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Disappearing Act

Margaret Ball



This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any

resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

Copyright © 200 by !argaret "all

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.

A "aen "ooks #riginal"aen $ublishing %nterprises

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)iverdale, *+ '0'

www.baen.com

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Cover art by "ob %ggleton

4irst printing, #ctober 200

5ibrary of Congress Catalogingin$ublication 6ata

"all, !argaret, '3

6isappearing act 7 !argaret "all. p. cm.

8A "aen "ooks #riginal89T.p. verso.

-"* 0(11(3 :hc;

'. 5ife on other planets94iction. 2. $olitical corruption94iction. (. pace stations9

4iction. . <omen94iction. -. Title.

$(2.A(6 200

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2000'(10'

6istributed by imon > chuster

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$rinted in the @nited tates of America

BAEN BOOKS by MARGARET BALL

Disappearing Act

Brain Ships #mnibus with Anne !cCaffrey and with !ercedes 5ackey;

MathemagicsThe Shadow Gate



Table of Contents

Chapter One

Tasman

Chapter Two

)eerval

Chapter Three

Balentin on alapriya

Chapter o!r

@dara on alapriya

Chapter i"e


Chapter Si#

@dara on alapriya

Chapter Se"en


Chapter Eight

)eerval

Chapter Nine

@dara on alapriya

Chapter Ten

6harampal on alapriya

Chapter Ele"en

@dara on alapriya

Chapter Twel"e

Thamboon on alapriya

Chapter Thirteen

)eerval

Chapter o!rteen

6harampal on alapriya

Chapter i$teen

@dara on alapriya

Chapter Si#teen

@dara on alapriya

Chapter Se"enteen

omewhere between 6harampal and Thamboon on alapriya

Chapter Eighteen

)eerval



Chapter One Tas%an

!aris idled along the broad walkway of 4ourteen, admiring the window displays, admiring her ownreflection in the windows, and keeping one eye on the target, several shops ahead of her. he really should have had all her attention on the target9but toplevel ladies never moved that fast, and it wasn=t

as if !aris had all that many chances to sashay along the shopping aisles of 4ourteen as if she were a

toppie herself, somebody who belonged there. Dohnivans had fitted her out good for this e&pedition,too, and she Eust couldn=t pass up the chance to see herself looking like a real toppie. ?er bodysuit was

used, of course, but at least it fit proper and she=d insisted on passing it through the sonic cleaners until

only a few indelible stains bore witness to its previous owner=s life. The turFuoise and fuchsia spiralstripes still had plenty of glitter to them. And over that she had draped a sarong of real pseudosilk,

purple with a border of gold seFuins, whose artfully careless knot had cost her half an hour=s sweating

concentration. -f it weren=t for the unruly dark curls held back with a twist of bright orange silk, !aris

thought, she wouldn=t know herself9and even those weren=t half bad for the current Eob, one of thetoppies= current fads was for 8natural8looking hair that they apped with electrocurlers to get the effect

of a careless mop. -n fact, the target=s hair looked very similar . . . though she probably shook the

artificial curls out into sleek, shining folds at the end of the day instead of struggling through them witha comb. !aris glanced ahead to see if she could tell the difference between electrostimmed curls and

her own messy hair, and saw only a gap where the target had been standing a moment ago.

?er insides sankG she felt as diy as if the gravity had failed and sent them all into free fall. 5osing a

target while she mooned over hairstyles and the clothes in the shop windows . . . Dohnivans wouldnever forgive herH <orse, she=d never forgive herself for having failed him like this. After all he=d done

for her, to screw up on her very first real important toplevel assignment . . . !aris moved forward as

Fuickly as she dared, trying to look like a toppiegal in a hurry instead of a panicked scumsucker who

was way, way above her proper depth, glancing into each shop in search of a short, slender woman with black curls over a shiny silver bodysuit. *ot in the candied fruit stall, not trying on sandals, not . . . she

could have disappeared into the fitting rooms behind this display of resort sarongs, but the instinct thatmade !aris such a good lookout told her no, not there, this target wasn=t here to shop for fancy clothes

any more than !aris herself. he had been idling along, looking in the shop windows but not really

interested . . . meeting someoneI "ut where9ah, a narrow walkway opened to the left between two

shops, probably a service passage, and a thread of silver had snagged on the decorative stucco of onewall. he must have ducked through there, must have had an assignation behind the shopsG something

funny there, e&actly what Dohnivans would be interested in. !aybe !aris could redeem her moment=s

lapse of attention and do even better, get close enough to overhear what they were sayingG Dohnivanshad taught her that once people got into a conversation they stopped really looking . he sidled flat

along the shop wall, stepping as delicately as a moth in case some sound betrayed her presence. hecouldn=t see anybody in the gap at the far end of the service walkway. Jood, they weren=t looking backfor her9but something felt subtly wrong9and before she could figure out e&actly what, she was flying

through the air to land in the shadowy space beyond the walkway.

8- might consider letting you go,8 said a Fuiet, amused voice somewhere above the weight that pressed

her face down into the gridded surface of the walkway, 8if you tell me a sufficiently interesting story.8

The fall had knocked the air out of her and the knee holding her down wouldn=t let her get a decent breath, but Dohnivans= patient training was there like internal steel to support her when all else failed.



Stay in character, never stop watching for a break, dont waste energy kicking yourself over past

mistakes. <hat would a real toppie think was happeningI

86on=t be a fool,8 !aris gasped. -t was hard to sound haughty and sarcastic when you could barely

breathe, but she gave it her best shot. 8+ou can=t mug people this close to the shops. 5et me up now and-=ll give you a break, - won=t call the guards until you=ve had a few seconds to get away.8

The grinding pressure in the middle of her back eased. Could it be workingI mall, strong hands

gripped her shoulders and flipped her over. !aris stared up into a face eerily like hers9olive skin,

black eyes, tangled mop of black curls9and worked on getting her first good breath of air in whatseemed like forever. 8+ou look as arossian as - amH8 the woman e&claimed. 8<hat9 ?ow . . . I8 he

bit her lip, considering. 8<ell, even aros breeds its traitors, - suppose. )ight, then. -f you really want

to call ecurity,8 she said, 8this is your best chance. +ou do that, and we=ll both show -6, and -=ll

apologie for the unfortunate misunderstanding, and . . . wellI +ou=re not calling for help. 4unny, -thought not98

!aris had used the une&pected breathing space to do something far more practical than calling for

guards who would slap her into a holding cell Eust for being this far toplevel without proper -6.

<orking one foot flat on the floor for balance, one hand under her for propulsion, she shot upward and

sideways, banged her head into the other woman=s nose, got e&tra leverage by planting an elbow in oneof the soft curving breasts outlined by that slick silver bodysuit, and corkscrewed out of the target=s

hands. he was on her feet and headed for the mae of service tunnels behind the shops while the targetwas still cradling her aching breast, lost herself deeper in the tunnels than any toppie would venture,

took longunused maintenance ladders and dusty passages where the codes on the security doors hadn=t

been checked in years, and didn=t stop to catch her breath until she was well down on Thirty, in a placenobody but Dohnivans= people even knew about anymore.

4or all the si&teenorso years of !aris=s memory this Fuarter of Thirty had been ignored by the

toppies. #nce, years ago, she=d been told that a chance meteorite strike smashed the loading dock

beyond repair. These days, newbies credited Dohnivans with personally bombing the dock to create a8useless8 space inside Tasman for the ?ideaway, but !aris had doubts she would never e&press. *ot

that it mattered, one way or the other. <hether or not Dohnivans had caused the original destruction,who else would have been clever enough to take advantage of it the way he didI ?is hackercrackershad twiddled Tasman=s database so that half the level was no longer on anybody=s cleanandcheck rota,

changed a few security codes on the outer doors to discourage anybody wandering by, and9within the

space that was left, Dohnivans had made a home for his people.

!ost of Thirty had been left the way !aintenance abandoned it/ comfortless bare stockrooms andloading stations, chill with the knowledge of the deep, black, infinite coldness that was Eust the other

side of the airlocks and walls. Anybody doing a routine check would trip a doen alarms in this outer

area before they got to the chambers where Dohnivans stashed the good stuffG they=d die in the traps he=d

had set long before they could penetrate to the heart of the ?ideaway, the long room where Dohnivanshoused and fed his people.

%ven dreading the confession of her failure, !aris felt her heart lift as she entered the ?ideaway.

Topside was new and e&citing, but everything here spelled home/ the cavernous spaces walled and

floored in a patchwork of mats and carpeting and spoiled silks from rich men=s baggage, the sharpmotes of dreamdust floating like a blue cloud in the air, the rich scent of food being heated on the

warmers that Dohnivans had placed everywhere to ward off the chill of #utside.

The usual crowd was there/ ?erc and 5ittle !akusu sharing a glowing tube of dreamdust, *y& posing

in yet another fantastic garment pieced from fragments of damaged brocade and velvet, -ce %yes andeito the 4ingers playing with one of eito=s fantastic constructions of mirrors and holograms. The



usual huddle of skeletal bodies, gang buddies who=d dreamdusted themselves to the point they no

longer bothered to eat and would shortly die with those dreamy smiles on their thin faces, moved

languidly on a pile of cushions in the far end of the space. Dohnivans never stopped anybody killing

himself with dreamdust or poptoysG he said those who chose to do that stuff weren=t worth saving.

"ut Dohnivans himself wasn=t there.

85ook at this, !arisH8 eito hailed her. 8- fi&ed the glitch, now the Thief and the 5ady orbit each other,

like so.8 ?e pushed a movable panel and glass changed to mirrorG hidden wires clanged together, and

two figures sculpted of light appeared in the center of the ragged sphere and began a stately dancearound each other.

8-t=s wonderful, 4ingers,8 !aris said with sincere appreciation. 8+ou could be a toppie artist9your

pieces are better than anything - saw in those snobby stores on 4ourteen.8

-ce %yes raised his eyebrows. 8 !m the artist here,8 he announced, 8an artist of the 5ight Touch. This

stuff of eito=s is Eust play. ?ere=s your scarf back.8

!aris put a hand to her head, then Eoined in the laughter as -ce %yes bowed and handed the wisp of bright silk back to her with a flourish. 8"ut, -ce, it=s cheating to distract me with eito=s holotoysH +ou

don=t have those when you go collecting.886on=t need =em,8 -ce %yes protested, 8toppies are slow and stupid.8

8*ot all of them,8 !aris said, remembering what she=d come to report. 8<here=s DohnivansI8

8The Fuestion,8 said a slow, cold voice behind her, 8is, where=s the target you were supposed to befollowingI 6id you lose her, or Eust decide to take a little vacation from your assignmentI8

!aris turned and dropped to one knee. -f groveling and contrition would save her from the worst of

Dohnivans= wrath, she didn=t mind. he deserved it. 8<orse,8 she admitted with her eyes fi&ed on the

pointed red toes of his boots.

8There=s something worse than disobeying meI +ou never cease to surprise me, girl.8

!aris lowered her head until her forehead touched the top layers of carpet scraps. 6ust tickled hernose, made her want to sneee, and the acrid hint of 5ittle !akusu=s dreamdust tempted her with the

promise of oblivion. 8he tumbled to me following her.8

8Jet carelessI8

8- must have9but - don=t know howH -=m the best at followmetarget, Dohni, you know that, we=ve played it all my life, even you can=t tell when -=m tracing you . . .8

8?mm. o that makes you the bestI8

8*obody else here could track you through from Twentyfour to Twentyone when you tried us, could

theyI8

8o if you=re so good, who persuaded you to be not so good at it this timeI ?mmI8 A foot on !aris=shead underlined the Fuestion.

8*obodyH - swear it. he=s Eust9better than anybody we tracked before9or maybe she=s got better

tech. +ou said she was asking 5ittle !akusu about smuggling protech onto alapriya9well, wouldn=t

it make sense that a tech smuggler would have the best eFuipment for herselfI8

he could tell Dohnivans was considering this point seriously when the weight of his foot Fuit grindingher face into the carpet. !aris dared a glance upward and saw him frowning, but no longer angry. *ot

at her, anyway. he=d become e&pert at reading the signs.



8*obody could pay me enough to dub on you, Dohni,8 she insisted. 8+ou know that. - owe you

everything9do you think -=ve forgotten so easilyI -f -=m not one of Dohnivans= people, -=m working the

corridors, -=m nobody, -=m dead. +ou saved me from that and -=d never dub on you. *ot to save my own

life, certainly not for anything a damned toppie could wave at meH8

Dohnivans= frown of concentration smoothed out into the broad smile that lit up her universe. 8 =Course

you wouldn=t, !aris. - know that9- was Eust testing you, seeI *ow stop rolling on the carpet, you=ll get

your nice outfit dirtyH8 trong hands lifted her up. !aris felt safe and protected again inside thestrength of those arms, the warmth of Dohnivans= smile. -f he forgave her, if she was still one of hismates, then nothing else mattered. ure, she=d blown the assignment, and she=d do whatever dirty,

boring Eob he gave her as penance9but it didn=t really matter. The tech smuggler might have

outsmarted her, but Dohnivans would outsmart the smuggler in turn. ?e always did.

K K K

86o you think the target turned !arisI8

8*o chanceH !aris is yours. - think this woman outsmarted her, Eust like she admitted.8 "ut a slight

frown lingered on 5ittle !akusu=s face.

8!aris,8 Dohnivans remarked, apparently to the empty space in the middle of his private chambers, 8isgood. Bunu goodG - trained her myself. o . . . either the toppie turned her, or . . . !aybe she=s smarterthan she looks.8

8!arisI8

8*o, moron, this wannabe tech smuggler. At first - thought she was bunu dumb, trying to start her own

racket without paying her specs to me first, but now -=m wondering. !aybe she=s got serious backing,

Eust wants to -6 who=s running the game here so she can have us taken out. <e need to know more.8

8<ant me to bring her hereI8

8*o. Take her to the !aushole. -f you can.8

8-f - canH8The warm smile lit up Dohnivans= face. 8Dust kidding, 5ittle !. "ut seriously now . . . take some help.

eito the 4ingers, maybe 6aeman if he=s not too cray today. )emember, she got round !aris. - don=t

want any of my people approaching her alone. And after you=ve stashed her,8 he added, 8find out whereshe=s bunking, and send 4ingers to check out her Fuarters. - want as much background as we can get

before - start Fuestioning her. And one other thing . . .8

86on=t mention the op to !aris,8 5ittle !akusu said. 8Dust in case.8

8 Bunu rightH8

K K K

Calandra Bissi could hardly wait until she got back to her suite on 4ive to compose and code hermessage back. trictly speaking she shouldn=t be sending anything at all, since what she had at this

point was hardly vital information9but it was something , after all these days of dropping hints and

broadcasting suggestions until she began to doubt there actually was a smuggling organiation onTasman for her to check out. "ut logic said there had to be. Tasman was an artifact of 4T5 travel, a

miniature artificial world created at a point where converging singularities in the geometry of space

made it e&tremely inconvenient not to have a nearby world for docking and refueling and transshipping

passengers and cargo. ?ence, Tasman9e&pensive, with its thirty levels of living and working Fuarters,its inability to produce anything for itself beyond the most basic hydroponics reFuired to keep the air



healthy. %&pensive beyond words, when you considered the cost of shipping every single component,

foodstuff, and other necessity from some distant world.

The only thing more e&pensive would have been not having Tasman, being unable to use this

marvelous area of converging singularities e&cept by laboriously docking two ships together for cargoe&changes.

That debate had been argued out in Calandra=s greatgrandparents= time, and Tasman had paid for itself

9with docking and toll charges that everybody complained about, but everybody paid9within a

generation.

Almost everybody, anyway.

-n the early, barebones days Tasman could not possibly have housed a smuggling operation :unless itwas run by the officials in charge of customs and e&cise, Calandra noted, having been trained to

consider all possibilities;. *ow, four generations after the world had first been placed here, it had been

added onto and improved beyond recognition. The core levels, #ne through Three, comprised a lu&uryworld with every comfort that could be imagined to keep staff happy and slow down turnover, because

it was much more e&pensive to train new maintenance and customs staff and ship them out than it was

to provide the e&isting workers with synthetic lobster dinners, the latest holos, virtual tours by the

current holostars, and anything else that could amuse people stuck on a world with no open spaces. Thelevels immediately around the core were eFually lu&urious, resembling nothing so much as a huge

shopping mall that radiated out from 4our=s toplevel stores with plush carpeting and discreet fountains

all the way down to the crowded walkways and massmarket chain stores of 4ourteen. *othing cheap,of courseG it didn=t pay to import cheap goods to Tasman. till, 4ourteen didn=t hold much to appeal to

someone like Calandra. "ut it was nearly the lowest level open to the public94ifteen and i&teen were

drab service areas freFuented mostly by staff members bent on saving every penny of their salaries forthe future, and from eventeen down to the outer skin, the only comfortable areas were the lift tubes

that led directly to the passenger bays, surrounded by dull and chilly storage and maintenance areas. o

4ourteen was the best place, Calandra figured, for her to troll for contacts with the smugglers that hadto be operating on Tasman by now.

5ogic insisted they had to be there. -n general/ *o place with so much wealth, tangible and intangible,

pouring through it could be immune from crimeG and history taught that e&cessive tolls and customs

always generated smuggling. -n particular/ alapriya bacteriomats that didn=t pass through the4ederation=s rationing and control system were coming from somewhere 9and Tasman was at the only

singularity point reachable from alapriya. ?owever the blackmarket bacteriomats were being

distributed, they had to pass through Tasman, and somebody there had to know how it was done.

omebody who was already unethical, or he wouldn=t be distributing blackmarket bacteriomatsGsomebody with the power to divert and conceal shipments of things that had to be moved in special

climatecontrolled, airtight containersG somebody who already had contacts on alapriyaG somebody, in

short, who could be e&pected to leap on the offer of a partnership smuggling prohibited technological

lu&uries onto alapriya.

The only trouble was, you couldn=t look up 8muggling9Tasman7alapriya8 on the netbase and e&pect

to find an informative entryG nor could you insert an offer of partnership into the ceaseless stream of

public service announcements and commercial advertisements that clogged Tasman=s main infochannel. +ou had to be subtle, come at it sideways, think like a criminal. 6rop hints, let it be known in

the right Fuarters that she Eust might have certain devices that would be guaranteed to sell for a high

price on alapriya if only she had a way of bypassing the "arents Trading ociety=s checks on all

incoming cargos. And who knew what were the 8right Fuarters8I Calandra had reasoned that there must be an underworld to Tasman and that the bacteriomats must be coming through that way, because all



her boss=s e&tremely discreet audits of Tasman=s records showed no hint of any fiddling with the data.

"ut in the last few days of barhopping and casual chatting and dropping hints Calandra had begun to

wonder if 4ru ilvan=s delicate computer inFuiries had missed something, if they should be checking

out the highest levels of Tasman rather than the lowest.

And she really didn=t want to go on to alapriya without the slightest hint of where to look.

o it had been a great relief when the girl started following her, some time that morning, and an even

greater one when she passed up several perfectly good chances to steal Calandra=s shopping bag. %ven

a credit chip left carelessly on the countertop while she turned her back and haggled with the Eewelerhadn=t attracted her shadowy follower. The girl had to be from the unknown gang she was trying to

make contact withG there was simply no other logical e&planation.

And she=d gotten away.

"ut that didn=t matter, Calandra reassured herself. At last she had some progress to reportH -f her

carefully casual inFuiries had attracted somebody to investigate her, then logic was right and there wasat least one strand of the web she was seeking here on Tasman. $ull on that strand, and she might find

out enough to guide her investigation on alapriya itself . . .

!ulling over her ne&t move, she forgot to check her pro&imity sensors9they were mostly a nuisancein a crowded public area anyway, she=d had to pay the closest attention to pick out the one faint blipthat showed a repeated pattern behind her and gave that girl=s presence away. And she hardly noticed

when a sharp angle of Eoined corridors took her out of the main stream of foot traffic for a moment.

A sharp push between her shoulders made her stumble forward, putting her arms up to protect her head

from hitting the tiled wall9but the wall fell open before her, and Eust before the world went blackCalandra registered, too late, the red flashing lights of her sensors screaming Attention, watch out,

somebodys getting much too close.

K K K

The first thing she knew was that it was cold G the second, that her head was e&ploding. *o. -t Eust

wanted to e&plode, to get away from the pain, little shreds of Calandra flying out away from the achingcenter into the cold . . .

8he=s awake,8 said someone. 8- told you - din= hit her no harder=n - had to.8

8houldn=a hit her at all,8 said a different voice in the same slurred accent Calandra had learned to

associate with Tasman lifers, the ones who came and stayed and generally held the worst crew positions. taffers had their leaves on their home worlds, their three and five and tenyear rotations,

kept ties with home. 5ifers . . . her brain was wandering.

86oesn=t matter, she=ll be plenty awake for Dohnivans to talk to.8 There was a nasty laughter behind that

voice, a mocking accent on talk that made Calandra shiver despite her pretense of unconsciousness.

8+ou sureI88+eah, watch this98 and a burst of pain flared up Calandra=s right arm, coming from the hand, themiddle finger bent impossibly far back until there was a snap and her stomach lurched. he moaned

then, couldn=t help it, and gave up the pretense of unconsciousness. ?ad to look, anyway, to see if her

finger was still there 9it was, but the angle made her feel sick again. "etter not to look, then.

8"right girl,8 said the man with the cold, mocking voice. Calandra studied him through halfclosed lids, pretending to be daed from the blow. Maybe not pretending, !m not functioning all that well . 6ark

golden skin, black eyes with a hint of an oriental fold, broad shoulders. *ot too big to tackle, if he were

alone. ?e wasn=tG the owners of the other two voices were looking over his shoulder. 8ee, it=s not a



good idea to lie to us.8

86idn=t98 Calandra managed in a voice whose wobble dismayed her. he sat up slowly, hissing with

pain when she accidentally moved her right hand.

8#h, yes. $retending to be out when you=re not, that=s a lie, that=s no bunu good. 6on=t need another

lesson, do youI Thought not. 5earn fast, do youI8

86aeman, Dohnivans said not to Fuestion her till he was ready,8 protested one of the others, a slenderyouth with bright green hair in a fashionable topknot.

86=- ask her anything, 5ittle !I -=m not bunu Fuestioning her. Dust getting her ready. <ant her in the

right mood, don=t weI8 The broadshouldered man96aemanI9smiled down at Calandra with a mad

sweetness in his eyes that terrified her. Sane criminals ! can maybe talk my way around" This ones not sane. 8-n case you=re wond=ring, lady, the right mood is cooperative. Totally bunu cooperative. - gotta

tell Dohnivans you=re a Fuick learner, don=t -, that you don=t need no more lessons in how to talk to the

bossI #r do -I8 he mused. 8ee, - like teaching, and seems like you=d be a good student. <hat do youthinkI8

8- think you started right, but you=re making a mistake with the threats,8 Calandra said, looking at

6aeman but pitching her voice toward the two behind him, who might possibly be sane. 8+our boss and- have mutual interests. <e need to talk.8

6aeman giggled. 8#h, yes. +ou=ll talkH +ou=ll sing if we ask you real bunu nice, won=t you, toppie ladyI+ou know how nicely - c=n askI +ou wanna demonstrationI8

8 Daeman.8 The boy with the green topknot touched the big man=s arm. 85et her wait here, think it over.

+ou scared her enough, 6aeman. +ou=re scared, aren=t you, ladyI8 ?is eyes fi&ed on hers, sending some

message. <hatI #ever cower to bullies, it only encourages them. "ut did that hold for madmenI$robably not.

Calandra lowered her eyes and blinked rapidly, as if trying to blink away tears. 8+yes,8 she said, and it

wasn=t hard to sound weak and scared. 8$lease don=t hurt me again.8

8*ot before Dohnivans gets here,8 6aeman said with that highpitched, frightening giggle. 8?e likes to be sure, know what - meanI +ou think about that now, toppie slut. <e=ll have us a party when

Dohnivans is ready.8

And on that, unbelievably, they left. The door hissed shut behind them and Calandra drew a long breath

that shook with grateful relief. <ith those three watching her, the only advantage she could get overthem was pretending to be weak and hurt and too scared to resist, waiting for them to rela& so she could

make a move. Alone, she had a lot more advantages. tart by getting out of this placeI he briefly

considered staying for the promised meeting with their boss, what had they called himI DohnivansI *ot

worth the risk. he did want to talk to him9but not on his territory, with him thinking she was his prisoner, and certainly not with that mad 6aeman anywhere around. All right then. *o telling how long

she had, and there could be cameras hidden even in this barren, steelwalled cell. <hat was it, anyway 9part of a corridorI 5eaning against a cold wall, head lolling as if she were half unconscious,Calandra closed her eyes, thanked the land spirits of aros for the 6iplomatic ector=s tradition of

thoroughness, and called up the implanted database that held maps of Tasman. @sing a recent implant

like this always gave her a headacheG spikes of pain flared between her eyes, vanished and recurredwhile she scanned sectional maps of the outer layers. +es, a corridor leading to one of the disused

loading docks. $f course, an area neglected like that was a natural breeding ground for a criminal

underclass. And the partition doors originally built in as barriers against accidental breaches of the skin

still workedG she=d Eust seen 6aeman and 5ittle ! and their friend leave through the one to her left.



$robably a better idea to take the one to her right, then, assuming it didn=t open on deep space. *o, that

was all rightG the maps showed that none of the corridor partitions led directly to a loading dock. Two

sets of double doors with an air space between, that was what she had to look out for9avoid those and

she=d be all right. <ith the maps in her head, she didn=t need to worry about being spaced9only aboutavoiding Dohnivans and his friends. %specially his friends.

The other problem with new implants was their slowness to respondG it took time to grow the neuronal

connections that let the hint of a thought of moving a small muscle trigger the right commands in thesilicon part of her brain. Calandra had to blink twice, hard, to get the crosssectional maps floatingthrough her vision to change to a (6 walkthrough beginning Eust where she thought she might be. And

then it was a crummy threedie, Eerky, lacking any of the detail that would allow her to select this

particular corridor partition from any of the others in the dead area of 5evel Thirty. There was only oneway to test her guess, and it would give her away if anyone was scanning. he would Eust have to hope

that underworld criminals weren=t as efficient as 6iplomatic Authority.

tanding wasn=t Fuite as easy as it should have beenG that knock on the headI *o matter, a little sway

and stumble was Fuite artistic really, should convince anybody watching the hypothetical hiddencamera that she was merely moving aimlessly about. Three hesitant steps took her nearly to the right

hand partition door, the one 6aeman and his friends hadnt used. Calandra leaned against the door as

though the effort of moving had e&hausted her. ?ell9her body hid one hand from view, but it was theright hand, which she didn=t particularly want to use Eust now. *o help for itG turning in a circle to put

her left hand between her body and the security keypad would definitely look purposeful and alert a

watcher. %hat am ! complaining about& !ve still got four perfectly good fingers on that hand" #kay, sousing even one finger awakened pain demons that flew up the nerves of her arm keening and wailing

disaster. Tough. The pain wouldn=t kill her, wouldn=t maim her, couldn=t even keep her from accessing

her new implants. he couldn=t be sure that would be true of whatever Dohnivans and 6aeman might be

planning to do to her.

A roll of her eyes upward and a twitch of her right eyebrow got the damned threedie walkthrough

unstuck, let her scan through codes until she spotted the list she wanted, the corridor codes for 5evel

Thirty. 'arthlady of Saros, if ever ! poured wine from my cup for you, let it be the first one ! try( Third code out of tenG not enough to make her feel securely under the %arthlady=s protection, but not bad. And knowing which code worked also told her e&actly where on Thirty she had to be. Dust two

more corridor cells and an inconspicuous ladder door could get her to Twentynine, then to Twenty

eight and higher, where there would be legitimate crew. Could the smugglers actually have been

careless enough to leave that way out unguardedI )robably 9 after all, they dont know ! carry allTasmans security codes in the top left corner of my forehead . *ot that the new chip was literally there,

but that was where the headache had centered.

6iplomatic chool emphasied, over and over, that probably wasn=t good enough if you had any way to

improve your odds. Calandra wiggled her right foot and felt the comforting thickness of the veryslightly raised heel. lip the daer out now, to have in her hand when she went through the doorI #r

take her chances on this door, and hope she had time on the other side to get her weapon outI

he might be able to get at it now without alerting anybody. Calandra let herself slide down the wall,

careful not to put any weight on the now unlocked door, and tucked her feet under her as she sat. Theheel had been designed to let an agile woman casually finger the recessed printpad and slip the daer

out with a single gesture that looked as if she was Eust easing a tight shoe.

An agile woman with a fully functioning right hand.

#h well9in three seconds, when she went through that door, anybody watching her would already



know something was off. Calandra wriggled to cross her legs in front of her, pressed her right thumb

into the printpad, and awkwardly slipped the catch and pulled out the daer lefthandedG stood up in a

smooth flowing motion that she owed not to 6iplo chool but to !adame $etropolous=s 6ance Class

for $reteensG and pushed the door open with her right elbow, holding the tiny daer in the palm of herleft hand with the nole Eust peeking between two fingers and her thumb on the firing pad.

Another barren corridor section, this one with shipping crates piled along the inside wall. *o shouts, no

alarms9dared she take time to investigate even one of those tempting cratesI "y the time she got freeand could come back with station authorities, any bacteriomats concealed in those crates could have been spaced9there to her right were the double doors leading to the defunct 5oading "ay ",

plastered with faded stickers bearing the usual warnings/ *o %&it, 6anger, @nsecured Area, Authoried

$ersonnel #nly, Bacuum)ated $rotective Jear Absolutely )eFuired. All of which might or might notmean that the second, e&terior set of doors to the loading bay had been damaged in the collision that

wrecked "G if Tasman Civil Authority was like any other set of bureaucrats Calandra had encountered,

they would rather slap warning tapes all over the doors than actually test or fi& anything. The one thingshe felt sure of was that the smugglers would be well eFuipped to dump anything incriminating on a

moment=s warning.

-f there was a sealed bacteriomat transport canister in one of those crates, and if she could get it to9not

to Tasman Central Authority, they might be involved, unlikely as it seemed9back to her boss on)eerval, then she would have more than redeemed the carelessness that allowed the smugglers to trap

her. Calandra sFueeed the daer, resetting it to separate metal from metal rather than neuronal

connections, and cut a careful seam round the four sides of the topmost crate. he caught the topplingmetal side with her right forearm, Eust managed to get it to the floor without a betraying clang, set her

daer on top of the crate and rummaged through the packing pearls onehanded. 5ittle pink and green

and blue packing pearls flew out with every motion and swirled around her head, too light to succumb

to Tasman=s artificial grav fields. omebody was going to have fun cleaning those damned pearls upGshe hoped, viciously, that 6aeman would be given the chore of recapturing them. <ith his bare hands.

#ne at a time.

!etal and plastic, sFuareedged shapes, recessed printpads . . . a rounded shape under her palms thatfelt right, a short tube about three inches in diameter. AhaH he pulled it out, congratulating herself asshe recognied the cool white outer insulation of a biosample freeetube . . . and stared in frustration at

the blackandwhite dot code in the address space.

*o name, no address, Eust a dot code. Calandra stared at the code until the dots swelled and shrank and

spiraled before her eyes. #o, she wasn=t going to be able to memorie it, and yes, she was sorry nowthat she hadn=t let 86oc8 #vsami at 6iplo Central give her the latest in retinal camera implants, but so

whatI All she had to do was take the actual canister to any sorting and delivery substation to get the dot

code translated into an address. And she needed to take the canister with her anyway, to a microbiologylab that could open it under approved protocols and identify the fragile cells in stasis within.

And with this information, it should be ten times easier to track down the source of the blackmarket

bacteriomats. Calandra tucked the freeetube under her arm and headed confidently toward the ne&t

corridor partition door, the one that should lead to her way uplevel.

The listed code didn=t work.

Could the list have been scrambled for some reason, so that the code for this partition didn=t come

immediately after the code for the previousI *ot bloody likely. Try the one before, then, maybe she=d

been reading the list in reverse order.

That one didn=t work either.



And even as she was tapping in the other seven possibilities she knew they wouldn=t workG either the

damned smugglers had hacked into the system and recoded the doors or the list was out of date.

There was one other way out of this partition, though. They Eust might not have recoded the double

airlock doors.

-t wasn=t a pretty e&it, but anybody would think it beat hanging around to let 6aeman torture her at hisleisure.

Timing would be allimportant.

Calandra took a deep breath of stale, recycled station air, appreciated it with every living cell of her

body, and moved over to test the airlock doors leading to the absolute cold of space.

K K K

8he=s what I 6on=t give me thatI Bunu 6iplos travel in style9she=d have been staying right up on Twoor Three, not in some 5evel 4ive transit cubicleH8

8!aybe she=s a 6iplo, maybe she isn=t,8 eito the 4ingers said. 8<e found the cards tucked into the

lining of her travel bag. !aybe she stole them. !aybe they=re forged. !aybe . . .8

8cannerH8

*y& had the eFuipment ready before the word was out. Dohnivans fanned out the cards and ran them

through the scanner slot one at a time, barely pausing to read the information that flashed on the screen.?e stopped when the screen showed a face. 85ittle !akusuH This look like herI8

8That=s her,8 5ittle !akusu confirmed with a glum stare. Curly black hair, black eyes, olive skin9like

!aris, almost, only a !aris who was cleaned up and older and more confident.

Dohnivans sighed and let forth a string of e&pletives in ?ongko, more chilling for being uttered withoutapparent e&pression. <ith the same deadcalm voice he summaried, 8o you=ve kidnapped a 6iplo and

let 6aeman torture her. 6iplos don=t Eust go missingG when this one doesn=t report in there=ll be an

almighty stink. Jot any bright ideas how to fi& itI8

8-f she=s found dead,8 5ittle !akusu said slowly, watching Dohnivans= face. The !an didn=t seem to begetting any angrier , at least. 8 . . . dead of natural causes . . .8

8?ow much damage did 6aeman doI8

8#nly a broken finger,8 5ittle !akusu said proudly. 8- kept him under control.8

8"rilliant. Any suggestions on how we make a broken finger into a wholly unsuspicious natural deathI8

8The woman was nosing around where she shouldn=t have been. An accident. An accident in

%ngineering9something that mangles her hand9or !aintenance, any kind of conveyor system oughtto do it9something around a loading dockG she was too damn interested in how stuff gets on and off

Tasman,8 5ittle !akusu improvised, feeling happier as Dohnivans seemed to rela&. 8<e=ll work out

something.8

8#kay, get on with it, make a plan, let me know when you=re ready. And fastH - want her found beforeshe=s reported missing, get meI8

8@h9where=ll you be, bossI8

Dohnivans rolled his eyes upward. 8?aving a little chat with the lady. *ow we really need to know what

she=s here for.8

8<ant 6aemanI8



Another roll of the eyes. 8And to think you=re one of my brighter people. This whole enterprise must be

under the special care of the Jod of !inor 4uckups. #o, - don=t want 6aeman, he has no selfcontrol.

<e can=t leave any more marks on her until you=ve figured out how to arrange her accidental death. -=ll

have to find other ways of persuading her to talk.8

K K K

Jod of Trouble sends by threes, Dohnivans= grandmother used to say. o okay, they had a nosy stranger

asking about smuggling protech onto alapriya, that was oneG after they=d shown their hand by

kidnapping her, the woman turned out not to be a freelance smuggler who could disappear but a bunu6iplo traveling incog, that was two. Dohnivans refused to be superstitiousG but when he found the cell

where 6aeman and !akusu had stashed the woman empty, and the parcels stored there cut open,

somehow he was not surprised. 8- was wrong,8 he muttered. 8<e=ve been upgraded. <e are getting the

special attention of the Jod of Ma*or 4uckups.8

?ow had she gotten outI *ot the way she cameG she=d have had to get past his people, and they weren=t

that incompetent. ?e didn=t think. Then again, anybody stupid enough to leave their catch in a corridor

section with the far partition door unlocked . . .

8-t wasnt unlocked,8 5ittle !akusu protested.

Dohnivans gave him a bonechilling glance. 8+ou checked, of course.8

8-t=s never unlocked. *obody goes that way. 5ook, it=s closed now, isn=t itI8

#n inspection, the door was not only lockedG it flashed red warnings every time Dohnivans touched the

key pad. The door sensors reported vacuum on the other sideG the airlock doors leading to the damaged

loading bay must have been opened.

8-t was left unlocked,8 Dohnivans said flatly. 8he went through into the ne&t partition, but that door

was locked. o . . . what e&actly did you idiots do to her, that she preferred spacing herself to a little

talk with meI8

-t probably wouldn=t be a good idea to point out that most people who knew Dohnivans would make the

same choice. *or would it help to remind Dohnivans that he=d wanted them to scare the woman beforeleaving her alone, for fear and imagination to weaken her defenses.

8Bacuum=ll get !aintenance down here,8 eito the 4ingers said gloomily, and !akusu mentally

blessed him for changing the subEect.

8oI #ne thing=s for sure, they won=t find anything.8 Dohnivans frowned and drummed his fingers on

the door panel. 8That gives me an idea . . . no, it wouldn=t work . . . Jet some of the boys to shift therest of those crates, Eust in case !aintenance checks past the breach to look in here . . . *ot that it=ll

help. <e need to get them offstationG when a 6iplo=s reported missing, they=ll look everywhere.8

8*ot the ?ideaway,8 eito said. 8*y& took it off the data mapsG the maintbots don=t even know it

e&ists now.8Dohnivans sighed. 6eeply. <hy were all his boys such fuckupsI 84or a missing 6iplo,8 he said evenly,8it won=t be maintbots, it=ll be human beings. And not all humans being as dumb as you lot, it=s Eust

remotely possible that one of them will notice some discrepancies between the space used in the

database and the recorded volume of Tasman.8 ?e could see the work of years going down the drainGhis organiation scattered, no place to gather, no safe place to rela&, nowhere to stash the goods he

moved to and from alapriya. Ask the Consortium for helpI "etter not9they weren=t the kind of

people who responded well to a show of weakness.

8-f the 6iplo weren=t missing they wouldn=t search the whole station,8 eito mused.



8-f wishing were o&ygen, -=d be able to breathe between the starsH8

8!aris looks a lot like that 6iplo,8 !akusu commented, beginning to see a ray of hope.

8+eah, but she=d never be able to pull it off. 6iplos are schooled . They know everything there is to

know9and all !aris knows is the underside of Tasman. They=ve got all those brain implants and

mysterious powers, too,8 eito pointed out.

8#h yeahI That little lady didn=t work no mysterious powers on yours truly,8 !akusu swaggered. 8hewas as scared of 6aeman as anybody else would have been. +ou ask me, it=s Eust a load of holocrap

about the 6iplos. They=re Eust another kind of toppies, that=s all, and !aris already passed for a toppie.8

8+eahI <henI8

8<hen she was following this 6iplo.8

8<ho caught her, may - point outH8

8hurrup, both of youH8 Dohnivans growled. 8A man can=t think with your bickering going on9not thateither of you would know anything about that. <e might Eust pull it off. <e=ve got the 6iplo=s cardsG

*y& can change the prints and retina scans to match !aris, even put in !aris=s picture. he=s faked

enough -6s for us, even a 6iplo=s can=t be all that different.88+eah, but !aris can=t possibly fool anybody that she=s . . .8 eito=s voice trailed off under Dohnivans=withering stare.

8he is perfectly bunu Fualified,8 Dohnivans said slowly, 8to pass for a dead 6iplo. And that=s all we

really need9a corpse that matches the specs, to stop them searching.8

8"ut !aris . . .8

84ailed us all, when she let that 6iplo catch her. - don=t have room in my organiation for fuckups.8

!akusu thought about the unchecked partition door and stopped protesting before Dohnivans couldthink of some use for his corpse.

8"ut don=t tell *y& why we want the -6s faked. he likes !aris.8

8o did -,8 said eito, sadly, but accepting the inevitable. "etter to lose one girl than to see the entire

#rganiation go out the airlock.

K K K

8- wish you=d stop hanging over my shoulder while - work,8 *y& told !aris. 8+ou=re getting on mynerves.8

8+ou asked me into your lu&urious closet,8 !aris pointed out. The workroom was actually a little

bigger than a closet, but the specialied9and highly illegal9eFuipment lining the walls left about

enough free room for one woman and a can of cold fi. 8And you didn=t even tell me why you wanted

samples. Trying something new for Dohnivans, are youI8 *y& hunched over her console, tapping the screen here and there with a long platinum fingernail to

adEust parameters that were invisible from !aris=s angle of vision. 8-=m not supposed to talk about it.8

8C=mon. ?e can=t e&pect that you=ll take finger and palm prints, retina scans, hair and blood and skin

samples, and - won=t even notice. 6o you have to go through with this for everybody in the#rganiationI Are we all getting proper -6s or whatI8 !aris didn=t really want to give *y& a hard time

9but she was nervous, waiting to hear what Dohnivans had done to her assigned target . . . and what he

was going to do to her for screwing up. That there would be a punishment she accepted without



FuestionG she Eust wished she knew what it was.

And she hoped, without too much hope, that he wasn=t hurting the other woman too much. #f course if

she was a smuggler from some rival offstation gang, trying to muscle into the #rganiation=s business,

she deserved whatever she got . . . but . . . she hadn=t seemed like that bad a sort.

And thinking about any of this was unprofitable. Dohnivans would do what he had to do and she=d haveto be cray to Fuestion him. ?e=d befriended her when she was Eust a kid barely old enough to be

recruited by a pimp and sent out to work the corridors. -f she weren=t part of the #rganiation that=s

where she=d be now, doing one crewman after another and handing over her credits to a boss whoslapped her around if they weren=t enough or if he was in a bad mood. Dohnivans asked her to do some

hard things sometimes, but nothing demeaning, and he was fair, and he looked after his people. he felt

like a total Eerk for even thinking of Fuestioning whatever he had to do with that woman.

-t was much, much less upsetting to hang over *y&=s workstation and try to figure out her special topsecret proEect.

8-f you have to get samples from everybody in the #rganiation, there=ll be no way of keeping the

proEect Fuiet,8 she pointed out. 8+ou really think somebody like 5ittle !akusu is going to give you

scans and cell samples without asking FuestionsI #r DaemanI8

84ortunately,8 *y& said while she tapped the screen in a rapid tattoo that brought up flashing arcs ofcolored lines in constantly changing patterns, 8- don=t have to sample 6aeman or anybody else. Dust

you.8

8Dust meI8 !aris could practically hear the sound of her teeth hitting the floor as her Eaw dropped open.

he knew her place9about the lowest form of life in the #rganiation, even before she=d failedDohnivans in this assignment. 8Jirl, there=s too much mono&ide in your air mi&H *o way am - important

enough to Eustify this much of your work. %ven before - screwed up.8

*y&=s elaborately painted face showed a small, secretive smile under the masklike decorations of green

and platinum spirals. 8<ell, maybe you=re not as much in disgrace as you thought. 5isten, if anybodyelse finds out, -=ll be the one in big trouble . . . but Dohnivans can=t have meant - can=t tell you, seeing it=s

all for your benefit. Dust don=t let anybody else know, okayI8

!aris swore on the integrity of Tasman=s outer hull, then spat on her hands and swore by the Jod of

!inor 4uckups that she wouldn=t reveal what *y& told her to a living soul.

8#kay . . . -=m about done, anywayG Eust have to wait for all that data to process and print.8 *y& pushedher stool away from the console and half turned to look up at !aris. The smile was dancing in her eyes

now. 85ooks like Dohnivans has a real special assignment in mind Eust for you, lady. now what -=ve

Eust been doingI now who that woman is you were following, the one 6aeman and !akusu had tosnatch after she rumbled youI8

86on=t remind me,8 !aris pleaded. 8<ay - fucked that one up, there=s no way Dohnivans would trust me

with any solo proEect again.8 *y&=s lips curved. 8he=s a 6iplo. *ame of Calandra Bissi, originally from aros, in transit to

assignment on alapriya. And you may have noticed that she looks a lot like you . . . +ou=re going totake her place, !aris.8

8!eH he doesn=t look that much like me . . . - can=t fake being a 6iplo . . . the scans will

show . . . arrghh. Thats what you wanted all my data for.8 !aris gulped and shut up, her thoughts

racing.

*y& nodded. 84irst - had to set up the -6 cards, then - hacked into the station records to make



everything consistent. -n a few minutes you=ll have all of Calandra Bissi=s -69but with your picture,

prints, and cellular specs. And they=ll match what Tasman Central Authority think they recorded when

she came onstation.8

8There=ll be other records, won=t thereI 4rom her home world, from 6iplo Central. +ou can=t hack intoall those . . . can youI8

8- might , given time,8 *y& said with a brief scowl. 8*ever say can=tH "ut Dohni didn=t tell me to go that

far. -t=s a rush Eob, and the data only has to be consistent onstation, that=s all - know . . . so whatever

he=s got in mind for you to do, it must be here on Tasman. !aybe he wants you to impersonate her withTasman Central Authority and find out what she=s been sent here for.8

8!aybe . . .8 !aris agreed. he should feel e&cited. -nstead of punishment, this looked like a

promotionH #nly . . . too many things didn=t make sense. he sidled to the door. 8Thanks a million,

*y&. And - promise - won=t tell anybody. #nly, - need to be alone for a bit now. Think. +ou knowI -t=s alot to absorb.8

8#kay, but don=t go far. +our new cards should be popping out any minute now . . . in fact, here they

come. +ou want to take them up to Dohnivans yourselfI8

K K KThe path from *y&=s workstation to the ?ideout led through a series of narrow, unused maintenance

corridors with partition doors rekeyed to codes only Dohnivans= gang knew. !aris tapped out the codesautomatically, her mind racing. -mpersonating a 6iploI ?ow could she ever pull it offI

8DohnivansI8

8<hat=s the matter, !arisI +ou look upset.8

8*y& told me,8 she blurted out. 8About98

Dohnivans= face became momentarily a cold and chilling mask, and !aris took a step backward,

frightened of him as she=d never been before.

8<hat, e&actly, did *y& tell youI8

8That you want me to impersonate this 6iplo, maybe even go to alapriya in her place. 6on=t be mad at

*y&,8 !aris pleaded. 8-9- kind of wormed it out of her, like.8

Dohnivans smiled and !aris thought she could actually feel her heart resume beating. -f she=d known

*y& telling her would make him that kind of angry9but he wasn=t angry now, he looked like anindulgent uncle who=s had his surprise present given away. 8- would have broken it to you more gently.

caredI8

8- can=t do it,8 !aris said flatly.

8-f - tell you to, you will.8

8- didn=t mean9 #f course -=ll do anything you want, Dohnivans, but9a DiploI ?ow can - possibly pull it offI ?ow could anybodyI8 !aris tried to collect her thoughts, to e&plain. 6iplos were9theyknew everything, and what they didn=t know, they had magic chips implanted in their brains to tell

them. They could kill people by looking at them and transport themselves without ships and, and . . .

8%asy, kid,8 Dohnivans said with his slow, warm smile when !aris babbled out what was on her mind.

8!ost of that talk about 6iplos is mushroom feed. ?ey, if they were some kind of superpeople, thinkwe=d have been able to snatch this one so easyI They=re Eust another kind of snob toppie, that=s all. Trust

me, you won=t encounter any problems trying to pass for Calandra Bissi. <hy don=t you go up to her



Fuarters now and try on some of her outfitsI -f they don=t fit right we=ll have to get them altered.8

8Am - really going on to alapriyaI That=s her ne&t assignment station.8

Dohnivans studied his fingernails. 8+eah. +ou=re going e&actly where she was going, !aris. And since

the -6=s done, - wish you=d get started. now where her Fuarters areI8

!aris glanced at the handful of flimsies *y& had handed her along with the cards. 5evel 4ive, corridor

si&tyseven, room . 8+es. "ut what if she shows up thereI88- can personally guarantee you that will not happen.8

8And can=t you at least get me some alapriyan language plugs and an infovid about the placeI he=d

be e&pected to know all that.8

8+ou think you can fake a 6iplo=s languagelearning implants with a few days cramming language

plugsI8

8Can=t hurt, might help,8 !aris said with more confidence than she felt. 8And - can=t be seen buyingthem, or order them off her account. -t would look funny9she=s supposed to already know that stuff.

)lease, DohnivansI8

8ure, sure, -=ll have 4ingers get right on it.8

That probably meant the plugs and vids would be gently lifted from store stock or from some legitimate

traveler=s baggage, which seemed to !aris a silly risk to take when it would be easy enough to buythem9but she=d pushed Dohnivans far enough already, and after all it was his decision. 8And -=ll go try

on some of the 6iplo=s clothes,8 she said cheerily. 8Dust have eito bring the plugs to her Fuarters,

okayI8

K K K

!aris put on her 8toppie8 disguise Eust to make the Eourney up to Calandra=s Fuarters. he=d never been

this close to Center before9and from the looks the real toppies gave her in the public lift tube, the

shiny bodysuit and pseudosilk sarong that had enabled her to pass on 4ourteen were barely acceptable

on 4ive. !aris couldn=t e&actly define the difference between her appearance and that of the toppiesaround her, but they looked somehow polished . As if somebody had put in long careful hours on

arranging each strand of hair, buffing each gleaming nail, placing each beauty Eewel in Eust the right

place to bring out the best features of each smooth, confident face. he tried not to catch anybody=seyes as she hurried along the softly carpeted corridors of 4ive, glancing at tube and crosscorridor

numbers out of the corner of her eye. 4ifty, fiftyfive, si&ty, si&tyfive, si&tysi&, si&tyeight , that

couldn=t be right, what happened to si&tyseven, mustn=t look lost or somebody would for sure stop herand ask what she was doing here, oh, bunu remodelers, si&tyseven had been bent around a lift tube to

come out on the wrong side of seventy. 5etters now, ALD this way, 5L! that way, oh lovely, where was

, didn=t toppies use the same alphabet as normal folks or9oh. i&tyseven was right in front of her,that was why there weren=t any arrows pointing the way to it. <ith shaking fingers !aris inserted the

key card *y& had given her into the slot, placed her palm on the pad beside it. #ow the alarms wouldgo off, shrieking unauthoried access9

The door slid open so Fuietly !aris hardly heard the Fuiet swoosh of buffers across the deeppiledcarpet. he took one wondering step inside, then another. And she=d thought +ourteen was lu&urious9

it was nothing to compare with thisH ?ow did you close the doorsI he didn=t want to risk a voice

command. #h, wave your hand over this sensor pad, the one with a picture of an oval door slit down

the middle, and the iris closed. <ave again, and it opened. !aris waved a third time and told herself tostop playing with the room controls. Calandra Bissi wouldn=t be fascinated by these controls, she=d be



used to things like this or better9though what could be better was beyond !aris to imagine. -n her

head she started thinking how she=d describe the place to *y&, how she=d convey the sense of lu&ury

and safety e&ecuted in such an understated manner. *othing like the bright patchwork of colors and

te&tures in the ?ideoutG instead, soft bluegrey furnishings that seemed to grow naturally out of the softgreyblue carpet. he dropped down on a sofa, half afraid her cheap sarong with its gaudy border of

silver threads would stain or scratch the perfectly skinsoft upholstery. Chairs you could go to sleep in,

she=d tell *y&, the way they molded themselves to fit and support your body. 5ight that seemed to beeverywhere and nowhere, somehow following the direction of your eyes so that whatever you looked at

was gently illuminated and nothing glared. A full wall fitted with a flatscreen viewer set to create the

impression of a deep forest glade stretching out into the distance. And another room opening off thisone9no, two of themH A flimsy notice on one door invited the traveler to take advantage of the

amenities in the $ersonal Care uite. !aris glanced through the door and saw a gleaming array of

faucets and mirrors and cosmetic toys. *o wonder toppies had that polished lookH *ow she knewwhere they kept the polishers. Those would be fun to play with. $erhaps she=d get *y& up here and the

two of them could e&periment with everything until they made themselves up into proper toppies from

head to toe.

"ut first, clothes, in case they needed alterations. Dohnivans thought of everythingH !aris investigated

the third room, fitted with a bed and hanging rods, with a small travel bag carelessly tossed under theclothes draped on the rods. wathes of polysilk and other fabrics she couldn=t even begin to name.

4rom the way they felt between her fingers, the subtle odors arising from them, she thought some of

them were actual organics. All the colors were good ones for her, strong ambers and warm browns setoff with splashes of turFuoise and emerald. <ell, of course, she and Calandra Bissi had the same

coloring9what was it the woman had saidI !aris looked arossian, like herI !aris gave a mental

shrug. That kind of talk was for toppies, people with families and dirtside homes. er family wasDohnivans and the #rganiation, and her place was Tasman9and her Eob, right now, was to try on one

of these bodysuits and make sure it fitted.

!ts going to take more than fine feathers to make a fine bird out of you, Eeered a voice in her head as

!aris slipped into an ambercolored suit and pulled the bodysuit closures together. A little tight up top,

but nothing to worry about . . . as long as she didn=t take a real deep breath. !aris inhalede&perimentally and felt the bodysuit fabric rela&ing around her chest, then molding itself more

accurately to her shape. ?ah, so even Dohnivans didn=t know everything9toppie clothes were selfaltering, at least some of themH There was a wrap with a design of turFuoise and aFua diamonds on a

dark amber background that looked perfect with this suitG nubbly te&ture, but incredibly soft against her

skin. And not9she tested with an e&perimental tug9selfaltering. !ade senseG you didn=t want your

wraps to give under pressure, they=d fall off. And she=d bet this was some kind of real organic anyway,not a teachable polymer.

<ith a little e&perimentation she was able to reset the wall screen from 8forest glade8 to 8mirror8 and

check out how she looked. 84rom the neck down, very toppie,8 !aris concluded. *ow she could see

Eust how sleay the 8toppie8 outfit Dohnivans had provided had been, the crumpled bodysuit and thethin sarong with its stiff silver border, but at least the practice she=d had tying the sarong came in handy

now as she adEusted the turFuoiseandamber overwrap. 4rom collarbone to ankles she was perfect. he

stepped into a pair of the light sandals on the bedroom floor and was relieved to find that these, too,were selffitting. As the uppers molded themselves to her foot shape the soles stretched out a little,

accommodating a slightly longer foot than they were used to. The spongy te&ture was comfortable to

walk on but the sandals themselves weren=t really at all like the flimsy things she=d seen some toppiewomen balancing onG they were more like running shoes disguised as goldstrapped sandals, with the

selfteaching polymer straps gripping her foot and ankle firmly, the flat cushiony soles giving a good



grip on the carpet. hoes you could run and fight in, made to look like highfashion

accessories . . . 5ike 6iplos themselves/ finely tuned diplomatic and military weapons disguised in a

human skin. !aris might get the outside look right, but how was she ever going to fake the interiorI

<ell, for starters she could wipe that frightened look off her face, get her natural tumble of black curlsrestyled into a polished, artful tumble of curls like the toppie girls she=d seen on the way here,

and . . . well, maybe she wasn=t -uite ready for that, to take the disguise out into the public areas of

4ive. #kay, there were things she could do right here in the suite first, like learning at least a few basicalapriyan greeting phrases, like 8?ello8 and 8?ow are youI8 and 8<hat=s bunu happening todayI8

The comdesk wasn=t so different from the ones Dohnivans had appropriated for use by the gangG of

course their callcodes weren=t in any list this comdesk had stored, but !aris knew eito=s code. he

bued his personal clip, got voice contact but no picture. 8eito, haven=t you got those plugs for me

yetI8

8$lugsI8 eito sounded9whatI "lankI urprisedI

8alapriyan language earplugs,8 !aris said patiently, 8and some infovids on the planet. 6idn=t

Dohnivans tell you that -=m98 <ell, maybe he hadnt told eito all about her mission. !aris rearranged

her sentence. 86idn=t he tell you to get me those materialsI $rontoI -=m sorry98 *o. 5ittle !aris,

lowestranking member of Dohnivans= gang, might apologie for asking eito to do things for herinstead of the other way around. Calandra Bissi probably never apologied. "esides, she needed those

plugs. 8-=m sorry you didn=t get the order before - left the ?ideaway. *ow you=ll have to send somebody

up here with them. 4iveLsi&tysevenL,8 she repeated the address in case eito didn=t have that either.

8Dohnivans didn=t tell me anything about getting you9 #h. )ight. #f course. @m, !aris, -=ll, um, -=ll be

up with the plugs myself. )ight away.8 eito cut the contact abruptly, leaving !aris staring into the

mirror wall with a puled frown.

he=d been some time finding the suite and then learning her way around it, trying on Calandra=sclothes and all that. -t wouldn=t have taken Dohnivans two seconds to com eito and tell him what she

needed in the way of support materials. And eito didn=t forget things. o what was going on, with him

first sounding like he didn=t know a thing about any language plugs for !aris and then promising to bring them up personally instead of sending a runnerI ?ad Dohnivans and everybody else gone crayI<hy was she the only person who seemed at all worried about how she was going to learn enough to

impersonate a 6iploI

Trust me, you wont encounter any problems trying to pass for .alandra /issi"

0oure going e1actly where she was going"

But what if she shows up there&

! can personally guarantee you that will not happen"

And he hadn=t even bothered to pass on her reFuest for plugs to eito.

K K K

The girl reflected in the mirror grew so pale that she seemed to fade out in contrast with the rich, deep

colors of her borrowed toppie wraps. he could only think of one way Dohnivans could be so sure that

she wouldn=t give herself away. There was only one reason he wouldn=t even bother to keep his promiseto have eito get her the plugs and vids she would need to carry off the deception.

!aris was too unskilled and uneducated to pass for a 6iplo. "ut her 6*A and retinal scans and

fingerprints were all on Calandra=s -6 and in Tasman=s databases. #n Dohnivans= suggestion, she was

wearing Calandra=s clothes. ?er dead body would pass for Calandra=s without any problem.



Dohnivans wouldn=t do that. ?e=d held her life in his hands for the years since he plucked her out of the

corridors and let her into the shelter of the ?ideaway.

!aybe he thought her life was his to throw away.

!aybe . . . <ith relief, !aris seied on the point that made nonsense of her wild imaginings. !akusu

and 6aeman had the real Calandra. -f Dohnivans wanted a corpse in the cabin, why wouldn=t he Eust killCalandraI @nless she=d escaped . . . !aris didn=t think she=d escaped.

But what if she shows up there&

! can personally guarantee you that will not happen"

6aeman was a wild card, but 5ittle !akusu was kind of sweet, if not terribly bright. !aris entered his

com code and waited, twisting her fingers together, for him to answer.

8+eahI8

8?ey, 5ittle !, it=s me, !aris. 5isten, - need some info from that woman you snatched. +ou okay to godown to the holding partition and let me talk to her over your comI8

8Can=t do that, !aris.8

8Dohnivans= ordersI "ecause he wants me to talk to her, 5ittle !.8

8*aah. ?e didn=t say that.8

8?ow you knowI8

8 =Cause you can=t talk to the bunu cow now that she=s spaced herself, can you, !arisI - mean9wait a

minute9- don= think - was s=posed to tell you that, !aris.8

8- won=t tell anybody,8 !aris promised. -f - don=t move fast, - won=t even have the chance.

And the last piece of the pule fell into place. Dohnivans needed a body to pass for Calandra=s. ?e

didn=t need anybody to pass for a living 6iploG that was why he could be so casual about !aris=s ability

to pull it off. 4aith in herI ?a. 4aith in her stupidly following orders without thinking about them untilit was too late, more like it.

-t might be too late now"

!aris stood in the center of the largest, most lu&urious private space she=d encountered outside the

?ideaway, shivering with deep chills that shook her from head to toe. The view of her own white face

in the mirror didn=t helpG with a wave of her hand she reset the wall screen to a forest setting. All thatlu&ury, and she couldn=t even play with it. All she wanted was to walk into the illusory forest and

disappear.

he=d known there would be a punishment for her failure in tracking Calandra.

he Eust hadn=t e&pected it to be a deathpenalty crime.

Dohnivans.

?e=d given her a home. A place to belong. <ell, he could take all that away again, and her life tooG in asense it already belonged to him. he probably wouldn=t be alive now if if weren=t for Dohnivans.

Corridor happygirls didn=t last long.

And she=d trusted him. he couldn=t remember parents, knew Tasman Central Authority only as a

distant threat, but Dohnivans had been family and authority and home . . . and she=d felt happy andsecure, knowing she had someplace she really belonged , people who accepted her . . .



$eople who were casually planning to kill her because her dead body fitted their schemes in a way her

living self never could.

The chills became waves of pain that crashed through her body. he almost cried out with the

pain . . . !ts not real" !ts only feelings" 'motions" Dont feel" Think(

!aris imagined herself shutting down like a console going into sleep mode, all the displays dimming,only one blinking light that was the one little part of her brain that processed informationG all the

memories and love and pain temporarily shut down.

And that light was blinking 8Alarm )ed.8 5ike the stupid, obedient little girl she was, she=d brought

herself e&actly where Dohnivans wanted herH <hat better place for Calandra Bissi to be found dead ofnatural causes than right here, in her own suiteI Any minute now they=d be coming to get her, to turn

her into Calandra, she could be a good imitation of the 6iplo if she were dead, alive she could never

pull it off. he had to get out of here right now and go . . . whereI <as there any place on Tasman thatDohnivans couldn=t find herI

The comchime Eingled and !aris started convulsively. Too late9they=d found her9no. The forest

glade was replaced with the image of a young man in Tasman Central Authority uniform. 86iplomat

BissiI <ith respect, 6iplomat, we cannot hold your flight more than another ten minutes. -f you do not

respond to this last notification98

!aris laid her palm on the com panel. -t didn=t flash alarms yelling 8-mpostorH -mpostorH8

86iplomat BissiH8 The uniformed boy wiped his forehead. 8<hy didn=t you respond beforeI8

Because !m dead . The real Calandra was dead and the fake Calandra would be, any minute9unless9

8hall - notify the shuttle crew that you=re on your wayI8

8+es,8 !aris said in a voice tight with strain. 8*o9waitH8 ?er head was whirling. 8-9-=ve forgotten

which e&it bay to go to.8

8ThirtyLtwo eightythreeL", ma=am. hall - send someone to escort youI8

8$lease.8 !aris thought she had managed an appropriate tone of hauteurG she moved her hand to closethe display. Dohnivans would find it hard to arrange her 8natural8 death if she were being escorted to the

shuttle by someone from Central.

