Jo Clayton - Shadow of the Warmaster

“He did, besides there isn’t a man alive or dead who can match his touch.”

“Wish I’d seen it. Geres Duvvar was home, he told me about it, he said the Fehdaz was howling mad. Not that he liked the Nephew that much, it was the idea that some Hordar would have the nerve to lay hands on one of his Family. On one of the holy Huvved. Ktch!”

“Herk the Jerk. Yeh. He wanted to top every Hordar he could get his hands on, but his Sech talked him out of it.”

“Old Grouch? I’d have thought he’d be sharpening his ax for Hordar necks.”

“He’s scared of a Surge. You’ve been away a lot. I don’t think you really know how bad things are getting.”

“Hmm. So, what are you plotting now?”

She scratched at her forearm, rubbed a bare foot against the bitt. “Herky Jerky’s been hatching ideas again. Three months he’s had his hands on the Daz, he keeps thinking that ought to mean something, but every time he has a flash, Old Grouch digs the ground out from under him. I suppose he’s tired of it. From what we could find out, he maneuvered so the Grouch had to go to Gilisim Gillin to talk to the Grand Sech. Soon as the old man’s back was turned, Herk snatched some Farm boys who’d come in to gul Inci to visit relatives and carted them off somewhere, who knows why. Probably something to do with merm beds and rosepearls. Doesn’t matter what maggot he has in his head, we’ve got to pull them out. It was just luck, really, finding out what happened to them, a friend of mine was over the wall meeting me, we saw the bitbits make a snatch; we were too far away to stop it, but we managed to follow them to where a miniship was moored. They shoved the boy in the gondola and left. We thought about trying to get him out, but there were more bitbits around guarding the airship. No way we could reach it. Next day some other friends of mine managed to find out who was gone and where they might be. Some others and me, we’re going in after them, but we need a pilot. That’s it, that’s what we want you for.”

“In where?”

“Mountain Place.”

“I’ve flown out of Inci in that direction. Not over the Place. The winds there are tricky. It’s the steam out of the crater that does it. Fehdaz’s pilots know the currents; even so they pick their way and go in round noon when things’re quieter. What’s your ship like?”

“A mini.” She grinned at him. “Used to belong to Herk.”

“Hmm. The instruments?”

“Crude and crudest. That’s how Muhar Teget described them.”

“I didn’t know he was still alive.”

“He’s not. He’s the one in the Cleft.”

He gazed at her a long time, then looked away. “Get me fired?”

“No.”

“You followed me here.”

“Yes. I was going to see if you were off for a few days and might be able to fly for us. Muh said after him you were the best on Tairanna.” She combed her hands through her hair, spread them again, waved them; she seemed to like waving her hands about, maybe someone told her sometime they looked like little white birds. “Pushing my Luck,” she said. She dropped her hands into her lap, laced her fingers together. “I saw you shred that paper and made a guess, that’s all.”

“You know my name.”

“Ah.” Her mouth twisted into a half-smile. “That’s a bit of a difficulty.” She searched his face for a moment, then shrugged. “Why not, Grouch knows me well enough, he doesn’t need a name. Elmas Ofka, Family Indiz-Ofka-Tanggаr, Farm Indiz.” She hesitated, shrugged again. “Divorced, outlawed.”

He’d half suspected who she was, but it was a shock all the same. Elmas Ofka. They said she killed a Huvved who thought he was going to rape her, sank a knife in his belly and opened him up like a yunk carcass. He’d always thought that was somebody’s dream, that she probably stole some pearls or sassed a touchy tribute-collector. Every now and then the Huvveds got antsy and took hunting parties out searching for her, but they never saw hair nor heels of her, so they shot a few erkelte and pretended that was what they were out for. “You’re crazy to be here in daylight like this.”

“Crazy has its advantages.”

He laughed, he didn’t quite know why. “At least it seems to be working.” He rubbed thumb against middle finger, not sure what to say next. “Ah, who else is coming?”

“My isya. Cousins, some friends. Women. That bother you?”

“Not if you know what you’re doing.”

“We know.”

“Tonight?”

“Right. Herk’s had them three days already.” She was silent a moment. “One of them’s my brother.”

“Ah. Sorry.”

Her mouth tightened. “They will be. One of these days we’ll hang Herky Jerky from the Minaret and we won’t use a harness.”

“I need a little time to get used to the ship. You know the bay better than I do, what about the storm?”

“By the time we leave, it should be mostly blown out, enough rags left to give us cover. At Mountain Place any of the sentries supposed to be on the walls, they’ll more than likely be inside with a fire, no one’s going to be miserable for Herk the Jerk. If there are some mushbrains outside, we won’t have any problem spotting them.” She hesitated, made up her mind between one breath and the next. “Some aliens are living with us. They jumped the Wall at the Palace and happened onto us at a delicate moment.” Her hands fluttered, sketching metaphors for the embarrassment of both parties. When she noticed the expression on his face, she smiled and shook her head. “They won’t be coming with us.” She folded her hands again. “One of them was the Imperator’s own weaponsmith. Strange creature. He doesn’t like people much, and I got spanked for that kind of language when I was a girl, so I won’t try telling you what he thinks of our esteemed Divine One. He’s been making gadgets for us. Stunners and spotters you could wear in a ring almost. Sniperguns.” She narrowed her eyes at the sea, then the sky, chewed her lip a moment. “You can get away without eyes on you?”

“Yes. When and where?”

“You know the Dance Floor in the Watergarden out north of Inci?”

“Been there a time or two.” He tried a quick grin.

She grinned back, her eyes narrowing into crescents, her nose flattening. “I expect you have.” She sobered. “I’ll bring the ship down an hour after midnight, give or take five minutes each way. I can manage that much, there’s room for mistakes out there. We need to be at the Mountain Place around three hours before dawn. Will that give you enough play to get the feel of her before we start?”

“Too much. If I can’t learn her in twenty minutes, I might as well give up. Make it second hour, unless you’ve got a reason otherwise.”

“Second’s better, but I wanted to make sure you had plenty of time for test runs.” She slipped off the bitt, stretched, yawned. “Anything else?’

“What you expect me to do? Besides flying.”

“Nothing. You won’t be coming in with us. You’re the only one who can get us away from there.”

“Good enough.”

“See you tonight then.” A flutter of a hand and she was running away down the pier, her vitality printing her on his mind even after she vanished into an alley between two warehouses. He smiled. He felt a lot better now. He couldn’t tell anyone about this, but it went a long way toward erasing the sense of failure that’d been the worst effect of the layoff notice. His dread was gone, he could face the Ommar without feeling like a lump of yunkshit.

The wind was picking up, two fat raindrops splashed down on his head, trickled past his ears. Home and fast. From the look of those clouds and the height of the swells, they’d need all hands to get ready to ride this one out. Another raindrop broke on his nose, he wiped it away and started running toward the alley.