Crystal Dragon

by Sharon Lee

  "I will," tay'Welford said, keeping his voice serious and soft, "take the matter to the Governors, colleague. It may be that protocol was breached."

  "That's very well, then," sniffed vel'Anbrek.

  "You would say," Scholar tay'Nordif murmured, "if I understand you, Scholar—that Scholar chi'Farlo felt the Prime—past-Prime! Your pardon, Prime tay'Welford!—would be physically unable to withstand her, and so issued a spurious challenge?"

  "A light-minded challenge, let us say," vel'Anbrek answered. "But, yes, you have the essence of it, Scholar. And since it was clearly her wish to rise to Prime—which I do not scruple to tell you she could not have done on the strength of her scholarship—plain logic dictates that she would soon have launched the same sort of attack at tay'Welford here, from her position as Second Chair."

  "It seems," Maelyn tay'Nordif protested, "a very risky business, Scholar. How if she were found out?"

  "But she was found out, was she not?" dea'San said briskly. "The challenge fell to tay'Palin." She fixed vel'Anbrek in a stern eye. "The system works. Though it does occasionally allow for certain ...untidiness, balance is eventually restored."

  "Yes, of course," said tay'Nordif, "but—"

  The bell rang, and tay'Welford stepped forward with a smile to offer his arm to dea'San, leaving tay'Nordif to share the meal with vel'Anbrek, much joy she might have of him.

  * * *

  JELA'S 'BOTS AND seekers had been busy while he'd been fetching and carrying and seeing bloody murder done. He therefore immersed himself, sitting on the floor next to the tree, eating a second seed pod, absently, and a third after it hit his knee a little harder than local gravity could answer for.

  The cat had come by again and stuck its nose once between him and his portable array. He pushed it—gently—away, and it took itself out of his sight and consciousness.

  What he was looking for was the safe-place where Liad dea'Syl stored his equations. He had been forced to make certain broad assumptions in his instructions to his constructs. The quick recon tour he'd taken of the data banks last night had revealed the not-exactly-surprising information that there were many fortified areas within the Osabei Tower architecture. The challenge had then been to build his seekers clever enough to eliminate all but the most likely lockups. He'd at least built them clever enough to move within the Tower brain without lighting any alarms; and they'd also managed to amass a tidy list of six possibles.

  The rest of the finicky, risky work was his to do.

  He eliminated two of the six before he noticed the timer light blinking insistently at the bottom of the screen. Quickly, he broke the array down, stowed the pieces in the tree's pot, leaned against the wall and became a napping kobold.

  No sooner had he closed his eyes than the door chuckled and opened. He heard Scholar tay'Nordif's firm steps, quickly followed by her sharp voice.

  "Jela! Open your eyes and rise!"

  He did so, in a kobold hurry, which was none too quick, taking care not to crush the Tower servitor who stood just inside the door, a basket held in both of her tiny hands.

  "Give the basket to my servant," the Scholar directed the Small, and to him, "Jela! Receive the basket and take it to the kitchen." The exchange made, the scholar waved an imperious hand. "You may go."

  The blind servant bowed, turned and exited, silent on tiny, bare feet. Behind her, the door closed, and the scholar stepped forward to seal it while Jela carried the basket into the galley and put it on the counter next to the bowl of water he had drawn for the cat. The animal itself didn't come immediately to sight, and the bowl appeared to be untouched.

  Looking into the basket, he saw it full of sealed food packets, not unlike single-rations. Cat food, he surmised, and wondered again where the cat was, which a kobold would not ever wonder, and so he did not look around for it.

  "Jela!" Scholar tay'Nordif snapped. "Open a single packet and place it on the counter by the water dish."

  He did this while she walked toward the larger room, voicing "s-s-s-s-s," and then exclaiming in warm, pleased tones, "There you are, clever fellow! I'm pleased to see you making yourself at home. I will be wanting that chair directly, however, and you, I believe, will be wanting your supper."

  Jela kept his eyes on the business of unfolding the ration pack into a bowl and spreading the lips wide. He heard the scholar's light-but-not-light-enough steps approach, smelled Cantra's scent over the strong odor of the cat's meal.

  "Stand back, Jela," the scholar directed him, and he did what he was told, as she slid the cat smoothly from her arm to the counter, its nose pointed at the food.

  The orange tail twitched, the ears flicked—and the cat was at once wholly occupied with its dinner, like any good soldier at mess. Jela dared to look up and observed a smile upon the face of his mistress—a fond and slightly foolish smile, which chilled him to the core, it was so unlike any expression he had ever seen on Cantra yos'Phelium's features.

  The eyes moved from the cat to himself, and hardened in an instant. "Jela!" she snapped. "Put the sealed packets—neatly—on the lowest shelf of the middle cabinet. When the basket is empty, place it by the door."

  Ordered, he obeyed. The scholar watched the cat for a few heartbeats more, then he heard her move back across the room to her workstation.

