Clawing Back from Chaos: Book 9 in the Cat Among Dragons Series (A Cat Among Dragons)

by Alma Boykin

  “Problem?”

  The Azdhag squeaked, stared, and her feet scrambled for purchase on the tiles near the door. Zabet let go and the Azdhag shot forward as if she’d been launched from a projectile weapon. «Not any more.»

  Rada looked at Zabet’s flattened ears and fast-swinging tail. When her Boss was in that state, distance was the better part of valor. Rada returned to the sleeping area, dressed, packed what little she’d unpacked, and washed her face and hands. Then she braided her hair. Only after that did she return to find Zabet, much calmer, sipping tea beside a large, heavily laden breakfast tray. “How is the food?”

  «Hmm? Not bad, what little I’ve tried thus far. Stay away from those tiny red things. I’m not certain they are dead yet.»

  Rada groaned, but under her breath. Just when you thought the fad for live food had finally died. She studied the items in question and decided that Zabet had the right idea. The water-grain balls with meat-strips were good, the fruit tolerable in small doses, and the six-sausage-salad went well with the strong tea. She nibbled a bun-like lump carefully, found red bean paste in the middle, and ate more than she should have. Zabet polished off a goodly amount as well. Sated, Rada had another cup of tea and asked, «What inspired the wake-up call?»

  Zabet rinsed one talon in the scented water provided for the purpose. «I turned my back for ten seconds and found the female going through my bag. She’d opened yours but hadn’t started on it yet. I asked what she was doing and she said that Lord Shikali had ordered her to see if we had something of his.» Zabet picked up the tea cup, cradling it in the palm of her strong-side forefoot. «Do we?»

  Rada made a negation with her empty hand. “Not that I am aware of.” «And we are leaving as soon as I get map coordinates for all the locations I need.»

  Zabet pointed with her tail-tip to a black cylinder beside her carry-harness. «Got it already. Your Sergeant sent it along with breakfast, with his compliments and apologies. There’s a coded message under it.»

  Rada got up, retrieved the page, and read it. The code was an old one, and it took her a bit to recall how it worked. Then she smiled. The sergeant deserved her thanks indeed.

  As the prince-governor had said, the pair found a modified personal transport waiting for them. Someone, probably the sergeant or another of the soldiers, had called up the plans for modifying the controls and safety belts so that Rada could fly the little craft. Otherwise it would have been Zabet, since her body pattern was closer to Azdhag standard, and well, that might cause problems beyond citations for speeding and altitude violations. Rada wasn’t entirely pleased with the make-do nature of the security straps, but shrugged. She’d survive. “I’m not planning on doing aerobatics.”

  Zabet gave her a look suggesting that if she tried it, bad things would happen. When Zabet turned to look at something, Rada stuck her tongue out at her Boss. It wasn’t Rada who, some years before, had had to explain to a traffic control and safety enforcement officer why the running lights and vehicle identification systems had been disabled on a rented flier on Heerpin.

  Well, that was then. “Right. Duty calls. Watch that far corner of the security shield as we depart, please.”

  «Will do.»

  Zabet waited until they’d cleared the palace control area and were en route before saying, «It did not look right. I can’t tell you exactly why, but something’s off.»

  Rada grunted, concentrating on persuading the nav computer to correct for the wind. Task finished, she sat back and could finally look at more than the traffic and the air ahead of them. “That’s what I thought yesterday. Thanks for the confirmation.” The sky seemed paler than the day before, and things in the distance had a faint blue cast, as if a haze had begun forming. Well, high pressure and spring meant stagnant air in this region of Deklali. The upcoming native holiday centered on asking the deities to speed the approach of summer and the rains. I’d just as soon not be around for a wet season, thank you, since it gets to forty degrees and a hundred percent humidity. Which made the uniform trees and plantings she and Zabet had noticed around the capital even more odd, now that she thought about it. Well, the area around them made up for that. Rainforest indeed, with trees a hundred meters tall in some places, islands of light green over a sea of darker green. Large flying avians that reminded Rada of Earth vultures lazed over something, circling in a thermal, she assumed.

  «So what’s the plan?»

  “Look, make notes, and leave. This isn’t my chain of command, so I can’t really correct anything, assuming I find problems.” Rada tried to sound optimistic.

