![]() I crouched down and felt for a pulse, for the faintest stir of breath. I had thought her a thousand years dead, but she was, undeniably, here. Her name was Seivarden Vendaai, and a long time ago she had been one of my officers, a young lieutenant, eventually promoted to her own command, another ship. So I can't explain to you why I stopped and with one foot lifted the naked shoulder so I could see the person's face.įrozen, bruised, and bloody as she was, I knew her. Even after all this time it's still a new thing for me not to know, not to have orders to follow from one moment to the next. Sometimes I don't know why I do the things I do. Bodies in the street were none of my concern. I was only here, on this planet, in this town, because I had urgent business of my own. This was the icy back end of a cold and isolated planet, as far from Radchaai ideas of civilization as it was possible to be. But it was hardly possible I knew this person. There was something itchingly familiar about that outthrown arm, the line from shoulder down to hip. Or what passed for a tavern in this town. ![]() The snow stretched smooth in the wan sunrise, only a few tracks leading into a nearby ice-block building. It was minus fifteen degrees Celsius and a storm had passed just hours before. The body lay naked and facedown, a deathly gray, spatters of blood staining the snow around it. ![]()
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