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  The heating unit beeped, and Keirth took the containers of soup out. He handed one to Ariana and kept the other for himself. After scrounging up a few spoons from a drawer, he sat down with her to eat the soup. It was hot. He saw her burn her lip on it and jump, startled.

  After that, they sat together silently, blowing on spoonfuls of the soup. When Keirth got a chance to taste it, he was pleasantly surprised. For rehydrated food, it was actually quite tasty. Nicely seasoned. He guessed the nobility got the best of everything, even space food.

  “Well,” said Ariana, “if you aren’t usually a kidnapper and a thief, what do you do with yourself normally?”

  “Why?” he asked, suspicious. “You want to make sure you’ve got a nice profile of me to share with the police when you get free and turn me in?”

  “No. I’m only trying to make polite dinner conversation. I happen to be a civilized daughter of the peerage. It’s what I’m good at.”

  Keirth laughed. “Being polite is what you’re good at?”

  She looked flustered. “I do happen to be more pleasant generally when I’m not being forced to do things at gunpoint or tied up.”

  Keirth slurped some of his soup. “I’ll take your word for it, sweetheart.”

  “I have repeatedly asked you not to call me that, and you repeatedly ignore me.”

  Keirth shrugged.

  “You really are awful.” Ariana looked into her soup, and Keirth got the impression she might start crying again.

  He didn’t like making her cry. Sure, she was annoying as hell, bossy, and full of herself, but she hadn’t asked to be in this situation. He had sort of kidnapped her. Overall, making women cry was not something Keirth aspired to. He hadn’t had a lot of time for women in his life. Spending his life bent on revenge was sort of an all-consuming passion. And he wasn’t the kind of man who’d take his pleasure with a woman and abandon her. He’d seen too much of that growing up, and it made him physically ill. Overall, though, it meant that he really hadn’t spent much time with women at all. Not since he’d lived with his mother, anyway. He peered at Ariana and tried to imagine she was his mother. It was pretty hard to do, considering the two women had precisely nothing in common. Still, if his mother had been accidentally kidnapped, he’d want the kidnapper to treat her with respect. So Keirth would try. She’d wanted polite dinner conversation, had she? He’d do his best. “I, um, don’t really have a set profession. I’ve done a lot of things. I’ve flown space ships. I’ve worked in factories. I’ve loaded product. Most recently, I was a driver for the duke of Hallon.”

  Ariana pointed at him with her spoon. “I knew I’d seen you before.” She turned back to her soup, running her spoon through the liquid as if she was searching for something to say inside her bowl. “So you most recently lived on Hallon, then?”

  “Yes,” he said.

  “Where did you grow up?”

  “All over,” he said. “My mother traveled to different planets in the sector, looking for work. We’d settle wherever she could find something steady.”

  She nodded. “And what did she do for work?”

  Keirth shook his head. “I don’t want to talk about that.” He was fairly sure that announcing his mother’s occupation as a prostitute didn’t qualify as good dinner conversation. He should change the subject. Certainly Ariana would want to talk about herself. “What about you? Where did you grow up?”

  “On Wendo, of course,” said Ariana. “We did some traveling when I was a girl, but we’ve traveled more now that my sister and I are both of age and actively looking for husbands. One must go where society dictates, after all.”

  Keirth nodded. He knew that some people followed the nobility on the nets like hawks, wanting to know where they were and what planet was fashionable that season. To him, it all seemed absolutely ridiculous. They had too much time on their hands and too much money to play with. But he didn’t suppose saying that aloud was good dinner conversation either. He was beginning to appreciate why people in the nobility had to practice this kind of thing. “Do you like Wendo? Were you happy there?” That was safe, wasn’t it?

  “Oh, absolutely,” she said. “It’s a small planet though, and the seasons are short. It’s nice getting back to spring quicker than everyone else, I guess, but there’s nothing like a long, extended summer on Risciter.”

  And then they were both quiet, because she’d said the name of the duke, even though she’d meant the planet. Risciter was a big planet, and the duke was a sorry excuse for a human being. So, there they were again.

