I Dare

by Sharon

  She did feel a trifle grubby, which could be remedied by a shower, after which she intended to go for a walk, unless somebody came up with a compelling reason why she shouldn't.

  Decision taken, she moved briskly in the direction of the 'fresher, stripping off her nightshirt as she went.

  THE SHIFT had thus far been quiet. Ren Zel had run routine systems checks, and done some general housekeeping. His mind did wander, now and again, to the impossibility of the cat in his cabin and the irrefutable evidence of that long, white whisker. At last, knowing what he would find, he pulled up the current roster of the pet library.

  As he had expected, there were no cats currently on file in the library. Certainly, there was no ship's cat, free to wander the vessel, earning its passage by dispatching vermin. Useful as such creatures were, they had a tendency to get into unchancy places, resulting in fouled machinery and, more often than not, a dead cat.

  And even if the Passage did harbor a cat, who had let the creature into his quarters?

  He sighed and closed the roster.

  It was a puzzle, certain enough, and the only other possibility that occurred to him was that a crew member had smuggled a pet aboard. Though how they had kept it secret from all was another, just as knotty, puzzle.

  He sighed again and considered taking the whisker to the ship's Healer, to see what she might scry from it. Lina was a Healer of no small skill, her lack of success with himself having to do with some sort of 'natural shielding' that he possessed. He understood that this was not entirely unknown. Unhappily, the shielding prevented him being Healed of the nightmares of battle, and the pain of his dying. Though he thought he was healing of that last wound on his own, if slowly.

  So, then, he thought. At shift-end, he would take the whisker to Lina. That was the best course, surely.

  Someone had been kind enough to lay in a couple shirts in her size. The same someone, Miri supposed, newly showered and thoroughly air-dried, who had been forethoughtful enough to shine her boots and make sure that her leathers were clean.

  The arrangements had a certain feel of Beautiful to them—the Compleat Captain's Aide, Miri thought with wry gratitude, sealing the cuffs of her shirt. She stamped into her boots, put her hand against the plate and left the dressing room. Half a step into the main room, she checked, turned and frowned at the man lounging in the chair next to the tech's station, his legs thrust out before him and crossed neatly at the ankle. He was dressed like she was, in working leathers, and boots buffed to a mirror finish. One irrepressible eyebrow rose at her frown.

  "The door," she said, trying to sound severe, "was locked."

  "It was," Val Con admitted. "And it is locked now. I hope you don't think me lax in such matters."

  It took a major effort of will not to laugh out loud, which was, of course, what he wanted. Instead, Miri managed quite a credible sigh while she surveyed him.

  He looked like his pattern, she thought—new-made and shiny; so beautiful it made a body's throat close up and her heart start acting funny. In fact, he looked miraculously well for a man she'd been told was going to have to devote some considerable time to relearning how to walk. Val Con raised his other eyebrow.

  "Is there something wrong, cha'trez?"

  "Depends," she said. "We having another one of those dream sequences?"

  "Dream—Ah. Jelaza Kazone." He smiled. "I believe it safe to assume that we are now both present in . . . contiguous reality." He tipped his head, considering. "Mostly contiguous reality."

  "Mostly's more than we had last time," she allowed, drifting over to his side. She cleared her throat. "You don't happen to know where Edger and Shan are, do you?"

  "Alas. Must we locate them immediately?"

  She looked down into his face. "You got anything better to do?"

  "Yes," he said. She saw familiar lightning weave through his pattern, and shivered.

  "Yes, is it?" Her hand rose, not entirely on her order. Softly, she stroked the well-marked, mobile eyebrows, ran her fingertips along the high line of his cheek . . .

  "Cha'trez?" His voice was not quite steady. Miri stroked his cheek again.

  "Scar's gone, boss," she murmured, tracing the place where it had been.

  "Many scars are gone. I am—Miri . . . " He took a hard breath. "Miri, let us make love."

  "Here?" she asked, teasing him, like her own blood wasn't hot with desire.

  He reached up and captured her hand. "Why not?" he murmured, and kissed her fingertips before slanting a glance of pure mischief into her eyes. "The door is locked."

