Between Darkness and Light (95 page)

Lijou scanned it quickly, handing it back to Rhyaz as they reached the statue. Bowing their heads briefly in respect as they passed it, Lijou pulled aside the drapes to reveal a concealed door and the corridor beyond.

 

Switching on a heater, Lijou took one of the two easy chairs in front of it, indicating Rhyaz should take the other.

“So our agents were successful in gaining access to the room with the tanks in it,” said Lijou.

The Warrior Master nodded. “As you saw in the letter, they were full of developing fetuses. They're breeding tanks, Lijou. There's also a crystal with data they managed to record on it. I haven't seen it yet.”

“I have a portable reader on my desk,” he said, getting up and going to fetch it. “If they're using breeding tanks, it would explain the lack of pregnant females. I'd hazard a guess and say their population is in trouble if they can't—or won't—breed naturally.”

“That's certainly borne out by the general decay our agents have reported outside the City of Light,” agreed Rhyaz, passing him the crystal and pulling his chair closer to the heat as the priest sat down again.

Though the screen was small, and the recorded images jerky in places, the scenes they depicted lost none of their impact on the two Guild Leaders.

“Stop it there,” said Rhyaz abruptly. “Look,” he said, pointing at the screen. “Can you see that male? The one going into that building?”

“Where?” asked Lijou. “I can't see anything.”

Rhyaz picked the viewer up and began to run the recording slowly backward then stopped it. “Watch carefully, between the group of four people there,” he said.

Lijou peered at the screen, exclaiming as the male in question suddenly appeared and Rhyaz froze the image.

“What in all the hells of L' Shoh is that?” he asked as they surveyed the large, thickset Prime dressed in faded jeans and a jacket that looked as if it was made of animal hide decorated with metal studs. On the hairless scalp and forehead they could see drawn the likeness of a severed head, with what was presumably meant to be blood coming from ruined eye sockets and the mouth as well as the neck.

“I have no idea,” said Rhyaz. “Our agents mentioned seeing them, and that they pushed the residents of the villages and shantytowns around as if they were in charge. They have the look of some of the Ranz packs about them.”

“They're so unlike the Primes we've met. Where did they come from? Are they perhaps throwbacks?”

“I doubt it. The Valtegan Warriors on Keiss looked like Kezule, nothing like that. They look and behave like thugs.”

“Finish playing the recording,” sighed Lijou, sitting back slightly. “No wonder they're writing that there's unrest building outside the City of Light if Packs of males like him are roaming around. K'oish'ik and the Primes are looking more and more like a species on the edge of disintegration and possible extinction. I'm not surprised they wanted our help!”

“That's all there is.” He switched off the viewer and retrieved the data crystal. “I think we should alert our people at Haven to be ready to move immediately,” said Rhyaz. “We can't tell the Primes we know about their situation, but we can be ready to help if a crisis develops.”

“Not if,” said Lijou, glancing at him. “When.”

“I'll also order our agents to conceal listening and warning devices as well as cameras at the tunnel entrances they've discovered and the main gates into the City. We need to be prepared for the slightest sign of possible insurrection.”

“That would be wise,” agreed Lijou.

Then Rhyaz remembered the reason he'd originally been coming to see Lijou. “I was on my way to tell you about a message from Anchorage when I was given the letter and the crystal. In light of this report, I'm sure the two are connected. The
Watchers
intercepted a transmission meant for M'zull. Anchorage sent it to us because they were unable to decipher the code. The signal originated from outside the City, quite possibly from one of these groups. They could be in league with the M'zullians.”

“I think you're right. Have we managed to decipher it yet?”

“It just arrived. I'm going to get Alex and Kai onto it as well. Those two have a knack for this kind of work and we need it deciphered as soon as possible. I'll also have to get a report on all this off to Governor Nesul and the High Command. War could suddenly have got a lot closer to home than we anticipated.”

“I'll help you after we've eaten. I'm glad Alex found her niche here,” said Lijou, getting up to return the viewer to his desk. “I told you when she did she'd quiet down. Would you switch off the heater, please, Rhyaz? We should head upstairs. The food will have arrived by now.”

“I don't know that she's calmed down that much,” murmured Rhyaz, getting up to do as he'd been asked.

Lijou laughed. “You know what I mean. She's still a breath of fresh air about the place, one that we needed, but she's more settled now, especially with you.”

“More like a mini-hurricane,” said Rhyaz as he joined Lijou at the door.

Lijou placed his arm companionably around the younger male's shoulder. “Come on, Rhyaz, admit it, Vartra was right, you did need a companion to stop you getting overwhelmed by your work.”

“I admit it, you and Vartra were right. She's become my touch-stone,” said Rhyaz simply. “On those bleak days, like today, and when agents' lives are lost in the field, she's there for me. I can lean on her and find a reason for it all.”

“We all need that, Rhyaz,” said Lijou. “Especially now.”

“What's this all about, Kaid?” asked Garras as, putting his mug of c'shar on the low table, he sat down beside Rezac on the sofa facing the patio windows. “We haven't met like this in a long while,” he said, looking round the crowded den. “Is there a mission in the offing? I thought there was something up when there was all that fuss around the shuttle the other week.”

“Jurrel's here,” said Dzaka quietly, looking across to where the dark-pelted young male sat opposite him. “Has it something to do with Kusac and Banner?”

“Have they found my brother?” demanded Kitra, sitting up and leaning past Carrie to look at Kaid. “Where is he? Is he all right?”

“Let Kaid tell you,” said Carrie, putting an arm around her bond-sister's waist and drawing her back onto the sofa by her side.

