Blue Magic dost-2

by Jo Clayton

  The old man collected his coin, stowed it away. He blinked thoughtfully at the skin, ran his tongue around his teeth. “Real quiet, aah?” He scratched at the gray and white stubble on his wattles. “Wanna keepa neye lifted for sharks.”

  “Hard to know where the sharks are if you don’t know the waters. “‘

  “Aaah: Eleias Laux’s lookin for cargo, might go without if ta patron meetzis price. Skia Hetaira, thatzis boat.” He took the wineskin and drank until he seemed about to drown, stopped the flow with the neatness he’d shown before. “Way down west end. Black boat, ketch, flag’s a four point star, black on white. Lio, eez hived up at the Green Jug. Eatzis noon there.” He glanced at the sun. “‘Bout this time a day, more often than not.” He held out the skin. “Gi’m a stoup ‘r two a this and eez like to sail ta patron to the Golden Isles, no charge.”

  Daniel Akamarino got to his feet, yawned and stretched. He smiled amiably at the old man. “G’ day to you, friend,” he said and strolled away.

  “How’d you know he’d know?”

  Daniel looked down, startled. Jaril was walking beside him, looking up at him with those enigmatic crystal eyes. “Been on a lot of worlds,” he said. “There’s always someone who knows, you just have to find him.

  Or her or it, whatever. That old man, he’s got the best pitch in the. Market which means he’s got some kind of clout, I don’t have to know what kind, just that it exists. There’s this, he’s no muscle man, must be shrewdness. Brains and information. Means he knows what’s going on where.”

  “And now you’re going to hunt out Eleias Laux?”

  “Mmm, might.”

  “That’s a funny wineskin.”

  “Funny how?”

  “It’s not all that big.”

  “Mmm.”

  “Should be near empty the.way you been squeezing it. Isn’t, is it?”

  “Lot of funny things on this world. You might have noticed.”

  “We have noticed that. Some of it’s been done to us.” The boy grinned up at him. “How’ve you been feeling lately?”

  “Herded.’’

  “You’re not alone.”

  “What I mean. Takes more than one to make a herd; company’s no blessing, if it’s just that.”

  “You right. Give me a drink?”

  Daniel raised a brow. “You?”

  “Did last night.”

  “Why not.” He tossed the boy the skin, watched him drink, took it back and drank a draft himself. It was chilled, just the right temperature for the taste, a computerized cooler couldn’t have done better. Tungjii Luck. magic wineskin, what a world.

  They ambled through sunny deserted streets, past shops whose keepers were gone off somewhere leaving a clerk behind to watch the stock and doze in the warmth and quiet. Lot day seemed to mean waiting for Owlyn Valers to burst loose with their warrant to spend what they wanted, freely as they wanted; the bills would be paid from Settsimaksimin’s pocket (which meant eventually from taxes and tariffs and fines). Jaril was silent and frowning, a small thundercloud of a boy.

  “Can’t really fight gods,” he said suddenly, grave now, a touch of bitterness putting bite into his voice.

  “Either they squash you right out or they sneak up on you and cut your legs off and you bleed to death.”

  “Sneak up? That mean what I think it does?”

  “Don’t know. The talismans Ahzurdan was talking about can make them do things. A good sorceror can block them out. Brann and us, we were mixed up in a fight between a clutch of witches and a god. She used Brann to get past their defenses. Complicated plot, took more than a year to set up, used maybe hundreds of people who didn’t know they were in it. Even looking back I couldn’t say who all was in it or how much what they did mattered in the blowup. You can’t win even if you win, they keep coming back at you, get you in the end. Or you die and they get you then.”

  “You’ve got, what did you say? ninety centuries less a few.”

  “Doesn’t matter, long as we’re stuck here, the end’s the same.”

  “Gives you time to work out a way to get home.”

  “Can’t go home. You heard what they call Brann.”

  “Drinker of Souls. So?”

  “You saw what we are, Yaril and me. Back home we drank from the sun. Slya, that’s the god I was telling you about, she changed us, then she helped us change Brann so Brann could feed us. We live on life energy, Daniel Akamarino; if anything happened to Brann, we’d starve.”

  “Why tell me?”

