The Sorceress of Karres

by Eric Flint

  "More than life," said Marshi in her flat voice. "Now move."

  They stepped over the light-shifted corpse, paying it no more attention than a carpet. Goth could only be glad that they hadn't stepped on it, which they were certainly callous enough to have done. An illusion of solidity would not have survived that.

  When they'd gone she went into her apartment to decide what to do next. They'd torn the place apart. Even the pillows had been slit.

  Goth's first reaction was fury. This was her place and her stuff!

  Once that passed, though, she was almost amused at the pointlessness of the wreckage. Not even with fingerprints, retina prints, pictures and DNA were they going to find Vala. Karres was not going to be a place they'd search!

  They hadn't found her on Porlumma or Uldune, or Green Galaine. Or the imperial capital. But somewhere, ten years in the future, the trail had come to life again. They were searching for Vala, still, and their precious box. But that was tramping around the Galaxy, with Petey, Byrum and Keep. They wouldn't still be looking for her if they'd found it.

  Nikkeldepain was now too hot for them. The attack on Franco and the killing of his bodyguard, coming right on top of the jailbreak, would have the Nikkeldepain police in an uproar for some time to come. But it wasn't likely they could get off the planet immediately, and in the meantime they'd surely be watching for Vala here. They'd be back.

  Goth took a deep breath. It was time to go, as in her heart of hearts she'd known it was. But first she had to say good-bye to Pausert. And find some thick padding to wear on the Egger route.

  ***

  His first reaction was: "Whatever's going on, we'll deal with it." Goth came closer to understanding what Threbus had meant when he said that the community of Karres was a state of mind, not a state. Without meaning to, she hugged him. He looked a bit startled. He'd probably never been hugged by anyone apart from his mother before.

  But he hugged her back. "No need to get upset," he said, trying his fourteen-year old best to sound mature and like a real man.

  "I'm not," said Goth, her voice a little gruff and choked. "It's dealt with. And you did the best thing ever, telling them I'd left. But it's good to know you'd stand by me."

  He looked faintly surprised. "But you always stand by me."

  Goth nodded. That was easier than talking around the lump in her throat. They stood there, awkwardly, looking at each other. "You remember me, see," Goth eventually said, wishing she had something more that she dared say. But he had hardly remembered her.

  "Like anyone could ever forget you. Ever," he said, trying to smile. "You're really leaving, aren't you?"

  Goth nodded again, knowing that talking wasn't going to happen. Not without her saying a great deal more than she should. Some of it about the insipid Illyla.

  Then she could bear it no more. She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him. Hard. Then walked away without a glance backward. She knew if she looked back she'd be lost.

  For once the Egger route was a welcome thing.

  Chapter 22

  Pausert watched the screens trying to figure out the best possible next move.

  The Phantom ships were definitely heading towards an englobement formation and seemed to be able to use their here/not-here nature to counter the speed advantage of the Sheewash drive. He was going to have to try something. The fact that they'd actually succeeded in hitting the Phantoms seemed to have made them even more determined to catch and destroy the Venture.

  And then there was a distant droning sound. Pausert heaved a vast sigh of relief. That would be the Karres witches, thrumming down the Egger route, to the rescue. The bait had drawn the Phantom ships which had, in turn, called Karres to his aid. The staccato humming came ever closer, the heavy sound filling his head, covering vast distances at incredible speed. Pausert went to fetch as many blankets as the Venture had in her store.

  Perhaps they could tell him just where Goth had got to. She was supposed-by their own precogs-to spend at least a year in his company. She'd certainly not been in it for the last few weeks.

  And then it stopped… and there in the middle of the floor was Goth. Goth bundled up in a turban, a hooded jacket and about four layers of clothing. Eyes unfocussed she turned over, onto her knees. Pausert knowing what was coming, hastily wrapped her up. Plainly the Leewit had been roused from sleep by the klatha sounds and came and helped him with rolling Goth up like a mummy. Mebeckey came in while they were busy, and exclaimed in puzzlement. "What's up?"

