The Ringworld Throne (13 page)

“Vala, vampires are animals. Animals don’t rob.”

Rooballabl: “None but the River People may come to the Shadow Nest and leave alive. Why do you ask these things? Why are you here, so many species?”

Beedj spoke before Vala could. “We go to end the vampire menace. We will attack them in their home. Hominids who cannot travel have supported us.”

The River People discussed that. Vala thought she saw silent laughter.

Maybe not. Rooballabl said, “Valavirgillin, we think we saw a Ghoul among your number.”

“Two of the Night People travel with us. Others parallel our path as friends. They don’t like sunlight, Roobla.”

“Ghouls and vampires are all People of the Night.”

Did Rooballabl mean they were allies? “They compete for the same prey on the same terrain. Truly, it’s more complicated than that—“

“Are you sure they stand with you?”

For all of a falan, Vala had wondered at the Ghouls’ motives. She said, “Yes, quite sure.”

“We could not travel with you.”

“No.”

“But if you will roll your wagons along the Homeflow, we can travel alongside, Fudghabladl and I. Tell you things. Take vests, teach our lessons downstream.”

They began working out details. This was unlooked-for luck, and Vala knew she must pursue it, though Tegger and Warvia were nowhere to be seen.

Tegger knelt with his back to a big pale rock, his heels under his buttocks, quite still. The scrub was all around him, hiding him.

This was how Reds hunted. And Tegger was hunting through his mind, seeking Tegger. His hands played idly with his sword, honing the edge.

Thoughts played over the surface of Tegger’s mind. If he let them go deeper, he’d be thinking of Warvia. He knew he couldn’t face that.

The water’s steady roar had him nodding. He would not hear any creature approaching. Perhaps he would smell it, or see motion in the scrub around him. His sword was defense enough.

All the action was at the shore. At some point the negotiations had become a swimming party.

A sword could be used on oneself. Just turn it around. Jump from the top of a rock? The thought merely skimmed the surface of his mind.

“Tegger hooki-Thandarthal.”

Tegger jumped and was on the rock, his blade swinging in a full circle before his mind caught up.
Vampires don’t speak. What ...

A voice just louder than the river, so low that Tegger might have imagined it, said, “I cannot harm you, Tegger. I grant wishes.”

No living thing was in sight. Tegger asked, “Wishes?” Had he been found by a wayspirit?

“I was a living woman once. Now I help others in hope of making a better self. What would you have of me?”

“Want to die.”

Pause, then, “Such a waste.”

Tegger heard a rasp of effort deep beneath the whisper. Somehow he could not believe that his sword would be fast enough. He said, “Wait.

“I wait.” The whisper was much closer now.

Tegger had twice spoken without thinking. Now: he had evaded a quick death. Did he want that? But if wishes could be granted ...

“Something happened last night. I want it not to have happened.”

“That cannot be.”

Every man on Cruiser Two, whatever his shape, chemistry, diet, had mated with Tegger’s mate.
They
have to die, he thought. But the women? ... All who know. Warvia, too, he thought, even as his mind was rejecting the notion.

They did this to Warvia, to me. It was the vampires! Shall I kill half of us with a wish? Undefended, the rest would die. Ginjerofer’s tribe --
He saw, suddenly, how the Red tribes would fall before an expanding vampire plague. Men and women, unable to trust one another, would separate in rage. Families and tribes would disintegrate. Vampires would take them one by one.

Tegger said, “I would have you kill every vampire under the Arch.”

The whisper came. “I have no such power.”

“What power have you?”

“Tegger, I am a mind and a voice. I know things. Sometimes I see things before you do. I never lie.”

Useless creature. “Wayspirit, your good intent exceeds your means. What if I wish for a fish to eat?”

“I can do that. Will you wait?”

“I will, but why?”

“I must not be seen. I could much more quickly tell you how to get your own fish.”

True, the shore was very active. “Do you have a name?”

“Call me what you wish.”

“Whisper.”

“Good.”

“Whisper, I want to kill vampires.”

“So do all of your companions. Will you rejoin them?”

Tegger shuddered. “No.”

“Think what you will need. By now you must know that the vampire’s power reaches farther than your sword—“

Tegger moaned, his head bowed low, his hands over his ears. The whisperer waited him out, and presently said, “You will need defenses. We should make a list.”

“Whisper, I don’t want to talk to any of them.” He was beginning to remember that for a falan of nights among the Thurl’s people, he and Warvia had tried to explain why their monogamous nature made them superior to the lure of the vampire. It made the other species irritable.

Whisper said, “The first vehicle is abandoned save for Harpster. Harpster sleeps. Even if he wakes, he will not disturb you. Take what you will need.”

Vala was wishing she could get into the spirit of the thing.

The water was cold. You had to stay active to stay warm. Everyone seemed to be washing each other. Discussions involving physiognomy or rishathra could be answered by pointing. Chitakumishad and Rooballabl were trying to work out an arrangement that would leave Chit’s mouth above water. Beedj and Twuk were watching and making suggestions. Any parasites had been washed away, but Gleaners were good at finding a phantom itch.

Barok turned, grinning. His hands took Vala’s shoulders and firmly turned her around. He scrubbed her back briskly with some scratchy sea-vegetable thing.

It was all wonderfully friendly, as it can be among species who don’t compete for the same needs. All would be well if only Warvia and Tegger would come running out of the payload shell, hand in hand.

She looked over her shoulder. The river sounds would drown her lowered voice. “Sabarokaresh, I need your help. You and Kaywerbrimmis and Chitakumishad.”

Barok continued his work. “What kind of help?”

“Come with me when I look inside Cruiser Two.”

