See Part One for Disclaimers

"I'm sorry," Galen said softly.  Though the man had set them up for Renn's taking; though Merrin had put his whole world and the woman he loved in danger, Galen thought he understood why.  Would he have been strong enough to resist the temptation of keeping Allain alive if there had been anything he could have done to save him?

"And the children?" Taciturn by nature, still Galen found it frustrating that his exhaustion precluded anything other than short sentences, before his head threatened to explode with the effort.

"We have been taking turns sitting with them.  Dureena said we shouldn't unhook them from the things Renn had in that room.  She said that the machines were still alive and we might do more harm than good."  The woman's hands were clasped together now, as though to prevent their betraying agitation.

Galen could not believe it; the flyer's demise should have severed any links to Renn's technology.  "Still functioning?  How?"

"Dureena thinks there is a, a generator, I think she said.  But she won't shut it down, not until you have seen what can be done to release them."

The room was beginning to pulse around Galen, as his eyes demanded to be closed.  Heavy lids pressed down, demanding that he sleep.

"And Renn?"

Her answer was lost as he drifted into a slumber that would not be denied.

***

"Help me up!"

"It's no good raising your voice to me, Galen.  I'm not going to do it."  Dureena stood, arms akimbo, watching him struggle to rise from the bed.

He turned a dark glance her way, muttering a savage curse under his breath.  Leaning precariously out of the bed, he grabbed his staff from its place by the bedside, and, using it to add leverage, he pressed himself into a standing position.

Dureena's eyes slid appreciatively over his compactly muscular form.  A smile teased her lips as she watched him struggle to the chair where his clothes, freshly laundered, sat in a neat pile.

"Are you going to help, or just watch?"

She sobered quickly as she realised that he was determined in his course.

"You aren't strong enough, Galen.  You need at least another two days, maybe longer, in bed.  Sharree gave explicit instructions..."

"I need to go home, Dureena.  I need to heal, and I can't do that here.  And I won't leave those children tied to Renn's abomination any longer."

Galen's grey blue eyes were hard as they met Dureena's golden gaze.  He saw the pain his words had caused, yet he ruthlessly squashed the guilt he felt at his culpability.  He was worried, more for the children than for himself.  All he really needed was time for his body to recover; his technology was in no danger.  Though, he admitted to himself, it was strangely unsettling to not have his technomancy on call.  He felt somehow incomplete without its faint buzz through his systems.  Only the familiar ache of his implants assured him that he was a mage still.

"Very well," Dureena capitulated, her body tight with her anger and pain.

She helped him dress, then slipped under his weak arm for support, leaving his good hand to clasp his staff.  With slow, measured steps, the two made their way carefully down the wide wooden stairs to the hall below.

Darile was making her way from the kitchen, a bowl of steaming soup in her hands.  She smiled up at them, and set the bowl on the table, next to a place that had already been set.

"Eat, both of you," she said.  "Sharree thought you would be up and about today.  This is one of her specials."

As though sensing Galen's reluctance, she made a quick pass in the air, and Sharree's face came in view.  Dark eyes surveyed him, and then the sorceress smiled.  "I didn't think Dureena could keep you there much longer.  The herbs in the soup have healing properties, take the time to eat Galen, even if you don't feel like it.  I'll see you soon."

The image faded out.  "Was that a recording?" Galen had felt no hint of it.

"No.  We have been experimenting a little with our magic since you arrived.  Something you said to Sharree about the strength of someone's will?  It's not much, but it is a start.  To be able to communicate like this."  Darile fairly beamed her pleasure.

***

Sharree had been right, the soup, warming and light on his stomach, gave him back some of his lost energy.  Enough at least that he had only to lean on his staff, as he and Dureena made their way to the fortress.

"What did they do with Renn's body?"

"He's not dead, Galen.  In a way it would be better if he was."

Galen pulled her back, wincing as pain lanced up his arm.  Through the tight bandaging, he could see the stripes of blood blossom again.  "Explain!  The virus should have destroyed his links, fried his brain.  All his systems should have shut down -- he should be dead."

