RSV

ACORNA

By Anne McCaffrey

^Preface

   The space/time coordinate system

  they used has no relationship to

      Earth, our sun, the Milky Way, or

any other point of reference we could use to find

our way around, and in any coordinate system we

use, they're so far off the edge of the chart that

nobody has ever contemplated going there, even

with the proton drive. So let's just say that they

were somewhere between the far side of nowhere

and the near side of here when their time and space

ran out, and what started as a pleasure cruise ship

turned into a death chamber. They are like us in

many ways besides appearance. They didn't want

to die if they could possibly avoid it; if they

couldn't live, then at least they wanted to die with

dignity and peace instead of in a Khievii torture

cell; and they would happily have thrown away life,

dignity and everything else to save their youngling,

who didn't even know what was about to happen

to them.

2 - ——'                ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

And they had time to talk; what amounted to

several hours by our reckoning, while the Khievii

ship closed in on the little cruiser that had run out

of places to flee to.

"We could offer to surrender if they'd spare

her," she said, looking at the net where their

youngling curled asleep. It was a mercy that she

slept so well; she talked well enough that they'd

have had trouble disguising their meaning from

her if she were awake.

"They make no terms," he said. "They never have."

"Why do they hate us so?"

"I don't know that they do hate," he said.

"Nobody knows what they feel. They are not like

us, and we can't ascribe our emotions to them. All

we know? is what they do."

And they both fell silent for a while, unwill-

ing to speak of what the Khievii did to prisoners

of other races. No one had ever survived capture

by the Khievii, but the images of what happened

after capture were broadcast by the Khievii, in

full three-D reproduction, with sound and color.

Was it a calculated ploy to terrorize, or simply a

display of triumph, as members of a more

humanoid race might display the enemy's flag or

captured ships? No one knew, because the same

things had happened to the diplomat-linguists

who went under sign of peace to make a treaty

with the Khievii.

"Cruel ..." she breathed after a long while

•watching their sleeping child.

"Their only mercy," he said, "is that they have

already let us know to expect no mercy. It won't

'A.corna.                                -^^ 3

happen to us, because we won't be alive when they

reach here."

Since the third broadcast of Khievii prisoner-

torture, shortly after the beginning of -what history

might know as the Khievii Invasion, no ship of

their people had gone anywhere without certain

necessary supplies. The only prisoners taken were

those caught away from a ship or without time to

use those supplies. The others were always far

beyond the reach of pain when the Khievii caught

up with their bodies.

"But I don't like to go without striking even

one blow," he said, "so I have made certain modifi-

cations to our engines. There are some privileges

to being director of Weapons Development; this

system is so recently designed that even the Fleet

has not yet been fitted with it."

His hands were not quite as flexible as ours,

but the fingers worked well enough to key in the

commands that would activate those modifica-

tions; commands too dangerous to be activated by

the usual voice-control system.

"When anything of a mass equal to or greater

than ours approaches within this radius," he told

her, pointing at the glowing sphere that now sur-

rounded their ship in the display field, "the dimen-

sional space around us both will warp, change,

decompose until all the matter within this sphere is

compressed to a single point. They will never

know what happened to us or to their own board-

ing craft." His lips tightened. "We've learned that

they don't fear death; perhaps a mystery will

frighten them somewhat more."

4 -^-?               ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

"What happens to the space around us when

the compression effect is triggered?"

"No one knows. It's not something you'd want

to test planet side or from a close observation

point. All we know is that whatever exists within

the sphere is destroyed as if it had never been."

She said nothing, but looked at the baby. The

pupils of her eyes narrowed to vertical slits.

"It won't hurt her," he said gently, seeing and

understanding her grief. "We'll take the abaanye

now, and give her some in her bottle. I'll have to

wake her to feed her, but she'll go to sleep after-

wards and so will -we. That's all it is, you know:

going to sleep."

"I don't mind for us," she said, •which was a lie,

but a loving one. "But she is just beginning to live.

Isn't there some way "we could give her a chance?

If we cast her out in a survival pod — "

"If we did it now, they'd see and intercept it,"

he said. "Do you want to think about -what would

happen then?"

"Then do it when the ship explodes!" she cried.

"Do it when we're all dying! Can't you rig those

controls to eject the pod just before they reach the

radius, so that they won't have a chance to change

course and take her?"

"For what? So that she can spend her last

hours alone and scared in a survival pod? Better

to let her go to sleep here in your arms and never

wake up."

"Give her enough to make her sleep, yes," she

said. She could almost feel her wits becoming

sharper in these last moments. "Make her sleep for

A coma                                    •-•—~' 6

more hours than the pod has air. If only she -were

old enough to ... well, she isn't and that's that. If

the air runs out, she'll die without waking. But

some of our people might find her first. They

might have heard our last distress signals. They

might be looking. Give her that chance!"

She held the baby and fed her the bitter

abaanye mixed with sweetened milk to make it

palatable, and rocked her in her arms, and kissed

her face and hands and soft tummy and little kick-

ing feet until the kicking slowly stopped, and the

baby gurgled once and breathed deeply in and out,

and then lay quite limp and barely breathing in her

mother s arms.

"Do you have to put her in the pod now?" she

cried when he stooped over them. "Let me hold

her a little longer—just a little longer."

"I won't take the abaanye until I see her

safely stowed," he said. "I've programmed the

ship to launch the pod as close to the time of det-

onation as I dare." Too close, he thought, really;

the pod -would almost certainly be within the

radius when the Khievii approached, to be

destroyed with them in the explosive transforma-

tion of local space. But there was no need to tell

her that. He would let her drink the abaanye and

go to sleep believing that their baby had that one

chance of living.

She willed her pupils to widen into an expres-

sion of calm content while he was closing the pod

and arming it to eject on command.

"Is all complete?" she asked when he finished.``````

Yes.

6 - -—-'               ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

She managed a smile, and handed him a tube

of sparkling red liquid. "I've mixed a very special

drink for us," she said. "Most of it is the same vin-

tage as the -wine we drank on our vows-day."

He loved her more in that moment, it seemed

to him, than ever he had in the days when they

thought they had long years of life together before

them.

"Then let us renew our vows," he said.

At first Gill assumed it was just

another bit of space debris, wink-

• ing as it turned around its own

axis and sending bright flashes of reflected light

down where they were placing the cable around

AS—6-4-B1.3. But something about it seemed

wrong to him, and he raised the question when

they were back inside the Khedive.

"It is too bright to have been in space very

long," Rafik pointed out. His slender brown fin-

gers danced over the console before him; he read

half a dozen screens at once and translated their

glowing, multicolored lines into voice commands

to the external sensor system.

"What d'you mean, too bright?" Gill

demanded. "Star,) are bright, and most of them have

been around a good while."

Rafik's black brows lifted and he nodded at

Calum.

"But the sensors tell us this is metal, and too

8 - -——                ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

smooth," Calum said. "As usual, you're thinking

with the Viking-ancestor part of what we laugh-

ingly refer to as your brain, Declan Giloglie the

Third. Would it not be pitted from minor colli-

sions if it had been in this asteroid belt more than

a matter of hours? And if it has not been in this

part of space for more than a few hours, where

did it come from?"

"Conundrums, is it? I'll leave the solving of

them to you," Gill said with good humor. "I am but

a simple metallurgic engineer, a horny-handed son

of the soil."

"More like a son of the asteroidal regolith,"

Rafik suggested. "Not that this particular asteroid

offers much; we're going to have to break up the

surface with the auger before there's any point in

lowering the magnetic rake . . . Ah! Got a fix on

it." An oval shape, regularly indented along one

edge, appeared on the central screen. "Now what

can the sensors tell us about this little mystery? "

"It looks like a pea pod," Gill said.

"It does that," Calum agreed. "The question is,

what sort of peas, and do we want to harvest

them, or send them gently on their way? There ve

not been any recent diplomatic disagreements in

this sector, have there?"

"None that would inspire the placing of mines,"

Gill said, "and that's not like any space mine / ever

saw. Besides, only an idiot would send a space

mine floating into an asteroid belt where there's no

telling what might set it off and whose side might

be worst injured."

"High intelligence," Rafik murmured, "is not

ftcorna.                                     .--—> 9

inevitably an attribute of those who pursue diplo-

macy by other means . . . close reading," he com-

manded the console. "All bandwidths . . . well,

well. Interesting."

"What?"

"Unless I'm mistaken . . ." Rafik paused.

"Names of the Three Prophets! I mu^t be mis-

taken. It's not large enough . . . and there's no

scheduled traffic through this sector . . . Calum,

what do you make of these sensor readings?"

Calum leaned over the panel. His sandy lashes

blinked several times, rapidly, as he absorbed and

interpreted the changing colors of the display.

"You're not mistaken," he said.

"Would you two kindly share the great

insight?" Gill demanded.

Calum straightened and looked up at Gill.

"Your peas," he said, "are alive. And given the size

of the pod—too small for any recycling life-

support system—the signal it's broadcasting can

only be a distress call, though it's like no code I've

ever heard before."

"Can we capture it?"

"We'll have to, shan't we? Let's hope—ah,

good. I don't recognize the alloy, but it's definitely

ferrous. The magnetic attractors should be able to

latch on—easy, now," Rafik admonished the

machinery he was setting in action, "we don't want

to jostle it, do we? Contents fragile. Handle with

care, and all that. . . . Very nice," he murmured as

the pod came to rest in an empty cargo bay.

"Complimenting your own delicate hands?"

Calum asked caustically.

10

Acorna                               1 1

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

"The ship, my friend, the Khedive. She's done a

fine gentle job of harvesting our pea pod; now to

bring it in and open it."

There were no identification markings that any

of them could read on the "pea pod," but a series

of long scrolling lines might, Calum surmised,

have been some sort of alien script.

"Alien, of course," Raflk murmured. "All the

generations of the Expansion, all these stars

mapped and planets settled, and we're to be the

first to discover a sapient alien race ... I <)on't

think. It's decoration, or it's a script none of us

happens to know, which is just barely possible, I

think you'll agree?"

"Barely," Calum agreed, with no echo of

Rafik s irony in his voice. "But it's not Cyrillic or

Neo-Grek or Romaic or TriLat or anything else I

can name ... so what id it?"

"Perhaps," Rafik suggested, "the peas will tell

us." He ran delicate fingers over the incised carvings

and the scalloped edges of the pod. Hermetically

sealed, of a size to hold one adult human body, it

might have been a coffin rather than a life-support

module . . . but the ship's sensors had picked up that

distress signal, and the signs of life within the pod.

And the means of opening, when he found it, was as

simple and elegant as the rest of the design; simply a

matter of matching the first three fingers of each

hand with the pair of triple oval depressions in the

center of the pod.

"Hold it," Calum said. "Better suit up and open

it in the air lock. We've no idea what sort of atmo-

sphere this thing breathes."

Gill frowned. "We could kill it by opening it.

Isn't there some way to test what's in there?"

"Not without opening it," Calum said brightly.

"Look, Gill, whatever is in there may not be alive

anyway—and if it is, surely it won't last forever in

a hermetically sealed environment. It'll have to

take its chances."

The men looked at each other, shrugged, and

donned their working gear before moving them-

selves and the pod into the airlock.

"Well, Calum," Rafik said in an oddly strangled

voice, seconds after the lid swung open, "you were

half right, it seems. Not an aduit human, at any

rate."

Calum and Gill bent over the pod to inspect

the sleeping youngling revealed when it opened.

"What species is it?" Gill asked

"Sweet little thing, isn't she?" Gill said in such

a soppy tone that both Rafik and Calum gave him

an odd look.

"How'd you arrive at the sex of it?" Rafik

wanted to know.

"She looks feminine!"

They all admitted to that impression of the little

creature which lay on her side, one hand curled into

a fist and thrust against her mouth in a fairly com-

mon gesture of solace. A fluff of silvery hair curled

down onto her forehead and coiled down to the

shoulder blades, half obscuring the pale, delicate

face.

Even as they watched, she stirred, opened her

eyes and groggily tried to sit up. "Avvvi," she

wailed. "Avwi!"

2 - —-~'              ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

"We're scaring the poor little thing," Gill said.

'Okay, obviously she's an oxygen breather like us,

let's get out of the suits and take her into the ship

so she can see we're not metal monsters."

Transferring the pod and its contents back into

the ship -was an awkward business. The "poor lit-

tle thing" wailed piteously each time she was tilted

in the pod.

"Poor bairn!" Gill exclaimed when they set her

down again. The movement of the pod had dis-

lodged the silvery curls over her forehead, show-

ing a lump over an inch in diameter in the center

of her forehead, halfway between the hairline and

the silver brows. "How did that happen? This

thing's cushioned well enough, and Rafik drew it

into the bay as gently as a basket of eggs and not

one of them cracked."

"I think it's congenital," Rafik said. "It's not the

only deformity. Get a good look at her hands and

feet."

Now that he called their attention to them, the

other two saw that the fingers of the hands were

stiff, lacking one of the joints that gave their own

hands such flexibility. And the little bare feet

ended in double toes, larger and thicker than nor-

mal toes, and pointed at an odd angle.

"Avvvi, avvvi!" the youngling demanded,

louder. Her eyes looked strange—almost changing

shape —but she didn't cry.

"Maybe it's not a deformity at all," Calum sug-

gested.

"Still looking for your intelligent aliens?" Rafik

teased.

13

"Why not? She's physically different from us,

we don't recognize the writing on the pod, and can

either of you tell me what an 'avwi' is?"

Gill stooped and lifted the youngling out of the

life-support pod. She looked like a fragile doll

between his big hands, and she shrieked in terror

as he swung her up to shoulder height, then

grabbed at his curly red beard and clung for dear

life.

"Perfectly obvious," he said, rubbing the child's

back -with one large hand. "There, there, acushia,

you're safe here, I'll not let you go. . . . Whatever

the language," he said, "'awi' has to be her word

for 'Mama.'" His blue eyes traveled from the pod

to Rafik and Calum. "And in the absence of 'awi,'

gentlemen," he said, "it seems that we're elected."

Once she had found that Gill's beard was soft

and tickled her face and that his big hands were

gentle, she calmed down in his arms. Figuring she

might be at least thirsty from being in the pod for

who knew how long, they experimented by offer-

ing her water. She had teeth. The cup would for-

ever bear the mark of them on its rim. She made a

grimace, at least that's what Gill said it was, at the

first taste of the water, but she was too dehydrated

not to accept it. Meat she spat out instantly and

she was unenthusiastic about crackers and bread.

Alarmed that what was basic to their diet was not

acceptable, Calum rushed down into the 'ponies

section of the life-support module and gathered up

a variety of leafy greens. She grabbed the lettuce

and crammed it into her mouth, reaching for the

chard, which she nibbled more delicately before

\A •-^—'              ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

going on to the carrot and the radish. When she

had had enough to eat, she wiggled out of Gill's

arms and toddled off—right to the nearest inter-

esting instrument panel and set a danger sensor

blaring before Gill swooped her out of harm's way

and Calum corrected her alteration.

She looked frightened, the pupils in her silvery

eyes slitted to nothing and her little body rigid.

She babbled something incomprehensible to them.

"No, sweetie pie, no," Gill said, holding up a

warning Finger to her. "Understand me? Don't

touch." And he reached out, almost touching the

panel and pulling his hand back, miming hurt and

putting his fingers into his mouth, then blowing on

them.

The slits in her eyes widened and she said

something with a questioning inflection.

"No!" Gill repeated, and she nodded, putting

both hands behind her back.

"Ah, it's a grand intelligent wee bairn, so she

is," Calum said approvingly, smiling as he stroked

her feathery-soft hair.

"Should we show her the head, d'you sup-

pose?" Rafik asked, regarding her nether regions,

which were covered with a light fur.

"She doesn't have the equipment to use our

head," Gill said, "unless she's a he and he's hiding

what he uses." Gill began fingering his beard,

"which meant he was thinking. "She eats greens

like a grazing animal. ..."

"She's not an animal!" Calum was outraged by

the suggestion.

"But she does eat greens. Maybe -we should

15

show her the 'ponies section. We've got that bed

we use for the radishes ..."

"And you just gave her the last of the radishes...."

Rafik's tone was semi-accusatoiy.

"She's not feline or canine," Gill went on. "In

fact, sweet-looking kid as she is there's something

almost. . . equine about her."

Rafik and Calum hotly contested that category

•while she became quite restless, looking all around

her.

"Looks to me that she's as close to crossing her

legs as a young thing can get," Gill went on. "We

gottatry dirt."

They did and she bent forward slightly and

relieved herself, neatly shifting loose dirt over the

spot with her odd feet. Then she looked around at

all the green and growing things.

"Maybe we should have brought the dirt to

her," Gill said.

"Let's get her out of here then," Rafik said.

"We've fed and drained her and maybe she'll go to

sleep so we can all get back to the work -we should

be doing."

Indeed, she was quite content to be led back to

the open pod and crawled up into it, curling her-

self up and closing her eyes. Her breathing slowed

to a sleeping rhythm. And they tiptoed back to

their workstations.

The debate about her future disposition, however,

went on through an afternoon of sporadic work,

intermittently adjusting the great tethering cable

16

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

17

around the body of the asteroid and placing the

augering tool in a new location. AS—6-4-B1.3 might

be rich in platinum-group metals, but it was mak-

ing them pay for its riches with a higher crushing

coefficient than they'd anticipated. The afternoon

was punctuated by one or another miner taking

his turn to suit up for EVA in order to search out a

slightly better location for the auger, to replace a

drill bit, or to clear the dust that clogged even the

best-sealed tool from time to time.

"Let's call this asteroid Ass," Calum suggested

after one such trip.

"Please, Calum," Gill reproved him. "Not in

front of the infant!"

"Very well then, you name it."

They were in the habit of giving temporary

names to each asteroid they mined, something a lit-

tle more personal and memorable than the numbers

assigned by Survey—if any such numbers were

assigned. Many of their targets were tiny chon-

drites only a few meters across, too insignificant to

have been located and named in any flyby mission,

but easy enough for the Khedive to ingest, crush, and

process. But AS-64-B1.3 was a large asteroid,

almost too large for their longest tether to hold, and

in such cases they liked to pick a name that used the

initial letters of the Survey designation.

"Hazelnut," Gill threw out. Their unexpected

guest was awake again and he was feeding her

another leaf of chard with carrots for afters.

"Wrong initial letters."

"We'll be Cockney about it. 'Azelnut. And you

can allow me a ze for an ess, can't you?"

"If there were any point to it. Why are you so

set on Hazelnut?"

"Because she's a hard nut to crack!" Gill cack-

led and Calum smiled rather sourly. The smallest

of the three men, he -was the only one who could

get inside the workings of the drill while wearing

full EVA gear, and the dust ofAS-64-B1.3 had

sent him outside on this shift rather too often for

him to find much amusement in it.

"I like that," Rafik said. "'Azelnut she is. And

while you're enjoying your way with words. Gill,

what shall we name this little one? We can't just

keep calling her 'the child.'"

"Not our problem," Calum said. "We'll be turn-

ing her over to Base soon enough, -won't we?"

He looked at the suddenly stony faces of his

colleagues. "Well, we can hardly keep her here.

What will we do with a kid on a mining ship?"

"Have you considered," Rafik said gently, "the

probable cost of abandoning operations on

'Azelnut and returning to Base at high delta-V?"

"At the moment," Calum snapped, "I should be

only too happy to leave 'Azelnut for some other

fool to crack."

"And to bring back the KheSive with less than

half a payload? "

Calum s pale lashes flickered as he calculated

what they would make—or lose—on the trip in

that event. Then he shrugged in resignation. "All

right. We're stuck with her until we make our pay-

load. Just don't assume that because I'm smaller

than you, you Viking giant, that I'm naturally

suited to play nanny."

18

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

19

"Ah, now," said Gill with great good humor,

"the creature's walking and toilet trained already,

and she'll soon pick up our language—children

learn easily. How much trouble can one tod-

dler be?"

"Add that to your list of famous last words, will

ya?" Calum remarked at his most caustic when

they found the youngling had uprooted a good

half of the 'ponies vegetation, including the all-

important squashes and rhubarb, whose large

leaves provided much of the air purification.

Rafik ran tests to see how much damage had

actually been done to air quality. She'd gone to

sleep again and had awakened so quietly that none

of them had been aware of her movement until she

wandered back in, flourishing cabbage leaves.

Calum and Gill replanted, watered, and tied up

the pulled plants in an effort to save as many as

possible. The infant had evidently sampled every-

thing, pulling up those she particularly liked

instead of leaving her mouth-sized bite in leaf or

stalk: she had eaten all the half-ripe legume pods,

staples of Rafik's preferred diet. These subse-

quently caused a diarrhea which upset her almost

more than it upset them. They spent a good hour

arguing over a dose sufficient to bind her back to

normal. Body weight was the critical factor and

Rafik used the mineral scales to weigh her and

then the powder. She spat out the first dose.

And the second, all over Gill. The third dose they

got down her by covering her rather prominent

nostrils so that she had to open her mouth to

breathe—and thus swallow the medication. Once

again, she didn't cry, but her silverish eyes

reproached them far more effectively than tears

could.

"We can't have her doing this again," Calum

told Gill when they had finished replanting the

garden. Then Rafik came over, showing them the

readout on the atmosphere gauge.

"It should be down, but it's up," he said,

scratching his head and then tapping the gauge to

see if the needle moved. "Not so much as a stink of

excess COg in our air and we were about due for a

good backwash."

"I remember me mum putting a cage around

me," Gill said, "when I would get into her garden."

They made one out of netting in a corner of the

Khedive's, dayroom, but she was out of that as soon

as they turned their backs on her. So they netted

the 'ponies instead.

They tried to find toys to amuse her with, but

pots and pot lids to bang together and an array of

boxes to nest and bright colored cups and bowls

did not divert her long. She had to be attached to

someone, somehow, which generally made doing

their separate tasks difficult, if not impossible.

"Dependence transference," Rafik suggested

pompously.

"This is not in my job description," Gill said in

a soft voice when she had finally fallen asleep,

small arms limp around his neck. Rafik and Calum

helped to remove her as gently as possible.

They all held their breaths as they managed to

lay her in the open pod, which remained her noc-

turnal cradle.

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

20

"And that's another thing," Gill said, still whis-

pering, "she's growing by the hour. She's not going

to fit in that much longer. What the hell species is

she?"

"Born more mature than human babies are,"

Rafik said. "But I can't find out a damned thing in

the Concordance or the Encycio, not even in the alien

or the vet entries."

"Look, guys, I know we'll waste time and fuel,

and we haven't got enough of a payload to resup-

ply if we go back to Base, but do we have the right

to keep her out here with us when someone might

be looking for her? And Base might be able to

take care other better?"

Rafik sighed and Calum looked away from Gill,

everywhere else but at the sleeping youngling.

"First," Rafik said, since he usually did this sort

of logical setting out of facts, "if anybody's looking

for her, they'd be looking in this sector of space,

not at Base. Second, since we've agreed she is of

an unknown alien species, what possible expertise

can Base supply? There aren't any books on how

to look after her, and we're the only ones with

hands-on experience. And finally, we Bon't have

enough of a payload to refuel. We do have what

looks like a real find here, and I'm not about to let

any hijackers take it away from us. We did catch

that ion trail last week, and it could very well be

Amalgamated spies, just checking up on us." Gill

growled and Calum sniffed his poor opinion of the

competition. "Well, we'll just have to include her

in the duty roster. An hour on, two hours off. That

gives us two crew working ..."

Acorna                             ——•> 21

"And one going off his nut..." Gill said, and

then volunteered to take the first duty.

"Ahahaha," Rafik waggled a slim finger at his

crewmate, "we all work while she sleeps."

Somehow or other the scheme worked a lot better

than any of them had any reason to expect. In the

first place, she learned to talk, which kept her, and

her current minder, occupied. She learned also to

respect "no" and brighten at "yes" and, when she was

bored with sitting still, would "yes" and "no" every

object in the dayroom. She never again touched a

"no." The third day, it was Rafik who brought out

the markers and "dead" computer printouts. He

showed her how to hold the implement and, while

she could not manage her digits as he did, she was

very shortly drawing lines and squiggles and looking

for approval at each new design.

"You know," said Calum, when called upon to

admire her handiwork, "looks a lot like the stuff

on her egg. How mature was she born, d'you

think?"

That sent all three comparing her efforts with

the egg inscription, but they finally decided that it

was pure chance and how would a youngling

know script at such an early age. So they taught

her to print in Basic, using the now-standard fig-

ures. She outdid them shortly by repeating the

computer printout programming language.

"Well, she prints what she sees a lot of."

The big discovery, and the treat could take up

to an hour, was bathing her.

22

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

23

"You gotta bathe all kids regularly. Hygiene,"

Rafik said, pausing to grin at her as she splashed

the water in the big galley sink. She still fit in it at

that point. "I know that much."

"Yeah? With water on board for three and she

makes four and drinks a lot, we'll be in deep kim-

chee on water quality soon," Gill said sourly.

"All sink water's recycled," Calum reminded

them just as the youngling dipped her face in the

bathwater and blew bubbles. And then drank the

bubbles. "No, sweetie, don't drink the bathwater.

Dirty."

"Actually it isn't," Rafik remarked, looking at

the clear liquid in which their charge sat.

"Has to be. I soaped her good." Calum peered

in and the metal bottom was clearly visible. "That's

impossible. There should be lather and she'd got

her kneecaps dirty crawling on the floor and she

got her fingers messed up drawing before that.

They're all clean now, too."

"Just a jiff," Rafik said, and went off for one of

his many diagnostic tools. He inserted it in the

bathwater and gawked at the reading. "This stuff

is one hundred percent pure unadulterated H^O.

In fact it's a lot purer than what I used to make

coffee this morning."

"But you saw me soap her," Calum said in a

defensive tone. "I washed her because she w<u dirty."

"Which neither she nor the water is now."

Rafik immersed the diagnostic tool again. "I

dunno."

Calum got a crafty expression on his face.

"Done a reading on our air lately?"

Rafik grimaced. "In fact I did, like I'm sup-

posed to this time of day."

"Well?" Gill's voice rose in a prompt when

Rafik delayed an answer -while scratching his

head.

"Not a sign of excess carbon dioxide, and with

four of us breathing air, there should be some

traces of it by now. Especially as we don't have

quite as many broad-leafed plants in 'ponies

because she," he pointed at her, "likes them better

than anything else."

The three men regarded their small charge,

who was bubbling her crystal clear bathwater,

greatly enjoying this innocent occupation.

"Then there's that sort of horn thing in the mid-

dle of her forehead," Gill remarked. "Unicorns

were supposed to purify water."

"Water maybe," Calum agreed as he had been

brought up with some of the same fairy tales as

Gill, "but air?"

"Wa-ter?" the youngling said, dropping her jaw

in what they now recognized as her smile. "Air?"

she added, though it came out in two syllables, "a-

yir."

"That's right, baby, water and air. The two

things both our species can't live without," Rafik

said, sighing at the puzzle of her.

"Let's call her Una," Gill suggested suddenly

into the silence.

"I don't like it," Rafik said, shaking his head.

"We're in the As, you know, not the Us."

"Acorna?" Calum. "Sure beats 'baby' and

youngling' and 'sweetums.'" He glanced sideways

24

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

at Gill, whom he had overheard addressing his

charge with what Calum thought a nauseating

euphemism.

"Acorna?" Rafik considered. "Better than

Una." He picked up a cup, dipped it in the clear

bathwater, and as he made to pour it over her

head. Gill grabbed it out of his hand.

"You ain't even Christian," he said—and, pour-

ing the water over her head, "I dub thee Acorna."

"No, no, you twit," Calum said, taking the cup

from his hand and dipping it in. "I baptize thee

Acorna. I'll stand as godfather."

"You -will not. I will."

"Where does that leave me?" Rafik demanded.

Acorna stood up in the sink, and only his quick

movement kept her from falling out of the impro-

vised bath.

"Holding the baby," Gill and Calum said in

unison. Calum handed him the towel.

They had learned to dry off as much moisture

as possible because, once set on her feet again,

Acorna tended to shake herself and there was too

much equipment about that did not need daily

sprinklings.

The Khedive had cracked and digested 'Azelnut and

was on her way to DF—4-H3.1, a small LL-

chondrite that should have a high enough concen-

tration of valuable metals to make up the payload

for this trip, when the first announcements from

Base reached them.

"Summary of proposed adjustments to share-

25

holder status ..." Gill scowled at the reader. "Why

are they sending us this garbage? We're miners,

not pixel-pushers or bean-counters!"

"Let me see that." Rafik snapped his fingers at

the console. "Hardcopy, triple!"

"Wasting paper," Calum commented.

Acorna needs more scratch paper to mark

on," Gill said.

"And if this is what I think it is," Rafik added,

you two will be wanting to read it for yourselves,

not to wait for me."

"Whatever it is," Gill said in disgust after peer-

ing at his printout, "it's wrapped up in enough

bureaucratic double-talk that we'll have to wait for

you to interpret anyway, Rafik."

"Not all of it," Calum said slowly. "This para-

graph—" he tapped his own hardcopy—"says that

our shares in Mercantile Mining and Exploration

are now worth approximately three times what

they were when we left Base."

Gill whistled. "For news like that, they can

wrap it up any way they please!"

"And thLt paragraph," Calum went on, "says

that they have become nonvoting shares."

"Is that legal? Oh, well, for three times the

money, who cares? We didn't have enough shares

between us to make a difference anyway."

Calum was blinking furiously as he translated

the announcement into numbers without bother-

ing to consult the voice calculator. "The net worth

of our shares has increased by a factor of three-

point-two-five, actually. But if -we had ever voted

our shares in a block, our interest in MME would

26

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

17

have been sufficient to influence a close-run policy

decision."

"I believe," Rafik said in an oddly strangled

voice, "that if you two will stop jingling your

pocket change and look at the last page, you will

observe the important part of this announcement.

It seems MME has been acquired. By Amalgam-

ated."

Gill flipped through his hardcopy. "Says here

it's a merger, not an acquisition."

Rafik shrugged. "When the tiger executes a

merger with the goat, which one walks away?"

"Ah, it's nothing for us to be concerned about,"

Gill said. "We hadn't enough shares to be worth

the voting anyway, Calum, and besides, we were

never around for their AGMs when we could vote.

And it says right here that nothing is going to

change in the way the company is run."

Rafik shrugged again. "They always say that.

It's a sure sign that heads are about to roll."

"Back on Base? Sure. But that won't affect us."

"Not immediately, no."

"Oh, quit spouting doom and gloom, Rafik.

Since when do you know so much more about the

ways of big business than the rest of us? Like I

said, we're miners, not pixel-pushers."

"My uncle Hafiz," Rafik said demurely, "is a

merchant. He has explained some of these matters

to me. The next announcement should follow

within twenty-four to thirty-six hours Standard.

That will be the company's change of name. The

restructuring and the first revised organizational

chart will occur somewhat later, but still well

before we reach Base—especially if you still

intend mining Daffodil before our return."

"I'm beginning to think we should rename

DF-4-H3.1 Daffy, in your honor, Rafik," Gill said.

"You can't possibly predict all that."

"Wait and see," Rafik suggested. "Or to make

it more amusing, how about a small wager? I'll

give you odds of—umm—three to two that you'll

not recognize the old MME by the time we bring

the Khedive, in again."

Calum grinned. "Not very good odds, Rafik,

for someone who claims to be as certain as you are

of the outcome!"

Rafik's brown lashes swept down across his

face as demurely as any dancing girl in his ances-

tors' harems could have looked. "My uncle

Hafiz," he murmured, "also kept racing horses.

He instructed me never to bet on longer odds

than I had to."

"And even if they do reorganize," Gill went on,

"we're independent contractors, not staff employ-

ees. It won't affect us."

"Remembering some of your other famous last

•words, Gill," Calum said unhappily, "I rather wish

you hadn't said that."

The Khedive stayed out much longer than their

original prospecting plan filed -with MME. A case

of finding Daffodil nearly as lucrative as 'Azelnut

and covering a wider area. Since their water

remained pure and their air remarkably clear of

CO;, they really were not at all pushed.

28

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

29

Acorna also supplied diversion enough to keep

all three men from feeling any need to seek

fresher companions. Though their arguments

about her upbringing slowly verged on the

"•what'11 we teach her today" rather than physical

concerns, the debates usually occurred while she

was sleeping. She did require a good deal of sleep,

growing out of nap times to at least ten hours in

the hammock they devised as her sleeping accom-

modation. Once asleep, she was impervious to

noise — except for the one time a thruster misfired

and set off the hooter and she was wide awake in

an instant and standing by her assigned escape

pod. (Rafik had put her original pod in it, "just in

case" he'd said, and the others had concurred. As

there were only three pods on the Khedive, and

Calum was the smallest of the miners, he would

share hers.) So they would discuss her lessons

quite freely and sometimes at the top of their

lungs.

Such EVA work as was needed was generally

accomplished when she was asleep, or so involved

with her "studying" she didn't notice that one of

them was gone.

"We're going to have to train her out of such

dependence, you know," Rafik said one night. "I

mean, when we get back to Base, we'll each have

duties that will separate us, and she's got to learn

that having just one of us around is okay, too."

"How do we do that?" Calum wanted to know.

"Start doing short EVAs while she's awake, so

she sees us going and coming back. I think once

she realizes that we f)o come back, she'll settle

down more," Rafik said, shaking his head and

casting a sorrowful glance to where she swayed

slightly in her hammock. "Poor tyke. Losing her

family to who knows what. Small wonder she

needs to see all of us all the time."

They'd been giving her lessons in Basic, nam-

ing everything in the KheSive for her. At first she

had reciprocated—at least they thought that -was

what she was doing—with sounds in her own lan-

guage. But since her words sounded like nothing

they'd ever heard before and their efforts to repeat

them were dead failures, she soon began accepting

and using their vocabulary.

"Just as well," said Gill.

"A pity for her to lose her original language,"

Calum said, "but she's so young, I doubt she had

that much command of it anyway."

"Well, she sure knew how to say ..." and Gill

spelled the word out rather than upset Acorna by

hearing it spoken.

"Awi?" she said aloud in response. The look of

expectancy in Acorna s eyes as she looked toward

the airlock of the KheSive nearly had the tender-

hearted Gill in tears.

"She can spell?" Rafik exclaimed, grasping the

important facet of that incident. "Hey, there,

Acorna baby, what does R-A-F-I-K spell?"

Diverted, she pointed her whole hand, the

digits closed as was her habit, at Rafik and said his

name.

"And G-I-L-L?"

"Gill." She made the odd noise through her

nostrils which the men had identified as her laugh.

30

Acorna

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

31

"C-A-L-U-M?" demanded the last of her par-

ent figures.

"Calum!" Now she drummed her closed hands

on the table and her feet on the floor, her expres-

sion of high happiness.

A good bit of that day's segment went into a

spelling lesson. That evening produced the knowl-

edge that she had assimilated the alphabet, and

with only a little help from her friends, she began

to print what she spelled.

"In a ten-point type, gentlemen, if you will

examine the evidence," Calum said, holding up

one of the sheets she had covered with her deli-

cately wrought script.

"What's so amazing about that?" Rafik asked,

turning the sheet to the other side where the print-

out words were also in ten point type.

"How much has she absorbed?"

"Damn," Acorna said very clearly as the writing

implement she was using ran dry.

"I'd say more than enough, mates," Gill said,

"and he who uses foul language will pay one half

credit to the box for every foul-mouthed syllable

uttered from this point onward." He picked up an

empty disk box, started to write FOUL MOUTH on

it when Acorna, reading it, repeated the legend.

He erased it hastily and wrote FINE instead.

"What is 'fine'?" Acorna asked.

That's when they showed her how to access the

Khedive's, reference programs. She had a bit of trou-

ble getting her oddly shaped fingers to hit just the

keys she wanted until Rafik made up a keyboard

with spacings appropriate to her manual dexterity.

If improving this new skill kept her occupied so

that they could get on with their professional work

and more beneficiated ore was sacked and stored

in the drone carrier pods that festooned the exte-

rior of the Khedive, she totally confounded them

three days later.

"Cargo pods are nearly two-thirds full. What. . .

when they are three-thirds full?"

"Say what?" Rafik asked, blinking at her.

"I think she's trying to ask what we'll do then.

We take the three-thirds full pods back to Base,

get paid for them, resupply the ship, and come

back for more," Calum replied, trying to speak in a

nonchalant tone.

"But Daffodil is more than three-thirds cargo

pods."

"Well, you know, we send the iron and nickel

back by the mag drive. The ship's own payload is

merely the metals too valuable to send that way,"

Calum explained, as if he really expected Acorna

to understand him.

"Platinum is val-uble."

"That's right."

"Then palladium and rhodium and ruthenium

is val-uble."

"Are," Calum corrected absently.

Rafik had straightened. "Did you hear that?

She knows the platinum-group metals!"

"And why not?" Gill retorted. "Doesn't she

hear us talking about them all the time?"

Acorna stamped her foot to get back their

attention. "Osmium is val-uble. Iridium is val-uble.

Rhenium is not val-uble."

32

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

53

"Rhenium isn't one of the platinum group,"

Calum corrected her, "but at the moment, thanks

to the boom in proton accelerometers, it is very

valuable indeed."

Acorna frowned. "Not mining rhenium."

"We would if there was any on Daff, I assure

you, honey."

"Rhenium is. Deep."

"No, love. Daffodil's regolith is rich in plat-

inum-group metals, but low in iron and the minor

metals, including rhenium. We could tell that from

spectroscopic analysis and . . . um, other instru-

ments," said Gill, who left the technical task of

deciding which asteroids were likely candidates to

Calum whenever he could. "That's why we're min-

ers, hon. This is our job. And we are very lucky to

have found Daffodil. 'Azelnut was good, but the

Daff's been better for us."

"Deep!" Acorna insisted. "Use auger. Drill. Find

rhenium, go back soon. Then go somewhere new?"

"To find your folks?"

Acorna's eyes narrowed and she looked down

an elegant but definitely equine nose at her closed

hands.

"Honey, one of the reasons we've stayed out so

long is to make enough money to do a real good

galactic search for your folks. Your Awi. Was

Awi the only one in your ship?"

"No. Lalli there, too."

"Your mother and father?" Gill asked, hoping

that now her comprehension of Basic was so good,

she might be able to make the leap to translating

her mother tongue.

"No, Awi and Lalli."

"Nice try. Gill," Rafik said, laying a sympa-

thetic hand on his arm.

"By the way, hon, three-thirds full is all full.

Three-thirds make one," Calum said, seeking to

distract her from her sad contemplation of her

hands. "Thirds are fractions."

"Fractions?" Her head came up.

"Parts of a whole. There're all kinds of frac-

tions, halves and quarters and fifths and sixths and

lots and lots, and when you have two halves, you

have a -whole. When you have four quarters, you

have a whole."

"And five fives is a whole, too?" Her eyes were

wide again as she grasped the concept. "What is

the smallest? One and one?"

"We also got us a mathematical genius," Rafik

said, throwing up his slim fingered hands in

humorous awe.

One mathematical concept led to another, and

it wasn't long before Acorna was accessing alge-

braic equations. Calum, muttering something

about leaving no regolithic grain unturned, bullied

the others into using the tether and auger to go

beneath the fine, friable rubble of Daffodil's outer

layers.

"Why not teach her something useful? Like

how to watch the catalytic converter gauges and

switch over at the right temps?" Rafik asked.

"Then I'd get to go out with you guys on EVAs

and she'd have less of this dependency thing."

"I think," Calum said in awed tones, "she was

born knowing more useful things than we can

34

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

35

imagine." He was inspecting the latest drilling

samples by remote control. "Look at this analysis,

will you?"

"Rhenium and hafnium," Rafik said slowly,

bending over the screens. "High concentrations,

too. If the drill keeps bringing up this quality of ore,

we can make our payload and be back at Base

sooner than if we keep working the surface regolith

for platinum. And the load will be richer by~"

"Forty-two point six five percent," Calum said,

blinking absently. "She dalS) there was rhenium

down deep, you know."

"Daffodil shows as an undifferentiated aster-

oid. There've been no atmospheric processes to

move deposits. Logically, the deep rock should be

the same metals, in the same concentration, as the

surface regolith . . . just harder to get at."

"Logically," Gill retorted, "looking at this anal-

ysis, it isn't. There just may be a few things the

cosmologists don't know yet. But I'd give a pretty

penny to know how you knew, Acorna acushla. I

think we'd better teach her the rest of the metals,

gentlemen, so she knows what to tell us about

from now on. And as for dependency ..." Gill

snorted. "Once you made her her own keyboard,

she undepended herself, or hadn't you two

noticed?"

"Some are born to be hackers, and some ain't,"

Rafik said.

"Well, it won't hurt to try, now •will it?" was

Gill's retort, but he was as proud of Acorna as

they all were. "We're not doing so bad as parents,

?„

are we.

"How mature was she born?" Calum asked,

almost plaintively. "She's only been aboard for ..."

He had to access the log for the date she'd been

recovered. "Hey, twelve months and fifteen days!"

"A year?" Rafik repeated astonished.

"A year!" Gill cried. "Hell, we forgot her birth-

day!"

The other two, tight-lipped with anger, pointed

to the FINE jar, which hadn't actually been fed for

some time.

37

Purely superficial changes," Gill

 said as the Khedive arrived •within

  visual range of the old MME

Base. "You'll not claim your winnings on the

basis of a few cosmetic details, will you now,

Rafik?"

"I should be delighted," Rafik said, "not to

claim them at all."

No announcement of any reorganization had

reached them, but the MME logo that had once

decorated both sides of each docking gate had

been replaced by a much larger sign reading,

AMALGAMATED MANUFACTURING. Instead of

Johnny Greene's cheerful greeting, they had

been read into position by something with a dry

mechanical voice that refused to give its name

and complained about their failure to introduce

themselves with "the Amalgamated protocol,"

whatever that might be.

The docking bay itself was much the same,

but immediately within the double airlock doors

leading to the interior of Base they were met by

the owner of the dry voice, still complaining

about their failure to use the Amalgamated proto-

col.

"Look, mate," Gill said, "like the pilot here

told you—" he nodded toward Calum "—we're

the Khedive, on contract to MME, and we didn't

get word of any new approach and docking pro-

tocol. If you chaps wanted us to use something

new, why didn't you send us the rules?"

"Violation of regulations to send classified

company protocols via unsecured space transmis-

sions."

"The ancient Americans had a phrase for it,"

Rafik said, smiling slightly. "Something about a

twenty-two catch, I believe."

"And where's Johnny Greene?"

"Redundant."

"And just what is that supposed to mean?"

Gill's voice had grown loud enough to echo

down the corridors. A young woman in a pale

blue coverall, her fair hair drawn back into a

bun, hurried forward with one hand raised.

"Eva Glatt," she introduced herself, holding

out one small hand, "TT&A—that's Testing,

Therapy, and Adjustment Department. The con-

solidation of MME with Amalgamated has

resulted in a number of organizational changes

for efficiency, Mr.—Giloglie, is it? I've come to

take charge of the child."

"She is in our charge," Gill said.

"Oh, but surely you won't want to be bothered

38

-' 39

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

with her while you're filling out the docking pro-

tocol forms and reregistering the KheSive as an

Amalgamated ship. I've prepared everything,

though your message did not give us much time

to make ready."

Raflk and Calum had convinced Gill that it

would be tactful to tell Base something about the

enigma they were bringing back from this latest

expedition, but they had all waited until they

were on the way back from Daffodil, just in case

Base had any ideas about issuing an immediate

recall.

"And Dr. Forelle himself wishes to inspect the

pod in 'which she was found and your tapes of the

initial contact," Eva went on. "I'll just have that

material brought off the ship and taken to him

while you're reregistering yourselves, shall I?

And you can come with me, you poor baby." She

knelt and held out her hand to Acorna, who put

both hands behind her own back and stepped

back a pace, narrowing her pupils to vertical

slits.

"Not," she said with emphasis.

"Complete sentences, Acorna acushia," Gill

said with a sigh.

"Now, dear," Eva Glatt said brightly, "you'll

be very bored staying here with your nice uncles

while they do all that tedious paperwork.

Wouldn't you like to come along to the creche

and play some nice games?"

Acorna glanced at Rafik. He gave a small nod

and she relaxed her guarded pose slightly. "Will

go," she said. "Short!"

"There, you see," Eva Glatt said, straighten-

ing, "it's just a matter of elementary psychology.

I'm sure she'll be quite docile and trainable."

"That woman," said Gill as Eva led Acorna

off, "is an idiot."

"She said something about a creche," said

Rafik. "Acorna might enjoy being with some

other children for a change. And I do have a pre-

sentiment that the next hour or so will be boring

in the extreme."

While Gill, Raflk, and Calum worked their way

through questionnaires demanding everything

from grandmother's middle name to preferences

in basic food groups. Dr. Alton Forelle skimmed

through the ship's log of Acorna's first utterances

half a dozen times.

"Again!" he snapped, and his assistant, Judit

Kendoro, obediently replayed the first segments

of that haunting cry.

"Idiots," Forelle said cheerfully. "Why

couldn't they have recorded everything she said?

Why did they have to interfere by an attempt to

overlay Basic Universal speech patterns? There's

not nearly enough data here to analyze."

"There's enough to tell that she was just a lost

baby crying for somebody she knew," said Judit

softly. She thought she might be reduced to-tears

herself if she had to listen to that wail of "Awi,

awi!" any longer.

Forelle shut off the player. "You're anthropo-

morphizing, Judit," he said. "How can we presume

40

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

to interpret an alien speech merely from inflec-

tion and situation? We shall have to make a thor-

ough syntactic and semantic analysis before any

conclusions at all are valid."

"And just how are we going to do that," Judit

said, "when she's been with these people for over

a year, exposed to Basic Universal and forgetting

her own speech patterns?"

"We'll regress her to the time when she was

found, of course," Forelle replied, as if that

should have been assumed. "The technique is

simple enough, and with the right drugs, no one

resists a regression. From the number and

sequence of sounds she was making when they

found her, she must have had some mastery of

her native language at that time. The information

is still there, simply overlaid by recent experi-

ences. We have only to strip off the overlay."

Judit made a small, involuntary gesture. Even

adults who had volunteered for the process found

a full regression terrifying. What would it be like

for this child? "You'll halt the process, of course,

if she appears traumatized?"

"Of course," Forelle assured her. "But you

mustn't be so tender. We must have as much evi-

dence as possible to back up this discovery. If she

is a sapient alien, speaking a language totally

unrelated to any human tongue, whatever we can

learn of that language will be of inestimable sci-

entific value. We can't let individual concerns

stand in the way of Science."

"And publication," Judit said dryly.

"Oh, don't worry about that," Forelle said. "If

Acorna 41

you help me with the child, I shall certainly list you

as one of the coauthors. And you must bear the

other possibility in mind, too. If she's just a

deformed mutant gabbling some known tongue in a

way we didn't recognize from the log, what fools we

should look, announcing the discovery of the first

true alien language! We can't risk that, can we?"

He smiled into space and went on, more to himself

than to Judit, "Its high time linguistics came into

its own as a scientific discipline. We've been ridicu-

lously hobbled all these years by a squeamish reluc-

tance to experiment on human beings. Why, the

entire critical-period theory of language learning

could have been settled generations ago if someone

had just had the fortitude to isolate a few dozen

babies from human speech for ten or twenty years.

It would be a beautifully controlled experiment,

you see—take a child out every six months and

expose it to language, and when they stop respond-

ing, you know the critical period has passed. Of

course, one wouldn't want to contaminate the test

subjects by returning the exposed children, and one

has to allow for sickness, and the need to duplicate

results, so rather a large initial test group would be

required. I'm sure that's why my request for fund-

ing was turned down. Governments are so short-

sighted about pure research. But this time I won't

need to wait for a grant. I've got the subject right

here, at least I <fhall have as soon as that Glatt female

is through with her puerile tests, and Amal-

gamated's psycho-socialization lab is perfectly

equipped for the examination."

Judit Kendoro bit her lip and reminded her-

42

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

43

self that she had been lucky to get out of the fac-

tories of Kezdet, lucky to win one of the very few

technical school scholarships set aside for indi-

gent students, even luckier to have a good job

with Amalgamated that had paid off her sister

Mercy's bond and would, given just a few more

months, see her little brother Pal through school

and into a job of his own. Even forgetting the

other considerations that kept her at Amal-

gamated, no one could possibly expect her to

throw away all those years of hard work just

because some foundling child might be scared by

reliving a traumatic incident of her past. Besides,

what could she do?

"I'll )ust see how they're getting on with the

child at TT&A," she said.

Dr. Forelle smiled. "Good idea. They've had

her quite long enough. And you might bring the

test results with you . . . not that I expect much

from the clumsy, outmoded instruments that

Glatt woman uses."

"We've completed the forms," Gill said, leaning

over Eva Glatt's desk, "and we've come for

Acorna. If you could just show us the way to the

creche?"

Eva looked surprised. "Oh, you can't take her

now!"

"Why not? She may be enjoying the chance to

play with the other children, but I'm sure she will

be wanting to see us by now."

"Playing? Other children? I'm afraid you

have misunderstood. We've just begun testing

her mental and psychological capacity. She'll be

in tests most of this day. Most of the week, prob-

ably. You wouldn't be spending any more time

with her in any case."

"We would not?" repeated Rafik. "I am sorry,

that is not acceptable."

"She is used to us," Calum said hastily, trying

to smooth things over, "and . . . we're kinda used

to her, too. We figured, unless you located her

people, she could just stay on with us. She's

already lost her parents. She doesn't need to lose

us, too."

Eva Glatt laughed merrily. "How sweet! But

you really couldn't expect to retain care of her,

could you? Three mining engineers, isolated for

years at a time . . . I'm sure you've done your

best, but you hardly have the training and exper-

tise to solve her special problems."

"Acorna doesn't have any special problems,"

Calum said angrily. "She's a perfectly delightful

little girl, and we Like taking care of her. Oh, I'm

not saying we might not have handed her over to

a Company creche if we'd been able to at the

beginning. But she's been with us nearly two

years now. We're her family. Of course we expect

to continue taking care other."

Eva laughed again. "Don't be ridiculous. Even

if the situation were not obviously unsuitable,

your PPPs would invalidate any application for

formal guardianship."

"PPPs?" Rafik repeated.

"Personal Psychological Profiles," Eva

44

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

deigned to elucidate. "I pulled up the Amalgam-

ated psych files on you. All three of you are clas-

sified as maladaptive personalities who are drawn

to a lonely, high-risk profession such as asteroid

prospecting by a combination of self-destructive

traits and romantic thrill-seeking — "

"Excuse me," Rafik interrupted, "I do not,

myself, recall that this company has administered

any psychological tests to me. Calum? Gill?"

The other two men shook their heads.

"You just filled out the personnel forms," Eva

said patiently. "The computer analysis was routed

to my mailbox immediately, since your personal-

ity problems may have a bearing on the child's

psychological problems. The results are much as

I expected."

"Psychology! When we contracted with

MME," Gill said", "we reported to the Director of

Alining Engineering, who was more interested in

whether we knew how to handle an ultra-low-

temp vacuum blasting unit than in what we saw

in the inkblots."

"An outmoded attitude," Eva said. "Amalgam-

ated considers it of vital importance to see that

only socially well-adapted personnel are retained

in the trying conditions of space."

"And exactly how," Rafik inquired sweetly,

"did you come to this . . . conclusion . . . about

our personalities?"

"It's self-evident," Eva said. "Why else would

you expose yourselves to the risks and loneliness

of such a career, when you all score high enough

in SGIQ—Stabilized Generalized Intelligence

45

Quotient—and have more than enough education

to obtain much better-paid administrative posi-

tions right here at company headquarters?"

"More money," Calum agreed gravely, "and

the benefits of psychologically designed decor.

Why indeed?"

Eva looked at him uncertainly. "I . . . I'm glad

you agree with me. You understand, then. The

child is severely deformed and probably retarded

as well — "

A hissing noise distracted her for a moment,

until Rafik took Gill by the elbow. "Do not inter-

rupt, my friend," he said. "We are all most inter-

ested in the lady doctor's evaluation of Acorna,

are we not?"

"By height and weight charts, she is a reasonably

well-nourished six-year-old," Eva said, "but on the

SLI—Standardized Language • Interaction—she

scored as a low two."

"By my own experience," countered Gill, "she

was an infant when we found her, and that was

less than two years ago. She can't be more than

three or four years old."

"And her understanding of language is excel-

lent," Calum added. "If she's lagging in expres-

sive speech, it is probably because her brain is

not wired for human language; she's having to

learn it analytically, not naturally as a human

infant would."

"I'm glad to see you admit she has brain prob-

lems," Eva said quickly.

"Differences," Calum said, "not problems."

Eva fussed with her desk console for a

46

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

A7

moment. "Given the degree of language retarda-

tion, -we next administered the Colquhoun Color-

Matching Test, which is of course designed for

much younger children. She displayed notable

clumsiness in operating the cursor—"

"Her fingers are lacking a joint," Rafik

pointed out. "Of course she has trouble with

equipment designed for human hands. What are

you testing for, intelligence or manual dexter-

•         rt „

ity?

"The two have long been shown to be linked,"

Eva retorted. "Every fool knows that a child is

not ready for reading or computation until he can

hop a straight line on one foot; it's one of the

standard creche-readiness tests."

"Aye, I'm sure that is one of the things every

fool knows," Gill agreed with a heavy irony that

escaped Eva. "Du> you test her intelligence at

all?"

"Did you ask her to write a simple program

for carbonyl reduction?"

"Or to calculate the concentration of platinum-

group metals in the regolith of an E-type chon-

drite?"

