27. Kian

27

KIAN

K ian strode through the keep halls, his footsteps echoing off the stone walls as he made his way toward the underground chambers he'd dedicated to storing the equipment from the pod. Beside him William kept pace, his face alight with excitement at the prospect of getting his hands on the advanced technology the gods had salvaged.

"Don't look so excited." Kian cast him a sidelong glance. "I talked with Aru earlier, and he said they hadn't been able to crack anything open."

The sparkle in William's eyes didn't diminish. "Even if we can't get anything open, we can probably connect it to a power source and see how it works. I would be happier if I could take every bit of equipment apart and reverse engineer it, but if I can't do that, I'll make do with figuring out what it can do."

"Fair enough," Kian said. "My main impetus is finding clues to the whereabouts of the other missing pods, but since I don't expect to find any more survivors, it's more out of curiosity and the need to prevent humans from finding them than the urgency to save people. All the Kra-ell are likely dead."

William arched a brow. "I'm not so sure about that. We didn't solve the mystery of Mey and Jin's parents, and we know for sure that their father must have been a hybrid Kra-ell, and we also know that he didn't come from Jade's tribe."

Kian used his phone to open the door to the suite of chambers the gods were using to work on the equipment. "Their father could have come from one of the other tribes that Igor found and subjugated. I don't know if the leaders of the other tribes kept their males on such a short leash as Jade. One might have fathered a hybrid boy outside his tribe, and that boy later became Mey and Jin's father."

William nodded. "That's possible."

As Kian opened one of the interior doors, they were greeted by Aru and his team hunched over a table littered with scraps of components.

"Any progress?" Kian asked.

Aru shook his head. "We've managed to power up some of the devices, but everything is solid state."

"That's great progress." William leaned over the table. "Can you show me what works and how?"

"I'll leave you to it." Kian clapped William on his back. "I'm going to check on our royal guests, and I'll let you know when I'm ready to head back to the village."

Waving Kian away, William didn't even lift his head.

"Evidently I'm no longer needed," Kian murmured as he stepped out of the room.

When he reached the clinic, he found Bridget in her office. He knocked on the open door and walked in. "How are you doing?" he asked.

"That's novel." Bridget leaned back in her chair, a small smile playing at the corners of her mouth. "Someone asking me how I am feeling."

"You look tired."

She sighed. "Sleeping on a gurney is not as fun as I remembered, but Victor is a good sport and doesn't complain. I think he enjoys it."

"Why don't you go home in the evenings? Julian and Gertrude can monitor the twins at night."

"I prefer to let Julian go home to his mate." Bridget smiled. "Besides, he's not experienced enough to deal with the twins on his own."

Kian tilted his head. "Are you sure? Maybe you are coddling him a little? Your son impressed me as a very capable physician."

Bridget grinned. "That's nice of you to say, and it's true, but he's not confident enough in his skills to deal with these two. Not only are they a unique medical challenge, but they are also the Clan Mother's siblings. Julian is terrified of them expiring on his watch."

"Is there a chance of that?"

She shrugged. "I think they are doing well. Their vitals are improving daily, and their brain activity is picking up. It's only a matter of time before they start regaining consciousness. Still, I've never encountered anyone who was in stasis for seven thousand years in a sealed stasis chamber that stopped working at some indeterminable point during those thousands of years."

"Still, it sounds like their prospects are good, right?"

"Unless something unexpected happens, yes. Jasmine's presence is helping. She keeps talking to him, and by talking, I mean that she is acting out entire plays and singing. It would have been much more boring here without that constant entertainment." She leaned forward. "I leave the doors to both rooms open so the princess can benefit from the stimulation as well."

"Good." Kian rose to his feet. "If you say that talking to a comatose patient is helping, then who am I to say otherwise?"

Bridget crossed her arms over her chest. "I know it does. Are you in a rush to return to the village?"

"I need to wait for William to be done, why?"

"Do you want to see our guests?"

"Of course. I would be remiss if I didn't, but first, I need to talk to you about something." He turned and closed the door before returning to his seat. "My mother visited me this morning. She's concerned that we are waiting too long to stage the death of the twins. I told her our plan, and she asked me to verify whether you still think it will work. Did you get any more insight into their physiology?"

Bridget nodded. "They are built like us, and their metabolism works like ours, not the Kra-ell's. I believe that the poison will work."

"Good." He let out a breath. "This will assuage the Clan Mother's fears."

Now, she could tell her grandmother to take a breather and wait patiently until the twins looked like their pod companions so their deaths could be faked convincingly.

Bridget pushed to her feet and rounded her desk. "They look better with every passing day. Come see for yourself."

The doctor walked out of her office and into the princess's room just across the waiting room.

"She looks much better." Kian leaned over the hospital bed. "Her eyes are shaped like ours, not the Kra-ell's."

Bridget nodded. "She is also not as tall. I measured her, and she's only five-nine. So, she is tall for a human but short for a Kra-ell female. She must have worn high-heeled shoes under her robes to pass for a Kra-ell."

"I wonder how old she and her brother were when they entered stasis. I should ask Jade if she knows."

"She should know, but I assume it was at least a few decades. It must have been a nightmare for them and their mother to hide their identities for so long. I'm sure other acolytes didn't take as long to become full-fledged priests."

"Indeed." Kian took another look at the princess. "We will know more when they wake up and tell us their story, provided they remember it."