I Dare Read online

  "I outrank her," Clonak began—and between one step and the next fell both silent and still, the others doing the same, until they might have been three leather-clad boulders scattered along the pathway.

  Likewise frozen, Nelirikk craned his ears, hearing the small sounds made by the sentry standing his post, just 'round the next bend in the trail. Nelirikk's regard for Clonak increased, even as he relaxed.

  "It is well," he said, keeping his voice low. "Only the guard at his—"

  "Halt!" the sentry shouted. "Who goes there?"

  The brush to Nelirikk's left and slightly in advance of his position erupted into noise, as if some large animal was crashing back and forth, perhaps trying to free itself from one of the plentiful thorny bushes.

  "Halt!" the sentry shouted again. "Give me the word or I shoot!"

  The brush grew silent, then rustled more courteously, branches shivering as a large figure pushed through to stand in the very center of the path. He was holding a Soldiers General Duty Long-arm in two hands, aimed up into the blameless sky. Slowly, he bent and placed the weapon on the ground. He straightened with even more care, went back two steps, and held his hands, palm out, at belt-level.

  "Capan Meery Roberzun," he said, and Nelirikk felt the hairs on the back of his neck lift.

  "Captain Miri Robertson," Daav yos'Phelium said in a stage whisper, loud enough to be heard ahead.

  "Identify yourselves!" The sentry snapped, wisely remaining at cover. Nelirikk stepped forward, hands visible and very empty, one eye on the Yxtrang soldier who stood, patient and open-handed, in the path.

  "Lieutenant Nelirikk Explorer, Lytaxin Irregulars." The soldier in the road did not react to the Terran words, as of course he would not. Troop were not taught Terran. Only squad leaders were given Trade.

  "Aide," Nelirikk finished, for the benefit of the hidden sentry, "to Captain Miri Robertson. The word is sardonyx. I escort three scouts to my captain."

  Out of the edge of his vision, he saw the soldier's lips move, saw his eyes go wide.

  "Capan Meery Roberzun!" he repeated, voice too loud with excitement. He pointed at the rifle on the ground, and his next words were in Common Troop. "Sir, we have come to offer the Hero Captain our weapons and our lives." He swallowed as Nelirikk faced him squarely, possibly unnerved by the lack of vingtai on a face so plainly of the Troop.

  "Have I the—the honor to address the Hero Nelirikk Explorer?" He stammered.

  "What's that guy want, Lieutenant?" the sentry asked, but before Nelirikk could reply, Daav yos'Phelium stepped forward, claiming the soldier's attention with a hand-wave.

  "We?" he snapped in the tongue of the Troop, his accent only slightly more rancid than Val Con yos'Phelium's. "Produce this we! Immediately!"

  "Sir!" The soldier's fist hit his shoulder with a will and he spun on his heel to address the bushes, from which there issued no immediate reply.

  "Dammit!" the sentry abruptly shouted. "Where did you come from?"

  "The airfield, most recently," Clonak ter'Meulen replied in cheery Terran. "Before that—well, you'll appreciate that I can't tell you everything, even though you are carrying some very impressive firepower. I'm one of the scouts being escorted to Captain Robertson by the Lieutenant over yonder."

  "He really is," Nelirikk called over his shoulder, anticipating the sentry's next question.

  "Yessir. But what is he doing here?" wailed the sentry.

  Clonak tsk'ed. "Why, only making certain you don't decide that it would be best for all to shoot the charming young person asking after Captain Robertson's health. It happens that the scout standing next to dear Lieutenant Nelirikk is kin to Captain Robertson, and very tender of her possessions."

  "Possessions!" the sentry sputtered.

  On the path, Daav yos'Phelium moved.

  "Well?" He snapped at the bushes, crossing his arms over his chest. "Am I blind? Am I a fool?"

  The bushes offered up no reply.

  The scout snorted.

  "Hero Captain Miri Robertson has no use for cowards. Lieutenant?"

  Nelirikk came to attention and glared into the soldier's stoic face. "Captain Miri Robertson accepts only the bravest and most skilled into her troop," he snarled, taking up his cue with a will. "This is the captain who attaches a scout to her troop! This is the captain who keeps an explorer as her aide! The captain who broke the back of the Fourteenth!"