"Don't be ridiculous!" Eva snapped. "Even if

the child could perform such tasks, she must

have learned them by rote. Doing such extremely

age-inappropriate things is another sign of the

social maladjustment -we will cure after her defor-

mities have been corrected. If she is to develop

into an adaptively competent personality, her

upbringing must be entrusted to experts who will

understand how to help her compensate for her

disabilities without requiring excessive achieve-

ment from her."

"And exactly -what did you have in mind?"

Rafik inquired politely.

"Well, I—she must be tested more thoroughly

first, of course—but I see no reason why she

should not be trainable to hold a minimum-

responsibility position in a sheltered workspace."

"Stacking trays in the company cafeteria," Gill

said.

"Or folding linen," Calum suggested.

Eva flushed. "I'm not a miracle worker," she

snapped. "You've brought me a deformed,

retarded child who has already suffered the

effects of nearly two years in a socially maladap-

tive environment."

"I would not, myself, be so quick to be assum-

ing the child is retarded," said Calum. "Once you

take your eyes away from the psychological tests

long enough to observe that she is not human —

which any competent biologist could verify for

you—perhaps you will begin to understand that

differences are not the same as defects. And yes,

she has some problems with language and with

manipulating equipment designed for humans.

So? In any other field. Dr. Glatt, the expert is the

one who knows how to solve problems, not the

one who wails that they're unsolvable."

A gleam of triumph appeared in Eva Glatt's

eyes. "As a matter of fact," she said sweetly, "I am

already preparing to solve some ot the child's

problems. There's no known surgical correction

for the hand problem, but that disfiguring excres-

48

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

cence in the middle of her forehead can easily be

removed."

"That—you mean you want to cut off her

horn?" Gill exploded. "Woman, have you lost

your wits? That's not a deformity; it's an integral

part of her."

"Amalgamated's on-site med team is quite

capable of administering a local anesthetic and

tying off any blood vessels that have infiltrated

the deformity," Kva said primly.

"I think you do not understand." Rafik leaned

over Eva's desk, his dark eyes flashing with

intensity. "Acorna is ... not . . . human.

Differences are not deformities. And her race Uife^

that horn. We've already learned that she can use

it to purify air and water, and we suspect it's inte-

gral to her metal-sensing abilities."

Eva sighed. "I think you three have been Iso-

lated too long. You're beginning to hallucinate.

What you suggest is not scientifically possible."

"We speak from our own experience," Calum

said.

Eva fapped at her desk console. "In my capac-

ity as head of TT&A, I shall recommend

extended leave and a course of psychological

adjustment for all of you before you are allowed

to take out company property such as the KheSlve

again. My evaluation shows that you are not only

socially maladaptive but seriously delusional."

Gill began to hiss through his clenched teeth

again, but Rafik stopped him.

"Never mind the minor insults, Gill. The first

priority is to stop this nonsense of surgery on

4S

Acorna. The horn is an integral part of her.

Without it she would be crippled ... or worse.

We will absolutely not, under any circumstances,

give permission for an operation."

"I think you don't understand. Acorna is no

longer your problem. After surgery and remedial

training, she is to be transferred to an orphanage

pending identification of the parents who aban-

doned her."

"The devil she is!" Gill roared. "We're taking

her back. Now. Are you going to send for her, or

do we go and get her?"

"She was scheduled to go into surgery at 133C

hours," Eva Glatt said. She glanced at her wrisi

unit. "It's too late for you to make a fuss now."

"Relax, Gill," Calum said after checking his

own unit. "It's only 1345 now. They'll still be fid-

dling around with the anesthesia." He perched on

the corner of Eva Glatt's desk, one arm casually

draped over her console. "But I do think you had

better tell us how to get to Surgery. Now!"

A young woman with a wrist-thick braid of

dark hair hanging over one shoulder stepped into

the office. "I believe I can help you gentlemen

with that," she said. Her chest rose and fell as

though she had just been running, but her man-

ner was calm enough. "I'm going that way

myself, as it happens."

"That," said Gill, "would be very helpful.

We're in rather a hurry, though. ..." He steered

the girl out into the hall, blocking her view of

Eva Glatt's desk, while Calum slipped behind the

desk and stopped Eva from reaching for one of

50

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

51

the recessed buttons in the desk console. "Rafik,

go on ahead. I'll bring this one—keep her under

my eye so that she doesn't get any ideas about

calling Security." He hauled Eva Glatt to her feet

and clamped his free hand over her mouth.

"Calum," Rafik interjected, "we do not have

time to drag a captive •with us. And we do not

wish to alarm our guard." Eva Glatt's eyes rolled

up in her head as he approached and she sagged

limply against Calum's arm.

"Well, that's solved," said Calum with relief.

"She's fainted."

"No," Rafik said, "just weak with fear. I apol-

ogize for this," he told Eva, who was now feebly

struggling again, "but we do not have access to

your more scientific methods of quieting people."

His fist tapped her forehead, so quickly she could

hardly have seen the blow coming, and this time

she fell back in the complete relaxation of true

unconsciousness.

Gill and the girl who'd offered to guide them

were some distance ahead when they came out of

the office, walking at a pace just short of a jog

through the long curving corridor to the left.

Rafik and Calum ran and caught up with them at

an intersection where they had paused for a

moment.

"Running," the girl said severely, "is likely to

draw attention. Just -walk as quickly as you can

manage. I gather you three are the men who

brought the alien foundling in, is that right?"

"At least somebody around here understands

she's not of our kind," Rafik said as they race-

walked down the hall. "Yes. Acorna is ours. Or

we are hers. Depending on how you look at it.

And she must not be put through this surgery."

"Yes. My boss—Dr. Forelle—wants it

stopped, too. He was to have called ahead, to

make sure they delay until I get there with the

orders to release her to our department."

"Just a minute!" Gill grabbed the girl by the

upper arm. "She's to be released to UJ, not to

another department of this blasted company."

"You," said the girl without slackening pace,

"can't get Eva Glatt's orders for immediate

surgery rescinded. I can."

"And who might you be?" Rafik asked.

"Judit Kendoro, Psycholinguistics. I work for

Dr. Alton Forelle."

"Saints defend us," Gill exclaimed, "is there

nobody works for Amalgamated but head-

shrinkers?"

"Amalgamated decided to use the old MME

base as headquarters for the research and per-

sonnel departments," Judit explained. "They're

phasing out the independent mining operations;

yours is one of the last contract groups to come

in. Deliveries will be handled by drone and

routed to other stations from now on." Despite

the speed they were making, she wasn't even

breathing hard.

"Forelle," Rafik said. "The man who wanted

our logs of the first interaction?"

"Yes. He believes—or hopes—she is a sapient

alien."

"Then he's on our side?"

52

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

53

"I wouldn't say that exactly." Judit skidded to

a halt just before a three-way intersection with

corridors painted in different patterns of yellow

and green stripes. "He doesn't want her put

through surgery before he has a chance to study

her. What do you want with her?"

"To take care other," Gill said.

Judit looked him up and down for a long

moment, then turned to Rafik. "I believe you

mean that."

"Believe it," said Rafik.

"Then — " She glanced back the way they had

come. Calum followed. Judit dropped her voice.

"Don't let Dr. Forelle get her. He'll mine her

brain for memories of language without caring

what he does to the rest of her. It could be worse

than the surgery."

"Then what can we do?"

"Is your ship ready to take off?"

"We've just docked, we'd fuel and air to spare,

no repairs scheduled ..."

"Then this," Judit said, "is what we do next."

She outlined her idea.

"You trust us easily," Rafik commented when

she had finished.

"One must trust domebcxhi," Judit said, "and . . .

I had been listening for a few minutes outside the

door before I interrupted you in Dr. Glatt's

office. Incidentally, dare I hope that you gagged

her?"

"No time," Calum said, catching up with

them. "Knocked her out."

"Good."

"If you were, then you know something of us.

But what do we know of you? Why should you

take this risk for us?" Gill demanded.

Judit threw him a scornful glance. "Have you

ever heard of Kezdet? "

Gill shook his head.

"My Uncle Hafiz," Rafik said, "recommended

it as a place to be avoided."

"Your uncle was right. I got myself and my

sister out of Kezdet," Judit said, "and pretty soon

I'm going to get my kid brother out. Besides . . .

but that doesn't concern you. Let's just say I have

seen enough children suffering. If I can save this

one, maybe . . . maybe it'll make up for what I

ignored in order to get myself out."

A few minutes later, Judit Kendoro walked

through the swinging doors of Surgery and pre-

sented her Amalgamated badge to the desk clerk.

"Here to collect Child, Anonymous, recent

arrival on the KheVive," she said in a bored mono-

tone. "Dr. Forelle will have transmitted the

orders."

The clerk nodded and pressed a button. The

doors behind her slid open and a tall woman in

sterile scrubs came out.

"I wuh you people would make up your

minds," she said. "We had to give her a global

anesthetic, the local didn't work. I could go

ahead and get all the restorative work done right

now if Forelle would just wait a day."

Judit shrugged. "It doesn't matter to me, I'm

just the courier. You want her back when we're

done?"

64 -^-1              ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

"If the order for surgery hasn't been canceled

by some other department," the •woman snapped.

"For now, take her with my compliments. I have

enough real patients without getting caught in

some power struggle between the psych depart-

ments."

She nodded toward the room she had come

from and a green-gowned aide wheeled out a

gurney on which Acorna lay limp and uncon-

scious. The tangle of silvery curls had already

been shaved in a wide naked semicircle around

her horn.

"I'll take her on the gurney," Judit said in a

bored tone, "no need for your people to waste

time with the transfer."

As soon as Judit had control of the gurney,

Rafik sprang forward and grabbed her from

behind. A plasknife slid out of his sleeve and

gleamed across Judit's throat.

"Thanks for showing us the way, dummy," he

growled in his best threatening tones. "We'll take

the kid back now."

"You can't do this! You tricked me!" Judit

was a terrible actress; the words came out as

woodenly as someone reading a Basic literacy

test.

"Raise the alarm," Rafik threatened the desk

clerk and surgeon, "and the girl gets it. Keep

quiet, and we'll let her go when we're safely

away. Understand?"

Gill reached down to the gurney and swept

Acorna up in one arm, and Calum held the doors

while he and Rafik and Judit made their exit.

"Is she all right?" As soon as the doors swung

shut behind them, Rafik dropped the pretense of

holding Judit at knife point. Now he was at Gill's

side, feeling for a pulse in Acorna's wrist.

"Breathing," Gill said. "We'll see about the

rest when the anesthetic wears off. Judit, is there

anything we should know about that?"

She shook her head. "Standard anesthesia.

She'll be out an hour, maybe two, depending on

how long ago it was administered. Just as well,

really. Gives you time to get her back on ship-

board without a fuss. ... I'd better go with you,

though. Keep the knife out, Rafik, and hold my

arm. You may need a hostage again."

"Which way from here to the docking bay?"

Gill asked.

"We can take the service tunnels. Less chance

of running into people." Judit pressed a panel in

the wall and a narrow inner tunnel opened before

them, barely wide enough to admit Gill with the

burden of a sleeping Acorna.

They reached the docking bay without inci-

dent. The bored, mechanical clerk who'd

replaced Johnny Greene hardly lifted his head

•when they came to his desk.

"Warn personnel out of the bay and prepare

the outer doors for opening," Calum said.

"KheDlve departing immediately."

"Not cleared," the clerk mumbled without

looking up from his console.

"Please," Judit said in a shaky voice, "do what

they say. He—he's got a knife."

This got the clerk's attention. His head

56

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

snapped up, he gave a startled look at the

plasknife in Calum's hand, and he dove under his

desk. "Do -what you want, just leave me out

of it!"

"Well, well," said Gill softly, "and here I

thought the wee man might make trouble by try-

ing to be a hero. Calum, d'you know the docking

system well enough to clear us for departure?"

"If Amalgamated hasn't changed it too much,"

Calum said. "Here, hold this." He handed the

plasknife to Judit, who quickly handed it on to

Gill. "I'm a hwtage, you idiots," she hissed.

Gill laughed quietly and accepted the task of

holding Judit "hostage." Calum, having swiveled

the desk console to face him, was oblivious to the

byplay. He brought up a series of screens in

quick succession, nodding in satisfaction.

"Hmm," he said at the sight of the fifth screen.

"Hmm . . . Uh-huh. Okay, next, okay, uh-huh."

He zipped through the rest of the status screens

and tapped in a command. "Okay, that clears us.

But there are a couple of little problems."

"Anything that would keep us on the base?"

"No, but. . ."

"Right. We'll discuss them later. Come on!

And Judit, act normal. The bay may be cleared,

but unless Amalgamated's remodeled, the loading

staff can watch us from the top gallery. We don't

want any of the staff to notice you're being a

hostage."

"So I'm not-a-hostage trying to act like a

hostage trying to act not-a-hostage," Judit mut-

tered as they passed through the series of doors

57

that protected the interior of Base when the

docking bay was open to space. "It's as bad as

singing Cherubino, having to be a girl pretending

to be a boy pretending to dress up as a girl."

"You like ancient opera?" Gill asked in sur-

prise.

Judit shrugged. "I was in a couple of amateur

productions at school. My voice isn't good

enough to go professional. But one year we got

Kirilatova to coach us in Figure. She did Susanna,

of course."

"Kirilatova? But she's got to be about a hun-

dred and ten by now!"

"Not quite. She was seventy then," Judit said,

"and when she sang Susanna, if you had your

eyes closed, she was a girl of twenty about to be

married to her beloved. It was an incredible per-

formance. I wish I'd been born early enough to

hear her at her peak."

"I have cubes," Gill said. "Early perfor-

mances, originally preserved on DCVCD, then

transferred to tri-D when the new format came

out."

"Are you going to invite the girl up to listen to

your opera cubes. Gill? How about lifting

Acorna up first?" There was an edge of sarcasm

in Calum's voice. They had crossed the open bay

without incident while Gill and Judit talked

about dead singers.

"I might at that," Gill said thoughtfully. He

took Judit's hand. "You could come with us. You

don't belong with the psych-toads at Amalgam-

ated, you know. As the customer said to the

58

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

Vassar girl in the brothel, •what's a nice girl like

you doing in a place like this?"

Judit shook her head. "As the Vassar girl said

to the customer, 'Just lucky, I guess.' I know

nothing of mining; I'd be useless cargo to you."

Calum, who'd been on the verge of making

that point, opened his mouth and shut it again

•with an audible snap.

"You'd better knock me out, too, before you

go. The hostage act may not have been totally

convincing."

"After all the help you've been? I couldn't

bear to, acushla."

"It -will lend verisimilitude to an otherwise

bald and unconvincing narrative," Judit said.

"Look, I need this job. I can earn enough here to

see Pal through technical school. Anyway, I ... I

have my reasons for staying with Amalgamated.

Now will you get on with it?"

"Can't," Rafik said. "You've no protection. If

you're in this docking bay when we open the

doors, and not on the ship, you're dead. You "will

have to walk back through the inner doors. As

soon as you're safe, -we'll take off. They won't

have time to cancel the clearing sequence."

Unexpectedly, Judit laughed. "That fat little

toad of a receiving clerk is probably still under

his desk, and nobody else knows anything's

wrong . . . yet. But I look too unharmed to have

been the hostage of you brutal roughnecks. Give

me the knife. Gill." With rapid efficiency she

sliced through her outer coverall at the point

•where Gill had been pretending to hold the knife

59

point against her side, then pulled half the hair

out of her braid and let it fall in a dark cloud over

the side of her face. "Do I look enough of a mess

yet?"

"You look most beautiful," Gill said, "and I

shall carry your memory with me through the

cold of space."

"Get on with it, you two!" Calum snapped.

"We've got Acorna webbed in. The longer you

spend chatting the girl up, the more chance of

somebody noticing something's wrong."

"That's a brave girl," Gill said as he climbed

on board the Khedive and strapped himself in for

takeoff. He watched Judit's halting progress

across the floor of the docking bay. "I hope that

limp is part of the acting. ..."

"She was moving just fine on the way to

Surgery," Calum pointed out. "Rafik! Systems

ready? I want us in action the minute she's

through the first doors."

"Second doors," Gill said firmly. "She's too

valuable to risk."

"And Acorna? Not to mention us? And the

KheSive?"

"We'll make it," Gill said -with confidence.

And they did.

"Now what?" Calum said when they were well

away from Base.

Gill shrugged. "Long term or short term?

Long term, we've still got our skills and our ship,

and there are other companies to contract with —

60

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

or -we can go independent. Short term . . . you

said something about problems when you -were

humming over the console back there. What's our

status?"

"Refueling only partially complete, but that's

no problem; -we've enough to make it back into

the asteroid belt, and once there, we can mine a

carbonaceous chondrite to supply hydrogen for

the fuel converter."

"A C-type chondrite will replenish our water

and oxygen, too, if necessary," Rafik pointed out.

"So what's the problem?"

"Food's low. We're about to be temporary

vegetarians."

"At least one of us won't mind that," Gill said

with a tender look at the net where Acorna lay,

moving just enough in her drugged sleep to reas-

sure them all that she would wake soon enough.

"And we didn't get the replacement auger

bits," Calum said. "'Azienut cracked most of them

and Daffy just about finished the rest of the box

off. Our tether cables are •worn, too. We were

due for a good deal of refitting at Base."

There were more immediate complications

than shortage of spare parts, as they learned

when they activated the com units.

"Just receiving," Rafik advised them. "Trans-

mitting would give away our position."

"Ah, they're not going to follow us out of

sector for one little girl nobody had claimed any-

way."

"'Why step on me?' the ant asked the elephant.

'Because I can, and because you have annoyed

61

me,'" Rafik answered obliquely. "It is not wise to

annoy the elephant."

"I've got the. Base frequency," Calum

announced. "You two might want to listen in."

They listened in tight-lipped anger to the

repeated announcement being broadcast to all

Amalgamated bases and ships.

"They're claiming the KheSive is stolen prop-

erty!" Gill exploded. "They can't do that! She's

our ship, free and clear!"

"That ghastly female said something about

the Khedive being theirs," Calum said thought-

fully. "Rafik, is there some legal mumbo-jumbo

in the reorganization that could possibly make it

look like we had been leasing the ship from

them?"

"They can claim whatever they want to," Rafik

pointed out. "And if they catch up with us, and

we have to argue it out in the courts, who'll be

taking care of Acorna?" He smiled benignly at

his colleagues. "We might be well advised to take

on a new identity."

"We can call ourselves whatever we "want,"

Gill grumbled, "but the ship's registered and

known. ..."

Rafik's smile was seraphic. "I might know

someone who can take care of that little matter

for us. For a fee, of course."

"What have we got to pay your someone

with? I have a strong suspicion Amalgamated's

accountants are not going to credit us for all the

iron and nickel we've been sending back by

drone," Calum said dourly. "And the platinum

62

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

63

and titanium are sitting in the Amalgamated ship-

ping bay—-wrapped up in our only container

nets!"

"We have," Rafik said gently, "a large block of

extremely valuable, if nonvoting, shares of

Amalgamated stock. I think Uncle Hafiz -will be

•willing to convert it into local currency for us."

There was a moment's pause, then Gill

laughed and slapped his knee. "So Amalgamated

pays for the refit, after all! Good enough."

"We'll be broke afterward," Calum grumbled.

"We'll have our ship, our tools, and our

skills," Gill said in high good humor. "And

Acorna! Never worry, man. There are asteroids

out there richer than anything we ever mined on

contract. I can feel it in my bones."

"So, onward to Uncle Hafiz?" Rafik asked,

settling himself at the navigational board and

posing his fingers over the keys.

"Yeah. Where is your famous Uncle Hafiz?"

"The planet is called Laboue; the location is a

family secret I'm not allowed to divulge," Rafik

said, already plotting in a course. He had com-

pleted it and cleared the screen before either Gill

or Calum could see what he had entered.

"Naughty, naughty!"

"Nauuughtie?" a feeble little voice queried.

"Acorna, sweetie," and Gill, being nearest,

strode to her hammock. "Sorry, hon, sorry. We

had no idea at all what those idiots were going to

do to our little Acorna."

Her pupils widened and the fear drained from

her features, her hands and feet opening in relief

at finding herself back on board the Khedive and

with them.

"That stupid woman! Glad I decked her,"

Calum said.

"Very stupid woman," Acorna agreed, nod-

ding her head vigorously and then moaning. "Oh,

my head!"

"It'll wear off, acushia," he said, and then

added to Gill. "Get webbed. We're about to go

into the wild black yonder!"

Acorna was very nervous for the

next few days, so they all made a

big effort to divert her and

promise, on their honors, that she'd never be left

alone with stupid strangers again. One of the few-

unessential tasks that Calum had had time to do,

before they went to collect Acorna, was to pick up

some seed from the chandler. He was offered flow-

ers, too.

"There are quite a few decorative broad-leafed

types, flowering, too, which do give you some

diversity in your 'ponies. Also some botanical

oddities that do quite well on nutrient solutions,"

he'd been told. "Quick growing."

While he had been more interested in vegeta-

bles and edible legumes and some of the new

bean types, he also picked up alfalfa, timothy,

and lucernes seeds, remarking that he would be

making a planetfall and was doing a favor for a

friend.

Setting out the seeds and using the Galactic

Botanical from the ship's library program to figure

out how to speed up their growth helped pass the

time and increase the variety of their meals. Acorna

had read just as much as Calum and Gill had of the

GB and she very shortly told them she had the

matter well in hand and they were to please do

something else.

"You don't suppose she remembers stuff . . .

racial memory?" Calum asked.

Gill shrugged. "Who's to know? I did manage

to check that blood sample we took when she

scraped her knee. She's not of a known genotype.

Shit!" And he obediently put a half credit in the

FINE box. It joined its fellows with a clink.

"Hey, man, how much have we got in there?"

Calum asked and Gill opened the container,

spilling out a good fifty half-credits.

"Won't buy much, but it's a start."

"Uncle Hafiz will set us up, lads," Rafik

assured them from the pilots seat. Then he leaned

forward. "Gill, d'you remember that dead ship we

found rammed halfway through an asteroid?"

"What about it?"

"Wasn't it the same class as this one?"

"Year or two older."

"But same class. Are you getting at what I

think you're getting at?" Gill asked, brightening.

"Indeed I am, dear lad," Rafik said, grinning

from ear to ear. "And that asteroid belt is also on

our present heading . . . well, with a slight detour."

"We change identities with it?" Calum asked.

"Can we So that?"

66

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

"With a little extra help from Uncle Hafiz, that

should be no problemo," Rafik said. "Shall we?"

Gill and Calum made eye contact.

"Well, it's -worth the effort, I think, especially if

Uncle Hafiz can fiddle some updates about where

that ship has been while she was missing."

"He's a whiz at that sort of thing," Rafik said

and began to whistle off-key.

"Sure get Amalgamated off our tail if they

should bother to come looking for us," Calum said,

looking anxiously in the direction of the 'ponies,

where Acorna was working.

"It would at that," Gill said, after finger-

combing his beard. He held up a portion of the

belt-long hirsute appendage. "Well, I wanted to

have a good trim, but I'll bet Amalgamated axed

the barber shop, too."

"I'll give you a trim," Calum suggested suavely.

"No way, mate," Gill said, wrapping his beard

up and stuffing it down the front of his tunic.

"Uncle Hafiz has an excellent barber," Rafik

said soothingly.

"I can't wait to meet this Uncle Hafiz," Gill

said.

"He will amaze you," Rafik said with smug

pride. He then added, in a much less confident

tone, "Only one thing. He isn't to know about

Acorna."

"Why not?" Gill and Calum asked in unison.

"He's a collector."

"Of what?"

"Of -whatever's going, and I'm bloody sure he's

never seen anything like Acorna."

67

"Won't that complicate matters a trifle?"

Rafik cocked his head to one side, then the

other, and shrugged. "I am not my uncle's nephew

for nothing. We will contrive. We can not lose

Acorna."

The physical exchange of their beacon with that of

the wreck took, in the end, three days of sweaty

labor. The first problem was that mining tools

were ill adapted to the task of cutting and welding

ship parts, and their mechanical repair tools were

not designed to function in the vacuum, dust, and

temperature extremes of the asteroid surface.

"Without Acorna to purify the air," Calum

commented at the end of their first shift, "this

cabin would be stinking like the locker rooms at

the TriCentennial Games by now."

"Water, too," Gill agreed. With constant recy-

cling, ship's air and water usually developed a

stale tang that nothing could get rid of. "Acorna,

you're good fortune to us."

Acorna shook her head, sadness filling her

dark eyes as the centers narrowed to slits.

"You are that," Calum insisted. "What's the

matter?"

"You run away. We hide. I ..." Acorna visibly

struggled to put the words together. "If I go back,

you do not have to hide. My fault!"

The men's eyes met over her head. "We've been

talking too freely," Rafik said softly.

"She speaks so little," Calum agreed, "I forget

how much she understands."

68

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

"Never mind that now," Gill said more loudly.

"The important thing is to explain that she's got it

all •wrong, don't you think?" He picked Acorna up

and hugged her. "Not your fault, sweetie-pie.

Remember the stupid woman Uncle Calum

decked? Not your fault she was such a twit, was it

now?"

Acorna put the fingers of one hand into her

mouth. Her eyes were dark disbelieving pools.

"Listen, Acorna," Rafik said. "We did not like

those people at Base. We did not want to work for

them. If we had never . . . met . . . you, we would

still not work for Amalgamated. Would we,

fellows?"

Calum's and Gill's emphatic "No!" seemed to

halfway convince Acorna; at least, the silvery

pupils of her eyes slowly returned to normal and

she consented to munch thoughtfully on the

spinach stalks Rafik offered her. By the end of the

shift, she was sufficiently recovered to pester them

about why they stayed on an asteroid that she

could tell held no interesting concentration of met-

als.

"This is a carbonaceous chondrite, Acorna,"

Calum explained.

"Simplify it, will you? The kid doesn't know

those big words!"

"Just because basic astronomical chemistry is

beyond you, Gill," Calum retorted, "don't assume

Acorna is as thick as you are. She knows the

words we teach her, and we might as well teach

her the right ones for the Job." He went on

explaining that the hydrogen and oxygen they

69

could extract from this asteroid would provide

them with extra air and water, as well as with the

fuel they would need to reach their next stop.

"/ clean air," Acorna said, stamping a hooflike

foot.

"So you do," Calum agreed easily, "but we

don't know your tolerances yet, see, and we don't

want to have you doing more than you can handle

at this body weight. Besides, we need fuel. . . ."

Every few sentences he had to stop and draw dia-

grams of molecular structures and conversion rou-

tines. Acorna was fascinated, and Calum drew the

teaching session out until she fell asleep in his

arms.

"Whew!" Calum fastened the sleeping child in

her net and stood up, stretching his back. "Okay,

fellows, a few ground rules. We'd better discuss

certain things only when Acorna is asleep. She's

too clever by half; if she knows everything, she'll

carry a load of guilt she doesn't need. That goes

for the beacon switch, too. If she doesn't know?

about it, she won't ask inconvenient questions

about it later. As far as she's concerned, we're just

here to refuel, right?"

"Just as well we never got around to picking a

suit small enough for her out of Stores," Gill com-

mented.

Rafik nodded. "Soon she must be allowed to go

outside with us. She can be inestimably useful in

locating and assessing mineral deposits, and irre-

spective of the benefit to us, Acorna needs to feel

useful. But for now, yes, it is as well to keep her in

ignorance of our real reason for stopping here."

70

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

After that it took even longer to exchange the

beacons, because they had to do the work only

when Acorna was asleep, officially confining their

activities when she was awake to the extraction of

hydrogen and oxygen. Once the onerous task was

completed, Rafik reprogrammed the navigation

computer for the destination he still refused to

reveal, and all three men slept as much as possible

on the way to planetfall.

"Are we to stay on the ship the whole time we're

here?" Gill demanded.

"Rafik's probably afraid you'll be able to iden-

tify this planet's star if we set foot outside the port

area," Calum said. "You can stop worrying, Rafik.

There was really no point in those little games you

played with the navigational computer. I know

exactly where we are."

"How?" Rafik demanded.

"Fuel consumption," Calum said smugly.

"Triangulation on known stars. Time. Course cor-

rections. I plotted the course in my head and

checked the numbers on my wrist unit. We're on

the fourth planet from — "

"Don't say it," Rafik interrupted. "At least let

me swear to Uncle Hafiz that the name and loca-

tion of his hideaway have never been spoken on

board this ship."

"Why?" Calum asked. "What's the big deal?

Anybody could compute — "

"No, Calum, they couldn't!" Rafik rolled his eyes

heavenward. "I could write a book on the hazards of

71

shipping with a mathematical genius 'who hasn't an

ounce of street sense to balance the other side of his

head. There are all sorts and conditions of people

here, Calum, and the one thing they all have in com-

mon is a strong desire for anonymity. A desire," he

added pointedly, "which we share with them, or have

you forgotten already? Now, lets keep this simple.

You stay right here. / visit Uncle Hafiz and see what

sort of a cut he'll want from the profit on our shares

in return for converting them to galactic credits and

fixing the registration of the new beacon."

"He's not going to do it from family feeling,

huh?" Gill asked.

Rafik rolled his eyes again and sighed heavily.

"Just . . . stay . . . here. I'll be back as soon as I

can, okay?"

"If you people are that big on secrecy, why

couldn't we do it all by tight-beam transmission

from low orbit? Why make a personal visit?"

Rafik looked shocked. "All this time working

together, and you two have yet to learn decent

manners. You infidels can cut deals electronically if

you wish, but Children of the Three Prophets meet

face to face. It's the honorable way to settle an

agreement. Besides," he added more prosaically,

"no transmission is so tight that it can't be inter-

cepted."

He was back sooner than they expected, tight-

lipped and burdened down with a quantity of

squashy parcels wrapped in opaque clingfilm.

"You do not look entirely happy. What's the

matter, does Uncle Hafiz want an extortionate cut

of the shares?" Calum asked.

72 - --~'              ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

"And how come you stopped off to go shop-

ping?" Gill added.

"Uncle Hafiz," Rafik said, still tight-lipped, "is

more traditionally minded than I am. He -wishes to

meet the other parties to the agreement face to

face before -we begin serious discussions."

"NotAcorna!"

"Port authorities reported four crew members.

He wants to see all four. It'll be all right," Rafik

soothed Gill, "he won't actually Jee Acorna. I've

thought of a way around it. It's a gooi) idea, too;

one we might want to use from now on."

"And it involves yards and yards of white

polysilk," said Calum, investigating the contents of

one of the packages. "Umm, Rafik, don't take

offense, but I've had previous experience with

some of your 'good ideas.' If this is going to be like

the time we tried to slip into Kezdet space to col-

lect that titanium that was just sitting there beg-

ging to be mined and refined ..."

"That was a good idea, too!" Rafik said indig-

nantly. "How was I to know that the Kezdet

Guardians of the Peace had just hired a new hand

who would recognize our beacon from old days at

MME?"

"All I'm wondering," Calum murmured, "is

what crucial factor don't you know this time?"

"It's nothing like that," Rafik said. "Just a

minor costume change. Look, we don't want any-

body noticing Acorna, right? So -we're going to be

more traditional even than Uncle Hafiz. I told him

I'd been studying the Three Books—that made

him happy. Then I explained that I had been

inspired by the First Book to study further, and

that I had been accepted into the Neo-

Hadithians."

"All of which means precisely what?" Gill

asked.

"The theological ramifications are probably

beyond you," Rafik said. "The important point is

that my -wives -wear hijab, which will be the perfect

disguise for Acorna." He took a length of white

polysilk from Calum and held it up with both

hands so that they could see the shape of the gar-

ment: a many-layered hood atop a billowing gown

of even more layers, each individual layer light

and seemingly transparent, but collectively a cloud

of iridescent reflective white. "As an enlightened

Child of the Three Prophets, naturally I know bet-

ter than to adhere to the ancient superstitions

about the veiling of -women. There is actually

nothing in the First Book—-what you unbelievers

call the Koran—that requires -women to be veiled

and secluded. And the Second Prophet absolutely

repudiated that and other barbaric practices, such

as the prohibition against fermented liquors. But

the Neo-Hadithians claim that the Hadith, the tra-

ditional tales of the life of the First Prophet, are as

sacred as the words of the Books. They want to go

back to the worst of the bad old ways. Including

the veil. Uncle Hafiz is disgusted -with me, but he

says he -will respect my religious prejudices -while

•waiting for me to outgrow them. He -will not actu-

ally look upon the faces of my wives, but they

must be present during the agreement."

"Wives?" Calum repeated.

74

ANNE MC.CAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

75

Rafik's eyes sparkled. "That is the really bril-

liant part of the idea. I told Uncle Hafiz that I was

accompanied by my partner, an unbeliever, and by

my two "wives. You see, that neatly accounts for

the four people reported on this ship. And any-

body looking for three miners and a little girl will

probably not think to investigate a neo-Hadithian,

his two wives, and his partner."

"Sounds risky to me," said Calum. "You mean

one of us stays on the ship and you pick up some

local girl to play your second wife? How can you

be sure she won't talk?"

"That—er—was not quite what I had in mind,"

Rafik said. He shook out the second length of

white polysilk and held it up against Calum. "Yes.

I estimated your height quite well. Now, do

remember to take small steps and keep your eyes

down like a proper Neo-Hadithian wife, will

you?"

"I don't believe it," Dr. Anton Forelle said explo-

sively when he read the reports on the KheSive.

"I — don't — believe — it."

"I didn't want to believe it either," said Judit,

"but the reports are quite clear." She had been cry-

ing. "It's so sad. Those nice men, and the little

girl..."

"If it were true," Forelle said, "it would be a

tragedy. The end of my chance for the research

coup of the decade—of the century! But it's not

true. Amalgamated hires fools; I should know, I'm

in charge of inventing the language of the lies they

feed their fools, making up nice-sounding words

for inhumane policy directives." He shot a shrewd

glance at Judit. "You don't like the sound of that,

do you, girl? Don't like me to say straight out

what our department's about. But you're not as

stupid as the rest of them. You must have noticed.

Well, I had my reasons for taking the job—

deplorable, the lack of support for pure research

these days, and no matter what my ex-colleagues

at the university say, I could have completed a

respectable thesis if I'd been able to get funding

for my research. And I suppose you have your

reasons for putting up with Amalgamated, too."

"They pay well," Judit said. "I've a younger

brother on Kezdet. He's not quite through school

yet."

"And when he is," Forelle said, "no doubt

you'll find some other excuse to make to yourself

for taking their money. They buy a few good

minds and corrupt us, and use us to buy as many

fools as they want. Including the idiots who think

the Khedive crashed on an asteroid!"

"The beacon signal—" Judit began uncertainly.

"Faked. I don't know how, I'm no engineer, but

it was faked."

"Too hard. There'd be registration numbers on

the ship body and engines."

"Ha! Nobody went out and actually looked,

did they? They just trusted the computer records."

Judit was silent. Forelle's idea was insane . . .

but it was true, nobody had physically checked the

crash site.

"I'll wager you that ship is not the Khedive. Yes,

76 •-—~'              ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

that's it. The beacon signal is faked, and they're in

some different sector of space by now, laughing at

us all. And Amalgamated "will let the matter drop,

because they know that no matter what legal jug-

gling they indulged in, no sensible court would

uphold their claim to the ship — so rather than pur-

sue it, they'd just as soon write off the ship as a

wreck and the dissidents as dead. But I'm not

going to let it drop!" Forelle glared at Judit as if

she'd dared to think of contradicting him. "That—

that unicorn girl is too conspicuous to disappear

without a trace. Amalgamated has plants and

bases galaxy-wide. I shall put out a standing order

for any mention of a child with those particular

deformities to be routed to my console with top

priority. Sooner or later, they'll slip up. I'll find

her, and we'll get our paper, Judit. And then I'll be

able to leave these fools and take up the university

position I deserve. They'll probably endow a chair

for me. Well, get on with it. Compose the order,

and I'll edit it so that they know? it's urgent and

won't question why, and won't forget it either.

Finally applied psychohnguistics will be good for

something besides keeping Amalgamated's work-

force happy."

Judit thought he was deluding himself, but it

was a delusion she would have liked to share.

However, if the child had by some miracle lived,

she had no desire to see Forelle get hold of her for

his experiments. So she put her best psycholin-

guistic training into composing a memo that would

look urgent enough to satisfy Dr. Forelle, while

actually encouraging anybody who skimmed it to

mentally dismiss the whole matter as "just another

one ofAnton's crazy ideas."

The skimmer that Rafik rented to take them from

the port area to Uncle Hafiz's residence passed

over a trackless expanse of tropical vegetation,

brilliant green sprinkled with blazes of red and

yellow flowers. To the east, an indigo-blue sea

gave off glints of silver in the sunlight; to the west,

they could just see the long blue line of an escarp-

ment that must have discouraged any building of

roads into the interior of the continent.

"The Mali Bazaar," Rafik said as they passed

over a collection of buildings with flat roofs inlaid

in jewel-toned mosaics.

Gill pressed his nose to the window of the

skimmer to get a better view of the pictures delin-

eated by thousands of glazed ceramic tiles.

"Anywhere else," he said reverently, "that would

be a major tourist attraction. Why do they put it

on the roof where nobody can see it? "

"Most travel here is by skimmer," Rafik said,

"and it's a kind of advertisement for their services.

Everybody knows where the Mali Bazaar is.

That's where I bought your hijab, by the way."

"Isn't it a nuisance not having roads to the

port?" Gill asked. "How do you transport heavy

goods and machinery? "

"By sea, of course," Rafik said. "There are, if you

think about it, many advantages in dispensing

with a road network. Most of the residents of La-

boue have a strong preference for personal privacy;

78

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

traveling by skimmer reduces the chances of meet-

ing other travelers who might be curious about

one's errands. It certainly works in our favor,

wouldn't you agree? Then, too, roads require a

degree of cooperation which is difficult for the

strong individualists -who make their homes here.

There's no central government, no taxation, no

centrally supported infrastructure."

"Expensive," Gill murmured. "Inefficient."

Rafik gave him a bright-eyed glance of amuse-

ment. "Can any system really compete with the

massive inefficiencies of a well-entrenched bureau-

cracy? As for expense . . . one entrepreneur did

attempt a network of toll roads, but he couldn't

afford the cost of guarding them."

"You have problems with bandits?"

"Let's say there are residents who find it diffi-

cult to put aside their traditional ways of life,"

Rafik said, banking the skimmer into a smooth

turn that brought them down in a paved square

surrounded by high bougainvillea-covered walls.

He handed Acorna and Calum out of the skimmer

with the care a Neo-Hadithian would be expected

to take of his delicate and precious wives.

"Remember," he whispered to Calum, "Son't talk!

As long as you're wearing that veil, convention

dictates that you are not really here."

The long, multilayered Neo-Hadithian robes of

white polysilk concealed Calum and Acorna mar-

velously; in the brilliant sunlight they looked like

two moving clouds of white iridescence, shapeless

and indistinguishable save that one was somewhat

taller than the other.

79

As Gill made his exit from the skimmer, a sec-

tion of bougainvillea-covered wall swung away

from the rest, revealing a dark man of medium

height in whom Rafik's elegant features were

sharpened to a look of dangerous wariness.

"You and your family and guests are welcome

to this humble abode," he said to Rafik, with a

quick gesture of his right hand from forehead to

lips to chest.

Rafik repeated the gesture before embracing

him. "Uncle Hafiz! You are gracious indeed to

receive us. You are well?" he asked as though

they had not been conversing only a few hours

before.

"I am, thanks be to the Three Prophets. And

you, my nephew? You are well?"

"Blessed be the Hadith and the revelations of

Moulay Suheil," Rafik said, "I am, and my wives

also."

A faint shadow of distaste crossed Uncle

Hafiz s features at the mention of the Hadith, but

he controlled himself and gave properly courteous

answers as Rafik went on to inquire about the

health of innumerable cousins, nephews, and

distant connections. Finally, the initial greetings

finished, Uncle Hafiz stepped back and invited

them, with a wave of his hand, to precede him into

the garden revealed beyond the walls around the

skimmer landing area.

A path of deep blue stepping-stones wound

among flowering shrubs. As Gill stepped on the

first stone, a clear pure middle C sounded in the

air. The next two steps produced an E and a G;

80

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

the sounds lingered on the air and blended in a

perfect chord.

"You like my walkway?" Hafiz asked with a

satisfied smile. "Perhaps you have not before

encountered the singing stones of Skarrness."

"But I thought they were—" Gill choked down

the rest of the sentence. The once-famous singing

stones of Skarrness were virtually gone now, hav-

ing fallen prey to unscrupulous collectors, who

removed so many of the stones that the remaining

ones could not maintain their population. But

Rafik had said Hafiz was a collector of rarities and

had implied that he was not overburdened with

scruples. It would probably not be tactful to com-

plete his thought.

"Quite rare, yes," Hafiz said. "It was my great

good fortune to obtain a perfectly tuned set in C

major, and an even rarer set in the Lydian mode.

Very few complete sets, alas, are available now."

Thanki) to jerk^ like you, Gill thought, but he

managed to keep his thought to himself and his

face composed.

The walk-way led them musically to a high wall

of dark stone which Hafiz identified casually as

Farinese marble. A double gate of lacy, hand-

wrought metal work opened into a second garden,

this one surrounded on three sides by a roofed

gallery with columns of the same Farinese marble.

Through the columns Gill could glimpse openings

into a shadowy interior of polished floors, carved

wooden screens, and silk hangings.

Hafiz clapped his hands and several robed ser-

vants appeared, two carrying cushions of jewel-

81

colored silk, another with a tall crystal pitcher, and

a fourth behind him -with a crystal bowl and a

stack of towels so richly embroidered in gold

thread that only a small silken square was visible

in the center of each.

"We have, of course, completely modern facili-

ties within," Hafiz said apologetically, "but it

delights me to keep to the old customs of offering

guests water with my own hands, and food and

drink in my own garden, as soon as they have

arrived." He took the pitcher and poured a thin

stream of cold water over Rafik's outstretched

hands. Gill copied Rafik's motions and took one of

the embroidered towels to dry his hands. Hafiz

handed the pitcher to Rafik with a bow. "Perhaps

you would prefer to offer water to your wives your-

self. I should not like to insult your new beliefs."

Rafik bowed acknowledgment and held out the

pitcher for Calum and Acorna to wash their

hands, casually moving as he did so that his body

blocked any view Hafiz might have had of

Acorna's oddly shaped digits and Calum's mascu-

line fingers.

Hafiz indicated that they should all seat them-

selves on the silken cushions, mentioned casually

that the pitcher and bowl had each been carved

from a single piece of Merastikama crystal, and told

the servants to take back the washing implements

and bring refreshment for his guests. The place-

ment of brass trays on three-legged wooden stands,

the handing round of minute glasses full of fiery

liquor and delicate bowls of fruit-flavored sorbet,

took what seemed to Gill an inordinately long time

82

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

83

while Hafiz and Rafik chatted of trivialities. Rafik

made a show of refusing the liquor, in keeping with

his pretense of conversion to the strict Neo-

Hadithian sect, which had revived all the prohibi-

tions of the First Prophet and then some. Gill at

first felt glad to be an official unbeliever and free to

enjoy the drinks; then, after one burning swallow,

he began considering the possibility of announcing

an instant conversion to Rafik's tenets. He was

relieved to see that Acorna managed to take a dish

of sorbet under her veil; he'd been afraid that eating

and drinking would tax her disguise too much. But

it seemed the Neo-Hadithians had designed their

women's costumes so that the veils need not be

removed for anything. Gill wondered sourly

whether they removed them in bed.

Finally, as a casual afterthought to a lengthy

discussion of the problems of interstellar trade,

Rafik mentioned that he and his partner had

encountered a small technical difficulty with

which Uncle Hafiz might be able to help them

out—for a consideration, of course.

"Ah, these minor technicalities." Hafiz sighed

sympathetically. "How they plague us, these petty

bureaucrats with their accounting details! What

seems to be the difficulty, son of my best beloved

sister?"

Rafik gave Hafiz a severely edited account of

their difficulties with Amalgamated, leaving out

any mention of Acorna and stressing the basic ille-

gality of Amalgamated's claim to own the Khedive.

"If their claim is entirely without foundation,"

Hafiz asked, as though motivated by idle curiosity,

"why do you not take your case to the courts of

the Federation?"

"It is written in the Book of the Second

Prophet," said Rafik, "'Trust kin before country-

men, countrymen before outlanders, and all before

unbelievers.'"

"And yet your partner is an unbeliever," Hafiz

pointed out.

"Our partnership is of long standing," Rafik

said. "Besides, there is a minor complication in the

matter of money advanced by MME—the com-

pany with which we had previously contracted—

for mining equipment and supplies. The dogs of

unbelievers at Amalgamated claim our ship as

security against the advance, though if they had

credited us with the metals sent back by drone

over the last three years, the debt would have been

paid three times over. However, we left the

Amalgamated base in some haste and the matter

was not resolved."

"It is also written," said Hafiz, '"Be not in such

haste to collect the silver that ye let the gold fall by

the wayside.'"

"A most excellent precept, 0 Revered Uncle,"

said Rafik politely, "but one which I found myself

unable to honor under the circumstances." He

lowered his voice as if to make sure that the veiled

figures on the other side of the brass tray should

not hear. "It was a matter of a woman—you

understand?"

Hafiz smiled broadly. "I begin to see why you

have joined the Neo-Hadithians, my son! It is

their revival of polygamy which appeals to you.

84

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

So, two •wives -were not enough. You had to get

yourself in trouble with some unbeliever on the

Amalgamated base?"

"In confidence," Rafik said, "the taller of my

two wives is so ugly one might imagine her a man,

and I have no use for her as a woman; while the

smaller one is too young yet to be taken to my bed.

Both marriages were made to strengthen my

claims to kinship -within the Neo-Hadithians and

not for carnal desire."

Calum choked under his veil. Gill reached

under the table and pinched some part of his

anatomy through the billowing white layers of

polysilk, hard enough to distract Calum from

whatever he might have been tempted to say.

Hafiz laughed merrily at Rafik s account of his

marital troubles, and seemed more disposed to

help them out if he could get the satisfaction of

teasing his nephew for the bad bargain he had

made in joining the Neo-Hadithian sect.

Transferring registration of their new beacon into

their name, he warned, was a complicated task

and would require facilitation payments to a num-

ber of individuals, not all of them so liberal in their

thinking as he was. He would, however, be happy

to arrange the entire matter, if Rafik could see his

way to putting sufficient credit at his disposal.

"That brings up another minor point," said

Rafik, and showed Hafiz the share certificates

from Amalgamated.

"These can, of course, be converted into Feder-

ation credits," Hafiz said, thumbing rapidly through

the certificates, "although at a substantial discount."

'A.corna 85

"The discount on shares from such a galacti-

cally recognized company, all but certain to rise in

value, should be only nominal," Rafik protested.

Hafiz smiled. "Is it not written in the Book of

the Third Prophet, "Count not the light from a dis-

tant star among your assets, for that star may have

been long dead by the time its light reaches thine

eyes'?" He glanced at Acorna, who had begun

wriggling under her veils in a way that was caus-

ing Calum and Gill grave anxiety. "But your

younger wife is restless. Perhaps your wives

would care to retire to the rooms which have been

made ready for them while we settle the minor

matter of the discount on these shares and the

payments necessary to facilitate reregistration of

the new beacon? Or would they like to stroll in

the outer garden? I can call one of my women to

attend them."

"That will not be necessary," said Gill, rising to

his feet. "I should be honored to escort the ladies."

Rafik smiled seraphically. "I repose complete

trust in my partner," he assured Hafiz. "As he

trusts me to complete the negotiations, so can I

trust him with my honor and that of my women."

"Particularly," Hafiz needled him as the others

left, "since one is, by your own account, too ugly

to bed and the other too young."

"Just so," said Rafik cheerfully. "Now, about

this discount. . ."

As soon as they were concealed among the

flowering shrubs of the outer garden, Calum

shoved back his multilayered veil and took a deep

breath. "I am going to kill Rafik," he said.

86

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

Gill snickered. "Remember to take tiny little

ladylike steps," he teased. "And better keep the

veil down. Even with Rafik's warning that you're

as ugly as a man, Hafiz might get suspicious if he

saw that you need a shave."

"I just hope they finish dickering so we can get

back to the ship," Calum said sourly, but he flipped

the veiling back over his face. "I'm tired of fancy

dress."

Acorna tugged at Gill's sleeve and pointed at

the grass that grew around each of the blue

singing stones. "What? Oh, sure, sweetie, go

ahead and nibble if you like. You've been a good

girl. Just remember to cover your head if we hear

anybody coming. The singing stones ought to give

us plenty of warning," Gill said rather defensively

to Calum.

"You didn't let me unveil."

"Modesty, modesty." Gill chuckled. "You don't

need a snack. Acorna's metabolism needs more

than the occasional dish of sorbet, you know. And

if Hafiz expects us to stay for a meal, it'll probably

be mostly meat dishes and she can't eat those."

Acorna, ignoring the argument, had quietly

knelt down within her billowing veils and pushed

the face veils back so that she could see to pluck

the tender tops of the sweet grasses. "Good girl,

good," Gill encouraged her. "Don't make any div-

ots, now."

"Is rude to make holes in grass," Acorna said.

tlv          „

Is a no.

"A very big no, in somebody else's garden,"

Gill agreed. "But the stuff has to be mowed, I

87

assume, so it'll do no harm if you take an inch or

two off the top."

Five notes in a -wailing pentatonic scale

sounded in quick succession. Acorna tried to jump

up, but the swathes of filmy fabric impeded her

movements and she would have fallen if Gill

hadn't grabbed her hand and pulled her upright

by main force. She was still fumbling for her veil

when Hafiz and Rafik came into view.

Hafiz's eyebrows shot up and he came forward

rapidly. "By the earlocks of the Third Prophet!"

he exclaimed. "A rarity indeed! Rafik, beloved

nephew, I do believe we can come to a mutually

agreeable arrangement at a considerably less dis-

count than I had anticipated."

"Uncle," Rafik said in reproving tones, "I beg

of you, do not insult the modesty of my wives and

the honor of my family." But he was too late; Hafiz

was already stroking the short horn that pro-

truded from Acorna's forehead. She stood quite

still, only the narrowing of her pupils showing her

distress and confusion.

"You were complaining that this one was too

young to be of any use," Hafiz said without looking

away from Acorna. "How fortunate that your new

religious friends hold to the old traditions in the

matter of divorce as well as of polygamy and hijab.

Nothing could be easier than a quiet family divorce,

at once freeing you of an undesired entanglement

and allowing me the acquisition of a new rarity."

"Unthinkable," Rafik protested. "Her family

have entrusted her to me; she is my sacred respon-

sibility. "

88 -

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

"Then they will no doubt be delighted to hear

that she will henceforth grace the home of such a

distinguished and benevolent collector as myself,"

Hafiz said happily. "I am willing to undertake to

respect all the religious prohibitions of your sect.

She can have the rooms which I had set aside for

you and your wives tonight; I will establish them

as secluded women's quarters for her and her ser-

vants alone, so that the Neo-Hadithian scruples

need not be outraged. You will be able to tell her

family that she is kept in every possible luxury."

"I am sorry," Rafik said firmly. "I do not sell

my women. Uncle Hafiz, this touches on my

honor!"

Hafiz waved the objections away with an airy

hand. "Ah, you young people are so impetuous! I

would not be doing my duty as your uncle, my

boy, if I permitted you to refuse in haste what will

upon reflection appear to you as a most advanta-

geous solution to all your difficulties. No, family

feeling dictates that I make sure you have time to

reflect upon the situation at leisure. You will

remain as my guests until you have had sufficient

time to perceive the wisdom of this course."

"We cannot impose upon you," Rafik said. "We

will return to our ship tonight and there discuss

the matter among ourselves."

"No, no, dear boy, I could not hear of it! My

household would be dishonored forever should I

fail to offer you appropriate hospitality. You will

be my guests tonight. I simply insist," Hafiz said,

raising his voice slightly.

There was a rustle among the bushes, and

89

suddenly two robed and silent servants stood

behind each one of them.

"The singing stones, although a great curiosity,

are sometimes inconvenient," Hafiz said cheer-

fully. "There are other ways through the garden

for those who serve me."

Rafik caught Gill's eye and gave a slight

despairing shrug. "We shall be delighted to accept

your hospitality tonight. Uncle. You are too gener-

ous.

Hafiz *s generosity extended to the provision of

separate quarters for them, one set of rooms for

Rafik and his "wives," and another room, on the

far side of the sprawling mansion, for Gill. "You

would naturally wish your women to be housed in

seclusion and far from any man's sleeping place,"

he explained smoothly.

"And that makes it even harder to get away,"

Calum growled as soon as Hafiz had left them on

their own. "How are we going to find Gill and get

to our skimmer?"

"Peace," said Rafik absently.

"You're not thinking of giving in to him!"

"I played in this house as a boy," Rafik said. "I

know every inch of the grounds, perhaps better

than my uncle; it has been some years since he had

the figure to wriggle along the low paths under the

shrubbery, or to swing from cornice to pipe along

the upper stories. But we will temporize for a day

or two, Calum."

"Why?"

"We do," said Rafik sweetly, "want to give

Uncle Hafiz time to fix the registration of our new

90

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

ship's beacon, don't we? Let him think -we're coop-

erating until that is done; then it will be time

enough to get away."

"And how do you think you're going to get him

to switch the registration and launder our shares

without handing over Acorna?"

"Don't worry about a thing," Rafik said. "I'm a

master negotiator. I learned from an expert."

"I know," said Calum. "We're negotiating with

the expert in question, remember?"

coma woke to the dawn-chirping

of birds in the sweet-scented

flowering vines outside the win-

dow. The night had been still and hot and she had

pushed all the covers off her bed; now it was cool,

almost chilly. She wrapped the clinging layers of

white polysilk around herself. The robes were

enough to keep her warm, but she was unable to

recreate the drapery of hood and robe and face

veils that Rafik had arranged about her the previ-

ous day. She looked doubtfully at the sleeping

Rafik and Calum. Would it be a big "no" to leave

the room like this, -without the veils over her head?

