Cass felt her jaw harden at the last, knowing it was Allie’s polite way of letting Voi Pai know she knew about the seers she’d already sent to work camps.
Baguen seemed to want to punctuate that point as well, grunting angrily behind her and laying his hand on her shoulder as she read.
Cass didn’t look at Garensche.
“...I do not wish to debate the veracity of any particular set of circumstances I have laid before you. Nor am I interested in punishing you for these crimes against our race. I would instead like only to determine what terms you would require for the release of my husband’s loyal friends, as well as their safe transport back to their homeland...
“That being said, please be aware, venerable Voi Pai, that I will be most displeased if you do not provide reasonable terms to me, in writing, before my emissaries leave Beijing. Further, I will consider any such refusal an act of war between us...one to which I will not hesitate to respond. Since your taking of these brothers and sisters of your Intermediaries blatantly violated the terms of our original treaty, you should consider it an extreme courtesy that I have not declared such a state between us already...”
Cass heard Garensche clear his throat behind her.
Pausing, Cass glanced up at his face.
The ex-Rebel’s expression held a faint shock, but she saw something else on his face too, an emotional reaction he seemed to be trying to mute in some way, maybe even to disguise as something else. Looking at his large-featured face, she realized suddenly that he was close to tears, and that at least part of the look on his face was relief.
Smiling at him briefly, she turned back to the note.
“...I would like to leave you with a final caution, sister Voi Pai. This is not a process I would like drawn out in any way. I am aware that your favorite game is to toy with the ceremonial forms to delay the delivery of agreed-upon goods in legal contracts with your allies and enemies. Without postulating which of these categories I may fall into of late, you should know that my patience these days is increasingly thinned from my increased responsibilities to our people.
“In short, I am unwilling to play this game with you, as far as my people are concerned. If that requires a difference in payment, then do not be coy about outlining any stipulations in your terms to that effect. I am willing to provide any settlement that is reasonable to see this accomplished...but I warn you that I expect it to occur within a timeframe appropriate for the reconciliation between our two peoples. For there will be no peace with us, Voi Pai, as long as you hold a single of my brothers and sisters captive...
“Further,” Cass added, giving the Lao Hu leader a hard stare.
“...I would like to request, as a sign of your good faith, the release of five of these seers at once, to return with my emissaries, Cassandra and Baguen. As I said before, fair and mutually agreeable payment will be made for the return of all of my brothers and sisters to me. As you clearly did not view our previous agreement as acceptable in terms of the payment originally agreed upon, I would like an honest answer as to what you would require to make this trade with me complete within two weeks’ time...
“Any failure to do so,” Cass read. “Will also result in a assumption that you wish war with me, sister Voi Pai, and with the seers under my command...”
Rolling up the scroll in her hand, Cass gave the Lao Hu leader a flat look, still speaking as if reading from the letter,
“...Yadda, yadda...sincerely yours, hugs and kisses, Esteemed Bridge.”
At the Lao Hu leader’s faint smile, Cass raised an eyebrow, leaning back in the wooden chair as she picked up her cup of tea.
“Oh, and then there’s the postscript she forgot to include,” she said. “Would you like to hear that, as well?”
Voi Pai stared, her predatory eyes fixed only on Cass’ face. She seemed to have forgotten Baguen, and even Garensche. When Cass simply returned her look, expressionless, the seer smiled more widely, motioning with one hand as she poured herself more tea.
“Please do, continue, most honorable emissary to the Bridge.”
“Okay. It goes something like this,” Cass said. “...The Sword is feeling better. In fact, both of them are feeling better...and the two of them might just decide to come kick your ass and light your fair City on fire if you continue to piss them off.”
Voi Pai’s eyes narrowed slightly, but her porcelain face did not change expression.
“The Sword is her prisoner? You admit to that?”
“Was her prisoner, yeah.”
The female seer only stared at her. Cass found herself quite sure that the other woman was reading her light, and likely every word in her mind. Feeling Baguen move closer to her in the pause, she realized he’d felt it, too, and likely was trying to shield her.
She didn’t care. She’d known that would happen coming in; so had Allie.
“You believe this,” the Lao Hu leader said. “You believe he will come here.”
“You’re damned right, I do,” Cass said, gritting her teeth. “And you might be forgetting...he’s not the only telekinetic seer on the block anymore. Even if he doesn’t, Allie will come here. You can bet on it. And she won’t be alone. She’s really pissed off at you...and she knows what you’ve done to those seers who worked for Revik...”
Voi Pai smiled again, but Cass saw the wary look in her eyes, the hardness that seethed through the yellow irises around their long, oval pupils. After another long pause where she seemed only to be looking at her, Voi Pai averted her eyes, clicking softly.
“But of course we will accede to her wishes,” the seer purred. “There was never any question of that. We all live to serve the Bridge...”
Turning to the two seers behind her, Maiwan and Yunes, she clicked her fingers once more, speaking rapidly in Mandarin. Cass looked up to Baguen, knowing he would understand their words. When he gave Cass a reassuring look, touching her shoulder with one hand, she relaxed somewhat.
