The Lost Star's Sea

by C. Litka

  02

  Cin insisted on returning yet again to what little was left of the Temtre Assembly the next round with Siss. I stayed back in reserve. Ships were departing for their trading ports almost hourly, the ship-city had all but evaporated by the time I climbed to our lookout to search for her and Siss. I had declined, half afraid DeKan would use some Temtre custom to capture us once again - and this time, be far less careless. I doubt Temtres are shy when it comes to revenge, and while DeKan may've come to take the whole affair with resigned good humor, I didn't care to take any chances. I told Siss that if anything went wrong, she was to come and get me. I'd go down with my standard darter, if not with the gig itself, and I wouldn't be taking prisoners. Cin dismissed my concerns and returned to the Assembly one last time.

  I, in the meanwhile, spent my time putting the last finishing touches to the gig. It was all but ready to launch. With the rendezvous with Tenry and the Rift Raven abandoned, we wouldn't need to install the rocket steering motors in the bow since we wouldn't be going into space - we'd use the steering wings and rudders to maneuver. Instead, I could install them as extra drive motors on the engine room bulkhead. Making the fittings and adding the fuel lines kept me busy while Cin was gone. Once the Temtre had departed, we'd clear away the vines, launch the gig and then run some trials near the island to make certain everything was working satisfactorily. After that we could decide where to go.

  Cin and Siss returned hours later. Neither were very talkative. She said the Temtres would be gone when we next awoke, and retired soon after her return to her hammock. There was still a certain sadness about her that I could not place, but chose not to pursue. Once we had the island to ourselves, we could explore our new relationship far more comfortably.

  I woke up with a sharp headache. Alone. Cin and Siss must've gone down to see the last of the Temtre ships off. I climbed up through the vines to our lookout, only to find the savanna completely deserted. Only the grid of trampled grasses where the streets had run and the indents where the ships had been anchored remained. I searched the sky. It was empty. The Temtres had been gone some time then, for it often took a watch for the ships and their trailing plumes of smoke to disappear completely. The birds and lizards sang, screeched, and soared overhead and through the waving vines, but the island still seemed very, very quiet. Dead. Its life carried away in the boats of the Temtres.

  I called out to Cin several times, but only the birds and lizards replied.

  She must've gone for a long walk. Having lived my life in the tiny world of a space ship I was used to the confined life. She wasn't.

  Returning to the gig for a quick session with the med-unit and then breakfast, I discovered a light blinking on the remaining control console. It indicated a vid message. I stared at it for several seconds before I realized what it meant. The headache I'd woken up with now seemed to tell me all I really needed to know. And perhaps all I wanted to know. I noted the time for the first time - I had slept too long to have slept unaided.

  I made myself one of Cin's dishes and brewed a mug of real, Unity cha, and took them up to the lookout ledge, just to get away from the blinking light. And I wondered, over and over again, if it could've ever been different. Was it Kin DeKan? I'd seen Min's reaction to DarQue, and DeKan was cut from the same pattern. I was sure the blinking light would tell me, but I found I was in no hurry to find out.

  But I did, eventually, press it, of course.

  The screen popped to life with the image of Naylea Cin. Siss was hanging off her shoulder.

  'Good morning, Wil,' she said. 'I'm sorry to do this this way. But I think it best, for all of us. The first thing I want to tell you is that I love you. And only you. And if this was about you, I wouldn't be talking to this machine. But it's about me.

  'I told you that I'd need some time to work through my anger. Well, it seemed manageable, at the time. Love conquers all, and all of that. And love did conquer my anger at you. But now it's not just about you, but who you are, or more precisely who your relatives are - the nameless families you're a member of, whether you know them or not. I find that we're in a story as old as the stars themselves. Lovers doomed by ties that can't be broken, forever divided by a hundred generations of rivalry and hate.

