The Gathering Flame (9 page)

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Authors: Debra Doyle,James D. Macdonald

BOOK: The Gathering Flame
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(GALCENIAN DATING 963 A.F.; ENTIBORAN REGNAL YEAR 27 VERATINA)
 
P
ERADA HAD never seen any place like the spaceport at Galcen Prime. Nothing on Entibor came close. The immense dome of the Grand Concourse covered an area so big that she could scarcely see the edges of it. Everywhere she looked, she saw signs—flat ones displayed on the walls and the floor and the kiosks that rose up from the concourse like a field of mushrooms; brightly colored half-rounds in shop windows; and free-floating holos filling up the air beneath the dome like pictures painted with light. A lot of the signs had writing on them that she couldn’t read, which frustrated her; she’d known how to read signs back home on Entibor for over a year, and it looked like she was going to have to start all over again.
She tugged on Dadda’s coat sleeve and pointed at the nearest sign. “What does that say in real writing?”
“It
is
real, babba—it’s in Galcenian, that’s all.”
“But what does it say?”
Dadda said something that sounded like
“frunds kovitten atteki,”
and Perada shook her head. Her two braids—down to her shoulders now—swung back and forth with the motion.
“No. I want to hear what is
says
.”
Dadda sighed. “It says ‘ground transportation this way.’”
“Then why don’t they write that?”
“Because we’re on Galcen, babba, and they write the signs in Galcenian.”
“Am I going to have to learn that, too?”
“You’ll have to, I’m afraid. The school you’ll be going to takes its students from all over the galaxy, so they all have to speak Galcenian in classes and with each other.”
“Why?”
“Because otherwise nobody would be able to talk at all.”
“No,” she said. “I mean, why don’t they talk
real
talk, like at home?”
“Everybody talks real talk,” Dadda said. “But the talk is different in different places. So they use Galcenian when they’re not at home.”
Perada thought about this for a while. She was about to resume the argument—why should all these people she’d never met talk to each other in Galcenian, which sounded funny, instead of learning how real people talked?—when the glidewalk came to an end. The archway ahead of them had a greyish shimmer across the opening and a scanner set into the wall beside it; Dadda showed a wafer of white plastic to the scanner and the force field came down.
The hairs on her arms rose up and her skin tingled a little when she passed through the opening. On the other side of the archway was a room with a couple of chairs, a low table, and a green plant in a pottery tub. A thin, white-haired woman in a black dress rose from the nearest chair as they entered.
“Gentlesir Lokkelar,” she said. “I am Zeri Delaven.”
Zeri Delaven’s words had a strange rhythm to them, but nothing stranger than the way people from some parts of Entibor talked when they came to Felshang Province. Perada felt vindicated—people on Galcen didn’t have to speak the funny-sounding language of the signs if they didn’t want to. She opened her mouth to say so, then thought better of it. The white-haired woman had a look about her that made Perada think silence might be a wiser idea.
“Mistress Delaven,” Dadda replied. “This is the student Lady Shaja wrote to you about: the Damozel Perada. We … Shaja and I … hope that she’ll be happy here.”
Zeri Delaven fixed Perada with a penetrating glance. “We can’t guarantee happiness, I’m afraid. But that she will learn, and that she will be safe—those things, Gentlesir Lokkelar, we
can
promise.”
 
