by Roxie Ray
And someone was definitely using the technique on us as we walked through the market.
There were members of every civilized race in the universe milling around us, buying wares and investing in galactically-traded commodities. Some of the Mana were looking at me with suspicion and hostility, which made sense, given the recent war. Some of the Valkredians were looking at me with recognition, even admiration… again, this made sense, given my lifetime of celebrated victories as a general. The Svanteians and Lunians largely ignored me, keeping to themselves.
But there was a pair of Xehrulians, a male and a female, who were very obviously watching every move we made – following us for a few paces, making a great show of avoiding eye contact when I looked at them, and then slipping into the crowd for a while before conspicuously surfacing again behind us or at our sides.
And since shi'veena surveillance was one of Torqa's trademarks, it wasn't hard to figure out who had sent them.
If those were the ones who were letting themselves be spotted, though… where were the others who weren't?
I thought about what I knew of the way Torqa's mind worked. In a situation like this, most people – having been put on alert for Xehrulians – would instinctively be on the lookout for others of that race, figuring they were all working together. And sure enough, there were plenty of other Xehrulians around, towering over the Drekkir and negotiating the best prices for the goods on display.
No, I reasoned. Torqa would be far more subtle than that.
I briefly considered putting Judy on alert, and then dismissed that idea. Her commitment to becoming a warrior was admirable, but she knew nothing about spies or discerning their patterns of behavior. She might become focused on someone she incorrectly deems suspicious-looking, thus distracting us both from the real threat.
I would simply have to remain vigilant enough to protect us both.
Just as this thought crossed my mind, we rounded a corner and ran right into some kind of noisy street festival, with instruments blaring tunelessly and hordes of Drekkir holding up banners. Many of them were dressed in robes that seemed to be made of shiny coins threaded together. The clanking and clattering sounds they made when they moved was deafening, and when the sunlight hit them, the glare was blinding enough to make me instinctively squint and shield my eyes.
“What in the name of all the Succubi is this idiocy?” I shouted, reaching out to grab Judy's arm. The last thing we needed right now was to be separated.
“It's the Festival of the Golden Enlightenment!” a passing Drekkir answered happily.
“We do this every year to celebrate Hak, our planet's greatest hero of old!” another chimed in.
“Who was he?” Judy asked. “Some warrior or king, who drove away those who sought to conquer and enslave you?”
“No, no, we had already enslaved ourselves!” the Drekkir explained eagerly. From the way he was slurring his words, it was clear he'd already been drinking quite a lot, despite the fact that it wasn't even mid-day yet. “Centuries ago, we were a pious, selfless, introspective race, rejecting all luxuries and material concerns to focus on developing ourselves on a spiritual level. Then Hak delivered us from the Spartan emptiness of our lives by showing us what was truly important… the unbridled acquisition of unimaginable wealth! He gave us a sense of purpose, a way to find and establish our true place in the universe. Now every Drekkir on the planet is rich, and our race is a fundamental component of the galactic economy! Hail Hak!”
“Hail Hak!” the other Drekkir around us cheered. Many of them raised cups filled with intoxicating liquids (and most of them managed to obliviously slosh and spill half the contents).
“Look! Look!” The one who'd been speaking to us exclaimed excitedly, pointing a stubby finger down the street. “Here he comes now!”
I turned to look, and saw roughly two dozen Drekkir carrying a huge golden statue depicting what I could only imagine was Hak – smiling, wearing a monocle, and holding his hands out at his sides. Coins were spilling out of slots in his palms and onto the streets, where the festival-goers eagerly scooped them up.
“That's excessive,” Judy commented.
“That's the Drekkir,” I grumbled, vaguely nauseated by the gross display of greed and materialism. I was still trying to scan the crowd around us for agents of Torqa, but instead, all I could see were more Drekkir pressing in on us from all sides. My grip on Judy's arm tightened.
Suddenly, a panicked voice rose above the rest of the crowd: “Look out! Get out of the way!”
One of the Drekkir at the front of the statue had clearly lost his balance, and it was tipping forward dangerously. If it kept falling, it would almost certainly crush us both in a matter of seconds.
I let go of Judy's arm so she would have the freedom to move out of the way in time – otherwise, I was worried I'd inadvertently drag her directly into Hak's path. We both jumped in opposite directions, just as Hak came crashing down between us, nearly flattening several Drekkir in the process. The statue split open, spilling its golden treasures everywhere to the delight of the revelers.
Several of the short, furry beings surrounded the one who had stumbled, lifting him up off the ground and brushing snow and debris from his fur. “Are you all right? What happened?”
“I don't know!” the hapless Drekkir replied. “I was doing fine, and then something scraped my leg and it went numb!”
I looked at his leg, and sure enough, there was a laceration on his shin. I traced the blood splatter a few feet away – and saw a small gold coin with blood on the outer rim.
Someone had sharpened it, drugged it, and thrown it with expert precision to make the Drekkir holding up the statue lose his balance.
So the statue would fall.
So Judy and I would be separated for the few moments it would take to abduct her.
It was a crude tactic, to be sure… and an effective once, since I'd fallen for it.
