Glory Season

Baltha took over navigating the increasingly twisty maze where, at some points, only the topmost sixty degrees or so of sky were visible, making for slow going even after two oil lanterns were lit.

A halt was called by a shallow, gurgling stream and everyone dismounted, some gingerly. None more so than the man, who hissed and rubbed his legs, walking out stiffness. Baltha's colleagues nodded knowingly. In fact, though, only embarrassment kept Maia from hobbling about just like him. Instead, she stretched surreptitiously, behind her horse. Nearby, the leaders gathered round a lantern.

"This must be the place," Kiel said, jabbing a map sketched onto lambskin, so much tougher than paper. Baltha shook her head. "Another stream, a klick or so on. I'll tell ya when."

"You're sure? We wouldn't want to miss—"

"Won't," the tall blonde said, curtly. "Now let's mount. Wastin' time."

Maia saw Thalia and Kiel look at each other dubiously after Baltha left. "Comes off knowin' the place like her own back-hand." Thalia muttered. "Now how would that be? Only Perkinites grow up 'round here."

Kiel made a cautioning sign to her friend. "One thing for sure. That's no damn Perkinite."

Thalia shrugged as Kiel rolled up the map. "There's worse," she said under her breath. When the two of them walked past Maia, Thalia gave her a tousle on the top of her head. The gesture would have seemed patronizing if there hadn't been something like genuine affection in it.

With the elation of escape starting to fade into physical fatigue, Maia realized, There's more going on here than I thought. I'd better start paying closer attention.

Half an hour later, they reached another stream under looming canyon walls. This time, Baltha signaled for everyone to guide their mounts into the shallow watercourse before she spoke.

"We split up here. Riss, Herri, Blene, an' Kau will go on toward Demeterville, making tracks and confusing the trail. Maia, you'll go too. The rest'll wade upstream about two klicks before heading west, then south. We'll meet sou'west of Clay Town on the seventh, if Lysos guides us."

Maia stared at the strangers she had been told to accompany, and felt a frisson course her spine. "No," she said emphatically. "I want to go with Kiel and Thalia."

Baltha glowered. "You'll go where you're told."

Panic welled and Maia's chest was tight. It felt like a repetition of her separation from Leie, when they parted in Lanargh for the last time, on separate ships. A certainty overwhelmed her that once out of sight, she would never see her friends again.

"I won't! Not after all that!" She jerked one hand in the direction of the prison tower that so recently held her in its grip. Maia turned to her friends for support, but they wouldn't meet her eyes. "The upstream party ought to be small as possible . . ." Kiel tried to explain. But Maia learned more from the woman's uneasy demeanor. This was arranged in advance, she realized. They don't want me along while they escape with their precious alien! A heavy resignation swarmed into Maia's heart, overwhelming even her burning resentment.

"Maia comes with us."

It was Re

"The girl's just a larva," Baltha retorted. "They don't care about her. Probably aren't even looking for her."

Re

Through surging emotion, Maia saw a silent interplay among the women. They had thought of Re

Kiel shrugged. Thalia turned and gri

Baltha cursed lowly, accepting the swing of consensus, but not gracefully. The rangy blonde brought her mount over near her friends, who were taking the other route, and leaned over to clasp forearms with them. In a similar ma

"Thank you," Maia said to Re

"Hey," the man said with a smile. "We castaways have to hang together, right? Anyway, you seem like a tough pal to have along, if trouble's ahead."

Of course he was jesting with her. But only partly, she realized with some surprise. He really did seem glad, even relieved, that she was coming with him.

Traveling single file, they fell into silence, letting the horses pick a careful path along the uneven streambed. Fortunately, they were out of the wind. But the surrounding winter-chilled rocks seemed to suck heat right out of the air. Maia put her hands under her armpits, squeezing the coat tight, exhaling breath that turned into visible fog. Anyway, it was reassuring knowing that each minute put more distance behind them. The escape plan was a risky one, counting on panic and excessive haste on the part of their pursuers. True professionals — like the Sheldon clan of hunters back in Port Sanger — wouldn't be fooled by so simple a trick. Maia hadn't heard of tracking skill being much famed among Long Valley's farmers, but it was still an assumption.

Even if they slipped their immediate pursuers, they remained surrounded by enemies. Few places on Stratos were politically more homogeneous than this upland colony of extremists, with allied Perkinite clans stretching all the way to Grange Head. Once aroused by the news, there would be posses and mobs swarming after them from all directions.

Maia thought she could now see the big picture … how desperate the Perkinites must be. Much more was involved than their radical plan to use a drug to promote winter sparking. The hive matriarchies of Long Valley had become involved in a far more brazen scheme: kidnapping the Interstellar Visitor — Re

Nothing would make extreme Perkinites crazier than having the sky open up. Spaceships calling regularly from those old worlds of "animal rut and sexual tyra

Half.

Despite having read those lurid novels, it was hard to picture. What, in the name of Lysos, did a world need with so many extra males? Even if they were quiet and well-behaved most of the time, which she doubted, there were only so many tasks a man could be trusted with! What was there for them to do?

Contact would change Stratos forever, polluting it with alien ideas, alien ways. Despite her hatred of those who had imprisoned her, Maia wondered if they might not have a point.

She found herself reacting tensely again, when Re