"She can't refuse." Solan swept her arm out at the gardens. "Not only was this outrage a criminal act, it was stupid."
"Avtac never makes stupid moves."
"No Estate will support her after this."
"No?" Ixpar regarded the Elder. "What institution would you guard with your life fight to the death to protect?"
"The Calanya, of course."
"The Calanya Solan, I kidnapped Hayl. I had him playing Quis with Karn Calani. Including a female Calani for wind's sake Avtac's allies probably consider her use of force justified."
"Justified for what?" Solan watched an aide pull a blanket over Kastora's body. "All Varz had to do was demand a Tribunal against you."
As the orderlies lifted Kastora onto a stretcher, Ixpar spoke in a subdued voice. "It makes perfect sense. Hayl didn't want to go back to Varz. For many reasons, not the least being he knows what Avtac did to Kelric. Given access to a Speaker and a Tribunal, winds only know what he would say. Avtac needed a reason to justify attacking Karn and I gave it to her."
"You believe this attack had more than one purpose." Solan made it a statement rather than a question.
"Do you know what the riders that landed in the Calanya brought me? A copy of Sevtar's Calanya contract." Ixpar exhaled. "There is one reason and one reason alone why Varz doesn't control Coba. Kelric. Avtac means to get him back and she can only do that by force."
"Then she hasn't rescued a Calani." Solan paused as the orderlies carried Kastora's body by them. "She has started a war."
The Karn Skywalk arched into the Teotecs, ending at a hollow globe of tinted glass high in the mountains. Sunlight diffused through the sphere's polarized walls, gilding the chamber inside. As Ixpar drew nearer, she saw Kelric standing by one curved wall, staring out at the sky like a metal statue bathed in amber light.
At the sound of her footsteps, he turned. His gaze raked over the sling on her arm. "What happened?"
She paused just inside the chamber's entrance. "I got in the way of a bullet."
He shook his head. "I thought the only guns your people had were stunners."
"Things . . . change."
"And Hayl?"
"He went back to Varz."
A cloud drifted by the chamber, making a shadow inside the sphere. "I've given you war," Kelric said.
"We've always had it." Dryly she said, "That's all we used to do during the Old Age."
Kelric cupped his hands together. "Think of the Oath: 'You hold within your hands and mind the future of Coba.' Your world is a Calanya and the Restriction is your Oath." He dropped his arms. "When I crashed here that Oath was broken."
"You didn't create our aggressions."
"I've never known a people as quick as yours." He shook his head. "Coba has just begun to tap the knowledge buried in the Quis. it's going to break out like water through a collapsing dam, with my influence warping the flow. You have to take me out of the Calanya. Get me out of the Quis net."
"I need you now more than ever," Ixpar said.
"I won't be responsible for the destruction of a world."
She walked over to him. "We are responsible for ourselves, Kelric. That we've suppressed our violent tendencies doesn't mean they went away. It's time we faced-that. Dealt with it."
He touched her sling. "I can see what I've given you."
Quietly she said, "You could have ruined Deha Dahl's life. You didn't. You could have brutalized Rashiva Haka. You didn't. You could have devastated Varz. You didn't. Even now, when you work with me to give Karn advantage over Varz, you marshal your dice to favor Karn rather than hurt Varz."
"I don't see your point. Why hurt Deha or Rashiva? They never wished harm against me. And why would I make tens of thousands of people in Varz suffer because their Manager is abusive to her Akasi? It's not their fault."
Ixpar watched his face. "All those years ago, you could have escaped Coba. You sacrificed your freedom, almost your life, so the Dahl escort could live." Her voice softened. "Yes, you've put yourself into the Quis. Your decency, your strength of character. your courage. Your capacity to love."
Kelric's face gentled, crinkling the lines around his eyes. He took her hand and for a while they just watched the sky that arched everywhere around them like an ocean of blue.
Far to the north the speck of a rider appeared above the mountains.
"Not another!" Ixpar strode to the com panel where the Skywalk met the chamber. But then she paused her hand poised over the com. Something about the rider looked odd . . .
The craft drew nearer.
