Zot’s eyes went wide, then she smiled.
It was easy enough to read what was going through her head.
Not me. Wouldn’t happen to me. I been around, not like some dumb femlit never been out of the mountains.
Yseyl shook her head, but said nothing. Pain and loathing were the only teachers for some lessons.
Yseyl smoothed her hand across the front of her tunic; the stunrod was in place, basted to the waistband of her trousers by threads she could break with a quick jerk if she had to get it out fast. She circled the house, checking out potential ambushes; with the city in such uproar, she wasn’t taking chances.
When she was satisfied, she slipped one hand under her tunic and took hold of the rod, used the other to knock on the door.
+Who?+
“Who you sent for.”
Yseyl shook her head, but said nothing. Pain and loathing were the only teachers for some lessons.
Mehll took Yseyl into xe’s parlor, seated her in a comfortable armchair and poured tea for her, gave her a plate with some triangles of buttered toast, all the while keeping up a stream of chatter about the assassinations and the fishboat that got blown into the Fence and the need for rain.
The old anya settled in xe’s own chair. +I believe you don’t have your own radio.+
“No.”
+Ah ah ah. I’m not going to ask questions. And I don’t want answers. What you do is your own business.+ Xe pointed to the large black receiver on the mantel above the fireplace. Xe signed, +Turn that on, will you? It’s set and ready to go.+
Yseyl shook her head, but said nothing. Pain and loathing were the only teachers for some lessons.
The sound of strings filled the room, a dance tune Yseyl didn’t recognize. She returned to her chair and folded her hands. “Why did you call me here? I doubt it was to listen to pretty music.”
+Your name’s Yseyl, isn’t it. No. Don’t answer that. I don’t want to know. Xe snapped xe’s fingers. +My curiosity does get away from me sometimes. Yes. I wanted you to hear a song. It’ll be on soon. They broadcast it every day about now. I thought a while and a while about send-ing Zot, telling myself yes then no then yes then no, but this assassination thing, that convinced me. Something has to be done. I think there’s a chance you’ll be the one who’ll do it. In any case, at least you’re new. The rest I wouldn’t trust with a week dead fish. Ah. There’s the announcement. Listen.+
Yseyl shook her head, but said nothing. Pain and loathing were the only teachers for some lessons.
The singer startled Yseyl. There was no oddity to the accent, the words might have been spoken by any midrange Impix or Pixa, but the quality of the voice was alien. Offworlder. How did she come to be singing at the Linojin station?
Yesyl found herself nodding as the cycle progressed-and wondering how the stranger had caught her feelings so precisely, that mixture of rage/sadness and the frustration that was not quite despair. She lifted the cup when the “Song for Yseyl” was announced, sipped steadily at the lukewarm liquid as the words flowed into the room.
Yseyl shook her head, but said nothing. Pain and loathing were the only teachers for some lessons.
“A ghost little gray ghost reaches out her hand her fatal hand an arms dealer cries an arms dealer dies
Yseyl, your tears are red
Yseyl, do you weep heart’s blood?
A ghost little gray ghost gazes at her land her tortured land
How can I end this?
Or is it endless?
Yseyl, your tears are red.
Yseyl, do you weep heart’s blood?
A ghost little gray ghost searches the stars the cold proud stars
To free her land
Her anguished land.
Yseyl, your tears are red.
Yseyl, do you weep heart’s blood?
A ghost little gray ghost
Holds the key the piercing key.
Who would be free?
Who will follow me?
Yseyl, 1 hear your call.
Yseyl, hear me, 1 know it all.
O ghost little gray ghost
You look the wrong way
You take the wrong road
Hear what I say
Let me lighten your load.
Look to the peaks Not to the sea.
Where feet become holy
There will I be.
Unravel this rhyme
Your heart’s wish to find.”
Mehll pushed onto her feet and went to turn off the radio herself. +If I knew what that’s about, I’d have to act on my knowledge. I don’t want to know. We’ll finish our tea, then you can leave.+
Yseyl walked to the end of the dock and stood gazing across the dark water at the Fencelight.
A short distance away Bond Sisters and Anyas of Mercy were kneeling and murmuring through shimbil after shimbil, twelve upon twelve upon twelve, in a litany of pleas to God to open the way, bring down the Fence.
She listened a moment and felt a vast impatience. If she marched over to them right now and said she could open the way for them, that they didn’t have to wait for God to act, they’d probably drown her for impiety.
People. She scraped her hand across her eyes. Those like Mehll, they didn’t want to know. Others… vumah vumay, playing by the rules had never gotten her anywhere, nor had not-doing something ever kept her safe. The offworld woman-she said she had the answer. No need to believe her, just bargain with her. Might be a Sunflower agent sent to fetch back the disruptor. That didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was stopping this misery.
Might as well listen to her. She’s standing on my road not hers. And she wouldn’t be taking the trouble if she didn’t mean to deal. Do me down if she can. Hah! They think they’re so clever these star-fliers, just because they can get away. But they’re only using what other folks built for them… those arms smugglers… so stupid sometimes it was almost embarrassing to do them. Look to the peaks… hm… where feet become holy… probably means the Outlook where the Pilgrim Road starts… I’ll need food… gear… be out there a while… wonder if I can find her before she finds me… it’s a thought… she’s a grand singer… it’s almost worth… ya la, don’t you get stupid, fern… listen to the words she says and forget the voice.
She left the religious to their chant and went to the room she rented to do some concentrated thinking.
10
Wings cup the air and go where they will. Things volatile and unsteady change at the puff of a breath.
Chapter 10
1. Setup
Shadith touched the test sensor and triggered the holo, then stepped back and walked in a slow circle about it, checking the smoothness of its turn, how the eyes followed her and the way the leaf-shadow flickered over and through it without obscuring the basic shape. She stopped where she’d begun the circle, said, “Speak.”
The image smiled, lifted a hand. Its translucent lips moved, and sound came forth. “Because you see this, I know you are Yseyl, thief and assassin. Your face and form trigger the image. I want to make a deal with you. I can help you take the whole Fence down instead of just blowing a few holes in it. In return…”
Shadith listened critically while the speech played to a finish, ending with the date of her return, then she reset the projector. “Well, little gray ghost, it’s time to lay down more bait. Can’t take a chance you’re somewhere else entirely. Sar! I hope Digby appreciates the beating my tailbone’s going to get. They could rent out those miniskip seats to a torture museum.”