by Jaleta Clegg
Jhon mumbled and twitched. He was going to be up soon.
"Go up the mountain," she said. "Watch for a narrow valley guarded by two pillars of pinkish stone. That's where I met your grandfather. His ship was higher, above the valley. Maybe they'll help you."
I doubted that. The Hrissia'noru helped people only if it suited their own agenda. I hesitated, not sure what I wanted to tell this woman. "Thank you," I said.
"Run," she urged.
"Grandmother." I saw her surprised smile just before I turned and ran.
I paused at the edge of the clearing. Tunisia had disappeared, as she had said she would. Jhon sat up groggily. He caught sight of me and growled.
I ran into the dark woods, glad the snow fell so thickly. I crashed through bushes and into trees in the dark. Jhon cursed a steady stream as he followed. A beam of light flicked on, stabbing through the snow. I used the reflected light from Jhon's handlight to see my own way. I quit running into things as often. But it meant I couldn't get too far ahead of him or I would lose the light.
I had to find somewhere to hide. Half baked plans of circling around behind him and smashing his head in with a rock ran through my mind. I didn't have a chance of succeeding at that.
Up the mountain, I heard Tunisia whisper in my head. I struggled up the slope. The wind pushed through the trees, swirling more snow between us.
I ran up the hill until I couldn't breathe. My side ached. I kept going, knowing Jhon would kill me if he caught me. I had to stay ahead of him. I reached the top of the ridge and started down the far side.
I was momentarily out of sight of his reflected light. It was very dark. I tripped and sent a pile of rock tumbling down the slope. They hit something with a loud crash. I ran sideways, across the slope, away from the noise.
Jhon's light broke over the top of the ridge. It swept the open hillside down to where the echoes of the rocks had barely died, not to where I crept as quietly as I could away from him. There was a brighter flash of light. A beam of orange energy shot down the hillside. A bush exploded.
I crept faster, trying to stay as quiet as I could. He had a blaster.
I had no idea where I was going. I had no weapons, no resources. I had no hope of help from anyone. I ran up the hillside. Now that I'd finally decided I really did want to live, it looked as if I wasn't going to get to. That made me angry. I held onto the anger, using it to fuel me as I ran up the mountain and into thicker trees.
Jhon wasn't stalled for long. The beam of his light flickered and came after me as I dodged through trees. The snow was blocked here, falling in wet clumps from branches overhead. I ran as fast as I could in the dark. His light reached after me, tracing my footsteps through the soft layer of fallen needles.
"I love a good chase," he called. "It excites me. Run, Dace. I'll catch you and it will be all the sweeter."
I ran, away from his threat and his soft voice and his light. I had to find a way out. I stumbled up a ridge of rockier ground then turned north, along the ridge of stone.
He came after me. I heard him scramble onto the stones. His light stabbed out, searching for me.
I ducked behind a boulder, crouching low. The beam swept past, diffused by the falling snow. Maybe I could get far enough ahead of him and lose him in the storm. But he would just keep hunting me. I'd been with him long enough to know he was tenacious. I glanced down the way I'd climbed. I could see my trail through the thin layer of snow. No, the snow wouldn't hide me. Not when he was this close.
I had no other plans. He was closing on me. I slipped down the side of the stony ridge and changed direction, heading east, up a narrow gorge filled with trees. I moved as quietly as I could.
I didn't fool him. He reached the boulder I'd hidden behind. I glanced back and saw his light motionless there. I stopped to catch my breath, breathing shallowly in thick gulps. The light flicked around the top of the ridge for a moment. It came down the side, straight towards where I stood. I turned and ran again.
He used his blaster on the trees at the mouth of the narrow gorge. He set them on fire. There was no going back for me now. I picked my way up the gorge as fast as I could. Maybe he had stayed below, I told myself. I was wrong. I heard his footsteps crunching over the icy rocks.
I slipped on a boulder and crashed into a bush. His handlight stabbed out at the sound. I closed my eyes, waiting for death. The light flicked past, still searching. I held my breath, unwilling to trust the reprieve.
