Dushau

"No," said Trassle. "I disarmed our Sentient when I heard my property had been seized. They're programmed to be loyal to the Allegiancy."

Rndeel called over his shoulder, "Captain-my-Lady, we pass deep banks now. Is time to contact Arlai, send lander to us, no?"

The dry clutch of fear in her throat had kept her from breathing, let alone thinking. She felt like such a fool as she unlimbered her special leptolizer and triggered Arlai's beam signal. He appeared, in his Dushau simulacrum rather than the human one he'd used to deal with the Port Authority. "Krinata, Rndeel. Something has gone wrong. I have reports of forces dispatched to Trassle's—"

"We know," said Krinata, and recapped their situation. "Is there a place you can send us a lander?"

"Twenty-seven minutes if I pull out the one on the ground at the port. A couple of hours to send another down."

Rndeel gave a Skhe fatalistic shrug. "Captain, I vote pull it. Soon be discovering our trail and identities even we not do suspicious with our lander."

"This is not a democracy, Mr. Rndeel," said Krinata. "But you're right. Arlai, get the grounded lander here/as/, but don't get shot down. We're stuck without you."

Rndeel asked, "Arlai, be showin' a glimpse of what's going on above us?"

Arlai's image dissolved. The scene over the river was clear in miniature. The house was surrounded by grounded landers; several hovercraft floated above the roof. The sod-cover teemed with Cassrians in the Count's uniform, carrying weapons and detectors. Squads of them were begi

The bottomship was up to speed now, stirring mud and river creatures around them in a halo. But they were hardly into the main cha

For the third time since she'd last slept, Krinata gave herself up for dead. Adrenaline was surging to overcome her fatigue, and she was shaking physically and emotionally.

In the projection before them, the ru

Rndeel coaxed more speed out of the bottomship, and said over his shoulder, "Hoping all you folks can swim. Arlai, being we don't make it, be hopin' you get others away safe."

"I'm well programmed and mature, Rndeel."

Trassle let out an explosive syllable, and said, "It really is Arlai, Jindigar's Sentient! I don't know why I doubted you."

"Forget it," said Krinata. "I can imagine what they've put you through lately. It's happening everywhere."

"They're about to fire," said Arlai in the cool, emotionless voice of a professional soldier.

Before he could finish, the craft rocked hard and something scraped the bottom. "When we're hulled," said Rndeel, "head for north bankriver, then downstream. Arlai be able pick us up at near wide, flat spot on bank. Anyone not there be left behind."

Not ten seconds later, another charge boiled the water above them and melted through their upper hull. Cascades of water and steam and mud and creatures flooded in. Imp tore from her grasp squealing.

It had been several years since Krinata had done any serious swimming, though she was in pretty good shape from gymnastics. Yet in the maelstrom, all she could do was hold her breath and let herself be carried upward, through and away from the boiling hot water. Something small and hard slammed into her.

It was the eldest boy, clutching a rucksack, eyes shut, mouth open. A Cassrian could breathe water for short periods, but the youth appeared unconscious though his limbs were set hard about his possessions.

She got an arm about the slender waist, and began to scissor her legs to drive them both to the surface. Despite the low gravity and near masslessness of the boy, Krinata felt the drag was too much. She wasn't going to make it. She was being pushed along on the current just ahead of searing hot water. And she had to get up to breathe soon.

Then she realized the weight was in the rucksack. With all her strength, she tore it from the pincered grasp and let it fall back into the mud-haze below. Then she struck again for the surface. She made it, but could grab only a mouthful of air at a time as she was swept along by a merciless current. She sidestroked for shore, struggling to keep the boy's head above water. Swept under again by vicious currents, she surfaced under a slimy network of plants near the steep bank and managed to get her feet set on a narrow ledge of mud while holding the boy's head above water. Slimy plants plastered themselves to her face.

Hovercraft swarmed in the air, the roar of landers taking off nearby and coming to ground even nearer pounded at her ears. The river was black—she hoped only with muck, not blood. And she couldn't see anyone else surfacing.

At last, the boy showed signs of life. The water around them was uncomfortably warm, but perhaps it would never get hot since the cold water diluted it. She could feel her skin, raw from the scalding, and she blessed Arlai's underwear for protecting her body even as it kept her from floating.

Then a cold, slimy hand closed on her shoulder and a head poked up veiled by the same net of plants she was. It was grotesque, and a scream swelled in her throat.

"Captain!"

"Jin—Rndeel!"

"Come, I've found an underwater cave."

Abruptly, five Cassrians charged down the bank, weapons aimed, at them, and a hovercraft settled downstream of them, blocking their progress with a wail of churning water.

"Halt in the name of the Emperor!"

They froze in shock. The squad of trained elite troops spread out, Imperial and Ducal insignia beside the Count's flashing in the sun, heraldic bandoleers proclaiming their minor nobility, poised stances bespeaking their readiness to kill to enforce the imperial word.

"Come out of there!" commanded the officer in charge.

Krinata and Jindigar moved in the same instant, Jindigar to submerge tugging Krinata and the boy with him, and Krinata toward the shore, reflexively obeying legitimate authority. It was shallower here. A slight movement brought her feet under her, and she stood while Jindigar dragged.

The net result was that neither of them moved for a moment, then Krinata foundered off balance. The Cassrians interpreted that as an attempt to escape and fired.

Krinata was never sure exactly how it happened, for she hit bottom and came up sputtering and coughing where the heat-beams from the Cassrian leptolizers had volatilized something noxious from the surface plants, making her eyes sting and her nose burn.

Lots more Cassrians waded into the water and hauled the three of them up onto solid land. When Krinata got her bearings, she found Rndeel prone before her, his shrinksuit ruptured in the middle of his chest and purple Dushau blood oozing from the nearly cauterized wound. The viewer was no longer secured to his harness.

The Cassrian youth was folded into a heap beside Jindigar. He looked as dead as Jindigar.

Two strong Cassrians had her shoulders clamped in their chitinous grips, and she was sure their fingers had serrated edges. Her legs were unwilling to support her.