His hands stopped then. He looked around. “I don’t think we should disturb Chit.”

“No. Do you think he’ll get that to work?”

“Might drown himself. There’s Kay over there. Unusual view.”

Kaywerbrimmis was lying on his belly, mostly in the water, drawing maps in the mud with his fingertips. An unidentifiable River Person was advising him. Vala pulled herself up on his other side and asked, “Learning anything?”

“Maybe.”

“Give me a few breaths of your time, me and Barok?”

He looked around, studied her face, decided not to ask. jumped to his feet and was pulling her along, as naked as she and Barok. There was no chance for Vala to go to her piled clothes.

She might have liked going naked, if the rain would ease off. Was clothing really that dangerous? But it wasn’t just a matter of keeping clean. A vampire night learn that there was blood underneath the scent of woven cloth or cured leather.

It wasn’t her clothes she wanted. It was her pack.

A pack would look incongruous on a naked woman.

... Oh, no doubt it would be all right.

When the three were out of anyone’s earshot, Vala asked, “Kay, how did Warvia act—“

“Rished with all of us.”

She stepped up onto the running board. “Bother her?”

“It did. A few times she tried to go outside. Maybe just to get clear of us, maybe to go to the vampires. They would have had her anyway. She’s wrong about being immune.”

“Kay, nobody believed that—“

“*Warvia* did. I
couldn’t
let her out. Come daylight, we tried to calm her down.” He was talking through clenched teeth. “No good. Maybe a woman. Or someone who wasn’t there. Could get her talking.”

“I’ll try,” Vala said. She opened the trick lock and entered the payload shell.

It wasn’t quite dark. Light glared down from the gun tower. Vala sniffed at the ghosts of old cargoes and waited for her eyes to adjust.

Gunpowder. Minch and pepperleek. Great masses of grass for Twuk and Paroom. Soap: strange stuff made by a species far to starboard. She sniffed for old stenches, the fear-sweat of people hiding from attackers, agony of the wounded; but those had been cleaned away. There was no smell of blood.

She climbed the ladder to the cannon. No sign of Tegger.

Kaywerbrimmis touched her ankle. She half sobbed, “Oh flup, oh flup, I was so sure we’d find everything covered with blood! Tegger must have guessed, and how could Warvia lie to him?
Warvia!
”

Warvia’s feet dangled listless before the cannon slot. Vala pulled herself half through the opening. “Warvia, where is he?”

Warvia made no answer.

“Well, how’s he taking it?”

Warvia spoke. “Dead inside.”

“Warvia, cherished ally, nobody really thought you’d be immune to vampire scent.”

“I thought he’d kill me,” Warvia said. “It never even crossed his mind.”

“Can we do anything for him?”

“He wants to be alone, I guess.”

“For you?”

“So do I.”

Vala slid down the ladder.

“He can’t lose us,” Kaywerbrimmis said. “He can follow the river, follow the wheel ruts. Maybe he just wants some time to digest what’s happened. Rethink.”

She nodded in the gloom.

“Vala, we should get the wagons moving.”

“I’ll take the tail position.” While the rest got Cruiser One ready to roll, maybe she could search out Tegger. She didn’t believe it. “Keep a close eye on Warvia. Or shall I take her?”

“Take her. You’re the boss, and she’s got the best eyes—“

“That isn’t—“

“It’s a decent excuse. But she might talk to you because ...” He stalled.

“Because she hasn’t rished with anyone in Cruiser One.”

“Just so.”

“You’re a male, Kay—“

“Boss, I just can’t guess how Tegger’s feeling now. This doesn’t
happen
to Reds.”

Tegger dropped silently from the cannon mount. No living thing was in his sight, and he jumped when a voice whispered from far too close to his ear. “Do you have what you need to travel?”

Tegger remained crouched. He whispered, “Towels and a pepperleek. Soap. Clean clothes. My sword. I’m following the river, so I won’t need the canteen, so I filled it with fuel. That can be useful stuff.”

“Not for drinking, I hope.”

“Fuel burns.”
None of your business!

“Is it random killing you [sic—should be “your”] plan? Or something more organized?”

“I don’t
know
anything. They live under a factory city, a big floating structure. Whisper, if we—“

“If you.”

“If I can’t destroy their refuge, I accomplish nothing. If I don’t ... if I can’t do something ... large?”

“For your honor?”

“Yes. What Warvia did—I am nothing now. I must make myself something.”

“Wish.”

“To destroy the Shadow Nest.”

“You shall.”

“Make it fall. Crush them underneath.”

“That could be difficult.”

“Difficult?” Tegger shouldered his pack. He noticed three naked Machine People entering Cruiser Two. That was harmless, but they might search the other cruiser next. Tegger eased away into the bush.

He spoke to himself, or to the empty air. “Difficult. It’s impossible! I can’t invade a vampire nest. If I could get above them, onto that floating factory—but I’d have to fly.”

Whisper: “What is Valavirgillin hiding?”

Huh? “Machine People have their secrets,” Tegger said.

Whisper: “She knew that you and Warvia would succumb to the vampire lure. Still, she hopes that her little army can win. Does she know something that nobody else does?”

Tegger’s mind was trying to shut down; the moan was rising in his throat.
They’d hear him. Find him.
His mind, he must not lose his mind to his body’s hysterics.
Think.

His first coherent thought in some time was that he had just heard Whisper’s first
real
command, however phrased.

Louis Wu of the Ball People had visited Ginjerofer’s tribe. Valavirgillin knew him, too ... knew him better, since rishathra was among her skills. Had Louis Wu revealed something to her?

And he’d seen her naked, moments ago.