The Diamond Deep (60 page)

The man who had spoken looked down at Ruby. “Can you walk?”

She couldn't. Not very far. But Ix and Aleesi were under her chair, and now they couldn't move them.

“No.” Joel took the decision away from her. “She needs to use the chair or she'll be too tired. I'll push her.”

The man was staring at Ruby. “So it's true? You really are sick? I heard about your fall, but I didn't think it was real.”

Ruby nodded. She couldn't speak, not and keep her temper and her tears both away.

“Very well. You can keep the chair.” With no more ceremony that that, the leader turned around and started walking for the door. The other three stood and waited. Joel pulled Ruby away from the table.

“I'll go with you,” Lya said.

“Only these two,” one of the uniformed men told her.

Lya looked sincerely regretful, almost frightened. Allen glared at the two men, looking a bit helpless. Not a look she was used to seeing on his face; it looked odd on him.

“Where are you taking us?” Ruby asked.

“To the Court of the Deeping Rules.”

Onor kept looking for any other immediate threats.

Naveen's lips moved as he spoke to someone through his slate, probably the mysterious Satyana. He looked pale and slightly scared; shaken. Onor couldn't tell if he was affected by the enforcers or the crowd or Haric's body or whatever the person on the other side of the line was telling him.

Evie's fists clenched at her side. She stared at the broken metal body of the enforcer she had just been pummeling with her bare hands. Blood dripped from a cut on the outside of her right fist, leaving a trail of glistening red droplets on the hard floor of the Brawl. At the moment she occupied the middle of an open space, although the crowd was closing in a step at a time. Onor came up behind her and put his arms around her, pulling her in close to him. “I'm so sorry,” he whispered as softly as he could, as if he were trying to calm a child. “I'm so sorry. But we need to go now. He saved you; don't waste that. He would be so angry if you die.”

She shook her head as if denying his words.

“I have to keep you safe, and I have to get us all home safe.”

She put her hands up between her body and his arms, breaking his hold on her and standing still, staring at Haric's body.

“Come on,” he whispered.

“I don't believe he's dead.”

“Of course you don't.” He had known death since his parents died, and almost every year he had lost someone, and then more in times of fighting, a staccato beat to his life. Death didn't change what the living had to do, and they needed to move. “We can mourn later, when we're safe. You don't think so now, but you'll be okay. If we get out of here.”

“All right,” she said, standing still and staring at Haric's face as if love alone could will him to stand up and breathe.

She didn't move until Naveen came up on her other side and took her bleeding hand. “Now. To the door.”

The door was fairly close, maybe five minutes walking away.

Naveen gestured to the men who had first caught them and brought them all together. They joined up and created a silent wedge that Onor, Evie and Naveen walked in the center of. Evie stumbled a little, but refused help or hands from either of them, clutching herself tightly with her shoulders pulled in over her.

The crowd that had refused to part for Evie and Haric to help them get away from the enforcer parted for these men, stepping aside quickly.

In just a few moments, they stood in front of the doors out of the Brawl. Onor glanced at Naveen, who gave him a nod. “I've got it.”

Sure enough, the doors opened as if an unseen hand pulled them apart.

A small brown-skinned woman stood on the other side in front of about ten guards wearing the same uniform as the guard who had reluctantly let them in here. Onor, Evie, and Naveen walked through and the doors closed behind them.

Onor looked for the guard they had talked to and found him on the far right side of the line.

“I'm sorry,” the man mouthed from his place in the line around the woman, who could only be Satyana.

Onor appreciated the small touch of humanity.

Satyana stood, taking stock of them. She looked small and fierce, and very well-dressed in a flight suit that embodied comfort and fashion all at once. Nothing like anyone from Ash. Her voice was strong and quick. “Are you okay? Can you run?”

“Yes,” Onor said, echoed by Evie, who still seemed to be hugging herself, or maybe hugging her hurt hand. Satyana didn't wait for Naveen to answer, but just turned and took off at a steady jog. They followed, Evie in front, Naveen and Onor behind and next to each other. The uniformed guards followed until they came out again in the same vestibule that Onor and Evie had come in through.

Satyana led the four of them up and to the observation window level and along the corridor toward the train station. Onor glanced through the window, but he couldn't see if anyone had come for Haric's body yet. From here, he could see the divisions between groups more clearly, especially now that they had been among them.

He needed to be sure that no one he loved ever went back there. He missed Marcelle fiercely in that moment, and the unborn baby, and everyone else back in Ash.

Instead of crossing into the train station, Satyana led them through two corridors Onor had never seen and into a suiting room next to an airlock. “Have you ever been in a pressure suit?” Onor asked Evie quietly.

Evie's eyes grew wide and she stopped shaking. “No.” She watched Naveen and Satyana slide their suits on and check seals. Then Naveen helped Onor, and Satyana explained the whole process to Evie. Onor finished before Evie, and heard Satyana murmur in a voice that Onor couldn't imagine disobeying. “There. Now slide the arms up so you can move your elbows. Next time, wear pants. Dresses are almost impossible in these suits.”

