“Then there was the Cetan destruction of
Belta ten years ago. The Assembly knew Cetan ships were headed
there, and yet the Beltans were given no warning.” Suria paused
only a moment at Narisa’s strangled gasp at disclosure of this
information. “The Beltan people were too free, or so Tyre thought,
and they needed scourging. The Assembly let the Cetans do the job.
It is a very different planet now from the one you once knew,
Narisa. It is not so open a society. It’s much more like the
Capital.
“No,” Suria went on, “to be fair, you are
right. Not all Members of the Assembly are corrupt. There are
decent ones, like Almaric and a few others, but too often they are
shouted down or their decisions are subverted by Leader Tyre and
his cronies. It’s a wonder to me that the good ones haven’t all
left the Capital long ago.”
“My family died for the convenience of the
Assembly? They could have warned Belta or sent help and did not? I
was here at the Capital when it happened. How could I have been so
blind to all of this?” Narisa cried. She did not doubt what Suria
had said. It fit too well with what she had come to understand on
her own. She felt bleak, helpless despair over any chance of ever
changing an Assembly that could allow such things. “It seems my
life since the day I entered the Service has been based on lies.
How could I have been so stupid?”
“Don’t blame yourself,” Suria replied. “Few
people know the truth about the Assembly. We only know what we have
been taught. Those of us in the Service are so sheltered during
training, and later spend so much of our time in space, that we are
separated from the restrictions and difficulties of ordinary life.
When we are inconvenienced, we charge it to Service regulations and
take pride in doing our duty. Or we disregard what our own minds
and hearts tell us because we can’t bear to accept the evidence
before our eyes. I was like that until I was refused a child and
took service with Leader Tyre. It was only in his household that I
was finally forced to accept the truth.”
“And so,” Kalina said, returning with
remarkable calmness to the principal reason for Suria’s visit, “I,
my family and Narisa are all to be destroyed.”
“And Gaidar,” Narisa added, “to whom Tarik
and I have both given our word that he will be safe.”
“About this Gaidar,” Suria said tensely. “The
Cetan has been removed from confinement in the Assembly chambers
and taken to Leader Tyre’s own house. He is now sealed into a room
on the lowest level. It will be more convenient for Tyre to have
him killed there.”
“I can’t let that happen,” Narisa cried.
“Then you and I will have to remove him at
once.” Suria’s green eyes gleamed, and her lovely face took on a
purposeful look. “After we have freed Gaidar, will you accept him
here, Kalina?”
“I will have no laws broken. Almaric’s
position is precarious enough if Tyre thinks he can have us killed
and not be brought down himself. I thank you for the warning,
Suria, and we will do our best to prevent his plan from succeeding,
but if one broken law or the absence of Tarik or Narisa from our
house can be laid to us, we will be unable to help them in any way
when they come before the Assembly again.”
“Tarik is absent now,” Narisa pointed
out.
“In his father’s direct custody on legal
business,” Kalina said sternly. “That does not violate Almaric’s
agreement with the Assembly. They have gone openly, and three of
the guards have gone with them. It is a very different thing for
you to slip out with Suria and secretly enter Tyre’s house. Narisa,
if you were found there, you would be killed at once, and Tyre
would have an excuse he could use to justify killing the rest of
us.”
“Narisa has to go with me. Gaidar knows her.
I doubt he would trust me,” Suria said. “She can enter with me,
dressed as a servant. I’ll say she’s an acquaintance of mine from
another house who offered to help me carry packages home from the
Market. That is where I am supposed to be. Leader Tyre is planning
a feast tonight for some of his closest friends. I suspect from
what I have overheard that Gaidar’s death is going to be the
entertainment, which is why we have to release him promptly. Narisa
and I can enter by the servant’s way, loaded down with the freshest
fruits and vegetables. No one will look at our faces if we are
carrying outlandish parcels. Kalina, could you find a servant’s
dress for Narisa, and then make up a small bundle of clothing we
could take with us, something a serving man would wear, perhaps an
old Demarian coat with a hood? Narisa can tell you how big Gaidar
is.”