  "Later," said the captain. Goth began to twitch. And jerk. And vibrate like a tuning fork. It took all the captain's strength to hold her still. By the sounds of it she was grinding her teeth, and making small angry jungle cat noises. Well, at least she didn't screech like the Leewit did!

  The shuddering slowed and the captain began unwinding. "Hurry up." said Goth. "Hot in here. I'm wearing too many layers of clothes."

  They de-cocooned her, and a smiling Goth sat up. She hugged the captain and Leewit together. "Kept the ship in one piece without me, I see."

  She peeled off the hooded jacket. Then pulled off a towel-turban in a scatter of ringlets of wavy red hair.

  Pausert looked at her, with his mouth open.

  "What's up, Captain?" asked Goth quizzically. "You're looking at me like I suddenly grew another head."

  He took a deep breath. "You did. Or at least another head of hair, Goth. Or should I say… Vala?"

  "Wondered just how I was going to explain that to you."

  "You might have told me."

  "I only found out myself just before I left."

  "I meant back then. I tried very hard to make contact with you again, but I couldn't find any trace of you or your parents. I was hoping you might write to me or something."

  "I suppose I could have made a plan. But then you might not have got involved with that wet fish Illyla," said Goth, tartly. "I need to eat."

  She looked at Mebeckey, standing nervously in the doorway. "Hello. Who is he?" she asked.

  "A xeno-archeologist that got marooned out here," said the Leewit. "We rescued him from some wreck of a planet. Says his name is Mebeckey.".

  Goth stopped and put her hands on her hips. "Can't be. He's got the wrong face shape, even without the few face-hairs. And he's quite a lot shorter."

  "What?" said Pausert warily.

  Goth cocked her head on one side and jerked a thumb at the castaway. "Mebeckey. I don't know who this old guy is but he's not Mebeckey the archeologist. Mebeckey the archaeologist was the fellow who tried to kill you, back on Nikkeldepain. He was part of the crowd that kidnapped me, too. Although Franco says they were all under Marshi's control."

  "Marshi?" said the castaway archeologist incredulously. "Is the monster woman still alive?"

  "I reckon it's probable," said Goth. "What color was her hair?"

  "Blonde."

  "Not the same woman, then. This one is as bald as an onion." Goth took a mug of cone-seed coffee from the Leewit, who had plainly been programming the robo-butler in preparation while the captain had been hauling blankets. "Got to have food too, Leewit. I don't think too much of the food back on Nikkeldepain, Captain."

  Pausert grinned. "You used to drink enough of that caram juice though. Great Patham. Some of those incidents make sense now. Klatha tricks! I haven't thought about them for years!" He shook his head. "I can't say how glad I am to see you, Goth. I had quite a crush on you back then."

  ***

  Goth was having enough problems with her own feelings right at the moment. She was delighted to see the captain again, and delighted to see Pausert also-and trying to merge the two people into one. It wasn't easy. She wished that the Leewit and this arbitrary stranger-who wasn't Mebeckey, whoever he thought he was pretending to be-would just go away and leave them to talk privately for a bit. "You did, huh?"

  "It's very strange. You're Vala… But I'll swear you've shrunk. Yet for Goth you've grown."

  "Grown, I reckon," said Goth, swallo
wing a mouthful of seed-cake. "Both of us. You were petty short, back then. Now, what's the problem, Captain?"

  "We're being followed by some vessels. Phantom ships. They're trying for an englobement," said the Leewit. "I inflicted some damage on two and the captain… " She glanced at Mebeckey. "He did some real hot-shot flying. But they've caught up with us again. Weird ships."

  "Yeah? Well I reckon you'd better have everyone strap in. Because we're going to do some more." said Goth. "Including you, mister whatever-your-name-really-is. Scram."

  But the new supercargo did not move. "This person you call 'Mebeckey'. Was he a tall man with a hooked nose and white, spiky hair? A little goatee beard?"

  "Pretty much, yes. Except no hair to speak of. The beard's a few wisps. Like you."

  The man sighed. "That's my former first mate, Cobaj. He must have taken on my identity. How did you meet him? And how did you get here?"

  "Enough questions," said Pausert. "Get to your stateroom and strap in. The Leewit, wake Vezzarn. We'll see if we can break out of this before they take action. Man those guns. Fire on my command!"