  Zabet’s snort suggested that she’d failed. «You’ll find something.»

  After the better part of how long? She tried to recall as she frowned at the autopilot. Why was it doing that? The ground beacon was trying to undo her wind correction. Rada growled something uncharitable and overrode the command. “I probably will. Better me than Sgt. Bleerr, or one of my sergeants.” She’d not been pleased with her reception, and things tended to get worse the farther from the capital one went. Heaven knew how much time she spent keeping the Defenders in top condition.

  Five days later, Rada stood in a small grove of trees, turning large sticks into smaller sticks to ease her temper before she started turning a moderate sized Azdhag into reptile chops instead. It was as if she’d gone back in time two hundred year-turns, but without regaining her tail and ears—or her eye. My hand to the Lord, if I get back to the Imperial palace and find Shi-dan waiting, I won’t blink. The Imperials on the surface were overconfident, complacent to the point of being loose, undisciplined, and unprepared, and the local militia seemed determined to outdo the Imperials in every respect. “Boss, we could take this planet ourselves.”

  Zabet, basking on the flyer’s front deck, called back, «We’d need Yori to really make a mess.»

  Despite herself, Rada had to grin at the thought. “Point. He did have a talent for generating chaos.” Still did, if rumors about what had happened at the end of the Harz battle were true. Maybe now that he’d retired she would be able to stop cleaning up after him. She snorted as she wiped her dusty hands on her trousers. Nope. He’d find some other way to get underfoot. She never started it, because she didn’t have to.

  «So, where to next?»

  Rada squinted into the sunlight as she walked to the flyer. “The depot at ClearSprings, then Northlands. That will put us not too far from the capital, in case that warning light comes on again.” The light had come from a short in a wire rather than an actual problem, but Rada still didn’t like it. Zabet nodded and slithered over the hot metal and composite into the cockpit area. Rada winced and climbed in the normal way. She’d already told traffic control her planned route, so she lifted off and turned west northwest. The low clouds of the morning had burned off, but the sky remained hazy and white. Anything could hide in the haze, and Rada didn’t trust the remote sensors on the craft to warn her of non-metallic flying things.

  Not all the bases she’d seen were bad. Redrocks met—and almost exceeded—her standards. The Azdhagi and D’shandi there had doubled out when she landed, formed up in ranks, and accorded her a proper salute. Their kit had been correctly squared away, and at the lieutenant’s request she’d performed a full inspection. She’d found a few things, but overall Redrocks had been a delightful exception to her dismal observations. The Lieutenant, a native called K’torlo, admitted that he’d been reading and watching as many training holos as he could, and he’d bribed a retired Imperial sergeant to help him learn what he needed to know. Rada had congratulated him on his ambition and determination, and sent special messages to Prince-Governor Tee-shai and His Imperial Majesty commending the officer.

  «Three o’clock, same altitude, closing,» Zabet reported. Rada turned her head to see the object. It seemed to be artificial, and she frowned, losing a little altitude. The robo-flyer passed over them, matched speed, then dropped out of the traffic lane. «What was that about?»

  Rada
made a weak-side negation.

  «Probably someone being dumb, or not listening to the traffic reports,» the True-dragon decided. She rested her chin on the bench seat and resumed her watch. Rada tried to keep her head moving and her attention focused outside, but blind was blind. She couldn’t judge distance without a horizon that well anymore. Heaven save her from getting into serious air combat.

  “Beginning descent,” she reported. Zabet double-checked her harness and gave her a thumbs-up with one talon.

  Four hours later, Rada began twitching. Normally she left Zabet to her own devices, but she called the True-dragon to her side and flashed the forefoot sign for “something wrong.”

  Zabet’s whiskers rose and fell in her version of a raised eyebrow. As Rada continued looking around ClearSprings Depot, she noticed a growing absence of reptiles. “Is something planned, or is there an exercise that I’m interfering with?” She finally asked her guide.

  The green-and-tan striped D’shandi startled, his tail unrolling a little as his eyes blinked. “No, Lord Reh-dakh. We’re just waiting for an announcement from headquarters about Lord Shikali’s decision on demanding honor payment from Lord Beeltal and one of the Defenders, a lesser noble of some kind.”

