by E M Gale
‘She must have more than one move.’
She held her sword in both hands, vertically upright and in front of her.
‘Ah, a new move, what is she going to do with this? This one is not so obvious. Rats. Why am I making it harder for myself?’
I moved into a two-handed kata stance, my sword pointing straight forwards. She rushed me, aiming her sword to come down on my head. I dodged, pulled back my sword to my left and slashed from left to right across her. She dodged that.
‘Damn!’
She pulled her sword to the side and then cut towards my neck. I bent my head to the side and twisted my body under the sword, so that it passed over my head.
‘That wasn’t a sword-fighting move, that was a salsa move! But hey, I guess those stupid neck-led spins are good for something. In salsa you bend your head under your partner’s arm. But it works perfectly well for bending your head under the sword.’
I brought my sword up as I spun to attack her waist. She blocked that by stepping back and bringing her sword down and across herself. I switched attack, aiming for her neck. She spun out of the way of my sword, then spun back to attack. I blocked it, but I blocked the wrong hand–the tip of her sword was against the base of my throat, drawing blood. I tried not to gulp and breathed shallowly and carefully.
‘I missed her arm. And why the hell was her sword in a different hand? That is so unfair!’
‘Hey… did she just use my cool hand-switching spin I just devised? Copycat.’
I just stared at her in shock as I reasoned this out. She smiled, and gestured that I get down on my knees.
“Yay! Go Emma!” shouted someone. I flicked my eyes over and saw a young vampiress jumping up and down excitedly. I did a flamboyant drop to my knee and swept my hair out of the way of my neck. Emma crouched down, first wiping the blood off my throat with a finger, which she then licked.
‘Well, that’s kinda weird. A little gross, actually, but it saves me from getting any blood on my pretty dress. OK, Clarke, why were you fighting a stupid duel in which the point is to draw blood in a dress you don’t want to stain?’
Emma bit my neck and drank from me. She took more than I had taken from her, but then she was a vampire who needed blood rather than a Founder who just enjoyed it.
‘Am I really that arrogant that I fought a duel, my first duel, in a dress I don’t want to stain? Gargh!’
As the duel was now over, we stood up. I sheathed my sword after first wiping the blood off of it, being careful not to flick droplets off it, and walked out of the arena towards the edge of the room. Emma tailed me.
“So, where did you learn that hand-switching spin then?” I asked her.
She grinned at me, far less embarrassed and awed now, which was good. “From you.”
“Eh? When?”
“In the fight.” She smiled triumphantly.
‘Ooo, clever. Whilst I figured out her favourite opening move, she’s obviously capable of figuring out my moves and copying them. A quick thinker.’
“Why, thank you,” she said, grinning at me.
I shut out my thoughts. She hadn’t been supposed to hear that. She ought to only be able to read the top layer. But either which way, I had forgotten that we would be in the mind meld since we had exchanged blood.
‘Oops, stupid mind-meld thing.’
“Did you let me win?” she asked, frowning now.
“No.”
She looked happy.
‘I’m far too competitive for that sort of thing.’
“What would the point in that be?” I queried. “In the end, you beat me. But before that, you made a few mistakes.”
She nodded and listened. I stopped walking and we took up a position near the edge of the room. The next duel was beginning, but we ignored it.
“But tell me, what were my mistakes? I want to get better,” she said. I grinned at her.
‘A good attitude.’
“You assumed what I would do based on the guy you fought before. You kept using the same opening move. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good move–unusual and a good attack, if they don’t know what it is or expect it. But when you expect it, it’s easy to dodge.”
She nodded. I thought she appreciated the advice.
‘Although why am I giving her advice? For all I know she could have been sword-fighting longer than me. Meh, I don’t like having to impersonate someone capable.’
“Anything else?” She had the look of someone taking internal notes.
“Well, never drop your sword.”
She fidgeted.
“If you were fighting pirates they would hardly be polite enough to let you pick it up again.”
She nodded.
“But you are very good,” I added with a charming smile.
‘Course I don’t know that, I’m hardly an expert on sword-fighting. She beat me. Not that I’m that great, but hey, nothing wrong with an easy compliment.’
“Really?”
I smiled at her again. “Yes.”
She smiled so brightly that she almost seemed to glow.
‘So Clarke, do you plan to go to bed with a sycophant? I really don’t need someone to tell me I’m great. But I like vampires–they taste nice and she smells like she would taste nice. Anyway, it might well be out of character not to.’
She eyed me as I led us away from the crowd.
‘What we need is somewhere more private.’
“Are you trying to lead me to a dark corner?” asked Emma with an amused grin.
I smiled. “Oh, yeah, definitely.”
She curled her lips up more, her teeth growing.
‘Eeek! Be more subtle! Do I go around baring my teeth at the slightest provocation? Does my future self? Maybe modern-day vampires have fewer hangups about showing their teeth than twenty-first-century ones. She knows that even though I have a heartbeat like one, I’m not a sapiens sapiens who might be freaked out by her teeth.’
“Well, why don’t you just follow me this way,” she said coquettishly.
I did. We headed out of the duelling arena and towards her quarters.
