The Last Hawk

by Catherine Asaro

  It was impossible, of course. But the image of the boy's terrified face stayed with him, until finally he circled back. By folding in the rider's wing slats, he managed to pull closer to the tree—and this time he distinctly saw a figure huddled within its roots.

  Jevrin swore. How in a dice cheater's hell did a boy get there? More important, how did he get him out? Although the rider had extra airfoils to stabilize it in high winds, it was madness to put it on autopilot during a storm. But if he went back to Varz for a properly equipped rescue party, he would be caught flying a rider he had no business flying with a cargo he had no business carrying. He could teach Karn but the boy would probably be torn away from the cliff long before he brought back help.

  With a prayer to the wind gods, Jevrin locked in the auto-pilot, jumped out of his seat, and ran to the back of the cabin. As he grabbed a crane hook and rope from the locker, the rider pitched like a Lasa drunkard. He made it to the pilot's seat in time to steady the craft. He tied one end of the rope to the chair and the other to the book, then headed back to the tree.

  When Jevrin sighted the boy, he hit the autopilot and went to the hatch, playing out the rope so it pulled taut from his hand to his seat. As he heaved open the hatch, wind rushed at him, threatening to knock him over. Hanging on to the rope with one hand, he hurled the hook into the night.

  The throw went wild, nowhere near the boy. Jevrin yanked the hook back in, then scrambled for the pilot's seat as the rider swerved and shuddered. Coming around for another try, he changed the camber of the airfoils and the arch of the wing slats, trying to stabilize the craft.

  This time when he heaved out the hook, it flew through the blizzard and caught in the tree roots. The boy grabbed at it—

  And the entire tree ripped away from the cliff.

  A scream tore through the night. In the same instant, the rider bucked and Jevrin had to jump for the pilot's seat, leaving him no time to see if the boy was hanging on to the rope pulled taut out the hatch. As soon as he regained control of the craft, he spun around and hauled on the rope.

  Miraculously, a wildly tousled crown of curls appeared in the hatch—and dropped from sight again. Jevrin swore and pulled harder, frantic now. No one could hold on for long while the rider pitched in the storm.

  He kept pulling, struggling with no success to haul in the boy. The rope slipped in his hands and he almost lost control of it. With a gasp of desperation, he gave an extra hard yank—and heaved a body into the cabin. The boy sprawled across the floor, breathing in huge sobs. Just before Jevrin whirled back to the controls, he saw what gleamed on the boy's arms.

  Calanya bands.

  As Jevrin struggled to steady the rider, he heard the hatch slam closed, leaving an abrupt silence. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw the Calani huddled against the hull. With tears streaming down his face, the boy mouthed the words Thank you.

  Jevrin nodded awkwardly, wondering if his guest would feel so grateful when he found out his situation. He couldn't take the Calani to Varz; the circumstances would incriminate him as a spy. He had no choice but to bring the youth with him, making the rescue into an abduction.

  At Jevrin's invitation, the boy came over and sat in the copilot's seat. Jevrin peered at his armbands. "Hayl?"

  The Calani nodded.

  "How did you get out there, Hayl?"

  When Hayl pantomimed a fall, Jevrin realized he must be the Calani rumored to have gone over the cliff this morning. Relief swept over him. No one would guess Hayl had been kidnapped; as far as anyone knew, the boy was dead.

  Hayl pointed to the altimeter registering their drop in altitude; then gave Jevrin a puzzled look and motioned upward.

  "We're not going to Varz," Jevrin said.

  The boy touched the Varz insignia on his wrist guard.

  "I know," Jevrin said. "I'm sorry, Hayl. But you aren't going back."

  Hidden among jutting crags, a rider crouched under the stars in an abandoned quarry. The shadow of a second craft slipped through the night and settled next to it like a giant bird. Its hatch opened, letting Jevrin disembark. The hatch of the other rider opened and the ruler of Coba stepped out into the wind.

  Jevrin bowed to her. "Minister Karn."

  Ixpar nodded. concerned by his lateness. "Did you have trouble getting here?"

  He told her about the Calani he had rescued "I brought him with me."

