by Robin Roseau
Our movements disturbed the horse, and he danced about underneath us, but still he moved towards the river. We grew closer, now only perhaps a few hundred meters. My panic increased, and I stood awkwardly in the one remaining stirrup, pressing backwards against Sartine, attempting to unseat her.
"Cecilia," she pleaded. "Please stop. Please."
I didn't stop. Instead, I tried to bang the back of my head against her, but my arms made that impossible. So I twisted and turned, struggling, no longer having any plan but to escape from her before we reached the river.
"There's nowhere to go!" she said. "If you fall, you won't get ten meters! Please calm down, Cecilia."
That wasn't happening.
I squirmed and pushed against her, jerking, and I felt her shifting around. The horse danced, and she clutched at me.
"Uncle!" she called out. "She's winning!"
Into the gag, I let out a victory cry and doubled my efforts, but two moments later, there were riders on either side of us, pressing their mounts against ours, and they reached out a hand and clasped my arms tightly.
Behind me, Sartine reasserted her seat, and then we were moving towards the river.
Screaming my rage into the gag, I continued to struggle, but the extra sets of hands and the two mounts steering ours towards the river undid most of my efforts, and soon twelves hooves were splashing through the water.
"No!" I keened into the gag. "No!"
My struggles were problematic for them, but they held me atop Sartine's horse, and if it was a close thing several times, if we both nearly plunged into the water as we crossed the river, nearly plunging wasn't sufficient to earn my freedom.
And then we were climbing the bank on the other side, coming to a stop in another hundred meters.
"Cecilia," Sartine said into my ear. "We're across, Darling."
The fight left me, and I slumped in front of her.
Sartine continued to hold me, but then she said, "Help her down." But I sat there numbly, not moving, and one of the uncles had to lift my foot over the horse's neck. I didn't resist him, but I didn't help, either. They slid me down from the horse and held me as Sartine climbed down, far more gracefully. Someone took her horse, and I stood there, staring at the ground.
"We have done it!" Sartine said, and her pleasure was evident. "Cecilia Grace is now ours, and no one may take her from us."
She was wrong. The Empire could, and they would. It might be months from now before an expedition arrived, but they would come.
With a detachment of marines. Perhaps two detachments.
And once the marines arrived on a planet, it was rare they left again. It was rare they could, and half the time they left, it was after rendering the planet uninhabitable.
Being a friend of The Empire was a good thing, but being an enemy could be very, very terrible.
Sartine spoke for a moment longer before moving to step in front of me. She gently removed the gag, then she lifted my chin. I stared into her smiling face.
And then she pulled me into a kiss.
Her friends whooped and hollered.
I broke the kiss, pulling away from her.
She never saw the roundhouse kick I sent for her head. She made no move to stop it. She made no move to duck. She made no move to block it or avoid it.
I saw this as I looked over my shoulder. If my feet had been bare, I could give her a concussion, but with my booted feet, it could be worse.
I could kill her.
It was a close thing, but I was able to lower my leg, just a tiny bit, and instead of slamming into the side of her head, my foot slammed into the side of her shoulder, the firmest kick I could have delivered.
We both went down, her with the impact, me with the lost balance. If my hands had been free, I could have handled it, but without my hands to use for balance, we both went down, and I went down harder than she did.
But I bounced to my feet faster, too.
Around me, most of them still on their horses, everyone gawked at their vendart lying on the ground.
I didn't wait for their reaction. I didn't wait to see if I'd hurt her. I ran. I ran for the river, and I gave it everything I possibly had.
I got ten steps before anyone reacted, and I was running for all I was worth while they spurred their mounts. I nearly made the river before they cut me off, and while I couldn't tell if they were experienced at fighting from horseback, I had never fought against a mounted opponent, and they were able to drive me back, away from the river. I tried ducking around them. I ran left, and I ran right, but everywhere I ran, a rider appeared in front of me.
I wasn't willing to risk diving under a horse; I wasn't willing to risk those sharp hooves.
Finally, I slumped, just feet from where I had kicked Sartine. They surrounded me, not crowding me, but then I straightened, and I screamed my rage at them.
"You don't understand!" I screamed. It was English, and no, they didn't understand. I switched to Talmonese. "You don't understand," I said. "The Empire will come. They will send the marines, with weapons you have never seen. They will watch you from the heavens, and no matter where you go, they will find you. They will kill you. They will destroy Indartha. And if they do not find me, they will destroy Sudden as well, and possibly everything on the planet." Then I screamed again, in English. "You can't kidnap an imperial envoy!"
No one said a word, but then Sartine stepped between the surrounding ring of horses, and she crossed half the distance.
I was pleased I hadn't killed her.
"Your arms must hurt," she said softly. "Will you cooperate while we tie them more comfortably?"
"I could have killed you."
"I shouldn't have kissed you," she said. "You didn't kill me, and it was no accident that you didn't."
"She hates you, Sis," said Hilopin. "Face it. You made a mistake."
"She doesn't hate me, Brother," Sartine replied. "She is very, very angry with me, but she had a chance to prove she hates me. But did you see her look of relief when she saw I wasn't hurt?"
