B00CH3ARG0 EBOK (11 page)

“There’s another ship—”

“Citizen Howard,” the pilot interrupted, his voice sharp. “Remember
your grandchildren.”

Laura bit her lip, fresh tears welling in her eyes.

“It’ll be all right,” Marianne whispered, and put an arm
around her. “You’re safe now.”

The Sural smiled. “We know about the ship overhead.” He left
Laura and closed the space between himself and the pilot. “We have disabled its
phase platform and engines.”

The man frowned. “Impossible. You don’t have that kind of
technology. You still live in stone fortresses.”

“Stone is durable,” the Sural said as he reached him. “What
is your name?”

The pilot ignored the question. “You must be the Sural.”

“Even so.” The Sural gave a slight bow.

The human started to fall to the ground, his knees buckling,
then spun free of the guards and launched himself – at Marianne. The Sural,
moving so fast his hands were a blur, grabbed him by the throat with one hand and
brought the other down at the base of the man’s skull with a snap.

A brilliant flash of pain tore through Marianne as the man
fell to the ground, motionless, his light – the empathic glow she saw when she
closed her eyes – dimming to darkness. Laura uttered a cry and sank to the soft
vegetation, sobbing. Marianne lowered herself to the ground and wrapped her
arms around her friend.

The Sural stood staring at the dead pilot. “You should not
have done that,” he said in a low, hard voice, still speaking English.

Marianne looked up. “Beloved, you—”

“I executed him,” he said in his own language. “He meant to
capture you.”

Marianne swallowed. “Did you have to
kill
him?”

His eyes flashed. “Yes.” He turned toward the scout ship and
snapped orders to his guards. “Destroy this vessel.” He glanced at Laura, and
his face softened. “Take Mrs. Howard to the apothecaries.”

* * *

Hours later, Marianne sat with Laura at one of the small
tables in the refectory. The poor woman had been horrified to realize that she
and her clothing reeked to the Tolari’s exquisite sense of smell, and she had
been happy to bathe and change before the apothecaries examined her. Then, after
the healers pronounced her unharmed but for a need to drink extra fluids,
Marianne led her, clean and wearing a Tolari robe, trousers, and slippers in
Suralia blue, to the refectory.

“It was like a bad novel about the corporate wars,” Laura
said, huddled over a mug of tea, taking long, thirsty pulls. Storaas sat in a
chair on her other side, one hand on her shoulder, as the Sural paced slowly back
and forth, hands clasped behind his back.

“They came for me in the middle of the night.” She took
another long drink from the mug. “That’s really good tea,” she whispered, with
a shaky breath.

Marianne rubbed her back. “Go on,” she urged.

Laura took another trembling breath. “They were masked and
dressed in black like thugs from the Restored Triads, but I’m,” her voice
caught, “I
was
an admiral’s wife. I know how things are. The mob doesn’t
tangle with Earth Fleet. Those men had to be from Central Command.” She sipped
a little more slowly from the mug. “They broke into my quarters and tied me up
with some kind of tape and put me in a transit trunk. I thought I was going to
die in there.”

A shudder ran through her. “It must have had an oxygen
supply though,” she continued, “or I think I would have suffocated. When that
horrid man let me out, I was on the scout ship and we were almost all the way
here. It had to be more than a day I was in there.” She swallowed. “He told me
if I didn’t do exactly as he ordered, my grandchildren,” her voice dropped to a
whisper again, “my grandchildren would pay for it.”

The Sural stopped pacing, his deep-seated outrage blending
into her own. When his faded, controlled, he continued his slow pacing near the
table.

“I don’t know his name. He never told me who he was. But he
said if I did everything he told me to do, I’d make it back to Tau Ceti in one
piece.” She shook her head. “I could see my death in his eyes. He was lying. But
he was going to kill me right there if I didn’t do what he said, and I thought
if I could stay alive long enough, I could talk him out of killing me. So I
told him I’d do whatever he told me.”

Marianne blinked, impressed. Approval was running through
the Sural, too. The woman had grit.

