RAWN

by Bonnie Burrows

  “Me…?”

  “Yes, Joanna. I think you and I should talk.”

  “About…?”

  “I think you know,” said Evette. “There’s no need to pretend. Rawn told me.”

  Joanna’s eyebrows arched. Her eyes fluttered. “He…told you…?”

  “About himself and you. About the two of you. He told me.”

  “Oh,” said Joanna, feeling as exposed as she would be if she were alone and away from the ball with Rawn. “I see. He told you.”

  “Yes, he did,” Evette replied. “And I think we should talk about it. To clear the air, to know where we stand.”

  Now, Joanna felt flustered. Everything she had said to Rawn—and then ignored as if she’d never said it—now came rushing back to her. Here were the consequences of breaking her ethics and crossing a line that a mediate should never cross. Here was personal embarrassment at best and an incident that could seriously damage her career at worst. All the consequences that she had foreseen were right here in front of her now, clad in a black and red gown, in the form of the daughter of the leader of a planet.

  If Evette were to make enough noise about what Joanna had allowed to happen, Joanna would be fortunate to end up writing obituaries for obscure people on backwater planets. Had the pleasure of being in bed with Rawn been worth the risk? She was now about to find out.

  Sounding every bit as vulnerable as she felt, Joanna repeated, “Where we stand…?”

  “Yes,” said Evette. “We both have an interest here, I’m sure you’ll agree.”

  “He actually told you…”

  “Of course, he told me. Rawn is a Knight. He’s honest and he’s fair. He knew that I had an interest, and he wanted to be fair to me after what had happened between you. So yes, he told me—everything. He told me that you’ve been sleeping together.”

  “I didn’t know he would do that,” said Joanna in a voice that must have sounded every bit as fluttery as her heart felt. “But you’re right, it’s something he would do. He is honest. Honest and fair. Ms. Veles, if this has hurt you or disappointed you in any way, I want you to know I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…”

  “…to hurt me,” Evette finished for her. “I’m sure you didn’t. I’m sure neither of you was thinking about doing any harm to me or anyone else. When someone is in your position—if you’ll pardon the word—hurting someone else is usually the last thing on their mind.”

  “Rawn and I,” said Joanna, struggling with her words, “we’ve had these feelings, I guess. We weren’t acting on them, but they were there. And when Rawn decided to be as honest with me as he was with you…I guess our feelings just took over. I tried to stop it at first. I told him why we shouldn’t let it happen.”

  Evette made a knowing look at her. “But knowing it shouldn’t happen and stopping it are two different things.”

  “You’re being so understanding,” Joanna said. “More understanding than you ought to be. More understanding than I would be. If I were you…”

  “You’d be feeling hurt, jealous, angry. Especially over a man like Rawn, the most

  exceptional, special man in the world. The most desirable man, it’s true. But I’m none of those things, Joanna. I’m really not. In my position, I understand what it is to be wanted by more than one possible partner. I know who Rawn is. I know how desirable and how desired he is. I’d have to be blind not to know that. I simply assumed what many people assumed, that the First Daughter of Lacerta and our greatest Knight were a natural couple. You know that a lot of

  people think that way.”

  Joanna sighed. “I know. But Ms. Veles…”

  “Please,” the woman in black and red corrected her, “call me Evette. It’s all right to call me Evette.”

  “Evette,” said Joanna, “there’s been this…feeling between Rawn and me. And it just…pulled the two of us together. We weren’t thinking about anything but the way we felt. That’s all it was.”

  “You can’t ignore a feeling like that,” said Evette. “It won’t let you ignore it. You can try, but you can’t just turn it off. And I can’t compete with that. I can compete with other things, but not with a feeling like that. There’s really only one thing I can do, Joanna.”

  “What’s that?” Joanna asked.

  “Just this,” Evette replied. And then the daughter of the Prime Dragon of Lacerta did a curious thing. She put her lips together and exhaled. Joanna had no chance at all to react to what followed.

  From Evette’s pursed lips came a stream of mist that flowed out into the air and

  blossomed and bloomed into a cloud like fog over a meadow on a cool, crisp morning. The cloud crossed the space between the two women and enveloped Joanna. Breathing in the vapor, Joanna reeled back, tossing her head, suddenly overcome with dizziness. In less than a second, she felt another fog inside, closing over her mind even as the one from Evette engulfed her body. She tried to say something, to shout something. Her lips parted, but no sound escaped. She staggered. She dropped to the floor and did not move.

  The mist dissipated as quickly as Joanna fell, and Evette stood over the human female lying by the fountain. In another moment, there was no Evette Veles. The Alpha Dragon’s daughter morphed and transformed, clothing and all, her entire appearance shifting, changing. What stood over Joanna now was a smiling Knight in silver armor, the one to whom the grass dragon flew after perching on Joanna’s window ledge while Rawn and Joanna urgently joined bodies on their first morning together.

