The Dragon Variation

by Sharon Lee

  "ARE YOU MAD?" Rema hissed into Var Mon's ear. "To set her against Vin Sin chel'Mara—"

  "My dear comrade, I didn't set her against my lord, she set herself. Where's the harm?"

  "You ask that, when you saw him ruin Lyn Den? What if she should lose, tipsy as she is?"

  "She's winning and you know it. I can almost see where that line of play is going, and you're quicker than I am. Where is she going, Rema?"

  "I—am not certain."

  "But she's winning."

  "Perhaps."

  "No perhaps about it," Var Mon asserted, eyes on the fall of the cards. "You don't see it and I don't see it, but Scholar Caylon sees it—and it's her board." He paused as Aelliana took a trick, then continued, softly.

  "As for being tipsy—look at her! She looks as she does when she lectures—I should be so cool when I sit to Jump!"

  "If he should take exception . . ."

  "The cameras are on it," Var Mon told her. "The Scholar's line is fair—she's got the pattern and she's got the break-key, even if her students are too stupid to see it. How can he take exception to a fair line? Stop fretting."

  THE TEMPO CHANGED shortly after the Scout's three cantra entered the game.

  It was as if, yo'Vaade thought, the mouse had at last found the path she had been seeking, though her previous play had in no way been marred by hesitation.

  Now she played with a surety that was awesome to behold, calling the cards to her hand like kin. It took less than an hour for all the coins to cross back over the line, until it was seven on her side and the keys alone, and chel'Mara bidding a Clan Royale.

  It was what all the rest had been building toward—this last hand, this locking of wills. The crowd held its breath, and yo'Vaade held his. chel'Mara's face was seen to be damp. The mouse sat cool as water ice, cards a smooth fan between quiet fingers, and called for her seconds.

  "Scout's Progress," she announced in that surprisingly clear voice, which was esoteric enough, surely, but no match for a Clan Royale. One by one, she lay the cards out, face up for all to see, and looked over to chel'Mara.

  "Ah." He sighed, and a great tension seemed to go out of him all at once, so that yo'Vaade began to feel sorry for the poor, valiant mouse.

  chel'Mara's cards came down in a practiced sweep, face up for all to see: Delm, Nadelm, Thodelm, A'thodelm, Master Trader . . .

  "Ship," the crowd whispered among itself. "He's missing the Ship. A broken run . . . The lady wins . . ."

  "The lady wins," Vin Sin chel'Mara announced, loud enough to be heard in the far corners of the room. He snapped his fingers. "Bring a port-comm!"

  "A port-comm!" the crowd babbled. "A port-comm for Lord chel'Mara!"

  It came and he tapped in one sequence, then another, and looked over to his erstwhile opponent, who was staring down at her run as if she had never seen cards before.

  "Your name?" he inquired neutrally and when she looked up with a start, explained with overdone patience: "In order to change the registration of the ship, I will need to file your name as new owner."

  "Oh," she said, and picked up the keys to frown at before replying. "Aelliana Caylon Clan Mizel."

  There was a flutter of something through the crowd at that, and yo'Vaade considered the taste of the name. It meant nothing to him: it obviously meant nothing to chel'Mara. Behind the mouse's chair, the Scouts preserved attitudes of silent attention.

  chel'Mara had recourse to the port-comm's keyboard, finished his entry, tapped the send key and lay the comm aside. He came to his feet and stood gazing down at the mouse. The look in his eyes, thought yo'Vaade, was not good. Not at all good.

  "The ship is called Ride the Luck," he said. "It is kept at Binjali Repair Shop, Solcintra Port. Ownership entire remits to you at Solcintra dawn. I shall require the hours between to remove my personal effects." He bowed, low and mocking. "I wish you joy of your winnings, Lady Mouse," he said softly.

  He turned to go, his eye falling on sig'Andir, who was openly smiling. "Satisfied, sir?" he purred and waited until the smile died and all color drained from the boy's face before he swept away through the crowd, toward the lounge-room and the bar.

  "GOOD EVENING, JON."

  The man at the desk finished writing out his line before glancing up. As it happened, he needed to glance up quite a way, he being seated and his visitor being somewhat above the average height, for a Liaden male.

