Free A Passage of Stars by Kate Elliott Page B

space. Far the best. No.” She paused, considering. “Paisley, do you still have that knife?”
    Paisley seemed, suddenly, to become a statue. Her head froze in the act of turning, the angles of her face shadowless in the diffuse light, her hands still. Then, as if she were stop action thrown into forward, she completed the movement without any obvious self-consciousness and directed a wide-eyed smile at Lily. “What knife?” she said.
    “The one,” Lily replied, looking straight at her, “that you grabbed off the man I knocked out.”
    “Sure,” said Paisley without hesitation. She reached down the front of her tunic and brought up the knife. “It be ya sharp,” she finished, offering it hilt first to Lily.
    Lily tossed it in the air a couple of times, held it lightly, testing the balance. “It’ll do,” she said. Paisley, watching her handle the knife, came to a decision.
    “I got ya gun, too,” she said, standing up. This time she produced the weapon the first alien had used to shoot at Bach.
    “Hoy,” breathed Lily, stepping forward to take it from the girl. She held it gingerly. It was a dull grey with unlit controls and a standard structural design. “That must be the trigger,” she muttered. “Paisley.” The girl started, took a step back. “Didn’t they search you?”
    Paisley shrugged. “I fussed. Lit in good. Maybe ya spooks didna see me grab it up. They just threw us in here, nip and tuck. Min Bach, he were bright as ya kinnas wheel. They left you ya belt screen. Maybe they didna notice.”
    “Maybe.” Lily held the gun out. “Here.” Paisley stayed put. “Take it.”
    “You want me to—” The girl broke off, reached slowly forward, and took the weapon from Lily. “Sure,” she said under her breath.
    “Don’t try to make it work,” Lily warned. “But if we’re running, you can use it to bluff them. But carefully, Paisley. If your bluff doesn’t work, they’ll use their guns on you, shoot you. Do you see what I mean?”
    “Sure,” said Paisley a little unsteadily. She thrust the weapon between her belt and her tunic. “What will you use?”
    Lily tossed the knife up again, caught it. “I’m best in close. We’ll have to trust to that.”
    Bach sang a few chords.
    “If we get the chance,” Lily added. She sat down, slipping her knife next to her com-screen on her belt. “So let’s conserve our strength. Bach, watch the door. Warn us if anyone approaches.
    Paisley settled down beside Lily “What we going to do?” she asked.
    Lily sighed and put a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “Remember, Paisley. They’re better armed, better prepared, and on their own ground. We have one chance. It’s got to be fast and hard, or we won’t incapacitate them. Then we go for Heredes and go for the lock, and out.”
    “But what do we do ? I mean, how? And when?”
    “What my sensei always told me to do,” she answered. “Set patterns never work. You have to make it up as you go along.”
    “Hoy,” said Paisley, and smiled.
    Bach had sung most of the way through Meine Seufzer, meine Tränen —“My Sighs, My Tears”—when he cut off midphrase. Paisley, curled up half-asleep, started awake, hands slapping to the floor as she steadied herself. Lily was already standing. She whistled two notes. Bach replied with four.
    “Paisley, up. Two.”
    Paisley pushed herself up, one hand on the weapon at her belt. “Coming in?” Her voice was barely audible.
    “Can’t tell.” Lily shifted her position to the other side of the door, paused, and with a move of her head signaled to Paisley to move to the end of the cell opposite the door. “They can see where we are,” she added in an undertone. “If they come in, you—”
    A low bell. The seam opened. Paisley dropped to the floor in a tumbling faint as the first alien stepped through. Seeing the girl fall, he walked three paces past Lily and Bach before realizing they were there. The second alien halted in the arch of the open