  Ariana put down her spoon. “What do you have against him, anyway?”

  “He’s a murderer,” said Keirth.

  Ariana made a face. “He is not.”

  Keirth rolled his eyes. “Maybe this conversation idea wasn’t a great one. Let’s just eat, okay?”

  * * *

  Ariana opened one eye. Her arms were flung over her head. All she could see was Keirth, standing over her in the bridge of the ship.

  “We’re safe on the ground,” he said, glaring at her in disgust.

  She lowered her arms and looked around, taking in the fact that they were indeed safe. Nothing inside the bridge seemed to be damaged. The visual was on, and outside, she could see the trunks of trees. They’d come down right in the middle of a forest, crashing and smashing down branches everywhere. It had been terrifying. “Don’t they have spacedocks in the colonies?”

  “Sure, they do,” said Keirth. “And if you want your ship stolen or raided for parts, you absolutely land it there and leave it.”

  Ariana was shocked. There was this much lawlessness out here? Ships weren’t safe?

  “Maybe,” said Keirth, “if you came with a cadre of armed men to guard your ship, it might be safe in a docking bay, but I don’t have that luxury. So, we’ve landed in the woods. I don’t see why you were so upset anyway. I put the ship down in a nice clearing.”

  Ariana still remembered the sounds of scraping branches and splintering wood. It hadn’t seemed like a clearing to her.

  “Get up,” said Keirth.

  She didn’t move from her seat.

  Keirth reached down and pulled her to her feet. “Come on. We don’t have much time.” He dragged her out of the bridge and out to the loading ramp, which he’d lowered. Pushing her first, they exited the ship. Outside, they stood on the forest floor. The trees looked the same as they did on most planets, but the leaves were an odd shade of green—nearly blue. Now that she was outside, Ariana could see that, in fact, the ship had landed in a clearing of sorts, but it was surrounded on all sides by tall trees with blue-green leaves.

  Keirth took several steps away from the ship and pulled a compass out of his pocket. Consulting it, he pointed deep into the forest. “Walk that way.”

  He meant to set her loose in the woods? “What?”

  Keirth gave her a dark look. He took her by the arm and dragged her to the spot he’d been standing in. He pointed again. “You see this path?”

  “No.” As near as Ariana could tell, there wasn’t a path. Of course, she hadn’t spent much time in the woods—not in the wild woods, anyway. She’d gone on nice nature walks on Wendo occasionally, but they were always on cleared, paved walkways through the trees, with benches set up every ten feet or so for resting and talking. It was possible she didn’t know what a forest path was, she guessed.

  “There’s a walking trail,” said Keirth. “I guarantee it leads to town. We’re on the planet Kush, all right? And according to the coordinates I’ve got, the closest town to here should be called Madua. I’ve never been there, but it should have an inn and a tavern at the very least. And I’m sure they’ll be a public comm in the tavern. You can use it to contact someone to pick you up.”

  “But...” Wandering alone through a forest? Going into a strange town all by herself? For one thing, it was scandalous and improper. For another, it was downright terrifying.

  “You can’t stay here with me,” said Keirth.
>
  Of course not. And she didn’t want to. He was freeing her. She had to leave. She didn’t want to be near Keirth anyway. He was terrifying as well. More terrifying than the woods. She nodded. “Well, all right, then.” She took a tentative step in the direction Keirth had pointed. She hesitated. “Are there...very fierce wild animals in these woods?”

  Keirth pulled aside the jacket he was wearing so that she could see the blaster strapped in his holster. “I have no idea. But you can’t stay here with me.”

  “Well, you did promise not to kill me.”

  “I didn’t promise,” Keirth said. “I don’t want to kill you, but keep pushing me and maybe I’ll change my mind.”

  She bit her lip. Okay. Okay. Woods it was. She took one last look at Keirth and her ship, and then she scampered off down the very tiny path Keirth had pointed out. It didn’t look like a path to her at all, really. It was just a tiny trampled space between the trees.

