Chapter 32

Damn, but she's a big ship. Gillie grabbed Riftspace with one element of herself and the Vedritor, through Mack, with another. Her link with Simon and the Serendipity was more in Simon's control. There was only so much she could do. Temporarily melding the essence of a Khalaran huntership into essenmorgh crystal took most of her concentration and energy.

Which was one of the reasons she needed Mack. His intimate, almost instinctual knowledge of the ship guided her in weaving her spellforms. Through Mack she linked to the Vedritor. Through Simon she linked to the Serendipity. She opened herself to Riftspace and followed the Serendipity in.

The convergence of energies washed over her like an icy tide as it always did. She'd forgotten to warn Mack though, and his sharp intake of breath caught her attention. Give it a minute, it'll settle, once it accepts us.

His fingers tightened around her hand. They stood almost toe-to-toe in the middle of the bridge. She cupped her other hand on top of his and didn't even need to be a Kiasidira, let alone a Raheiran, to feel his heart racing. Almost as fast as his mind. He had a thousand questions.

She had answers to some. Not all. It had been up to Simon to figure out who Mack was. What he could become.

The iciness softened into a cool breeze. Gillie drew a deep breath, felt for the Vedritor's position, checked their alignment with the Serendipity.

Mack watched her, seeing what she saw, feeling what she felt. We're riding in the Serendipity's wake. She-He's actually using Riftspace. Towing us.

There was a distinct note of surprise in Mack's comment but Gillie didn't know if he were surprised by the fact he'd figured out the methodology or the methodology itself.

A little of both, he admitted.

Do you feel the balance between the ships and Riftspace? Can you see the energy threads?

Not sure...yes!

Good. You need to keep a constant watch on that thread that's the Vedritor and mine with the Serendipity. Don't watch it, feel it.

He drew a slow breath. Okay.

Gillie probed for a few more minutes, let Mack get his bearings, get used to the gently invasive feel of the link. She could hear Tobias talking to Cardiff and Adler on the comm. Given the fact she'd just yanked an entire huntership and crew into something they'd never thought they'd see, they were all doing very well.

Extremely well, Lady Gillaine. I told you that you could do this. Simon sounded inordinately pleased.

We're not there yet, she chastised him, but yes, everything flowed. Lines and links were clean, bright.

"You can open your eyes," she told Mack.

He blinked, stared down at her. "This," he said slowly as if he'd just remembered how to speak, "has been one of the most extraordinary days in my life."

"If you're counting from Blass's actions in the shrine, two days. We're into tomorrow." She pulled her hands out of his, motioned to the viewport. The small shape of the Serendipity blazed before them, bands of blues and purples spiraling over the hull. "You and I can see the linkages but they," she indicated the bridge officers around them, "can't. Keep that in mind."

"What do you need me to do?"

Intuitive. Mack picked up on her unspoken, even unthought need to run a systems check. She'd sensed that in him all along, but ignored it save for occasionally wondering if he had low level telepathy. Simon had done more. Simon had been watching and, as was typically Simon, saying little until he was sure. "Engines and shields will be most affected by this transit. Riding in the Serendipity's wake buffers this ship some, but she's so much larger." Even now, Gillie could feel the drain of her own energies as she maintained the essenmorgh reformation of the huntership. "If there's a problem, that's where it'll start."

He touched her cheek, hesitantly. "You okay?"

Too intuitive. But then, he was linked with her. "All things considered, yes."

"I never meant-"

She held up her hand. "I know. Simon calls me damnably dense at times." Actually, it had been a litany of his for the past hour. "Mack, we have several days' worth of questions and explanations ahead of us. But right now, I need to concentrate on keeping this ship in alignment. It's the biggest thing I've ever moved. I need to focus on that."

"I'll check on the shields."

She draped her hand on his sleeve as he turned away. "They don't know who you are. What happened," she said quietly. This was her own way of doing damage control.

He smiled. "I don't know who I am or what happened. What is happening."

"You're making history, Rynan Makarian. If you're unlucky, someone will build a shrine in your honor in a couple hundred years."

He raised one eyebrow then headed for Adler at navigation.

Gillie ignored the furtive, quizzical stares of the bridge crew and settled back into Riftspace again. Another forty minutes and the Fav'lhir were in for a surprise. She hoped the appearance of the Serendipity and the Vedritor would be enough. She'd throw in the parrot-fueled crystalship squadron as well. What she didn't want to have to do was openly use her Kiasidiran abilities. For her sake. For Mack's sake. Simon had wanted her to tell Adler what she was. She'd refused. She could do what needed to be done without that. Without losing what little normalcy was left in her life.

