And they were right, of course. I didn’t know just what it was that Jongo would have to say to Milady Raire of the ancient House of Ancinet-Chanore; I’d had my share of wild fancies, but none of them were wild enough to include offering her boudoir space aboard my boat as an alternative to the estates of Ancinet-Chanore.
On the way out, Sir Tanis offered me a crack at a lot of fancy trade opportunities, letters of recommendation to any house I might name, and assorted other vague rewards, and ended with a hint, none too closely veiled, that any further attempt to see the lady would end unhappily for me. I told him I got the idea and walked out into the twilight through the high gates of the house with no more than a slight limp to remind me of my visit.
3
Fsha-fsha was waiting for me at the boat. I told him about my parting interviews with the House of Ancinet-Chanore. He listened.
“You never learn, do you, Billy?” he wagged his head sadly.
“I’ve learned that there’s no place for me in fancy company,” I said. “Give me the honest solitude of space, and a trail of new worlds waiting ahead. That’s my style.”
“You saved the lady’s life on Gar 28, you know,” Fsha-fsha said, talking to himself. “If you hadn’t done what you did—when you did—she’d never have lived out the first week. It was too bad you didn’t look and listen a bit before you handed her over to the H’eeaq—but then, who would have known, eh?”
“Let’s forget all that,” I suggested. “The ship’s trimmed to lift—”
“Then at Drath, you picked her out from under the Triarch’s nose in as smooth a counter-swindle as I’ve ever heard of. He had no idea of letting them go, you know. They’d have been arrested at the port—except that the Rule-keepers were caught short when the tub lifted without you. Your only mistake was in trusting Huvile—”
“Trusting Huvile!”
“You trusted him. You sent him along to an unguarded ship. If you’d worked just one angle a little more subtly—gone out yourself to see the lady aboard and then lifted, leaving Huvile behind—but this is neither here nor there. For the second time, you saved her—and handed her over to her enemy.”
“I know that,” I snapped. “I’ve kicked myself for it—”
“And now—here you are, repeating the pattern,” he bored on. “Three times and out.”
“What?”
“You saved the lady again, Billy. Plucked her out of the wicked hands of her tormentor—”
“And . . .?”
“And handed her over to her enemies.”
“Her family has her—”
“That’s what I said.”
“Then. . . .” wheels were beginning to whirl in front of my eyes.
“Maybe,” I said, “you’d better tell me exactly what you’re talking about. . . .”
4
. . . She opened her eyes, startled, when I leaned over her sleeping couch.
“Billy Danger,” she breathed. “Is it thee? Why came you not to me ere now?”
“An acute attack of stupidity, Milady,” I whispered.
She smiled a dazzling smile. “My name is Raire, Billy. I am no one’s lady.”
“You’re mine,” I said.
“Always, my Billy.” She reached and drew my face down to hers. Her lips were softer even than I had dreamed.
“Come,” I said.
She rose silently and Eureka rubbed himself across her knees. They followed me across the wide room, along a still corridor. In the great hall below, I asked her to show me the shortest route to the grounds. She led the way along a cloistered arcade, through a walled garden, onto a wide terrace above the dark sweep of sky-lit lawn.
“Billy—when I pass this door, the house alarms will be set off. . . .”
“I know. That’s why I dropped in on the roof in a one-man heli. Too bad we couldn’t leave the same way. There’s no help for it. Let’s go. . . .”
We started out at a run toward the trees. We had gone fifty feet when lights sprang up across the back of the house. I turned and took aim with my filament gun and knocked out the two biggest polyarcs, and we sprinted for cover, Eureka loping in the lead. A new light sprang up, just too late, swept the stretch of grass we had just crossed. We reached the trees, went flat. Men were coming through the rear doors of the house. There was a lot of yelling. I looked up. Against the swirls and clots of stars, nothing was visible. I checked my watch again; Fsha-fsha was two minutes late. The line of men was moving down across the lawn. In half a minute, they’d reach the trees.
There was a wink of light from above, followed by a dull baroom! as of distant thunder. A high, whistling screech became audible, descended to a full-throated roar; something flashed overhead—a long shape ablaze with lights. A second gunboat slammed across in the wake of the first.
“That cuts it,” I said. “Fsha-fsha’s been picked off—”
A terrific detonation boomed, drawling itself out into a bellow of power. I saw a dark shape flash past against the clotted stars. The men on the lawn saw it, too. They halted their advance, looking up at the dark boat that had shot past on an opposite course to the security cutters.
“Look!” The Lady Raire pointed. Something big and dark was drifting toward our position across the lake. It was Jongo III, barely a yard above the surface of the water, concealed from the house by the trees. We jumped up and ran for it. Her bow lights came on, dazzling as suns, traversed over us, lanced out to blind the men beyond the trees. I could see the soft glow from her open entry-port. We splashed out into knee-deep water; I tossed Eureka in, then jumped, caught the rail, pulled myself in, reached back for the Lady Raire as men burst through the screen of trees. Then we were inside, pressed flat against the floor by the surge of acceleration as the old racer lifted and screamed away at treetop level at a velocity that would have boiled the surface off any lesser hull.
5
From a distance of half a million miles, Zeridajh was a misty emerald crescent, dwindling on our screens.
“It was a pretty world, Milady,” I said. “You’re going to miss it.”
“Dost know what place I truly dreamed of, my Billy, when the gray years of Drath lengthened before me?”
“The gardens,” I suggested. “They’re very beautiful, with the sun on them.”
“I dreamt of the caves, and the green shade of the giant peas, and the simple loyalty of our good Eureka. . . .” She stroked the grizzled head resting on her knee.
“Never,” Fsha-fsha said from the depths of the big command chair, “will I understand the motivations of you Propagators. Still, life in your company promises to be diverting, I’ll say that for it.” He showed us that ghastly expression he used for a smile. “But tell me, Milady—if the question isn’t impertinent: what were you doing out there, at the far end of the Eastern Arm, where Billy first saw you?”
“Haven’t you guessed?” she smiled at him. “Until Lord Desroy caught me, I was running away.”
“I knew it!” Fsha-fsha boomed. “And now that the great quest is finished—where to?”
“Anywhere,” I said. I put my arm around Raire’s flower-slim waist and drew her to me. “Anywhere at all.”
The sweet hum of the mighty and ancient engines drummed softly through the deck. Together, we watched the blaze of Center move to fill the screens.
A TRIP TO THE CITY
1
“She’ll be pulling out in a minute, Brett,” Mr. Phillips said. He tucked his railroader’s watch back in his vest pocket. “You better get aboard—if you’re still set on going.”
“It was reading all them books done it,” Aunt Haicey said. “Thick books, and no pictures in them. I knew it’d make trouble.” She plucked at the faded hand-crocheted shawl over her thin shoulders, a tiny birdlike woman with bright anxious eyes.
“Don’t worry about me,” Brett said. “I’ll be back.”
“The place’ll be yours when I’m gone,” Aunt Haicey said. “Lord knows it won’t be long.”
“Why don’t you change your mind and stay on, boy?” Mr. Phillips said, blinking up at the young man. “If I talk to Mr. J.D., I think he can find a job for you at the plant.”
“So many young people leave Casperton,” Aunt Haicey said. “They never come back.”
Mr. Phillips clicked his teeth. “They write, at first,” he said. “Then they gradually lose touch.”
“All your people are here, Brett,” Aunt Haicey said. “Haven’t you been happy here?”
“Why can’t you young folks be content with Casperton?” Mr. Phillips said. “There’s everything you need here.”
“It’s that Pretty-Lee done it,” Aunt Haicey said. “If it wasn’t for that girl—”