The Tourney

by Juliet Sem

  She headed back to the cottage at a leisurely pace, watching most of the Dunnes going into taverns and inns, as the sun was close to setting. Once out of the city, Keestu stepped up her pace, though her back and legs ached from the extended activity after her injuries. It was nearly dark when she reached the cottage, and she entered it gratefully and turned on the lights.

  She found a water bucket in the kitchen, a little dusty from lack of use, and went outside to the creek, moving upstream of the generator to rinse the bucket before filling it and taking it inside. She found the electric stove and a battered and dusty kettle and skillet. She hurried back out to rinse them in the creek before boiling water in the kettle for a drink.

  After putting the water on, she went upstairs to check on her hidden items. She pulled out the cloth wrapped food and took it downstairs with her, hungrily eating a biscuit while the water came to a boil. She pulled out the herbal drink mixes, sniffed them carefully, and put two pinches of the pain-relieving herb into her mug and then ate the last large dry sausage and another biscuit with her drink. She saved the remaining two biscuits for her breakfast the following day, made certain the stove was off, and wearily climbed the ladder so she'd have time to react should someone else come into the cottage as she slept. She propped one basket up to use as a pillow and draped the large coat over it and the floor before turning off the upstairs light. She settled on her makeshift bed and fell into a dreamless sleep as the herb eased her aches.

  Chapter eighteen

  Keestu awoke to the distant rumble of a large spaceship's engines as it landed at the spaceport. She carefully stretched, relieved upon finding herself much less stiff today.

  She went to the kitchen and boiled water for herbal tea, which she used to wash down her last two biscuits for breakfast. That done, Keestu went outside to the privy, and found it had a basin set into the floor that was used for bathing. She rinsed the large skillet in the creek and set water to boil in that as well as the kettle, while not completely refilling the bucket with cold water from the creek. When the water in the skillet was boiling, Keestu poured it into the bucket with the cold water, tested the temperature, and then went up the ladder to pull out her noble clothing and to search her coat. Anthan had given her half a bar of soap to wash herself and a wooden comb for her hair for once she reached Spaceport City. Keestu took the soap and the bucket of water to the privy and washed her hair first. When that was done, she removed her shirt and used it as a towel for her hair, tearing a piece off to use as a washcloth and using the rest to get her hair out of the way while she washed her body using the makeshift washcloth, soap, and warm water. When she felt reasonably clean, she dumped the remaining water over herself to rinse, toweled herself off with her pants after turning them inside out, and taking a chance no one would be nearby, she dashed naked into the cottage with her hair tied up in her shirt. She climbed the ladder, finished drying, and changed into her Vuloan noble pants, setting her own pants aside to dry. She slowly combed the tangles from her hair, and when she was satisfied it was under control, she pulled her pins out of the coat and swiftly twisted her hair into a bun, which she secured before tucking the comb into a basket. She then put on her Vuloan noble shirt and buttoned it up.

  Keestu folded up her old pants and placed them in one basket. She dried the remains of the bar of soap, placing it in a pocket of the coat, before putting the coat in the other basket. Remembering she had placed some trinkets in her pockets, she pulled her old pants out and retrieved them, placing them into her pouch with the pendants she'd received along with her key to the embroidery code, which she had folded and kept in case she was stuck on Vulo for an extended time and needed to communicate in secret with the Dunnes. Keestu fondled the lovely pendants. The Autocracy did not use money, and these would purchase room and board for her should she have to stay another night on Vulo. The pouch wasn't large enough for the mushrooms, so Keestu retrieved the towel that Linson's cook had wrapped food in for her to wrap the mushrooms up into a bundle that she could tie closed and carry with little effort as it was cleaner and neater than a strip of cloth from her shirt or pants would be. She checked the pockets of her old pants and the coat one more time for things she might have forgotten, double checked the ID chit was in one of the baskets before shoving them up under the eaves, and finally felt ready to leave the cottage.

  She eased the door open and looked, and seeing no one on the trail in either direction, she hurriedly left the house behind her.

