The Ordinary (8 page)

Vitter led her to a garden between the Hormling-built structure and their quarters. He walked coolly forward without any indication he was anticipating company, and she walked into the building, ignoring him, before finding a side exit to enter the garden from that direction. Dew covered the ground, a green plant called fas, fragrant as if freshly mowed.

Vitter found her when she stopped to smell the ka-flower, nearly closed since the morning sun was almost over the garden wall. A scent so rich it made her head spin, and she wondered if the stories Brun had told were true, that there were places in Irion where the scent of the moonflower became so strong it sent a person into days of dreams. She was standing, getting her breath, and realized he was there.

“I'm glad you came quickly,” he said.

“I wanted to get away from there, believe me.” She shook her head. “I've never seen anything like that.”

He looked at her skeptically. “We have urgent concerns at the moment, if we want to live.”

“You think we're in danger? From the Erejhen?”

He was more pale and clammy than on the causeway in Montajhena, looking down at the sweep of the gorge. His thin hair was plastered damply to his skull. A wave of palpable fear swept him. “No, not from them.”

Past the garden she saw detachments of consular security officers running to the wall of the compound. Vitter was watching beside her.

She was dumbfounded, understanding something was happening very quickly around her; she needed to grasp what it was. She found herself leaning into the moonflower, trying to catch the last of the scent. His hand on her shoulder brought her back. “Jedda,” he said, “think quickly. Do you have any trading contacts who can help you and me disappear?”

Suddenly the garden was surrounded by commotion and security officers were running and shouting.

“It can't be done,” she said. “None of the Anin will give us shelter. Not after this. I don't have a trading mission approved, I'm only authorized to be here because of the delegation.”

“What do you need?”

“Approved trading papers. Forgeries won't work, the Prin always catch them.”

“I'll get papers for you,” he said, “real ones. From my ministry office here. Can you quickly think of some legitimate merchandise that you could be trading?”

“Are you serious?”

“Jedda, at any moment we are going to be confined inside the compound by our own people. No one here is going to get out of this.”

“Vitter, what are you saying?”

“Tarma,” he answered.

She understood in a rush and stared at him. She felt her first moment of real fear. Tarma's expression as the ships began to vanish, the planes to spiral down. The loss of face involved, having called for the bubble, having summoned the spectators to the ringside seat on the roof of the consulate to watch the Hormling army roll ashore.

“She's Orminy,” Vitter said. “None of us will get out of here to tell stories about this.”

But the scene as suddenly changed before their eyes. The commotion around them swelled and suddenly the garden was overflowing with other soldiers, Erejhen dressed in military uniforms that looked rather modern, but armed with blade weapons, and with something else that looked almost like a musical instrument that she later learned was a crossbow, and javelins to prod the Hormling to the courtyard near the main entrance to the Hormling building. Those metal blades and long sticks were apparently more effective than the energy weapons the Hormling carried, which had ceased functioning. The security people had small stomach for a fight anyway, not after they had watched a whole naval battle group disappear. No one was hurt, no one was fighting, everything was managed in quite a civilized way.

Jedda asked one of the soldiers, in Erejhen, what was happening, and when it was known she could speak the language the Erejhen soldier conducted Jedda to his commander, and the commander to hers, and soon Jedda found herself face to face with Tarma once again, this time as translator for the shock troops Malin had dispatched to occupy the consulate as soon as the fleet went down.

The name of the company commander was, naturally, Kartayn, and she was one of the thicker-set of the Erejhen, with a bone structure that appeared nearly clumsy. Not a type Jedda had seen often, though she was undeniably handsome in the face, like the rest of them. Kartayn ordered Tarma into the forecourt, dragged out of the building by the arm by two soldiers.

Such a fury had poured through Tarma when none of the Hormling were able to defend her from direct handling by her captors that she nearly curled round herself, spitting and hissing. When she saw Jedda, her eyes narrowed to needles and Jedda knew, without doubt, that Vitter was right. She was moving her lips, not making any audible words, and Kartayn turned to Jedda and asked, “What is she saying? Has she been injured?”