She hated the veils anyway; they clung to her

mouth and nose and chafed her forehead -where

the growing horn was still tender. It -would proba-

bly be an even bigger "no" to wake Calum and

Rafik and ask them to dress her, -wouldn't it?

The pressure in her bladder settled the ques-

tion. Tiptoeing so as not to -wake the miners,

92

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

Acorna quietly slid the carved •wooden door open

just enough to let her squeeze out. She remem-

bered the -washing-place they had been shown last

night, a -wonderland of blue tiles and jets of hot

and cold -water and minty steam rising up through

•wooden slats. But this morning there -was no one

to make the hot water come out for her, and after

relieving herself she abandoned the washing-place

and tiptoed down two flights of stairs to -where

she could see the garden through an open arch-

way.

The blue stones sang when she stepped on

them, just as they had last night. Entranced by

the sweet pure tones, Acorna dropped her cling-

ing draperies and danced back and forth, impro-

vising a tune by leaping from one stone to another

and accompanying the music of the stones -with

her own singing. She did not realize how loud she

•was getting until a discordant note interrupted

her melody. She -whirled and saw Uncle Hafiz

standing at the beginning of the blue stone

path.

Acorna's song broke off and the sudden still-

ness of the garden shocked her into realizing how

boisterous she had been.

"Too loud?" she asked, penitent. "If I make too

much noise, that is a big no?"

"Not in the least, my dear child," Uncle Hafiz

said. "Your singing was a delightful interruption to

a boring task. No, no—" he forestalled her as she

belatedly tried to -wind the robes around herself

again, "there's no need to trouble yourself with

those things, not among family."

93

"I must be covered. Rafik said."

"On the streets, perhaps," Uncle Hafiz agreed,

"but among your own relatives it is different."

Acorna thought this over. "You are rel-tive?"

"And I hope soon to be a very close relation

indeed."

"You are rel-tive to me?"

"Yes."

"And I am rel-tive to Rafik and Gill and

Calum. So you are rel-tive to Gill?"

Uncle Hafiz was so dismayed at the thought of

claiming kinship with the red-bearded unbeliever

that he didn't even think of asking who Calum

might be. "Ah—it doesn't -work quite like that," he

said hastily.

"How many percent rel-tive to Gill are you?"

"Zero percent," Hafiz said, then blinked.

"Aren't you a little young to be learning fractions

and percentages? "

"I know fraction, percent, decimal, octal, hex-

adecimal, and modulo," Acorna said cheerfully. "I

like numbers. You like numbers?"

"Only," said Hafiz, "when the odds are in my

favor."

Acorna frowned. "Odd is not-even. Even is

not-odd. Odds is not-evens?"

"No, no, sweetheart," Hafiz said. "The boys

have neglected an important part of your educa-

tion. Come along inside. I can't explain without

drawing pictures."

When Rafik came pounding down the stairs an

hour later, sure that Acorna had been kidnapped

while he and Calum slept, the first thing he heard

94

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

95

from Hafiz s study was a familiar piping voice ask-

ing a question.

"That's right!" Uncle Hafiz sounded more

relaxed than Rafik had ever heard him, almost

jovial. "Now, suppose you're making book on a

race where the favorite is running at three to two,

so you offer slightly better odds—like, say, six to

five — "

"Six to five is much better," Rafik heard Acorna

object. "Should not give more than seven to four."

"Look, it's )ust an example, okay? Suppose you

offer seven to four, then. What happens?"

"Many people place bets with you."

"And what do you do to make sure you don't

lose your money?"

"Lay off the bets with another bookmaker?"

"Or," Uncle Hafiz said cheerfully, "make very,

very sure the favorite doesn't win."

That was the point at which Rafik interrupted

them and brought Acorna back to their rooms for

the excellent breakfast Hafiz had ordered sent up

to them. He and Calum •wrangled over the sliced

mangoes and pointed skewers full of grilled lamb

like weapons at one another while Acorna quietly

worked her way through the bowl of leafy greens

Hafiz had ordered especially for her.

"How could you be so careless and irresponsi-

ble?" Calum demanded.

"You were sleeping in this room, too," Rafik

pointed out acidly. "I happen to know that you

slept very well last night. You snore!"

"You should have told her not to go out with-

out one of us!"

"Look," Rafik said, "no harm's been done,

okay? He didn't hurt her."

"From your own account," Calum retorted, "he

was teaching her to gamble! That's not the sort of

education I want for my ward."

"She's mine, too," Rafik said, "and there is

nothing inherently criminal about the profession

of being a turf accountant."

Acorna chose that moment, having finished all

the sweet greens and the sliced carrots, to speak

up. "Nobble the favorite," she said clearly, and

smiled with pleasure at her new word.

"I rest my case," said Calum, arms folded. "And

what's more, you are not getting me back into

those ridiculous garments. If Acorna can run

around unveiled, so can I."

"You will not," Rafik said with quiet intensity, "do

anything to destroy my cover as a Neo-Hadithian.

And that includes raising your voice. We're just

lucky that Uncle Hafiz respects my religious

beliefs enough to order the servants to keep away

from these rooms, or we'd be blown already."

"I think we are blown," Calum said. "Blown clear

out of the water. Now that he's seen Acorna, what's

the point of wrapping ourselves up like white tents?"

"My conversion to Neo-Hadithian tenets,"

Rafik said, "is an essential part of my negotiating

strategy. And it's not such a bad thing that Acorna

has charmed Uncle Hafiz, either. He'll be all the

more inclined to complete the transaction and

speed us on our way."

Calum stared. "You sound as if you actually

mean to give him Acorna!"

96

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

Acorna's eyes narrowed until the silver pupils

•were all but obliterated. She leaned across the

table to grab Calum by one hand and Rafik by the

other.

"It's okay, sweetie," Calum soothed her, "we're

not going anywhere without you. Are we, Raflk?"

"Want Gill," Acorna said firmly. "All together."

"We will be together, darling, in just a little

while," Rafik promised.

"Want Gill here now!" Acorna's voice rose.

Calum's and Rafik's eyes met over her head. "I

thought you said she was over the dependency,"

Rafik mouthed.

"Being auctioned off as a curiosity makes a girl

insecure," Calum whispered back.

"Gill!" Acorna wailed on an even higher note.

"Just so you understand," Calum said some time

later, "I'm only doing this for Acorna."

"Darling, I would never ask you to put on hijab

for my sake," Rafik said sweetly. "White isn't your

color."

They were strolling in the garden, Calum and

Acorna decently veiled so that Gill could join them

without outraging Rafik's supposed Neo-

Hadithian sense of propriety.

"Explain to me again," Calum said while

Acorna skipped ahead, holding Gill's hand,

"exactly how wrapping me up in a bolt of polysilk

is an integral part of your negotiating strategy. Am)

Son't giggle!" he added sharply, almost tripping

over some of the lower layers of robes.

97

"Don't hike your skirt up, it's not decent,"

Rafik said. "If you'd take small steps, like a lady,

you wouldn't trip all the time. Ah, Uncle Hafiz!

The benevolence of your smile lights the garden

more brightly than the summer sun."

"What joy can be sweeter than the company of

beloved relatives," Hafiz replied, "beloved rela-

tives and, er, um ..." He looked at Gill's flaming

red beard and freckled skin. "... relatives and

friend," he finished with an audible gulp. "I trust

you have had time and privacy sufficient to confer

with your family and your partner, dear nephew?"

"We accept your offer," Rafik said. "Transfer

the registration of the ship's beacon and sell the

shares for us, and ..." He nodded at Acorna, who

was happily chattering to Gill about the new kinds

of fractions she had learned, such as three-to-two

and six-to-four.

"Excellent!" Now Uncle Hafiz was truly beam-

ing. "I knew you'd be reasonable, dear boy. We're

two of a kind, you and I. If only your cousin

Tapha could do as well!"

Rafik looked slightly queasy at being compared

to his cousin, his uncle s heir. "Where is Tapha, by

the way?"

Hafiz's smile vanished. "I sent him to take over

the southern half of the continent. Yukata Batsu

has been running it long enough."

"And?"

"I don't know where the rest of him is," Hafiz

said. "All Yukata Batsu sent back were his ears." He

sighed. "Tapha never had what it takes. I should

have known when I abducted his mother that she

98

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

99

didn't have the brains to give me a •worthy successor.

Yammer, yammer, yammer, all the time complaining

at me that she could have had a career dancing top-

less at the Orbital Grill and Rendezvous Parlor. Her

and her perky breasts. Yasmin, I told her, all the

girls have perky breasts in zero-g, you were nothing

special, you're lucky a good man took you away

from all that. But would that woman listen?" Hafiz

sighed and brightened up. "However, I'm not too

old to try again. Now that I've found a woman with

intelligence to match my own..." His eyes strayed

to Acorna. "Don't you mind her holding hands with

that dog of an unbeliever?"

"She's only a little girl," Rafik said stiffly.

"Not for much longer," Hafiz said. "They grow

up faster than you think."

A sputtering sound escaped from behind

Calum's layers of white veiling. Hafiz looked star-

tled. "Your senior wife? She is unwell?"

"She suffers from nervous fits," Rafik said,

grasping Calum's wrist and hauling him away

from Hafiz.

"A sad affliction," Hafiz said. "Meet me within

the house when you have calmed your women,

Rafik, and we will pledge faith to our agreement

over the Three Books." He turned away, mutter-

ing, "Ugly, prone to fits, big feet, and what a hairy

wrist! No wonder he is reluctant to give up the

other one . . . but with his ship and his credits, he

can easily buy another wife."

"And just what were you snickering about?"

Rafik demanded in a whisper when Hafiz had

passed back into the house.

"'They grow up faster than you think,'" Calum

quoted. "If he only knew how fast! Would he

believe Acorna was a toddler when we found her

less than two years ago?"

"Let's don't tell him," Rafik suggested. "This

whole deal depends on mutual trust, and he'd be

sure I was a thumping liar if I tried to tell him how

fast Acorna grows. Besides, she's not going to be

here long enough for him to find out."

"But its the truth!" Calum said.

"Truth," Rafik said, "has very little to do with

verisimilitude."

Gill kept Acorna amused in the garden while

Rafik and Calum went into the study to meet

Hafiz. He was seated behind a gleaming, crescent-

shaped desk with the usual consoles and controls,

plus a few that Calum did not recognize, inlaid

flush with the surface so as not to spoil the smooth

lines of the desk. Incongruously stacked atop the

modern equipment were two antique books, the

kind with hard covers enclosing a stack of paper

sheets, and an old-fashioned databox with only six

sides.

"You admire my desk?" Uncle Hafiz said pleas-

antly to Calum. "Carved from a single piece of

purpleheart . . . one of the last of the great stand of

purpleheart trees on Tanqque III."

"My wife prefers not to talk to other men,"

Rafik said sharply.

He'd rumbled lu, Calum thought in despair. He

know,) I'm not a woman. Rafik and hid damn <>dly

gam&f!

"Dear boy," Hafiz said, "surely within a family

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

100

as close as ours, and soon to be united even more

closely by the exchange of wives, even you Neo-

Hadithians can drop some of these ridiculous . . .

oh, all right, all right, I didn't mean to insult your . . .

religion." He pronounced the last word with the

faint distaste of someone directing the servants to

remove whatever it was the cat had dragged in

and failed to finish eating.

Rafik bridled, scowled, and gave what Calum

thought an excellent imitation of a man on the

verge of taking mortal insult.

"Your ship," Uncle Hafiz said, "is now regis-

tered as the Uhuru, originally of Kezdet."

"Why Kezdet?"

"That -was the original registration of the bea-

con you appropriated. It would have been

extremely expensive to delete all traces of the bea-

con's history. I think it suffices that We can now

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

his indiscretion was dispelled.

"The one on Pier 48B," Rafik answered, still

glaring at Gill.

"Can do." And they all felt the van make a left-

hand turn.

That was right, Rafik thought and sneezed.

Gill and Calum did, too. In fact they all were in

such a paroxysm of sneezing that they inhaled a

more than sufficient quantity of the sleep gas that

circulated through the rear of the van.

Some very astringent substance was being held

under his nose and Rafik roused to avoid it. To his

utter surprise, a slim hand was held out to him.

"I am Pal Kendoro and it is my sister Judit

who was working at Amalgamated who had paid

for an education that would lift me out of the bar-

rios of Kezdet. Are my bona fides sufficient to

restore me to your good graces?"

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

152

Rafik glanced over at the still unconscious

forms of his two friends.

"All of you -would overpower me. One I can

handle," Pal Kendoro said, tilting his head—evi-

dently a family trait; Rafik saw the resemblance to

his sister in that pose. "I apologize for ..." and he

waved his hand toward the front of the cab,

". . . the necessity, but I was seeking another

whom I thought might be you."

Rafik straightened up. He'd a crick in his neck

from lying in an uncomfortable position, but the

back door of the van was open and, while the air it

let in smelt of fish and oil and other unpleasant

odors, the last of the gas was dissipating.

"And -who might that be?" Rafik asked in a

droll tone. "There's a waiting list."

Pal grinned. "So I have discovered."

"How long were -we out?" and Rafik rubbed at

his neck. "Oh migod ..."

"She will not worry," Pal said, reaching out a

hand to steady Rafik when he tried to leap to his

feet. "I sent a message to your ship. . . . She

believes you have stopped to eat."

"How the devil did you access our security

codes . . . ? Oh." He groaned. "I think I know.

You're looking for the legal owners of the beacon

•we borrowed. Believe me, the ship was split like a

nut when we found it wedged in an asteroid.

Nothing could have lived."

"Would you at least remember where you found

the derelict?" Pal asked, his dark eyes intent.

"Sure can, but I don't know what good that'll do."

"We ... I ... would be obliged."

ftcorna. 153

"We ... I ... owe you one," and Rafik left off

rubbing his neck.

Pal Kendoro got off his haunches now and

went to wave his restorative under Calum's nose

before he handed the bottle to Rafik to tend to

Gill. Rafik chuckled at Kendoro's innate caution.

Gill did indeed come out of his inadvertent nap

ready to do mischief to whoever did that to him.

A few brief explanations and harmony was

restored, thanks for their escape offered and dis-

missed.

"Can we get back to — "

"Our ship," Rafik hurriedly interjected.

"Yes, and with one stop at the chandlers on

Pier •48 B," Pal said, exiting the van and adding as

he closed the sides, "this time I let you see where I

am driving you."

He was as good as his word, for the opaque

panel between the goods section and the driver's

turned transparent.

"I have had fresh words with Salitana," he told

them as he eased the van out of the side road and

into a busy traffic pattern, "and there was consid-

erable interest in you which she was unable, of

course, to answer, since you were strangers buying

clothing for female friends and she, naturally,

wanted no part of the offers you made her."

"She wouldn't have imparted to you a descrip-

tion of the interested parties, -would she?" Rafik

asked -with a -weary smile.

Pal Kendoro slid three quik-prints through a

small slot in the panel.

"She is efficient."

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

154

"Hey, that looks like ..." and Gill closed his

mouth on "the assassin."

"No, but there's a resemblance to the uncle,"

Calum said, "and if I'm not mistaken this shot

shows quite new ears on him."

Rafik had also noticed that.

"He is registered at the port as Farkas

Hamisen," Pal Kendoro said over his shoulder.

"She's not the only efficient one," Calum mur-

mured.

"Okay, why have you involved yourself with

the cause of utter strangers, and don't tell me

because we have succored a minor female?" Rafik

said. He was getting very tired of being chased

and helped and then chased again.

"I have also had a word with my sister, Judit,

who is currently assisting my employer during my

absence on the mission to discover who caused the

death of our friends who owned the ship whose

beacon you have appropriated for use in yours."

Rafik was not the only listener who blinked at

the long and involved and grammatically correct

sentence.

"And ..." Rafik prompted when Pal seemed to

take a long time to make up his next sentence.

"Would your niece be a young female of

unknown origin with a curious protuberance on

her forehead?"

Rafik exchanged glances with his mates. Gill

nodded solemn approval, but Calum looked wary.

"I think this lad is in an ... efficient . . . posi-

tion to help us on a number of vexing matters,"

Rafik murmured. "Yes, that is our niece, and Judit

155

has already helped us save her. She isn't still with

Amalgamated, is she?"

"No, and one of the reasons is your ward."

Rafik raised his eyebrow over that term, but it

was more accurate than "niece" had ever been,

technically speaking.

"Here's the EVA shop," Gill said, pointing to

the right.

"So it is," Rafik said and started to move.

"Oh, no you don't," Calum said, pushing him

back down. "I'll get it. No one's been killing me."

"You are both wrong," Pal said, twisting

around. "You will undoubtedly have a chit that

indicates the merchandise has been paid for." He

paused to don a cap that said clearly NERED MES-

SENGERS GMBH, INC & LTD on the peak. He held

his hand at the slot and Rafik slid the receipt

through.

Pal got out whistling and entered the shop

while the three miners watched . . . and watched

all corners for anyone watching Pal's activities.

But by then he was out of the shop, still whistling,

the EVA suit in its protective covering thrown

over his shoulder in a careless fashion. He threw it

through a barely adequate opening at the back of

the van, winking as he did so, and slammed the

door shut before resuming his position as driver.

His forward motion could scarcely be called either

furtive or fast. Clearly he was a messenger deter-

mined to increase the time of his errand for a

larger fee.

Clearly he -was also very adept at inconspicu-

ous trips because, although the three miners

156

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

observed the twists and turns he made, they

almost did not recognize the Uhuru -when the van

stopped at its closed hatch.

Then a lot of things happened all at once: Pal

Kendoro grabbed the EVA suit, jerked them out of

the van -when they didn't appear to move quickly

enough to suit him, and said that -whoever had the

command to open the Uhuru's, hatch had better

activate it right now because "they" -were here and

•waiting for them.

Rafik activated it and the hatch opened just

enough for them all to get inside, even Pal, though

he had to be pulled through with the suit encum-

bering him.

Acorna was at the pilot's controls. "We have

cleared for take-off, just as you asked. Uncle

Rafik," she said as he slid into the second seat.

"I did?"

"You did!" At the sound of his own voice so

cleverly imitated, Rafik turned around to see Pal

behind him. "And I advise the most speedy depar-

ture this ship can make and an even quicker )ump

to these coordinates." He laid a flimsy beside

Acorna.

"Well, go ahead, Acorna," Rafik said, waving

his hand in submission.

"Where?"

"To a place of absolute safety," Pal said, trying

very hard not to stare at the slender figure with

the mane of silver hair who was in control of the

ship.

"I trust him," Rafik said, uttering what would

soon be added to the list Calum kept of his

157

Famous Last Words. "He's Judit Kendoro's

brother."

Acorna had no more than finished keying in

the course than Rafik began to sneeze again. So

did Calum, Gill—who tried to reach out to Pal,

who held a mask over his face—and Acorna.

Seven

In the end, it was Judit who con-

veyed Delszaki Li's invitation to the

Uhuru -when the ship reached Kezdet

"Pal can negotiate with the miners," she'd pointed

out, "but if you want Acorna to come and stay with

you — "

r,

"She must," Li insisted. "I may not know? how

or why yet, but this I do believe: the ki-Un is vital

to our goals!"

"I have met these men," Judit said. "They have

been betrayed before; they will not entrust Acorna

to strangers again. To me, perhaps, but not—for-

give me—to an unknown businessman on a planet

that has not treated them well."

"Name of Li is scarcely unknown in "world of

business and finance," her employer remarked

dryly.

"They would probably trust your financial

expertise," Judit agreed, "but will they trust you

to care for ayoung girl?"

159

She was not entirely sure, herself, that she

trusted Delszaki Li to recognize that Acorna was a

little girl as well as a kl-lin. Pal had described her

as a young woman . . . but that was ridiculous;

after all, Judit had seen the child herself, only a

year ago.

And, with the image of that drugged child in

her mind, she was taken aback at first by the tall,

slender young woman in a sophisticated deep pur-

ple body wrap and misty blue flowing skirt who

greeted her when at last she received permission

to board the Uhuru. For a moment she wondered

wildly if there could be two Acornas, if this could

be the mother or older sister of the child she

remembered.

On her part, Acorna stared at Judit as soon as

she spoke, and her silvery pupils narrowed to ver-

tical slits.

"I think ... I know you," she said in confusion.

"But how?"

"She saved you from surgery at Amalgamated's

space base," Gill said. His big hand briefly

enveloped Judit's; she felt a wave of warmth and

security emanating from his touch. "But you were

unconscious at the time, drugged for the opera-

tion. You can't remember."

"I remember the voice," Acorna said. She

looked thoughtfully at Judit. "You were very

much afraid . . . and very sad. You are not so sad

now, I think."

"Then it i) you!" Judit exclaimed. "But you

were so tiny..."

"It seems my people mature more rapidly than

160

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

do yours," Acorna said. "Not, of course, that we

know anything about my people. . . ." Her pupils

narrowed to slits again, then widened as she

turned her silvery gaze on Judit and dismissed

that subject. "So you are Judit. Gill and Rafik and

Calum have told me often of your heroism."

"Then they have exaggerated wildly," Judit

said. "I didn't do anything, really."

"You will allow us to differ about that," Gill put

in, still holding Judit's hand clasped inside his.

"And you were not harmed afterwards?"

Judit smiled. "Oh, no. They bought the

hostage story ... I think Dr. Forelle had some

doubts, but nobody else could quite believe that a

barrio girl, even one who'd made it through uni-

versity, would have the brains or independence to

go against so many rules. And to keep them from

thinking it, I made sure to act very stupid for some

time thereafter. I think they were glad to get rid of

me when Mr. Li offered me a position as his assis-

tant."

"Ah, yes," Rafik said. "Your famous Mr. Li. Pal

has been telling us all about him, and his fortune,

and his great plans — "

Judit felt the blood draining from her face.

"Pal, how could you?"

How could Pal have trusted these men with

such dangerous secrets! Oh, Gill, she would trust,

but these other two ... no doubt they were good

men, but Pal didn't have the right to risk the lives

of children on his intuitive judgment of them.

"—plans to establish lunar mining bases on

Kezdet's moons," Rafik went on, and Judit breathed

161

again. "He seems very eager to give us a contract to

oversee the establishment and development of the

work ... a remarkably lucrative contract to offer

three independent asteroid miners."

"As I've explained to you," Pal cut in, "Kezdet

is a technologically underdeveloped planet. We

have planetside mines, of course, but they are of

the crudest sort, dependent on manual labor for

nearly everything. And there is no local expertise

in low-g mining. Kezdet's moons are far richer in

valuable metals than the planet itself, but up to

now we have lacked the capital and the technology

to exploit the mines. Mr. Li proposes to provide

the capital, but he needs men like you to consult

on all the problems of mining in space—protection

from solar flares, high-friction coefficients, lack of

the usual reagents for extraction, and so forth."

"You seem tolerably well informed on the prob-

lems, anyway," Calum remarked.

Pal flushed. "I've studied a few vid-cubes. That

doesn't make me a space mining expert. That's

where you come in."

"I should perhaps point out," Rafik said softly,

"that hijacking our ship and taking us, uncon-

scious, to a planet we have every reason to avoid is

not the most persuasive of bargaining maneuvers."

"Pal," Judit said sorrowfully, "you coulf) have

tried explaining to them!"

Pals flush deepened and he rounded on his sis-

ter, palms out. "A minute ago you thought I ha<)

explained to them, and I was in deep kimchee for

that, too. Can't I do anything right? "

"Not with a big sister, kid." Gill chuckled.

162

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

"Rafik, Pal, both of you calm down. Whatever the

rights and wrongs of it, we're here now, and it

won't hurt us to listen to Mr. Li's offer . . . and

personally, I'm dying to hear the explanations."

"I think Mr. Li would prefer to present his case

to you personally," Pal said, "and he very seldom

leaves his mansion. Will you trust me so far as to

accompany me there, where we can discuss the

matter in greater comfort?"

Gill glanced at the others, smiled wryly and

shrugged. "What the heck . . . we're already on

Kezdet, how much worse can it get? Just lay off

the sleep gas this time."

"Kezdet," Pal said somberly, "can get much,

much worse than any of you can imagine."

Just before dawn there was a subtle change in

the quality of the darkness of the sleep shed.

Unrelieved blackness faded slightly, revealing the

slumped outlines of what looked like piles of rags

on the earthen floor. After three years •working

Below, Jana could sleep through the twenty-

four-hour rumble and thump of the slagger, but

the faint light in the shed woke her, most morn-

ings, before the call. That was the good thing

about being on day shift. Night shift, you didn't

have that bit of warning. It worked today; she

was on her feet, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes,

when Siri Teku came through the shed with his

bucket of icy water, splashing it on the heaps of

rags until the children underneath stirred. He

grinned at Jana and aimed the last of the bucketful

163

at her, but she dodged so that he only got her

bare feet.

"Thanks," she said, "I was meanin' to wash my

feet today anyway."

She dived into the corner and caught little

Chiura by the arm, hauling her upright and clap-

ping one hand across her mouth before the kid

could wail and earn a slash from the long, flexible

rod Siri Teku held in his other hand. The other

kids knew better than to cry about a little thing

like cold water, or to take too long scrambling to

their feet, but Chiura was new, the only new one

their gang had got from last week's intake. The

others had grumbled when Siri Teku shoved her

into their shed.

"How we gone keep up our allotment with

babies on the soojin' gang?" Khetala demanded.

Khetala, two years older than Jana, broad-

shouldered and black-browed, was the unofficial

leader of their gang. She kept the rest of the kids

in line with pinches, slaps, and threats to tell Siri

Teku on them. But she also kept their ore carts full

and the draggers moving so that they weighed in

with a full allotment most shifts. That meant sup-

per. Gangs that didn't earn supper didn't last long;

the kids got tired too easily, then they couldn't

keep up their allotment, they started getting sick,

pretty soon the sick ones disappeared and the ones

that were just puny got sold off to other gangs. Or

worse, Kheti said darkly, but Jana wasn't sure

what could be worse than being a dragger on a

gang.

"She's too little to go Below," Jana said.

16-4 -^             ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

Chiura's bare legs -were dimpled 'with baby fat; her

round, full face was tilted upward to Jana and

Khetala as if she expected them to pick her up or

something. She'd learn soon enough that there

wasn't any time at Anyag for playing with babies.

"No backtalk!" Siri Teku's rod whistled against

the backs of Jana's legs. She didn't jump, so he

lashed her a couple more times until tears stood in

her eyes. "She's not going Below. Not yet, anyway.

She can help Ganga and Laxmi sort."

Jana and Khetala looked at each other. They

needed another sorter. Siri Teku had taken

Najeem away right after wake-up a couple of days

ago, when he noticed Najeem's morning cough.

But how were they going to teach a baby who

couldn't be more than four, maybe only three, to

sort ore?

"She wants to eat, she'll learn," Siri Teku said.

"You'll teach her." He left the shed to fetch their

scanty morning meal.

Now Jana knelt beside Chiura, dipped a cor-

ner of her own kameez in the water bucket and

wiped the kid's face clean. She'd been crying again

in the night, there -were dried tears and snot caked

around her upper lip. A bruise was starting to

show on her cheek.

"Who hit you, Chiura? "

Chiura didn't answer, but she glanced toward

Laxmi and back, a quick, darting, furtive glance

that she'd learned in this first week at Anyag.

Jana glowered at Laxmi.

"The brat kept me awake with her snuffling,"

Laxmi said.

"We all cried at first," Jana said. "You hit her

again, Laxmi, and I'll break your arm. See how

long Siri Teku keeps you on the gang when you

can't work!" She wiped Chiura's face as gently as

she could and ran her fingers through the curly

dark hair, trying to work a few tangles out of the

matted ringlets.

"You're wasting your time," Laxmi said. "She'll

hafta get clipped like the rest of us, or she'll get

lice. I donno why Siri Teku hasn't done it yet."

"You mean there's something you don't know?"

Jana jeered. "An' here I thought you -was the

Divine Fountain of Wisdom come down to Anyag

to instruct and save us all."

Sin Teku kicked the door open and set down a

round platter of bean paste )ust inside the shed.

Beside it he dropped a stack of patts, letting them

fall on the dirt so the bottom ones would be all

gritty. He said it trained the kids to grab their food

fast and not waste time, but Jana figured it was

just meanness. She'd never seen anybody who

wasn't hungry enough to bolt their patts and bean

paste so fast they hardly chewed.

The first day, Chiura had wrinkled up her face

and spat out the gritty patt and bean paste Jana

rolled for her. She was hungrier now; she

would've dived right under the trampling feet of

the older kids if Jana hadn't held her back.

"It's okay," she told Chiura. "Kheti sees to it,

there's fair shares for everyone."

"More," Chiura wailed when the rush had

slowed and they got their patts and beans, one

apiece.

166

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

167

"Fair shares," Jana said firmly, but she tore her

rolled patt in half and slipped it to Chiura when

nobody -was looking. And while the rest of the

gang shuffled off to the shaft, she lingered to ask

Laxmi how the baby was doing.

"Plays too much, less'n I clout her," Laxmi

said. "Doesn't know good rock from bad. She's

bringin* down our count."

"Don't hit her," Jana said. "She won't learn if

she's scared. Let her watch what you're doing.

She'll learn." She knelt by Chiura and hugged

her. "You'll watch Laxmi, won't you, sweetcake?

Watch and learn how to tell good ore from rocks.

Watch for Mama Jana."

"Sweetcake?" Chiura repeated. "Mama?"

"Aah, she's too dumb to know what you're say-

ing," Laxmi whined. "Only way to teach her . . ."

She doubled over in a silent cough. Her thin face

turned dark with the effort to hush the convul-

sions that shook her body.

"You don't hit her," Jana said, "and I don't tell

Siri Teku you got Najeem's cough. Deal?"

Laxmi nodded in between convulsions, and

Siri Teku's rod came down across the backs of

Jana's legs. This time Jana yelled good and loud,

to give Laxmi a chance to let some of the coughing

out. And Siri Teku was so busy telling her off for

lingering behind the rest of the gang, he didn't

even notice the way Laxmi wheezed for breath.

She hoped.

Going Below was the part Jana hated worst, the

sickening drop in the cage full of scared kids. It was

usually all right, if the minder was awake and pay-

ing attention to his engine. If he let it run a few sec-

onds too long, the cage would slam into the pit floor

like a dropped basket of eggs. Coming back up was

just as dangerous; an inattentive minder could drag

the cage and all into the engine to be chewed up

like a lump of ore in the slagger, but you didn't

think about that so much—by the end of shift, all

you could think of was getting Above again. Above

belonged to light and flowers and Sita Ram, whom

Jana imagined like a mother who smiled and

hugged you close and wanted to keep you forever.

Below belonged to Old Black and the Piper, and if

you prayed to Sita Ram or even thought about Her,

they'd maybe get angry and send one of Their mes-

sengers for you: a rock falling from the tunnel roof,

a flood of water when the hewers broke through

into old workings, or the stinking air that made

your chest forget how to breathe.

The cage rattled to a stop, thudding on the pit

floor but not falling, and the gang moved off to

their places under Siri Teku's direction.

"Buddhe, Faiz, you boys are dragging for Face

Three today. Watch how Gulab Rao handles the

compressor, Buddhe. You're getting too big for a

dragger and I just might put you to work on the

face pretty soon if you show me you can get a load

of ore without spraying the gallery with rock

splinters. Israr, you trap for Face Three. You girls

go to Five. Khetala and Jana drag, Lata trap."

Buddhe and Faiz set off at a run down the

opening that slanted down to the tunnel to Three,

but Kheti called them back and made them strap

on their knee and arm pads.

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

"Girl stuff," Buddhe said scornfully, flexing his

skinny ten-year-old arm •while Kheti tried to tie on

the pads she'd made out of old rags. "When I'm a

hewer, I -won't fool with stupid girl stuff like

padding myself."

"Wear the pads, maybe you don't get so many

cuts, maybe you live long enough to make hewer,"

Khetala snapped.

Jana didn't argue about putting her own pads

on. They were another of Kheti's good ideas.

Other gangs, when they got new kameezes, sold

the ragged bits of their old ones to a picker for a

cornet of curried peas or some other luxury. Kheti

made them save the old cloths to make these pads

that protected their knees and elbows from the

sharp rock floors of the tunnels. While the pads

lasted, their gang didn't come down with half as

many scrapes and cuts and infections as the other

gangs. The only trouble was, they never could get

enough cloth. Kheti said she was going to talk to

Siri Teku some day when he wasn't drunk or

angry and point out how much the pads saved

them, try and talk him into giving them some extra

cloth. But it could be a long time waiting until Siri

Teku was in a mood to be approached.

The hewers had been working at Five since

well before first light; they went on shift and off

shift earlier than the draggers, so that the kids

could find full corves of ore -waiting -when they

started work and could finish off the hewers' last

production of the day before they went off shift.

This morning there were three full corves -waiting

for them. You couldn't hear anything over the

•whine of the compressors, but one of the hewers —

Ram Dal, it was—-wasn't -wearing his face mask,

and Jana could guess from his scowl what he -was

saying to them. If the draggers got behind, then he

wouldn't have an empty corf to pile his ore into,

his production -would go down and the gang

wouldn't meet their allotment. It -wasn't her and

Khetala's fault that Face Five had turned into an

easy vein that the hewers could strip faster than

Siri Teku had expected, but they'd be the ones to

get the stick if Ram Dal told Siri Teku that they

were holding up the line. Jana buckled the belt

about her -waist, straddled the chain attached to

the first corf, and set off back up the long slope of

the tunnel without a -word or a nod to Khetala.

Halfway up the tunnel, Lata pulled the ventilation

fan back so that they could drag the corves

through.

"Come back soon," she begged. "It's dark here.

I'm scared the Piper -will get me."

"Don't worry about the Piper," Jana said as

she passed. "I left an offering for Him at the face.

And -we'll be back in a minute."

It -was always dark in the tunnel, and they

always came back as fast as they could. Lata really

•was simple; you could see it in her face, the funny

tilted eyes and the moon-round cheeks. She could

never remember anything from one trip to the

next. But being so simple, she didn't get bored and

fall asleep, either. Jana liked having Lata as trap-

per and didn't mind saying, every trip, that she

•would come back in a minute.

"Liar," Kheti -whispered -when they were past

170

ANNE MCCAfFREY AND MARGARET BALL

Lata and the hum of the fan blocked out their

•words. "You never. Piper's gonna get you."

"Huh. Piper won't -want me, I'm too skinny.

Piper's gonna take you, Kheti—your chest getting

big now."

The first trip wasn't so bad, except for being in

a hurry because the hewers were getting ahead

this morning. Jana figured about the third trip

was the -worst; by that time everything was bug-

ging you. Your thighs ached from the pull of the

loaded corf, you had scrapes on the places your

pads didn't protect, the chain between your legs

chafed and sweat dropped down into the chafed

places and made them sting worse than ever. In

some ways Jana reckoned it was better later on in

the shift, when you were too tared to care, almost

too tired to remember that there'd ever been

anything but pulling loaded corves, tipping them

into the cage basket, and drawing the empty boxes

back. Finally the hewers quit for the day, and then

they knew end of shift was almost there and all

they had to do was clear the last loaded corves.

Then there was the creaking cage again, this

time taking up draggers and trappers instead of

baskets of ore, and cool clean air and the first stars

of evening, and shivering because your kameez

was soaked with sweat and you weren't used to

the coolness. Jana helped Khetala to herd the

other kids of their gang over to the pump that

spewed out water from the lowest mine workings,

nagged them all to pull off their kameezes and

wash. The littlest ones, Lata and Israr, were so

tired they were about to fall asleep, even though

171

they had been sitting still all day instead of hauling

corves. They gasped and crowed indignantly at

the shock of the tepid water. That helped; Buddhe

and Faiz wanted to show? they "were tougher than

the little kids, so they splashed rowdily under the

pipe. Jana and Khetala took the last wash. Faiz

tried to pinch Khetala's chest and she splashed

water into his eyes and everybody had a good

laugh.

"I wish we had spare kameezes, and spare

pads, too," Kheti said as they trudged back to the

shed. "Then we could wash our clothes and pads

and leave them to dry next day."

"Yeah? Long as you're wishing, why don't you

wish for the moon to hang in our shed and a cloud

to fly through the tunnels on?"

"The better we keep clean," Kheti said firmly,

"the less we fall sick."

Jana didn't see the connection herself.

Everybody knew that sickness was caused by

annoying Old Black and the Piper so that they

laid a cough in your chest. She'd been at the mines

five years now, since she was only a little bigger

than Chiura. Kheti was all the time setting herself

up as some kind of know-it-all because she'd only

come to the mines two years ago, when she was

eleven already, and she claimed to know all sorts

of things about the -world away from the mines.

But she did know a lot of good stories to tell at

night, and it was true that since she'd joined them

they had only lost two kids from the gang to ill-

ness. Besides, if you argued, she hit and slapped,

and Jana had taken enough blows that day from

1 72 "--"''             ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

Siri Teku and Ram Dal—she didn't need a fight

•with Kheti to finish the day off.

The sorters had come in when it got dark.

They -were supposed to light a fire and heat

-water to cook the evening beans and meal por-

ridge, but half the time the sleep shed was dark

and cold when the rest of the gang got there.

This evening -was one of those times. Laxmi and

Ganga were bickering about -whose turn it was

to fetch sticks for kindling. Khetala waded in

and sorted the argument with a couple of brisk

slaps, sending Laxmi for kindling and Ganga to

fill the bucket.

"What about her7" Laxmi jerked her head at

the pallet where Chiura lay, chubby arms and legs

flung out in exhausted sleep. "She don't sort her

share, she don't help fix the fire ..."

"She's little," Jana said. "She'll learn. Give her

a chance."

"I say, if she doesn't work, she doesn't eat!"

"That's dumb," Jana said. "If she doesn't eat,

she'll just get sick. I'll help you get the dinner

ready if you'll give her a share."

Her legs ached all over from hauling corves of

ore all day, but walking and carrying kindling was

a different kind of work anyway. It probably did

her some good to stand upright for a while. Some

of the older hewers hobbled around half bent,

unable to straighten up after years of lying on

their sides in wet tunnels to hack out the last ore

in a narrow vein.

When they got the fire going and the water

began to bubble, Khetala made Laxmi stir, even

though Buddhe and Faiz complained that she

would cough all over their food.

"Never mind them," Kheti told Laxmi.

"Steam's good for the breath-sickness. You stir

every night for a while, and lean over the bucket

while you stir, hear? Breathe in that steam."

"Why? " Laxmi whined.

"Easy," Jana said before Khetala could lose her

temper and slap Laxmi, which was how she usu-

ally settled disagreements. "Steam goes up, right?

Sita Ram is Above, Old Black and the Piper are

Below. Chest cough comes from Old Black and

the Piper. Steam carries it up to Sita Ram."

Khetala rolled her eyes but didn't argue. "Just

do it, Laxmi. Breathe the steam, and hope Siri

Teku keeps you on sorting for a while and doesn't

make you drag a corf."

"Right," Jana agreed. "She goes Below, it'll

just give Old Black and the Piper another chance

to lay a curse on her."

Jana took Chiura to sleep beside her that night.

She wouldn't mind if Chiura cried, and she

wouldn't hit the kid the way Laxmi did. Anyway

Chiura didn't cry much; she snuggled in between

Jana's arm and body and burrowed her head into

Jana's armpit like a kitten butting its mother for

milk. There'd been a litter of kittens once, all soft

and fuzzy . . . but that was before the mines. . . .

Jana blinked away tears. It didn't do no good to

think about before. That was the first lesson any-

body learned. You were bonded to your gang-

master, Siri Teku or whoever, and he took the cost

of food and clothes out of your wages and kept the

174

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

rest to pay off the advance your family had gotten

for bonding you, and "when you were paid off, you

could go home or you could stay at "work and send

the money back to your family. It took a long time

to get paid off, though. But it must happen for some

kids. Sometimes kids just disappeared, and they

weren't sickly or anything, and you never saw them

around the mine again, not working the other shift

or working in another gang or whatever. Like

Surya. She'd been a year older than Khetala, but

she wasn't on the gang anymore. So she must have

earned out her bond and been sent home. Jana

wasn't sure what she would do when she earned

out. She didn't know how to find her family. She'd

been too little when they bonded her—she only

knew it was a long way off. They maybe wouldn't

want her back anyway; there were too many kids

and not enough to eat. Maybe she'd go to the city

and find some easier work. Anything had to be eas-

ier than dragging corves. . . . She fell into an uneasy

dream of dragging bigger and bigger corves up a

worse slope than any in the mine, with the Piper

behind her dark and faceless and threatening, and

her legs jerked and twitched all night as the over-

strained muscles tried to remember how to rest. But

whenever she woke up there was Chiura's little

body warm against her, and that was some comfort;

almost as good as having a kitten of her very own.

The miners were tense as they followed Pal into

the Li mansion, unsure what to expect. The house

was darkened against the heat of the Kezdet sun,

175

•with cool, scented currents of air fanning though

high-ceilinged rooms. They were still blinking

with the sudden change from brilliance to shad-

ows when the soft whir of a hover-chair heralded

Delszaki Li's arrival.

While Pal and Judit made introductions,

Calum hung back, studying the man whose power

and influence had brought them here. A wasted

body was largely concealed under stiff, brocaded

robes; all that he could see was the man's wrin-

kled face, with sharp, intelligent eyes. Those eyes

lit up when Acorna was introduced, and Calum

tensed.

She u what he want^, he thought. The r&ft itjiut an

excuse.

But his suspicions were lulled by the long,

intense discussion that followed the introduc-

tions and ritual offering of food and drink. Li

had evidently studied and anticipated all their

tastes; there was Kilumbemba beer for Gill,

chilled fruit juice for Acorna, and a variety of

cold and refreshing drinks for Calum and Rafik.

But the man was obviously eager to be done

with social niceties and get on with his business;

the clawlike fingers of one hand trembled over

the hover-chair buttons while they made polite

conversation. He seemed relieved when Gill

downed his beer and said bluntly, "Now, Mr. Li,

we have been promised some explanations.

Exactly what made you so eager to bring us

here, and -why are you so sure we will accept

your offer?"

"Require your assistance," Li said, "to destroy

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

176

illegal but well defended system of child slavery on

this planet."

"There are unpleasant rumors about the fate of

unprotected children on Kezdet," Rafik agreed.

"The reality," Judit said, "is •worse than the

rumors."

Gill put one arm around her shoulders.

"And exactly how will the establishment of

lunar mining bases help to eradicate the current

system?" Calum demanded. "And why UJ?"

"Second question is more easily answered than

first," Li replied. "I have chosen you because of

personal reports from Judit Kendoro, also sub-

stantiated by reading of classified files of

Amalgamated. Men who will break contract and

incur wrath of intergalactic company to defend

one child might be willing to take some further

risks to save many children."

Calum had the feeling that Li was not revealing

all his thoughts, but then, the head of a multi-

billion-credit financial and industrial empire sel-

dom did reveal everything he was thinking.

"For answer to first question," Li went on,

"small introduction to current system is neces-

sary." He paused for a moment, his bright black

eyes darting around the table until he was sure

that he had everyone's attention. "Kezdet, like

Saturn, eats its children. Small population of

highly paid technical workers, bureaucrats, and

merchants rests at top of a pyramid of underpaid

and exploited human labor. And at bottom of

pyramid are children—those of Kezdet, and the

unwanted children of many other planets. Kezdet

177

labor contractors visit an overpopulated, impover-

ished world where planetary government is

already struggling to provide basic social services.

They make promises of employment and educa-

tion for homeless children, training in basic job

skills, and the chance for a better life. Reality is

sadly different. Training? Yes—employers claim

child is 'in training' for long years during which no

wages at all are paid. Employment? Yes—as much

as twenty hours a day in some cases. And educa-

tion?" Li smiled sadly. "All most of these children

learn is that if they do not work, they will not eat.

And they learn that lesson very well. Illiterate,

half-starved, separated from their families if they

ever had any, they are utterly dependent on their

employer's good will. Enslaved children are back-

bone of Kezdet economy."

"Child labor and slavery are both violations of

Federation law," Rafik said. "Surely the law

applies on Kezdet as elsewhere?"

Li's smile was infinitely sad. "Inspections are

always announced in advance, to give factory

owners time to hide children or pretend they are

only working in allowed roles such as carrying

water and snacks to adult workers. Kezdet

Guardians of the Peace are paid, what you say,

under the console?"

"Under the table," Rafik supplied.

"Sometimes Child Labor League makes public

some company's violation of law. But judges are

also paid off. Small fine, company continues busi-

ness as usual."

"It doesn't make sense," Calum protested.

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

178

"Adult workers are stronger and do more. I'm sure

conditions are terrible for the few children who

have to work, but you make it sound as though

they are the entire workforce."

"Kezdet has specialized in industries where

children are especially useful," said Li. "In primi-

tive mines, their small size is convenient. In glass

factories, they can run faster than adults and cal-

culate a path more intelligently than 'bots, bring-

ing molten glass to blowers. Small nimble fingers

are useful in match factories, where sulfur poisons

them, and in carpet factories where children are

crippled from hours of sitting in a cramped posi-

tion and half-blinded from working in the dark.

Adults," Li said dryly, "might protest such condi-

tions. Children provide cheap, uncomplaining

labor. And Kezdet industrialists too tight-fisted

and short-sighted for kind of capital investment it

would take to modernize industries and improve

appalling conditions. Children do here what

machines do in more civilized places—and is

always cheaper to buy another batch of children

from a labor contractor than would be to automate

a factory. System perpetuates itself. And children

themselves are kept in perpetual slavery by system

of financial juggling. Most bonded child laborers

incapable of calculating 'debt' they owe for trans-

portation to Kezdet and fee of contractor who

brought them here. As legal fiction," he explained,

"debt is owed by adult head of child's family, if

such exists. Everyone knows debt is to be paid

only by child—but cannot prosecute on basis of

what 'everyone knows,' especially on Kezdet,

179

where entire legal and peace-keeping system is

corruptly in pay of factory owners. Meanwhile,

employers cheat children in every possible way,

charging food and clothing at ridiculous sums

against their wages, docking for breakages, keep-

ing high rate of interest on original debt. All bond

laborers hope someday will work off bond. Very

few ever achieve that."

"I was lucky," said Pal. "I had a sister who won

her freedom with a scholarship, then spent years

working hardship posts on space stations and

sending back every penny of her salary until

Mercy and I were bought free as well."

"Success of Judit required brilliance, tenacity,

and luck," Delszaki Li said. "First element of luck

was that she was not sent to Kezdet until she was

fourteen, when she and Pal and Mercy were

orphaned by a war that left their home planet bur-

dened with thousands of displaced children. She

fell into barrios of Kezdet later than most, with

good health, a basic scientific education, and—-

most important of all—knowledge that a better

way of life was possible. But none of that would

have saved her if she had not been an exception-

ally brave and intelligent young woman."

"You don't need to tell me that," Gill rumbled.

"Remind me to tell you sometime about the first

time I met this girl."

"But for every Judit who escapes the Kezdet

system are hundreds of children who do not escape.

Too poor, too weak, too ignorant to fight..."

"But what happens when they grow up?" Rafik

demanded.

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

180

"Mostly," Pal said, "we don't. Grow up. What

do you expect, with poor food, hellish conditions,

no medical care? The healthiest and best-looking

children are regularly bought from the labor con-

tractors for city brothels, and even they don't last

long there. The rest work until they get sick, and

then they die. And the few who survive to adult-

hood are too weak to do much besides breed more

children whom they can sell to the labor contrac-

tors for a pittance."

Calum looked about him at the luxurious fur-

nishings of the room where they sat: windows of

high-tech Kyllian solar glass, walls draped in

sound-absorbing Theloi silk, an entire -wall covered

with shelves of expensive antique flatbooks.

Delszaki Li intercepted and interpreted his glance.

"No, this is not paid for by labor of children,"

he said, "although you would be hard put to find

another such house in all of Kezdet." He sighed.

"This humble person was young and idealistic

when inherited family holdings on Kezdet. Swore

never to employ child labor or any bonded labor-

ers. Have devoted a lifetime to demonstrating that

is possible for businesses to flourish—even on

Kezdet-—without exploiting children. Experiment

has gained me many enemies, but has had no other

effect. In recent years have turned to more direct

action. Child Labor League achieved some suc-

cesses at first, but now has been made illegal by

order of Kezdet government, which has accused

members of terrorist action." Li smiled. "This

means, among other things, that contributions to

the league not tax deductible."

181

"It also means that his house is watched, his

assistants questioned, and his projects ruined

wherever the corrupt Guardians of the Peace can

find out what he is doing," Pal put in.

"If this room is bugged," Rafik pointed out,

"this entire conversation is extremely indiscreet."

"Is indiscreet anyway," Li said calmly, "but I

have made decision to trust you. As for other lis-

teners, I believe my off-planet technology is still

better than their off-planet technology. Guardians

of the Peace are just as cheap as any other group

on Kezdet; they buy second-rate espionage equip-

ment and have it copied in barrio factories where

workers do not know what they are supposed to

be doing and hence make many mistakes. . . .

Actually, it is remarkable how many mistakes they

make on contracts for Guardians of the Peace;

suspicious man might think someone were alerting

them and suggesting subtle ways to sabotage

equipment."

"I like the way this man thinks," Rafik

announced.

"You would," Calum said, "he's almost as

twisty as your Uncle Hafiz." He glanced at Li.

"No offense intended, sir."

"If you are referring to Hafiz Harakamian," Li

said, "no offense taken. He is brilliant man with

admirably subtle mind. Your people sometimes

find subtlety morally suspicious; mine do not."

"About the mines?" Gill prompted.

"Peaceful demonstration has failed," Li said.

"Education efforts on Kezdet have been ham-

pered by Guardians of the Peace, who destroy

182

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

Acorna

183

corn systems belonging to Child Labor League

and break up schools established to teach bonded

children how to read and calculate, so that they

may know how much their employers are cheat-

ing them. Now I try third approach: direct

action. Remove children from Kezdet. Only two

problems: how to find children who have been

well trained to hide from strangers, and what to

do with them when found."

"Just two little problems, huh?" Rafik drawled.

"You will solve second problem. Li consortium

owns mineral rights to all three of Kezdet's moons,

sold to me personally by stupid government offi-

cials who thought moons too expensive to mine.

Not willing to make capital investment, train mod-

ern workers. Li consortium has plenty of capital.

You three men have expertise. You will establish

first lunar base city on primary satellite, Maganos.

You three will train freed children to operate

equipment. Judit will be head of school system

and medical services. Children will work, but will

also learn."

Gill blinked at the scale of the project pre-

sented in these few clipped words. "Mr. Li, I think

you don't realize how many trained personnel it

takes to run an efficient lunar mining base. We're

contract miners, independents. We know how to

strip an asteroid and ship the separated metals

where we'll get the most money for them. What

you're proposing is a much bigger operation."

"I know that," Li replied. "You do not realize

how many children are enslaved on Kezdet. I will

supply personnel. You will train them."

"It's going to be extremely expensive," Calum

warned. "Setting up shielded living quarters,

importing equipment from other systems ... it

could be years before you see any return on your

investment."

Li waved his one working hand disdainfully.

"Li consortium has capital. Initial return on invest-

ment will be lives saved. In fifty, maybe hundred

years, will be fully working concern. Li descen-

dants will be rich and happy. I will be dead, but

will be one happy ancestor."

Rafik asked Li for the chance to sleep on the

proposition and Li smiled, murmuring something

erudite about prudent men. Pal was designated as

guide for the men while Judit took charge of

Acorna.

As the three miners watched their ward make

her graceful way up the anachronistic flight of

stairs to the second level of this amazing house,

they each experienced a sense of moment.

"She's grown up ... all of a sudden," Calum

said plaintively.

"She belongs in a place like this," Rafik

remarked, beaming with pride at the look of her,

courteously inclining her body to the shorter Judit

and smiling at something said.

"She's grown out of us, that's for sure," Gill

said with a sad sigh, and then focused his attention

on Judit.

She ^o criei) when dhe thought we were ail oeao ana

gone. WhoVve thought it? They'd met so very briefly.

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BAIL

184 —

'A.corn.a.

185

He hoped Rafik and Calum would be willing to go

along with Li's scheme. He'd have a lot more

chance to be with Judit and he found he wanted

that, suddenly, at his time of life. Well, he wasn't

that old, after all was said and done. Time he gave

a thought to settling down. Mining was a grand

life when you were young, but it was isolating and

he'd had enough of the females available for short-

term liaisons. Would Judit mind that he'd played

around a lot? He'd been careful: always insisted

on seeing an up-to-date cert before he did anything.

"You're right on that count," Rafik said with a

wistful expression on his face. Ah, well, they were

due for a change.

Calum had entirely different thoughts, though

they were centered on Acorna. They had man-

aged to bring her to her species' maturity, or close

to it. But they hadn't done -what they ought to

have done a long time ago: found out who and

•where her people were. Caring for her was one

thing. He couldn't fault any of them on that, but

they really should now, especially with the

resources available to them if they picked up on

what Li was suggesting, be able to employ the

experts they needed—discreetly, of course—to

find her home system. They owed her family that.

They owed her that. She was female and shouldn't

be deprived of a mate because a proper member

of her own species wasn't immediately available.

Pal showed them into a suite of rooms, three

bedchambers off a spacious, beautifully furnished

lounge, and each bedroom had its own bath facil-

ity.

"Boy! Have we come up in the world!" Calum

said, pivoting on one heel with his arms wide

open, taking in the luxurious appointments.

Pal smiled at such an ingenuous remark. "You

are very welcome guests. I do hope that you can

find it in your hearts and minds to forgive my

actions, but perhaps you see why such cautions

had to be taken."

