Sword of Dreams (The Reforged Trilogy) (5 page)

The work was too tedious, too time-consuming! Every time someone screamed, the police gave chase and Gavriel had to hide again. Too many such encounters inevitably drove him away, into a new city and then further, onto a new planet.

There were so many billions who needed the gift Gavriel brought, yet he was forced to grant it one at a time. It was too slow! Why did no one ever understand the blessing he gave? The sweet, deep death like falling into a soft bed at the end of a long, hard day?

Gavriel sheathed the nanoknife and scrubbed his hands briskly together. The girl's blood had grown flaky on his palms and sifted to the dusty floor like red snow.

He could not hide forever. Eventually, they would find Gavriel and haul him away. The trial would be short and then they would throw him in prison to rot. No one would ever know, ever understand that he was only trying to help. They would think Gavriel Euvo was some common criminal, a psychopath who killed for cheap thrills or perverse pleasures. The very idea made Gavriel bristle indignantly.

There had to be a better way.

Gavriel flicked his brittle fingers in an intricate symbol.
"Ka li'ae avael!"

An ember kindled in the darkness. The spark of light flared and golden-red tongues of fire filled the air, illuminating Gavriel's wolfish smile. The flame died away and left nothing behind but the faint scent of smoke. Soon, even that was gone.

There would be nothing left for the police to find this time.

"Attending college is expensive, but not nearly as expensive as not attending."

- Xol, Dean of Vostra Nor University (202 PA)

Tiberius banged his fist on the cargo bay wall. On his other arm, Orphia hissed in irritation. The hawk fluttered over to the stair railing and landed again. Her sharp talons clicked on the metal.

Maeve sat cross-legged on top of the supply crates, stretching her wings. There were few places on the Blue Phoenix with room enough to do so. It felt good and served as a sort of… meditation, Maeve supposed.

Lunch had been only a half-hour ago, but her stomach still ached. It was the withdrawals. Maeve had not taken Vanora White or Pitch or any other chem in almost ten days. And two weeks before that had only been a few swallows of bitter narcohol – just to take the edge off – before she managed to throw the bottle away.

It was still so hard. Maeve still woke in the middle of the night with cold sweat sticking the sheets to her clammy skin and her mouth full of a vile taste, like something long dead. Did it ever get any easier?

Tiberius called Maeve's name. She looked up.

"We need to talk," he shouted down to her. "We'll be landing in a few minutes."

"I am coming."

The Arcadian flew up to the catwalk that spanned the top of the cargo hold and clambered over the railing. Maeve followed Tiberius back into the mess. Duaal lounged on one of the patched acceleration couches in the corner, rolling an antique silver coin across his knuckles. The rest of the crew sat gathered around a large table bolted to the floor and looked up as Maeve and Tiberius entered.

"Hi, Smoke. Want to sit?" Gripper asked.

She took the chair that he offered. Tiberius took the couch opposite Duaal.

"We'll be setting down on Tynerion in about an hour to meet with Xia's friend," the captain said.

"I'll be flying," Duaal announced proudly.

"We should be able to land at the university field," said Xia. "Vostra Nor is one of the smaller colleges on Tynerion. There shouldn't be much traffic."

"We're not on Axis. No one here should know we're God-damned criminals. But we can't take any chances." Tiberius pointed a thick finger at Maeve. "No making trouble. No getting into trouble if anyone else makes it. We're going to get on and off Tynerion just as quick as we can."

Maeve bristled. "Your species' hatred of my kind is not of
my
making."

"You don't do much to change it, though," said Duaal. "But even if you can behave, I think you should stay on the Phoenix. Gripper, too."

"Huh? What did I do?" Gripper asked plaintively.

"You stick out, my friend. Like a giant green monster. Like an alien. You pretty much ground traffic to a halt on Axis."

Xia frowned. Her eyes had gone a thoughtful green. "Unfortunately, I think Duaal has a point. You do attract a lot of attention on most planets, Gripper, and there are a lot of students and scholars on Tynerion. They'll want to study you."

"You think they might, you know, grab me?" the Arboran asked. He chewed nervously on one of his claws.

"No, but they might make it hard for us to leave," said Xia gently. "Grant money is tight and you never know what some glory-hungry scientist might do."

"Alliance attitudes toward the other races of the galaxy are terrible," Maeve spat angrily. "Are Gripper's only options to be caged aboard this ship or to be pinned to a dissection table?"

"Now wait a minute!" Tiberius thumped his fist on the back of the couch. "This is to keep you out of fights and the rest of us out of jail. I don't give two bent pinions about your species."

"You may not," said Xia. "But a lot of other people do. A lot of people who live and work on Tynerion."

"We want to put our best foot forward, captain," Duaal added.

"I guess our best foot is a little smaller than mine," Gripper said. He wiggled his thick, dirty toes. No one manufactured boots large enough for the Arboran to wear. "Are we going to have to hide in our rooms the whole time we're working for this Xen guy?"

Xia shook her head. "I don't think that's necessary. Once Xen's on the Blue Phoenix, he'll ask a lot of questions, but he won't be able to do much more. Besides, I don't think Xen would be much of a problem. He's a good man. It's everyone else on Tynerion that I'm worried about."

Maeve picked at the edge of the table with her fingernail. It was ridiculous and infuriating, but Duaal and Xia were probably right. Her all-too-winged presence had made plenty of past deals more difficult, or ruined them entirely.

"I will remain on the Blue Phoenix while we are on Tynerion," she agreed.

"We'll find something to do, Smoke." Gripper gave her a friendly elbow that almost knocked the fairy out of her chair. "You can help me with my garden."

"Lucky you," Duaal said with a thin smile.

Maeve sighed.

