Kingdom of Cages(180)

“Okay, out you come.”

One more time, someone grabbed her shoulders. They pulled on her, while someone else pulled the basket, and Chena sort of unfolded in the middle. The surface underneath her felt firm but soft. It wrinkled as she shifted. Sheets, she realized. A bed. They were friends and they had laid her out on a bed.

“Roll her over,” said a woman’s voice. Chena opened her eyes and the effort made her groan.

She saw a small jungle of stands with laser-tipped armature. She saw a tray neatly arrayed with scalpels and clamps. She saw cabinets, boxes, and metal kegs. She saw a woman bending forward with white gloves on her hands.

Chena screamed. She wouldn’t have thought she had the strength, but she knew where she was and she screamed until her lungs emptied out.

“Easy! Easy!” shouted the woman. “I’m just making sure there’s no nerve damage! Look!” She held up a pair of sensor patches. “You took two hits on that damn fence. If something’s burned out, we’re going to have to fix it fast.”

“Tailor.” Chena didn’t so much speak as let the word fall out.

“Poisoner,” responded the woman. “Lie still.”

Chena had no choice. The hands rolled her over yet again and stripped off her shirt. The patches made cold circles where they pressed against her back. Her whole skin tingled briefly. Flashes of fire shot across her back, and all her muscles clenched against the feeling.

Then it was over, and the woman pulled the patches off. “You’re in one piece,” she announced. “Avert your eyes, Willie. Dans, roll her back over.”

Dans, a second woman, shorter and slighter than the tailor, rolled Chena onto her back and pulled a sheet up to her chin. The man, Willie, had both hands thrust into his pockets and he rocked back and forth from toe to heel as he stared at the glass-fronted cabinets against the far wall.

Regan wasn’t there. She couldn’t see any hothousers either.

Am I safe?

“Thank you,” she croaked.

“Thank Willie.” The tailor nodded toward the man. “Turn around and take your thanks, Willie.”

Willie obeyed, smiling as he did. “It’ll be worth it, Lopera. She’s the other Trust.”

“I can see that.”

Chena swallowed hard. Her body was beginning to tingle with pins and needles. She seemed to feel the connections between her limbs and her mind coming back on-line. “What do you mean, the other Trust?”

Lopera didn’t answer. She just turned away and busied herself with something Chena couldn’t see. Then she leaned back over and pushed a straw toward Chena’s mouth.

“Drink,” she ordered.

Chena didn’t even try to refuse. She just took the straw between her lips and sucked on it. The liquid that poured down her throat was cool, sweet, and salty. She’d never tasted anything so good. She sucked it down as fast as she could swallow. When there was no more, her head dropped back onto the pillow. The tingling increased, growing painful, but Chena didn’t care. She felt strength ebbing back with the pain. She was becoming whole again, and if that hurt, she could take it.

“She’ll sleep now,” said Lopera over the top of her head. “Dans, first thing in the morning, you’ll get word to the hothouse and tell them we’ve got information.”

What?

“Don’t tell them we’ve actually got her yet, just say we know where she is and she’s being watched. I’m going to see what kind of terms they’ll give.”

“No!” shrieked Chena. “You can’t! Not…” But a wave of dizziness washed away her words.

Not after everything I’ve done. Not after I came so far. Not after I killed a man. Not now. She felt herself falling backward and all she could see was Basante crumpled on the floor, twitching with pain while she leaned over him and demanded that he tell her who murdered Mom. She saw Mom lying on her back, butchered and bloody. She saw Teal on the bridge of a ship right beside Dad, sliced open just like Mom.

Then there was only more darkness.





CHAPTER NINETEEN





Pursuit





From his post in the back of Wilseck Valerlie’s shop, Farin heard the lock rattle. The front door opened just a crack. A squat figure slipped in and closed the door behind itself.

“Hello, Willie.” Farin’s eyes had long since adjusted to the darkness, so he got to watch Willie jump and spin around to face him. “You’re out late.” Farin stepped into the thin sliver of moonlight that the shutters let through.

Now Willie identified his voice and shape. He relaxed instantly and Farin suppressed a smile. Willie knew he had nothing to fear from such a puppy as Farin.