THE PRISONERS IN THE PALACE

Part Twelve:

They sat silently in the darkness a long while, her hair silky-soft beneath his lips.

Who was this woman who touched his heart so, who made him feel so protective of

her?  He had unanswered questions...many of them.                                                                                                  

When he felt her calm, he rested his cheek atop her head for another long while,

giving her time. Finally he asked, keeping his voice soft and gentle, "Did you know

you would be chosen?"

"Chosen?" She didn't understand what he meant.

"For me.  Chosen to be in this place with me."

So, he saw her in that light. She had not been sure. "I did not, Maximus.  Truly I

did not. I was as surprised to find myself here as you were to see me."

He made a sound low in his throat, thinking about what she said.  "How long were

you in Rome?"

"When you saw me in Zucchabar...remember?"

He nodded. 

"I was sold right after that to a nobleman who took me to Rome." 

"At the gladiator practice yard, you told me to watch for Tigris, that he would kick

sand in my face.  Please, Brianna, do not be offended by my questions. There is so

much that makes no sense any more, so much I have no understanding of...I need...."

"It's all right, Maximus," she said. "I know all this must be so strange for you.  As

for Tigris, I had seen him fight before. The sand is something he did every time I saw

him to give himself an unfair advantage."  This was true. He kicked sand at Maximus

every single time she had watched Gladiator.

"Thank you," he murmured, "everything I understand...helps."

She flinched, dreading the inevitable day he would know the full truth. "I'm so

sorry, Maximus."

"Sorry? For what?"

"For everything...just everything."

"Ah, no, Brianna,  this is not your doing.  Please do not let my questions bring you

to regrets."

"No," she said, more to herself than to him, "this is not my doing."  More than

anything she wanted to be able to tell him the truth of things, well, not more than

anything.  She wanted him alive more than that.  But the price.  She cared for him

each hour more than the hour before.  When he  turned away from her,  and he

would, she would not be able to bear it.  A shudder went through her.

He felt its passage.  "What is it?  Are you all right?"

She moved her head from its resting place, lifting her chin up into the darkness.

"No," she said, lying impossible at the moment.

"Why? What do you mean?"

"Nothing, Maximus, I mean nothing."  She wiped away a tear.  "Nothing at all." 

That would be the end of it. She had no doubt. Everything would end in nothing. 

She should have restored her shields, have kept her citadel in its usual state of

fortification.  But it was too late. She knew that, too. She loved him and could not

not love him.  "Oh, God!" she moaned, twisting slightly toward her right so he

wouldn't know how terribly the pain her future loss of him was ripping through

her.

"Brianna!" He was startled by her sudden grief.  "Brianna, what is it? Can I help

you?"  He was leaning toward her, putting himself in some danger of sliding off

the ledge.

She kept her face turned, but he gripped her shoulders,  pulling her back toward

him. His very tenderness only served to magnify her awareness of the loss that was

coming.  Always she had borne the aloneness, the barren severity of life. His

tenderness cut through her, sharp and raw, and she wanted to scream with the

horrible pain of it.  Suddenly sitting on the ledge was beyond her capacity to endure. 

She had to move.  She just had to.  Pushing his hands away, she attempted to scrabble

to her knees, but the shale slid under her legs and his grip tightened.

There was a sudden parting in the clouds and the moon shone through, full and round,

looking like it sat upon a large piece of fluff in the sky.  In its light he could see her

face, see the paths of tears through the day's dust on her cheeks, the almost wild

desperation in her eyes. "Let me go!" she cried, her voice so broken she could barely

say the words. "I can't do this!  I cannot DO this!"  Her prized self-control was

completely gone. 

She was on her left knee, facing him, most of her right leg dangling down the cliff. 

She knew if he were not holding her arm, she would topple completely off.  Suddenly

the idea of that seemed to take hold of her mind. She could just...fall...and never have

to see disgust in his eyes, never have to watch his back as he walked  away from her. 

Yes. It was probably several hundred feet.  Perfect.

His gaze was locked on her face and he saw her decision take hold in her eyes, knew

it for the choice it was if not for the reason of it.  "NO!" he shouted.  "You will NOT!" 

She jerked the arm he held with such sudden, violent strength that it threw his

precarious position completely off balance and the shale beneath him slid sideways. 

His eyes widened as his fingers strained to find some solid purchase.  But more

layers of the shale gave way under his movement.  It was a matter of mere seconds.
He was there and then he was not. 

