Priestess of the Eggstone

by Jaleta Clegg

  Lowell leaned back, a small smile on his face. He looked almost asleep. Tayvis wasn’t fooled. Lowell’s mind was faster than any computer at putting puzzle pieces together. The smile on his face spread slowly.

  “Just when I thought I had it figured out,” Lowell said. “Take your goons and find her before she hurts herself or the Sessimoniss catch her.”

  “And where should I look?” The heat made him feel sluggish.

  “She downloaded a nav course to Nevira, an old one. It should take her a while to arrive.”

  “If she arrives. How bad was her ship?” Tayvis scrubbed a hand through his hair. “I saw the tapes, she took at least one direct hit.”

  “She made it here, barely. She got the parts to fix her ship. I made sure of that.”

  “What else have you made sure of?” Tayvis wanted nothing more than to just sleep somewhere cool. No, he wanted to know that Dace was safe first.

  “She isn’t being chased by Patrol, other than you. Belliff is effectively shut down, I doubt they will worry about one courier pilot enough to follow her. The Sessimoniss add a new wrinkle, though. I’ll see what I can do with them.”

  “They want something called the Eggstone. They say she stole it, although their language is weird enough I’m not sure who they were referring to.”

  “The Eggstone.” Lowell tipped his chair back and eyed the ceiling as if it held answers. “Any idea what that might be?”

  Tayvis shook his head.

  “It would help if we knew more about the Sessimoniss.” Lowell thumped the chair to the floor and typed rapidly on his handcomp. “Go to Nevira, Tayvis. Find her for me.”

  “So you can send her to Tivor.”

  “So you can convince her to go.”

  “I’ll resign first.”

  “You can’t. The Empire owns you for two-and-a-half more years.” Lowell stopped typing. His silver eyes met Tayvis’s brown ones. “I need her, Tayvis.”

  “How can you live with yourself?”

  “You asked me that before. I do what has to be done. I won’t force her to Tivor. But, if she won’t go, we may lose the whole sector. Tivor is key to the travel routes. One life for millions, Tayvis.”

  “And what if she won’t go?”

  Lowell shrugged. “Then I do what I have to. I give her a choice.”

  “It isn’t much of a choice.”

  “She’s safer working for me, Tayvis. I can protect her. Look what she does when I leave her alone.” He grinned. “One mission, Tayvis. Three months on Tivor and I make sure she never gets involved again.”

  “I’ll talk to her, when I catch up with her.” Tayvis stood.

  “Take care of her, Tayvis. If anyone can, you can.”

  “What’s on Nevira?”

  “Jerimon Pai’s sister. According to her certification, she’s a navigator.”

  Tayvis muttered as he reached for the door handle.

  “Good hunting, Commander.”

  Tayvis glanced over his shoulder, studying his commanding officer, the man who dictated where he went and what he did.

  Lowell cocked his head. “I’m sure you’ll find her eventually. Don’t let regulations stop you.” He turned his attention to his handcomp.

  Tayvis yanked the door open, startling the guard in the hall. He strode out of the building. He would find Dace, yes, using whatever means he could. And then he would tell her what Lowell wanted. And then he would find somewhere far enough away that she would never have to return to Tivor, somewhere so far that when Lowell finally found them, it would be much too late to do anything.

  Chapter Twelve

  I gathered the bags. The sum total of my pitiful possessions filled less than half of one. The full one held Jerimon’s possessions. I found my not-quite-legal blaster and stuffed it into the bottom, inside a pair of socks. I double-checked the safe, making sure all of the cash and credit chips were stashed in my luggage. I hesitated over the official registry papers before jambing them on top of my clothes. They were recorded with Belliff and the Patrol and half a dozen other agencies, but it wouldn’t hurt to make anyone chasing us work a bit harder to track us down.

  I stepped into the cargo hold. All of Belliff’s cargo was gone. One bin was only partially latched. I pushed on it. The catch clicked and popped open. A single small envelope lay inside, neatly addressed to me. I poked it with one finger. Who would have left me a note? Who else, but Commander Grant Lowell? I wanted to shove the note into the disposal chute. Curiosity won, I picked it up and broke the seal.

