Swords Above the Stars

by Roman Zlotnikov

  After a few minutes, she had done at the mirror. Yv could not help smiling. The local ladies wore their swords on a sling, calmly beat each other face to face, treated local men like dirt, but still remained women. He turned to a little table by the window then heard footsteps in the corridor. Yv became wary and put his hand on the hilt of his sword. The girl, having finished applying her makeup, adjusted her beret, and turned to him.

  “Where you come from is it the custom to impale servants bearing breakfast?” she sneered.

  But Yv drew his sword with one motion, rushed to the corner of the room and stood there on alert. The girl was about to come out with some more banter but heard a muffled whistle in the corridor. Next moment she went limp and fell onto the bed. Yv gritted his teeth. He had heard more footsteps behind the shuffling slippers.

  The door creaked softly and a woman’s head, wearing a helmet, gently poked into the room. Yv froze for a second—subconsciously he had expected to see a man’s face—but in the next moment he sprang forward. He hit the woman in the temple with the handle of his sword and slammed his foot against the door. Someone behind fell back and a whistle sounded.

  Yv felt his skin crawl, and a chill in his heart. Pushing open the door, he threw out his arm and cut off the hand holding the whistle with one blow. Yv struck the woman with the hilt of his sword between her surprised eyes and turned to the other attacker that he had hit with the door.

  Slamming a foot into her stomach, he smashed his palm against her neck. When she fell to the floor like a sack of potatoes, he turned cautiously and looked around the corridor.

  All was quiet. Maybe these women that acted like men were cockier and more used to frequent rumbles in the corridor, or whether the guests were warned that such things could happen here, nobody interfered. Yv again carefully examined the corridor but did not notice anything suspicious. He put his sword back into its sheath, tossed the whistle into the room, and grabbing both women in the corridor by the scruff of the neck, he dragged them into the room and closed the door.

  After a couple of slaps, the girl opened her eyes, sighed, and looked at him. He leaned back in his chair and nodded to the women tied up with bed sheets and sneered.

  “You’ve got unusual breakfasts around here.”

  With a groan, the girl lifted her hands to her temples and gently shook her head from side to side.

  “Oh, Adam, what was that?”

  Yv shrugged.

  “We can call it a whistle, or if it’s easier, a hangover cure.”

  She gave him a pained look. “Yes, they are somewhat similar,” Then her gaze slid further, and eyes her widened. She turned to Yv. “Was it them?”

  Yv nodded.

  “I don’t recall recently somehow crossing paths with Baron Medjid,” mused the girl.

  “What?”

  She turned to him, and her eyes flashed suspiciously.

  “They are dressed in the colors of the House of Medjid,” she explained, nodding towards the bound women. “Since the Baron got rid of all her cousins, no one in the house can even sneeze without her permission.”

  Yv remembered the meeting on the balcony of the palace and started dressing hurriedly. Until now, he had believed that the kidnappers had come after his accidental companion, but it may very well be that it was him that they were after. If that was so, then he was making a considerably stupid mistake by sitting here waiting for his unknown new companion to come to her senses. Also, it was time that they got acquainted.

  “What’s your name?”

  The girl grinned. “Well, aren’t you really something? You fuck me at midnight, and now you ask my name?”

  Yv was embarrassed. Actually, it was not the first time he could not remember the name of the woman with whom he had spent the night, but they were mostly maids in taverns or farmer’s daughters, who came along with their mother to trade at the port markets.

  On many planets, human life was focused on a small area around the spaceport, so few farmers opposed this influx of fresh blood, so often in farm families among a sack of children, two or three looked very different from the rest. But this girl behaved very differently. The girl nodded mockingly and held out her hand in introduction. My name is Corma, the Huntress.

  Yv shook hands, trying to overcome his embarrassment, and cheerfully asked, “So what beasts do you hunt?”

  She laughed.

  “I’m not noble enough to hunt animals. My prey are bipeds.” She looked around at the kidnapped women and began to recover. “Do you think this is the best place for further discussion?”

