show an electronic trail of three transfers of own-
ership. Appropriate insignia have been applied to
the body of the ship, along with some . . . ah . . .
cosmetic changes."
Calum choked.
"Every rascal in the galaxy registers under
Kezdet," Rafik protested. "They're a known cover
for all sorts of thieves, desperadoes, con men, and
cheats."
Uncle Hafiz's brows rose. "Dear boy! My own
modest personal fleet has Kezdet registration."
"Exactly," muttered Calum, too low for Hafiz to
hear him. He jabbed Rafik in the side with one veiled
elbow, hoping to remind him of the other problem
with using Kezdet as their port of registration.
101
"And," Rafik said, "as it happens, I have had
an ... unfortunate encounter with Kezdet patrols.
One of those pesky matters of trespassing that can
occur with the best of •will on both sides, but I am
afraid they took it in a poor spirit." There was no
way of knowing for sure, but it seemed a safe bet
that the Guardians of the Peace were still unhappy
about the patrol cruiser he, Calum, and Gill had
crippled and marooned before taking off with that
load of titanium.
"Then," Uncle Hafiz said smoothly, "you will
have an excellent excuse for not returning to your
port of registration, will you not? Now, your
shares have been converted to ..." He named a
sum in Federation credits that made Calum gasp
through his veils.
Rafik actually managed to look disappointed.
"Ah, well," he said sadly, "that would be after your
discount, of course?"
"By no means," said Uncle Hafiz, "but I pro-
pose to take no more than twenty percent of the
gross, which I assure you will barely cover my
expenses in arranging . . . facilitation payments . . .
to all the bureaucracies concerned."
"It was seventeen percent yesterday."
"Delay," said Uncle Hafiz, "increases the
expense. How fortunate that you have come to a
wise decision! It only remains to complete the
transaction. If you will swear on the Three Books
to honor our agreement, then call Acorna in and
divorce her, I shall marry her immediately and you
will be free to depart."
Rafik looked mournful. "If only it were that
ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL
102
easy!" he said. "But I must warn you that the
Hadith require a -waiting period of at least one
sunset and dawn between a woman's divorce and
remarriage."
"That is not in my understanding of the
Hadith," Uncle Hafiz said sharply.
"It is a new revelation ofMoulay Suheil," Rafik
countered. "He had a dream in which the First
Prophet, blessed be His Name, appeared and
expressed his concern lest women, being weak in
understanding and easily led, might be drawn into
error by too much haste in the matter of divorces
and remarrying. A divorced "woman must spend
one night in prayer, seeking the will of the First
Prophet, before she may enter into any new
alliance."
"Hmmph," muttered Uncle Haflz. "I would
scarcely describe the young rarity out there as
being weak in understanding. I've never seen any-
one catch on so fast to the idea of keeping a dou-
ble set of accounts, one for the Federation and one
for private purposes."
Calum choked and Rafik trod on his foot. This
was no time to resume the argument about whether
Hafiz was teaching Acorna suitable things!
"However," Rafik said, "to allay your anxieties,
I will do better than swearing on the Three Books.
I will swear on this copy of the Holy Hadith them-
selves, authenticated by Moulay Suheil, and most
sacred to me and to all true believers." He drew a
datahedron from his pocket and kissed it rever-
ently before extending it in his cupped hands.
Uncle Hafiz recoiled as if from a snake.
103
"You swear on your Hadith," he said, "and I
will make my oath on the Books of the Three
Prophets. Thus each of us will be bound by that
which one holds most sacred."
"An excellent idea," said Rafik.
Calum's attention wavered during the lengthy
oath-taking which followed, most of -which was
not performed in Basic Interlingua but in the
language of Hafiz and Rafik's culture of origin.
It sounded to him like a group of birds choking
on something unpleasant, but it seemed to make
sense. At one point they called for Acorna to be
brought into the room; she stood quite still under
her veils while more of the unfamiliar language
spouted over her head. At the end Hafiz kissed
the topmost of his Three Books, and Rafik
pressed his lips to the datahedron again, and
both men smiled as if in the satisfaction of a bar-
gain concluded.
"With your permission. Uncle, I will now
escort my former wife to the place set apart for
her, that she may begin her vigil of prayer. I
know you will not wish to delay the final cere-
mony," Rafik said.
"Since I myself am not a Neo-Hadithian,"
Hafiz said, "I see no need at all for this delay."
"I must report to her family that all has been
handled decently and in good order," said Rafik.
"It is a matter touching my honor. Uncle."
Hafiz muttered and grumbled but finally let
them go, after receiving Rafik's assurances that
Acorna's prescribed time of prayer need not inter-
fere with her attending the wedding feast that
ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL
104
night. "Only family," he promised. "Only our-
selves and your partner."
Rafik looked surprised. "You will break bread
with an unbeliever?"
"You consider him as family and entrust him
with your honor in the persons of your wives,"
said Hafiz, looking as though he had just swal-
lowed something very unpleasant. "In loving
respect to you, my dear nephew, I can do no less."
"What," Calum demanded as soon as they were
safely in the secluded rooms upstairs, "was all that
about?"
"Well, you didn't want me to hand Acorna over
to him then and there, did you? I had to come up
with some reason to delay. Now that the credits
and registration are in order and he's told me the
passwords to access them, we can sneak out
tonight. Have to wait until after this blasted feast,
though." Rafik frowned. "I wish I knew why he
insists on having Gill there. He obviously didn't
like the idea above half."
"Makes it convenient for us," Calum pointed
out.
"That," said Rafik, "is what worries me."
Out of consideration for Rafik's supposedly strict
religious views on the seclusion of women, Hafiz
arranged that no servants should be present at the
celebration feast that night.
"You see, dear boy," he said, gesturing at the
spacious dining hall with its carved lattice-work
screens and colorful silk-covered divans, "all is
105
prepared. The table is, after all, adequately fur-
nished with heating and chilling chambers to keep
food at the proper temperature. What could be
pleasanter than a simple dinner en famlile? The
employment of dozens of servants to carry trays
and pour drinks is merely an outmoded tradition of
conspicuous consumption, something which the
Third Prophet enjoined us to abjure at all times. Do
you not agree?"
Gill was glad that he, as an unbeliever, and
Calum, as Rafik's senior wife, were not expected
to reply to this statement. All he had to do was
keep a straight face as Rafik praised the modesty
and simplicity of Hafiz s arrangements . . . and try
to keep his eyes from wandering over the incredi-
bly lavish display before them.
A long, low table stretched between two rows
of divans covered in emerald and crimson silk.
Dishes covered the table from one end to the
other: bowls of pilau, silver trays of sizzling-hot
pastries, sliced fruits arranged as an elaborate still
life on a specially inset chilling tray, skewers of
grilled lamb, dishes of yogurt with chopped mint,
Kilumbemba shellfish fried in batter, crystallized
rose petals and sugared goldenhearts. . . . Between
the dishes stood tall tumblers frosted with ice, and
a pitcher of some sparkling fruit drink rested in
another cooling tray beside Hafiz's divan at the
head of the table. The far wall of the dining hall
appeared to be a cliff of moss-covered rock with a
veil of water running down its surface and splash-
ing into a recirculating stream at the bottom of the
miniature cliff. From behind the carved lattices, a
ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL
106
recording of Kitheran harp music provided a
softly tinkling counterpoint to the sound of the
falling -water.
"We shall even pour our own drinks," Hafiz
said, gesturing toward the pitcher. "I have seen
that as a good Neo-Hadithian you follow the First
Prophet's words and abjure wine, rather than
accepting the dispensations of the Second and
Third Prophets. I myself usually enjoy a
Kilumbemba beer with my dinner, but for tonight
I -will share the iced madigadi juice prepared for
my guests."
Rafik nodded, rather sadly. Actually, as both
Calum and Gill well knew, he would have liked a
mug of cold Kilumbemba beer, the other specialty
of that planet, to wash down the fried shellfish.
"Don't even think about it," Calum muttered in
his ear. "If I can wrap myself up like a white bal-
loon to substantiate your conversion, you can
drink fruit juice for one evening and like it."
