by Jaleta Clegg
"That isn't fair," I protested for the second time in the last ten minutes.
"No, but considering your past record—"
"Fine, I'll stay quiet and hidden. I'll talk to Lady Rina and share tea with her and listen to her stories."
"You do that," Clark said, "I dare you."
I stuck my tongue out at him as we went out the hatch.
The station was the smallest one, more utilitarian than the others. The others were huge, fanciful creations of glass and metal and live plants that looked more like upscale shopping centers than space stations. This one didn't have the waterfalls or large plazas and parks. The walkways were broad, paved with imitation stone and ceramic tile. The lights were muted, the ceilings blue to mimic daytime sky. Imported birds chirped in the foliage of potted trees parked in front of the stores. I had to squint to see the force fields that kept them there and prevented them from leaving droppings on customers.
The shuttle was in the berth, waiting for us. Tenison had even provided crew. His pilots lounged near the hatch. They saw the five of us and straightened. Besht had restrictions on who could pilot shuttles. It didn't matter that I could fly just about anything smaller than a battle cruiser, I didn't have a specific shuttle license. I wasn't allowed to fly.
The shuttle was luxurious, not the usual crowded commercial version. This one had only a dozen seats, very plush seats with built in conveniences that I'd never even imagined. We sat and strapped in. The shuttle pushed away from the station with only the slightest bump. Clark leaned back in his chair, sighing deeply.
"I want one of these," he said.
I pushed a button marked massage. Tiny fingers began to knead my back and shoulders. Slow warmth spread through my muscles.
"They won't fit in the cockpit unless we rip out the controls," I said.
"We could put a couple in the lounge," Clark said.
"Do you have any idea what the price of one of these is?" Jasyn asked.
"I don't want to think about it," I said.
"You don't always have to be practical," Clark said.
Jasyn leaned over him and whispered in his ear. He grinned and whispered something back. She giggled.
Jerimon rolled his eyes and moved to a seat farther away from them. I swiveled the chair around to face the windows. The darkness of space gave way to wavering streams of fire as we plunged into the atmosphere of the planet. The sound was barely noticeable inside the shuttle.
The pilots were very good. We touched down with barely a bump. The shuttle rolled to a stop next to a hangar. We climbed off.
Tenison had also left us the use of his private flitter. It was smaller, but no less luxurious, than the shuttle. Tenison was doing very well, to afford all this luxury. I was tempted to turn grounder and make money of my own. Almost tempted. I'd have to give up too much of my freedom to stay on one planet.
The flitter pilot, we weren't allowed to fly that either, was polite but distant. She shut us out of the cockpit after telling us we were welcome to help ourselves to the contents of the cabinets. There was an assortment of fancy foods and drinks. The flight to Lady Rina's private estate was over six hours. We were flying into the planet's night. We ate all of the food long before we arrived.
Lady Rina lived in a grand mansion isolated on the seacoast of Besht along a strip of similar properties. Each one had several acres of manicured grounds surrounded by square miles of wilderness. The flitter touched down in front of the imposing front door. We climbed out and stretched. Streaks of palest peach on the far horizon hinted at a dawn not far away.
The door opened, washing the front steps in golden light. A short figure padded down the steps to greet us.
"How are my favorite ladies?" Leon said, beaming brightly.
"Not in need of your services this time," Jasyn said as she hugged him.
He gave me a handshake. Leon was Lady Rina's lawyer. He was one of the sneakiest, most devious and underhanded people I knew. He was short, smarmy, and oozed fake charm from every pore. I liked him.
"We heard you were on your way," Leon said. "She wants to see all of you. But later. She had a rough night."
"How is she, really?" Jasyn asked. "No one's given us much information."
"She had a series of strokes. She moves a bit slower. She stutters. She lost the use of her left hand with the last one. If she were thirty years younger, the doctors would say she would make a full recovery. She's showing her age." It was the most serious I'd ever seen Leon. He really cared about Lady Rina, as a person not just as a source of income. "But come in, get settled, have breakfast. Or dinner. What time are you on?"
