Price of Ransom

by Kate Elliott

  Silence, except for the brush of wind through the low grass, hushed the two parties as they watched La Belle’s progress toward them. She wore a plain white blouse with belled sleeves and black trousers, cut full, banded at each ankle. Her feet were bare. Her black hair hung in a thick braid to her waist, except for a few wispy strands at her forehead that stirred in the breeze. She did not alter her course to go around Maria and Maria’s hirelings. Rather, they moved aside to let her pass through their ranks. No one spoke. La Belle did not even look at them, as if they were of no interest to her. She halted in front of Lily.

  “I have a message for you,” she said.

  The incongruence of the statement, delivered in such circumstances and with such simplicity, took Lily aback. “You just saved my life.” She did not know what else to say. The adrenaline of moments before had been somehow absorbed in La Belle’s slow walk across the meadow, as if La Belle herself were a sponge that could consume any strife but that she herself generated.

  La Belle did not even glance at the group behind her. At Deucalion’s approach with Adam, Maria had begun to back away, although her people continued to stare alternately at La Belle and then at her three ships.

  “Hold on, min Leung.” Deucalion left Adam’s side and pushed through the armed men to take hold of Maria’s arm. “I’m calling you in on charges. You tried to murder us. You went so far as to hire people to aid you. I suppose you had to import these—citizens—from The Pale in order to find people willing to abet you in your crime. I’m astonished, and disappointed, that a member in good standing of Central Intelligence could stoop to such methods. Mother. Adam.” He included them with a glance that swept them both. “I ask you to witness this arraignment.”

  “They aren’t citizens,” Maria said, coldly removing Deucalion’s hand from her sleeve. “They are not legal witnesses for a citizen’s arrest. Therefore, I will leave now.” She motioned to her hirelings, and they swiftly dropped back toward the two ships they had arrived in.

  Deucalion reached out and grasped Maria’s arm again. “No! I won’t just stand here and let you leave.”

  “How can you stop me, aside from assaulting me yourself? With your background, I wouldn’t be surprised if you chose such a method.”

  “You can say that after you just tried to murder us? Mother! Surely you’ll support me in this!”

  “I am uninterested in min Leung’s crimes. You have a tribunal for such cases, I believe, Deucalion.”

  “But without witnesses other than those involved—”

  “That is the choice you made. In The Pale, we choose other forms of justice.”

  In the pause left by La Belle’s words, Maria shook off Deucalion’s hand again. “I’m only sorry I failed,” she said, looking first at Deucalion, but shifting her stare to encompass Lily and Windsor and Hawk as well, and perhaps with more animosity, if that were possible. “The League would be better off without you.”

  Deucalion stepped back, repelled by the vehemence of her hatred. Hawk simply stared impassively at her, buffered by his alienness. Windsor’s mouth turned up with his characteristic bitter grin. Lily tried to match this woman with the earlier Maria she had met on Nevermore, but her competence, it seemed to Lily, had been overcome by her obsession. And looking around at the others, she saw that La Belle was smiling, a tiny ghost of a thing, chilling in its coolness.

  La Belle’s gaze focused for a brief moment on Maria, and now it was that woman’s turn to step back, retreating. La Belle’s smile vanished, and she clasped her hands together lightly as she, regarded the other woman. “What you resist, you become.”

  Maria flushed with anger. Her hand tightened on her pistol. Lily began to move, to place herself between Maria and La Belle. She was astonished that Adam did nothing—until she saw how La Belle’s gaze was weapon enough. Maria thrust her pistol into her belt and turned on her heel and strode away toward her ship. She did not look back.

  “Stop!” Lily cried. “You still have two of my crew.” Maria paused, half-turning back. Her lips turned up, a mockery of a smile. “I will deliver them to Concord, min Heredes. You will have to turn yourself in to recover them.”

  “You still hope to trap me.”

  “I don’t hope to trap you,” Maria replied. “But if it is all I can accomplish now, then at least the net will serve to hold you so I know where you are. In any case, for you to get them from me now you would have to fire on us, and I believe we not only outnumber you, but possess far superior weaponry and armor.”

