Children of Zanar 1: The Zanari Inheritance Read online

  ‘If you have some time,’ Nirayla said, ‘you could go in by boat. There are always yachts on the ocean and one passing close to the island would be largely ignored.’

  ‘Great, but we don’t have a boat,’ Jinny pointed out.

  ‘The chapter house does. The Sister Clementina. She’s named after the Sister Advisor who founded the chapter house. She’s a twenty-seven metre, ocean-going pleasure yacht.’

  ‘Okay, but we’re used to spaceships. We don’t know how to–’

  ‘My family runs fishing boats out of Ammendine. I grew up with boats.’

  Thea sighed. ‘We would likely be putting you in danger, Nirayla.’

  ‘But the Sisterhood teaches us to put the needs of others before our own, and the rescue of another psi, even if she is not a Sister, seems a very worthy cause. I am sure Sister Mirganna would agree. I want to help.’

  Sienna gave a small shrug. ‘We’d need to ask Mirganna’s permission to use the boat anyway. We’ll see if she’ll agree to allow Nirayla to crew for us.’

  The young novice beamed, but Thea had to wonder whether she would be thinking the same way when their journey was over.

  Monteagle’s Prize, Hyperspace.

  Kaya cracked her eyes open a fraction as bright light hit her eyelids. Sure enough, the screens in front of her eyes had gone transparent and, when she thought about it, the white noise had gone from her headphones. Someone was paying her a visit, likely one of her attendants.

  What happened next was more of a surprise: the gag which had stopped her closing her mouth for however long she had been in the cell began to shrink away from her teeth. By the time the cell door opened and a woman in Kraggan fatigues appeared, Kaya was trying to work out whether her jaw worked at all. The mercenary baffled Kaya more by fiddling with something over Kaya’s face and then pulling the entire gag assembly away, leaving it hanging by a cable from the helmet. It was not exactly freedom, but it felt amazing!

  Then a man Kaya had not seen before entered, waving the woman out. He was tall, physically imposing, but also with an air of command about him. His hair was a sandy blonde, but cut so short against his scalp that the colour was hard to decide on. He was neither ugly nor attractive: hard features, but with a layer of flesh over them which softened his face and made him look a little overweight. Kaya had no doubt that he was not a gram heavier than he should be and that the bulk filling his uniform was muscle. His eyes were a hard, greyish-blue, holding a hint that this man did not just use physical intimidation to get what he wanted. Kaya suspected she knew who he was, but her jaw was still not working right so she remained silent while he spoke.

  ‘Good evening, Sora Trevorny. I am Garaka Monteagle… and I can see from your eyes that you guessed that already.’ He watched for a second, perhaps waiting for a reply. ‘It does take a while to get your voice back. I decided to drop in to speak to you. I wanted you to know that there’s nothing personal about this. Business. It’s simply a matter of business. The Bowrain family will pay handsomely for you and your genes, and the knowledge that the zanari still exist.’

  He paused, gauging her reaction. Well, she already knew from Jay that they intended to sell her to the Bowrains. It was not news. And his assertion that this was ‘just business’ meant little given that they had her locked into these ridiculous restraints and in a cell.

  ‘I had a lot of trouble believing… Colder’s assertions about you at first.’ Kaya had to wonder why there had been the slight pause before Jay’s surname, but Monteagle was continuing. ‘But he has the evidence.’ Monteagle shook his head. ‘Zanari are supposed to be a myth. They’re a monster-under-the-bed from the last years of the Solar Empire. The most powerful psis in history with godlike powers, ruling over an empire of mind-controlled slaves.’

  ‘That’s… That’s not true,’ Kaya got out.

  ‘Ah, jaw working again? Good. I’ll get you some solid food in here when I’ve gone. One thing you learn in a war, girl, is that truth falls before the first shots are fired. The truth is something someone tells you because it’s convenient for them. There were two wars with the Zanari Protectorate. The first came when they killed or enslaved an imperial survey squadron who happened to enter their space. No one left to tell the tale and they destroyed anyone who went in to attempt rescue. Then, when the empire was crumbling, there were hints that they were planning expansion and the only way to stop them was an offensive. They refused to surrender, fought to the bitter end. Zanari are witches, sorcerers, monsters. There are parts of the galaxy where they still use “behave or the zanari will come for you” as a threat to scare children. And here I am, talking to one.’