Engine coolant levels dropped then steadied. Mack?

On it.

Simon offered some suggestions but truth was, they were learning as they traveled. Thank Ixari it was a short trip through Riftspace. When she and Simon had performed rescue operations in the past, they-

-her knees buckled. A small alarm wailed from a console on her left. Oh hell, oh damn. She forcibly straightened.

Gillie?

Lady Gillaine?

Simon, help Mack with the shields. Recalibrate. I, I need to...need to... She fumbled in her pocket for her wardstones, never taking her focus from the energy threads on the viewscreen in front of her. The stones' coolness washed through her. She sucked in a slow breath. Damn big ship you got here, Makarian.

Gillie, why don't you sit down?

Good idea. She sank to her knees in what she hoped wasn't an overly clumsy movement. A wave of dizziness took up residence in her head. Then Simon's presence was strong and her vision cleared. I'm okay.

No, you're not. Mack sounded angry. We drop out of Riftspace, now.

We'd be five hours from the chancellor's ship-

It's better than ten.

Mack, I can do this. Simon?

Someone touched her, bringing her focus back to the bridge. Mack, his hands on her shoulders, kneeling beside her. Voices around her were hushed, tense. Thirty minutes. Well, okay, thirty-three. She had to hang on to Riftspace, the Serendipity and the Vedritor for another thirty-three minutes. That was all.

"Simon will take us out," Mack said. "It's too much for you."

No. It was too much for just Gillie. Oh hell. Oh damn. So much for her attempt at damage control. So much for her attempt at returning to Cirrus One, her true identity known only to a select few under Mack's and Rand's commands. So much for her attempt at avoiding something she could no longer avoid. She was Lady Kiasidira. Maybe it was time she faced that fact, once and for all.

If she didn't, the Khalaran chancellor would die, the Fav'lhir would claim a victory and they'd attack the Confederation again and again.

It had to stop now. She had to send a message to the Fav'lhir and their mages: Lady Kiasidira was back. And she was pissed.

She palmed the wardstone, called the crystal sword's essence into her own. It tingled, ready, its song clear, loud. She knew Mack heard it; his eyes held a startled look. She nodded and allowed him to pull her to her feet. "I'm sorry," she said softly. "It's the only way."

His love and acceptance surrounded her. "You don't have to apologize for what you are."

No, she didn't. And she never would, again. She drew in a deep breath, raised her arms. "Tal tay Raheira!"

* * *

The Serendipity flowed out of Riftspace like a comet blazing across a night sky. The Vedritor was seconds behind it, riding the comet's tail. Mack braced for the transition this time, the icy chill slamming through his senses as they breeched the veil of energy. He held onto the energy lines with one part of his mind as Gillie had taught him, and watched the data on his ship's scanners with the other.

The Serendipity would take on the Fav Raider-class fighters. It was his job, and Gillie's, to take on the two destroyers.

The shattered image of Traakhal-One's escort ship on the forward screen angered him. It was a lifeless hull, its ident blank. Khalaran fighterships protectively flanked TraakhalOne, their number also reduced. Two missing, one crippled.

"Targeting destroyer one," Adler called out.

A golden-hued Lady Gillaine stood at the apex of the bridge, her sword drawn, her image an almost exact copy of the portrait hanging in every Kiasidiran shrine in the Confederation. Now, she said to him.

Mack poured his essence, his knowledge of his ship's weaponry into her. She laced over that her Raheiran magicks. The Vedri seemed to tremble with power.

Mack gave the order at her nod. "Fire."

The starboard nacelle of the large Fav'lhir ship exploded. A squadron of Raheiran crystalships, as graceful as a flock of birds, arced past the wheeling debris.

"I think we have their attention, My Lady," he said as Cardiff's console filled with noise.

Gillie shot him an impish grin then turned. The viewscreen flickered with an image from the Fav'lhir ship's bridge. "Three hundred and forty-two years ago I promised the Fav'lhir that if they threatened the Khalar, I would destroy their mageline," she told the Fav ship's stunned captain. "I keep my promises."

