“I’m sorry,” she said.
Startled, he jerked and the stacks of vids tumbled together. Rising to his feet and turning to face her, Elrabin’s eyes were stony. “Grab the winks,” he said. “Tomorrow will be harder.”
She held out her hand in appeal. “Are we in trouble?”
“We are not permitted to discuss our betters,” Elrabin said, his voice stiff and cold.
Ampris understood he was speaking for the benefit of the activated surveillance. “I was wrong to forget that,” she said. “I won’t repeat my mistake.”
“You need sleep,” he said, his voice almost a growl. “I’ll go if there’s nothing else you require.”
He turned away as he spoke, but Ampris tapped his shoulder to stop him. “Wait,” she said, thinking quickly. She had too many questions to let him go just yet. “I—I want another bath. Fill the pool for me.”
Elrabin stared at her a moment, then blinked several times as though he understood. “Another bath? But—”
Ampris growled. “Do you question my request? Do it!”
“At once.”
Without further protest, he headed back into the bathing chamber. Ampris followed him, and stood watching while he turned on the water in the pool, the sink, and even the hygiene closet. With the noise of the water rushing around them, Elrabin turned around to face her.
“Are we safe here?” she mouthed.
He gave her a wary nod.
She wanted to be sure and tapped her collar. “Even with these?”
“Yeah,” he said. “Transmission quality ain’t never too good. The noise of water really messes it up.”
“Good,” Ampris said in relief. “Now we can talk.”
“There’s been too much talking already,” he said. “When I give you a warning, Goldie, you gotta pay attention to me at once. Get that?”
She growled. “I hate these restrictions! Oh, to be free to say what I want when I want!”
His gaze held no sympathy. “Might as well wish to be Kaa. You ain’t going to get nowhere thinking like that.”
“Someday I will be free, Elrabin.”
“Sure you will,” he said with a smirk of pity. “Keep talking that way, and you’ll get the rod.”
“How do you know when surveillance is on?” she asked. “Your collar is different than mine. How do you—”
He held up his hand. “Secret, Goldie. I ain’t sharing that with no one, not even you.”
“But—”
“Forget it. Cost me plenty already to have my collar tampered with, but it’s worth it, see? Saved my hide several times.” He snarled at her in sudden hostility. “You say one word about this, and I’ll make sure you get stolen by the competitors.”
Ampris backed her ears. “You don’t have to threaten me,” she assured him. “I would never betray you.”
“Heard that one before,” he said bleakly.
She met his gaze. “It’s true,” she said. “I keep my word. You can trust me. After all, I trust you.”
“Drop it, okay?” he said, glancing away. He looked distinctly uncomfortable. “When folk start talking about trust, I know what’s coming.”
She looked at him, saw the ghosts of old hurts and betrayals swirling in his eyes. Pity filled her, but she stopped giving him the assurances he was afraid to believe in.
“Besides, Goldie,” he went on. “You ain’t going to be around long.”
“What do you mean?”
“You take stupid risks, unnecessary risks.”
She drew in a breath. “Ah, so you heard about what happened today.”
“I did. We all did.”
She heard criticism in his voice, and she didn’t like it. “That was a necessary risk.”
“Someone says you killed a Viis before. That’s why you got sent to the gladiators.”
Ampris sighed. That terrible day was going to follow her the rest of her life.
Elrabin watched her intently, panting a little. “You’re not denying it,” he said.
Still she said nothing. She wasn’t proud of what she’d done in the city of Malraaket. While a lowly household slave, she’d killed her owner’s steward in self-defense, and that did not justify pride.
“Now you’ve attacked the master here,” Elrabin said, shaking his head. “If you’re not careful, you’ll end up a rogue.”
“I was proving a point.”
He yipped caustically. “You’re lucky he didn’t have you flayed alive. Your hide could be a rug on his floor tonight.”
Grimly she said, “He got the message.”
“Maybe. You better not try that again.”
