Knight

by Timothy Zahn

  They’d reached the very last stage of the journey when the revolt she’d half expected happened.

  “No more,” Misgk said firmly, holding two of his thin hands up in a sort of double-fist gesture. The other two hands, Nicole noted uneasily, were gripping his sword hilt and one of the arrows in his quiver. “No more. If you wish us able to fight at the end of this path, you must not take us through any more water.”

  “I understand,” Nicole said, eyeing the flowing water disappearing through an opening in the wall ahead. If the Ghorfs’ calculations were right, ten feet past the wall the stream emptied out into the Q1 river.

  The extremely fast Q1 river. If Misgk and the other Thii couldn’t handle one of the slower underwater passages, they sure as hell wouldn’t hold up to this one.

  There was the service corridor system above the river, of course, the one Nicole had already used once. But that route just dumped them in the river again, with the same problem they were already facing. Going around to the corridor and door Wesowee had taken her through after her little ocean dip would take time they didn’t have, and would probably run them into a Wisp or two as well.

  Which left only one option. It hadn’t worked so well the last time Nicole had tried it, but time was running out and it was all they had.

  Mentally crossing her fingers, she took a deep breath. “Fyrantha,” she called into the cramped space. “Protector says turn off the Q1 arena river.”

  Out of the corner of her eye she saw Jeff give her an odd look. “Protector says turn off the Q1 arena river,” she repeated. A sudden thought—“And keep it off until I say to turn it back on.”

  “Nicole—”

  “Shh,” Nicole hissed. Something was happening. She could hear it—maybe feel it was a more accurate word. There was a set of deep and rapid clicks, barely audible over the swooshing of the water—

  Abruptly the swooshing stopped, and the water level dropped like a bathtub draining away. Someone gasped—from the sound, one of the Thii—and then the water was gone, leaving a low-ceilinged tunnel into the arena.

  “Come on,” Nicole said. Dropping onto all fours, she crawled into the tunnel, trying not to think about how the Shipmasters had been able to turn the water back on earlier and nearly drown her. This time, she’d told the Fyrantha not to let them do that, but she had no idea if she had that authority here in the Shipmasters’ stronghold.

  “Wait!” Kahkitah called softly from behind her. “We can’t fit through that opening.”

  Nicole grimaced. No, of course they couldn’t. She should have spotted that right away.

  Which meant that until the Ghorfs could get around to one of the arena’s other entrances she, Jeff, the Ponngs, and the Thii would be on their own.

  Which was really how it had to be anyway. She and Jeff had already decided that the Ghorfs had to be kept out of any fighting. But Nicole had hoped at least to have them hanging around, being all big and threatening, when the Koffren started moving. Trake always said that intimidation was the first half of any battle.

  “That’s okay—you’ve done enough,” she called back. “Anyway, you need to get everyone back to their jobs before they’re missed. Jeff?”

  “We’re right behind you,” he confirmed. “You just get to the beach and figure out where you want everybody.”

  “Okay.” Nicole was at the end of the tunnel now, with just a one-foot drop to the bottom of the river channel. “Time?”

  “I make it five minutes,” Jeff said. “You still want me to gather everyone on our side and get them over to yours?”

  “Yes,” Nicole said. She climbed out of the tunnel and turned to look behind her. The Thii were moving briskly toward her, looking even more like insects than they usually did when they walked on all sixes. With their smaller size, the passage was a lot easier for them than it was for Nicole. “Everybody, follow me,” she ordered. “And watch your step—the channel floor can be slippery.”

  She had a bad moment as she passed the spot where the river came back to life the last time, wondering if history was going to repeat itself. But the water remained off. Two minutes later she led the way around the bluff and onto the wet beach sand.

  The Wisps and Koffren were still standing where she and Jeff had left them, but the ocean’s water level had receded visibly since then, leaving them standing in a wide strip of wet sand. Iosif and the other men were no longer grouped around the bluff, having apparently gotten tired of waiting and wandered off. She spotted two green jumpsuits where the reeds met the edge of the tree line, and there were three abandoned tridents lying on the beach, two on the loose sand, the other half-hidden in the reeds.

