The Loranth (Star Sojourner Book 1) (19 page)

“I'm sorry, Chris.” I stared at the flowers. “But you're no longer that child, and Sye Kor is a dispassionate killer. He'd have killed you too, for all your loyalty, if it served his purpose.”

“Yes!”

I jumped.

“Don't you see the power in that?” She drew in a long breath and tilted her head. “He's calling me again, Jules. You hear Him?”

I realized I was holding my breath, dreading Kor's mindtouch. It didn't come. “Where is he? I don't feel his tel. The reservoir?”

She smiled, her eyes glazed.

“ChristLotus, you'd go back to him, wouldn't you?”

“I can't.” She looked at the flowers and made no attempt to wipe tears. “My father wants me dead.”

“It's not your
father.
Kor's not your father. And if anybody wants you dead, it's Kor. He wants us all dead. Where is he, Christine?”

She reached out, took my hand and patted it as though I were a child. “He is my father, Jules.” She slid a sideways look at the window. “Our whole race is marked for death. We're a plague upon upon Syl' Tyrria, and every planet we ever touched, especially Earth. The worlds will be much better off without us.” She smiled, lifted my hand and kissed it.

“OK.” I cleared my throat. “How will he destroy us, Chris?”

“He doesn't let me in on His plans.” She moved her chair closer, until our knees touched, and ran a hand up my arm, played with my shirt collar, looking for all the world like a child craving affection.

“It'll be all right.” I covered her hand with mine. “You'll see. But you've got to tell me where he is. At the reservoir?”

“Jules,” she whispered, tilting her head up, “remember when we made love? It was good.” She lowered her hand to my thigh. “Make love to me again? I want to feel life one more time, and then…” She took my wrists, closed her eyes and smiled as she raised my hands and closed them around her throat. “I might fight you for a while, but…”

I stood up, knocking over my chair. “You shouldn't be alone!”

“But I am alone.” Her eyes widened. “We're all alone. Always. Don't you see the control you could have? The absolute power to release me from this suffering? Please. I can't live without my Master's power, His glory. And He won't take me back!” Tears gleamed in her eyes.

“I'll release you.” I stroked her uncombed hair back off her forehead. “I promise you that, Chris.”

“You're going after Him,” she said dully. “You
are
a fool!” She brushed away my hand. “If that's what's in your mind, He already knows it.”

“Is he at the reservoir?”

She smiled.

“To poison the water supply?”

“Poison?” The smile became a laugh. “Yes, Jules, to
poison
the water supply. But you won't change anything. Some of us have the strength to choose our own deaths. That's the only difference.”

“How does he intend to attack Earth?”

She lifted her head as though listening, and murmured something.

I got down on a knee and took her arms. “Chris!”

“Do you hear Him?” she said breathlessly. “Do you? He's calling.”

I stayed very still and cleared my mind. Nothing. Was the bastard only after her this time?

“Yes, I will!” she cried out to no one.

“Chris, listen to me.” I shook her arms. “How does he intend to attack Earth?”

She focused on me. “He'll let Terrans do that for Him.” She began to hum. “Soon now, Master.”

I shook her again. “How, Chris? How will Terrans do it?”

She met my eyes. “Ask Sye Kor when you see Him, so you can bring the answer to your grave.”

I went to the window, drew back the curtains and pushed open the window's narrow lower section. The upper portion was sealed.

I heard the doorknob turn.

“Your time's up, tag,” Fred whispered. “I even gave you a few more minutes. Time for that shower and shave now.”

Time.

I turned casually. “OK, Fred. I'm just letting in some fresh air.” I gestured toward the flowers. “Have to change the water for Christine and I'll be with you.” Dammit, they were planted in dirt, I realized. I smiled reassuringly and stood in front of them. “She's feeling much better after our talk. Thanks for the time.”

Christine hummed to herself.

“See?” I told Fred. “I think it did some good.”

He nodded to Christine. “Ma'am.” She didn't respond. He frowned at me. “Make it fast now,” he admonished and closed the door.

I intended to.

I laid down on the broad window sill, knocking over a pitcher of water in my haste, squeezed under the window and out onto the ledge.

Three stories up.

Don't look down!

I won't dwell on my descent. I don't like to think about it.

I recall wind, a strange perspective on moonlit trees that made me think of broccoli spears, muffled street sounds, my arms burning from my stranglehold on the drainpipe. Imported pigeons warbled and waddled and finally flew away as though ledge life was an exclusive club I'd invaded.

