Pledge of Honor

“You placed a Responsibility Claim on her?” He paced the small room like a storm front ready to detonate. “And you—” He zeroed in on Jamie until she shrank away from his unendurable stare. “You knew he did this?”

Keenu felt her shudder when Locom leaned only inches from her face.

“She does not understand the full force of such a claim,” he informed the man. “She understands even less than the Berloff.”

“We understand!” he insisted. “Even though our mental abilities do not match that of an Elosians in such matters. Still, we are the stronger!” He sneered with pure pleasure at seeing Keenu tremble. “You are afraid!” He roared flippantly. “The Elosian fears me!” His laughter grew like wildfire.

“I do not fear you,” Keenu stated placidly. “It is her fear you see in me.”

He said it so evenly, so softly and without the least sign of emotion that she had to look in his direction to see if he wasn’t slipping away from his obvious fatigue. She knew her own exhaustion and his had to equal her own. They had both taken more than their share of hard knocks lately.

Locom studied the way Jamie’s body cruelly shared her terror and then addressed the Elosian once more. “So what I have heard about the joining is true. My mother studied the Elosians briefly, and my brother once spent time with an Elosian. They both learned of such things. But the Elosian later twisted my brother’s mind and he never returned.” His pompous attitude withered before Keenu’s eyes as he remembered a time long ago.

Locom, realizing his sudden lack of restraint, quickly fought to regain control as his anger turned brutally on Jamie.

“What do you feel from him?” he demanded to know.

“I don’t . . .” Frightened, her bewildered eyes looked to Keenu for assistance. “What is he talking about?” she had to ask.

“He is One with you!” Locom blurted, unforgiving. “I warned you not to try to deceive me again, Little One! You feel the bond!”

“No . . .” She shook her head slowly. “There isn’t any ‘bond’ between us.” She glanced from Keenu, to Locom and back again. “Tell him.”

“There is,” he whispered apologetically. “I regret now more than ever for not telling you.”

“When? How?” She thought frantically until her head spun in chaos and disarranged flashbacks. “No. I would’ve remembered something. Anything.” Suddenly it dawned on her. “By claiming to have responsibility over me, we were somehow bonded?” She watched in shock the downward motion of the Elosian’s head, indicating to her that she was correct.

“Mental separation or death is the only way to break this kind of joining,” Locom said, thinking out loud.

“Is that true?” she required to know from Keenu.

“Yes. At least it is with another Elosian,” he contemplated. “No one has ever gone beyond the bounds of our own people before.”

“Then break it. Now!” she begged him. “Whatever this thing is, stop it so he won’t kill you.”

“I cannot,” he told her flatly.