Korval's Game

by Sharon Lee

  “The old agreement—that the Juntavas does not meddle with Korval. That Korval does not meddle with the Juntavas . . .” Pat Rin said, softly, so softly. “You counsel me to set it aside, you argue—persuasively!—that circumstances have altered so entirely that the boundaries of wisdom—the boundaries of mutual survival—have been re-drawn, placing the Juntavas and Korval side-by-side in the face of a common enemy.” He moved his shoulders, of a sudden very weary.

  “You know who I am. It is not within my scope to set aside clan policy. Certainly, not this, of all possible clan policies. No matter what the need.”

  She was silent. He stood and backed away from the work bench, his gun pointed specifically away from her. He glanced along the alley, and moved to the target console.

  “Shall we shoot?” he asked, fiddling with the settings. “One hundred targets, descending from standard size and distance to one sixth size and double distance.”

  “You are certain?” she asked, and, indeed there was a tentative note in the soft, cultured voice.

  Pat Rin glanced over his shoulder, saw her standing, gun reassembled and aimed at the innocent floor, slim and deadly and very comely, indeed. “Why should I not be certain?” he asked lightly. “A cantra to you, should you best my score.”

  She laughed then. “You are a gamester, aren’t you? But no, I’ll not put you out of pocket. Rather let us agree to part amicably.” She bowed, lightly and with whimsy.

  “And yes, Master, I would be very pleased to shoot again.”

  They disposed of the hundred targets in short order, failing yet again to find one of them ascendant over the other. Natesa had left him, then, with a graceful bow. He let her out of the theater to rejoin her gift bodyguard, and re-admitted Cheever McFarland.

  “We will be departing Teriste earlier than anticipated, Mr. McFarland,” he said as the big man loaded his second LaDemeter and stepped up to the line. “When we finish here, I will call at the bank. It would be best if you take leave this evening.”

  The pilot looked at him, wearing an expression between a grin and a grimace. “Got a date?”

  “Mr. McFarland, I do. I must to the casino, else we arrive at our destination without enough cash to buy into a game.”

  “Oh. Yeah. But she’s something, ain’t she, Boss?”

  “Pilot?”

  “That Natesa. A bit of a looker and she shoots like a champion. She ought to, ’cause she’s the reigning champ in this club.”

  “I am informed, but not surprised.” Pat Rin stepped up to the line and squeezed off his first shot.

  “Juntavas, huh?”

  “You are apparently aware.”

  “The boy she was with had a half-dozen tell-tales on ’em. Tattoo here, ’nother one there. Carries official Juntavas ordinance—what that Natesa don’t do—even wears the damn ring! Got no style at all. I gotta tell you, if he’s a friend of that lady I’ll be surprised.”

  “Indeed. I believe her to hold you in much higher esteem than that enjoyed by Julier.”

  “I sure hope so. He’s about as subtle as a drunk merc at a nude beach.”

  “Mr. McFarland, if you think to spoil my aim by distracting me or by making me laugh, you’re quite off the mark.”

  “Well, a guy’s got to try. You’re two whole shots up on me with twenty to go.”

  “Shoot, Mr. McFarland. If you continue, you may match Natesa’s score.”

  “Guess she was distracted, huh? I think she likes you, Boss.”

  “Mr. McFarland . . . .”

  “Yeah. Right. Gotcha. My shot.”

  ***

  THE PRIVATE ACCOUNTS manager was new since the last time Pat Rin had accessed his funds at Teriste Speculator’s Trust. The former manager had been male, soft-spoken and respectful.

  The new manager was female, breathless and provoking.

  “I very much beg your pardon, sir,” she dithered, her fingers stuttering over her keyboard. “I don’t seem to find that account. I—oh, here! Ah, no. No, that’s not it.”

  Pat Rin swallowed a caustic comment, counted to twelve and pointed out that the paperwork he had provided listed not only his name and his account number, but the first of his two pass phrases, which really should be all she needed in order to locate his funds.

  “Yes, yes, of course, you are quite correct, sir!” she babbled. “It is only that—well! I see that I will need to bring the branch manager in. Only a moment, sir, of your goodness. I will return immediately—” She leapt up from her chair and fled, the door sealing behind her.

