His head hit the marble outcrop with an audible crunch, even as he flailed with both knives. Hands grabbed and seized her feet, pulling her away from him. She fought them, trying to kick free, to crawl back and make sure he could not throw those blades.…
“Mailan, it is over! There is nothing left but reflexes!” Someone shouted into her ear, and it was Jude, long absent Jude, holding her up, trying to stop the blood pouring from her shoulder — her damn left arm was not working very well.…
“She stopped White?”
“By The Path! I would not have dared!”
“Idiot, she could have died — “
“Crow went this way, hurry!”
A mass of voices, overwhelming her hearing, drowning her plea: “Is Sheel all right?”
“Alive when he went by,” Jude assured her, moving her hand as someone supplied a strip of cloth for Mailan’s shoulder.
As she slipped into unconsciousness, Mailan knew that did not really answer the question.
o0o
Got to keep him away from the gun, was all she could think as she kept backing into the room. Damn herself to Seven Hells! Why had she stopped to check for life? Should have grabbed the gun and started shooting, you prime idiot!
Fortunately Brant was not interested in the gun. He was interested in killing her, but only his bare hands would do. One of his arms had no strength left to it, and dangled limply, the nerves damaged by a knife. He was carrying another blade in his leg, and it looked like one in his lower back, she could not be sure.…
“I must apologize for underestimating you, my dear,” Brant was saying. “I made a fatal error when I dismissed the idea that either you or Halsey might go native. Apparently you are not as fastidious as I thought. The idea of taking those pills made my flesh crawl.”
“You just might get away, Brant, if you start running now,” Darame suggested, wondering if she could inflect any reasonable damage by throwing her knife. Too damned heavy for throwing — it was for stabbing, unless you had wrists like Mailan, which she did not.…
“Unlikely. Even if I did, I think this blade is in my kidney. What hospice would treat me?” He was getting a bit close; Darame shifted, placing a small table between them.
“With Leah and myself as hostages, almost any hospice.” A step toward the door was countered. Brant was still moving well for a man bleeding so freely. “Why did you kill Dirk? He wasn’t expecting it, I take it.”
Brant actually chuckled. “Always observant, one of your great strengths. He doublecrossed me, and then was angry when I was going to disappear into the underground.”
“Yes, Leah was playing you two off against each other quite well, wasn’t she? I didn’t think she had it in her.” Maybe another blade, from the wall. A feint in that direction was quickly discouraged as Brant lunged at her, knocking the table aside.
“I didn’t think so, either. So you knew that. What else did you know?”
“Enough to know not to back a losing horse.” Leaping to the bed, Darame hit the mattress smartly and bounced to the other side. “You lost me when I figured out you had to be involved with the deaths in Seedar and Dielaan. Did you kill Iver, too?”
“Very clever. I really should have let you into my confidence. Then we would both be rich, instead of dead.” Anger was flushing his neck, in odd contrast with his pale face. “What was it to you? Did you really think we would get caught by these provincials?”
“Halsey.” Another lunge was too close, and she glanced behind her for the door to the baths. Uh-oh — the room was reversed from Avis’s quarters. So how about a closet?I can’t let him get close – he’d snap me like a twig.
“Try again, I do not believe you.” He paused, leaning against the bedpost, catching his breath.
“Sheel, and Avis, and even Mailan,” she suggested, glancing at the window, which was ajar. Are you fast enough?…
“Enough wealth to make men forget Midas, and you screwed it up,” he gasped, shaking his head in mock-sadness.
