Swords Above the Stars

by Roman Zlotnikov

  The clearing was enclosed by a wall of myrtle bushes, and the setting sun cast shadows on the sloping meadow, creating a bizarre deep-blue pattern on the carpet of grass.

  “Where are we?”

  Yv shrugged.

  “Who knows? Judging by the sun, I walked to the north, but where we are now, I really can’t say. I just do not know.”

  “I don’t need the precise coordinates.” Tera grinned. “Just tell me how far you walked from the place where we met the baron? And where is the baron?”

  “We are around two miles from the place where we met the baron’s people and the baron herself. Before your next question, I can tell you that you’ve been unconscious for five hours—perhaps five and a quarter, and all the while dangling like a lamb over my hump.”

  Yv still had mixed feelings. On the one hand, in front of him was Tera, who he did not dare to talk to before, and could not approach without her calling him first.

  On the other hand, this morning he had woken up in bed with this woman, even if truth be told, then she had a completely different persona. While he had been carrying her, he had time to think about it and decide, depending on how she behaved, whether to treat her as Corma or her majesty. Judging by her reaction to her trial questions, it was Corma who was sitting now before him.

  “Before now I have been carried by horses, camels, and dogs, but never by a peasant man. This is a first for me,” Tera quipped.

  Yves snapped back. “I never dragged a lamb so far either.”

  They looked at each other and laughed. After they had finished laughing, Tera tried to get to her feet. Yv immediately put his arm around her. She instinctively raised her chin and frowned, but then came around and leaned on his arm.

  “Which direction should we move in?” Yv asked.

  Their relationship had been decided, and he felt a little more confident. Tera carefully observed the margins, then winced as some thoughts came to mind, and she turned to him sharply. For a few seconds, she silently stared at his face, then said slowly. “Why are we not being pursued?”

  For the second time that day, Yv felt a cold sweat. The first time it had happened was a few hours ago, when he struck the final blow with his sword, and stopped, looking round with wide eyes at what he had done. However, he tried to shrug calmly.

  “There is no one left to chase us.”

  Tera glared at him, but Yv didn’t answer straight away.

  “There were about two dozen fighters.”

  Yv nodded slightly and tried to change the direction of her thoughts.

  “Likely as not, all of those she could entrust with such a secret as the murder of Tera were with her. I think the rest of her servants have no idea about the baron’s plan or where she went.”

  “What are you trying to say ...?”

  Yv put on a smile and made himself laugh.

  “I proved to be something of a surprise for them,” he said evasively.

  In the end, was he lying? It was indeed a surprise for them. Tera gave him a long, searching look and turned away. A tense silence hung over the clearing.

  “So, you are certain that we will not be pursued ...” she murmured finally.

  “Yes. Anyway, at least not soon.”

  Tera sighed loudly as if trying to dispense with everything in her mind that was inexplicable and incomprehensible but not related to the present moment, and she rubbed her cheek against her shoulder, deep in thought. Yv took courage and tried once more to return to their pressing problems.

  “We need to think about somewhere to spend the night. It seems to me that the night is already chilly.” He shivered.

  Yv, of course, had been through a lot on the surfaces of various planets, but most of the life of the Noble Don was spent either in the steel box of a ship, or in a tavern in anticipation of a contract, so he didn’t relish the prospect of spending the night on the bare ground. He looked up at the darkening sky, then back to Tera. She was thinking about something.

  “So, do you firmly believe that we are not being pursued?” she repeated.

  Yv shrugged.

  “From the company that arrived with the baron, no one is left that is able to set off after us, and I doubt there is anybody else. So how does this affect our itinerary?”

  She nodded. “If my memory serves me well, we are now on the outskirts of Emilat Hunting Park. Not far from here there is a hunting lodge belonging to the very same baron. So, if there is no pursuit, we can spend the night there. Unfortunately, there is no console connection. The baron has built this cabin, as she said, to rest from civilization and to maximize her connection to nature. Everything there is built only from stone and wood, and the only metal there is silver.”

  “Is it far to go?” asked Yv.

  Tera shrugged.

  “I don’t know. It’s difficult to work out through these thickets, but if you’re not wrong with the direction and distance, it is not far away; a mile, or even less.”

  “Could you find it at night?”

  “With my eyes closed.” Tera smiled.

  Yv shook his head.

  “It seems to me that you know this little place very well, but I thought that relations between you and the baron were not too warm.”

  “You forget about the dossier we have on her. She has been my implacable enemy for so long that I probably know her better than most of my girlfriends. As for personal visits ... no one in the kingdom, whether peer or even my personal enemy, can refuse Tera, and she always ran a great hunt here.”

  They got there in half an hour. It was a massive stone structure with a huge dining room on the first floor and a dozen bedrooms on the second floor, so it was something of a joke to describe it as a hunting lodge. When the trees, standing like a solid wall surrounding the clearing parted, a building with a tall roof which obscured the stars appeared before Yv’s eyes.

  He whistled involuntarily.

  Wow, that’s supposed to be a hunting lodge he thought for a moment and turned to Tera.

  “It seems to me that such an impressive structure can’t be run without staff?”

