Uncharted Read online

  “What if I told you that you could stop all this? That you could save the women of this planet from their bondage, get rid of Krumf, and save your own female into the bargain?” Valdor asked. “Would you be interested?”

  Terex frowned skeptically. “Of course I’d be interested. But how? Have you got some magic up your sleeve?”

  “No—but you do.” Valdor cocked his head to one side, studying Terex through narrowed eyes. “Otherwise, how could you have fooled the Nixian fingerprint and retinal scanning systems? Tell me this—do you have the ability to fool them again?”

  “Why should I tell you that?” Terex demanded. “Why should I trust you at all?”

  “I could ask you the same thing,” Valdor replied. “It’s not every day a male comes home after a century’s absence to find his entire world horribly changed and then gets placed under suspicion of treason because someone is impersonating him—very convincingly too, I might add.”

  “I didn’t know you’d returned,” Terex muttered. “I didn’t even know I looked like you until the command tower called me by your name.” He sighed. “I played along because I thought it would be easier to get what I wanted as a known and respected person rather than a stranger.”

  “And what was it you wanted?” Valdor asked. When Terex didn’t reply, he leaned forward and murmured, “No matter what it was, I have something here that can help you find it.”

  From within the folds of his cloak, he drew out a small silver sphere about the size of the Earth fruit called an orange.

  Terex caught his breath as he watched it blink and glow in the other male’s hand.

  “The silver sphere which finds the trail!” he breathed.

  “The Sphere of Location. Observe…” Valdor touched the top of the blinking sphere in his palm. It opened under his touch and a small tray emerged on the end of a snaking mechanical arm. “Place even the tiniest bit of DNA from whatever or whomever you are seeking on the tray and the sphere will analyze it and scan the universe for it, pointing you always in the correct direction until you reach your target.”

  “But how can that possibly work?” Terex demanded. “How can any scanner be so sensitive? How can any probe be so strong and far-reaching?”

  “It uses Letition technology,” Valdor said simply.

  “From the Letites? The same race you went to consult with about the fate of your world?”

  “The same. They see both forward and backward in time.” Valdor sighed. “You know by my reckoning I spent less than a solar year with them? And yet, when I returned through the time vortex to my own part of the universe, I found my planet had aged a century without me—a terrible century in which most of my people had been killed, the females had been enslaved, the environment polluted, an inequitable class system established whereby a very few were ridiculously wealthy—able to drive about on foolish golden carts on a special road while the vast majority slaved in smog-belching factories and lived in poverty…” He sighed again. “I could go on but what use is it? The questions I went to ask the Letites are all moot now. Why ask about equality for the sexes when no one understands the meaning of the word anymore?”

  “It must have been a terrible shock to you.” Terex felt grudging sympathy for the other male. “To find what Krumf had done in the relatively short time you have been absent.”

  “Yes, Krumf…” Valdor’s eyes narrowed. “He is the author of all this. The reason my people were exterminated like insects. He is the reason my beautiful world was despoiled, its strong, intelligent females enslaved and belittled, the majority of its people condemned to inequality and poverty…” A muscle in his jaw clenched and he focused on Terex. “But you—you understand! I heard the way you spoke to your female—you still have the reverence for all things female and feminine the Goddess instilled in her children.”

  “Yes,” Terex said heavily. “Despite the fact that I allowed Krumf to make me brand her, to sear my initials into her flesh as though she were nothing but chattel to be bought and sold at an auction.”

  “Krumf corrupts everything he touches,” Valdor said darkly. “I more than anyone should know that. Just as I know that wallowing in self-recrimination and guilt is not the way to fix what he has broken.”

  “What would you have me do?” Terex spread his hands. “Why do you show me the Sphere and speak of me saving your planet from bondage?”

  “Because it was foretold you would—by one of the last Kindred priestesses before the pureblooded Nixians killed her,” Valdor said. “Listen to her words:

  “Valdor returns, first once then twice

  The second time he pays the price

  To end our bondage with his deed

  That cures us all and slays the Need.”

  “What does that mean?” Terex asked. “And why can priestesses never simply say what they mean?”

  “I don’t know why they must be so cryptic,” Valdor admitted. “But in this case, I think it’s fairly obvious. ‘Valdor returns, first once then twice’ refers to the fact that I came home and shortly after, you came here impersonating me.”

  “But what price must I pay?” Terex demanded.

  “I believe you have already paid it—losing your female to the Need and to Krumf is a heavy price indeed,” Valdor said soberly.

  “Too heavy.” Terex massaged the back of his neck wearily. “And the deed I am supposed to do? The one that ‘slays the Need’? What do you make of that?”

  “I’ll tell you,” Valdor said. “But first you must vow to undertake it at once without stopping for anything or anyone.”

  Terex frowned. “Are you asking me to leave this place and go on a quest without Elaina? Because I won’t do that—won’t abandon her in this horrible place to be…to be hurt by that bastard Krumf and killed by the Need.”

  “I’m not asking you to leave her for good,” Valdor said soothingly. “Just to go and seek the cure for her and for all the females on this planet and bring it back.”

  “And what happens while I’m off on this wild chase—what if I’m gone too long and Krumf decides he wants to…wants to…” His throat worked but he couldn’t get the rest of his sentence out.

  Valdor appeared to understand, though.

  “I don’t believe you’ll have to travel far,” he said. “And if you do the job correctly, Krumf won’t be able to abuse or molest your female. Because he won’t be able to regenerate.”

  “What?” Terex frowned. “Explain.”

  “First swear you’ll undertake the mission,” Valdor said evenly.

  “Why?” Terex demanded. “Why ask me when you clearly understand it better? Why not do it yourself?”

  “Because I don’t have your talent of impersonating others—of being able to trick retinal and fingerprint scans.” Valdor looked at him intently. “Will you do it or not?”

  Terex took a deep breath. Goddess, let me be making the right choice, he prayed. At last, he nodded.

  “I will,” he said. “Explain everything and let me out of here.”

  * * * * *

  “What are you doing in here?” Zerana stared at Elaina with wide, uncertain eyes. “How can you be here in the Need harem when you belong to Master Valdor?”

  “Apparently I don’t…don’t belong to him any longer.” Elaina tried to keep from crying but a stray tear trickled out—she couldn’t help it.

  “Oh, Elaina!” Zerana took a step forward, her arms outstretched…and then stopped, obviously afraid of touching her.

  “It’s all right,” Elaina whispered. “You can touch me. Apparently I…I have the Need. So it’s not like you can infect me when…when I’m already infected.” She took a deep breath. “I think I know how it happened. I tried to help one of the Needy Ones when we first came to this planet and she was crying. I got her tears on the sleeve of my sweater and then I rubbed…rubbed my eyes. And I guess I didn’t want to see it before. Didn’t want to admit…”

  Her words became halting and then stopped altogether.