"Oh they fried his brain alright," Dureena replied, her voice held a hint of the horror she felt.  "The virus attacked the connections between his neural pathways and his implants.  His staff shattered into dust and the implants seemed to implode somehow.  " Her eyes raised to his, the full horror written on her face.  "His body can be healed but his mind, his mind has been swept clean, Galen.  There is nothing behind his eyes, I don't think he can even hear us."

There was nothing Galen could say.  It was an outcome he had not expected and would not have wished under any circumstances.  His face reflected his inner emotions for just a moment, and then he donned his mask of imperturbability once more, showing a calm exterior to any that saw him.



Sharree sat, her hand holding that of the youngest child, where she lay strapped on the wooden bench.  Electrodes were placed on her temples; wires had been inserted into her neck and arm.  Tubes fed liquid food in, others removed waste.  A monitor showed life signs to be normal except for the line that indicated brain activity.  A tiny blue blip ran from one side to the other, showing that her neural activity was almost nil.

Galen kept a tight rein on his emotions as his eyes strayed from one helpless victim to another.  Carefully, he touched one of the electrodes, closing his eyes to help concentrate his senses, and to block out the hopeful gaze of the children's parents.

He could feel the tiny pulse of life as it travelled from the little boy's brain toward the monitor on the wall.  His fingers moved along the wires, following the tiny signs on its passage.  Sensitive fingertips touched the monitor, then moved on to where the connections entered the wall.  "Where does this go?"

"There's a store room behind this wall, we haven't been able to get through the door."

"It's still warded, Galen."  Dureena added.  "There is a generator of sorts at the end of this room, it must be keeping both the equipment and the shield in place."

"Back up systems totally independent of his flyer."  Galen nodded with reluctant admiration.  It was too easy sometimes to think oneself inviolate.  And this crude machine that he now viewed would not have been his first choice.

Galen laid his hand on the box, feeling its vibration echo through him, feeding his inner reserves with a unexpected flood of much needed power.  Gasping at the sudden sensations, he pulled back quickly.

"What is it?" He felt Dureena's hand on his arm and turned to flash a quick grin at her.

"Adrenaline shock.  Felt rather good actually!"

He moved his right hand over his eyes and set his scanners to work.  They followed the wires that fled in all directions, sensing their purpose and ultimate destination.  Then his hand reached out and clasped around one specific lead.  With a sharp tug, it came away in his hand, showering sparks in all directions.  Galen glanced quickly at the row of children behind him, no change.  The monitors still bleeped with chilling repetitiveness.

Movement eased by the power he had absorbed into his systems, Galen, with Dureena at his side, faced the door.  He nodded to her to open it keeping his staff ready.  It too had benefited from the generator's jolt of energy.

Inside stood an opaque box with wires attached to it at regular intervals, one for each child lying comatose on the other side of the wall.  Approaching with caution, Galen circled the cube letting his scanners chart its components.  Silently he handed his staff to Dureena, then moved forward to lay his hand upon the cool surface.  Under his palm he could feel the children's life ticking away, like a heartbeat with many echoes.  Delving deeper, his mind connected with the circuitry.  He tried to pull back, horrified at the machine's function as his own implants linked to the box.

"Destroy it, now!"

"Galen?"

"Hurry, I'm linked to it, can't get free.  You have to sever the connection..."  It was all he could do to stop himself being dragged into the depths of the machine.  What it offered was sensuous poison.

The explosion sent him flying back against the wall where his head made solid contact.  With an effort, he held on to his consciousness.  Pressing himself away from the wall, he searched for Dureena, finding her rising from the floor a few feet away.  He helped her up, then turned to survey the damage that lay around them.  The box was shattered into a million tiny shards, wires burned still with the residue of its stored power.  For an instant he worried that the box's destruction would have fed back into the monitoring system, though it had seemed to be a one way connection.

Sharree burst through the door, worry etched in every line.  "What happened?  Are you both alright?"

Dureena and Galen both ignored her question, wanting only to know if the children were all right.

"They started to wake up the minute the explosion happened.  They are frightened and very lethargic, but they don't seem hurt."

Relief flooded his mind.  Gathering up his fallen staff he looked at the two women who waited on his next words.

"Renn.  I have to see Renn."

Sharree planted a hand on his chest, forcing him to stand still.  He looked down at the small feature that rested so confidently on him and he felt amusement stir.  Right now, she was probably more powerful than he and yet she did not know that.  Her dark eyes challenged him to defy her.  He raised one brow and waited.

