The Dragon Variation

by Sharon Lee

  The number of guests for a gathering such as this, falling between offer and final signing, might with perfect propriety be kept to a dozen, but very few of those dozen had best be Korval's kin or Bindan's.

  Korval's allies, that was something else.

  In the end, he had Er Thom and Anne, for his own comfort; Guayar and Lady yo'Lanna, for the comfort of Bindan's ambition. To leaven the loaf, he called upon Thodelms Hae Den pen'Evrit Clan Yron and Dema Wespail Clan Chad, pilots both, and keepers of secondary lines in mid-level Houses long tied to Korval with the threads of trade and ships.

  Dutiful Passage being at the moment in port, he invited sensible Kayzin ne'Zame—Er Thom's first mate, and another with long ties to Korval—finishing the list with two representatives of port merchant families—Gus Tav bel'Urik and Len Sar Anaba, clans Shelart and Gabrian, respectively.

  The gather had begun well. The guests had arrived and been made known to each other. Wine had been served, conversations had begun and then Guayar had prettily—not to say, audibly—complimented Anne on the process of her thought and begged that she do him the favor of endorsing his copy of her book.

  "I should certainly be delighted to do so, sir," Anne said properly, and Guayar bowed, hand over heart.

  "I am in your debt." He turned to Bindan. "Have you yet had the opportunity to read Lady yos'Galan's work?" he inquired, which was, Daav thought, really too bad of him. He had put his coin on Lady yo'Lanna, Guayar's sister, that she would be equal to stemming just such a start, but she was across the room, speaking with Kayzin ne'Zame and Merchant bel'Urik.

  Bindan bowed with only a trace of stiffness. "Alas, sir, circumstance has not yet permitted me this pleasure."

  "It is an excellent work," Guayar said. "I cannot praise it too highly. You must assuredly obtain a copy and read it."

  "Indeed, ma'am, you must not encourage him to prate on about books!" Lady yo'Lanna reproved with mock severity, swooping into the conversation amid an aggression of scented draperies. "He will have you here all night and well past tomorrow morning's meal if you give him the least excuse! Do you admire flowers at all? I confess to a passion. Walk with me to the window, do. There is the most exquisite bank of gloan-roses! I was only just now saying to Master pel'Urik . . ."

  Chattering, she bore Bindan off. Er Thom moved over to engage Guayar's attention and Daav allowed himself an internal sigh of relief before returning his attention to the discussion nearer at hand.

  The topic was the most efficient coil-to-mass configuration in Class C Jump ships and his conversational partners—pilots tel'Izak and pen'Evrit—were so absorbed by it that neither had noted his momentary lapse of attention, or, he fervently hoped, Guayar's bit of mischief.

  "And I tell you, sirs," Samiv tel'Izak was saying, with rather more spirit than Daav had heretofore observed in her, "had we not that autonomous tertiary system, we might yet be in Jump this evening. The matter ran that near the edge of irrecoverable."

  "Yes, but, ma'am, you speak only to one case," pen'Evrit objected. "How often, in truth, is the third—never say the fourth!—system called into use? Certainly, in the case of a liner, where the mass to be translated is already vast, dropping a redundant and statistically underused system can only—"

  "Endanger the passengers," Daav said, reentering the lists with a vengeance.

  "Precisely!" Samiv tel'Izak flashed him a look of approval. pen'Evrit raised his eyebrows.

  "Yes, but it is Korval, ma'am, and he is bound to say so. Are you not, Pilot?"

  "Not at all," Daav said courteously. "I would merely point out that a line which is forever losing passengers and ships will likely be ruined in a very short time. How much better to err on the side of a tertiary safeguard—the translation mass of which is already figured into the cost of the voyage—and continue to reap profit?"

  pen'Evrit inclined his head. "Indeed, who among us can argue against profit?"

  "And cantra is so much more compelling than lives," Daav returned, smoothly deflecting what was surely a thrust devised to test the strength of Samiv tel'Izak's armor.

  pen'Evrit's mouth quirked and he inclined his head just slightly, conceding the point, and was prevented from making another foray by the chime of the hour bell.

