The Serrano Succession

by Elizabeth Moon

  "I've been to Copper Mountain eight times, and the outer loop's never been all red," his scan officer was saying.

  "I've been here ten times and never seen this many big ships insystem. What's going on, I wonder?"

  "We're ten minutes out—twenty delay on queries."

  "I don't think I want to talk to the station. Put us at battle stations, Tony, but don't light up the weapons." The alarms rang through the ship; colored lights danced across the various control boards reporting systems in operation. Satir glanced at the sheets of paper in his lap. Trouble. Major trouble.

  "Sir, there's an odd signal coming in—you need to see it now."

  "Odd how?"

  "Not the usual frequencies, for one thing. It's surface propagated, but not a coherent signal—it's like they didn't care who picked it up. It'd dissipate to noise within this system, though."

  "And it says?"

  "It's in clear, and it says there's a mutiny at Copper Mountain, that the mutineers have the orbital station and control of system defenses. It's begging somebody to get the word out."

  Captain Satir looked at his bridge officers. If this was a hoax, reacting as if it were real could end his career. If it was not a hoax, he had only one chance to get away.

  Even as he hesitated, a bank of lights on the scan desks came alight.

  "They're aiming at us," his scan officer said. "Tracking us—"

  "Full ahead, find us a slot and take us to jump," Satir said. "We're getting out of here while we can." Vigor had the speed and the angle; none of the ships insystem could catch them in straight flight, and he was prepared to jump blind if necessary to put more distance between them. The system defenses were preset to defend certain arcs which he could easily avoid. "Make extra copies of all scan data, and try a squirt at the system ansible as we go by—they may have reprogrammed it, but it's worth a try."

  Four days later, Vigor came in range of an ansible in another system, and transmitted an emergency override command set, followed by the entire load of scan data she'd collected.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Sirialis

  The long room with its high ceiling would have held twenty pairs of fencers, and had before. The walls were pale green above the mirrors, and the gilt beaded molding around the ceiling was echoed by the molding around the mirrors. The east wall, a bank of French windows, let in the natural daylight and overlooked a rose garden. This morning, bars of yellow sunlight lay across the polished wood floor. Only a few roses had opened, the early white single ones like showers of stars, but their perfume entered on the slightest movement of air. Down the middle of the polished parquet floor ran the strip, deep green.

  Miranda finished her stretches, and picked up her practice foil. Facing the mirrors, she could see that Pedar, though still stretching, was watching her. She moved through the parries, smoothly but not fast, feeling for the rhythm that would best suit her needs. He finished his stretches, but made no move to pick up his own blade. He stood watching her instead. She met his eyes in the mirror, then turned.

  "What? Am I doing something wrong?"

  "No, my dear. I was thinking how lovely you are—and how incongruous it always is to see a beautiful woman holding a deadly weapon."

  "This?" Miranda laughed, touching the button, and bending the blade with only a little pressure. "Even if it weren't so whippy, it could hardly kill anyone."

  "It's the principle of the thing," Pedar said. "And I've seen you with stiffer blades."

  Miranda grimaced. "I was younger, then."

  "You were Ladies' Champion in epee . . . I have never forgotten your grace, that day."

  "I was lucky. Berenice ran out of breath—I've always suspected she had a cold. Usually she beat me."

  "But still—if you had live steel in hand, in the old days, I don't doubt you'd have been a formidable opponent."

  "I'll take that as a compliment," Miranda said. "Shall we?"

  Still he didn't move. "I was going to ask a favor."

  "A favor? What?"

  "I see you have Bunny's old collection here—in the hall. I know he never let anyone actually use it, but—do you suppose we could?"

  Bait and hook, taken faster than she'd expected. She frowned a little. "The old weapons? But Pedar—they're old. I don't even know how old, some of them."

  "If I could just hold them—just feel them."

  "I don't even know if they're really mine to lend," Miranda said. "I mean, they're here because Bunny brought them along, but they are his family's heirlooms. You're the one who said I should be fair to Harlis—"

  "Harlis need never know," Pedar said. "It's just—the oldest steel I've ever held was that antique Georgy has—you know."

  "Oh, that old thing." Miranda allowed herself a sniff. "It's not a day over two hundred, whatever he says. These are much older—"

  "I know, that's why I asked. Please?" He cocked his head and put his hands together like a polite child.

  "I suppose it couldn't hurt," Miranda said. "If we're careful . . ." She could feel her heart speed up, safely hidden under her white jacket, as she led the way back to the hall.

  She unlocked the case, and stood back. Pedar reached past her, and took out, as she'd expected, the big saber with the heavy, ornamented hilt. He ran his thumb down the blade, and nodded. "Still—"

  "Bunny said they were still usable," Miranda said. "But he didn't want to take a chance on breakage. They're not replaceable."

