Shadowplay

CELL 9

Asteplikota lay back in the longchair as the girl brushed and braided his hair, pulling the shining blond loops around to cover the ridged scarring where his scalp had been sliced away. It was a pleasant attention, but it made him uneasy; he had a strong aversion to such pampering.

And he was worried about his brother, uncertain, now that Kiscomaskin wasn't here to reassure him-not with words, because words were unimportant and unreliable, but with the flash of his smile and the warmth of his fondness. It was at those moments when they were alone and wrapped in bloodcaring that he felt Kiscomaskin's posturing was only that, the mask of a man protecting himself from his gentler side.

The girl finished her task, dipped and backed out. As if he'd waited outside for her to be done and begone, Lihtaksos tapped lightly on the doorpost, came in without ceremony, a measure of his disturbance. "Oppla Bless, Aste my friend. Kiscomaskin, has he been here in the past week?"

Asteplikota sat up. "No. I haven't seen him since he left for the Main."

Lihtaksos dropped on the hassock by Asteplikota's feet, seemed to crumple In on himself. "The Three are in the Gospah's hands, have been for the past two weeks, but he doesn't have your brother, even in his deepest pit, we're sure of that. And he's nowhere else. We've looked. I'm sorry, Aste, but I think he's dead. I don't know how or who, but I can see no other answer."

Asteplikota closed his eyes, touched the tips of his fingers to his brow, hiding his face. Grief was cold in him, it was a loss he couldn't comprehend. He'd half been expecting it, but that didn't help. Somewhere distant, almost beyond reach, he felt anger, he knew it was anger, but it was meaningless right then. He dropped his hands. "I see. So?"

Lihtaksos brushed absently at the wrinkles in his shirt. "Killing Makwahkik was a mistake," he said wearily. "Maybe there was satisfaction in it, perhaps even justice. But it was most definitely a mistake. There was a center to what we were fighting, now there's none. We hit at clouds and gain nothing from it. People die now for nothing, nothing at all, Aste, nothing at all Come back with me. We need you. Dencipim is at everyone's throat; Wetakisoh is drawing back into himself his caution is becoming paralysis; Mohecopah goes around in a permanent gloom saying I told you so. He warned us against killing Makwahklk and now he's proved right." Lihtaksos smiled wryly. "Much more of that and I'll strangle him myself. Kiscomaskin was our balance wheel, Aste: we could defer to him. None of us is willing to give that power to the others, none of us is big enough to take it. We need you."

"I don't have Kisca's talent, Lihto. I have enough trouble driving myself, I can't..

"You don't have Kisca's flash, my friend, but we can do without flash now, be better off for the loss of it. We, know whose mind devised the strategies that kept your brother afloat, we know who helped him polish away his excesses. We need you."

"Well then, I'll come, do what I can. Are things on the Main as bad as we've been hearing?" He held out his hand, let

Lihtaksos pull him onto his feet. "The scenes we get over the corn are enough to make a slither cringe."