by Pam Uphoff
Eyes narrowed. "My ass. Who were you running errands for?"
Endi cut in. "Ah. Insider politics? Someone got tired of waiting for Old Orde to retire. Making your President’s fiasco public, and losing him the election moved the timetable up nicely."
"What are you talking about?" Wdfi sounded indignant.
"Just speculation. Who knew? Who had access to the reports? Subminister Ydqe? Or would that be too obvious? Of course if someone ambitious can hang the blame on him, then he’s out of the way too." The corner of Endi’s mouth turned up.
A low growl from the seven men.
"Oh, sorry. Was that too complex for your pitiful little brains?"
Rael grabbed a handful of shirt at the small of Endi’s back and pulled. He ignored the hint. She pulled harder. He braced himself.
One of the men, Ippi or some such, shook himself. "Yeah? Maybe so. And we know who can tell us. We want the stupid little bitch; get out of the way." Half the men started around to his left.
Rael reached and clamped a hand on Endi’s arm, to swing him out of the way. Endi took advantage of her hold to push her to the right and step in between her and the pissed off men. They got three steps before the seven jumped them.
Endi tossed the first one over his hip in an efficient, simple, judo throw.
Rael sidestepped and tripped the second one, drove a fist into the solar plexus of the next . . . Endi had two more of them down, and the last two wavered, then stepped back. Their eyes were still angry, but wariness had set in.
"You little traitor. It’s because of you the President lost the election. Because of you that weakling pacifist is going to let us get run over and destroyed by the Earth."
"The Earth doesn’t know where we are." Rael sighed. "And the current president doesn’t seem to be a weakling, although he does seem to prefer peace to war. Why don’t you take your friends home?"
Endi turned away with her. She caught the movement out of the corner of her eye, Undo climbing up off the ground, reaching for something on his belt, under his shirt. Rael responded reflexively, throwing a stun spell, and another . . . Wdfi was too fast he was going to get a shot off before . . . he looked furiously at the gun. The futile clicking of the lasers two others were pointing at them registered . . . none of their lasers had worked.
"Huh. Out of juice. How careless." Endi smiled innocently, and offered her his elbow.
Her old "friends" withdrew a bit and watched as they walked away.
Draining power sources is a high level function. I don’t think even Xiat can do it. And some of them were five meters away! Who are you, Endi Dewulfe? One knows you’re no priest! Has the One sent you, instead of a princess?
His eyes crinkled and his teeth flashed. Surely he hadn’t caught that thought!
She glowered. "I was trying to avoid a confrontation. Did you really need to turn it into an attack on Subminister Ydqe?"
"I was trying to deflect their attention from you. Didn’t work the way I’d planned." His voice just oozed innocence. And amusement. "Were you actually spying on the Ministry? For the One? Dancer is what they call an agent of the One, right? That you told the press about the invasion of Forty-two? And the defeat?"
She pressed her lips together.
"So the One itself knocked the props out from under the former President Orde, and the War Party. That is really interesting. And no wonder I’m so madly in awe of you." He turned and nodded at a decorative little hillock. "What do you think, will we get a good view from up there?"
"Yes, but we won’t hear a thing."
They moved closer to the recreation, close enough to hear easily. But the historical speech went right over her head as she watched the crowd, and watched Endi. The fireworks were good, with Endi openly delighted in the complex ones. To both inner and outer sense, he felt exactly like a man in the park, watching entertainment. Relaxed and unbothered.
Who are you?
***
Facial recognition programs returned 84 and 79 percent chances that the two watchers at the horse show were known members of the Al Iadrah Mob, a large and well organized crime syndicate. Paer's personal guards were doubled whenever she left the grounds.
***
Rael and Xiat double teamed Endi for the recreation of the Arrival. Triple teamed, if you counted Izzo.
Mr. Mystery focused on the actors playing the part of the Prophets. Eyes narrowed, thinking, somewhere deep behind those shields. She'd run him through the facial recognition programs, too. Which had returned no matches closer than fifty percent, and she had easily eliminated them.
