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Chapter 27
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Carryn handed Dynan off to waiting hands on board the XR-30, looking back at the blast billowing toward them. “Sheed?”
“I’m all right. I’ve got Marc. There’s one huge explosion going on behind me. Looks like the place is under attack.”
“Did anyone else get out?” Carryn asked.
“I don’t know. Lyle was in back when we left, but I’m not sure if he was clear.”
“All right. Hurry.”
“No kidding.”
Carryn turned, moving back to Dynan’s room. He was still unconscious. Geneal sat beside him, examining him. Carryn was about to go in, when Ralion and Sheed came back carrying Marc. “Where did you find him?” she asked, following them into the room next door. She felt the ship lift off the ground while the guards put Marc onto a bed.
“At the top of the stairs,” Sheed said. “Out cold, just sitting there.”
Ralion shook his head. “Dynan’s right. He shouldn’t go. He’ll never make it through this alive.”
“None of us may make it through this,” Carryn said. “It’s not up to you or I, or even Dynan. It’s Marc’s decision. He’ll wake up soon. Trevan, report?”
“We’re all right. Looks like we got out just in time though. I don’t know how you’re going to tell Dynan this, but the house is ... well, it’s going down pretty fast.”
“The least of my worries. His too. Find us a place to set down. We need to talk about the situation and regroup.”
“Acknowledged.”
Carryn returned to Dynan’s room. Geneal turned on her the moment she entered. “What happened?” she asked. “And why did you give him anethinol?”
“Necessity,” Carryn said, wondering how she would react to the news that Dain might be alive.
Carryn still couldn’t believe it and probably wouldn’t until she actually saw him. She almost couldn’t think past the fear that gripped her at the thought he might be alive. When Maralt tried to take Garan, she thought she understood his reasoning, other than to be a sadistic bastard. He needed two Telaerin souls to fully open the gateway. Garan would have provided one of them, as it was more than certain Dynan would have gone after him. That was always one of the requirements of the Prophecy. One would be taken by force. One would follow willingly, giving his soul to the darkness to save the other. On the other side of the prophetic coin, both Dynan and Dain needed to survive to defeat Maralt and all that he represented. If they didn’t, the world would end. If they did, the world might still end, but there was still a fighting chance they could stop it from happening. In Garan, Carryn saw the possibility of success just as Maralt had. But if Dain was alive, he didn’t need Garan. She felt like she was missing something. The fact that Maralt could still open the Demon’s Gate chilled her to the bone.
“Carryn,” Geneal said. “What’s happened?”
“Maralt attacked, except it wasn’t an attack against us. It was someone in Rianamar, who in turn telegraphed the attack to Dynan and Marc.”
For a moment, Geneal didn’t answer. “What are you suggesting? The only other person I knew who shared that particular problem with Dynan was Dain.” When she didn’t respond negatively, Geneal stared at her. The pieces filled in. They’d only just saved Marc from the poison so they all knew now that it was possible. “You think Dain is ... But how? How could that be possible? How could Dain be alive and Dynan not know it?”
“Anethinol.”
Geneal gasped, then started shaking her head again.
“Dynan believes it completely. He was about to attempt to communicate with him, which is why I gave him the anethinol.”
“Of course he wants to talk to him.”
“Think Geneal. Who kept him alive? Marc pointed out correctly that making such an attempt could put Dain in danger and Dynan as well. We aren’t supposed to know this.”
“How can you be so sure this isn’t one of Maralt’s tricks?”
“I’m not sure, but Marc and Dynan are.”
She remembered something else, gasping as her brows drew down. “Marc saw him.”
“What do you mean?”
“When we were leaving Cadal, Maralt attacked and Dynan telepathically took Marc to Beren to hide him. Marc said he saw Dynan at the mansion, only he was acting in a way that didn’t make sense. It was Dain. He saw Dain.”
Dynan moaned, stirring. Carryn cut her explanation short, watching him carefully. “I’ll need another dose of anethinol ready in case he tries again.”
Geneal stiffened, but handed her a dermal injector set to the proper dosage. As Dynan stirred again, the ship slowed, then quickly settled to the ground. Trevan reported that all ships were down safely and a patrol set up. Carryn acknowledge that and Dynan opened his eyes.
He squinted, blinking at the room for a moment, then at Carryn and Geneal. “Where ... What are we doing here?” he asked, trying to sit up.
Geneal deactivated the restraint field and it became apparent that he remembered. He sat up. “I had to stop you,” Carryn said. She held up a hand, meeting Dynan’s anger steadily. “I’ll do it again if I need to. Not only to keep you from harm, but Dain too. Remember where he is and who’s holding him.”