  “I see.”

  Her blood went cold as the reptile continued, “Shikali’s son was fostered with Lord Pei, and Beeltal’s son murdered him, with the Defenders watching, but no order given to keep the peace. The Azdhagi have some strange traditions and rules, Lord Reh-dakh, no offense.”

  “None taken.” Adrenaline dumped into Rada’s bloodstream, and she labored hard to hide her reaction. No wonder Shikali had been angry. And if he thought she’d been in a position to intervene and hadn’t, then he’d hold her as blood guilty. Oh crap. I make it ten years without a blood feud, and now here we go again. Fewmets. Just what she needed, to return to the palace here on Deklali and find an honor challenge waiting.

  She sent the news to Zabet in a quick thought burst. They finished the next site before Zabet responded. «Are we going to have to wait that long? Shikali’s not one to attack straight on, according to the concubines I was talking to. He’s an ambush predator. Firmly believes in hitting first and then clarifying his target.»

  Rada had some uncharitable thoughts about every Azdhag male in her life. Then she made the proper noise as she looked at the very badly organized personal weapons lockers. The local commander let each male store things the way he wanted to, and she wondered how anyone could find anything quickly. A few compartments had already spilled blaster gas packs and other things. “It looks chaotic but we’ve found it quite effective, Lord Reh-dakh. Our last quick response drill time was only eight minutes,” her guide announced.

  “That’s quite impressive.” The Imperials’ had set five minutes as the absolute worst-case time, with three and a half preferred.

  “Thank you.”

  The depot commander pled a prior commitment, Rada pretended to understand, and she and Zabet started back to the flyer after visiting the necessary. As they walked, Rada made notes and sent them to the Dark Hart. She also dropped her shields. A large group of reptiles was behind them—that was the depot. But she caught an enormous pool of anger, blood-hunger, and excitement ahead of them. How far? She couldn’t tell. Rada stowed her data-link and undid the strap on her blaster. She also paused long enough to shift her bahn-leh from her boot to her belt.

  Zabet didn’t ask. Instead she too loosened the safety straps on her personal weapons. «Where?»

  «Don’t know. Don’t know numbers.»

  «Fewmets.»

  Neither were too excited. They’d been to this Mart before. Even so, Rada’s blood started to sing and her hearing seemed to sharpen, even limited by the absence of her prosthetic external ears. She flared her nostrils and inhaled. Musk and reptile cut under the hot dust, moist woodsy scent, and the wet of the marsh just on the other side of the woods. Should they try to go around? No, because they didn’t know where the reptiles were, or even if they were waiting for them. Right, and I’m white with pink spots and Zabet will take a vow of chastity. Rada did shift her grip on her walking cane, so she could drop it more easily if she needed to have a dagger in her weak-side hand.

  They rounded a corner and found trouble waiting. Four males, with various kinds of armaments, lounged around the path. They did not block the path to the pad with the borrowed flyer, but they were not out of the way enough to be harmless. Beyond and behind them, Rada sensed more males lurking in the greenery. She continued straight ahead, pretending not to notice. Zabet drew even on her blind side. They heard something behind them.

  “We’ve been waiting for you, murderer.”

  “Oh? Who am I accused of killing? Or is it my concubine you need to speak with?”

  The biggest male lumbered closer. “You know damn well, furry bastard. You let Lord Shikali’s son die.”

  Rada, eye locked on the big male in front of her, caught the tiniest hint of wrong motion to her strong side. «Drop!» Zabet screamed. Rada hit dirt in time to see a blaster bolt strike first the male on her strong side and then the male facing her. “Farg it!” Rada drew her own blaster and came up fighting. Some of the shots deflected off shields, and both she and Zabet cursed.

  “Kilmartin Gambit on three,” Rada called in Trader. She heard Zabet’s tail slap of agreement. «One, two,» “Three!”

  They spun back-to-back, firing as fast as they could, Zabet then Rada. Please, God, may this work. Zabet’s shots hit first, draining the shield, while Rada’s heavier shot followed in less than a second, punching through the remains. Azdhagi dropped, and the mammal and True-Dragon fought for a clear space. A gap opened up, and the two females took deep mental breaths.

