Mouse and Dragon

Liaden 11 - Mouse and Dragon

Chapter Fourteen

He found it in a desert, so he told me—the only living thing in two days' walk. A skinny stick with a couple leaves near the top, that's all it was then.

I don't remember the name of the world it came from. He might not have told me. Wherever it was, when his Troop finally picked him up, Jela wouldn't leave 'til he'd dug up that damned skinny stick of a tree and planted it real careful in an old ration tin. Carried it in his arms onto transport. And nobody dared to laugh.

—Excerpted from Cantra yos'Phelium's Log Book

This waking was both easier and more difficult. Easier because she had the memory of last evening's pleasures to treasure; more difficult because she knew before ever she opened her eyes that she was alone.

After Mr. pel'Kana's interruption, she and Daav had taken a leisurely meal, sitting together on the window seat and overlooking the nighttime garden. They had not spoken very much—there seemed to be no need. When they were through, she had helped Daav clear what was left and carry it down the back hall to the kitchen, where he made quick work of stowing everything in its proper place.

Arms around each other, they walked slowly up the stairs. She had opened her door, thrilled and a little frightened after all, stepped inside and turned to look at him.

“Daav? Will you—come in?”

“Not, I think, tonight,” he said, with a smile so regretful tears rose to her eyes.

“How if I overwhelm you, and both of us asleep?” he asked.

“Van'chela, we have spoken of this. Surely this evening's pleasures have shown you that we are safe together? I know you now, and will not mistake you for myself!”

“Even asleep?” he asked, and shook his head. “We cannot be certain. I suggest that we stay the course and keep to your plan of unhurried research.” His smile this time was pure mischief. “And we have done prodigious amounts of research this evening, Aelliana.”

She laughed then, and come back to him, claiming one more kiss.

“May a humble copilot suggest a course to his pilot?” he murmured, when they had done and she was once more inside her door.

Aelliana attempted a stern frown. “If you must,” she said haughtily. “Though I may space you, if the suggestion irritates.”

“That seems fair enough,” he answered. “I merely suggest—most gently—that it may be worthwhile to use the Rainbow to anchor what you have learned this day.”

It was only sense to use the tools she had in hand, and so, at last in bed, she had laid in the course, worked her way through the Rainbow—and fallen asleep.

And now, she was awake. Not only awake, but—

“I'm hungry,” she said and opened her eyes, throwing the blanket back with a will.

Breakfast was again laid in the morning room, though Mr. pel'Kana was not in evidence. Doubtless, he had duties elsewhere, and Aelliana could certainly feed herself. She glanced toward the window as she approached the buffet, hoping for a glimpse of orange Relchin.

She was denied that pleasure. However, lying on the window seat, very much at her ease, was a cat with luxuriously long creamy fur, with startling blue eyes blinking inside a mask of sable brown.

“Oh!” Aelliana approached and offered a finger. “You must be Lady Dignity. I am most pleased to meet you.”

Her ladyship graciously touched her nose to the tip of Aelliana's finger, and squeezed her eyes into slits—a cat smile.

“Thank you,” Aelliana said. “I see that there's room on the seat for me, if you will share. Only a moment, while I gather some food.”

The cat had accepted a bit of cheese, then curled 'round with her tail over her nose and closed her eyes. Aelliana ate the rest of her breakfast slowly, savoring the tastes and textures while she looked out over the garden.

So much had changed in the last few days—and not the least of it, herself. This connection with Daav—already so precious to her—complicated the course she had thought laid in and locked. Indeed, the very reason she had chosen so stringent a course—to leave Liad and all she knew—was now gone, vanished by a wave of Mizel's hand.

There was a commotion in the hall—a voice, somewhat familiar, asking in ringing tones for “Korval” and the sound of bootheels being set firmly against the wooden floor.

Lady Dignity's head came up. She listened to the noise for a moment, eyes wide in apparent consternation. Then she was gone, flowing off the window seat, and racing out the open door.

“If your ladyship will consent to wait in the small parlor,” Mr. pel'Kana's voice was no less carrying, “I will fetch his lordship immediately.”

“I will await him in the morning room,” the lady said, above the racket of her progress. “You may tell his lordship that I will remain there until such time as it pleases him to give over playing in the dirt. If he delays himself until nuncheon, he will find me here. If he puts me off until Prime, yet I will await him. My topic will not be denied.”

“I am certain that his lordship will be delighted to see your ladyship.”

“Yes, of course. Do, please, fetch him as best you may.”

A shadow moved at the door, and Daav's sister bore, noisily, in. Aelliana glimpsed Mr. pel'Kana's face over the lady's shoulder. He met her eyes and his widened slightly. Then, he was gone.

