The jump into Reetion space was hair-raising, but soon over. Once Vanilla Rose stabilized, H'Reth holed up in the room where Ann had met Von, and a loyal crewman came to tell him they'd discovered Reetions.
"Master Larren is going to crack their station if they don't give up that courtesan you used to play Liege Monitum," the man said, in amazement. "I'll be lost if I see why he's so important."
H'Reth opted for the high ground. "If Larren speaks of cracking stations, he is a man we dare not follow if we hope to be reborn."
"Larren's a paladin," said the crewman. "He knows what's right. He offered challenge."
"Ha!" H'Reth scoffed. "What chance would a Reetion have against Larren in a duel?"
"Then they should surrender," concluded the crewman. "No one would think less of them for that! It's quite proper to decline a fight outside your challenge class, just like you did, My Lord."
When the crew man left, H'Reth wrapped himself in his blankets on the couch. They smelled of his own stale sweat and bitterness — nothing like blankets that Von had warmed. The more he thought about that, the more he convinced himself he must do something to save Von, despite the threat Larren posed. Inspired, he bolted up and threw himself around the room, pulling his clothing together and strapping on his dueling sword. Then he charged out into the corridor.
Jarl intercepted him twenty paces from his door. "Where are you going?" he asked.
H'Reth gripped the hilt of his sword.
"Oh," Jarl's eyes flicked down to the weapon, "to commit suicide. How gallant."
"Do not mock me!" H'Reth cried. "I have found my courage!"
"Hang on to it then," advised Jarl, "or it may get you killed."
"But Larren wants to kill Von!" H'Reth cried.
"Are there no other boys in all the reaches of Sevildom?" Jarl asked.
No! H'Reth thought. Von ran through his life like a ribbon of silver through dross. When he dressed, he imagined Von in matching clothes; if he enjoyed a play it was because he looked forward to Von's insights when he told him all about it, afterwards. Von was all that made his life endurable!
"I must see Larren," H'Reth said, and shouldered past.
"You won't find him at the command center!" Jarl called.
H'Reth turned around.
"The Reetions are sending Von across," Jarl enlightened him. "He's docking at the same spot that the Reetion woman did." Jarl showed his evil grin. "You'll be just in time to see Larren destroy him. Marvelously melodramatic way to put it, I thought, 'destroy.' So artistic, those Goldens."
H'Reth began to run.
He had no real idea what he meant to do when he reached the docking floor, beyond hoping Von would play some inspired trick. Von was resourceful and even quite strong for a commoner. Perfect all around, in fact! Except for his stubborn interest in girls.
H'Reth burst into the outer chamber of the rim dock making half a dozen heads turn, but the inner airlock was still closed. No Von in sight. H'Reth faltered. Larren and the second paladin, Farin, stood waiting at the center of a company of Blue Demish nobleborns.
"H'Reth is it?" said Larren, without looking around. "Show him the silver box."
Farin took the Reetion projection box out from under his robe. H'Reth's heart skipped a beat. Jarl came in behind him.
"H'Reth knows, I think, what images this evil toy projects," Larren said to those assembled, then turned at last to fix H'Reth with his icy blue stare. "They concern you."
Jarl spoke from behind H'Reth. "They found it," he said, "so I told them about Von."
H'Reth whirled to confront his captain of errants.
"I told them Von must obey you or die," Jarl said, staring at H'Reth as if willing him to exceed his usual thick-headedness. "It seemed important to them to make sure that Von docks. So I showed them that recording you made of having him bonded to you."
"I made?" H'Reth stammered, horrified. Was this betrayal? Why should he be surprised!
"Dishonorable, of course, to harbor a secret slave of conscience," Larren's voice spiked through the rising murmur Jarl's announcement had caused among the guards. "But useful to us just now. The Watching Dead plan better than we know."
The suggestion of supernatural forces at work produced a hush in which H'Reth tried to catch up with what was going on. Clearly Jarl had told Larren about Von's conscience bond. But was that all?
Yes, H'Reth decided. It's still in Jarl's interest to keep me alive. He just wants to see Von die!
"The Reetions have forced Von off their station," Larren declared, shaking back his golden locks. "But I was unsure how I might compel him to land until Jarl showed us your Reetion device, documenting what you'd done."
"Incredibly stupid to record a secret conscience bonding," Farin remarked.