Nearer.
Nearer.
Its wings swept through the air in an impossibly huge arc.
A chill sped down Ixpar's back. "It can't be."
Kelric glanced at her "You think this one is from Varz?"
"Not Varz." She took a breath. "Much higher in the mountains."
"There are no Estates higher than Varz."
"I know." Softly she said, "It's an althawk, Kelric. A giant althawk."
The bird glided closer until it was clearly visible, a beast with huge wings, glorious wings, their span outdoing a windrider. Brilliant red feathers edged its black wings like tongues of fire and the gold plumage on the rest of its body gleamed in the sun's pouring light. Ixpar could almost feel the gale that accompanied every sweep of those massive pinions. Talons as long as a man's arm curved under its legs.
"Gods," Kelric said. "It's beautiful."
"We thought they were extinct. It's the only one to come down from the mountains in a thousand years."
"Maybe it's the last of its kind.Searching for a mate."
After so long? she wondered. Had this magnificent hawk been driven from his home by loneliness, come to search the world for a mate he would never find?
Kelric touched her shoulder and pointed at the city. Tiny figures were running in the streets, waving at each other and the hawk. At the airfield, two riders were preparing to take off.
Ixpar switched on the com and an excited voice floated into the air. "Tal here!"
"Tal, this is Manager Karn. Ground those windriders."
"But there's an althawk up there. A real one! They're going to catch it."
"Tell them to let it go."
Tal paused. "Ma'am?"
"They aren't to catch it" Ixpar repeated. "I'll have anyone who tries thrown in jail."
The aide spoke in a disappointed voice "Yhee ma'am."
Kelric watched as she switched off the com "You'll probably never see it again."
"I know." She came to stand with him. "But it would die in captivity"
The bird sailed closer until his shadow filled the sphere. For one instant he looked directly at them with his ancient gaze, his gold eyes hooded and inscrutable, so close now that had they been able to reach out, they could have touched his feathers.
Then he swept over the Skywalk, wheeling away into the freedom Of an intensely blue sky.
40
Jahalla's Defiance
Rain drummed throughout the night on the windows of Hayl's suite. He sat in the corner of an alcove while the memory of his "rescue" marched through his mind. They had shot Nesina. Shot her. Riddled her through with burning metal dice.
Everyone at Varz had been so kind. So solicitous. It made him sick. Zecha had held him while he cried, and the doctors talked with Avtac in low voices about the supposed trauma of his experiences. He doubted they would be so understanding if they knew he was crying because he had seen them shoot his lover.
Avtac refused him the comfort of his friends. He still heard her voice: You cannot return to the Calanya yet. We must avoid contamination to the Quis. Not that it stopped her from trying to wring out every last bit of Karn Quis he had absorbed.
A door creaked. As Hayl looked up, Zecha appeared in the archway of the alcove. She came to sit by him, taller than him by almost a head.
"I couldn't sleep either," she said.
Hayl said nothing, acutely aware that she came with no in
troduction of Suitor's Privilege. The fact that she rarely requested it made him feel as if he wore an invisible gag.
Zecha poked her finger inside one of his curls. "I never thought I'd take a boy with yellow hair as my kasi." She sighed. "It's Haka, you know. In the desert, if a man smiles at a woman it's considered an invitation to his bed. But you yellow-haired boys from the north, you smile so easily. It makes a woman think the wrong things."
I ought to tell her about Nesina, Hayl thought. Maybe then she would leave me alone.
Zecha took hold of his chin, turning his face Up to hers. Then she kissed him.
Hayl stiffened and tried to pull away from her. When she wouldn't let him go, he struggled harder, but with her stronger muscles she easily held him.
"So modest," she murmured. "Or is this the pretense of innocent youth?" A hard edge grated in her voice. "I'll take you no matter what happened at Karn." She fumbled with the laces on his shirt, undoing them with deft fingers.
Hayl tried. to twist away, but he was trapped in the comer. When Zecha opened his shirt and stroked his chest, he nearly gagged. Working his arms up inside her embrace, he hit his fists against her shoulders again and again. She caught his wrists and held them together while she fondled him with her other hand. He kept fighting, trying to escape, but with no success.
