Landry nudged the verrul into a complicated routine of dressage. The hideous beast, resembling a stilt-legged rhino with a ceratopsian neck frill and wicked glowing eyes, minced in and out of the bodies without stepping on a single one. Of an the players on the green-and-white sawdust grid, Landry was the only one still mounted and conscious.
Other verruls in the sideline pens behind the burladero added their trumpeting to the crowd’s applause. With casual skill, Felice had her mount pick up the scarlet ring with its nose horn. Then she sent the animal galloping toward the now undefended Whitewing goal, even though there was no longer any need for speed.
“Lan-dree! Lan-dree!” screamed the spectators. It seemed that the young girl and the beast would crash into the cavernous scoop at the end of the field. But just before they were upon it, Landry gave the verrul a sharp crossrein and an unspoken command. The creature wheeled full about, tossing its monstrous head, which was nearly as long as the girl’s body. The ring went sailing through the air and entered the scoop dead center. The goal signal lit up and blared in triumph. “Lan-DREEE!”
She held her gun high and shouted back at the mob. Shock waves of orgasm surged through her. For a long minute she could not see, nor did she hear the single deep peal from the referee’s bell that marked the end of the game.
As her senses cleared, she condescended to smile at the leaping, gesticulating throng. Celebrate my victory, people-children-lovers. Call my name. But do not press. “Lan-dree! Lan-dree Lan-dree!”
A ref came trotting up with the championship banner hanging at the end of a long lance. She bolstered the stun-gun, took the flag, and raised it up. She and the verrul made a slow circuit of the arena, both of them nodding to the deafening plaudits of Greenhammer and Whitewing fans alike.
There had never been such a season. Never such a championship game. Never before the coming of Felice Landry.
The sports-mad people of “Canadian” Acadie took their ring-hockey very seriously. At first, they had resented Landry for daring to play the dangerous game. Then they had devoured her. Short, slightly built but preternaturally strong of mind and body, with an uncanny ability to control the evil-tempered verrul mounts, Felice had vanquished male players of talent and experience to become a sports idol in her first professional season. She played both offense and defense; her lightning-fast stun coups became a legend; she herself had never fallen.
In this, the last match of the championship series, she had scored eight goals, a new record. With all of her teammates downed in the final period, she had singlehandedly fought off Whitewing’s last-ditch assault on the Greenhammer goal. Four stubborn giants of the Whitewing team had bitten the dust before she triumphed and went on to score that last go-to-hell goal.
Applaud. Adore. Tell me I am your queen-mistress-victim. Only stay back.
She guided the verrul toward the players’ exit, fragile on the back of the monstrous animal. She wore an iridescent green kilt, and green head plumes on the back-tilted helmet. The once buoyant frizz of her platinum hair now straggled in limp ropes against the shiny black leather of her skimpy hoplite-style cuir bodily armor.
“Lan-dree! Lan-dree!”
I have poured myself and discharged myself for you, slaves-eaters-violators. Now let me go.
Small medical carts were scuttling through the passageway toward the arena to bring in the stunned. Felice had to keep firm control of the nervous verrul as she moved toward the Greenhammer ramp. Suddenly there were people all around her, assistants, trainers, verrul grooms, second-string bench-warmers, gofers, and hangers-on. They raised a ragged cheer of greeting and congratulation, tinged with over-familiarity. The heroine among her own.
She gave a tight, regal smile. Someone took the bridle of the verrul and soothed it with a bucket of feed.
“Felice! Felice, baby!” Coach Megowan, hot from the observation booth and still trailing game-plan tapes like a person caught in an old-time ticker tape parade, came pounding down from the upper level of the arena. “You were unbelievable, lovie! Glorious! Pyrotechnic! Kaleidoscope!”
“Here you go, Coach,” she said, leaning down from the saddle and passing him the banner. “Our first pennant. But not our last.”
The jostling partisans began to shout. “You tell the world. Felice! Say again, sweetie-baby!” The verrul gave a warning growl.
Landry extended a graceful black-gauntleted arm toward the coach, Megowan yelled for somebody to bring a dismounting platform. Grooms steadied the animal while the girl allowed the coach to hand her down. Adulation-joy-pain-nausea. The burden. The need.
She slipped off her Grecian helm with its tall green feathers and handed it to a worshipful female trainer. One of her fellow players, a massive reserve guard, was emboldened by the frenzy of victory.
“Give us a big wet smack, Landry” he giggled, gathering her in before she could sidestep.
An instant later he was spread-eagled against the corridor wall. Felice laughed. A beat later, the others joined in. “Some other time, Benny precious!” Her eyes, brown and very large, met those of the other athlete. He felt as though something had taken him by the throat.
The girl, the coach, and most of the crowd passed on, heading for the dressing rooms where the reporters were waiting. Only the importunate guard was left behind, sliding slowly down the wall to sit, panting quietly, feet stuck out and arms limp at his sides. A medic driving a meat wagon found him there a few minutes later and helped him to his feet. “Jeez, guy… and you weren’t even in the game!”
With a sheepish scowl, Benny admitted what had happened.
The medical attendant wagged his head in amazement. “You had a lotta nerve making a pass. Sweet-face that she is, that little broad scares me shitless!”
The guard nodded, brooding. “You know? She likes shooting the guys down. I mean, she actually gets her bang from it. Only you can see she’d just as soon the poor sods was dead as snoozing. You grab? She’s a freak! A gorgeous, talent-loaded, champion bitch-kitty freak.”
The medic made a face. “Why else would a woman play this crazy game? Come on, hero. I’ll give you a lift to the infirmary. We’ve got just the thing for that wonky feeling in your tummy.”
The guard climbed onto the cart beside a snoring casualty. “Seventeen years old! Can you imagine what she’s gonna be like when she grows up?”
“Jocks like you shouldn’t have an imagination. It gets in the way of the game-plan.” The medic gunned the cart down the corridor upward the sound of distant laughter and shouting. Outside in the arena, the cheering had stopped.
CHAPTER FIVE
“Try again, Elizabeth.”
She concentrated all of her mind’s strength on the projective sense, what there was left of it. Hyperventilating and with heart racing, she strained until she seemed to be floating free of the chair.
Project from the plaque in front of you:
SMILE-GREETING. TO YOU KWONG CHUN-MEI THERAPIST FROM ELIZABETH ORME FARSPEAKER. IF I HAD THE WINGS OF AN ANGEL OVER THESE PRISON WALLS I WOULD FLY. ENDS.
“Try again, Elizabeth.”
She did. Again and again and again. Send that ironic little message that she had chosen herself. (A sense of humor is evidence of personality integration.) Send it. Send it.
The door to the booth opened and Kwong came in at last “I’m sorry, Elizabeth, but I still don’t get a flicker.”
“Not even the smile?”
“I’m sorry. Not yet. There are no images at all, only the simple carrier. Look, dear, why don’t we wrap it up for today? The vital-signs monitor has you in the yellow. You really need more rest, more time to heal. You’re trying too hard.”