“He told me to lie to whoever it took, say whatever it took,
to get the ship on the ground.” She uttered a humorless laugh. “Everyone knows
Tolari can tell if you’re lying, especially if they can see your face. Even
I
know that. Maybe it didn’t matter to Central Command if the lying got me
killed. I was ... inconvenient ... after John died.” Her eyes reddened, and she
swallowed. “Anyway, he told me to hug you and he’d signal the other ship to
phase me up, and they’d get you with me. But – thank God – things didn’t work
out like he planned.”

“I’m so sorry they involved you in this,” Marianne said. “Do
you have anywhere else to go?”

Laura shook her head. “I have children and grandchildren,
but Central Command will be watching them. My friends won’t risk their families
or their husbands’ careers to take me in. I’m not sure I could call myself a
friend if I asked them to.”

Marianne shook her head and sighed, continuing to rub Laura’s
back. Storaas removed his hand. “She is innocent,” he said in Tolari. “She hides
nothing.”

The Sural nodded. “You honor me with your gift, old friend.”

“What are they saying?” Laura asked.

“That they know you’re telling the truth,” Marianne said,
with a pat on the shoulder. “It’s all right. No one’s going to hurt you.”

Laura nodded and extended a tentative hand to touch
Marianne’s pregnant belly. “Look at you,” she whispered.

Marianne took Laura’s hand and smiled. “It’s a girl,” she
said. “I’m going to have a little girl.”

“The Sural?”

“Yes.”

Laura looked away. “He killed John.”

So she
does
know.
“Laura, if you want to blame
anyone, blame Central Command. They sent him back here.”

“John was just following orders,” she said defensively, her
eyes reddening.

“I know. The Sural knows. He gave the Admiral every chance.”

Laura’s voice dropped to a whisper. “I was there, but I
couldn’t understand what they were saying. They weren’t speaking English.
Marianne,” she took a sip of tea, “you were right about one thing. If you’d
gone back, Central Command would have sued you for breach of contract and
harassed your friends, leaving you penniless and with nowhere to go.”

She stopped to take a breath and began to shake. “After you
kicked the
Alexander
out of Tolari space, Addie convinced John that you
lied when you said the Tolari were protected by a more advanced technology than
Earth’s. He had a gut feeling you were telling the truth, and his people ran
analyses on the recordings that proved you believed what you were saying, but
she kept working on him. She wore him down.” She shook her head. “He should
have listened to his own instincts.”

Her eyes wandered over to Marianne’s tall bond-partner, who still
paced near the table, a grim expression on his face. “That’s the Sural, isn’t
it?” she asked, her hazel eyes darkening.

He stopped pacing and gave Laura a slight bow.

“You killed my husband.”

The Sural was silent for a moment. Softly, in English, he
replied, “It was necessary.”

Seething anger began to radiate out of her. “Of course it
wasn’t necessary!”

Guards around the refectory flickered into sight. Laura
started.

“Please calm down,” Marianne murmured, rubbing her back. “They’re
empaths. They can sense your anger.”

Laura blanched and took a deep breath. The anger banked but
didn’t disappear.

At a signal from the Sural, the guards vanished. He rubbed
his chin, his face softening as he studied her. He made another gesture. “What
would you have had me do?”

“You didn’t have to kill him!”

“He would not leave.”

“He was following orders!”

“And I ordered him to depart. Your husband was a man of
authority. He knew the risk he took when he defied me.”

Kyza appeared in the doorway. She walked over to her father
and took his hand, his impressive height making her look even younger than she
was.

“This is Kyza.” He didn’t bother to keep the pride out of
his voice.

Laura glanced at her and swallowed. “Your daughter.”

“If I fail to protect my people from the humans, my daughter
will pay the price for my negligence,” he continued. “Tell me, Mrs. Howard,
what do you think I should do to protect her?”

Laura took a deep breath and gazed down at her hands. “Take
out the enemy leadership,” she said in a quiet voice.

He nodded again, though with her head down, Marianne didn’t
think Laura could see it. To Marianne’s eye, he looked sympathetic, but she
knew
what he was feeling. She wasn’t sure what the other woman would see, perceptive
though she was for a human.

“I – I need to think about this,” Laura said.

“Of course. Take as much time as you require. You are
welcome to remain here as long as you like.”

Her mouth fell open. “I’m... welcome?”

He smiled with genuine warmth. “Should you not be?”

