Chapter 43: The Periphery

Chloe wore a floor-length, fur-trimmed dress of some sort of soft, supple leather Milissa assured her was one-hundred percent real. Which was apparently a selling point. She somehow managed to feel overdressed and exposed all at once. She'd had to shed the familiar comfort and modesty of her flight suit, and the dress's bustline drooped below her shoulders. But even Rudy had, however grudgingly, given in and put on the local garb. Chloe didn't see how she could have refused to wear it as well. A tall hat, as furry and white as the dress's trim, sat on her head. She wouldn't say she wore it, though, because when she glanced at the similar one nestled on Milissa's curls, her own looked ridiculously ungainly.

Who would have thought there was a skill to wearing a hat?

Chloe sighed.

"What's the matter, Highness?" Milissa asked brightly. She did everything brightly. If it were possible to mourn brightly, Milissa would have done it. Since it wasn't, she apparently refused to acknowledge she might have any reason for mourning.

Chloe envied her terribly, and felt even worse for doing so.

In the weeks since the Errant Magpie returned to New Kyrillopolis, Chloe hadn't heard anything from Stephan. Or anything else from offworld. If any transmissions came to the planet, and she had to assume they did, Slava and Milissa didn't see fit to share their contents.

New Kyrillopolis wasn't anything like she'd pictured the aristocratic enclaves of the periphery, either. The estate-world’s name, suggestive of ancient cities, seemed like a bad joke.

Oh, the house itself was gorgeous in its ancient styling, all marble columns and rich carpets and wood paneled walls – real wood, even, though that was less shocking than usual considering the seemingly endless expanse of forest beyond the grounds. Those grounds were, if anything, even more beautiful. The estate was large, perhaps as big as the entire Algreil Aerospace arcology on Wellach, and everything not a building or a path was covered with hardy flowering bushes that bloomed even in the winter, poking out from the snow in flashes of color.

But there were no grand balls. No painfully handsome young noblemen. No noblemen at all, in fact, and Milissa the only noblewoman. Everyone else seemed to be a retainer, and most of those were men-at-arms. They treated Chloe with almost awed deference, which made her uncomfortable and kept her from getting to know any of them.

She wondered if that wasn't intentional.

She wondered why.

Certainly there was no training. She knew exactly as much about her powers as she had when she arrived. If Milissa had any psychic abilities she might have explained, she never displayed them. She seemed entirely uninterested in powers and politics. Left to her own devices, she talked about mecha tournaments, about clothes, or, mostly, about the glorious career, personality and appearance of one Crimson Phoenix, Rudolf Kaine Algreil.

Chloe couldn't imagine any topic she less wanted to discuss with her hostess.

Was this what Stephan had risked his life for? What Chloe had followed a hunch for? Sitting 'safe' on a barely-inhabited planet on the edge of human space, where the Feds could pluck her away as soon as they found her, farther from rescuing her parents than ever?

Milissa repeated, "Highness?"

"Sorry," Chloe said. "It's nothing."

"Oh. Good." Milissa shrugged and leaned over the edge of the marble balcony. She leaned far over, stretched, yawned. "I can't wait for the new year, can you, Highness?"

"Is it New Year's already?" Chloe looked away before Milissa could see her horrified expression. Had it really been four Imperial Standard Era months since she'd seen her parents? Time, it seemed, flew.

Principle, how she wished it wouldn't!

"Oh, yes," Milissa said. She rolled over on the rail and leaned her head back till she was nearly horizontal. Then she frowned. "With Stephan away, though, we won't have nearly as festive a year's end as usual."

"I'm sure he's all right, Milissa," Chloe said.

Milissa laughed. "Obviously. I simply meant he won't be around to entertain us."

Chloe tried to imagine Stephan 'entertaining.' Failed.

"Maybe you could do it, Highness," Milissa said suddenly.

Chloe blinked.

Apparently quite taken with her idea, whatever it was, Milissa clapped her hands and leaned close. "Are you any good with snow?"

"I'd never even seen snow before coming here," Chloe said. An exaggeration, if barely. She’d seen it on the Mother Goose’s screens during rare visits to cold-weather planets.

She'd seen plenty of snow since her arrival on New Kyrillopolis, though. The balcony sported a dusting of it despite the servants' best efforts to keep it cleared away, and the forest beyond was almost pure white.

"Oh." Milissa's grin wavered, then settled into place. "But you'll be a natural, I'm sure. It rather goes without saying!"

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A third voice wafted from below the balcony. "If you two are going to make out, it's no fair making me crane my neck all this way to watch."

"Rudy!" Chloe leaned over the balcony and glared down at him. Down, at least, until he kicked himself off the wall, flipped up to the railing, and landed on it beside her, sitting as calmly and serenely as if he hadn't had to leap a good two and a half meters just to grab the bottom of the balcony.

Startled, Chloe slipped and bumped into Milissa. They ended up tangled against the far railing.

"Wow," Rudy said, "I was kidding."

Chloe glanced down. She and Milissa were practically snarled in each other's arms. She sprang up. "That is not what we were talking about. Principle!"