Terror began to release its grip on H'Reth's organs. If they were harping on the impropriety of the conscience bond, they couldn't know that he was boy-sla. He hoped.
"This is Von," came a voice over the radio, emanating from a speaker panel on the wall. H'Reth's heart jumped. It was Von's voice, sounding a little jaunty for the occasion.
"Von!" H'Reth surprised even himself by rushing forward. "They're waiting to kill you! Don't land!"
Farin heaved H'Reth into the hands of his own erstwhile errants. Before H'Reth regained his balance, Farin's sword was out and held to his throat.
"We know that H'Reth is your bond master," said Larren. "You are, therefore, bound to obey him. But we think he may change his mind about the nature of his orders very soon." He nodded to Farin, who whipped H'Reth's face with the tip of his sword.
H'Reth yelped, and raised a hand to the hot wound.
"Order Von to dock," said Larren, "and you'll be taken back to Gelion to be tried for having an illicit bonding done. Refuse, and Farin will put out an eye."
"High culture comes to Killing Reach," Jarl mocked the Golden reputation for gentleness.
H'Reth shot Jarl a wounded, desperate look.
"I had to tell them," Jarl explained with a shrug. "They threatened torture. You're not up to pain, H'Reth," he finished soberly. "Order the pretty brat down."
H'Reth's eyes were hot. His stomach knotted. But there was nothing he could do! It was too cruel.
"Von," H'Reth said, struggling to side step his choices, "wh — what did those Reetion fiends do to you?"
"Nothing," Von replied by radio, "just detained me. They even bunked me with a woman, Ann. She was really something."
That sounded all too much like Von.
"Von," H'Reth said gravely, "It seems I cannot save you, but you can save me." It was so like an epic poem that warmth swelled H'Reth's chest, pressing on his aching heart. On the crest of the feeling he dared to appeal to Larren who was a Golden prince after all, susceptible to glorious art. "Why must you kill him? He's only a boy. What has he done?"
"Done!" Larren cried as if stung, then his voice dropped low. "It drives Delm mad to live amid the crudity of people like your wife!"
"Ah," muttered Jarl under his breath at H'Reth's back, "Von offended Delm by pleasing Anatolia. That's gratitude, when Von taught her how to please—"
Larren overheard and struck, backhand, connecting with a nasty smack, but Jarl knew how to take blows. He reeled into the guards surrounding H'Reth, breaking his fall.
"Take him out of my sight," ordered Larren, "I've no time to kill him as he deserves now."
Jarl snarled and struggled, but was overpowered. "I know what you are!" he hurled back at Larren as he was dragged out. "Like me! That's what! I'm honest about it! That's all!"
"Tell Von to dock, now," Larren ordered as soon as the commotion died down. "And surrender to me."
"I am sorry," H'Reth said to Von, hoping the tremor in his voice conveyed how upset he was. "I must order you to dock."
There was a long silence. Then Von's voice said, "All right. Where?"
It was only after he heard it that H'Reth admitted he had been holding his breath for fear Von decided he would rather die of bond revolt, out of spite. But he had chosen to obey and trade his life for H'Reth's, instead.
H'Reth's tears mingled with the blood trickling down his cheek. Farin lowered his sword. Larren gave Von instructions by radio.
H'Reth stood rooted as the eager audience inched forward. It was a poignant moment for him when the airlock cycled open, torn between wanting one last exchange of looks with his dear boy and knowing he could not bear to look upon him lifeless. He did not even want to imagine how the paladins might implement the order to destroy Von once he landed.
The wall gave way between the airlock and the freight room; and a murmur of mild surprise followed at the sight of an alien looking ship a little different in design from the one that the Reetion pilot Ann had flown. The twenty-odd people assembled waited for Von to climb out.
"I want to leave," H'Reth whimpered, his courage deserting him.
Farin gestured to a crewman. "Take him to join his captain of errants."
The man touched H'Reth's arm. "If your Grace will come with me?" he asked, apologetically.
H'Reth blinked at the man who just yesterday took orders from him. The man looked nervous, as did most of the crew. They disliked so many changes coming so suddenly. But the simpletons trusted in Okal Rel's power to ensure the safety of Vanilla Rose, their life raft in the vast hostility of space, so far from home, so long as they played by the rules. They would not help H'Reth get his station back. Not without a proper duel.
The hatch of Von's ship opened.
"Your Grace?" said his hesitant escort, urging him to come. But H'Reth's feet were rooted.