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The darkness seemed sadly brief to Clear. She was fairly sure that whatever was waiting for her when she woke would be far from pleasant. So she lay still, stubbornly embracing the silence, until it was broken by a new voice that was much more familiar than she expected. “Clear, Gods, Clear… Clearwing, wake up. Fight.”

  Her jaw was sore, too sore to move, but, strangely, there was fresh pain and someone who sounded just like her croaked, “Free?”

  “Ye,” a voice agreed in rough reassurance, and abruptly she could feel again.

  Someone was holding her. She could hear a heartbeat and realized her cheek was resting against someone’s chest.

  “Free?” she tried again with growing disbelief, and then remembered herself and cursed her informality. “Leader?”

  The body cradling hers tensed and the arms around her fell away to leave her unsupported on that mysterious someone’s lap.

  “Yes,” her Leader’s voice agreed, and his face swam into focus, still close to hers, but wearing a remote expression that offered only professional concern.

  Clear’s fronds twitched and tentatively uncurled to taste her surroundings. The first thing they felt was the polite veneer of her commander’s mind, tinged with faint concern for one of his junior officers. He was sitting on the floor and she was draped across his lap, still loosely supported in his arms.

  “Sah, Lamidia-”

  “We know,” he interrupted grimly. “Lie still, Sub-Plus. The anaesthezine was untailored and caused complications.”

  “Anaesthezine? Complications?”

  “You’ll be fine-as,” he reassured her, but didn’t smile.

  A sense of impatience to one side of Clear caused her to look around, and then blink at the burnished glory of a phalanx of Royal Guards.

  “Lord,” their leader stated with cursory respect and no effort to hide her annoyance, “since the suspect is now recovered, she will be placed under arrest.”

  Clear shuddered, but despite the shock, she was not surprised. She had been well framed for this crime. Even drugging her with general anaesthezine, the only type available to junior officers, made her unconsciousness look like a clumsy attempt to seem innocent. She kept her eyes fixed on Free, while a restraint field settled over her wrists and a disembodied voice proclaimed, “Sub-Plus Clearwing Pinion, you are charged with treason and will answer in court as the Arck decrees.”

  Hands grasped Clear’s forearm and tightened to haul her upright, but Free hissed fiercely and she was quickly released. She was shaking again when her leader rose more carfefully and lifted her with him. He let her feet find the floor and supported her until her balance returned. She took a steadying breath and blinked quickly so that she could look up at him dry-eyed and determined. “Sah, I would never-”

  She had to stop and Free released her to squeeze her bound hands instead. His grip tightened, firm and reassuring. “I know you would never betray us. I believe you, Clearwing. Feel no fear, because you’ll soon be free. I swear it.”

  Her mouth trembled, but then her shaking eased and abruptly her lips curved in a surprisingly easy smile. “All right then,” she whispered. “If you say.”

  The leader of the Royal Guards stepped forward to claim Clearwing. Her com linked with the binding field around the young officer’s wrists, but tightened gently to pull her away from Free more politely than before. He made no further protest when his Sub-plus was led away. He simply stood there, rigid apart from his fronds, which rose to follow Clear’s passage into the link.

  She stumbled over her feet, trying to walk half-turned so she could look back at her Leader. She attempted another smile, but it was harder this time and her effort made Free grimace. Somehow he untwisted his face to offer her the shadow of a smile instead, just before she was pushed into the link. She finally turned away and picked up her pace before the guards could shove her again. Getting arrested was irrelevant, so long as Free was on her side.

  Clear tried to hold that thought when she was dragged from the link and thrown into an opaque float. Darkness settled over her again and she wondered when she would next see the light.

  22

  A New Ship