Free The Rifter's Covenant by Sherwood Smith, Dave Trowbridge Page A

at the
Kelly trinity. He broke off, coughing, but the effect on the Kelly was
starting. Threy swarmed across the room and surrounded him, the tall Marine and
the three Kelly slapping and poking at each other as the trinity’s honking and
hooting rose to a crescendo and died away.
    Elena Agenes’s fine
eyebrows shot up toward her hairline. “Where did you learn that?”
    ZiTuto cleared his
throat. “I spent three years on the Kelly homeworld,” he replied hoarsely.
“You’ll forgive me if I don’t attempt the name. I was in the honor guard of the
Panarch’s Rogate Plenipotentiary.”
    He turned back to
the Kelly and coughed a phrase; in the middle his name was embedded. The Kelly
hooted back. Cameron heard the word “Shtoink,” and other sounds that conveyed
nothing to him.
    Not so to the meliarch,
who executed a profound deference, which was triply echoed in lesser degree by
the trinity. Cameron glanced at his cousin, who shrugged. She and her lifemates
were as mystified as he was.
    ZiTuto braced up to
formal attention. “It is my honor and privilege,” he said, “to make known to
you Shtoink, Nyuk2, and Wu4, second of the trinity of the High Phratry, Lesser
Anamnesis of the People and Regent-in-Waiting to the Eldest, whose Memory is
the People and the People the Memory.”
    The resultant silence
broke when Lochiel finally spoke. “I don’t understand. Are you telling me—?”
She stared at the Kelly trinity as though she’d never seen them before.
    “A Rifter Kelly
is—” said Rufus Bonxer simultaneously.
    Shtoink interrupted
with melodious sound, as though clearing her throat. She said to Lochiel, “Ourthree
name was a clue, but being Rifters, you took it as mockery of the Eldest and
the Blessed Three of Lost Earth.” Her head-stalk swiveled toward Cameron. “It
is not our custom to keep three eggs in one nest, especially—you will forgive
my frankness—when dealing with as dangerous a species as you humans.”
    Another of the trinity
hooted briefly.
    “Thus you have
never seen, and never will, the third of the trinity of ourthree phratry. A
precaution whose wisdom, you will agree, is confirmed by the lamentable news
from Arthelion.”
    Captain Agenes said
to Cameron, “How do we know that threy are who threy say threy are? I mean,
threy’re Rifters, or threy’re with Rifters.”
    “There has never
been a Rifter Kelly,” Shtoink said. “Not in the sense you humans take the
Riftskip. We can no more leave our phratry than we can go singleton. To be
forgotten by the People, that is the true death for us.”
    “Like the Faceless
One,” ZiTuto said, and the Kelly trinity shuddered, all three of them moaning a
threnody that raised the hairs on Cameron’s arms.
    “No Kelly has ever
suffered so—nothing you humans have done has ever terrified us so much as what
you did to your own ruler for his transgression.” The Intermittor arched her
head-stalk, drawing attention to the gaudy boswell clasped midway along its
length. “To your question: wethree have credentials.”
    Cameron tabbed his
console. A flicker of light washed the room, answered by a jewel-like glint
from the Kelly’s boswell. A green light glowed on his console, followed by the
dispassionate voice of the computer.
    “IDENTITY
CONFIRMED.” A long, melodious trill followed, triply echoed by the Kelly.
“SUBJECT TO BE ACCORDED SOVEREIGN DEFERENCE AND RIGHTS.”
    Cameron rose and
repeated the deference Meliarch ZiTuto had given the Kelly, his astonishment
prickling through his nerves as awe. This Kelly was second eldest of the race,
possessor of genetic memories older than human intelligence. And, following the
death of the Kelly Archon at the hands of Eusabian of Dol’jhar, the ruler of
the Kelly race.
    “Be welcome,
Elder,” he said. “We appreciate yourthree candor.” He hesitated, then added,
“My cousin reported yourthree wish to be conveyed to Ares.”
    “Yes. There is to
be found the relict of the Eldest, who awaits