  “Damned hypocrite,” muttered Deucalion.

  Lily began to step forward, lifting one hand as a signal to Jenny.

  Windsor laid a hand on her arm to stop her. “Don’t try it.”

  “She’s got my people. You spoke of loyalty—do you expect me to trust her?”

  “What do you think I’ll do?” Maria asked scornfully. “I suppose you think I would kill them.”

  “You meant to kill us.”

  Maria looked her up and down, but Lily found it no trouble to stare her down. “You are different,” Maria said, and she turned away and strode to her ship, her back protected by the men she had hired.

  Lily watched in furious silence, Windsor’s strong grip still a restraint on her arm, as Maria’s people boarded and the two ships took off. As the high roar of their engines faded into the growing twilight, Deucalion turned back to look at his mother with surprise.

  “Do you mean to say that you didn’t come here to save us?” he demanded.

  La Belle seemed unmoved by the sudden passion of his question. “That was incidental to my purpose—not that I’m sorry to save you, my son. But as I said before, I have a message for Lilyaka Ransome. From your father.”

  “My father?” Lily stared. “How could you have been to the Reft and back already? You didn’t even know I came from Unruli.”

  La Belle blinked. It was the only time Lily had ever seen her the slightest bit nonplussed. “Ah,” she said abruptly. “You mistake me. From Taliesin.”

  “But he’s dead.”

  La Belle smiled, a secret, intimate expression. “Joshua Li Heredes is dead. My Taliesin is not dead. They have never been wise enough to catch him, hold him, and kill him all at the same time. He is the master of the art.”

  Lily was too stunned by this revelation to do anything but parrot the last phrase. “The art?”

  “The art of transformation. Didn’t you know?”

  Lily simply gaped at her.

  “‘The second time I was bewitched I was a blue salmon.’” For a moment she did not recognize the voice. “‘I was a dog, a stag, a roebuck on the mountain; I was a tree, a spade, an ax in the hand.’”

  “Kyosti!” He tilted his head, and briefly, so briefly, he looked at her. His lips twitched up in a lazy smile, and he blinked, and turned his gaze to La Belle. “‘I lay nine nights at rest in her womb.’”

  La Belle smiled. “‘I have been dead and have been alive,’” she finished.

  Even as she said it, Jenny appeared on the ramp above, moving past Fred and Stanford. Kyosti tilted his head to one side, scenting her, and in that instant the Kyosti who could quote vanished again.

  “Master Heredes—Taliesin—is alive?” Lily shook her head. “How can he be alive?”

  “Father is alive?” Deucalion echoed, and he moved to stand next to Adam, as if he found consolation, or confidence, there.

  Adam answered. “It was only four bullets. Only one lodged in his brain. When we found him he was in a coma and the senators couldn’t decide whether to unplug him from the terribly primitive life-support they had him on and hope that would do him in, or to let him linger on and hope he’d eventually do them the favor of dying while they could claim they’d done everything in their power to save him. I think at least one of them was hoping he would come out of it so they could find out how he had cracked their computer net.” He grinned. “Mother persuaded them to give him into our keeping.”

  “But then—”
Lily shook her head. “Then when we met at Blessings, you must have had him with you. Why didn’t you tell me? How could you not tell me?”

  “Lily.” One did not argue with La Belle when she used such a tone of voice. “We did not know at that time whether he would live. I would not have left you with that kind of hope—unresolved and painful. I did not know then that you would make the choice to seek out the League. You might never have been able to find out if he had survived.”

  “So you thought it was better to keep me in ignorance,” Lily replied, rather bitterly. “I’m not sure I appreciate that choice.”

  “Ah—Ransome,” said Windsor, sounding unexpectedly nervous. “This is La Belle Dame you’re speaking to.”

  La Belle laughed. “Taliesin’s daughter is free to speak to me in any way she sees fit. Nevertheless, that choice was mine, and I made it as I thought best at the time.”

