by Patty Jansen
“Thank you,” he said.
“I didn’t know that the political situation was this fragile.” I said. “You should have mentioned it, then someone might have done something earlier.”
“You could not have done anything. The situation at the top is always fragile. When something happens, people try to take advantage. That’s the way things are.”
He met my eyes and I was reminded of how, at one time, I had feared him. Something changed, when he looked at me, seeing Taysha dead on the floor.
That expression was one of pain. It had been my writ I had acted on. Had I been Coldi, his position would have been mine. He knew that, I knew that. He was indebted to me, and that was not a situation that Asto’s Chief Coordinator could be in, ever.
I touched his forearm in a let’s forget about this way. “What about Margarethe?”
“She is at your apartment.” Was that a smile?
“I would like to speak with her before she returns home. Unless you still need me.”
I left that hanging, with no idea what was going to happen next.
“You can go,” he said. “I’ll see to it that you get transport.”
“Maybe Asha—”
“Not with the armed forces.”
All right that was a line not to cross in the future. Damn, was that part of his discomfort: that we’d been to the orbiting base?
“While this is being arranged, do me a pleasure and take some refreshments in my private quarters.”
Chapter 24
* * *
FROM THE HUB, we walked through the corridor that led to the lifts. We had to pick our way between the remnants of the fight. I counted two burnt-out drones and twenty-three bodies. There were likely to be a good number more than that.
It was Coldi habit to commit suicide rather than to submit to being ruled by a rival.
Ezhya walked ahead holding Raanu’s hand. He made no attempt to shield her from the sights of blood and burnt flesh. My urge to cover her eyes had to be a human response. I had a hard time believing that Coldi wouldn’t be affected by this carnage. By all accounts, they were affected, but just in a different way that I hadn’t even begun to understand.
“The more I learn, the less I know.” Who was it who said that?
It was a game and I was in far too deep.
Ezhya’s private rooms were behind a door off the lift foyer.
A couple of domestic workers already busied themselves cleaning. Three bodies lay unceremoniously stacked on a trolley. A male worker was scrubbing the floor.
As Ezhya entered the foyer, all workers, and there were five, snapped into subservient positions.
A door off the foyer led to a rectangular hall with a door directly opposite the entrance and a corridor going to the right. The setup reminded me of my apartment in Barresh.
Next to the door to the living room stood the customary table with an arrangement of a flat tray filled with pebbles on which stood two glass containers like fish bowls. At first sight, they appeared of equal size, but one of them was ever so slightly bigger than the other. I glanced at Thayu for the meaning of the arrangement, but at that moment there was a commotion in the lift foyer behind us.
One of the voices sounded very familiar.
Ezhya turned around, handed Raanu to me and walked straight back into the foyer.
A couple of people had come in: Asha, dressed in a uniform more elaborate than he’d worn at the orbiting base. Natanu, looking like she’d jumped through a mince machine and missed most of the cutting blades, if not the sprays of blood.
Ezhya crossed the hall, past the remaining bodies, buckets, mops and brooms. The domestic staff scurried to the sides.
Asha and Natanu stopped in the middle of the foyer, side by side. Both took up the subservient position. A beam of filtered natural light fell in through an opening in the ceiling. It cast a hazy patch of light that hit the top of Natanu’s head. Despite her filthy state, her hair glittered like a peacock’s feathers.
She was strong, healthy and formidable.
Ezhya faced both of them. He reached out both hands and placed one on each of their shoulders. So they remained standing for a reflective, solemn minute or so.
One person at the top. Two on the next level, four on the level below that. I imagined Natanu and Asha facing the other way around, each with one hand on the shoulder of their subordinates. Then there would be a third level and a fourth, each increasing in exponentials of two.
That was Coldi society.
Ezhya lifted his hands and brought the fingertips of both hands to Asha and Natanu’s chins. He pushed their heads up until both looked into his eyes.
No one spoke, no made a sound. The domestic staff watched from the perimeter of the hall. Sheydu and Veyada had joined them, standing in the entrance to the corridor. A good portion of hair had escaped from Sheydu’s ponytail and Veyada’s suit had acquired a large rip from the left shoulder across his chest. When Natanu stepped back from Ezhya, I expected them to approach her, but they didn’t.
Even when she turned in their direction, they ignored her. She walked past them without looking at them. The two looked at Thayu, who made a gesture at them. Stay.
Veyada’s arm twitched.
Thayu made another gesture, one I didn’t know.
Veyada ran forward. Thayu sprang like a tensed-up predator.
I yelled, “Hey!” I hadn’t seen that coming.
The two crashed into each other with a bone-jarring thud. Thayu grabbed hold of Veyada’s belt and tipped him upside-down over her shoulder. He landed hard on his back. She rolled and sat on top of him, pinning down his arms with her hands. The whole thing took no more than a few seconds.
They regarded each other, panting.
“You win,” Veyada said.
