Korval's Game

by Sharon Lee

  Duty done, the cat and the woman walked down the hallway and out into the inner garden.

  ***

  The garden was lit by star-shine—well enough for one who knew the way. Anthora walked slowly, savoring the night air, cool with the scent of growing things. Down and ’round the path she walked, til she came to the center, the heartplace, of the garden, and here she left the path, and moved across the moss to lay her hand against Jelaza Kazone, Jela’s Fulfillment, known to the World as Korval’s Tree.

  “Good evening, Elder,” she murmured, and felt her palm grow warm, where it lay against the bark. She breathed deeply of the cool, minty scent and leaned back, settling her shoulders comfortably. At her feet, in a vee made by two shallow roots, Merlin tucked himself, front feet under his chest, golden eyes slits of satisfaction.

  In the minty dark, Anthora closed her eyes. Purposefully, she filled her lungs with the scented air, Jelaza Kazone warming her back through the house tunic she wore. Slowly, as if of their own volition, her hands rose, palms vulnerable to the stars.

  Anthora opened her Inner Eyes across the dazzle of the galaxy and in nightly ritual, began to count.

  There, the cool flame that was Nova, blurred by the veiling of hyperspace. And, there—Shan, warm as a hug. Through him, less Seen than extrapolated, Anthora found Priscilla. And there—there was Cousin Pat Rin, aloof, as ever.

  It was a foolish ritual in its way, there being no aid she might send to those so distant, should she find them in distress. She lived in no little dread, who was considered the heedless one, of the night she might count one frail candle missing and nothing she could do to recover the flame.

  Still, she persisted, taking comfort where it was offered—and so far tonight she had counted four—Nova, Shan, Priscilla, Pat Rin—safe, for now, and treasured.

  So, onward. She took another deliberately deep breath and cast her mind out once more. Val Con . . . She found him, his flame brilliant as before the Wrongness, which Anthora now knew was named the Department of Interior, and at his shoulder a bonfire, which was Miri—his lifemate, whom Anthora had yet to embrace in a sister’s welcome.

  Well enough, six, and herself made seven. She brought her thought toward an easier goal, touched the children—Quin, Padi, Syl Vor, Mik and Shindi—and Great-aunt Kareen yos’Phelium, and Cousin Luken bel’Tarda, bright, all bright, in their safeplaces, then took deeper breath and flung her mind wider still.

  She had first noted this one during her pregnancy with the twins. In that heightened state of power, it had been as plain to her as a comet on the horizon. Now, it was the glitter of a jeweled pinhead, sometimes sensed, sometimes seen, and sometimes lost entirely in the clamor of the worlds intervening. Tonight, she thought she would miss it, then caught a flash of its unique glitter, at the extreme edge of her ability to read.

  There was no name to put to this tiny gem of flame, yet she welcomed it as she welcomed the flames of her named and known kin and dreaded its loss as nearly.

  So then, of adults, counted and known, nine. Of children, the full complement of five. Clan Korval, numbering precisely fourteen, from the eldest to the youngest. The warmth at her back grew briefly warmer and Anthora smiled as she lowered her hands.

  Fifteen, of course. One did not discount the Tree.

  But even with the Tree, it did seem few—very few, indeed. No skill that lay to her hand would reveal the number of those who hunted them—but she guessed them to be far in excess of—fifteen.

  She opened her eyes and stepped away from the Tree, but without the spring of joy the counting of her kin most usually gave her. Instead, she bade the Tree good evening in a tone that was nearly somber, and went softly across the mossy carpet to the paved path, where she paused and glanced back.

  “Lord Merlin?”

  The cat opened his eyes, stood, stretched and sauntered to her, stropping once against her leg before preceding her down the path, to the house and bed.

  EROB’S HOLD:

  Practice Grounds

  Quickly, he discovered the joy of having too much to do.

  It was made quite clear that he was to be the captain’s shadow and bodyguard, and to perhaps carry extra communication equipment if required. He was then a specialist attached to the captain by her order, outside the ordinary line of command.

