Her throat thickened with unshed tears. Evy, Susan, the Social Outreach Sisterhood, her past life — none of it mattered anymore because she would never share her experiences with her friends. That city, that world, that life was gone. Slipping through the fingers of her memories.
A falling sensation made her sit bolt upright with a start. Wide awake now, Renee realized the sinking feeling had been sleep-induced. She was sitting right where she was before she’d dozed off. They were still cruising along in the egg vehicle. But now there was bright sunlight outdoors, sparkling off snow.
Martil smiled at her. “Better?”
Muffling a yawn, she said, “Uh-huh, though I’m still hungry. How long has it been?”
“Since you’ve eaten, or since you went to sleep?” She made a scowling grin at him, and Martil said, “Chayo, you have food dispensers? Please order us something to eat. And I can’t tell you how long you’ve been asleep, Renamos, because I don’t know what time-measuring method you normally employ. It was a short while by my standards, an excessively long time by Tae’s. You do feel better, in general?”
“Yes and no.” Renee stood up and stretched. She had no trouble maintaining her balance. The ride was so smooth that she felt as if they weren’t moving at all. She sat down again next to Martil. “Actually, I don’t feel too bad, for somebody who’s had less than eight hours’ sleep in the past four days or so.”
The wall beside her bulged inward. Renee stared apprehensively at the spot. There was another egg vehicle, rolling alongside theirs.
“What would you care to eat, my Lady?” Chayo asked deferentially. “I do not know your tastes.”
Tae unfolded himself from the floor and stepped over to the connecting link between the “eggs.” His head almost brushed the ceiling. After a moment’s contemplation, he poked the bulge and a shelf appeared. It held steaming trays of food. Tae handed one to Renee, then passed out the others to Chayo, Martil, and himself.
Renee studied her selection carefully. The stuff smelled like a cheeseburger with all the trimmings, but it looked like chocolate pudding. No gourmet. Shrugging, she dug in. There was no crunch, and no catsup, but the meal was delicious and filling. The men were finishing at about the same time she scooped up the last of her food, and she started to thank Chayo for his hospitality. As she did, she felt a definite change in motion. The lunch-wagon egg vehicle slowed and separated from the egg the four were riding in and left an oval opening in the wall. A moment later, the egg stopped completely, and the purse-lipped door gaped still wider, tacitly inviting them to exit.
Martil brushed crumbs from his fingers and rings and dropped his now-empty tray on the floor. Renee readied a scolding. What a litterbug! Then the tray vanished, sucked out of sight. Tae’s food tray and Chayo’s did the same, when they chucked them, so she imitated them. When in Rome, and so on.
The travelers climbed out onto a gleaming metal platform. A half dome arched above them, cutting the wind and providing some warmth. Although the landscape around them was dotted with snow, it was not cold beneath the transparent partial shelter. Sunlight reflected blindingly from the snow. Renee raised her hands to shield her eyes. “You’d think a civilization that can put people in super egg trains could control the weather a bit better. Rain. Snow. Don’t the Niandians have any eighty-degree bask-on-the-beach days?”
Amused, Chayo chuckled and said, “That might have been arranged, my Lady, if the disaster here had not ruptured the climate-moderating equipment.”
“Very thorough penetration, and despite what I am sure were powerful protective screens,” Martil said. He leaned on the railing lining the domed platform and surveyed the area.
Renee did a small survey of her own and whispered, “It — it’s really been bombed out, hasn’t it?”
“Bombed?” Chayo stared ruefully at her Ka-Een pendant, plainly longing for a translation easier for him to comprehend.
“Not bombs, Renamos,” Martil corrected. “The weapons involved were far nastier. Contained charges, perhaps, or particle-beam devices. Lobbed in here from a considerable distance, I’d estimate.”
“Why didn’t they mash the egg railroad line, while they were at it?”
This time, Chayo didn’t look so puzzled. He must have heard word equivalents that were within his frame of knowledge. “Our surface transportation is not limited to any particular paths, my Lady. The egg vehicles can be directed to go anywhere, even here.”