"Your senior write is disturbed?" Hafiz
inquired. "Not another fit, I trust? "
Rafik tried to step on Calum's foot, but only
succeeded in trampling the hem of his robe. "She
is in excellent health, thank you, Uncle," he
replied, "only inclined to chatter about trifles after
the manner of women."
"Women who are not kept veiled and
secluded," Hafiz pointed out rather acidly, "have
more of a chance to develop Interesting topics of
conversation—oh, all right, all right! I won't say
another word against the revelations of Moulay
Suheil."
107
"We are returning to the pure traditions of our
original faith," Rafik said stiffly.
"Then let us enjoy another tradition tonight,"
Hafiz said, "and drink from the same pitcher in
token of perfect trust within the family." He made
a show of pouring the iced madigadi juice into each
of their cups, finishing with his own and taking a
deep draught from it as proof of the drink's harm-
lessness. Rafik raised his own cup, but a sudden
commotion outside the room surprised him into
setting it down again. There was a babble of
excited voices, then the high-pitched wail of a
woman: an old, quavering voice.
"Aminah!" Hafiz sighed and stood up. "Tapha's
old nurse. She treats each bit of news from the
south as another installment in a vid-drama. I had
best calm her. Forgive the interruption. Please, go
on with your meal; I may be some time." He
strode out of the room quickly, a frown between
his brows.
Gill took a handful of the batter-fried shellfish
and crunched them with enjoyment.
"Well, he did say to go on," he said when Rafik
raised an eyebrow, "and even if the table does
keep these things hot, it can't keep them crisp
indefinitely." He took a deep breath and reached
for his own cup. "Must say, I've never had them
served quite so hot and spicy before."
"Any decent food tastes overspiced to you bar-
barians," Rafik said. "Acorna, what are you
doing?" She kept pushing and pawing at her veils
until they were a tangled mess around her face.
"Here, honey, let me fix that for you," Gill said.
ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL
108
"Any reason why she shouldn't put her veils back
for dinner, Rafik? It's not as if Hafiz is gonna see
anything he hasn't seen before."
"Only that he may wonder why I do not permit
my other wife to unveil," Rafik said with resigna-
tion. "I suppose I shall have to explain that she is
so ugly, I fear the sight would put him off his
food."
Calum kicked him under the table.
"That's odd," Gill said, feeling Acorna's fore-
head.
"Do you think she has a fever?"
"Her skin is cool enough. But look at her
horn!"
Great drops of clear liquid were forming on the
fluted sides of Acorna's horn. She mopped at them
ineffectually with the end of her veil.
"Have a cool drink, sweetie, it'll make you feel
better," Gill suggested, holding her cup for her.
Acorna stared at it blankly for a moment, then
took the cup from Gill and, instead of putting it to
her mouth, dipped her horn into it.
"What the deuce?"
"She does that with the dirty bathwater, too.
Acorna, sweetie-pie, do you think the juice is dirty?
It's okay, that stuff floating in it is just madigadi
pulp."
"Is not dirty," Acorna said firmly.
"Well, that's good—"
"Is baS." She dipped her head again, this time
plunging her horn into Gill's cup. "Now is one
hundred percent good," she informed him.
The three men looked at one another. "He
109
made a great show of pouring all our drinks out of
the same pitcher," Gill said.
"Why would he want to poison us? He
thinks—I mean," Calum said, choosing his words
carefully in case of unseen listeners, "we have
agreed to all his wishes."
"Oh, it's just a foolish fancy of the kid's," Rafik
said easily, but he rose to his feet as he did so and
offered Acorna his cup and Calum's. "Nothing to
worry about. Let's go on with the meal!" At the
same time a subtle head shake warned both the
other men not to take his words literally.
Acorna's horn broke out in drops of sweat
again as she brought her face close to Rafik's cup.
She dipped her horn into the juice for a moment,
then smiled in satisfaction.
"Ah—just a minute," Rafik said as she moved
to repeat the treatment on Calum's cup. He put
that one back on the table and offered Acorna the
cup Hafiz had been drinking out of. Her horn
showed no reaction.
"How did he do it?" Gill mouthed soundlessly.
"The drug must have been in the cups, not in
the pitcher," Rafik replied in the merest thread of
a whisper. Quickly he exchanged Calum's cup
with Hafiz's, then sat and served himself a plate of
rice and pilau. "Come on, wives," he said loudly
and heartily, "let us feast and rejoice!" He piled
Acorna's plate high with fruit and greens just as
Hafiz rejoined them.
"I trust the news from the south is not bad,
Uncle?" Rafik inquired.
Hafiz's thin lips twisted in an unpleasant gri-
110
ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL
mace. "It could be •worse," he said. "It could be
better. Yukata Batsu has sent back the rest of
Tapha. Alive," he added, almost as an after-
thought. "Aminah cannot decide •whether to
bewail the loss of his ears or celebrate the return
other nursling."
"Felicitations on your son's safe return," said
Gill. "And—er—I'm sorry about his ears."
Hafiz shrugged. "My surgeon can replace the
ears. No great loss; the original ones stuck out too
far anyway. As for Tapha himself..." Hafiz sighed.
"No surgeon can fix -what should have been between
the ears. He, too, expected me to congratulate him
on his return, as if he did not realize that Batsu
freed him as a gesture of contempt, to show how lit-
tle he fears Tapha's attempts against him. He is as
foolish as his mother was." He twirled a ball of
sticky rice on two fingers, dipped it into the pilau,
and downed the combination in a single gulp. "Eat,
eat, my friends. I apologize for allowing this minor
contretemps to interrupt our pleasant family dinner.
Do try the madigadi juice before it loses its chill; as
it warms, the subtleties of the flavor are lost to the
air." He took another lengthy pull from the cup
beside him.
"Indeed," said Rafik, following his uncle's
example, "this particular juice has some subtle,
lingering aftertaste that is unfamiliar to me."
"Almost bitter," Gill commented. "Good,
though," he added, quickly taking a deep drink
before Hafiz could become too alarmed.
Since none of them had any idea what drug
Hafiz had put in the cups or how quickly it was
Ill
supposed to act, they watched him for cues.
Within fifteen minutes Hafiz had all but
stopped eating, as if he had forgotten the food
on his plate. His speech wandered and he began
forgetting what he had said and repeating him-
self.
"Ever hear th' one about th' two racehorses,
the Sufi dervish and the jinn?" He launched into a
long complicated story which Gill suspected
would have been extremely obscene if Hafiz had
not kept losing the thread of his own narrative.
Rafik and Gill ignored their own food, leaned
forward over the table and laughed as loudly as
Hafiz did. Calum leaned back against the wall,
an anonymous white bundle of veiling, and
produced a rattling snore. Acorna's eyes went
from one man to the next, the pupils narrowing
to slits until Gill surreptitiously squeezed her
hand.
"Don't worry, sweets," he whispered under
cover of Hafiz's raucous laughter, "it's just a
game."
Finally Hafiz abandoned the Sufi dervish in
midsentence and slumped forward into his rice.
The other three waited tensely until his snores
convinced them that he had lost consciousness.
"Okay, let's get out of here," Gill whispered,
standing and swinging Acorna to his shoulder.
Calum followed suit, but Rafik bent over his uncle s
form for a moment, fumbling in his stained silk
robes.
"Come on, Rafik!"
Finally Rafik, too, stood, showing them a
112
ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL
holographic card that flashed a complex three-
dimensional image of interlaced knots.
"Uncle's skimmer key and port pass," he said
happily. "Or -were you planning to walk to the
port?"
Hey, Smirnoff?" Ed Minkus
called to his office mate in the
Kezdet Security office.
"What?" Des Smirnoff
replied without real interest, for he was scrolling
through some routine ID checks as fast as he
could and had to keep his eye on the screen, just
in case something interesting turned up in the
latest haul of dockside indigents.
"Gotta match on an ooooold friend."
"Who?" Smirnoff was still not dividing his
attention.
"Sauvignon," and he immediately had
Smirnoff's complete attention.