  The young Knight quickly knelt down and plucked Epaulette from Joanna’s shoulder. He left the AI lying on the pave stones, picked Joanna up and tossed her over his shoulder, and stepped around the fountain and between the dwarf trees on the far side of the contemplation room. And with the music in the Arboretum on the other side of the room, the Knight and

  Joanna were gone.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  At length, Rawn and Evette decided that, since Rawn was the reason for the ball, they ought to go back inside. The decision sat well with Rawn because Joanna was still in the

  Arboretum, though he discreetly did not say this to Evette, and back they went.

  There was drinking, and as he drank, Rawn searched the crowd of elegantly dressed

  people and beings from dozens of planets for the one face he most wanted to see. Curiously, that one face was absent. Why would Joanna not be nearby? Her Bureau was paying her to keep him in her sight, record his doings, and report on anything interesting that he did or anyone interesting with whom he might interact.

  He could not see her anywhere. It made no sense that she would make herself inconspicuous. She ought to be in the thick of the party, mingling and chatting with the guests and seizing any holograph opportunity he presented. But she was nowhere to be found.

  There was dancing. Rawn took another turn on the floor with Evette, and soon, her father cut in to have a dance with her, and Evette handed Rawn off to her mother. Rawn danced as gracefully with Marcine Veles as he knew how, and smiled a gallant and courtly smile at her,

  respecting her station as the mate of the ruler of the planet.

  To be sure, Rawn thought, Joanna would be nearby with Epaulette, getting all of this in memory. Other mediates, he knew, were dutifully scanning and recording this moment; Joanna must be among them. But as he wheeled about the floor with Ms. Veles, there was still no sign of Joanna at all. Underneath his smile, his curiosity was quickly turning to concern.

  An enormous cake was brought out on a long, floating tray. It would be Rawn’s task to make the first cut of the cake, another moment to be recorded for transmission all over the

  quadrant. Dame Sienna handed him the ceremonial knife and stood by with the Veles family while Rawn dutifully sank the blade into the confection for the first slice. As he did, he looked up smiling into a sea of admiring faces and the shine of mediates’ floating AI units.

  Once again, he searched for Joanna Way with her Epaulette, who had to be standing nearby, cap
turing the moment. And once again, there was no Joanna. Rawn’s smile was starting to

  become decidedly forced. Having made the first cut, he handed off the knife to one of the

  serving staff who would continue the task of subdividing the cake for the throng of guests. In the meantime, Rawn stepped aside and discreetly accosted the lady Mentor. “Dame Sienna,” he whispered, “could I have a word with you? In private?”

  The Dame nodded, and they stepped away to a place in the Arboretum where one of the larger trees had been allowed to stay for the evening. And while the other guests occupied themselves with the cake, Rawn took the opportunity to speak with Sienna.

  “Milady,” he asked, “have you seen Joanna Way lately?”

  Quizzically, Sienna looked about the large, wide space of the Arboretum and made an expression as curious as Rawn’s had been since coming back from the gardens. “Now you

  mention it, it’s been a little while since I’ve seen Ms. Way. I assumed she was mingling and

  reporting and she was simply in another part of the ball.”

  “So did I,” said Rawn. “But I’ve kept looking and looking. I haven’t seen her anywhere.”

  Sienna frowned slightly. “That is very odd. She certainly would not have left and walked out on her assignment. She should be about here somewhere. All the other mediates are here. Have you spoken to any of them?”

  “I haven’t had the chance,” Rawn said. “When the other mediates have come to speak with me, I naturally haven’t brought up the subject of someone from another Bureau; it would be off the subject and bad form. I have no idea whether anyone else has found Joanna missing, and I don’t know where she would have gone and not come back.”

  “This is troubling,” Sienna admitted. She spoke into the badge of her dress uniform: “Access Stellarnet. Any news items of a major or urgent nature on Lacerta or elsewhere in the quadrant. Any crisis or emergency situations in Commonwealth space. Report.”

  An AI voice from Sienna’s badge replied, “No urgent news items. No crisis or

  emergency situations occurring in Commonwealth space.”

  A look of complete incomprehension passed between Sienna and Rawn—incomprehension turning to a deep and cutting anxiety.

  Sienna addressed her badge again. “Scan identification signals of all mediate AIs in the Arboretum. State the location of the AI belonging to Joanna Way of the Terran News Service.”

  In a second, the badge answered, “AI belonging to Joanna Way is in the Northwest

  Contemplation Room.”

  Rawn cut in: “Is Joanna Way in the Northwest Contemplation Room?”

  “Negative,” said the badge.

  The look of confusion and mounting dread that Rawn and Sienna shared lasted only a second before they quickly and quietly made their way along the edge of the party goers and headed for the room in question.

  Hurried minutes later, they entered the space where the Dame’s badge said they would find Epaulette. With a quick search, they found the little device lying near the fountain where it had been left. Rawn picked it up at once.

  “Where would she go and why would she leave this here?” he wondered fearfully aloud.

  “Perhaps if we activate the device it will provide a clue,” Sienna suggested.