  ‘If no one survived, how did anyone find out about them?’ Kaya asked.

  ‘Pardon?’

  ‘My brother got this vid once. Not the kind of thing my parents wanted us watching, but he got it from a friend and we hid in the barn and watched it. It was supposed to be this real-life recording of the last days of a freighter crew who got attacked by a monster in hyperspace. It was all cut-together scenes from their suit cameras and ship sensors. And I was kind of scared… Well, I was clinging to my brother like crazy in case the monster got me. All the way up until the end. At the end, you got this shot taken from the suit camera of the last victim and some text saying that the ship was never found. And I thought, “so how did they get the recordings to make the movie?” That was when I realised it wasn’t really real. So, if no one ever escaped from the survey team, how did anyone know what happened to them?’

  Monteagle frowned; pointing out the stupidity of myths was never something which people who believed in them found entertaining. ‘I think you’re missing the point,’ he said. ‘It’s not whether the details are correct, it’s the fact that–’

  ‘But if the details are wrong, who’s to say the rest of it is right? It’s like you said: stories to scare children into behaving. Stories to scare people into thinking the zanari had to be obliterated. I was told the zanari sued for peace before Zanar Prime was nuked, but the people attacking them weren’t interested in a reasonable victory by then. They just wanted blood. Who’s the monster in that story, Sor Monteagle?’

  ‘They would tell you that, though, wouldn’t they?’

  ‘And someone who destroyed an entire civilisation out of fear and a desire for their technology would come up with a reason for it, wouldn’t they? All I know is that the zanari I’ve met have done everything they can to help me, and you kidnapped me and locked me in this thing.’

  Monteagle nodded slowly and scrubbed at his short hair with one hand. ‘Yes. Yes, I can understand your point of view, but the restraints are there for a good reason. Someone will be in with your food shortly.’ He turned back to the door.

  ‘You can’t seriously think someone’s out there searching for me,’ Kaya said quickly. ‘Even if they were, and they figured out where I was, how do you expect them to follow? You must have days of head start now.’

  Monteagle did not turn around, but he did answer. ‘Perhaps you’re right, but the restraints stay on.’

  Ammendine, Giltanish Prime, 3/2/483.

  The Sister Clementina sat at rest in the marina in Ammendine on the south coast of Giltaland, the largest of Giltanish Prime’s three continents. Sister Mirganna had taken great pleasure and not a little pride in showing the two Sister Advisors and their odd little companion around the yacht. She had been happy to allow Novice Nirayla to crew for them. In fact, she had told them that a couple of weeks of tuition from two of the most senior Sisters Nirayla was ever likely to meet would do her the world of good.

  ‘Besides,’ Mirganna said as she watched Jinny casually hefting crates which looked like they weighed as much as she did to load aboard the boat, ‘I have a feeling that my novice could not be safer in the chapter house. How is she lifting those?’

  ‘We could tell you,’ Thea said, ‘but then she’d have to shoot you. We’ll make sure that Nirayla comes to no harm.’

  ‘We don’t
plan to come to any harm ourselves,’ Sienna added.

  ‘But, it’s a fairly long trip and we should get going.’

  Mirganna smiled. ‘Of course. Safe journey. I’ll keep an eye on things in Haven. If you can contact me before you come back into port, I’ll try to meet you here with any news.’

  Thea nodded. ‘Could be a good idea. If anything looks like delaying us, we’ll let you know.’

  With the Teaching Sister gone, Sienna and Thea retired to their cabins while Nirayla and Jinny took the boat out of the marina. It was quite a spectacular vessel for a semi-religious organisation that was, essentially, a charity, but Mirganna had explained that it had been given to the chapter house by one of Sister Clementina’s partners when she died over sixty decades ago. Making sure it stayed seaworthy was something of an issue at times, but there was usually someone the Sisters knew who was willing to foot the bill for repairs and the service costs were workable with the house’s income. And, with the many islands on Giltanish Prime, having a boat simply seemed sensible.