  He was also dressed in work leathers, his hands innocent of rank ring, which meant High House gossip was not the purpose of this visit. The spirited dark hair was neatly confined in a tail that hung below his shoulders; from his right ear dangled the twisted silver loop he had earned from the headwoman of the Mun.

  He bowed, Student to Master, and straightened; the glow off the desk lamp underlit his sharp-featured face, throwing the black eyes into shadow.

  "I need work," he said, speaking in Comrade mode, which was how they always spoke at Binjali's.

  "Hah." Jon rubbed his nose. "Happens we have work." He jerked his head at the window and the repair bays beyond. "Go on out and call yourself to Trilla's attention."

  "Thank you."

  Another bow and he was gone, walking with a Scout's silent stride, melting out of the light as if he had never been. A moment later, Jon saw him crossing the bay, lifting a hand toward Trilla on the platform. The office noise-proofing was top-grade, so he missed the shout that must have accompanied the gesture. But he saw Trilla wave back and the flicker of hand talk: come on up.

  Needed work, did he? Jon thought, between a grin and a worry. He sighed and returned to his papers.

  "MAY I WORK AGAIN tomorrow?"

  Jon deliberately finished cleaning his hands, shook the rag and hung it back on its nail.

  "We're open to casual labor. You know that."

  "Yes. I only wanted to be certain I would not be—inconvenient."

  "Inconvenient." Jon grinned, reached out and caught the younger man's elbow, turning him toward the so-called crew's lounge. "Let's have a cup of tea. I'll ask some nosy questions, you'll snatch what remains of my hair from over my ears and we'll part friends, eh?"

  The other laughed, a rich, full sound that had pulled Jon dea'Cort's mouth into a grin from the very first time he'd heard it.

  "A bargain," he cried and appeared to sober abruptly, glancing sideways from glinting black eyes. "How old is the tea, I wonder?"

  "Must be six, seven hours old by now," Jon admitted without shame.

  "Perfect."

  A few moments later they were both seated on rickety stools. In addition to tea, Jon had helped himself to the last of the stale pastries and was busily dunking it into the depths of his mug.

  "How is it, Master Jon, that the mugs never melt?"

  "Had 'em made special out of blast glass," Jon returned and disposed of his soggy sweet in two bites. He took a scalding swallow of bad tea and threw his former student a stern look.

  "They don't keep you busy enough out in Dragon's Valley, Captain?"

  "Alas, they keep me out of reason busy," came the reply. "I swear to you, Master Jon, if I am required to speak to one more Liaden I shall either go mad or strangle him."

  Jon laughed. "Spoken like a true Scout! But the fact of the matter is that you're too important a man to either go mad or take it upon yourself to strangle the bulk of the population. Not," he admitted around another gulp of tea, "that most of 'em wouldn't be better for a throttling. But it's out of Code, child: the natives are likely to take issue."

  "Understood. And so I ask for work."

  "I can give you work. But I'd like to know you're not turning your face from matters needing your attention. There are those things, as we all learn in Basic, that only you can do, Captain. Leave them aside and the world could be a lot worse."

  "You terrify me."

  "Some respect for your elder, if you please. I can give you work, but is work what you need?"

  The other man sipped gingerly at his mug, screwing up his fac
e in comic distaste. "Magnificent," he pronounced, and gave Jon dea'Cort all his black eyes.

  "My brother," he murmured, "falls just short of suggesting we remove to New Dublin."

  "It delights me to hear your honored kin has, however late in life, come into his heritage," Jon returned with a touch of acid. "Had he anything useful to suggest?"

  "You are severe. Yes, something useful."

  "But you'll see me damned before you tell me what it was," Jon said comfortably. He finished his tea and rose to transfer the dregs from the pot to his mug.

  "All right," he said, resettling on his stool. "You need work, I've got work. Casual schedule; call if you're expected and something forestalls you. But if your self-healing hasn't earned out in a relumma, I will cease to have work, young Captain, and I would then strongly suggest—as a comrade—that you visit the Healers."

  "A relumma should be more than sufficient to relocate center. I thank you." The younger man stood, poured his tea down the sink, washed out the mug and put it to drain.

  "Until tomorrow, Master Jon."

  "Until tomorrow, child. Be well."