She was on her hands and knees, her teeth sunk in her lower lip, the taste of blood

unnoticed in her mouth. "Oh, God...Oh, God...Oh, God!" What had she done!!! 

Barely managing not to slip herself, she peered over the edge, the moonlight revealing 

a jumble of large rocks not more than fifteen feet below. She blew out a breath of

relief.

"MAXIMUS!" she shouted.  She couldn't see him.  The moon started to go back

behind the clouds. "No!" she screamed. It disappeared completely for a long moment,

then sailed all too slowly into view again. Quickly, she lowered herself over the edge,

hanging by her fingers,  stretching down her full length, then dropping. She landed

atop a fairly flat rock, crouching,  looking desperately around at the nearby boulders.

"Where are you?" she called.

"H...here," he answered, his voice coming from a deeply shadowed area just to her

right. She climbed down another yard or two,  shale and stones atop the boulders

sliding, rolling under her feet.  He lay in a sort of hollow between two enormous rocks, 

smaller ones that he'd dislodged in his fall, lying around, atop him.

"Oh, God, Maximus!" she cried,  sliding down the side of the largest rock to the

small space beside him. He lay on his back, blood oozing down his right temple. 

"M...my arm," he gritted between clenched teeth.

She looked quickly; his right arm lay under a flat slab of rock about two feet long. 

She curled her fingers under one edge, straining to lift it.  It didn't move.  Scanning

the area, she found no branches, nothing to use as a lever.  She leaned over him. 

"I'm going to try something.  When I give the signal, pull your arm out if you
can."  Oh, God...would he be able to move it? She couldn't both lift the stone and

move his arm for him. He would have to do it himself.

She settled herself on her back beside him, bending her knees sharply, getting her

heels under the slab's narrower edge. With every bit of strength she had, she pushed. 

It lifted an inch or two.  "NOW!" she cried and with a gasp of pain, he pulled his arm

free.  Carefully, she lowered the rock, managing to angle it a bit more to the side,

then twisted onto her knees.

His eyes were scrinched tightly shut, his mouth squared as he dealt with the pain.

The moonlight was bright now and she saw the beads of sweat on his face.  She

pushed the smaller rocks off his chest then let her fingers travel slowly along the

length of his arm.  It didn't seem to be broken, but there was a long gash down his

forearm. Ripping the bottom hem of her tunic off around it's full length, she

wrapped it tightly around and around his arm.

"Brianna."  He had whispered her name.

"Yes, Maximus," she leaned toward his face.

"Why?"

He deserved an explanation that she could not give him.  Look at what she had done

to him and she could not even give him a reason.  She swallowed hard. "Death seemed...preferable."

"To what?" It was hard for him to speak. His head was so dizzy he felt almost

nauseous with it. But he had to know why she had made that decision on the

ledge. He had to.

She didn't answer, just tipped her head up toward the moon, the most stricken look

on her face he'd ever seen.

"To...what, Brianna?" he insisted, gasping with the effort of forming words.

Without looking at him she replied, hardly audibly, "To losing you."

He wasn't sure he had heard her right.  Everything around him was starting to fade

and he could not stop it.

She stared at the moon for several moments, wishing there were some way she could

be drawn up, made part of its shining essence.  She had ruined everything.  And now

she had caused him injury, caused him pain. Stupid, stupid, stupid, she berated herself. 

Then it finally dawned on her that he had not replied to her words and she lowered

her gaze to his face.  His eyes were closed, not scrinched up as they'd been before,

just closed.  His jaw relaxed, his lips slightly parted.  Like the blade of a woodsman's

axe suddenly embedded in a tree, the thought  burst sharply through her that he was

dead.  His face looked exactly as it had in the arena, in the arena at the...end. "Oh,

God...nooo!"  Her fingers fluttered over his face, then down his neck, searching for his

pulse.  When she found it, a sound more like that some small animal might make,

escaped her lips.

When the ability to think returned to her, she stretched up on her knees as high as

she could. Nothing but rocks, piled, jumbled one atop the other, stretched to the

horizon.  She stood, trying to see further, but only the rocks greeted her gaze.  He

needed help.  Would Sid leave them here in this place of desolation? Surely Sid would

not let him die. There must be more he needed from Maximus for his program.  There

had to be!

She sank back to her knees.  There was no place for her to go to find help. Sid had not

set it up that way. But, then, Sid did not know she would do what she had done on the

ledge, either.  Was he monitoring them? Was he not aware that Maximus was injured?