  "Show yourselves," Daav ordered the bushes, and swept forward in a graceful lunge. He came up holding the long arm at ready. "Or die."

  Still the bushes were silent, the branches melting away from the one who came forward, hands out and empty.

  "There is one who is wounded," she said and looked over the scout's head to Nelirikk. He read the mark of an explorer on her cheek with a feeling of inevitability. Of course: A mere Rifle infiltrate the first line of guard, intent on giving his battle oath to Captain Miri Robertson? Common Troop did not behave—could not behave—in a manner so contrary to command. An explorer, however, like a scout, was required to think beyond the boundaries of the common. An explorer, like a scout, could easily claim the service of a Rifle, who would no more question her commands than he would the commands of any other officer.

  "Hold!" he snapped at Daav, but the scout had already lain the rifle down.

  "I do not shoot scouts," he said in calm Liaden. "Unless they give me cause."

  The explorer looked down at him. "No cause," she returned, her Liaden halting and modeless. "Wounded, one's senior. Wounded—" She moved her hands in frustration and looked again to Nelirikk. "He is at glory's gate," she finished, in Troop tongue.

  "Shadia?" Daav said quietly to the bushes.

  "Here, Captain Daav," the youngest scout's voice came from the bushes at the explorer's back, a bit breathless in the Liaden mode called 'Comrade'. "He doesn't look the picture of health, truth told." There was a pause and a low groan. The explorer twitched, and stilled, her eyes down turned.

  "Tell the sentry to send for a field 'doc," Shadia said flatly. "This man's dying."

  "We need a 'doc, quicktime," Nelirikk heard Clonak tell the sentry. "There's a man down and critical."

  "Mister, those're 'trang soldiers and all the 'trang I've seen lately want to die," the sentry argued.

  "Yet you will observe that these particular Yxtrang soldiers appear to wish to live. They're behaving appropriately, aren't they? They've put down their guns like good children and they're being very seemly, by my standards, at least," Clonak's voice hardened. "Call for an emergency team. Now. You really don't want the scout over there on the pathway angry with you."

  "Embroider my legend, do," Daav called, over the sound of a comm unit being engaged.

  Nelirikk watched the explorer, seeing her eyebrows pull tight as she strained to follow the conversation.

  "Medical assistance is being called for your senior," he told her in the language of the Troop.

  "Yes." She shot him a look of challenge. "You are Nelirikk Explorer, lieutenant in the troop captained by Miri Robertson. Will you take our oaths and receive us into the Troop in the captain's stead?"

  Certain as he was that the captain—and most certainly the scout—would welcome explorers into their service, and as well as he understood the dilemma behind the question, it was beyond the scope of his duty to stand as oathtaker in the captain's place.

  "I will not," he said, wishing the Common Tongue possessed even so minor a word as "alas".

  "What's amiss?" That was Daav yos'Phelium, speaking yet in the mode used between comrades, his bright black eyes darting from the explorer's face to Nelirikk's.

  Nelirikk sighed. "She—they—came to give an oath and be . . . welcomed . . . into a troop, with a proper captain, to give their lives form and, and duty. We—the 'doc . . . " He stammered to a halt. Both of Daav's eyebrows were well up, but he waited with explorer-like patience for the matter to be made plain.

  "It is cultural," Nelirikk achieved at last. "A matter of—appropriate b
ehavior. They wish to—they must—offer their oath only to the captain or one who stands oathtaker in her stead. I—I cannot take oaths in keeping for the captain. And they cannot accept anything from the enemy."

  "Ah." The black eyes gleamed. "And your own oath—to Line yos'Phelium, was it?"

  "Yes."

  "Yes. I believe we may contrive." He stepped toward the watchful explorer.

  "I will have your name," he snapped in his awful Yxtrang.

  She lifted her chin, "Hazenthull Explorer."

  "So." The language shifted to Trade. "Hazenthull Explorer, I offer you compromise. I am kin to the Hero Captain Robertson—blood ties, eh?"

  Her mouth tightened, but she gave a short jerk of the head. "I understand."

  "Good. Understand that Captain Robertson's duties are manifold, including a position of command over the kin unit of which I am a genetic member. The name of the kin unit is Line yos'Phelium. Captain Robertson accepted the oath of Nelirikk Explorer in the name of this kin unit." He tipped his head. "Do you understand this? I do not wish to trick you."

