Irsud

by Clayton, Jo;

  “Ilu-annana, my adann is yours.”

  “My dear child, I see your tastes haven’t changed. Such sweet and lissome loves. And not a brain among them.”

  “Ummu, please.…”

  “Dear, dear daughter.”

  “Nih-a-annana, Damiktana.” Gapp bowed, touched palm-to-palm hands to her lips, her face pale gray, the formal act made to conceal the pain.

  Aleytys, weeping inside, fought for control of her tongue, but the old one used her anger and frustration, used the sick sour suppressed unlovely side to her nature. Sneaking up on her weak side, the old one mocked her and tripped her tongue wickedly.

  And all the while the cynical knowing red-flecked eyes of Sombala Isshi glinted with admiration and the kipu radiated smug satisfaction, not believing the old one’s presence, relishing the kow-towing to the acid tongue that merely added to her own power, preening herself like some insectoid cock.

  Locked in the pattern, feeding it with the anger and frustration she couldn’t help building up as helplessness closed in on her, Aleytys paced, pale, expressionless, swaying gracefully through her role.

  On the roof Sombala Isshi inspected the skimmers and grunted his satisfaction as the kipu placed an order for another skimmer to replace one gone missing. Could the hiiri have gotten some energy weapons and taken it out? Aleytys felt a spark of interest driving through her gloom.

  Walk the bazaars, Isshi purchasing this and that handiwork from hiiri slave or worker nayid, humble nayadim bobbing and bowing slavishly before then.…

  Aleytys retreated into her head, let her body move, tuned out to save her sanity all that happened, walked a zombie through the streets and back into the mahazh.

  “Most impressive.” Sombala Isshi halted on the wide esplanade in front of the mahazh.

  The kipu wasn’t listening. Shading her black insectoid eyes with a narrow fine-boned hand, her attention was focused on a black speck rapidly enlarging as it swooped through the sky toward the building. Forgotten for the moment, Aleytys lingered on the steps that led with sweeping majesty up to the soaring pointed arch filled with a massive door built of metal sheathed planks.

  “Harskari,” she muttered. “Help me.”

  “Your feet are strong enough to hold you.” Harskari’s even, measured tones, combined with the aura of age and wisdom that surrounded her presence, brought a measure of calm to Aleytys. Leaning against the edge of the arch, shoulders losing their tension as the coolness of the polished stone blocks struck through the stiff scratchy robe, Aleytys followed the large skimmer as it floated smoothly down onto the stone slabs of the barren esplanade.

  A ramp extruded. Two short dark men dressed in dull olive suit-liners pushed a nayid female ahead of them down the slope. Bent-shouldered, arms held tight against her sides, the lanky miserable female shuffled along, moving with evident difficulty.

  Aleytys leaned forward tautly, staring at the nayid’s arms and legs trying to see the bonds that held those thin arms to her bony sides.

  “Tangle web.” Shadith’s cool silvery voice answered the unspoken question. “Feels like glue. You can move. Barely. But any quick tricks are no-no.”

  Aleytys wrinkled her nose. “Something else the kipu can use on me.”

  “Oh, I doubt Isshi lets the nayids have that.”

  “Why?” Aleytys shifted her eyes to the cliff face barely visible from where she was standing. “He sells those damn guns.”

  “For which he has quite adequate defenses. But the kipu’s technicians could learn a little too much from a tangle-web field.”

  “Too much what?”

  “Too much about trans-light flight.”

  “Huh? I don’t see the connection. Damn! Even Kitten makes me feel like a child.” She watched the captive nayid stumble painfully up to the kipu. “Looks like heading for the star city isn’t such a good idea.”

  “Depends. But it doesn’t look like we’ve much choice. These company worlds!” The purple eyes blinked rapidly.

  Sombala Isshi saluted the kipu and walked up the ramp. The two guards followed him. Just before they stepped into the skimmer, one touched a stud on his belt. The captive nayid stumbled and swung arms suddenly released. She moved her head carefully then straightened and faced the kipu, mouth firmed in a rigid line. Waves of anger and fear swirled out of her bringing a touch of sickness to Aleytys’ stomach before she blocked the emotion out.

