The Green Knight (Space Lore Book 1) (21 page)

Baldwin shook his head and said, “Not like this. This is the last thing he would have wanted.”

“I know you’ll hate me for saying it,” Morgan said, “but he would have wanted you to get back and prevent the war more than anything else. The last thing he would have wanted was for you to get there late because of him. You know I’m right. If you hate me for saying it, hate me later, but right now, we have to go.”

Vere looked down at her friend’s face. He looked completely at peace there on the ground. Already, some of the leaves she had pushed away were creeping back toward his body each time the breeze came through. Soon, he would be completely covered under yellow and orange by the Forest of Tears.

“Fine,” she said, turning in the direction of CamaLon and everything she had once run from.

As she walked, though, she couldn’t help but imagine her old friend as yet another sad spirit floating through the forest for eternity. The thought made her eyes burn, and she made sure to walk ahead of everyone else so they couldn’t see her face.

43

Above Edsall Dark, at the Tevis-84 portal, a convention of sorts was taking place. Bounty hunters from all around the galaxy had heard about the price put on Vere CasterLan’s head and had raced through three, four, or five connecting portals in order to arrive here and have a chance to be the one to kill her. Bounty hunters from as far as the Twi-Nik-Die sector arrived in a matter of minutes because they jumped from a portal there to a portal in the Vonnegan Empire to the PlunkTon portal to the Tevis-84 and just like that they had gone from one side of the galaxy to the other, all for a chance to get rich.

A Cig-Non attack vessel, slower than most bounty hunters would prefer but heavily armored to withstand surprise attacks, appeared through the portal and was immediately attacked by a Ting-9 fighter that didn’t want the competition. The Cig-Non’s armor absorbed the barrage of blaster fire sent at it, then returned its own assault. The Ting-9 fighter, although fast, couldn’t outrun the Cell-missile sent its way. It disintegrated into hundreds of unrecognizable parts, leaving the Cig-Non to fall toward the planet’s surface.

A pair of modified ion-chargers sent proton torpedoes at a bounty hunter whose ship was entering Edsall Dark’s atmosphere on its way to find Vere. The ion-chargers were a favorite ship of bounty hunters because of their speed, but they carried limited firepower. Even so, halfway to the planet’s surface, one of their proton torpedoes found its mark and the ship that had possessed the head start erupted into flames before breaking into ten different parts.

Every ship that tried to make its way to the planet’s surface had to fend off three other ships trying to do the same thing. There were no allegiances. No teams banding together. To do so would violate the bounty hunter’s code.

Ships of all sizes and types sent blaster fire and bombs at one another on their way toward the Forest of Tears.

Just before finding a spot to land, a Lerrk bounty hunter had to fend off a pair of automated Twin-Turbo-Basel fighters, each piloted by an android. This was particularly infuriating for the Lerrk because it meant the person trying to get rich off of the kill was probably already wealthy and had chosen to remain safely at home instead of enter the battle himself. Rather than land, the Lerrk was forced to turn his vessel around, send a cluster of gravity bombs toward the pair of ships, then began attacking another ship that had appeared through the portal and was making its way toward the forest.

No CasterLan ships departed from CamaLon to fend off the bounty hunters. Nor did any dash across the fields and into the woods in an attempt to find Vere and her companions.

44

“We need to talk,” Morgan said.

Vere stepped over a fallen tree, then ducked under a large branch before answering, “I’m not in the mood for conversation.”

Behind her, a man she had called a friend, a man who had sat beside her for six years, enjoying jokes and making toasts, lay dead on the ground, not even buried with a marker. She promised herself that if she did get through this, as improbable as that seemed, she would return, find Occulus’s body, and give him the proper burial he deserved.

They had walked for another eight hours without significant rest. Every two hours they stopped to refill their canteens with whichever source of fresh water they could find, but they never sat down because they all knew that if they did, it would be torture to force themselves back up to their tired feet again. Not only that, but any unnecessary delay would make their chances of getting back to CamaLon in time even less likely.

“I know he was your friend,” Hotspur’s former Lieutenant said, adopting the friendliest tone she could muster, “but we have to plan ahead.”