Aelliana sat up, juggling plate and cup; her movements drawing the lady's eye.

“Ah, Pilot Caylon,” she said, executing an extremely brief bow in a mode Aelliana did not recognize. “We are well-met.”

“I am pleased to hear you say so,” Aelliana said in the mode of adult-to-adult. She rose and carried her dishes to the tray. When she turned back, she found Kareen yos'Phelium watching her . . . oddly.

She bowed, Guest-to-One-of-the-House. “In what way may I serve you, ma'am?”

“It is I who may serve you, Pilot. Since we last spoke, I have researched yourself and your clan. Allow me to congratulate you for the astuteness with which you have improved your position.”

Aelliana frowned, even as her stomach clenched. She was unskilled in social dueling. Yet, if she were not mistaken, Lady Kareen had drawn steel.

“Improved?” she asked, since one must say something. “I fear that I miss your meaning.”

The other woman smiled, and inclined her sleek head.

“Certainly, to be under Korval's wing is an improvement over standing as the second daughter of an indigent and scarcely coherent clan, the minor children of which are already indentured to another House, and which has recently sustained the loss of its nadelm. I applaud your perspicacity and your call to action. But I wonder, Pilot, if you have thought this plan through?”

No, Aelliana thought suddenly, this game was well-known to her: Ran Eld had played it. He, at least, could often be drawn by a show of bewilderment. Perhaps Lady Kareen was vulnerable to the same ploy. Aelliana tipped her head and made her eyes wide.

“Truly, ma'am,” she said, “I am in uncharted skies. What is this plan which I may not have thought through?”

Another smile, this one edged with perceptible malice.

“Why, I only mean to say, Pilot, that, if you wish to attach my brother more . . . permanently—but hold! Am I correct in supposing that you think of a lifemating? Certainly, I would do so, in your place.”

Kareen did not know! Aelliana took a careful breath, and vowed to conceal the fact of her bond with Daav. There was no reason to place another weapon into her ladyship's hand. Even if one could not entirely see how something so straightforward could be given an edge, it was enough to know that she would use it to harm Daav, if she could.

“I had considered a lifemating, yes,” she admitted.

“I had thought as much,” Lady Kareen said, a note of satisfaction in her voice. “It is no secret that my brother is susceptible. He desires a lifemating, for his cha'leket has made one. It has ever been the case that what one of the pair has the other must have in equal measure. Further, it would seem that you have appealed to his natural inclinations. So far, you have done well—no, I will not stint! You have done brilliantly! However, before you take the next step, I ask you, most urgently, to review your scheme. You stand at a cusp point, Pilot. One wrong throw, here and now, and you lose all.”

“I don't understand,” Aelliana said, and if her voice was shaking, it was only just, for her legs were shaking, too. The emotion—perhaps it was anger, or disbelief. It was not, however, fear.

“Perhaps you do not, after all,” Kareen acknowledged. "Look you, Pilot—Korval moves at the highest levels. As one who has been bred to that melant'i, as my brother has been, I cannot help but notice your lack of . . . polish. While my brother enjoys posing as a Codeless renegade, in fact he is a high stickler. In his way. Also, he is Korval, a melant'i that he carries as well as he is able, given the defects of his character. I will tell you that I know from bitter experience that he has no hesitation in separating close kin, whatever their feelings on the matter.

“You may wish to consider what might go forth if—I should say when, for surely the High Houses are chancy flying for even an experienced pilot—you make a misstep. For truly, Pilot, at these heights you are as a mouse among raptors. Your best chance of survival is to remain small, and to feast upon whatever crumbs fall your way.”

The air in the room changed. Aelliana glanced to the door, and here came Daav, striding swift and silent, a pair of dirt-stained gloves gripped in his left hand. His face was utterly devoid of emotion, but the force of his anger struck Aelliana from across the room. She went back a step, her hand rising as if she would fend him away.

“Good morning, Kareen; you're about early today.” His voice was ordered and calm; not welcoming, but neither did it deliver any hint of the fury that hammered at Aelliana's senses.

“Pilot,” he said, his eyes still on his sister's face, “would you grant me a few moments alone with my kinswoman?”

“Certainly.”

She bowed to Lady Kareen's honor and forced herself to walk calmly across the room. In the hall she met Mr. pel'Kana.

“Pilot—” he began, and stopped when she held up a hand.

“I desire to go into the garden,” she whispered. She cleared her throat. “Of your kindness, point me the way.”

* * *

He knew where he would find her. Wherever the knowledge had come from, he did not doubt it—which argued for Tree-sense. Those born to Korval accepted such things as commonplace. Those who came to Korval from lives previously unburdened by an ancient alliance with a large, vegetative intelligence . . . took some amount of time to adjust. He was not entirely certain that Anne had yet come to an accommodation, or if her seeming acceptance was merely bravado.