  “Because we’re frightened, Yaril and me. Him in the tower there, he’s strong, you don’t know how strong. He hasn’t exerted himself yet, not really, Yaril and me, we don’t know why, but even with those offhand tries, he nearly killed Brann twice and the second time Ah-zurdan was there and he stood like a stump doing nothing until Yaril singed his ear. We don’t like him, we don’t want him about, but Brann won’t send him away. Even when he tells her she should, she won’t. We don’t know why, but we’re afraid it’s because the gods messing with us won’t let her. You’re affined to him, Daniel Akamarino, but you’re a different sort of man.” Jaril gave him a twisted smile. “You don’t want to be in this, but you are. Yaril and me, we want you with us and ready to do something when Ahzurdan fails her.”

  “Which reminds me. Since you’re in a talking mood, Jay, why am I let off the leash this morning when last night Brann wouldn’t let me out of the room without.Ahzurdan to babysit?”

  They pressed up against a wall to let a heavily loaded mulecart clatter past heading uphill for the Market, then went round a corner and moved west along the busy waterfront road, dodging carts and carrypoles, vehemently gesturing traders, crowds of merchants with their clerks. The morning wasn’t quiet here, it was deafening, hot, dusty, filled with a thousand smells, ten thousand noises. Daniel pulled Jaril into a doorway to let a line of porters trot past. “Well?”

  “Lot day,” Jaril said. “He’s always there. In the Yron. When the Lots are taken. He can’t overlook us without his mirror. He’ll be away from it for maybe another hour. And I’m here.” He giggled, amused at the thought. “I’m babysitting you.”

  “Mmf.” Daniel left the doorway, sidled between two carts being loaded by men shouting jokes at each other, their overseers darting here and there, pushing shoving yelling orders that were obeyed when the men got around to it or ignored if they counted them silly. Runners not much older than Jaril seemed were darting about, carrying messages, small packages, orders, the shrill whistles that announced them adding to the crashing pounding noise that broke like surf against the walls of the warehouses. A few meters of this and Daniel sought an unoccupied doorway. “Jay, if you’re going to haunt me, can you do it as something besides a boy?”

  “Why? Plenty of boys like me about.”

  “I know. Just a feeling Laux will talk more without an extra pair of ears to take it in.”

  “Hmm. Why not. Dog be all right?”

  Daniel chuckled. “Nice big dog?”

  “All teeth and no tail.”

  The man and the big dog strolled the length of Water Street until they reached a quieter section and smaller boats, one of them a slim black ketch with a black and white flag hanging in silky folds that opened out a little whenever the fleeting breeze briefly strengthened. Hands clasped behind him, Daniel inspected the craft. “Wet and cold.” The dog nudged his leg. “All right, I give you. fast.” The boy dozing on the deck lifted his head when he heard the voice, squinted up at Daniel. Daniel produced one of his everyday smiles. “Where’s Laux?”

  “Why?”

  “Business. His.”

  The boy patted a yawn and gazed through the fringe of dirty blonde hair falling over his eyes. After a minute, he shrugged. “Green Jug. Be back here a couple hours if you wanna wait.”

  “Where’s the Jug from here?”

  “Back along a ways, there’s the Kuma Kistris, the one with a double spiral on the flag, black and green, alley there b
etween two godons, leads up Skanixis Hill, follow it, Jug’s near halfway up.”

  Daniel found two coppers, tossed them to the boy, strolled away grinning. Jaril hound was already two moorings away doing an impatient doggy dance in front of a boat with a green and black flag.

  “Eleias Laux?”

  “Who wants to know?”

  “Someone wanting passage out.”

  “Paying or working?”

  “Paying. Five, two of ’em kids.”

  “Hmm. Sit.” He was a little spider of a man, M’darjin with skin like aged walnut polished to a high shine, dressed in well-worn black trousers and tunic, a heavy silver earring with moss agate insets hanging from his left ear, linked plates that shivered with every breath he took, drawing the eye so that most people who met him never noticed his face and remembered only the flash of silver and the gleam of agate. The earring glittered wildly as he glanced at the hound, looked dubious, relaxed as Jaril settled placidly to the floor by Daniel’s feet. He pushed his plate aside, emptied his winebowl and was about to call for more wine when Daniel slid the skin off his shoulder and offered it.

