Light  from the glowing stone illuminated the expression of the Minion facing Kara, and from her vantage point inside the rock face of Sentinel, she could see that his eyes burned bright blue within. A piercing intensity emanated from them as he began to stealthily move toward the place where Kara was concealed.

"Could it be that you are overzealous to prove yourself? Seeing as he has so recently told you he is your father?"

"He is not my father!"

Crevan eyed the other Minion with raised brows. "You may not claim him, but he made it clear he claims you."

"It is a little-known fact of biology, and you will do well to keep it to yourself." This may have been said with some threat, but Crevan just laughed and moved on down the hallway. "Anyway, Crevan, it may be that he wants revenge not just for the exile, but for Taan taking his woman as well!"

"Taking his woman? What do you mean?" Both Minions were slowly moving toward Kara's hiding place.

The first one ran his hand along the rock wall feeling for a fissure. Kara shrank back automatically, even though she felt a fury she'd never known, having them so close to her.

"The Queen, you know. Taan's Queen was Quildor's woman once, before the war. What was her name?"

Kara felt her heart clench, her shoulders tremble. They were casually talking about her own mother! The thought of them speaking her name burned like a brand inside her. How dare they?

"Ondrea, wasn't it? Wasn't she one of their Council Ladies?"

"Young, and beautiful, I'd wager, else how would Quildor fall for her? She chose Taan then?"

"I suspect it had something to do with who held the most power. Taan, being the oldest son stood to inherit all of it. And the sister, Belakane, she married into the royalty on Carrigah, didn't she?"

"What is this, a history lesson? Why should I care?" Crevan's voice was too sharp, too irritated. Kara began to suspect there was a purpose in their conversation other than idle chit chat. But she couldn't bring herself to move away.

The first Minion shrugged. "It was rumored that Ondrea died giving birth just a year or two after the war."

Both Minions stopped before they reached the light from the outer tunnel, and turned resting against the living stone. Crevan's voice was curious now. "You're saying she died giving birth to a daughter?"

"A daughter would be about the right age now to be a Searcher if she so chose."

Kara felt a quiver of fear. They were piecing together a viable bit of information. They didn't understand why Quildor would keep Jerrika alive and unassimilated, in their words "intact". But if she were royalty, the Princess of Aquaria, Taan's own daughter, she would be a very valuable hostage.

For one unsteady moment, she wanted to hold her breath, all her warrior training telling her to jump out and fight them. She'd never been this close to a Minion before, but without a doubt, the 'two little Searchers' he'd been talking about, were herself and Jerrika.

"Adara, the witch, would know her, wouldn't she?"

"I don't think she was still there when the war ended. She defected to our side before the land battle and the exile. She wouldn't have seen the child. But she may have known Ondrea."

"You said you felt they had unusual power. What kind of unusual power? Power similar to Adara's?" The dark haired one had turned to face the tunnel from whence Kara had come, and she could see that his eyes glowed with the same intense blue as his "brother".

She hated to use that word to describe a Minion, but realized she had to understand everything she could about them, including their familial relationships if they had them. She had been led to believe that the Minions had no souls, that they were mindlessly following Quildor's dark plan to destroy her people. Like Shadow Eaters and assimilated Aquarians and Carrighanians. Yet their speech right now proved that they could reason, they were intelligent. She couldn't afford to underestimate them.

"Shhh." The first moved quickly down the rock face, trailing his hand along the surface. He stopped walking just three feet away from Kara, who knew she couldn't be seen, covered as she was by the protection of living stone.

The Minion knelt and ran his bare hand over the ground at the exact spot where Kara had melded. Crevan nodded, and stood, moving down the hallway further, his hand still testing the rock; for what Kara couldn't fathom. Had their Witch found a way to track a Searcher through the stone?

"Crevan, I sense the maiden has gone." Dark one stood, done perusing the disturbed dust along the base of the wall, wiping his hands on his scales-- his words confirmed that they had sensed her and the strange casual, speech had been nothing more than stalling. Kara chanced a look at him, not two feet away from her. Had he meant that he sensed her? Did they also speak to each other without their voices? Did they have the mind speech? Or did they use unseen hand signals? Had anyone ever been this close?

She had to pay attention, trust that she couldn't be captured here, inside the protection of the mountain. Any information she gleaned would be of paramount importance to her team, to all of Fortress Galantyne. Especially if they actually did have the advantage of mind-speech. These two seemed not to. They spoke out loud, unconcerned with any who listened.

