Imprisoned by Evangeline Anderson
“I’ll go first,” Lathe said. “Then Ari, then her brother—Jak, right?” He raised his eyebrows at the smaller man.
“Good to meet you.” Jak gave him a wary nod. “I was in the hole when you first came and I’ve been there your whole stay, but I’ve heard all about you, Medic.”
“It’s Lathe,” Lathe told him. “I hope to never go by ‘Medic’ ever again.”
“Lathe, then. Thanks for looking out for my little sister.” Jak held out a hand to him and Lathe clasped forearms with him briefly.
“You’re welcome.”
“And thank you, Slade.” Jak turned to the Beast. “I misjudged you. I’m sorry about that.”
The massive hybrid shrugged.
“I’m used to it. You don’t get to be my size without everyone around you pissing their pants in fear of you. So I don’t take it personal.”
Jak nodded. “Got it. And thanks.”
“Jak, you’ll come after Ari and then the, uh Beast—” Lathe continued.
“Slade,” Slade rumbled. “I’d like to drop my moniker too. It’s just my combat name but I don’t fight in the ring anymore.”
“Slade—Brother, you’ll bring up the rear. Are we all ready to go?”
“As we’ll ever be—let’s get out of here,” Jak said fervently. “I never want to see this place again.”
“Let’s go then,” Lathe said and dropped into the hole in the ground.
They heard his feet hit the bottom with a crunch of soil and pebbles and then he called up, “All right, Ari—it’s safe. Come down!”
Ari bit her lip and hesitated for a moment, claustrophobia taking an icy grip on her throat. Down in the dark, crawling through a narrow tunnel with tons of earth overhead—could she do it?
Then Lathe’s voice came drifting up again.
“Just jump, little one—I’ll catch you.”
I can do it, Ari told herself. If Lathe is with me, I can do it.
Taking a deep breath, she jumped.
Strong, warm hands caught her by the waist and set her gently on her feet.
“All right, little one?” Lathe murmured in her ear.
“Fine.” Ari whispered back. She felt a little shaken and she didn’t like being in a dark, confined space but she found that having the big Kindred near her really did help.
Jak jumped down next and then Slade shouldered his way into the cramped space. Ari couldn’t see much but it appeared to her that both of his massive shoulders were scraping the sides of the tunnel. Slade didn’t complain though, he just looked at Lathe.
“All present and accounted for, Brother,” he said. “Let’s move.”
“It’s a long way,” Lathe warned them. “Follow me and just keep going, no matter what.”
Ari thought later that for as long as she lived, she would never forget that nightmarish journey in the dark. She hung on to the back of Lathe’s jumpsuit and Jak hung on to hers since neither of them could see in the dark like the Kindred could and all of them went as fast as they could over the bumpy, uneven ground. She couldn’t use the blowtorch in the tunnel to see where she was going—Lathe said it would burn up the oxygen supply too fast. So Ari tucked it into her belt and tried not to mind that she couldn’t see where she was going.
The tunnel had been dug for someone Lathe’s size so at least it wasn’t too narrow for her—Ari thought she would have gone crazy if it was. But every now and then she could feel the sides of the tunnel brushing her on one side or the other or some loose dirt would sift down onto her head and she would remember all over again that they were underground—buried with no way to get out except to make it to the end.
She tried very, very hard not to think about all the horror vids she’d ever seen about people being buried alive and just kept going, keeping a tight grip on the back of Lathe’s jumpsuit. She had no idea how Slade was managing, since every step he took, both sides of the tunnel scraped his broad shoulders. Either the big hybrid wasn’t claustrophobic or he was doing a better job controlling his fear than Ari was with hers.
At last, after what seemed like hours and hours, Lathe called for a halt.
It was pitch black so Ari ran into his broad back and then Jak ran into hers, making her feel even more crowded and claustrophobic.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” she asked Lathe. Because though she couldn’t see him, she could feel that he was making motions in the darkness.
