her instruments 03 - laisrathera

by M. C. A. Hogarth

  “Surela… no one’s that important.” Reese shook her head. “And justice is important, but so is mercy. You swear by a god and goddess, don’t you? What do you think they’d like better? To see you dead or see you doing something positive with your life?”

  “I could spend my entire life doing something positive, Captain, and still not have made up for my errors.”

  Reese nodded. “So why are you so eager to die before you even get started?”

  Surela froze again. Then winced. “Yes. It does sound selfish that way, doesn’t it.”

  Reese glanced at Allacazam, who was turning a soft blue as if to reassure her. She raised her eyes and said, “I won’t pressure you. I know all about trying to do things before you’re ready, or having people push you into making decisions when you hate all the choices you’ve got. Think about it, all right? And call me.”

  “Very well, Captain.”

  Outside the Medplex, Reese paused to compose herself. Was she doing the right thing? She had no idea. Maybe she really was crazy. And yet… she remembered Surela’s remorse in the cell they’d shared, the willingness with which the woman had admitted to her mistakes. It had taken Reese most of a lifetime to be able to own up to her own mistakes with that much forthrightness, enough to really grow. She had to believe that Surela had a future based on her ability to look her own failings in the eye that way… or what hope was there for herself?

  Back in the quarters she’d been assigned, Reese called Sascha.

  “Hey, Boss. What’s cooking up there?”

  “I was about to ask you that myself. How are things downstairs?”

  “This… looks like it’s going to take a while, to be honest. They’re spreading out these people and putting them to work digging graves.”

  “Digging—” Reese stopped. “Ouch.”

  “Their fault.”

  “I know.” She grimaced. “So, they’re going to be busy a while… I’ll stay up here. Are you staying?”

  “Until things are done, sure. How else are you going to hear the news?”

  “Send up the girls any time, then, and Bryer. I’ll have work for them in a bit.”

  Sascha’s tone turned curious. “Oh?”

  “I seem to have inherited a castle,” Reese said. “It needs a lot of work, though.”

  “Ohhh. Yes, you’ll definitely want at least Bryer for that. I’ll find them and tell them you’re looking for them.”

  “Thanks, arii. And for looking out for him.”

  “Part of the job, hey?”

  “No, which is why I’m thanking you.”

  Sascha chuckled. “Listen to you. You’re even prickly about being not-as-prickly.”

  Reese huffed, but she was grinning. “You all went through all the trouble of redeeming me. I’d like some respect here!”

  “Respect. Got it. I’ll put that on the list.”

  “Oh, shoo. Some of us have work to do.”

  “Yes, ma’am!”

  Reese shook her head and petted the console with her fingers, just once. How had she deserved such people? She was so lucky. At least she’d figured it out before they’d gotten tired of trying to tell her.

  Still smiling, she spread a new blank message and tried to find the right words to entice Ra’aila, Clan Flait, to come be the captain of a new trading enterprise on behalf of House Laisrathera.

  CHAPTER 26

  Watching his enemies bury the evidence of his previous life and responsibilities was a nearly overwhelming experience; the symbol felt too obvious, particularly when the high, bright vault of the winter sky began to clog with gray tatters. He would have found the whole thing painfully melancholic had Val not insisted on dogging his heels.

  “You are attempting to keep me from brooding.”

  “The significant word in that statement being ‘attempting,’ since so far you’re managing it fine despite my efforts.” Val drew up alongside him. “You should let me trim your hair.”

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “I’m a fine hand at it, as you can see. And you might as well even it. You don’t want to look untidy for your wedding.”

  Hirianthial eyed him, then allowed a low laugh. “Fine. You have coaxed a moment of brightness from me. Are you pleased?”

  “Not yet,” Val said. “Maybe when you finally admit what you’re really feeling. To yourself, if not to me.”

  “And what might that be?”

  “Relief,” Val said. “And guilt, because you see all these bodies and all this wreckage and it hasn’t destroyed you the way you feel it should.”

  Aghast, Hirianthial glanced at him, and felt a psychic tug, gentle but clear enough that he almost felt like leaning toward it.

