Read Online Steal Across the Sky by Nancy Kress - Free Book Online

capital, King Uldunu Four would immediately conclude that you are very dangerous and should be killed.”
    “He can’t kill me.”
    “He can kill me.”
    It was said calmly, without drama, but Cam felt a shiver along her neck. Somehow she had become responsible for Aveo, and maybe for Obu as well. Nothing she had planned on. She said grudgingly, “How long a walk is it?”
    If he felt triumphant, it didn’t show. “Five days.”
    “Then there must be a lot of open country around the capital.”
    “Yes. Ravaged, but open.”
    “Then you and I will go in my ship to within one day’s walk of the city and wait for Escio and his troops to join us there.”
    He stopped eating, a piece of some breadlike thing suspended in his hand halfway to his mouth, and stared at her. “You . . . and I?”
    “Yes. That way you’ll be safe and we’ll get there faster. You can’t tell me that you can keep up with those soldiers, Aveo. You look like someone who just got out of the hospital.”
    “The . . .”
    “Like someone who’s been sick a long time.”
    He didn’t answer. Into the pause Cam said, “And Obu. She comes with us, too.”
    He ate the last of his bread, after sopping up the last of the juices in his bowl. “Ostiu Cam, you have missed the point of kulith last night.”
    “
Kulith
? What does that have to do with anything?”
    “It has everything to do with everything. I thought you understood. You played fairly well, for a beginner, so—”
    “I played chess in high school.”
    “—so I thought you understood. You cannot rush too fast at the opposing army, or you will lose.”
    “Oh, rats, Aveo, that’s just a game.”
    They stared at each other in mutual incomprehension. Then Cam got another idea. “Obu—does she belong to Escio personally? Or to the army?”
    “I don’t see the relevance of this.”
    “Just tell me! Who does she belong to?”
    “To Escio, I imagine.”
    “Then I can buy her from him, right?”
    “
Buy
her?”
    “Yes! I can make him an offer.” She had trade goods on the ship, valuable things that Atoners had supplied. Her mind became fired with the idea; she could set at least one slave free. Maybe even more.
    Aveo said quietly, “If you even make such an insulting offer, he would be within his rights to try to kill you. Or me.”
    “
Why
?”
    But all he said was, “We must play much more kulith,
ostiu
.”
    “Oh, fuck kulith! He—”
    Escio entered. Aveo looked at her pleadingly, and Cam shut up. Obu could be discussed later, as long as Cam kept the girl with her in the meantime, so Escio couldn’t rape her again.
    The two men spoke. Cam stayed quiet, letting the translator gather vocabulary and grammar for this second language. But something was wrong. Escio’s hand rested on the hilt of his knife, and although his back was to her, she saw the tension in the hard muscles of his bare back. Aveo, facing her, also tensed his thin body, but his face all at once sagged and his eyes turned bleak. Without moving his head, he slid those hopeless, silver-flecked blue eyes sideways to Cam’s face, and no effort was needed to cross two cultures, ten millennia, or hundreds of light-years to read Aveo’s meaning: “Good-bye.” Escio’s hand tightened on his dagger, even as he talked on.
    With one swift motion and no forethought whatsoever, Cam reachedinto her tunic, switched off her shield, pulled out her laser gun, and fired. Escio’s knife had just cleared its sheath. Flesh sizzled, smelling of burnt meat, and the
cul
fell. The hole in the back of his head was so small that it wasn’t even visible through his hair.
    Aveo looked at her from uncomprehending eyes.
    No no no no she hadn’t
. . .
    But she had. And now she must keep going. Swiftly she reactivated the shield, grabbed Aveo’s arm, and pulled him toward the tent flap. In his ear she said softly, “Keep walking. Don’t say or show anything.”
    Outside the tent Obu waited. Cam grabbed her, too, and dragged