He left the path and walked over the grass, taking care with the surface roots. Aelliana was pressed close against the massive trunk, soft cheek against rough bark, the lines of her body expressive of some tension, but not so much as he had feared.

Coming to her side, he spoke as gently as he might.

“Aelliana, you mustn't take my sister's words to heart. She is—we have a long history of despite, as much to my blame as hers. I fear that she does not count the cost, can she but land a strike upon me.”

She took a breath, slim shoulders rising and falling.

“Does this tree,” she asked dreamily, “speak to you?”

Well, and that was no time lost, he thought.

“It speaks to all of us,” he told her, and added, with Kareen in his mind, “though some listen less closely than others.”

For three heartbeats, she said nothing more, merely embracing the tree, so nearly it seemed that she might meld with it. Three heartbeats more, and he was becoming alarmed. If the tree were to overwhelm her—

She straightened, and turned, holding a seedpod between thumb and forefinger.

“This fell into my hand,” she said, sounding brisk now, and not dreamy in the least. “The tree tells me that it is a gift, and good to eat.”

“True on both counts,” he allowed. “However, there is a third thing, which perhaps it did not tell you.” He nodded at the pod. “The tree . . . engineers its gifts, from time to time. If you eat that, you may become bound to it.”

“As you are,” Aelliana said.

He inclined his head. “As we all are.”

She held the pod out to him. “How does one proceed?”

He took a breath—but who was he to deny her the benefits the tree's gifts so often bestowed? She was his lifemate, and thereby tree-kin. She had a right to the gift.

Taking the pod, he cracked it between his fingers and returned the pieces to her.

“The kernel is what one eats,” he said, and extended his hand, warned by a rustle in the leaves overhead. Another pod dropped into his palm.

He held it up, and gave her a wry grin. “I believe that we are being coddled.”

“A little coddling may not go amiss, surely?” Aelliana murmured, as he cracked his pod. “Your sister—”

“Pray put my sister out of your mind,” he said, teasing the kernel free.

Aelliana tipped her head. “This smells so—odd.”

He lifted an eyebrow. “In what way?”

“Well, it smells not of something—like mint or spice—but rather of the idea that the food is good.” She looked up at him. “Is it always thus?”

“No, sometimes they do smell of mint, or spice, or new leaves. I posit an encryption system peculiar to the tree. These, though . . . ” He paused to sniff his own kernel. “I believe they may have been produced especially for this event. And if that does not frighten you, then you are bolder than I am.”

She laughed, her eyes brilliantly green, and put the kernel into her mouth.

“That's put me on my mettle,” he said, and followed her lead.

Usually, when one ate of the tree, the result was a pleasant taste, and perhaps a mild, pleasurable euphoria. This was not usual tree fruit.

His mouth cooled, as if he had drunk iced water, and the sensation flowed through him, informing each bone, muscle and cell, until his strength was frozen and he sat down, hard, and leaned his back against the massive trunk, eyes closed, shivering.

“I wish,” he said, and his voice was shivering too, “you would at least give one warning. What have you done, wretch?”

“Daav?” Aelliana's voice was not shivering. Indeed, it was remarkably firm.

He opened his eyes and turned his head, carefully. She was kneeling at his side. Green eyes looked directly into his, mild concern apparent.

“Are you well?” she asked.

“I expect I will be,” he said, breathless still, but gaining strength. “Surely it has no need to murder me today, and good reason to keep me alive for just a few days more.”

She frowned. “I don't think the tree means to murder you,” she said seriously. “Though what reason?”

“yos'Phelium is grown dangerously thin. At least I must survive until I've done my duty to the bloodline. Unless, of course, it means to give over breeding yos'Pheliums entirely, which I might do, in its place.”

The shivering had passed, leaving him slowly warming, and in a state of not-unpleasant languor.

Aelliana shifted off her knees and sat on the grass, her shoulder against the great trunk. Her expression was thoughtful.

“I had forgotten,” she murmured, then seemed to shake herself. “Van'chela, perhaps the tree means to—to repair the damage, and render you—able to hear me.”

Well, and there was a thought—and not at all beyond its range. “Though one would still count it a kindness if a warning were issued before the blow falls.”

A leaf floated from one of the lower branches and landed on his knee.

“Your concern warms my heart,” he told it, ironically.

“Are you well?” Aelliana demanded.

He took a breath, and took stock. The languor was fading, though he felt no immediate need to rise and go about his day.

“In truth, I seem to have taken no lasting harm, and only a glancing blow to my pride.”

