Daysider

Chapter 15

Damon woke up with a head as heavy as the great statues of the Sires in the Grand Concourse and a clot of intense pain at the base of his skull.

“Get up,” a masculine voice ordered.

Faint light seeped through Damon’s half-closed lids. The floor on which he lay was hard, and the room was dark, but that dim glow gave him a sense of the details before his eyes came into focus.

The holding cell was perhaps two by two meters, bare except for a wooden chair in one corner and a heavy door, currently blocked by the Opir—Sergius—standing over Damon. The sliver of light came from outside, where the door must open onto the commons. The smells were those of night, and Sergius wore not the protective daygear of before but a long, loosely belted tunic and close-fitting pants tucked into high boots.

Damon struggled to his knees, gasped as a white lance of pain plunged into his skull, and planted his hand on the wall for support as he stood. His formerly broken wrist protested the incautious movement with a deep throb of discomfort.

“I see you have survived,” Sergius said in a dry voice. His eyes reflected red in the darkness, and though Damon’s vision was slow in returning, he knew that the Opir was smiling. More or less.

“How long?” Damon asked, resisting the urge to rub the back of his skull.

“Six hours,” Sergius said.

Blinking several times, Damon struggled to make out the Opir’s face. Though the details remained blurred, Damon recognized the long elliptical shape and finely sculpted features typical of high-rank Opiri. Sergius wore his hair cut level with his shoulders and swept back from his forehead, held in place with a small silver circlet that might have represented a dragon. Everything about him exuded elegant disdain.

It was difficult to believe he was the same man who had behaved so roughly before.

Sergius’s stare suggested that his opinion of his prisoner had not improved over the intervening hours. Damon was keenly aware of the fact that his vision had not yet recovered, but he had no intention of letting Sergius know he was vulnerable.

“Where is Alexia?” he asked.

Sergius sighed. “We’re back to that again? Nothing has changed.”

“Are you taking me to Theron?”

“Not like that. ” Sergius moved away from the door. “You will clean yourself first.

You stank even before you came through the gates.”

Damon bowed mockingly. “I will endeavor to correct my condition.”

Without comment, Sergius indicated that Damon should precede him out the door. If he was armed, he made no attempt to advertise it, and he offered no threats. He followed Damon out onto the commons, lit with lanterns hung on sturdy poles spaced just closely enough for night-blind humans to find their way from one area of the settlement to the other. The windows of the several dormitories were mostly dark, and only a few Opiri were abroad. Vague shapes—sentries—moved along the battlements.

At the end of one of the dormitories was a lavatory, where Damon and Sergius met a human coming out. The human, a young male, raised his hand to Sergius, glanced at Damon and continued on his way without any further sign of respect, let alone the wariness or outright fear most serfs displayed in the presence of strange Opiri.

Sergius waved Damon through the door and pointed out the clean towels hanging on racks along the wall. Damon did the best he could to scrape off the dirt and blood he hadn’t been able to wash off after the fight with Lysander. As he worked, he listened for voices within the building.

There were none, nor could he identify any trace of Alexia’s scent. He assumed she was in another building and reminded himself that he would learn nothing unless he controlled his emotions.

When he was finished, Sergius nodded grudgingly and took Damon back across the commons, this time toward a small wooden house which, like the holding cell, was set apart from the others. Damon lengthened his stride.

“Stay behind me,” Sergius said. “Theron—” Damon ignored him and went on to the door. He hesitated only a moment and walked in, Sergius at his heels.

Theron sat behind a neatly made but very plain desk, a stack of papers on one side and a statue of a graceful woman on the other. There was no sign of a computer or any other technology more advanced than the humming generator that stood against the wall and the portable intercom on a table beside it. The generator provided the only light, which outlined the shape of a narrow cot against the back wall.

As soon as Damon had crossed the threshold Theron was on his feet, his mouth stretched in the grin that had always set him apart from any Opir Damon had ever met.

