Page 23 of Inceptive (Ingenious #3)

23

ZACH

“ S orry, Will, but you’re safer in here while I’m helping to load wagons.”

Zach placed Will in the only guest room with an outside lock and no window—the honeymoon suite. The council watched every look and gesture between himself and Will, whose status as an indentured servant was dissolved. He was now a hostage to delay an invasion.

Compared to the cabin, the room was luxurious, with sculptured lanterns, a vanity with a mirror, a closet, and a bathroom. A small eating table held a bottle of liquor and two glasses. Newlyweds spent three days locked in the suite to improve chances of conception. The room had been readied for a wedding night. On the wide bed were pillows with Riley’s and Maya’s initials embroidered inside hearts. Even if Riley was alive and racing across the bridge, his bride wouldn’t be waiting for him at the meeting hall. She’d be with her parents in the second caravan, walking beside their wagon.

Astrid entered the room with Will’s backpack. Will tensed as she emptied his backpack on the floor, saw nothing dangerous, and let him keep it. She waited at the door for Zach to leave with her.

“I’d like to speak to Will alone, please.” Zach stayed a respectable arm-length from Will.

“Not without a chaperone.” Astrid folded her arms and stood between them.

“Overruled. Leave us,” Zach snapped.

“I’ll wait in the hall with the key to lock him inside.” Accustomed to deference, she left the door cracked wide. Zach kicked it shut.

“Where’s Belle?” Will whispered.

“Don’t know. But the town’s afraid of Dante conspiring to help the Islanders. Unless you hear me, don’t unlock the privacy bolt that’ll keep anyone from disturbing you. Your supper tray will slide through a narrow opening by the door.” He looked around the room. “Maya was wanting to marry Riley as soon as he crossed the bridge. I’d be witnessing the shaving before locking them in here for three days.” He took a deep breath. “I don’t have much hope that Riley and the other patients are alive. Just to be sure, I’ll wait for the bridge to clear and watch for Riley. If he doesn’t show, I’ll lock the gate and ride a pony cart to catch up with the wagons. I’m hoping you’ll ride with me, Will. You’ll starve to death, trying to save your people.”

“A gas grenade launcher has a twenty-mile range. It’ll stun us for hours if it lands nearby. Soldiers will execute me for treason.”

“Not if we wear gas masks.” Zach laughed. “You look as stunned as if hit. We really have stockpiled gas masks from Bartley’s Mercantile and his predecessors for a century. We’ve gas diffusers, too. That’s why Dante believed you. He could easily have questioned me about our defenses when I was in the hospital. I didn’t tell you about the supply of masks being real because if a thing is working, then don’t fix it. Like I’ve said, Fort Hope has anticipated an invasion from the beginning—when Islanders called us squatters.”

Will frowned. “Those grenades in my backpack aren’t firecrackers. Dante really believed my mission was to destroy your gas masks.”

“Are you mad at me?”

“A bit hurt that my acting skills are less amazing than I’d thought. It appears that the amazing Miss Glorianna and her Performing Bird must surrender the stage to the amazing Treetop and his Performing Cock.” Will’s mouth curved in a sexy grin. He looked Zach up and down. “We escaped and have an act to work on.”

His eyes heated. “My room’s across the hall. I’ll see you tonight?”

“How will you get in if Astrid keeps the outside key?”

“She can squawk all she wants, but the mayor owns access to all keys, and I’ve suffered louder squawks from Belle.”

“Then I’ll unlock my side of the door at midnight.”

Zach hemmed and hawed, then said, “I’d like… I’d like… to pretend we’re married tonight. Except I can’t shave.”

“Okay. As long as there’s no… um…no…”

“No anal. I promise.”

“I was trying to say no whisker burn on my face… and yes to everything else. I’ll stretch.”

Zach raised four fingers and both brows. “You sure?”

Will winced. “I know. I know. ”

Fort Hope had always been prepared for an invasion. They had flares to alert the settlements, a maze of storage rooms beneath the town that had once served as a construction site for the domes, and barrels of grain, seeds, flour, jerky, cured meats, noodles, nutrient powders, med kits of salves and bandages, stitches, cleansers, and hunting and fishing gear. They also had crates of batteries, lanterns, portable stoves, bolts of cloth, tools, nails, knives, ceramics, and tents.

It was enough supplies for the townspeople and settlers to survive in the basin for two years.

