No, he kept me well wrapped in bedclothes and padding,
Hasso did not say. He leaned on his staff and let his friends bring him sea-stars, fingerclams and crisped winterbracket from the round dining table.
:
But how could that Sketh have possibly been murdered? âeveryone's talking of it. And why
⦠?:
Hasso was not sure why, but the man was a bad-tempered brutal drugger who could not be trusted to take charge of othersâparticularly a young woman like Ekket who knew little of the world beyond her home. Gorodek had been a fool to trust him.
Perhaps it was planned to murder me and his Lyhhrt chose the wrong one. No. That Lyhhrt would not choose the wrong one.
Hasso took firm control of these thoughts, and kept them buried under many heaps of other thoughts, beneath all of the facts that Tharma assured him would frighten everybody away.
Across the room he could see her, a big hearty woman who looked too serious now to be approachable. He was still searching for his Interworld contact when Isska, a retired Court Recorder so bent with age she was not very much taller than he, brought him a bowl of soothing petal-brew and sipped from it herself first. :
Never know what can fall into these concoctions:
and Hasso was struck by the sense of conspiracy and expectancy that Sketh's murder was fostering, thinking that fear and suspicion always found fertile ground.
Expectancy was fulfilled soon enough by a stir in one corner that sent a wave of reactions among the guests: those wearing helmets raised their hands to check the latches. This movement almost amused Hasso for a moment; his friends were mild-mannered academics and minor officials who
might have liked to have more interesting secrets than they did.
Hasso heard a whisper of
ek, there's Gorodek!
and the stir swelled into a close procession of burly men in liveries of copper-colored silkweed sashes with thaqwood staffs and rattling clogs. Hasso had never seen the Governor of Western Sealand in person, and had not paid him much attention on TriV. In a space between one fellow's snout and another's tail he saw a little shrunken man with a pot belly taking two steps for every one the guards took.
And Gorodek's sash was also dark and narrow, its buttons of copper like his simple mesh helmet.
Behind him, in blue-green moire winesilk and too many heavy gold necklaces, Ekket followed, stepping in her sandals as if she were treading beds of coals. She did not look to left or right.
The sight of her was a tightness of the heart; Hasso turned away and would have left the feasting then, but the procession stopped before him, and Gorodek came forward, harshly drawing air: “Hasso, are you!”
“Yes, Governor.” Hasso showed his tongue.
Gorodek wagged his massive head back and forth: “I don't see your Lyhhrt friend around hereâperhaps he's shy and doesn't care for our company!”
Nor I yours
, Hasso very nearly said aloud, but was saved by a mindwave that swept him with relief: “He's sure to be here, Governor. Here he is coming now!”
The crowd fell away on its own to let through the slim and brilliant figure.
“Yes. It seems I was mistaken,” Gorodek said. He was staring as if his eyes could penetrate that casing. “But we are all delighted to see him, are we not?”
“I certainly am,” Hasso said meekly. “I am sorry for the loss of your aide Sketh.”
“Are you truly? Be grateful that you still have yours,
Archivist!” Gorodek turned away and his troop fell in around him.
Hasso shivered, not from fear but because in Gorodek he could see himself shrunk into embittered age, and he thanked his Saints that he had never wanted power over people. He turned to the Lyhhrt. “You make this time and place bearable to me.”
:You see, Archivist, that I have decided against being fearful.:
The Lyhhrt could make sure that no one paid overmuch heed to him, but now he was splendid in gold with star patterns, centered with diamonds. He had called himself a bejeweled fool, but had not thrown his jewels away.
Hasso sensed that the display was meant to bolster his own spirit. “That doesn't mean you should not be cautious, dear friend, but I am very glad to be with you here.” And this feeling supported Hasso through an hour of pretending to enjoy himself, nibbling and sipping, allowing himself to be presented on the dais as an honored guest, watching the performance of a Kylkladi dance troupe so furious and energetic that it sent their feathers flying, and listening to a brace of Bengtvadi playing mournfully out of tune on nose-flutes. Whenever he shut his eyes he could see Ekket chained in gold, and when his patience ran out he pleaded a genuine tiredness; his body seemed very heavy to him.
The Lyhhrt walked him back down the long cold halls to his room. At the doorway Hasso pushed his mind away from Ekket and said,
:I have not seen or heard anything of our Interworld contact, and that makes me uneasy ⦠we will find out tomorrow
⦠:
For one moment the Lyhhrt stood so still that his diamonds did not glitter. Then,
:I believe we are about to find that out tonight, Archivist. May I come in with you?:
Hasso's scales rose. “Certainly.” His hand trembled on the latch, but he pushed the door open and went in.
:
We don't need light.:
In the darkness with the Lyhhrt beside him Hasso stood again at the center of the room, leaning on his staff. The moons were rising; they cast the black shadows of the rock spurs and the mesa that was barely of a size enough to be the platform of the great ship.
:Over there
⦠:
His attention sharpened as he caught a movement at the corner of his eye and found a shadow that had not been there before.
A new mindvoice said, :
I have been waiting for you but I have not much more time
.:
:Whoâ:
But Hasso recognized the mind of a majestic woman named Reddow, a former protégé of Skerow's who also lived in the Northern Spines: his contact from Interworld. She was crouched outside the building in the angle of pillar and window, alone and in tears.
:What are you doing here, Consul Reddow? Go around and come in!:
:I cannot. There is a switch on the pillar to your left. Touch it and come out.:
Hasso did this and the glass pane slid away; he stepped out onto the esplanade into sharp moonlight. The Lyhhrt did not follow.