Nursing his mug, Kaid looked around the sea of faces. He and Carrie had between them decided this would not be a full briefing on the situation. There were certain facts that would remain private, like the matter of the scent marker, and others, like the existence of the cubs, that they couldn't risk divulging until they had left Shola.

“No, I'm afraid we haven't found Kusac yet,” he said, glancing at Kitra, “but we do know that he was sent on a mission sanctioned by AlRel for the Brotherhood.”

“I knew he couldn't have been guilty of those awful things Raiban and the newsvids were accusing him of,” said Kitra delightedly.

“So all that business about him being mentally unstable and stealing the
Couana
was just a cover,” said Dzaka.

“Not completely,” said Carrie.

“Oh, he stole the
Couana,
” said Kaid, taking a drink from his mug. “With the Brotherhood's help. The mission was so sensitive that it couldn't be known that Kusac had left Shola unless some plausible explanation was given. Thus the public statement that mental instability made him steal the ship to return to the Prime world.”

“So he's not unstable,” said Jo.

Kaid looked across at the dark-haired Human who was Rezac's Third, and his Leska at this time, just as Carrie was Kaid's. He hesitated. “I don't believe so, in the light of what we've found out,” he said at last.

“What was this mission and how did you find out about it?” asked Garras.

“Jurrel noticed that in the message crystal Kusac left for Carrie, his knife had a command mark on the inner side of the grip. As to what the mission was, Kezule sent him a message requesting his presence at a rendezvous. He said he had something of interest to him.”

There was a stir of surprise from all present at this news.

“I take it that Stronghold intercepted it,” said Jurrel.

Kaid nodded. “Kezule, as you know, had left his world with some sixty young people and no one knew where he went. The Prime Ambassador asked our government to inform them if the
Watchers
caught sight of him. Seems the Emperor wanted him back as his adviser. And we, of course, wanted to know why Kezule left and where he was.”

“That's why Kusac had to leave Shola openly under a cloud of suspicion,” said Carrie, her anger evident in her voice.

“But he and Kezule are enemies,” stammered Kitra, her ears folding flat in fear as she looked round the faces of the adults. “It could have been a trap! How could Stronghold send him there knowing that?”

“The need for the information was too great, Kitra,” said Kaid. “And the need to find out why Kezule wanted your brother in the first place.”

“Why did he want him?” asked Garras, picking up his mug. “Do we know that yet?”

“Yes, but unfortunately I'm not at liberty to tell you,” said Kaid. “Suffice it to say, Kusac returned to Haven, then taking the
Venture II,
headed back to meet Kezule.”

Exclamations of disbelief came from everyone in the room, except himself and Carrie. “He went back,” said Kaid, raising his voice, “because he'd promised Kezule to return and help him train his people. Kezule left to set up a colony of his own because he said the Primes were dying out, and the Warriors like the M'zullians were not the way to go. Apparently he's trying to breed the castes out of the Primes, make them one people again.”

Kaid waited till the exclamations of disbelief had died down. “All his crew went with him, except for Chima, whom he left behind because she was female,” he said. “They must have agreed with what he was doing, known he wasn't unstable, or they would have prevented him from leaving.”

“Apart from Banner, do we now know who went with him?” asked Garras.

“Khadui, Jayza, and Dzaou.”

“Dzaou?” exclaimed T'Chebbi, speaking for the first time. “Whose idea was it to send that misbegotten tree-rhudda with him?”

“Rhyaz,” said Carrie shortly.

“He had Banner with him,” said Jurrel, looking at Garras. “He'd make sure Dzaou toed the line.”

“Banner had been watching Kusac for me for some time,” said Kaid. “Protecting him from himself, if you will.”

“When do we leave?” asked Dzaka in the small silence that followed.

“There's a problem,” began Kaid.

T'Chebbi's laugh was not humorous. “When is there not?” she asked.

“It wasn't easy finding out about this mission,” said Kaid, ears tilting back fractionally as he glanced at Carrie. “Not least because just before Kusac left, he and I had rowed and I refused to believe there might be a hidden message for us in the crystal he left for Carrie. We went to Stronghold just over two weeks ago to speak to Rhyaz and Lijou and force the truth about this mission out of them. We did that, but as a consequence have been placed under planetary arrest—we can't leave Shola. The Brotherhood is guarding the spaceport and watching the perimeter of the main estate.”

“When do we leave?” repeated Dzaka.

“In four days,” said Carrie with a slight smile.

“How'd you manage that?” asked Garras with a grin.

“The same way Kusac left, except Toueesut's allowing us to borrow the
Couana,
” said Kaid, taking a swig from his mug then placing it on the low table. “I can't take all of you,” he said warningly, “but all of you needed to know where we're going and why. The choice hasn't been easy, believe me. I want my best people with me, but I also need to leave good folk behind to carry on in case none of us return.” He looked round them all. “We don't even know if our people are still alive, or if they are, whether they are prisoners.”

“I'm going,” said Kitra firmly. “You'll not stop me. He's my brother.”

“Kitra, you need to stay here. If we don't return, then you're next in line as our Clan Leader until my cubs grow up,” said Carrie, turning to the young female. “You have to stay, kitling.”

“Stop calling me a kitling! I'm a mother like you, and I'm life-bonded!” she exclaimed angrily.

“We can't take you, Kitra, for the reasons Carrie said,” replied Kaid. “I'm sorry. Rezac and Jo, you're coming. T'Chebbi, you too, and you, Garras, if you feel you can handle it.”