Daysider

Chapter 18

“Why?” Theron asked, leaning on the table with his hair loose and undressed around his shoulders. “Why should your people attack us? We have heard nothing from the Council at all, nothing from the Expansionists in weeks that would suggest a motive.

What could have happened to provoke this?” He fixed his intimidating stare on Alexia.

“What did your partner tell them?”

“I don’t know,” Alexia said, meeting his gaze steadily. “I’m by no means certain the strike force actually plans to move on the colony at all. I have simply told you what the message said, and what happened from the time Damon met with us.”

She hadn’t wavered under the fury of the Bloodmaster’s attention, but Damon moved closer to her nevertheless, interposing himself slightly between her and the table at which she sat. The other members of Theron’s local council—Sergius, Emma and six other Opiri and humans—looked on with faces drawn with worry, every one of them knowing their time was running out.

“He disappeared for a day between the time he left us and the time he returned,” Damon said. “There is much he could have accomplished in those hours.”

“He never came within sight of the colony,” Sergius said. “How could he know enough about us to report anything to Aegis?”

Alexia bit hard on her lip. Damon rested his hand on her shoulder, knowing how much she was blaming herself for Michael’s involvement in this volatile situation.

On their way to speak to Theron, they had discussed the possibility that it was Michael’s discovery of the theft of Alexia’s patch that had motivated him to call in the strike force. But that assumed he hadn’t been involved in stealing it himself. Now it was looking increasingly likely that Damon’s “feeling” that the dhampir had taken the patch was correct.

There was much he and Alexia had told Theron, and much they had not. They hadn’t yet mentioned the patch and Alexia’s dependence on Damon’s blood to counteract her condition. Nor had they raised the subject of Damon’s “spells.”

“The only thing I am certain of,” Theron said, breaking into Damon’s thoughts, “is that neither the Council nor the Expansionists have done anything but observed from a distance.”

“They were busy killing each other,” Damon said, “and making plans to move on you.”

“Which they have not done.” Theron resumed his seat and swept his hair back with his hand. “The very existence of such strike forces is in violation of the Treaty. We know of nothing in Eleutheria that would arouse such a reaction.”

“Not directly,” Sergius said, “but we would not necessarily know of every political intrigue going on in Erebus. Perhaps the Council deliberately chose to provoke Aegis into breaking the Armistice, using the colony as a pretext.”

“Ridiculous,” Theron said. “The Expansionists might be stupid enough to try it, but not the Council. They could not conceal the kind of preparations they would need to make in order to fight another full-scale war, even if they desired it.” He hesitated. “I know several of them personally. I know the way they think. No, this did not come from the Council.”

Damon glanced at Sergius, noting the rebellion in the set of his face. The younger Opir was not pleased at having his idea so casually dismissed. But he would defer to Theron because he knew as well as Damon did that the Bloodmaster understood the politics of Erebus better than any living Opir.

“Hatred, greed and ambition are powerful motivators,” Damon said. They want to see Eleutheria destroyed. Sending the right message to Aegis would serve them by causing the Enclave to break the Treaty and spare them the effort of getting rid of you.”

“Obviously,” Sergius said. “And since the dhampir Carter sent the communication, he must have been working with the Expansionists.”

Alexia made a small sound of protest but didn’t speak. Damon squeezed her shoulder.

“It is difficult to fathom his motives, given the dhampires’ hatred for Opiri,” he said.

“But I agree with Sergius. It only remains to determine what his reasons might have been.”

“If Alexia can’t figure it out,” Emma said, “how are we supposed to do it?”

“I missed something,” Alexia murmured, clenching her fists on the table. “Something important. My partner was angry when Damon came. More angry than he should have been, but I didn’t pay enough attention.”

“What of the attacks on you and Damon?” Sergius asked.

“Now that you have confirmed that your people were not in the area firing at intruders,” Damon said, “we cannot be sure of the identities of any of the shooters. The first may or may not have been the Council agents assigned to keep me and Agent Fox together, the ones I found dead later.”

Theron smiled tightly. “Peculiar, is it not, that the Council sent you to keep the dhampires away from the colony, but you brought one of them directly to us instead.”

Since the answer to that unspoken question involved far too much private emotion, Damon spoke with care. “Priorities can rapidly change in the field,” he said, “and it became apparent to me that Council orders were not as important as dealing with what came to light as a result of Lysander’s revelations.”

