by Amber Stuart
The woman surprised me, taking my bare arms in cold hands.
She leaned forward, kissing me on the face.
“I am Nihkil Jamri’s sister,” she said.
Arranging the long dress with fumbling fingers, I stepped from behind the guards, reaching out to take the woman’s proffered arm. I allowed myself to be led through the now-motionless crowd. On the floor I saw a boy of about thirteen who appeared to be unconscious, his mouth bloodied from one of the poles wielded by my morph bodyguards.
The female morph watched me look.
“My brother warned us that your person was known... that security leaks insured the date of your hearing would be public. We should have anticipated a longer delay at the docking station.” She met my gaze. “My name is Mai-rhani.”
I blinked at her now-dark eyes.
It struck me that Mai-rhani wasn’t being figurative in calling Nihkil her brother. The woman seemed to see the surprise in my eyes.
“He did not tell you about me?” she said politely.
I shook my head. “Ledi did. Only your name.”
The woman exuded understanding.
“Nihkil Jamri is the only brother I had as a child,” Mai-rhani said. “But our age difference is great. I sometimes forget he does not feel the same closeness to me.” The woman’s words held no bitterness when she added, “He told us much of you, which requires me to apologize again. He said you do not like violence,” she clarified, in response to what must have been a puzzled look from me.
Sister or not, she seemed to have Nik’s knack of reading facial expressions.
Even so, thinking about her words, I had to fight not to smile.
“He said that, did he?” I smiled in spite of myself, remembering how I met him in that alley in Seattle. “...That I didn’t like violence? Nik said that?”
“Yes,” Mai-rhani said, without seeming to pick up on my humor.
I studied her face. I found myself wanting to ask her more questions, about Nihkil and when she’d last spoken to him, but I wasn’t sure if it would be considered polite.
I figured family stuff might be touchy for morph, too, just like it was for most people.
Anyway, I didn’t want to grill her for information on Nik.
“Now is perhaps not the time,” Mai-rhani agreed, again seeming to read some portion of my internal conflict from my face. “Our father wished me to convey his love.” Her eyes shone like opals now. She didn’t flinch, even though I must have visibly reacted to her words. “He is pleased with my brother’s decision to accept your offer, Dakota Mayumi. Quite pleased.”
Fighting the frown that wanted to deepen on my face, I only nodded.
I walked the sloped floor leading inside the main Council chambers, fighting not to look directly at any of the other downed bodies now being dragged away by morph and human guards. Even so, I nearly tripped over another unconscious person, that one a middle-aged female clutching some sort of talisman between her arthritic hands.
Mai-rhani watched me stare down at the woman.
That time, she seemed to prefer the implant's private channel to speaking her words aloud.
Of course, once she had, I realized Nik must have given her the code.
"I apologize again, Dakota Mayumi,” she said. “For subjecting you to this disturbance. Nihkil Jamri did try to warn me when we spoke this morning."
I glanced up, meeting Mai-rhani's now-dark blue eyes.
She’d been in contact with Nik that morning.
Somehow, the news stumped me.
"He has not communicated with you recently?" Mai-rhani said politely.
I shook my head. "No.” Feeling I should say more, I shrugged, my skin warming. “He hasn't communicated with me at all. Not since the day we arrived here.” Realizing how my words probably sounded, I avoided her gaze. "I imagine they keep him busy. I did hear he got a pass to leave his cell for at least one night, but he didn’t contact me...”
Realizing how that sounded, too, I shook my head, unable to hide my scowl.
“...No, I haven’t talked to him,” I said, in summary.
Mai-rhani exuded understanding. "You are quite correct. Nihkil has been very busy. Not too busy to inquire about you, however. He came to visit us on his single-night pass."
I felt my hands unclench slightly at her words, but only nodded.
"Now is perhaps not the time," Mai-rhani repeated, looking at me calmly once more. "Our father agrees that you and Nihkil must learn to communicate more effectively, however. He is concerned that Nihkil is not acting appropriately, given the responsibility he has taken upon himself in acknowledging you as his true lock-mate."
