Lady Lure (6 page)

“You are wrong about him!” Perri said,
recalling the dignified man whose bearing had seemed to her the
very essence of impressive – and fearful – government power. But
that same man had given her inaccurate information about Halvo.

“Alternately,” Halvo said, ignoring her
protest, “suppose that for some reason the Regulan Hierarchy just
wants to get rid of me. Why, I can’t imagine. I have never to my
knowledge done anything to harm the Regulans, and since I am about
to be retired from active duty with the Service, my status as
admiral cannot be important to them. In fact, I have been out of
the Service decision-making process for more than a year. But just
suppose the Regulans, or some other planetary government with whom
the Regulans want to curry favor, have an old grudge against me.
How could they get their revenge by doing away with the Admiral of
the Fleet without bringing the entire Jurisdiction down on their
heads?”

Halvo proceeded to answer his own question.
“What better way than to send out an intelligent but innocent young
woman, in a ship that blatantly mimics a pirate vessel, to abduct
me by force or to lure me to Regula by some other means? Capt.
Jyrit and the crew of the
Krontar
can testify to your act of
piracy. Jyrit will have made an immediate report to Capital. Most
of the Jurisdiction will know by now everything that Jyrit knows
about what has happened to me. However, no blame will attach to the
Regulan Hierarchy for what they do, because the fault will appear
to be entirely yours. Think about it, Perri.”

“No, that’s not -” She stopped, considering
all he had said. Her conclusions chilled her. “They would have to
kill me after killing you. Otherwise, I could tell that it was the
Chief Hierarch himself who sent me to capture you. There is always
the chance that someone will believe my story, so they could not
let me live.”

“Good girl. You are learning fast,” Halvo
said.

“But the Chief Hierarch will keep his word to
me. I know he will. Whatever happens to me, Elyr s life will still
be spared.”

“If you are willing to give up your life for
his, then you must love him,” Halvo said with a trace of regret in
his voice that even Perri, innocent as she still was, could not
help but notice.

“It is not a matter of love. It is a matter
of family honor.”

“As for Elyr,” Halvo said, “I can extend this
nasty scenario a bit further. Suppose it is Elyr who wants to be
rid of you, perhaps so he can marry someone else. Possibly a member
of the Hierarchy has a daughter of marriageable age. From what you
have told me, this entire affair is a secretive thing. Elyr may
have committed no crime at all. He, and the Hierarchy, may simply
be killing two birds with one stone. A neat analogy, if I do say
so, though I still have no idea why the Regulan Hierarchy would
want me dead.”

“Your mind is warped, Halvo.” Perri leapt to
her feet. “This wild story cannot be true. Elyr would never do such
a thing to me! You have no evidence. Your suggestions are concocted
out of space debris.

“I was beginning to like you,” Perri said,
tears prickling her eyes. “I felt sorry for you because you have
been so sorely injured and because I believe the Hierarchy does
have a harsh punishment planned for you. You have made me regret
talking so freely to you. In fact, I regret speaking to you at
all!”

“I was only trying to make you understand
that you have been entirely too credulous. You ought to give some
serious thought to the mess in which you are involved. I don’t
believe you considered at all about the ramifications of what you
were doing. You just acted on impulse.” Halvo stood, too.
“Admittedly, it was a kindhearted impulse, to save Elyr’s life. But
can it ever be right to save one man by destroying another?”

He was so tall, so overwhelmingly masculine.
Elyr had never made Perri feel so helplessly feminine or so eager
to seek comfort in his arms. Sternly, Perri reminded herself that
it was Elyr to whom she owed her loyalty. The man standing before
her was an enemy who would not hesitate to use her to gain his own
freedom. Every word he had just spoken to her was false.

“Perri, I believe you are being manipulated
in some underhanded scheme,” Halvo said.

“Indeed I am,” she sneered at him. “By you!
This conversation is ended, Admiral. Do not attempt to open it
again. In fact, I would be grateful if you would refrain from
speaking to me at all during the remainder of our journey.”

“If you are so upset by what I have said, it
must be because you know there is a grain of truth in my
suppositions. But suit yourself. It’s all the same to me. If I am
dead, it won’t matter to me what happens to you.”