Her fingers went down his arm again.  The bleeding had stopped. She had no water,

nothing to wash the blood from his face.  There was just enough room for her to settle

herself near his head, her back against a boulder.  Gently she lifted his head into her

lap and leaned forward, kissing his closed lids over and over. "Be all right, Maximus,"

she murmured, "please, please be all right." 

"Damn it, Terry!" Sid shouted. "This is MY business!!!  MINE!"  He barely managed

to dart through the sliding door in time to elude Terry's grasp.

"God damn interfering K&R agent!" he muttered. It had been hours today that

he'd been entangled in Terry and Bud's machinations to uncover what he was

doing with the General.  It was good that his whole secret area of Emerald City

was built stronger than most bunkers, was absolutely impenetrable from the outside.

But, damn, Maximus and Brianna had been on their own since morning.  He went

through another door into his main computer room, smiling as he saw the steadily

glowing lights that indicated Maximus' chips were still doing their job, still sending
a constant stream of information. 

He plopped himself into a computer chair, leaning way back.  "Well, let's see what

my little lab rats have been up to today," he said to himself as he turned on a large

view screen.  He looked at his watch before looking at the screen. "Should still be up

on the ledge by my calculations."  Then he saw what was on the screen.  "What in

hell?"

The moon was out, as it should be now, casting its glowing light over the scene.  But

instead of the couple sitting perched on the ledge, Brianna was leaning against a

boulder, her head back, her eyes closed, tears sliding down her cheeks as her hands

cupped about Maximus' face. 

Sid stood, leaning over the keyboard, unable to believe what he was seeing. Maximus

looked almost dead.  What in blue blazes had happened?  He sat back, a fierce look in

his eye, and began punching keys to bring up readings. The chips sent back a constant

report of Maximus' physical condition as well as the stream of his thoughts and
emotions.  Everything was too low!  Damn it! Damn it!  The man was in trouble.  His

respiration, heart rate, blood pressure...everything...was not as it should be.  Something

very like a growl rose up Sid's throat.  It was all Terry's fault, keeping him away from

where he needed to be! Damn the man! 

He would have to interrupt the program, have to bring them back here.  As all this

was experimental technology, never done before, any of it, he had no idea what the

result would be in the actual world of damage done in its cyber counterpart.  He

pressed his lips grimly together.  He would find out now, wouldn't he.

Quickly his fingers flew over the keyboard, entering the code to halt the program. 

He pushed the chair back so hard as he rose that it rolled across the room, crashing

into a file cabinet with a loud bang. He paid it no attention, just dashing for the door

that led to Maximus' bedroom in the 'Palace'.

Brianna was near the table, tears still wet on her cheeks, looking entirely bewildered. 

Maximus, however, had crumpled over onto his side, the pear rolling from his fingers.

"Damn!" Sid blasted as he knelt beside the General.  Maximus looked exactly as he

always had in this room, attired in his blue tunic and leather belt, but now he bore the

addition of  wounds and bruising got from his fall.  He looked angrily up at Brianna,

clad again in her blue gown.  "What the hell happened to him?"

"The ledge...he slipped," she said, her voice strange, distant. 

"He SLIPPED! Him? Why would he slip?"

"Shale.  There was loose shale....," her voice trailed off. She seemed dazed, confused.

"God damn it, Brianna. Sit down before you fall over!"  He had no more time to spare

on her.  He opened his commlink.  "Get in here...NOW!  Full medical team.  NOW!"

In about 10 seconds a door slid open and  six men in white dashed in, two of them

wheeling a gurney. In a flurry of activity they whisked Maximus away, Sid following.

Brianna was alone, still standing near the low table.  She blinked several times then

turned, looking at the door they had taken Maximus through.  She felt as though she'd

been unplugged and all her life force lay in some large puddle around her feet.  Slowly,

she looked down, rather expecting to see it there. Trancelike, she crossed the room and

entered her own.  It was quiet, so quiet that its vast silence echoed off its walls, deafening

her.  She folded her arms around her head, trying to block it out, then caught sight of

herself in a large mirror.  Lowering her arms to her sides, she stared at her reflection. 

"You absolute, utter fool," she accused herself.  "You almost killed him."  Her face

twisted into pain and she grabbed a candlestick from the table, hurling it at the mirror.

"You almost KILLED him!" she shouted as the mirror shattered, then she flung herself

across the bed, pulled her knees up until she was nearly in a ball, and gasped and gasped
with an agony of soul that went way beyond the ability to cry.

ON TO PART 13

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