The Dragon Variation

by Sharon Lee

  "I'm sorry," she managed after a moment. "Hobbs isn't—anybody—really. A figure of speech, like his brother Hobson, who's generally seen offering a choice." She paused, suddenly taken. "Actually, you may know Mr. Hobson. His choice goes like this: Take my terms or take nothing."

  "Hah!" The smile this time was nearer a grin. "We have met." He slid his hand under her elbow, guiding her away from the cold-pad and toward a low building some distance away painted with the Tree-and-Dragon.

  "A car awaits us," he said, "and then we may to Daav. In any case, we should clear the field."

  As was only prudent, Anne thought. The field was a-buzz with activity. Jitney traffic was heavy, racing between cold-pads and the distant bulk of the main garage. Added to the speedy jitneys were fuel trucks, repair rigs, forklifts and ground-tugs, some with ships in tow.

  The Tree-and-Dragon sigil was displayed on every piece of equipment, on every jitney and on several of the ships they passed.

  "All this belongs to—to your clan?" Anne asked around a mounting sense of dismay.

  He glanced up at her. "This is Korval's primary yard in Solcintra," he murmured. "We maintain three others here, and in Chonselta, two."

  It may have been the staggering information that Clan Korval owned no fewer than six spaceship maintenance and repair yards that caused the lapse in her usual vigilance. Or it may have been the realization that rich, the descriptor she had vaguely attached to Er Thom's financial status, so far understated the matter as to be actually misleading.

  Six repair yards, she thought dazedly, allowing herself to be guided through the hurrying traffic. These were not the holdings of a mid-level mercantile clan with a couple near-mythological heroes and a tradeship or two to its credit. This was stupefyingly wealthy, not merely Old House, but High—

  "Er Thom," she began, meaning to demand an exact accounting of Clan Korval's melant'i here and now, before she or her son set foot beyond the repair yard's gate. "Er Thom, just precisely where—"

  "Sparkles!" Shan shouted, snatching his hand free.

  She spun at once, grabbing for him, but he was gone, running as fast as his short legs could carry him, counter-cutting traffic, ignoring the lumbering repair rig entirely.

  "Shannie!" She was moving—was caught, snatched aside with sudden, brusque strength—and a slim figure in a leather jacket was past her, running so quickly he seemed to skim the ground.

  In the path of the rig, Shan stooped, fingers scrabbling at the blast-sealed tarmac. At the machine's crown, Anne saw the driver frantically slapping at his control board, saw the rig slow—not enough, not nearly enough—

  Her terror made the rescue more dramatic than reality, or so Er Thom assured her afterward.

  Truth or overheated imagination, she saw the enormous treads bearing the metal mountain inexorably toward her son, tiny and oblivious to his danger.

  And she saw Er Thom, swift and unhesitating, flash between Shan and the mountain, catch the boy in his arms and roll away in a shoulder-bruising somersault.

  The machine obscured her sight of them for a heart-searing minute, cleared her line of sight and ground, at last, to a halt.

  Er Thom was standing, Shan held tightly in his arms, a new white scar showing on the shoulder of his battered brown jacket.

  "Is he—?" The driver was shaking, braced against the side of his machine. He lifted eyes half-wild with horror in a face the color of yellow mud. "The child, Lady! By the gods, where is the child?"

  "Here." Er Thom walked forward, Shan unnaturally still in his arms, silver eyes stretched wide.

  "Compose yourself," Er Thom told the driver, coolly. "No hurt has been taken."

  The man closed his eyes and leaned weakly back into the side of the machine. Anne saw his throat work, swallowing anguish.

  "Thank gods," he rasped, and abruptly stiffened. Standing away from his support, he made a deep bow that was somewhat marred by his continued trembling.

  "Your lordship."

  "Yes," Er Thom said, in Employer to Employee, which did not, Anne thought, finally getting her legs to move, lend itself to warmth. "You are Dus Tin sig'Eva, are you not?"

  "Yes, sir," the man said, standing stiffly upright.

  Anne made it to Er Thom's side and held out her arms. Shan smiled at her, somewhat unsteadily.

  "Hi, Ma," he whispered. Er Thom never turned his head.