  "No . . ." Pedar breathed on the blade, then buffed it with his sleeve. "Derrigay work, look at that pattern! And the ring—" He rapped it with his nail, and the blade chimed softly. Miranda shivered, involuntarily. Pedar set the blade back, and took down another. "You have no idea of their age?"

  "Bunny always said that one—the epee—was the oldest, and the rapier the next oldest. He said it was just possible those two were from Old Earth from an era when they might have been used." Used to kill, intentionally. Used as she would use a blade today.

  "Amazing." Pedar put the rapier back, and took the broad, curved blade for which she had no name. "And this?"

  "I don't know. It looks more like a chopper to me—for very large potatoes."

  He chuckled. "Not a blade for artistry, no. An executioner's weapon, perhaps, from a very bloody period." His hand reached again, this time for a foil. "So—this is your weight now?" His hand stroked the blade, bent it. "Not so whippy as the one you were using, but—light enough, I'll warrant."

  "Oh, probably. I still practice with heavier blades now and then." She had to be fair. She had to be scrupulously fair, and let his own folly put him in danger.

  "Let's fence with these, not the modern ones."

  "I don't think it's a good idea . . . I don't know what they would think—"

  "They? What 'they'? Who could possibly dispute with you, now that the judgement has gone your way? What harm could it cause?"

  "I don't know," Miranda said again. "What if a blade breaks? What if Harlis appeals, and then finds out I've destroyed a valuable asset?"

  "He needn't know. He isn't a fencer; he's probably never paid attention to them. Besides . . . I'll explain it was all my idea." Pedar nodded at the helms. "Look—let's do it right. Use all the old gear, masks as well. It would be like fancy dress." He had always liked fancy dress; he had worn it to balls where other men wore conventional clothes.

  "But—"

  "Just this once. There's no one to see. Please?" Again that tip of the head, the pleading expression, then an impish grin. "I'll bet you've always wanted to. Haven't you?"

  Miranda smiled. "As a matter of fact . . . I did sneak that one out once—" She nodded at the blade in his hand. "There's something about it—knowing it's old, knowing it was used by people long dead—"

  "Yesss." He drew out the syllable, nodding. "I thought so. Just as you enjoy old porcelain, or jewelry. Those who appreciate such things should not be forbidden the use of them. So you will humor me this once, Miranda?"

  She
glanced around, as if nervous of watchers. "I suppose—and after all, if we do break one, and Harlis finds out—as you said, he's no fencer. He can hardly skewer me."

  "Well, my lady—choose your weapon." Pedar set the blade he'd been holding back in the rack and waved her forward with an extravagant gesture.

  Miranda reached, pulled back as if unsure, and finally took the blade he had just replaced, the longest of the foils, with a weighted hilt to balance it. He took its partner.

  "Let's complete the mischief," Pedar said. "As I said, with such blades as these, our helms too should match. I've long fancied myself in one of these—had my armorer make a replica, but it's not the same." He tried on one, then another, until he found one that fit . . . the others had, as she knew well, inconvenient and uncomfortable lumps beneath the linings.

  Miranda raised her brows at him. "It can't be safe, Pedar—blades last, but old metal screening—"

  "Pah! It will stand up to a blunted stroke, and if I cannot defend my face at least I'm not much of a fighter. Come, my dear . . . if you are nervous, you must wear your usual mask, but permit me my conceit. The only way you will strike my eye is with your beauty."

  It needed only that to erode the last grain of sympathy Miranda felt. She could have shot him where he stood, but she was not going to trial for the murder of a murderer.

  Back in the salle, after they had clipped the buttons to the tips of the blades, Pedar moved out of the shadow to stand in one of the bars of sun, a glowing white figure with a shining golden-bronze head; the old helm gleamed in the light. She could not see his face through the pierced metal. From within her own mask, the world narrowed to the strip itself, and the opponent across from her. Could he see her face? She let herself smile now, with no guarding tension.

  She brought her blade up in salute, as did he. Then he advanced.

  They began with the formal introduction, the "Fingertips" as advocated by the fencing master Eduardo Callin, two centuries before. This allowed the fencer who wished a match to carry more meanings to suggest them by the quality of his touch, and this first contact, feeble to feeble, set up that possibility. Miranda's blade tapped crisply, to signal no particular intent, but Pedar's drew along hers, or tried to—the signal that for him, this match's metaphor was Courtship.

  Miranda could feel her lip curling, within her mask, and fought down the rush of anger. Here, at the ritualized beginning, she must maintain her ruse. At the fourth touch, her tip wavered a little—someone who had recognized his offering, and was not yet rejecting it. Thinking about it perhaps. His fifth touch, the last of the right-hand touches, attempted a spiral along her blade, which she did not allow, but did not bat away. That signified Shyness, not Rejection.

  They switched hands for the next five Fingertips. His tip continued its swirl, a stronger plea of Courtship; Miranda allowed hers to droop, on the ninth and next to last. Uncertainty—the last thing she felt, but an emotion she hoped he would have for one last instant. Then the tenth—a clean tap by both to signal the end of that segment. She stepped back, as did he, and switched her blade to her right hand again. Another bow and salute, and they were into the next phase.