“You made the correct choice,” Theron said. He looked at Alexia. “Both of you.”

“No,” Alexia said. “I failed. Michael tried to warn me, and I didn’t see...”

“The fact remains that he did try to warn you,” Damon said, speaking softly as if for her ears alone.

Alexia lifted her hand and touched his fingers. “I know,” she whispered. “But that doesn’t help us now.”

“And neither does wasting time trying to dissect the thinking of a dhampir traitor,” Theron said. “We must focus all our efforts on defense. Once the Council becomes aware of the intrusion, they must act, if the Expansionists don’t do so first. We will be caught in the crossfire.”

“We don’t even know what they’re coming to do,” Emma said. “Invade us? Take us prisoner? Wipe out any Expansionist operatives they can find?”

“They wouldn’t come for a purpose that minor,” Alexia said. “It has to be something much bigger. So big even the prospect of a new war doesn’t seem as bad.” She raked her slender fingers through her hair. “But on those rare occasions when they’ve been sent into the Zone, they carry through their objective regardless of loss of life on either side.”

The people at the table looked around at each other in silence.

“I have already told you I will start for the Border immediately,” Alexia said, beginning to rise, “and do what I can to intercept and explain that whatever Michael told them has to be a mistake. If they listened to him, they’ll listen to me.”

“No,” Damon said, pushing her back down. “You said yourself they will not allow themselves to be seen, let alone delayed, even by another Aegis operative. I will not allow you to put yourself at risk for no reason.”

“But I—” she began.

“Damon is right,” Theron said. “You must be here if and when an attack comes.

Perhaps then your words will be of use.”

“In the meantime,” Sergius said, “we must decide how we can best defend ourselves.

Most of the Opiri here know how to shoot and can hold off any attack for a time.”

“They could move today,” Alexia said. “Do you have enough daygear for all the Opiri willing to fight?” She glanced around at the others. “If they’re intent on getting inside these walls, you’ll have to kill all of them to stop them. And you have to find them first.”

“We will send our own scouts to meet them before they get close,” said one of the other Opiri, a female with short-cropped hair and unusually light eyes. She glanced from Damon to Alexia. “We have enough daygear for that, and we’re still stronger and faster than either dhampires or Darketans.”

“Some of us humans are very good at fighting, too,” Emma said with a pointed smile.

“And sneaking around, for that matter. We were all convicts, remember?”

“And some of you were no more than petty thieves,” Sergius said, “or less.”

Alexia stiffened. “Sergius is right,” she said in a strained voice. “They aren’t trained for this.”

“That is why we must evacuate them,” Sergius said. “Send them to the caves until this is over.”

Emma shook her head vehemently. “We ex-serfs have something here we never dreamed could exist outside the Enclaves,” she said. “Do you doubt we would defend it with our lives?”

“From your own kind?” Sergius asked mockingly. “Could you kill them, if you had to?”

“The ones who sent us to Erebus in the first place?” said the dark-haired human male named Cullen. “We aren’t Enclave citizens anymore. Whatever they want here, I doubt they’ll be too concerned with our welfare.”

“If that is true, why would there be a law against killing humans in Erebus?” Sergius asked.

“That law is a joke,” Cullen interrupted with open dislike. “Both sides know it. The strike force might not try to hurt us, but if we’re collateral damage...” He glanced at Alexia, who seemed to have some difficulty meeting his eyes.

“I can’t tell you anything,” Alexia said in a low voice. “I wish I could. The strike force isn’t made up of agents like me and Michael. They’re specially trained. As far as Eleutheria is concerned, I think we’re all in agreement. The fate of the colony is our fate.”

“I don’t think—” Sergius began.

“We could simply surrender,” Theron said.

Everyone fell silent. Then they all began to talk at once.

“Out of the question—”

“They’ll only—

“What makes you think—”

“Silence!” Theron said, his voice booming across the table. He swept his gaze over each of the council members in turn. “We built this colony on the precepts of peace, cooperation and freedom. We knew that this great idea might not survive the first time it was put into practice. I appreciate your willingness to die for it, but martyrdom will serve nothing. We must be alive to serve as living proof that this philosophy is viable.”

“You can’t surrender to a strike force,” Alexia said urgently. “It’s not an army. Since we have no idea what their orders are, there is no guarantee a mass surrender will make any difference.”

“Regardless of their reason for entering the Zone in force,” Theron said, “they surely have no intention of killing indiscriminately. If we fight, we cannot negotiate. If we put up no resistance, however, bloodshed, if there is to be any, will be minimized.”

