Harlequin Nocturne May 2016 Box Set (20 page)

“He had nothing to do with this!” Isis shouted, striding alongside them.

Once again they ignored her, and she had no choice but to follow them to the jail at the rear of the hall. The Lawkeepers blocked her from entering, and she considered her options. She could rely on her authority as one of the Nine, but that might provoke unwanted attention from Anu.

If Daniel faced only the relatively minor charge of participating in the protest, he might simply be ejected from the city. Then, Isis thought, he would be safe. But she couldn't be sure what would happen after a long night and day of protests and fighting. Anu might see this as a perfect opportunity to be rid of a potential troublemaker and rebel once and for all.

There had not been an execution in Tanis since the day it was founded, but if Anu wished to arrange it...

Her stomach churning with dread, Isis set out for the tower.

CHAPTER 21

T
hree hours later, Isis stood before the Nine in their meeting hall, fighting a battle she was very much afraid she would lose.

“Daniel must be permitted a jury of his peers,” she insisted.

The Nine gazed at her with expressions ranging from distaste to sympathy, but Isis knew the odds were against her. She felt extremely lucky that Hannibal, whatever had become of him, had not appeared at Anu's side again, and nobody knew of her searching his apartments.

Anu didn't bother to conceal his suspicion of Isis.
Somehow
he knows I have guessed that he is the cause behind the trouble in the city
, she thought.

“Why should we change our customs for this newcomer?” Ereshkigal asked, her fringed robes draped over her chair. “He was caught with the protesters, infringing upon the rights of Opir citizens. He has been seen among other humans involved in the fighting—”

“Trying to stop them,” Isis said, pressing her hands flat to the table. “And I was there during the protest at the depository. He was only speaking to the humans, attempting to calm them, when—”

“So you have told us,” Anu said, his voice heavy in its softness. “But you have favored this human since the beginning. You would claim anything to save him.”

“If you will not accept my word, then give him a chance to defend himself. You can surely find enough trustworthy humans to—”

“Humans will not judge one of their own fairly,” Hephaestus said. “If any are sympathetic to these troublemakers, they will favor him.”

“Hephaestus is right,” Ishtar said. “Humans are incapable of objectivity. A jury such as you suggest is a human invention, and no part of Tanisian law.”

“But you believe the Council will be objective, when they have already condemned a dozen humans to expulsion from Tanis?” She tried to gather her wits. “Can you blame the humans for doubting the way we dispense justice?”

“Expulsion is not death,” Hermes said, not meeting her eyes. “Your human was resilient enough to survive in the wild, and he can do so again.”

Isis sensed that she had come to the end of her argument. To push it further would be to provoke Anu to radical action.

Still, when the meeting was over, she risked stealing an antique dagger from among the displays and hiding it in her robes. After she left the tower, she made an attempt to see Daniel, but the human prisoners were locked away from visitors. There were no protesters on the steps of the Council building or Hall of Justice; Lawkeepers stood guard, discouraging anyone from approaching.

But they could not stop the tension from growing in the city. Even those humans who'd had no part in the protests were beginning to react, if very quietly. In her own ward, men and women slipped away when they saw her. Any sense of trust was gone.

Isis made many attempts to visit Athena and Bes in their suites or their wards to discuss what they had seen in the arena, but they were either absent or fully occupied in monitoring and reassuring their humans. She had no better luck with Hermes, though his words at the meeting had aroused her doubts about him. It was almost as if they feared to speak with her.

Anu continued to leave her alone, but she knew she couldn't afford to attract his attention. Instinct told her that he was watching to see what she would do; he still didn't seem to know about her presence at the arena, and whatever his suspicions about her, he had no proof to lay before the other Nine. Even his power could not guarantee that the others wouldn't turn on him if he exposed himself while speaking against Isis.

The following day, at the hour of Daniel's hearing, she sat apart from those of the Nine who were present. Athena and Bes were missing. She tried to catch Daniel's eyes, but he stared straight ahead in the witness box facing the Council's table, his expression coldly defiant and as far from humble as any human's could be.

There was never any question in her mind that he would be found guilty. He was sentenced to permanent exile from Tanis.

