"You killed her!" Paltronis snarled as she threw herself at Rian across the desk. Harouk caught her and dragged her back.
"Her own people will take care of her," he said.
Paltronis sagged, defeated. She watched helplessly as the strange people in silver and white carried Dace from the room. She was so still, so pale. The wound in her side gaped, ugly and black.
"Who are they?" Harouk asked her, nodding at the strange people.
"The Hrissia'noru," she answered. "Why couldn't they have come earlier?" Why wasn't I here earlier? The words echoed unheard in her anguished cry.
"You're under arrest," Tilyn said to Rian.
"Shadowing told me to destroy her," Rian said, as if it made perfect sense. "She would have destroyed us all."
"You may have done it already," Tilyn answered. "They're coming from the mountains."
"Who?" Rian seemed genuinely puzzled. Paltronis wondered if it was an act. She really couldn't tell.
"The Spirits of the Forest," Tilyn answered. "The ones these Hrissia'noru have been looking for for four hundred years. That's why they came."
"Then why did they take her?" Rian asked, pointing at the door that hung splintered and broken from its hinges.
"Because she's one of them," Paltronis answered. "Where do you think she got her power?"
They turned to her. She wished she'd kept her mouth shut.
"What is the Patrol doing here now?" Tilyn asked Harouk. "This is not your planet, not anymore."
"I figured that out already," Harouk answered. "And it looks like our reason for coming here no longer exists." It came out harsh and cold.
Paltronis froze her emotions with an effort. There would be time later.
"She's dead," Rian said abruptly. "She was too dangerous."
"What story were you going to tell, Rian?" Tilyn asked, turning back to her. "You had something set up. How were you going to explain a smoking blaster in your own hand?"
"She had to die, she was going to betray us." Rian's voice was brittle in the suddenly quiet room.
"She would never have betrayed you," Paltronis said. "She may have hated you and this whole world, but she would never betray you."
"And how do you know that?" Rian demanded. "She was sent here to betray us all to the Patrol."
Paltronis shook her head uselessly. Rian was never going to believe her. "Lowell sent her here so she could save herself and all of you."
"He knew this was going to happen?" Harouk was skeptical and rightly so.
"I don't know what Lowell knows," Paltronis admitted. "He's Hrissia'noru, too. Where they are involved, no one knows what they're planning. I wonder if they even know sometimes."
"They planned this whole thing? I find that very hard to believe." Harouk was not buying it, even if it felt like truth to Paltronis.
"If she won't be the martyr for our cause," Rian said. "Then someone else will have to take her place."
She crossed the room to the wide bank of windows, shrouded in curtains. A single solid pull was all that was needed to bring the curtains crashing down. Rian stepped up to the window sill, the same spot where Kuran had sent Dagon falling to his death, though she didn't know it.
"For Shadowing!" she shouted.
"Rian, no!" Tilyn lunged for her, but he was too late.
She lifted the blaster to her head and pulled the trigger. The shock sent her reeling backwards, through the window to the pavement far below. Tilyn clutched at her as she fell. It was a useless gesture. She was dead. He leaned out the window, staring blindly at her broken body below.
The others moved more slowly. They joined him at the window.
"Why did she do it?" Harouk asked.
Tilyn shook his head, unable or unwilling to answer.
"She was crazy," Paltronis answered.
There were people starting to gather, staring up at the window and the people standing there. Paltronis could almost feel their accusing stares.
"It's best if you go back to your ship," Tilyn told Harouk.
"And what about Dace?" Paltronis put in. "She's the whole reason we're here."
"She's the reason we're here, also," Tilyn said. He sighed and straightened, away from the broken window. "She finished what her mother started. Like Rian planned. Although I doubt this is what she wanted at the end." He turned to them, seeming to grow taller as he took command of the room and the situation. "Dace is with the Hrissia'noru now, if she still lives. You'll have to talk with them."
He walked out, his back straight, his head high. But they could feel his grief trailing behind him.
"Maybe now they can really begin to rebuild their world," Harouk said. "Tilyn's a good man."
"You know him?" Paltronis asked. She was reaching for anything to keep her from dwelling on how pale and still Dace had been as the Hrissia'noru had carried her away.
Harouk nodded. "We worked together for years. Although I never saw his face until today. I don't think he knew who he was sending his messages to." He stepped back from the window. "We should go back. Let Leon and Everett know what happened." He started for the door.
Paltronis didn't move. He turned back to her.
"Do you think she might still be alive?" Paltronis hated the pleading in her voice.
Harouk shrugged. "She took a blaster hit, point blank. I doubt it."
"Tilyn said she was still alive. Why else would they have taken her with them?" She was grasping for straws, but the stubborn bit of hope refused to die.
"Then go talk to them," Harouk said. "Their ships are sitting next to Everett's."
Paltronis hurried from the room, barely noticing when Harouk and the others who had come on her doomed rescue mission fell in behind her. She would pound on their hatch until they talked to her. She would demand they give Dace to her. Dace deserved more than they would offer. The Hrissia'noru had turned their backs on her before, they would again. Paltronis wouldn't let them do that to Dace. Not if she could do anything at all to prevent it.
They made it to the ring of warehouses around the port. The one main road that led into the port itself was open, a long straight stretch of pavement. The gates that once blocked entrance to the port were ripped apart, torn and tangled along the sides of the road. Paltronis broke into a trot, heading for the distant curve of ships.
Harouk and the others kept up with her. She came out on the landing field. Instead of heading for the Windrigger, Everett's ship, she turned, running for the closest landing shuttle of the Hrissia'noru.
She saw Leon running to intercept her. His bright green and yellow jacket couldn't be missed by anything that wasn't completely blind. She didn't stop. She kept going, determined to get Dace, what was left of her, back from the Hrissia'noru.
"Paltronis," Leon panted at her heels. "Stop for a minute, will you?"
She kept going, though her own breath was coming shorter now.
"Listen to me," Leon begged her. Some note in his voice caught her attention. She slowed and finally stopped, turning to look at Leon.
She saw pain in his face, he was completely serious. His usual air of nonchalance was missing.
"I saw her," he panted. "They came by not long ago, carrying her. What happened, Paltronis?"
"Rian shot her, before she shot herself."
Leon rubbed his hand over his badly cut hair. "You should have left earlier."
"Don't you think I know that?"
"I'm not blaming you," Leon said hastily. "I just wish things had turned out differently."
She didn't answer. She started moving towards the Hrissia'noru ships again.
"Where are you going?" Leon hurried to catch up with her.
Paltronis didn't answer. She marched up to the hatch of the closest shuttle, right under the belly of the ship. She hammered against it with her fist. Over and over and over until her hands were bruised. There was no answer.
Leon tugged her sleeve. "Paltronis, you aren't doing anyone any good here. Come on, let's go back to our ship."
"No," she said, swiping at her eyes. She wasn't crying, she wasn't going to let herself cry. She hammered on the hatch again, a dull thumping that vibrated through her whole arm. "Not until I get an answer from them."
"Dace is gone, Paltronis. Really, truly gone this time." Leon was gentle as he pulled at her. "Let her go, Paltronis."
She shook her head, sending her short hair flying. "I can't, Leon. I let Tayvis go, but I won't let her go, too. Not both of them. Not this way. And not with them."
She hammered on the hatch. It was futile and she knew it, but she couldn't give in. She was much too stubborn.