Tablet of Destinies (31 page)

Do I remind you of her, as you remind me of my Tyrus?
she wanted to ask, but decorum prevented it.

‘You are wondering why I appear so much like your husband.' Brian guessed the cause of her dismayed expression.

Samara nodded, fearing he could read her mind and so she dared not deny it.

‘Do you have somewhere private we could talk?' he queried with a distinctly softer tone in his voice. When Samara nodded once again and moved to lead the way, Brian turned back to Rhun to instruct: ‘It won't be long until curfew. Best send Talynn to fetch the others back here before dark.'

‘Done,' Rhun confirmed and vanished, which left everyone in the room gasping.

‘You
are
as powerful as the Nefilim,' Adair announced, rather astounded by the fact.

But not as experienced.
Brian's thought was contrary to the cocky smile on his face. ‘And there are many, many more of us,' he informed Adair, not wanting to put a dampener on his excitement.

‘Do you plan to free my father?' Adair appealed hopefully, and his mother turned back to hear the response.

‘I plan to free every enslaved soul in this galaxy,' Brian told the young man with certainty. ‘Starting with Tyrus-Leon.'

E
veryone on board the Bil-me had their hands full.

Seagull was working overtime in the kitchen feeding the hungry mass of children they'd taken on board. Chook was in the crew washroom, herding the older boys through the showers. Hawk was taking care of sleeping arrangements, whilst Crow had volunteered for the clothes washing detail just to escape the chaos. Raven, having already made contact with Nova, was awaiting another by-directional data linkup with the DJ, hoping he would advise of a safe destination for their excess of living cargo.

Tory was in the captain's private washroom and, having ushered all the older girls through it already, she was currently scrubbing her way through the younger children. Fortunately, Hawk was a big man and his
cleansing tube was large enough to fit several of the youngsters at once.

When Hawk entered his quarters to find it in complete anarchy, he had to wonder if Tory was still alive in there. A bunch of clean six year olds were bouncing up and down on his bed. Dirty youngsters were rumbling all over the floor and attempting to penetrate the bed space; the older, cleaner kids were deflecting them.

‘Oi, you lot.' Tory stuck her head out of the washroom to reprimand the clean kids. ‘I told you to go see Seagull.' There was a unanimous whine in response. ‘Do it now, please,' she instructed them, calmly but sternly, and they gave up their protest and pottered off past Hawk, saluting him as they passed.

‘Clean troops, dismissed,' he responded with a smile as he watched them depart. ‘You handled that well.' He seemed surprised by the children's obedience.

‘They're good kids.' Tory ruffled the filthy hair of the Leonine female who was next in line. ‘Have you come to help?'

‘Can I?' Hawk queried her back. He'd never had much to do with kids, so he wasn't sure where to start.

‘It's easy.' Tory raised a finger and beckoned him closer. ‘You just strip them off and usher them in and out. Then I'll tend to any injuries, and get them dressed. If
Crow
,' she raised her voice to a shout, ‘ever shows up with the clean clothes!'

Crow came powering into the cabin hauling a large basket and all the children dived aside to make way for him. Hawk was not fast enough to move and so got
bumped out of the way. ‘There you go,
your Majesty!
' He threw the basket down at Tory's feet.

‘Thank you,' she said calmly, pointing to the new pile of soiled clothes on the floor outside the washroom door.

‘Not more!' Crow grumbled as he began gathering up the stinky laundry. ‘I'm not built for this parenting crap!' He stood with his load, repulsed by the smell. ‘You little shits had better learn to stay clean, cause I ain't doing this again,' he snarled, and exited, leaving a trail of laundry behind him.

Hawk stood, stupefied by the fact that Tory had his brother doing laundry.

‘Are you up for this, or what?' Tory raised her brow questioningly.

‘Sure. How hard can it be?' Hawk edged his way through the crowds of adoring youngsters to kneel at the front of the line and commence his task. When Hawk realised that a little girl was the first in line to be undressed, he seemed a little awkward about disrobing her.

It amused Tory greatly when the little Leonine female raised her arms, eager to be of aid to the captain.

‘Many thanks …?' Hawk prompted the girl for her name.

‘Meline,' she told him, bursting into a huge smile.

‘That's a very pretty name,' he told her, whipping off her dirty top, and as he removed the rest of Meline's clothes and sent her on to Tory, Tory gave him a wink of encouragement.

‘Handled like an old pro,' she assured the captain, who appeared rather pleased with himself as he moved on to the next child.

 

As the last two children were dressed and sent off to the kitchen, Tory collapsed onto the bed to take five.

