The Last Hawk

by Catherine Asaro

  Having an enhanced KAB and KEB, however, wasn't enough to make a Kyle. The brain also had to interpret the signals those organs received and sent. That function was carried out by specialized neural structures called paras, aided by the neurotransmitter psiamine. Most Kyle operators could only decode the moods of other people, but a strong operator could pick up intense thoughts if they came from nearby, particularly if the sender was also a Kyle operator.

  Focusing inward, Kelric sensitized his KAB to Deha. It was like brushing the outer seawall of a hidden grotto. Bubbles surfaced in her thoughts: sexual arousal, thoughts of her Estate—

  Pain seared his head, vaporizing the link. Blotches danced in his vision.

  "So quiet," Deha said. "Is something wrong?"

  "I'm just tired." Given his uncertain situation here, he had no intention of revealing his diminished capabilities.

  She set aside his tray and helped him ease under the quilt. Sliding in to him, she tucked the covers about his body. Having her so close unsettled him. His last tour of duty had been a nightmare of skirmishes separated by extended periods of isolation while he ran reconnaissance. He hadn't touched a woman in a long time and Deha was no ordinary woman.

  When Deha leaned over him, Kelric laid his hand on the small of her back. She stiffened as if a pulse of electricity shot up her spine. She didn't pull away, though. Instead she looked down at his face, her expression gentling.

  Then she kissed him.

  At first he was too startled to respond. When he recovered, he slid his arms around her waist and returned the kiss.

  Warning, Bolt thought. Amorous interaction with a potential enemy is unwise.

  Bolt, go away.

  I am inside your body. I cannot leave.

  Busy with the kiss, Kelric didn't respond.

  After a while Deha raised her head, holding herself up with her hands. She reminded him of someone, but he couldn't place who. He caught a wisp of her mood, a sense of affection. Something else was there too. Regret? When he tried to concentrate, a headache lanced his temples. He dropped his arms, his forehead knotting with pain.

  "Ai," Deha murmured. "I am sorry. I must let you rest." She stood up by the bed, watching him with her gentle expression, one he had never seen her use with her staff. She touched his hair, her hand brushing his curls. Then she withdrew. As he closed his eyes, he heard the door whisper closed.

  Bolt, he thought. I need. an analysis of this situation.

  The analysis is simple. You shouldn't be kissing someone you don't trust.

  Ah, but, what a kiss. Kelric smiled. I still need an analysis of what she told me about there being no ISC base.

  You need to sleep. I will run calculations while you are down.

  He had given up telling Bolt that humans didn't "go down" like computers when they slept. Bolt had decided its coinage was appropriate and resisted changing it. So Kelric simply closed his eyes and let sleep settle over him.

  This ought to be interesting, Captain Hacha thought. They couldn't move Kelric to the dice table, so they moved the table to him, a blue lacquered stand with legs a handspan in length. It was easier for Kelric now that the doctors had removed his bodycast and put him in lighter casts that only went to midthigh. He sat up in bed and they set the table over his lap.

  They were six players: Hacha and Rev pulled up chairs near the bed, Balv and Llaach sat on the bed, and Ixpar sat cross-legged between Balv and Llaach. Kelric blinked at them, seeming unsure what to do with so many people.

  At least he had shown some modesty and put on a shirt. During the heat wave that descended on Dahl, he had been sleeping bare-chested, wearing only pajama trousers split up the sides to accommodate his casts. Although watching him that way had its pleasures, Hacha otherwise failed to see why Deha found him so attractive. He was too big, for one thing. Men shouldn't be taller than women. The idea of a male warrior repelled her.

  Llaach adjusted the pillow behind his back and spoke slowly, so he could understand their language. "Are you comfortable?"

  He answered in his heavy accent. "Yes. My thanks."

  They each picked a die from Hacha's pouch, and Rev ended up with the highest-ranking piece, an orange heptagon. He opened the session and the game took off.

  Hacha built her defense from polyhedrons, a wall blocking the other players. Her offense thrust forward in a phalanx of wedges. Rev attacked with bar-builders, battling her back and forth across the board. Balv tried to make a spectrum, but it kept running afoul of Ixpar's defensive walls. Llaach floundered after only a few moves and Kelric placed his dice randomly.