  The Thii spotted them, too. “Weapons!” Sofkat said, pointing excitedly. “Should we retrieve them?

  “Yes, of course,” Nicole said. She had no intention of letting the Thii use them—in fact, given their slender build and thin arms she wasn’t even sure how well they could handle something that long and heavy. But she also had absolutely no intention of letting the Koffren trade up, either. “Grab them and head through the reeds into the forest. We’ll figure out where to hide them up there.”

  “Where to hide them?” Iyulik asked with clear disbelief. “The Ponngs have such weapons. Why can we not?”

  “You know why not,” Nicole said. “Get the tridents and stash them among the trees. Then all of you get in position there, about midway from the water line to the reeds. I need the Thii lined up in the middle, with the Ponngs at either end.”

  “With their weapons,” Iyulik muttered.

  “Their weapons are there to protect you,” Nicole reminded him. “Anyway, you’ve got your bows and arrows. We decided that’s where this is going to start, remember?”

  “Yes,” Nise murmured, looking pointedly down the beach at the Koffren.

  “Don’t let their size worry you,” Nicole said, wishing fleetingly that she could take her own advice on that one. “The bigger they are, the better targets they make.”

  “I think he was concerned more about the uselessness of the arrows we all were given,” Moile put in.

  “Nothing that can hurt them is completely useless,” Nicole assured him. “And they’ll hurt a lot more on bare Koffren skin than they did against that grass armor all of you were using.”

  “And what of their swords?” Moile asked. “I doubt they’re as flimsy as ours.”

  “I doubt that, too,” Nicole conceded. “You just get in position. I’ll see what I can do about the swords.”

  She was on very close timing, she knew as she hurried down the beach, her feet dragging on the loose sand. She hit the wet section and picked up her pace, watching the Wisps closely. There might be a hint of movement just before they released the Koffren, which might give Nicole enough warning to reverse course and get back to the others before the big aliens attacked.

  Then again, there might be no warning at all.

  The Wisps and Koffren were still standing motionless as she reached them. So far, so good. Watching the Wisps closely, she reached over and carefully drew one of the Koffren swords from its sheath.

  It was heavier than she’d expected. Far heavier than the Thii’s swords; nearly as heavy, in fact, as the humans’ tridents. It was gleaming in the morning sunlight and probably very sharp. Heart still thudding, she reached over and pulled out the other Koffren’s sword—

  And gasped as a huge hand suddenly came to life and locked itself around her wrist.

  The Wisps had released their prisoners.

  There was a grinding noise like a coffee maker—“So, young one,” a deep voice said in Nicole’s brain. “Have your companions chosen you to be first to die?”

  twenty

  “I’m not here to die,” Nicole said, the words stumbling over each other as the two aliens took their swords back from her. “Not here to hurt you, either. I just came to talk.”

  “Do you begin all conversations by stealing your enemies’ weapons?” the Koffren countered.
/>   “You don’t have to be our enemies,” Nicole said, feeling her face screwing up with pain. His grip felt like it was about to break her wrist. “Fievj is lying to you.”

  “To us?” The alien ground out a laugh. “That was not Fievj. Fievj deals with the slaves, and the testing arenas. That was Nevvis. Nevvis deals with the buyers. And it was you whom he lied to.”

  “What do you mean?” Nicole asked cautiously. “What did he lie about?”

  “We aren’t another test to be studied,” the Koffren said. “We’re the ones testing you.”

  “Testing us for what?”

  “Your value in battle,” the Koffren said. “You were the first. You demonstrated courage, though also foolishness, in attempting to disarm us.” He lifted his head to look over Nicole’s shoulder. “He will be the second.”

  Nicole turned around. Jeff had appeared around the farther bluff, herding the rest of the blue team across the empty riverbed. Most of them were carrying their tridents, though in a loose, casual way. Jeff got them around the other bluff and, using the blunt end of his trident like he was guiding sheep, got them turned and moving up the slope.