After several moments the captain paused and considered him. "Maybe you aren't so worldly as rumor claims." She stroked his curls. "You must learn not to smile at other women, Hayl. It gives the wrong impression." Finally she let him go and stood up. "Try to sleep now. You need the rest."
The moment Zecha was gone, Hayl ran to the bathing room, peeled off his clothes, and dove into the pool. He soaped his body, cleaning every place she had touched him. Afterward, he put on the warmest clothes he could find and went back to the alcove.
It was time to make plans.
Avtac believed she had him secure. This guest suite jutted out from a comer of the Estate, with two sides facing the vertical cliffs that made Varz such an isolated—and forbidding—fortress. His escort guarded the other two sides. One of the cliff windows had a lock, but even had anyone been crazy enough to think Hayl would dream of opening it, Avtac believed his previous success had been a fluke.
His plan was simple: open the window, climb out, and creep along the ledge below it to freedom. At this hour most of Varz slept and the rain would keep anyone else inside. No one would see him running to the airfield. Once there, he would find a way to pay passage to another Estate. He could gamble for it. He didn't care that he had no idea how to survive on the Outside. He would rather spend the rest of his life a beggar than stay at Varz.
Only one problem remained. He had to climb out the window.
So he sat in the alcove far more securely trapped by his terror than by the guards Outside his suite.
When he heard a clock chime Morning's Third Hour he knew he was almost out of time Taking a breath, he crossed to the window and went to work. Every time he heard a board creak he tensed afraid a guard was coming to check on him.
Finally the last pin clicked free.
Hayl froze his palm lying flat on the door of glass. Then, with shaking hands, he pulled it open. Wind rushed in, splattering him with rain—he was going to fall, fall, fall, icy air slashing past as he hurtled faster faster faster.
With a gasp, Hayl cut off the image. He drew himself up to his full, albeit not so tall, height and took a deep breath Then he carefully let himself out over the windowsill, turning so he faced the cliff, his breath coming in cautious gasps. As he lowered himself into the night, wind buffeted his body. He hung from the sill, paralyzed with fear, unable to move.
Finally he forced his toe to reach for a toehold in the bas-relief of the wall. With excruciating care he descended. Rain made the stone slippery and wind played havoc with his balance. Once he lost his grip and slid an arm's length before he found another handhold. He had to bite the inside of his mouth to keep from screaming.
He kept climbing.
Eons later he reached the ledge. Built as a decoration, the shelf was too narrow for a boy's foot. He slid his toes along it and used wall projections for handholds. Bit by bit, fraction by fraction, he moved, praying he didn't reach a point where he had nothing to hold on to, or the ledge ended, or was broken, or—
His foot slid out over empty air.
Hay nearly panicked. He had reached the end of the wall and a gap too big to step across separated him from the windbreak around the city. Maneuvering his head around, he looked along the tortuous route he had just traversed. He was too stiff with cold and fear to retrace his steps. Breathing in ragged gulps, he turned back to stare at the windbreak. He couldn't go back, he couldn't go forward, and soon his fingers would be too numb to grip the wall.
So he jumped.
He overestimated the distance and hit the windbreak in a jarring impact. Flailing for a handhold, he slid downward until his foot caught on a gargoyle and he flipped over its head. Grabbing for the statue, he caught a horn and wrenched to a stop, hanging in the air, his body swinging in darkness lit only by a faint glow from the city.
Struggling to stay calm, he probed for a toehold with his foot. He found one, another—and then he began climbing. Using drilled holes and grinning statues for support, clutching the wet stone, praying his hands didn't slip, he clambered up the wall.
When he reached the top, he slid stomach-down onto the wide expanse of stone and pulled himself across it, not even trying to stand. As he let himself down the inner side, he started to laugh; by the time he jumped to the ground he was I shaking uncontrollably. He huddled against the wall, his laughter heaving out in huge breaths, until it turned into sobs.
Eventually the sobs trailed into silence. With a final gulp of air, he stood up and looked around. The cobbled street was empty. No one had heard him.
