“Good. She is wearing a medical unit. If you are thinking of pulling her inside and erecting that barrier, the moment the barrier cuts off my signal, the medical unit will release a hormone which will detach the web, killing it. Have I made myself clear?”
No void field, or the seed would sprout. Got it. He understood way too much about how the inns worked. Someone was supplying him with this knowledge. None of the innkeepers on Earth would help him. It had to be someone from the outside. Perhaps the same someone who sent a corrupted innkeeper after us on Baha-char. Once I resolved this mess, I would have to bring all this before the Assembly.
“What do you want?” I repeated.
“I’d like us to talk, like civilized people. Let’s have a conversation, so we can come to a reasonable compromise. Please let her inside.”
It was a trap. It had to be a trap of some sort.
If I let her in, I would be leaving the inn wide open. But if I said no, and the seed sprouted, even if it was five or ten miles away, it would perish. I had to preserve the seed. It was an inn, a life.
I was at my strongest on the inn’s grounds. I had to get this seed away from them. Nothing else mattered.
“Decide, innkeeper. This child is terrified. It’s a heavy burden for someone so young.”
She did look terrified. She was actually trembling. “Don’t try anything,” I said. “I’m not in the mood to be kind.”
“I give you my word. I simply want to converse.”
I dropped the void field and watched her step onto the inn’s grounds.
The seed reached for me. It was weak and pitiful, and it needed me. My magic churned. Gertrude Hunt sensed the seed and was forging a connection. I grit my teeth. No.
The inn tried again.
No. I erected a barrier and poured my power into it.
If it connected to the seed and the unthinkable happened, Gertrude Hunt would perish. I had to shield it from the connection. But I couldn’t shield myself. The seed was reaching out and the compulsion to comfort it was overwhelming.
The Draziri pondered me. There was no way I was letting her inside the inn itself. It would be almost impossible to keep Gertrude Hunt from bonding with the seed.
“Come with me.”
I led her to the backyard and waved my hand. A patio slid across the grass, carrying with it two chairs. Her eyes widened. I sat in one chair and pointed at the other. The young Draziri sat, cradling the backpack.
We were in the middle of the yard, far enough from the house.
Gertrude Hunt leaned against my barrier. The seed stirred. Weak, hesitant tendrils of its magic slipped out, seeking the connection.
I’m here. Don’t be frightened.
The seed touched my magic and calmed. Just like a baby with a lullaby.
“The Hiru are an abomination,” Mrak said from the screen. “They are revolting. They are everything that is wrong with life. Life is beautiful, like this girl in front of you. Like the seed she carries. The Hiru must die.”
“Do you actually believe that?”
“It is enough that my people believe it.”
“You’ve destroyed their planet,” I said. “There are only a handful of them left, those who were out in space away from their home world. They are not fighting you. They just want to live in peace.”
“So does my mother,” Mrak said. “She wants to die in peace, knowing that she and all of her clansmen will find paradise.”
“Where did you even get it?” I asked. “The seeds are very rare.”
“I have connections.”
“Was the dark creature that stalked me at Baha-char also yours?”
He took a fraction of a second to answer. “Yes.”
He lied. He hadn’t known about it. I saw the surprise in his eyes.
“Did your connection become proactive and send it to chase me?”
“As I said, the creature was mine.”
“That creature is a living darkness. It is death and corruption. Whoever made it has dark designs and they won’t let you live.”
“You’re a remarkable creature,” Mrak said. “Here I am, offering you that which you hold most dear, and you’re trying to get information out of me. You would make such an interesting pet.”
“In your dreams.”
He leaned on his elbow. “What would you let me do to you for the sake of this seed?”
And this conversation went sideways.
“You don’t have to answer. You would do anything. You would debase yourself, but you don’t have to. Give me the Hiru.”
“There is something wrong with you,” I said.
“The time for insults has passed.”
“I don’t mean it as an insult. There is truly something deeply wrong with you. How is it that you never learned to be a person?”
He stared at me. “I am a person.”
“You flew across countless light-years to a neutral, peaceful planet to kill two creatures that haven’t harmed you in any way. For that purpose, you threw away dozens of your people, and now you sit here and make nasty comments about torturing me as if it somehow fixes everything and makes you victorious. What kind of a person does that?”