  Pat Rin bit down on his annoyance. Really, this was preposterous. There should not be the slightest difficulty in accessing his account. The manager had very likely miscoded the request; indeed, it was a rare wonder that she had been able to type at all, as badly as her hands had been shaking.

  And why had her hands been shaking? he wondered abruptly. He was hardly a fearsome individual, after all; and his request had been merely commonplace.

  Frowning, he got up and walked ’round the desk. The screen was still active, awash with red lines and danger-signals. In the center of it all was the code for his private account, showing a balance of some ninety-six cantra; followed by an unfamiliar code, also in red.

  Just so.

  Absolutely calm, he retrieved his paperwork from the desktop, folded it into the inside pocket of his jacket, rounded the desk and lay his hand against the door. It slid open at his touch, which surprised him somewhat, but he rather thought that the new manager was unused to dealing with dangerous clients.

  Walking quickly, he went down the hall and through the discreet common office, heading for the door to the street. Behind him, he heard a clatter of heels and a gasped, “Sir? Sir, a moment, please!” He did not turn his head, but swept out the door.

  Gaining the street, he strode on, despite the fact that his knees had developed a disconcerting wobble. He had scarcely gone six steps before he was joined by a large man carrying a pair of gun bags.

  “Business concluded, Boss?” Cheever asked.

  “Concluded,” he said, rather breathlessly, “but not to our advantage. I was not able to withdraw funds. Worse . . . Mr. McFarland, I fear I may have alerted someone . . . unsavory . . . to my presence.”

  “Bound to happen, I guess,” Cheever said philosophically. “Time to lift?”

  Pat Rin walked on, somewhat less quickly now, and forced himself to focus. Panic was never a winning hand.

  “No. I must attempt the casinos. With the ship’s fund and my personal accounts beyond reach, the need for money becomes desperate.”

  “If they know you’re here, they’ll be watching the casinos,” Cheever pointed out, reasonably enough.

  Pat Rin moved a hand in agreement. “They will. But the casinos have security on-staff and an investment in maintaining the safety of their clients. I may be seen, but it is unlikely that I will be importuned.” He sighed. “The risk must be accepted in any case. We must have cash.”

  There was a short pause, then a sigh.

  “If that’s the way it’s gotta be, then we go with it,” he said. “I’ll be coming with you.”

  It was perhaps indicative of his state of mind that Pat Rin felt not annoyance at this presumption, but relief.

  “Thank you, Mr. McFarland,” he said. “I will be glad of your company.”

  TERISTE

  Casino District

  The Practical Statistician

  “LORD PAT RIN—a moment, if you will!”

  The beautifully dressed gentleman did not look up at the hail. He received the dice, shook them briefly and threw with an expert’s snap of the wrist, rings flashing richly in the table lights. The dice struck the felt-covered end wall, rebounded, rolled twice and stopped; the first and second die each showed one pip, while the third displayed five. The gentleman stood quietly, dark head tipped, calmly awaiting the House’s judgment.

  “Seven called and seven rolled!” the croupier announced, deftly separating three co
ins from the bank and placing them before the winner. “House pays three gold to the gentleman with the blue earring.” The dice rattled to the cloth beside the coins. “Roll again, sir?”

  The gentleman took a moment to consider, as well he might, gambling at gold level, with the House’s three and his own two riding the toss.

  Jewels flashed as shapely fingers spread above the coins. “Hold.”

  “The gentleman with the blue earring holds his line,” the croupier cried. “Who rolls against the House?”

  The dice passed to a brassy-haired lady in an inexcusable scarlet coat, who shook them with great energy. The gentleman with the blue earring deftly palmed his five gold and left the table, moving away from the area from which the most unwelcome hail had come, and toward the table at which Cheever McFarland had last been seen.

  No sooner had he cleared the crowd surrounding the dice table than his sleeve was snatched and held by a sharp-faced man of extraordinarily nondescript dress.

  “Lord Pat Rin?”

  He lifted an eyebrow. “Yes?” he murmured, and glanced significantly down at his mangled sleeve.