  Then Hacha saw it; Ixpar was taking advantage of her battle with Rev to sneak in an attack. Hacha diverted her phalanx toward a weak spot in the girl's defense. Ixpar deflected the attack, but Hacha had slowed her down. Turning her attention back to Rev, she finally trapped him with one of her favorite moves: hawk's claw—a ring of dice closing like a claw around his highest—ranking structure.

  "Heh." Rev exhaled. "The win goes to you, Hacha."

  Balv smiled. -"For a while there I thought Ixpar would get you both."

  Hacha nodded to Ixpar. "You played well." It felt strange to omit the title Successor Karn when she spoke to the girl. But she agreed with Deha's decision; it was best not to reveal Ixpar's position to Kelric. The less he knew, the better.

  Balv studied the board. "It looks like Rev is second and Ixpar third." He grinned. "But I beat you, Llaach."

  Llaach peered at the pieces. "Pah," she grumbled. "You did."

  Kelric was obviously trying to follow the conversation. He spoke with halting words. "I am last?" .

  "Yhee," Balv said. "I'm afraid so."

  "I understand not yhee," Kelric said. When Ixpar started to answer him in Skolian, he shook his head. "Coban. So I learn."

  Hacha frowned. "Coba is the name of the world. We don't speak 'cabon.' We call our language Teotecan. Yhee is a formal form of the word yes."

  "The informal form is yip," Balv added. "But you only hear it in slang."

  Kelric tried the word. "Yhees."

  "Yhee," Rev said.

  "Yheez," Kelric said.

  Llaach laughed. "It's all right. Say it however you like. Your accent is beautiful."

  "And don't be discouraged about losing the game." Balv motioned toward Hacha and Rev. "You're playing with Dahl's best."

  "Kelric didn't lose," Ixpar said. "He made a flat-stack. That ranks over Llaach's toppled builder."

  What was this? Hacha looked. where Ixpar pointed and saw a neat stack of blue disks nestled behind one of Rev's towers. A perfect flat—stack and she had missed it. That irked her. She hadn't expected Kelric even to start a structure.

  "l can't believe I never saw that," Balv said.

  Kelric tapped the table. "Is—" He hesitated, then asked Ixpar something in Skolian.

  "Blue," Ixpar said.

  "Table is blue." Kelric tapped his stack. "Also blue. So it hides."

  Rev's laugh rumbled. "A camouflage. You'll do well, Kelric."

  "I don't believe it" Llaach said. "I got caught by a camouflage."

  Ixpar smiled "Maybe you had other thoughts distracting you."

  As the others laughed, Llaach reddened. "Blow off, you oafs."

  When Kelric gave Ixpar a questioning look, she said, "Llaach recently took a kasi."

  "Kasi?" he asked.

  "Husband," Hacha said. "Llaach wed the youth Jevi." It didn't surprise her that Llaach was distracted, married to a man as handsome and charming as Jevi. He reminded Hacha of her own husband. The similarities between the two men ran deeper than appearance; both were dice players in the Dahl Calanya. She and Llaach had served on the Calanya honor guard for a time, giving them the rare opportunity to court a Calani. It was true that in letting her wed a Calani, Deha had bestowed her with great honor. But what good was honor when Hacha could only visit her husband instead of living with him? It made her crazy. On top of that, she was stuck with this disagreeable assignment, guardin
g Kelric.

  "Ask Balv or Rev," Ixpar was telling Kelric. "They can show you."

  Balv pushed up his sleeve revealing a gold band around his wrist. "It symbolizes the vow that joins the woman and the man. A man who wears the bands is called a kasi."

  Kelric glanced at the bands on Rev's wrists. "All of you have someone?"

  Llaach laughed. "We've all been caught." She winked at Ixpar. "Most of us anyway."

  The girl smiled "I'm keeping my options open."

  "You sound like Deha," Balv said.

  Kelric's reaction was so subtle that Hacha suspected only she caught it. But she had no doubt; the moment he heard the Manager's name he stiffened.

  "Manager Dahl is alone?" he asked.

  Hacha spoke brusquely. "By her choice. Deha has loved only Jaym."

