“I apologize for my ‘attitude,’ Commander,” said Coram. “I’d never suggest or do anything that would compromise security. And I assure you, the people where we’d be going would not constitute a risk. I know them and trust them.”
Eyes back on the road, Leanne said, “Procedure is procedure.”
“And everything is by the book,” Coram said.
“As a matter of fact, yes,” Leanne replied. “I expect a Knight of your reputation to
understand that. It shouldn’t even be a subject.”
“It won’t happen again,” Coram said. Well, that wraps it up for that idea…
They skimmed along over the road in silence for a while. Then, Coram ventured, “What about after your report and your satellite link? What about the rest of the evening?”
“I’d planned to turn in early and be ready to get started early tomorrow,” Leanne replied.
Coram frowned, not in annoyance so much as consideration. “You could retire early, yes,” he said, thinking out loud. “Or…”
“Or what?”
“Or you could join me for dinner at the place I mentioned. The cuisine is as excellent as the company.”
“I thought I’d just have dinner in my quarters,” said Leanne.
“It’s your first night on Lacerta,” Coram said, “and you’re going to be very busy starting tomorrow. Wouldn’t you like to spend at least your first evening unfurling your wings, as we say, before getting to business?”
“It’s not my first night on Lacerta,” Leanne said. “I’ve been here before.”
“I mean it’s the first night before our assignment begins in earnest. Wouldn’t you like to spend it getting accustomed to our world again?”
“I know my way around,” she said. “I know Silverwing well enough.”
“You may not have been to the place I have in mind,” said Coram.
“I haven’t come here to socialize, Sir Knight,” she said.
“I’m not suggesting we have a ball,” he argued. “But Silverwing is not just a city; it’s the people who live in it. The places you’ve come to protect, they’re not just places; they mean something to the people who live here. You should know something, I think, about what you’ve come here to protect. And wouldn’t you like to call me something other than ‘Sir Coram’ or ‘Sir Knight?’ It wouldn’t be a breach of protocol if you addressed me as just Coram.”
“We have our ranks, Sir Knight,” she argued back. “We ought to respect them.”
“I promise you I will not feel disrespected if you address me by my given name. We’re going to be working closely together. Just that little bit of familiarity might be good for our working relationship…Leanne. What do you say?”
She looked over at him again, and Coram had the distinct feeling that she was trying to look into him, not just at him. For her part, Leanne tried to take the measure of this weredragon with whom the Spires had paired her. For a Knight of his sterling reputation, he seemed so…casual. It was almost as if he were not a warrior at all. If he was this way now, what was he like in battle?
Finally, she relented. “All right…Coram. And you can call me Leanne. But only when it’s just us and no one else, understand?”
“We’ll see how that goes, Leanne,” he said.
Leanne rolled her eyes and kept steering.
After another beat of silence, Coram pressed again, “So, what about dinner…?”
_______________
Leanne’s quarters at the Spires were as she’d expected them to be, the standard rooms of a Knight, just spacious enough to let an adult male in dragon form stretch out his wings and tail first thing in the morning. There was a table and chairs, a comfortable divan, a closet, a couple of large windows, a bath area, a bed…
Coram was with her as she came to her accommodations for the first time and checked her valises, which had been efficiently delivered and left there as she’d expected. The living space that the Spires had provided for her was much like his own. While her attention was on her bags, he cast a wry look at the bed and imagined what kind of action it had seen from the room’s
former occupant. If these walls could talk, I’m sure they’d moan, he thought, knowing full well the things he’d done in his own quarters and all the females with whom he’d done them.
The presence of Leanne and her very serious mind made him dismiss all thoughts other than
duty—even at the sight of her crouching next to one of her valises to inspect its contents. She looked awfully nice when crouching, her uniformed bottom looking so perfectly round. If only the potential threat of the Chimerians were not hanging over their heads. If only Leanne were just visiting Lacerta on shore leave or on a layover between one mission and another. He’d be only too happy to show this human what a “layover” really was.
When she straightened up, Coram pointedly ignored what else had gotten very straight and very stiff under the waist of his armor skin. “I’ll be just a moment,” she said, stepping over to the table, “then we can talk about dinner. I just wanted to make sure I had these with me.”
She held up the small, clear container of what resembled sticks of old Earth chewing gum made of colored jelly, which she had retrieved from her bag. “I took one already before I left the
Renault today, but I’ll need another one before I turn in for the night. Excuse me.”
“By all means,” Coram said, mentally adding, you’ll be just a moment. Under other circumstances, I’d be more than a moment. We’d turn in for the night together, and I’d be half an hour to forty-five minutes on the average, and you’d feel every stroke of it. The little container she had retrieved was a supply of mutagenic inhibitors, which all humans on Lacerta took to
remain human and not become weredragons from ingesting food and drink while on the planet. The first human colonists on Lacerta, from whom all Lacertans were descended, had learned that their new world had unexpected properties when they found themselves mutated into flying
reptile shape-shifters. Since then, human visitors to and residents on the planet had learned to take biochemical precautions.