  She forced herself to walk with her head held high. She was a member of the nobility, after all, and she couldn’t be kept down by something as ridiculous as this. If there were large animals in the woods, she’d simply be quiet and still. They’d leave her alone. And it couldn’t be that far to the town that Keirth had spoken about. She’d just keep walking.

  What had she been thinking, anyway? She’d almost wanted to stay with Keirth. And he was a thief and murderer. He wasn’t safe. The experience must have turned her head. She’d heard that trauma could do that occasionally. Make it so that you couldn’t assess danger properly. Keirth was certainly dangerous, and she was glad to be away from him. The sooner she made it to town, the sooner she could contact someone to save her and to stop Keirth from killing Risciter. She couldn’t let him do that. She’d contact the authorities. She knew where the ship was. They’d follow her instructions, sail in, and arrest Keirth.

  Everything would be okay. She simply had to keep walking.

  * * *

  Keirth was glad to see her go. He wouldn’t have killed her, of course. He was sure that he didn’t have it in him to shoot a defenseless woman in cold blood. She didn’t know that, though, and he was glad. It had been useful.

  Keirth began gathering branches and foliage and draping them over the ship. He needed to camouflage it from any raiders that might find it if he had to leave it, but he also didn’t want Risciter to know he was there when Risciter arrived. Keirth had intercepted Risciter’s exact coordinates, and that meant he’d be landing here, within yards of Keirth’s ship, within the next half an hour. Risciter would have taken a direct route. Keirth was certain he didn’t know the ins and outs of traveling in hyperspace. Keirth had only learned them himself while working with smugglers several years ago. The shortcuts weren’t common knowledge. When Risciter arrived, Keirth would hear his ship and probably see it. He wanted to be hidden so that he could observe Risciter and then take him by surprise. This time, he wouldn’t fail.

  Once Risciter was dead, he’d need to get off world as soon as he could. He’d probably trade Ariana’s ship for something a little less conspicuous. But Keirth didn’t think he’d be able to run forever. They’d track him down. But as long as Risciter was dead, it wouldn’t matter.

  He busied himself by wandering around the forest, gathering whatever camouflage he could find and coming back to do his best to hide the space ship.

  Ahead, he spied a large vine-covered rock. The vines would be good to cover his ship. He went over to gather as many as he could.

  He pulled at one of the vines, expecting it to be tightly attached, but it came off easily. As the vine came away from the rock, he realized it wasn’t a rock underneath the vines at all. It was a ship.

  A familiar ship. Hastily, he tore the vines away until he was sure. Damn. Risciter’s ship. Already here. Clearly Risciter knew more hyperspace secrets than Keirth gave him credit for. He was already on the planet. Risciter’d had time to cover his space ship entirely. And he was gone.

  Keirth surveyed the ship for several minutes, shaking his head. He couldn’t catch a break, could he? All of his plans had gone wrong. It should have been simple. But then every attempt he’d made should have been simple. Things just kept getting more and more complicated.

  But a colony planet was as good a place as any. A better place, in fact, considering the law was much laxer.

  Risciter had probably gone into town already. If Keirth hurried, maybe he could catch up to him in the woods, do it then. But if not, he’d simply have to find Risciter in town.

  He rushed to cover what was left of his spaceship and started down the path he’d sent Ariana on earlier.

  Chapter Four

  Ariana emerged from the forest sweaty and a little out of breath. She felt like she’d been walking for an eternity, but she had no way of measuring the time, so she wasn’t sure how long it had been. Outside the woods was what Keirth had called a town. To Ariana, it looked like four ugly pre-fab buildings made of concrete. The buildings were styled like the kinds of things she’d seen on documentaries about the colony worlds. Apparently, whenever colonists had gone out to the new planets originally, they’d been given a certain amount of building kits. And so all of the buildings looked alike. Ariana always had found their off-white walls, blank of any windows, very depressing.

