Seen (Heartstone Book 2), Page 2

  It blocked out the sun. It choked her breathing. The world went dark and thick and everywhere she looked, Rowri saw sparks outlined against black ash.

  Chapter Two

  The aroma of incense had burned into Shayd's nasal passages as surely as it had given his lilac skin a permanent ashy tint. It kept the shadows with him, whenever his duties called him out of his temple and the constant sheath of smoke and magic. It kept them close, like a blanket, when he was forced from the shelter of his sanctuary.

  This happened, of late, far more often than he might have preferred.

  The hover pad whined and their craft lifted onto the mag cushion. It wobbled there, waiting for the electric charge to shove it away from the platforms. Shayd glared out the shuttle view panel and twisted the ring on his finger. The stone set in it was formed from the same mineral as the Heart, grown in the same vein and keyed to the exact matrix as its massive counterpart.

  In the palace crater, the giant Shrouded crystal, the Heart, glowed in the presence of a Shrouded and their perfect mate. Many smaller outcroppings of heartstone broke the surface of the core and, like the one in this crater, were used for the rituals that matched the Shrouded with their bride candidates.

  Three such pairings had occured at this Heart ceremony, but the four prior choosings had had only one match between them. They rocketed away, down the length of the crater, and he imagined the faces of the couples that had bonded. At least a few had worked. At least the Heart hadn’t completely abandoned them.

  “I was thinking.” Young Jadyek piloted the craft, and he spoke with a tremble to his words that didn’t come from the shuttle’s vibration. He fidgeted with his restraints. “The candidate problem.”

  They’d had more male than female brides here, and that hadn’t gone unnoticed. Ever since the Eclipsan's failed invasion, the galaxy had grown hungry for more access to the riches of Shroud. No longer satisfied by the limited trade allowances, every planet in the sector had attempted to manipulate the bride imporation system in hopes of succeeding where the Eclipsan's direct assault had failed. Many of the candidates were insincere now, interested in politics more than pairing. Shayd had heard the grumbling, but hadn’t expected Jadyek of all people to object. In fact, he’d expected the man to bond, had been genuinely shocked when the ceremony left him unpaired.

  “They are skewing the candidates, of course, sending agendas instead of genuine seekers,” Jadyek continued, and when Shayd didn’t offer comment warmed to the topic and let his nerves fade. “Almost no women the last few shipments, and I can’t help but think it will be a problem in the long run, that Brides meant for the Shrouded are not getting through.”

  “The Heart will find a way.” He felt compelled to answer there, compelled to defend a faith in the stone, in fate, though his mind had echoed Jadyek’s worry all through the ceremony.

  “I know.”

  In his temple, the Heart still cried to him of its mistrust. Its former Seer had betrayed it, had conspired with Jarn and Dielel to control the throne. The traitors had nearly cost them their world, had cost them lives they couldn’t afford to lose. It had cost them Tondil, the prince Jadyek had stepped in to replace.

  Now Shayd stepped up to fill the role of Seer. The Heart should have welcomed him, and yet both of them were wounded, betrayed. Both the Shrouded Seer and its Heart were lost to the fear of failure, their vital relationship damaged.

  They reached the end of the crater and slowed. A security platform just below the lip signaled for their authorization and destination codes. That was new too. He waited while Jadyek complied, staring up the rock wall to the place where it met the Shroud. Thick today, toxicity high.

  Shayd suffered a flare of pity for the younger man, sympathy for their newest Council member. Tondil had been loved by all, while Jadyek…Jadyek tried too hard and usually fell short.

  What would he try today?

  They received their clearance and the platform’s boost drove their craft up at a sharp angle to meet the natural pathways lacing across the Core. The shuttle settled onto this, and they dove forward, into zero visibility, with two probes blinking the way ahead.

  “That’s a big crater,” Jadyek picked up his topic, ran with it as if it had a specific purpose. “Industry is minor there, but their crystal is impressive." He was right. Little ore came from the mines here, but this particular crater housed the second largest protrusion of the Heart vein. Second only to the palace and the Heart itself.