Thayu let go of his arms and clambered to her feet. Veyada rose more clumsily. He was holding his arm against his body in a funny way that made me think he’d hurt something.
Sheydu joined him and both did a sheya greeting. Thayu put her hands on both their shoulders as Ezhya had done.
So, he and Sheydu now belonged under Thayu. That meant Nicha needed two assistants, and we would be a complete association again. And to think that I’d thought my apartment in Barresh was too big.
The two guards had made a huge tumble in status, from being just below the top to working with someone who didn’t even rank.
I met Thayu’s eyes. She radiated health and happiness.
I said to her in a low voice, “Do make sure he sees a doctor, right?”
She glanced sideways at Veyada, whose face had gone pale. “Yeah, all right.”
Ezhya sent the four of them in search of the bath and led me into his private apartment. His hand still rested on Raanu’s shoulder.
I felt it was necessary to say something about my poaching the two guards. “I’m very sorry about what happened to your guards.”
“They were a complete association. I did not stand at the top of them. Natanu did. I thought it would be safe, but it seems I misjudged. Take the two.”
“But I can’t possibly—” Did he have any guards left?
“Take them,” Ezhya said, his voice definite. “I have no use for people whose loyalty to me has broken. You could use a lawyer. My guards need to be sorted out anyway. Natanu has moved up as my second. That whole association is broken. I’m thinking of employing a group of ex-Hedron guards.”
“Why?” I wondered how that would be interpreted in the Inner Circle.
“They’ll do their jobs without attempting to stab me in the back.”
“What? Did Natanu . . .” The words attack you died o
n my tongue. It wasn’t appropriate to discuss this kind of thing.
“Not her,” he said. “She’ll be up here tonight to have dinner with us, won’t she, pebble?” He ruffled Raanu’s hair.
An elderly servant with a kind face came to bring a tray of dishes with all kind of snacks, which he placed on the table.
“All green-coded,” he said and bowed to me.
Ezhya waited to speak until the man had left.
“The problem is partially solved. The Inner Circle is stable again, but the Aghyrian claim stands. Gamra has no option but to discuss it. It is clever to link the claim with the treatment of the zeyshi.”
“According to these people, Aghyrians and zeyshi are linked. They say it’s not something that can be determined by taking a blood test.”
“Aghyrian genes can easily be determined by taking a blood test. But I accept their point. Many threads are going where the blood cannot.”
“Misha Palayi, Chief Coordinator of Asto.” And for the first time, I understood that proverb, really understood it. “Still, what I saw of the zeyshi are not people suffering the effects of poor treatment. These zeyshi are quite rich.”
“Gambling money and proceeds from crime.”
“Not exclusively, I think.”
He raised an eyebrow. I told him of the well-appointed hospital and all the patients visiting, many of them from within the city’s Circles. Strangely enough something Risha had said came to my memory.
Circles or spokes. What do you think is better?
“This is what worries me,” Ezhya said. “Aghyrian medicine is very good. They can do things to bodies that we cannot. I shudder to think of all the knowledge buried in those underground passages waiting to be discovered.”
“Then you should talk to them. I believe this is a group whose first interest is Asto. I’m afraid I cannot say the same of the Aghyrian enclave in Barresh.”
“Federza is an idiot.”
That was not how I would put it. “If he’s an idiot, he’s a smart one, and a rich one.”
We spoke of how we would deal with the claim, the details and fine points. Ezhya agreed that I should try to plead to Chief Delegate Akhtari to take it to mediation instead of letting it be heard by the full assembly. He added, “Mind you, being Aghyrian, I’d say she’d have a vested interest in this claim.”
“Maybe, but I think we can discount my suspicion that they are behind this group. It’s not a bad thing. I think we can work with these people.” Spokes, not circles. Spokes reaching out from the centre to those on the outside. “I don’t think they’re interested in conflict, and they’re definitely not interested in gamra politics.” And the latter could only be a bonus.
He met my eyes in one of those chillingly sincere expressions. “I can only assume we will see more of you, then. That’s not a bad thing either.”
“Thank you.” I made those two words as sincere as I could.
He grabbed and squeezed my shoulder, his eyes closed and lips pressed together. It was an embarrassing thing to see so much emotion in his face. I looked aside, meeting Raanu’s keen eyes.
“Next time when you come, don’t leave her alone.”
He snorted. “What’s this, advice from someone who doesn’t have children?”
“There will be some, soon enough.” Amazing how quickly that decision had taken root in my mind.
He patted my shoulder, when he stiffened and listened. I was afraid something bad had happened, but he said only, “The staff tells me your craft is ready.”
It was with regret that I got up from the couch. From the time since I’d started working for him, this was by far the most informative and amicable talk we’d shared. I said goodbye to Raanu, poor little lonely girl, growing up too fast in a sea of adults.
In the foyer, the domestic staff had removed all the bodies and cleaned the floor. If it wasn’t for missing chunks of plaster on some of the pillars, you could never tell what had happened there that morning.