They jumped simultaneously, Darame for the window, Brant for her. It was just a bit too far.… She felt his right hand close on her throat, and pushed wildly at his thumb, putting all her strength behind it. The knife, where? On the wrong hip. How to draw at this angle? Can’t let go of his thumb.… The blade in his leg — reach it before the black spots take over —
The shots were deafening, ringing her ears, more painful than the slug that tore past her arm. Brant stiffened, his grip tightening, she was blacking out.…
His hand vanished as blood sprayed her face and chest.
o0o
Rising out of blackness, like swimming in a sinkhole, light approaching, growing, a lamp in fog… Darame knew the light was changing intensity, and decided she was blinking. The balls! Spawn of Lilith, why didn’t you go for the balls? Because he already had so many knives sticking out of him that a little more pain would have been meaningless, idiot —
“I’m not dead.” It came out as a croak, surprising her almost as much as being alive. Sweet Virgin, where am I? There was a rumbling in her ear.
Eyes open wide, a face hovering into view.… Crow? “You need ultraviolet, child, you’re getting pale,” she told him, her vocal cords protesting. The face disappeared. Wait, that was Caesarean, wrong language. She panicked, her mind a blank, and then the right words rose to her lips, even as the awareness of pain struck her. “Dear God, I hurt. What hit me?”
“You hit the windowsill on your way down,” came a familiar voice. “I did not realize you had passed out, or I would have caught you.” Warm fingers reached to touch her face, moving lightly to her throat. “You are going to have a magnificent collar of bruise, but I was able to control the swelling. Why you do not have a concussion I do not know.”
“There is a roaring in my ears.” She lifted trembling fingers to check the back of her head and noticed that her arm hurt. “Wha — ” A bandage, neatly wrapped from elbow to wrist. Focusing on the body before her — yes, it was Sheel — she saw that he had some sort of white sash across his chest.
“No scar, I think — Capashan got here quickly.” He sounded almost apologetic, removing his right hand from her face and lifting something next to her head. The rumbling sound vanished.
A cat? “She is so big,” Darame whispered, staring at the purring feline.
“Kittens grow quickly, although Somalis are slower than some breeds. She remembers you, it seems.” He set the kitten in his lap.
Not a sash, a sling. Darame reached for him, but he stopped her, laying her arm across the coverlet. “Everything,” she demanded. “Now.” How long had she been unconscious, and what had she missed?
Dimples creased his tired face, and he glanced over at someone beyond her field of vision. “Weak tea and crackers, I think.” Someone started muttering into a wall box — requesting food? — and he turned back to her. “It is about matins, of the same day. You are in the palace, in the room you always have.”
“Your arm – Brant — ” Darame stopped and tried again. “How did you get hurt?”
“White threw a knife at me as I ran past and got lucky. A small blade, not much damage, but Capashan wants me to rest, which is why I have a sling. You are also to rest your arm — or you get a sling, too.”
“Someone… there were bullets — ”
Sheel suddenly looked drawn. “Leah found the mag gun, and… fortunately for you the ammunition was the kind that is destroyed on contact, or it might have passed through Brant instead of lodging in him. One ripped you as it passed.”
“Leah shot Brant?” Darame felt her jaw drop.
Shifting uncomfortably, Sheel looked away from her. “I think she was using Brant as much as he was using her.… They were disenchanted with each other early on. But she loved Dirk.… He was a lot like her first husband, I am told. I thought she married Richard because she could control him, but maybe it was because he was the only one she found whom she liked. If she had found someone as strong as her firs
t.…”
“But — all that blood — ” Darame shuddered; she clearly remembered a bath of blood.
“My fault. When I realized he still was not dead, I panicked and cut his throat.” Sheel looked very pale, and she decided not to push him. Plenty of time to figure it out later. “Leah is… Dirk’s death only made things worse. We may never know everything, because even if she comes out of it, she may have huge gaps in her memory. She denies having anything to do with my capture, although she keeps saying Dirk disliked me, and that White is – was — crazy.”
“White?”
A tight smile, a quick glance at Crow. “Mailan got him. He almost got her — she is in the hospice. Rather satisfied with herself, I suspect.…”
Utter craziness.… “Whatever did your mother do with all those nobles?” she asked faintly, trying to keep her voice soft.
