Page 109 of Rescued

SIXTY-THREE

NATE

“We’re here for the prisoner exchange,” Nate said, the minute the door to the shuttle slid open.

“You will come with us.” The Scourge guard was over nine feet tall and was surrounded by five other guards of the same size. He spoke in a flat monotone and his lifeless eyes let Nate know he must be one of the Vat-grown clones—the same kind he’d been fighting down on Earth for the past five years.

In the past, seeing a Scourge soldier in his face like this would have triggered him intensely. Thankfully, his Bonding with Lan’ara had cured his PTSD, just as the priest in the Sacred Grove had predicted it would. However, that didn’t mean Nate felt nothing at all when seeing the huge bastards looming over him.

A jolt of pure hatred ran down his spine at the sight of his enemy so near but he managed to keep his face blank. Beside him, he could feel Sonya shivering. She was keeping close to his side and Nate didn’t blame her. At any moment she might have to grab his arm and start singing.

The ESR device was an enormous weight between his shoulder blades—it was like he was carrying a full weight bench with all the weights still attached, Nate thought. But he could feel a steady stream of strength flowing into him from an outside source. Clearly the Kindred Goddess was with them, which gave him confidence.

“Where are Commander Davrik and Commander Lan’ara?” he demanded, as he stepped down from the shuttle, which his friend Oliver was flying. Apparently he’d picked up piloting while being married to Commander Bairdida.

“We are to take you to them,” the Vat-grown soldier told him. “First show us your hands—you are not to bring any weapons.”

“We’re unarmed,” Sonya said quickly, spreading her hands.

Nate did the same, hoping the soldiers would be too stupid to check him thoroughly. One of them did pat him down, making sure he didn’t have any blasters strapped to his legs or stuck into his boots, but none of them put a hand on his back, for which he was grateful.

“You are cleared. Come,” the soldier said.

Nate frowned.

“What about the prisoner exchange? Where are the Kindred we came for?”

“The ones you seek are this way. You must come if you wish to see them,” the clone soldier said in that same dull, lifeless voice.

It was just as Commander Sylvania had expected, Nate thought. The Scourge didn’t have any intention of honoring the agreement they had made.

He just hoped that wherever the soldiers took them, it would be close to the AllFather so he and Sonya could kill the son of a bitch!

SIXTY-FOUR

SONYA

Sonya shivered as they walked down the long, dark corridors of the Father Ship, surrounded by the enormous Scourge soldiers. It was cold here and the clothing they’d given her to wear—simple black trousers and a short-sleeved shirt—wasn’t thick enough to keep her warm. Though maybe she was just shivering from fear, because it was creepy as hell in the big, spooky ship and she did not want to be here!

Still, there was no other way to get to Davrik and she had to save him. Even if they weren’t really together and he had only come after her because she was a copy of his dead wife, she owed him that much. He had come from a whole other universe to rescue her from The House of a Thousand Flowers and from that horrible Trollox—the least she could do was save him from the Scourge.

I just hope this song weapon is as powerful as they all seem to think it is, she thought to herself. She made certain to stay close to Nate so she could grab his arm and start belting out a melody if she needed to, but so far the Scourge soldiers hadn’t tried to hurt them—they were just herding them along down the twisting, dark corridors. Sonya wondered what waited for them at the end…but then decided she really didn’t want to know.

At last they came to a vast set of double doors right in the middle of the ship. They were four stories high at least—their tops disappeared into the gloom far above her head. They were made of some dark grey or black metal etched with glowing green lines. Sonya stared at them, wondering what was behind them. They looked like they led into some ominous version of a fairytale throne room…or else the lair of an unspeakable monster.

And then, the door creaked open and she saw that both her guesses had been right.

There before them was a vast, round, shadowy room. In its center was a set of broad, steep steps that led up to a kind of dais. And on the dais was a black throne, etched in the same glowing green lines as the doors.

Sonya didn’t want to see what was sitting on that throne. The moment the doors had opened a blast of pain, fear, despair, and sorrow rushed out to greet her. It was like stepping into a walk-in freezer and being suddenly surrounded by icy cold—the negative emotions nearly drove her to her knees.

Beside her she heard Nate grunt with effort and then he muttered to her,

“Not real—the bad feelings—they’re not ours! They’re coming from outside us.”

Sonya realized the big ex-Seal was right—she wasn’t the one feeling all the horrible, negative emotions—they were coming from outside her—from the being on the throne.

Knowing that gave her the strength to lift her head again and study what was happening on the dais. Sitting on the black throne with its glowing green markings was a creature that seemed to be wrapped in robes of shadow. Its face was hidden but the pale, white hands that protruded from its smoky sleeves were bony to the point of being skeletal.

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