  Yv nodded and slipped out of the door. Looking out into the corridor, he waved his hand, and they quickly ran to the stairs. When Yv tried to turn to the back door, Corma grabbed his arm. “Don’t do that.”

  “Why not?”

  “If you decide to grab someone would you leave the emergency exit unattended?”

  “But also, we are expecting them to be waiting for us at the main entrance.”

  Corma shook her head. “At the main entrance they will already expect us to be in handcuffs, so they will not expect us to break out.”

  Yv nodded and gently followed her, pulling out his sword on the move.

  Perhaps he could trust her because she knew much more about this world than he did, and she hadn’t lied about what she did for a living, or how they undertook a manhunt here.

  They crept up to the door of the dining room and peered through the crack. There were four more, all carrying swords, while one had a beam gun hanging from her belt, but thank God, they did not have any whistles. From what he knew about police operations, they never carried many such gadgets for just one or two drunks.

  Corma shook her head in amazement.

  “This is definitely not about me.” She looked at him curiously and added. “As I recall, you were here a couple of weeks ago. I wonder what you did to annoy Baron Medjid so much, that she sent her faithful bitch Lampia after you?”

  Yv shrugged.

  “We’ll talk about that later. What do you suggest?”

  She raised her eyebrows. “I do not know, I thought you might know more than me.”

  “About what?”

  Corma made a move, crossing a finger over her throat.

  “Ha! Firstly, I would like to know whether we should kill them or not?”

  She looked into the room again. There was a sound of movement within.

  “I know Medjid very well. Whether we kill her people or not, nothing will change. Any way you look at it, she will be furious that you escaped. But if you can knock them out without killing them? In the end, they are not particularly to blame.”

  Yv chuckled.

  “A strange attitude for a bounty hunter.”

  “They are not my type of clientele,” she shook her head. “I chase people evading their taxes, those who abandon their children, and other such scum. My job is to find them and let the police deal with them. By the way, do you not think that we have wasted too much time here?”

  “No,” Yv shook his head. “I think, after a while, this lady with the gun will send someone to check on how things are going upstairs, so we cut them down first, then quickly go back, and finish the rest of them. There is no chance to cut down all four of them without a sound, and it seems likely to me there may be more on the street, so we should not alert them ahead of time.”

  Corma nodded in concentration and suddenly squeezed his wrist.

  “You were wrong. All four of them are coming.”

  Yv grinned. After all, this was what he expected from female logic. He pulled himself together. When only one step remained beyond the double doors, he swung and kicked the door wide open, knocking down the first one. Yv leaped forward, hurriedly hammering his elbow in to the throat of the next one, and, waving his sword sharply, he cut the ray gun from its sheath. The woman had wasted time reaching for the weapon, and now she had no time to grab her sword. Behind his back, Yv heard the clang of metal and a mixture of pants and
groans.

  For a few seconds Yv enjoyed watching Corma and another attacker fighting each other, then he stepped forward and punched her opponent under the base of her skull with the handle of his sword. They rushed to the exit.

  “I can see one disk flyer and the driver is sat there quietly,” whispered Corma cautiously as she looked out onto the street. “I can’t see anybody else.”

  Yv grunted.

  “It is unlikely that anyone else would be there. It would be too clever. Too clever a plan usually fails, and you possess a good sword.”

  She took a breath and shrugged.

  “It’s something I had to learn. Not many people appreciate my kind of work, so I have to keep them calm.”

  “So how many have been calmed down so far?”

  “Three,” she spat, then said. “OK, what’s next?”

  He thought for a few moments.

  “Apparently, the hunt is really all about me, so you will have to play your part.”

  He looked around the dining room and turned to her. Corma stared at him quietly. Yv nodded at the body of the lady holding the stump of a ray gun.

  “Looks like you know her. What do you think she would have done if you had burst into the dining room, say, five minutes ago?”

  Corma snorted.