On the morning of the prisoners' departure—and after several more unsuccessful attempts to speak with her allies among the Nine—Isis was finally able to see Daniel, though the Lawkeepers guarding the prison were reluctant to let her into the holding area. She had prepared to accompany him part of the way out of the city, and wore a loose day coat over practical traveling clothes. She also carried a hidden bundle that included food and a change of clothes for him.

Daniel was pacing slowly back and forth in his cell, his hands clenched behind his back. He paused when he saw her.

“You shouldn't have come here,” he said. “Associating with me now could be deadly for you, Isis.”

“Are you well?” she asked anxiously.

“They don't let us starve,” he said. “Though it's not as if they'll be feeding us much longer.” He moved up to the bars. “What about you?”

“I spoke to the Nine on your behalf. I tried to convince them to show mercy, but Anu—”

“You should never have tried,” he said, resting his clenched fists against the bars. “Anu had you right where he wanted you.”

“But he did nothing to me. There have been no threats. He has not even attempted to speak with me alone.”

“And Hannibal?”

“Still no sign.” She lowered her voice. “I have been thwarted in every attempt to tell my allies about Anu and his worshippers. But I have no intention of—”

The barred door to the corridor swung open behind them, and two Lawkeepers in day coats respectfully asked Isis to step aside while they opened Daniel's cell, cuffed him and took him out of the holding area. Sunlight shone into the city, and Isis was surprised that the humans had been given the benefit of being released during the day.

She was glad that she'd made preparations to travel when she saw that the escort would include not only Lawkeepers, but Opir guards armed with both shock sticks and actual firearms.

She followed Daniel to the main gate, where heavy rope barred the human onlookers from approaching the prisoners. Protest emerged as a low hum, no one daring to speak out and call attention to themselves.

Isis remained as close to Daniel as possible while he and the other convicted prisoners were given bundles of supplies and clothing. They had no weapons with which to defend themselves from rogue Freebloods.

Head high, Isis boldly walked out with the humans. The gates remained open behind her. The Lawkeepers wouldn't close them on one of the Nine.

She and Daniel gazed at each other, not daring to touch. His blue eyes seemed to catch the sunlight and reflect it under her hood, giving her nowhere to hide.

“I don't want you to deal with this alone, Isis,” he said.

She moved closer, slipping the knife and her secret bundle of clothes and food into his hand. “You cannot protect me,” she said, backing away. “Daniel, listen to reason. You must go, or you will distract me with worry for you. You will hinder every action I take to counter Anu's ambitions. If I could find a way for us to stay together without endangering your life or my duty to Tanis, I would gladly take it.”

“I'll be sticking close to Tanis, so you can find me again when it's safe for you.”

She swallowed. “Do you remember the location of the nearest human colony? You can warn them of what is occurring in Tanis. Or you can carry out your duty and return to your own colony to bring them the information you were sent to gather.”

“Not without you,” he said.

“Lady Isis,” the captain of the Lawkeepers said, edging between her and Daniel. “We will leave shortly. Will you go back inside?”

“I will accompany you to the final location,” she said, “and return with you to Tanis.”

The captain opened his mouth, on the verge of argument before closing it again without speaking. The other eleven Lawkeepers gathered the prisoners and herded them away from the gates.

The group walked northwest throughout the day, crossing over prairie, forest and the ruins of old towns, passing gradually into the foothills. Isis felt pity for the fearful men and women, and even for those who concealed their fear. Daniel strode ahead of them all, his head up, stopping only if one of his fellow humans needed his help or support. He seemed to give the other humans courage and purpose.

He will see them to safety first
, Isis thought with relief.
He will not abandon them in the wilderness.
She knew he would inevitably attempt to return to Tanis, no matter what she said. But she would have some time to see what she could accomplish within the city, whether she decided to work only with those of the Nine she trusted or also with the humans under Hugh's leadership.

The group of exiles reached their goal just before sunset: a large, rocky outcrop near a woodland that provided shelter and potential hiding places from any threats they might face on their first night of exile. The prisoners' hands were freed, and as the Lawkeepers prepared to return to Tanis, Daniel took Isis's arm and led her around to the back of the outcrop.

