Rebel Princess(40)

"And Kass Kiolani," he ground out. Of course she did, the little witch.

"Only theoretically," Kass admitted cooly, "but to Jagan it will be child's play."

No time for temper, though his jaw ached from grinding his teeth. "Can we get to this gate from Tat?"

"It is not a case of can, but should," Kass retorted. Fists clenched,  she turned to face him, amber eyes blazing. "Do not go to Tatarus,  Captain, I beg you."

"Can we get to your back door to Blue Moon from Tat?" he repeated, emphasizing each word.

Kass splayed her fingers over her mouth, as if keeping hot words inside.  "There are ways," she admitted from behind her fingers. "If we are  still alive.

So she was fallible, his little Psyclid. So very certain Tegge had  betrayed them, when he was ninety-nine-point-nine percent certain she  hadn't. It was a chance he had to take.         

     



 

"Kiolani, how many days to Tat from the end of your smugglers' jump?"

She lowered her hands to her lap, revealing a face that looked resigned  to death. "Longer than from 828. Five or six Reg days, depending on  speed."

"Give Dorn the coordinates. Mr. Jorkan, make best speed to the smugglers' gate."

"Aye, Captain." His two officers jumped to their feet. Kass input the  information into the Dorn Jorkan's handheld and returned it to him.

"Kiolani, stay," Tal ordered, as she too started to rise. "This conversation is not finished."

She settled back onto the sofa, scooting herself into a corner as far  away from him as she could get. Great going, Rigel, scaring her isn't  exactly what you had in mind.





Chapter 25


"I know you think I'm being difficult," Kass burst out the moment the  door slid closed behind Dorn and Mical, "but Tegge's the one who knew we  were going to Hell Nine. And that we'd never suspect an ambush at a  gate so far from our own sector." Silently, Kass groaned. Fizzet! Why  couldn't she leave well enough alone? Tal was offering a compromise,  accepting the smugglers' route. She still had time to talk him out of  going back to Tat.

From the opposite end of the leather sofa came a long-suffering sigh.  Tal's blue eyes darkened. Dear goddess, now he was really angry. But in  his usual keep-it-together-no-matter-what style, all he said was, "The  Empire's set a high price on rebel heads, Kass, particularly rebel  captains, dead or alive. And I doubt anyone really thinks Captain Kane  is a smuggler. So your Pybbite could have been setting us up. And what  about the attack on X-33? Someone has set a price on my head-though it  could be Captain Kane's as much as S'sorrokan's. Though after what  happened today," he added slowly, "it seems more likely it was a formal  assassination attempt by the Empire. We may have changed Orion's ident  codes, but we can't hide her structure. Even a Fleet cook could  recognize her as a Reg huntership."

"If that's true, why didn't the cruiser that chased you to Blue Moon recognize Orion?"

"So I exaggerated a little." Tal shrugged, but his eyes held the  satisfied gleam of a successfully crafty captain. "We not only changed  her ident, we tarted her up a bit-black paint, trader-type logo, tweaked  her silhouette. From a distance we could pass as almost any smuggler in  the sector. But when we didn't respond to the cruiser's hail-and,  believe me, the Empire wants a cut from any free trader it can lay its  hands on-we were fair game. They started shooting."

"And Blue Moon let you in." Kass could only hope Tal hadn't caught the odd note in her voice.

"That's where we were headed all along-I remembered it from a visit many  years ago. And by some quirk of fate, her force field let us through  while keeping the cruiser out. And Fleet seemed to forget about us.  Guess a stray smuggler wasn't worth the effort."

Uh-uh. Not the right time to go into why Blue Moon's ridó favored the  rebels."You changed Orion again after that, didn't you? New ident, new  paint, new logo?"

"Regularly, though just the ident and the markings. Painting takes more time than we can spare."

Kass nodded, returning doggedly to the point she had been trying to  make. "During our trips to Tat, to X-33, and Bender's Folly, we never  saw a single Fleet ship."

"Traders have sharp eyes. Many know Fleet ships as well as the Empire,  so, believe me, Tegge isn't the obvious choice you think she is. And,  besides," Tal added less decisively, "that's not why I wanted to talk  with you."