Something crashed in the bushes farther down the slope. The light turned that way. I heard Jhon hurrying after the sound, calling to it. An animal, I guessed. I scrambled to my feet then ran up the hillside, taking care to avoid ice and bushes.
I didn't fool him long. I reached the top of the gorge, where the land opened out. I saw little but shadows through the snow.
I was halfway across when his handlight started searching for me again. I ducked my head and put on a burst of speed.
"Dace! You can't hide for long. I will find you."
I reached trees on the far side and ran headlong into their dubious shelter. Jhon's blaster followed me, lighting the tops of the trees with a loud explosion of sound.
I ran, my side aching and my lungs burning. I had to get away from him. I tripped over the roots of a tree and went sprawling to the ground. I scraped my face on a bank of ice barely covered with fresh snow. I lay still, my heart pounding hard enough to shake me. He wasn't going to stop. I had to stop him. I had to kill him.
He searched the slope behind me, setting bushes on fire with his blaster one by one. The explosions were muffled by the snow. I pushed myself up, running away from the fires.
I stopped to catch my breath against a giant of a tree, hugging it close to try to blend with it. My breath came in gasping wheezes. It sounded very loud to my ears.
I listened as hard as I could. I had to know where Jhon was. He'd gone quiet. I heard nothing but the gusty breeze creaking through the trees and the subliminal whisper of snow falling.
The howling started over the ridge. It was distant, an animal cry that made my hair stand on end. Whatever it was, I didn't want to face it. More howls came from the slope above me. Whatever they were, there was a whole pack of them.
I leaned against the tree, my eyes closed. My breath was a fog around me. At least I had the blackness of the night to help hide me. Jhon's fires smoldered with an angry orange glow but the snow was quickly putting them out.
What was it going to be? The psychopath behind me or the animals in front? They no doubt had big teeth, lots of them. I wanted to just curl up under the tree and quit trying.
"You have to keep trying."
The voice was a whisper through the wind. It was Jasyn's voice. I blinked my eyes open and pried my numb hands from the frozen bark of the tree.
"Keep trying," the voice whispered.
"Now I'm hearing things," I muttered.
"That you, Dace?" Jhon called.
I froze in place. He wasn't more than twenty yards away. Only the tree hid me from him. Almost without thinking, I reached over my head for the thick branches with their sweeping curtains of needles.
It was an easy climb. Within minutes I was fifteen feet up the tree. I moved as quietly as I could, but I still made noise. I dislodged a pile of snow. It fell, a soft shushing sound that carried.
Jhon was under the tree with his handlight, within moments. He flicked it under bushes.
"I know you're here," he said. "You can't hide from me."
I wedged myself against the trunk of the tree. My heart thundered in my chest. I found myself wondering if the tree was shaking from it because I was.
The howling sounded again, eerily close. Jhon's light flicked off. He crouched near my tree, his blaster out and ready.
The howling cut off with no warning. The woods went silent. I sat still, my heart hammering. I tried to keep my breathing slow and steady. I wasn't very successful.
A blaster bolt lanced out below me. A tree crack
led briefly. The snow on it was too thick, it didn't catch. But the brief light woke a dozen sparks in the surrounding darkness. They were all paired. It took me a minute to realize they were eyes.
Jhon snapped off another shot. The blaster must have been low on charge. The bolt sparked and fizzed. I heard him swearing below me.
The animals came closer. They growled, a low rumbling sound that made me want to panic and run. I clutched the branch so hard the rough bark cut into my hands. I wasn't aware of the pain. I was too close to panic.
Jhon tried to run. He went crashing back downslope. The animals yipped to each other, interrupting the spine tingling growls. I heard them run after Jhon, their heavy feet padding on the snow and fallen needles under the trees.
I waited, wondering if they were after me. I could track Jhon by the crashing sounds. He wasn't trying to sneak or hide. He was running for his life.
