Shades of Gray Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Acknowledgements

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  “VALDEN!” KUSAC SHOUTED… .

  At that precise moment, the barrier on both tunnels broke open with a roar that deafened them all.

  Kusac barely had time to launch himself backward, not for Valden, but for the Prince, then the wall of water engulfed them all.

  As the water hit him, it flung him forward into Zsurtul, allowing him to grab hold of the young Emperor and lock him tight against his body. He felt another body hit them both—Zhalmo—and cling onto Zsurtul from behind as the force of the water tossed them. Briefly, he wondered if Valden was safe, then he was slammed against a boulder, bent around it, and was swept away again.

  All it needed was a crack in the visor, and any one of them would be dead. He tightened his grip on the Prince as the water surged between them, threatening to drag them apart as it sucked them backward, swirling them about until they were once again slammed into a solid surface.

  This time, his head hit the back of his helmet with enough force to stun him. He felt his grip on Zsurtul begin to relax and gave a low moan of pain as nausea swept over him.

  Someone was saying something, but the cries of fear and distress from the others were drowning it out.

  DAW Books

  is proud to present

  LISANNE NORMAN’S

  SHOLAN ALLIANCE Novels:

  TURNING POINT (#1)

  FORTUNE’S WHEEL (#2)

  FIRE MARGINS (#3)

  RAZOR’S EDGE (#4)

  DARK NADIR (#5)

  STRONGHOLD RISING (#6)

  BETWEEN DARKNESS AND LIGHT (#7)

  SHADES OF GRAY (#8)

  Copyright © 2010 by Lisanne Norman.

  All Rights Reserved.

  Interior art by Michael Gilbert.

  DAW Book Collectors No. 1519.

  DAW Books are distributed by Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal, and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

  Nearly all the designs and trade names in this book are registered trademarks. All that are still in commercial use are protected by United States and international trademark law.

  eISBN : 978-1-101-18897-2

  First Printing, August 2010

  S.A.

  http://us.penguingroup.com

  To Sheila, for having enough belief in me to let me have the time I needed to settle down in the USA and finish this novel.

  And to Marsha, for nudging me just enough to make me keep at it, even when I found it almost impossible to concentrate with all the post-moving to a new country chaos going on around me.

  And to Kai and Jackie for being just who they are, my family.

  THANKS AND SPECIAL MENTIONS

  My first thank you is to my readers for waiting patiently for this novel. Moving to the USA and starting a new life out here took more out of me than I thought it would, and it is taking longer than I expected to settle in with a place to live and a job. So my first thanks are to you for your patience.

  My next is to Sheila, my editor, for her patience too. I don’t know what I’d have done had it not been for you and Marsha. Love you both.

  Now my thanks for help in planning this novel go to several very important groups of people. First is a group of friends who want only their Sholan names mentioned. They helped me with all the military tactics I needed to know, and one, Chayak, even ran a role playing game with the others of my plot to retake the City and Palace to see if it worked. It did. They are: Brandon Jasper and Koshan, Dyaku, Rhyart, and Nezzoh. Thank you, guys, for all you did, and do.

  John Van Stry and John Quadling also helped with military scenes. John and Gina Quadling helped design my MUTAC as a fighting machine, and Jerenn drew it for me. Jerenn and M’Nar, both fan club members, also helped work out how it would operate and move. Mapping help came from the Traveller Role Players, and the Campaign Cartographer people. Helping me design the City and Palace of Light were VAIA from the Pharaoh city building game forum, John Van Stry, and Rachel McDonald. More help came from the Tour Egypt web site builder who sent me extra stills of the city of Aketaten—Pharaoh Akhenaten’s desert city to his solar god, the Aten. Yes, the Valtegans’ architecture is based on the Ancient Egyptians.

  Thanks also to Bailey A. Buchanan for all kinds of help.

  Special mention to Jerenn for drawing the MUTAC for me as his design is the one used by my talented artist for his rendering of it.

  Finally, but not least, many thanks go to fellow DAW author and Anglo Saxon and Celtic Historian, Kari Sperring, for all her help with what is actually known about the British legends of Merlin and the Druids. The observatory legend fitted in beautifully, thank you, Kari, as did the story of Gwenhifer and her evil sister.

  Once again, thank you all for your help.

  Thank you each one.

  TOUIBAN

  CABBARAN

  PRIME ENCOUNTER SUIT

  CHAPTER 1

  The Tooshu, Zhal-Arema, Month of Love, 2nd day (March)

  A WARNING tone followed by a burst of complex trilling speech through the conference suite’s comm took Kaid’s attention away from the scaled holo image of the City of Light they were studying.

  Toueesut, leader of the Touibans quartered on Kusac’s estate, frowned, his mobile eyebrows meeting over his deep-set eyes in a single bushy line. He replied in what for him was a terse, and short, burst of the same singsong language before looking around them, his expression grim.

  “We must go. The Prime Prince and the children are causing a serious incident on the emergency Bridge.”