She gazed out over miles and miles of broken shards and lumps, coated with snow. The scene was haunted, the debris occasionally lashed by a snow devil eddying in the moaning wind. Architectural rubble extended to the horizon. Anyone who had seen footage from war zones would recognize a massive bombardment’s after-math. The strange peacefulness of the view troubled Renee. “It’s … pretty.”
“The bodies were vaporized, or otherwise tidied up, I suppose,” Martil said. “That’s the usual system. The planet’s natural climate — or what passes for natural in these circumstances — is doing its best to reduce the remains to the soil. But there’s not much hope of that for centuries to come, or at least until peace intervenes and the Niandians can hasten the process with technology. We mustn’t stay at this site too long. It’s undoubtedly hot.”
Wind fluffed Renee’s hair and tugged at her clothes. She should have felt cold, but she didn’t. Like a Pavlovian dog, she was reacting to what Martil had said, illusionary nettles of lingering radioactivity burning her skin. “Why did you want to see this place?” she asked.
“Indeed,” Chayo chimed in. He turned his back on the ruined landscape. “You obviously knew what you would find here, amid what was once one of our home world’s greatest cities. I’m sure you’ve seen the same thing elsewhere.”
Martil, too, turned from the appalling scene. “Yes, I have. Tae and I are far too familiar with the results of humanoids’ war games. We’ve seen this sort of thing too many times, on too many planets. That’s why we’re Arbiters.” He rubbed at the mole on his chin, his expression sad. “Protocol. Ignore what I said earlier. We do appreciate the difficulties your mother is working against, the time-lapse factor, and resistance from within her own government and among her people. She needs time to assemble her Federation’s council, a group leadership with the authority to put an end to this stupid war. And Tae, Renamos, and I need time as well — time to fully absorb the currents of your culture. We can use any further information you can give us, Chayo. Speed is of the —”
He broke off, his mouth open. Martil quit picking at his mole and his hand darted to the top of his head. He squinted, frowning. Renee had never seen the arrival of a splitting headache so graphically portrayed.
“How … how could they? Here! I thought we had thrown them off our track!” His pale face twisted with pain.
Tae stirred from his normal, hands-hanging-down posture. One big paw closed around Renee’s hand, jerking her forward. Martil, still clutching his head, used his free hand to push Chayo along, following Tae’s lead.
They were running. At least the men were running. Renee was staggering, dragged in Tae’s wake. She was doing her best, but halfway wished he’d pick her up and tuck her under his arm again, as he had in the tunnel below Chayo’s escape hatch. Her legs were too short for her to match the men’s strides.
Why were they running?
Because Martil had a headache — and he seemed to be a living detector for incoming artillery shells, or the Niandian counterpart of that.
But why were they running down toward the ruined city? Martil had said it was “hot.” Radioactive. A place to stay far away from.
“Over there!” Martil pointed to a large, mounded lump of snow, the wreckage of a building. The spot was perhaps a hundred yards to their left. Tae veered in that direction immediately.
Now he tried to carry Renee, putting an arm around her waist, but not quite lifting her off the uneven ground. Apparently he didn’t dare stop long enough to get a solid purchase. She was hauled al
ong in an awkward, ridiculous position, her feet on and then off and then on the snow-covered dirt and debris again and again.
There was a tremendous roar, and they were all being thrown ass over teakettle.
She put out her hands, landing in the snow, sliding, digging in the toes of her new boots in a frantic attempt to stop. Something large and heavy fell on top of her, mashing her deeper into the cold and wet and knocking the breath out of her.
For a panicky few seconds, Renee struggled desperately to free her face from the white, fluffy crystals, on the verge of suffocating. When she was finally able to raise her head, she blinked through snow-crusted eyelashes at a rain of lumps of baby blue garbage. The stuff was pattering to earth all about her. Several pieces plopped onto her hair, and she shook them off.
The thing squashing her flat removed itself, and hands were under her armpits, helping her to her feet. Martil and Chayo were on either side of her, both looking anxious. They were rumpled and completely plastered with snow and dirt.