“Theron,” Sergius said, anger in his voice, “this Darketan—”

“Damon!” Theron exclaimed, coming around from behind the desk with arms outstretched. “My dear boy.” He embraced Damon briefly, nodded to Sergius and stepped back.

“Forgive me,” Theron said, his smile fading. “This is quite unexpected. When Sergius said a Darketan by your name had come to Eleutheria claiming to know me—and with a dhampir prisoner, no less—I didn’t believe it at first.”

Damon examined the Bloodmaster’s face. Though his vision was beginning to clear, he found it difficult to accept that Theron could have aged so much in the two years since they had last spoken. Yet the fresh lines were there, lines that would ordinarily indicate extreme old age in an Opir.

Theron was old, but he was not one of the Elders, who were rare and usually lived alone in their towers. His face was still handsome, more rugged than that of most Opiri, his hair still thick and his gaze direct. He was only worn down, bent under the care of bringing together Opiri who would normally resist living in such close quarters.

“You didn’t see us before we entered the valley?” Damon asked. “You didn’t shoot at us?”

“We don’t have the resources to send our people out to shoot at passers-by,” Theron said. “This is all quite a shock to me. Only when the young lady—” He broke off, looking Damon up and down. “You have not been treated well, and for that I apologize.”

He indicated the chair facing the desk. “Sit. Sergius, would you find us some refreshment?”

Damon could hear the Opir’s sharp intake of breath, as if he were about to argue. But after a moment Sergius opened the door and walked out, leaving Damon alone with his old mentor. Theron went back to his seat, but Damon remained standing.

“I am at a loss,” Theron said, the words steeped with weariness. “I have been told that you have come to bring some warning to us, but I have difficulty understanding under what circumstances you would arrive without orders from Erebus. You have been observing us on their behalf, have you not?”

“It is true,” Damon said, holding Theron’s gaze. “I was sent to observe your settlement, but I am not here under orders from Erebus. The instructions under which I was operating no longer apply, and I have had no direct contact with other Council agents for days.” He leaned over the desk. “There is war going on outside your walls, Theron, and it is about to sweep you up.”

“Do you think I am not aware of this?” the Bloodmaster asked. He leaned back in his chair, gazing up at the ceiling. “I am not totally cut off from Erebus, Damon. I know how fortunate we are to have been left alone as long as we have.”

“Left alone?” Damon asked. “Or is it that you have deceived those who supported you, and they are no longer accepting your claims of cooperation?”

“They,” Theron said. He looked at Damon again. “You mean the Expansionists, of course. Naturally the Council believes we are in league with them.”

“I was not told what they believe. But the origins of this settlement are an open question, and since by its very existence it is attempting to expand Opir territory, it seems logical to assume a connection with the Expansionists.”

Theron’s gaze hardened. “Look at me, Damon. You know what I believe. When have I ever agreed with the Expansionists or supported their positions? You have seen how we have created our little town as a place where Opiri live in peace as equals, without challenge or vassalage. Can you tell me to my face that I have conspired with the enemy?”

“I can tell you that they plan to attack you, wipe you out if possible, no matter the consequences to the Armistice or the political balance in Erebus.”

“Is it possible you haven’t noticed our defenses?”

“The wall? Do you think that will keep out Opiri bent on killing?”

Theron waved his hand in dismissal. “What of you, Damon? Have you come out of your personal loyalty to me?”

Damon took his seat. “I won’t lie to you, Theron. Once I learned you were here, my primary purpose was to discover why the Expansionists are so eager to destroy you, and why an Opir working as a double agent for the Council would say that the colony was not what they believed.”

“Out of curiosity? Or to gain status in Erebus by dealing in useful information?”

Damon countered with a question of his own. “Did you intend your idea of a free society to include Darketans?”

Theron sighed. “When I began this experiment,” he said, “I knew it was little more than a dream. I knew it would provoke strong, even dangerous reactions from all factions in Erebus and from the Enclave, as well. I understood the risks. But I had hoped Eleutheria might somehow set an example....” He shook his head. “Yes, that was my intention, Damon. I had many of what humans call ‘good intentions.’”