If I am dead …If I am dead…If I am
dead
. The ominous words echoed over and over in Pern’s brain
all the way to her cabin. There she flung herself onto her bunk.
She pounded her pillow in fury a few times. Too upset to stay in
one place for long, she got up again and began prowling around the
tiny room. Halvo’s insinuations of wicked plots that threatened her
life had thrown all her assumptions into disarray. She did not want
to think about what he had said, but she could not stop thinking
about his words.

Elyr did not want to be rid of her! He was
pleased with her. She owed it to him to try to save his life. She
belonged to Elyr. Yet she knew in her heart that there was little
real warmth in his attentions to her.

What had Elyr done to make the Hierarchy
sentence him to death? And why had Perri not known about the
trouble he was in until Elyr’s servant, Vedyr, told her of it? Why,
if Elyr had done something terrible enough to warrant the death
sentence, was the Hierarchy willing to commute that sentence if
Perri delivered Halvo to them? Wouldn’t Elyr still be guilty of a
capital crime? She had been so eager to save him that she, who had
been told all of her life that she asked too many questions, had
neglected to ask those important questions. Halvo’s lecture made
her consider them now.

If I am dead…
She did not want Halvo
to die.

There was nothing she could do to prevent
Halvo’s death. It was the price the Hierarchy would exact for
sparing Elyr’s life. The words had not been spoken aloud during her
interview with the Chief Hierarch but Perri knew it was so. A life
for a life.

Can it ever be right to save one man by
destroying another?

“I cannot believe a word Halvo says,” Perri
muttered to herself. “I mustn’t believe him. He is only attempting
to save his own life. He doesn’t know Elyr; he doesn’t understand
Regulan customs. The Hierarchy will dispense justice to Halvo in
its own way, but Elyr will not be involved. Halvo is lying when he
says otherwise. Lying!”

Yet still, over all the unwelcome thoughts
and rationalizations, above her determination to do what was right
for Elyr whatever the cost to herself, Perri remembered Halvo’s
kiss and the emotions it had stirred in her. Elyr had never aroused
such warmth in her, never slid his tongue into her mouth in the
sensuous way that Halvo did.

Elyr’s kisses were quick and dry and the
once-a-month couplings he had insisted upon since the night of her
sixteenth birthday were brief and almost casual. Once she had
recovered from her initial shock at the mechanics of the couplings
and her distaste for their messy endings, Perri had accepted them
with indifference. She knew it was always that way between men and
women because Elyr told her it was so. She belonged to Elyr;
therefore, there was no reason for him to mislead her. Elyr would
tell her when the time was right. Then she would be allowed to give
him the single child permitted by Jurisdiction and Regulan law.
Afterward, the couplings would cease, but Perri would still be an
important part of Elyr’s household because she would be in charge
of his comforts.

She wondered what Halvo liked to eat when he
had a choice of food. Did he prefer his bathwater hot or warm? Did
he like a cold rinse after the bath and the finest, cleanest
fabrics for his personal clothing? His kiss had been so heated.
Would his couplings be heated, too?

“I must stop thinking like this or I will go
mad. The Hierarchy will do as it wants with Halvo. Once he is
turned over to them, the matter is out of my hands. Elyr will live.
It is Elyr who is important.”

Halvo. Oh, Halvo, why did you kiss me?

In the cockpit of the
Space Dragon
,
Halvo was attempting to learn how much Rolli knew about the
Hierarchy’s plans for him, and for Perri.

“Are you specially programmed to pilot a
space ship?” Halvo asked the robot.

“Among other things.” The metal head swiveled
in Halvo’s direction, the eyelike blue lights blinking in a steady
rhythm. “Why do you ask?”

“I was wondering if we really are going to
Regula.”

“We are going to Regula.” The robot turned
back to the ship’s controls.

Why do you ask? Never before had Halvo known
a robot to display curiosity. Since it was one of his own strong
personal traits, Halvo made a mental note to pay attention to any
other evidence of curiosity on Rolli’s part.

“Have you and Perri been together long?”

“Since she was nine years old.”