#r would he Eust consider the escort as one more witness to dispose ofI 6on=t be silly, even Dohnivans

can=t get away with leaving a trail of corpses all over Tasman.

he hoped.

And the escort was already at the doorG that boy who commed her must have had someone waiting in

the hall. $robably it wouldn=t do his career any good to be the one on watch when a 6iplo missed her

connection. <ell, she=d do him a favor as well as herself.

8#ne momentH8 !aris swept Calandra=s personal belongings off the long shelf and into the black travel bag, Eammed a few of the hanging clothes in on top, picked it up and prepared to act the part Dohnivans

had prepared for her. urely she could pull it off long enough to reach e&it bay 21(, board the shuttle9

and thenI <ell, at least she=d be off Tasman. And once they reached alapriya, she=d shed Calandra=sidentity and lose herself on that world. A whole world had to be easier to hide in than a space station,

and Dohnivans would have no reason to kill her anyway. #nce she=d boarded the shuttle as 8Calandra,8

his worries about a missing 6iplo would be over.

e could have thought of that" e could have given me that chance" *oH *o thinkingG no feelingG Eustget to the e&it bay. !aris nodded to the escort, handed him the black travel case to carry for her9



surely a 6iplo didn=t carry her own luggageI9and followed him through the corridors of Tasman to the

e&it bay.

Chapter TwoRe&er"al

Annemari ilvan sighed and tapped her deskvid again, harder, one perfectly shaped fingernail clickingimpatiently in the lower left corner. +ou=d think 4ederation officials at "ase on )eerval would have

the latest and best eFuipmentG actually they had the latest, not fully debugged, annoyingly untested

eFuipment. he=d wasted countless hours in meetings with $rocurator Taddeo trying to get it across tohim that Eust because they could afford to buy the latest 8upgrade8 of every program and system didn=t

mean they should G eventually she gave up and decided to accept that high 4ederation officials were

also, thanks to Taddeo=s lust for the latest and greatest technology, unpaid beta testers for comdesks,

datafetchers, and anything else Taddeo could convince himself was a timesaving appliance.

Tap. Tap. Taptaptap . . . )eading the manual was a last resort and one that Annemari, with a twenty

year history in database design and implementation before she got pushed upstairs into administration,

always felt vaguely ashamed of using. "ut sometimes there was no other choice . . . #h. The newimproved interface reFuired you to tap the top righthand corner to activate com mode before it would

let you tap the bottom left to call up your address list. And e&actly why that was supposed to be an

improvement, who could guessI

And she was only fretting about the fiddle time wasted on new systems because that was easier andsafer to fret about than the very real problems she faced as a servant of the 4ederation and the mother

of an adolescent boy with his own set of problems. <ith one more decisive tap Annemari initiated a

call to the desk of %vert Cornelis. <hose call code she knew by heart, so who was kidding whom abouther need to figure out how the new deskvid brought up an address listI

8?aar CornelisI - need a favorI8 The upward, seemingly insecure inflection worked well with adult

menG Annemari suspected, without wanting to think it over too much, that it had some connection with

her slight, almost childish figure and a smooth face unlined by twentyfive years in 4ederation service.

8Anything - can do for you, 4ru ilvan, you know thatH8 %vert=s broad, ruddy face beamed at her fromthe deskvid, seeming to warm her entire cool, grey, steelandplastech office. 8-f it=s about the new

communications bill98

8*othing official,8 Annemari confessed. Time enough to e&plain the details when they were outside.

8-t=s Eust . . . *iklaas is in the !ed Center again for another round of tests. - promised -=d be there while

they were doing the tests, and - was wonderingI -f you could possibly make time to walk over withmeI8 *o need to fake the slight Fuaver in her voice. That was real enough. That she knew what effect it

would have on %vert, and deliberately didn=t control it, was despicable9but no worse than what she=d

already done, and trivial beside what she was contemplating doing.

8- should be honored, 4ru9Annemari.8 $erfectly %vertG on 4ederation business they were 4ru ilvan

and ?aar Cornelis, on something as personal and unofficial as giving an old friend some moral support

at the !ed Center they were Annemari and %vert.

The !ed Center was Eust a short walk across the park from the 4ederation officesG a pretty walk, lined



with flowering trees and decorated with vistas of ponds and statues and follies. Annemari made casual

conversation about the plantings, and how lucky they were as 4ederation officials to enEoy this

lu&urious setting, and wasn=t it fortunate that whoever was in charge of the park didn=t share ?aar

Taddeo=s enthusiasm for newness or the trees around them would have been torn out and replaced bysome genetic e&periment melding apricots with bristlephlo&, until they were nearly at the central pond.

%vert very courteously went along with her, making no attempt to lead the conversation to what he

must suppose were her real concerns.And they9he9*iklaas was her main concern, always and only. "ut if the ne&t round of medical testshad really been the problem, she wouldn=t have gone to this much trouble to get %vert out of the

building.

8Could we sit for a momentI8 Annemari headed for one of the whitepainted benches that surrounded

the pond without waiting for %vert=s response. ?e was far too much a gentleman ever to deny such areFuest.

8?ave we timeI8

8+es, *iklaas=s tests don=t begin for nearly an hour. - wanted to talk to you, %vert, and not on the

deskvid.8 Annemari ran a finger over the bench to test it for dust and gave the skirt of her beige silk suit

an imperceptible twitch to keep it from stretching out of shape when she sat down. atisfied, she seatedherself beneath the grey statue of ?ans Doriink, ?ero of the 4ederation, rather improbably rendered in

full battledress with very modernlooking weapons, and patted the place beside her.

8Cold things, deskvids, -=ve always thought.8 %vert sat down and put an arm round Annemari=sshoulders and gave her a brisk hug. 8<orried about the testsI8

8Always. "ut - didn=t get you out here Eust to cry on your shoulder.8

8At your service, any time,8 %vert affirmed. 8Cry on, lean on, whatever else you want to do with a

shoulder . . . maybe not dislocate it. $retty near anything up to that, though.8

Annemari forced a smile. 8%vert, have you ever heard . . . well, rumors, hints, anything . . . about some

people getting bacteriomats that weren=t . . . that didn=t come through the usual channelsI8

8Jalactic myths,8 %vert said cheerfully. 8ure there are rumors like that, but they=re in the same class as

all those stories about spacefaring dragons that eat ships, -ndigenous Territories rulers who make live

sacrifices of prisoners, and beneficent aliens who want to solve all our problems with their advanced

technology. The fact is, the "arents Trading ociety has the bacteriomat business locked in. And it=s notas if they were holding on to a surplus that somebody else might steal and sell, you know. -f they could

produce more =mats faster, they=d be only too happy to sell more. The market=s a long way from

flooded.8

8- am,8 Annemari said Fuietly, 8only too well aware of that.8

%vert glanced down at her, concern showing on his kindly face. 8*iklaas still not eligibleI8

he shook her head. 8+ou know the rules. ?e=s classified as a selfinflicted inEury. Absolutely last on

the list for a =mat . . . and there will always be new ?assenblatt=s and 4ournier yndrome victims

diagnosed who come ahead of the --s.8 he heard the bitterness in her voice, stopped before she couldget into a fullblown tirade about the rules and the bureaucrats who enforced them.

8-=ve never thought that reasonable,8 %vert said. 8?e=s a kid. ids do dumb things. ?aving a roloprop

accident shouldn=t be . . .8

8There are any number of 4ournier yndrome victims who=d argue with you. After all, they did

absolutely nothing to bring on their disease9e&cept for having a genetic defect we didn=t know to



screen for when they were born.8 Annemari sighed. 8The trouble is, - can see their point.8

8<e might be able to find some way around the rules,8 %vert suggested. 86amn it, if top 4ederation

officials on )eerval can=t bend the rules a little . . .8

Annemari shook her head. 86ear %vert. +ou know that it works Eust the other way. <e=re e&actly the

people who mustnt bend the rules, precisely because we might be able to if we tried.

8- might try,8 she admitted, 8but *iklaas won=t hear of it. ?e knows where he stands on the list, heknows what it would do to my career if - tried to slip him into an approved category and got caught,

and he says he will kill himself, and do it properly this time, if - try any such thing9he says he=d prefer

that to the guilt of knowing he=d dragged me down with him. And - believe him,8 she said. 8o you see 9- didn=t lure you out among the flowering paths to ask your help in anything Fuite that unofficial.8

8<hat, thenI8

8<hat if - were to tell you that the rumors about blackmarket bacteriomats were more than galactic

myths, %vertI <hat if - were to tell you that -=d been approached by someone who claims to have them

ready to install9at a priceI8

8-=d want to know a lot more about the seller,8 %vert said.

Annemari sighed. 8o would -. "ut -=ve been unable to trace him9her9or it. A selfdestructing

message on my home deskvid, no contact number, only a promise that they=ll be back in touch after -=ve

had time to raise the credits.8

8?ow muchI8

Annemari told him and %vert whistled. 8That muchI "ut98

8- could raise it,8 Annemari said, 8given time, and if privacy were no concern. "ut it=s not e&actly9if -go to the credit center for a loan, they=ll want to know what it=s for. And even if - lied, the coincidence

of my needing a lot of money suddenly, and *iklaas=s mysterious cure . . .8

8-t could turn into a scandal almost as bad as getting caught trying to slip him up the list,8 %vert agreed.

8o you need help with the creditsI8

8*o . . . *ot yet. - haven=t decidedH8 Annemari clasped her hands together so tightly the knuckles turned

white. 8-t=s unethical. -t might be *iklaas=s only chance. - haven=t talked to him about it. - don=t know

how to persuade him even if - decided to do it. -t could be a scam. $robably is. As you said9- need to

know more about the seller.8

8?owI8

8- thought, when - couldn=t trace the message, - might be able to investigate from the other end . . . look

for their source. -t seemed likely that somebody=s found a way to steal some of the "arents Trading

ociety=s stock. The =mats must be coming from alapriyaG somebody has to be smuggling them off,and they have to pass through Tasman.8

%vert nodded. Tasman was a vital transfer station for any number of 4T5 routes, but it was the only

station that offered 4T5 access to alapriya. Jet the blackmarket =mats to Tasman, and they could be

sent off in a doen directions. 8That=s where -=d start looking, too,8 he agreed. 8<hat have you foundoutI8

Annemari pounded one clenched fist on her knee. 8*othing9worse than nothingH -=d had complaints

about irregularities in the "arents Trading ociety relations with the -ndigenous Territories on

alapriya.8



8#rlando !ontoyasana,8 %vert said instantly.

8<ho elseI +es, - know, he sees sinister plots in every colonial system. Anthros are like thatG they care

so much about keeping the cultures they=re studying pure and uncontaminated that they see tech

contaminants under every rock. <e=ve been ignoring his memos for years. "ut you see, we doinvestigate one every so often, Eust so he can=t complain of being totally ignored. o - sent a 6iplo to

alapriya . . . Calandra Bissi, she=s on my e&tended staff, you know herI8

8A very competent young woman,8 %vert murmured, 8even apart from the augmentations.8

8- tried to let !ontoyasana know she was on her way, so he could be looking out for her and show her

whatever 8evidence8 he has. "ut the man hasn=t downloaded his messages for weeks.8

8$robably off somewhere collecting more native rituals, and well out of ansible range. - don=t supposehe=s so popular with the "arents Trading ociety that they=re going to decode his mail and transmit it by

heliograph. *o modern communications outside the ociety enclaves on the coast, you know.8

8!aybe,8 Annemari agreed. 8That=s what - thought at first, too. "ut now, Calandra . . . #fficially she=s

been sent to follow up on !ontoyasana=s complaints, to tour the -ndigenous Territories and make sureno culture protection regulations are being broken or sidestepped. @nofficially . . . - asked her to go by

way of Tasman, and to see what she could find out about smuggling links with alapriya.88AndI8

Annemari turned both palms up in e&asperation. 8And nothing since her first report from Tasman,telling me she=d arranged to be 8stuck8 a few days in transit to give her time to drop some hints about

smuggling and see what she could find out.8

8o maybe she hasn=t found anything out yet.8

8he would have told me that before she left for alapriya. Calandra=s very conscientiousG she reports

in regularly9at least she used to.8

8+ou=re thinking she ran into something she couldn=t handle on TasmanI8

8*ot on Tasman, no.8 Annemari shook her head. 8That much - do know. he caught the alapriyashuttle right on scheduleG -=ve called up the passenger manifests, even made an e&cuse to talk with the

young man who served as her courtesy escort to the shuttle gate. "ut she should have reported in as

soon as she reached alapriya, and -=ve heard nothing for several days now. #ne person dropping outof contact could be coincidence, especially a researcher. "ut two disappearing from the same world9

and when the second is a trained 6iplo9-=m afraid, %vert. -=m very afraid Calandra may be in serious

trouble.8

8Couldn=t get to an ansibleI8 %vert suggested, weakly.

8#h, come on. The shuttles all land Eust outside Balentin, the "T headFuarters city. he couldcertainly have checked in by one of the ansibles allowed under the enclaves= e&emption =for technology

vital to trade and government, and capable of being strictly segregated from indigenous cultures,= 8Annemari Fuoted from 4ederation regulations.

8They have ansibles in the offices,8 %vert allowed, 8but they do reFuire their people to live intechnologyconsistent Fuarters. !y aunt anne=s always complaining about it9even though with all

the alapriyan servants in the household, she has a lot less to do than she would in a smartapartment

on "arents. he married a fourthgeneration Trader, you know, one of the van der <essels, what=s hisname, $aalEe, no, $ledger, that=s it . . . the old Trader families go in for funny names. <hy, you can tell

a Trader even before he opens his mouth, that=s what anne used to say, never mind their accents,

they=ll always have one of those madeup names like Dohntoon or )aydeena. #f course that was before



she married into the van der <esselsG she doesn=t think anything, now, of having children called Cloud

and hower. - live in fear of the third christening, they=re liable to call the kid Thunderbird. anne=s

younger than me, you understand, we "arentsians run to e&tended families, she=s the daughter of my

oldest brother and he=s more than thirty years older than - am98

8%&actly why - wanted to talk to you, %vertH8 Annemari broke in at the first pause for breath. 8- knew

you would have the solution for all my little problemsG you always do.8 ?er secret vice of watching

romance holos when she couldn=t sleep at night was paying offG without all those goopy holos, she=dnever have known how to flatter a man into doing what she wanted. 8+our aunt anne sounds perfect.8

8*ot in my e&perience,8 %vert said. 8"it of a pill, actually, always going on about trivial little problems

and making them into mountains. he can spend more time98

8$erfect for what - need right now,8 Annemari interrupted ruthlessly before %vert could get into a long

catalog of anne=s peculiarities. 8#n alapriya, in a coastal enclave, married into a top Trader family.he=ll know everything that goes on, and she=ll have access to an ansible, and nobody will think it at all

peculiar if she sends her nephew long chatty messages about life in Balentin.8

8!=family would,8 %vert corrected. 8Think it damned peculiar. anne=s a lousy correspondentG -

probably wouldn=t even have heard about Cloud and hower if she hadn=t been counting on me for

substantial birthgifts.8

8And if - know you, %vert, you were madly generous. o she=ll want to be especially nice to you now,

won=t sheI8

8he willI8

8o that you=ll be eFually generous with little Thunderbird when he9or she9comes along. Dust ask her

9by private ansible, %vert, not the 4ederation system9how things are going on alapriya andwhether she=s desperately busy with parties and receptions for the visiting 6iplo. Then if she writes

back complaining of all the e&tra work of entertaining 6iplos and how hard it is to get carpets of rose

petals in the right colors, we=ll at least know Calandra is all right98

8And if she says, =<hat 6iploI= we=ll know that something happened to Calandra either on the shuttle orright after she got to alapriya,8 %vert finished. 8Bery clever, AnnemariH8

8- could never have thought of it without your help,8 Annemari said without even blushing. 86ear

%vert, you=re so clever9and so kindH8 she added, more truthfully. 8o you=ll check with anneI8

8Tonight,8 %vert promised. 8Could do it sooner, but if you want it kept on the Fuiet, better not run homenow to use my personal ansible, ehI Although if a 6iplo=s gone missing, Annemari, it will be an official

4ederation matter, you knowI8

8#f course - know that,8 Annemari said impatiently, 8but there=s no need to make it official Eust yet. -=d

rather keep everything very discreet, Eust in case . . . well, if there is a black market in bacteriomats, wedon=t know who might be involved, do weI omebody knew how to contact me on )eerval9what if

somebody at 4ederation headFuarters is involved in thisI #r what if . . .8 he paused and clasped herhands tightly together.

%vert sighed. 8#r what if you decide to acFuire a =mat from these people for *iklaas before you blowthe whistle on them,8 he finished for her.

Annemari stared out across the pond. A flight of swifts swirled and turned above the water, making a

graceful ballet of their daily hunt for water insects. peed, grace, freedom . . . all that *iklaas was

denied. 8-t would be unethical,8 she admitted, 8but - have to consider it, %vert. +ou do see that, don=tyouI8



8@nethical to do it, maybe,8 %vert said, 8possibly immoral not to do it. #f course you have to think

about it.8

8-f they=re stealing =mats from ociety stock,8 Annemari mused, 8it would be e&actly the same as using

my connections to sneak *iklaas up the listG in effect, -=d be stealing from somebody with 4ournieryndrome or worse. "ut if9 if 9somebody has found another, better way to reproduce =mats,

something the ociety doesn=t even know about . . .8

%vert tried not to let his face show what he thought about the likelihood of this possibility. 8Dust let me

see what - can find out about your missing 6iplo, and what she can tell us about these blackmarketeers, and you worry about the other half of the problem.8

8<hat=s thatI8

%vert rose to his feet. 8?ow you=re going to persuade *iklaas that accepting a blackmarket =mat isn=t

Eust as unethical as Eumping the list. And speaking of *iklaas, hadn=t we better be getting on to the !ed

CenterI8

Chapter Three

'alentin on Kalapriya6wendle toffelsen took one last glance over the notes for his speech of welcome. -t would never do to

stutter or mi& his words in front of a 6iplomat9damned people probably had an entire dictionarystored in one of those little chips they had stuck in their heads. A thesaurus. -n si& languages. Along

with canned speeches for every possible occasion. And here he was, eyes too old to focus on the words

that flashed on the tiny prompters built into the podium, reduced to relying on a handful of old

fashioned flimsies and his own memory for what was likely the most important event of his career.84loris, can=t you set the prompt screen to a larger fontI8 he demanded of the young tech who was

setting everything up in the meeting hall.

8ure, ?aar toffelsen, if you want to be prompted one word at a time,8 the kid said cheerfully. 8?eck,

- can even bring up a font so big you=ll get one letter at a time, if that=s what you=d like. <hat - can=t dois make the screen itself any bigger9that would reFuire a new screen, and we=d have to get that

shipped via Tasman.8

*ot to mention, he thought, that a bigger prompt screen would have to be fitted into a bigger podium,

and old toffelsen would look like even more of a doddering old fool than he was, standing behind a pedestal that dwarfed him. <hy hadn=t the old guy gone offplanet for a lens replacement as soon as his

eyes began playing up, like any normal personI

6wendle toffelsen was wondering the same thing, but unlike young 4loris, he knew the answer. ome

of the ociety business he managed was Eust too delicate to be left in the hands of subordinates whilehe took the time to visit offworld medical facilities. And too dangerousH +ou couldn=t trust these kids

nowadaysG they=d be poking into all his private files as soon as his back was turned. And there was no

telling when some crisis might arise that needed his personal management. <hy, he might even have

been offworld at the time this 6iplomat arrivedH And what a disaster that would have been. #necertainly couldn=t trust Torston to handle a 6iplomat properly, and as for aspar, he simply didn=t

understand the protocol and traditions of the ociety. These kids new from "arents were too impetuous



by half, always trying to solve problems with the first wild idea that flew into their heads. ?e shuffled

the flimsies irritably. %ven these notes were too hard to read. "ut there wasn=t time to have them printed

in a larger fontG he could already hear the welcoming music outside.

The vaguely melodious sound of flughorns in the distance, supported by the rhythmic drumming of the boras, became a deafening cacophony of blare and thump as the doors to the meeting hall were thrown

open. After the blueuniformed guards entered there came a slender, dark woman almost dwarfed by

the tall forms of the honor escort on either side. Jood "arentsian lads, 6wendle saw approvinglyG the best of the new generation, reared in and dedicated to the traditions of the ociety. tanding betweenthem, swaying with fatigue and most inappropriately dressed in some modernistic offworld outfit that

was half skintight stretch fabric and half billowing draperies, the 6iplomat didn=t look like such a

threat after all. Dust a young woman who didn=t know anything about alapriya or the "arents Tradingociety, and who9with any luck9would leave knowing little more. 6wendle took a deep breath and

waited for the blare of the flughorns to die down before he began his opening remarks.

86iplomat Bissi, the assembled 4ruen and ?aaren of the "arents Trading ociety welcome you to

Balentin on alapriya. <e are deeply honored by your visit . . .8

-t was, after all, nothing he hadn=t said hundreds of times before, if not to Fuite such a dangerous visitor.

And as the formal phrases rolled on, 6wendle felt his confidence returning. This slight young womancould hardly pose any real threatG if it weren=t for all those increasingly urgent ansible messages from

)eerval, he=d begin to think this whole visit was Eust a formality, the 4ederation=s polite way ofshowing respect to the "arents Trading ociety and the invaluable service they offered. And not only

the Society, now.

Thinking of that, and of the wealth and power that would totally overshadow even the wealthiest of the

conventional ociety members, 6wendle went on almost automatically with the flowery phrases he hadassembled from a hundred such speeches to make sure that no compliment, no phrase of welcome,

would be lacking from the "arents Trading ociety=s formal greeting to this most unwelcome visitor.

?e gaed with mild irritation at the glaed eyes and e&pressionless faces of his colleagues. +ou=d thinkthey could pretend a little more interestG maybe they had heard it all before, but he flattered himself that

his vibrant voice and measured, dignified yet forceful delivery lent new life to the old words.

8And in conclusion . . .8 he began, and was irritated yet again to see a flicker of Eoy on the faces in the

front row. Dust for that, he e&tended his 8conclusion8 by a good five minutes, repeating alreadye&pressed hopes for a Eoyful visit and a fruitful collaboration between the "arents Trading ociety and

the 4ederation of which their home planet had the honor to be a member, reiterating the honor they felt

upon being visited by a 6iplomat from )eerval and the deep desire of every member of the "arentsTrading ociety to serve the visitor in any way possible.

!aris didn=t mind how long the old geeer talkedG as long as he was speechifying, she didn=t have to

figure out what to do ne&t. *ot that she=d had a lot of options yet. he=d meant to be out of the shuttle

seconds after it docked. ?adn=t ever ridden a shuttle beforeG didn=t realie how long it took to complete

docking, how everybody lined up and shuffled forward a step at a time, how she=d be stuck in the lineof travelers. +ou=d think a 6iplo would get special treatment, first one off9not that it would have done

her much goodG the reception committee was waiting right there in the docking bay. @niforms, lots of

blue uniforms, and so much gold braid it made her eyes hurt. A sea of tall young men with hair asyellow as their gold braid and tall old men going grey, or losing their hair altogether, like nobody here

ever heard of implants. Tall blond people closing in around her, no way to slip away on the short walk

to the single e&it door9which was guarded, anyway, by more of the tall guys in the blue and golduniforms. #n both sides. And outside, a blae of heat and light and white dust that half stunned her,

even before that godawful blare they called the "arents *ational Anthem started up and they lifted her



into some kind of bo& on wheels with large animals tied to it.

#f course she knew what a sun looked like, she wasn=t ignorant . Dohnivans treated his crew to the best

entertainment holos even before they were released for public distribution. he Eust hadn=t realied how

big and bright the thing was, and how it released waves of heat that settled down on your head like asmothering blanket9and how come, if the "arents Trading ociety was so rich, they couldn=t afford a

nice climatecontrolled cityI *obody in the holos had to e&perience this kind of raw dirtside life, not

unless they were brave pioneers coloniing a new world or something.

At least the hall was climatecontrolled. 4rom the outside it looked like all the other primitive buildingsthey=d passed, built from some kind of creamy white stuff that dripped and crumbled, topped with hard

round red tilesG but inside it was a reasonably normal kind of place, with smooth walls and gentle

lighting and, thank goodness, cool air.

And it, too, was guarded inside and outside by uniformed men. !aris felt as though she=d beenswimming through a sea of tall blondes ever since she came off the shuttle. The women were as bad as

the men, big and bu&om, with yellow braids wrapped around their heads to make them look even taller.

And their clothes weren=t anything like Calandra Bissi=s uptotheminute stretch bodysuit and woven

wrap. -nstead they wore loose floating panels of some flimsy organiclooking cloth, topped with falls

of fine white lace that set off their pinkandwhite comple&ions. *o way !aris would be able to slipaway and blend in with this crowd, even if they hadn=t had si& people watching her every minute since

she stepped off the shuttle.

The old geeer had finally shut upG a discreet pattering of palms filled the hall, and suddenly they wereall looking at !aris/ hundreds, thousands it seemed, of bright blue eyes watching her.

%&pecting her to stand up and act like a 6iplo.

!ake a speech, probably.

he couldnt make a speech. he hadn=t had any practice. he didn=t know the words. he talked like a

Tasman scumsucker.

This was where they discovered her imposture and9whatI hipped her back to Tasman on thedeparting shuttle, most likely.

#ot a good idea. omehow she=d have to drag it out a bit longer, at least until the shuttle was goneG she

didn=t mind if they threw her out on a ship going somewhere else, Eust not back to Tasman.

Stand up" 0ou can do that much, cant you&

The folds of her fashionably draped overwrap were damp with sweat from the brief ride outside, andthe bodysuit was sticking to her in places she had never e&pected anything to cling. "ut yes, she could

stand up. he could even find a few words of thanks to what was his name, oh yes ?aar toffelsen

dont forget the others and all the members of the ?onorable ociety who had found time to welcomeher today. he apologied for being too tired from the trip to respond properly. 8!aybe later,8 she said,

and sat down more Fuickly than she=d planned, diy with fear and certain that her last words had comeout in the Tasman twang as 8!ybe lyt=r.8

-t seemed that whatever she said marked the end of the welcoming ceremonyG the ociety members allstood and came crowding round her, a sea of bright blue eyes and broad smiles that seemed somehow

pasted onto their faces. The band crashed into action again. !aris winced and leaned back against her

padded chair, then stood again as people started coming up to shake her hand. he dropped her eyes

and murmured syllables that might have been polite greeting formulas. <eren=t they ever going tofinish saying hello9so that she could say goodbye and get out of hereI



?er sway was not feigned at all, but it brought one of the matrons sitting on the stage behind her to her

elbow. 86wendle, you fool, the young lady=s not used to our climate, nor dressed for it. Jo on, all of

youH8 he shooed the elders of the ociety, now all on their feet, away with Fuick impatient gestures.

86o you let me take her home now for a nice rest, heavens know the poor girl will need it before the banFuet and ball tonight. aara9drat that child, she=s never here when - want herH8

8+ou told her to stay home, !ama,8 murmured a young woman even taller than 4ru toffelsen,

bending her head meekly even as she spoke.

8o - did, 4aundareeH <ell, heavens know somebody has to see to those dratted servants or they=d takea halfday holiday with all of us cooped up in here listening to 6wendle. Come along with me, m=dear.8

8-vonna, my love,8 ?aar toffelsen protested weakly, 8we=d planned a tour of orientation for 6iplomat

Bissi after the welcoming ceremony.8

!aris belatedly remembered that she was 6iplomat Bissi, and tried to look interested in the horrible

prospect of being toured and oriented, but there seemed to be no needG -vonna toffelsen ignored6wendle=s obEections as if she hadn=t even heard them. Muite possibly she hadn=tG the lady had not

stopped talking since she took charge of !aris, ordering the tall girl94awn, was that her nameI9to

see that the carriage was ready, telling a young man on the fringes of the crowd not to lounge like a

alapriyan servant, but to get on to the toffelsen house and see that aara had the young lady=s rooms properly prepared and a light repast ready to send up.

8+es, yes, 4ru toffelsen,8 another of the interchangeably tall, fair young men interrupted, 8but we

must have 6iplomat Bissi for the tour of the culture caves first. The tide, you understand.8

-vonna toffelsen puffed disapproval. 8<ell, ! call it cruel, "enteen Teunis, dragging the poor younglady off to be seasick and lecturing her about bugs before she=s even had time to find her land feetH8

8<e don=t want to waste the 6iplomat=s time, do we nowI8 Teunis took !aris=s elbow and deftly

steered her out of the crowd. 8-=ll return her to Detty i&,8 he promised 4ru toffelsen. 8Tell your driver

to wait there with a carriage and a pair of turagai.8

Turagai, turagai, turagai, the big animals that pulled the bo&es were called turagai, that was the kind ofthing a 6iplo with a language download would be e&pected to know. !aris repeated the word like a

charm to keep her safe while -vonna toffelsen indignantly proclaimed her intention of meeting the

young lady personally at Detty i&98and you=d best not take too long with your bugs and slime,"enteen TeunisH8

8!icrobes,8 Teunis said in a tired voice that somehow told !aris he=d heard this from -vonna before.

8!icrobes, 4ru toffelsen, and biofilms. And the reason we are all here.8

86iplomat Bissi,8 6wendle toffelsen managed to interEect before Teunis carried !aris away, 8we will

look forward to seeing you at the welcoming banFuet tonight. !y fellow ociety officials and - will be prepared for an indepth discussion of your mission so that we may learn how best to serve you.8

Serve her up on a platter , he thought privately, with an apple stuffed in her mouth. <asn=t it bad enoughthat she=d come here, with all the implications of meddling and interference and undesirable Fuestions

that the visit of a 6iplomat meant, but she also had to show how superior she felt to them allI *ot even bothering to respond to his speechH 6wendle straightened his shoulders, feeling taller and stronger now

that his horrible wife was out of the building. -t was unthinkable that all he had worked to achieve

should be called into Fuestion by this9this insolent child. Tonight they=d get the details of her ordersout of her, and then he could consult privately with Torston and aspar as to how to arrange matters.

urely they could whirl her through alapriya, bury her under uninteresting details, send her away with

the impression they=d told her everything about the =mat trade while leaving her with very little real



information. ?ave her tour the breeding caves, then send her on state visits to the native nobility of the

$lains tates until the heat and humidity e&hausted her. They=d done it to other important visitors.

6iplomats couldn=t really be possessed of the superhuman powers rumor credited them with. Could

theyI

K K K

!aris decided she had no real choice but to follow wherever this "enteen Teunis wanted to take her.

he didn=t know enough about what a 6iplomat really did to plan her own scheduleG presumably these

guys did, so if she Eust went along with whatever they had planned they=d likely accept her for what she pretended to be. And sooner or later there=d be a chance to slip away. They couldn=t very well keep her

in meetings and on tours for every watch of the cycle.

Could theyI

Anyway, all she had to do now was follow "enteen Teunis from the cool meeting hall, along a dusty

white path inadeFuately paved with big flat rocks. weat dripped off !aris=s forehead and dampenedher curls into slick, wet locks. "ut after they had walked a good two corridor sections= distance, she felt

the warm air moving gently against her face. omething smelled different, too. AhaH They might talk

about living under the planet=s lowtech restrictions, but she could tell now. omebody, somewhere, had

turned the temp down and set a ventilator fan in motion. The air fresh out of the ventilators alwayssmelled different . . .

8Ah, the sea breee,8 Teunis said. ?e gave a deep sigh of satisfaction. 8- am grateful my work keeps me

on the water or in the caves most of the timeG tell you the truth, 6iplomat Bissi, - don=t know how mycolleagues in the ociety can stand living in the heat of alapriya.

SeaI !aris mentally riffled through her memories of old vids and found a number of Fuite unlikely

images/ scantily dressed people standing on stages that rocked up and down, waving shiny sharp things

and yelling at each other. #h, yes9that had been in Sea )irates of the !raveen.

The sea pirates had been Fuite unpleasant people until Captain Muirk of the 4ederation landed andreformed them.

<ith tanglenets and daers.

8Ah9there aren=t any pirates where we=re going, are thereI8

Teunis laughed a bit harder than !aris thought the Fuestion warranted. 8*o, the alapriyans are a

peaceful people. At least within the Trading ociety=s sphere of influence. $iracy would interfere withour business, you see, so we9ah9discourage it.8

$robably with tanglenets and daers.

8#nly simple fishermen use the coastal waters,8 "enteen Teunis reassured her. 8And9ah9the ociety,

of course.8

The cool, sharpsmelling air was all around them now, and !aris could see a line of bluegreen between the whitewalled buildings that lined the road. As they drew closer, the line got larger. <ider. *ot really a line at all. 4ieldsI ome sort of crop, waving in the ventilator breeeI

<ater.

A lot of water.

And things bobbing up and down on top of the water like those stages in Sea )irates of the !raveen,

only !aris didn=t think there were any machines making the things sway up and down like that. hethought9



A particularly long, rolling, heaving sway felt like it was trying to carry her stomach with it, and she

concentrated so hard on not noticing the movement of the wooden things that she barely noticed

anything else/ not the short, dark men around them coiling ropes and folding nets and talking in a

strange birdlike chatter, not "enteen Teunis=s hand on her elbow again urging her to step down into oneof the little wooden things, not9

he would have told him, not on your life, - ain=t going on one of them things, but she was afraid that if

she unclenched her Eaws long enough to say anything she would lose the entire contents of her stomach, Eust like some new dirtsider in erog for the first time, and pride kept her silent.

Two young men, as fairhaired as "enteen Teunis but with redder skin and younger faces, did things

with ropes and pieces of cloth around them and !aris, teeth clenched firmly against the heaving swell

of the water and its echoes in her stomach, barely noticed that the little bo& she was sitting in was

moving away from the land, out into the unimaginable e&panse of bluegreen water. The alapriyanfishermen watched them, unmoving on the dock.

K K K

8<hy do they not awaken the demon in the bo&I8 unan asked.

?is friend 5adhu shook his head. 8They never awaken it until they are out of sight of the harbor.$erhaps the seademons cannot be called up near land, lest they leap ashore and escape from theoutlanders= control.8

8#r perhaps they think if they are careful enough, we will not notice that they use demons to push their

boatsI8

5adhu laughed. 8%ven outlanders cannot be that stupid.8

K K K

"enteen Teunis sighed with relief as they rounded a rocky crag that blocked the small harbor ofBalentin from view. 8All right, boys, you can start the motor now.8

There was a rumbling noise like a small9a very small9shuttlecraft taking off, and the bo& suddenlytilted, pointy end up, leveled off Eust above the water level and began to move forward smoothly and

much more Fuickly than before. !aris gave an involuntary sigh of relief. This felt so much morenatural than all that sloshing and swaying and pulling pieces of cloth around against the wind.

"enteen Teunis gave her a friendly smile. 8!y apologies if the motion of the boat under sail bothered

you, 6iplomat Bissi, but we are under strict orders not to use the hover engines within sight of the

natives. Can=t risk cultural contamination, you know.8

!aris nodded. he couldn=t think of a properly toppieclass replyG he=d Eust have to think her a snob.

8-t=ll only take a few minutes now to reach the sea caves,8 "enteen went on without even waiting for areply. 8-=d better give you some background on how we harvest the =mats9or no, - suppose you=ve

already been briefed on all thatI8 ?is face fell as he realied that there was probably very little he couldtell a fully trained and briefed 6iplo.

4ortunately, there was plenty he could tell !aris.

8*obody understands the local situation like a9um9local,8 !aris said brightly. 8Tell you what, why

don=t you Eust pretend - dunno nothin= about yer mats an= give me the usual spielI8

-diotH he was slipping back into the sloppy Tasman way of speaking Jalactic. "ut "enteen didn=t

seem to have noticedG he was too happy to tell her all about his beloved bugs. ?e talked microbes and biofilms and bacterial communities even when they reached the protruding tongue of slick, black



stones leading into the first cave, even during all the business of docking and handing her over the side

and mentioning that she Eust might want to watch out for the algae that made the cave entrance so

slippery and oops, - forgot to mention that little bump Eust inside. !aris would have thought a rock

hanging low enough to bang her head would have been considered a serious health haard by the tall,solid "arents colonist.

8-=m s=prised you haven=t removed that,8 she said, rubbing her forehead and glaring at the rather ugly

mudcolored lump of rock that had been hiding in the overhead shadows Eust behind the cave entrance,now illuminated in "enteen=s handlight.

8#h, we couldn=t do that,8 "enteen said, sounding shocked. 8<e haven=t yet tested it for microbial life.8

8- thought you knew what grows in here.8

8The =mat colonies, yes. "ut who knows what else might be here, might also prove of incalculable

benefit to mankindI8 "enteen gestured largely at the craggy rock formations surrounding them, turning

the handlight as he did so to point out each type of microbial colony in turn. The pools of salty water onthe cave floor held fuy blobs that looked to !aris like bits of somebody=s lunch bar that had been left

in a warm place for much too longG one of the walls was dotted with circles of pinkishbeige stuffG

misty white nets trailed down from the top here and there. $ersonally, !aris would have described the

place as seriously icky, not as a source of incalculable benefit to mankind. "ut then, what did sheknowI Apparently bacteriomats also came from this dank hole in the ground. And those had certainly

been of maEor benefit to her, and eito, and -ce %yes, and . . . 2ohnivans.

<ho had been father and brother and friend to her.

<ho had been casually willing to throw her life away.

<aves of pain swept over !aris and she missed a good part of "enteen Teunis=s e&planation of theincredible biodiversity concealed in the fuy blobs and other odd things growing on the cave rocks.

<hen she could pay attention again, he was earnestly e&plaining the difficulties of culturing the

bacteriomats outside the cave environment.

The famous bacteriomats seemed to consist of two, no, three spots of greenishgrey film, hardly visibleagainst the grey rocks on which they grew. The sparkling glass dishes placed all around them were far

more noticeable.

85ooks like a shrine,8 !aris said when "enteen paused, evidently waiting for her comment.

8<hatI #hH8 ?e laughed. 8*o, those are our attempts to find some culture medium that the =mats willlike. +ou see, we can harvest from these three =mats, but only when they grow large enough that we can

take a tencentimeter sFuare and still leave something a little bigger. Take a sample smaller than that,

and it dies in transit. 5eave less than that, and the whole colony dies. <e lost two of the five original

=mats learning that.8 The light shone briefly on a grey rock that had been scraped bare in two spots. 8ofar they9the =mats9are still B*C.8

8!eaningI8

8#h. Biable but nonculturable.8 "enteen paused and chuckled selfconsciously. 8-n layman=s terms, you

might say it means we still haven=t figured out how to grow them outside the cave environment. <e cankeep them alive9in stasis9but they don=t reproduce until they=re implanted in a human brain.8 ?e

went on to tell !aris more than she really wanted to know about synthetic media versus comple&

media, the school of thought which swore by "eccoham=s J22 4etal Calf erum and the opposing

school supporting )M*D , and the isolated nuts who insisted on using pure red agar with selectedgrowth agents manually added.



*one of which concoctions had as yet appealed to the bacteriomats.

8-t=s basically Eust a matter of trial and error,8 "enteen admitted. 8%ven on worlds we=ve known for

centuries, successfully collecting microbes is as much folklore as science. ome researchers even leave

vital medium ingredients out of their publicationsH8

8*o, reallyI8 !aris said, trying to sound appropriately shocked. -f it was as hard as "enteen claimed togrow these bugs, and as valuable as they were9well, if she figured out how to do it, she for sure

wouldn=t be publishing her results for anybody and his brother to copy.

8<hy, when - was in graduate school, - needed to collect some samples of the luminescent strains of

"arentsian cyanobacteria for my dissertation research. And - tell youH - tried to grow them on agar, andon 5ochinver=s 5!5, and even on 4alcon=s !edium with glucose, and nothing worked. 4inally - got in

touch with $rofessor "enedetti, who had collected the original cultures, and you know what he told me

to put into the mediumI $aper clipsH #ldfashioned, unplasticied, wire paper clips. And it workedH8

!aris made admiring noises.

8"ut the point is,8 "enteen emphasied, 8that so far nothing has worked with the =mats. They like these particular rocks, right here in this cave, and this particular damp air probably supplies some catalyst we

haven=t identified yetG and they like human brains. *othing elseH That=s why there=s such a demand forthem, because the supply is limited to what we can harvest from this site and the three other caveswe=ve found with =mat films. <e=ve got researchers going up and down the coast looking for other cave

sites, but for all we know, these four caves may be the only places on the planet where these particular

biofilms are found. o you see, it would be impossible for somebody to be harvesting them without ourknowledge. <e have each growth site mapped before and after every harvest. +ou think somebody

could come in here and cut a tencentimeter sFuare off one of these babies and - wouldn=t even noticeI

-t would be like taking ten sFuare centimeters off my own skin.8 "enteen thought this statement over

briefly. 8<orse, really. -t=s easy to get skin replaced.8

8Then how is it being doneI8

8<hat d=you meanI8

!aris thought she=d been clear enough. 8?ow is somebody getting e&tra =mats to smuggle offplanetI8

8They arent ,8 "enteen said emphatically.

8#h, but98 !aris stopped short. )ight, scumsucker. %&plain to him e&actly how you know

somebody=s smuggling =matsI Calandra wouldn=t know.

8#h, you know,8 she finally said. 8#ne hears rumors . . .8

8)umors, schmumors. - can tell you of my own personal knowledge that the supply is carefullycontrolled and every single bacteriomat sample is accounted for from the moment it leaves its cave

until the moment it is shipped to )eerval.8

K K K

4ru toffelsen was waiting at the dock when they returned. he started talking before "enteen handed

!aris up the steps, and she continued talking all through the hot, weary Eourney to the toffelsenchambers. !aris recalled little of the Eolting ride but heat, sweat, the ubiFuitous white dust, and -vonna

toffelsen=s voice going on and on, e&pressing her low opinion of men in general, "arents Trading

ociety officials in particular and her own husband most of allG fools who thought being a 6iplo, sorry,6iplomat meant a young lady was a machine and not a young lady tired out from too many space

transfers and in no condition to be subEected to speeches and tours of orientation and all that nonsense.



And yet this 6wendle toffelsen seemed to be a very important member of the ociety. ?e certainly

acted as if he ranked all the others, Eust as Dohnivans ranked everyone else in Tasman=s underworld.

!aris tried to imagine what would have happened if she or *y& or even cray 6aeman had brushed

Dohnivans out of the way and countermanded his plans, and looked at -vonna toffelsen=s bu&om formwith dawning respect. %ither these people had a very strong tradition of courtesy to women, or they had

some very egalitarian customs. %ither way, !aris thought she could learn to like it here, and even felt a

slight pang of regret when she remembered that she needed to sneak off as soon as she was left alonefor a minute. "ut there was really no alternative. 8-ndepth discussion,8 haH %ven if she got a chance to

look at Calandra Bissi=s official orders, she had a feeling 6wendle toffelsen was going to want more

information about her plans than that. A lot more.

4ru toffelsen=s nonstop chatter was at least giving her some idea of what kind of world she=d stumbledonto. 4rom the complaints interspersed between pointing out landmarks, !aris began to understand

why life on alapriya reminded her of a holo about brave pioneers settling a new world. There had

already been a civiliation on alapriya when "arents 8discovered8 the planet/ 4irst <ave colonists, solong separated from interstellar civiliation that they had developed their own culture and primitive

technology. 6ue to previous disastrous encounters between longseparated 4irst <ave cultures and the

modern world, the 4ederation had protocols for minimiing the culture shock and easing these cultures

into modernity. The state or world or confederation of planets that claimed rediscovery of a 4irst <aveworld was allowed to govern that world as a colony and to e&ploit its natural resources, but only

subEect to severe 4ederation restrictions. Technology beyond the level attained by the indigenous

culture had to be necessary, approved by the 4ederation as necessary, and restricted to small enclavesthat could be strictly segregated from the indigenes.

-n some sense, !aris had known all this, known that much of Dohnivans= income derived from

smuggling prohibited technology onto alapriya. ince Tasman was the one point through which all

alapriya traffic had to pass, and since Dohnivans had a lock on Tasman=s underworld, the protechsmuggling business was a very profitable one indeed.

And, of course, things that were smuggled onto a planet were not displayed openly. !aris would have

said she knew that too, if anybody had Fuestioned her. #nly, Eust as the burning globe overhead was soe&cessively large and real compared to the suns she had seen in holos, the reality of alapriya itself faroutstripped what she might have imagined a lowtech planet to be like. *o visible technology higher

than the best indigenous level meant no climate control outside of a few strictly guarded Trading

ociety official buildings, no powered walkways, no transport at all other than these bo&esonwheels,no servomechs in homes . . . -vonna toffelsen enlarged on these and other restrictions which, she felt,

made the lives of ociety officials and their families little more than one long sacrifice to the economy

of "arents, and in so doing, gave !aris a better idea of what to e&pect on alapriya than any number oftraining vids could have done.

"y the time the Eolting bo& turned in at an avenue shaded on both sides by trees as high as any three

levels of Tasman, !aris thought she was beyond surprise9but the gracious white structure visible at

the end of the avenue took her breath away. 8+our9the toffelsen family chambers9are in that I8he=d seen holos of a palace, once. Threelevel columns holding up shaded porches, walls pierced with

viewing vents a level high and a grown man=s armspan across, billowing swathes of flowered

fabric . . . this seemed to have no relation to the sFualid living conditions 4ru toffelsen had been

complaining about all the way from the meeting hall.

8This,8 -vonna toffelsen said with pride, 8is ?ouse toffelsen at Balentin. *othing to compare with

the home ?ouse on "arents, of course, but . . . the toffelsens are #ld Trader 4amily, you understandI

8Those lindenbaumen89she waved at the trees shading the avenue98were put in by old Doris

toffelsen himself. *ot really lindenbaumen, of course. *ot allowed to plant anything from "arents.



*atives call =em something else, one of their unpronounceable outlandish words. "ut they have flowers

that smell Eust like linden, so we call them lindenbaumen. !akes us feel we=ve got a little bit of "arents

with us in our e&ile.8

4aundaree made an odd strangled noise at this and !aris glanced an&iously at her, wondering if the girlwas choking. 8!a=s never been off alapriya in her life,8 4aundaree whispered under cover of 4ru

toffelsen=s monologue. 8*one of us have. <e=re fourthgeneration ociety. he Eust likes to put on airs

about being an e&ileH8

6espite 4ru toffelsen=s words, !aris had been escorted halfway through the sprawling house beforetheir meaning dawned on her. This wasn=t the building where the toffelsens had chambers9this whole

building was theirsH -nterior space such as she=d never dreamed of in her life/ highceilinged, white

walled rooms, their shadowy darkness a relief to the eyes after the glare of the alapriya sun. #ne

room opened off another in a seemingly endless procession, all with wide windows and some sort ofmechanical flappers overhead creating an artificial breee, all furnished with tables and chairs and

shelves made from real organics. !aris knew the material was organic because 4ru toffelsen

complained endlessly about the ban on hightech imports that made it impossible for her to offer herguest a suite with proper selfmolding chairs and an autobed.

8- think this is beautiful , 4ru toffelsen, honestly,8 !aris told her, standing in the center of one of thethree spacious rooms that constituted her guest suite. 8The space, and the Fuiet, and this wonderful

furniture . . .8 he ran her hand gently over the satinsmooth top of a chair back, appreciating the deepglow that emanated from the reddishpurple wood. 8-=ve never seen anything like it.8

-vonna toffelsen bridled with pleasure. 8*ow that=s real courteous, coming from a young lady that=s

likely already seen more worlds than you=ve had hot dinners, 4aundareeH +ou could learn some

manners from the 6iplomat, 4aun, instead of standing there gawking like a great country girl withnothing to say for herself, as if you hadn=t been educated on "arents and everythingH *ow over here we

have the washing facilities, such as they are, 4ru Bissi, and poor makeshifts you=ll likely think them98

8$lease, call me !ar9uh, Calandra,8 !aris caught the slip Eust in time, and let 4ru toffelsen go on to

e&plain away her awkwardness with the porcelain washstand and the bathing tub as the naturalconfusion of somebody used to the latest in hightech refinements. 8)eally, after the tubeshowers on

Tasman, this is lu&ury,8 !aris said with perfect honesty. 8All of ?ouse toffelsen is perfectly lovely,

you have nothing to apologie for, 4ru toffelsen, it=s me should be apologiing for imposing myself onyou this way. - could have stayed at a public98

8*ot one of them shelters the ociety puts up for officials in transit, wouldn=t be proper for a young

lady on her own,8 -vonna cut her off. 8And what are you giggling for now, 4aunI8

4aundaree hastily straightened her face and begged pardon. 8-t=s Eust that the lady sounded almost like

one of us for a minute, and then she slipped back into that awful Tasman twang, !a.8

8@h9automatic mimicry,8 !aris improvised hastily, hearing the echo of her own unfortunate words.

!mpowsing meself this wye. he strove for an effect similar to the toffelsen ladies= broad, slow vowels.8-=m afraid it=s one of the haards of the professionG - seem to pick up the speech patterns of anybody

-=m with.8 he gestured vaguely toward her head, as if to implicate one of the embedded microchipsthat were said to give 6iplos such amaing powers.

4ortunately, the toffelsens didn=t seem to know much more about what 6iplos actually could and

could not do than !aris didG in any case -vonna was more interested in castigating her daughter for

rudeness than in accounting for her visitor=s slipping accent. 4inally she allowed as how 8Calandra8might want to rest before that evening=s banFuet and ball, chastied 4aundaree again for standing there

chattering when any fool could see the young lady was tired from her trip, and moved toward the door.



!aris privately thanked the Jod of 5ooking After @nimportant $ersons. -f she could Eust be left alone

for a little while, long enough to figure out how and where to disappear to9it was going to be more of

a problem than she=d realied, with her olive skin and black curls she=d never be able to blend

inconspicuously into a population of redandwhitecomple&ioned blond giants.

8"less me, what was - thinking ofI8 -vonna e&claimed, halting her progress toward the suite door.

8+ou=ll be needing proper clothes for the ball9die of the heat, you would, in something like you=ve got

on now, 4ru Bissi9- mean, Calandra. 6idn=t your bosses warn you about us having no citywide climatecontrolI8

86on=t be silly, !a,8 4aundaree interrupted, 86iplos know everything about everywhere, all planted in

machines in their heads.8

!aris smiled weakly. 8There are an awful lot of e&aggerated rumors about what we know,8 she said.

*o need to mention that in her case the rumors would be more than Eust e&aggerated. 8And yourmother=s right. A sudden posting9- didn=t even have time to pack appropriate things for this climate.8

That at least she knew was true. *one of the hightech, highfashion outfits she=d raided from

Calandra=s closet would be suitable here. Jiven the restrictions on inappropriate technology, they were

probably illegal. 8+ou know how these bureaucratic offices are, 4ru toffelsen . . .8

86on=t - EustH *o consideration for anybody anywhere, and that=s the truthH ?ow much notice did youget, anywayI8

8This time yesterday,8 !aris said with perfect truth, 8- had no idea - was coming to alapriya.8

-vonna toffelsen clucked some more about the wellknown inconsiderateness of all bureaucrats

everywhere and finally, half towed by her daughter, left with promises to send her second daughter,aara, up with some suitable alapriyanstyle clothes.

8*ot too soon, - hope,8 !aris muttered as soon as -vonna and 4aundaree were out of sight.

8The 4ru desires9I8 piped up a fluting voice behind her.

!aris gasped and whirled to see a sFuatting form where she=d thought there were only shadows. The

form elongated, fluttered, moved forward and became a slenderboned person even shorter than !aris, bowing deeply.

8<ho the9who are youI8

The small person looked up at !aris. -ts dark face was placid. 8This one called amnan, set here to

serve 4ru because speak ver= good Jalactic. "ut could not understand what 4ru said Eust now.8

8#h. @m. -t doesn=t matter. - don=t want anything, could you Eust go away for a whileI8

8*ot speak good enoughI8 6ark, liFuid eyes became even more liFuid with welling tears.

8peak great , amnan, you probably speak better bunu Jalactic than me, but -9don=t9want anythingright now, understandI8

8@nderstand. <ill wait.8 amnan sank back down into her9hisI9corner, and !aris stifled a sigh. he

hadn=t figured on having to know how servants worked on top of everything else. %ven in the holos,

nobody had servants, not even toppies, e&cept . . . well, e&cept those old storyvids about pioneers.#kay, it made sense. -f you couldn=t have so much as a dustsorber, let alone a molecular clothes bo&,

then somebody had to push things to clean the floor and do whatever you did to get clothes clean

without a molybo&, and it was probably not the most interesting work in the world, so if you were a

toppie9and the "arentsians seemed to think they were all toppies9you got some lowerlevel type todo it for you. <hich, in this case, probably meant a native alapriyan.



!aris felt Fuite proud of herself for working all this out unassisted. There hadn=t been much call for

thinking things out in Dohnivans= gangG Dohnivans himself did all the thinkingG what he wanted the

others for was to carry out his plans.

- was a servant, she thought suddenly, his servant, and so were all the rest of us. - thought he was myfriend, but he wasn=tG he was my boss. ?e didn=t save me from working the corridors because he cared

about me, but because he thought - could be useful. All he ever did was use me9use all of us.

That thought made something deep in her chest hurtG she felt more alone than she had since her days as

an orphan without a gang, roaming the lowest levels of Tasman and stealing or begging Eust enough tokeep alive. Dont think about it now, think about practical things3 think about where you are now. There

was certainly enough of that to keep her newly discovered intellect busyH This amnan, who couldn=t

be sent away, who acted so subservient and looked so different from the other people she=d met, must

be a alapriyan9all right, she=d already worked that out, but what she hadn=t seen at first was howuseful amnan could be. he could tell !aris all about alapriyaG maybe she could even teach her

enough of the language to cover up !aris=s total lack of 6iplomatic language implants.

8amnan98 !aris began, and then was interrupted by a flurry at the door.

8!asaidtobringyousomeclothestotryonyou=reaboutmyheighttheyshouldfit. +ou=re4ruBiissirightI -=m

aara.8

8?uhI8

8- said ,8 repeated the pile of lightcolored organic fabrics filling the door, 8-=m aara.8

The long bare legs under the fabrics moved forwardG a cloudburst of lightweight white fabric covered

with tiny flower prints billowed over the bed, and a girl Eust a little taller than !aris looked her over

gravely.

!aris returned the assessing look. *ot a giant like the rest of the "arentsians she=d met, this aara, and

instead of a wreath of yellow braids her hair was cut short and brushed up in a sort of defiant crest. And

it wasn=t yellow, either, but a mi& of pink and turFuoise stripes. The girl was so slender that she gave an

impression of being e&tremely tall, but it was really Eust long graceful bones and a way of carryingherself, that bossofalltheworld look all "arentsians seemed to have.

8+ougottabehotinthatoutfitwantatrysomeoftheseonI%ell&8 the girl added impatiently when !aris

didn=t respond immediately. 8+ou want to try some of these onI8

8-f they=re like your mother=s and sister=s dresses, - don=t really see the need,8 said !aris. Those loose billowing tents of lightweight organics would fit anybody, wouldn=t theyI And she was less than thrilled

about wearing a white organic tent printed with tiny little pastel flowers. <ith her coloring, she=d look

like a short stick of broiled soypaste kebab wrapped in way too much recycled flimsy.

aara grinned. 8+ou=d be surprised. Ten millimeters too long in the hem, and you step on it every timeyou try to walk anywhere.8

A very short kebab, !aris thought ruefully. %ven if she liked these pallid prints, these dresses were

designed for tall fair "arentsians.

8And if - hike it up and get it ten millimeters too short, - suppose that wouldn=t be so good eitherI8

8!y dearH 6readfully fast , showing your ankles like thatH And a 6iplomat, tooH #ld hens,8 aara added

in her own voice, making a couple of clucking noises with her tongue.

!aris looked at aara=s own long, tanned legs and minuscule cutoff bodysuit without saying anything.

8+eah, but !m only a child,8 aara said. 8i&teen ne&t spring. - get until - turn eighteen before - have to



wear this stuff. =Course - got some proper lady dresses now, for like !a=s parties and like that, but -

don=t have to like wear it all the time, sowhen!asayscan-sparesome-golikesure, no problem, you

knowI ?owoldareyouanywayI8

<hen !aris deciphered the Fuestion a flash of panic stopped her voice. - don=t bunu know how old -am, nobody ever said, nobody ever asked me that, nobody ever cared . . . oh, stop worrying, you ninny,

she wants to know how old Calandra is. "ut the answer to that was somewhere on the identity papers

*y& had handed her, and she hadn=t studied them, she hadn=t planned on 8being8 Calandra Bissi longerthan it took to disembark from the shuttle . . .

8orry,8 aara said with an embarrassed laugh as !aris failed to answer, 8!a keeps telling me to talk

slower, but - get like wound up and - forget. - said how old are you anywayI8

"y that time an acceptable evasion had occurred to !aris. 8#ld enough to have to dress like a proper

lady,8 she said ruefully. 8Can you show me how these go onI8 <hat had looked simple at first glanceturned out, when she picked up one of the garments, to consist of a bewildering profusion of under

panels and overpanels, hard knobbly round things, long narrow fluttery things, gathered bits and

straight bits . . .

8ure, and you can tell me all about other worlds. -=m going to be a 6iplo, you know, when -=m old

enough.8

!aris blinked. 8"ut don=t you have to be98

8electedI +es, but the chool would select me, if they knew about me,8 aara said confidently. 8As

soon as -=m old enough to take passage offplanet without my parents= permission, -=m going into the

)eal <orld, and98

8<hat do you mean, the )eal <orldI8

8#h, you know. Anywhere but here. - mean, Balentin is like some kind of game we=re all playing,

pretending to be pioneers back in the Age of %&pansion, playing at living without technology. #othing

happens hereH8 aara said e&plosively. 8Anyway, -=m not going to wait around for a elector to happen

to notice meG -=ll Eust go to the chool and e&plain that they ought to want me. -=m plenty smart enoughand - know lots of useful things already, and -=m good at languages9only - suppose that doesn=t matter

if you get those chip implants, does itI 5ike, you probably speak better alapriyan than - doH8

8- think it e&tremely unlikely,8 !aris said firmly, resolving to get some language practice with amnan

as soon as this unnerving girl went away. 8The implants aren=t nearly as powerful as most people thinkthey are.8 ince aara accepted this without Fuestion, she went on to say, 8All they really give me is

ability to learn the language faster than most people would.8 That felt safe enough. !aris=s entire life

had depended on being faster and sneakier than anybody e&pected, and why should learning languages be any different from the things she=d learned with DohnivansI

8#h. +ou don=t already98

8?ey,8 !aris said with a forced laugh, 8it=s not like they open up your head and pour a dictionary in,you knowH8

After a moment=s disappointed silence, aara laughed too. 8illy me,8 she said goodnaturedly. 8@puntil this moment - had the idea it really worked like that. - guess a lot of things in the )eal <orld don=t

work like - think. - guess if - Eust like stop talking and let you tell me how it is out there, - can learn a

lot from you.8

8*ot nearly as much,8 !aris said, 8as - hope to learn from you.8



Chapter o!r

()ara on KalapriyaThe #ffice of 5ands and $roperties Contracts had a loftysounding title, and a reasonably high place inthe hierarchy of @dara=s court bureaucracy9Chulayen=s supervisor=s supervisor had the title of !inister

and reported directly to the "ashir9but the offices themselves were no better housed than any in$uvaathi, and worse than some. The threestory mudandtimber building with its thick walls and deep,narrow windows had been converted from a family dwelling erected back when $uvaathi was Eust

another one of the Fuarrelsome, feuding villages that made up the original "ashirate of @dara. "ack

when the "ashir himself had been a baby born into one of these sprawling compounds where four and

five generations of a family lived together in a state of perpetual Fuarreling that mimicked the relations between villages and states9so Chulayen=s father, the !inister for Trade, had described old @daran

life.

?aving grown up with no family but his parents, a staid couple high in the "ashir=s service who treated

Chulayen with all the adoration usually lavished on a lateborn son to a couple who=d given up hope,Chulayen himself had no clear idea of what life had been like in those oldstyle family compounds.

Crowded and noisy certainly, like his own rooms down the hill now that the twins were almost seven

and the baby was beginning to crawl. !ultiply that by twenty or thirty, add old dowagers screechingabout longburied feuds, put it all in the smoky darkness of this compound and what did you haveI

$robably something very like the #ffice of 5ands and $roperties, but without so much paper and ink,

Chulayen thought with an inner amusement that did not show on the smooth brown mask of his court

trained face. ?is supervisor, old 5unthanadi, was as cranky an old woman as anybody could want, evenif her trouble was too much to do rather than too little. <ith a very small e&ercise of imagination he

could cast his colleagues as siblings and cousins Eostling for recognition/ the young clerktrainees were

the toddlers, good for nothing but to spill the inkwells they were supposed to be refilling and misdeliverthe memoranda they were sent to carry from one department to anotherG and the shadowy, unseen

figures of the "ashir and his ?igh Council could be the ancient greatgrandfathers who still held theland titles and the keys to the money chest clenched in their bony fingers.

And fantasies like this did nothing to diminish the stack of memoranda still on the writing desk beforehim, waiting for a word scrawled in the margin here, a tactfully worded answer there, before they could

be forwarded to some other unfortunate soul or even, with great good fortune, go to rest in the

overloaded filing drawers along the west wall.

Chulayen sFuinted at the crabbed handwriting on the topmost document, held it close to the lamp to seeit better, and for the thousandth time contemplated announcing that he was moving his office out to the

verandah, where he could work in decent light, breathe clean air, and see the panorama of the city=s

countless flatroofed dwellings spilling down the mountainside before him. Muite impossible, of

course. There were highly confidential documents and very important papers somewhere in this stackGone couldn=t risk having such things snatched up by a passing wind and blown down the muddy lanes

of $uvaathi.

%ven though this particular letter, when he finally deciphered it, proved to be neither confidential nor

important.

8- shall go blind before -=m thirty,8 he complained to udhan, at the ne&t desk. 8All this Eust to read one

more complaint from some dungshoveling villager who thinks the "ashir=s decision to confiscate one

of his fields for court costs was unEustH "ut - suppose that=s what it is to live in the modern world. !y

father used to say that in the old "ashir=s day anybody who dared to write a letter of complaint after a



hearing in court would have had his nose and ears cut off.8

8?e wouldn=t have written it anyway,8 udhan said, gloomily surveying his own stack of paperwork.

