"Nahwac, get Cipapll here, then I want to see Kinanipli, I don't care what the bastard's doing."
Grim as Makwahkik, Ginbiryol Seyrishi watched the scene play out, then he dumped the contents of Cells 1 and 4 in the throwaway, making sure no hint of those events were left in the showstock. It was as well both Puk and Ajeri were still resting after the Praisesong, though they would have to know something about this debacle soon enough. That girl, that cursed girl, she was a bomb that kept exploding. The Makh Hen was going rabid; he was beyond their control now. There comes a point when bribes can't buy. And Kinanipli was apt to spend the scant remainder of his life on a kana interrogation table. Fortunately they didn't need him any longer; still, he was one of Puk's lot, his key agent in Aina'iril, and when the Lute found out about his loss, the situation onboard was going to be very shaky indeed.
Ginbiryol settled back in his chair and sat stroking his jaw. After a short spell of brooding, he freed up a section of screen, keyed in the closeEYE sensied to Pukanuk Pousli. The Lute was curled into a fetal knot, sweating and snoring, his face puffed from his exertions in the Praisesong; otherwise he was more or less intact, thanks to the ministrations of the O:doc. "Yes." Ginbiryol tapped a code into the pad and watched with satisfaction as a tranx web coiled about the sleeper. "Better he sleeps for the next several weeks."
Chapter 20: Scrambling and scratching
Sassa circled above the city, seeking out and riding the thermals that rose from the barricade fires, slipping sideways to avoid the prowling kana flits and the streetlights with their straying pellets and catapulted stones. It was the gray, clear firstlight of morning and even the fires were tired, though the fighters didn't seem to be, the clashes went on and on, breaking off and starting again or shifting from one winding alley to another, from one decaying structure to another.
For a short while longer he flew for the pleasure of soaring, then he began to get nervous at the length of his absence from Rohant and swung out across the bay. He was a curious mix of raptor lines, a construct rather than a hybrid; Shadith thought of him as hawk mostly because he looked like one of the larger buteos, but his capacities were much more extensive than the natural strains. He'd take ground targets and birds in flight, but preferred fish when he could get it; he liked savannahs for hunting and rocky shorelines for breeding, but he'd tolerate heavy forests and take prey from treelimbs if he had to. This morning he was after fish and he got one on his second stoop; with it flapping in his talons, he flew back to the perch he'd established on the roof above the cell where Rohant was.
Shadith sat up, blinked. The hate and rage she'd picked up through Sassa lingered like a foul taste. Ginny might have sparked the overt rebellion, but the explosion must have been building for years, even generations. This boil was going to be a bloody mess when it broke open. She shivered, started to lie down again and pull the quilts over her, but her bladder felt like a balloon so she dragged herself over the edge, went down the ladder, and trotted into the bathroom.
When she finished her business and stood, she saw the smear of blood on the seat and swore fervently. "Of all the things I didn't need…" She washed off the seat and went into the bedroom to fetch a tampon and another of the sleeping shifts the infirmary had sent along with her gear; the one she had on was a mess. Her body'd been telling her for days she was due, her breasts were sore and there was a dull floating ache around tile base of her stomach, but she'd been too distracted to notice these signs. So many things happening, wrong body-weight (not much difference in the gravity but enough to throw her reactions off), days the wrong length, getting shot and drugged and fever ridden, no wonder she'd lost track of her cycle.
She rinsed out the bloody shift and hung it from a hook, then stepped into the shower and let the hot water beat on her back, breathing in the steam that rose around her, reveling in the warmth-until the water turned tepid and ended her brief heat orgy.
When she came back, Miowee was awake, watching her from the lowest bunk.
Shadith hesitated; she'd provoked scathing comment when she'd lifted Miowee onto the bunk without waiting to be asked for her help; the streetsinger was touchy about doing for herself. "Use a hand?" she said finally, nodding at the bathroom.
"No. Later, maybe." Miowee frowned. "You're an oddity, you really are, I can't make you out. Sometimes you're a child, sometimes you act like you're older than time. How old are you?"
"Consider me an old soul. Um. I just thought of something. Some cultures like yours, a menstruating woman is unclean, taboo, supposed to sit in her house and hide till it's over."
Miowee smiled. "Wa-hyeh, there're some touches of that about, in the fervent and the male like our high and holy Gospah. You going to tell him?"
"Unfortunately it rather proclaims itself, first two days, I gush like someone stuck a pin in me. Have to change tampons every hour on the hour. Blasted nuisance, times like this."
"Even you starpeople with all your klem?"
"Klem? I don't think I know that word."
"Maka word, street talk. Take what you call hi-tech, mash that in with all the things you know we don't."
"Ah. Yes. There're drugs that'll suppress the cycle. I don't fool with them, don't want to mess myself up case I want to have kids later. I don't know if I do or not, but it's a bit soon to be foreclosing options. My body's sixteen standard, somewhere round that anyway, I couldn't say exactly, time gets royally • twisted traveling 'tween worlds, you never know exactly when you are even if you do know where."
"De-ah, de-ah." Miowee pulled herself up, grinned at Shadith. "What a wise child it is."
"De-ah, de-ah, what a crock." Shadith yawned, stretched. 'Well, well, maybe it's not so bad after all, buys us more time. Weasel-face can't blame me for this delay."
"That's what you think."
"Naaa. Even he must know the blood comes when it comes."
Miowee laughed, then shook her head. "There are drugs on this world too, Shadow. Drugs that can dry you up faster than a summer drought. And he'll use them if he takes a notion to. You have no say in it."
"I'm not local flesh, Miowee. He might find himself with a corpse on his hands if he gets too busy. I swear, some of the things they shoved into me when I was shot came closer to killing me than that pellet did. They had to pump my stomach twice and restart my heart at least once. The good Doctor Meskew was a lot more careful after the heart thing."
"And the Nish'mok knows about that?"
"Oh, yes; that slimebag doctor was sweating rivers when I opened my eyes after my heart quit. Weasel-face was standing behind him looking like he could chew nails."
"Then you're right, you've bought some time. You can't go to the Chambers while you're in blood. Oppla's teeth, that'd be a sight, Ay-no-wit would have a stroke on the spot, they'd have to reconsecrate the whole damn place, himself included. Sheeht Talk about your evil omens." She laughed until she started coughing. Shadith pounded her on the back, then brought her a glass of water. Her giggles finally trailed off into bubbles in the water.
Once again Shadith hesitated, but she was tied in knots as long as the Nish'mok had that child. She had to try prying her loose. Once that was done, she could see about breaking out of here. The thing now was to get this across to Miowee without the listeners knowing what she was after.
She thought a minute, then dug out her notebook, brought it to the bunk. "Look, you can't sleep, I can't sleep, might as well not waste this time." She knelt beside Miowee and flattened the notebook on the covers. "Do you think this might make a song? Min mudda aksira ana ajuana ana a'ishashana ana asukninana. That's how it sounds, what it means… come along here, what would be the best way of saying this in Kiskaidish?" She scribbled at the page for a short time. "Look here. This is what it means…" She pretended to read what she'd written: "A short time ago I was hungry, I was thirsty, I burned with fever."