Allie's War Season Four (133 page)

He guessed she
didn’t
know.

Maybe Balidor or Tarsi or one of the others needed to talk to her about that, too...and about maybe not pushing Revik too much until he’d healed a bit more from what Shadow and Cass had done to him. Maybe they’d all been side-stepping telling her too much already, for fear of making her worry...or worse, making her feel guilty for what had been done to her husband in her absence.

Looking up at where Revik loomed over his desk, Balidor felt his body’s muscles clench, almost as if readying for a fight. The currents coming off the Sword hit his aleimi with another ripple of intensity and the charge there cut Balidor’s breath, even as he again considered calling Wreg...possibly Yumi and Deklan, too, and Jon...to help calm the other man down.

He wondered if he needed to pull Allie into this, too.

Maybe she needed to see this.

To really
see
it in action.

The thought made him nervous, though...and not only because she might still be handcuffed to that bed downstairs. He had no idea how the Sword might react, if they brought Allie up here to “handle” him, regardless of the merit of his fears.

Balidor knew that at least some of what the Elaerian had been ranting about for the past ten minutes came from a legitimate beef with his wife’s recklessness, at least when it came to her own personal safety. Balidor also knew it was more than that. Recklessness hadn’t gotten Allie hurt by Cass––Shadow had done that, and Cass herself. Allie hadn’t done anything to cause that initial, tragic event to occur, which maybe made it worse in Revik’s mind.

Generally speaking, Allie’s recklessness seemed to work out.

More or less, anyway.

Balidor had been warned by Vash to expect that from her, anyway. According to Vash, part of being the Bridge meant a total disruption in the usual way things were done. Balidor tried to remind himself of that fact now, with his own worries regarding Alyson’s last orders to him about Dubai shifting somewhere in the background of his light.

Balidor also knew that, when it came to Dehgoies right now, he partly faced a trauma reaction from a person who had been dealt an inordinate number of emotional shocks in a very short period of time. He knew the Sword had been having control issues even before the travesty Cass inflicted on his wife.

He’d been struggling ever since he’d found out his wife was pregnant.

Hell, he’d been having such issues for
years
about his wife; getting her pregnant only made all of that worse, and not only because it likely happened about two hundred years before Revik expected it would happen. They’d never really been allowed to bond normally, which only exacerbated everything else, leaving a lingering veneer of distrust between them that should have mostly dissipated by now, in ordinary mates.

Balidor knew theirs would fade, too, in time, if they could just catch a break and spend more time in one another’s light. Such distrust was beyond unusual in bonded mates. Balidor knew it had more to do with the evolution of both of their lights and not enough time together since they first got married. Knowing all of that didn’t particularly help Balidor
now,
however, in terms of dealing with the man in front of him.

Revik seemed to feel even more out of control since he found out the extent to which he’d been cut out of his wife’s plans to move against Shadow and Cass in New York. Considering those plans included her actual death, as well as her subsequent resurrection by Tarsi followed by yet another clandestine op, Balidor couldn’t exactly blame the other man, either.

Apparently, this breach by Terian had been the thing to finally make him snap.

Balidor almost understood that, too.

But, regardless of the merits of the Sword’s emotional reactions, or even his arguments about and fears for his wife, the trauma aspect worried him.

That trauma made Dehgoies unpredictable in the extreme.

“I’m making a request,” Revik growled, forcing Balidor’s eyes back to his. “A formal fucking request, Balidor. I’ll take it to the goddamned Council if I have to...”

“A formal request?” Balidor said. He knew he didn’t succeed in stripping his words, even his facial expression, of incredulity. “A formal request for what, precisely,
laoban?
To remove your wife from office?”

When Revik’s irises sparked a second time, Balidor held up his hands, trying to use his aleimi to calm the other man down, even as the taller seer’s expression grew murderous.

“Are you
listening
to yourself, Nenzi?” Balidor said. “You are advocating a partial mutiny, led by the Bridge’s own husband. What possible grounds do you have, for––”

“I am not trying to remove her from office!” Revik snapped. “It’s not a fucking
mutiny,
Balidor. Jesus. Are you listening to me?”

“Every seer in this fleet can probably hear you, brother,” Balidor muttered.

“Most of them don’t even speak English! Or are you broadcasting this shit through the construct in case I try to kill you?”

Balidor felt his jaw harden more.

“Of course not,” he said. Taking a breath, he forced his voice to grow more subdued. “My point is, every seer in the fleet will
see
this as a mutiny, Nenz. I highly doubt you’ll get most of them to go along with it, no matter how you spin it––”

“Bullshit! They don’t even need to
know
about it, ‘Dori!”

“And what about Alyson, herself?” Balidor said. “Does she have to ‘know about it’? Do you imagine you could openly defy her orders, Nenz, without others noticing? Or do you really think she’ll agree to this? That she’ll just go along quietly with––”

“My wife will just have to get over it, too.”

Balidor stared up at him, then frowned in disbelief.

“Meaning what?” he said. “What the hell does that mean?”

Balidor threw up his hands in frustration. When the other man only exuded another cloud of anger, Balidor deliberately subdued his voice a second time, even as he wove a thread of warning into his words.

“You cannot put me in this position, Nenz,” he said. “You cannot.”

Forcing himself to take a breath, the Adhipan leader fought to retain his calm.

Even so, the panic coming off the other man’s light continued to affect his.

He heard his own accent strengthen in his words, mirroring the Germanic tones that invaded Revik’s English. Fighting to get his equilibrium back, if only so he could think clearly about what the Sword wanted from him, Balidor shook his head, clicking louder. Even so, it unnerved him when he realized how much the other man’s light affected his.

