Crystal Heat

2

The polished, pale young man gave her a good view of his perfect teeth as he rose from his desklet and smiled at her. “How may I help you, Desp’?”

Irritated by the eyes watching her, while the suspicion and control that was tangible enough to smell made her feel that her skin had shrunk until it didn’t fit over her bones any more, Shadith decided she was tired of all this. She put on her most formal face and said with icy precision, “I need to speak to Adelaar aici Arash. Would you arrange the call, please?”

“May I ask why? I don’t mean to be intrusive, but I’ll have to give a reason to the Prossiggal.”

“You may not mean to intrude, but you do. Tell your Prossiggal this: Shadith whom aici Arash met on Telffer and University wishes to speak to her concerning a matter which is to be kept private between them and which does not concern any others but the two of us. If that proves insufficient, then so be it.”

“May I see your identification?”

“That is not necessary.”

He let his smile fade. “If you were a friend, you would have the private number. I think I must insist.”

“That I’m here without objection from the Combine is sufficient. Anything more is unseemly curiosity on your part. Make the call.”

For a moment she thought he was going to summon security and have her removed; then he brought up the privacy shield, tapped on the corn, and began talking. After the first few words, his neatly brushed eyebrows rose and a few faint wrinkles appeared in his marble brow.

Shadith waited, impatience like burrs in her blood. A moment later he rose gracefully to his feet and stepped away from the desk. “Aici Arash wishes to speak to you, Desp’ Shadith.” He waited until she was seated, then stepped outside the door so it would be obvious he wasn’t listening.

“So it is you. Well, what is it?”

“I need to talk to you. Face-to-face. You know where I’m working now?”

“Yes. It has to do with that?”

“Indirectly.”

“Not Aslan?”

“Didn’t your pretty assistant tell you there was no one else involved? Spla!”

Adelaar chuckled. “He is very decorative, isn’t he. And intelligent’in his limited way which is quite suitable for the job he’s got.” Her pale blue eye went distant.

Thinking it over Shadith told herself. Asking herself what price she can extract for her cooperation. She might owe me her life, but that’s debased currency in these realms. I should have known that.

“His name’s Brad,” Adelaar said. “Call him back and I’ll have him set things up. You have your own ship?”

“Company ship, company registery.”

“Give him the Shriek string, he’ll need that for the tag. You’ll have a three-day ’split from Ghysto. I’ll be waiting for your call-down then.”

When the shuttle from Droom’s transfer station landed at the Visitor’s Field, a girl was waiting for her in the small holding room, a lanky, odd-looking almost child.

“My name’s Talit. The Patron sent me to give you the pass and bring you to Adelaris.”

“Patron?”

Talit blushed. “It’s what we call her, the other girls and me. Adelaar.” She said the name in a rush as if it were too precious to be in her mouth at all. “If you’ll hold out your arm, Desp’ Shadith, I’ll set the pass bracelet for you. Once that’s done, you won’t have to fool with those idiot clerks. Do you have luggage? I’ll take care of that, too.”

“There’s nothing to take care of since I’m not going to be here long. You and the other girls?”

“There. Is that comfortable? Good. If you’ll just follow me, Desp’ Shadith. We can cut through here and reach the jit line without much walking.” Talit opened a door half-concealed by an excessively clean plant that looked as if its leaves were washed every day.

They emerged from the building into a brilliant morning. Droom’s sun was a greenish-yellow disk about two-thirds of the way to zenith. As Talit programmed the jit’s destination module, Shadith looked around. The autumn day was brisk and cool, with the occasional brown leaf breaking loose and blowing free across aggressively neat yards and sidewalks. Mop the leaves and sweep the grass! I’d go crazy fast if I had to live here. She leaned back in the seat, brushing hair out of her face. No sign of a Star Street. Well, there wouldn’t be with the visitor restrictions in the Combine. The road was a neat black line between the trees and the warehouse walls beyond them, with the jitrail gleaming down the center. There weren’t many people around, a few in the distance walking away from the Landing Field’s Admin Center and an old man with a leash draped over his arm, standing under a tree a short distance off while a small beast in a figure eight harness chased after leaves. Not a beast she’d seen before. It looked like a rat crossed with a monkey. What people keep for pets, spla ah!

She glanced a last time at the rat-monkey, smiled as it leaped at a tree and went scurrying up, while the bird it was after perched calmly on a denuded branch. “With a smile on its beak,” she said aloud.

“Desp’ Shadith?”

“Never mind. I’m just a little tired, that’s all.” She settled onto the back seat and watched with amusement as Talit got her legs tangled when she tried to get in. “How long will this take?”

Talit brushed limp brown hair out of her eyes, stabbed her thumb at the activator, and turned to face Shadow as the jit started smoothly off. “The Patron thought about sending a flier, but she said it’s a nice morning and you’d enjoy the ride. Um, I’m getting things backward again, sorry. A little over twenty minutes. And you asked me about me and the others and I forgot to answer, sorry. Um. We’re the Patron’s apprentices. She does that, you know… of course, you didn’t or you wouldn’t ask. She has lines out all over the place. Foundling homes call her when they have a girl who’s good at her maths and likes to make things but they can’t find a place for. We’re apprentices, like I said, then we take jobs in the company and the ones who’re really really good, she sends to University for a while.” She blinked as the bird Shadith had been watching gave a loud caw and went swooping past above the jit. “It’s ever so much better with the Patron than the home. It wasn’t a bad place, but you get lost in the crowd there unless you’re really pretty or can do something special. The Patron makes us feel special. Because she chose us, you see.” She gave her quick little smile, then turned away with practiced tact to give her passenger time to pull herself together before she had to lace Adelaar.

Shadith was surprised at what Talit had told her, then ruefully ashamed of that surprise. It was a side of Adelaar she didn’t know existed, but it made sense when she thought about it. Adelaar might have pride in and a fierce love for her daughter, but Aslan had gone a different road and there was no chance she’d come home to take over the business that her mother had struggled so hard to build. These young apprentices were an interesting way Adelaar had found to look for someone to share her interests and have the drive to take over Adelads when she was past it. And maybe she missed Aslan more than she wanted to admit. Loneliness. I feel it sometimes, but there’s nothing I can do about it. My people are dead. Even if I got pregnant, it’d be this body’s child, not mine. No Weavers of Shayalin left anywhere in the universe.