ENTIBORAN REGNAL YEAR 38 VERATINA
 
T
HE
’HAMMER
dropped out of hyperspace after a journey of some two weeks. Perada was in the cockpit for the dropout, on the foldaway acceleration couch behind the two main positions. The navigator’s seat, Jos Metadi had called it; unused these days, since Errec Ransome was both copilot and navigator. Not even an Adept—and Perada felt increasingly sure that the Ilarnan was, or had been, a member of the Guild—could sit in two chairs at once.
She had traveled through hyperspace before, but only on commercial spaceliners and, rarely, on Entiboran Crown couriers like
Crystal World
. Neither the spaceliners nor the courier vessels allowed passengers onto the bridge, although she supposed that as the Domina she could insist on the privilege. It pleased her that Jos Metadi had granted the favor without having been asked. She was careful to stay quiet and out of the way, like an honored guest at an unfamiliar ritual.
“Dropout … now,” said Metadi.
The opaline pseudosubstance outside the viewscreens went away, replaced by starry blackness. In the distance—near? far? Perada couldn’t guess; she didn’t know how the terms worked, out here in deep space—she glimpsed something that looked like a tangle of colored light.
“All right, Errec,” Metadi said. “How close did we get?”
“Optimum range for the Farpoint beacon.”
“Good. Let’s talk to the nice people.”
Perada watched the captain’s hands playing over the
’Hammer’s
comm panel. She’d heard of Farpoint, the manned beacon at the outside edge of Pleyver’s Web. The three-dimensional maze of fluctuating magnetic fields that encircled the system blocked all hyperspace transit. Farpoint marked the earliest possible hyperspace translation for outbound craft, and the nearest point of dropout for new arrivals.
“Farpoint, Farpoint,” Metadi said over the comm link. “This is Freetrader
Warhammer.
Request permission to make transit to Pleyver.”
“Warhammer,
this is Farpoint,” came the reply, made faint and scratchy by the shifting electromagnetic discharges of the Web. “Interrogative do you require a pilot, over.”
Metadi and Ransome looked at each other. The captain raised an eyebrow. Ransome shook his head. Metadi turned back to the link.
“Farpoint, negative, over.”
“A pilot is recommended. Entering without a pilot requires you to make formal statement holding harmless Pleyver Inspace, over.”
“Statement made. I hold Pleyver Inspace harmless.”
“Roger, copy all. Interrogative how many individuals in your crew, so we know what priority to put on rescuing you?”
Metadi and Ransome looked at each other again. “Total of six aboard,” the captain said.
“Roger, copy six. Permission granted to enter the Web. Good luck, Captain, over.”
“Roger, out.” Metadi switched off the link. “Now comes the tricky part.”
“What’s that?” Perada asked.
“Getting through the Web without having an accident on the way in,” he said. “Those fields are hell on electronics, and they change all the time. We’ve got a fairly recent update—I bought a copy off of Sverje Thulmotten back during the payout for the Ophelan run—but that doesn’t mean something hasn’t changed in the last couple of months. We’ll have to keep our eyes and ears open the whole time.”
“Wouldn’t it be easier to hire a pilot?”
“Pilots cost money,” Errec Ransome said.
“If that’s the problem, I can—”
“So could I, if I wanted to,” Metadi cut in. “For what it cost me to get that coursebook from Sverje, we could have hired us a couple of pilots. But you hire someone, and the first thing they want to do is plug their book into main ship’s memory and record the run. And
nobody
does that on a privateer ship who isn’t a member of the crew.”
“I see,” Perada said. Security in all its forms was no stranger to her. The school on Galcen had gained its reputation as much for the safety it provided for its students as for its unquestioned academic rigor. The students, in their turn, had honed their skills against that same unrelenting watchfulness—she’d seen what could happen when a curious mind came too near something that was locked against intrusion.
So Jos Metadi was a cautious man, and not an overly trusting one. She’d guessed that much already, but the confirmation pleased her. If he intended to survive at court—and if he fell in with her plans, he would have to survive there in order to accomplish anything—he would need that caution.
“Shutting down vulnerable systems,” the captain said. “Now.”
He flipped a switch, and the
’Hammer’s
comp screens went dark. Nothing reminded alive on the main console except a few red and green lights and a scattering of readouts from what Perada hoped were navigational sensors.
Errec Ransome slid open the drawer underneath his side of the console and took out a flat tablet not unlike a newsreader. A length of thin cable dangled from one side; on the other a stylus hung from a coiled-wire leash. He plugged the cable into one of the receptors on the bulkhead next to the copilot’s position, then swept the stylus across the face of the tablet. The surface lit up, as a reader would; but Perada, craning her neck for a look, saw that instead of the familiar news-service logo the tablet’s opening screen displayed a crudely drawn hand transfixed by a bloody dagger.
She must have made a noise without intending to, because Metadi chuckled. “I guess Sverje doesn’t like snoops.”
“Wouldn’t a simple ‘keep out’ have sufficed?”
Errec Ransome glanced back at her over his shoulder. She saw that he, too, looked faintly amused. “I’ve met Thulmotten’s crew,” he said. “For that lot, this is a simple ‘keep out.’”
“I see,” Perada said again. “You certainly have a … colorful … group of friends and acquaintances.”
“Shutting down nonessentials, now.” The captain flipped another switch on the main console. About half the telltales flashed from green to red. “Errec—how’s the coursebook?”
“Interfaced and running. So far, it looks like Thulmotten didn’t cheat us.”
“He knows what I’d do to him if he tried. Recording?”
“As full a transcript as we can get with most of our sensors off-line.”
“Good. We can sell the update later if we need the cash.” Metadi glanced over at Perada. “It’ll be pure old-style piloting from here on in: running through realspace with half-witted comps and half-blind sensors and a coursebook that was outdated as soon as it was made. So I’d advise you to stand by and be ready for anything.”
“I understand, Captain,” she said. “Pray carry on—I have every confidence in your abilities.”
And so does he
, she realized as he went back to his work.
He’s looking forward to making this run—it’s difficult, and he’s good at it, and there’s nothing in the galaxy that’s quite as much fun as a combination like that.
“Shields full,” said Metadi. He flipped another switch. “Now. Gunners on station?”
“Present,” came the voices over the audio link. Perada recognized Nannla’s warm alto and Tillijen’s lighter, higher tones, the feed from the two separate gun bubbles combining in harmony. Then Nannla added, in solo voice, “Orders, Captain?”
“You know the drill. Sensors are down, except for the basics. Keep your eyes open and let me know if you spot anything, especially aids to navigation.”
“Rules of engagement?”
“Anybody can shoot at us once. Make sure they don’t get a second shot.” Metadi paused and added—mostly for her benefit, Perada suspected—“Not that anyone’s likely to try. Fighting in the Web would be more of a mess than anything I’d like to think about.”
“Understood, Captain,” Nannla said, and Tillijen echoed her, “Understood.”
The cockpit was silent. The swirling colors of the Web grew nearer as the hours and minutes passed. And then, before Perada expected it, they were in.
 