  Laux pinched at his nose, looked from the skin to Daniel’s face. “Be you insulted if I say you drink first?”

  “I’m a cautious man myself, be you insulted if I want another bowl?”

  Eleias Laux laughed and snapped his fingers for the serving girl.

  When she brought the bowl, Daniel filled it halfway and sipped at the straw colored liquid, smiling with pleasure, taking time to do it justice. When the bowl was empty, he set it down, raised his brows.

  Laux nodded, watched warily as the wine streamed out. He drank, widened his eyes, took another mouthful, let it trickle down his throat. “Now that is a thing.” He grinned. “Not your best plan, friend. You just raised the price a notch.”

  Daniel shrugged. “Luck’s meant to be shared. I was mooching about the wharves a few nights back, when it was foggy, you remember? saw the Godalau swimming out in the bay and this bald little shemale offered me a drink, left the skin with me.”

  “Tungjii Luck?”

  “Couldn’t say, but I’ve been drinking wine since and passing it around here and there and the skin’s about the same as it was when I got it. I figure it’s just old Tungjii sticking hisser thumbs in and why not enjoy it while it’s here. Think you might be willing to slip out tonight, head round to Haven, no fuss?”

  “How quiet?”

  “Like a ghost’s shadow.”

  “Might could. You walking round loose?”

  “Far’s I know. Hound here says so and he’s good at nosing out nosy folk. You don’t want to know more.”

  “True, true. Five gold each.-

  “Ahh now, have yourself some more wine and think on this, two silver each adult, one each for the kids.”

  “The wine I’ll take, but don’t you fool yourself; drunk or sober I’m not about to wreck myself for anyone. No discount for kids, they’re worse than dryrot on a boat. But seeing you’re a friendly type, I’ll think on taking a bit, of a loss. Three gold each. You bringing the hound here, another gold for him.

  “No hound. What about this, five silver each, with a gold as bonus when you set us down on the shore of Haven Cove.”

  “Mmmmm.” Laux drank and smiled, a friendlier sheen in his brown velvet eyes; if he had armed himself against the seduction in Tungjii’s wine, his armor was leaking. “Ohhhh, I’m feeling so warm to you, my friend, I’ll tell you what. Five silver each, a gold as bonus when you’re on the fine black sand of Haven Cove, sweetly out of sight from Haven herself, and five gold as trouble quittance, to be refunded if trouble keeps away.”

  “Mmmm.” Daniel filled the bowl pushed over to him, filled his own. “Five silver each, a gold as bonus when we’re landed, five gold as trouble quittance, paid over the minute trouble shows.”

  “Now now… what do I call you? give me something.

  “Daniel.

  “Now Daniel, don’t be a silly man. Trouble comes, nobody has time to count out cash.”

  “Point made, point taken. Five silver each, a gold as bonus, two gold as trouble quittance, to be refunded if no trouble shows; my patron guarantees the cost of any repairs.”

  “Ah, now that might be a good deal, saying your patron’s the right sort. You willing to say who he is?”

  “I won’t be mentioning that she doesn’t want her name spread around. I’ve heard you’re a man of discretion and wisdom. She’s called Drinker of Souls.”

  “Exalted company, hey, gods and demigods all round.” Laux sat hunched over the winebowl, a long forefinger like a polished walnut twig stirring the plates of his ear dangle as he stared past Daniel at shadow forms he alone could see. He said nothing, but Daniel could read the argument going on inside, an argument he’d been in himself, never coming out with the same answer twice. Daniel waited without speaking for the struggle to end, fairly sure what the answer would be. Laux knew well enough he could be jumping into a maelstrom that could suck him under, but he was visibly bored with the mundane cargos he ferried in and out of Silagamatys and something deep and fundamental in him was tempted to try the danger, especially if he could be sure of coming out of it reasonably intact, his boat in the same condition.

  “Mmh!” Laux straightened, shifted his focus to Daniel. “Yes. Tell you what, considering what’s likely to be involved and how likely it is bystanders get chewed up and spat out when powers start to feuding, and this isn’t trying to screw you, Daniel, just me taking care of me, how ‘bout instead of your patron’s giving me her word, she gives me two hundred gold surety to hold for her till the bunch of you put foot down on Haven Cove’s black sand. No one in his right mind would try cheating the Drinker of Souls. The rest as before, five silvers each, a gold as bonus, four gold trouble quittance.”