8"ack when everything had to be inscribed on scraped sheepskins, people wouldn=t have stood for all

this writing everything down and making copies in triplicate. -n which case,8 he said, recovering hisnormal air of bouncy good humor, 8we=d have been out of a Eob, so gods bless the man who invented

paperH And now - look at it,8 he added, studying the sheet before him, 8this particular piece of paper is

more in your department than mine.8 ?e reached out a long arm and added the page to Chulayen=s pile,making his own stack infinitesimally shorter.

8-=ll do the same for you, first chance - get,8 Chulayen threatened. At least the document udhan had

palmed off on him was in fair court script, an official Eudgment of some sort. %asy enough to read, but

nothing to do with himG he was supposed to be evaluating appeals against previous Eudgments, not

codifying new ones. A sinecure, since there had never been a successful appeal, but it showed the"ashir=s dedication to doing the right thing. omeday the court could make a mistake, and when they

did, Chulayen would be there to set it right.

?e skimmed the page to get some idea whose desk he could dump it on, and frowned as he reached the

bottom.

8?ere, this can=t be right.8

8-t=s a pronouncement of the "ashir=s court,8 udhan said. 8)ight and wrong have nothing to do with it

98

?e broke off suddenly, hearing the rustle of 5unthanadi=s full trousers, and almost choked while

rewording the sentence to e&press more acceptable sentiments. 8- mean, that is, pronouncements of thecourt are by definition right. <e=re not supposed to evaluate them, Eust file them.8

8-=m not even supposed to be doing that,8 Chulayen said. 8-t should have been routed to a filing clerk,

but all the same . . . !other 5unthanadi,8 he appealed politely to the supervisor, 8there=s a mistake in

this court pronouncement, what should - do about itI8

8!istakeI ?ah. Those court scribes can=t spell, - always said soH end it back to be recopied, boy.8

8<orse than a spelling error,8 Chulayen persisted. 8This is a bad Eudgment. -t=s9the court has made a

mistake, they can=t have been informed of all the facts.8

8Talking treason,8 old 5unthanadi said. 8The Court of the "ashir doesn=t make mistakes, Chulayen. And

even saying they did make a mistake, once it=s been pronounced and copied, it ain=t a mistake, it=s thelaw, and it ain=t for us to Fuestion it, Eust to record and uphold it.8

8+es, but this really is a mistake. They wouldn=t have done this if they=d understood9!other

5unthanadi,8 Chulayen said, desperately willing her to understand. 8omeday there will be an appeal

against this Eudgment, and it will be a good appeal, and we will be forced to uphold it. 6o you wantyour department to be the first one ever to support a successful appeal against a pronouncement of the

"ashir=s courtI8

5unthanadi held the paper out at arm=s length and studied it. 8And what makes you think you know

more than the "ashir=s own advisers about these Durgan CavesI8

8-=ve been there,8 Chulayen said. 8-=ve seen them. And you know it=s not easy to travel there, at least itdidn=t used to be, before last spring.8 That was when the state of Thamboon had been peacefully

absorbed into Jreater @dara. "efore that, Thamboon had been definitely hostile to @dara, a trouble

spot on the borders from which seditious drawings and ballads entered the "ashir=s territory. #f course,two years before that, Thamboon and @dara hadn=t shared a borderG the narrow strip of *arumalar had



been a buffer between them . . . until the "ashir announced that the *arumalarans, alarmed at the

aggressive actions of Thamboon, had reFuested the honor of becoming part of @dara. At the time when

Chulayen and Anusha went there on a pilgrimage discreetly disguised as a general tourist trip, @daran

visitors weren=t popular in either *arumalar or ThamboonG but he supposed the nasty aggressiveness ofthe Thamboon people had made *arumalar consider @dara the lesser of two evils. Certainly the "ashir,

having taken in *arumalar, protected its people and borders as ealously as his ownG why else would he

have felt it necessary to absorb ThamboonI5unthanadi=s lips twitched. 8Ah, yes. - had forgotten Anusha=s . . . enthusiasms. he=s still involved inthat cult, is sheI8

8-t=s not e&actly a cult,8 Chulayen said. 8!ore of a . . . way of approaching life, you might say.8 -nside,

he writhed with embarrassment. 4ollowing the -nner 5ight <ay wasn=t treasonous or even illegalG it

was Eust not the sort of thing his class of people did . !ention the -nner 5ight <ay and people gotimages of crumbling warehouses and a bunch of common )ohini and half)ohini people, day laborers

and maids and people like that, going into transports of ecstasy over the flames from a crude oil lamp.

Anusha=s continued involvement with the sect was a constant embarrassment to Chulayen, the sort ofthing that might make his superiors feel that despite his impeccable )udhrani lineage, he wasn=t the

kind of young man who could be trusted at the lofty level of the "ashir=s personal council and their

assistants. *ormally he wouldn=t have said anything at work to remind people of Anusha=s religiousenthusiasms. "ut in this case there was no way around it.

8<e visited the Durgan Caves,8 he said. 8%ight years ago.8 To pray for a son, Anusha had said. A holy

pilgrimage to ask the blessings of the earth. And the %arth had responded in ?er usual way, with

double blessing but no son/ his beautiful twin girls, *eena and *eeta. +oung devils, those two, withtheir glossy black pigtails dipped into any mischiefbroth that might be stirring . . . but still a blessing.

And now that they had a son, baby Amavashya, to carry on the lineage and say the ancestorprayers

when he and Anusha passed on, Chulayen could Eust enEoy his girls for the light and laughter they brought to his home.

8Bery nice,8 5unthanadi said, already looking bored. 8+ou are a good husband to cater to Anusha=s little

hobbies. ome might say, too good.8

6espite this broad hint, Chulayen felt he had to continue. 8!other 5unthanadiH This pronouncement

says that the Durgan Caves have become property of the tate of @dara, to be mined for saltpeter.8

5unthanadi raised her bushy eyebrows. 8And your little wife will have religious obEections, - supposeI8

8$robably. - don=t know. That=s not the pointH The caves are a natural wonder, !other 5unthanadi. +oudon=t have to be a believer of the -nner 5ight <ay to see that. They are . . . there are whole chambers as

large as this building, all lined with crystals, and lighted at noonday through openings in the roof, so

that they sparkle like Eewels on the breast of the earth.8 %mbarrassed anew by his poetical flight,Chulayen reined himself in and tried to speak only of the practical issues. 8The caves are hard to get to,

high in the mountains. There=s only a footpath leading to them, and it is a difficult path, the Thamboons

won=t9wouldn=t9let anybody old, or handicapped, or pregnant women, even attempt it. %ven if wedesperately needed the saltpeter deposits, e&tracting and removing them would be a nightmare.8

8<here there=s need, roads can be built,8 5unthanadi said slowly.

8*ot there,8 Chulayen said with deep feeling. 8The Thamboon mountains make @dara look like one of

the $lains tates. ?alf the rock is limestone, and crumbling, so you can=t count on any path you used

last year to still be there after the snow melt has washed down the mountainside. And if it is still there,it takes a Thamboonborn guide to recognie it.8



8Jhaya tracks,8 5unthanadi nodded. 8-s that all, boyI <e=ve all traveled in the mountains, you know.

+ou=re not an engineer, what do you know of road buildingI =?e who does not know how to dance says

that the floor of the courtyard slopes.= 8

8*o selfrespecting @daran ghay,8 Chulayen said desperately, 8would recognie a Thamboon mountain path as a usable track. And then there are the bridges, did - tell you about the bridgesI Three strips of

twisted grass rope if you=re lucky9one to stand on and two to hold. -f you=re not lucky, maybe only

two strips of grass rope. #r one.8 ?e swallowed hard, remembering. -f Anusha hadn=t been so shrillabout his failure to support her beliefs, if he hadn=t been so desperate to stop the nagging that the risk ofdeath seemed an acceptable price to pay, he=d never have made it across the first bridge. 8The

Thamboons get loads across balanced on their heads. 6o you really think we=re going to e&port

significant Fuantities of saltpeter that wayI8

8!oderniation,8 5unthanadi said. 86evelopment. "uild better bridges.8

8And we don=t even need the saltpeterH8

5unthanadi gave him a sharp bright glance. 8<e don=t, ehI <hat are you, one of those loonies who

thinks we don=t need a national defenseI - heard -nner 5ight types get that way98

8-=m not an -nner 5ight follower,8 Chulayen said. 8And yes, - know we need a strong defense force, and- know saltpeter is used in making gunpowder, but - also happen to know that our gunpowder storeshave increased, not decreased, over the last five years. 6espite all the enemies we=ve had to fight in that

time.8

8$recisely,8 5unthanadi said. 8@dara is surrounded by enemies. *ot your place, nor mine, to argue with

the !inistry for 6efense. =<hen they come to shoe the turagai of the "ashir, does the dung beetle stickout her footI= <e need the "ashir=s army as never before, to pacify all those hostile states, and9what

do you mean, the gunpowder stores have increasedI *ot your department, is itI *ot even mine.8

Chulayen swallowed again. ?e=d picked up that bit of information from Anusha=s chatter after an -nner

5ight meeting where some lowlevel clerk from the !inistry for 6efense had been saying things heshouldn=t. "ut mentioning the -nner 5ight <ay again would destroy any credibility he had left, and if he

mentioned the clerk . . . talking about 6efense !inistry stores at a public meeting was probably

treason. Traitors deserved their swift punishment and removal from society, of course, but the poor guyhadn=t meant any harm, he was Eust another nut case deluded by the pacifistic babble of the -nner 5ight

<ay.

8Dust check,8 he challenged 5unthanadi. 8+ou can do it. !inister #daniya can reFuest the statistics on

saltpeter supplies and uses from the !inister for 6efense. <e all spend twothirds of our timeanswering Fuestionnaires and compiling statistics on this and that anywayG nobody will notice one

more.8

8?mphH +ou worry too much about things that are none of your business, Chulayen. )emember, =The

wise adapt themselves to circumstances, as water molds itself to the pitcher.= 8 5unthanadi turned away

and waddled toward a Eunior clerk who had stopped his copying work to enEoy the argument. 8?erenow, young "hiranu, d=you think the "ashir pays you to sit with your mouth open and see how many

flies=ll fall inI +our mother may have . . .8

<ith the ease of long habit, Chulayen tuned out the tirade and returned to his own desk, thinking sohard that he almost didn=t notice udhan=s winks. 8Told you,8 udhan whispered, but then 5unthanadi

whipped around and he became very virtuously busy reading and scribbling comments on his own

paperwork.

As well to keep busy, Chulayen supposed. ?e reached for the ne&t paper on the stack. "ut the court



pronouncement that had worried him did not get routed to a clerk for filingG instead it found its way

into the inner folds of the sash that held up his light, loose trousers. <hile he went through memos and

letters mechanically, stamping each one with the appropriate phrase, scribbling his initials somewhere

on the margin and consigning the paper to the appropriate bo& for the clerktrainee to carry off forfiling, the original memorandum seemed to grow and stiffen until it was all sharp edges and corners,

poking him with every deep breath he took, refusing to be forgotten and filed away properly.

5unthanadi had as good as accused him of being a9a pacifist . Chulayen=s lip curled in an involuntarysneer. -t was an ugly word, and one he had in no way earned. ?e was as loyal a servant of the "ashir asanyone in @dara, and of good )udhrani stock on both sides of his family tree. ?e had never Fuestioned

and did not now Fuestion @dara=s need for a strong army to defend its everincreasing borders. ?is

parents, already elderly when he was born, had well remembered the times of chaos in @dara when brother fought brother for the right to the throne, when venal councillors debased the coinage until you

needed a barrow full of tulai to buy a turnip9and then likely couldn=t get the turnip, because the farms

had been despoiled by fighting among the war lords. They=d told him enough tales of those days tomake him understand, perhaps better than most young men of his generation, Eust how fortunate @dara

was to have a strong "ashir who maintained peace and good order in the community. <hy, they could

scarcely be better off had they lived in the legendary times of the %mperorH And now that he had a

family of his own to care for, he was thankful every day that they were growing up in a strong, safestate. *eena and *eeta would never know the fear his mother had recounted at seeing blood running in

the streetsG little Bashi would never cry with an empty belly.

That was why he wanted somebody to understand the mistake in this Eudicial pronouncement, couldn=t5unthanadi see thatI *ot out of disloyalty to the regime, but out of the highest kind of loyalty, the kind

that didn=t want to see the "ashir=s Council tainted by the record of a single unEust or unwise decision.

Also, it would be a great pity if the Durgan Caves= wonderland of crystal chambers were destroyed by

saltpeter miners before anybody figured out that it was virtually impossible to transport the productfrom Thamboon=s mountains to the gunshops of @dara.

At the midday break udhan asked Chulayen if he was feeling ill.

8+ou=ve hardly moved a paper since that Fuarrel with 5unthanadi, you keep staring at the walls, and

your lamp needs trimming.8 udhan nipped off the charred end of the wick deftly and looked again at

Chulayen in the flare of improved light. 8+ou=re a funny color, too.8

8?ardly moved9ohH8 Chulayen really looked at his cluttered desk for the first time in some hours.udhan was right. That first burst of mechanical activity had ended as he sank deeper in thoughtG this

afternoon he=d have to work doublefast to catch up with the new papers that had been deposited on his

desk while he stared into space and thought.

%&cept that he wouldn=t be here this afternoon, because out of all that blank nonthought had come anidea. ?e knew now what he had to do to protect the honor of the "ashir=s court. 8+ou=re right. - don=t

feel so good. Tell 5unthanadi - went home sick, will youI8

8+ou=re forgetting your dinnerH8 udhan pointed at the package of cold dhanadi balls, each wrapped

around some tasty filling and the whole thing wrapped up in layers of green leaves that kept the foodcool and fresh.

8+ou have it. -=m not hungry.8

udhan shook his head at Chulayen=s departing back. $ass up Anusha=s cookingI The man was

definitely sick.

K K K



-n the hours that followed, most of them spent on the benches outside some office or other, Chulayen

occasionally thought with regret of the packed dinner he had abandoned. Anusha might have her little

faults, but even apart from the loyalty he owed to the good highclass )udhrani girl his parents had

chosen for him, she really was an e&cellent cook. Always in the kitchen, scolding their )ohini servantgirl and getting her fingers burned and her hair smoky by insisting on preparing the meals herself so

that they met her e&acting standards. "ut he couldn=t very well eat his dinner and then claim to be going

home sickG he couldn=t take the package home with him, or Anusha would want to know why he wasn=tat work and where he thought he was goingG and a ?igh )udhrani gentleman didn=t eat in the street or

sitting in the hall outside an office, like some )ohini day laborer. -t simply wasn=t done.

?e couldn=t go to the most logical person, either, the !inister for 5and and $ropertyG old #daniya was

a stickler for procedure and protocol and would likely refuse to talk to Chulayen altogether once hefound out that 5unthanadi knew nothing of the visit. And the !inister for 6efense wasn=t likely to see a

midlevel bureaucrat from another office, without an appointment and without recommendation.

"ut Chulayen=s parents had boasted a wide circle of friends among the "ashir=s most trusted ministers

and councillors, men and women who would welcome Chulayen for the memory of his parents andwould9he hoped9hear him out once he e&plained what was troubling him.

The welcome he received unreservedlyG the understanding turned out to be a little harder to come by.K K K

8Certainly, certainly, dear boy,8 his father=s old friend BiripraE said. 8Bery9ah9conscientious9of you

to concern yourself with these matters. "ut hardly my department, is itI +ours either, for that matter.+ou Eust route that on to the proper authorities, and -=m sure they=ll see it=s all taken care of.8

8"ut who are the proper authoritiesI8 Chulayen asked. 8And if the "ashir=s Council didn=t know how

inaccessible the Durgan Caves are, how can - be sure that these authorities will understandI8

BiripraE=s chuckle was rich as a wellaged red wine. $erhaps a wine a little past its prime . . . 8*ow,

now, young Chulayen. +ou mustn=t go setting yourself up as the only living e&pert on the world andhow it should be run, not when you=re talking to me. *ot with somebody who saw you crawling around

the floor in nothing but a cutoff shirtH Dust give me the memorandum, and -=ll see it reaches the proper

person, and you can get back to work. !ustn=t neglect your work, now, not with those pretty little girlsof yours wanting marriage portions in a few years. <hat were their names againI *ila and *elaI8 ?e

reached out one hand, e&pectant.

8*eenalaladhi and *eetavaruna.8 The twins= lively brown faces and sparkling black eyes smiled in

Chulayen=s mind. Anusha often talked of taking the children back to see the Durgan Caves and givethanks to the %arth for their fine healthy family9not now, of course, but in a few years, when baby

Bashi was old enough to travel and when the situation in the former state of Thamboon had become

somewhat more settled.

$erhaps, when they went, he could tell the girls how their father had preserved the Durgan Caves so that

they too could see the crystal chambers.

8Thank you,8 Chulayen said, standing, 8but - mustn=t impose on you to that e&tent. -t was a great

kindness in you to see me at all.8

K K K

After Chulayen left, Councillor%meritus BiripraE sat thinking for a moment, then shook his head sadly.

These young people, how rash they were, how incapable of seeing the whole pictureH -t was a harshduty, but didn=t he owe it to the memory of his old friend, Chulayen=s father, to see the boy was brought



to his sensesI ?e rang a brone bell and one of his confidential clerks came in.

84ollow that young man who Eust left,8 BiripraE instructed him. 8-f he returns to the #ffice of 5and and

$roperty Contracts, come back here and report to me. -f he goes anywhere else . . . well . . . - suppose

you=d better come back and report in any case.8 -t wasn=t time, yet, to send a note to the !inister for5oyalty. That could wait. The boy might show the good sense to take himself back to his own

department and work through the proper channels.

K K K

8+ou do not seem to understand the uniFue position of the !inistry for 6efense,8 5al *eena omiti

said coldly. 8-t is my privilege, indeed it is every @daran subEect=s privilege to defer to the 6efense!inistry=s reFuirements above all else9saving, of course, the !inistry for 5oyalty.8 ?er right hand

moved in a barely visible averttheevil sign, hardly more than a refle&ive twitch.

8<hen the reFuirements make sense,8 Chulayen said, 8but this is a stupid pronouncement.8

8-t is not for such as you to call the "ashir=s Council stupid . =<hen they come to shoe the turagai of the

"ashir9= 8

8 =9does the dung beetle stick out her footI= 8 Chulayen finished for her. 5al *eena was as fond of old

aphorisms as his boss 5unthanadi. 85al *eena omiti, if the turagai of the "ashir are already shod,might not even the dung beetle warn the "ashir that he is wasting money on a farrierI -f they

understood the position98

8- am sure they consulted the reFuisite e&perts before making their decision.8

8And had the =reFuisite e&perts= ever been within half a kilolath of the Thamboon borderI8

8There is no Thamboon border,8 5al *eena pointed out. 8The former aggressive state of Thamboon has

now been peacefully absorbed into Jreater @dara, by the mercy of the "ashir, may his name be

remembered forever. +our talk comes perilously close to disloyalty.8

8- only want to make sure this pronouncement isn=t overruled on appealH8

8-t won=t be,8 said 5al *eena. 8+ou=d do well to think more of your own life and career, Chulayen, andless of meddling in affairs that are beyond your province.8 ?er tone softened. 8-=m only telling you

what your own mother would, if she were alive to see what you=re getting up to. Adapt yourself to

circumstances, Chulayen, as98

8As the water does to the pitcher,8 Chulayen finished tiredly. 8And if the pitcher is broken, what becomes of the waterI8

5al *eena shook her head. 8Jo home, Chulayen. Jo home now, and return to your office tomorrow. -t

may not be too late.8

K K K

84irst omiti in the !inistry for Trade, and now you think he=s going up the mountain to the northFuarterI8 BiripraE sighed. The boy was working his way through his parents= influential friends like a

madman with a lighted torch in the dry brush. $undarik Nahin lived in one of the mansions on the north

Fuarter of the mountain, and he was always to be found there since the paralysis of his legs had forcedhim to retire from the !inistry for 6efense. 6oubtless that would be Chulayen=s ne&t stop. The best

thing BiripraE could do for him now would be to see that he was brought to his senses as soon as

possible. ?arsh but necessary. 8Bery well. end this note to Nahin9and see that you get there before

young Chulayen doesH8

K K K



8ir, you could verify that the !inistry has more than adeFuate stocks of saltpeterH8 Chulayen begged.

$undarik Nahin stroked his long grey moustaches thoughtfully. 8AdeFuateI Tricky word, that, boy.

AdeFuate for whatI *ever know when we may need to repel aggression on our borders. #r put down

uprisings within them.8

Chulayen looked blank. 8There=s never been any unrest against the "ashir.8 The !inistry for 5oyaltywas well known for stopping troublemakers before they could get fairly started, and Chulayen had

always felt they did an e&cellent Eob. ?e liked living in a peaceful and prosperous stateG what idiot

wouldn=tI

8That=s not to say there never will be any,8 Nahin pointed out. 8!inistry for 5oyalty can=t beeverywhere. And you know, those Thamboons, they=re a wild lot, most of them are ethnic )ohini9

naturally they=re going to take a subordinate place to us )udhrani, now that the countries are merged.8

Chulayen nodded. That was the logical outcome, of course. %verybody knew that )udhrani were

smarter, faster, more logical, generally better fitted for management and government. ince most of theThamboon people were )ohini, their country must have been struggling along with people unfitted by

nature for the positions of leadership they were forced to assume. #f course @daraneducated )udhrani

would be filling those positions now, and possibly some of the Thamboons were too shortsighted to

see that the changeover was for their own good. till9

8-t=s not going to make us any more popular in the former tate of Thamboon,8 he said, 8if we start by

destroying a natural beauty spot which many )ohini consider also as a sacred place.8

Nahin=s bushy grey eyebrows shot up. 8acred placeI $erhaps that=s why the "ashir=s Council

condemned the caves, my boy, ever think of thatI Jathering spot for disaffected )ohini, these wildeyed cultists. "etter all round to set them to peacefully mining saltpeter9that=s the kind of menial Eob

)ohini are good at, after all9then they won=t have time for all this -nner 5ight <ay nonsense.8

8"ut there=s no way to transport the saltpeter, even if we did need itH -t=s Eust not profitable to bring

anything big and heavy down out of those mountains. -t would only be worth industrialiing the cavesif the product were something very small and valuable98 Chulayen stopped in midsentence. ?e had

never seen Nahin like that, as if his face were carved from something harder than stone. This wasn=t

dear old 8@ncle8 $undarik with the bad legs that he was arguing withG it was Jeneral $undarik Nahin,conFueror of the half doen states that had been combined to create @dara before Chulayen=s birth. -t

was 6efense !inister %meritus $undarik Nahin, still very much an active voice with the ruler whom he

had brought to power and kept there through ten years of civil war.

8- really think, Chulayen,8 said this stranger, in a voice so carefully level that it was worse than thewildest tonguelashing, 8that you should go home now.8

8*ot back to workI8 -t was only midafternoon.

Nahin shook his head. -f his face hadn=t been so still, so carefully e&pressionless, Chulayen would have

thought he looked sad. -t must be a trick of the light. 8*o. *ot today. -t=s too late.88+ou mean9they=ve already started mining the cavesI8

Nahin looked startled for a moment. 8<ell9that too.8

K K K

As he made his way down the mountain, Chulayen pondered those last words of Nahin=s. They were astrange echo of 5al *eena omiti=s. he had said !t may not be too lateG Nahin, !ts too late. Too late for

whatI



The top of the mountain, the fine tall whitewashed houses surrounding the "ashir=s palace, the peacock

gardens and the fountains that cascaded down steep flights of terraced basins, were still bathed in

golden afternoon sun. "ut as Chulayen reached the lower levels, where $uvaathi village had originally

been built and where it had e&ploded into a disorganied nest of office buildings, converted houses,street markets and kava houses, the slope of the mountain behind him caught and held the sun and

turned afternoon into blue dusk. ?e walked from sunlight into shadow and felt the cool air of early of

autumn on his face. ?ere the shadows turned muddy brown and dirty whitewashed buildings into blue palaces, made a veiled princess of a )ohini street vendor and a hidden treasure of a market stall=s sacks

of open spices. Chulayen took a deep breath of the clear mountain air with its underlying flavors of

wood smoke, roasting meat, spices, and ghaya hair. <ell, okay, not so clear maybe as it was up on theclean, cool, sunwashed mountaintop. "ut the mingled smells were comforting, were familiar, were

home. ?is steps Fuickened as he turned away from the central crossings where shops and vendors

clustered, toward a tangle of woodandmud houses that teetered precariously down the lower slopes ofthe mountain, one story tall on the west side and three on the east side. "ehind a latticed window,

someone sang mournfully from the song of )usala.

K K K

ada na raEian hakimiG sada raEian des/

ada na nove ghar apna, nafra, bhath pia pardes.

K K K

8ings are not always rulersG

kings have not always lands/They have not always homesG

they fall into great troubles in strange lands.8

K K K

8"uy a yai pao, honored sirI8 whined the stooped old )ohini pancake vendor who usually worked Eust

a few hundred steps from Chulayen=s house, in the angle where three sets of buildings met andscattered down the slope in different directions. 8!y last one, honored sir, and with it for a free sauce,

all the news of the day.8

8Thank you, but the woman of my house would be annoyed were - to enter the house munching on dir 9on fare not cooked by her own hands,8 Chulayen stopped himself from saying dirty street food Eust in

time. -t was right for a ?igh )udhrani gentleman to be courteous to all, even the lowest beggarG and at

least this old woman was not begging, but trying to earn an honest living by selling the greasy pancakessprinkled with slices of sharp fresh onion. The things did smell good, setting his stomach rumbling and

reminding him that he had forgotten to eat earlier.

8o stand here and eat it while - tell you the news, grandsonH +ou should not go home hungry and

unprepared.8 Chulayen felt he really ought not to allow such familiarity, but such kindly concernemanated from her wrinkled face that he couldn=t bring himself to snub her.

8*o, no9- really must get home.8 As always when he got this close to home, Chulayen felt the

familiar rush of an&iety, the old fear that he would return to an empty house, doors and window shutters

shattered by rifle butts, empty rooms greeting him with the memory of screams. There was no reasonfor such fears9but the nightmare had wakened him time after time in childhood, and it had not gone

away when he married and set up his own homeG it had only inspired Anusha, after si& months of

marriage, to take up sleeping in the outer room where, she said, at least she could get some rest. 6uringthe day Chulayen was never troubled by such irrational fears, but each evening when he returned home



his steps grew Fuicker, his breath shallower, until he saw *eena and *eeta running to greet him and

knew that all was well with his family. And here he stood e&changing banter with a )ohini street

vendorH ?e felt in the pouch at his sash and tossed her a tul. 8?ere, grandmother, give your last cake to

someone who needs it.8

8"ut the news9the newsH8 The old woman caught at the end of his sash, and Chulayen began to feel

seriously annoyed by her impertinence. 8The Arm of the "ashir has been busy today.8 That was the

common people=s term for the police employed by the !inistry for 5oyalty.

8Then that is good news for all loyal subEects,8 Chulayen said automatically. *o one spoke against the5oyalty=s men, even if some of their actions did seem a bit e&cessive at times.

8 !s it, ChulenI -s itI8

The small hairs at the back of Chulayen=s neck prickled at this insinuating use of his nickname. 8?ow

do you know my name, grandmotherI8

8*ever mind that,8 the old woman said, 8but if you are in such a hurry, then go9go to your house,

Chulen, and then when you know how much you need my news, come back.8 ?er black eyes sparkled bright in the tired, lined old face. $oor woman, probably she was used to augmenting her income from

the pancakes by selling fortunes to ignorant common people who would be impressed by such tricks.There were a doen ways she could have learned his name, she was on this street every day9

There was a black space down the street, a hole in the monotonous, irregular wall created by a doendifferent colors of mud houses Eammed too close together for anyone larger than a child to slip between

the houses. A doorshaped hole with Eagged edges . . . Chulayen=s steps Fuickened. -t was almost down

by his house, something must have happened ne&t door, Anusha would have been frightened, it couldn=t be his house, no reason for the !inistry for 5oyalty to come there . . .

Go home" !t may not be too late"

!ts too late"

The Arm of the Bashir has been busy today"

Chulayen stopped in front of the splintered ruin of what had been his fine arched door, gay with blue

and red painted birds, and tried to make sense of what he saw. -t didn=t make sense, he was dreaming,this must be old 5ammon=s house ne&t door that the Arm had broken into, a rich )ohini out of place in

this decent )udhrani neighborhood . . . 5ammon=s door had been unpainted.

-t was still unpainted, still whole.

%mpty house, empty rooms. A spatter of blood on the doorsill. The screams of his recurring nightmare

rose in Chulayen=s ears, deafening him to the small sounds on the streetG his children=s faces swam before his eyes, blinding him to shattered shutters and a bloody splash. The nightmare againG in a

moment Anusha would wake him, he felt her tugging on his sleeve now . . .

-t was only Tulaya, old 5ammon=s woman. 8Come along inside now, dear, won=t do no good to standout in the street all maedlike. Come you in and -=ll fi& you a good hot cup of kava and some of my barley soup. There=s nothing to be done now, they=m long gone. Took =un Eust afore shadowfall, they

did.8

8*eenaI *eetaI <here are theyI They always run to me before - get this far.8

8All gone,8 Tulaya said. 8Took =em all, even the baby. aid they didn=t want you, not yet. aid you=d

know what to do if you want to see them again.8

%mpty rooms.



The memory of screams.

And no waking from the nightmare now.

Chapter i"e'alentin on Kalapriyaaara stayed and chattered about life on alapriya until her mother called her away to dress for dinner.

8And you should be dressing too, Calandra. +our escort will be calling any minute now. %ver such anice young man, Jabrel, you=ll like having him take you to the dinner and ball.8 -vonna smiled. 8-

know, - know, you=re here to work, but there=s no law against having a little fun, is thereI8

8- won=t be going with your family, 4ru toffelsenI8 !aris asked in dismay. he had been counting on

the toffelsen ladies= chatter to camouflage her during the evening=s festivities. Then, surely, tonight shecould figure out some way to get off alapriya and stop playing the 6iplomat.

8That would hardly be proper,8 -vonna toffelsen said.

aara lingered. 8hemeansitlookslikewe=remonopoliingyou,8 she whispered.

8<hatI8

8 Monopoli4ing you,8 aara repeated in a slightly louder whisper. 8+esma-=mcomingH8 she shouted, and

left with a friendly wave.

!aris barely had time to scan Calandra Bissi=s papers before amnan was fastening her into one ofthose comple& manypaneled drapes of light organic fabric, and this escort for the formal dinner was

waiting downstairs.

5eutnant Jabrel %skelinen. he gathered that 85eutnant8 was a title connected with the blueandgold

uniform he wore. o what did she call himI JabrelI ?aar %skelinenI *o, 4ru toffelsen called the man85eutnant %skelinen8 when she spoke to him. !aris covertly sied him up while -vonna introduced

them. Another tall "arentsian, hair so blond it was nearly white, cold blue eyes very light in a tanned

face. The tan was the only thing that made him seem a little different from the rest. +oung, but stiff asany of the old geeers who made the speeches.

<hat did toppies say when they were being introducedI !aris summoned up memories of old holos

and held out one hand, languidly draped downward9sometimes the guys kissed hands, on those old

shows. 8A pleasure98

8The pleasure must be entirely mine, 6iplomat Bissi,8 the young man interrupted her. 8<e shoulddepart now.8 A stiff bow, coming nowhere near her outstretched hand, and he wheeled and made for the

door without waiting for her.#ne of the ubiFuitous alapriyan servants helped her up into the traveling bo&, and !aris studied her

escort=s profile as he guided the9the turagai, that=s what they were called9down the long shady driveleading from ?ouse toffelsen to the public streets of Balentin.

#kay, she didn=t know much about toppie manners, but she could tell rude when it was shoved in her

face like that. #bviously this Jabrel %skelinen disliked her.

-ntensely.



he felt absurdly hurt, considering that they had only Eust met, so it couldn=t be her personally he

disliked, it must be Calandra Bissi. #r rather, Calandra=s mission here. he supposed that was part of

the Eob description for 6iplos, getting up people=s noses and asking inconvenient Fuestions. *ot to

mention listening to interminable speeches, being sent to primitive dirtside locations without decentclimate control, and having little machines stuck in your brain.

This Jabrel acted like he had something stuck up his backside as well as a bad whiff of 6iplo up his

nose. !aris supposed really she should be grateful to have a few minutes with someone who had noFuestions for her9but, irrationally, she wanted this one to talk to her. he didn=t like being treated likea packing canister that had to be ferried from one port to another.

8o,8 she ventured as they turned into the mudbrown street outside ?ouse toffelsen grounds, 8you

got a lot of these, these bo&esonwheels hereI8

Jabrel %skelinen looked down his long nose at the animals pulling the bo&. 8There=s no need to besarcastic, 6iplomat Bissi. +ou must know as well as - do that the term is =carriages.= -=m sure a 6iplomat

would never be sent out without thorough briefing on the manners and politics of her assigned posting.8

8<ish that were true,8 !aris said. 8"ut as it ain=t, maybe you could, like, fill me in on what=s what on

alapriyaI8

8- am, of course, entirely at the 6iplomat=s service,8 Jabrel said in a tone suggesting e&actly theopposite. 8<hat in particular would the distinguished 6iplomat wish to knowI8

8+ou could start with what=s got you so stuffed up,8 !aris suggested, 8an= then go on to the gen=ral

situation.8

8- am afraid - fail to take your meaning, 6iplomat Bissi.8

8<hy ye=re narked. Cantynosed. Nerogeed.8

As Jabrel continued to look blank, !aris groped in her Tasman vocabulary for more synonyms, thenrealied that was e&actly the wrong thing to do. <hatever specialied training 6iplomats received, they

probably didn=t have a dictionary chip for Tasman scumsucker slang. he=d have to keep it simple.

8<hy don=t you like meI8

8- scarcely know you, 6iplomat Bissi. -t would surely be premature to make personal assessments

based on a few minutes= conversation.8

8+eah, well, there wouldn=t even a= been no bunu conversation if it was lef= to you, would thereI 5ooksto me like -=m the only one making an effort here.8

Jabrel=s hands twitched on the long thick strings he held and the turagai came to a stop. ?e let the

strings fall slack and turned to face !aris. 8- have been assigned a duty,8 he said. 8!y duty is to escort

the distinguished 6iplomat wherever she may reFuire during her visit to alapriya. - prefer not to allow personal considerations to interfere with that duty, and would appreciate your doing the same.8

8<ell, if actin= like a stuffedup, narky, cantynosed old geeer three times yer age ain=t lettin= personal

considerations interfere, what d=ye call itI +e=re bein= bunu rude and e&cuse me, but -=d kinda like to

know why.8

8"ecause some of us, unlike the distinguished 6iplomat, have better things to do than interrupting other

people=s work for a pleasure Eaunt disguised as a survey tripH8 Jabrel spat out. At last there was some

color in his face/ two red spots over his cheekbones, and something like cold fire in the pale blue eyes.

84or your information, 6iplomat Bissi, - was engaged in e&tremely delicate negotiations with the headof one of the -ndigenous Tribal Territories when - was recalled to dance attendance on youH As a result,



our relations with the hill states may not be stabilied for yearsH +ou can hardly e&pect me to be pleased

about this, can youI8

8-f ye=re pinheaded enough to take it out on me because ye don=t agree with what yer bossman tells ye

to do, then -=d say it=s the Trading ociety=s good luck ye=re not still doin= yer =delicate negotiationsH= 8!aris snapped back. 8Anybody with a temper like yers got no business tryin= to do diplomacyH8

85ook who=s talkingH Diplomat BissiI -=d e&pect better manners from a Tasman scumsuckerH8

!aris sucked in her breath, realiing Eust how fatally she=d given herself away. <hat nowI 6eportation

back to TasmanI

8@m,8 Jabrel said awkwardly at last. 8-=m9sorry. - went too far.8

?e thought she was silent because he=d insulted her.

%ven now, he didn=t guess the truth.

The pentup breath escaped at last in a snorting attempt to suppress her laughter. Jabrel lookedaffronted for a moment, then began laughing too.

8<e have both behaved poorly,8 !aris said, aiming now for a nice, polite, toppie voice and accent.

8Can we start over, do you think, 5eutnant %skelinenI8

8 =Twould be my pleasure, 6iplomat Bissi. *ow, what particulars of alapriya can - give to add to your

no doubt e&tensive briefing on our worldI8

!aris had had time to think since the first time he asked this Fuestion. 8There are ways in which no

outsider can truly understand a world,8 she said, loftily, as though Fuoting a dictum from some old

professor geeer at 6iplomatic chool. At least she hoped that was what it sounded like. 8-t would most

beneficially supplement me9my9briefing if you would do me the kindness to e&plain alapriya tome as you would to any totally ignorant visitor. -n that way, you see, - shall have the benefit of the

native viewpoint.8

8+ou mean the ociety viewpoint,8 Jabrel corrected her. 8<e "arentsians have dealt with alapriya

for only a few generations. Those of us who were born here may boast of being nativeborn, but thetrue natives are the alapriyans, the )ohini and )udhrani9and very few in the ociety trouble to

understand their viewpoint, or even realie they have oneH8 ?e made some odd clucking noises and

flapped his hands up and downG !aris was startled for a moment and then realied the last noises wereaddressed not to her, but to the animals before them, now in motion again.

he took a moment to reply, reminding herself to try and talk like a toppie in one of them old holos.

8*ow that,8 she said slowly and carefully, 8is e&actly what - mean. *othing in my briefing comes from

the native alapriyan point of view.8

Jabrel gave her a surprised glance. 8- thought you were here to follow up on #rlando !ontoyasana=scomplaints.8

<here was the Jod of 5ooking After -nsignificant $ersons when you needed himI !aris had forgotten

all about the orders she had so briefly skimmed back at ?ouse toffelsen. 8?e ain=t9isn=t9a native,

though, is heI %ven though he claims to represent their interestsI8 #ice recovery" #ow try andremember who youre supposed to be.

8*either am -, if it comes to that.8

8*o, but98 she remembered his cause for disliking escort duty 89you=ve spent time inland, away

from the area the "arents Trading ociety controls. And - do want to know all about alapriya, not Eustthe coast and Balentin.8 Maybe theres some place away from all these blond giants where ! can hide



out for a while"

8+es. +ou=ll need that if you=re seriously investigating !ontoyosana=s allegations.8

8+ou think -=m notI8

Jabrel shrugged. 8-t=s never happened before.8

8#h. +ou get people makin= complaints to )eerval and 6iplomats sent in to investigate all the time, do

youI And this ain=t the way the standard investigation worksI8

?e gave her an irritated glance. 8- didn=t mean that . "ut most galactic visitors find life in the coastalenclaves Fuite primitive enough. They have no interest in e&ploring the interior, where travel is difficult

and sometimes dangerous. !ontoyasana himself hasn=t been heard from in some weeks9not that -

think anything=s happened to himG he probably Eust stumbled on some fascinating native ceremony andwandered off without letting anyone know9but the point is, we=ve no real way to pull him out if he is

in danger, not even to locate him.8

Danger& %hat do you know about danger, pretty boy& Anybody tried to kill you latelyI 8- e&pect to go

wherever the needs of the investigation take me,8 !aris said loftily. 5ike on the first ship going

anywhere but Tasman. he wondered if Calandra Bissi=s personal credit chips would be sufficient to

buy her passage offplanet. urely a 6iplomat wouldn=t be sent out without adeFuate funds for anyemergency. he hoped.

8-n that case you=ll need to know a bit more about alapriya than the average tourist guidebook. <ell, -suppose you do, being a 6iplomat . . .8

8"ut - want to know your idear9idea9of the place. 5eutnant %skelinen. <asn=t that why they pulled

you back from yer Eob to show me aroundI "ecause of you bein=, like, an e&pert on the inland areasI8

8<ell . . .8

ome things worked on alapriya Eust like they did on Tasman, !aris thought. 4lattery was one.

Jabrel cleared his throat and began what promised to be a lengthy and informative lecture. 8+ou=ll

know already, of course, that the "arents Trading ociety directly governs only the coastal enclaveswhere our people breed and sort the bacteriomats for the interstellar trade. Dust inland, along the coastal

plain, the -ndigenous Territories begin, all under native alapriyan rule . . . though in fact "arents has

pretty good control of most of the plains states. The two maEor states bordering the coast, Baisee and%kanayana, were constantly at war with one another when we first settled Balentin, to the e&tent that

neither one recognied our treaties with the other. There were also some problems with bandits. -n the

end we had to form our own army and go into those states to establish order. "ut they=ve settled downwell enough now, and the smaller states along the coastal plains generally follow their lead. They all

used to be provinces of the %mpire9did your briefing cover thatI *oI - suppose they thought it was

past history, hundreds of years ago, and not relevant. "ut it=s very relevant to the alapriyansG half theirsongs and stories date back to those times. *ot surprising. That was the only time of peace and

prosperity they=d known until we showed up9the few generations after 6hatacharya united the tribesand named himself %mperor, until the degenerate albahan took the throne and oppressed the people so

badly they assassinated him and vowed never to let another ruler control the whole continent. Amistake, in my opinion, but they really didn=t much like albahan9and any time somebody looks like

bringing the separate states together again peacefully, some malcontent makes speeches about

albahan=s return and the talks fall apart.8

Jabrel thought over what he=d Eust said, while !aris tried to keep track of the names and ideas he=d Eust poured over her.



8Actually,8 he said in a while, 8- suppose 6hatacharya=s initial empire wasn=t established all that

peacefully, either. -t would have been a matter of conFuering the nationstates one by one, after all. "ut

the point is, you=re going to hear references to the %mpire everywhere you go in alapriya, and rather

more if you do go upcountry. Baisee and %kanayana are too comfortable under ociety control to bother much with politics anymore. "ut the smaller states in the ?ills9and the smallest don=t amount

to much more than a couple of villages and the graing land in between9raid each other as a national

pastime and Eustify it with songs about the heroic battles of the %mpire. And in this generation we=vegot a chap with serious fantasies about restoring the %mpire. A whole handful of small native states9

the even Billages, $halap, and most recently, Thamboon9have been absorbed into what the "ashir is

beginning to call Jreater @dara.8

8Another 6hatacharya.8 !aris nodded, Eust to prove she=d been paying attention.

8-n personality,8 Jabrel said drily, 8he=s rather more like albahan. "ut the leaders in the Tradingociety here favor him, because he=s accepted a "arents )esident to look after our interests9not that

we have any interests in the hill territory, but still, - suppose we don=t want these petty wars coming

down to the plains and disrupting the coastal states. <hen - was recalled, - was in 6harampal9that=sanother native state in the hills9trying to persuade the Bakil to accept a )esident. - was trying to

convince him that the support of the "arents Trading ociety might be useful to him now that 8Jreater

@dara8 has grown right up to his borders. The trouble is that the "ashir strongly opposes any other hillstate taking a "arents )esident, for obvious reasons. And the Bakil of 6harampal can see the threat that

@dara posesG he can=t see, can=t begin to imagine, the muscle the "arents Trading ociety could bring to

bear against @dara if there were any of our people up there to speak for the states that are beingconFuered. o he=s being very, very cautious.8

The beasts pulling their bo&9no, carriage 9were allowed to amble while Jabrel went on about the

political structures of alapriya. "y the time they reached the meeting hall !aris felt she had learned

Fuite enough about that subEect to be able to play the 6iplomat for the evening. As for the bacteriomattrade, it might be the ruling passion of the "arentsians, but it was nowhere mentioned in Calandra

Bissi=s orders. o at least she didn=t have to pretend to know any more9or any less9than "enteen

Teunis had told her that afternoon.This time !aris was prepared for the climatecontrolled lu&ury concealed inside the humblelookingwhite stucco meeting hall. he was not, however, prepared for the gala dOcor and the brilliant lights

blaing inside. ince that afternoon the hall had been transformed, the rows of chairs moved to make

room for whitedraped tables covered with glittering glassware and serving dishes.

And the space between the tables was completely filled with tall, impatientlooking people. !arisshrank back as she took in their e&pressions.

8#h gods, we=re late an= they=re narked, ain=t theyI8 she whispered to Jabrel, momentarily too agitated

to maintain her toppie accent.

8A 6iplomat,8 Jabrel said in a discreet undertone, 8by definition, is never late. The proper starting time

for any function is when the 6iplomat arrives. And don=t show them you=re scaredG the old men will bully you if they think they can get away with it.8

!aris felt grateful for his hand under her elbow, steadying her as they moved into the room, and

absurdly bereft when he was whisked away to a table for those of lesser standing while she was stuck at

the head table between 6wendle toffelsen and a bunch of other old guys. -ntroductions were Fuickand businesslikeG she caught the names Torston ?uyberts and $ledger van der <essels, but did not

recognie or remember the titles of the official positions they occupied. So what& !m not supposed to

be a bunu e1pert on the organi4ation of the Society . . . am !& +eah, probably she was. Calandra Bissi



probably had a datachip implant that had been freshly loaded with the "arents Trading ociety=s

organiation chart, names, titles, Eob descriptions, and complete bunu resumesH #h well, it wasn=t like

they were going to interrogate her about the structure of their own business, was itI

*o. -t was a great deal worse.

8-n order to facilitate your survey of the ociety, 6iplomat Bissi,8 Torston ?uyberts began in a voice asoily as the soup that was placed before them by a slender, dark alapriyan servant, 8it would be best if

you could tell us now the precise scope of your inFuiries and how you intend to carry them out.8

!aris took a spoonful of soup. Too bad it wasn=t something solidG she could play for time by chewing

or pretending to choke on it or9gods, her mouth was screaming for the fire marshalsH he grabbed forthe glass before her and poured half the contents down her throat.

8"read helps more than liFuids,8 murmured $ledger van der <essels. 8-f the distinguished 6iplomat

would care to try our nativebaked paanI8 ?e offered her a basket filled with flat things that !aris

hadn=t recognied as bread. he bit into one and discovered a soft, fruity filling that helped to assuagethe minor e&plosions in her throat.

Torston ?uyberts chuckled. 8#ne forgets that our colonial habits are sometimes a little too hot for

offworlders.8<as there a subtle threat in that, or was he simply enEoying seeing her discomfitedI

8- =spect -=ll get used to it, ?aar ?uyberts,8 !aris said in her best toppie voice, a little husky still fromthe searing mouthful of soup. 8?owever, perhaps it would be best to begin slowly.8

8And is that how you plan to begin your inFuiriesI lowlyI 4ew visitors look on alapriya as a

pleasure Eaunt to be prolonged.8

?e was definitely baiting her. <hyI o she=d blurt out classified informationI !aris smiled to herself.

At least there was no danger of that .

8<e can do this slow or fast, any way you and yer9your colleagues like, ?aar ?uyberts. - been9-

have been assigned to make certain inFuiriesG - ain=t about to leave until - get satisfactory results.8 5ike,maybe, tomorrow morning" !f you define a satisfactory result as a ticket off this place . . . Time to take

the lead. -f she asked enough Fuestions, he wouldn=t have a chance to tease her, would heI 8$erhapsyou could begin by e&plaining to me e&actly how the bacteriomat trade works.8

8urely your briefing . . .8

8- like to hear the local point of view,8 !aris said. -t had worked on Jabrel.

8urely your tour of the caves with "enteen Teunis98

8?aar Teunis was mostly interested in e&plaining the scientific aspects of the trade, not the business

ones.8

"oth Torston ?uyberts and 6wendle toffelsen seemed to rela& slightly at this statement. <hyI 6idthey know how somebody was evading the controls "enteen Teunis put such faith in, and shipping

illegal =mats to DohnivansI urely not, because they began immediately to serenade her with more than

any human being could possibly want to know about the business.

<hile the soup was removed and some kind of minced meat smothered in white sauce brought in,?uyberts e&plained the accidental discovery of the bacteriomats= potential when an e&plorer from one

of the early contact ships slipped on their slimy surface in a sea cave and fell fifteen feet onto the

lowest layer of rocks, breaking his head open and severing his spinal cord. <hen found, he wassuffering from shock and dehydration and his face was half covered with a slimy mat of nanobacteria.



The rescue crew reported the semiparalysis from the spinal inEury and the fact that their attempts to

cleanse the man=s head resulted in shrieks of pain and hysterical arching of the upper half of his body,

the part that could still move.

"y morning, when a landing party from the ship was able to bring a boat around to the cave mouth, the bacterial mat had shrunk to a thin film covering the badly broken skull . . . and the e&plorer walked to

the boat.

8Temporary paralysis of a bruised spinal column,8 said the ship=s doctor.

8That nerve was severed ,8 insisted the medtech who=d e&amined the man with portable scanners.

8*ot now, it=s not,8 said the doctor.

8%&actly. +ou ought to take a closer look at whatever=s growing inside the cave.8

-t was a good story, and ?uyberts told it wellG his delivery was polished as a rock tumbled on the beachfor many years. $robably, !aris thought, that particular story had been tumbled by generations of

"arents colonials until it had a very fine polish indeed.

The somethinginawhitesauce was removed and plates laden with shellfish replaced it. !aris

watched in dismay as 6wendle toffelsen attacked his with two of the strange pieces of silverwarewhose use she had not yet figured out, elegantly e&tracting bits of pink meat without getting the least

spot of grease on his fingers. he=d been able to fork up bits of the previous course by watching

toffelsen and using the same implement he chose, but there was no way she could imitate thistechniFue.

8The 6iplomat does not care for our native krebsiI 6o try some, they are delicious, almost e&actly like

"arentsian kreb,8 toffelsen urged her.

8o sorry . . . an unfortunate allergy,8 !aris murmured, and then realied she=d hardly been on

alapriya long enough to discover any allergies to the local food. "etter get back to the technical stuff.8o what=s been going on since that first discoveryI +ou guys must=ve had to do a lot of work to get the

=mats through 4ederation Approval and set up the business.8

8-ndeed, indeed,8 toffelsen agreed. <hile he told her all about the tests, the failures, the successes, the

discovery that the bacteriomats were so fle&ible that they would mimic almost any missing or damaged brain or nervous system structure, $ledger van der <essels unobtrusively signaled a servant who

replaced !aris=s plate of shellfish with something she could eat with a fork. -t tasted like white

insulation padding, but who caredI

8<ith the superb technical education available on )eerval, the 6iplomat probably understands betterthan we do the mechanisms by which the =mats repair and replace neural connections,8 toffelsen

finished.

Cripes, the 6iplomatic chool turned out trained scientists on top of everything elseI 8- doubt that,8

!aris said sincerely. 8- mean, uh, bein= on the spot like you are gives a9a depth of understandingwhere our overview must necessarily be superficial.8

8Bery well put,8 said toffelsen with a nod of approval.

-t ought to be. he=d borrowed the line from one of the classic holos that most of Dohnivans= crew didn=t

care to watch, being they were so slow and wordy. *ice to know these folks appreciated the classics.

!aris finished her tasteless substitute dish and set her fork down with relief. %ating like a toppie wassuch a strain, she likely wouldn=t have tasted anything anyway.

8The bacteriomats are a blessing for humanity,8 $ledger van der <essels said solemnly. 8-t is a pity that



we have not yet discovered a more efficient way to produce them than harvesting the sea caves. "ut

every laboratorygrown strain has failed, and as the 6iplomat doubtless knows, attempts to reproduce

the environment on other worlds also have failed. There must be other organisms involved in the

ecology that we have failed to detect.8

?e sounded so sad that !aris wanted to cheer him up. 8+es, ?aar Teunis e&plained all that to me this

afternoon. "ut after all,8 she said brightly, 8if there was a lot of ways to grow them, you wouldn=t get so

much money for them, and if they could be grown offplanet, you wouldn=t have the monopolyanymore, would youI8

There was a momentary silenceG glancing around the table, !aris had the unnerving impression that

two of her three dinner companions had been flashfroen in place. #nly $ledger van der <essels

continued to dissect his krebsi with apparent relish.

8- do hope,8 said Torston ?uyberts at last, 8the distinguished 6iplomat is not suggesting that we woulddeliberately restrict the supply of these precious nanobacterial constructs for personal profit I8

<ouldn=t you Eust, you old pigH -f - was really a 6iplo, -=d be suggestin= to )eerval that here was

something else needed lookin= into. 8uch a notion never crossed my mind,8 !aris said. @ntil you

brought it up, that is. 4or a moment she wished she really were Calandra Bissi, 6iplomatic %nvoy

%&traordinary, with nearmiraculous powers and advanced training in everything from nanoscience tounarmed combat . . . and a direct line to )eerval. "ecause if ?uyberts and toffelsen weren=t involved

up to the neck in procuring Dohnivans= blackmarket =mats or in something even worse, she=d . . . she=d

eat a krebsiH

And maybe it was time to change the subEect, and play the 6iplo a little more convincingly with the

knowledge she=d garnered from Jabrel %skelinen on the way over here.

8The "arents Trading ociety is, of course, above suspicion,8 !aris said loftily, stealing from another

classic holo about toppie society life, 8but one gathers the ociety=s control over the interior states ishardly complete.8

8<e have e&cellent relations with %kanayana and Baisee,8 6wendle toffelsen said huffily. !aris

recognied the names as those of the two large states which dominated the coastal plain.

8+ou have garrisons in both states,8 she corrected, 8to enforce the mutual nonaggression agreement you

forced down their throats fifty years ago.8 Jood Eob Jabrel %skelinen liked to talk so much.

8*either state is unhappy with the agreement,8 6wendle countered. 8As a result of their pro&imity toour coastal enclaves, their economies are flourishing as never before. The profits from the bacteriomat

trade mostly return to alapriyaG we purchase furniture, food, all the necessities of life from

%kanayana, and most of our servants here come from Baisee and are happy to have money to send backto their families. They also benefit from such limited medical help as we are permitted to give under

the $rohibited Technologies Act. Their currency is stabilied, backed by the "arents thaler, and both

regimes have enEoyed an unprecedented fifty years of peace and prosperity. <e may have employed

some unofficially coercive methods to achieve the original treaties, but that is long in the past, and)eerval can find nothing to complain about in our current relations with the -ndigenous Territories.8

A bowl of fruit appeared on the table, a welcome change from the previous heavy courses. )eal, fresh,

whole fruit, not flashdried slicesH !aris remembered tasting a thin slice of apple once, a treat that4ingers had abstracted from a traveler=s luggage and shared with the whole crew. ?er mouth watered

and she reached for the nearest piece of fruit, an oval lavender globe with a thin skin stretched over

what looked like deliciously Euicy purple pulp.

8-t=s nice you get along with yer9your neighbors,8 she drawled, 8but - hear things ain=t9aren=t so



peaceful up in the hills.8

8The -ndigenous Territories in the mountain regions,8 Torston agreed, 8are smaller and more varied

than the nations of the coastal plain and also less easily, ah, persuaded of the virtues of mutual

cooperation.8

!aris nodded intelligently. 8+ou mean they=re still at war with each other all the time.8 he bit into thelavender fruit and her mouth filled with melting sweetness. "ut how did toppies keep the Euice off their

handsI

8That has been unfortunately true,8 Torston conceded, 8but it won=t last long9ohH8 ?e Eerked as if

somebody had kicked him under the table.

8+ou were saying, ?aar ?uybertsI8 !aris inFuired sweetly.

8- think my colleague meant to say that the Fuarrels of the more distant -ndigenous Territories really

have little effect on the "arents Trading ociety. After all, the bacteriomats can be grown only in the

sea caves along the coast9any child knows thatH8 6wendle toffelsen boomed.

8-n fact,8 Torston reEoined the conversation, 8Balentin is the only city on alapriya with any claim to adistinguished visitor=s interest. %ven our other enclaves are little more than laboratories set up to take

advantage of caves offering good =mat breeding facilities. All offplanet trade must necessarily comethrough our port here. o you will be able to satisfy yourself in no time that ?aar !ontoyasana=s

allegations are pure fabrication.8

8#h, - don=t know about that,8 !aris said, happy in finding a subEect she actually knew something

about. 8+ou gents may think nothin= comes through Balentin you don=t know about, but there=s ways and

ways of getting around any customs system. "ent inspectors, ship=s crew taking an unofficial back

door, masking proEectors that=ll make a sonic disruptor look like a lady=s depilatory kit . . .8

Torston and 6wendle e&changed glances.

8*#T on alapriya,8 $ledger van der <essels said forcefully into the momentary silence. 8+ou have

seen for yourself the e&treme care we take, even in our private homes here in Balentin, not to e&pose

the natives to prohibited technology.8

!aris glanced involuntarily at the short, slender, dark people who ceaselessly carried dishes, filledgoblets, replaced napkins, and mopped up minor spills all through the hall.

Torston=s face reddened and he launched on a confused e&planation of why the servants here were a

special case that didn=t really count as violation of the $rohibited Technology Act, an e&planation that

might have rambled on indefinitely if it hadn=t been broken off by a surprised gasp. !aris reckoned thatthis time, toffelsen had kicked him on the ankle bone. ?ard.

8)est easy, Torston. 6iplomat Bissi is welcome to study the clauses in our contract allowing e&emption

for a certain number of servants, so long as those servants are not allowed to work on any offworld

mechanical or electrical devices directly or observe their workings.88- wouldn=t dream of it,8 !aris said politely. 8-=m sure all is managed e&actly as it should be.8

8And very shortly, - trust, we will be able to satisfy you that this is true of everything about the "arentsTrading ociety=s dealings with alapriya,8 6wendle said. 8-=m sure you have no desire to prolong your

visit on this primitive backwater, dealing with the ramblings of some delusional fool who=s gone native

himself. *ot e&actly a career posting, eh, 6iplomat BissiI8

At least they were in agreement on that much. !aris couldn=t be out of here too soon to suit her. 8*otmeanin=9meaning any offense to alapriya,8 !aris said cheerfully around another mouthful of the



lavender fruit, 8but there are more pressing matters reFuiring my attention. As soon as we=ve settled our

business, - need to leave . . . on the first ship not passing through Tasman.8

6wendle toffelsen coughed, choked, and finally favored her with a fruity laugh. 8A fine Eest, 6iplomat

Bissi. ?ow would we all like to bypass Tasman and their e&tortionate passage tolls9although -suppose as a 6iplomat on )eerval business, you were not troubled with that particular semiofficial

piracyI8

8*o Eoke,8 !aris said. 8#kay by me if - never see that station again.8

8@nfortunately,8 Torston said, 8as the 6iplomat well knows, there is no interstellar traffic from

alapriya e&cept by way of Tasman. That is the only ingularity point which serves our system.8

8And a damned good thing those spaceway robbers have made of it, tooH8 put in $ledger van der<essels. !aris noticed that he was eating his fruit with a fork and a small, crescentshaped knife, in a

bowl that caught the overflowing sticky Euices. o that was how toppies handled the problem. #h well,

they could Eust decide that she was setting a new fashion. he had other things to worry about.

8*o e&it e&cept through Tasman,8 she repeated mechanically. A fragment of Euicy pulp was lodged inthe back of her mouthG she chewed and swallowed carefully. uddenly the fruit seemed to have no taste

at all. 8-9- knew that, of course.8 he actually had known it. Dohnivans had made his fortune offsmuggling to and from alapriyaG Dohnivans had killed the real Calandra Bissi to warn away what hethought was an intrusion into his monopoly of the Tasman smuggling business. "ut somehow, in all

this crowded day, !aris had not thought of what this singularity in the fabric of spacetime meant to her.

There was no escape from alapriya9not for her. Joing back through Tasman would be a death

sentence if Dohnivans had people watching for herG and he would be sure to hear about any shuttlemanifest with Calandra Bissi=s name on it.

And in the immediate future, then, no escape from the role of Calandra Bissi.

Chapter Si#

()ara on Kalapriya5orum van Bechten, )esident in @dara for the "arents Trading ociety, surveyed the "ashir=s waitingroom and unconsciously lifted his patrician nose slightly higher, as if avoiding a bad smell. *o matter

how many hours he spent in these antechambers, he would never get used to @daran taste9all these

vibrant, clashing red and orange silk pillows, glittering with embroidery in gold and silver thread, piled

any which way on wooden benches carved into tortuous curves and fantastic shapes. ?e had a strongsuspicion that some of the shapes represented human figures entwined in obscene embraces, but they

were so distorted and decorated by so many unnecessary curlicues that one really couldn=t tell. *ot forsure. *ot without getting down on hands and knees and getting a really close look.

<hich, would, of course, be far too undignified an activity for the @daran )esident9although he couldalmost swear the leg of that far bench was carved into the shape of an impossibly bu&om and wasp

waisted girl doing something very improper to a grinning elephantheaded being9but in any case, it

was too late now. The brocaded panels of the curtain before the door to the "ashir=s audience roomrippled and parted, and a small dark )ohini servant appeared and beckoned him silently to the inner

chamber.

This was even worse than the waiting room/ a shadowed place lit only by what light filtered in through



elaborately carved window screens, the air thick with the musky fragrances the "ashir fancied, and

completely lined with carpets and pillows, so that the )esident had no choice but to sit nativestyle with

legs crossed and his knees creaking in protest. A low table of beaten brass before him held several

empty cups and a tall pitcher.

The old man himself reclined comfortably on the long bedbench that crossed the far wall, half

smothered in pillows that his )ohini concubine was forever arranging and patting into place. ?e would

not dispense with the girl=s services even for the most private meetingG even his !inister for 5oyalty tothe tate had to put up with hati kneeling by the "ashir=s head, pillowing it on her generous breasts,flaunting her halfnaked charms behind some wholly inadeFuate tracery of gold net and embroidery.

5orum supposed it was safe enoughG the girl was wholly uneducated, too ignorant to understand the

import of political discussions, and she must, after all, owe her whole loyalty to the old man whosefavor had raised her from a palace scrubber to the high status of most favored concubine.

"esides, she had been residing in the palace long enough to know e&actly what the !inistry for 5oyalty

would do, in those dark cells deep within the mountain, to a girl foolish enough to repeat what she

heard in the "ashir=s audience chambers.

At least it was not necessary to greet the little whoreG official protocol said that she was invisible.

5orum made his way through the customary greetings to the "ashir, as elaborate as the dOcor, as falseas the gilded wood carved in the style of ancient metalwork, and was Eust drawing breath to inform the

"ashir of the latest disturbing communications from Balentin when the old man raised a clawlike handfor silence.

