The Dragon Circle (43 page)

He'd not resort to that method of appeasing her again.

“What do we do with the crystals?” he asked Kim.

“Konner knows where he wants them placed,” his brother replied.

“Can we not duplicate the distances on the mother ship?” Hestiia asked. Her ability to learn new vocabulary and make associations never ceased to amaze Loki.

“I know the specs for
Sirius
's crystal array. But that's a star drive. St. Bridget only knows if Konner needs the same ratios for a confusion field.” Loki shook his head and began pacing off distances.

“He's created a confusion field around
Sirius
with our crystal array,” Kim reminded him.

“Then let's break out the laser sight on the needle rifle. That will give us distances to the picometer. Something to do while we wait. Save time once Konner gets here.”

“I'll build a proper fire,” Hestiia said. She disengaged from Kim's embrace with a quick kiss to his cheek. She and Poolie cleared away the ineptly piled wood and began anew with a wad of dried moss and ferns. By the time the first crystal rested beside a small cairn of rocks marking its eventual resting place, the women had a fire blazing and something cooking over it.

The rain showers held off.

“How are we going to bury these things?” Loki looked up from his measuring of the last driver.

“We'll think of something.” Kim shrugged.

“We can dig,” Raaskan said.

“With what? All our tools are in the village, half a continent away.”

Everyone sobered a few moments.

“We fly,” Hestiia replied blithely. “We can bring our villagers here at the same time.”

“We'll need three trips with both vessels for that.” Loki marked the place for the next crystal with three small rocks. Niveean carried a green over to him. “We're running low on fuel cells again and no way to recharge them.”

“We have sunlight,” Kim suggested.

“That will take weeks, if we ever see the sun again,” Loki protested as a raindrop plopped onto his nose.

A roaring wind accompanied the rain. All of them ducked into the open hatches of the shuttle and the lander. The feeble light from the drowning fire and the portable illuminators revealed a ghostly silhouette descending from the heavens. All of the locals crossed their wrists and flapped their hands.

Loki felt an unreasonable urge to mimic the ancient ward against the bloodthirsty demon Simurgh. Kim crossed himself, murmuring silent prayers.

“You mangy traitor! I'll feed you to an Anubian blood worm.” Another string of curses, in a language Loki did not recognize, as Kat's husky voice split the air.

Unceremoniously, the dragon thudded to the ground. Kat's spine must have jarred, for she bit off the last diatribe. Then the dragon rippled his back and extended his wing. Kat slid from her perch and landed in the soft dirt directly above the buried king stone.

“Oh!” She rubbed her abused bottom. With her legs splayed and her hair drenched she did not look happy. Or comfortable. “You promised to take me back to my own people,” Kat spat at the dragon.

(
What are your people other than blood kin?
)

“I don't claim them. I don't like them or their way of life. I belong with His Majesty's Imperial Military Police.”

The dragon looked down his long nose at her. For a moment the spiral horn on his forehead looked as if it would lift Kat off her feet and toss her into the air.

Loki smothered a smile.

Kim had a sudden coughing fit and had to turn his back. He snaked out an arm to keep Hestiia from running out to assist Kat to her feet.

(
Irythros,
) the dragon announced his name.

“Welcome, Irythros. Loki here.”

“You didn't welcome me!” Kat protested.

“You, baby sister, are a pain in the ass. What happened, Kat? Did the dragon foil your escape plans?”

She did not deign to answer.

“May I come in? I'm cold and wet, sunburned, and I have a headache,” she spat through gritted teeth.

“Survival often depends upon the hospitality of others. By custom we honor your request for shelter. May you return the favor to others so benighted.” Loki bowed to her in the same manner he had witnessed Raaskan greet newcomers to the village.

She muttered something that sounded like, “Extremely unlikely.” To put it politely.

“Your word of honor as an officer in His Imperial Majesty's Military that you will honor the custom of hospitality.” Loki braced his feet and stood firmly in the hatchway. He kept reminding himself that they all had to learn to live together on this planet.

“Lieutenant Talbot!” Cyndi pushed past Loki and ran to help Kat to her feet. “At last, a civilized person. Tell these people to return me to the ship immediately. I shall perish in the cold and the damp. Who knows what bacteria lurk in this filthy air!” she gushed.

Kat shook off the helping hand and stiffly got her feet under her. She shot the dragon a malevolent look. “I suggest you keep your thoughts and words to yourself, Ms. Baines. Return to the ship is dangerous at the moment and unlikely to help the situation.”

Cyndi stared at her, mouth agape.

Loki racked his brain trying to remember why he ever thought Cyndi attractive let alone the most beautiful and desirable woman in the galaxy. Thoughts of Paola Sanchez jumped to his mind's eye. Determined, energetic, independent, her stark beauty held much more appeal at the moment.

Cyndi dominated by manipulating people, like Mum. Paola led.

The dragon took off in a huff, leaving behind a flurry of windblown debris that cascaded over Kat and Cyndi. Dragons were big enough and powerful enough they did not have to hide their emotions or cater to the whims of others.

Loki wished he were a dragon at that moment. Or had the respect proffered to them.

“Your word of honor, Kat,” he reminded them all of the reason for the delay.

Kat returned his glare for a long moment before firming her shoulders and thrusting out her chin. “My word of honor. I will honor the custom of hospitality and deny it to no one who asks properly for shelter in my abode.”

“Full of loopholes but good enough for now. You'll learn the value of honor and hospitality and a bunch of other qualities alien to civils of the GTE.” Loki turned his back on the women and retreated deeper into the shuttle.

