Jo Clayton - Shadowkill

“I’ll talk juhFeyn into putting the word out. Shouldn’t be hard to do since he gets ten percent of the net from everyone who plays. Even Uj pays him. Once the rumors start, you’ll be hauling them in and he’s a man with an eye for profit.”

She frowned. “I didn’t…”

“I took it out when I culled my cut, thought you’d call me on it. Slipping, Rose.”

She shrugged. “I was waiting for the deal. If I was interested, fine, if not, it could come out of your hide. Ten per, hmm? You take that out of the gross, Hadluk, not out of my third. I mean it.”

He blinked at her, let it go. “So, you don’t need to worry about the lice.”

“When’s this Game going to happen?”

“Don’t know yet. Jao never announces the date ahead of time, but there’s things he does to get ready and he’s started them, he’s got feelers out for prime Dasuttras, getting in a special cook, went to see the High Vaar yesterday. I’d say sometime soon, no earlier than ten days from today, not more than thirty. Plenty of time for you to get known.”

“I hear. Does juhFeyn do any banking for his players?”

“What?”

“My winnings. I’m not walking back and forth with that kind of cash stuffed down my front. I want that made very clear.”

“Good idea. You might as well start that tonight. He’ll be at the Shimmery going over the books. He’ll see you, he’s a man with an itch, curiosity, you know. Um. Yes. He’ll be in to watch you play after a few nights, just to make sure it’s Luck not fingers. You understand that?”

“Luck. And what I’ve got in my head, Hadluk. Never my fingers, it doesn’t pay.”

“That was before.”

“That’s now and always. I can’t help what jorkheads think, if you can call what they do thinking, I play straight.”

“I never said you didn’t, Rose. I’m just saying Jao will want to make sure.”

“Fine. Long as he knows what he’s seeing. You said he keeps you around for that.”

“I’m the sump, Rose. The goat. The finger. I get the bad vibes and he stays clean. Believe me, he’ll know.”

She got to her feet. “Well, it’s time I was busy getting ready. I take it we don’t meet again until after the Game. Not to talk, I mean.”

“Right. Keep it clean.”

“I’m off, then.” She scooped up the mute cone, dropping it in her bag, and strolled toward the boats, picking her footing with care among the weathered stones.

When she was out on the water, she looked back. He was still sitting in his nest; she saw a glint of amber as he tilted the bottle one more time. She clicked her tongue. Not good, that. Ah well, doesn’t matter, I, don’t need this, not like I used to.

Kikun shifted on the window seat, knocking one of the pillows onto the floor, his eye a brief orange flash. “You trust him?”

Autumn Rose snorted. “About half as far as I could throw him.” She rubbed fingertips along her jaw. Kikun was tired tonight. Withdrawn. She got the feeling he was desperately unhappy, but there was nothing she could do to help; he wasn’t going to talk about it. “I’m all right until the Game,” she said. “He’ll keep things sweet until that’s over. It’s worth the trouble.”

Another flash of orange eye. “And you’re itching for it.”

“I don’t know. Maybe. It’s been a long time. I like working for Digby…”

“Hmm.”

She fidgeted as the silence developed. “I don’t know, Kuna. This whole business is weird. I don’t know why Digby got involved in it. He’s been paid, yeh, but I doubt he’s close to breaking even. He never tells us anything except what we need to know to do our part of the job. That’s all right, there’s no confusion that way. When I was working the team, you know, advising the Dyslaerins, when we were tracking down leads to Ginny’s auction, it was business, that’s all. I liked them, but that was beside the point. It was a clear, clean job. Even when it went wrong, it had… um… shape! Do you see what I’m saying? I like to do a quick, neat job. It’s a good feeling, Kuna. You slide in, do the thing, slide out. No fuss. Neat. Surgical almost. Well, doesn’t happen like that all the time, even most of the time… most of the time it gets messy one way or another… when it does, though… AH! when it does… when… things… click, you’re wired, you’re walking the edge… I like that, Kuna… but… I don’t know… this business… it’s like a fog… I can’t get hold of it… makes me crazy when I think about it… mostly I try not to… think about it, I mean. The Game now… that’s clean. Do you blame me for wanting that? Why didn’t Digby call me back? I’m not… I’m a sprinter, Kuna, I run out of go on a long trail. Goerta b’rite, I’ll be glad to get off this world… “ She sat up abruptly. “This is no use. Look. Have you got anything more from Sai?”

“No.” After a minute he amplified this. “He hasn’t been in to the office once. He runs the place through the com. I don’t know how to find him. Likely he’s trying to duck the Squeeze, if we believe your source.” He swung around and sat up, shaking himself as if to throw off the lassitude eating at him. “I can’t get a smell of him, Rose. I’m cut off…” He shivered, his eyes flickered restlessly. “I don’t think we can pin him, not in the time we have… with the Game being the limit. You want what he’s got on Mimishay, you’ll have to ask the kephalos.”

She grimaced. “I hear, Kuna. You don’t mind, I want you in that office in the morning, picking up everything you can get about keying in.”

“When will you go for it?”

“Sometime around the Game. Probably the night before. I don’t know. Depends on how things are, what you can get, how much time I’m going to need, how much noise it’s going to involve.” She sighed. “How desperate we are. Um. Hadluk says someone from Mimishay might be there, a Player. You can pin him as Omphalos?”

“Oh, yes.”

“Then we’ll see, won’t we.”

The dance began.

She won.

And won again.

She found a dressmaker and got clothes made, started the woman on a black dress like the one Hadluk remembered after so many years. Long hard years for her, harder for him, he was sculling round bottom. At first she’d been annoyed at him, telling her what to wear when she hadn’t asked, hadn’t intended to ask, then she changed her mind.

That was a good night, she’d been sure of herself. More than sure. It was magical now-from the time she rose in the morning until she went to sleep on the ship out-magical how everything she touched went right. She knew the value of talismans, for herself and for him. They gave that extra THING WITHOUT A NAME to people they touched. That night she’d tapped the flow and ridden it higher than she’d gone before or after. It was good to recapitulate, recapture, revivify that woman who was, that woman who KNEW. The local fibers didn’t have the special sheen of avrishum, but they had their own beauties and when she drew the heavy, rich, black material across her arm, the hairs on her spine stood up. Yes, this was going to be another magical dress, she felt it wake the power in her. She gave the woman the sketch and her measurements and paid the price for the cloth without a murmur of protest.

The Angatines set up a tent as close to the Kipuny Shimmery as Jao juhFeyn would permit and held a mourning service every night she played, starting their keening the moment she came round the corner. Whitened faces and bodies moved in a somber, slow dance to the steady slow thump of the drums. The Blind Woman chanted her exorcisms in a wild rough contralto.