The shuttle crouched on its skids. Though small as spaceships go, it loomed large on the mesa and was very intimidating. Booly paused, took a long slow look around, and called on his full array of senses. Other than the serial number painted on the much abused hull, there were no apparent markings. If the registration number was real, it conformed to Confederate conventions, but phony RN’s were extremely common.
Now, for the first time since reaching the top, Booly considered calling for help. He had a radio—Kirby had insisted on that—and a fly form could be there in fifteen or twenty minutes. But what then? Which was worse? Calling for help when it might turn out that he didn’t need any? Or confronting the assassins alone? It was stupid—he knew that—but the first choice seemed worse than the second. Pride Yes, and he wasn’t especially proud of it.
Booly listened, heard nothing more ominous than the keening of the wind, tested the air for any scent that shouldn’t be there, and came up empty. Not all that reassuring, given the fact that the first set of Thraki assassins had gone to considerable lengths to neutralize their natural body odors. The officer approached the aircraft from the stem, on the assumption that there would be fewer sensors aimed in that direction, stepped in by a drive nacelle, and touched the metal with a thickly gloved hand. He waited a moment but felt nothing. The hull was cold, very cold, which suggested that the vessel had been there for a while. Waiting for him to show up? Or for some more innocent reason? There was no way to know.
Moving as stealthily as he could the legionnaire made his way forward. The hatch was closed, and a muddle of slush indicated where someone or something had left the ship. Tracks pointed north. Booly debated the merits of pounding on the hatch, decided to leave that approach till last, and followed the tracks. They were small, consistent with the Thraki theory, but less than perfectly clear, thanks to the fact that the prints went in both directions, as if one or more individuals had completed multiple trips to and from the ship. And, based on lessons learned as a youth, the officer could see that repeated exposure to the heat of day and the cold of night had altered the size of the impressions, making them more difficult to interpret.
Careful lest he follow the tracks into an ambush, Booly angled out and away. He kept the trail in view but walked parallel to the footprints. The fact that his back was to the spaceship made him nervous, but there wasn’t much choice. The tracks wound back and forth, passed under a sturdy arch, and rounded the comer of a tumbledown building. Then, straight as an arrow, they headed toward a rocky spire. His spire, the one that marked the location of the underground dwelling where his mother and he had camped, and the box of mementos had been buried. A coincidence? Or something else?
It was that particular moment when Booly’s nostrils detected the odor of cooking. Something good from the smelt of it. What was Thraki cuisine like anyway? The legionnaire had no idea. Booly moved forward, found the spiral stair, and eased his way down. The steps were dry—as if no one had used them for a while. Light danced on the opposite wall, the smell of food hung in the air, and the rifle pointed the way.
The officer eased through the entry and into the common room. Only one figure was visible, and he, she, or it was crouched in front of the fire pit, stirring the contents of a pan. Whoever the individual was put the container on a platform constructed for that purpose, stood, and turned. The light illuminated only one side of her face, but Booly would have recognized her anywhere. He lowered the rifle. Thoughts, questions, and emotions tumbled over each other and blocked his capacity to speak. Maylo smiled. “Well, it took you long enough ... I thought you’d like some breakfast. Kitty Kirby was most helpful. . . Not too surprising since she was a woman long before the Legion promoted her to Colonel.”
Booly just stood there, eyes taking her in, heart in his throat. “I thought I would never see you again.”
Maylo walked forward until their parkas touched. She looked up into his face. There was no mistaking the look in her eyes, the way her hands caressed the back of his neck, or the almost palpable magnetism of her body.
Suddenly Booly knew what his grandfather had felt for Windsweet, what his father felt for his mother, and what had nearly been lost. Her eyes were bright with tears. “I’m sorry. Bill, sorry I took so long.”
Booly took Maylo in his arms, buried his face in her shiny black hair, and breathed her in. He whispered in her ear. “The Naa have a saying: “There can be no darkness when heart finds heart—for love lights the way.’ “
“I love you.”
“And I,” the legionnaire said truthfully, “will always love you.”
Outside, high above the windswept mesa, a spy sat passed overhead. It snapped a series of high mag stills. They were digitized, sent to the surface, and displayed on a monitor in Colonel Kirby’s office. She examined the shuttle, saw the dooth, and smiled. Every once in a while, something went right. Neversmile would be pissed, but it was worth it.
Miles to the north the sun caressed a mountain and the cycle continued. Rocks were warmed, snow melted, water gurgled, and the ancients continued to dream.