"No," said Eric. "She's with me."
"Good," said Dorias in the same serious tone. "We need you both here. She was being taken to May 16 when the Vitae waylaid the ship."
"She was what!" exclaimed Eric. "Are Unifiers in the Realm!"
"Yes, Eric, listen…"
"There's a war going on in the Realm!" shouted Eric. "It's being encouraged by a group of Skymen…"
"Eric…"
"And you're saying it's your employers!"
"And I'm trying to stop it, Eric!"
Eric closed his mouth and clenched his fists. He was shaking.
Dorias took advantage of his silence. "The Rhudolant Vitae have been scouting out the Realm of the Nameless Powers for years now. We couldn't find out why. So the Unifiers sent a team in to try to get the natives, the People, to agree to join the Human Family before the Vitae could get their hands on them. But there're complications…"
"What kind of complications?" Eric demanded.
"Madame Chairman asked for volunteers to be brought to May 16. The Vitae hijacked the ship and took the cargo…and we don't know why."
"Dorias," said Eric in a low, level voice, "don't play games with me…"
"Eric, listen to me. You're being invited to come here, of your own free will," said Dorias. "The Unifiers want to hire you and offer sanctuary to the woman…"
"Stone in the Wall dena Aria Born of the Black Wall."
"Eric, if the Vitae want the Realm, your best bet for keeping it from them is to ally with the Unifiers, and don't try to tell me you don't care," he added. "We both know you've never stopped caring, Teacher Hand."
Eric said nothing.
"I'm asking you to trust me, Eric," said Dorias. "Like I've trusted you."
After a long moment, Eric said, "All right, I'm on my way. I'll be there in about thirty hours."
"Thank you," said Dorias, and Eric broke the connection.
"I trust you, Dorias," said Eric to the blank screen and the universe at large. "But how can I trust those fanatics you've allied yourself with? They want her as badly as the Vitae did, and I'm not going to let any of you have her or me until I know what you want us for."
Eric leaned back in the chair and stared at the deck between his bare feet. With startling clarity, he saw two bodies there, faces contorted with the shock and pain that had killed them. Seven years separated action from memory, but his mind still held every detail.
He'd scrambled onto his knees with his heart pounding and his ears ringing, barely able to understand the voice whispering an unbeliever's prayer to the gods.
He'd helped Yul Gan Perivar hide the bodies while Dorias ransacked the ship's electronic memory for anything useful they could carry with them. Three of them had run away in the U-Kenai, which was just a shuttle belonging to the bigger ship whose owners had taken him from the Realm and died when they tried to keep him for their own.
That was their mistake. The laws of the Nameless Powers couldn't keep me enslaved. What made them think a pair of human beings could. He tried to feel some measure of pride, or at least satisfaction at that, but all he felt was tired.
Eric shook himself and switched the terminal back to keyboard input and then into intercom mode. He typed a series of new directions to Cam and then opened up an outside channel to a world called Kethran.
Perivar would be willing to help keep Aria out of the hands of the Vitae. If not out of friendship, then because Eric could do him too much damage if he wanted to.
One of these days, there'll be somebody around who helps because they want to. Not because I owe them, or they owe me. One of these days.
Until then, there was nothing to do but wait, and hope he was faster than even the Vitae could be.
Eric watched the spare cabin's door open. As she stood in the threshold, Aria's expression went from petrified fear, to unparalleled relief, to absolute embarrassment as she saw that the view wall was turned off, and that he was waiting for her.
She did figure out how to open the door last night. Garismit's Eyes! Just as well for the Nobles that all the Notouch aren't her grade of brainless! We'd all be dead in a week!
We? Eric winced inwardly. Them. They. I left that behind. Years and light-years behind.
In whose dreams was that, Teacher Hand? Not yours.
When he'd finally fallen asleep last night he had dreamed about the Walls. Broken Canyon, where the Nameless Powers had argued over the name for "stone." Tiered Side, where the Servant Garismit kept watch for the Aunorante Sangh. Red Stone, where the first battle between the Nameless Powers and the Aunorante Sangh took place. Old places, holy places, and he still knew the litany and the celebration that went with each.
Just as he knew the laws for the Royal, the Noble, the Bondless, the Bonded, and the Notouch.
Eric shoved the thoughts well into the back of his mind so he could concentrate on the particular Notouch in front of him. She'd also, obviously, found some of his spare clothes. The azure pullover shirt made her a short dress and a pair of his black socks made thin leggings.
Who'd've thought a Notouch would have such fine legs?
Stop it, Eric.
She still wore her own belt and headcloth. The stones were now hanging from her belt in an emerald-colored pouch made of a sash he'd gotten for some forgotten formal occasion.
Eric beckoned out of the doorway. "I wasn't sure you'd make it out. Good sign. I will be able to do something with you after all."
"Oh?" Amusement glittered behind her eyes as she collected her nerve and wits. "You have something in mind then?"
"Yes, I do." He pushed the plate full of ration squares across the table to her. "Here, breakfast." He slid over a cup full of steaming liquid that approximated the brew they called tea in the Realm.
She sat down. "So Cam doesn't get to eat?" she asked as she picked up a ration square. "This is two meals we've had without hun."
Eric found himself strangling on another laugh. "You don't let an idea go, do you? All right. Just remember, you asked." He turned toward the airlock corridor. "Cam! Come here!"
Her eyes tracked around to the open threshold. With a smooth, mechanical pace, Cam walked in. It might have been a moving statue of peach-colored clay dressed in saffron overalls. At least that was what Eric had thought the first time he'd seen one.
Aria jerked backward as far as the chair would let her. Eric turned his face away and fought the urge to smile.
Getting her angry at me won't accomplish anything.
"That is a human-copy. It's another Skyman machine. It flies the ship at my orders and answers to 'Cam.' "
"Ah." She did not relax any.
Eric shook his head. "Return to the bridge, Cam."
As soon as Cam was out of sight, Aria settled herself back into a normal sitting position and reclaimed her breakfast, which had dropped to the floor.
"I've been talking to a friend of mine." Eric eyed her for a moment. She absorbed the statement calmly. All right. "He thinks he might be able to find a place for you."
"What kind of place?" She took a long swig of tea.
"Does it matter?"
"Not really. I just like to know what I'm getting into, when I can." She stuffed the last of the square into her mouth and licked her fingers. Eric tried not to watch. Notouch table manners were apparently no better than their hygiene.
Stop that too, Eric. She wasn't brought up to know better. It was amazing how quickly the old arrogance came back. For ten years he'd been a servant of one kind or another, and it still came back.
"I'd tell you if I could, but I've got no idea what will happen. Perivar, my friend, was one of the Skymen who took me over the World's Wall. He was also my first friend once I got out here. On top of that, he owes me for a few years of silence. He'll find some place to put you. It may not be pleasant, but it won't be life-threatening either."