Linda Nagata - Memory

“He has gone to look for a better vantage in another room.”

The old man said nothing, seeming pleased to be watching the drama playing around him.

Up through the window came the sound of the front door creaking open below us. Then Maya’s voice, calling to the night: “Let it be known, this keeper welcomes all strangers to the Temple of the Sisters, but be warned that this night my other guests have murder in their hearts.”

The old man looked at me with raised eyebrows. I could not meet his eye. “I’m going back up to the roof.”

Udondi nodded. Both of us wanted to see the conflict finished that night.

Leaving her with the old man, I slipped from the room and trotted back toward the stairway. Liam intercepted me, startling me badly as he stepped out of a side room in his silent way. I whispered my plan to him, and he nodded. “I’ll go too.”

“Can you still shoot with that patch over your eye?”

“I can try.”

But as we reached the stair we heard a faint scraping sound from the spiral above us… like a boot brushing stone? Maya was still at the front door, so that left only one other player whom it might be. I could not guess how he had reached the stair, but it did not seem a feat beyond his powers.

Liam must have shared the same thought, for we both flung ourselves into the stairwell, aiming our rifles up just as something slipped into sight around the spiral…

I cursed and almost dropped my weapon in my fight to keep from firing off a shot, for the intruder was nothing more than my own savant, making its slow way down from the roof. “A call for you,” it said pleasantly.

I looked at Liam. My hands were shaking. “It’s Jolly. I left him a message to call.” I laid my rifle down, and took the savant in hand, whispering to it to link.

But it was not Jolly who came to life on the screen. I drew back in horror as I found myself face-to-face with Kaphiri. I knew who he was, for he still wore the same style of elaborate, starched clothing he’d worn that night at Temple Huacho. His long black hair was still pinned in sleek waves, and specks of silver still glittered around his eyes. But now his face was fully illuminated by the silver so that I could see him clearly for the first time: his pale skin, his blue eyes, his thin black beard. But for the color of his skin, he bore an uncanny resemblance to Yaphet. His face was as youthful, as beautiful, but his was the beauty of a knife, without softness or sympathy. When he smiled, I felt as if all the cold of the night had run into my spine. “I am warned you would murder me.”

“You murdered my father!”

“Jubilee—” Liam tried to draw me away from the savant, but I shrugged him off.

“You’re still here, aren’t you?” I asked Kaphiri. “Surely you haven’t gone?”

Liam understood me. He nodded and started up the stairs to get the vantage from the roof as we had planned.

Kaphiri seemed to watch him, though Liam did not pass within the scope of his view. “Do you send someone to hunt me?” His strange accent stirred a resonant memory in my mind. If he were to speak his native language, I would recognize it, I was sure, but he spoke only the language I’d been born to. “To resist me is more dangerous than you know. You might kill me, but I will still have my revenge, for you would then become the destroyer of this world.”

What words were these? They made no sense. “I’m not like you! I called the silver only this once.”

Confusion bloomed on his face. “You? How could you call it?”

He didn’t know.

Kaphiri didn’t know how or why his players had failed.

So let him wonder.

“You must leave us alone,” I said. “Leave us alone, and you will come to no harm. We don’t want this fight.”

“It doesn’t matter.” He spoke softly now. “It has all been decided for us.” His blue eyes were hard and terrible. “Whatever you did today, your talent does not match mine. The silver will not harm me. Can you say the same?”

My mouth was so dry I could say nothing.

“I will not tolerate a pretender.”

I shook my head. “It was a trick. I’m not like you.”

“Even so.”

“What do you want?”

“You. I must have you. I have wondered why I let you live that night outside your temple. It troubles me, and I would have my mind at peace. And of course I must have Jolly back. He is here, in the Iraliad, isn’t he? It must be so. How long do you think it will take me to search each one of the handful of stations where he might be?”

I felt faint. Kaphiri could do it in one night.

Or could he? Why would he be here, questioning me, if it were that easy? “You’re afraid to enter the stations, aren’t you? You don’t want to be known. Not yet. That’s why you have your players silence any talk of you in the markets.”

His head tilted thoughtfully. Whatever elixir he had used to extend his life, it had not left him slow of wit or confused, as Nuanez Li had been. “Do you love your home?”

I froze, for he had found my greatest fear.

“Ask that woman who travels with you what became of her family, her mother, her lover, her children. Truly, it’s so much better to keep me happy.”

Did he mean Udondi? Did she have a family once? I heard my voice, pathetic and pleading, “Don’t hurt them. Please.”

“Come outside.”

“No.”

“Come out now. Come tell me where Jolly has gone, and it will all be over so quickly. Jubilee… that is your name? I envy you. All of you who are not like me. Now come. I’m waiting just outside the door.”

The link closed. I cried out. I shoved the savant away. What had he promised? What? That if I should give up my life and give away Jolly he would leave Temple Huacho in peace? But he had not said that…

I seized my rifle from the floor. “Udondi-i-i!”

She appeared at the end of the hall. “Jubilee?”

“Is it true you had a lover?” I shouted it, as if it were an accusation. “Is it true you had children of your own?”

An expression of shock came over her face.

“I thought you were a cessant!”

“I am now,” she said softly.

I bowed my head. “He waits for me outside.” I was afraid to go; afraid not to. He had promised me nothing…

“Will you go?” Udondi asked.

Now it was my turn to look stunned. “You want me to?”

She hefted her rifle. “If it draws him into the open…”

I stared at the weapon. “He told me if he dies, I’ll take his place. I’ll be the destroyer of this world.”

“He toys with your mind, that’s all. If he can seed doubt in you, you might hesitate. This is our chance, Jubilee. Likely our only chance. We can end it tonight, and stop any more senseless deaths. Your mother—”

“I know! I know.” With shaking hands I leaned my rifle against the wall. It would not do to take it with me; I was supposed to be giving up.

Udondi passed me a knife from a hidden sheath in her boot. “Just in case.”

I nodded, and we hugged. “Be ready,” I whispered. Then I went down the stair on shaking legs.

I was afraid. So afraid. Sweat soaked my clothes and my chest felt hollow. I told myself that Liam was on the roof and Udondi was at the window. One or both would get a clear shot, no matter the direction Kaphiri came from, so long as I didn’t stray far from the door… and I had no intention of doing that.

But surely Kaphiri was aware of this danger?

You might kill me, but I will still have my revenge.

Maybe he didn’t care? But I couldn’t believe that.

Maya stood beside the door, watching me with reproachful eyes. “Where is your weapon?”

“I have left it upstairs.”

I stepped past her, and put my hand on the latch.