  “I thought about that,” she nodded. “It is very likely that the disc flyers came from here. I just can’t imagine how she was able to recruit so many people without our security service noticing. All of her estates are under close observation.”

  Yv stared at her and blurted out. “So why exactly do you think that your security staff failed to notice?”

  Tera looked at him quizzically, and she felt confused. Well, of course. Otherwise, they would have long since been back in the palace.

  He frowned, annoyed at his own stupidity, and angrily asked. “So, is it your intention to simply enter the enemy’s lair and settle down there for the night?”

  Tera cocked her head arrogantly.

  “Do not forget, I am Tera. If you are sure that the Baron can no longer cross our paths, then for those we may find there it will be much more profitable to win my favor. Besides,” her eyes sparkled in the night, like a cat, “Medjid’s little family have long held a knife at my throat, so maybe today I will be able today to clarify a couple of questions that I have wanted answers to for a long time.”

  With these words, she moved forward.

  “How has she managed to still be alive with such a penchant for adventure?” Yv muttered under his breath and followed her.

  The hunting lodge was deserted as was the vehicle hangar behind it. The staff, however, could be anywhere.

  Tera walked the lodge from top to bottom, carefully inspecting everything, then joined Yv, who, with some difficulty, had managed to start a fire. He had made a large cloud of smoke. He threw a couple of non-combustible plastic bags onto the hearth that bore strange inscriptions and looked very similar to standard field rations. Kneeling on the bench in front of the hearth, the young queen sighed deeply.

  “What else do you want?” asked Yv surprised. “We are sitting here; we are alive; there’s plenty of grub around, and all you do is sig
h.”

  “You are a philosopher,” Tara grinned, “whereas I’m a cynic.”

  She pondered for a few moments, slipping on her searching look, then suddenly blurted out. “I was looking for a safe. My ‘hounds’ believe that Medjid holds much of interest ... things that may shed light on some troubles that occur periodically in the kingdom. But they still have not been able to establish where they are hidden.” Tera took a deep breath, reached out and tore open a ration pack, which turned out to be something resembling a large sausage roll. “So, I thought - why not here?” She paused and looked at Yv, head down, staring at him through her soft eyelashes, her eyebrows raised and biting her bottom lip in a way that Yv found almost irresistible.

  Then he understood. He snapped his eyes back to hers. “You want me to look for it?”

  Tera nodded calmly.

  “You have surprised me so many times recently, so why not try again?”

  Yv didn’t know what to say and simply shrugged. Tera looked at him searchingly, then turned away, as if losing interest in the conversation.

  For a while, they ate in silence, but Yv literally physically felt the wave of sadness and disappointment emanating from her, that nearly knocked him off the bench. Finally, he could stand it no longer. Standing up and irritably kicking the bench, he went down the stairs to the basement. Yv was angry, but at the same time he could not help but feel admiration. This girl twirls people any way she wants, and even knowing this, he realized he could not resist her willpower. She was able to quietly pursue her aims without relying upon her position—a rare quality even among much more experienced leaders. Whatever may be said, she not only wore her title by birthright, but she was a true queen...

  Yv angrily shook his head. What kind of object of worship is she! She was a cute, pretty girl with excessive ambitions and the habit of command. How could he find anything attractive in her? However, it didn’t matter what Yv told himself, the feeling of awe never left him.

  Busy with his own thoughts, he almost banged his forehead against the bottom of a huge barrel. It stopped him involuntarily, and Yv looked around in surprise. Why on earth had he gone to the basement in the first place? He shook his head and turned to leave, then suddenly froze, startled by a sudden discovery.

  He had gone down to the basement, where there was not a single window, without bringing a lantern or torch with him, and where even outside impenetrable darkness reigned, so logically he should feel as blind as a newborn puppy, but instead Yv could see every detail on the barrels, and every little bump on the walls.

  Then the reason that he had gone there in the first place occurred to him. Yv, still not fully understanding what he was doing, raised his hand and unscrewed the bottom of the tap, not the handle itself, as would be natural if you wanted to get the tap to pour. He moved the tap upwards and to the left. The movement felt somehow familiar, automatic as if it all the barrels that he had ever come across before opened that way. There was a scraping noise in the depths of the basement, and a barrel, standing on massive stone feet, moved aside.

  He was still standing there, in a stupor, staring at the narrow aperture that had opened, when a flickering torch appeared on the stairs behind him. He heard footsteps and Tera said ecstatically, “They don’t call you Lucky without reason!”

  Yv slept a deep dreamless sleep. Tera lit a candle, settled down at the far end of the table, and rustled through printouts, moving aside a pile of crystals and a portable notebook with a printer that she had found in the safe. From time to time she burst into strong language or cried out happily.

  Yv sprawled there on the bench nearby. Before falling asleep, he tried to convince himself that everything that had happened in the basement was just some amazing coincidence, along with everything that had happened to him recently.

  Just a set of coincidences unrelated to what had happened on Zovros.

  He didn’t manage it.

  He still did not want to admit to himself that he dreamed the meeting, so he decided to return to the problems of the present.