I heard a high-pitched scream a short distance away, and glanced over just in time to see Judy being roughly dragged away by one of the Drekkir. He was wearing an eye patch with a large silver 10-rula piece on it and a heavy tunic of sharpened coins.
And for someone so small, he must have been one strong bastard to be able to overpower her like that.
I tried to run after them, but I had to vault over numerous other Drekkir who were still inspecting their wounded comrade and scooping gold from the streets. (Some of them were even carrying away Hak's ruptured head and fighting over who got to take the section with the monocle.) The faster I tried to get through the crowd, the more they seemed to surround and overwhelm me.
I felt so stupid. Of course Torqa had chosen a Drekkir to be her primary agent in kidnapping Judy. He'd blended in perfectly, especially in this mob during a festival. And his was the last species I'd expect to attack us, since the Drekkir are generally so non-threatening.
Now I was in danger of losing her.
I couldn't let that happen.
14
Judy
I struggled to escape, but the Drekkir's grip on me was unbreakable – beneath his fur, his muscles felt like iron cords. I tried yanking out a hunk of his fur and he yowled in pain, slapping me across the face.
“You're lucky I only get paid if I take you in alive,” he chirped nastily, brandishing a sharpened coin and walking it over his knuckles ominously. “Even so, I can still cut up that pretty face of yours if you don't behave and come quietly.”
I relented, figuring I could buy myself some time to figure out how to get away. There was some small part of me that even suspected this “kidnapping” might have been Dhimurs' doing, as I'd predicted before we left the palace.
Still, I couldn't be sure – and this definitely wasn't something I could afford to be wrong about.
I screamed again. If this was one of Dhimurs' tests, so be it… I'd endure a lecture from him later about preparedness, or being aware of my surroundings, or finding my opponent's weak spots, or wha
tever this might have been about. For now, I just wanted to be free of this smelly Drekkir's grasp.
“Pipe down, human. I'm already blind in one eye, I don't need to be deaf in one ear, too.” He tapped his eye patch, triggering a hidden comm unit. “This is Pik. I have the human female Torqa was looking for. I'm carrying her to the extraction point…”
“Let her go. Now.”
Dhimurs' voice was unmistakable as he stared Pik down, scowling and leveling his blaster. From the look on his face, it was clear that he hadn't planned on this at all.
Pik gave him an evil grin, revealing rows of tiny teeth. “Certainly, you blood-sucking trash! Simply surrender yourself to me instead, and I'll happily release her. After all, the bounty Torqa placed on your head is triple what she'll pay for this Earthling slut!”
“That will not happen,” Dhimurs rumbled implacably, his finger twitching on the trigger. “Let go of her this minute, or I will shoot. You have no other options.”
“Very well,” Pik replied. “Go ahead. Give me your best shot.”
Dhimurs fired. The bolt lanced toward Pik's round head – and a golden blur appeared in front of the one-eyed Drekkir's face at the last second, sending the laser blast ricocheting away.
“You have a personal force field,” Dhimurs snarled, lowering the blaster.
“The very best that money can buy,” Pik chortled. “Resistant to every laser rifle and handheld blaster ever made. It cost almost every rula I had, plus everything I could beg, borrow, or steal… but as it happens, I'm about to come into a rather hefty sum that should balance my ledger quite nicely. So if you want to take me down, you vampire scum, you'll have to get in nice and close. How about it? Think you've got the stomach for that?”
“A warrior of Valkred against a miserable little stump of a Drekkir?” Dhimurs smirked. “This should be a short fight indeed.”
“Yeah, you just keep telling yourself that, fang-face. I've heard it from guys like you my whole life. Meanwhile, I hope you've updated your will. I'd hate to think of cheating your loved ones out of their rightful inheritance after I've cut you to ribbons.”
As they threatened each other, I looked around to see if any of the other festival-goers had noticed what was going on. Most of them were still too focused on gathering up as much gold as they could carry, and the ones who did see the altercation seemed intent on staying out of it.
I shouldn't have been surprised. The Drekkir were known for their business savvy, not their chivalry.
Dhimurs holstered his blaster and lunged at Pik – who dodged expertly, tossing the sharpened coin he'd menaced me with. The metal disc whizzed through the air, heading for Dhimurs' jugular with lethal accuracy. Dhimurs raised his arm at the last second, and the coin buried itself in his right forearm.
Just as Dhimurs reached Pik, preparing to strike, the arm suddenly flopped down to his side, useless. Pik took advantage of Dhimurs' momentary confusion and inability to block, sending a powerful uppercut into the Valkredian's jaw.
Dhimurs staggered backward, blinking.
“What? You thought I'd only painted one of my coins with raxatoxin?” Pik laughed cruelly, taking another coin from his tunic. “No, I can assure you, they've all been treated with the same nerve agent. I'm going to numb your limbs one by one, and then stomp on you while this human filth watches. And then I'm going to drag you both to Torqa, claim my reward, and buy my own damn planet with the riches! 'Planet Pik,' how does that sound? Or no, even better… 'Pikworld!'”
With his good hand, Dhimurs produced a hidden blade from his boot, tossing it. Pik's coin flipped through the air again, throwing off the trajectory of the knife and sending it clattering off to one side.
