelsa desperately.
Especially if the children are to be separated today.”  He implored the frozen King for mercy. Yet his voice was not heard, the King simply stood glassy eyed in the doorway, not even aware of his surroundings. His eyes never left Commander Connor, mesmerized by his presence. Chelsa held her head high and preceded Connor through the door. She did not glance back at her friends, fearing her courage would fade.

Lysette rushed forward
, in a desperate attempt to save Chelsa she blurted out, “Commander, if you murder Chelsa we will no longer be responsible for the care of the infants.”

Stopping in the doorway as her threat reached hi
m the commander turned back to face his new challenge smiling once again, surprised at her courage. “Are you threatening me doctor?” He asked his voice full of amusement.

Moving close
r, her fear replaced by desperate outrage, she met his gaze and answered, “Yes, I am.”

“We can always find another surgeon,
Dr. Nolan.” Connor stepped forward moving within inches of her face. “However, I’m sure your uncle would be very upset if we returned you to him in several different pieces.” He turned his attention to the others, as he ignored the stricken look on Lysette’s face saying, “The infants will be separated immediately or one by one you will meet Chelsa on the next plain of existence.”

Lysette could only stare after Connor and Chelsa as they disappeared through the door. The unknown death that awaited Chelsa was horrifying.
Commander Connor was enjoying terrifying them all. Now he knew her identity and she could easily be used as a pawn in this game Connor was playing with everyone’s lives.

Finding Andru beside her, they held each other as grief for the loss and pain Chelsa was about to experience flowed through them. Lysette prayed harder than she ever had in her life that her Uncle and Katar would find them quickly before Chelsa was killed, knowing it was already too late.

Deep under the darkness of night
, the small helijet hovered momentarily over the deck of the naval destroyer before landing silently. The Treborelan Commander was only too glad to allow Prince Katar temporary use of one of his small rescue craft.  Dressed in the dark blue of Treborel, the three men boarded the small boat and headed toward the heart of the Bantorian harbor. The darkness of the overcast sky concealed them as they passed the last of the Bantorian warships still operational. 

Pulling up
to, a large storm drain, which led into the belly of the city, Sean, broke the silence as they headed into a new kind of darkness, “I’ve spent a lot of time in these sewers, chasing ghosts.”

“What kind of ghosts?” Caps quiet question came as he stopped at a large junction in the drainage system, his raspy voice intensified by the echoes of the sewer.

“The kind that assassinate Kings.” Katar answered as Sean inspected a tunnel that went off to the left.

“How did you know?” Sean asked, turning back to him.

“You told me you were in the city when King Thomas was murdered. That was about 15 years ago. If you were working for the Intelligence system then you must have been on assignment.” Katar smiled at him as they headed down the tunnel. “I took a wild guess.”

“Well then
, take a wild guess as to where they are holding Lysette and the others. It might get us out of here a whole lot quicker.” Sean added adjusting the glow of his luminescent dangling from his belt as the darkness deepened.

“I’ve been working on that.” Katar began
, then noticing a ladder on the tunnel wall stretching up into the blackness he said, “Hey Cap, why don’t you take a look up there and see if you can get a fix on our location?”

Without hesitation Cap leapt onto the ladder and moved out of sight, the faint glow of his left lantern
trailed behind him.

“Our operatives have been asking a lot of questions.” Katar continued. “The transport landed on the medical complex roof and people were seen leaving from the rear of the building
in a small caravan. After that, they seemed to have disappeared.”

“They could be anywhere in the city. Have your people been able to confirm that Elsebeth gave birth to a child?” Sean
asked as he peered into the darkness about, no longer able to see Cap’s light.

“Al I know is that she was bedridden throughout the pregnancy
, and hardly ever seen. No one knows if their baby was carried full term or if it even survived.”

“Well I don’t know much about babies
, but I’d say it wouldn’t take much for a child that small to become ill or injured under the circumstances of war.” Sean said.

“Maybe it’s not the baby at all. It could be William or Elsebeth themselves.”  Katar countered, “The point is
, we have to reach them before the person in question recovers.”

Reappearing abo
ve them, Cap jumped the last few rungs of the ladder landing lightly on the damp floor. “We are about three blocks from the rendezvous point, off to the left.”

