The Unicorn Girl

by Anne McCaffrey

  “Don’t wrap it up in pretty ribbons, Dork,” said Vidra in her harsh voice. “The glass industry on Kezdet requires children. Adults can’t run so fast with the molten glass. If Dork and others like him didn’t hire children, not only would those poor families starve, but production would go down.”

  “That’s true,” Dork said with more animation. “Profits might drop by as much as thirty percent. I have a duty to my shareholders, you know.”

  “Yes, it is expensive having workers whom you have to pay and provide medical care for.” Acorna smiled agreement. “Still, most industrial planets manage it.” She thought she could get to enjoy Li’s instructions on being offensive, after all. “What’s wrong with Kezdet, that you people can’t figure out how to run a factory without slave labor?”

  “Now, now, dear, do not upset yourself,” Tumim Viggers counseled her. “You are young and a stranger to our ways, and perhaps those terrorist zealots of the Child Labor League have been telling you misleading stories. The fact is that the few children working on Kezdet are very well treated. They are fed and lodged at their employer’s expense, have years of free training in their chosen career, and enjoy the knowledge that their earnings are sent home to help support their beloved families. Why, if you sent a team of Federation inspectors to any of our mines or factories, I do believe the children would run away and hide rather than be taken away! They love their work, you see, and the overseers are like parents to them.”

  “Possibly,” Acorna agreed. “I understand that some parents also beat their children.”

  Tumim Viggers sighed. “There may have been excesses. It is no easy matter to train and discipline young children, but I assure you, they are learning lessons which will be invaluable when they grow up.”

  “How many of them do grow up?” Acorna asked in a tone of bright interest.

  Tumim Viggers chose to ignore that question. “Child labor is one of the harsh realities of life on an overpopulated, underdeveloped planet. Extremist groups like the CLL only make matters worse. Why, if we were to eradicate all child labor on Kezdet tomorrow, what do you think would happen?”

  “I don’t know,” said Acorna brightly. “Why not try it and find out?”

  She rose, then. “I must really circulate, but it has been so nice to get to know you better. Do enjoy the garden. The night-blooming scented plants are in that corner.”

  “Do show us exactly where?” Tumim said and reached for her arm, a maneuver she evaded by swaying away from him and out of reach.

  As she walked back toward the house, she happened to glance up at the windows and saw three figures hurrying down the staircase: three figures that ought to have been fast asleep in their beds, stuffed with all the food and sweets she had asked to be sent to them. Where was the undermaid who was supposed to watch out for them? If they should be seen…

  She hurried inside and spotted Calum, who had a desperate look on his face: the anorexic daughter of the shipping magnate she had met in the receiving line was clinging to his arm with a death grip. Acorna gave him the old EVA danger sign. He peeled the girl off him and, muttering some sort of an apology, he made his way quickly to Acorna.

  “The children are up. They must not be seen,” she said in an urgent undertone. “On the stairs. If I go up…”

  “Leave it to me.”

  The skeleton had clattered after Calum, but Acorna intercepted her, taking her by the arm.

  “I do hope you are enjoying yourself this evening, Kisla,” she said, fortunately recalling her name and steered her toward the refreshment table, where a new display of subtleties and delights had just been arranged. “With your father so prominent in the shipping industry, do you get a chance to travel to far-off planets and places? Or are you forced to remain here in a dull school?”

  Kisla stiffened and almost sneered up at Acorna. “Fraggit, but you know nothing, do you? School? I’ve been a qualified navigator for three years. The only reason I’m at this party at all is because the whole family got invited. And then you have the nerve to skive off with the only interesting chap here.”

  “An errand only he could do for me,” Acorna said, “and see, here he is back.”

  However, Calum grabbed Acorna by the hand and pulled her so close to him that Kisla swore, more as a deckhand than a navigator might, and flounced off to find another target for her attentions.

  “They’re terrified. They’ve seen the Piper here.”

  “They have? They could identify him?” Acorna looked around the room for Mr. Li’s hover-chair or Uncle Hafiz, trying to hide the terror she felt. Calum peeled her hands off his arm.

