LC01 Sweet Starfire

by Jayne Ann Krentz

  “This will bring him out in one renegade hell of a hurry.” Racer activated the control of the small instrument he was holding in one hand. “Watch. I rigged your boat for you, Overcash, before you left Try Again.”

  There was a muffled roar. The skimmer left floating near the bank seemed to shudder, and then it imploded with a sickening crunch of diazite and metal. Slowly but inevitably the boat crumpled in on itself and sank into the river. Cidra waited no longer. This was the best chance she was going to get.

  Overcash was staring in fascination at the disintegrating skimmer when Cidra went over the side. She launched herself in a smooth, flat arc, aiming for the shallowest possible dive. The last thing she wanted to do was go any deeper into the river than was absolutely necessary. Behind her she caught part of Overcash’s outraged yell.

  “She’s gone over!”

  “Forget her,” Racer yelled back. “She’s dead meat.”

  “The renegade bitch!” Overcash raised the pulser.

  Cidra was on the surface, stroking strongly toward the bank. Her main concern was trying to keep from getting any of the muddy, brackish river water in her mouth. It was Severance’s order that stilled her movements in the water.

  “Cidra, stop swimming! Float, damn it. Just float. Don’t splash. Don’t make a sound. Keep yourself on the surface.”

  She obeyed, glad that the awkward boots seemed buoyant in the water. With practiced ease she floated while she turned toward the shoreline to spot Severance. She didn’t notice if he was there or not; instead she found her gaze locked with a pair of malevolent eyes between her and the bank. A dracon was cruising toward her.

  Cidra had never known this kind of terror. Only instinct kept her moving her hands in smooth, gentle sweeps around her midsection. The small movements were sufficient to keep her afloat. But compared to the fear that engulfed her as the dracon approached, drowning seemed a pleasant alternative. She could not yet see anything other than the eyes, but she sensed the vastness of the creature moving toward her. More terrifying, she sensed its relentless, endless hunger. It wasn’t certain yet whether she constituted a potential meal, and dimly Cidra realized that it was probably because she was floating on the surface like a log rather than behaving like normal prey.

  Another set of eyes surfaced to Cidra’s right. She wanted to give in to the panic and have done with it. Anything was better than waiting for the dracons to leisurely start sampling her arms and legs. Perhaps they wouldn’t even bother with a sample. Perhaps one of them would simply swallow her with a single gulp. Still she floated, vaguely aware of Overcash’s agitation in the skimmer. Racer hadn’t thrown the boat into motion yet. He kept it hovering behind Cidra, and she knew that he and Overcash were waiting to see how long it would take the dracons to move in on her.

  “I’m going to draw some blood,” Overcash announced. “It’ll get things over with a lot sooner.” Standing in the stern of the skimmer, he raised the pulser and aimed it at the floating Cidra.

  Everyone’s attention was on Cidra and the dracons. No one noticed Severance when he stepped around the tent, the pulser he’d slept on during the night now in his hand. He aimed the weapon at Overcash and gently squeezed the trigger.

  Behind her Cidra heard a man’s scream. A second later there was a loud splash and then, with blinding speed, the dracons were in motion. She closed her eyes, waiting for the horror to engulf her. A pair of eyes passed within inches, and she felt the brush of a huge, scaled body against her leg. But there was no tearing sensation. Another set of eyes flowed past, also ignoring her. Cidra didn’t stop to question fate. Using all her strength to keep her body as much as possible on the surface, she stroked again for the bank.

  There was another scream behind her, but Cidra didn’t pause to glance back. She heard the thrashing sounds in the river and, slightly louder, the hum of the skimmer as it was shoved urgently into high speed. The bank seemed very far away.

  Then Severance was there, wading into the river and reaching for her. He caught her wrist and dragged her the rest of the way to shore. Cidra wanted to scream as he pulled her up beside him. She automatically turned to see what was happening in the river. There was a flash of a huge, obscene shape that seemed to be made entirely of teeth. And there was something between its jaws, something that had once been human.

