Firebird 1 by Kathy Tyers

Author:Kathy Tyers [Tyers, Kathy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

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Alone on her tattered green lounger, Firebird pored over an Altan newscan and grieved for her homeland. Her memory, her knowledge, had helped engineer this disaster. The account on the inner section of Ellet’s paper (several days old—what did Ellet fear she would do with current news?) touched her deeply. She wept as she read the grim roster of destroyed NTaian facilities on the flimsy page. She had trained at this one, based at that one, refueled at others, and her very memories had given Brennen’s forces their targets. Sae Angelo, Claighbro… She stopped and read the list again, frowning at the tiny print. She must have missed it.

No, it was simply not on the list: Hunter Height, two long days’ ground-car drive north of Sae Angelo in the Aerie Mountains. Her family’s “vacation home”—actually a fortress like last-effort retreat. The ancient stone house sat atop a huge complex of tunnels on a granite mountain overlooking its own airstrip, and it was not listed here.

She sat bolt upright; the lounger creaked. So her efforts of resistance had not been in vain. She had concealed one of Naetai’s minor airbases from Brennen.

Much good it had done.

Centered atop the page was a row of 2-D photographs: Brennen, Danton, Carradee, Siwann. Her gaze lingered on Siwann’s picture. She would never see her mother again. Siwann was dead by her own hand, the penalty her own conscience had laid upon her for the ruin she had brought to her homeland.

Firebird grimaced and rerolled the newscan. A pity Phoena, co-instigator of the invasion, had not suffered similar remorse.

Carradee . . . An odd thought struck Firebird. Staring blankly out the window, she let it run its course.

By N’Taian tradition, Siwann would have suicided once she judged her heiress fit to rule, and Firebird had always harbored a vague suspicion that Siwann was expending very little effort preparing Carradee.

Siwann had intended to hold power for many years to come. Now poor, gentle Carrie would find herself thrust into a situation she could have little hope of controlling. Among the Electors, the jockeying for power would be commencing.

A week later, a packet return-marked Sae Angelo arrived. It had passed the censors unopened: an ID

tape in one corner gleamed shiny brown, and below the tape had been lettered: Personal. Security I.

She took it to the inner room and sat on the edge of her narrow slideaway bed. Carefully she slit the seal and pulled out four sheets of scribepaper. One was tightly folded and heat-sealed, addressed in Phoena’s flowery script. Another, unsealed, she recognized as Carradee’s writing.

The other two sheets were covered with an unfamiliar masculine hand. She laughed when she saw the formal letterhead atop each page. Brennen had learned very quickly how to impress N’Taians. It read: Office of the Lieutenant Governor

Sae Angelo

N’Taian Protectorate Systems Interstellar Federacy

Mari—

There is a lull in affairs today; please believe that I have written at the first available moment. My title is

“Lieutenant to Governor Danton”; actually, I am his bodyguard, chief of enforcement, and mentor.

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