Irsud (29 page)

The minutes ticked by, slowly building tension in both of them, especially in Aleytys as Aamunkoitta's nervousness echoed and reechoed in her. Then the darkness erupted in a vast searing white light, a fireball bigger than the sun, blinding even at this distance. Aamunkoitta cried out and ground her fists into her eyes. Aleytys whipped around, her motion sending the skimmer wobbling uneasily. She covered her face with shaking hands and wept silently.

“A clean death. And a quick one.” Aamunkoitta's voice sounded hoarse in her ears, comforting, like the hiiri's small hands patting her shoulders with helpless light touches.

Aleytys sighed. “Thanks.” Lifting her head she slid her eyes cautiously around to the city. The fireball was gone, its place marked by a hard red glow.

“Where now?” The hiiri's voice broke through her lingering horror at the destruction she had caused.

“You said six months.”

“What?”

“I was drugged six months.”

“Yes.”

“The smuggler said he was coming back in six months. You think you could find the place where he lands?”

“I've been there a number of times.”

“You think Nakivas will come again?”

“Of course. He must.”

“That's where we're going.” As the purple glowed around her once again, without knowing exactly why, Aleytys took the skimmer down low until it was scarcely two meters off the earth and sent it as fast as she could toward the southeast where the flat and fertile plain broke up into low hills thickly furred with trees and rocky ravines.

CHAPTER XXVIII

Aleytys watched the camouflaged smuggler slide down the curve of the night and settle with a minimum of fuss onto the floor of the canyon. “There he is,” she said quietly. “Wake up, Kitten.”

“I'm awake.” The hiiri sat up.

“I haven't changed my mind, you know.”

Aamunkoitta spread her hands on her thighs. “My people are dead. You are my clan now.”

“Nakivas?”

“Has many women panting after him. I'd be lost in the crowd besides. You know how it is with me.” Her eyes closed, her face drew in with the pain inside her. “I'm not fit for.…”

“Kitten, don't.”

She rubbed her hands up and down her thighs. “I don't run from the truth, Kunniakas. I couldn't live the life of a clan woman now, too many things have happened to me, changed me.” She shook her head. “Besides.…” A sudden smile chased the gloom from her face. “You've shown me that a woman can be more than a drudge for men. There's no place I want to fit on this world now. Let me come with you.”

“Kitten.…”

“You're a holder of power, Kunniakas. You need someone to serve you. Let me do it.”

Aleytys shook her head. “Even with the mahazh gone, the nayids still hold the land, but your people have a chance now. Make friends with them or drive them out, take your own land back. You've still got work here, Kitten. Besides that, teach the other women what you've learned.” Aleytys chuckled. “You might start another whole revolution on this chancy world.”

“You don't want me.”

With a weary sigh Aleytys pulled her legs under her and stood up. “I don't want to see you hurt. Or killed. I'm not stupid enough to think you're going to have an easy life here. But at least you'll be among your own kind with important work to do. You may be miserable but you'll be alive.”

“Alive.”

“Don't knock it.”

Aamunkoitta shrugged. “You better get ready. The ship. Someone comes.”

“Wait here with the box.”

“Henkiolento maan strengthen you, Kunniakas.”

Aleytys laughed and walked to meet the long-haired smuggler, a smile illuminating her face. She met her surprised stare and murmured, “Aspash, phorea.”

“Aspash, despina. So you speak interlingue.” He examined her, his amused sardonic gaze traveling from feet to head. Then he looked past her at the jumble of rock on the far side of the stream. “Where are your friends?”

“They'll be along.” She waved a hand at the ship. “And your companions?”

“Busy. You're early.”

“I want passage off world.”

“Oh?” His mobile mouth spread into a smile, white teeth glinting against his dark-tanned skin. “Why should I bother?” He nodded at the ship. “That's no passenger liner.”

“Profit.” She answered his smile. “The best ointment for discomfort.”

“They going to pay your way?”

“The hiiri?” She shook her head. “No, I've a few baubles you might find interesting.”

“Let's see them and I'll let you know.”

