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There was no sign of him, but he couldn’t see the entire deck He craned his neck as much as possible, but the uncomfortable position and the constraints of his bound hands didn’t give hi he did notice was the absence of snow on the deck Looking past the fur-cladsideways in heavy sheets, but none of it was in the air around the little craft He couldn’t quiteup aheadthe flakes to either side
He raised his head to investigate, and one of the furry figures tapped another and pointed in his direction
Cole froze The alerted figurethe few steps from the platform around the mast At the base of the steps, the man stopped by a wooden barrel crisscrossed with ropes and pulled so down in front of the barrel, he ca, which wafted back in Cole’s direction
The sot to him before the man did: chocolate with a hint of rum Or more like rum with a hint of chocolate Cole felt paralyzed with indecision, wondering whether it was better to hide the plate and await his fate in darkness, or stay alert and have it stolen froure was before hi down close
"I’ll have that," thethe plate out of Cole’s hand
Cole squeezed his eyes shut and held theht The man’s accent was a bit different fron in it, or perhaps souys?" Cole asked, his own voice shaky from the cold and fear
The response was a loud sip fro his lips Cole heard hi swished inside a vessel, like so a thermos back and forth
"Who are we? We’re the same as you lads," the man replied "We’re the tainted"
Before Cole could ask what thatche as he could, but he finally had to gasp for air
As soon as he did--he was out again
8
The Bern ship brought up froer than Anlyn had expected It was a warship, twice the size of the Ambassadorial craft she’d lost She nearly balked and asked for another, wondering if she and Edison could operate such a craft for long periods of ti pilot exited with his are Drenard squeezed past the duo to get to the control roo hi to watch the bizarre confrontation
"You aren’t thinking clearly," Bishar said to Anlyn
For a briefoff to aid Molly was just another way of running fro war, from all her royal responsibilities Maybe her real duty was back in Drenard’s Pinnacle, sitting around the Circle where she could fight ords
She shook the doubts away and backed toward the door, keeping the lance between her and Bishar "Check the ship," she told Edison in English
She stayed near the airlock, the weight of the lance and the bluff it represented already exhausting her Edison disappeared inside
"There’ll be no foul play," Bishar assured her "My actions will not be questioned when I write this up"
"I’ of moods, Cousin I’ve half ahappens I hope you can appreciate hed nervously "I do More than you know When you get to the rift, I’ll have a barrier tug remove a few canisters We’ll replace so If you hesitate to go through, I’ll assume you caladly forgive these transgressions and have you as a guest for dinner We’ll prepare the finest Drenardian cuisine and eat in honor of the dead Then we’ll see about working toward justice come morrow"
"If you’re sincere, I appreciate the offer You’ve been more than fair"
After a few h the airlock, his chest puffing as if after a great run He spoke to Anlyn in English: "Vacated, by rough inspection Single deck with a looped perieway Adequate nourishment and spares, but absolute dearth of armaments"
"You had the weapons systems removed?" Anlyn asked Bishar
"Of course, but not just now We do that for every ship we capture and ilanced back and forth between the two of the ith those who rule the rest of the universe?"
"I’ I don’t need to defend et there," Anlyn replied
A sudden sadness washed over Bishar’s face, erasing the tension and anger "I’m sorry we met like this," he said
"As am I" Anlyn handed Edison his lance and bowed to her cousin, keeping her eyes on hiave her a nod and a frown as she backed through the collar adapter and into the starship
Edison followed She left him behind to close the ship’s door and secure the hatch while she rushed off alone toward the bow As her bare feet padded along the steel decking, she tried to prepare herself for whatshe had pro she’d hoped to avoid for the rest of her days:
Fly
ѻѻѻѻ
Anlyn had learned to pilot in the Royal Academy--just the rudiment-ary basics needed to qualify licensure and uphold ancient traditions for Drenardian royalty She likened it to the Pheno people’s habit of teaching their important females to ride Theryls, even if there was no chance of the one into battle
Her realthe tumultuous civil war between the two planets and her time spent as an arm-dealer’s slave afterward She had spentto kill and speak English while daily tortured by a vile huht into freedoed to stay away froine herself sinking back into a depression if she had to work in one--could see herself losing her sanity again Now, she didn’t know she had a choice She couldn’t ask Edison to take over for her while she cowered in a bunk; that was just a different sort of slavery, one self-ile" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>