"You're not going to tame her."
"I don't intend to tame her. I like her the way she is, well, once she calms down. Please, Cecilia, let us make you more comfortable."
"Weren't you listening?" I asked. "Is my Talmonese so hard to understand?"
"We heard," said the aunt. "And we understand all your words, even some of your own words."
"So you just don't believe me."
"We believe that you believe," Sartine said. "We understand you believe your empire will send the most terrible fighting men we could imagine-"
"Worse than you could imagine, with weapons beyond belief. Sartine, you have to listen to me. They can destroy entire planets. One fire, dropped from the heavens, and the entire planet is destroyed. Just gone."
She stepped closer, holding her hands out, trying to calm a skittish colt. "I believe you," she said. "We believe you. We could never stand against such a force. But they will not come."
"Of course they will!" I wailed. "They cannot allow something like this. They cannot! They will make an example. Do you understand?"
"I understand, but you do not understand," she said. "Why does your empire care whether you are in Sudden or in Indartha?"
I stared at her, and she stepped closer.
"You stole me," I said. "Do you think you will get away with it? Will Chaladine lie when she tells my people what happened to me?"
"She will tell them you went with us as our galatzi trade," she said. She smiled.
"And they will tell The Empire, and The Empire will send marines, and you will all die, every single one of you!"
"No," she said. "I asked you. You said you follow first our laws, and then The Empire's. And this is our law."
I shook my head. "That isn't going to protect you. Do you think if it were so easy, other planets wouldn't do the same thing? We do not force any planet to join The Empire, and we do not force you to trade. But we protect our envoys and our di
plomats and our citizens."
"And so what do you imagine will happen?"
"My people will tell The Empire what has happened. They will send the marines. The marines will demand you return me and everyone involved surrender. If you do not, they will destroy Indartha to find me, and if they do not find me, they will destroy more and more of the planet until I am found or the planet does not exist. You have to take me back! If you take me back, I can fix this. I won't be able to stay here on Talmon, and whoever comes next will not be the same sort of person I am, but I can stop this from growing worse."
She shook her head. "Your people will explain you have been taken to Indartha in a strange local custom, but that you will do your job from there."
"You can't possibly believe anyone is going to believe that."
"Why not? It is the truth."
"How am I to do my job from there?"
"We will show you our wonders. We have wonders, Cecilia. I promise."
"And what will I do then? Write about them on paper?" I said the word with disgust. "You have seen my tablet. Do you believe The Empire works with paper?"
She smiled. "Your people will send what you need."
"What I need," I said, "allows me to speak to my people as if we are in the same room. What do you think my first words will be to them?"
"I imagine you will tell them: Help! Help! I have been kidnapped by a crazy woman!"
"You think this is funny!"
"A little," she said. "But you do not know how happy I am."
"Because we crossed the river?"
"Well, that too, but no. Because I hear the passion in your voice. You have spoken for ten minutes about what will happen to us, but not once, not once have you expressed concern for yourself. And I know you speak to sway us, but you also speak from your heart. You care about what happens to us, not just to Talmon in general." She gestured. "But to all of us here. You didn't kill me when you could have. Even at the house, you didn't seek to kill anyone, even poor Geedano. You only sought to drive us from your home."
I looked away, at a lost for what to say. "I don't know why I care. You don't care what you've done to me."
"Of course I do," she said gently. "Please, Cecilia, allow us to make you more comfortable. We have three weeks to discuss these other things."
"You should return me home."
"We are taking you home," she replied. "Your new home."
"That is not your decision to make," I said. "It is mine." I turned to her. "Don't you understand that?"
"We will discuss that as well," she said. "I will admit to a mistake or two, but you are too upset to discuss it calmly. Please, you will feel better in another day or two."
"Sartine, listen to me. You don't understand what is at risk. It doesn't matter what Chaladine and Baardorid tell my staff; the empire will come. You know they will."
"They won't. Chaladine and Baardorid will explain-"
"Sartine! If I had agreed to this, I would have told my staff I was leaving. I would have made arrangements. No one, and I mean absolutely no one, is going to believe I went willingly without making proper arrangements. That would have been exceedingly irresponsible, and they do not give the job I have to someone so irresponsible. And so, the empire will come to test the truth of this story. They will come! They will demand to see me, and if you try to deny their demands, people will die. Don't you understand?"
She studied me. "Of course, we will let them see you. They will bring the things you need to do your job. And you will tell them you wish to stay with me. Everyone will smile, they will go home, and you will be mine."
"You're insane! I will tell them you took me against my will, and they will return me home. You and everyone who helped you will be arrested, and you will face trial in an imperial court. If you try to stop them, people will die."
She shook her head. "You are forgetting something, Cecilia. You want me. You have simply forgotten. And so I have months to remind you. Now, you will not sway me, but we can discuss this further in the days to come, when you are calmer, less frightened, and feel better. Perhaps you will convince me, but it won't be today. Please let me help you."
