by Jo Clayton
Ahzurdan dragged his eyes off Daniel Akamarino, nodded. His hands moved ed in formal, carefully controlled patterns; his lips mouthed silent rhythmic words. “In place and renewed,” he murmured a moment later.
“Interference?”
“Not that I can taste. I can’t be sure, you know. This is his heart place and he’s strong, Brann. A hundred times stronger than when I was with him.”
“HE has a talisman,” Kori said. “A stone he wears round his neck.”
Ahzurdan took a step toward her. “Which one? Which talisman?”
“I don’t know. Do they have names?”
“Do they…” He straightened, closed his eyes. “Yes, child, they have names and it’s very very important to know the name of the talisman he has.
“I’ll ask Tit if he can find out. The Chained God might be able to tell him. He’s given us other things like Daniel here being involved somehow in what’s going to happen. Aren’t you awake now because you got a notion I was coming a day early?”
Brann turned her head. “Ahzurdan?”
“There was a warning. I told you.” His dark blue eyes slid around to Daniel, slid away again. “Nothing about him.” His voice was low and dragged as if he didn’t want to say the words.
“I see. Young woman, your name is Kori Piyolss?” When Kori nodded Brann turned to Daniel. “And you?”
“Daniel Akamarino, one time of Rainbow’s End.”
“And where’s that?”
“From here? I haven’t a notion.”
“Hmm. Daniel Akamarino. Danny Blue?”
“I’ve been called that.” He gave her one of his second-best grins. “I’ve been called worse.”
“This isn’t going to hurt you,” she said. He raised his brows. “I need to know,” she said. “When that bronze bit came to me, it brought two tigermen with it who killed the messenger and tried damn hard to kill me.” Kori gasped, leaned against Daniel, clutching his arm so hard he could feel her nails digging into him. “Sorry, child, but you’d best know what kind of fight you’re in. Where was I? Yes, I have to know more about the two of you before we get into it about our mutual friend you know who. Yaril, Jaril, screen them.”
The two children were abruptly spherical gold shimmers. Warily, Daniel began to slide toward the door; before he moved more than a step, one of the shimmers darted at him and merged with him. A ticklish heat rambled about inside him, then focused in his head. A few breaths later, the shimmer whipped away again and was a young boy sitting on the bed, his sister beside him.
‘Jay?”
“Daniel Akamarino is like us, fetched here from another reality, he doesn’t know how or why. It’s a reality more like ours, no magic in it, no gods, their ships don’t sail on water but through the nothingness between suns.-The boy chuckled suddenly, reached out and stroked Brann’s arm. “He’s a sailing man, Bramble, not a captain I’m afraid, but he’s been just about everything else on those ships.”
Brann shook her head. “Idiot. Yaro?”
“It’s pretty much what you thought, Bramble. The girl is being driven by the Chained God who wants something from you. This Rd she’s talking about, he’s her brother, seven years old and not likely to live till eight unless something is done. When one priest dies, the god himself chooses the next and makes his choice known through fancy and extremely public signs. A little over two months ago, You-know-who’s soldiers tied Owlyn Vale’s priest of the Chained God to a stake set in the threshing floor and lit a fire under his feet and a few days after that the god told Tre he was it next.” Yaril lifted a hand, let it fall. “Not a profession with a great future.”
Kori sighed and went to sit in the mispraised chair. “Tres got maybe a week before the signs start.”
Daniel Alcamarino thought, uh huh, that explains what was bothering the boy. Kuh! Burnt to death. Me, I wouldn’t be worried, I’d be paralyzed. Gods, hah, gods tromping around interfering with ordinary people. Magic that’s more than self-delusion. Wouldn’t ‘ve believed it a few hours back. Which reminds me. “I met one of your gods, demigods whatever tonight. Two of them, actually. A ship-size mermaid and a little bald shemale with good taste in wine.” He slid the carrystrap of the wineskin off his shoulder. “Heesh left this with me. Care for a drink?”
“Tungjii and the Godalau!” Brann sighed. “Old Thngjii Luck sticking hisser thumbs in my life.”