  Chapter Seven

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

  —From the Annual Census of Clans

  "WHAT LONG-STANDING debt?" Aelliana demanded of a grinning Var Mon as they left the card room.

  "Why, only the honor of being allowed to sit at the feet of Aelliana Caylon for an entire semester and catch the jewels as they fell from her lips!" He stopped to bow, coincidentally disrupting the flow of traffic between the card room and the music lounge.

  Aelliana frowned. "You are absurd."

  "Not to say impertinent," Rema put in, adding a rider to her comrade in a flutter of finger-talk. To Aelliana's eyes, it seemed a list: Twelve variations on the sign for idiot. Var Mon laughed.

  "You will be very well served if Scholar Caylon pockets your three cantra and says no more," Rema scolded audibly. "How will you come about then?"

  "Indeed, no," Aelliana said hastily; "I do not wish to keep Var Mon's money. But it is ill-done to say you are repaying a debt when it is no such thing!"

  There was a moment of complete silence, her companions staring at her from rounded eyes.

  "Chastised," Var Mon murmured.

  "Justly," returned his partner. "Local custom."

  "Exactly so." He bowed once more, taking care not to discommode others nearby. "I ask your forgiveness, Scholar," he said in the mode of Lesser-to-Greater, which was the High Tongue and not a quiver of merriment to be heard. "You are gracious to illuminate my error."

  Aelliana considered him, suspecting a joke. The boy's face showed nothing but serious courtesy, and perhaps a touch of anxiety. His three cantra were safe in her right hand, mingling with the jeweled chain and the keys to—the keys to her ship.

  "You knew that lordship," she said abruptly.

  Surprise showed at the corners of his face. "I know his name," he allowed, still in Lesser-to-Greater, "and his reputation."

  "Vin Sin chel'Mara," Rema murmured, "Clan Aragon."

  Aelliana sighed. She had learned, as any child, the rhymes for Clans and Sigils, Houses and Tasks. But childhood was many years gone and her general grasp of such matters fell far short of the knowledge held by one who moved in the world.

  "High House?" was the best she could hazard now, looking at Rema.

  The Scout blinked. "Not so high as Korval," she said slowly.

  But this was merely a quibble. Who in all the world outranked the Dragon? Even Aelliana knew the answer was, none.

  "I—see," she said, the keys hot in her hand.

  "The play was clean." That was Var Mon. "We were surrounded by those who know their cards, and the house camera, beside." He grinned, irrepressible boy bursting free of the solemn gentleman he had been a moment before.

  "Scholar Caylon, you don't say the game was false?"

  "The game was entirely true," she said tartly. "Nor was it at all necessary for you to offer your cantra. His lordship's line was irretrievably flawed." She held out the coins in question. "I thank you for your aid, though it was in no way required."

  "Ouch," said Var Mon mildly, and took his money with a bow.

  * * *

  AELLIANA SHIFTED IN the pulldown tucked between the pilots' stations and inner hatch, and considered her circumstances.

  It would appear that she was, in unlikely truth, the owner of a spaceship, which she was even now on her way to inspect.

  She closed her eyes, feeling how quick her heart beat. She owned a spaceship; possibilities proliferated.

  If it was, as she suspected, a rich man's toy, she would contrive, discreetly, to sell, thus ensuring outpassage and a stake upon which to build her new life.

  If, against all expectation, Ride the Luck was a working class ship, she would—

  She would keep it.

  A pilot-owner might find work anywhere, she was tied to no single world. A pilot-owner need owe none, was owned by no one.

  A pilot-owner was—free. Alone, independent, autonomous, sovereign . . . Aelliana leaned back in the pulldown chair, stomach cramped with longing.

  If Ride the Luck was a working ship . . .

  Of course, pilot-owners held piloting licenses, which Aelliana Caylon did not. The life she so avidly envisioned required she be nothing less than a Jump pilot.

  "Asleep, Scholar?" Var Mon's voice broke in upon these rather lowering considerations.

  "Not entirely," she replied, and heard Rema, at first board, chuckle.

  "Good," Var Mon said, unruffled. "We set down in three minutes, unless Rema forgets her protocols. I'll conduct you to Binjali's, if you wish, and make you known to Master dea'Cort."

