I must seem rather foolish.” She smiled again. “In which ward do you live?”
This wasn’t a question he’d expected. He knew too little about Tanis to answer.
“I need to get home,” he said suddenly. “It’s been pleasant talking to you, Isis. Maybe we’ll meet again.”
“I am certain of it,” she said. Behind her, men in olive-drab uniforms—both of them Darketans, children of Opir mothers and human fathers, human in appearance save for their sapphire eyes and sharp teeth—advanced on Daniel with shock sticks in hand.
“What’s going on?” he asked, backing away in seeming confusion.
“Please go with these men,” she said, her voice still as musical, her face every bit as flawlessly beautiful as before. He felt the push of her “influence,” that particular gift limited to the most ancient and powerful Bloodmasters and Bloodmistresses.
But he was fortunate enough to be virtually immune to the lady’s subtle power. “Why?” he asked, his gaze fixed on the guards.
“I know you are not a citizen of Tanis, Daniel,” she said. “We do not allow strangers to enter our city without first being questioned and screened.”
“You turn away refugees?” Daniel asked.
“Only those incompatible with our way of life,” she said.
“Do you enjoy spying on your own kind?” he asked, still playing along with her masquerade.
She blinked several times. “You were recognized as an outsider when you entered the gates,” she said. “My purpose was only to determine if you were a threat to us.”
“A threat?” he said, holding his arms out to his sides. “How?”
“Please, Daniel, go peacefully. You will not be harmed.”
“And if I refuse?” Daniel asked.
Moving almost more quickly than Daniel could detect, the two guards lunged at him. One of them caught his left arm. He swung around, defending himself without thought, and punched the guard in the face with his fist. The second guard grabbed his right arm and twisted it behind him.
Everything within him, all the instinctive desire to be free, urged him to keep fighting. Panic nearly overwhelmed him, but he pushed it down. He bore the pain silently and allowed the other guard to jerk his other arm behind him. Manacles locked around his wrists.
He gave Isis a long, cold look. “They were wrong about this place,” he said as the guards pulled him away. “And you’re wrong about me.”
“Come quietly,” the Darketan guard said. “You don’t have anything to be afraid of.”
“Wait,” Isis called after them as they turned for the archway. “I will accompany you.”
The two guards inclined their heads...deferring to Isis, Daniel thought, as if they were still in a traditional Citadel. Daniel knew that they, like him, were feeling that indefinable magnetism, whether she intended to use it on them or not.
Head down, Daniel slipped into his role as a downtrodden serf.
Letting all the resistance go out of his body, Daniel allowed the guards to escort him back down the left ramp. He was aware of Isis behind them, though her footsteps were almost inaudible to his sharp hearing. He still didn’t understand how an Opir of her obvious stature would be employed in meeting and questioning outsiders, unless her work could be considered evidence of real equality in Tanis.
But he was still a prisoner, and he couldn’t afford to remain one. Nor could he risk being ejected from the city without getting the answers he needed.
The ramp ended abruptly at ground level in the low town and led out onto a wide plaza open to the sky. Clearly designed to be as welcoming as possible, adorned with decorative murals, many benches and large planters filled with flowers, the plaza was deserted save for a few humans strolling along tiled water channels cut into the concrete. They smiled and bowed to Isis as she passed by, and some of the men stopped and stared as if they had never seen anything so beautiful. On every side stood recently built, multistory buildings; above, the stars were so numerous and bright that it felt more like twilight than full night. The partial dome at the other end of the city cast a deeper, almost sinister shadow.
They crossed the plaza toward a cluster of tall buildings. The guards headed for one of the larger structures and pushed Daniel through the door.
A large reception area was dominated by a desk attended by a human receptionist sorting through a stack of papers. She immediately rose to her feet and stood alert while another pair of uniformed Darketans materialized from a corridor behind the desk. Three pairs of eyes made note of Daniel and then focused on the woman behind him.
“Isis,” the receptionist said, her voice a little breathless, her smile very bright. “How may we serve you?”
“I will require a private room,” she said, sweeping past Daniel and the guards.
The receptionist’s gaze fell on Daniel. “Will you require more guards?” she asked with a worried frown.
“I need none,” Isis said, glancing at Daniel with a slim, raised brow. “I do not think our friend will cause any trouble.”
“Yes, Isis.” The receptionist nodded to one of the guards behind her, who strode back into the corridor. A few moments later he returned and nodded to Isis.
“If you will come with me,” he said.
With Isis striding ahead of them, Daniel’s guards led him past the desk and into the corridor. It was dim and plain, punctuated by a dozen identical doors. The escorting guard stopped at one of them, unlocked it and inclined his head to Isis.
“If you need assistance—” he began.
“I know what to do.”
The guard held the door open for her. The room was as featureless as the corridor, with gray walls, a single table and two chairs.
“Unbind him,” Isis said. Daniel’s guards exchanged glances and unlocked the manacles. Putting on a mask of confusion and fear, Daniel shivered and rubbed his wrists.
“There is nothing to be afraid of,” Isis said, catching his gaze. She believed his panic was real. She took his arm, and he felt the power of her nature, magnified a hundred times—warm, soothing, almost magical. As the door closed behind them, she led him to one of the chairs at the single table.
“Please, sit,” she said.
Daniel took one of the chairs and watched Isis as she sat at the opposite side of the table.
“Now,” she said, “it will be easier for everyone if you cooperate. Nobody will hurt you, but we must know why you are here.”
And that, Daniel thought, was precisely what he couldn’t tell her.
