"You, Staffa?" Ily laughed. "The Star Butcher backs a semen-greased slave?"
His speed surprised her, the flat of his hand slapping the side of her face, sending her sprawling over the ebony table. Shocked but coherent, she thumbed the collar control button by reflex, as her body slid over the dirty plates.
Fingers to her face, Ily sat up, blinking, dazed. The salty taste of blood filled her mouth. The bastard had split her lip! Thumb on the button, she stood, staggering. She looked down to where he lay. His violent stare met hers as his mouth worked soundlessly.
"Die, Staffa! she hissed. "No one, not even the Lord Commander slaps me! I offered you an Empire!
She let up on the button as he gasped and straightened. "Oh, no, Staffa kar Therma. Get your breath! You and your precious Kaylla can breathe a little first."
"By the Rotted Gods, Ily, you kill me, and the story will get out. If I disappear, the Companions will hear. One of your scum will sell the information."
"Too late, Staffa. I can't allow you to live now. My aircar will land. Tyklat and I will carry your body aboard and. well, an accident will happen to the ship bearing you back to your Companions." She pursed her lips as she fingered the collar control. "Most likely, it will look like the Sassans did it. And I doubt Tyklat will ever tell." She smiled. "He's good — but expendable."
"Ily!"
"Take a deep breath, Staffa, you're about. "
The rocking explosion took her by surprise. The walls cracked and Kapstan's prized artwork dropped to the floor as Ily fought to keep her feet. Staffa's leap caught her by surprise as he knocked the collar control spinning. Staffa leapt after it like some crazed leopard.
Fear spurring her, Ily dove across the desk, frantic fingers seeking the drawer. She ripped it open as another concussion shook the room. Blaster fire impacted on the walls outside as she strained to reach the blaster in the desk.
The second blast caught Staffa in mid-leap. He landed, rolling, coming up with the collar control. On his feet, he staggered as Ily tumbled over the desk and pulled a service blaster from a drawer.
Staffa jerked Kaylla to her feet and shoved her reeling as he ducked to one side. Ily shot from an awkward position;
the blaster bolt sizzled past his long hair as he threw himself out of the way. Years of combat training served him as he ducked yet another burst.
Staffa froze as Ily jumped to her feet, braced in an isosceles turret hold. His skin crawled as she pinned him in the sights.
Ily's voice went silky. "Good-bye, Staffa!"
The door slammed open but Staffa only had eyes for Ily. He launched himself as she turned her head, attention drawn to the door.
In mid-leap he saw her crumple, falling face first over the big desk, limp.
Staffa caught himself and rolled to one side, plucking the blaster from her fingers, the eerie tingle of a stun beam playing at the edges of his nerves. In a crouch he turned toward the door.
"Don't shoot," Tyklat told him evenly. "You have very little time. "
Tyklat replaced the stun rod with a blaster. Wary, Staffa never let his eyes leave the man as the weapon crackled and blew a section of wall out behind him. Someone screamed in the hallway beyond Tyklat. Blaster fire ripped the air. A pitched battle raged through the lower offices.
Tyklat pointed where sunlight slanted through the hole. "Hurry. You have a slight jump to the lower roof. A man will be waiting in the back alley with an aircar. His name is Nyklos. Go, now. Master Kahn, go with him. Take him to Bruen on Targa." Tyklat turned on his heel, slamming the door behind him and muffling the vicious sounds of combat.
Staffa caught Kaylla's arm, pulling her to her feet. "Come on! Opportunity is best not lost on dunces." He led her to the shattered wall, peering out over the rubble that had collapsed outward. With one hand, he lowered Kaylla to the debris below.
With a bitter cry, he turned and jumped, landing on his feet, running despite the entangling robe. To one side, a window shattered in an explosion of flying glass and curling flame that sprayed him with fragments.
Staffa shielded his eyes, racing for the roof edge, pounding across the shuddering tiles after Kaylla.
A big bearded man stood at the controls of a pitching aircar that hovered just below the roof line and out of direct fire. Staffa leapt into the seat right behind Kaylla, the car dropping under his weight.
Nyklos punched the throttle forward, acceleration driving Staffa hard against the firm cushions.
"Close work," the driver called. "We cut it a bit tight back there. "
"You're Nyklos?"
"I'm Nyklos." He looked Staffa up and down with a narrow-eyed stare. A deep-seated caution kicked into place. This man is no friend.
Kaylla pulled herself forward. "Tyklat called me Master back there. Why?
How did he know?"
Nyklos grinned wistfully. "He remembered you. You gained your Master's robes while he was still a first stage Initiate.
"Why did it take so long for the order to find me?" she wondered, eyes searching the flat ugly brown houses they fled past.
"We didn't know you were alive until Tyklat recognized you. We heard that you had been executed on Maika," Nyklos told her. He gave Staffa another appraisal while a crease of a frown etched into his forehead.
"Who are you?" Staffa asked, the uneasy feeling growing in his breast. "Why are you doing this?"
"That will be made known to you when you're out of danger. For the moment, the schedule is tight. We have to get you off planet before the Imperial fleet rolls down and blockades all of Etaria. Minister Takka has an Imperial cruiser up there. We want you well clear before she comes to.
"And where do you think you're taking me?" Staffa's voice dropped to a low hiss, the blaster centering on Nyklos' thick torso.
Nyklos' face lost color. "You wanted to get to Targa, to ask the Seddi about your son. We have a way to get you there. We hadn't planned on Kaylla, but-"
"She goes with me."
"Tuff, you don't owe me a thing," Kaylla protested. Staffa's expression hardened. "I made a promise. And the Regans will turn this planet upside down to find us. Ily will see to that. "
"I'm afraid he's right, Master Kahn." Nyklos agreed. "Your presence complicates things. The box only has supplies enough for two."
"Two?" Staffa asked.
"In a moment, all will be made clear."
"Why should I trust, you?" he asked Nyklos as they
passed a bulky brick warehouse and dropped into the shadow behind the building.
"You would rather trust your friend Ily?" Kaylla asked. Staffa frowned. Slowly the blaster lowered. Nyklos took a deep breath, relief in his brown eyes.
"Very well, I will take your passage to Targa." Staffa put a hand on Nyklos' shoulder as he stepped from the aircar. "Why do you look at me like that? You are. Yes, you would like to see me dead. Are you another whom I have wronged?"
Nyklos' lips twitched. "All my life, I have been trained to handle the eventuality of your appearance here. Things change, the quanta play strange games with our lives and our goals. Now we meet, face-to-face, and I who have trained all my life to kill you, must instead send you to my Magister, the one man for whom I would gladly lay down my life. I pray you are worth the risk, Staffa kar Therma." The brown eyes didn't drop, nor did the expression soften. "Bruen?" Kaylla asked, voice suddenly vulnerable.
"We have been in contact." Nyklos glanced at her. "Now. Lord Commander, bend down and let me get a look at that collar you manufacture so well."
Skyla triggered the heavy shoulder blaster Nyklos had given her and devastated the records center in the Internal Security building. Checking the door, she stepped over the body of the clerk she'd blown in two. The delayed charges she'd set rocked the building, and chunks of plaster spilled from the ceiling. She could hear people screaming as they fled the building.