  Once again, she jerked her head. "I understand."

  "Excellent. Attend me closely, now: The customs of kin allow me to take from you an interim oath."

  Hazenthull frowned. "Inter—a temporary oath?"

  "Just so. In the service of your senior's life. The 'doc which has been called for is his only immediate chance of survival—Shadia does not use the word 'dying' lightly. I do not willingly watch scouts perish, as I believe I said. I require of you an oath that you and yours will serve Line yos'Phelium, in the person of Daav yos'Phelium—that is myself. In turn, I will give you my oath to bring you to Captain Robertson herself, so that she may make what judgment that a captain must, for the good of her troop." He paused, perhaps awaiting a question. Hazenthull remained silent.

  "The term of our oaths," Daav continued, "shall be concluded when the captain has given her judgment. Can you agree to this?"

  There was a long silence. Nelirikk saw the explorer's eyes narrow, as if she were turning the proposed oaths round in her mind, seeking the trap that she knew must be there.

  Nelirikk could have pointed out the ambiguity attending the precise expiration of term, but it was to the Troop's benefit to acquire the services of other explorers, if it could be managed, and so he held his tongue.

  Finally, Hazenthull Explorer gave another of her terse nods. "We are free to offer and to honor these oaths."

  "Splendid." Daav waved at the patient soldier. "Explain the matter to him." He flicked a look to Nelirikk. "Assist her, please, Lieutenant."

  "Scout." Nelirikk bowed slightly and stepped to Hazenthull Explorer's side.

  Some distance up-trail, he heard the sound of a jitney engine, growing rapidly louder.

  Lytaxin

  Erob's House

  " . . . GRACE OF THE MOTHER we came through well and whole," Priscilla was saying.

  The transmission was remarkably clear, considering that it was a jerry-rig replacement for the planetary communication net the Yxtrang had shredded. And it was beyond joy to be able to hear his lifemate's voice, after these long, eventful days of separation. Still, Shan thought, wistfully, it would have been ecstasy, to behold her face, to run his fingers into her curly black hair, to stroke her creamy cheek, to put his lips—

  "Shan?"

  He shook himself. Do strive for some breeding, Shan, he told himself, will you scorn her voice because you may not have the rest?

  "Forgive me, Priscilla, I was entranced by the mental image of you doughty warriors, knives caught between your teeth—"

  "Shan . . . "

  "Priscilla, you really must spend less time with my sister," he told her earnestly. "You have her inflection exactly, there."

  From their ship, high in Lytaxin orbit, she laughed. Shan, seated at the desk in the guesting room Erob had ceded him, smiled wryly and stroked the comm's plastic face.

  "Let us make plans for your stay on planet," he said. "Leave now and I'll be at the spaceport to greet you."

  The beam hummed empty for a moment, then gave him Priscilla's sigh.

  "Love, you know I need to be with the ship. Ren Zel is able, but—"

  "But Ren Zel is not of Clan Korval," he finished, knowing the necessities as well as she. "Gordy of course is of Korval, and also possesses all of nineteen Standard years. Too young by a year or so to stand command of a starship orbiting a world enduring post-war conditions."

  "True," she said, her voice soft across the distance that separated them. "And you cannot leave Miri and Val Con while they are so ill."

  "Miri is out of the 'doc," he said, suddenly recalling that he had not told her that. "Weak as a kitten, of course. Val Con . . . " His throat closed and he shook his head, as if she could see him.

  "The techs still believe he'll be . . . impaired?"

  "Impaired." He grinned without humor. "Yes, they do believe that, and quite ill-natured I find them for it, if you will have the truth."

  "I'm sure you do," she said gently. "I—when he is out of the 'doc and an evaluation is made, perhaps—"

  Shockingly, the portacomm on his belt buzzed. Shan jumped, swore, and thumbed the receive.

  "One moment, Priscilla—yos'Galan," he snapped into the portable.

  "Shan—Lord yos'Galan—it is Alys Tiazan. I am in the recovery room with Miri my cousin and two of the Clutch who are her brothers."

  Yes, of course, Shan thought. The situation had only lacked eight foot turtles.