I felt my face warm, but only nodded, keeping my expression polite.
“I am sure there is no reason for your father’s concern,” I assured her in Prexci.
Mai-rhani looked over, surprising me by reaching over to touch the tear-dropped pendant I wore around my neck.
“Nihkil wished me to tell you that this necklace has more than one purpose,” she added, still using the link. “In addition to its symbolic meaning, it allows our people to locate you physically. We will use this function in the event things do not go well in there. If they decide to take Nihkil away, we have promised him that you would be brought to our home world. It is a promise we will keep."
Mai-rhani paused, as if seeing something in my expression.
“...We will do what we can for my brother, too, of course,” she said.
I stared down at the pendant, feeling my stomach tighten.
"Right," I said aloud.
Still, my feelings around Nik's role in everything Mai-rhani had just said came closer to anger than anything else. The fact that he’d gotten a full night’s pass and hadn’t come near me still rankled, too, and I couldn’t even articulate to myself why, exactly.
Where the hell had he slept that night?
Somehow I doubted it had been on the floor of his family’s audience chambers, but maybe I was wrong about that, too.
Mai-rhani didn’t seem to notice the conflict in me that time, or maybe she simply had nothing to say to it.
She walked silently across the seamless rock floor, leading me through another set of thick doors that stood twice as high as the tallest of the male morph in our procession. Behind us trailed the line of robed supernaturals, the skin of their faces shining a pale blue, as smooth as sand-rubbed stone.
My attention was pulled off all of them, however, as our group entered the tunnel at the end of the next corridor. The new tunnel's low height required all but the shortest of the supernaturals to pass through with bent heads and necks.
After a few seconds in foot-shuffling darkness, we again emerged into light, and I found myself standing in the entryway of another set of cavernous rooms, framed by the dome of a foyer littered with a model of the galaxy in living, shifting tiles overhead.
Mai-rhani led me under that dome, which must have stretched upwards to at least the height of a six-story building back home, and through another oddly-small door into the amphitheater-sized cavern beyond. This last room was so large that I felt like I’d walked outside the building altogether. I, along with Mai-rhani’s procession of morph and supernaturals, walked down the wide steps as if descending into a small canyon.
Still less than a third full, the chamber echoed with sound, both distant and near. The acoustics sometimes made it easy to pick out words even from relatively far away. Those mutterings grew perceptibly louder as we passed by more of the seated rows.
Reaching a segment of floor only a few yards from the central dais, Mai-rhani indicted for me to sit.
I obeyed, kneeling carefully in the dress.
In front of us, an ornate and highly-detailed black trellis climbed upwards towards the ceiling in slanting angles. From its diagonal piles hung dark blue vines dripping with white flowers and colored water sprays. High above, in the red rock face, shadowy animals his
sed from caves above a white tile wall that gushed water from stone pipes.
A table took up most of the oval dais that crouched inside that metal trellis.
From the table’s appearance, it had to be constructed from the same hard, black metal as the trellis itself.
Mai-rhani sat cross-legged to my left. Other morph and supernaturals fanned around me in a dense circle, one that felt overtly protective.
On the dais itself, I recognized only one person.
Ledi tilted his weight back from a bench that circled the black metal table. A scattering of humans sat at various spots to either side of him. They all appeared to be waiting for something to happen, or maybe just for things to start.
I watched a tall female in a robe-like uniform lean down to speak in Ledi’s ear. He listened, but his sharp eyes never left my face.
The other end of the table remained conspicuously empty.
Entertainers wove between seated guests.
I ignored them, as per usual, but had to wonder at their presence here.
On the other hand, watching the amphitheater-style seating fill slowly with guests, human and maybe not-human, I had to wonder if this wasn't more than half entertainment anyway. Surely not everyone here came in some official capacity? So what were they doing here, exactly, if not coming to see the show?
