The Kallanon Scales (25 page)

“We have a
situation …”

“We?” Dall
Mossen interrupted.

“The Valleur
of Valaris.”

“Does your
Vallorin know you are here?”

“He sent
us.”

“We need
procure weapons and crew for a ship,” Matt put in. “We are about to
undertake a dangerous journey.”

“All journeys
are dangerous, even those of the heart,” Dall Mossen said. His eyes
bored into Krikian again. “The Valleur do not need to travel by
conventional means.”

“In this
instance we deem it the safer option.”

“Secrecy?”

“Indeed,
sir.”

Matt opened
his mouth and Dall Mossen raised a slender hand, a ring on every
finger. “Please. I would hear this from the beginning. Follow me.”
He led the way up the nearest staircase. “Jack!” he called out and
Jack appeared below. “More coffee, please.” He did not wait for
acknowledgement, went on, making his way up like a dancer. He
reminded Krikian of Torrullin.

He led them
into an oval chamber on the first floor, the peach walls bare but
for a large screen on the far side depicting scenery of flowing
waterfall, rocks and blue sky.

In the centre,
a round table, low, surrounding it a set of white couches scattered
with pale cushions. A bunch of flowers graced the table. The
temperature was comfortable, a place to meditate or think.

He waved the
two seated and waited until Jack had been in with a tray. He sat
and poured, placing one mug each before Krikian and Matt, an
unexpected personal touch. He pushed the milk and sugar closer.

Krikian
reached for his mug, taking it black. “I admit to not knowing how
much to tell you, Dall Mossen.”

“If there are
gaps in your story, you can expect no help from me. You have a
timing issue, do you not? That is why your companion chose to run
this gauntlet. Begin with your name and rank and why you keep
company with a known spy.”

Krikian drew
breath. “I am Krikian, a dream consultant from the city of Menllik,
and Matt is a pilot, not a spy.”

Matt cleared
his throat. “Actually …”

Krikian
snapped to him.

Dall Mossen
gave a lazy smile.

“Krikian, I
am
a spy. I
was
a spy.” He did not look at Dall Mossen, facing instead the
incredulous Valleur. “Forgive me, I thought to put it behind me. I
work for Dall Reni of the First Dome, he is the Peacemaker of Xen
III.” He found the courage to look at the crime lord. “I
used
to work for Dall
Reni. That part of my life is over.”

Dall Mossen
gave a knowing smile. “Reni released you?”

“He doesn’t
know. He will when I don’t report in the next few days.”

Krikian had
other issues. “You spied on Valaris?”

“No, Krik. I’m
a pilot first. When grounded here, my second profession, if one can
call something spuriously done a profession, takes over.” He did
not look away from Dall Mossen. “I’ll not return to Xen after this
visit. I have a new employer and a new life waiting and I can’t
wait to shake the dirt of this world. I am out of it, you have my
word.”

Dall Mossen
did not react, but Krikian bit at his lip. A spy was by nature
secretive. What had Matt, over the years coming to Valaris, passed
back to Xen?

Matt dragged his gaze from the crime lord. “I swear to you
I’ll submit to any probing, Krik, and I swear I never,
never
, spied for Reni on
Valaris. Reni is an insular creature and Valaris could give him
nothing - except trade - and had he asked I’d have turned him down.
My task was Dall Mossen here, nothing else, no one else.” His voice
rang with sincerity, without the desperation a liar would have
behind it.

“Be truthful
with Torrullin. Tell him when we return or he will leave you high
and dry, I promise you.”

Dall Mossen
laughed. “Honesty gets you into trouble. Fine, I believe you -
Matt, is it? Though you have given me hard times over the years, I
rather enjoy the thought of Reni squirming when he hears your last
visit here was to his archenemy. I may tell him face-to-face. Know
you are a dead man if you dare set foot here again and that
includes Reni’s vengeance. I hope you are certain of your new
future, for you will not be given a second chance here.”

“I’m
certain.”

Dall Mossen
studied him. “You are defecting to the Vallorin?”

“I don’t
regard it as defection.”

“As a
pilot?”

“Yes, for this
journey. What comes after, comes after.”

“Spying?”

“I wasn’t a
very good spy,” Matt grinned.

