The Snow Queen

40

“Oh, my aching back!” Tor stretched to her limits in the privacy of the casino’s storeroom. The words rebounded from the exposed walls; the room was almost empty of supplies, and the patrons were doing their best to finish the job. “Come on, Pollux, get this last container of tlaloc out front for me before their tongues turn black.” She yawned, hearing the crack of her jaw echo inside her head. Empty? “Lost my mind at last.”

“Whatever you say, Tor.” Pollux moved stolidly across the room, following her point like a faithful hound.

She giggled, giddy with exhaustion. “I swear you do that on purpose! Don’t you? You can tell me—”

“Whatever you say, Tor.” Pollux connected with the crate.

Her mouth fell, her emotions avalanched from the heights. “Oh, hell, Polly… what am I going to do without you? I’m really going to miss you, you greasy hunk of junk.” She straightened her wig. “There’s only two things Oyarzabal can do for me that you can’t, and once I get off this rock it’ll be down to one — and I can get that from any man. No wonder he’s jealous.” She laughed glumly. Oyarzabal had told her that she would become his wife only if she agreed to get rid of Pollux first. She had agreed, and felt another link soldered onto the chain he was forging to turn her into his slave. He wants what I am… so why does he try to change it? She pushed her wig crooked, straightened it again. “Damn it, who’s going to keep me neat, anyway? Hauling crates and turning Summer fish-eaters into queens — all in a day’s work for you, isn’t it? Don’t you ever wonder about yourself, Pollux? Can you really do all that and not ask yourself how, or why?” She trailed him back across the room. “Or whether the kid’s going to save her lover from the Queen, or whether she’s crazy to want a crud like Sparks Dawntreader at all?”

His faceless head regarded her with imitation attention, but he said nothing.

“Aagh—” She shook a hand at him. “I really must be sold out of brains. You don’t even know I’m here; how’re you going to give a damn when I’m not? So why should I worry?” She kicked an empty carton spitefully out of their path. “When you finish with this, come back and get the last barrel of that fermented sap, and hook it up for Herne.” For Starbuck. Old Starbuck, and New Starbuck; I know them both. And the Queen’s twin. Thank the gods I’m leaving Carbuncle soon — before I meet myself walking backwards.

She reached the doorway, heard voices drifting out of the room across the hall, the one with a door that was unobtrusively as secure as the vault of the Bank of Newhaven; the one she had never seen unlocked before. But just — now its seals were green, it stood unguarded and ever so slightly ajar, and she recognized one of the voices from behind it as Oyarzabal’s. Pollux clanked away down the hall toward the casino, oblivious, but she crossed to the door impulsively and pushed it open.

Half a dozen heads turned to look at her, all male, all off worlders Three she recognized immediately as the Source’s lieutenants; Oyarzabal came toward her, annoyance and subtle panic showing in every move.

“I told you to secure that door!” one of the strangers said murderously.

“It’s all right — she runs the place, she knows everything,” Oyarzabal called back. “What the hell are you doing here?” whispered.

She threw her arms around his neck, smothered his protests under a wet kiss. “I’m hungry for my man, that’s all.” And if it’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s a locked door.

“Hell, Persipone!” He pulled away. “Not now! We got a big job to take care of for the Source here in the city. Later I—”

“Something for the Queen?”

His hands brushed her bare upper arms. “How did you know that?”

Wild guess. “Well, you just said I know everything.” She mugged a hidden face at him. “I don’t want to make a liar of you. I saw Starbuck come to see the Source today, and I figured the Queen must have sent him,” scoring another point.

“You know who Starbuck is, too?”

“Sure. I’m a Winter, aren’t I? And I do the Source’s business, just like you.” She looked him brazenly in the eye. “So what’s the rest of it, huh? What’s the Queen buying, one last surprise for her farewell party? You can tell me, I’m you’re wife, almost.” She stood higher on her platform shoes, peering over his shoulder at the knot of gesturing men around a sterile slab of table. Looking past them she realized that the place was a fully equipped laboratory. She had always wondered how the Source managed to keep such a variety of illegal pleasures stocked here, even when they couldn’t be gotten from the regular suppliers… Glancing back, she saw on the flawless surface of their meeting table a single heavy metal carrying case. On the lid, on its sides, WARNING… and the barbed trefoil of a sibyl. Her skin began to prickle.

“Well, yeah, you could say she’s planning kind of a surprise for the Summers.” He grinned. “But you don’t need to worry your pretty head about it. You’ve had your shots; and you’re going off world with me, anyway. You don’t care what happens here after you’re gone, do you?”

She twisted uncomfortably in his grasp. “What do you mean?… Hey, why is there a sibyl sign on that box, huh? That means—” contamination. “

“Biological contamination?”“ as the fine print suddenly slid into focus. “What’s in that — germs? Disease, poison?” her voice rose.

“Hey, shut up, will you? Keep your voice down—” He shook her ungently.

“What are going to do?” She struggled, her panic rising now. “You’re going to kill people! You’re going to kill my people!”

“Just the Summers, goddamn it, Perse! Not the Winters, they’ll be safe; the Queen wants it this way.”

“No, you’re lying! It’s going to kill Winters too, the Queen wouldn’t let you kill us! You’re crazy, Oyar, let me go! Pollux, help me, Pollux—” The other men were up from the table, coming toward her, and Oyarzabal’s heavy hands still held her prisoner. Desperately she brought up her knee; he doubled over with a howl and she was abruptly free to The stunner beam caught her from behind, and she fell against the door, knocking it shut as she slid helplessly down to the floor.