Free Crown Of Fire by Kathy Tyers Page A

line. This way is the kitchen."
    Micahel followed Talumah into the last room, with a servo area along one wall and a table on the other.
    "I've taken in lodgers before." Talumah backed away from his servo, holding a slender blue bottle. He had the long face of many Eh-retans, with a pouting lower lip and long, nondescript brown hair. He sat down on a high stool, opened the bottle, and sipped. "Help yourself, if you want. The local wines aren't bad. I recommend the joy-blossom."
    Micahel shook his head. According to Modabah, Ard Talumah had lured the local princess Phoena to Three Zed. Traveling as a trader in rare commodities, he had also fired the blast that ripped open a certain missing shuttle as it emerged from slip-state. Queen Iarla Second and her infant sister, Kessaree, were as dead as deep space. For now, Modabah forbade releasing that information. Keeping information from his enemies gave him more options.
    Modabah's dithering kept him paralyzed, to Micahel's way of thinking. It was time to take the next bold step. The Carabohd family was his rightful prey, and this pair humiliated him at Thyrica. His most vivid memory of the late director Dru Polar was a scornful subvocalization: Undone by a pregnant woman. Shame, Micahel.
    They had disgraced him again at Three Zed, escaping before he could return from Cahal to the Golden City. There would be no third escape.
    "So." Micahel took a sling chair. "You've lived here a year—"
    "Two years," interrupted Talumah.
    "What do you think of Netaia?"
    Talumah pulled on his bottle. "Open air. Resources to waste. We've survived for a century taking goods from the Federacy. Why not take a planet?"
    "Well put." He liked Talumah's practicality. Adiyn and his aging cronies could babble about serving humankind by giving them immortality, but their starbred ancestors created the superior genes. Their own kind would rule the new civilization.
    Talumah gestured toward the cold cabinet, and Micahel shook his head again. The unbound starbred did not trust their most gifted young people. Only a few potential leaders were ever conceived, and they learned not to turn their backs. Until he felt sure he could either trust Talumah or dominate him, he would avoid recreational depressants. He dug into his duffel and pulled out a scan cartridge. "I assume you saw this?"
    Talumah loaded the cube into a tabletop viewer, read a few lines, and laughed. "Oh, dear," he exclaimed. "Talk's promises military retaliation . . . unprovoked attack on the Federate world of Thyrica . . . Sun-ton destroyed . . . new technology. . . Micahel, you're famous."
    Another scoffer. "Evidently you didn't read the part under 'new technology' carefully enough."
    Talumah waved a hand. "Believe me," he growled, "I've read every release on RIA technology. I could quote them all."
    "We need to get it. And stop Tallis from using it."
    Talumah shrugged. "I think we can take Netaia peacefully, from inside, without leaving a single crater. We'll have to discipline Tallis, though." He sent Micahel a subliminal nudge, replete with respectful undertones.
    Micahel smiled slightly. Talumah respected his methods? Maybe that was why he offered the room.
    "After that," Talumah continued, "we can give each Whorl world a choice when its time comes. I don't think you'll have to waste too many suicide ships."
    "It's a good time to be coming into our own." The Whorl only had two real powers, and Micahel believed he and Talumah would live to see that reduced by one.
    "Well," said Talumah, "now that Caldwell scores thirty-two instead of ninety-seven—"
    "I won't believe that without better evidence."
    Talumah shot him a tolerant half smile. "Berit, on their campus, cracked the data base, and I got a shallow probe into him yesterday as they left the governor's camp. I can tell you Brennen Caldwell is no longer that kind of threat."
    "Really." Micahel grimaced, glad for the information but resenting Talumah's success. If Dru Polar could've kept his