“Qualities totally alien to the O'Hara brothers who have broken nearly every law honored by civilized humans since time began,” Kat retorted.

Loki froze. The weight of his crimes came crashing down upon his shoulders. He wanted to justify his actions, blame them on others who had cheated him. The truth was, he enjoyed the danger and excitement of defying the law, always one jump ahead of arrest.

Suddenly he needed to punch someone and did not like himself very much for the thought. How could he lead this ragtag group of refugees when he could not properly exhibit the qualities he professed?

Konner drifted slowly to the surface of his meditation. A bird chirped a tentative inquiry.

A soft glow of predawn light shimmered around the edges of Konner's awareness. A gentle shaft of warmth struck his back. Then all of the birds came alive with songs of greeting to the sunrise.

Konner heaved a deep sigh of release and opened his eyes. He looked around before moving. Nothing but the birds and a slight breeze filtered through to this grassy creekside. He might be the only person alive on the entire planet.

Except that his heart ached for the one missing. Best let her continue resting until she awoke naturally. The healing magic of a cat's purr needed time. Even the more intense ultrasound treatments of modern medicine needed hours to show an effect.

The muted roar of Iianthe's throat rumbles ceased abruptly.

“Wake up, Konner,” Dalleena whispered. Her hand touched his shoulder.

He scrambled to his feet and encircled her with his arms, needing to protect her from whatever had roused her. “What's wrong,” he asked quietly.

“They come.”

There was only one “they” that would make her eyes go wide with alarm. IMPs.

“How far away?”

“Not far.”

“Can you travel? Is that still sore?” Konner asked, exploring the bump on the back of her head with his fingers. She winced but stayed within the circle of his embrace. He peered at the spot, not daring to touch it. He wished Kim were here. His brother could hasten the healing started by Iianthe.

(
I cannot fly today,
) the dragon announced. His mental voice sounded as hushed as Konner's and Dalleena's whispers, as if he feared alerting the approaching soldiers.

“We must hide,” Konner decided. IMP officers used hostages as bargaining tools. Their captain must be desperate to regain the king stone by now. If they had to, would Loki and Kim trade it for Konner's safety?

He did not intend to give them the opportunity.

“We have to get to the clearing. I have to leave today to get to my son in time.” He wanted to shout and pound things with his fists. No time.

Muted voices came from a spot due west, a few hundred meters away.

“Can you climb?” He shoved Dalleena toward the tallest tree he could see.

She stretched one arm above her head. Grimaced. Nodded hesitantly, then shook her head. She looked as if she might cry.

(
To me,
) Iianthe called.

Shafts of sunlight seemed to concentrate upon the mossy rock where the flywacket crouched. Surely the IMPs must see the blinding explosion of light. Konner whirled Dalleena around so that both of their backs were to the transforming dragon. She clutched her middle from the abrupt motion. When the glare dissolved, Konner peered over his shoulder.

(
Your enemies see only the sunrise.
)

Konner hoped that was so. True civils like Pettigrew had probably never observed a sunrise. Looking east they might mistake Iianthe's shedding of light as nothing more dangerous.

(
To me,
) Iianthe repeated. He lifted his good wing a little.

“I hope this works.” He and Dalleena slipped beneath the wing. They lay flat upon the cushion of moss.

(
Do not move,
) Iianthe admonished them. (
Color and movement betray the hunted.
)

“What about your purple-tips?” Konner asked as quietly as he could.

(
Inconsequential.
)

The voices came closer.

”Heat sensors indicate the quarry has . . . I can't find them anywhere, Lieutenant Commander M'Berra,” a female voice said. “Must be something wrong with the handheld. All I see is one block of heat half a klick square.”

Konner wished he could see through Iianthe's wing. He needed to read body language as well as vocal tones to judge the degree of danger.

“People cannot just disappear into thin air,” replied the deep bass voice of
Jupiter
's second-in-command.

Iianthe's skin rippled in sympathetic vibration. His own voice had much the same timbre.

“Begging the Commander's pardon, but the O'Haras have been known to do that on any number of occasions,” the woman with the sensor corrected her superior officer.

“Tricks,” M'Berra insisted. “Smoke and mirrors. Now where are they? This is the place they hid just a few femtos ago.”

“Sensors can't find . . .”

“To hell with the sensors. Use the eyes and the nose God gave you. Use your hands to feel every micrometer within a square klick. Now spread out, all of you, and find the two escaped prisoners.”

K
AT LAY MOTIONLESS in the hammock slung across a corner in the body of the lander. Somehow, she had to get out of here. She could salvage this mission and save many lives with a little luck and more skill.

Half a dozen bushies snored in other hammocks around her. She was boxed in. Big warriors slept to each side of her, more between her and the hatch. The slightest movement would set the portable beds to swinging and awake the occupant. No easy escape.

She'd graduated top of her class in “Escape from Hostile Territory.” But she'd never had to actually do it before. She had no doubt that the bushies who guarded her would kill her if they caught her. They were not bound by the conventions of civilization.

Holding her breath, she rolled out of the hammock, keeping one hand on the mesh to prevent the bars at head and foot from knocking into something and making a noise. Her knees bent, absorbing her weight. Did the others hear her soft landing?

She counted to one hundred. The man next to her snored a little louder, mumbled something, and heaved himself over. His hammock careened back and forth. Kat dropped to her knees to avoid being hit in the back and thus awakening the man.