“You no longer stand by them?”

Theron’s hand twitched to the stack of papers. “Where do we begin, my boy? You have questions, and so do I. It seems—”

“I have only one question now. The dhampir I brought with me, Alexia Fox—”

“Ah, yes.” Theron smiled again, but sadly, and spread his palm flat over the papers as if he feared they might blow away. “The young agent. You said you had taken her by challenge from another Opir, and that you claimed her as your property.”

The words sounded almost obscene as Theron spoke them, and they felt that way to Damon. “Yes,” he said. “But your people took her, and I want—”

“You want, ” Theron repeated, his eyes gone cold. “I would not have believed that you, of all Darketans, would be so foolish and greedy as to claim an Enclave agent as a serf.”

His chair scraped back, and he rose to walk to the single window. “Is it because you have freed yourself of the Council that you make so bold a move?”

Damon rose, as well. “I have determined to make my own choices, Theron.”

“You will find your choices here are limited.” The Bloodmaster turned to face him, no trace of warmth left in his face. “Whatever you had intended for the young lady, you will find you have no power over her in Eleutheria. You see—” The door burst open behind Damon, and Alexia’s fresh scent filled the room. She was almost on top of Damon when he turned around. He had a few seconds to note that she was wearing a tunic and pants in place of her badly torn uniform, and that she was smiling.

Sergius strode in after her with a lantern in his hand, a barely concealed scowl on his face. “I found her on her way here as I was returning,” he said. “Shall I—”

“It’s all right, Sergius,” Theron said just as Damon put himself between Alexia and the younger Opir. Theron nodded gravely to Alexia, who took Damon’s arm and turned him around to face her again.

“Didn’t he tell you?” she asked, her eyes very bright in the lantern light.

“Are you all right?” he asked. “Have they hurt you?”

She laughed with an ease Damon had never seen before. He tried to make sense of the joy in her eyes and failed.

“What is this?” he asked Theron, who returned his stare without softening.

“She is not yours,” he said. “She is not anyone’s now. There is a reason we call this place Eleutheria, and it is not only because here we regard all Opiri as equals.”

And then Damon understood. The humans he had seen gathering when he and Alexia had arrived hadn’t been afraid of chastisement from their owners, because they were not possessions to be berated and punished for the smallest disobedience. The young man outside the lavatory had seen no need to genuflect because he had nothing to fear from Sergius or any other Opiri in the settlement.

Eleutheria. Freedom.

Damon’s head and wrist began to throb again. “It seems we didn’t have to be quite so cautious,” he said to Alexia.

“I can hardly believe it myself,” she said. “Emma told me what had happened to you. I asked her to get you out of the holding cell, but she wanted to give the colony leaders time to discuss it.” She grinned wickedly. “Serves you right for playing your part a little too well.”

Theron cleared his throat. “Apparently I was mistaken in my suspicions, Damon,” he said. “I had to be sure that Ms. Fox was not under duress when she told us of your purpose here.”

“I did not enjoy the deception,” Damon said stiffly, “but we couldn’t be sure of the reception we would receive, and we had no reason to believe Agent Fox would be treated as a free woman. She is an extraordinary person, and I had no pleasure in treating her—” He broke off before his emotions could become too apparent. “We had no way of knowing you had taken your philosophy to such extremes.”

“Now you see why the Expansionists want to see us destroyed,” Sergius said.

Damon glanced at Sergius and then did a double take. Now that his vision had returned to normal, he saw the Opir’s features clearly for the first time.

“Nikanor!” he said.

“I no longer go by that name,” Sergius said, meeting Damon’s gaze with a little more friendliness than he’d shown earlier.

“Many of us have changed our names since we took up our new life here,” Theron said. “We wish to forget the way of life we once took for granted. No one has been more devoted to our goals than Sergius.”