He has to be a colonial. Look at Izzo, he's just as fascinated. But I could trace him. He's got a history, parents, friends, school records from the back of beyond all over Homestead. And, poor sod, the ten years he's spent on the One World, he was at Precog and Divination. No surprise he doesn't know squat about so many things.
So how does Endi manage to know even less?
Chapter Twenty-four
Paris, European Region
19 Shaban 1396 YP
Herc was the happiest horse Xiat had ever ridden. Hands down. He pricked his ears as she aimed him at a jump and he leaped. She felt him barely refrain from throwing in a few exuberant bucks just for the sheer pleasure, but another jump would do, and another.
"Oh my." She slid off. "I'm almost sorry to hand him back over to you."
Paer beamed. "Can't you just feel how much he enjoys jumping."
"Yep." Xiat tracked motion as Endi joined them, with only one horse.
"Urfa has invited me to speak to him. I think I'll have to stand you two princesses up, today." He handed over the reins.
Paer frowned up toward the mansion.
"I don't think he's planning on eating me."
"I know. But I wanted to tell you about Madam Chin's call."
"Oh dear. Have I ruined your reputation? Tarnished your armor of never-been-defeatedness?"
"You've let me go soft. I've forgotten my place. I'm doing things the grooms should be doing. I'm acting Common."
"But how can you appreciate what the grooms do for you if you've never done it at all? Speaking of which, I need to talk to Marty about leaving a dirty stall for you to muck out . . . "
Paer started giggling. "Oh no! You would, wouldn't you? When word of this gets out I'll really and truly be ruined." She lifted a foot with the flexibility of youth and got it into the stirrup, bounced up and grabbed the saddle, and swung aboard.
"Have a nice ride."
***
"I have no clan." Endi looked stubborn.
Rael kept her mouth shut, and sat at the side of the room as if waiting for something else. Half her attention was on Qayg. The old princess was watching Endi’s every twitch, physical or mental.
Urfa raised a skeptical eyebrow. A tap on the door preceded the President.
Endi eyed them all cautiously. "I have a sister who makes and sells ceramics and knickknacks in a shop in Le Havre. I have no other family."
Urfa leaned back and eyed him. "But that's not literally true, is it?"
"There may exist other people with genes in common with mine. But they have neither legal nor emotional connection to me. I do not know them."
The President's bodyguard's frown deepened a bit at that. She'd felt the lie, but also the pain.
Of course, lying about family fits the story we are imagining, and trying to investigate, perfectly. Where was the lie? And what is the pain about, Endi? Rael was keeping her own shields up hard. Even though he had to be reading her body language, and guessing. Damn it, he can't read minds. Or, not the minds of trained Princesses.
Orde sat down and eyed the younger man. "We'd really like to clear up any ambiguities in your security documentation."
Endi looked from Urfa to Orde and back. "Are you investigating me or recruiting me?"
"Which would you prefer?" Orde eyed the young man.
"Investigation. I can just about stand the restrictions of this lifestyle for another mont
h, then I'm going to flee, probably with cartwheels of joy, back into the wild."
"Umm. Control issues?"
"Sort of. Early childhood lifestyle. I grew up with minimal parental interference. Good thing I'm a basically nice guy."
Urfa propped his elbows on the table. "Yes, but just where might all this unsupervised childhood have been happening?"
Endi propped his elbows on the table. "Some mountains somewhere."
Urfa leaned back and crossed his arms.
Endi leaned back and crossed his arms.
"Very funny. What is the problem?"
"I will not place myself in the power of another person. I have trouble with my movement and actions being constrained. I . . . am not able to live this way for any significant length of time."
Orde had been smiling at the byplay, but now he nodded. "Can you stay another month?"
"Yes. I can make myself do that. If you need me to coach Paer longer than that, I'll rent an apartment out somewhere, so I can get rid of the caged feeling."
Orde nodded. "Caged. A very apt . . . " the alert cut him off.
Urfa lunged for the nearest screen. "Xiat's hit the panic button, they're out in the forest." He departed at a run, as three men crowded in, surrounded the President and removed him.
