Divine Charity

Chapter Twelve: No Quarter

It was dark when she came too. The moment she opened her eyes, her body screamed in pain from the cold. Violent shivers wracked her body, and her joints were so stiff she could barely move. Her golden bands were missing. She clamped her jaw shut, struggling to her feet. She was still dressed, that much she could be thankful for. But... What the hell happened?

Her girls!

Lena shook off her pain and confusion, then burst into a run. Exposed roots and fallen twigs cut her bare feet, but she pushed on, barreling out of the woods with inhuman speed. As she approached Pnina's grant, the r-Red shouted at her approach. She sped past them, the door to the grant opening for her without prompting.

Gala sat on a lounger speaking to yet more of the r-Red. In surprise, the Ka'al woman jumped to her feet. Lena paid her no mind, going straight to her girls' bedroom. They weren't there.

"Lena!" Gala called out.

Lena turned flashing onyx eyes on the woman. "Where are they?"

Gala halted, expression going slack with shock at Lena's black eyes. "We thought they were with you. Where have you been?"

Lena turned and went into her bedroom with Gala trailing her. She bypassed her scarves and uniforms to pull out a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, and donned a pair of sturdy work boots.

Lena grabbed a knife she kept by her bedside and turned to Gala, her voice lowering and morphing into something deep and dark, hissing and clicking. "Where are my girls?"

Gala continued to stare with wide eyes. Lena howled with rage, and rushed forward to capture Gala's wrist and made her way back out of the grant, dragging the woman behind her. She barely made it out of the front door when the r-RED reacted to the threat against Gala and surrounded Lena. Lena just smiled as her height grew to equal Gala's. She released her hostage, beckoned the r-RED to her and crouched into position. "Right. Let's do this."

***

Khamuel was impatient for Noah to finish his checks before allowing his forager to take off. It hadn't sat well with him to be so far from Lena he could not keep watch over her. He had learned his lesson well. Never again.

Furious flames flickered around his body when he learned of her treachery; her attempt to thieve from him one of his foragers; to take his modir hostage; to render several of his Regulate incapacitated with one having passed into the arms of the Eternal One.

This did not sit well with his conscience. To think he had trusted her! The murderous bitch! He would kill her himself should harm befall his second-mother. How had he been so fooled? And where the hell had Fiadn been that he did not command the situation?

"By the All, man! Hurry."

Noah was not intimidated.

Just as Khamuel was about to unload a string of expletives, Mord's irate features appeared as a holograph. "Kravan'n, there is a ship nearly ten dagaz time from us. We believe it to be Kasdeja. The coordinates Lena imputed into the forager matched the location."

Khamuel clenched his fists and banked his rage, the flames around him dying as he forced himself to calm. "My modir? How does she fare?"

"She is well for now," Mord said. "There is a stand-off."

"And Lena?"

"Insensate."

Khamuel didn't need to hear anything else. "Pray for her sake, they have taken her into remand before I arrive."

***

Lena kept a tight hold on Gala, though in reality, Gala hadn't struggled against her at all. She'd appointed herself negotiator for this whole damned situation. Grudgingly, Lena admitted it was Gala who had kept her alive.