A Covenant of Justice by David Gerrold Read Free Book Online

golden glow.
    At last, Finn opened his eyes and looked up at his brother. “I think the time has finally come, Soy.”
    Sawyer nodded. He began pulling at the piping on the hem of his jacket, working at it with trembling hands. Finally, he broke away a piece of the trim, unrolling it to reveal a tiny capsule. Without saying a word, he laid the capsule aside, where he could easily reach it.
    â€œBefore you go, Finn, let me say goodbye. Let me say thank you. Let me remind you of all the times you protected me, and—well, you know—took care of me. We always used to talk about how we wanted things different. I just want you to know that the way it worked out—well, I don’t have any regrets. We did good. I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way, okay?”
    â€œBullshit,” grunted Finn, his voice barely audible. “You always wanted more. Even now, you want more time.”
    Sawyer choked up. He couldn’t think of anything else to say, so he merely said, “Thank you, Finn. I love you.” Then he bent his face down to his brother’s and kissed him gently on the lips.
    â€œSawyer—” Lee called softly from across the room, from his place where he waited and listened with one ear pressed to the door. “I hear them coming! The Vampires.”
    Sawyer picked up the pill and placed it gently in Finn’s mouth. Then he held the waterbag to Finn’s dry lips and let him drink his fill.
    Finn looked up at his brother and whispered, “Thank you, Soy.” He closed his eyes and appeared to fall asleep. The tears began rolling down Sawyer’s cheeks again, leaving streaks down his face. He held his brother close, cradling him gently against the night, and hummed a wordless lullaby.
    The Vampires found them that way when they opened the door. Sawyer sat on the floor of the cell and held his brother close, while he sang softly to him and rocked him in his arms.

A Little History
    Giant Burihatin loomed like a great curved wall. The planet seeped a soft yellow warmth; magnificent storms swept across its surface, patterning its atmosphere with glorious chaotic swirls of color. Not quite large enough to ignite itself to stardom, it simmered in its orbit, circling its larger partner at a wary distance. Beyond, the primary star spread a bright blue blanket of light across the realms of space. Everything glowed.
    Inside the Lady Zillabar’s starship, inside her banquet room, the swollen globe of Burihatin provided a spectacular view. Its churning landscape stretched out before the grand windows of the chamber, like a vast pink and violet ocean; crimson swirls marked the passage of raging hurricanes, each one large enough to hold habitable worlds. The atmosphere of Burihatin seethed and glowed. Blue and white lightning flashed intermittently; the discharges sometimes spread visibly across the arc of the planet, rippling outward in a chain reaction of sparks and fury.
    Viewed from the detached grandeur of space, however, the violence of the planet’s surface became only a distant gaudy panorama. The ferocious storms presented an ever-changing, ever-constant dance of shape and color—much like the Lady Zillabar, whose own storms played across her surface in displays of gaudy decoration. What displayed on her outer countenance, however, rarely reflected the contours of her inner face.
    Today, the Lady wore an expression of absolute calm. She also wore an unrevealing shroud of ash gray, the color of nothingness, cut by a bright diagonal slash of scarlet—the recognition of her office.
    A noise distracted the Lady. She turned away from the balcony view and her contemplations. Her outer face revealed nothing of the furies that danced across her inner face. At the opposite end of the chamber, her insect attendants quietly ushered in her guests: the last known-member of the Lee clone family, number 1169; the TimeBinder, William Three-Dollar; his towering aide,