8Jeneral Nahin wishes to speak with you. <e will await his coming.8

8"ut my news is most urgentH8 5orum protested.

8All the more reason for my dear friend and trusted councillor to hear it with us. <e will drink together

while we wait.8

5orum tried to conceal his impatience behind the e&pected courtly mask of indifference while hatitilted the pitcher to fill two cups with madira and added a few drops to a third cup. As was polite, she

sipped from the nearly empty cup she had poured for herselfG this was supposed to demonstrate that the

madira had not been poisoned. *ot that it proved anythingG if the "ashir wanted to poison him, hecould easily have rubbed the inside of 5orum=s cup with any of half a doen deadly substances sold in

the baaars. -t was all ritual, and meaningless. hati=s bowed head and deferent movements were a

mockery of formal court behavior, made so by the full breasts and slender brown waist almost totally

e&posed beneath that gold net . . . 5orum reminded himself not to stareG officially, the girl wasn=t eventhere.

?e stared instead at the clear liFuid in his cup, wondering how little he could drink without being rude.

The nativedistilled madira was more powerful than "arents brandy, and 5orum suspected that the

herbs they used to flavor it were mild hallucinogens. %ven the fumes rising from the cup made him

slightly diy. And how long must they wait for old NahinI The "ashir=s dearest friend, fine, but theancient soldier was officially retired now that he was semiparalyed, and in 5orum=s opinion the

disease that had attacked Nahin=s legs had probably gone to his brain tooG the old fart saw conspiraciesand danger behind every curtain. And to wait on his convenience now, when they had a real problem,

was intolerableH

4inally the !inister %meritus=s entourage arrived/ first two tall, unsmiling )udhrani guards who

inspected the "ashir=s chamberG then the )ohini bearers staggering under the weight of Nahin=s special portable chairG then at long last, when that was set up, four more panting )ohini carried Nahin=s sedan

chair to the door of the audience chamber, lifted him from it, and settled him in the portable chair with



its e&tension to support his useless legs in comfort.

*othing could be said, of course, until all these servants withdrew. 5orum was amused to see that

$undarik Nahin appeared as an&ious as he was himself to be rid of these unnecessary earsG the old man

shooed them away while they were still patting at his cushions and arranging the brocaded wrap overhis legs. ?e took the cup of madira hati poured for him, drained it in one swallow and held it out for

more.

As soon as the curtain fell behind them, 5orum drew breath to speak9but the "ashir was before him.

8<ellI8 he demanded, but he spoke in alapriyan, and 5orum was shocked to see the ruler looking to

old Nahin, not to him, for news.

8The boy has been taken care of.8

8*ot98

86eadI *o. That seemed e&cessive, considering his parentage.8

8-n a manner of speaking,8 the "ashir interpolated drily.

8The late !inister BaEEadara was my good friend.8

8"ut young Chulayen98

8<as his beloved son, and entirely worthy of his father.8 Nahin said firmly. 8- know the boyG his heart is

loyal, and - can assure you he will give no further trouble.8

8?ow, thenI8

8?is wife and children stand hostage for his future discretion9or so he believes.8

8Bery well. "ut if that does not suffice98

84urther measures will be taken if necessary,8 $undarik Nahin replied. 8?e can always go the same way

as the outlander !ontoyasana.8

8Can you do that to your old friend=s . . . sonI8 -t seemed to 5orum that the emphasis on the last wordwas strangeG but then the whole language was strange. ?e was struggling to follow the Fuickvoicedinterchange and had no understanding of what they were talking about.

8$erhaps the matter should be turned over to the !inister for 5oyalty,8 the "ashir went on.

8The family is already in his hands. 5et me stand surety for the son=s behavior. - have more to lose than

any of us9if you have kept your promiseI8

8There has not been time to raise the matter.8 The "ashir sounded, so far as 5orum could Eudge fromthe swiftflowing cadences of the liFuid alapriyan tongue, shifty. "ut then, the "ashir was naturally a

shifty bastard, or he=d not occupy his throne for long.

*ow Nahin was looking e&pectantly toward 5orum, and the "ashir shifted back into Jalactic, which hespoke better than most natives9well, of course, most of them never learned the speech of theoutlanders at all, why should theyI "ut the "ashir had picked 5orum=s brains remorselessly until he

was nearly fluent, at least in the simplified trade version of the language. -t would not do to forget that

the man, insane megalomaniac though he might be, was an e&tremely intelligent insane megalomaniac.

8!y apologies, )esident. A small matter of internal security.8

8-f this =small matter= involves our mutual interests, - should be informed,8 5orum hinted. 86id - hearthe name of !ontoyasanaI8 *o need to admit having understood most of what they saidG he could

reasonably have picked out the one name so well known to him.



8This has nothing to do with him,8 Nahin said Fuickly. 8+ou know yourself that he is in no position to

give further trouble.8

5orum wondered whether he dared point out that he actually knew no such thing. Nahin had assured

him that !ontoyasana had been among the first group sent to the Thamboon caves. "ut he had notvisited the caves himself. -t was always possible that !ontoyasana had escaped, or that he had

persuaded the @darans it was too dangerous for them to perform the surgery on an outlander . . .

The "ashir sighed heavily and 5orum decided it was safer not to speak. 8A young man, what do you

call such troublemakers, =hot of head=I -n our language we say that they cast fire into the water. Thisone has been meddling where he should not. omeone has been careless. A formal decree appropriating

some caves in the former state of Thamboon to our use crossed the desk of an officious boy who knows

nothing and thinks it his duty to Fuestion everything. The stated reason for taking over the caves was

for saltpeter, which we should indeed reFuire in great Fuantity were it not for our private arrangement.8?is smile of complicity made 5orum feel as if he were wading through vats of oil. 8The boy saw fit to

protest loudly and far that the caves, which he has visited on pilgrimage, are not appropriate for mining

operations and that our decree will destroy a natural treasure. <orse, he has hinted at knowing the trueuse of the caves.8

8- do not believe that,8 $undarik Nahin said Fuickly in alapriyan. 8?e said only that it would only beworth industrialiing the caves if they contained something small and valuable. ?e said it almost in

Eest, not like one hinting at a secret. ?e knows nothing.8

8-f he knows nothing, then he will be discreet in the hope that his wife and children may yet be returnedto him,8 the "ashir pronounced. 8-f he continues to speak out, then he proves that he knows too much

98

8#r that he values honor over his personal wellbeing,8 Nahin interrupted. 8-n his family such a choice

is not unknown.8

The "ashir snorted. 8?e can hardly have inherited that madness from old BaEEadara.8

8-t might have been taught him.8

8-n either case,8 the "ashir said with a chopping gesture of one hand, 8if he speaks further, he must be

removed. entimentality cannot be allowed to endanger our proEect. There will never be a cure for you,

$undarik, if this boy brings all down about our ears.8

5orum started, then tried to look as if he were only studying the erotic embroideries on the wallhangings. The "ashir and his ministers did not know how much alapriyan he understoodG on general

principles he aimed to keep it that way. #nly, this was the first time that anyone on the @daran side had

hinted at wanting a share in the =mats themselves in addition to their usual payment. ?e could see allkinds of complications looming ahead9in addition to the one he had yet to inform the "ashir of.

As soon as the two @darans fell silent, 5orum spoke. 8Jracious lord, there is news from Balentin98

8-n due time, in due time,8 the "ashir said. 84irst let us discuss the matter of payment.8

8The delivery of last time was not satisfactoryI8 5orum inFuired sweetly. They all knew it had been

more than satisfactoryG otherwise Thamboon would hardly have been subdued so easily.

8AdeFuate to our purposes,8 the "ashir said with an airy wave of his hand, 8barely adeFuate. "ut wehave no complaints on that score. ?owever, it has been brought to our attention that there is some irony

in our sending all the produce of our caves to outlanders while those in our own land suffer from

ailments that could be readily cured.8 ?e looked pointedly at $undarik Nahin=s withered legs.

5orum=s heart sank. This demand had been bound to rise at some timeG it was his curst bad luck that



one of the @darans in most need of a =mat transplant was the "ashir=s oldest friend. "ut why did it have

to happen now, when they already had problems enoughI 8The proper application of the bacteriomats is

not simple,8 he said slowly. 8A neurosurgeon should oversee the opening of the skull and insertion of

the material. To bring such a skilled doctor from offplanet in secrecy will be difficult.8 And that was amaEor understatement.

8<e have surgeons,8 the "ashir said, 8with Fuite sufficient practice in head operations.8

$undarik Nahin looked Fueasy, and 5orum seied his chance. 8Ah, but would you entrust your dear

friend here to those who practice only upon the =disappeared=I8

8-t will not be necessary,8 the "ashir said. 8+ou yourself, )esident, have surgical training, have younotI *ot Eust any trainingG you worked with *unia ?irvonen. #ne of the pioneers of bacteriomat

treatment, - understand.8

5orum mentally called down skinrot, boils, and the black heaves upon whatever officious ociety

bureaucrat had decided that it would be a bright idea to send each )esident=s full curriculum vitae to theruler of the -ndigenous Territory where he served 8to show our good faith and cooperation.8 And for the

first time in his life he regretted the cleverness with which he=d managed to e&cise from the curriculum

vitae any mention of the fact that ?irvonen had thrown him out of 8her8 surgical program9damned

bitch, always picking on himH he=d even convinced his family that he would embarrass them all if hewas allowed to continue practicing. Dust because of a few natural, almost trivial errorsH The child would

probably have died anyway. -t was all *unia ?irvonen=s fault that he had been forced to give up the

wellpaid and comfortable life of a )eerval medic for e&ile to a remote "arentsian colony planet.hould he confess nowI *o, the "ashir would Eust think he was making e&cuses.

#n the other hand, e&cuses sounded like a really good idea, under the circumstances.

8That was . . . a long time ago,8 he said weakly. <hen it came to the point, he really could not bear to

go into the humiliating details. After all, he hadn=t e&actly flunked out of the program. ?e=d Eust beenthrown out. 8- would hardly trust my skills to operate on so valued a member of your inner council as

the !inister %meritus.8

The "ashir smiled. This time the image evoked was not oilyG 5orum felt as if he were looking at a field

of spear points. 8<e trust you absolutely, )esident. *ot only our continued cooperation, but your life,rest upon a successful outcome.8

6id the madman really intend to Eeopardie the entire, highly profitable operations of the Consortium to

do a favor for this one old manI 5orum looked at the smiling dark face before him, at the fi&ed stare of

the dilated eyes, and believed it. The man who had Eust casually agreed to sending a woman andchildren to certain death to prevent awkward Fuestions about Consortium affairs was willing to risk

ending those affairs entirely for the sake of his best friend. <ho was, incidentally, the man who=d

signed the order condemning those innocents.

#f course, if 5orum performed the insertion, there=d be no doctor from offplanet, much less risk to the

Consortium . . . but a totally unacceptable risk to 5orum himself. ?ow . . . the heliograph newsH!omentarily driven from his brain by this insane idea of the "ashir=s, now it came back to him as

salvation itself.

8- shall be honored to serve the "ashir,8 5orum said, 8as soon as this problem from Balentin is settled.@nfortunately, - shall have to travel to the coast to make sure that the woman does not imperil our

entire operation98

8<hat womanI8 the "ashir demanded, and 5orum smiled inwardly. At last he had the man=s attention.



8The 6iplomat from )eerval,8 he said slowly, 8who has been sent to enFuire into #rlando

!ontoyasana=s allegations of prohibited weapons technology use among certain of the -ndigenous

Tribal Territories.8 ?e paused to lend weight to his ne&t words. 8- have Eust been informed by

heliograph that she intends traveling upcountry in pursuit of her inFuiries.8 Another Eudicious pause.8To @dara.8

8$ahH8 The "ashir spat on a goldembroidered carpet and waved for hati to prepare him another cup

of madira. 8#ne woman, that is nothing.8

8A 6iplomat,8 5orum tried to e&plain, 8is more than Eust a woman. They have special capabilities98

The "ashir grinned. 8Any woman seems special, till you have had her. Then they are all the same.8 ?ecaressed the concubine who knelt by his side, though she could hardly have understood what he said in

Jalactic. 8<e will send our agents to stop this woman. "ut you are our )esident. +ou will remain here

and perform the insertion upon $undarik Nahin.8 ?e raised his voice. 8 2amundari(8

5orum heard a metallic clash behind him, at the door to the entrance chamber, and turned with anunhappy feeling. The two tall )udhrani guards were there, holding their long spears crossed to block

the doorway. 8+ou will, in fact, remain as our guest in the palace until the work is concluded,8 the

"ashir said cheerfully, and repeated his instructions in alapriyan for the benefit of the guards.

Chapter Se"en

'alentin on KalapriyaThe ball after the banFuet was intended to make the ladies of "arents and the younger people happy

while keeping the 6iplomat harmlessly entertained and giving the leaders of the "arents Trading

ociety a muchneeded rest. 6wendle toffelsen had personally seen to it that the first five days of the6iplomat=s visit were crammed from dawn to dusk with formal entertainments, speeches, and tours of

everything from a bacteriomat breeding cave to the processing hall where the =mats were prepared for

shipment offplanet. -t would kill him to keep up the pace he=d scheduled for the womanG beforemeeting her, he=d entertained some hope that it would also kill her, or at least e&haust her to the point

where she=d be happy to leave alapriya Eust to escape another round of speeches and tours.

?is first sight of her at the banFuet had destroyed that hope. he might have looked e&hausted and frail

on arrival at Balentin=s spaceport, but with a couple of hours to rest she had bounced back, bright andlively and looking hardly older than one of his own daughters. he had to be at least thirtyG 6iplomatic

chool training took years, not to mention learning to manage the biomechanical implants, and 6iplos

were not sent out alone to their first assignments. 6wendle had Eust forgotten how damned young thirty

could be. And how resilient. ?e seriously doubted they could e&haust the 6iplo without killingthemselves in the process.

*ow, of course, after the barbed hints she=d dropped over dinner, they had worse problems to worry

about. ?e summoned Torston and aspar into one of the curtained alcoves that lined the hall for awhispered consultation and outlined his fears. The woman had obviously studied ways of slipping

materials past the customs inspectorsG all right, that was reasonable enough given that her orders were

to investigate #rlando !ontoyasana=s allegations of prohibited technology being smuggled onto

alapriya. "ut that remark about the bacteriomat monopoly9H



8-t could have been an innocent observation,8 Torston suggested.

8*othing a 6iplo says is innocent,8 aspar said. As the only one of the three who=d actually

encountered a 6iplo before, he took the lead in this conversation despite being the youngest of the three

and the only one who wasn=t from a 4ounding 4amily. 8They=re trained to make provocative commentsthat will upset guilty people and cause them to betray themselves. And from the looks of you two, that=s

e&actly what happened. - do hope you didn=t spill soup all over yourselves when she said that.8

8Certainly notH8 Torston bristled. 8<e were eating krebsi at the timeH8

6wendle stifled a sigh and wondered, not for the first time, why he had been saddled with an officious

youngster and a doddering old fool as coconspirators. ?e knew why, of course. These two were notonly venal enough to enter enthusiastically into the Consortium he had created, they were in his power

by virtue of the background sheets he held on each of them. ?e=d thought himself very clever to ensure

that no one was invited to Eoin the Consortium but those who had some secret weakness he coulde&ploit.

8<e betrayed nothing,8 he said to aspar, 8but it=s clear the woman knows too much. he knows it=s a

twoway trade, she was teasing us with her knowledge of our involvement, and she is far too

conversant with the situation in the mountain Territories. And she=s announced her intention of going

wherever her inFuiries lead.8

8-f she goes into the hills, she might get involved in the tribal wars,8 Torston said hopefully. 8*ot our

fault if she dies there.8

8-t=s hard to kill 6iplos,8 aspar said gloomily, 8and what=s worse, it leads to investigations. <hat if

she survives, and sees some of the weapons the @darans are usingI8

8-f she gets as far as @dara,8 6wendle said, 8she might see a great deal worse than that.8

-n dismal silence, they watched the dancers. 6iplomat Bissi looked like a young girl without a care in

the worldG she was laughing now, getting the steps of the twining promenade hopelessly mi&ed up as

Jabrel %skelinen tried to lead her through them. The peachcolored panels of her borrowed

alapriyanstyle dress fluttered around her ankles, revealing tantaliing glimpses of lavenderunderpanels and slim legs. %ven that overserious prude %skelinen was laughing.

8-t=s deceptive,8 aspar said. 8he=s probably had youth treatments. 6on=t imagine that=s a girl you=re

looking at. Think of it as a snake. A highly trained snake.8

8"ut if killing her will only lead to more investigations, how can we stop herI8 Torston sounded closeto tears. 8All our fortunes, everything we=ve worked for, ruined because of this one woman poking her

nose in. - told you #rlando !ontoyasana shouldn=t be given an upcountry pass, - told you the man was

dangerous. *o, no, you said, 6wendle, you said he was a known conspiracy maniac and nobody ever

paid attention to him, everywhere he goes he fusses about native cultures being destroyed, even if hestumbles on something they=ll write it off as more of !ontoyasana=s particular paranoia. That=s what

you said. And now look what=s happenedH88!ontoyasana won=t be making any more complaints. And if the death of the 6iplo also brings about

the end of the investigation,8 aspar said, 8there=ll be no more Fuestions asked. <e can end the wholething now, tonight.8

8"ut howI8 6wendle asked involuntarily.

8%skelinen. +ou=ve no particular love for him, have youI8

8Another nuisance,8 6wendle shrugged, 8always wanting to be off upcountry, mi&ing too much with

the natives, but he=s military9he can be kept under control. All we have to do is persuade his colonel



that he shouldn=t be given another pass to leave the regiment. -=ll think up some good reason why -

really need him in Balentin.8

8"ut if he could be neutralied along with the 6iplo, you=d have no obEectionI8

8Jods, noH8 -t sounded too good to be true. -t probably was too good to be true.

8Then it=s very simple.8 aspar sounded unbearably smug, but 6wendle could put up with that in the

hope of hearing that smug voice pronounce his salvation. 8Torston, you will see that their departurefrom the ball is delayed until most of our people have been gone for some time, so that they will be

alone on the road back to ?ouse toffelsen. 6wendle, you need to arrange some large transfers of funds

into %skelinen=s accounts, and fiddle the accounting programs so that they are backdated over the lastseveral monthsG can you do thatI8

-t would be easy enough to arrange, using the same backdoor accesses to the accounts that 6wendle

already used to disguise the Consortium=s illicit profits. 8+es, but he=ll know98

8After tonight,8 aspar said coolly, 8he=ll know nothing. Tomorrow morning you will be shocked to

discover that Jabrel %skelinen killed the 6iplomat using a protech weapon, unfortunately Eust beforethe city security forces could stop him by more conventional means. They were, of course, forced to

kill him in selfdefense. ?is possession of the weapon and the sums transferred to his bank account willdemonstrate that he was the smuggler she came to investigate. <e will present the evidence to)eerval, together with Jabrel=s cache of prohibited weapons9-=m sorry, but we must sacrifice the

latest shipment to lend verisimilitude9e&plain that we are shocked and dismayed but that we acted

immediately to retrieve the weapons from their native possessors, and here they are, and here=s theguilty party, unfortunately dead, and here=s their precious 6iplo, also unfortunately dead, but she died

heroically in the line of duty. That wraps it all up nicelyG no need for any further investigation.8 ?e

smiled sweetly at his colleagues.

8?e=s a soldier, she=s a 6iplo, how are you going to take them outI8 6wendle demanded.

aspar=s smile brightened. 8<ith some of those protech weapons 5eutnant %skelinen has beensmuggling, obviously. -=ll catch them both in a tanglenet, which she won=t be e&pecting, and bubble

those pretty brains with a daer set for ma&imum neuronal disruption before she has time to pull any

dirty 6iplo tricks or bring out any secret weapons. e will have no defences against a tanglenet, so -=llhave plenty of time to put a sword through him. Then it=s only to disable the tangler, put the daer in his

hand, and congratulate the security men on their prompt action. They=ll be willing enough to take the

credit, and the evidence will be sufficient to prove that he=s the smuggler.8

8-f it works . . .8 6wendle said doubtfully.

8Trust me. -=ll see to it personally.8 aspar sketched a parody of a military salute. 8-=m off now9andyou=d best leave soon too, toffelsen. Those accounts need to be in place before morning.8

?is insouciant manner was maddening. 8 aar toffelsen to you, young manH8 6wendle snapped, 8and

-=ll see to the accounting in . . . in my own good time.88As you like, aar toffelsen,8 aspar said patiently, 8but remember that leaving the ball early will

ensure that you and your good lady9and your charming daughters9are home long before anydisturbances on the road tonight.8

8- suppose that leaves me to entertain the 6iplomat,8 Torston sighed with a longsuffering tone and a

longing look at the pretty ankles he could glimpse under the 6iplomat=s layered skirt panels.

8- think Jabrel %skelinen will do that Fuite adeFuately,8 6wendle said. 8Dust make sure they do notleave before the last valsa is played. !ake it a point of etiFuette9Balentin tradition, bad luck for the



guest of honor to leave before everyone else has had a chance to make their farewells.8 *ot a bad

8tradition,8 even if he had thought it up on the spur of the moment9and the best of it was that if old

Torston started boring on about it, everybody would accept his statement that it was an old 4ounding

4amilies tradition without Fuestion. ort of thing the old bore was always coming up with anyway.

*ow if he could Eust think of an eFually good e&cuse to get -vonna and the girls out of here, without

arousing the 6iplomat=s suspicionsH

K K K

As the older contingent of ociety members drifted away, there was plenty of space on the dance floor

for the younger ones to demonstrate the shifting patterns and changes of the paardansken for theirdistinguished visitor. 86iplomat Bissi8 was so involved in remembering the complicated seFuence of

right hand across, turn to your lefthand neighbor, skip back to the right and thread down the arches

that she scarcely noticed when her host and hostess made their farewells. #nly the loud complaints of4aundaree and aara at being dragged home so early caught her attention.

8-s it time to goI8 she asked Jabrel in an undertone, between stepchanges. 8hould we leave tooI8

8"y no means, young la9- mean, 6iplomat BissiH "y no meansH8 boomed an authoritative voice Eust

behind her. !aris turned, startled, to find one of the old guys from the banFuet table standing much tooclose to her9only, with an adroit move, Jabrel was somehow between them, and the old guy backedoff a few paces, still talking. omething about a longstanding Balentin tradition that absolutely

re-uired the guest of honor to remain until the end of the ballG !aris didn=t follow all the details and

didn=t much care. $aardansken were funG she wasn=t supposed to know the steps so she didn=t have to pretend to be an e&pert in something she was totally ignorant ofG and nobody in the gay young crowd

that surrounded her had the least desire to talk about bacteriomats, or tribal treaties, or prohibited

technology, or anything else she was supposed to know all about.

And Jabrel %skelinen, who didn=t know any better, was treating her like a toppie ladyG a strangelyinto&icating e&perience. This whole party was like living one of those holos she loved to watch

whenever Dohnivans could get themG not Fuite real, but much much better than any reality !aris had

ever known.

4ine by her if they kept dancing till dawn. ?ad to be easier to handle than whatever was ne&t on the"arents Trading ociety=s godscurst schedule.

-n fact it was well after moonset, if not Fuite dawn, when the band put aside the rapping sticks that

dictated the rhythm of the paardansken and picked up traditional viols and flugels for the last valsa.

+oung officers in goldbraided uniforms and ladies in sheer dresses spangled with glittering dots tookthe floor, one couple after another, spinning and swooping with a grace that took !aris=s breath away.

8- can=t do this,8 she protested when Jabrel took her hand. -t wasn=t like the paardansken, a bunch of

people skipping around each other and everybody laughing when you got the pattern wrong. This was

something else, magic, flying to music, something you couldn=t fake from having seen it on historical

drama holos.

8+ou can=t not do it,8 Jabrel informed her. 8Balentin tradition. Juest of honor must be the last one

dancing. And the last dance is always a valsa.8

!aris looked up at him suspiciously as he drew her into his arms, one hand firm on her back, the other

holding her own hand. 8<hy do - suspect you made that up Eust nowI8

8*ot all of it,8 Jabrel said. 8The last dance is always a valsa. Anyway, it=s easy. Anyone can valsa. Dustlisten to the beat9onetwothree, onetwothree, and here we go . . .8



8#kay,8 he said a moment later. 8+ou have to hear the beat and match your steps to it. #*%twothree,

#*%twothree . . .8

8#uch,8 was the ne&t thing he said, but !aris, biting her lip in concentration, hardly noticed.

8- think -=m getting itH8 she cried in delight.

8*o,8 Jabrel said through lips tight with pain, 8that was my left ankle you got.8

The room spun around them and !aris found herself going backward and forward and sideways underJabrel=s firm steering, and most of the time now her feet were landing on the floor instead of on

Jabrel=s toes, and . . .

8-t is like flying,8 she sighed happily as the music came to a halt.

8- hope you don=t crashland your flitters Fuite that often.8 Jabrel lifted one foot tenderly. 8- should

have worn cavalry boots.8

!aris grinned. 8erves you right for inventing traditionsH8

?e put one finger under her chin and gently tilted her head up. 86iplomat Bissi, do you know that youlook more like a seventeenyearold girl at her first dance than like a mature and e&perienced graduate

of the 6iplomatic choolI8

!aris froe for a moment. eventeen wasn=t a bad estimate of her actual age, assuming she=d been nine

or maybe ten when Dohnivans recruited her into his gang. <as Jabrel guessing9no. ?e couldnt haveguessed.

he pictured Calandra Bissi=s papers in her mind and tried to think herself back into the person who=d

earned those diplomas and commendations and had been to all those worlds the travel records showed.

?ow would 6iplomat Bissi respondI

8+ou flatter me, sir,8 she said with a polite smile. 8-=m nearly thirty, far past being able to pass for a girl.

"ut98 she laughed lightly 89this is my first dance. <e don=t dance on )eerval9not like this,

anyway. $erhaps that has misled you.8

8*early thirty,8 Jabrel repeated, while !aris repeated the mental arithmetic that had given herCalandra Bissi=s age. 8?ard to credit. -s there some magic about 6iplomatic chool, some secret youth

treatments that we provincials wouldn=t know aboutI8

8)umors of our special capabilities are greatly e&aggerated,8 !aris replied demurely. -f it needed youth

treatments to e&plain the disparity between her face and Calandra Bissi=s recorded age, there would be arumor about such treatments as soon as she could plant one with aara.

)umors could be Fuite useful.

They Eust might save her skin.

Jods knew what else would, given that she had no way off this world and out of this role e&cept

straight back into Dohnivans= hands.

Torston ?uyberts kept !aris and Jabrel by his side, making farewells to all the toppies of "arents,until they were the last to leave9that was, if you didn=t count the slender darkskinned servants Fuietly

fluttering around the hall and cleaning up the traces of the evening=s entertainment, the red puddles of

spilled punch and the twists of paper that had been somebody=s dance card, the garlands of wa&ywhite

flowers now beginning to turn brown at the edges, a torn and discarded strip of lace with a dirty boot print as mute evidence of what had happened to it. <hile they were waiting for the carriage to be

brought round, !aris looked back into the empty hall, automatically cataloging these details and



wondering why the room reminded her of the corridors on Thirty where Dohnivans= gang had hunted

down and killed the last survivors of @gly "enko=s band. And why she felt the same way she had

during that fight9tired to death, scared, and yet somehow e&hilarated by the fast action and the

into&icating scent of danger in the air. <ell, this evening had been a battle of sorts, only fought withwords and wits rather than with daers and tanglers.

And it was over now. <hat she had won, beyond another day=s survival in her imposture, !aris didn=t

knowG but at least she hadn=t lost . Time to rela& nowG there would be more battles to fight tomorrow.Torston ?uyberts=s carriage had taken him awayG there was only Jabrel by her side now, and she nolonger thought of him as an enemy. *ot somebody to be trusted with a secret that meant her survival,

no, but not someone who was out to trick her and trap her either.

he took a deep breath of the warm alapriyan night air, soft and damp with a hint of sea salt, and tried

to convince her overstrained nerves and hammering pulse that there was nothing, now, in the air but theoversweet scent of fading flowers.

8TiredI8 Jabrel asked.

8*ot in the least,8 !aris said. 86o you think we 6iplomats are such fragile flowers that we fade after

an evening=s entertainmentI8

8*o. "ut it has been a long day for your first one on alapriya.8

0eah, and youll never guess *ust how long and hard 9 ! hope( !aris=s thoughts went back to Tasman, tothe panicked girl standing in Calandra Bissi=s Fuarters and realiing, too late9 almost too late, she

corrected herself9that she had run Eust where Dohnivans wanted her.

To kill her.

?ad that really been only two watches9half a day, she corrected herselfG must think in dirtside termsnow9half a day agoI eemed more like half a lifetime.

!aybe it was. After all, she was a different person now.

"ut the feeling of that discovery, the panic and the sense that all around her were enemies, stayed with!aris even as Jabrel %skelinen handed her up into the carriage and they started out on the dark road

back to ?ouse toffelsen. <ell, and that made sense. These people were enemies of a sort, she arguedagainst the prickly feeling at the back of her neck. !aybe they didn=t know it, but that was only because

they didn=t know who she really was. They might make pretty speeches to Calandra Bissi, but they

would be no friends to a nameless thief and smuggler from Tasman.

And some of them didn=t seem to like Calandra Bissi all that much, either.

The feeling of danger was all around her, close and heavy like the overly warm night air and the strongsweet perfume of nightblooming flowers, and !aris couldn=t shut down, couldn=t keep from scanning

the darkness on either side of the road as if Dohnivans might spring out from the shadows.

The road itself wasn=t that bright, Eust a line of white dust between the shadowy groves and mudwalled buildings, lit by torches spaced too far apart to show anything but the bare outlines of the way thecarriage must go. !aris had learned long ago, in the disputed corridors of Tasman=s lowest levels, that

light and darkness themselves could be weaponsG cut the lights to a partition, and incoming fighters

with darkadEusted sight could make mincemeat of those within who were temporarily blinded by theloss of light. *ow she averted her eyes from each pair of flickering torches, watching instead the

shadows within the angles of Eoined buildings, looking for what didn=t belong even while some part of

her laughed at her senseless fears.

<hat didn=t belong was a glitter in darkness, a nearly invisible net of threadfine light, and its



movement was what caught her eye firstG the graceful arcs of death swooping out toward the carriage.

8JabrelH8 she shouted while diving out of the carriage and away from the tanglenet. he hit the dirt

with a boneEarring thump and rolled into a shadowed corner, not the one hiding the net. Dirts softer to

land on than plastisteel, and thank the gods those bo1es6on6wheels6dont move at any speed, come on,up, youre not hurt . . .

The roll ended at a pile of rubble that scraped her shins and banged against her ribs with Eagged edges.

$iled stones, mortar, leftovers from something that had been torn down and left for scavengers to pick,who caredI !aris came up to a crouch with a nice heavy sharpcornered rock in each hand and sawthat Jabrel was half entangled in the net.

"ut only half. <arned by her shout, he=d moved fast enough to keep one arm and shoulder free, and he

had drawn his sword. A lot of good thats going to do. The sickly pink sile of a daer beam set for

nerve disruption went through the tanglenet, but aimed at where she=d been sitting, not at Jabrel. Two seconds to recharge, if theyre using the old models 9 if theyve got the new ones, were fucked"

The daer had to have been one of the older models, because !aris had time to sling her first rock at a

shadow behind the pink flare. The dark shape yelped, went down on one knee and would have clapped

a hand over its bruised shoulder if there had been time, but there wasn=t because !aris was on him now

with the second rock in her upraised hand, grabbing his shoulder with her free hand and hammeringdown at where the head had to be and hearing a sickening soft kind of crunch. The man slumped, a soft

dead weight against her knees, and she stumbled backward. ?er hands were stickyG she dropped thestone she still held and tried to wipe her palms on the fine floating panels of her skirts. !diot, if theres

another one youve *ust handed yourself to him on a platter .

"ut there wasn=t another attackerG only the one shape dark and limp in the shadows, and Jabrel still

struggling with the tanglenet. At least the beasts pulling the carriage hadn=t taken fright and bolted,there was a mercy. !aris gritted her teeth and felt along the dead man=s body, found a small hard sFuare

shape, pressed down on the center where a button clicked and the lines of light entrapping Jabrel faded

away.

#ow the turagai wanted to runG they must have been caught in the tanglenet as well. Jabrel had hishands full with sword and reins, and for a few sweating, swearing moments it looked to !aris like a

tossup who was going to control the carriage=s movements, Jabrel or the thrashing, panicky beasts.

Then he Eerked their heads back, said a few words more Fuietly, and the turagai stood still, panting androlling their great eyes but apparently under control again. 4or the moment.

?e looped the reins over a post and Eumped from the carriage, seemed to stagger for a moment, then

limped toward her. 8Bery9commendably Fuick reactions, 6iplomat Bissi. !y superiors will find it a

most amusing story.8

84unny sense of humor they=ve got, then.8

8After all,8 Jabrel pointed out, 8 ! am supposed to be protecting you, not the other way round. Although

- see the rumors are this far true, 6iplomats need little protection.8 ?e leaned casually against the wall.Jod of !inor 4uckups preserve usH 6o - have to deal with wounded male pride on top of everything

elseI

8+ou prob=ly weren=t e&pecting modern weapons,8 !aris said.

8And you wereI - could wish you would have mentioned the possibility.8

8*ot e&actly. - Eust had this feelin= something wasn=t right. <hen somebody wants to make damned sureyou=re the last to leave a meeting, and you=ve got a long dark road to go . . .8 !aris shrugged. +ou didn=t



need a 6iplo=s implants to figure that out, Eust common senseG but saying so would hardly sooth

Jabrel=s bruised ego. 8+ou moved right fast there, getting your sword free, for somebody as wasn=t

e&pecting an attack.8

8And a lot of good it did,8 Jabrel said drily. 8Can you bring one of those torches over hereI8

?e pointed down the road to where the ne&t pair of inadeFuate torches flickered against the night. *aturally the attack had been staged midway between sets of torches, to give this guy the deepest

shadowG it was what !aris would have done herself, part of why she=d been hyperalert Eust there.

8- would go myself,8 he said apologetically when she didn=t move right away, 8but - am not totally sure

that my right leg will support me without the help of this e&cellent mud wall.8

8$insandneedles feelingI 4eels heavy when you try to move itI8

8omewhat of an understatement, but9yes, more or less.8

8*erve disruption backwash from the daer beam. !ust=ve Eust caught you in the outer glow. -t should

wear off in a few hours.8

86elighted to hear it. *ow, about the torch . . .8

8?ow comeI8

8- like to know who=s Eust tried to kill me. 6on=t youI8

8- don=t like knowin= people who are goin= to try and kill me.8 ! really must do something about my social life3 seems like thats the only kind of people ! do know. "ut she fetched the torch. -f she=d Eust

killed one of Dohnivans= people, she wanted to know whose ghost to appease.

The torch was easy enough to detach9Eust a bowl on a stick, basically, dropped into the top end of a

hollow pole short enough for even !aris to reach9but no fun at all to carry. he learned almostimmediately that you wanted to keep the bunu bowl balanced Eust so, or some of the hot oil that fueled

the burning wick dropped down your hand and arm.

8*ot a nice sight for a lady,8 Jabrel said apologetically when !aris came back, 8but anybody usingtangler nets and daers is more likely to be your acFuaintance than98 ?e took the torch from her,lowered it cautiously to shed light on their assailant=s ruined head, and took a sharp inward breath 89

mine,8 he finished in a curiously flat tone.

)elief flooded !aris. -t was somebody she knew, yes, but not one of her old gangG she would owe this

ghost no remembrances. 8- know him, too,8 she said. 8aspar somebody.8

8levinen,8 Jabrel said. 8aspar levinen. *ewcome from "arents, which could e&plain the weapons, but why smuggle them inI And damned close with some of the Jood #ld 4amilies, which - thought

strange before, seeing they mostly keep themselves to themselves, but aspar damned near lives in

Torston ?uyberts=s pocket . . .8

8That was the geeer who wanted to make sure we stayed till last,8 !aris said. he dropped to herknees, careless of the blood and dust on her borrowed finery, and picked up the slim daer lying by

aspar levinen=s limp hand. he thumbed the power button e&perimentally. A faint pink glow shone

out, then faded. 8Careless,8 she said with regret. 8?e=d let the charge run down. That=s why it didn=t doyou more damage.8 And we cant e1actly ask him where he kept the charger, now"

Jabrel nodded slowly. 8levinen, ?uyberts, and toffelsen. Always had their heads together in some

corner. And tonight . . . toffelsen left early, so that you were sure to be coming back alone with me.

?uyberts kept us there until all others had departed. levinen attacks us with protech weaponry. Andyou=re here to investigate #rlando !ontoyasana=s claim that somebody is corrupting the -ndigenous



Territories with prohibited technology. - do believe that someone doesn=t want you to make that

investigation.8

8-f there=s anythin= to it, of course they don=t want me pokin= my nose in,8 !aris said. 86on=t take a

nanotech designer to figure that much out.8

8"ut why nowI toffelsen was in charge of your schedule, and as your escort -=ve seen itG the man was planning to waste as much of your time as possible with receptions and banFuets and speeches and

tours. <hat happened tonight to make him change his mindI8

8?e decided death was better than sittin= through any more speeches,8 !aris suggested. 8pecially if it

was my death =stead o= his=n.8

Jabrel looked down his nose at her. 8This is hardly a time for levity.8

8<ell, it ain=t the best time and place for discussin= who wants to kill us, either,8 !aris pointed out.

84irst we need to get him out of sight, then let=s get us out of sight. +our leg workin= nowI8

Jabrel took an e&perimental step away from the wall and nodded. 84eels half dead still, but it=ll hold

me up.8

84ine, then you take his head9eh, shouldersI8 !aris corrected herself as she remembered the bloodyruin that was the back of aspar levinen=s head. he took the torch from Jabrel, Eammed the

supporting stick into a crevice of the low mud wall he=d been leaning against, and picked up levinen=s

heels. "etween them they got his body over the wall and let it fall heavily into the ditch on the otherside.

8Jet his daer and tangler,8 Jabrel suggested. 8<e might need them.8

86aer=s no good, it=s out of power.8 "ut the tangler might still prove useful.

84or evidence.8 Jabrel took the two small devices from !aris and tucked them into his sash.

8*ow whatI8

8<ell, - don=t think it would be healthy for you to go back to ?ouse toffelsen,8 Jabrel said. 8+ouleave anything there you can=t do withoutI8

8!y credentials.8 he hadn=t packed very well for a stint as 6iplomatG there was nothing else in hertraveling bag but Calandra=s fashionable clothes, unsuitable for this climate and illegal for this level of

technology. <hy hadn=t she taken weaponsI "ecause she hadn=t seen any. A Diplomat is a walking

weapon. That was rumor speaking, and a rumor she=d have a hard time living up to. Too bad levinen=sdaer was drained and she didn=t know where to recharge it. !aybe she could get the tangler away from

Jabrel.

8-=ll vouch for you. Come on, we=ve a lot to do. <e need to leave before dawn, before ?uyberts and

toffelsen find out their plan didn=t work.8

!aris dug her heels in, resisting the pull of Jabrel=s hand. 85eave for where, e&actlyI Think we can getoffplanet without them noticingI8 Jods, she hoped that wasn=t what he had in mindH #ffplanet meant

going back through Tasman. That wouldn=t be e&actly safe either, but she could hardly e&plain that

while Jabrel thought she was the 6iplo. "ut if that was their only way out, she=d have to tell him.%verything. Couldn=t let him walk into Dohnivans= hands without a clue what he was about to die for.

8#ffplanetI *o way. +ou=ve got a mission, rememberI - propose that we pursue it.8 Jabrel=s teeth

flashed white in the darkness. 8The climate of the ?ills is much healthier than these coastal lowlands.8



Chapter Eight

Re&er"al *iklaas was deep in level four hundred and twentytwo of Jeek 6ungeons when the nursing aidetapped on his shoulder, throwing his concentration off and blowing his ongoing attempt to write adecryption program that would enable the screen Eump spell before the 6ark *erd blew him away with

a disk wiper.

8!y apologies, ?aar ilvan,8 the aide said. 8A visitor.8

*iklaas closed the game with a tap of his right forefinger and smiled politely, as if he really didn=t care

that she=d Eust caused him to pay a threethousandpoint early escape penalty that would probably prevent him getting to the fivehundredth level before his seventeenth birthday. After all, it wasn=t like

he had a lot else to do in the three months to go before his birthday. #r after.

#r ever.

Then he saw who the visitor was and his smile became genuine. 8TomiH "ut what9how9I8

Tomi #ksanen was walking toward his bed. ?is gait was somewhat stiff and Eerky, but he wasdefinitely walking. *o floatchair, no visible supporters.

-t had been a strange friendship in the first placeG no one would have e&pected the teenage son of a high

4ederation officer to Eoin forces with the somewhat older black sheep of the #ksanen family, which

itself was something of a black sheep on )eerval9lots of money, even more unsavory rumors aboutwhere the money came from, and a family of bland, smiling towheads whose cherubic faces gave no

hint about which of the rumors might be true.

Tomi, though, hadn=t been much of a smiler even before the infamous party where some of )eerval=s

young society died from popping tainted Eoytoys, and he=d had a lot less to smile about after the party.The poison that an embittered #ksanen e&employee had laced the Eoytoys with hadn=t killed him, but it

had paralyed much of his nervous system and landed him in the same intensive care ward as *iklaas.

*ights that each of them spent listening to the other one struggling for breath, days punctuated by the

torture sessions called rehab therapy, and the shared despair of knowing that neither of them wouldever approach the top of the waiting list for =mat implants had forged a bond between these two most

unlikely of friends, a bond that had survived Tomi=s removal from the medical center for home care by

the phalan& of trained nurses and therapists the #ksanen family could hire for him. They=d still had netletters, and, once Tomi could get around in a floatchair, occasional visits. There=d been times when

only Tomi=s sardonic black humor had given *iklaas the will to face another day in the prison that his

body had become. As for Tomi, he claimed there were times when only the sight of *iklaas=s invincible

naivete and belief in fables like universal Eustice amused him enough to distract him from his owntroubles.

8!uscle stimulatorsI8 *iklaas guessed. 8"races under your pantsI8

Tomi grinned and pivoted, holding his arms out so that *iklaas could see that there was no place where

his skintight Eumpsuit showed the betraying bulge of a lock brace or a stim bo&. 8+ou know they saidthose wouldn=t work for anybody=d ttrashed his central nervous system the way - ddid, *ikiH8

The stutter was new, and would have worried *iklaas if the greater miracle of Tomi=s walking hadn=t

overwhelmed him. They did say it wasn=t good if new symptoms showed up months later, a sign that



the nerve damage was ongoing. "ut who cared, if the nerve repair was also happeningI

8?ow=d you get a =matI8 *iklaas whispered. ?e tapped his finger nervously on the bedspread until

Tomi drew up a chair with a Eerky scrape across the floor and plopped down beside him. 8- didn=t think

there was enough money to bribe your way to the top of the list.8

Tomi gave the seraphic smile that was an #ksanen family trademark, the innocent look that warnedolder acFuaintances of #ksanens to check their creds and keep a hand on their balls. 8*o bribery,

*iklaas. -t=s a new, e&perimental ttr . . . t . . . surgery,8 he finished, having given up on 8treatment.8

8- haven=t heard about anything like that.8 And he called up the med Eournal abstracts daily, looking for

some hope between the unavailable =mat transplants and the wishfulthinking world of the dreamerswho claimed yak milk and soy e&tract would cause natural nerve regeneration.

8-t=s not e&actly being written up in the literature.8

8#h. /ery e&perimental, then.8

8*o, Eust very e&pensive. Tt . . . Couple of words, *iki.8 Tomi lowered his voice and whispered,

8Cassilis Clinic.8

8<hereI8 -t was hopeless, of course. Anything that an #ksanen considered e&pensive was far beyondthe reach of a 4ederation official=s salary. "ut Eust in case . . . 8%here& ?ere on )eervalI8

8Castelnuovo $pr8

8Castelnuovo $rovince,8 *iki said before his friend could find a synonym.

Tomi=s head bobbed in that strange Eerking motion, like a chicken pecking for food. *iki didn=t

remember that happening before, either. <ell, stuttering and twitching might not be one=s idea of the

perfect life, but it beat the hell out of being stuck in a !ed Center ward working your way up to thefivehundredth level of Jeek 6ungeons or tapping the net screens with your one working finger to

browse the literature on nerve regeneration.

8And it doesn=t use =matsI8

8*obody on the list is losing a ppl . . . chance at a =mat bbecause of this,8 Tomi promised.

8+ou swear I8 *iklaas had been fighting his conscience ever since he regained consciousness andfigured out that his chances of a legitimate =mat implant were slim to none, what with new cases of

4ournier yndrome being diagnosed faster than =mats could be bred on alapriya. #kay, he=d tried a

dumb kid trick with his new roloprops, and that shouldn=t wreck his life . . . but neither should it wreckthe life of some guy who=d been born before the genescreens caught signs of 4ournier yndrome, and

who now faced paralysis in his twenties and death before he was thirty. %ven if !om=s connections in

the 4ederation could help her sneak him to the top of the list . . . and the chances of that also were slim

to none . . . he wasn=t getting his repair at the price of some other guy=s death sentence.

"ut seeing somebody else who=d had no hope of making the list, somebody who=d been worse off than

him and had done something even dumber, walking around like a halfway normal human being . . . to

see Tomi with a future, able to go places, maybe even able to have se1 some day . . . this was twisting

his conscience into a pretel. -t was one thing to pretend to accept your fate when there were other people in the same fi&. -t was a lot harder to keep up the pretense now.

80our family wouldn=t care whose place you took,8 he pointed out. 80ou don=t have to uphold the honor

of the 4ederation=s ecretary of -nternal -nformation.8 5ife had been a lot easier when !om was Eust

another supergeek, before the high Fuality of her technical work got her bumped up the ladder until shewas eligible for a 4ederation appointment where she didn=t hardly get to do any technical work at all.



The 4ederation appointment wasn=t a lot of fun for !om, either. he never said so9the ilvan motto

was 8erve with ?onor89but *iki knew she missed the freedom of geeking around in the 4ederation

nets and coming up with clever fi&es for problems nobody else had even discovered.

Tomi bobbed his head Eerkily. 8)ight, we wouldn=t care . . . but you would, rightI +ou and Annemari,you are like something out of a historical vid sometimes, all your notions about =honor= and =service.= o

while - was there, kid, - had some of our ppeople check it out. They say this clinic is ddefinitely not

sneaking =mats from any of the 4ederation medical centers. And they wouldn=t bother lying tto me,would they, because they know - wouldn=t mind one way or another.8

After Tomi=s departure *iklaas didn=t bother to reactivate the game. ?e put off calling his mother, too,

and told himself the reason was that he didn=t want to discuss this mysterious clinic in Castelnuovo

$rovince over a com channel to 4ederation officesG not secure enough. he visited him every day, it

could wait.

The real reason was that he didn=t want to know for sure Eust yet. ?e didn=t want to find out that the

Cassilis Clinic was a fake, or that Tomi had been lying when he hinted that they had another source for

=mats, or that they could never raise the credits on a 4ederation official=s salary. Dust for a little while, he

wanted to believe that he had a future.

The nurseaide who=d interrupted his game stopped by again after a little while.

8Are you feeling all right, ?aar ilvanI +ou haven=t started playing again, and you look a little

flushed.8 he put the back of her hand against his forehead. *iklaas started imagining what it would

feel like if she put it somewhere else on his body, assuming he could feel the touch, and immediately became a lot more flushed.

8-=m not sick,8 he assured her. 8Dust . . . thinking.8

8!ust be pleasant thoughts, for a change,8 she teased with a smile.

8- was thinking,8 *iklaas said slowly, 8of what life would be like if the only barrier to an active se& life

were persuading some girl to get active with me.8

The nurseaide=s smile froe in place. 8- shouldn=t think that would pose much of a problem for you,?aar ilvan,8 she said softly, brushing a lock of bronegold hair from his forehead as she removed her

hand. he turned away Fuickly and hoped he hadn=t seen the look in her eyes. $oor boy, he knew as

well as she did that he=d likely never face that particular problem. pontaneous nerve regeneration was

a better chance for him than getting to the top of the =mat waiting list.

he=d read about a case of spontaneous nerve regeneration.

#nce.

And it hadn=t been very well documented.

K K K

Annemari ilvan=s office had been designed to ma&imie the peaceful flow of spiritual and mental

energies, with the usual color and aura harmonier cooperating with a spirit specialist. The result was a

room perfectly suited to Annemari=s cool silvergilt beauty and sharply concentrated mind. The colorswere calm silvers and greys, conducive to concentration and with the added advantage that the fading

gold of her hair, the only color accent, seemed bright by contrast. The reflecting vid screens on desk

and walls were carefully angled so that the light, and any illmeaning spirits, bouncing off them would be trapped in the fountain of moving mirrors in one corner or the swaying crystal chimes hanging from

the ceiling in another corner. Tall silver bins with angled lids were intended to conceal any messy

stacks of papers from sight.



-t was a beautiful room for one person to sit in, alone and undisturbed, concentrating on high

intellectual problems.

Annemari reckoned that she had spent all of fifteen minutes doing that since taking office five years

ago.

And that had been on a unday morning, at (/00 a.m., when she slipped up to her office to kick hershoes off and rest her smile muscles after a particularly draining diplomatic receptionG and it had only

lasted fifteen minutes because one of her programmers had been working through the night, saw her

office lights and thought he=d found the perfect time for an informal chat with the boss about how shewanted the new info screen design to work.

*ow, in midweek, the subtle silvers and greys of the decorator=s scheme were drowned in a rising tide

of flimsies in 4ederation green, urgent notes in 4ederation orange, diplomatic disks sealed with

4ederation red, and computer printouts in recycled beige. Annemari felt rather recycled beige herself,as she tried simultaneously to cope with the usual demands of her Eob and to follow up three separate

lines of investigation into the blackmarket bacteriomats. ome of her official workload could be

delegated to her staffG so far she hadn=t dared let anybody e&cept Calandra know about the bacteriomat

investigation.

That might have to change soon, if she couldn=t reconcile the scanty but mutually incompatible bits ofinformation she had dragged off the data nets.

*iklaas=s conversation with Tomi #ksanen was the first lead she=d had since Calandra Bissi dropped out

of communication. @nfortunately, he=d thought it over by himself for several days before asking her ifshe knew anything about the Cassilis Clinic, and in those days it seemed that Tomi #ksanen had

disappeared. The #ksanen family was not known for divulging information readily, but usually it was

the financial data that they buried beneath layer upon layer of misleading documents and false trails to

none&istent banking corporations. Annemari was e&tremely good at working through financialdeceptions. ?er twenty years of programming e&perience stood her in good stead here. The #ksanens

and other upperclass financial criminals hired computoads and technonerds to conceal their dealingsG

Annemari had been a technonerd, and she could still think like one. he knew how all the maEor4ederation databases were designedG she=d designed some of them herself. he=d even written the code

for some parts herself. And the trapdoors she=d written for debugging purposes were e&tremely useful

when she wanted unrecorded access to databases that she had no official reason for looking at.

-f Tomi #ksanen had been, say, a credit transaction as part of a moneylaundering deal between the#ksanens and some more openly criminal family like the "oghaert clan, she=d have tracked him down

in no time at all.

Theoretically, a human being should leave far more traces in the system than a single credit transaction

and should be correspondingly easier to track down. "ut Annemari=s attempts to meet with Tomi#ksanen and ask him about the Cassilis Clinic had been met with the famous #ksanen blankwall

silence. TomiI #h, yes, one of the younger ones, they said casually, as if his playboy e&ploits hadn=t

been enlivening the gossip vids9and costing the #ksanen family9for years. -n the !ed CenterI +es,they had heard he=d been ill. 6idn=t Auntie !inna say something about his going to the outh Coast to

recuperateI #r maybe it had been the Balima !ountains. These young people, you know, always

flitting about. *o, his parents weren=t onplanet Eust now. Couldn=t say e&actly where they=d be,complicated itinerary, could have been changes. Come to think of it, didn=t somebody mention that

Tomi was going to stay with one of his lady friends, aarina or maybe it was risti or could have been

Chiara, dear me, forget my own name ne&t, that - will . . .

Annemari made the reFuisite polite noises and closed the vid channels. he hadn=t had much hope for



that line of inFuiryG she was no good at these games of conversational fencing, couldn=t keep her mind

on how to corner her opponent because it took all her energy to stop her screaming at them that they

were bloody liars. hould have put somebody from her staff on the Eob, someone like young DeppeG he

was good with people. %&cept she daren=t trust anybody else with these inFuiries, and anyway Deppewas busy smoothing ruffled feathers over in the legislative offices, where 5egist ovalainen claimed

the -nformation 6epartment was deliberately blocking his reFuest for a statistical analysis of all

4ederation employees sorted on si& different properties, four of which hadn=t been defined as data fieldswhen most of the employees were hired and processed, and three of which couldn=t be listed in the

database because they constituted illegal invasion of personal privacy. -t would be really, really nice if

Deppe managed to get ovalainen to understand the difference between 8won=t give you theinformation8 and 8don=t have it in the first place and aren=t legally empowered to get it8 without giving

him an e&cuse to complain that Annemari=s department was incompetent. !ore likely, though, the best

he=d be able to do would be to point ovalainen at some other department and get him to harass themfor a while.

!eanwhile, there was the ongoing credentials check on spaceport officials, the reFuest from ?ealth for

a program to map possible disease vectors related to the new plague on Dunya -B, and the Eob of

reconciling the data retrieval programs embodied in the -nformation 4reedom proEect with the data

concealment programs in the )ight to $ersonal $rivacy proEect. Annemari had delegated all those Eobsas best she could, but her best wasn=t good enoughG two of the three senior staff members entrusted with

the proEects had already reFuested meetings, and one of them wanted the meeting to include a

representative from the legislative office as the 4reedom and $rivacy acts, respectively, were selfcontradictory statutes already passed by the 5egists. 8Ask 5egist ovalainen to Eoin you,8 Annemari

suggested, 8- happen to know he=s very interested in information retrieval issues.8 There, that would

keep ovalainen busy, and now she could get Deppe back to work on something useful . . . like . . . likecompiling a statistical analysis of non4ederation medical clinics on )eerval, number of patients

treated, Fualifications of staff, whatever other details she could think of to bury the Fuestions she was

really interested in. <ith special attention to Castelnuovo $rovince.

he promised Bibeke a meeting that afternoon to discuss the ?ealth 6epartment reFuest, reassured

herself that Anders )uggiero seemed able to write and run a simple background and reference checkingreFuest without her active supervision, and asked Deppe for a full report on non4ederation clinics in

Castelnuovo $rovince.

8!ore " from the ?ealth 6epartmentI8 Deppe moaned.

8Could be a little more interesting than usual,8 Annemari said without committing herself on the sourceof the reFuest. 8<e want full staff lists and resumes, ta& data, lists of patients and what they were

treated for . . . and don=t worry about $rivacy Act restrictions on this one.8

8ovalainen will e&plode,8 Deppe predicted.

8ovalainen doesn=t need to be told about all our internal business. That=s why - want you on this,

DeppeG - need someone discreet. There are political considerations . . .8 Annemari let her voice trail off.8- don=t need to tell you about the possible complications here.8

Deppe nodded wisely, as if he actually had some idea what she was talking about. <hich was

convenient, because Annemari had no idea how she could Eustify this proEect if he asked. he=d been banking on the typical technonerd reluctance to admit there was anything at all he didn=t already know,

and apparently it had worked.

#nce Deppe left, Annemari scrawled Gone for the day on the back of a memo, closed and locked her

office door, and set her desk console to route all incoming calls other than Deppe=s to a message list. he



spared a moment=s envy for the characters in one of the oldfashioned romantic comedy vids she=d seen,

who had assistants called 8secretaries8 specifically to guard the door against visitors. -f she didn=t have

to practically hide out in her own office to get a little uninterrupted time, how much more work she

could doH

#f course, her work nowadays was to deal with the interruptions. *inety percent of her Eob wasn=t

technical at allG it was smoothing feathers and adEusting competing demands and setting priorities. And

when there was any real computer work to be done, she had to delegate it to one of her eager youngassistants.

"ut this couldn=t be delegated. !entally fle&ing her fingers, Annemari settled down happily to do a

little personal, private research on the Cassilis Clinic, so she=d have some background with which to

interpret Deppe=s results. The readily available public information was bland and virtually information

freeG with little effort she was able to pull up vids of a long, low white building set in a beautifullylandscaped park, short speeches from unidentified but impressivelooking men and women in white

coats, blurred views of what were probably the latest in monitors and other medical devices, and

testimonials from satisfied patients. 8- looked and felt ten years younger after a thorough workup at theCassilis Clinic,8 was the general tenor of the testimonials.

-t would be interesting to see what Deppe could add to this picture. o far, all she had was lots ofsurface pleasantness, no real data, and a general sense that the Cassilis Clinic was a cross between

elective beauty surgery and an overpriced health spa for the rich and bored.

4elt like an #ksanen family operation to her. <ould a list of employees prove enlighteningI

<hile she waited for Deppe=s results, Annemari checked the progress of the infospyder she=d activated

to track Tomi #ksanen=s credit usage, transit vouchers, and other traces he might have left in the net.

5ike the Cassilis Clinic public site, the results were interesting, but not informative. @p to four days

ago9the day of his visit to *iklaas9the program had turned up about what you=d e&pect from an#ksanen playboy. 5ots of credit chits from fashionable restaurants, a maEor fundsverified transaction

from a )eerval Eeweler. Annemari recognied the name. plashy stuff featuring really beautiful

Thyrkan rainbow crystals in really tacky gold settingsG Tomi must have a new girlfriend, and her tastewas about what one would e&pect from a girl willing to go out with an #ksanen.

The interesting part about that transaction was that Tomi had a girl and felt it worth splashing credits in

the form of showy Eewelry on her. The #ksanen men had a reputation for being generous with the

women they ran around with, but only for services received.

-f Tomi was in condition to receive any services at all from his new girl, the Cassilis Clinic had workedthe kind of miracle Annemari had thought only bacteriomats could perform.

*iklaas said Tomi had sworn that nobody on the list was losing a chance at a =mat transplant because of

Cassilis Clinic. "ut what was the word of an #ksanen worthI

The rest of the record was the usual9no public transit records, of course, but a handful of dangerous

flying notices, two summonses for failure to appear and answer charges of causing a flitter accident, thekind of fines that would have got the attention of anybody but an #ksanen, and a large credit transfer to

somebody Annemari had never heard of, who turned out to be the inEured party in the flitter accident.

<ho had also failed to appear at the second hearing, the day after the transfer, so the matter had beendropped. olved in the usual #ksanen family fashion/ throw enough money at it and it=ll go away.

The really interesting9and frustrating9thing was that there were no traces of Tomi #ksanen

anywhere in the net for the last four days. 4or some reason the #ksanens must have decided to keep his

recent activities private. Annemari tapped in a code that would open )eerval=s largest secure financial



systems database to her. This would show any of Tomi=s transactions that had been blocked from view.

*othing showed up.

Annemari trawled through )eerval=s offplanet transactions and discovered that some of her

colleagues were keeping surprisingly large credit accounts on Toussaint, a non4ederation world that

was a favorite for ta& evaders. "ut that was none of her business, so she ignored the information andasked for any transactions specific to the #ksanen family.

That brought up a flood of data, probably enough to keep 4ederation lawyers happily employed for

years picking holes in the #ksanen financial empire if only there were a legitimate way of sending the

information to them. Annemari narrowed the search to the last four days and to transactions involvingTomi #ksanen personally.

There were none.

*o credits, no flitter tickets, nothing.

#f course even an #ksanen had the power to drop off the net for a whileG anybody sufficiently rich and

discreet could achieve that by using only personal flitters and private landing ones, making notransactions, entering no controlled areas, staying onplanet. -t would not be trivially easy on )eerval,

where half the planet was made up of 4ederation offices and other controlled ones where proof ofidentity and time of entry were automatically recorded. "ut it was possible, even if not e&actly in the

notoriously flashy #ksanen style.

The really interesting thing was that this wasn=t the first blank in Tomi #ksanen=s records. ?e had

8disappeared,8 in the sense of leaving no traces in the system, for twenty days following his release

against medical recommendations from the !ed Center and into the care of #ksanen family

physicians.

Twenty days in the Cassilis ClinicI <ith no charges recorded9from what looked like a lu&ury spa and

plastic surgery clinicI

A chime from the deskvid announced that Deppe was sending preliminary results directly to her.

Annemari wished she had told him to sneakermail themG papers carried by hand left no record, etransmissions were not as secure. #h well, she=d asked for enough stuff to disguise her real interestsG it

took long enough to sort the mass of data and pick out the records relating to Cassilis Clinic.

Deppe hadn=t been able to get at a list of patients and treatmentsG an attached note indicated that he had

some ways around the Clinic=s security but wasn=t sure he could get in without setting off alerts. Jood Eudgment call, that. Annemari didn=t particularly want anyone at the Cassilis Clinic to worry about

being investigated9not yet, anyway. And she also didn=t want to tell Deppe or anybody else about the

e&tra bits of code she=d inserted into most 4ederation database systems as a programmer.

"ecause the ta& information was in public 4ederation databases, Deppe had been able to do a thorough Eob on that without breaking any regulations at all. Annemari would not have been surprised to find that

as far as the 4ederation knew nobody had drawn any income from the Cassilis Clinic9but no, thatwould have been obvious. The #ksanens were liars, cheats, and notorious ta& evaders, but they weren=t

obviousG that was what made it such a pleasure to pit her wits against theirs. Deppe=s spyder had neatlysorted ta&payers reporting income from the Cassilis Clinic by amount, so that the list began with

several blandly meaningless corporation names and ended with the pittances paid to daily scrubbers,

groundskeepers and other lowlevel employees.