  It clearly wasn’t easy. With their minds still confused, they all seemed to want to head off in different directions, and it was all Jeff could do to keep them bunched up and moving toward the trees.

  “What do you think?” the Koffren said, pointing with the tip of his sword. “That one?”

  Nicole looked at the second alien. But he remained silent. Maybe only the boss was allowed to speak? “That one what?” she asked, looking back.

  “That one—Ah, I was right,” the Koffren said. “Here he comes now.”

  Nicole tensed. With Jeff’s attention momentarily elsewhere, Bennett and Tomas had slipped past his trident barrier and were strolling down the beach. Bennett caught sight of Nicole, said something to Tomas, and they started loping toward her, idly swinging their tridents like kids carrying hockey sticks home from the rink.

  “Our second subject,” the Koffren said, hefting his sword.

  “No!” Nicole bit out, desperately grabbing for his arm with her free hand.

  It was no use. He was bigger, he was stronger, and he had much longer arms. He evaded her attempt without even trying, lifting the sword high over his head and completely out of her reach. He looked at her, his head cocked as if he’d suddenly had an idea, and he twisted her around until she was facing the two approaching men.

  And as she watched in horror, he sent his sword spinning through the air to bury itself in Bennett’s chest.

  “No!” Nicole shrieked.

  But it was too late. Far too late. The sheer unexpectedness of it, the utter insanity, had taken her by surprise.

  The impact threw Bennett backward, slamming him to the ground with a small splash and leaving him stretched out motionless on the wet sand. Tomas took a couple more steps, his eyes on Bennett, slowly trotting to a confused halt. He gazed at the body, then looked at Nicole and the Koffren, then back at the body. Stepping over to it, he prodded it gently in the side with the end of his trident as if expecting his friend to get up.

  He was still standing there when the Koffren gave Nicole a violent shove toward them and let go of her wrist. “Go,” the alien ordered. “See to your defenses and your strategy. We shall be there shortly to test them.”

  Nicole spun toward him, her hands clenched into fists tight enough to hurt, her anger and anguish and fear and hatred boiling like hell itself inside her.

  But there was nothing she could do. Nothing she could say. Her rage meant nothing to these creatures. Life meant nothing. Only force meant anything. Force, and the freedom that their overwhelming strength gave them to do whatever they damn well pleased.

  Suddenly, it was like she was back on the Philadelphia streets.

  She took a deep, shuddering breath. No. There, she’d had no one and nothing. Here, she had allies and friends.

  And she had a plan.

  She nodded, not daring to speak, and hurried away from them. She grabbed Tomas’s arm as she passed, dragging him away from the body. Jeff, she saw, had stopped just outside the tree line, his face carved from stone, the rest of his drugged charges still milling about in their carefree oblivion. Still dragging Tomas, half expecting to feel the other Koffren sword cut through her own back, she kept moving.

  Jeff was still standing there when she reached him. “You saw?” she panted.

  He nodded, his eyes flicking to her and then back to the beach. “You all right?” he asked, his voice as stony as his face.

  “Yes,” Nicole said, feeling as terrified and miserable as she’d ever felt in her whole life. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t—”

  “There’s nothing to be sorry about.” He cut her off, his voice dark with grim fury.

  But as Nicole gazed into his face, she could see with a small flicker of relief that the fury wasn’t directed at her. He’d seen everything, and he knew as well as she did that there had been nothing she could have done to stop it.

  But the pain and the guilt remained.

  “But I swear if they start a full autopsy I’m going to kill both of them,” Jeff continued.

  Nicole turned. The two Koffren were kneeling by Bennett’s body, poking and prodding at it with thick fingers. “He said they’re testing to see how useful we’d be in battle,” she said, shivering. “They’re probably seeing how we’re put together. Bones and muscles and stuff.”

  “It’s still desecration,” Jeff ground out. “But we’ll fix that later. Looks like we’ve got a couple of minutes. See if you can get the men a little farther inland—I don’t want them wandering into the battle zone.”

