Don't Disturb Stella and Her Mates novel · Chapter 17 of 24
Chapter 17: Three Days Dry
The Marshal looked at the five of them for a long time.
Then she looked at the strip in Dax's fingers.
"A violet paper," she said. "A voice file and a girl's story. The Concord board will call it a stunt by a jealous sister."
"Mother," Thora said.
"I am not your mother on a live feed. I am the Marshal."
"Then Marshal. Give me a test you will believe."
The silence ran long enough for the drone's lens to refocus twice.
"Joren Vask," the Marshal said at last. "Where is he?"
"At base camp," the Heir said. "With Stella."
"Then bring him to me, in front of the cameras. If he is the man I raised to command a fleet, he can go three days without the vial. Dax Orlin will watch him. He will not touch anything Stella hands him. On the fourth morning he will tell me, in his own voice, what he feels."
"And if he feels nothing different?" Keir asked.
"Then Thora Ostrow goes home in a transport, and answers to me for the broadcast."
"And if he does?"
The Marshal's gaze did not move off Thora.
"Then I will have a great deal to answer for," she said, and the screen went dark.
They found Joren in the clearing at dusk.
He stood by the fire with his rifle in the crook of his arm and Stella pressed to his side, her face wet and her hand on his sleeve.
The wall screen had played the Marshal's order to every person in the camp.
Joren looked at his four men as they came out of the trees.
He looked at the strip in Dax's hand, and at the bandage on Thora's shoulder.
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