"Demons," Arvil snarled as he and his wizards came in, carrying crates of ranos rifles. I wanted to correct him but didn't. Arvil hadn't seen a demon. Yet.

"We'll go out tonight—Reah, go get some sleep."

"Why does Reah need sleep?" Farzi didn't understand.

"She's the best shot we have," Delvin said. "We have to get these charged up." He pulled a rifle from a crate, along with the solar charger.

"A cook can kill those things? I am puzzlement." Farzi went off, mumbling to himself.

"Reah, what are you doing back here?" Teeg was sanding wood in front of our bungalow.

"They found spawn out in the fields. I have to go shoot them tonight."

"Are you joking?"

"Teeg, that's one of the reasons they grabbed me to begin with. That and another thing I can do," I grumbled. I wished I was anywhere except where I was, and I wanted to take Teeg with me.

"What other thing?"

"Teeg, don't ask."

"Reah, we love each other. Tell me."

"Teeg."

"Reah."

I wanted to tell him. Everything. But he worked for Arvil San Gerxon for some reason. I kept forgetting that. Lendill hadn't gotten back with me either. What was I supposed to do—work for Arvil for the rest of my life?

"Reah, if Arvil already knows, what harm can it do?"

"I don't know that Arvil knows. Delvin knows." I walked inside the bungalow.

"And he's the one who snatched you. From where?"

"Teeg, I don't want to say that. I don't know what you know or what Arvil knows. I have to protect myself, Teeg."

"You don't trust me to protect you?"

How could I tell him that I could protect myself just as well as anyone else? How could I tell him that if it weren't for being enslaved by the ASD, I could skip away in a blink. "Reah, answer me." Teeg grabbed my arm.

"Teeg, would you trust anyone who worked for Arvil San Gerxon?" I jerked my arm from his hand and stalked toward the bedroom.

Teeg didn't speak to me when I rose later and dressed in my black leathers. I didn't know what to say to him—I'd pretty much said that I didn't trust him. I wasn't treating him very well and I knew it.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it the way it sounded," I said before walking away from him and heading toward the main house.

"Mine have some effectiveness, our others do not," Farzi and the other reptanoids had come with us. I suppose what he meant was that he and others like him could see spawn. The locals couldn't. I made a mental note to ask Lendill about it. I was seeing the drakus seed fields for the first time, too. I wondered if Farzi was completely aware of what it was. I couldn't ask.

"All workers, missing." Nenzi used that word a lot.

"He means they've gone—they've been ordered out of the fields," Delvin walked up beside me. "Heard you and the carpenter had a little fight."

"We're good," I muttered angrily. Did Delvin have eyes and ears everywhere, or did Xiri have his gossip lines open? How was I to know? I picked up my usual two rifles to start with. Arvil had come with us again, but I had no idea why—he was only a target since he couldn't see what we fought.

"Enemy not close—we can tell," Farzi said. I guessed that he could scent them somehow.

"Then I want to inspect the crop," Arvil said.

"Reah, like to see our river? It is this way," Farzi pointed to our left—I could see a line of trees there. He was probably directing me away from his and Arvil's illegal cash crop, but I didn't want to see that anyway.

"I'd like to see the river," I said. That's how Arvil and his wizards went in one direction, Farzi, Nenzi, six other reptanoids that I had no name for and I all headed toward the river. We were about halfway there, too, when the firebombing began.

The first blast blew everything high into the air and set the fields on fire. Farzi and the others ran. I stood and stared as hovercopters burned everything in their path until I was jerked off the ground.

What do you do when you find yourself disembodied? That was the only explanation I had for it—I was flying over the tops of trees while more firebombs exploded behind me. If I could have screamed, I would have. I had no mouth, no limbs, no body, even, to struggle against what held me.

More explosions sounded behind me and then I was flying over the plantation house. My body was released suddenly and I hit the water of the pool hard; it nearly knocked me unconscious. Struggling to rise to the top to catch my breath, I heard the firebombs hit the plantation with a muted boom. Someone landed in the water next to me, clamped a hand over my nose and mouth and pulled me back to the bottom.

Chapter 8

Red was all I could see from the bottom of the pool. I struggled against the one holding me. I also struggled to take a breath, knowing that if I did I'd only draw in water. Things began to go dark and still there was red light—and heat.