  "You will call for assistance," he was telling Dus Tin sig'Eva, still in the cool tones of Employer to Employee. "When assistance arrives, you will accept the role of passenger back to your station, where you will report this incident to your supervisor. If you feel need of a Healer, that service will be provided you. In any case, you will be given the rest of this shift and all of your next shift off, with pay. It may be advisable for you to retrain on this piece of equipment."

  The man bowed. "Your Lordship," he said, with, Anne thought, staggered relief. Straightening, he turned and swarmed up the ladder into the driver's compartment, to radio for assistance.

  At last, Er Thom turned his head.

  "And now you, my swift one—" he began in Low Liaden.

  Shan shifted sharply in his arms. "Sparkles, Mirada!"

  Er Thom looked grim. "Sparkles, is it?" he said in ominous Terran.

  He swung the child to his feet, keeping a firm grip on one small hand. Anne grabbed the other and held tight. "Show me these sparkles."

  Obediently, Shan marched forward, mother and father in tow. Just two steps from the rear of the repair rig, he stopped and bent his head to point with his nose, since neither parent would relinquish a hand.

  "There!"

  Embedded in the tarmac was a faceted blue gem, sparkling in the brilliant Liaden sunlight.

  "Hah. And are these your usual sparkles or something a bit different, I wonder?"

  Shan blinked, expression doleful. "Sparkles," he repeated, and tried to yank his hand away from Er Thom. "Shan go," he demanded, stamping a foot.

  "Shannie!" Anne said warningly, but Er Thom let the small hand free.

  "Sparkles!" Shan cried, pointing down at the glittering gem. "More sparkles!" His finger stabbed at a point just over Er Thom's bright head. "Ma sparkles! Jerzy sparkles! Rilly! Everywhere sparkles, but not to touch! This sparkle to touch! Touch this, touch more?"

  "Ah." Er Thom went to one knee on the tarmac and looked very earnestly into Shan's face. "Here," he said softly, and to Anne's amazement, pulled off his master trader's ring, the amethyst blazing gloriously purple. "Touch this sparkle, denubia."

  Shan's fist closed greedily around the big gem. Enthralled, Anne knelt on his other side, letting his hand free, but keeping a firm grip on his shoulder.

  "Can you now touch these other sparkles?" Er Thom asked.

  There was a long, charged moment as Shan scanned the blank air above Er Thom's head, and extended a cautious, hungry hand.

  "Nothing," he said, body losing all its unnatural tenseness at once. His eyes filled with tears, but he only shook his head. "Can't touch Mirada."

  "Perhaps when you are older," Er Thom said gently, slipping the ring back onto his finger. "In the meanwhile, you see that there are—different sorts—of sparkles, eh? Those you can touch and those you can only see. Can you remember that?"

  "Yes," Shan told him, utterly certain.

  "Good. Then you must also remember never to run away from your mother again. It was ill-done and caused her pain. This is not how we use our kin, who deserve all of our love and all of our kindness. I am not pleased."

  Shan swallowed hard, eyes filling again. "I'm sorry, Mirada."

  "As is proper, for the fault is yours," Er Thom told him. "But you owe your mother some ease, do you not?"

  Woefully, he turned to Anne. "I'm sorry, Ma."

  "I'm sorry, too, Shannie," she said. "It was bad to run away like that, wasn't it?"

  He nodded, then the tears escaped in a rush and he flung himself into her arms, burying his face against her neck. "I'm sorry, sorry!" he hiccuped, s
obbing with such extravagance that Er Thom began to look alarmed.

  Anne smiled at him and held up a finger.

  "All right," she said, gently rubbing Shan's back, working loose the tight muscles. "I guess that's sorry enough. But you need to do something else for me."

  "What?" Shan asked, raising his sodden face.

  "Promise you won't run away again."

  "I promise," he said and then sighed, tears gone as suddenly as they had appeared. "I won't run away."

  "Good," Anne said and set him back so she could stand, remembering to keep a tight grip on his hand. She glanced over at Er Thom, who had also risen.

  "Why does he cry like that?" he asked, trouble still showing in his eyes.

  Anne grinned. "You can write a note and thank Jerzy. Shan had gotten cranky one day and started to whimper over something and Jerzy told him that if he wanted to be really convincing, he had to project—and proceeded to demonstrate. By the time I came in, the two of them were sitting on the floor in the middle of Jerzy's apartment, holding each other and sobbing their hearts out." She shook her head, suddenly serious.