“Were you a gift on her betrothal to Elyr?”
Halvo asked.

“It is the custom on Regula for children to
have such guardians,” Rolli said. “I have served as Perri’s nurse,
teacher, and servant.”

“How heartwarming.” When the blue lights
turned in his direction again, Halvo said, “Personally, I prefer a
living nurse who has a soft lap a child can curl up in after a
nightmare. Someone who understands from her own experience the
desire for sugar cakes at odd hours.”

“I do not believe I have ever been deficient
in supplying Perri with good emotional or nutritional advice,”
Rolli said.

“Perri told me about Elyr and how she is
trying to save his life,” Halvo said, trying another tack. When the
robot did not respond to that remark, Halvo asked, “Does she love
him? More importantly, does he love her?”

“Perri will do what is necessary. She has a
strong sense of honor.”

“Come on, Rolli. You aren’t helping. I am
trying to save my own life and, incidentally, Perri’s life,
too.”

“Why do you care about Perri’s life?” There
it was again, curiosity from a robot.

“I care because I’m a romantic fool.” Halvo
grinned, suddenly feeling like a knight-errant in an old story.
“Here I am, weaker than I have ever been since I was a baby and too
often dizzy and light-headed, yet I am ready to do battle to save a
woman who is determined to sacrifice herself, and me, in a lost
cause!”

“You truly believe Perri’s life is in
danger?”

“Don’t you? Use your circuitry, Rolli! It’s
simple logic. By abducting me, Perri has put herself outside the
law. You have deduced your own fate, haven’t you?” Halvo went on,
watching the robot closely for any unusual reaction to his next
words. “You do understand that shortly before or immediately after
the Hierarchy kills Perri, you will almost certainly be dismantled?
At the very least, your memory banks will have to be altered. Or
perhaps they will be erased completely. Whether Elyr lives or dies,
the three of us won’t survive very long once we reach Regula.”

“You believe Elyr would permit this?”

“I have no idea what Elyr would permit. He
may not have anything to say about what happens. According to
Perri, the Hierarchy will decide our fates. I know enough about the
mighty seven who rule Regula to realize how poor our chances really
are. Perri has high hopes, but she is wrong. You might say dead
wrong.”

Rolli was silent for a while, the blue lights
blinking rather faster than usual.

“Do you dare trust Pern’s life to the Regulan
Hierarchy?” Halvo asked. “Or your own continued existence?” Again
Rolli did not respond. The seconds passed in silence.

“I cannot allow Perri to be harmed,” Rolli
said at last. “Guardians are charged with the protection of those
placed in their care.”

“Then, my friend,” Halvo said with a sense of
satisfaction he did his best to hide, “you and I are going to have
to devise a way to save Perri when the Chief Hierarch reneges on
his promises to her.”

* * * * *

“Give me a few more days aboard the
Space
Dragon,”
Halvo said, “and I could reprogram the computer to
produce some decent food.”

“There is nothing wrong with Regulan food.”
Perri clamped her lips shut. She had not intended to speak to Halvo
at all, but he had a peculiar ability to evoke unwanted responses
from her.

“I suppose for someone who doesn’t care
whether she lives or dies food doesn’t matter, either.” Halvo
sounded as if he were carrying on an ordinary conversation. Perri
was forced to grit her teeth to keep from answering him.

“Out there in the rest of the Jurisdiction,
far beyond Regula,” Halvo said, “people who are sentenced to death
are given their choice of a last meal. It’s an old tradition, one I
gather the Regulan Hierarchy is not inclined to follow.”

“We have our own traditions,” Perri snapped,
infuriated by his drawling tone.

“You amaze me, Perri. It is one thing to face
death bravely. It’s quite another thing to face the unknown – and
you do face a distinctly uncertain future – without flinching. Your
composure is remarkable.”

“I am not facing an unknown. You are.”

“In that case, let’s stop this carefree
banter and proceed to serious conversation, shall we?”

“I do not wish to talk with you, Halvo.”

“You keep saying that, but you always answer
any remark I make. And every time I walk into this galley, you
follow me. I do believe you want to be alone with me.”