  There were times during the day when he was ordered to this place or that to return with a map or disk or perhaps a bottle of something, and there were times when he stood watch duty as was his right.

  He knew, too, that he never stood watch alone—and that was understood as well.

  At first, the scout was always within range, the Captain’s Blade, as Nelirikk came to consider him, ready to slay any who might harm her. Gradually, the scout became less evident—was then missing entirely, sent here and there by the captain’s word—or by the word of those others, of higher command.

  He met with those others—Commander Carmody, who proved himself an astute and cunning officer, and an elderly Liaden who was made known to him as “General,” a patriarch of the captain’s clan—as well as seniors of mercenaries and house guard.

  By Yxtrang standards they were woefully understaffed in the mid and low-level officers, but truth known, they were fighters and not functionaries.

  They asked him fact and opinion, numbers and names, battle plans and supply schemes. He told straightforward, and after a short time he understood they were not threatening when they asked “What makes you think that?” or “Why would that be the case?”

  In short, they treated him as he had not been treated since his days of exploration: as if he had a mind as well as eyes. He spent more time with the AI computer: its questions were wonderfully complex, and his respect for the scout grew wider.

  When he was not with the captain or in mess, he found it difficult not to be doing things. He studied as well as he could, spending hours in serious contemplation of colors and their meanings. And, on the midnight that the scout and half-a-dozen veteran soldiers awaited what transport the Yxtrang should send to retrieve one they would rather had died, he began his dedication gift to the troop.

  The command of the combined Terran and Liaden forces headquartered here now knew much of what he knew, Nelirikk thought, as he carefully plied needle and thread. They knew and in the process of laying all before them, he had discovered truth. And in truth, after so many Cycles of bitterness, he found a certain peace.

  The 14th Conquest Corps had quite liberally interpreted the orders it had received. He’d heard the rumor—and since none feared a no-troop, whose word was nothing but sound—he’d heard it in numerous places.

  The 14th Conquest Corps had determined to treat the target of a long-planned multi-Corps invasion as a Target of Opportunity. It was a bold move, born of the intelligence that the target world was in upheaval. It was a move that—if successful—would advance the 14th to leadership over the 15th and 16th after too dismal a turn as back-up and support auxiliaries.

  So, the 14th was reaching hard, straining for glory. Rather than take one continent fully and await the 15th, it had gone for both of the large ones. The need, after all, was to own the planet when the other units arrived.

  If the 14th merely fell short of its boldness—took one continent, but not both—the 15th would likely land troops and claim the victory for its own, relegating the 14th once again to back-up.

  However, if the 14th were defeated. . .

  Could such soldiers as he had seen here defeat the 14th Conquest Corps?

  Nelirikk considered that, snipping and sewing in the nighttime camp.

  The Irregulars—his home troop—held a number of strengths: Its captain was war-wise and intelligent, neither over-bold nor underconfident. The scout was a strength, as the captain’s near advisor, as trainer in hand-to-hand, and as fabricator of weird devices of surprising effectiveness. The unit contained perhaps twenty such as Winston, old in soldiering and canny in the field.

  That many of the Irregula
rs were raw—was weakness. Their overall numbers were, also, a weakness, but balancing that was the accumulated experience of the senior officers and the fact that the Yxtrang general had not yet had time to secure more than a foothold on either continent as a base.

  The 14th, Nelirikk considered, at last laying down his needle and stretching out on his cot, might well find itself with a war on its hands.

  ***

  He woke abruptly, aware of some change too subtle to name, opened his eyes and saw the scout—a thin shadow against the dimness in his quarters—cross-legged and at ease on the locker at the foot of the cot.

  The thrill of the discovery lay in its message. The scout was indeed that skilled. It was an honor to be aligned with such a man.

  “I regret,” Nelirikk said to the silent shadow, in Trade, for that was the language of the troop, “that my current position makes a salute awkward, Scout Commander.”