He stood silently by while Leanne sat down at the table and signed onto the closed-channel Fleet Stellarnet and Interconnect to file her first status report, which would go out through secured interstellar channels to Fleet Command. There was not much to report at this juncture, but procedure required it, and Leanne gave her report with the appropriate conciseness and detail. Next, she requested a motion scan of the progress on the Protocol satellite.
A view of what was happening at a set of coordinates in orbit of the planet appeared over the
table. The satellite being generated up there was not like the sensor-monitor devices that were being installed on city buildings. It was not in the shape of a gargoyle. It was spherical and had an outer texture like that of a sand dollar from a terrestrial beach, studded with the jewel-like lights of its sensor-transceiver array.
It was about half-finished already, a hollow, half-closed sphere that looked like a geode encrusted with jewels on the inside, except that the “jewels” were arranged in patterns like the neural net of a computer. Leanne was pleased at the progress that had been made. Coram stepped closer to look and admire with her. Things were going briskly, they were both happy to see. Coram kept to himself the hope that other things might go just as well during the course of this assignment. He was pleased to see Leanne pleased.
When she was done, she looked over at Coram and said, “All right, then. What is this place you’re so interested in taking me to?”
Coram said, “It’s called The Curling Horn, and I promise you it’s not what Earth people call a ‘dive.’ It’s clean, it has a very experienced and reputable staff—and most of the
patrons…”
“…are Knights and Corps, like you said,” Leanne finished.
“You’ll fit in fine, as a member of the Fleet,” Coram promised. “One armed, uniformed service is much like anot
her, after all, and we’re not clannish. Knights and Corps get the same treatment, and they’ll welcome you—especially when they see you with me.”
“It sounds like more than just a place to eat,” Leanne guessed, getting up from the chair and stepping away from the table. Coram stepped back to give her room.
“Places where Knights go always become something more than just the places they were originally meant to be,” said Coram. “Our being there and our coming back and being regulars there makes them special. You know there are humans who deliberately seek out our places just to be where we are.”
“I know,” Leanne said. “I’ve been in my share of ‘your places.’”
Coram could not suppress a smile at that, though he noted that she returned only a half-smile. “Then you know what to expect already! Perfect! Come along, then, Leanne; I’m hungry enough to swallow a steer and drink a lake!” He extended one arm towards the door, beckoning her to join him.
“Now you mention it, I haven’t had that much to eat today myself. Okay, let’s go.”
He followed her out, still wondering what it would take to see another side of her, a side that was not “all duty.”
“So they know you in this place,” said Leanne as they crossed the threshold and the door slid shut behind them.
“They know me so well, the staff doesn’t even call me Sir,” Coram said.
“Wonderful,” said Leanne once they were out in the corridor. “And I suppose no one else there uses ranks or formalities either.”
Coram looked over at her, showing her the little twinkle in his eye again. “Sometimes, they do. Sometimes, they don’t. It depends who’s there and what’s happening.”
Leanne pursed her lips at this. “And I suppose they won’t call me by my rank, then.”
“If you want them to, they will,” Coram answered. “But you might find it a bit more
enjoyable if you had the same understanding with them as you have with me.”
“It sounds like you and your…friends…do a lot more at this Curling Horn than just eat and drink,” she pondered.
“There is a good deal more to do there,” Coram said. “It’s not just a place for food. There are certain places where Knights and Corps go that are for camaraderie and friendship. They’re places we go to tell our stories of adventures and battles and triumphs…and sometimes, losses. We toast to the memory of old friends. We sing, we laugh. Sometimes, we cry. Some of us have even fallen in love. I’ve seen plenty of dragons—and humans—enter the Curling Horn as strangers and leave as lovers.”
“And probably some who left as just bedmates,” Leanne guessed.
“Definitely,” said Coram.
“And how many have you left with?” she asked.
“As a gentleman, a Knight, and a dragon, I don’t tell,” Coram replied. But the look on his face hinted at the answer.
“So, we can expect some of your friends to be there tonight,” Leanne guessed again.
“Some of my friends are there most nights,” said Coram. “And for all we know, some of them might get to be your friends.”
Leanne rolled her eyes at that. “We’ll see. I hope the food is as good as the company.”
“You won’t be disappointed—with anything,” Coram assured her.
Leanne did not look fully at him this time; she just glanced over at him from the corner of her eye. But even so, she could see that twinkle of his. She did not know yet whether to tolerate it or hate it.
