Dark Journey

The two guards inclined their heads...deferring to Isis, Daniel thought, as if they were still in a traditional Citadel. Daniel knew that they, like him, were feeling that indefinable magnetism, whether she intended to use it on them or not.

Head down, Daniel slipped into his role as a downtrodden serf.

Letting all the resistance go out of his body, Daniel allowed the guards to escort him back down the left ramp. He was aware of Isis behind them, though her footsteps were almost inaudible to his sharp hearing. He still didn’t understand how an Opir of her obvious stature would be employed in meeting and questioning outsiders, unless her work could be considered evidence of real equality in Tanis.

But he was still a prisoner, and he couldn’t afford to remain one. Nor could he risk being ejected from the city without getting the answers he needed.

The ramp ended abruptly at ground level in the low town and led out onto a wide plaza open to the sky. Clearly designed to be as welcoming as possible, adorned with decorative murals, many benches and large planters filled with flowers, the plaza was deserted save for a few humans strolling along tiled water channels cut into the concrete. They smiled and bowed to Isis as she passed by, and some of the men stopped and stared as if they had never seen anything so beautiful. On every side stood recently built, multistory buildings; above, the stars were so numerous and bright that it felt more like twilight than full night. The partial dome at the other end of the city cast a deeper, almost sinister shadow.

They crossed the plaza toward a cluster of tall buildings. The guards headed for one of the larger structures and pushed Daniel through the door.

A large reception area was dominated by a desk attended by a human receptionist sorting through a stack of papers. She immediately rose to her feet and stood alert while another pair of uniformed Darketans materialized from a corridor behind the desk. Three pairs of eyes made note of Daniel and then focused on the woman behind him.

“Isis,” the receptionist said, her voice a little breathless, her smile very bright. “How may we serve you?”

“I will require a private room,” she said, sweeping past Daniel and the guards.

The receptionist’s gaze fell on Daniel. “Will you require more guards?” she asked with a worried frown.

“I need none,” Isis said, glancing at Daniel with a slim, raised brow. “I do not think our friend will cause any trouble.”

“Yes, Isis.” The receptionist nodded to one of the guards behind her, who strode back into the corridor. A few moments later he returned and nodded to Isis.

“If you will come with me,” he said.

With Isis striding ahead of them, Daniel’s guards led him past the desk and into the corridor. It was dim and plain, punctuated by a dozen identical doors. The escorting guard stopped at one of them, unlocked it and inclined his head to Isis.

“If you need assistance—” he began.

“I know what to do.”

The guard held the door open for her. The room was as featureless as the corridor, with gray walls, a single table and two chairs.

“Unbind him,” Isis said. Daniel’s guards exchanged glances and unlocked the manacles. Putting on a mask of confusion and fear, Daniel shivered and rubbed his wrists.

“There is nothing to be afraid of,” Isis said, catching his gaze. She believed his panic was real. She took his arm, and he felt the power of her nature, magnified a hundred times—warm, soothing, almost magical. As the door closed behind them, she led him to one of the chairs at the single table.

“Please, sit,” she said.

Daniel took one of the chairs and watched Isis as she sat at the opposite side of the table.

“Now,” she said, “it will be easier for everyone if you cooperate. Nobody will hurt you, but we must know why you are here.”

And that, Daniel thought, was precisely what he couldn’t tell her.

Chapter 2 (#ulink_7c31237a-b9cb-52a4-9f3d-e14f5da64c38)

Daniel pitched his voice a little high to suggest nervousness and clasped his hands under the table. “I told you,” he said. “I came here for refuge.”

She smiled almost sadly, her teeth perfect and white. Once again Daniel felt the impact of her fascination, the seductive call of predator to prey, the effortless ability to bring “lesser” creatures under her control. Once again he shook it off.

“You came secretly, without declaring yourself,” she said. “Why would you take such an approach?”

Avoiding her gaze, he stared at the tabletop. “I had to be sure,” he said.

“Sure of what?”

“That the stories about Tanis being a refuge were true.”

Isis spread her own delicate hands on the table. “I can assure you that they are.” She spoke with sympathy, and Daniel was aware that his body was responding to her naturally seductive body and the warm scent of her skin. His mind was clear enough, but his heart was beating too fast, and another part of his anatomy was very much at attention.

“What are you afraid of?” he asked, bringing his body back under restraint.

It was the wrong thing to say—certainly nothing a wary and frightened former serf would have asked. Maintaining the balance was tricky at best.

He wasn’t sure he could keep up the pretense.

She studied him, her dark eyes intent on his face. “I told you—we make certain that newcomers can live with our rules and will be comfortable beginning a new life here,” she said. “The same concerns apply for both humans and Opiri. But there are those who have come to observe our city in secret so that they can take reports back to their people.”

“You mean spies?” he asked in a much quieter voice, edged with alarm. “Why would anyone do that?”

“Some of them fear us, Daniel. We believe that the Enclaves and the Citadels throughout the west have learned what we have accomplished and may regard us as a threat to the separate worlds they have built, though those worlds are built upon hostility and a truce that might fail at any moment.”

Isis was right, Daniel thought. He remembered the mad Bloodlord in the northwest who had nearly started another war because he had stolen half-blood children and recruited rogue Freebloods—lordless Opiri—with the intent of attacking the Citadels and, eventually, the human Enclaves, as well. The Armistice had always balanced on the head of a pin, and a stiff wind could blow it off and plunge the world back into chaos.

“Do you think some Citadel or Enclave would attack you?” he asked.

“We do not know. But it is possible they may send agents to observe us, so you see that we must screen everyone who seeks sanctuary in Tanis. There can be no exceptions.”

So they must have screened Ares, Daniel thought. “What do you want from me?” he asked with feigned anxiety.

Her expression turned grave. “At the causeway,” she said, “you said you escaped from Vikos.”

“Yes,” he said, after a calculated hesitation.

“That is at least a five-hundred-mile journey,” Isis said, “much of it through mountainous territory. You came so far alone?”

“Yes,” Daniel said, looking past her at the drab wall.

“And your supplies?”

“I left them behind when I came into the city.”

“Your clothes are not too worn. Did you steal them?”

Daniel didn’t answer.

“You must have had help along the way.”