  “A salute is out of order in the present moment. I come as—comrade, let us say—for your former comrades have proven themselves unworthy of the honor.” The scout spoke his piece in Yxtrang.

  Nelirikk felt a strange stir. Was this good news or bad? If the ambush had been successful then—

  “I was within view of the site designated some time prior to the appointed hour. I remained twelve twelves of ticks beyond. There was no sound, Explorer. No sighting.”

  Shame was a rush of adrenaline that brought him upright on the cot. “By Jela, for a knife to cut their throats! They—”

  “They used your drop-off as a recon run. I suspect they even now listen for radio reports to determine how far you might have come before being beset.” This was in Terran. The captain had warned him of this—that he would need to “think lively” if he were to follow conversation between herself and the scout.

  There was a moment of silence, then in Liaden came a sentence spoken as if it were Yxtrang, hard-edged and short.

  “We speak now of Jela, whom you claim as near-clan.”

  Nelirikk went still, looking carefully at the shadowed scout.

  “If I have offended, I would know why. Jela’s Troop was always honorable.”

  “Indeed,” the little man said quietly. “I am pleased to know that. For you should know that my clan is respected, my house among the oldest on Liad. We are generally accounted honorable, if misguided. The name of my house—and of the tree which stands over it—is Jelaza Kazone.”

  The Liaden words swept by and it took him a moment to register the under sounds. Running them past his inner ear once more, Nelirikk shook his head, Terran-wise.

  “I cannot make whole what you tell me, Scout,” he said, “other than your house name is similar to Jela’s.”

  “No. Not an accident. Not merely similar. The house is Jelaza Kazone.” There was a pause then, and a shift in language:

  “In Terran it becomes ‘Jela’s fulfillment’ or, perhaps, ‘Jela’s promise.’”

  The language shifted again, without strain: “Trade might have it as ‘Jela’s contract’ or ‘Jela’s dream,’ depending on the speaker and how they think of Korval.”

  The scout went back to Liaden, the sentence spoken with inexorable exactness: “As I say, Explorer-bound-to-Korval, my family, Clan Korval, is accounted honorable by many, and we of the blood still live in the house first-built by Jela’s arms-partner and bed-mate, Cantra yos’Phelium. Our motto is I Dare.”

  The words echoed, found their match in the language of the Troop, and Nelirikk heard his own voice, chanting the campfire tale from his youth:

  “And when Jela had faced this challenge, and made his dozen upon the day, a soldier called out from the ranks, ‘How do you dare this, small soldier, when one rush could take you down?’

  “Jela shrugged, and smiled, and with knife in sheath and empty hands shown all around, said, ‘I dare because I must. Who will dare for me, if I dare not dare for myself?’”

  Nelirikk sat quietly, recalling the fierceness of the struggle between himself and the scout—and the irony of it. That two of Jela’s own should contend so! And who but the smallest should win? He laughed, softly, in the dark.

  He sobered then, recalling things that the Troop did not know—or did not tell.

  “Did Jela die on Liad, then?”

  “Alas,” said the scout, as sober as if the death had been yesterday. “Jela took one too many rear-guard, permitting his partner and her ship to escape. That, after all, was the essence of their agreement: he to guard the ship so the Tree might win through, she to guard the Tree, should he fall.

  “She came away with his son-to-be-born and the very Tree that stands above my house. The tree here—Erob’s large tree—is a seedling sent to seal the alliance between our two houses. And I must thank you for the Jela story, for it is not one we have in the Diaries.”

  “Diaries?” Nelirikk felt hunger lick through him. To read Jela’s own words? “Jela’s diaries?”

  “Not precisely, though some of the log entries are surely in his hand. Jela’s last years were spent with the space captain, my ancient grandmother. In her logs and diary she wrote down much wisdom, some her own and some his. The delms of Korval have kept the Diaries up, and study of them is part of each clanmember’s education, so we do not forget that which must be recalled.”

  It was then that the scout offered treasure.

  “Should we find ourselves able to leave here and return to Jelaza Kazone I will undertake to show what I may of Jela, if you like. The first diary entry of him, and the tree he carried out of a desert far, far away.”