“No, Kartayn. She is simply not used to being touched by others and cannot abide it. She is of a very high rank among my people.”

Kartayn frowned, vexed. “I understood she was important but I did not understand she was possessed.” She spoke to her soldiers, who released Tarma at once.

Tarma looked at Jedda and asked, “What did you tell her?”

“That you are a very important official in the Hormling government and that her soldiers ought to treat you more gently.”

“You will speak to me, please,” said Kartayn.

Jedda translated for Tarma, who bristled, but stood there without response.

Kartayn, who had deep, clear eyes of a color that resembled red-hot flame, said to Jedda in a curt tone, “Please inform your superior that I have been sent here to prepare her for a visit from Thaan Malin.”

“Malin is here in Evess?”

“Yes.” Her tone had become quite dry. “Did you think someone else sank your ships? Malin came, and she did it. And now she is coming here to talk to this one.”

Jedda turned to translate, seeing how big Tarma's eyes had gotten, but before translating, she asked Kartayn. “What are we to do?”

“Wait.”

So she told Tarma and Tarma stiffened. “She says what? Malin came here and Malin sank the ships. What does that mean?”

Kartayn watched her and apparently understood the gist of the message through Tarma's delivery. “Tell your superior I am not here to treat with her or speak with her but I am simply here to inform her that Thaan Malin will be coming herself, and she will say all that needs to be said.”

Kartayn's tone had cooled several degrees and she delivered the words in a manner that left no doubt she was military, as terse as Tuk An had ever been.

Tarma became timid for a moment, hearing Jedda's translation. She had no training for defeat and was puzzled by it. “Wait where?” Tarma asked. “Am I supposed to stand here?”

Jedda said to Kartayn, “She understands she is to wait here but she is a weakling and has difficulty standing. Could you have someone bring her a chair?”

Kartayn gave a short laugh and spoke a command in that other mode of the language, so very musical. One of the soldiers brought a chair out of one of the buildings into the forecourt and set it at the bottom of the stone stairway.

Tarma sat and looked at her hands. Jedda had sudden pity for her, not because of any newfound sympathy with her personality but because Tarma now discovered herself a prisoner of war, or worse. She looked every bit as dazed as she must have felt, having watched so many million tons of Hormling military hardware sink to the bottom of the bay. How many people in a naval battle group? How many troops to occupy Evess? How much arrogance?

Tarma would not be thinking of this, however. She had been bred to coldness, one could see it in every line of her posture. She would be thinking about her captors, about the fact that the Hormling would not be kind to someone in her position.

Jedda looked around for the people she knew. Tuk An himself stood near the consul, both of them under guard. Jedda saw Melda and Kurn behind one of the foundation shrubs, half hidden, and saw Vitter against the compound wall and tried to catch his eye. After a while he nodded to her. She looked for Himmer as well, but he was nowhere to be seen.

There was chanting in the street outside, and then a line of people dressed in robes of dark colors. Files of these figures entered singing, and the sound made Jedda tremble. She saw that her reaction was shared by nearly everyone except the Erejhen soldiers. Even Evessan civilians, who had come to watch their soldiers, quailed when the chanting began and appeared as cowed by the sound as the Hormling, who had never heard a sound like that. Music to rake the bones. A sound to reach inside the head and shake.

Malin entered the forecourt without more ceremony. As soon as she stepped into the courtyard, the soldiers looked to the ground, and so did the ones chanting, who fell silent. Few of the Hormling were any better, most of them following the example of the Erejhen soldiers. Fear of her was palpable, even among her own people. But Jedda was fascinated and could not take her eyes away.

Breathtaking, the coloring of her skin, her hair, her eyes, same as before, in the middle of the mountain, when Jedda had first seen her. Her lips, so full and finely drawn. The face so awkward and sad, until one saw the eyes. Malin paced the length of the forecourt, stood under the five-story facade, and the light pooled around her like milk, like something she could wrap round herself, or weave with her hand. She was simply looking up. Jedda's heart had begun to pound.

