A Sterkarm Tryst by Price Susan;

Author:Price, Susan;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Published: 2016-11-22T02:26:08+00:00

Changeling Per

Seated on his horse behind Joe, Changeling Per listened as the Elf talked to the guard but understood little. His eyes flicked from one face to the other, but the guard hid his thoughts well, and Joe was playacting. …

So Per studied the steel fence and gate. Even though he’d seen it before, it was harsh and alien. Elvish. The great ring of the Elf-Gate, and the small Elf-House beside it, made him keenly aware that he was lost from his world, in an eldritch place. If he was going to die here, then take that road at a gallop! It wouldn’t improve for dawdling.

He said, “Ayn shlut til talla!” An end to talk! Securing his lance in its sling, he swung down from Fowl and led him to the gate by his bridle. Cuddy rose and followed. Holding his helmet under his arm, Per looked at the Elves and said, “Ken-gah-rrrew!”

What were the chances? Chitra asked himself. The plastic passes he held had been given to FUP’s Per Sterkarm, and the man saying the password was unmistakably a Per Sterkarm. His men, being Sterkarms, wouldn’t follow anyone else. They wouldn’t take orders from Patterson. Presumably, they wouldn’t take orders from enemy Sterkarms, either.

“Let us in for God’s sake,” Joe Sterkarm said. “I could murder a cup of tea.”

Chitra looked into Joe’s face, and decided to believe him. The man was nervous, but who wouldn’t be in his situation? It wasn’t Chitra’s place to say what should happen to somebody who’d joined the enemy and burned the old Time-Tube down—and he didn’t really care much. Though he imagined his bosses would feel differently.

He nodded to his men and stood back to let them open the gates. Per Sterkarm led his horse through, wafting a strong smell of animal, peat smoke, dung, and dirty man. The big, lean dog followed him. Chitra watched it warily but it ignored him.

The other horses filed past, the riders staring down at him. Leading them was Joe’s woman. She smiled at Chitra. She was pretty.

Joe Sterkarm grinned. “Thanks, mate!”

“That’s okay.” Chitra watched the Sterkarms cross the compound. “You understand we got to be careful, right?” He led the way toward the office.

Joe followed, pretending he was just chatting to a mate in the pub, but his smile felt fixed, and his heart hammered so he could hardly breathe. He knew the Sterkarms had murder in mind, and he just prayed that when everything blew up, Kaitlin wasn’t hurt.

“We can get you that cup of tea anyway,” Chitra said, at the office steps. “Your lady like tea?”

“Never had any,” Joe said. It was hard to find breath for talking. “It’ll be a first for her.”

Kaitlin had given her horse into the care of the Sterkarm men and now came to walk beside Joe. She looked at Chitra with large solemn eyes of clear blue set in a face of delicate rose-pink, all framed with russet hair. Chitra stood back for her to enter the office first, but she hung back at Joe’s side.

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