by Jo Clayton
“Scrap.” Grinning still, Tayyan forgot her impatience, stalked regally over to the shallow bathing pool and splashed into it, sloshing about while Serroi reeled in the rope and tied it back on her weaponbelt. Serroi watched the lanky form dancing about, kicking up noisy gouts of water, then she ran unsteadily to join her shieldmate, gloom forgotten for the moment. They splashed about in the pool, clutching at each other, giggling at the thought of the dignified Floarin’s rage if she ever discovered what they’d done.
When the clouds began to obscure the moons Serroi shivered and climbed back onto the grass. Tayyan was quieter also, the wine beginning to wear off. The two meie looked at each other, sighed, climbed out of the pool, and walked silently toward the guarddoor. Abruptly Serroi clutched at Tayyan’s arm, halting her. “Someone coming,” she hissed. “I feel…” Her eye-spot was throbbing crazily and the stink of danger was thick in her nostrils. “Bad,” she murmured. Tayyan grew quiet and alert, the years of training clicking on. The meien faded into the dense shadow of the shrubbery, watching as two dark figures came through the small door in the outer wall and strode across the patch of grass toward the Plaz.
Serroi touched the hilt of Tayyan’s sword. Tayyan shook her head. They were in no position to challenge anyone.
The two men stood a moment in front of a section of wall then seemed to melt into the stone. The meien waited a dozen heartbeats then raced across the grass to that portion of the wall where the men had stood. Serroi touched her eyespot, raised her brows. Tayyan nodded, a sharp, assenting jerk of her head. “Catch them inside,” she breathed, then she giggled softly. “Hanky-panky in the harem.”
“Hush.” Serroi felt along the wall until her eye-spot throbbed. She pressed hard and felt a slice of stone tilt under her fingers. Behind it there was a hollow with a T-bar protruding from the back. She twisted the end of the T.
With a whispery scrape, a section of the wall swung inward. Tayyan pushed past Serroi as she hesitated, unable to summon any of her shieldmate’s glee to lighten the foreboding that was a cold hard knot in her stomach. Shaking her head, she followed Tayyan into the darkness.
For an eternity they twisted through the dusty passage lit at long intervals by guttering candles, their flames flickering in a sourceless draft. Serroi concentrated on moving soundlessly, cold with fear and with the certainty of disaster ahead; she had no thought of arguing Tayyan out of this; she knew too well her shieldmate’s stubbornness when her curiosity was aroused.
In spite of her caution she almost bumped into Tayyan as she turned a sharp corner. Her shieldmate crouched by a break in the wall, peering through peepholes in a heavy door. She tapped Tayyan on the shoulder, braced herself on one hand and pushed her head against Tayyan’s and peered through one of the holes.
Four people inside. She saw three of them as fluttering shadows, her eyes fixing on one. A Nor. She pulled away and leaned her forehead against the cold stone, colder than the stone. A Nor. She pressed her hand to her mouth, swallowed, tried to steady her breathing. She looked at Tayyan; her shieldmate’s body was a taut arc, she was breathing quickly through her mouth. Serroi closed her eyes a moment, then forced herself to look again.
The room was square and small, walls covered by heavy tapestries woven into erotic scenes that brought a blush to her face. Her eyes slipped hastily over the Nor, then came back to him. Even as she shivered with fear she knew he was one of the lesser Nor, a street Norid or a fifth-rank Norit. That didn’t matter, he still dominated the room, making the others look like paper cutouts. He was a thin man with red-brown skin and stiff black hair, his narrow body clad in a seamless black robe that hung from his bony shoulders and reached his ankles without touching flesh. Her stomach churned and she shook until she couldn’t trust herself so she turned from him and examined the others in the room.
Lybor. Domnor Hern’s second wife. A tall Stenda woman, richly blonde with the pale petal skin of the highborn and the soul of an adder, as Serroi know only too well, having suffered her tongue for the length of her ward. Lybor had a gift for finding her weakest spot and twisting a knife in it. She sat in the throne chair at the foot of a curtained bed. Her shadow and confidant, Picior the poisonous, stood beside her, her deepset blue eyes dull and unreadable, her twisted wrinkled face uglier than ever. She was wearing a different robe, a black tube much like the Nor’s robe, a silver flame in a circle appliquйd on the front, riding a slant as her high pot belly pushed against the black cloth. A Follower of the Flame, Maiden bless, I didn’t know.