I felt over-coiffed, as I had since that first day, when I’d gone shopping with Ledi.
I also felt uncomfortably exposed.
My instructions from Ledi for this event had been specific in terms of the style and even the color of dress I should wear. Jade-green straps looped around my back and front, crossing over my hips and wrapping my upper thighs. My back lay open. A light chain circled the middle of my throat above Nik’s pendant. Green powder raccooned both of my eyes in blended ovals. I’d covered my feet in socks studded with small video panels depicting views of Earth.
I knew they were funny only to me, but I wore them anyway.
Since that incident at the restaurant with Ledi and Nik, I’d avoided going anywhere with even partially-exposed feet. I had enough humans trying to touch me as it was.
Remembering the foot incident inevitably brought my mind around to Nihkil, though, and my lips twisted into a deeper scowl. I had a feeling Nik wasn't caring all that much about my feet these days, his instructions to the morph clans notwithstanding.
Pushing him from my mind, I tried to think about the impending hearing, although that subject wasn't particularly cheery, either. They still wouldn’t give me access to any but the military-screened media broadcasts, meaning the same ones that appeared on billboards all over the complex. Even so, I’d seen snippets of civilian-side riots, and knew a little about the mixed-race purges occurring in several colonies of late, too.
Mostly, though, I heard a lot of rumors.
Paranoia wafted through the city about a potential attack by the Malek.
I also heard about a flood of hunters hitting the civilian-side ports of Palarine itself.
Ledi assured me that the military caught most of them when they landed, but even he didn’t pretend no risk remained, so I figured that meant at least a few of them probably got through.
I heard about morph rebels gearing up for an attack, too. One group of morph in particular seemed to be feared more than all the rest. Led by some psycho named “Zarwin,” they supposedly got off on killing and torturing humans just for fun... even according to Ledi, who was usually a lot less reactionary than the news vids I saw or the humans I overheard.
While I couldn’t exactly blame them in some ways, given what I knew about this place so far, I didn’t really want to run into Zarwin and his pals, either.
And of course, the bounties on me and Nik rose a few clicks every day.
I’d heard other things, too, mostly about Nik.
At the thought, a woman with red hair plunked down on the floor a few rows up, drawing my eyes. Midnight-blue powder darkened every inch of her skin. She looked naked apart from the coloring; the gauzy mesh of moonstone-colored cloth accentuated more than it concealed of her muscular form. High cheekbones stood out on a heart-shaped face, a face shaped similar to mine in some ways.
The woman leaned her weight on one hand, her posture languorous as she shook her head to get her long, auburn hair to fall behind her back. I tensed, recognizing the hair and body as much as the woman’s face.
It was the woman from the ship... one of the many Nihkil had been sleeping with.
I couldn't help but be grateful that she didn't seem to have noticed me.
Given that one of Ledi’s personal assistants wound my hair into tight braids that morning, almost corn-rows that ran down my back, I must look different enough that the woman hadn’t tracked me as she passed.
Despite my relief, I found myself staring at her, almost without being able to help myself. I hadn’t known she and Nik were involved when I first laid eyes on her on the ship, although I remembered Nik asking why I stared at her.
Maybe, on some level, I had known.
Even as I thought it, the woman turned.
I muttered a curse before forcing my eyes away, knowing I was too late... and knowing it was my own fault, for letting the woman feel my stare. Once the red-haired woman was looking at me, a faint smile lit up her face, making it less predatory-looking than I remembered from when I first saw her hanging from that balcony on the ship.
“It is the First Worlder,” she said in a rolling purr of Pharize. “I should have known you’d be here... witnessing the fate of our favorite morph.”
I felt my mouth tighten.
I considered giving her a hard stare, even telling the woman to go to hell, when another voice broke into my thoughts, that time from much nearer.
“Dakota?”
I jumped a little. Then I looked backwards and up.