  “But you came now.” The shock of the news was finally wearing off, and Lily felt a sudden, wild exhilaration flood her, a new rush of adrenaline. “He’s not just alive, but out of danger?”

  “He is alive. He is even well, if a little changed. That is the message I came to deliver. You will find him on Terra, in the district named Cymru. I think he would be pleased to see you. Now, if you will, I have other urgent business to attend to. Adam.”

  La Belle turned and without a second’s glance padded in her bare feet back across the meadow to her ship.

  “But—” Lily began, and hesitated, seeing that it would be fruitless to attempt to stop La Belle once she had decided to go.

  Adam came over to her and put his hands on her shoulders. “You’re looking well, sister,” he said, both mocking and sincere. It was a combination only he could pull off For that instant, she wondered how she could ever mix the two brothers up.

  “How did you find us? It was awfully damned convenient of you to show up when you did.”

  Adam grinned. “Mother always has liked the grand entrance. Her timing is impeccable. But in fact, when we came into Concord system, we’d been following your trail for some weeks. When we hailed your ship, you’d already gone, and Mother has an appointment in The Pale, so rather than wait, we followed you down.”

  “Lucky for us,” Lily murmured.

  Adam looked a little embarrassed. “It does rather go with the territory. I’ll see you again, sister.” He turned away, pausing before Deucalion. “We’ll be in Siddi for the Holy Days.”

  Deucalion nodded. “If I can make it.”

  Adam grinned and left, following his mother’s path across the clearing and up into the ship. They both paused, at the top of the ramp, and looked briefly back. Deucalion lifted a hand in farewell. Adam, like a mirror, returned the gesture. La Belle merely looked, but even her looking held the quality of speech. Lily thought, abruptly, that La Belle probably did not pause to look back often. And then they were gone. The ramp retracted into the ship, and the opening sealed. Engines roared and with a shudder, La Belle’s ship lifted. The two beside rose at the same time, and they vanished beyond the horizon of trees.

  “Oh, Hells,” swore Lily suddenly. “Why do I listen to you? That woman has Yehoshua and Pinto. And how am I supposed to find this place called Cymru?”

  “I know where it is,” said Windsor unexpectedly. “I grew up on Terra. In the Angels sprawl.”

  “You can give me coordinates?”

  “I can show you on a map. Finding him once you’re there will be your problem.”

  “Isn’t this a little premature?” cut in Deucalion. “We have to return to Concord immediately to report this.”

  “After an official of Concord Intelligence just tried to murder me and my crew? I think not. After what I’ve seen, I see no reason to go along with you or your guarantees any more, Deucalion. Jenny! Get on comm and tell the Hope to ready for departure from this system.” Jenny nodded and ducked inside.

  “No.” The source of the objection surprised her. It was Windsor. Fred and Stanford had ambled down the ramp to stand beside him. “He’s right. We have to go.”

  “So you can get your damned bounty?”

  “No. It’s fair enough you think that, but I’m giving that up.”

  “Convince me.”

  “She was after me, too, Ransome. Remember that. But if that doesn’t convince you, then I give you my word in this.” He reached underneath his shirt and pulled out a medallion, twin to the one she wore. “On the fellowship. Gwyn would have honored my pledge.” He spoke a few words in the foreign tongue to Hawk, frowned at Hawk’s reply, and looked troubled.

  “What did he say?”

  “He really has lost his memory,” Windsor said. His voice shook a little. “I thought maybe he was faking it a little, to cover himself. He doesn’t know what the medallion is.”

  His worry and concern was persuasive. “All right. Let’s say I believe that, for now. It still won’t make me turn myself in.”

  Windsor shook his head. “It’s gone beyond whatever charges they’ve brought against you. She’s the renegade, using her authority to commit assault and attempt murder, and then calling us throwbacks. I’m by God going to her superior. I trust Yevgeny Basham to be fair.”

  “You trust him?”

  “Yes.”

