asked Korvish accusingly.
Aycharaya shrugged. 'I realized Captain Flyndry would be doing her best to prevent me from doing that and to discredit any information I could get that high,' she said. 'You yourself agreed that our best opportunity lay in repulsing the initial attack ourselves. That would gain us far more favor with the Sartay; moreover, since there would have been overt acts on both sides, war between Betelgeuse. and Terra would then have been inevitable—whereas if the Sartay had learned in time of the impending assault, she might have tried to negotiate.'
'I suppose so,' said Korvish glumly.
'Alind, of course, prevailed on Bronson to mine the valley,' said Flyndry. 'The rest you know. When you yourselves showed up—'
'To tell the Sartay, now that it was too late,' said Aycharaya.
'—we were afraid that the ensuing argument would damage our own show. So we used violence to shut you up until it had been played out.' Flyndry spread her hands in a gesture of finality. 'And that, gentlewomen, is that.'
'There will be other tomorrows,' said Aycharaya gently. 'But I am glad we can meet in peace tonight.'
The party lasted well on toward dawn. When the aliens left, with many slightly tipsy expressions of good will and respect, Aycharaya took Alind's hand in her own bony fingers. Her strange golden eyes searched his, even as he knew her mind was looking into the depths of his own.
'Goodbye, my dear,' she said, too softly for the others to hear. 'As long as there are men like you, I think Terra will endure.'
He watched her tall form go down the corridor and his vision blurred a little. It was strange to think that his enemy knew what the woman beside his did not.
THE END
Artwork by Sergey Galonkin
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sergesegal/3537635199/sizes/z/in/faves-jekkarapress/
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JEKKARA PRESS
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Coming Soon
The Adventures of Bulays and Ghaavn
Slave Ship of Space – Tara Loughead
The Saturn Mistress – Tara Loughead
The Gender Switch Adventures
Tiger By the Tail [Dominique Flyndry] – Poula Anderson
Honorable Enemies Rethought Page 6