Free Slave Empire III - The Shrike by T C Southwell Page A

absence, and the Yasmarian fleet had
retreated to a safe distance. Shadowen took up a position near the
Shrike’s fleet, and he transferred to the cruiser where the people
he had ordered detained were being held.
    Two guards
followed the Shrike along the passage, and two more bowed as he
marched into a large, sparsely furnished room that was usually used
for ceremonial gatherings, crew inspections and conferences. The
cruiser’s commander saluted, his face set in grim, sorrowful
lines.
    Tarke nodded to
the Mansurian, an Atlantean-Shirran cross. “Commander Vayrel. Bring
the prisoners in.”
    “May I offer
our deepest sympathy, sir.”
    Tarke inclined
his head and clasped his hands behind his back. Guards pushed two
dishevelled, scared-looking women and three men into the room and
made them stand in a row.
    Tarke strolled
closer. “Who are they?”
    Commander
Vayrel indicated the three Atlanteans. “These are the doctors who
helped with the probe.” He motioned to a tall, golden-eyed man who
held himself proudly. “Your wife’s brother, sir.”
    Tarke stopped
in front of him. “Rawn.”
    “I -”
    The Shrike
raised a hand in a curt gesture, silencing him. “I find it strange
that you’re numbered amongst her betrayers.”
    “I didn’t
betray her! My wife... did.” He glanced at a petite, doe-eyed
woman. “But she didn’t mean to harm her.”
    “So you will
all claim, just as Tallyn did, and the Atlantean Council will. No
one will take responsibility for what’s happened. You’ll all shout
your innocence with your dying breaths.”
    The prisoners
blanched, and the petite woman beside Rawn whimpered and clung to
his arm. Tarke faced her, and she stepped back. Rawn tried to
shield her.
    The Shrike
ignored him, addressing her. “And if she was dead, I would execute
you if you were found guilty. Fortunately for you, she’s still
alive, but she’ll probably never know it. I want to punish someone
for her injury, but how can I? You wanted the reward for my
death.”
    Tarke said to
Rawn, “You were just bait.” He looked at the Atlantean doctors.
“You were following orders, and the one who did the damage is
already dead.” He paced along the row. “Yet between you, you’ve
robbed an innocent girl of her life, trying to strike at me. You
were all motivated by greed or hatred, and your plans have failed
because she chose to die for me. Have any of you anything to
say?”
    The oldest
doctor said, “We would never have done it, had we known.”
    Tarke turned at
the end of the row and walked back. “Ah. Hindsight is always so
clear, isn’t it?”
    “I’d like to
see my sister,” Rawn said.
    “No.”
    “What will you
do with her?”
    “That’s a good
question. I don’t know. Take her home. Care for her, I suppose.
What else can I do? Try to cure her, of course, but that’s a
foolish hope, I would think.”
    The Shrike
stopped in front of Rawn’s wife again. “But you, more than any
other, are responsible for what happened. Yet you won’t accept the
blame, will you? No. You never intended to harm her. No one did.
But with all these good intentions, she’s still in a coma.” He
turned away. “Damn you all.”
    “You’re the
reason it happened,” Rawn said. “They were trying to capture you.
You could have saved her.”
    The Shrike
swung back. “Could I?” His voice became dangerously soft. “By
offering to give myself up, yes. I did that. By warning them of the
danger, yes, I did that too. How else?”
    “By not showing
her your face. By leaving her alone!”
    “In a stinking
cesspool of a pleasure club, full of damned drugs. I tried to leave
her alone. I did refuse to show her my face, and she would have
died if I hadn’t taken her from that life. I gave her what she
wanted. I gave her a life. I tried to protect her, and I failed.
Does that make me guilty?
    “Because we
dared to be together when all of you wanted me dead? If you hadn’t
given her to the Atlanteans she’d be all