  They climbed inside the darkened cabin of his rider and he set screens over the windshield, then turned on the lights. The Calani sat in the copilot's seat watching them. Lithe and slender, with large eyes, he reminded Ixpar of a hazelle colt.

  Jevrin presented her to the boy. respecting the custom that gave a Calani social rank above even a Minister."Hayl this is Ixpar Karn."

  Hayl stared at her, then turned confused eyes to his rescuer.

  "I'm from Karn," Jevrin said.

  Hayl pointed to the Varz badge on Jevrin's uniform.

  "I know," Jevrin said. "But I work for Karn."

  The boy gave him a look that plainly said traitor. He turned away and stared straight ahead, gripping the arms of his seat.

  Laying a hand on Jevrin's shoulder, Ixpar tilted her head toward the hatch. He switched off the lights and they stepped back out into the wind, where they could talk in private.

  "You have news?" Ixpar asked.

  He reached inside the hatch and took an object from where he had lashed it to a bulkhead. Ixpar recognized his cargo; her own newly formed ArmsGuild was also making rifles.

  She tested the gun's balance. "What were you told was its purpose?"

  "To hunt," he said. "It could be true. The winter this year was even worse than usual. Lack of game has been making the big cats desperate. They're even coming into the city."

  The strain in his voice disturbed Ixpar. "Is Varz in danger?"

  "No. I don't think so."

  She watched his drawn face. "What is it?"

  "There was trouble, something with the Fifth Level."

  Ixpar tensed. "Go on."

  "I'm not sure what happened, but he's in Med." Jevrin shook his head. "There have been rumors, Ixpar, ever since he came to Varz. It isn't pretty. And apparently now they're 'treating' him with electroshock therapy."

  So. It was true, the subtle traces she picked up in the Quis that her advisers claimed she imagined. "Avtac has no right."

  "Sevtar is her Akasi. She has every right."

  Ixpar knew no Estate would support her if she challenged the Akasi Law of Ownership, which should have been banished to the history scrolls long ago. The Managers would never tolerate such an intrusion into their private lives.

  Ixpar cocked the rifle and braced it against her shoulder.

  "Raise arms against Varz over this," Jevrin said, "and every Estate on Coba will be set against you."

  She sighted on a boulder. "Varz invented the rifle. Not Karn."

  "If you kidnap Sevtar, the Council will hunt you down. You'll start a war."

  Her grip on the- rifle tightened. How could she, who presumed to lead a world, think to destroy a peace that had lasted a thousand years?

  She lowered the gun. "No one on Coba will support me if I challenge Avtac over this. No trade exists for a Sixth Level. If I take him by force I start a war I can't win."

  "I've tried to think of a solution." Jevrin spread his hands: "I don't see any."

  "Do you know the third passage from Roaz?"

  "Something about virtues, isn't it?"

  " 'I seek three virtues,' " Ixpar said. " 'The strength to face my enemy, the courage to face my fears, and the wisdom to face my failures.' "

  "Which do you seek now?"

  She gave him the gun. "The one Roaz missed. The brains to find an answer."

  Stahna Varz, Successor to the Varz Manager, set the letter on Avtac's desk. "This came today from Karn."

  Avtac glanced up from her papers. The letter looked, from its thin size, like the usual request for verification of Varz attendance at Council.
"You have authority to respond to Minstry communications."

  Stahna spoke quietly. "Not this one."

  Avtac picked up the letter. "What is it?"

  "An offer for Sevtar's contract."

  "Are you making a joke, Stahna?"

  "No."

  "Then Ixpar Karn is making a joke. A childish one." Avtac. pushed the letter across the desk. "Throw it away."

  "Perhaps you should read it first."

  Avtac considered her. Then she opened the letter. The message consisted of one sentence.

  She read it.

  And read it again.

  Avtac took up a quill and parchment. The note she wrote was brief. She rolled it into a scroll, tied it with a thong, sealed it in wax, and handed it to Stahna.

  "Send this to Karn," she said.

  All of Karn watched the flock of windriders land. People peered out of towers, climbed up on housetops, scaled every wall of every building in every section of the city. Like vines growing fresh on the roofs, heavy with fruit, spreading leaves in a profusion of life, the people crowded out to watch. After today. Coba would be changed forever.

