Redemption of Light (The Light Trilogy) (21 page)

“How are things going, Captain.”

“Not well, I’m afraid. Something strange is happening on Sinai. We’re noting curious density fluctuations in the gas mote—as though the entire planet is on the verge of phase change. The instability has slowed our search considerably. And you will recall, Lieutenant, that Slothen recently ordered my ship to deliver food to the starving war victims of Delores 2. I do hope this search doesn’t delay us much longer or we’re going to have multitudes dying there.”

The man’s haughty tone cut like shattered glass. Jason stiffened. Williamson had never liked Amirah. She’d out-soldiered him in one too many critical battles. Professionally, Jason asked, “Do you think the disturbance is natural or artificial?”

Williamson ran a hand over his shiny scalp and lifted a shoulder. Behind him, people rushed around the
Marburg’s
bridge, checking com screens, whispering urgently. “You think those terrorists might be causing the flux? Well, it would take some sophisticated equipment, but it’s possible. When are you leaving orbit?”

He glanced down at Pirke. “Orah?”

“Approximately fifteen minutes, sir.”

“You copy that, Mikos?”

“Yes,” Williamson nodded. “Well, we’ll keep searching for as long as we can. But if this planet gets any wilder we might have to call it off. You understand that?”

Jason nodded reluctantly. “I do. I appreciate your help, Mikos.”

“Keep it in mind the next time the
Marburg’s
in trouble, Lieutenant. Williamson out.”

The screen went blank and Jason went to ease down into Amirah’s command chair.
Amirah’s…. Even if I live as long as Slothen himself, this will never be my chair. Never.

His mind played glimpses of memories: Amirah smiling at him across a strategy table, her long blonde hair shimmering over her shoulders; Amirah praising his “brilliance” in the Jaron debacle—but it had been her brilliance that had extricated them from that impossible trap. He could still feel her soft touch on his arm when they’d both walked off the bridge together after forty hours without sleep and only scanty meals eaten in haste. She’d invited him to her cabin for a strong belt of whiskey. He’d gone gratefully. They’d talked. Laughed. Nothing more. But something in her beautiful eyes that night, something warm and joyous, had left him floundering. From that moment forward, his heart had pounded hollowly whenever he met her unexpectedly in the corridors. Sitting in front of her at his nav console on the bridge had become an exercise in self-chastisement. He constantly had to remind himself of his duty.

“Sir? Shuttle
Aretz
has docked.”

He propped his elbows on his knees and nodded. “Take us out of orbit, Pirke.”

The ship lurched slightly as it pulled out of Horeb’s gravity well and sailed toward Palaia.

CHAPTER 22

Amirah fiercely rubbed her hands together to get the circulation back. Tahn had removed her restraints a half hour ago when he saw how deeply the bands had cut into her flesh. Raw red furrows crisscrossed her wrists.

She leaned back against the wall by the hearth and stretched out her legs. Mud and things-she’d-rather-not-think-about still clung to the hem of her purple pants. The banked glow of the fire threw ruby reflections over the ceiling. They danced as though alive. But she barely noticed. Her eyes rested on Cole Tahn. He leaned over the table, examining the maps he’d spread out. In the azure light cast by the handglobe in his left palm, the dusty crystal goblets shimmered with a prismatic brilliance. His brown hair, handsome face, and black jumpsuit had a thin coating of red dust from wandering around the cave. For the past fifteen minutes he’d been examining her curiously.

“What the matter?” she demanded.

“Well, I was thinking. …”

Just the tone of voice set her on edge. But the wry, speculative glance he threw her made it worse. “About what?”

“I was wondering how shy you are? But I don’t think I know you well enough to tell.”

She brushed dirty blonde hair over her shoulder and lifted a brow insolently. “Oh, you’re astute.”

Slowly, he limped around to sit on the edge of the table. “Tell me something? If I were to suggest being naked together, what would you say?”

She let her eyes strategically land on the most vulnerable places of his anatomy. “I’d say you might just get your goddamned guts kicked out.”

He shifted restively. “Maybe I put that the wrong way. What I mean is that after crawling around in those sewer channels yesterday, I can barely stand being close to myself and I thought—”

“Having been close to you, I can understand that.”

Tahn scratched his dark beard expressively and gave her one of those bland looks that implied she was being an ass, but he was too polite to say so in public. Her eyes slitted. “As I was saying,” he continued. “I was thinking maybe I’d take a bath—you don’t have to, of course.”

“They have a bath here?”

“Yes. Just down the hall. At least it’s listed on the maps. I don’t know if it’s still running, but we could see. Would you like to bathe?”

She ground her teeth, evaluating. Would he leave her alone? If he gave her even a moment of privacy in the bath, she might be able find something to waylay him with. “I would,” she said and shoved to her feet.

He studied her as she brushed off her uniform. “Good. I take it, then, that you’re not timid?”

