Elei's Chronicles (Books 1-3) (16 page)

“Why should I answer to you?” She maneuvered the craft among rock formations, gripping the lever so hard her knuckles blanched. 

“Please, Hera,” Elei said. “Just tell us.”

She threw him a sharp look. Her dark eyes glimmered. “I do not know. Monitoring their communications is not easy. They encrypted the message going out to all
seleukids
, but I cracked the code. They did not explain how they knew. My only hope was to reach you before them, but as you see I failed.”

Kalaes fell silent then, and so did Elei. The aircar rounded a crag and zoomed into a black opening in the rock. There it powered down and rested in darkness.

“A cave?” Kalaes’ voice rang too loud. Elei flinched.

The metallic structure holding up the tunnel looked manmade.

“Looks like an abandoned mine.” Elei unlocked the door and dropped outside into a crouch. He straightened. Rock and sand crunched underneath his boots, startlingly loud in the quiet, and he looked into the dark. With his possessed right eye, he saw roughly hewn walls, the track lines of a mine train, and in the depths of the tunnel a pile of rocks. The mine was blocked.

Kalaes stumbled and fell, cursing. “I can’t see a damn thing.”

Maera staggered out. Elei frowned and reached out to help her. He caught Maera’s flailing arms and Kalaes’ shoulder and pushed them against a wall.

“Elei? Damn, is that you? How come you’re not floundering like us, huh?” Then Kalaes exhaled loudly and it sounded like laughter. “You can see, can’t you, fe?”

Elei shrugged, then remembered they couldn’t see him. “Yes.”

“But I thought cronion was gone.”

So did I.

If cronion was gone, what made him see in the dark? He remembered the new color in his eye, the dark marks on his neck, the new smell of his skin, the burning sensations. Another intruder. Another parasite.

A shudder of unease went through his bones.

“Here,” came Hera’s voice. He saw her lean out of the aircar, a phosphorus torch in her hand. “You might need this. And this.”

She lowered out a thermos and a bread box. Elei went and caught them, and saw her teeth flash in a quick smile. Pretty, his mind said and he shushed it. Scary, he amended and stepped back.

Hera landed softly on her feet. She rubbed her arms and went to lean against the aircar’s front. Kalaes limped to Elei, grabbed the torch and flashed it around, illumining the long shaft. Crystals shimmered, embedded in the rock. The light fragmented into rainbows where it touched them.

“You’re bleeding.” Maera nudged Kalaes until his back met the wall and knelt down to check his calf. He pointed the torch down to give her light. Blood seeped through the khaki cloth.

Elei held himself very straight, hands curling into fists. “Is it bad?”

Maera took the torch, placed it on the floor so that it shone on Kalaes and tore off the leg of his pants. “Shrapnel from the shells. Don’t move, I’ve got it.” She wrapped her hand in the cloth, grabbed the piece and yanked it out in one smooth movement.

Kalaes cried out, in pain or surprise, or both. “Pissing hells, warn me next time, okay?”

Elei winced in sympathy.

With jerky motions, face pale, Kalaes ripped a strip from his t-shirt. “Here.” He handed it down to Maera who wrapped it around his calf and tied it off.

“Where did you get military training, little girl?” Hera asked in a flat voice.

Maera pushed herself to her feet and turned to face Hera with a dark frown. “I got no military training. Why are you saying that?”

Hera shrugged. “I saw you jump onto the aircar like a pro. And you recognized and pulled the shrapnel out without hesitation. It looks like you have seen and treated wounds like that before.”

“Well, I—”

“We’ve both seen wounds like this.” Kalaes reached out and pulled Maera to lean against his chest. “She’s worked in a hospital in Artemisia, right, Mae?”

She nodded, biting her lip. Kalaes’ hand smoothed over her curls.

“Why would she have seen shrapnel wounds in a hospital?” Hera asked.

“Machinery exploding, bombs going off in cars and buildings.” Kalaes flashed her a grim smile. “Terrorism, remember? Haven’t you read about it in the news?”

Hera shook her head. “I should get going.” She gave a mocking bow. “Nice to see you’re one happy family.”

“Right.” Kalaes cocked his head to the side. “Our five minutes with you are up?”

Hera huffed. “I must return before my absence causes suspicion.”

“Return where? How do we know you won’t betray us?”

She turned around, eyes flashing anger. “Return to work. I have helped you every single time, risking my life and…” She trailed off, staring wide-eyed at Elei, and pressed her hand to her stomach.

Was she sick, too? “What’s wrong?”

