“Just who the devil is this Mather Seton, anyway?” the advocate muttered under his breath.
Just then, a tall, silver-haired man in the white uniform of a full fleet admiral appeared at the top of the ramp, accompanied by an aide. The Rangers and ratings snapped to attention momentarily, then returned to work at the man’s signal. Mather and Wallis, too, drew themselves up respectfully as the man descended the ramp, but it was obvious from the man’s jovial expression that protocol was not to be strictly observed. His booming laugh carried all the way across the deck to the watching civilians as he first shook Mather’s hand and pounded him enthusiastically on the back, then drew Wallis to him in an exuberant bear hug.
The Gruening contingent watched in incredulous silence as the three conferred a moment. Then the admiral glanced in their direction and spoke briefly to Wallis, who grinned and turned to approach them. The advocate shifted uneasily as Wallis walked right up to Shannon.
“Pardon me, gentlemen, but His Royal Highness Admiral the Prince Cedric would like Doctor Shannon to be presented to him. Would you come with me, please, Doctor?”
“Prince Cedric?” Shannon whispered, awed.
“The emperor’s brother?” The Gruening man gasped.
Wallis raised one eyebrow and swept them all with a bemused gaze. “Why, yes, I thought you knew. We work for him. Shivaun, shall we go? We shouldn’t keep His Royal Highness waiting.”
With a nervous shrug and a half grin in the direction of Bowman, Shannon followed Wallis across the hangar floor. The Rangers were floating the Lehr cats up the ramp on their anti-grav sleds, one at a time, and the animals showed every indication of almost enjoying the experience. Prince Cedric surveyed each aspect of the operation with great interest, listening avidly to Mather’s commentary, and grinned ear-to-ear when he leaned closer to one of the passing cages and its occupant favored him with a great yawn and a basso purr that could be heard clear in the next bay.
“What a marvelous creature, Seton!” the prince was saying. “My brother shan’t want to give away any of them.”
“Sir, I have the honor to present Doctor Shivaun Shannon,” Wallis said, guiding Shannon slightly ahead of her as they approached. “Shivaun, this is Prince Cedric, our boss.”
Shannon almost gasped at the liberty Wallis seemed to have taken, but the prince, whose profile matched those of his brother on all the coins and credit notes, turned to smile and shake her hand.
“I’m very pleased to meet you, Doctor. Mather’s report spoke of you in the most glowing of terms.”
“His—report, sir?” Shannon managed to whisper as she straightened from her bow.
Mather smiled and put an arm around her shoulder. “If you were naval personnel, you would have been ‘mentioned in dispatches.’ As it is, I suspect there will be some sort of civilian commendation. And because I had to make Lutobo abort his record run to Tersel, His Royal Highness has already arranged that all the crew of Valkyrie will get the equivalent of the bonus pay you missed out on.”
“And an Imperial bonus, for having completed the mission successfully,” Cedric added. “It may also interest you to learn that the Kwia-t’ai ship is standing by, and the ambassador has been informed of the cats’ safe arrival.”
“Well, only three, sir,” Shannon murmured.
The prince shrugged. “I know that couldn’t be helped, Doctor. The full situation has been explained to the ambassador. He also understands.”
“The point is,” Mather said, “we succeeded in the main—and you’re partially responsible for that success.”
Shannon swallowed, not really knowing what to say, but the need to comment was eliminated by the prince.
“Please accept my personal thanks, Doctor, as well as that of my brother, for a job well done. You may well have helped keep us out of a war—which is not at all as farfetched as it might sound, believe me. Your part in all of this will not be forgotten.”
The prince’s aide, lurking in the background, cleared his throat discreetly, and Cedric glanced behind him, where the last cat cage was just disappearing inside the ship.
“Ah, I see that duty calls. Doctor Shannon, it’s been a pleasure meeting you,” he said, taking her hand again briefly. “And now, your part of this mission being completed, you must permit me to return aboard and complete mine. Mather, Wallis, whenever you’re ready.”
At their nod, the prince inclined his head slightly, then went clambering up the ramp after the last of the cat cages. The naval ratings and Rangers continued loading the last of the other gear, but it was obvious their job was nearly done.