“Why are you wearing a dress anyway?” Emma asked.
‘Huh. What is wrong with my pretty dress?’
“I’m on holiday,” I said.
She nodded. Somewhere in her head she was drawing a picture of me in velvet and associating it with the word ‘holiday’.
‘Does that mean that she’ll start wearing velvet dresses occasionally, just because I do?’
I frowned at that thought. “You don’t still admire me, do you?” I blurted. She looked taken aback.
‘Hmm, can vampires not blush? She looks like she would if she could. Maybe if she had more blood in her.’
She opened the door to her room. It was much smaller than the ones my friends had been quartered in.
‘That’s what we get for being in with the long-dead owner, I suppose. And is this rented or owned? Do some vampires live here permanently?’
“Is it a problem if I do?” she asked.
‘Yes. Very much so.’
I sighed.
“You are a hero and you are still the best sword-fighter,” said Emma.
I frowned. “The duel was a draw,” I pointed out.
“Only because you threw your chances to win at the start of the second fight in order to educate me.”
‘Is that why I did it? I think it was more because I was certain that she could do better. I don’t know enough to start educating anyone.’
“Please don’t look up to me, or anything like that. I’ll just let you down. Trust me on this,” I said. She looked disturbed.
‘Meh. First rule of one-night stands, Clarke, don’t have deep discussions.’
I smiled at her beguilingly and shook my head, throwing my unhelpful thoughts away from me.
“Forget I said anything, Emma,” I said, pulling her towards me for a gentle kiss.
* * *
Some time later, I presumed tha
t Emma was no longer hungry and I was feeling tired.
“Coffee?” she offered me.
“God, yeah.”
‘I like coffee.’
She made some up and handed me a cup. I sniffed it as a connoisseur smelled a fine wine.
‘Nice. It’s not orcian coffee, though.’
“Thanks. Um, you don’t happen to have any orcian coffee, do you?” I asked hopefully.
She looked confused. “No. It’s poisonous, you know.”
“Really? For all vampires?” I asked casually. Or I tried to be casual.
“Yes.”
“Founders too?”
“Yes.” She frowned.
‘Ah, shit.’
“I would have thought you would know that,” she said.
I shrugged.
‘Well, it’s not killed me yet. Cleckley said he thought it would be poisonous for vampires, or half-vampires such as myself, but he wasn’t definite. Yet the orcs seemed to expect that I could drink it. And anyway, they’re practically human, being Homo sapiens orcians, and they can drink it.’
“Ah, I forget details,” I said, then I pulled another charming smile.
She nodded. Smiles seemed to work well on Emma.
“So what are you doing on Tortuga?” she asked.
‘Oh, she, at least, doesn’t think I own it? That’s refreshing. However, I don’t like people asking me what I am doing. I should probably make sure that my future self cultivates a reputation for not liking that sort of thing.’
“I’m on holiday,” I said vaguely. I even shrugged so she’d get the message.
“Are you heading to Syzygy?” she inquired.
‘Argh, what’s with the Twenty Questions? And I’m still tired. The normal coffee isn’t doing anything. It’s like water really.’
“Not now, I’m tired,” I said, yawning. “And I don’t plan to go there soon, no.”
‘Hmm, is it near here then? How the hell do I ask that? I bet she expects me to know where Syzygy is.’
“Are you going there?” I asked her.
She nodded. “Of course. I’ve never been there before. I’ve put it off, you see, since once you go there you have to do the militia training, but now my business is ticking along nicely I can do that.”
I nodded.
‘Is that what Price is supposed to go and do then?’
“Not that I wasn’t planning to do it, of course. I’m not a draft-dodger.”
I was confused, so I raised an eyebrow at her.
“And I’ll go and do it straight away, when I get there,” she said.
“Uh-huh,” I grunted, not really understanding what was going on, but figuring I would give her some more rope. Emma looked worried.
“You see, when I spoke to Wolfram, he said I had to do the classes when I got to Syzygy, and I’ve not been there yet. You know how it is with small start-ups, they need constant care and attention. The training’s not so important that it’s worth losing a living over, is it?” Emma was babbling. I let her panicked excuses wash over me.
‘Does she expect me to tell her off or something? Is that my job? Am I supposed to tell new vampires to go to Syzygy? Price said he would be in trouble with his clan if he didn’t go there as soon as he turned, so maybe they are all supposed to do that.’
“So, I’ll have it done soon and no harm done, right?” Emma looked like she expected to be bawled out.
I sighed wearily. “Emma, I’m on holiday. I don’t care why you haven’t done the things you know you’re supposed to have done, regardless of the wording Wolfram used.”
She nodded and gulped. “OK. I’ll be going there soon anyway. There’s a big duelling competition on, I plan to enter it.”
‘Oh?’
“Well, good luck,” I said.
“So you’re not going to enter then?” She looked disappointed. I opened my mouth to say no, but then again, my future self might well be.
‘How am I supposed to know?’
I shrugged. I was getting even more tired now.
“If my work will let me,” I said. “Anyway, I’m heading off now. Thanks for the coffee.”
She looked amused.
“And the blood,” I added.