Voi Pai returned her gaze to Cass.
“You may have this one, too...” she said, gesturing at Garensche. “He is next to useless to me, even as a trainee...”
When Cass grinned at Garensche, he grinned back, stretching his face around the scar that slid up by one of his ears. He had moved away from them somewhat, but Cass figured it was more ceremonial crap, since he stood in an alcove by the wall, a servant’s station. She had no doubt he had heard every word of the note as Cass read it, though.
“...But of course, you cannot leave here,” Voi Pai added, her voice still a silky purr.
Cass turned, the smile leaving her face.
“What?”
“...Not until I have spoken to the Bridge personally,” Voi Pai added. “...and apologized to her for the wrongs she feels I have done to her...”
“Are you kidding me?” Cass said. “No way. That’s not part of the deal...we’re going back with your terms. In writing. With five of the rebels. Allie said so, in the letter...”
“But I’m afraid that won’t suffice,” Voi Pai said silkily, her expression showing a theatrical kind of grief as she held up her hands. “For you see, I simply cannot bear the thought that I have offended one of the revered Intermediaries. I must apologize to her in person...and to her husband, if he is ‘feeling better,’ as you say...”
Cass clenched her jaw, keeping her voice low with an effort.
“Then you’ll have to come with us, I guess,” she said. “To meet with Allie in person.”
“I’m afraid that’s not possible. Although I would very much like to visit the Bridge in her own home, I’m afraid that the duties of my position will not permit me to leave the City at this time. I have masters much nearer to her, you see...”
“She’ll see this as an act of war,” Cass said tersely.
“An act of war?” Voi Pai said. “My attempt to apologize, an act of war?”
“Holding us against our will,” Cass snapped. “Making us your prisoners.”
“I sincerely doubt tha
t,” Voi Pai said sweetly. She gestured to the guards who appeared in the doorway, motioning with one hand lazily towards Cass and Baguen. “...Since your mistress has such an appreciation for the hospitality of the Lao Hu, she must only see this as the highest compliment, honorable emissary of our Bridge. Our desire to keep you here, with us, is meant only as a gift to you...as well as to your most impressive escort, who was obviously chosen for his familial ties to our nation, as a representative of one of its most ancient tribes...”
Cass swallowed, looking up at Baguen. She’d heard the threat towards him, too. Most of the Chinese seers viewed the Wvercians as throwbacks. Little more than animals.
Baguen returned her look, his eyes hard, a deep black in his head. She knew he was ready to fight them off, if they came near either of them. She also knew that the Lao Hu would probably kill him without a second thought, especially given his race. Clutching his fingers with one hand, she gave him a warning look, right before she rose to her feet.
She looked at Voi Pai, her voice hard.
“Fine. You heard the note. You know what you are doing.”
Voi Pai smiled again, her eyes glass shards. “We will pamper you and your consort well, cousin. Please follow my guards, and they will show you to your quarters.”
“Fine,” Cass said again.
Baguen stiffened when the seer sentries approached, but Cass touched his hand once more, forcing him to meet her gaze.
“No, Bags,” she said softly in English. “Allie wouldn’t like it. We’ll just have to play her little game.”
Looking down at her, he frowned, his dark eyes displeased, but not at her.
“Bridge come,” he said, after another pause.
It wasn’t a question.
“Yeah,” Cass said, looking again at the Lao Hu leader. “Bridge come.”
She stole another glance at Garensche, who still stood in the shadowed alcove behind her. When she did, the look on his face startled her somewhat. His eyes were trained on the Lao Hu leader, and for the first time since she’d known him, she didn’t see the jovial, good-natured seer in that look. He looked at Voi Pai like he intended to kill her.
“I think she might have some help, Bags,” she said softly, still tugging on the Wvercian’s hand. “I think she might have more help than she thinks...”
Without another word, Cass followed the Lao Hu guard through the doorway into the garden. As they made their way down the stone path towards the guest area of the Inner City, Cass saw the first, thick flakes of snow drifting down from the sky, reflecting in orange lamplight before they stuck to the trees or the ground.
Looking up as the flakes began to thicken, she found herself wondering just how long it would take before Allie realized they were overdue.
“Bridge come,” Baguen repeated, his voice a grunt in English.
“Yeah,” Cass said, frowning a little. “Yeah. I just hope she doesn’t come alone.”
11
KUCHTA
“...I DON’T WANT to talk about it,” he says. He smiles at her, shoving his hands into the front pockets of the coarse work pants he is wearing, leaning back on the bale of hay. “You are a pervert, you know? Wanting to talk about this all the time...”
She smacks his arm, shoving him on the blanket until he laughs.
“...I am not a pervert! You are one to be calling me that anyway, with a reputation like yours.” When he shakes his head at her, pretending annoyance, she shoves at him again, forcing him to look over at her. “...You know there are girls who say you have bewitched them...that you put them in a trance to get their clothes off...”
When he looks away, reddening, she snorts, taking a bite out of her sandwich.
“Look at you, shy suddenly! I will have to tell the other girls it is true.”
“Kuchta...” he begins. “Don’t.”