Continuing
in silence, they reached their exit point quickly, climbing out of the sewer into the alley where Lysette and her companions had been loaded into the caravan. Two figures emerged from the shadows and approached them. The young man and woman greeted Katar with silent nods and they all moved back into the shadows. The short, thin young man was Tan; the red–haired, thin young girl with him was Leanna. The two operatives informed them that there were no new developments.

Tan reported, “We have searched all of the medical centers and local health offices.
The city is riddled with abandoned buildings so we have tried to be selective. We have been searching only those still supplied with power and water. We have found nothing so far.” Tan studied the man that would someday be his king and found conviction in his expression.

Katar said, “I want to look around before we go to the safe house. William sounds to be extremely paranoid. If he’s held up somewhere in the city,
it has to be heavily fortified against any type of assault. I’m sure Connor would insist on only one obvious entrance.”

Cap continued Katar’s thoughts, “It’s got to be underground in one of
the oldest stone buildings. Several withstood the storms after the great destruction. Those would be likely locations.”

“Some of the old temples used to have shelters
built in the cellars for the homeless.” Sean added, “I can’t think of a better place to hide.”

“Cap, you go with Tam and Leanna, search the hotels and any temples on the south side of the city. Sean and I will take the North.” Katar ordered as they broke from the shadows. “We'll meet at the safe house
at dawn. If you find anything contact them, we’ll check in every few hours.”

“The safe house is in the industrial sector just south of her
e.” Tan offered, “Number eight, the Ergosian pillow factory.”

“Sounds cozy.”
Sean added with a smile as they separated.

The surgery began late in the evening.
Using the empathic method, the children fell into a deep sleep. Lysette had been surprised at how easily the children were separated. The large carotid artery had fused into one. Leaving a massive artery that branched into several smaller arteries just before it converged on the brain of each child. There had been no need to graft a portion of the artery from the children’s legs, which decreased the surgical time to an acceptable level.  Joah simply followed behind Lysette’s incisions healing the large artery as she separated it into two. 

Kendra slowed the children’s
heartbeat to such a decreased rate was frightening, but it helped to keep the blood loss down. Andru monitored the twin’s vitals and brain functions. The children did not share any brain tissue. Although, each child had no structure in their inner ear whatsoever. That portion of the bone was missing all together. They would both be deaf in the ear that had been part of the attachment.

Since the children were so
young, Lysette left the skull incomplete. She made a note to insist on helmets for the children before they were to be moved. Joah informed her that over the next few months the boys would need continued treatments until the bones grew over and fused as normal cranial sutures should.  The surgery ended just as Katar had landed on the Treborelan ship, bent on Lysette’s rescue. Joah and Kendra took the first watch over the fragile now separate infants as Lysette and Andru quickly fell asleep on the small cots.

As the unseen dawn broke
, Andru woke Lysette and they took their watch over the twins. Examining Rey as Kendra sank onto the hard cot, Lysette discovered he was slightly congested but resting well. Moving to Arbus, she found that his lungs were strong and clear, he was sleeping deeply. Thinking back over the operation Lysette decided that the Holy One must have been standing over them. It had been truly incredible how the children survived such an invasive procedure without complication. The blood loss alone should have been enough to send them into shock and death. Yet the Empaths had seen to it that they had survived. For the first time in her life, Lysette was truly envious of another’s skills. She would not lie to herself. The Empaths saved the children’s lives and made the separation possible, not her.

A few moments later
Commander Connor appeared in the doorway. The room fell silent as he walked the few steps to the crib where the sleeping infants lay. He said, “So they have survived the separation.” His causal amazement infuriated Lysette.

As she stepped forward to confront him
, she felt Andrus hand on her arm in silent caution as he addressed the commander. “They will live, although neither child will have any hearing from the attached side of their head.”

Studying the infants
, Connor spoke without taking his eyes from them, “When can he be given a new ear?”

Lysette answered as calmly as she could, “I’m afraid all we could do is form the outer shell. They will look normal
, but have no hearing on that side.  There is no inner ear to replace, it is simply missing.”

Moving his gaze from the infants to Andru
, Connor waited for the Empaths input. Andru said, “We can only heal what is damaged. Not create what has been forgotten.”

“We are leaving at sunset.” Connor turned to the remaining
Empaths as his gaze swept the room. “That is ten hours from now. Prepare the infants.” He turned back to Lysette and smiled wickedly adding, “You and the elder empath will be joining us.”

