A Bait of Dreams (9 page)

“It ate him?”

“He's lasted longer than most.”

She swallowed. “You knew what it was. Have you ever.…”

“Once.”

She watched the Crow's beak dip out of sight, remembering the egg-shaped crystal that had tripped her up one morning in a street in Carhenas, remembering the images it brought to shimmer around her, butterfly people wheeling and dipping under a golden sun, glorious, enticing images that had nearly sucked the soul out of her body—had nearly eaten her like the Eye had eaten the Empty Man. “I found an Eye when I was still bonded,” she said very softly, stroking the brands on her face, speaking from a need she couldn't define.

He moved her fingers aside and touched the two brands. “Dangerous for a bonder.”

“I know.” She pushed his hands away. “Deadly.”

“What happened to it?” He waited but she said nothing. “Did you sell it to buy your bond?”

“No. Who'd buy such a thing from a branded thief? I threw it away.”

“Why? How?”

“It tried to own me. All my life I've had to fight to keep a piece of myself for me.” The whispered exchange had a strange soothing quality. She found it absurdly easy to say things to the dark form beside her that she'd never spoken of before, even to Temokeuu. “The beauty—that was the hardest thing. You know.”

He hesitated then said slowly, “Yes. I know.”

“Everything around me was so ugly. It would have been easy to give in, except.…”

“It would have eaten you.”

She nodded even though she knew he couldn't see her, looked up at him. “Some things cost too much. You must know that.
You
broke free.”

He was silent a long time. At first she thought he wasn't going to say anything. She turned back to the window, feeling better as the Crow's tail inched down behind the sill. “I've had training to resist such things,” he said finally.

“Shounach?”

“What is it?”

“Do we stay awake all night?”

“How do you feel?”

“Sore. Tired. Otherwise all right.”

“Feel up to taking first watch?”

“Yes. Go to sleep. I'll wake you at Zebset.”

Shounach shook her awake. She opened her eyes, blinked when she saw how light it was. “It's late.”

He pulled her to her feet. She turned slowly, looking around. The room was empty except for two thissik standing by Korl's body. “Where are the others?”

“Sent to work. The thissik on the left speaks some parsi. When they saw the body, he asked what happened. Captain's crew told them.”

“I can imagine what they said. What about you?”

“No one was asking me.”

“Why didn't you wake me?”

“You were tired. Might as well sleep.”

The thissik finished the examination of the body and came to them. “You come.” The speaker pointed at the door. “To Keeper.”

Thissik went in and out of the Day Court ignoring the two standing by the shell table. When the Keeper finally appeared, he looked wearier than ever. He moved slowly past them and sat behind the table. “A man is dead.” He straightened his back. Gleia felt her back ache in sympathy when she saw the effort he put into that small movement. “We were told you killed him.”

“No.” Shounach smoothed his hand over the side of his bag. “Putting a woman in with two dozen men was idiotic. Bound to cause trouble.”

“I don't know your customs.” The Keeper's hands twitched and his eyes turned restlessly about the room, avoiding Gleia. With a quiet dignity, he said, “Whatever the cause, a man is dead at your hands, Fox. Yes, I know you.”

Gleia was tired of being ignored. Without waiting for Shounach's answer she burst out, “That's wrong. He didn't touch the man. After I cut him up, one of his own crew finished Korl.”

“The woman fought the man?” The thissik shifted in his chair, losing the momentary calm he had acquired as she spoke. He still would neither look at her nor speak directly to her. He seemed to have trouble even speaking about her.

“Yes, I fought him,” she snapped. “I didn't feel like being mauled about by that …” Her lips closed over the words she wanted to say. Temokeuu had finished what the Madarmen had started, giving her a certain fastidiousness about the language she used. “I didn't kill him. Why should I? Hamstrung, he was no danger to me. Ask your own men. Two cuts on his arms, deep slashes on the back of one hand, a cut on his leg, the hamstringing. Those are my marks. The neck stab was a present from his crew.”