  IT WAS THE CUSTOM of Emrith Tiazan, Erob Herself, to take a turn or two through the atrium prior to seeking her bed. As this had also been the custom of her father who had been delm before her, the room's cycle had long been set opposite the day-night cycle of the outside garden, where the seedling of Korval's Tree held dominion.

  Here, there were more convenable plants, mild-mannered and conducive of an easy sleep. Korval's Tree promoted madcap dreaming, of a kind unsuitable in old women who had lost a third of her House in the late warlike disturbances.

  Alone with her thoughts and her dead, she ambled along the sweet-smelling ways, pausing now and again to admire the progress of certain favorites. Her shoulder muscles began to loosen under the suasion of the mock sunlight; her houseboots made a soft shuffling sound against the shredded bark path; the first notes from the singing waters wafted 'round the next curve, teasing her ears. Comforted by all that was gentle and usual, Emrith Tiazan's face relaxed into a smile.

  She followed the path around, and the full song of the waters rushed to greet her. She paused, as she always did, face turned up toward the false sun, eyes closed in pleasure, before moving across the little stone bridge to her especial spot, a stone nook, surrounded by simple rock plants, enchanted by the joyous waters.

  Which was this evening filled very nearly to overflowing by two large, green . . . things.

  Emrith at first thought them twin boulders, brought in and disposed by some well-meaning but mad gardener. Then she saw the extended foreleg of the smaller, culminating in a three-fingered hand. She walked closer, discovering other details—beaked faces with nostril slits, horny green hides, and a shell-like substance partially encasing each large torso. Both appeared asleep. Or dead. Emrith Tiazan stared at them a long time, by her lights. She didn't even wonder where they had come from—to whose orbit, after all, did any of the strange, uncomfortable or dangerous oddities of the universe attach themselves?

  Eventually, she sighed and did something that she had done only once before in this garden—she reached in her pocket and thumbed on the remote.

  "My delm?" An Der sounded startled, as well he might, she thought, sourly.

  "Find Shan yos'Galan," she said, striving for an appropriate calmness. "Bring him to the singing waters in the atrium. I believe I have found that which belongs to his House."

  AS AGREED, the majority of their party waited in the side garden while Nelirikk went ahead to alert his captain to the presence of both scouts and recruits.

  The hour was far advanced, and he was certain that the medical technician currently in a position of authority over the captain would find his visit unseemly. Had he been in pursuit of an Yxtrang commander in similar straits, Nelirikk would simply have put the technician aside and given his report; a soldier's duty came before all: illness, pleasure, sleep, or food.

  Liadens held to another ordering of duties, and the necessities of soldiers were not always at the top of the list. Which is how it came to pass that a mere medical technician could order a captain.

  Nor was it appropriate, according to the complex net of rule and custom in which Liadens ensnared themselves, for a captain's aide to lay hands on a med tech for the purpose of gaining his captain's side.

  It was thus necessary to have a reason for speaking to the captain at once that the tech would accept as sufficiently urgent to disturb her rest.

  Wrestling with this conundrum, N
elirikk turned a corner—and slammed to a halt, staring.

  Two people were walking toward him—two people he had reason to know well. The woman was none other than his captain, who he had last seen that morning, lying pale and weak against pillows; med tech on the hover. The man was no one less than the scout himself, who certainly should not be walking—not so soon, if ever again.

  Regardless, here they came, strolling hand-in-hand down the center of the hallway, to the uninformed eye, as vulnerable and as guileless as children. Nelirikk frankly stared.

  "Hey, Beautiful," the captain called. "How was your walk?"

  "Captain." He recalled himself and came to attention, saluting. "My walk was . . . interesting."

  "Yeah? You didn't seen any Clutch turtles, did you?"

  Clutch turtles? Nelirikk managed to stifle the shiver, while fervently hoping never in his lifetime to see a Clutch turtle, enemy of the Troop, slayer of fleets.

  "Captain," he replied, somewhat stiffly, "I have not. I have, however, seen scouts, and together we have—"

  "Scouts?" The man murmured. "Are you certain?"