  “This still exists,” Val said, exerting a soft pressure on the bond. “From our fight against Baniel. Anyone tell you about what it means to draw on someone else’s energy that much?”

  Urise’s memories tinkled together, like chimes in a wind. He sorted out the notes. “That you make a link, of course. Apparently, that it is hard to sunder.”

  “It can be done. We haven’t yet, though. And we’ll have to sit down somewhere quiet and concentrate to do it.”

  Hirianthial considered him. “And you are telling me this… because of some other reason. Because, perhaps, in the past, such links were not things to be sundered, but to be nurtured. Am I right?”

  Val inclined his head.

  “I see.” He returned to surveying the bent shapes of the men toiling with shovels beneath a sky increasingly grim and low with clouds. In the gloom, Olthemiel’s men shone in their white uniforms. “That would be an entirely new way of doing things.”

  “I have a number of entirely new ways of doing things planned,” Val admitted. “If, say, the Queen is willing.”

  “Such as?”

  “The Lord’s priesthood has always been devoted to the mysteries… at least, on paper. In reality, it was devoted to the talents, and their reaping. They lived at the Cathedral, where their victims were brought to them for questioning and then killing.” Val folded his hands behind his back. “They had a lot of power and money. I’m guessing you can figure why?”

  “I imagine the property of the dead came to them in some fashion.”

  Val nodded. “I was thinking maybe the priesthood of the Lord should cleave to more humble roots. We can be itinerants. Wander in search of the talents, not to kill them, but to bring them to places to be trained.”

  “New ideas!” Hirianthial murmured. “How heretical.”

  Val eyed him.

  “Put it to the Queen,” he said, more seriously. “I think you will find her a sympathetic auditor. And Theresa as well… in case your new order requires a place to site its first school.”

  “In the frozen north,” Val muttered.

  “Where Corel died, yes? It seems appropriate.” Hirianthial stopped and said, “You took that burden on yourself, Valthial. If you truly wish to hold on to it, then I would think the symbol pleasing.”

  “And we’re all about symbols, aren’t we.”

  Hirianthial smiled a little. “I think we always will be. Embracing the outworld will make us more Eldritch, not less. We will have something to pit ourselves against in contrast.”

  “May we survive the experience.”

  “We will.”

  They watched the grim work in silence, one Hirianthial found comfortable. He was well aware of the bond that remained fallow between them, narrow but promising, and through it, a sense of Val’s heart. How much more sane would the Corels of their world have been, had they been embraced thus, rather than thrust away? And yet how hard it was to push through those fears and prejudices. His life for the past year had been an exercise in observing that oscillation: not just in himself, but in others.

  “I hope,” Val said, quiet, “that you’re not planning on standing by yourself through some two hundred odd men swearing fealty to the Queen.”

  “I would not think of forcing you to stay behin
d.”

  “Knowing how much I’d enjoy it.” Val sighed. “What can I say. I’m Eldritch. We love punishment.”

  Hirianthial’s mouth quirked.

  The door chime that Reese answered with an idle “Come in,” did not herald the arrival of her crew, whom she’d been expecting. Instead, Solysyrril padded through the hatch and came to a halt just inside the room, her hands folded behind her back and her pale ears perked. Surprised, Reese rose and said, “Commander? Is there something wrong?”

  “No,” Soly said. “At least, not that I know of. Which is why I’m here, actually. Can I…?”

  Reese motioned her to a chair and rested against the table she’d been working at, hands propped on its edges.

  “Things have been hectic, so I haven’t had the chance to get you alone for this talk… but it looks like we have some quiet time, so… here I am.”

  “This sounds a little bit ominous,” Reese admitted. “Am I in trouble?”

  “No. The opposite, in fact. My superiors have made it known to me that you earned the Copper Sickle not long ago.”

  Fleet’s sole civilian citation had been awarded to her in a situation so harrowing and bizarre that Reese often couldn’t quite believe it had happened. But she had received a medal, not long after also hearing that she wasn’t going to be extradited for accidentally killing off several boxes full of a previously unknown alien species. That might have been part of what made the whole experience feel surreal. “Ah… yeah.”