The one called Crevan moved down the hall and Kara's eyes followed him without moving a muscle. She slipped back to her inventory of the Minion standing not two feet from her.

His scales were dry, shiny like metal, and flexible, molded to his skin. They were a purplish green in the light of his blue-eyed illumination. She knew something of the assimilation process he must have used to become this semi-human creature. It was how those of the exile had adapted. But she did not understand the process-- and assumed it must be similar to that of a kai meld. This was confusing to her. How could he maintain partial humanity? If she were to transform into her kai, she would be completely the shape of her kai. She could clearly see the hands and face of the Minion before her. He wore his assimilation like armor. Revulsion washed through her as the implication of that thought hit. Could he actually be wearing a second skin?

She could now see that the eyes were covered in a protective shield, possibly a part of his armor. She knew eyes were particularly vulnerable to the toxic air. Could he be wearing another's eyes as well? His assimilation enabled him to be inside the mountain for long periods of time. He was human... at least to the extent Quildor had allowed him to be. Was he a village Minion, or had he somehow melded with a Shadow Eater? If meld he had-- then the sentient being he had melded with was indigenous to the land. She'd never seen anything like it.

To be so invaded, so over run...

The dark minion leaned against the wall in the exact spot Kara had melded, taking off his eye coverings, he began to clean them with a cloth he'd taken from his belt pack. They were gear-- not part of an indigenous creature.

"Don't call me Minion, little one." His voice broke the stillness, casually, as if he were well aware of her presence and had chosen to simply ignore it, rather than capture her.

Kara's clamoring heartbeat paralyzed her with terror; her eyes were frozen open, her ears straining against the flowing power of stone and meld. Could he be talking to her? Warrior's adrenaline pulsed through her, causing her awareness to heighten, and she feared her meld would break and she'd be forced to leave the living stone. He was so close, except for the rock between them she could use his own dagger to stab him in the heart, and she could! She could! How she hated him!

To be melded with Sentinel meant a certain amount of trust and calm. With that thing a hair's breath away from her, how could she remain calm?

"Call me what your King refers to me as: Foeman. I am your Foe. Respect that." He touched the wall with a bent foot, his butt, and the wide expanse of shoulder and arms, and Kara became aware that she could feel every hated inch of him in the meld. As if the pressure of his body against the stone pressed against her also, forcing her further back inside the mountain to avoid being in direct contact with him!

So close.... So close.... Her thought froze.... So close he was reading her thoughts!

She shrank away, wanting to put as much distance as possible between herself and this hauntingly horrific experience as she could.

His chuckle was knowing. "Run, little one! Run, this time! Yet I sense you are not a cowardly runner! I've felt you before, you see, and I know you have courage, a rare trait among your kind, and I admire that."

His words caused blind rage to wash through her. He was one of the two that had captured Jerrika! He deserved to die! In that split second of rage, her mind was open to him, and she felt the gut-wrenching torture of an image forced into her mind's eye: she saw this "Foeman" subdue Jerrika by delivering a stunning blow to neck and head. She witnessed his pleasure as Jerrika's body fell limp, and felt his desire to... to ... take her life force! Mind-numbing fury made Kara suddenly lash out. The longing to kill this hideous creature filled her. As her body released the meld she drew herself to the edge of the wall separating her from this Foeman.

Kill him! Kill him! Kill him!

"Ah, no! Not This time!" He pushed off from the stone wall and turned to face the place where Kara had melded. "Come to me, little one. Come out and show yourself to me!"

He was using her rage! A furious frenzy he'd induced by implanting the image of Jerrika's capture in her mind! He wanted her to lose control! If she left the protection of the stone now, he would do to her what had been done to Jerrika!

Kara forced her mind to withdraw, to abandon the rage and aggression and return to her own tenuous control. Not for the first time, she cursed her own lack of emotional restraint. Quivering with effort and a will she barely knew she possessed, she stayed where she was, allowing the gentle feeling of cool mountain solidarity to claim her once again. Her eyes remained on the Foeman, and she saw with satisfaction the moment when he realized he no longer had access to her. Disappointment flashed briefly in his eyes as he realized he'd lost this battle.

They stood, faced off, within arm's reach of each other, and yet separated by solid stone, pride and hate. For that moment, Kara saw him, not as Minion, not as Foeman, but with awful realization she was filled with the essence of his life force, his true inner self. As if in melding with the mountain she had melded with all inside it as well-- even this cursed and hated enemy. For the first time, she saw him as human.

*****