  “What about you?”

  “I’ll deal with the spare tridents and make sure the Ponngs and Thii are ready.”

  “Okay.” Forcing herself to turn away from the ghoulish scene by the ocean, she got a fresh grip on Tomas’s arm and pulled him up the slope to where the rest of the group was standing around. Most of them had already lost their tridents—she could see a line of them in the reeds where their owners had abandoned them—and it was mostly a matter of sternly ordering them all to keep moving. It seemed easier than it had looked when she watched Jeff herding them up from the beach, maybe because they were used to taking orders from a Sibyl. Possibly that was why Jeff had given her the job.

  Or else he just wanted her to be as far away from the battle line when the Koffren launched their attack.

  She scowled. Like hell. This whole thing was her idea, and there was no way she wasn’t going to be there when it went down. She would just have to get her charges out of the way before that happened—

  “Hello there, babe.” A growl came from behind her.

  She froze. “Bungie?”

  “Anyone else around here call you babe?”

  She clenched her teeth. How the hell had he gotten out of those nets? “You need to get out of here,” she said. “It’s about to get very dangerous.”

  “Sure is, babe,” he said.

  Nicole winced. It was never a good sign when he called her babe. “I’m serious,” she said. Bracing herself, she turned around.

  He was standing between a pair of tall bushes, a trident swinging gently in his hand. It was a casual pose, about as nonthreatening as Bungie ever got, a pose that invited her to come closer for a chat.

  Nicole wasn’t fooled. This was his version of Trake’s negotiation stance, the one he used when he was trying to sucker someone into thinking no one was even dreaming about violence.

  Bungie didn’t do it nearly as well as Trake did. But he did it well enough. He also had a weapon in his hand and was blocking the quickest route back to the beach. He was looking for trouble, and he was looking for payback.

  “Sure, you’re serious,” he said. His voice was the same untroubled tone that Trake used, but there was a hard edge underneath that sent a fresh shiver up Nicole’s back. “See, I’m serious, too. I’m serious about getting the hell off this dam
n ship and back home.”

  “Bungie—”

  “And if I get to make your boyfriend bleed, hey, that’s an extra bonus.”

  “Bungie, this isn’t going to work,” Nicole said, taking a slow step forward. If she could get close enough …

  Not likely. Even with just that one step she saw his eyes narrow and his grip tighten on the trident. Long before she got within jumping range the weapon would be up and ready and pointed at her.

  But she had to try. If she screamed or shouted for Jeff, she risked distracting him and the battle line they’d set up. If the Koffren picked that moment to attack, it would destroy everything. “They’re not going to send you home,” she said, taking another cautious step forward.

  And as she set her foot down, she felt it land on something thin and hard.

  Another trident.

  She looked closely at Bungie. If he’d noticed anything—the clink of metal, or a change in her expression—he wasn’t showing it.

  So she had a weapon now. But that might not help her much. Bungie was bigger and stronger, and he was a hell of a lot meaner. There was no way she could stand against him in a fair fight.

  She would just have to make sure the fight wasn’t fair.

  “And they also—aren’t going to let you win.” She babbled the words out in a rush as she ducked down and snatched up the hidden trident. Hefting it like a spear, she lined it up on Bungie with the three prongs horizontal, and charged.

  He didn’t sidestep, or take a step back. He didn’t even flinch. He just rotated his own trident so the prongs were vertical and caught the front of her weapon on his.

  The jolt as the tridents slammed together was more violent than Nicole had expected, nearly breaking her grip on the shaft. Probably it was harder than Bungie had expected, too, as the impact forced him to take a small step backward. Leaning forward, putting her full weight into it, Nicole pushed.

  She might as well have tried to knock over a tree. Bungie leaned toward her, his feet braced against the ground. He held that position for a moment, then started to push back against her. Nicole resisted as he slowly forced her out of her forward crouch and back to an upright stance. For a second she fought for balance; and then, with a final shove, he broke her stance, making her take a couple of quick steps backward to keep from falling.