Hawk fell onto his stomach beside her. ‘How could something so enjoyable be so exhausting?'

‘Makes you appreciate your own parents' efforts, doesn't it?' Tory gazed at the ceiling, wishing she had some recollection of her folks. After a few moments she looked to Hawk, noticing that he'd gone rather quiet. He was looking rather forlorn.

‘I don't remember them at all,' he explained, restraining his pent-up feelings on the matter as best he could. ‘My father was not a good subordinate, you see? He spoke his mind once too often and Nergal, the head of the Pantheon …' he explained for her benefit, ‘… had my father and mother thrown to a Lahmuian mutant in the arena.'

Although Tory didn't know what a Lahmuian mutant was, it certainly didn't sound like a very enticing fate. Her heart went out to Hawk for the obvious pain the memory caused him.

‘Crow and myself were sold into slavery — he was eight years old, I was two.' When Hawk's attention turned from his tragic past to Tory, he was surprised to find tears streaming down her face. ‘Hey, no need to be upset. Our bondage didn't last long.' He forced a smile.

‘Crow got you out?' Tory gathered this was why Hawk was so tolerant of his older brother these days.

Hawk nodded, his loyalty to his only kin written plainly on his face. ‘He kept me alive … taught me
everything I know.' The captain had trouble finishing his sentence as his emotion welled. ‘So, today's little experience makes me appreciate
his
efforts all the more.' He turned away to hide a tear that was escaping his eye.

‘Well, Crow couldn't be all bad then.' Tory spoke up to lighten the mood. ‘You certainly turned out alright.' She slapped a hand down on his shoulder and gave it a rub.

‘Swan?' Hawk wondered where her better judgement had got to. ‘I'm an outlaw.'

‘No,' she disagreed. ‘You're a hero.' As Hawk rolled his eyes at her exaggeration, Tory placed a hand to his cheek and drew his attention once more. ‘If the Pantheon were not in power, you would be hailed as a Prince among men for today's little piece of work. These children are deeply indebted to you for their lives … as am I.'

Her voice faltered. Hawk gazed at Tory, astonished by her tenderness. She truly felt for him! The revelation set his heart pounding in his chest and the thumping seemed to resound all the way up into his throat. His secret fantasy had suddenly manifested before his eyes, as he beheld the face of a woman longing for his kiss. As he ventured closer to the object of his desire, the pirate realised he was about to defy the only interstellar law he'd yet to break.

Raven meandered into the captain's cabin, looking over his printout. ‘Got it! Nova sent us a des—' Looking up to find the intimate scene he was interrupting, Raven immediately began to back up quietly.

Thwarted one second short of his wildest aspiration, Hawk watched Tory sit to attention as if she'd been
busted misbehaving, and he felt that nothing short of killing Raven would truly make up for what he'd lost.

‘Shit, I'm sorry.
Please
continue,' Raven urged in a panic as he watched his captain raise himself, the magic of the moment lost.

‘Don't apologise, Raven, the door was open,' Tory told him, hoping her approach might help the pilot lose his guilt and encourage Hawk to stop glaring at Raven. ‘What did Nova have to say?' She wiped the excess of tears from her eyes and tried to sound interested as she neared him.

‘Um …' Raven hesitated. He'd never been on the receiving end of Hawk's anger before and it was very unnerving. ‘Tarazean is a safe haven. Apparently …' Raven seemed reluctant to mention it now, considering how attached his captain had become to their immortal guest. ‘… many of the Chosen Ones fled there.'

‘What?' The information rocked Tory and she glanced aside at Hawk as he came to stand beside her. She was just starting to fit in here — she liked the pirate life and wasn't sure if she even wanted to know who she'd been before Hawk had found her. ‘May I see?' Raven handed over the printout and backed up to the hatchway. ‘How long will it take us to reach Tarazean?'

Raven seemed even more reluctant to answer. ‘Lunchtime tomorrow.' He looked from Tory to Hawk and back again. ‘Sorry, friends.' He left them alone.

Tory read the printout and handed it to Hawk. ‘I suppose it's good news for the kids.' She tried to find a bright side.

‘And good news for you.' Hawk looked at the
printout, although he was too distraught to read it. ‘You'll finally be where you belong, Swan.'

‘I feel I belong here,' Tory ventured, taking his comment the wrong way.

Inside, Hawk wanted to tell her that she was the miracle of his life, but he also knew that he had no right to claim her. Undoubtedly, such a treasure belonged to a man who was far more deserving. ‘I
know
you don't belong here,' he told her, truthfully, in a rather jovial but callous fashion, all the while struggling to contain the tears of denial that were forming a lump in his throat.