  It was a powerful boat with full AI autopilot and up-to-date communications and sensor systems. Smoothly streamlined, it came with a high command deck, an open solarium and sun deck below that, and engineering systems below in the main hull. There were six ‘guest’ cabins, quite luxurious and each with its own bathroom, four with king-sized beds and two with twin queen-sized beds. The four crew cabins had twin bunks and shared bathing facilities, and Nirayla had insisted that she would take one of those while Thea had insisted that that was stupid and she should have a larger room. Sienna had come up with the ‘compromise’ that Nirayla could take one of the rooms with the two smaller beds, which the novice had agreed to, though Thea suspected that Sienna had no plans to let her temporary student actually sleep in her assigned cabin.

  By the time Thea and Sienna emerged from below, the Sister Clementina was out on the open sea and the two women were dressed in swimwear. They had both kept their chains on, but Sienna was in a pale-blue bikini composed primarily of string, and Thea was in a black swimsuit which seemed to be primarily composed of string. There was a definite ‘string’ theme.

  ‘We’ll watch the wheel, ladies,’ Sienna said. ‘You can get changed now.’

  Nirayla blinked. ‘But, I’m in the dress. I’m just a novice, so–’

  ‘Soon to be a full Sister and currently under my tutelage. The Sisterhood teaches that one should always be ready to dress appropriately for the occasion. The dress is appropriate for many occasions, but not for taking a leisurely cruise with friends.’

  ‘Uh, well, if you say so, Sister Advisor. I did pack a swimsuit. Are you getting changed, Jinny?’

  Jinny looked down at her outfit. She was in her candy-striped bikini top and a pair of khaki shorts, and her mismatched combat boots. ‘What am I supposed to change into? Lingerie?’

  ‘You could at least take your boots off,’ Sienna suggested. ‘Your feet must be sweating.’

  Tossing her hair, which made her braid crack like a whip, Jinny pointed her nose up toward the cockpit’s ceiling and set her fists on her hips. ‘A lady does not sweat.’

  Sienna’s right eyebrow rose. ‘And?’

  ‘And I’ll go wash my feet,’ Jinny said, setting off toward the hatch.

  Sister Clementina.

  ‘I could definitely handle Sisterhood cooking more often,’ Jinny said, settling back against her seat in the solarium. Outside, the night was the kind of dark you only got a long way from land. There was almost nothing in the way of clouds and the stars were bright in the black dome above them. They had just worked their way through a fish-based curry that Nirayla had prepared for them and Jinny looked, and felt, quite satisfied with it.

  ‘Oh,’ Nirayla said, ‘the Sisterhood didn’t teach me that. That was one of my grandmother’s recipes for leftover fish.’

  ‘Huh. I suppose with a family that runs fishing boats, you eat a lot of fish.’

  ‘Sometimes it was all we ate,’ Nirayla replied with the tone of someone who knew the meaning of ‘too much of a good thing.’

  Jinny giggled. ‘So, why aren’t you out fishing for whatever that was? How come you ended up as a Sister?’

  Nirayla smiled. ‘Not a Sister, yet. Getting there, maybe, but not quite there. Uh, I was the youngest and brightest of six children. I’ve three brothers and two sisters. I really wanted a proper education, but my family couldn’t afford any of the local higher schools and going off-world was just out of the question.’

  ‘Can be expensive. Kaya, the girl we’re here to find, more or less her entire colony chipped in to send her to Abertine’s university, but they were hoping to get a real psi healer back when she graduated.’

  Nirayla nodded. ‘When I started developing telepathy, that sealed the deal. The best way I could make a good future for myself, my mother said, was to see whether the Sisterhood would take me. I wasn’t so sure. I was always a little timid and studious, and here I was supposed to dress up in the gown and learn how to present myself… I just didn’t think I could do it.’

  Jinny eyed the novice who was now in a bikini which, while it covered more than Sienna’s, still seemed to have a lot of string to it. ‘You seem to have got over your timidity.’

  Nirayla blushed, but Sienna just nodded. ‘Self-confidence is the primary focus of the training, even if that’s not what most outsiders believe.’

  ‘“Only one who understands, believes, and trusts in herself can give herself over completely to another,”’ Nirayla recited.

  ‘Indeed,’ Sienna said with a hint of indulgence in her smile.