  Alas, his captor was wholly intent upon his own business and failed of taking the hint.

  “Sir, there is one who would speak to you. Most urgently.” The man’s fingers tightened. Pat Rin frowned.

  “You will,” he said, softly, and yet unmistakably in the mode of Command, “release me.”

  Startled, the stranger did just that, dropping back a step, his dead eyes leaping to Pat Rin’s face.

  “Your pardon, sir. I meant no disrespect. But there is one who has—”

  “Urgent need to speak with me,” Pat Rin finished, all of his attention seemingly upon smoothing the creases out of his abused sleeve. “Just so. I do not desire to leave my amusement. If your—employer—must speak to me as urgently as that, he will come to me.”

  The stranger gaped, then bowed, abruptly and muddy of mode, spun on his heel and vanished into the crowd, leaving Pat Rin to stare at the place where he had been and damn himself three times for a fool.

  Careful to display neither haste nor concern, he crossed the room to the Smaller Wheel and insinuated himself into the crowd ’round the table. There, sheltered on all sides by tall Terrans, he tried to think.

  That the sharp-faced man belonged to the Juntavas, he doubted, though the possibility could not be rejected out of hand. It was conceivable that the local boss sought to gain advantage over the Sector Judge who had been thrust upon him. And yet . . .

  The sharp-faced man had been Liaden. Plan B specifically warned him away from Liad—and from Liadens. And, truth told, there was that about his recent captor which made the Juntavas—most especially the Juntavas in the person of Natesa—show honorable, wholesome and foursquare for clan and kin.

  There was a disruption in the crowd of spectators to his left. Pat Rin half-turned and looked up into the very welcome face of Cheever McFarland.

  “Well met, Pilot,” he murmured, for his companion’s ear alone. “I believe it is time for us to leave.”

  They were not—not quite—taken unaware.

  They left together by a side door, at Pilot McFarland’s insistence, and made rapid progress toward the distant shine of a taxi stand.

  The night was busy with wind, damp with the threat of rain; and it had taken Pat Rin a few moments to be certain that the small noises and the motions of shadows were concerted action and not simply the random pattern of people on the town.

  And by then, it was clear that they were both shadowed and outnumbered. Cheever flipped his pocket lightly and Pat Rin muttered under his breath, “Not yet, we have no plan.”

  They had continued moving in the direction of the transport kiosk, hoping against the odds for the timely appearance of a taxi or a shuttle, but the interception went smoothly.

  “This way, please,” the pale-haired man who drifted in beside them said in Liaden, and then in accented Terran, “There is no need for alarm.”

  The place to which they were taken was not far from the casino district, down a windowless alleyway and into a court where several vehicles were parked. Surprisingly, there were a smattering of trees and bushes here, as if some effort at landscaping had been made.

  They were ushered past the trees, into a somewhat smaller and dimmer alley. Several of their escort peeled off to take up what Pat Rin thought must be guard points. A few more steps along the second alleyway and they came to a rough-walled building. The door stood open; the pale-haired man bowed them within. He entered after, his bodyguard sealing the door behind all.

  The man led them down a thin and lowering hall, then, and into a sparsely lit, irregularly shaped room.

  The room smelled of old dust and the floor was uneven, as if the building had shifted and created tectonic ridges in the tiles.

  The leader motioned toward a rude table attended by two ruder chairs, set near the center of the gloom. He took for himself the chair nearest the door, his second standing behind him.

  They took this as a model: Pat Rin in the chair; Cheever McFarland behind.

  “We are messengers,” the pale-haired man murmured, soothing the air between them with a gesture one might more reasonably expect to encounter at a High House dining board than at a rough plastic table in a badly lit, abandoned storeroom. “Merely messengers, sir. Bearing news from those who wish you, not harm, but only well.”

  “News,” Pat Rin repeated, liking the matter no better, and fervently grateful for the formidable bulk of Cheever McFarland standing behind his chair. He took a breath, keeping his face calmly neutral—the old, the familiar, gambler’s mask—and inclined his head.

