ELEVEN

Riot at a Lehiroh Wedding

An amplifier boomed. "Nobody move."

The silence was so deep Krinata could hear the pool's pump, and a huge bird winging by overhead.

When the commander was certain he had everyone's attention, he announced, "You are harboring four conscriptees who were ordered to report to the Duke's forces two days ago. Not only are these four to be taken from your midst, but I am thus authorized to collect every able-bodied male here. And as many females as I see fit."

The voice and accent was human, not Lehiroh—possibly from nearby Ramussin, which was also of the Nineteen Stars.

A rustle of dismayed protests rippled through the crowd. The amplifier boomed, "Since you've violated Ducal law, no consideration will be made for Ensyvian custom."

Krinata heard a low, shivering note from Rrrelloleh. Now they understood what Storm hadn't wanted to discuss out on the street. She wasn't at all surprised when the grooms responded to the four names called out by the commander.

Armed men flanked by men leading Rashions approached the edge of the wheel formed by the celebrants. In a moment of tense defiance, the outermost people in the wheel, whose ribbons were much longer, raised them into a chest high, satin barrier before beamer proof armor.

The troopers paused, looking neither left nor right, as if they were at parade attention. The amplifier barked, "Forward!" The troopers all took a step in unison, breasting the wall of satin ribbons. For a moment, Krinata thought there was going to be a riot—or massacre.

But the celebrants dropped their ribbons. The soldiers worked up the wedge-shaped spaces between lines toward the center where the four reluctant conscriptees waited.

The detachment targetted on Storm halted. "This is an unforgivable outrage," stated Storm, his voice carrying emphasis because of its colorless lack of passion.

"You mean," said the human squadron leader, "you didn't expect the Duke to enforce his decrees in the most memorable way? Think! After this, no one will resist for any reason."

"After this," said Storm, and Krinata felt genuine regret in his words, "no one will obey, for any reason."

The trooper made an uncivilized sound and grabbed the Lehiroh's shoulder, propelling him back along the wedge-shaped avenue, between lines of his men, all human.

As the last of the troopers turned to go, he noticed Rrrelloleh. "I thought Ensyvians were too incestuous to let outsiders into their ceremonies. Or are you a convert?"

She felt Rrrelloleh stiffen, but he remained patiently silent, eyes fixed on the high distance. Emulating, Jindigar literally was not there. This being was Lehrtrili, and Krinata knew it so deeply that even the Rashions surrounding her could not have found a hint to the contrary in her mind.

The officer who'd taken Storm dumped him on two of his men and returned to inspect Rrrelloleh.

"Answer, Lehrtrili! You're wearing a voder!" He poked at the box on Rrrelloleh's chest.

Krinata said, "He's elderly and unwell. His name is Rrrelloleh, and I am his nurse. I will answer for him."

The officer kept his weapon on Rrrelloleh, but eyed Krinata, taking in every detail of her costume.

Around them soldiers were culling men from the lines of celebrants, pushing and kicking them into a bunch near the door Krinata had marched out of. Protests were rising from the crowd. Some of the Lehiroh men, she noted for the first time, had enlarged breasts. Those men were being defended by others who insisted on replacing the lactating ones.

The women were massing, protecting the pregnant ones. She knew they were perfectly capable of tackling the armed humans, might kill a few before the beamers cut them down.

The officer inspecting her pulled her roughly away from the

Lehrtrili, noting she was human, not Lehiroh. Suddenly, she didn't like the wolfish grin she could see below his eye shields. "You're a brave one, Sister. I like that." He held his weapon to her temple, and ordered, "Farmer, sic your beast on this one. Gravitz, take the Lehrtrili."' He focused on Rrrelloleh. "Now, what are you two doing here? Should I ran you in for sedition—or espionage?"

Krinata's heart leaped to her throat. The Rashion crouching at her feet growled thoughtfully.

Rrrelloleh presented his leptolizer, butt first, to the officer.

"My entry visa, sir, in perfect order. Walking through the park, we saw an Ensyvian groom pacing nervously in front of this house. Curious, I invited myself to his wedding, promising to abide by his customs thereafter."

The officer seated the butt of the leptolizer in a socket on his armored hip. It gave out a bleep and projected the port-of-entry seal. "This can easily be checked. If it's legal, then the charge will be espionage."

He tightened his grip on Krinata. "Now, you."

"She doesn't carry a leptolizer, only an identdisc."

"Let's have it."

Fingers shaking, Krinata fished the disc out of her belt pouch. He snatched it, turning it over and over. "Looks real.

Could be forged, though." He watched the Rashion as he snapped, "State your name and your business here!"

"Marietta of the Sisters of Jacob, nurse to Rrrelloleh."

As she spoke, the Rashion's uneasy murmuring grew to a roar, and he went for her throat, teeth bared.

Several things happened simultaneously. The officer snarled,

"She's lying!" A child screamed, falling from a window and landing with a sickening thud. Someone pushed two of the armored men into the pool where they sank like stones, while their buddies tried to fish them out. And Rrrelloleh clamped both hands around the Rashion's wrists, flipping him to the end of his leash and pulling his trainer off balance.

In three graceful moves, Rrrelloleh had the Rashion that had been watching him knocked unconscious, the officer and his two men tumbling in different directions. Grabbing Krinata's wrist, he ran toward the knot of conscriptees.

A beam cut a black swath across their path. Dragging Krinata, Rrrelloleh ripped off his mask, and leaped over the beam. They were heading for the most guarded door, the multicolored glass one leading into the large room. It was suicide. Yet she kept running.

The conscriptees were fighting their guards now, rolling and tumbling, some with amateurishness, and some with keen professionalism. Already two guards lay bleeding a dark bluish blood she knew was really red, human blood. The armor might be total protection from beam weapons, but it was a handicap hand-to-hand. A detached part of her mind wondered why armored men had been sent against the obviously unarmed. What did that imply about the Duke and his men? Cowardice akin to Rantan Zinzik's?

Jindigar waded through a heap of bodies to the four grooms, and snapped, "Let's get out of here! With us gone, they won't have any reason to persecute the family!"

One of the grooms, the one wearing dirt-smeared yellow, raked the Dushau-faced Lehrtrili with a glance, froze in the act of disemboweling a guard with the guard's own weapon, and exclaimed, "Jindigar! Dear God, he's alive. He's alive!"

Storm tossed an armored guard over his head and grunted, "We can't leave without Bell!"

Another kneading his shoulder where a beamer had singed his blue sleeve, leaving a rent that exposed sculpted muscles, said, "Bell's..." he sidestepped as one armored man charged him, "around here somewhere."

The yellow-clad groom flipped the charging trooper onto the stack of dazed men with an absentminded air as he followed blue's gesture, looking for his bride.

The blue groom heaved a trooper off another Lehiroh, admonishing, "You can't do that to my cousin!" Over his shoulder to Storm, he said, "Guard Jindigar, I'll find her."

The yellow groom exclaimed, pointing up at the roof. "They've got her!" An automatic spraybeamer was set on its tripod, aimed at the riot below. The red-clad bride was held between two burly men, standing on the edge of the roof.