Harlequin Nocturne May 2016 Box Set (22 page)

Then he was gone, and Daniel lay back on the cot, breathing hard with anger and fear. Ares seemed to believe that Isis would be all right, but no one knew the full affects of whatever poison she had been given.

No one but the Opir who had poisoned her. The spider crouching at the center of this vicious web.

Calming his racing heart, Daniel waited for the medic to clean and bandage his wrist. As soon as the man was gone, Daniel concentrated on doing deliberately what he'd nearly done by accident...dislocating his thumb so that he could slip his hand through the cuff.

The pain was blinding, but he'd become accustomed to dealing with such discomfort long ago. He pulled his hand free and carefully pushed his thumb back into place. It would be useless for a while, but he could work around it.

He continued to evade the patrolling Opiri and made his way to Isis's tent. She was deeply asleep on her cot, undisturbed by his arrival. Her skin was pale, and there were dark circles under her eyes.

Daniel knew better than to wake her, though his fear for her curdled in his gut. He knew Ares would do everything within his power to help her, and Daniel had a task that wouldn't wait.

He knelt beside the cot, brushed his lips across her hot cheek, then left as silently as he'd come.

Somehow, he got clear of the camp and started southeast toward Tanis.

Halfway to the city, Opiri guards from Tanis ambushed him. He was outnumbered six to one; they took him down, bound him and threw a day coat over him to disguise his identity. They kept him surrounded like a living cage as they marched to Tanis, refusing to identify themselves.

Daniel could already guess that they were Anu's men. And when they entered Tanis, moving past what seemed like countless Lawkeepers and armed Opiri, he could smell the sharp, mingled scent of fear and rage in the air.

His captors made it impossible for him to observe more closely, and the human sector of the city was quiet. But he had no doubt that things had gotten worse in the short time he and Isis had been absent from Tanis. As he and his captors made their way toward the tower of the Nine, he could hear shouts of anger and pain, and glimpsed open struggles between Opiri and humans.

Anu's suite was empty of all but the “god” himself and a handful of his supporters, including Hannibal. Daniel cursed himself again for letting Hannibal escape, but he had little time for regret. The guards pushed him to his knees and held him there when he would have struggled to his feet. Anu examined him with the interest of a snake regarding a small rodent, his gaze sharp beneath hooded eyelids.

“You had one chance,” Anu said, “but you did not take it. Why were you returning to Tanis?”

Daniel didn't answer. The guard bearing down on his shoulder pulled him up by his jacket and struck him across the face. Daniel's teeth cut the inside of his lip, and he tasted blood.

He knew, then, what was coming.

Anu asked again, with the same result. Daniel picked himself up off the floor.

“Where is Isis?” Anu said, leaning forward on his throne. “She left with you and the exiles and never returned. What is she doing?”

It was a strange question from the one who'd presumably tried to kill her. “I don't know,” Daniel said, holding the Opir's gaze. “I didn't see her after we left the vicinity of Tanis.”

“You are lying,” Hannibal said, stepping forward to stand beside Anu's chair.

“I didn't know you were so concerned for Isis's welfare,” Daniel said, his mouth beginning to swell.

He was ready for the next blow, and the next. He told Anu nothing, and he didn't ask if Anu had tried to kill Isis. He kept silent until he would have found it difficult to speak in any case.

“This gains us nothing, my lord,” Hannibal said, gesturing for Daniel's guards to let him slump to the ground. “This man was a serf, accustomed to receiving punishment for his defiance. We will require stronger measures.”

“Then by all means, use them,” Anu said. “I give him to you. But keep him apart from the others. He must remain isolated until he tells us what he knows of the human resistance and any other information that may be used against us.”

“No limits, my lord?”

“None, as long as he does not die. We may still use him against Isis if she returns and proves troublesome.”

Hannibal nodded, a satisfied smile on his face. He gestured for the guards to drag Daniel out of the suite. He was only half-conscious as they took him to some other part of the tower: a dark and empty former Household, evidently long abandoned by its original owner. Someone had knocked down the walls between the antechamber and the central hall, and built many small rooms that looked like prison cells.