  'You indeed come from a branch of the oldest, and most powerful families in St Bleyth and like my own, from the martial arts arm of the Order. Your grandmother's real name is Tivea Reeven and your grandfather is Sil'den Qing. The Reevens and the Qings are two of the oldest stealth families in the Order. They've been the chief rivals of the Cins since the Cins became a family and began to challenge their leadership in the martial arts branch of the Order. They've hated the Cins for a hundred generations or more, even as they hate each other. Your grandmother should serve as a warning. I'm certain your grandparents did not last long together because of their families' histories and no doubt great displeasure at their pairing. The pressure must have been intense.

  'In any event, I discovered that I had, somehow, fallen in love with both a Reeven and a Qing. It came as a great, and very unpleasant, shock to me. I realize all this means absolutely nothing to you, and that you might even find it humorous. But having been raised in the Order, and having had to deal with the hate and meanness from my generation of Reevens and Qings, the very idea of making love to a man, a strange and unlikely product of both families, brings forth anger, not love or tenderness. I realize that you're unlikely to believe this. You're too Unity Standard to understand the emotional depth of these hatreds. And perhaps, if it was just the family ties, I might conquer them. But it is more.

  'You see, your grandfather is the official in the Ministry who had my father reassigned from the Amdia system, where he was uniquely useful, to the drifts where almost any stealth of any talent could operate. And not only that, he then assigned my father an impossible task deep in the darkest drifts, where he died, where no questions could be answered. It was your grandfather who, one way or another, had my father killed.

  'I wear the raw scars of the Reevens and Qings too close to my heart to bring you close to me again without, in the end, squeezing that trigger just a little harder.

  'You are dear to me. I love you. And I don't wish to harm you. But I cannot trust myself. So I free you of your promises. Go, save Min, with my blessing. Find your way home to the Unity where you belong. Grow cha. Whatever you do, grow cha. You were born to grow cha.

  'I have explained my problem to DeKan. All of it, and the reason I need to leave you. I have booked passage on the Talon Hawk to any island in the Pela that catches my fancy. I am paying for my passage with my survey glasses, which Kin covets greatly after seeing what they can do. However, he repeatedly reminded me to assure you that the passage is being paid for entirely by the glasses, and nothing else. And that he understands and sympathizes with your plight. I can assure you that he did seem quite reluctant to agree to my request, and was troubled by the implications of me seemingly running off with him after he'd sworn kinship with you. I assured him that I would make you understand my actions. To do this, I'll ask Siss, who knows my heart, and loves you too, to confirm that it is you and only you that I love. And hate.'

  Siss swam up to the camera, nose to lens, and gave a low mournful hiss to confirm it. Which was good enough for me, though perhaps I imagined seeing it in Cin's eyes as well, though I don't think the display could really capture that.

  'I'll simply add that since Siss cannot speak for herself, I assure you, this is breaking her poor Simla dragon's heart. I explained to her that where you're going you can't take her with you. Spaceships and the Unity are no place for a Simla dragon. And that I was sure your heart would be broken twice by losing both of us. She cried, wrapped herself around your sleeping body one last time, kissed you with her tongue - yuck - and then shot out of the boat only to return an hour later with a parting gift for you. She's placed it carefully in you gear bag and stared at it for some time before breaking out with her barking laughter. Sh
e's been alternating between sad, sad moans and laughing ever since then.'

  She then leaned closer to the lens and whispered, 'If I were you, I'd have it for breakfast....'

  Siss gave a menacing hiss behind her.

  'Oh, he knows I'm only kidding,' she said, shaking her head "No". 'Really, I am?'

  Deep growls...

  'And that, I think is all I need say... Look, I'm crying. I told you I could cry on demand way back when we first met,' she laughed, whipping a tear away. 'You didn't believe me. So take care, my dear. Save your friends. And don't worry about us. You know we can look out for ourselves. Fair orbits, Wil. I love you. We love you,' she added as Siss gave out a long low and sorrowful hiss.

  'The Talon Hawk is waiting, so I'm going to give you another dart to keep you asleep for a while longer. Another dart. That is how we do things, isn't it Wil?'

  The message ended.