  Once in Spaceport City, Keestu noted a difference in the way people reacted to seeing her. She got several grins and nods from nobles, who assumed she'd been in a rank fight recently, while the Dunnes no longer looked her in the eye or greeted her. She settled for grinning and nodding back at the other nobles and ignoring the Dunnes as one of her station was expected to do.

  She wended through the streets, making her way steadily towards the spaceport. Several flitters zipped past her on the streets, while others flew overhead. Most of the flitter traffic was either going to or coming from the spaceport, as was much of the foot traffic, so Keestu's progress went unnoticed. She joined the flow of noble foot traffic through a gate and down the path that led into the spaceport. Once inside, she turned on her cuff, and under the guise of stretching, had it scan the displays above the counters for her. She finally saw the departure she needed: Phaet. She was in luck, as a ship was scheduled to leave today, liftoff to happen prior to midday.

  She got in line at the counter, and when it was her turn, she kept her wrist turned casually towards her as the female noble checked her in.

  "Name?"

  "Simi of Gyan."

  "Why are you going to Phaet?"

  "I'm going to serve a term in the palace."

  "What happened to your face?"

  Keestu shrugged. "I won."

  The clerk smirked at her and murmured, "Hate to see the other guy," to which Keestu only smiled, as her command of Phaet wasn't good enough for her to compose a convincing reply.

  "House credit or barter?"

  "Barter." Keestu pulled out two mushrooms, placing them carefully on the counter's barter pad, as she'd seen others do. The clerk's eyes bulged, and she held up a finger to Keestu and scurried off, returning in a few minutes with an older man who eyed the mushrooms appreciatively, then held up five fingers. Keestu pulled out another mushroom and placed it with the others, cocking an eyebrow questioningly at him. The male clerk frowned at her, and sighing with feigned reluctance, Keestu pulled out the last mushroom, spreading out her cloth to show it was now empty. The man whispered something in the woman's ear, scooped up the mushrooms and placed them into a padded case he had brought with him and hurried off.

  "Here is your boarding chit. You are assigned to first class as none of the Prató's family is scheduled to go on today's flight. We leave no later than midday prompt, so don't miss your boarding call."

  Keestu nodded, taking the chit without further comment and moving off along the concourse.

  She saw a stand selling a spiced javene and a breakfast wrap meal, and since she was still hungry, Keestu got in line. She pulled out the plain pendants when she got to the counter and silently offered them, leaving the pearl spray pendant and several others in her pouch for a much larger purchase. The clerk looked them over, chose the smallest one, and gave her not only the javene and a breakfast wrap, but also an additional two meals in sealed cartons to take with her in trade. Keestu smiled, nodding her thanks as she dressed her javene with cream and sweetener before finding a place to sit and eat.

  There was an announcement, and the only word Keestu recognized was "Vulo". Keestu watched passengers hurrying out to the landing pads and realized they must be commuting to work on Vulo II. Three more calls went out before the first ship lifted off, closely followed by a second.

  Bored and nervous with her sudden inactivity, Keestu looked over the spaceport's store, which had a large rack of spare clothing for nobles, but nothing for Dunnes. It also h
eld a variety of travel necessities like soap, brushes, and combs, but Keestu didn't plan on needing any of those. She just had to get to either the palace or the Purvol estate, and she was certain her luggage would soon catch up with her, provided Fernuin hadn't disposed of it if everyone else in her entourage was dead.

  Keestu took a few minutes to ponder that dark thought. She thought that the attack on her group was grounds for an interstellar war, and while she had nothing against the Autocrat, Autocress, or Phaet, she found she had a very intense dislike for the rude sexist Fernuin of Vulo and hatred of his thugs who had maimed Tenget and possibly killed him and everyone else in her party. She hoped she could at least appeal to the Autocrat and Autocress that some intervention needed to be taken against Vulo in the name of Sandar, provided her father didn't take matters into his own hands if everyone who had accompanied her on this trip had been slain by their attackers. Considering she was his eldest daughter and heir, Keestu realized King Ismer would probably declare war on the Autocracy if he thought Keestu was dead, and the Union would back Sandar. She had to get back to Phaet!