He pulled down his sleeves to hide his wrist guards and took off for the airfield.
Ixpar walked around the rider, scrutinizing it in the bright daylight. The gun turrets and cannons gave it a bristling appearance, like an angry hawk. Captain Borj stood in the hatch, her massive frame filling the opening.
"How did the test flights go?" Ixpar asked.
"It has good speed and acceleration. But it doesn't take g-forces well." Borj jumped onto the tarmac. "Do you really plan to use these riders?"
"If I'm forced to."
Anthoni appeared from behind the craft. "We just got a message from the airtower, Ixpar. A Varz rider has requested permission to land."
Finally, Ixpar thought. Although she had known Avtac would refuse her demand for a Tribunal, she had called for it anyway. knowing it would provide invaluable information. In a Council Tribunal, the Managers sat as judges. The Quis Council chose six judges, two each for prosecution, defense, and neutrality. So in response to the call for the Tribunal, every Manager gave her preference as a judge. It meant stating where they stood on the hostilities between Varz and Karn.
In the tenday since she had sent out the call, every Estate but Varz had responded. Both Dahl and Bahvla pledged full support to Karn. Viasa chose neutrality, as did, its secondary Tehnsa. More disturbing was that Shazorla, usually a Karn ally, also declared neutrality, followed by its secondary Eviza. Ahkah and Lasa confirmed their close ties to Varz with a pledge of support for the Ministry.
The biggest surprise came from Haka. Varz's staunchest ally chose neutrality.
Ixpar and Anthoni walked to the airtower and stood inside to watch the Varz rider land. As soon as it was down, a Karn octet armed with rifles surrounded it. The pilot opened the hatch and spoke with them, then handed the captain a scroll wrapped in gold suede and tied with a black cord.
As the rider lifted off, the captain brought the scroll to Ixpar. Tooled into the suede, the snarling black clawcat of Varz crouched next to the Ministry insignia, a combination that jarred Ixpar as much now as it had the first time she had seen it.
Ixpar sent Anthoni after Elder Solan and wal
ked back to the Estate alone. Inside her office, she stood next to her desk reading the scroll.
Anthoni spoke from the doorway. "Elder Solan is here."
Ixpar glanced up. "Send her In."
Solan entered and closed the door "Anthoni said you got an answer from Varz."
"Avtac refuses to convene a Tribunal," Ixpar said.
Solan didn't look surprised. "Refusing a Manager's call for a Council Tribunal will set an unpopular precedent. That could , damage Varz credibility."
"I don't know what to think" Ixpar handed her the letter. "Tell me if it makes any sense to you."
As Solan read the scroll, her face furrowed. "Is this a joke?"
"I have no idea."
The Elder looked up at Ixpar "Where would Avtac Varz ever get the notion you reabducted Hayl? It's a bizarre accusation."
"There are rumors he committed suicide."
"Winds, I hope not."
"You and I both." Ixpar paused. "It's the oddest thing. Solan—but I think I caught a trace of him in the Quis. It's so faint, though. I may be grasping at a ghost."
"Where is this phantom?"
"Viasa."
Solan frowned. "Why would Avtac send Hayl there?"
"Maybe she asked Khal Viasa to hide him while she accuses me of abduction again. It gives her a reason to refuse my demand for a Tribunal."
"If Manager Viasa has decided to support Varz," Solan said, "we are in serious trouble."
"I know." Ixpar indicated the letter. "Take this to the other Elders. I'll meet with all of you at Evening's Hour to discuss it."
After Solan left, Ixpar sat at her desk and rested her forehead on her hands. She longed to talk with Kastora, to hear her counsel. Then another image came to her, her mother, the late Atlena Karn, a tall woman with blazing red hair who had managed the largest Common House in the city. Ixpar could still hear her voice: Look to the Quis, child. Unveil its secrets.
Ixpar left her office and went to the Blue Alcove in her suite, then descended from there into the Memory of Karn To walk through its cool halls was like stepping into the past. The identity of a race lay hidden here, just as it lay buried within the Quis.
The Last Hawk Page 38