The Keeper's ears twitched. The tip of his tail moved over the tiled floor, scraping slowly at the small bright squares. Once again he straightened his slumping body and spoke to the guards in the squealing whistling thissik tongue. He listened intently to the reply then stared down at the table, a short thin forefinger moving idly over the translucent sections of shell cemented together to make the table top. The tip of his tail tapped rapidly at the floor. At last he sighed and leaned back in the chair. “Do you confirm, Fox?” When Shounach spoke his brief affirmative, he nodded. “To prevent more trouble, the woman will be housed apart.”

Gleia laced her fingers through Shounach's. “Let him be lodged with me.” She felt a flicker of amusement at the annoyance in the Keeper's weary face. His expressive tail was jerking about like a demented snake. Her voice bubbled with that amusement when she spoke again. “You wouldn't be bothered by me then; he could do the talking.”

The Keeper's mouth twitched but he quickly suppressed the smile. “An extraordinarily convincing argument.” His tail jerked upright, the tip swaying gently just above the top of his head. After his momentary lapse in courtesy when he responded almost directly to Gleia, he was very much on his dignity. “The woman will cover her face in the presence of the thissik. She will not speak to the thissik. You both will work. The guard will direct. If there is any more difficulty, you will speak, Fox. The woman will not come here again.” Without waiting for an answer he put his hands flat on the table and pushed himself erect with some difficulty then marched past them, tail held high.

As they followed the guard out of the Endhouse, Gleia glanced idly toward the pier. She gasped, then broke away and ran down the slope into the arms of one of the seaborn waiting there. “Tetaki-my-brother, what happened? How'd the thissik get you?” Her eyes moved over the startled faces of the seaborn. “Mladuu? Drazeuu? Chikisui? And the rest of you? Can't say I'm glad to see you here, ornamented like me.” She tapped her finger against one of the ring weights.

Tetaki hugged her, then grinned. “In the middle of trouble as usual, Gleia-my-sister. I was almost expecting you to show up.” He touched the ring around her throat, scowling to hide his distress, then stroked a finger across the thief brand on her cheek. “The thissik weren't in any mood to honor embassies. Before I could open my mouth they had the collars on us.” He glanced past her. “Your escort is getting impatient.” His arm about her shoulders, he walked her back down the pier. “I saw Jevati last night,” he murmured when they were far enough from the others. “When the thissik took you, she went deep and came straight here.”

Weak with relief, Gleia stumbled and would have fallen except for his supporting arm. “She must have been worn to a thread.” She looked up the slope at the agitated guard. “What are you doing for them?”

“Salvaging material from the starship. They herd us out there in the morning, bring us back just before Horli-set.”

She stopped at the end of the pier, turned, put her hand on his arm. “If I can, I'll promote a swim around Horli-set so we can talk.”

“Take care.” He stepped away from her and strolled back to the others as she returned to Shounach and the guard.

Tail switching back and forth in nervous annoyance, the guard marched along the path kicking up clouds of powder ash. Shounach scowled at her. “That was a damn fool thing to do. You might have been killed.”

Gleia smiled at the guard's stiff back and twitching tail. “Would they shoot a woman?”

“Don't press your luck. Who's your fish friend?”

“My brother.” She giggled at his grunt of disbelief. “Adopted of course.” Her eyes narrowed. She licked her lips, spoke slowly and very clearly, her voice deliberately pitched to reach the guard's ears. “Our father is a very important man among the seaborn. When he hears about this.…” She broke off with a little cry of pain as Shounach's fingers closed hard around her neck. “What.…”

He looked disgusted. “Stupid,” he muttered. “Why not just beg them to burn you?”

“Oh, damn.” She rubbed at the bruise on her neck, feeling as stupid as he'd named her. “I didn't think of that.”

The guard waited for them at the tumbled gateposts of Threehouse. “Stay here,” he told Shounach. “I fetch tools.”

Shounach watched him trot off, his short legs scissoring rapidly through clouds of pale gray powder ash. “How is your father supposed to learn about your captivity?”

Gleia brushed off one of the gate stones and sat down. She rubbed at the dust on her hands, then sat watching her toes wiggle. After a minute she said, “Why should I tell you?”

