Shadow of the Warmaster

16

Again Aslan worked until her mind was numb, slept badly and woke with despair and fear a sickness in her belly. It was hard to get up, to get on with living, but she’d done all she could in the time given her. The airship was coming for her shortly after noon and in a few hours she’d be back in the Palace pen, a slave again, with all that meant. She comforted herself with the thought that the sooner she was gone from the Persij-Samineh Farm, the sooner Tra Yarta’s attention would be taken off them.

They threw a feast for her, danced the sea-dances for her, tumbled and juggled and at the end of the little jubilation, a woman with a husky voice filled with the pain and joy of a fully lived life sang a song that the Farmers listened to with a verve that seemed more than it was worth. Sly eyes watched Aslan, half-smiles teased at her, said to her we know we know, it’s a bit of a risk, but who can always live safely?

The woman’s hair was black and long, shiny and sleek as a tar slick. She stood on a wooden dais, flute player on one side, a fiddler on the other and drummer at her feet.

One a two a moon rising high

Dream and Illusion sharing the sky

Three a four a stone and a bone

What does the stone say, my oh my

What does the bone say, by an by

Moonlight’s for love

For dreams never spoken of

Dreams that won’t die

Five six seven

What do you leave in

When you’re singing just a little lie

Sweet lie, silly lie, pass on by

Eight and nine

Look for the sign

Ten eleven

Fall from heaven

All those devils dark and sly

Riding the shoulders of

You and I

High be low and low be high

Twelve a thirteen

What does it mean

Bone come walking shimble shamble

Place your bets and let the wheel spin

All the little angels grin and gambol

Tip a toe tap a toe atop a little pin

Stone say watch it, round they come again

The angels are dancing wild and tame

Tap a toe tip a toe atop a little pin

Hey bone, ho bone want a little game

Bound for heaven? Never try it

That’s a place they let too many in

Fourteen fifteen

What does it mean

All the little angels wild and free

Asquat around a gamble stone

Playing for we

Sixteen seventeen

What’s your fancy?

Nothing chancy

Let the wheel spin

Eighteen nineteen

What does it mean

Moonlight’s for love

For dreams never spoken of

Dreams that won’t die

Twenty a score, not no more

What’s a number for

Start the game again

Aslan joined in the storm of applause, appreciating the skill of the singer as she turned what seemed to be a minor little counting poem into something daring and portentous. The performance was safe in the Ridaar unit and she could study it in more depth later-if she decided she could trust the computers at her work station and if she wanted the responsibility. It wasn’t all that difficult to understand the overall message of the song; even this stranger could hear the call for a continued resistance to Huvved rule, but there were some trigger words and images that drew a response which seemed disproportionate to their content. There was something going on here, something more dangerous than what Gerilli Persij had called talking a good fight. Aslan kept an open, appreciative smile on her face as the woman stepped down and another singer took her place, a man this time.

Alone except for the pilot and his co, Aslan watched the grasslands sliding beneath her, the silvery green-brown grass blowing in the wind that was pushing the ship along and making it shudder now and then. I could like this world, she thought, these people. Well, not the Huvved. Hmm. It’s worth studying… wonder who’d apply and who’d get the grant? Aaron? Could be. He must be nearly finished with the Darra Saseru, seeing that they’re just about finished killing each other off. Or maybe T’Kraaketkx Tk. I wonder what the Hordar would make of him? Hmm. Are they shapephobic? Or is that a Huvved trait? All the slaves brought in with me were from the cousin races, only slight variations from the two types living here. But that was just one shipment. Hmm. If I were the Imperator and reasonably sane, the techs I’d import would be so different from the locals that there’d be no place at all for them to hide. She yawned, settled back in the chair and dropped into a doze.