  Seated as he was, Nelirikk contrived to bow. “A boon I would count it.”

  The scout inclined his head. “As it is in my power, Explorer.”

  There was not much to say then. Eventually, the scout stood, bowed formally and with meaning entirely too fine to be read properly in the available light, and slipped silently into the night.

  DUTIFUL PASSAGE:

  In Jump

  Primary operations had been moved to the reserve bridge. Priscilla, in charge of Second Team, was at station on the main—no, Shan corrected himself—on the trade bridge. He gritted his teeth and ran the board checks with a thoroughness they scarcely required, since it was the third check he’d initiated within the last half-hour.

  The mood on the reserve bridge was of tension harnessed into purpose. The mood of the captain was of frantic worry degenerating into terror.

  Shan closed his eyes, deliberately removing himself from board-drill and bridge, and ran the Healer’s mental exercise for distance under duress and calmness under calamity.

  He sighed once, centered in an unruffled crystalline pool, then opened his eyes again to the reserve bridge.

  Or the “war bridge” as Uncle Daav had used to call it—most likely to tease Shan’s father. Shan’s recollection of Daav yos’Phelium was sparse, and memory’s eyes had lately tried to translate the barely remembered features into Val Con’s well-known and beloved face.

  Val Con, who they were to meet at Lytaxin. Val Con, who would be delm—and quickly, it was to be hoped, so he might sort this mess they found themselves in and show the clan its enemy.

  Val Con, who had supposedly killed a man to gain his spaceship, who had warned Shan away from “appalling danger” while the Passage was being rigged for death—

  “We break Jump within the twelve, Captain,” Ren Zel said quietly from second board, and Shan pushed all such thoughts away, even the growing fear that Val Con had not managed his murder, and was himself dead on some backworld—aye, and his lifemate buried with him.

  “I have the mark,” he told Ren Zel. “Prime to me, second string through four toggled in sequence. Courier boat thirteen is cleared to depart the instant we break—your call, pilot.”

  Ren Zel flashed a look over-full with dark surprise, then inclined his head. “Captain.”

  “Trade bridge standing by, Captain,” Priscilla’s voice was calm as always, but the corner of the screen that should have contained he
r image was gray, gray, Jump gray.

  “Acknowledge,” he murmured. “Reserve bridge is sequenced backup boards two through four. Trade bridge should stand ready to take fifth string—captain’s bridge?”

  “Monitoring, Captain.” Seth was as matter-of-fact as if they’d been discussing routine shuttle maintenance. Or as if he didn’t know that matters would be very bad indeed by the time control of the ship shunted to the captain’s bridge.

  Ten seconds to break-out, by the countdown at the bottom right of the screen . . . nine . . . eight . . . seven . . .

  There was no room now for silly worries; no room for anything but the weary, familiar, bone-known drill while the ship gave one last gasp around them and the gray screens shattered into stars and an alarm went bong and . . .

  “Courier, hold!” Ren Zel commanded and the collision warning howled as the main screen filled with the image of the tumbling abandoned weapons pod. . .

  “All shields!” Shan called out even as his hands slapped the toggles.

  The screen flashed, blurred—and the ship shook as the tremendous energy of the explosion bathed the Passage in radiation so fierce the shields flared.

  “Air loss, Captain,” Priscilla reported from the trade bridge. “Pod dock holed—emergency seals on.”

  “Get it!” Shan commanded, scanning the gauges, shifting a finger to touch another control. “Tower. Rusty, what do we have?”

  “Ears,” came the laconic reply; “but not many. You’re carrying lots of stuff in the shield fields, Captain, and it’s blocking most incoming . . .”

  The main screen showed a throbbing blue-green shimmer with an occasional lightning-like flash. Shan flicked a glance at the filtering gauge and nearly gasped at the energy required to dim the scintillations to this near-blinding brightness.

  “Mother attend us!” Priscilla cried. “Shan—”