-t was the ones in the highmiddle part of the list that interested Annemari. These would be the topsalaried employees, the surgeons and medtechs. 5ots of surgeons. +ou=d e&pect that. *o, lots of



surgeons, far more than it would take to staff the plastic surgery part of a clinic like that. Annemari

randomly highlighted about ten percent of the names and set the spyder=s parameters to pull up

resumesG any licensed clinic was obliged to file resumes for all technical and medical staff, so those

also had been available to Deppe. he read the results, frowning slightly, then reFuested full resumes oneverybody reporting income between9hmm, what did a 4ederation 5evel 4ive medtech get, P00,000

credits a yearI #kay, make it everybody between 00,000 and millionG that would pick up some top

techs and some of the smaller dummy corporations, but should cover everybody she was interested in.And that list was very interesting. Annemari skimmed through it once, deleted the obvious ande&pectable entries9well, okay, maybe not so obvious. he had had no idea a 8cosmetic consultant8

could get paid that much, but right now she didn=t have time to waste on the makeup people and the

personal trainers and the groomers and buffers. <ith those culled out, she studied the list of surgeonsand other specialists employed at the Cassilis Clinic with deep interest. The obvious cosmetic

specialties were well represented, but there was another group whose areas of e&pertise seemed at first

glance to have nothing to do with the clinic=s public goals.

Time to activate another kind of data search, the kind she wasn=t so good at. Annemari tapped herdeskvid and sent a note to *unia ?irvonen asking her to respond when she had time.

*unia was on vocal almost before Annemari took her fingertip off the screen. The top half of her face,the liFuid dark eyes and arching brows, showed over the spyder=s resume spreadsheet. 8AnniH <hat=s

upI +ou going to take up eating lunchI There=s this new place on the Concourse98

8<ow,8 Annemari said, caught off guard. 8- didn=t think you would be free right now.8

8-=m not,8 *unia said. 8crubbing for surgery, talking on voice control, thirty more seconds, slice and

dice some poor guy=s brain.8

8-mproving it in the process, - trust.8

8?oney, how could surgery not improve itI ?e=s a guy.8 *unia=s laugh was like warm honey flowing

down into a pool.

84ifteen seconds, now. -s that long enough for you to tell me if there=s any reason a general health spaand plastic surgery clinic should need neurosurgeonsI8

8#nly if they plan to botch up customers= facial nerves on a regular basis, and want to do the repairs in

house,8 *unia said crisply, 8in which case they shouldn=t be in business anyway. <ait a minute9you

said neurosurgeonsI $luralI8

Annemari nodded, then remembered *unia had said she was on vocals only. 8)ight. Three at least,

probably five9-=m not sure what some of these subspecialties mean.8

8That,8 *unia said with her usual assurance, 8makes no sense.8

8That depends,8 Annemari murmured to herself.

8*ow you have to meet me for lunch,8 *unia announced, 8and Tell All. - want the full story. Jaetano=son the Concourse, twelve sharp. -f you get there first, order us some bruschetta with lemongrass saucefor starters. ee you there.8

"efore lunchtime Annemari dealt Fuickly and competently with three more reFuests for various

statistical analyses, an attempt by the head of 6ata %ntry to steal her best two nerds, and a complaint

from 5egist ovalainen that the 8girl8 who=d asked him to Eoin the meeting on the -nformation and$rivacy Acts couldn=t e&plain anything. he also comforted Bibeke9 86on=t worry, nobody can e&plain

anything to ovalainenG he hasn=t the basic eFuipment for understanding it. - Eust wanted him off

Deppe=s back for the day, and now - owe you one. #kay, - owe you two. After lunchI8



<hile she handled data and personnel crises, the back of her head was turning over Tomi #ksanen=s

mysterious recovery and eFually mysterious disappearance, the glorified health spa in Castelnuovo

$rovince that kept three9or maybe five9highly paid neurosurgeons on permanent staff, and one

puling little bit of data the transitpermitssearch spyder had retrieved for her. omething she hadn=teven been looking for, but it was a smart spyder program and remembered she=d previously been

interested in this matter. $ut together, these three matters weren=t puling in the slightestG in fact,

Annemari sailed off to her lunch meeting with *unia feeling that she had probably figured out almosteverything she needed to know.

The one thing she hadn=t thought of was the risk of encountering %vert Cornelis on her way out of the

building.

8AnnemariH *othing wrong, - hopeI8 %vert looked toward the !ed Center.

8*o, no, -=m Eust going to lunch,8 she reassured him, and then realied she might have made a slightmistake.

8- have to see this,8 %vert announced. 8+ou never take time off for lunch. <hat=s lured you away from

the delights of a fruitpak at your desk while yelling at your staffI8

8- don=t yell at my staff,8 Annemari said.8*o, sorry, wrong word. +ou freee them with a glance, of course. "ut what inspired you to take a

breakI 5et me guess, you=re avoiding 5egist ovalainen.8

Annemari=s pace Fuickened. 8-s he looking for meI8

8-=d recommend a long lunch,8 %vert said obliFuely. 8<here are we goingI8

8-=m meeting 6r. ?irvonen,8 Annemari said. 8-t=s a business lunch. <e have 4ederation business to

discuss.8

8%&cellentH - love traditional -taloThai food.8

8?ow did you98

8now you were headed for Jaetano=sI8 %vert beamed. 8-t=s the only place on the Concourse that *unia considers serves decent food. he Eust doesn=t appreciate the subtler pleasures of 4ranco

!e&ican at "istro Tapatia. *o matter, -=ll take you there another day.8

8That would be lovely, %vert,8 Annemari said politely, 8-=ll look forward to seeing you then. *ow, if

you=ll e&cuse me, - don=t want to be late for this meeting with 6r. ?irvonen.8 -t was as close to a brushoff as ingrained civility would permit her to go.

8#h, -=m coming with you,8 %vert insisted. 8Told you - like -taloThai, and as it happens, -=ve some

business to discuss with you, too. That little matter you asked me about the other day, about your

=friend= on alapriyaI8

After looking at the information the transit spyder had turned up Annemari no longer felt an&ious aboutCalandra, but it would have been really rude to tell him so if he=d already gone to the trouble to contact

his Aunt anne. he resigned herself to listening while %vert told a long involved story with a

predictable ending, slowed her pace so that he could get the breath to tell his story in his preferredfashion, and wondered, while he nattered on, whether there was any way short of murder to shake him

off before she met *unia at Jaetano=s.

8 . . . so, like you told me, and perfectly right you were, m=dear, as always, anne was only too happy to

send me a long gossipy vid about all her social doings in Balentin. And - mean long H8 %vert shook hishead in wonder. 8Jods, how that woman can rattle on. *o idea where she gets it from. )est of m=family



can stick to the point and give you a straight answer to a simple Fuestion, but like my father always

said9or was it @ncle "aar9anyway, one of =em said, =Ask anne if it was raining when she came

inside and you=ll have to hear all about the damage the water spotting would=ve done to her pricey new

organic coverall if it had been raining, which is when you=ll learn it wasn=t.= 8 ?e paused. 8*ow wherewas -I8

8anne=s news from Balentin,8 Annemari prompted.

8#hH )ight. <ell, of course you didn=t want me to ask a simple Fuestion anyway, so it=s not her fault,

but - Eust wish you had listened to the vid instead of me, Annemari.8

8o do -,8 Annemari murmured against the protests of her better self.

4ortunately, %vert didn=t take the comment as she had meant it. ?e patted her shoulder. 8There, there,noble of you, but anne=s a family misfortune9- mean, member9and - wouldn=t really want to inflict

her conversation on anyone else. Anyway, first word out of her mouth was about some grand banFuet

and dance they=d planned on having for the visiting 6iplomat, so of course - thought -=d get to hear thenwhether Calandra had shown up or not, but no. +irst the woman has to tell me all about her new dress

for the ball, and - give you my word, Annemari, - didn=t know anybody could say that much about one

dress9specially on a restricted planet where they=re only allowed to use organics and native

manufacture. Then all the gossip and matchmaking before the ball, and after all that it turns out . . .8

8Calandra didn=t showI8

8<hy, noH8 %vert was startled into plain speech. 8That=s what -=ve been trying to tell you, Annemari.

Calandra was there and she=s perfectly all right. anne=s husband, $ledger, was seated at the head table

with her for the banFuet, and he seemed Fuite taken with her. o did the young man they assigned asher escort, according to anne. he said they were having altogether too much fun at the ball and

Calandra ain=t dignified enough by half for a 6iplomatic envoy.8

Annemari stopped in front of the green pavilion outside Jaetano=s. 8%vert, that=s impossible.8

8<hat, for a 6iplo to lighten upI @nlikely, maybe, but surely possible. - even have hopes of seeing you

let your hair down, Annemari. "een meaning to tell you, it=s high time you stopped spending every Doy5uck 4ortune night home with a glass of milk and an old holovid.8

Annemari devoutly hoped %vert didn=t know the title of the last holovid she=d rented, presently flashing

across the inside of her head in neonpink lettering with little hearts attached. *ot that there was

anything wrong with watching something called %ith All My eart . -t would Eust be . . . embarrassing.And after the unauthoried searches she=d recently pulled off, she couldn=t help thinking how easy it

would be for anyone who knew his way around 4ederation computer systems to bring up a list of the

last ten holos she=d rented.

"ut that somebody wouldn=t be %vert, who called Tech upport when the cleaners disconnected the power to his deskvid. ?e was guessing about her habits . . . more or less correctly.

@nfortunately, he interpreted the pause as permission to continue dissecting her personal life. #r lackof one.

8-t was one thing when aarle9when you were widowed and left alone with *iklaas to raise. - knowyou didn=t want to leave him in the creche anytime you weren=t working. "ut aarle=s been dead for

years now, Annemari, and *iklaas98

8till needs me,8 Annemari cut him off. 8*o, %vert, that=s not what - want to talk about. Are you sure

your aunt anne said she saw CalandraI8

8Dust told you so,8 said %vert. 8aid she danced all night. Calandra, - mean, not anne.8



8And e&actly when was the ballI8

8#n the fourteenth.8

Annemari frowned. 8- suppose that=s *ust possible. - should have checked the time on those transit

records.8

8+ou found records showing she was someplace else at the timeI8

8#r Eust after . . . -s Tasman on 4ederation timeI8

%vert shrugged. 86unno, but that=s easy enough to check. "ut -=ll trust a live person over a computerdatabase any day, and so should you, Annemari9 you know how easy it is to hack into those things. -f

somebody tried to fake a Eourney for Calandra to some other place, you need to be looking into who=d

want to do that, not Fuestioning my family=s eyewitness informationH8

8- would,8 said Annemari abstractedly, as she tried to figure out what this latest twist could mean,8e&cept it wasn=t Calandra Bissi=s travel plans - found.8

8Then what9how98

8Come inside and sit down, you twoH8 *unia ?irvonen swept up beside them, hugged Annemari and

pushed %vert toward the door. 8-=m starving. #rder first, then gossip.8

Jaetano=s might serve traditional -taloThai food, but the dOcor had been managed by a thoroughly

modern aura consultant, from the collage of antiFue coins over the door to attract wealth to the trailingred cords that dangled from beams to dissipate negative energies. The entire north wall was covered by

a screen of falling water dropping onto rounded stones, and the rounded lines of chairs and tables

supported a smooth flow of energy from the fountain through the entire room.

#ver the bruschetta con limone Annemari gave up on discretion and decided to tell everybodyeverything. -t didn=t take much decisionG *unia=s warm pressure was almost impossible to resist.

"esides, she didn=t want to wait until after lunch to e&plain to %vert why Calandra couldn=t have been at

the banFuet on alapriya.

4irst she had to fill *unia in on the background9the offer of a bacteriomat implant for *ikki from ananonymous source, her dispatching of Calandra Bissi to look into the possibility that somebody was

stealing bacteriomats from the "arents Trading ociety=s stock, her subseFuent loss of contact with

Calandra and reFuest that %vert check on her discreetly through his family contacts on alapriya. 8"utwhile - was waiting to hear from %vert,8 she e&plained, 8Eust this morning, in fact, one of my spyder

programs came up with transit records for Thecla $artheni, leaving Tasman the day after - lost contact

with Calandra, returning to )eerval that same day. #r . . . - need to check what time Tasman is onG itcould have been the eFuivalent of really late at night on alapriya, which would e&plain your aunt

seeing Calandra at the ball, %vert.8

"oth *unia and %vert looked blank.

85ook,8 Annemari said, 8this is really seriously classified information, and - never said anything, okayI"ut Thecla $artheni is one of Calandra=s spare identities. #bviously her cover was compromised andshe had to switch identities. Also obviously, she found some clue that sent her back here to )eerval.

And - would have thought, from the timing, that it all happened on Tasman. he couldn=t have been on

alapriya more than a few hours at most.8

8"ut she was there,8 %vert pointed out. 86amn it, Annemari, you=ve talked with the Tasman officer whoescorted Calandra to the alapriya shuttle, and -=ve Eust had a vid from m=aunt anne going on and on

about what Calandra wore to the ball in her honor. 6id your spyder show Calandra returning to

TasmanI *oI <ell then, most likely one of those Tasman thieves lifted Calandra=s spare -6 and used it



to get offstation.8

8The spare identities aren=t stealable,8 Annemari e&plained. 8*unia, you know how they=re done for

6iplos, can you e&plain to %vert why we know nobody stole the Thecla $artheni -6I8

8-t doesn=t e&ist,8 *unia said promptly. 8*ot physically, not outside Calandra=s brain. #ne of her

neurochip implants allows her to activate a signal that will cause 4ederation computers and any systemdrawing on their databases to recognie her retinal scans and 6*A as belonging to9what did you say

the alternate name was, AnnemariI8

8Thecla,8 Annemari said. 8Thecla $artheni. <e had to pick something that would be ethnically

compatible with her general physical appearance. Calandra=s small and darkG she might be able toconvince a computer her real name was something like atriEna van Alstyne, but no human being

would believe she was from "arents. #h, why am - going on about this, it doesn=t matterG the point is

that the retinal and 6*A scans confirm that Calandra left Tasman for )eerval as Thecla $artheni. And- havent found any records showing Thecla9or Calandra9returning from alapriya to Tasman.8

8That Eust means they=re misfiled,8 %vert said, 8because she was definitely in Balentin on alapriya the

evening of the fourteenth. And if you don=t believe me, -=ll drag you to my rooms and force you to

watch m=aunt anne going on and on about the damned ball.8

8- Eust might take you up on that,8 Annemari said absently. 86oes anne say anything about seeingCalandra after the ballI8

8*o, but she wouldn=t, would sheI8

8he might say something about the surprising early departure of the 6iplomat . . . %vert, could you

check with her again and find out if she knows what Calandra has been doing since the day of her

arrivalI8

%vert groaned.

8#r maybe you could ask somebody elseI8

%vert=s brow furrowed. 8-=ve got a young relative in the Juards . . . no, that=s no useG !oylen=s only aleutnant, he wouldn=t be in on high diplomatic doings. -t=ll have to be anne. "ut is it really necessaryI

- thought you had settled that she went back to Tasman.8

8!aybe. The timing=s funny. And . . . alapriya is technologyrestrictedG they wouldn=t be checking biodata the way the space stations and shuttles do. -t=s Eust barely possible that Calandra found out

something at the ball that made her return to Tasman at once, without reporting to me. "ut it=s also

possible that the shuttle taking this person from Tasman to alapriya didn=t run the passengers through proper security and -6 checks. An impersonator might be able to make herself up to look enough like

Calandra to fool some Tasman officer who=d only seen her once before, if that. And if somebody is

impersonating my 6iplomat on alapriya,8 Annemari said firmly, 8-=d really, really like to know aboutit.8

8Then look for Calandra and ask her. And why do you suppose she hasn=t checked in with you

alreadyI8

8$ossibly,8 Annemari said, 8for the same reason that she chose to use an alternate identity. $erhaps she

doesn=t want somebody to know that she=s a 6iplomat. -n which case she=d hardly be walking inthrough the front door of a 4ederation office building, would sheI8

8+ou know, Annemari,8 %vert murmured, 8your eyes go more grey than blue when you=re being

sarcastic. -t=s not becoming. <e both know there are plenty of ways your pet 6iplomat could reach you

without =walking in through the front door.= -f you really think Thecla $artheni is Calandra and that she



returned to )eerval four days ago, you ought to be worried sick. <hy aren=t youI8

8"ecause - have reason to think she=s following up the clue that brought her back here,8 Annemari

answered.

8?ow can you think that if you haven=t heard from herI8

8he left the )eerval main port by the Jaribaldi gate,8 Annemari said, looking at *unia rather than

%vert. 8!ost of the public transit from there runs south . . .88To Castelnuovo $rovince,8 *unia nodded. 85et me guess. That=s the location of the clinic you were

asking aboutI8

Then it was %vert=s turn to listen while Annemari described Tomi #ksanen=s mysterious recovery, the

visit to *iklaas in which he=d mentioned the Cassilis Clinic, and his subseFuent disappearance. 8#n the public nets it shows up as a combination health spa and plastic surgery clinic for the rich and beautiful

who want to stay that way,8 she concluded, 8but they=re paying a lot of surgeons, and they=re not all

reconstruction men. At least three neurosurgeons that - know of. !aybe more9*unia, what=s

stereotactic inEectionI8

8A techniFue used, among other things, for implanting neuronal cells,8 *unia said. 8-f they=ve got a

specialist in that on staff98

8Two,8 said Annemari with a brisk, satisfied nod.

8Then they=re doing something in the way of rebuilding neural networks,8 *unia said. 8And either it=s

something very complicated, or they=re doing a lot of it, because =mat insertion is actually a fairlysimple procedure.8

8)eallyI8 %vert asked. 8$ersonally, -=d as soon have as many highly paid surgeons as possible helping

out before anybody puts a hole in my skull for therapeutic purposes.8

*unia smiled slightly. 8+ou=re safe from =mat reconstruction, ?aar Cornelis. %ven now, we can=t repair

what was never there to begin with.8

8- do believe -=ve Eust been insulted,8 %vert said. ?e grinned at *unia and she returned his smile morewarmly than her words would have suggested. Annemari began to see a solution to one of her long

standing problems. *ot e&actly one of the most urgent ones, still . . . "ut the possibility of %vert and

*unia getting together was pleasant enough, and surprising enough, to divert her for a moment fromeverything else.

8Anyway,8 *unia said when she finally broke eye contact with %vert and dove into her pappardelle al

cinghale, 8cutting holes in the skull is hardly cuttingedge surgery. They=ve been doing it since the

tone Age to treat everything from epilepsy to osteomyelitis.8 he gestured largely with her fork.86ifference is, we know what we=re doing and why it works. They Eust drilled a hole and hoped it would

let the demons out.8

8<hereas modern surgeons,8 %vert said with e&Fuisite politeness, 8do Eust the opposite9drill a holeand poke a demon in. #r am - behind the timesI 6oes modern neuroscience have an e&planation fore&actly how the bacteriomats of alapriya work their wondersI8

8#ne point to you,8 *unia said without malice. 8*o, we don=t know e&actly how they work, and yes,

before you say it, surgeons of the fortyfirst century probably will look pityingly upon us poor

ignoramuses of the $lastic Age. <hat they do know is that they=re a maEor advance on primitive stemcell therapy. "ack in the twentyfirst century surgeons had found that stem cells inEected into an adult

brain would somehow figure out what kinds of cells were missing or damaged and grow themselves

into replacements. That took care of a lot of problems.8



8o what do alapriyan bacteriomats have over stem cellsI8

8#ne word. Structure(8 *unia Eabbed her fork at the plate and pushed her food around into an

undifferentiated mess. 8*obody ever did succeed in persuading stem cells to grow long enough a&ons

to repair severely damaged spinal cords. "ut biofilms, like the =mats, aren=t Eust one species but acollection of microbial species working together. o when you get a biofilm that likes to live in human

brains and nerves, it doesn=t need to grow single supercellsG it can create a whole community of linked,

cooperating cells to bridge the gap.8 he pushed individual bits of pasta into a line across her plate.8 And the =mats mimic whole structures in the brain, the way stem cells mimic individual cells9whichallows them to do repairs far beyond what was accomplished with stemcell therapy. "ottom line, your

chances of surviving demyeliniing infections, brain tumors, or latent 4ournier yndrome9not only

surviving, but walking away9are better than ever before.8

8#nly if you can get on the list,8 Annemari murmured, blinking rapidly.

8Jods. -=m a tactless idiot,8 *unia said, putting her fork down. 8Anni, can you forgive98

8Annemari, -=m so sorry98 %vert began.

Annemari managed a smile, and a moment later had command of her voice. 8?elp me check out the

Cassilis Clinic, and you=re both off the hook. #therwise, -=ll make you feel guilty and miserable forever.6ealI8

Chapter Nine

()ara on KalapriyaChulayen couldn=t remember how he=d reached the fortresslike building at the top of the mountain that

housed the !inistry for 5oyalty. ?e must have been running, because his throat burned for breath andhis chest was heaving and there was blackness swirling at the edges of his vision, but he could

remember nothing of the streets he must have passed through to get here, nor of what he=d been

shouting as he ran. The only things clear in his mind were the shattered, empty rooms he=d left behind

and the locked gate before him, and the guard who refused to pass him through.

86ung burnerH Jhay fodderH - am Chulayen BaEEadara, son of !inister BaEEadara, and - have urgent

business with the !inister for 5oyaltyH8

The turbanned man behind the gate, smart and secure in the bright red uniform of the !inistry for

5oyalty, scratched his nose and studied something on the guardhouse wall, beyond Chulayen=s line ofvision. 86on=t see no !inister BaradaEEa on this list.8

8BaEEadara, you halfwitH And of course you won=t see his name on the list. ?e=s deadH8

8<ell, then,8 the guard said with a sly grin, 8he won=t be issuing no orders to let you in, will heI8

8+ou must let me in. $lease. - must see the !inister for 5oyalty at once. -t=s98 Chulayen groped for

words. 8-t=s a matter of national security.8

The guard=s look of smug certainty faded Eust a little, giving Chulayen renewed hope. ?e felt in the

inner pocket of his sash and brought out a thousandtulai note. 8To show my appreciation of yourunderstandingI8



The man=s hand moved Fuickly to snatch the note through the bars of the gate, then slowly toward the

great keys hanging from his goldbraided sash. Chulayen babbled in his relief. 8o kind, yes, you

understand, - would not be so importunate, but there has been a terrible mistake, my Anusha and the

children, no reason to take them, no reason at all98

The guard=s hand stopped Eust short of the keys. 8The wife and kiddies, is itI8 ?is tone was kindly, but

the back of Chulayen=s neck prickled with unreasonable fear.

8-t=s all a mistake. - must see the !inister at once,8 he repeated, not knowing what else to say.

8That=s what they all say,8 the guard told him.

8AllI8

8The families. -f there are any left. -t=s always a mistake, no reason for the !inistry to take their peopleaway.8 The guard folded his hands over the gold sash and Chulayen=s heart sank. 8Jo home. The

!inistry for 5oyalty doesn=t make mistakes. "y rights - ought to call the Arm of the "ashir on you now,

for shouting treason in the street, but in view of your gen=rosity -=ll let you go this once. Jet along now,

FuickH There=s nothing you can do here.8

8*oH8 Chulayen grabbed the wroughtiron grille and shook it. ?e could feel the mortar crumbling

around the ends of the bars. 8*o, you don=t understand, it=s a mistakeH8

8!inistry for 5oyalty doesn=t make mistakes,8 the guard repeated.

86oesn=t make mistakesH8 a high mocking voice behind Chulayen repeated. 86oesn=t make mistakesH

5et=s hear it for the !inistryH8 A clod of dirt hit Chulayen on the shoulder, crumbled before it hit theground. ?e half turned and saw that the street behind him was full of onlookers, mostly lowclass street

sweepers and water carriers and servants, the scum of the )ohini slums downmountain. ?ow did they

come to be in this part of townI ?ad they followed himI ?e shook his head, disoriented, and a rain ofclods and small stones went past him. !ostly past him. They were trying to stone the !inistry, but their

aim wasn=t so goodG if he didn=t get out of the way something worse than a handful of dirt would hit him

soon, they were prying stones out of the rain gutters now.

85et me inH8 ?e shook the grille again. 8-=m not part of that mob. - have business with the !inisterH8

8tand aside,8 the guard warned. ?e whistled and more men in red uniforms with gold sashes pouredinto the courtyard behind him. They were armed only with oldfashioned muskets, but muskets were

enough at this range. The guard made a strange throwing motion with one handG it seemed as though a

net of light fell over the crowd. A moment later, the line of muskets came up, leveledG there was acrashing roar and Chulayen=s head e&ploded into darkness.

K K K

8?e should be told what happens to the =disappeared,= 8 onchai argued. 8As soon as he comes round.

-t=s not right, making him do our work under false pretenses.8

8*obody=s making him do anything,8 said !adee wearily. 8<e=ll tell him what he needs to know, andask for his help. That=s all.8 he drew the end of her shalin over her head and huddled within the thinfabric. The cellar was a cold, clammy place for an old woman with old bones to sitG even all the inEured

people lying on the floor or leaning against the damp walls couldn=t warm it up enough for her. he was

shaking with fatigue after an hour of working to stop bleeding, set bones in makeshift splints, givewhatever roughandready first aid she could to those inEured in the riot. The room smelled of blood

and madira/ every )ohini midwife knew to rinse her hands in the clear, rough hilldistilled liFuor, and

!adee had a superstitious belief that it was better than water for cleansing most wounds. After all, few)ohini mothers died of the childbed fever9far fewer than the )udhrani women who could afford the



best physicians with the strongest charms.

And most )ohini women learned what they could of healing, because )ohini didn=t go to one of the

"ashir=s 8public8 hospitals. %specially, !adee thought grimly, especially not )ohini who sported

suspiciouslooking inEuries after a riot in front of the !inistry for 5oyaltyG might as well walk up to theslightly damaged front grille of the !inistry and ask to be shot then and there.

-f you could be so lucky.

he=d even e&tracted a musket ball from the chest of a boy not much younger than Chulen . . . not that it

had done him much goodG he=d died coughing out blood. <ell, better dead in a $uvaathi cellar than

taken prisoner by the Arm of the "ashirG they all knew where those prisoners went. The legendary saint$uran "hagat, he who was thrown into a deep well after the wicked %mperor albahan cut off his

hands and feet, had had a better chance than the 8disappeared8 of @dara.

They knew, but Chulen didn=t. And !adee didn=t think it was necessary to tell him Eust yet. ?e would

have enough to assimilate as it was. ?e=d be no use to them9or to himself9if he couldn=t remain calmenough to play his part. "esides, there was nothing they could do for his woman and children9she

couldn=t do this if she thought of them by name9until the ne&t prison convoy left $uvaathi for the

brainfarms. <hether they could do anything then might well depend on whether Chulen was able to get

back into the good graces of the !inisters and what he could learn from his official position.

8?e=ll try harder if he knows there=s a chance of saving them,8 onchai argued as if he had read her

thoughts.

8?e may be too demoralied to try successfully if he knows what he=s trying to save them from,8

!adee said evenly.

86on=t you even care one way or anotherI Can you really think about it as if you=re moving pieces in agame of chaupurI They=re your98

8- know what they are,8 !adee cut him off. 8And - say we do not tell him yet. - have the right.8 he

stared at onchai until he dropped his eyes.

8+ou have the right,8 he conceded sulkily. 8"ut you are playing with dice made from the bones of thedead, !adee.8 %very child knew the story of how )usala played at chaupur with the allpowerful

"ashir arkap, and won back first his horse, then his armor, and finally his life.

8As )usala learned,8 !adee replied, 8such is the only way to win against the dice of the "ashir. And if

- am )usala in the story, what are youI The wise horse "haunr, who warned )usalaI #r the rat 6hol)aEa who upset the pieces whenever arkap was losingI8

A groan from the inner room came most opportunely. 8Jo and see if any of the other wounded need

water,8 she ordered him. Chulen=s eyelids were flutteringG it was time to tell him9as much as he must

know, for now.

8o many inEured to save one man from the Arm of the "ashir,8 onchai grumbled as he left. That wasonchai, forever arguing about something9if you shut him up about a future decision, he=d go back

and argue about a past one. uch a pretty boy he had been, with those full lips and long dark lashes, but

he had grown into a perpetually angry and discontented young man. "eauties9of either se&9didn=tage well, !adee had noticed. he herself had never been a beauty.

K K K

The first thing Chulayen knew for sure was that the back of his head hurt. A lot.

lowly his consciousness of other aches and pains returned, none of them much to compare with the



ongoing e&plosion behind his right ear. ?e was stiff, and cold, and lying on damp ground in a darkness

sprinkled with flickering lights. "ut not dead. <hen he saw the muskets pointing at him9

Then it came back to him in an unbearable rush, his attempt to get into the !inistry for 5oyalty, the

grille, the guard, the shattered empty rooms down the hill and everybody gone. This must be one ofthose prison rooms beneath the !inistry. 8AnushaI AnushaH8 ?e pushed himself up on one elbowG the

small flames swirled about him and became stars, falling stars, the earth turning under him and acid

bile coming up in his throat as his stomach also spun and swooped.

85ie still, Chulen, lie still.8 A damp rag wiped his mouth, a hand steadied his shoulder. 8+ou will besick if you try to sit up too fast.8

8+ou don=t understand,8 he whispered. 8Anusha9the childrenI8

8They are not here.8 -t was a woman=s voice, sad and caring. *ot what he would have e&pected to find

in a !inistry prisonG was it a trapI 86rink this, it will make you feel better.8

#bediently Chulayen sipped from the roughedged cup held to his lips. omething cold, a little bitter,

but it awakened a raging thirst he hadn=t been aware of. ?e tried to gulp down the rest, but the cup wastaken away and the hand supporting his shoulders lowered him back down.

8*ot too much at once, or you will be sick again.8

8*othing9to be sick with,8 he managed, remembering more of the long afternoon and evening he=d

spent going from office to office. <orrying about some distant crystal caves, while the Arm of the"ashir was taking away *eena and *eeta and the baby. 84ool,8 he said. 8- was a fool.8

8+ou should have taken one of my yai pao when they were hot,8 said the voice. #ne of the flickering

lamps came closer, and the face of the old pancake vendor swam out of the darkness.

8#ld motherH 6id they take you tooI <ere you thereI Tell them it was a mistake, you were not part of it

98

8The !inistry for 5oyalty does not make mistakes,8 mocked a voice in the darkness. Chulayen started,

then groaned as his head e&ploded in another shower of throbbing pains.8onchai, don=t tease the boy. ?e is confused,8 the old woman said sharply. he turned back to

Chulayen. 8-t is all right, Chulen9at least9this much is all rightG this is not a !inistry prison.8

8"ut - thought . . . <here are we, thenI8

8-t does not matter,8 the woman soothed him. 8<e are where the Arm of the "ashir will not look for us. *ow lie Fuiet, ChulenH <e cannot risk too much noise.8

8<e have risked too much already for this one, !adee,8 said the voice that had mocked him before. -ts

owner came nearer the lamp, and Chulayen saw a young man with full lips and a sulky look on his

face. The vending woman kept one hand on his shoulder, as if to urge him to lie still.

8-t=s true, onchai, but we would have done the same for you.88 ! would never have been such a fool as to challenge the !inistry for 5oyalty before their own gatesH8

8- hope not, but then you have the advantage of Chulen/ you know who and what you are.8

This whole e&change mystified Chulayen so that he was happy enough to lie still, eyes closed against

the flickering lights that still tended to whirl in diying patterns if he tried to concentrate. o he was

not a prisoner of the !inistry for 5oyalty. That was good, probably. "ut it meant he had no chance offinding Anusha and the children in this place. 8- have to leave,8 he told the old woman.



8*ot yet,8 she said sharply.

8-=m well enough.8 ?e had to be, for the children, for any chance of saving the children.

8+ou don=t know enough. <e have to e&plain98 he sighed, settled back on her heels and pushed the

folds of the faded, threadbare shalin away from her face. 8- don=t even know where to begin. Chulen,

what do you remember of your childhoodI8

8Are you holding me prisoner because of my parentsI -t won=t do you any good. They are dead. Theycan=t pay you any ransom9and - doubt their friends would, either. *ot now,8 he said bitterly,

remembering the bland, vague responses he=d had all day, and the crushing blow that had ended it. 8-

am not e&actly in favor with the "ashir=s present ministers. #r didn=t you understand why - was at the!inistry for 5oyaltyI8

8#h, yes,8 she said. 8<e understood. That was why we were there too.8

Chulayen tried to laugh. 8<hat, a bunch of ragged )ohini came to save my AnushaI8

8To save you,8 she said, 8because you are one of us.8

Chulayen shook his head. A mistakeG the pain woke and sank claws into the back of his skull. 8- don=t

know what you mean.88#h, yes, you do,8 she said urgently. 8+ou were not so young when your parents were taken, you mustremember something.8

8- don=t know what you are talking about. !y father died two years sinceG he was ill with the winter

fever, nobody took him anywhere. And my mother has been dead for some years.8 ?e sat up in his

agitation. "etterG his head still hurt, but the diiness was receding.

8BaEEadara, the !inister for Trade, died two winters ago,8 the old woman agreed. 8"ut Chulen, do youremember nothing of your first yearsI "efore you played in the BaEEadara gardensI8

<isps of dreams and nightmares floated through his muy brain. 8There was a woman, a )ohini

woman, who sang to me at night,8 he said at last. A dim memory of indescribable warmth and comfort,

a sense of safety he=d never known since, that he sometimes returned to in dreams. 8A nurseI8

8+our mother , Chulen.8

8"ut9she was )ohiniH8

8o are you. +our mother and father were brave people, Chulen, the bravest. They spoke out against the

"ashir=s growing power when @dara was still a small state, when the people still had a voice in the

council9 all the people, not Eust the highborn )udhrani9and they were taken by the !inistry for5oyalty when you were not four years old.8

8"ut my father, my mother98 Chulayen struggled for words to describe the parents he had been taught

to honor above all else. 8They never spoke of this. <hy should - believe youI8

8The !inister for Trade and his wife had prayed for years for a son,8 !adee told him. 8+ou were tooyoung to have a part in what they called your parents= treason, and in those days the !inistry for5oyalty had not learned what profitable use it could make of prisoners. After your true parents were

taken away, !inister BaEEadara=s wife asked for you.8

8*oH !y mother7 8

8<as unanda Talap, a brave )ohini woman who died in a !inistry prison, Chulen.8 There were tearsin !adee=s eyes.



8<hy would !inister BaEEadara agree to raise a )ohini boy as his own sonI8

8-t is said that he loved his wife very much. And her heart yearned for a child.8

That much, at least, Chulayen knew was true.

8Those among the "ashir=s servants who knew of your origins agreed not to speak of them. ?e said that

he would raise you as )udhrani and that you would uphold the high principles of his people.8

8-f no one spoke of it,8 Chulayen cried, 8how do you know so muchI8

8unanda was my daughter,8 !adee said. he stopped, struggling with her tears.

8Then why did you not raise meI8

8-diotH8 onchai snarled. 86o you know so little of what goes on beneath those fine buildings of your)udhrani friendsI -f anyone had known !adee was unanda=s mother, she would have been taken and

killed also. @sually the children of the =disappeared= are left to starve on the street. he waited for you,

she prayed, she feared you had been killed with your parents . . . and she asked. BaEEadara had )ohiniservants, and they talk to other )ohini.8

8- have known for years where you were, grandson,8 !adee took up the tale again with forced calm.

8"ut what could - doI 6o you think that a )ohini pancake vendor could go to !inister BaEEadara andsay, =That boy you are calling yours is my grandson, give him back=I <e watched over you, we saw youwere growing up safe and healthy, they were good to you.8

8They9were9my parents.8

8And did you never wonder why you did not grow tall like the !inister, why your skin is so much

darker than his and his wife=sI 6id no one ever say anything that made you doubt your position, even

for a momentI8

8*oH -98 Chulayen fell silent, remembering when his marriage with Anusha had been arranged. ?e

had not been overeager to marry the tall, plain )udhrani girl with her outspoken manner, but his mother

had been so pleased by the alliance. 8A girl of good )udhrani blood, that=s the most important thing,8

she had said over and over, and once, 8especially for you, Chulayen.8 "ut she would not e&plain why itwas so much more important for him than for any of his schoolmates to marry into an unblemished

)udhrani lineage, and when pressed, she=d denied she had said any such thing, claimed he must have

misunderstood her.

And there=d been other things, nothing blatant, nothing he couldn=t ignore at the time. #dd looks andcomments from his father=s friends/ 8o this is ChulayenH <ell, well, he does seem to be growing up to

be a proper BaEEadara,8 as if this were mildly surprising. Teasing from his schoolmates about his skin

that tanned so dark when he played games in the brief mountain summer, teasing that was cut off promptly by the teachers9he had thought they were protecting him because he was a BaEEadaraG

perhaps, he thought now, they had been protecting him against the knowledge that he wasnt a

BaEEadara.<asn=t even )udhrani.

?e put the pain of that thought away for now. -t would be impolite to acknowledge before this poor)ohini woman9he still could not, would not think of her as his grandmother9how shamed he felt at

the idea that he might be a )ohini. #ne of the class that all educated people agreed was only fit for

service, not for leadership. *o )udhrani gentleman was ever discourteous. ?e might not be )udhrani, but he could still be a gentleman.

"esides, he might need the help of these people if he was ever to rescue Anusha and the children.



8At first they took unanda and $ra, left you in the empty rooms. <e meant to get you after nightfall,

but they came back for you first.8 !adee rocked back and forth, drawing the end of the shalin over her

face and chanting as if to herself. 8Thora thora, beta, tun disin, aur bahoti disi dhur3 )urt *inan de tur

chale, aur mawan chikna chur"8 -t was part of the ong of )usala, the mother=s lament for her son=sdeparture/ 8The mother whose son goes away becomes as dust.8

They left you in the empty rooms. Chulayen=s recurring nightmare came back to him with such force

that for a moment he thought himself dreaming indeed/ an empty house, doors and window shuttersshattered by rifle butts, empty rooms greeting him with the memory of screams. -t had not beenforeknowledge, then, but memory. *ow he saw that in the nightmare he was looking up at high

windows, at bloody smears on the walls above his head. A child=s view. And the thin high wailing voice

that accompanied the dream was his own crying.

8?ow did they dieI8

!adee wrapped the shalin tightly around herself, shrinking down into herself, becoming a cloth

covered bundle.

86on=t ask,8 onchai said harshly. 8*o one taken by the Arm of the "ashir dies well.8

8!y childrenH8 Terror lanced through Chulayen. Caught up in !adee=s story, he had for a moment beenable to forget the fear that had paralyed his brain ever since he came home to that broken house.8They=re not deadI <hy would they kill babiesI <hy take babiesI8 A wild thought struck him and he

cackled with hysterical laughter. 85et me guess, another of the "ashir=s ?igh !inisters has a barren

wife who is Eust dying to take on a half)ohini baby boy and a pair of hellion twin girls.8 -t was betterthan believing them dead already. -f they had been 8adopted8 he might still be able to get them back.

And Anusha . . . ?e had never loved Anusha properly. ?e had treated her with the deference a )udhrani

gentleman owed to his wife, he had given the proper gifts on the births of the twins and far more

e&travagant gifts when she bore his son, Bashi, but he had always felt that she looked down on him andresented their marriage. !aybe she did9maybe even she had known the secret that had been kept, it

seemed, from him alone. !aybe her parents had forced her to agree to this marriage with arguments

that still hurt her/ 8<hat do you e&pect, you who are too tall, too bony, too loudI ?ave old mothers been knocking at our door with flattering offersI ?e may be )ohini, but no one knows about it, and thefamily is good. +our younger sisters are settled, it=s time you were married while anybody will still

have you.8 #h yes, he could imagine how they would have dealt with Anusha to drive her, stiff and

resentful, to the marriage canopy. Two strangers marrying to satisfy their familiesG no wonder they=dnever become true companions, small wonder that she=d turned in her loneliness to the cray creed of

the -nner 5ight <ay. All that would change, Chulayen vowed, if9no, when 9he got her and the

children back.

8#h, the Arm of the "ashir doesn=t kill prisoners anymore,8 onchai said. 8That would be wasteful.They=ll be kept until the ne&t convoy goes out.8

8Joes whereI88<e might be able to free them when the convoy goes,8 !adee said without answering his Fuestion.

8-t=s hard to find out when they leaveG usually at night, always without warning. <e had someone in the

!inistry who could let us know when e&tra travel rations for prisoners were ordered, that always meanta convoy leaving soon, but - think they found out about him.8

8Then what can we doI8

8*ot very much,8 !adee admitted. 8<e=ve saved a few, helped them to slip away from the convoys by

night, but not enoughG most of the =disappeared= go straight to the . . .8



8To the caves,8 onchai said harshly.

8CavesI8 !aybe they were using prisoners to mine the saltpeter from places like the Durgan Caves.

!aybe that was why nobody had seemed to care how hard it was to carry the stuff backG the obEect was

punishment, not profits. Chulayen was thinking furiously. 8They must give them long sentences, elsesome would come back and there=d be more talk about the caves here in the city.8

8*o one comes back,8 onchai said.

8%verI urely there must be an occasional escape98

onchai=s laugh was harsh. 8The !inistry for 5oyalty does not leave its prisoners in condition to

escape.8

8"ut you get some free before they ever reach the caves.8

8ome.8 onchai stared at him with a challenging look. 8<e could do more if we had more help on theinside. There=s only so much that sweepers and bearers and personal servants can pick up. And in case

it has escaped your attention, there are not a great many )ohini in the civil service.8

8+ou could help us, Chulayen, if you would,8 !adee said Fuietly. 8<e meant all along to ask for your

help, one day.88+ou picked a good day for it,8 Chulayen said. 8-=m hardly in a position to refuse now, am -I8

!adee plucked at the folds of her shalin with nervous fingers. 8<e did not e&pect this. <e thought thatsome day - would come to you, would e&plain9but you seemed so perfectly )udhrani, so content, so

sure of your life, there was never a good time. <e did not intend to put this pressure on you, Chulayen,

- swear itH <ould - put my own grandson=s children at riskI8

8?ow do ! know what you would doI #nly tell me how - can help them now.8 <hether these )ohinihad planned the disaster that had consumed his family, or were merely taking advantage of it, made no

difference nowG they were his only hope.

Chapter Ten

Dhara%pal on Kalapriya-ndukanta Dagat was in a foul temper by the time he was admitted to the audience chambers in

6harampal, but he knew better than to show his anger at being kept waiting too openly. -nstead he

bowed deeply and praised the Bakil=s evenhandedness and independence and e&pressed his certainty

that the "arents )esident in 6harampal would have been admitted no sooner than the representative of@dara.

8- fear you have been misinformed,8 said +adleen. 8@nlike @dara, the independent state of 6harampalhas accepted no resident representative of the "arents Trading ociety. o the issue of eFual treatment

does not really arise9does itI +ou are here. The outlanders are not.8

And anybody who took that as an e&pression that +adleen favored @dara over the foreign trading

company was . . . doing e&actly what the Bakil wanted, no doubt.

The Bakil of 6harampal was a slender young man, not yet thirty, whose slight build and cleanshaven

face deceived many into thinking him a mere boy who would do whatever his senior counsellorsadvised. Dagat was not such a foolG this 8boy8 had maintained 6harampal=s perilous neutrality between



the growing powers of the "arents Trading ociety and the "ashirate of @dara for the five long and

difficult years since his accession to the throne, with half his council leaning toward "arents and the

other half toward @dara. -t had not been an easy balance to maintainG and though Dagat intended to

make it considerably more difficult, if not impossible, for 6harampal to remain neutral, he had agrudging respect for the Bakil for having pulled it off this long.

8-f they are not here yet, they will be soon,8 Dagat countered.

+adleen=s calm e&pression did not change. 84orgive me,8 he asked in dulcet tones, 8but has the honored

envoy from @dara been favored with news that has escaped the Bakil of 6harampalI - was not awarethat - had accepted a "arents Trading ociety )esident. #r does the ociety now send its armies against

a peaceful state that has given them no cause for offenseI8

-ndukanta Dagat folded his hands before him and bowed his head like a mourner at a state funeral.

$rivately he thought the pose deliciously apt/ this meeting was indeed the first stage of the funeral of astate. 6harampal could no longer maintain its neutrality, not with @dara at its northern border. 8The

ways of the Trading ociety are well known, Bakil. 4irst they establish the e&cuse, then come the

armies. Traveling toward 6harampal now are two agents of the ociety. They will find some e&cuse to

claim insult in your treatment of themG the armies will follow.8

84oreknowledge of the future is no doubt an e&cellent gift,8 said the Bakil tranFuilly, 8but one whichthe gods have not seen fit to grant me. #ur relations with the "arents Trading ociety are peaceful, and

Jabrel %skelinen has proven himself sympathetic to our position. ?e shall be received as an honored

guestG what happens thereafter is in the lap of the gods. And - think our country might be rather difficultfor the outlander armies.8

Dagat endeavoured to keep his face from showing alarm. -f the Bakil knew that %skelinen was one of

the approaching envoys, what else did he know of them9or of their missionI The "ashir=s instructions

as to what he was to tell the Bakil were Fuite clear. They did not cover the eventuality that +adleenmight know he was lying.

8+oung %skelinen in himself would be no problem,8 Dagat finally replied, 8but the woman he escorts

will not be so easy to deal with. 6oes the Bakil know of the DiplomataiI8 ?e used the outlander word but gave it a alapriyan plural, and was pleased to see a slight frown appear on +adleen=s smooth tancountenance.

8-s this another race of startraveling beingsI8

8Almost, Bakil,8 Dagat replied. 8Almost another race, indeed. These Diplomatai begin life as human as

you or -, but they are selected young and given special training and magical powers which render themas difficult to overpower as a dEinn of the air. They speak all languages fluently, carry maps in their

heads, can render an armed man helpless with their secret fighting magic, and conceal on their persons

offworld weapons more terrible than any you have seen. -ndeed, they had better have been called

*agai, serpentpeopleH They are customarily sent into places the outlanders have found difficult to

conFuer by normal meansG their mission is to stir up trouble, weaken the state, and prepare the way foroutlander armies.8 The description of the 6iplos came from the "arents )esident in @daraG the

e&planation of the mission was Dagat=s own invention. -n any case, the Bakil could hardly prove he waslying. ?e might know of the travelers= movements, but who could speak for their intentionsI

8hockingH8 +adleen said. ?is voice was tranFuil as ever, but Dagat could see one lean broned hand

tensing and rela&ing, very slightly. Jood9the Bakil was at least troubled by his arguments. ?e could

build on that. 8And is this how the "arents Trading ociety obtained the "ashir=s permission to install a)esident in @daraI !y friend, you have my condolences. - had no idea that the "ashir was so

frightened of outlander armies that have yet to reach 6harampal, let alone @dara.8



8@dara=s situation is Fuite different,8 Dagat said. 8<e have . . . mutually beneficial relations with the

"arents Trading ociety.8

8A friendly arrangement, in fact.8

8Dust so.8

8+et you doubt that their relations with 6harampal would be eFually . . . friendlyI8

8These Diplomatai,8 Dagat said, 8are Fuite a different breed from the men of the "arents ociety. <hydo they send one to you, if not to foment distrust and discordI8 Jods take the boyH ?e was arguing the

matter as if it were no more than a pule in statecraft from some dead history . . . and Dagat was losing

the argumentH ?e had to find some way to touch +adleen=s emotions again, to make fear of the

unknown overpower this cool logic. 8!y lord, the "ashir has always felt good will toward 6harampal,8he began feeling his way toward another approach.

8As he felt good will toward Thamboon and *arumalarI8

-f +adleen e&pected Dagat to be discomposed by this reference to the two formerly independent states

most recently absorbed into the "ashirate of @dara, he misunderstood his man. 8%&actly so,8 Dagatreplied. 8The "ashir was gravely distressed by the internal instability of those states, which forced him

to take over their rule lest his own lands be threatened. - am certain he would be no less distressedshould his friend the Bakil of 6harampal allow troublemakers to travel freely through his territory.8

8-n short, you offer me a choice9offend the "arents Trading ociety, or offend the "ashir.8 +adleen=sright hand clenched on the carved armrest of his throne.

Dagat bowed. After a moment=s respectful silence he ventured an apposite proverb from the times of the

%mpire. 8 =!y neighbor is at my right hand, and the %mperor is far away as the summer skies.= 8

8+ou mean,8 +adleen said drily, 8that the "ashir=s armies are at my border9now that Thamboon is no

longer independent9and the Trading ociety . . .8

8As your !aEesty said, this land might be rather difficult for their armies.8 Dagat bowed again.

8A certain number of refugees from Thamboon came to 6harampal,8 +adleen said. 8They had wildtales to tell of sorcery in the "ashir=s armies, magical nets of light that entangled men and left them

helpless to the swords of their enemies, silent demons that killed invisibly. "ut then, men will always

e&aggerate the powers of those who conFuer them, will they notI - have read that in the time of the%mpire, ignorant people ascribed the %mperor=s knowledge of the land to secret spies in the form of

birds, rather than to the e&cellent system of roads and couriers which the %mpire created as it grew.8

8-t would be impossible,8 Dagat said sincerely, 8to underestimate the resources available to my master.8

Jranted, the Consortium had not approved the conFuest of 6harampalG having no limestone caves, itwas not seen as a profitable area for the Consortium=s business. "ut98!y neighbor is at my right

hand, and the %mperor is as far away as the summer skies.8 ?aving supplied the "ashir=s armies with

their sorcerous weapons, the Consortium could hardly dictate from distant Balentin the use to whichthey were put.

+adleen drummed his fingers on the armrest. 8The visitors will be detained and Fuestioned as to their

purposes,8 he said at last, 8but if we determine that they mean no harm, then we cannot in conscience

harm themG they will be set free, even as %mperor 6hatacharya set free the rebel soldier %shana whenhe swore fealty, and %shana became 6hatacharya=s most trusted man. ?istory teaches us that we cannot

build trust by treachery, nor loyalty by deceit.8

The boy=s conscience, Dagat thought, was what would destroy him. ?is tutor had given him too many

ancient histories of the %mpire to read, with their men in white gowns making noble speeches in white



walled palaces. ?e should rather have been sent out for a year or two of rough living with the

tribesmen, to hear the bloodred songs of this century=s feuds and tragedies and to bloody his own

hands in a minor border skirmish or two.

8!y master the "ashir will no doubt be overEoyed to hear your decision,8 Dagat said with a low bow. 8-fit pleases the Bakil, this humble one begs the privilege of remaining until the outlanders are brought in

for Fuestioning, that he may better understand their motives. -t may well be that we in @dara are grown

too suspicious of strangersG the "ashir would be only to happy to have your reassurance that these twomean no harm to our lands.8 And once +adleen had the outlanders detained, Dagat would find it easyenough to make certain that they did not survive to trouble the "ashir.

K K K

'alentin on Kalapriya

After the assassination attempt that night, Jabrel thought their best course was to leave immediately.

Clearly somebody in Balentin9somebody in the ociety, not Eust a nativeH9didn=t want a 6iplomat

investigating upcountry. <hich made it seem more likely that there was some truth in #rlando

!ontoyasana=s allegations, or at the very least, something that should be investigated and stopped.trictly speaking, Jabrel should have consulted his superior officers in the ociety=s private army

before setting forth on this e&pedition. "ut what if they were part of the group trying to stop Calandra=s

inFuiryI -t seemed better to leave as Fuickly as they could, and without mentioning the fact to anybodyofficial in Balentin.

Anuman, the alapriyan merchant who=d outfitted Jabrel for previous upcountry treks, was a friend as

well as a traderG he was goodnatured about being awakened in the middle of the night and almost as

amiable about accepting Jabrel=s chit in payment for food, traveling clothes, and other supplies. #fcourse, he increased the cost of everything by at least fifty percentG that was understood as the price of

being in a hurry, and no doubt contributed to Anuman=s amiability.

Jabrel=s best friend in the regiment, 5eutnant !oylen Cornelis, was not Fuite so pleased about havinghis Fuarters invaded in the dark hours before dawn. "ut after a few Eibes about the unusual dutiesinvolved in being the assigned escort of a 6iplo, and a few remarks about the possible rewards thereof

9which, couched as they were in "arents slang, Jabrel devoutly hoped 6iplomat Bissi had not

understood9he emptied his purse for them willingly enough and even volunteered the services of hisgroom for the first part of the Eourney.

8!oylen, you=re too good,8 Jabrel protested.

8*ot in the least, dear fellow. *aturally you=ll take my spare mounts as far as you can ride, and -=ll want

anouk to bring them back. And you=ll need gold to pay for a couple of ghaya to carry your things into

the hills. - don=t want you being tempted to sell my racing string to some hillcountry Bakil of two

villages and a farm in trade for his pack animals.8!oylen Cornelis was #ld Trader 4amily on both sides and could well afford to keep a string of racing

turagai and otherwise live in the style befitting an #ld 4amily scionG his monthly pay as 5eutnant in the

ociety army wouldn=t have paid his mess bill for a week. o Jabrel, whose father=s military pensionhad to cover not only family e&penses but also the education of his three younger brothers, was able to

accept his friend=s generosity without too great a struggle with his own pride and conscience.

8"esides,8 !oylen had added as the clinching argument, 8if anouk=s with you, he can=t gossip about

this in the baaar. +our departure will remain a mystery for at least four more days.8



8?ow did you know - wanted it kept secretI8 Jabrel demanded, suddenly feeling suspicious even of

!oylen. aspar levinen9whose body would be discovered tomorrow9had been close to ?aars

?uyberts and toffelsen. <hatever was going on, at least those two of the #ld Trader 4amilies were

involved in it. <as ?ouse Cornelis also part of the plotI

!oylen gave him a mocking smile. 86ear boy, officers planning to travel upcountry on legitimate

missions don=t take off in the middle of the night with a pretty girl in tow.8

86iplomat Bissi,8 Jabrel said stiffly, 8and she=s not e&actly a girl.8

!oylen cocked an eye at Calandra, who was tactfully standing a few feet away and pretending

deafness while studying the maps tacked to !oylen=s sittingroom wall. he hadn=t had time to changeinto the anonymous traveling clothes provided by AnumanG the borrowed ball dress, with its gauy

panels of peach and lavender dampened by sweat, clung to and emphasied the lines of her slender

figure. ?er hair was a mass of black curls, also damp with sweat and making a frame of ringlets arounda delicate oval face. 8*oI "ut hardly a doddering old lady yet, wouldn=t you sayI Also, official

missions don=t begin with somebody half strangling my groom and scratching at my bedchamber door.

- don=t know what you=re up to, Jabrel, and something tells me - don=t want to know, but9be careful,

will youI The regiment would be damned dull without you.8

-n the event, it had hardly been worthwhile borrowing !oylen=s turagaiG Calandra had never ridden before. At the end of the first day Jabrel had had to lift her from the saddle, and she=d managed only a

few steps before her legs failed her and he had to carry her the rest of the way to their rooms in the

Baisee village where he=d planned to stop for the first night.

8<hy didn=t you tell me you couldn=t rideI8 he scolded her.

8<hy didn=t you tell me it was so bunu hardI Anyway, -=m learning. -=ll do better tomorrow.8

8+ou will not,8 Jabrel contradicted her, and walked out to make other arrangements.

elling one of the turagai to a )ohini caravan leader provided enough e&tra money to pay both their

passages on a boat going up the broad reaches of the BaiseeEara as far as it was navigable, and left a

little over for anouk to remain in the village a few days before returning to his master with theremaining two beasts. Jabrel hoped anouk=s reluctance to tell !oylen that one of his pried racing

turagai had been sold after all would keep him in the village until his money ran outG he hoped !oylen

would understand the necessity and forgive him when they returnedG come to think of it, he hoped theywould return. ?e=d traveled upcountry before, but always as an officer of the "arents Trading ociety=s

army, with all the might and support of "arents behind him. *ow he was traveling as one half of a

young, anonymous offworld couple with an ine&plicable curiosity to sample alapriyan life outside thecoastal enclaves. The difference was evident in the attitude of the innkeeper, who=d wanted payment in

advance at three times the going rateG Jabrel had to waste time haggling with the man, demonstrating

his fluent alapriyan and his intimate knowledge of both lodging rates and alapriyan curses, to get

the price down to a mere one and a half times what a native would pay. The other purchases he made in

the local market before returning to Calandra reFuired a similarly protracted spell of bargainingGchaffering was alapriya=s unofficial planetary sport, and if a alapriyan #lympics were ever

organied, the herbalist in the market could have chaffered for Baisee.

8?ere,8 he said on his return, tossing the herbalist=s round leather bo& at Calandra, 8put this on your9 um9where it=s sore.8 ?e unstopped the stiff leather bag that had been his other purchase and took a

drink of the contents to cover his embarrassment. The local madira burned like fire going down his

throatG he was out of practice. 8That salve will numb you up and help the skin heal over, and you=ll havetime to heal in the ne&t few daysG we=re leaving the turagai here and taking a boat up the BaiseeEara.8



8All the way to whatsit96arampleI8

86harampal,8 Jabrel corrected, wondering what incompetent slob had created the alapriyan maps in

the 6iplomat=s download. 8And not all the way, naturally, the river=s unnavigable once we reach the

foothills. "ut you can=t take turagai into the mountains. <e=ll have to buy a couple of ghaya to carry our packs, and we=ll walk.8

8All right by me,8 declared Calandra cheerfully, but her grin faded when she tried to stand up. 8@m9-

think - might need some help . . .8

-t turned out that Calandra needed help not only to get from the rug she=d collapsed on to her narrow

bed, but also to get the herbalist=s salve on all the places that were sore, some of them being Fuite hardto reach in her present stiffened condition. Jabrel told himself that he should have thought of that and

hired a girl from the marketplace to aid Calandra, then told himself that he=d have been an idiot to do

any such thing. -t was hard enough for a couple of outlanders to travel inconspicuously outside thecoastal enclaves without setting any e&tra mouths chattering, and there was no impropriety in helping

out a fellow traveler in difficulties. Then he concentrated on thinking of his fellow traveler as 6iplomat

Bissi rather than as the laughing girl he=d danced with the previous night. -t took some strenuous

thinking about other things to keep his reactions under control while he smoothed the salve onto the

backs of her thighs. %very once in a while he stopped and took a drink from the leather sack of madira,not so much because he needed it as for an e&cuse to take his hands off the 6iplo before they wandered

where they shouldn=t. 6iplos probably had e&tremely effective ways of warding off unwantedattentions . . . And doing sums in his head wasn=t enough distraction. ?e would have to find something

else to recite . . . but the only poem he could think of offhand was the ballad of )usala=s adventures

with the seven daughters of ing 6eath. #ot a good choiceG )usala had had entirely too much fun withthose girls despite their unfortunate parentage.

8+ou don=t have to curse,8 !aris said, her voice slightly muffled by the pillow she was biting.

8- wasn=t cursing.8 Jabrel drew a blanket over the slender, girlish form and stood up, wiping little

droplets of sweat from his brow. 8- was9um9reviewing alapriyan grammar. !shticlass verbs. -n the

past subEunctive.884ind you get a lot of use for the past subEunctive, do youI8 The 6iplo had stopped chewing on the pillow and was propped up on her elbows, regarding him with a bird=s bright inFuisitive glance from

under her mop of black curls.

8%asy for you to sneer,8 Jabrel said, finding a heavensent evasion for Eust why he=d felt it necessary to

chant ishticlass verb conEugations for the last ten minutes, 8but us ordinary citiens don=t get wholelanguages downloaded into special chips in our heads. <e have to learn them the oldfashioned way, by

repetition and sweat.8

!aris flopped back onto her pillow, facedown. 8Those language chips aren=t as great as everybody

assumes,8 she said through the red and black embroidered pillow cover. 8<e don=t come out, like,

talking the language fluently or anythin=.88#h. !ore like a running start on learning the languageI8

!aris sputtered into the woolen pillow cover. 8#h, yes. +ou could definitely say - got a running start.8

he shook with suppressed laughter.

8*ow what=s so funny about thatI8 Jabrel demanded.

$robably not a good idea to e&plain. 8@h, nothing. The, the salve burns a little bit,8 !aris improvised.

8That should stop soon. At least, the stuff my Jran used on nettle stings always burned at first and then



made the skin go numb, and this smells like the same mi&ture.8 Jabrel sniffed at the pot of greenish

yellow grease. That and the fumes of the madira smelled like home to him, a rich mi&ture of stinging

and floral perfumes that "arents could never match. )eminded of the madira, he upended the bag and

took another mouthful. -t didn=t burn so much now. 8!ade it up from alapriyan herbs she gathered upin the ?ills, she did, and never would tell me what went into it.8

8- thought you were from "arentsI8 !aris propped herself up on both elbows and rested her chin in her

handsG she wasn=t ready to risk sitting up yet, but it was impossible to conduct a conversation with one=sface in a pillow.

8-n a manner of speaking,8 Jabrel said. 8-=m the third generation of career military in our family. !y

grandfather was in on the pacification of the plains states. ?e did his best to see people treated fairly

when they came under "arents law, and some of them remembered that when he retired. The e&Bakil

of 5atacharya offered him a house on the slopes of the foothills, looking up at the mountains. - used tostay with him and Jran a lot when - was a kidG by that time my dad was in the ervice here.8 ?e

smiled, remembering those enchanted days in the freedom of 5atacharya, and toasted them with

another swallow of madira.

8And your mother stayed on "arents, did sheI8

8#h, no. *ot !amH8 Jabrel chuckled. 8he followed 6ad wherever he was assigned. "ut9they were both only children, you see, and her parents hadn=t approved of her marrying into the militaryG they

were minor "arents nobility and as high in the instep as only impoverished minor nobles can be. o -

think she planned on building her own e&tended family. - had three younger brothers, all born here onalapriya. #nly trouble was, every time !am was e&pecting she got hellish sick, so they=d send us kids

up to 5atacharya for the duration. And after my second brother was born Jran suggested we Eust stay

there where she could school us until !am was through with her familybuilding.8 Jabrel smiledreminiscently. 8-t=s not like being in the true ?ills, 5atacharya isn=t, but it=s got that smell of conifers

and snowmelt, and when the traders came through for a fair we kids used to sneak away from Jran

and hang around the caravanserai all day, learning alapriyan words9some of which got our mouthswashed out with soap when we tried them out at dinner, because Jran and Jrandfather knew the

language well enough themselvesH And when - was ten - got my own hawk with her perch inJrandfather=s mewsG - was going to train her myself and go hawking with the native boys . . .8

8<hat happenedI8 !aris could tell from the way Jabrel=s voice slowed that something had interruptedthe idyll.

