Rift in the Races (104 page)

“Then we have to get him out.”

“Uh, not ‘we,’ Orli. I have to tell you, some crazy shit has gone down since you’ve been out.”

“Such as?”

“Well, they are talking about making Captain Asad admiral, for one.” The dismay on Orli’s face was mirrored in his own. “I know,” he said.

“That’s impossible. Nobody is that stupid.”

“I would have said the same thing three days ago.”

“So what now?”

“Well, they had a vote of no confidence on Admiral Jefferies. Nobody has said anything since. I have no idea what went down after that. The only thing I know is that Queen Karroll crapped herself when she found out we took Altin prisoner and has threatened to go to war if we don’t give him back.”

“Ugh,” she moaned. “How can everyone on every world be so goddamn ready for war all the time? What the hell is wrong with these people?”

“It is pretty impressive on the redundancy scale, I’ll give you that. As a species, I guess we’re just universally retarded.”

“Well, we have to get Altin out.”

“Woman, I’m not touching that one. Everyone on this ship is ready to shoot something, and I’m not going to be standing there when the gun goes off. If you’re smart, you’ll just lie there, get better and shut the hell up. Let things calm down first. Otherwise you’ll only make it worse.”

She knew he was probably right. But she couldn’t stand the thought of Altin sitting in that cell. He must be heartbroken. Or worse, he must be filled with hate. Hate for her, a hate the size of Blue Fire’s hate. Hate for her betrayal. She remembered the look on his face, remembered the conversations that they’d had since Thadius had violated her heart and mind, since he’d tried to smother and kill the love she had for Altin. She could remember the heartbreak in Altin’s eyes. How could she have seen it and not been moved by it? She could hear in her memories the sound of her own voice saying the things she had to him. She could hardly make herself think of how brutal that must have been for him. She would have died had it been the other way around. She couldn’t even imagine it.

How could he ever forgive her? How could he ever love her again?

Chapter 85

“I
want a full assault on that ship, and I want my Galactic Mage back immediately,” commanded the Queen from her place upon her throne. “You’ll take my elf with you and you’ll get it done.”

Madame Kenouvier’s curtsey was deep, her expression severe. The guildmaster of the teleporters was no more happy about having her star guild member held captive than the Queen was. “Yes, Your Majesty. The
Citadel
seers are looking through their ships for him as we speak.”

She turned to the stooped old seers guildmaster, the one-eyed Master Alfonde. “How is that not already done? I’ve seen their ships. They are not so big as to require much time to sort through, and there aren’t even fifty of them. It’s been
three
days.”

“Yes, but just the same, they’re having trouble locating him, Majesty.”

“Find him, by the gods, or I’ll find another guildmaster.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.” From the way the old man said it, it seemed he might be happy to be rid of the job just then. He backed away, scraping and bowing as he went.

The Queen nearly threw herself against the back of the imperial seat. “This is an outrage,” she said to no one in particular, though many lords and assorted aristocracy were in attendance at court today. “Three days for forty-one seers to look through forty-nine ships. It’s preposterous. What has happened to the talent in my kingdom? We’ll have no chance against the orcs like this. None at all.”

A messenger in Palace crimson came in with a leather dispatch case.

“Your Majesty,” he said. “Word from Captain Andru has come back.”

“Speaking of the beasts,” she said as she snatched the dispatch from his hands. “Did he find me those damnable Liquefying Stones?”

“No, Majesty, but he has finally located the orc stronghold.”

“Does he say how many there are?”

“Yes, Majesty.” He nodded toward the dispatch in her hands even as he stepped away, noticeably far away, at that.

She opened it and read through the contents. She hurled the dispatch back at the man, but said nothing, though inwardly she seemed to fume.

“Majesty?” asked the Earl of Vorvington who was standing nearby with the marchioness.

“The man can’t count,” said the Queen. “His horse has probably kicked him in the head.”

“What does it say, My Queen? Surely it can’t be as bad as that.”

“He estimates them at over a hundred thousand strong.”

Vorvington stepped back farther from her than the messenger had. “But that’s impossible.”

“It better be.” She dismissed the messenger with orders to get the summons out for her War Council to convene an hour after sunset.

As he turned to go, a clamor at the doors was followed by the appearance of Conduit Huzzledorf, who held two figures firmly by their forearms, a young woman and a skinny young man barely out of his teens, if out of them at all. The Queen recognized neither of them. The conduit half-dragged the pair to the base of the throne and, after an awkward bow himself, thrust the young woman forward forcefully. She cringed and looked terrified to be in the presence of the monarch. She shot a look back to the young man, who appeared to urge her forward with a movement of his chin, less terrified than she, perhaps, but obviously not volunteering himself to speak.

“This one figured it out,” said the conduit with typical audacity. He pushed the woman forward a little more.

“Figured what out, Conduit? I’m really in no mood for games.”

“The location of Earth,” he said. “She was Sir Altin’s star pupil last semester. And she’s been through all the documents from Earth. She says she knows which direction we should be looking in.”

The Queen peered down at the woman who still had not made eye contact. Sometimes this sort of obsequiousness was irksome, but she did not want to frighten the young thing, particularly if she actually had some good news.

“What is your name, young lady?” she asked.

The woman looked up, hands shaking visibly as they gripped a wad of parchment sheets that she’d crumpled roughly in her fit of nervousness. “Tribbey Redquill, Your Majesty.”

“Well, Tribbey Redquill, is it true? Do you know where their planet is?”

“Yes, Ma’am. I mean, Yes, Your Majesty. I do. Caulfin and I figured it out this afternoon.”

