by Sarah Zettel
Kiv extended his arms all the way. “I can. Then I think you had better meet us at the Embassy.” Uneasiness crept over him. “Humans do war over ground, don’t they?”
“Frequently,” muttered Perivar. “I was caught in one of those wars back home.”
“Is it possible the Vitae are readying for war?”
“It’s possible,” he said. “I’ve never heard of them doing it, but I’ve never heard of them acting like this, either.”
And I may have just denied them what they want, Kiv glanced back at his children. Yes. We need to get to the Embassy. All of us.
Perivar hit the CALL key for a bus and slid into his outdoor jacket. “Just let them know I’m coming. I’ll be as quick as I can, but a lot depends on what this Adu’s got to say.”
Perivar left and Kiv closed the membrane housing.
“Ererishakadene,” he called as he ambled into the living rooms. The children swarmed out of their sleeping holes and twined around and over him. “We’ve got to get ready for a trip to the Embassy. We may be staying for several days. So we have to pack what we’ll need. Ereri, unhook the capsules. Shakadene, come show me what you’ll want to take.”
And after that, I’ll need to get a download of…
The lights went out.
“Father Kiv?” called Ere. Sha, then Dene echoed her. “Father Kiv?”
Kiv dropped his secondary hands to hold the two of them. “Hold still, now. It’s a power failure. I’ll set it right.” He whistled calmly, but his skin felt dry and loose from reasonless fear.
With all four hands feeling his way along the walls, Kiv stepped into the workroom and tried to remember where the emergency power switches were.
The membrane housing slid back. White light dazzled his eyes. His open eyes recoiled and his closed set pushed forward. Kiv made out two human silhouettes illuminated by the bare light from the hall. One of them raised a box and there was a hiss. Kiv felt all his eyes try to retract.
The membrane began to shrivel.
Kiv lunged toward the doorway and slammed the housing closed. He hit the emergency seal. Nothing happened. The power was gone and there was no light and already he could feel the burn in his veins as too much oxygen shoved through his pores. The housing slid back. The light fell across him. A round Vitae and a tall Vitae stepped across the empty threshold.
Dene whimpered. Ka and Sha twined around his ankles. Kiv snatched them into his arms. They were too light. The air burned his skin, too hot and too cold at the same time. His children shuddered.
“Murderers!” Kiv backed away from the pair, who stood there like statues, doing nothing but blocking the housing. He forced himself to think. Get the children to the capsules. Now! Move! Move! Move…
His terminal legs gave out. His children bleated and wailed his name and the burning cold air pressed against his ears and his whole skin and bore him to the ground.
“Ererish…” And he couldn’t remember the rest of what he wanted to say.
Aria drank in the sight of the brown, brick walls of Perivar’s home and she sighed with relief. Several times she had made a wrong turn and been forced to double back and try again. Sometime during the march, the sun had gone all the way down. The crowds thinned around her and the buses that passed were full of people with their heads lolling. So Aria guessed it was getting relatively late. There was no way to judge by the unchanging lights that decked the buildings. Her joints told her she’d been walking a long time and they were reminding her she’d run too hard, as she’d known they would. Despite all that, fresh air and time had given her an internal balance that using the stones had removed. She could think clearly on her own again.
She shoved the map into her pocket as she crossed the empty street. The building’s main door opened under the touch of her fingers. Unaided, she remembered that Eric had pressed the top key on the destination list for the elevator when he had brought her here before, how long ago? Three weeks or a hundred years? She closed her eyes and leaned against the wall as the elevator lifted her up to Perivar’s floor. Well, with Perivar she’d have some direct and solid help, for Iyal’s sake, if not for her own.
The elevator door dragged itself open and let her into the simulated daylight of the corridor. She blinked hard and rubbed her eyes. Perivar’s door stood open at the end of the hall. The gesture of welcome where he came from. She smiled and strode toward it with something like relaxation in her movements.
But as she approached the open doorway, the air filled with the smell of ozone and rot. The doorway was dark and the place beyond was silent. Nothing hummed or buzzed or clinked.
Aria hesitated. Run, said part of her mind. Get out of here now.
Run where? Iyal won’t be at the lab now, or maybe ever again. I can find the port all right, but what’ll I do once I’m there? She set her jaw and unhooked the cattle prod from her belt, wishing she’d thought to steal a couple of knives from the lab.
Aria stole forward, placing each step silently on the tiled floor. A glance into the dim room showed no movement. She slipped across the threshold and pressed her back against the wall, letting her eyes adjust to the darkness.
All the machines that filled the space were quite dead. No one moved between them. The door to Perivar’s living rooms hung open. No sight or sound of movement came from in there either.
Her gaze tracked across the silent machinery to the portal that divided Perivar’s home from Kiv’s. Its door was also open and the threshold was draped in grey rags left from whatever substance had kept their atmospheres free of each other. Beyond it waited nothing but shadows and pale, grey light spilling in from the windows.
Aria gasped and swore and backed toward the door to the hall. The sudden breeze and the firm click told her it had shut before she could even whirl around and see it for herself.