A woman in a dark blue uniform approached, her head bowed. In her outstretched hand she held a parcel, a rectangular box wrapped in foil. “I’ve been asked to deliver this.”
Ezhya reached to take it, but he retracted his hand. “It’s for you.”
For me?
I took the parcel from her. The handwriting on the label was vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t place it. The box didn’t weigh much. I turned it over. A label on the side said, Asha, clan leader of the Domiri clan.
Well, what the. . . ?
I wasn’t sure if I should open it, and judged it probably better to wait. I followed Ezhya into the lift. On the roof of the building, the lift opened into a covered, security-glass-sided room. Thayu, Nicha, Veyada and Sheydu were waiting on chairs around the perimeter, oblivious to the heat. Veyada held his arm in a sling.
Ezhya’s craft stood outside the structure. A member of the Inner Circle staff was cleaning the windows.
Holy crap! How hot was it in this glasshouse?
Ezhya pressed a button and a door slid open, letting a blissful breeze into the room. He patted my arm.
“I won’t keep you long. I know that this weather distresses you.”
“Thank you. It does.”
I climbed up the ramp into the positively arctic cabin.
Most Hedron-made craft came with an interior an eye-blinding shade of orange. This one’s interior was—you guessed it—maroon. I could only begin to guess what the Coldi saw in the colour, which came up as purple-black when you discounted red hue, which Coldi eyes didn’t see.
Thayu, Nicha and I settled in the benches closest behind the pilot. Veyada and Sheydu looked a bit lost. I told them to have a rest, and they vanished in the back cabin.
The craft lifted off and flew low over the buildings of Athyl before rising sharply. Nicha grabbed a couple of drinks from the dispenser.
For a while, we sat in silence. It was good to be together with them again. I could turn my thoughts to other things, such as preparing for the discussion about the claim and finding a suitable father for our child. It had to be someone from Hedron, I decided. This sheya instinct was too hard to deal with.
I finally broke the silence. “Well, what did you make of that?”
“He’s still very confused,” Thayu said.
Nicha nodded. “What actually happened in that hub room? That seemed to be the cause of it.”
“I killed Taysha.”
Nicha took in a sharp breath.
“You didn’t get to deliver the writ?”
“No.”
“Damn, that is confusing.”
“He has trouble placing you. I think you better lie low for a while, and let things settle.”
“That arrangement in his hallway worried me,” Nicha said.
“Yes, me, too. I’d never seen those slightly unequal bowls before. What do you think it meant?”
“Confusion. Wondering where you belong.”
Thayu frowned. “You know what I think?”
Both Nicha and I looked at her. “I think that for the time being, he has decided to treat you as equal.”
“But he’s already been treating me—” No, he hadn’t. Also, she didn’t really mean equal, because Ezhya had treated me as diplomatic equal for some time. What she meant to say, but didn’t, was zhayma. And Chief Coordinators didn’t have zhaymas because that implied someone else stood above them. Shit, this mess was becoming more tangled all the time. Because it didn’t matter whether or not I wanted to join Domiri clan. It mattered that they thought that I had the right to do so.
Two thoughts came to me at the same time: If that’s how they see it, then I should probably do it and I’m not
going to survive this tangling with Coldi instincts. Thayu and Nicha didn’t need to say anything for me to know that they thought exactly the same things.
Well, that was sobering.
Then I remembered I hadn’t opened Asha’s parcel yet. I ripped the foil and peeled it off. A small card was inserted in the wrapping. I folded it open, half-afraid it was going to contain some kind of threat or ultimatum, but it said only, Glad to have you with us.
Inside the box lay a pair of earrings. The delicate rose-gold filigree held a blood-red stone, the colour of the Domiri clan.
Nicha’s eyes widened.
“Put them in,” Thayu said. Her single earring—because I wore the other one—dangled against the skin of her neck.
I unhooked my own earring with a white opal from my right ear. It lay looking forlorn in my hand. Eirani had bought these somewhere at the markets in Barresh. The white symbolised peace, but in some gamra worlds white was the colour of death.
These earrings had served me well, but it was time to move on.
I met Nicha’s eyes. Being un-partnered, he still had both the earrings his parents had given him. Emerald green ones, because he’d taken the Palayi clan from his mother.
I dropped the white-stone earring in the box and hooked the new one into my ear. I gave the other one to Thayu and she did the same.
It was a very solemn occasion.
There would be no going back.
* * *
It was early evening when we landed in Barresh. Walking down from the ramp, carrying the tank and both temperature retaining suits, I couldn’t believe how I’d once thought Barresh was hot. The air was soft and humid. The breeze full of earthy scents.
The craft kept its engines running. Ours was a quick set-down and departure. The pilot was very keen to leave again. Most likely she was hoping to get back before the spots in Ezhya’s new guard were decided. It also occurred to me that Ezhya had not been overly concerned that he had no protection.