  He tried to make himself believe that the woman who was sitting at the other end of the table was just his employer, and all that he fantasized to himself was nothing other than a whim, a foolish fad, and totally stupid. During this desperate struggle with the reality of it all, he fell asleep.

  Yv woke up at dawn. Tera was still rustling through papers. He diligently tried chasing away yesterday’s thoughts and got on with the chores. He brought a couple of ration packs from the kitchen, and just like the day before, he warmed them up in the fire. This time it was much faster and without much smoke.

  He served breakfast.

  Tera ate mechanically, apparently not even going to break away from her work, so Yv wandered through the lodge without purpose. Then he fell asleep again, faithfully observing one of the iron rules of the noble dons. Sleep as often as you can because you may not have many opportunities in the future. When he woke up, it was already noon. Tera was sat at the table holding printed sheets of paper in her clenched fist, staring at the wall with glazed eyes. Yv jumped to his feet and rushed over to her.

  “What happened?”

  Tera turned her lifeless face to him and spoke through numb lips.

  “She was the one that ordered Galiyat to be poisoned ...”

  Unable to control herself, she buried her face in his chest and burst into tears. Yv stood, bent over her, gently hugging her slender shoulders which were shaking from her sobs, and he felt a warm wave of emotion spread over his heart.

  All his good intentions had gone to the dogs. Suddenly it occurred to him that he had spent two days with this woman under one roof and not one obscene thought had crossed his mind.

  In truth, when he recalled her body, which he had seen there in the trattoria, he blushed, but he would never consider, as Beer Keg would say, taking the chick by the hips.

  Suddenly he was frightened of his thoughts.

  Tera stood up and angrily wiped her face, sniffing in a childlike manner.

  “Forgive me.” She disdainfully tossed away the prints. “Scum!”

  For some time, Yv was silent, then he suggested cautiously. “Maybe it would be a good idea to finish this in the palace? I think Sandra will be worried.”

  Tera looked around.

  “Oh, Adam, it’s already daytime! I did not notice! Perhaps you’re right.” She nodded. “We have a long way to go.”

  “What for?” Yv asked, puzzled. “Can’t they be contacted through that?” He pointed to the notebook.

  Tera stared blankly at the computer in front of her for a few seconds then laughed aloud.

  “Oh, Adam, how can I be such an idiot? We could have spent the night in the palace.”

  Sandra came for them in person. She gave Yv a somewhat strange look. With an openly respectful gesture, which, however, conveyed a feeling of inflexibility, she invited Tera into the disc flyer, indicating to Yv that he should take another one nearby.

  Tera was indignant, but Sandra gave her such a look that she bit her lip and entered the disc flyer without looking back.

  Aunt and niece sat silently face to face, but when the disc flyer rose into the air, Tera could not resist and started to talk passionately about what she had discovered in the baron’s hunting lodge.

  However, Sandra interrupted her with a gesture and handed her a stack of printouts.

  “Read these.”

  When Tera, biting her lip, looked up with a concerned look on her face, Sandra nodded.

  “This is not yet a rebellion, but ... you’re too carried away with your own ideas, girl.”

  Tera grimaced. “This is because of him, too?”

  Sandra smiled. “Admiral Shantorin brought all of this to me.”

  Tera sighed and closed her eyes. “So, what should I do now?”

  Sandra sighed deeply. “Send him to my Whiskered One. Let him be far away for a while until the clamor subsides and the evil tongues quiet down. About the notices of resignatio
n,” she thought for a moment, “I really do not know. The resignations remain in my hands at this moment, as if you know nothing about them yet. Once they became aware of the intrigues of the late Baron Medjid, I managed to persuade them to wait for the results of the exploratory mission. Maybe, after that, things will become clearer. Perhaps we will have new arguments in favor of a contract with the dons, or it becomes clear that we will have to be able to cope alone.” She paused. “The worst thing is, that even after the raid, we may not have any convincing arguments in favor of the first choice, nor in favor of the second solution.”

  Tera nodded and wearily rubbed her face with her hand. When the disc flyer reached the palace, she looked into Sandra’s eyes, sighed, and said. “You were right.”

  Sandra raised her eyebrows in puzzlement, and Tera explained.

  “I should have entered a dynastic marriage before the flight.”

  Sandra thought for a moment then said carefully. “Perhaps it’s not too late?”

  Tera shook her head. “It’s already too late.”

  9

  The probes were due for release in forty minutes time. Lame Rhino’s face on the monitor had a casual, somewhat arrogant expression. Yv turned and looked around the audience.

  A mixture of anticipation and excitement was visible on the faces of the staff officers and squadron commanders who had gathered in the main headquarters of the fleet of the kingdom, although many showed a touch of irritation.

  For the first time, the scouting party was approaching within distance of the lair of the terrible Enemy of the kingdom. For the first time, the dream of revenge could become reality.

  Not everyone, however, liked the fact that these spies were not subjects of the kingdom, but unappreciated allies, or even mercenaries. Not even talk about keeping back the ships of the fleet for a decisive battle could soothe the hurt feelings of the senior officers.

  Much depended on the results of the current scouting operation. How could anyone be sure that the mercenaries would not take to their heels, especially since they were all men?