The others stood silently waiting for more of an explanation, only to watch the
commander walk swiftly out the door and close it behind him.

“What does that mean?” Lysette felt the familiar fear begin to rise once
more, as she looked to Andru for an explanation.

He smiled sadly and moved to place his arm around Kendra’s shoulders saying, “We can’t live forever, Lysette.”

“How can you say that?” Lysette blurted out, irritated by his calm acceptance of death. “You saved his son’s lives, how can William . . .” Her throat tightened cutting off the rest of her words, as the tears began to flow.

Kendra moved to embrace Joah
, allowing Andru to hold Lysette. Kendra clung tightly to Joah and whispered in his ear, “Joah there is something I must tell you. “She began, “Something that Prince Katar must know. If I am going to die, I must tell someone the secret that only I have held for so long.” 

Cupping her chin
, he lifted her face up to search her eyes for the source of her concern. “What is it child?” He asked, softly.

“I have seen
Commander Connor before, many years ago when I was very young. He killed a very important man who just saved my life.” Kendra hesitated, glancing around as she whispered so softly the name she had held inside for so many years. “Prince Mikel, Katar’s father.”

Taking Lysette’s hand Andru lead her to the small table and sat beside her, wanting to speak to her alone while he had the chance. “Lysette, being here and working with the twins has meant a great deal to me. As a matter of fact it has completed my internship as an Empath.” He reached out and took her hand gently, cupping her chin with his other to raise her face to meet his smiling gaze.  “I am a true empathic healer now. It’s the greatest thing that has ever happened to me.” Andru paused, his eyes softened and his smile slipped away as he added, “The only thing that compares to it is the day I met you. I might not get another chance to talk to you again, Lysette.” He continued, moving closer. “I want you to know . . . I love you.” The sad smile returned briefly. “I know you are in love with Prince Katar. That doesn’t matter now. All that matters is that you know how I feel. I guess I’m being selfish, confessing this to you at the last minute like this. But, I had to tell you how I feel. And I want you to know that I’d be very disappointed in you if you let anyone, even Katar treat you like second best.”

A multitude of emotions flowed through Lysette. None of which
were the passionate love she felt for Katar. Kissing him softly Lysette touched his cheek and answered, “I wish we had more time Andru. I’m just too numb to consider another relationship. If I wasn’t . . .”

“It’s alright, Lysette.” Andru smiled brightly
, pulling back from her. “You just said more than I could have hoped for. And if we did have more time, I’d give Katar something to worry about.”

“You’re not dead yet.” Lysette answered him with conviction. She had to do something, there had to be a way to stop them from murdering Andru and Kendra.

Joah and Kendra separated and began packing supplies, preparing for the infants departure. After several hours, Joah approached the door and demanded to speak to Commander Connor.

Andru was quickly at his grandfather’s side asking, what are you going to do?”

Joah turned back to him, as the deep love he felt for his grandson shone in his eyes and said, “I know how to save you and Kendra.”

“Don’t do anything foolish Pappy.” Andru said as fear gripped him like never before.

Before Andru could say, more the soldiers appeared and escorted Joah out.  The others stood in front of the door as it closed behind Joah. Taking Andru’s hand, Lysette led him back to the table where they all sat silently waiting for Joah’s return. As the minutes passed like hours Andru rose, no longer able to stay still. Growing more restless as the time passed he began to pace the length of the small room. Suddenly his head jerked up and he ran to the door pounding on it with his fists.

“They are torturing him!” Kendra gasped and followed Andru to the door.

Damn you bastards!” Andru threw himself against the door trying to force it open screaming, “Leave him alone, he’s a harmless old man!”

“Are you sure?” Lysette pulled Kendra back from Andru.

“Yes!” Andru turned to face her, “I can feel his pain! They are beating him!”  Andru spun back and beat on the door again saying, “He’s doing it for us, if he dies they will let Kendra and I live!”

Kendra closed her eyes and reached out to Joah trying to take his pain as best she could. Lysette could only stand and watch as Andru exhausted himself in his effort to reach his grandfather.
Finally, Kendra moved forward and placed her hand on his shoulder, speaking calmly to him, “He’s gone, Andru. He’s gone.”