“That means we’d better get aboard, too, or he’ll leave us,” Mather said, giving Shannon’s shoulders another affectionate squeeze. “He can be a very hard taskmaster. Let us know if the bureaucrats give you any further trouble.”
He winked at her and gestured toward the bureaucrats in question as he started up the ramp. Shannon, with a dazed little smile, turned and took the hand that Wallis offered, grinning wider as the older woman pulled her closer in a quick embrace.
“You’re one hell of a doctor, Doctor,” Wallis murmured, drawing back to look Shannon in the eyes. “If you should ever need a good reference, or anything else, you can reach us through the Imperial Anthropological Society.” She grinned. “That’s just one of our covers, of course, but His Royal Highness is a patron. Any message will be forwarded at highest priority.”
Shannon nodded, and Wallis, with a slight wave of her hand, turned to follow Mather up the ramp. Both of them paused at the top to wave a final time before the ramp telescoped up and the door closed.
With a sigh, Shannon withdrew behind the airtight doors and watched them close, waiting as the warning lights came on and the atmosphere was blown around the Shantar’s shuttle. She had not noticed until now that it was painted in the Imperial livery colors. Gracefully the shuttle lifted off its pad and floated out of its berth toward open space. Shannon watched until it was only a dark mote against the sea of stars.
“Pardon me, are you the ship’s surgeon?” an unfamiliar voice suddenly said behind her.
A clerk from the Health and Immigration ship held out a bill of lading and a stylus as Shannon turned to look at him.
“I’m sorry,” she said absently, looking for the place to sign. “Yes, I’m Doctor Shannon. What is this for?”
“We have a body to trade you, Doctor,” the man said. He gestured with his chin toward the cargo bay of the coroner’s shuttle, where a sleek, black plasteel coffin was being off-loaded down the cargo ramp. “Some rich eccentric wanted his remains shipped home for burial—all the way to Terra.”
“But that’s halfway across the galaxy.”
“Sure is,” the clerk said with a sickly grin. “So much for leaving anything for his heirs. The shipping charges and the kind of burial he’s ordered will cost more than both of us probably make in a couple of years. It’s all prepaid, too.”
Shannon shook her head and looked at the document again, but there was no mistake: Baron Relker von Strelgo, Sol III. There was also a copy of a page of legal documentation—apparently an extract from the man’s will—with all but part of a single paragraph blacked out.
… and all monies paid out first to ensure that my body be returned to Terra, that I may be buried in my native earth.
Native earth.
Shannon felt a shiver run down her spine at that, and after she had signed off for the clerk, she turned suspiciously to follow the coffin with her eyes until it had disappeared on its way to storage in one of the lower holds.
And through she tried to tell herself there really were no such things as vampires, she still found herself with a most disconcerting urge to go back to her quarters and look for an old silver necklace she had worn as a child.
About the Author
Katherine Kurtz was born in Coral Gables, Florida, during a hurricane. She received a four-year science scholarship to the University of Miami and graduated with a bachelor
of science degree in chemistry. Medical school followed, but after a year she decided she would rather write about medicine than practice it. A vivid dream inspired Kurtz’s Deryni novels, and she sold the first three books in the series on her first submission attempt. She soon defined and established her own sub-genre of “historical fantasy” set in close parallels to our own medieval period featuring “magic” that much resembles extrasensory perception.
While working on the Deryni series, Kurtz further utilized her historical training to develop another sub-genre she calls “crypto-history,” in which the “history behind the history” intertwines with the “official” histories of such diverse periods as the Battle of Britain (Lammas Night), the American War for Independence (Two Crowns for America), contemporary Scotland (The Adept Series, with coauthor Deborah Turner Harris), and the Knights Templar (also with Harris).
In 1983, Kurtz married the dashing Scott MacMillan; they have a son, Cameron. Until 2007, they made their home in Ireland, in Holybrooke Hall, a mildly haunted gothic revival house, They have recently returned to the United States and taken up residence in a historic house in Virginia, with their five Irish cats and one silly dog. (The ghosts of Holybrooke appear to have remained behind.)
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 1986 by Katherine Kurtz
Cover design by Andrea Worthington
ISBN: 978-1-5040-3759-4
This edition published in 2016 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
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