Morescad stood on Lybor’s other side. Morescad the General. Serroi caught her breath, understanding now the reason for the curfew; he wouldn’t want meien or anyone else wandering around loose. Advisor to the Domnor. Lord general of the Army. Head of the Domnor’s Plaz. Head of the Noses, the men who threaded the land sniffing out trouble. Serroi wrinkled her nose. There was a sensual arrogance that oozed out of his voice, eyes, stance, whenever he spoke to her or any of the other meien technically in his charge. Something about her seemed to fascinate him. More than once he’d stroked his fingers over her forehead like a man casually caressing a pet animal.
Lybor touched her upper lip with the back of her forefinger, then ran the finger along the curve of her eyebrow. “You came to us offering your services, Ser Nor. This frail one wonders why.” Without waiting for the Norid’s answer, she lowered her blue eyes, then raised them suddenly to his. She smiled. Small hollows flirted in her checks. “Welcome, Ser Nor.” Her voice was dark music. Serroi felt herself responding to its caress in spite of what she knew; she could see the Norid softening, although he controlled himself immediately. Lybor smiled again and held out her hand. “You honor us.”
The Norid touched her fingers briefly. Bowing his head, he said, “Doamna, one who has services to sell seeks the highest market that suits his wares.” He straightened. “You are displeased with the Domnor.”
Lybor turned to Picior and stared into the dull blue eyes for a long moment, nodded and swung back to face the Norid. “Hern’s a fool.” She drew the tips of her fingers slowly along the smooth stone of the chair arm. “A fat little fool who lets scum walk over him. He laughs at me when I try to demand respect from the mud working in the woman’s quarters. He doesn’t care about anything but his food and some new little bitch he’s hot for.” She smiled at the Norid. “You know what we want, Ser Nor; you knew before you came to us, I’m sure of that. Strings to pull to make Heron look like a man. Strings to make him do what we want.”
Again she touched her upper lip, let her finger slide along the lovely line of her jaw. “For the good of the mijloc, Ser Nor.”
Morescad stirred beside her. “For the good of the mijloc,” he repeated, contempt in his dark eyes. He smiled and dropped his hand on Lybor’s shoulder.
The Norid’s slitted eyes moved from the woman to the big man. “Your rationalizations are your business, Domani.” He rubbed his thumb across his fingers. “Mine is the gold you pay for my services.”
Serroi felt bile rising in her throat. The fools, the stupid damn fools, don’t they realize what they’re getting into? She pulled away, pressed her hands against her eyes, then touched Tayyan on the cheek; when her shieldmate looked around, she jerked her thumb along the passage. Tayyan shook her head impatiently and put her eye back to the hole. Serroi hesitated then looked for herself.
The Norid dropped his hands. “What you ask can be done. But not until the Moongather. The Demon Road is widest then. See that the Domnor is alone in his bedroom on the night of the Gather. Be sure the guards outside his door are ones you can trust to keep themselves and any snoopers out of the room, no matter what they hear within. The business will take several hours. Your part is to arrange this. Mine is to prepare myself to call the demon forth. I will have half my fee now, the rest when the work is done.”
Lybor turned to Picior. A silent communion passed between them then Picior went out. Lybor turned to the Norid. “You will have it, Ser Nor. First, though,
some wine to seal our bargain.”
Picior came back with a tray and three glasses. A crusty, cobwebbed bottle rested between them. The old woman filled the glasses and offered them to each.
Morescad grinned and lifted his glass. “To the Domnor, dancing to the strings we’ll be pulling.”
Tayyan hissed with rage, forgetting where she was. Her scabbard scraped against the stone as she came to her feet.
Morescad heard both small sounds. He leaped for the passage, his sword snatched out and questing.
Shaking with fear and sick to her stomach, with a strength that came out of nowhere, Serroi dragged Tayyan away, breaking through the Stenda blindrage, persuading her to run.