‘It’s not done yet.” His voice was flat. “I told the nanites to finish as quickly as possible but they haven’t gotten through yet.”
“You mean we’re at a dead end? Stuck underground with no way to get out?”
Ari heard the panic in her own voice but she couldn’t help it. Buried alive, whispered the voice in her head. Just like that one vid you watched with the girl who was stuck in a cave-in and called and called for help but no one came for her and she died there and—
“It’s all right, little one.” Lathe’s firm voice in her ear cut into her panicked thoughts and made her feel a little better. “The tunnel’s been sloping up for some time— we’re only a few feet from the surface.”
“Then let’s finish the job ourselves,” Slade rumbled. Ari heard the noise of him digging into the roof of the tunnel and then dirt pattering down all around her.
“Yes—do it,” Lathe answered and then he was digging too. Jak joined in as well but there wasn’t much Ari could do—she was too short to reach the ceiling. She closed her eyes and tried to pray.
Please Goddess, let us get out of here soon. Let the end of the tunnel be close. Let us be all right. Please…please…
There was no answer but a warmth seemed to fill her from the inside out and Ari felt better.
Then a big gust of fresh air came from overhead, startling her. Ari took a deep, gulping breath, suddenly realizing how hard it had gotten to breath in the small space.
“That’s it!” she heard Lathe say excitedly. “We’re through!”
“Are we?” Ari looked up, her eyes dazzled by the brilliant starlight overhead after being in the dark so long. “Are we really?”
“You zzertainly are,” a hissing voice said in her ear and then a rough hand reached down and yanked Ari out of the tunnel by the collar of her prison jumpsuit.
“What a long way you’ve come,” Mukluk said, shaking her and setting her on her feet with an arm around her neck. “And what a zzhame you’ll only have to go right back again.”
Forty-Three
For a moment, everything was confusion.
“Let her go, you bastard,” Lathe was shouting as he jumped out of the end of the tunnel. “You touch her and you die!”
“Her izz it?” Mukluk turned Ari around and stared at her more closely. With one scaly claw, he made a downward slicing motion, causing the buttons on her orange and blue jumpsuit to pop off and baring her breasts.
“Stop it!” Ari grabbed for the sides of her jumpsuit but the Horvath had already seen her.
“Zzzo, you are a female,” he hissed, spinning her around and clamping a scaly forearm around her neck again. “I had my doubtzz about you. The way Medic protected you when it wazz known he wazzn’t a lover of other malezz was highly zuzpiciouz. Now it makezz zenze.”
“Let me go!” Ari gasped, struggling against the arm that held her. There were other Horvath guards there too—all of them armed with pain-prods. She supposed she ought to be thankful that BleakHall policy forbade the guards to use any kind of projectile or laser weapons but at the moment, when they were outnumbered and she was being held captive, it was small comfort.
“Touch her and die.” Lathe’s voice was deadly and his eyes were glowing red again—a sure sign he was going into Rage.
Jak was out of the tunnel too and shouting and behind him, the Beast was a huge, hulking menace. But it didn’t seem to matter—there were fifteen guards at least—how could they overcome so many? Especially when Mukluk already had her as a hostage?
Suddenly the warm, feminine voice sp
You know what to do, daughter, it murmured in her ear. Be brave—you will prevail.
Does she mean I should fight? Ari wondered, looking around for the source of the voice. Can I still use the tools I brought with me as weapons? But she knew the jarring electrical shock which was so effective in keeping other inmates from taking the tools, didn’t work on the Horvath guards. If it did, the Spice Lords could have led an uprising and taken over BleakHall.
But just because I can’t use their shock doesn’t mean the tools are useless, she thought.
Mukluk had her by the neck but her arms and hands were free. Surreptitiously, Ari began to feel along her tool belt. The heavy wrench was too big to swing effectively in a small area and the torch was too difficult to turn on without the Horvath noticing. That left the petite socket wrench and the screwdriver.
