Rules of Engagement

Chapter Nineteen

The man in the checked shirt, true to his persona as country bumpkin in the city, had wandered up and down the various streets, visiting the breeding houses once or twice, and coming again to look at the showing of the yellow-haired infidel from space. He had told several men at the bar he frequented that he was afraid she wouldn’t be released for breeding before he had to go back “up the hills.” Finally one of the men made the suggestion he’d been waiting for . . . go around to the back of the orchard, and wait for her. No harm done if she was bred a few weeks early, and likely no one would ever know. Watch a day or so, see when she went out, and who went with her.

He was watching when she went to the last—but-one apple tree and put something in its crotch. Well. That was interesting. She looked a lot more like what he’d expected out here, in the orchard, than during the showings. But would she cooperate, when the time came? If she wouldn’t, he’d have to drug her—and she would be difficult to lug over the wall, big as she was. And it looked like she might have plans of her own . . . he hoped they wouldn’t trip him up. He walked on, and made his arrangements. He needed a groundcar; he walked across the city to rent it for cash from the spaceport vendor.

Simplicity—an apt name, Brun thought—had told her about all sorts of things the other women mentioned only in passing. She realized that they could not imagine not knowing, while Simplicity was fascinated anew with every detail of her life. Unlike Brun, she kept track of time, and in her artless chatter had revealed the clues that let Brun begin tracking market days even while confined to the nursery. She had not previously paid attention to what the staff carried in their hands when they went out . . . but now noticed the size and shape of the baskets and bags, and their contents when they returned. From that, she thought she had a schedule figured out. Someone went out every day to get small amounts of fresh greens. Three times a week, several of the staff women went out and returned with a wide variety of supplies, not merely food but also needles, pins, thread, yarn, scrub brushes, hairbrushes, soap . . . whatever was needed for daily work which the women could not supply for themselves.

Starting with their holy day, they had market day, then skip two, then market day, then skip one, then market day, then holy day. The week’s rhythm revolved around the holy day, rising in tension toward it . . . so Brun decided that the first market day would be the best for her purposes. Several of the staff women would be gone, and everyone would be more relaxed after the rigors of the holy day . . . ready to do the least in daily chores, to relax with the babies in the garden enclosures in the soft spring air. None of them walked as much in the orchard as she did, unless the staff directed, which they did only around harvest time.

The hard thing would be to find the house where Hazel stayed, since she could not ask questions—and to conceal her muteness. She did not know if men were ever muted—probably not, since their beliefs required them to recite from the sacred texts daily—or whether some men might be mute from birth or accident, but she suspected that a mute man might be subject to investigation. Still, she knew it was a large household near a market.

Simplicity had described the house at length: its gardens, its weaving shed, its woolhouse, its several kitchens, the quarters for children, for wives, for the master—she had once been allowed to sweep there, but she had knocked over a little table. They had not punished her, but she had been banished to parts of the house with fewer breakables . . . which had been a relief, Simplicity had said, smiling, because she didn’t have to worry so much. What she could not describe—what it never occurred to her to describe—was its location. Brun realized the girl had hardly ever been out of it, and thus had no way to describe where it was in relation to anything else.

On the midweek market day before she planned to go, Brun decided to test her plans. She would nurse the babes to fullness, mingling a little of the home brew into her milk . . . they were greedy feeders, and she had discovered that if she dripped sugared fruit juice down her breast, they’d take it along with her milk. Then she’d see how long they slept . . . which would give her some idea how long she had to find Hazel.

She finished her chores, and noticed that all but two of the staff had left to go to market. She picked up the babies, and caught the attention of one of the remaining staff women. She nodded toward the orchard.

“Go ahead, then. A good day for a walk,” the woman said. Brun mimed eating. “Oh—you want to take your lunch out there? Fine. I’ll ring the bell for you to come back, in case you fall asleep.”

Brun took a small loaf of bread, fresh-baked that morning, and sliced off a hunk of cheese, laying the knife neatly back in its place. The woman had poured her a jug of fruit juice and water—and on this day, Brun noticed that this was an unnecessary courtesy. She smiled; she could not help it. The woman smiled back, clearly pleased.