8!y 6ad took a saber cut across the thigh, dealing with some bandits along the river who hadn=t Fuite

understood that Baisee was under "arents protection now. ?e didn=t lose the leg, but9he couldn=t ride

anymore. They offered him early retirement and threeFuarters pension, and he decided it was time forus all to go back to "arents. ?e thought the climate in the plains might have been part of !am=s

trouble . . . she lost two babies after *umber Three was born. And he may have been right,8 Jabrel

said, 8because *umber 4our came along ten months after we moved back to "arents, only then the

doctors said she mustn=t try to have any more. o she=s been saving her e&pansionist ideas for the ne&tgeneration. he wants me to get married to a nice fertile girl with a big family. he must be the only

mother on "arents who wants a lot of inlaws . . . orry, - don=t know why -=m boring you with all this

nonsense.8

8eep talking,8 !aris urged. 8-t takes my mind off.8 *ot to mention that when he was telling her about

his past, he wasn=t asking her any embarrassing Fuestions. 8o how did you wind up back on

alapriyaI8

8Told you,8 Jabrel said. #r had heI 4or some reason he was finding it hard to remember e&actly what



he had and hadn=t said. 8Career military. #ldest son, naturally follow in m=father=s footsteps.

Jrandfather=s too. "esides, cheapest education on "arents is military academy. 4or us army brats, that

is. <ith four sons to raise on a pension, m=father couldn=t very well feature sending any of us anywhere

else. "esides, got me back to alapriya.8 ?e tilted the leather bag and was disappointed to find thatonly a few drops of madira trickled out. #h well. *o need to sit up if he wasn=t drinking. ?e lay back

on the rug and stared at the criscrossing wooden rafters above them. 8!ore chance of promotion here,

never know, could be we=ll have to take over the hill states, nice little war. $eacetime on "arents,nothing to do but get older waiting for your superior officers to get older and retire. *o kind of career

for a soldier.8 ?e tossed the empty bag up in the air, failed to catch it, and winked at !aris. 8They think

that=s why - volunteered for alapriya, y=seeI +oung fireeater, looking for action. Actually . . .8 ?eyawned. 8Actually - Eus= love the place. <ould=ve come back anyway. "ut don=t tell m=colonel that.8

8- promise not to tell your colonel that you like alapriya,8 !aris said, 8and . . . don=t you think you=d

better take your boots off before you go to sleepI8

"ut her suggestion had come too late.

K K K

Apart from his headache the ne&t morning and the mystery of why he=d downed an entire bag of madira

when he didn=t even like drinking, Jabrel found the days of the boat trip upriver uneventful enough.Calandra was clearly still stiff on the first morning, but she assured Jabrel that the salve had worked

wonders and that she would be able to apply it herself from then on.

The boat wasn=t really designed for passengersG it was more of a onesiefitsall, carrying crates of saltfish and tropical fruits and spices upriver, presumably returning with bo&es of nuts from the mountain

orchards and bales of the coarse, bright fabrics the hill people wove from the long hair of their ghaya. -t

veered from one side of the BaiseeEara to the other, stopping at every little village along the river on

either bank. An old grandmother took the boat back after a visit downriver to see the newestgrandchild, a slightly younger midwife traveled upriver to attend the accouchement of a minor hill

Bakil=s third wifeG a )ohini Eewel trader sFuatted over his brassbound bo& of giltfiligree trifles and

scowled suspiciously at the )udhrani soldier, on leave from his post with the Baisee )oyal Juard, whodemeaned himself to take the boat for a visit with his upcountry family because, as he cheerfully

e&plained, his last turag had lost her race with a colleague=s gelding and had become that colleague=s

property, and he now meant to apply in person to his father for a loan to finance another string ofracers.

Jabrel slouched against a stack of crates, his gold hair covered by an anonymous loose felt hat, his fair

skin turning brown in the hot sun over the river, his height at least somewhat disguised by his slouch

and by a coarse blanket of hillcountry weave thrown over his shoulders. ?e breathed in the spicescented air and the babble of dialects and felt himself at home in a way he never felt in Balentin, much

less on "arents itself. This was where he belonged, in the field, soaking up local lore and stories. ?e

listened to the midwife and the grandmother trading competing stories of difficult births, and learned

much that a "arents Trading ociety officer would not normally understand about the importance of ared cord under the bed and the disastrous possibilities inherent in offending Basanti of the Three

"reasts by leaving cooking implements in view during an accouchement. <hen a curtained bo& was

carried on board by four dark southern men who stationed themselves at its corners, glaring at all passengers impartially, he recognied that a bride of good family was being sent north and understood,

with regret, the old ladies= unspoken decision to stop telling childbirth stories for a while.

oon enough their place was taken by a )ohini stargaer who offered to make the pilot=s birthchart in

trade for passage to the ne&t village, and who e&plained with great fluency the effects of the stars5okaishana and anchana in guiding the pilot to a water trade, and the necessity of the man=s placating



the water demons also ruled by 5okaishana. This led to a theological argument with a dour man who

now revealed himself as a hillpriest returning home from pilgrimage to the holy mouth of the Baisee

Eara, and who asserted categorically that demons could not be placated by offerings but must be

controlled by amulets containing sacred writings. ?e Eust happened to have a supply of such amuletsstitched into the seams of his bedroll and might be willing to part with some for an appropriate price.

The discussion became lively enough for Jabrel to pick up several interesting new terms of abuse

concerning the ancestors, personal habits, and se&ual preferences of both holy menG he felt some regretwhen the bride=s guards bought up the hillpriest=s entire stock of amulets, engaged him on the spot to protect them against malign influences, and took their cortege off the boat when it tied up for the night

Eust downstream from the 4ord of the 6ead %mperors. #h well, this part of their Eourney was nearly

over anywayG half a day more would bring them to the rapids where the 6haramEara Eoined the Baisee Eara and created a river deep enough for boat travel, and from there on they would have to go on foot.

?e had to admit that Calandra=s presence had been a help on this part of the Eourney, rather than the

unmitigated nuisance he had e&pected. he didn=t complain about having to sFuat on the deck of a

creaking packet boat steaming slowly against the currentG she didn=t say anything about the clouds ofmidges that descended with the evening sun, or the burning heat of middayG she didn=t obEect to

scooping her share of the midday lentils and spiced sauce from the communal bowl with two fingers of

her right hand or to washing them down with slightly muddy spice tea. -n fact, for the first two days shesaid remarkably littleG like Jabrel, she sat and listened. @nlike him, she bounced up and down with

e&citement at the sights revealed by the river/ the painted villages gay with their patterns of red and

black and ochre mud drawn on the wallsG a troop of horned bhagghi drinking at a ford and throwing uptheir heads and fleeing into the forest as the boat approachedG the great grey ruined walls and crumbling

carvings of a longabandoned palace of the 4irst %mpire. omehow he had e&pected a 6iplomat to be

scornfully blasO about the sights of alapriya. ?e liked Calandra even better for her unabashed

enthusiasm.

And the combination of silence and visible enthusiasm helped immeasurably, as the chattering old

women decided that this Fuiet girl who looked so thrilled at what they considered everyday sights must

be another bride, this one from a village too small to name, being escorted upriver to some mountainstate whose ruler was wealthy enough to hire an outlander soldier as her guard. Jabrel felt a littlechagrin that they=d seen through his disguise so easily9but what matter, as long as they told

themselves a story that accounted for his presence in a way that wouldn=t come to the ears of the

ociety representativesI -t was their good fortune that Calandra was slim and dark enough to pass foran e&ceptionally tall and paleskinned )udhrani, and beautiful enough to make it plausible that she=d

been sold as a bride to some mountain Bakil or <air. And it was his good fortune that she must have

picked up on the old ladies= gossip and decided to help it alongG all through the first day she spoke onlyto him, and that in an undertone, which helped immeasurably in creating her character as a shy girl

being sent away from her home to an unknown husband.

$rivate conversation was all but impossible on the crowded boatG even at night the passengers slept

shoulder to shoulder, rolled into their traveling rugs and crowded so close on the deck that thenightmares of one became the property of all. "ut toward the end of that first day, during the splashing

and colorful curses that accompanied the offloading of some crates onto a halfrotted village Fuay

Jabrel found a chance to speak Fuietly to Calandra and to compliment her on helping him out. 8+ou=re

acting the shy village bride very well. eep it upG they made me for an outlander, and the e&planationthey=ve given themselves for my presence will do very well as long as they think you=re a )udhrani, too

proud and too shy to speak to any common passengers.8

Also, their blatant speculation about her probable destination helped to fill him in on the current

political situation in the hill country. ?e knew, of course, that Thamboon and *arumalar had been taken



over by @daraG that was the source of #rlando !ontoyasana=s complaints. ?e claimed that the @daran

army was using weapons of prohibited technology that could only have been smuggled in from

offworld. "ut when Jabrel was called back from 6harampal to dance attendance on the 6iplomat,

there=d been no hint that @dara was menacing that state as well. *ow the old women chattered about an@daran envoy to 6harampal, assessed the probability that the young Bakil of 6harampal would meekly

give in to the "ashir=s demands and that his state would become another vassal state of Jreater @dara,

and debated the possibility that the Bakil was making a marriage alliance with Calandra=s village as ane&cuse to bring in a whole troop of outlander soldiers against the @daran threat.

The land where the 6haramEara Eoined the BaiseeEara was too rocky and precipitous to support a

village, but over the years a small outdoor baaar had grown up to meet the needs of traders and

travelers. ?ere one could purchase anything9intricately carved nut shells with magic words carvedinto them to protect the wearer from evil spirits, sweet syrup with doyEuice for a fretful baby, poison

for a brutal husband, a birthchart from a native astrologer or an earful of gossip about the doings of the

hill kings. ?aving no particular desire to add more than necessary to the gossip of the baaar, Jabreloverpaid for a pair of ghaya and refused the offer of overpriced lodgings in the mudwalled serai

behind the baaar. The sooner he and Calandra were out of here, he thought, the less chance there was

that anybody would recognie her for an outlander.

That happy belief was rudely shaken by the gratitude of the trader who sold him the ghaya. <hileJabrel was adEusting the harness on the great, shaggy beasts and demanding ointment for the sores left

on their backs by the previous owner, the trader approached him and said Fuietly, 84or the ointment,

one tulG for a word more precious than all ointments, you have already paid enough. Two outlander menon turagai were here two days past, demanding word of an outlander couple, a man and a woman,

whom they believed to have ridden this way. At the time, naturally, no one knew anything of interest to

them.8

8The noble lady whom - escort to her wedding . . .8 Jabrel began.

The trader spat sideways into the mud around the ghaya stalls. 8The noble lady,8 he said, 8speaksalapriyan like a child of four years, and had never seen ghaya before, nor eaten yao pai. +ou may

have dyed her hair and tinted her skin to make her pass for )udhrani, but she is too ignorant to beanything but another outlander. ! have no love for the men of "arents, but you have paid me well andthose others offered little enoughG - have no reason to babble tales of what - surmise to them. "ut they

will be back, and some other will have noticed as much as - did and will tell it them for a handful of

tulai. Jet her out of here, and have your trouble with the other outlanders somewhere else, not in my

baaar.8

The trail that snaked along the rocky side of the 6haramEara was Fuite rough enough if one took it

directly from the place where the two streams met. After the trader=s warning, Jabrel thought it prudent

to follow the narrow stream that was the origin of the BaiseeEara east from the baaar until they were

well behind the first range of hills, and then to cut back across the barren, rocky country to intercept thetrail they really wanted. That made for some interesting and strenuous walking, interrupted periodically

by the necessity to persuade the ghaya that they did want to take the thorny uphill path and did not want

to lie down and roll on the thorns, lu&uriously scratching their thick hairy hides and sFuashing the packs they bore. And in many places there was no path at all. Jabrel consulted his compass freFuently,

watched the passage of the sun closely, and wished devoutly that he had not packed his maps so

carefully at the very bottom of one of the long leather rolls now bound in the packharness of the largerghay. "ut there=d been no need to consult a map while they were on the boat, and9he hadn=t e&actly

planned to leave the baaar so precipitately, or in a direction so different from that he really wanted. ?e

envied Calandra her 6iplomat=s head, doubtless loaded with detailed maps of alapriya as well as

vocabulary, grammar, and whatever other information )eerval had thought she might need. "ut he



didn=t want to ask her for help, as if he were such an idiot as to get lost as soon as he was out of sight of

the BaiseeEara. "esides, he knew where they were. Appro&imately. !ore or less. <ith reasonable

certainty . . . oh, devils, what was that crag of rock doing in front of themI ?e=d intended to cut across

in a westerly direction, to meet the 6haramEara well before they got anywhere near the #ld !an=s?ead, but the steep eroded gullies had forced them north and north again. *ow, to reach the smoother

going of the trail along the river before nightfall, they were going to have to go right across that eerily

eroded hill.The 6harampalis believed that such hills were the homes of the serpentpeople, the *agai andTakshakai, avoided by all rightthinking hill people, and that was Eust the good partG what really

worried Jabrel was the mae of waterdrilled holes that splashed across the surface of the limestone

rock, perfect for catching and breaking a packghaya=s leg, and the narrow fissures that ran across therock and gave homes to poisonous snakes.

Jabrel studied his compass again, sFuinted at the sun, and tried to convince himself that they could

afford the time to backtrack and pick up the 6haramEara somewhere south of the #ld !an=s ?ead.

%ven if they didn=t Fuite reach the river this night, wasn=t camping among the rocks better than crossingthis pockmarked disaster areaI #o 9the ghaya needed water, were used to drinking their fill twice a

day, and there was barely enough water in the gullies they=d passed, this time of year, to keep a snake

alive. "esides, he wasn=t entirely sure they could find a better way through the hillsG there was a reasonwhy this triangle of land between the 6haramEara and the BaiseeEara was so empty. #nly a madman

or an outlander would attempt to cross it.

?e caught Calandra studying him, a slight frown between her dark brows, and snapped, 8-f you know a

better way to get back to the 6haramEara, feel free to mention itH8

8-f you feel we should go this way, -=m sure you=re right,8 she said cheerfully. 8!uch farther nowI8

8+ou know as well as - do. About three hours more to get back to the river.8 -f they were lucky, ifneither men nor beasts broke a leg crossing the #ld !an=s ?ead, if his guess as to their position was

right.

-n the event, it was nearly four hours, and the sun was down before they had a fire to light theircampsite, and Jabrel was not -uite sure that they had reached the 6haramEara at the point he had beenaiming for, well north of the two villages upstream from the baaar but south of the 6harampal border.

And he did not find leisure to study his map until all the work of camping for the night was done/ pack

beasts fed and watered, tent up, firewood collected. As he had e&pected, 6iplomat Bissi had been Fuiteuseless at all these tasksG as he had not e&pected, she had been cheerfully ready to pitch in where she

could and to learn what he wanted to tell her. he was hopeless with the pack animals, of course,

probably had spent all her life on hightech worldsG he had to tell her several times that they weren=tmachines where you punched a button and got a response.

8Jot that,8 the woman said the third time he made this e&planation. 8They=re dumber than machines.8

8That too,8 Jabrel acknowledged with a smile. *obody had ever accused alapriya=s native ghaya ofhigh intelligence. "ut they were strong, tireless, and reasonably obedient when handled by somebody

who understood their limitations. 8"ut they=ll take us up into the ?igh Dagirs on paths none of yourmachines could negotiate.8

84litter could, though,8 Calandra said.

Jabrel mimed astonishment. 8<hat, you=d take a flitter over these mountains and give these simple

hillmen the surprise of their livesI And you here to investigate allegations of inappropriate technology

importationI -=m shocked, 6iplomat Bissi, shockedH8



86idn=t say - wanted to,8 Calandra pointed out. 8Dust said a flitter could do it. And a sight easier and

faster than these ghays.8

8)ight. The plural, in case you=re interested, is ghaya.8 Jabrel studied the 6iplomat=s face in the

uncertain firelight. 8- would=ve thought your language implant would tell you that much.8

Calandra looked down. 8- told you, the chips ain=t like magic.8

8That=s clear,8 Jabrel said meanly. 8The chap who sold me these beasts said you speak alapriyan likea fouryearold.8

Calandra blinked hard and Jabrel wondered at his own snappiness. The woman had really behaved

Fuite wellG why was he suddenly being bitchy at herI ?e felt desperately uneasy and couldn=t Fuite put

a finger on the reason.

8 =cuse me, - gotta . . .8 <ithout saying e&actly what it was she suddenly needed to do, Calandra

crawled into her tent and dropped the flap. 5eaving Jabrel on his own to prepare their meal. <ell, what

had he e&pected of a pampered offworlderI -t must have been Fuite a shock for 6iplomat Bissi to live

under the primitive conditions of alapriya outside the coastal enclavesG she=d taken the boat Eourneywell enough, but trekking on foot over the ?igh Dagirs with only the supplies a pair of ghaya could

carry might well be more than she=d bargained for.K K K

-n the privacy of her tent, !aris stuck a plug into her right ear and settled down to concentrated studyof the audio plugs of 8alapriyan for Dummies that she=d boosted from !oylen Cornelis=s rooms. That

had been a lucky find, but it wouldn=t do her much good if she didn=t get more time to use the plugs.

The slow, lay days of the boat Eourney upriver had been a gift from the godsG both Jabrel and the

other passengers had invented their own story for why she didn=t say much, and with her curly hairworn loose to cover the plug in one ear she=d been able to listen her way through a good half of the

language lessons. "y the time they reached the baaar she had acFuired enough vocabulary to get the

gist of most conversations. -f the people were speaking slowly. -f she already had a good idea what theywere talking about.

<as that enough to pass for a 6iplomat=s downloaded language capabilitiesI -t would make sense that

the download would help more with understanding than with talkingG nothing substituted for actual

realtime talking with real people, but apparently she hadn=t learned enough yet. #kay, she would pretend e&haustion, spend as much time as possible in the minuscule tent, get a good grasp of ishti

class verbs. Dust as well not to spend the evening out by the fire, chatting with Jabrel, anywayG the

more she said, the greater was the chance that he=d catch on to her imposture. -t was e&hausting,watching every word she said, always trying to guess how a highly educated 6iplo would react to these

surroundings.

-t was e&hausting, remembering not to trust Jabrel.

-t had been easy at first, when he was so stiff and full of resentment toward her. "ut that had started tochange at the ball9and after, the attack in the dark alley9they worked together well, !aris thoughtsleepily. Concealing the body, cleaning up the mess, getting out of town fast and

inconspicuously . . . the man had a natural talent for her kind of work, a talent that probably didn=t get

much e&ercise in the confines of the ociety=s military branch. *o wonder he preferred slightly covertupcountry assignments, no wonder he=d resented being pulled back from the field to dance attendance

on an offworld B-$. Dohnivans would have tried to recruit him as a natural talent . . . but Dohnivans

wouldn=t have had much luck, would heI There was something about Jabrel %skelinen that would

never bend to the sort of underhanded dealing !aris had grown used to on Tasman. ?e could lie fast



and fluently, he could disguise himself, he could dispose of a corpse, and !aris didn=t think he would

have much compunction about killing somebody who attacked him. "ut she couldn=t imagine him

stabbing somebody in the back, or arranging . . . arranging to have a girl killed Eust because her dead

body was more useful to him than her living self.

he swallowed hard. !shticlass verbs in the past conditional chattered unheard in her right ear while

the memory of her last hours on Tasman swamped her. <ho did she think she was to make guesses

about Jabrel=s characterI he had trusted Dohnivans absolutely, damn near worshipped him ever sincehe=d seen a talent in her that made it worthwhile for him to take her into his gang and save her fromworking the corridors as a childwhore . . . and all the time she=d been nothing to him, less than nothing,

a card to be played when convenient. And now she was tempted to trust Jabrel as she=d trusted

Dohnivans, to confess her imposture to him, because something about him felt straight and true and shewas hating her lies more every day. -diotH o she didn=t feel that Jabrel %skelinen would dump her if he

knew the truth, so whatI he hadn=t felt any warning about Dohnivans either, had sheI 4ace it, she had

no Eudgment for people. The only thing she knew was that she knew nothing and could trust nobody.

8CalandraI8

8 Dhulaishta, - would have betrayed9 dhulaishtami, you would have betrayed9 dhulaishtaiyen, he, she,

it would have betrayed9 dhulaishtamai, no, you leave it out in first and secondpersons plural9 dhulamai, we would have betrayed,8 !aris muttered under her breath, wishing whoever wrote the

language plugs had picked a different e&ample of ishticlass verbs. he=d already conEugated betrayal in present, simple past, simple future, and present conditional, and with each tense the choice of verb

seemed more personal.

8CalandraH8

8 Dhulamiye, you plural would have, oh shit.8 "etween Jabrel=s ratty mood and the ishticlass

conEugations, !aris had temporarily forgotten her assumed name. he Eerked the plug out of her earand stuffed it into a fold of the embroidered sash that held her coarse woven shirt and leggings together,

backed out of the tent and tried not to think about the impossibility of e&iting these tiny tents with any

degree of grace. itting up, she scowled at Jabrel and pushed her hair back. 8<hat is itI8 *o greatemergency, obviouslyG he was leaning against the broad back of a resting ghay while peering at some

folding papers in the firelight.

8- Eust wanted you to compare this map with the ones your people downloaded to you,8 he said, holding

out a page covered with spidery brown lines.

8Thought you knew this country backwards and forwards,8 !aris said.

85ast time - visited 6harampal,8 Jabrel said patiently, 8- was officially there on official business, and -

could simply follow the 6haramEara upstream. This time - thought we might save time by cutting

across where the river loops, here98 he pointed to a curved double line 89and then we could drop

down from here to water the ghaya. 5ooks like about a day=s travel, and then go back offtrail again and

straight for 6haramvai9the Bakil=s city. "ut - didn=t make this map, some clerk in Balentin drew it upfrom #rlando !ontoyasana=s notes last time the man visited the %nclave, and he Eust might have left

out a few little things like hostile villages or impassable cliffs on the route -=m thinking of taking. o -wanted to check it against what you know of the territory.8

$h, shit indeed( !aris blinked and stared into space, looking as she thought somebody with database

chips and maps and languages planted in their head might look, and then said, 85ooks all right to me,

but then why wouldn=t itI )eerval doesn=t have any more detailed maps of this area than you do.8

8- thought the satellite scans might show some details of the terrain.8



8<ell, they don=t,8 !aris said. 8They=re really not very clear at all. orry - can=t help you and all that.8

he took the stick Jabrel had been pointing with, thrust it into the bubbling mess in the cookpot on the

fire, and stirred vigorously9perhaps a little too vigorouslyG the stuff slopped over and a few drops

siled on the hot stones.

8"etter let me do that,8 Jabrel said, dropping the map to rescue their dinner.

8-=m not much help to you, am -I8

8<ell,8 Jabrel said, stirring the pot almost as vigorously as she had done, 8it=s not supposed to work

that way, is itI !ve been assigned to help you. Anyway, - don=t suppose a 6iplo=s normal training covers

situations Fuite this primitive.8

8+ou could say that,8 !aris allowed. 4or sure she couldn=t contradict it, anywayH

8And - think you more than did your share on this trip the night we started,8 Jabrel added.

8-9I #h, that.8 !aris suppressed an internal shudder as she remembered the soft mushy place her rock

had left in aspar levinen=s skull. he averted her gae from the anonymous glop boiling in the

cooking pot.

8aving my life,8 Jabrel said with a straight face, 8is usually good for one ticket into upcountryalapriya, all e&penses paid, pack beasts managed, meals prepared, and tents erected. And you didn=t

even use any of your special weaponsH +ou )eerval types take this tech prohibition seriously, don=t

youI8

8#h. @mmm . . .8 #f course, a real 6iplo would have done something much more elegant than bashinglevinen over the head with a rock. !aris looked for a way to change the subEect. 8<ould that be a

oneway ticket, or round tripI8

8+ou don=t think - can bring us out safelyI8

8-=ve no worries at all about that,8 she lied, 8Eust wondering whether - would have to save your life

again in @dara or else learn to lead ghaya and set up me own9 my own tent.8

8-=d enEoy watching you attempt the latter,8 Jabrel said, 8but the ghaya might not like itH 5et=s agreethat you=ve earned a free ticket back to Balentin. Although if there is any useful information in those

satellite maps in your head, to supplement my trail notes, -=d appreciate your sharing it. 4or instance,

how do they show the elevation of 6haramvaiI -=d estimated it at about si& thousand meters, when -was there treating with the Bakil, but of course - was restricted to the kind of prehistoric measurement

instruments allowed under the technology prohibitions. -=m sure your mapping programs are much

more accurate. ?ow high above sea level would you say the city liesI8

8#h, si& thousand sounds like a pretty good estimate,8 !aris mumbled. Time for another change ofsubEect. 8-s that stuff ready yetI -=m so hungry - could eat a ghayH8

8- wouldn=t recommend it,8 Jabrel said, 8the meat tastes really sour. omething about the native

grasses they eat. #r does your training as a 6iplomat include a course in swallowing anything you=reoffered with a smileI +ou never have told me much about your studies. <hat e&actly do 6iplomatslearn in that schoolI8

8@mm. -t=s mostly classified,8 !aris offered wildly. 8+=know, don=t want to give away our systems and

all that.8

8-ncluding what you had for dinnerI8

8Ahh, Eust the usual. 0ou know.8 At least she hoped he did. !aris herself didn=t have the faintest ideawhat toppies would eat in a fancy school, but she was pretty sure it didn=t resemble the hodgepodge of



dryfood stolen from shipping crates and odd dishes liberated from a Tasman dining hall on which

Dohnivans fed his gang. 8-=d rather hear about how you found out that ghay meat tastes sour. - bet

there=s a story behind thatI8

8)econnoitering trip that went bad.8 Jabrel accepted the change of subEect gracefully, leaned backagainst his bedroll, and launched into a tale of travels into uncharted territory, a native 8guide8 who=d

never been more than a day=s Eourney from his home village, and an early bliard that effectively

closed what he=d thought was the only pass back through the ?igh Dagirs from their campsite.

5ater that night, after the campfire was banked to a rockencircled bed of slumbering embers and theyhad crawled into their separate tents, Jabrel lay awake with arms folded behind his head and

considered the riddle of Calandra.

"asically, he liked the woman. he=d been a good companion so far on this Eourney upcountry,

accepting the difficulties of travel without any of the whining he=d have heard from most of hiscolleagues in Balentin9and that was the menG he shuddered to think what a gently bred "arents lady,

even one accustomed to the 8hardships8 of life in Balentin, would have made of a trip by turag, native

packet boat, and foot into the foothills of the Dagirs. And9remembering that last night in Balentin9she

was a damned good companion to have at one=s back in a fight. Muick refle&esG if it had been up to him,

they=d both have been trussed helpless in the tanglenet before he knew what was happening. *ot thatlevinen would have left him alive long enough to be embarrassed by his stupidity, but that was scant

comfort. <ell, she was an offworlder and a 6iplomatG she was used to watching for hightechweaponry. ?e hadn=t e&pected any such thing. *o, that was no e&cuse, not after reading #rlando

!ontoyasana=s letters about the prohibited technology he=d stumbled on in @dara. The fact was, he

hadn=t taken !ontoyasana seriously, hadn=t taken the whole mission seriously until levinen=s attack onthem. $utting that together with the trader=s tale of the two "arents ociety men who=d tried to cut them

off at the Eunction of the 6haramEara and the BaiseeEara, Jabrel no longer had any doubt that there

was something in the mountains that somebody didn=t want them to find. And given levinen=s use of atangler, it seemed very likely that !ontoyasana had been e&actly right about what was going on in

@dara.

<hat was keeping Jabrel awake tonight, though, was his inability to figure out what was going onright here and now with Calandra . . . if that was really her nameH 4rom the first she had not been whathe e&pected in a 6iplomatG but then, one of the things you e&pected was that 6iplos would keep you off

balance. o he had deliberately not worried about the fact that she seemed too young and innocent, and

talked too bluntly, to be a )eervaltrained 6iplo. That could have been part of the training, a way to

keep you off guard.

And on that day of her arrival, he=d hardly had time to think about it much. <hat with formal dinners,

ball gowns, and assassination attempts, not to mention scrambling to get out of Balentin at least half a

step ahead of whoever had it in for them, the occasional oddities in Calandra=s behavior had been the

least of his worries.

The days of travel, though, had given him time to observe . . . and think.

Calandra definitely did not behave like anything Jabrel had heard of 6iplos. $ut that down to his

ignorance, if you wouldG but how could you e&plain the way she changed the subEect whenever he

asked anything about her background and trainingI And since she wouldn=t tell him anything, what

could he go on but the rumors that passed for common knowledgeI

6iplos were supposed to have chips in their heads that could be loaded with the basics of any language

they were likely to need. Calandra herself admitted that, but her statement that the language downloads

weren=t all they might be was a gross understatement. he spoke alapriyan, as the trader had pointed



out, like a fouryearold or worse. And she seemed to spend all her spare time muttering verb

conEugations.

6iplos toured many different worlds and were e&posed to many varied civiliations before they

graduated into active assignment workG Calandra reacted to the sights of alapriya like a kid who=dnever seen anything outside the four walls of a study cubicle.

6iplos carried weapons unlike anything you=d ever imagined secreted on their persons and in their

clothesG Calandra had bashed aspar levinen=s head in with a handy rock. <asn=t there such a thing as

carrying respect for prohibited technology a bit too farI

<as she some impostor posing as a 6iploI #bviously there were some "arents Trading ociety peopleinvolved in the transfer of prohibited weapons to @daraG could they have disposed of the real Calandra

Bissi and substituted one of their offword accomplicesI <ould such a woman have been coldblooded

enough to murder levinen9a coconspirator of hers, according to this thesis9Eust to establish hercredibility in Jabrel=s eyesI

ome women might. All Jabrel=s e&perience of Calandra, though, said that she wasn=t capable of such

an act.

"esides9he remembered with relief9she had to have passed the routine spaceport -6 checks in transitto alapriya. he had Calandra Bissi=s retinas, fingerprints, and 6*A. Jabrel shook his head. *o,whatever the woman was or wasn=t, she had to be Calandra Bissi of )eerval. $ure logic, #ccam=s

)aor, dictated against multiplying improbabilities in the service of his private paranoiaG to suppose

this woman an impostor was piling impossibility upon improbability.

o what was sheI $erhaps a 6iplomat in training, posing as a full graduate to improve her standing onBalentin. omeone who hadn=t had the final tours yet, hadn=t been issued the mysterious weapons,

maybe didn=t even have all the implant chips necessary to download languages and maps.

Jabrel chuckled Fuietly to himself. +es, that made sense. #rlando !ontoyasana=s reputation as the

gala&y=s most paranoid and Fuarrelsome anthropologist had preceded him to alapriya. $robably theman had been pestering )eerval for years, complaining about every world he studied. They weren=t

going to waste a real 6iplo on a mission purely for show, to placate a cray anthropologistG they=d use it

as a training mission for one of the students.

And, of course, they wouldn=t feel it necessary to mention to !ontoyasana9much less to the "arentsTrading ociety9that the kid they were sending out wasn=t a real 6iplo.

@nfortunately, it seemed that she=d stumbled into a real conspiracy. o what was he going to do about

itI ?ead back to Balentin and demand a real 6iplo, and preferably a contingent of )eerval Juards, to

investigate @daran weaponryI <ith what that trader had said of "arentsians hunting for him, Jabrelhad serious doubts as to whether they=d even get back to Balentin, much less get access to the ansible to

contact )eerval.

$ushing ahead seemed the better of the two alternatives. Anyway, if Jabrel had taken !ontoyasana=scomplaints seriously, he wouldn=t have wasted his time going back to Balentin and whining for a6iplo=s assistance, would heI *o, he would have started investigating on his own, right there where he

was in 6harampal9close enough to @dara, and with his good 6harampali friends to help him.

*o reason he couldn=t do the same thing now. The only difference was, Calandra=s arrival had caused

the conspirators inside the "arents Trading ociety to tip their hand. After levinen=s attack and thetrader=s warning, Jabrel knew he couldn=t risk taking any evidence he discovered to his superiors in the

ociety9not until he knew e&actly who was involved, and how.



Calandra would come in handy there tooG with her contacts in the 6iplomatic chool, she could take his

report directly to )eerval and hand it over to authorities who would think nothing of arresting half a

doen top officials in the ociety, who would have the resources to clean up the nasty mess of

corruption and cultural contamination they seemed to be stumbling into.

All he had to do, Jabrel reckoned, was penetrate a hostile -ndigenous Tribal Territory, collect evidence

of their use of prohibited offworld technology, find some leads as to who was supplying the weapons,

get himself and Calandra back to the coastal enclaves, and smuggle her offplanet to deliver the report.<ithout the backup that a fully trained and armed 6iplo could have provided. ?e smiled grimly. <asn=tthere a character in some ancient children=s book who believed in doing si& impossible things before

breakfastI At least he didn=t have to do all this before breakfast9and now he thought about it, the

phrase had been 8believe si& impossible things before breakfast.8 4ine, he=d start by believing theycould accomplish their tasks with no difficulty.

"ut as he drifted off to sleep, he wasn=t worrying about the dangers ahead of himG a life of alternately

soldiering and spying had taught Jabrel %skelinen not to stay awake over ne&t week=s problems when

there was a reasonably good chance tomorrow might kill you before you had to face them.

The one thing that really bothered him was that he wished, irrationally, that Calandra would trust him

with the truth about herself.

Chapter Ele"en

()ara on Kalapriya8*ameI8 the )udhrani guard at the gate of $undarik Nahin=s house snapped. That was a new thingGthere=d been nobody barring the gate when he went there9was it only yesterdayI -t seemed like years

ago.

8BaEEadara. Chulayen BaEEadara, with the !inistry for 5ands and $roperties,8 Chulayen said, head

bowed. 8-f - could see the honorable general for Eust one momentI8

The guard sighed deeply. 8<hat, does every twotulai clerk in the "ashir=s service have to talk toJeneral Nahin before he goes into surgeryI !y master=s been officially retired for years now, but you=d

think no !inistry in @dara could function without him for a few days, the way you people have been

pouring in with chits and lastminute reFuests.8

8urgeryI - didn=t know98 Chulayen stopped, started over. 8$lease, this is not a matter of government business. -t is9my parents were friends of Jeneral Nahin=s9-9we had words yesterday9- need to

apologie before98The guard=s e&pression softened. 8#h, personal, is itI - did hear as he was troubled by some Fuarrel

yesterday. <ould that have been you, thenI8

8+es,8 Chulayen said. 8- was wrong. - wanted to apologie to him and tell him that -=ve seen my

errors.8

8<ell, maybe it=ll help him go in to the surgeon with a Fuieter mind, at that,8 the guard said. 8"ut if you

start arguing with him, -=ll be sorry - let you in9and -=ll make you even sorrierH8

8- only wish to e&press my humble duty and my complete submission to his Eudgment,8 Chulayen



vowed.

?e was shocked by the change in $undarik Nahin=s private rooms. The old, shady, dusty, cluttered study

had been cleared of nearly all its furnishings, and a pair of servant girls was briskly scrubbing the floor

on one side of the room while the old general sat in his invalid chair on the other side, irritably goingthrough the stack of papers proffered by a clerk standing beside him. 8%nough business for nowH8 he

cried when Chulayen entered, pushing the papers away. 8Tell the !inisters -=ll be ready and happy to

attend to them all in a few days, after we see how the outlander=s medicine works. <ell, my boy,8 hesaid to Chulayen in a softer tone, 8- understand you=ve seen the error of your waysI8

8!y loyalty has always been to the "ashir and to @dara,8 Chulayen said. 8- deeply regret the

misunderstanding which made me seem to be setting up my own will against the wiser Eudgment of the

!inister for 6efense, and my only hope is that the "ashir himself will understand and forgive my

errors.8

8<ell said,8 $undarik Nahin approved. 8$erhaps98

A bucket of water tipped over, sending a puddle splashing over the blanket that covered his legs, and he

growled at the clumsy servant. 8<heel me out to the garden, boy, we can=t talk in here. That cray

outlanderH8

?e continued his grumbles when Chulayen had maneuvered the clumsy wheeled chair out onto the paved, vineshaded terrace overlooking the mountainside. 8<hat is this mania outlanders have for

cleaning and boiling and purifying everythingI +ou=d think they were all born to be good )udhrani

housewives. ?ahH8 ?e laughed e&plosively at his own Eoke. 8A little honest dirt never did any harm,and in our climate it=s positively dangerous to strip the skin of its natural oils in the face of winter. At

least that=s how ! was taught. "ut this man will have me scrubbed as raw as that room in there before he

consents to treat me.8

8-t=s outlander magic,8 Chulayen said. 8- suppose we must allow them to cast out devils in their ownway. <hat does he promise to do for you, sirI8

8<hy, he thinks the devils are not in these useless things after all98 Nahin thumped one of his own

legs 89but in my head, and he means to open up my head to let them outH ?ahH8 ?e laughed again,

even more loudly.

8Truly, sirI8

8*o, it=s more complicated than that. "est - can understand it, he says our heads are supposed to be fullof tiny demons that send orders to our bodies, and that some of my demons died when - had an attack

of the falling sickness. o he=s going to open me up and put in some of his own demons who will direct

the work of my legs.8 Nahin scowled. 8Truth to tell, - don=t much care to think of the details. -t allseems very improbable. -=ve cleaved a man=s skull with my own saber9aye, fifty years ago it was, in

the battle for the arai $ass, but - remember as =twas yesterday. "lood aplenty there was on the snow,

and a spill of grey stuff where his head opened, but - saw no demons coming out. till, the outlanders

pay well enough for the demons he grows98 Nahin checked himself as though he Eust nowremembered whom he was talking to. 8- suppose you understand all about that business now, boyI

"een e&plained to you, has itI8

8*ot fully,8 Chulayen said carefully, 8but - know that my duty and loyalty are to the "ashir, and - hopethat you, sir, will convey my deepest apologies to him and to the !inistry for 5oyalty and tell them9

persuade them98 ?is throat closed up for a moment before he could go on. 8There=s no need to keep

my family hostage, sir. Anusha, Bashi, the girls, they had no part in this. The fault was entirely mine,

and - see now that - was entirely mistaken. $lease, sir, cannot you persuade them to set my family



freeI8

Nahin looked off into the blue distances beyond the terrace, stroking his moustache with one hand. 8-=m

only an old soldier, Chulen, not a diplomat, and it=s a chancy business to bargain with the !inistry for

5oyalty. - came close enough to being called traitor myself yesterday, because - talked them intoleaving you free and only taking the womenfolk.8

8And my son.8

8And your son,8 Nahin agreed. 8"ut you=re young yet, Chulen. +ou can get another wife and make

more sons. - stood surety for your good behavior, did you know thatI Told the "ashir he might e&ile me

if you did not come to your senses and give this up.8

8+ou had better have let me be taken away with Anusha,8 Chulayen said bitterly.

8!y boy, - am sorry. - did not know you cared for her so much. -t always seemed to me your mother

was much stronger for the marriage than you were. +ou might even have been glad to be free, for all -

knew.8

Chulayen felt a pang of guilt. ?e=d never loved Anusha. ?e had carefully done all his duty as the)udhrani gentleman he thought himself to beG nobody could say he=d been a bad husband to her. ?e had

treated her with respect, not even complaining when the first children were girltwins, neverreproaching her with the long years that followed until at last she gave him a son. ?e hadn=t beaten her

for getting herself mi&ed up in that lowclass cult of the -nner 5ight <ayG he=d even taken her on pilgrimage to those cursed caves.

?e=d gone out of his way to be courteous and respectful and to indulge her, because he could not love

her.

5ove was not supposed to be important in marriageG doing one=s duty was what mattered.

8And the childrenI +ou thought - would be glad to be rid of them too, - supposeI8

$undarik Nahin sank back against the cushions of his invalid chair, looking very old. 8Chulen, - can do

nothing todayG within the hour the outlander will come with his tools. <hen -=ve recovered from hiswork, when the memory of your offense is not so strong with the "ashir, - . . . will do what - can.8

8$erhaps, before that, others will do moreH8 Chulayen snapped, turning on his heel.

5ater he regretted that parting thrust most bitterly. "ut for now, all he could think was that Nahin had

betrayed him. All his parents= friends had betrayed him. ?is parents had lied to him. -f there was anyhelp for him and his family, it lay in the hands of a raggletaggle bunch of )ohini whom he had been

brought up to despise9Fuietly and courteously, of course9as beneath his notice.

All he wanted to do, now, was to go back to that old woman, !adee9he could not think of her as his

grandmother9and make her arrange to rescue his family when they were moved from the prison towherever the 8disappeared8 were taken. "ut he couldn=t. ?e who had been Chulayen BaEEadara, who

had thought himself a )udhrani gentleman and the son of a !inister for the "ashir, was now lower thanthe lowliest )ohini. ?e did not even own a name. ?e had no power to coerce !adee to do his bidding."ut perhaps, if he learned what these )ohini wanted to know9if he turned traitor in earnest, instead of

blundering into disfavor by his own slowwitted mistakes9perhaps he could buy her cooperation.

%vidently he was not going to be arrested on sightG very well, he would do as she wished, return Fuietlyto his Eob and listen for any scraps of information that might be useful to the traitors.

K K K

The undercellar where he and the others inEured in the riot had been taken was somewhere on the lower



slopes of the town, among the shabby patched buildings and tumbledown houses of the poorest

)ohiniG not an area Chulayen knew well. As evening fell, he was still wandering the alleys, looking for

the particular pattern of rusted grilles and splintery posts that he remembered as the entrance to the

mae of rooms going down below street level. ?e was not overly eager to tell the woman !adee of hisfailure, and so he drifted along almost aimlessly, e&pecting that eventually he=d recognie the place. "ut

in the blue hae of twilight everything looked the same to him, one indistinguishable stream of broken

roofs, walls with layers of plaster falling off in great patches, naked children, street beggars, dustyditches, piles of rags heaped up in doorways and corners. "ut no9one of the piles movedG for a

moment he thought, with instant revulsion, of ratsG and then it stretched out filthy feet and sat up and he

saw a face appearing out of the mudcolored folds.

8+ou have walked past three times already,8 the face said, 8but you fine gentlemen are all blind as cavefish. 4ollow me to the place before your ramblings attract more cursed )udhraniH8

And these are my people, Chulayen thought as he followed the beggar. This is my true heritage9 rude

peasants and earthen6floored slums" ?e felt shame at the thought, told himself that the true shame

belonged to those who had taken all power and wealth to themselves, then remembered that until a dayago he had been one of those. ?e had never felt as if he was oppressing anybody. -t had seemed the

natural order of things. )ohini were simple folk, happiest in service positions with somebody else

telling them what to do and arranging their livesG )udhrani gentlemen organied and ruled and saw thatthe world was a wellkept and orderly placeG )udhrani women stayed modestly at home, watching the

servants and children and generally keeping their homes as orderly and proper as their men kept the

outside world.

*ow9he did not know what to think, or even what he should feel. "ut it still seemed shameful to himto be in such a place as the subsurface rooms to which the beggar led himG worse yet, as he became

aware of the smell of cheap, sweet incense and the sound of singing interspersed with wails and high

pitched shouts. ?is mother9no, !inister BaEEadara=s wife, he corrected himself harshly9had taughthim to scorn such meetings. )udhrani worshiped the gods decently and with propriety, in the privacy of

their own homesG even the poorest )udhrani house was not without its wall niche for images of the

gods and its offering bowl to set at their feet. The semipublic, hysterical gatherings of the -nner 5ight<ay were9well, )ohini stuff, and not worth paying serious attention to.

And yet Anusha had been drawn into the cultG they must have offered her something she couldn=t find at

her home altars.

There were pallets around the sides of the low, dark room, with bandaged people lying on them.

Chulayen thought he recognied some faces9and some inEuries9from the previous day/ that boy withthe smashedin dent on one side of his head, who breathed but neither spoke nor moved, and the

woman with a mass of bandages where her right foot should have been. ?e frowned. -t could not be

good for them to have to put up with this noise and smokeG couldn=t the cultists have found another

place to hold their ceremoniesI

The rhythmic noises rose and fell, never stopping completely. -n the failing, flickering light of ghay butter lamps the faces of the wounded, and of the worshipers, came into view and vanished as the little

lights danced this way and that, as if people were passing into and out of the plane of this life all around

him and at random. ?e craned his neck and searched for the old pancake vendor, !adee, who claimedto be his grandmotherG somehow e&pecting her to be leading this cult ritual. "ut there did not seem to

be a leader. %&cept for those lying on pallets, the occupants of the room sat in messy, overlapping

circles on the floor, hands clasped on their folded legs, all looking toward the center of the room.

And there was nothing at all in the center.



lowly Chulayen=s ear began to separate the sounds. There was a simple, repetitive songG different

voices chanted the short verses, while everybody Eoined in the chorus.

8:gme, soi, utme,8 a man chanted. 8<hat appears, disappears.8

8 2anne so mar *ae,8 the rest of the room responded. 8<hat is born dies.8

8.hhunne soi gir pare.8 That was !adee=s Fuavery old voice/ 8<hat is picked up falls again.8

8 )hule so kamlae,8 the listeners finished. 8That which blossoms, fades.8

That went on and on, the simple monotonous melody like a child=s cradlesongG Chulayen told himselfthat it was boring and not at all musically interesting, but somehow his body kept wanting to sway in

time with the singing. 4inally he lowered himself to the cold floor, where he sat with hands clasped on

his bent knees. <ould they never stopI

!mpatience is an error , his tutor had said. Do not allow it to take over your mind . And his mother hadsaid, 8A gentleman may feel impatience, but he never shows it.8

Chulayen tried to still his mind using the techniFues his tutor had shown him, and found that for brief

seconds the music was soothing and not maddeningG for Eust as long as he could keep from thinking

about the past and worrying about the future. Then, Eust as he had learned to endure it, the low chantingstopped. The room full of people sat in a silence so complete that Chulayen found himself listening to

the sound of his own breathing and trying to Fuiet it.

The silence lasted long enough for his legs to prickle with cramp from the unaccustomed positionG then,

again without any signal that he could perceive, people began to stand up and stretch as casually asthough they were awakening from a brief nap. Chulayen stood too, and the people nearest him looked

at him with alarm.

8?e is one of us, children, never fear,8 !adee called out, and came hobbling through the crowd to stand

before him. Chulayen drew breath to speak at last, but she held up one finger and tapped her own lips,so he remained silent.

Chatting in low voices, in twos and threes, the crowd slowly dispersed. Chulayen wondered why theywere so long about itG finally he realied that they were pacing their departure so that there would not

be an obvious flow of people coming out of the building all at one time.

8<hy take such trouble to keep your meetings secretI8 he asked !adee in a low voice, once there wasonly a handful of worshipers dawdling in the room. 8-t is not illegal to follow the -nner 5ight <ay.8

8$erhaps not,8 !adee said drily, 8but it is not e&actly approved of, either.8

8Anusha,8 Chulayen began, and stopped. <hat would he have saidI That he wouldn=t have let Anusha

take up with the cult if he=d known they were so secretive, wouldn=t have let her run such risksI ?e=d

put her into far worse danger by his own thoughtless actions.

8Anusha,8 !adee repeated. he let his wife=s name hang in the air between them.

Chulayen swallowed painfully. 8-9cannot help as you reFuested.8

8*oI +ou thought better, perhaps, of showing yourself to the gentle "ashir and his kindly ArmI8

8?ush, onchai,8 !adee reproved the pretty young man without looking around, 8arcastic speeches

rarely help any but the speaker.8

onchai=s face darkened and he looked down. Chulayen noticed that he was standing by a girl lovelyenough to be his sisterG put onchai=s long dark lashes and sensuous lips on a girl=s face, and you saw

beauty instead of effiminacy. The girl, though obviously )ohini, was dressed better than anyone else



Chulayen had seen in the group9better than anyone he knew, for that matterG the gold embroidery on

her dark red shalin sparkled in the light, and it was belted over matching gathered trousers in a way that

emphasied all her womanly curves. The loose end of the shalin was not drawn over her head,

modestly, but left to trail down her back, so that he could see her large dark eyes and the line ofglittering gold that emphasied the arch of her eyebrows, the perfect oval face and the full lips, all

within a frame of curling black hair that glinted red in the fitful light. he did not drop her eyes at his

gae, either, as a modest woman would, but stared back at him with a challenging look that surprisedhim in so young a girl.

8<hat happened, then, ChulenI8 !adee prompted him gently.

<ith an effort Chulayen took his eyes from the girl, as surprising a figure in that dim basement as if he

had found a statue of )ed )adhana all gilded and decked out for war, and told !adee of his visit to

$undarik Nahin. 8Then, afterwards, - went to resume my work at the !inistry for 5ands and$roperties,8 he said, 8but 5unthanadi said - had been put on leave. he had been told that -=d had a

nervous breakdown from overwork and that - must on no account return to my office before the

4estival of Torches.8

8%&cellentH8 !adee said.

8"ut9the 4estival of Torches is not held until after the first snows. That could be days yet, maybe evenweeks9and - thought you wanted me to listen and learn98

8- did,8 !adee said, 8but hati here has come to us with information that changes everything. <e need

you far more, now, as a guide to the Durgan Caves.8

8The CavesH "ut what98

!adee gestured for hati to Eoin them. he came forward at once, without even a pretence of shynessG but onchai followed her as closely as any brother wishing to protect a modest young sister.

8- am sorry - could not tell you before, indeed - am,8 hati began apologiing to !adee as she came

up, 8but the "ashir is . . . he wishes me by him at all times, and when he cannot have me by his side -

am watched. ?e is Eealous beyond reason. -t was not until today - could get away, on the e&cuse ofvisiting my mother, and - must be back at her house before the guards who escorted me become

suspicious.8

8+es, yes, you e&plained all that,8 !adee said absently, but her gae softened as she looked at the girl.

8-t is a hard task the gods have set you, hati, and you are a good brave girl. +ou should not have hadto take the risk of coming to meG from now on one of us will be by your mother at all times, to take any

messages you bring or send.8

8- was there,8 onchai interrupted, 8but she would come with me.8

8- needed the comfort of the meeting,8 hati said simply. 8The 5ight does not shine brightly in the"ashir=s palace.8

8The 5ight is within you as it is within us all, hati.8 !adee smoothed the girl=s wavy dark hair away

from her forehead. 8"ut onchai should take you back now, as soon as you have told this young man

what you told me before the meeting.8

8%nvoys from the coast9from Balentin,8 hati said, 8suspecting that the "ashir has been buyingoutlander magic to help him conFuer all around @dara. And one of them is from the stars, and she is a

demon who speaks all languages and knows all things and who can call down fire from the sky, and

will do so, if she learns about the brainfarms. o the "ashir has sent his servant -ndukanta Dagat to6harampal, to persuade the young Bakil to imprison the envoys as they pass through his territory9he



will ask no more than that, but his real task is to kill them once the Bakil has taken their weapons. "ut

in case they should escape the trap at 6harampal, the "ashir has ordered all the brainfarms in @dara

cleansed. The only one remaining will be in the Durgan Caves, where even if it is discovered he will be

able to claim it was Thamboon=s doing and unknown to him. #h, and all the prisoners waitingassignment were sent away last night, to be farmed in Thamboon.8

Chulayen blinked in astonishment. The report had been delivered so Fuickly and concisely, as if an

e&perienced man had taken over the pretty little girl=s bodyH And now that she was finished, she didn=t babble on, but stood Fuietly waiting for !adee=s response.

Those were matters he could think about. The rest9the content of hati=s report9was full of mysteries

he did not want to unravel. A terrible fear possessed himG he felt a cold sweat all over his body. -f he

stayed here what would he learnI

<here else could he go, nowI

8Thank you, hati,8 !adee said. he laid her hand on the girl=s head again. 8+ou are a good brave girland the 5ight will be with you. he had best return now, onchai. +ou will take care she is not seen

until she is safe in your mother=s houseI8

8<ith my life,8 onchai promised, showing no trace of his usual petulance.The two slipped away into the shadows at the back of the meeting room and seemed to vanish like

smoke into clouds. Chulayen blinked again. There were more ways than he had realied through thismae of underground rooms.

8+ou see, Chulen,8 !adee said now to him, 8we need someone who knows the world, who can travel

to meet these outlander envoys and warn them before they are taken up by the Bakil=s men. And then

you must tell them that they will find all the evidence they need at the Durgan Caves, and guide themthere. +ou understandI8

8*o9- understand nothing ,8 Chulayen said. 8now the worldI - have traveled no farther than

Thamboon9what was Thamboon9and only once.8

8+ou went there on pilgrimage to the Durgan Caves,8 !adee said. 8Can you find the way again, withoutasking for helpI8

8- think so.8

8Bery well, then there is no problem with that part. As for intercepting the envoys before they reach

6haramvai, that is simple enough. +ou have only to go on pilgrimage again. Tell your neighbors, and

anyone you meet on the way, that you have decided to make a visit to the holy shrines at the mouth ofthe BaiseeEara, to purify yourself of the demons which possessed you yesterday.8

8"ut that is at the coast,8 Chulayen pointed out.

!adee raised her eyes to the low ceiling. 8Jive me 5ight,8 she said in a decidedly unprayerlike voice.

8To reach the coastal shrines from @dara, Chulen, you must first go through the ukhana $ass, thenfollow the 6haramEara down until it meets the BaiseeEara. *ow, how do you think the outlanders will be coming upcountry from BalentinI8

8#hH8

8+ou are not known to be connected with our group, you have Eust suffered a tragic loss, you have been

told to go on leave, and you have the funds to make a private pilgrimage if you wish. -t=s perfectH8

8And9when - meet the outlanders9what thenI8



!adee raised her eyes again, briefly, but said nothing. 8<hy, you will tell them that they must go to the

Durgan Caves, not into @dara. +ou will tell them that their lives are in danger here and that they will

find all the evidence they want in the Caves.8

8%vidence of whatI And in any case,8 Chulayen finally found words for one of the problems buing inhis head like angry bees, 8- am sorry about the outlanders, but - must stay here until you help me to free

Anusha and my children. Then, yes, - will go anywhere you ask.8

!adee looked at him with pity. 86id you not understand what else hati saidI They have been taken

already.8

8- know they=ve been taken, the !inistry for 5oyalty is holding them. That=s why - need your help.8

8*o, the Arm of the "ashir does not have them anymore,8 !adee interrupted. 8That is the other thinghati came to tell us. All the prisoners the Arm held9 all , Chulen9have been sent to the Durgan Caves.

The convoy left last night, while we were still tending the wounded from the riot.8

8Then -=ll follow them.8

8And do e&actly whatI Chulen, be sensible. <e have people in the mountains as well. -f there is achance to distract the guards on the convoy and free some of the prisoners, they will take itG and they

will do better without your interference. They would not trust someone coming from a !inistry, youknow.8

8+ou could send onchai9or anyone they do know9with me, to tell them to trust me, that my ownfamily is in the convoy,8 Chulayen argued with a growing sense of helplessness.

8+ou would be no help there,8 !adee said. 8-f they can be freed in that way, so much the better. "ut

you should know that very few escape in the mountains. +our best chance is to find the outlanders and

lead them to the Durgan Caves. <hen they see what is being done there, they will call down their skyfires to destroy the "ashir.8

8<hat, because the pretty crystals are being ruined by saltpeter minersI8 Chulayen laughed. 8- do not

think the outlanders consider those caves a holy spot as you -nner 5ight cultists do.8

!adee looked so sad that his laughter died. 8Chulen, Chulen. 6o you still believe the "ashir meant to

use those caves for mining saltpeterI +ou yourself proved that would make no sense.8

8Then what does he use them forI8

8There are molds and slimes growing in the sea caves that the outlanders value for their magics,8!adee said. 8The outlander Bhana Bekhatan, may his light be e&tinguished for all time, has found a

way to cultivate the same things in our mountain caves.8

-t took Chulayen a moment to recognie the alapriyanied name of 5orum van Bechten, the "arents

)esident in @dara.

8They will hardly obEect to that9he is doing them a favorH8

8They will obEect to the way he farms the mold,8 !adee said grimly. 8+ou have not been told about

that yetG we feared it would upset you too much for you to serve us.8

8*othing will upset me too much to try and save my familyH8

8- hope that is true,8 !adee said. And she e&plained the brainfarms to him.



Chapter Twel"e

Tha%boon on Kalapriya#n good days9or rather, in good hours, for there was neither day nor night in this glittering prison9 he knew who he was and how he had come to be here, but without any of the fear and revulsion that

had led him to strike out against his Eailers when they brought him here and he saw what he was to become. $erhaps, he speculated in those lucid times, the part of him that felt emotions had been e&cised by the saw that cut through the top of his skull. #r perhaps there were drugs in the food to keep them

all calm. There would certainly have been much more wastage if the prisoners flailed in their chains

and flung themselves about in fear and agony. %ven the ignoramuses who kept watch over the caves

could understand that much, though they had no idea of how to keep a sterile environment that woulddelay infections and subseFuent deaths. -f van Bechten had troubled himself to oversee the caves he

would probably have been much more efficient, but the )esident never showed himself in the

brainfarms and the guards were so ignorant that most prisoners died after only a few days of beingfarmed and harvested.

<hich was, probably, a mercy9e&cept that it meant the "ashir=s need for fresh, living bodies was

never sated, and so there must be more wars and more of his own people taken by the !inistry for

5oyalty and more suffering. <hen would it endI <hen he ran out of bodies to useI And when wouldthat beI After he had enslaved all alapriya save for the coastal enclavesI omewhere, sometime, this

insane e&pansion must halt. The growing realm of Jreater @dara would come up against the borders of

those lands which were under the protection of the "arents Trading ociety and their private army, andthen it would be impossible to keep the "ashir=s use of outlander weapons a secret, and somebody must

stop him.

?e had hoped to bring observers from )eerval to witness the prohibited technology being more and

more openly flaunted in the "ashir=s army, observers with the power to enforce the 4ederation=s rulesabout cultural contamination even against a world as rich and powerful as "arents. *ow he despaired

of that ever happening. $ossibly the "ashir had intercepted the coded letters he sent out with a trader.!ore likely the letters had come into the hands of whoever was supplying the "ashir with weapons,

and had been destroyed in Balentin. #r if they=d reached )eerval, the bureaucrats there had dismissedhis concerns as they had so many times before. *o culturally protected community was wholly free

from contamination where it came into contact with outlanders, and he had always reported even the

most minor breaches of 4ederation rules, and usually the best response he got was a bland form letterthanking him for his concern. They probably would not see that this was different , this was important .

?e hadn=t realied, himself, Eust how bad this case wasG because he couldn=t figure out how the "ashir

was paying whoever supplied him, what was the benefit for the "arentsians who had to be involved in

smuggling the weapons upcountry.

*ow he himself was part of the payment, and he knew that supplying prohibited technology to an-ndigenous Tribal Territory was the smallest part of the whole monstrous scheme, and that the profits

were incalculable. -t might even be that )eerval was involved, that everybody who knew deliberately

turned a blind eye to the flouting of regulations and destruction of a culture. There was enough profithere9and enough benefit, even to people who=d never even heard of alapriya9to make that entirely

plausible.

?e shifted restlessly until the chains that held him sitting upright, back to the wall, clanked and drew a

suspicious glance from the bored guard. At least he could see the guard today. ome days the man=sfigure was haloed with red and orange flamesG some days the entire cave disappeared behind waves of



pulsating color. That, like the days of merciful confusion when he did not know who and where he was,

was probably a sign that the inevitable infections were at last taking hold. ?e=d heard the guards

speculating on why he=d lasted so much longer than most prisonersG they thought he might be protected

by powerful outlander demons. -t was as close as their primitive worldview could come to what hehimself thought the more reasonable hypothesis/ that the bacteria which caused infections in this world

were not Fuite accustomed to his outlander blood, found him a less tasty snack than the native

alapriyans.?e wondered, vaguely, if the same thing was true of the slime being carefully nurtured on parts ofhimself that he could not see. $robably not. There=d never been any trouble getting the =mats to mimic

any patient=s brain functionG whatever they did worked Fuite as well on outlanders as it did on

alapriyans. And the technician, when he visited, seemed pleased enough with what he harvested. Atleast the stuff would go to somebody who really needed it. $robably at a hugely inflated blackmarket

price, to someone who would never Fualify for a =mat transplant under )eerval=s stringent rationing

systemG that was a logical conseFuence of the whole schemeG but nobody took a transplant who didn=tneed it. -t should be some comfort to reflect that there was a good outcome to this diabolical scheme.

The part of his mind that was capable of feeling comfort seemed as dead as that which should have felt

fear. All that was left him, now, was this oddly dispassionate reasoningG and waiting for the infections

in his open head to gain ground and give him release at last. ?e could tell that his brain was notfunctioning as well as earlier. ome days he forgot how to speakG other times were filled with the

flickering redandyellow fire of visual hallucinations, or discordant music grating on his auditory

nerves. "ut how could you measure the failure of your own brainI The progression itself interferedwith your ability to measure it. )eminded him of some scientific parado& he=d learned in school,

something about the act of measuring something influencing the thing you measured. #nly this wasn=t

the same, he didn=t think. That was the trouble, he didnt think anymore, not properly. !oments of

clarity floating like islands in the fog. And now the auditory hallucinations were starting again, screamsand wails of lost spirits and something eerily like the crying of a child.

*ot hallucinations. ?e blinked, thankful that he retained that much control out of his eyes, and

concentrated on the dimness at the far end of the cave as if by sheer will he could make the indistinctfigures emerging from the tunnel shine out bright and clear. "rown faces, short slender forms clothed incolorless rags, limping and clinging to one another. "ut indisputably real G his hallucinations never

showed such details as the livid scar on that young man=s face, the dirty hair tumbling in elflocks

around the old woman=s face, the long black braids of the little girls who clung to her knees. As theymoved forward, stumbling, into the dim intersecting spheres of light cast by the oil lamps on the walls,

the woman stood straighter and he saw that she was not old at allG Eust e&hausted and in despair. he

was taller than the other prisoners, and the sharp slant of her cheekbones marked a lineage of pure)udhrani blood. !ust be a political, thenG most of those brought here were )ohini 8criminals8 or

prisoners of war from the recent conFuest of Thamboon.

8A hard Eourney, @dakaI8 the cavern guard remarked to the man in !in5oy uniform who held the end

of the chain binding the prisoners one to another.