"If Li's up against an entire planet, I suppose

he's got to be doubly, triply careful," Rafik said as

he settled himself into a wide chair that immedi-

ately conformed itself to him. "Hey, I can get to

like this!"

Pal stepped to the nearest wall, pressed an

ornate button, and a panel slid back to reveal not

only a well-stocked bar but other supplies.

"In case you require sustenance or refreshment

before the morning. In the meantime, I will wish

you a comfortable night's rest. And if you have

any requirements, speak into this grill and the

house of Li will supply whatever you lack."

"I believe it could," Rafik said with a grin.

Pal left and closed the door quietly behind him.

"I think -we ought to ..."

"This is the chance of a lifetime ..."

"Be our own bosses ..."

They had spoken all at once and broke off,

laughing. Gill and Calum found chairs, which they

pulled closer to Rafik's semithrone so they could

have a good natter about their amazing new-

prospects.

"First," Rafik said, taking charge and ticking

off the points he wanted to make, "I think we'd be

186 -—-'             ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

stupid not to take Li up on the offer because we're

not getting any younger and mining asteroids for

huge corporations like Amalgamated is no longer

the -wide-open, friendly game it used to be." The

others nodded. "Exploiting the riches of a moon . . .

and nonexploiting our employees at the same

time . . . much less not having to -worry about

what'11 happen at our next port of call ... I won-

der ..." Rafik paused, "... if Li can find out who

else is after us and why."

"Whaddaya wanna bet that's already being

handled?" Calum said. "But, look, fellas—"

"Look, there must be hundreds of techies and

experienced men who're as cheesed off with

Amalgamated as we are. We take our pick of gooS

men to start this project up: builders, engineers,

environmentalists, medics ..." Gill's eyes gleamed

with such rosy prospects. "We could hold out for

the best there is."

"Not to mention the fair Judit." Rafik shot a

sideways look at Gill, -who blushed to the beard

and beneath.

"Now..."

"Ease off. Gill," Calum said, holding up his

hands between them. "Before we get our heads all

warped with plans, there's one other thing we have

to do."

"What?" They both turned on him in surprise.

"Find out where Acorna comes from. We ought

to have done something about that a long time ago."

"Yeah, when we've had so much free time,"

Rafik began, and then stopped. "That kind of

search could take a lifetime."

"Not if Li will let us hire a metallurgic special-

ist and get us the spectroanalyses of primaries."

"All of them?" Even Rafik goggled at that.

"Naw, we can narrow it down," Calum said.

"She hadn't been in that pod very long—the oxy-

gen supply wasn't down by as much as half— "

"But she could have kept it clean," Gill put in.

"It took a few weeks to do ours, remember,"

Calum said. "Any way, we go back to the old

'Azelnut group and use the evaluation of primaries

in that area, -widening the search. She can't have

been from that far away. Besides -which, I'll bet

anything that some of her people visited Earth, or

that sort of a legend wouldn't have grown."

Gill frowned at him and -waved his hand in dis-

missal of the idea.

"Now, -wait a minute, Gill," Rafik said, holding

up one finger. "A lot of those old legends did have

bases in fact -when modern science took a look at

them. There's no reason Acorna's people didn't

start that one. Just remember how beautifully that

escape pod ... a mere escape pod . . . was

designed. They've been in space a lot longer than

we have."

Gill stroked his beard. "Yeah, I guess it's possi-

ble."

"That would be a real coup," Rafik said.

"Furthermore," and he settled back into his chair,

locking his hands behind his head as he stretched

out, "I think Li -would really go for the research."

"At least he's respectful of Acorna," Gill said.

"Not like others I could name," and he shot a

glance at Rafik.

188

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

"Or that awful surgeon -who was going to

remove the 'disfigurement,'" said Calum, who had

never forgotten his outrage over that and by what

a slim margin they had saved her. If they'd been

just a fraction of a moment later ... he shook him-

self.

"So we broach that tomorrow, too?" Rafik

asked.

"Look, let's get an idea of what we're going to

neec)," Gill said, "draw up a plan of attack—"

"A visit to the moon?" Rafik put in, grinning.

"Among other things." Gill was opening cup-

boards to find out where the computer terminal

was hidden.

Rafik removed one hand from behind his head

and laid it on the edge of the table beside him. It

lifted and exposed a state-of-the-art system that

made him sit up and whistle. He rolled the chair

around the corner of the table, toggled it on, and

raised his hands over the keypads.

"Okay, what's first?"

When they had revised their order of the prior-

ities half a dozen times and finally reached one

they could all agree (mostly) on, which did include

a visit to the moons, which headhunter to contact

for the most essential personnel, and what Calum

would require for his search, they did "sleep" on it.

ake up, Jana!" Somebody

was shaking her, dragging

Jana out of the lovely second

sleep she'd fallen into after she woke at dawn and

Siri Teku didn't come. The sleep shed door was

locked and nobody brought them food, so Jana

went back to sleep so she wouldn't think about

how hungry she •was.

Kheti's face was gray with fear. Jana'd never

seen her like that, not even that real bad time

when Siri Teku got so drunk he was seeing

demons here Above and started whipping all the

kids, screaming that he would drive Old Black and

the Piper out of them. Kheti'd kept her head then,

helping the little kids to scramble into hiding

places, making Buddhe and Faiz throw rocks to

distract Siri Teku until they all got out of reach,

keeping them safe until the gangmaster threw up

and fell down on the ground to sleep it off. She'd

taken a lash across the face that would mark her

190

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

for life, but she hadn't been frozen by fear the -way

she was now.

"I got to get out of sight," she whispered. "I'm

too big now, she'll take me for sure." She tugged

her ragged kameez up, trying to bunch it up over

her chest where she was bumpy now, but there

wasn't enough fabric to cover her top and bottom,

too. Buddhe snickered and pinched her on the

butt, and Faiz yelled that he could see some hair

that wasn't on her head.

"Who'll take you?" Jana demanded.

"Didn't you hear the whispers? Didi Badini's

coming."

DQi meant big sister. "Your family?" But why

wouldn't Khetala want to go with her sister?

Nobody's family ever came for a kid. Only the real

little ones, like Chiura, even thought it would hap-

pen.

Khetala tried to laugh. It came out like a grind-

ing fall of rocks.

"Oh, Didi Badini's everybody's big sister,

didn't you know? Piper sends her at night to take

the pretty little kids, boys and girls both, and the

girls that're getting too big to be draggers, like

Surya . . . didn't you ever wonder what happened

to Surya?"

"She worked out her bond," Jana said slowly.

"She went home. Didn't she?"

Khetala laughed again. "Don't you know any-

thing? Nobody ever works out their bond. Does

Siri Teku ever show you how much you owe, how

much you're earning, how much he takes out for

your keep?"

191

Jana hung her head. "I don't know my num-

bers so good."

"Well, I do," Khetala said, "and the first time I

asked to see my records, he knocked me across the

shed." The color was coming back to her face now,

her eyes were sparkling; she loved to instruct peo-

ple. "The second time, he said I'd have to come to

his room, he kept the datacubes there. Huh! He

didn't even have a reader. Had somethm' else he

wanted to show me, though. So I know all about

what Didi Badini's coming for."

"You said she comes at night. It's not night."

"I can't help that. Dunno why she's coming in

the daytime this time, but I heard the whispers.

Besides, why else would Siri Teku keep us locked

in here? Missing a half day's shift "work, we are."

Khetala's fear was infecting Jana, but she

didn't want to show it. She yawned and turned

over on her side.

"So what? Me, I get a chance to sleep, I'll take

it. ... Besides, whatever Didi Badini wants kids

for, can't be worse than this place."

"Can't it? She works for the Piper, dummy."

"Piper's a story to scare kids down Below." Or

maybe not. But they were Above now, even if they

had been locked in the sleep shed since before

dawn. They were in Sita Ram's realm of sky and

sun. Piper couldn't have power here.

"Piper's real, and he takes kids to the bonk-

shops in the city. You catch worse things than

chest-cough that way, too. You get the burnies,

and the scale, and if they don't kill you by doing it

to you too much, then your nose falls off and your

192

193

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

crotch rots and they throw you out on the street to

beg."

"How do you know all that? "

"I know what Siri Teku did to me in his room,"

Khetala said, "and I got away from Ram Dal a

couple of times when he wanted to do the same.

And I been in the city, too, before my mum died

and her boyfriend sold me here. You can see the

beggars all over the place . . . and pictures of kids

outside the bonk-shops. Why do you think she

takes the prettiest kids? And Siri Teku and the

other gangmasters, when a girl gets too tall to

drag, they practic'ly give her to Didi Badini . . .

and I'm going to be tall. You'll be okay for a while,

Jana, you've been living on parts and bean paste

since you were a baby, you'll always be a little

shrimp. Me, I had eleven years of good food and

standing up straight before I came here. I've got

big bones. I won't be able to drag much longer.

You know that."

Jana nodded slowly. Sometimes Kheti got

stuck in the narrowest tunnels, the ones leading to

Face Three. That was one reason she usually

worked Five now. And if she grew much more,

she -wouldn't be able to get through the low pitch

on the tunnel from Five.

"You're not pretty, though," she said slowly.

"Not since ..."

Kheti rubbed the pink weal that crossed her

right cheek.

"I know. But I'm big. That's bad enough. If I

thought gettin' my face messed up would keep Didi

Badini from takin' me, I'd go stand by the compres-

sor and let the flying chips cut me to pieces. But that

won't make me small again."

A new fear struck Jana. "Chiura!" Her face

was burning up, but her hands felt icy cold. "She

wouldn't take ..."

"I reckon that's why Siri Teku didn't clip her

curls," Khetala said. "He never figured to train her

for a sorter. She's a little sweetcake of a kid, spe-

cially the way you been keeping her washed and

her hair combed so good. He figured it was worth

feeding her for a few weeks, then sell her to Didi

Badini. He'll make lots of creds off that one. He

won't get much for me though. Maybe if I can keep

out of sight..."

Jana didn't hear the rest. She darted to where

Chiura was playing with a pile of cast-off rocks

and snatched her up, ignoring the baby's wails of

protest.

"Come on, sweetcake. We got to get you fixed

up good for the visitors. Faiz, give me your knife."

Faiz rolled his eyes. "Who me? Got no knife,

got nothing."

"I seen you stroppin' that bit of steel," Jana

said. "Give it here. You can have it back when I'm

through."

"You going crazy," Faiz said. "Old Black eating

your brain."

But he fumbled in his pallet and came up with

a thin band of metal, gleaming sharp along one

edge and rusty dull on the other.

Chiura cried when Jana pulled her hair to

hack off the curls, and she'd only got one side of

the kid's head when they heard steps outside.

194

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALI

"Sita Ram, help me!"

Jana rubbed her hands in the dirt and smeared

it over Chiura's face. The tears and snot mixed with

the dirt until Chiura's round little face looked truly

revolting. Jana rubbed some more dirt into the

long ringlets she hadn't had time to cut, spat on

the dusty hair and patted it into muddy strings

that hung down over the side of Chiura's face.

That was good—she looked almost ugly now,

probably worse than if Jana'd had time to finish

cutting her hair. She tossed the knife back toward

Faiz and pushed Chiura into a corner.

"You sit there and don 't make a. noiiel" she hissed

at Chiura.

The little girl pulled her knees up and sat rocking

back and forth, eyes wide- She was probably scared

to death that "Mama Jana" had been so rough with

her. All the better, if it would keep her quiet.

"I'll give you a honey sweet when they're

gone," Jana whispered, though she had no idea

where she'd get one. "Just keep quiet now,

Chiura, sweetcake, you don't want them to notice

you." She squatted in front of Chiura, shielding

her with her body.

There was a clanking noise —that would be Siri

Teku unlocking the door. Then light flooded in. It

was full day. Jana felt a cold sweat of fear over

her body. She didn't want to believe in Kheti's

panic, but Siri Teku had to have some good reason

for wasting all this work time. Time was credits,

he always said, and here he'd lost a lot of time

keeping them in the shed—how much she hadn't

realized until the door opened and she saw all that

195

light. The golden rectangle of the open doorway

hurt her eyes; she had been working day shift so

long she couldn't remember when she'd last seen

so much sunlight. It had to be something big to

make it worth his losing all those hours at work.

Just for a moment she believed all Kheti's horror

tales about Didi Badini, and more, too.

The man and woman who followed Siri Teku

into the shed didn't look evil, though. The man

was a pinch-faced little gray fellow, no fangs or

nothing, so Jana reckoned he couldn't be the

Piper. And she didn't have much attention to spare

for him after she caught sight of the woman.

She was the most beautiful thing Jana had seen

since she'd been brought to Anyag as a bondchild.

To begin with she was clean, with no dust dulling

the sheen of her smooth brown skin. And instead

of being skinny and bony, she was plump and

solid. And her clothes! The kameez was all pink

and gold, and it was made of something so light and

gauzy that it seemed to float over her body and

caress her full curves like a cloud of butterflies;

below the gold-embroidered hem of the kameez

Jana could see the cuffs of deep pink shalwar, half

hidden under gold anklets. Without meaning to,

Jana made a small sound of longing and reached

out, then snatched her hand back. She wanted to

feel the fine stuff of the kameez, but she'd get it

dirty. She was just a dirty little girl of the mines

and Siri Teku would beat her if she messed up this

fine lady. Maybe d he'll take me, Jana thought, anS I'll

wear ^ilk. shalwar unSer my kameez an.3 eat every i)ay

am)...

196

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

Didi Badinl's eyes met Jana's for a moment.

The eyes were not beautiful like the rest of her;

they -were cold and dark and hard, as if Old Black

had sneaked up Above to look through the beauti-

ful lady's face. And when she saw the eyes, Jana

remembered seeing Didi Badini before. Only

she'd thought it -was a dream. She'd come at night

last time, inspecting the children by lamplight.

Jana had rolled over and buried her head in her

pallet, too tired to care about the dream-people

talking and moving the lamp; in the morning

Surya had been gone.

"Too skinny, too plain," Didi Badini said now

to Siri Teku. "If that's your best, you're wasting

my time."

"I've a big girl here, getting too big to drag the

tunnels. Where's Khetala?" Siri Teku demanded of

the children.

Jana hadn't noticed where Khetala had gone,

she'd been too busy with Chiura. But Israr's eyes

flicked toward the corner farthest from the door,

where several pallets of rags seemed to have been

heaped up together, and simple Lata said, "She's

playing hidey, but I saw her."

Siri Teku kicked the pallets with all his force.

Something gasped. He reached into the heap of

rags, fumbled for a moment, and pulled out

Khetala by one arm.

"She won't want me," Khetala sobbed. "I'm too

ugly. Look!" She stood in the sun and turned her

face up so that the pink weal crossing one cheek

showed.

"Mmm," said Didi Badini. "Stand still, girl."

197

She ran one hand over Khetala's chest, felt her

buttocks, and reached in between her legs.

"Marked and used," she said "And no more use

here, as you said yourself. I'll take her as a favor."

"She still owes on her bond," Siri Teku said.

Didi Badini looked amused. "Don't they all?"

She and Siri Teku haggled for a moment and

agreed on a sum in credits that left Jana gasping.

"No! I won't go!"

Siri Teku had let go of Khetala to wave both

his hands during the bargaining; now she ducked

between the adults and made for the door. Didi

Badini's fat brown arm flashed out, quick as a

snake, and caught the fat braid of dark hair that

hung down Kheti's back. Kheti hit the floor on her

knees, only the hand on her braid holding her

upright.

"Please," she sobbed. "I'm ugly, see, you don't

want me."

Didi Badini's smile was full of Old Black.

"Some of my clients like them that way," she told

Kheti. "You'll have more marks soon enough." She

nodded at Siri Teku. "Put the fight out of her. I'm

not wrestling a screaming cat all the way back to

Celtalan."

Siri Teku casually punched Kheti on the side of

the head. Her head bobbed limply from the braid

that Didi Badini still held. He hit her again and

her whole body hung limp. Didi Badini let go the

braid and Kheti fell onto the mud floor. Siri Teku

slung her over his shoulder and carried her out the

door.

"That is not what I came here to see," the gray

198

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

199

man said in a voice like dry leaves blowing in the

•winter -wind.

"Your mister told me there was something

worth coming here for," Oidi Badini said to the

rest of the children. "Where is it? A pretty child,

he said, something really special, and too young to

be worth training for -work."

Jana looked at the floor. Maybe if she didn't

look up, if she didn't see Old Black peeping out of

Didi Badini's eyes, maybe the woman wouldn't see

her and -wouldn't question the way she was

crouched awkwardly in front of the corner where

Chiura sat.

"Was it you he meant?" Didi Badini tipped up

Faiz's head with one finger under his chin. "Sweet

brown eyes, but the teeth are hopeless and you

look old enough to be a good worker. Not you."

She moved on to Lata, who looked up with a

vacant smile and tried to focus her one good eye

on Didi Badini. "If he meant this one, he's wasting

my time." Her chubby brown feet moved on with

a tinkling of the little gold bells that were attached

to her golden sandal straps, until she stood in front

of Jana. "Look at me, child 1"

The sweet cloud of perfume that wafted from

the folds of Didi Badini's kameez almost choked

Jana, it was too much, too sweet.

"Nice," said a little voice behind her. "Pretty."

"Ahhh," Didi Badini breathed on a long satis-

fied sigh. She bent and took Jana by the nape of

the neck. Her fingers were surprisingly hard and

strong; she threw Jana onto her side without even

breathing hard. "So this is the prize."

"Pretty lady," Chiura said, looking up. She

grasped Didi Badini's kameez with muddy fingers.

"A lovely child, indeed, if she were clean."

"No," Jana gasped, coming up to her knees

and pushing Chiura back. "No, lady, you don't

want her, she's simple, and sick already, she's got a

bad sickness, she'll make you sick, too." If only

Kheti were there, Kheti who knew so many words

and knew all about the city! She'd be able to think

of a good story. But Kheti was gone, head lolling

against Siri Teku's back, sold to the pretty lady

with Old Black in her eyes and her smile.

"Don't talk nonsense, girl." Didi Badini

slapped Jana aside with a backhanded blow. Her

hands were covered with rings; the ornate settings

cut Jana's cheek. "I suppose you're the one who

tried to make her ugly? A right mess you've made

of her, too, half cutting her hair and all that mud.

But I can still tell she'll clean up fine. You come

with Didi Badini, little one," she crooned to

Chiura. "Come and live in the city, sleep on silk

and have sorbet to drink every day."

Chiura lifted her muddy arms to Didi Badini,

then looked over her shoulder. "Mama Jana? "

"Your mister will take care of Mama Jana,"

Didi Badini said. "She's not coming with us. Not

this time." The cold black eyes flicked a scornful

glance over Jana, sitting on the mud with blood

running down her grimy face. "Maybe the mister

will give her away when she gets too big for a

dragger."

"No. Don't take her. Ple<ue," Jana begged. Siri

Teku had come back in; she clasped his knees.

201

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

200

"I'm teaching her to sort, she'll be a good worker,

I'll take care of her, she won't be any trouble."

Siri Teku kicked Jana away. His boot landed

in her stomach and knocked the air out of her. She

lay on the floor and listened to her own breath

whistling like something far away and unimpor-

tant, while Chiura babbled in Didi Badinis arms

and somebody counted out credits. Then Didi

Badini and the silent gray man were gone with

Chiura. And Siri Teku had raised his cane.

"I'll teach you to try and hide my stock," he

said before the first blow landed, burning across

Jana's chest.

There was something about waking up on a planet

that always excited Acorna. Maybe it was the fla-

vor of the air: not dead-pure as on the ship, but

mixed with an infinite variety of scents and the

tantalizing hint of exotic goodies to eat—tender

new leaves, sweet crunchy roots, hectares of grass

blowing in the wind instead of the carefully tended

blades grown for her in the ship's 'ponies system.

This morning she woke with her head filled with

vague dream-images of a sunny garden full of

flowering shrubs and the music of trickling

streams . . . and another music, too, from little ani-

mals that danced in the treetops and sang in sweet

harmony. Was that a real place, or something she

had concocted in her dream? The images were so

strong, she could almost imagine they were a true

memory of something she had seen when she -was

a child. A long, long time ago, because she'd been

quite small in the dream/memory . . . before

Nered, before Greifen, before Theloi, even before

Laboue . . . hadn't there been a garden where the

grass was soft and blue-green, and a pair of arms

that held her up to see the singing-fuzzies? But

when she tried to chase down the elusive memory,

it vanished like a bubble on the water, leaving her

with only the feeling that nice things happened on

planets if you went for a walk in the early morn-

ing.

There was some vague discomfort and guilt

associated with the clearer memory of the gardens

on Laboue with their singing stones, though.

Hadn't Rafik and Calum and Gill been angry with

her for going out? Oh, yes—she had forgotten to

wear those robes that were supposed to cover up

her horn. Well, she'd been a silly baby then. She

was grown up now. They'd said so last night. And

she certainly knew better than to make that mis-

take again!

Feeling quite proud of her forethought, Acorna

donned not only the clinging body wrap and long

skirt Gill now insisted she wear, but also a scarf of

filmy green to match the skirt which could be

draped casually across her head so that instead of

a horn, she seemed only to have a bouffant hair

style from which a few silver curls escaped. Thus

fully prepared, she slipped out of the mansion

where they'd been brought by skimmer and pre-

pared to explore Kezdet's capital city of Celtalan

in her own way, by walking.

The restricted life of a mining ship left Acorna

with few chances to stretch her long legs. She

202

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

203

•worked out daily in the ship's exercise room—

exercise closet was more like it, she thought, admir-

ing the broad open spaces before her—but it

wasn't the same as having a good run on nice

hard-packed dirt.

Not that the immediate prospect from Delszaki

Li's house offered any good opportunities for a

run. Already, early though it -was, the open space

between rows of town houses was filled with peo-

ple in skimmers darting back and forth on urgent

errands. They flew low, obviously not expecting to

have to dodge pedestrians, and Acorna prudently

kept to the narrow stone-covered strip just along-

side the houses. She congratulated herself on her

intelligence and forethought in keeping away from

the skimmers. Gill and the others were all wrong

when they said she didn't know how to take care

of herself dirtside. True, she'd never been alone on

a planet before. She'd gone out only on those care-

fully chaperoned shopping trips where they

stopped to sell their payloads. But how dangerous

could it be? This wasn't like EVA from the Uhuru,

where a slight mistake could leave you without air

to breathe or send you spinning dizzily away from

the ship into space. Planets were e<uy; they had

gravity and atmosphere. What more did she need?

But this part of this planet was boring—row

after row of faceless walled houses with metallic

grills across their windows, and the only people

awake -were locked away in their skimmers and

darted past her with no chance for interesting con-

versations. Acorna raised her head, looking to the

horizon for something more amusing, and her

sensitive nostrils caught a -whiff of something

green and growing not too far away. She followed

the scent along stone pedestrian strips, her feet

clacking on the smooth-worked stone, until she

reached its source.

Though Acorna did not know it, the

Riverwalk was Celtalan's glory of city planning—

at its western end—and its shame at the eastern

end, where the river that gave the park its name

had long been allowed to degenerate into a pol-

luted, half-choked stream. She entered by the

arches cut through hedgerows on the -western

side of Celtalan, where everything -was neatly

manicured and controlled to a fare-thee-well. The

view through the first arch gave the illusion of

spacious countryside with rolling hills; it was

only after Acorna had walked through the

entrance-way that she realized how clever land-

scaping and tricks of perspective had made this

park surrounded by city buildings seem so much

larger than it really was. Little streams (carefully

purified before they -were guided into their pre-

formed channels) trickled over miniature water-

falls of moss-covered boulders; half-size gazebos

and follies, perched atop grassy mounds, gave the

illusion that one was looking down vistas of limit-

less space laid out by a landscape architect of

infinite means. Acorna beguiled half an hour in a

flowering maze before the sweet smell of the

fresh green buds next to the flowers became

unbearably tempting. Rafik and Gill had

impressed upon her strongly that it -was consid-

ered a social faux pas to eat other people's gar-

204

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

dens. If she went back to the big house, that nice

Mr. Li would probably find her something she

could eat. But she wasn't tired yet, and at the far

side of the maze she could see that the careful

landscaping of the Riverwalk began to degener-

ate into something wilder and less carefully mani-

cured. Instead of the gravel path that hurt her

feet, there was a path of hard-packed earth, a

perfect surface for running on. . . . Acorna

glanced around, saw no other early risers who

might be surprised or offended by her actions,

and carefully kilted up her long flowing skirts to

above her knees. After all, she assuaged her con-

science, she had only promised Gill that she

would wear the skirt; she was still doing that,

wasn't she?

Two Kezdet Guardians of the Peace, observing

the park from overhead scanners, saw the tall girl

take off at a galloping run down the dirt path that

led to the river on the eastern edge of the

Riverwalk Park. They shrugged and continued

sipping their morning kava. Most members of the

wealthy technoclass -who inhabited the west-side

mansions knew better than to go anywhere east of

the river without an armored skimmer and armed

bodyguards. Doubtless this girl would turn back

before she reached the river bridge. And if she

didn't—well, there might be a reward in it for

them if they got her out of trouble and saw her

safely home. Before she got into trouble, there was

no reason to bestir themselves.

Pounding down the dirt path, her horn-

covered feet landing solidly on the earth, Acorna

Acorna

205

felt more alive than she could ever remember.

Some atavistic instinct deep inside her told her

that thm was what she was born for—not the ster-

ile confines of a ship, but long glorious runs up

grassy slopes and down the other side, effortless

leaps over the ragged brambles that impeded her

way after she left the path, the morning breeze

blowing through her tangled curls. The blood

throbbed in her veins and she increased her speed

until she felt as though she were flying over the

grass and bushes, flying down a long weed-

infested downhill slope. . . .

The same instincts that had urged her into a

run saved her from a fall into the stinking river at

the bottom of the slope. Without consciously

thinking about the obstacle, she shortened stride,

collected her balance, and launched herself from

the bank in a long, glorious arc that carried her

safely over the ten-foot expanse of stinking, gray-

green water.

On the far bank the park ended abruptly and

the expanses of pavement resumed, but with a dif-

ference. Instead of long regular rows of tall, face-

less houses there were clusters of humbler

dwellings, with dirt paths winding off between the

buildings. Instead of businessmen in skimmers, the

main road was full of people: stalls and carts sell-

ing bangles and snacks and fruit and vegetables, a

knife grinder squatting in the corner made by two

mud walls, a huddle of street urchins playing some

game that involved mad rushes in pursuit of some-

thing Acorna couldn't quite see. She grinned hap-

pily. This was interesting. She would explore a

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

206

little, get an apple or some other snack from one of

these stalls, and be back at the house before any-

body else woke up.

Overhead, in the scanner tower, one of the

Guardians of the Peace nudged the other one.

"D'you see that?"

"See what?"

"That girl. She jumped the river!"

"You've been burning too many happy-sticks,"

grunted his partner. "River may be down to a mis-

erable trickle, but it's still too wide to jump.

Besides, why would anybody take the risk of

falling in there when there's a perfectly good

bridge upstream?"

"Maybe she didn't want to detour. Maybe she

didn't want to explain her business to the bridge

guards. This could be interesting. Let's take out a

skimmer and follow her."

The fried meat pies being hawked from the first

rolling stall didn't appeal to Acorna, but the

second wagon held a tempting display of fruits

and vegetables . . . rather more tempting from a

distance, she realized with regret, than on

closer inspection. The apples were soft and

wrinkled, the madi-fruits covered with brown-

ish spots.

"Do you not have anything fresh?" she

demanded of the owner.

"All fresh, gracious lady, picked just this morn-

ing from my cousin's farm."

"Huh!" the meat pie seller grunted, just audibly,

207

"just fell off the back of your cousin's skimmer,

more likely."

Acorna did not wish to get embroiled in the

men's bickering. She pointed at random to a

cluster of ruta roots. They looked slightly limp,

but ruta aged well, and they'd be something to

nibble on while she walked back through the

park. She tasted one -while the stall-keeper

wrapped the others in a scrap of plastifilm for

her; the insides, at least, were still sweet and

crunchy.

"That'll be five credits," the stall-keeper said,

holding out the package.

From the way his neighbor's eyebrows shot up,

Acorna guessed that she -was being charged at

least double the going rate for a bundle of slightly

overage rutas. But that wasn't important. What

WOJ important was that this blasted skirt had no

pockets, and she hadn't been thinking of money

when she left the house that morning.

"Charge it to the account of my guardian,

Delszaki Li," she said.

The stall-keeper's face turned ugly. "Look,

techie, we don't run charge accounts this side of

the river. Credits in hand is my rule."

"Then keep the rutas," Acorna said, "they

weren't that fresh anyway."

"You'll pay me for the one you've eaten! I

been robbed already once this morning by one

of them thieving street brats, I'm not having

some techie come along and make a free meal

off my stall on pretense of sampling the

goods!"

209

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

208

"Hey, Punja, we got the little thief for you!"

called one of the street urchins whose game

Acorna had noticed just before she inspected the

stall.

Now, with a sinking heart, she realized that

the quarry in their "game" was not a youngling

from their group, but a much smaller child,

bruised and bleeding from a cut lip, who strug-

gled madly as the larger boys hauled her bodily

toward the stall.

"And a lot of help that is," Punja snarled, "you

can tell by looking that she hasn't a clipped credit

to pay me back."

"What did the child take?" Acorna interrupted.

"Three of me best madi-fruits. Gobbled them

down on the run, she did. I suppose you'll be

wanting that placed to the account of your

guardian, too, will you?" the man asked Acorna

with heavy sarcasm.

"You could give us a reward for catchin' her,"

one of the boys holding the child grumbled.

"What good's it to me that you caught the

brat? You can give her a good beatin' if you like,

teach her not to steal from respectable mer-

chants," Punja suggested. "That should be

enough reward for you. Have a little fun before

you turn her loose."

The boy's heavy-browed face lit up with an

expression of sickening glee, and he slammed a fist

into the child's stomach before Punja had finished

speaking.

"That's just for starters," he told the gasping,

white-faced child. "Now you can come along wif

me and me mates and see if you haven't got some-

thing to pay us back for our effort."

"Scrawnier'n a bondworker," one of his pals

demurred.

"But free," the first boy pointed out, "or did

you suddenly get rich enough to patronize a bonk-

shop, huh? Now me, I'm ..."

He never got a chance to finish articulating

his philosophy of life. All that had delayed

Acorna's intervention was the need to tuck her

flowing skirt farther out of the way. Now she

executed another leap from her perfectly bal-

anced standing position, came down with one

foot on the first boy's stomach and swung the

other to crunch into his mate's nose. Rather

pleased with the results of her self-defense

classes with Calum, she recovered her balance

and pulled the starving child up by one wrist

while the rest of the gang of boys, seeing what

had happened to their biggest and strongest

members, melted away into the network of dirt

paths behind the main thoroughfare.

"You," she told the child, "had much better

come with me. No one shall beat you again."

The child struggled feebly and tried to pull

away from Acorna's hand.

A skimmer settled in the dusty roadway, and

two uniformed Guardians emerged.

"What's all this?" the first one out demanded.

A chorus of voices informed him, variously,

that the girl was a techie out to make trouble

on the wrong side of the river; that the child was a

thief and ought to be bonded to honest labor; that

210

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

the girl -was a foreigner who had viciously

attacked two innocent boys who just happened to

be standing by the stall.

"And who's to pay for the damage to my

stock?" wailed the stall-keeper, virtuously holding

up a handful of bruised fruit which he reckoned

he could blame on Acorna's part in the brief fra-

cas.

"My guardian, Delszaki Li, will cover all

charges," Acorna said.

"Aye, she keeps naming Li, as if she thought

the sound of his name would carry all before!"

said the stall-keeper virtuously. "Y'ask me, she

ought to be confronted -with Li himself. If, as is no

more than I suspect, she's lying, he'll know how to

deal with impostors. Why don't you make her go

there now?"

"I should like nothing better," declared Acorna,

"but this little girl comes with me!"

"You'd best be telling the truth," one of the

Guardians warned her, "Kezdet doesn't treat

impostors and thieves lightly. Maybe you'd rather

step off with me and we'll . . . ahh . . . see if we

can't work something out, hmm?" He eyed the

long shapely legs, which were by now almost fully

exposed by the way Acorna had tucked up her

skirts for battle. Strange kind of furry stockings

the girl wore under her skirts . . . some new techie

fashion, no doubt. Never mind, he'd soon have

those off her.

"Not without me, you don't go nowhere!" the

stall-keeper interrupted. "I got a right to me dam-

ages."

'A.corna. 211

Acorna's prompt willingness to call on Delszaki

Li had given him second thoughts. If the girl w(U

telling the truth, he should be able to get more

"damages" out of Li than his entire stall -was

worth; Li was far beyond the need to count credits

when appeasing a poor man.

No one had yet missed Acorna

when the two Guardians of

 the Peace brought her back to

the Li mansion, one holding Acorna's left elbow

firmly in his right hand, while she supported the

waif against her "with her right arm, Punja dancing

behind this quartet. None of the street children

had been able to keep up with the skimmer as it

set about on its lawful errand, but they followed as

far as they could: right up to the rancid water.

"Jeesh, how'd she get across this?" the leader

of the group wanted to know. "She dint come by

the bridge, like."

One of Delszaki's many discreet servants

peered through the spy hole before exclaiming and

calling for the nearest girl to summon the master.

Trouble was on the doorstep. Then he flung the

door open, kowtowing before Acorna until his

nose nearly touched his knees.

"Missy, missy, why are you here? You have not

213

arisen from your bed as yet," he said, bobbing in

his consternation.

"Will you please inform Mr. Li that I am here

and not in my bed and need him. If he is in his

bed, I am truly sorry to disturb him ..."

Pal and Judit came down the massive stairway

as if it had turned into a slide.

"Acorna!" cried Judit, and then exclaimed

more loudly when she saw the bedraggled girl

Acorna was protecting.

"Mr. Li is on his way this very moment,

Guardians," Pal said, gesturing for them to enter.

"If you "will be so good as to step inside. ..." and,

with a very deft push of his rear against the front

door. Pal closed it right in the stall-keeper's face.

Oblivious to the howls outside and impreca-

tions which could be heard, if muted, through the

thick panels of the door. Pal courteously guided

the Guardians of the Peace, who were exchanging

bemused and gratified glances, while Acorna was

trying to get the child's arms from around her

neck so that Judit could take charge. The child

was moaning and weeping in the desperate way of

her age: all the more effective since such "lost"

noises demonstrated that she had been bereft of

comfort for long enough not to expect any to come

her •way.

"You know this . . . this . . . person," the first

Guardian said, for by now the kerchief on

Acorna's head had been pulled off and the distinc-

tive horn was visible.

"Of course we know her," Pal said so stoutly

that both raised hands in defense of their query.

21-4

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

"She is the Lady Acorna, beloved ward of Mr.

Delszaki Li, who is surely known to the Bureau of

Guardians ..."

"Indeed he is, and very generous he is to our

retirement and the vacation funds," the second

man said, bobbing not unlike the doorman but not

as deeply, as much because he couldn't have

folded his paunch as because Guardians are not

supposed to show respect to any but their superi-

ors.

"Are you all right, Acorna?" Pal asked, taking

her by the arm and leading her to the nearest

chair. She looked very shaky indeed to him.

"Where did you go? Why have they brought you

back?" he whispered.

"I wanted to run on the grass," she said in a

very tiny voice.

Just then Rafik, Calum, and Gill entered the

room, having obviously thrown on the nearest

clothes to hand.

"Now, Guardians, just what is the problem?"

"Well, the . . . the . . . female there . . . said she

•was Mr. Li's ward and she got into a bit of a spot,

so -we thought we'd better check it out."

"You mean, you did not believe the word of a

gently bred girl who is obviously well dressed and

clearly not the sort of person who gets into spots?"

Rafik said, but the look he shot Acorna indicated

to her, at least, that he 'was going to have a few

choice words with her.

She got very interested in brushing the dirt off

her hands and then her arms. She could do little

about the stains on her lovely skirt right now, but

215

she did straighten her head covering. Not that it

mattered.

Delszaki Li appeared in his hover-chair, and so

the reception room became quite cramped.

"Now, Acorna, my dear, why did you go out

without someone to escort you wherever you

•wished to go?" He turned to the Guardians.

"Cordonmaster Flik and Constable Grez, what

seems to be the trouble?"

In the background, someone "was kicking the

door steadily. To the rhythm of the blows,

Cordonmaster Flik, who was extremely gratified

to realize that Mr. Li knew both his name and

that of his partner, explained the circumstances.

Since the cameras on the exterior of the house

had taken pies of the two Guardians and their

identities had been verified by Central Guard

Headquarters, the knowledge surprised only the

two Guardians.

The matter was shortly resolved and Punja

paid exactly what his merchandise was worth—

and the look given him by Pal as he handed over

the half credits made Punja very certain that this

was not the person to haggle with—and sent his

way. A junior servant very quickly appeared to

remove the scuff marks of Punja s plastic shoes on

the fine wood of the door so that when the

Guardians, invited to have some refreshment, left,

there was no mark remaining of the morning's

fuss. They also left with sufficient credits, yet not

too many, to ensure that the incident would be

"suitably" reported in their log as a "lost child

returned to her home."

2 1 6 -^->             ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

"Whatever possessed you, Acorna?" Rafik

demanded •when the Guardians had been sent on

their •way, well, but not overly, paid for their res-

cue •work.

"I -wanted to run on the beautiful grass," she

said, gulping back a sob.

"Now, now." Judit was back and slid into the

seat beside her. "It's all right, dear. No one is mad

at you. Just terribly upset that you had such a

fright."

"I -wasn't exactly frightened," Acorna said, rais-

ing her delicate chin, her eyes slits of remorse, "I

•was furious to see a little child beaten like that for

taking damaged fruit." She had clenched her fists

and brought them down so hard on her knees that

Calum •winced. "Where is she? She was so terribly

frightened and hurt and hungry."

"She's fine, dear," Judit said. "She's being fed,

carefully, because she hasn't had any food in quite

a few days and to eat too much would be unwise.

Then we shall bathe her and make sure she sleeps.

Although," and Judit's delightful laugh eased the

tension in the room, "I have a suspicion that once

her tummy is full, she •will fall asleep before we

can clean her up."

"So why did you go out? Why so early? Didn't

you know how dangerous it is out there?" Calum

demanded. He turned to the rest of them. "She's

not JtupQ; I've never seen anybody pick up the

basic concept of Fourier transforms so fast. I can't

understand why she would do such a stupid

thing."

"How would she know Kezdet could be danger-

217

ous?" Gill leapt to her defense. "She's never been

planetside for more than a day or two, and always

•with one of us."

"The park was beautiful," Acorna said. "It was

like the one in my dreams. ..." She realized that

was a lame excuse. But maybe no one would real-

ize that the park was so far from the house that

she couldn't have known about it when she ven-

tured out.

"Your dreams?" asked Mr. Li in a coaxing

voice and waved Rafik and the others away. "You

men, stop harassing the child. Will make her more

afraid of you than of Kezdet!" While Calum and

the other men took the seats he indicated at a good

distance from Acorna, he turned his attention back

to her. "Tell me about these dreams . . . while

Judit fixes you a refreshing drink. I think you

may need one."

Acorna sipped something cool and green and

tangy and then told him about the dream, and how

the park had seemed so like it.

"At least the first part of the park -where it was

truly lovely," she said, ending lamely.

"No, -we will not try regression, Mr. Li," Judit

said suddenly. "The method produces enough

problems -with cortices we are beginning to under-

stand."

"It was but a thought."

"I think her . . . adventure, though, has proven

a thing or two to the others," Judit said, smiling at

her employer.

"Has it. Well, that is advantage then," and he

leaned over to pat Acorna's arm, below the mud.

218

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

219

"No action -without some profit, if the eye can see

it. You rest now, later we talk again."

Acorna stood. "I am very sorry for any trouble

I caused."

"Must make errors in order to learn," Mr. Li

said understandingly and pulled his hover-chair

aside so she could leave the room.

"Do you need any assistance, Acorna?" Judit

asked gently.

She shook her head. Distress still narrowed her

pupils to vertical slits. "I must think. It is sad ... I

have never seen such terribly poor people."

The two watched her make her way in slow

repentant steps up the stairs and to her quarters.

"Reality has touched Acorna," Delszaki said

with a heavy sigh of regret.

"Kl-liiu must know of reality, sir," Judit said as

gently as she had spoken to Acorna.

"A rude awakening," and he sighed again.

"She had healed the child," Judit added. "I

hope that the Guardians of the Peace did not

notice."

"They have been taken care of," Delszaki said.

"Their interest has been redirected into useful

paths."

"So what is next to be done?"

"Meet with the miners and discuss the Moon

Project and this dream world of Acorna's."

It was Delszaki who noticed that Rafik and Gill

did most of the talking, while Calum seemed more

intent on covering the notepad in front of him with

light-pen doodles: most of which were primaries

with satellites whirling around them in impossible

astronomical patterns.

"What is it that you see in those patterns,

Calum Baird?" Delszaki asked, pausing the con-

versation on double domes versus linked units.

Calum sat straight up and pretended he had

been listening to every word said. Rafik glared at

him, but Gill looked surprised at his inattention.

Last night he'd been full of good suggestions.

"I think we have got to find Acorna's home

world first," he said, letting the sentence out in a

rush, then he colored as redly as Gill could.

"How can we possibly find what the child only

remembers as a dream?" Delszaki asked.

"But she does remember something. I was just

thinking ..." and he ran dots on the primaries,

"that every star has its own spectroanalysis. And

every star throws out satellites, if they do generate

planets, that are made up of their constituents.

Maybe a bit more metal on that one, maybe just

gases on another, but if you knew what metals a

primary had to disperse, you could find the right

one," he waved a hand heavenward, "and find

Acorna's."

Rafik shook his head. "There's not enough dif-

ference in constituents. Stars are all basically

made of the same stuff—at least, all the ones that

generate Earth-type planets are going to look

pretty much alike to spectroanalysis. Certainly

they'll all have the conventional metals."

"The pod Acorna came in," Calum said stub-

bornly, "is not composed of conventional metals.

220

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

221

Not entirely, anyway. We never did figure out

exactly what-all was in the alloy, but it's not like

anything we—humans—use for space and indus-

trial construction. Lighter. Stronger." He waved

his hands. "I'm a mathematician, not a physicist.

It's worth studying, don't you think?"

"You have original spacegomg container?" The

fingers of Li's left hand tensed over the corn pad

on his chair. "And have not mentioned the artifact

before?"

"Well, it scarcely came up in conversation,

after all," Calum said apologetically. "We always

meant to study it one day."

"Ah, well, it takes but a little arrangement..."

and, even as Delszaki turned to Pal, the young

man -was tapping out an access code, "... to make

appointment to discover what -we may from it."

Actually, it took considerably longer because

Raflk, Gill, Calum, and Pal had to bring a col-

lapsible crate to the Uhuru so that anyone watch-

ing would not see what they were unloading. Of

course the vehicle Mr. Li could put at their dis-

posal for the transfer was state of the art and

undoubtedly left a number of watchers gawking

at its speed and maneuverability so that the pre-

cious pod was at its destination before they had

managed to achieve altitude in the traffic pat-

tern.

Delivered to the impressive cube of one of Mr.

Li's business acquaintances, it was taken by grav-

lift down to the bowels of the cube, through several

alert and noncurious security checks and into the

appropriate room for its closer examination.

"You can call me Zip," said the white-coated

older man who greeted them there. He had an

oriental cast to his features and olive skin, but he

spoke in an accent that suggested he had learned

many other languages before the Basic he now

used. He was also minus the first joint of both

small fingers and the tip of one ring finger. "Mr.

Li says you have a puzzle for me. Pal. I love puz-

zles."

The three miners decided they liked his style

and, with Pal, quickly uncrated the pod for him.

"Ah!" he exclaimed, raising both hands in awe,

and his eyebrows and letting his mouth hang open.

Then, he prowled around it, kneeling down to see

the underside of the ovoid and standing on tiptoe

to look over it. "Ah!" he said again, seeing the

inscriptions and delicately tracing them with an

index finger as lovingly as a mother would trace

the features of a child. "And you've done nothing

to discover if this language is known?"

Rafik looked at Gill and Cal and they all

shrugged. "We're miners, not linguists."

"What about the occupant? Well, there was

one, -wasn't there?" Zip said testily. "Or so I -was

given to understand. I do have Mr. Li's complete

confidence, you know. But I need some clues."

"I thought . . . well . . . maybe," Calum stut-

tered, no longer so sure of his premise.

"That if we had some idea of what metals com-

prise this alloy, we might use the spectroanalysis

of stars to find out which ones are more likely to

222

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

223

have produced satellites •with similar material," Pal

said with a polite nod to the tongue-tied Calum.

"Not very likely," Zip said briskly. He repeated

Rafik's argument.

"Then there's nothing we can do?" Calum

looked cast down.

"How come you believe him and not me?"

Rafik muttered.

"I did not say there was nothing to be done."

Zip looked at them severely. "You must listen

more carefully if you wish to be true scientists.

The avenue of approach you suggested is not

likely to succeed . . . but there are some other

things we can play with. Cosmology has advanced

slightly since the days of planetbound observato-

ries," he said with a slight sneer. "Have you ever

heard of upsilon-V testing? Planetary emissions

separation? Mass diffusion imaging? Do not tell

me how to do my job." He tapped the pod and ran

his hands across the top, around the sides. "Come,

come, gentlemen, it is enough of a puzzle by itself

•without me having to waste time discovering the

opening mechanism."

"We wouldn't," Calum said sweetly, "want to

interfere -with the expert."

"But we wouD want to cooperate. Wouldn't we,

Calum?" Rafik reached over and showed how the

pieces slipped into each other, then the lid slowly

opened upward.

"Ah!" Once again Zip threw up both hands in

delight at the furnishings "within. He was feeling

over every inch of it while the four watched and,

bored by his diligence, began to shift their weight

from one foot to another. Rafik finally gave a little

cough •which interrupted the tactile examination.

"Ah, yes. This is not something that can be solved

in a trice. Or even a nonce. Go," and he flicked

one hand at them in dismissal while, -with his

other, he reverently felt the lining in •which the

baby Acorna had once lain. "I will report when I

have discovered anything of interest. My respect-

ful greetings to Mr. Li," he said to Pal, and turned

back.

They were passed through the various check-

points and back to the roof where their vehicle

awaited them.

"Say, I thought the ID was 87-99-20-DS?"

Calum said, pointing to the craft. "And I'd've

sworn blind it was blue."

"I smell fresh lacquer," Gill said as they closed

the gap to the machine.

"It's the same type," Rafik said, because he

hadn't noticed the ID nor the color.

"A little precaution that might, or might not, be

necessary," Pal said as he opened the door. "The

color is dry."

Calum entered, perplexed. Gill was frowning,

but Rafik began to like Delszaki even more. A

cautious as well as a prudent man.

As Judit had predicted, the child Acorna had res-

cued fell asleep before she had finished eating,

clutching a piece of bread so tightly that it could

not be removed from her chubby fist without

reducing it to crumbs.

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

224

"Maybe we can just sponge her off while she

snoozes," Judit suggested, but Acorna resisted the

suggestion fiercely. "Let her sleep! She must be

exhausted, poor little thing. I'll bathe her when

she wakes up."

Acorna sat over the sleeping child for the rest

of the morning, watching the gentle rise and fall of

her chest under the light blanket Judit had

thrown over her. She wcu filthy, but that could be

remedied; too thin, too, but regular good food

would take care of that. The bruises and scratches

she had borne after the scuffle in the street were

slowly fading, encouraged by an occasional gentle

nuzzle from Acorna's horn to heal into clean new-

flesh.

"She's only a baby!" Acorna thought indig-

nantly. "Why isn't somebody taking care other?"

She did not realize she had spoken her thought

aloud until Pal Kendoro answered her.

"Someone is, now," he said. "You are."

He had been silently watching for some time,

entranced by Acorna's rapt attention to the sleeping

child and the tender look on her face as she nuzzled

the baby's scratches with her horn. Some people, he

realized, might have found the scene outlandish or

alien. To him it was simply the most perfect expres-

sion of motherly love he had ever seen. It didn't

matter that Acorna was of a different species, that

she might never have children if they couldn't

locate her home, or that those children would be

physically very different from the starving beggar

she had snatched up out of the streets of East

Celtalan. The bond of love was there.

225

"But how could she have been simply aban-

doned to starve?" Acorna smoothed the ragged

curls away from the right side of the child's face.

On the left side of her head the hair had been

crudely hacked short. "She must belong to ^ome-

bo<hf."

"I don't think she was abandoned," Pal said.

"She's a beautiful child. The way her hair was

hacked off, it looks as if somebody was trying to

make her look ugly. Probably the same person

helped her to run away."

"What is wrong with beauty? And what would

she be running away from?" Pal sighed and pre-

pared to recapitulate Delszaki Li's lecture on

Kezdet's system of child labor, bondage, "recruit-

ing," and outright kidnapping. What Li had told

Acorna and the miners had probably been too

much for Acorna to take in all at one time. Calum

went into rhapsodies about the speed with which

Acorna absorbed mathematical and astronautical

theories, but learning emotional facts was some-

thing else again.

"There are many children on Kezdet with no

one to look after them," he said. "Some are

orphans, some are unwanted children from other

planets -who have been brought here to work in

mines and factories, some are bought from their

parents to do the same work. If they don't work,

their only alternative is to starve in the street." He

frowned. "She doesn't look young to have run

away, though. Mostly it's the older children who

have the gumption to escape and the wit to make

some sort of plan. Perhaps when she wakes we

226

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

can find out more about her, at least get some idea

what -workplace she was bonded to."

"Not to send her back!" Acorna said, flinging a

protective arm over the little girl.

"No. We won't send her back. And if. . ." Pal

had been about to say that if the child's bond-

owners traced her, Delszaki Li would surely buy

her freedom. But he decided not even to mention

that possibility in the face of Acorna's fierce pro-

tective instincts.

"If what?"

"If we can find out her name," Pal improvised,

"she might have parents who are looking for her."

Personally he doubted it; most children who ended

up in Kezdet's labor system did so precisely

because they had parents so desperately poor they

had no option but to sell their children. But he

found himself wanting to put the best possible face

on the child's situation for Acorna's sake.

Acorna's eyes narrowed to slits, then she took a

deep breath and deliberately widened them again.

"Yes," she said sadly, "all lost children like to

think that their parents are searching for them. If

this one has not traveled too far, perhaps her peo-

ple may be found."

Pal could have kicked himself for his clumsy

words. How could he have forgotten, even for an

instant, that Acorna too had been a foundling, and

one who did not know even where her race was to

be found, let alone her own parents? No wonder

she identified so instantly and protectively with

this little waif. He stammered, trying to find some

words of apology that would not deepen Acorna's

227

pain, and was saved by the abrupt awakening of

the waif.

"Mama!" she wailed, and pushed Acorna away

when she would have cradled her in her arms.

"Mama Jana. Chiura wants Mama Jana."

"There, you see," said Pal, deftly catching up

the flailing child and carrying her toward the bath-

room before Acorna could realize how thoroughly

she had been rejected, "she knows her own name

and that of her mother. We're making progress

already."

Most of the progress they made in the next

half-hour consisted of transferring large quantities

of warm water from the tub and onto the carpets,

draperies, and themselves. Finally Chiura calmed

down, exhausted by her hysterical sobbing, and

sat quietly patting the remaining few inches of

water in her tub and watching the soap bubbles

that formed and popped under her hands. Pal took

advantage of the peaceful moment to question

Chiura gently. Did she know how she came to the

city? In a skimmer? Who piloted the skimmer?

How did she come to be alone? Where was she

before she came to the city?

Chiura babbled and wandered from topic to

topic while Pal tried to make sense of her words

and kept her going with questions, always sheer-

ing away when Chiura's eyes crinkled up and she

started to look upset again. Acorna wrapped

Chiura in a towel, took her on her lap, and tried to

comb out the long ringlets that had been caked in

mud before the bath and the first three rinses.

Chiura babbled that "a bad man" had piloted the

228

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

skimmer and they had come from "the bad

place". . . and Acorna "was pulling her hair, and she

"wanted Mama Jana now!

"It's no use," Acorna said despairingly.

"Oh, I •wouldn't say that," Pal said. "You don't

know enough about Kezdet to -work out the clues,

but I'm getting a pretty fair idea where she -was

before she was brought to the city . . . and why she

was wandering the streets alone." It was as he had

suspected when Acorna cleaned her up and he

saw how lovely the child was.

"Kheti ,faQ," Chiura piped up. "Said when she

made Didi Badini busy, run, run away, hide.

There was a little fire." She thought it over.

"Maybe big fire. Didi Badini was mad, but Chiura

hid quiet-quiet under the stinky sacks." Her eyes

crinkled and a tear plopped down her cheek. "Didi

Badini hit Kheti, but Kheti didn't tell. Then Kheti

jumped on Didi Badini and they roll around and

get all muddy and Chiura ran, long way, got lost.

Chiura bad?"

"No, darling," Acorna said, hugging her and

kissing her tangled curls. "Whoever this Didi

Badini was, she does not sound like a nice person

at all and I am sure Kheti would not have wanted

you to go back to her."

"You see," said Pal, "we're getting somewhere.

It's not as hopeless as it seems. And I'd like to meet

this Kheti," he added. "Anybody who'd set a bonk-

shop on fire to give a kid a chance to get away ..."

"Hopeless? Oh—I meant her hair," Acorna

explained, ruefully lifting a rat's nest of tangles in

one hand. "It will all have to be cut."

'A.c.orna. 229

"Would have had to be anyway," Pal pointed

out, "to match the other side. Or did you want her

to go around looking lopsided?"