She could not afford this . . . offer of friendship, if that’s what it was. She took the jug and her lunch, tucked them into the sling where the redhead lay content, shifted the back sling until the other baby was balanced better, and moved out onto the paved terrace between the nursery buildings and the orchard.

She strolled, in her usual way, along the right-hand path, pausing now and then to look up into the trees at the hard green fruit that would be ripe in a few months. This was not the day; this was merely practice. Why, then, was her heart beating so wildly that she felt it must be drumming loud enough to hear? Why was her breath coming short? She tried to relax, reaching out to stroke a branch heavy with fruit. But the babies caught her tension and began to squirm and whimper. The one in back flailed at her head with his arms.

That, oddly enough, steadied her. She moved on, more quickly now—though today there was no hurry—to her favorite spot near the far end of the orchard. When she’d first made it this far, up the little rise, she’d been able to see the building through bare branches, but now the orchard trees were in full leaf, and she knew they could no more see her, than she could see them.

She laid the babies down on the little quilts folded into the slings, and put her lunch down as well. The babies rolled and played, cooing, making wide-handed swipes at each other. She bit off a hunk of bread as she watched, thinking over her plan again, trying to improve it. But it was such a tissue of improbables . . . if she made it twice as good, she would still have less than one chance in a hundred of success.

The darker one found a leaf to explore, and managed, with great effort, to pick it up. The redhead noticed his brother was no longer paying attention, and put his own foot in his mouth instead. Brun finished eating, and by then they were getting fussy, looking at her. In her mind, she heard a voice somewhere between her own and Esmay’s: All right then. Let’s do it.

Nursing both at once was harder now that they were bigger, but she was used to it. She leaned back against the tree, and let her mind drift . . . one way or another, in less than seven days, she would be somewhere else. Maybe dead . . . she wasn’t going to be taken alive, not again. But maybe . . . somewhere . . . she couldn’t picture it, quite. Her mind threw up pictures from her past life—hills, valleys, forests, fields, island beaches, rocky ledges. The shuttlefield on Rotterdam, then the shuttle, rumbling down the runway, taking off, the sky darkening, darkening, the stars . . .

She shook her head abruptly. The twins had taken most of her milk; it was time to try out her brew. She added a little honey, to make it sweeter, and dribbled it into their mouths as they sucked. Redhead made a face, and snorted before going on, but the dark-haired one didn’t pause in his rhythm.

She had no idea how much to use. Not as much today; she didn’t want anyone to notice, and worry about them. Did babies go to sleep with a spoonful or a cup? She had no idea. Their sucking slowed, finally, and their mouths fell away . . . they gained a kilo whenever they fell asleep, she thought. Carefully, she laid them on the little quilts. Asleep like this . . . she could almost . . . but no. Not now. She told herself firmly what she already knew: they would be loved, cherished, given every opportunity this world held, because they were boys. That their mother had been an outlander heathen abomination would not affect the care given them.

They would look this way—this vulnerable, this beautiful—when she left them on the market day after the holy day. She stared at them, eyes narrowed. She could leave them—she had to leave them—and she would leave them.

She levered herself up and stood, fastening her dress and then stretching. She found the knife she had hidden, and turned it in her hands. She could go now . . . no. Better stick to her plan, such as it was. But one thing she could do, with a knife in hand. She might die—it was likely. Her family might not know where she was. But she could leave a record that would not be found until fall, if they noticed it then.

With the sharp tip of the paring knife she marked the tree under which the babies lay, thin scorings that would scar into visible marks later. Maybe. Her name, every syllable of it.

She wanted to write more. She wanted to scribble with that knife blade on every tree, saying what had been smothered all this time . . . but she stopped herself. No more indulgence. She had to try the wall today, to measure her strength against its height. She tied a length of yarn around the knife and hung it around her neck, then took the cloth strips she’d made and bound them tight around her breasts. When it was time to go, really time, she would bind her breasts before she fastened her dress . . . but this was only practice.

