Joshua warmed to the theme. “He might have been holding back teaching us what we need to know to battle on Third.” He now had two empty beer bottles lined up on the deck railing.
Because Josh’s observation was a real possibility, a weight settled on the team.
A few weeks back, Duncan might have suggested the same thing as Owen — just get rid of the problem. He might even have had the same attitude two nights ago. But something had shifted inside him, and instead of reacting, he moved away from the group, turning to face the grove of sycamores. He directed his attention inward, toward his vision power. Energy hummed through his body. He closed his eyes, aware he was probably emitting a faint gold light from his skin.
He focused on Merl and on the men he’d seen in the vision. He wanted to know more before Merl returned in case a decision had to be made.
Trust was the real issue. Duncan had always felt uneasy about Merl and not just because he’d once flirted with Rachel. He’d been hostile during training and withdrawn everywhere else. All of which now made sense. But could the team trust him?
What arrived suddenly in vision form, wasn’t a look into the future at all but well into Merl’s past and was comprised of a montage of images. He saw Merl in front of large groups of Militia Warriors, his expression almost as intense as Owen’s was right now. He was heavily involved in training Militia Warriors in many of the images, demonstrating battle skills, giving individual and group instruction on technique and strategy.
A few of the visions involved hundreds of warriors, all aligned against either Yolanthe or her father, Chustaffus.
Another set of images showed Merl, with his maroon leather battle harness and black kilt, doing battle with the same group of warriors Duncan had seen in Yolanthe’s prison. The men made use of the cadroen but wore what Duncan could now see was a traditional set of three braids on either side of the face, though pulled back into the clasp as well.
In these images, Duncan’s instincts were proved right since Merl always handed out the night’s assignments; Merl was the team leader. But instead of sending the men to dimensional Borderlands, as Luken would have done on Second Earth, he sent them to various ‘camps’ around the world. Merl had been in charge of the resistance movement on Third Earth.
He had the answer he needed and the vision dissipated. When he turned around, the team was staring at him, a couple of mouths agape. Glancing at Rachel, she said quietly, “Your grayle power was rising from your body in at least three streams of bluish smoke.”
He didn’t address their obvious combined astonishment, but related what he’d just witnessed. As he finished up with Merl’s leadership of the Third Earth Warriors of the Blood, he realized Merl now stood in the doorway, Endelle behind him.
He met the warrior’s light blue eyes. “Did you get all of that?” Duncan asked.
Merl nodded. “Accurate as hell.”
Duncan saw at once the warrior was changed. The revelations of the earlier vision of Yolanthe’s prison had stripped Merl’s façade away completely. He looked like a different man, more like the one in Duncan’s vision, a leader and a warrior.
Merl moved across the deck, placing himself in the middle of the team. “You must have questions. As the Creator is my witness, I’ll answer every single one of them.”
Owen rose to his feet. “I have a big one. Have you been serving as Yolanthe’s spy, telling her about us?”
“Not about the black ops team because she doesn’t know what I’ve been up to. Although I suspect that’s about to change. But yes, I reported information to her about Second Earth.”
Endelle moved to stand beside Duncan.
Joshua rubbed the tats on his wrist and directed his hard brown eyes at Merl. “Why the fuck didn’t you tell us what was going on? Why didn’t you trust us?”
“How could I have done that? I was protecting Katlynn and at the same time trying not to get any of you killed. I have to deliver reports once a month as it is.”
Owen entered the fray. “So, you’re a spy, and what did you tell the bitch about Thorne’s operations on Second? Holy fuck, you’ve seen everything.”
Luken rose to his feet as well, but addressed Owen. “Dial it down, Warrior. Give him a chance to explain himself. And remember, Yolanthe as a Third ascender isn’t going to be all that interested in things on Second. She’ll consider herself superior because, well, she probably is. Any arrogance she might have will work for us.”
The way Owen’s nostrils flared suggested he was still gearing up for a shout down.
Luken once more intervened. “Before Merl says anything, let me tell you what I think happened, then Merl can tell me if I’m wrong. So here goes: Merl either fed Yolanthe a pack of believable lies or reported inconsequential data. You’ve seen him, the martinis and cigarettes. Samuel told me the first time he met Merl, he wore some kind of silk dressing gown. He’s been playing this game for a long time and probably has Yolanthe suckered in.”
Owen scowled at Luken, but as he turned to Merl, he asked, “Does Luken have it right?”
Merl nodded. “Yolanthe has a deviant nature, sexually I mean, so I fed her lots of details about my supposed exploits on Second. When she learned I’d gotten close to Endelle, I fabricated an entire history for her.”
At that, he heard Endelle chuckle. “How much of a history?”
“Enough to keep her entertained and distracted. She seemed to enjoy my reports which I believe kept her from investigating further. And if it’s of any use, for years she was mostly focused on Darian Greaves and his ambitions. I happily told her anything I saw on TV.”
“Why did she give a fuck about Greaves?” Joshua swigged his third beer.
“She had a crush on him.”