Mack stepped up beside her. "Surrender, or face the power of the Khalar and the Kiasidira together." He watched disbelief turn into indecision on the captain's broad face. The man was weighing the odds, just as Mack, Adler and Gillie had. Ship for ship, they were evenly matched. If the Fav'lhir chose to fight, the Khalar could suffer heavy losses.

The Vedri had only two things in her favor: the assistance of a squadron of crystalships, and the unlikely appearance of a goddess. Neither of which were quite what they seemed. But the Fav didn't know that.

Something probed him. A dark-haired woman moved up behind the captain. Witch. He read her essence just as Gillie informed him of the fact. Melandan witch. The wizard-captain of the Mogralla hadn't seen through their ruse, but that was no guarantee this one wouldn't.

It took a moment-a long tense moment, in Mack's estimation-before the witch nodded slowly, her face grim. "Do as he says."

"Then she really is...?" The captain was still undecided.

"The one the Impure call Lady Kiasidira, yes." She stared hard at Gillie. "Someday, My Lady, someday, one of Melande's chosen will learn your magename. When that day comes, you will finally die." The witch spun on her heels and strode away.

* * *

Much happened in the four hours that followed. Yet in spite of it all, in spite of the Fav ships' surrender and the chancellor's gratitude, and Captain Gillaine Davré's magnificent handling of it all, Mack couldn't forget the witch's words: Someday, one of Melande's chosen will learn your magename. It chilled him and not because he had a magename now. But because he realized that Gillie had extended him a trust far exceeding anything anyone had offered him before, or ever would.

In all the time he'd known her, he thought she'd told him nothing of herself. He'd been wrong. She'd told him the only thing that mattered.

Two things. She'd told him her magename, and she'd told him that she loved him.

He leaned back in the ready room chair and watched the woman he loved clear the empty coffee cups from the table and shove them into the recyc unit. Adler's senior staff, along with the chancellor's advisors, had just left after a lengthy debriefing. They were all finally headed home.

She caught his raised eyebrow gaze and shrugged. "Old habit. The Serendipity's a small ship. And since Simon couldn't help, well, not until recently. Anyway, clean up duty was always mine."

He held out his hand. She took it and perched on the edge of the table. "You're right. A Raheiran link doesn't mean every thought, all the time." That had been another surprise. Simon's and Gillie's presence floated in and out of his mind, but gently. And rarely stayed for long.

"What brings this up?"

"You mentioned Simon. I tried to tell you before. His relationship with you, and the entire ability of Raheiran telepathy, are two errors I made. I understand that now."

"Your ancestors would be pleased. Though you still have much to learn to understand your heritage."

"Simon's made some threats in that direction." Mack smiled. "All those years I thought my grandfather was simply being devout when he kept dragging me to visit the holy Kiasidiran relics, and insisting I memorize Lady Kia-your guidelines. I had no idea he was following his great-grandfather's instructions, who got them from-"

"It all started with Simon," Gillie put in. "Dear, old meddling Simon. Who realized a certain Captain Ethan Tarrant was part Raheiran."

"My grandmother once said I look a bit like him."

Gillie tilted her head, her eyes narrowing. "Now that you mention it..."

Mack sat upright. "You knew him?" When Simon had told him of his Raheiran ancestry, he'd thought it had been because Simon had read something in his essence. Not because he'd known Captain Ethan. But then, that hadn't been the purpose of his chat with Simon. He'd wanted to know about Simon's relationship with Gillie, not about his own relationship to a longdead ancestor. Raheiran or not.

He did some quick mental calculations. "Gods. Captain Ethan was around when the first spaceport was built outside Port Armin, on Traakhalus Prime. That was 5411. He was-"

"In his early thirties. A bit younger than you."

"You met him?"

"He was one of the few who understood why I didn't want a shrine constructed in my honor there. 'Abject foolishness,' he called it. 'A cold and unresponsive memorial constructed from cold and unresponsive material.'"

Gillie had spoken those same words to him weeks ago on Cirrus One. It hadn't sounded like her speech at the time. He'd just had no idea she'd been quoting his ancestor. Who was single, in his thirties. Part Raheiran. "Just how well did you know Captain Ethan?"

Gillie grinned disarmingly down at him, her eyes sparkling in shades of green and lavender. She winked. "Just who do you think taught me to play billiards?"

"Ethan."

Laughing, she pulled him to his feet. "I'm sure the Vedritor has as rec room or holodeck around somewhere."

He wrapped his arm around her waist. "I have a better idea."