  Abruptly the captive leaped at the kipu, six-fingered hands locking around her thin neck. But the attack was futile. Two of the honor guard leaped forward, pressed a stun-rod to the growling Runner’s neck. As she crumpled into a heap on top of the kipu, the guards picked her up and trotted her past Aleytys into the mahazh.

  The kipu stood and brushed herself off. Boots clicking precisely on the stone, back straight, literally bathing in smugness, she strode up the steps and paused in front of Aleytys, a smile curling the ends of her thin lips.

  “Yes,” Aleytys said calmly. “You certainly made your point, rab’ kipu.”

  CHAPTER XIX

  Sitting in the shadow beneath the over-curve of the bamboo, Aleytys nervously dipped here and there in the darkness, exercising her new-found talent for eyeless vision, carefully avoiding Burash’s gloomy figure.

  He sat with his back to her broadcasting a deep trouble in his spirit, a stubborn pain that made her wince even as she rejected the basis for it.

  Impatiently she swung around to glare at his back. “Burash, I had to. There wasn’t anywhere else safe enough to meet.”

  He hunched his head lower between his shoulders.

  “You know there’s nowhere else.”

  “I know.” he lifted his head and turned himself so he faced her, his antennas spread wide arching into a shallow curve.

  “Stop acting like some dizzy female.”

  He stared at her, startled. “But.…”

  “Damn. I keep forgetting.” She slapped a hand onto her thigh then winced at the loudness of the sound. “Sentimentality, that’s all. False. You know it.”

  “False?” He shrugged, the antennas jerking briefly upright, then drooping again. “It certainly shows what means most to you.”

  She jumped up and threw out her hands. “Hahunh! You make me want to tear my hair! I do the best I can, that’s all. Our place. Hunh. Your place is here.” She touched her forehead. “And here.” She flattened her hand over her heart. “We’ll be leaving here soon anyway.”

  He tilted his head to look up at her. “You’ll be leaving me soon too, did you think of that?”

  She knelt in front of him and touched his face with her fingertips. “Burash?”

  He sighed. “Leyta, Leyta, you don’t understand.” He caught her hand and held it between his.

  “No.” She sighed. “No.”

  “Leyta.…”

  She freed her hand and lay back on the grass beside him. “Look up there, Burash.” Sweeping her hand in a shallow circle she encompassed the visible stars. “There they are. Mother hen suns with circling worlds like chicks around them. Somewhere out there my own mother flits from one to the other. Somewhere out there maybe a warped and twisted woman is tormenting the baby she stole from me. If my friend hasn’t found her yet. Somewhere out there he waits for me. Out there maybe I’ll find a place where I can belong, really belong. A home.”

  He bent over her and kissed her forehead lightly. “I wish you good fortune in your search.” Abruptly he jumped up and pressed back into deeper shadow. “Someone comes.”

  Aleytys glanced around, saw nothing, closed her eyes and looked with the new sense. “Nakivas and Kitten.” She sat up and sighed. “Relax, naram.”

  A moment later the two hiiri slipped cautiously into the clearing, edging around the side of it so they remained in deep shadow as they drew nearer to Aleytys. Like shadows they flitted over the uneven ground making no more noise than hunting cats.

  “How did you spot them?” Aleytys whispered, her quick-trigger curiosity flaring.

>   “Heat sources.” Burash ducked his head and wiggled his antennas. “Obvious.”

  “Ah.” Aleytys frowned. “Can those guards do that?”

  “A little. Not like a male.”

  “Could they spot us here from the wall?”

  “Not this far.”

  “Hah. I was about to panic.”

  “Why so, Kunniakas?” Nakivas sank to the ground beside them. “I hear you’ve had some busy days.”

  “Interesting times.” Almost inaudibly she chuckled. “That’s an old curse I heard somewhere. May you live in interesting times. I begin to know what they mean.” She sighed and swung a hand in a brief arc. “All that. You see why I need to get away?”

  “Yes.” Nakivas looked cautiously around, then leaned forward until his face was inches from hers. “The clan saaski will be coming to the market under safe conduct. They won’t break truce to take you but will give you passage to the hills if you get to them outside the truce line. That’s a full day’s journey from this place. The headman has sworn by the totem of his clan.”

  “The hills?”