  “Khetala and Jana are both certain, but they’re terrified for your sake. They’re afraid he’s here to kill you.”

  “Here? In front of everyone?” Acorna ridiculed the notion. “Not likely.”

  “You’d still be dead, sweetie pie,” Calum said soberly. “Besides which, very few people here are enchanted with your interference with their profitable operations employing child labor.”

  “Then why did they come?” she asked, annoyed as well as frightened. Dreadful people. Smile at your face and pull a stunner once your back was turned. Although, where many of those present could hide anything in the sleek, tight-fitting garb that was currently fashionable, she did not know. Very little was left to the imagination, and one could count spine ridges and…all sorts of things. She could have appeared at this dinner clad in only her own skin and given away nothing of her gender, but these people covered it all up and then flaunted what they covered.

  “They came for the food and to say they had been here tonight. Mr. Li is excessively pleased with the turnout, but I must go tell him that the children can identify the Piper. That will be one more obstacle out of our way, so we can find out where you really belong.” Calum grinned up at her and then squeezed her hands. “I’ll go tell them. You circulate.”

  He gave her a little push toward the nearest clutch of chattering men and women. Kisla intercepted her.

  “My father wishes to speak with you, Acorna. He says you’ve been avoiding him all evening.”

  There was a remarkable strength in her skeletal arms as she towed the taller girl past the nearest group and toward a quartet, which mercifully included Uncle Hafiz. Acorna stopped resisting.

  Hafiz rose and kissed her cheek. “You are more beautiful every time I see you, Acorna. Here is Baron Commodore Manjari and his wife, Ilsfa, wanting to meet you. The baron claims he ships anything and everything, anywhere in the known galaxy. And, as I’m sure you realize, Acorna, the baroness’s family, the Acultanias, were one of the first to settle Kezdet and recognize its importance in this sector.”

  The baroness smiled a social smile, while stuffing her face with the dainty petit fours on the table beside her. Baron Manjari rose courteously to his feet and, removing his hand from his pocket, patted his lips before he reached for Acorna’s proffered hand. He didn’t look very impressive, Acorna thought: medium height, spare build, which might account for his daughter’s anorexic-looking body. He had very piercing eyes and a gaze that wished to penetrate her skull. She managed to suppress a shudder as he brought her hand to his mouth. Instead of miming a kiss above the skin, he planted a very moist one on the back of her hand.

  “Charmed,” he said, drawling in an oddly dry voice, almost a whisper, as if he had some impediment in his throat. “I have been waiting all evening to have a few words with you.”

  As he released her hand, she began to feel unwell and, with the pretext of mending her coiffeur, brushed her hand to her horn. She could feel it tingle through her forehead and the poisonous kiss, for that was what it had been, was neutralized. Baron Manjari might have ships that traversed the known galaxy and be able to find contact poisons undetectable by Li’s guard beams, but he had never encountered one of her species. Her problem now was how to react to having just been given an undoubtedly “lethal” dose of poison. She noticed that he now brought out a handkerchief to blot hi
s treacherous lips, and then a small pill box, explaining as he withdrew a tiny white oval, that it was time for his medication.

  “I did not mean a discourtesy,” Acorna began with social civility, nodding to the baroness, who was having a hard time deciding which small delicacy to try next. “The littlest ones are filled with raspberry liqueur,” she said, and got a blank look from the woman and almost a sneer from the baron. “I think I should sit for a few moments,” Acorna said abruptly to Uncle Hafiz, who immediately handed her into the chair he had just vacated.

  She began to rub her hand, as if unconscious of what she was doing. She caught the avid expression in the baron’s eyes and the tension in his wife’s bare shoulders. “Uncle, a glass of something cool, please?” she said making her voice rise with urgency.

  “Of course.”

  Acorna used the ornate fan that dangled from her left wrist. “I don’t know what’s come over me.”