“Nenzi. We can talk about solutions...we can.” Balidor took another breath, raising his hand a second time in a peace gesture. “But you must calm yourself, brother. You must. You are not seeing this clearly right now, and you
must
see it clearly before we address the particulars in any way. You should go for a walk. You should do at least two circuits around the ship’s track. Then we can talk about this again, when you––”

“She’s not fucking safe!” Revik snapped, glaring at him again. “Am I the only one that sees this? If so, then maybe I’m the only one seeing this ‘clearly’ at all...” He leaned closer to the Adhipan leader. “The
single fucking time
I’ve left her alone, ‘Dori. The one time. Today is the first time I’ve left her alone for more than
ten fucking minutes
since all of this shit happened...at least when she wasn’t with you or Tarsi. One time...and she gets contacted by that fucker’s people? Are you really going to sit there and tell me that’s a damned coincidence, Balidor? That I’m overreacting? Overly ‘emotional’?”

“Do you know for certain that it’s not?” Balidor said, his voice subdued. “A coincidence, I mean.”

“I damned well do!” Revik growled. “She
showed
me, ‘Dori! That fucker
waited
for me to leave her alone! He told her as much!”

Balidor felt his chest constrict, but he didn’t avert his gaze from the other’s face.

Clearly, Dehgoies had gotten the unabridged version of Terian and Alyson’s interaction.

“Where is she now?” Balidor said, his voice cautious once more.

“She’s in the tank.”

“Alone?”

“No. She’s not fucking alone...” Revik turned on him, his voice harsh again, and even more heavily accented. “I doubled the team on her. I had them turn the security feeds back on. I told them if they hear a fucking
sound
in there, they were to contact me and break down the door. I told them to give her an escort if she tries to leave...and to contact me before she passed the goddamned threshold of those walls...”

Revik trailed, falling silent seemingly with an effort.

Making a vague gesture with one hand, he inclined his head.

“She’s not alone,” he finished shortly, his voice cold.

Balidor watched as the other man raised a hand to his forehead, rubbing his temples, his jaw firm, as if he’d cut himself off from saying more. Muttering something under his breath that Balidor didn’t catch, Revik combed a hand through his black hair a second time, using the same hand that wore Alyson’s ring.

Balidor watched as the Elaerian looked away, his eyes borderline distant. He paced in front of the desk in two long strides, moving like a caged animal. The tension vibrating his light smacked into Balidor’s again, feeling like a live wire. Everything about him felt borderline manic, as if he had to fight just to remain in one place.

“Nenz,” Balidor said, his voice helpless-sounding again, but also softer. “You cannot simply imprison your wife. You cannot. No matter what your concerns. She will not tolerate it, for one. Her followers won’t tolerate it, either. You’ll have a mutiny on your hands...a real one. You’ll divide the whole crew, if you don’t work this out between the two of you...come to some agreement that both of you can live with.”

Revik gave him a harder look.

The taller man seemed to remain silent just long enough to control the emotions shifting behind his clear irises. Once he had, he leaned over the table, placing his hands there, even as he glared into Balidor’s face.

“I’m not asking to revoke all of her fucking authority, ‘Dori,” he said, quieter. His voice grew colder, more uncompromising. “...I’m not. That was never even remotely my intention, so if you or anyone else tells her that it was, I’ll break your goddamned arms...” Pausing to let that sink in, he added, “...I have no intention of ‘imprisoning’ her, either. I’m simply asking to be able to
overrule
her, with agreed-upon limits of discretion, where and when her or our child’s safety is the dominant risk factor in a decision. I’m asking to have final say in those protocols that concern her and Lily’s
security,
okay? That’s it. That
one fucking area.
I’ll follow any other order she gives me, Balidor...every single one, no matter what it is. But not in that
one area.
Could I possibly be any clearer than that, ‘Dori?”

“Again. On what grounds?” Balidor said. Exhaling, he leaned back in his bolted-down chair. “I have no grounds to grant you such an exception, Nenz...Illustrious Sword or no. There is no provision for fearful husbands, as much as you might want to––”

“Bullshit, ‘Dori!” Revik snapped, slamming the flat of his hand down on the desk. “I can evoke spousal privilege! That’s in the fucking
Code
...which predates Adhipan, predates Seven, predates any of the edicts your people have defended since! Further, I’m her second in command...I can make a judgment on her ability to keep herself safe, if it’s warranted. I have that right. Hell, I have that
responsibility
...”

His jaw hardened again at Balidor’s silence, even as his eyes seemed to grow lighter in his face.

“She won’t listen to me, Balidor! She won’t take it seriously! You said it yourself...she just
talked
to that fucker! She refused to disengage. She didn’t use the link to call me. She just
talked
to him, as if she was having a goddamned business meeting with him and Menlim, and la-de-da, and it’s all perfectly okay. As if Terry didn’t just
kidnap our kid
. As if he wasn’t still working directly with the fucker who tried to
murder
her, less than a year ago. Hell, Terry probably stood there and watched, while they cut into her...”

He flinched at his own words, wincing, his jaw hardening more.

“...She’s not fit to make decisions based on her own well-being, ‘Dori. She’s not. She’s fucking
proven
that. And I won’t stand for it anymore.”

“You locked her to the bed,” Balidor reminded him, softer, glancing over Revik’s shoulder to the other room to ensure his words wouldn’t being overheard. “Nenz. Think about it. What was she supposed to do, precisely, with you––”