“She gave them a nice, tidy story about off-worlders attacking the three great families, and how they all had to go home and clean house, in case Brant sent anyone after their families, and then suggested that the trade agreement would be an excellent way to begin covering each other’s backs so this does not happen again. All while Mailan and White were destroying the entry hall. Only two others, if the one we caught can be believed — White’s son Sandal died during an excess of zeal after Mailan’s cohorts saw him try to stab her in the back. The other is a quiet fellow named Erik, who was watching Avis. When he lost her that night, he reported to Dirk, of course, and lost a few teeth for it. That was the biggest blow-up, when Dirk saw no need to pursue Avis, while Brant did.”
“Dirk… could not have known Leah was sterile,” Darame said slowly.
“No. He based his entire conspiracy on an impossibility, that he could give Leah the heir she needed. Maybe he will.… If she is out of the succession, I do not care how many children she has or who fathers them. If Dirk left anything at the labs, she can pursue it, if she still wants it.” Sheel sounded very tired.
“If she ever springs back enough to want anything?”
“Yes.”
God, he looked half-dead. “Can that guaard tell you anything?” She felt curiously alert, and wondered if she would remember any of this tomorrow.
“Several trainers have been recording everything. I wish I could banish him, but…” Sheel paused, swallowing, as a servant entered the room with a tray. In the time it took her to arrange it on the end table Sheel composed himself, settling the kitten next to Darame’s hip. As the woman departed, he asked Darame if she wanted to try sitting up.
“Maybe I should have waited,” Darame admitted a few minutes later. Still, the pillows were soft and her head had stopped spinning. A twitch at her hip was the kitten, sneaking into her lap. The tea tickled going down; funny, she thought it would hurt more — Sheel or Capashan must have tinkered with her windpipe. Studying Sheel’s back as he stood near the window, she said: “If you let him live, will you have trouble with the guaard?”
“There is no way to make him live. We had to take his blades away from him to keep him from falling on them.” There was a hollow quality to Sheel’s voice as it echoed in the alcove. “He talks to try to make up for it. Then I will give him back his blades, and let him be buried on the planet of his birth.”
“Why?” As Sheel turned slowly, she added: “Why did he help with this?”
“I think… Dirk decided that our house was deteriorating. Cort was ready to fall into his dotage — why else spare Dielaan? — and Baldwin was not Dirk’s idea of a war leader. Brant probably suggested eliminating everyone except Iver, who could be controlled… and then Dirk fathers the next heir, proving himself superior to off-worlders, etc. Brant would have the underground, and a cut of what Dirk and Leah were doing… or so it seems. That is the original plan the three of them had. But as you suggested, I think each one of them had a plan of their own, and we could speculate on it forever. Brant needed the guaard at first, but if he had married Avis — ” Sheel shrugged. “So many possibilities, so many plans.…”
“So your mother negotiated a treaty for you?” Darame reached for a cracker, and after thought dunked it into her tea before tasting it. Maybe it would stay down. Memory returned. Dear God, is the baby all right? Had all the excitement…
No. Sheel would have said something.
“Riva got a good start on one. After Capashan patched me up, I went in and kept an eye on things while Livia did her ‘haughty and holier-than-thou’ act. We will continue tomorrow. Now that we have the different groups installed at separate hostels, we might even work something out among us. Riva went to sit with Avis.” For the first time, Sheel actually smiled.
“Avis? Sheel, she — ”
“Just a few hours ago. Mother claims it is a beautiful baby, but that is probably grandmother talk. Once things blew up, Avis became so excited she went into labor. Stephen was nervous, but there was never a problem. I am just sorry I did not get to deliver her.” The smile vanished, and an anxious look crossed his face. “She… Avis would like to call her Davi, if you do not mind. She heard Halsey call you that, and liked it.”
Darame opened her mouth slightly, but nothing came out. “Of course,” she finally managed to whisper. “If she wishes.” Now is as good a time as any.… “Speaking of babies…” A joke, or a statement, or a question — “I am pregnant,” she said abruptly. “Congratulations. Being around all these mock-Sinis has not bothered you in the slightest.”