________

With only a few stomach-churning bumps, Duaal set the Blue Phoenix down on Tynerion. As Xia predicted, there was no trouble landing at Vostra Nor University. Traffic was well-regulated and much lighter than the constant congestion of Axis.

When the ship was on the ground and powered down, Duaal jumped up from his seat and grinned at Tiberius. "Not bad!" he congratulated himself.

"It looks good. We'll make a pilot out of you yet," Tiberius said as he unbuckled his harness. "Now, let's go get the job. I want to settle the deal and get underway as soon as possible. This rock makes me nervous."

"Yes, sir."

They met Xia at the airlock. Maeve perched like an oversized bird on the edge of one of Gripper's vegetable planters. The Arboran hung nearby, instructing her on the care of his garden. Maeve watched Xia, Tiberius and Duaal leave. She did not look happy. Duaal shrugged to himself. Maeve never looked happy. He ducked through the airlock and followed Xia outside.

It was autumn on this part of Tynerion. The trees that lined the perimeter of the landing field swayed in a crisp breeze. Red, gold and orange leaves covered the black blastphalt and filled the briskly swirling air with a dusty-sweet scent. Duaal took a deep breath and stretched his arms up over his head. It felt good to be out in the open.

"Do you know where we're going?" Tiberius asked Xia.

"Yes. It's not far. Vostra Nor is one of the smaller schools."

The Ixthian smiled. Her steps were bouncy and quick as she led the humans out across the landing field, through an open gate and onto the campus.

Tynerion was one of the first worlds colonized, venaformed and settled by humans from Axis even before the creation of the Central World Alliance. In those days, it was all so new. There were other stars, other planets and plants, even new species of sentient life. From their new colony, humans studied it all. Research centers, observatories and laboratories sprang up all over Tynerion, then libraries and schools. When the Alliance was founded, new students flocked from all across the galactic core to study on Tynerion. Before long, the universities were overcrowded and more schools had to be built. Within a few generations, Tynerion became the center of academia in the galaxy.

If Vostra Nor University was a small school, Duaal had no idea what one of the big ones might be like. White concrete paths wound through lawns and circular rose gardens that separated buildings of myriad sizes and shapes. There were long lines of classrooms and lecture halls like rows of corn. A shiny observatory dome perched high on top of a blue-and-black trimmed building and heliographed blindingly in the light of the white binary suns. In the distance, a slim pyramid of glass and steel rose sharply from a forest-like arboretum. Xia caught Duaal staring.

"That's the botany department. It's pretty much right in the center of campus. There's a monument out front to the original Tynerion explorers," she explained, then laughed surprisingly girlishly. "Every year, someone gets drunk, climbs up the statue and falls off."

"Sounds like fun."

It actually did. Duaal had never given college a thought, but it suddenly seemed like a pity that he would probably never get to go. Tiberius would be his only teacher.

And Gavriel.

A pair of girls bobbed past on a silently NI-propelled board, chattering and giggling at one another. Xia took Duaal and Tiberius through an aromatic herb garden and then past a white stone lecture hall surrounded by a tall colonnade. A carved granite slab in a nearby flowerbed read
Veskin Hall – Physics
. They had to weave and push through a crowd of students, most about Duaal's own age. A Lyran in a tweed suit stood on the roof, holding a leather pounceball over his head.

"Now stand back!" he shouted to the students below.

On the other side of a lawn studded with sculptures of twisted metal, Xia pointed to a stately red brick hall covered in a thick net of ivy.

"That's where we're going, Xol Hall. We used to call it the
Xol Hole
. It's a little cramped inside."

That turned to be an understatement. They joined the tide of students and professors pouring in through the pillar-flanked entry. Doors lined the long hallway, crowded display cases flanked the doors, all full to overflowing with rocks, bits of old cloth in a thousand fading colors, fragments of pottery, shards of metal and vials of dust. The ceiling hung artificially low with sagging maps stapled to the spongy insulation tiles and genetic models hanging from thin, nearly invisible threads.

A kiosk flickered on one corner where the hallway intersected another crowded corridor. Xia stopped beside it and leaned close to make herself heard over the noise. "Directions to Professor Xen's office," she shouted. The holographic display buzzed and flickered, then showed Xia what she had asked for:

Professor Xen (4)

Office 310

Third floor, fifth door on the left

Office hours: Open

A red line blinked through a wireframe map beside the instructions. Xia glanced down the right-hand hall to the elevators, but the foyer was full of waiting students.

"Come on, the stairs are over here," she said.

By the time they reached the third story, Tiberius was huffing. "This is ridiculous!" he protested. "I've been climbing mountains – real Prian mountains, not colony-world hills – since before either of you were born!"

"Maybe Prianus isn't the challenge you make it out to be," Duaal suggested.

"Shut it, chickling. I'm just getting old."

Duaal laughed and chased after Xia, who had pulled ahead. There were fewer people up here, but even more overfilled glass cases. Xia waved the men over to a closed door, fifth one on the left. A cartoon had been printed out and taped to the window, showing a comically exaggerated Hadrian facing off against an exasperated Axial. The two shared a single dialog bubble:
You show me your monkeys!

Xia laughed. "Pretty good."

Duaal did not get it and tried to think of some subtle way to get Xia to explain the joke. While he pondered, she knocked on the door.

"It's open. Come on in!" called a voice from inside.

Xia opened the door for Tiberius and Duaal, then followed them into the office. It was only slightly less crowded than the hallway. A huge window looked out on the sculpture garden they had passed through on the way in. Monitors filled the other three walls, all displaying maps and news stories, photographs and charts. Two desks took up most of the office, pushed back to back in the middle of the floor and leaving only a narrow gap around the edge of the room.