“Make your plans. But do me a favor: keep them to yourself.”

“Listen, Occulus would have—”

“This isn’t about Occulus.”

“Oh?” Morgan said, thinking they were getting somewhere.

“I just don’t like you.” Vere passed between two giant trees covered with orange and red leaves and then added, “No offense. I’m sure other people do. Just not me.”

“Did you think you’d be able to get by the rest of your life only being around people you like?”

Fastolf answered on his friend’s behalf: “It worked for her the last six years, didn’t it?”

“How about this?” Morgan said, ignoring the oaf behind her. “If we get through this, you’ll never have to see me again.”

Vere looked over to see if the other woman was being serious or facetious. It was one thing to offer the comment while being forced to work together. They would get through this mission and then go their separate ways. It was quite another thing if Morgan was hinting that Vere wouldn’t have to see her again because one day later her head would be separated from her shoulders. Those would be fighting words. But Morgan seemed to be genuine in her sentiment.

“Works for me.”

“Great. We have a lot to talk about then.”

“I’m not talking about Occulus.”

Morgan started to shake her head in amazement, then caught herself. To her, it made no sense to waste time talking about the dead while the living were at risk.

“Okay, whatever works for you.”

Vere frowned. “Or the Green Knight.”

“Fine, we don’t have to talk about him either.”

Without being prompted to do so, Pistol announced how much further they still had to go. Baldwin gave a slight groan that he might not even have been aware he made. Fastolf pulled out his flask and took a sip, then offered it to Vere. Without pausing, she waved it away as she continued to walk.

“Get on with it,” she said to Morgan.

“Well, we’re dead set on getting back to your father. We agree on that much. What do you propose we do when we actually get there?”

“I’m not sure I understand,” Vere said between tight lips.

When she looked to her other side to see if A’la Dure could make sense of it, her friend only shrugged and kept walking.

Morgan said, “Someone put a bounty out on you. And not just any bounty. From the amount of assassins coming to Edsall Dark, I’d say they put out a record amount. Someone, for some reason, is willing to pay a lot of money to make sure you die.”

“The Vonnegan general—”

But Morgan finished the sentence for Vere: “Could just as easily have had the fleet destroy your ship a couple days ago.”

“Then who?”

Morgan took a deep breath, then watched Vere’s reaction out of the corner of her eye for the punch that might be coming her way. “Your father?”

But instead of taking offense, Vere only laughed. “Have you been drinking the same stuff as Fastolf?”

Playing along, Fastolf held his hands in the air, palms out, the sign of a wrongly accused man.

Morgan said, “If he’s sick, maybe his mind is slipping. He ordered an attack on an innocent ship in Vonnegan space; there’s no telling what he’s capable of if he’s lost his mind.”

Vere shook her head. “I’m still sure that has to be some sort of mistake. He wouldn’t order an attack like that. And no matter how senile my father gets, he’d never put a hit out on me.” Then she nudged A’la Dure and mumbled, “If he went crazy, the worst he’d do is let me live my own life.”

A’la Dure smiled at the cynicism and continued walking.

“Well,” Morgan said, trying to keep her patience, “who do
you
know at Edsall Dark that would like to see you killed?”

Vere chuckled and broke a twig from a low-hanging branch as she walked under it. Using her thumb and index finger, she broke the twig in half, then said, “Who can keep count?” As she walked, she then broke those halves in half again and added, “Probably more people than would like to see me alive.” She tossed the broken pieces of twig to the forest floor. “It’s not like they’d be happy to have me as their next leader.”

“Your step brother?”

“Modred?”

Morgan nodded. The few times she had seen Modred walking through the corridors of a Solar Carrier during a tour or a ship deployment, there had seemed to be something self-serving and vindictive about him. She was objective enough, however, to know she felt that way about anyone who hadn’t earned their place in life. Vere included.

“I don’t think he could hurt a bug,” Vere said. “I only saw him a few times growing up. Years before Lady Percy married my father, when Modred and I were both kids, I pulled the wings off a tiny crawler and he ran from the classroom crying and got me in trouble.”