She blinked. “Pride?”

“One does not like to appear a complete idiot before one's pilot, after all.”

She smiled at that.

“Here,” she said, and put her hand flat against his chest.

“Can you,” she said, and he heard hope raw in her voice, “hear me?”

He closed his eyes, but if there was anything other than his own chaotic thoughts bouncing inside his skull, they were too faint for his inner ears to hear.

He put his hand over hers and opened his eyes.

“Alas.”

She wilted, a little, then straightened resolutely. “After all, it is a complex problem and may require several attempts.”

If it could be repaired at all, he thought, but did not say. Instead he smiled for her, and inclined his head.

“Very true.”

She sighed, and took her hand away from him.

“Your sister,” she said once more, and pressed her fingers against his lips, silencing him.

“Hear me,” she said firmly, and he perforce subsided.

"I know that she wished to warn me away, but she built her argument on a foundation of fact. I am not High House, and hold but an indifferent acquaintance with the Code, despite my late adventures. I am not traveled, nor have I been accustomed to making decisions based on the best good for all. For too many years, my decisions were made from fear, and concerned only my own safety.

“While I do not believe that you would send me away from you for embarrassing the High House of Korval before the world, yet the High House of Korval ought not to be embarrassed.”

Daav caught her wrist and lifted her hand away from his lips to cuddle it against his shoulder. “I note that Thodelmae yos'Galan is Terran, and despite earnest study, does yet from time to time err in small ways. The world makes nothing of it.”

“Nor should it. The fact that Anne is not of Liad is there for all to see. She cannot be expected to stand Code-wise and the fact that she errs only in small ways must be to her credit. But from one born to Liad, van'chela, more is expected.”

This new decisiveness was fascinating.

“What solution do you propose?” he asked.

She drew a breath, her fingers curling hard around his.

“I propose that we return to my original plan, with appropriate emendations.”

His heart sank. Of course she would fly her ship, nor was he the one to deny her, wing-clipped and planet-bound as he was.

“You wish to put Ride the Luck to space?”

She smiled. “I had always intended to do so—now more than before. Surely it must only improve my condition within the House, to captain my own ship. I might even undertake to learn the Code.”

She leaned forward, looking deep into his eyes, doubtless seeing his hurt and his jealousy and all the small unworthy pains.

“Will you sit my copilot?” she asked.

His eyes filled, and he closed them, unwilling to allow even her to see him so vulnerable.

“Aelliana, I am Korval.”

“So you are,” she said briskly. “What has that to do with the case?”

His eyes sprang open in shock. “The clan's business ties me to Liad. A day or two away, I might arrange that, but—do you plan a trade loop? Or will you go for courier?”

“That is but one of the many things I had hoped to discuss with my copilot, who is far more space-wise than I,” she said with some asperity. “Come, Daav! I don't know how it is done among the High, but among the Mid Houses, it is common for the delm to hold employment!”

He stared at her. “It has been . . . tradition,” he said slowly, and so it had been, since they had grown so thin, and the dangers of space had begun to be counted as more compelling than its joys.

“It is an absurd tradition!” Aelliana said decisively. “And I see no reason why you should be made ill because of it—or that we be denied the joy of sitting the same board, as surely we are intended to do!”

“As surely we are,” he said slowly, feeling her fingers gripping him tight—so tight. Not as certain as she sounded, his bold lady, and yet—her argument had merit.

“You must understand the cargo you would sign for, Pilot. yos'Phelium is a reckless Line. Had we not had the good fortune to fall under yos'Galan's care, we would scarcely have survived so long. When we grew thin, it was considered best that the delm not risk space.”

“Thodelm yos'Galan trades,” Aelliana said. “Anne told me he was to leave on a trip at the end of this twelve-day.”

“So he does and so he is. Er Thom is the very spirit of discretion—and I, my lady, am very much his opposite number.”

Surprisingly, she smiled. “Then I will learn that, too.”

He laughed, and raised her hand to his lips. Teasing her fingers open, he kissed her palm, then looked into her face. Gods, she was beautiful, with her eyes reflecting the strength of her will, and her determination plain in her face.

“I will have to research it,” he said slowly, “and I must speak with Er Thom. It seems to me that there was once a system that allowed Korval's delm to, as you say, hold employment. For today, however, let us assume that the thing might be managed, someway. Are you at liberty?”

“I am entirely at your disposal,” she told him solemnly. “What do you propose?”

“That we take ourselves to Binjali's and inventory your ship. I lean towards courier, but I wish to refresh myself on certain measurements.”

“Our ship,” Aelliana said, and stood in one fluid movement, pulling him up with her. “Let us, by all means, go to Binjali's.”

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