  Nelirikk frowned. "Are there others among Liadens who walk silent and woodwise and arrive on-world in a scout class ship?"

  "Actually," the scout said surprisingly, "there are."

  Nelirikk thought about that, then looked to the captain, who was watching him out of ironic grey eyes.

  "Two represent themselves as scouts: Clonak ter'Meulen, scout commander; Shadia Ne'Zame, scout lieutenant, first in. The third . . . " He looked from grey eyes to green. "The third did not say he was a scout, though the others treat him as a peer—and at times defer to him. The lieutenant addresses him as 'captain'. He bears a Tree-and-Dragon—" He touched the matching symbol on his collar, "and gives his name as Daav yos'Phelium."

  The scout's eyebrows rose. "Does he?" He glanced at the captain.

  "Odds he's the genuine article?" she asked. He moved his shoulders.

  "It would be difficult to fool Clonak, even at this remove; he and my father trained together. Later, he was a member of the survey team of which my father was captain. Uncle Er Thom said the two of them were great friends—even though Clonak had been in love with my mother." Again, he moved his shoulders, and smiled into the captain's eyes. "If it's odds you're after, my lady—then I am compelled to say that I have too little data and must see the man for myself."

  "Sure you are," she said resignedly. The scout grinned and Nelirikk gave a start, the sense of wrongness about the other man's face crystalizing all at once. The green eyes moved; pinning him.

  "Yes?"

  "I—" Nelirikk cleared his throat. "Scout, your nchaka is—gone."

  "Ah." The smaller man inclined his head. "The Troop remembers."

  "The Troop remembers," Nelirikk affirmed and looked back to his captain.

  "Captain. In addition to scouts, my walk produced recruits."

  She shook her head. "The Irregulars are outta business; ain't taking recruits. Point 'em at Commander Carmody."

  "Commander Carmody has given medical care, food and quarters, so winning himself a place in the camp-tales. However, if the captain pleases, these recruits will give their oaths and their weapons only to Hero Captain Miri Robertson, who vanquished the Fourteenth."

  She sighed. "You're talking about Yxtrang recruits?"

  "Tales of your prowess echo throughout the ranks of two armies," the scout murmured. "A hero to Yxtrang and mercenary alike, you—"

  "Can it," she told him and frowned up at Nelirikk.

  "How many?"

  "If the captain pleases. One Rifle and an explorer—two in total. The third—a senior explorer—has gone to glory's reward."

  "Yeah? Two of you have an argument?"

  "Captain. I had not the honor to know Gernchik Explorer before he died. He was wounded in a rear-holding action, to allow the officers time to escape. Seeing that his condition was serious, and unwilling to use the grace blade, his junior—Hazenthull Explorer—attached Diglon Rifle to her command, and marched the three of them here, to present their weapons and offer you their oaths."

  "And to get her senior into an autodoc, quicktime." She nodded. "How's she taking his death?"

  This was the joy of serving a captain wise in the way of the common troop. Nelirikk saluted. "Captain. She is at the moment . . . docile. Daav yos'Phelium gives it as his opinion that this condition might change, quickly and catastrophically."

  "He does, huh? Then I hope you got her someplace where she can't do too much damage."

  "Captain. She is in the garden attached to the side of this wing."

  The captain blinked. She looked at the scout, who lifted an eyebrow.

  "Nelirikk," she said, mildly.

  He swallowed and came to full attention. "Captain."

  "Have you lost your mind?"

  "No, Captain."

  "You're sure about that?"

  "Yes, Captain."

  "Right." She looked up at him. "You want to tell me what you was thinking?"

  "Captain. It was the thought of Daav yos'Phelium that Hazenthull Explorer should be brought immediately to give full battle-oath to the captain. He fears that the interim oath he holds from her is not strong enough to bind, if her grief overcomes her reason. He was supported in this by the scouts."

  "Daav yos'Phelium holds temporary oaths from an Yxtrang common trooper and an explorer?" She asked

  "Yes, Captain."

  She shook her head and looked again at the scout. "This has got to be your father."

  "He does appear to have something of the familial sense of humor." His face was bland.