"Reah?" Someone was calling my name. I coughed up water as I rolled over. Feeling was finally coming back to my arms and legs. I lay on a hard surface—I knew that much. "Sweetheart, open your eyes, please." Teeg was with me. I opened my eyes and every other part of me awoke and began to ache.

He helped me sit up; I blinked at my surroundings. Everything was gone—All of it burned to ash around us. The flagstones beneath us were cracked and blackened. The water in the pool had been vaporized—it only held a small amount of moisture in the bottom, now.

"It lasted long enough to keep us alive," Teeg muttered, holding me steady as I wavered beside him. He was covered in ash and soot, just as I was.

"Where are the others?" I asked. My voice was barely above a whisper and speaking made me cough again. Teeg waited for the fit to be over before he answered. "Everybody died, except us," he said. "At the plantation, I mean."

"Xiri?" I wanted to cry. I couldn't.

"Dead. Jazal, his wife and the cousins—dead too. The six women and Xiri's assistants are gone. I can't say whether any of the staff was here. I haven't gone searching for other bodies." I stared at Teeg. His face was covered in black smudges; his hair looked wild and stood on end.

"Love," I reached out to wipe a bit of black ash off his face.

"Reah, we almost didn't make it." Teeg sat next to me and pulled me close. That's where Farzi and his seven reptanoid brothers found us later.

"Our little cook lives. And the carpenter."

"Pool," Teeg jerked his head toward the nearly empty concrete hole.

"We take river—much thankful we are that current is slow at this time." Farzi knelt next to us. He was covered in ash and cinders. He and his people looked worse off than Teeg and I, but then they'd walked through blackened fields and burned jungle to get back to the plantation. What was left of it, anyway.

"What about the others?" Teeg asked.

"Not knowing. We not find any piece of them. We look, as soon as heat gone." Farzi's common speech was more garbled—I felt it was the aftereffects of nearly being killed. I knew, even if the others didn't, that the firebombs were courtesy of the Alliance. Regular Alliance Army, or RAA, used them to destroy drug fields. I wondered if it had been ordered by the ASD. Had Lendill learned where we were and sent in the bombers, thinking I was expendable? It wouldn't surprise me.

"I wasn't able to contact Reah last night, and now I learn that the RAA has firebombed Urdolus?" Lendill wanted to yank his hair out.

"They're not obligated to contact us if they find something and have the ships nearby," Norian snapped. He was nearly as frustrated at the news as Lendill was. "All our agents know the risks."

"Reah didn't."

"Well, there wasn't much time to tell her."

"We didn't because we're cowards."

"There's that." Norian raked a hand through his hair. "I can only handle that accusing look for so long."

"Aurelius will kill us."

"No. Aurelius will kill you. Tory will kill me. He's High Demon and immune to poison. Have you tried to reach Reah again?"

"I was afraid to."

"Try."

Nothing was left—of the plantation or anything around it. I'd heard that about firebombing—that only skeletons might be found, if that, and perhaps melted or twisted metal. Anything else flammable would be reduced to ash. It shocked me as I kicked ash aside in the ruins of Xiri's bungalow. His bones were there and I found them just as Lendill's mindspeech found me.

Reah? I thought for a moment about not answering.

What? I'm sure he read the sullenness in my mental voice.

Reah, thank the gods. I thought the RAA may have bombed where you were.

They did. A moment's silence followed my statement.

Reah, were you anywhere near that?

In the middle of it. Somebody shoved me into the pool. The whole thing went to steam before the heat abated. Just about everybody else died.

San Gerxon?

Not sure. He was surrounded by wizards.

Reptanoids?

Still here—all of them. They went into the river.

Reah, I know you're not happy with us right now, but we didn't order the firebombing. RAA moved without consulting us.

And I'm supposed to believe that?

Reah, you're being disrespectful with a superior. I didn't answer him. If he knew how disrespectful I wanted to be—I was staring at Xiri's bones, after all. I sobbed. Reah? Reah, are you still there?

You be respectful, Vice-Director, the next time a friend's bones lie beneath your hand. I cut off the communication. Lendill didn't try again.

"She's still alive, but didn't tell me what her condition is," Lendill looked at Norian. He didn't say that Reah had cut off the mindspeech. "She doesn't know about San Gerxon—the reptanoids are still alive—they jumped into the river when the bombing started.