  "Yes, sir!" said the Leewit, happily. "Get on with it, Mebeckey," she said, pushing him down the passage. "There'll be time to answer questions later."

  The captain smiled at Goth, almost shyly. "Not having you around here for a while has made me appreciate just how badly I need you."

  "It worked both ways, Captain," said Goth. She was feeling a little shy herself. Not often that happened, huh!

  They went to the chairs on the bridge and strapped in. "Didn't the Leewit take care of stuff?"

  "She's been better than good. To the extent that I was quite worried about her," said the captain. "Even bathing by herself. Helping with everything. Working hard on the astrogation math. But.. . I missed you, that was all. And even with the Sheewash drive we haven't been able to shake these ships. They're… well, at lest most of the time they have no apparent mass. You can shoot them and it has no effect."

  "But the Leewit got two?" asked Goth, smiling inwardly at him missing her.

  Pausert nodded. "Just as they launch their missiles they become objects of mass. She had to time her firing right. They've kept at greater range since then. But they're following in greater numbers. And it seems like they're going try a classic englobement. Those torpedoes of theirs are slow, but the warheads are pretty bad news. And if they're all around us, we will get a radiation soaking that the hull metal can't keep out, even if the Leewit shoots them well before impact. We may have to try the Egger route with the whole ship… "

  Goth shuddered. "It's a bit soon after the last time for me. Not good for the body, you know. Maybe if we worked the Sheewash together-all three of us?"

  "Maybe if you explained how I'm supposed to do vectors in the Sheewash. I was all over the place on my own. Whizzing and bouncing about like a piece of popping corn in a closed pot. I must have wasted light-minutes of power."

  Oddly, under the circumstances, Goth felt gleeful all of a sudden. All her unease at being back with the captain after six months with his younger self had vanished. They were a team. She just understood him better, now.

  "Forward nova gun turret manned and ready for action," said the Leewit over the intercom.

  Pausert clicked the bridge manual firing relays off. "You have fire control, forward turret," he said formally. "Stern turret?"

  "Stern turret ready too, Captain," said Vezzarn over the other channel. "Let's go get them. Only I hope we aren't going to fly so wild this time, Captain. It was all I could do not to lose my lunch, let alone keep shooting."

  "We'll try a steep dive toward that star cluster there. The colorful one on the starboard bow. We're going try and skim the gravity well of white dwarf on… "

  "Captain," interrupted Goth. "Do you recognize that star cluster?"

  There was something familiar about it, about the reddish-brown dust haze of space debris and dust that hung about it, in the blackness of space. "I should," said Pausert. "I know I should. What is it, Goth?"

  "I reckon it's the Megair cluster, Captain. From the other side."

  Pausert looked again and nodded. "You're right. That's what… ? About four ship days from Uldune controlled space, at normal cruising speed. I figure. I didn't realize we were this close to being on the far side of the Chaladoor."

  "It's also a pretty bad neighborhood, Captain."

  "We don't have a lot of choices, Goth."

  "Guess not." She started assembling the wires as the Phantom ships edged closer. "I've seen those ship somewhere before. Weird shape they've got."

  "Mebeckey said they were Melchin. Or maybe even Illtraming."

  Goth paused in her laying out of the lattice of black wires. "Illtraming! That's what Marshi and her crew of thugs were looking for. The Illtraming map. And she said finding the Illtraming was more important than life."

  Pausert tugged his chin. "There has to be a tie-in somewhere."

  "They're closing on us, Captain," said the Leewit. "Nearly in firing range. And two more bandits coming in from twelve o'clock."

  "Time to Sheewash," said Goth firmly. She reached out and took his hand. The wires rose and twined like snakes forming a truncated cone. A ball of incandescent orange fire sparked into existence above it, roiling with wild energies. The Venture leapt like a stag and the starscape blurred. Distantly, the captain was aware of the nova guns with their shivering blue fire sheet-lightning. There was a burst of retina-searing amber incandescence to the portside. Chatter from the radiation meters.

  "Got that torpedo a bit late, Captain," said Vezzarn apologetically.

