Ann kicked out, and connected. He backed off, but he wasn't hurt very much. The men laughed. Ann wrenched at her bound wrists. Her hands throbbed. She forgot why she had come. Forgot how much she wanted to prove she could stand by someone she loved. Awareness of the men around her filled her with foulness. She was going to die horribly. And for what? She had never felt so willing to reform, and live a sensible life, but these Gelacks were not Reetion counselors. She wasn't going to get a second chance.
Three men moved in on her fast, snagging her legs when she kicked out, and as she gritted her teeth she swore an oath that this kind of mindless horror must never touch Rire, for Rire had never been so precious to her. Rire was a miracle of decency and reason in a brutal universe.
She thought of Von with anger as bodies shoved in, interfering with each other. She hardly knew him! He had tricked her with his pathetic helplessness and good looks! But she couldn't escape knowing she would never have volunteered if she had known what helpless terror was like, in real life. With a Reetion's equitable logic, she had to forgive him for his cowardice, or condemn her own. That was the acid test of Reetion law: be judged by the same laws you impose on others, as implemented by an impartial arbiter.
"Rire", Ann whispered under her breath, like a prayer, clinging to ideals she had not been aware she possessed.
While the two most aggressive men started a fight over who got first dibs on her, others took advantage of the chance to seize the prize. She kneed the first man. The next one pulled her head back by the hair. There were hands on her! Too many hands! Breath locked in her chest, in fear.
And then she heard Von's voice.
"Ann!" he cried from across the room, clear and unmistakable. No one else could pack so much angst into a single word.
Ann glimpsed him near the door that led out of the docking bay; but her abusers were barely distracted. What could Von do against so many of them? The demise of fresh hope was too much and she closed her eyes with a despairing whine.
Von started towards Ann expecting to be stopped but unable to do anything more reasonable. It surprised him when the first few men gave way before him, sensing his intensity. It surprised him even more when the two who tried to block him proved no obstacle. He shoved the first man a whole two meters across the floor, knocked the next one down and tore through the rest of the mob, almost hurling himself on Ann in his enthusiasm. His hands gripped the grille behind her. She looked glad to see him. He resisted the impulse to kiss her, and spun back instead to die defending her, unable to do anything less despite his terror.
I've gone mad, Von thought objectively. But he didn't care. He was not going to let someone he cared about get hurt again because he was a coward.
Again? he wondered, suddenly bewildered. But I stopped Jarl! I stood by Mira! Didn't I? He knew that was wrong on some level. But a strange compulsion promised he could fix it if he saved the Reetion station by leading H'Reth away down a jump neither of them knew how to get out of. The gorarelpul Lurol was responsible. He knew that. But he did not care. He could fix the past! And H'Reth could no longer command him.
H'Reth was there beside him, quivering with pleasure at the sight of him, but wouldn't dare to touch him with an audience of crewmen watching.
"Von!" H'Reth gasped, his face glowing. "You got away from them! You clever, clever boy!"
"Wonderful," Jarl answered sarcastically. "Now move away from the girl."
Von reached for the marvelous new invulnerability that let him trample down fear — and found that Jarl still scared him. He was disappointed.
"We need Ann alive," Von told H'Reth, instead, forcing himself to make eye contact.
"She faked your voice, Von," H'Reth told him. "And she shot two of Delm's paladins. Shot them! With some sort of laser!"
Von dropped his voice to a whisper. "I know," Von confided in H'Reth, improvising. "I asked her to."
"Von?" H'Reth whimpered.
"To get rid of Larren," Von whispered to his erstwhile bond master, intoxicated by the proof he could lie to him without inspiring bond conflict. "For you."
Jarl pushed Von away from H'Reth, roughly. "He can't keep the girl, H'Reth. The crew is on edge and enforcing Okal Rel will settle them down."
"No!" exclaimed Von. It seemed to him that his rebellious spirit must be burning like a nova, but H'Reth and Jarl responded to him as they always had — H'Reth's face was set in a jealous pout, and Jarl looked inclined to beat him senseless.
"What do you think, My Liege?" Jarl deferred to H'Reth in a smooth tone. "Should we risk our necks to let him keep a brown-skinned bed warmer?"
"Wait, please!" Von begged, afraid it might be H'Reth's jealousy that answered. "We have to get out of this reach," he urged. "I know why, and I know how. I found out while I was with the Reetions."
"What does the girl have to do with it?" H'Reth wanted to know.
Von appealed to Jarl. "We can't talk here."
"Fair enough," said Jarl, with a flickering glance over his shoulder toward the hovering crew.
"Von?" Ann asked tremulously from behind him, still bound to the black metal grille.
He wanted to take her in his arms and reassure her, but he knew he dared not, even if they were alone. He was afraid she might turn out to be Mira or the dead girl if he looked at her too hard. That bothered him — his feelings for Ann were explicitly sexual. The girl had died a child, and Mira was his foster-sister. How could he confuse things like that?
For a moment it was unreasonably difficult to hold everything he felt for different people separate, or even to remain aware of the difference between the present, the past, and the false past Lurol had offered him. He reached for the compulsion to lead H'Reth away, again, and held on. If he did that, everything would come out the way he needed it to.
H'Reth touched Von's arm, making him snatch a breath.
"Of course you're telling me the truth," H'Reth cooed. "Or you would be dead. Jarl," he ordered, "bring the girl and follow. You'll be personally responsible for her while I talk with Von in private." His gaze softened with a longing that made organs congeal in Von's abdomen.
"H'Reth—" Jarl began trying to steer from the sidelines, like usual.
"You'll take my orders or I'll have you vented!" H'Reth declared shrilly, not caring if the crew heard. Intending them to, even. "Don't think I've forgotten how you sold me out to Larren!"
"I explained that!" Jarl protested, spreading his hands reasonably. "I only—"
"Just bring the girl!" H'Reth snapped.
The watching crew had gone profoundly silent, cognizant of a power struggle but afraid to take sides, unhappy about H'Reth aborting Ann's execution but not quite prepared to stand up to Jarl.
"Von!" Ann cried as Jarl tore her off the wall.
"It's the best I can do, right now!" Von called back to her in Reetion. "Hang on!"