  “Our bargain, Kunniakas. A season’s service.”

  “Mmm. How do we get a day’s journey away from here?”

  “You can ride?”

  “Yes.” She smiled. “Though I haven’t had much opportunity lately.”

  Nakivas leaned toward Burash. “And you, Seppanhei?”

  Burash twisted his mouth into a wry smile. “I rode a little as a child, but not for twenty years.” He stared down at his hands. “Since then I have developed a strong fear of heights.” With a sigh he brushed his hands together. “I won’t enjoy it, but I can stay on a horse’s back.”

  Nakivas shook his head. “My god,” he said hoarsely. “You really want to go through with this?” Without waiting for an answer, he went on. “I suppose you do. I’ll have a guide with horses waiting for you. Aamunkoitta can show you where.”

  “Good.” Aleytys tapped her fingers on her thighs. “I could amend the bargain?”

  “How?”

  “I want to cut the time of service.”

  “No.”

  “Even if I can get you energy weapons?”

  Nakivas caught hold of her hand then dropped it and relaxed, smiling wryly as he remembered her talent. “How many? And what kind?”

  “I’d like to know the answer to that.” The kipu’s resonant voice cut through the hush of the clearing. “No. Don’t bother getting up. Look around.”

  Silently, ominously, black guards stepped out of the shadow, the only opening to the ring of bamboo and silent figures that section where the cliff rose blocking escape.

  Slowly, half in shock, Aleytys got to her feet. “How?”

  “I can’t believe you’d be so stupid.” The kipu flicked a hand at a bunched group of nayids close behind her. “Take them.”

  Nakivas flowed onto his feet and dived toward the bamboo close behind him. Aleytys heard a dull thud, then two guards came around her carrying the hiiri’s limp body.

  “Is he.…”

  “Damiktana.” The kipu’s voice sounded wearily patient and condescending. “Damiktana. Where did you leave your head? Would I waste such a fine advantage? The Paamies of the hiiri in my hands?”

  “How.…” Aleytys looked around. Nakivas lay across a nayid shoulder, Aamunkoitta struggled half-heartedly in the grasp of another. Burash.… She wheeled to face the kipu again. “How did you know about this meeting?”

  “Think, Damiktana.” The exaggerated lilt in the kipu’s voice blended nicely with her complacent self-satisfaction and genuine amusement. “You saw the screens in my workroom. What did you think they were for?”

  “How could I know?” She shook her head, feeling terribly helpless. “I don’t understand anything about machines.”

  “I’ve had you watched from the beginning. My ‘eyes’ watch that room twenty-six hours the day.” She frowned and looked around. “Not here, though. I admit I overlooked this place. However.…” She turned to the guards. “Sukall.”

  “Im, rab’ kipu?”

  “You know where to take these.”

  “Im, rab’ kipu.” Refusing to look at Aleytys, Sukall stalked off with the guards carrying Nakivas and Aamunkoitta close behind.

  When they had vanished into the darkness, the kipu turned to Aleytys. “If you will, Damiktana?” She gestured toward the mahazh.

  In her living quarters, Aleytys settled herself in her chair and looked anxiously at the kipu.

  The cold-faced nayid stood in front of her, hands clasped behind her.

  Aleytys’ stomach knotted with fear and anger. “What are you going to do to them?”

  “The Paamies?” The kipu twitched her lips in a tight mean smile. “After I ask him a question or two.…” She paused, smile broadening. Aleytys shivered at the sadistic pleasures showing in the tight-skinned face. “I think I’ll hang him in a cage at the market. Let all the hiiri see their Paamies and know where he is. They’re tough little beasts, these hiiri, he should last quite a while even without food and water.”

  Aleytys pressed her lips together. She flattened her shaking hands against the chair arms and spoke hesitantly. “The others?”

  “I should have them executed.”

  “No!”

  “No. You’re right. With the alternative of drugging you and the uncertainty I feel about that after your performance with that poison, I think I’ll keep them as insurance for your good behavior, Damiktana. Damiktana.” Her voice lingered on the word.

  “Ah.” Aleytys leaned back in the chair and sighed. She touched her face with a shaking hand. “You won’t hurt him … them?”

