##
The Angatines set up a tent as close to the Kipuny Shimmery as Jao juhFeyn would permit and held a mourning service every night she played, starting their keening the moment she came round the corner. Whitened faces and bodies moved in a somber, slow dance to the steady slow thump of the drums. The Blind Woman chanted her exorcisms in a wild rough contralto.
No one paid attention to them, they were just part of the show. She’d been afraid they’d wake hostility among the locals, but apparently the Rummers were used to the Angatines taking against somebody and calling the wrath of heaven on them. Apparently the wrath of heaven struck or didn’t strike according to the whims of God and the Rummers didn’t consider that any business of theirs.
By the seventh day there were crowds of child beggars, street singers, magicians, acrobats, cutpurses, food venders; Hadluk’s rumor-mill was working industriously and producing the desired effect. He knew his Rummers.
##
The crowd grew every playday, shouting the number of the win when she came out. Seven, eight, nine…
They opened and let her pass without hindrance when she arrived, there was a hush, hot and tense, like the hush before a storm. The question was there in their faces: Would she win again? Would the Lady kiss her once more?
They had the answer before she came out.
Yes. She won, the whisper came. She won. Ten. Eleven. Twelve. She won. She won.
Dasuttras ran at her, elbowed past the guards she was forced to hire; they touched her, just touched her-as if they hoped her Luck would rub off on them.
Sick people came at her on hands and knees to outmaneuver the guards, or paid child beggars to tear pieces of cloth from her dress.
She moved quickly into the maze of semi-streets, dismissed the guards as soon as the worst of the crush was left behind, depended on Kikun’s Not-There to screen her from the more persistent followers and-somehow-kept her homeground in the Rumach secret from friend and enemy alike.
##
On the thirteenth day, as Hadluk counted out her winnings, he murmured. “The High Vaar called Jao this afternoon, wanted to know about you, if the Luck was real or you were pulling something.”
“That’s good?”
“Yup. You’re in.”
“Got the date?”
“Not yet. Can you keep this up?”
“Long as the play’s straight.”
“It will be.”
On the fifteenth playnight, there were only three marks waiting for her. By the second Chapter she knew what she faced. They were combined against her. She almost giggled with relief. She’d been expecting this for days.
Jao came in looking grim. She caught his eye, shook her head. He thought it over a moment, then left.
She cleaned them.
They yelled foul.
The Beza Prezao came himself and took them away.
##
Jao waited while Hadluk counted the coins and locked them away, then he took her arm and escorted her to the quartet of guards waiting by the door. He turned her to face him. “That won’t happen again. After Prezao gets done with them, they’ll walk small and stay away.”
“Thanks.”
He smiled. “You know what’s really going to discourage repeats of this night? You cleaned them. They pulled a sneak on you and went down tails on fire. Why haven’t I heard of you?”
“I play privately. Go on binges, then quit. So there’s nothing to hear.”
“Some nothing. Come see me tomorrow.”
“What time?”
“Have lunch with me.”
“With pleasure. Noon?”
“One.”
“I’ll be there.”
4
She stripped the dress off, threw it on the bed. “We’re in, Kuna. I’m having lunch with Jao tomorrow. I have a feeling he’s going to offer the invitation then.”
Kikun was curled into a tight ball. His skin fell looser by the day, his bones were starting to show. “Soon enough,” he said. His voice was dull, dragging.
“You all right, Kuna?”
“No, I’m not all right. I’m tired, Rose. I can’t sleep, I can’t eat. I need things I can’t get here.”
The words came to her as sighs puffing through the flicker of the candlelight; she had to strain to hear them. She pulled the woolly robe around her, irritated by his limpness. She’d come home high and happy and he’d gloomed her down till she was low as the rug. She couldn’t do this thing without him, not the way it was set up, but more than ever she regretted not being on her own. She sat on the bed and began taking down her hair. “It’s almost over, Kuna. Tell me what you got from the office.”
He muttered words she couldn’t hear, uncoiled and sat with his legs dangling, his hands clutching the edge of the seat. “I picked up two more passkeys. Wrote them down, they’re on the table. I don’t see any pattern in his keys, I think he’s using private symbols translated through the local ideograms. Not numbers. Gestalt of some kind. Probably interlocking gestalts. Ideograms lend themselves to that sort of thing. You’d probably find it simple-minded. It works for him, lets his women get what they need to run the business for him, keeps the rest private. Gaagi…” he blinked and looked unhappy, a small gray-green manlizard sinking into wrinkles. “Gaagi decided to show, he says the machine is trapped, push it wrong and the whole building goes boom.”
“Lovely. Hmm. If I can get in, pull the data without bringing the house on my head, I’ll have the Shimmery for refuge, three days, that’s how long Topenga Vagnag takes. I’ll be sleeping there, won’t go out till the Game’s over. That’ll give you a chance to rest, if you can hang on till then. After you get a look at the Players.” She pulled the dozens of fine plaits apart, dropped the pins and clasps on the quilt beside her, working quickly, impatiently, ignoring the sharp little pains when she pulled too hard. “I need you hot and ready to go when it’s time to get away. This is going to be tricky, Kuna. Hadluk and Pulleet will do their best to put me down, types like that always get greedy, want it all, and the other Players will be… hmm… shall we say MOST unhappy. And one of them’s going to be the High Vaar. They say they want a good game, what they mean is they want to win. Mmm, we can’t come back here, not after the Game. We should have everything we don’t want to abandon packed and ready to shift before I go. When you have a moment, Kuna, see if you can locate us a tractor, that’s about the fastest way out of town, we need to get close to where the miniskips are before anyone wakes up to the fact that we’re gone. About milking that kephalos the night before the Game… hmm… impossible to do it without traces… you think you could get me something that would make Sai think it was lice nosing into his business? Insignia or something I could leave lying in some inconspicuous spot? I should have the timeline set after my lunch with Jao. Then we’ll know where we are.” She thrust her fingers through her hair, combing out the worst of the kinks. “Bath. Goerta b’rite, I NEED a bath.”
“How much did you get tonight?”
“I don’t know. All they had, I didn’t bother counting it.”
“You are odd, Rose. I’ve never met anyone like you.”
“Why? Because I don’t give a damn about money?” She shrugged, got to her feet. “I can always get money. It’s other things that don’t come when you whistle.” She made a face, collected the towel and facecloth and coins for the heater slot. “You want me to run water for you when I’m finished?”
“Please.”
5
Jao tilted the bottle and poured a pale liquid that wasn’t even a kissing cousin to the turpentine she’d been drinking. “Home wine,” he said. “From my cousin’s vineyard on Shimmaroh. I think you will like this.” He filled his own glass and smiled as she sipped, then sighed with pleasure. “Forgive me in advance for intruding on your private affairs?”