Fire in the Sky

2

Marrin Ola woke with the irritated feeling that the day was starting wrong and was going to get worse as it went along. Three times last night the alarm went off, but by the time he and the others got to the setoff point, there was nothing to be seen. If they’d needed more warning about what was going to happen, they’d gotten it. He was angry with both the Yaraka and the Chave but not much surprised. Assassinations of every sort were the prime means of politics on Picabral, with blackmail, abduction, bribery, and threat following close behind. He lay with his fingers laced beneath his head, staring at the ceiling, smiling a little. His growing-up time had given him a fine training for the subtler games on University. These he actually enjoyed. Most of the time. He was good at playing them, too. But he counted on these projects that took him offworld and into quieter, often kinder societies to renew his enthusiasm for staying alive. The Chav spy and what he’d introduced were corrupting and destroying that, forcing him back into a situation where he had to play those games again. Marrin took those actions very personally.

He rolled off the bed and went through his exercises until sweat was dripping off him, then he showered with the pulsing spray head he’d brought with him, a bit of lore he’d picked up from more experienced Aides on earlier field projects. By the time he was dressed, he was still angry, but a lot readier to face what had to be done.

Aslan looked down at Duncan Shears. “Just get things buttoned up. If the Goлs can figure a way to catch the spy, we might be able to come back.”

Duncan chuckled. “That’s the… what… fifth time, Scholar. You worry too much.”

“I know, I know, worse than a nervous horse.” She settled into the jit’s passenger seat. “Right. Let’s go, Marrin. And if you see that pair of young trouble-onthe-hoof, pull up and let me take my turn at them.” She sighed. “All we need is a dead child.”

Marrin drove slowly on the dusty circle road that curled round the outside of the dumel. “Maybe they listened this time. Or maybe their parents dusted salt on their little tails and made sure they were in school. Look, Scholar, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have involved them.”

“You couldn’t know the Chave would be so brazen about targeting us.”

“I should have. It’s an obvious ploy once they managed to take out the com.”

Aslan snorted. “You and my mother. You’d get along well, I think.”

“Um. That’s as it may be. Listen, Scholar, I’ve been thinking. Shadith has been off air for three, four nights now. She wouldn’t know about the spy because we didn’t the last time she called. From the description the youngsters picked up, he’s got a miniskip, wouldn’t take him long to cross the plain and start working mountain choreks. Because we haven’t heard of any doesn’t mean they aren’t there. Could be she’s either dead or hostage by now.”

“We went over that last night. And over it. There’s no way of knowing. Those handcoms aren’t supposed to go down, but when you don’t have a store handy to replace parts, anything can happen. I know I should have tried to pry another one out of the Goлs, but he turned frugal on me. ‘I have to account to headquarters,’ he said. ‘We agreed to finance you,’ he said, ‘but not put you up in luxury.’ Luxury!” She sighed. “They do it all the time, Marrin, you might as well get used to it. There’s some little niggle they get caught up on. So?”

“Turned frugal? Or thought he’d got all he needed from you. I’d wager my University Stock that’s what it is. Once you got the Bйluchar calmed down and the language transfer, he thinks he doesn’t need us any more. We’re just a nuisance and an expense.” He took a deep breath, clamped down on his anger. “Well, I expect you know that.”

Aslan chuckled. “Well, I expect I do.”

He glanced at the workers in the fields. In one, a man was plowing a team of two red and white spotted blada; the next field over two Meloach were guiding water from a flume into furrows between rows of diokan. Beyond them was pasture where a herd of caцpas grazed. “I hate this, you know. I know what it’s worth, this kind of peace. Picabral…” He shook his head.

“Marrin, do I need to remind you?”

“No. Lost causes only give me heartburn.” He managed a weak grin. “Listen, I’ve been thinking.” He took the jit up onto the causeway, cut speed to a crawl. “Scholar, the Chav Ykkuval has till the next

Yarak supply ship arrives to gut the Enclave. Chances are he’s finished being subtle about it. If you can call bribery and sabotage subtle. I don’t think our Goлs is up to his weight and I certainly don’t think we want to be inside that fence when the Ykkuval decides it’s time to move. As long as there’s no one to contradict him, he can claim it’s locals’ work, armed by smugglers with him sitting across sea innocent as a haloed saint. I think we should use Shadith as an excuse and head for the mountains. If you can squeeze a flikit out of the Goлs, that’d be best, but passage on one of the sailbarges might do. As long as it’s understood we go armed and we’ll shoot back if attacked.” He glanced in the mirror, swore and stopped the jit.