"You're too late for that.  Whatever it was you did to him finally took his life earlier today.  One of the Circle was keeping an eye on him, when he just stopped breathing."

Galen caught Dureena's eye.  "The final connection is severed."

"What was he doing to my child, Galen?  What was he taking from them?"

He hesitated.  Then Dureena joined Sharree to face him.  They really didn't want to hear this.

"He was taking their life force, storing it in the box we have just destroyed."

Dureena's horrified "Why?" resonated within him.

"Do you know how old Renn is?  He has found a way to take the life force from someone else and convert it to his own use.  I could feel it, Dureena, seeping into me."  Galen could barely repress the shudder of revulsion he felt.

"Why the children?" Sharree's hushed question had no answer.

"I don't know, Sharree.  Convenience maybe?  Hostages to your co-operation as you had already surmised?  Only Renn knows the answer to that."

"And what did he want from you, Galen?  What was this all about?"

Galen shook his head.  That was one secret he could not reveal.  Even the knowledge that such a destructive power existed could be used against the galaxy.

"I never got to ask him, and it seems I never will," Galen replied in all truthfulness, as he skirted the issue.

***

It was time to leave.  Time to put this place, these people behind them.  Sharree had finished healing his arm, and nothing remained of his wounds save the faint white lines that scoured across his pale flesh.

The last two days had been strangely painful for him.  Sharree's daughter, the little two-year-old moppet that had been one of Renn's victims, had regained her strength rapidly.  Galen had watched her speed around the house like a maniac, her laughter tearing at him like a knife as he thought what might have been for Allain, had he survived.  Dureena seemed to feel it to a lesser extent, and he often found her with little Bellina on her lap, or sitting with Sharree in deep discussions that would abruptly end whenever he entered the room.  He wanted to go home, where technology had its place in the world and so did he.

***

They stepped through the portal into bright sunlight.  Around them the stones stood unimpressed at their arrival, unmoved by the magic that surged around them.

As the blue disc popped out of existence Galen took a deep breath and savoured the air.

"Home," Dureena murmured at his side, looking up at the familiar sky.

"Home," he agreed, his fingers finding and entwining with hers.

He paused at the outer ring, affixing a transceiver to the monolith.  "Just a precautionary measure."  The sardonic tone of his voice echoed around the blocks.

Galen could feel the strength flowing back into his blood.  His implants attracting the energy from all around him, and from the source of his power buried deep under his home.  It felt good to be alive at that moment.  He felt complete again.  Whilst in Merlina, his abilities stripped from him, he had been swarmed by doubts, not something he was used to or comfortable with.  Now he was home.  His eyes roved around the familiar surroundings, making out the faint glow of the second moon as it made its way across the sunlit sky.

Confident now of success, he called up a board and he and Dureena glided serenely along the mountain pass, through the shield and down toward the valley.  As they got closer to the valley, he could feel the woman at his side begin to tense, as though the memories that haunted her here were surrounding her, closing her off from him again.

The sound of the waterfall close at hand made him falter, an idea shooting across his thoughts and through his body.  Turning their path toward the sound, he accelerated until the breath caught in his chest at the speed.

"What's wrong?" Dureena clasped his arm, tugging at his sleeve.

They came to a standstill within the trees, and Galen settled them to the grassy floor.  Determination enhanced every line of his angular features.

"It's time we talked, Dureena.  Time to put Allain's death behind us."

"You mean forget!" The savage hurt in her voice cut at him, opening wounds of his own.

He grabbed her arm as she tried to move away from him.  "Never to forget," his voice harsh.  "But we can't continue like this.  I know you can never forgive me for letting Allain die, but I can't live with your pain as well as my own."

"Forgive you?" The incredulity in her voice, the disbelief in her eyes hurt more than he could bear.  He let go of her arm and moved to the pool, letting his gaze rest on the quiet waters, his ears filling with the sound of the waterfall.

And then she was behind him; he could sense her presence bare feet away.

"You're right, Galen, I can't forgive you."

His shoulders slumped in defeat as he saw the end of their relationship looming at him.

