Ceremony by Glen Cook Read Free Book Online Page A

closer look.
    The uncrewed two were loaded with what must be bombs, great cumbersome devices with a jury-rigged feel. She explored one rapidly, but could find no way to disarm it or to detonate it prematurely.
    She took the ghost into the fuel stores of those two ships, compressed it to marble size, put spin on it, and used it to perforate the tanks. She returned to flesh in time to watch the second flower of fire blossom against the night.
    She felt the rage explode among the thwarted rogues, felt them begin sweeping the surrounding night. She returned to the otherworld and began stalking them.
    They could not see her! Their radars could not pick up her wooden darkship. She was running right up to them, and they could not see her!
    She hit one ship after another, just as she had taken the bomb drones. They scattered so she could not massacre them all.
    Mistress. Come out. The Serke have turned our way.
    She had known that would come and had ignored it.
    Five of them to her one plus a spare Mistress. The odds were too long, strong as she was. Yet there was no way to hide from them. To do that she would have to abandon the talent entirely. To do that in the void meant instant death.
    She curved after a rogue ship belching flame in an effort to escape, closed up, killed it, began looking for another.
    Mistress...
    There is time. Do not distract me again. Six brethren ships had been negated. They would remember this raid as a disaster. Just guard me.
    Let the Serke come. She was strong and treacherous. If nothing else, she could outrun them.
    She was closing on another rogue when the Mistress touched her again. She suppressed her anger at being interrupted.
    She did not need the warning.
    Astounded, she forgot the rogue as she stared at a glowing darkship that had materialized only a few hundred yards away. She recovered barely in time to help the Mistress turn the attack.
    This Serke Mistress was weaker than she. Grimly, Marika ducked through her loophole and seized a ghost, hurled it back.
    The darkship vanished.
    Another appeared an instant later, in another quarter, and vanished again before she could do it harm.
    She finally understood. They were trying to attack her through the Up-and-Over.
    How could she get out of this?
    She could see no escape.
    Decision came instantly. She swung the tip of the wooden dagger toward Starstalker and accelerated.
    The Serke recognized her intent. They flung themselves into her path. She and the Mistress brushed their attacks aside and continued the drive toward the great voidship. Soon the sisters there would have to move or be rammed.
    The Serke tried placing a preponderance of strength in Marika’s path. But once they did that she knew where to expect their appearances. She recovered her advantage of her superior grasp of the dark side.
    Short, sharp touch-shrieks filled the void as a Serke Mistress’s heart exploded and her bath realized they had no hope.
    Marika continued gaining velocity.
    Starstalker vanished.
    Marika searched the void, wondering where it would return from the Up-and-Over. If she chased it hard enough it might not be able to recover the rogues before darkships rose up from the planet’s surface or came from other work sites. The rogues might have to be abandoned.
    A lance of fire cut past her. She had not kept close enough track of the rogues. She had allowed one to sight her visually. Hurriedly, she threw a ghost its way, destroyed it, and returned to flesh to find her Mistress almost overwhelmed by the Serke. A pair of darkships drifted nearby, radiating elation, thinking they had her.
    Marika hammered at one. Again the dark filled the despair.
    The second darkship vanished.
    Marika spotted Starstalker again, far away, and darted toward it.
    It was going better than she had expected. She was as strong as ever she had been, as quick, as deadly, as finely tuned in her instincts. She had won the victory already, even if she were destroyed. The raiders could no