“There will be bloodshed,” Sergius said in a tone just short of contempt. “If any Expansionists or Council agents are in the area, they will fight. Projectiles and bullets are no respecters of persons. If the Aegis operatives don’t attempt to kill us, someone else will.” He stood to face Theron. “As you so wisely said, when we began this colony, we knew the obstacles we would face and that a time would come when we would be compelled to make a difficult decision. Now that time has come.”

Damon watched Sergius out of the corner of his eyes. Nikanor, as he had been in Erebus, had never been particularly passionate about anything except long philosophical discussions, all on a theoretical plane. Like most Opiri, his emotional range had always been limited, particularly compared with Theron.

But he was passionate about this, and Damon found it more than merely strange.

Though it was hardly rational, given the little information Sergius had possessed at the time of Damon and Alexia’s arrival at the colony, Damon hadn’t forgotten the way Sergius/Nikanor had treated him. The fact was, he didn’t trust Sergius, rational or not.

“I propose that we evacuate the humans to the caves, as I suggested before,” Sergius continued. “Those Opiri who wish to leave with them may do so. The rest of us will stay and defend the settlement against any who would destroy it.”

Cullen and Emma immediately protested. The short-haired Opir woman nodded firmly. The remaining Opiri exchanged glances and then sat without speaking, their faces expressionless as they weighed the options.

“Sergius,” Theron said heavily, “I cannot prevent you or the others from fighting. I am a leader, not a tyrant. But I beg you again to think what you are doing.”

“I have thought about it,” Sergius said, holding the old Opir’s gaze like the young wolf who planned to be the next leader of the pack. “You should go with the humans, Theron.

You’ll be needed later.”

Theron shook his head. “I still hope to speak with the Enclave forces. I assure you, I have no personal wish for martyrdom, either, but it is my choice.” He looked around the table again. “Emma, I believe you, Cullen, Beth and Jonathan should help lead the others to the caves. If you will not think of yourselves, think of those who lack both the skill and the will to fight such a battle.”

Dropping her gaze, Emma stared at her folded hands. “Let some of us stay, so we can

—”

“All of you,” Theron said gently. “Please, go into hiding just until this is resolved.”

After a long hesitation, Emma nodded. Cullen and the other two humans pushed back their chairs and rose.

“We will gather the others,” Cullen said, “but we aren’t going to be ready to move until near nightfall.” He looked across the table at Alexia, inclined his head and left the room. Emma, Beth and Jonathan followed.

“One of us must accompany the humans,” Theron said to Damon, Alexia and the remaining Opiri.

“I will do it,” Sergius said. “As soon as they are safe, I will return to help defend the colony.”

“If the strike force and any other combatants are not already in the way,” Theron said.

“Agent Fox, earlier you were willing to remain with the colony at this time of crisis, even though by doing so you may be considered a traitor to your own people. You have no connection to us except through our human citizens. Again, I ask—is this what you want? Do you truly accept that you may face extreme sanctions from the Enclave if you do?”

Damon waited tensely, hoping she would change her mind. He hadn’t even suggested that she leave Eleutheria before the strike force arrived, because he had known what she would say.

Just as he knew what she would say now.

“I know that is possible,” Alexia said. “But it’s because I work for Aegis that I believe I am in a unique position to help There is something here that doesn’t exist anywhere else.” She rose to face Damon. “It’s the only place where Damon and I can be together, as equals, without fear of reprisal. I have to believe Eleutheria will survive this crisis and become stronger because of it. I want to be a part of the change it has begun, and the hope it represents.”

Her words stunned Damon, not because they were out of character, but because they were so much more than he had ever expected. Their relationship had always stood on shaky ground, and they had never questioned their divided loyalties.

Those loyalties, and the hatred their peoples had for one another, would ordinarily have made any thought beyond the present impossible. Until he had seen how Opiri and humans interacted in Eleutheria, he wouldn’t have believed there was any path around those seemingly immutable obstacles. Yet now Alexia spoke as if there might be a future, fragile as it was, and her eyes were asking him if he felt the same.

How could he accept what she offered? She was throwing aside her past, all her connections to her city, all the human parts of her life she had never shared with him. She was willing to accept the necessity that she might always need his blood to survive, and that he would continue to drink hers. And she knew she would be taking a Darketan who could become a savage every bit as subject to his emotions as a serf was to his Bloodlord.

