Sheala (12 page)
“Hurry,” Marljas snarled. “We must get the women to a doctor.”
Char tossed a blanket to Ban for Sosha, then rummaged through the equipment and other items lying on the tables. “Just put everything in a case or sack or something. We can go through it at home. Marljas is right. We need to get the women home.”
As Marljas and Ban left carrying Sheala and Sosha, Rodane found a large box and a sack and emptied Bakom’s safe.
Char picked up the box. “The authorities have to be notified. Rodane, see if you can shake that other woman awake enough to walk to the shuttle. If you can’t, you’ll have to carry her. Eliana, can you get yourself home from here? We’ll take care of the shuttle.”
She handed him a slip of paper. “I’ll manage. This is the name and address of the shuttle owner. Bakom never uses an Academy shuttle when he comes here.”
* * * * *
Dr. Sendenton dem al’ Lorilana, a close friend of the family, had been waiting at the Alalakan town house when they’d returned with the two women. Now, both Sheala and Sosha were heavily sedated, and the doctor had promised to return early in the morning to give each young woman a more thorough examination. The Gattan ambassador, Mendas Teekeson, and his wife, Pikeen Sodasdotir, had been informed of their goddaughter’s rescue and were upstairs with Sosha.
Restless and angry, incapable of sleep, Marljas sat in Sheala’s darkened room. Earlier, only Brianna and Jenneta had had the courage to demand that he wash off the blood of the man he’d killed. Brianna he had ignored. Jenneta had proved to be more intimidating than any Gattan matriarch.
He glanced at his wife, his keen eyesight cutting through the darkness. Even heavily sedated, Sheala moaned in her sleep. Frustrated, Marljas snarled again. He was completely helpless. Fury, barely held in check, coursed through his body with every beat of his heart. Instinct had taken control when he’d burst into the laboratory and seen Sheala sprawled naked on the table at the mercy of Bakom’s assistant.
Gothram had been easy to kill, but it was Bakom he wanted. On Gattan, his entire clan would have hunted Bakom down and made sure he died a very slow and painful death.
Unfortunately, Drakian customs were different from those of Gattan, and Bakom was a very powerful man here on his own planet.
Preoccupied with his anger, Marljas rubbed the already healing cuts above his left pectoral. Sheala, his wife, had been raped. Revenge would be paid in blood, no matter what planet he was on.
When faint light appeared beneath the heavy drapes covering the windows, Marljas pushed himself out of the uncomfortable chair he had sat in all night. Sheala still slept. Though the room was still cloaked in shadows, he didn’t have any trouble seeing the bruises that had appeared on her face overnight. A light blanket covered her to her neck. Just thinking about the additional bruises that undoubtedly covered her slender body had his rage ready to erupt. He couldn’t remain still any longer.
Silently as only a Gattan could, he stepped into the hallway.
He was not alone.
Mendas Teekeson sat on a chair before the room where Sosha and his wife lay sleeping.
The older man glared at him. “Are they dead?”
“One,” Marljas snarled. “Bakom was not there.”
Mendas rose to his feet. “I will deal with him.”
Marljas’ snarl echoed down the hall. “His blood is mine!”
The older Gattan was not intimidated. “Sosha is neither your wife nor your betrothed, boy. Her honor is mine to defend in the absence of her father and brother.”
“Alalakan dem al’ Sheala is my wife, old man,” Marljas snarled back. “I will avenge both her and Sosha.”
“What the hell is going on out here?” Brianna snapped from the doorway of her bedroom.
Marljas glanced over his shoulder. Unlike the Alalakan estate, there were no separate suites at the Alalakan town house. All of the bedrooms opened into a common hallway. Obviously, he and Mendas had awakened his bloodsister with their arguing.
Awakening a breeding woman was not something a smart Gattan wanted to do. At least Brianna didn’t have any claws.
Mendas cleared his throat nervously.
Brianna, with her hair still mussed from sleep and clad in nothing more than a loose dressing gown, waddled into the hallway.
Clearing his throat, Mendas jerked to a bow. “I beg your pardon, Alalakan dem al’ Brianna. I did not mean to disturb you.”
She ignored him, grabbed Marljas’ arm, and yanked it until he turned around. “Wife! What are you talking about?”