Zach let Astrid and the council direct the workers while he hefted barrels upstairs from storage rooms to the wagons. As soon as a wagon was filled, it set out with letters for rest stations outlining what should be brought and for volunteers to stock rest stations for the ponies. Drivers would unload the wagons in the tunnel and immediately return. The second trip would be the last, and people would walk beside the laden wagons. What couldn’t be loaded would be stored in the underground cellars. The townspeople taunted the invaders by smearing the remaining food supplies with yellow fertilizer.

Though there were miles of land for farming, Islanders would neglect the crops as their bodies and minds succumbed to the protein. Zach could hide food rations for Will, and Belle and the other CinderX scouts could sneak extra food into town, but what would happen when ruthless gangs questioned why he wasn’t gaunt from starvation like them? What if they followed him into town and stole his food supply? As for the birds, they’d be shot down and roasted for sure.

When all the wagons had departed at the end of the day, Zach walked to the steam lodge with the men, who acted as if a grand destiny was finally being fulfilled. Their creator was awake and had never abandoned them. They believed Dante would open the sanctuary to provide for his creations. When all the Islanders were dead, Fort Hope would rebuild, and its traditions would continue.

Though Zach explained the concept of Dante as part of the sanctuary’s technical network that was programmed for human survival, the men couldn’t comprehend machines with a brain or a floating intelligence.

He gave up explaining and discussed the hardships of the basin. These men were townsfolk who hadn’t farmed or had only spent one season farming. They behaved as if it was a glorious quest to rid themselves of Islanders who called them subhumans and squatters.

Their attitude shamed Zach. He’d spent half his life working beside servants who were grateful for good wages to provide for their families. Then he’d met Will—kindhearted, funny, smart, adorable Will, who challenged traditions with level-headed arguments that pulled the wadding from Zach’s ears and allowed him to clearly hear the ring of stubborn nonsense inside the teachings.

George, the rampart’s gatekeeper, reported the bridge seemed to have two weeks before it was passable, giving the second caravan a strong head start. And it was still unknown when the tunnel would open, which was usually a few days after the bridge opened. Zach depended on Belle informing them by flying back and forth over the rim.

Zach yawned and excused himself from the pool. He had a week with Will before the empty wagons returned.

At midnight, Zach peeked outside his room. The meeting hall was closed to visitors, and he’d locked the door to the hall leading to the guest rooms. He padded from his room in a white bathrobe taken from the steam lodge. Light shone beneath Will’s door. How he’d dreaded this room when Astrid had given him the coins for blue tincture. Tonight, he experienced the throbbing need, the sweaty palms, the impatient craving in his belly of an excited groom.

He knocked. “Will?”

“Come in.”

Hurrying inside, he locked the room and saw the closed bathroom door. The bed cover was turned down with a towel in the middle alongside a book entitled The Illustrated Guide to Marital Duties. On the eating table were two goblets and a tall bottle of potent liquor that he recognized as a special drink reserved for the harvest festival and weddings.

He poured two drinks for himself, waiting for Will.

“Save some for me.” Will stepped out of the bathroom, a towel around his waist, his skin damp and flushed. “This room has all sorts of treats for a couple alone for three days and nights.” He sounded nervous. “I’ll have a drink.”

Zach poured one for Will, then a third for himself. He inhaled. “Stars above, you smell good.”

“Rose oil and milkweed. The bathroom has a shelf of odd lotions and potions. There’s one labeled edible and apply to a stiffened member . I must say, you’d have fucked Astrid if stuck in here three days.”

The pleasant warmth of the drinks hit Zach’s stomach and spread like syrup, his limbs sensitive to touch and his cock thick with need.

Will swirled a tiny mouthful of liquor, then swallowed. “Guess what I practiced while you were gone?”

“Your flute?” He ground a fist in his palm to keep from pouncing on the amazingly beautiful Mr. William van Diehn.

“I stretched.” Will twirled his thumbs. “For your flute. Wanna play me?”

Zach tossed him on the bed, hooked those lean, toned legs over his shoulders, lined up, and yelled as loud as Will when his cockhead penetrated the oiled pucker. He stilled. “Forgive me…” He stared down at Will’s eyes squeezed tight. “Love you. Love you.”

The hazel eyes opened. “That’s the drink speaking.”

“From my heart, against all the teachings… I love you.”