But she wasn’t deceiving herself. Her gaze was clear and direct and unafraid. It was he who was afraid: that he’d hurt her during one of his rages, that he’d fail to protect her—

not only from every outside danger, but from her own stubborn, fierce will.

He didn’t insult her by asking her again if she was sure. He took her offered hand and raised it to his lips. A moment later he remembered where they were, and so did Alexia.

Her cheeks flushed. She ducked her head and sat down.

Damon took up his position behind her again. Theron looked him in the eye, his brows arched and a slight smile touching the corners of his lips.

“I will not ask if you recognize the consequences to yourself if the Council ends up in control of the colony,” he said. “It may be worse than the other alternatives. But if you have made up your mind...”

Damon nodded. Sergius made a sound that eloquently combined impatience with mild disgust. “May we continue?” he said acidly.

Ignoring him, Theron turned to Alexia. “Since you wish to help, I think you and Damon should accompany our human citizens to the caves. You both have the skills necessary to defend them, and I know Emma trusts you, Alexia.”

“No,” Alexia said. “You can’t keep me safe by sending me to hide. And I may still be able to speak to someone from the strike force before this gets bad.”

“It will be no less dangerous guiding the others and protecting them,” Theron said, “especially since we have no idea where the Aegis forces or their enemies may appear.

Perhaps Hera—” he glanced at the short-haired Opir woman “—will accompany you, and Alexia can return when the others are safe.”

Damon thought of Sergius’s sudden change of plans from wanting to remain at the colony to accompanying the humans to the caves. And he’d been the one to suggest the caves in the first place. Damon trusted him even less than before. He had to be watched.

“We’ll go,” he said.

Alexia shot him a troubled look, but she must have known as much as he did that the old Bloodmaster was deliberately trying to get him and Alexia out of the way. He must truly believe the colony would fall to one force or another, and for some reason he wanted to be sure Damon and Alexia survived.

The hard fact was, no matter where Damon went, any violence aimed at Alexia—and likely any other innocent from the colony— could provoke one of his spells. His shadow-self could be a potent weapon turned against an enemy, but there was always the risk that it would endanger friends, as well.

That was why he would see that Alexia and the humans were safe, make sure that Sergius was no threat to them, and then go looking for the strike force himself. Maybe he could stop or delay them as no one else could.

“I agree,” Alexia murmured, reaching behind her for Damon’s hand. He took it, enfolding her fingers in his. Immediately Theron turned to Sergius.

“I have an even more difficult job for you,” he said. “I want you to go into the mountains and look for movement from Erebus. If you discover any sign of Opir troops in this area, return to report immediately.”

“You can send someone else for that, Theron,” Sergius protested. “Since you refuse to leave, I should stay here to protect you.”

Damon watched Sergius out of the corner of his eye. Yet another about-face on the Opir’s part. There was something very wrong here.

“I would not ask this of you if it were not necessary, my friend,” Theron said.

The flicker of a scowl crossed Sergius’s face and then quickly disappeared. “As you wish, Theron.”

“Then it only remains to discuss what we who remain in Eleutheria will do to prepare.”

Theron cleared his throat. “Agent Fox, Sergius, Damon and Hera, when you leave, go by the postern gate. My thanks to you all.”

Hera and Sergius stood, covering their heads and faces with the cowl and goggles of their light daysuits. Alexia rose as well, and all four of them headed for the door. Sergius and Damon reached it at the same time. Sergius shouldered past Damon without a glance and strode across the commons.

Damon considered telling Alexia—or Theron—of his unease about Sergius, but sharing his vague suspicions might result in Sergius becoming aware that such suspicions existed. Damon wanted the Opir off his guard, confident that his scheme—if, indeed, he had one—would succeed.

And Alexia would only be in worse danger if she got in Sergius’s way.

One very tense and busy hour later, Damon’s pack, along with his weapons and those of Alexia’s he had been able to fit in it, lay beside Alexia’s cot in the dormitory. Damon still had his uniform, but he chose to continue to wear the simple clothing he and Alexia had been given earlier. Both of them had laid out and carefully inspected their combat knives, pistols and rifles. Alexia pushed the strange communicator into her belt; she had told Damon that even though she couldn’t find a way to send an outgoing message, there was still the chance Aegis or the strike force might try to contact Michael again, unaware of his fate.