  She was happy to be out of the forest however, no matter how pitiful the sight was that greeted her. She scurried away from the treeline and down to what passed as a street between the four buildings. No one was standing outside, and Ariana was momentarily frightened that the town was actually abandoned. Perhaps all the colonists had been killed by a disease or a wild animal or each other. She’d seen a documentary once about a group of people who’d gone out to a colony world. Only one man had gotten away. He’d said that once out there, they’d all gone mad and started killing each other.

  But then she heard the sounds of conversation from inside one of the buildings. Not abandoned then. And if she’d been paying attention, she would have noticed the rows of speeders parked along the outskirts of the buildings. She gazed at the signs on the doors of the buildings. One was a farming store. She supposed it must sell seeds and fertilizers and other things. Another was a trading post. Another was an inn, just as Keirth had said. And, as Keirth had also predicted, there was a tavern. That was the building that Ariana heard conversation coming from. It was also probably the place that would have a public comm. But Ariana held back before entering it. It wasn’t proper for women of her station to go into taverns alone. She’d be in considerable danger. And what would everyone say if they knew she’d...

  They’d say she was brave. This was more trauma thinking. Of course she had to go into the tavern. This was a desperate situation. She couldn’t be bothered with the proprieties of society right now. She had to save herself and get someone here to save Risciter. It was the most important thing.

  Taking a deep breath, Ariana pushed open the door to the tavern. Inside, it was dimly lit and so smoky she could only see a few feet ahead of her. The roar of conversation and laughter was louder here. Inside the door was the corner of a rough-hewn wooden bar top, with a few empty stools in front of it. She could also see a booth in the corner, filled with colonists. They wore the kind of homespun clothing she’d seen on documentaries. She peered through the smoke, trying to find the public comm, which she figured would be up against a wall or something.

  After frantic seconds of seeing nothing but smoke and booths of colonists, she finally spied it and darted to it. The thing was ancient—a screen built into the wall with a keyboard in front of it. The screen was blank and dark. She struck a few keys hoping the screen was just in power-down mode and would spring to life. Nothing happened. She gulped and then hit a few more keys, this time harder. The screen still didn’t respond. Was something wrong with it? Did it need to be turned on? She searched the comm for a power switch and found it along the the underside of the keyboard. She switched it on. Nothing. She switched it back. Nothing. In a fury, she switched
it back and forth at least ten times. Nothing.

  “Hey!” yelled a voice. “You. Woman in the jumpsuit.”

  Slowly, Ariana turned around.

  There was a heavy woman behind the bar. She was wearing a stained beige tunic, and her hair was pulled into a sloppy bun on the top of her head. She had a fine fringe of dark hair above her upper lip. “Comm’s been broke for months.”

  No. No. Ariana stumbled closer to the bar and the woman. “Broken? It doesn’t work at all?”

  “That’s what broke means, doesn’t it?” The woman put her meaty hands on her hips. “You aren’t from around here, are you?”

  “I’m Miss Ariana Gilit, the daughter of the Duke of Wendo. I was kidnapped by a man who stole my ship and left me out here to fend for myself. I need to contact my family.” Ariana felt like she might start crying again. How could she possibly deal with this?

  The woman squinted at her. “I do think I’ve seen some pictures of you on the nets.” She raised her eyebrows. “Well, imagine that. A duke’s daughter. Here.” She gestured at an empty stool in front of the bar. “Let me get you a drink, My Lady.”

  Ariana sat down on the stool. “A drink would be nice.” Ariana was still on the verge of tears. She sniffled a little.

  “Well, we got two options here. There’s ale and there’s whiskey. Which do you want?”

  Ariana’s drink of choice was spiced wine or champagne. Whiskey and ale were things that men drank. But she couldn’t very well refuse the bartender, who was trying to be nice to her, could she? “Ale, I suppose.”

  The bartender nodded. She filled a large mug up with frothy liquid and deposited in front of Ariana.

  Ariana took a small sip. It was bitter and yeasty, but it wasn’t actually that awful. Still, she wasn’t sure she could put away this huge glass of it. “If the comm’s broken, then how do you communicate with other planets?”