  "What happen to him?" Kelric asked.

  "He died of a fever several years ago," Balv said. "Since then Deha has been—well, different. More distant."

  "She doesn't want another Akasi," Hacha said.

  "Akasi?" Kelric asked.

  "It's the title of a Manager's husband," Ixpar said.

  Glancing at Ixpar, Hacha saw the flicker of jealousy on the girl's face. She had been around long enough to recognize that look. It seemed the Ministry Successor was as taken by this offworlder as Deha.

  As far as Hacha could see, that meant nothing but trouble.

  3

  Double Circle

  Deha stared out the window of her office into the Estate gardens. Maybe she had a fever. Or it was the weather. Or else she was just crazy. Kelric was too different. Too young. And too forward. Several times since she had first kissed him, he had initiated a return of affections. In her day, the rules were clear: women made the advances. Everything was different now. Young people had their own rules, few of which made sense to her. Besides, Kelric was an offworlder, half brother to the Imperator, for wind's sake. Who knew what rules he lived by? She might as well heave the old ways out the window for all the help they gave her now.

  "Manager Dahl?"

  Deha turned to see Hacha in the door arch. "Captain. My greetings."

  Hacha bowed. "Do you have a moment?"

  "I was going to see Kelric. Walk with me."

  They walked along open halls with high ceilings. Made from stone and lit only by high windows, this wing of the Estate remained cool despite the heat.

  "I'm concerned about Successor Karn," Hacha said. "I don't think it's wise she spend so much time with Kelric."

  "I didn't realize she was there that often," Deha said.

  "She translates for him. But he knows enough now to manage on his own."

  "Has he done anything to threaten her?"

  "No. Nothing. But we should take no chances where her safety is concerned."

  Deha thought for a moment. "Tell Kelric she's been neglecting her schoolwork and won't be able to see him as much."

  "As much?"

  Although Deha knew she could stop Ixpar from seeing Kelric, she had no desire to antagonize the girl. "Brief visits are all right, if guards accompany her into the room."

  "I'll take care of it."

  They walked in silence for a while. Eventually Hacha said, "How are you feeling?"

  Deha glanced at her. "Fine. Why?"

  "Senior Physician Rohka asked me to talk to you."

  Deha scowled. Not this again. Ever since that minor heart attack of hers last year, her staff had been acting as if she were a blown-glass Quis die. Don't work so hard, don't stay up so late, don't push yourself. To listen to them talk, a person would think she was a doddering old woman instead of a vigorous Manager in her prime.

  "I'm fine," Deha said.

  "Just don't go playing Quis with ghosts."

  Deha smiled. "I won't." She considered the captain. "How are your Quis sessions with Kelric?"

  Hacha spoke grudgingly. "He does have talent."

  "That was my impression also." It wasn't only his obvious knack for the game. Deha had never met anyone who learned rules and strategies so fast. At times she had an odd sense, as if he kept a record in his mind of what he learned and paged through it when he had a question.

  At the skyroom, she left Hacha outside with the other guards. Inside, she found Kelric asleep, lying on his back in the sweltering heat with the covers thrown off his upper body, leaving his chest bare. She quickly closed the door, giving him privacy.

  For a while she just sat on the bed, watching him sleep. Eventually the temptation became too great and she slid her hand across his chest. His gold nipples glittered and felt more metallic than normal skin. The hair curling on his chest wasn't as stiff as true metal, but it had a smooth, cool texture to it.

  Kelric opened his eyes. With a drowsy smile, he slid his arms around her waist and spoke in Teotecan. "My greetings, Manager Dahl."

  Deha leaned over and kissed him. When he pulled her down next to him on the bed, she stiffened, knowing it was wrong to take advantage of his being laid up this way. But he was so willing. As they kissed, she slid her hand along his side, down to his leg. He was wearing sleep trousers, well-washed linen that felt downy under her palm. She stroked his muscles through the thin material. Such a pleasure, touching him this way.

  As his kiss grew more passionate, Kelric rolled her onto her back and stretched out on top of her. Put off by his aggressive response, Deha pulled away her head. She eased out from under him and sat up.