  A wad of paper slid out, a dozen diamonds nestled inside. I shifted them with one finger to read the note underneath. The letters were precise, the handwriting so even it looked printed. “You know how to find me.” I crumpled the paper. I would never work for him or the Patrol. But the man would not give up, he would not take no for his answer. He was trying to buy me off. I cocked my arm, ready to throw the paper. I couldn’t do it, I couldn’t refuse those gems. I might need the money too badly. I called myself a few dozen names as I pocketed the note and the stones. I picked up the bags then stepped into the airlock.

  The official was still waiting outside. I gave him a bright smile. He gave me a suspicious look. “It’s just personal stuff,” I said, trying for innocence. “Mine and the captain’s.” It was only a duffel and a half. He let me go after I unlocked the hatch for him. The sun glared off the snow, but it was still cold. I was shivering within a block. I paused out of sight of the spaceport and tried to remember the way back to Jasyn’s apartment. It was hopeless, I was lost. I wandered snowy streets at random. I hoped I’d recognize something before I froze solid. Jerimon found me first.

  “What are you doing here?” He had on a heated jacket. I shivered.

  “Looking for you,” I said, not wanting to admit I was lost. I swung his duffel at him.

  “How could you get lost in less than two blocks?” He mocked. I added speed to his duffel. It hit him in the stomach. He grunted and grabbed it before it landed in the snow. “I thought you were supposed to be at the ship,” he said, slinging the duffel over his shoulder.

  “We don’t have one anymore.”

  “You lost it?”

  “It’s been repossessed.”

  We both looked up at a deep rumble. A large transport, the Patrol Enforcers logo blazoned on its side, dropped through the sky for a landing.

  “What do you bet they’re looking for us?” I said in a small voice.

  “I don’t take sucker bets. We’ve got to find Jasyn. Now.”

  I didn’t argue, I hurried after him. It helped keep me warm. Jerimon walked as fast as he could without drawing a lot of attention. We still got it, two spacers hurrying through snow carrying duffels on an agricultural world. I just hoped we were long gone before whoever was on the transport started asking for us.

  We caught up to Jasyn at the bottom of the stairs leading to her door. She took one look at Jerimon’s face and stopped.

  “The ship’s been repossessed,” Jerimon said baldly.

  “The Patrol are asking about you,” Jasyn said.

  “I guessed that already,” I said.

  “I got a call from a contact in the port authority office.” Even in the cold, with the wind blowing her hair, in serious trouble, Jasyn was gorgeous. “We have to leave.”

  “How?” I asked.

  Jasyn smiled. “Let me grab my bag and I’ll show you.” She left us shivering in the snow while she ran up the stairs into her apartment.

  Jerimon slid off his jacket, dropping it over my shoulders. I didn’t protest, the warmth felt too good.

  Jasyn came back a moment later with a big black bag over one shoulder. She waved down a taxi for us and we piled in. She punched a destination on the keypad and dropped a few coins in a slot. The taxi slid smoothly into traffic, its automatic programming taking us on the shortest, safest route. Jasyn leaned back in her seat. I leaned closer to the heating vent.

  Jerimon looked at both of us. “Where are
you taking us?” he asked his sister.

  “Lady Rina.”

  Jerimon pinched his mouth shut. Jasyn smiled. I waited, curious but unwilling to take her bait. She said nothing. I squirmed and opened my mouth to ask. The taxi slid to a stop and the doors popped open. We piled back out into the snow.

  We stood in front of a fancy metal gate leading to an imposing mansion. Huge sculpted plascrete walls surrounded it. Jasyn pushed open the gate, picking her way through the snow to the front door. Jerimon and I trailed her.

  “Who’s Lady Rina?” I asked Jerimon.

  “You’ll find out soon enough.”

  Jasyn knocked. The door opened. A quiet middle-aged woman in a black dress showed us into a front room, cozy with bright colored rugs.

  A stately older woman, who might have been described kindly as handsome, entered with a rustle of rich fabric. She wore a long, deep green, very formal gown. A tuft of lace bobbed just under her chin.

  Jasyn took her outstretched hand. “Lady Rina.”