“I am only teasing you, Ewald,” she says, leaning back on her arms. Still gripping the sandwich in one hand, she closes her eyes against the sun, sprawling out her legs in the work dress she wears. “I have kept your secret. No one knows about our little outings. But I have to have some fun...especially since you will not do this bewitching thing to me...”
“You are my friend.”
“So...you do not bewitch your friends?”
“No,” he says, turning to look at her again. “No, I don’t.”
Seeing the serious expression in his clear eyes, she smiles, resting her head back on her arm. She takes another bite of the sandwich, chewing as she gazes up at the rafters.
“Then I will consider myself fortunate,” she says, laughing a little. “...To have evaded your snare. I will have enough trouble marrying, with my father being the old drunk he is...” Her smile widens, right before she prods him with one foot. “Right, my friend? If I have to explain my lack of virtue due to bewitchings, it will only be the harder...”
He smiles at her, pushing back at her booted foot with one hand. “You won’t have trouble marrying, Kuchta. Men like bossy women...and long, dark hair...”
“So he says...the one who tries to bed every girl in town but me.” Seeing his mouth tighten again, she grins at him, motioning towards the blanket. “...Eat! You complain you are hungry, then you won’t eat!”
He picks up the other sandwich, the one she brought for him, frowning at it a little before he takes a bite. Grimacing briefly, he forces himself to chew, fighting the ripples off his light as he tries to eat it as seer food, and can’t.
“You don’t like chicken?”
“It is okay.”
“Okay, only?” She lies back on the hay, closing her eyes. “Why do I invite you on these picnics of ours? You hate my cooking, you will not bewitch me, or help me with math or science, or even tell me if the rumors about you are true...”
Feeling her words, part of them anyway, he looks at her, his clear eyes serious once more.
“You should not, Kuchta.” He frowns again. “You should not invite me on these things. We should only talk on the retreats...where it is safe.”
“Only retreats? But those are only once every month...I would never see you if I waited until then! And you would get very lonesome, Ewald.” She smiles, her dark hair wound into a bun behind her head. She tugs on his playfully, and he lets her, leaning into her arm “And anyway,” she says. “Why shouldn’t I? Didn’t you just say we are friends?”
“We are friends,” he says. “That is why you should not.”
She prods him again with her foot. “What is this sudden concern? Are you worried about my prospects? That I might get a reputation as bad as yours?”
“No.” He frowns again at the sandwich. “But they will find out...sooner or later. And then it will be bad for you. You know what happens.”
She snorts, taking another bite of her sandwich. “Do you mean Gerwix and his band of idiots?” she says. “I am not afraid of that white mutant, with the brain of a horse fly.”
He gives her a narrow look, his face suddenly hard, devoid of humor. “They are no joke, Kuchta. You have never had them angry with you.”
“I have seen them plenty. I have known them longer than you, Ewald.”
“It does not matter what you have seen!” he says, fighting anger for real. “You don’t know him. He may seem stupid to you, but he is not. And he knows things, Kuchta. If he finds out we are friends, it will go badly for you...I promise you that...”
“Knows things,” she mutters angrily. “He knows I will cut out his eye, if he tries anything with me again...”
When he looks at her in surprise, he sees a frown on her face. She stares up at the rafters, a wrinkle over her nose, between her eyes, like she’s caught a bad smell. In that moment, he sees the look behind her smile, and realizes she knows more than she is pretending.
“He liked me, you know...Gerwix.” She glances at him, that sharp look still behind her gaze. “He wanted me to go with him to the dance. This past winter he asked...and tried to steal a kiss even. He is lucky my brother was n
earby...”
The boy only looks at her for a moment, a little stunned.
It has never occurred to him that Gerwix would like any girls, much less that he’d approach his friend. Looking at her, he realizes again that she really is quite pretty. Her honey-colored eyes are wide and laughing atop a heart-shaped face. Her sensual mouth is often smiling, and instead of silence, like the boy, she uses laughter to cover up what she sees. Her long hair is wound in braids, stuck now with straw, but he has seen it down before, and knows it is thick and dark.
Uncomfortable with his own appraisal, he looks away, shrugging. It is a human shrug.
“All the more reason,” he says. “He will assume it is something else. That we are more than friends.” He gestures vaguely, reddening again. “...He will think I am courting you.”
“Courting me?” She laughs, looking up at him once more from under her hand. “He’ll think you’re bewitching me, Ewald...not courting. He’ll think you’re talking me out of my clothes whenever we are alone. It is what all of them think about you. No one thinks you are looking for a wife, Ewald...or even a steady girl.”
“Whichever,” he says, biting back a flush of irritation. “He won’t like it.”
“We will not get caught eating sandwiches, Ewald. Your uncle does not watch you as closely now. Perhaps he trusts you more...or has decided to bully you another way...”
He stiffens, unable to keep his expression still as he turns his head.
He stares at her face where she lays on the hay, but she only smiles at him, her eyes knowing, holding that intelligence that unnerves him somehow, that feels almost like being read by another seer.
Allie's War Season Two Page 79
