The Alliance by David Andrews Read Free Book Online Page A

your cooking. I want my men well fed.” He offered her a sliver of hope to buy time.
    “Thank you, sergeant.” She was definitely a servant, aping the manners of a High Born, and smart enough to realize she’d set him a pretty problem.
    There’d been time and opportunity for any one of the women to have told their story to a half dozen of his men and this one was smart enough to either make sure the story was spread widely or ensure her companions remained silent. His first problem was to decide which and he had no prospect of getting a truthful answer from anyone.
    His safest course was to have the women hung as soon as the meal ended. Anything else put him at the mercy of the first gossipmonger who wanted to curry favor with the High Born. It would damage any personal loyalty the men might feel to him at a time when he was planning to use it for his own purpose, but it insulated him from failure. Yet, none of the women could expect to return to their homes as long as the High Born ruled—unless he was successful in deposing them.
    Kamran shook his head at the folly of sharing his plans. He might just as well draw his dagger and cut his own throat. It would be less painful than what the High Born would do. No one must know until after he cut a deal with the Federation.
    Peripheral vision caught the surreptitious glances from the women, proving they were aware he had a problem in dealing with them. That much of what the servant said was true. In their place, he’d poison the food, taking revenge in advance.
    He smiled at the thought, knowing he’d already decided.
    * * * *
    Anneke stirred uneasily in her sleep, the movement waking Rachael, the vividness of her dream fading as her mind rejected the horror she’d witnessed.
    Daylight was filtering into their retreat and the morning sounds of the birds nesting in clefts of the rock seem magnified against the stillness surrounding them. Rachael never realized how completely the forest absorbed sound. There were few of them on her world.
    “Good morning.” Anneke’s voice sounded soft, but its tone turned Rachael in time to catch the haunted expression in her eyes before it faded. “I really needed that sleep, but we’d best eat and be on our way.” Anneke reached for the provisions and started sorting them into the immediately edible. “This bread and sausage will do. There’s a creek to cross just down the track. We’ll drink there.” She acted all business, her moment of melancholy forgotten.
    “I’m hungry,” Rachael agreed, wondering what had caused it. The Alliance agent seemed indestructible, treating triumph and disaster with the same aplomb. Rachael felt she could depend on her absolutely, something she could never say about her fellow agents in the Federation.
    It was an uncomfortable train of thought, smacking of disloyalty, but it was time she acknowledged her survival lay in Anneke’s capable hands. She would be dead twice over if it were not for her. Anneke’s reasons puzzled her, yet Rachael had more than a sneaking suspicion Anneke had told the truth in the beginning. The situation had offended her sense of fairness and the Alliance agent involved herself to redress the imbalance. A quixotic feel to it matched Anneke’s character.
    Another related matter was her reaction to the intimacy of their embrace last night and in the poacher’s hut. Rachael had experimented with lesbian love and enjoyed it. Not as much as a heterosexual relationship with the right man, but enough to recognize Anneke’s embrace as asexual. She suspected the Alliance agent could swing both ways, as most agents must, but she treated Rachael more like a younger sister than a potential partner. It felt comfortable, but she was not sure she felt entirely flattered.
    Anneke ate efficiently, chewing her food long enough to ensure she was satisfied by the experience and could hold hunger pangs at bay for an extended period and not wasting a morsel. Rachael had the sense an