Crystal Dragon by Steve Miller, Sharon Lee Page A

"I also heard her say she and her mate were going to draw it away, and give us a chance to do what we'd agreed to do."

    "What you agreed to do," she snapped. " I didn't agree to anything."

    The inside of her head tickled at that, and she caught a brief scent of mint, which was what the seedpods grown by the third member of the crew smelled like. She sent a sharp look to the end of the board, where Jela's damn' tree sat in its pot, leaves fluttering in the air flow from the vent.

    Or not.

    "Our orders," Jela began—Cantra cut him off with a slash of her hand and a snarl.

    "Orders!"

    " Our orders ," Jela repeated, overriding her without any particular trouble, "are clear." He tipped his head and added, at a considerably lesser volume, "Or so they seem to me. You're a sharp one for a detail, Pilot. Do you remember what she said?"

    Damn the man.

    "I remember," she said shortly.

    "She said," he continued, as if she hadn't spoken, " You, the pilot and the ssussdriad will proceed to the world Landomist. You will recover Liad dea'Syl's equations which describe the recrystallization exclusion function and use them in the best interest of life . Do I have that right, Pilot?"

    She'd've denied it, if there'd been room, but Jela wasn't too bad with a detail himself, when he cared to apply himself.

    "You've got it close enough," she allowed, still short and snappish. "And the fact that you were pleased to give your word on it don't make the rest of us daft enough to fall prey to the gentle lady's delusions."

    "She and her mate are our allies," Jela said, like it made a difference. "We shared the tree's fruit. She trusts us to carry out our part of the campaign."

    Cantra closed her eyes.

    "Jela."

    "Pilot Cantra?"

    "What do you think the sheriekas lord is going to do with yon pretty children when they're caught?"

    "Interrogate them," he said promptly.

    Well now there was a sensible answer, after all. She opened her eyes and gave him a smile for reward.

    "Granting the sheriekas have a fine arsenal of nasties at their beck," she pursued, bringing the Rim accent up hard, "it seems to me likely that Rool Tiazan and his sweet lady will say all they know of everything, and a good number of things of which they have no ken, among it being one soldier, who gave his word to travel straightaway to Landomist for to liberate some 'quations in the service of all those who're enemies of the Enemy." She drew a careful breath, seeing nothing in his eyes but her own reflection.

    "Stay with me now. Where do you think that canny cold lord will next turn its care, having heard the dramliza sing?"

    "Landomist," Jela said calmly.

    Cantra felt the glare rising and overrode it with another smile, this one showing puzzled.

    "So, knowing that, you're wanting to follow these orders as you style them, and have the three of us down on Landomist, nice and easy for the sheriekas to find?"

    "I gave my word," Jela said, which brought them full circle.

    Once again, a ghostly taste of mint along her tongue. Cantra snapped a look down board, and flung out an arm, drawing Jela's attention to his tree.

    "All the care and trouble you've gone to for that damn' vegetable, and now you're wishful of putting it in the path of mortal danger? You done caring what happens to it?"

    Whatever reaction she might have expected him to deploy against such a blatant piece of theater, laughter—genuine laughter—was among the last.

    Head thrown back, Jela shouted his delight. The tree, for its part, snapped a bow, leaves flashing—and no way the vent had put out a gust strong enough to account for that.

    Cantra sighed, hitched her thumbs in her belt and waited.

    Jela's laughter finally wound down to a series of deep-in-the-chest chuckles. He raised a hand and wiped the tears off his cheeks, grinning white and wide.

    "Mind sharing the joke?" she asked, keeping her tone merely curious.

    For a heartbeat it seemed like he was going to engage in some further hilarity