A very slow smile.… “I did not think it had,” Sheel replied. There was something not quite right in the look he was giving her.
“I… cannot travel back to Caesarea in this condition, of course, so I guess you will have to find a hostel with an extra room,” she started carefully, looking down at her mug.
“Over Avis’s dead body.” That was unexpected, and Darame looked up. “Stephanie has a new baby boy, and will not rejoin the court for a time. Who will my sister coddle if you are not around? One baby to mother is not enough for her heart. She will want to return your favors.” He came over to the bed and sat down next to it. Taking the wrist of her injured arm, he held it for a long time.
Knowing it was a healer thing, she did not interfere… until she saw a peculiar look cross his face. Oh, no. Rigid, she said: “It got hurt when I leapt the bed?”
“No, no.… It is fine. He is fine.” Sheel finally raised his face to look at hers. “It is the wrong sex. In the dream it was a little girl — with silver hair and one black iris. But I have never had a pleasant dream come true.” Shaking his head, he laid her arm back across the coverlet.
“What was the other iris?” Darame asked, suddenly curious.
“Blue. You were there, I had forgotten.… And other children: a little girl about the same age; an older girl and boy; two boys, one dark, one red-headed — ” He stopped at the smile on her face. “What?”
“My father had a red beard, when he let it grow. So did his father.… I was told I had several red-headed aunts, but I never met them. Red or black, always.…” What am I thinking? You know what the mop-up on a planet is like, after something like this. You came here to work with a man who massacred half the royalty of the North, and the Nualans will not forget it. I am not sure it is safe for Halsey to wait for you — maybe transporting the baby separately would be a better idea —
“So… I have Halsey thinking about working for me,” he said quickly, reaching for the pot of hot water and warming her drink. “Someone has to make sure Brant did not leave a coherent underground ready to function. If he wants to retire like a king, I can arrange it.”
“Are you crazy?” It came out before Darame could stop it. At his wooden expression she blundered on: “We have to get away from here as soon as possible, before Livia finds out that we were connected to Brant in some way. You can throw pardons around all you want, but forgiveness is not in her vocabulary. We would be decorating her walls — in pieces — before next winter.”
Sheel answered with a bleak smile. “I gave her Brant’s
head. I think that will tide her over.” At Darame’s bewildered expression, he said defensively: “He does not need it anymore, and it made her very happy. It will make her return to Dielaan’s throne assured. I thought it was worth a crude gesture.”
“Of… of course, you are quite right.” Staring at him, she finally said: “You… you are not worried about it, are you? About my free-trading history?”
“Have you ever killed someone in cold blood, or robbed an orphan?” Sheel countered.
“Of course not. I am what we call a gypsy, I only con other con artists.” Her indignant expression died when she realized he was fighting a grin.
“Then no — I am not worried. You see, you were chasing my distraught sister and were nearly murdered by this psychopath who had already eliminated the captain of the guaard and numerous royal members of several clans. Leah and I were perfectly justified in killing him to protect you. We do not know why he went crazy, and we will probably never know. End of statement.”
Darame felt a giggle rise in her throat, but it came out squeaky and dry. Of all the idiot disclaimers… “It might work.”
“Of course it will work. It is true. If the other business surfaces, we say ‘So?’ and go on from there.” At her silence, he said quickly: “What else do I have to think of to get you to stay? Impounding your ship?”
“Sheel… do we really know anything about each other, or each other’s culture — ” she started, watching his face as she spoke.
“No. Which is why we must always talk to each other. I… I assumed too much on Emerson, and fell in love with a woman so alien in thought to me, she had an abortion when she discovered she was pregnant… without telling me. I suppose she never understood the extent of my healing quirk… or worse, she did not think, either, and did not think I would mind.”
“It… it is a gift of love. I could not destroy a gift of love,” she stammered, embarrassed. Halsey, dammit, you never taught me how to talk about things like this.… “And I was very careful when I worked.”
Fires of Nuala Page 41