“Don't look at me,” Reddow said sharply. “There are spy-eyes in that room. Pretend I'm not here. If you are seen talking to me it will go badly for you.”
:I have shut down those eyes
,: the Lyhhrt said.
Hasso could not keep his own eyes turned away. “What happened?”
“I have simply been sent away,” Reddow was trembling. “Told my services were no longer needed.” She went on bitterly, “They gave me ticketsâ”
“Who are âthey'?”
“The court clerk and two attendants, people I hired myself! Tickets for the barge leaving empty at midnightâa
cargo vesselâto meet the ship that will take me home in the morning, and a sum of money that they said was the rest of the salary due meâand I will be so disgraced I will have no way of finding work except in my own local office!”
Willy-nilly, Hasso found himself in her mind, tasting her hot tears, and sensing an odd blankness. “Did no one give you a reason?”
“Noâbut I believe it must have to do with what we were going to discuss ⦠.”
Hasso said slowly, “You wereâyou are the superior officer of those clerks, Consul. Why did you allow them to treat you that way?”
Her head rose slowly. “That way?”
With care Hasso said, “It's you who have power over them. You needn't have obeyed them.”
Slowly her body lifted from its crouch. She said wonderingly, “It never occurred to me not to do so.”
“Yes,” Hasso said. “I believe your mind has been under some stranger's influence.”
“Who is it?”
“I'm not sure,” Hasso said, although he was. Except for his own friend there was only one other being who might have the power. “I think you will find everything as it should be if you go back to your room now ⦠and we needn't discuss our important business for a day or two ⦠we do have that much time.”
“But what am I to do with the ticketsâand the money?” Reddow said faintly, trying to fight through the mist lingering in her consciousness.
“My impulse would be to say: Tear up the tickets and keep the moneyâbut I believe it might be safer to return them to your clerks. Tell them: Take care of these. They might not have realized the seriousness of what they were doing, and that way you will not ever be accused of theft. Are you feeling a little better?”
“Very much so, Hasso, and thank you.”
“I think it will be safe to leave now.”
He did believe that it was safe.
The shadow moved away from the esplanade.
:
You handled that very well, Archivist, and it is safe for now
,: the Lyhhrt said, as Hasso snicked the bolt on the glass doors. :
Now I will go take care of those clerks. If they should ever realize what has happened, they will not mind my help in reversing such embarrassing actions. And eventually I will find that Other â¦
. :
The Lyhhrt's loneliness burned like Reddow's tears.
Â
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Fthel IV,
In the Forest House
:
One of Those Days
Â
Tyloe spends his time looking and listening for he doesn't know what, he eats and drinks and works out on all the machines in a big high vaulted room with arched windows filled with a hushed green light, among all those snaking steel tubes and springs, it's like a gothic torture chamber; sometimes a couple of the thick bluejawed men or hardknuckled women will spar with gloves or the chebok, nobody asks him, few speak to him other than Brezant and Lorrice, the only ones that trust him. And she wants to keep him onside. So after the errands and the workouts and watching trivvy locked on Brezant's favorite porn station, it's eat and drink some more.
Now he's sleeping it off after another day of all them snarling over wasted supplies, money not come yet and a bunch of shitheads getting lost looking for enemies in the wrong direction. Another night of her thoughts drifting into his dreams, though more often lately, mercifully, she's been wearing that red lattice helmet and closing her mind down
against him, she keeps her sexual feelings for her employer ⦠.
But now the dreams are flowing into that dim room whereâ
âin jeweled shoes and red silk stockings with gold cord garters she's crouching beside Brezant on the bed while his hands run over her everywhere, dermcap on his wrist giving off a bead of lamplight while the karynon darts into every branch and rivulet of his bloodstream, his eyes flash with every pulse. The timer ticks faintly.
I love you
, she whispers.
Yeh sure, babyâgimme, baby, gimme right now!
She mounts him mouth on his, heartsbeat!âheartsbeat!âit's the height of the history of the Universe!âhe pulls his mouth away to roar his violent joy!â
(Tyloe in sleep feels this)
âand now they're boiling into the room, doorslam, Istvan, Oxman, Demarest, thick men in shadow-suits pulling her off him, falling on him with beating fists gruntingâ
thought you were the whole Big Man you stupid arsehole hireling
âripping the bracelet with its poison-cure off her wrist, shoving her in the corner, screaming she staggers up to grab at the bracelet, they punch her down, she's sobbing, breathless, Brezant howls
Give me! Give me
!â
The timer rings.
Â
Â
Tyloe jumps up every nerve-end firing, no, not a dream, flings off covers and runs, slamdoor through her room, to Brezant's through that other adjoining, heavy ancient door, Tyloe's on themâ
âgrabbing the nearest pair of feet and hauling till the rest of the body drags off the bed and the head hits the floor thudding, does not quite duck number two's fist shaving his skull, but backs himself on the bedpost and raises a knee to
shove a foot in the thick belly twice before Two is flung back and flattens Three, pulls up Lorrice by the arm in rough haste, Brezant thrashing and screamingâ“I can't stand it! I can't! Give meâgive me the fuckingâ”
Tyloe's got a grip on his arm, panting, “Help me, help me get'm outa here!”
She's yelling too, “It's poison, it's killing him! Where's theâ”
Istvan is on hands and knees retching but Oxman and Demarest are scrambling up reaching for stunners, and Tyloe, who has depended on speed, can't match the strength of any of them; through her mind Tyloe senses the dark figure of Hummer outside the door, waving her zapâ“Lyhhrt here! Lyhhrt landing!”