“Only because you weren’t there in the beginning. He needed me then. He was burning with ambition, but he had a quick temper and was used to the rough justice of the Dovian mountains. They don’t tolerate his kind at the academy. They focused on him and tried to break him. He wouldn’t break. He learned to be just enough like them to get by . . . or at least to get through the ten years of the academy. But he was going down the tubes until I started to help him.”
Arria was nodding now, smiling slightly. “He doesn’t feel gratitude when he thinks of you, Calla. He gets warm inside and yearns so much it makes my knees tremble.”
Calla stared at her, then looked away, knowing that her eyes were beginning to water. “Thank you for telling me that,” she whispered, “but I swear to you that I don’t know why Anwar Jason D’Estelle loves me.”
“But at least you believe it now,” Arria said softly.
For a while, Calla thought, but not forever. The doubts always creep in. She busied herself with clearing away tiny stones and bits of rubble from a flat place on the ground so she could lay down and sleep, but she couldn’t lay down and rest when it was done. She turned back to Arria. “I think that Jason . . . well, that perhaps he has loved other . . . “ She stopped. She wanted to be of some comfort to Arria, but it hurt too much to say.
“You don’t have to worry, Calla. I understand now. He won’t risk what he has with you. No other love means as much to him. That’s what I didn’t understand.”
“He is strong enough, but I am not?”
Arria shrugged and pretended to be concentrating on nibbling the last morsel of root from the leafy stems.
***
Near dawn the next day, Calla and Arria had made it to a vantage point above Red Rocks. They could see the terrace lake and the still-blockaded entrance to the underground, and had a clear view of the small landing pad, on which there were six shuttles, and the meadows beyond where dozens more were idle.
“He doesn’t expect trouble soon,” Calla said, “or those ships would be aloft. Do you have any feeling for how many there are? Especially those on guard outside.”
“Hundreds, maybe a thousand or more,” Arria said grimly. “I don’t think I can sort out that many.”
“As long as you can tell when one of them comes near,” Calla said.
“I can,” Arria said with certainty. “I won’t ever shut it out again. Not for anyone.”
Calla thought Arria sounded just a little angry, but perhaps that was healthy. Timekeeper knew that Calla had been angry with Jason more than just a little over the years, especially when she discovered he had not been honest with her. Funny, though, that she felt at ease with Arria despite knowing that she loved Jason and that, apparently in his own way, Jason loved her, too. In the past months, no — years, she reminded herself — two years for Arria, the girl had lost her shy fear of everyone and, perhaps just in these last two days, she seemed to have acquired an understated pride. Calla realized that she trusted her completely to warn her if any of Mahdi’s troops approached. It was strange, because she wasn’t certain she even trusted Jason that much.
“Yes you do,” Arria whispered. “You left all our fates in his hands. And I don’t mean just those of us on Mutare.”
“I’m not sure I like having my thoughts answered,” Calla said.
“Yes you do,” Arria said almost gleefully. “You’re a shameless egoist.”
Calla didn’t argue. She felt oddly at peace with Arria, somehow certain that she never would come between her and Jason. Her certainty was, she was also sure, due to Arria’s own assurance of Jason’s love for her. She could hardly wait for him to say it again to her and to know what that would feel like without having the slightest doubt marring her joy.
“There’s a place down below where we can sleep safely at dawn,” Arria said. “I’ve been here many times. Tonight I’ll see if I can zero in on some officer and find a pattern in their guard rotation.”
Calla shook her head, brought back to the here and now by Arria’s casual assessment of duty. “You won’t find a pattern. It’s totally random, computer-generated. The best we can hope for is to know where the stations are.”
“All right, then,” Arria said. “But don’t worry, Calla. I can get them through. If they can swim . . .”
Calla nodded. Jason could swim. Anyone who had spent much time in the palatial baths of Mercury Novus could swim. That meant Marmion could, too, even though she didn’t have personal knowledge of his aquatic abilities. “It looks as if I don’t have to do any worrying. You’re doing enough for both of us. What would you have done if they could not swim?”