  “If she had no cause for complaint, she would simply have ordered me to be thrown out and kicked my ass.”

  Yv nodded in understanding. “Can you fly a disc flyer?”

  “Of course.”

  He reached out and grabbed her by the scruff of the neck. Corma froze momentarily then angrily pulled away. But it was too late—the next moment she was flying head over heels down the stairs. She landed in the dust, jumped up and angrily waved her fist in the direction of the entrance.

  Behind her back, she heard the nasty, unpleasant laugh of the disc flyer pilot. Corma stood up, irritably brushed down her pants and proudly raised her nose as if she was moving on by.

  The pilot leaned out of the cockpit, watching her with a quizzical look. Who would think to be worried about someone, if you knew that your friends under the orders of your fearsome commander, had kicked this filthy slut out of the trattoria?

  Suddenly the expression on her face changed, and her hand slid to the sword belt, but it was too late. Corma span and gave her a real slap to the face, then smacked her on the temple with the hilt of her sword. If the hunter had learned this strike from Yv, then he had to admit that she was a good student.

  When Yv jumped into the disc flyer, she was already sitting in the pilot’s seat. Suddenly, from the corner of the trattoria, a ray gun flashed. Yv jerked, but Corma, again swearing to Adam through her teeth threw the disc flyer between the houses, and they disappeared from the eyes of their pursuers.

  When they had left the city limits behind, Corma turned steeply and raced almost in an almost perpendicular direction just ten feet above the ground. He cursed through his teeth every time she miraculously managed to avoid a tree or not fly into a hill that had suddenly appeared from nowhere. After another particularly risky maneuver, Yv crossed himself and shouted loudly. “Can’t you fly any higher? I don’t need any more pine cones!”

  “Shut up!’ Snapped Corma. ‘I’m surprised they haven’t already detected us.”

  “What, you don’t have autopilot for height?”

  “If I turn on the autopilot, it will immediately take control and, depending on what they are after, they can throw us to the ground, or make us fly higher, and their disc flyers will have us both on a platter.

  Yv nodded. Judging by what she had said, they were not flying on autopilot. Their machine was not designed for fighting, but then again it was not in a battle. He leaned back and closed his eyes. Oh dear! I have lived my life without too much worry, but after just a few months spent close to Royalty, already crowds of people were after him.

  Beer Keg was absolutely right, in the future, he should stay as far away as possible from the palace’s parquet floor. Suddenly Yv remembered how the pilot’s face changed when she looked closely at Corma, and he stared at his companion.

  Clearly, Baron Medjid was interested not only in him, however, there was no time to deal with this riddle at the moment.

  Finally, the disc flyer slowed sharply. Corma shook her head, and they both jumped to the ground from a height of ten feet up, and the vehicle slowly picked up speed and disappeared behind the crest of the nearest hill. Yv sprang to his feet first and held out his hand to the girl, but she got up by herself.

  “I programmed the machine to climb slowly. There are always strong winds. It will fly unnoticed for at least ten minutes, so it will be very difficult for them to work out where we are.” She suddenly blinked and added. “By the way, until now I have not had the time, but you owe me something,” and she smacked him hard on the ear with her fist.

  Despite the difference in weight, Yv felt the blow and heard the ringing in his ear.

  “If you ever do that again ...” he whispered.

  She grinned nastily and said, with her hands on her hips, “You’ll what?’

  Just as he had done in the trattoria, he grabbed her by the scruff of the neck, deftly catching her sword arm, and finished with authority. “I will slap you around.”

  She tried to pull away, but suddenly her eyes widened, and she stared at his shoulder.

  “What is that?”

  Yv carefully placed her on the ground and turned his head.

  All the upper right side of his jerkin was completely burned away by a shot from the ray gun. He frantically tore at the charred edges, but there was not a scratch on his body.

  How could it be that even his skin wasn’t burned? It was impossible!