“We’re enemies—”

“I am perhaps at odds with your government, but you are not
my enemy, Mrs. Howard. You are a friend of my wife.”

Laura drew a sharp breath and turned to Marianne. “You’re
married?”

“The Tolari equivalent,” Marianne answered. “They don’t have
anything like human marriage, but bonding is for life.”

“Beloved,” the Sural said, “I must go.” He came around the
table and bent to briefly touch his forehead to hers. Then he strode out of the
refectory, Kyza on his heels, scurrying to keep up. Storaas rose, gave Marianne
a bow, and followed them. When they were gone, Laura looked back at Marianne with
a thoughtful expression.

“He really loves you,” she said.

Marianne blinked. “You can tell?”

“It’s obvious, isn’t it?”

“Not to most humans, no. Nor even to most Tolari. He’s –
well, he’s a different kettle of fish, really.”

“He didn’t even hesitate when that horrible man went for you.”
Laura shook her head. “Powerful men. They protect what’s theirs.”

Marianne looked out the refectory door. “I’ve never seen the
Sural like that.” She shivered, looking back at Laura. The older woman was past
hunger. “The apothecaries said you hadn’t been harmed, but you were in that
trunk at least a day. How long has it been since you’ve eaten?”

Laura shrugged. “I’m not hungry.”

“Yes, you are. How long?”

She heaved a sigh. “I don’t know.”

“So at least a day ago, probably more. God, Laura, you need
to eat. Do you like spicy food?”

Laura hiccupped a laugh. “Yes, I love it.”

Marianne grinned and grabbed a grain roll from a trencher on
the table. “Here, try this. If it’s too spicy for you, drink some tea with it. That
cools the heat.”

Laura took a small bite. She smiled. “Nice!” Then her eyes
went huge. She gulped down some tea, trying not to laugh and cough at the same
time. “Wow,” she wheezed. “Nuclear fusion.”

“It did take me some years to get used to it.”

In spite of the spiciness, Laura ate the entire roll – which
was better than Marianne had been able to manage at her first meal on Tolar. “I
don’t think that man was going to let me live,” Laura said when she slowed
down. She paused and took a breath. “The Sural saved my life, didn’t he?”

“In more ways than one,” Marianne said with a nod, and
reached over to pat her hand. “You look tired. Let me show you to the guest wing.
You look like you could use some rest.”

After showing her how to work the controls in the bathing
area and in the necessary, Marianne left Laura falling asleep in her new
quarters and strolled through the garden in the early evening, restless after
the eventful afternoon. Music floated on the air. She smiled and picked up her
pace, hoping to find Thela in one of the gazebos. She was pleased to find the
girl practicing, playing a technically demanding piece of music without using
her gift. The man Marianne now knew to be Thela’s father was relaxing on a
bench in the pavilion, listening. Marianne stopped a short distance away to
listen.

The man noticed her. Marianne gave him a smile and continued
to listen, admiring Thela’s virtuosity. The climatologist left his place in the
gazebo, starting down the steps to meet her. As he did so, his robe caught on –
something, she couldn’t see what – and flared out behind him.

“No!” she cried, as he turned awkwardly and tripped,
twisting as he fell.

Thela’s instrument dropped, shattering, as she lunged for
him. Her father tumbled down the gazebo steps with a startled yelp, stopping when
his head impacted the paving stones at the bottom. A soul-ripping pain blazed
through Marianne, knocking the wind out of her and doubling her over. Thela
screamed.

“Apothecaries!” Marianne gasped at the nearest guard. She stumbled
toward the spot where Thela’s father lay sprawled face up on the gazebo steps, staring
sightlessly into the early evening sky. Blood pooled under his head.

Thela threw herself across her father’s body. “Come back,
Father, come back!” She grabbed one of his arms and shook him. Panic rolled
around her. “Come back come back come back!”

“Thela,” Marianne said in a soft voice. She put a hand on the
girl’s shoulder to pull her away. Thela turned and threw her arms around Marianne,
clinging to her waist and sobbing, her emotions surging.

“Hush, child,” Marianne said, stroking her hair. “Hush.”

Thela’s senses beat against her in wild panic. Without
thinking, Marianne caught hold of them and wrapped them up with her own. The
world faded away.