Crystal Heat

6

Aleytys drifted into the garden space, lowered herself onto a boulder, and sat with her feet in the running stream.

Shadith looked at the words she’d just written, sighed and slashed a line through them, the black ink from the stylo canceling out another failed attempt. She set the pad down, let the stylo click home in its magnetic holder. “Lee.”

“Sorry if I’m interrupting.”

“Wasn’t getting anywhere anyway. Figured out how we’re going to do this?”

“Tigatri’s been reconfiguring a lander. She’s set up a cleanroom where the air can be changed every few minutes, dumped outside the ship, with fields around it to block anything getting back in. We go down, you identify Lylunda for me, we get her into that room and head for changeover fast as we can punch it. Abra blows all air in the lander except for what’s in the room with us. With the air exchange going, I clean-out Lylunda, probably you, too, this time, myself as needed. We should be flushed sufficiently clear by the time we reach-Tigatri. To be sure of this, Abra will scan Lylunda on the way up, get some subcellular mugshots of the organism and Tigatri will run a full scan on the lander, do another clean on it before she lets us onboard. Then we do a quick jump to one of the outer planets in the system, link with Harskari and Loguisse and head for the destination Lylunda gives us. Might be a good idea not to let her know about Harskari and your plans for the arrays. What she-doesn’t know, she can’t babble,”

“Hm.” Shadith felt uneasy. Silence shouted questions she didn’t want to ask, but every subject she thought about bringing up seemed worse than silence.

“Did you ask Harskari about Storsten as a new home for the arrays?”

“Not yet. Let’s leave that until we’ve pulled Lylunda out”

“All right.”

“You’re sure about quitting Digby?”

“I’m sure. I managed to keep faith with myself and him last time, but it was a shaky peace I made. And this one? This is really a simple job. He said that and it’s true. In a little while I’ll have the answer he needs to collect his fee. I need to be able to do that, Lee.” She sighed. “But the Taalav aren’t beasts. They’re people. They make songs. And I like them. I suppose that shouldn’t make a difference, but it does.”

“Would you do as much for them if they were little horrors?”

“I like to think I would, but who knows.” Shadith rolled onto her back, laced her fingers over her ribs and stared up at the blue shimmer meant to represent sky. “With you and Harskari helping me, there’s half a chance I can pull this one out. The next, though… “ She sighed. “It’s better if there is no next. Hmp, University is all right for a while, but too confining over time. Music’s necessary but not enough. And in a year or two, I’m going to need a way to make enough money to keep my ship going: My agent on Helvetia is doing fairly well with the coin I left with him, but I can’t live on the income for long. Swarda’s found his niche and he’s happy with it. Why can’t I?”

“Is that a real question?”

“I suppose not.” She turned her head. “Lee, what are you going to do?”

“Nothing until Lilai leaves for University. Another nine years. Maybe ten. Depends on how she matures after she passes puberty. Grey will be living in his house, she’ll move between the two of us.”

“Has she inherited the Vryhh long life?”

“Harskari’s been after me to have cell studies made. I’ve put it off. I don’t really want to know. Easier on all three of us if I don’t. He asks me that, you know. Every year or so. She’s his daughter, too; I want him to love her, not resent her. And I won’t lie to him. So, no tests until Lilai herself does the asking.”

“What about Talents?”

“Early days for that. Took me a while to grow into mine, you know. Right now, all she wants is horses. Hm. I just had a disturbing thought. What if Lylunda Elang decides she doesn’t need to keep her bargain?”

“Hah! That’s a cheerful one. I don’t like using it because it’s so apt to do more damage than you expect, but I’ll pump her full of babble and pry the answer out of her.”

“I was wondering…”

“Whether all this fussing about morality means I’ll dither about, resplitting split hairs?”

“Something like that.”

“No. That comes under not-nice but not-fatal and it’ll get the job done.”

“Hinnumn…” Aleytys moved her feet in the little stream, lifting them at intervals so drops of water cascaded musically from her heels into the rush of the current. The minutes slid past in a deepening silence.

On the other bank of the stream Shadith lay watching the blue of the pseudo sky and the small creatures flying about in it. Two of them looked like tiny green and gold dragons and were swooping in interlocked figure eights. Others were small bright birds, silver and blue and crimson and a dark metallic green, with trailing silky tail feathers and elaborate crests. There were soft brown moths that sang more sweetly than any bird. Around her in the grass and the ferns that grew under the trees she heard small rustles, sometimes saw red-brown squirrels run up a crackled trunk.

The whisper of the stream and the tink tink tink of the drips falling from Aleytys’ feet crept into Shadith’s bones and soothed away the worry and uncertainty.

After a while she slept.

17. Waiting