Shadowkill

##

“No electricity,” Kizra said after a lengthy and fidgety silence. “Candles, shooh!”

Tinoopa chuckled, a warm rough sound that rubbed against Kizra like a blanket. “You,” she said. “You don’t know what bad is.” She thumped Kizra’s shoulder; it was lay-down-the-law-time again. “Listen, luv, from now on, no comments. I know people like this pair. They can be generous, but it’s on their own terms. You show ’em you think you have rights, you threaten ’em. They get mean. Happens every time.” She frowned at Kizra. “Don’t complain. And be ready with that little extra bit of service. If you’re valuable, you’re treated better. We made a good start. But it’s only a start. It’s a rough world, this’n, looks to me like someone could get killed round here.”

Kizra yawned, thrust her hands into the side pockets of her coverall. “All right. Look, there’s something been itching at me. How come I still know stuff… things like about laser markers and different worlds and… well

… I mean… stuff? Doesn’t mindwipe get rid of all that?”

Tinoopa twisted around, raised her brows. “We’re all talking local, aren’t we? How? Think about it.”

“Oh.” Kizra rubbed her shoulder against one of the knobs on the seat back. “Oh, yeh.”

Tinoopa chuckled again. “Yeh. Easy when you think about it, huh?” She straightened around, folded her arms across her breasts, and dropped into a doze.

Kizra yawned and yawned. She was exhausted. And bored. And if something didn’t happen soon, she was going to go to sleep in spite of the knobs on this damn bench. She fidgeted some more, wiggled her toes, scratched at her head (wondering with irritation if she’d picked up visitors from the scabby places she’d been sleeping in recently), sucked at her teeth…

… until Tinoopa lost hold of her temper and slapped at her head (slapped lightly, but hard enough to get her attention). “Act your age, nit. You driving me buggy.”

“Age?” Kizra fit the tips of her fingers together, tapped them against each other one by one, forefingers first. “What age?”

“Hmp. Just sit still, will you?”

“I sit still, I go to sleep. How much longer we stuck here?”

“Until. Now be quiet.”

Kizra subsided. Till now she’d been frightened, groping for she didn’t know what. Coming up here, though, just a minute ago, something had happened to her. Like a boot in the behind. Between one breath and the next, she relaxed all over; it was as if she’d shed centuries of worry and just sort of settled into her body, letting it do its thing. Or maybe she was just so tired, she didn’t have enough energy left to stay scared.

There was a kind of freedom, now she thought about it, in having no history to set its claws in her. She didn’t know who and what she was, so she could make herself up as she went. Well, not quite free. Tinoopa was there to tell her things, poke her when she needed to notice something. Talking about poke, why did they put knobs on this furtzen bench just where they were sure to poke the sitter in the ass… hmm… funny how the oil in that wax made little balls of fog about the flames, then went eeling up out of the chimneys…

Tinoopa drove her thumb hard into Kizra’s ribs, muttered, “On your feet, nit. Look sharp, will you?”

Kizra was up and smoothing her coverall before she was awake enough, to be aware of what was happening.

Aghilo touched her arm. “Come,” she said. “They want you.” She nodded at Tinoopa. “Both of you.”