  “Saint Michael and Ni Drako!” Rada screamed, charging. Zabet sounded her own battle cry, and the Azdhagi scattered, opening a larger breach in the line and letting their erstwhile targets out of the ambush. Zabet kept running, and Rada did as best she could, until they reached their modified transport. «I want blood, Pet. Blood for blood,» Zabet snarled.

  Without looking, Rada reached over to the passenger seat and clamped her hand on Zabet, Healing her even as Rada engaged the anti-grav drive. “He’s yours. The prince-governor is mine. And His Imperial Majesty has a lot of explaining to do.”

  The sssss-click of a gas pack dropping out of a blaster and a fresh one locking in, and the dull roar of the drive, were the only sounds. Rada stayed off the main route, ignoring the electronic screams and wails of the navigation software. At this point she trusted her memory more than she did any official database, and she stayed as low as was safe. Her lips pulled back from her teeth. She should be giving the defensive troops a collective heart attack, disappearing from their traffic readout and then reappearing out of nowhere. She couldn’t have done it at the palace-capitol on Drakon IV, but here? Beside her Zabet snorted. «Do you think they’ll try to shoot us down?»

  “Yes. I didn’t mention the hole yet. They’re about to find it.”

  «Good.» Rada risked a glance over as she lifted her hand and stopped the Healing. Zabet’s tail-tip vibrated and her ears lay flat against her skull. Someone was about to die. Rada returned her attention to their flight path. They ran below most traffic, but hitting a flying reptile or clipping a tower? Definite concerns, and Rada’s fighter pilot heart would die of shame if she met the Bookkeeper due to a ground collision. Tasks completed, Zabet sank her talons into the seat, not bothering with the harness. She kept looking behind them, clearing Rada’s blind spot.

  They got within two kliqs of the palace spaceport before the first electronic query flashed on the screen. Rada’s fang-baring snarl grew wider, and she turned off all but the flight-essential electronics. Zabet had already found the wire for the geo-locator, and Rada pulled the circuit. She banked to the strong side, guiding the small flyer around some buildings and descending to within a meter of the tops of the trees. There was something to be said about clones and controlled growth regi
ons, Rada snorted, but it wasn’t flattering. “Any company?”

  «None. Can I have the air-defense coordinator’s head?»

  “Nope. That belongs to Prince Tee-shai or His Imperial Majesty. Failing that, it’s mine.” Rada saw the hole she wanted and bobbed her head once. Zabet braced, and as soon as the flyer’s horizontal stabilizer cleared the last tree, Rada dove down, skimming over the grass. She squinted, looking just to the side of her goal. As she’d guessed, the shimmer of the shield wavered and faded. The ships beyond grew clear and solid, and Zabet whapped the seat with her tail in triumph. “Fools,” Rada whispered. They cleared the shield and she aimed for the closest open area within running distance of the ’Hart. Her hands danced, and she pitched the bow of the flyer up, killing forward momentum, then touching down without extending the landing feet. The alarms squalled, but she ignored them. A few centimeters above the ground, she killed the anti-grav. Zabet opened the hatch and the pair cleared the aircraft as fast as possible, running full out for the timeship.

  Zabet slowed to let Rada get there first. Rada keyed the lock and the entry faded open, allowing the partners to duck inside. Zabet slid into her usual place at the base of the symbiote’s tank, while Rada flopped into the pilot’s seat. She linked with the creature in the central processor, humming a little. They joined minds, and she sent it an image of where she wanted to be and when. She sensed a bit of dismay, perhaps, then a stream of information passed in front of her mind’s eye, followed by flashing green numbers. They could do it. It would be snug, and dangerous, but possible. “Yessssssss.”

  Rada and the creature barely touched the timethread before pulling the ’Hart back into four-dimensional space. The scout ship landed, and the entrance faded open. Zabet shot out, firing one quick blaster bolt before she surged to her feet and leapt from the ship. Rada followed, sword cane in one hand and blaster in the other. The emerged in the middle of Prince Tee-shai’s audience chamber. Zabet had Lord Shikali pinned, and Rada came up behind her Boss. “We survived, you treacherous, fur-bearing stormcatch. Your servants drew blood, and your blood is forfeit.” She kept her voice low and calm, without any sign of emotion.