Acorna managed a smile at that. Chiura

bounced up and down on Acorna's knee and cried,

"Lop-side! Lop-side!" until both adults were

laughing helplessly. And Pal managed to put off

explaining what he had deduced of Chiura's fate

until after she had demolished a bowl of sweet

patts and beans and had fallen asleep again.

"The name of Didi Badini is a dead give-away,"

he explained then. "Didi" literally means "older

sister" in the original language, but in Kezdet chil-

dren's slang it means a woman who procures young

girls for . . . um ..." He blushed under the unblink-

ing gaze of Acorna's wide silver eyes. "For immoral

purposes," he finished in a rush.

"You mean, so that men can have sexual

intercourse with them?" Acorna translated

calmly. Then, at Pal's look of surprise, "Calum

and Rafik and Gill have an extensive library of

vid-cubes on the ship, and I have watched many

of them—and not only the interactive training

cubes on mining techniques! I do not think I was

supposed to know about the others, but some-

times it was very boring when they were all

working outside and there was not yet any

crushed ore for me to run through the refining

processes. Those vid-cubes that Calum kept

behind his bunk were boring, too," she added

reflectively. "I do not understand why anybody

would want to do such uncomfortable and

undignified things—and over and over, too!

230

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

231

Except that I gather from the EncycL) that it is nec-

essary to make babies. Still, some of the actors in

the vid-cubes seemed excessively enthusiastic

about their •work."

"The enthusiasm is something that . . . um . . .

develops as one matures," said Pal, making a men-

tal note to tell the miners that their charge had a

rather more extensive education than they real-

ized. Then he had to explain to Acorna that, yes,

some men were so enthusiastic they paid females

to partner them in this undignified activity—and

some •were so perverted that they preferred the use

of very young females.

"But Chiura is only a baby," Acorna protested.

"It would hurt her!"

"The men who buy the use of children," Pal

said grimly, "don't care if it hurts them. Mercy—

He stopped. Mercy had made him promise

never to tell Judit what had happened to her

after Judit won the scholarship to get off-planet.

Neither Pal nor Mercy wished to burden her

with unnecessary guilt about things she couldn't

have stopped anyway. "Well, this little one seems

to have been lucky. Apparently this Kheti went

to a lot of trouble to give her a chance to run

away. It probably wasn't as easy as Chiura makes

it sound, either."

"Lucky? To beg and starve on the street!"

"Better," Pal said. "Believe me . . . better."

"Then we have to find this other girl, this

Kheti, and get her free, too."

"And what," Pal inquired, "do you plan to do

about the hundreds of others in like situations?"

"Saving one is better than saving none," Acorna

said firmly.

Pal could hardly disagree -with this statement,

but neither could he believe that Acorna would

accomplish much by starting a crusade against the

Didis of East Celtalan and that mysterious power-

ful figure, the Piper, who was said to support the

brothel industry and to be supported in wealth by

its proceeds.

Delszaki Li had been trying for years to iden-

tify the Piper, and when Pal joined him he had

brought the Child Labor League's network of gos-

sip and spies to bear on the problem. But not one

of their covert sympathizers had turned up a whis-

per of the man's identity. Even Mercy, ideally situ-

ated as she was in a Guardians of the Peace office,

had been unable to give them a clue; even the

Guardians, it seemed, did not know who the Piper

really was. All they knew was that he was wealthy,

powerful, and absolutely ruthless in crushing any

opposition. There were rumors that he reserved

some of the children bought by the Didis for his

personal use, and that these children were the

ones found strangled and floating in the river from

time to time . . . unable to bear -witness against

him. Pal imagined Acorna's long silvery body

mangled and tossed into the polluted water, and

felt physically sick.

All things considered, it was almost a relief

when Chiura woke up crying for "Mama Jana"

again and Acorna was distracted into trying to

identify Chiura's mother. To take her mind off the

plight of the children in the brothels. Pal enthusi-

232

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

233

astically tackled the task of decoding the clues

they could extract from Chiura's baby recollec-

tions ... a little too enthusiastically, he realized, as

they neared success.

"This Jana can't be her real mother," he said

after another lengthy questioning session, inter-

spersed with games of stacking vid-cubes, rolling a

"wheel that had fallen off a household trolley, and

other improvised amusements. "Look at what she

played with the vid-cubes." Chiura had built a

completely enclosed space, then went around the

room putting all the small objects she could find

inside the space and naming each one. "Lata. Faiz.

Buddhe. Laxmi. Jana. Chiura. Khetala."

"She was telling us that all these people were

on the same level, all trapped."

Chiura had reacted vigorously when Acorna

tried to lift the little bronze box representing Jana

out of the enclosure.

"No, no, no!" she shrieked. "NO, run away!

Siri Teku beat!"

Then, in an abrupt change of mood, she had

swiped at the stacked vid-cubes, scattering the

"walls" she'd built all across the room, and moved

every one of the figures out onto the open floor.

"She was confined with a group of other chil-

dren, probably all bonded laborers," Pal inter-

preted. "Jana must have been one of the older

ones, like Khetala, who tried to take care other."

He tried to get some idea of where Chiura had

been kept, but she had only the vaguest notions of

place. There had been a big hill -with no trees, only

rocks. The sun went down behind the hill. Chiura

had not been sent to work with the other children

and had no idea what they did, only that they came

back dirty and tired. What had Chiura herself

done?

"Stupid Chiura," she said, her face puckering

up. "Laxmi hit Chiura."

That night Pal consulted Delszaki Li's exten-

sive atlas of Kezdet.

"I think it must be someplace relatively close to

Celtalan," he explained his reasoning to Acorna,

"because Chiura says they were not very long in

the skimmer—and anything over an hour's flight

would be 'long' to a child that young."

He drew a line out from the depiction of

Celtalan on the screen, representing the distance a

skimmer could fly in an hour, and requested

detailed overlays of the region. Then he narrowed

the search by looking for treeless mountains "with

factories situated on the eastern side of the moun-

tain. There was only one. "It has to be the

Tondubh Glassworks," he concluded, "Unless . . .

no. That's the only mountain that fits her descrip-

tion. "

"Then we will go there tomorrow?," Acorna

said, "and find Jana."

"I don't think that's such a great idea," Pal

demurred. "Mr. Li is working on his own plans for

freeing the bonded children. We could mess things

up for him by going out and making a fuss at the

glassworks."

Acorna gave him a disgusted look. "Naturally

we will tell Mr. Li. But he will not stop us. That

child has already lost her home, her parents, and

234 ——-             ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

her trust in the rest of humanity. Now you want to

deprive her of the only person who cared for her

and completely destroy her? I know -what it feels

like to be separated from the people who take care

of you," she said, remembering the terror of the

barren, chemical-scented corridors of Amalgam-

ated space base and the mean lady who would not

take her back to Gill and Calum and Rafik. But

they had come for her. Who -would come for

Chiura? They haS to find this Jana.

After the beating Siri Teku gave her for trying to

hide Chiura, Jana lost her position as dragger on

Face Five. Her partner Khetala was gone, and

anyway she couldn't drag. That last kick Siri Teku

gave her had crunched something in her right

knee; she could no longer put any -weight on that

leg at all, and she certainly couldn't crawl up the

narrow shafts dragging a full corf of ore behind

her. Buddhe and Faiz took over the lucrative Face

Five work. By way of apology for taking her

place, Faiz appropriated a slat from the roof -which

he -whittled into the shape of a rough crutch, so

that at least Jana could drag herself outside to the

sorting slopes and the latrine trench. She sup-

posed it was kind of him, but she didn't much care

any longer. She hurt all the time since Siri Teku's

beating, and the weals were hot and swollen and

not healing properly. Kheti -would have fussed

about bad food and dirt, would have made her

-wash the -wounds and choke down nauseating

stews of the -weeds growing on Anyag's mountain-

'A.corna 235

ous slag heap to supplement the unvarying diet of

patts and bean paste. Without Khetala to nag her

into it, though, Jana just couldn't bring herself to

take the trouble. She was tired and achy and there

didn't seem to be much point in making herself

even more miserable with cold water and weed

stew.

Siri Teku had cursed when he saw that she was

temporarily crippled, but her unfeigned wince

•when he drew back his foot to kick her bad knee

again restored his good humor.

"Knew I'd break that cheeky spirit of hers

someday," he exulted, not even troubling to

address her directly. "She can take Chiura's place

sorting ore until she can walk again."

Laxmi grumbled that Jana -wasn't much more

use sorting ore than "that baby" had been, and it

was true. She -wasted long hours just sitting on the

ore heap, watching clouds drift across the sky,

watching the evening shadows lengthening in

front of the slag heap that blocked off half the sky,

desultorily turning over bits of broken rock in her

fingers from time to time. Laxmi made a point of

separating her work from Jana's so that Siri Teku

would be in no doubt about who had done what at

the end of the day.

"You can be lazy and starve if you -want to," she

warned Jana, "I'm not -working double for both of

us. Hafta move fast if you -want to earn your

dinner."

"Who cares?" said Jana.

Choking down the gritty patts was just another

pointless thing that seemed more trouble than it

236

Acorna

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

237

was -worth. She had to concentrate harder than

she liked to make the connection between missed

dinners and the constant, gnawing knot of pain in

her middle. It wasn't the worst pain anyway, noth-

ing near as bad as the throbbing of the infected

whip marks on her skin, or the sharp pain when-

ever she dragged her bad knee somewhere. She

knew, somewhere in the back of her fever-ridden

mind, that if she didn't eat she would get even

weaker and die soon, but that didn't seem to mat-

ter anymore, either. Without Kheti to bully them

all into taking care of themselves, the whole gang

wouldn't last long; already Faiz had a festering

sore on one hand, and Laxmi's cough was worse

than ever. Anyway, what was the point of working

so hard just to keep alive? Nobody cared whether

Jana lived or died, and since they took Chiura

away there was no little soft warm kitten-girl to

cuddle and love. If Jana had been given to putting

her thoughts into words, she might have told

Laxmi that without someone to love, there was no

reason to live. But talking was too much trouble.

She listlessly pitched another ore-bearing rock

into her sorting box, to shut Laxmi up, and went

back to her dreamy contemplation of the clouds.

Pal had half hoped that Delszaki Li would flatly

refuse Acorna's request to visit the Tondubh

Glassworks in search of Chiura's "Mama Jana," or

at least would insist that she go surrounded by a

small army of House Li servants and bodyguards.

Acorna had in mind to go unannounced and

unescorted, except by Pal, and pointed out that

bringing a large group would almost certainly

cause the supervisor of the glassworks to treat

their visit like an official inspection, hiding all the

children.

"I think he will do so anyway," Delszaki Li

said, his eyes twinkling at Acorna, "but if you

wish, shall go with only Pal and one other." He

tapped one of the buttons on the corn pad of his

hover-chair.

"One?" Pal began in outrage. "But that's totally

inadequate to protect—" He stopped and took a

deep breath at the sight of the woman who had

answered Li's button.

"I think you will find Nadhari adequate to any

emergency," Li said dryly.

Pal nodded, dumbstruck. Nadhari Kando was

an all but legendary figure in the Li household.

Rumors said that before coming to work for

House Li, she had been one of the infamous Red

Bracelets of Kilumbemba, or possibly a comman-

der of one of Nered's elite shock troops, or maybe

she had personally created and led the Army of

Liberation that freed Anrath from its despotic

rulers. Logic said a woman who looked no more

than thirty could not possibly have done all those

things, but when Pal looked at Nadhari, he could

never decide which stories to discount; she

appeared capable of having done all three before

breakfast. Whatever she had once been, though, it

had ended in an episode whose truth was

unknown to anybody in House Li. She had been

dismissed in disgrace for a savage combat action,

238 ——             ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

or she had been sent to assassinate Delszaki Li

and instead had fallen under the spell of his

uniquely personal charm, or Li had saved her

from summary execution at the hands of the

Kezdet Guardians. Again, all three stories seemed

perfectly possible.

Five feet six inches tall in her bare feet, lean

and as tough as a length of braided leather,

Nadhari Kando was expert in three forms of knife

fighting and six forms of unarmed combat— none

of 'which she had many chances now to use in the

line of duty, since she went everywhere armed

with an arsenal of miniaturized state-of-the-art

weapons that could appear in seconds from her

tight black braids, her gleaming skin-tight red

boots, or ... Pal gulped and tried not to think

about the other places where she probably con-

cealed weapons. Rumor also said that Nadhari

could read minds and that was -why she always

appeared somewhere where her opponent was not

expecting her, just outside of his blows or behind

his laser fire. But of course, nobody could read

minds. That was just a superstitious story.

He hoped.

"I shall be honored to accept Nadhari Kando's

escort," Pal said through lips suddenly gone dry.

"If . . . that is ... if you are sure you can spare

her?" Nadhari's primary duty was to accompany

Delszaki Li on all public appearances.

Li waved his good hand. "Nadhari is bored. Do

not go out often enough or encounter enough

assassins to amuse her."

The silent, black-braided woman in the door-

way nodded once in confirmation of this state-

ment.

"Mission?" she queried tersely.

"Ah . . . the Tondubh Glassworks," Pal said.

"Acorna will tell you all about it as we are going

along."

Acorna's sunny mood gradually dimmed as they

moved into the gray, dry industrial district east of

Celtalan proper, and by the time they reached

Knobkerrie Mountain she was hardly talking at all.

The desolate landscape, spoiled by decades of

dumping industrial waste and punctuated by walled

compounds enclosing factories and housing, seemed

uglier and more barren to her than any airless aster-

oid.

"Does it have to be like this?" she -whispered as

the skimmer banked and hovered over the com-

pound bearing the Tondubh Glassworks logo.

"Kezdet," said Pal, "is ruled by the bottom line

and the quarterly balance sheet. In any given

quarter there is more profit in spoiling the land

than in preserving it, just as there is more profit in

buying new bond laborers than in keeping those

you already have happy and healthy. If you don't

care whether your workers live or die, and if they

are too ignorant and frightened to complain, then

why bother to give them decent lodgings or attrac-

tive surroundings?"

The skimmer settled gently into the space set

aside for official visitors to the Tondubh facility,

and Pal jumped out, ready with the story he had

prepared to cover their interest in the facility. He

spun the security guards a story about an off-

240

Acorna

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

2A\

planet vid-artist who wanted to feature Tondubh

as one of Kezdet's success stories, a concern that

had contributed to giving this resource-poor

planet one of the higher gross planetary products

in the sector.

"No vid equipment allowed in the plant," the

guard said.

Pal gave in on this point after minimal arguing,

since he had no idea what he would have done if

they hadn't insisted on this restriction; there

hadn't been time to procure the kind of recording

equipment an intergalactically known vid-artist

would expect to use. The guard reciprocated by

unbending slightly and allowing as how they could

arrange a brief guided tour for the lady, if she and

her companions would just wait an hour or so.

"No time," Pal said, "her time on Kezdet is

measured in hours. Of course, if it's not conve-

nient for us to see this facility, I'm sure the

Gheredi Glassworks would do just as well. If

you'd just give me a note of your name and num-

ber, so that I can explain to InterVid exactly why

Tondubh proved unsuitable . . ."

The mention of Tondubh's biggest competitor

on Kezdet, plus Pal's veiled threat that he would

see the guard took blame for letting this publicity

opportunity go to the competition, got them inside

the glassworks without more ado. As they passed

the second security wall, Pal caught sight of a pair

of slender, scarred bare legs winking out of sight

around the corner.

"Damn kids," the guard said genially, "they're

all over the place, bringing messages to the workers,

begging a bite of the hot meals Tondubh provides

to the hands, generally getting in the "way." The

roar of the furnaces within the main manufactur-

ing facility almost drowned out his words. They

picked their way over a floor covered with shards

of broken glass. The heat from the open furnaces

was like a blow? in the face; all the signs pointed to

a factory in full production, yet the immense room

was curiously empty. Only a handful of emaciated

adults squatted in front of the furnaces.

"Do you not employ children, then?" Acorna

asked.

The guard looked shocked. "'Deed, no. Why,

that would be in violation of the Federation Child

Welfare Statutes! Mind you, I'm not saying an

occasional one as is underage may not sneak onto

the payroll; these people breed like flies and don't

keep no records. But Tondubh has always done its

best to abide by Federation standards, madam.

Get out of the way, there," he roared at a boy who

trotted into view with an iron rod taller than him-

self, the end covered with a blob of molten glass.

"P-please, sir, I was just bringing the glass to

my gang leader," the boy stammered, the end of

his sentence all but drowned out by another out-

raged roar from the guard. "Don't you know you

kids aren't allowed to do anything but carry

water? Now put that glass down! You could get

hurt, messing with hot glass!"

The little boy dropped his rod with a clang.

Molten glass spattered into the air; Pal and

Acorna had to jump back to save themselves.

"Sorry about that, madam. You see why it

2-42

Acorna                              245

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

-would be better for you to -wait and take a proper

tour," the guard said. "It's hard enough to enforce

proper safety regulations here at the best of times,

and with these brats infesting the place for what

they can pick up, well, it's no place for a lady like

yourself, and that's a fact. I'll just escort you back

to the skimmer now."

Nadhari glanced at Pal and raised one brow

inquiringly while she shifted her weight in a man-

ner he found ominous.

"No," Pal said under his breath. "We will go as

requested."

Looking disappointed, Nadhari relaxed

slightly.

The guard watched while Pal took off and

cleared the factory airspace.

"That," Pal said grimly, "is just one of the prob-

lems we have to solve. Not employ children,

indeed! That factory is ninety percent child-oper-

ated, and everybody knows it. But they have

guards and gates and delaying tactics, and the

children are trained to hide when any strangers

come. I had hoped that a party of three would not

be enough to alarm them. I was wrong."

"/ could have alarmed them," Nadhari said in

her gravelly voice, with a smile that sent a cold

breeze along the back of Pal's neck.

"I am sure you could take on the entire security

force ofTondubh Glassworks," said Pal tactfully.

"Piece of cake," Nadhari confirmed. "Soft

slugs. Poor defensive position."

"But I think Mr. Li might be annoyed if we

started a private war."

Nadhari nodded sadly.

"I do not understand why the children hide,"

Acorna said. "Don't they want to come out and

ask for help?"

"They do not have much experience with

strangers who make their lives better," Pal said.

"Usually its the other way."

"That poor little boy. The guard was lying

about his not working there. Did you see his feet?

They were covered with burns and scars. If he

hadn't run away, I could have healed them."

Acorna sighed. "I suppose, if they do not admit to

hiring children at all, it is useless to ask if they

have a bonded child laborer named Jana?"

Pal agreed. He could have predicted this out-

come to the trip, but it had appeared the only way

to convince Acorna of the enormity of the task

was to let her see for herself the kind of obstacles

they faced. Now, however, he felt her disappoint-

ment as keenly as if it were his own.

"There is one other place we might try," he

said. "I've been thinking . . . it's true that

Knobkerrie is the only treeless mountain this

near Celtalan that has a factory beside it. But to a

little girl like Chiura, who's to say what counts as

a mountain?"

"There isn't much else that couQ be considered

a mountain," Acorna said, looking down at the fea-

tureless landscape below the skimmer.

"Some of the pit mines have pretty high slag

heaps near the sorting bins," Pal said, banking the

skimmer slightly. "And one of the oldest mines—

with one of the biggest slag heaps—is not too far

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

244

245

from here. It wouldn't hurt to pay a visit to Anyag.

This time, though, -we're going to think up a better

story."

"We are?" Acorna had been tremendously

impressed by the speed and fluency with which

Pal had spun his tale at the Tondubh Glassworks.

"We'll have to," Pal said. "The children at

Tondubh had plenty of time to hide while I was

convincing the guard that they couldn't afford to

alienate a galactic vid-artist. This time we're going

to use a story that will make them want to keep

the children for us to inspect." He glanced at

Acorna. "Good thing you dressed up this morning.

But you need to be a little gaudier." He guided the

skimmer down toward a walled compound of

courtyards and gardens, brilliant in the surround-

ing near-desert as an emerald in the sand. "Wait in

the skimmer," he said over his shoulder as they

landed.

A slim, pretty girl with long black hair ran out

of the nearest arcaded passageway, calling excited

greetings to Pal. He met her too far from the skim-

mer for Acorna to hear what they said, but there

was no need; his exuberant kiss of greeting and

the way he picked the girl up and spun her around

in his arms told her all she needed to know about

their relationship. They disappeared together into

the maze of buildings and Acorna slumped in her

seat, feeling remarkably foolish. Of course Pal had

a girlfriend. She'd seen enough story-cubes to

understand that this was the normal arrangement

of human society. They spent twenty years or so

growing, and then they were ready to mate. Gill

was showing every sign of preparing to mate with

Judit, and that didn't bother her; why should she

feel so depressed at seeing that Pal was in the

same situation? Probably because there was

nobody for her to mate with. Not that she had the

least interest in the kind of sexual acrobatics dis-

played in Calum's secret vid-cube collection, but it

would have been nice to have somebody to share

secrets and jokes with, somebody who came run-

ning out with a joyful face when you came to their

house, somebody who would hug you and spin

you around like that.

Ridiculous to feel sorry for herself, just because

she was the only one of her kind, when so many

people had worse problems. Acorna glanced at

Nadhari, who was sitting upright and watchful in

the backseat. Nadhari was alone, too, and it didn't

seem to bother her. She didn't even need to talk to

people except about her work.

Acorna shivered. She didn't -want to be quite

that self-sufficient. How lucky she had been to be

found by Gill and Rafik and Calum, instead of by

somebody who would have sold her to a labor fac-

tory on Kezdet! Acorna sat up very straight and

concentrated on remembering how lucky she was

and what a good life she had. She managed to

such good effect that when Pal reappeared and

climbed into the skimmer, the first thing he said

was, "What's the matter?"

"Not a thing," Acorna said. "Not a thing. I

don't need to know what your plans are. I just do

what I'm told."

Pal tightened his lips to conceal a smile. So

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

247

Acorna could take a huff, just like any other young

girl, -when she felt left out and ignored! She might

look different, but she -was completely and glori-

ously female. And that thought pleased him inordi-

nately. He couldn't quite figure out why he should

be so pleased to see her displaying signs of jeal-

ousy, but . . . well, it was nice to know that at least

emotionally she was very human, indeed.

"Irodalmi Javak's family is very wealthy," he

said, "and her father would not approve if he knew

that she was a secret sympathizer with the Child

Labor League. He doesn't approve of me either,

but pretending to be a penniless and unacceptable

suitor for her gives us an excellent cover for an

occasional secret meeting—even if anybody found

out, they'd just think I was sneaking into the com-

pound to steal a few kisses."

"Oh." Acorna digested this. "Then it's just . . .

pretense? You two certainly looked happy enough

to meet!"

"I am very fond of Irodalmi," Pal said truth-

fully. "She is a good, brave girl and she risks a lot

for the movement. But she has no use for

boyfriends; she wants to get off-planet and study

to become a starship navigator."

"That must be very sad for you."

"Nothing to do with me," Pal said so cheerfully

that Acorna began to feel much happier. "She's got

her life planned out, and I am developing plans of

my own. Our 'courtship' is a convenient cover,

that's all. I didn't want her to see you because the

less she knows, the safer for all of us. But she lent

me enough of her jewelry to deck you out in the

necessary style." Both his hands were fully occu-

pied now with lifting the skimmer and piloting it

back toward Anyag. He nodded at the dark green

case he had brought out of Irodalmi's house.

"Open that, will you, and put the stuff on."

Acorna was dazzled by the sight that met her

eyes when she lifted the lid of the case. A profusion

of rings, bracelets, chains, and stick pins glittered

in the sunlight that filtered through the skimmer

windows. Most of the jewelry was in a heavy,

ornate style of gold work that would suit neither

the slender Irodalmi nor Acorna with her silvery

coloring, but there -was one ring of blue starstones

set in platinum, and a matching chain with a very

large starstone pendant. She put these on and

longed for a mirror in which to check the effect.

"How do I look?" she demanded of Pal.

He glanced sideways and grunted. "I said, put

it on. All of it."

"I do not know much of fashionable dress,"

Acorna said, "but I think that to wear all this gold

at once would constitute a vulgar display of

wealth, as well as being mwt unattractive."

"Yep," Pal agreed, "that's Javak Seniors style, all

right. Irodalmi doesn't care for the stuff herself. Says

that if she -wore her father's gifts, she'd look like the

senior Didi in a high-class bonkmg-shop. Which is

what made me think of her. That's precisely the effect

we're after. Now put the Jewelry on. Please."

Acorna did her best to follow his instructions,

but most of the rings designed for human fingers

would not fit on her less-supple digits, and she ran

out of room for bangles on her arms.

248

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

249

"The larger bangles are for your ankles," Pal

instructed without taking his eyes from the skim-

mer's instrument panel, "and can't you thread

some of the rings through that turban kind of

thing you wear on your head?"

"Try not to crash this thing in a lake," Acorna

said after following his instructions. "I'd sink like a

stone. I'm not even sure I'll be able to walk with

this much jewelry hanging off my body."

"Excellent," Pal said. "We want you to look

extremely rich and extremely vulgar. Too bad you

don't wear scent. A heavy dose of musk and jas-

mine essence -would finish off the picture nicely."

" What picture?" Acorna demanded.

"Just came to me," Pal said, "in a sudden flash

of inspiration. We geniuses often work that way. If

Did! Badini is welcome at Anyag to inspect the

children, why not Didi Acorna? Explains

Nadhari, too," he added. "Any Didi as rich as

you're pretending to be would naturally travel

with a bodyguard."

"You want me to pretend to be a Didi!" Acorna

exclaimed. "That's a truly revolting idea."

"It's a truly brilliant one," Pal said. "Just leave

the talking to me, and nothing can go wrong this

time."

Acorna regarded him with some suspicion.

"Sometimes," she said, "you remind me very

much of Ratik."

"Act arrogant," Pal warned her just before they

reached Anyag, "and leave the talking to me."

Acorna had no trouble following either of these

instructions. Shock at the sheer unrelieved ugliness

of Anyag, the gigantic slag heap and the piles of

separated ore and the endless roar of crushers,

kept her silent. The stench of the latrine trench

behind the sleeping sheds kept her nose up in the

air, and the unaccustomed weight of jewelry on her

body forced her to move slowly. The effect was all

Pal could have wished: she appeared to be an

incredibly -wealthy young -woman -with vulgar taste,

slow dignified movements, and too much pride to

speak a civil -word to the mine superintendent. It

was easy for him to believe that she -was a new and

unprecedentedly successful Didi looking for fresh

young stock to build up her expanding network of

houses. He all but fell over himself apologizing for

the poor condition of most of the children in the

mine and issued no orders at all to hide them.

Pal demanded curtly to be shown to where

Siri Teku's gang slept, and the superintendent

showed some relief. He had heard that Siri Teku

had scored a coup from a labor contractor just

last month, picking up a curly-headed, fair-

skinned girl child -who looked like just the sort of

fresh young thing a Didi -would buy off him at

twice or three times what he'd paid for her. He

started to apologize that Siri Teku's crew was on

day shift and would be unavailable right now,

then stumbled to a halt as he decided that Siri

Teku wouldn't have been fool enough to send a

pretty piece like that baby girl Below. He'd have

her working Above on some easy task like sorting

ore or sweeping tailings to not spoil her looks. . . .

250

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

Pal interrupted him. "Just point out the sleep

shed. We won't need your company."

The superintendent was disappointed; he'd

expected a cut of the profits from any sale made

on his shift. A discreet transfer of credits salved

his disappointment and bought Pal and Acorna

privacy while they picked their way through the

debris of the mine to the area where Siri Teku's

gang sorted the ore they had dragged to the sur-

face.

There were only two children on the sorting

bench. One of them was working so fast her fin-

gers seemed to fly as she picked through the bro-

ken rocks and assessed them with an expert eye.

The other stared through them with blank, empty

eyes that made Acorna's own eyes narrow in

anguished sympathy.

"Jana?" she asked, expecting the active child

to answer.

"I'm Laxmi," said the girl who was working so

hard. "She's Jana." She jerked her chin toward the

other child. "She don't talk much, not since ..." A

rattling cough interrupted her •words.

"Get her some -water. Pal!" Acorna said.

" 'S okay. 'S nothing," Laxmi croaked, wiping

her chin. "Don't tell 'm . . . I'm not sick!" There

was desperation in her cry. "Not!"

"Of course you are not sick," Acorna agreed

soothingly. "You are a fine, strong worker."

Laxmi edged suspiciously away from her as

Acorna came closer, until she was on the far side

of the bench with a pile of broken rocks between

her and the visitors. Acorna sat down beside Jana

251

and put an arm around her. Jana winced away

•with a gasp of pain.

"Best not touch 'er," Laxmi warned from a safe

distance. "She ain't healed from that beatin' Sin

Teku give 'er."

Jana's ragged gray kameez was stuck to her

back and sides in several places. When Pal came

back with a bucket of scummy water, Acorna

looked at it in despair, then deftly stripped off the

scarves that swathed her head. Laxmi gasped and

fell into another coughing fit at sight of the small

white horn in the middle of Acorna's forehead.

Acorna dipped her horn into the water for a

moment, then used her silk scarf to dab the now-

clean water onto the worst of Jana's marks. When

she was finally able to lift the kameez without

pulling at the broken skin underneath, she laid her

forehead against each swollen, infected -weal.

Laxmi edged closer and closer, eyes round as she

saw clean new skin replacing the raw stripes on

Jana's back and sides.

"Please, lady," she whispered, "I dunno what

you're doing . . . but could you do her knee, too?

That's what hurts her the worst. Can't walk •with-

out a stick. ..."

Acorna bent her head to the swollen knee for a

long moment. Jana sat unmoving and unrespon-

sive, but the swelling visibly -went down.

"Come to me," she said, and Laxmi, a look of

surprise on her face, slowly moved toward

Acorna.

"If you c'n fix me, too," she said hoarsely,

"reckon I'll go with you. Kheti allus said gom'

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

252

•with a Did! was worst thing as could happen to a

girl . . . but Kheti dint see you.."

Acorna laid her face against Laxmi's throat and

slowly moved the horn down along her chest.

Laxmi drew in a deep breath and hardly coughed

at all; she took another breath and another, and

color crept into her face.

"What you think you're doing, bint?"

The angry roar came from the mouth of the

shaft behind them. A moment later a tall, lean man

in brown robe and turban leapt out of the cage-lift,

brandishing a long, flexible rod in one hand.

Quickly swathing her horn, Acorna lifted her

head.

"I have a use for these children," she said. "You

will be compensated for them."

Siri Teku's eyes narrowed in crafty speculation.

It must be Laxmi the Didi wanted; Jana wasn't

much use to anybody now. She was trying to con-

fuse him by pretending an interest in both children.

"I might consider letting you have that one," he

said, nodding at Jana. "'T'other's too valuable to

me. Last trained sorter I got, see."

"I need them both," Acorna replied firmly.

Siri Teku mentally evaluated the worth of this

new Didi's gold jewelry and decided to take a

gamble. It was true that he needed Laxmi's ser-

vices. He wouldn't have pretended not to notice

her cough for so long if he'd had anybody else half

so good at sorting ore. But a month would give

him time to buy some new children and have

Laxmi train them. And if this Didi was really so

interested in Laxmi, Old Black knew why, she'd

253

come back at the end of that month . . . by which

time he should be able to trade, steal, and buy

enough really handsome children to make her a

constant customer of his.

Besides, he thought he recognized the silent

bodyguard who stood behind the Didi. Was

House Li getting into the bonk-shop business?

And if so, did old Li himself know, or was the old

man so senile that his employees were able to take

off on their own? He needed time to check the

rumors so that he could figure out how to turn the

maximum profit from this situation.

"This un's not for sale yet," he repeated, grab-

bing Laxmi's arm and jerking her away from

Acorna and Pal. "Come back next month, after

I've had time to train some new sorters. And for

the other, it'll be fifty credits."

"Who're you kidding?" Pal demanded, using a

rough accent Acorna had not heard from him

before. "We'd be doing you a favor to take her off

your hands. Ten credits, no more."

"You wish to rob an honest working man of his

livelihood? Besides, I will have to give a percent-

age to the mine superintendent. Thirty-five."

"Fifteen," Acorna said.

Siri Teku hesitated, and Acorna turned on her

heel.

"Come," she snapped to Pal. "My time is too

valuable to spend haggling over one child."

"Seventeen and a half!" Siri Teku cried.

"Very well," Acorna said, "seventeen it is." She

dropped a bundle of credits in the dirt and turned

toward the skimmer.

ISA

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

255

"And a half?"

Acorna laughed and kept walking.

"Remember," Siri Teku called after them as Pal

carried Jana toward the skimmer, "come back

next month! I'll make it worth your while!"

Laxmi's eyes followed the skimmer as it rose

over the mountainous slag heap of Anyag and

banked west, into the afternoon sun, toward

Celtalan.

Pal tarried long enough at Irodalmi's house to

return the jewelry, which Acorna was only too

happy to remove, despite the surprise that it

caused Jana.

"I am no Didi, little one," Acorna told Jana,

stroking her no longer sore back. "I am taking you

to Chiura, who has been crying for her Mama

Jana."

"Chiura?" Jana exclaimed. Miracle upon mira-

cle this day had for her. Not only had her pains

been soothed and she had been taken from

bondage with Siri Teku, but Chiura was at her

destination. Furthermore, her well-honed instincts

told her that this marvelous lady with the funny

horn in the middle of her forehead was good, and

Jana had had so little of "good" in her life, she

wondered that she could believe in any. Yet why

heal her when she wasn't pretty like Chiura or

useful like Khetala? That name sprang from her

lips. "Khetala? You will find and free her from

Didi Badini?"

The man who drove the skimmer groaned.

"One rescue a day is all I can cope with right now,

and there'll be a lot of explaining to be done for

this day's work—that I can assure you."

"But surely. Pal, we must save these children.

The other one who coughed ..."

"Laxmi?" Jana asked hopefully.

"Mr. Li has a large house, but there are limits

to what hospitality he can extend. That is why we

must make the moon colony. Then -we will have a

safe place for all the abused and misused children

in those mines. First things must come first,

Acorna." He spoke as severely as he could, and yet

the melting look in Acorna's eyes over Jana's head

was almost more than he could bear. What amaz-

ing powers this most unusual female had!

In December 1936, the English king, Edward

VIII, abdicated his throne to marry an American

divorcee, Wallis Simpson. Before Christmas of

that year, schoolchildren from Land's End to John

o'Groats were chanting, "Hark, the herald angels

sing, Mrs. Simpson's pinched our king." No one

ever figured out how the song spread so quickly; it

certainly hadn't been part of a BBC broadcast.

The tale of a silver goddess with a horn in the

middle of her forehead, come to Kezdet especially

to heal and help children, spread with similar

rapidity. As with the song about Mrs. Simpson,

the only certainty is that it wasn't disseminated by

anyone in authority.

When the rest of Siri Teku's gang came up from

their twelve-hour shift Below, Laxmi told them

256

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

that Sita Ram, Lady of the Sky and Above, had

visited Anyag disguised as a Didi, had healed her,

and had taken Jana to live with her in the sky. The

other children might have scoffed, but it was a fact

that Laxmi's racking cough was gone; she breathed

as easily and deeply as any of the newest arrivals.

A child sold from the mines to Czerebogar took the

story and the hope of that healing with him.

In the carpet works at Czerebogar, where the

children squatted on hanging benches and tied

knots in the famous Kezdet carpets until their fin-

gers bled, Laxmi's Sita Ram was transmuted into

Lukia of the Lights, and they whispered that the

unicorn's white horn shed a magical healing light

that restored the sight of squinting, half-blind car-

pet weavers. An itinerant teacher from the Child

Labor League, entering Czerebogar in disguise,

found her way made easier by this legend and sug-

gested to her colleagues that they spread it as a

way of overcoming the children's ingrained fear

and distrust of all strangers.

"Should -we try to overcome it?" one of the

other part-time teachers asked. "Most of the time

they're right to fear strangers."

"Not us," said the young woman who'd slipped

in and out of Czerebogar, bringing counting games

and stories and taking away the legend of Lukia.

"If they fear us, we can't help them."

In the Tondubh Glassworks, the story became

part of the legend of Epona, the horse-goddess

who bore tired glass-runners on her back and gal-

loped from furnace to blower with the molten

glass to spare the children's weary legs.

257

Everywhere on Kezdet, where there was a

mine or factory keeping children at work in

cramped, poisoned, miserable conditions, there

was also some legend of a rescuing goddess, spun

out of the older children's hazy memories of a

mother's arms and given strength by the younger

children's need for hope. But never before had one

of the legendary goddesses taken mortal form and

given solid, practical healing to a sick child. All the

legends suddenly took on new life; hope flourished

like an underground stream of pure water running

through all the dark factories; overseers -wondered

why the children had begun to sing and laugh, and

worried about the change.

The repercussions from Acorna's adventure were

less than Pal had feared. Judit was frankly

relieved to have Jana take over the care of Chiura,

who had never ceased wailing for the older child

whom she evidently regarded as a mother.

Delszaki Li and the miners were somewhat

more vocal. "You did what?" Rafik bellowed when

Acorna proudly reported the results of her trip to

him.

"I told you that I was going to look for Chiura's

'Mama Jana,'" Acorna said.

"Yes," said Calum unguardedly, "but we didn't

think you'd succeed, or we wouldn't have let you

go off with just Pal and one bodyguard."

Nadhari Kando shifted her weight slightly, from

one foot to a balanced pose on the balls of both feet.

The slight movement should have gone unnoticed,

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

258

but instead it drew everyone's attention. She looked

straight at Calum until his eyes dropped.

"That is ..." he mumbled, "of course you were

perfectly safe with Nadhari. After all, if Mr. Li

entrusts his own life to her. ..."

"Quite correct," Nadhari said. Her low, grating

voice was almost without expression.

"Don't you want Jana?" Acorna put her arm

around the bewildered child.

"Sure we do," Gill said heartily. He dropped to

one knee before Jana, who shrank back involun-

tarily at the approach of this red-bearded giant.

"We need you here, Jana. Chiura needs you. We

all do. Plenty of room in this house for another lit-

tle girl." He glanced at Delszaki Li and received

an approving nod. "We were just . . . surprised

that Acorna found you so quickly."

"We underestimated her," Rafik said gloomily.

"Probably not for last time," Delszaki Li

chirped. His dark eyes were bright with amuse-

ment.

Pal's private nightmare, that the Guardians of

the Peace would somehow trace him and "Didi

Acorna" back from Anyag to the Li mansion and

accuse him of procuring children for immoral pur-

poses, never came true. He was not sure whether

that was because they had not been traced, or

because the Guardians were too bright to try to

shake down so powerful a figure as Delszaki Li, or

because they simply accepted as a matter of course

that any man who was so inclined might buy him-

self a few girl children for private use whenever he

felt the urge. He suspected the last.

259

Even Acorna, after a few -wistful comments

about the amount of room there was in those

upper stories and how many beds they could fit

into the long parlor, seemed to accept Pals strict

injunction against collecting any more children

before Delszaki Li had started the safe haven of

the lunar colony. She didn't even promise Jana to

go out and look for Khetala— thank goodness! Pal

sweated when he remembered the risks he had

already allowed Acorna to run in their mad

escapade. The last thing he needed was to have

her opening those wide silvery eyes at him and

politely requesting a tour of the East Celtalan

brothels. Especially since he had a terrible suspi-

cion he would give in. The urge to give Acorna

everything she wanted was only growing stronger

the more time he spent in her company.

All things considered, he should have felt

relieved when, after a few? days spent quietly with

Chiura and Jana, her only request was to go shop-

ping with Judit.

"I am sure you must have many more impor-

tant things to do," she apologized to Judit, "but

you see, I have promised Mr. Li not to go out

alone again. There are a few things I need from

the stores, and somehow I do not think that

Nadhari..."

"Of course," Judit said. "You're quite right.

I'm pretty sure Nadhari doesn't have a black belt

in shopping. And I have been quietly going mad

with inactivity while I wait for Delszaki and your

friends to come up with something for me to do.

Really, if he's going to spend all his time locked in

260

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

Dr. Zip's lab or cruising the Lattice on his corn

unit, Delszaki hardly needs one personal assistant,

let alone two!"

"I'll go with you," Pal volunteered, and felt

unreasonably annoyed when Acorna stammeringly

refused his help.

"Don't be silly. Pal," Judit said in her best

bossy elder-sister tones. "One of us must stay here

in case Delszaki comes out of his brown study and

-wants something." Adding, after she sent Acorna

off to get a heavier wrap on the pretext that there

were cold winds coming in from the north, "I

expect the child wants to buy feminine fripperies,

Pal. She'd only be embarrassed to have you tag-

ging along. Nadhari will come, and she'll be quite

protection enough."

Nadhari cleared her throat, and Pal hastily

agreed that no one could want more protection

than she could supply.

Relief though it must be to have Acorna safely-

occupied, Judit could not repress a slight scorn

when she saw the girl counting the credits in her

purse before they set out. Was all the -work of the

Child Labor League to be set aside for Acorna's

convenience? Here was Delszaki Li off on a wild-

goose chase to find Acorna's home planet, instead

of completing the plans for his lunar colony;

Acorna herself, it seemed, was perfectly happy to

go shopping for the latest fashions. It was true that

Delszaki had advanced the credits to her himself,

saying that he wished his "ward" to be dressed as

befitted the House of Li, rather than continually

washing and -wearing the same three outfits the

261

miners had casually picked out for her. And it was

true that the plans of the Child Labor League

were in much more danger from hasty enterprises

such as Acorna's rescue of Jana than from a few

days of neglect. Still, Judit could not keep from

fretting over all the problems remaining: the lunar

colony yet to be designed, let alone set up; how the

children -were to be gathered together -when every

factory owner had trained them to hide whenever

strangers approached; "worst of all, how to neutral-

ize the shadowy, malevolent figure known only as

the Piper, whose fortune derived entirely from the

worst forms of child labor and who was supposed

to be behind most of the official and unofficial

bedevilment the league members had suffered.

The Piper would surely find some -way to stop Li's

latest and boldest plan if he got word of it, as he

•was sure to do sooner or later in Kezdet's spy-

riddled society.

She was further surprised when Acorna first

proposed that they should walk, then stopped not

five minutes from the house and hired a skimmer,

directing the pilot to take them to the Gorazde

Bazaar.

"Acorna, are you sure that is where you wish to

go?" Judit remonstrated as the skimmer rose and

hovered over the heart of Celtalans wealthiest dis-

trict. "The Gorazde is not at all fashionable.

Respectable, yes, but it is the sort of place where

Delszaki's servants buy their daywear. It is not

equipped to cater to a young lady of fashion."

"I am not a young lady of fashion," Acorna said

calmly, "and I inquired of the house staff before

262

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

263

making my decision. I am confident that I shall

find exactly -what I need at the Gorazde."

"And -why rent a skimmer?" Judit -went on.

"We could have used one of the House Li skim-

mers."

Acorna hung her head. "I -wanted to do this

myself," she said, "with my own credits from the

work I have done for Calum and Rafik and Gill."

"Do "what, for heavens sake?"

"That little boy at Tondubh," Acorna said, "his

feet were all burned and cut from running over

hot and broken glass. I thought ... he could use a

pair of sandals."

"What a nice thought!" Judit approved.

"And all the other children there," Acorna said.

"That is why I thought of the Gorazde, you see.

They say it is a good place to find cheap but

durable clothes."

She proceeded to occupy the few minutes

required for the skimmer to cross the city by ask-

ing Judit about her brother. Judit played down

the misery of the first years on Kezdet, when she

and Pal and Mercy had been bond-laborers with

no hope of freedom, by saying truthfully that they

had all three been sent to different places and she

really knew very little of Pal's life during those

years. Instead she concentrated on tales of Pal's

progress through technical school and the stories

he had told her about his work with Delszaki Li.

It -was a pleasure to talk at length about her

beloved little brother to such an attentive audi-

ence, and Judit was almost sorry when they

reached the Gorazde. She had been meaning to

ask Acorna a few things about Gill . . . subtly, of

course, so as not to betray how much more inter-

ested she was in him than in the other two miners

who composed Acorna's foster family.

Once the skimmer pilot had set them down and

had been requested to wait, Acorna changed from

passive audience to taking charge of the expedi-

tion once again.

"I think thLf is exactly the place I have been

looking for," she said, walking past a handful of

clothing stalls to enter Sopels Sandalarium -with

its flashing lighted sign proclaiming, WHOLESALE,

DISCOUNT SALE, AND GOING-OUT-OF-BUSINESS

SALE EVERY DAY.

A clerk hurried forward to serve them, every

line of his demeanor announcing that he had never

hoped to see two well-dressed young ladies from

West Celtalan in Sopel's Sandalarium. When he

offered to measure their feet, Acorna informed

him that this would not be necessary, as she knew

what sizes she wanted. Judit gave a small internal

sigh of relief; they really did not need the kind of

attention that a close inspection of Acorna's

unusually shaped feet would draw. Acorna speci-

fied a range of sandal sizes that would fit anything

from a toddler to a child of ten and selected a

cheap and long-wearing style in recycled syntho-

foam. When the clerk mentioned a price that Judit

thought far too high, Acorna glanced at her and

immediately counter-offered for little more than the

wholesale cost of the sandals. She pointed out the

advantages of good relations with someone who

was prepared to buy in bulk, gave the impression

264

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

265

that she might be a buyer for some large consor-

tium -who could be enticed back by a very low

price on this first order, and eventually acquired

the Sandalarium's entire stock in the requested

sizes at less than half the price originally men-

tioned.

"You see," Acorna said -when a slightly dazed

clerk left to order porters to carry their purchases

to the waiting skimmer, "I told you I would

require some help with my parcels."

Almost as dazed as the clerk, Judit said the

first thing that came into her head. "Where did

you learn to bargain like that? "

Acorna gave her an impish smile. "I have

spent two years listening to Calum selling pay-

loads of ore and drone buckets of iron all over

this quadrant. The basic principles are not dis-

similar—and I have always liked working with

numbers."

"Working with numbers is hardly an adequate

description," Judit said with feeling. "Anybody

who can juggle all those prices and quantities in

her head ought to be looking at a career in gam-

bling."

"Seven to four," Acorna murmured, smiling at a

private memory, "'Nobble' the favorite ... I think

we had better watch the sandals being loaded, don't

you? Mr. Sopel is not making as much of a profit as

usual on this transaction; he may try to redress the

balance by making a few slight mistakes during

loading."

In fact, Acorna discovered no fewer than three

"minor discrepancies" between her receipt and the

goods being loaded on the skimmer in the first few

minutes. With the discovery of the third shortage,

she instructed the porter to inform Mr. Sopel that

any more discrepancies would cause her to lose

faith in his ability to conduct a business and would

force her to take her credits elsewhere. Thereafter

all proceeded smoothly.

When the skimmer was fully loaded, Acorna

directed the pilot to take them to the Tondubh

Glassworks, with a sidelong glance to see if Judit

would countermand her orders.

"You promised Delszaki not to collect any

more children," Judit murmured with a warning

shake of her head.

Acorna lifted her long chin slightly. "I did not

promise not to help them. Surely no one can object

if I give a few things to make their lives easier?"

And in fact, when Acorna swept into the

Tondubh compound with the imperious air she

had been practicing, she met with almost no oppo-

sition from the startled overseers. Judit was rather

surprised to find that the Tondubh staff suffered

from the illusion that Acorna was a galactically

famous vid-star come to film a complimentary doc-

umentary on Kezdet's "economic miracle," but she

said nothing to dispel the idea.

"We do not film today," Acorna said loftily, "so

I amuse myself by bringing a few gifts for the chil-

dren I saw here the other day."

The manager started his practiced spiel claim-

ing that no children worked in the glass factory,

but Acorna cut him off.

"Of course, I understand perfectly, they do not

266 •--—'            ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

work here," she agreed -with a complicitous smile

and wink at the manager.

"Exactly," said the manager, returning the

wink. "They are only hanging about here to run

errands and beg meals from the generosity of the

management. As long as that is understood, there

can be no objection to the lady's kind gifts."

"They will perhaps 'run errands' more swiftly if

their feet are protected from the hot glass and bro-

ken shards in the factory," Acorna said. "Let them

come to me here and select sandals to fit each

one."

The manager frowned. "I think they will not

come. They are shy of strangers, gracious lady. It

would be best if you left the sandals here for me to

distribute."

Already he was calculating how much he could

get from Sopal's Sandalarium if he returned the

merchandise still in its original wrapping — not full

price, of course, but even a percentage of the dis-

counted cost would make a nice little addition to

his salary.

But, although the child workers in the factory

had scattered as usual when Acorna's skimmer

arrived, they were not that far away. A few of the

braver and more curious ones had lingered to

learn what they could of the new arrival, and they

spread the word to the others that the whispered

rumors were true: the Lady Epona had come to

Tondubh! Who else would care to bring sandals to

protect their burned and blistered feet?

At first slowly, by ones and twos, the children

crept out of concealment to receive their gifts from

267

the Lady Epona. At the sight of the first boys'

burned feet, Acorna's eyes narrowed to silver slits.

"Distract that man," she murmured at Judit,

nodding at the greedy manager.

Judit smiled sweetly at the manager, flirted

shamelessly, and persuaded him to take her inside

for a restorative cup of kava. The other overseers,

not to be left out, crowded after her, and Acorna

was left alone with the children for a few precious

moments.

As soon as the adults were gone, Acorna pulled

off the scarf wound about her head. At the sight of

the white horn rising from the tumble of silvery

curls on her forehead, the children murmured in

awe. A few of them dropped to their knees, all

doubt removed; the younger ones clung to her

skirts and begged her to take them away.

"I cannot take you now," Acorna said, her eye-

slits narrowing until they were almost invisible. "I

have promised . . . and I have no place for you yet.

But I will come back. And when I come, you will

not hide? You will come to me?"

The children were awed into silence as Acorna

knelt before the first boy to claim his sandals and

touched her horn to his scarred feet. When they

saw the blisters and infected cuts disappearing

under the touch of the horn, they were momentar-

ily frightened. But little Donkin jumped and

shouted in happiness.

"They doesn't hurt! They doesn't hurt any-

more ! Come on, noodle-tops, get yours!"

"Shh, shh," Acorna cautioned Donkin, and the

children quieted immediately.

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

268 -

They were so pale, so quiet, so obedient! There

was hardly any pushing and shoving as they lined

up to receive their sandals and, an even greater

gift, the healing touch of the Lady Epona's white

horn.

By the time the last child had been cared for,

Acorna was exhausted and shaking. She was

relieved by Judit's prompt reappearance from the

manager's quarters and hardly noticed Judit's

disheveled, flushed look.

"Take me home," Acorna whispered to Judit,

"I am so tired."

"With the greatest of pleasure," Judit said

between her teeth. She gave Acorna a hand into

the skimmer and leapt in after her, accidentally

stepping on the manager's hand as he reached in

to wish them farewell. "West Celtalan Riverwalk,"

she told the skimmer pilot. That would put. them

within an easy walk of the Li mansion—or a hun-

dred other wealthy homes, so anybody question-

ing the skimmer pilot later would not be sure just

where they had gone.

But Acorna fell into an exhausted slumber on

the flight back, and with resignation Judit altered

her orders and told the pilot to take them to

Delszaki Li's private landing pad.

"With pleasure," said the pilot, "and -won't

nobody find out from me where you went, nei-

ther! I thought as it must be somebody from the

CLL."

"Delszaki Li has no connection with the Child

Labor League," Judit said.

"Righty-ho," the pilot said with a cheerful

269

wink, "and I'm the president of Kezdet. Don't you

worry none, little lady. Truth to tell, I was just

fixin' to go in and get you, claiming some kinda

emergency, when you come on out of the offices.

Nice girl like you hadn't ought to be alone with

the kind of scum they use to run those factories."

"You're telling ine," Judit said with feeling. She

straightened her tunic and twisted her hair back

into its usual severe knot.

"Pulled you about some, didn't they? Like me

to go back and beat 'em up?"

Judit chuckled. "If you want to be helpful, my

friend," she said, "let's not start by getting you

thrown into a Peacetower. An anonymous skim-

mer could be useful from time to time."

"Here's my call sign," the pilot said. "Any time

you want me, just take the nearest public corn

unit and put out this sign. Double the last two

digits and I'll know it's you, see; then I'll be there

soon's I can. If it's an emergency, triple the last

two digits and I'll ditch my passengers and be

there sooner."

The children were not the only ones to hear about

Sita Ram, Lukia of the Light, and Epona: Didi

Badini did, too, and she was livid. She asked a few

questions of various informed sources and learned,

to her astonishment, that no, there was no new

bonk-shop opened with a Didi named Acorna. She

was even more annoyed to learn that' In fact, she

became obsessed with this Didi Acorna personage

and traveled all the way to Anyag to question Siri

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

270

271

Teku at length. He knew only that she had come

in a rented skimmer —

"To keep us from knowing her location, no

doubt!" Didi Badini said, tapping her elegant foot

and forgetting that the mud -would get between

her painted toes, done only that morning in silver:

a color she intended to take off the moment she

got back. Silver was definitely "out."

"Quite possibly, Didi Badini," Siri Teku said,

bobbing continuously in his desire not to alienate

one of his better customers—although in the back

of his mind -was the thought that if the mysterious

new young Didi could, indeed, heal his sickly chil-

dren, it would be worth more to cultivate her

patronage than placate this old fiend.

More aggravated than ever, Didi Badini paced her

apartment, ignoring the cool drinks and tasty tid-

bits offered to her. Only the news that a new

patron awaited her inspection diverted her from

her annoyance.

The customer introduced himself as Farkas

Hamisen, an off-planet merchant who had, he

said, been told that Didi Badini's house would

show? him the best Kezdet had to offer.