Dynan hesitated this time, his anger failing him. He leaned over his knees and Carryn saw him shaking. “I can’t believe you did this. For two years, Carryn. Were you ever going to tell me?”
She nodded, although she was lying again. One led to the other. One failure followed, again and again, just as Maralt had told her. She would fail at every turn. “I thought after you were crowned I’d get down on my knees and confess. Dynan, we thought you were going to die. It was a terrible thing to do, telling you that he was buried on board the XR-9. I never thought Maralt would keep him alive. If I had thought that even for a moment, I would have gone after him.”
“We?” he asked and looked at Geneal. She almost cringed, dropping her gaze to the floor. “All of you?” he said, looking into his hands. Carryn nodded, but instead of anger, the realization that they all had participated in this lie seemed to ease his sense of betrayal. Maybe that gave it justification. Dynan shook his head, leaning to rub his temples. “Why are we on board the XR-30?”
“The mansion was a trap. It was attacked just after we got out. Right now, we’re in a field catching our breath. We need to tell everyone else what’s going on before we move. We need to take the time now to find out as best we can what Maralt is planning.”
Dynan nodded numbly. He sat quietly for a while, rubbing his head. “What if...” He hesitated. “What if Maralt is making me think Dain is alive?”
Carryn didn’t answer right away, not knowing what she should say. She had doubts, but they were lessening the longer she thought about it. “I’m not sure. Marc suggested that Dain will be part of the final trap at the Palace.”
“Why wouldn’t I know it?” Dynan asked. “Why didn’t I know?”
“Maralt didn’t want you to know. Which is why we can’t contact Dain. We don’t want Maralt to find out we’ve discovered this.”
“I never should have left him.”
“If you had somehow managed,” Marc said from the door, “to get Dain back to the ship, on board, and off the planet, he would have died. Oddly enough, leaving him saved his life.” Marc sat down carefully, smiling slightly at Dynan’s disbelief. “Think about it. You didn’t have the antidote. You couldn’t have gotten the antidote. You couldn’t save him, Dynan, and he wouldn’t be alive right now if you’d tried. At least you can rest your mind on that point. Your brother is alive. You can count yourself lucky in that.”
Dynan couldn’t look at him. “I’m sorry, Marc.”
He shrugged. “Don’t worry about it. We’ve got plenty of other things to worry about as it is. Like what now?”
“You think Dain being there is part of a trap?” Dynan asked.
“Maralt didn’t keep him alive out of the kindness of his heart or to make you a happy man, that’s for certain. Imagine – if you can – that we don’t know any of this. You walk into the Throne Room and there’s Dain. Maralt is holding the two people you care most about. Remember, he’s going to take everyone and he’s done a pretty good job of it so far. Maralt wants you there to watch. How are you supposed to react to that? Not, oh great Dain is alive, but look who’s standing behind him with a knife at his throat. Now put Loren into it. We know she’s there and we know we have to figure out how to get her away from Maralt before he can hurt her.”
“How?” Dynan asked in near desperation. “And Maralt isn’t holding Dain, he’s holding Loren, and before I can reach her to stop him, he...”
“I know what he’s showing you,” Marc said. “I saw it first hand. Will that be what we face or will it be totally different?”
“The same,” Carryn said. “To confirm the envisioned outcome. Maralt doesn’t want to offer Dynan any options. He sees Loren and knows what will happen to her, knows or thinks he can’t act. Maralt will provide the same scenario.”
“What stops you?” Marc asked, then answered himself. “Dain. Maralt is forcing you to make a choice, neither of which is acceptable. You chose one, the other is going to die. What we have to do is stop Maralt from hurting Loren and from hurting Dain at the same time.”
“No one else is there,” Dynan said quietly.
“I’ll be there,” Marc said, smiling. “Remember, Maralt thinks I’m dead.”
“He wouldn’t count on all of us being killed at the mansion,” Carryn said. “We’re sure to run into more ambushes.”
“Which means we can’t do anything he expects us to do. He knows all our plans. For all we know, he’s the one who made them for us through Dynan.”
“We have to get inside though and there aren’t that many ways to do that,” Carryn said. “There’s the courtyard entrance, which is about seven kem deep in snow right now and no way to land close enough. There are the laser cannons to think about, although, our shields will probably hold long enough. It’ll take some expert shooting to disable them without blowing the roof off the Palace. We want to avoid the guard entrances, obviously, including the tunnel entrances where we’d only get bottled up with no guarantee of making it into the Palace, as well as the main doors. We don’t have enough men to storm the gates. Then there’s the cliff passage. That’s about it.”
Marc frowned. “Isn’t there a balcony along the front?”
Carryn and Dynan looked at him. “Yes,” Carryn said.
