“I moved back as if burned, then leaned forward again. ‘What do you want?’ I asked.
“ ‘Please…’ he said, moving his hand toward me. ‘Kill…kill…me,’ and then he was crying once more. ‘It hurts so….’
“I got up. I walked across to the other side of the cell. I came back. Then I broke his neck with my hands.
“I took up my pay. Later I ate the bread and drank the rest of the water. Then I went to sleep. They took him away without question. And two days later when the next food came, I realized absently that without the bread and water I would have starved to death. They finally let me out because they needed my muscle, what was left of it. And the only thing I sometimes think about, the only thing I let myself think about, is whether or not I earned my pay. I guess two of them were mine anyway. But sometimes I take them out and look at them and wonder where he got the third one from.” Urson put his hand in his shirt and brought out three gold coins. “Never been able to spend them, though,” he said. He tossed the pile into the air and then whipped them from their arc into his fist again. He laughed. “Never been able to spend them on anything.”
“I’m sorry,” Geo said after a moment.
Urson looked up. “Why? I guess these are my jewels, yes? Maybe everyone has theirs someplace. You think it was old Cat, sometime when I was in the brig, perhaps, earning that third coin, slicing out that little four-armed bastard’s tongue? Somehow I doubt it.”
“Look, I said I was sorry, Urson.”
“I know,” Urson said. “I know. I guess I’ve met a hell full of people in my wet windy life, but it could be any one of them.” He sighed. “Though I wish I knew who. Still, I don’t think that’s the answer.” He lifted his hand to his mouth and gnawed at his little fingernail. “I hope that kid doesn’t get as nervous as I do.” He laughed. “He’ll have such a hell of a lot of nails to bite.”
Then their skulls split.
“Hey,” said Geo, “that’s Snake!”
“And he’s in trouble too!” Urson leaped to the floor and started up the passageway. Geo came after him.
“Let me go first!” Geo said, “I know where he is.”
They reached the deck, raced beside the cabins.
“Move,” ordered Urson. Then he heaved himself against the door: it flew open.
Inside, behind her desk, Argo whirled, her hand on her jewel. “What is the — ”
But the moment her concentration turned, Snake, who had been immobile against the opposite wall, vaulted across the bench toward Geo. Geo grabbed the boy to steady him, and immediately one of Snake’s hands was at Geo’s chest, where the jewel hung.
“You fools!” hissed Argo. “Don’t you understand? He’s a spy for Aptor!”
There was silence.
Argo said, “Close the door.”
Urson closed it. Snake still held Geo and the jewel.
“Well,” she said, “it is too late now.”
“What do you mean?” asked Geo.
“That had you not come blundering in, one more of Aptor’s spies would have yielded up his secrets and then been reduced to ashes.” She breathed deeply. “But he has his jewel now and I have mine. Well, little thief, here’s a stalemate. The forces are balanced now.” She looked at Geo. “How do you think he came so easily by the jewel? How do you think he knew when I would be at the shore? Oh, he’s clever indeed, with all the intelligence of Aptor working behind him. He probably even had you planted without your knowing it to interrupt us at just that time.”
“No, he — ” began Urson.
“We were walking by your door,” Geo interrupted, “when we heard a noise and thought there might be trouble.”
“Your concern may have cost us all our lives.”
“If he’s a spy, I gather that means he knows how this thing works,” said Geo. “Let Urson and me take him.”
“Take him anywhere you wish!” hissed Argo. “Get out!”
Then the door opened. “I heard a sound, Priestess Argo, and I thought you might be in danger.” It was Jordde, the First Mate.
The Goddess Incarnate breathed deeply. “I am in no danger,” she said evenly. “Will you please leave me alone, all of you?”
“What’s the Snake doing here?” Jordde suddenly asked, seeing Geo and the boy.
“I said, leave me!”
Geo turned away from Jordde and stepped past him onto the deck, and Urson followed him. Ten steps farther on, he glanced back, and seeing that Jordde had emerged from the cabin and was walking in the other direction, he set Snake down on his feet. “All right, Little One. March!”
Once in the passage to the forecastle, Urson asked, “Hey, what’s going on?”
“Well, for one thing, our little friend here is no spy.”
“How do you know?” asked Urson.
“Because she doesn’t know he can read minds.”
“How do you mean?” Urson asked.
“I was beginning to think something was wrong when I came back from talking to the Priestess. You were too, and it lay in the same vein you were talking about. Why would our task be completely useless unless we accomplished all parts of her mission? Wouldn’t there be some value in just returning her daughter, the rightful head of Leptar, to her former position? And I’m sure her daughter may well have collected some useful information that could be used against Aptor, so that would be some value even if we didn’t find the jewel. It doesn’t sound too maternal to me to forsake the young priestess if there’s no jewel in it for mother. And her tone, the way she refers to the jewel as hers. There’s an old saying, from before the Great Fire even: ‘Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.’ And I think she has not a little of the un-goddess-like desire for power first, peace afterwards.”
“But that doesn’t mean this one here isn’t a spy for Aptor,” said Urson.
“Wait a minute. I’m getting there. You see, I thought he was too. The idea occurred to me first when I was talking to the Priestess and she mentioned that there were spies from Aptor. The coincidence of his appearance, that he had even managed to steal the jewel in the first place, that he would present it to her the way he did: all this hinted at something so strange that ‘spy’ was the first thing I thought of, and she thought so as well. But she did not know that Snake could read minds and broadcast mentally. Don’t you see? Ignorance of his telepathy removes the one other possible explanation of the coincidence. Urson, why did he leave the jewel with us before he went to see her?”
“Because he thought she was going to try and take it away from him.”
“Exactly. When she told me to send him to her, I was sure that was the reason she wanted him. But if he was a spy and knew how to work the jewel, then why not take it with him, present himself to Argo with the jewel, showing himself as an equal force, and then come calmly back, leaving her in silence and us still on his side, especially since he would be revealing to her something of which she was nine tenths aware already, and she would watch him no less carefully than if it were unconfirmed.”
“All right,” said Urson, “why not?”
“Because he was not a spy and didn’t know how to work the jewel. Yes, he had felt its power once. Perhaps he was going to pretend he had it hidden on his person. But he did not want her to get her hands on it for reasons that were strong but not selfish. Here, Snake,” said Geo. “You now know how to work the jewel, don’t you? But you just learned how from Argo.”
The boy nodded.
“Here, then. Why don’t you take it?” Geo lifted the jewel from his neck and held it out to him.
Snake drew back and shook his head violently.