Chest bare, Marljas said nothing as he stood with his arms crossed and watched Brianna as she locked her gaze on the three new parallel scars on his left pectoral.
It was then that the fact that an Alalakan dragon flew on Marljas’ right shoulder finally registered in Mendas’ mind. His eyes widened. “You wear an Alalakan dragon, Marljas Drefeson. What does this mean?”
“He’s my bloodbrother,” Brianna snapped. “That makes him Alalakan, as far as I’m concerned.” She turned her attention back to Marljas. “I want to know what this ‘wife’ business is.”
“We thought it best not to mention it last night,” Char said as he walked out of Rodane and Fionilina’s room. “Emotions were already too volatile.”
“Do your mother and father know?” Brianna asked Char.
“I go to tell them now, bloodsister,” Marljas answered, his tone purposely belligerent. How he wanted to fight with someone. A slight insult to Brianna would bring Char to her defense. He wouldn’t hurt Char—much. “Do you not approve?”
As Marljas had planned, Char’s eyes narrowed and he took a step forward. One or two more comments directed at Brianna, and his bloodsister’s husband would help him relieve some of the tension that made his muscles ache.
Unfortunately, his bloodsister didn’t cooperate. Placing her palm in the middle of Char’s chest, she stopped her husband in mid-stride then turned to Marljas. “How much sleep did you get last night? I’ve never seen eyes as bloodshot as yours.”
“I guarded my wife.”
Unintimidated, she placed herself as close to Marljas as her very obvious stomach would allow. “What good will you be to her if you collapse from exhaustion? Do you doubt my motives?”
Marljas gazed into the beautiful, worried face turned up to his, and some of his anger left him.
Exhausted, he leaned against the wall, rubbing his face with his hand. “No, bloodsister, I don’t doubt you. But you weren’t there when we found Sheala. She was…”
Words failed him.
Marljas heard someone walking behind him, but ignored him or her. Who did he have to fear in the house of his wife?
Brianna placed her hand upon his shoulder. “I’m sorry, but your marriage is certainly a shock.”
Opening his eyes, Marljas forced an exhausted smile. “I haven’t been myself these last twelve hours.”
The doctor stopped behind Marljas and quickly jabbed the hypodermic needle into his arm.
“What?” he snarled.
“It’s just a sedative,” she said gently. “You haven’t slept.”
“I…” was all he managed before the drug took effect.
Char caught him as he slid down the wall.
“Rodane,” Char called as he braced himself, “come lend me a hand. This Gattan is a lot heavier than he looks.”
“Allow me, Alalakan don al’ Chardadon,” Mendas said as he draped one of Marljas’ arms over his powerful shoulders. “Where shall we put him?”
“Put him in Sheala’s room,” Brianna said. Continuing at three sets of raised eyebrows, “If he wakes up anywhere he can’t see her, he’ll tear the room apart.”
“She is right, Alalakan,” Mendas said as they struggled with Marljas’ weight. “He is apt to react as she says.”
Char scowled but nodded as Brianna led the way back into Sheala’s room. The doctor followed them.
Brianna pointed to the left of the bed. “Put him in the chair there. The first thing he’ll see when he wakes is Sheala.”
After Char and the Gattan ambassador left, Brianna looked at the doctor. “How is Sheala?”
The doctor sighed. “She’s been beaten and repeatedly raped, but there’s no permanent damage to her body. It’s her mind I’m worried about. Rape is almost unheard of on our planet, and I don’t know what frame of mind she’ll be in when the sedative wears off.”
“How long will that be?”
“At least another eight hours. I wanted to make sure she slept as long as possible.”
Brianna watched her sister-in-law sleep. “Bakom has much to answer for,” she muttered more to herself than to Lorilana. “Denieen will know how to help.” With those words, she left Sheala’s room.
Forty-five minutes later, Brianna joined the rest of the family downstairs.
“There’s no doubt that Bakom will be held criminally responsible for his actions,” Jamiros said as he steepled his fingers together. “We have only to decide how to go about revealing his crimes to the Council.”
“Father,” Char interjected after a moment of silence, “I believe Bakom’s downfall will be much more effective if we let him believe he’s in control when the hearing begins. Brianna’s obvious pregnancy and her marital status will certainly cause him problems. I’d like to see just how he reacts.”
