Gabe was nodding vigorously.
“I tried, once, to get her to let me use some of the kids she always seems to have weeding her tuber-patch, but, no, she wouldn’t go for it, not her,” he said. “I had a real infestation of weeds in the market garden, thanks to the sacks of manure she had foisted on me. They hadn’t been treated properly, only I didn’t know that when she sent them over—and not for free either, she didn’t give the stuff. I was pretty angry, but there’s no reasoning with the Boss Lady, so we had to suck it up and spend a lot of time pulling weeds ourselves, me, my wife, and the kids.”
Kati passed the men as she went into the sitting room to pick up Chrush’s libris.
“I’m taking this to Mikal and to Maryse r’ma Darien,” she said to Gerr and Chrysalia. “It belongs to Chrush and has a lot of nasty information in it—so nasty that I can’t bring myself to do a nodal dump, even though it’s equipped for that. I’m sure that Federation Justice will share its content with officials of the Government of the Continent Nord, and with the Elders of Crystoloria; you’ll only have to ask.”
“Kati, if you want me to dump its contents into my nodal memory, I’m willing,” Lank spoke up, from where he had been examining the vidfeed machine, which Kati knew was not connected to anything external. “I’m young and resilient; I’m sure that my brain and node can take the abuse. Plus, we really ought to have a back-up in case something happens to that little gadget.”
Kati shook her head, but passed the libris to him. He had the right to make his own decisions.
“You have no idea what you’re offering, spring chick,” she said to him. “I suggest that you look at the stuff on the screen before you upload any of it via your connector spot. The toilet’s that way if you have to up-chuck.” She pointed.
“Oh, come on Kati, I’m tough. How bad can it be?”
Lank grinned brightly as he took the libris and activated the nodal connector with his left thumb. Seconds later his face tensed, and then turned colour, to a greenish shade. Kati thought that it was a good thing he had been seated on the couch when she had given the gadget to him; standing, he might have passed out. As it was, he spread his knees and put his head between them, letting the libris fall on the floor.
“I warned you, kiddo,” Kati said mildly, as she picked up the libris.
Gerr, Gabe, and Jervis were staring at them. Chrysalia finished tying up the lace crystal bundle with a piece of Gabe’s rope, and looked grim.
“That bad, is it?” was all she said.
It took a few minutes and a glass of water for Lank to recover. There was something in his eyes afterwards that had not been there before. Kati gave him a quick hug before she let him climb into the pilot’s seat of the flyer. She felt guilty for having let him absorb the information—she should have stopped him, instead of just warning him.
“You can’t shelter everyone in the galaxy from their impulses,” subvocalized The Monk grouchily. “Lank will live. And probably make excellent use of that nasty information. He’s a fine fellow, and has a brain, besides.”
It was not the first time that the Granda had spoken well of Lank.
*****
Meanwhile, Kortone had set the other flyer down on the ground close to the Citadel entrance.
“We’ll need to move fast,” Mikal said. “Judging from what information we have been able to gather—from Jaqui, Shyla, and other sources—Gorsh does have guards around, and he does keep personnel who can shoot straight, on hand.”
Kortone’s role was to stay in the flyer to defend it if that was necessary. One man armed with a stunner; Mikal groaned at the pitifulness of the arrangement, but he had nobody he could spare to stay with the Waywardian law enforcer.
“Use bluster,” Nabbish advised his underling. “Tell them you have the authority of the Government of the Continent Nord behind you, if someone threatens you, or tells you to take yourself and your machine elsewhere.”
Mikal had taken a moment while the flyer was still in the air to plead for help from the Nature Spirits, especially the Lady of the Lake who, he felt, was a special friend, and who had taken it upon herself to tutor the ex-Cellar Creature. He was not quite sure what the Spirits could do to ensure the flyer’s safety, but perhaps the Lake Spirit could think of something. She had been quite inventive when she had protected Mikal from the Cellar Creature in its murky days.
As soon as he was out of the flyer he noted the new sweetness of the air: there was not a hint of murk in it. People were walking around, apparently enjoying the newly fresh air. A few of them stared at the flyer with its logo of the Strone Vehicle Rental business, but no-one made any effort to stop the group that piled out of it. Perhaps Gorsh’s troops were in disarray.