  ‘Uh, Sister Advisor, Sister Mirganna said… When she was giving me my assignment, she said that your–’

  ‘Yes,’ Sienna said flatly. ‘And we don’t discuss the matter.’ Nirayla’s cheeks coloured and she flinched a little.

  ‘It’s not one of her favourite topics,’ Thea said. ‘She doesn’t mean to snap.’

  Sienna frowned. ‘Not at you, Nirayla, and I suppose it was right for Mirganna to mention it. Tomorrow we’ll spend some time going over what you’ve learned and see whether I can add anything to Sister Mirganna’s training.’

  ‘Thank you, Sister A–’

  ‘We’re not in the chapter house now, Nirayla. Sienna will do.’

  You’re starting tomorrow? Thea asked into Sienna’s mind with an overtone of disbelief carried in the thought.

  The response came with more than a hint of smugness. Well, perhaps later tonight…

  Monteagle’s Prize, Hyperspace, 4/2/483.

  Lying in the dark, unable to hear or speak, trussed up like a bird for the oven, Kaya had little to do but sleep and think.

  The solid food Monteagle had provided had been a nice change, but the gag had been returned afterward. Liquid meals left a lot to be desired in the way of satisfaction, but they did break the monotony.

  Her visitors who came to feed her no longer let her see what was happening, and the white noise continued at all times. Kaya had been unsure about the change in behaviour and had, at first, thought it might be a punishment for standing up to Monteagle. Then it had occurred to her to wonder why he had refused, point-blank, to let her out of the restraints. She was no, or very little, threat and they could have kept her in a null field with the cuffs and helmet…

  They were afraid of her.

  The thought hit her and, for a few seconds, she could not believe she had had it: how could someone like Monteagle be afraid of someone like Kaya? Because she was a zanari, a figure of myth and nightmare the common culture of the BCU had turned into something like a warrior-witch. She belonged to a species the rest of the galaxy feared, even if that fear was unfounded, and even if the result of that was that she was stuck in isolation.

  The conflicting emotions of that revelation turned more dark when she began to wonder how unfounded those fears were. Even Thea had said that the zanari were, like any other race, religion, or culture, not all as good as they might wish. Kaya felt sure tha
t the crew of the Oracle were all as good as they seemed to be, that the lessons in morality Geogracus and Sienna had given her were heartfelt. But Sienna had a huge dislike of men; the telepath did not even like Geogracus and she had seemed to ignore Jay as much as possible. Of course, Kaya had her own reasons for hating Jay right now. Maybe, just maybe, there had been enough zanari who were less inclined to follow the moral rules of psi to make the legends about them… have a core of truth. Maybe–

  A twisting, howling, multi-frequency scream of sound erupted through Kaya’s headphones, cutting off thought in an instant but not quite before she had registered the flare of multicoloured, cascading lights which were flaring before her eyes. Kaya bit down on her gag and jammed her eyes closed, but nothing could keep the sound out and the light still managed to find its way in through her eyelids. The pain was almost unbearable and it just kept on, and on, and on…

  Sister Clementina, Giltanish Prime.

  ‘Does Nirayla look a bit shell-shocked to you?’ Jinny asked Thea over breakfast.

  Thea gave a shrug and glanced over at the novice who was making toast. Nirayla was a little wide-eyed but there was a vague, contented smile on her lips and her wide eyes seemed to have a certain lack of focus. Plus, Sienna was looking pleased with herself. ‘You know what Sienna gets like with a new plaything.’

  ‘Huh, yeah…’

  Sienna gave them each a scowl. ‘I am not that bad. I simply reviewed her understanding of proper technique.’

  ‘I’m just glad the cabins have good soundproofing,’ Thea said.

  Sienna was about to respond when Nirayla let out an exclamation. ‘Oh… Diyou!’ She plucked the slice of smoking toast out from under the halogen heater she was using to cook it and tossed it into the recycler.

  ‘Just take it easy on her tonight, would you?’ Thea suggested. ‘We do have a limited supply of bread.’

  6/2/483.

  ‘Can’t sleep?’ Jinny asked as she emerged into the cockpit.

  Thea glanced at her and then returned her gaze to the stars outside. ‘I could ask you the same.’