With a last glance at the sleeping babies, she turned and walked over to the wall. A last glance back, to make sure she could not been seen through the thick leaves . . . no. She turned to the wall again, steeling herself. It was the quiet time of day, after lunch. Chances were there was no one on the other side right now. If there were . . . if they saw her . . . she hesitated. Today was not the day. She didn’t have to jump the wall today, and it would be disasterous if she were caught unprepared.

She looked back at the babies. Still sleeping. When she turned again to the wall, a man was looking over it. Brun stood frozen, immobilized with shock.

The man stared at her. “Brun?” he said softly.

Her heart lurched, then pounded. Someone who knew her name—who used her name. It must be a rescue. She nodded, giddy with relief.

“Can you climb over?”

She nodded again, and a wad of brown cloth flew toward her. She dropped back, furious. But his voice came over the wall, urgent and barely loud enough to hear. “Put that on. Cover your dress, and your hair. Not many have such light hair. Then wait for me to call—I’m watching for groundcars. Don’t bring the babies; they’ll be cared for.”

The babies. She had given them only a few drops each—would they sleep long enough? She yanked her long skirt up around her waist and ran to them, fumbled at the jug, and poured more of the honeyed brew onto her hand. Would they suck? Could they swallow? Their mouths caught at her finger, sucking, and she dribbled more brew into each mouth. Then she dragged the garment on—a hooded cloaklike thing, too warm for the day—and ran back to the wall. Even in those few moments, she was aware how good it felt to have her legs free, not bound by the narrow skirt. While she waited, she thought how to make him understand that they had to find Hazel and the little girls. She could not go without them; if she could not save her babies from this world’s horrors, she must save them.

“Now,” he said. She stood up; the wall was not as tall as she was, and she made it easily. It was wide enough to lie on; she rolled the cloak around her and then dropped off, to be steadied by his waiting arm. “Are the babies inside?” he asked. “When will they cry?”

How did he think she could answer that? She mimed drinking, then sleeping, and he nodded.

“Come along,” he said. “We have to get to the car.” He took her arm. “Look down,” he reminded her. Fuming, Brun looked down at the rough pavement and went where he directed. She didn’t want to argue with him in the street, where anyone might see, but she had to convince him about Hazel.

He stopped beside a groundcar parked in a row. He opened the driver’s door, and then the back doors popped open. “Get in,” he said. She looked him full in the face, and mouthed Hazel. He paled. “Look down! Get in,” he said. “Before someone notices.”

She slipped into the back seat, and leaned forward, waiting for him. As soon as he closed his own door, she tapped his shoulder. He glanced back.

Hazel.

“I can’t understand you. What’s wrong?”

Damn the idiot fool. How had Lady Cecelia kept from bursting? There on the seat beside him were a map and notebook, with a pen. She reached over and snatched at it, wrote GET HAZEL in large letters, and then RANGER BOWIE HOUSE. He read, then paled even more.

“We can’t do that! No one can get in there! Dammit, woman, you want off this planet or not?”

She tapped GET HAZEL again, glaring into his face, trying to give him a mind-to-mind transfusion of her determination.

“Who the hell is Hazel, anyway?”

She wrote again: GIRL ON SHIP. GET HER AWAY TOO.

“Can’t do it,” he said, starting the groundcar. “Now you sit back, and I’ll take you where it’s arranged—” The barrier between them started to rise; Brun lunged forward, putting her weight on it, and the barrier stopped, its mechanism whining loudly. “Get back, you fool.” The mechanism that moved the barrier gave a grinding noise and died; the barrier slid back the small distance it had risen. She paid no attention, wriggling over the barrier into the front passenger seat. Up here the windows weren’t frosted. The man jerked the groundcar out of its parking space and accelerated. “Gods, woman, if they see you up here—”

She held the paper out: GET HAZEL.