“Are you all right, my Lady Renamos?”
Clutching her aching midriff, Renee gasped, “I think so. What fell on me?”
“Tae,” Martil replied.
The tall blond seemed unhurt. He was looking back the way they’d come, and Renee traced his stare. The domed platform, the ramp, and their egg vehicle — and the lunch-wagon egg that had accompanied them for a while — had disappeared. A laze of smoke curled up from that spot, drifting in the cold breeze.
“Don’t tell me. The Gevari hit at us again, right?”
Martil brushed at his clothes. “Oh, yes. Conventional armaments, fortunately, and definitely launched from this planet. Which should mean the Gevari are confining their attack to …” His sharp face contorted into another blossoming headache, and Tae lumbered toward Renee again.
She looked around for someplace to run to. In the next moment she was swept off her feet and saved the decision. In contrast to their first wild scramble, Tae got her securely under his arm before he went loping off. Renee wished the blond hulk could think of a more dignified way to carry her.
Martil and Chayo galloped ahead, ducking into the shadow of the wrecked building. Then Tae and Renee were in the shadow too, and she blinked, trying to adjust her vision. The two smaller men were crawling through a cramped opening close to the ground. Tae dropped Renee there, next to what remained of a collapsed doorway, and pushed at her. She got on her hands and knees, heading for cover, half-outraged and half-hysterical with laughter as Tae planted a hand on her rump to hurry her along. She tumbled down a slope of loose earth, landing in a tangle of arms and legs — Martil’s and Chayo’s. Tae entered right behind, sprawling across the three of them.
There was another deafening roar, closer this time.
The noise was so loud Renee feared the top of her skull would crack and come off. She gulped, swallowing hard, relieving the painful pressure in her ears. It — the bomb or particle-beam weapon or whatever — continued to growl and moan for quite some time. Dust, shaken loose from wrecked beams and the flattened building’s former upper stories, flaked down on the cowering foursome.
When the sound eased a trifle, Renee sat up, batting pieces of what looked like rotten wallpaper out of her hair. She disentangled her legs from Chayo’s and Martil’s. “About now, I wish your beauty salon experts had rigged me in white. If they had, I could play possum out there in the snow.”
“You’d be dead, in that case,” Martil said tonelessly.
“Is anyone hurt?” Chayo was counting noses.
“Not yet.” Martil was still holding his head and wincing. “It can’t be from a Ka-Een essence-transfer beam this time. I wonder how they’re locating us? Chayo, alternate transportation from this site?”
“Matter-relay units were destroyed in the original enemy attack. And anyway, the Gevari can interfere with matter relay. They’d send us where they wanted and kill us instantly.” Chayo tugged at his sideburns a moment, then brightened. He fumbled at a pocket and drew out an object resembling an ironed ballpoint pen. After a bit of dial twiddling, he began talking, identifying himself and yelling for the chief of palace communications. A burst of static spat out of the radio-pen.
“Somehow, I suspect there’s interference with that, too,” Renee said worriedly.
Chayo dial-twiddled some more, producing a lot of squalling and scratching noises, and a blur of incoherent humanoid sounds. Amid the hash, one familiar contact cheered him considerably. He held the communicator close to his lips and shouted, “Zia? Zia! Gevari, attacking us at Hell-All! Send help! Notify defense —”
The princess’s static-broken words walked over his. Chayo’s face fell, and he slowly lowered the device, punching a control to kill the audio. “She didn’t receive my message. Didn’t hear me.”
Renee wrapped her arms protectively around herself. “Martil, they’re going to kill us.” She wished Tae had been putting words into her mouth when she said that. Then she’d have someone else to blame for the horror gripping her.
Martil scrambled up the dirt slope and peered out the collapsed doorway. Tae tugged at his boot. The smaller man batted him away. “They’re certainly trying hard enough to kill us. I’d hoped that once we had arrived on Niand’s home world, they would realize that the Arbiters mean business …”
Tae grabbed his belt and dragged him back down the slope, all but throwing him into Chayo’s and Renee’s arms. Then Tae’s weight buried the three of them.
