Jordan (10 page)

A bloodied sword swung at Jordan’s head. Reacting on instinct, Jordan raised his shield to block the blow. At the same time
he advanced, and, with his sword arm, counterattacked. His weapon glanced off his attacker’s chain mail but still came away
bloody as part of the blade caught unprotected flesh.

The man moaned in agony and fell to his knees. Before Jordan could finish him, two more men attacked, one from either side.
Jordan shifted, parried, and sliced with lightning speed, dispatching both men, then another.

In a matter of seconds Vivianne saw him slay half a dozen men, his arm tireless. And then he slipped. While he rolled in the
mud, Vivianne caught sight of other men battling for their lives. One man in particular drew her attention, a knight, his
face masked behind armor. But for a moment Vivianne could clearly see his stunning silver-colored breast plate embossed with
three golden horses.

The memory ended as suddenly as it had come to Vivianne.

Either Jordan had told her the truth about his age, and his memories had somehow entered her mind, or someone or something
was implanting false memories. And she had no idea which scenario was more likely. Both seemed impossible.

Vivianne could deal with being lost in space. She could deal with the danger. She could even deal with the sex.

But this total loss of control of her mind… was like losing her strength, the part of herself that she relied on most.

How could she make good decisions when her enemy might be the one offering solace? With both of them floating, it was almost
cozy and peaceful, like the quiet after a storm.

But she shouldn’t rely on him or trust him. She had to stay on guard. That Staff was Jordan’s. For all she knew he’d programmed
it to place memories in her head, to have this effect on her. No way would she admit to him that the Staff was getting into
her mind.

Jordan might control the Staff, but he didn’t control her. And she still planned to find a way to stop him from driving her
ship into enemy territory.

And while the memory of him fighting seemed so very real, she had no proof that it had happened. But how could she not look
at Jordan differently on the bridge after she’d watched him fight for his life? She’d been rooting for him. And that feeling
of their being on the same side remained. Could she remain impartial? Wouldn’t their intimacy and his memories influence her
judgment?

And if she couldn’t trust herself… then what?

Just then, Jordan reached out and caressed her shoulder and back with soothing strokes. “We’ll figure this out.”

“How?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted, his tone husky. “But we’ll be all right.”

The last thing she’d expected from Jordan was… tenderness. Or sympathy. Damn him for being so kind. When he was rough and
tough, she kept herself together, fighting instinctively.

But his tenderness undid her.

Tears choking her, Vivianne swallowed down her rising panic. She forced herself to think. “The Ancient Staff is changing our
hormones, right?”

He nodded. “But I can’t turn down the power, or the
Draco
won’t fly.”

“But why isn’t the Staff affecting anyone else?”

“It’s my Staff, so it always affects me.”

She lifted her head to peer into his glittery blue eyes. “I don’t understand.”

“We share energy.”

“Are you saying it’s always made you feel—”

“No. This insatiable lust… has never happened before.”

She sensed there was much more he wasn’t sharing, and once again frustration made her uneasy. He was answering her questions,
but she suspected she wasn’t asking the right ones.

“The Staff came from Dominus? And you had it with you when your world was destroyed?”

“On Dominus, everyone had a Staff. When I was conceived, my parents’ Staffs united and began to grow. On my world, after a
child is born, the Staff separates into three pieces, one for each parent and one for the child. We keep our Staffs by our
side at all times.”

She frowned. “But you told me that you lost it before King Arthur found the Holy Grail.”

His tone was flat. “I was tricked. A woman named Nimue pretended she was drowning. To save her life and swim her to shore,
I had to let go of the Staff. When I swam back for it, her cohort, Gareth, had stolen it. Then he took it to Trendonis.”

He spoke without bitterness, and yet she sensed a wound so deep that it pained him to his very core.

“You went after Trendonis?” she prodded.

“It took me fifteen hundred years. I finally found Trendonis on Honor. He and the Tribes were using my staff to power their
torture machine.”

Fifteen hundred years. Vivianne was a master of setting long-term goals, but even she couldn’t imagine pursuing anything for
so long.

“And Trendonis, what happened to him?”

Frustration filled his tone. “I almost caught him on Honor, but he fled. But I have sworn before the Goddess to stop the man
who destroyed my world.”

Trendonis had lived at least as long as Jordan. “Are the Tribes immortal?”

“No. They can be killed in battle—or they could be before they possessed the Grail.”

“But if the Tribes already have the Grail,” she asked, “how can we win?”

“We steal it back. Once we possess the Grail and drink from it, then no matter how severe our wounds, we will not die in battle.”

“Being immortal might be the most powerful defense of all time.”

“Exactly.” Jordan turned onto his side, his face serious and glum, but he kept his hand in hers. “When a soldier of Earth
risks his life of only a hundred years and dies, the loss isn’t as great as a soldier of the Tribes who might otherwise live
for thousands of years.”

“I could easily argue that when a life is short, each day is more precious,” she countered, wondering why she couldn’t find
the strength to pull away from the small circles his thumb was making on her wrist.

“Perhaps.” When he caught her watching him stroke her wrist, he jerked. Almost as if he’d been unconsciously caressing her,
then had realized what he’d been doing, he pulled away. “But despite their warlike and dominating natures, the Tribes have
difficulty recruiting soldiers. That’s why when a planet doesn’t fall easily to their domination, they destroy it.”

“If Trendonis now possesses the Holy Grail, he can promise his soldiers that they won’t die of battle wounds.”

Jordan added, “And their ranks will swell with recruits.”

“How well do you know Trendonis?” she asked.

