Sarah Zettel - Fool's War

Al Shei tugged at her tunic sleeve. “No,” she said at last. “I’m not ready to start a war with one of the most powerful Guild in Settled Space, even if they did break a contract with me and my family.”

“But you’re not willing to take on a new Fool to keep the contract whole?”

“No.” Al Shei brushed her sleeves down. “The more I’m learning about them, the less I’m liking them. I don’t agree with their secrets and I don’t like their attitude, and I don’t like the way they’re treating Evelyn Dobbs.”

Resit picked up her prayer rug. “I don’t like any of it either, but you’re right. We do not have what it takes to press a suit against them. Especially with this unholy mess about the AIs and our pair of Danes and the Farther Kingdom still sitting in our laps.”

“Unholy mess is right.” Al Shei slumped into the desk chair. “But, Asil is following the wire trail. If there’s anything out there, he’ll find it.”

For a moment, Resit concentrated on rolling her rug into a tidy cylinder. “Have either of you considered that that’s not the safest thing he could be doing?”

Al Shei shifted her weight uneasily. “Oh, yes. We have.”

“I’m glad to hear it. It means you’ll both be careful.” She studied the pattern of her rug for a moment before she looked at Al Shei again. “How much longer do we have to wait before we’re fully re-fueled?”

Al Shei glanced at the schedule that lit up on the desk’s main board. “Just another two of hours.”

“Good.” Resit pushed open the bathroom door. “Because between you and me, I don’t like the Guild’s behavior either. It’s going to be some long while before I laugh at another Fool.”

Resit left and Al Shei straightened herself up. “Me too, Cousin,” she said to the closed door.

“Intercom to Al Shei,” came Schyler’s voice again. “We’ve got one of the Fools up here to pack up for Dobbs.”

Quick little jackals, aren’t you? Al Shei squashed the thought. He is not strong who throws another down, but he is who controls his anger, she chided herself. “Bring them down, Watch. I’ll meet you at Dobbs’ cabin.”

Al Shei concentrated on keeping herself composed as she rounded the corridor to Dobbs’ cabin. As she activated her override on the palm reader, the hatchway to the stairs opened. Schyler stepped into the corridor. After him came a short man with slightly bowed legs and a broad face. The stranger wore a black tunic and trousers. He had the red-and-gold Guild necklace around his throat and an uncomfortable expression on his face.

“‘Dama Al Shei? I’m Lewis Brooke, Guild Cadet.” He started to hold out his hand, but apparently decided against it and just tightened his fingers around the straps of the two satchels slung over his shoulder. “I’m here to collect Evelyn Dobbs’ possessions.”

“So I’ve been informed.” Al Shei stood aside and gestured for him to enter the cabin. He unfolded the bunk and placed both empty satchels on it. Then, obviously trying hard not to look at Schyler and Al Shei, he started opening drawers and packing away what he found in there.

Al Shei gave Schyler a jerk of her chin that meant “go away.” Schyler hesitated a moment, but then nodded and left. Al Shei, leaving the hatch open, crossed the threshold and sat down in the desk chair.

“Do you know Dobbs well?”

The question seemed to startle Brooke. He froze, halfway bent over the bag with a spare turquoise tunic in his hands.

“Not very well.” He had a raspy voice, as if he didn’t use it much. “I’ve met her a few times. She’s a good friend of Cyril Cohen,” he added like he was volunteering a great secret. He moved to the pile of cushions velcroed to the floor and began pulling them up and collapsing the air out of them. She barely heard him over the hissing. “He’s my tutor.”

Al Shei nodded, although she wasn’t sure how far student-teacher loyalty extended in the Guild, but Brooke’s manner made her believe he valued it. “I was wondering if there was anyway you could take a message from me to Dobbs. Quietly, you know. I understand she’s in a severe amount of trouble for helping us.”

“Yeah, that’s for sure.” Brooke rolled the squares of fabric that had once been cushions up into a single cylinder and stowed them in the satchel. His gaze slid to the open hatch and the empty corridor. “Actually, ‘Dama, I’ve been asked to give you a message.”

This is turning into plot, counter-plot, thought Al Shei with a touch of exasperation. We’ll probably be speaking in code next. “Then I’d appreciate you doing so.”

“Cohen wants to know when you’re leaving and if you’ll agree to take Dobbs with you.”

Al Shei straightened her spine one inch at a time. “Cohen wants to know? Has anyone thought to ask Dobbs what she wants to do?”

Brooke’s face scrunched up in an expression that might have been alarm or simple distaste, Al Shei couldn’t tell. “Dobbs is in solitary confinement right now. We’re trying to get her out.” He turned quickly away and darkened the mirror and both memory boards. One at a time, he lifted them away from the walls and leaned them up against the bunk.

Al Shei just stared at him. “Solitary confinement? An employment guild allows solitary confinement?”

Brooke rested his hand against the mirror frame and nodded.

“That’s uncivilized!” she exclaimed, knowing that the outburst was irrational.

“Probably.” Brooke shrugged and began taking the cloth draperies down from the walls. “But it is reality. Dobbs is in confinement. Cohen and I and a few others are trying to get her out, but she’s going to need a place to go once she gets there. The only place we have to take her is the Pasadena .”

Al Shei felt as if the deck had just tilted under her. “What kind of organization is this? Why doesn’t she just quit?”

Brooke bit his lip and glanced at the open hatchway. “We don’t think she’s going to be allowed to.”

“That’s insane.” This can’t be real. I’m being lied to. Dobbs has done something illegal or…but what could she have done? If she had really broken the law, why didn’t Guild Master Ferrand say something about it?

“It is insane, ‘Dama,” Brooke agreed solemnly, blinking his wide, dark eyes. He was young, Al Shei realized, maybe as young as Ianiai. “It also happens to be the truth.” He cast another glance at the hatchway. Al Shei made no move to close it. “‘Dama, Cohen said you know a little about us, about the Guild. You can understand why there might be fanatics who don’t want Dobbs to just walk away, can’t you?”

“No, I can’t,” she said firmly. “I do not understand one thing about your Guild. This is brutal and irresponsible. You and your colleagues should be mounting a complaint, not engaging in amateur espionage.”

Brooke winced. “Perhaps we should. We want to make some changes, but until we can, it’s important that we get Dobbs out of here. Will you take her, ‘Dama? Please?”

Al Shei swayed on her feet. This was getting to be far, far too much. Maybe we should sell the diaries from this run, Asil, she thought toward the part of her mind that held her husband’s memory. We could pay for The Mirror of Fate off the media adaptation fees. She rubbed her hands together. Brooke, apparently realizing she wasn’t going to answer immediately, moved around the cabin, opening the remaining drawers and packing up the last of Dobbs’ thirty-five pounds worth of possession.

It’s an internal matter. I should leave it, finish the run, go home, get Uncle Ahmet outraged and cut this place open. Brooke disappeared into the bathroom.