Will placed both hands against Zach’s upper buttocks and pressed steadily down until Zach was sheathed inside him. Zach trembled, holding back until Will adjusted and panted. “I’m okay. Gimme your best, Treetop.”

Zach’s best was awkward thrusts, ragged breathing, and somehow managing to reach between them to stroke Will’s cock.

“I’m close.” Will moaned. “Oh… like that. Oh, oh… yes, yes, yessss!”

Will’s ass squeezed and hurtled Zach over the threshold, with their gazes locked and mouths grinning as if they’d won the greatest victory of all time.

Afterward they lay panting on their backs, holding hands.

“Are you okay?” Zach raised up on an elbow.

“You fucked my brains out.”

“Ha. I’m finally as smart as you.”

They cleaned up, spooned, and drifted asleep.

By habit, Zach woke up at dawn. He kissed Will’s shoulders and nibbled his neck.

“Go away, Belle.” Will rolled his shoulder, mumbling, “My goodness, what hairy critter did you catch for breakfast?”

Hairy critter? Zach bit his shoulder.

In a flash, Will was on top, grinning down at him. The grin fell away. “I wish I could wake up with you every morning.” He rested his cheek on Zach’s chest, then scooted into position for Zach to wrap one hand around their morning wood and jerk them off together.

“Nice. Like your ass better, though.” Zach kissed him.

“My ass is sore. But I loved it with you, Treetop,” he quickly added.

They cleaned up. One item missing in the honeymoon suite was a salve for a sore ass. Not that anyone would notice Will’s waddle since he would remain locked in all day.

Mayor Zach spent the next six days helping families pack personal belongings for the returning wagons. He snuck into Will’s room each night. Bored during the day, Will studied the sex manual, which was surprisingly informative on how to arouse a male’s member and how to titillate a woman to ripen her womb.

There was a chapter on lovemaking when youth had faded and a chapter that emphasized the simple pleasures of companionship.

There was also a chapter on coping with the loss of a spouse. There were no words to console the surviving partner. Grief was part of life. Knowing one had been a faithful and giving partner was the only consolation. Then life moved forward. Will had read the chapter aloud to him in bed. Afterward, he’d laid his head on Zach’s shoulder and whispered, “There’s no chapter on how lovers cope with being forced to say goodbye and move forward with their lives.”

“Don’t say goodbye, Will. Come with me to the basin and live in the sanctuary with Dante. He’ll need your help to build a safe haven for survivors. Don’t stay and die for a lost cause.”

The next morning the wagons began rolling in. The round trip, including unloading, had taken seven days. Each driver reported that the tunnel’s gate was still closed, and they’d unloaded the wagons in a foot of water in the tunnel. The stable hands fed, groomed, and rested the ponies.

The second trip would be slower, and the wagons would have to wait until the tunnel’s gate opened to clear the supplies from the first trip in order to drive the wagons through for unloading inside the basin. The able-bodied would walk beside the wagons, with the elderly and small children riding in the front wagons. Trunks of family heirlooms would be left behind in the underground storage rooms that would be found and raided. Hatred brewed at the loss. Four settlements flat-out refused to join the caravan, choosing to hide in caverns and venture out in two years.

Belle returned after being absent for days. Agitated, she sought out Zach, telling him that Dante was silent. Her chip appeared intact, but it didn’t glow when he spoke Dante’s name.

“Gone. No hum in my head,” Belle informed him. “Dante is shut down.”

“Dante seemed fine with the network when we left,” Zach said.

“No. Network hurt Dante after ramp broke.” Belle hopped anxiously. “He knew mud was there. Knew ramp would break.”

The creator hadn’t abandoned his people. He’d deliberately ordered his bots to strain the ramp’s machinery to the breaking point so that Islanders had no entry into the sanctuary.

“Did you search for Dante inside the sanctuary?”

“No way in. Window gone. Is bad for Will’s people.”

The network had shut down Dante for betraying his mandate. He wouldn’t awaken until the other sanctuary sent a message. Then rescuers would wait until they received a reply about the quarantine. The turnaround could take months, years… or never if no cure was found.

Zach spread the word throughout the town that once inside the basin, the people were safe. The outside ramp was broken, and Islanders didn’t possess a laser capable of blasting through the tunnel’s locked gate. The farmers choosing to hide below ground in their settlements would have to accept the consequences if discovered. Since scanning for caverns required chips, and chips corrupted over the bridge, chances were good that the farmers would survive.