CHAPTER THREE
A tree-lined road led both to and from the Spires. At the end of the road, opposite the Spires, lay Fafnir Boulevard, the widest thoroughfare in Silverwing. Down the Spires Road, after it crossed Fafnir Boulevard, sat an inviting structure of stone and wood that one might almost miss unless one happened to be looking for it. That was the Curling Horn Tavern, situated in a prime spot to welcome all but cater to one very particular clientele.
Inside, the Curling Horn was everything that Coram’s descriptions of the place had taught Leanne to expect and more. It was dark and even cozier than she’d thought it would be. It was immaculately clean, and the dark-stained wood furniture was kept in prime condition. And there were booths all along both sides of the place, just as Coram had said. Glowing golden orbs that gave the effect of a candle-lit interior floated all about, playing music just loud enough to be heard but not so loud as to drown out conversation.
And just as Coram had told her, men and women in the armor skins of the Knighthood and the Corps were the majority of the people she saw at the tables, in the booths, and at the bar. She noted that the strapping male bartenders were shirtless except for the sashes that they wore across their chests, which were of the same material as the armor skins of the customers and striped with red, blue, and silver. The bartenders looked as though they could have been Knights themselves but were content with simply entertaining them.
One of the golden orbs floated over to Coram and Leanne as they entered. Instead of playing music, it spoke in a congenial male AI voice, “Sir Coram, welcome back. Table or booth for two?”
“Booth,” replied Coram, and the device floated on ahead of them, leading them to an empty booth. Holographic menus flickered into view once they seated themselves. “Take your time,” said the electronic host, “and signal when you’re ready.” The gadget floated off, leaving them alone.
“So, where are your friends?” asked Leanne.
“We’ll see them; don’t worry. They’ll spot us,” Coram said.
Soon, they had drinks in front of them and food on the way. Coram lifted his glass and proposed, “To a successful project and the future of the Commonwealth.”
A smile of acceptance, the nearest thing to a smile of warmth that Coram had yet seen from her, lit Leanne’s face, and they clinked glasses and drank.
“How many times have you been to Silverwing?” Coram asked.
“I thought you’d have looked that up in my record,” Leanne replied. “You did brief yourself about me when you were assigned to be my liaison, didn’t you?”
“I did,” Coram said. “The question was meant as a conversation starter. If you’ve been here before and worked with the Knighthood, I’d have expected someone would have brought you here before.”
Leanne said, “My other visits were short, and there was even less time to be sociable than there is now.”
“But you like our planet, though,” he said. “And our people.”
“There’s nothing to dislike,” said Leanne.
“True,” he agreed. “But since you mentioned it, I did look up your record and your past service with us…and one particular time, you crossed paths with the Knighthood when it wasn’t only in the line of duty. When you were sixteen…” He trailed off at that point, watching for her reaction.
Leanne sighed a bit. Thoughtfully, she replied, “Yes, when I was sixteen, on Dorian III. The time Sir Hagen rescued me. That’s on my record.”
“And that,” said Coram, “was what interested you in joining the Interstar Fleet, the fact that sometimes the Fleet works with us.”
“What made me want to be in the Fleet,” said Leanne, “was the chance to see the quadrant and do something useful and helpful for others at the same time.”
“The same as we do,” said Coram.
“All right, yes, the same as you do,” she allowed. “It’s a life that I like, and it’s something worthwhile to do with it.”
“I don’t mean to pry or make you uncomfortable,” said Coram gently. “I only want to know you better. If we’re to be working closely as liaisons during this assignment, we should know one another on at least a slightly more personal level. Knowing each other, understanding each other, helps with trust, doesn’t it?”
“Yes…yes, it does,” she allowed further.
“You know that we Knights are very high-spirited,” said Coram. “From traveling with us, working with us, you know that we put all of ourselves into everything we do. And being both humans and Kn
ights, we virtually have two selves to give. We work hard, we battle hard, and we have a large appetite for everything. Our spirits are very high, even when we’re not flying.”
“I know that,” she replied simply. But as she answered, she met his eyes, and in his eyes, she saw something of every other male Knight she had ever met. She had to admit to herself, she preferred the company of the male members of the Knighthood to the females—not out of any bias against her own sex, and not only because of her girlhood admiration of Sir Hagen.
The male Knights of Lacerta seemed to Leanne to be the most thoroughly male creatures she had ever known in all her travels through space. The straight ones and the gay ones alike were all the strength, beauty, and nobility of maleness blown up to the largest proportions. In fact, the thing about them that was most definitively male was always of the largest proportions, and from what she had seen of Sir Coram out of his armor skin, he was no exception. To go to bed with a Lacertan Knight was to be taken and penetrated by a paragon of masculinity. It was an experience no human could ever forget.
CORAM Page 4