  He finished stocking the cabinet, and turned, basket in hand. The ration pack was empty, the cat vanished again. She hadn't told him to clean up the animal's mess, so he passed it by to place the basket, as directed, next to the door.

  "What shall I call you?" the scholar inquired, in a high, foolish voice.

  Jela turned, slowly, and found her sitting on the chair, cat on her lap, tickling it under its chin. The cat, far from displaying predator-like behavior and having off with her hand, expressed every indication of ecstasy, its eyes slitted and its mouth half-open in pleasure.

  "Perhaps," Scholar tay'Nordif said dreamily, "the simple name is best, eh? After all, as the great bin'Arli teaches us, it is neither name nor house which makes fair fortune. Therefore, you are now and shall henceforth be—Lucky."

  The cat purred, loudly, and the scholar chuckled fondly. Jela, his tasks complete, stood next to the door, hoping that she'd notice soon and order him to do something, or else go to sleep so that he could continue with his—

  "Ah, what gossip we had at the common gather this evening, Lucky! Truly, you would be horrified to learn how scholars do gossip—but no! You have been employed by a scholar, have you not? You will therefore perhaps not be surprised to hear that Scholar vel'Anbrek believes Prime tay'Welford engineered not only today's proving, but a number of previous challenges made against the work of the previous Prime. Scholar vel'Anbrek believes—ah! not in so many words, you understand; he has not survived so long under walls because he is an idiot, I think—Scholar vel'Anbrek believes that Prime tay'Welford wishes harm to our beloved Master dea'Syl. Is that not diverting, Lucky?"

  The cat yawned, widely. The scholar laughed, scooped it off her lap and dropped it lightly to the floor as she came to her feet.

  "Well, to bed, I believe, so that I am alert for tomorrow's labors!" Without a glance or a glimmer toward the door, where Jela still waited in hope of an order, she stripped off the robe and bundled it untidily onto the shelf that held the half-unpacked travel bag. She kicked off her slippers, pulled a blanket from the storage cabinet and lay down on her cot.

  "Jela," she said. "Dim the light and go to sleep."

  Bring the lights down, he did, and returned to his place beneath the tree. He waited until the rhythm of her breathing told him that she was asleep before he pulled his equipment from its cache and commenced in again to work.

  He roused once, when a seed pod pounced off of his knee, and paused long enough to eat it, sending a silent thanks to the tree. He roused a second time, briefly, when the scholar shifted in her sleep; and a third time, when the cat tried to lay across his array.

  And some time just before the end of the scholar's
sleep shift, he hid his equipment, settled back against the wall and considered two data points.

  One, if Liad dea'Syl's work was locked inside the Osabei data bank, it was well-hidden indeed.

  Two, he had the location of Muran's damn' planet-shield, that Commander Ro Gayda had ordered him, as his last mission, to procure for the troop.

  Nine

  Osabei Tower

  Landomist

  "Business on Landomist?" The clerk cast a bored glance over his license, and ran it through the reader.

  "I carry data for a scholar seated at Osabei Tower," Tor An said steadily. His shoulder—where he had been shot—hurt in good earnest now, and his thoughts had an alarming tendency to wander. He had dosed himself with antibiotics from the ship's kit, and rewrapped the wound tightly enough that his second-best trading jacket—a hand-me-down from Cor Win and thus a little large—fit over the additional bulk of the dressing.

  "Projected length of stay?" the clerk asked.

  Until Landomist is consumed by the calamity which has overtaken my—- He caught the response before it got off the end of his tongue and substituted, "Much depends upon the scholar. It may be that I will be required for interpretation..."

  The reader chimed and spat out a datastrip. Bored, the clerk ran it through another reader. This one ejected a pale blue tile with the pictograph for "visitor" 'scribed on its surface. She handed it, with his license, to Tor An.

  "You are granted temporary residency for thirty-six local days," she said, her eyes pointed somewhere over his head. "The tile's inclusions degrade at a certain rate. At eighteen local days, its color will phase to red. At the beginning of the thirty-sixth day, it will begin to blink. At the end of the thirty-sixth day, it will phase to black. The mechanism is extremely efficient, however it is well to arrange to be on your transport before the final hour. If you are required to remain longer than the standard thirty-six day allowance granted by the Portmaster's mercy, Osabei Tower must needs request that this office extend your term."

  "I am grateful," Tor An said, slipping his license away into its private pocket with a frisson of relief. The tile, he placed in a more public pocket, in case he should need to produce it upon demand.

  "Enjoy-your-stay-on-Landomist," the clerk said, and turned away before she had done speaking.

  * * *

  "You wished to see me, Prime Chair?"

  tay'Welford looked up from his screen with a smile.

  "Scholar tay'Nordif. Thank you for coming to me so promptly, and believe that I am deeply grieved that it is become necessary to interrupt you in the pursuit of your work. Please sit down."