  “Don’t look.” Severance forced her head against his shoulder. “It’ll all be over in a minute. Just don’t watch.”

  Cidra stood shuddering in the circle of his arm, trying not to think of what she had seen and trying even harder not to think of how it might have been her own torn and mutilated body held fast in those fearsome jaws. In the distance she heard the skimmer’s hum fade.

  “Racer’s gone,” she gasped, more for something to say than anything else.

  “Racer’s good at leaving a friend in an awkward situation. Not that he could have done much for Overcash. Once the dracons sensed blood, nothing on this planet could have stopped them.”

  “He was going to shoot me. I heard him say a little blood would get things over more quickly.”

  “He was right.”

  “You killed him to stop him from shooting me,” she said into his damp shirt. She wasn’t certain which stunned her more, Severance’s killing Overcash or Overcash’s willingness to kill her. Cidra felt dazed.

  Severance hesitated. “I would have shot him even if he hadn’t been trying to wound you. I needed something to feed the dracons. In another minute or two they would have decided you were prey, after all.”

  “Oh.” She couldn’t think of anything else to say.

  “I would have preferred feeding Racer to the river, but I couldn’t get a clear shot at him. Overcash was in the way.”

  The awful thrashing sounds died away. Slowly, still afraid to turn and look toward the river, Cidra lifted her head. She realized that she was leaning heavily on Severance, seeking strength in him. “It’s over,” she whispered.

  “No,” he answered, gently freeing her to look down into her stricken face, “it’s just beginning. Why did you jump overboard, Cidra?”

  “I had no choice. I couldn’t go with him.”

  “There was a chance he would have believed you really are a Harmonic, and a chance he would have let you go eventually if you’d given him your promise to keep quiet.”

  “Which I would never have done, so there’s no point discussing it, is there?”

  “Cidra . . .”

  “Stop it, Severance.” She pushed away from him, still looking anywhere but at the river. “I could not go with him, and that’s all there is to it.”

  He touched her cheek, his finger rough on her wet skin. “You would have survived rape, Cidra. I’m not so sure about the jungle.”

  A sudden, fierce rage welled up in her. “I would not have survived rape. He would have had to kill me before he succeeded in raping me. Haven’t you heard of death before dishonor?”

  Severance looked at her. “Not lately.”

  “It would have been utterly degrading for me to have submitted to that man in exchange for my life after he’d left you to die. And it would have been equally dishonorable to have given him my promise not to tell the company authorities what had happened.”

  “That’s a little extreme under the circumstances.”

  “I work for you, Teague Severance. Have you forgotten our contract? I have sworn my loyalty to the firm of Severance Pay, Ltd. It would have been a breach of that act to have let Racer use me. He only wanted to add to your suffering, you know,” Cidra explained, lowering her voice. “And it would have bothered you greatly. Not because I was your lover but because you feel responsible for me. Racer didn’t seem to understand that I am merely your employee.”

  “Lately I’ve had trouble understanding that myself.” Severance reached out and wrapped his palms around the nape of Cidra’s neck. He pulled her close and kissed her with a quick roughness that betrayed the tension he had hidden so well all morning. “Sweet Ha
rmony in hell, Cidra Rainforest. I’ve never been so scared in my life as I was when I saw the dracon eyeing you. Don’t ever, ever do that to me again.”

  She smiled mistily as he freed her. “I’ll make a note not to go swimming in the near future.”

  He stared down at her for another long moment, as if he wanted to say more. Instead he released her and turned toward the tent. “I guess I’d better get moving.”

  Surprised, she stepped after him. “What are we going to do?” A sloshing sound reminded her of her wet boots. Gingerly Cidra sat down on the charred ground and removed them, shaking out the river water.

  “I’m going after Racer.” He spoke from inside the tent.

  “Going after him? But, Severance, he’s got a skimmer. He’s long gone.”