Whatever happened to gargoyles and other ancient statuary and decorative stuff? They must've made great handholds. But I did locate my candy-stripped rented motorcycle from that great vantage point. Nice of them to bring it here for when I left.

“Stop!” I heard Fred shout from the third-floor window as my trembling foot finally touched solid ground.

What made the tag think I'd stop after that perilous descent to get away?

I ran to the bike, leaped on, started it and rode through the parking lot. Fred repeatedly shouted “Stop!”, I answered with a finger gesture and headed for Stol's.

Stol's automated window managed to spit out yet another stingler when I inserted Jack's credcard. I wondered how many more Joe Stol had in stock, and if he ever got curious about the strange flow of certain items.

I heard police sirens, kept to side streets as I rode out of town, then onto the dirt reservoir road.

Night had won the race.
Then take advantage of the dark,
I told my fears.

“I'm coming, Kor,” I said aloud.

“Do you desire tel-link transmission with a receiving unit?” the comp asked.

“No. Message already conveyed.”

A carload of Terrans returning from the lake, fishing poles on roof racks, almost drove me off the road as they sped by. I considered following to stop them and check for signs of zombiehood, but I heard their audiovis blaring stone fry.

Probably teenagers.

Anyway, I didn't know how much time I had. When Ted and Fred got up the nerve to tell Hallarin I'd walked, he'd know exactly where to look for me.

* * *

I thought I'd be afraid as I watched the dark surface and waited. I wasn't. Perhaps that's what anger does best, it overrides fear.

Mist drifted across the circle of light thrown on green water by the bike's headlight. Rock shadows protruded in scummy shallows. I sealed my jacket to the throat and blew on my left hand for warmth. The right one pointed the stingler. Hot beam, of course.

“Now show yourself, Loranth,” I said. “You'll never have a better chance at me.” Silver ripples warped moonlight reflections of trees as small fish leaped.

He was near, all right. I felt him! Morth had been right about my growing tel powers. “Let's finish this, Kor, right here and now. One on one.”

It will be finished, destroyer,
he sent from beneath the surface,
when all Terran kwaiis are ripped from their bodies and go shrieking into geth.

“Perhaps you'll shriek first.” I tightened my grip on the stingler as long waves, lifted by a large, moving body underwater, smashed against rocks and ran broken up to my boots. The bike's steady hum beneath me, its panel of glowing lights, were reassuring, as much as anything could be as a pale form like a giant white scar rippled through the surface. I ran a thumb over the stingler's firing stud. I no longer cared if Terrans and Loranths never understood each other. Something deeper than saving my own race drove me now. I wanted revenge. I wanted the bastard dead!

“What makes you so fucking mean, slug?”

You, Terran destroyer. And all your kin who wear the mask of Great Mind's face. With my final lifebind breath I will curse your race and He who maims and cripples through you.

His hatred was a lash I felt within my head. “Sye Morth was right, Kor. You hate. That's all.” I raised the stingler. “Come to me now. I'll release you from this drenesh lifebind. I'll make it quicker and easier than the slow death you've sentenced Christine to endure.

It is I who endure the sentence, destroyer! The sentence of Great Mind, who uses Terrans to do His bidding.
His form vanished into deeper water.

“I told you I was sorry for Carrier's death, but my race doesn't do well in slavery. If it's Great Mind you hate so much then seek Him out and leave humans alone! You had no right to hold us, and no right to keep Stan. Now you're threatening Jack's family, you croteass coward! Do you have family? Do you? And you're killing Christine with your warped stranglehold of tel power.”

I slowly turned the handlebar to search the water with light. “Show yourself, slug. You want to destroy my entire race. Why are you afraid of one lone human?”

I have not touched the Christine Saynes one since her return to alien hive by West Sea. She understands her Terran nature now, her love of killing, deceit, brutality and power. The knowledge burns her, as it should.

“Croteshit!”

While you still live under the illusion of noble causes. But not for much longer, intruder. Not for much longer.

A sizzling sound!

Lake water ran impossibly back through pebbles and sandy gravel. Fish flopped and water plants collapsed on the slick exposed basin. Across the lake the shoreline of trees was obliterated by a growing mass of black water ridged with seething froth.

Tidal wave.

“Shit!”

