Hero! Read Free

any more satisfaction. He stayed. He let her run through the introductions, mouthing the usual cool politenesses so that all the nice boys and girls could go home and tell their friends that they’d met the great Admiral Vaun. And all the time he was cursing the fate that had brought him to Maeve’s place of all places. On this day, of all days.
    The bitch was loving it, of course. But eventually she eased him away from the admirers, off to an isolated stone bench under more of the smelly crimple trees. Girls seemed to like the crimple odor, but it always made him think of armpits. Maeve had filled Valhal with crimples, and he’d turfed them all out right after he’d turfed her out.
    The night was warm for late fall, and was about to become warmer, for Angel was just rising. Already its spooky blue light was softening the darkness. Must be about midnight.
    Maeve hadn’t changed. The auburn gleams in her dark hair caught the starlight, and her body could still stun a boy at fifty elwies. She was wearing a slinky thing that seemed to consist only of silver ribbons—it looked simple and had probably cost an honest politician’s annual income. Very few girls could have worn such a thing and gotten away with it. Never mind! If there was one human female in the galaxy he could resist, it was this one. Never again! How long had it been? He didn’t want to think how long.
    It was hard not to think of it. She had the fair skin and sensuous lips of Scythan ancestry, one of the three planetary stocks that had populated Ult. Moreover, she had the innate arrogance of royal blood, from the Island Kingdoms somewhere, back a century or two. Self-satisfied whore! Always had been. Throwing her out had been the smartest thing he’d ever done.
    Behind a screen of bushes, down a level, a half-decent orchestra was playing a fiery jig tune. Couples were dancing. Laughing. This was quite a place she’d landed in here. Not Valhal, but quite a place. He wondered whom she was hostessing for. Some government type, likely. He’d heard that she was dabbling in Commonwealth politics.
    “Just coincidence?” she murmured. “Pure fate that you dropped in like this, so unexpectedly?”
    Bitch.
    “It certainly wasn’t deliberate.”
    “What’s really surprising is that we’ve never run into each other at someone else’s party. You do query the beacons, usually? Obviously. And come late,” she added.
    “After your usual bedtime, I expect.”
    “Don’t tell me you’re jealous? Or that you’re sleeping alone. Who’s hostess at Valhal these days? Anyone I know?”
    “No.” Bleeding, stinking bitch!
    Maeve chuckled throatily. The sound brought back memories. “Not like you to travel alone, Vaun. Another girl walked out on you? How many does that make?”
    “Hundreds,” he said between his teeth. “Some walk out. Others get thrown out.” The spies. The traitors.
    “Don’t be childish. It’s too long to bear a grudge, far too long. Odd how no one recognized you tonight, wasn’t it?”
    He’d never let any other girl needle him as she did. “I was trying not to be recognized!”
    And that was true—he’d hung around in the shadows, avoiding the groups, wanting to make his choice before he got mobbed. Besides, he’d noticed a couple of high-ranking spacers he disliked intensely, and he’d been avoiding them, too. The dislike was mutual, of course.
    Maeve straightened and turned to study his face, laying an arm along the back of the bench. She had chosen her spot carefully. Behind her, Angel was growing brighter, striking in under the trees, turning the night sky a metallic, mysterious blue, running silvery highlights on her shoulders and the swell of her breasts under—and between—the ribbons. She was wasting her time. He was immune now.
    “Yes, I marked your bashful approach.” She shook her head, and the long hair flickered sultry auburn signals. “Is the celebrity thing finally getting boring? My, how times change! But