Quag stayed behind for just a moment. She grabbed Endi's arm and stared deep into his eyes. He softened his shield, backed off enough that they could see the truth of his statements.
"I do not know what has happened. I would not harm Paer, nor Orde. I will help if I can think of anything to do." His mind fairly quivered with alarm, concern. But was scattered all over; he had no idea what was happening.
The old woman removed that crystal clear piercing gaze and followed her president.
Rael glanced at the display. It showed coordinates, unmoving.
"They were only a couple of kilometers down the main trail."
Endi turned and trotted through corridors, headed for the barn. Shields so solid they were invisible, again.
Rael followed. "There’s nothing you can do. Even I’m new enough to not be very . . ." A low flying air car was headed south. Small fat-tired vehicles were racing off toward the bridle trails.
"How far can Xiat telepath you, or anyone?"
"Possibly a kilometer."
The glance he shot her was shocked. "A kilometer!"
"You've been watching too many B-grade movies. Even a priest has trouble with more than a few kays."
Endi spotted Snip, and trotted over. "What horses know Paer's favorite trails?"
The groom frowned. "The Guard's horses get swapped around a lot, and exercised on the main trails. Not that it matters. The bugs'll get there much faster than a horse could."
Endi chewed fingernails. Glanced down the barn aisle. Then he trotted to the tack room and grabbed a bridle, his own saddle, and the saddle bags he hadn’t used since he’d come. Rael frowned as he made a bee line to Crystal’s stall.
"You are insane. Sure, Crystal knows where Paer goes, but her ankle . . . And why do you think Paer is free to run for it?"
"I don't, but if she got a chance, Crystal may be the only one who knows where she would go." He pulled a wine bottle out of the saddle bags and poured something that certainly looked like wine into Crystal’s feed bucket. Crystal slurped it down, and pranced. He saddled and bridled her quickly, unwrapped most of the bandages. He led her out and sprinted to keep up with her long striding trot. She was moving as if she was perfectly sound.
Rael threw her saddle on the nearest horse, mounted and galloped out, without the nicety of a warmup. She caught Endi, still afoot, at the back gate. The guards at the back gate were tense.
"They've found the alert bracelet. Four stunned guards, Xiat and Paer are missing. No one there."
"Do you have another one of those? Bracelet things? Thanks." Endi tightened the cinch and mounted. "All right Crystal, show me where Paer liked to go."
Crystal was eager, willing and able. She galloped the whole two kilometers, to a congregation of vehicles. Rael arrived, her horse huffing and puffing as Endi dismounted. One black horse was flat on the ground. Four human bodies. She could see that the nearest was breathing. Stunners. But Xiat isn't here. Does that mean she and Paer got away?
Urfa stepped out to meet Endi. "What are you doing here?"
"Going where Paer liked to ride. Where Paer and Xiat know the ground. The alert was here?"
"Yes." He glanced at a bag in the vehicle. A bracelet, damaged and bloody. "They knew us well enough to get that off of Xiat, first thing."
Endi nodded. "But if they'd captured them, would they have taken Xiat? A skirmish here . . ." He circled the trampled area. "Several horses ran off this way. Let's assume Paer was still aboard one of them." He remounted and turned Crystal loose.
The mare knew the trail, and flattened into a run for another kilometer. Rael cursed and pressed forward. Her horse was breathing like a steam train as she saw Endi and Crystal, well ahead, veer off onto a side trail. Narrow, twisty, one of Paer’s favorites, that she knows well. She, they, may very well have taken it, especially if the attackers were in fliers. She slowed for the oblique turn up the side path that wound through trees. Her horse dropped thankfully to a trot to negotiate turns. Rael could see the occasional fresh hoof print ahead. Multiples in patches of soft ground. There were broken branches, scrapes on tree trunks. Someone had trouble getting a vehicle through here. Good place to go on horseback. What was chasing them? Motorcycle? No tracks. Floater?
She heard hoof beats ahead, crowded Idjit to the side as a chestnut bolted past. Godiva. Xiat's mount. She was wild-eyed and moving fast. Rael didn't even try to catch her. She clicked her comm on and tapped Urfa’s number.
