Jo Clayton - Shadow of the Warmaster

The collapsed eye was still shut, sealed with blood and mucus, but the other eye was open and filled with pain and triumph. “Herk. He…”

“I know. We’ll hang the bastard for this.”

His mouth stretched in a shaky gaping grin. “Fazi, what’d he want? Why’d he grab you?”

“Rozh… ’earlz. W-w’ere…”

“He wanted to know where the beds are?”

“Y-yeh. Din’ know… w-we cu’un’t tell him.”

“He didn’t know he should’ve taken women?”

“Nu no. W-we din’t t-tell him. Tan tang’z curse him. W-wu’n’t tell him nothin…” He was breathing hard, growing visibly weaker. When he tried to speak again, Elmas Ofka shushed him.

“I’ve got it,” she said. “Tangus cursed him, wouldn’t tell him spit. None of you told him anything. Look, Fazi. The isya is going to give you something so we can get you out of here.”

He stirred, agitated. A broken hand clawed at her arm. “No,” he managed. “Lea’ me… ’nzide… buzted.” He closed his eye, his mouth moved; he said something, she couldn’t hear it, had to bend down until her ear brushed his lips. “Kill me.”

She pushed away from him, pressed her fingers to her eyes. After a moment she sighed, nodded. “Yes.” She unclipped her darter. “Thou my brother, thou my lover, may thy return be in happier times.” She shot him, sighed again and got to her feet. Hessah Indiz was trembling, her eyes glazed. Elmas Ofka wrapped her arms about her isya, held her tight until she stopped shaking, then she stepped back. “Let’s get out of here.”

After a quick look at Elmas Ofka, Karrel Goza busied himself with the controls, holding the miniship level in spite of the erratic winds bouncing off the cliff. As soon as all the isyas were climbing the ladders, he began venting air, taking the ship gradually higher until they were inside and the hatches were closed, then he sent the ship angling steeply upward, where he caught a tail wind and went whipping back toward gul Inci.

The sky was clearing rapidly, starsprays newly brilliant in the rainwashed air touched the seaswells below with subtle grays; Elmas Ofka watched the wrinkled water pass beneath them until she saw the shore approaching. She glanced at Karrel Goza. He was cat-quiet again, knitting steadily at a sleeve; he had a gift for silence; she hadn’t appreciated it before, but it worked to ease the pain in her. “They were dead. All but one and he was dying.”

“Ah.”

“You were right. Herk didn’t know.”

“And he still doesn’t, mmh?”

“The boy said they didn’t tell him. I don’t know.”

“You going to warn the Families?”

“Not me. How can I? Someone will, I’ll see to that.”

“Going after Herk?”

She sat rubbing her hands back and forth along the chairarms, her eyes fixed on his face. “Yes,” she said finally. “You in?”

“Yes.”

She nodded. “It’s time to do something.”

“He’ll be expecting it.”

“Herky Jerky? Never, who’d dare.”

“What’d you do with the guards? Dead? Thought so. Then he’s got a pile of dead men inside his Palace and a litter of footprints in his veggies, might be enough to shake some sense into him.”

“Doesn’t matter. We’ll just have to be cleverer.”

“You know what worries me most?”

“I’ve a suspicion. The Sech?”

“Yeh. We all better keep our heads down while he’s nosing around. Your brother being in it, he’ll be after the Indiz. And the families of the other boys. Um. Sorry I didn’t think about this before, your footprints, they’ll be too small for men, the Grouch, he’ll probably bounce the Dallisses around. All the divers.”

She smiled. “We’ve been doing this a while, Karrel Goza. Things being the way they are, it doesn’t matter that much about me, the Sech will have more than a suspicion who ran the raid; still, no use presenting him with proof so he can make trouble for the others. We took care of that little problem before we called you back.”

“Sorry about that.”

“We appreciate the thought.”

“Dance Ground coming up, a couple minutes.” She looked at the clock. “We made better time than I thought.”

“Tailwind.”

She smiled at him, it felt good to smile again, the tight thing in her chest was beginning to open up. “Good pilot is more like it.”

“Could be.” He grinned back at her.

“You can give us a little extra time?”

“Sure.”

“Put Windskimmer to bed for us.”

“ Windskimmer ?”

“Her name.”

“Nice.”

“Sssaa, you!”

“Nah, I mean it. Things I was flying had names like Fud 40 and Kek 10, you can’t do much with Fud.” He reached for the panel.

“Wait. We usually don’t land where we took off. There’s an old wharf out east of Inci, no one uses it any more. Let the isyas down there.”

“Gotcha. I’d better make a wide sweep round, don’t want to wake the nightwatch.”

“Yes.” She swung the chair around. In the dim gray light she saw her isyas sitting with their knees drawn up, arms crossed on them, looking very different now. They’d changed from their blacks and were back in blouses and skirts and sandals, there was nothing on them to show where they’d been or what they’d been doing. “Tomorrow evening,” she said. “Those of you who can come to Yuryur Beach. Unless there’s trouble, I’ll meet you. We need to say Avvedas for our boys. Say them in your soul if you can’t be with us. As I might have to do. If I can’t be with you, I will be thinking of you all, my blessings, my sisters. Forget Herk until the Avvedas are said, then, my sisters, my loves, think how we can pay him without destroying our Families. My blood is cold, my sisters, my blood is ice. He will not live to boast what he has done. There is no hurry to it, there is no urgency in it, there is certainty beyond all question. Herk will pay. It may take years, but Herk will pay.”

1. Three months std. after the meeting on Telffer.

Helvetia.

It took the usual day and a half to work through the Helvetian perimeter fortifications and stash Slancy Orza in the parking grid; there was also the usual argument over leaving Kinok and the current Kahat on board, but everyone knew the idiosyncrasies of the Sikkul Paems, so the objections were perfunctory; I bought an exception permit and that was the end of that. Getting onto Helvetia’s surface is tedious, tiring and at times humiliating, but nobody complains; in a chaotic universe where currencies are wildly various and often of dubious value, Helvetia offers a means of assessing and balancing values plus the register circuit for contracts and other services no single government or group of governments can provide. Access to Helvetia is sometimes vital and at all times useful to anyone trying to trade beyond the borders of his/her local hegemony. If you want Helvetian services, you play by Helvetian rules.

Whistling snatches of songs I’d picked up here and there (a habit of mine that Kumari never appreciated, but she wasn’t there at the moment) I ran through Slancy ’s defenses, making sure she was thoroughly buttoned up before I left her. Even with Helvetian security watching the grid and Kinok nesting down in the driveroom, I wasn’t going to underestimate the talents of the types Bolodo could afford to hire. Especially after watching Adelaar work over those defenses on the way here. Like most of us she found insplitting a complete bore and preferred to have something to occupy her, so she was paying part of her fee ahead of time. What I was getting at, after watching her I wasn’t as happy as I wanted to be, anybody with her talent could peel my poor Slancy like an overripe orange. Given time. Which I hoped Security wouldn’t give them. So, having gone completely round the circle, there I was playing with what I’d got. I was finishing up when Adelaar came onto the bridge. I looked over my shoulder and smiled when I saw the rapier she’d buckled on; no fancy ornament, it had a used and useful look. “You’re well prepared,” I said.