Remembering how she had punctured Gorn’s eye with it, Ari chose the latter. Carefully, she pulled it from her tool belt and held it at waist level. Catching Lathe’s burning red eyes, she made a motion with it—letting him know what she intended.
The big Kindred’s eyes widened and he made a short, sharp shake of his head. He seemed to be telling her not to try anything foolish. But Ari knew if she could just get away from Mukluk—or at least distract him—Lathe and Slade would have a chance at defeating him and the rest of the guards.
Taking a deep breath, she held the screwdriver tight.
Goddess, be with me, she prayed. For it must be the Goddess of Mercy whose voice she had been hearing—there was no one else she could think of that might speak to her so.
I am with you, child, came the warm reply. I will give you strength.
At once, Ari felt as though someone had given her an injection of adrenaline. Power surged through her and she pulled back her arm and stabbed down as hard as she could with the deadly little screwdriver.
On her own, Ari wasn’t at all certain she could have even penetrated the Horvath guard’s scales. But with the power of the Goddess behind her, she felt the point of the screwdriver pierce through the alien hide and drive deep into the flesh beneath.
The effect was immediate. Mukluk howled and let go of Ari to grab for his wounded leg. Spinning around, she used some of her newfound strength to execute a Ton-kwa roundhouse kick. Since he was bending down to reach for the screwdriver still lodged in his thigh, her blow caught him square in the face and the big Horvath went over on his back howling.
The other guards seemed stunned at first—they froze for just a moment, looking to see where the damage to their leader was coming from. Ari could see the surprise and uncertainty growing on their dim faces. Surely the great Mukluk couldn’t have been brought down by the diminutive inmate he’d had such a firm grip on only a moment ago—could he?
That one moment of inaction was deadly—for the guards. At once, Lathe and Jak and Slade sprang forward, wading into battle with angry growls and cries. All of them had suffered at the cruel hands of the Horvath guards and now it was time to make the scaly bastards pay.
Of course the Horvaths were armed with pain-prods but Lathe had a prod of his own and he wasn’t shy about using it. Jak was quick enough to leap out of the way and as for the Beast, well, getting shocked only seemed to make him angrier and more violent.
Ari shivered as she watched the immense hybrid roar in anger and lift one of the Horvaths over his head, bringing the alien guard down on one muscular knee like a man breaking a stick. There was a crunching sound and the Horvath gave a burbling cry and went limp, his spine bent the wrong way. Beside him, Lathe and Jak were fighting too—both of them had pain-prods now and they were using them to much better advantage than the dim-witted Horvaths.
Then Mukluk was up and running at Lathe, despite the screwdriver still lodged in his thigh.
“Lathe!” she screamed. “Watch out! Behind you!”
The big Kindred turned and when he saw who his attacker was, he seemed to grow even bigger somehow. Mukluk attempted to hit him with a pain-prod but Lathe batted it aside almost contemptuously. He seized the Horvath guard by the shoulders and head-butted him, his forehead knocking against the bony skull of the lizard guard in a way that made Mukluk howl with pain. But Lathe wasn’t done with him.
“This is for Thonolan,” Ari heard him growl. Then he opened his mouth and his fangs seemed to grow longer than she had ever seen them. In a sudden swift, savage move, he lunged forward and sank the shining white points into Mukluk’s face, right on his scaly cheek.
The Horvath guard began to shake and shiver, his back arching and his forked tongue whipping the air like a wounded snake. When thin black foam began to seep from his mouth, Lathe dropped him and spat—then spat again as though trying to rid his mouth of a bad taste.
“Brother,” Ari heard him say in a low, choked voice, “You are avenged.”
When he turned to her again there were tears in his eyes—though if they were tears of sorrow or fury, she couldn’t tell. Maybe both.
“Lathe,” she whispered but it was clear he didn’t hear her. He had a faraway look on his face as he swiped the tears from his cheeks.
“We’ve got ‘em on the run now,” Jak shouted, dragging her attention away from the big Kindred.