“I’m not stupid,” she said, annoyed.
“Then don’t do it again.”
Ampris lifted her head proudly. “Is the lecture over?”
“Yeah. Get some winks. I’m going.”
“Wait,” she said. “I have something else to discuss with you.”
“Getting late, Goldie,” he said.
“This won’t take long,” she replied, thinking of the stack of vids he’d left on the sitting room floor. “Do I have a real vid link that feeds off the main signal, or do I just have a player for those vids you were handling in the other room?”
Elrabin snarled something beneath his breath, and looked at her in suspicion. “It’s a real link. Why?”
“Can I link to data archives?” she asked in excitement. “Can I retrieve information from—”
“Stop!” he said, holding up his hands. “What’re you up to?”
“Freedom!” she said, panting eagerly. “Knowledge is the first step. The more information I know, the more truth I learn, and the better I can begin to—”
“No,” he said sharply, swiveling back his ears. “That’s it. I ain’t getting into this.”
“Listen to me,” Ampris said, moving to block his exit. She smiled into his hostile eyes, eager to convince him of all the possibilities just waiting for the two of them. “We can make a difference, Elrabin. I know we can. Opportunities are waiting to be grasped. The abiru folk need a leader, someone to give them a vision of hope.”
“Hope.” He spoke the word with flat contempt. “Don’t be stupid.”
“It’s not stupid to have a dream, a vision.”
“I don’t want to hear any treason jabber,” he said. “My, my, Goldie. Not only do you take risks with the master that’d make my fur turn white, but now you’ve turned out to be a crusader. Here you stand, making speeches, talking like an activator, a rebel, a traitor.”
“Like a Progressionist,” Ampris said softly. Then she lifted her head with pride. “You didn’t think I had it in me, did you?”
“Going to get yourself killed,” he said flatly.
“No, I won’t. My beliefs are true—”
“Stop it,” he said angrily. “Truth . . . beliefs . . . bah! Are you crazy in the lid? You start preaching treason, Goldie, and the Viis will cut off your head and hang it on the gate for the birds to peck.”
Ampris thought of the trophy room in the Kaa’s mountain lodge and shuddered.
“Yeah,” Elrabin went on, “you think about that. Good and hard. Treason ain’t for the likes of you. It ain’t worth the risk.”
“Because of our collars?”
Exasperation flashed in his eyes. “Nah. They ain’t always on. But you trust folk too quick for your own good, Goldie. You got to be more careful.”
“I will.”
Elrabin rubbed his muzzle and snorted to himself. “I’m just trying to keep your head on your neck. I told you this place ain’t all it seems. The master likes to punish us, see? He speaks soft to you, and you think he’s decent, but you ain’t seen the cruelty yet.”
Ampris remembered how Halehl had whipped and berated Ylea for attacking her upon her arrival. That was nothing more than normal Viis punishment. She herself had received worse for her own transgressions.
“Don’t give me that look,” Elrabin was muttering. “You don’t want to beli
eve me? Fine. So what you planning to do next? Go out and teach old Aaroun harvest songs to your teammates, just because they’re Aarouns and their genetics should make ’em trustworthy? You going to make your first converts to the cause with that bunch?”
“I do want to talk to them,” Ampris said, ignoring his sarcasm. “I’ve never been around my own kind much. I want to learn the Aaroun ways.”
“See?” he said, too shrilly. “No sense. Let me tell you about Aaroun ways. Ylea will slit your throat if she gets a chance. Not up here in the private quarters, because you’re guarded. But in the arena, she’ll turn on you and make it look like your opponent cut you down.”
“They can’t all be like her.”
“Why not?” he asked her in open exasperation. “Why not? Why look for the good in folk? Why waste your time? Why take the risk?”