“I can’t, I tell you! The five Rangers are the most powerful men in town. Ever since Mitch Pardue got elected Ranger Bowie, he’s been angling for the Captaincy. I can’t barge in there and get some fool girl. I got you; that’s what I contracted to do.”

Brun glanced at the groundcar controls, at his movements as he turned, slowed, sped up again, made another turn. Simple enough. After the next turn, she grabbed the wheel and yanked it hard. He yanked back, and stared at her long enough to almost hit another groundcar. “Dammit! Woman! It’s no wonder they muted you—Heaven knows what you’d say if you could talk!”

She scribbled rapidly on the notebook. GET HAZEL. IT’S MARKET DAY—SHE GOES OUT. MARKET NEAR RANGER BOWIE HOUSE. She pushed that in front of his face; the groundcar swerved again; she lowered it slightly, so he could read and see over it.

“Can’t do it. Too dangerous. I have it all planned out—”

She poked a finger into his ear, hard, and laid the pruning knife on his thigh, pointed where he could not ignore it. The groundcar swerved wildly, then he got it back on his side of the street. “You’re crazy, you are. All right, we’ll drive past Ranger Bowie house. And the damn market. But you’ve got to get in the back. If anyone sees—” He glanced at her, and she bared her teeth. “All right, I said. I’ll do it; we’ll go past. But you’re going to get us killed—”

With some care, Brun reversed herself into the back seat, making sure that she had enough weight on the barrier to prevent its coming back up, if the controls weren’t actually broken. She laid the knife at the back of his neck . . . it would do no good there, unless it was strong enough to slide between the vertebrae, but she judged it too obvious to hold it to his throat.

“They told me you were wild, but they didn’t tell me you were crazy,” the man grumbled. Brun grinned. They hadn’t known what had been done to her, or they’d have known how crazy she was.

“That’s Ranger Bowie’s house,” the man said finally. Brun stared, uncertain. It was one of five huge houses arranged around the sides of a plaza . . . in the center was a huge five-pointed star outlined in flowers and grass. Pretty, really, if you weren’t trying to escape the place. “Ranger Houston, Ranger Crockett, Ranger Travis, and Ranger Lamar. Ranger Travis is Captain right now. The nearest market to Ranger Bowie’s house is down this street . . . the women’s service door is right down there, see?”

Brun saw a shadowed gap in the long stucco wall. As they drove past, she could see the door set back from the sidewalk, and the little alcove for the gate guard. They went past one cross street, then another. Ahead, down this street, a rope blocked off traffic beyond the next cross street.

“That’s the market—groundcars can’t go there. Nor you. Now you’ve seen there’s nothing we can do, we can—”

Brun pressed the tip of the knife just below his ear. With her other hand she scrabbled for the pen and notebooks, and printed, GO AROUND, KEEP LOOKING.

On the third circuit, Brun spotted a woman walking toward Ranger Bowie House, baskets in each hand, still some blocks from it. Something about the quick, short shuffle caught her eye. She tapped the driver’s shoulder.

“That her?” He eased the car closer.

It was hard to tell . . . the dark head bent forward, the slim body gliding along with those short, quick steps enforced by her dress. But as the car slid past, Brun caught a glimpse of the serious face, that tucked-in lower lip. She tapped the man’s arm again, hard.

“I’m gonna regret this, I know I am.” But he pulled the car to the curb and got out.

“You. Girlie.” Hazel stopped, eyes on the ground. “You from Ranger Bowie House?” She nodded. “I got business there. Get in back.” He popped the rear doors. Brun could feel Hazel’s confusion, her uncertainty, her near-panic. “Hurry up now,” he said. “I don’t want to have to tell Mitch you’re lazy.” She ducked into the car, then, eyes still down. Then she saw Brun, and her eyes widened. Brun grinned. The driver got back in, grumbling, and tried to raise the shield, but the mechanism made only a faint noise and the barrier didn’t go up. “Sit low,” the driver said, and drove off quickly.

“Brun . . . what . . . where . . . ?” Hazel’s voice was soft as mothwings.