“That’s what heesh called her. Godalau.” He squeezed wine into his mouth, held out the skin. “Tungjii, you said. Luck?”
She drank, passed the skin to the changechildren. “Point of view, my friend. Thngjii touches you, things happen. ‘S up to you to make it good or bad.” She hitched round to face Kori. “Chained God tell you where I was, or did you ask downstairs?”
“Daniel asked the girl.”
“Hmm. Our mutual friend has Noses watching the place. Dan,” amusement danced in her eyes as she swung back so she could see both Kori and Daniel Akamarino, “our own Danny Blue, he tells me he saw two with message birds in the taproom last time he went down. So Him, by now he knows you’ve got to me. Something to think about. Eh?”
Daniel Akamarino rested his shoulders against the wall, crossed his arms; he wasn’t looking at Ahzurdan so he didn’t know how closely his stance mimicked the other man, though he could feel the powerful current of emotion flowing between them; the sorceror with a version of his name didn’t look like him, so it wasn’t a matter of physical double in a different reality, but there was some sort of affinity between them; no, affinity wasn’t quite the right word, it felt more ‘like they were two north poles of, a bipolar magnet, each vigorously, automatically repelled by the other. He cleared his throat. “If I were mm whatsisname, I wouldn’t fool with spies, I’d send a squad of soldiers and grab us all. Three adults, three kids, it’s not much of a fighting force.”
Brann smiled. “He knows better, Sailor. Ahzurdan here could whiff out a dozen soldiers without raising a sweat. Yaril and Jaril, they’d crisp another dozen and me, I’m Drinker of Souls. We’re wasting time; Kori, you’ve got to get back to your folks before they find out you’re gone. So. I’ve answered your summons and got whatsisname,” a quick smile at Daniel, “on my back for it. What am I supposed to do about him and if it’s not him, what?”
“Drinker of Souls.”
“Not that simple, child. Yes, I’ll call you child and you’ll be polite about it. I would have to touch him and there’s no way in this world he’d let me get that close.” She frowned. “Is that your plan? You said you had one.”
“‘S not MY plan exactly. Chained God told Tre what you should do is get to him and get the Chains off him, then he’ll go with you to get the talisman from HIM and that means Amortis won’t do what HE says any more and we won’t have to listen to the Servants of Amortis and if they try to set soldiers on us in the Vales, we’ll beat them back down to the Plains. And Tre won’t get burnt.”
“That’s the plan?”
Kori looked at her hands. “Yes.”
Brann shook her head in disbelief. “Miserable meeching mindless gods. How the hell am I supposed to take chains off a god if he can’t do it himself, how do I even get to him?”
Eyes on her laced fingers, Kori shook her head. ‘I don’t know. All I know is what Tre said. He said there’s a way to reach the Chained God. He said the god wouldn’t tell him exactly what it is. He said the god didn’t want HIM to know it. He said you’ve got to go to Isspyrivo Mountain. He said once you’re there, the Chained God will get you to him somehow.”
“Isspyrivo. Where’s that?”
“You’ll do it? You’ll really do it?”
“If you think that needs answering, you haven’t been listening. Now. Where is that idiot mountain?”
“On the end of the Forkker Vale Finger, you can see it from Haven Cove, at least that’s what um folks say when they think the kids aren’t listening. Haven’s a smuggler’s town; it’s not something they want us to know about; we do, of course. The m
en get drunk sometimes at festivals and they tell all kinds of stories about sea smugglers and land smugglers; one of them was about the time Isspyrivo blew and caught Henry the Hook on the head with some hot rock. It’s a fire mountain. They say it’s restless, they say it doesn’t like folk climbing around on it; they say it kills them, opens up under them and swallows them.”
“Hmm. Let me think a minute.”
Daniel Akamarino leaned against the wall watching her. Drinker of Souls. Hmm. I think I pass on this one. It’s an interesting world; if I’m stuck here, I’m stuck, no point in getting myself killed which seems likely enough if I hang with this bunch. He slid along the wall, closed his hand about the doorlatch. “Been fun, folks,” he said aloud. “See you round, maybe.”