Xoraya’s astral form which Mikal had not sensed since she had returned to check up on her and her husband’s bodies, appeared to Mikal at the Citadel door.
“I looked in on the dungeons, now that moving around this place is easy,” she subvocalized. “There are a quite few people in there. Some of them are in pretty rough shape; they have been left mostly to fend for themselves and each other, with food and water brought in irregularly—mostly when some of the workers thought to fight their way down there with supplies. You’ll need more bodies to help with them.”
Mikal swore.
“Apologies for the blue language,” he said to his companions. “Xoraya just told me that there are plenty of people in bad shape in the dungeons. She thinks that we’ll need more helpers if we’re to get them out. Anyone have any idea what luck we’d have recruiting the people around us for the duty?”
“Allow me,” said Seleni right away. “You and Llon head downstairs to where the Xeonsaur bodies are kept, Mikal. It should only take the two of you bring them up.”
“True,” Mikal said. “The gurneys can be hovered up, or down, the stairs. They can be moved much like the mag-lev stretchers on one of which I was taken down there. I had plenty of time, while I was there, to determine that. Xoraya, if you’ll trust Llon and me with your and Xanthus’ bodies, maybe you can remain with Seleni, and guide her and Nabbish to the dungeons.”
Xoraya immediately agreed, and told Mikal that Xanthus was astrally taking stock of Gorsh’s weapons cache. He thought that possibly he could come up with some useful information as to how its contents could be rendered harmless.
Mikal hoped that the Xeonsaur scientist would come up with something that would help them with that. Though, at the moment he was no doubt hampered by his bodiless state, and would need an aide with arms and hands, if he was to accomplish anything. Still, the project had possibilities, he mused as he and Llon headed indoors to follow Seleni’s suggestion.
The Wise Woman took Nabbish with her and approached the nearest group of people. They were young, teenage boys mostly, but with a sprinkling of pre-adolescent girls among them. Only the odd one had the common Waywardian colouring of dark hair and olive skin; Seleni guessed them to be some of the off-world chattels. They were talking and laughing among themselves, but fell quiet as the two adults approached.
“I’m the Wise Woman Seleni, and this is Continent Nord’s Main Law Enforcer Nabbish,” Seleni introduced herself and her companion. “We need the aid of willing arms and legs. Do you people have some free time?”
“Sure,” said the tallest of the youths; he looked like he might be the oldest one. “Neither the Boss Man, Gorsh, nor his Overseer has come by to give us tasks, as yet. Someone said that they’re closeted in Gorsh’s office with that old creep, Chrush, who hangs around every so often. The air around here has suddenly cleared up so much that nobody wants to go inside—not even to snoop on the doings of those who claim to run this place.”
“Who’s the wraith hanging about, next to you, Wise Woman?” one of the girls asked in squeaky tones.
“Ah, you can see her,” Seleni responded, winking at the girl. “Not everyone can. Her name is Xoraya, and her body has been kept comatose in the cellars for some time now.”
The girl nodded while the others gaped from her to Seleni and Nabbish.
“What Nabbish and I need help with,” the Wise Woman continued, “is the people in the dungeons. Now that the murk has left the Citadel, some of the Officials of the Government of the Continent Nord have become aware that there are people being kept as prisoners in the lowest levels of the Citadel, for no good reason. Nabbish, myself, and some others are here to bring them out, and to take them elsewhere, somewhere that they can be looked after and nursed back to health.”
“Oh, I know about the people in the dungeons,” the tallest boy said. “Sometimes Rosa, one of the workers in the kitchen, would round up some of us boys to take food and water down there. She used to say that Gorsh would let those people down there die of thirst or starvation if she and some of the other kitchen workers didn’t pay attention. And the kitchen workers have been kept pretty busy with other duties, so I don’t think that the prisoners down there have been very well fed.”
“Except that they looked after the few behind the lab okay, Tere told me,” one of the boys confided. “That was one of Tere’s special duties, to go down there and take along anything that was needed, including the drug that kept the comatose ones under. He said that it wasn’t a bad job; the murk didn’t really bother him, like it did some people, and he liked the boy who wasn’t in a coma, but looked after the others.”
