Bredon stepped back against the banks of controls and closed his eyes. The thought came to him that at any moment, Rawl and Lady Sunlight would follow the example of their companions; he suppressed the thought, but kept his eyes shut. He did not want to see that.
Lady Sunlight watched the others uncertainly. She was still somewhat disoriented. Thaddeus had thrown her entire view of the universe into doubt; in her understanding of reality, no one kidnapped or tortured anyone.
That was over, though. She was free again.
There were still unanswered questions, however, such as just who this “Bredon” person was. He certainly didn't fit her image of the natives. He was not noticeably crude or unclean, and in fact he had proven very useful.
Perhaps it was time she reconsidered some of her long-held opinions.
Besides, there was an orgy going on, and she did not want to be left out. Rawl was never much fun, and could be so very irritating at times. O was hogging both Khalid and Brenner. That left Bredon.
She crossed the room slowly, wisps of doubt still lingering, and almost shyly put an arm around his waist.
Startled, he opened his eyes. He started to draw away, embarrassed, then stopped. This was something he had dreamed of, to have Lady Sunlight's arm around him, and he was not enough of a fool to throw it away.
“What's the matter?” she asked.
Bredon blushed and shrugged.
She remembered that, clean and intelligent as he was, he was still a native of Denner's Wreck, and guessed what was bothering him. The natives were fairly conservative, sexually-natural enough in a society with poor medical care and contraception. She looked at her companions and smiled. “Ah, yes,” she said. “Not quite befitting the dignity of demi-gods, is it?"
“No,” Bredon replied, still struggling with the realization that at long last Lady Sunlight was speaking to him, and that she even had her arm around him. He tried to get up the courage to put his arm around her, as well, but could not quite bring himself to do it.
“Well, we're human, really, as I suppose Geste and the others have told you, and we don't get this many of us together in one place very often, and we don't usually have such a good cause to celebrate. I suppose they just got carried away.” She smiled again, this time directly at Bredon.
“I suppose so,” Bredon agreed.
“You saved our lives, probably,” Lady Sunlight said, suddenly serious. “Thaddeus was crazy. You must have done a lot of damage, to drive him down there undefended while Geste was still loose."
Bredon shrugged again. “Aulden made it easy,” he said.
“Still, you did very well,” Lady Sunlight insisted.
Bredon did not reply.
“How did you get involved with us, anyway?” she continued. “Just what were you and Geste doing together? Imp told me a little, while we were locked up, but she never said how you came to be with Geste in the first place."
Bredon blushed again and looked away, then looked back. “He played a joke on me,” he said.
“Oh, he did? That's no surprise.” Her voice was tinged with her habitual anger and disgust at Geste's pranks.
“Yes,” Bredon said, “I… I got upset about it, and he promised me that he would do me a service as an apology."
Lady Sunlight nodded. “That was nice of him, I suppose. Was it a particularly nasty trick he played?"
“Well, no, not really… he made a horse talk, and wouldn't let me catch it.” Bredon felt desperately stupid, trying to explain himself to her.
“You catch horses?” she asked, puzzled, her head cocked slightly to one side so that her hair tumbled in a golden stream over one shoulder. She had never given much thought to what the natives did with themselves.
“I'm a hunter,” Bredon explained.
“Oh,” Sunlight said, clearly neither understanding nor very interested. “So he played this trick on you, then promised you something to make up for it. What did you ask for?"
Bredon knew, in a flash of intuition, that this was his chance, the best opportunity he would ever have, perhaps the only opportunity. He turned and looked her in the eye.
“You,” he said.
Taken aback, Lady Sunlight said, “Me?"
Bredon nodded.
Her anger at Geste grew. He had obviously thought that the whole thing was funny, this poor native lusting hopelessly after her. Bredon deserved better than that. Geste had even made a joke of his apology to the poor boy!
Sunlight looked at Bredon, eye to eye, and he realized that they were the same height. She glanced over at the bodies tangled on the floor, then back at Bredon. She spread her arms wide.
“Well,” she said, “here I am."
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“…She appears rarely, but when she does, the people all fall to their knees and then prostate themselves, all calling out, ‘Glory to Starflower! Glory, glory!’ For some this is sincere devotion to the Power that protects them, but for others the only motivation is fear, for they know that her anger can be terrible and her retribution swift if her followers dare to disobey…"
– from the tales of Atheron the Storyteller
Sixteen wakes had passed since Geste put Thaddeus into the stasis field, and at long last all twenty-eight of the immortals resident on Denner's Wreck were gathered aboard the Skyland. Both of Thaddeus’ unconscious bodies were safely tucked away in storage, the original still in stasis and the clone's needs being supplied by symbiotes and life-support machines. The other twenty-seven Powers were gathered in the Skyler's main lounge. Cheerful music played in the background.
Bredon, there at the insistence of Geste, Imp, and several of the former captives, made himself as inconspicuous as possible in a back corner.
“All right, Geste,” Lady Haze demanded, “what are we doing here? What's so important we had to come in person?"
“I wanted you all here in person so that there won't be anyone refusing to abide by the majority decision,” Geste replied.
“What majority decision?” Gold the Delver asked.
“One that we haven't made yet, but that I hope we will."
“All right,” Lord Carlov said, “get on with it; what decision do you want?"
“I have a bit of a speech I want to make first. Bear with me."
Several people shifted uncomfortably.
“Get on with it,” Hsin of the River called.
“I will.” Geste stepped up onto a floating table and began, “We came to Denner's Wreck on a holiday, came to get away from the problems of life in the mainstream of civilization. We came, and we settled down, and we've had a good time here, all in all-but we've been irresponsible as hell about it, and we've made a mess of the planet."
Several people stirred, but no one protested aloud.
“Not only that, we've done an incredible amount of harm to the people who were here before us. Thaddeus killed hundreds of them; I know Rawl has killed several, as well, in his self-appointed role as judge, jury, and executioner…"
“Only four, Geste,” Rawl interrupted. “Four in four hundred years, and all four were murderers several times over."
“All right, four. And I'm sure some of the rest of you have killed people here, accidentally or otherwise-haven't you?"
Again, several people shifted uncomfortably, but no one spoke.
“You've killed people,” Geste repeated. “Not animals, or plants, or machines, but people, as conscious and genetically human as any of us. We don't have any right to do that."
Several people did start to speak this time, Rawl among them, but Geste held up a hand and silenced them.
“I know all the arguments-they're just short-lifers, they're only losing a few years, they're so primitive that their lives aren't worth living, they deserve it. That's crap. They're people, and we have no business interfering with them."
“It's hard to avoid them, if we're going to live here at all,” Brenner remarked.
“Not that hard,” Geste replied. “The Skyler's avoided them all, and Shadowdark, and Arn and Hollingsworth don't see them very often, I'm sure."