Brun mouthed escape, but Hazel shook her head. So Brun made a rocket of one hand, and jerked it upward. Hazel stared, then grinned.

“Really?” Hazel almost bounced on the seat with excitement, but her voice was soft. “I was trying to figure a way—I’d found out where you were, an’ all, an’ I told Simplicity as much as I could without getting in trouble, hoping she’d see you—”

Brun nodded. She mimed the groundcar taking them to the rocket. She didn’t know if that was the plan—she still didn’t know what the plan was—but surely that was the gist of it. Then she showed Hazel the notebook and wrote: LITTLE GIRLS.

“We can’t take them,” Hazel said.

YES.

“No—we can’t—I already decided that, months ago. They’re happy, they’re safe, and they wouldn’t make it anyway.”

Brun stared at Hazel. This . . . child had decided? But Hazel’s expression didn’t waver. She was not just a child.

“We have to,” Hazel said. “Leastways—” Brun winced at the local expression. “At least,” Hazel corrected, “we have to try. You, for sure. And your babies?”

Brun shrugged, and wrote: CAN’T TAKE THEM. TOO RISKY. TOO LITTLE.

“See? Same with Brandy and Stassi. We can’t do it.”

The driver spoke up. “Glad one of you’s got sense. All right now . . . we got us a little problem. I’d planned to pass Brun off as a man—brought along men’s clothes for her; they’re under the seat there—but I don’t know what to do about . . . Hazel.”

Brun mimed a purchase to Hazel, and nodded to the driver. Tell him. Hazel looked scared, her mouth pinched tight. Then, in a high thin voice she said, “Brun says buy some.”

“Buy some! Buy some, she says. And just how am I supposed to stop and buy some?”

But he pulled over a few streets further on, and made his way to a sidewalk vendor. Brun, peeking over the barrier, saw him choose blue pants, a brown shirt, and high-topped boots like most of the men wore, and a hat. He was back in just a few minutes, and when he started the car again, he threw the clothes over the barrier.

“You change now, both of you. Put your dresses under the seat. I’ll get rid of ’em later. You’ll have to cut your hair, but not here—mustn’t leave hair in the car. I’ve got knives for both of you.”

As the car sped on, over the streets and then into the countryside on a roughly paved road, Brun and Hazel struggled with the confined space in the back seat, each other, and the clothes they had to get off and put on. Brun, having more to take off, went first; Hazel helped her bind her breasts as flat as she could. Then Hazel, and Brun tore a strip off the bottom of her dress to flatten Hazel as well. Getting into the long pants while trying to stay low, out of sight of passing groundcars, meant lying across the seat—and each other. Hardest to put on were the boots—stiff leather on feet that had been bare for more than a year. It would all have been funny if they hadn’t been so afraid of being caught, and they actually did giggle when they finally stuffed the hated dresses under the seat. Brun felt it had been worth it already—she had not laughed, really laughed, since her capture, and even though she could make no sound, the laughter eased her. Hazel tucked her hair up, and jammed the hat on her head; Brun pushed her hat down on top of her head.

Hazel, Brun thought, looked like a real person again. She sat leaning forward now, eyes sparkling with excitement, her face no longer obscured by hair. Her clothes fit a little loose and the sleeves of her shirt were up the wrist a little, as if she had almost grown out of them. Hazel looked at her, smiling, and then lifted Brun’s hat to push her hair more firmly under it. Brun felt that her own pants were bulky and too loose—but anything was better than that clinging skirt.

Their driver glanced back. “Not likely to be seen, out here,” he said. “You do look different, I’ll say that. You aren’t embarrassed to wear men’s clothes?”

Brun shook her head.

“Well, that’s good, because they’re gonna be looking for two women in dresses, not two men. Remember now, you have to walk like men—big steps—and look other men straight in the eye. We—they—don’t like shifty folk. Now I’m gonna let you off up here in about a mile—” Whatever distance that was . . . Brun still hadn’t figured out feet and inches and ells. “And then you’ll have to hike over them hills—” He pointed at a line of hills ahead. “Soon’s you’re out of sight, you got to cut your hair real short, like no woman would. So you can take your hat off without bein’ spotted as women. You take your hat off to womenfolk, even though they aren’t supposed to look at you—it’s polite. And men’ll see you.”

