Water Sleeps

26

W ord was in that the Bhodi disciples were not happy with us for stealing their thunder at the Palace gate. I wondered what they would think when the news arrived about our behavior at Semchi. That seemed to be coming together perfectly for us. Unless Soulcatcher was thinking farther ahead than we could detect.

Murgen had Slink's party well on the way to the village. And moving faster than the group the Protector had sent to destroy the Bhodi Tree. That group outnumbered our brothers but did not expect any resistance. In a few days it would turn really nasty down there.

As the weather had here. Storm season had arrived. I had been delayed coming home by a ferocious thunderstorm that flooded some streets and sent down hail an inch in diameter. The kangali and other children went out and tried to gather up the ice, barking in pain every time a hailstone found unprotected skin. For a short while the air was almost tolerably cool. But then the storm moved on and the heat returned worse than it had been before. The stench of the city welled up. One storm was not enough to sluice it clean, only to turn everything over. In a few days the insects would be more miserable than ever before.

I hugged my burden and told myself I would not have to stay in this cesspool much longer.

"One more to locate and I'll have everything I need from the library." My new acquisition lay open for public viewing. Of course no one could read it. Not even me. But I was confident that I now possessed another original of the three missing Annals. Perhaps the very first, since it was so alien. The other seemed to be inscribed in the same alphabet, much modified and somewhat like that used in the discarded volume I had rescued. If the language was the same, I would be able to figure it out eventually.

One-Eye cackled. "Yeah. Everything but somebody to translate that stuff for you. Everything but your new boyfriend." He insisted that Master Santaraksita was out to seduce me. And that Santaraksita would be brokenhearted if he succeeded and discovered that I was female.

"That's enough of that, you filthy old thing."

"Sacrifice for the cause, Little Girl." He started to offer some graphic advice. He had been drinking again. Or was drinking still.

Sahra arrived. She tossed a large bundle of pages my way. "Can it, One-Eye. Find Goblin. There's work to do." Of me she demanded, "Why do you put up with that?"

"He's harmless. And he's for sure too darned old to change. And if he's nagging me, he's not getting into something that's going to get us all killed."

"So you're sacrificing for the cause."

"Something like that. That was quick." Goblin had arrived. "What happened to One-Eye?"

"Taking a leak. What do I have to do now?"

Sahra said, "I can get into the Anger Chamber The rest is up to you."

"You do this and you'll never be able to get back into the Palace. You know that, don't you?"

"What're we talking about?" I asked.

Sahra said, "I think we can kidnap the Radisha. With a little luck and a lot of help from Goblin and One-Eye."

"Goblin's right. You do that, we'd all better be a hundred miles away by the time the word gets out. I have a better idea. If we have to give away the fact that we can get inside the Palace, do it by sabotaging Soulcatcher. Get to one of her carpets, rig it to come apart under her when she's two hundred feet up and moving fast."

"I like the way you think, Sleepy. Put that on the list, Sahra. I want to be there. It'd be like the time the Howler flew into the side of the Tower at Charm. Man, he must've been going at least three times as fast as a horse could run when he hit that wall. Blauw! Hair, teeth and eyeballs all over the—"

"He walked away from that, you idiot." One-Eye was back. "He's out there under the plain with our guys right now." A unique odor suggested that One-Eye had taken a moment out to award himself some medicinal refreshment.

"Stop it. Now." Sahra was cranky tonight. "Our next step will be to neutralize Chandra Gokhale. We've already decided that. These other things we can worry about down the road."

I observed, "We'll need to freshen up our evacuation drill in case we need to get out of Taglios in a hurry. The more active we get, the more likely it becomes that something will go wrong. If it does, we'll have Soulcatcher breathing down our necks."

Goblin observed, "She isn't stupid, she's just lazy."

I asked Sahra, "Did she call in her shadows yet?"

"I don't know. I didn't hear anything."

Goblin grumbled. "What we really need is a formula for doing without sleep. For about a year. Let me see Minh Subredil's Ghanghesha."

Sahra sent Tobo to fetch the statue. The boy could be much less unpleasant when he was in a group.

Silence struck as Banh Do Trang rolled in, pushed by one of his own people. He smiled at a private joke. He enjoyed startling us. "One of my men tells me that we have a couple of outsiders caught in the confusion net. They appear to be harmless. An old man and a mute. Somebody will have to get them out and send them on their way without making them suspicious."

That news gave me a little chill but I did not suspect the truth till poor overworked Tobo and Goblin—the latter going along but staying out of sight while the boy led the intruders to safety—returned and Goblin reported, "I think your boyfriend followed you home, Sleepy."

"What?"

"There was this terrified old man who tried to impress Tobo with the fact that he was a librarian." A lot of Taglians would have been impressed. The ability to read was almost a sorcery in itself. "He called his sidekick Adoo. You told us—"

One-Eye began to howl. "The Little Girl's a regular heartbreaker! Damn, I'd give anything to be there when that oid fool slides his hand into her pants and don't find what he's looking for.''

I was embarrassed. I do not think I have been embarrassed about anything since the first time my uncle Rafi slipped his hand under my sari and did find what he was after. That darned fool Santaraksita! Why did he have to go complicating things like this?

"That's enough of that!" Sahra snapped. "There's supposed to be a meeting of the Privy Council tomorrow. I think we can use it to get to Gokhale. But I'll need to take Sawa and Shikhandini."

"Why?" I asked. I had no desire to go back inside the Palace ever again.

"That's great," One-Eye enthused. "You don't show at the library tomorrow, that old goat is gonna pine and whine and wonder what happened, if it's all his fault even though he knows there's no way you could know he tried to follow you home. You'll have your hook set, Little Girl. All you have to do is pull him in."

Sahra snapped, "I said—"

"Wait a minute. He may have a point. Suppose I do play Santaraksita's game? To the point where I get him to do my translations for me? We could even add him to our collection. I don't think he has much family. Why don't we take a closer look, see how long it might be before people wondered why he was missing."

"Oh, you're wicked, Little Girl," One-Eye said. "You're really wicked."

"You could find out someday, you keep riding me."

"About Gokhale?" Sahra asked.

"All right. Why are we taking me and Tobo both?"

"Tobo to put an idea into his head so he gets an itch he's going to have to go scratch. You to cover us. Just in case. I'll have Tobo carry his flute." Tobo's flute was a small version of the fire-projecting bamboo. "He can turn it over to you once we're inside." Tobo had carried that flute every time he had accompanied his mother into the Palace. We try to think ahead. "Also, I want to keep you fresh in Jaul Barundandi's mind. I'll definitely have to have you along when I snatch the Radisha. Goblin, what can you do with my Ghanghesha?"

No one else on earth would have dared hand the little wizard a straight line like that. But Sahra was Sahra. She did not have to pay the price.

I started to leave. I had other things to do. Tobo asked, "Is it all right if I show your Annals to Murgen? He wants to read them."

"You two starting to get along now?"

"I think so."

"Good. You can let him see them. Tell him not to be too critical. If he is, I won't come out there and dig him up."