• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Djeserit murmured in her sleep, calling his name. But Trin’s mind had roamed to another place, and he could not answer.

* * * *

In the main cavern Mira Fedor sat rocking the ‘bino she had rescued from Villa Fedor, talking quietly with the woman Cass Mulravey. Trinder beckoned to her across the sleeping bodies.

She passed the ‘bino to Cass and stood hesitantly, not trusting Trin: never trusting. After a moment she made her way over to him.

‘I must speak with you alone. I have had word from my scouts,’ he said.

‘Why alone?’

‘There are reasons that you will understand. Please, Baronessa. Mira?’ He took a few steps toward a TerV.

Mira glanced back at Cass Mulravey, then followed him.

Trin drove them to the top, past the sentries and out into the nightwinds. Tiesha lit the unending pattern of the plains in either direction. When Semantic rose, the moments of brilliant twin moonlight would reveal the line where the silky shifting sand dunes changed to the hard rock ridges. Trin stared out to the horizon, to the row of flickering lights. He climbed down from the TerV and walked a distance from it, waiting for Mira to join him.

She did so reluctantly, her arms wrapped tight around her. He wondered if she sensed something in him, or if her natural reticence had grown into a habitual suspicion.

‘What are those lights?’ she asked.

‘My scouts tell me that Saqr are hunting the Ipo refugees. But I believe they are pursuing more than that. They are coming for these mines.’

‘Then we must move on now,’ Mira said, alarmed. ‘How many can you transport?’

‘Some—mainly your women as they are too weak to walk. We will follow the tunnels as far south as possible and then we must travel overland. I have only enough vehicles to transport fifty. Then your barge: another hundred. We have five hundred or more people spread through the shafts. I will pass the word along soon. When we reach the end we will bring the tunnels down behind us.’

‘What makes you think that these people will do as you say?’

Trin turned to her, shocked. She had her velum sealed against the nightwinds and seemed impervious. ‘Because I am the Principe and I command the Carabinere.’

‘The Carabinere? A few tired men against an invasion? What if these people wish to go elsewhere?’

‘There is no elsewhere. I have been to Pell and Dockside. I saw Malocchi with his brains sucked dry. I saw Rantha ... Pell is dead.’ Trin paused while he controlled an upwelling of emotion. ‘Loisa and Ipo are lost.’

‘What of the Fleet?’

‘I sent a trusted man—a Genarro—to seek out its fate. He has reported it destroyed.’

‘Insignia?’ Mira cried.

‘That is our secret—yours and mine. Insignia is hidden at the palazzo on the Tourmaline Islands, near the beach where . . . where ...’ It seemed so ridiculous now—that night on the beach and his fear of her. He would have liked to see her face now, to know if she felt the same.

‘Thank Crux!’ Mira breathed.

‘Papa had some foresight after all.’ Trin spoke as much to himself as to her.

‘It is difficult to know everything about a person,’ she proffered.

He wondered of whom she spoke. His tia Marchella, perhaps? ‘There is one difficulty though. The royal lozenge is in my palazzo on Pell.’

Mira dropped her hands to her sides, her gloved fists curling. ‘Why are you telling me this?’

‘Because someone must go to the OLOSS worlds and tell them what has happened here. They will send forces to free us.’

‘Will they listen? Will they care?’

Trin reached inside his fellalo and took a small data sponge from his borsa. ‘Take this to them. It is the record of an interview, a trade negotiation with Marchella Pellegrini. I believe that this is the reason for the invasion. Have you heard of quixite?’

Mira shook her head.

‘A Lostolian was here some time ago. He purchased all the exported material from a mine that produces a rare naturally occurring alloy of that name. The mine is owned by Franco’s…concubine, Luna il Longa. Tia Marchella negotiated the deal. I believe this