  A Sixth Level was coming to Karn.

  Ixpar waited in the Hall of Teotec, watching from a window above the airfield as the Karn escort disembarked from the central rider. Then a tall figure, robed and cowled in black, stepped down. The escort walked with him across the tarmac and crossed the gardens outside the Estate. When they disappeared from view, she left the window and faced the great double doors of the Hall.

  Moments later the doors swung open and a retinue swept in, followed by a double column of aides. The Calanya escort entered next, with the cowled man in its center.

  Suddenly it seemed to Ixpar that the Hall would burst with people. With a motion of her raised hand, she dismissed everyone: retinues, aides, guards. They looked at her in consternation, but when she met their gazes with silence they left.

  Then she stood alone, on the dais in the great Hall where the Council had convened for two millennia. At the end of the Hall the robed figure watched her. When he pushed back his cowl everything seemed to stop: the winds no longer blew, the dice no longer rolled, and her heart ceased its beat.

  Incredibly, at first he looked no older than on that day his ship had made its flaming descent into the mountains above Dahl. Then she saw the gray in his hair, the dulled sheen of his skin.

  But it was Kelric.

  He walked down the Hall, his cloak billowing out behind him. As he drew near she drank in the sight of him, still so familiar after so many years. He climbed the dais and came to the Circle, never smiling, never taking his gaze from her face. When he stepped down into the Circle, his eyes were level with hers. The Oath waited for their voices to give it life, to raise it to a power greater than ever before known.

  Ixpar spoke. "For Karn and for Coba, do you enter the Circle to give your Oath?"

  "Yes." The burr of his accent was still strong.

  A chill ran up her back. "Do you swear to keep forever the discipline of the Calanya? To hold my Estate above all else, as you hold in your hands and mind the future of Karn?"

  "Yes."

  "Do you swear, on penalty of your life, that your loyalty is to Karn and only to Karn?"

  "Yes."

  "In return for your Oath, l vow that for the rest of your life you will be provided for as befits a Calani." Silently, she added: No one will ever hurt you again. On penalty of my life, I swear it.

  Then, finally, she spoke the question she had waited half her life to ask. "Will you accept the bands of an Akasi?"

  When he said nothing only looked at her, Ixpar died inside. Fumbling, she reached into her pocket for the other armbands, those with no Akasi inscription.

  "Yes," Kelric said.

  It was one word, one simple sound but it had the power to change a world. She swallowed then put back the armbands and took the pair out of her other pocket. The Akasi bands. She slid them onto his arms, making them the sixth pair he wore.

  "Kelric Sevtar Karn," she said. "You are now a Sixth Level Calani of Karn."

  For a long moment he looked at her. Then he spoke in a husky voice. "What price a Sixth Level?"

  Silence echoed in the Hall. Her words fell into it like stones.

  "The rule of a world."

  36

  Sunsky Bridge Denied

  Ixpar drummed her fingers on her desk, wondering what demented ancient had thought up the custom that made a Manager wait half her wedding night before going to her Akasi. Did Kelric really need all that time to prepare? It seemed more likely he would get bored and go to bed.

  She got up and paced around the office until she came to the mirror. She hardly recognized her reflection; the unfamiliar lace blouse and velvet pants were foreign to her usual plain trousers and shirt. She had freed her hair from its braid, letting it fall to her waist. Tendrils curled around her cheeks.

  Would he think her attractive? Was she? All she saw in the minor was Ixpar. She had no idea whether or not her appearance pleased. It had never occurred to her to worry about it before. Beauty wasn't on the list of qualifications for a Minister.

  No, not Minister. Manager. All her life she had taken it for granted she would rule Coba. Now the title was gone, for her and all future generations of Karn. Would history curse her for what she gave to Varz? When she and Kelric were buried, what would it matter that a Sixth Level had existed?

  It matters, Ixpar thought.