“He’s fearless. And evil.”

“Did he ever wear armor with a coat of arms bearing three horses?”

Jordan’s eyes pierced hers. “That was King Arthur Pendragon’s coat of arms. Why did you ask?”

“While reading about medieval history, I’ve read references to the three horses.”

“Three horses was definitely Arthur’s coat of arms.”

If Jordan knew King Arthur’s coat of arms, then he could have lived in that time as he’d claimed. But he also could have read
up on King Arthur.

Still, he could turn himself into an owl, and possessed a Staff that powered the
Draco,
so if his knowledge was accurate, it was another clue that lent credence to his story. Vivianne would check the computer
the first chance she had to see if she could verify his statement. “So Trendonis is still alive?”

“I’ll destroy him.” Jordan spoke in the same flat tone, and yet his eyes darkened to a turbulent deep blue.

His private war of revenge had lasted over a thousand years, and yet she could see that he hadn’t lost one iota of determination.
With all his people gone, she supposed she couldn’t blame him.

And yet living only for revenge seemed an empty existence.

“In all those years, you’ve had no home? No family? No friends?”

He hesitated, then spoke softly, “There was no time. I was searching for the Staff.”

“The Staff must be very precious to you.”

It was just her luck that the object that was causing all her difficulties was the key to keeping Earth’s enemies at bay.
She wasn’t certain how she would reconcile herself to the way the Staff affected her, but she was beginning to believe Jordan
was over fifteen hundred years old. That he had known King Arthur.

But was he on the side of Earth?

While she wasn’t totally certain she could trust him, she was leaning more in that direction. She just prayed the shared memories
and the physical intimacy weren’t altering her perception.

Gray’s voice came over the speaker. “Prepare for gravity.”

Jordan shoved off the ceiling, rotating their feet down toward the deck. Five seconds later, as the gravity kicked in, they
dropped.

Jordan steadied her, then sat on the bed. He scooted over and left enough room for her to join him. But with the restoration
of gravity, the return of responsibilities weighed on her.

She reached for her clothing.

He locked his hands behind his head. “You need sleep.”

“Here?” she asked.

“Why not?” He raised an eyebrow. “It’s not like the entire crew doesn’t already know what we’ve been doing.”

“True.” She slipped into his shirt. “Just let me check the communicator to see if Maggie’s answered.”

He shot her the most charming grin. “You look good in my shirt.”

For a moment, she lost her breath. She yearned to get right back into bed and let him take the shirt off of her. But she really
needed to check out his story.

From the bed, he couldn’t see her screen. She tapped into the main search engine, but everything she found about King Arthur
was legend. Then she recalled that they’d downloaded all of Pendragon’s history into another module.

When she pulled it up, she found King Arthur’s coat of arms. At the sight of three horses that matched the one she’d seen
on the breastplate, she bit back a gasp.

She tried to tamp down her excitement. She supposed Jordan could have come across Arthur’s coat of arms while he’d been on
Pendragon. But it was the kind of esoteric information that wasn’t found on Earth, that only a historian or someone who’d
lived during that time would know. Jordan could have looked it up in Pendragon’s history on the computer, just like she had.
But what were the chances? While she still didn’t have real proof that his fantastic story was possible, she was beginning
to think he might actually have told her the truth about his past.

“Find anything?” Jordan asked.

“Maggie hasn’t answered yet.” She turned off the monitor but left the system running. Vivianne slid out of his shirt and climbed
into bed.

She’d sleep better snuggled next to Jordan’s warm body, knowing that he probably was exactly who he’d claimed to be. Jordan,
Chen, Merlin. Still, she’d give up her entire fortune to know with one hundred percent
certainty
that he was now telling her the truth.

Exhausted, she felt as if she’d just closed her eyes when she awoke to the sound of alarms blaring. Before she could force
her eyes open, Jordan had leaped out of bed and dressed. He toggled a switch to open communications with the bridge. “What’s
wrong?”

“Those things that came at us in hyperspace,” Tennison’s voice piped into their cabin, “they’re back.”

“I’ll be right there.” Jordan was out the door in less than ten seconds. But before he left, he pointed to the closet. “There’s
a change of clothes for you in there.”

“Thanks.” With a sigh, Vivianne swept aside the covers, shocked to discover she’d actually slept for eight full hours. Gazing
out the porthole, she viewed the objects in question. And ice slid down her spine.

The objects looked like barbells, but instead of round ends there were cubes of polished rock. While the material might be
confused with a naturally formed object, their precise shapes suggested these things were manufactured.

They could be spaceships. Weapons. Hurrying to dress in the clean clothes Jordan had had placed in the cabin for her, her
thoughts flew. Jordan could be surprisingly thoughtful, his face when unguarded expressive. And his eyes had darkened with
concern at the news of those cubes.

Jordan had left the toggle on the bridge open, and she could hear a multitude of busy conversations.

Gray’s voice was firm. “Everyone quiet down so I can listen to the headset.”

“You picking up anything?” Jordan asked, and she pictured him striding onto the bridge, taking immediate control.

“Nothing.”

Tennison raised his voice. “Energy readings indicate they are powering up. Preparing to fire?”

Vivianne didn’t wait to hear more. She hurried down the hallway.

And everything went dark.

You cannot build moral fiber and devotion by taking away people’s initiative and liberty.

—K
ING
A
RTHUR
P
ENDRAGON

T
otally blind and weightless, Vivianne pulled herself toward the bridge.

Where were the emergency systems? Why hadn’t the backup lights and generator kicked in? Had they suffered a total power failure?
Had the Ancient Staff stopped working?