"Just out for a walk. It's my day off," I pointed out.

"Other duties as required," Zendeval said. "Come with me. I need your assistance with a delicate matter."

"It won't involve half-crazed men with knives?" I lifted an eyebrow at Zendeval Rjjn.

"No knives, I promise." He smiled. I didn't trust that smile. I followed him anyway, as he walked past the elevators toward another door labeled as a service entrance. "We have a problem; one of our maintenance workers dropped a tool in a very small space and his hands are too large to reach it. We need smaller hands and fingers to get it out," Zendeval said, once he'd gotten close enough for his employee chip to allow him entrance.

"I'm afraid it's quite a way through the tunnel to get to the spot, but I think we'll get what we need," he said. Yes, he was lying, and I was prepared to fight him if it became necessary. He didn't look to have any weapons on him, and I imagined that my smaller Thifilatha would be more than sufficient to subdue him should the need arise. At least he shut up after a while as we walked a very lengthy tunnel, coming to another door after a quarter click. His chip got him through that one as well, and another long corridor stretched beyond that.

"We'll get there," he murmured, walking beside me. I saw his hands clench when I glanced downward quickly, and then pretended I hadn't seen the gesture. Something was happening, I just hadn't figured out what it was. Not yet, anyway.

"This is the list of dissidents," Corolan handed the comp-vid to Ry. Cory had decided to stay; Garek went with Wylend. Erland was there with his son, of course. "Will Reah truly visit, when she is done with her assignment?" Ry glanced up at Corolan's question. He had such hope in his voice.

"She will. I think I can guarantee that," Ry nodded. & c RyI prquot;Reah will be Queen, just as soon as we can get everything settled down."

"You will be a great King, just as she predicted," Corolan sighed.

"We have to eliminate these problems before I can be great at anything," Ry pointed out, tapping the comp-vid.

"As you say, my King."

"You're our real dad." Dara glared at Tory from across the small visitor's room. Lissa and Garde had brought Tory to the small, private college to introduce him to his youngest daughters. Sara wasn't saying anything, she just stared at Tory, who sat between Garde and Lissa.

"Yes. I didn't know I had more than two daughters until recently."

"Mom told you."

"She did, but I missed the communications, somehow."

"All we had was old vid-images to look at. Gram showed us," Sara finally spoke, jerking her head toward Lissa.

"I know. I'm not asking for anything right now. Except a little time. Get to know me first, before deciding how you feel about me. That's only fair."

"Where were you all this time? Mom said Surnath, but I don't know whether to believe that or not." Dara, again.

"I was on Surnath, but I don't remember much about it."

"Dara, I explained this to you," Lissa said.

"Gram, how do we know what to believe? I didn't think he'd ever show up. And then suddenly he's here, announcing that he's our dad. What are we supposed to do about that? And where's Mom? Lara says she hasn't seen her since the claiming night."

"Your mother went on a special assignment for Uncle Lendill, honey."

"So, Mom disappears and Dad appears? Doesn't that sound funny to you?"

"I saw her before she left," Tory offered. "She wasn't very nice, but then she had a right to be."

"Sounds like Mom, all right." Sara snorted softly.

"We just wanted you to meet your father," Lissa said. "We need to get back, and you need to go back to class. If you want to talk, send a message." Lissa rose and hugged both girls. Garde hugged them after Lissa let them go. Both of them eyed Tory before moving toward the door.

"They don't know what to do, Mom." Tory sounded lost.

"I know, honey. They'll get used to the idea, and winter break is coming. Maybe you can take them somewhere, or spend time with them."

"Yeah." Tory raked fingers through his hair.

Zendeval pulled a comp-vid from his pocket and punched the screen a time or two just before we went through the third door. I heard noise beyond the door, as if there were a work crew there. I followed Zendeval through. Someone grabbed my arm and shot something into the back of my neck. It hurt and I whirled to see Perdil standing there, a needle gun in his hand.

"We can control her after this," two large guards had walked over to stand next to Zendeval, but his words made them back away. "Reah, we've placed a controller in the back of your neck. I won't activa c wo mothete it fully unless you struggle against us, do you understand?" Shocked, I gazed into Zendeval's black eyes. I'd been shot like this once before, in my memory. Only Teeg had placed whatever it was in my collarbone to keep me from using mindspeech or skipping away.

