“That’s right.”
At the end of the hall, the outside door opened, and Junna came in. He was tall and thin, and for an instant she thought he was Tanuojin. David called to him. She went into her room again.
Ketac was still sitting on the window sill, looking out at Yekka. Paula shut the door and latched it. He said, “Why am I here?”
“Because you’re a stupid ignorant idiot.” She took the chair from her desk to sit beside him.
“You were there, weren’t you? At my house. I found your dress. How much did you hear?”
“Enough.”
He was avoiding looking at her. On his chest the puckered wounds ran from his right shoulder to his navel. She said, “You thought that was your plot, didn’t you? That was Tanuojin’s plot, Ketac, he has been waiting for this chance since before Saba died.” She leaned toward him and said into his face, “You did this.”
He shed a rising heat. His hands pressed against the window sill. Turned away from her, he said out toward Yekka, “Why didn’t he kill me?”
“He needs Ybix.”
He made a sound in his throat. She looked around the little room. The white walls made it bright. Tanuojin could hear her; he knew everything she did and thought, so there was no use trying to surprise him.
“Are you done tongue-whipping me?” Ketac said.
“Bah.”
“Will you help me escape?”
“No.”
“Come on, Paula, we’ve been friends for a long time.” He swiveled to face her and took hold of her hand. “Tell me what to do.”
With her free hand she took his fingers from her wrist and held them. “Not escape. You have to make him do what you want.” She laced her fingers with his. “I’ll help you do that.”
The Akopra was dark. She stood still a moment, blinking her eyes clear. On the round lit stage, four dancers climbed on each other. She looked around the back benches until she found Tanuojin and went along the curved wall toward him.
“Shut up,” he said. “I’m watching this.”
Obediently she watched while they moved through the third design from Capricornus: where Capricornus met his lyo. The bench was hard and she sat restlessly. A young man she had never seen before stood off to one side of the stage. When the figure was over, she said, “What are you going to do about Ketac?”
Tanuojin thumbed his mustaches down, his eyes on the stage. “Leave him to me.”
“What are you going to do?”
He raised his hand and made a gesture, and the young man at the edge of the stage went into the middle and took the place of another dancer. Tanuojin settled down again. He said, “The same thing I did with Dr. Savenia.”
“He’s not like Cam,” she said. “And you haven’t got the time to do it right. You’ll kill him.”
He made a sound in his chest. Slowly the four men on the stage began the same design over, this time with the new dancer as Capricornus. Paula watched, her attention caught by the young man’s fiery gestures.
“He’s going to be good,” Tanuojin muttered.
“He’s going too fast.”
“I’ll teach him better.”
The young man stood on his hands on the hands of the stocky dancer. She watched the muscles flex under his tight black sleeves. Tanuojin said, “What’s your idea about Ketac?”
“Do it through me,” she said. “He’ll accept it from me.”
Spinning, the young dancer flipped up onto his feet on the floor-man’s shoulders. He lost his balance for an instant and wobbled and the floor-man caught his ankles. Paula leaned back against the wall behind her. Tanuojin was watching her, his fingers entwined in his mustaches.
“In the low watch,” she said. “He’s still a little weak. He’ll be easier to handle. I’ll take him to bed with me, and when he’s asleep, you take him through me.”
He nodded. On the stage, the dancers had finished. He waved to them, and they left the stage and came toward him.
Paula said, “I’ll be there to get you out if anything goes wrong.”
Tanuojin nodded again, watching her. The dancers stood in the aisle on his far side. He turned his head. “What’s your name?”
“Kapsin,” the new dancer said.
“You can stay for fifty-one watches on trial. Don’t try that flip again until you know what you’re doing. You could have killed him.” He faced Paula again. “Do you know, Paula, I think you have a good idea.”
Paula settled back against the wall. He had jumped at it. She had expected him to. She listened to him lecture the dancers on the art of Akopra.
Ketac went to bed with her. The ruts in his chest and belly were like seams under her hands. When he was asleep, she rose from the bed and opened the door. Tanuojin came in. He left his body in the chair by the desk, and she took him to Ketac.
In his sleep, Ketac knew her kiss; he stirred, his mouth soft under hers, willing. She took his hands. He did not waken, even when she drew back, sitting beside him, her eyes on his face.
Tanuojin said, in Ketac’s voice, “Be careful. I’ll wake him up.”
She held Ketac’s hands. He stiffened, and his eyes opened, shining with terror. His mouth moved but said nothing. His chest heaved.
“Ketac,” she said. “I’m here. It’s all right, you’ll be all right.”
His hands closed painfully over her fingers. She bit her lip. “Just relax. It won’t be for long.”
Ketac’s lips moved again. His long body flexed under the blanket, and his eyes shut. She pulled her throbbing hand free of his grip and worked her fingers and gasped at the pain in her knuckle.
“Take me, Paula.”
She bent down and sucked him out of Ketac’s mouth. Ketac lay still in the bed, asleep again. Her throat was numb. She crossed the room to the chair where Tanuojin’s body slumped and breathed him coppery back into his own flesh.
Tanuojin straightened; he touched his mouth with his hand. “You’re right. He’d have died if I’d had to force him.”
Cold, she went back to the bed and sat down, pulling the blanket around her. Tanuojin came over and touched Ketac’s face.
“He’s stronger than Saba.”
“Go away and let me sleep,” she said.
He went to the door. “Now we’ll see who wins.” He left. She lay down next to Ketac again.
Ketac would not talk about what had happened. Paula walked beside him along the stream. She expected him to be angry that she had helped Tanuojin do it, but he seemed not to care. She took his hand. In the high wild grass along the stream-bank, krines sang in reedy voices.
Finally he said, “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You wouldn’t have believed me.”
“Have you done it?”
She nodded, her eyes on the sleek water. Stopping, she put her hand into the stream. “Will you help me against him?”
“Against him?” He stood beside her, kicking at the grass with one foot. “What can I do against him?”
“That depends on you,” she said. “You have to know what he is, but when you do, there are possibilities.” She sat down on the grass. The water rippled and went smooth again: a passing fish.
“What is he? He isn’t just a man.”
“I didn’t mean it that way.”
“He’s more than a man. Why do you want me to help you against him—what are you trying to do to me? It’s blasphemous to defy him.”
She let her breath out, defeated again. Certainly Tanuojin was listening. Maybe she could not resist him. On the far side of the stream, the path ran down through the waste fields toward the Koup Bridge. Someone was walking along it. It was Kapsin, the young dancer, another instrument of Tanuojin’s will. She turned her face away.
In the low watch David and Ketac and Junna flew Ybicket to Ybix, in high orbit around Uranus. David would bring the little ship back alone to take her and Tanuojin. Paula could not sleep. The pillow smelled faintly of Ketac and she got up and sat by the window. The door opened, and Tanuojin said, “Ybicket is docking.”