  Aelliana opened her eyes. "Thank you," she said, as a flutter of her stomach reported the ship was losing altitude. "I would welcome the introduction."

  "MASTER JON! Joy to you, sir!" Var Mon strode into the center of the repair bay, head up and voice exuberant.

  Aelliana, trailing by several steps, saw a stocky figure come to the edge of shadow cast by a work-lift, casually wiping its hands on a faded red rag.

  "I'm not lending you another cantra, you scoundrel," the figure said sourly, for all the mode was Comrade. "What's more, you're due in Comparative Cultures in twenty minutes and I'll not have it said I was responsible for keeping you beyond time."

  "Not a bit of it," Var Mon cried, apparently not at all put out by this rather surly welcome. He reached into his pouch and danced into the shadow. Grasping a newly-cleaned hand, he deposited two gleaming coins on the broad palm and closed the fingers tight.

  "Debt paid!" he said gaily and spun, bowing with a flourish that called attention to Aelliana, hesitating yet between light and shadow.

  "Master Jon, I bring you Aelliana Caylon, owner of Ride the Luck. Scholar Caylon, Master Jon dea'Cort, owner of Binjali Repair Shop."

  "Caylon?" Master dea'Cort at last stepped forward into the light, revealing a man well past middle years, sturdy rather than stout, his hair a close-clipped strip of rusty gray about four of her slender fingers wide. Eyes the color of old amber looked into her face with the directness of a Scout.

  "Scholar Aelliana Caylon," he asked, big voice pitched gently, though he still spoke in Comrade mode, "revisor of the ven'Tura Tables?"

  She inclined her head, and answered in Adult-to-Adult. "It is kind of you to recall."

  "Recall! How might I—or any pilot!—forget?" He bowed then, distressingly low—the bow of Esteem for a Master—and straightened with his hand over his heart.

  "Scholar, you honor my establishment. How I may be allowed to serve you?"

  Aelliana raised her hand to ward the reverence in the old man's voice. To know her as the revisor of one of the most important of a pilot's many tools—that was grace, though not entirely unexpected. Jon dea'Cort had undoubtedly been a Scout in former years and Aelliana strongly suspected his "master" derived from "master pilot."

&n
bsp; "Please, sir," she said, hearing how breathless her voice sounded. "You do me overmuch honor. Indeed, it is not at all—" Here she hesitated, uncertain how she might proceed with her disclaimer, without calling the master's melant'i into question.

  "Var Mon, are you here, you young rakehell?" the old man snarled over his shoulder.

  "Aye, Master Jon!"

  "Then jet, damn you—and mind you're on time for class!"

  "Aye, Master Jon! Good-day to you, Scholar. Until Trilsday-noon!"

  Var Mon was gone, running silently past Aelliana's shoulder. She heard nothing, then a whine and sigh as the crew door cycled.

  "So." Jon dea'Cort smiled, waking wrinkles at eye-corners and mouth. "You were about to tell me that I do you too much honor. How much honor should I lay at the feet of the scholar responsible for preserving the lives of half-a-thousand pilots?"

  "Half-a—oh, but that's averaged over the years since publication, of course." Aelliana looked down, tongue-tied and graceless as ever when dealing outside the familiar role of teacher-to-student.

  "You must understand," she told her boot-toes. She cleared her throat. "The tables were in need of revision and I was able to undertake the project. To recall my name as the one who did the work—that is kind. But, you must understand, to offer such honor to one who merely—" She faltered, hands twisting about each other.

  "I teach math," she finished, lamely.

  There was a short silence, before Jon dea'Cort spoke, voice matter-of-fact in Comrade mode.

  "Well, nothing wrong with that, is there? I taught piloting, myself, and to such a thankless pack of puppies as I hope you'll never see!"

  Aelliana glanced up, hair swinging around her face. "You are a master pilot."

  "Right enough. Most of us are, hereabout." He tipped his balding head to one side, offering another smile. "What might I do for you, math teacher?"

  She lowered her eyes, refusing the smile as she refused Comrade mode.

  "I had come to inspect Ride the Luck, of which I am owner."

  "So my problem-child said," Jon dea'Cort said placidly. "I hadn't known Ride the Luck was for sale."