He lost. I heard him scream, twice, sounds of anger and pain. The animals, whatever they were, growled and yipped. Jhon yelled obscenities at them. A bush flared into flame. Its orange light lit a macabre scene.
Jhon had a huge branch of the bush. He waved it, leaving trails of sparks and flecks of burning leaves behind. The creatures darted behind him, snapping at his legs. He swung the branch in circles, trying to drive them off. They were too many and too skilled. Jhon was doomed.
I couldn't say I felt sorry for him. I could say I didn't want to hear his death. It was gruesome. I climbed down from the tree, my feet twitching with anticipation of one of those creatures sinking its fangs into me. I couldn't stay in the tree while they finished him off. I had to run. I had to keep moving. Maybe they'd be satisfied with Jhon. And maybe they wouldn't.
I touched the ground, my legs shaking with nerves and cold and stress. The creatures showed no interest in me. They were still battling Jhon.
I leaned on the tree, waiting for my legs to quit being jelly. I could try to circle around the creatures and head back to Tunisia and her cabin. Except I had no idea where that might be. And the only way down was too close to the animals.
One of them got Jhon's leg while I hesitated. He went down with a shrill scream. The others pounced on him. I had to move if I was going to avoid his fate.
I went uphill, the only way open.
The snow began to fall faster, blocking out the light. I stumbled uphill, away from the primeval sounds of eating behind me.
Chapter 20
Lowell sat in the commons area of the small, rundown Patrol compound on Tivor. He stared out the window but saw nothing. His mind ran in circles. Tivor was a lost cause, he could feel it. His meeting that morning with the Citizen Prime hadn't gone very well, hadn't happened at all considering Potokos hadn't even bothered to appear at the police station next to the Patrol building. Considering the fighting had broken out the night before, Lowell could guess what was more important than their meeting. The shooting had faded with the dawn, but even now there were still scattered sounds of weapons fired in the city. The police were arresting anyone and everyone. Tivor had fallen to pieces.
He'd ordered Harouk to break the treaty with the government of Tivor earlier that morning. They'd cleaned dust and cobwebs from the controls for the force shield and activated it. How long it would hold was anyone's guess. A lot depended on the ancient power generator in the basement.
"Sir?" Commander Harouk's aide, Britneir, was young, pretty, and stubborn. She had refused to leave the planet with the other nonessential personnel. Harouk had four under his command left on Tivor. Lowell had eight ground combat marines. The Seeker had taken the others to Tebros along with Lowell's request for immediate reinforcements. They should be arriving very soon.
"Sir?" Britneir repeated when he didn't answer.
"Yes?" he said finally.
Britneir's dark hair was pulled back in a severe knot at the nape of her neck. She looked very young in her silver uniform. "Commander Harouk says he just picked up the Seeker's beacon. They should be here within an hour."
Lowell nodded. Britneir left him to his solitude and contemplation of the snow falling outside the window. It was night. He glanced at his watch and corrected himself. It was almost morning again. He'd been sitting here, brooding for days it felt like. There was nothing else he could do.
He could only hope that Paltronis and Scholar had made it. Their ship had come into the system. They'd slowed briefly near Tivor, disgorging one small life pod before accelerating away. Lowell had tried to contact them in the pod, after his brief message to them about Dace, but they hadn't answered. He tried to track their pod as it came in. It had come in too fast and there was too much interference. All he knew was that the pod was somewhere near the mountains.
He felt old and useless and outmaneuvered. He still knew nothing about Dace. They might have killed her her first day on Tivor and he would never know. It was getting harder to hope.
It was getting harder to believe. He used to believe in the Empire, in basic goodness and justice and mercy. He used his belief to justify what he did. He had to do it, somebody had to make sure all the pieces stayed where they belonged and he was the one who held the strings that made it possible. Except somewhere in the last four years, he'd lost half the strings. He felt blind and tired and old.
He stared out at nothing until the shuttle from the Seeker landed. He saw the flames of its engines scorching the outer wall of the compound. It had landed just barely beyond the wall. Things on Tivor were that sticky. The last communication with Potokos' representative had made it clear. The Patrol had one week to leave. They'd been given their time limit to be gone or become part of Tivor.