“We drop our men the same place, out front, and they go through the main doors. We land on the balcony and go in that way.”
“There isn’t anything to land on,” Dynan said.
“So we don’t land then.”
Carryn shook her head. “What you’re talking about is jumping out of a ship while it’s hovering about six kem off the balcony deck, if we can get that close without running into the building.”
“Trevan can get us close enough,” Dynan said and sat up.
“Except Trevan is supposed to lead a troop inside.”
“He can hand the controls off after he gets the ship in place, Carryn. It’ll have to work,” he said. “At least it’s an unexpected way to go in.”
“And instead of all of us going into the Throne Room through the hidden entrance, which we were planning on, we either go in through the offices or the main doors,” Marc said.
“Or both,” Carryn said, nodding.
“How about Ralion, Sheed, you, and Dynan go in through the main doors. I’ll go around to the secret entrance.”
“So eager to face Maralt alone?” Carryn asked. “Maybe I should go with you.”
Marc nodded. “I wouldn’t last long against him for certain. But it’ll be our job to keep Loren from harm. No, wait Dynan. You’re not going to be able to stop him the way you stopped him on Cadal.”
“How do you know that?”
“You couldn’t stop him from taking her this time,” Carryn said. “He was ready for it. You couldn’t get in. I know, because I couldn’t either. Instead, you put yourself on the outside to face the attack and you shielded everyone else.”
Marc nodded. “You can’t let yourself be distracted by her, no matter what happens. Ralion and Sheed will take care of Dain. You’re responsible for getting to Kamien and killing him.”
“Trevan and Lycon will lead a squad and go through the offices, while Allie gets to a comterm.”
“What about Gaden?” Marc asked.
“We can’t risk sending a message to him right now,” Carryn said. “Once we’ve started the attack, I might risk it. We’ll be there before he’s ready to go back to Beren. If I can get through to him, I’ll send him to Governor Taldic.”
“We need someone there anyway,” Dynan said, nodding.
“I’m going to go and explain this to everyone else, and then we’ll lift off,” Carryn said. “You two need to stay here and concentrate on not letting Maralt know what we’re doing.”
Dynan nodded, propping himself up against the wall. He glanced at Marc and frowned down at his hands. “I’m sorry about the way I’ve been treating you. It doesn’t make any sense when I look back on it.”
“Sure it does. Maralt thinks I’m dead. He put that idea firmly in your mind. When I didn’t die that set up an incongruity that was hard to deal with. Almost impossible.” Marc shrugged. “I knew something like that was happening.”
“Dain is ... He’s different,” Dynan said quietly. “I don’t know how exactly, but something isn’t right.”
“I know. I felt it too.” Marc pulled in a breath. “He’s different now. I talked to him, when I went to Beren. I can’t...” He stopped, wincing from the pain the memory caused, but then another came back to him. “He told me not to tell you.”
“What?”
Marc nodded. “He said you’d kill yourself trying to get to him. Even then, he meant to protect you. He tried to hide me but ... Maralt was right there. Since I knew, he burned my memory and kept going. I don’t know what he did to Dain.”
“I can’t do this,” Dynan whispered. “All this time he’s been with him. We even felt it when Maralt was on the way to Cadal, when we dreamed of a dungeon cell. Both of us. That had to have been Dain. And I ... I talked to him. I talked to him, Marc! When the ship was falling apart, I talked to him and he told me how to fix it. I can’t believe I didn’t know it. Why can’t I talk to him now? Maralt won’t know.”
“Dain was right. You have to listen to him. This time you have to listen. I don’t know how Dain managed it before, Dynan, but this time, Maralt will know it and he’ll kill him. I’m not wrong.”
“Do you have any idea how hard this is? I can’t think of anything else.”
Marc nodded. “I have an idea of how difficult it is. Look, why don’t you and I go someplace else for a while? I could use the practice.”
Dynan agreed, though he was plainly more inclined to risk talking to his brother than wait. It had to be horribly difficult to resist. He slid sideways down the wall onto the bed and mashed his palms into his eyes, but he nodded.
Marc discovered quickly that what he proposed was not only difficult, but nearly impossible. He wasn’t at all prepared for the visual and mental assault. He blinked back to the room, shaken. Dynan grunted in response. Marc tried again, shivering at the sight of Loren held by Maralt, then suddenly falling forward, pain and fear on her face. As she fell, Dain appeared out of the shadows. This was the first time they were able to see him. Dynan moved toward him a step, but Marc pulled him back, trying to think of anything else.
His old ship, the Gailorn, appeared around them. With Dynan’s help, they were able to maintain the sense of being on board, anchored out on the Jeduin. They remained there while the XR-30 lifted off and turned toward Rianamar.