"I told you then," and Smirnoff savagely
stabbed the hold key, "that perp wasn't dead. He
may have had to lie low a while. . . . Send the item
over here." He drummed his fingers for the few
seconds it took for Ed to transfer the file to his
screen. "Registered as the Uhuru now? Couldn't
ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL
1H
change the origin, could he? So the ship's still
Kezdetian."
"I can't imagine a clever perp like Sauvignon
ever returning ..."
"Voluntarily, at least," Ed interjected with a sly
grin.
". . . into our own dear jurisdiction. But you ..."
"Never know, do you?" Ed had a habit of fin-
ishing Smirnoff's sentences for him.
"I can," and Smirnoff's thick fingers stabbed
each key as he typed in a command, "make sure
that we, and our dearest nearest neighbors in
space, are aware that the Uhuru is of great interest
to us here in Kezdet."
He gave the final number of the code sequence
such an extra pound that Ed flinched. Keyboards
suffered frequent malfunctions at Smirnoff's sta-
tion, to the point where both Supply and
Accounting now required explanations. They
always got the same one: "Get a new supplier,
these boards are made of inferior materials or
they'd stand up under normal usage."
Since most of such equipment was made in the
sweat-levels (and quite possibly out of inferior
grade plastics), the ones who suffered were the
unfortunates who eked out a bare living anyhow.
Who cared how many got fired and replaced?
There were always enough eager youngsters with
nimble fingers to take over.
Having instituted a program that would
apprise the office of Lieutenant Des Smirnoff the
instant the beacon was scanned in any of the
nearby systems which cooperated, however
115
unwillingly, with Kezdet Guardians of the Peace
(a piece of this and a piece of that was what the
neighbors said), the proximity of the Uhuru would
now send off bells, whistles, and sirens.
"So the report of Sauvignon s death is greatly
exaggerated," Des said, grinning with evil antici-
pation of future revenge. "How delightful."
"Sauvignon may be dead," Ed suggested. "The
new reg lists three names, and none of them are
Sauvignon's."
"Whose are they?"
"Rafik Nadezda, Declan Giloglie, and Calum
Baird," Ed replied.
" What?" Smirnoff erupted from his chair like a
cork from a bottle of fizzy. "Say again?"
Ed obeyed, and suddenly the names rang the
same bell in his head. "Them?"
Smirnoff punched one big fist into the palm of
his other hand, jumping about the office in what
had to be some sort of a victory gig, waving his
arms and hollering in pure, undiluted, spiteful joy.
"Is everything all right?" and their junior assis-
tant, a female they had to employ to keep the
Sexist Faction satisfied, though Mercy Kendoro's
role in their table of organization began and ended
with taking their messages and supplying them
with quik-sober. On seeing Smirnoff's unusual
antics she had hoped that one, he'd been poisoned,
or two, was having a fatal heart attack or convul-
sion. Sometimes, not even getting out of the barrios
of Kezdet made up for the humiliation she suffered
at their hands.
"I got 'em. I got all of 'em," Smirnoff was
116
ftcorna 117
ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL
chanting as he bounced from one large boot to the
other. " Clo^e the Soar!" he roared when he saw
Mercy's head peering in at them. Her reflexes
were excellent and he missed her when his big
boot slammed the door shut.
"Weren't Nadezda, Giloglie, and Baird those
miners who marooned us on an asteroid before
they made off with a fortune in titanium?"
"They were, they are, and they will be ours,"
Des Smirnoff said, rubbing his hands together.
The expression of great gleeful anticipation
intensified on his face. His thick upper lip
curled: a sight that made many timorous souls
tremble in fear. He was not a man to cross and
he had sworn vengeance on these three by all
that he held sacred. Instead of prayers, Smirnoff
had a nightly litany of those who had crossed his
path and on whom he was sworn to take
revenge. This not only kept the names alive, but
topped up his capacity for vengeance, certain in
his own little mind that he would one day cross
paths with every one of those in his bad books.
This mining crew would pay dearly for the
indignity and suffering he had endured at their
hands. He was still paying off his share of the
repairs to the patrol cruiser. Kezdet Guardians
of the Peace were not a forgiving authority and
you ponied up out of your own credits for any
damage above normal wear and tear. And for
rescue and salvage.
In point of fact, he hadn't actually paid out of
his own private account, but out of the public one
into which he had dribbled the credits required for
the monthly payments from his little side business
of protection monies. But he had other plans for
that credit and meant to take it out of the miners'
hides if he ever had the chance.
"So Sauvignons off the hook?"
"Nonsense." Des Smirnoff swiped the racks of
data cubes off their rack. "They've got the ship,
they've got the fines accrued against it." The
thought had him settling at his keyboard again
while he accessed those fines and chuckled at the
amount of interest that had accrued since
Sauvignon's disappearance.
"You'll own the ship, too, at that rate," Ed said,
sniffing enviously. He tried not to show it, but he
did really, honestly, deeply, sincerely feel that Des
kept more than his fair share of the covert rewards
of their partnership. He was waiting for the day
when he found some little inconsistency in
Smirnoff's duties that he could use as a handle to
bargain for a larger percentage.
"What'd I do with a crappy old tub like
Sauvignon cruised? It was all but falling apart as
it was. Amazing he survived. I was sure we'd pen-
etrated the life-support system with that last bolt
we fired at him."
"Yeah," and Ed scratched his head, "sure
looked like a direct hit, if I remember correctly."
"You better remember my aim is always accu-
rate."
"Odd though that the ship survived, isn't it?"
Des Smirnoff held up one hand, his big, blood-
shot brown eyes -widening.
"Wait a nano ..."
118
ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL
119
"It didn't survive," Ed said. "Those miners
have switched beacons."
"Do we have their IDs?" But he didn't wait for
an answer, his big fingers slamming down the keys
as he completed his own search. Then he flipped
the offending keyboard up, pulling it out of the
desk socket and spinning it across the room,
where it crashed and split against the far wall.
"We don't. We should. They were MME, weren't
they?"
"MME's been absorbed by Amalgamated, I
heard," Ed replied, disguising his sigh as he
opened the corn unit to Mercy Kendoro. "Bring in
a replacement keyboard. Now."
When Mercy entered, she handed the key-
board to Ed rather than approach Smirnoff, who
had his hands tucked up under his arms and was
clearly seething over whatever had caused him to
break the latest keyboard.
"Rack up those cubes, too, while you're in
here. This office must be kept neat and up to stan-
dard at all times," Des said and smiled anew as he
saw the trembling assistant bend to her task.
Later that day. Mercy Kendoro took her midday
meal break at a workers' canteen near the docks,
where the balding owner teased her affectionately
about moving into the tech classes and forgetting
her origins.
"That's right, Ghopal," Mercy replied as
always, "if I'd remembered how terrible your stew
is, there's no way I'd be eating here! What did you
put in it this morning, dead rats? At least three of
them, I'd guess; I've never seen this much meat in
it before."
Ghopal took the teasing in good part and per-
sonally cleared away Mercy's bowl when she had
finished eating. Later, when the midday rush had
petered out, he put in a call to Aaaxterminators,
Inc. "We've found three dead rats in various spots
too near the kitchens for my liking. If you'll send
out a man I'll give him a list of the specific loca-
tions so he can find where the vermin are hiding
and clear them out. And—as usual, no need to
trouble the Public Health office with the matter.
Eh? After all, I'm dealing with it promptly, like a
good citizen."
Ed Minkus came across that transcript when
reviewing the day's tapes of private calls from citi-
zens in whom Security took an interest.
"Hey, Des," he called, "Time to pay a little
semi-official visit to Ghopal. He's having problems
with vermin again, and he'd probably be grateful
not to have the matter called to the attention of
Public Health. About fifteen percent grateful, I
estimate."
"Small-time," Des grunted. "If I catch those
miners—and I will—we won't need to bother
shaking down dockside bistros any more."
But by then the representative of Aaaxtermi-
nators, Inc. had called at the back door of
Ghopal's kitchen and had gone away with the note
Ghopal handed him, promising to take care of the
rat problem.