Ledi stood over me. I was still staring up at him when his knees bent smoothly. He crouched in a single fluid motion, remaining directly behind me.
“I have just heard they are bringing Nihkil up.” He laid a warm hand on my shoulder. “You need to be prepared, Dakota. I am told he does not look well.”
When he began to straighten, I caught his sleeve, pulling him back down.
“What does that mean?” I said.
Seeing my expression, Ledi exhaled shortly.
“Dakota. You cannot react. I am sorry to ask this of you, but it is important that you hear me on this, and not react, whatever you think of how he appears.”
When I didn’t stop staring at him, Ledi sighed again.
“I do not know everything. He was put on drugs to aid in the interrogations... for days, I hear. And he got in some kind of fight with a number of the guards.”
“A fight?” I felt my jaw harden. “What kind of fight?”
“I do not know. But Nihkil struck first... so the human guards punished him. Truthfully, I think he scared them. It is unlike Nihkil to lose control like that.”
Opening my hand, I released Ledi’s coat.
I saw the red-haired woman from the ship smile at me again, her expression holding more of an apology that time, and less of a smirk.
As Ledi walked away, she spoke to be heard above the growing crowd.
“I hope you do not listen to that one, either,” she said, that smile still ghosting her lips. “He lies, that one... especially in bed.”
I watched Ledi vault up the stairs, felt other eyes notice the direction of my stare.
“Good to know,” I muttered.
They all thought I was sleeping with Ledi, too, even this total stranger. I was beginning to think maybe I should be sleeping with him.
I glanced at Mai-rhani. "They’ve hurt Nihkil."
The morph's face didn't change, but I found myself thinking that the news wasn't really news to her. I tried not to ask, then did anyway.
"Is he sleeping with humans again?” I said. “Nikhil. Is he doing it without the cards?�
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Mai-rhani followed the direction of my eyes to the red-haired woman.
"I do not know. Nihkil Jamri does not share such information with me."
I looked over the red-haired woman’s clothes, in spite of myself. Still, my voice came out in close to a mutter, even through the link. "Yeah. Me, neither.”
Sighing a bit, I started to run my fingers through my hair, remembered I couldn’t and let my hand drop to my lap.
“Did you know he'd been beaten again? Drugged?" I asked Mai-rhani.
The morph’s words grew diplomatic.
"I heard rumors to this effect, yes. He also sounded... strange. This morning, when we spoke." Ignoring my frown, Mai-rhani glanced around the room with liquid eyes. "I understand that your emotions are conflicted at the moment, Dakota Mayumi, but you need to remember that there are many eyes on you. General Advisor Ledi's advice was sound. If you can, hide your feelings about Nihkil's problems with the human authorities, and his sexual liaisons. Hide them until you have an opportunity to communicate with Nihkil openly about these things."
"And if that never happens?" I muttered.
I caught the red-haired woman’s stare in the same breath and did my best to smile, at least enough to let it reach my eyes. The woman continued to look at me cautiously, but returned the smile with one of her own. I couldn't help thinking hers probably looked a lot more convincing than mine did.
"I thought he was in jail?" I asked Mai-rhani via the link. "Has be been with this woman instead?"
"I do not know. Why are you asking me this twice?” Mai-rhani studied my eyes. "Dakota Mayumi, you should not concern yourself with gossip. Wait until––"
"––I can ask Nik. Got it."
Turning back towards the room, I avoided looking at both Mai-rhani and the woman in the moonstone cloth after that. I concentrated instead on controlling my expression.
For a long moment, I simply couldn’t.
I felt like I’d been punched, hard, maybe in the vicinity of that thread I felt between me and Nihkil.
For awhile I managed to distract myself by trying to understand both the Pharei and Malek newscasters, which showed on different screens on opposite sides of the room. I had a harder time with the Malek station, but pulled whatever information I could using the implant, wishing I'd paid more attention while Nihkil had been attempting to teach me Merensic, since their newscasts tended to have a lot more images of civil unrest.