***
The crackle of breaking branches was the only warning Xiat had that they had been found again. The floater crunched down through the trees, jerked sideways and hit her. Her horse panicked, threw her head, hit the floater, half fell, hit a tree . . . Xiat hit the ground, flinched away from flying hooves . . . The floater was now trying to follow the trail. Paer must have taken off, alone. Xiat rolled to her feet and limped after the floater. Her horse was long gone. :: Run, Paer! Circle if you can! :: One damn it, the girl was too young, hadn’t blossomed into her mental abilities. She rounded another kink in the trail.
The floater blocked the path, grounded. Xiat kept her head low, slid around the vehicle. The nearest man had his back to her. Two steps, her injured arm around his neck, her right around his head, a hard jerk and twist . . . She dropped him, stepped over him. The second man was cursing, trying to get around Herc’s hindquarters, Paer kept turning him; nervous, he kicked out. The man was knocked back into Xiat. He swung at her, she ducked and grabbed. Herc swung around, there was another man hanging onto his bridle and the horse dragged him around in a circle. Paer leaped off and bolted past Xiat. Good Girl! Urfa’s out there, closing in.
The man let go of the horse and sprinted after the girl. She heard the whine of a floater taking off. Damn them. She pulled power from the air around her, and slapped a stun spell on the man wrestling with her. He slumped. Xiat rolled him off her and squeezed back past the floater. Limped at her best pace. Ignored the pain and ran. Half a mile to that little clearing, the other floater will cut her off there. Her head was screaming in pain. She’d used so much power raising an electromagnetic shield, against their stunners . . . I’m not done yet. I can do more. She tried pulling power from the air around her, and her eyes swam with tears of pain.
Two little floaters were jammed sideways under young trees, hidden from above. Four men, closing in on Paer. Dangerously close for most spells. She threw a stun spell, keeping it high in the air, above the girl’s head. One man dropped. Another turned, hand going for a pistol. Xiat’s stunner rose and fired first. A thin whine, low on power. He fumbled his weapon, shaking his head. She darted forward. A kick floored him. She scooped up his gun, aimed, nothing. One damned recognition chips! She hit the next
man hard. Got in between Paer and the fourth, snapped the death spell out, turned and cast it again at the gunman just getting off the ground. Something hit her head, she was down on the ground, rolled and tried to get up. Two men were sprinting across the open spot from their floaters. She waved her hand tried to throw a slash through the pain in her head. They flew apart in a gory shower. Cold. Pain. Tunnel vision. People wrestling. A man pulling Paer out of the thicker forest toward the floaters. A white horse, ridden right over one of the men following Paer. Paer was too small to hold her own in a clinch, but she wasn't making it easy for the other fellow. He saw the horse coming and tossed the girl to the side. A shield glittered paths of pain through her brain, the rider kicked out and flattened the last kidnapper as the man pulled out a laser pistol. Then he vaulted off and added a kick to the jaw. Paer threw herself at him for a frantic hug. Then tore herself away and dropped down beside Xiat.
"She's drained. She's drained herself." Paer patted her frantically.
Xiat tried to speak, reassure the girl. But everything was dark and cold.
Except the great glowing presence. It gathered her up gently and warmed her in his golden glow. Was this death? An angel gathering her soul to bring it to the One?
No. She could still hear. And feel a faint trickle of power being eased into her.
A male voice. "She looks like she's in shock." A sliver of vision. A hand tapping the alert bracelet on a wrist.
"That should get someone here fast." The hand rose and touched her forehead. Fed her another trickle of power.
The princess hadn't grasped power yet. It wasn’t Paer.
The flow of power oozed in and warmed her further; the flow increased as she recovered a bit. She felt like she might actually be able to turn her head. Another horse trotting up, an aircar swooped down, shimmied sideways, trying to land off some gory blobs. A battered vehicle crunched up the path. Urfa and a half dozen guards, a doctor . . . The trickle of power ended. The golden glow walked back to the white horse, tied to a tree. Hands grabbed her, and she was hustled into the air car behind Paer. She closed her eyes and let it all go.