On his way back to the office, the Aaaxterminators
ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL
120
121
man stopped at a kiosk and bought a cluster of
happy-sticks, paying in real paper credits from an
impressive wad he kept in his inner coverall
pocket. He flirted outrageously with the girl who
sold him the happy-sticks, which might have
explained why she seemed a bit flustered and took
longer than usual to give him his change.
That evening, as always, Delszaki Li's per-
sonal assistant went out to the same kiosk to buy
a flimsy of the racing form sheets for the next
day. He and the kiosk girl laughed over the old
man's refusal to subscribe to the racing news via
personal data terminal and agreed, as they
always did, that if a nice old man was embar-
rassed by his fascination with this form of gam-
bling and thought that buying flimsies with hard
credits would preserve his anonymity, there was
no need to disturb his illusions. The folded
flimsy sheet Pal Kendoro took back to the Li
mansion was thicker than usual. After he had
unfolded it and read the contents of the inner
page, he dissolved that page in water, poured the
water down the drain, and requested an immedi-
ate interview with his employer.
"Sauvignons ship has been reported in transit,
sir," he said, standing as straight as a military
attache before the old man in the specially
equipped hover-chair. A wasting neuromuscular
disease had rendered Delszaki Li's legs and right
arm all but useless, but the intelligence in those
piercing black eyes was as keen as ever, and with
one hand and voice commands he had remained in
charge of the Li financial empire for fifteen years
sir,
after enemies had predicted his speedy demise. Pal
Kendoro was proud to serve as Li's arms, legs, and
eyes outside the mansion.
"And Sauvignon?"
"I don't know. There is still a party of three
aboard the ship, but the names are not those of
our people. It is now registered to Baird, Giloglie,
and Nadezda," Pal recited from memory.
"Would have been most unwise for Sauvignon
and party to retain same names," Li pointed out.
"Do you think they attempt to make contact with
us again?"
"Unlikely. This information came from a
Guardians' office."
Delszaki Li's black eyes snapped fire. "Then is
most urgent to find them before Guardians do.
Must be you who goes. Pal. Wish I could keep
you here, but who else would be believed as doing
errand for me and at same time reestablish contact
with Sauvignon?"
Pal nodded agreement. Most of the members of
the league were from the underclass, with no visi-
ble means of going off-planet, no obvious reason
to go, and no off-planet passes. The few, such as
Pal, who had risen through the tech schools, were
the only ones who could travel freely without
inconvenient questions being asked. But he didn't
like leaving Delszaki Li with only his regular ser-
vants, at least half of whom were secretly in the
pay of Kezdet Guardians of the Peace—and
secure in the belief that their second source of
income was a secret.
"If I might make a suggestion, sir, you will
122
ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL
need a personal assistant while I'm gone. My sister
might be able to oblige."
"Mercy?"
"No! She's too useful where she is. My older
sister, Judit; I don't think you've ever met her.
She's brilliant. Finished Kezdet tech schools at six-
teen and scored highly enough on the final exams
to win a scholarship to study off-planet. She's
working in the psych section at Amalgamated's
space base."
"Would be willing to leave this fine job?"
"Like a shot, sir. She hates the place, was only
working there for the money to put Mercy and
me through school so we, too, could escape the
barrios. It should be safe enough for her to return
to Kezdet. Due to leaving so early, she's never
been . . . active," Pal said delicately.
"And therefore is unknown to the Guardians'
offices, except as sister to girl who works as their
assistant." Li nodded his satisfaction. "Could
hardly have a better guarantor." Li chuckled qui-
etly. "Is good, Kendoro. Send word to sister, but
do not wait for her arrival. I shall manage well
enough for few days, and Sauvignon may need
help."
"If it is Sauvignon," Pal said under his breath,
but the old man heard.
"And if is not Sauvignon, then maybe ship
in hands of those who kill our friends. In which
case ..."
"Terrorism is against the principles of the
league, sir. Despite -what they say about us in the
newscasts."
Acorna —— 123
"Is extermination of rats," Li snapped. "Is not
terrorism."
So the chain of information from the
Guardians' office to the Li mansion ended as it
had begun, with a discussion of dead rats.
"I want that boy," Hafiz told his trusted lieutenant,
Samaddin.
"With respect, patron, I thought it was a girl."
"What? Oh—the curiosity. Yes, well, of course
I want her, too. But I want young Rafik more. The
son of a camel and a whore outsmarted me!"
"With all respect, patron!" Samaddin bowed
even lower. "Forgive me, but the patron would not
wish, later, to recall that he had spoken of his sis-
ter in such terms."
"Family!" Hafiz said in disgust. "When they
double-cross you, you can't even curse them
properly. Get me that sheep-buggering boy,
Samaddin."
"Consider it done," Samaddin promised. "Er—
you want him with his balls or without them?"
"You idiot! You misbegotten son of a jinn's
meeting with a jackass, may the grave of your
maternal grandmother be defiled by the dung of
ten thousand syphilitic she-camels!" Hafiz
indulged the bad temper resulting from a major
drug hangover and the loss of his prized unicorn
by abusing Samaddin for several minutes, while
his lieutenant's expressionless face grew steadily
closer to purple than its normal creamy tan.
Finally Hafiz calmed down enough to explain that
124 "
ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL
he wanted Rafik back alive and unharmed, and
especially with his generative capacities intact.
"He'll pay for what he did to me, never fear.
But after he works off his debt, I've got plans for
the boy. Do you know how long it's been since
anybody double-crossed me, rather than the other
way round, Samaddin? He's got the brains and the
guts to take over after me, and I want him to have
the balls to sire more sons, too. I'm going to adopt
him and name him my heir. Well? What are you
staring at? Perfectly normal practice—good fami-
lies, no son to carry on, bring in a young relative."
"The patron has a son," Samaddin murmured.
"Not," said Hafiz grimly, "for long. Not after
the way he screwed up the southern operation.
Soon as his new ears are fixed, I'm sending him
back to do the job right this time."
"Patron! This time Yukata Batsu will kill
him!"
"Sink or swim," Hafiz said with a benign smile,
"sink or swim." He considered for a moment.
"Better not send him until you've got Rafik safely
back here, though. The family is short of young
males at the moment. Tapha is, I suppose, better
than nothing."
"Waste not, want not," Samaddin said help-
fully.
In the curtained room where Tapha lay with his
head wrapped in bandages, old Aminah whispered
with the servant girl she'd sent to dust the lattice-
work outside Hafiz's office. She raised her hands
125
and eyes to heaven in horror when she heard
Hafiz's plans for his own son.
"What shall we do?" she wailed. "If he goes
back to the south, that fiend Yukata Batsu will
surely kill him. And if he stays here, that other
fiend, his father, will kill him. We must smuggle
him away as soon as he has healed from surgery.
There must be some place where he can hide."
Aminah's wailing awakened Tapha, and he
struggled to sit up in his bed. "No, Aminah. I will
not hide."
"Tapha, nursling! You heard me?" Aminah
fluttered to his side.
"Yukata Batsu took my outer ears, not the
brain which hears and understands," Tapha said
sourly, "and a deaf beggar would have been awak-
ened by thy wailing, old woman. Now tell me all
that you know?."
When Aminah had poured out her story, Tapha
lay back on his pillows and considered. His face
was somewhat paler than it had been, but that
might have been from the exhaustion of sitting up.
"I will not hide," he declared again. "It is un-
befitting a man of my lineage. Besides, there is no
place where my beloved father, may dogs defile
his name and grave, could not find me if he
wished. There is only one thing to do." He smiled
sweetly at Aminah. "You will tell my beloved
father that I am not recovering from the restora-
tive surgery, that it is feared I will lose my life to
an infectious fever brought back from the south-
ern marshes."
"But, my little love, you grow stronger with
126
ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL
every hour! You have no fever; I, -who have
always nursed you, should know."
"Try not to be more stupid than you were
made, Ammah," Tapha said. "Since when is it nec-
essary to declare to my father the exact truth of
what passes in these rooms? Or will you no longer
protect me as you did when I was your nursling in
truth, and you lied to deflect the wrath of my
father over minor escapades?"
