Changeling Read Online Free PDF

craft's limits and Ren Zel
found plenty to do as second board. He found her rhythm at last and
matched it, the two of them putting the packet through its paces.
They circled Casia twice, hand-flying, rather than let the
automatics have it. Ren Zel was utterly absorbed by the task,
caught up entirely in the other pilot's necessity, enwrapped in
that state of vivid concentration that comes when one is flying
well, in tune with one's flight-partner, and--
    His board went dead.
    Automatically, his hand flashed out, slapping
the toggle for the back-up board.
    Nothing happened.
    "Be at ease, Pilot!" Elsu Meriandra murmured,
next to him. "I have your board safe. And now we shall have us a
marvelous skim!"
    She'd overridden him. Ren Zel felt panic boil
in his belly, forced himself to breathe deeply, to impose calm. He
was second board on a ship owned by the pilot sitting first. As
first, she had overridden his board. It was her right to do so, for
any reason, or for none--regulations and custom backed her on
this.
    So, he breathed deeply, as he had been
taught, and leaned back in his chair, the shock web snug around
him, watching the descent on the screens.
    Elsu's path of re-entry was steep--Ren Zel
had once seen a tape of a Scout descent that was remarkably like
the course she had chosen. She sat close over the board, unwebbed,
her face intent, a fever-glitter in her eyes, her hands hurtling
across her board, fingers flickering, frenzy just barely
contained.
    Ren Zel recruited his
patience, watching the screens, the descent entirely out of his
hands. Gods, how long since he had sat passenger , wholly dependent on
another pilot's skill?
    The ship hit atmosphere and turbulence in the
same instant. There was a bump, and a twitch. Ren Zel flicked
forward, hands on his useless board--and sat back as Elsu made the
recover and threw him an unreadable look from over-brilliant blue
eyes.
    "Enjoy the skim, Pilot," she said. "Unless
you doubt my skill?"
    Well, no. She flew like a madwoman, true
enough, but she had caught that boggle just a moment ago very
smoothly, indeed.
    The skim continued, and steeper still, until
Ren Zel was certain that it was the old Scout tape she had
fashioned her course upon.
    He looked to the board, read hull-heat and
external pressure, and did not say to the woman beside him that an
old packet was never the equal of a Scout ship. She would have to
level out soon, and take the rest of the skim at a shallow glide,
until they had bled sufficient momentum to safely land.
    She had not yet leveled out when they hit a
second bit of turbulence, this more demanding than the first. The
ship bucked, twisted--again Ren Zel snapped to his dead board, and
again the pilot on first corrected the boggle and flew on.
    Moments passed, and still Elsu did not level
their course.
    Ren Zel leaned forward, checking gauges and
tell-tales, feeling his stomach tighten.
    "Pilot," he said moderately, "we must adjust
course."
    She threw him a glance. "Must we?" she asked,
dulcet. "But I am flying this ship, Ren Zel dea'Judan."
    "Indeed you are. However, if we do not level
soon, even a pilot as skilled as yourself will find
it--difficult--to pull out. This ship was not built for such
entries."
    "This ship," she stated, "will do what I wish
it to do." Incredibly, she kept her course.
    Ren Zel looked to the screens. They were
passing over the ocean, near enough that he could see the v-wakes
of the sea-ships, and, then, creeping into the edge of screen four,
towering thunderheads where the water met the land.
    "Pilot," he said, but Elsu had seen them.
    "Aha! Now you shall see flying!"
    They pierced the storm in a suicide rush;
winds cycled, slapping them into a spin, Elsu corrected, and
lightning flared, leaving screen three dead.
    "Give me my board!" Ren Zel cried. "Pilot, as
you love your life--"
    She threw him a look in which he had no
trouble reading hatred, and the wind struck again, slamming them
near into a somersault in the instant her hand