Run-through the rat hole in the walls-run-feet pounding in pursuit-run-leap up the tree, fall over the wall, breaking, the fall with handfuls of vine-splatting into the macai muck-guards pounding after them-another coming after them-shouts behind-darkness and fear behind-clatter through the streets, running blindly toward the city wall-run and run and run-Tayyan sitting in a pool of blood, clutching at a leg transfixed by a crossbow quarrel-crouch on the roof-shiver with fear-the Norid comes-run-scramble frantically over slippery roofs with stormwinds snatching at her, accusing eyes pursuing her-the Norid behind her-after her.
“So I abandoned her, broke my shieldmate oath and left her to die. I got over the wall, stole a boat. You know the rest, Dina. Know how the land itself seems to be searching for me. Plaz guards and Teyn’s Berseyd. Traxim and Maiden knows who else sniffing for me. The Nearga-Nor and the Sons of the Flame moving against me and anyone who might dare help me. And I have to go back.” She rubbed wearily at her forehead.
Dinafar closed her fingers around Serroi’s ankle. “No. You heard what the Tercel said. You can’t think she’s still alive.”
“No.” Serroi jumped to her feet, emptied the last of the water over the coals and kicked dirt over them. She came back and pulled her boots off, then stretched out on the blankets. Overhead the lightning was beginning to flicker. The wind sang over and around the slanted groundsheet, bowing it in like a sail. The first raindrops splatted down around them. “I don’t know,” she said slowly. “He could have lied to frighten me or punish me for what I did to him. I’ve got to know, Dina. And that’s not all, not the most important thing, I have to warn the Domnor.” She dropped her head on crossed forearms; Dinafar’s large hands patted her shoulder clumsily. She turned her head and met the girl’s anxious green-brown eyes.
“You’ll just get killed,” Dinafar whispered.
Serroi turned onto her back and lay staring up at the wind-whipped leaves. “If that were all.” She caught the girl’s hand and mugged it against her cheek. “Fifteen years ago I escaped one Nor. Though escaped isn’t exactly the right word; he left me to die, but I refused to oblige him. I lived, but I’m still not free of him.” She chuckled drowsily. “Never mind, I’m talking mostly to scare away nightmares. Those fools haven’t the least idea who’ll be pulling those strings they boasted about. Not them, that’s sure. The Nearga-Nor will make fools of them through that Norid. He’ll be running the Mijloc, though why he wants that, why they want that, I don’t know. They don’t understand feeling, life, like color to the blind. They put people in boxes and are surprised when they don’t fit, lumpy feelings, lumpy people, don’t fit in boxes. They’ve got Sankoy, must have Sankoy, the Berseyd only work on the Teyn’s command. After the Mijloc now. And the Biserica.” She drifted into silence, listening to the sounds of the breaking storm.
“Shouldn’t you let the Biserica know what’s happening?” Dinafar’s soft voice arrested her slow drop into sleep. “Let’s both go south in the morning.”
Serroi blinked, rubbed her hands over her face. “Too long, twenty days to the Biserica, hard riding.” She yawned. “Besides, there’s still Hern.”
The girl sat very still, her torso a dark silhouette edged with light from the flashing in the sky. The rain was coming down more steadily, drumming on the hard earth, on the taut skin of the groundsheet. “To live with myself, Dina, I have to go back.” She yawned again, circled her fingers around the girl’s wrist. “You don’t have to come. Better go south, the traxim saw you with me but you should be safe enough alone. You can tell Yael-mri what I told you. Yael-mri, our Prieti-meien. You’ll like her. Be a favor to me. I’ll feel better with her knowing in case I fail.”
“You won’t fail.” The girl’s voice was very soft but totally certain. “You can’t so you won’t. And you needn’t expect me to leave you. What would I do if one of those stinking birds came at me? You’re dressed like a boy. They’ll be looking for one person or for two females, not a brother and a sister-if you can fix your skin.”
“I haven’t got the energy to argue, girl.” Serroi chuckled as she wrapped herself in her blankets. “Go to sleep. We’ll be walking tomorrow, turn the macain loose, they’ll have to forage for themselves. I think you’re a fool, but I’ll be glad of your company.” With a last yawn, she closed her eyes and was soon asleep.