  Kelric blinked. Then he drew himself into a sitting position, his plaster-sheathed legs sliding under the quilt. He spoke in halting Teotecan. "Something is wrong?"

  She paused. "No, it's nothing."

  He looked puzzled, but his face gentled as she closed her hand around his. He said "Jag, news you?"

  "I don't understand"

  He tried again. "My Jag. My ship. News have you?"

  So. He ventured into even more difficult territory now. "We went through every bit of debris we found," she said. "I'm sorry, Kelric. But it's all slag. Any communications equipment was destroyed."

  "I need look myself."

  Not a chance, she thought. Although they had blown up his ship, she had no intention of letting him near the remains. Who knew what he might salvage?

  He watched her with an odd look as if he were concentrating on a monologue he could barely hear Then he gasped and doubled over, his palms pressed against his temples.

  "Kelric!" Deha leaned over him. "What's wrong?"

  His face knotted. "Head . . . hurts."

  "I'll get the doctor."

  "No." He lowered his arms. "Nothing she can do."

  The door swung open and Captain Hacha strode into the room. As soon as she saw them on the bed, she stopped. "My apologies." She left quickly, closing the door behind her.

  "Kelric, I'm sorry." Deha slid off the bed. "I shouldn't have put you in such a compromising position." She touched his shoulder. "I'll have Senior Physician Rohka bring you a potion for your headache."

  "What about ship?"

  "There's nothing we can do."

  He watched her closely. "Your words, they make tricks of light."

  "What do you mean?"

  "Are they part lies? I don't know."

  You know more than you realize, she thought. "You should get some rest." She kissed him again and took her leave before he could ask more questions.

  Deha found Hacha waiting outside the skyroom. She motioned for the captain to walk with her. When they reached the privacy of the vaulted corridors, Deha said, "You wanted to see me?"

  "Kelric's guards gave me a strange report about Ixpar Karn," Hacha said. "This morning they saw her come out of his room. But they never saw her go in."

  "Probably she was in there before they came on duty."

  "They looked at the start of their shift. He was alone. They closed the door and a while later Ixpar walked out."

  "Check into it." Deha thought of Ixpar's political clout. "But be discreet."

  They continued walking through the halls.
Finally Deha said, "What is it?"

  Hacha glanced at her. "Ma'am?"

  "I know you. You're worried about something."

  "As captain of your escort, I have no business concerning myself with your private life."

  "Then tell me as my friend."

  Hacha exhaled. "To use a man for your pleasure, especially a man in so Vulnerable a position as Kelric—it is unlike you."

  "What makes you think my intentions toward him are dishonorable?"

  "You certainly can't make him your Akasi."

  "Why not?"

  Hacha laid her hand on Deha's arm, drawing the Manager to a stop. "He isn't worthy of you."

  Dryly, Deha said, "I suspect the Rhon would disagree with you as to who isn't worthy of whom."

  "I'm sorry to be blunt. But how many other women's beds do you think he's been in?"

  Deha shrugged. "I will learn to deal with his past."

  "What about the rest of it? He's a Jagernaut. Up until now, he's been in no condition to do much more than sleep. But he's getting stronger. When he realizes we never intend to let him go, his reaction won't be mild."

  "Everything you say is true." Deha paused. "But he will be my Akasi, Hacha. Whether he consents to it or not."

  Scroll in hand, Ixpar knelt in front of the stone wall. The Estate dungeons were a few paces to her right, damp and unused for centuries. She unrolled the scroll, a copy of the ancient Estate plans she had filched from the Dahl museum. Yes, there it was; the distance between this wall and the nearest cell as shown on the diagram was less than the actual distance she had just measured on the wall.

  Ixpar grinned. She had begun this game years ago when she discovered the museum at Karn housed copies of the plans used to build the Estate. Comparing them with the real Karn, she found hundreds of inconsistencies. Most were changes made over the centuries, but a few were inexplicable. She finally uncovered their secret: hidden passages honeycombed the Estate.

  Now the Dahl plans were giving up their secrets. Running her hands over the stone, she found a crumbling niche where the wall met the ground. She dug her finger into it and jarred loose the cracked remains of a switch, clicking it to one side. Holding her breath, she waited. Sometimes the ancient mechanisms were broken or jammed—