Standing on the seat, he faced back along the road. Cupping his hands round his mouth, he yelled. “You two get back in ‘school. You know what I told you.”

Aslan twisted around. The road was empty back to the place where it curved around a small wood lot and up onto the causeway. After a minute, though, a pair of caцpa heads poked round the trees and slowly, reluctantly, two riders edged into view.

Marrin dropped into his seat, brought the jit whipping around, and sent it roaring at them.

They shied, glanced back as if they were thinking of taking off, then sat their saddles, faces pinched with chagrin, thin shoulders slumped, waiting for the jit to reach them.

He stopped under the noses of the nervous ponies, got to his feet, and stood leaning on the top of the windshield while they quieted the little beasts. “Cha oy, just what did you think you were at, kekerie?”

Glois and. Utelel exchanged glances, then Glois took the lead. “Ute’s Parent had these caцpas he wanted exercised, so we did.”

“Uh-huh. And you’re not going to tell me this is another holiday?”

“Um. Ute and me, we got all our lessons done, we din’t see reason to scrunch round in some hot room list’ning to teacher bababaing on about stuff we already know.”

“Uh-huh. Let me tell you something, young keklins. This isn’t a game. It never was. And I never should have opened my mouth to babies too young to know what it means to keep a promise.”

“We didn’t promise you nothing!” The last word ended in an indignant squeak.

“Equivocation and silence, young keklins. You know what I mean.” He spoke slowly, watching them wince as if the words were switches hitting, them. “How do you think I’d feel, if my doing got you killed? You want to load that on my head? How do you think your parents would feel if you got killed doing something like this? Glois, you told me you don’t have any brothers or sisters and your father’s gone? Who’s going to take care of your mother? Utelel, you’re going to be Eolt someday, do you want to miss that for a silly game that isn’t a game at all?” He stared somberly at them, shook his head. “You did a good thing, warning us about the spy. You saved my life, maybe all our lives. Now go home and stay away from the Marish.”

He watched them ride slowly away, then collapsed into his seat, pulling a handkerchief from his sleeve and wiping the sudden sweat off his face. “They’re good kids. Bright and full of the devil in all the right ways. Gods, I hate this!” He cracked his palm down on his thigh. “I HATE THIS.”

Aslan put her hand on his arm. “I know. It’s why we do what we do. Save a little so when the bad times are past people can reclaim what they had.”

He pulled his arm away, started the jit turning. “That doesn’t help right now, Scholar.”

He tensed as he took the ramp back onto the causeway, slapped in the accelerod until the jit was roaring along at its top speed. “Don’t hesitate, Scholar. If the telltale whispers, sweep that stunner through a one eighty, then drop.”

They were almost to the bridge when the first buzz sounded.

He slowed the jit to a crawl when they reached the far side of the river and mopped at his head again. “I’m going after him,” he said. “That spy. I’m going to kill that bastard.” He glanced at the single barge tied up at the landing and took the roundabout instead of the direct route to the Gate since the trade ground was busy today.

“Marrin…”

“Don’t tell me to leave it to the Goлs. He may be slick as a greased sikker when it comes to trade, but he hasn’t got a clue how to fight this kind of war.”

“I’m not trying to tell you anything, Marrin. Only think about what you’re risking.”

“I get kicked off University?”

“No. That’s not the problem. You could get killed.”

“That’s not a problem.”

“You so sure of yourself?”

“No, but the dead don’t give a hot jak about anything.”

“It’ll be harder for you to find projects.”

“You saying you won’t recommend me?”

“Tsah! Marrin, you want to get killed?”

“I’m not suicidal, if that’s what you’re thinking. You didn’t answer me.”

“Yes. I’ll recommend you. But you know how rumors bloom round those halls. You’ll be giving away a big edge if you get a reputation for jumping in the sun.”

“If that’s all that’s bothering you…” He stopped the jit outside the gate to the Enclave, hit the horn. “Ahhh! Sometimes… You remind me far too much of a man called Quale. Nice guy, but he drives me crazy sometimes.”