In the Palace Major of Entibor, on its hill overlooking the streets of the greater An-Jemayne metropolis, the ceremonial torches of scented heartwood smoked in their wall sconces in the public corridors. Discreetly, behind embroidered cutwork wall hangings and pierced metal screens, the palace’s environmental systems labored to keep the air clean enough for the household electronics to do their work undisturbed. Farther back in the palace, among the family rooms, glowcubes and light panels shed a dim and respectful light. The old Domina, Veratina, lay in the bed in which she had died, waiting beneath a stasis field until the new Domina should come home.
In another room nearby, Ser Hafrey sat among his racks of antique weapons, looking out over the spires and rooftops of central An-Jemayne. He fingered a plutonian equalizer—a beautiful thing, handmade out of ebony and adamant—and spoke to the man who had come to visit.
“I am uneasy with the reports of Galcenians here in the capital,” Hafrey said. “Can’t we gain access to them somehow? Are they all incorruptible? Surely one of them has, if not a secret vice, at least a tragic flaw?”
“No,” said Meinuxet. The armsmaster’s chief agent was a small man with a thick crop of burnished red hair. “Or if anybody has one, we haven’t discovered it.”
Hafrey regarded his visitor with an expression of grave concern. “Reports of failures among my own people distress me.”
Meinuxet shrugged. “What can I say? The Galcenians on-planet don’t talk much about their business. But they never try to hide anything, either. They’re open, they’re hospitable, they’re friendly—they do everything but invite our people to move in with them and read their mail.”
“It could be,” said Hafrey, “that the Galcenians are nothing more than what they seem to be—businesspeople, scholars, travelers, diplomats.”
The agent shook his head. “I’ll believe that story when you do. Not before.”
“Then discover their purposes,” Hafrey told him. “If they won’t lay plans in private where we can dig them out, learn how they manage to lay their plans in public.”
“Armsmaster,” Meinuxet said, “let me travel to Galcen. Maybe I can pick up their trail at that end, if I can’t unravel it here.”
“No,” said Hafrey. “I can’t spare—”
A knock sounded on the door.
“Enter!” Hafrey called.
The door opened and another messenger stepped into the room—a woman in Fleet uniform this time, with short dark hair.
“Armsmaster,” she said, “I have word from Central Command.”
Hafrey looked at her with mild curiosity. “And it is—?”
“That a special watch has been placed on the privateers of Innish-Kyl.”
The armsmaster frowned slightly. “I gave no such orders.”
“No. The order came from Fleet Admiral Pallit.”
“
I
am responsible for the safety of the Domina,” Hafrey said. “Not Pallit.”
“The fleet admiral claimed that his order was given for purposes of general security,” said the woman. “And he would not let himself be dissuaded.”
“Pallit … Pallit,” said Meinuxet, after the other agent had finished speaking. “Whose creature is he?”
“The fleet admiral has strong ties to the bankers’ guild,” Hafrey said. “And the bankers are entirely too friendly with our friend from Rolny.” The armsmaster paused, and smiled faintly. “I think I know who set the fleet admiral hunting down this particular trail. There’s no harm done, though, if Pallit is allowed to proceed—but with caution. He doesn’t need to catch any privateers, only to watch them. For they do, in fact, bear watching.”
Both agents nodded, and Meinuxet said, “What about my request?”
“To go to Galcen?” Hafrey shook his head. “The Galcenians would eat you alive and pick their teeth with your bones. The Adepts there are strong, and ambitious, and unscrupulous. Any two of those qualities would be troublesome. Taken together, they are deadly.”
“I’ll ask again some other time, then,” said Meinuxet, unperturbed.
“Feel free to do so.” Again Hafrey smiled faintly. “In the meanwhile, practice your skill in drawing secrets out of slabs of granite, so that someday you may work on those Galcenians who happen to be available here on Entibor.”
Meinuxet bowed and left.
“And now you,” Hafrey said to the woman, after Meinuxet had gone. “Aside from Pallit’s rather ill-advised set of orders, how are things at Central?”
“No different than while Veratina was alive.”
Hafrey’s lips tightened slightly. “A sinkhole of bubbling rivalries, then. Well, use what influence you have to build loyalties to the young Domina. She will arrive soon, and bring with her what I hope is good news.”

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