She laughed.
‘Vampires don’t thank each other for blood then.’
“It was nice to meet you, Clarke,” she said politely, almost as if she were holding her hand out for me to shake. She wasn’t though. I peered at her.
‘She had better not be admiring me. Well, too late to do anything about that now.’
“Nice to meet you too. I’ll see you around, I guess,” I said as I left.
She grinned and waved as I walked up the corridor then shut the door. I shook my head to myself.
‘Dammit. I don’t want people to look up to me. I don’t want to feel bad about it when I eventually let them down. She doesn’t need me as a hero.’
I pinched the bridge of my nose and sighed. I still needed to do the vampire experiment and I needed to find a bar and swap blood with as many vampires as I could. But I hadn’t realised just how many hours I had spent flying around in circles. I’d been there for about eight hours in the end.
So I was trudging my weary way back to my quarters to sleep off my exhaustion when I heard my name. I decided the best thing to do would be to ignore it. But they called again and I recognised the voice as Anna’s. I stopped and stared at her wide-eyed as she strode over.
“There you are at last!” she said.
‘How did she find me?’
She peered at me. “You look tired. Haven’t you been to bed yet? And you’re in the residential part of the ship.” She put her hands on her hips. “Are you coming back from a one-night stand?” She looked happy. “Honestly, Clarke, why do you do it to yourself?”
I started walking past her.
“Sex should only–”
“Tomorrow, tomorrow, Anna.” My face cracked in a yawn. “I’ll tell you about it tomorrow. I don’t need lecturing last thing at night.”
She looked at her watch. “It’s eight thirty AM.”
“Well, what do you know.”
“Hey, hold on, I want to talk to you.”
My shoulders sagged and I turned. She paused.
“Uh… shall we sit?” She gestured at one of the sofas placed around the residential corridors, to make the place seem more homey, I guessed. The sofa looked comfy. I slumped into it. She stared at me.
“I’m sitting,” I said.
She perched next to me, her hands in her lap, and looked evasive. I yawned and then a thought occurred to me.
“How did you find me, Anna?”
“Oh? I asked the robot, and then someone directed me to the duelling ground.”
I sat up straight. ‘Oh, shit, she knows what I am.’
“Funny that I should run into someone who knew you.”
“Funny,” I whispered.
“But you weren’t there, so they sent me over here–”
“You went to the duelling ground?”
‘The place where vampires like to bare their fangs?’
“Yes.”
I stared at her. She looked calm. I had definitely been expecting more drama when Anna found out.
“Oh. Did you see any of the duels?” I asked eventually.
“Ah, no. Why would I? Terrible violent things. I heard them, lots of grunting, but why would I want to watch people pretending to be stabbed? I hung around the edge.”
I slumped back. ‘She doesn’t know.’
“And why would you volunteer to go and practise on your day off?”
“It’s fun.”
She looked around her. “And where’s your gym kit? Did you leave it in his bedroom?” she whispered.
“No,” I whispered back.
“You were jumping around in that pretty dress?”
I pulled at the velvet skirt. “Uh… yeah.”
“Honestly, Clarke!”
“Yeah, well, it was accident
al.”
She shook her head. I yawned again, slumping even further down the sofa so my chin was on my chest and my feet were stretched out so anyone walking past had to step over them.
“Anna, did you want something specific? ’Cos I really gotta get back to my quarters before I fall asleep here.”
“Ah, yes.”
“OK then.”
“Uh, well, you see, I’m doing those orcish lessons for you and I can’t take payment from you. It’s against the regulations–they are very clear on the subject. But I’m in Tortuga and there are so many shops and I have hardly any clothes with me and everything is so expensive, and I definitely will have the money–”
“You want money? Sure.”
“Well, not money, not payment or anything, just a loan. I know that you have more money than me, because you’ve only bought ugly clothes–”
I raised an eyebrow.
“OK, other than that pretty dress and that expensive sword, but you’ve been smuggling, haven’t you?”
I nodded. “It’s been profitable,” I muttered, trying not to picture Bec Ku’s laughing face. “And humiliating.”
“Well, I was thinking of asking for a loan, just because I don’t get my next pay packet for two weeks. We’re probably not going to come back here, and most of the colonies don’t have so many pretty things, but everything’s so expensive here–”
“Anna, Anna.” I waved at her to shut up. “It’s fine.” I yawned and opened my second wallet, too tired to care that I was flashing fifty thousand pelfre at the corridor. Still, there weren’t many people around here. “Here, take ten thou.”
Anna’s eyes went wide. “That’s a lot.” She looked at the rest of the wallet and frowned. “How much have you got there? Forty thousand?”
I shrugged. “Don’t worry about it. You can pay me back whenever. Or you can take it as a gift, ’cos you’ve been really helpful with the orcish. I really appreciate it.” I handed her a wodge of notes. She took them, being rather quiet. “Anna, it’s cool. I don’t mind. Take yourself shopping, buy something nice. You deserve it. Maybe we could go together? I could do with some more tee shirts. But just not now. This afternoon maybe.”
She chewed on her lip. “Clarke, how did you get this money?”
I shrugged.