She pressed her palm against the smooth surface of the reader. Nothing. Aria cursed bitterly. It was locked and she couldn’t do anything. She’d never seen how the door opened without the reader. She cursed again, this time for not being bright enough to realize that all the Vitae had to do was look at the destination list for the bus to find out where she had been planning to go.
She bit her lip, bothered. Why weren’t they here already? She looked at the remains of the inner portal. Maybe this was supposed to look like an accident. If the authorities arrived before she had entered the trap and they found the Vitae there, their presence would be difficult to explain. Now, though, the Vitae would know she was here. They’d have some Skyman’s trick. They’d be on their way for her.
Hide, Aria. Where? Near the door? Assault them as they enter? Too obvious. They’ll be ready. Hide in the corners. Make them come digging for me. She glanced around. Perivar’s private quarters were small and nearly useless. She remembered that. Maybe Kiv’s.
Hide in the darkness, maybe even find a weapon and a defensible position. Keep your back to a wall and at least they can’t sneak up on you.
With one eye toward the hallway door, she sidestepped through the inner doorway into the shadows. The room was nothing but knobs and bumps and mounds of blackness. She slid between them carefully, making sure her feet were flat on the floor and her balance was sound at each step. She could not afford to be shocked into falling over.
The main walls of Kiv’s room were set in a mirror configuration of Perivar’s with the door to the private section in the far wall. When Aria reached it, she froze.
Draped across the threshold lay Kiv’s long corpse. His arms lay wrapped around three smaller corpses. Three of his daughters lay dead with him.
Aria swallowed hard. Horror and fear took her over as a wretched thought reminded her how the Vitae came to find this place. Anger came fast on their heels.
You don’t do this to the children. If your quarrel is with the parents, you bring it to the parents. You do not claim the lives of the children. The Nameless forbid it. Expressly, firmly, with every breath.
You are not in the Realm o
f the Nameless. The Skymen may do what they please.
But not this! There is no power that can excuse them for this!
She steeled herself and climbed around Kiv’s cold body.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered to the little corpses as she stepped around them. “Nameless Powers preserve me, I truly am.”
Her foot kicked something and it screamed. She jumped backward, missed her footing, and fell against Kiv’s clammy hide. With a screech of disgust, she scrabbled across the tacky floor. The thing on the floor screamed and whistled and buzzed, but didn’t move. Aria peered at it. It was about the size of her torso and it…writhed.
The capsule. It was the capsule that had dangled from the overhead cables and carried Kiv’s children between the rooms. Inside huddled one…no, two of the children.
They screamed at her. She rumbled with the disk in her ear. “Come on, you fool thing, work!” She tapped it impatiently.
“Murderer!” she heard abruptly. “You killed them! You killed them!”
The little one clawed at the sides of the capsule, its snout opening and closing maniacally as if it would bite its way through to get to her. The other grabbed at it with all four hands and twined their long bodies together until her sister was smothered into silence and could only lie still, with her sides trembling.
“Help us,” she pleaded. “I know it’s not your fault, but she’s going crazy. Please help us.”
“Oh, little ones,” Aria laid her hands on the capsule. “We’re trapped together unless you can you show me how to open the doors.”
“I can.”
“Then we’re gone.” Aria hefted the capsule. It weighed less than she thought it would. She balanced it on one shoulder. “Close your eyes,” she told them, and hoped they obeyed as she stepped over the remains of their family. Her stomach roiled and heaved and she forced her gorge back down. She had to get out of here. She had to get them out of here. She could hear one of them keening in a sound that she couldn’t imagine meant anything but pain.
Under the child’s instructions, she punched in the override code for the door lock. Aria had them all out in the hallway before the door had opened all the way. She avoided the elevators. Machines were the enemy now. Any or all of them might be in the hands of the Vitae. But the doors to the stairs were open and the stairway was clear.
“What are your names?” Aria asked as she negotiated the doorway with her cargo.
“I’m…I will be Kiv when we get back home, but until then, I’m named Ere,” said the one who was trying to calm her sister. “And Ri is my…my…” Whatever it was, Ere didn’t seem able to finish her sentence.
“Ere.” The stairs turned a corner and Aria had to juggle the capsule to keep from standing the children on their heads. “Is there a safe place I can take you?”
“The Embassy,” Ere said immediately. “They can…take care of us and…”
“Good.” Aria cut her off before she had to try to finish that sentence. “How far is it?”
“Across the city. I know the address. We all knew, in case of emergencies and…”
“And this is one, yes. I tell you what we’ll do. We’ll go to a public terminal and put in a call, let them know we’re coming…” She stopped. The Vitae might be listening to the lines and a call from her to the Shessel would let them know where she was going.
After another three flights of stairs, they came to a door labeled EXIT. Aria backed against the door to open it. The portal led straight out onto the main street, which was good, because it also led straight into a pair of Vitae. A young one and a tall one stood frozen in mid-stride, heading for the door.
Aria froze too, but her heart pounded. Backing up was no good, they’d hunt her like a rat. There was no way she could hide with the children in her arms. Running was already no good; they’d spread apart in front of her, ready to spring.
