Sarah Zettel - Reclamation

They met each other’s eyes for a silent moment, weighing, judging, and hoping, but finding no guarantees. Finally, Perivar knew he had nothing to fall back on but their old, brittle trust. It was no comfort to know Eric was doing the same.

“What are you going to do now?” Perivar asked.

Eric looked over Perivar’s left shoulder. “Ultimately, I’m going to try to crack the Vitae private network.”

“Are you out of your mind!” Perivar couldn’t hold back this time. “You might as well try to crack a mountain with your skull! Even you can’t get on a Vitae line!”

“Where else am I going to get what I need?” Eric’s calm snapped. “Knowledge is power. Somebody"—he stabbed a finger at Perivar—"told me never to forget that.”

“I also said there’s always somebody out there who knows more than you do,” Perivar reminded him.

Eric’s eyes shone coldly. “If that wasn’t true, there wouldn’t be contraband runners. Are we done quoting your words of wisdom now, Perivar?”

You started it, thought Perivar childishly. He forced his voice into a semi-even tone. “Do you have any kind of plan for this insanity?”

“Not really.” He shrugged. “After this, I’m going to talk to Dorias. Between the two of us we should be able to string together something.”

“If anyone can,” Perivar added for him. Eric wasn’t looking at him anymore and Perivar couldn’t help wondering why not.

“As you say.” Eric shrugged. “What else can I do, Perivar? If I don’t put an end to this, then I’m a fugitive until I become a corpse or a slave.”

Perivar said nothing for a long moment.

“There’s nothing else I can tell you,” Eric said.

“What about something about your…friend?”

“She’s no friend of mine.” Eric’s eyes seemed to see something other than Perivar’s face at that moment. “Although, Notouch or not, I could maybe wish she was…she’s all right, Perivar. She’s stubborn and she’s got some secret she’s keeping to herself, but she learns fast and she seems as determined to stay out of the Realm as I am.”

“I’ll have to take your word on that.” As well as on everything else.

“I’d give you more if I could.”

“I know.” Perivar pushed the door open. “And I appreciate it.”

In the workroom, Ri and Dene had Aria under close scrutiny. The pair of them had crammed themselves into the capsule that now hung from a post maybe six inches from Aria’s nose. The wariness was gone from her face. Instead, her expression shifted from bemused to bewildered as she tried to keep pace with the kids’ yes-and-no questions.

“Will you be staying…” Ri started.

“…with us?” finished Dene. Aria shook her head.

“You came from a long way…” Dene started.

“…away? How far?”

Aria nodded and spread her hands, unable to answer completely.

Perivar glanced through the membrane to Kiv. He was saying something soft to Ere where she lay on his shoulders. The remainder of his brood was draped across his back, whistling encouragement as their representatives tried to get information from the stranger. Kiv’s legs were retracted, but his arms and eyes were extended. He was relaxed and, Perivar was willing to bet, a little amused.

“The lines on…” began Dene, but Ri saw Perivar step into the workroom. She squeezed her sister’s mouth shut with her secondary hands while she swung her eyes toward Perivar and Eric.

Aria also turned all her attention toward them.

“I’ve set things in motion.” Perivar felt his glance slide past Aria to Kiv, who did nothing more than swivel an extra eye toward his children in the capsule. Perivar faced Eric. “Are you going to stick around and watch?”

“No,” Eric said, and Aria’s head snapped around. “I’ve got to keep moving.”

The two of them exchanged a long, uninterpretable look.

“You leave me in your debt.” Under the translation, her voice sounded stilted to Perivar, as if this was a new phrase for her.

“Pay me by not giving Perivar any extra problems.” Eric turned away from her a little too quickly. “I’ve got to go. I only authorized a day’s worth of dock time for my ship.”

Perivar nodded. “I’d rather not ever see you again, Sar Born.”

“I know.” And he walked out. Aria did not turn around to watch him leave.

The door shut and left them all closed in together. Perivar looked at Aria, who looked back at him in silence.

What do you think I am? asked Eric from memory again. It was his old voice, heavily accented and awkward. Nothing like the smoothly educated tone he’d used today.

Cargo, thought Perivar. Checked over, labeled as clean and delivered, or too dirty to fix and dumped.

Certainly not a person who would look at him like Aria was, vaguely expectant, waiting for him to do something.

“Want to sit down?” he gestured to a chair.

Her eyes tracked his hand and a puzzled expression wrinkled her brow. “Thank you…I don’t know how to call you.” The translation fell a long way out of synch with her real speech.

“Perivar,” he told her. “My partner is Kivererishakadene. Kiv’s the name you have to remember there. The rest of it belongs to the children.” Perivar nodded to the two in the capsule.

Taking that as some kind of cue, Ri raised the capsule back up to the ceiling cables and rattled back toward their own side.

Kiv stretched himself out toward the membrane. “Have you borne your children yet?”

Perivar shot Kiv a look, uncertain whether he was being really absentminded this time, or if he was trying to pay Aria back for her shocked stare by making her uncomfortable.

She sank onto the edge of the chair Perivar had offered her. “Four living,” she said quietly, and Perivar translated it for Kiv.

Kiv’s subtle ripples told Perivar he was trying to make the mental readjustment. The only thing more alien to Kiv than a male without children, was a parent who lived away from them. Even though the kids theoretically understood humans’ strange ways better, Ri and Sha piled on top of their sisters as soon as they got out of the capsule, as if the idea that a brood and parent could be separated would magically tear them away. Kiv automatically coiled himself around them, buzzing softly.

Perivar turned his back on his partner. “We need to get a blood sample,” he said to Aria, “so we can find out what we can do with you.”

“Eric told me.” She held out her arm without changing her expression.

Yeah. Perivar shook himself. Now where’d I put… No, I threw that all away. Let’s see… He pulled open a corner drawer and found a utility knife and a piece of plastic wrapper. He tossed them both in the heater and set it on sterilize.

When he turned back around, she was still holding her arm out, waiting patiently for him to draw blood.

He laid the knife against her fingertip and pressed down. The skin broke and the blood welled scarlet around the blade. Aria didn’t even flinch.

Perivar, we just got the answer. The sample’s clean. Tell the client. Perivar, sample’s no good. We’re going to have to dump ’em. Perivar, sample says they’ll be able to take it for at least a year down there. Let the client know we’re bringing them in.

He wiped her cut off with the wrapping and dropped her hand.

Perivar, I don’t think you understand what you’re doing…You’ll do what you’re told you damned barbarian or you’re dead…Try me, Skyman, just try me.

Leave me alone! he shouted to the memory voices.

Perivar taped the wrap closed around the bloody smear.

“Brain. Get a courier cart up here, on the double; I’ve got a package for Zur-Iyal at the Amaiar Gardens.” He and Iyal had never stopped sending each other things; souvenirs or jokes or small presents. One more package wasn’t going to generate any more attention, even from the watchful Vitae.