Merse stepped up onto the dais, taking his time, coming to the opposite side of the table where she sat.
"Was the information you received detailed?" she asked, voice level.
He shrugged. "Those are good scouts out there. What exactly do you mean?" She knew that those Far Speak scouts were members of Merse's own clan.
Praulth turned a map around and pushed it across the tabletop. "Could you show where the Felk units are starting to appear?"
Merse paused a moment, then removed his hat and dropped it beside the map. "Give me something to draw with," he said, stooping. Praulth passed him an implement. He sketched quickly and neatly, pushed the sheet back toward her. "There. That's what you want?"
Praulth looked at the advancing Felk array. She stared. She felt her eyes glazing. She felt herself entering that physically languid, mentally dynamic state that she had assumed so often before at the University.
Moments later she blinked her way back to the auditorium. A silence was focused on her. The Q'ang official was turned, watching her. Xink had crept back up beside her. Merse, too, was still standing before her, a frown creasing his leathery face.
"Where did you go?" he asked, quite softly now, and a small impressed smile replaced his frown as she watched.
It wasn't the first time she had startled others with the depth of her concentration. Fellow students at Febretree had told her it was like she was asleep with her eyes opened.
"It is what I do," she said. "It's how I concentrate."
Merse nodded, seeming to regard her anew. He gestured to the map. "What are you looking for?"
She met his eyes. "A signature," she finally said, adding nothing more.
Merse said, "I'll bring you any further communications." He stepped off the dais.
The large municipal building that housed the auditorium was equipped with plumbing and indoor facilities. Xink followed when, later, she went to relieve herself.
"Xink..." she said, squelching a sharply edged barb; finally saying, "I can do this alone."
"I know." He halted there in the corridor outside the auditorium. His long dark hair fell around his face. He looked small, turned in on himself.
Praulth let out a small sigh. "Xink, you've got to come to grips. You can't be present for every single instant of my life from this moment onward. You can't safeguard me, not completely, not forever."
For a brief moment she thought he was going to start weeping, which would have annoyed her. Instead, he drew himself up straighter, took a step toward her. "I know," he repeated. "But what happened to you will never happen again. I swear that." His tone was hard, unyielding. But there was warmth there as well, compassion for her. He did still love her.
Praulth ignored the increasingly insistent pangs from her bladder. Immediately following the Incident it had hurt to urinate; since, however, the discomfort had eased.
"He's coming," she said.
Xink blinked, nonplussed.
"Dardas," she said. "I know it's still him. I feel him." Her lips tightened in a smile. The sketch Merse had made on that map had provided scant clues, just the outer shapes of the advance Felk companies. Yet... she had known. She wondered what old Honnis would say to her barely logical, acutely intuitive judgment.
Praulth turned away, hurrying a bit now, wanting to get back to the auditorium as fast as possible. She would stay there until this was done. He was coming. Dardas the Rapist. And she was ready for him.
AQUINT (4)
He almost let out a yelp and jumped to his feet, but restrained himself. Even so, his heart pounded as the shock of the news hit him.
Radstac was standing inside the doorway of the apartment. It was early morning and Aquint's head was doing its usual whirl whenever he was woken up at such an early watch. He ran a hand through his hair. Cat had heard her insistent knocking and had come to shake him out of bed.
Now, he was sitting in the outer room wondering if he had really heard her right. Cat stood off to one side. They had said little to each other since Aquint had handed over that innocent addict for Jesile to behead in the square.
"The Minstrel," Aquint finally said, his mouth feeling pasty and his eyes smarting. "He wants to meet you?"
Radstac, having said it once, didn't appear to feel the need to repeat herself. She gazed at him with those colorless eyes.
Aquint shook his head, marveling at the news. He had sent out Radstac and Deo as bogus anti-Felk troubadours, hoping against all reasonable hope that the Broken Circle would be lured by their songs of rebellion. It had been a desperate gamble, frankly, with longer odds than he ever would have considered if this were a game of Dashes.
"Where and when is the rendezvous?" he asked.
Radstac recited it. Aquint glanced at Cat, who nodded. They both knew where this location was, a number of streets west of the city's central marketplace.
Finally, Aquint couldn't contain himself. He stood and let out a hoarse but heartfelt whoop of happiness. The Minstrel! The troublemaker. The bleeder who had forced Aquint to make a sacrifice of that wretched drug addict.
"We've still got several watches before it's scheduled," Aquint said. He clapped his hands together. Then he said, "Wait. Why did you wait until now to report to me?"
"Curfew came," Radstac said.
Aquint waved a hand. "You're an Internal Security agent. You don't have to worry about any of that. Haven't I made that clear?"
"And if that Broken Circle contact observed us breaking curfew with total impunity?" Radstac asked.
Aquint considered and nodded. It was an excellent point. He asked, "You're sure this person at the tavern said the Minstrel himself wanted to meet with you?"
Radstac was sure. She managed to convey this without speaking or nodding.
She certainly was a hard thing, Aquint thought. Those facial scars didn't make her any more cuddly. Still, that Deo fellow certainly seemed fond of her...
Aquint frowned. There was no obvious reason why Deo should have accompanied her here this morning. This message she was conveying didn't require the pair of them. Nonetheless, Deo's absence suddenly concerned Aquint.
"Where, may I ask, is Deo this morning?" Aquint asked, knowing by some instinct that he wasn't going to like the answer.
He was right.
Radstac said, just as tonelessly as before, "Deo has deserted his post. He decided he wants to join the rebels. He left me at that tavern and followed the woman out."
It was one shock too many this early in the day. Aquint fell back into his seat.
From his twirling thoughts, he grabbed a question. "Did Deo say anything to you before he went?"
"He asked me if I wanted to join the rebels with him."
"And you said...?" Aquint prompted.
"I told him he was being an ass. I threatened to snap his arm if he talked anymore foolishness."
"What did he say?" Aquint asked.
"He didn't," said Radstac. "He went scurrying off."
Silent until now, Cat suddenly asked, "You didn't follow him?"
Radstac gave him a glance. Then she did something Aquint had never seen her do before. She looked embarrassed. She bit her lower lip and looked at the floor.
"I, uh, didn't," she hesitated. "Look, we're more than comrades, Deo and I. I didn't want him to do this stupid thing. But I just couldn't—I mean, what could I do? Arrest him?"
Aquint raised a hand. "All right, all right. I think I understand." He put the hand to his forehead. Now he had a renegade agent to worry about. "Do you think this rendezvous with the Minstrel will still be on?"
Radstac shrugged. "I don't know. The woman had already left the tavern. Deo may not have caught up to her."
Aquint drummed his fingers on the arm of the chair. "But let's assume he did. With his new set of loyalties, would he tell her you two were with Internal Security? If he wanted to warn the Minstrel away from the rendezvous today he would have to tell that woman something. Surely he knows we'll set a trap for the Minstrel." The thought still set Aquint tingling with anticipation.