Another thunderous explosion shook the ground. Chunks of stone fell out of what remained of the room’s ceiling, crashing on either side of their huddle. Renee bit her knuckles and lectured herself sternly to forestall a total funk.
Cautiously, the four of them raised their heads. A gory cut dribbled blood down one of Martil’s cheeks. Chayo had an ugly lump over an eye. Renee examined her palms. They were scraped and oozing — from being battered against this stony floor, rammed into walls, butted into the remains of a building, and fallen on. She cursed softly, fighting tears. “Martil …”
He was peering up the dirt slope. His expression was twisted with agony. “Closer yet. How are they homing in on us …?”
Tae flipped out a long arm and hooked his fingers around the smaller man’s pendant. Comprehension dawned, and it was no comfort to either of them. “More sophisticated methods than we’d expected, eh?” Martil said. “They detect a Ka-Een and start throwing.”
Renee stroked her own pendant. The Ka-Een had translated this world and these people for her and allowed her to fit into this incredible adventure. And because of the Ka-Een Martil had loaned her, she was going to be killed.
Martil sat down heavily, gritting his teeth. He swiped the back of his hand irritably at his bleeding cheek. “Damn! Chayo, make a run for it. It’s us they want. No pinpoint accuracy, so far, but they’re bound to hit us by default, sooner or later. Get out of here while you can.”
“No.” Chayo seemed grimly amused. “That’s useless. They won’t let me escape. I know their techniques. I learned them from Vunj. If they’re still receiving information that you exist, and they will since you’re still alive, they’ll saturate this entire area. There’s nowhere for me to run. No, I can’t escape.”
“But we can!” Martil said, talking rapidly. He seized Chayo’s arms and shook the prince bodily. “We can. Not you. So get away!”
“No time. Don’t you understand? I know how they think.”
A fresh series of crumping booms reverberated near their cubbyhole. Through the slit of daylight above, where they’d entered this trap, Renee saw gouts of earth and rubble being thrown high into the air. She wanted to dig a deeper hole and crawl into it.
“No time,” Chayo said again, utterly fatalistic. “If you can escape, Martil, please do so. I must not be responsible for your deaths.”
“No time, indeed.” Martil nodded to Tae. “All right. All right! We’ll have to attempt it. It worked once, so presumably Renamos has a special affinity with the K
a-Eens’ essence. Perhaps just enough. Here, you two, join hands.”
Chayo recoiled, yelling to be heard over the roar of explosions walking around and toward them. “I will not imperil my Lady Renamos!”
With a cry of exasperation, Martil manhandled the young prince, thrusting him at Renee, throwing them into each other’s arms. Under other circumstances, she might have enjoyed that. In one of those frozen-in-time, irrational observations, she noted that Chayo’s eyes were a lavender color. Very nice.
Then Tae and Martil were making contact with the two of them, forming a sort of séance circle. A very small, tight one. “She’s in considerably less danger than you are, Chayo,” Martil screamed, practically in the Niandian’s ear. “Brace yourselves!”
The bomb noise was overwhelming, rattling the brains within Renee’s skull. The earth heaved like a maddened animal. It didn’t take any additional instructions from Martil to make her embrace Chayo for dear life. She was cold, shivering with terror.
She saw Martil’s lips moving, and his eyes weren’t quite tracking. It was the same routine he’d gone through when he’d produced Renee’s pendant out of nowhere.
Explosions were everywhere, beating on her, an immense fist of sound, stunning her to everything but the gut knowledge that this had to be it.
Then the world disintegrated, dissolving into a parade of descending colors: gold, green, gray … and black.
Chapter 5
“RENAMOS, let go!”
Dim impressions of a world outside the blackness. That had sounded like … like Martil. Slowly, her mind climbed toward the surface of an impossibly deep lake. Something heavy was pushing against her, and as she rose toward full consciousness she found that she hurt, ached all over. The light hurt, too, when she opened her eyes. She groaned and flinched and reopened her eyelids, more carefully and gingerly this time.
The Sisterhood Page 7