  “And anyway, Lily,” added Deucalion, “what other means do you have to get Yehoshua and Pinto back? Or were you planning to leave without them?”

  The gaze she turned on him was searing. “Don’t even suggest it. But if Windsor can break Hawk out of the highest security prison the League has, then I by the Void can get them back from that woman.”

  “No!” exclaimed Deucalion and Windsor at the same moment.”

  “It’d be a big mistake, Cap’n,” added Fred from where he stood to one side of Windsor.

  “Why?”

  “You would consider use of force?” Deucalion demanded.

  Lily laughed. “Why shouldn’t I? After this?”

  Windsor shook his head. “Don’t do it. Not in Concord system. You and your crew will end up in Concord prison with no one to spring you. It wouldn’t be fair to them, at the least.”

  “Yes,” agreed Deucalion mendaciously. “Think of your crew.”

  “I am thinking of my crew. And my ship, which I don’t doubt Concord will find some excuse to remove from our stewardship. We’re getting Yehoshua and Pinto and we’re heading off to see if this Pale I’ve heard mentioned is more welcoming than the League.”

  “Lily! You can’t do that. That place is lawless—every kind of troublemaker and social misfit drifts there—”

  “Sounds like we’ll fit right in.”

  “Say,” put in Windsor. “Can you take the boys and me with you?”

  “There’s been a terrible misunderstanding,” protested Deucalion. “You’ve seen the very worst side of—I’m sure there’s an explanation. For all I know this has all been some plot devised by Maria Leung that we’ve been thrown into without our knowing it. Things don’t normally work this way.” He was beginning to look desperate. “Why do you think I choose to live in the League, chose this position?”

  “Because you’re the bad twin,” Lily replied caustically.

  Jenny stepped out onto the top of the ramp. “We’ve got incoming, Captain. Four ships. Some debate as to whether they’re the same as any we’ve seen before.”

  “Stanford,” said Windsor. “Take a look.”

  Stanford loped up the ramp.

  “Do I let him on?” Jenny asked, blocking the entrance.

  “Yes,” Lily replied. “I’m coming aboard.”

  Jenny shrugged and let him pass, disappearing inside with him.

  “Any of you coming on with me, or do you care to take your chances here?”

  There was a pause. Deucalion looked at Windsor, an appeal for support, but Windsor just crossed his arms and looked up the ramp, waiting for Stanford’s assessment. It came quickly enough. “Yes?” Windsor said to the air. “All right.” He looked at Lily. “Stan says it
’s official Intelligence flyers, running under authority code, with Basham himself aboard. I think we should wait. If we don’t wait, they’ll just chase and bring you in anyway. That ancient tub you’ve got doesn’t have a chance against a flyer.”

  “Just how are you communicating?” Lily asked.

  “With the flyers? By your comm.”

  “No, with Stanford.” She lifted her wrist reflexively and glanced down at her wrist-com.

  “Implant, of course.” Windsor shook his head again, sighing, and exchanged a look with Deucalion. “And as good of a ship as the Forlorn Hope is, the fact is, Ransome, that Stanford tells me it’s two centuries out of date. You can’t out-run anything in the League, not even to get out of the system.”

  “And Basham will see that Yehoshua and Pinto are returned immediately,” added Deucalion persuasively. “I know him, Lily.”

  “Don’t matter now,” interposed Fred. “While you been talking, they got here.” He waved his hand at the sky.

  Four ships banked in. Two circled. Two landed close to the position where La Belle’s ships had put down.

  “This better work,” muttered Lily.

  “Patience,” replied Deucalion.

  “My best virtue.”

  The hatch unsealed and a ramp opened out. Several figures emerged, headed by a white-haired man of indeterminate years. They crossed briskly and halted in front of the Hope’s shuttle.

  “Deucalion!” The white-haired man looked surprised. “What on earth are you doing here? We’ve gotten a flood of calls about unsanctioned landings and unauthorized fire in this area.”

  “Yevgeny. May I introduce Lily Ransome? I believe you know—” Deucalion gestured toward Windsor.