Aminah sighed. She had lied for Tapha too
many times to stop now.
"But the deception must soon be discovered,
my darling," she pointed out. "You cannot pretend
to lie abed with the marsh fever forever."
"No. But while my father is staying well away
from these rooms for fear of the infection, I can
get off-planet. I do not think he will kill you when
he discovers the deception," Tapha added after a
moment's thought. "He may not even beat you
very badly, for you are old and weak, and it is
shame to harm one's servants."
"Dear Tapha," Aminah said, "don't worry
about me. My life is as nothing compared to a sin-
gle hair of your head."
Tapha had no quarrel with this assessment.
"And so you will hide after all?"
"By no means." Tapha smiled. "By no means.
Running away and hiding offers only a temporary
safety. There is only one way to make sure that my
position as my father's heir remains unchallenged,
and that he treasures my life as a loving father
ought. I shall simply have to find my cousin
Rafik," he said, "before Samaddin does."
127
The Uhuru was unloading a collection of miscella-
neous minerals on Theloi when Calum was
approached by a courteous stranger.
"I could not help overhearing your discussions
with Kyrie Pasantonopolous," he said. "Allow me
to introduce myself— loannis Georghios, local rep-
resentative for ... a number of businesses. I had
the impression that your dealings with the
Pasantonopolous family had been less than satis-
factory? Perhaps you would allow me to inspect
your cargo. I might be able to make you a better
offer."
"I doubt it," Calum said sourly. "It's the min-
eral resources around Theloi that were unsatisfac-
tory. We had to go all the way out to the fourth
asteroid belt to find anything worth mining, and
then all we recovered from the ferrous regolith
was gold and platinum. Hardly worth the cost of
the journey—"
He stopped abruptly as Rafik stepped on his
foot and interrupted him. "But, of course, the
value of anything depends on how much the buyer
desires it and how little the seller cares for it," he
continued smoothly. "Perhaps one of the busi-
nesses you represent, Kyrie Georghios, would find
some slight use for our trivial and insignificant
cargo. Don't run down our payload in front of a
purchaser," he added to Calum out of the corner of
his mouth as Georghios followed Gill to inspect
the samples they had shown the Pasantonopolous
concern.
128
ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL
129
"And just "what -were you doing?" Calum
demanded indignantly.
"Being polite," Rafik said. "It's a different thing
altogether. I think your bargaining instincts have
been dulled by too many safe years under contract
to MME. You'd better let me do the talking from
now on."
"He wants to take samples for his own office to
test, and we're invited to dine with him tonight to
discuss an asteroid he wants us to explore," Gill
said, joining them. "He hinted it might be a good
source of rhenium. I suppose you think my bar-
gaining instincts are atrophied, too, Rafik? "
"My dear Gill," Rafik said amiably, "you never
had any talent for bargaining in the first place. We
would do better to hand over the dealing to
Acorna, who, at least, has a flair for numbers."
"Better if she's not seen too much," Calum said.
"She'll have to stay on board the Uhuru tonight."
The other two agreed. Acorna had grown so
fast that she could now pass for a short man, and
in miners' coveralls and with a bulky cap con-
cealing her silver hair and nascent horn, she
could just get away with passing through the
bazaars of Theloi •without attracting too much
attention. But they doubted her ability to pass
for human through a prolonged evening of bar-
gaining and formal dining.
"Better," Rafik said, "if all three of you stay on
board. Then you can't put your foot in your mouth
again, Calum."
"Calum stays with Acorna, I go with you," Gill
decided after a moment's consideration. "We don't
know this Georghios, and I don't think any of us
should be going off alone with strangers at pre-
sent. We've annoyed too many people recently."
"He may not be willing to tell a loudmouth like
you about the rhenium asteroid," Rafik warned.
"No," said Gill cheerfully, "but he won't bop
me over the head in a dark alley, either."
"You're paranoid," said Rafik, but in the end it
was he who recognized the trap Georghios had
laid for them.
"He wants all four of us to dine with him," he
reported after a telecom conversation with
Georghios. "Says he prefers to know that all part-
ners are in agreement before committing to a pos-
sibly hazardous venture like this ... it seems the
rhenium asteroid is closer to Theloi's sun than we
usually work, and we'll need extra radiation
shielding as well as protection from solar flares."
"Partners? Well, that lets Acorna out, anyway."
"He specifically requested all of us," Rafik
said, frowning. "Hinted that if we didn't all show
up, there'd be no deal. Now who does that remind
you of?"
"Sounds like Hafiz," Gill said, nodding. "In
which case we'd better take Acorna along to check
for poison."
"No," Rafik said slowly, "in which case we'd
better leave now. I'll accept his invitation—that will
give us the afternoon to unload our payload, get
what we can out of the Pasantonopolous family,
and take off for Kezdet."
"We don't dare go to Kezdet," Calum pointed
out.
130
ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL
Rafik smiled. "All your survival instincts have
atrophied. I knew it. Kezdet makes as good an
official flight plan as any, don't you think? We
haven't decided where to go next, and I wouldn't
•want to accidentally file a plan for someplace near
where we're actually going."
What they were able to get from the Pasan-
tonopolous concern for their gold and platinum
barely paid their expenses. They had to stop at the
first system with any mineral resources at all. That
was Greifen, where the planetary government was
building a series of orbiting space stations for zero-g
manufacturing and could use all the pure iron the
Uhuru could refine and send back into low planetary
orbit by drone. The profit per load was not much,
since Greifen was only willing to buy space-mined
iron as long as the cost was less than that of lifting
their own planetary iron into orbit. But it was steady
work, and while the mag drive shipped buckets of
iron back, they slowly accumulated a payload of
more valuable metals. They were almost ready to
look for a buyer on Greifen when Calum, who had
been amusing himself during long refining processes
by breaking the security codes on bureaucratic mes-
sages from Greifen, raised the alarm.
"I don't think we'd better try to sell this stuff
on Greifen," he told Rafik when the other two
miners checked the status of the latest processes.
"In fact, I think we'd better leave—now—and sell
it someplace far, far away."
"Why? Getting bored? Another hundred tons of
131
iron and we should have accumulated enough
rhodium and titanium to make the trip seriously
profitable."
"Listen to this." Calum flicked a switch and the
corn unit replayed the results of his last few hours'
eavesdropping on official Greifen business.
"Somebody has landed with a claim against the
Uhuru for debts and damages incurred on Theloi."
"We didn't ()o any damage on Theloi," Gill said
indignantly. "We didn't have time!"
"Would you like to explain that to a court that's
been thoroughly bribed by Rafik's Uncle Hafiz?"
Calum asked. "He must be really mad at us. I
didn't think he'd follow us out of Theloi."
"He didn't," said Rafik, examining the flimsy of
the transmissions Calum had decoded. "At least . .
. this does not have the flavor of my uncle's work.
He prefers to avoid the courts. And look at the
name of the supposed creditor. That's not a
Theloian name."
"Farkas Hamisen," Gill read over Rafik's shoul-
der.
"Farkas," Rafik said, "means 'wolf in the
Kezdet dialect. ... I think maybe it was not such a
bright idea after all, to file a flight plan for Kezdet.
That must be how they caught on to us."
"They'd have no reason to go after this ship,"
Gill protested. "Officially we're not the Khedive
anymore. We're the Uhuru. We've even got the
beacon to prove it."
Rafik shrugged. "Do you really want to stick
around and find out what they've got against us?"
"No way," Calum and Gill said in unison.
132
ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL
They agreed to forget about their credits from
Greifen for the last drone loads of iron. As for the
payload, as Rafik pointed out, any number of sys-
tems would be happy to get supplies of titanium.
Nered, for instance, was a high-tech and highly
militarized planet suffering from a severe shortage
of mineral resoinces. . . .
"The trouble with selling to Nered," Gill pointed out
gloomily after they had reached that planet and con-
cluded their transaction, "is that there's nothing in this
system for us to mine. We've got an empty ship ..."
"And a great many Federation credits," Rafik
said. "They really wanted that titanium."