  “He’s got a skimmer that’s in trouble, although he may not realize it yet. It’s going to take a while for the fuel cells to start losing power.” Severance reappeared outside the tent carrying his travel pack. He put it down on the ground, crouched beside it, and began going through the contents.

  Cidra watched him. “Why should the fuel cells fail on his skimmer?”

  “After I shot Overcash, Racer ducked into the cabin. I had a clear view of the engine section of the skimmer. And I got in a couple more shots. One cell was glowing yellow when the skimmer took off up the river. Yellow means that the charge was already starting to diminish. Racer will realize what’s happening when he calms down and has a chance to check his controls.”

  “Then what will he do?”

  “Panic, I hope. He tends to lose his nerve when the sardite’s down. I’m counting on him losing it this time too.”

  “You speak from past experience with the man?” Cidra asked carefully.

  “This isn’t the first time we’ve tangled.”

  “You said he was once your partner.”

  Severance removed a thin blade from the travel pack and slipped it into his utility loop. “The partnership dissolved the day he left me to fight my way out of a sinkswamp here on Renaissance.”

  Cidra sucked in her breath. “He’s tried to kill you before?”

  “Not exactly. We had a mail run into a field camp that was doing some work in the swamps up north. There was trouble with the sled. Always something going wrong with machinery on this damned planet. The sled started to slip into a sinkswamp with both of us on board. When we realized what was happening, we managed to attach a wire line to a tree. The plan was to use it to climb to safety. Racer went first. When he reached the tree, the line broke. He was getting set to toss me another one when he saw the killweaver. The things live in the swamps, and this one apparently decided to investigate the activity going on over its nest. It surfaced beside the sled. Big ugly thing with very unappealing pincers. Racer took one look and fled.”

  “Leaving you behind?”

  “Guess he figured I didn’t have much chance, anyway. He made it to the company’s field camp a couple hours later and somehow neglected to mention that he had left me behind in the sled sitting on top of a killweaver’s web. I think he was busy realizing just how convenient the whole setup was. In one fell swoop he was now sole owner of the ship and all our equipment. It was somewhat disconcerting for him when I wandered into camp an hour behind him. We’ve made a practice of avoiding each other ever since.”

  “How did you get away from the . . . the killweaver?” Cidra struggled with the dim recollection of a holotype she had once seen of a huge spider shape. Another typical Renaissance horror. Even the wild parts of Lovelady seemed tame in comparison to this planet.

  “It’s a short story. The trick with dracons and killweavers is to distract them with a convenient meal.”

  Cidra shuddered. “What did you find to feed the killweaver?” “Something equally mean and ugly.” Severance got to his feet, having removed several small objects from his travel pack.

  “But you didn’t find this, uh, distraction until after the web had burned your hands?”

  “It never pays to be slow on Renaissance.” He dropped the travel pack and checked the contents of his loop.

  “Are we leaving already?” Cidra asked.

  “I’m leaving. You’re staying here.”

  She shot to her feet. “Severance, no!”

  His face softened. “You’ll be all right. There’s enough charge left on the deflectors to last until nightfall. I’ll be back by then. Just stay inside the screens and don’t wander outside for any reason. Understood?”

  “I refuse to stay here alone while you take off into that jungle!”

  “I’ll be staying close to the riverbank. Don’t worry, Racer won’t get far. When he realizes that the fuel cells are faltering, he’ll bring the skimmer into shore, set up the deflector screens, and call for help. I intend to arrive long before help does.”

  I don’t like this,” Cidra began earnestly.

  “I’m not especially thrilled with the mess we’re in, either. But since I’m the one who got us into it, I’d better start fixing things.

  Once the fuel cells start to go, the skimmer won’t have enough power to stay afloat, but there’ll still be enough of a charge left in them to keep the deflectors and a comm unit going for quite a while. I can float the skimmer back down the river if necessary. Relax, I’m supposed to be the one who’s good with his hands, remember?” He walked toward her, coming to a halt a short distance away. “Don’t look at me like that, Cidra. It’s going to be all right. This is my fault and I’ll take care of it.”