When she and Damon had completed their preparations and had nothing more to do but wait until twilight, a charged silence fell between them. Damon studied her face, memorizing its familiar, beloved lines: the fringe of red hair across her forehead, her tilted cat’s eyes, her full lips curved in a brave smile.

“Well,” she said. “It seems we’re to have another adventure together.”

All Damon wanted then was to take her into his arms and kiss her, absorb her into himself and never let her go. He saw the same yearning in her eyes. But he had to make her understand what had to be done, and nothing else could get in the way.

“When we go,” he said, “I’ll bring up the rear. It would be better for me to stay away from the others so that I can move freely in response to any attack.”

Alexia didn’t misunderstand his meaning. “If you think I’m going to leave you alone, think again.”

“It is necessary, Alexia,” he said. He put his hands on her arms. “If you are attacked, I might lose any ability to control my actions.”

“That’s why I’m not running away from you.” She laced her fingers behind his neck and brought his head down to hers. “We never had a chance to talk about what to do about your spells. We think we know what causes them, but there must be a way to control them. I have a theory—”

“This is not the time for theories, Alexia,” he said, stroking her cheek with the pad of his thumb. “If I become a beast, I would rather turn it against my enemies.”

“Listen to me, Damon. If certain kinds of strong emotion make this happen to you, maybe others can save you.” She swallowed, her eyes flickering away. “Like love.”

The words came haltingly, and Damon knew how difficult it had been for her to speak them aloud. He knew she didn’t expect him to reciprocate. He couldn’t, though he understood the miracle they represented.

He had once told her that love was a word Darketans had no use for. She had acknowledged that there was a Zone of difference between caring and love.

Both statements were true. But he no longer knew where to draw the line.

“I think I can help you,” Alexia continued through his silence. “I think that by staying with you when it happens, I can find a way to help you use it instead of letting it use you.”

Damon shook his head. “Alexia—” She pressed her finger against his lips. He knew defeat when he met it. He grabbed her wrist and kissed her, pulling her body hard against his. She melted into him as if she, too, were trying to merge with him so completely that they could never be parted again.

But they both knew this was a moment out of time, whatever Alexia had implied about a future together. The one thing she refused to give up was hope, and he would never deny her that comfort.

Closing his eyes, Damon smelled the scents of approaching twilight. “They will be waiting for us,” he said, letting her go.

She wiped her tears away with the heel of her palm and nodded.

Together they found their way to the eastern wall, butted up against the hills.

Sharpened spikes rose from the tops of the battlements to discourage potential enemies from approaching from that direction, and there was a very small postern gate set where the wall turned away from the hill.

Two dozen humans, alerted by their representatives on Theron’s council, had gathered there, a few with rifles and others with packs, moving restlessly as Hera spoke to Emma and Cullen. Sergius was there as well, still wearing a cowl and gloves but dressed in clothing more practical for travel in the bush. He avoided Damon’s gaze and passed through the gate first.

Damon hesitated, torn between the desire to follow the Opir and his implied promise to remain with Alexia and the humans. If he left, he’d have to tell Alexia of his concerns, and that would help nothing. All he could do was wait. And watch.

Hera, dressed much like Sergius, nodded to Damon and Alexia and followed him, taking point. Half the humans followed her, Alexia went next, and the second half trooped behind her with Damon taking up the rear.

The caves in question were less than a kilometer away, but no one in the group let his or her guard down for an instant. Damon walked in a zigzag pattern to cover the most ground as he kept watch. Once Hera called a halt to listen to the rustle of something large moving in the bushes, but it turned out to be a brown bear, which reared up on its hind legs to watch them pass. The sun sank below the horizon, and a jay scolded in the pine branches as they walked beneath.

“Nothing,” Alexia whispered, falling back to join Damon. “Either the strike force hasn’t arrived yet, or they’re watching before they make their move.”

And even if they were not yet in the vicinity, Damon thought grimly, Expansionist or perhaps even Council agents might be. If his instincts about Sergius proved wrong, the Opir would eventually return with a report on any movement to the east toward Erebus.

“You go ahead now,” Damon told Alexia. “Keep the others safe.”

“You come with me, ” she said. “I know I can—”

“Damon!” Hera cried from somewhere ahead of them.

All the humans fell flat as they had been instructed, except for Emma and Cullen, who had their own rifles and immediately took up defensive positions. Damon and Alexia joined them, standing back-to-back with their rifles ready.

They knew in a very short time that they were surrounded.