She had been transfixed by the sight of Lathe and Mukluk but now she looked around and saw that most of the guards were lying on the ground and the rest were running away. Apparently the loss of their leader had scared them off.
Lathe turned to her. His eyes were still red but Ari saw that his face was calm.
“It’s finished,” he said in a low voice. “Come on.”
“Where are we going now?” Ari asked.
Lathe didn’t answer. He swept her up in his arms and then they were running through the night, rushing into the dark forest where tree branches whipped her in the face and thorns tugged at the sleeves of her tattered jumpsuit.
Going, she thought. Getting out of here. But where—?
Almost before she could finish her thought, Lathe was sitting her down in a large, empty glade.
“What—?” she began to ask but then he slapped the empty air beside her. The slap produced a hollow metallic thunk and then, to Ari’s amazement, a ship appeared out of nowhere.
“Nice shuttle,” Jak said, coming up behind her. “Sleek.”
“Thanks. It’s fast too—that’s what counts right now.” Lathe pressed his palm to the side of the ship and the doors opened in response to his touch. “Everyone get in,” he ordered. “We haven’t got a minute to lose—there’s going to be trouble on the Mother Ship and we have to warn them.”
Forty-Four
Sylvan was working late in his office—something he knew that Sophia hated but was sometimes necessary—when he heard a knock on his door.
“Come in,” he called, assuming it was one of his subordinate officers, come to give him some news. The door slid open and, as he looked up from his desk, he saw his sister-in-law, Olivia walk into the room.
“Oh, hello Olivia,” Sylvan said, looking back down at his screen. “Is there a problem? Am I needed at the med center?”
Though he was the head of the Kindred High Council, he still tried to get to the med center and practice his doctoring skills at least twice a week. Healing the sick was his first career choice but he happened to have a talent for administration and leadership too—which was probably why the Goddess had appointed him to lead the Kindred of the Mother Ship. Sometimes Sylvan wished he was still just a regular doctor working every day at the med center—his life would have certainly been much simpler if he was.
“Commander Sylvan, I presume?” Olivia’s voice broke into his musing and he looked up again, frowning when he saw that his sister-in-law was still just standing there.
“Well…yes. You know it’s me, Olivia. Is everything all right with you and Baird? And little Daniel?”
“We are…well.” Olivia
For some reason, a chill went down Sylvan’s spine. Something wasn’t right here—he was sure of it. Acting on instinct, he rose from the desk and stepped away from his sister-in-law. Undeterred, Olivia came straight towards him.
“Olivia, are you well?” he asked, frowning down at her. “Do you want me to call Sophia for you? Or Baird?”
“I have something for you,” Olivia raised her hand over her head, not answering his question. “Something from Mistress Hellenix.”
“You do? But when did you meet her?” How could his sister-in-law have met the flamboyant Mistress from Yonnie Six? Sylvan took a cautious step towards her. “Olivia, is everything all right? You’re acting…strangely.”
Suddenly, Olivia rushed at him.
She was only a blur of motion—Sylvan had known her for years but he had never seen her move that fast. In fact, he had never seen any human move that fast. Only years of training as a warrior saved him as his instincts took over and he dodged out of the way just in time.
Olivia ran right past him but then she turned at once and headed for him again, her right arm upraised as though to stab him with whatever it was she was gripping so tightly.
Sylvan didn’t want to hurt her so he ducked and dodged and managed to catch her by the wrists. At last he could get a good look at the thing she was holding.
In her hand was a long, sharp syringe filled with bright green fluid.
“Gods!” Sylvan gasped. “What is that? What’s wrong with you, Olivia?”
“I must give you this.” Her eyes were blank and though he was holding her firmly, she kept attempting to stab him with the syringe. Not only that, she was strong—as strong as another Kindred warrior at least, Sylvan thought. He had been joined to Sophia for a number of years and he knew a normal human female’s capacity for strength—at the moment, his sister-in-law was far exceeding it. Though he was putting all his effort in to holding her at bay, he could barely keep her in place.