How long could they hold the base with less than twenty people? Most of them probably hadn't shot a weapon since their Academy days, Lowell thought bleakly.
The Seeker hadn't sent a message, at least not one Harouk had seen fit to pass on to Lowell. He wondered what kind of contact the shuttle had made. He saw two people get off. They hurried inside the Patrol compound through the snow. The shuttle lights still glowed. Standard procedure in hostile territory, Lowell thought. Keep the engines warm and the hatch ready. They might have to leave in a hurry.
But I'm not leaving until I find her, Lowell promised himself. Let Tivor crumble around him. He would find Dace, extricate her from this mess, and then he was turning in his resignation. If only Maximillius would accept it. That was the real problem. The Emperor valued him too highly. He would have to find a way to resign that gave Max no option of refusing.
"Sir?" The door opened again, but this time it wasn't Harouk's assistant who entered. It was one of the crew of the Seeker.
"What is it, Dgido?" Lowell asked the man.
The man set a sheaf of papers and data cubes on the table in front of Lowell. "The reports from Tebros. The whole area is destabilizing. The captain wants to pull back to Besht soon."
"He'll leave when I give the order to leave," Lowell said sharply.
"The crew, some of them," Dgido said, "they threatened to desert. Or mutiny. They don't like this, sir."
"I don't like it." Lowell sighed as he pulled the stack towards him.
"They don't want orders to shoot their own families," Dgido said. "We heard, on Tebros, that the ships at Nevira and DeShua were ordered to do just that. It didn't do any good, sir."
Lowell fingered the cubes, his attention on Dgido. "Nevira joined the Federation and the ships ordered to stop their desertion joined, too."
Dgido nodded. "Sir, most of the crew, they're from the outer worlds, the fringe and the frontier. It's their worlds that are leaving. Most just want to be with their families again. They don't want to end up on the wrong side of any border."
"I know that," Lowell said with understanding. "And I'm failing at keeping things together."
"Sir?" Dgido asked in confusion. As far as he knew, Lowell was only an admiral. One with admittedly odd orders and a lot of leverage, but still only an admiral. Lowell didn't see that it would help to admit his true rank.
>
He shrugged. "I don't know what I can do, but I will do what I can."
"Thank you, sir," Dgido said sincerely.
"And what of my reinforcements? I assume I'm not getting any."
Dgido shook his head. "The captain wasn't very happy about things when we left Tebros. We came in prepared for a fight. He didn't know what to expect."
"None of us know anymore. Please hand me that reader on your way out. And tell the shuttle crew to stand ready for evacuation." He wasn't going to let the staff on Tivor try to become heroes. Most of them had never seen combat and weren't trained for it anyway.
Dgido nodded and fetched a reader from the counter. He placed it on the table near Lowell then left. The door clicked shut behind him.
Lowell looked at the pile of reports and cubes. He really didn't want to read them. He didn't want more bad news. He rubbed his eyes, and wished he could sleep. He tried but his dreams were proving too much, visions of disasters both anticipated and not. The nightmares wore on him. He felt as if he carried the weight of entire planets on his shoulders.
"Stress," he muttered as he dutifully put the first cube into the reader.
It was encrypted, which was no surprise. Most of his information came encrypted. He entered his code word and thumbprint. The cube stayed locked. He cocked his head to one side. He tried his code again, checking the entry to make certain he hadn't made an error. It still remained locked.
He popped the cube out and turned it in his fingers. It was marked personal, for him. That was very odd. What personal news could he possibly be receiving? He had no personal friends, he never really had. His information arrived coded under the Patrol encryption ciphers. Except for the cubes from Scholar, but those were rare and Scholar was here.
It probably came from Jasyn or Clark or one of their strange clan. The only reason they would have for contacting him would be to find out where Dace was and he didn't want to face that yet. There was no way he wanted to tell Jasyn he'd lost Dace again. Once had been bad enough. He set the cube aside.