"Yeah, but these people are military mad. I bet
there's nothing to buy here except paramilitary
gear and espionage gadgets."
"We'll spend it elsewhere," Rafik said. "Most of
it. Tonight, let's celebrate solvency by taking
Acorna out to dinner in the best restaurant on
Nered."
"Oh, boy," Calum said, "I can hardly wait to
check out Nered haute cuisine. What's the main
course, bandoleers in hot pepper sauce? With gin-
gered grenades for afters?"
"She can't go dressed like that," Gill announced,
gesturing in her direction.
Over the course of the past year, Acorna had
shot up in height until even Gill's coveralls were
short on her. Inside the ship she preferred to relax
•without the binding, too-small clothing. Calum
and Rafik turned and stared now at Acorna,
133
where she rested in a net, happily perusing a vid
on carbonyl reduction techniques for nonferrous
metals. Her silvery curls had grown into a long
mane that tumbled fetchingly over her forehead
and tapered down her spine. Her lower parts -were
covered in fine white fur. She was taller than Gill
and as flat-chested as a child, with nothing of an
incipient mammary development visible.
"I wonder how old she is?" Calum speculated
in a low voice, so as not to attract Acorna's
attention.
"Chronologically," Rafik said, "probably
about three. It's been two years since we found
her. Physiologically, I'd guess around sixteen.
Evidently her species matures quickly, but I
don't think she's come to her full growth yet; look
at the size of her wrist and ankle bones relative to
her height."
"Six feet six and counting," Calum muttered.
And that would shortly pose a serious problem.
The Khedive had been designed for three small-to-
average-size miners. Gill's broad shoulders and
excess height had put a strain on the system; shar-
ing the quarters with a fourth passenger had
necessitated some fancy reshuffling of the interior
arrangements; fitting a seven-foot-tall unicorn into
the small confines of the mining ship was virtually
impossible.
Acorna looked up from her vid. "Calum," she
said, "could you explain, please, how this sodium
hydroxide reduction process forms liquid TiCI^?"
"Umm, that's a late stage," Calum said. He bent
to draw a quick diagram on the vid screen next to
134
ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL
the explanatory text and pictures. "See, you have
to pump dilute HC1 into the electrolysis cell ..."
"They should have said so explicitly," Acorna
complained. Her language use had asymptotically
approached standard Basic in the last year; only a
slight formality in her speech, and a faintly nasal
inflection, gave any suggestion that she -was not a
native speaker of the galactic interlingua.
"And developmentally," Rafik murmured,
watching Calum and Acorna threshing out the
details of electrolytic metals separation, "she's four
going on twenty-four."
"Yeah," Gill agreed. "She knows almost as
much as we do about mining, metallurgy, and
navigation of small spacecraft, but she doesn't
know anything about, well, you know ..."
"No, I don't know," Rafik said, watching Gill's
face turn as red as his beard.
"You know. Girl stuff."
"You think it's time for one of us to sit her
down and have a little talk about the human
reproductive system? Frankly, I don't see the
point," said Rafik, fighting his own embarrass-
ment at the idea. "For all we know, her race may
reproduce by—by pollinating flowers with their
horns."
"That fur doesn't cover everything," Gill said,
"and anyway, I bathed her as often as you did last
year. Anatomically, she's feminine." He looked
doubtfully at Acorna's long, slender body. "A flat-
chested female, but female," he amended. "And she
can't go on lounging around in nothing but her long
hair and white fur."
Acorna 135
"Why not? Maybe her race doesn't have a
nudity taboo."
"Well, mine does," Gill shouted, "and I'm not
having a half-naked teenage girl parading around
this ship!"
Acorna looked up. "Where?"
She never found out why all three men
exploded in laughter.
They still had the yards of white polysilk that
Rafik had bought at the Mali Bazaar to clothe his
"wives" in approved Neo-Hadithian style. Gill
hacked off a length of fabric, Calum came up with
some clip fasteners, and together they wrapped
the material around Acorna's waist and threw a
fold of it over her shoulders. A second length of
fabric provided a loosely wrapped turban which
disguised her horn , . . well, sort of.
"This is not comfortable," she complained.
"Honey, we're not dressmakers. You can't go
out to a nice restaurant in my old coveralls. You'd
better buy her some clothes while we're here," Gill
said to Rafik.
"You buy the clothes, you're the one who
cares," Rafik retorted, "and you'11 be lucky to find
anything but army fatigues on this planet."
Rafik had maligned the shopping resources of
Nered unfairly. Both men and women at the
Evening Star restaurant were dressed like pea-
cocks: the men elegant in formal gray-and-silver
evening wear, the -women a colorful garden of
fashions and styles from across the galaxy, all
136 -
ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL
interpreted in brilliant jewel-toned silks and stiff
rustling retro-satins. In such a gaudy gathering
the miners hoped that they would escape notice.
Their own formal wear was respectable, but not
comparable to the silver-flashed suits currently
in vogue on Nered, and Acorna, with neither
jewels nor colorful silks to adorn her, should
have looked quite dowdy next to the fashionable
upper class of Nered. Instead her appearance
had quite the opposite effect. Her height and
slenderness, the tumble of silvery curls falling
down from her improvised turban, and the sim-
plicity of her white polysilk sari made her stand
out in the crowd like a lily in a bed of peonies.
Heads turned as they were shown to their table,
and Rafik could tell from the swift calculation in
the mai'tre d'hotel's eyes that they were being
given a far more prominent table than the one
originally intended for four working miners from
off-planet. Bad luck, that, but there was no sense
in making a fuss over it now; that would only
draw more attention their way. They would sim-
ply have to make it through dinner as best they
could, and he would watch like a hawk to make
sure Acorna's turban didn't fall off. He also
looked around to see if any one else was wearing
a turban, or was as slender as Acorna. You never
knew in an interstellar area what sort of oddities
you'd encounter. Returning Acorna to her own
people would solve a great many problems!
He was so intent on shielding Acorna from
notice that the real danger, when it did come, took
him completely by surprise. A tense young man in
137
dark brown military fatigues thrust his way into
the restaurant, knocked down a waiter carrying a
tray of soup bowls, and took advantage of the con-
fusion to level three bursts of laser fire at Rafik
before making his escape.
Gill knocked over his own chair in his haste to
get to Rafik, but Acorna was faster, kneeling over
an ominously still figure. The shock of the attack
sent isolated nightmare images flitting through
Gill's brain. Rafik wasn't moving; he should have
been screaming in pain—half his face was burned.
Acorna fumbled at her turban. Shouldn't let her
do that. She had to stay covered. Doctor! They
needed a doctor! Some idiot was babbling about
catching the assassin. Who cared about that?
Rafik was all that mattered.
Acorna bent over Rafik, her horn exposed
now, her eyes dark pools -with the pupils narrowed
to virtually invisible silver slits. She—nuzzled—at
him with her horn. It was heart-breaking to
watch; a child mourning a parent. Gill thought
numbly that he should take her away. Let her
grieve in private. Hide her before too many people
noticed the horn. But moving to Rafik's side felt
like swimming through heavy water, as though
time itself had slowed around them, and when he
reached Acorna and Rafik, Calum gripped his
shoulder and held him back.
"Wait," he said. "She can purify -water and air,
and detect poison. Maybe she can heal laser
wounds."
Even as they watched, the charred flesh on
Rafik's face was replaced by smooth new skin
1 38 ---— ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL
wherever Acorna's horn brushed it. She lingered
for a moment -with her horn just over his heart, as
though urging his shocked system to continue
breathing and circulating. Then he stirred and
opened his eyes and said irritably:
"What in the name of ten thousand syphilitic
she-devils happened?"
Calum and Gill tried to tell him at once. Then
those at the tables nearest them came over, now
that it seemed safe to approach, to add their
impression of the assassination attack. Those fur-
ther away, of course, were demanding to know
what had happened. When they saw no visible
damage but overturned chairs and food spilled on
the floor, they turned back to their own tables to
resume their interrupted meal. Calum managed to
put the turban on the back of Acorna's head, and
Rafik pulled it over her horn. Then both he and
Gill had to explain to those nearest that no, Rafik
had not been hit. No, the laser hadn't even
touched him.