  "Keep firing!" yelled the Leewit.

  The ridged spiky hull of the Phantom alien ship was very close in the viewscreens, with them driving a straight line towards it, alive with the electromagnetic dance of the nova gun lightnings. Goth seemed to twitch them over at the last moment, sending them diving in an escape curve toward the Megair Cluster, where the stars loomed out of the debris.

  Debris at this speed would be hard to dodge. But then they were among them, jinking… and the Sheewash pattern wires collapsed. "Can't do it too long, Captain. Tired after the Egger route," said Goth.

  ***

  She looked exhausted. Pausert still could not get over the fact that he'd never realized that Goth had looked like Vala. One just didn't see what one didn't expect to see. Abstractly, he understood what had happened. When he'd first met Goth, she'd been only ten years old. Very intelligent, precocious-sometimes even disturbingly so-but also clearly still a child.

  Vala and the Goth of today, on the other hand…

  Uncomfortably, Pausert finally accepted something he'd been almost studiously ignoring for months now. More than three years had passed since he met Goth and she was well into puberty by now. Her figure was still girlishly lean, but there was no longer any way she could possibly be mistaken, even at a distance, for a boy.

  Neither could Vala-and, for the Pausert of the time, a fourteen-year-old boy who was himself undergoing puberty, that had made for a very different emotional introduction. Years had passed, and the memory of what Vala had actually looked like had gotten fuzzy. Between that, and the red hair, and most of all meeting the two girls on either side of puberty, he could understand why he'd never spotted the identity. As Goth had changed, in the years she'd been with him, he hadn't seen her growing resemblance to Vala. She'd just been Goth. .. growing up.

  And grown up a lot more than he'd realized! The kiss that Vala had given him as she left was something he'd never forgotten. Now, it came with a real jolt to realize that for Goth-today's Goth-that kiss had happened just yesterday.

  He wondered for a moment if their looks had had anything to do with that fateful decision so long ago now, back on Porlumma, when he'd rescued the witches of Karres. Being fair to himself, though,. probably not. He didn't like to see anyone abused. Anyway, he'd already rescued Maleen and the Leewit before he'd even set eyes on Goth.

  Not long after he'd
met Goth, she'd announced her intention to marry him once she reached marriageable age-which was sixteen, for the people of Karres. Pausert hadn't taken the whole thing seriously, of course. At the time, the difference between ten years of age and sixteen had seemed enormous. But it came with another jolt to realize that more than half that time had already elapsed.

  And Goth still seemed as determined as ever.

  As for Pausert… He really hadn't ever been able to forget that kiss.

  He wasn't ready to deal with this. It was almost with relief that he forced his mind aside to deal with the perilous situation of the moment.

  "Not too safe here anyway," he said, untwining his fingers from hers and taking control of the ship. The Sheewash drive was plainly not a "drive," so much as some kind of sequence of tiny jumps thought space-time, because it left the Venture far ahead of the pack of Phantom ships, but also with no extra velocity. The captain pushed his throttles forward, causing the Venture to increasingly shake and sway because of the roughly aligned repaired tube.

  "She doesn't feel so good, Captain," said Goth. "You think we got hit back there?"

  "No, we had a run in with a space rock earlier. Broke a tube-bracket. We did a repair-job on the cinder-block world we found Mebeckey on. The alignment's not perfect, I'm afraid. I just hope it's a good enough weld."

  Goth cracked an enormous yawn. "Sorry. It's been a very long full day for me. Back on Nikkeldepain and here."

  "Sleep a bit. I'll call if I need you," said the captain, keeping a wary eye on a cloud of shattered rocks that was showing on one of the screens. The dust in the system made guiding the ship even more difficult, hanging in drifting curtains obscuring both the view and the instrument detection. On the positive, the same factors should make it a good place to hide and evade pursuit-which was probably why the Megair Cannibals used this system themselves.

  Then Pausert looked at the rear-screens and realized how wrong he was. He had to dodge space debris-but Phantom ships appeared to go straight through them. And whereas the Venture been dealing with twelve in the englobement, there were more of them now. Far more.