  Er Thom offered his arm to his lifemate and flicked a quick violet glance over one shoulder. Daav lifted an eyebrow and his cha'leket, thus instructed, led the company from the formal parlor, down the hall to the dining room. From the edge of his eye, Daav saw Guayar accept Kayzin ne'Zame's arm, a meal-pairing that would, he thought, serve very well indeed.

  pen'Evrit made his bow, "Your pardons, Korval—ma'am," and escaped precisely three steps before his right arm was commandeered by Lady yo'Lanna on behalf of Delm Bindan, the Lady herself having appropriated the corresponding limb attached to Len Sar Anaba, who was one of her particular favorites.

  Daav turned to his betrothed—and paused in the midst of his bow, arrested by the tension of the muscles around her eyes.

  "Have I offended you?" He asked impulsively, before weighing the question's propriety, which was certainly wanting. Worse, he asked in the mode between pilots, which they had been speaking with pen'Evrit, which was as close to Comrade as the High Tongue allowed, when she had not given him use of her name . . .

  She drew a breath and it was puzzlement he saw in her face, more than anger.

  "No offense," she answered, at least allowing him Pilot-to-Pilot. "Surely you knew that stroke was meant for me. I wonder why you took it to yourself."

  Daav lifted an eyebrow. "Should I allow my proposed wife to be abused?"

  Her face cleared, as if, disturbingly, his answer had verified some opinion about himself that she held close. "I am instructed," she murmured, still in the mode between pilots. "One currently holds place among the Dragon's possessions."

  He had thought himself as well-armored as any other player on the fields of Liaden society, but the cut was cunning and actually struck flesh. Daav drew a breath, and saw Samiv tel'Izak raise a quick hand, her eyes wide with something very like fear.

  "Forgive me. I meant no disrespect, merely an understanding of motive and what shall be required of me, beyond the lines of contract."

  They were alone in the parlor. If they did not gain the dining room soon, the timing of the evening would be cast into disarray and the guests would be supping scandal stew.

  "My motive," he said, speaking as gently as he was able, "was to keep you from distress. You are a guest in my house and it was in my power to shield you from pen'Evrit's boorishness. As for what may be required of you—only the contract lines, if you will, Lady. But I should be honored, if we were to be friends."

  "Friends." He might have been speaking the tongue of the Grandmother's tent for all the comprehension he saw in her eyes. She glanced about her, apparently only just now aware that they were alone. "We are behind."

  "So we are." He drew a careful breath. "Samiv."

  She looked up at him, startled.

  "My name is Daav," he told her, and offered his arm. After a moment, head slightly bent, she lay her hand on his sleeve.

  "One is not—accustomed," she murmured, "to considering friendship a factor of marriage. Friendship is for—crewmates, Pilot. You understand me, I am certain."

  "Indeed I do," he assured her, moving them toward the door. "But perhaps we might consider ourselves crewmates, even—copilots."

  She was silent as they went down the hall. On the edge of the dining room, she raised her head and gave him a straight glance.

  "It seems the sort of thing a Scout might perfectly well consider," she said slowly, "but which comes—uneasy—into less—encompassing—minds."

  She did not say she would attempt it, which of course she would not, having survived thus long in a society where the slightest weakness invited attack.

  Still, she sat next to him at table and conversed easily during the meal, with much less than her previous restraint, and Daav was encouraged to believe t
hat she might, after all, try to consider him more pilot and less Dragon.

  THERE REMAINED ONE MORE tradition to satisfy, and Samiv had not been adverse to a suggestion of a walk in Korval's famous garden.

  So, while the other guests retired to the card tables in the parlor, Daav led his betrothed down a side hall and let them both through a door, into the Inner Court.

  The path grew dim as they strolled away from the house, and he offered an arm. She lay her hand atop his sleeve, allowing him to guide her down the old stone path.

  "What a delightful spot, to be sure," she murmured. "Our gardens are not a half so—full."

  The Inner Court did tend toward profusion, as even Daav would admit. He loved the wild, half-magical feel of the place, with its riots of flowers and congregations of shrubs, its unexpected glades and secret pools. The hours he spent caring for it were among the happiest of his present wing-clipped life.

  "I would like to show you to Jelaza Kazone, if you will walk just a bit further," he murmured.