Eventually all agreed that an assassin had fired
at Rafik and that the young lady had fortunately
reacted quickly enough to save him by knocking
him out of his chair, so that he was not even singed
by a near miss. A small vociferous group wanted
to discuss their idea that the would-be assassin
had looked remarkably like Rafik. Gill and Calum
let the story of the miraculous near miss stand and
discouraged plans to hunt down Rafik's attacker
who had eluded his pursuer; all they wanted was
to get back to the Uhuru at once. They had
attracted far too much attention this evening!
] elszaki Li and Judit Kendoro
were finishing their evening
meal when the dining room corn
unit beeped in the rising arpeggio that meant a
scrambled message had been received.
"That will be Pal," Li said. He depressed a
button on the left arm of his hover-chair and the
sequence of jagged, screeching noises that consti-
tuted the scrambled message became audible.
After a moment of silence, the corn unit's decoding
module whirred busily and the original message
was heard, Pal's voice somewhat distorted and
metallic due to the limitations of the coding pro-
cess.
"There are four crew, not three, presently
using the Uhuru. None of them is Sauvignon.
They have enemies; one of the crew was the target
of an assassination attempt this evening in a fash-
ionable restaurant. The consensus of opinion is
that the assassin missed his target, but I was
140
ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL
sitting close by in an attempt to listen in on their
conversation and I believe what actually hap-
pened was quite different—and very interesting.
The miner Rafik was actually struck by three
bolts of laser fire; I saw the burns myself. I also
saw them healed with astonishing speed by the
fourth crew member. This person appears to be a
very tall young •woman with slightly deformed fin-
gers and a small ..." Pal's voice paused for a
moment and only the faint background noise
introduced by scrambling and decoding was audi-
ble. "Sir, you're not going to believe this, but she
seems to have a small horn in the middle of her
forehead. And when she nuzzled the man Rafik
with this horn, his burns healed and he was con-
scious within seconds. Sir, I saw this with my own
eyes; I'm not making it up or repeating gossip."
There was another pause. "These people have no
discernible connection with our friends. But they
are very interesting. I have decided to maintain
contact with them until you send further instruc-
tions."
"A ki-lin!" Delszaki exclaimed as the message
ended. He turned exultantly to Judit, who had
been sitting as still as stone ever since Pal had men-
tioned the horn. "My dear, we have been granted a
portent of inestimable value. This strange girl may
be solution to Kezdets tragedy ... or she may only
portend coming of solution. We must bring her
here!"
"Acorna," Judit said. "They called her
Acorna. ... I thought they had all died; their ship's
beacon was found transmitting from a crash site. I
141
cried for them then, those three nice men and the
little girl. Acorna." There were tears standing in
her eyes now.
"You knew of a ki-lin and did not tell me?"
"Mr. Li, I don't even know what a ki-lin is!
And I thought she was dead. And it was my fault,
because I helped them get away. . . . They wanted
to cut off her horn, you see ..."
"You must tell me all this story," Delszaki Li
said. "But first, you must understand the impor-
tance of the ki-lin and why I need her here."
"Ki-lin ... is that Chinese for 'unicorn'?"
Li nodded. "But our beliefs are somewhat dif-
ferent from your Western tales about the unicorn.
Your people have stories of trapping and killing
unicorns. No Chinese -would ever kill a ki-lin, or
even hunt one. The ki-lin belongs to Buddha; she
eats no animal flesh and will not even tread upon
an insect. We would not dream of trapping the ki-
lin as a gift to a ruler; rather, the wise and benefi-
cent ruler hopes that his rule may be blessed by
the arrival of a ki-lin, who, if she comes to his
court, is received as one sovereign visiting another.
The appearance of a ki-lin among humans is an
omen of a great change for the better or of the
birth of a great ruler."
"And you yourself believe this?"
Delszaki Li cackled at the expression on
Judit's face. "Let us say I do not ^ubelieve it. How
could I? I am scientist first, man of business only
from necessity. No ki-lin has ever appeared in
recorded history, so there is no evidence to prove
or disprove the legends. But I am also man, not
ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL
142
only scientist, and so I hope. I hope that this ki-iin
will presage the change which Kezdet—and
Kezdet's children—so desperately need. And so I
shall instruct Pal to make these miners an offer
they cannot refuse. They will, in fact, be quite
useful for one of my other projects. And while we
wait for their arrival, you shall tell me what you
know of this Acorna and her friends, and we shall
search the Net for more information about them.
Never go into a bargaining session unprepared,
Judit—even if you are bargaining -with a ki-Un!"
It was Acorna -who suggested they measure her to
know how long the legs of pants and sleeves of
shirts should be, though why she needed to cover
herself, when her fur kept her quite comfortable,
she couldn't understand.
"Didn't you like what the women were wearing
in the restaurant last night?" Rafik asked. "I saw
you looking around like your eyes would pop."
"Her eyes don't pop," Gill said loyally, and
then added, "but your pupils were out to the edges
of your eyeballs."
A sort of dreamy expression crossed Acorna's
face briefly and she gave a resigned sigh. "None of
those things would last a minute crawling down a
conduit or in an EVA suit."
"That's another thing we have to get for
you," Calum said, for he had -worried about that
lack. She could do with some hands-on mining
experience to round out her education in aster-
oid extraction techniques.
\43
"You would need to measure me for that," she
said.
From somewhere they unearthed a flexible
tape in an old mechanic's kit. They made most
measurements using the instrumentation on
board because most of what they needed to mea-
sure was out in space and their EVA suits were
equipped with gauges. So they dutifully took
down what they felt they needed to buy in appro-
priate sizes.
Then they argued over who was to go: Gill
would definitely be useless in a dress shop, or even
a straight women's-apparel outfitter. Calum's taste,
according to Rafik, reposed only in his mouth.
Rafik would have to go.
"Not when there's an assassin out there some-
where waiting to snuff you out and this time we
can't take Acorna with us for emergency first aid."
"You all go," Acorna said reasonably and
before the decision-making turned into one of the
interminable arguments the men all seemed to
enjoy so much. "I am safe in here and will not
answer any summonses."
That was debated, too, but it was finally
decided that with Gill bulking along behind Rafik
and Calum at his side, he would be less of a target
and he would at least not be able to complain
when either of the others came back with what he
felt to be unsuitable raiment.
They got the EVA suit first, since those could
be custom-made and produced within an hour.
They'd collect it on their way back.
Despite Gill's snide comments about the mili-
\AA
ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL
taristic bias of Nered, it was still a •wealthy planet
•with the usual supply of flea markets, bazaars, and
good used-apparel shops. With proper measure-
ments, they could also find the right sizes of work
clothing for their growing charge. Rafik even
found attractive upper-body wraps, made of an
elasticized material that was guaranteed "to fit any
female form comfortably."
"She'll like that," Rafik announced, and got
three plain colored ones in blue, green, and a deep
purple that he felt would look -well with her silvery
hair, and two figured ones: one with flowers that
might never have bloomed on any planet in the
galaxy, and another with daisies. At least that's
what he told the other two they were.
After looking in several used-apparel shops, he
also found some skirts with elasticized waistbands,
also guaranteed to fit any form comfortably.
"It doesn't say 'female'," Gill said, about to dis-
card a splendidly patterned one.
"Mostly females wear skirts," Rafik said, and
took the skirt from his hand. He found another
that was filmy but opaque, in a misty blue that he
thought Acorna would like for the flow of it—a
saleslady modeled the item—the texture of the
material, and the color.
It was the saleslady, having discerned that the
three attractive miners -were buying for a female
they all knew, decided to inveigle them to buy
accessories, such as "lingerie."
"You men are all alike. Concentrate on the
outer wear," she said teasingly because the big,
bearded redhead blushed to the color of his hair at
145
the first mention of underclothes, "and forget there
has to be something underneath."
Rafik beamed at her. "My niece has just
reached puberty, and I don't know what girls do
wear underneath ..." and he wiggled his fingers in
helpless innocence. "Her parents were killed in an
accident and I'm her only living relative, so we've
sort of inherited her."