Aleytys looked at him silently. “You're a reasonably honest man,” she said after a while. “But no friend of mine. I learned a while past that trusting doesn't pay if you haven't the strength to enforce the bargain.”

“Well.” He folded his arms across his chest. “How do you get over that little problem?”

“If I had a weapon.…” She lifted the energy gun and handed it to him butt first. “Let that be part payment. I don't need it. Besides you could take it from me most any time you wanted.”

He raised his eyebrows then turned the weapon over in his long strong fingers. “Ffynch Company work. Nice. But you don't expect that to cover cost?”

“No.” She twisted her head back over her shoulder. “Kitten, come here. Bring the jewels.”

“Jewels?”

She faced him. “Some of them for you. Some.”

The hiiri came trotting up, the heavy box bumping against her thigh. “He will take you?”

“He hasn't decided yet Open the box.”

The hiiri knelt beside Aleytys and lifted back the lid. As the moonlight glittered on the jewels Aleytys felt the leap of interest in the smuggler. The sudden clutch of greed.

“How many layers to that thing? Are they all like that?” He dropped to his knees and touched the glimmering gems with fingers that trembled in appreciation of their beauty and worth, surprising Aleytys with the sensitivity behind his facade.

She nodded and when he didn't look up, said, “Yes. Those on top are yours to take us off world to a place I want. They're enough, I think.”

He stood, disciplining his eagerness to a bland mask. “Two levels.”

“No. What you see.” She chuckled. “Before you try further, phorea, I'm empath. I read your feelings as soon as you have them.”

“Very unfair.” He shrugged. “Then you know I'll take these. Where do you want to go?”

“You know a world called Ibex?”

He frowned. “No, it's nowhere around this sector. You have the coordinates?”

“89-066 Dhube-Thrall 64 Aurex Corvi 100.47.” The numbers were burned deep in her mind and tripped swiftly off the end of her tongue, carrying with them sad memories of her life before this world. She shook off the pall of memory and waited for the smuggler's answer.

Though his face was still bland and unrevealing, she felt the surprise in his mind. “That's halfway across the galactic lens. No way I go that far.”

“That's true.” She sighed. “Damn. I was afraid it wouldn't be that easy. Looks like I've a long weary time ahead of me. Take me as far as you can. Deal?”

“Deal.”

“Give him the top tray, Kitten.”

Aamunkoitta nodded. She lifted out the tray and placed it in the smuggler's hands. Then she closed the lid of the box and slid the ropes over her shoulder again.

“I want to board ship before the others come. They shouldn't see me.” Aleytys closed her eyes a minute, searching the hills with her mind. “The other hiiris are less than half an hour from here,” she said when she opened her eyes again. Meeting his startled gaze she smiled, then chuckled. “Another talent.”

“Well then, follow me.”

“One minute. What I said before.”

He raised his mobile eyebrows.

“About reinforcing trust with power.”

“Well?”

“Watch.” She wrapped the fingers of her mind around a stone and lifted it until it was even with his eyes. “You see.”

“A gifted lady.”

“You don't understand.” She let the rock fall. “If I held your heart like that.…”

She felt the understanding flood him, a wariness replacing his confidence. “I see. No wonder you don't need a gun.”

“Right A weapon no man can take from me no matter what his strength.” She spread out her hands. “Tie my hands, my mind goes free. So I protect myself. If necessary. Only if necessary. A guarantee. You understand?”

“Only too well.” He chuckled in his turn. “So I'm glad I make a practice of keeping my word.”

At the foot of the lift Aleytys stopped, touched Aamunkoitta on the cheek. “Good-bye, Kitten.”

“Farewell, Kunniakas.” She slid the ropes off her shoulder. “Looks like I wait for Nakivas. Do I tell him you're leaving?”

“He'll ask, I suppose. All right. Tell him. I won't see him.” Lifting the jewel box Aleytys stepped onto the lift and let it take her into the ship.

Aamunkoitta was a small forlorn figure as Aleytys stepped into the lock.