Ampris let the silence spin out a moment beneath the rush of water around them, then she said in a quiet voice, “I don’t know yet what I’m supposed to be doing in this life, but I’m beginning to get an idea. Living in the palace got me a fine education. I can read and write and do higher mathematics. I know some history—both the real as well as the falsified versions. I understand music and art. I can read a basic star map and figure out where I am. I know how to survive court intrigues. I know protocol and I can speak Viis fluently. So what does that make me, Elrabin? A freak, or someone who sees what all abiru folk can be like if given the chance and opportunities?”
“No one gets a chance,” Elrabin said resentfully.
“There has to be a way to make chances,” Ampris said. “I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time, but we have to find a way to get around luck. We have to make our own opportunities, and show others how to do the same.”
“Save the speeches, Goldie,” Elrabin said with a jaw-cracking yawn. “There’s no one to hear.”
Hurt, Ampris backed her ears and swung away. Elrabin was so typical, so closed-minded and afraid to venture out, just like nearly all the others. He had many gifts and talents. He could be so much more than he was, if he would just believe in himself.
But then a voice rose up in the back of her mind, jeering at her. What did she expect Elrabin to be? He was a slave. He could not do as he pleased, go where he pleased, no more than she could. And besides, what was all her fine education for, except to make her aware of all the possibilities denied to her?
“The way I see it,” Elrabin said, startling her from her thoughts, “is we got to find us some rules here, Goldie.”
“What kind of rules?”
“Rules between me and you.”
She looked at him, trying to read his eyes and failing. “Explain.”
“I can’t trust you if I think you’re going to risk our necks by jabbering this junk at everyone you meet. So maybe we should just call it quits. You ask for another servant. Leave me out of this disaster you’re planning.”
Dismay filled her throat. “I thought we were friends.”
He wouldn’t meet her gaze. He was panting, and his fists were clenched. “Friends,” he muttered. “Yeah. Trouble is, you want to be friends with everyone. I hang with you, and you get your hide in trouble. Then I’m in trouble, too. You want to trust folk just ’cause they’re abiru, but there’s plenty of the abiru here who will run to turn in anything they overhear. Ruar is the biggest squealer in the place. And Okal—”
“You know Okal can be trusted,” she said quickly.
“Maybe. Yeah. He’s no squealer,” Elrabin admitted. “But who can tell with a Phivean? You know how weird they are.”
“Okal believes in the Eye,” Ampris said, touching the pendant around her neck. “That’s why I trust him.”
Elrabin backed his ears. “Don’t go asking me to judge folk that way! What kind of stupid idea is that?”
“Call it foolish if you want,” she said wearily. “I can’t explain it to you.” She sighed, feeling herself sag. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have expected you to get involved. But I have to try, and I will try until someone stops me.”
“Then you’re doomed,” he said with pity.
Disappointment spread through her, but she accepted his decision. She couldn’t expect him to take risks with her if he didn’t want to. “Can I ask you one last favor before you go?” she asked.
He rubbed his muzzle, whining in the back of his throat again. “What?” he asked reluctantly.
“I still intend to access the data archives, if I can,” she said. “Will you tell me how to do it? Then that’s all. I won’t get you involved beyond that.”
Elrabin stared at her a long moment, then finally tipped back his head and laughed. “You just don’t give up, do you, Goldie?”
She didn’t like being laughed at, but she smiled anyway. “Why should I give up? I haven’t started yet.”
He sighed. “Maybe you can link into the central library—”
“Not that,” she said in quick scorn. “It’s laced with Viis lies.”
“That’s the best—”
“No,” she said. “I want to get into the data archives beneath the old Imperial Palace, the ones the Kaa ordered restored. Can I link to them?”
Elrabin drew back from her and paced a small circuit around the bathing chamber. “Don’t ask for much, do you, Goldie?” he said softly. “Just the impossible.”
Her hopes crashed down again. “Is it? Really? I was hoping—”
“What? You think a place like that’s going to be available to just everybody?”
“No, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to access it.”
“Even if you get into the data files, you won’t be able to read them.”
“I can read Viis,” she said. “I told you I’m fluent.”