"Very good to do so, too, if I may say so,
Captain," Salitana said with more than usual fer-
vor, losing her suave salesperson persona. "When
you think of the traffic in orphaned children in
this curve of the Milky Way, it's nice to know
some will take on responsibility for blood relations
instead of selling them out of hand to who-knows-
what miserable existence."
"Like Kezdet?" Gill asked, having glanced
around first to be sure they were not overheard.
"Out-system visitors call us paranoid," Salitana
said, "but if your planet were this close to Kezdet,
you'd have a major defense budget, too."
The two locked eyes, but Salitana immediately
smiled her salesperson smile and turned to her key-
board, accessing the stock for the sizes the niece
needed: she had the measurements before her.
Rather than embarrass the men any further, she
ordered up what she felt would appeal to a young
girl—what would have appealed to her had she
had any options in what she could wear in puberty.
While those were on their way to her station, she
frowned down at the chest measurement. Poor
child was absolutely flat-chested. Well, maybe a
training or an exercise bra would suffice. She
146
ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL
ordered several of those and the merchandise
arrived, already wrapped.
"You'll find these suitable, I assure you," she
said, handing them over.
The redhead looked most grateful as the cov-
ered items slipped into the carisak he held open.
"You have been shopping. What about shoes,
now? I can show you — "
"No, that's fine. We got footwear in the
bazaar," Rafik said, and hastily proffered the plas-
tic card used on Nered for purchases. He didn't
like using a card because it could lead back to the
Uhuru more quickly than credits would, but credits
caused delays, since the shop had to check that
these credits were legal and backed by a
respectable credit authority.
"We should get her some shoes somewhere,"
Gill said when they were out on the mall walkway
again.
"The skirts measured long enough to cover her
feet, and you know how she hates constriction,"
Rafik said. He was tired—probably a remnant of
having been dead yesterday for a few minutes—
and he was eager to show her what they'd man-
aged to find for her pleasure and adornment.
"Let's get a hovercraft back to the dock."
"I thought you looked tired," Gill said solici-
tously, and waved his long arm to attract a hire
vehicle from the rank at the end of the mall.
One zoomed in to the head of the rank and
blinked its HIRED sign to show it would take them,
but they had to wait until it could get in the traffic
pattern above the busy area. It was just turning at
147
the far end when the saleswoman rushed out to
them.
"Don't take that one," she cried, and franti-
cally pulled them back into the store. "You've
been followed. Your charges were monitored.
Come with me."
The urgency with which she spoke and Rafik's
so recent problem -with an assassin impelled them
to obey without question. Within the store again,
she led them through the crowd of shoppers in a
circuitous route to the rear, down two flights of
steps, which had Rafik panting from exertion, and
into a clearly marked STORE PERSONNEL ONLY
room, which she had keyed to open.
"I'm sorry to act so presumptuously," she said,
her face pale and eyes dark with worry, "but for
the Sake of your niece, I had to intervene.
Anything to save her if she has been orphaned in
this quadrant of space. I don't know? who's tracing
you, but I do know it isn't Neredian-generated, so
it has to be illegal and you are in danger." She
held up both hands defensively. "Don't tell me
anything, but if you'll trust me just a little longer,
I contacted a friend — "
"From Kezdet?" Gill asked gently.
"How did you know?" she said in a soundless
gasp, one hand to her throat, her eyes wider than
Acorna's last night.
"Let's just say, we know a bit about what hap-
pens on Kezdet from . . . other friends ..." Rafik
said, "and we appreciate your help very much.
Someone is after me and I do not know why. Is
there another way out of here?"
148
ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL
"There •will be shortly," she said, glancing at
the chrono on the -wall. "I cannot linger, or my
absence •will be noted. The . . . party . . . will tap
like this." She demonstrated -with a long index fin-
ger nail on the door. "The . . . party . . . knows the
access code," and she gave a helpless little shrug.
"You need it to get in or out. But the party is abso-
lutely trustworthy."
"A child labor graduate?" Calum asked.
She nodded. "I must go. Your niece is so lucky
to have you! She has the right to have you in good
health and one piece."
She was out the door again so fast they hadn't
time to see what digits she had pressed.
"So, who's after us? Or you, in particular?"
Calum asked Rafik, leaning back against a table.
"She was a nice woman," Gill remarked,
regarding the closed door with a bemused expres-
sion on his face. "Not as nice as Judit..."
"Judit?" Rafik and Calum said in unison, star-
ing at him.
"She came from Kezdet."
"And has a brother still stuck there . . . but
one begins to "wonder about the main occupation
of those lucky enough to leave it," Rafik said,
then shook his head. "Nah, it's more likely to be
Hafiz who's after me . . . but Uncle's style would
be more along the lines of kidnapping me to
take the place of that idiot son who lost his
ears.
"So long as the idiot son didn't lose what's
between them," and Calum inadvertently para-
phrased the subject of his sentence, "maybe it's
149
him who found out and is going to put an end to
Uncle's future plans for you."
"Or it could be our erstwhile friends from
Amalgamated. They're still after us for our ship,"
Gill said.
"Or maybe it's that spurious claim of the
Theloi?" Rafik said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.
"So who's this Farkas Hamisen who hates your
guts and registered the claim?" Gill asked.
"Possibly my earless cousin," Rafik said, nod-
ding his head, as that fit the parameters of such a
relative.
"Or it could be the Greifen, after the ore ..."
Calum suggested.
"Well, the ore's gone." Rafik dismissed that
option. "Could it have anything to do with our
new beacon? And here Uncle Hafiz was so certain
he was doing us a real favor. ... I -wonder. ..."
"What?" Calum and Gill said in chorus.
"Who died in the wreck?"
Gill's eyes popped and his mouth dropped.
"You mean," and Calum recovered more
quickly, "we got people we haven't even annoyed
after us, too?"
The tap startled them in the silence that fol-
lowed this observation.
The door opened and a slender youth, with
dark eyes that were wiser than his countenance,
gestured imperiously for them to follow him.
Though they did, Rafik hissed a bombardment of
questions at the boy's back as they had to jog to
keep up with him.
"Shush," he said, holding up one hand, which
ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL
150
Gill then noticed pointed at a spy-eye in the corner
of the corridor.
They shushed and he hunched over the pad of
a heavily plated metal door at the end of the corri-
dor. It opened slowly, because it was ten centime-
ters thick at least, Rafik estimated as he slipped
through when the space was wide enough. They
had to wait a few seconds longer for Gill to
squeeze through. Their guide had judged it finely
enough—he'd already tapped in the close
sequence, hauling Gill's leg out of the way. The
door closed a lot faster than it opened. The youth
then gestured to a goods van, thumbed open its
back doors, and pushed the three inside.
They could feel it rising on its vertical pads and
then it moved forward. Very shortly they were all
aware that they were in a traffic pattern of some
kind, for the van was not soundproof. What it had
originally carried was moot since there was nothing
in it but three sweating miners. Rafik slid down one
wall and onto his rump and mopped his forehead.
"Dying takes more out of you than I ever real-
ized," he said. "I'm bushed."
"Are we a/w-bushed, I want to know?" Calum
asked, hunkering down on his heels. Gill sat, too,
as his head was brushing the ceiling of the van.
"No, you would have been," a new tenor voice
said softly. "Salitana said you have taken a niece
from Kezdet..."
"No, that's not correct," Rafik said. "She has
been our charge for nearly four years. She needs
new clothes."
"Ah! But you know of Kezdet?"
r
151
"Yes," Gill answered, "we met someone who
got out of there. Still trying to get her brother off
that damned planet, too."
"Really?" Surprise more than a prompting to
continue colored that one word. "Now, we are out
of the mall. Where do I take you that you may
safely descend?"
"The docks," Rafik said.
"We should pick up Acorna's EVA suit first,"
Gill said, and cowered at the dirty looks the other
two gave him for mentioning her name.
"At which chandlers?" the youth asked in such
a natural tone of voice that some of their fury at