Free her instruments 03 - laisrathera by m c a hogarth Page B

marked. Was that one of the reasons she trusted the former priest so easily? Because his body language read like Pelted body language… or human? Because it made him seem more open?
    This stillness, though—the request had meant something. Meant a lot.
    Folding his arms, Belinor finished, “You say you are his incarnation. Then swear on her sacrifice, that you will not betray us to our enemies, whosoever they may be.”
    “Ah,” Val said, and sighed. He ran a hand over the back of his neck and said ruefully, “Perhaps it won’t be years before he’s useful after all, Lady Eddings.” Lifting his head, he met the other Eldritch’s eyes and answered in their own tongue, a stream of vowels with consonants that only seemed to give them ground to soar from.  In Universal, “Repeating for the benefit of our companions: I do so swear, on the Lady Elsabet’s sacrifice, that I will not betray any of you to your enemies, whosoever they may be.”
    Satisfied, Belinor said, “My Lady. It is well with me, then.”
    “Just like that?” Irine asked, mystified. “You think he’s a renegade and a horrible witch and you trust him to keep his word?”
    “He claims to be the reincarnation of Corel,” Belinor said. “If he can hold such a belief in his heart, then he would never go against the word he swore in the name of the woman who loved Corel, and died for him.”
    “What if he was joking?” Reese asked, uneasy. “You know. About the reincarnation bit.”
    Belinor said, simply, “He wasn’t.”
    Reese let that go because dealing with it… well, how could she? A woman could only handle so much metaphysical gibberish at a time. “Taylor, you ready?”
    “Ready.” The Tam-illee tapped the data tablet and it chirped. “Malia.”
    A few moments later, the other Tam-illee’s face formed above the data tablet, shimmering until it solidified. “Taylor? Can you see me? I’ve got the solidigraph feed off on my side, we’re keeping it quiet here.”
    “We’ve got you,” Taylor said. “Where are you?”
    “Out in the woods, west of Ontine. There are some caches out here that the Swords have been maintaining: weapons, another Pad, food and communication gear. We’re hiding out while they do some scouting. So far no one’s left the palace, but they’re sure that Surela won’t stay long; they’re of the opinion she’s going to have to ride out soon to demand the surrender of the Queen’s enemies.”
    “Armed with Alliance weapons,” Reese said heavily. She tried not to imagine what palmers would do to people armed with swords and succeeded only because she’d never seen the battlefields of the dead her romances had described when they’d wandered into epic fantasy storylines. What would that look like? The books always said things about the sky darkening with the wings of carrion birds. She rubbed her arm against the gooseflesh. “Have you gotten off any people to warn them?”
    “We’ve sent messengers, yes. Two to each of the Houses, in case something happens to the first.”
    “Good thinking. What about the pirates?”
    Malia shook her head. “We haven’t seen hide or hair of them yet. They must still be in the palace, or on their ship. Grace and Thad are keeping an eye on it and sending us coded message bursts. According to the last one, it’s still in orbit.”
    Taylor roused. “Are they using active sensors? That could lead the pirates straight to them if they’re not careful.”
    “They’ve had the computer set up a random schedule,” Malia said. “It only activates briefly, at irregular times, just to double-check that they’re still in position. Then it shuts off. Trust me, they’re laying as low as they can. The last thing they want is to fight off the entire complement of a pirate ship by their lonesome, in a base so small there’s nowhere to hide.” She smiled, tired. “So, Reese… what’s our plan?”
    What was her plan? “Blood, I’m not sure. There’s so much to