Nikanor inclined his head in acknowledgment of Theron’s praise. “I was not the first to see the wisdom in Theron’s philosophy, but when I did I knew it must be put into practice as thoroughly as possible.”

“He has been invaluable to the colony,” Theron said, fondness in his voice. “He has risked much.”

Damon wasn’t surprised that Nikanor was involved with Theron’s experiment. He had been one of the Bloodmaster’s most devoted disciples. Once Theron had freed him from vassalage, he could have struck out on his own and worked to move up the ranks, but instead he had chosen to remain with Theron and reap the benefits of the Bloodmaster’s considerable wisdom. For a time, he and Damon had shared Theron’s tutelage, and Nikanor had treated Damon as a fellow student rather than an inferior.

“You knew I wasn’t able to see the details of your face,” Damon said, meeting Sergius’s gaze. “Why didn’t you tell me who you were? Why didn’t you acknowledge me earlier?”

Sergius’s expression was grave. “None of us could be sure of your motives when you first arrived,” he said, “especially given your treatment of Ms. Fox. We wished to keep you uncomfortable until we could learn more about your purpose in coming.”

Damon touched the back of his head. “You did that very well,” he said drily.

A slight smile touched the corner of Sergius’s mouth. “I only just learned what Ms.

Fox had told Emma when Theron sent for you.”

“He hurt you?” Alexia asked, stretching to peer at the back of Damon’s head. She glared at Sergius. “I was told he would not be harmed.”

A weight in Damon’s heart lightened at the anger and concern in her voice. “I believe I will survive,” he said, briefly meeting her troubled gaze. He turned to Sergius again. “I thank you for seeing to Agent Fox’s welfare.”

“It was my pleasure, though Emma deserves the credit,” Sergius said with an approving glance at Alexia.

Too approving, Damon thought. He rested his hand on Alexia’s shoulder.

“You house the humans in the dormitories, I take it?” he asked. “Where will Ms. Fox

—”

“For pity’s sake,” Alexia cut in. “There’s no need for such formality. All the rules seem to have been broken here already.” She smiled up at Damon, and he felt as if that smile alone could send him crashing to the floor again.

“Alexia,” he breathed, wondering if she recognized what he meant to express in that single word. She held his gaze a moment longer and then looked away.

“We shouldn’t waste any more time,” she said, sobering. “I told Emma about the Expansionists’ plan to move on them soon, but I’m sure Theron and his Council will want the details of what we managed to find out from Lysander and the other Nightsider.”

Damon hoped she hadn’t told Emma more than they’d agreed to reveal. “It would be wise to put more sentries on your walls immediately,” he said to Theron. “The Expansionists may take action at any time.”

“Perhaps you have forgotten that Theron was sired before humans built their first city,” Sergius said. “He needs none of your advice.”

Just as he finished speaking, a young human woman entered the room with a tray bearing a decanter, five wineglasses—two filled with clear water—and a plate of biscuits.

She set the tray on the small table next to the generator, smiled at Theron and went back out the door.

“Ah,” Theron said. “Let us have a little refreshment before we continue. It does no good to talk of such serious matters on an empty stomach.”

He moved to the table and picked up the tinted glass decanter. “Damon,” he said, “you will not be surprised, I think, to learn that we do not force any human citizen of Eleutheria to provide blood. They do so because it is their desire to contribute to our community and build new bonds of trust between our peoples.”

Carefully he poured the rich red liquid into one of the glasses. The blood was fresh and pungent, and the smell alone seemed to choke off Damon’s breath.

He had tried to disregard his growing hunger, refusing to acknowledge the warning signs since Lysander had mocked him about taking Alexia’s blood. Now he was in a place where he could find nourishment, and yet he didn’t reach for the glass Theron offered. He looked down at Alexia’s face for the expression of revulsion he expected to find.