“I’m about as timid as a charging Klimona havelina, Tahn.”

“Glad to hear it. Because you realize, of course, that I can’t let you out of my sight. Not even a second.”

She propped hands on her hips and caustically said, “I’ve studied your life thoroughly. I don’t remember any data on voyeur inclinations.”

He laughed. “Don’t you? Good. That means that planet’s ransom I paid to keep the Iesu 2 event out of my record worked.”

She frowned until the piece of information clicked into place. “Oh, yes. Iesu 2. The place where you were arrested for brawling in the stripper’s joint. I remember. Second Lieutenant Hatfield reported that you smiled all the way to the jail cell. He claimed you were inordinately pleased with yourself for breaking all four bouncers’ jaws in less than twenty seconds.” She pursed her mouth disgustedly.

Tahn’s brows went up. “And just when, pray tell, did they put that into my record?”

“After the Tikkun affair. The Magistrates wanted a precise psych-history of Cole Tahn. They probed everyone who’d ever served with you.”

His smile waned. She saw his jaw muscles jump. “I see.”

Tahn straightened. Amirah straightened. She felt a little like they’d just squared off for hand-to-hand. The pistols adorning his hips left no question as to who’d win.

“They did it for the good of the fleet, Cole.”

“Sure. Right. Slothen had everyone’s best interests in mind.” He picked up one of the dirty place mats and slammed it down in frustration. Dust puffed up, sparkling in the firelight. “Come on, let’s go take a bath.”

“I’d appreciate it.”

He gestured toward the crates lining the far side of the wall. “There’s clean clothing in that box next to the food concentrates. Why don’t you go select something less fragrant to wear?”

“Gladly.”

Keeping her distance, she walked around him and went to kneel before the open box. She pawed through the multicolored robes and finally found one that looked to be roughly her size. Pale gold silk, it felt as soft as fur against her fingertips. She clutched it to her breast and slowly stood up.

“Good, Captain,” Tahn praised. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to do the same. Please step away from the box.”

She did so and he cautiously came across the room and indiscriminately jerked a red robe from the array. He tossed it over his shoulder and pulled his pistol. Holding the handglobe in his left palm and the gun in his right hand, he ordered, “Please go through the door and take a left. Keep walking straight until I tell you to turn. Got it?”

Amirah nodded and walked out the door. Turning left, she headed down the diamond-shaped corridor. His boots clicked in a slightly uneven cadence behind her. The halls smelled sweetly of crushed herbs and spices. She wondered if the stones had picked up the fragrance from the very pores of the men who’d traversed these corridors for centuries.

Over her shoulder she asked, “How much do you know about the Desert Fathers who used to inhabit this labyrinth?”

His deep voice seemed to echo in the confined space. “Not much. Just that they swore vows of chastity and poverty and they were heavily involved in the civil war here a decade ago.”

“When you scorched the planet?”

“Yes.” The word came bitterly, uttered as though a profanity.

“They broke the Treaty of Lysomia, not you. Duty required that you—”

“Duty?” He let out a low disparaging laugh. “What is that, Captain? And to whom do you owe it? The Magistrates? Or the civilians you’re theoretically ‘protecting’?”

“Both.”

“Really? And when the Magistrates put you and your ship in the position of having to choose one or the other? Which would you choose? Incidentally, you’re going to want to take a right at the next intersection of corridors.”

She let the question dangle and turned right. Who would she choose? Her conscience assured her she’d choose the people. But … would she? She owed everything to Magistrate Slothen. It would take a miracle to convince her he had made an error in judgment.

Halfway down the new hall, a wall of warmth rose. Mist filled the air, sparkling like a cerulean gauze shawl in the light of Tahn’s handglobe. A green curtain draped over a door at the far end.

“I think we’ve found it,” she commented.

“I take it you’re not going to answer my question?” he challenged.

“I’m not in the mood for another argument.”
If I can just get through that curtain first, then when you enter, Tahn, I can pivot….

“Amirah. Stop.”

Reluctantly, she did, turning around to glare at him. “What for?”

He edged by her and went to the curtain, pulling it back to check the room. Mist flooded into the corridor. He gestured her inside with his pistol barrel. “Easy, now. I want you to go in and stand by that urn.”

What the hell was he? A godforsaken mind reader? Every time she thought she might have a chance to take him, he countered the move before she initiated it. Well, she’d have to find a way of distracting him. All she needed was a split second and she could level a fatal kick. An image of him lying dead on the floor appeared in her mind—and she felt a twinge of regret. She sort of liked him.

She entered the room and went to stand by the urn, a three-foot-high ceramic masterpiece crusted from top to bottom with rare Lytolian sapphires and rubies. They gleamed wetly in the diffused blue light. A small chamber, perhaps twenty feet in diameter, a hexagonal jade-tiled tub filled the north wall. A spout poured a constant river of water into it. Around the perimeter, a stone bench had been hacked from the wall. It protruded like a pouting lip. Chests and crates packed the space beneath it.