  “Jasyn Pai. And your brother, Jerimon.” She smiled an old lady’s smile, all wrinkles, but with a calculating glint in her eyes. She turned to me. “And who are you?”

  “Dace.” I squirmed slightly under her gaze. She seemed to see right through me. Although I knew she couldn’t actually read my mind, I was as pyschic as a rock, I wished she’d quit looking at me like that.

  “Jerimon tangled her up in his affairs,” Jasyn said.

  “She has enough of her own,” Jerimon said.

  Lady Rina continued to study me, cocking her head. I shifted my weight from one foot to the other. She made me nervous for no reason I could put my finger on. She finally nodded and turned her attention to Jerimon.

  “Please, help yourself.” She waved at a tray of dainty sandwiches and hot drinks. She nodded at Jasyn, then looked back at me. “Come sit.” It had all the force of an order.

  I followed her across the room, sitting stiffly on an ornately carved chair.

  She sat across from me on a curvy brocade sofa. “Let me see your hands.”

  I obediently held them out. Something about her manner demanded respect. She took them in her own, studying the backs of my hands. I squirmed, acutely conscious of the grime embedded under my nails. Engine grease, coolant liquid, and hydraulic oil don’t wash off easily. She smoothed a finger over calluses then turned my hands over.

  She stroked them open, palm up, lying flat in her own hands. She studied the creases there, frowning intently. After a moment, she put my right hand back in my lap and traced the lines of my left one.

  “Interesting.” Her finger slid along my palm. Matching shivers rippled up my spine and across the back of my neck. “You have a great decision to make, very soon. And after that,” she paused, finger hesitating over my hand, “either very great things, or obscurity.” She frowned, shifting her gaze to my face. “I’ve never seen such a tangled destiny. Nothing is clear, except a decision you must make soon. I see nothing else.” She folded my fingers over my palm and placed my hand in my lap. “You are in trouble,” she said to Jasyn, back to the regal old lady. “Why come to me?”

  I curled my fingers over my palm. The echo of her words rang in my mind. Destiny?

  Jasyn sipped cocoa, looking graceful, as if she belonged in such a rich room. “You’re family. I don’t have the resources.”

  “And I do.” Lady Rina’s lips tightened, then she chuckled. “What is it you need from me?”

  Jasyn looked at Jerimon who looked at me. Lady Rina turned her frosty eyes on me.

  I forced my hands to relax. “We need a ship, a way to get unnoticed to Herifon.” I didn’t know what Jasyn expected me to say. I didn’t know what to expect from Lady Rina.

  “And after that?” Lady Rina waited, sitting ramrod straight on her couch.

  “There’s this thing we have to find,” Jerimon finally said. He gave Lady Rina his best lost puppy look. “We need to return it to the Sessimoniss.”

  “You’ve tangled with them? You are in trouble.”

  I studied the old woman, wondering how she knew about the Sessimoniss. I hadn’t heard of them until they boarded my ship what felt like ages ago. It had only been a couple of weeks.

  “Will you help us, Aunt Rina?” Jasyn asked.

  “In what way? You wish me to just hand you money? There are no ships for sale on Nevira. You must have come on a ship.” She looked from Jerimon to me. I couldn’t meet her eyes. “I assume it’s no longer available. You are in a pickle.”

  She quit talking. We sat, waiting. A clock ticked loudly in the very still room. Jerimon shifted, started to talk. Lady Rina held up her hand.

  “I think it’s time for me to do something eccentric. I think it is time for me to fly away on a grand adventure. I have a ship, a yacht that has been in storage for much too long a time. But,” she frowned, “I have no crew, except for Caid. He keeps it working.”

  Jasyn shook her head and laughed. “You know perfectly well that I’m a navigator and Jerimon is a pilot. Dace is also a pilot.”

  “One last grand adventure.” Lady Rina’s smile included all of us.

  “The Patrol is probably following us, too.” I felt compelled to tell her the full truth. I didn’t want her thinking I’d held anything back, not anything that mattered.

  “Are they?” Lady Rina chuckled. “Since their cruiser has landed, then we had better hurry. Estelle,” she called. The middle-aged woman materialized from a back room. “Pack my things, quickly. I will call Caid. Have Willis bring my car around.”

