Starfishers Volume 1: Shadowline by Glen Cook Read Free Book Online Page B

“It’s time you went.” He gave Deeth a hug as powerful as his father’s had been. “Be careful, Deeth. Always think before you do anything. Always take the long view. Don’t ever forget that you’re the Family now.” He ran the back of a wrist across his eyes. “Now, then. I’ve enjoyed having you here, young master. Don’t forget old Rhafu. Kill one for me when you get back to Homeworld.”
    Deeth saw death in Rhafu’s watery eyes. The old adventurer did not expect to survive the night. “I will, Rhafu. I promise.”
    Deeth gripped one leathery old hand. Rhafu was still a fighter. He would not run. He would die rather than let animals shatter his courage and the confidence of his own superiority.
    Deeth started to ask why he had to run away when everyone else was going to stand. Rhafu forestalled him.
    “Listen closely, Deeth. Go down the stairs at the end of the balcony. All the way down. There’ll be two doors at the bottom. Use the one on your right. It opens into the corridor that passes the training area. There shouldn’t be anyone in it. Go to the end of the hall. You’ll find two more doors. Use the one marked Exit. It’ll put you outside in one of the vegetable fields. Go to the sithlac dome and follow its long side. Keep going in a straight line out from its end. You should reach the forest in an hour. Keep on going and you’ll run into an animal village. Stay with them till you find a way off planet. And for Sant’s sake make sure you pretend you’re one of them and they’re equals. If you don’t, you’re dead. Never trust one of them, and never get close to any of them. Understand?”
    Deeth nodded. He knew what had to be done. But he did not want to go.
    “Go on. Scoot,” Rhafu said, swatting him on the behind and pushing him toward the stair. “And be careful.”
    Deeth walked to the stairwell slowly. He glanced back several times. Rhafu waved a last farewell, then turned away, hiding tears.
    “He’ll die well,” Deeth whispered.
    He reached the emergency exit. Cautiously, he peeped outside. The fields were not as dark as he had expected. Someone had left the lights on in the sithlac dome. And the slave barracks were burning. Had the animals fired them? Or had the bombardment done it?
    Little short-lived suns kept flaring between the stars overhead. A long, rolling thunder of chemical explosions came from the far side of the station. The launch pits had been hit. The shriek of rising missiles was replaced by secondary explosions.
    The humans were getting close. Deeth looked up into the heart of the constellation Rhafu had dubbed the Krath, after a rapacious bird of Homeworld. The human birthstar lay there somewhere.
    He could not distinguish the constellation. There were scores of new stars up there, all of them too bright, and visibly brightening.
    The humans were on the downward leg of their penetration run. He would have to hurry to clear the perimeter they would establish with their assault craft.
    He sprinted for the side of the sithlac dome.
    By the time he reached the dome’s far end the new stars had swollen into small, bright suns. Missile exhausts rayed from them in angry swarms. He could hear the craft rumbling over the explosions stalking through the station.
    They were just a few thousand feet up now, and braking in. His escape would be close. If he made it at all.
    A flight of missiles darted toward the bright target of the dome. Deeth ran again, sprinting straight out into the darkness. Explosions tattooed behind him. Blasts hurled him forward, tumbled him over and over. The dome lights died. He rose, stumbled ahead, fell, rose, and went on. His nose was bleeding. He could not hear.
    He could not see where he was going. The flashing of explosions kept his eyes from adapting as quickly as they should.
    The assault craft touched down.
    The nearest landed so close Deeth was singed by the hot wash spreading beneath it. He kept shambling toward the forest, ignoring the