“I can do this all day,” Pik said. “Perhaps you should save us both some time and give up now.”
“Not going to happen,” Dhimurs grunted.
He feinted to the left, and then lashed out with his right leg, aiming a roundhouse kick at Pik's head. Pik darted backward with lightning reflexes, snapping another coin at him. It grazed Dhimurs right eye and the lid drooped instantly, swelling and weeping tears of blood.
“Would you look at that!” Pik gestured to his own eye patch. “Now we match! Want me to do the other one next? It'd be a lot of fun, watching you flap and flail around blindly as you try to fight me.”
“I have a better idea,” Dhimurs said, wiping the blood from his face.
He turned, and for a bizarre moment, I thought he planned to run away. I should have known better.
Instead, he grabbed a piece of the broken statue with his good arm and swung around, using it as a shield while he rapidly advanced on Pik.
Pik flung one coin, and then another, and another… but they all bounced off the golden chunk of Hak, and in seconds, Dhimurs was on top of Pik and bashing him in the face and chest with it. Pik squealed and wriggled, losing his grip on my arm and using both fists to fight back.
He swung at Dhimurs' face, aiming for the side with the damaged eye in order to take advantage of the blind spot. Several of his punches connected with a series of savage cracks, but Dhimurs pushed down on him even harder, driving the breath out of him until his tongue was lolling out and turning blue. If this continued, I was sure that Dhimurs would kill him.
Instead, Pik used the last of his strength to fumble under the hunk of Hak – and produce another coin, swiping it at Dhimurs' throat. Dhimurs reared back, giving Pik just enough space to toss the piece of statue off himself and scramble away down an alley. As he did, he threw one more coin behind him, nicking Dhimurs' left thigh so the leg went numb and fell out from under him.
Dhimurs hit the pavement hard, letting out a pained growl.
I kneeled down next to him, examining his wounds. “Are you all right?”
“I'll be fine,” he said through gritted teeth, “but we need to get you back to the castle right away. You could still be in danger.”
“How? You can't walk!”
“No,” he said, “but I can fly. Take hold of my neck as tight as you can, and whatever you do, don't let go – I only have one good arm to hold onto you.”
Overwhelmed, I wrapped my arms around his neck, trying not to choke him… and then we were in flight, whirling high above the market, wintery wind and snow whipping into our eyes. Soaring with Dhimurs was so thrilling that for a few precious moments, I forgot about our argument the previous night and simply allowed myself to appreciate the miracle of being airborne.
15
Dhimurs
“Are you sure you're unhurt?”
It was the fifth time I'd asked her since we'd made it to the palace, and her answer had been the same every time, just as it was now: “I'm fine, Dhimurs, really. I'm just worried about you.”
“I'll be all right,” I assured her.
I knew these questions were annoying her, but I couldn't help it. I was supposed to be protecting her, and that damn one-eyed Drekkir had almost stolen her away. If she had been hurt, I wouldn't have ever been able to forgive myself.
I should have heard that idiotic parade coming in our direction and steered us down a different street. I should have pulled her in my direction when the statue started to come down, instead of letting go of her arm. I should have remained inside the palace with her in the first place, rather than risk exposing her to harm by suggesting we walk through the market. I should have known Torqa would use a Drekkir to try to get at Judy instead of an off-worlder. I should have…
“Hey.” Judy reached out, putting her hand over mine. “I know what you're thinking, but this wasn't your fault. You can't beat yourself up over it.”
I appreciated the sentiment – but still, I couldn't help it. What's more, I sensed that she knew that. Rather than respond, though, I allowed myself to appreciate the softness of her touch. Perhaps she could forgive me for my words and actions the previous night. Perhaps I hadn't permanently ruined things between us after all.
Keb, the palace physician, walked in carrying a tray of
injector units. Bek was right behind him.
“Raxatoxin is nasty stuff,” Keb said, “but this serum should reverse the effects relatively quickly, and have you back on your feet in no time. Mind you, this treatment is quite expensive – each injection costs two thousand rula. And there's the cost of the examination as well, of course, plus aftercare. Are you insured, or will you be paying in cash?”
“Whatever the cost, you may send the bill to the Valkred government… within reason,” I added through clenched teeth, imagining the greedy little fur ball tallying costs in the upper millions and cackling maniacally to himself.
“Pik remains at large,” I pointed out. “No doubt he'll be trying to get off-world as quickly as possible. You must make sure no ships leave while we search for him.”
“I can't do that,” Bek said. “This is a center of commerce, with merchants coming and going all day, every day. By now, dozens of vessels have probably left the planet, half of them smugglers with hidden compartments in their cargo holds. Pik could have stowed away on any of them. And even if he hasn't yet, there's no way we could stop him from paying off the inspectors to look the other way, or the ship's captain to take off without authorization.”
“It's so nice to see a leader keep such tight control over his own people,” I commented, scowling at him. “This world is an absolute toilet of graft and corruption.”
“This 'toilet,' as you put it,” Bek answered archly, “has functioned perfectly well for centuries, thanks to a well-oiled system of bribes and kickbacks.”