He was a handsome young man, if one over-

looked the ears that sat rather oddly on his head

and did not seem to quite match the cafe-au-lait

tone of his face. Didi Badini was far more inter-

ested in Hamisen's expensive clothes and the jew-

eled ring that twinkled on his hand; she had no

problem at all ignoring the ears, especially when

he initiated the conversation by flattering her

shamelessly. He could well believe that an estab-

lishment with such a lovely proprietor was the

finest on Kezdet, he said, but it was hard to

believe the owner did not outshine her merchan-

dise. Perhaps she would do him the honor of an

evening's conversation, just to get acquainted,

before they discussed business?

Didi Badini smilingly agreed. Surely she could

serve him better, she agreed, if she knew his tastes

and personality.

A few more fulsome compliments gained him

entree into her private rooms, where poufs of silk-

covered cushions invited visitors to relax at their

ease. Hamisen praised the room as well and said

that surely no establishment on Kezdet could

boast such a lovely lady and such luxurious set-

tings. He almost dared to confess the secret fan-

tasy that had never yet been satisfied.

"On Kezdet," Didi Badini said, smiling, "any-

thing is possible . . . for a price."

Hesitantly, almost shamefacedly, she thought,

Farkas Hamisen confessed to a fascination with

unusual girls. After some beating about the bush

Didi Badini established that "unusual" meant

deformed rather than very young.

"You have come to the right planet, my friend,"

she said, searching her memory for the children

she'd recently rejected as too odd to appeal to her

customers. There was that one-eyed child at

Anyag...

Still acting shy, Hamisen said that there was a

particular deformity that had always excited him

272

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

beyond measure, although he had only seen it in a

dream. A Didi in the next street had attempted to

satisfy him by offering a girl with an obviously

false horn pasted onto her forehead, but of course

he had been revolted by the trickery.

"You -want her7" Didi Badini gasped unguard-

edly. "I don't believe it!"

"You know of such a girl?" Farkas murmured.

"Truly I was well guided by those who recom-

mended your establishment." In fact he had been

touring the bonk-shops of Kezdet in no particular

order, amusing himself with a girl at each one -while

at the same time he pursued this inquiry for

Acorna, who -would lead him to Rafik. "Do tell me

about her."

"There are rumors of such a one," Didi Badini

said, thinking quickly. If she told Hamisen that the

horned freak was setting up as a Didi on her own

account, he would go straight to Didi Acorna and

she herself -would lose the lovely profits promised by

his clothes and ring ... as well as the pleasurable

caresses -with -which he -was entertaining her -while

they talked. She never "went" with clients anymore,

but that didn't mean she -was averse to affectionate

fondling of the kind that knowledgeable men and

women exchanged. Just now he was stroking her

hair, which she felt was her best feature: soft, silky,

curly, and without a single -white hair. He knew just

how to do it, too, -without catching his fingers or his

nails, -which she had noticed he kept properly mani-

cured.

"Only rumors?" he repeated, withdrawing the

caressing hand.

273

Then again, Didi Badini thought, if she pro-

fessed too much ignorance he might leave and

pursue his interests elsewhere. That must not be

allowed to happen! Not only would she lose the

money and the pleasure he promised, but the half-

formed plan which was floating in her mind would

never come to fruition.

"Only rumors to most people," she said, "but /

have seen her, and I ... might be able to find her

again." The thought ,of delivering her impudent

new rival to Farkas Hamisen, drugged into a state

of compliance, gave her far more pleasure than

anything Farkas Hamisen could do with those ele-

gant, long, brown hands.

"Really? You must let me know if you learn

anything else," Hamisen said in a bored tone. The

underlying message -was clear: she would have to

do better if she -wanted to retain his interest. Didi

Badini searched her memory for some scrap of

information that -would intrigue Hamisen and keep

him close to her, -without giving him enough of a

clue to actually locate this girl.

"Her bodyguard used to -work for the Li con-

sortium," she said reluctantly. "There may be some

connection there . . . but you -would be well

advised not to pursue it, my dear. Delszaki Li is

powerful, corrupt, and utterly ruthless. It -would

be too dangerous for someone who does not know

the -ways of Kezdet to inquire into House Li

affairs."

"A man does not shelter behind a -woman's

skirts," Hamisen said firmly. "How are you going

to find out about the girl?"

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

27 A

Didi Badini smiled and stroked his arm -with

one long, elegantly oval fingernail. "I have my

friends . . . here and there. Amuse yourself -with

some ordinary girls tonight, Farkas—on the

house, of course," she added hastily, "and come

back to me in a few days for more information."

She treated him to the sleepy smile that had

beguiled the elder Tondubh into parting with more

jewels than the glassworks could afford, back in

the days when she still did her own work. "You

will come back . . . won't you?"

He answered her question with one of his own.

"You will find the unicorn girl for me . . . won't

It was Gill who brought home news of the legends

that permeated Kezdet through kava shop to

bazaar and even to the sacred rooms of the

Miners' Guild. He had all he could do to keep

from pounding a few faces in for the smutty sug-

gestions about horn-nuzzling that went on. What

had Acorna done to generate such speculation?

Well, it would have to stop right now! Mr. Li's

house was impregnable, but Acorna had lately

been given to such bizarre . . . escapades . . . even

when she was supposedly being guarded and/or

chaperoned by Pal and Judit.

Then it occurred to him that maybe he had best

join any more outings, to guard Judit as well as

Acorna.

The high-pitched laughter of happy children

greeted him as he palmed his entrance to Mr.

275

Li's mansion. He stood for a moment, listening to

the enchanting mirth. Laughter was a lovely

sound and suddenly he realized that he could not

make Acorna suspend her lifesaving activities.

But the sooner they initiated the Moon project,

the better . . . the safer.

Rafik was busier than he had ever been in his life

in the spacious office which Mr. Li had given over

to him, and the use of state-of-the-art communica-

tions devices that allowed him to speed messages

to an incredible number of destinations. He was

not a member of his particular family without hav-

ing an innate natural instinct for trading. He often

wondered why he hadn't gone into that

respectable profession as his mother had wanted.

Not that he felt himself at any loss in the bargain-

ing and badgering that were part and parcel of

making successful deals. In the odd moments he

had, he decided that as a callow youth he had only

been kicking over the traces to go a-mining. And

yet, he wouldn't have had the opportunity to do

this now if he hadn't done that. Kismet!

He had managed to make contact, again

through Mr. Li's amazing network of contacts,

with a lunar engineer: an elderly man, one Martin

Dehoney, now retired, who had been responsible

for the ingenious structures that were almost com-

pulsory on moon mining installations for their

high safety factors and low budget requirement.

He was also said to be a treasure chest of innova-

tive ideas which conservative agencies, such as

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

276

large corporations and governments, -would not

consider. So, when Rafik contacted him, at first

the Architect Dehoney had demurred by virtue of

his age and debility, but Rafik's gentle persua-

sion—and the explanation that the plan would

ruin the system of Kezdet's child-bondage sys-

tem—won him over. He allowed that he had quite

a few novel ideas for moon installations which he

felt might be eminently suitable, and which some-

one of Rafik's breadth of understanding might

appreciate more than bureaucracies. To know that

some of his best work would see the light of a sun

would be very nice indeed before he slept. It took

a moment for Rafik to realize he meant the "long

sleep" of death.

To his and Mr. Li's intense gratification, a veri-

table harvest of plans, complete with specifications

(although some of these were improvements and

annexes to some of Dehoney's existing lunar facili-

ties—fascinating in themselves) arrived by special

courier three weeks later.

"It's not just the innovative design for integrat-

ing living facilities and life-support hydroponics,"

Calum marveled. "The man has an incredible

instinct for mining engineering problems! Look at

this bootstrap proposal. It's so elegant it's beauti-

ful!" He was looking at Dehoney s projected Phase

II of the lunar base. In Phase I the lunar regolith

would be raked for metal grains, which would then

be reduced to their component elements by the

gaseous carbonyl process. At the same time, a

related chemical vapor deposition process "would

be used to fabricate large-sized, ultra-hghtweight

177

mirrors from the carbonyls of iron and nickel. In

Phase II, when the regolith had been raked down

to the underlying rock, these mirrors could be used

to concentrate solar heat and break up the rock

without the use of explosives, which would have to

be imported, or mechanical drills, which as Calum

knew all too well were subject to frequent dust

clogging and friction wear in near-vacuum condi-

tions.

"And he uses by-products of the regolith benefi-

ciation to provide shielding from solar flares in the

first habitats," Gill pointed out, "then, in Phase II,

we can construct extensive living quarters in the

rocky areas we excavate. So there's very little

added cost for habitat construction and radiation

shielding." They were poring over the doubled-

domed, lock-connected habitat and hydroponics

design when Judit interrupted them to turn on

Universal News and the report of Dehoney's

demise: in his sleep.

"He must have just sent the plans off to us,"

Rafik said, awed and chagrined. Had his urgency

contributed to a fatal fatigue?

"I wouldn't have thought you could care about

such things," Judit said, giving him an odd look.

"You malign me," Rafik said, though he knew

that she had overheard him dealing rather ruth-

lessly with some suppliers. He laid one hand on

his heart, allowing his hurt to show. "I would be

callous indeed to work an old man to death. Even

if children are being done so daily here, until -we

can get this underway."

Mr. Li regarded Judit over his nose as he had a

279

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

278

habit of doing when he wished her to do some-

thing that she did not wish to do.

"My apologies, Rafik."

"We will name the main dome 'Dehoney' after

his inestimable contribution to the project," Rafik

announced, though he looked at Mr. Li for confir-

mation of this sudden •whimsy. Then, with a deep

sigh, which could be interpreted in any way she

chose, he unrolled the rest of the plans and studied

them.

With such detailed plans, even to the environ-

mental shifts as the population increased, Rafik

was able to send out tenders to the construction

firms which Gill had been checking out for

integrity and the reputation of finishing jobs on

time and within budgetary parameters. They sent

the tenders out -with a return address of the Uhuru,

so that Mr. Li's privacy -would not be invaded by

the importunate. When word of the size of this job

got out, they would be besieged by every penuri-

ous subcontractor looking to make more than his

•work was worth. Better that the office of record

be a space ship so that dock security could be

tipped to see that the worst did not gain entrance.

That meant that Rafik and Gill would have to

have a discreet and secure modem link to Mr. Li

so he could supervise affairs.

"Rafik has the energy this project has needed,"

Mr. Li said, smiling beneficently at Judit and pat-

ting her hand, "-while I can still supply the wisdom

of experience -which his young head has not yet

had time to accumulate."

Judit had just discovered the packet of disks,

part of the consignment, and, exclaiming with

delight, loaded them into the computer. Almost

instantly, the sketches became three-dimension

drawings, moving as the strained voice of Marty

Dehoney added explanation to his vision of a

lunar mining station that could also vie for use as a

holiday resort, so complete were the amenities.

"And look at this!" Gill exclaimed as Dehoney

went into his expansion plans. "To cut down the

hazard of fire, he suggests we capture small car-

bonaceous asteroids and release their nitrogen."

"Not to mention we can get sulfates and phos-

phates from the same source, if needed, to supple-

ment the lunar minerals," Calum pointed out. "If

you hadn't been so single-minded about collecting

valuable metal payloads, you'd have thought of

that yourself. We passed up plenty of carbona-

ceous chondrites in between E-types."

"I didn't notice you coming up with the sugges-

tion, either."

"Didn't need it to support a crew of four,"

Calum said smugly. "If we'd been trying to sta-

bilize life-support and atmospheric systems for

an entire colony, naturally I would have men-

tioned it."

"Oh, naturally," Gill drawled with heavy irony.

They were still viewing the comprehensive

disks when Pal came to announce that dinner was

ready. On noticing their intent faces, he very

quickly called down to ask the butler to hold the

meal for at least half an hour.

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

280

Tapha's tongue stuck out between his pinched lips

as he -worked his -way through the cipher program

built into his personal corn. His father was so

stupidly old-fashioned, requiring all his operatives

to use a cipher that depended on recalling large

chunks of the Books of the Three Prophets from

memory. He'd probably have a fit if he knew that

Tapha had reprogrammed his personal corn to gen-

erate enciphered messages automatically, always

using the First Verse of the First Book as the key . ..

and even so, there was more hands-on labor

involved than Tapha cared for. When he took over

the organization, one of the first changes he'd make

would be to modernize the communications sys-

tem, using an automatic encryptor instead of this

cumbersome system. Hafiz was overly concerned

about security, anyway. Why, Tapha had been

using the same encryption key for every message

he sent from Kezdet, and there was no sign that

any of them had been broken.

Nor was there any sign that any of them had

been received, though he knew they must have

been. Hafiz was just being mean and petty, refusing

to advance the credits necessary for Tapha to live in

the style befitting the heir to the Hafiz Harakamian

empire, forcing him to sell off one by one the jewels

he'd collected when he fled. Well, all that would

change now. With satisfaction Tapha completed the

encrypted message telling his father that he had

located his prized unicorn girl and would return

her . . . for a price. He could not resist adding the

cryptic comment that he had also found the way to

solve another family problem here on Kezdet.

281

Without help! Well, without very much help, any-

way. Didi Badim's mention of House Li had been

enough of a clue for Tapha to locate Acorna and

Rafik on his own. He wouldn't need to go back to

her for information . . . though he might go back for

his own amusement.

After handing in his message at one of the

public comsuites on the main streets of Celtalan,

Tapha went on his way to arrange the solution of

that nagging family problem. How proud his

father would be when he learned that Tapha had

not only recaptured the unicorn girl but had also

revenged the trickery practiced on their house by

Cousin Rafik! More to the point, with Rafik safely

out of the way, there would be no more plots to do

Tapha out of his rightful position as his father's

heir apparent. This time Tapha did not intend to

make any stupid, impulsive moves, such as the

attack at the restaurant . . . although that dhouQ

have worked; he still couldn't figure out how

Rafik could have moved fast enough to avoid tak-

ing even one blast of laser fire. No matter. This

time his disguise would allow him to get close

enough to make absolutely sure that Rafik was

quite thoroughly dead.

And once that little matter had been cleared up,

he had only to wait until his father's emissaries

arrived with enough credits to make it worth his

while to tell them where the unicorn girl was. No

need to put himself to the effort of capturing her;

that was work for subordinates. He, Tapha, was the

mastermind behind the plan, and that was quite

enough. No, he would simply relax at Didi Badini's

282

283

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

until Hafiz responded to this latest news. The old

bat would give him anything for a few kisses and

sweet words . . . and when he was ready for some-

thing fresher, he would offer to help train this new

acquisition, the scarred girl from the mines. An

enjoyable way to wile away the days of waiting, and

one advantage accrued to this child, since she was

already marked, was that presumably the Didi

•wouldn't care if she acquired a few more scars dur-

ing "training." There'd be no need to be careful as he

had been ever since that unfortunate accident with'

the joy-toy girl on Theloi.

As was routine on Kezdet, Tapha's latest message

and all other messages with off-planet tags were

routed through a Guardians of the Peace office on

their way to their final destination. Ed Minkus

browsed through the day's mail list with a casual

eye out for any interesting anomalies or potential

profits, stopping at the obviously encrypted mes-

sage purporting to concern differing religious

interpretations of the First Verse of the First

Prophet.

"Hey, Des," he called to his partner, "here's

some more crap from that Tapha guy. You know?

The one with the funny-looking ears who keeps

writing home for money and uses the same

encryption key every time."

"So?" Des grunted. "Unless he actually geU

some money, he's no use to us."

"This one is something different." Ed activated

the decryption program and scanned the cleartext

as it appeared on the screen. "He's found some-

thing valuable . . . might be worth a cut of the

action . . . oh, and it looks as if he's planning to

assassinate some guy named Nadezda."

"Nadezda?" Des rolled out of his chair and into

a standing position over Ed in one savage move-

ment. "Nadezda! He can't do that! That triple-

timing, two-tailed miner is mine! Nobody kills

Nadezda before I get mine back on him!"

Delszaki Li's payment of the "fines" owed by

Calum, Gill, and Rafik to Kezdet had left Des

"without official excuse to persecute the miners,

but with none of his original lust for vengeance

diminished in the slightest.

"Well, then," Ed replied mildly, "we'll just have

to stop this Tapha before he gets there, won't we?"

The vid-screen in a corner of Didi Badini's luxuri-

ously furnished sitting room transmitted only a

jagged pattern of neon flashes that made the Didi's

head hurt.

"Drop the bloody scramble, can't you? It hurts

my eyes—and it's not as if I'd never seen you

before." Immediately she made that last comment,

the Didi regretted it. It was not wise to remind the

Piper that you were one of the few people on

Kezdet who had seen his face . . . even if you had

no idea where in the ranks of Kezdet's techno-

aristocracy he led his "real" life.

"I have already been careless enough," a dry voice

whispered from the speaker grill surrounding the

screen, "accompanying you to that mine. And for

284 --—^             ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

what? First sight of a pretty girl-child whom you

managed to lose before she was back in your house!"

Didi Badini cringed at the anger in the whisper-

ing voice and forbore to remind the Piper that he,

too, had been in the skimmer when that little beast

Khetala distracted them and gave Chiura her chance

to run away. Never mind. She dared not express her

anger at the Piper, but she could take it out on

Khetala later. The brat had been locked below long

enough to take the fight out of her; now she would

turn her over to Tapha to break her.

"A thousand apologies, master," she said, swal-

lowing her rage at this unfair criticism. "How may

I serve you now?"

"There are rumors—" the voice whispered,

while neon-green and bile-yellow stripes crawled

and writhed across the vid-screen, "rumors that

the goddess of some children's cult walks the soil

of Kezdet. She has a thousand names but only one

face, long and narrow, with a horn like a unicorn's

sprouting from her forehead."

"Didi Acorna!" Did! Badini sat upright on her

pile of cushions. "I knew she was no true Didi, for

none of the sisterhood knew of her!"

"Didi, goddess, what does it matter?" the Piper

interrupted her. "The tales they are spreading of

her healing powers are gross exaggeration, but that

does not matter, either. What matters is that the

children believe. The Child Labor League and that

malcontent Li are stirring up enough trouble now;

•we do not need some goddess cult serving as the

focal point for more resistance. This horned freak

must disappear. And I must not be seen to be

285

involved in it. I will not have my official position

compromised."

Didi Badini's plump, powdered face creased in

an unpleasant smile. "Nothing," she assured the

Piper, "would give me more pleasure. And there

need be no hint of politics about the removal,

either. For impersonating a sister without paying

dues to our guild, she has already earned punish-

ment. And there are those who would pay well for

that horn of hers; powdered unicorn's horn is an

aphrodisiac of unparalleled power."

"But will removal of the horn kill her?" asked

the voice, like dry leaves rustling.

"I think we can be sure of that little point," said

Didi Badini, smiling as the vid-screen display

abruptly went gray.

Then her face sagged with relief. She might not

be able to see the Piper, but she knew he could

watch and interpret every change of expression on

her face. A little longer, and she might have been

rash enough to let him find out exactly how she

proposed to locate this Didi Acorna. She saw no

need to tell him that she counted on young Tapha

to lead her to the girl. The Piper might think that he

could more profitably deal with Tapha directly . . .

and Didi Badini had not been lying when she

mentioned the resale value of a unicorn's horn.

She had customers whose natural powers were

failing, to be revived only by some special treat

such as a very young virgin or the whipping of a

recalcitrant girl; they would pay handsomely for

this by-product of Acorna's death.

Tapha gave his borrowed dock

workers coveralls a last nervous

hitch and strode through the

workers' gate to the spaceport, giving the security

guard a jaunty wave as he passed. He could

scarcely conceal his jubilation. The disguise had

worked! The coveralls were a gift from Didi

Badini, who had bought them from a lower-class

Didi whose establishment of aging ladies was

patronized by the poorer dock mechanics and by

transients who knew no better. It had been a sim-

ple matter for Didi Hamida to slip a trank into one

of her clients' drinks, remove his uniform while he

slept, and subsequently remove his unclothed

body to a gutter some distance from her establish-

ment.

Women helped him, Tapha thought as he

paced down the cavernous hangar where ships in

for repairs were being disassembled and worked

on. He definitely had a way with women . . . and

Acorna 287

once this little job was taken care of, he looked

forward to returning to Didi Badini's establish-

ment to have his way with the new girl.

Experienced women were all very well, but there

was nothing quite like the young and untouched . . .

and if they were frightened as well, that added

spice to the encounter.

"Hey, you!" a real mechanic bawled at him.

"Get me a hydraulic splitter! Not that way, you

idiot," he went on as Tapha sauntered on his way.

"Stores are the other side of the hangar!"

Tapha waved and mouthed something intended

to be totally unintelligible. The mechanic shrugged

in disgust, said something to his mates about

fardling idiot foreigners who didn't even speak

Basic properly and what was the Guild coming to,

and went to get his own hydraulic splitter—-what-

ever that might be. Tapha neither knew nor cared,

but he quickened his pace so as to reach the

Uhlirus, docking space outside the hangar before

anybody else could delay him. It would be a real

pity if the fiendish cunning of his new disguise and

improved weaponry were spoiled by encountering

somebody who expected him to actually know

about mechanicals. Tapha patted the sagging

pocket of his coveralls and grinned. This time

there would be no possibility of a miss.

From a borrowed office high on the hangar

wall, Des Smirnoff and Ed Minkus watched

Tapha's sauntering progress. "Idiot thinks he got

through the security check by dressing up like a

mech," Ed commented. "He doesn't even guess

that we had the weaponry and retinal scanners

288

Acorna                               289

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

turned off and told the guard not to check IDs

when the little guy with the funny ears showed up.

Why 3Q we let him through the check, anyway?

Would've been easier to've picked him up there.

Or did you change your mind about letting him off

Nadezda for you ? "

"Hell, no," Des replied, "but he hasn't done any-

thing illegal yet. He hasn't even cheated the scan-

ners, since they were turned off. It would be

exceeding our charter as Guardians of the Peace to

stop a man who, for all we know, is paying an inno-

cent family visit."

"And very nice that'll sound if there's an

inquiry," Ed applauded. "Now what's the real rea-

son?"

Des gave a wolfish grin. "It won't hurt to put a

bit of a scare into Nadezda before we take this one

out. Besides, if we stop a suspicious-looking char-

acter at the gate and Find unlawful arms on him,

we're just doing our duty. If we shoot him down

just in time to prevent an assassination attempt,

we're Heroes of the Republic."

Ed sighed. "You already got your money back.

Now you want revenge on Nadezda a,n3 a Hero of

the Republic medal? Ever hear the story of the

fisherman's wife who wished to be pope?"

"Pope who?"

"Never mind. He's coming into range now; let's

see if the scanners can pick up just what he's car-

rying in that bulging left pocket." Ed activated the

beams, focused them, and gave a long, low whistle.

"Holy Kezdet . . . we shouldn't have disabled the

weapons scanners at the main gate."

"We didn't want him stopped for carrying a

pocket laser or something like that," Des reminded

him.

"Pocket laser! Ha! The idiot's got a tungsten

bomb in there!"

"You're kidding!"

"Wish I were. Here—take a look at the read-

ing."

Des glanced at the scanner screens and

blanched. "He didn't mention this was a suicide

mission. If that thing goes off, he won't only get

Nadezda. He'll blow up the bloody ship!"

"He'll blow up the •whole bloody hangar," Ed

corrected him.

"Maybe the whole spaceport."

"A chunk of West Celtalan."

"Hero of the Republic," Ed said, "is not what

they're going to hang around your neck for letting

this one through, boyo."

"If we don't stop him," Des said tersely, "I

won't have a neck left for them to hang me by.

And if he sees us, he might panic and set the thing

off prematurely. . . . Hell, he's so dumb he might

set it off by accident anyway!"

Both men were jogging down the internal secu-

rity hall by the middle of this conversation, so well

attuned to each others' thoughts and reactions that

they didn't even need to discuss what to do next. If

they could round two sides of the hangar and cut

off Tapha before he reached the Uhuru, if one of

them could get a clear shot at him, they just might

be able to save themselves and a largish chunk of

West Celtalan from molecular disintegration.

290 --~'             ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

"Alarm?" puffed Ed as they passed a security

station.

"Nope. Don't "want to startle him." Des was in

no better shape than his colleague, but his

adrenaline high was enough to keep him from feel-

ing out of breath yet.

They made it to their target corner with sec-

onds to spare, Ed leading. He drew his stunner,

peered around the wall, and swore. "Too many

fardling workers in the way. I can't get a clear

shot."

"Screw? the workers," Des said. "They'd rather

be shot in passing than disintegrated by a tungsten

bomb, wouldn't they?" He leaned over Ed's

crouching form, utilizing every advantage of his

superior height and reach, and squeezed off a

series of narrow-band stunner shots without even

seeming to pause to take aim.

"Got him," he said with satisfaction, and

sprinted for Tapha's fallen form to defuse the

bomb, Ed close behind. "Let's hope it's a standard

arming device," he said, reaching into the baggy

pocket they had spotted as containing the •weapon.

"Be a damn shame to lose the hands that have

such perfect aim to a misfired tungsten bomb."

"This thing goes off," Ed said sourly, "you'll

never have time to miss your hands." He knelt

over Tapha and watched, breath held, as Des

twirled the combination detonator on the tungsten

bomb without a trace of nervousness. Three clicks,

an agonizing pause, and then the bones of Ed's

skull registered the cessation of the almost sublim-

inal buzzing that had signaled an armed tungsten

291

bomb ready to detonate on signal. Now for the

first time he noticed the people around them; the

crowd of mechs shouting misinformation at one

another, and two of the miners pushing their way

through the crowd. Rafik Nadezda was the first to

reach them.

"Hey," Rafik said, looking down, "that's—"

"A tungsten bomb," Des Smirnoff said, rising

to his feet with the dismantled halves of the bomb,

one in each hand. "Whoever this was really didn't

like you, Nadezda—even more than I don't like

you. You owe me one. Another one," he said •with

heavy meaning.

"I was about to say," said Rafik with dignity,

"that's my cousin, Tapha."

"You got the tense -wrong," Des said with a

tight-lipped smile. "That w<u your cousin Tapha. I

set my stunner on max when I got a maniac with

an armed tungsten bomb wandering around the

port, Nadezda, and he took half a dozen shots to

the head. Fried his brains." He thought that over.

"His hypothetical brains."

"How did he get past security?" somebody

wondered aloud.

"These terrorists are fiendishly cunning," Des

said, raising his voice to roar over the noise of the

crowd.

"Terrorists?" Gill repeated. "I thought it was a

personal — "

"The Guardians of the Peace have been watch-

ing this man for some time," Des said loudly. "We

have reason to believe he is closely associated with

the Child Labor League, those notorious terrorists

292

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

293

who are doing their best to •wreck the economy of

our happy, peaceful, and productive planet."

Gill's face turned as red as his beard. Rafik

stepped backward and landed heavily on his toe.

"A happy end to an unfortunate situation," he

said over Gill's rumblings of anger. "Allow me to

congratulate you on your prompt handling of the

crisis. Guardian Smirnoff. And—er—that little

episode on the asteroid was a mistake. We had no

idea you would be marooned there for any length

of time. I owe you an apology for that incident."

Smirnoff's face darkened. "You owe me more

than an apology," he said under his breath, "and I

still intend to collect, Nadezda. Later!"

"How about a formal report and recommenda-

tion that you be nominated as a Hero of the

Republic?" Rafik suggested in equally low tones.

"You've definitely earned it today."

Smirnoff paused, visibly undecided.

"And no inquiry as to how this . . . terrorist . . .

made it through security," Rafik added.

"You can pull that off?"

"An off-planet miner may not have that much

influence," said Rafik, "but the heir to the

Harakamian Empire has."

"You?"

Rafik stood looking down at Tapha's body, his

face expressionless. "I am now. You'll permit me to

collect his personal effects?" he added after a

moment's silence. "I should have something to

send to his father."

"Go right ahead," Des offered. "And—"

Rafik's lips curved slightly. "I won't forget the

report, no. Congratulations—Hero of the

Republic!"

Calum missed the excitement of Tapha's second

assassination attempt, as he had missed most of

what was going on around him since Dr. Zip pro-

duced the results of his study. Zip had concen-

trated on the sector of space nearest where Acorna

was found and had been downcast to report that

the upsilon-V studies of stars in that sector

showed a very low chance of any primary produc-

ing planets rich in the precise mix of metals used

in the pod, a report that was borne out by the

mass diffusion imaging of the nearest JM-type stars

and their planets.

But Calum rather thought Zip, in his pride at

being able to report the constituents of distant

planets through new technology, had overlooked a

few things. The one sure thing they knew about

Acorna's people was that they had a sophisticated

space-faring system. If he and Gill and Calum

could take rhenium from the asteroid Daffodil to

make solar thermal-thrust chambers on Theloi,

why couldn't Acorna's people also have mined a

number of systems to collect the metals for this

alloy?

That concept turned the problem of locating

Acorna's home world from a straightforward task

of astrophysical analysis to a complex optimization

program requiring sophisticated operations

research techniques.

"You see," Calum had explained to Gill when

294

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

he started working on the program, "we are also

going to assume, going from what we know of

Acorna, that her people are not stupid or wasteful.

They wouldn't go farther than necessary to get

their metals. So first I have to use Zip's data to

design a program to find all the subsets of stars

within a given volume of space that would, collec-

tively, provide the necessary substances, then, for

each such subset, find the M-type planet that most

nearly approaches an optimal location for all the

required mining missions."

"Hey," Rafik said, "if Zip can come up with

planetary emissions studies for all these systems,

why don't we use him to locate good mining areas

for us?"

"Costs too much," Calum said. "You wouldn't

believe what Li has spent on this problem already."

He quoted figures until even Rafik reluctantly

agreed that it wouldn't be cost-effective to retain

Zip's services as a prospector.

"But," he said, brightening, "he has already

produced all this data in search of Acorna, has he

not? Surely there would be no objection to our

using it for other purposes?"

"Probably not," Calum agreed. He was rather

annoyed at the way his friends kept missing the

point. Who cared about mining? He wanted them

to appreciate his elegant approach to the problem

of identifying Acorna's home. "I'm treating the

entire collection of stars as overlapping subsets,

each containing one or more M-types. By the

Axiom of Choice, there must be — "

Rafik had left abruptly then, muttering some-

295

thing about mad dogs and mathematicians.

Calum was a bit surprised that Rafik didn't share

his joy in the beauties of applied linear program-

ming, but then it took all sorts, didn't it?

Whistling under his breath, he commandeered

one of the parallel-processing units used by the

banking branch of the Li consortium, raided

another branch for statistical analysis software

that could be perverted to serve his ends, and

proceeded to put together his very own astro-

nomical and mining optimization program. For

the past weeks his conversation at mealtimes had

been limited to cryptic statements such as, "I'd

have it done if I didn't have to put the data struc-

tures from all these different bloody star charts

into canonical form first," or, "No, the fact that

it's in an infinite loop doesn't mean the program

doesn't work; it just entered a state with which I

was previously unfamiliar." And whenever Judit

would let him get away with it, he skipped meals

altogether in favor of a quick snack that he could

eat one-handed while gliding through visual dis-

plays of his program in the windowless room

dedicated to the project.

Now, at last, he was getting results. Inconclu-

sive, maybe, but results. He barely heard Gill's

excited account of the assassination attempt and

its aftermath. "Tapha's dead? Good, that's one less

person after us."

"And I think Rafik's squared Des Smirnoff. So

the Guardians of the Peace won't be bothering us,

either. Calum, you should have seen Smirnoff

defusing that tungsten bomb! The man may be a

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

296

corrupt cop, but he can take a place on my bomb

squad any day. Talk about nerves of steel!"

"Mmm. Good job he defused it," Calum said,

nodding over the latest printout. "A bomb like that

could've caused a power outage as far as here,

couldn't it? I could've lost a lot of data."

Gill suggested that Calum take his data and do

something anatomically improbable -with it, then

stomped off to find a more appreciative audience.

Calum barely registered his disappearance; he was

thinking about ways to narrow down the long list

of possible planets to check out. The trouble with

his brainstorm was that they'd gone from zero

possibles to over a hundred, none of them conve-

niently close. Of course, they wouldn't be clwe. He

snorted at his own na'i'vete. If they were nearby weVve

met Awrna J people by now. And he might not be able

to rule out any of this long list of possibles, but he

could rank them for the search by running a sec-

ond optimization, this time minimizing the total

travel time and distance required. It would be a

simple variant of the classic traveling-salesman

problem.

The only trouble was, then what? Calum

longed to test his results, and the only way he

could see to do that was to go and look for him-

self. Delszaki Li would probably be willing to

retrofit the Uhuru with superdrives that would

minimize the travel time. But it would still be a

tive-year project just to check out the nearest

group of possible planets. How could he abandon

his buddies and take their ship for five years?

Rafik and Gill nee3e3 him; neither of them was

297

enough of a mathematician to manage subspace

navigation on his own.

Calum came out of his particular haze when he

realized he had not seen Rafik and, at breakfast,

asked if Rafik was living aboard the Uhuru.

Acorna giggled. "I told you that eventually he

would notice," she said to Mr. Li, who was smiling

benignly on her.

"Well? Is he?" He addressed this query to Gill.

"In a manner of speaking, he is," Gill replied

around a mess of kippered herrings which Mr. Li

had imported especially for him. Though Calum

was as British in origin as himself, the mathemati-

cian did not like kippered herrings.

Waiting for Gill to continue, he even wrinkled

his nose as the reek of the delicacy wafted in his

direction.

"He's on a sorrowful mission," Acorna said,

giggling again.

Calum wished she wouldn't giggle. It wasn't

like his Acorna. She had never been silly, but

maybe it was part of the girlish things that Judit

was teaching her. Although he couldn't remember

Judit giggling.

"What?" and Calum addressed this inquiry to

Mr. Li as the only sensible member at the dining

table.

"His cousin, Tapha," Mr. Li supplied.

"Can no one give me a straight answer?"

Calum complained.

"Considering that all we've had out of you

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

298

recently has been either statistical probabilities or

astronomical variables," Judit said, a touch pee-

vishly, "a straight answer is improbable, isn't it?"

Then she relented as Calum did indeed look hurt

and had been trying so hard to locate Acorna's

home world. "He decided he'd better take Tapha's

ashes back to Uncle Hafiz and explain how he met

his death."

"Oh!" Calum digested this along with several

mouthfuls of a delightful breakfast omelet before

he let his fork fall from his hand. "But he's now his

uncle's heir."

"We know," Judit replied.

"Will he come back at all? Gill said something

about Rafik Rnally finding his element in all the

trading he's had to do for the Moon Mines."

Gill glowered at him. "He won't leave us until

he's finished that, because that will prove to

Hafiz that he's really sown his wild oats and is

ready to settle down and represent House Hara-

kamian."

"Oh!" Calum said, digesting that before he

picked up his fork. "Yes, it would rather, wouldn't

it? But Rafik wouldn't do that, would he? Not yet,

when we haven't finished the moon base or found

Acorna's planet."

"I don't think he would," Gill said, half his

mind on getting the last flake of kippered herring

onto his fork and into his mouth.

Pal entered, looking concerned. "I just heard

that Hafiz Harakamian's fastest ship docked here

this morning, in fact, in the berth the Uhuru •was,

using."

Acorna

299

"Uh-oh," Gill said, looking at Acorna. "That

idiot son of his must have told him you're here."

"How could he know?" Acorna was dismayed.

"How could he know?" And Gill went falsetto

in mimicry. "Because you've been doing your Lady

of the Lights and the healed -wounds and purified

water act all over Celtalan is how he knows. How

many unicorn horns are there on Kezdet?" He

stood, throwing down his napkin, the bristles of his

beard trembling with sincerity. "And I'm going to

stick as close to you as your shadow."

"Oh, good, when Calum goes back to his com-

puters, we can go out. I have just a little errand to

do. I would have asked Pal, but he's doing some-

thing for Mr. Li, and I have a call in to Pedir," she

spared a glance at the elegant antique carriage

clock on the mantelpiece, "and he will be here

shortly. Do say you'11 come?"

"You better go," Calum said, "because I haven't

spent hours, days ..."

"Weeks?" Judit put in, grinning from him to

Gill.

". . . trying to locate where you came from, to

let Uncle Hafiz get you first."

"So Pedir found out where she is?" Judit

asked.

Acorna nodded. "He's been so helpful."

Judit looked as if she were about to add some-

thing, then saw the belligerent look on Gill's face.

"I can't come this morning." She turned to Mr. Li.

"We have that appointment with the head of the

Public Works about proving the moon base design

meets code."

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

300

301

"That sounds like an engineering problem,"

Gill objected.

"It's politics," Judit said. "He knows the base

design is safe, and he knows -we know it. At this

stage, Delszaki doesn't need an engineer to reiter-

ate the facts and get red in the face. He needs a

psycholinguist to maneuver the talks the right

way."

"You mean, Kezdet's objecting?" Gill asked, for

he'd heard rumors which Rafik had discounted.

"Nothing that can't be discreetly settled, my

boy," Mr. Li said, and moved his hover-chair back

from the table. "Come along, Judit. Gill, I'd rather

you accompanied Acorna and Nadhari since Judit

cannot."

"As you wish, Mr. Li," Gill said, but he wasn't

looking forward to it. Nadhari Kando wasn't his

idea of a pleasant female companion for an excur-

sion. "You'll be safe with me." Actually, he didn't

think they needed Nadhari at all, but it was better

to be safe than sorry.

He could add that to Calum's list of famous last

words. Climbing into Pedir's skimmer—he'd met

the man previously, since his vehicle seemed to be

constantly in use by Judit and Acorna for their

"shopping trips"—he had no idea where they were

going. Pedir started right in telling Acorna about

some very useful items he heard were going for

nothing in the market which he thought she

should check out. That ought to have warned Gill,

but he was thinking about Tapha and Rafik and

worrying that Rafik's wily uncle might somehow

hold him on Laboue, and the Li Moon Mining

Company Ltd. might grind to a halt. Rafik had so

much in his head and not on paper that it would

take Gill months to catch up if Rafik didn't return

in a timely fashion.

He was roused out of his contemplation when

Pedir landed the skimmer, and Gill was astonished

to find themselves in the very -worst possible

neighborhood.

"You will wait in the skimmer," Nadhari told

Acorna. "I will fetch the girl."

"She won't come to you," Acorna said.

Nadhari bared her teeth. "She will if I tell her

to." She slipped out of the skimmer, which barely

fit in the narrow courtyard where they had landed,

and trod through puddles of slime to where a short

flight of stairs led to a basement door in the wall.

She tapped a special sequence; the door opened a

crack, then swung shut again.

"Wait, wait!" Acorna cried, scrambling after

Nadhari. "They don't know you! She's afraid!

You'll have to go back to the skimmer!"

"Delszaki Li ordered me to protect you."

Nadhari planted her booted heels firmly in the

mud and glared at Acorna. "You go, I go."

"Nobody's going in," Acorna said patiently.

Gill thought it was time he joined the discus-

sion. "Acorna, acushia, this is not exactly a shop-

ping trip, is it? Want to tell me what's going on?"

Acorna looked at her feet. "Not really."

"Not good enough," Gill said sternly.

Acorna drew a deep breath. "Well..."

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

303

302

The door creaked on its hinges. "You talk too

long!" whispered a woman. She put her face to the

open crack, where the daylight cruelly illuminated

the shiny red burn scars that disfigured the right

side of her face from cheekbone to chin. "Someone

will come! The lady must come in and pay the

price. No one else."

There was a moment of tense bargaining, as

both Gill and Nadhari initially refused to allow

Acorna to go into the dark rooms at all, and the

person on the other side of the door wanted them

to go back to the skimmer, and Nadhari clearly

wanted to blast her way into the rooms and take

whatever it was Acorna had come for with no

more talking. Finally a compromise was reached:

Nadhari and Acorna were allowed in while Gill

waited outside.

"We are only women here," the veiled figure

had said. "Only women come in."

"And if they think that makes them safe," Gill

muttered, pacing the short length of the courtyard

and back again, three strides each way, "they obvi-

ously don't recognize dear Nadhari."

There was a cry from inside, then the door bolt

snicked, the door was flung back, and Acorna s

arm pushed a very young girl out of the entry. Her

arm did not follow? as he hoped, but was yanked

back inside.

"They'll kill her," the child squeaked, and man-

aged to jam her foot in the door. She cried out

with pain as the closing door compressed her foot,

but only for a heartbeat; then Gill had his shoulder

to the door, forcing it open again.

The sudden change from light to darkness star-

tled him. He had a confused impression of figures

struggling in the confined space. Was that

Acorna? He was afraid to move for fear of hurting

her or Nadhari.

An elbow jammed into his solar plexus and Gill

backed up two steps, banging into the door. "Be

some use, can't you!" Nadhari's low rough voice

excoriated him. "Open the fardling door!"

Gill pulled the door open, and the daylight

showed him that at least two of the figures he'd

seen were going to give nobody any trouble. Two

men lay on the floor, one with a trickle of blood

coming from his open mouth, the other staring

wide-eyed and blank at the ceiling. Acorna was

breathing hard. Nadhari was not. In the light from

the open door, her right hand flicked and sent a

knife into the shoulder of the young woman who'd

insisted that Acorna come inside.

"Don't hurt her!" Acorna cried.

"It was a trap," Nadhari s toneless voice grated.

"You have paid the price. Now come, before there

is more trouble."

Gill could see that the woman's face, though

contorted with pain, was now smooth with new

clean skin where the burns had disfigured her

before. "I didn't mean for you to be trapped," she

cried to Acorna. "They must have followed me."

Nadhari made a sound of disgust and took

Acorna's arm, pushing her out of the door.

The child in the courtyard had been trying

to get back in to help, but now she was hinder-

ing their escape by blocking the door. Gill

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

304

swooped her up in one arm, pushed Acorna

toward the stairs with the other, and was up the

stairs, down the alley, and into the skimmer in

seconds.

They were actually in and Pedir was making a

hasty lift out of the courtyard when more figures

erupted out of the basement. The child started

shrieking, clinging to Acorna.

"They'll get me. They'll get me," she cried.

"Who?" Then Gill did a double-take on one of

the male figures who had joined in the futile

attempt to catch the rising skimmer. "By all the

saints, that's Uncle Hafiz!"

"Uncle Hafiz?" Acorna swiveled round, but the

courtyard and its occupants were now out of sight

and Pedir had pushed the speed bar as far forward

as it would go, kicking the skimmer into full

power.

"So, after all, Tapha told him you were here?

And there's Rafik trying to make a good impres-

sion on Uncle!" Gill gave a snort of exasperation.

"Where was that? And who's this?" He decided

these were safer topics than speculating about

Rafik's annoyance when he discovered that Hafiz

was here and might even know that his son had

been trying to kill his nephew. Or maybe that

wouldn't surprise him.

"This—" Acorna smiled proudly down at the

young girl who -was hugging her rescuer's waist in

a stranglehold, still chanting her litany, "she'll get

me/he'll get me" "—this is Khetala, who saved

Jana and so many of the children and guarded

them as best she could until Didi Badini took her

305

away. And we've taken her away from Didi

Badini!"

"That won't help now," Khetala blurted. "He's

after you and the Piper always kills those he's after."

"The Piper?" Pedir said, noticeably blanching.

"The Piper?" Acorna's tone held contempt and

^m

scorn.

"The Piper?" Gill asked, wanting to under-

stand the diverse reactions.

"He's the one who's supposed to be behind the

child bondage schemes here on Kezdet . . ."

Acorna began.

"He is," Pedir said in an awed tone, jiggling the

controls to get more speed out of the skimmer as

he aimed it toward the nearest congregation of

vehicles exactly like his.

"But we have Khetala now and she's safe with

me," Acorna said.

"I'm not sure I am," Gill said, and sucked his

bloody knuckles.

"Did you have a chance ... I mean ..." Pedir

floundered and craned his head around to look at

Acorna.

"Of course, I did. That was the bargain, wasn't

it?" Acorna said stoutly.

Gill decided that since Pedir seemed to care

what happened to the scarred girl, it might not be

tactful to mention that they had left her with a

knife through her shoulder and suspected her of

setting them up. Nadhari and Acorna seemed to

be working through the same thought processes,

for they were both silent on the trip back. For

Acorna, at least, that was unusual.

306

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

ficorna.

307

They reached Delszaki Li's home to discover that

the population had been augmented by one that

very morning, and a three-way fight was raging in

the entrance hall.

"Now what?" Pal demanded, taking in their

disheveled condition and the girl clutching Acorna

like a life-preserver. "Oh, never mind, don't tell

me. I've got enough trouble this morning already,

what with Mercy running out on her job."

"I'm Mrry, Pal," said the slender young woman

facing him. Her delicate yet firm features and the

thick braid of dark hair that hung down her back

reminded Gill of Judit, though this girl wasn't half

as pretty. Her dark eyes didn't flash like Judit's,

and she didn't have Judit's way of tilting her chin

up just before charging into battle. "I know you—

we—need the information I was getting from the

Guardians' office. But there wasn't going to be

much more information that way. Not through me.

Even Des Smirnoff noticed eventually that there

were too many people named Kendoro around

him. You and Judit haven't exactly been keeping a

low profile, you know. Smirnoff and Minkus

started being careful what they said around me last

week. Today I came in to find they'd changed the

passwords on all their files . . . and then I saw one

of those windowless skimmers from Interrogation

on the landing pad. I had to get out. I'm not brave

like you and Judit, you know that. If they took me

to Interrogation, I don't know what I might have

told them."

Surrounded by unknown people, Khetala

clung with bruising fingers to Acorna. She quietly

led the child away to the kitchen, hoping that the

probably unusual experience of having all she

wanted to eat would soothe and reassure her.

"Stop apologizing!" Calum snorted. He put one

arm round Mercy's shoulders, as if to hold her

upright. "I've heard about some of the methods

Interrogation uses. One jab of the needle and you

spill all, no matter how you try to keep from talk-

ing. I doubt I could stand up against them myself.

You did exactly the right thing—not just for your-

self, but for all of us—by getting out before they

could take you." He glared at Pal. "What were you

thinking of, to let the kid stay there at all after

they started suspecting her?"

"I had no reason to think she was under suspi-

cion," Pal said stiffly, "and the inside information

she has provided on Guardians of the Peace activi-

ties has been invaluable. She's warned three of our

field agents to get out before the Guardians could

break up the hedgerow schools they were running

for factory children and arrest our people."

"With that kind of record, even the Guardians

would have had to figure out there was a fly on

the office wall somewhere," Calum exclaimed.

"What was your plan: save the field agents and

sacrifice the local one?"

"There was no need for any suspicion to have

fallen on Mercy if she had been discreet," Pal said.

"Discreet? Didn't you listen to the girl? It was

her name, not her actions, that got her in trou-

ble," Calum said, blithely reversing his previous

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

308

argument. "If you two hadn't been taking Acorna

all over Kezdet to stir up trouble, maybe it

•wouldn't be so dangerous for her to be a Kendoro."

"Were you followed here. Mercy?" Pal asked,

ignoring Calum.

The girl shivered. "I don't know. I don't think

so. ... I used the old route, through East Celtalan,

and then the tunnels under the Riverwalk Park."

"Let's hope you haven't compromised it, then."

Calum snorted. "Pal, if the Guardians are

watching out for people named Kendoro, you can

be sure they've got a watch on this house. What

difference does it make whether Mercy was fol-

lowed? The house is already under surveillance.

But they're hardly likely to break into Delszaki

Li's private residence to get a girl who's committed

no crimes . . . are they?"

At this point Judit returned from her appoint-

ment with the head of Public Works and entered

the fray.

"Pal, leave Mercy alone!" Judit commanded.

"She's had the hardest job of any of us, and if she

says it was time for her to clear out, the least you

can do is trust her judgment."

Pal threw up his hands. "I give up! Two big sis-

ters in one household is more than any man should

be expected to take."

"Fine," Judit retorted, "next time you can go

and talk to the Public Works Department. Tumlm

Viggers is refusing to certify our base on Maganos

for colonization. He says it's an untried technology

and the architect needs to come to Kezdet to

explain his plans in person."

Acorna

309

"The architect happens to be dead!" Gill

exclaimed.

"Precisely. It's a stalling maneuver." Judit

frowned. "Usually that means they want more

bribes. But Viggers didn't hear any of Delszaki's

hints in that direction. Maybe he really doesn't

understand the base design. It is a radical depar-

ture from standard practice in some ways . . . and

Kezdets Public Works Department doesn't even

have any experience with standard space environ-

ment designs."

Delszaki Li had steered his hover-chair in

behind Judit and had been watching the argument

with quiet amusement.

"Perhaps would be wise for some people to go

to Maganos," he suggested. "Report, please, on

how lunar base construction progresses; demon-

strate success of habitat and ecological system."

"I'll go," Gill said. "Rafik may not be back for a

while, and heaven forbid we should tear Calum

away from his astronomical optimization pro-

grams." He looked at Acorna. "And ... I didn't

have a chance to tell you yet, but we spotted Hafiz

this morning. Three guesses what he'<f doing here!

I think Acorna had better come with me. That'll

keep her out of his way." Am) out of trouble, he

added silently to himself.

"I'll go with her," Pal said immediately. He shot

a dirty look at Mercy, who didn't notice. Her

attention was all on Calum, who was talking

quietly with her in a corner. "This house is entirely

too full of sisters."

"Judit," Delszaki Li said while Pal and Gill

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

310

started discussing how they would produce a con-

vincing report for Public Works, "I wish you

would accompany them."

"Why me? Not that I mind," Judit said hastily,

"but you need an assistant." She glanced at Gill.

For some reason the idea of studying a half-

completed lunar colony with Gill sounded as

attractive as a month-long holiday on the rainbow

beaches of Erev Ba.

"Also need someone with sense to keep these

children out of trouble," Li said, which made

Judit feel like the aging spinster governess in a

Victorian household. Or the maiden aunt. "As for

assistant. Mercy can take over in your absence.

Continue tradition of a Kendoro as my personal

assistant." He cackled under his breath. "You and

Pal need to get busy, produce next generation of

Kendoros before this old man -wears out all three

of this generation." His glance at Gill was full of

meaning.

Judit blushed and tried to think of some way

to disguise her eagerness to go.

"Seems hard on Pal," she murmured. "He's

going to Maganos to get away from his big sisters,

and now you're sending one of us along to keep

tabs on him."

Li cackled again. "I think maybe Pal has other

reason for wishing to go to Maganos." He looked

meaningfully at Pal, who was staring at Acorna

with an expression his loving older sister could

only categorize as goopy in the extreme. "Just

when I have an assistant who understands my

mind," he sighed with pretended disappointment,

311

"his gets bent in another direction. You will go to

Maganos, Judit," he said firmly, a little too soon

for Judit to be sure that his previous complaint

had been meant to apply only to Pal. "Mercy will

stay and take care of poor old man in his declining

years."

"If you're sure she can do it. . ." Judit began

doubtfully.

"You people don't appreciate Mercy!" Calum

reentered the conversation with a bang, still clasp-

ing Mercy's shoulders. "For years she's had the

hardest job of any of you, working undercover for

the Guardians of the Peace. Wasting her intelli-

gence on pretending to be a secretary and carrying

trays ofkava! It's criminal. Do you realize this girl

has an advanced degree in linear systems opti-

mization theory? She's coming down to the base-

ment now with me to see the programs I've

developed to search for Acorna's home world."

Li sighed as they left, but his dark eyes were

twinkling.

"At least is not etchings," he murmured, "but is

getting harder and harder to keep good help these

days!"

313

Brantley Geram, the subcontractor

in charge of building the living

quarters and life-support systems

for Maganos Moon Base, was only too happy to

have representatives of Delszaki Li coming to look

at the work in progress. He was in general a

happy man, working on Maganos in almost com-

plete autonomy, developing the last designs of the

legendary Martin Dehoney, and with the financial

backing of the Li consortium allowing him to

make sure that for once everything was done

exactly as it should be, no corners cut in construc-

tion processes and no inferior materials used.

This did not, he hastened to assure Pal and

Acorna, imply any extravagance. Quite the

reverse. Mr. Dehoney's plans were far-reaching,

ambitious, futuristic, perhaps, but not impractical

or extravagant.

"As you see, we started with minimal living

quarters, due to the expense of lifting shielding

materials into orbit. But as soon as the beneficiation

and reduction processors for the regolith were in

place, we -were able to expand significantly, using

the dust and by-products of reduction as our radia-

tion shield."

Acorna looked over the one large room he was

showing them.

"Is this all?" she asked.

"We will, of course, be able to expand the liv-

ing quarters even more as the processing of

regolith continues," Geram said, "but there's no

need for that at present. We have ample space for

the contractors and work crews here."

"You'll need more space," Acorna said. "How-

fast can you expand the quarters? We'll need dor-

mitories, schoolrooms — "

"Schoolrooms ? "

"Children may take up less space than adults,"

Acorna said, "but they must be educated. Or did

you think Delszaki Li had gone into the business

of exploiting child laborers like the rest of

Kezdet?"

Brantley Geram sputtered unintelligibly and

finally managed to convey that nobody had told

him anything about children.

"That's why Mr. Li wants all the machinery

designed for easy maintenance and operation by

people with little upper-body strength," Pal told

him. "But I suppose you weren't involved with the

mining machinery contract."

"No," Brantley said, with a regretful glance

down the tunnel leading to the processing section

of the base.

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

314

315

Gill had disappeared almost immediately upon

arrival to Inspect the technical -workings, taking Mr.

Li's other assistant—strange how all of Li's assistants

seemed to be named Kendoro—along with him and

reducing Brantley's audience to two. The funny-

looking girl didn't even seem to be interested in the

technical obstacles they had overcome to get this

much of the lunar base operational in such a short

time. Women! Let them into a place and they were

mentally hanging curtains and planting flowers

before you even had a decent oxygen-nitrogen bal-

ance established.