  “We’d have to have Joanna’s passcode or a way to bypass it,” said Rawn.

  “We can obtain that,” said Sienna, “but we’ll require authorization from the Terran News Service. It’s better we go to the Spires for that. We’ll have to go back to the ball and excuse ourselves to the Veles family.”

  “Then, let’s go,” said Rawn, looking from the brooch-like device in his hand back into the Arboretum and the party.

  Quickly, Rawn and the Dame found the Veles family near the now thoroughly portioned and distributed cake. They explained the situation and why they had to leave immediately, and the Prime and First Dragons were disappointed but understanding. As Sienna preceded him

  toward the entranceway where he had walked with Evette down the red carpet, Rawn felt the tug of Evette at his arm.

  He paused, turned, and looked into her knowing gaze. “Joanna Way, then,” she simply said, her meaning implicit from the way she said it.

  Solemnly, Rawn replied, “Yes. Joanna.” His concern for Joanna—his concern and so many other things—were all over his face and heavy in his voice. There was no way Evette could not have known, after their talk in the garden.

  Unruffled and accepting, Evette nodded softly. “Of course. You rescued her. You’ve spent the most time in her company. Of course…Joanna Way.”

  “I’m sorry,” Rawn said.

  “Don’t be sorry,” Evette replied. “Just go and find her. Make certain she’s all right. You must go. There’s nothing else for it. I think I’d actually be disappointed if you didn’t.”

  “Thank you,” said Rawn. Then, “Could I ask you just one favor, please?”

  “How can I help?” asked Evette.

  “People are going to notice that I’m leaving early and leaving without you. There are

  going to be questions, and this place is filled with media…”

  “…and since you escorted me here, you’ll need me to tell them something when they ask. I may have to be a bit creative, but I’m certain I can think of something.”

  “Perhaps you ought to keep it simple,” Rawn suggested.

  As ominous as the situation seemed, Evette couldn’t stifle a smile with one side of her lips. “Leave it to me,” she said. “I’ve had enough practice explaining some of my own absences to my parents when some young dragon came calling. But before you go…just one thing.”

  “What?”

  “If you don’t mind me saying it, Joanna Way is a very fortunate human.” And with that, she reached up on tiptoes and kissed him warmly on the cheek. In spite of everything else he was feeling, Rawn smiled back just a little.

  “I hope she is,” said Rawn. And taking Evette’s hand from his arm and giving it an

  appreciative squeeze, he hurried out behind Dame Sienna.

  _______________

  To secure the needed authorization from the main bureau of the Terran News Service on Earth would have taken an entire day, and every instinct told Rawn and Sienna that Joanna Way might not have that long. Using her authority with the Spires, prevailing on the good will

  between Lacerta and Earth, and calling in a favor or two, Sienna was able to wrangle access to a temporary override of Joanna’s AI security from the local Terran News Service Bureau on Lacerta itself. She and Rawn took Epaulette to Sienna’s private office, set it on Sienna’s desk, and gave it the verbal command and code to permit access to its contents. The result was immediate.

  A beam of light rose from the metal jewelry object on the desk. The beam expanded, and the light resolved itself into the holographic image of a man sitting at the controls of the spaceship. A star that they guessed was Catalan blazed through the self-tinted viewport. The man smiled a smile of false benevolence, geniality laced with venom. Rawn and Sienna recognized him at once. Sienna put a hand to her chest as if to still her heart. Rawn staggered a step, shocked, horrified, enraged. He snarled the man’s name as if it were the foulest curse in the universe:

  “Sabian!”

  The image of Dr. Sewall Sabian at last spoke. “Sir Rawn Ullery, my old foe. I knew you would need a moment to register the fact that I am as alive as you are, so I waited a bit before starting to record this greeting to you. As you can see, we both survived that final battle in the Chimerian warp nexus. As you can also see, I’m recording this message from the cockpit of my ship just safely outside the orbit of Catalan.

  I’ve had an agent on Lacerta, watching and reporting back to me everything pertinent to my interests that might be going on there. You can imagine the way I felt when his report was about your ‘homecoming,’ as the media have been calling it. And on the subject of the media, while I am safe from the fires of your home star, there is s
omeone else who soon might not be.”

  In the recording, Sabian waved a hand over the control panel of his ship, and the visual content of the hologram shifted. The next thing that Rawn and Sienna saw was a sight to freeze Rawn’s blood in spite of his power to breathe fire. It was a stark, bare, enclosed space, with only a long seat on either side of it, and another tinted viewport out of which the searing disk of Catalan was visible. And on one of those long seats lay the unconscious Joanna Way, still in her ball gown, oblivious as of yet to her own plight.

  Rawn recognized where Joanna lay as the interior of an escape pod. And the contours of what was happening—and what could be about to happen—to Joanna began to take shape in his mind.

  Sabian continued in voice, “As you can see, my agent delivered Ms. Way to me

  unharmed. And she’ll remain so—on the condition that you obey my next commands. Our