Venus of Shadows (41 page)

Chimene, along with her friend Lena Kerein, had gone to meet the new arrival in Oberg's main dome. They found two men loitering outside the bay. Both were tall; one had thinning brown hair and a short beard. The other seemed hardly more than a boy, in spite of his height; his thick chestnut hair curled slightly around his pleasant face. Each man was carrying a pack, and both had the glazed look of fatigue.

"Is one of you Sef Talis?" Chimene asked.

"I am," the chestnut-haired man replied.

She blinked, a little surprised. Risa had told her the man was young, but not how young. "I'm Chimene Liang-Haddad. This is Lena Kerein. My mother's Risa Liangharad, but she couldn't come herself because she has to work today, so she sent me to get you."

"Yes," the man said. "I was told someone asked for me. Guess I'm lucky I don't have to live in a tent right off." He smiled then; the smile made his face seem even more attractive. His teeth were white and straight, and she noticed that his warm brown eyes were flecked with gold.

"You're tall," Lena said. Chimene felt irritated with her friend for making such an obvious statement. "We don't have many people that tall."

"People grow tall where I come from — the Pacific Federation, in North America. They grow pretty tall in the Nomarchy of New Deseret, too — some of my mother's people came from there."

"We'd better go," Chimene said. "It'll be getting dark in a couple of hours." Sef hoisted his pack to his broad shoulders, shook hands with the other man, then followed the girls toward the main road. "I thought you'd be older," Chimene added.

"I'm almost eighteen. How old are you two?"

"Eleven," Lena said. "Chimene's ten."

"
Almost
eleven," Chimene said quickly.

"Maybe you can tell me a little about your household."

"Well, there's Chen," Chimene replied. "Liang Chen. He's my grandfather. He's old, but he's still pretty healthy. Then there's Bettina Christies — she's a physician. She and Chen are sort of like bondmates, but they never made a pledge. And there's Kolya — Nikolai Burian — and his bondmate, Emilia Knef, and they had a daughter a few months ago — her name's Irina. Then there's Paul Bettinas and his bondmate, Grazie Lauro, and their son, Patrick Lauro — he's about a year older than I am."

"Sounds like a good-sized household," Sef said. "And there's your mother and you, of course."

"Well, I don't actually live here — I'm just visiting. I've been living on Island Two with my father, Malik Haddad. His bond with my mother lapsed a little while ago."

"Malik's a teacher," Lena said. "He's kind of a scholar, too — he gives lectures and stuff for the Islanders, and even the Administrators sometimes go to them."

Chimene glanced at the brown-haired girl. When Lena made such comments, she was never sure if her friend was praising Malik or mocking him a little. "He's handsome, too," Lena continued. "My mother says she's never seen a better-looking man."

"I guess he must be to have such a pretty daughter."

Chimene blushed a little; now it was Lena's turn to look a bit annoyed. "Anyway," Chimene said, "Kolya and Emilia will put Irina in their room, so you can use hers until I leave." She was beginning to feel even more sorry that she would have to return to the Islands.

A cart rolled by toward the tunnel; one of the women on it was wearing a red and black sash. "I saw that sash on a lot of the pilots at the Platform," Sef murmured. "What's it mean?"

"They're members of Ishtar," Chimene explained.

"And what's Ishtar?"

"The fellowship of true Cytherians," Lena said in her slightly sarcastic tone. "It's sort of like a religion, and every settler's welcome to join. If you go to a meeting, they'll tell you all about it. My parents are thinking of joining soon."

"And are many people here members?" Sef asked.

"Not that many — about two thousand here in Oberg. They'd like everybody to join, but it doesn't look like they will. Still, they are kind of important — most of the pilots are members, and almost all of the patrol volunteers. If my parents join, I guess they'll have me join, too." Lena sounded indifferent to the prospect. "Kichi Timsen's the Guide — Ishtar's Guide. That makes her the most important member."

"Not really," Chimene said. "I mean, she
is
the Guide, but they're all brothers and sisters in Ishtar, so nobody's really more important than somebody else. It's just that the Guide and the people closest to her have broken through the things that divide other people. They kind of set an example, but they're not really more important — they just know not everybody's ready to live the way they do."