"And don't start turning the "whole space into

communal living quarters," young Kendoro added

to the girl. "Remember, we'll have adults here, too,

and they'll want some privacy. Make sure there

are some shielded bedrooms for staff."

Young men, Brantley thought, were even

worse than women. All they thought about was

bedrooms. Too bad that middle-aged miner, Gill

something, hadn't stayed to inspect the base living

quarters. He had looked like a sensible man.

"Privacy is necessarily a low priority in this

phase of the project," he said. "Later on, when the

miners start excavating below the regolith, the

tunnels should provide enough living space to sat-

isfy everyone's needs. In fact, it will be quite luxu-

rious. With solar power from the hyper-mirrors

that we're now constructing, we will have abun-

dant energy. And by incorporating Mr. Nadezda's

suggestion of capturing a cometary asteroid for its

ice core, we will be able to maintain a large base of

water which can be passed through a swimming

pool, a series of decorative ponds, and the hydro-

ponics facility before it is purified for reuse."

"Excellent," Acorna said. "You're quite right,

privacy isn't important now. We need to provide a

safe habitat for as many children as possible. We

can wait as long as necessary for the luxuries."

Pal sighed. "I'm -willing to -wait as long as I

have to," he said.

Acorna, of course, didn't notice his double

meaning. At the moment, she was so entranced

with the vision of refuge for Kezdet's children that

he wasn't sure she had even noticed his presence.

Well, he could only keep trying . . . and waiting.

"Perhaps you'd like to view the hydroponics

section," Brantley suggested, trying to regain the

attention of his wandering audience. "Maintaining

an even ecological balance is, of course, the other

limiting factor in our expansion, as well as the

need for shielded quarters. We could import food,

but in the long run it's better to grow it here; if

enough plants are grown to provide food, they will

automatically meet the oxygen demands of the

people. That means approximately three hundred

square meters of growing area per person, and a

photosynthesis energy requirement of thirty kilo-

watts per person. If we increase the demand for

oxygen faster than we build up the 'ponies, the

whole ecosystem will go out of balance and we'll

have serious problems. Same thing if we expand

the growing area significantly beyond the needs of

present personnel. Balance is the key to success in

any closed ecological system," he said earnestly.

"Mmm," said Acorna as they ducked through the

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

316

low tunnel to reach the hydroponics area. No space

•wasted here! She and Pal had to crouch to make it

through; it was a relief to stand up in the spacious

dome allocated to hydroponics, with its moist atmo-

sphere and reflected solar light. She sniffed the air.

"You have a little problem with excess nitrogen."

"Why, yes," Brantley said, surprised. How had

the girl managed to read the gauges from all the

way across the dome? "We're increasing the num-

ber of soybean tanks; they're our principal nitrogen-

fixing legumes. Later we'll add peanuts, too, for a

more varied diet."

"Good. That should take care of it. It's a little

much for me to manage on my own," Acorna said.

Brantley shook his head. "On her own"?

Something about this conversation . . . These peo-

ple seemed to be speaking Basic, but some of the

things they said made no sense at all.

While he was trying to regain his momentum,

Acorna plucked a leaf of chard from the nearest

tank and chewed it daintily, a thoughtful expres-

sion on her face.

"Needs potassium," she said. "Better check

your mix."

"I'd do it if I were you," Pal said cheerfully at

the blank look on Brantley's face. "She has great

intuition about these particular things ... no intu-

ition whatever about some others, though, so it

balances out."

"What do you mean, no intuition?" Acorna

demanded

Great. She might be annoyed with him, but at

least it was attention. Pal grinned.

Acorna

317

"Don't you ever think about the future?"

Brantley Geram sidled off to activate the water

testers. It would take a few minutes to verify that

the girl had been talking off the top of her head

when she claimed the 'ponies tanks were low on

potassium-, but the satisfaction would be worth it.

He knew this system; he'd built it, he maintained

it. No pretty girl could do a better job than his

AI-driven automatic ingredient-balancing system!

"Of course I think about the future," Acorna

snapped at Pal. "That's practically all I think

about—how many children can we house up here,

and how soon we can start bringing them up."

"I meant your personal future," Pal said

patiently.

"Calum is "working on that."

"Finding your home? Yes, but that's not all

there is."

Acorna's pupils narrowed to vertical slits.

"Without other people like me," she said, "I have

no personal future."

"That," said Pal, "is what I mean about your

impaired intuition, Acorna. There are other people

like you right here and you never even noticed.

Don't we want the same things? Don't we care

about the same things? Do I have to grow white

fur on my legs before you'll notice me? Or is all

your love reserved for small, helpless people?

Maybe I should break my leg. Would you notice

me,then?"

"I would not recommend that," Acorna said. "I

do not know if I can heal broken bones." They had

already discovered some limitations to her healing

318

Acorna

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

319

power, Delszaki Li's nerve paralysis "was too far

advanced for her to do more than relieve some of

his minor symptoms.

Pal threw up his hands. "You're impossible!

You're deliberately missing the point!"

Acorna took his hand. "Had it occurred to

you," she said softly, "that maybe this particular

point had better be missed? "

"No, it hadn't, and I don't see why," Pal said.

Acorna took a deep breath.

"Pal. We don't know anything at all about my

genus. Your people take twenty years to reach

physical maturity; I've done it in four. For all we

know, I could be old in another four years."

"I don't care," Pal interrupted her. "And even if

it were so, is that any reason for not living now?"

"We don't even know if our species are inter-

fertile."

"I'd be willing to run some tests. We wouldn't

even need a laboratory—" Pal smiled "—and I'd

be happy to repeat the experiment over and over."

"Don't you want children?"

"Dear lady of my heart," Pal said, "we're going

to have children. Several hundred of them, for

starters!"

As he checked the results of the water test with

unbelieving eyes, Brantley Geram heard them

laughing and thought they must have been run-

ning their own tests on the tank mix. Okay, so the

girl had been right: potassium levels -were down. A

lucky guess, that was all. A lucky guess.

Ed Minkus took the call which came into the

Guardians of the Peace offices. When he realized

the origin of the call, he covered the mouthpiece

and hissed across the room at Des Smirnoff.

"We've got the inspector on our neck. Over

that dock shooting. The grieving parent is on his

way here and we have to prove it wasn't our negli-

gence that caused his death."

"Negligence? Negligence?" Des said, bluster-

ing because any call from the inspector was

startling—and dangerous. One day the man was

going to figure out just how little he knew about

this department. When he started taking an inter-

est in things, there would be an awful lot of

"things" that would need to be rapidly "lost."

"Yes, sir, we certainly will, sir. All the files

ready and the tri-d documentation of the ... ah ...

regrettable incident," Des was saying, almost

falling into the phone to project earnest, and inno-

cent, sincerity. "Yes, yes. I got the name: Hafiz

Harakamian." He put the unit down as if it car-

ried skin-eating plague.

"Harakamian the father is coming here?" From

his surfing of the trade nets the name was instantly

familiar to Smirnotf, and suddenly he realized who

the man known as "Farkas Hamisen," with his

connection to Rafik Nadezda, must really have

been. The planet seemed to grow aliases the way

some people grew . . . ears. "Did we save the files?

I thought we gave the stuff to Nadezda?"

"He got copies, but our files sure show the

tungsten bomb, and that'll save our liver and

lights."

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

320

Smirnoff glowered at his subordinate. "You

hope!"

Then the door to their office swung open and

in came their new clerk, Cowdy, a very shapely

young woman, herded inside, back first, by the

prodding finger of the man who -was barging in

without proper introduction.

"How many times must I tell—" Smirnoff

switched gears the moment he saw their visitor, who

was unctuously backing Cowdy into the room. "Oh,

sir, we didn't expect you so quickly," and he rose, as

gracious as if he had never started to ream his

underling out of her tights. "May I, and my partner,

express our deep sympathy and regret for the unfor-

tunate way in which your son met his end?"

"I want to <>ee the records," Hafiz Harakamian

said in an absolutely expressionless voice, taking a

seat at the vid-screen and looking from it to

Smirnoff expectantly.

Minkus nearly fell over his own feet and

Smirnoff's to key up the necessary file. And there

it was: the perp's unswerving progress toward a

certain ship, the scanners' discovery of the tung-

sten bomb, their race to intercept him, and then

their neat skewering of him with stunner shots.

Then the all-important close-up of Des defusing

the tungsten bomb.

"He couldn't have been that stupid," Hafiz was

heard to mutter, at which point both Minkus and

Smirnoff began to relax.

"You see, Honorable Harakamian, how little

option there was! For that device to have been

planted . . ." Smirnoff shrugged eloquently.

Acorna. 321

"Yes, I see." He rose from the desk and turned

with a very cold and distant expression to face

them. "I have come to collect his remains."

"There were none. He was cremated," Ed

blurted out.

"Cremated? You donkey! You horse's ass, you

camel's slime spit..."

"Rafik said that was the way — "

"Rafik?" Hafiz lowered the arm with which he

was dramatically gesturing. "Rafik here?" Relief

flooded his features. "Then it was done as the

Prophets have ordained?"

"Of course. How could you doubt our effi-

ciency in such a detail?" Smirnoff said. "And, of

course, we had Nadezda to direct the ceremonies.

But, he is on his way to you. He felt it only neces-

sary."

Hafiz's expression altered and he regarded

Smirnoflf as one would camel's green cud on formal

attire. "So the bomb was meant for my nephew!"

"It was?" Ed Minkus looked innocently at the

Honorable Harakamian.

"There was bad blood between them, that is

true," Harakamian said, dropping his head as if in

deep sorrow. Then, tilting his head a trifle, he

asked, "I don't suppose you would know where

the ward of my nephew would be? On the ship

with him, returning my son's ceremonially blessed

ashes?"

"No, he went by himself. The others are still at

Mr. Li's," Ed replied, and managed a sickly grin as

Smirnoff's expression told him he should probably

have reserved that information for a price.

322

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

323

"Not Mr. Delszaki Li?" Hafiz exclaimed.

"The very man," Smirnotf replied.

"Thank you. And good day," Hafiz said, and

made as speedy a departure as his arrival.

"You stupid twit! You ninny-hammered log-

head! You anvil-pated numskull. Have you any

idea how much that information would have

meant in good House Harakamian credits? And

you gave it to him?"

Ed Minkus drooped. It would take him a long

time to get over that.

It did not, however, take Hafiz Harakamian very

long to reach the house of Mr. Delszaki Li. And

there he sat, observing who came and went. When

the skimmer pilot seemed restless, Hafiz reminded

him that he had agreed to the hire of his vehicle

and if he, Hafiz, wished to spend all day across

from the house of Mr. Li, the meter was ticking

and what difference did it make to what the vehi-

cle did with its time?

"Who was you looking to find?" the driver

asked. "Lotsa people go in and out of that house."

"Well, why not?" Hafiz said to himself. "Would

you have noticed a female with silver hair and ..."

The driver swung to face his client, his eyes

wide with surprise. "How wouldja know anything

about the Lady of the Lights? I only picked you

up at the spaceport."

"Lady of the Lights? My sweet little Acorna

has achieved the distinction of a title?" Hafiz said.

"You better believe it. Cured my sister of a

birthmark which uglified her to the point no

decent man would look at one so cursed. And,

without the stain, she's not that bad lookin'." The

transformation seemed to have surprised the

driver.

Hafiz sighed. He had thought it might be easy

to smuggle her back to his ship and away. But if

she had achieved this sort of adoring notoriety, the

odds had turned astronomical. The Didi had sug-

gested that the girl had acquired unusual protec-

tors.

"Anyway," the driver went on, all affability

now, "she ain't here. She and the big red-beard

and the littler guy went off to Maganos two days

ago. To see the moon installation. But they're goin'

to have trouble with that," he added, frowning.

"Oh?" Hafiz said encouragingly.

"Yeah, only they haven't figgered it out yet. If

I'd of been the one to take them to the spaceport,

instead of a House Li pilot, I'd of told them a thing

or two." He laid an oily, broken-nailed finger

along the side of his nose and winked at Hafiz.

"You wanna know anything around here, you ask

drivers. They hear a lot even if they do sit up

front, pretending they're deef."

"Do tell," Hafiz said, making a paper plane out

of a large denomination credit note which, with a

practiced flick of his wrist, lofted over the parti-

tion, where it flew straight into the driver's quick

hand.

"That I can, because we're all wantin' the Lady

Epona to get the better of the Child Bonders and

clean up Kezdet's reputation. Why, just the other

324 -—'             ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

day, there was some kinda fanatic trying to blow

up the docks with a bomb!"

"Really! Is there some place nearby •where a

man like yourself and I might have a quiet meal

and discreet conversation?"

The driver revved the engine of the skimmer in

answer. "Know the very place!"

Judit listened politely. Gill with growing enthusi-

asm, to the mining subcontractor's description of

the simple three-drum drag scraper which was

already in operation as they tested feasibility of

Dehoney's first-stage designs.

"This is one of DPWs stated objections to the

Maganos proposal," Judit told Gill and the sub-

contractor. "They say the drag scraper is an out-

dated twentieth-century technology."

Provola Quero, the subcontractor, sneered.

"They should talk! Kezdet's mines aren't just out-

dated, they're medieval! Besides, haven't they ever

heard of the saying, 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it'?"

She jammed both hands deep into the pockets of

her coveralls and paced to the next viewing win-

dow, talking nonstop. "The scraper i) outdated for

planetary use; it's inefficient and inflexible. And it's

not worth setting up for quick in-and-out asteroid

jobs. But as a starter system for Maganos, it is

ideal. It's simple, rugged, and required very low

mass to be lifted up here. When we scale up, of

course, we'll replace this with more efficient, high-

volume methods . . . using equipment fabricated

right here on Maganos, in the pressurized repair

325

shop we have already set up to deal with scraper

repairs and working with the high-purity struc-

tural metals we reduce from the first batches of

lunar regolith. Dehoney planned this operation to

bootstrap itself from the git-go. He always said that

the whole point of lunar industrialization was to do

what you couQn 't do dirtside, not to throw away

credits lifting machinery designed for gravity and

atmosphere into orbit and then fixing the inevitable

problems."

Gill's eyes lit up. "You knew Dehoney person-

ally?"

"Studied with him for five years," Provola said,

running a hand through her yellow crewcut.

"Helped assemble the designs for his prize-

winning solar greenhouse habitat." She tapped the

stud in her nose, which Gill now recognized as a

miniature version of the space-station icon that

was the famed Andromeda Prize, worked in black

enamel and diamonds. "/ plan to be the next

Andromeda prizewinner," she added, "and

Maganos is going to do it. Just tell me what you

need to make DPW happy, and I'll bury them in

documentation proving the worth of Dehoney's

plans . . . and my implementation."

She and Gill moved happily into a discussion

of duty cycles, component replacement, and mod-

ular design, -while Judit stared out the viewport at

the monotonous drag, scrape, lift of the cable-

driven machinery. She didn't need to follow? the

engineering discussion in detail to be reassured

that both Gill and Provola knew what they were

talking about; years of working with Amalgamated

326

Acorna                              327

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

had given her a sixth sense for which engineers

knew their field and -which ones were shooting out

clouds of technical terminology to disguise their

incompetence and laziness. Gill and Provola

Quero were both in the first class. If they were

satisfied that this three-drum whatsit was the best

way to initiate lunar mining on Maganos, she had

no doubt they were right.

What she did doubt—very seriously—was the

usefulness of any engineering argument to con-

vince Tumim Viggers of the Public Works

Department. Accustomed to reading nuances of

speech and slight gestures of body language in

order to survive with Amalgamated, Judit had

picked up far more from that brief, inconclusive

meeting than diggers had actually dau). The man

•wasn't really concerned about the technical speci-

fications for Maganos; he'd thrown out those

objections almost casually, as if he were only play-

ing for time. More disturbing, he had evinced no

interest in Delszaki Li's hinted bribes either. When

a Kezdet bureaucrat didn't take a bribe, you knew

you were in real trouble.

She tried listening more carefully to the techni-

cal argument, to take her mind off what she sus-

pected were their more dangerous political

problems. Gill was querying the need for the

large-scale pressurized repair shop. It had been

relatively low on Dehoney's original list of priori-

ties; why had Provola chosen to make it the first

major construction?

"Because -we need it now, and we're going to

need it more every day!" Provola tugged at the

one long braid dangling at the side of her short,

bristly haircut. "Sure, some of this work can be

done suited and on the surface, but why should

we? Give me one good reason for rewinding an

electric motor in a vacuum! You've worked aster-

oids; you should know that dust is the worst prob-

lem oflow-g, low-atmosphere environments." Even

you, her contemptuous tone implied.

"We managed our repairs on the ship," Gill

said.

"You," Provola flashed back, "had to be

portable. We don't. We're going to need an indus-

trial-sized shop soon enough to fabricate the next

generation of mining machinery, so why not build

it now and save the cost of expanding later? "

Gill put up his hands to register capitulation.

"All right, all right," he said pacifically. "You're

right; I'm used to small, quick operations, not to

permanent base construction. I wouldn't mind

learning, though."

Provola gave him a sudden, flashing smile. "And

/," she admitted, "have more theoretical than practi-

cal experience. Are you going to hire on to the

Maganos project? We'd make a good team . . .

unless you have problems with a woman supervi-

n „

?"

sor

"I like women," Gill said.

"That doesn't answer the question. I wasn't

asking what you like to do with your hands when

you're off duty."

Gill reached out for Judit and pulled her close

to him. "My hands, and my off duty, are already

committed, lady," he said, "and I wouldn't object to

328

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

329

working for any student of Martin Dehoney's ... if

that answers your question. Unfortunately, I'm not

free to stay on Maganos."

"Why not?" Judit cried. She had just begun

spinning a picture of how pleasant their life here

could be. Delszaki Li had already shown her plans

of the private living quarters he intended to allo-

cate to the woman in charge of welfare and educa-

tion for the rescued children and had hinted

strongly that he would like her to be that woman.

If Gill took a job on the mining side of the project,

he could share those quarters . . . and he loved

children. There couldn't be a better man to restore

the children's faith after the horrendous experi-

ences some of them had been through.

But, of course, he hadn't actually dale) he

wanted to stay -with her. He had only been putting

an arm round her at every opportunity, and want-

ing her to go with him wherever he went, and . . .

Judit swallowed her disappointment.

"Can't ditch my buddies," Gill said. "We've

always been a team, the three of us. Calum and

Rafik need somebody with some muscle to do the

heavy jobs, and somebody with some common

sense to get them out of the crazy complications

they're always getting into. I'd be a real jerk if I

asked them to buy out my third of the Uhuru just

because I'm a little older than they are and feel like

settling down in a cushy construction job." The

words were directed at Provola Quero, but his blue

eyes -were on Judit, begging her to understand.

She swallowed again and nodded slowly. Of

course he wouldn't break up the partnership. She

should have understood that was why he never said

anything about the future, even when he was most

enthusiastically demonstrating his desire for her

company in the present. "I wouldn't want a real jerk

to ... work on the project," she said in a small voice.

"But perhaps you'll visit occasionally."

"As often as I can arrange it," Gill said, a wistful

look on his broad face. "Oftener."

It was cold comfort, but it was better than noth-

ing, Judit told herself. Anyway, what did she have

to complain about? She had been incredibly lucky

in her life so far. And now, at only twenty-eight, she

was being offered the chance to do what she loved

most: working with children, designing their educa-

tion, overseeing their welfare, and healing the invis-

ible wounds that she herself knew all too well. It

would be asking too much for the fates to throw in

a fortyish, broad-shouldered, red-bearded Viking

throwback as a life's companion in that work.

Hafiz Harakamian found the skimmer driver an

invaluable source of information. Not only did he

know the day on which Acorna was due to return

from Maganos, he claimed to know the very hour of

her return. But he also warned Hafiz that waiting

for her at the shuttle port would not be a good idea.

"Too many folks wants to see our little Lady of

the Lights, now that word's getting out about her,"

he warned. "Goin' to be a crowd at the port. If she

comes out in it, you'll never get to her; if she's smart

and gets Security to let her take a back exit, you'll

miss her like the rest of 'em."

330

Acorna

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

331

He suggested that he bring Hafiz back to the Li

residence at the exact time -when Acorna was

scheduled to return.

"I have always preferred to be in place well

before anybody else is expected," Hafiz said with

the firmness of a man who had survived the

thirty-year Harakamian—Batsu feud and had

negotiated a partitioning of the planetary business

without, like the two elder Harakamians, losing his

head . . . literally. "We will take our position out-

side the Li mansion two standard hours before the

arrival."

At the time, this had seemed like an excellent

idea. Before the two-hour safely margin was even

one-third past, though, Hafiz Harakamian recog-

nized that his tactical instincts had been impaired

by too many years in the tropical clime of his home

planet. Nobody had mentioned to him that Kezdet's

rainy season was about to begin. Or that the rainy

season was accompanied by a biting cold wind from

the northern mountains. And, since it had been

warm and sunny until this morning, he hadn't

noticed that this particular skimmer had a leak in

the roof and allowed an irritating draft to whistle

through from one ill-fitting window to the next. He

shifted his position so that the worst of the drip

would fall on the driver and told himself philosoph-

ically that it was always a mistake to rely on hired

equipment and staff, he should have brought his

own people and transportation. But after the way

young Rafik had cheated him over the unicorn girl,

he had rather wanted to pull off this coup single-

handed—the way he'd done in the old days, before

he became head of House Harakamian. Just to let

Rafik see that the old man wasn't past it yet.

The iron-studded front doors of the Li residence

swung open, revealing the fantasy of thin-sliced,

colorful Illic self-lighting crystals that illuminated

the inner doors. Hafiz admired the play of lights

and colors while at the same time registering that no

other skimmer had pulled up; somebody was com-

ing out, not going in. No need to do anything except

slump down in his seat and be inconspicuous. . . .

A light tapping on the window beside him was

the end of that notion. When he pushed a button to

make the glass sound-permeable, it stuck. Cheap,

rented equipment! He had to physically open the

window. A fine cold rain slanted in, accompanied

by a yellow hand holding a holo-card.

"Mr. Li sends his compliments," said the ser-

vant, who, Hafiz noted irritably, was protected by a

rainshield extending at least a foot around his body,

"and suggests that the head of House Harakamian

might be more comfortable keeping him under

surveillance from iiu'u)e the house."

At least Delszaki Li knew how things should be

done between equals. It would probably be insult-

ing to hint that the sudden disappearance of Hafiz

Harakamian would cause untoward repercussions

upon several branches of the Li consortium. Hafiz

insulted the servant anyway, and received a grace-

ful reassurance that this was merely a social invita-

tion, nothing more. Of course, the man would have

said that anyway. . . . Hafiz grunted agreement and

climbed stiffly out of the rented skimmer.

"Wait here," he told the driver.

332

Acorna

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

333

He could perfectly well have called up another

and better-quality skimmer when he was ready to

leave, but after the miserable hour he'd just spent, it

suited him to think of the skimmer driver sitting

and shivering in his drafty vehicle. Besides, in deli-

cate business negotiations, there was always the

possibility that one might have to depart in haste,

omitting the usual polite formalities of leave-taking.

The servant extended his personal shield to

cover Hafiz on the short walk across the street.

Once inside the double doors of iron and crystal, he

was invited to hand over his lightly sprinkled tur-

ban and outer robe for drying while he took kava

with Delszaki Li.

The head of the Li consortium was older than

Hafiz had expected, considering the energy with

which he directed the galaxy-wide network of the

varied Li manufacturing and financial interests. He

looked -with interest at the shriveled, yellow-faced

man in a hover-chair, a blanket covering the wasted

body whose absolute immobility betrayed his grow-

ing paralysis, only the snapping black eyes still

showing the life that burned brightly inside. The

man was older than Hafiz by a generation or

more, older than any living member of House

Harakamian. Hafiz's sense of danger went up a

notch. Unlike some people, followers of the Three

Prophets knew better than to underestimate the

aged. In his long and successful life, Delszaki Li

had undoubtedly used, analyzed, and countered

every trick Hafiz knew, and then some.

While they sipped the first small cups of hot, fra-

grant kava and murmured conversational nothings

at one another, Hafiz felt his brain working furi-

ously. There was no point in clinging to his first

plan of snatching Acorna, claiming she was his wife

by the Books of the Prophets, and removing her

from Kezdet while the Guardians of the Peace were

still asking the religious courts for a ruling. Not

only had he lost the advantage of surprise, but he

doubted his ability to fool Delszaki Li as easily as

one could fool or bribe the Guardians. A straight-

forward, honest approach was more likely to be

successful . . . that is, a reasonably straightforward

and honest approach. His ancestors would recon-

stitute their corporeal substances if he let down

House Harakamian by laying all his cards on the

table at once.

After the necessary exchange of condolences

from Li on the loss of Tapha and apologies from

Hafiz for the boy's idiotic behavior, he made his

first oblique approach.

"Regrettable though the death of my son may

be," said Hafiz, reflecting on the matter with little

internal regret whatsoever, "it is -written in the

Book of the Second Prophet, 'When you embrace

your wife or child, be aware that it is a human being

you are embracing; then should they die, you will

not be unreasonably grieved.' As is enjoined upon

me by my faith, therefore, I have put aside care for

the dead and am now concerned tor the living.

Before his death, Tapha informed me that my

nephew, Rafik, had brought to this planet my

young ward, Acorna, a child whom he kidnapped

from my home last year. These rash young men!"

Hafiz sighed with a conspiratorial smile at Li.

334

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

"They will be the death of us with their escapades

and exploits,-will they not?"

"On contrary," said Li, his black eyes twinkling,

"I find escapades of young people most rejuvenat-

ing force in this ancient life. But Rafik has brought

no child named Acorna here."

"Perhaps he changed her name," Hafiz sug-

gested. "She is unmistakable—a rarity, deformed,

some would say, but in a most attractive way. Tall

and slender, with silver hair and a small horn in the

middle other forehead."

Li's face creased into a smile and Hafiz let out

the breath he had not been aware of holding. Thank

the Prophet, the old man was going to admit

Acorna's presence!

"Ah, you are speaking of the one our people of

Kezdet call the Lady of Lights. But she is not a

child. She is a mature woman and no man's ward."

"That's impossible!" Hafiz protested. "I tell you,

I saw the child less than two standard years ago.

She seemed to be about six, then — I mean, she w(U

six," he corrected himself firmly, remembering that

she was supposed to be his ward and that he would

be expected to know? her exact age. "Even on

Kezdet, are children of seven considered adults?"

"Ah. There is concept of chronological age, and

there is concept of developmental age," Li said

serenely. "The one whom I know as Acorna is most

assuredly a grown woman. Allow me to show you."

For a wild moment Hafiz thought that Acorna

had been smuggled into the house by a back way and

that Li was actually going to have her brought in;

then the holo-paintings on the far wall dimmed, to be

Acorna

335

replaced by obviously home-made vids. The image of

a graceful, six-foot-tall Acorna moved, life-sized,

across the wall, plucking flowers in a walled garden,

playing with a toddler, gracefully lifting a long, full

skirt to run up a flight of golden limestone stairs.

"Perhaps," Li suggested, eyes twinkling at the

astounded expression on Haftzs face, "is not the

one you know as Acorna? Perhaps is coincidence of

name and appearance?"

"Impossible," Hafiz said. "There can't be two

like that."

Nor could she possibly have grown so fast. The

vids must be some trickery. He decided to forget the

argument about Acorna's age and press on to his sec-

ond point. He had the skimmer driver to thank for

the gossip that gave him this additional argument.

"It was most irresponsible of my nephew to

bring her to this superstition-riddled place," he

said, "and I shall speak severely to Rafik when I

see him. She is in danger from hired assassins,

some possibly actually in government pay. It is my

duty to take her back to a place where she will be

kept safe, loved, and cherished as the unique being

she is."

"Perhaps is not wishing to be 'safe, loved, and

cherished' in museum of rarities." Li smiled.

"Perhaps prefers danger and important -work which

only she can do."

Hafiz took a deep breath and counted to thir-

teen slowly. It would be most impolitic to accuse his

host of talking nonsense. But what important -work

could a child like that be doing? This was just

another lie to delay him, like those faked vids.

336

AlMNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

337

He had only reached ten when the door burst

open and a short, fair-haired young man burst in.

"Delszaki, I think we've got it!" he exclaimed.

"Probabilities on this latest run show a ninety per-

cent chance that it's somewhere in the Coma

Berenices area—" He halted and stared at Hafiz

with an expression of horror-struck recognition.

"Ah, that is, never mind, I'll come back later. ..."

"Please." Li stopped him with a single word.

"Do be seated. I feel sure that Mr. Harakamian will

be as interested as I in the results of your research."

The young man bowed and tried to surrepti-

tiously brush the crumbs off his wrinkled coveralls.

His eyes were red-rimmed, as though he'd been

working "without sleep for several nights.

"Delszaki," he said, "I don't think you under-

stand. This guy tried to kidnap Acorna once

already."

"Excuse me," Hafiz said, "I do not believe I have

the honor of your acquaintance."

"Calum Baird," the young man said. He wasn't

so young, now that Hafiz looked at him closely: late

thirties, perhaps. It was the awkwardness and the

exuberance that had misled Hafiz. "And -we have

met... at your home on Laboue . . . although you

may not recognize me. I was Rafik's senior 'wife,'"

he said with a demure smile. "The ugly one."

Hafiz burst into uninhibited laughter. "That ras-

cal, how he has tricked me again and again! Truly a

worthy successor to House Harakamian! How did

he persuade you to put on a hijab? You do not look

like the sort of man who takes a secret delight in

putting on women's clothing . . . although appear-

ances can be deceiving. / certainly was deceived."

"Rafik talked me into it," Calum said. "Rafik, as

you may have noticed, can talk anyone into almost

anything."

"Of course he can," Hafiz nodded. "He is my

nephew, after all. The Harakamian strain runs true

in him, at least." Tapha, on the other hand . . . Oh,

well, Tapha was no longer a factor. "But I interrupt.

You wished to tell Mr. Li something?"

An almost imperceptible nod from Delszaki Li

reassured Calum that it was indeed all right to go

ahead.

"I think we've pinpointed Acorna's home

world, sir. Once I normalized the astronomical

data bases ..."

"Home world?" Hafiz interrupted in spite of

himself.

"Yes. Where her people come from. Of course,

she wants to get back to her own race," Calum said.

"Her own race? But I thought..."

"That she was human?" Calum shook his head.

"No way. We don't know much about her back-

ground, but the pod she was found in shows that

she comes from an advanced space-faring race with

technology far beyond our own in some ways."

"The pod she was found in," Hafiz repeated. He

seemed to be reduced to repeating phrases all the

time. He didn't like the feeling that everything was

shifting and changing under his feet. "You mean

there are others like her?"

"I doubt," Calum said, "that it would be possible

to sustain a high-tech, space-faring civilization with

a population of less than, say, several million at the

338

Acorna                               339

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

absolute lowest estimate. The need for specializa-

tion alone would preclude any smaller grouping."

"Several million." By the Three Prophets, he was

repeating himself! Hafiz pulled himself together.

"You could have told me this before," he said

severely. "It might have saved us all a lot of trouble."

"I didn't know where her planet was until this

morning," Calum protested. "Where it probably is,

I mean. There's only one way to be sure. Someone

will have to go and see. ..."

The look of naked longing on his face surprised

Hafiz, but he did not have time to consider what it

might mean. Another person had entered, as uncer-

emoniously as Calum.

"I might have known you'd be here," Rafik

snarled at his uncle as he barged into the room. "I

turned around as soon as I heard a Harakamian

ship had applied for clearance into Kezdet space. It

didn't take you long to track down where Acorna

was staying, did it? Well, it won't work! She's not

here, and you're not getting her back to add to your

museum!"

"I am delighted to see you, too, my beloved

nephew," Hafiz said urbanely. "As for the matter of

Acorna . . . perhaps -we can come to some arrange-

ment that will be satisfactory to both of us."

"Tapha's ashes?"

"Better a live nephew than a dead son," said

Hafiz with his benign smile.

Rafik's whole body tensed slightly. "Well, then.

I was going to give them back to you anyway, you

know. And the cremation was performed according

to the orthodox rituals."

"I know that," Hafiz said "Just as I know that

you have not really let that Neo-Hadithian non-

sense rot your brain and supplant your decent reli-

gious upbringing."

"How ..." Rafik croaked.

Hafiz smiled and gestured at Calum.

"Well, now, boy. You would hardly be letting

your senior 'wife' run around without a hijab if you

were truly a Neo-Hadithian, would you? I must

admit, you completely took me in at the time," he

went on. He felt he could afford a little generosity,

since Rafik was so completely off balance. It would

soften the boy up for the final agreement. "But I

hold no grudge. You have shown me that you have

the true Harakamian mentality."

As Rafik only goggled at him, Hafiz continued,

looking away from the boy so that his words would

not seem too pointed.

"Having lost my only son, I am in need of an

heir. A worthy heir," he emphasized, "one of my

own blood, one almost as clever as I am myself.

Such a one would, of course, have to be trained in

the complex affairs of the House. Training him

would be very nearly a full-time occupation for me.

I suspect I would have very little time left to pursue

my hobby of collecting . . . rarities."

Rafik gulped audibly. "I am committed to finish-

ing the Maganos Moon Base project," he said at

last.

"House Harakamian honors its commitments,"

Hafiz said.

"My partnership with Calum and Gill— "

"Is it a lifetime contract?"

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

340

"It's not a formal contract at all," Rafik said. "It

just, well, things just worked out well for the three

of us together."

"Perhaps," Hafiz suggested, placing each word as

delicately as a surgeon cutting out overgrown flesh,

"it is now time for the three of you to work apart."

Rafik glanced at his partner. "Calum?"

"Actually," Calum said, "I wouQ rather like to go

check out my findings on Acorna's home planet

myself."

"Gill. . ."

"If Gill can be compensated for loss of partner-

ship," Delszaki Li said, "is offer of Mr. Harakamian

acceptable to you?"

Rafik looked sternly at his uncle. "You'll leave

Acorna alone?"

"I will swear on the Three Books," Hafiz said.

"Well, then." All the tension seemed to drain out

of Rafik s slender body. "If it suits you ... I, too, will

swear on the Three Books to return to Laboue for

training in the ways of House Harakamian—as

soon as I have completed Maganos Moon Base . ..

if you will compensate my partners appropriately."

After some formal haggling, they agreed that

Hafiz Harakamian would buy out Rafik's and

Calum's shares in the Uhuru from Gill and would

provide Calum -with a subspace-equipped scout

ship from the Harakamian fleet for his search.

Rafik and Calum left, limp with exhaustion from

the bargaining session, to revive their energies with

something stronger than kava, while Hafiz and

Delszaki relaxed with the satisfaction of old men

who have seen matters properly arranged.

Stcorna

341

As soon as they were well out of earshot, Rafik

began chuckling to himself.

"Uncle Hafiz drives a hard bargain ... he

thinks! But if you're really okay with breaking up

the partnership, Calum ..."

"I've been dying to get out to the Comes

Berenices and check my results in person," Calum

said, "but I didn't like to say anything to you and

Gill. Anyway, we're getting a bit old for this aster-

oid-hopping life. Gill, too. I think he's about ready

to retire into a planetside Job . . . especially if it's a

planet Judit Kendoro is on!"

"And I," Rafik said with satisfaction, "have dis-

covered considerable talent for trading during the

process of setting up Maganos on a commercial

basis. I had already been thinking what fun it would

be to have the Harakamian assets to play with.

We'll go on letting Uncle Hafiz think he's driven a

sharp bargain, though. It makes the old man

happy."

Meanwhile, Delszaki Li and Hafiz Harakamian

were enjoying their own interpretation of the bar-

gain over their third cups of kava.

"My nephew is sharp," Hafiz chuckled, "sharp

enough to cut himself. If he had not been in such a

hurry to extract a promise from me, he would have

seen what I think you had already noticed."

Li's face crinkled. "That you had no more inter-

est in Acorna, now that she is believed not to be

unique after all?"

Hafiz nodded. "When this Calum finds her

home—and he strikes me as the sort of obsessed

fanatic who will not rest until he has solved the

342

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

problem—unicorn people will be as common as

Neo-Hadithians. What a fool I should have looked,

collecting and announcing one as a rarity, when

shortly thereafter they would be walking the streets

everywhere. But it is well as it ends. I have an heir

of the blood to carry on the affairs of my house, and

young Rafik has a settled position in life. I keep

thinking of him as a boy, but he's not getting any

younger, you know."

"None of us are," Li said calmly.

"Yes, but you and I have done our work. Rafik

needs a wife—a real wife," Hafiz smiled, "to give us

another generation of traders for House

Harakamian. I will settle the matter as soon as he

comes home."

"I have no doubt you will," murmured Li, "but

might be wise not to announce plans to Rafik just

yet. Leave him illusion of choosing his own woman.

The team of four returned from

Maganos early that afternoon,

with vids, datacubes, construc-

tion records, air and water quality analyses, and

every other bit of evidence they could think of to

support their contention that Maganos Moon Base

was not just potentially habitable but already habit-

able.

"Why must we wait for Phase II?" Acorna

demanded of Oelszaki Li before she was well in

the door. "The base is in use now. The construction

crews are living there; how can this Tumim

Viggers say it is not safe? And there is much space

available within the pressurized sectors. Provola

Quero has caused to be built the very large repair

and manufacturing facility which will be wanted

later, only she does not need it at ail yet•—well,

only a tiny bit of it," she said with a reproachful

glance at Gill's choked-off expostulation. "We

could wall off a small section for repair work and

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

344

put children's bunks in the rest—use it for a dor-

mitory until the proper living quarters are com-

pleted. Why should they live so miserably any

longer than is absolutely necessary? Further,

Brantley Geram now understands how he can

expand the 'ponies system rapidly enough to cope

with a sudden increase in population."

"Acorna is responsible for that," Pal put in.

"While we were there, she found a nitrogen imbal-

ance in the air, identified a potassium deficiency in

the water, and showed Geram how to triple 'pon-

ies production practically overnight without

destroying the atmospheric balance."

"The first two things were data that could have

been read from instruments, and I am sure Mr.

Geram would have thought of the ecobalancing

system on his own if he had had time," Acorna

murmured. "All that is not important, Pal—please

do not interrupt!" She turned back to Delszaki Li,

her pale face glowing with the cool silvery light

that showed when she was excited, her eyes

opened so wide that they were silver orbs in her

face. "Truly, Mr. Li, there is no technical problem

•with beginning to use the base immediately—not

one!"

"Unfortunately," Delszaki Li said, "technical

problems are not the only ones. The Kezdet

Authority has forbidden us to go forward with

Maganos Moon Base, or to add any more person-

nel, until is completely satisfied by report of inde-

pendent commission that all construction meets

Kezdet building codes."

Pal snorted. "If the match factory where I used

345

to work meets the building codes, Maganos is so

far beyond that it's not even applicable!"

"Match factory has probably never been

inspected by building commission," Li said

gravely.

"Who's on this independent commission?" Gill

demanded. "We can meet with them right now,

show them the data. I'll convince them Maganos

meets code, if I have to ram the cubes down their

throats!"

"Members of commission have not yet been

appointed," Li said. "Informed sources within

Department of Public Works say selection and

appointment of commission may take several

years." He regarded the four young people—from

his perspective they were all children—benignly.

"Is not technical problem. Is political. Someone

does not intend plan to succeed."

"Who?"

Li's left hand lifted slightly, his approximation

of a shrug.

"Many people profit greatly from exploitation

of children on Kezdet. Could be any of them. Or

all of them. But at this time, is still mystery. We

know, for instance, that owner of Tondubh

Glassworks has bought two judges and a subin-

spector of Guardians. Very well. I pay them bet-

ter bribe than Tondubh, now I have them. Child

Labor League has list of other corrupt govern-

ment officials, paid by this factory or that to

ignore abuses of Federation law. But even if we

buy off all minor officials, is still blocked from

top. Someone with much power and position in

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

346

347

government is stopping plan. Someone so

respectable, and so -well concealed, that even

Child Labor League does not know true identity

of man called the Piper."

Gill's shoulders sagged. "Then what can

we do?"

"Dp not despair," Li said. "You have on your

side Delszaki Li, veteran of many years political

and financial double- and triple-crossing. Also

have now secured independent services of consul-

tant -with even more experience than Li in han-

dling corrupt governments, because has run

seriously corrupt organization himself. Hafiz

Harakamian."

Gill turned white. "Get Acorna out of here!"

"Harakamian no longer wishes to acquire

Acorna," Li said. "Talk to Calum and Rafik. They

have much news for you."

But the talk had to wait, because Chiura got

wind of Gill's return. At this point she came flying

down the lift-chute, squealing happily, "Monster

Man! Monster Man!"

"He's big and ugly, all right," said Calum, who

had entered the hall just in time to catch Chiura

executing a flying leap far too soon to reach her

objective, "but don't you think it's a bit over the

top to call him a nwiuter?"

Gill's face was almost as red as his beard.

"It's ... uh ... a game we play," he explained.

By now Jana had arrived after Chiura and the

girls were tugging Gill by both hands toward the

lift-chute. "Umm . . . maybe we can talk upstairs?"

The talk was again delayed until Gill had been

exhausted by chasing Chiura and Jana around the

suite on his hands and knees, roaring like a bull

and occasionally reaching out one large hand to

snatch at flying hair or the hem of a kameez, while

they squealed in pretended terror. Even Khetala,

who at thirteen considered herself too old for such

games, got caught up in the excitement and

laughed and giggled like the other two.

"He is giving them back their childhood," Judit

murmured under cover of the noisy game. There

were tears in her eyes. "I don't know how to do

that."

"You never had a childhood." Pal put an arm

around his sister's shoulders and hugged her. "You

had to grow up too fast, to save Mercy and me."

She looked up at the "little brother," who had

shot up so fast in the last years that now he stood

half a head taller than her.

"Oh, Pal, we neei) Gill at Maganos. The chil-

dren need him. Can't -we persuade Calum and

Rafik-"

"That," said Rafik, grinning, "was what we

wanted to talk to you about."

"You want to talk business while Chiura's

crawling all over him and climbing his beard?"

Calum muttered under his breath.

"Safest time," Rafik replied out of the side of

his mouth. "He won't turn violent while he's fes-

tooned with kids."

They explained their arrangement with Hafiz

Harakamian, somewhat apprehensively, and were

relieved when Gill's broad face broke into a beam-

ing smile.

348

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

"That," he said cheerfully, "simplifies everything."

"We were, um, hoping you'd see it that way,"

Rafik said.

Gill looked at Judit.

"That's a nice living suite Delszaki Li has put

into the Maganos design for you. Plenty of space

for two people, wouldn't you say? Think Li -would

hire a couple to work -with the children, instead of

leaving it all on you ? "

"The proposition would have to be put to him,"

Judit said, lowering her eyes.

"Well, then!" Gill made to get up, but he was

too weighted down with children to make it on the

first try.

"And first," Judit said, very demurely, "the

proposition would have to be put to me. I'm old-

fashioned about these things."

Gill looked at her.

"Me, too," he said, "and I draw the line at

proposing to you in front of two miners and a gag-

gle of giggling kids."

"Then we'll have to do it for you," said Calum

and Rafik in unison.

Calum went down on one knee in front of

Judit. Rafik laid his hand on his heart. Gill started

turning red.

"Dear Judit," Calum said, "would you do us

the immense favor — "

"—and Gill the great honor," Rafik put in.

"Of providing a home and family for this poor,

old, arthritic—"

"I am not arthritic!" Gill bellowed. "That trou-

ble with my right knee is an old sports injury."

349

"—broken-down, lonely, unloved—" Rafik

continued over Gill's protests.

"Oh, stop it, you two!" Judit interrupted them.

"He is by no means unloved." She looked melt-

ingly at Gill, -who was now more purple than red.

"But I think he might have a stroke if you don't

knock it off."

"Then you'd better accept him," Calum said

promptly. "You wouldn't want to be responsible

for the poor old fellow's demise from apoplexy,

would you? A kind-hearted girl like you?"

"We'll ask Li to name that suite at Maganos

after you," Rafik suggested. "The Judit Kendoro

Home For Stray Miners."

"Get out of here," Gill roared, having finally

divested himself of children, "and let me propose

to my girl in my own way and my own time!" He

shooed Calum, Rafik, and all three children out of

the room. "And no eavesdropping!"

That the two former partners did not, spoke vol-

umes for their self-discipline and the fact that they

had both decided Gill and Judit were exactly

suited to each other.

Each went down the lift-chute with a much

lighter heart to see what they could do to solve the

major problem now facing the Maganos Moon

Base scheme.

"Bribery will only get you so far," Rafik said. "I

suspect there is more at stake than money or pres-

tige or mere power."

"There's nothing 'mere' about power, Rafik,"

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

350

351

Calum said in a sudden fit of depression, brought

on as much by the happy scene being enacted in

the children's quarters as anticipation of facing an

unknown quantity of opponents.

It couldn't just be this mysterious Piper person,

not when Mr. Li -was confounded by the machina-

tions behind the scenes.

"Well, what Mr. Li can't find out. Uncle Hafiz

can.

"Don't you mean Papa Hafiz?" he said almost

snidely.

"Uncle, smunckle, papa doppa," Rafik said,

shrugging indifferently, "we are both Harakamians

and nothing will daunt us!" He raised a fist in

respect of his determination as they reached the

door leading to Mr. Li's domain. The fist altered

and its knuckles rapped most circumspectly for

admission.

During their absence in the children's suite,

Uncle Hafiz had joined Mr. Li, and so had the

scruffy man they identified as Pedir, the auxiliary

skimmer driver who had attached himself,

limpetlike, to Acorna and Judit for their excur-

sions.

"Ah, is good you have returned," Mr. Li said.

"You know Pedir?"

After Rafik and Calum had exchanged greet-

ings and seated themselves, Mr. Li continued. "Is

source of much local knowledge and gossip."

"Knows where a lot of bodies have been

buried, you might even say," Uncle Hafiz added,

stroking the chin beard he was cultivating.

"We," and Mr. Li's delicate hand gestured to

Uncle Hafiz, "who feel is time to introduce Lady

Acorna to society — "

"—such as it is," Hafiz put in.

"—are inviting," and he gestured now to

Mercy who was seated at the console and furi-

ously typing away, "every person of wealth and

standing in city to splendid gala banquet and

dancing the night away."

"Anyone who is anyone in Kezdet will come,"

Hafiz said, "because it will borne in on them that

not to be invited would indicate social or industrial

inferiority to those also on the guest list."

"But Acorna," Rafik and Calum were instantly

on the qui vive, "would be in jeopardy."

Hafiz flapped his hand dismissively, grimacing

away their caution.

"Not from this house," Mr. Li said. "Not with

so many watching her all night long with eyes of

hawk and claws of tiger."

Hafiz leaned back in the conformable chair, at

almost a dangerous tilt, steepling his fingers and

staring up at the ceiling, a slow smile creasing his

face.

"She will be clad in raiment fit for a princess, a

queen, an empress ..." he extended one hand ceil-

ingward, opening his fingers at the apex, indicating

magnificence beyond imagining, ". . . bejeweled . . .

and also," he pulled his eyes down to his nephew,

"warded from every possible danger by the built-in

systems hidden in the jewelry."

"Ah, ingenious!" and Rafik relaxed into a chair,

stretching out his legs, hooking his thumbs in his

belt and preparing himself for whatever pearls of

353

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

352

wisdom and crafty conniving were sure to be

revealed.

Calum, with a droll smile, wandered over to

Mercy's desk position and perched on a stool.

"There will be music ..." Uncle Hafiz went on.

"Several groups," Pedir said, "for I am

promised to promote three groups and undoubt-

edly, once this is noised about, I will have to help

others. All worthy and all good musicians ..."

"Only good musicians," Mr. Li said, raising a

slim finger.

"Only the very best," Pedir nodded, "for there

ain't no bad guys around here as play well. Get

you good extra boys, girls for serving, too."

"I'm doing that, Pedir," Mercy said, looking up

from her screen.

"No problemo," Pedir said, wriggling both

hands to assure her he would not interfere. "What

about a skimmer strike? Would that be any help?"

Mr. Li shook his head with more vigor than he

usually displayed for poor ideas.

"Strike is ours to do," he said. "A different

strike. All will see." Now he raised his frail arm,

closing the fingers to a point, retracting his arm,

then darting it forward in an unmistakably reptil-

ian strike.

Uncle Hafiz pretended to recoil in terror, his

eyes sparkling with amusement. But no more was

said. In fact, Pedir was excused, and so were

Calum and Rafik, though they were enjoined to

have the skimmer driver transport them to the

most prestigious tailor in Kezdet, to be measured

for masculine finery.

'To talk of the sumptuousness of the coming

evening of Mr. Delszaki Li's prestigious house,"

Uncle Hafiz said. He buffed his nails on his lapel.

"I have already commissioned elegant evening

attire. Unless you wish me to deprive you of

acceptable female companionship for the entire

evening, you had best look less like camel drivers

than you do now."

Rafik snorted. He had hurried without chang-

ing from his usual shipboard gear to Mr. Li's, and

Calum had come dressed as he was because he

was uncomfortable in anything but the casual

clothing he was now wearing.

"Come, Calum," said Rafik, rising, "let us do as

we are bid, for if my dearly beloved uncle has

commanded us to appear in sartorial elegance, he

will certainly be willing to pay for the best there is

to be had."

While Hafiz was sputtering about impudent,

improvident imps, the two made their escape,

pushing the laughing Pedir ahead of them as Mr.

Li cackled in appreciation of the taunt.

"I have finished the list, Mr. Li," Mercy said,

instantly diverting them to the more important

task of contriving a most exhaustive guest list.

Mr. Li's house was more than adequate for such a

social evening, but rooms long unused for enter-

tainment had to be turned out, refurbished in the

newest fads, decorated in the latest color schemes,

and exotic viands ordered from all over the galaxy.

"Is going to be a legend in this time, this

354

Acorna

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

355

evening," Mr. Li often said while Uncle Hafiz fer-

vently seconded him, but had to be discreetly

restrained from providing a few bizarre entertain-

ments. "Is not to distract guests from main purpose

of all this, good friend Hafiz."

"True, true." Though Hafiz sighed, remember-

ing the most amazing contortionist act he had hap-

pened to catch at one of the more elegant of the

casinos on Kezdet, stimulating jaded tastes and

appetites.

The invitations, miracles of calligraphy and

illustration in their own right, were dispatched to

the recipients, and shortly it became difficult to

manage necessary calls from Mr. Li's house to sup-

pliers, merchants, and even acquaintances.

Acorna, accompanied by a glowing Judit and a

more sedately excited Mercy, made many trips to

the couturier -who had been chosen, of the many

available, to supply their gowns. Excitement was

high in that establishment, which had made cer-

tain that every other couturier in Kezdet realized

how much they had lost by not securing these

commissions. Acorna was often so besieged by

those wishing her miracles that Rafik and Calum

joined them at the dressmaker's.

Rafik was actually helpful, for he had inher-

ited, among other things, Calum said sourly, the

Harakamian dress sense and was able to comment

knowledgeably about fit, line, and color.

The jewels were, however, left to Uncle Hafiz,

who had sent for skilled craftsmen as -well as the

raw materials of precious metals and uncut gems,

and supervised the styles and elegance of what

each girl would wear. That special adornments

were also being made for Mr. Li's evening banquet

•was discreetly mentioned and several invitees

finally decided to attend upon hearing that news.

Calum and Gill had been busy, too, with elec-

tronic and engineering effects which would guard

the already well-guarded Li household. They even

did their best to protect against such ingenuities as

contact poisons, sleepy powders, and other deadly

elements. Special beams could render the most

popular of these substances neutral. Not that

Acorna could not neutralize venom but they

wished to avoid such problems in the first place.

And so the great day arrived, and the coiffeurs

came with their preparations and oohed and aahed

over Acorna's magnificent mane. Her gown had

been cut to free her hirsute splendor and a tiara

had been designed to crown that silvery glory.

(One of the many jealous females was later heard

to swear that Mr. Li's ward had had to be glued

into her costume, for how else could it have stayed

anchored so firmly when she gyrated on the dance

floor.) The dark hairs of both Judit and Mercy

were also teased into fetching styles, but nothing

outre, since quiet elegance suited them better, and

as a foil for Acorna's unusual appearance.

Khetala, Chiura, and Jana watched, almost as

glued to their vantage seats in the "tiring room,"

speechless with the beauty they were seeing, and

the subtle ways which natural loveliness could be

enhanced. They had received permission to watch

the guests arrive and were to receive the same

foods that would be served for dinner.

356

fftc-orna                                  357

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

"So you can feast even as we do," Judit

explained. "There •will be so many people, small

persons like yourselves would get lost and that

might be scary."

Khetala had agreed. She still liked lots of space

around her and felt safe around strangers only if

her "uncles" were nearby.

Chiura had put behind her all the terrible

memories which still woke Jana, sweaty and trem-

bling in the night. She was forever leaving her lit-

tle bed and creeping in with Kheti for comfort.

But she was truly excited about the party and

knew exactly where she could crouch, unseen, on

the first landing of the great stairs and see every-

one arriving.

Finally the ninth hour came, an hour which the

fine clocks in their niches, corners, and surfaces

celebrated with melodious, arrogant, or demure

chimings. At precisely the third stroking of the

hour, the front door -was opened to receive the first

guest, a very minor official and his wife, splendidly

garbed for the occasion. Jana didn't think much of

her dress: the color was garish and the flickering

light display adorning the neckline made her look

like a washed-out sketch. On the stroke of the

ninth, another minor official, his wife, oldest son

and daughter, were admitted. Jana liked -what the

daughter -was wearing—the very prettiest shade of

pale blue—though it didn't really suit the girl. Her

shoes, with their very high heels, studded -with

sparkling jewels, and straps that started at her toes

and -went up to her knee, were nice.