He stared at her in disbelief. “You’re lying.”
She backed her ears. “I can. Israi insisted I learn.”
“Everybody knows how to speak a few words of Viis,” he said, his ears twitching back and forth. “Can’t help but pick it up. But no one can read it.”
Ampris met his skeptical gaze steadily, proudly.
“It’s forbidden,” he said.
Ampris shrugged. “The law doesn’t apply to the sri-Kaa. Listen, no one knows this except you. I’ve trusted you with my secret. If I’m ever caught committing treason, you can condemn me further to the master in exchange for clemency for yourself. Fair enough?”
He said nothing.
“Okay,” she said, accepting defeat where he was concerned. “It was just an idea. I’ll figure out another way.”
“Not here, you won’t,” he said. “You got to keep your mind on fighting, remember? If you don’t, you’ll be cut off at the knees in the first competition.”
She rolled her eyes at him impatiently. “I know how to fight.”
“Yeah, in practice maybe. I’m talking about the pros.”
Ampris turned away from him. “All right. Forget it.”
He gripped her shoulder to keep her from walking away. “Wait. Maybe I can mess around with the signal. But no promises, see? I got to make sure no one in security catches the signal divergence and gets nervous.” He rubbed his muzzle worriedly. “The master is paranoid about someone stealing one of you, or breaking in to get at his strategy secrets so the betting odds can be rigged. That’s why security is so tight.”
Ampris grinned at him. “Then you’ll do it? For me? Oh, Elrabin!”
“I said I’ll try,” he said gruffly, tugging at his coat while looking stern and disapproving. “I don’t like it, but if that’s what you want—”
“Oh, yes! I want it very much.” She tugged at one of his ears affectionately. “Thank you.”
“Slow down. Don’t thank me yet,” he said. “We’re making a deal here.”
She blinked, slightly taken aback. “Yes, of course. What kind of deal do you want?”
“If you’re set on starting some kind of rebellion, you got to be careful. You follow me?”
“Yes. B
ut you’ve already stressed that.”
“So I’m saying it again. Being careful means you don’t make friends,” he said, his voice fierce and cold.
“But I must if I’m to form a network.”
Elrabin choked. “What?”
“I thought you understood. The Viis civilization is crumbling. We can—”
“No.” He stepped back from her, shaking his head. “No. You’re crazy. It can’t happen. The Viis are too strong.”
“They are weak,” she insisted. “I know. They can’t do anything for themselves. Won’t do anything for themselves. They’re lazy, conceited, and arrogant. It’s the abiru folk who do the real work. We run businesses and households. We do the manual labor. We work in the space stations. We operate the jump gates—most of which don’t work anymore. Almost nothing works the way it should. You know that.”
“If they’d shell out credits to maintain their equipment—”
“But no one knows how to do the maintenance,” Ampris said. “No one . . . except abiru workers. If we could ever unite, join forces, and trust each other, we could overthrow the Viis yoke. I know we could.”
For a moment the possibilities radiated like stars in his eyes, then that light dimmed, and Elrabin shook his head. “Pretty dreams you got, Goldie. But it ain’t happening.”
“It could, if we—”
“We’re slaves,” he said harshly. “Born slaves. We’ll die slaves. They own us. We got no say, got no chance to get together.”
“Why can’t we try?” she shot back at him. “Because it looks impossible, we’re just supposed to give up? How do we know what we can or can’t accomplish until we try?”
He shifted under her scornful gaze, refusing to meet her eyes.
“I’d rather be called crazy,” she said softly, not quite able to mask her scorn, “than a coward.”
His head snapped up, and he bared his teeth. “Yeah, Elrabin the Coward, that’s me. But it keeps me alive.”
“Do you love your Viis masters so much?” she asked him. “When the master whips you, don’t you long to do something to get back at him?”
Hatred gleamed in Elrabin’s eyes, but he shook his head. “You’re into major treason, Goldie.”
The Crimson Claw Page 8