Free [Wildcards 10] - Double Solitaire by George R. R. Martin Page B

Amsterdam in 1953 It was awful.
    Jay just shrugged. Mark laid a hand soothingly on Tach's shoulder. Withdrew it quickly as she tensed. "Doc, it'll be okay. They're a lot more comfortable flow."
    "There are three tickets here." Tach eyed the detective suspiciously.
    "I'm coming with you. Make sure you get there safe."
    "Are you sure this isn't merely a ploy to drive up your fee?"
    "Bitchy, bitchy. Watch it, you're going to give motherhood a bad name." Jay checked his watch. "We better get rolling. The bus leaves at ten."
    Hours later she leaned against the window, her head pillowed on Mark's rolled-up jacket, and watched the night ratchet past. Jay was snoring loudly in his seat. Mark was as silent as a statue. Tach could sense he was awake.
    He whispered to her, "Scared, baby?"
    "Yes. I am no one. I live nowhere. Belong no place. I wish someone could find me again."
    "Someone will. You ."
     

Chapter Eight
     
    As the doors to the office swung closed behind him, Durg again wondered if his line carried a recessive for insanity. He had been stolen from this House at age twelve. Now, one hundred and ninety-six years later, he was returning. His boot heels drew music from the harmonically sensitive floor. It seemed an entire symphony's worth of walk to the great desk.
    Durg knew his attention should have been focused upon L'gura, Raiyis of House Vayawand. But there had been three rulers of the House since Durg's kidnapping, and of greater and more terrifying interest was the Morakh who stood behind and slightly to the left of the Raiyis's chair. Yes, she was standing absolutely still, but there was the poised quivering of a recently shot arrow. She was ready to fight. To kill. Her honey brown hair had been twisted up into an elaborate knot like a temple chhatri. Down, it would probably stretch to her knees. She was very beautiful.
    Lighter-boned than a Morakh male, she was still massive when measured against her master. L'gura was thin to the point of emaciation, and his chalk white skin set off the green and blue of the jewels implanted in his cheeks and beneath his brows. He was placidly watching Durg's approach.
    It is a mark of his confidence in his Morakh that they leave the guards outside, Durg thought. And almost too late he reacted to her slashing attack. Too long among humans. Too long on a world where guests enter unarmed into rooms.
    Durg tucked into a tight ball, thus missing the larynx-crushing blow. The roll was supposed to take her in the shins. She was too fast. She sprang lightly over him, delivering a vicious thrust kick to the kidneys as she passed. Ignoring the pain, Durg snapped onto his back and caught her by the ankle. Threw her hard into the far wall. He regained his feet just in time to counter her next attack. He now had his objective. He endured two punishing blows in order to close with her. He drove his heel down hard on her instep and speared her in the throat with his right elbow, while with his left hand he drew the ceremonial sword swinging in its scabbard at her side. He used her own momentum to send her stumbling past him, and he quickly ran to L'gura, knelt, and offered the sword and the back of his neck.
    "Malika, enough!"
    At that shouted command from her master, the woman skittered to a stop inches from Durg's unprotected back. The aching between his shoulder blades diminished to a mere itch.
    L'gura stood and threw the sword back to his Morakh. "It seems he is worth enough to let him live."
    "He is still a traitor and tainted," Malika replied.
    "But so interesting. A renegade Morakh who returns home in a stolen Ilkazam ship with an Ilkazam noble and an abomination in tow." L'gura resumed his seat. "If your story is intriguing enough, I'll let you live long enough to complete it."
    Durg omitted nothing. He told of his theft by a raiding Ilkazam party led by Prince Zabb. His years of service to House Ilkazam. The journey to Earth to evaluate the success of the Ilkazam Enhancer experiment. His