  She had wrestled with her decision. Who truly ruled Coba: Minister or Quis? In the past those two choices had been the same. Now the patterns were in upheaval, reformed in ways no one yet understood. The Quis of a Sixth Level combined with the hidden Memory of Karn; it would be a power never before known on Coba. Kelric's legacy would survive for millennia. But could it swamp even the might of a Varz Ministry?

  Ixpar didn't know the answer. Faced with that uncertainty, with Kelric's situation at Varz, and with the danger of his growing rage to the Quis, she had made the best decision she could. Only history would know if it had been the right one.

  She picked up an amberwood box from her desk and lifted its polished lid. A statue nestled inside, an althawk carved from wing-ivory. She had commissioned Karn's most renowned carver to make it ten days ago, when she learned Kelric would come to her Estate.

  The clock on the wall chimed. Ixpar jumped, startled by its announcement that Night's Midhour had arrived. Then, gift in hand, she left the office and went to her groom.

  The Akasi suite was dark. Kelric's dinner sat untouched in the dining room and the bed was empty. Ixpar Wondered if the escort had somehow made the absurd mistake of taking him to the wrong suite. Then she saw a trickle of light in a hall. She followed it and found him sitting in a dimly lit alcove.

  "Kelric?" she asked.

  He didn't even look at her, he just stood up and walked past her into the bedroom. Sitting on the bed, he began to unlace his shirt.

  She watched from the door arch. "You are so silent."

  He looked up at her. "I wasn't under the impression talking was what you wanted."

  No. This wasn't how it was supposed to happen. "Would you prefer to be alone?"

  "Yes" he said.

  She suddenly felt ludicrous, an ex-Minister dressed up in silly clothes. "I will call for the escort. They can show you to your Calanya suite."

  For the first time a response flickered across his face. Relief.

  "Before you go—" She swallowed. "Would you answer a question for me?"

  He said nothing, just waited, and it made the asking all the more difficult But she had to know. "Why did you accept my Akasi bands?"

  He spoke in an emotionless voice. "You paid a high price for your Sixth Level. Obviously you expected more than Quis in return."

  Ixpar inwardly reeled. Yet what else should she have expected? What made her think that after all he had suffered he would want to lie with a virtual stranger? Why should he? It was only she who had harbored a secret l
ove for half her life.

  After he was gone, she sat on the bed and buried her head in her hands.

  Hayl set his octahedron next to Bahr's cube. "My game."

  "Pah," the Quis Wizard grumbled. "Aren't you supposed to meet an escort?"

  "Ai! I forgot." Hayl scooped up his dice and hurried to his suite entrance, trailed by Bahr. They found his guards Outside talking to the Karn Calanya escort.

  Eb, the escort captain, bowed to Hayl. "Shall we go?"

  He nodded uneasily and went with misgiving, unsure of their destination, leaving his own escort to return Bahr to her secluded suite. Although Bahr couldn't live within the Calanya, he feared Ixpar meant to put him in her Calanya as a prelude to forcing a Karn Oath on him.

  When he first refused to play Quis at Karn, she seemed to understand. His Oath was to Varz. But he soon grew restless, until finally he agreed to sit at Outsider Quis with Bahr. The gambler just didn't seem like a real Calani. He wondered now if the games with Bahr had been meant to soften his resistance.

  He tried to resent his abductors, but it became harder as time passed. He had never met anyone like Ixpar Karn, who had Avtac's power and Savina's humanity. If Avtac found out he was here, she would be within her rights to call a Council Tribunal. They would "rescue" him and punish Karn, probably with fines, tariffs, and embargoes. Worse, Karn would lose influence in the Quis. Despite his Varz Oath, he had no wish to see harm come to Karn. Besides, as long as he was "dead," Zecha couldn't touch him.

  The escort led him through unfamiliar halls. When they stopped in front of two huge portals with gold handles, he knew they had reached the Calanya As Eb opened the doors, he balked.

  "It's all right," the captain said. "We re only visiting"

  Hayl stayed put He couldn't resist looking Inside, though. Light slanted through stained-glass windows, making patterns of color on the floor. The serenity drew him. When Eb opened the door wider, he ventured forward, and the escort came with him into the common room. Some of the Calani glanced up and nodded, then went back to their dice.