Rudy shrugged. "A man can dream."

"You're disgusting," Chloe snapped.

Milissa climbed to her feet and glided over to Rudy. "It's true, Crimson Phoenix, you're really out of control." She made a show of stifling a giggle. "Of course, as a fan, I wouldn't have it any other way."

Rudy just grinned wider.

"And that jump was incredible," Milissa continued. She leaned over the railing again, this time right next to Rudy. "It must be, what, three meters at least? How in the world did you manage it?"

"Three meters is nothing," Rudy said. "All you need are footholds and bam, there you go."

"Well I think it's something." Milissa leaned even further out, stretching again. Showing off.

Her hands slipped. She tumbled forward with an undignified squeak, her hat flying and her legs kicking.

Rudy's arm shot out and snagged her by the waist. "The hell are you doing? Jumping three meters may be nothing, but falling it sure isn't!"

He hauled her back to the balcony, and she collapsed against him, gasping. Her arms wrapped around him and she pressed her face to his chest.

Rudy looked down at her and started to say something.

Then he looked up and met Chloe's eyes.

"I'm pretty sure she's all right," Chloe said. She didn't think she sounded too sarcastic. "Right, Milissa?"

"Oh, yes, Highness," Milissa said. She nestled her cheek against Rudy so she could face Chloe while she spoke. Lo and behold, she didn't seem to be gasping with fear now. "Thanks to the Crimson Phoenix."

Chloe nodded stiffly. "It's a wonder you managed without him."

"Isn't it, though?"

"You should probably let go now, Milissa," Rudy said. "Since you're fine and all."

"Must I?" She looked up at him and pressed closer.

"Don't bother," Chloe said. "I wouldn't want to intrude."

She turned on her heel and stalked into the hallway. The doors swung shut behind her.

They slammed open immediately after, but she didn't stop. She made it around the corner before Rudy caught up to her and missed a grab for her wrist.

"What?" Chloe asked, still not turning around.

"I could ask you the same," he said. "Why are you so tense?"

"Why do you think, Rudy? Our charming hostess hangs on you like you're the last escape pod on a crashing ship."

"So she's a fan," Rudy said. "Lots of people are."

"'Lots of people' don't practically jump into your arms in front of my face."

"Objection."

Chloe turned around, hands on her hips.

"She jumped off the edge of the balcony," Rudy said. "She only ended up in my arms because I grabbed her so she didn't crack her fool head."

"Principle forfend," Chloe said sarcastically. She winced as soon as the words were out of her mouth. "I don't mean that. You did have to grab her."

"I stand vindicated, then?"

"It's just..." Chloe shook her head. "Maybe if you wouldn't encourage Milissa, she wouldn't get the idea to do crazy stuff like that. What if she'd gotten hurt, Rudy?"

"I'm pretty sure she knows her limits," Rudy said. "Not so sure about yours, though. It's not just me and Milissa, is it?"

"Of course not. I know that's nothing serious." She didn't know any such thing, of course – Rudy had looked awfully comfortable with Milissa wrapped around him –, but it seemed politic to say.

"So what's really bothering you?"

"More like, 'what isn't?' We're further from rescuing my parents than ever, Principle alone knows what's happening to your company, and Stephan... if he's not dead, he's sure doing a darned good impression. What are we even doing here, Rudy?"

With a face full of wide-eyed innocence, he suggested, "Getting fawned over by Milissa?"

"Be serious, Rudy!"

"No."

Chloe hadn't expected such a curt denial. Whatever Rudy might say, he'd suddenly gotten serious, and she didn't understand why. "Why not?"

"Because there's not a damn thing you or I can do about our situation unless we want to break out of this place guns blazing, steal a ship, crew it ourselves, and blast off for Algreil Prime or the nearest better idea you've got."

"Don't even say such a thing! We're guests here."

"My point exactly. Guests with no ship, no crew, no plan and no destination. Face it, Clo, we're powerless." He took her hands and pulled her forward, closer than she really should have let him.

Well, she thought, it wasn't nearly as close as Milissa had been.

A large part of her thought that was hardly a good excuse, but it sufficed.

Rudy gave her one of his rare serious smiles. "We'll figure out some way to get back on track, but for now, just try to think of it as a vacation. Relax."

"I can't vacation when my parents are in trouble, Rudy."

"I'm pretty sure I just proved you can't do anything else."

"You've totally shifted this conversation, you know."

"That was the plan."

"I should be mad about it."

"Seems that way."

"I'm not."

"Figured."

They'd drifted closer with each word, until Chloe was, or at least felt, every bit as tightly pressed against him as Milissa had been. With a deep breath, she pulled her hands free, clasped them behind her back and stepped away. "Has anyone ever told you you're too charming for your own good, Mr. Algreil?"

"Not for my own good, no," Rudy said. "For everybody else's? Sure."

Chloe laughed.

"About time," he said. "For a while there, I thought you were gonna get all weepy on me again. You know how I feel about that."

"Can't stand it," Chloe said.

"Damn straight."

"Me neither," she said. "And Rudy – thanks. I will try to relax."

The warning klaxon chose that moment to start blaring.