"Breakfast sounds good," I said.
We trooped into the mansion. Leon showed us to our rooms. We were each given a big bedroom with an attached bathroom. The house was huge. Most of it looked unused and unvisited by anyone other than the cleaning staff.
I put my bag on a bed bigger than my entire cabin. My room faced the ocean. I crossed to one of the windows and pulled the curtain back. The sky grew colors, like ribbons of light waving over the restless water. A flock of white birds darted and wheeled over the shoreline. My stomach growled. I turned away from the view and followed the smell of food to the kitchen.
Chapter 14
Lady Rina received us in her parlor midmorning. She stayed seated the whole time, her back ramrod straight but her hands trembling. She looked a lot older than the last time we'd visited two months back. Some of the energy she usually radiated was gone. She let Estelle, her personal assistant for many years, pour the tea and offer the cookies.
"Thank you for coming," she said, over-enunciating each word. "It really wasn't necessary to hurry."
"We were done with our contract," Jasyn said. "We heard you were ill, and came to see if we could help."
"It's nothing," she said and tried to convince us it was true.
"Then count it as a visit we were going to make anyway," I said.
"How did your appeal to the Traders Guild go?" Lady Rina asked.
"They kicked us out," Clark said as if he were discussing the weather.
I'd finally gotten around to reading the letter Everett had brought us on Landruss. It was a formal notice that all of my accounts were closed and my membership was terminated. I could expect to receive similar letters anywhere I went.
Lady Rina murmured something that sounded sympathetic. Her words slurred until I couldn't understand them.
I sipped the watery tea while Jasyn tried to pretend everything was normal. She chattered on about our ship and Ghost. Lady Rina perked up when she mentioned the forthcoming kittens.
"I would like to have one as a pet," Lady Rina said.
"You'll have the pick of the litter," Jasyn promised. "It should be about three months before they can be given away."
We tried to make conversation for a few minutes longer. Lady Rina was fading fast. Her eyes kept fluttering closed. Estelle finally intervened.
"She needs her rest," Estelle said.
We took our leave. Lady Rina was asleep, sitting bolt upright in her armchair.
I went out to walk the beach a short distance from the back of her house. The wind was teasing, light and just cool enough to be pleasant. Scrubby plants grew on the back side of the sand dunes between the house and the ocean. The birds dipped and swirled over the ocean.
I reached the harder sand near the water. Waves licked and curled across the beach. I took off my shoes, rolled up the legs of my shipsuit, and walked barefoot. The swirling waves felt good. I carried my boots, though. No matter how hard I tried that was one phobia I couldn't shake. I felt naked without my boots within grabbing distance.
I wandered, enjoying the solitude. A larger wave than most rushed around my ankles and back out to sea. Something stuck out of the sand as the water retreated, washed there by the ocean. Curious, I picked it up. The shell was a round cup, hard and gray on the outside, smooth and irridescent blue on the inside. It nestled neatly in my hand. I looked for
more. By lunchtime, I found a dozen large shells, each different. I carried them back to the mansion. Leon sat on the back porch. He saw what I carried and offered me a bag to keep them in and tips for making sure the animals that lived in them were long dead and gone. He told me the names of half of them. The others he didn't know.
"How long have you been here?" I asked him as I sat on the porch and brushed sand from my feet.
"Most of the last year. She needs me here now. I've been running her businesses for the last year and a half."
"What about your family, Leon?"
"I never cared much for my nephew or his family. My sister. I send her money sometimes and she leaves me alone. I don't have any other family that I care to claim." He shifted in his chair, sipping a drink. "Most of them worked for Targon. Knowingly."
"I'm sorry." I'd probably shot some of them.
"Don't be. I'm not. Thanks to you and Jerimon and Jasyn, I've got Lady Rina and her Family now." He grinned, his cocky smile that I found irresistible. I had to smile back. "How's your dad doing? I see him sometimes. His ship makes port here about once a month."