  Miranda presented a quite ordinary opening in Fourth, and Pedar accepted. In a friendly bout such as this, there was no hurry, so they crossed blades in easy parry-riposte combinations for some fifteen exchanges.

  "You're so graceful," Pedar said, his voice muffled slightly by the mask.

  "You're so quick," Miranda said, out of her throat so that she would sound a little breathless.

  "For you, I would gladly slow," he said. His next stroke was slightly slower, and she met it just an instant late. If she could convince him to slow, if she could set a pace that lulled him into the wrong rhythm . . .

  "I used to be faster," she said. "I know I did—"

  "It's that blade, my dear. It's heavy for you."

  "I need something—" She blocked his stroke, threw one intentionally slow which he blocked easily. "Against you, I need the extra length, and the stiffness—"

  "Bah. I'm not going to press you harder than you can handle. You should know that, Miranda. When was I ever importunate?"

  "You weren't. It's just—"

  He stepped back and grounded his blade. "Come—let's exchange blades. That was made for a man; you can tell by the weight of the hilt."

  "Besides, you want to try it," she said, chuckling.

  "True. Indulge me, my dear?"

  "Very well. But I'm going to do more conditioning, I swear I am. I didn't realize how out of shape I was. All those days of the funeral, and arrangements—"

  "Of course." He handed her the foil hiltfirst over his arm, with a bow. If only his courtesy meant something! She handed him her weapon with equal grace, and they exchanged places on the strip, as always after an exchange of weapons.

  Miranda was sure she knew which of the old weapons had actually drawn blood. She knew nothing would show on analysis; she knew her belief was irrational and indefensible, but . . . the foil conveyed to her an eagerness for blood that matched her own. It had from the moment she first handled the old weapons.

  They were just poised to begin again when her comunit chimed. "Milady—Lady Cecelia de Marktos called; she has docked and taken one of the personal shuttles."

  Cecelia coming? Bright anger washed over her. She had been so close; she might never have another chance. Why couldn't Cecelia mind her own business? And where was she coming from? How many minutes did she have, now, to finish Pedar?

  With an effort, she regained her concentration. She would figure out something . . . as long as it was over before Cecelia walked in . . .

  She found it hard, at first, to conceal the speed the foil lent her. Beat, parry, parry, beat, beat. Her heart hammered, more excitement than effort; she dared not use her own pulse for a timer. She dared not wait too long, either.

  She backed a pace, then another, then, with a quick disengage, lunged and made the touch. With contact, she twisted her wrist and pushed, taking Pedar's tip on her left shoulder. Through her hand, she felt the faintest give to the tip.

  "We're both dead," she said with a smile. The mask across from her gave no hint of Pedar's expression; he stepped back as she did to salute and begin again.

  Was the tip gone? The foil felt no different; she parried his next stroke, and his next, and then she heard it. The tip gave way, flipped by her blade's elastic recoil into a parabolic arc; she had to drag her eyes away from it to check the break. Pedar froze an instant, then started to withdraw.

  "I'm afraid a blade broke—" he said. She saw the tilt of his helm, as he looked to check his own, saw it move back.

  She waited, until she knew he had time to see her blade, the sharp tip exposed by the spiral fracture.

  "Miranda—?" For the first time, his voice was uncertain.

  He was good; he almost parried the lightning thrust she sent at his mask—but he had dropped his arm, lost his rhythm, and responded that fractional second late. The tip of her blade—stiffer now and sharp—slammed into her target, a particular perforation in the metal of his mask. Around it, the weakened metal gave way, and she thrust on, the broken tip grating over the orbit's rim into the eye she could not see, into the brain behind it, with a wrist motion that ensured more than a single damage track. Her blade snapped again, on the back of his skull, and quickly as she withdrew it, he was already falling.

  "Ohhh . . ." She sank with him, still watchful until his hand loosened and dropped his weapon. Then she dropped her own sword, grabbed at his shoulders. "Noooo. . . . ! Pedar! NO!!"

  Cecelia heard the cry as she came through the door, and saw Miranda, recognizable by both form and the golden hair that spilled out the back of her helm, facing away from her, clutching at the shoulders of her opponent, who was collapsing. She moved forward quickly. Was it Pedar, or someone else?

  Miranda was scrabbling at the other person's mask, trying to get it off.

  "Miranda—let me help. Ca
ll medical—"

  "It won't come off—it won't come off!" Miranda seemed frantic, her gloved fingers clumsily yanking at some kind of latch. Now Cecelia could see the blood trickling out where the mask had given way, and the blood on the broken short length of blade. "I told him! I told him it was dangerous! Bunny always said no one should use the old blades, or trust the old armor, but he wanted to—he insisted—"