"I need to go to her."

"No, I'm sorry 494, but you need to follow the plan.  This is more important than even the love of two people and you know it."  His hands are warm and suitably avuncular on my shoulders but it doesn't help.

"Please, you have to at least tell me what they're doing to her.  Tell me what I returned her to.  They can't kill her until tomorrow right?  She has to be alive for the final ceremony and they can't finish her tonight."  His face flushes suspiciously and I can tell that I've finally struck a nerve.

"Look 494, Alec, she'll live because I've made both of you strong and that will simply have to be enough for the both of you.  Now I need you to focus."  We've been having this argument for the past half an hour and I sense that it's useless to keep arguing with him.  If she dies I suppose that I can always fling myself on her funeral pyre.  "The secondary troops should be arriving in the next three hours.  Kate will signal when they arrive, and they'll camp out on the outer shores overnight before sneaking into the compound in small groups beginning tomorrow morning."

I nod my head mechanically at him, and Sandeman shakes his head at me before continuing on with the plan.  "The first detachment will take up position in the underground tunnels and provide cover for deployment and removal.  The second group will station themselves around the perimeter of the ritual chambers, and the third group will join us here.  Now you're clear on what you have to do tomorrow?"

"I have to wait until the high council members are in trance state before attacking and rescuing Max."

"And why is that?"

"They're the most powerful of the familiars, and they'll be incapacitated after their ingestion of the ritual trance drugs."

"And then?"

"Biggs and CeCe will contain the snake toxin which will be located in the center of the room while most of the remaining forces provide cover.  I'll free Max and bring her to safety in case we need her blood as a source for more antibodies, and then we will all commence in kicking some serious familiar ass."

"Well put young man, just remember that some of us, such as myself and Jacob are your allies.  Also, you must watch out for any higher member of the cult who are not taking part in the inner circle.  My most powerful son may be dead, but the one who still lives can be quite poisonous.  I know he seems nervous and gutless, but when he strikes he can be surprisingly devious."

"I though CJ was on our side?"

"Oh no dear boy, I wasn't talking about CJ."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So the old man had returned.  Not only that but he had stuck to that antiquated plan which he'd been working on since before I was born.  Well bad for him, but quite good for me.  Just a very little bit of listening in and I had they're troop movements and a detailed account of when they would strike.  Yes she'd be very pleased with me this time, for once I hadn't screwed it up.

Walking as silently as my advanced genetics would allow, I crept around the circular backstairs and slid through the door into the room adjacent to the one in which she was being held.  Pressing my ear to the door I listened as the old woman chanted out the final litany to the gods of hell in her raspy Latin.  Just the grate of her voice was enough to give a grown man heebie jeebies.  Add to that the fact that the old hag was going on about blood letting, and I wanted to run as far away as my legs would carry me.  First I had to deliver my message.  Holding my breath I leaned as close to the wall as I could get.

"Look at you deary, all that blood for shame.  We'd just better get you cleaned up, can't have you dying before the ceremony ends."  One of the women within moaned low in her throat, and I heard the thudding sounds of limbs being shifted and scraped across the floor.  A pair of footsteps echoed out into the corridor and I took the opportunity to slip through the door into the next room.

I sighed with relief as I scanned the room and saw that the crone was indeed gone.  Only one of the three women remained in the dank room.  A body, still and unmoving as death lay on the stone dais in the center of the room.  Blood trickled slowly from the intricately carved sigils across the woman's olive skinned arms.  Long, dark brown hair clung to her sinuous curves.  Ironically, it was nearly impossible to tell whether this was my beloved Lela, or her sister.  It wouldn't be a wise plan to get to near to her.  If it was Max she might just find the energy to strangle me, and if it was Lela, well she was equally capable of doing the same.  My shoulders twitched as the woman moaned and shifted.  There, thank goodness, as she shifted I saw the distinctive markings of one of the ancient runes on her back just above her left hip.  This then was my queen.

"Lela."  She grunted angrily.  "Lela my love you don't know how worried I was.  Are you hurt very badly?"  Still she didn't reply.  "Lela I have wonderful news for you.  I know you prefer me not to do things, before you've approved them that is, but I remembered something from when I was a little boy.  From back before my father left.  See he was always making this grand plan, bastard thought he was some kind of superhero.  Had it all worked out, how he'd just create this race of soldiers and use them to storm the castle.  Don't you see Lela, he's here right now with all of those damned transgenics, and best yet he's kept the same old plan.  I know it all now, when he's attacking, how many people he's got with him."  Lela's breath caught in her throat and I knew that I'd done it.  She would be so filled with admiration now.  Any second now she'd roll over and smile up at her with an expression of womanly adoration.

Slowly she turned and blinked up at me with large dark eyes.

Once.

Twice.

But the eyes that stared back at me, though exactly the right colour, were filled not with fawning admiration or even their usual expression of rancor.

Horrified tears filled them like tiny sparkling diamonds.

Shoes slipping in the blood I backed towards the door.