She looked worriedly into his disconcertingly mismatched eyes. “What’s going to happen?”
“Nothing. I hope.”
Chapter Twelve
They had been waiting for them. The other slaves and the overseers. As Milo and Jan entered the communal section the slaves parted to let the three black-clad overseers through. Benny led the way. His two companions looked familiar to Jan and she guessed she’d seen them in the Guild Master’s headquarters. Benny stopped in front of Milo and put his hands on his hips. The pain stick dangled a few inches from his right hand. He said, “So what the hell are you playing at, Milo?”
“Playing at?” Milo asked with exaggerated innocence.
“With her,” said Benny, inclining his head towards Jan. “I gave her to Buncher. So how come you’ve got her?”
“Why, Buncher gave her to me, Benny. We came to an understanding.”
“That’s a damned lie!” One of the male slaves had stepped forward. Jan recognized him as being one of the three who had confronted Milo outside the latrine. “He did something to Buncher; made him hand the amazon over, somehow.”
Milo regarded him calmly. “I did nothing to him. Show me a mark on Buncher’s body that he says I put there.” Milo glanced around. “Where is friend Buncher anyway? Let him make these accusations if they are going to be made.”
“Buncher won’t come out of his cubicle,” said another slave. “Keeps to his bunk. Been coughing up blood too.”
Milo turned back to Benny and spread his hands.
“Well, there you are then,” he said. “No wonder Buncher lost interest in the amazon. He’s not feeling well.”
Benny stared hard at Milo. “So Buncher just came up to you and said, ‘Here, Milo, my old friend, take my amazon’?”
“Not exactly. I asked him for her. We haggled and, as I told you before, we came to an understanding.”
“You paid Buncher for her?”
“No. I’ve agreed to do him a few favours in return,” said Milo.
“What kind of favours?”
Milo shrugged. “That will depend on Buncher.”
Jan watched Benny’s face closely. His suspicion, and open dislike of Milo, was plain to see. But there was something else. A wariness. A hint, even, of fear.
“If you wanted her,” persisted Benny, “why didn’t you say anything to me when I brought her down?”
“I hadn’t made up my mind,” said Milo easily. “Besides, even if I had asked you I doubt whether you would have given her to me, Benny. Am I right?”
Benny ignored the question. “Why did you want her, Milo?”
Milo turned and looked Jan up and down and then he drawled, “Well, I should think that’s obvious, Benny.” This got a response from the other slaves but Benny’s angry, sweeping glare quickly silenced the sniggers. When he turned back to Milo Jan saw that he was barely keeping his anger in check. He wanted to lash out at Milo but something held him back. “Milo,” he rasped. “You know your days are numbered, don’t you? The next wrong step you make and Bannion is going to make you take the long drop.” There were mutters of approval from many of the slaves.
“I find that hard to believe,” replied Milo with a confidence that Jan envied. “I’m too valuable an asset for Bannion to dispose of so casually. I do the work of at least three of any of his other glass walkers. Nor have I ever done anything wrong. I’ve never been disobedient to you or any other overseer, nor have I ever brawled with any of my fellow slaves. Correct?”
“You’ve just never been caught at doing anything,” said Benny, his scowl deepening. “But people around you have a funny habit of getting hurt. Sometimes fatally.”
“I can’t be blamed for other people’s bad luck.”
“Word is you cause that bad luck. Word is you’re a sorcerer.”
Milo laughed. “But, of course, an intelligent man like you, Benny, laughs at such rumours. You’re a Freeman and the silly talk of superstitious slaves is beneath your contempt, isn’t it?”
Benny didn’t know how to answer that one. Finally he growled, “You’ve got one last chance, Milo. Remember that. And I’m going to be watching you.”
“As I have nothing to hide you are welcome to watch all you want,” Milo told him.
Benny made a grunting sound and started to turn. “Oh, one thing, Benny,” said Milo. Benny turned back to him. “What?”
“Does this mean I get to keep the amazon?” Milo asked politely.
Benny glanced at Jan. He seemed to have forgotten she had been the point of the whole conversation. He frowned, then gave a sneering grin. “Sure. Why not? Enjoy her, Milo. Enjoy her while you can.”
After that Benny and the other two overseers divided the slaves up into three groups. Jan wasn’t surprised that she and Milo ended up in Benny’s group. Then, after leaving the slave quarters, the three groups went off in three different directions. Jan had been intrigued by the journey up through the Sky Lord, though there had been little to see except bare corridors and narrow spiral staircases. Then they had arrived at the glass cage and the nightmare ride up through the vast gas bag had followed.
One of the things that Milo had explained to her during the ride was the meaning of the large sign next to the entrance to the cage. It has been an illustration of a flame with a black line across it. “It’s forbidden to bring anything capable of causing a flame or even a spark beyond the lower section of the Sky Lord. That whole section is sealed off from the gas cells but from here upwards there’s always the danger of hydrogen leaks. One spark could cause a tremendous explosion.”
Jan immediately became more aware of the weight of the bomb in her breast pocket. “What happens if someone forgets?” she asked as the cage had climbed up its narrow thread like a spider going up its web. “I mean, if they forget they’re carrying a flint or something?”
“The penalty is death by torture. And that applies to the Aristos as well as the slaves and Freemen. I will spare you the details of how the sentence is carried out. You’re already looking a little green. Don’t you like heights?”
“No,” she answered and tried to put the bomb out of her mind. It was too late now, anyway.
“… THEREFORE MAKE THE SIGNAL THAT YOU ARE READY TO OFFER UP THAT WHICH IS RIGHTFULLY MINE. (click) FAIL TO DO SO AND MY RETRIBUTION WILL BE SWIFT AND TERRIBLE … TERRIBLE … TERRIBLE … TERRIBLE. …”
Lord Pangloth’s familiar words didn’t sound so loud and intimidating from Jan’s vantage point on the upper surface. She was a long way down the slope of the hull but there was still a vast curving grey expanse below her which was blocking off her view of the ground directly beneath the Sky Lord as well as muffling Lord Pangloth’s speech to his subjects. When Jan had learnt that the Sky Lord was stopping to pick up tribute from a farming community she had become very excited, hoping that it was another of those lost parts of Minerva that Milo had told her about. But he said it wasn’t—Minerva lay far to the south and they had been travelling north.
Jan was feeling more confident as she scrubbed at the sun-gatherers with her mop. She now trusted the harness and cord enough to work with both hands; before she had kept one hand tightly gripping the cord, in case it should suddenly start to slip through the loops of her harness despite the locking mechanism.