|
Prodigal Son Sharon Lee and Steve Miller copyright 2006 by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller THERE was a plan. It was not by any means a perfect plan. Indeed, it was in certain details extremely vexing. However, Val Con thought wryly as he moved silently down the pre-dawn hallway, it would suffice until circumstances provided them with better. He paused outside the door to the suite he shared with his lifemate, took a breath, and put his palm firmly against the plate. The door slid aside; he stepped into their private parlor -- and stopped. Across the room, the curtains had been drawn back from the wide window, admitting Surebleak's uncertain dawn. The rocking chair placed at an angle to the window moved quietly, back and forth, back and forth, its occupant silhouetted against the light. "Finally got it figured out, did you?" Her voice was as crisp as if she had been awake for hours. Which, he thought, she probably had been. "Looked pretty bad for a while there," she went on, "from what I could tell." She would have been able to tell quite a bit about his state of mind and emotion from the lifemate link. The details that had produced those states, though... "It was not without its moments," he allowed, moving toward the window. "Even the presence of Scout Commander ter'Meulen was insufficient to turn all to farce." "If Clonak was half as stupid as he acts, something with lotsa teeth would've had him for lunch a long time ago." "True," he murmured from the side of her chair. He reached down and slipped his fingers through the wealth of her unbound hair. "But you discount the joy of the masquerade." "No I don't. I just wonder why he bothers." "I believe we must diagnose an excess of energy." She snorted. Next to her, he smiled into the dawn, then sighed. "Wanna tell me about it?" "In fact," he said, dropping lightly to the rug beside her and leaning his head against her thigh; "I do." "Ready when you are." He felt her hand stroke his hair and sighed in contentment made more poignant by the knowledge that it was to be all too brief. "The highly condensed version," he murmured, "is that the one of the teams the Scouts sent to gather the severed blossoms of the Department of Interior..." She choked a laugh, and he paused, his eyes on the meagre garden below them. "That's gotta be Clonak," she said. "Indeed, Commander ter'Meulen was pleased to style it thus," he said. "Let it stand, with the understanding that the actual business was not nearly so poetical." He felt her hair move as she shook her head. "'course it wasn't." "Yes, well." Her robe was fleece, soft and warm under his cheek. "A team of Scouts recovered plans and passcodes attached to a particular Departmental project that ...lies close to us, cha'trez." Her hand stilled on his hair. "How close, exactly?" "Close as kin," he answered. "The Department deployed a team to Vandar after Agent sig'Alda failed them, on purpose to locate those persons I had been in contact with and ...find what I might have told them, or left with them to keep safe for me." He felt her grasp it, and shivered with her horror, as she must have shivered with his, long hours ago. "Wait. The Scouts got the passcodes, you said..." "Indeed. But the protocols surrounding an Interdicted World gave our team pause, and so they dispatched their information to Scout Commander ter'Muelen, who shared it with his assistant, Captain yos'Phelium..." "And the pair of them brought it to you. Damn..." The rocker moved more strongly and Val Con sat up. Her hand fell to his shoulder, fingers gripping. "We gotta go in," she said then, and he smiled at her quickness. "Zhena Trelu, Hakan, Kem -- gods, what if they've already..." "We have some hope that they have not already," Val Con murmured. "But we dare not tarry." "We are going, then." There was satisfaction in her voice. Val Con shook his head. "Alas, I am going. You, my lady, will stay here and mind Korval's concerns -- and our daughter." "Got a real hankering for a girl, doncha? What happens if the baby's a boy?" "Then he will doubtless also be as intelligent and as beautiful as his mother." Miri laughed, then sobered. "I guess it's no use pointing out that it's my mess, too, and I got just as much right as you do to try and straighten it out?" "I shall of course act for us both," Val Con said, "as is proper for lifemates." "While I get to stay home and mind the store. How do delms who aren't schizophrenic manage when they gotta be in two places at once?" "They depend upon a thodelm, or perhaps upon their nadelm. Which we shall do, ere long." "Let the kid get born before you start handing her guard duty." "Her, cha'trez?" he teased, but she refused to be drawn. "When do you leave?" she asked. "Clonak and Father are pulling together a team. They expect to leave no later than local midday. I --" He twisted to his knees and turned to face her. "I will go ahead, leaving -- immediately, cha'trez." Raising a hand, he pulled Korval's Ring from his finger and passed it to her. She shoved it onto her thumb and wrapped her fingers around it. "Immediately's good," she said seriously, and pushed herself out of the rocker. "I'll help you pack." Yes I want to order a single copy of Allies in advance for just $10!
I want to order two copies of Allies to one address in advance for just $20! I want to order three copies of Allies in advance to one address for $27;I'll save 10% and have a good start on holiday gift-giving! Read a snippet from Fighting Chance |