Knights and Eros Bound

Chapter 25

When the com in Anakin's hand signaled, Schurke practically jumped out of his chair.

"Kam?" he asked breathlessly, "She's coming back?"

Anakin shook his head reluctantly. "She's just checking in…" He trailed off, concern creeping across his features.

Schurke frowned. "Something's not right," he said quietly.

"I saw her, Schurke," Anakin said suddenly. "When I went out this afternoon."

"Saw who? Not…"

"She's different now," Anakin interrupted before Schurke could continue. "It's like …I don't know how to explain it. Cold…"

Schurke considered this carefully, and almost fearfully he added, "You don't think that…"

It hit them both like a blow to the stomach, Schurke more so than Anakin, and Schurke doubled over with pain.

"Kam…" he whimpered. "By all that's… Kam's in trouble, Anakin!"

Anakin's reply was little more than a growl. "Gris."

Schurke shot to his feet. "We have to go after her!" he cried, but for once, Anakin was the cool one.

"Wait," he murmured. "Think. It could be a trap."

Schurke uttered a Corellian expletive with which Anakin was all too familiar.. "We have to go now! We can think on the way there!"

Anakin stood up and put his right hand on Schurke's shoulder. The mechanical one. "Hold on, Schurke," he said, surprisingly composed. "We're not even sure where she is."

"I know!" said Schurke quietly. "I can't tell you how, but I do…"

"Yes, of course," Anakin said soothingly. "But we can't help Kam if we rush in blindly." He flexed his fingers bitterly, a hard reminder of a lesson learned.

Suddenly, the forgotten com blinked again, and Schurke snatched it off the table.

"Kam?" he cried. "Are you OK?"

"She's just fine, lover boy." The voice sent a sliver of ice down their backs.

Gris.

"Let me talk to her!" Schurke shouted into the com-link. "Kam! Kam! Are you alright?"

Gris giggled, another shard of ice. "She's, shall we say, indisposed at the moment."

"If you've so much as laid a slimy finger on her, you Circarpousian water snake…"

Schurke snarled. "I'll gut you like a roller fish!"

"Now, now," came the reply. "After all, she did belong to me first after all. Tell me, Schurke, whose name did she cry out when you…"

Anakin snatched the com away from Schurke's shaking hand.

"Enough, Gris," he said darkly, cutting her off. "What do you want from us?"

"Why it should be obvious, Anakin!" answered Gris smoothly. "I want you to come to me… let me show you some things…"

"And if we refuse?"

Schurke howled with rage. "NO!"

"I'll kill her."

Anakin was stunned into silence while Schurke slammed his fist into the wall. What could have possessed her? The one they had called friend for so long. The one they had fought side by side with. The one they would have died for…

"One hour," Gris finished coldly, interrupting his thoughts. "I'm sure you can find us without  any trouble."

Suddenly, there came the whine of feedback and the unmistakable hum of a broken connection. Gris had evidently smashed the com-link as a minor deterrent, or a hint of what would happen if they refused. The message was not lost on them.

"All right , Gris," Anakin said quietly to the dead com. "Let's see who is the stronger one."

Schurke's eyes had become hollow and bleak, and there seemed to be a glimmer of madness there.

"Not much time," he said tenuously. "Toboo…"

"We'll save her, Schurke," replied Anakin. "Even if it means loosing ourselves in the bargain. But it won't come to that."

Schurke began gathering their things, taking special care to clip his light-saber within easy reach. He put his hand on Anakin's shoulder.

"All together then?" he asked hoarsely, and Anakin nodded.

"We will not hang alone…"