I holstered the stingler. Come hell or high water, and both were imminent, I would not lose this stingler. I threw the bike into two-wheel drive. Both tires tore earth as I guided it up the nearest hill. Behind me a roar of water. A sudden cold wind.

Know this in your last moment, blindcraw. The Calling Stone of Terran destruction has already been carved.

What did he mean by that?

The wall of water roared up the hill, snapped trees seconds behind me. I climbed, desperately chose my line of flight in the bouncing headlight. If the bike skidded on branches, if a log blocked my path, I would be washed down into the lake and Kor's gentle embrace!

Get to high ground!

The thought screamed in my mind as the giant wave bored uphill like a vengeful god, exhaling clouds of mist above my head.

I wasn't going to outrun it!

I skidded the bike through a thick stand of lump trees, threw myself off and rolled behind a boulder. I hyperventilated, took a deep breath and held it as water eclipsed the moons. I saw their broken reflections through the wave like some nightmarish surrealistic painting. I squeezed my eyes shut and hugged a tree.

The wave crashed down like a solid wall. It broke apart, a maelstrom of white water that swept over my head with an explosive burst. It threw me into the trunk, tried to tear me away from it. It lifted me and drove the breath from my lungs. I thought the force would tear my arms from their sockets.

Still I clung, my teeth clamped, my arms wrapped around the lump tree, hoping its roots went deep, and swearing I wouldn't inhale water. I would not die in water! I had promised myself that during my scuba diving days.

The wave receded with a swift current. I squeezed the trunk as rocks, branches, logs, rolled past. Bushes were ripped from their roots in the backward rush of water.

I realized my head was above the surface and gasped in a long breath. The wave churned back into the lake basin and left the land tokens of dying fish, shells, and slimy shreds of bottom plants. But the scarred lump tree and I were still there.

I brushed dripping hair out of my eyes, shivered from cold as I got up, and ran to the battered bike, hooked between a tree and a boulder. I jumped on and tried to start it.

It wouldn't!

Muddy streams still runneled back to the lake. Would Kor gather the waters for a second wave? Why not?

Frantically I released the brake and rolled the bike downhill, trying to jump-start it and cursing Big Al. What good were frills, a new paint job, comp add-ons and AI if a little water clogged the motor?

As though on cue, Kor's head appeared above the frothy surface. Now come to me, destroyer. I promise not to make your metamorph quick or easy.

“Destroyer?”
You think what you just did helps Syl' Tyrria's ecology?
I sent the thought and knew he'd received it. My tel powers had increased, perhaps as a defense against his mental intrusions.
What was it, Kor? Was it the accident that twisted your brain?
I sent the thought to distract him while I guided the dead bike down slippery ruts and over branches, trying to gain speed before disengaging the clutch.
Is that what makes you such a scramballed son of a retarded Carrier?
I prayed, released the clutch and twisted on the throttle as I approached the shore, listening for that sweet humming.

A clunking sound.

It is the chaos in Great Mind Himself,
Kor sent. I felt his chuckle.
What good your technology now?

I swore, veered the bike away from the lake as it continued to roll downhill, and felt Kor's tel pull like grappling hooks in my mind.

“Start, damn you!” I slammed the tank with a hand.

The bike rolled to a stop in a small depression. I fumbled for my stingler, unholstered it as Kor deepened his pathway into my mind.

There came that frightening desire to go to him. I imaged barriers of stone walls. They crumbled before his wrath. Desire became compulsion became obsession became apathy. I fought it as I got off the bike, stumbled toward the lake, trying to concentrate on the stingler in my hand. My arm felt paralyzed. That great dome emerged like some white, rubbery horror from a watery grave in the light of moons. I aimed at his head and fired.

A beam flashed and steamed water to his left. I felt his surprise, relished it. “You're not dealing with simple-minded reptiles now, slug.” I yelled as the stingler became a hissing snake that whipped around and sank fangs into my wrist. Blood spurted. The viper coiled back to strike again.

Then let it!

This was not reality. But that white mass moving toward shore had my death in mind. I cried out when the viper struck again. Poison burned through my arm, pumped toward my heart and brain.

Kor was in the shallows.

A tentacle protruded above water, but I felt rooted to the spot by his tel-link. I raised the gun with an effort like pushing through walls as the tentacle slithered toward me.

And fired again.