  The crystal thrummed. Shayd's job, his sole purpose, was to interpret that thrum, and yet he cringed away from revealing the state of their people’s soul. They needed time to repair, to mend and rebuild. The Heart needed time to heal.

  Perhaps it whispered about Jadyek. He'd be bonding soon. The Heart sang of the coming match anytime Jadyek was nearby. It could be the next ceremony, could be any time after. Maybe a Bride would sooth the new Prince’s restlessness.

  “We could relocate the people easily enough,” Jadyek said.

  “What?” Shayd sat up and bit his lower lip. He’d missed the man’s point, and didn’t care for the feeling of being on the confused side of any conversation.

  “If we opened a center back there. We could bring all the candidates down, at least the ones who passed initial security. Then the Shrouded could come and go, meet more candidates. Maybe we’d get more pairings.”

  He stared at Jadyek. He lifted one brow, but the fool only shrugged and turned back to the viewer. Bring the brides down, bring them all down? They might as well fling the ports open and start building resorts. Shayd wanted to laugh, to ignore the idea and write it off to inexperience and youth, but a soft thrumming in the back of his mind pressed him to follow the trail, to see how far Jadyek had thought the idea through.

  “Security?”

  “The location is isolated enough, easily defensible. It’s near the secondary elevator and far enough away from the palace complex.”

  All true, and yet the idea grated. Bring down Brides, build a complex here. It would free the moon base for trade and diplomacy. Even as he thought it, he cringed. It made sense, too much sense, and he didn’t like it at all.

  The Heart did, however. He could hear that pulsing to him. Approval. As clearly as he heard Jadyek’s Bride’s approach, as clearly as he heard the stone’s fear of himself, so too it sang of this crazy idea as if it wanted just this, as if it had to be so.

  The Heart also wanted something from Shayd, wanted to bond, to trust again and…it wanted him to leave. He felt the push as surely as if a hand had landed on his back, as if he’d been shoved. The stone would send him away soon, had something else in mind for him. Something.

  He shivered and listened for a loophole, for some way to avoid this thing it sang of. No matter. The Heart was always right, even when it had been tampered with. In the end, the Heart would get its way.

  “I’ll propose the idea next Council,” Jadyek continued. Yes, he’d put more time and thought into the plan than he’d suggested. Maybe he’d been working on the idea all along.

  And I missed it completely. Shayd tightened his lips and glared at the Shroud. The Heart sang only when it wanted to. It had kept this part secret from him. What else does it hide? It drew the Brides, and it pushed him away. Perhaps the stone had tired of its Seer. Perhaps it didn’t need him anymore.

  The shuttle comm crackled and bleeped. Interference from the current storm blocked an incoming message, but the sender tried again, looping, bouncing the communication off the relay system. A voice spoke through static, but died before the words could register. Jadyek flipped a toggle and the signal amplified, but the message came through as code now, single notes the onboard computer would have to translate into readout.

  Jadyek relayed it aloud, though the message scrolled by for both of them to read easily. Perhaps the man enjoyed the sound of his own voice. Perhaps he didn’t trust Shayd’s ability to read for himself.

  “They want us to detour to the platform.”


  “Yes.” Compelled to speak again, Shayd let his distaste flavor the syllable. His tone silenced Jadyek, and they digested the rest of the transmission individually. Detour to the platform. It made sense. They could bounce a message off the station there, get a clearer communication across. It held too much urgency for good news, asking them to detour, when the Palace was only half a day away. The rest of the message was cryptic, and equally worrisome. The Summit had been contacted by the Tolfarians. Assistance requested.

  “Who in the Shroud are the Tolfarians?” Jadyek summed it up for both of them, and Shayd had no answer.

  He shrugged, shook his head, and watched the Shroud pass; the gas storms were thick today, leaving them at the mercy of the probes. The Shroud was a demon, a wild storm, churning orange outside the craft. They sped through it, altered their course, and headed for the second elevator.