  “And we’ve done the base minimum to show our appreciation by waiving the mooring fees you’d ordinarily be paying at a starbase for the Earthrise,” Soly continued. “But I’ve also been authorized to fulfill any reasonable request from you.”

  “You’ve been what?” Reese asked, astonished.

  “As someone not only decorated by Fleet but also now the confidant of an allied sovereign of state, we are very interested in making an ally out of you.” Soly paused, then said. “No, I’ll be honest. An ongoing resource. Queen Liolesa has made noises about allowing us to put a permanent base in this system, which would dovetail nicely with our needs now that the Colony Bureau is planning to push out here, far, far away from the Chatcaava. Having a presence in what’s currently the furthest corner of the Alliance would be awfully good for us. And we figure if we make you happy, we’ll make her happy.”

  “Okay, I see that,” Reese said, feeling her way into a chair. “Though I’ll be honest, I don’t know how much influence I have with her.”

  Soly snorted. “You’re marrying her cousin, aren’t you?”

  “How…. “ She stopped and folded her arms. “Does everyone know about this but me? I haven’t even asked him yet!”

  The Seersa grinned. “You know how scuttlebutt is. Everyone loves gossip, especially if it’s about something happy. But to turn the topic back to how this can be of help to you, Captain Eddings—”

  “—you might as well call me ‘Reese’ if we’re going to be talking gifts.”

  “Reese, then. I’ve got a battlecruiser’s power-plant, genies, and storerooms here. We’re not talking unlimited potential, but we can set you up with a lot of very nice things before the replacement crew arrives to drive this thing out of orbit.”

  “That’s… quite an offer,” Reese said. “But blood in the soil, I’ll take you up on it. We can start with a few spare Pads if you have them and as much gem grid flooring as you’ve got, and I’ll get you a bigger list once I’ve had a chance to go downstairs and have a better look at what I’m renovating.”

  “Good enough,” Soly said, standing. She held out her hand, palm up. “Chances are if we do get basing rights, me and my hold will end up stationed here for a while. It’s looking like pirates are going to find this corner of the universe very tempting.”

  Reese stood, covered the Seersa’s palm with her own. “And we’d be glad to have you keeping an eye out for them, definitely.”

  Soly nodded and let herself out, leaving Reese standing in the middle of the room. So much to do, so much she didn’t know. How much capital did she have in addition to her own? Would Liolesa give her some? Would Liolesa care how many Pelted she imported to work on Rose Point? How many of them could she give land grants to, to convince them to stay?

  The Pads she had to have, at bare minimum, because she foresaw a lot of meetings at Ontine, figuring all this out. Maybe she should have asked for a few space heaters too. With a rueful smile, Reese returned to her notes.

  “So this is home,” Kis’eh’t said, for once taken aback.

  “It will be, once we make it comfortable,” Reese replied.

  Bryer was already moving past them toward the profusion of roses, his wings flaring a watery gold beneath the pale winter sunlight. She remembered, sudden as a blow, the wish he’d divulged when they’d been trapped by slavers in the Earthrise’s closet: a garden.

  “That’s one happy Phoenix,” Irine said. “And I never thought I’d say that about any Phoenix.”

  Reese smiled and started walking toward the keep. “All right. We have a job to do… in this case, going through this place and making lists of things we need to make it habitable.”

  “Technically it looks like some of it is already habitable.” Kis’eh’t squinted at the stones as they passed beneath them. “This structure is sound, isn’t it?”

  “It is, but it’s cold enough to crack your pawpads,” Irine said. “Habitable isn’t necessarily comfortable…!”

  “All right. A list of things we need to make it comfortable,” Reese said. She stopped just inside the great hall, letting Kis’eh’t look around. “Soly’s offered to give us some things from the battlecruiser’s stores, so we should take her up on that before the ship leaves for the front.”

  “Right,” Kis’eh’t said. She drew in a long breath and said, “Oh, it smells like flowers. Inside. Even in winter! It seems… well, a little magical.”

  “To me, too,” Reese said with a smile, and started to speak when the sound of footfalls in one of the nearby corridors feeding into the hall froze them all in place.