The Child: 8
The year passed §lowly. Through Serroi the Noris touched the vegetative world, the animal world, the wild red life of the predators, the cold, sly life of reptiles, the hurry-scurry of rodents and the touch-flight, placid, jittery life of the prey animals. He touched these, corrupted them, enslaved them, then withdrew from them to press on with his quest to extend his power over the whole of existence. She fought him at every step and lost every time.
A strange thing was happening. Although he was unaware of it, he was changing himself, becoming more accessible to her-as if the life he touched struck back through his shields and brought the dead parts of his body-mind back toward the living. Serroi was changing also. She grew stronger with each contact she had with the life forces he was seeking to understand and control. The moments when he forced her to be his gate fed the stubborn core of her being. As the year passed, she began to see a distant possibility that she could someday break free and strike back at him.
At the end of the year, when winter yielded to spring, he took her far south, into the coast mountains turning the bottom of the Mijloc. He stood with her on a broad cliff high over a green and lovely valley, a garden place with a golden glow shimmering over it that radiated health and vigor. She knew as soon as she saw it that she had to reach this place somehow; it called her with an urgency she couldn’t deny. And she couldn’t bear the thought of the Noris destroying that peace and that goodness. She glanced up at him and was surprised to see his calm face distorted by anger and desire.
She said nothing, but quietly turned her eyes back on the valley. There was something out there-she probed at the valley with her eye-spot and felt something similar to a force that had been resisting the Noris for the past month, fighting his invasion, repairing the damage he was doing. He’d left her alone the past week, spending his time refining his accumulated knowledge; the tower had quivered under the forces he invoked. Confident of his control over her, he let her wander outside the tower whenever she wished. She went down to the shore and kicked through the surf, sat on one of the rocks and watched the dead fish floating in. There was a tense feel to the air. The world was gathering itself against him. She felt stronger than ever as she breathed in the rebellion of the earth. Standing on the mountainside above the valley, she felt the same kind of strength reaching to her from the place below. This is the heart of the resistance, she thought.
The Noris dropped a hand on her shoulder. She felt him preparing to flow into her and set herself to resist, the glow from behind entering her also, fighting with her against his intrusion. She cried out as his hand slapped hard across her face, slapped again and again, distracting her, but she ground her teeth together and fought him off. He cuffed the side of her head: she screamed with pain, screamed repeatedly as blows kept coming, hard slaps on her eye-spot, but refused to yield. The valley fed her strength. She was a rock. There was no place he could penetrate.
Shaking with fury and hurt,
the Noris dug his fingers into her shoulder and carried her back to the tower. He flung her on her bed and stood staring down at her as if he tried to understand why she would, betray him. He bent down, his hands gentle on her head, the hurt in his eyes tearing at her, confusing her. For a long time he didn’t move, then he straightened. “You have to be taught,” he muttered. Stretching out a hand, fingers splayed into a pale star, he spoke a WORD. Without looking at her, he ran from the room.
Semi blinked tears away, wondering what the Noris had done. She moved a hand, accidentally brushing it against her thigh. She gasped as pain seared through her. The pain got worse, burning all over her body. Her clothing became a torment. She tore off the soft silken robe that was like a nettle shirt. Her body was bathed in sweat. Her legs trembled. She pushed off the bed. The soles of her feet burned. She sat on the bed again and felt fire searing her buttocks. She stood. The air pressed against her skin and burned. Unable to stand or sit without pain, her nerve ends sensitized so that the slightest pressure was agony, she wept. She wept knowing that he’d done this to her out of the knowledge he’d gained through her, wept while the tears rolled like drops of acid down her face. When she could stand no longer, she sat on the edge of the bed until she could endure that no longer. She stood again. She trembled, collapsed on her knees, screaming with the agony she could not escape. She struggled back onto her feet. Weeping with pain, she staggered to the door, forced her fingers closed over the latchhook, intending to make her way to the Noris and beg him to remove his curse. Her fingers slipped off the latch. Sweat rolled down her face. She tried again. The door was locked.
The torment went on and on. Outside her window the sky darkened. Stars sprinkled across the dark blue rectangle. Her tongue swelled. She tried to drink, almost could not force water down in spite of her thirst. The hands brought food. The fragrant scents flooded her mouth with saliva but she couldn’t chew. Even swallowing was an agony.