  "Is that what you call it?" She sighed. "What else, Beautiful? Might as well spill it all."

  "Captain, there is no more. Your recruits await you, accompanied by scouts."

  "The Irregulars're out of business," she repeated, but it was scout she was speaking to. "I don't guess it would be good form for Line yos'Phelium to hold a private troop."

  "There is," murmured the scout, "some precedent."

  "Great. I suppose the House routinely hires Yxtrang soldiers to guard its piggy-bank. No—" she raised a hand—"don't tell me."

  "As the captain wishes."

  "No respect, that's your problem." She fell silent then, frowning at a space somewhere between Nelirikk's left elbow and infinity. Eventually, she looked up.

  "OK. Get on back. We'll be there soon."

  Nelirikk saluted. "Captain. Thank you, Captain."

  "Think you'd know better than to thank me by now," she said, and her voice sharpened. "If the explorer decides her oath ain't binding, shoot her dead. If her trooper's reasonable, you can stop there and wait for me. If hell breaks, I expect you and the scouts to be standing when it's done. This is an order."

  Nelirikk saluted once more. "Yes, Captain."

  "Right. Get outta here."

  Another salute and he was gone.

  Miri waited until the sound of his footsteps had faded to nothing before looking into her partner's speculative green eyes.

  "How much precedent?" she asked.

  THE CHILD IS GOING to break, Daav thought, stifling a sigh. Behind his eyes, he felt Aelliana stir, though she offered no comment.

  To casual—that was to say, non-scout—eyes, Hazenthull was the picture of well-mannered docility. She sat where she had been directed, on a wide stone bench beneath a fragrant tree laced with fairy lights, Diglon Rifle at her side.

  The garden was largely shrouded in night, pierced gently here and there by the spangle of decorative lights. Shadia was invisible between the bench and the outside gate, on the alert for trouble. Clonak had disappeared into the shadows nearer the house, guarding the door against the possibility of an Yxtrang rush.

  As oath-holder, Daav occupied the position of greater peril, leaning against an artfully place boulder directly before the stone bench occupied by his oathsworn. He crossed his arms over his chest, which put his right hand on the butt of the pistol riding
hidden in his vest.

  Gods, he thought, I don't want to waste a scout.

  "Nor ought we to endanger the House." Aelliana's tone was more than a little acerbic, which was, Daav owned, no less than he deserved, who had placed Erob's House in peril by insisting upon this mad course.

  If the captain comes quickly . . . he thought. Yes, and if Hazenthull could but hold scout-sense against the rising tide of rage—that the solution which was to have bought her senior's life had failed, leaving her and her dependent trapped and in the power of the enemy . . .

  "She depended upon her senior to find the way clear, once he was healed," Aelliana said. "She did not plan fully."

  How could she? He replied, reading the change in Hazenthull's muscles, malleable under the growing warmth of her rage. His survival was the essence of her plan.

  On the stone bench, Hazenthull shifted, her muscles bunching as if for the charge. Daav's hand closed around the hidden pistol.

  "Explorer." Unexpectedly, Diglon Rifle leaned forward. "Explorer, the captain comes."

  She turned on him, face set in a snarl, and started badly when the house door snapped open, admitting the person—and the voice—of Nelirikk Explorer.

  "Prepare for inspection!" He commanded, in the Yxtrang common tongue.

  Diglon Rifle rose at once, marched over to the pool of light spilling from the open door and dropped into parade rest.

  Hazenthull Explorer sat, as a woman turned to stone, staring, her face beneath the tattoo work beginning to crumble.

  "Explorers kept discipline, when I was in the corps," Nelirikk said, acidic in the extreme; and then snarled, "Prepare for inspection!"

  The command voice sent a little thrill even along Daav's scout-trained nerves. Diminished as she was, Hazenthull was in no condition to resist.

  Sullen, but obedient, she stood, walked out into the light and assumed parade rest slightly in advance of Diglon Rifle, as befit her higher rank. Nelirikk placed himself to the right and slightly forward of both, eyes front.

  Daav sighed and stood away from the boulder, hands at his side, pistol nestled yet in its secret pocket, and wondered how soon the captain might arrive.