I slumped. She wasn't going to listen. She wasn't going to understand. She took my posture as permission, and she stepped forward, closing the distance. Her uncles joined her, but no one touched me.
"Cecilia Grace," Sartine said, "Perhaps you would allow me to retie your hands, but you have not surrendered yet. And so I will have help."
I nodded once, not even looking up. Her uncles clasped my arms, and Sartine untied my wrists from their position behind my neck, slowly moving my hands down until they were in front of me. I gasped with the sudden, renewed pain, but then clamped my lips closed. The men adjusted their grip, and Sartine untied my wrists. They let me massage my wrists for a minute or two, and then without a word, they crossed them in front of me, palms down this time, and Sartine tied them together again. Then she moved behind me and did something complicated involving ropes around both my arms above my elbows, pulling my arms back and against my sides, drawing my hands tight against my stomach. When she was done, I had no more motion with my hands than I had before, and I couldn't reach any knots, but it was more comfortable than how I'd been tied before.
Sartine stepped in front of me and lifted my chin. I knew tears crawled down my cheeks. "I am sorry for the pain. The rules were written around a smaller town than Sudden. Anywhere else, and you would only have had a few hours of that. I am so sorry about that."
I nodded. In the scheme of things it was minor.
"Do you need your pills?"
"It's too soon," I said dully. "Dinner."
She nodded, not releasing my chin. "You are weary, as are we. We will camp here until morning."
I looked past her at the river, a hundred meters away.
"That is not freedom," she said. "Your legs will be tied whenever I am not watching you, and even if they weren't, you wouldn't make it across the river."
"That's not what I was thinking," I said. I looked into her eyes. "Do you honestly care about me?"
"Of course I do. Do you doubt me?"
"Yes." I sighed. "It is cruel to camp so near false hope. Please, just one hour further, if there is another place with water."
"There is," she said. "Of course there is."
Altercation
I napped for several hours in the afternoon. She woke me for dinner. I said little, but I asked for three pills.
"I am worried," she told me. "I want to know what happens when we run out of these pills."
"Then I suffer the headaches."
"Are these only headaches, or is there a cause?"
"There is a cause, but you do not need to worry." I paused. "Or if you do, I will tell you."
"You do not seek to deceive me. You could have told me you were dying in hopes I would rush you back to The Empire for more pills."
"I considered that yesterday." I paused. "Maybe it is foolish of me, but I have never made it a habit of lying to get what I want. If I am willing to lie to get what I want, then no one could trust me. And so I will not lie about this. The headaches are real. I know the cause. However, I do not believe it is immediately dire."
"Tell me the cause."
"No."
"I need to know. As your vendart, I need to know."
"What do you think is the cause?"
"I worry there is something wrong in your head."
"There is."
Her eyes grew wide. "You should have told me!"
"When was I to do that? When you came to my home and stole me? Perhaps when I was gagged. Maybe you wished me to break my promise and speak when you ungagged me, even after you forbid it." I shook my head. "It doesn't matter. You think it is something called cancer." I used the English word. "A bad growth that will kill me. That is not what is wrong. I am not in immediate danger of dying, at least not from the headaches."
"You will tell me."
I smiled. "Do you re
ally believe that tone will work on me?"
She smiled. "You will tell me, eventually."
I thought about that. "Perhaps I will, but it will not be when you hold me against my will."
"If the headaches become dangerous, you will tell me."
"You do not fear I will concoct a story so you will be forced to return me to The Empire?"
She smiled. "No."
"You are foolish."
"You would lie to me?"
"I know you believe you are doing the right thing, Sartine. But you are not doing the right thing to me. You may believe you have the right to do this to me, but you do not. You have broken your own laws."
"I have not!"
"Would your galatzi agreement with Baardorid be binding upon someone living in Fessen?" Fessen was another village, north on the coast.
"No, of course not."
"So if you gave your sister to Baardorid but then traveled to Fessen to take someone, you would be breaking the law."
"Not necessarily. If the person we take calls Baardorid Vendart, then we may take him."
"Everyone calls him Vendart. That is his title. But he is not my vendart, my village chieftain." I used English for that word. "I am a citizen of Centos Four, a citizen of The Empire, and while the land I was on bordered Sudden, it is land owned by The Empire. According to all interplanetary law, it was an embassy, and an embassy on a foreign planet is a little tiny piece of whoever owns the embassy. You took me not from Sudden or Baardorid. You took me from The Empire. It is no different then if you had gone to Centos Four and taken me from there. You broke galactic law. You broke imperial law."
She stared for a moment, then responded. "By Talmonese law, it is legal for me to take you from Fessen, or even to travel to Centos Four and take you from there."
"There are two problems with that. First, it may be legal by Talmonese law, and if I had been on Talmonese land when you took me, maybe, just maybe, Talmonese law applies first. But you took me at the embassy, and that means you took me from The Empire. I would not be considered on Talmon. And so imperial law comes first, Talmonese second.
I actually wasn't entirely sure about all that. While we were calling it an embassy, it was not an official embassy yet. I wasn't a lawyer, and it was a grey area besides.