“That's up to you.” He stroked long fingers over the smooth material of the bag he never left behind and smiled blandly. “The guard just went in Endhouse. I wonder why he did that.”

“You win.” She stretched and patted a yawn away. “Tetaki told me a friend of mine is out there free. A seaborn. She saw me taken and followed.”

“Good friend?”

“Very. Like a sister.”

“And she's gone to tell your father what happened?”

“Temokeuu already knows they're here—the thissik, I mean. He sent Tetaki to them. Could be the Council is discussing this right now.” She shrugged. “Could be not. Jevati—my friend—is staying around to see if she can find some way to help, I'm sure of that.”

His fingers began tapping slowly on the material of the bag. “Has she any weapons?”

“A knife. All seaborn carry knives. Why do you take that bag with you all the time? And why didn't the thissik take it away?”

His mouth curved up. He dipped into the bag and pulled out two shimmering blue spheres. He popped one into the air then the other. They caught and threw back sparks of Horli's crimson as he kept them swinging in an easy rhythm. “The tools of my trade,” he said. “Not that easy to replace.” He kept the spheres going a moment more, then caught them and slipped them back in the bag. “Nothing else in the bag; why take it. Our little friend had just come out of the Endhouse. Not hurrying now.”

“Think I've really wrecked things?”

“Wait and see.” He looked across the bay. “Your friends are in a boat heading out. They seem to be on a longer tether than the rest of us.”

“They have to be. They're bringing up things from the ship.”

“Ah.” He moved his fingers thoughtfully along the gray metal of the ring. “Ingenious things, these. They let a handful of guards control a much larger number.” He grinned. “To get them off we'd have to part the Keeper from the key. But we can't get close enough to take the key from him so we can get close enough to take the key. If you see my point.” He wheeled suddenly and stared at her.

“Your friend? Jevati!”

Their words crossed and both started laughing. He pulled her off the stone and swung her around and around until she was breathless, then he set her back on her feet and smiled down at her. His thumb caressed her cheek, moving across and across the brands. Then he bowed his head and his mouth moved softly on hers.

Gleia pulled away, rubbed the back of her hand across her mouth. “Don't. I don't like it.” She let her hand drop. “If it's a problem for you, I pay my dues. I won't enjoy it, but that's never mattered much before.”

The expression went out of his face. “I'm not that much in need.”

The day passed slowly. Gleia worked inside Threehouse, digging at the ash that had drifted through broken windows and shoveling it into sacks constructed from a tough coarse fabric that made her itch whenever it touched her skin. When one was full, she dragged it outside and Shounach carried it away. When he wasn't carting off her bags, he was digging at the ash banked up against the walls. The thissik guard kept after them to work faster. They were permitted a short rest and given a cold lunch at midday then sent back to work under the nervous harassment of a new guard.

At Horli-set Shounach laid down his shovel. “Gleia,” he called. “Quitting time.”

She tottered out of the building. “I ache all over,” she moaned. “And look at my hands.” She spread them out. Fluid from two broken blisters cut trails through a layer of grime. “I've got to have a bath.”

“Got an idea.” He climbed the slope to the ruin where the guard was sitting. About midafternoon the thissik had gotten increasingly shrill and agitated. His tail had gone limp and started sweeping about in the powder ash. Eventually he'd retreated to the shattered building and spent the rest of the time crouched in a corner where the roof was still intact.

Gleia watched as they talked. At first the guard was stiffly unreceptive. Shounach waved his arms about. She couldn't tell what he was saying though the sound of his voice floated down to her. The guard turned his head from side to side; his tail twitched then seemed to sag. Shounach waited. Finally the guard shrilled a few words and turned his back on the Juggler.

Shounach trotted back to her, grinning, jumping nimbly from rock to rock. He stopped beside her. “Want to go for a swim?”

“Do you need to ask?”

Gleia splashed happily about in the shallow water. Her filthy cafta floated up around her but she ignored that and scrubbed at herself with handfuls of coarse bottom sand, ignoring also the stabs of pain from her blistered hands. She sighed with pleasure and watched Shounach paddling about a little farther out. “This is a marvelous idea.”