Arria shrugged. “I can swim. A danae taught me.”
“Tonto? But, we thought he died.”
“He’s fine, wearing a completely new body. It is Tonto. Though Jason says we can’t ever be sure, I am. He has knowledge of Jason, and he remembers Old Blue-eyes. But then, Jason doesn’t have my abilities, and it’s his nature to doubt.”
Calla smiled at knowing the impudent Tonto had survived after all. Jason had not failed to save at least one of his danae friends. She looked beyond the ships in the meadows to see the first glint of sunlight on the Amber Forest. “What’s happening down there?” she asked Arria.
“Nothing. It’s empty. They saw all the weaponry and fled. At least, most of them did. A few are around to keep watch, and of course there’s some wild ones who don’t know any better.”
“Do you . . . understand them?” Calla asked.
“No,” Arria said, sounding genuinely disappointed. “Not really. I recognize some of their songs . . . psi songs. But I understand them even less than I understand people.” She laughed, at herself, Calla thought. “I used to think that I wanted to be one of them. I tried to save my father by making him one of them. I would have caught another nymph to cocoon with me. I still think that maybe one day . . . “ She shook her head. “Well, I think maybe now I have a better chance at being a human person instead of a danae person.”
“You think they’re sentient?”
“I’m sure of it.” Her gaze fixed on Calla. “They left, didn’t they? Even Tonto is gone, and he stayed through the winter when the others would not. They’re smarter than we are.”
“Or they just know they’re more vulnerable. They can’t fight back.” Calla shook her head sadly. “What about our people. Can you tell how they’re doing?”
Arria sat silently, stonily. “They’re not there. Only D’Omaha and Stairnon.”
“Dead?” Calla said, aghast. “All of them dead? Timekeeper, how could he kill so many in such a short time? There’s no facilities for disposal of so many.”
The thin shoulders shrugged. “They aren’t there.”
“Maybe he took them all up to the ships,” Calla said hopefully.
Arria frowned. “I don’t think so.”
“How far can you . . .”
“Not that far,” Arria said, looking up. “Maybe less than a kilometer on my own, but sometimes the psi-creatures relay things from farther away.”
“The danae, you mean.”
“And the insects and lots of other animals.” Arria half smiled. “It shouldn’t surprise you so, Calla. If one psi-species evolved, others would, too. Ever noticed how so many of them have no hearing organs?”
“I didn’t,” Calla said, “but I recall that Jason commented on it in his reports.”
“And some of them relay, especially things like psi-shock. I don’t think they’re dead, Calla. I think I would have known if a full-scale slaughter were taking place. But I can’t get that they’ve been taken to the ships. That leaves sleep. Drug or machine induced sleep, dreamless sleep.”
“And we’ll kill them all when we blow the bottom out of that lake,” Calla said. “Dear Timekeeper.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know, yet,” Calla said. “Timekeeper knows I’ve never killed innocents who were helpless.”
“You destroyed
seven other elixir plants. There were people in them.”
Calla nodded. “Some who wouldn’t leave. I would like to think not any who couldn’t, though my common sense tells me that’s probably not true.” Calla hugged her head, feeling devastated. Many had already died by her hand, she knew that, but at least their deaths were distant and she could rationalize that they had made the choice themselves. And sometimes it had come down to simple arithmetic. Lives lost now saved x times two or ten on the morrow. But sleeping civilians? She never had faced that choice before.
“Others have,” Arria said.
“I know,” Calla said, feeling very weak and terribly tired. “Now it’s my turn, and I can’t do it.”
“You’ve already decided what to do. But I don’t understand how you can get our people out even if you do go below.”
Calla shrugged. “I don’t know yet either.”
“But you’re determined to try.” Arria sighed. “I’ll help in whatever way I can.”
Calla nodded. “Show me where to sleep. I’ll think better after I’ve had some sleep.”