  It was Korval's custom to present proposed spouses to the Tree—a courtesy, so Daav considered it, though his mother had taught such presentation was made to gain the Tree's approval.

  "I shall be honored to see Korval's tree," Samiv tel'Izak said courteously.

  "I warn you that it is rather large," he said, negotiating the path's penultimate and largely overgrown twist. "And somewhat—unexpected."

  The path twisted once more, and ended in a smooth carpet of silvery grass.

  The Tree gleamed in the clearing, casting the pale blue phosphorescence of moonvines into banks of fog. Daav paused at the edge of the glade and looked down into Samiv's face.

  "Of your kindness—it is our custom to ask spouses-to-be to come forth and lay a hand against the Tree and speak their name. It would gladden my heart, if you consented to do this."

  She hesitated a heartbeat, but what, after all, was the harm in touching a plant, no matter how large, and speaking one's name in the moonlit quiet of a garden?

  "I am honored," she said once more and walked by his side across the grass to the Tree. A low wind rustled the moonvines and Samiv shivered in the sudden chill.

  "A moment only," Daav said, slipping his arm free. "In this manner, you see, Pilot." He placed his hand, palm flat against the massive trunk, feeling it warm immediately with the Tree's accustomed greeting. "Daav yos'Phelium."

  Samiv stepped forward, placed her right hand against the trunk and said, very plain, "Samiv tel'Izak."

  It happened in a heartbeat. Daav's hand went ice-cold. The wind, which had been playing among the moonvines, roared, rushed across the clearing and hurtled into to the branches above their heads, showering them with leaves, twiglets and bark.

  Samiv tel'Izak cried out, wordless and high, and raised both arms to shield her head. Daav flung forward, caught her up amid a hail of twigs and urged her toward the entrance of the clearing.

  The wind stopped the moment Samiv's feet touched the pathway.

  "How can you abide it?" she demanded, whirling to face him in the dimness, left hand cradling right. "Cold, horrid, looming thing—how can you live here, knowing it might fall at any time and crush the house entire!"

  He stared at her, his own hand just beginning to warm into flesh.

  "The Tree is Korval's charge," he managed, keeping his voice level in the mode between pilots, while his mind replayed the wind, the chill, the rain of arboreal trash. "As best we know, it is in the prime of its life, pilot, and not likely to fall for many, many years."

  Samiv tel'Izak drew herself up, face stiff.

  "If that is all which is required, my lord," she said, and it was all the way back to Addressing-a-Delm-Not-One's-Own, "I wish to be returned indoors."

  "Certainly," Daav said, and offered his arm, hardly noticing that the touch of her fingers on his sleeve was slight and shrinking. He guided her down the pathway absently, remembering the hail of Tree-bits shaken loose by that puppyish wind—leaves, wood bits, twists of ancient birds nests.

  But not one seedpod.

  They reached an overgrown portion of the path and he stood back to allow Samiv tel'Izak to precede him. That she did so without demur, though his rank gave him precedence, spoke eloquently of her distress. Daav shook himself, for it was no more than his duty to soothe her fear.

  "Samiv," he began and felt her fingers twitch.

  "Please," she said, her voice tight, "I do not wish to speak."

  "Very well," he said and guided her silently back down the Inner Court, all the while wracking his memory to recall if the Diaries told of any previous time when a spouse was spurned by the Tree.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Pen vel'Kazik comes into the Pilot's Tower only when forced by her fellow Counselors, and stands as near the ladder as she may, sweating and wringing her foolish hands until the others declare their business done. The boy swears it's Jela's tree that frightens her. I say, if it is, may the gods soon afflict them all likewise.

  —Excerpted from Cantra yos'Phelium's Log Book

  "MORNING, MATH TEACHER." Jon was leaning against the counter, tea mug in one hand, attention centered on a bound book held precariously open in the other.

  "Good morning, Jon. Is Trilla on-shift?"

  "Haven't seen her yet," he answered, trying to turn a page with his thumb. The book wavered and slipped, leaves fluttering helplessly.

  Aelliana swept forward, captured the slim volume in the instant before it hit cement and straightened, holding it out.

  Amused amber eyes met hers. "Quick," Jon commented and turned to set his mug aside.