  She realized she was pacing and resolutely sat down and watched the foot traffic around her.

  A tense hour and a half later, a voice came over the intercom, and Keestu checked her cuff when she heard Phaet mentioned.

  "First boarding call for Phaet. All first class passengers come to landing pad four." The message was repeated several times as Keestu left the terminal and followed two other Vuloan nobles to a large spaceship. After surrendering their boarding chits, they were escorted to a cabin with six large reclining acceleration couches in two rows facing a large view screen. The two nobles sat one on each end of the front row, so Keestu sat in the middle seat in the second row, placing her meal boxes on the empty couch to her right. She read the translation as their flight attendant instructed them to stay in the cabin for the duration of the flight, then left to seat more passengers, leaving the door to their cabin open. Neither of the nobles in the front row knew each other, so the cabin was mercifully silent.

  The intercom was hooked into the spaceport's terminal, so Keestu heard the next call. "Second boarding call for Phaet. All second class passengers come to landing pad four." A few minutes later, Keestu heard footsteps and watched as several groups of nobles were escorted past their cabin towards second class seating elsewhere in the ship.

  The view screen in their cabin lit up, showing an external view of the spaceport. Keestu saw three other ships on pads some distance away. The screen scrolled through more images, showing what must be random security camera shots of the spaceport. Keestu watched people in the terminal with interest; some were rushing to buy passage on some ship, possibly hers, and she amused herself by examining their barter items.

  The screen switched to a close up of one of the three other ships, and Keestu gasped in shock. The ship was Sandar's Enforcer, a large military vessel bristling with external energy cannons, missile ports, and even old-fashioned projectile weaponry.

  The other two nobles turned to look askance at her, and seeing her staring at the view screen, they glanced at the image before ignoring her once more.

  With shaking hands, Keestu undid her acceleration harness, fumbling with the buckles as she did so. She knew that Enforcer had been sent to look for her and had to have been traveling on a brutal jump schedule, perhaps even being routed directly from the Hub to Vulo to save time; Sandarian military ships were capable of enduring such long jumps. All this churned through her mind as she realized she had to get to the Enforcer, and safety as fast as possible.

  She stood up, automatically grabbing her meals as she pushed her way out of the rows of seats. Glancing up at the screen, she saw one of the other ships was Sandar's Jewel, also come to look for her, or to fetch her entourage, or their bodies.

  Keestu saw no one in the hallway and jogged towards the exterior hatch. She was halfway down the exterior ramp when she heard a shout behind her. Checking her cuff, it read, "Stop! You'll miss your flight!"

  Keestu kept going. She was at the edge of the pad when several guards appeared in the door of the terminal. Her precipitous exit from the ship had been reported. Keestu abandoned stealth and started to sprint across the field, watching her footing. The Sandarian ships were at least a hundred meters away, but Keestu thought she could outrun the weapons-encumbered guards with her head start.

  Hearing shouting close behind her, Keestu whirled to see several guards from the ship she had been on join the chase. She brandished her food bags, yelling in Unity, "Stay back!" They hesitated, and taking advantage of their hesitation, she spun and resumed sprinting towards the Sandarian ships. Her training helped her pick the safest route across the grassy meadow, and unencumbered by burden baskets or weaponry, she thought she should be pulling away from her pursuers. She could see now that the Jewel was the closer of the two ships, so Keestu veered to her left and headed for her.

  There was a clamor ahead of her, and Keestu squinted to see Captain Nebo and several other crewmembers burst out of the Jewel, plasma rifles in hand as they swarmed in her direction. When Keestu was almost to their landing pad, she turned to see one of the faster Vuloans guards, a young and lean man, sprinting up towards her despite carrying a heavy stun staff. Keestu took a precious moment to heave one of her meal packets at him, and he hit the dirt, rolling as it harmlessly bounced past him.

  Gasping for breath, Keestu tried yelling for help. "Captain Nebo! It's me! Captain Nebo..." she paused, cupping her hands around her mouth, and then her heart leapt to her throat. Rue had stepped out of the Jewel behind her crew. "Rue! Rue! It's me," Keestu yelled, "Captain Ne--" The man chasing her fired his stun staff, and she simultaneously heard its loud report as she felt the charge hit her, and then the ground was rushing towards her as she lost consciousness.