"You've seen him more than I have." I fingered the necklace he'd given me.
"He talked about you. He's proud of you. Brags about you everywhere he goes."
"More stories about me," I groaned. "Do you have any idea how many planets I have supposedly saved, bare handed, by myself? The rumors are incredible."
He laughed. I picked up a striped green and brown shell and rubbed the silky smooth surface.
"Jasyn says you're in trouble again," Leon said. "You picked it up on Verrus."
"It found me. I couldn't turn him away, Leon. Did Jasyn explain that to you?"
"She didn't say much, she said she didn't want me to get mixed up in things. But she asked me to see what information I could find for you." He nudged one of my shells. "That's a nice one. Who is this person you picked up?"
"He says his name is Mart. He doesn't remember anything more than that." I shrugged. "We haven't had trouble since Verrus. At least not about him."
"You've had other kinds?"
"Engine trouble, Leon. We lost the stabilizers coming in to Jewel. It happens." I picked up the first shell I'd found and tilted it to catch the sunlight. The blue shimmered with greens and purples. "At least my troubles with Jerimon seem to be cured."
"I heard about Larella. Good match there. They deserve each other."
I laughed. I felt relaxed, safe, far removed from trouble.
"Lady Rina wishes to speak with you," Estelle said, coming out on the porch. She was looking at me. "Alone," she added to Leon.
I stood, pushing my feet back into my boots.
"I'll wash your shells for you," Leon offered.
Lady Rina was still in her chair. She blinked heavily as I entered the shadowed parlor. The shades were drawn but the windows were open. I could smell the ocean on the breeze that drifted through the room.
"Sit, Dace," Lady Rina commanded.
I sat in the chair across from her. Estelle set a small table between us. She put Lady Rina's deck of cards on the table and left the room. Lady Rina waited until the door shut before she spoke again.
"I'm growing old," she said bluntly. "I will die soon. I do not wish to die with my curiosity unanswered. I read your cards, after a very strange visit from a man I do not know. I saw only more confusion and the strangest set of cards I have ever read." She reached out a trembling hand and tapped the cards. "You will deal them."
I reached for the deck slowly as if they were going to bite me. This was not something I wanted to do. Lady Rina's cards had power and they scared me. I touched the deck. Lady Rina laid her knobbed hand on top of mine. I looked up at her. Her eyes were clear, pale and strange in her old face.
"What is your name?" she whispered. "Your true name?"
"I don't know what you mean." Her hand was heavy on mine. It was cool, dry and ancient.
"What name were you born with?"
How had she known that I had changed my name as soon as I legally could? Her eyes hinted at power and knowledge that I couldn't begin to understand.
"Zeresthina Dasmuller." It had been my grandmother's name, Darus' mother. My mother had given it to me in an attempt to protect me from her legacy. She had been the leader of an unsuccessful rebellion on Tivor. I still wondered why they hadn't killed me when they found me, a small child wandering the streets, crying and hungry.
"And your chosen name is Dace," Lady Rina said more normally. "Take the cards, without looking, and shuffle them once."
I did as she ordered. The cards were soft, almost like fabric. The sound of shuffling was muted. I carefully pushed them together, straightening them and squaring them on the table.
"What is your date of birth, on the Imperial calendar?"
"I don't know. Tivor doesn't officially record me as being born."
"That explains much," Lady Rina said cryptically. "You chose your name, you chose your birthdate. Your destiny is one of choices. Greatness or obscurity. I begin to see more clearly."
I didn't, but I kept my mouth shut.
She tapped my hand again. "Deal the top card. Place it here." She nudged my hands and the cards aside. I picked them up. She tapped the center of the table.
I turned the top card. The Jester smiled slyly up at me.
"Deceit and trickery," Lady Rina said. She tapped four spots, one at each side of the Jester. I turned over four more cards. "The lovers, the tower, the lovers again, and the eye. Interesting."
