Ninth Euclid's Prince by Hoyt Daniel M

Author:Hoyt, Daniel M. [Hoyt, Daniel M.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: Soap Opera Adventure
Publisher: Mankind Ink
Published: 2015-07-18T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

Willow's Passenger

THE RAVEN TILTED UP TOWARD THE ATMOSPHERE as soon as New Rome’s jumpport cleared Lady Vere. I stared at her.

She pocketed the burner. “So, Euclid, where do you really want to go?” She gestured at the pilot’s console. “New Rome set an automatic course for us to Greengarden.”

I was still in shock.

“Oasis?” she suggested.

I nodded.

“Good,” she said, and sat down in the copilot’s chair. Her fingers tapped the console, while she brought up the star maps and laid in the new coordinates. She was about to press the Reg Defeat and Silent buttons, but noticed they were already engaged. “Very good,” she said, glancing at me and smiling. She sat back and grinned. “New course, Oasis,” she said aloud. “Do it.”

The show was for my benefit and I knew it. She could have used the standard voice interface and let the ship set up a course automatically, but she chose to show off for me instead. She wanted me to know that she knew how to pilot a starship by herself for some reason.

I watched, fascinated, wondering about her.

“Lady Vere—”

“Willow,” she said, leaning over very close. “We’re going to be in very close quarters for the next day. Please don’t stand on formality.”

“Day?” I asked. “Only one? So it really is that fast?”

Nodding, she said, “It really is that fast. Noir had it built specially — there’s no other starship like it.” Her chocolate brown eyes turned to me and caught my gaze. “If he knew you stole it, he’d have you killed in a heartbeat.”

She was right; every fiber in my body told me so. And she had me over a barrel because of it. I had stolen the starship, and she could turn me in if she wanted. Except she didn’t seem to have any desire to turn me in. In fact, she’d helped me leave New Rome. Why? What did she want with me?

For a brief, panicking second, I imagined that Prince Vere knew nothing of the murders, and that Lady Vere was behind them instead. It made sense, if she didn’t believe that her husband was invulnerable as he thought himself. She would want to ensure that Prince Vere’s succession claim was as strong as possible, and what better way to do that than to eliminate his competition for him?

I realized that I hadn’t seen or heard Prince Vere in the hatchway, only Lord Noir. I had assumed it was Prince Vere, but could it have been Lady Vere instead? Had she returned to the ship while I was searching it the first time, and I just missed her by coincidence the second time around?

Then there was the fact that she had a burner. Why?

My knees started shaking. Had I delivered myself into the hands of a murderer?

I swallowed hard. There was nothing to do but try to find out where I stood. For the first time in a very long time, I was alone without Lord Oswald, hurtling through space at the mercy of someone I barely knew.

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