“And shaving equipment and scissors,” Narisa
added. “Gaidar has a beard and long hair. He will be better
disguised without them.”
“I cannot take the risk without consulting
Almaric.” Kalina remained opposed to the plan.
“How long will Tarik and his father be gone?”
Narisa asked her.
“Until the evening,” Kalina replied. “We are
all to gather in this room before the evening meal. Halvo will be
here by then, too.”
“We can’t afford to wait that long to help
Gaidar,” Narisa insisted.
“I am glad to hear Admiral Halvo is returning
to the Capital,” Suria said. “Officers of the Service will follow
him, even in opposition to Leader Tyre, should there be a direct
confrontation. You and Almaric are safer with Halvo here,
Kalina.”
“Gaidar should be in this room when Halvo
arrives.” Narisa was thoughtful, speaking slowly as she worked
through the problem of releasing the Cetan. She believed Suria had
just given her the argument that would convince Kalina to go along
with their hasty plan. “It will save time if Gaidar is here and can
provide detailed information to Halvo about Starthruster, much more
than Tarik and I know. Suria is right, Kalina; we have to rescue
Gaidar at once.”
“We will come directly back here,” Suria
persisted. “Kalina, you can’t let Gaidar be killed if Tarik has
promised his safety. Narisa and I will be careful, and no one ever
looks very closely at servants.”
“Please,” Narisa begged. “Kalina, please help
us.”
There was a silence that seemed interminable
to Narisa as Kalina studied the two younger women.
“Very well,” she said at last. “I may as well
help you, since I doubt I could stop you. Wait here. I won’t be
long.”
Kalina left the room, and Narisa and Suria
sat looking at each other rather uncertainly.
“Thank you for believing me,” Suria said.
“Let me tell you how I think we should proceed. Since you know
Gaidar, you may have some suggestions to add to my plan.” They were
still talking when Kalina reappeared.
“Put this on.” Kalina handed Narisa a plain
gray gown of rough material and a pair of shapeless old boots.
“There is a short jacket with a scarf you can wind around your
head. This bundle has a man’s shirt and trousers and a hooded coat.
Also a pair of old scissors. I didn’t dare take any shaving
equipment. No one uses it except for very old men. I didn’t want to
ask the servants for it.”
“I hadn’t thought of that.” Narisa recalled
the shaving equipment in her own bathing room, but she was afraid
to go and get it lest she meet someone who might question her. “We
will just have to trim Gaidar’s beard as short as we can with the
scissors and hope no one notices the stubble after he pulls up the
hood.”
“At least the weather has turned colder,”
Kalina said. “There will be a lot of people on the streets with
their heads covered against the wind.”
When Narisa had changed into the servant’s
dress, she and Suria followed Kalina along the back corridors. They
met an occasional servant along the way, but since Kalina was
mistress of the house, no questions were asked.
“I’m not taking you out through the kitchen
and the servants’ way,” Kalina said, turning a corner. “There is an
old entrance in the wall around the garden. It has been unused for
so long it is almost forgotten. There are no guards near it, so it
will be safe for you to leave through. When you return, come back
to the secure room by these same corridors.” She opened a door, and
they found themselves at one side of the garden. A hidden path
wound between the high outer wall and a tall hedge growing a few
feet away from the wall. Kalina led them along it.
“The gardeners use this way,” she said,
“though they don’t use the door anymore. Here is the security
panel. Memorize the numbers, Narisa. You will need them on the
other side to get back in. I’ll see to it the door into the house
is left unsealed.” The door in the garden wall slid open at her
touch.
“Be careful,” she whispered as she shut it
behind them. “Come back safely.”
Narisa and Suria found themselves in a narrow
ally between two large houses. Suria touched her arm, and Narisa
went in the direction she indicated. They came out of the ally into
the street behind Almaric’s house and began walking in the
direction where Suria said the Market was.
Narisa had never wandered about the Capital
very much. Trainees for the Service were expected to remain in
their own compound, and she had been too busy with her studies to
join the forays some of the braver cadets occasionally made to
drinking houses. She was surprised at how crowded the streets were,
and at the diversity of people she saw.