"The Guide can say that," Lena objected, "but she's still more important. Kichi —"

Chimene made a sign at her friend; Lena fell silent. For a moment, Chimene had feared that the other girl might tell Sef that they both occasionally went to the Guide's house, and if Sef ever mentioned that to Risa — Chimene shuddered. She had kept those visits a secret so far; Risa would never understand. Risa did not like Kichi Timsen. She did not know the kindly woman who listened to Chimene's confidences, spoke to her as if she were an adult, and looked forward to their talks.

"My mother doesn't like Ishtar all that much," Chimene muttered.

"Really?" Sef said. "But you seem to know something about it."

"Well, everybody does, but —" She waved at two other children as they came to the tunnel. "Risa just doesn't like them, that's all."

That seemed strange, the more she thought about it. Weren't Kichi and Risa working toward the same goal? Didn't Risa say that they were all Cytherians and therefore equals? Risa probably didn't like Kichi because the Guide had become more influential, and Administrator Sigurd spoke to her more often, while Risa no longer had as much influence.

"My father came here from a camp," Chimene said, wanting to change the subject. "So did Kolya, but he doesn't talk about it very much."

"I can guess why. I was in the camp outside San Antonio. It was hard — not many people try to get to a camp now, and the Guardians don't make it easy for the ones who do." He smiled down at her. "Seems it was worth the trouble now."

She smiled back; his smile made her feel warm inside.

*  *  *

Sef rested in Irina's room before joining the rest of the household for supper. Chimene listened intently as he told them all a little about himself. He was the only son of parents who had him late in life; they had apparently urged him to emigrate. He knew how to read a little, and he was willing to work. Risa seemed satisfied; that was just the kind of statement she liked to hear.

After supper, Risa and Nikolai took the plates to the kitchen, Emilia went to her room to nurse Irina, and Chen took out a few of his carvings to show Sef. Chimene sprawled on the floor near her grandfather, staring at Sef's large hands as they gently handled an image Chen had carved of her. "This is nice work," Sef said, "but Chimene must be a good subject."

"She is." Chen picked up a carving of Malik's head and shoulders. "This one's of her father. Maybe I can do one of you sometime."

"I'd be honored."

Chen got to his feet slowly. "You can leave them there on the table. I'd sit up with you for a bit, but I need more rest these days."

"Of course. Maybe I'll take a look outside, see what the dome's like after dark."

"Don't wander too far
,
" Chen said. "Some of the patrol might ask what you're doing. Normally, they don't bother people too much, but you're new and they might question you."

"I'll stay close to the house then," Sef responded.

"I suppose we need the patrol. They caught a man just about a month ago trying to take liberties with a woman, and a good thing they did. He's under restraint with a few others that caused some trouble, but still —" Chen paused. "It doesn't seem right to have settlers forced to wear their bracelets every time they go to their work, and having to live in that shack they put up in the main dome for them. I never thought I'd see that here."

"At least they can stay," Sef said as he stood up, "and maybe they'll learn something. We heard in the camp about some men who were executed a while back — that's worse."

"Risa was on our Council then," Bettina said from the corner. "She was one of those who passed that sentence." She looked down at the shirt she was mending. "You might as well know — somebody'd tell you that before long, and I can't see that she had too much choice. Whatever some tell you now, there wasn't anybody who spoke against it then, except Malik."

"Maybe their punishment wasn't worse," Chen said. "They had a hearing, and their sentence was to be a warning to others. No one ever thought they'd have to make a judgment like that again. I didn't know if the Council was doing the right thing, but now I wonder. A settler'd have to do something pretty bad to die like that, but some of the ones who get restrained now —" The old man gazed at the floor. "It's easier for people to do that, demand it from the Council, even when it's somebody who regrets something and probably wouldn't do it again. It's easier than trusting and finding some other way to make reparation, but it also means giving those people a chance to learn how to hate the rest of us."