The weird scene was attracting attention. Passersby, probably on their way to warehouses or ship docks, turned their heads to see what was going to happen next. A few of them actually stopped dead.
The children also got a look at who blocked their way.
“Murderers!” screeched Ri. The capsule shuddered in Aria’s arms as Ri threw herself against the side. This time her sister made no move to stop her. “Murderers!”
Some people in the gathering crowd must have had translator disks, judging from their expressions.
“These children seem to have a grievance against you,” remarked Aria slowly.
“Your body is Vitae property,” said Young One. “You have no legal recourse to grievance committee or to council.”
Aria shook her head. “I am not making a grievance. These two of the Shessel race are.”
It was an old trick. Hide behind a superior rank whenever you could.
“You killed our parent!” Ri’s voice rose so high Aria’s eardrums responded with pain. “You slashed the membrane, shut the power, you left our sisters for dead, you suffocated our family, you…”
“Ere, calm her!” ordered Aria. Ri was going to hurt herself if she kept up her pounding. Worse, her shuddering would make Aria drop the capsule.
Ere wound herself around her sister again, but with less success. The capsule shook in Aria’s arms and she began to feel the strain of holding it.
“I am going to take these children to the Shessel Embassy.” She shifted her grip on the capsule. “You are welcome to come along and make whatever claim you have in there. If I don’t get them there, there will be two more deaths, this time in front of witnesses, because I can’t hold them much longer and if I drop them, and if this casing cracks, they’ll smother.”
The Vitae said nothing.
“Or we can just start shouting for a security patrol and I can tell my story to them and then you can tell yours and the Shessel can add whatever they feel necessary.” I am not a Notouch here, you bald, blind children, however hard you try to make me one. Then, a strange thought struck her. But you run this world, why isn’t security here already, by your orders ? A tart, satisfied feeling warmed her stomach. You’re doing something illegal, aren’t you? You CAN’T call security, can you?
Whatever it was the Vitae said to each other, the translator did not make any sense out of it. Aria watched the crowd behind the Vitae, and it was a real crowd now. They stood and stared. They said nothing. They didn’t move. They waited. These were the ones who ran their world and the crowd waited to see what they’d do.
Aria decided not to wait until the Vitae called her bluff. “Somebody get security!” she shouted to the crowd. “It’s a diplomatic incident and a murder call against the Vitae! Somebody get security!”
“Got it!” shouted a voice from the back of the gathering. “On the way! Five minutes!”
Aria smiled grimly. Some of these silent watchers wanted to rebel, all right, whether it meant the end of the world or not. Some of them were just waiting for the chance. Let the bald ones remember that!
“The Shessel will be taken to their Embassy,” said Tall One, “but you are our property. You will be taken by us.”
“Tell the patrol that. Tell them all about why these two are scared stiff of you.”
“They are children. They cannot give witness.”
“I can by Shessel law.” Ere pressed all her hands against the capsule side. “Our parent is dead. I am first-named and that makes me the voice of my family. I can give witness and name protectorates. I name Aria Stone.” She spread her mouth wide. Aria, for the first time, saw her needle-sharp teeth. “If we do not arrive at the Embassy in her hands, you are in violation of the treaty between the Shessel and this world and that is compounded on the crime of murder.”
“Murderers, murderers, murderers,” hissed Ri like she couldn’t make herself stop. By now, she probably couldn’t. “Murderers, murderers, murderers.”
“So, unless we all want to report to the patrol, you’re going to let me take these children out of here.” Aria shouldered the capsule again, grate
ful for the fact that Ri was confining herself to hissing and buzzing.
Aria started forward, right past the taller Vitae. He, she, or it, was speaking in the untranslated language, but she couldn’t tell to whom or what. They made no move to stop her, though, and she was glad. She was fairly sure the patrol would be on her side, but there would be endless Skyman formalities, and she had already lost too much time. “Ere, I am going to need your help.” Aria walked through the crowd. The bodies parted for her.
“Ah…all right. I’ll try.” The capsule wobbled precariously as Ere squirmed.
“I need you to keep me on the right path to the Embassy. We need crowded streets and residential areas. We can’t stay too long in deserted areas. We’re going to walk from here.”
“Walk!” whistled Ere. “But it’s miles and miles!”
“Any public transport we use might be rerouted by the Vitae,” Aria reminded her, “and I’m used to walking miles and miles.” She smiled and, with a patience that came from long necessity, stifled the pain in her aching knees and ankles. “Which is more than I’d say for those two behind us. They are behind us, aren’t they?” She felt the capsule shift again.
“Yes,” said Ere.
So, NOW they’re ready to chase me through the streets. “Well, well, strangest caravan I’ve ever been a part of but we’re lucky, little ones, though you might not believe it. There are lines they are not quite ready to cross yet. We have a chance to get you home still.”
And to get me out of here, if your people will help someone who helped some of their own.
“We can follow this street for a long time,” said Ere. “Until it gets to the New Crescent Quarter Way.”