Instead, he saw neither approval nor disgust, only a faint frown accompanied by an unreadable glance at Damon’s face. He raised his hand to refuse the glass. The door opened again, and Emma came into the room with another plate of fresh bread and a wedge of cheese. Her gaze lingered on Sergius, and then she joined Theron at the table.

“You must be hungry,” she said, smiling at Alexia. “Since you wouldn’t eat earlier, I thought—” Damon didn’t hear the rest of her words, for he was staggering, falling, his stomach turning inside out as he caught himself against the desk and cracked his head on the edge.

Alexia cried out, her small, strong hands clamping around his arm. His vision dimmed again.

“What’s wrong?” she demanded, her voice thin and far away. “Help him!”

“He needs blood,” a male voice said.

Someone lifted Damon’s head from the floor and pushed a glass to his lips. He nearly gagged before the blood flowed over his tongue, and then there was a profound relief, as if his body had been numb for years and had suddenly come back to life.

“He never said anything,” Alexia said. “I should have recognized—”

“He needs rest,” Theron said. There was a sound of feet moving on the floor, and then the cup was taken away.

“This will serve only temporarily,” Theron said. “He is clearly starving. He must have fresh blood from a vein if he is to take full benefit.”

“That can be arranged,” Sergius said. “If you are certain you are up to speaking with us while he recovers, Ms. Fox—” Damon growled and reached out blindly, struggling to find Alexia through a vast inner blindness. Sergius had no right to speak to her so intimately. He didn’t know her.

And she was his.

“It will be all right, Damon,” Alexia said. He felt the slightly calloused pads of her fingertips brush his cheek and the corner of his mouth. “You can join us again when you recover.”

Driven by fury that seemed to consume every last drop of blood he had taken, Damon ordered his muscles to lift him from the floor. His will overcame their feebleness, and he was on his feet again, swaying, his hand gripping the edge of the desk. His vision cleared enough for him to see Alexia’s beautiful, anxious face, and then he pushed past her, heading straight for Sergius.

Theron caught him from behind and held him, speaking low in his ear.

“This is the Hunger talking,” he whispered. “I will take you to your room myself.”

“Go with him, Damon,” Alexia said. “I’ll tell you what we’ve discussed after you’ve done what you need to do.”

Done what he needed to do. The very thing she most despised. As he despised this helplessness and what it made of him.

That was the last rational thought he had. He made for the door, finding his way more by memory than sight. Sergius moved quickly out of his way and held the door open.

Damon blundered out, all raw instinct now, all need. His legs tensed to carry him in a sprint toward whatever prey he could find.

The woman who had brought in the tray was crossing the commons in the direction of one of the dormitories. Damon smelled the scent of the blood pulsing beneath her skin and started toward her. Voices called behind him, but he was already running. As he reached her, the woman turned to face him.

Her expression showed no fear, only calm acceptance. Damon skidded to a halt, his boot heels digging furrows in the dirt.

The woman held out her hand. “I can give you what you need,” she said. “You don’t have to take it.”

Damon closed his eyes, feeling a strange sense of weightlessness as his mind began to hold thoughts again. He didn’t have to take it. Not like all the hundreds of times before, when humans serving the Darketan dormitories were sent to him and the others, nameless men and women who were nothing more than cattle. Even to him.

Back then, before he had met Alexia, he had never considered any other way. And now this woman, who had full freedom to choose, was willing to ease his hunger. To trust him, as Alexia did.

“You don’t have to give him anything,” Alexia told the woman, coming up behind Damon. “I’ll take care of him.”

Damon turned his head halfway, afraid to move lest his body overwhelm his mind.

“No,” he said hoarsely.

“You gave me your blood,” she reminded him. “Now I give you mine, freely and gladly.”

Theron, Sergius and Emma arrived a moment later, forming a tense tableau behind Damon, Alexia and the human woman. Alexia pressed her soft, supple body to Damon’s back, her arms wrapping around his waist.

“Come with me now,” she said. “You want me, Damon. And I want you. In every way.”