Prophecy

Dark turned to her. 'My companion ships are linked to my biorhythms, so if I die they self-destruct. I can't leave him linked to me, in case something happens to me, but he has to be linked to someone.'

She nodded. 'Okay.'

He faced a console, and a slot opened on it. It looked like a neural net sensor pad, and she shot him an enquiring glance.

'It is a neural net slot, I'm afraid,' he answered her thoughts. 'Shadowen requires a brief link, to learn your particular patterns and rhythms. It will only take a moment.'

With a slight grimace, she slid her hand into the slot and shut her eyes as the data stream swept through her brain. Far more information appeared than she had experienced on the scout ship. The river of knowledge was too deep to plumb, and was not meant to be. She sensed that anyone who tried to control this ship through the neural net would be driven mad in moments by the sheer mass and complexity of the information within it.

Emotions were mixed with the flood of words and numbers, as if she read a person's mind, which made her uncomfortable. Mercifully, the link only last a few seconds, then the grey nothingness of the no-place filled her mind, and she pulled her hand out, staggering a little as emptiness flooded her brain on the heels of the neural net's occupation.

Tarke gripped her arm and guided her to the solitary, form-fitting seat that faced the screens, and she sank into it. The Shrike stood beside her, his gloved hands clasped before him.

'Now you have a ship. One that won't allow a stranger to enter without your permission or any harm come to you, if he can possibly stop it. His loyalty will cause him to sacrifice himself, if necessary, to save you. He does not require a neural link during flight. He's quite capable of dealing with almost any situation, and if he can't, he'll tell you. You can tell him where to go, then go and sleep, if you want. It's like having a pilot, only this one's part of the ship.'

'He's amazing,' she murmured.

'Thank you,' the ship replied. 'It's good to be appreciated.'

'Will he still be loyal to you as well?'

Dark nodded. 'I'm afraid so. No chance of stealing him. He'll always obey me, but then, I won't be around.'

Her face grew hot, and she was glad of the gloom. 'I wasn't thinking of stealing him. I just wondered.'

'He could have told you that himself.'

A sudden thought made her smile. 'I daresay I could learn a lot from him. He must even know what you look like.'

'Well, that's an unpleasant fact, isn't it? Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm afraid he won't oblige.' His voice was hard, and he swung away, striding to the door.

Rayne hurried after him, catching up as he marched past the glass office. 'Tarke…'

He ignored her, and she followed him back to her apartment, where he turned to face her, making no effort to hide his anger. 'Is that what this is all about? Are you just an Atlantean spy with a great way of tricking me into revealing my secrets?'

'No! If I was, I wouldn't have made that comment, would I?'

'Not unless you were incredibly stupid, but sometimes I do wonder. You seem so naive, yet you're charged with saving the Atlantean Empire, and you tell some pretty amazing stories. The worst part is, I believed you. I still do.' He turned away, raising a hand as if to run it through his hair, then encountered the mask and lowered it. 'What is it about you, anyway?'

'What do you mean?'

'I find myself talking to you far too much, and I never talk to people. You have a knack for asking the wrong questions, and I have to stop myself answering them. You're dangerous.'

She shook her head, confused. 'I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you. I was kidding, really.'

He swung around. 'No you weren't. You would have asked him. Fortunately, it's the one thing he won't tell anyone. But he'll tell you a lot of other things, most of which you'll find very hard to believe.'

'The truth about you?'

'Yes.'

She sank down on a chair, her legs weak. 'Is it so terrible?'

'If it reaches the ears of my enemies, yes.'

'The Atlanteans?'

He sat opposite, shaking his head. 'No. They wouldn't believe it. I should never have agreed to loan you one of my ships. What was I thinking?'

'I won't betray you.' The urge to jump on him and rip off the mask was overwhelming. 'Who are your enemies? Other slavers? What are you hiding from them?'

He stood up and strode over to the dispenser to pour himself a fizzy green drink. 'I should never have agreed to see you. I wouldn't, if you hadn't mentioned Elliadaren. I had a feeling this would happen.' He sipped his drink and walked closer, clearly ill at ease. She watched him, uncertain of what to say. Finally he murmured, 'All right, I'll tell you, since you'll find out anyway. But first you must swear never to tell another slaver.'

'I don't know any -'

'You'll meet a few, I have no doubt. Drevina was one, and there are plenty more. Assume everyone is a slaver until you know they're not. All my people know the truth about me, but they'd never reveal it, not even under torture. So, if you want that ship, you'll swear to keep my secret.'

'A condition?'

He nodded. 'Unfortunately, I can't order Shadowen not to tell you about me. I've given you the highest authority with him, and I can't lend him to you without it. If I tried to prevent him from telling you, it would confuse him, and he wouldn't be able to function properly.'

Rayne gazed at him, recalling Endrix's enigmatic words. The prospect of learning at least some of his secrets excited her, and she was ready to agree to just about anything to achieve it. This window into his mystery was an unexpected boon, a strange by-product of his loaning her the ship. 'I swear that whatever you're about to tell me will die with me, unspoken.'

'Well, that's a pretty promise. Couldn't have worded it better myself.' He sank down on the chair next to hers, putting his drink on the table. 'I'll make it brief. I'm not a slaver.'

Rayne stared at him, stunned, as a lot of things made sense and she realised Drayalia had been telling the truth. Some things still confused her, however, and she frowned. 'But… all the people here…'

'Are ex-slaves I've rescued, and sworn to my service. That's what I do, steal slaves from slavers and free them. All my crews and their families, every person who works for me was once a slave. That's how I know they won't betray me. Even those who are still in slavery know about me, but they'll never betray me, because I'm their only hope of salvation. If the other slavers ever found out, they'd have me assassinated.'

'But… I saw a woman begging you, on her knees…'

He turned his head away. 'She wasn't begging, she was thanking me for saving her. Sometimes they get emotional. It's embarrassing.'

'And the Mar'Ashan you killed?'

'Jamdar. A bastard. He was selling slaves to the Saurians in the Outer Belt.' At her puzzled look he added, 'They don't need slaves for labour or entertainment, they eat them.'

She raised a hand to her mouth in horror, sour bile burning her throat. 'Oh, god.'

'Quite. I needed pretty bait to corner that monster, and you were it. I knew exactly what sort of female slaves he liked for his entertainment, and in exchange I got two hundred starved, miserable sods destined for the Outer Belt. He used to buy second and third-grade slaves in bulk, ones who were old, sick or maimed. Children with no potential and women burnt out by drugs.'

He turned his head briefly in her direction, and she sensed a flash of pain from him. 'I had no intention of allowing him to take you. After his death became public, I raided his bases and saved five hundred more, but thousands before them died.'

'And the seventy-four slavers you've killed? They weren't just rivals, then?'

'No.' He picked up his drink and sipped it. 'And it's a lot more than seventy-four. The Atlanteans try to fight slavery, but they're useless at it. They raid the odd base, rescue a few slaves, maybe even arrest a slaver from time to time. But to know what's really going on, you need to be in the thick of things, like me. Oddly enough, killing off