“I heard that one of the people came out of the coma for some reason, in spite of the drugs,” another boy continued.
It seemed that some kind of a dam had broken, along with the clearing of the air, and everyone, at least in this group, was keen to talk about matters which they would only have dared to whisper amongst themselves, earlier.
“He was a Federation Agent, apparently, and Gorsh was furious to lose him.”
The whole group followed Seleni and Nabbish towards the Citadel.
“Maybe we should have looked for adults,” Nabbish said a little uneasily, as he looked over Seleni’s recruits.
“Nonsense,” Seleni countered. “This is a good bunch. They are eager to help, and they will be kind to the prisoners. Only thing I’m worried about is any possible locks. You did bring that thing that Lank said he took two of from their space ship—sonic cutter, is that what he called it?”
“Yeah, and he showed me how to use it. Not that we really need it, Mikal said that he picked the lock of the room behind the lab with a nail. But the cutter will work fast, and speed may be important. Although I don’t know how we can haul up sick and starving people quickly, no matter how necessary that may be.”
“Well, let’s hope that the meeting among Gorsh, his Overseer, and Chrush goes on for a long time. If not, well, the Nature Spirits know that we will be rescuing people who are in pretty bad shape. They’ll come up with some kind of help, I’m sure.”
Nabbish shook his head as he entered the Citadel through a door pushed open by one of the sturdier recruits. He didn’t have as much faith in the Spirits as the Wise Woman obviously did. Not that he would ever show disrespect to a Wise Woman; there had been one in the village in which he had grown up, and the Shaman residing in the neighbourhood in which he now lived in Strone was a wise and helpful fellow, but having an army corps, or a platoon of police behind him would have made him much happier at the moment, than any number of Planetary Spirits or wraiths. And relying on children to do the work of adults—well, that was asking too much of youngsters, as far as he was concerned. They should have been at school, or playing games, and not going down into a dungeon to deal with who knew what kind of distress.
Seleni had no trouble reading his thoughts; she did not even have to rely on her psychic powers to follow their drift. She grinned at Xoraya’s astral form, which smiled back at her. The girl who could see Xoraya—her name was Kitti—noted the exchange, and felt a little thrill go through her. She realized, suddenly, that what she and her companions were doing was highly significant. They were working together with a Wise Woman, and a woman who could wander around in a bodiless state, to rescue a whole bunch of people from terribly unpleasant captivity!
Kitti’s steps were very light as she climbed down the stone stairs into the depths of the Citadel cellars.
*****
Chrush had stormed into Gorsh’s office when the Slaver was in the middle of a discussion about finances with the Overseer.
Gorsh had not been in the best of moods; he had sent Jaqui into the back room for the duration of the meeting, instead of allowing her to leave and go help Rosa in the kitchen, something she often did to make things easier for her older friend, and to chat with her and the other kitchen staff. Annoyed at having been thrust into a not very interesting situation, merely to wait and see if the Boss man wanted a bit of nooky after his meeting, Jaqui had left the door open a crack, determined to eavesdrop. The meeting was supposed to be about money, she knew, and Gorsh was rather short of cash flow at the moment, so the young woman was curious to know what sort of plans he was making. She knew, but Gorsh didn’t, that the off-worlder Team and their Waywardian allies were slowly tightening a noose around him. She had helped to set the trap, and was still keen to obtain more information that she could use.
Mind you, what she had already accomplished was noteworthy. Thanks to her, the off-worlders now had all the data in Gorsh’s computers, and if anything was added, they could grab the addition, too, simply by activating the crystal that she had wired into the office computer according to Lank’s instructions. The crystal was a tiny shard, its wiring barely noticeable to anyone not well-versed with computers, and Jaqui was sure that, should Gorsh or the Overseer see it, they’d assume that it was a part of the original equipment, too tiny for them to have noticed earlier.