Chapter 26
It was only moments before dawn, the traditional time for hanging traitors. The staging area in Round House was filled with Mahdi’s officers, an audience assembled less to witness the hanging than to witness Mahdi’s revenge. Calla would hang on the very gallows she had built for Mahdi.
D’Omaha was standing next to Mahdi, already finding himself accustomed to being there. Without any pomp or circumstance, Mahdi had declared himself emperor. D’Omaha remembered being slightly amused when Mahdi had mentioned his intention of doing so two years ago. He wasn’t amused now, and he didn’t find his own title of Governor of All Elixir amusing. Calla, however, had laughed aloud and still wore a sarcastic smile.
“Let’s see if you can keep that expression on your face when the noose tightens,” Mahdi said still savoring his contempt.
Calla’s capture had excited Mahdi even more than taking the entire facility. D’Omaha understood, for now Mahdi would have his revenge. D’Omaha regretted that Jason had not been captured with her; he deserved some satisfaction, too.
“I will give you one last chance,” Mahdi said to Calla. She was standing between two husky guards. “Swear allegiance to me as emperor of all the known worlds and I will spare you.”
Calla turned her back on Mahdi, and in so doing she met D’Omaha’s eye. “You surprised me,” she said. “I would not have believed you had a price that Mahdi could name.”
Beside him he could feel Stairnon shrivel with shame and Mahdi trembling anew with anger. But D’Omaha just looked at her and shook his head; she could not affect him. “I did what I had to do to save the remaining elixir for everyone. You overstepped, you ran amok. It was quite probable that you would even destroy this last facility to end a siege.” The comers of her mouth twitched. “That I could not permit.”
Her brown eyes fixed on him as she shook her head. “You always knew that I might; you, Koh, all of you knew what the possibilities were. No, D’Omaha, you were bought.”
“Of course he was bought,” Mahdi interjected. The emperor was angry at being ignored, and too arrogant to consider that D’Omaha might be enjoying some small triumph with Calla where he could not. The emperor was also smart enough to know how to get Calla’s attention despite all her resolve not to give it to him. “I bought him with elixir, elixir for his wife!”
“If you believe that, you’re a bigger fool than I thought,” Calla said contemptuously to Mahdi. “He could have stolen elixir for her. Who better placed to do so than him? You think you bought him with elixir?” Calla shook her head. “He’s decemvir. He’ll never let you know why he turned. And that, Mahdi, ought to worry you.”
“Don’t listen to her, sire,” D’Omaha said quickly when he saw the seeds of doubt take root in Mahdi. “She’s determined to do as much damage as she can while she can. Hang her and be done with it.” Behind him, Stairnon gasped at the brutality of his words. He regretted that she was there to hear them.
“I know what she’s doing, D’Omaha,” Mahdi said crossing his arms over his chest. He looked at D’Omaha contemplatively. Then Mahdi gestured for the guards to take Calla up the scaffolding, but he didn’t follow right away. “The bitch has done her damage,” he said to D’Omaha. “Why did you do it?”
D’Omaha said nothing, but put his arm around Stairnon and drew her forth.
Mahdi looked at her from head to toe, met D’Omaha’s eyes with a doubtful expression. Then the emperor of all the known worlds turned to follow his nemesis up the ladder so that he could place the noose around her neck with his own hand.
D’Omaha sighed and squeezed Stairnon. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“Hush,” D’Omaha said sternly. “You’re not to blame. You never were.”
She was looking up at him, tears in her eyes. “I’ve been so afraid, but what’s so awful is that I wasn’t afraid enough. It wasn’t for me, was it? It was the helplessness, the lack of power. You never recovered from Jason humiliating you.”
“Jason?” D’Omaha smiled at Stairnon. She was trying so hard to understand. “It was decided long before Jason. It was Macduhi who made me realize I could not live forever without power, and it was Koh letting Calla keep command of the . mission that convinced me I must do something to regain the power I had lost. I just didn’t quite know what or how until Mahdi came along. Jason merely served to reaffirm my determination.”
