Page 106 of Rescued

“Come on, boys,” he remarked to the huge, emotionless clones. “It seems we have more than one prisoner to bring to the throne room. The AllFather will have a feast!”

Davrik felt his heart sink. Not only was their mission a failure, now he and Lan’ara were both the captives of the Scourge and there was no way of escape that he could see!

They were trapped with no way out.

SIXTY-ONE

NATE

“Warrior, wake! Your female is in danger! Wake—you must go to her at once!”

The warm, feminine voice roused Nate from the deepest slumber he’d ever experienced in his life. It felt like his consciousness was at the bottom of a long, dark well and someone was calling down to him from the top of it.

He tried to open his eyes to see who was calling him, but somehow his eyelids wouldn’t open. It felt like someone had tied lead weights to them and made them too heavy for him to even blink. His mouth wouldn’t work either—his lips were too tired to form any words.

“Who…what…?” he thought fuzzily.

“It is I—the Kindred Goddess. I am the one who placed you with Lan’ara in the first place. Now she is in danger—she is trapped on the Father Ship and you must go to her,” the feminine voice informed him.

“Lan’ara? She’s in danger?” Sudden alarm rushed through him and he made a convulsive effort to get up, only to find that his body barely even quivered. “I can’t move—why can’t I move?” he thought frantically.

“You were severely weakened by the Bonding you and Lan’ara engaged in,” the Goddess told him. “In a moment, I will give you the strength to go and rescue her, but first, listen to me.”

“All right—I’m listening!” Nate sent to the voice in his head. He didn’t question her words—her warm, tangible presence all around him filled him with certainty and urgency that she was real and he wasn’t going crazy.

“Talk to Commander Sylvania,” the Goddess instructed him. “She has been developing a new weapon—you will need it to defeat the AllFather and save your mate. Be sure you take it and accept any help you are offered in wielding it—you cannot do it alone.”

“Help? But who’s going to help me?” Nate demanded.

“That will be made clear in time. Now, rise and go to your mate!”

As the Goddess spoke these last words, strength and energy suddenly poured into Nate like an electrical current, making his entire body tingle. With a harsh gasp, his eyes popped open and he sat bolt upright in bed.

He moved so quickly that he barely avoided knocking heads with a blonde woman who was bending over him.

“Oh!” she gasped, taking a quick step backwards. “What in the name of the Goddess?”

“Sylvania!” Nate exclaimed—he was filled with urgency. “I have to talk to Commander Sylvania! Where is she?”

“I’m Commander Sylvania,” the woman said, staring at him. “We met just a little while ago when Lan’ara brought you to the Mother Ship. Don’t you remember?”

Focusing on her face, Nate saw she was right. He’d been so hyped up that he hadn’t even recognized her at first.

“Yes, I remember now,” he said. “Please, Commander—Lan’ara’s in danger!”

She gave him a worried look.

“Are you feeling her distress through your Bond?”

Nate concentrated a moment and realized that he did, indeed feel a muted kind of worry and anxiety coming from Lan’ara’s end of it. However, it was as though the emotions were being partially blocked—maybe by the barrier that the priest had predicted she would be able to form?

“I can feel that she’s upset,” he said to Commander Sylvania. “But that’s not how I know she’s in danger. This is going to sound crazy, but the Goddess—she spoke to me! She came to me and told me I had to go get my mate because she’s trapped on the Father Ship.” He paused, frowning. “Though how Lan’ara got over there, I have no idea.”

“She went to try and rescue your younger sibling,” Commander Sylvania told him. “The plan was for her to slip in and slip out again unnoticed, but we’ve been listening on the com-link devices we wired them with, and I’m afraid that things have gone awry.”

“There’s no time to lose, then—I have to get to her!” Nate swung his legs over the side of the bed and saw that they were bare—someone had put him in a dark red hospital gown that opened in the back—he could feel a cool breeze on his backside. “I need some clothes,” he said. “And something else…” He wracked his brain, trying to remember. “A weapon—a special weapon!” he exclaimed, remembering. “The Goddess told me you were developing it—she says I have to take it. It’s the only way to defeat the AllFather!”

“Do you mean the Emotion Sonic Resonator?” Commander Sylvania frowned. “You’re certain you can wield it?”

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