Michael Flynn - On the Razor’s Edge

“We never trained for this, ” Domino Tight said, by which he meant that, the chaos outside the window.

Eglay Portion pressed a button on his game console. “Aches!” he declared. Then, to Domino Tight, “Of course we did. Treachery and betrayal were our stock-in-trade.”

“No. I don’t mean … on the job. I mean against one another. Guard your Keep.”

Eglay Portion grunted and bent over the holodisplay. Some pieces were immobile once placed; others moved to various rules. The rules could change. He studied his options.

“There goes another one,” said Three.

A heretofore-darkened portion of the skyline lit up from the flash of a bolt tank. Domino Tight sighed. “That was Tina Zhi’s Residence.”

At that, the Technical Name appeared from a bright spark in the center of the room, her milky skin smoke smudged, her arms bundled with small objects that she tumbled onto an empty table, where they clattered and rolled. Méarana imagined a single sharp pluck on the highest string. The Name took short, gasping breaths. “But Gidula assured me…”

“Gidula assured many people of many things,” Donovan said. “But what he assures and what he can actually deliver are two different things. He bridled the tiger; now he must ride it. What did you learn out there?”

Tina Zhi ran a hand through her hair, leaving a streak of soot in its silver. “This is all I saved.” She spoke as if to the scattered bric-a-brac on the table. “This is all.” Then, to Donovan she said, “The boots are in it now. The district swoswai has overruled the Lord Protector and ordered all Protectors into the military cadre. Obdurate Protectors have been fired upon, and some have joined the Shadows.” She shook her head, her whole body. “Rumor claims that Ekadrina and Oschous have combined against Dawshoo and Gidula.”

“I knew the Fox would catch on sooner or later,” Donovan said.

“The fight proceeds at right angles,” Tina Zhi reported. “Loyalist and rebel fight rebel and loyalist.”

“Apparently, neither side much liked being manipulated,” the harper suggested.

The Name turned on her and for a moment the old terror blazed in her eyes, so that they seemed almost violet. But she could not maintain the fury, and sat heavily in a nearby chair.

Eglay Portion shook his head. “What price rebellion? What worth loyalty? It has reached the point of unreason. They fight because they have been fighting.”

“We really ought to do something,” insisted Three.

“What would you suggest?” asked Donovan, ostentatiously counting the room. Himself, a Name, two Shadows, five magpies, and a harper.

“I might play a suantraí and put them all to sleep,” said Méarana when his finger came to her.

Donovan grunted and turned back to the window, “When morning breaks, the world might be glad that there were those who stayed out of it.”

“I don’t know,” said Three. “My knife longs for a throat. What will I say when my apprentices ask what I did in the Great Rising? ‘I sat in a lounge and played Aches and Pains with Domino Tight.’”

“And lost,” said Domino Tight, placing a new Keep on a key locus. “What makes you think there will be apprentices? The Order is finished. The walls of the Lion’s Mouth are breached.”

The Fudir turned to Three. “Whose throat?”

Three waved his arm across the window view. “Whoever was responsible for this! ”

“Why, then, that would be Gidula; and there is this one thing you must know about Gidula. If you don’t go to him, then somehow he will come to you. This night’s battle has not yet begun.”

Pyati looked up in surprise. “You can’t mean that— ” And he encompassed all that transpired outside the Official Quarter. “—is no more than a diversion!”

Magpie Two was monitoring the building’s security. “Motion on the roof,” he announced. “Wait one. False positive. No further signal.”

Donovan tossed his head, and Number Four left the room so silently that Méarana had to check to make sure he was gone.

“I don’t understand,” said Domino Tight, “why the Names have not winkled to other worlds.”

“With what guarantee?” asked Méarana. “The Old Home-Stars may be as happy with Dao Chetty’s fall as they once were with Terra’s. Leap for help and this fight may yet spread.”

Domino Tight shook his head. “Too many stayed to be killed. It cannot all be for love of death.”

The Fudir nodded to Tina Zhi. “Tell them.”

“It’s Technical. They would not understand.”

Méarana, listening from the corner, decided that Tina Zhi did not understand, either. She had learned certain things by rote, nothing more. “You only have a few such devices,” the harper guessed, “and you don’t know how to make more.”

Pyati turned from the window. “I’m afraid,” he announced, and clapped his arms around his body. “I cannot explain it. But a deep, unreasoning fear grips me.”

Magpie Five nodded. “I feel it, too.”

None of the others were brave enough to admit this, but Méarana noted how the Shadows stirred and even Donovan buigh appeared uneasy. She felt it herself: a vague disquiet verging on flight. She shivered and crossed her arms over her shoulders. The air held a cold whiff of peppermint.

She smiled. “Company is coming.”

Oh, indeed, it was. Inner Child noticed that some shadows in the darkling steets below were moving. «Deadly Ones,» he told the others.

“Coming here? ” said the Technical Name. “To assassinate me? But I supported the Revolution!”

“How would they know you were here,” the Fudir asked, “and not in a greasy pall of smoke in the air above your Residence? No. Yon Shadows are not coming for you, but for the Vestiges.”

“Well,” said the Technical Name in a stern voice, “they cannot have them. The Gayshot Bo regulates their use.”

“I don’t think they intend to ask your consent.”

Three made an exasperated sound. “Four left the hallway door open when he went to check the roof.”

But the Pedant knew that Four had done so such thing. He flashed the headcount … Still nine.But that meant …

The Fudir sighed. “Greystroke, my old friend. How long have you been standing here?”

The ninth man, garbed in a nondescript shenmat, shrugged. “Long enough to know you may be glad to have me. Rinty?”

Little Hugh emerged from a corner of the room. Like Greystroke, he held a teaser, pointing down. Both stood with their backs to solid walls out of respect for Tina Zhi. Even so, every magpie’s hand dropped to his weapons belt. But Donovan held his hand out to his side with fingers splayed and they froze. Domino Tight, who alone had made no overt move, took advantage of the pause to move a piece in his game with Eglay Portion. His eyes shifted to Little Hugh. “Is Gwillgi with you?”

The answer came with the man as more Hounds entered the room, spacing themselves. Four was with them—not a prisoner, but not looking very happy, either. Bridget ban entered last of all. She always knew how to make an entrance.

The Fudir grinned at her. “What kept you?”

The Red Hound glanced past him, found Tina Zhi. “We are not here as your enemy. We have come for two things only. My daughter—and a glance at your Vestiges.”

“The daughter you may have,” said Tina Zhi. “It was not I who needed her. But to look on the Vestiges is not permitted. The sacred is not for the gawping eyes of the profane; and if I will not permit the approaching Shadows to see them, why would I permit the Hounds?”

“Red Hound,” said Greystroke, with a nod toward the widow. “This may not be the proper time to quarrel.”