I waited for her to explain, but she didn't. She tapped the table again. I laid out cards as she indicated. I kept turning up the same four cards, with the occasional horseman thrown in. I didn't understand how I could keep turning over the same cards.
I laid the last card out on the table. It completed an overlapping flower of the same dark cards over and over. I thought the deck contained different cards. The room felt like the sky just before lightning strikes. The hair on my arms stood straight up. Lady Rina breathed over the cards. Her strange eyes caught mine, trapping them and holding me motionless.
"More questions?"
"What does it mean?" I asked.
Lady Rina shrugged and gathered up the cards. "There are powers that few understand."
"Larella tried to explain."
Lady Rina shuffled clumsily and turned over the top card. It was a pink flower. It hadn't been in the deck a moment earlier. She turned over four more, a twisting vine with white flowers, the horse and interlocked golden rings, a bird with rainbow wings, and a wreath of leaves with red berries nestled among them. I started. The wreath looked almost exactly like the ring I wore, the one from the box of necklaces. Lady Rina looked up, an unspoken question in her eyes. I tugged the ring from my finger and laid it on the card.
"The Rowan," she said. "Protection from evil magic. Safety. Peace." She tapped the other cards on the table. "Fulfillment. This is my reading. For me." She put her cards to one side. "One I don't need to finish. I know I'm dying, despite what the doctors say." She lifted the ring, cradling it on her palm as she studied it. She squinted at the characters incised on the inner side. She drew in a sharp breath. "Where did you get this ring?"
"It was in a box, left for me under strange circumstances." I explained the necklaces, the whole story of the shop that wasn't there when we went back. And the inventory left for me. "Mart had one of the necklaces with him when he ran into me. He said I was obligated to help him because of it. That ring was in the bottom of one box. You recognize it. What is it? What does it mean?"
"The sigil of peace, of love, and a promise," she said. "I gave a ring like this to someone many years ago. I wonder what became of him. I have no idea of what it means now." She held the ring back out to me. "Take it and the safety it can offer you. I believe you will need it on your journey."
The ring felt much heavier on my hand.
Estelle came back in on her quiet feet. I'd known Estelle for two days before I'd heard
her speak. She was silent, a calm shadow that anticipated Lady Rina's wishes before they were voiced. She set a tray on another table next to Lady Rina and left as quietly as she had come. Lady Rina indicated the small package on the tray.
"This was trusted to my care not long ago. I was told I would know when to give it to you. The time is now. Too many pieces are beginning to emerge. I do not like what I see."
I broke the seal on the flat box and slid it open. A fluttering creature of blood red tangled in gold wire slid free. A tiny data cube was caught in its gold strands. I'd seen too many of those necklaces recently, but none of that gruesome shade.
"There is a portable reader in the cabinet," Lady Rina said.
I fetched the reader and played the one short message recorded on the cube.
To my astonishment, Lowell's voice emerged from the speaker. He was the last person I expected to be involved with the necklace lady. He wasn't part of the puzzle, until now.
"Dace, I don't have much time," his voice said. "I'm leaving this with your adopted aunt because I can trust her. I left a package for you where the jewelry came from. The combination to the locker you should already have. I can't be more specific, you should be able to figure it out. Pick it if you can't. Bring the contents to," there was a pause, "to Scholar, along with your guest. He'll know what to do with them. I've left money with your aunt. Be careful who you trust." The message ended. I stared at the reader.
"What does he mean?" Lady Rina said.
"I have no idea," I admitted.
"He did leave money. In cash. He insisted."
"He promised never to set me up again," I said, growing angry at Lowell and his machinations. Last time he'd almost gotten me and my friends killed. Last time I'd turned into the monster I loathed, the one that could shoot people in cold blood and not feel anything. Habim had died on Xqtl. It pushed me over the edge. It had been Lowell who pulled me back and kept me in one piece until I was healed.
"He was asking, begging, for your help," Lady Rina said. "This grows even more tangled."
I sighed and sank back in the chair. The blood colored jewelry danced on the breeze from the open windows.