8?ard enough.8 The !in5oy man spat into the shadows at his feet. 8Jot ambushed by a bunch ofraggedyass )ohini bandits, first night out. They grabbed two before we cut them down. ?ad to kill the

prisoners too. 6amned waste. -=d hoped to bring the bandits here alive to add to your little =farm,= but

those )ohini fools never know when to stop fighting.8 ?e Eerked his head at the tall woman who stoodat the head of the line, her face a mask of death. 8?er baby got killed in the fight.8

The cavern guard shrugged. 8*ot much loss there. ids never live long. <hose are these brats, thenI8

?e indicated the shrinking girlchildren.



8#h, they=re hers too. $icked the lot of them up at their home. eems the father=d been making trouble,

but he=s got powerful protectorsG so instead of taking him, we took the family and let him know he

wouldn=t see them again unless he behaved himself.8 @daka grinned. 8*ot that he=ll want to see them,

once we cut them and start farming their heads . . . but there=s no need to go into those little details.8

8+ou brought rations for them, - hopeI8

8ome. -t=s the devil of a chore, hauling food up here, and for whatI They all die in a few days

anyway.8

8*ot all.8 The guard turned so that he could see his whole face. 8That one there98 he Eerked his chin

89he=s lasted two weeks since we started using him for a breeder. And that was after a spell in your palatial underground residenceH Anyway, we=re supposed to keep feeding them as long as they can

swallow. 5ess wastage that way.8

@daka shrugged. 8<ell, it won=t take much to feed this lot. <e had some bad weather after the bandit

attack9early storms9and the way some of them are coughing, frankly, -=m surprised they made it upthe trails this far. -=ll lay a doen tulai that half of them don=t survive the cutting.8

8!ake it two doen,8 said the cavern guard, 8enough to pay for a good night=s drinking when - go off

duty, and you=re on. <e=ve had a lot of practice setting them up by now. All you have to do is make surethey can=t move when you=re going through the skull9that=s the part that hurts, see9and then once thehead=s open, you can cut a little bit in the right place and they dont move much. That outlander showed

us the way of it.8

o that was why everybody was so stillH The traitor had showed them how to inEure the motor corte& in

Eust the right place to inhibit all voluntary movement below the neck. The chains were only to holdthem upright, not to stop people thrashing around. #rlando !ontoyasana blinked furiously, trying to

hold that moment of understanding in his mind, feeling with sick despair that he had learned this much

before, and forgotten it, and learned and forgotten again. $robably he had. %verything went away in thefoggy periods. <hy did he even tryI ?e was a dead manG there was no escape from this place, and the

infections that claimed the other prisoners would eventually kill him too.

Because my understanding is all ! have left . ?e clutched it as a starving man would clutch a crust of

bread, knowing it wasn=t enough, but still feeling it as infinitely precious. As the !in5oy guardcompleted the paperwork and other formalities of handing over his prisoners, #rlando !ontoyasana

had a glimmer of something else he might be able to save, at least for a few days.

8!ind you give me a fair count of living bodies after the cutH8 @daka called as he left. 8<e=ll settle up

when - bring the ne&t lot in. 6evils take you, -=ll double it again if you keep them all alive till thenH -=lleven say, all but the children9even you won=t be able to make them lastH8 ?e laughed heartily, clearly

not thinking he risked much by the promise.

8"haliniH8 !ontoyasana whispered as soon as the sounds of the departing convoy had died away. The

cavern guard couldn=t hear him over the wails of the new prisoners. ?e tried again, with all the strength

left in his wasted throat. 8"haliniH8

8?ush up, you lot, or -=ll give you something to whine aboutH8 "halini commanded, striking out at

random with the short white cane he carried as a sign of authority. The new prisoners cried, cringed

away from the blows, and fell silent. #nly the tall )udhrani woman did not shrink, even when the canelanded on her. he seemed totally indifferent to all that went on around her, even to the two little girls

trying to hide behind her.

8!a, it=s talking H8 one of the girls whispered, pointing in !ontoyasana=s direction. 8-t=s alive.8



A low moaning began as first one, then another of the bodies chained to the wall began to register the

stares of the new captives. !ontoyasana cursed the incoherent babble of his fellow prisoners and tried

to speak clearly enough to be heard through the noise. 8"halini, - can help you win that wager. - have

98 outlander science, he was about to say, but changed in time to something that the guard would bemore likely to believe. 8- have strong magics. ee how long -=ve lived hereH <ould you have all these

new bodies last as long, and get your drinking money twice over from @dakaI8 $erhaps he could cast

van Bechten=s instructions about steriliing instruments and keeping the caves clean in terms of rites tocast out demons with fire and boiling water.

"halini struck out with his cane at the prisoners along the wall until they Fuieted, then sFuatted in front

of !ontoyasana. 8Aye, share thy magic, then, outlander demonH8

8At a price9nothing good comes without a price.8

8<hat can you use, dead manI A little more doyEuice to help you sleep away the hoursI8

8*othing for me. "ut keep the little ones back from the cutting.8

8-t=s as much as my life is worth, if the Arm of the "ashir should hear of it.8

8+ou said yourself, children hardly last long enough to be worth the work of preparing them. And these

are girls9weaker, to begin with, and they look sickly.8 Actually they looked no worse than one woulde&pect of terrified children who had Eust been dragged away from everything they knew. And weren=t

girlchildren constitutionally stronger than boysI "ut it didn=t matterG "halini looked half convincedalready. 8-t=s not as if they were even part of your wager,8 !ontoyasana pointed out. 8eep the rest

alive longer, and . . . and . . .8 ?is mind wandered, and a momentary numbness assailed his tongue.

<hat had he been talking aboutI A child cried, and the mother stooped and gathered it into her arms,and he remembered. 8eep the rest alive longer, win your wager and get the "ashir=s praise for serving

him well. #r cut them all now and kill half of them for lack of the9the strong magics - know. -t=s all

one to me.8

8Aye, that it likely is, to a dead man talking,8 the guard agreed, without malice. 8"ut two is overmuchrisk. They=d be playing and Fuarreling and get themselves noticed. Tell me your charms, and -=ll keep

one child with me9for a time.8

8As long as you canI8 There might yet be a miracle. )eerval might find them and intercede. -n all

probability he was buying the one girl only a few days of life in terrified misery. "ut if she were oldenough to understand, she would take any chance of life, however slender.

8As long as - can,8 "halini agreed. 8Jods know she=ll eat little enough, a scrawny little thing like that.8

8<hichI8

8?ow should - careI 5et the mother decide.8 And before !ontoyasana could gather his wandering wits

enough to protest this casual cruelty, "halini stood up and called, 8+ouH )udhrani traitor woman, one ofyour girls goes with you now, and the other stays with me. <hich do you keepI8

The girl already in the woman=s arms redoubled her wailing and clung with the force of hysteria to her

mother=s shoulders. 8There, there, *eeta,8 the woman said. 8-=ll not leave you.8

8 !ll stay with the ugly man,8 said the other girl distinctly, sFuaring her thin shoulders. 8-=m not afraid.8

?er voice Fuavered on the last word.

"halini grinned down at !ontoyasana. 8ee thereI They choose for themselves. All right, all of youH8?e raised his voice. 8Traitor scum, down this passage. -=ll see to you in a minute. +ou, girl, stay with

me.8 ?e grasped the child=s wrist to keep her with him. !ontoyasana closed his eyes against the

heartbreak of the mother=s face.



8*ow, outlander,8 "halini muttered, 8tell me your charmsH8

Chapter Thirteen

Re&er"alAnnemari didn=t bother to look up and down the hall before trying the door of the Cassilis Clinic=s

business center. <hether anybody was there to see her going in was really beside the pointG it wentwithout saying that the organiers of this satinsmooth operation would have spycams installed in any

place they wanted to watch. ?er only hope was to act like somebody with nothing to hide and hope that

they assumed her to be an arrogant rich lady who thought she was entitled to go anywhere she wanted.uch behavior shouldn=t draw too much attentionG from what she=d seen of the clinic=s clientele, most if

not all of them were rich assholes.

The door was unlockedG that was the good news. The bad news was that it was unlocked because

somebody was working late. A slim girl with a really e&cellent strand Eob of alternating silver and black

hair, tapping a deskvid and muttering imprecations under her breath, looked around at the sound of thedoor opening.

8<e=re not really open right now, ?onored 4ru,8 she said, with a stiff artificial smile that clashed with

her frowning brows.

8#h, don=t let me disturb you,8 Annemari said brightly. 8- Eust wanted to use one of your screens for amoment. <ould you believe it, - was in such a frale about getting my darling boy here that -

absolutely forgot to pick up any supplies from my personal colorist. -f - don=t have him send some toner

out immediately -=ll be an absolute fright before the week=s outG this color has to be refreshed almostdaily.8 he passed a hand through her silverblond locks and thanked the gods that had given her a

younglooking face and prematurely greying hair. The silvery tint was so becoming against her smooth,

creamy skin that *unia ?irvonen was always accusing her of having had it done on purpose to makeherself look younger by contrast.

8There=s a screen in your room for personal transmissions, ?onored 4ru,8 the girl said.

8- know, but the silly thing isn=t working. - can=t even get a local connection for room serviceH8 -t had

taken Annemari half an hour of delicate fiddling to remove the back of the deskvid in her room, break

two vital connections, and insert a dead moth as a possible e&planation for the minor damage. Jettingthe cover back on had been the hardest part of the Eob.

8#h. +ou want me to see if - can get a tech out to fi& it tonightI8 the girl offered reluctantly, glancing at

her own screen.

8#h, no, there=s absolutely no hurry.8 Annemari had counted on the tech support staff working regularhours and had timed her own visit for well after hours. 8-f you=d Eust be a dear and let me slip in and usea screen for one teeny moment to reach AristideI8

The name of )eerval=s top stylist and colorist worked its magic on the girl. As her eyes widened,

Annemari silently blessed *unia ?irvonen for keeping up with all the fashion nonsense that bored

Annemari herself to tears.

8+ou go to AristideI - should have guessed, nobody else could get that color9it=s really wonderful,such a pale gold without looking grey at all.8



Annemari had always thought it was grey. *ames really were magic.

8Clients aren=t really supposed to use these screens . . .8 the girl added reluctantly.

8#h, fiddlesticks, - won=t do any harm. -=ll Eust slip in and out so Fuietly you=ll never know -=d been

thereH8 !ore to the point, the inFuiry Annemari really planned to make wouldn=t raise any red flags if it

came from a screen in the business center. he was perfectly capable of hacking through the clinic=sfirewalls to get the information from her room screen, but she wasn=t Fuite sure she could do so without

tripping hidden alarms.

8- sure wish ! could afford a consult with Aristide,8 the girl hinted. 8"ut even if - could, - hear he won=t

even take appointments from somebody who isn=t already on his personal list.8

Annemari smiled sweetly. 8#h, you can always get around that sort of thing. -f the right personrecommends you, -=m sure he=ll make time for you. <hat=s your name, and when=s your ne&t day offI8

8Denna . . . Denna "erg, and -=m off every fifthday . . . Can you really do thatI8

8-t won=t be any trouble at all,8 Annemari said, Fuite truthfully. -f anybody went to the trouble to setting

something up with Aristide, it would have to be *uniaG he=d never even met Annemari. 8And as for thecosts, why don=t we Eust add it in to my clinic billI8 And %vert would pay that . ?er friends were

certainly coming through for her in style9even if they didn=t know Eust how much style, yet.

he took a chair facing the now helpful girl, so that Denna would be unable to see e&actly what she was

doing, and tapped the deskvid to activate it. As she=d hoped, these screens automatically gave everyuser full system privileges. 5ousy securityG if Cassilis Clinic was still in business ne&t year, she=d have

to suggest to one of her friends in the private sector that they demonstrate the loopholes and bid for a

complete overhaul of the system. "ut for now, the clinic owners= carelessness made her life

incomparably easier. -t took only seconds to bring up and memorie the information she wantedG thenshe sent a message to Aristide after all, so that the log would have something to show if anybody

checked it. The colorist wouldn=t have any idea why he was getting urgent reFuests for toner from

someone who wasn=t even one of his clientsG she added a suggestion that he check with *unia?irvonen, and hoped *unia would pick up from there.

8All doneH8 she announced brightly, rising to go.

8And . . . my appointmentI8

8?e=ll have to see when he can work you in. #therwise it might be months,8 Annemari lied. 8-=ll let you

know when something is arranged.8

8- could probably switch shifts with one of my friends, if he=s got something free on another day.8

8Jood, that=ll make it easier. ee you soonH8 The longer she stayed chatting with Denna "erg, the betterthe chance that somebody a little more intelligent would show up and want to know what she was

doing hereG Cassilis Clinic security couldn=t be that bad. Annemari slipped away with a few more

promises to let Denna know as soon as Aristide could fit her in. -f the information she=d Eust gotten offthe system screen was correct, she had Eust a short time to make it to her ne&t destination9and first she

had to look in on *iklaas.

86oing all rightI8 she asked, probably unnecessarily. *iklaas was sipping something icy and lemon

colored through a transparent straw that went through several acrobatic loops between the flask and hislips, and watching one of those disgusting war vids that filled the room with booms and bangs and

screams.

84ine,8 *iklaas waved a languid hand to acknowledge his mother=s presence.



he sniffed the air suspiciously. 8<hat=s in that flaskI +ou know you=re not supposed to98

85ittle muscle rela&ant, s=all. *ice nurse brought it. They=re taking me down for scanning prett= soon,8

*iklaas slurred. 8aid they want me nice and calm first.8

8o soonH8 !aybe she should stay with him and catch up on her other plan later.

8+=can=t come,8 *iklaas said when she mentioned that possibility. 8Told me . . . restricted area . . . near

surgery, y=see.88+ou mean they won=t even let your mother inI8 Annemari put one hand to her throat, fingering the

ornate necklace she wore, and then placed her palm on *iklaas=s shoulder. he sighed as if in

resignation. 8<ell then, darling, maybe -=ll try out the spa facilities while you=re busy, and meet you for

dinner after the tests.8 he went behind the head of *iklaas=s bed, dropped her silky grey tunic and pants on the floor, and wrapped herself in one of the fluffy pink robes provided by the clinic. *o time

to hang anything upG she had only minutes now to reach her destination.

Annemari had to pass her right hand through a palm scanner to open the door to the )eEuvenating

Chemical oak Therapy )oom. -nside she found a small, steamy tiled room with a circular tub ofgreenish gunk bubbling away in the center. Annemari hung up her robe and groped through the steam

to dip a cautious foot in the tub. The stuff wasn=t all that hotG there must be subsurface air Eets makingthe bubbles. -t stung her skin, but not too badly.

he let out a small sigh of relief as the steam cleared enough to show her that there was only one other person in the tub, a small woman with a cloud of dark curls surrounding an oliveskinned oval face.

The schedule she=d sneaked a look at in the office had been accurate, then. Annemari nodded to her

companion, found a comfortably curved bench under the surface of the bubbling gunk, and sank slowlyinto what the Cassilis Clinic described as their reEuvenating chemical soak. After the first sting it wasn=t

bad at allG more stimulating than actually painful.

8This is really Fuite pleasant,8 she said to the other woman. 8$erhaps -=ll sign up for a course of regular

treatments while -=m here.8 he tried to trace a message on the surface of the mud, but the aerating bubbles erased the lines as fast as her finger could move.

8#h, yes, it=s wonderful for the skin, and you feel so fresh and rela&ed afterwardH8 the other woman

babbled. 8Aren=t you here for the treatments, thenI8

8*o, - brought my son for some . . . rehabilitation therapy. - hear they do miracles with hopeless cases

here.8

8-=ve heard that too,8 said the other woman. 8"ut as long as you=re here, you really ought to take

advantage of the facilities yourself. -=m doing art therapy after this. Jood for the nerves, you know.

!odern life is so stressful, it=s wonderfully rela&ing to do simple work with your hands.8

8ounds good,8 Annemari said casually. 8<ill anyone obEect if - Eoin youI8

8*o, Eust give the palm scanner your hand and it=ll record that you=ve Eoined the group and put thecharge on your bill. Those scanners are wonderful, they let the clinic staff keep track of all the clients

all the time and if you don=t remember what=s ne&t on your treatment schedule, or can=t find the room,

they send a staff member to guide you. o restfulH8

Annemari nodded to show she had taken in the information, and lay back to enEoy the aerating bubblesand the stimulating chemical skin bath for the few minutes before her companion indicated that it was

time to move on to the Art Therapy )oom. After showering they found fresh pink terry paEamas laid

out for them9two pairs, and in the right siesG the palm scanner had done its work.

8+ou=ll really like art therapy,8 Annemari=s new friend said cheerfully as they paced down the corridor.



8-t=s very freeing, you Eust e&press yourself with great splashes of color and draw whatever you want,

and it=s amaing what messages come to you. -=m Thecla $artheni, by the way.8

8Annemari ilvan.8 They had reached the art roomG Annemari and 8Thecla8 Eoined the line of pinkclad

ladies passing their hands through the palm scanner and kept up a bright meaningless chatter until theywere stationed side by side with drawing screens and a pile of art supplies.

8These screens are supposed to be wonderful for working out ideas,8 8Thecla8 said. 8+ou Eust trace out

your design and indicate the medium effects you want to apply9pastels or oils or whatever9and you

get a nice clean printout with no blots or mistakes. "ut to me it=s Eust not the same as getting your handsin the actual medium, you knowI Call me oldfashioned, but - really like the primitive act of making

colored marks on paper, like this. he scribbled Anything on the screens can be read by the central

monitor , held her paper pad so that Annemari could read it, and Fuickly covered up the writing with a

scrawl of energetic dark blue spirals.

8- think you=re right,8 Annemari said, 8the real therapeutic effect is in working with your hands.8

.alandra, why havent you reported in& And what brought you here& -t was easy to cover up her light

pastel writing with a crude spring rainbow.

8That=s right, you=re really getting the hang of itH8 *o chance to report. <e forgot to give Thecla=s

identity administrator privileges. Am - glad you=re hereH Can you get me central database privilegesI -want to download this place=s construction permit blueprints and anything else on record. There=s a lot

of space unaccounted for9places we=re not allowed to go. All that reFuired a vigorous e&ecution of a

cityscape in glowing colors, followed by a muttered imprecation, ripping the paper off the pad, anddropping the crumpled page into a recycler that hummed into action, instantly reducing the paper to an

indistinguishable mass of bright pigments and cellulose shreds.

- might be able to get some information directly. "ut this is going to take forever. -sn=t there any place

around here we can talk safelyI Annemari stared at her own paper, sighed, then tore up the sheet anddropped it into the recycler. 8- Eust can=t make this picture come out rightH8 she said aloud for the

benefit of the art therapist, who was looking their way with a frown of concern.

4or the rest of the 8art therapy8 hour Annemari and Calandra chatted out loud about nothing in particular and covered paper with brightly colored shapes, none of which they recycled, Eust in case the8therapist8 should want to inspect their work. Afterward Calandra invited Annemari to Eoin her in a

healthful stroll in the clinic gardens. 8- have a free recreation hour now, if you=re not scheduled for

anythingI8

8- don=t have a schedule,8 Annemari said as they paced along a soft path of closecropped grass between flowering hedges. 8-=m Eust here with *i9with my son. ?e=s the one who really needs the

clinic treatments. They more or less told me to run away and play while he was having the preliminary

tests done. -=m not even allowed back in the area where the testing happens.8

8$oor little boy,8 Calandra cooed. They came to a branch in the path and she turned to the left, away

from the attractive fountain playing at the end of the righthand path. 8<ill he be scared without youI88Joodness, no, he=s nearly seventeen. !ore likely to be embarrassed by my presenceH8

8<hat lovely flowersH8 Calandra e&claimed, pointing at a nondescript shrub with small puce blossoms.

85et=s break a teensy rule and get a closer look at them.8 he hopped over the low shrubs bordering the path and led Annemari across the grass. 8)ight here,8 she said in a lower voice Eust as they reached the

shrub, 8there=s a spot none of their monitors cover.8

8?ow did you9oh.8 Annemari nodded as Calandra tapped the side of her head. 8- may not have all the

downloaded files -=d like, but my scanners are still working. <e can talk here, but not for longG there=s a



limit to how long even a couple of total idiots would spend admiring this filthy bush. *ow fill me in.

Are you really going to get *iklaas a =mat implant hereI They charge an arm and a couple of legs, you

know.8

8%vert Cornelis transferred enough into my account to cover the charges,8 Annemari said. 8"ut - stilldon=t know where they=re getting the bacteriomats. Are they stolen from the "arents Trading ociety=s

stockI8

Calandra shook her head. 8-=m almost sure not. <hat led me here was a =mat transport canister

addressed to the Clinic. -t wasn=t a "T canister9for what that=s worth. "ut it was coming offalapriya. -=ve been trying to find out more, but they=ve got most of my time so scheduled - hardly have

a chance to snoop. - checked in as Thecla $artheni with a case of nervous prostration brought on by too

many highstress social activities. 4ortunately they don=t do a really thorough workup on the public

side clients. - must have appeared convincingly stressed outG they took one look at me and assigned anutritionist, an e&ercise counselor, art therapy, and daily chemical soaks. - may not find out much, but

-=ll sure be healthy when we get out of here.8

8<hy TheclaI #h, well, - suppose you wouldn=t want to use your own -6 here, they might check and

find out you=re a 6iplo assigned to my office,8 Annemari worked out. 8"ut you traveled here under the

$artheni -6.88The Calandra Bissi -6 is compromised,8 Calandra said. 8omebody tried to kill me on Tasman.8

8TasmanI *ot alapriyaI8

8- never even reached alapriya.8

8"ut98

8-=m telling you, the Tasman smugglers were following me from the moment - got there. <hatever=sgoing on, that end of the investigation has been well and truly leaked. And what=s more, somebody

among the smugglers is a good enough hacker to recode the partition locks on the lower levels of

Tasman9either that, or my data download for Tasman was badly out of date. - had to deduce one of the

partition lock codes from scratch to get away from those creeps.8

8- didn=t think you could do that.8

8+ou probably couldn=t,8 Calandra said, 8but - did Cryptography and Ciphers for my optional at the

chool. #f course, it helps that my augmented retinal implants let me scan the keys for recent

fingerprintsG that cut down on the number of combinations - had to try. till, it was a near thing. Thoseare very determined people. And very unpleasant.8 he massaged one hand with the other as though

rubbing away a painful memory.

8And they caught youI8

8+es, but they didn=t keep me. And they think - spaced myself to get away, so they didn=t follow me

back here, either.8Annemari felt her head whirling. 8<hy would they think you=d do thatI8

8They were going to torture me,8 Calandra said calmly. 8They gave me a little taste on account, andthought - was scared witless.8

8- put you in that much dangerI8

8Annemari. -t=s part of the Eob. +ou didn=t think =mat smugglers were going to be nice people, did youI

4orget about itG - have. *ow, can you sign on from your room screen and authorie Thecla $artheni toaccess )eerval databasesI "ecause if you=ll do that, - can probably get enough data to map out e&actly



where the concealed areas of the clinic are and where we need to be snooping.8

8$robably,8 Annemari said. ?er head was whirling. 8<ait a minute, there=s something else we need to

clear up first. Somebody showed up on alapriya as you, right on schedule. he toured a =mat cave and

attended an official dinner and ball and disappeared that night. -=d been assuming that was you, that youfound out something on alapriya that sent you back here.8

Calandra shook her head. 8*ope. Told you, - never even got that far.8

8Then who was impersonating youI8

8- don=t know,8 Calandra said, rather grimly, 8but from what you say, she isn=t doing it anymore. "eing

Calandra Bissi doesn=t seem to be a healthy occupation these days. *ow what about the authoriationI -

feel half blind without my data accesses.8

8That=s easy. -=ll send Deppe a list of stuff to do while -=m out of the office, a long list, and somewhere in

the middle -=ll put in a general statement about giving all 6iplo -6s full security privileges. That way

your name won=t show if they=re intercepting my email, and the actual access permission will happen

completely offscreen as far as the clinic=s concerned. And we can probably find out a little more aboutthe reserved areas right now, a little more directly.8

8?owI8

Annemari grinned. 8- slipped a spyder under *iklaas=s skin before they took him off for testing. +ou

think -=d let them wheel my boy off to parts unknown with no way for me to track himI8

K K K

-n a locked, soundproof room deep in the surgical section of the Cassilis Clinic, Tomi #ksanen moanedand twitched. An aide checked the tubes that kept nutrients flowing through his unconscious body

while his primary neurosurgeon conferred with the head of the clinic.

8-t can=t be the bacteriomats. -=ve done three hundred installations now and hardly any have failed.8

8To be precise,8 said his superior in a chill, knifeedged voice, 8in the first year of operation, a five

percent failure rate was reported, mostly from implants that failed to mesh with the recipient=s nervoussystem as desired. All dissatisfied clients were of course given a full refund, which was a nontrivial cut

in our profit margin. The reported rate of such failures in this year has been less than two percent.8

8+ou seeI -t=s getting better, not worse.8

8"ut there have been over thirty cases this year of total system failure, like this one. And that=s Eust theones that have been reported back to usG there may be others that the clients concealed for fear of

scandal or investigation.8 The clinic head gestured at Tomi #ksanen=s naked, thrashing body. 8The

clients9or rather, their heirs9are not going to be satisfied with a refund and an apology. Jod of

Chaos, man, the #ksanens alone could close this place downH <hat are you doing with these patientsI8

8- have followed accepted surgical protocols for bacteriomat implantation,8 the surgeon replied stiffly.

8And how many such cases are reported in the literatureI8

8<ell . . .8

8*ever mind hedging,8 the clinic head snapped. 8- can tell you. #one( "ut far too many of our patients

are becoming9like that . 4irst twitching, then fullblown paranoiac insanity, then convulsions, then

coma, then death.8

8+oung #ksanen=s not dead.8



8+et.8 The head of the clinic looked coldly at his chief neurosurgeon. 8-f you want to keep your Eob

here9if you want there to be a clinic to give you this Eob9if you want to stay out of a 4ederation

prison, then - strongly suggest you find a way to reverse whatever error you made in his surgery before

he does die.8

K K K

Annemari and Calandra pressed their ears to the back partition of a storage pantry off the clinic kitchen.

They could hear nothing but occasional anonymous bumps and thuds.

8Are you sure this wall backs up against the surgical sectorI8 Annemari whispered.

8Are you sure the clinic=s construction permit blueprints are accurateI8 Calandra retorted. 8"ecause

that=s what - downloaded and that=s all - have to go on.8

They were both sweaty and somewhat irritable, having moved a number of heavy cases of very boring

health food supplements to get access to the partition. Calandra was especially irritated because

Annemari had kept remarking that if the health food supplement cases were painted pink and placed in

the gym, moving them would be part of the aerobic e&ercise program that Calandra=s alter identity,8Thecla,8 was paying big credits to enEoy.

8- don=t enEoy it,8 Calandra finally told Annemari. 8- look on it as one of the sacrifices - make for my4ederation. And - hope the %arthlady sees to it that the clinic fees aren=t another of the sacrifices -

makeG -=ve poured enough libations to her. - want full reimbursement for every credit these bloodsucking bastards have e&tracted from Thecla=s account.8

8That account was set up with 4ederation funds in the first place, as part of adding realism to your

alternate identity,8 Annemari pointed out.

8#h. )ight. - guess that means - don=t get any of it back, then.8 Calandra sat on a bo& labeled aminoacid fortification e&tract and brooded. 8 =Thecla= should have taken off for an e&otic play world when

she had the chance, instead of risking her life and literally working her butt off for the 4ederation.8

8*onsense,8 Annemari said, 8you=d have been bored in a week at one of those resorts. And your butt

has never looked better.8

8+ou thinkI8

8-9ssh. omeone=s finally saying something.8

-n a single sinuous movement Calandra was off the bo& and had her ear pressed to the partition.

8- can=t make anything out,8 Annemari whispered in disappointment.

8hurrup. ! can.8 Calandra tugged her earlobe once, then again, to initiate the highest possible level of

hearing enhancement. -f anybody shouted now she=d go temporarily deaf . . . but she could hear the

faint creaks of the partition supports, the rustle of a cockroach somewhere beneath the floor, and theFuiet conversation going on in a back office of the clinic=s restrictedaccess sector.

8?as there been any change in the way the =mats are culturedI8

A snort of disgust echoed in Calandra=s enhanced hearing like a minor hurricane. 8?ow would - knowI

- don=t even have any direct contact with van Bechten. +ou know how it works. ?is contacts in Balentin

send the cases to Tasman. That ?ongko gangster on Tasman, Dohnivans, adds his own e&tortionate feesand forwards the cases here. #ne of our dummy corporations buys arms for a perfectly legitimate

shipment to the 4euding <orlds9which Eust happen to lie the far side of a Tasman Eump. <e let

Dohnivans know when the shipment=s coming through, and he diverts it to alapriya. ?ow would !know how van Bechten=s culturing the =matsI ?e=s the only man who=s figured out how to grow them



outside the coastal caves, and that=s as much as we know about his process.8

8All right, but you need to9what=s thatI8

8That8 was the chimetimer on Calandra=s wrist, announcing with increasing urgency that she was late

for her aerobic acrobatics session. he snatched her hand away from the wall and tried to bury the timer

between her thighs, but it was too lateG the chatterers were nervous now, and left the office with nomore discussion. he was disappointed to have to tell Annemari how little she=d learned.

8!ore than you think,8 Annemari said as they restacked the cases of nutritional supplements. The

chimetimer rang at intervals, each time a little louder. 8Can=t you shut that thing offI8

8The rich idiots who come here for the spa environment aren=t supposed to be able to figure out how,8

Calandra informed her. 8- don=t particularly want to blow my second cover, thank you.8

8Then you=d better take one of these.8 Annemari reached into an open bo& and tossed her a stick of

something that looked like seeds rolled up in dehydrated apricot skins.

8<hyI8

86on=t ask, Eust start munchingH8

A moment later two undercooks showed up to investigate the chiming sound. 8Ahah, ladies,8 one ofthem said, wagging a finger, 8trying to sneak in a betweenmeals snackI8

Annemari pouted prettily. 86on=t tell on us, will youI8

8<e won=t do it again,8 Calandra promised. he took another bite of the sticky concoction. 8<hat is

this, anywayI8

8"hlepti seeds and whole grains in apricot leather. Bery nutritious.8 The cook grinned. 8+ou ladies

must be hungry if you=re willing to snack on those. -=m surprised you didn=t go for the chocolate.8

8<e couldn=t find it,8 Annemari said glumly. 8Come on, Ca9Thecla, you=re late for aerobics. <e=d better cut across the gardens.8 he batted her eyelashes at the cook. 8+ou won=t tell on us for that either,

will youI8he managed to look suitably hangdog until they were running past the ugly little shrubs with the puce

blossoms, then stopped and grabbed Calandra=s arm.

8This is a dead spot, rightI8

Calandra nodded.

8#kay9what did you pick upI8

<hen she heard Calandra=s summary of the overheard conversation she hugged her. 8- love you, - love

you, - love you,8 she announced. 8+ou are a pearl among 6iplos. 6o you reali4e what you Eust gave

meI8

8Confirmation that somebody is selling hightech weaponry to alapriya in return for blackmarket bacteriomats. <hich we can=t use because it=s Eust an overheard conversation.8

86idn=t you record itI8

Calandra pushed the soft spot behind her right ear and a series of creaks, rustles, and inaudible voices

came floating eerily out of her tousled black curls. 8- can pick up more with the enhanced hearing thanthe recorder gets,8 she apologied. 8That was due to be checked ne&t time - went in for repairs.8

8#h, well, it doesn=t matter,8 Annemari dismissed the problem of the faulty recording blithely. 8The

important thing is that now we have the information to put the whole plot together and track down the



source of the =mats.8

8<e doI8

8Calandra, think . #rlando !ontoyasana registered a complaint that somebody was introducing

prohibited technology into one of the highland -ndigenous Tribal Territories of alapriya. )ememberI8

8+es, but he=s always complaining about98

8There=d be no need to smuggle hightech weaponry into BalentinG they=ve got the "arents Tradingociety=s private army keeping the coastal alapriyan states under control, and the ociety doesn=t care

what the mountain states do as long as it doesn=t cause them any trouble. #bviously the weapons are

going to an -ndigenous Tribal Territory, and that=s what alerted !ontoyasana.8

8And Eust how is some state hundreds of kilometers inland from the coastal caves going to produce bacteriomats for tradeI8

8- don=t know,8 Annemari said triumphantly, 8but - do know who this van Bechten they were talking

about has to be. ?is name came up in !ontoyasana=s messages. Access your alapriyan political

database downloadH8

Calandra blinked twice, stared in an unfocused way out over the gardens, and then nodded. 8?e=s the"arents )esident for the state of @dara, which has recently . . . e&panded . . . taking over the formerly

independent -TTs of Thamboon and *arumalar. #hH8

8And what do you want to bet the @darans had the help of some offworld weaponry for those

surprisingly easy takeoversI8

8#kay,8 Calandra argued, 8but we still don=t know how van Bechten is getting the =mats. ?e could bestealing them from the "T supplies on the coast.8

8-f the coastal growing facilities were the source, @dara would have no leverage for special treatment

and prohibited technology. "esides, those Eerks you eavesdropped on said he=d figured out how to grow

them outside the coastal caves. <hat we have to do ne&t is very simple.8

8-t isI8

8<e need to go to @dara and ask ?aar van Bechten how he=s doing it. $olitely, of course,8 Annemari

added, 8but with a nice solid backup of 4ederation peacekeeping forces to underline the reFuest.8

8+ou mean ! need to go. +ou can=t leave *iklaas here, especially when he=s scheduled for surgery. And

it=ll take me forever to trek into the mountains.8

8 And your identity is already compromised.8 Annemari frowned. 8+ou might not even get there. -wonder . . . Are there flitters on alapriyaI8

8- doubt it, and even if there were, it would be against 4ederation regs on protected worlds to take them

inland.8

8Then we=ll have to take one with us,8 Annemari said.

Calandra blinked. 8Can you authorie thatI8

8*o, not anymore than - can order the peacekeeping forces to accompany us, but - can hack into%nforcement=s database and forge the orders . . . <ell, really, Calandra, what are you staring forI ?ave

you forgotten - was a technonerd for twenty years before they kicked me upstairs into AdminI <hat

did you think - was doing all that time, data entry and accounting programsI8

8- Eust . . . don=t . . . get it,8 Calandra said faintly. 8+ou=re a ilvan. The ilvans are so ethicalG if you try



to get them to break a rule, they bend it back the other way. +ou wouldn=t even use your position to

Eump *iklaas up the list for a =mat transplant.8

8+ou really don=t get it, do youI That would be unethicalG this is merely illegal. And it=s necessary.8

8-t isI8

86o we know who=s smoothing the path for the Cassilis Clinic on )eervalI8

8#ksanensI8

8Jot to be somebody official in on it as well. @ntil we know who, we daren=t alert anybody. And thesame thing goes for BalentinG we mustn=t depend on the "arents Trading ociety for resources, we have

to take our own.8

8Career suicide,8 Calandra muttered.

8*ot if it works.8

8And if it doesn=t workI8

8-n that case,8 Annemari pointed out, 8the 4ederation=s displeasure will probably be the least of ourworries. *ow come on. <e need to do something about *iklaas and then get going. +ou=d better cut

aerobics.8

Chapter o!rteen

Dhara%pal on Kalapriya<hen the soldiers from 6harampal surrounded them, Jabrel immediately demanded to be takenstraight to their Bakil. ?e went on demanding this, with increasing loudness and firmness, while the

soldiers tied their hands and feet and went through their packs.

8There=s no need to play with those,8 the captain of the troop reproved a young soldier who was

looking with interest at some fibrous plugs that had fallen to the ground when he shook out !aris=s packed clothes.

Jabrel stopped his loud complaints for a moment to listen. ?e recognied what the young recruit had

found, if the captain didn=t.

85ooks like outlander magic to me,8 the soldier said defensively.

8)ed )adhana take you, fool,8 said the captain. 8They=re obviously some of the things women use at,you know, their private times.8

8?uhI8The captain=s face turned dark reddish brown and he pressed his lips together while one of the older

soldiers shouted an offer to take young Barisha aside and e&plain about women to him. 8 5ater , #daka,8

the captain said. 85ater you can take him to a brothel and demonstrate, if you like, but right now we=reto bring these two in unharmed.8 ?e looked reflectively at the red marks on Jabrel=s chin, where

bruises would soon rise. 8)easonably unharmed. *ow put all their outlander stuff back in the packs,

and since you and Barisha are so interested in it, #daka, the two of you can carry them. <e=ll turn theghaya looseG they=ll find good enough graing along the river.8

8<orth good money, those ghaya,8 #daka grumbled, but he followed the captain=s orders.



8Jhaya can=t manage the paths we=re taking,8 the captain said, 8although why - bother to e&plain

anything to you blockheads - do not know.8

?ands bound in front of them, led on short ropes by two soldiers, !aris and Jabrel had a hellishly

uncomfortable stumbling Eourney over mountain paths steeper and narrower than anything !aris, atleast, had encountered before. The captain made no allowance for light or dark, and in the interval

between sunset and moonrise they both collected a number of fresh bruises and scrapes from falling

over rocks and thorn bushes that the locals avoided as if by instinct.

8- want to see the Bakil,8 Jabrel repeated at intervals, whenever the steep scrambling climb left him breath to make the demand.

8That=s up to the Bakil, not to you or me,8 the captain said, reasonably politely, the first five or si&

times.

8?e will be most annoyed to find that his good friend Jabrel %skelinen has been mistreated this way.8

The captain snorted. 8That why he told me to bring his good friend %skelinen at a rope=s endI And the

witch who travels with you, she a buddy of the Bakil=s tooI8

86id he issue his orders personallyI8 Jabrel demanded. 8#r did you have them from someone else9

!inister ansiya, perhapsI 6oes +adleen even know what=s going onI8

8The Bakil, may his beard increase, knows and sees all that is within the bounds of 6harampal,8 the

captain said, but after that he allowed the marching pace to slacken a little and even loosened Jabrel=s bonds so that he could catch himself when he stumbled. 8orry about the witch,8 he said, looking at

!aris, 8but - daren=t take any chances with her .8

Jabrel started to complain again, but the captain interrupted him. 8And if either of you say anything

else, -=m to have you gagged. <e=ve been warned that these outlander witches can corrupt honest men=sthoughts, and maybe work worse magic, with their spells. - can=t take the risk she might be working

through your speech . . . you understandI8

8+ou=d better hope my friend ?arsaEEan "harat, the Bakil=s adviser, understands,8 Jabrel warned him.

The captain sighed. 8And Eust who do you think signed the orders to bring you to the palace under

guardI And told me to waste no time about itI8 ?e patted the embroidered pouch tucked into his tunicsash, where stiff papers crackled under his hands.

After that Jabrel stopped arguing and saved his breath for getting up the mountain paths, and helping

!aris when he could. At least the soldiers didn=t seem to obEect to their walking together, though they

were Fuick to interrupt any whispered conversation.

They reached the crest of the hills overlooking 6haramvai Eust after dawn, when the crude buildings ofwood and mud were given a fleeting glory by the slanting redgold light of the sun, the carvings that

decorated every doorway and balcony thrown into high relief, and the piles of ordure in the gutters

mercifully concealed by morning shadows. Jabrel could have wept at the irony of it. ?e=d dreamed ofshowing this mountain kingdom he had come to love to this girl whom9whom he had come to like a

great deal9in Eust such a light, hoping that she would see the beauty and the decayed grandeur of this

relic of empire as he did.

?is dreams had not involved their being dragged down the mountain trail at a rope=s end, Eerked thisway and that and staggering with weariness, hands bound before them like prisoners on their way to

e&ecution.

*ot that it would come to that, of course. As soon as he had a chance to speak with ?arsaEEan, or even

the Bakil, this foolish mistake would be cleared up. Jabrel resolved that he would beg the Bakil not to



deal too harshly with the captain, who had dealt fairly with them within his understanding of the orders.

?e seemed to be a decent man overallG the mistake was doubtless not his fault.

And it was less troubling to think about begging the Bakil=s mercy for the captain than to wonder

whether he might be in need of it for himself and !aris.

K K K

#nce within the walls of 6haramvai, after following tortuous narrow passages between leaning housesto a muddy and desolate walled yard, Jabrel was so tired that he actually sat down and fell asleep

against the wall. ?e woke with a shock from a pleasant dream whose details vanished into the air even

as his consciousness returned. -t was close to noon, the sun falling as directly into this narrow yard as itever could, and his pillow was the lap of the ?onored 6iplomat Bissi. ?e Eerked upright, a stammered

apology on his lips.

8-t doesn=t matter,8 the 6iplo said. 8- wouldn=t have waked you now, only - think something is about to

happen.8

omething was indeed happening. The heavy gate of the courtyard swung open, pushed by a dark manin a blue and silver uniform who glanced at the prisoners and said, 8#n your feet, and Fuick about itH8

8- demand to see the Bakil,8 Jabrel said.

8+ou come with me, then.8

The stranger=s demands were interrupted by a file of soldiers in the red and gold of 6harampal, headed

by the captain who had taken Jabrel and his companion prisoner the night before.

8?onorable %nvoy Dagat,8 the captain said with a low bow that somehow was not at all respectful, 8 !am commanded to escort the prisoners to the Bakil=s midday audience.8

8!y master wishes them brought to him.8

8hould the Bakil, may his beard increase, so direct me, - shall be honored to bring the outlanders to the

borders of @dara for your men to take over. *aturally the "ashir of @dara would not so insult the Bakil

as to send soldiers into a country with which he still has peaceful relations. "ut for now, as - told you,my orders are to bring them before the Bakil himself.8

Jabrel observed Calandra blinking rapidly and looking from side to side as though she were doing her

best to follow the conversation. 8They=re arguing about who takes us out of here,8 he e&plained in a

cautious undertone. 8-f we get any choice, we want to go with the guys in red.8

8<hyI8 Calandra whispered back. 8They=re the ones who tied us up in the first placeH8

8They=re locals. - used to have a friend at the court hereG if - can speak with him, everything will be all

right. The other fellow is from @dara. <e dont want to be prisoners of the "ashir of @dara, trust me.8

Jabrel wasn=t sure e&actly what happened to all the political opponents of the "ashir who had8disappeared8 over the years, but then he didn=t much care about the details9whether they had been

beheaded, or strangled, or simply dropped over a mountain cliff hardly made much difference. The one

thing they didn=t do was come back from the "ashir=s prisons to discuss their e&periences.

After some more reasonably polite fencing, the man in blue and silver, whose name appeared to be-ndukanta Dagat, gave in to the irrefutable argument of the twenty soldiers behind the captain and

agreed that the Bakil might have audience with his own prisoners. ?e insisted on accompanying them,

which did not reassure Jabrel, but he comforted himself with the thought that the alternative would

have been much worse.

The palace of the Bakil was unfamiliar to JabrelG on his previous visits to 6harampal, he had stayed in



private houses9in the sprawling compound of ?arsaEEan himself, last time9and the Bakil had met him

incognito, in the unconvincing disguise of a young merchant, which everybody politely pretended not

to see through. -t had been that dangerous, already, for the ruler of a state close to @dara to show favor

to a representative of the "arents Trading ociety.

#n the way to the palace, he occupied his mind by thinking out the politics of the matter. @dara itself

had had a "arents ociety )esident for some years, one 5orum van Bechten, of whom Jabrel knew

little e&cept that the man had been completely unhelpful as to local information about the -ndependentTribal Territories of the ?igh Dagirs. ?e came of an #ld Trader family, had studied offworld, and donesome kind of scientific or medical work before returning to alapriya, and the way people in Balentin

avoided talking about him had left Jabrel with the impression that van Bechten was a minor family

black sheep who=d been shipped off to a conveniently distant position of little importance, where hewould have few chances to embarrass the family.

"ut though the "ashir of @dara had accepted a "arents )esident, he resolutely opposed any of the

neighboring -ndependent Tribal Territories accepting such a resident or having any direct diplomatic

relations with the Trading ociety. The events of recent years made the reasons easy enough tounderstand. #ne by one, the states neighboring @dara had come under the "ashir=s control and lost

their independence. A )esident in a conFuered state might have complained to the Trading ociety,

might even have got official support against yet another @daran conFuest. o long as @dara was theonly state in the ?igh Dagirs with a resident representative of "arents, the "ashir could presumably

count on @daran interests being represented in Balentin to the e&clusion of those of the conFuered

territories. $halap, the even Billages, )udhatta, Thamboon, *arumalar were Eust names to the"arentsians of Balentin, fragments of an empire that had dissolved into feuds and chaos long before

their arrival. @dara itself was scarcely more than that in the general Balentin consciousness.

All of which was too complicated to e&plain to Calandra in the few muttered words they had an

opportunity to e&change on the way, and of no particular use to them anyway, as far as Jabrel couldsee. The only lever he might be able to use was the fact that at least some of the advisers to +adleen,

Bakil of 6harampal, were evidently not in favor of lying down while @dara trampled over them.

Certainly ?arsaEEan wasn=t9 "ut ?arsaEEan himself, according to this young captain of infantry, had signed the orders for theirdetention. Jabrel felt himself lost in pules and ancient intrigues beyond his capability to decipher.

That was, however, no e&cuse for not at least trying.

+adleen=s 8palace8 turned out to be merely an open, airy building perched, naturally, at the very top of

the mountain. -t had an air of rustic simplicity and freshness that matched Jabrel=s impressions of the

young Bakil as a direct and honorable man, trying to do the right thing by his subEects while treading a political mae laid down in the days of the ancient empire. <ide, lowceilinged rooms roofed with

cedar and walled with white plaster opened onto daling blueandgold vistas of sky and mountainsG

the snowy breees of the highest Dagirs blew straight through the rooms when the screens were rolled

up, as they were today. The air was chill for travelers coming direct from the lowlands, whose ghayaskin cloaks were still rolled up in the packs that had been confiscated, but Jabrel preferred it to the

usual stale air and sweet smoky smells of rooms closed up against the winter cold. %ven +adleen=s chair

of state was Eust that, no throne, but a plain straight armchair of dark wood whose only decoration wasthe patina of decades. The Bakil inspected his prisoners= faces with a searching stare as they entered,

and Jabrel straightened as well as he could in the ropes that bound his arms.

85eutnant %skelinen.8 +adleen made hard work of pronouncing the foreign rank and name, but they

were recogniable. ?e went on more easily in alapriyan. 8+ou may e&plain yourself.8



8%&plainI8 Jabrel decided there was nothing to lose by taking a high hand9verbally, anyway. 8The

e&planations are due to meH -s this how the Bakil of 6harampal greets his friendsI #r is the Bakil about

to apologie for a gross errorI The ?onorable Trading ociety of "arents can forgive a mistake. A

deliberate insult to its representatives is another thing.8

The soldiers lined up against either wall stirred, but the Bakil motioned them to remain where they

were.

8!ost of my =friends,= 8 +adleen said mildly enough, 8come to 6harampal openly, not sneaking across

its borders. +ou have been accused of attempting to smuggle an outlander witch into our territories forthe purpose of creating internal disruption.8 ?is glance toward -ndukanta Dagat left Jabrel in no doubt

as to who had made the accusation.

8A witchI8 Jabrel tried to look indignant and surprised. 8!y lord Bakil knows that we of "arents do

not believe in witchcraft.8

+adleen waved a negligent hand. 8$lease do not waste my time in arguing theology. <itchesundeniably e&ist, as do ifreets and spirits of the airG you may say you do not believe in the ?igh Dagirs,

but that will not save you from freeing in the snow if you try to cross the wrong pass in winter. The

Fuestion here is whether you brought this woman into our lands knowingly, or whether you are

innocent of her plans.8

8he is not a witch, but an ordinary woman of my people.8

8he does not look like your people.8 +adleen=s casual glance contrasted !aris=s short, slender figure,

olive skin, and tumbled black curls with Jabrel, a standardissue tall fair "arentsian. 8Although - must

admit she does not look like a powerful witch, either.8

8!ay the Bakil=s wisdom and beard increase,8 -ndukanta Dagat put in. 8These 6iplomatai are cleverenough to conceal their otherworldly powers until such time as it benefits them to use them.8

?is indiscreet use of the foreign word gave Jabrel the clue he needed. 8?as the Bakil been told that this

woman is a Diplomat I8 ?e laughed loudly. 8<hat a taleH -f she were a 6iplo, we=d have flown out of

our prison as easily as a bird leaves a tree. <hat has the Bakil heard of 6iplosI8

8#ur honored friend -ndukanta Dagat,8 +adleen said, with a glance toward Dagat that was anything but

friendly, 8tells us that the 6iplomatai9what were your words, DagatI They =speak all languages

fluently, carry maps in their heads, can render an armed man helpless with their secret fighting magic,

and conceal on their persons offworld weapons more terrible than any you have seen=9was that notitI8

-ndukanta Dagat bowed.

8<ell thenH8 Jabrel nodded toward !aris. 8<hy did this sopowerful 6iplo allow your soldiers to

capture usI8

8$erhaps she was taken by surprise,8 +adleen suggested.8And does the Bakil know why she has not yet spoken to himI8

+adleen=s eyebrows shot up. 8A woman speak to the Bakil, when there is a man to speak for herI8

8Ah. "ut by the account of your =friend= -ndukanta Dagat98 Jabrel allowed a little sarcasm in his voice

89this is no ordinary woman but a 6iplo. 6on=t you think she would speak for herself if she couldI

"ut she has so little mastery of your tongue that she does not even understand what we are saying now.

he has been studying the language on our way here but has not yet reached the point where she cancarry on an ordinary conversation, much less speak for herself before the Bakil.8



8-t is difficult to prove that someone does not speak a language,8 +adleen observed.

8<ell, - can certainly prove that she has been studying itH8 Jabrel shot back. 8Ask your captain, here,

to bring forth our packs, and - shall show you the evidence.8

There was a necessary delay while the packs, left behind in the courtyard where they had been held

prisoner, were sent for. <hile they waited, the Bakil ordered chairs brought for Jabrel and !aris, hadhis servants bring them cups of fruit sorbet chilled in the mountain snows, and even allowed their

bonds to be loosened so that they could hold the cups for themselves.

8<e=re making progress,8 Jabrel muttered to !aris.

8?owI <hat have you been sayingI - can=t understand more than a word here and there.8

8Jood, that=s maybe going to help get us out of here. eep right on not understanding. -=ll e&plainlater.8 -ndukanta Dagat was protesting to the Bakil that the prisoners should not be allowed to confer in

their outlander tongue, and Jabrel didn=t want to upset the delicate progress of negotiations by letting

their conversation become an issue.

<hen the packs were brought, Jabrel reFuested the captain to open the one belonging to the womanand bring out 8those articles which one of your men thought were used for women=s purposes.8

#ne of the soldiers upended !aris=s pack and spilled the contents out onto the polished wooden floor.

<ith an e&pression of distaste on his aristocratic features, the captain picked through the litter and

eventually retrieved one of the small fibrous plugs. 8ThisI8

8+es. -f you look at it closely, you will see it is far too small to be used for the purpose you mentioned.8

The captain shrugged. 8Billage women use sundhu bark. -t e&pands when, ah, with moisture. "esides,outlander women may be, um, smaller .8 )eddishbrown splotches of color rose on his face.

8he is made after the manner of all women,8 Jabrel asserted, 8but it is not necessary to humiliate her

by putting this to the test. Dust insert the plug in your ear, Captain.8

8%hat&8 The captain=s face was Fuite red now, clashing vilely with his scarlet uniform.

8-t=s not a Eoke, Captain,8 Jabrel said. 8These are not what you thought, but tools for learninglanguages. +ou will hear an elementary lesson in alapriyan grammar if you insert the plug into your

ear.8

The captain brought the plug close to the side of his head with a dubious e&pression.

8-t doesn=t activate until it=s fitted into the ear,8 Jabrel said.

8ActivateI8

8Ah9speak.8

<ith a look of determination, as if he thought it eFually probable that his head would e&plode as soon

as he inserted the thing, the captain compressed the plug in two fingers and pushed it into his own ear.8AiH 6evil voicesH8 he e&claimed, reaching to pull it out.

8*o, listenH8

A moment later the captain looked more amused than apprehensive.

8<hat do the voices say, CaptainI8 +adleen demanded.

8@m96hulaishta, dhulaishtami, dhulaishtaiyen,8 the captain recited. 8Baraishta, varaishtami,

varaishtaiyen. udEiishta98



8%nough,8 +adleen said, smiling for the first time, 8you will make me think - am back with my tutorH8

?e looked at Jabrel. 8-t really is a lesson in the grammar of our language.8

8- told you,8 Jabrel said, smiling back, and too relieved to remember the polite mode of addressing the

Bakil in third person only.

8"ut it is also a strong magic, to capture these voices and imprison them in such a tiny thing.8

8*o magic,8 Jabrel said, 8only the skills of my people. The Bakil knows we come from the starsG thereare many things we can do which we are forbidden to reveal to the people of alapriya. The point is,

this woman doesn=t speak your language, and she is having to work Eust as hard at learning it as - did, or

any other outlander. These stories of her special powers are tales to frighten children.8

8And the weaponsI8

8The Bakil may ask if any were found in our packs.8

The captain was shaking his head before the Bakil even framed the Fuestion.

8The Bakil may remember that the 6iplomatai are said to carry weapons concealed in their bodies,8

-ndukanta Dagat put in.

8An assertion rather difficult to test without killing the subEect,8 +adleen commented.

8And one the Bakil already knows to be ridiculous,8 Jabrel said Fuickly, 8since if we were in

possession of such wonderful weapons, surely we should not have allowed ourselves to be captured and brought here like thisH8

8At least have them searched more thoroughly,8 Dagat said.

Jabrel tried again to straighten his shoulders against the ropes that bound his arms. 8earch me if you

like,8 he said, 8but an insult to this woman under my protection is an insult to the "arents TradingocietyH8

Dagat shrugged. 8-f the Bakil is afraid of the ociety, of course there is no more to be said.8

?is words raised a flush of anger on +adleen=s darkivory cheeks and Jabrel tensed. <hat if Calandrawere in fact carrying secret weaponsI ?e dared not ask her now.

8The Bakil of 6harampal fears neither the "arents Trading ociety nor the upstart empire of @dara,8

+adleen said after a moment=s visible struggle to control his anger. 8<e will convene our council toconsider this matter further. -n the meantime, Captain Thanom, you shall escort the prisoners to a place

where they can be kept in safety and all reasonable comfort.8

8The cells of 6harampal=s tone ?ouse are comfort enough for such as theseH8 Dagat interrupted.

+adleen turned an icy glance on the @daran envoy. 8-ndukanta Dagat, if you think that 6harampalmaintains prisons like those of @dara, your spies have much misinformed you. %e have no need to

confine so many of our subEects. 5et me inform you of two things.8 ?e paused for so long that Dagat=s

face paled with the fear that he had gone too far.

84irst,8 +adleen said, 8we have found a better use for the tone ?ouse than the ancient %mperors who built it. "eing of stone and Fuite solidly built, it makes an e&cellent granaryG it can be kept almost free

of rats. And second,8 he added as Dagat began to rela&, 8the last man to interrupt a Bakil of 6harampal

upon his chair of state had his mouth closed by filling it with salt. That was, of course, in the time of

my father of blessed memory,8 he went on, 8but for some reason it has not been necessary to apply the penalty for many years.8

8An envoy of @dara is not subEect to the laws of 6harampalH8 Dagat protested.



8*oI "ut what, then, of these envoys of the "arents Trading ocietyI8 +adleen asked with brows

slightly raised. 8At one time, -ndukanta Dagat, you were pleased to praise our evenhandedness. urely

you would not have us treat these "arentsian envoys with any less courtesy than we have shown to

your honored self.8 ?e glanced at Captain Thanom. 8%scort them to the private house of my trustedcouncillor ?arsaEEan "harat. They will not, of course, be permitted to leave the house while the council

deliberates, but - would have them used with all possible courtesy short of giving them their freedom.

#h, and cut off those ropes. -f we start tying up envoys from other states now, we Eust might get carriedaway and tie them all up.8

K K K

"y the time !aris got a chance to talk to Jabrel in reasonable privacy she was close to dying of

curiosity. -t clearly hadn=t been safe to confer while he was9she supposed9talking for their lives in

front of the ivoryskinned boy who carried himself like a great king in a historical holodrama. And evenafter they were untied, he had discouraged her from talking while the soldiers in red and gold escorted

them to their new prison. -f it was a prisonI he didn=t know what to make of the endless sprawling

compound, with its big and little courtyards and balconies and three steps down and two steps upleading through a mae of rooms that seemed to have been designed one at a time by people with vastly

differing sensibilities. And almost as soon as they got there they were separated. Jabrel seemed to

understand why they were being led off in different directions and not to be worried about it, so shecopied his manner of lofty unconcern.

he was surrounded by women who fluttered around her talking too Fuickly for her to catch more than

an occasional word, all waving their hands from swathes of tissuelight shalin dyed in brilliant Eewel

colors until !aris felt as though she were being abducted by a flock of talkative butterflies. Theytouched her hair and skin lightly, as if to reassure themselves that she was human like them. The

middleaged woman who seemed to be in charge clucked with disapproval when her fingers caught in

the snarls of !aris=s tangled curls, and kept saying, 8Ghur, ghur H8

At least that was one word !aris knew from her surreptitious ventures with the audio plugs. 86irty,dirty, is itI <ell, -=m sorry to inform you of this, but the washin= facilities in this wonderful country

leave something to be . . .8

he stooped to pass under a low door curtained with layers of hanging tapestries, and came into a dark

place glowing with banked fires and moist with aromatic steam.

8 . . . desired,8 !aris finished with a longing look at the great cedarlined sunken tub of steaming waterthat occupied the center of the room.

The women smiled at her and started taking off her clothes.

8- can do that for meself,8 !aris protested, but to no avail. he gave up, abandoned herself to events.

After all, they all wanted the same thing/ to get her clean.

Thoroughly, blissfully clean and totally rela&ed, she corrected after an hour of their ministrations.

There=d been hot steam and warm water and cold water, gentle scrubs with wads of bark that were Eustscratchy enough and that released a scented, soapy foam, oils and powders and massages and soft warm

towels to wrap up in, more washing and combing and oiling for her hair, and finally, clean clothes in

what seemed to be the style of the country9that was to say, soft loose trousers, an indecently tightupper garment, and a long pleated shalin with enough fabric in it to clothe a doen people.

The butterfly ladies had a fine time trying to show her how to pleat the shalin into her sash so that it

would stay up, and !aris had a bit of trouble getting the thing adEusted so that she could walk in it.

They seemed to feel that a 8proper8 length was trailing an inch or so of fabric on the floorG the first step



!aris took like that, she tripped on her own hem and almost fell. he tugged the fabric up above her

sash to ankle height.

The middleaged woman, whom !aris had privately christened 8"oss 5ady8 promptly tugged it down

again.

8- can=t walk like that,8 !aris said. he searched her brain for some scraps of alapriyan. 8Sa**a, meer sa**a"8 That meant 8much long.8 he pulled the pleats of the shalin up into her sash again.

8 ai, hai, meer sa**a,8 "oss 5ady agreed, pulling the shalin down again.

8!uch8 wasn=t getting her meaning across. ?ow in the name of the Jod of !inor 4uckups did you say

8too long8I 6emons take it, she=d have to rely on sign language. !aris pulled the shalin up again, not

Fuite as high as before, and said, 8Sa**aI8 <hen "oss 5ady reached for her, she skipped back, shakingher head. 8@huh. This here is plenty bunu sa**a enough, get meI8

They compromised on a length hovering Eust below her ankles, which had the dubious virtue of leaving

everybody dissatisfiedG !aris felt constrained to take tiny, mincing steps, and "oss 5ady clearly felt the

occasional glimpses of bare toes verged on indecency.

8This,8 she announced as soon as she was back in a room with Jabrel, 8is the bunu weirdest countryH

They don=t want me to wear me good hiking boots, but they throw a fit if me toes show under thisthing. And all the while their midriffs are bare as an egg and what=s up top might as well be the same,

for all the cover this thing gives.8 he tugged at the neckline of the thin, tightfitting bodice that wassupposed to preserve decency while the upper folds of the shalin floated around like butterfly wings.

8-=ve seen worse fashions,8 Jabrel said. ?is blue eyes were curiously light in his tanned face, as though

some inner fire had been lit. 8 ! won=t complain if they concentrate on concealing the feet instead

of . . . other areas.8

!aris felt uncomfortably warm up top, even though her feet were still freeing from walking barefoot

over floors of polished wood and stone. he curled up on one of the oversied cushions that furnished

the room and wrapped the free end of her shalin around her shoulders. 8o. Are we still in Eail, or whatI

And what happened back thereI - couldn=t understand more=n one word in ten,8 she confessed.

Jabrel grinned at herG flash of white teeth against that tanned face, light sparking from blue eyes and

gold in his hair . . . the man would cause a riot down in the levels on Tasman. @nfairly distracting, it

was. 8- know you couldn=t follow the talk. That=s partly what saved us. -t seems the @daran envoy has

been filling the Bakil with terrorstories about the unearthly powers of 6iplos and trying to convincehim you=re here to overthrow his throne. ?e rela&ed considerably once - e&plained that you were no

6iplo.8

!aris felt her stomach sinking as if she=d Eust been dropped into free fall without warning. 8+ou did

what I8

8#h, give it up,8 Jabrel said with a trace of impatience. 8<e haven=t the lu&ury of playing games here.

- know what you are and - can=t afford to preserve your pride at the risk of my mission9and our lives.8

%orse than free fall , !aris thought. he=d never wanted to throw up in erog, as some less fortunate

Tasmans did. )ight now, though . . .

8?ow9did you find outI8 she managed through a mouth gone suddenly dry. And are you going to sendme back to Tasman& *o, he couldn=t do that9not from here. he rela&ed Eust a fraction.

8-=ve had my suspicions for some time,8 Jabrel said. 8+ou Eust didn=t seem old enough9or sure enough

9or knowledgeable enough for a 6iplo. And you were too openminded. 6iplos usually think they

know everything about everything and wouldn=t be caught dead listening to a local=s informationG as



soon as you asked my opinion on the alapriyan situation - began to wonder.8

And - thought - was being so clever, finding out enough from him to let me pass with the others. !aris

shook her head at her own stupidity.

8#h well. - never really thought - could get away with it,8 she said, as much for her benefit as his.