Brann looked up. “No, Ahzurdan, I’ll handle this. Daniel Akamarino, if you leave, you walk into our enemy’s hands; you’re a dead man but not before he finds out everything you know. I don’t want to do it, but if you insist on leaving us, I’ll have to stop you and let the children strip your mind.”
“Nothing I can do about that?”
“Not much.”
He scowled at Ahzurdan. “He’d enjoy frying me, wouldn’t he?”
“I couldn’t say.”
Hands behind him, he tried the latch; the hook wouldn’t move, he applied more pressure, nothing happened. Across the room Ahzurdan was laughing at him soundlessly triumphant. Daniel ignored him and moved back to his leaning spot. “If I can’t leave, what about Kori? How does she get back to the hostel?”
Brann nodded. “If she’s going, it’s about time she went. Jaril, take a look downstairs, see what’s happening.” The boy flipped into his shimmershape, dropped through the floor. “Yaril, scout the outside for us, see what’s waiting out there.” The girl flitted away through the ceiling. “Dan um this is going to get confusing, Ahzurdan, I want to get Kori to the hostel without your ex-teacher tracking her. Can you fog his mirror or something?”
“Or something. Talisman or not, I’ve learned enough from his attacks to blur his sight. He’ll know I’m moving, he’ll know the general direction, but he won’t be able to see me or anyone with me. Earth elementals and ariels, I can handle those myself; if you and the children can remove the human watchers, we can get the girl back without him finding out who she is. The fog will be broad enough to cover the hostel and half the quarter around it, he can’t be sure where I’m going, but he’s not stupid, so he’ll guess fairly accurately what’s happening.”
“Kori, you hear?”
“Yes.” The word was a long sigh. She was pale, her eyes huge and frightened. Daniel watched her, understanding well enough what she was feeling now; she’d gone into this blithely enough, enjoying the excitement of her secret maneuvers; her brother’s life rested on her skills, but that wasn’t quite real to her. Settsimaksimin’s power wasn’t real to her. It was now. She was beginning to understand what might happen to her people because of her activities. No, it wasn’t a game any longer.
Brann got to her feet, crossed to stand beside her; she touched her fingers to Kori’s shoulder. “What do you want to do? You’re welcome to stay here.”
“I can’t do that. If I’m gone, HET do something awful to my folk.”
“Dan uh Ahzurdan?”
“These are his people, Brann; remember what I’ve told you about him, he’s always been extravagantly possessive about things that are his. When we… his apprentices finally broke away, he took it as a kind of betrayal. He won’t do anything to them unless he’s driven to it. As long as there’s no overt break, as long as he can strike at you, us, without involving them, he’ll leave them alone. The girl’s right. She has to go back.”
“Soon as the children are back, then, we’ll move. You’ll come with us, Daniel Akamarino.” She smiled. “I can almost hear your mind ticking along. Don’t waste your time, my friend. We won’t be too busy to keep track of you, don’t you even think of slipping off…”
hullo whipped up through the floor, changed. “Taproom’s cleared out except for a couple of drunks. Real drunks, I whizzed them and nearly picked up a secondhand buzz. I went outside and ran a few streets. Lot of men standing in doorways. I counted twenty before I came back, there’s probably twice that.”
Yaril dropped through the ceiling, fluttered into her girlshape. “He’s not exaggerating. They’re watching every street and path around this place, just about every bush. There’s another ring beyond that, almost as tight and beyond that two more, not so tight. There are even some little cats out on the water zipping back and forth through the fog. Must be a couple of hundred men out there. The landwatchers aren’t all that enthusiastic, standing around holding up walls, walking circles in the middle of the street, but seems to me that’s because nothing is happening. Let them spot us and they’ll turn as efficient as you want.”
Brann frowned. “I didn’t expect quite that many… we can forget about the boats and the first ring isn’t a problem, we can get most of them before they realize we’re out. Before He knows we’re out. It’s those next, what, you said three rings? They worry me. Did you scan the rooftops, Yaro?”