  The new platform housed a full regiment of back-up security forces, barely trained and fresh off the tail of the only invasion in Shrouded history. The uniforms were crisply pressed, and the men inside them eager and alert to any potential duty. They’d had nothing to do now for months, nothing except supervise more shipments to and from Moon Base 14. Initially, the platform had been planned only as backup, but the convenience of a second elevator had left that idea behind as soon as the new trade deals came pouring in. They needed two elevators now—perhaps one day, they’d need even more.

  Shayd slid from their shuttle and glanced up to the point where the elevator cable met the bottom of the Shroud. He couldn’t help thinking that moving the Bride operations to the surface would allow for that traffic to increase, for more goods flowing out from and into their world. Would it be worth sacrificing another portion of their seclusion? They'd worked hard, fought hard to keep their world separate and unknown. The gesture might convince the Galactic Summit that they meant to unclench their grip on Shroud a little. He just couldn't be sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing for Shroud.

  Was it even wise to join the Summit? He’d lost sight of what they meant to gain there.

  Jadyek spoke to the platform guards, to the commander of the troops here, the man who reported directly to the royal Consort. Shayd stood back and watched the activity while he chewed on Jadyek’s idea. It had lodged in his mind now, and he could do little to exorcise it. Bride training on the surface, an isolated crater devoted to facilitating the heartbond—this he understood. This thing, he could imagine in detail. Assimilating the candidates into Shrouded life and culture would be easier here, but also leave that very culture more vulnerable.

  And now I get nothing to do with it. The thought was certain. It would happen, then, and he’d be long gone before it started. Not fair to keep his hands out of it. Nor was it remotely fair for the Heart to reject him so forcefully.

  “They’re ready for us.” Jadyek had returned and he hadn’t noticed. “The message came through already.”

  Shayd nodded and ignored Jadyek’s furrowed brow. The troops around the platform stood at attention, waited for the royals to enter the squat dome shed. They were led inside by the commander, who ducked to one side quickly and snapped to attention, leaving them to approach the communications consoles in a measure of privacy.

  “Thank you commander.” Jadyek, the Prince who couldn’t manage to fit into his own skin, remembered the protocol for both of them. “We’ll only be a moment.”

  It’s me that’s wrong. I’m off kilter out here. He followed now, let Jadyek lead him to the center of the dome and the circle of computer banks working there. How will I be of any use off world?

  They leaned together over the relay computer, but Jadyek worked the thing, called up their message and keyed in the encryption code. Haftan’s voice answered, recorded, but just as jarring as if the man spoke beside them.

  “Received a message this morning from the Summit. They’ve been contacted by the Tolfarian general with a petition for assistance. The Chairman believes the task is uniquely suited for us.”

  The disdain in his voice brought a smile to Shayd’s lips. He could imagine Haftan’s grimace as clearly as if he’d seen it.

  “King Peryl”—there was a trace of disrespect there, Haftan, still feeling the sting of his failed kingship—“has called an emergency Council meeting on Moon Base 14.”

  On the base?

  “The commander has been ordered to arrange a lift for you. The rest of us will be leaving for the primary platform immediately.”

  Jadyek gave him a look, panicky, and far more like himself again. Leaving now. All of them. That meant something, and Shayd didn’t have to wonder what. He didn’t have time to think about it. The commander already clipped across the dome to join them.

  “Your lift is ready.” He announced it proudly.

  “Thank you.” Jadyek almost choked on his protocol that time.

  “If you’ll follow me.” He snapped another salute and spun, giving them little choice but to do just what he suggested.

  If they were all leaving the planet, then this Tolfarian business was more urgent than the message stated. Based on his expression, Jadyek had also picked up on that. He’d gone all ashen, his lilac washed gray with nerves. Urgent he understood, but why not hold the meeting at the Palace?

