Back in her tree perch Shael watched with horror. She heard the question, and wished she'd thought to run away as soon as things started to go wrong. . . . But she'd frozen, and now he would betray her.
"I'm alone." His voice didn't even quaver.
The tall man hit him again, with calculated force. "Don't ever lie to me again, boy. Beywulf here can track a breeze. He's been following your little banditry tour for three days now. Talk or get hurt."
"He . . . argued with me. We split up a few hours ago. He went north." Shael closed her eyes before the next blow.
"Obstinate little git. Still, I suppose it's in the genes. Tie him up and finish searching him, S'kith. Beywulf, you and Leyla, go and find . . . her."
Beywulf put his nose to the ground, and followed Keilin's back trail like a hound. It took him all of thirty seconds to find her tree, and drag her out of it, kicking and squalling.
Meanwhile S'kith's rough hands were searching Keilin. Skillfully he removed the knife from the boy's belt, and then the two hidden knives from Keilin's back and sleeve. His hand moved down the boy's leg, and arrived at the ankle pouch. He touched it, and the remote expression briefly went out of his eyes. Casually the bald-headed man looked at the rest of his party, while apparently checking the soles of Keilin's boots. Their attention was held by Shael's antics. He moved to the other side of Keilin so his back was toward them. And put his finger to his lips. Then he went on searching as if he'd found nothing.
They were put down side-by-side in front of the fire. The one called Cap was looking at them down his long nose, the expression in his eagle eyes cold. "Two little pairs of green eyes." He produced Keilin's pendant from his pocket and touched it to Shael's cheek . . . and snatched it away. "Another flipping one. I search for near on twenty years to find one person the core sections respond to . . . and within a month of finding one, I find another two . . . together. Brother and sister?"
"Yes," said Keilin.
"No!" said Shael, vehemently.
His cold stare washed over them. Finally he spoke. "One of you is still lying to me."
Keilin had less experience at facial schooling. "You, boy? You don't learn, do you? Well, you will."
He turned away briefly, and stared into the darkness. Keilin wondered whether he should try to induce panic in himself, whether the contact between his leg and the signet ring in the ankle pouch was sufficient, and whether he and the girl would be able to survive the Morkth attack that would follow. He tested his bonds. There was no give in them at all.
The tall man turned back to face them again. "We were hunting this," he dangled the broken pendant in front of them. "This is the fourth one I've located. We've been tracking its movement down from the north for two weeks now." Keilin's heart gave a leap. They'd been following Kim. So, it had been another jewel on that bracelet. And their captors had made no effort to find their kit. They might be hunting the jewels, just like the Morkth, but they didn't realize that they had not found one, but three. They'd found his, but they'd been following her. He felt the girl tense up next to him. She'd worked it out too.
Cap continued. "We were going to question you and then kill you." The way it was said, with a chilling lack of any emotion, made it totally believable. "It appears that you're both core-sensitives." He held up the pendant again. "I'm willing to bet you've been manipulated by the backup Compcontrol system." He shrugged. "You may not have been aware of it, but we are working toward the same end. You'll pardon my initial reaction to you. I don't suppose you can help the fact that you are descended from the woman who betrayed the human race to the Morkth."
There was a stunned silence. Then Shael burst out. "That's rubbish. I know my ancestory. I am descended from Queen Lee herself!" Keilin cast his eyes heavenwards. Now she was going to sprout her princess story again. Stupid girl.
Cap nodded, his eyes narrowing. "Evie Lee. So called Senior Captain of the colony starship which was Homo sapiens' last hope. The treacherous self-centered little bitch who betrayed most of her crew to the Morkth, so she could play at being royalty and have a good time instead of doing her duty." He paused, and then added grimly, "You see, doing her duty would have meant she had to die, so that a hundred million people could live. She betrayed the last hope of our species for her own selfish ends.
"We were supposed to scatter the seeds of the human race on so many planets that the Morkth could never find and eliminate them all. Instead, more than three hundred years later we're all still on one damned colony planet which we share with mankind's worst enemy." His voice was full of a barely controlled fury.