“All the Races come here,” Suria explained.
“This is not only the Capital of the Jurisdiction, it is an
important trading post. You can buy almost anything in the
Capital.”
It was difficult to make their way through
the crowds into the Market, but Suria managed with an expertise
that told Narisa she had been doing it for some time. Suria also
knew the best shops and stalls. Both of them soon had their arms
loaded with produce brought to the Capital from many planets.
“It’s always like this when the Assembly is
in session,” Suria said. “All the Members want their native
foods.”
“Surely there is an easier way to stock up on
fresh provisions,” Narisa grumbled, trying to keep a branch of
heavy purple fruits from falling off the pile she held. She did not
like the fetid smell of those fruits at all, and wrinkled her nose.
“Couldn’t these be ordered by computer?”
“They could, but they wouldn’t be as fresh
after being packaged and shipped. Leader Tyre fancies himself as an
Epicure. Nothing but the best and freshest for him. Besides, I
never complain about this chore because it gives me a certain
amount of freedom. I can come and go from the Leader’s house almost
whenever I want.”
Narisa thought her arms would break from the
weight of all the strange fruits and vegetables she was holding.
Suria’s arms were loaded, too, her collection topped by an enormous
Jugarian crab whose legs, fortunately, were tied together, but
whose red eyes kept rolling wildly. Finally, unable to carry one
item more, they left the Market and started toward Leader Tyre’s
house.
It was more like a palace, Narisa thought
when she first saw it. The facade of heavily carved red stone went
on and on. They came to the end at last, turned a corner and walked
halfway along the side of the building to the servants’ entrance.
There they were briefly stopped by a guard. Suria identified
herself. When the guard began to ask her who her helpful friend
was, Suria tilted the bundles in her arms while she looked up at
him, letting the Jugarian crab begin to slide off the top.
“Ho, don’t let that thing loose near me,” the
guard warned, stepping away from them. ‘`Go on, take it to the
kitchen where someone will know what to do with it. You, there,
have you got anything as dangerous as the crab? What is that
terrible smell?”
“I’m not sure,” Narisa answered breathlessly.
“Possibly these fruits, or the Demarian cheese. I only offered to
help Suria, and she began giving me all these heavy packages to
hold. I just want to put them down.”
“Then follow Suria to the kitchen, right at
the end of that hallway.”
A moment or two later they were in the
cavernous kitchen, where they unloaded their parcels and all the
loose produce. The Jugarian crab was taken off to a cooling room to
await the evening meal. Suria spoke to one of the cooks, then
picked up a tray laden with dishes and nodded to Narisa to follow
her. Together they went through a pantry to a narrow corridor,
hurrying along it until they reached a steep flight of steps going
down to the lower level of the house. It was gloomy and poorly lit.
Narisa stayed close to Suria, taking the bundle of clothes intended
for Gaidar under one arm and holding on to the stone wall with her
free hand. The stairs curved toward the bottom and then ended in a
square gray stone room. There a guard lounged in a chair with his
feet up on a table.
“Well, Mistress Suria.” The guard was openly
insolent. “What does our Leader’s latest woman have for me today?
Some new delight?” He leered at her.
“Be careful,” Suria said sweetly, “or I’ll
report you to Leader Tyre at a moment when he cannot refuse me
anything. Here is your meal.” She plopped the tray on the table
next to the guard’s feet, then removed a covered bowl. “This is for
the prisoner.”
“Who is she?” The guard stared at Narisa.
“A friend of mine,” Suria answered. “She
wants to see what a Cetan looks like.”
“You’d do better to stay with me, friend of
Suria. I’m more entertaining than that surly fellow.”
“Is he as ugly as they say Cetans are?”
Narisa asked with every appearance of ghoulish interest.
“See for yourself!” The guard waved them on
and picked up a plate of stew from his tray. “Here, take the key if
you want to go inside the cell. Just don’t scream for me if he
attacks you.”
“This is poor security,” Narisa whispered to
Suria as they made their way to Gaidar’s cell.
“They are overconfident and lazy like their
Leader,” Suria replied. “It’s a good thing for us they are.”