  “Of course,” he said, matching the man’s soft tone, “one welcomes news, when one has been heedless upon holiday.”

  The man across inclined his head gravely, his gun-sworn standing at stiff attention behind his chair.

  “Of course,” he agreed, and put his hands palm down against the table, meeting Pat Rin’s eyes squarely.

  “I bring news of your clan.”

  Yes? Pat Rin flicked a glance downward, looking for the Tree-and-Dragon token held discreetly between two of the man’s quiet fingers. He was not . . . entirely . . . surprised to discover it invisible.

  He looked again at the man’s bland, mannerly face. “One is ever joyful to have news of one’s kin,” he said softly.

  “As who is not?” the other replied according to the proper formula and leaned forward abruptly, his curiously flat eyes pinning Pat Rin’s gaze.

  “Your kin are dead,” he said, as if it were the merest pleasantry; as if he imparted nothing more startling than an unlooked-for change in the weather.

  Behind the gambler’s mask of calm neutrality, Pat Rin froze, hearing again that calm, uninflected sentence, not quite making sense—His kin. His kin—dead? All his kin? Quin? Luken? Nova? Shan? His mother? Dead? Ridiculous.

  “Ridiculous,” he heard his own voice state, dispassionately.

  The other man inclined his head. “I understand,” he murmured. “So large a change in Korval’s fortunes—in your own fortunes. Of course, so skilled a player as yourself would wish proof. As it happens, we have proof.” He dropped his eyes deliberately to the tabletop.

  Pat Rin followed his gaze, saw the sinewy golden hands lift up and away, leaving alone upon the scarred plastic a smallish thing that glittered even in light so low; a thing he had reason to know well, having seen it upon the hands of several of his kin, most lately on the hand of his cousin Nova, who held Korval in trust for Val Con.

  And who would have surrendered Korval’s Ring to the man who sat before him only in the extremity of her death.

  He forced himself to blink, to look up from the impossibility on the table before him; forced himself to speak calmly to the man opposite, who sat watching with his flat, predator’s eyes and his curiously immobile face.

  “There are,” he observed, as if the thing upon the table were the merest bauble, “other
s before me. Indeed, I believe that there are children not yet halfling and at least one Terran far-kin to whom the Ring would fall before ever it came to me.”

  The man smiled gently. “They no longer impede you. Nova yos’Galan, Anthora yos’Galan, Shan yos’Galan, Kareen yos’Phelium, Luken bel’Tarda, Val Con yos’Phelium, even Gordon Arbuthnot. All have been swept from the board.”

  Hearing the names of his kin—his dead kin—but the man had not named the children! Pat Rin grasped that thought, insisting that his mind work. The pale-haired man had not named the children, but his mother and Luken—by every iteration of Plan B he had ever memorized, Luken bel’Tarda and Kareen yos’Phelium were responsible for the safety of the children. If his mother and Luken were—dead . . .

  No. It—they could not—it was not possible . . .

  Blindly, he reached out, plucked the Ring from the table and stared at it, eyes tracing the familiar lines of Korval’s Tree-and-Dragon, the bright enamel-work, the perfect emeralds framing the boldly scripted Flaran Cha’menthi.

  “Who did this?” he asked, eyes on the dragon, on the emeralds. Two perfect emeralds . . .

  “It is necessary,” the pale-haired man said in his soft, mannerly voice, “from time to time to remove from play those who impede the work of the Department of the Interior. Thus it was with those who had been your kin. And, now, through the efforts of the Department of the Interior, you rise to your proper estate.”

  With an effort, Pat Rin lifted his eyes to stare at the man opposite, who inclined his head deeply—a seated bow of profound respect.

  “Korval,” he said.

  Pat Rin could not quite control the shudder as he placed the ring back in the center of the table. He took a breath.

  “The Department of Interior will require some . . . service, in payment of its efforts on my behalf,” he suggested gently.

  The pale-haired man moved a hand in that curiously soothing gesture. “You need only mind the Department’s interests with the Council of Clans. Advisories and information will be delivered to you at the appropriate times.” He smiled. “Small enough payment. You will find the Department is a staunch defender of its allies.”