  She took the chair he indicated, and sat with her hands folded primly in her lap. Her color had not improved over last evening, and overall she seemed a bit ...rumpled.

  "Did you rest well, Scholar?" he asked, noting her condition with concern. "I do hope you find your quarters comfortable."

  She blinked and rallied somewhat. "My quarters are more than adequate, I thank you, Prime Chair. As to my rest—on the frontier I was accustomed to sleep in whatever conditions were most safe, which did not—as I am certain you recall!—always equate with 'most comfortable.'"

  "I am delighted that the quarters please; we do tend to forget the privations we suffered for our art when we Wandered, working safe here behind walls as we do." He folded his hands atop his desk and considered her. "I do not wish to be forward, Scholar, but I hope you will allow me to say that—witnessing one's first proving is a powerful thing. Such a proving as was undertaken yesterday—that is rare, indeed, and more powerful than most. I was unsettled for several days following the first proving I witnessed within these hallowed walls, and it was the veriest street brawl compared to what we were honored to see yesterday."

  Scholar tay'Nordif was looking over his right shoulder, her eyes unfocused, and her face slack. Assuming that she was once again relieving Prime tay'Palin's glorious defense, he allowed her a few heartbeats for reverie before clearing his throat.

  So intent had she been on the glories of the past, that even that slight noise caused her to start in the chair, her gaze snapping back to his face.

  "Your—pardon, Prime," she said rather breathlessly. "My thoughts were elsewhere."

  "Surely, surely." He smiled, projecting calmness. The scholar shifted in her chair, smoothing her robe with fingers that were not quite steady.

  "But," tay'Welford said, and she jumped again at the sudden syllable, "I had promised not to keep you long from your work! Let us address my topic, if you are willing."

  "Certainly," she said again, refolding her hands tightly onto her lap.

  "Well, then, I will not conceal that your arrival here—the only one of the Master's own students to reach us—has excited the interest of the Board of Governors. You are called to stand before them two days hence, immediately following the Day Bell. They will wish to ask you certain questions."

  He had not thought it possible for Scholar tay'Nordif's face to pale further. Her hands gripped each other so tightly that the knuckles showed white.

  "Questions?" she said faintly.

  "Indeed." He looked at her with concern. "Are you quite well, Scholar?"

  "Yes, of course. It is only—the Board of Governors! What can they possibly wish to ask me?"

  "Various things, which seem good to them." He extended a hand and tapped his work screen. "As Prime Chair of our department, I have called you here to put some questions of my own, so that a preliminary report may be sent to the Governors and to the Master. It is the duty of the department to provide the answers to such rudimentary questions." He bent to his screen—and looked up, rueful.

  "What am I thinking! There was more—a very great honor for you, Scholar! Master dea'Syl himself will be present during your examination by the Board. Surely, it must be a moment of transcendent joy, to behold once again the face of your master."

  "Ah," said Scholar tay'Nordif, in a strangled voice. "Indeed."

  This seemed rather ...subdued for a paroxysm of joy, and tay'Welford waited politely, in case there should be more. However, it appeared that this was the sum total of joyous amazement Scholar tay'Nordif intended to express. tay'Welford cleared his throat, murmured, "Just so," and turned again to his screen.

  "Were you acquainted with any other of the Master's students?" he asked, eyes on the screen.

  Silence.

  He looked up. "Scholar tay'Nordif," he said, sharply. "Pray attend me now. Were you acquainted with any other of Master dea'Syl's students? After all, it is not unusual for Wanderers to form alliances 'mong themselves, to travel and study together for a time."

  Scholar tay'Nordif shifted in her chair. "I... knew the others but slightly," she murmured. "From the first, I felt that the Master's core assumptions carried a flaw. The others, therefore, did not welcome me among them."

  There was a spike of old anger, there, which tay'Welford found gratifying.

  "How long," he asked, "did you study with Master dea'Syl?"

  A short pause, then—"Only—only a short time. Perhaps—no longer than three months of the Common Calendar."

  tay'Welford frowned. "You studied with him for so short a time—and in addition found his work to be flawed—yet you name yourself his student?"

  She glared at him indignantly. "Indeed, I do. How else? Liad dea'Syl's work shaped my own. Were it not necessary to prove those core assumptions false, and to provide truth in their stead, my scholarship would have been broad, yet shapeless."

  "I...see. So the sum total of your work as a Wanderer was to disprove the work of the scholar you claim as your master?"

  Scholar tay'Nordif frowned, stung, perhaps by his disbelieving tone. "You have seen my work, Prime Chair," she said stiffly. "I made no secret regarding the coin I offered the Tower in return for a seat."

  "Indeed," tay'Welford said, turning away from his screen to face her more fully. "I have seen your work, Scholar. In fact, I have perused it in some little detail, as my ow
n work has allowed, and it grieves me to state that—while interesting, it is somewhat light of proof. You elucidate the 'reformation' of a single system—but are these results reproducible, Scholar?"