The Council of Bйluchad in Peril
He rubbed the tip of his forefinger across the signature, sighed and shook his head; whatever happened the world he knew was gone forever. He twisted the note into a spill, put the end in the candle flame until it caught fire, then sat holding the paper and watching it burn.
The thought of actually doing the things they wanted him to do started his belly churning and his hand shaking so much the fire went out and he had to rekindle it from the candle. It wasn’t that they were difficult. He knew Hunnar’s office as well as he knew the strings of his harp.
What they were asking was suicide.
Even if he didn’t try to kill Hunnar, once the damage was discovered, it couldn’t be anybody but him that did it.
“I can’t.” He shivered. He started crying. “I can’t. I can’t. I. Can’t…”
16. Plots and Deeds
1
Banikoлh, Medon Pass, sun not fully up yet
The morning was cool with dew glittering in the long shadows that filled the pass. Shadith stood with Aslan outside the tower’s iron door, watching Maorgan lead the moss ponies down the switchback from the tower to the road. She rubbed at her eyes, yawned, her body still aching with sleep-need. “If you’ll take Danor, it’ll be easier on him riding in the flikit than trying to sit a pony.”
“You’re sure you won’t come along?”
“Can’t leave the ponies, Scholar. Besides, this is how we were told to come. I think it’s better we stick to the script.”
“Right. We’ll give you an hour’s start and stay low when we follow.”
Shadith grinned at her. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”
Aslan raised a brow, then grinned back. “Right.” She sighed. “This is a fascinating society. Isolated all these years, working out a way for disparate species to live together and like it. There’s the sioll bond. I want to know more about that. Other bonds. Something about the way the two species interact. Maybe part physical. Interesting to see if over time the Yaraka that stay here long enough will go the same way.
Ah! Shadow, this is a lifework, the one I’ve been hunting for.”
“Unless the Chave take over.”
Aslan grimaced. “If they do, we’ll all be dead, so I’m not going to worry about that.” She turned the grimace into a grin, made a fist and thumped Shadith’s shoulder lightly. “I’m going to let you do the worrying, Shadow. And the figuring out how to keep that from happening.”
“Oh, thanks.”
Aslan chuckled. “Yes. And there’s something else we’d better get settled.” She unclipped a remote from the Ridaar. “I’m going to register the completion of your contract, if you don’t mind. That way you don’t have to worry about University constraints.”
“Hm. Let me think about this.”
“Shadow, you know you might be doing things that University would have to take notice of if you were still under contract. Listen, this protects your base. If you’re not acting as their agent, the Governors can ignore a lot more interference in local matters.”
Shadith sighed. “All right, let’s do it.”
Melitoлh, Dushanne Garden, Kushayt, night
Hunched over, mind eating at itself because of his inadequacy, Ilaцrn crouched beside the stream listening to the harped messages hammering at him from outside the walls. When? the sound asked him. When will you act? He shuddered. We have to know, Ard. When? He’d left his own harp inside. He didn’t have an answer. He couldn’t say Not yet. The answer might be Never. All day he’d watched the air intakes, watched every move Hunnar made. He’d walked behind the Chav, provoked nothing but an irritated sweep of a hand.
I can’t, he thought. I can’t do it. I can’t make my hands do it.
Banikoлh, Medon Vale, approaching noon
The Vale of Medon was a squat oval with the lake at one focus and a continual shimmer of mist from the hundreds of hot springs that bubbled up through layers of moss and lichens, geysers that sprayed upward higher than trees, as if the Vale breathed in and out, water not air.
Hundreds of Eolt floated over the city, drifting in and out of clouds like fleece. Half a dozen were hovering at tentacle length above a herd of small warty beasts, rather like frogs on deer legs. These beasts stood head down, legs set, the Eolt tentacles sealed to large humps above their shoulders, dark fluid rising up the tentacles to spread swiftly through their translucent bodies, fading as it spread. As she watched, one by one the Eolt broke free of the beasts and rose to join the others.
Maorgan was busily scanning the Eolt. Hunting for Melech, she thought. I wonder if he can recognize his own? She glanced back at the feeding fliers. How and what the Eolt ate wasn’t something she’d thought about before, and definitely something Maorgan hadn’t wanted to talk about. It was a prettier thought, that that shimmering beauty fed on sunlight but more of a dream than reality.
Part of the valley floor was broken into a patchwork of fields, lush green punctuated by small figures. Odd how easy it was to tell Denchok from Fior even from this distance, a difference not in shape but in the way they moved. She watched them, trying to find words for that difference but could not. There were groves of fruit and nut trees around the edge of the valley, and in the rolling foothills grazing herds of bladlan and cabhisha and the food beasts of the Eolt.
Beyond the field there were clusters of houses set haphazardly here and there. It was the rocky land with thin soil, land not suited for farming, that the Vale folk had built on. The places where the hot springs bubbled up.
Near the far end of the lake there were a series of massive buildings unlike any others in the Vale. They were faced with marble and gleamed eerily white in the light of the nooning sun. The steep-pitched roofs shimmered like fish scales, the same translucent shingles that she’d seen on all houses where Denchok lived and worked. The area around these buildings was crowded with Fior and Denchok, male and female alike, some moving in pairs, some alone, some in large fluctuating, groups. She noticed for the first time that she saw no children, no Meloach and no young Fior.