Read Online Hellflower (v1.1) by Eluki bes Shahar - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Eluki bes Shahar
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interested glance at me, like he was thinking of unfinished honor-bashing session. But he’d back down for now, which was all I cared about. And maybe the kidnap charge wouldn’t stick.
Yeah, and maybe I wouldn’t run into Dominich Fenrir on Kiffit.
###
I went back up to the mercy seat. The good numbers for Kiffit was right where I left them.
"He is dangerous. Do not do this, Butterfly," said Paladin, quiet as if anyone could hear.
"What else can I do, babby? Fourteen-year-old kinchin-bai." I pulled the stick for the Drop and my Best Girl wrenched herself out of the here-and-now like a homesick angel.
Insert #3: Paladin’s Log
What began as an extremely dangerous amusement became an extremely costly one when the jailbreak of the alMayne Valijon Starbringer escalated to the point that Wanderweb Port Security became involved. When Valijon Starbringer became, in effect, stranded aboard Firecat the affair ceased to resemble anything amusing at all.
Firecat is not a passenger ship, for one very good reason. Any passenger aboard Firecat is in a position to discover my existence and Butterfly’s cooperation with me, and that discovery would inevitably result in our destruction. And of all the potential passengers to take aboard Firecat , Valijon Starbringer might very well be the most dangerous.
It is Butterfly’s opinion that politics interferes with "bidness," that there is business to be done under any government, and under all governments what she does is illegal. These things are all true, but do not in and of themselves constitute an excuse for ignorance. If Butterfly were more aware of "current events," she would understand why Valijon Starbringer-the only son of the alMayne delegate to the Court of the TwiceBorn, Kennor Starbringer, who is the deciding vote on the Azarine Coalition Council-was such an extremely dangerous commodity to have inboard.
There are 144 Directorates in the Phoenix Empire-144 astropolitical divisions of the Phoenix Empire, each of which is governed by the Corporation families. From these families are drawn the members of the Imperial Court-the TwiceBorn. The TwiceBorn are the social and economic elite of the Empire and rule all the rest, civil and military alike. Below the TwiceBorn come citizens, and below them client-members, and below them slaves. Then resident aliens (what Butterfly calls, with a fine disregard for species distinction, "wigglies"), and then, at last, the nightworld rabble of which Butterfly is a part.
Valijon Starbringer was not TwiceBorn. The Starborn Corporation -the form his alMayne princely House takes in the Empire at large-does not choose that its alMayne subjects accept Imperial honors except when unavoidable. Kennor Starbringer is TwiceBorn. Amrath Starborn-their "king"-is not.
The alMayne do not like those who are not alMayne, no matter how high their estate.
I do not remember them from the days I was the Library at the University of Sikander. They are a new race, yet records speak of them as very old. I do not like paradoxes of this sort, and t do not like the alMayne. Irrationally xenophobic, reactionary, conservative, they prefer to stagnate in their elegant barbarism than to change and grow. Such a barbarian, trapped aboard Firecat , could be expected to do something dangerously irrational.
The alMayne, as a race, might be seen to be irrational. Butterfly says "hellflowers is crazy" and-feels no need for further explanation. I do. I have studied these elegant barbarians, hellflowers, "Gentle People." I could have translated Valijon’s speech for Butterfly. I did not choose to. It would not have made her jettison him, nor would she have understood even the translation.
"Hellflowers" do not have a modern psychology. Their entire culture is focused upon the willingness to die for intangibles such as personal honor. "Dzain’domere" means "I pledge and give my word."
Thus it is bound up in alMayne concepts of honor which are indeed "better than
Yeah, and maybe I wouldn’t run into Dominich Fenrir on Kiffit.
###
I went back up to the mercy seat. The good numbers for Kiffit was right where I left them.
"He is dangerous. Do not do this, Butterfly," said Paladin, quiet as if anyone could hear.
"What else can I do, babby? Fourteen-year-old kinchin-bai." I pulled the stick for the Drop and my Best Girl wrenched herself out of the here-and-now like a homesick angel.
Insert #3: Paladin’s Log
What began as an extremely dangerous amusement became an extremely costly one when the jailbreak of the alMayne Valijon Starbringer escalated to the point that Wanderweb Port Security became involved. When Valijon Starbringer became, in effect, stranded aboard Firecat the affair ceased to resemble anything amusing at all.
Firecat is not a passenger ship, for one very good reason. Any passenger aboard Firecat is in a position to discover my existence and Butterfly’s cooperation with me, and that discovery would inevitably result in our destruction. And of all the potential passengers to take aboard Firecat , Valijon Starbringer might very well be the most dangerous.
It is Butterfly’s opinion that politics interferes with "bidness," that there is business to be done under any government, and under all governments what she does is illegal. These things are all true, but do not in and of themselves constitute an excuse for ignorance. If Butterfly were more aware of "current events," she would understand why Valijon Starbringer-the only son of the alMayne delegate to the Court of the TwiceBorn, Kennor Starbringer, who is the deciding vote on the Azarine Coalition Council-was such an extremely dangerous commodity to have inboard.
There are 144 Directorates in the Phoenix Empire-144 astropolitical divisions of the Phoenix Empire, each of which is governed by the Corporation families. From these families are drawn the members of the Imperial Court-the TwiceBorn. The TwiceBorn are the social and economic elite of the Empire and rule all the rest, civil and military alike. Below the TwiceBorn come citizens, and below them client-members, and below them slaves. Then resident aliens (what Butterfly calls, with a fine disregard for species distinction, "wigglies"), and then, at last, the nightworld rabble of which Butterfly is a part.
Valijon Starbringer was not TwiceBorn. The Starborn Corporation -the form his alMayne princely House takes in the Empire at large-does not choose that its alMayne subjects accept Imperial honors except when unavoidable. Kennor Starbringer is TwiceBorn. Amrath Starborn-their "king"-is not.
The alMayne do not like those who are not alMayne, no matter how high their estate.
I do not remember them from the days I was the Library at the University of Sikander. They are a new race, yet records speak of them as very old. I do not like paradoxes of this sort, and t do not like the alMayne. Irrationally xenophobic, reactionary, conservative, they prefer to stagnate in their elegant barbarism than to change and grow. Such a barbarian, trapped aboard Firecat , could be expected to do something dangerously irrational.
The alMayne, as a race, might be seen to be irrational. Butterfly says "hellflowers is crazy" and-feels no need for further explanation. I do. I have studied these elegant barbarians, hellflowers, "Gentle People." I could have translated Valijon’s speech for Butterfly. I did not choose to. It would not have made her jettison him, nor would she have understood even the translation.
"Hellflowers" do not have a modern psychology. Their entire culture is focused upon the willingness to die for intangibles such as personal honor. "Dzain’domere" means "I pledge and give my word."
Thus it is bound up in alMayne concepts of honor which are indeed "better than
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