Indeed, Evie's dress bunched oddly, but modestly, against her hips and thighs. Even though the suit looked strange on her, she looked calmer than he'd seen her since before they left to hunt Haric down. For that alone, Onor was grateful to Satyana.

They dogged helmets and went through the airlock into a small ship that Satyana introduced as
Honey
. Naveen and Evie ended up in seats that faced backwards, with barely enough room to strap in and tuck their feet around boxes and bags of things. The clutter seemed wrong for Satyana, who looked as neat and perfectly put-together as Jali, if somewhat undecorated compared to most people from the space station.

He strapped in and let the view of the
Diamond Deep
entrance him, barely noticing as Satyana held a conversation with the ship with her hands and soft, whispered commands. Living inside of the station, and mostly inside of Ash which had no windows to the outer world, had reminded him of living inside the
Fire
. Now he was out, sitting in a spaceship on the skin of the station, and he could see stars with his naked eye.

He stared.

The stars dwarfed his pain and losses, and even his fear of the Court of the Deeping Rules. Only a little, but it was enough that he began to feel like himself and the sharp ache no longer took over all of him.

The ship gave a brief lurch and then settled into a steady trajectory. Satyana stripped off her helmet, so the rest of them did the same. The
Honey
smelled like grease and stale food and sweat. Naveen and Evie twisted in their seats so they could see out the window as well. “I'm sorry I wasn't faster,” Satyana said.

“I lost it,” Naveen told her. “I had them, the enforcers. A perfect hack. But Koren must have found out we were there.”

“What did the boy know?” Satyana asked. “Why him?”

“He heard recorded conversations with some merchants. They identified the people who sold them stolen goods from the
Fire
. Then I traced that back to Koren.”

“Can you make the case that they're stolen yet?” Satyana asked.

“I can. I have a copy of the ship's AI. Ix. I know what it saw, what it thought.”

“I hope you're right.” Satyana said.

Onor bit his lip. “You still have a copy? You have one with you?”

Naveen narrowed his eyes. “Not physically. But I have all of its recordings, and they're spread through a series of databases.”

“Tell me about this court,” Onor asked. “We have no such thing on the
Fire
. Whoever had the most power made the decisions.”

Satyana laughed. “Then you will not find this so different. Any meeting of the Court of the Deeping Rules is overseen by the Councilor who has power in the area the meeting is about. There is an audience, and so they must dance a careful line, but we stand little chance of winning.”

“Do we speak for ourselves?” Onor asked. He didn't like talking in large groups, and he wasn't very good at it. “Will Ruby or Joel be there? They are good at talking in front of people.”

“I will do it,” Satyana said.

“Why you?”

Naveen answered. “Because you need someone who understands the intricacies of our world to defend you. Satyana has respect.”

Onor glanced at Satyana, trying to read the expression on her face. Guarded. He felt unwilling to voice a fear that was beginning to grow inside of him. Perhaps they were merely being used for something bigger. Perhaps no one really cared what happened to them, and they didn't know enough themselves to stay safe. Surely he was just tired and heartsick, and his brain wasn't working right.

Evie had watched the conversation in silence, but now she put a hand up, as if waiting to be acknowledged in class.

“Yes, Evie?” Satyana asked.

“Haric sent me some notes he asked me to keep secret.”

“What's in them?”

Evie looked offended. “I didn't read them. He told me to save them.”

“Can I see?” Satyana asked.

“Aren't you driving?” Evie asked.

“No. The ship flies itself out here.” She held out her hand, and looked pleased when Evie dropped her journal into it.

Evie had come completely un-belted now and she leaned over Satyana's shoulder, touching the slate with her fingers. “Here.”

Satyana leaned back and started reading.

Onor dug out his slate and sent a message to Marcelle. Then he subvocalized. “Aleesi? Are you there?”

No answer.

He waited, but there was no answer from Marcelle or Aleesi. Marcelle was surely just busy, but Aleesi should answer him.

Evie was staring at him, worry tightening her lips. He pointed at the outside of the
Honey
. “Look.” Onor told Evie.

She did. “Stars.”

The ship turned so that the station was easier to see than the sky. Naveen gave Onor and Evie a running verbal tour while Satyana read Haric's notes. Naveen was pointing out a bubble he said held the biggest university of the station when he stopped mid-sentence and whispered, “Look at that.”

“What?”

“Evie.”

She was sound asleep, her neck cricked at an angle she would probably regret later, and her mouth open. If Onor listened really carefully, he could hear her snoring quietly. “Yeah, well, we haven't slept for a long time. And she did just clock an enforcer robot.”

Satyana laughed and set Evie's slate down on a cluttered shelf.

“Did you learn anything?” Naveen asked.

“Some of this might be useful. It's hard to say without knowing more about the prosecution's strategy.” She sighed. “The court is near the other end of the station. We've got a few hours of flying, and I can make it even longer if necessary. They won't start without us.”

“Really?”

“Really. You should nap, too.”

“I can't. I need to learn more about the court.”

The four guards escorted Ruby and Joel to court in a ship so big and thick that no one wore pressure suits. It had a huge rectangular window that cut through the front of it and gave a panoramic view.