  The kipu smiled even more, her small gleaming teeth sharp and carnivorous. She shifted her hands around in front of her and tapped a stud on the caller at her belt. “That depends on you, Damiktana.”

  “What did you do just now?”

  “Shut off surveillance.” The kipu stepped back and eyed Aleytys warily. “There are guards right there.” She nodded her head to the tapestry behind her.

  Aleytys pressed her hands hard against the arms of the chair. “That’s funny. That’s really funny.” She fixed her eyes on the kipu. “So. I keep up the act for you.”

  “Yes.”

  Aleytys sensed a tautness, a waiting in the nayid. “There’s something else.”

  “Hostages. They can be relatively comfortable.”

  “So?”

  “Or they can be very very uncomfortable.”

  “So?” Aleytys looked grim. “What do you want from me?”

  “A life.” The calm casual word hung vibrating between them.

  Aleytys closed her eyes. “Harskari,” she whispered, “help me.”

  “Listen to what that one says.” The amber eyes blinked impatiently. “Don’t depend on me for everything, Aleytys, you’re an adult, intelligent, use it.”

  “Harskari.…”

  The amber eyes closed with chilling finality. A muscle twitching beside her mouth, Aleytys gathered herself and asked, “A life?”

  “Asshrud.”

  “What?” Aleytys swallowed and huddled in her robe feeling somehow shrivelled.

  “You heard.”

  “What makes you think I could.…” She licked dry lips. “Or would … kill … kill someone. Especially for you?”

  “The migru. The hiiri.”

  “Ah.” She pressed her hands over her eyes. “I’m a healer,” she muttered.

  “Death. Life. Two sides of the same coin, not a hair’s difference between.”

  “But … someone told me you couldn’t touch her.”

  “The hiiri girl.”

  At this reminder of the watch on her life, Aleytys flamed Into sudden anger. She swallowed it and said tightly, “Well?”

  “I can’t touch her.”

  “But I can?” She pulled her hands down slowly and clasped them in her lap. “Isn’t ordering the killing the same as doing it yourself.”

  �
�I? Order you? My queen?”

  “Oh.” Her mouth twitched. “What happens to me? I suppose I must claim the kill.”

  “She tried to kill you.” The kipu’s antennas jerked in short angular arcs underlining her irritation with Aleytys’ stubborn refusal to see where her interest lay. “Don’t be stupid. What choice have you? A life for a life. The hiiri for Asshrud.”

  “What about my life?”

  “What you carry protects you.”

  “Explain about the hiiri.”

  “Isn’t it obvious? If Asshrud lives, the hiiri dies.” She straightened her mouth into an impatient fine line. “Need I say very very painfully? I only need one hostage to hold you and the migru will do just fine.”

  “No. I believe you.” Aleytys looked down at her hands. She rubbed them together helplessly. “I need time.”

  “Time? What for?”

  “You don’t understand.”

  “I don’t need to.”

  “Right. You don’t need to understand me. Just use me.”

  “I knew you’d eventually realize where you stand.”

  “Why don’t you do it and give me the name? I can’t deny it while you hold my friends.”

  “No. I can’t touch flesh of the queen.”

  “No. You only order it.”

  “That’s different.”

  “No.” She shrugged. “It’s not different. But I expect you’ll never see that. How long?”

  “What?” The kipu frowned. “What’s that mean?”

  “How long do I have to make up my mind?”

  “Now.” The kipu strode to the archway and paused, hand on the tapestry. “Make up your mind now. What choice do you have?”

  “Don’t push me.” Aleytys leaned forward, her face set in grim lines. “Unless you want a negative.” She slid out of the chair and stood up. “I need time.”

  The kipu ran her eyes over the arrogant stance of the woman facing her. She capitulated. “Very well. I’ll return with the morning meal. Have your answer. The hiiri or Asshrud.”

  “Yes. Aleytys brushed the hair back from her damp and sweaty face, the momentary rebellion washing out of her leaving her feeling gray and wilted. “I know.”

  She watched the kipu saunter through the arch. She felt strange … distant and remote … stomach clenching and unclenching … knotting spasmodically … head floating eerily … she stumbled out into the garden and sat down heavily on the bench by the stream, watching the water flow past, sparking silver in the moonlight.