  Suddenly with a roar, two disc flyers emerged over the crest of a hill. Corma looked up and waved hopelessly. A familiar noise issued from one of the disc flyers, her whole body jerked, and she collapsed on the grass. Yv pretended that his legs had given way, and he sat down beside her. His thoughts began to wander. What first came into his mind was the sound of an alarm which didn’t affect him, then he recalled that a couple of weeks ago when he was cleaning his sword and his hand slipped, it felt like he had slashed his finger on the kelimit edge, but when he pulled his finger out of his mouth, there was only a small whitish scratch, which disappeared after a few moments. Now he had been struck by a ray gun without a mark. How?

  “Well,” said a familiar voice.

  Yv looked up. Baron Medjid stood before him.

  “Yes, darling, it looks like you need a larger dose from the distress alarm. Only a couple of minutes have gone by, and you are already tossing and turning.”

  The woman holding the distress alarm came forward, but the Baron waved her away irritably.

  “It’s not worth it. It will all be over before he finally comes to.”

  She stepped forward and bent down to Corma who was prostrate on the ground. Medjid held out her hands to touch the girl’s temples. When she straightened up, some uneven translucent film was hanging from her hands, and lying on the ground was a body bearing Tera’s face. Yv stared at her, dumbfounded, as the Baron nodded in satisfaction.

  “I think I need to light a candle to Eve Our Savior because she sent such thick-headed idiots like you here!” She broke down and burst out laughing. “I can’t believe that in the last ten years that stupid kid didn’t make a single mistake, didn’t give us a single chance then—boom! Even the fleet, which, behaved in front of her like a lapdog, came running to us, crying for help to save them from such allies! Well, my dear,” she threw Yv a contemptuous look, “I swear I would not mind seeing what you’re like in bed, but for the murder of Tera there is perhaps only one punishment—instant death.”

  “You what? Have you killed her?” gasped Yv in amazement.

  “Not us! You, my dear,” laughed the Baron. “Obviously with our help, but that, I think, will remain between us and the night because you most certainly won’t be around to tell the tale.”

&n
bsp; Yv sat motionless for a few moments, trying to take in what he had just heard then lifted his head and looked straight into the Baron’s eyes. “You women just can’t help gossiping.”

  She frowned and started to raise a hand to signal for her soldiers. Yv strained his leg muscles, ready to pounce.

  7

  Sandra went to her quarters, pulling off her gloves in exasperation. She threw them on the dressing table, walked over to a small table, and poured herself a glass of Runiyski wine, drinking it down in one gulp.

  There was a movement behind her back. She spun around and saw Captain Umarka’s anxious face. “Any news from Tera?”

  Umarka shook her head.

  Sandra gritted her teeth. “When she turns up, I’ll give her a real slap. Such a naughty girl!” She poured herself another half a glass, drank it down, and added emotionally. “He’s no better either. What are they doing out there? Practicing different positions in bed?”

  Umarka looked accusingly at Sandra, but she only snorted irritably and banged her wine glass back down on the table. For a few moments, there was silence.

  Finally, Sandra spoke. “So, here’s what we are going to do, my dear. Check out all the well-known drinking dens in the town.”

  “Tera does not like it when—” began Umarka.

  “I will talk to Tera in person!” barked Sandra, “and I swear by Eve Our Savior, the conversation will not be very pleasant for her.” She paused then added more calmly. “I need her back, and urgently. The Peers have raised another clamor, this time about our unruly male visitors. Thank Eve that bitch Medjid wasn’t around or a case for impeachment could have been initiated ...”

  Umarka’s face contorted.

  Sandra knew well that the captain also did not approve of the contract with the dons. It made her angry. “Stop pulling faces!” she growled. “The girl got it into her head that we needed to attack Outpost without delay, and we have already lost one queen there! Without the dons, we have every chance of losing another one.”

  Umarka tried to show an impassive expression on her face, but it was clear that she did not agree. Dear Eve, she and Tera had no idea how much trouble this notorious alliance with the dons could bring down on them. Even the most dedicated supporters were openly grumbling.