She jabbed her finger at him. “It’s you!”

He looked down at himself, wondering what it was she saw, uneasy. “What now?”

“You.” She licked her lips. “Your smell is different, peppery sweet. And your eye…” She strode to him and gripped his chin in her strong hand. “Your right eye has changed color.”

“It’s nothing.” He pried her hand off and turned his face away. “You see really well in the dark, don’t you?”
Peculiar
.

“And this… What’s this?” She twisted her hand in his polo-neck sweater and pulled the neckline down. Then she let go, hissing, hands clenching on nothingness. “These marks are new. It’s not telmion.”

“So it’s another parasite.” He tried not to dwell on the fact that it had somehow beaten cronion and telmion to submission. A parasite that strong couldn’t be good news for its host.

Kalaes limped over to them, the torch flashing in Hera’s face. “What are these marks you’re talking about?”

“Ask your little girlfriend, why not? She must know.”

“You leave her out of this game you’re playing!” Kalaes snarled.

“Why? She would know the signs of most diseases if she worked in a hospital. Do you know what this new parasite is, little girl?”

Maera didn’t answer. She folded her arms across her chest, scowling.

“What. Is. It.” Kalaes’ fists rose.

Hera grinned but it was strained, like a rictus of death. “I do not know.”

“But it scares you, why?” Kalaes whispered.

“Hera,” Elei said and his breath wheezed with his own fear. “You know what it is, don’t you?”

“I know it has taken a seat in your eye and lets you see in the dark, and probably not only heat sources, am I right?” When Elei nodded, she shuddered. “It suppressed telmion, then overthrew cronion and took its place. Odds are it comes from cronion’s family, but in a variant I have never encountered before. What else does it do, Elei?”

The marks on his throat burned like lit coals. “I can smell and hear better.” He didn’t want to tell them about the burning sensations, about his obsession with the water and sweet food. He was scaring them enough already.

“That’s how you found Hera,” Maera whispered breathlessly. “You smelled the fumes of the aircar, didn’t you?”

Elei nodded.

“You haven’t answered my question, Hera,” Kalaes said. “Why were you scared?”

Elei saw again the look on her face as she’d turned, hand pressed to her stomach, and something clicked. “Because her own parasite responded, right, Hera? All the tiny microscopic parasites in your blood, in your organs, moving as one.” He pressed his hand against his twinging stomach and his mind whirred through a maze of thoughts. “Maybe this wasn’t even the first time you felt it, but you didn’t know what it was before. I know you didn’t see the marks on my neck. You couldn’t have. My sweater hides them. But you felt it, didn’t you? In your gut.”

She took a step back and covered her mouth with her hand.

“A strong parasite reacting to another strong one,” Elei said, “one that used to be an enemy to yours. I have a new strain of cronion, so you said.” Pieces fell into place with frightening clangs. His lungs felt crushed. The picture emerging was not possible, not true.

But then he thought of the unusual colors her body pulsed. Her attractive scent. The marks on her fingers. The reason she knew so much about Regina and about the Gulturs’ codes and movements.

Elei didn’t know much about them, had never met one face to face. But somehow, at this moment, he knew he was looking at one of them. “You’re a Gultur.”

Chapter
Eighteen

H
era
struggled with shock, confusion and anger, all twisting in knots inside her. Why had she made the mistake and come back for them? They did not trust her before, and would never trust her now. The reputation of the Gultur — well deserved at that — was sufficient to brand her as the enemy.

She could not blame Elei.

Could not blame anyone at all.

Sobek’s fish tail
. She looked down, at the dark marks of Regina on her hands, wondering if they would kill her now or if she had a chance to escape.

Not that she knew where she could go. With a start, she realized she’d become used to being with these three, to their constant bickering and complex relationships; to their odd trust in each other.

Oh for the sake of all the gods
. She did not need these mortals. She would go…

The Undercurrent
. She mentally slapped her forehead.
Of course,
hatha
, think!
She would find a way to contact the rebels and they would find her a hiding place until she was able to leave Dakru for a less dangerous island, as far as possible from the central Gultur administration.

A shuffling sound brought her gaze back up and she narrowed her eyes at Kalaes who had his hand resting on the grip of his gun, apparently torn between shooting her on the spot and waiting a few minutes in case more information was forthcoming.

She did not want to kill him. He was a nice young man and she liked his dry humor.
What a waste
.

With a sigh, she prepared to run for her life. Contacting the Undercurrent was the best course of action.

If she survived today.

***

A Gultur
. Elei cocked his head to the side, considering his own words, wondering if he was right. “Hera?”