  A test, Aelliana thought, feeling the weight of the book in her hand. Of course it had been a test. Master Pilot Jon dea'Cort would never be so clumsy as to drop—She glanced down, frowning at the silver-gilt lettering.

  In Support of the Commonality of Language, the glittery title read. The Lifework of Learned Scholar Jin Del yo'Kera Clan Yedon, Compiled by Learned Scholar Anne Davis Clan Korval.

  "Book worthy of study," Jon said as Aelliana glanced up. "You can have the loan of it when I'm done, if you like."

  "Thank you, I would like it, very much," she said, surrendering the book. "The last issue of Scholarship Review was given to discussion of this work."

  "Ah? And what did the host of learned Liadens think of the proof of a common back-tongue linking Terra and Liad?"

  "That I cannot tell you," she answered seriously. "Most wished only to say that such a notion was entirely ridiculous, without addressing the proofs at all. The single reviewer attempting to face the work on its own merit was Scout Linguist pel'Odyare. In her estimation the scholarship had been impeccable throughout and the conclusion logically drawn. She wrote that she would implement a search of certain Scout records, to find if independent corroboration of the conclusion could be established."

  "Master pel'Odyare does binjali work," Jon said, smoothing the gilt letters with absent fingers. "If proof is there, she'll find it." He sighed, and slid the book away next to the tea-tin trophy box. "Bold heart, Scholar," he said softly.

  He looked back to Aelliana with a wry smile.

  "Your pirates came in last evening with a tale of someone hanging about your ship," he said. "Gave chase, but lost the quarry—which is a smile from the luck, though they won't see it. Seem to think they're quick enough to dodge a pellet, if the sneaker had held a gun. Anywise, I did a check and nothing seemed amiss. You might want to do the same, for certainty's sake."

  "Yes, of course . . ." She blinked. Someone had been hanging about The Luck? Her heart stuttered, animal instinct shrieking that it had been Ran Eld, that she was discovered, hovering on the brink of lost . . . She took a hard breath and met Jon's eyes.

  "I shall do an inspection immediately. Are the pirates—Sed Ric and Yolan—available to attend me?"

  "Hah." Jon grinned. "They're here." He raised his voice to a bellow. "Pirates!"

  There was a clatter and two rapid shadows flung into the lounge
.

  "Aye, Master Jon!"

  They spied Aelliana then and made their bows, low and respectful.

  "Pilot."

  "I am told that you surprised a lurker about my ship last evening. Your assistance is required now on a cold-inspection, during which you will give me the round tale."

  "Yes, Pilot." More bows, and attentive waiting, Yolan at Sed Ric's right hand.

  Aelliana inclined her head and looked to Jon. "If Trilla should arrive, sir, will you assure her that I am eager to learn the dance and shall engage to do so, directly I return?"

  Jon grinned. "I'll do that, never fear."

  Her lips twitched, but she otherwise preserved her countenance. "I thank you."

  She gathered the pirates with a gesture, turned and marched them out. Jon watched until the crew door cycled, then reached up and pulled down his book.

  "SHE IS AFRAID OF the Tree?" Er Thom sank to the stone wall enclosing Trealla Fantrol's patio and stared at Daav out of wide purple eyes.

  "Worse," Daav said ruefully. "I apprehend that the Tree holds her in severe dislike."

  Er Thom digested this in silence as Daav paced from the wall to the ornamental falls and stood looking down into the tiny, frothing torrent.

  His search through Korval's Diaries had been fruitless. None of the delms before him had discovered the Tree in disliking anyone, much less an all-but-signed spouse. The single hint toward the possibility of such a thing came from Grandmother Cantra's log, and even there it was writ so vague . . .

  "What will you do?" Er Thom asked quietly from the wall.

  Daav sighed.

  "I thought," he said, coming back to sit next his brother on the warm stones. "I thought perhaps—my wife—and I—might live at the ocean house. If the ocean pales before the matter is done, there is the chalet, or even—"

  "Daav."

  He stopped. It took an active application of will to raise his eyes to Er Thom's.

  "Hear yourself," his brother said. "Will you actually get a child upon a woman whom the Tree dislikes? What then? Shall you live at the ocean house for the rest of your days? Or only until the child is of an age to be sent off-world? How can you—"