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  Hebo drew back. The other man had no attention for him anyway. “Romon,” the woman cried low. “What’s the matter?”

  “You nearly died.”

  She smiled above the hammering of her pulse. “That was then,” she answered. “It’s sweet of you, but I’m fine. I’m worried about you, though.”

  “I—never foresaw—this. If I’d had any idea you were coming, I’d never have gone—and, and on Susaia I didn’t expect so fast an action. I expected they and my House elders would, would discuss things, and make an open agreement. I did!”

  Yes, she thought, he can safely say this, because of course Ironbright knows it, and knows we’d know it. What happened here did in fact take all of us by tremendous surprise. She has also been improvising. But, as Torben said, she is ruthlessly decisive.

  “I understand, Romon,” she responded, still gentler. “Nevertheless it’s worked out well, hasn’t it? For everybody.”

  “Lissa—” He couldn’t go on.

  She whetted her tone. “What ails you? Your ship will let ours go in peace. Won’t she?” After a moment: “Won’t she? I daresay you’ve heard the plan. You could scarcely not have, with a trans and the crew being alerted. Or did they lock you away while that went on? Are they behaving suspiciously? Tell me!”

  Tears joined the sweat.

  “I’m sorry, Romon,” she said, softly again. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. I realize you’ve been shocked. In spite of the differences [297] we’ve had, I’ve always believed you’re a man of honor.” Never mind that episode of the flowers. He had doubtless been serving what he saw as the interests of his House. “I’ll take your word, Romon, and look forward to meeting you as a friend.”

  She couldn’t offer him love, not credibly. But she could use it.

  He swallowed. His shoulders squared. “Yes,” he said with a sudden clarity and firmness that she hadn’t awaited. “My word of honor, Lissa. Did you imagine I’d stand by and let you be murdered? They admire your courage and resourcefulness here. You know Susaians have their own traditions of the worthy opponent. To the best of my knowledge and belief, once you’ve done what Ironbright wants, she’ll let you go as freely, with praise, as freely as Macbeth sent Duncan home.”

  She barely heard the breath hiss between Hebo’s teeth. “Goodbye, Lissa,” Romon said.

  “Goodbye for this while,” she answered.

  “Yes.” The screen blanked.

  She turned toward Hebo. His face had gone stony. “Well,” he said, “that’s a relief, isn’t it?”

  She knew he was speaking for the transmitter. Cold stabbed her.

  Ironbright reappeared. “Are you satisfied?” she asked.

  Hebo nodded. “Stand by for data download.”

  Beneath view of the scanner, he touched a receptor spot on the panel. It gave the ship an arbitrary brief signal which had been designated a command. Prepare to execute Plan Beta.

  Betrayal had been betrayed.

  “Ready,” said Ironbright.

  A radio beam sprang forth. At its baud rate, it bore the work and discoveries of half a planetary day across in less than a minute.

  Hebo and Lissa looked into one another’s eyes. “I love you,” he whispered.

  Would they have a little more time while the inspector came aboard? Just a little. Please.

  [298] A titan smote them. It rammed them back into their chairs with the force of twenty gravities or more. Blackness thundered across brains. Blood burst from nostrils.

  The force stopped. Lissa caught three breaths while the stars whirled around her. Then the next blow hammered her into night.

  Afterward she had a feeling that she had somehow sensed the crash; but it was dreamlike, it might have been fleeting delirium.

  No flesh could detect and react with the spacecraft’s speed. As the missile left its launcher, Hulda accelerated. The death flew several meters past her. Before it could turn in pursuit, Hulda swung about. In a second burst of power, she hurtled against Authority.

  Her hull and fields had withstood impact with an asteroid. The enemy vessel was meant entirely for combat. Shards of her exploded in every direction. Some burned down through the planetary sky as meteors.

  Outracing the hound, Hulda reached hyperjump distance. Acceleration ended. She sprang across spacetime.

  LIV

  WHEN Lissa swam back to herself, she was unharnessed, afloat in free fall. Hebo’s anxious hands went to and fro across her. “Are you all right?” he gasped through the blood that masked him in red and bobbed loose in fire-drops. “Are you okay, darling, darling?”

  “I ... think ... I am,” she mumbled. “You?”

  His laugh leaped. “I’m awake.”

  Stars gleamed in the constellations of home. To one side shone Sunniva.

  Later, when they had won back to full awareness, taken analgesics to deaden the pain that filled them and the healing medicines prescribed by the medic machine that examined them, cleansed themselves, and shared from a bottle of whiskey, they could recall what they had done.

  “Two-three broken ribs apiece, minor damage elsewhere, nothing that won’t mend pretty soon,” he said. “Christ, though, that was a near thing. A tad more would’ve killed us.”

  She was too weary for triumph. “And we killed so many,” she mourned.

  “It was them or you. I have no regrets.”

  “Romon—”

  “Yes, he did warn us, knowing it’d cost him his life. But I’m fairly sure he already suspected he and Esker were doomed. What reason would the Dominance have to let them live to tell their story?” Hebo gazed out at the stars. “Well, be that as it may, there at the end he was a brave man. I’ll honor his memory.”

  “How did he warn you?”

  [300] “Something few humans know nowadays, and no nonhumans. Macbeth received Duncan as a guest, then murdered him in his sleep.”

  “We’d better call Asborg.”

  “Yes, and urge them to call Earth. And to dispatch a squadron to yon system, just in case; but I expect Earth and the Forerunners’ll be quick to reclaim their own.” Hebo smiled. “I don’t expect they’ll take what we’ve got away from us. In fact, they can’t, if we squirt the data along with our message. We’ll have enough to keep us busy for a good long while to come. Lord knows what we’ll find.”

  “Greatness?”

  “Fun, anyway. Discovery is, don’t you agree? Now let’s start Hulda off for Asborg at a nice, easy half a gee, make our call, and rest.”

  “And rest and rest,” she sighed. “Sleep and sleep.”

  He smiled rather wryly. “I hope we’ll be in shape to use some of this last flight better than that. We’ll be mighty short on privacy for weeks or months, groundside.”

  “There’ll be time afterward,” she promised. “Always.”

  About the e-Book

  (AUGUST, 2003)—Scanned, proofed, and formatted by Bibliophile.