The complacency of the unthreatened. She heard more of it as she made her way through the crowded streets of the city, in a hurry to get away from there before dawn.
Laughter and pleasure, profit and ease, built on the bones of the dead-she’d seen these a thousand and a thousand times in her long life and longer unlife.
A wrong turn took her into the warehouses along the bay front. She ground her teeth at the delay and her own stupidity at getting so sunk in mind games that she forgot what she was about.
Hm. If I follow the bay front until I reach the river, I can follow that to the grove. And get out of here. She started walking faster, the rifle slapping uncomfortably against her leg, the ragged hem of the robe irritating her ankles.
A small figure came racing from a narrow alley between two warehouses, caromed into Shadith, and bounced off her into the wall. Two mals emerged from the alley, reached for the anya who was sitting up, shaking xe’s head, dazed, but not so dazed xe couldn’t shiver with fear at the sight of the mals and start scrambling away on hands and knees.
Shadith had the robe up and the rifle unclipped before they reached xe. “Back off,” she said, pitching her voice as low as she could. “Now. Or lose a knee.”
“That un’s ours, this is Kugula’s patch.”
She snorted. “I don’t know Kugula from that piece of crud you just stepped in. And I could care less. Back off.” She watched them intently, felt the one on the right gathering himself. Cursing their stupidity, she put a pellet in his knee, swung the rifle, and squeezed the trigger again. She missed the second thug, but that was no problem because he flung himself back, scrambling for the shelter of the alley.
She darted over, picked up the anya, tossed xe over her shoulder, and took off running, driving her weary legs as fast as she could move them.
She plunged into an alley on the side away from the water and a. few moments ‘later was thoroughly lost in the maze of littered, stinking little streets that never ran straight for more than a few strides.
When she felt she’d separated herself far enough from the shots, she slowed and looked around. Nobody in sight, no feel of watchers behind shutters. She lowered the anya to xe’s feet. “All right. We seem to be clear of that lot. If you’ve got someplace to go to, you’d better head there, sun’ll be up soon.”
She started to turn, but the anya caught her sleeve, pulled her back around with a strength born of urgency. When Shadith was looking at xe, xe signed, +What are you?+ Abruptly, xe made an erase-sign, went on, +Help me.+
“It seems to me I have. And I’ve got other places to be.”
+My daughter,+ the anya signed, xe’s face twisted with grief and fear. +She’s only twelve years old. They sold her. Slavers sold her to a mal old enough to be her granther. Help me get her away.+
The trouble with empathy, Shadith thought, it doesn’t let you tell yourself xe’s lying. Spla! Twelve. “Do you know where she is?”
+I know the direction. Thinta tells me.+ Xe pointed. +That way.+
Shadith followed the line of xe’s ann. Hm. That’s the way I want to go. I think Don’t interfere with locals, Digby said. At least, don’t get caught at it. And he laughed. And then he stopped laughing. Don’t make bad vibes for the business, Shadow. Not if you mean to keep working here. Spla! “Here, you take this.” She thrust the rifle at the anya. “What’s your name, by the way?”
+Thann.+ Xe took the weapon, tucked it under xe’s arm to leave xe’s hands free. +I do know how to use it, if you’re interested. And your name?+
“Call me Shadow. And do me, a favor, ignore the cues you picked up about me. I’m not supposed to be here.” +It’s the least I can do, Shadow.+
“Hm. Well, let’s go find your daughter.”
The sun was pinking the east when they reached the house where Isaho was. It was a big house, set inside a wall ten feet high with sharpened spears along the top. There were a number of trees inside the wall, but they’d all been trimmed, no branches allowed to thrust past the spear points.
The main gate had a guardhouse with a watclunal dozing inside, but around the corner there was a small door set deep in the wall. Shadith moved into the alcove and bent to examine the lock. “Thann, give a whistle if you see company coming. Shouldn’t take long, a baby could turn this thing.”
Despite the care with which Shadith eased the door open, the hinges squealed as if they were in pain. She stiffened, sent her reach sweeping across the ground. No alarm. Either no one had heard the noise or they thought it was outside in the street. She shoved the door wide enough to let them in, shutting it as soon as Thann was through.
They were in a small court paved with flags, an open arch at the far end.
“Hm, far as I can tell, the place is still sleeping. You thin any problems waiting for us?”
+No. God watches over us.+
“Over you, perhaps. I doubt he worries about me.” She pushed the hood back.
Thann stared, seemed to gather xeself. +One worries about all living creatures.+ Xe stepped away from the wall, settled the rifle under xe’s arm. +Isaho is that way.+ Xe pointed toward the southern corner of the house. +On the second floor. The room’ at this end, the one with the balcony and all the windows.+ Xe’s hands trembled, and xe stopped signing until xe had them under control again. +She is not… I don’t know… the sense of her is so weak… he… he has…+ xe’s hands started shaking again.
“Right. I’ve got it. You stay here. Be ready to get the door open the moment you see us. We may have to get away fast.”
As Shadith passed through the arch, she heard growls and the scratch-thud of running feet. She flung herself to one side, rolled up with the stunrod in her hand. The quickest of the chals collapsed with his drool on her foot, the other went down only half a step behind him. Spla! I think I’d better go up the outside. Who knows what I’d find prowling the halls in there?
A dusty ancient vine coiled up the side of the house, its rootlets set deep in the interstices between the courses of stone. She jumped, hung from her hands long enough to make sure it was going to hold her weight, then she half-walked, half-hauled herself to the balcony. She swung over the rail and crossed the deck in three quick steps, broke a pane of glass, reached in, and tripped the latch.
The huge room was filled with a mix of gray starlight and the tiny yellow flickers from half a dozen nightlights. Whoever he was, he didn’t like the dark. She crossed to a bed big enough to hold a dozen Impix or Pixas.
A small form lay sprawled on a pile of rugs as if the mal had shoved her from the bed when he was done with her. The smell of blood mixed with sharper sweeter odors from the ointments smeared over her.
An old mal lay on his back in a tangle of silken quilts, faint snores issuing from a sagging mouth.
She looked at him a moment, sighed. I know what I’d like to do, she thought, but I’m not your judge and definitely not your executioner.