  "Are you Okay?" she asked, extending a tentative hand and touching his shoulder. "That was quite a tumble."

  "I am fine," he assured her solemnly.

  "Your jacket's gotten scarred," she said, fingering the leather briefly before prudence took her hand away.

  He glanced negligently at the scrape, shoulders moving. "If that is the worst of the matter then we may make our bow to the luck." He reached down and took Shan's hand.

  "In the meanwhile, our car awaits," he said, and led them around the stalled repair rig and away.

  Chapter Seventeen

  The number of High Houses is precisely fifty. And then there is Korval.

  —From the Annual Census of Clans

  THE LANDCAR was low and sleek and surprisingly roomy. Anne leaned back in a passenger's seat adjusted to accommodate her height, Shan dozing on her lap, and watched Solcintra Port flash by.

  She gave an inward sigh of regret for the quickness of the tour as Er Thom guided the car through Port Gate One and into the city proper.

  He glanced over at her, violet eyes serious. "Forgive me my necessity," he murmured, "and allow me to show you the Port another day—soon."

  She blinked, then inclined her head. "Thank you, Er Thom. I'd like that."

  "I, also," he answered and fell silent once more, driving the car with the same effortless efficiency he had demonstrated at the yacht's control board.

  Anne settled against the back of her seat and watched him, content to let Solcintra City slip by with only a few cursory glances. Another day, and she would see it all, immerse herself—safely anchored by Er Thom's melant'i and knowledge—in all the wonder the City of Jewels could muster.

  The car slid effortlessly around a flowered corner, under an ancient archway of shaped stone, negotiated a sweeping curve in a smooth uptake of speed and they were suddenly out of the city and moving through a landscape of plush lawns and wide gardens.

  "Soon now," Er Thom said so softly she might have thought he was speaking to himself, except the words were in Terran.

  The car accelerated once more, lawns and gardens flickering by—and changing. The houses became larger, set further back from the road, some hidden entirely, marked only by gates and driveways.

  Er Thom sent the car right at an abrupt branching of ways. They climbed a sudden hill and a valley stretched before them. At the near end, Anne saw a cluster of trees, glimpsed roof top and chimneys through the leaves.

  On the far side of the valley were more trees and, soaring high into the green-tinged, cloudless sky, a—Tree.

  "What on—?" She sat forward in the seat, earning a sleepy grumble from Shan. "It can't be a tree!"

  "And yet it is a tree," Er Thom said, as the car descended the hill to the valley floor. "Jelaza Kazone, Korval's Tree, which is at the house of my brother, also called Jelaza Kazone."

  Jelaza Kazone, the professorial corner of her mind supplied helpfully, meant "Jela's Peace" or "Jela's Fulfillment." She stared at the impossible tallness of it, and licked lips suddenly gone dry.

  "Who is Jela?" she murmured, barely knowing that she asked the question aloud, so absorbed she was by the Tree itself.

  "Cantra yos'Phelium's partner, all honor to him, who died before the Exodus."

  Anne managed to move her eyes from the Tree—from Jelaza Kazone—to Er Thom's profile. "But—'Jela's Fulfillment'? And he never made it to Liad?"

  "Ah. But it had been Jela's Tree, you know, and he had made her swear to keep it safe."

  "Oh." She eased back slowly, and several minutes passed in silence, until she said: "So the delm is the dragon who guards the Tree—the actual Tree. Your shield isn't an—allegory?"

  "Ale—?" He frowned, puzzlement plain. "Your pardon. It—the delm's instruction, when we were children, was that each of us holds the burden of Cantra's promise, and—should there be but one of Korval alive, the life of that one was only to keep the Tree."

  Anne sighed, slowly, and shook her head. "It's the Tree—Jela's original?"

  "Yes," Er Thom murmured, slowing the car as they approached a cluster of low bushes.

  "That makes it, what? Nine hundred years old?"

  "Somewhat—older, perhaps," he said, flicking a glance at her as he turned into one of those long, mysterious driveways. "We arrive."

  Jelaza Kazone, the house, was two stories high, overhung with a sloping roof. A porch girded the second story; chairs and loungers could be seen here and there.