The guards hurled Daniel into one of them, throwing him against the back of the cell. There were chains and manacles attached to the wall. The Opiri forced him to stand and shackled him so that he had no means of sitting or resting his legs. They closed the cell door and left him there with his pain.

He had been alone for an indeterminate length of time when Hannibal arrived, carrying a whip.

“A pity that Palemon isn't here to see this,” he said, playing out the whip. “He would have enjoyed seeing you reduced to what you were before Ares saved you.”

Daniel didn't give him the satisfaction of a response. He didn't fight when Hannibal's guards unshackled him, turned him around and bound him again. He didn't make a sound when the punishment began, or when Hannibal questioned him with greater and greater impatience.

Gradually, he stopped feeling the pain. He gave himself over to the numbness of semi-consciousness and felt himself with Isis again, lying with her, feeling the healing warmth of her body against his.

But that wasn't right. “Stay away,” he mumbled, his cheek against the wall. “Stay...”

The words trailed into silence, and so did his mind.

CHAPTER 23

D
aniel came to when the cell door opened again. He peered through swollen eyelids from his position on the floor, struggling dimly to prepare himself for more pain.

The cell door shut quietly, and the person who had entered, breathing rapidly, pressed herself against it.

“My God,” she said.

Daniel managed to lift his head. Even through a nose clogged with blood he could smell her; he knew her, though he couldn't seem to remember from where.

“Daniel?” She knelt beside him, her hands reaching out to touch him. He flinched back, rolling toward the wall.

“It's me,” the woman said. “Trinity.”

Her name awakened a strange urgency in Daniel's muddled thoughts. He
did
know her. She was important.

“How did you get in here?” he croaked.

“I broke the lock,” she whispered close to his ear. “I didn't know you were here until I smelled you. If I hadn't...” Her voice broke. “Why in God's name did you come to Tanis? Did Avalon send you to find us?” She rested her hand on his damp hair. “It doesn't matter. I'll get you out.” Her head jerked over her shoulder. “This is the first time I've managed to escape, but they'll notice I'm missing soon. We have to move.”

Her tug on his arm brought fresh waves of excruciating pain, but he tried to get up. He was remembering now. He was supposed to find Trinity. Bring her out of Tanis for Ares, so he wouldn't have to—

“Easy,” Trinity whispered. She took Daniel's weight against her own body. “I'm sorry, Daniel, but we'll have to move fast. Fast and quiet. Do you understand?”

He managed a nod. She dragged him out of the cell, and he fought to set his feet one after the other, wondering how long it would take for the smell of his blood to attract whatever Opiri were in the vicinity.

“Leave me,” he said, standing fast against her pull. “Get...out of Tanis. Ares is in the northwest, with...an army. Find him.”

“I'm not leaving my husband's son to die here alone.”

Her agile strength was too great for him to resist in his current state. They crossed the hall and approached the outer door to the suite. It was unlocked. Trinity released a loud breath and opened it.

There was nobody in the lobby. Trinity pressed the down button on the elevator, her head darting this way and that.

“Listen,” she said close to his ear. “There are things you have to know if I don't make it and you do. Anu's supporters live the old way in secret, with dozens of men and women they've stolen out of the human wards to keep as serfs. They want Tanis back the way it used to be. They're preparing to take over.”

“We...know,” Daniel said hoarsely as the elevator reached their floor.

“I had help, Daniel,” she said. “There's a resistance in the city, and serfs here who've risked their lives. Get out, and find the rebels. Look for a man named Hugh, but don't let yourself be seen. Tell Ares...that I'll do what I can from here.”

“No,” Daniel said, shaking his head wildly. “Come with me.”

Instead of arguing with him, she tried to push him into the elevator. He resisted with uncertain strength, turning his weight against her to reverse their positions. Someone shouted from a corridor off the lobby.

The elevator doors closed on Trinity. Daniel turned and braced his feet, watching the guards emerge from the corridor. He struggled as they dragged him back to his cell, hoping that the guards' focus on him would allow Trinity a better chance at escape.

They shackled him in such a way that he could lie down, and exhaustion claimed him soon after. When he woke, Hannibal was there.

“I am told that you tried to help a prisoner escape,” he said, almost mildly. “You might be interested to know that she has been taken, and so have the humans who helped her.”

