Denner_s Wreck

"'You are a fisherman no more! If you ever again venture out onto the water, for any reason, then I shall send demons to tear you to ribbons and feast on your screaming soul!'

"And then the waterspout vanished as the sun appeared in the east, heralding secondlight, and he found himself alone and naked, cast up on the beach with nothing at all, his boat gone, his clothes gone, everything that he had had, lost…"

– from the tales of Atheron the Storyteller

Light sparkled from the rippling water around the invisible turret, and Geste blinked; the glare was too diffuse for his optic symbiote to handle readily, leaving him to the more primitive methods of his own reflexes and eyelids.

“Has it ever occurred to you,” A

“He's causing trouble now,” Geste pointed out.

“No,” A

“Maybe he did,” Geste conceded desperately, blinking again, “but it's getting out of hand. If you don't care about Bre

“Khalid and O probably aren't even there,” A

“Mother tracked them to Fortress Holding, though.” The rippling sunlight was unbearable; he darkened the lenses of his eyes, even though it left him half-blind and reduced A

“Maybe they left by the back way, shielded. They went there of their own free will, didn't they? How do you know they aren't staying there as Thaddeus's guests?"

Geste saw that he was not getting anywhere on that tack, and rather than chase any further through A

A

“But Sheila and Sunlight…” Geste began.

“All right, all right,” A

“But how do you know he won't hurt anyone? Thaddeus does have a pretty nasty record, even if he's behaved himself lately."

“I know that, but give him a chance! You… Look, Geste, I know you mean well, and I suppose you're sincerely concerned about this, but it's none of my business if he and Bre

Geste had no clear answer to that. “Honestly, A

“Just short-lifers and trouble-makers like Bre

“Well, they're people, too, aren't they?"

“I suppose they are, but they're all going to die anyway. What difference will a few years make?"

Exasperated, Geste burst out, “Don't you have any sense of responsibility toward your fellow creatures?"

“No,” A

“Ha!” Infuriated, Geste turned away and marched across the turret roof, back to his waiting platform. The turret was a hole in the lake beneath him, leading down into A

The instant he had both feet aboard the platform it lifted him upward, sailing toward the island that floated above Lake A

He looked up sullenly at the jagged black rocks overhead, undimming his eyes as he did and wishing that the Skyler had put her hold further east, where it would have blocked the sun and left him debating A

He had never expected unanimity in opposing whatever scheme Thaddeus might be hatching, but he was still distressed by the results of his excursions. He had thought at least some of his fellows would join him, if only as an amusing diversion.

No one had. He had spoken to them all, now-all who would agree to listen, at any rate. A

No, he corrected himself as the platform slid up past the sharp stone edge of the Skyland's disk and green lawns appeared before him, Thaddeus did not count, which left twenty-six, and seven of those had vanished or were under attack. Two out of nineteen had chosen to join him.

That was still a really lousy ratio. He grimaced, wondering if Thaddeus had intentionally attacked those most likely to resist, or whether it was just luck.

The other seventeen might well come to regret their decision. Arguing that Thaddeus might kill them all had seemed so melodramatic, so impossible, that he had not even suggested it to most of them, but nonetheless he believed it to be true. Thaddeus was a vicious, ruthless killer, a sociopath; he had demonstrated that repeatedly on Alpha Imperium. That he had harmed no other immortal for five hundred years proved nothing. For all they knew he could have killed dozens of short-lifer natives. Besides, he had lived for seven thousand years, which was plenty of time to learn patience.

The others must know that, being immortals themselves, but still they refused to acknowledge that one of their own comrades might be a danger. To them, Thaddeus was not the Imperial Butcher, the man who had been reputed to eat small children; he was just old Thaddeus, Shadowdark's kid, arrogant and foul-tempered, but harmless.

If they had thought otherwise, how could they have justified not turning him in centuries ago, back on Terra?