On board the ship—walk past the curious eyes of the pale man and the cat man. Walk down the narrow battered corridor, feet slipping noiselessly over the spongy rubberoid matting. Into a sterile narrow room.…

“This is the second's cabin. He'll be in to clear his things out after the trading.”

Aleytys looked around the empty space. “Show me how to operate this place.”

“You don't know about foldaway?”

“I've only ridden two ships, once as guest, once as prisoner. My experience is limited.”

“You don't mind admitting to ignorance?”

“Ignorance is a sickness easily cured.”

He shrugged. “Here. The bunks.” He pulled the tiered bunks out of the wall, the bottom first, then the top, showed her how to open and close them … water basin … shower … toilet … depositories for possessions.…

“That's it.”

“Thank you.” She looked around. “May I join you on the bridge for take-off? I'll stay out of your way.”

“Why?”

“I have a feeling.…” She moved restlessly about the small cabin. “I have a feeling I'll be needed. Somehow.”

“Needed!” He snorted incredulously. “You know nothing about ships.”

“But I do know it's stupid to ignore my premonitions.”

His eyes swept her from head to foot. “Very well, I'll make a place for you.”

“Thank you.”

He hesitated in the doorway, curiously reluctant to leave her. “Do you need anything more?”

“No. Not now. Hadn't you better get ready for the hiiris? They come.”

He frowned. “You feel uneasy in my presence?”

“No.” She smiled, spread out her hands. “Why should I? But I don't know you.”

“You've read my feelings.”

“Knowing is more than that. I feel your interest in me, you are attracted to me as a woman.”

He plucked at his eyebrows. “Katrat! You're a damned uncomfortable woman.”

“Yes.” She sighed. “Phorea, I find you interesting also, but I'm not ready to relate to a man again. I've just come from a.…” Her voice faltered, her eyes filled with tears, she could weep again, gently, sadly, for the dead Burash. “My love has died and it'll be a while before I seek another. I need a time of mourning. Do you understand?”

“No.” He spoke a little coldly. “Let, the dead be dead, leave them behind, don't clutch the moldering corpse.”

“I'm not.” She sighed. “No. But I can't switch on and off that fast.”

He shrugged. “We'll be leaving in an hour or two. I'll come for you.”

“Thank you.” She pulled the lower bunk out again and sat down. “I'll rest here. Good bargaining.”

He nodded coolly and vanished.

CHAPTER XXIX

The ship curved up from the world, slipping along the terminator, hiding on the edge of shadow, then darted away into deeper space, driving to the change-over point as fast as the laboring motors could contrive. At first the going was smooth, routine, unexciting. Then a bell rang repeatedly, its sharp sound a warning that sent adrenalin shooting through the veins, knotted the stomach into a hard lump. Aleytys rose from her seat on the matting to stand behind the pilot. “What's wrong?” she asked, then saw the ship curving from behind the world below them. “Who?”

“Ffynch company enforcer. Don't bother me, woman.” The smuggler hunched over the controls staring intently into the screen.

Aleytys watched the ship. It had an aura of menace that shook her. Light flared, hiding the ship a second, then the smuggler's craft shook, throwing her off her feet onto the matting, sending the smuggler into vicious fear-driven curses. She stood again, ignored toy the laboring man. The ship danced in the screen as they took evasive action, but it kept on coming. The light flared again.

This time Aleytys felt a laboring in the smuggler's ship after the effects of the jolt had passed off. Without being told she knew it couldn't take another of those blows; fear and anger poured from the smuggler pilot, sweat rolled down his face and back as he struggled in ways she couldn't understand to escape the nemesis. But the struggle was futile. She couldn't read that from the instruments, but she could read the man.

She closed her eyes and sent her sight out to the pursuing ship. There was so much she didn't understand. But the purple glow came again … what is that, she thought, what … but there was no answer … only an image in her mind … a diagram … she sought through the trailing ship until she found a place that matched the diagram and then tore it free.

The ship blew up, vanishing in a fireball that glowed brighter than the sun so close and bright behind them.

She clutched at the metal railing on the back of the pilot's chair … that purple … what happens … what tells me … the smuggler's voice interrupted her whirling thoughts.