“The serfs,” Daniel croaked. “You're...so sure you can win.”

Hannibal cocked his head. “Palemon never could break you. I will succeed where he failed.” He gestured to the guards behind him. They pulled Daniel to his feet, and Hannibal sank his teeth into Daniel's neck.

After that, there was nothing but darkness.

* * *

Isis woke to the sound of the camp bustling with activity, voices shouting commands and gear being moved. It took a moment for her to focus her eyes and realize that she was staring up at the roof of the tent, and that she was lying in the same cot they had given her when she had become sick again. She wore a sack-like sleeping gown, slightly damp with perspiration.

“Daniel?” she said, trying to sit up. Dizziness overwhelmed her, but she persevered until she was firmly braced on her arms and could make her voice heard.

“Daniel?”

No one answered. She tried calling Ares, but there was still no response. A little short of breath, she swung her legs over the side of the cot and staggered to the tent flap.

The camp was in disarray as soldiers moved quickly this way and that...not many, she saw, compared to the number she'd seen earlier. They were like ants left behind to tidy the nest after the others had gone raiding.

She looked out of the tent, blinking against the light. One of the hooded soldiers paused as she saw Isis and hurried to join her.

“What is going on?” she asked, grasping a tent pole for support. “Where is Ares?”

“Gone,” the soldier said. “Lady Isis, you should not be out of bed.”

“Gone where?” Isis demanded, refusing to budge.

“To Tanis. He was summoned by Anu with most of the troops.”

“For what purpose?”

“We were not told, Lady.” The woman hesitated. “Lord Ares left a message for you. You are to remain here and rest until he returns. You suffered a long illness because of the poison, and you cannot risk moving about too quickly.”

“A long illness?” Isis said. “
How
long?”

Once again the soldier hesitated. “Two weeks,” she said with obvious reluctance.

Isis felt a swell of alarm. “Where is Daniel?”

The soldier looked genuinely concerned. “We only know that he tried to return to the city alone. We have heard nothing from him since.”

Nothing
, Isis thought. Either he had made it into Tanis, or he had been captured attempting to do so.

Curse him.

“I must go,” Isis said, slipping back into the tent to gather her clothes and her day coat.

“Ares gave orders—” the soldier began, following her into the tent.

“He is not here to enforce them,” Isis said. She looked hard at the woman. “And
you
cannot.”

The soldier flinched at the hardness in Isis's tone and the push of her influence. “I beg you, my lady...”

Isis began to dress. “I will know exactly what is going on in my city, and if Daniel is there, I
will
find him.”

There was nothing more the woman could do, and she knew it. She and her fellow remaining soldiers watched helplessly as Isis donned her day coat and commandeered one of the three horses left in camp.

She reached Tanis at sunset. The fields were abandoned—no humans and Opiri changing shifts, no signs of life outside the city at all save for the presence of the Opir guards outside the gate. They started when they saw her and looked at each other uncertainly.

“Do you not recognize me?” Isis asked. “Open the gates.”

With haste, the guards obeyed her. Isis rode into the courtyard and left her mount with the first Opir she met. There were no humans here, either.

When she entered the city proper, she knew that things had gone very wrong in the time she had been away. She walked through her ward, noting broken windows and discarded signs, burn marks on buildings and the utter absence of humans.

But there were Opiri here, most drifting about as if they had no idea where to go. Isis was preparing to approach one of them when Athena rushed up to her, her gray eyes wide and worried.

“Isis!” she said. “Where have you been?”

Isis took Athena's hand and led her away from the street. “What has happened here, Athena?” she asked.

“Are you all right?” Athena asked, as if she hadn't heard Isis's question. “Nobody knew what had become of you.”

“I am fine,” Isis said. “Have you seen Daniel?”

“Not since his exile. Why do you—”

“Tell me what's happened here.”

“The city is in the grip of madness,” Athena said. “In just the past two weeks, everything we worked for has come undone.”

“How?” Isis asked, grasping Athena's hands.

“The fighting became much worse after you disappeared,” Athena said, her gaze darting across the central avenue. “There were more riots and protests by the humans and more attacks by Opiri. Most claimed they fought in self-defense, but there were many instances of humans found with their blood taken against their wills, even a few deaths.”