Chimene bit her lip. Her memory of that hearing was a hazy recollection of crowds, Risa speaking from a platform, a man pleading for mercy, a sudden sharp stab of fear when she understood that the three men were to die after all. Her memory of the aftermath was more vivid — her fear of her mother, Malik's bitter words.

"I see your point." Sef cleared his throat. "I wouldn't want to have to decide anything like that, and it couldn't have been easy for your daughter."

"It wasn't." Chen moved slowly toward his room.

As Sef walked toward the door, Chimene said, "Want some company?"

"I don't see why not."

She followed him outside. "Let's sit there, under the trees," Sef said. "I'm a little too tired to walk around anyway." They went toward the trees and sat down near the path that led to the door.

"Why'd you come here?" she asked.

"I'm young and had nothing to lose. The most I could have hoped for on Earth was some extra credit to buy a little more comfort. I guess I wanted a chance to work for something else." She liked listening to his husky voice. "Your mother seems a fine woman," he continued. "Maybe another man's planning to make a bondmate of her if it's over between her and your father."

"She was seeing a man on her team, but I think they were just friends." Chimene plucked a blade of grass and toyed with it. "A lot of the men she knows have bondmates already, and the others — well, they'd have to decide whether to live with his household or hers, and she wouldn't want to leave this house."

"What about you, Chimene?" Her cheeks flushed as she heard him say her name. "What's it like on the Islands?"

"It's all right. It isn't like Oberg. More scientists live there, and other specialists."

"More Habbers, too, I guess."

She did not like to think of the Habbers. Every time she came back to the room she shared with Malik and found a message from him saying he would be back later, she knew where he had gone, and sometimes he didn't bother to return before first light. Once he had even brought Chimene to the Habber residence and had introduced her to a fair-haired woman, as if that Habber and his daughter could ever be friends. The Habbers seemed friendly enough, but Kichi Timsen had told her that Habbers wanted to lure Cytherians into closer ties with the Habs and seize the Project for themselves. She hated thinking of her father with one of their kind; Kichi would call it a perversion.

Maybe Malik thought he could act the way Sigurd did, but the Administrator was different. Sigurd might have a Habber woman, but some people said that was only his way of keeping an eye on the Habbers and staying in their good graces. Malik could not have such a motive.

"What's it like on the Islands for you?" Sef asked.

She felt flattered by his interest, but the subject was a painful one. "I don't know," she answered. "The students there — they're supposed to get along with us, but they really don't. The ones whose parents are workers aren't so bad, but the rest of them — they like to think they're a little better than we are just because they live on the Islands. They call us grubbers."

"But your father's on the Islands. That makes you just as much of an Islander as a dome-dweller, doesn't it?"

"Not really. My mother's here and Malik was once, and he came here from a camp, so they don't see him as a real Islander." Sigurd's favorite — that was how a lot of them saw him, but she couldn't tell that to Sef. Even worse, she knew that some of the Islander children believed that the only reason she had remained on Island Two for so long was because Sigurd allowed it as a favor to her father. She was quick enough at her lessons but not brilliant enough to be a potential specialist. Her teachers were always saying she could do better, but they didn't know what it was like to have schoolmates who thought one did not belong there.

"Kids can be hard," Sef said. "When they're older, they'll see how silly they acted. I'll bet some of them are jealous of you for being so pretty — maybe that's some of it." He ruffled her hair. Normally, she did not like it when people other than Malik patted her on the head, but she welcomed the touch of his hand. "When do you go back?"

"In two weeks."

"I'll be sorry to see you go."

He would be sorry to see her go! The statement thrilled her. She drew up her legs and rested her chin on her knees. "Oh, I'll visit again pretty soon," she said casually. "I won't be gone that long." She wanted to wish the months away.

"And what do you want to do when you're older?"

"I'm not sure." The door to the house opened for a moment, casting light along the path, then closed again. "Malik wants me to be a specialist, maybe even go to the Cytherian Institute, but I don't think I want to go to Earth, and they might not choose me anyway." She did not want to be chosen if others were going to assume that was another favor of Sigurd's. "I'm pretty good at botany, and that's useful, and Chen shows me how to repair circuits and things when I'm here."