Kalaes glanced from him to Hera and back. Then he bared his teeth and lifted his chin. He had his gun out and pointed at Hera’s head so fast the movement was a blur. “Is it true?”

Maera stepped behind Kalaes, arms tense at her sides.

Elei, for some reason, didn’t move, or take out his gun. He willed himself to do something even as he realized he’d somehow known the truth all along. Why wasn’t she speaking? Wasn’t she going to deny it? He hunted for any emotion on her face, but apart from a slight widening of her eyes, it remained blank.

“It was you then.” Kalaes growled. “Playing with us, are you? Trying to trick us into thinking you’re on our side, while leading everyone to us?”

“Do not be stupid.” Hera sounded surprisingly calm with the gun aimed at her forehead. “I have not set you up. I’m on your side.”

“A Gultur?” Maera’s voice cracked. “On our side? Try again. For all we know, you’re the one who shot Pelia.”

Elei’s gut clenched. She could be, he supposed. He hadn’t considered the possibility. Why not? Why did he feel he could trust Hera?

He snorted.
You’re the worst judge of character there is. That’s why you trust her. Who’s ever heard of a Gultur going against their strict codes and laws? Joining an underground organization to overthrow the matriarchal elite of her kind?

One of the Gultur.

She could have turned them in from the start. If she hadn’t, and if she was lying, then she was playing a complex game. But a game of what?

“I must go,” Hera said, her voice flat. “Our only hope lies in my access to their communications, and I cannot let them suspect me by being away too long.”

“Cheap excuse.” Maera clucked her tongue. “Try another.”

“This is not funny.” Hera exhaled. “All our lives depend on me.”

“Oh, so melodramatic,” Maera purred. “Tell me, Hera, why should I trust a single word you say? Are you even human anymore?”

Human
. Elei sucked a sharp breath. Hells, who was he to say the Gultur weren’t human anymore? His body was possessed by so many parasites as to practically outnumber his human parts. What made someone human? Where did you draw the line?

“I must go,” Hera repeated.

“You’re not going anywhere,” Kalaes said in a voice so cold it crackled. “You’ll bring them down on us, right here.”

“I swear to you I’m on your side.” Hera arched an eyebrow. “What do you want me to do to prove it to you, jump into the void? Open my veins? Cut out my heart?”

“Mae’s right, you’re a drama queen,” Kalaes said with a tight smile. “Why would I trust you? You appear at my apartment, and the next thing I know they burn it down. You make us move out, and then we’re found again. And again.”

“Why would I come in and save you every single time?”

“You’re trying to get Elei’s secret from him,” Maera said. “That’s what you want. You’re a mole, trying to gain our trust.”

That summed it up well. Elei swallowed a sigh.

Hera’s eyes narrowed. “He’ll never remember. He’s a lost cause.”

‘A lost cause,’
Pelia’s lilting voice echoed in Elei’s memory.
‘You’re a lost cause, Elei, I’m telling you the tale is true. Stop making me laugh like that.’
He wanted to laugh too, Pelia’s laughter was so warm, like a cup of sweet tea, like a freshly-cooked fooncake.
‘Laughing’s good,’
he’d replied,
‘but that’s a tale for children.’ ‘Yes, and you’re so very old,’
she teased, smiling. Then shots rang, tearing through the air, shattering the windowpanes of the aircar. Pelia slumped toward him, blood blossoming on her blouse, eyes wide. She pressed a gun to his side and whispered,
‘I’m… Elei, I’m…’

A hand shook him. “Elei! Hey, are you all right?”

He looked up into Kalaes’ worried face. “Pelia…”

“What about her?”

“She said to me… She said she was sorry.”

“What? When did she say that, why?” Kalaes looked past him and his eyebrows shot up. “Hey!” He started toward the mouth of the mine. “Hera! Dammit, where the hell do you think you’re going?”

Elei turned to see Hera enter the aircar, a lithe, luminous silhouette, and slam the door shut. His feet felt rooted to the ground.

“Come back!” Kalaes reached the aircraft and slammed his fists against its door. He kicked the metal frame. His shouts faded in the roar of the engine as the aircar rose off the ground and backed out to hover in front of the mine, before it flew away. “She’s gone! Damn!” Kalaes kicked at a loose stone and it skidded across the cave floor.

She’d used the distraction Elei had unwittingly provided. He stood there, numb. So she was a Gultur. She was the enemy. And they were now on their own, because, enemy or not, she’d saved them three times so far, at least.