He kissed her, and she returned the kiss with a desperate fear.

“It's all right,” he said, gathering a handful of her hair and pressing it to his face. “We will find a way, Isis.”

“I believe you,” she said. And she did, in spite of all the obstacles they faced.

“I'm going to get these people to the nearest human colony,” he said. “After that...”

She took his rough hands and kissed his knuckles. “I depend upon you to be sensible, Daniel,” she said.

He only kissed her again. The other humans joined them, crowding close, and she and Daniel stepped apart.

“If you are ready, Lady Isis,” the captain of the Lawkeepers said with a slight bow.

Somehow, Isis managed to break away from Daniel, though it seemed as if her heart were tearing in two. She turned twice to look back at him, and each time he met her gaze directly and with reassuring confidence.

When she and the Lawkeepers moved out of sight of the prisoners, Isis drifted in an inner space filled only with loneliness and longing. She couldn't bring herself to think of what her next act in Tanis should be; the city was as unreal to her as the woods through which they passed and the stars in the indigo sky overhead. She hardly noticed when they stopped to rest, and two of the Opir guards left to hunt for game. When they returned, she took her share of the blood with indifference, though she noticed that it seemed slightly off in taste and texture.

After that, her dream-state took on a new life of its own, and she lost track of time and place. Only gradually did she begin to realize that they had been traveling too long, and that Tanis was nowhere in sight. Still she was unable to focus, and the Lawkeepers didn't seem to hear her questions, even when the sun began to rise again and they pulled their hoods up over their heads.

They stopped again in a place she didn't recognize, and one of the Opir guards, his face a blur in the light, urged her to lie down and rest. Some remnant of self-preservation made her refuse, and the others pushed her to the ground, one of them forcing the mouth of a blood-flask against her lips. She choked on the stream of foul-tasting liquid, her body aware that it was tainted even before her mind recognized that she had been betrayed.

The sun blinded her as the Lawkeepers dragged off her day coat and left her in the open grassland, the altered blood curdling in her stomach. The sky seemed made up of a hundred colors she didn't recognize, and her skin felt scalded.

Isis rolled over onto her stomach and breathed in the scent of dry earth. She knew that her betrayers had counted on her sickness from the blood preventing her from reaching shelter soon enough, but she was not about to grant them victory.

Her legs and arms like rubber, Isis dragged herself to the west, toward a stand of battered trees along some minor watercourse. Her attempts to rise met with utter failure. Still, she remembered Daniel's face and continued to fight, inch by inch, reaching out to gather handfuls of golden grass to pull herself forward.

She had gone no more than a hundred feet when the boots appeared—one pair directly in front of her face, a dozen more surrounding her. She froze, waiting for a strike to her heart or the removal of her head from her body.

“Here,” a man said, holding his hand down to her. Several others moved closer, helping her to her feet, supporting her weight as she swayed and began to fall. They covered her with a day coat, and one of them put a water flask to her mouth. She drank greedily, though her stomach fought to reject what she swallowed.

“Easy,” the first man said. “We've come to take you to safety.”

The sky was too bright for her to see his hooded face. “Who...are you?” she whispered.

“My name is Cassius. We've been following you, but we had to wait until the others were gone.” He spoke softly to his comrades. “We have horses. If you can hold on for a few hours, we'll get to a place where you can rest. Whatever they gave you obviously wasn't a fatal dose.”

A dose of what? she wondered. But she couldn't keep the question in her head. Cassius and the others lifted her onto the back of a horse, already occupied by an Opir woman who supported Isis against her chest.

When they started moving, Isis drifted into semiconsciousness again, feeling the horse's movements but unable to make sense of them. She heard voices like the grumbling of badgers. Occasionally someone put water to her mouth, and her body insisted that she drink.

At sunset, she ejected everything she had swallowed, including the tainted blood. Her thoughts became more lucid, and when they reached their destination, she could see the details of what appeared to be a military camp in a clearing among tall pines, complete with uniformed, well-armed Opiri and tents in precise rows. Large pens held cattle as an obvious source of blood. She saw no humans at all.