“Killings?” Isis said, horrified but not wholly surprised.

“And increasing reports of humans disappearing,” Athena said, distress in her voice. “Humans have avoided the depository, and the stores of blood have diminished. Opiri have panicked.” She clutched Isis's arm. “I was asked to take over your ward, but—”

“Where are the humans now?” Isis asked.

“Most of the humans who resided and worked here retreated into the other wards.”

“Because I was not here to help them,” Isis said. “Where is Anu?”

“He remains in the tower, sending his agents to investigate the troubles.”

“And what has he done to end these troubles?”

“He has brought in armed Freeblood soldiers from outside, a force he has kept in training to handle any attacks on Tanis. They are presently protecting the humans.”

“Protecting? These soldiers would fight against other Opiri?”

Athena hesitated, lips parted, and Isis knew she had to take the risk. “Athena,” she said, “I believe that Anu tried to kill me.”

“What?”

“I was poisoned after I accompanied Daniel out of Tanis. Tainted blood. That is why I have been gone so long.”

“By the infernal Styx,” Athena swore. “Why? How can you be sure?”

“He now views me as an enemy, because he knows I will stand firm against his plans for Tanis.”

“His plans?”

“These troubles did not come about on their own. Someone set them off.”

“And you believe Anu is involved?”

“Yes. Athena, Ares never left the city. Anu blackmailed him into training an army by threatening his wife, Trinity, who is incarcerated in Tanis. The army is under Anu's command. I do not believe it is here to protect humans, but to hold them prisoner.”

“But what does Anu want?”

“To be a god again, with thousands of humans at his feet. And to get that, he has bribed the most influential Opiri in Tanis with new Households and serfs stolen from the human population.”

Clearly astonished, Athena looked toward the tower. “I believe you,” she said suddenly. “I would not let myself see how Anu was changing. But if he built an army without telling us, and forced Ares to serve him...”

“There is more,” Isis said. “Daniel is Ares's son—I will explain later—and he has returned to the city to try to free Trinity.”

“I am sorry, Isis,” Athena said, clasping her hands. “I know nothing of this.”

“Then either he has managed to get in and stay free, or he was taken in secret. Anu will surely question him if he can. I must get to the tower and try to find out what is happening.”

“You will go to Anu, knowing he might try to kill you again?”

“He will be thrown off his guard by my appearance. And I must know if he has Daniel.”

“Then I will go with you.”

“If you show yourself as my ally, your life may be in danger.”

“If what you say is true, I would not be your only ally,” Athena said.

* * *

They walked directly and openly to the tower, Isis making certain that the Opiri they passed saw their faces. Their only real protection now was their visibility, and the questions that would be asked if either or both of them disappeared.

They met not a single human along the way, and Isis fretted over Ares and the army. What orders had they been given, and would Ares carry them out?

Trust us, Ares
, she thought.
We will find a way to free your mate.

No one tried to stop them as they ascended to Anu's suite. The guards posted there seemed surprised to see Isis, but they quickly let her and Athena enter.

The room was populated by its usual contingent of favorites, courtiers and liveried guards...many of whom, Isis thought, must be among those who had returned to the old way of serfs and masters. Anu surged out of his seat when he saw Isis.

“Isis!” he said, extending his hands. “You are well! We feared that—”

“I am grateful for your concern,” Isis said, striding up to the throne, “but I am astonished at how bad the city has become. How could it get so far?”

Clearly taken aback, Anu dropped his arms. “Where have you been, Isis? You left to observe the expulsion of your human lover and could not be found by any of my searchers.”

“I became very ill,” she said. “I did not recover for two weeks.”

There was no sign of guilt on Anu's aquiline features, nor did he ask her who had taken care of her. “What illness could keep you away so long?”

“It was almost as if I was poisoned with tainted blood.”

Anu's courtiers murmured among themselves. Anu silenced them with a downward sweep of his hand.

“Did you take anything from the exiles, from any human?” he asked.

“No. The last blood I took was from Lawkeepers who were escorting me back to Tanis.”

Stunned silence fell over the room. Anu took his seat and rested his chin on his fist.

“Lawkeepers,” he said. “No Lawkeeper would harm one of the Nine.”