The map he gave them, along with a canteen and a packet of food, was supposed to guide them on the next stage. Brun looked at it and grinned in relief. Someone had marked it in standard measurements, not this planet’s idiot miles. Someone had also printed, in a hand she thought she knew, Brun—we’re here.

From the pulloff, a trail led up into the hills. A signpost had a string of names on it; Brun ignored them. After a few wavery strides, her legs remembered how to stretch, and she found her balance in the ridiculous boots. Hazel staggered once, grimaced, but moved up beside her.

They were out of sight of the road in less than a hundred meters, and into thick scrub. Brun made scissor movements next to her head, and Hazel nodded. They slipped off the trail and into the head-high bushes, to do some barbering.

Brun made it clear, with gestures, that they must catch the hairs they cut off. She had no idea what to do with them, but they weren’t going to leave them around as obvious trail markers. As her hair came off, as the wind reached her scalp, she felt her brain cooling, felt the lessons she’d been taught in the Fleet escape and evasion course coming back to her. She twisted the cut hanks of her own hair into a roll of the appropriate size, put it in one of the spare socks, and stuffed it down the front of her pants. Hazel goggled, then choked back a laugh that was half shock. Brun shrugged, and swaggered a few steps. We’re men; we need men things. Hazel had less hair for hers, but she was younger anyway. And it did make her look more like a boy.

She struggled up the trail in those ridiculous boots . . . she’d have been more comfortable barefoot but men didn’t go barefoot. Stupid people, she thought. Only really stupid people would assign footgear on the basis of gender rather than use, and choose these blistering boots for walking somewhere.

Hazel would have talked, but Brun waved her to silence. Voices carried, in the open, and Hazel’s soft voice wasn’t very boylike. Brun didn’t know if she could do a boy’s voice, and didn’t want to find out she couldn’t.

So when they heard the men talking, she had a few seconds warning. She caught Hazel’s eye, jerked her chin up, and walked on. Around the next curve in the path came a pair of men, dressed much as she and Hazel were, though one of them had a bundle on his back. Brun stared straight at the first man, then the second, and tightened her lips. They gave her a short nod, and strode by in silence. Brun felt herself start to shake and lengthened her stride. Hazel grabbed her arm and squeezed, hard. Brun nodded. Neither looked behind as they struggled on up the hill.

They had made it over the first ridge, and halfway up the second, when Brun’s breasts began to throb. She glanced at the sky. Drat. The twins would be waking now, beginning to whimper, even if no one had found them before.

“What?” asked Hazel softly. Brun put her hands to her breasts and winced. Hazel said “Swelling?” Brun nodded. Minute by minute, they throbbed more, until she felt she could not stand it . . . but her feet hurt almost as much.

Take your pick, she thought. At least you’re out here. And she took as deep a breath as she could of the fresh hill air. She would walk her feet to bloody stubs, and let her breasts explode before she would go back to that miserable nursery.

“You miss your babies?” Hazel asked.

Brun shook her head violently. Hazel looked shocked; Brun regretted her vehemence, but . . . she felt what she felt. If they had been someone else’s babies, she might have felt a pang of softness for them, she had liked babies, when someone else took care of them—but not these. She set her face resolutely to the trail and struggled on.

Near sundown they came to the clearing marked on Brun’s map. Here they were supposed to be met . . . or she was; whoever it was wouldn’t expect Hazel.

The man who stepped out of the shadow of the trees not only didn’t expect Hazel, he didn’t want her. “I didn’t get paid for two,” he said roughly. “What are you trying to pull, missy?” Brun glared at him. Then she took the notebook from Hazel and wrote: SHE GOES TOO.

“I wasn’t paid . . .” the man began. Brun made the universal signal for money—and saw it recognized, proving once again that humans had a common origin, something she’d been willing to doubt this past year and more. She pointed to the sky, then rubbed her fingers again. Money there, if you get us there. The man spat.