  “It’s hardly your fault!”

  “I’m the pilot in command. The head of Severance Pay, Ltd. That makes it my job to clean up the situation. Besides, even if I wanted to delegate the responsibility, this is a very small firm. I don’t see any convenient vice-president standing around to send after Racer.”

  “There’s me.”

  “You’ve already done more than your share to defend the mail and the firm. It’s my turn. I’ll be back before the screens fail. Believe me? I spent the year after Jeude’s death getting to know this jungle very well.”

  She chewed helplessly on her lower lip and then nodded once. “I believe you, Severance.” And she did. If he didn’t come back before the screens failed, it would be because he couldn’t come back. She didn’t want to think about that possibility.

  “I’ll see you before nightfall, then.”

  “And then what?” she challenged. But she knew even as she spoke that she had accepted the inevitable. There was no choice but for him to leave. Taking her with him would slow him down far too much.

  “When I come back, I’ll bring the skimmer and a fresh set of screens. If we can’t repair the skimmer, we can still use the communications equipment to call for aid.”

  She drew a deep breath. “What about Racer?”

  Severance didn’t look up as he adjusted the utility loop. “What about him?”

  She searched his face. “You’re going to kill him, aren’t you?” “Don’t think about it, Cidra. Racer is my problem.” He leaned down to brush his mouth over hers. When he lifted his head, he was smiling again. “I’ve got to stop doing that.”

  She touched her lips with her fingertips, realizing how accustomed she was becoming to his brief, intimate gestures. She remembered how she had felt when she’d stood in the stern of Racer’s skimmer and watched as she was dragged farther and farther away from Severance. Then, in a wordless rush, she threw her arms around his neck.

  “Be careful, Severance. Please be careful.”

  “I’ll be back for you before nightfall.” He held her, his arms closing with bruising fierceness around her slender body. Then he released her and moved through the screens without glancing back.

  Cidra watched until he was out of sight. It didn’t take long. The undergrowth closed behind him, and it was as if he had never been standing there with her at all. Out on the river all was once again placid, giving no hint of the living hell that cruised just below the surface.

  Cidra was sta
ring at the spot where the skimmer had floated when she caught sight of something shiny out of the corner of her eye. It was a container of Renaissance Rose ale that had apparently survived the explosion of the skimmer. It was caught in the reeds near shore. Cidra risked a quick trip through the deflectors to rescue the container. Severance would appreciate the ale when he returned.

  Holding the Renaissance Rose as if it were a talisman that could somehow guarantee Severance’s safe return, Cidra slipped back into the safety of the deflectors.

  ELEVEN

  He had to get the deflectors and the skimmer’s communication equipment. And he would probably have to kill Racer to do it.

  Severance didn’t try to fool himself. There was an outside chance that Racer would allow himself to be dragged back to Try Again and turned over to the company authorities, but it wasn’t likely. He had too much to lose. He was far more likely to force Severance’s hand, counting on what he knew of his ex-partner to keep him from getting killed. Deep down Racer was probably convinced that Severance wouldn’t have the guts to kill him.

  Severance moved through the undergrowth along the riverbank, trying to make as little noise as possible. There was no chance that Racer would hear him, but there was every chance something else might come to investigate the strange movement. Without the deflector screens a man with a pulser and a utility knife was among the more poorly armed of Renaissance’s inhabitants.

  Severance knew that all of his senses were on full alert. He had reached that unpleasantly acute state of awareness he had come to know well during the year after Jeude’s death. It didn’t take much to translate awareness into panic. There were a lot of things that could kill on Renaissance, but panic was one of the surest methods. Severance let his eyes and ears and the hairs on the back of his neck do their job while he thought about Racer.

  Racer, who had once been his friend. Racer, who in some ways he knew better than any other living man in the universe. Racer, who had tried to take Cidra as a battle prize while he left his former partner to die.