Carefully not smiling, Marrin watched Aslan smiling and subtly flattering the Goлs before she got to the hard bargaining. The Yarak was enjoying it, too, quite aware of what was happening. It confirmed that part of his opinion about the Goлs, a really good trader and exec. But he had the weakness that went with the gift, a conviction that people were always persuadable and that, ultimately, reason won over passion. An illusion, that. Sometimes a fatal one.

“… nearly finished what we can do in the Dumel. I’d like to shut down the station in Alsekum and head out along the Menguid on one of the sailbarges. More than just for study, I must confess. For the past several nights the harper Shadith has not been in communication with us. University will be most unhappy if something serious has happened to her. While she is quite competent at taking care of herself, I am determined to discover what happened.” She drew in a long breath. “All the more since something very troubling has happened.”

Marrin looked down at his hands, concentrated on keeping them relaxed as Aslan sketched out the events of the past several days.

“… from the gossip of the swampies. Not just gossip now. In my eyes, the reports are amply confirmed by the cutter my Aide discovered beside the chorek’s body. And by the crease you’ll find cut into the body of the jit, if you go down and examine it. A souvenir of today’s attack.”

“If you’ll wait here a moment…” The Goлs rose with the elastic grace of the Yaraka, leaving the room with as much haste as he thought comported with his dignity.

Aslan leaned back in her pulochair, closed her eyes. Marrin looked round the luxurious office. Only the

Goлs’ second best office at that. Running the show on gall and charm, a double-hinged tongue his best weapon. Seven techs, a handful of aides, a few guards and god only knows how many laborers. Less than a dozen probably. Contract labor. Won’t arm them, so they’re no use. Spies? Who knows. Yaraka and Chandavasi don’t usually go head on head like this. They stay in their own realms. Bad time to be low on the learning curve.

Aslan and Marrin stood as the Goлs came striding in. “As always in an entry situation,” he said with a graceful wave of his hand that meant they should sit down and be comfortable-which they carefully refrained from doing until he was seated. “We are short of hands to do the work. However, I have managed to detach a few guards from other duties. They will take a few locals with them and check the fringes of the Marish to dislodge any ambushes and carry in any of the um choreks you might have caught with the stunners. As to your intention of traveling in-country, I don’t see how I can permit that. Not until we know more about how deeply the spy has penetrated into local society. You did say that the young musician you brought along is not associated officially with University?”

“Shadith is rather more than a simple musician, Goлs Koraka hoeh Dexios. She has a number of interesting friends whom you might not care to annoy. You will have heard of the Hunters of Wolff, more specifically a Hunter by name Aleytys; they are closer than sisters. You will also have heard of the Dyslaera of Voallts Korlach on Spotchals. She was adopted into the Voallts clan as daughter of Miralys. There are others I could name. Life could be very unpleasant if these folks somehow got the notion you interfered with our efforts to locate her.”

“Threats, Scholar?”

“Certainly not, Goлs. Merely an objective and measured assessment of the situation.”

“I see. And if a flake of this conversation were sent to the head of your School?”

“That is your privilege, Goлs. Feel free to do whatever you choose.”

“I see. If I allow you to leave, you’ll sign a release?”

“For myself and if I’m allowed to write it, yes. And if you have a Register File intact. University has a standard form which should be acceptable to your legal department.” She smiled. “This isn’t the first time the problem has arisen. As to Aide Ola and Manager Shears, they will have to speak for themselves.”

“If you’ll provide a flake for the legalware to look over, I’m sure we can work something out. When were you thinking of leaving?”-

“That will depend upon how soon we can get passage on a barge. I wanted to clear matters with you, Goлs Koraka, before I started making arrangements.” She stood. “If you want my testimony under Verifier, it is yours without condition. I do not like what is being done to these people.”

Marrin drove past the track parked at the beginning of the causeway. “And we hope they’re finally doing their job since their being here makes Shears’ telltales useless.”

“I know. You rank me right up with the Goлs for cluelessness, don’t you.”

“From what I can see, Scholar, you’ve led a singularly sheltered life.” He kept his eyes moving, scanning the silent green front of the Marish as if the flicker of the leaves and the flutter of hanging lichen webs could give him the answers the telltale wouldn’t.