The Queen’s eyes looked back to Conduit Huzzledorf, who nodded, a wide grin smeared across his face. She looked back to the woman. “Good work, then.” Once again glancing to the conduit, “So get busy. You know what you have to do.”

“Yes, Your Majesty. I can have a seeing stone there in a matter of days.”

“You don’t have days. Do it now. Get ten of your best telepaths and handle it. Use them all if you must, just get there.”

“It’s not quite as easy as all that, My Queen. Like the Blue Fire world, Earth is still very far away.”

“Use diviners then. Take our new guildmaster, Cypher Meste.”

“What about the search for Sir Altin? Guildmaster Meste is working to find him. I have an experienced team, we don’t need diviners. We can find it on our own.”

One of Her Majesty’s eyes nearly closed as she fought off the twitching irritation caused by the remark. “You
will
avail yourself of a diviner, Conduit, because I don’t have time for vanity or any other obscene conduit stupidity. If Meste is busy, take someone else. In fact, take that high priestess from Leekant. The Maul has experience finding planets and that sort of thing anyway.”

He grimaced and looked as if wished he’d kept his mouth shut. “Yes, Majesty. As you please.”

“Find it, Huzzledorf. Get a marked seeing stone there, and follow it yourself to be sure it works. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.” He bowed, too shallow for propriety but she didn’t care. He would get it done. At last, after a long day of frustration and bad reports, Her Majesty had something to smile about.

Chapter 86

O
rli pretended to sleep long enough to get everyone to leave. Once the nurse was gone and the lights dimmed, Orli got up and snuck out. She drew more than a few stares in her short hospital gown as she made her way through the ship’s labyrinthine corridors, but she tried to keep to the lesser-used passages and service tubes.

Eventually she made it down to the deck above the detention level. A service tube gave her access to a space between bulkheads down which she could wriggle, using the thick cables and conduits as handholds. She descended and crawled through to an access panel at the end of the cell block corridor. She looked out through the vent slits in it. There were two doors leading out, one at either end of the hall. The near door, just outside the vent to her left, was closed, the one on the far end open and guarded. All told, there were four men in the corridor, three guards, two of them at least a hundred feet away at the open door and the third guarding the fourth man, who she recognized as Thadius’ lackey, Annison. The mage was slumped over in a chair and looked like he might be asleep. He and the Marine watching him were only thirty feet from her.

Hatred filled her at the sight of Annison, and, for a moment, it was an act of will not to rush straight out there and punch in his windpipe. The evil those two men had perpetrated upon her, and the damage they’d done to the beautiful thing that she and Altin had had, justified any sort of violence, including killing him out of hand. She could hardly believe how happy she was over Thadius’ inglorious demise. Frankly, it nearly frightened her how much joy that gave. Nearly.

Watching the mage and the guards for a few minutes, she was fairly sure she didn’t have to rush in like that. She could stall and talk her way close enough to take Annison down. She was in a hospital gown after all. Harmless, right? If she had to, she could lift it and prove she was unarmed. All three of the guards were men. That ought to put them off of shooting her long enough for her to get close.

If she could just get to the first one, take his gun, then she could make the others leave. She might have to use Annison as a shield. Kill him after they were gone.

But there would be more right away after that. She’d have to move quickly, get to Altin and then he could get them both out after that.

She felt her blood begin to rush as she committed to the plan, her heart racing and adrenaline filling her. She struggled with the latch mechanism. She was on the wrong side of the panel and the bare strip of metal on the inside had not been designed for soft human fingertips. She felt like she must be making a racket, but none of the guards looked up. Finally she got it turned and pushed the panel open. It fell to the deck with a clatter. That turned everybody’s head.

She stepped out, her voice calm, her posture unassuming, the way she had done so many times before, back when she’d been the one sedating crewmembers who’d lost their minds in the course of the wasting Hostile disease. She’d had a lot of practice getting close to armed and angry men, although she would not be sedating these. Hopefully she could get them to give up without resorting to violence. None of these men had done anything wrong. None but Annison.

“Freeze, Pewter. You aren’t allowed in here.” That was the nearest one, but the other two came a few steps closer, separating and taking positions on opposite sides of the corridor.

“I have no weapons,” she said, moving forward a few paces.

“Stop, Pewter. We have orders to shoot anyone that comes in here without the captain’s okay.”

“You know Altin and I were going to be married, right? At least I am pretty sure he was going to ask me before everything went wrong.” Two more steps.

“Pewter, come on. Stop. Please. Don’t make us do this.”

Good. He didn’t want to shoot her. “I’m unarmed,” she said, lifting her arms up high. The bottom of her hospital shift rose well up her thighs.

“Pewter, I swear to God.”

She turned around, spread open the back of the gown. “Look, I got nothing. You can calm down. I just want to see him.”

He ordered her to stop again, but not without a full second’s hesitation in the middle of the command. She smiled toward the vent from which she’d come. Stupid men.

She turned back. “Do you need to see the rest?” Two more steps. She was only five steps away.

“Goddamn it, Pewter. I said stop.”

She reached down for the bottom of the flimsy gown, crossing her forearms, and made to lift it up over her head. She saw his eyes move down, saw all of their eyes move down, and all three gun muzzles moved as well, off target and briefly unattended by their minds.

She lifted it in the same motion she kicked the nearest guard in the stomach, doubling him over. She snatched the gun from his hands as he folded, and kneed him in the face, which threw him over backwards. His head hit the wall with a sickening thud, and he slumped to the floor. She ducked behind Annison still slumped in his chair and pointed the rifle at the other two, who were now aiming guns and glares at her again.