  “Did you leave someone here we didn’t know about?” Irine whispered.

  “No?” Reese said, tense. “Maybe we should—”

  “Sssh,” Kis’eh’t said. “They’re coming.”

  …and from that hall stepped an Eldritch woman wearing a sheepish expression. Felith stopped at the arch and rested her hand on it, head lowered. “Ah… I hope you are not too wroth, Lady Theresa… but I came with the fugitives fleeing Ontine in Lady Fassiana’s entourage, and when they all began to return I thought perhaps I might stay and begin cleaning the castle in preparation for your arrival.” The woman blushed. “It did not occur to me until just this moment that this was presumption. I swear it you, I did not intend it thus—”

  Reese interrupted her by crossing the distance and hugging her, Eldritch or not. Felith squeaked, and then hesitantly rested an arm across her back.

  “I didn’t realize… I didn’t even think where you might have gone,” Reese said, stunned. “Not since they told me that Surela wouldn’t touch the servants. And all this time….”

  “I hope you did not think I was lost!”

  “No. I mean… I don’t know what I thought.” Reese flushed and rubbed her cheek, wondering if she could polish the blush off. “That you’d run off, or escaped, or….”

  “Gotten eaten by bears,” Kis’eh’t offered.

  “Basilisks,” Irine corrected.

  The Glaseah eyed her, curious. “Literal ones?”

  “Apparently.”

  Felith covered her mouth to hide the twitching smile, then said, “I admit, when the betrayal occurred and the chaos erupted, I ran for the safest place I could find and hid there… behind Lady Fassiana’s skirts. I should have been braver.”

  “You should have nothing!” Reese exclaimed. “You did exactly what you had to do. Blood, you did what I wish I could have done…!”

  Felith shook her head. “You acted
just as I thought you would, Lady. As a proper liegewoman to the Queen. Which… brings me to another question, as I believe you do not understand the implications of my decision to be here.”

  “She wants to work for you,” Kis’eh’t said.

  “Okay? Really?” Reese turned from the Glaseah and said, “Sure. Absolutely.”

  Wide-eyed, Felith said, “That is all? Just so? ‘Yes, be one of Laisrathera’s’?”

  “Is there a reason it shouldn’t be that easy?” Reese asked. “I mean, I assume there’s going to be some tiresome divisions between staff and labor and commoners and nobles and families and who knows what other Eldritch things, but I’m not Eldritch, Felith. I’m human. If you want to work for me, if you want to help me make Laisrathera a going concern… then absolutely. I could use all the help I can get. And Eldritch help? Someone who can walk me through all the traditions I’m going to accidentally trample? Yes, please!”

  Felith was trying not to giggle, but she managed a sober expression. “You must not trample all our traditions, Lady.”

  “Only the stupid ones,” Irine said, indulgent.

  “Which is probably most of them,” Kis’eh’t muttered.

  “Hush, you two.” To Felith, she said, “So it’s my turn to ask. Knowing that this is going to be an upside-down house… do you want to work here?”

  “Oh!” Felith smiled to dimpling. “Yes. Absolutely. I think I could grow to like a… more unconventional lifestyle.”

  “Ha!” Kis’eh’t shook her head. “Unconventional! Goddess save the poor creatures here. ‘Unconventional,’ my—”

  Reese cleared her throat.

  “—Tail.” The Glaseah fluffed hers. “Speaking of which, we have a castle to inventory and map, don’t we?”

  “So we do,” Reese said, grinning. “Let’s go to work.”

  It felt good to be wandering through the castle with a checklist, with no agenda other than to consider how she planned to furnish the place, or whether she wanted to partition off the rooms to make them easier to heat and cool, or how she could integrate modern technology without losing the architectural feel. Here and there she saw signs of the refugees’ passage, in a few blankets folded in a corner, or a floor that had been swept clean of dust… but other than that, the castle remained vacant, waiting for its own renewal. What would the gardens be like in spring, she wondered? Maybe she should plan the wedding for then. Come to think of it, if she wanted any of her crew’s family or friends to have the chance to get here from off-world, she’d have to put it off at least a month or two… and that was without the threat of the pirates maybe or maybe not returning.