  The Sholan’s ears flicked back into invisibility. “What?” Kaid asked incredulously as he got hurriedly to his feet. “There must be some mistake.”

  “None. We must go there instantly and resolve it.”

  “What’s he doing there in the first place?” demanded Carrie, the only Human present, as she followed them out into the corridor. “And why has he taken the cubs with him? How did he even know where it was?”

  “We will have to be asking him, Carrie,” said the small alien, looking up at her. “It seems they have been using their mental powers on our soldiers to gain access and to guard themselves from interference.”

  “I’ll be tanning some hides tonight,” said Garras grimly, pacing along beside them as the other Sholans followed. “A warship is no place for childish pranks; Prince Zsurtul should know this. And where’s the youngling, Valden? And Tanjo? He’s their tutor, they should be with him!”

  “I sent Tanjo to rest. He was up half the night with the cubs because they ate too many cookies,” said Carrie. “I should have known better than to leave Valden in charge of them!”

  Toueesut stopped at an elevator. “This is no prank. Prince Zsurtul has routed communications there from the main Bridge and is transmitting a message even as we speak.”

  Kaid could feel every hair across his shoulders and down his spine start to prickle in dread as his ears, which had raised themselves to their usual upright position, sank again.

  “I can’t reach any of them mentally,” said Carrie as the elevator door slid open. “They’ve totally blanked the area. It’s as if there were psi dampers there.”

  “Once a Valtegan, always a Valtegan,” muttered Rezac as they piled in. “He’s reverting to type now he’s their Emperor-elect.”

  “No!” said Carrie sharply. “He’s a Prime, you know that. There has to be a rational explanation for this.”

  “By Vartra’s bones, there had better be,” swore Kaid as they surged downward into the bowels of the Touiban battleship. His blood ran cold at the thought that they’d been harboring a snake in their midst all these months.

  He hasn’t turned on us, Tallinu, you know he hasn’t, Carrie sent to Kaid as she rested her hand reassuringly on his arm.

  I hope you’re right, because if he and they combined can bring the Tooshu to her knees like this, the Gods alone know how we’re going to stop them!

  Armed and armored Touibans, their mustaches bristling, waited to escort them past the obviously hastily erected force field bunkers at every corridor junction and iris. As they walked, Toueesut conversed rapidly in his trilling voice with their escort. They rounded a corner and came face-to-face with a group of four unarmored Touibans standing with weapons drawn. Their escort halted.

  “They’ll let no one pass beyond here,” said Toueesut.

  “This is ridiculous,” said Garras angrily. “How dare that young krolla involve our cubs like this!” A
s he started forward, Carrie grabbed his arm and held him back.

  “There has to be a good reason for this because he’s involved the cubs,” she said, looking at them all one by one. “Before anyone gets hurt, we have to think this through.”

  “You may enter,” said a voice from behind her in very badly pronounced Sholan.

  Swinging round, she faced the four impassive Touibans. “Just me?” They’re being mentally controlled, she sent to the others.

  “And Kaid.”

  “Let these people go immediately,” said Kaid, tail lashing from side to side in a show of anger. “What you’re doing is wrong.”

  “Soon. We must finish this first,” said one of the Touibans, his face blank and emotionless. “No harm is intended to anyone.”

  With a low rumble of anger, Kaid, followed by Carrie, approached them. “The rest of you stay where you are,” he said over his shoulder. “That’s an order.”

  Walking like a broken toy, the small alien turned and lurched alongside them until they came to a reinforced air lock. They stepped through it into an area unlike any they’d been in so far. Gone were the bright colors on walls and flooring so loved by their hosts; instead everything was a dull, uniform gray. Manual fire extinguishers were set every few feet, in addition to those in the upper walls and ceilings. The place was psychically dead as a morgue, and he didn’t like it.

  “They’re here,” they heard the cub Gaylla’s voice say as their escort suddenly stopped in front of a doorway and barred their way. “Are you finished yet?”

  “In a minute,” Zsurtul said quietly before lapsing into a torrent of Valtegan.

  Straining his ears forward, Kaid tried to make out what the Prince was saying.

  Carrie shook her head helplessly when he looked at her. “It’s a different dialect, and he’s speaking too fast,” she whispered.

  “I’m finished. You can release our guards and let the Lieges in now,” said Zsurtul. “Thank you for your help.”

  Suddenly, the psychic null zone vanished, and the guard beside them dropped his firearm and staggered against the wall.

  Automatically Kaid reached out to catch him, murmuring a few comforting phrases before ordering him to rejoin his people. As he did, he sensed Zsurtul coming out of the Bridge a few feet away, followed by Valden and all five of the young Sholan cubs.

  “This had better be good,” Kaid snarled, letting his canines show even as he watched the way the cubs formed a defensive circle around the young Prime, and noticed that Zsurtul had aged almost overnight.