Malin faced Tarma, looked at her for a long time. Without turning, Malin spoke. “There is one here who can translate for me, is there not?” She was speaking Erejhen. “I find I do not wish to speak the Hormling tongue.”

The Guard Commander volunteered that Jedda had been translating for the soldiers, and Malin beckoned with a hand but went on watching Tarma.

“I'm ready, Thaan Malin,” Jedda said, and at the sound of her voice, Malin turned.

A shiver passed through Jedda. For a moment Malin's eyes were golden, clear as honey, and then they were green again, the color of a spring forest shot through with light. She blinked, and Jedda heard the word, clear as day, “Opit.” Though Malin had not spoken and no one else had heard anything.

Jedda's heart raced. Malin turned to Tarma again. “Ask this one what she wishes me to do with her now? Would she like to sail into the bay and join the soldiers?”

Jedda hesitated and Malin said, her voice suddenly gentle, “It's all right, young one. She won't harm you.”

So Jedda asked the question and Tarma paled. Jedda kept her eyes to the floor. Tarma said, “I would prefer to be returned to my government. It is obvious that we have a good deal of reassessing to do, and I believe I could be of use in that process.”

She was pleading for her life, in the most delicate way. Jedda repeated the words to Malin. “This one would prefer to go home, if you will permit. She says she can be of use in explaining what has happened here to those who must understand.”

“She speaks without any subtlety,” Malin said. “She's afraid to die. Even more afraid to die than to go home. Ask her, how many of the Hormling drowned here? How many were on the ships?”

Jedda asked the question. Tarma, after some hesitation, said, “May I confer with the consul?”

Malin assented, without translation. Tarma and Fimmin conferred. After a moment, Tarma answered, “One hundred twenty thousand, including the land forces.”

Jedda translated. Malin laughed. “Land forces? What a nice way to put it. Occupying army, I believe that is the more accurate term. Tell her what I have said.”

Jedda translated, and Tarma said, “That is accurate. She is correct.”

“Look at me, little one.” Jedda heard and looked into those eyes again, a golden flickering through them. “I want you to make sure to get this right, not simply for this one who sits when others stand, but for all your people who remain. This is to show you who we are and what we can do. I sank your ships today, and I can do more if I need to. Say that much.”

Jedda spoke, and all around the Hormling started chattering, till Tarma snapped, “That's impossible.”

Malin gave her a warning look and she said nothing else. When Malin moved her head, hair shimmering in the morning light, the courtyard fell silent. Speaking again to Jedda, Malin said, “You Hormling have two days to leave Irion, all of you, except those few who have married here, who have two days to decide whether they wish to remain permanently. I have sent this word to all the cities along the coast and my word is obeyed in all those places. I have spoken to your associates beyond the gate and I have told them to send transportation for you at once. Your consul will arrange the evacuation of your people. I will allow the communication that is necessary to achieve this. After that, in two days, Irion will close the gate.”

Jedda repeated the words and a ripple ran through the room. Tarma said, “We won't allow it. You know that we can't.”

“I know you have no choice in the matter,” Malin said to her, directly, in Alenke. “What has to be done will be done. If you send warships into the gate again, they will join their companions at the bottom of your ocean. I have given this message already to those on your command ship and to those whose lives I spared today. I have nothing further to say to you. My Krii will see to your preparations to leave the compound.”

On her way out, she spoke to one of her associates, the one she had referred to as “my Krii,” then she was gone. The Krii stepped forward as soon as Malin vanished and said to Jedda, “Please, Malin had one more wish that I am to make true. Tell them all to wait.”

Jedda translated for Tarma, who stiffened, a look of ice in her eyes.

“Seven were in the delegation to Montajhena, is that correct?” the Krii asked. “Three of you are to remain behind.”

Jedda repeated this to Tarma, and Tarma washed completely white. The Krii said, blandly, “Reassure her that she is not to be one. We will keep, as our guests, the Hormling Himmer Taleratele of the Aesthetic Ministry, the Hormling Vitter Retnelta of the Planetary Ministry, and the Hormling Translator Jedda Martele. You three will please return to your rooms with my escort and pack your belongings for your journey at once.”