Mossen smiled, acknowledging that, and then was serious. “You
were a great spy, but you were fed disinformation. My safety
depended on it.” He stared at the Xenian. “
Your
safety depended on it.” Matt
wanted to deny him and Mossen raised a hand. “I speak only truth.”
He shifted his gaze to Krikian. “I would hear this tale of yours,
please.”

Krikian
related the tale of murder, a map, the Forbidden Zone, a taliesman
and a Dragon. Dall Mossen did not interrupt, although his eyebrows
lifted on occasion. His eyes never left Krikian’s face, as if he
could tell the difference between truth and lie. He seemed
satisfied when Krikian wound down with, “… and that is it. We need
the crew to assist in appropriating the ship.”

“Steal.”

Krikian
shrugged. Semantics.

“Are you sure
you want to take on the Beaconites? Their retribution can reach out
with a long arm, in the name of their twisted morality. You would
empower them to wage war. I could procure you a ship, if you
prefer. It will cost you, but it would be less obvious.”

“Xen’s ships
are fuel driven and Matt tells us that is a problem.”

Dall Mossen inclined his head. “Fuel could be found, but I
forget that
Matt
is more than a spy.” He glanced at Matt. “He is the best
pilot Xen delivered.”

Matt appeared
surprised.

The crime
lord’s eyes were inscrutable. “I was aware of your efforts here and
let you be, hoping you would be influenced. I could use a pilot of
your calibre and intelligence in my operations. Alas, the more
crime you witnessed, the less inclined you were to becoming part of
it.”

Krikian
frowned. “Dall Mossen, I have the clear feeling you know my young
friend by a different name.”

Dall Mossen
gave another of his lazy smiles.

Matt said, “My
full name is Le Matt Dalrish.”

“Matt for
short. Where is the problem?” Krikian frowned.

Dall Mossen
said, “Will you continue being honest, Dalrish?”

Matt briefly
closed his eyes. “The Peacekeeper, Reni Dalrish, is my uncle.”

“Oh,” Krikian
murmured as matters began to fit.

“Dalrish here
is a member of the First Family,” Dall Mossen stated. “About to
burn his bridges for good, therefore, I hope you know what you are
doing.”

“I’d say you
are happy about it,” Matt frowned.

“You present
me with an advantage over your uncle and that makes me happy
indeed.”

“Matt? Have we
not embroiled you in something you would rather extricate yourself
from, now, before it’s too late?”

“Krik, please, I have made up my mind,
my
mind. Not only do I want rid of
this hole …”

“You need not
stay in this dome,” Dall Mossen pointed out.

“… but I want
rid of this spy business. Mostly I want rid of my uncle, as does
Cat. If you and this mission hadn’t happened, I was leaving anyway.
Rest assured neither of us is forced into anything, and there will
be no regrets.”

“Reni no doubt
treated them like slaves,” Mossen said.

Matt rose,
rubbing his forehead. “Are you satisfied now? Can we do
business?”

“I could hold you to ransom and the hold I gain over Reni
would be significant.” Mossen loosed a cold smile. Matt sat, wound
tight as a spring. “However, Reni is also fickle and may not lift a
finger to aid our young friend, and then there is you, Valleur. I
will help. Not only do I rid this dome of a spy, but also excess
weaponry. I gain control over Reni, for a while keeping him
uncomfortable. It gives me no end of pleasure that those Beaconites
are about to lose one of their finest. I will help for those
reasons and others personal to me, but among them, Valleur, there
is no fear of your sorcery. There is one I choose not to tackle
with and
he
is
the foremost reason for my aid to you. He could wipe Xen clean and
that I would prevent.”

“Torrullin,”
Krikian murmured.

“I know him
not, and I am unlikely to meet him, but the tales say it all. Xen
is a cesspit, but it is our home.”

“Torrullin
wouldn’t punish a people for one’s transgressions.”

Dall Mossen
nodded as if Krikian confirmed something. “He is fair, then, and
moral. We can deal.”

Matt smiled.
“Cool.” He sounded like his sister. “We’re getting somewhere.”

For a moment,
Mossen was into his thoughtful silence, as if debating another
issue, and then he smiled. “What exactly do you need?”