Stairnon was wide-eyed, shaking her head in disbelief. “And for the sake of your pride you’ll let your friend go to the gallows?”
“She has to go, Stairnon,” he said as gently as he could. “You can see that. Calla’s intractable. If we are to live, she cannot.”
“Nor Jason?” Stairnon said.
“If he’s caught, he’ll be hanged, too.”
“And Marmion, and Arria, and Tierza, and . . . when will it stop, D’Omaha? When will you hang me?”
“Stairnon!”
“Don’t touch me,” she said sharply drawing away from him. “I have been so ashamed that I have not had the courage not to drink the elixir. I knew it must be illicit, and I knew that it was arrogant of you to take it for me. I was so frightened that I would inadvertently betray you.”
“You won’t have to feel ashamed or frightened anymore.”
“Won’t I?” Stairnon looked up at the gallows. Mahdi was opening the noose with exaggerated care. Stairnon pulled the shawl tight across her shoulders. “That man will never be satisfied; Calla’s seen to that. He’s going to wonder why you helped him, if not for the elixir. And if he ever realizes that it’s the very same power he has that you want, he’ll put you on that gallows, too.”
She was right. He reached for her again, and this time she didn’t shrink away from him. She let him put his arm tightly around her and lead her away.
Chapter 27
Jason and Marmion had kept to the forests and used the trees to cover their trek from patrolling flyers. Thorny branches caught on the packs they’d fashioned from Jinn’s supply of nymph cocoons, but the silk was strong and did not tear. The branches snapped away to whip the man behind if he were following too closely. They ate while walking, mostly greens that melted away in their stomachs like water, but they also shared a tin of sweets they’d found stashed in the bottom of Jinn’s explosives locker, perhaps one put aside by Jinn for some special occasion. The food lockers had been empty, looted by some passing miner or even by one of Jason’s own rangers.
They slept in short naps, rousing themselves before they were fully rested, and pressed onward. By the third day they were too tired to care about the welts and abrasions their fatigue was earning them. That night they crept past the Amber Forest. It was eerily still: No flash of rainbow wings to acknowledge their passing, no curious eyes peeping out from behind the branches, frightened out of their homes by alien warriors, of which Anwar Jason D’Estelle was as much one as Ramnen Mahdi Swayman.
“Sh
e should be here,” Marmion said as the footpath to Red Rocks came into view.
“She’ll find us,” Jason said turning back into the trees.
They could not use the trail, and he didn’t even want to stay parallel to it. It was too easily seen from Mahdi’s low-flying craft.
In the grove beyond the Amber Forest, Arria stepped out of a clump of bushes. Her hair was braided and fastened with strands of grass, her bush pants stained from days of continuous wear.
“How’s Calla?” Jason asked.
“Comfortable,” Arria said. “This way.” She turned to lead them away from the grove. “Quickly,” she hissed. “There’s a foot patrol ahead.”
Jason shifted the pack: The sharp edges of the explosives’ casings bit harder into his back; the cocoon gave him no protection. Silently he followed Arria.
The route was serpentine, leading to the backside of the ridge wherein Red Rocks was burrowed. “They must have guards back here,” Jason whispered.
“They do,” Arria whispered back. “But there’s more cover here. We can use the animal path to the lake. They haven’t realized it’s there.”
“It’s almost dawn,” Marmion said. “It may be better to wait for nightfall.”
“No!” Arria said sharply. “I mean, Calla says tonight.”
“Where is Calla?”
“Out of sight,” Arria replied.
Shortly, Jason realized he was following a trail of sorts. If they crouched, and they did, the shrubs and boulders covered them from eyes they could not even see.
At the top of the ridge, Arria held them up with her hand. Jason mopped his brow with a piece of cocoon. Below them, on the lakeside, he heard footsteps. He could see nothing. They waited quietly for a long time.
“There’s a laser cannon on the south side up in the rocks, and they’re using infrared scanners,” Arria said, “but not everyplace is covered. The rocks that the danae used to sit on offer some protection, until you get into the water.”
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