  Valden was left facing them, his jaw set in a firm line of determination. “It’s not what you think,” he began.

  “How the hell could you know what I’m thinking?” demanded Kaid.

  “I asked to see the recording General Kezule sent of the usurper K’hedduk’s broadcast,” said Zsurtul. His eyes closed briefly before he continued. “When I saw the head of my father and the others from the Royal Court that he’d killed, I remembered that before I left for Shola, he gave me the access codes for the Palace and the fleet, in case …” He ground to a halt, his large green eyes blinking rapidly.

  Against his side, Gaylla pressed herself closer to him, slipping her small furred hand into his where it hung loosely by his side.

  “I had to act immediately,” he continued, his voice firming again. “Before K’hedduk got into the system and changed the codes. I salvaged enough to contact the M’zullians and tell them there had been delays in K’hedduk’s plan and not to send reinforcements for another six weeks.” His brow creased as he looked from Kaid to Carrie and back. “Six weeks will be long enough for us to retake the Palace, won’t it? Maybe I should have said two months.”

  “Six weeks will be fine,” said Kaid weakly, feeling the bottom drop out of his world in shock.

  “You didn’t tell them …” began Carrie.

  Zsurtul gave her a pained look. “Carrie, I’m not a fool. I didn’t let them know who I was.”

  Dhyshac wormed his way to the front of their little group. “You can see why we had to help him, Father. There was no time to argue with everyone about it. As it was, Zsurtul was just in time.”

  Gathering his scattered wits, Kaid scowled at them all. “That doesn’t excuse the liberties you took. Manipulating another person’s mind is a criminal offense,” he said, deciding not to mince his words. “Valden, you know that, you should have stopped them. Our Psychic Talent gives us power, but it also requires us to use it responsibly or face the consequences, and believe me, you will all face the consequences!”

  “It was my idea,” said Gaylla, moving even closer to the Prince, if it were possible. “They won’t take my Talent away, will they?” Her eyes began to fill with tears. “I was very careful of my soldier. I only did it ’cos I know it’s important to stop people being hurt.”

  “Gaylla’s not to blame,” said Dhyshac, lifting his chin. “It was me who organized it. If anyone’s to be punished, it should be me.”

  Kaid was hard pressed to keep his face straight as he watched the unconscious signs of his son’s anxiety—the ears lying flat against his head and the nervous twitching of his tail—vying with his obvious attempts at bravery.

  “I take full responsibility …” began Valden.

  “Mine is the responsibility,” insisted Zsurtul, speaking over the top of the young male.

  “I’ll take all that into consideration,” Kaid said roughly. “No one is going to have his or her Talent removed, but you all have some apologizing to do, and you must make amends to the Touiban soldiers, not to mention to Toueesut and the Captain of the Tooshu!”

  “A week helping prepare vegetables in the kitchens is definitely in order,” said Carrie sternly, pointing in the direction they’d come. “Go there right now, after you’ve apologized!”

  “Yes, Liegena,” the cubs mumbled, beginning to sidle abjectly past her.

  Kaid kept his eyes on Zsurtul, gauging him carefully with his mind as well as his other senses, waiting to see what he’d do next, but the Prince remained silent, standing with his back straight, offering no excuses and no more explanations. He met Kaid’s eyes, though his normally sand-tinted green skin was paler than usual.

  “Apart from buying us some much-needed time, what else were you able to achieve?” he asked quietly.

  “I changed the main offworld comm frequency,” Zsurtul said. “The M’zullians and K’hedduk will be unable to reach each other on the old one. Their messages will come directly here for us to intercept.”

  “Does that include the fleet orbiting round K’oish’ik?”

  Zsurtul shook his head. “No, I left that alone so as not to arouse suspicion, but I changed the codes, so even if K’hedduk discovers them, he can’t access them. I could do nothing about the City or Palace defenses, he’d already changed those codes, but we do have control over the internal systems like power, water, and communications within the Palace.”

  “We have?” Kaid began to smile. “Won’t K’hedduk suspect someone’s been tampering?”

  “No. He’ll assume my father changed the codes before …” His voice broke on his final word.

  “He’ll assume your father forgot to pass on the new codes,” Kaid finished for him.

  “I should go and apologize now,” he said quietly. “It isn’t fair that the cubs should face the Touibans’ anger alone.”

  Kaid stood aside for him to pass, calling out to him just before he rounded the corner.

  “Next time, Prince Zsurtul, please have the courtesy to let us know what you plan to do beforehand. When you’re finished, I’ll expect you to join us in the conference room for a full debriefing. It’s time you became part of the planning team.”

  “He did good, even if he went about it the wrong way,” said Carrie, putting her arm through Kaid’s as they began to walk back to Toueesut. “Six weeks! I can’t believe he managed to talk both sides into that!”

  “He did do good,” Kaid agreed. “He’s not a child anymore. I have a feeling his mother has more Warrior-caste ancestry in her than anyone reckoned for.”