Kor bellowed! I didn't know he had a voice. In the light of moons I watched smoke rise from the blackened side of his head. The snake image dissipated. The sensation of poison running through my veins ceased.

This is real, Loranth,
I sent as his mindlink broke and I moved away from that flailing tentacle. He plunged back into deep water, his agony and shock buffeting my mind. I hoped he was dying.
This is what you planned for my people! What do you think of our technology now?

He breached, crashed down to the surface and came raging toward the shore.

I waited.

The waves that broke before him turned into flames.
Illusion,
I told myself when the stingler caught fire and burned my hand.

Illusion. But I dropped the weapon and it became a branch among many.

I fell to my knees, sorted through wet branches for the feel of metal, while sorceress waves splashed around me, burned wherever they touched my body. Hot embers fell into my hair and seared my ears. I gasped and brushed them, smelled smoke, burned flesh. Pain is real, no matter that the cause is illusory. I didn't think Kor knew exactly where I was and I bit my lip to keep from screaming.

Finally I felt cool metal beneath my palm. I gripped the stingler, rolled and fired blindly into sheets of flame. I heard him slam the surface like a whale breaching. A killer whale. I got to my feet.

The fires died. The surface stilled as he sounded. I wanted the cool relief of water. I wanted the lake.

Sure.

I stumbled away.

Neutral, tag. Neutral!
An absurd thought. Had I slipped into insanity somewhere between fire and water?

It's a safety feature, friend. Doesn't start in gear. Nothing new, I remembered Big Al lecturing.

I holstered the gun and went to the bike, swung a leg over, put it into neutral and pressed the starter. It hummed to beautiful life! The grips vibrated gently beneath my tight hands.

I tore out of the depression, tires kicking dirt, and glanced back. The lake surface was rippled in moonlight. That's what's nice about water, it hides the violence even faster than new grass.

But Kor wasn't dead. No, dammit. I felt his sulking presence, somewhere in the depths. He lashed out with a directive to return to the lake. I almost braked. It wouldn't have mattered. The bike was programmed with an emergency auto run to Leone and I'd already engaged it. Just hold on, I told myself, and don't disengage programming. That's all you have to do.

On the main road to town, images, illusions, and Kor's mind drag finally diminished and faded away. The pain of burns went with it.

I was drenched with sweat and water as wind fluttered my jacket and plastered my wet pants against my legs.

So, Kor's control wasn't that far- reaching after all, without a shot of his water hormones. I disengaged the bike's program. Then how did he intend to destroy Earth itself? Was he weakened by his wound, in shock, or had it been mere bluff all along? Perhaps Morth, out of Loranth pride, overestimated Kor's abilities. It would be nice to think so.

Twice I took to the woods when police mantas and ground cars raced by with lights beaming the road. I guess Hallarin was brens pissed that I hadn't shown up for his precious meeting.

* * *

The stable was dark, locked for the night.

I climbed the corral fence and listened to horses nicker and native animals chortle and grunt as I headed for Gretch's stall. After a cold supper from the stores in my saddlebags, I'd curl against her scaly flank for the night, endure raspy licks, and sleep. Ah, sleep.

She was gone!

The stall was torn apart. My saddlebags were missing too. A note tacked to a dangling crossbeam fluttered in a breeze that squeezed through the broken wall. I ripped off the note and read it by moonlight.

To the owner of the miserable grunithe beast Gretchen. You owe me 200 unit deducts for what your miserable beast done to my barn here when she broke out of it. Please pay me at my office and if you happen to find the miserable beast do not ever bring her back here again as she is not welcome here and neither are you too except only to pay up the 200 unit deducts that you owe me for all this here damage that she done to my barn! The Owner!!!

P.S. If you do not pay me the 200 unit deducts that you owe me I am going to be forced to keep your saddlebags and to call up the police also. I am sorry to have to say this but I am in deep shit with my wife over this here, and she is not as nice about things as I am. The Owner!!!

Well, I guess it was a bit presumptuous of me to ask a mostly wild miserable beast to remain confined for so long. She didn't take to small locked places any more than I did.

I went to the office with the note still in hand. The lights were out, the door was closed but not locked. Breaking and entering is almost unheard of in this small elite scientific community of Cape Leone. I had only to enter. I locked the door, lowered the shades and turned on a small lamp. It was then I noticed the ragged holes burned through my jacket. It had been strapped to the bike's rack until I'd stopped to put it on, during the ride back to Leone.