‘Seagull said we're ready for bed now.'

The couple looked down to find a pack of youngsters, who had been designated to sleep in the captain's bed.

‘I'll see to it.' Tory repressed her hurt feelings, and put on a happy face for the children.

‘I'll leave you to it then.' Hawk made a quick exit to seek a place to stabilise his scattered sensibilities. There was a small technician's room just behind the flight deck that wasn't too far afoot, and Hawk made haste to enter it and lock himself within.

 

Nova's broadcasts were something of an event for the little underground community of Su — the good news he bore, and the hope the pirate DJ gave them, was the highlight of their whole existence. Every inhabitant of the hidden burrow crammed into the operations room to see if their phantom broadcaster would make contact and bring them up to date with the state of the galaxy.

‘Shield wall deactivated, receiver open for by-directional linkup,' announced the operator, ‘awaiting down-link.'

Adair had recorded a memo, requesting Nova to make contact with him to discuss a sensitive issue.

As the identity of their Governor's number one fan was unknown to Rhun, he didn't want the DJ to know that Lahmu was on Nugia in case he blew their cover. All Rhun was hoping to establish via their communication was some idea of the DJ's identity, or perhaps arrange a meeting. In reality, he couldn't see the phantom DJ agreeing to that, as Rhun felt sure the Pantheon had already tried to lure Nova out of hiding with the promise of a meeting with Lahmu. Nova would surely think they were baiting him. But Rhun needed to find out how extensive the DJ's following was, and thus, how large his Governor's following was.

Talynn finally reported back with Thais and Kesla.

‘Where are Cadwell and Neriada?' Rhun asked.

‘They found safe accommodation and are staying put,' she replied, fully expecting an objection.

‘I don't think so,' protested Rhun. ‘I know what that son of mine has in mind —'

‘It was my idea,' Talynn admitted, glancing at Adair warily. ‘If I do not contact them regularly with an update, they shall call in additional forces and come seek us out.'

Rhun thought Talynn's measures unnecessary, but then, she was so good at her job that the instance never arose when he was alarmed about security. Rhun figured he could afford to be blasé when Talynn was on the job.

‘Fair enough,' Rhun conceded with a smile, at last.

‘I think you misjudge us.' Adair took offence to Talynn's motive.

Rhun turned to the young man, still smiling broadly. ‘You can neither be too careful, nor too confident where the Pantheon are concerned.' Rhun let Adair know that the precaution was to their mutual benefit.

‘I'm sure you're right, Lord,' Adair backed down. He still seemed rather out of sorts with Talynn, though.

‘Please don't take it personally.' Talynn managed a smile to explain: ‘It is my job to suspect everyone, and to anticipate that which is most unexpected.'

‘Down-link established.' The operator kept them up to date with the proceedings. ‘Receiving and translating data now … looks like it's all audio,' he advised, switching on the loudspeakers.

‘What! No visual?' Rhun objected. ‘We don't get to see him?'

‘Nova only ever sends visual when he's got incriminating footage to air and has certainly never broadcast pictures of himself,' Adair explained, and as Rhun wallowed in his disappointment, Adair thought it a good time to beg his leave. ‘Perhaps I should go see what has become of my mother and Lahmu?'

Rhun gave a vague nod in response and Adair departed.

As the young Leonine male headed towards his mother's chambers, he had horrid visions of finding her in the throes of passion with the God. Adair felt that if this were the case, the Lord would fall greatly short of his expectations. Lahmu would be taking advantage of
the volatile emotions of a lonely woman, who missed her husband desperately.

Adair boldly burst into the room without knocking, to find that he'd been rudely mistaken about what was taking place within.

Lahmu sat across the room from Samara. She was calm and at peace in the wake of what had clearly been nothing more than a discussion.

‘What is it, Adair?' Samara asked, not perturbed in the slightest that he hadn't bothered to knock.

‘We have a report from Nova,' he advised, without withdrawing.

As his mother and Lahmu raised themselves to make for the operations room, Samara wore a smile of sheer happiness, the like of which Adair had not seen adorn her face since his father's departure. What was more confusing was that her joy was not directed at the Lord, but seemed to stem from an inward pleasure.

‘Nova could tell me nothing more wondrous than that I have just heard,' Samara commented in a breezy fashion on her way past her son, and then turned back to address Brian. ‘Thank you for sharing the truth with me, Lahmu. I realise you didn't have to.'