"I can not let you take the blame for Allain's death.  Not when I know that it was my fault.  If I hadn't overslept, if I had only given him the same time and care as...  No, you are not to blame."  Dureena's words faded into the breeze.

He turned then, his pain and grief washing through him.  "No," he whispered.  "No, neither of us can take the blame for our son's death.  The universe is cruel, Dureena, and we have suffered more than most at her hands.  What happened was written in the stars, neither you nor I could have changed that."  And he finally believed it.

Afraid to touch her yet drawn irresistibly towards her, Galen moved closer to Dureena.  Their eyes locked and the words he had been about to utter died on his lips.  He needed to shatter the wall of her pain so that they could heal together, and he had no idea how to do it.

They stood, a few feet apart, gazing intently at each other.  Galen had the strangest feeling that Dureena was reaching out to him somehow.  He could feel an increase in his energy levels that had nothing to do with his staff or the seat of his power.  It had to be coming from her.  As though aware of the connection being made, and uncomfortable with its intensity, Dureena's eyes fell from his to rest contemplatively on the sun dappled leaves under her feet.  Then her eyes lifted to his and he saw the longing in them, her need.  Not the raw, hungry ache that had torn her apart before this mission but something infinitely deeper.

He reached for her then, stepping close enough to touch her face with one shaking hand.  Smoothing back the hair from her face he realised that he would do anything to keep her in his life.  The need to show her how much he loved her warred within him.  He wanted to touch her, love her; take her mind and body to another plain.  Not the mindless sexual act that they had shared in their grief, but the slow exploration of each other's needs and desires.  Joining heart and soul even as their bodies found release.

When he finally lost control she felt the snap of his will pulling back his power and letting his body take over.

His body fell against hers, drained physically and mentally, yet she did not mind the weight of him where it rested heavily against her.  Rather, she revelled in it, in the intimate connection that had been re-established.  Her arms slid around his body, fingers carefully avoiding his implants, and she hugged him closer still.

***

Three months had passed since Galen's brush with real magic.  Three months of roving around the galaxy, gathering data, visiting Alwyn, dropping in now and again on the crew of the Excalibur.

The ship now served as an exploration vessel - its function mainly research.  Galen had once queried the need for a war ship to surf the galaxy if all they were interested in were knowledge.  Gideon's reply had been typical.  "Some folks just don't want to share!"

And now they were back on board that giant ship.  Galen had joined Captain Gideon to catch up on the ongoing mission, while Dureena had left them to pursue her own course.

Dureena had been missing for the last hour, and Galen had the uneasy feeling that something wasn't right.

"Will you quit worrying, Galen!"

"I never worry," he replied, almost automatically.  Fingers drummed on the tabletop, rattling the mug that stood, untouched, in front of him.

Matthew Gideon leaned back in his chair and let his gaze rest on Galen's usually inexpressive face.  "Never thought I'd see the day, you going soft on us," he drawled, trying to annoy his friend into some reaction.  "Yep, she has you tied in knots, my friend.  Sad thing..." Matthew shook his head in mock grief and sighed.

Galen's hand stilled on the table, and he turned, granite faced, to his companion.  "I think you are forgetting who you are talking to, Matthew.  Would you like me to demonstrate..."

Matthew's hands went up in mock surrender; then his eyes turned to the door as Dureena entered.

Picking up on the tension between them, she raised an eyebrow in question.

A call came over the com system requesting the Captain's presence on the bridge, and Gideon left quickly with Galen's hard stare following him out.

"I'm glad he's gone.  We need to talk Galen."

Her serious tone brought his attention to her with swift alarm.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong.  I have some news for you.  I hope you'll think it's good news."

She took his hand and laid his palm against her stomach.  "Sarah's just confirmed what I had already hoped."

He felt stunned; this was not what he had expected.

"How?  Allain was a miracle, this..." his voice trailed off in wonder.

"Sharree gave me some lessons in practical magic.  A thank you for all we did for them."

Galen was staring at his hand where it lay against her still flat stomach.  "Galen?  Are you pleased?"

He stood slowly, and pulled her gently into his embrace, holding her with infinite care as though she might break at any moment.

"I guess you are," she murmured into his coat, and felt his arms tighten around her in wordless agreement.

The End

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