“Bramble! course I did. Some people were up there sleeping, there were several pairs of lovers intent on their own business, they wouldn’t give a fistful of spit for anything happening on the street. I didn’t see anyone alert enough to be a spy, but I won’t guarantee I didn’t miss someone.” She hesitated, turned finally to Ahzurdan. “Would he do something like that? Use dozens of visible watchers to camouflage two or three maybe a few more of his best Noses, so we take the guards out and don’t notice some sly rats sneaking after us?”
“He’s a complicated man. I’d say it’s likely.”
Daniel Akamarino watched the working of this odd collection of talents and began to feel better about being involved in this web. They put aside their antagonisms and concentrated on getting the job done, once they’d defined what the job was they wanted to do. It wasn’t a group that could or would stay together in ordinary circumstances, but nothing was ordinary about what was happening. Kori was obviously feeling a little out of it; she was fidgeting in her chair, making it creak and wiggle, not quite overtaxing the weak hind leg. He rubbed a thumb across one of his larger pockets, tracing the outlines of the rectangular solid snugged inside, a short range stunner; he eyed Brann a moment, then the children, then Ahzurdan, wondering if he could take them out and get away; his thumb smoothed over and over the stunner, no, impossible to tell what sort of metabolism the children had; they might eat the stunfield like candy. Besides, old Settsimaksimin had the ground covered out there. He liked the thought of that man operating on him about as much as he liked the idea of the children wiping his mind. When he brought Kori here he hadn’t noticed the watchers, but that might have been the wine, he still wasn’t all that sober, or it might have been worrying about young Kori and what she was up to; whatever, he wasn’t about to argue with the children’s assessment of the danger out there. Shapeshifters, shoo-ee, what a world. Contact telepaths, lord knew what else they were. He eased the zipper open, fished out the stunner. “Hey folks,” he said, “listen a minute. I think I know the problem. Brann, you and the kids have to actually touch someone to take him out, right?” She nodded, a short sharp jerk of her head. “And there are too many watchers out there to get at one sweep, right? So, if you could put them to sleep for say an hour, ten, twenty at a blow, and do it from say roof height, them being on the ground with no one near them, that would erase the worst of your difficulties, wouldn’t it?”
“It’d come close.” She leaned toward him, focused all her attention on him, wide green eyes shining at him. “What have you got, Danny Blue?”
“Being a peaceful man with a habit of dropping into places that don’t appreciate good intentions, I keep this with me.” He held up the stunner. It didn’t look like much, just a black box with rounded corners that fit comfortably in his hand, a slit in the front end covered with black glass, a slide w
ith a shallow depression far his thumb in it that with a little pressure bared the triggering sensor.
Jaril sat straight, crystal eyes glittering. “Stunner?”
Daniel Akamarino raised his brows, then he remembered they, like him, were from somewhere else. “Right. Short range neural scrambler.”
“See it?”
“Why not.” A glance to make sure the thumbslide was firmly shut, then he tossed the stunner to the boy.
Jaril caught it, set it on the bed, switched to his energy form and sat over it for a few breaths like hen on an egg. He shifted, was a boy again. do. You letting Yaro and me use it?”
“You can handle it in the air?”
The boy grinned. “Ohhh yes.”
“Feel free. Need any directions?”
“Nope. We read to the subatomic when we have to.”
“Handy. That work on what they use here?”
“Magic?”
“I’m not all that comfortable with the concept.”
“Better get comfortable, tisn’t likely you’ll go home any time soon.”
“You?”
“Two centuries so far.”
‘‘Ananiles?’’
“We never bothered with those. Natural span of the species is ninety centuries.”
“Hmin.”
“You finished?” Dry amusement in Brann’s voice. “Good. We’ll run out of night if we keep this chatter going. Kori, anything else you need to tell me?”
Kori looked up from hands pleating and repleating the heavy cloth of her long black skirt. “No. Not that I can think of.”
“Jay, Yaro, from the little I understand of your chat with Daniel, it seems you can clear the way for us. How long will it take?”
The changechildren stared at each other for several minutes. Daniel Akamarino felt an itching in his head that rose to a peak and broke off abruptly as Jay broke eye contact with his sister. “We’ll zigzag, trading off, each one take a ring while the other flies to the next. I think we better do at least half each ring, maybe a bit more. Yam?”