  Estelle nodded, leaving the room as silently as a ghost.

  We gathered our luggage, following Lady Rina outside. A large, shiny, black groundcar pulled smoothly from the back, waiting to one side of the narrow garden strip. The man driving it opened the back door. We climbed in, Lady Rina waving us ahead of her.

  She sat like a queen on her throne while the car weaved through the snow-packed town. It only took a few minutes to reach the side of the spaceport farthest from the Patrol cruiser and the Twinkle. Willis pulled the car to a gentle stop in front of a dilapidated hangar. Inside was a space yacht that qualified as antique under any definition.

  “The Swan,” Lady Rina said, nodding at the ship. “We both had many good adventures.” She picked her way across the snowy plascrete to the hangar.

  “Just who is she?” I asked Jasyn as we followed.

  “Great-Aunt of some sort. I met her a few years back. When my parents were disowned, she left the family and kept an eye on us.”

  The hangar smelled of old engine grease. I sniffed appreciatively. The hatch stood open, green lights blinking around the edges. We followed Lady Rina up the ramp into the ship.

  The interior was rich, elaborate fittings of polished brass, thick carpets, and heavy furniture solidly bolted to the floors. The main area of the ship, accessed directly from the hatch, was a wide lounge area with a small attached galley. The controls for the ship were in the nose, part of the lounge. Behind that were two levels. The upper level was Lady Rina’s cabin. Below that were two cramped crew cabins, a small refrigerated storage space, a tiny cargo hold, and access to the engines. The doors to both cabins stood open. One was obviously occupied. We put our duffels in the other cabin, piling them on one narrow bunk.

  The lights blinked off. We stood in the dark listening to a loud stream of cursing. I heard several new to me. The lights flickered and came back on.

  “Preflight,” Jerimon said as he headed to the control area.

  Jasyn followed on his heels. I hesitated in the narrow hallway, before heading into the engine room.

  “Who are you?” An older man, balding, with a big belly, waved a greasy wrench in one hand. He spat out a curse. “Fifteen years I keep the old girl in one piece, wondering if she’d ever see space again. Then, out of nowhere, I get a call. Liftoff in one hour. One hour! And the old girl sitting here for decades.”

  I studied the engine while he grumbled. “Is that an old Cassin
i bypass?”

  “Four-oh-five double,” Caid answered proudly. “She’s got the optional dual drive loader tubes. Installed them myself.”

  “I did some work on the basic Cassini.” I had, too, three weekends that I managed to sneak away from the Academy to the used shipyard.

  “Grab a driver and go tighten the shafts.” Caid thumped a valve lightly with his wrench. “The old girl will fly again.”

  I shed Jerimon’s jacket, tossing it into the hall, before stuffing an assortment of tools in my shipsuit pockets.

  The engine gurgled. Caid swore.

  “Who’s up there goosing the jets?” He mashed a button on a control panel before I could answer. “Who in blazes is touching my ship?”

  “Preflight checks,” Jerimon’s voice answered. “This is the pilot.”

  I shook my head.

  Caid grunted. “Warn me before you do anything,” he said into the com. He let go of the button “If he’s not the pilot, who is he?”

  I wasn’t sure if I outranked Jerimon on Lady Rina’s ship or not, so I shrugged. “Jerimon Pai. He’s a good pilot.”

  “I’m sure there’s more to that story.” Caid grinned. “Who bought the captain’s bars for you? Lady Rina promote you?”

  “No.” I fingered the bars on my collar. “Left over from my last ship.”

  “Good. I’m captain of this one.” He banged a clicking valve. The valve quit clicking. “How did an engineer ever get to be captain?”

  “Assistant engineer rating. Full pilot rating.”

  “Let’s see just how good your engineer ratings are. That’s what really counts.” He squeezed into the maze of tubing and pipes. “Start back there, check the stabilizers.” He waggled his wrench.

  Fifteen minutes later the engine was ready to check. Caid started the tugs that dragged the ship slowly from the hangar to the launch pit.

  “Dace,” Jerimon called over the com.