“All right. But I don’t want to hear any complaints when it’s crowded in the shuttle.”

Brun stared around. Shuttle here? This was no shuttlefield. But the man was walking quickly along the shadowed edge of the clearing, and she followed.

“We got us a ways to go, and I guess it’s lucky I brung a extra. Hope you can ride.” With that, he ducked into the trees and Brun smelled . . . horses.

This was not how she’d planned to ride again. She had imagined herself on one of her father’s hunters, galloping over the fields of home. Instead, Brun had to stretch her sore legs on the wide barrel of a brown horse with all the character of a sofa, because Hazel, who had never been on a horse before, had to have a saddle. The man swore he couldn’t ride bareback—and if he was used to that armchair for a saddle, no wonder. At least her body had not forgotten that balance.

“By God, you can ride,” the man said, as she moved up beside him. Brun smiled, thinking nonsmiling thoughts, and he looked over at Hazel. “That’s it,” he said. Brun glanced over; Hazel looked terrified. She was clutching the knob that stuck up from the front of the saddle as if it could anchor her, and trying to strangle the horse with her legs. Brun caught her eye, and gestured down her own body: Sit straight, head up, relax your legs. Hazel straightened.

They rode through the night, meeting no one at all on the trail. Brun shifted as one spot after another wore raw. She had wanted to wear pants again; she had wanted to ride again, but this—she thought of the old saw about being careful what you asked for. The man spoke occasionally: “That way’s Lem’s cabin.”

“Over there’s the pass to Smoky’s place.”

When first light began to give shape to the treetops on the slopes above them, their guide slowed. “It’s only a tad more,” he said. “Just down this slope.” At the foot of the slope, they came out of trees and brush to find a long grassy field ending in a steep hill. Brun could not see anything resembling a shuttle. Was this a trap after all? But the man led the way along the edge of the field, and she realized it might be a grass runway. It was longer than it looked; when she glanced back along it, the far end was hidden in ground fog. The hill, as they neared it, revealed a hangar door set into it. That was promising. Set back under the trees was a log cabin with a peaked roof; beyond it was a larger log building, a barn, and in between was an enclosure of peeled poles where two more horses and a cow munched hay.

The man led them up to a gate set into the enclosure, and swung off his horse as if he’d only ridden an hour or so, not all night. Neither Brun nor Hazel could dismount alone. The man had to help them, pushing and tugging. He swore at them. Brun wished for the ability to swear back. She had not been on a horse in years, and in between she’d borne twins—what did he expect after riding all night bareback? She was sure she’d worn all the skin off her thighs and buttocks. As for Hazel, she’d never ridden before; she’d be lucky if she could walk at all in a few hours.

In the cabin, a stocky woman prepared breakfast for all of them. She never looked at them, never spoke, but set plates in front of them and kept them full. Brun raged inwardly, but they could not take all the women on this planet. I will come back, she vowed silently. Somehow . . .

After breakfast, Brun managed to stand up; she gave Hazel a hand. Outside, the man was opening the hangar door, and at last Brun could see what was waiting for them. Her grin broadened. It was a little mixed-purpose shuttle, the same kind she’d been in when Cecelia had sent her back to Rockhouse. She could fly it herself if she had to. She thought briefly of knocking the man on the head and doing just that, but she had no idea how he planned to evade Traffic Control—if this place even had Traffic Control. It did have warplanes, though, and she had no desire to meet them.

With considerable difficulty, Brun helped Hazel up the narrow ladder into the shuttle. The man was already busy at the controls; he glowered when Brun made her way forward and settled herself in the other control seat. “Don’t touch anything!” he said sharply. Brun watched. Everything looked much the same as on Corey’s ship. Although the names of the measures were strange, she could identify most of the instruments. The man ran down the same sort of checklist.