  Because someone would be leaving from the moon base in a hurry. It was the only logical answer. They needed to meet up there to expedite a departure. Shayd knew who’d be doing the leaving. He’d expected it, and yet, so suddenly? To leave like this, like running, without even a chance to gather…what? What did he have to pack that would prepare him in the least for leaving the Heart?

  Shoved away. Rejected.

  His feet stuck to the elevator platform. Jadyek continued behind the commander, one pace, two. They moved on and the Shrouded Seer stood frozen and stared after them. Over his head, the planet’s thick atmosphere rolled like a curtain, blocking out the rest of the galaxy. On the Core, they were safe, sheltered. He could hear the Heart.

  Out there, what good was he?

  The commander reached the elevator car and turned. Jadyek joined him, and both men eyed Shayd skeptically from the platform’s edge. It looked bad, hesitating, and yet his feet still felt glued down. His brain refused to command them forward.

  He might have made them drag him inside, might have stood forever scowling at the elevator and the press of the Shroud devouring its cable. Instead, the Heart thrummed to him. It sang in his mind, maybe for the last time, and the hand at his back pushed again. Move. Go. Leave.

  It was the Heart itself that drove him forward. He stepped to its beat, swiftly, eyes fixed on the car. It was his own planet that evicted him, and as they boarded, as the doors sealed and the commander gave his order, Shayd felt it again. The thrumming pushed him out and away. The elevator lifted, broke from the Core and rose up into the Shroud, carrying the Shrouded Seer off world.

  Chapter Three

  Tchao Rimawdi paced the bridge of his vessel. The hour had wandered from late to very early, and still sleep eluded him. Through the viewer, he watched his people’s ships maneuvering together and apart, huddled against the black of a star field far too many light years from Choma.

  The numbers swelled each session, more ships were manufactured to their specifications by his Shevran allies, and still the Tolfarian population threatened to burst its seams. As if, somehow, they’d spill out into the vacuum and drift away, scattered like seeds against the stars with no solid ground to root in.

  He would give them that, a place to land. Under his rule, the Tolfarians would find their anchor. They’d been content to drift too long, complacent, from one sector to the next. But Tchao Rimawdi would not be content. He felt his destiny in each micro-pulse of the circuitry that wound like blue threads across his palms, that synched with his heartbeat and blazed an electronic spider web across his pale, ash-colored skin.

  “Sir!” The sharp announcement of his third commander’s arrival echoed through the bridge. No crew manned the consoles a
t this hour. Everything functioned more efficiently without interference anyway, and the vessel currently idled at the center of a large conglomeration of ships, all his.

  “Commander Prill.” Tchao’s boots clipped against the bridge grating as he spun to face the man. He raised one snowy brow and tilted his head at Prill. His facial network blinked. He could see the glow from the corner of his right eye. “Well?”

  “He’s already awake, Sir.”

  “Really?” He knew Dovali to be an early riser, but this hour was far earlier than he’d guess the man usually woke. An angry red lump adorned the commander's forehead. Poor Prill must have bolted from his bunk so quickly he’d slammed his gray skull into the overheads. The liner padding showed beneath the man’s jacket, and Tchao frowned at it. “Put your shirt away, Prill. Where’s the doctor now?”

  “In his lab, Sir.”

  “Fine. Take the bridge.”

  “Sir?”

  Tchao leaned a bit forward. He had a few inches on Prill, and used them well. The commander shrank into himself. Yes, the hour was early enough the consoles didn’t need watching, but Prill had stumbled back into his presence half dressed. He could pay for it by standing on his feet until the crew awoke.

  “Yes, sir.” That time, he snapped the proper response, tucking in his liner with one hand while the other lifted to tap his shoulder in salute.

  “Good.” Tchao brushed past him and stalked to the lifts. If Dovali was up early, it meant something. Maybe they’d made new strides. Maybe the serum had finally proven effective in the simulations, whatever. Something had roused Dovali, and Tchao needed to know what it was. If Dovali had news for him, that would cover his own restlessness, cover the vestigial taint of his blood that left his nights restless and full of whispers.