Freedom Star

Chapter 11

The blow didn't knock him out. He wished it had. He fell on his hands and knees on the muddy floor and watched stars dancing across it until he felt someone's hands on his arms, helping him up—although he wasn't entirely sure "up" was a place he wanted to be. "Jon? I don't believe it—Jon?"

His eyes, reluctantly, focused. "Kira?" He couldn't believe it either. For a dying girl she looked remarkably alert, and she was certainly having no trouble lifting that enormous length of firewood that he was halfway surprised to see didn't have his blood and hair on it. "You're supposed to be—"

"Sick, or dying. Yeah, I know. Dar told me." She sounded furious. "He's had me tied up in this cave ever since he came back with some wild story about you being a spy for the Commonwealth. He'll come in and supposedly 'consult' with me and then go out and tell the kids what to do."

"And he's still got his head?" Jon marveled, gingerly feeling the bump on his own.

Kira tossed the firewood aside. "I'd just been waiting for that oaf Peter to leave the cave—I'd managed to untie myself—I didn't expect you to come walking through the door."

"I'm glad it wasn't meant for me." More glad than she knew, because obviously Kira didn't believe what Dar had said about him. "I'm not a spy," he added, just to be sure.

"Of course you're not," Kira said. "And how all these brats you led out of Carlson's camp could think you are..." Her lips tightened. "I think Dar's crazy, Jon."

"I know he's crazy. He's out there right now telling them that you're at death's door and urging them to murder Ellia."

"Ellia?" Kira blinked.

"Ellia Carlson. Andrew Carlson's daughter. She came with me."

Kira took a step back, and for the first time her face showed doubt. "You brought Carlson's daughter here?"

"She's an ally, not an enemy," Jon insisted. "She's against her father just as much as we are."

"Dar said you'd met her. It was one of his arguments for you being a spy."

"If not for her Carlson would have me right now."

Kira still didn't look convinced. "Maybe if I could talk to her..."

"I hope you can. But first we have to rescue her before Dar talks the kids into a murder."

"He wouldn't really..." Kira's voice trailed off as Jon nodded, and then she turned pale. "Then when he said I was dying ..."

"I hate to believe it, even of him, but I think he intended to make his lie into truth." Jon shook his head. "And a lot more of these kids will die if he gains control. He'll do anything to strike at the Commonwealth, and he doesn't care about the risks; he'll use up every one of them and not accomplish a thing."

"We have to stop him," Kira said. "I want to fight the Commonwealth as much as anyone does—"

"I know," Jon said, remembering her telling him, on that fateful day they attacked the transport, that what they really needed was weapons, not food.

"—but it's got to be done smart, and at a minimum of risk to the kids." Jon knew she was younger than some of those she was lumping in with the "kids," but he said nothing. Chronological age wasn't important in this. "We've got to stop him now."

"We'll confront him," Jon said. "You're obviously not dying—that makes him a liar right there. I can't believe all the kids believe what he's said about me, either. If we go out there right now, together—"

Kira was halfway out the door before he finished talking. He hurried to join her, and shoulder to shoulder they strode out into the sunlight. Their appearance caused as much consternation as a platoon of paratroopers dropping out of the sky. Dar stopped in mid-harangue, cut off by the outburst of confused shouts and cries and, in the case of the youngest children, loud wailing. Some of the older children comforted the little ones, some of them backed away as though they were seeing a ghost—and a handful, Jon noted grimly, clutched their spears more tightly and moved closer to Dar.