  "How delightful for us, to be sure. I shall be down directly to make—"

  "Their Wisdoms," Alys interrupted, with a refreshing lack of deference for his station; "Their Wisdoms say that the songs of the machines are harming my cousin, your sister. They say that the autodoc may be preventing Val—preventing Lord yos'Phelium—from healing completely. The med tech is—" she paused, apparently decided that he could judge the med tech's state of mind for himself, and finished in a rush. "Cousin Miri says to get you down here." The last four words were in Terran, pronounced in tones so authentically Miri-like that Shan grinned, even as his heart trembled.

  "One moment," he said to Alys, flicking the 'mute' toggle. He glanced at the desk unit. "Priscilla?"

  Her answer came slowly. "It is possible," she said, "that the rhythm of the machinery is interfering with total healing. It has been known to happen. Rarely." She was silent, then burst out. "Who knows what may harm them? They are linked, heart and mind, by that—edifice!—no more simple humans than—than the Clutch are. No," she corrected herself, more calmly. "More human than the Clutch are. And the Clutch may see truly—for their own kind."

  "Then it appears my task has been laid out for me," Shan said and flicked the portable on.

  "Please allow my sister to know that I am on my way to her side," he told Alys Tiazan. "Ask her, as she loves me, to stay her hand from the med tech until I arrive."

  There was a small snort, as if Alys had half-strangled a laugh, then a demure, "I will so inform my cousin, sir." The line cleared.

  "Priscilla, my love . . . "

  "Until soon, Shan."

  "Until soon. May your Goddess send it very soon."

  He thought he heard a soft sigh before the connection light went out. Sighing himself, he stood, and left the room at brisk walk.

  A short time later, he turned smartly into the hallway containing Miri's room, and nodded to the guard on duty.

  "I am summoned."

  The merc shook his head as he turned to put his hand against the plate. "They call this rest? She might as well hire a band and call it a party."

  The door slid open and the guard waved an impatient hand. Shan strolled across the threshold and—paused.

  Immediately before him, two very tall, green persons wearing a truly impressive quantity of tilework across their shoulders and down their backs, confronted an average-sized Liaden woman—which is to say, her nose was not quite level with the equator of the shorter tile-bearing person. Th
at the woman was in high temper was obvious even without the abrasion of her passion against his Healer sense. The Turtles—were invisible to his Healer sight, in contrast to the rather irrefutable physical evidence. Shan glanced aside, locating Alys Tiazan, strategically placed between the med tech and the bed in which Miri wilted against an oppression of pillows, long red hair snarled across one shoulder, eyes closed in a face as white as salt.

  Ignoring the med tech's anger, Shan focused on Miri, catching the shine of mayhem along her pattern, and a fear bordering on terror.

  "Cousin Miri," Alys said. "Lord yos'Galan is here."

  The woman in the bed opened fierce gray eyes and gave him a ragged grin.

  "What took you so long?"

  "I had to shave."

  The grin widened, briefly, then one hand wavered more or less horizontal, index finger almost pointing at the taller of the two green persons.

  "Edger," she said, hoarsely. The finger moved perhaps the width of a thought. "Sheather." Her hand fell back to the coverlet. "This is Val Con's brother, Shan yos'Galan. He's a Healer. Tell him what you told me."

  "What they told you," the med tech snapped in a mode perilously close to superior to inferior, "is arrant nonsense! The machines are needful! Your heartbeat must be monitored! Your air must be filtered! Your blood pressure and body temperature must be monitored! Shut down the machines and risk doing yourself needless, preventable harm, Lady. To even think of removing your lifemate, damaged as he is, from the catastrophe unit . . . "

  "Quiet."

  One word, quavering on the broken edge of a whisper—terrifying from a woman who could make herself heard amidst the pandemonium of a battlefield.

  " . . . is to kill him outright!" the med tech continued unabated. "These—persons!—are not of Erob's house medical staff! They—"

  "Silence!" Shan snarled, in all the force of Command. The tech's anger flared and he countered it, barely heeding what he did; merely casting out a glamour of cooling, like a handful of snowflakes. The med tech fell silent, passion melting, bowed and went over to sit in a chair.

  "Very good." He transferred his attention to the turtles, who were yet standing patiently, watching him out of yellow cat eyes.