Jamiros frowned. “Is that wise?”
Char nodded. “If we hadn’t discovered his secret laboratories, that’s the position we’d have found ourselves in. What’s more, we might get an idea of who else is involved. Sosha said that Bakom would give her to others when she was under the influence of mithrin. If any Council member ever entered that laboratory, he or she is just as guilty and should be punished and censured accordingly.”
Jamiros turned to Brianna. “What do you think?”
She shrugged as she ate her breakfast. “I’ll go along with whatever plans you devise since the baby won’t be in any danger.”
A concerned Jenneta interrupted. “Will Sheala or Sosha have to be there?”
Char shook his head. “No, Grandmother. Sosha may be called upon another day to identify any other Council members who were in the lab, but the scientific records that Bakom filmed will condemn him as far as their rapes are concerned.”
Xdana winced and fresh tears began to flow at the word
rapes
.
Char sighed. “I’m sorry, Mother.”
Xdana waved him off. “It is not your fault, Char. It’s just that Sheala didn’t deserve the treatment she received from that animal.”
Jamiros rose and walked to his wife. Taking her hands, he lifted her from her chair and pulled her into his arms. “No one deserves what happened to Sheala and Sosha, but it has happened. Now, we must help her. As long as she has us to love her, she’ll be all right.”
Ban had remained silent up to this point. “Don’t forget Marljas,” he said. “We can be very sure that he intends to be part of any plans we devise for Sheala.”
Jamiros frowned. “Yes, we are going to have to decide what to do about Marljas.”
Brianna’s eyebrows rose and her voice was icy. “What to do about Marljas?”
Most members of the family looked at her in surprise.
“We are discussing my brother,” Brianna added meaningfully.
Xdana stared at her son’s wife. “You can’t believe that we will accept this marriage?”
Brianna stared back. “Yes. Mine and Char’s marriage began under similar if less violent circumstances.”
A slight smile on his lips, Ban turned to his aunt. “Brianna has you there. You’re discussing Sheala as if she has no say in the matter.”
Jamiros’ voice was terse. “She was hysterical when she agreed to this so-called marriage. She didn’t know what she was doing.”
Ban shook his head. “I was there. Sheala’s the one who instigated the ceremony.”
“Marljas would spirit her away to Gattan anyway,” Brianna muttered.
The look on Char’s face became thoughtful. “Brianna’s right. We all know Marljas is impulsive. Right now he’s convinced that he loves Sheala. Maybe he does. At this point, it won’t harm anyone to agree with them. Later, if one or both believes there has been a mistake, well, there’s been no formal marriage.
It will be easier for them to walk away from each other.”
Brianna looked at Char as if he’d grown another head but she kept her thoughts to herself. From Denieen, she had learned that nothing on Gattan was as binding as a bloodbond. Sheala’s and Marljas’
blood had mixed on his chest and her palm. To the Gattan, they were as married as married could be.
* * * * *
Rodak don al’ Bakom would pay for his crimes, and, with luck, he would also shed blood this day.
Smiling, Marljas contemplated various ways to satisfy his longing for Bakom’s blood—carve a map of the Gattan solar system into Bakom’s naked flesh, castrate him and watch as he bled to death slowly, skin him alive…
Brianna’s voice pulled Marljas from his fantasies. “I’ve had enough of this bullshit,” she said in a voice that carried clearly.
Gripping the edge of the railing, Marljas leaned forward, waiting for his bloodsister’s signal.
Brianna crossed the floor slowly, until she stood before Bakom. She drew the knife from the wrist sheath she wore and, very deliberately and slowly, slid the sharp blade across the fleshy part of her lower arm. As blood ran freely, she threw the knife so that it embedded itself in the wooden floor.
“I, Alalakan dem al’ Brianna, call bloodfeud on Rodak don al’ Bakom,” she said in a clear voice that seethed with anger.
Pandemonium broke loose. Council members rose to their feet, shouting for explanations.
Council guards had rushed towards the platform, barring access by Ban and Char. Eventually, the pounding of the president’s gavel and his shouts for order returned a semblance of order. “Alalakan dem al’ Brianna, you aren’t Gattan to call for bloodfeud.”