“Kal?” Maera took the bottle from the floor and sat down, cradling it in her arms. “Nothing we can do about Hera now. Come sit with me.”

In the soft darkness, Kalaes’ limping steps sounded overloud. Elei turned away to give them some illusion of privacy and smelled the metallic tang of blood. Kalaes’ wound still bled.

Beyond the entrance of the cave, night had fallen. All was quiet but for a lone cricket outside.

“Hey, fe, is that all Pelia said to you? That she was pissing sorry?” Kalaes sounded disappointed. No wonder.

He turned. Kalaes sat slumped against the rock wall, his shoulders drooping, next to Maera.

“No.” Elei stared down at his boots.

“What then? Come on, spit it out, fe!”

Elei shook his head. “Right before she died, she was telling me a tale. A children’s bedtime story about a king sleeping in the dark.”

Kalaes shook his head. “Anything else?”

“Yeah.” It seemed funny now, somehow, and ironic, and downright cruel on her part. “She shot me. And then she wished me luck.”

***

Hera parked the aircar outside the Gultur headquarters of Sicyon, a small town in the plain, not far from Akmon. Built on the main road to the capital of Dakru, it was a crossroads that bustled with life. The plan was to check in, report, allay all suspicion.

The usual.

Inside the headquarters building, the quiet of the long entrance hall was only broken by her soft, booted footsteps. She slowed as she reached the end of the hall and turned left toward the offices. With her hand trailing on the cold metal wall, she thought of Elei and the madness of the current situation.

She’d been a fool. Pelia had obviously been murdered before telling anyone about the medicine shipment. Elei knew nothing, was a liability, and the trio distracted her from her mission and placed her in danger.

She stood still, a hand on the wall. Perhaps it was time to leave them, let them fend off the Fleet and all the other misguided Gultur on their own. The Gultur, according to the last report she’d seen, had destroyed the laboratories on Ost along with every sample they were able to find. The cure was gone, unless Pelia had hidden it well, or, and that twisted Hera’s stomach, she’d never really discovered one.

Reaching down, she rubbed the crook of her elbow with the ghost pain of the needle going into her veins, pumping the serum. That had not been a cure, of course, only an experimental product administrated to counterbalance the effects of the parasite for a while. The way she’d felt then, the complete change in her mood as if bright light had flooded the world, had convinced her she was doing the right thing.

Yet Elei did not have the cure.

Dammit all
. She scrubbed a hand down her face. The boy was rubbing off on her; she was becoming fond of him. Even during his bout of nearly fatal illness he’d shown guts. She would never forget walking into that dank, frigid basement only to find him pointing his gun at her as he lay there, semi-conscious. Hera’s lips pulled in a smile.

You had to love such a heart-felt welcome.

Not that Kalaes did not have a certain charm as well. Hells, the boy was turning into a devastatingly handsome man with his wild hair and dark eyes — if you were attracted to men, of course.
And Maera…
She closed her eyes for a moment. Though not Hera’s type, she was pretty and spunky, and hated Hera with everything she had.
Fascinating combination.

These were the people the Gultur considered stupid and filthy and due for a mass extermination.

With a sigh, Hera pushed off the wall, weariness and frustration lending a drag to her steps. She shoved the door open. The offices were quiet and still. Faint noises behind the bathroom door told her she would not be alone for long. With a sigh, she sat at the first desk and tapped the activating command into the data processor.

An alert icon came up on the screen, flashing red.

Hera blinked, at first not understanding what she read:
‘Red alert. Hera, Echo No Seven thousand and twenty one, has betrayed the Race. Contact the headquarters in Dakru City. Red alert.’

Gods
. Hera swallowed a gasp as she pushed away from the desk and staggered to her feet. The world tilted and she leaned over the desk, fighting nausea.

She’d been discovered.

As thousand possibilities raced through her head, another Gultur stepped into the room, tall and wiry with short dark hair. Her gaze flicked to the screen and her body tensed.

“
Hatha
.” Her voice held hatred instead of respect. She reached behind her back for her longgun.

Hera was faster. She drew hers, clicking off the safety, and pointed, proud at how steady her hands were even though she shook inside. She squinted down the barrel, aiming between the woman’s wide eyes.

“One word and I shoot,” she said. The woman took a step toward the screen and Hera caressed the trigger. “Do I sound like I’m joking,
senet
?”
Sister indeed
. “Go back into the bathroom and close the door.”

 The Gultur obeyed, a muscle leaping in her locked jaw, her eyebrows knitting. She backed away until she reached the bathroom, then pushed the door open with her back and disappeared inside.