  “Why,” Ilsfa leaned toward her, one hand outstretched to touch her knee, but Acorna managed to avoid the contact, “I expect it’s no more than any young girl experiences during her introduction to society. Why, my Kisla was a nervous wreck until the evening had started, and then she danced all night.”

  “Really?” Acorna managed politely in a soft voice. Should she be feeling weak so soon?

  “Here you are, m’dear,” Hafiz said, offering her a glass of the madigadi juice he knew she liked, so cold the glass was beaded with moisture.

  She drank it all down, hoping thirst was one of the symptoms of the poison working. The baron looked so satisfied that she was sure it must be.

  “Just what I needed,” she said gaily, and rose. “So nice to have had a chat with you but, before I find I have inadvertently ignored some one else, I really must circulate. Come, Uncle Hafiz, there is someone I want you to introduce me to…” and she pulled him away despite an initial protest.

  “That man just tried to poison me,” she muttered in Hafiz’s ear. “Keep walking. Do I fall down in a faint, or just collapse somewhere? A contact poison. He had a very slimy kiss.”

  “By the beards of the Prophets!” Hafiz began, and tried to pull loose from her to deal suitably with Baron Commodore Manjari.

  “No, he may be the Piper.”

  “Oh!”

  “Where is Mr. Li? We must inform him.”

  “Who identified him? There are many people here who might wish to poison you.”

  “Khetala and Jana. They watched the guests entering and saw the Piper among them. They’ve been quaking with terror ever since, but they overcame their fears to warn me. Well, actually, they found Calum and he told me. Who else would want to poison me?” Acorna demanded.

  “Just about every man and a good many of the women here tonight,” Uncle Hafiz said, and signaled the butler.

  Acorna wondered if the man had been cloned, or was one of triplets, for he had been so assiduous in his duties.

  “Hassim, no one is to leave yet,” Uncle Hafiz said in an undertone. “And where is Mr. Li at this moment?”

  The butler indicated the card room with a discreet gesture and glided toward the front door, deftly opening the panel and tripping a switch that would close every exterior door and the garden exits.

  Mr. Li’s hover-chair was surrounded by some of the loveliest women at the party and not a single man. He was obviously enjoying himself, and the women were laughing at some joke when Hafiz, smiling to see the quality of the company he was about to join, approached.

  “Ah, but ladies, your glasses are empty. Come to the table and I will pour for you all.”

  That left Acorna free to inform Mr. Li of her suspicions as well as the children’s ability to identify the dread Piper.

  “Take them to my study. Tell Hassim to secure the house. Immediate confrontation now. Who?” And Mr. Li stared at her as he suddenly assimilated the information he had just been given. “Not…how extraordinary! Is most remarkable. Is last man this person would suspect.”

  “That’s often how it is, isn’t it? But how do we entice him to the study? I am supposed to be dying of his poison. Will he not suspect?”

  “Is my job. Get children. Get to study. Hafiz?” and he drifted his chair. “You forgive?” He beamed back at the ladies even as he was moving out of the room, with Hafiz almost running after him. “I give beep call and assemble cavalry.”

  Acorna had already disappeared up the staircase, Calum taking the steps two at a time with Rafik trying to keep up.

  Judit intercepted them at the stairs. “What is the matter?”

  “Oh, is nothing. Keep guests happy,” Mr. Li said. “Is that not Baron Manjari I see? No chance yet to show him my new acquisitions. Is now the time.”

  Judit was too well trained to ask what new acquisitions, and obediently followed the hover-chair to where the baron commodore, wife, and daughter, were now standing, his expression slightly smug, theirs rebellious.

  “Ah, dear Mr. Li,” the baron said as suave as ever. “We were about to take our leave of you. Your lovely Acorna has only just left us to our own devices.”

  “She asks me to show you mine, is all,” Mr. Li said and, laying one finger along his nose, winked at his guests. “Have only just acquired.” His finger now bridged his lips to indicate secrecy. “You travel much and can advise me on how to keep all safe.”

  “Surely, Mr. Li, you have no need of my advice?” the baron commodore said.