“Maybe it was Lady Percy?”

Vere rubbed her chin. “Maybe. But why?”

“To get control of the kingdom.”

It sounded straightforward but there was one huge problem, which Vere was kind enough to point out: “My father is dying anyway. And I was nowhere to be found until this war became imminent. She could have had the kingdom without having me killed.”

Fastolf said, “A sip for all the what-could-have-beens and what-should-have-beens,” and this time Vere took him up on the offer and accepted the flask.

“This is hopeless,” Morgan growled, walking ahead to where Baldwin and Traskk were making their way through the dense woods in silence.

Only a minute later, Pistol stopped walking, turned to look back at the others, and said, “Up ahead: use extreme caution.”

In the distance, through the thick cluster of trees, they could see a collection of lights.

Fastolf pulled his blaster and aimed it at them but Vere put her hand on top of the barrel to push it back down by his side.

“You get to see the ghosts,” she said. “Scyphozoans. The spirits of the sad. The tears of the forest.”

“Great,” he grumbled, but his finger remained near the blaster’s trigger. “I hope they’re as much fun to be around as Morgan.”

“If you don’t touch them, they won’t hurt you.”

“Just like me,” Morgan said, punching Fastolf’s shoulder as she walked past him.

“Famous last words,” he replied, rubbing the spot where he’d just been punched, following wherever Vere went. And where she went was straight forward, right toward the glowing lights.

45

For the first time in his career, Hotspur barged into the king’s chambers without waiting to be called upon.

“There are bounty hunters all over our airspace,” he said, pointing at the portal that orbited their planet.

“I know,” Modred said. “They aren’t harming anyone, though.”

“They harm our planet with their mere presence.”

Knowing how Hotspur’s mind worked, knowing Edsall Dark’s newly appointed military leader would love nothing more than to send a portion of his fleet to destroy every unscrupulous mercenary within the solar system, Modred said, “Leave them alone.”

“The king would not want them here.”

“The king?” Modred said, throwing a hand over his shoulder at the shriveled body lying pitifully in bed. Artan’s cheeks were sunken into his face. His eye sockets seemed impossibly deep. “The king does not have a say in the matter. His replacement is giving you the order. A replacement, I might remind you, who appointed you as the new CasterLan fleet leader. You didn’t seem to mind my authority when I gave you that title.”

Hotspur took one stride toward the king’s stepson. “Give me a reason to ignore the bounty hunters.”

“Other than because I ordered it?”

There were a lot of things Modred could have said. He could have said Hotspur had better learn to respect what Modred commanded because, like it or not, his mother was the queen and no one else was around to rule. He could have said there were going to be a lot of changes soon and it was important to pick the correct side.

But seeing the man so close to him, so large in his space armor, he said, “If they are still here when the Vonnegan fleet arrives, they can help us in the fight.”

Hotspur, trained to respect authority in all forms, actually scoffed at this sentiment. The two men stared at each other for a brief moment. Then Hotspur laughed and left the room without a formal parting. After he was gone, Modred had no idea if his fleet commander was going to obey his orders or do whatever he wanted.

46

The closer they got to the Scyphozoans, the more each blur of light coalesced into its own distinct shape. What had been a glowing patch of forest at dusk was now illuminated by more than one hundred radiant creatures lighting a pathway through the nighttime forest.

“They’re beautiful,” Baldwin said, looking at the collection of tentacled, wandering beings in front of them.

As far as they could see from left to right, the glowing forms drifted over the ground. Each time a gentle breeze came through the woods, the collection of gelatinous globules moved slightly farther through the forest, their limbs trailing behind, then dangling loosely underneath them again once the wind died down. Any part of the ground that had been touched by a Scyphozoan tentacle had a luminous glow that faded over time.

“I’ve never seen this many,” Vere said, her mouth slightly open. “I’ve been here countless times. I normally only see one or two.”

“These are the sad spirits of the forest,” Morgan said. Then, seeing A’la Dure’s bereaved look, probably wishing Occulus could see the creatures with them, added, “I suppose there’s a lot to be melancholy about tonight.”