Her success had whetted Jaqui’s desire to do more to help the Federation Agent who had complimented her on her ability and courage. She also wanted to look good in Kati’s eyes, and gathering information would help in that—but beyond all that, she was simply curious about the Slaver’s doings. How had he managed to accomplish as much as he had, considering that he was rather short on charm, and the ability to influence people? Waywardians were an intractable lot, Rosa had once commented, seldom willing to do violence to their fellow humans in order to further someone else’s cause. The Old Council of Families had ruled through bribes more than threats, although they had not been shy about making threats if they had thought that was useful, and Jaqui presumed that Gorsh had followed that example.
So, the question Jaqui had asked herself was, what does a man like that do when the funds with which he has paid bribes dry up? Perhaps this conversation between Gorsh and Barros would provide her with a clue.
The first minutes of the discussion had concerned the amount of money that the chattels that Gorsh had rented out for cash were bringing in. Jaqui had not realized that he had been doing that; the bulk of the chattels dealt with in this manner amounted to a cohort of children sent to a Suderie rug manufacturer to hand-knot fine carpets. Had Kati not mentioned something about having gone down south to check into some rug-knotting business involving child slaves, when she and Jaqui had been chatting that one morning in the Leaven Estate cabin? Surely what Gorsh and his Overseer were talking about had to be the same business! Jaqui had perked up her ears; she had wanted to hear what the little boys were contributing to Gorsh’s bottom line.
She had not found that out, however. Chrush had stormed into the office just then, spewing verbal venom! He must have been frothing at the mouth, although the small door crack and its angle in relation to where the old man had stood, had prevented Jaqui from actually seeing it.
“Have you any idea of what that fancy woman of yours, in the cabin on the Leaven Estate, did?” Chrush had screamed at Gorsh. “What is she anyway? Some kind of a witch or something?”
“No, I don’t know what she did,” Gorsh had replied, affecting pained patience. “She’s an ESPer, apparently, and it turned out that the Granda node which I intended for Joakim to have, for som
e reason decided that she ought to be its host instead. So, I do believe that she’s capable of certain feats, but the murk seems to block her psi-powers as effectively as anyone else’s. And no, she’s not a witch, a Wise Woman, or anything of that ilk.”
“Well, apparently she persuaded the murk Creature around the cabin to just up and leave, without so much as asking me permission!” Chrush had snapped. “So now that place is without protection! And when I tried to attack her with the knife I was fashioning, she somehow managed to foil me, with a hot cookie pan, if you can believe it! I suppose that my knife is still stuck to the pan, though I got hold of your wife and asked her to retrieve it for me!”
“Um, you went to the cabin to craft a knife?” Gorsh had asked. “I did tell you that I was storing her there.”
“You told me that you were keeping the woman you were sweet on in the cabin, because she was an ESPer and you wanted to keep her isolated mentally,” Chrush had said. “You didn’t tell me that she was some weirdo with powers beyond belief.”
“Oh, come on Chrush, you’re overstating the case, I’m sure. She’s just some young woman—a fertile woman—from some backwoods planet in a part of space and time that only an Xeonsaur navigator can get to, from here. We picked her up accidentally as a matter of fact—surely I’ve told you the story.”
“Yes you have, Judd Gorsh—many times.” Chrush had begun to sound very snarly. “Your pet cats saw a kid in the forest, and thought that they’d add him to your collection, as a favour to you. Only the mother was close by, picking some kind of awfully juicy berries, and she got her boy away from them by smushing a bowl of berries in the grabber’s face. Pissed off at losing the boy, the felines grabbed the mother instead, since she was all they were going to get.
“Did it not occur to you that the fact that she would confront two big cat-men with nothing in her hands but a bowl of berries showed that the woman had abilities beyond the norm?”
“Nonsense, Chrush. Mothers protecting their children have always been known to perform amazing feats. If there’s anything that might give her supernormal powers it would be that dratted Granda node. I understand that it had had a number of seriously twisted hosts before it showed up among my acquaintances, and ended up in a dead body. Having known the last host I would have thought that it would have settled into my son without a problem, but apparently not. Instead, it went for the young woman—how it did it, I don’t know—and became a pain in my butt.”
Showdown on the Planet of the Slavers Page 60