15 - Expedition to Owner's Country

Kyrus, leaning back in the sprung and padded working chair behind the stone desk, opened his eyes, still looking at code instead of seeing the office, blind to the real world.  He shook his head and blinked and turned his head to smile at Ilax, who lay on a nearby couch.

“The boys are busy at their lessons, and Hara is not feeling well?” He said.

“They’re safely occupied,” Ilax answered.  “I know you wanted them in on this, but if it goes quano shaped and we’re lost in the code, they’re a good enough team to fetch us out.”

“With the right back-ups.”

“Of course.  I know, inamour.  They really are ready for this but we can’t put everyone into one attempt.”

*Shashi...*

Her voice, through code, came up strong. *The zardukar are ready to support you*

*We’re ready to go in.*

Ilax, by nature the more subtle, smoothed and perfected by years of Milari politics, slid into the code without a single ripple.  Kyrus, holding the massed power of the Lainz zardukar in check like a team of warbirds in hand, brushed ‘owner’ signature deenay over his husband’s code, there was enough of his own ‘owner’ signature that it blurred together into a seamless covering. *Like an invisibility cloak!* he thought.  *chuckle*

*Be serious, deovar!* Kyrus broke his spiked irritation over his knee and calmed himself.  *sorry. Here we go.*

*Lead on.*

The last time Kyrus had tried to take Ilax in through Tertius gate, it had rejected Ilax.  Not violently, but insisting on an access code that no one had any longer.  Dag was searching in the land of broken dreams for that bit of code.

Until then, they assumed that Ilax would have to appear to be part of Kyrus to be admitted to owner territory.  Prime’s flashy gate with its security dragons and search flares and fires and fireworks was easy enough to bypass.  There was so much going on that it was easy to hide their passage in the excess program code.

Secundus gate was newly smoldering, and as they flitted from shadow to shadow and down the stairs, they were forced to flatten themselves against the code and blend as a security program, all flame and scales, flew overhead to sear the rubble of Secundus and Tertius both. In the barest, smallest code, Ilax whispered *Vindictive, isn’t he?*

*Very,* Kyrus hissed back, his voice a burst of static *I set him off sending the ear worm in. Deovar, be careful*

*Of course.  Aren’t I always?* If Kyrus had had lips in the code, he’d have kissed him, or if he’d been willing to move that much, swatted his husband, but did neither.

*I’ll open the gate under the rubble, let that dragon see that things are burning nicely, and you and I’ll slide in, through the underground river.*

*Only a Lainz would have an enormous, flaming ruin of a gate, up on top, with the river and all the terraces along the canyon tucked neatly below, out of sight.*

*If Prime ever does come to try and smash us, from the sky, deovar, we’ll give him our big beautiful flower city to destroy.  Lainz is prepared to go completely underground now, with your help I may add.* 

*Shh.  Here it comes again.*

Their lifeline, their line back out of code was being held, strong and shielded dark, by the zardukar, and the zon from Milar.  Whenever one was forced to drop out from fatigue, another took her or his place.  The students from the new mandery school watched, under even more layers of shielding, charged to not attempt to help.  They would be backup if this attempted theft failed.

Minutes ticked by, the only sound the slow breathing of the two men in the Emperor’s working office.  Their chests rose and fell but their eyes, under the closed lids, tracked and flickered and rove, as they watched the code around them.

*All clear. Its open. Go, deovar...go!*

Ilax, in his cloak of ownership, slid over the threshold of Tertius gate. He could feel the flaming rubble above, heat and dissolution biting through like acid. Kyrus stepped in behind him and they stabilized the open back door together, and like coded ghosts, dissolved into the mist of owner’s country, heading for Prime’s files.