"Oh?" Kass lowered her lashes to hide her reaction to the sudden gleam  in his eyes. Almost . . . a flash of warmth? He was so gorgeous sitting  there, little more than a meter away, his golden hair shining above  Captain Kane's dashing black shirt, pants, and boots, his often stern  lips suddenly gone as a soft as his eyes. Were they about to have a more  . . . intimate conversation?

"Listen closely," he said in a voice far from the resolute command mode  of Captain Rigel, Captain Kane, or S'sorrokan. "I have a lot to say, and  this isn't easy for me." Kass nodded, hope soaring. Maybe, at long last  he was seeing her, not his fantasy whore . . .

"There's nothing like the whiff of death to clarify the mind," Tal said.  "Knowing tomorrow could bring what we escaped today is a powerful  motivator. Damn it, I don't want to talk to your eyelashes, Kass. Look  at me!"         

     



 

"I beg your pardon," she murmured. "I seem to be so much better at arguing with you than carrying on a civil-"

"That's exactly what I'm trying to say! Fyd!" he added under his breath.  "You and I are always going to fight, Kass. I was brought up to give  orders, and evidently so were you. No, no, we'll get to secrets in a  moment. But fighting is all right. I have no interest in a woman without  a thought in her head, one who agrees with me all the time."

Kass propped a hand under her chin and gave him her most skeptical look.

"I didn't say I was always going to like opposition," Tal conceded. "I'm just saying it doesn't put me off."

Kass blinked, clamping her lips over her unruly tongue. Tal's monologue  was sounding more intriguing by the moment. Even if that momentary flash  of warmth had vanished once again under the aura of stern captain.

"As for secrets," he continued, "don't think you're the only one who has them. I'm carrying around a few of my own-"

Kass's good intentions imploded. "I always knew your father was mixed up in this somewhere!"

"Mallick, Kass!" Tal slammed his fist onto the table, scattering the  empty ripka bottles. "You will never mention my father again. Do. You.  Understand?" Amber eyes wide, Kass managed a nod. So she'd been right.  It was Admiral Vander Rigel who had sheltered an enemy in Regula's  Interplanetary Archives.

"Point three," Tal declared. "I was brought up on Regula Prime where  fear of Psyclid magic is taught from birth. You were brought up on  Psyclid where fear of Regulon might is taught from birth. Plus scorn for  our culture-"

"Or lack thereof."

Tal sucked in a sharp breath, shot to his feet. Almost she felt sorry  for him as he paced the room, couch to galley entrance and back again,  while pounding his fist against his thigh.

"I beg your pardon," Kass said. "I was also brought up from birth to be  polite, and that was way out of line. Come back, please, and finish what  you wanted to say."

Tal paused at the edge of the sofa, looking down at her. "You are a very  aggravating female. No wonder we had to save you from your fellow  cadets."

"I'm sorry, Tal, truly I am."

He sank back down on the couch, but not so far away this time. He was  close enough to touch, close enough to smell. Shades of the Round Tower.  Essence of Talryn Rigel flooded through her. She could never get enough  of him. And this was real, not fantasy.

"Point four," Tal murmured far more softly than the bark of point three.  "I've been celibate for close to two years now. Ever since I realized  that the fantasy I'd built around a cadet named Kass Kiolani was more  real to me than my mistress. That no one else, not even solid flesh and  blood, would do."

Blessed goddess, he meant it! And feared she did not feel the same.  Captain Talryn Rigel-the legendary S'sorrokan-was anxiously waiting for  some kind of response.

Kass wanted to leap into his arms, tell him everything was wonderful,  perfect . . . Instead, she clasped her hands tightly in her lap,  thinking hard. Her lips tilted up ever so slightly as she thought of all  the elegantly worded vowals of love and devotion she had received since  she was allowed to dine at the high table at age fourteen. Frankly, Tal  was making a botch of it, but a wise woman would let him finish what he  started. And, Kass vowed, she was going to make a start this very  moment on being a better, wiser person than she'd been in the past.