“Tactful. And very like my mother.” She was silent a while. The darkness under the trees, the stagnant water with its reeds and clouds of insects, the gauzy lichen like ancient webs of gigantic spiders, the stillness of the place, all of that seemed to settle over her and give her voice an oddly muffled quality when she finally spoke. “It has always amazed me how most physically competent, practical people have such a low opinion of a Scholar’s imaginative competence even when they are very bright themselves.”

“In my case, if you want a serious answer, Scholar…”

“I would prefer one, yes.”

He frowned at the stretch of causeway left, glanced over his shoulder, reached up and tapped on the telltale. “On Picabral, men whose skills lay only in the mind generally died before puberty. It gives one a viewpoint perhaps a little skewed.”

“I see.”

“A dull and bloody place, Scholar. You wouldn’t find much interesting there. Such a world tends to a deadly uniformity, the more so since anyone with a touch of your imaginative competence… by the way, I rather like that phrase… removes himself at the first possible moment.” He sighed with relief as he started down the ramp. “Though I wouldn’t put you among those who only dream. But you have been sheltered from a great deal that might help you plan right now.”

“Hm.” It was a small and exceedingly skeptical sound almost lost in the hum of lifters. It trailed off into a sigh as she leaned back and let the stunner rest in her lap. “We’ll have to crate the gear and get the Metau and Teseach to give it storage room in the Meeting House. That should be safe enough. You and Dunc start running the analysis of the interviews, get everything encrypted and duplicated into flakes. Just in case. I’ve three more interviews set up for tomorrow. Might as well finish those before we leave. Besides, one of them is a bargeman’s wife. Won’t be direct help, no doubt, but maybe I can pick up some useful information.”

“No more argument?”

“About going after the Chav? I don’t waste my breath.” She wrinkled her longish nose, laughed at him. “Besides, Shadow may already have dealt with him. She can be a very sudden woman when she chooses.”

“I’ve heard rumors. That the truth you told the Goлs?”

“Now, Marrin, I’m surprised at you. You think I’d lie?” She grinned. “When every word I spoke is going through analysis by traders used to listen for nuance?” She sobered. “And I’ll probably have to submit to the Verifier when this business is over. You, too. Remember that.”

“Me?” He blinked, looked startled. “Why? I’m only a student.”

“Because this is a Trade Matter. Which means Helvetia. I’ve been through one of their condemnation trials. They pick nits like no one else. Which means everyone, including you, Dunc, and a sample of the Bйluchar who can speak as direct witnesses to the burnings. Goлs Koraka hoeh Dexios knows all of this, Marrin. It’s why he’s being so very very careful in everything he does. This is life and death for Yaraka and Chandavasi.”

He looked out over the placid fields with the herds and their drowsy keepers, the farmers working in their fields, weeding, irrigating, planting things whose names he didn’t know, whose uses he had even less idea about. The sky was empty of Eolt, but a few clouds stretched in long arcing wisps across a deep blue dome. Such peace was deceptive, he knew, this was no godhome perfection, but filled with stresses and strains and the thousand thousand ways that life can go wrong for people, especially when two such disparate species tried to live together. But they did try, and there had been peace. This wasn’t a stagnant world; things changed, but they had changed at Bйluchad’s own pace and in ways peculiar to this dual species called Bйluchar. And the Eolt were a wonder. The first time he’d seen them, they’d been like jewels carved from amber, and when he heard them singing in that grand chorus… the memory stung a sterner anger out of him and a determination to pull together for himself the Chandavasi files. They were there in the Rekordek, he’d just been too busy to look into them.

Duncan Shears was waiting in the stable the Blai Olegan had cleaned out to house the jit. “Metau and Teseach have been by,” he said. “They want to see you soonest, Scholar.”

“About what?” Aslan swung down from the jit, pushing her hair back from her face. “They give you any idea?”

“Probably Glois and Utelel,” Marrin said. “Finally got around to doing what they should have done yesterday.”

“Hm. Dunc, were they angry or what?”

“Serious but not hostile.”

“Then that’s all right. I’d better get cleaned up first. Marrin will fill you in. Things are going to start changing very quickly.”

“Enclave?”

“You don’t sound happy about it.”

“I’m not.”

“Well, we’re not. We’re going to go inland and hunt for Shadith.”

“I was thinking about that. Away from here to anywhere is a good idea.”