  Chapter nineteen

  There was grass and dirt in her mouth. Keestu groaned, feebly trying to spit, wiping her hand across her face to free her mouth of the noxious stuff. She tried focusing on movement she sensed above her, before realizing she was laying face down on the ground. Her jaw ached abominably, and she felt fresh aches in her legs, torso, and the side of her head from where she had fallen on a patch of rocks.

  She groggily sat up and found herself roughly grabbed and jerked to her feet, a voice shouting at her in Phaet. "Get off me!" The stun charge was wearing off, and Keestu remembered where she was, what had just happened. She feebly shoved at the young Vuloan guard who had stunned her. "I'm Sandarian, you moron, Sandarian. You have to let me board the Sandarian ship!"

  More voices joined the cacophony, and suddenly Keestu was snatched from the Vuloan's grip and crushed in a hug. "You're alive!" Still wobbly and disoriented, Keestu reeled against the man who was now holding her, finally identifying the voice shouting in her ear as Gontu's.

  "Gontu?" She craned her head up, confirming it was he.

  "Yes. Thank Rentham! We've been dragging the river for days looking for you. What happened to you?"

  Rue rammed into them then, nearly knocking them both to the ground. She was gasping from running and crying at the same time as she seized Keestu from behind. Keestu winced as Rue's hands pinched several of her bruises. "You," Rue gasped, "You...! I....thought....you," she panted, and then unable to continue, she crushed Keestu again, and Keestu groaned in pain.

  "Yes, I'm alive, but I don't feel so good," Keestu managed to get out, pushing feebly at Gontu and Rue, her muscles still weak from the stun staff's charge.

  Gontu recovered his composure and released Keestu, stepping back before gently prying Rue away from her. Keestu's vision cleared as the last of the stun charge's effects waned, and she saw she was now surrounded by Sandarians, Captain Nebo and his crew, all carrying heavy plasma rifles and glaring at the Vuloans who had chased Keestu across the spaceport, most of whom were just now arriving.

  More shouting started, in Phaet on one side and Unity on the other, until the ominous whine of cannons being brought to bear
momentarily silenced them all. The Enforcer was training her weapons on the altercation going on outside Sandar's Jewel.

  Realizing she was finally safe, Keestu turned to face her handmaiden. Rue had a black eye, but looked fine otherwise. She started weeping anew when she saw the ugly wheal on Keestu's jaw.

  "I'm okay. Some nasty bruises, but I don't think anything's broken," Keestu reassured her.

  She looked up to examine Gontu, saw stitches patching a split lip and a brace on his right wrist, but he seemed otherwise intact.

  "Tenget?" She whispered his name with a knot in her stomach.

  "He's alive," Gontu reassured her. "I got a tourniquet on in time. He's already been sent back to Sandar via military shuttle for limb re-growth therapy."

  "Vahin?" Keestu looked around for her protocol adviser, who should be there.

  "Three broken ribs, a broken finger, and a chipped tooth, but he'll be okay as well. He's resting in the Enforcer's infirmary."

  The sound of feet pounding the earth in unison reached them, and Keestu looked up to see a ten-man squad of armed Sandarian guardsmen dressed in gray uniforms and carrying heavy weaponry and large packs charging towards them with an older man leading them. The Enforcer was sending reinforcements to assist the Jewel's crew, who stood, weapons still pointed at the Vuloans, who had their weapons trained on them.

  The shouting had died down, but when the squad from Enforcer arrived, the whine of energy weapons charging filled the air.

  Keestu saw the heavily decorated man was wearing an Admiral's silver collar. He waved one hand at the squad accompanying him as he shouldered his rifle and moved forward to inspect Keestu. His eyes widened when he saw her face, and he dropped to one knee before her, bowing his graying head. "Princess Keestu! It's been a couple of years, so you probably don't remember me. I'm Admiral Kurzon."