The Service of the Sword

Good. Thinking for herself. I suspect we're going to need a lot of that if we're going to get out of here alive. 

That diversion bought them enough time that the planet had visibly receded, but at last the call came as Judith had known it would.

'They say they've spoken with Elder Templeton and that he has no idea what they're talking about. They sound really angry.'

'Let them be angry,' Judith said. 'The more angry they are, the less energy they'll have for clear thought. Any sign of pursuit?'

'Several drives have gone active,' Sherlyn reported, 'including the Firebird's. The only thing moving toward us are a couple of light attack craft.'

'We're better armed than any of those,' Dinah reported.

Judith knew that the Faithful's dedication to building a navy had not extended to extensive in-system defense. Simply put, the Graysons didn't want war, dedicating their energies to protecting their own system. The Faithful, on the other hand, had specifically designed their navy to take Yeltsin's Star back, and each LAC cut into offensive tonnage. They'd built just enough LACs to keep their system from being a sitting duck while the rest of the fleet was away, and those ships were widely spread out. Nor were they likely to fire on a ship belonging to a prominent citizen.

'Good, Dinah,' she said. 'We may need to remind them of that. How do we look for offensive capacity?'

'Full-up,' Dinah reported crisply. 'Jessica reports that the magazines are well-stocked and that her crews have the tubes ready for loading. The energy mounts are powered up and ready. Point defense is standing by.'

'As I recall specs for the LACs,' Judith mused. 'They're pretty much limited to one salvo each from their box launchers and a single spinal laser, right?'

'Right,' Dinah confirmed.

'Well, we won't throw away missiles unless absolutely necessary, and we have the range on them.'

'We're also armored in Ephraim's reputation,' Dinah reminded her. 'They're going to be reluctant to fire on the vessel of such a successful privateer.'

But what Ephraim gives, Judith thought, he can as surely take away. 

The hyper limit seemed very far away indeed. It seemed even farther when Odelia reported a few moments later:

'We have a call from Ephraim Templeton.'

'Let us all hear it,' Judith said, unwilling to let the man become a phantom to her companions.

Ephraim sounded very angry, what Rena called 'beating angry.' By the time Odelia put his transmission up, he was already in mid-flurry.

' . . . and I promise that only God's wrath will be greater than mine when we catch you. Turn around immediately!'

Judith grinned, forcing herself to seem more amused than she felt.

'Now there's real incentive.'

'If you do not,' the transmission continued, 'I shall come after you myself, and my vengeance will be terrible!'

'Send back the following,' Judith said. ' 'Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord.' Then refuse further transmissions. I don't think we can talk him out of his course.'

'Do you think he'll really come after us?' Odelia asked.

'Oh, yes,' Judith said. 'I'd guess he's already on his way. The question is whether or not he can get to either Psalms or Proverbs before we can get clear.'

She glanced at the plot, which showed the planet not as far away as she had imagined, and suspected that Ephraim could catch up. Although her handling of Aaron's Rod had been competent, she was keeping the ship at a comparatively low rate of acceleration.

Part of that was because of her awareness of her delicate human cargo, which wasn't ready for space travel, but another part—and she had to be honest with herself—was because she was afraid to try and attempt anything too elaborate. Nor was she prepared, with her trained-by-rote Engineering crew, to risk reducing the safety margin on the privateers' inertial compensator the way a more experienced crew might have. Worst of all, the Havenite modifications to Ephraim's other ships had included upgrades for their compensators. Even with the same safety margin, they could pull a substantially higher acceleration than Aaron's Rod. With fully trained crews to get the highest possible speed out of them, their acceleration advantage would be even greater.

Still, there might be time for the Sisters to get away. Ephraim had been half the planet away from his estate when he was notified. She and her allies had disabled the Blossom, the only other ship to orbit vehicle available in his hangers. There might be time.

And if there wasn't?

Judith frowned, and, oblivious to her nervous crew, buried her face in her hands and tried to think.

'Would you mind telling me,' Michael said as he chugged up the stairs after John Hill, 'what is going on?'

'You saw those men exit the Conclave Hall?'

'Yes. Templeton. Shipping.'

Michael kept his replies short. The program of exercise he'd been following shipboard, he was discovering, didn't prepare one to run up stairs.

'Someone has stolen a Templeton ship.'

'So?'

'Right now Templeton has no idea who's stolen it.'

'You do?'

John Hill tapped his ear, and Michael realized he was indicating something buried beneath the skin.

'I get better news than he does. There have been some interesting disappearances, some of which I may be the only one to have heard about.'

'How?'

'Trust me.'

'All right. But what makes it significant to us?'

'Let me just say that if anyone puts these disappearances together, they're going to remember you and wonder if your being here had anything to do with it.'

'I don't understand.'

'Templeton doesn't know this yet, but a woman was caught trying to leave her home. She was captured and under interrogation . . .'

Hill's inflection made clear that he meant something rather more severe than simple questioning.

'Before she died she admitted to the existence of an organization called the Sisterhood of Barbara and of something called Exodus. I'd like to believe otherwise, but I think the two events may be connected.'

'Why . . . What does this have to do with us?'

'Nothing, but I don't think for a moment the Faithful will believe it.'

They'd arrived on the roof by now, and to Michael's surprise a small air car was waiting for them. Hill ushered him aboard and spilled into the driver's seat and brought up the counter grav.

'Templeton took a similar vehicle out of here not long ago on his way to the nearest spaceport. You don't think the ban on technology applies to emergencies? This one is picking up some of his sons.'

Michael shook his head in admiring disbelief.

'You were explaining why the Faithful wouldn't believe that we have nothing to do with this.'

'Believe that their women, so good, so devout, so well-trained, would rebel without outside stimulus?' Hill snorted and banked the air car at a stomach-wrenching angle. 'Easier to believe that such was instigated from without. They'll see you as the servant of your Queen.'

'Which I am . . .'