Tahn surveyed her position, then cautiously entered and let the curtain drop closed. He braced a shoulder against the wall and set his handglobe down on the bench. “Check that crate behind you. According to the floor plan, it should contain ‘supplies.’“

Gingerly, Amirah knelt and dragged it from beneath the bench. She opened it and pulled out two towels sealed in a waterproof transparent sheath, and a bar of soap. Ripping them open, she tossed the towels to the bench and held the soap to her nose. “Hmm. Horebian wild jasmine,” she judged.

“Yeah? How do you know?”

“They sell it in all the dingy shops in the Sculptor sector. It’s supposed to have aphrodisiac qualities.”

“Indeed? Ever tried it?”

She threw the soap down with a smack and turned to examine him. “Oh, getting insulting, eh? Punishing me because I wouldn’t answer your question about duty? Well, for your information, I didn’t know how to answer it, that’s why I didn’t.”

He propped a boot on the bench and rested his pistol on his knee. His mouth quirked into a half-smile. “I figured that was the reason. I just wanted you to think about it—for when it happens.”

“You’re an arrogant sonofabitch, you know that?” she asked and grimaced when his smile widened. “I’m going to undress. You don’t mind, do you?”

“Not at all.”

Amirah slipped off her boots and tucked them beneath the bench. Then she pulled her shirt over her head and tossed it on the floor. She had to tug on her pants to peel them off. Standing in only her lacy underwear, she glanced up. Tahn stood watching her with a faltering intensity. His handsome face had slackened, going utterly serious.

“My God, you’re beautiful,” he said in soft anguish. He briskly massaged his forehead.

“You’re the first man to say so. Thanks,” she answered honestly and wondered just why she’d done that. She never mentioned her dismal history with men to anyone.

Tahn’s face screwed up disbelievingly. “Then, maybe it’s just me. You’d be doing me a great favor if you’d get into that tub so I can start breathing normally again.”

In the azure gleam of the handglobe, a warm glint flared in his blue-violet eyes, making Amirah extremely nervous.

To defuse the magnetic sense of attraction, she jerked her underwear off with military brusqueness and threw it into the growing pile on the floor. Grabbing up the bar of soap, she tested the water with her toe before stepping into the tub and sinking up to her neck.

The water felt so warm and soothing, every aching muscle in her body seemed to heave a sigh of relief. She ducked her head beneath the surface to wet her hair. Long blonde strands moved around her shoulders in serpentine wisps. From the edge of her vision, she saw Tahn ease down onto the bench, pistol propped on his thigh.

She took the bar of soap and washed her long legs, then lathered her hair. He watched in silence for a time before saying:

“So, tell me about yourself?”

“What do you want to know that you didn’t find in my records? And by the way, how do you get access to confidential personnel files?”

He gave her a disagreeably amiable smile. “The same way we get access to cruiser flight plans. You were born on Rusel 3, correct?”

She scowled cynically. “Yes. My parents died when I was thirteen. They were killed in the Pegasan attack.”

“Indeed? We have more in common than I’d thought. My parents died when I was six.”

“I remember.” It had happened during the Carinan invasion of Delphinus. Tahn had managed to escape his bombed home and hidden in the dense underbrush around the house. He’d witnessed his parents’ murder. Carinans had a barbaric custom of ripping out the intestines of their victims and watching them die in slow agony. Cole had listened to his mother’s screams for hours. When Magisterial forces sailed in and drove out the Carinans a week later, Captain Juan Moreno of the battle cruiser
Quillon
had found a half-mad little boy still clinging to the decaying corpse of his mother. “She needs me!” Tahn had reportedly screamed over and over. Moreno had talked to Cole for two hours, trying to convince him his mother was dead and there was no longer any need to guard her. The boy had still fought like a tiger when Moreno forcibly dragged him away.

Tahn shifted, propping his foot on the bench. “Did they put you into one of those wretched government orphanges?”

“No. Unlike you I had a living grandmother. She raised me.”

Pleasant memories of Sefer Raziel possessed her. Amirah could still see her, sitting in her rocking chair on the bright sunlit porch of their tiny home. The rocker creaked on the rickety floor as Sefer snapped the freshly-picked green beans that made a mound atop her apron and chanted the old stories to a young Amirah. She could still see the numbers engraved on her grandmother’s forearm and the deep scars that crisscrossed her face like a hideous web. When she’d once asked Sefer about them, her grandmother had laughed ominously: “Your father would probably turn me in to the Snoopers if I were to tell you, darling. But someday … maybe I can tell you. I don’t know. We’ll have to see what happens to the galaxy.” Amirah had loved that thin old woman, loved her with all her heart. Despite all the years since her grandmother had vanished, Amirah still ached for her. When the memories dimmed and Amirah looked up again, she found Cole watching her through kind eyes.