The trickle of guests became a rivulet and then

a river, with no time to close the door between

their comings. Kheti and Chiura got bored with

looking at what people were wearing, but Jana

feasted her eyes on the colors, the patterns, the

combinations, the swags and the trimmings, the

feathers and the furs. She could not quite believe

there could be so many variations of dress and

suit: she, who had lived much of her life in dark-

ness, in a black to gray environment, lapped up all

the colors as a desert dweller would drink from an

oasis.

Then, he stood in the doorway. Jana was

frozen with fear. Kheti and Chiura had left their

positions -when the undermaid had called them to

eat their share of the banquet. Not that Jana could

have uttered a word. She could only stare at him,

seen in the bright lights, in a deep blue suit which

gave off subtle glitters, with a white-white shirt

collar barely showing at the neck of it. But it -was

he, and he was here where she thought she could

be safe.

Rigid with terror she watched as Mr. Li

greeted him and introduced him to Uncle Hafiz,

who introduced Acorna, who smiled and made

Judit and Mercy and Pal known to him in this

silly ritual they had been performing for every

guest that entered the house. Nearly fainting, she

saw Gill and Judit usher him into the main salon,

where he passed from her sight. Then she col-

lapsed in a little heap.

That is how the undermaid found her when she

went to collect the third of her charges for the

evening.

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

358

"He's coming for us," was all Jana could say when

she first recovered from her faint. "We've got to

hide Chiura."

"Who?"

"He's here. I ^aw him. They invited him."

There could be only one "him" who would

elicit that terrified note from Jana. Kheti's face

went gray. "The Piper?"

Jana nodded. She snatched up Chiura, elicit-

ing a wail of protest as the little one was seriously

involved with the tray of sweets, and wrapped

both arms around her as though to shield her with

her own body.

"We have to get away," she whispered. "The

lift-chute's too dangerous, it lets out in the front

hall. The windows — "

"Wait!" Khetala sank down on the floor, not

quite as gracefully as she had been trained to do

by Didi Badini; her knees were trembling too hard

for that. "Let me think."

Jana crammed sweets into Chiura's mouth ran-

domly, to keep her happy while Kheti thought. She

was shocked, though, when Khetala reached for a

jellabie and bit into the sweet, crystallized-honey crust.

"Is this a time to be stuffing your face?"

"Sugar helps when you got the shakes,"

Khetala said. "You eat something, too. Even if we

do run — "

"We have to. Now!" Jana interrupted.

"Even if we do, you won't run far on an empty

belly. You eat. I'll think."

359

Khetala washed down the jellabie with a long

drink of iced madigadi juice while Jana obediently

picked at a witifowl pastry. Each crumb seemed as

if it would choke her.

"Now then," Khetala said at last. "I been think-

ing. The Lady Acorna is gooS. She wouldn't invite

the Piper here."

"I tell you, I ^aw him! The gray man who came

to the mine with Didi Badini. Ain't he the Piper?"

Kheti nodded and folded her hands to conceal

the shaking of her fingers.

"Oh, yes. I heard him talking to Didi Badini,

many and many a time, when she had me locked

in that closet where they keep — Well, never mind

that," she interrupted herself hastily. Jana didn't

need to know about Didi Badini s dark closets and

the means she employed to make sure new girls

would be docile when she finally let them out. "I

got to hear him talk again to make sure, though. If

it Li him ..." she shivered ". . . it's bad. Very bad.

See, I don't think they know who the Piper really

is. He's got himself another name for this side of

Celtalan. I heard them talking about it the other

day. It's a big secret, the Piper s real name. Maybe

the biggest secret in Celtalan. If he finds out we've

seen him here—" She mimed slitting her throat.

"Best we could hope for is he kills us quick. He

ain't taking us back to the mines, Jana. He ain't

taking us anywhere. Did he see you?"

Jana shook her head. " He went straight into

that big room with all the lights and pretty ladies."

"Did the Lady Acorna go with him?"

Jana shook her head again.

Acorna

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

360 -

361

"Good," Kheti murmured. "She should be all

right here, anyway. He wouldn't do anything to

her here, where he's passin' under his real name."

"What would he do to her?"

Khetala looked at Jana pityingly.

"He wants her killed, too. He told Didi Badini

she's making too much trouble here on Kezdet,

getting the bond kids and the Child Labor League

all stirred up."

Jana stiffened and squeezed Chiura so hard

that the sleepy child cried in protest. "You didn't

tell me that before!"

"Told Delszaki Li," Khetala said. "He knows.

He's been seeing that the Lady's safe. Why do you

think he sent her off to Maganos? I heard them

talking about that, too. I hear a lot."

Jana went unerringly to the weak point in

Khetala's argument.

"But he doesn't know the Piper is that dressed-

up man I saw downstairs. Nobody knows. You

said that yourself. So he doesn't know the Piper is

here, in this house. How can he keep the Lady

safe if he doesn't know?" She felt more frightened

than she ever had in her life, more than when Siri

Teku came at her with the whip that last time.

She'd thought she might as well die then, she was

hurt so bad and Chiura was gone. But the Lady

Acorna had made her live again and had brought

her back to Chiura. Debts had to be paid. Jana

forced the next words out. "We got to warn her."

"We'll find Air. Li. Or somebody -we can trust,"

Kheti said sharply to force down her fear at the

idea of going among all those strangers. "But I still

think he won't move against her now, in this

house, -where everybody knows him by his real

name!"

"He could put poison in her food or something."

As none of the children had experience with

Acorna's ability to detect poisons, this seemed all

too probable to Khetala as well as to Jana. "Or

maybe he's going to lure her out into the garden

and there'll be a bomb. Or ..." Jana's invention

failed. What did it matter? She only knew that the

Lady Acorna, her lady, was in terrible danger and

she had to do something about it. Even if she was

so scared all she wanted to do was hide and cry.

"Come on. We got to warn her!"

She stood up with some difficulty, because

Chiura had become frightened by the older girls'

evident tension and was refusing to let go of her

"Mama Jana."

"He sees us," Khetala said, "we're dead. You

know that?"

"I know that," Jana said, wishing her voice

wouldn't wobble so much. "But I got to go. She

took me out of Anyag." She gave Khetala a scorn-

ful look. "You want to, you can stay here. Maybe

the Lady didn't take you out of Didi Badini's

bonk-shop. Or maybe you forgot already? "

But Kheti was on her feet now.

"You're an idiot, Jana," she said, sighing, "but I

can't let you go and be an idiot all by yourself. Got

in the habit of taking care of you little kids too long

ago, I guess. Come on. Let's go and get ourselves

killed, if that's what you gotta do. Only let's leave

Chiura here. He don't need to know about her."

362

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

363

But Chiura -wound her arms tighter about

Jana's neck -when Jana tried to set her down, and

screwed up her pretty face in the grimace that

they knew was preparatory to one of her ear-

piercing screams.

"All right, all right," Jana hushed her, "you can

stay with me. But you got to be real quiet, you

understand? Quiet like a ghurri-ghurri, like a

shadow, like you're not even there. Or Piper'11 get

you."

To Chiura, the Piper was just a name used to

frighten her into acquiescence, like Old Black,

who lived down in the bottom of the mines and ate

little girls for breakfast. So she was scared enough

by the threat to hush up, but not scared into

screaming hysteria.

Acorna was in fact in the garden, where (under

the watchful eye of Hafiz Harakamian) she had

retreated from the noise and social chitchat of the

party to talk with some of Delszaki Li's distin-

guished guests about matters of more importance

to her.

"Is not only social occasion," Li had instructed

all his people. "Is testing of the waters. Must talk

little, listen much, try to find source of high-

government secret opposition. Perhaps head of

Public Works says, 'Is not my doing, gracious lady,

is warning from Orator of the council that would

be unwise for political appointee such as myselt to

further projects undesirable to certain of his con-

stituency.' Perhaps orator of the council says,

'Having duty to protect interests of glass-working

and related industries.' Then perhaps we say, 'Aha!

Is looking closer at Tondubh Glassworks.' Only

example, you understand," Li had said, almost

purring. "Personally, do not expect to find source

of opposition in Tondubh. Have already bought

most of judges and public servants bribed by

Dorkamadian Tondubh. He is cheap man, does not

pay workers, does not even make good bribes. But

perhaps you find some other thread. Listen!

Listen! And if must talk, then be obnoxious."

"Why?" Pal had queried.

"How?" That was Calum, who looked more

interested than alarmed at this suggestion.

"Accuse justicers of taking bribes, claim that

politicians are put in office by industrial interests,

hint that civil servants are in second service of the

Piper. See who looks nervous and changes sub-

ject. All people here are wishing to be seen as

respectable, good people, personally obeying

Federation law? as well as Kezdet local law.

Someone is not. Be offensive, my children." He

smiled seraphically. "Someone already hates us.

Be charitable. Give him good reason to hate and

fear us."

Acorna did not feel that she had any real talent

for offending people, so she had been dutifully fol-

lowing Li's first directive and listening. But she

doubted she would learn anything from this par-

ticular conversation except that Dork Tondubh

lived up to his nickname and that Tumim Viggers,

head of Public Works, and the politician Vidra

Shamali were equally smug, self-satisfied, and

364

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

365

impervious to suggestion. All three of these social

and political leaders of Kezdet society -were more

than happy to stroll in Li's exotic gardens -with a

lovely young lady, even if she did have an odd pro-

tuberance in the middle of her forehead. Acorna

had followed Li's suggestion and, instead of trying

to disguise her physical differences for this party,

had accentuated them. Her tight sheath of Illuc

spidersilk showed off the lean, flat planes of her

body; a spiral of jeweled ribbons accentuated her

white horn. The result had been exactly as Li had

predicted: after a few surprised looks, the haut

moni)e of Celtalan had decided that anything so

flamboyantly displayed must be an asset, not a

deformity. ("It's a feature, not a bug," Calum had

said sardonically, and when questioned, added,

"Old Earth saying. I'm not sure exactly what it

means.")

Unfortunately, the avuncular tone adopted by

Dork and Tumim was not likely to give Acorna

any results except extreme boredom and a grow-

ing desire to turn around and kick them where it

would do the most good with her sharp, hard feet.

As for Vidra, at least she wasn't accompanying her

lecture with the sleazy looks and surreptitious

touches Dork added to his talk, but the bossiness

of her manner more than made up for that.

At present all three were happily "explaining" to

Acorna exactly why it was impossible to eradicate

Kezdets practice of child labor and why employers

should be considered charitable guardians rather

than slave owners.

"Of course there are children around the glass-

works," Dork said. "It's hot work, there among the

furnaces. The workers need water; the children

bring it to them."

"I saw a little boy running among the furnaces

with a seven-foot iron rod loaded with molten

glass," Acorna said.

Dork made a mental note to ream out the secu-

rity guards at Tondubh for ever letting this pretty

thing inside the compound. She hadn't just been

giving away shoes; she'd been noticing things. He

shifted to his second line of defense.

"Alas, yes, there have been some lapses. You

must understand, my dear, Kezdet is an under-

capitalized economy. Our people must work to

eat. What can we do when parents bring their

children to the factory and beg for work? Should

we let them starve?"

"Don't wrap it up in pretty ribbons. Dork," said

Vidra in her harsh voice. "The glass industry on

Kezdet requires children. Adults can't run so fast

with the molten glass. If Dork and others like him

didn't hire children, not only would those poor

families starve, but production would go down."

"That's true," Dork said with more animation.

"Profits might drop by as much as thirty percent. I

have a duty to my shareholders, you know."

"Yes, it if expensive having -workers whom you

have to pay and provide medical care for." Acorna

smiled agreement. "Still, most industrial planets

manage it." She thought she could get to enjoy Li's

instructions on being offensive, after all. "What's

wrong with Kezdet, that you people can't figure

out how to run a factory without slave labor?"

366

Acorna

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

367

"Now, now, dear, do not upset yourself," Tumim

Viggers counseled her. "You are young and a

stranger to our -ways, and perhaps those terrorist

zealots of the Child Labor League have been telling

you misleading stories. The fact is that the few chil-

dren working on Kezdet are very "well treated. They

are fed and lodged at their employer's expense,

have years of free training in their chosen career,

and enjoy the knowledge that their earnings are

sent home to help support their beloved families.

Why, if you sent a team of Federation inspectors to

any of our mines or factories, I do believe the chil-

dren would run away and hide rather than be taken

away! They love their work, you see, and the over-

seers are like parents to them."

"Possibly," Acorna agreed. "I understand that

some parents also beat their children."

Tumim Viggers sighed. "There may have been

excesses. It is no easy matter to train and disci-

pline young children, but I assure you, they are

learning lessons which "will be invaluable when

they grow up."

"How many of them c>o grow up?" Acorna

asked in a tone of bright interest.

Tumim Viggers chose to ignore that question.

"Child labor is one of the harsh realities of life on

an overpopulated, underdeveloped planet.

Extremist groups like the CLL only make matters

worse. Why, if we were to eradicate all child labor

on Kezdet tomorrow?, what do you think would

happen?"

"I don't know," said Acorna brightly. "Why not

try it and find out? "

She rose, then. "I must really circulate, but it

has been so nice to get to know you better. Do

enjoy the garden. The night-blooming scented

plants are in that corner."

"Do show us exactly where?" Tumim said and

reached for her arm, a maneuver she evaded by

swaying away from him and out of reach.

As she walked back toward the house, she hap-

pened to glance up at the windows and saw three

figures hurrying down the staircase: three figures

that ought to have been fast asleep in their beds,

stuffed with all the food and sweets she had asked

to be sent to them. Where -was the undermaid who

was supposed to watch out for them? If they

should be seen . . .

She hurried inside and spotted Calum, who

had a desperate look on his face: the anorexic

daughter of the shipping magnate she had met in

the receiving line was clinging to his arm with a

death grip. Acorna gave him the old EVA danger

sign. He peeled the girl off him and, muttering

some sort of an apology, he made his way quickly

to Acorna.

"The children are up. They must not be seen,"

she said in an urgent undertone. "On the stairs. If

I go up . . ."

"Leave it to me."

The skeleton had clattered after Calum, but

Acorna intercepted her, taking her by the arm.

"I do hope you are enjoying yourself this

evening, Kisia," she said, fortunately recalling her

name and steered her toward the refreshment

table, where a new display of subtleties and

368

'A.corna.

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

369

delights had just been arranged. "With your father

so prominent in the shipping industry, do you get

a chance to travel to far-off planets and places? Or

are you forced to remain here in a dull school?"

Kisia stiffened and almost sneered up at

Acorna. "Fraggit, but you know nothing, do you?

School? I've been a qualified navigator for three

years. The only reason I'm at this party at all is

because the whole family got invited. And then

you have the nerve to skive off with the only inter-

esting chap here."

"An errand only he could do for me," Acorna

said, "and see, here he is back."

However, Calum grabbed Acorna by the hand

and pulled her so close to him that Kisia swore,

more as a deckhand than a navigator might, and

flounced off to find another target for her atten-

tions.

"They're terrified. They've seen the Piper

here."

"They have? They could identify him?" Acorna

looked around the room for Mr. Li's hover-chair

or Uncle Hafiz, trying to hide the terror she felt.

Calum peeled her hands off his arm.

"Khetala and Jana are both certain, but they're

terrified for your sake. They're afraid he's here to

kill you."

"Here? In front of everyone?" Acorna ridiculed

the notion. "Not likely."

"You'd still be dead, sweetie pie," Calum said

soberly. "Besides which, very few people here are

enchanted with your interference with their prof-

itable operations employing child labor."

"Then why did they come?" she asked,

annoyed as •well as frightened. Dreadful people.

Smile at your face and pull a stunner once your

back -was turned. Although, where many of those

present could hide anything in the sleek, tight-

fitting garb that was currently fashionable, she did

not know. Very little was left to the imagination,

and one could count spine ridges and ... all sorts

of things. She could have appeared at this dinner

clad in only her own skin and given away nothing

of her gender, but these people covered it all up

and then flaunted what they covered.

"They came for the food and to say they had

been here tonight. Mr. Li is excessively pleased

with the turnout, but I must go tell him that the

children can identify the Piper. That will be one

more obstacle out of our way, so we can find out

where you really belong." Calum grinned up at her

and then squeezed her hands. "I'll go tell them.

You circulate."

He gave her a little push toward the nearest

clutch of chattering men and women. Kisia inter-

cepted her.

"My father wishes to speak with you, Acorna.

He says you've been avoiding him all evening."

There was a remarkable strength in her skele-

tal arms as she towed the taller girl past the near-

est group and toward a quartet, which mercifully

included Uncle Hafiz. Acorna stopped resisting.

Hafiz rose and kissed her cheek. "You are more

beautiful every time I see you, Acorna. Here is

Baron Commodore Manj'ari and his wife, Ilsfa,

wanting to meet you. The baron claims he ships

370

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

Acorna

371

anything and everything, anywhere in the known

galaxy. And, as I'm sure you realize, Acorna, the

baroness's family, the Acultanias, were one of the

first to settle Kezdet and recognize its importance

in this sector."

The baroness smiled a social smile, while stuff-

ing her face with the dainty petit fours on the table

beside her. Baron Manjari rose courteously to his

feet and, removing his hand from his pocket, pat-

ted his lips before he reached for Acorna's prof-

fered hand. He didn't look very impressive, Acorna

thought: medium height, spare build, which might

account for his daughter's anorexic-looking body.

He had very piercing eyes and a gaze that wished

to penetrate her skull. She managed to suppress a

shudder as he brought her hand to his mouth.

Instead of miming a kiss above the skin, he planted

a very moist one on the back of her hand.

"Charmed," he said, drawling in an oddly dry

voice, almost a whisper, as if he had some impedi-

ment in his throat. "I have been waiting all

evening to have a few words with you."

As he released her hand, she began to feel

unwell and, with the pretext of mending her coif-

feur, brushed her hand to her horn. She could feel

it tingle through her forehead and the poisonous

kiss, for that was what it had been, -was neutral-

ized. Baron Manjari might have ships that tra-

versed the known galaxy and be able to find

contact poisons undetectable by Li's guard beams,

but he had never encountered one of her species.

Her problem now was how to react to having just

been given an undoubtedly "lethal" dose of poison.

She noticed that he now brought out a handker-

chief to blot his treacherous lips, and then a small

pill box, explaining as he withdrew a tiny white

oval, that it was time for his medication.

"I did not mean a discourtesy," Acorna began

with social civility, nodding to the baroness, who

was having a hard time deciding which small deli-

cacy to try next. "The littlest ones are filled with

raspberry liqueur," she said, and got a blank look

from the woman and almost a sneer from the

baron. "I think I should sit for a few moments,"

Acorna said abruptly to Uncle Hafiz, who immedi-

ately handed her into the chair he had just

vacated.

She began to rub her hand, as if unconscious of

what she was doing. She caught the avid expression

in the baron s eyes and the tension in his wife's bare

shoulders. "Uncle, a glass of something cool,

please?" she said making her voice rise with

urgency.

"Of course."

Acorna used the ornate fan that dangled from

her left wrist. "I don't know what's come over me."

"Why," Ilsfa leaned toward her, one hand out-

stretched to touch her knee, but Acorna managed

to avoid the contact, "I expect it's no more than any

young girl experiences during her introduction to

society. Why, my Kisia was a nervous wreck until

the evening had started, and then she danced all

night."

"Really?" Acorna managed politely in a soft

voice. Should she be feeling weak so soon?

"Here you are, m'dear," Hafiz said, offering her

372

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

373

a glass of the madigadi juice he knew she liked, so

cold the glass was beaded with moisture.

She drank it all down, hoping thirst was one of

the symptoms of the poison -working. The baron

looked so satisfied that she was sure it must be.

"Just what I needed," she said gaily, and rose.

"So nice to have had a chat with you but, before I

find I have inadvertently ignored some one else, I

really must circulate. Come, Uncle Hafiz, there is

someone I want you to introduce me to ..." and

she pulled him away despite an initial protest.

"That man just tried to poison me," she mut-

tered in Hafiz's ear. "Keep walking. Do I fall down

in a faint, or just collapse somewhere? A contact

poison. He had a very slimy kiss."

"By the beards of the Prophets!" Hafiz began,

and tried to pull loose from her to deal suitably

with Baron Commodore Manjari.

"No, he may be the Piper."

"Oh!"

"Where is Mr. Li? We must inform him."

"Who identified him? There are many people

here who might wish to poison you."

"Khetala and Jana. They watched the guests

entering and saw the Piper among them. They've

been quaking with terror ever since, but they

overcame their fears to warn me. Well, actually,

they found Calum and he told me. Who else would

want to poison me?" Acorna demanded.

"Just about every man and a good many of the

women here tonight," Uncle Hafiz said, and sig-

naled the butler.

Acorna wondered if the man had been cloned,

or was one of triplets, for he had been so assidu-

ous in his duties.

"Hassim, no one is to leave yet," Uncle Hafiz

said in an undertone. "And where is Mr. Li at this

moment?"

The butler indicated the card room with a dis-

creet gesture and glided toward the front door,

deftly opening the panel and tripping a switch that

would close every exterior door and the garden

exits.

Mr. Li's hover-chair was surrounded by some

of the loveliest women at the party and not a single

man. He was obviously enjoying himself, and the

women were laughing at some joke when Hafiz,

smiling to see the quality of the company he was

about to join, approached.

"Ah, but ladies, your glasses are empty. Come

to the table and I will pour for you all."

That left Acorna free to inform Mr. Li of her

suspicions as well as the children's ability to iden-

tify the dread Piper.

"Take them to my study. Tell Hassim to

secure the house. Immediate confrontation now.

Who?" And Mr. Li stared at her as he suddenly

assimilated the information he had just been

given. "Not . . . how extraordinary! Is most

remarkable. Is last man this person would sus-

pect."

"That's often how it is, isn't it? But how do we

entice him to the study? I am supposed to be

dying of his poison. Will he not suspect?"

"Is my job. Get children. Get to study. Hafiz?"

and he drifted his chair. "You forgive?" He

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

374

375

beamed back at the ladies even as he was moving

out of the room, -with Hafiz almost running after

him. "I give beep call and assemble cavalry."

Acorna had already disappeared up the stair-

case, Calum taking the steps two at a time -with

Rafik trying to keep up.

Judit intercepted them at the stairs. "What is

the matter?"

"Oh, is nothing. Keep guests happy," Mr. Li

said. "Is that not Baron Manjari I see? No chance

yet to show him my new acquisitions. Is now the

time."

Judit -was too well trained to ask what new

acquisitions, and obediently followed the hover-

chair to where the baron commodore, wife, and

daughter, were now standing, his expression

slightly smug, theirs rebellious.

"Ah, dear Mr. Li," the baron said as suave as

ever. "We were about to take our leave of you.

Your lovely Acorna has only just left us to our

own devices."

"She asks me to show? you mine, is all," Mr. Li

said and, laying one finger along his nose, winked

at his guests. "Have only just acquired." His finger

now bridged his lips to indicate secrecy. "You travel

much and can advise me on how to keep all safe."

"Surely, Mr. Li, you have no need of my

advice?" the baron commodore said.

"Ah, but is to see my treasure first and then

advise. We go now. Ah . . . some devices not suit-

able for ladies, you understand?" Li added in an

undertone. "My Judit will entertain lovely wife

and daughter while you come with me."

There was something in the tone of the old

gentleman that made it impossible for Baron

Commodore Manjari to refuse. With an apologetic

shrug toward his womenfolk, he followed Li's

hover-chair to the study, at the far end of the

house from the glittering party. Hafiz unobtru-

sively followed to make sure the baron was cut off

from any possible allies who might notice their

exit.

The children were gathered in the study,

Chiura half asleep in Acorna's lap and the other

two holding tightly to her dress. When the baron

entered after Li, Khetala gasped and backed

behind Acorna, but Jana jumped in front of her

protectively. "Don't hurt her!"

"My dear little girl," the baron said in his

slightly hoarse tone, "why would I wish to harm

this lovely young lady?"

At the sound of the dry, husky voice, Khetala

gripped Acorna's shoulder.

"It's him," she said, her own voice no more

than a thread. "He always whispered before. But I

know him. I do!"

"So do I," said Jana.

Chiura woke up, looked at the baron's face,

and wailed in fright.

"Piper!" she shrieked, trying to burrow into

Acorna's lap.

"The Piper," Jana said. "You came -with Didi

Badini and took my Chiura away—but we got her

back!"

"The Piper," Khetala confirmed. "You came

with Didi Badini and took me to her bonk-shop."

376 --"^             ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

The baron sputtered, gobbled, and turned red.

"Nonsense!" he finally managed to rasp. He

turned to Li. "You'd take the -word of these raga-

muffins from the mines against a man of good fam-

ily? I've never seen these children before."

"You spoke -with Didi Badini many times,"

Khetala said firmly. "I remembered your voice.

There -was not much to think about in the closet

•where she kept me. I remember all the words you

have said, from the day when Siri Teku sold me to

you until the day the lady rescued me. Do you

want me to repeat all I heard you say? "

"Ridiculous!" Baron Manjari said. "This is a

tissue of fabrications, and I can prove it! The child

at Anyag had a whip scar on one cheek ..."

His voice rustled to silence, like a pile of dry

leaves when the wind ceases to stir them. Delszaki

Li and Hafiz Harakamian, one on each side of

him, let the silence draw out.

"Interesting," Li said finally, "that you know

these children came from Anyag."

The baron made a gesture of denial. "I must

have seen them ... a business trip . . . arranging

shipping discounts. . . ."

"A clerk's task, one would think," Li said.

"The Lady Acorna healed my scar," Khetala

said. "But she cannot heal you."

Chiura twisted round to face the man who had

haunted her baby nightmares, the man who had

played with her and tormented her in the skimmer

that took her away from Mama Jana. She kept

one hand firmly twined in the silvery curls of the

Lady Acorna, who had brought Mama Jana back

577

to her. All three children stared unblinking at the

Piper, their eyes a silent accusation.

Finally, Baron Manjari looked away. "No one

will believe this story!"

"You wish to make experiment? " Li asked.

"Be seated, Baron," Hafiz invited. "We have

some serious discussion to do." He nodded at the

children. "Should not these little ones be in their

beds, Delszaki? It offends me that they should

continue to breathe the same air as this camel-

sucking filth."

None of the children felt safe away from

Acorna, so she too left, taking them upstairs,

where she and Gill told stories and sang songs and

promised a thousand times over that the Piper

would never come near them again.

"Why didn't you tell us at first you had seen

the Piper at the mine?" Gill asked at one point.

"You could have identified him from a vid without

ever coming near him."

"Wasn't sure until I saw him and heard the

voice," Khetala said.

"What's a vid?" Jana asked.

"Poor little mite." Gill stroked her forehead. "I

keep forgetting, there's so much you've never seen.

We'll get a vid player up here for you. You'll love

Jill and the Space Pirated. I've got all the episodes.

Acorna loved it when she was a little girl." Jlut two

year<> ago, he thought sadly. Well, those days were

gone forever. How could Acorna's people stand

seeing their children mature so quickly? You

scarcely had time to love them before they had

become tall, independent strangers.

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

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379

When all three girls -were finally asleep, the

lower floors of the house were dark, the lights in

the hall and gardens dimmed. Acorna rose stiffly.

"I wonder what's happening? We shouldn't

have left. What if he poisoned them?"

"Calum and Rafik were with them," Gill

pointed out. "I don't think the Piper was prepared

for violence ... at least I hope not. I'll be very

annoyed if Calum and Rafik got a chance to beat

the living daylights out of him and I didn't get my

share." He gently disentangled Jana from his coat

and beard and laid her down in her cot, brushing a

gentle kiss against her forehead.

"Has been no violence," said Delszaki Li,

appearing at the entrance to the suite in his hover-

chair. "Has been some serious negotiation, but all

is resolved peacefully."

Hafiz, behind him, was wearing the beatific

smile of a man who has just sold thirteen blind and

lame camels for a bale of Illic silk.

"If I could ever feel sorry for that bastard,"

Calum said, "I would now. Anybody caught

between Hafiz and Delszaki. . ." He whistled. "I

just hope you two gentlemen don't team up and

form the Harakamian-Li consortium. You'd be

ruling the galaxy in no time."

Hafiz and Delszaki glanced at one another.

"Interesting idea," they said simultaneously.

"Uh-oh," Gill murmured to Acorna, "I think

•we've created a monster. Come on. Let's leave the

kids to get their sleep and find out what kind of

deal these two cut with the blessed baron."

Once more in Mr. Li's study, Acorna listened

intently, but the results of the negotiations were

not entirely satisfactory to her. The price of Baron

Manjari's cooperation was their silence. If he was

allowed to retain his social position, if no whispers

of his peculiar habits and his extra sources of

income got out, then they would find that all offi-

cial constraints on Maganos Moon Base would be

quickly removed. Furthermore, Manjari Shipping

would subsidize the lunar colony by providing free

transport for all materials brought to the moon

and all minerals mined there in the next five years.

"Must give to get," Li said patiently to Acorna.

"If we destroy Manjari, have no hold over him. If

we keep silence, can ensure success of lunar

colony, make safe place for children."

"It's logical," Calum said.

"But not satisfactory," said Gill.

Rafik grinned. "Well, think about this. The

baron just lost three-fourths of his income—or

will, when we take all the bonded children away—

and his shipping company is going to be in the red

for five years, if Maganos is as productive as I

expect it to be. And he won't be able to tell the

baroness and that ratty daughter why they're sud-

denly broke. Does that help?"

"It's a start," Gill allowed.

"We will finish," Li said softly, "when children

are all safe. Old family motto: 'The best revenge is

revenge.'"

"I have some ideas," Acorna said.

"You," Hafiz informed her sternly, "will stay

out of sight until we have the necessary permits.

Remember, you've been poisoned. You're

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

380 "

ficorna

381

extremely ill and your life is despaired of. You may

even have to die for a -while." Acorna looked

shocked and then smiled. "That's right. We don't

•want Manjan tempted to have another try at you."

Baron Manjari -was hardly able to conceal his rage

and fury after leaving Delszaki Li's party. Indeed,

he hardly bothered to conceal it. His wife and

daughter had learned from long and painful expe-

rience how to survive his dark moods. The

baroness thought he was angry because she had

eaten too many sweets again, the girl because she

had been chasing after that blond miner instead of

making a push to attach somebody who could be a

useful business connection for Manjari Shipping.

The baroness babbled nervously. Kisia sulked, but

stayed well out of range of her father's hand; she

had had to explain away too many bruises as

"accidental falls" already. That, she considered,

was the price she paid for the money that had put

her through nav training and now paid for the col-

lection of top-of-the-line fliers and small spacecraft

she enjoyed for her private use. She couldn't actu-

ally work as a space navigator; that would be

beneath her family's status. So she accepted the

baron's heavy moods, occasional casual blows, and

tight hold over her allowance as the inevitable

inconveniences of life. And she controlled -what

she could control: the flight patterns of her ships,

and -what she put into her body, and how much

fear she displayed when her father went into one

of his black spells. She despised her mother, who

stuffed herself with sweets and then apologized

that she "couldn't help it," almost as much as she

despised the baron himself. At least ifhe had some

discipline, Kisia thought.

The baron, brooding over the insults he had

just suffered, was all but unaware of his women-

folks' feelings. They were afraid of him; good,

they would not question him. Not now, anyway.

Even if he had to retrench and retire to the

country for a few seasons, his wife would be

afraid to ask what had happened to their lavish

income. Kisia, though—Kisia would raise hell

when she found out that he could no longer sup-

port a hangar full of private small craft for her

personal amusement. He would have to find

some way to shut her up. ... If it came to that!

But then, Manjari thought, what were the odds

that Li's insane plan would succeed? He -would

have to ensure that official blocks to the develop-

ment of Maganos Moon Base were removed, but

that did not mean the project would be a success.

If Li never managed to get the lunar mining facil-

ity in operation, his own expenses in providing

free shipping would be minimal. And Li would

never make a go of the moon base, because he

meant to staff it with the bonded children of

Kezdet. Children who had been well trained to

hide themselves whenever anybody unknown to

their supervisors came to a compound.

Let him collect a few <>tray^, Manjari thought.

Much gooc) it will f)o him I

The system on Kezdet was too well entrenched,

the children too well trained in fearful, unquestioning

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

382

383

obedience, for any one man to overthrow it. That

pathetic Child Labor League had not even managed

to keep schools going near the factories to teach the

children their letters and numbers. Literate, numer-

ate -workers could read their contracts and calculate

their indebtedness and their -wages. Couldn't have

that sort of nonsense. Manjari hadn't even had to

quash the schools himself; a -word here and there in

the ears of the factory owners most directly affected,

and buildings were torched, teaching-vid machines

•wrecked, maybe a young idealist beaten up or "acci-

dentally" killed from time to time to warn anybody

else who might have such ideas.

So Li would make his gesture and collect a few

stray children, and he would think himself tri-

umphant for a little while . . . and finally he would

understand that his plan would not work, could

not work. The children would never trust a

stranger.

As for that deformed girl who was getting some

sort of reputation as a miracle worker, who might

have been a figurehead for organized resistance—

<<he would be dead by morning. By this time the

slow-acting contact poison would make her feel

headachy and sleepy. She would go to her bed and

fall into a sleep from which she never woke, and

by the time her body was discovered, the traces of

poison would have dissipated.

Man^an was almost relaxed by the time his

personal skimmer reached the heavily guarded

compound where his family and servants lived in

walled luxury. He need not worry overly much.

All he had to do was wait . . . oh, and dispose of

those three children. Without his witnesses, Li

could prove nothing. And children were fragile;

they died every day in the mines and factories of

Kezdet. It should be easy enough to get rid of

those three. Better to wait a little while, though,

until Li thought himself quite safe.

385

As good as his word," Judit said

the very next afternoon, as the

 sheets of permits from every

reluctant inspector streamed from the printer.

"Is not good his -word," Mr. Li said. "Is good as

his fear of disclosure. That works well for men

such as this baron commodore. Is there all that are

necessary?"

"I think so," Judit said, scanning the first

sheets. "Pal's doing something on the other unit,

though. Nothing from the baron; just a routine

legal search, he said."

Rafik reached for the last one to emerge from

the printer and worked backward, moving toward

her as he glanced at the official permits, mumbling

about which department and what sector and

which quadrant. Then he gave a burst of laughter

as he cavorted about, wrapping himself in the

sheets and tearing some of the peripheries with his

antics.

"Stop it, Rafik, oh stop it. You'll ruin them and

we've waited for long to get them," Judit exclaimed.

"They came?" Gill burst through the study

door, Acorna behind him and the three girls fol-

lowing her like the train of a bridal gown.

"We got 'em!" Rafik held the sheets up over

Judit's head, wheeling around. "We got 'em! For

once, the baron commodore is as good as his

word."

"His word is not good," Mr. Li repeated, but he

was beaming. "His fear is."

Judit slapped at Rafik, trying to get him to sur-

render the rest of the permits. Gill reached up and

deftly nipped them from Rafik's hand. He deliv-

ered the slightly creased sheets, pressing the wrin-

kles out, into Judit's eager grasp, and she went

back to the console.

"I'll enter them into our records, and send

timed and dated confirmations to the respective

departments," she said.

"My, there were a lot needed," Acorna said,

moving with her three shadows to observe Judit

as she dealt with the necessary procedures. "How

much longer must I stay dead?"

"But you aren't dead. Lady Acorna," Khetala

said, confused.

"I am as far as the Piper is concerned, sweetie

pie," Acorna said, hugging Khetala to her side.

Chiura crept in under her arm, as well, while Jana

was content to stand within arm's reach. "Did you

not help Hassim hang the mourning banners?"

"Is not to let the little ones out of the house!"

Mr. Li exclaimed, anxious.

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

386

"Hafiz, Gill, and Calum were with them all the

time, and they were crying most piteously."

"Kheti pinched me," Chiura said, rubbing her

bottom.

"All I had to do -was think of Siri Teku's whip

and I could cry for weeks," Jana said, rather

proud of her performance.

"But won't I have to be buried?" Acorna asked.

Hafiz shook his head. "Cremated as befits the

first wife of the scion of House Harakamian," he

said, grinning. "I shall carry the urn with me to

repose next to that of my son on my ship when

Rafik and I return to Maganos tomorrow. And you,

little ones," and he patted the heads of the three little

girls, "will be among my baggage: the very first to

enjoy the hospitality and safety of the Li Moon

Mining Company."

Khetala clung more closely to Acorna, and

Chiura sniffled.

"But I shall be carrying you," Gill said, wag-

ging a finger at them, "and I want not a whimper,

a tear, or a gasp from you when you are supposed

to be miners' clothing in my sacks."

Jana giggled at playing at being "clothing" and

even Kheti smiled, for all three girls loved Uncle

GUI.

"But you can't tell stories to clothing?" Chiura

asked, her eyes wide with regret.

"Who says I can't?" Gill responded, scowling

fiercely, and she giggled as he swooped down and

tickled her neck with his red beard.

"I've work to do and must concentrate," Judit

said.

Acorna                          --— 387

"Is, after all, office-study," Mr. Li said, trying to

look severe. "Rafik must now call suppliers A to M

to be sure they have received permit. Judit do M to

Z." He clapped his hands together to suggest

urgency.

"Come, girls," Acorna said. "We must pack the

clothing just so in the sacks."

Li's assistants quickly learned that there was no

hope of keeping Acorna safely in the house while

they completed the long task of collecting bonded

child laborers from Kezdet's factories, mines, and

brothels. Without Acorna, they could not even

begin; the children had been too well trained to

hide when strangers approached the compound,

and what with the recent rumors of a horned god-

dess coming to liberate the children, most over-

seers were more stringent.

After the first frustrating day, Judit and Pal

conferred with Delszaki Li. As Calum, Rafik, and

Gill all reported the same inability to get children

to come out of hiding, Li reluctantly agreed that

Acorna might go with them the next day.

"But she is not to waste energy with too much

healing," he instructed. "Is already long task, one

person to visit all places. If she exhausts herself

with healing every child, will never complete the

work. I send medical team with you."

"I'm not worried about Acorna burning herself

out," Gill said, "as much as I am about the baron.

If she starts collecting children from the factories,

you know, he's bound to notice she's not dead."

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

388

389

"And we went to so much trouble with the

funeral banners!" Judit sighed.

"Will speak personally to Baron Manjari," Li

said. "No trouble there. But you watch Acorna!"

And, with those somewhat contradictory reas-

surances, they all went together on the second day.

Acorna was eager to go to Anyag first, but Calum

had overnight produced a revised skimmer sched-

ule showing the optimal path to allow them to

clear mines and factories sequentially while mak-

ing the best use of their skimmers. Anyag was far

from first on the list.

They began at the Czerebogar carpet-weaving

factory, where on the previous day Pal had found

only empty sheds, quiescent looms, and vague talk

from the supervisor of some kind of holiday for

the workers—all adults, of course!

Today, as soon as Acorna stepped out of the

skimmer, pale children began collecting silently in

the central compound. They seemed to come out

of nowhere, from cracks in the walls, from shad-

ows. The supervisor cursed them and told them to

get away, that they had no business in his factory.

The children seemed not even to hear him. They

moved slowly forward until they encircled Acorna.

The nearest ones reached timidly to touch her

with cut and bleeding fingers.

"It is Lukia of the Lights," one whispered.

Others repeated, "Lukia! Lukia!" on rising

tones until the word became a song of praise cir-

cling the courtyard.

"My brother," a ragged girl said. She pushed a

taller boy forward, guiding him with both hands.

"Can you give back his sight, Lukia of the Lights?

He had an infection of the eyes and we had only

water to wash them, but it was not enough."

Acorna caught her breath on a sob, but before

she could reach out to the boy, Rafik had gestured

for a med-tech to see to the lad.

"The infection is reversible, with proper treat-

ment," the tech said. She straightened and glared at

the overseer. "You would have let the boy go blind

for want of a five-credit jar of antibiotic ointment! I

am ashamed to be of Kezdet. But I did not know,"

she said to Acorna, "one hears whispers, always

whispers, but I did not know ... I did not want to

know."

By the time the flight of hired skimmers, led by

Pedir, had collected the last of the children from

the Czerebogar Carpet Factory, the medical tech-

nicians hired by Delszaki Li had all volunteered

their services, )ust as the skimmer pilots had done

after a little encouragement from Pedir.

At Tondubh Glassworks, the news of Acorna's

visit to the Czerebogar factory had preceded them.

They were met by a furious Dorkamadian

Tondubh, threatening to obtain an injunction from

Judge Buskomor against any attempt to remove

workers who were legally bonded to work for the

glass factory in payment of their debts.

"I wouldn't even try," Pal said pleasantly. He

ruffled through the papers he had been printing

out from the corn unit two nights earlier. "I

recently performed a routine legal search. We

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

390

391

have here . . . no, that's the Vonzodik statement. . .

ah, here we are. This is your sworn statement,

attested by palm-print before Judge Buskomor

himself, that no children under the age of eighteen

are employed by any Tondubh concern. Clearly,"

he said, looking at the children who had come out,

as at Czerebogar, when the word of Acorna's visit

spread, "these children, being well under eighteen,

do not work here and hence cannot possibly be

bonded to you."

Acorna looked at him with delight. So this was

what Pal had been quietly working on! How clever

he was! But she didn't have a chance to tell him so

just then; children in filthy rags and clean, nearly

new, cheap sandals were pressing all around her.

"You came back. Lady Epona," one of them

breathed.

"Epona, Epona," the others repeated in a low

rhythmic chant that filled the compound and

echoed from wall to wall until Dork Tondubh cov-

ered his ears and made no more protest against

their removing the children.

The skimmer pilots were busy through the day,

flying loads of thin, pallid children from east of

Celtalan to the spaceport, where Judit and Gill

awaited them. When the first children were

brought in, Judit gave a triumphant glance at

Baron Commodore Manjari's portside manager.

"Now do you believe that there are passengers

to transport to Maganos?" she demanded.

"Where's the transport the baron promised?"

"I see you want transport," the manager said,

"but the baron din't tell me nothing about laying it

on. 'Sides, our ships are all busy with real cargo."

"Call him," Judit said.

The manager grinned and spat to one side.

"Told you, lady. I din't have no orders, and I don't

have no ships."

Gill took the man's arm.

"I strongly advise that you accede to the lady's

request," he said. The tone was mild enough, but

there was something in the look of his blue eyes—

not to mention the size of the hand grasping the

manager's arm—that suddenly made using the

portable corn unit to page Baron Manjari seem

like a very, very good idea.

When Manjari answered, Judit took the corn

unit.

"You were told that ships would be required

today to shuttle passengers to Maganos. Will you

honor your undertaking, or ... shall Mr. Li honor

his promise to you?"

The Baron Commodore refused to believe that

Judit and Gill really had passengers for Maganos

until the manager confirmed their statement. Very

shortly thereafter his personal skimmer touched

down at the Manjari private pad.

His face first turned gray when he saw the

crowd of waiting children, then slowly suffused

with color as he grasped the meaning of their chat-

ter about the lady whom some called Lukia and

others Epona.

"She's dead," he insisted, his voice a gravelly

protest "Everybody saw the funeral banners ..."

392

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

393

Gill raised his eyebrows. "The funeral ban-

ners? Those were a sign of respect from House Li

to House Harakamian in their mourning for the

heir."

"Whatever could have made you think they

were for Acorna?" Judit added with a slight smile.

"Acorna is alive and -well," Gill emphasized.

"And Mr. Li suggests that it would be best for

everybody if she stayed that way." He lowered his

voice. "The children you met the other night are

already in a safe place. You cannot get at them, but

they can be brought back to tell all Kezdet who you

really are . . . and if Acorna is harmed in any -way

you can be very sure we will bring them back."

The baron's face sagged, as if the muscles had

been suddenly cut, leaving only unsupported,

aging flesh.

"The Manjari ships are employed elsewhere,"

he said. The dry voice was once again level and

betrayed no emotion. "I will make . . . alternative

arrangements."

He spoke into his corn unit at some length.

Shortly thereafter several things happened. First,

obsequious men in Manjari uniforms arrived to

invite Gill, Judit, and the children to Baron

Commodore Manjari's personal storage hangar.

Next, a second Manjari skimmer discharged two

women: one short and plump, the other gaunt to

the point of emaciation. The older woman wore a

bejeweled robe and had a look of pleased

expectancy on her round face. The younger one

was dressed in unrelieved black and began shriek-

ing before she even got out of the skimmer.

"Father, how dare you commandeer my personal

ships! They're mine, you said so! To make up for not

letting me have a real job as a navigator, because it

was supposed to be an unsuitable occupation for the

Manjari heiress. Anything I wanted, you said, and

when I said I wanted my own collection of private

spacecraft, you said yes. You can't go back on that

bargain now!"

She stared, suddenly speechless in horror, at

the dirty, ragged children being led into her per-

sonal skiff with its luxurious interior fittings.

"Hush, Kisia," Manjari snapped. "I am only

borrowing your ships. I would not do so if it were

not absolutely necessary, I assure you!"

"They're mine," Kisia repeated.

"Then, Kisia, if you want to keep them, you

will allow your father the use of them for as many

days as this takes," Manjari said so firmly that

Kisla's narrow mouth closed on her next com-

plaint. "You have no conception of the difficulties

I face."

"How should I? You never tell me anything!"

"Well, I'm telling you now. We face ruin, girl.

The House of Manjari is going to lose three-

quarters of its income for years to come. Maybe

forever."

"Manjari, what is it?" The baroness touched

his sleeve. "What is the trouble?"

"Oh, don't bother me. You've never been any

use—one child, and that one a scrawny girl—and

you certainly can't help now. Go watch one of

your romance vids and eat a box of sweets and

stay out of our way!" Manjari turned back to

394

Acorna

ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

395

Kisla. "You will help me out in this crisis. And -we

will rebuild the fortunes of House Manjari. You

and I, together, as many years as it takes."

"By letting these stinking beggars on my

ships?" Kisla s thin face twisted in disgust. "Forget

it! You go too far. Father. They'll get bugs on the

upholstery."

"Quite likely."

"They'll get space-sick."

"Almost certainly."

"They're dirty, and they stink, and some of

them are bleeding. They are absolutely disgusting,

and I'm not having any more of them anywhere

near my ships. Stop them, do you hear me? Stop

them boarding! Now!"

The baron cocked his right hand back over his

left shoulder, but the baroness was beside him

before he could strike his daughter.

"Wait a moment, Manjari," she said calmly.

"While I do believe that this once I sympathize with

your desire to beat Kisla, there is something she

must know first—and you, too." She looked at the

gaunt young woman with something approaching

pity. "Kisla, you would have been one of those chil-

dren."

"I?" Kisla gasped. "You're crazy! I'm your

daughter! No child of House Manjari was ever

even close to one of those filthy beggar brats!"

"No child of House Manjari, true," the

Baroness Ilsfa agreed, "but you see, Kisla, I

learned of some of Manjari's more disgusting

habits very shortly after our marriage. There was a

little maidservant . . . well, never mind. I vowed

then that I, an Acultanias, descended from the

First Families of Kezdet, would never bear a child

to him. But he would not leave me alone until I

produced an heir, so ..." She shrugged her plump,

white shoulders. "While he was away on one of his

half-year business trips, I made a small payment to

a Didi in East Celtalan for a relatively new baby.

The ... ah ... donations to the Celtalan Medical

Center to certify that you had been born to me and

that I would never be able to have another child

were considerably more expensive. I had to sell a

lot of my dowry jewels—gaudy things; I never

liked them anyway, and Manjari certainly never

noticed they were gone. So you see, Kisla, it

becomes you ill to sneer at children whose fate—or

worse—you might well have shared."

Baron Manjari and Kisla stared at the baroness

m shocked silence.

"Which Didi?" Manjari finally asked.

"One of those you hired to procure children for

your filthy habits, Manjari dear," the baroness said

sweetly. "How else would I have known where to

find a Didi? So you see, there is even a possibility

that Kisla is your own daughter. Although it seems

unlikely to me, since you always preferred chil-

dren too young to become pregnant—"

Baron Commodore Manjari had lowered his

hand during her disclosure and, with an insou-

ciance that was almost laudable under the circum-

stances, had slipped it into his pocket. Now he

withdrew that hand. There was a glint of metal;

Gill sprang forward with a warning cry, but he was

too late. The plasknife had neatly sliced through

396

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

397

the baroness's neck. Blood spurted over Manjari's

hands.

"No, Father! Don't kill me, too!" Kisia shrank

away from him.

"I had to stop her talking. Surely you see that,"

Manjari said in a conversational tone, his dark

eyes glittering and staring. "If people found out

that you -were a brothel foundling, it -would ruin

our position in society."

He looked around him at the horrified faces of

Judit, Gill, and half a dozen Manjari Shipping

employees. "Stop talking . . . stop them all talk-

ing. . . . It's too late for that, isn't it?" he asked

Gill, like a child. "Isn't it too late?"

Gill nodded heavily.

"I was afraid of that," Manjari said heavily, and

turned the plasknife upon himself.

They had tried to keep the children from seeing the

removal of the bodies, but Kisia s piercing screams

attracted all eyes until she, too, was removed, under

restraints and shot full of tranks.

"The Piper's dead," one child reported to those

already on the shuttle.

"The Lady Lukia killed him for us."

"How could she? She ain't here!"

"She can do anything. Prolly she put malojo on

him to make him kill hisself."

Gill shook his head as the children calmly took

their places on the shuttle.

"I thought they'd be upset," he muttered.

"They have always known death," Delszaki Li

said. He had come upon them silently, in his

hover-chair, and Gill jumped half a meter at the

unexpected sound of the old man's voice. "Death

is no stranger. Now it is for you and Judit to teach

them about life." He looked down, where the

Manjaris blood stained the floor of the port, and

sighed. "But it is great pity about the baron com-

modore."

"I don't see why," said Judit. She was some-

what pale, but she was no longer leaning against a

wall and fighting nausea. "He was an evil man. He

deserved to die."

"Judit, Judit." Li sighed. "Have I taught you

nothing of business? Now? will have to pay own

shipping costs instead of extorting from Manjari.

Is great pity," he repeated.

Acorna, still east of Celtalan, heard nothing of the

happenings at the spaceport. The enormity of the

task was exhausting her—so many places to visit,

so many children hidden away and -working as

slaves! But it grew easier as the day -went on. The

same secret, subterranean channels of communica-

tion that had once spread tales of Epona, of Lukia,

of Sita Ram, now carried the -word that the

promised day of freedom had arrived. Those who

hid would not be taken away into the sky; they

would have to remain as slaves. And so the chil-

dren began coming out even before they saw

Acorna.

"Tomorrow you won't have to do it all," Pal

said cheerfully. "Anywhere they see a Li consor-

ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

398

399

tium skimmer, they'll come to us. You should go

home and rest now."

"The skimmer pilots have been flying all day,"

Acorna said. "If they can keep on, so can I." She

beckoned to Pedir. "Can you and your friends man-

age one more flight today, Pedir? Good. There is one

place more that I must visit now. For Jana and

Khetala."

At Anyag, the news of some crazy woman who

•was taking away perfectly good bond-laborers had

reached the overseers as well as the servants. Some

locked their gangs in the sleep sheds. Since Siri

Teku's gang was just coming off shift at the end of

the day, he simply told them to stay Below. There

would be no off-shift until this Acorna person had

come and gone. She wouldn't find Anyag as easy to

ruin as those city-type factories with their soft man-

agers !

But the news had not mentioned a small army

of skimmer pilots, medical technicians, and House

Li guards coming along with Acorna. While

Delszaki Li's people swarmed over the Anyag

workings, breaking open sleep sheds and escort-

ing the dazed, blinking children to skimmers,

Acorna looked and looked for the faces she

remembered.

"You won't find 'em," Siri Teku taunted her,

grinning. "They belong to me and Old Black."

Mention of the underground demon whose

name was used to terrorize the children was all the

clue Acorna needed. She stopped briefly at each

open shaft, delicately testing the air with her horn

until she came to the one where the air -was heavy

with the breathing of many small people left all

alone in the darkness of Below.

The engines that moved a cage up and down

the shaft were stilled, but there were emergency

ladders at the side.

"Laxmi," Acorna called down into the dark-

ness. "Faiz. Buddhe. Lata."

There was a shuffling sound deep in the shaft

and a scuffling noise behind Acorna, as Siri Teku

moved toward her and three pilots joyfully sat on

his chest. Acorna took no notice; all her attention

was concentrated on the slender thread of her own

voice, drawing the children toward her. "Ganga,

Villum, Parvi," she called.

As she named the children, they slowly, fear-

fully, climbed the long ladders to the top of the

shaft. Laxmi was first.

"Sita Ram." She sighed. "You did come back!"

She fell to her knees and kissed Acorna s skirts.

Acorna gently lifted her. "I will need your help

with the younger ones, Laxmi," she said. "Lata,

Ganga, Parvi?" she coaxed again.

"These are the last ones at Anyag," Pal said

tensely beside her. "Now will you come home and

rest? If only so you can come with us tomorrow??"

"Yes," Acorna said. "Come, Faiz, Villum,

Buddhe," she called. "We are going home. We are

all going home."

That the home she would eventually go to—if

Calum's researches were true—would be many

light-years, and possibly many subjective years, of

travel from Kezdet was not important now. And

certainly not to be mentioned to these children

400 ——'             ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL

until she saw them happy on Maganos under the

care of Judit and Gill. Perhaps she and Calum

•would wander the stars without success, but, in

helping these children, was she not earning the

right to find her own people? Had she not made

good her vow to the destitute and abandoned of

Kezdet?

Smiling, she swung Lata up into her arms and

walked toward Pedir's skimmer, trailed by chil-

dren, whose grimy hands clutched her skirts and

her long silver hair.

No one at Anyag dared to stop them.