The little craft bumped its way down the field, engines screaming, gaining speed with every meter. But could it possibly be enough? The trees at the far end approached too rapidly—Brun could remember going much faster than this at Rotterdam. Suddenly, the shuttle rose into the air as if hoisted on a crane . . .

“Short field ability,” the man said, grinning. “Surprised you, didn’t I? She needs a third less runway, and she can clear a hundred feet when she goes up.”

Sun streamed in the cockpit windows; Brun stared avidly at the control panel. Her mind had been so hungry, all this time, for something real, something to do. She glanced back at Hazel; the girl grinned, pointing to the gauges. Yes—a spacer girl, she would have had the same hunger. But now Hazel was looking out and down, at the shadowy folds of hills and valleys receding as they rose. Was this, perhaps, her first planet? Brun had never thought of that. Higher . . . there was a river, winding between hills, with a roll of ground fog like wool resting on the hill to windward. The craft climbed steeply, and the view widened every minute. Over there should be the city they came from, with its spaceport . . . yes. Small—smaller than she expected, though the spaceport had landing space enough for a dozen shuttles.

The radio crackled; their pilot spoke into his headset, but it was so noisy Brun couldn’t hear what he said. Higher . . . higher . . . the morning sky that had been a soft bright blue darkened again. The gauge that must be an altimeter had reeled off thousands and ten thousands, but Brun didn’t know what the unit of measure was. It neared sixty thousand somethings, and passed it. Then the pilot pulled the nose up even higher, and pushed a button on the left side of the cockpit. Acceleration slammed her back in her seat as a penetrating roar came from behind. The sky darkened quickly to black; stars appeared.

She noticed a streak of sunlit vapor climbing below them; their pilot yelled something into his headset. The vapor trail turned away. The pilot pointed through the front window. Brun peered back and forth, not seeing what he meant, until Hazel tapped her arm. “Ten o’clock, negative thirty . . . their space station.” Then she could see it, as its shape passed over a sparkling expanse of white cloud on the bulging planet below. She had been there, on the inside, unable to see . . . and now she was here. Free. Or almost free.

The man handed Brun a headset; she put it on. Now she could hear him. “Changing from lift engines to insystem—we’re supposed to rendezvous with something out here. Dunno if it’s military or civilian or what. They gave me code words to use.”

The craft lurched as he switched from one drive to another, then the artificial gravity kicked in, and she might as well have been sitting in a model shuttle on some planet’s surface. Quiet, too, just as it should have been, with only the faint crisp rustle of the ventilation system. She glanced back at Hazel, who was grinning ear to ear. It felt right to her as well, then. She peered out at the stars, burning steadily . . . but she could not recognize any of the geometry. What system was this?

“Might’s well take a nap, now she’s on auto,” the man said. He switched off the banks of instruments useless with this drive, yawned, and hung his headset on a hook. “I’m going to.” He closed his eyes and slumped in his seat.

Brun slid her headset down around her neck, but did not follow his example. Too much was at stake.

“I’m really tired,” Hazel whispered. “And my legs . . .”

Brun mimed sleep at her, and watched as Hazel dozed off. The man was snoring now, snores of such complexity that she was sure he couldn’t have faked them. She put out her hand to the controls, and he didn’t stir.

So here she was, on her way . . . she touched her knives, reminding herself that she was not going to be recaptured, if anything went wrong. And out there somewhere, Fleet waited. She was sure it would be Fleet; her father would not have risked anything less in taking on a whole planet. She hoped it wasn’t far out, and she hoped very much that whatever ships were there did not include one Lieutenant Esmay Suiza. She was not ready to face that, on top of everything else.

An hour passed, and another, and another. Despite herself, she yawned. She would have taken a stimulant if she’d had one; she scolded herself for eating such a big breakfast. Another yawn . . . Her eyes sagged shut, and she struggled to open them, only to yawn again. She looked at her shipmates. The man was snoring in a different pattern now, but just as loudly. Hazel slept neatly as a cat, curled into herself on the bench seat. Brun tried pinching herself, changing position, taking deep breaths . . . but in that steady, warm stillness, she slept in spite of herself.