S Stirling - The Council of Shadows

"What do we do?"

"You fetch the children; it is not keyed to normal humans, and I think it is keyed to pass you specifically. I will wait here. Quickly now!"

Cheba walked through the familiar rooms with their cheery, horrible murals. Past one where the Little Mermaid dragged the Prince beneath the waves with strong cold arms and a contented little smile, and into the big play chamber. Shrill voices sounded, and one of the nannies was there reading a magazine.

"Hi, Cheba!" she said. "The little devils are hard at it." She yawned. "I do wish they slept at the same times as the rest of us. They'll be going strong after midnight."

Cheba nodded and made herself smile, not daring to speak. The danger was like a snake coiled in her stomach, making her skin flush hot and cold. Hate drove her, the memory of laughter and unendurable pain and loathsome pleasure that was even worse eating at her soul.

The playroom was big, nearly as big as her whole house, and that was huge compared to anywhere she'd ever lived before. There was a great complex dollhouse, and a jungle gym and trampoline and who knew what else. A small form caromed into her and threw her arms around her waist.

"Caught you!" Leila said. "Hi, Cheba! Now I eat your brains!"

"We're playing Zombie Apocalypse, Cheba!" Leon called happily, lumbering with his arms outstretched. " Braaaiiins!"

A deep breath and she smiled. "You cannot eat my brains tonight, mi reinita" she said to Leila, rubbing her head. "Your mother is here to fetch you and Leon. She has decided that you should go on her trip with her after all, and me too."

"Why are you so scared, Cheba?" Leila asked innocently. "You feel all fizzy and scared."

"Your mama scared me," she replied; which was entirely plausible; they knew about that, if not the details.

"Oh. I hope you taste good when she bites you; you need to be bitten, I can feel it. C'mon, Leon. It's Maman!"

"Oh, good!" Leon said. Then, curiously: "Is it about our dad?"

Cheba froze, then cleared her throat. "Why do you think that, patroncito?"

"Because I asked Maman, and she said that we might see our father sometime soon. I'd like that."

"Perhaps you will," she said, and he nodded solemnly; she was unpleasantly conscious that he could probably read the truth in her statement.

But he cannot read my thoughts. That does not come to them while they are children. Feelings yes, thoughts no.

"Come! Your mother is impatient."

"The children's luggage is ready and has been loaded into your car, Dona," the man Thomas said; he looked as if he were slightly out of breath.

Then he blurted out: "Why are you here, Dona?"

His eyes lifted to the archway. Then they went wide; Adrian could feel the logic chains shifting in his mind. His mouth had just begun to open when the Shadowspawn drew and fired.

Crack!

A small blue hole appeared in the man's forehead; bone fragments and pinkish gray brain, blood and hair spattered on the pale surface of the wall behind him. The ricochet peened away from the stone, flicking a divot of plaster and revealing the limestone block beneath as it keened down the passageway.

Killing him with the Power would have been quieter, but it might have activated the guardian Wreakings…and he would need all his reserves before they got away, probably. Cheba stumbled to a halt with a boy and girl on either side of her, her hands resting on their shoulders. Adrian's heart lurched for an instant at the sight of their faces; then control clamped down steely cold.

"You're not my maman -" the girl began, as the boy gazed gape-mouthed at the dead man.

" Tzi-ci-satza,"Adrian snarled, and made a gesture with his left hand. Push with the mind…

The children's eyes rolled up in their heads, and their minds plummeted down into something almost like natural sleep. He'd expected that, hoped for it; Shadowspawn children were often prekeyed for that, with Wreakings laid on in earliest toddlerhood. He had been, and Adrienne as well; removing it had been part of their training when they neared puberty. Cheba gave a cry of dismay and clutched at the small forms, cushioning their fall to the carpet.

"They're all right," Adrian snapped. "Asleep, merely. You carry the girl. Hurry, an alarm has gone off!"

"But-"

"They will not shoot and endanger Adrienne's children, they know she would flay them by inches for the rest of eternity. Go!"

A seven-year-old was more of a burden than he'd anticipated; Adrienne's body was very strong for her size, but that size was a fifth less than his. The utter limpness helped; his heart started to turn again, as the boy's face drooped into the curve of his neck.

No time, no time…

They took the distance at a quick walk. Adrian could feel the electronic nerves of the security system shrilling; he split off part of his mind to push -

Wires melted, arcs sprang between conduits. Redundant systems came online as the lights flickered, but some of those failed too. Cheba gasped but toiled along behind him. Servants fled his shout of, "Get out of my way!"

The guards at the front door hesitated just a moment too long, caught between the impossibility of firing and the knowledge of what would also happen if they let their mistress' children be abducted.

Crack! Crack!

Both flipped backwards and slumped to the ground; at ten yards he could manage head shots. He dropped the Glock and scooped up the Steyr assault rifle in one hand as they stumble-ran down the long steps.

"Alert! Alert! Intruder is not Dona Adrienne! The Donas children have been captured! Alert! Aleeeiaeoughtg-"

The loudspeakers exploded in cascades of flame. Adrian staggered; he was using the Power with reckless abandon. They dropped the children into the Ferrari's narrow backseat.

"I will hold them!" Cheba snapped, and scrambled in to kneel facing backwards, her arms bracing the small forms.

Adrian vaulted into the driver's bucket seat of the sports car, his foot stamping on the accelerator. The turbocharged engine screamed like a horse in agony, and the rear wheels spun black smoke into the night. Lights were snapping on all across the estate grounds as the acceleration punched him back into the padding; he could hear Cheba grunt as she threw herself forward to pin the children safely in place against inertia.

He took the curving approach with insane daring, mind like a needle point of diamond as he pushed at the probabilities even as his body switched wrists on the wheel and worked the shift-stick. The last stretch was level…right to the firmly closed and locked gates. The covers on the stone gate pillars had flipped up, and the tele-operated robot guns were tracking him. He grinned like a shark and stood on the brake, turning in a skidding pinwheel that came within a hair of flipping the car as it scrubbed off velocity. The air stank of burning rubber and burning fuel oil and the sweat of terror, a scent that made the hairs stand up along his neck in a predator's bristle. Cheba was screaming now, but he could feel how she still braced herself with everything that was in her.

She is almost as brave as Ellen, some remote part of him thought.

The operators of the guns at last dared to fire one economical burst directly into the long hood of the Ferrari. The engine seized just as the nose came around to point at the gate once more. The two guards had thrown away their rifles, and they were running at him with their heavy kukris raised, the in-curved chopping blades glinting where their silver inlays caught the floodlights. Their minds were like eyes that had looked into the sun, but their training and the warrior souls within kept them moving; their reflex was to run towards danger.

Even as the car slowed Adrian was moving. Forward, letting his clothes fall away as he reverted to his own default form, impalpable as he passed through the windshield. Then another change in midleap, and the sabertooth gave a screaming roar; and for an instant Adrian understood in his bones how his ancestors had ruled the world for a hundred thousand years.