  It was, Anne thought in relief, a cozy sort of house, with nothing of the mansion about it, never mind that it was big enough to hold seventy apartments the size of her own on University. Perhaps the benign presence of Jelaza Kazone, the Tree, helped make it feel so comfortable.

  For the Tree, pinnacle now lost to her sight, grew out of the center of the house.

  Questioned, Er Thom told her that the house had been built piece-by-piece as the clan grew, until it now surrounded the Tree on all sides.

  "My rooms are—were—on the second story, facing the inner court, where the Tree is." The car glided to a soundless stop and Er Thom made several quick adjustments, before turning in his seat to look at her.

  "The delm will—very soon—See our child and the clan will rejoice," he said earnestly, taking her hand in his and looking up into her eyes. "Anne. If there is—a thing in your heart—you—are welcomed—to lay it before Korval for—for solving." The pressure of his fingers on hers was hard, nearly painful, and she had the impression he was striving to impart information of paramount importance.

  "It is known—forgive me!—that you have none to speak on your behalf. We would not—wish to be—backward—in service to—to the guest." He drew a deep breath and released her hands, looking doubtfully into her eyes.

  "I mean no insult, Anne."

  "No, of course not," she said gently, while her mind raced. Traditionally, delms solved—spoke for—those of their own clan. For Delm Korval to be willing to speak for someone outside his clan—and a Terran besides!—was something rather extraordinary. Anne inclined her head deeply.

  "I am—disarmed—by Korval's graciousness," she said carefully. "You do me great honor. I will not hesitate to bring any worthy matter to the delm's attention."

  Er Thom's face relaxed into a smile.

  "That is good, then," he said, and glanced down at Shan. "Now, we must wake this sleepy one and take him within."

  MASTER DAAV, the stately individual who answered the door-summons informed Er Thom with precision, was in the Inner Court. If the lord and lady and young sir would follow, please?

  They did, down a well-lit, wood-paneled hallway, footsteps muffled on bright, thick carpet, past closed doors with ancient china knobs set in the centers. Even Shan seemed awed, and kept close to Anne's side, his fingers clutching at hers.

  Rounding a corner, they went down a slightly narrower hall that ended in a g
lass door. Their guide opened the door with a flourish and bowed them into the Inner Court.

  Anne went three steps into the garden and stopped, blinking at the profusion of flowers and shrubs, the riot of bird song and the flutter of jewel-colored insects.

  Er Thom continued across the silky grass, glancing this way and that among the unruly flowers.

  "Well met, brother!" a cheery voice called from no particular direction.

  Er Thom stopped, head tipped to one side. "Daav?"

  "Who else? Had you a good trip?"

  "Smooth and easy." Er Thom approached the monumental Tree, and lay his palm flat against the silvery trunk as he peered upward into the branches. "It is difficult to converse when I cannot see you."

  "Easily solved. Climb yourself up."

  "Might you not climb yourself down?" Er Thom inquired. "There are others present and matters that require your attention."

  "Ah. You see how it is, brother: My manners have atrophied utterly in your absence."

  "Will you climb down?" Er Thom demanded, a curious mix of laughter and frustration in his voice. Anne drifted closer, Shan silent and alert at her side.

  "I will, indeed," said the Tree cheerfully. "Have a care, denubia, and stand away. It would not do for me to fall on you."

  There was remarkably little movement among the silent broad leaves. When the lithe dark man dropped from the branches, it was as if he were part of a conjuror's trick: Now you see him . . .

  "So then." He grinned at Er Thom and opened his arms, heedless of the twig caught in his hair and the smear of green across one wide, white sleeve.

  Without hesitation, Er Thom went forward and the two embraced, cheek to cheek.

  "Welcome home, darling," the dark-haired man said, his words in Low Liaden carrying clearly to Anne. "You were missed."

  The embrace ended and Er Thom stepped back, though his cha'leket kept a light hand on his shoulder, thumb rubbing the new scar on the leather jacket.

  "Perilous journey, Pilot?"

  "A tumble at the Port," Er Thom returned calmly. "Nothing to signify."

  "Hah. But there are others present and matters that require my attention—or so recent rumor sings me! Lead on, brother; I am entirely at your disposal."