  “Done.” Daniel grasped the hand Laux extended, gave it a brisk shake, settled back in his chair. “How’re the tides, can you leave around sunset today?”

  “Tide’ll be standing, my Hetty don’t draw enough to worry about the sandbars at the bay’s mouth. As long as the wind’s good (give old Tungjii’s belly a rub) we’ll go.”

  They sat in silence a while, sipping at their wine, Laux leaning over his elbows, Daniel lounging in the chair, straightening up to fill the bowls whenever they showed bottom. There were a few other drinkers and diners scattered through the comfortable gloom inside the taproom, talking together in muted tones and generally minding their own business. “Waiting for the Lot to finish,” Laux said. “Everything’s waiting for that.”

  “Not Water Street, Laux.”

  “Call me Lio, yeah you right, they’re not waiting, they’re stocking up for the run. Leaves the rest of us neaped.” He shoved out his bowl, watched the pale gold wine sing into it. “Cheonea’s neaped these days.”, He sipped and sighed. “Sold my Gre’granser in the King’s Market here when he was somewhere about six. He said you couldn’t hear yourself think for a mile all round the port it was that busy. Most of it under the table, but that didn’t seem to matter. My Granser’s mum was a freewoman Gre’granser sweetered into the bushes, means he was born free. Him he was prenticed out on a merchanter when he made six. He took to the smuggling trade and trained his sons in that. Ahhh, it was a wild trade then and Haven was a wild town, it never stopped, you know, moonset was busy as sunset, ships coming in and going out, half a hundred gaming houses wide open, a Captain could win a fleet or lose everything down to the skin, man or woman make no matter. There was a woman or two had her ship and you didn’t want to mess with them, Granser used to say, they didn’t bide by rules, got you howsoever they could.” He dipped his finger in the wine, drew a complicated symbol on the dark wood.-Never saw any of that myself. Him in the tower, he shut down the slave market and cleared out the hot brokers and he put the tariffs down to nothing almost on spices, silk and pearls and the like so an honest smuggler can’t live on the difference. Aah, Daniel, the past some years I’ve been thinking of movin
g on to livelier shores.-A long silence, voices drifting to them, clanks of china as serving girls began to clear the tables. “Might do it yet. Trouble is, them already there won’t like newcomers nosing in, that kind of thing gets messy. Starve for a couple years, maybe get killed or turned, no contacts, no cargo, I tell you, man, it was a sad year when Him he kicked out the king and started on his Jah’takash be damned reforms.” He fell silent, brooding into his wine.

  Jaril stirred. His claws scratched at the floor, his teeth closed closed on Daniel’s leg not quite hard enough to break the skin. Daniel blinked, looked down. Jaril got to his feet and started for the door.

  Daniel knocked on the table. When Lio Laux looked up, he said, “Got to go, my patron’s not the kind you want to keep waiting. See you sunset.”

  Lio grunted, lifted a hand, let it thump down, Tungjii’s wine was wheeling round his head and he was lost in old days and old dreams.

  Ruby shimmers slid off the opaline scales of an undulant fishtail and bloodied long white fingers combing through the waves; the Godalau swam before the Skia Hetaira as the ketch slipped swift and silent from the bay. A scruffy little figure in ragged black sat on a giant haunch and waved to Daniel Akamarino. He waved back, jumped when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Brann. -I haven’t got used to it yet,” he said.

  “What? Oh yes, you come from a place where you have to imagine your gods and they keep going abstract and distant on you.” She leaned on the rail beside him. “Sounds like paradise to me. No gods to tie strings to your ankles and jerk you about. Hmm. Maybe one day I’ll jump high enough to break the strings and land in a reality like that.”

  Daniel shaded his eyes, picked out the translucent tail that flickered across the sky some distance ahead of them, more guessed at than seen. “It has its drawbacks. At least here there’s somebody to notice you’re alive, might be all round bad vibes, but that’s better than being ignored. Where I come from, live or die, the universe won’t notice. I’ll wait a while before I decide which sort I prefer.” He laughed. “Not that I have much choice. Tell me about Tungjii.”