Krikian was
sure then the man hid a secret, something relevant to Matt, but had
decided to keep it.

Quality of
life is a standard all sentience can understand.

~ Truth

Xen III

T
he weapons were easy.

Dall Mossen
took them through a hidden door in the basement into a massive
storeroom.

After Matt
made his selection, having handed over another pouch of sapphires,
Mossen had the weapons packed into a crate, ready for fork-lifting
into a tunnel guarded by two ruffians.

The crew was
another matter. Mossen suggested he summon known crew-members
together, but Matt rejected that. He desired skilled people.

“I need a
minimum of six, but prefer eight. Krik, will this be a problem for
Torrullin?”

“He will
follow your lead in this.”

Dall Mossen
lifted his eyebrows. “You could lead the Vallorin by the nose,
Dalrish.”

“Torrullin
trusts me, I’ll repay him in kind.”

“The
soon-to-be-unemployed-spy?”

“You can’t
possibly understand, Mossen.”

“You are the
one who does not understand.”

Krikian’s eyes
narrowed. There was tension in Dall Mossen absent until now. “Matt,
stop goading. Let’s get on with this.”

“He is
undermining me, hoping you will paint me black.”

“Once a spy,
always a spy,” Mossen murmured.

“I did what I
had to! My uncle needed eyes here and who better to trust than the
son of his brother? Not everyone relishes your way of life!”

“Matt, don’t
make it personal,” Krikian attempted to interrupt, but Mossen
overrode him, responding to Matt’s accusations, also in anger.

“Reni needed
eyes to ensure I do not take all the cream, you idiot! He is not
lily-white, but you know that already, why else seek to get away?
Reni is a pig, but you are proving as untrustworthy.”

“I’ll earn it
anew. I’ll prove to the Vallorin I am worthy.”

“By spying for
him?”

“Why must you
harp on that? It’s over for me!”

“Because a spy
is by nature a crafty lowlife, even if the ideal starts out noble,
Dalrish. You can’t change it, it remains part of you no matter
what, and if you are no longer spying for someone, you begin to do
it for yourself. You look for the best deal, the most money, the
easiest route, the greatest power, and before you know it, you have
become what you were sent to spy upon. It does not end. You cannot
change what you are.”

“You speak
from experience, of course?”

There was that
quality of silence again. “I, too, was sent in. My task was to spy
on the previous boss.”

“My uncle sent
you?”

“No, Dalrish,
your father sent me.”

Matt was
paralysed by the revelation, and Krikian interfered. “Our
priorities lay elsewhere, can we …” He lapsed into silence, for he
was ignored.

Matt croaked,
“My father died eight years ago.”

“And I was
already in. Five years. I hated this place, but believed I did
something worthwhile. Your father’s death cut me loose; nobody
desired to acknowledge my part in keeping the previous crime lord
in line, not even my own father. We had words, harsh, never to be
withdrawn words, and he disowned me. Thus, I returned here and
became what I am today. Still a spy, only now for myself. I am able
to live with that, but do you know what the worst of this sorry
mess was? An irony that really cuts? He sent a spy after me. He
sent you, Dalrish. As your father sent me, so my father sent you.
Yes, my father, Reni, the Peacekeeper of Xen III. You and I are
first cousins.”

“Sweet God,”
Matt whispered, not for a moment doubting.

“No God has
anything to do with the mess men make. I knew you from the second
you set foot in here and I gave you rope. I fed you disinformation
to take back, with sufficient truth to protect you from Reni’s
wrath, but too little to influence my life here. I promised death
to anyone who dared lift a finger to harm you. I hoped you would
see the truth or become disillusioned and then I would have brought
you in with me, because you are family and because this place is
more honest that Reni’s spheres of influence. You are lucky, I
think. Not only did you resist the lure of this place, you found
something to restore your faith in yourself and humanity.”

“What
happened?”

Dall Mossen
frowned, the memories painful. He said nothing.

“Reni is your
father,” Matt said.

“Reni will
never again be my father. Your father was the one I looked up to,
here in my heart. He was a good, decent man, do not ever doubt
that. You are like him and I hope you find the peace you search
for, cousin, I really do.”