  “Ah, but is to see my treasure first and then advise. We go now. Ah…some devices not suitable for ladies, you understand?” Li added in an undertone. “My Judit will entertain lovely wife and daughter while you come with me.”

  There was something in the tone of the old gentleman that made it impossible for Baron Commodore Manjari to refuse. With an apologetic shrug toward his womenfolk, he followed Li’s hover-chair to the study, at the far end of the house from the glittering party. Hafiz unobtrusively followed to make sure the baron was cut off from any possible allies who might notice their exit.

  The children were gathered in the study, Chiura half asleep in Acorna’s lap and the other two holding tightly to her dress. When the baron entered after Li, Khetala gasped and backed behind Acorna, but Jana jumped in front of her protectively. “Don’t hurt her!”

  “My dear little girl,” the baron said in his slightly hoarse tone, “why would I wish to harm this lovely young lady?”

  At the sound of the dry, husky voice, Khetala gripped Acorna’s shoulder.

  “It’s him,” she said, her own voice no more than a thread. “He always whispered before. But I know him. I do!”

  “So do I,” said Jana.

  Chiura woke up, looked at the baron’s face, and wailed in fright.

  “Piper!” she shrieked, trying to burrow into Acorna’s lap.

  “The Piper,” Jana said. “You came with Didi Badini and took my Chiura away—but we got her back!”

  “The Piper,” Khetala confirmed. “You came with Didi Badini and took me to her bonk-shop.”

  The baron sputtered, gobbled, and turned red.

  “Nonsense!” he finally managed to rasp. He turned to Li. “You’d take the word of these ragamuffins from the mines against a man of good family? I’ve never seen these children before.”

  “You spoke with Didi Badini many times,” Khetala said firmly. “I remembered your voice. There was not much to think about in the closet where she kept me. I remember all the words you have said, from the day when Siri Teku sold me to you until the day the lady rescued me. Do you want me to repeat all I heard you say?”

  “Ridiculous!” Baron Manjari said. “This is a tissue of fabrications, and I can prove it! The child at Anyag had a whip scar on one cheek…”

  His voice rustled to silence, like a pile of dry leaves when the wind ceases to stir them. Delszaki Li and Hafiz Harakamian, one on each side of him, let the silence draw out.

  “Interesting,” Li said finally, “that you know these children came from Anyag.”

 
The baron made a gesture of denial. “I must have seen them…a business trip…arranging shipping discounts….”

  “A clerk’s task, one would think,” Li said.

  “The Lady Acorna healed my scar,” Khetala said. “But she cannot heal you.”

  Chiura twisted round to face the man who had haunted her baby nightmares, the man who had played with her and tormented her in the skimmer that took her away from Mama Jana. She kept one hand firmly twined in the silvery curls of the Lady Acorna, who had brought Mama Jana back to her. All three children stared unblinking at the Piper, their eyes a silent accusation.

  Finally, Baron Manjari looked away. “No one will believe this story!”

  “You wish to make experiment?” Li asked.

  “Be seated, Baron,” Hafiz invited. “We have some serious discussion to do.” He nodded at the children. “Should not these little ones be in their beds, Delszaki? It offends me that they should continue to breathe the same air as this camelsucking filth.”

  None of the children felt safe away from Acorna, so she too left, taking them upstairs, where she and Gill told stories and sang songs and promised a thousand times over that the Piper would never come near them again.

  “Why didn’t you tell us at first you had seen the Piper at the mine?” Gill asked at one point. “You could have identified him from a vid without ever coming near him.”

  “Wasn’t sure until I saw him and heard the voice,” Khetala said.

  “What’s a vid?” Jana asked.

  “Poor little mite.” Gill stroked her forehead. “I keep forgetting, there’s so much you’ve never seen. We’ll get a vid player up here for you. You’ll love Jill and the Space Pirates. I’ve got all the episodes. Acorna loved it when she was a little girl.” Just two years ago, he thought sadly. Well, those days were gone forever. How could Acorna’s people stand seeing their children mature so quickly? You scarcely had time to love them before they had become tall, independent strangers.