This was how they were controlling the girls they abducted. If I wanted to get to the root of all of it and find out where the victims were being taken, I'd have to play along. I now knew why Nefrigar had placed what he had in my collarbone. Zendeval's controller had absolutely no effect on me. Nefrigar's future technology was disrupting it, somehow. My choice was made, however, when I slowly nodded at Zendeval Rjjn. I made a promise to him, though. Silently, of course. I would kill him if he harmed me in any way.

"See, she is docile," Zendeval gripped my arm and pulled me along, Perdil walking behind. Perdil wasn't just a cook. He was Liffelithi, through and through. If he wasn't a partner in the exclusive slave trade, then he was in the higher echelon.

"Reah, I promise you'll cook again; I'll see to it," Perdil said as I was led through what looked to be the largest underground warehouse I'd ever seen. I blinked as I was eventually led past cage after cage, each holding a young woman. The cages looked as if they might be transported in some way; there were hooks atop each of them. I was placed in a cage just like theirs; it was the first empty one Perdil and Zendeval found.

"Bring water," Zendeval snapped to a waiting guard. "No one touches this one without my consent."

"Yes, Master Rjjn," the guard agreed, walking to a spigot and filling a pitcher with water.

"Food will be brought, Reah. Sit down and make yourself comfortable. You won't be moved to the loading dock for a little while." I blinked at Zendeval and sat down as ordered. The pitcher of water was slipped through the bars and set down beside me.

"A portipp will be brought if you need it," Perdil said. I wouldn't need it; I was immortal and didn't need a portable commode. I wasn't going to tell them that. I nodded slightly instead.

"I don't like this," Zendeval sighed.

"You can order her to speak," Perdil suggested.

"No. Do you think I'm that foolish?"

"You've never brought one. This is your first time. Come, we have arrangements to make." I watched both of them walk away before sending mindspeech to Lendill.

"You're joking? They zapped her with something they called a controller? I've never heard of that," Norian said.

"Think about it, Nori. She said they planted the thing in the back of her neck after Rjjn fiddled with his comp-vid. Somehow, the two are connected. We need to talk to Ry and see if he can shed any light on this."

"That might be difficult at the moment; he's got his hands full of dissidents who think he's an unnatural aberration and can't serve as King of Karathia. He and Erland are doing their best to quell an uprising."

"I want to throw Wylend Arden through a wall. Once again, his timing sucks." Lendill fumed over what seemed to be a conspiracy of some sort.

"Do we know where Reah is?"

"Yes. She says an underground warehouse on Stellar Winds. She told me that they plan t ct t0">&quoo move the cages to a loading dock somewhere, so they're shipping them away from there to be sold, most likely. She and I agree that we need to have a location before we move on this. I've already got a dozen ships in that sector, ready to go on our command."

"Why didn't we give her the microcameras?" Norian whined.

"I can send some," Lendill stood as the idea hit him. "I can," he insisted at Norian's blank look. "I have enough power to get them to Reah; I can do it by focusing on the credit chip implant she has."

"Then do it. Tell her they're coming and get them in there." Norian was all business, now.

Reah, I'm sending microcameras, Lendill sent. They'll settle on your skin, cheah-mul. Whatever you do, don't scratch while they're attaching themselves to you.

Fine, I sent. I was beginning to feel grumpy; two clicks had passed and nobody had come to move the cages. My skin felt irritated as four microcameras burrowed into the skin of my neck, just below my ears. They were invisible, and how Lendill managed to send them, I had no idea. I resisted the urge to scratch.

Someone's coming, I sent to Lendill. I heard the noise of the vehicles needed to move cages.

I can see where you are, breah-mul, Lendill sent. Just stay calm. We'll see what they're doing.

All right. Lendill would have someone monitoring the cameras at all times. I could sleep if I wanted. I think I was too frightened to consider sleeping.

Six loaders came and lifted cages to haul them away. They were taking the ones behind me first. I watched while girls placidly observed as their cages were lifted into the air and transported. Some were tilted precariously, knocking the inhabitants against the bars. That caused a bit of shrieking and brought shouting from someone supervising the removal.

They couldn't control everything, it seemed. The fear reflex must have been stronger than the controller was. I tucked that knowledge away and concentrated on counting captives. I counted sixty-seven cages, mine being the last. They'd waited to lure me in, I noticed. I think some of the others had been there for several days at the least. My cage was jerked up by the lifting mechanism on the vehicle and swung slightly as it was driven away. The other cages had been hauled around a corner and out of my sight, so I had no idea where I was going. I learned quickly, once we rounded the corner.