8+ou didn=t have maps, your alapriyan was terrible, you Eust didn=t have the prep a 6iplo would

reFuire,8 Jabrel went on. 8"ut what really clinched it was when - searched your pack98!aris let out a hiss of outrage before remembering that she wasn=t in a position to be outraged.

89and found the audio plugs of 8alapriyan for Dummies.8 Jabrel grinned unrepentantly. 8+ou gave it

a good try, Calandra, but that made the situation obvious.8

8-t didI8 Then why are you still calling me CalandraI

8+ou might as well admit it, -=ve figured everything out. +ou haven=t graduated yet, have youI +ou=re

still in training school. +ou haven=t even had the surgery for the download implants. "ut )eervalfigured, it=s only another complaint by that raving paranoiac !ontoyasana, why waste a fully trained

6iploG we=ll send out a trainee and let her get some practice and make it look like we=re taking

!ontoyasana seriously. $ut you in a hell of a spot, didn=t itI8!aris slowly let out her breath. 8+ou9could say that.8 <hat Dohnivans had taught her was still true,even if Dohnivans himself was a lying treacherous #". !f you get caught out, say as little as possible"

5et people make up their own stories about who you are and what youre doing off your proper level"

<ould she be in more trouble, or less, if she told him how far off his guesses wereI $robably more.Jabrel wouldn=t be pleased to find out he hadn=t been that clever after all, and he probably would be

furious to learn he=d been wasting "arentsstyle courtesy and chivalry on some ragamuffin from a

Tasman smuggler=s gang.

?e might be even more furious, later on, if he found out she was still lying.

-t was too dangerous. #nce he found out the truth he=d probably despise her.

%ventually he=d despise her anyway. <as it so bad to let him believe his own story for a little longerITo have him treating her like a person who deserved courtesy and respectI he=d probably never get

that again. he wanted Eust a little more of it.

They were in a dangerous situation, in foreign territory, and he deserved to know the e&act truth of it.

<hat difference did it makeI ?e wouldn=t be e&pecting her to do any magical 6iplotype stunts now,either way.

Jabrel sat down beside herG his weight sFuashed the cushion down so that she slid against him, feeling

the warmth and strength of his body. 8<hat are you looking so worried aboutI8

8<hat happens ne&t,8 !aris said truthfully.

he meant, what she did ne&t, but Jabrel took it as a Fuestion for him and that let her off the hook for awhile, anyway.

8<ell, we=re not e&actly in Eail,8 Jabrel said. 8"ut we=re not e&actly free to go either. - guess it=s a kind

of house arrest9but the house belongs to my friend ?arsaEEan "harat. <e=ll be comfortable enough,

and at the moment +adleen9that=s the Bakil9seems to be considerably more pissed off at the @daran

envoy than he is at us.8

?e stretched his long legs out and leaned back into the cushion, hands behind his head. To avoid rolling

onto his chest, !aris edged back until she was perched insecurely on the very edge of the mattress



sied cushion.

8#n the other hand,8 he went on, 8the @daran envoy seems to think we ought to be e&ecuted out of

hand.8

8?ow can you be so calm about itI8

8#h, +adleen isn=t going to have us killedG he can=t afford to be seen as giving in to @daran demands.

?alf his council would resign in protest.88That makes me feel so safe. Can=t we get out of hereI <e=re not, like, under guard or anything, rightI8

8The other half of the council is pro@dara. Theyd resign in protest.8

8That,8 !aris said tartly, 8strikes me as +adleen=s problem, not ours.8

Jabrel sighed. 8Calandra, by the time you graduate from 6iplo chool, you=ll hopefully understand a

little more about not upsetting the balance of power in a region. -t will be much easier to carry out our

mission if we leave 6harampal with the Bakil=s blessing. -t will also make the @darans think twiceabout assassinating us on the road. @nless,8 he added, his face falling, 8they are ready to attack

6harampal. - hadn=t thought about that . . . +adleen letting us go, or even seeming to collude in our

escape, would make an e&cellent casus belli.88Cassus belleye,8 !aris repeated. 8And what might that be when it=s at home, a alapriyan dessertIThanks very much, but - don=t want to be served up on the "ashir of @dara=s dinner table. ! vote we

leave here, Fuietly, now.8

86on=t you understand anything about diplomacyI That would be the worst possible98

Jabrel broke off as the goldbrocaded hangings over the door stirred. A middleaged alapriyan man in

tunic and trousers as stiffly brocaded as the hangings parted the curtains. ?e looked tired.

8%skelinenH - had hoped to have more time to spend with you. - am sorry to be inhospitable, but you

must leave here, Fuietly, at once,8 ?arsaEEan "harat announced.

!aris Eust managed not to say 8- told you so,8 when Jabrel translated for her. he listened attentivelywhile Jabrel and his 6harampal friend talked, and found that now she wasn=t tied up and scared out ofher wits it was a lot easier to catch bits of the conversation. %specially since she knew pretty much

what it had to be about. ?arsaEEan "harat thought the @daran envoy was going to arrange to have them

assassinated tonight, and he didn=t want that to happen. he would have felt more grateful if it hadn=t

seemed to her that his main concern was the way such an event would affect the honor of his house. #hwell, maybe that wasn=t trueG it could be due to her not understanding court alapriyan real well. -n any

case, it appeared that they were going to get their traveling clothes and their packs back and that some

of ?arsaEEan=s people were going to smuggle them out to . . . there her limited alapriyan vocabularygave out, because what came ne&t wasn=t what she was e&pecting. he=d thought he would say that his

guides would set them on the way to @dara. -nstead there was e&cited talk about some other place that

she=d never heard of.<hen ?arsaEEan finally left, she pounced on Jabrel for e&planations and details. 8All right, - got that part,8 she cut him off when he started to translate the whole conversation word for word. 8?e wants us

out of here so we don=t get killed in his house. <hat - didn=t get is where we=re going from here. *ot

into @dara, - got that much, but whyI Too dangerousI8 *ot going to @dara seemed like an e&cellentidea to her . . . but she sure didn=t have any better ideas. )eturning to Balentin would probably not work

out real wellG obviously she wasn=t keeping up the 6iplo act well enough to fool anybody for long. -f

6harampal hadn=t suffered from the minor defect of being, apparently, full of @daran assassins, shethought she could have been happy to stay right here as an involuntary guest of ?arsaEEan "harat. ?ot



baths and clean clothes and regular meals and not even having to steal anything to Eustify her e&istence

9sounded pretty good.

The likelihood of getting stabbed, beheaded, poisoned, or dismembered in the night was a definite

drawback to that arrangement, though.

8<here we=re going may not be any safer than @dara,8 Jabrel said now, 8and it=ll definitely be a harder Eourney.8

!aris sighed. 8!ore scrambling up fortyfivedegree slope trails designed for goats, like we did to get

hereI8

8#h, much worse than that. -f this world were ever opened to tourism, rock Eockeys from all over the

gala&y would be coming here to climb the ?igh Dagirs.8 ?e sounded obno&iously cheerful at the prospect.

85et me guess,8 !aris said, 8rock climbing is one of your hobbies.8

8?ow did you knowI8

86iplo intuitionH8 she snapped. 8And in case you were wondering, mountaineering is not among my

favorite sports.8Jabrel shook his head. 8)eerval must have known what the interior of alapriya is like. <hy didn=tthey send somebody who could9oh, well, - suppose they only e&pected you to poke around Balentin

for a while and then report back that !ontoyasana was raising a fuss about nothing as usual.8 ?is

sudden smile warmed !aris down to her freeing toes. 8+ou have done much more than )eervalcould possibly have e&pected of you. - hadn=t thought even a fully trained and e&perienced 6iplo would

be willing to trek into the Dagirs, much less a kid who hasn=t even finished the course work or had the

surgeries yet.8 ?e looked thoughtful. 8That=s another thing that made me wonder about you. +ou=re notthirty, Calandra. *owhere near. ?ow old are you reallyI8

86oes it matterI8 !aris fenced. Jive Jabrel time and he=d probably tell her how old he thought she

was, then all she=d have to do is agree.

85et=s see, 6iplo chool doesn=t take candidates under eighteen, and they wouldn=t have let a first or

secondyear student go out aloneG you must be almost through with the classes and on a waiting list forsurgery. o, twentythree, twentyfour, something like thatI8

8omething like that,8 !aris agreed. ounded a lot better than the truth, although she did wonder9

briefly9how Jabrel would react to that. !m almost seventeen . . . ! think . 6efinitely not the right thing

to say at this point. he kept her mouth shut and let him go on e&plaining their immediate plans.

Apparently ?arsaEEan "harat meant to smuggle them out of his compound as soon as it was dark,guiding them out of 6haramvai to meet a messenger from the @daran resistance.

8There=s a resistance movementI8

8%ven the "ashir of @dara hasn=t managed to kill everybody who disagrees with his methods.8

This messenger knew a 6iplo was being sent to investigate the allegations of illegal weapons trading,

and according to him, the place to look was not in @dara proper but in a remote comple& of caves in theformer state of Thamboon. There, he had told ?arsaEEan, the outlanders would find evidence and

e&planation of all that was going on.

8#r a Fuick death,8 !aris suggested. 8?ow do we know we can trust this guyI8

8<e don=t,8 Jabrel admitted. 8"ut ?arsaEEan seems to think he=s genuine . . . and anyway, you have a



better ideaI8

!aris shook her head.

8<ell then. 4ortunately, they haven=t washed our traveling clothes yet, so we can put them right back

on.8

Mi1ed blessing , !aris thought. All that bathing and massaging and here she was going to smell like a

goat again after ten minutes in that filthy outfit. #n the other hand, it would be nice to be able to walkagain.

8And, Calandra . . .8

-t took !aris a moment to remember that Jabrel still didn=t know her true name. 8+esI8

8There=s no need to let this Chulayen BaEEadara, the @daran resistance contact, know you=re not yet a

fully trained 6iplo. -t might shake his confidence in us.8

8@nderstood,8 !aris murmured.

he did wish, irrationally, that Jabrel would call her by her own name Eust once. "ut obviously thiswas no time to e&plain Eust how unlike a fully trained 6iplo she really was, and he was too sharp for

her to think she could confess to the one lie without getting into the whole tangle.

"esides, she reminded herself, he wouldn=t like or respect !aris *obody from the slums of Tasman. -t

was 8Calandra Bissi8 he was being nice to.

Chapter i$teen

()ara on Kalapriya5orum van Bechten prodded his patient=s bandageswathed head gingerly. %verything seemed all right.

Dust to be on the safe side, though, he supposed he had better change the dressings. At least, he toldhimself as he unwrapped the strips of organic fabric, at least this wasn=t one of those truly disgusting

wounds that people in primitive areas tended to get. *o great gaping slashes Eust begging for infection

to set inG Eust the neat line of stitches holding the skin together over the hole he=d opened in the skull.

And that wasn=t a very big holeG Eust enough to let him insert a syringe full of fresh =mats in solution.

The physical results of the surgery were healing well enough. ?e contemplated sniffing the wound for a

hint of gangrene, then decided that was really too gross, and besides, the skin tone was good and it

looked clean enough. ?e settled for swabbing the shaved head with madira, which was foul stuff to

drink but sufficiently alcoholic to be a reasonable disinfectant, and wrapping a somewhat lighter turbanof fresh bandages over the old man=s head. Jods, he didn=t even have plastistik9in a decent hospital,

this whole unwieldy contraption could have been replaced by a sFuirt of 6isinfecto and a sFuare of plastistik gaue right over the site of the incisionH $rimitivesH

8<ell, boyI8 $undarik Nahin demanded in his usual testy tones. 8?ow much longer do - have to looklike a damned turbanned )ohini fetish ttalkerI8 ?is right hand twitchedG the man must be even more

impatient than usual.

8#nly a few more days, sir,8 5orum promised.

8+ou=ve been saying that for almost a week now.8



8-n my medical Eudgment,8 5orum said stiffly, 8the site of the incision should remain covered until

healing is complete. The risk of infection98

$undarik Nahin snorted. 8-=ve had incisions aplenty in my fighting days, boy. "ack when the "ashir was

making @dara, making a state out of a collection of miserable hill ttowns9you think everybodyunderstood his vision, went along peacefullyI ?ahH #ne damned rebel laid my leg open from hip to

knee, and if -=d taken to my bed to pour strong wine over the slash and wrap myself in bandages, why,

hatha ttown wouldn=t be part of @dara now9there might not be a Jreater @daraH *one of mywounds ever festered. +ou know whyI "ecause -=ve got clean flesh, boyH Clean flesh and a dove everyttorch festival to )ed )adhana, the warriors= ladyG that=ll do more than all your outlander magics.8 ?is

right knee Eumped suddenly under the blanket that covered both withered legs. 85ook at thatH !ention

)ed )adhana and she sends a sign of healingH8

86oubtless, sir,8 5orum van Bechten said woodenly. 6ealing with Jeneral Nahin reminded him of whathe=d really hated about studying under 6r. ?irvonen. The fear of screwing up during a surgery was bad

enough, but even worse was her insistence that he follow up personally on the recuperation of each and

every patient. The damned woman didn=t seem to understand that the whole point of specialiing inneurosurgery was that you didn=t have to deal with patients at all, Eust with the immobile head in front

of you on the operating table. #nce the head regained consciousness and began talking again, you were

supposed to be able to leave it to the nurses and go on to another interesting problem.

$atients were definitely the downside of a medical career, Eust as natives were the problem with beingthe "arents )esident in @dara. -f only someone would devise a =mat modification that would make

people=s brains work properly, so that they recognied and respected his genius and let him alone . . .

K K K

?igher up the mountain, in the palace that overlooked all of $uvaathi, the "ashir=s brain was working

far from properly by 5orum van Bechten=s standards. -n fact, it was about to boil over with rage andfrustration.

8<hat do you mean, the envoys escapedI8 he bellowed at the man standing stiffly before him. The red

and golden hangings of his audience chamber vibrated as he pounded his fist on the low table in frontof him. The concubine hati, who always attended him, dressed like a festivalday idol in goldembroidered red silk, shrank back against the folds of the hangings as if she hoped to disappear among

them.

-ndukanta Dagat bowed stiffly. 86oubtless my lord the "ashir will wish to punish the Bakil of

6harampal for his insolence in letting the prisoners go.8

8- thought you said they escaped.8

Dagat lifted his shoulders slightly. 8That they are gone is certain. <hether it was with or without the

connivance of young +adleen is not so certainG - can only say that he refused to have the !inister

responsible for their house arrest publicly impaled when - suggested the suitability of some such

measure, claiming the escape was no more ?arsaEEan "harat=s fault than it was his own. <hether he hadthe insolence to contermand my lord=s e&pressed wishes, or was simply incompetent to keep two

outlanders under control, hardly mattersG in either case he is clearly not fit to rule a country on our

borders. -n my opinion, we should take over the state before internal unrest turns it into an anarchicthreat98

8+our opinionI 0our opinion& ?ahH And in your opinion, -ndukanta Dagat, which are you 9corrupt or

merely incompetentI +ou should have assassinated those envoys on their first night under house

arrest.8



8- had arrangements to do e&actly that,8 Dagat protested, 8but when my men reached the "harat

compound, the envoys were no longer there.8

8o which was itI <ere you too incompetent to post a guard . . . or were you in a conspiracy with the

Bakil to thwart my wishesI -t seems to me that ?arsaEEan "harat is not the only one in this affair whohas earned a sharp stake to rest upon.8

8!y lordH8 Dagat paled. 8!y lord the "ashir will recall that it was - who brought the first news of these

outlander envoys, - who warned him of their supernatural powers and evil intentions.8

8$erhaps you did so only to put yourself in the perfect position for seeing that they went about their

way unmolested. <hat, after all, has been the result of your meddlingI They were brought to6harampal9very wellG they had to pass that way in any case. *ow, instead of traveling openly on from

6harampal, where we could have had them killed on the road, they have been forewarned of their

danger. *ow they are traveling by secret ways, so secretly and cautiously that even you and your mencould not find them at any of the passes into @dara9 or so you say.8 The "ashir invested those last four

words with a menace that sent Dagat to his knees, babbling pleas for mercy.

8)emove this scum,8 the "ashir said to the two guards who stood immobile, arms folded, on either side

of the door.

"efore they could lay hands on him, Dagat had flung himself forward to grasp the concubine=s knees.8-n the name of love and pity, let my lord forgive my incompetenceH 5et my lands and houses be given

over to the state for the glory of Jreater @dara, only let me remain to serve the "ashir98

8As you served me in 6harampalI8 The "ashir laughed loudly, his voice cracking at the end. 8The

estates of a traitor are forfeit to the "ashir in any case. Take himH8

The guards grasped Dagat under the arms and lifted him. A portion of hati=s brocaded shalin tore awayin his desperately grasping hands. he reached forward, tears in her eyes. 8!y lord, have mercyH8

8+ou dare to speak in my audience chamberI8 The "ashir whirled and turned his wrath on her. 8"y )ed

)adhana, - should have you stripped and impaled together with this traitorH8 ?e laughed again, a high

pitched, nervous laugh, as she shrank back among the hangings. 8*o, not yet. A pity to ruin such alovely body. - shall Eust give you a little reminder to show more respect.8

hati curled on the floor, arms wrapped around her head, as the "ashir kicked her. he gasped once or

twice when his foot found old bruises, but managed to keep from cryingG tears e&cited the "ashir in

dangerous ways.

!t could have been worse, she repeated to herself over and over, trying to make of the words a mantra

that would take her mind off the repeated blows. !t could have been worse. #n the "ashir=s whim she

could have been dragged away with -ndukanta Dagat to be impaled, or held down by the guards while

he flogged the flesh from her bones. omeday, when he ceased to desire her, that would happen. -f heguessed at her part in warning and diverting the outlanders, it would certainly happen. 4or now . . . he

would probably want to use her as soon as he had tired of kicking and hitting. %orse happens every dayto some poor ;ohini who attracts the wrong sort of attention"

8!y lord "ashirH8 -t was one of the guards who had dragged poor Dagat outG what was he doing backhere so soonI 8!y lord must come . . . must see . . .8

8!ustI8 the "ashir repeated sharply.

8The "ashir would wish to see what is in the skies,8 the guard corrected himself. 8There is a flying

dragon hovering over the palaceH8

8?ave you been at the madiraI8



8*o, truly, my lordH8 The guard prostrated himself. hati rela&ed slightly as the "ashir=s attention was

removed from her, and concentrated on taking slow, deep healing breaths. he was one dull ache all

over, but there were none of the sharp flares of pain that usually came with a broken bone. -t really

hadn=t been so bad . . . this time. The 5ight was with her.

8- think it is a flying dragon, but of a kind that - have not seen before9- mean, not that -=ve ever

actually seen one, but you know, my lord, the pictures in the temple9anyway, it is smaller than -

thought it would be, and much more shiny. - suppose it would be hard to paint the light flashing off it,that=s part of the problem . . .8

The "ashir stepped over the prostrate, babbling guard and strode down the hall. The guard=s terrified

ramblings died away. After a moment both he and hati raised their heads. -t was Bedya, she saw. $art

)ohini, though that was a carefully kept secret, but she thought he had sometimes tried unobtrusively to

help her. 8-f you made that up to distract him from beating me,8 she whispered, 8you=d better startrunning now.8

Bedya shook his head. 8-=m not that smart9or that brave,8 he confessed. 8)eally, it is a flying dragon.

Come and see.8 ?e offered a hand to help hati up, and she compressed her lips to keep from

whimpering at the pain of movement.

8?e is a madman and - am ashamed to be in his service,8 Bedya said under his breath as he saw what itcost hati to get to her feet.

8-t=s not that bad,8 hati assured him. 8Truly.8 he was about to say !ve had worse, but this was not the

time to start trying to recruit Bedya to their cause. "esides, she wanted to see the dragon in the skyH

8-t=s landed,8 Bedya said, unnecessarily, as they reached the crowd at the front of the palace. hatiswallowed her disappointment and stood on tiptoe, trying to see over all those tall )udhrani. !aybe the

dragon had been sent by the gods to destroy the "ashir in its flaming breath.

8<ill it hurt you if - set you on thatI8 Bedya asked, seeing her struggles to see through the crowd and

indicating a pillar that rose from a low, sFuaredoff base.

8*o,8 hati lied, and managed not to gasp when Bedya=s hands closed round her bruised waist andlifted her up to the base of the pillar. -t was worth itG from here she could see everything in the sFuare.

8-t doesn=t look like - thought it would,8 she said with some disappointment. The dragon glittered

brightly in the sun, that much was true. "ut otherwise it looked . . . well, rather small, for a dragon, and

boring. -ts hide was smooth, not scaly, and instead of coruscating with brilliant flashes of color itseemed to be a dull grey all over e&cept for some patterns in blue along its flanks. And where were its

wingsI

The dragon=s side opened and two demons with glittering skin stepped out. *o, they were only

outlanders in some strange costume, hati realied with even more disappointment. #ne was tall andunnaturally fairhaired, like the "arents )esidentG the other was Eust an ordinary person, rather pale, but

of normal height and with curly dark hair like hati=s own.8-t=s not a dragon,8 she said sadly. 8-t=s Eust a flying bo&.8

86on=t be silly,8 Bedya said. 8?ave you ever seen a bo& fly through the airI8

8*o, but -=ve never seen a dragon do that either,8 hati pointed out. 8?ushH - want to hear what they=resaying.8

The small outlander was doing all the talking, and maybe she wasn=t an outlander at all, because she

spoke as well as any @daran9Fuite unlike the strongly accented, simple words that 5orum van

Bechten used. he didn=t get a chance to say much, though, barely started introducing herself before the



"ashir interrupted with a command to his guards. hati saw the telltale glitter of the "ashir=s magic

nets and sighed with grief. he had hoped to see more of the outlanders before they were destroyed.

"ut nobody ever survived the magic weapons that 5orum van Bechten had given the "ashir. They

would be caught immobile in nets of light, and hacked to bits by ordinary unmagical swords, and if shehad any sense she would get out of here before it started, but the crowd of palace servitors was too

close around her and she couldn=t see Bedya, he had been pushed away by the curious crowd, all right

then, at least close her eyes so she didn=t have to see . . . or would it be worse, hearing and not seeingIhati had not Fuite decided when the small outlander=s hand flicked outward, for all the world as if she

were sowing seed on a freshplowed field. "ut instead of seed, what fell from her hand was a kind of

dark emptiness that consumed the flickering lights of the "ashir=s nets.

86emons,8 sighed a clerk standing by her pillar.

8$utlanders,8 hati corrected scornfully. -t made perfect senseG why hadn=t she seen it comingI The"ashir=s magic weapons came from the outlanders, didn=t theyI $f course they hadn=t sold him their

strongest magicsG they kept those for themselves. he should have foreseen it.

o should the "ashir. ?e=d been used for too long to winning too easily, hati thought as she saw him

foaming with impotent rage. ?e ordered his guards to strike, but invisible walls around the outlander

women caught and held their swords.8The penalty for attacking a 6iplomat of )eerval is stasis,8 the small woman remarked, in a pleasant

tone that somehow carried Fuite clearly through the sFuare and up the palace steps, more clearly than if

she had shouted. 8<e are willing to assume that the "ashir was surprised by our visit and gave hisorders before he had identified us as peaceful emissaries.8 he paused, one dark eyebrow arched, and

waited9Fuite clearly waited9for the "ashir to back down.

<hich he did, stumbling and stuttering.

hati thought she had never enEoyed anything so much in all her si&teen years.

"ut when the outlander envoys demanded a private meeting with the "ashir and the "arents )esident,and suggested that the onlookers go on about their business, she regretfully melted in with the crowd

and slipped away to one of her secret hiding places in the palace. This would definitely not be a good

time to catch the "ashir=s eyeG if he had been looking for somebody to beat after -ndukanta Dagat=sunwelcome news, he would be looking for somebody to kill after being publicly humiliated by the

envoys he had failed to assassinate in time. And this time he might not remember how much he enEoyed

hati=s body in time to prevent his ordering her impaled on a stake beside Dagat.

-f she had any sense, she would disappear from the palace now and take refuge with her own people.!eer !adee would not e&pect her to stay here and spy on the "ashir any longer, not nowG she had

always warned hati to run when it started feeling too dangerous.

"ut she did want to know what would happen at this meeting.

And why -ndukanta Dagat=s information had been wrong. ?e had clearly said the 6iplo was beingescorted by a man, a soldier of the "arents army.

And most of all, she wanted to know whether Chulayen had intercepted the 6iplo and her escort, and ifso, why had they come on into @dara instead of going with him to ThamboonI



Chapter Si#teen

()ara on Kalapriya8That,8 Annemari said with a long sigh, 8was not -uite the most frustrating meeting -=ve sat through inthe last twenty years. "ut it came close.8

After the long and e&tremely formal diplomatic discussion, they had been ushered to what must be the

most lu&urious guest Fuarters in the "ashir=s palace. *o indoor plumbing, Annemari noted, but lots of

tapestries and cushions to soften the raw cedar walls and packedearth floor, and basins of beaten metalfor washing in. The ubiFuitous red and gold that the "ashir favored made her eyes hurt after a while,

especially the clashing of soft vegetable reds with imported chemical dyes from Balentin. And the gold

embroidery made the cushions rather scratchy. till, it did seem they were being treated withappropriate respect. 4or what that was worth.

8They=re being very polite,8 Calandra agreed, 8and very good at not telling us anything. 6o you believe

the "ashir=s story about where his prohibited weapons came fromI8

8A "arentsian fugitive, under sentence of death in Balentin, fleeing inland and buying his safety in

@dara with a pack full of tanglers and nerve daersI And now conveniently deadI8 Annemari=s laughcracked a little. 8All very convenient, isn=t itI - especially liked the part about the "ashir being shocked

9 shocked H to hear that the weaponry is seriously illegal, being far beyond the technology level

approved for alapriya.8

[email protected] Calandra rolled over on the pile of embroidered cushions that served as both chair and bed,and nibbled the end of one curly frond of hair. 8- notice you didn=t point out that 5orum van Bechten

had to have known the weaponry was protech.8

8<hy botherI -=m sure their story will be that he had no idea the "ashir was using tanglersG he=s the

)esident, not an arms master. ?e=ll claim he thought @dara was e&tending its territory by legitimatemeans, diplomacy and traditional warfare, and none of his business to interfere. And if we Fuestion

that, he=ll point out that nobody in Balentin Fuestioned the speed of the @daran conFuests either.8

8- rather suspect Balentin doesn=t know much about what goes on among the hill tribes,8 Calandra said.

8)emember, communications outside the coastal enclaves are limited to native technology. They=ve gotsome sort of primitive system of signaling by electric wires in the coastal plain98

8That=s not protechI8

8?andcranked generators,8 Calandra e&plained, 8and it was actually a alapriyan who invented the

concept. They get wire for the electrographs through the "arents Trading ociety, but that was

approved because it isn=t different in kind from the wire they can handdraw through a plate, Eustsmoother and a whole lot cheaper.8

8-t must be nice to have everything there is to know about alapriya, including the language,downloaded onto a memory chip inside your head,8 Annemari said with a trace of envy.

Calandra put one hand to her temple, where the ache came after a download. he didn=t know if that

was where the chip was located or whether some confusion of nerves made it hurt there instead of inthe socket at the back of her neckG she Eust knew that absorbing a mass of information in seconds

usually cost her a few days of headache. -f she was lucky. )eally heavy downloads meant migraines

with flashing lights instead of ordinary headachesG she was lucky that there hadn=t been all that muchinformation this time.



#r not, depending on how you looked at it.

8*ot everything there is to know,8 she corrected Annemari, 8Eust everything )eerval knows. And -

have a feeling there=s a lot about this world that isn=t in 4ederation databases.8 he sighed. 8-t may have

been a mistake to let them find out - speak alapriyanG we might learn a lot more by eavesdroppingthan in formal meetings.8

8eeing that our alternative would have been depending on 5orum van Bechten as a translator,8

Annemari said drily, 8- think it=s an e&ceedingly good thing you do speak alapriyan.8 A flicker of

movement on the tapestried wall caught her attentionG was it Eust light from the water in a nearby basinreflecting off the golden threadsI he was so tired that all her surroundings seemed a mystery of

moving lights and shadows.

8+es, but - might have learned a lot by listening to how he translated you.8

8And he almost certainly would not have made it clear to the "ashir how important a 6iplo is, and how

many people9not Eust in Balentin, but on )eervalH9know e&actly where we were going, and howmuch trouble it would make for the "ashir if he had us Fuietly assassinated,8 Annemari pointed out.

The tapestry was definitely tremblingG and there was no wind blowing through the crude windows in

the outer wall. 8o you would=ve had to step in and use your alapriyan anyway, to make sure he

understood that it would be a really, really bad idea to make us disappear. -=m sorry, Calandra, buteavesdropping really never was an option.8

he threw herself flat across the layers of carpet and grabbed a handful of stiff brocaded wall hanging,

and something else inside the hangings, something firm and yet yielding like flesh, something thatsFueaked in distress as she yanked with all her force and brought down a whole wall of tapestries over

a small human figure.

8 . . . for us, anyway,8 Annemari finished, slightly out of breath. +ears of sitting behind a desk and

tapping her fingers on a vid screen were no training for wrestling with unseen adversaries. he sat on a portion of the eavesdropper to keep it from getting away while Calandra e&cavated the rest from the

heap of tapestries.

8-t=s a little girlH8 Annemari e&claimed in surprise when the tapestries were finally separated from the

red and gold organic fabrics of the child=s clothes.

8<hat are you doing hereI8 Calandra demanded in harsh alapriyan. 8 8hushI Mal sooree, bai6chhaH8

The girl shook her head frantically, long dark plaits whipping back and forth. 8 5a soree( 5a( 'bh6bashir dhulaishtaiyen . . .8

Calandra listened for a moment to the flood of alapriyan, inserted a sharp Fuestion and got back more

Fuestions in response. Annemari chewed her left thumbnail and muttered, 8- will not interrupt, - will

not interrupt, what the hell is going on here, - will not interrupt,8 under her breath until the colloFuywas finished.

8<ellI8 she demanded when both Calandra and their eavesdropper at last seemed to be through talking.

Calandra sighed and pressed one hand to her forehead. !aking such heavy use of the language

implants always made her temples throb. The medtechs on )eerval claimed a slight adEustment couldfi& that little problem . . . but then, they=d also described the initial surgery as 8minor.8

8The girl=s )ohini9oh, we never went into that, did weI The alapriyans think they belong to two

distinct races, although 6*A analyses don=t support that belief. Castes, maybeG races, no. The )ohini

tend to be smaller, though, and darkerskinned than the )udhrani, and the farther away from the coast,the more the natives make of the distinction. The Trading ociety doesn=t recognie any distinction in



law, and that seems to be having a good influence on the coastal states, but up here in the hills the

)ohini are practically slaves. -n @dara, anyway. )udhrani run the government, command the army,

have all the good Eobs. There was an independent )ohini state9Thamboon9but the "ashir conFuered

it recently.8

8 )lease tell me,8 Annemari said in a voice that could have chipped ice, 8that you and this child have

not been discussing comparative sociology and the history of alapriya for the last ten minutesH8

8?old on. -t=s relevant. The thing is, evidently the "ashir and his buddies have been rather overdoing

the )udhranisuperiority thing. That, plus a nasty habit of secretly assassinating political opponents, plus the way he=s been taking over neighboring states recently9it=s a recipe for revolution, Annemari.

And this young woman is one of our revolutionaries.8

8-n the "ashir=s palaceI <earing his colorsI8

Calandra sighed. 8Annemari, you may not have the )eerval data on alapriya packed into your head,

but you did study history, noI #r were you too busy with your computing and engineering classes to pick up even the basics of historic political structures and their conseFuencesI #ne thing tyrants do9

male tyrants, mostly, although there were some odd stories about one of the )ussian empresses of #ld

%arth9they become se&ual predators. This girl9her name=s hati9was kidnapped from one of the

)ohini slums down the mountain by a )udhrani palace guard who thought she might be a nice presentfor the "ashir. *ow she=s his favorite mistress and the palace guard has become the principal assistant

to the !inister for 5oyalty, which is the "ashir=s secret political police.8

8And she wants us to help her escapeI8

Calandra rolled her eyes. 8Annemari, she could =escape= anytime Eust by walking back down themountain. The "ashir=s personal guards would Eust go out and pick up some more pretty girls for him to

play with. he=s stayed because her position gives her lots of chances to spy on the "ashir and his

council, and she passes on the information she gets to her brother, who Eust happens to be in theunderground resistance movement. 4or which, - might mention, she will be tortured to death if any of

the )udhrani in the palace catch her. Annemari, she didn=t come seeking our helpG she came to offer

hers. There were a few little misunderstandings to clear up first, but - think we=ve got it worked outnow. 4or starters, she was e&pecting us . . . sort of.8

8<hat do you mean, sort ofI And how could she be e&pecting usI - didn=t even file a flight plan out of

Balentin.8 As a department head from )eerval, Annemari had used her authority to commandeer a

flitter without e&planation or discussion of her travel plans. he and Calandra had decided that with no

way to tell which members of the "arents Trading ociety were involved in the bacteriomat blackmarket, they would do best to get out of the city before anybody figured out what they were doing

there . . . and leaving behind as little information as possible about what they intended to do ne&t.

8Apparently it has been the gossip of the baaars for some weeks that a 6iplo was coming into the

hills, escorted by an officer of the ociety=s private army,8 Calandra e&plained. 8*ow ! can=t e&plain

how they knew we were coming here before we knew, unless the native fortunetellers have sometechnology that they have been keeping from us, but98

8The other Calandra,8 Annemari said slowly.

8The whoI8

8)emember, - told you in the clinicI <hen you dropped out of contact, Calandra, - went looking foryou.8

8+es, yes, - know. And you found =Thecla $artheni= traveling from Tasman back to )eerval, to the



Cassilis Clinic.8

8That was what the travel records showed,8 Annemari agreed. 8"ut - had also asked %vert Cornelis to

make some private enFuiriesG he has an aunt, or something, whose husband is fairly high up in the

"arents Trading ociety. And she told %vert that Calandra Bissi had arrived in Balentin and made Fuitea social splash9something about a banFuet and a ball in her honor. And the ball was after you, as

Thecla $artheni, had taken passage from Tasman to )eerval. At the time - couldn=t understand it9and

once - found you, and you confirmed that you hadn=t set foot on alapriya, - thought it must be somesilly misunderstanding. "ecause nobody else could be traveling as you. Could theyI8

Calandra shrugged. 8They couldn=t use my papers or travel chits, because they wouldn=t pass the routine

retinal and 6*A scans . . . but Balentin and the other ociety enclaves along the coast try to keep the

technology interface with the natives as small as possible, to reduce the chances of accidental cultural

contamination. <e never left the spaceport area, so you wouldn=t have seen what the rest of Balentin islike. "ut supposedly there are only a few wellguarded ociety facilities outside the port that have any

nonnative technology at all. The Trading ociety families make rather a fetish of living under primitive

conditions9you know, no climate control, wearing nothing but organics, using the local beasts to pullwheeled transporters, all that sort of thing. They claim it=s to reduce the chances of cultural

contamination, but by now - gather it=s developed into a sort of inverted snobbery9they feel superior

to most Jalactics because they can put up with the hardships of life on alapriya. o if somebody gotoutside the spaceport area and then claimed to be me, yes, she might well get away with itG they

certainly wouldn=t run a retinal scanner over her, anyway . . .8 ?er voice trailed off and she frowned

with concentration.

Annemari touched the neckline of her intellitunic. The fabric softened and draped lower as if she=d beentugging at it from discomfort. 8+ou=re telling me that we personally have Eust introduced more cultural

contamination than the entire "arents Trading ociety has committed on alapriya in the last four

generationsI8

8<e knew that would happen when we took a flitter to get here as fast as possible,8 Calandra pointedout. 8Anyway, you=re not responsible for the tanglers and the other protech weaponry the "ashir has

been buying. o - wouldn=t feel too guilty. eems to me this world has been well and trulytechnologically contaminated already. - don=t think smart fabrics, or even flitters, are going to mess upthe culture more than a hillcountry megalomaniac armed with military surplus galactic weaponry.

<hat interests me is . . .8

8+esI8

8+ou didn=t tell anyone on )eerval where - was going, did youI8

8*o. - wanted to get some information before - made it official.8 Annemari made a helpless gesture.

8-nstead, all -=m getting is more and more confusion.8

8Then the only people who knew my name and destination,8 Calandra said, as if thinking aloud, 8were

the Tasman underworld gang who captured me. o they=re the only people who could even havethought to impersonate me on alapriya. And the one thing we know for sure about them is that they=re

smuggling =mats off alapriya. o they=re probably smuggling protech weaponry the other way.8

8omebody in the "arents Trading ociety has to be involved too,8 Annemari reminded her. 8$robablyseveral people.8

8+es, but nobody in the ociety could impersonate meG it=s a small clannish group and everybody

knows everybody else. 6on=t you see, Annemari, this fake 6iplo has to be one of the Tasman gangH

And the officer who=s escorting her is either part of the smuggling group, or in danger of his life.



"ecause she has to be coming here to cover or destroy evidenceG why else would they risk such an

impersonationI8

The girl hati touched Calandra=s hand and whispered something.

8?ai, hai,8 Calandra said, nodding absently. Then she stopped and paid attention to hati=s increasingly

urgent whispers, only saying 8?ai8 or 8Bedya8 at intervals.

8hati thinks we should get out of here,8 she told Annemari. 8?er friend in the )esistance was sent toguide the other =Calandra= to some place called the Durgan Caves, in what used to be Thamboon, where

she would find evidence of the "ashir=s bacteriomat smuggling. hati says the "ashir shut down

everything in @dara when the gossip about the envoys was heard and if we stay here we won=t findanything.8

8- wouldn=t call tanglers e&actly =nothing.= 8

8*o, but we do want to tie it in with the =mat smuggling, don=t weI And if the others get there first they

may destroy the evidence. <hy else would one of the Tasman gang team up with a "arents Trading

ociety officer to trek upcountryI And - think hati had better come with us. The "ashir is bound tofind out she came to our Fuarters, and once we leave her life won=t be worth a alapriyan tul.8 Calandra

spoke to hati again in alapriyan. The girl shook her head at first, then as Calandra said somethingelse she bowed low, almost prostrating herself.

8he wanted us to pick up somebody else from her group who=s made pilgrimage to these caves, to actas a guide,8 Calandra e&plained to Annemari. 8- told her it=s all right, that - have the location of the

caves in my head. #f course - can=t e&plain implants and download chips. o9well, it seems that the

caves are holy to some religious sect that=s mi&ed up with the resistance9she seems to think !m holy by e&tension.8 Calandra shook her head. 8-=ve been called a lot of things in my career, but being a

minor goddess of the -nner 5ight <ay is definitely a first.8

85et=s hope,8 Annemari said, 8her faith in you is sufficient to keep her from going hysterical on her first

trip in a flitter, # blessed lady of the -nner 5ight <ay.8

Chapter Se"enteen

So%ewhere between Dhara%pal an) Tha%boon

on KalapriyaThe morning sunlight flashed off the ?igh Dagirs, turning their snowcovered peaks into a fantasia ofgold and crystal. "elow, the shadows covered a world of rocky cliffs and deep green forestG above,

there was nothing but an endless blue so pale and thin that it made !aris even colder to look up at it.As Jabrel sighed with satisfaction at the vista opening before them, she reflected that it would probably be hours before any of that sunshine reached the hillside where they were making their way

up something that might be laughingly referred to as a path. The disadvantages of dirtside living never

ceased to amae herG imagine having to wait for hours Eust to get the lights turned onH

8There=s "ald <iard,8 Jabrel pointed out a slightly rounded peak to the right side of the range, 8and#ld now 5ady beside him.8 !aris supposed that the double cones of the second mountain=s outline

made the reason for the name obvious enough. -f you thought like a man.

8And there,8 he said with a reverence that !aris found intensely irritating, 8there is Ayodhana herself.8



?e indicated a distant peak that dwarfed the others into mere foothills.

8-f we have to walk all the way to the top of that mountain, we=ll maybe get there some time ne&t

century,8 !aris grumbled. 8!ight as well go back to Balentin now.8 Balentin had been looking better

and better to her during the long hours of night climbing. he had a blister on her right heel, and shefelt as filthy as she had before that lovely bath in ?arsaEEan "harat=s house, and there were permanent

wires of pain running from her feet up through her hips9and for whatI All that walking to get them

into the middle of nowhereI Balentin might be primitive, but it had houses and food stalls and places tosleep that didn=t have sharp rocks sticking into your hip bone.

8 #obody climbs Ayodhana,8 Jabrel said, sounding shocked. 8he is the sacred mountain.8

8+eah, and these caves yer friend wants us to go to9they=re sacred too, rightI8 !aris pointed out.

8And that doesn=t seem to=ve stopped the "ashir from turning them into some kind of weapons locker,

or whatever.8

Jabrel looked sick. 8-=m afraid it=s not e&actly98

Chulayen interrupted him and said something in a low, agitated voice, pointing back the way they hadcome. 8?ai, hai,8 Jabrel agreed before turning back to !aris. 8<e need to keep moving. There are

tribesmen in 6harampal who know these trails much better than Chulayen does. -f they realie wehaven=t gone straight back to Balentin, they=ll have trackers out checking the trails. "ut if we can crossinto Thamboon before they catch up with us, the Bakil won=t send anybody over the border. $robably.8

8And what if it=s not the Bakil tracking us, but that ugly bastard from @daraI8

8That,8 Jabrel said, 8is an e1tremely good reason to keep moving.8

4ortunately, the ne&t segment of the trail was not as grueling as the rocky slopes they=d covered in

darkness. -t wound about the shoulder of the mountain, well below the treeline, and almost level assuch things were counted in the ranges of the 5ower Dagirs9which meant they had to scramble up and

down over rocks and around tree roots, but at least it wasn=t the constant, monotonous climbing that had

made the night walk such a misery. The narrow path passed through alternating bands of shadow and

light. There were forested areas where the great trees enclosed them like walls and filled the air with aresinous scent that gave !aris new energy, and there were sudden openings into grassy meadows

where the shelves of stone lay too near the surface for trees to flourish. -n one of the glades Chulayen

held up his hand as a signal to pause. <hile Jabrel and !aris froe, listening for the sounds ofsomebody following him, he climbed a few feet up one of the gnarled trunks and came down with his

hand full of what looked like dark, sticky chunks of Fuart. ?e said a few words to Jabrel and popped

one of the rocklike things into his mouth.

8undhu resin,8 Jabrel e&plained to !aris. 8?e says chewing it will give us more energy for the trekand we won=t need to load our bellies with food.8

!aris had been rather looking forward to a stop for something to eat, and she had not been thinking in

terms of chewing on something that smelled9she took another suspicious sniff to confirm hersuspicions9like paint thinner. till, Jabrel was munching away now with every evidence ofenEoyment, so she cautiously took the smallest sliver of gunk she could find in Chulayen=s open hand

and stuck the end into her mouth.

+ep. $aint thinner.

he bit down on the stuff and almost gagged as the resinous te&ture and sharp taste flooded her mouth.

-t would doubtless be considered e1tremely rude to spit it out again. #nce they were walking, maybe, ifshe could manage to be last in line . . . but right now Jabrel and Chulayen were both watching her.



he chewed, swallowed the bitter saliva that filled her mouth, chewed again. -t didn=t taste Fuite so

bitter now. A few more bites, and the chunk of stuff she=d taken had disintegrated into fibers, and she

felt as if she=d Eust popped a couple of stimmers. And the taste . . . ?er eyes widened, and the men

laughed.

8 = good H8 she said in surprise.

8-t=s also addictive,8 Jabrel told her as they shouldered their packs and started forward again, 8but

Chulayen says the only people who get a chance to be addicted are the mountain tribes9it has to be

taken fresh from the tree, and whatever active compounds make it such a good stimulant break downwithin hours. omeday -=d like to get a biochemist up here to analye the freshly harvested sap.8

8!mm,8 !aris nodded while sucking the last delicious, tangy resinous flavor from the fibers in her

mouth. Chulayen, ahead of them, spat his mouthful of fibers onto the trail, and she followed his

e&ample. 8ynthesie this stuff, you could make a fortune selling it as, - dunno, chewing gum orsomething. !aybe make a drink out of it.8

8That,8 said Jabrel, sounding shocked, 8would be immoral. 6idn=t - tell you it was addictiveI8

!aris had thought that was the point. *othing like having a monopoly of something that people not

only liked but had to have more of. -f Dohnivans could get his hands on an analysis of this stuff,he=d . . . kill the biochemist, and then . . .

<hat had seemed simple, clear, and profitable when she thought with her Tasman mind did seemimmoral when she thought like Calandra Bissi, who was dead but who seemed to be taking over her

head anyway. !aris remembered the kids who=d gone the dreamdust way on Tasman. *ot Eust the ones

in Dohnivans= gang, but the young prostitutes who used the stuff to make their short lives bearable untilthe =dust killed them. <ould she have died that way if Dohnivans hadn=t taken her inI

o what was immoralI $roviding dreamdustI #r leaving people in lives so miserable that dying of slow

starvation on a constant dreamdust high seemed preferable to realityI 6amn, trying to be a real person

instead of a scumsucker was complicated . Too bad she wasn=t really Calandra Bissi. The 6iplo probably knew the right thing to do without having to think about it.

Anyway, she couldn=t climb and think at the same time, she was too tired. he rubbed the sweat off her

forehead9funny how you could sweat so much when it was so bunu cold9and tapped Chulayen=s

shoulder, holding out her hand for another chunk of sundhu resin.

"reakfast turned out to be a stale, flat onion pancake, handed out by Chulayen while they were stillwalking the level9and the sundhu resin, or her hunger, made even that taste delicious. !aris started

scanning for likely trees every time they entered a band of forest, pointing them out to Chulayen until

Jabrel reminded her that there was no point in stockpiling the resinG what they couldn=t chew as theywalked would lose its stimulant Fualities in storage.

<hen no one was watching, she broke off half the ne&t piece Chulayen gave her and tucked it into a

corner of her pack. he could test it tomorrowG no need to take everything some total stranger told herat face value, Eust because Jabrel believed him. After all9Jabrel believed her , didn=t heI ?e might fallfor any lie9he hadn=t trained with professionals, like she had.

That is, she could test it if she was still alive tomorrow. <hen they finally stopped for a rest and

another yummy stonecold onion pancake, Jabrel had time to translate what Chulayen had been telling

him. And it didn=t sound good to !aris.

8- thought this guy said the "ashir was storing his protech weapons in these caves we=re going to.8

8That=s what - thought at first,8 Jabrel admitted, 8but you can see that wouldn=t make any sense. +ou



don=t use some location too remote for anybody but mountain goats as a weapons lockerG can you

imagine carrying heavy machinery up this trailI8

8Tanglefield generators and nerve daers aren=t all that heavy.8

8-n large Fuantities they are.8

8o what does he use it forI8

Jabrel=s lips tightened for a momentG he looked sick. 8According to Chulayen, he uses it for . . . makingwhat he trades for the weapons. ?e used to do it in @dara, but because of the rumors that somebody

was going to investigate, he moved everything to the Durgan Caves in Thamboon.8

8o what do you manufacture in =some location too remote for anybody but mountain goats,= thenI8

!aris threw his own words back at him, and the answer came to her before Jabrel could speak. Those bioshielded cylinders that Dohnivans got from alapriya, that went out to )eerval as 8medical

supplies8 . . .

8"acteriomats,8 she answered her own Fuestion. 8?e=s found a way to culture =mats outside the coastal

caves, and instead of selling them to the "arents Trading ociety, he=s trading themto . . . somebody . . . for protech weaponry.8

Jabrel nodded. 8o he can conFuer more territory, so he can take more prisoners, so he can culture

more bacteriomats, so he can get more arms . . . -t=s an endless spiral.8

!aris thought it over. 8- don=t Fuite get the bit about the prisoners.8

8-=m not Fuite sure either,8 Jabrel said, 8but Chulayen insists that they=re being used to help culture the

=mats, and that it kills them, so the "ashir needs more and more people. ?e used to condemn his political prisoners to the =mat culture caves, but that=s not enough anymoreG he=s taking people from the

conFuered areas. - don=t Fuite get what=s so to&ic about the =mat culture processG our people in "arents

do it without dying or even getting sick, and my alapriyan isn=t good enough to understand whatChulayen is saying. - keep asking how the prisoners culture the =mats, and he says the prisoners are the

=mats. omething is getting badly mangled in translation.8

Chulayen broke in here with a flood of alapriyan in which !aris managed to make out the words

8wife, son, daughters9everybody, all my familyH8 and some names.

8?is family was taken by the !inistry for 5oyalty,8 Jabrel translated. 84airly recently. They were sentto the Durgan Caves before he could do anything. ?e wants us to get there as fast as possible in case

there=s a chance of saving them.8

!aris blinked back tears, angry at herself for the weakness. o Chulayen had lost his family, so what

was that to herI he=d never had a family. "ut the little clerk=s grief made something ache inside her.he focused on practicalities.

8And e&actly how are we going to do thatI8

8<e may not be able to,8 Jabrel admitted. 8<e=ll have to see what the situation is like when we get

there. -=m not going to risk your life in some desperate attempt to save the prisoners in the caves. +ou=re

too valuable for thatG you=re the key to our whole success.8

8<ho, meI ?owI - don=t feel all that valuable,8 !aris said. 8- mean, - don=t want to die, or anything,

but . . .8

86on=t you see, CalandraI +ou=re our link with )eervalH %ven if you=re not fully trained yet, you=re a

6iplo intern. +ou=ve got contacts with people who can stop this whole filthy business, and they=ll believe you. - can=t risk going to Balentin with the story, because some of the senior Trading ociety





8To alapriyaI8

8Anywhere off Tasman, and that=s where Calandra was s=posed to be going, so - thought that would be

easiest. - didn=t realie until - got here,8 !aris confessed, 8that the only way out was back through

Tasman again. o - was stuck.8

Jabrel sat down at the base of a tree and leaned forward, resting his arms on his bent knees.

8- . . . didn=t mean to get you stuck with me,8 !aris ventured after a while, and then, after anothersilence, 8-=m sorry.8

Jabrel raised his head and !aris looked away, afraid of seeing scorn in his eyes.

8+ou=ve never even been on )eerval.8

8)ight.8

8+ou=re here because your friends killed the real 6iplo.8

?is voice was flat and dead. ?e hated her. ?e had toG look at the mess she=d gotten him into, and how

she=d been lying to him since the day they met. he might as well spell out the whole sorry story. <henyou had nothing left but pride . . . well, what good was prideI

8-=m here,8 !aris corrected, 8because when the 6iplo spaced herself, my =friends= needed a substitute. -f

a 6iplo=d Eust disappeared on Tasman, there=d=ve been a search that could=ve messed up Dohnivans=

whole organiation. o his idea was to hack into )eerval=s databases and substitute my physical datafor Calandra=s, then let them find my dead body in her Fuarters and report she=d died of natural causes.

#nly when - put the story together, - decided -=d rather impersonate a live 6iplo than a dead one. - got

out of Tasman one step ahead of Dohnivans . . . - don=t have any friends,8 she finished, swallowing hard.8-=m nobody. - can=t do you no bunu good.8 At least she could Fuit trying to talk toppie now.

he could feel Jabrel studying her face. !aris hoped she didn=t look as miserable as she felt.

8+ou=re wrong about that, you know,8 he said.

!aris lifted her empty hands. 8And Eust what do you think - can doI -=m for sure not your contact withany )eerval toppiesH8

8+ou have friends now,8 Jabrel said. 8+ou saved my life in Balentin, and you=ve been a damned goodmarching companion all this way. *o accredited 6iplo could have done better. 6on=t run yourself

down, Cal . . . umm . . .8

8!aris.8 he folded her arms, as if she could hold on to herself, hold on to her misery. <ords cost

nothing. -f she let herself believe them, it would Eust hurt worse when Jabrel showed the truth.<hatever he might say, he couldnt feel the same about a Tasman scumsucker as he would=ve about a

)eerval 6iplo. 8+ou always do Eump to conclusions too fast,8 she told him. 8<hen you=ve had time to

think about it, you=ll hate me for getting you into this. o why don=t we Eust fastforward to that partnow and skip the nice talkI8 And skip the part where she started to feel good again and then it was

taken away. The remembered pain of discovering Dohnivans= betrayal shot through her again, almost

taking her breath awayG it felt like a hand sFueeing her heart. he couldn=t go through that again with

Jabrel.

Jabrel sighed. 8!aybe we should Eust forget about personal relationships and decide how we=re going

to finish the Eob.8

-t did hurt.

84ine by me,8 !aris said tightly.



8#kay, then.8

8#kay.8

After a long, tense silence Jabrel finally spoke again . . . in alapriyan this time. Chulayen answered,

no, asked a Fuestion. Jabrel said something that sounded way too short to be a summary of her

confession to him. -n fact, if she knew alapriyan any better, she=d have thought he said, 8Jo away.8

?e hadG Chulayen turned his back to them and walked down the path they=d come up until he was lostto sight among the trees.

8<ait a minuteH8 !aris cried. *ever mind her personal misery, there was more than that at stake. 8+ou

can=t Eust send him away like that. <e got to try and rescue his family, don=t weI8

Jabrel stood up. !aris dropped her eyes so she wouldn=t have to see his face. All she could see was thetoes of his boots coming closer until they stopped, inches from her own toes. 8This isn=t going to work,

!aris.8

8<e could try, couldn=t weI #h, gods take it. Call Chulayen back. ?im and me=ll bunu try and get in

there. <e don=t need youH8 ! dont need you" 5eastways, not any more than ! need air and water"

8- didn=t mean that,8 Jabrel said. 8#f course we=re going to try. "ut we can=t go in with our minds onother things, and - don=t know about you, but ! can=t forget about our personal relationship and leave

things like this. <e=ve got to clear the air.8

!aris looked up, avoided meeting his eyes, glanced from side to side at the coniferstudded hills.

85ooks plenty clear to me,8 she said.

8top. $laying. <ord. James.8 Jabrel said through clenched teeth. 8#h, gods . . .8 ?is hands closed onher shoulders and his mouth came down over hers, at first hard, then soft and warm and . . . !aris lost

track of her thoughts and everything else. he=d imagined this a million times, only not like this, not

with him knowing who she really was9

That brought her back to reality and she wrenched her head away. -t hurt to stop. ?urt worse than

anything yet.As soon as his own mouth was free, Jabrel was talking, saying nonsense, not letting her get a word in

edgewise. 8!aris, - love you, don=t you understandI - don=t care who you were before, you=re mine

now.8

8+ou don=t love me,8 !aris told him. 8- was being Calandra Bissi. -t=s her you love, and she=s dead .8

8Calandra Bissi didn=t save my life in Balentin, and ride until her thighs were scraped raw without a

word of complaint, and lead pack ghaya up into the hills with me, and make camp in the mountains

with me,8 Jabrel said. 80ou did. -t doesn=t matter what you were calling yourself at the time. The girl

who made this trip with me is the one - love.8

?e bent his head to kiss her again, but !aris twisted away. 8<ait,8 she pleaded. 8- got to think.8

5ove herI That couldn=t be true. There wasn=t anything about her to love. -f there had been, Dohnivans

wouldn=t have tossed her life aside so casually.

@nless . . .

Dohnivans was a different sort of person than Jabrel, wasn=t heI

Actually, Dohnivans wasn=t up to Jabrel=s class at all. *ow that she thought about it.

!aybe the problem wasn=t that she wasn=t worth anything, but that Dohnivans didn=t know how to care



about people.

And Jabrel did.

?e knew a lot more than that, too. <hile he was ostensibly giving her time to think, his left arm was

holding her very close and his right hand was roaming in a most distracting fashion. -t would be so easy

to Fuit thinking altogether and give in to what felt so very, very good and safe. "ut she wasn=t Fuiteready yet.

8+ou always fall in love with girls who drag packghaya up a mountain trailI8 she demanded. 8"ecause

if so, -=m gonna have too bunu much competition in these hills.8

Jabrel tried to look serious, as if he were thinking it over, but the corners of his mouth kept twitching

up. 8Actually,8 he said, 8- think - fell in love with you when you bullied me into talking to you, thatfirst evening in Balentin.8

8?uhH +ou mean when - listened to you all the way to the meeting hall.8

8*o,8 he said, 8- think it was when you half crippled me by stepping on my feet during the valsa.8

8- neverH8

8#h, yes, you did, my love. +ou are entrancing, maddening, beautiful, brave, and a terrible dancer. "ut-=ll teach you to valsa properly.8

8- am not a terrible dancerH8

8+ou should have seen the bruises.8

8+ou=re making it up, you walked fine afterwards didn=t youI8

8A soldier is trained to bear pain,8 Jabrel said solemnly, 8and if you don=t stop talking, -=ll have to shut

you up again.8

8+ap,8 !aris said. 8+ap yappity yap. +ap yap ya . . .8

The second kiss was definitely better than the first. he was seriously tempted to keep arguing andkissing, Eust to see how much better it could get, but they did have a Eob to do.

he and Jabrel evidently realied that at the same time. ?is grip on her loosened and he stepped back.

o did she.

-t felt like having part of her self torn away.

8- suppose,8 she said, 8we=d better call Chulayen and get on with it, then.8

8- suppose so,8 Jabrel agreed.

<hen they resumed the council of war, !aris was seated on the ground beside Jabrel, in the curve of

his arm. And Chulayen looked at them and looked . . . not happy, perhaps, but less miserable than he=d

been since they met. ?e said something to Jabrel that !aris couldn=t follow, but she was pretty sure theword 8love89 khariya 9came in there.

8#kay,8 Jabrel said, trying to sound businesslike. 8<e need to figure out where we are and go on from

there, rightI8

8Joing on8 was painfully slow, since he had to say everything twice, once in Jalactic for !aris andonce in alapriyan for Chulayen9they couldn=t risk anybody missing anything, not now9but there

wasn=t that much to say, really. +ou could only say 8hopeless situation,8 and 8forlorn hope,8 so many

ways.



8The way - see it,8 Jabrel summaried, 8we=ve got people trying to kill us in Balentin. And we=ve got

people trying to kill us in 6harampal. And we=ve probably got people trying to kill us in @dara. And

that=s the good news.8

And people trying to kill me on Tasman, !aris added mentally, not that it would make any difference9 so why bother saying it aloudI

8- don=t think it would work to head back from here to Balentin and try to tell them all that we=ve

decided to drop the investigation. They might not give us a chance to discuss it. They might not even

believe us. "esides98 Jabrel gave a wry smile 89-=d really, really hate to have come all this way forno result.8

8And besides,8 !aris said, 8we got to get Chulayen=s wife and kids out, don=t weI8

8-f we can,8 Jabrel agreed.

8After which we=ll also have people trying to kill us in Thamboon.8

8Ah. "ut with any luck we=ll also have evidence that ties the whole scheme together. Then we try to

make it back to Balentin9no, to )eerval9and take what we=ve got to . . . whatever authorities we canfind.8

8+ou reckon our chances of getting back alive are any better this wayI8

8*o,8 Jabrel admitted, 8but they=re no worse, and at least this way, if we do get back, maybe we can do

something worthwhile. !athematically, it makes perfect senseG our choice is between probably getting

killed with no outcome, and probably getting killed with a possible good outcome.8

8- can=t begin to tell you,8 !aris said, 8how much better it makes me feel to know we=ve got amathematician on the Eob. !akes all the difference. #kay, which way do we go from hereI8

After a brief consultation with Chulayen, Jabrel reported that the pilgrim route to the cave was a

relatively gentle downhill walk from the glade where they rested.

8Too good to be trueH8 !aris e&ulted.

8<ell, yes. They=re bound to have guards posted. ?owever, Chulayen is almost sure there=s another wayinto the cave comple&. <hen he was there on pilgrimage with his wife he noticed there was a constant

slight breee blowing against his face. Also, the -nner 5ight <ay priests appeared very suddenly from

the back of the main cave. ?e=s pretty sure there is a series of chambers back beyond the crystal caves

with some opening to the outside, and he thinks he can figure out how to work around the mainentrance to that one. o we=re going to go that way98 Jabrel pointed at a discouraging rocky slope

89and then around there, and then with any luck there=ll be a rope bridge . . .8

86on=t tell me any more,8 !aris implored. 8- think -=m happier not knowing.8

There was a rope bridge. !aris wasn=t sure that counted as good luck, though. The thing consisted oftwo ropes, count them, two/ one to stand on and one to hold on to while you shuffled over a lot of very

hard and spikylooking rocks a very long way below. And in full gravityH Another minus for dirtside

life/ not only couldn=t you turn on the lights, you couldn=t turn off the gravity.

+ou had, in fact, very little control at all. "ut when had she, personally, had any control over hercircumstancesI urely not on Tasman, where Dohnivans had used her as a spy, runner, and thief until it

was more convenient to discard her. Certainly not since she=d run from Tasman. he wasn=t even sure

she=d had any control over falling in love with Jabrel. -t felt more like giving in to a force of nature,

like gravity.

*ot that she really wanted to think about gravity Eust then . . . 8<hat the hell,8 !aris said, and followed



Chulayen over the double rope. Actually she crossed a little faster than he did, and a lot faster than

Jabrel, whose weight made the device sag and creak alarmingly.

8-n a holo,8 she said when Jabrel finally crossed the chasm, 8the native guide would scamper across

without even using the top rope, =stead of gripping it with all ten fingers the way he did.8

Jabrel grinned and translated the comment to Chulayen, who was looking rather more olive green thanhis usual light brown color. Chulayen replied with a spate of words ending in a shaky laugh. 8?e says

he=s a soft clerk in a @daran government office, not a mountain tribesman,8 Jabrel translated, 8and the

pilgrim path to the caves is Fuite bad enough for him. After the pilgrimage he vowed never to go nearone of these rope bridges again. 4urthermore, he is beginning to hope we will all be killed attempting to

enter the caves, so that he won=t have to come back this way.8

!aris looked with new respect at the little brownskinned man. Dust a clerk in some government office,

but he=d Eoined the @daran resistance movement, traveled across country to meet unknown foreigners,and led them back through the mountains because his family might still be alive in these mysterious

caves of Thamboon. And even if he had gripped the handrope so tightly his knuckles turned white and

taken half of forever to shuffle along the footrope, still he=d been the one to show them the way across

the bridge. 8<ell, tell him if that=s what the old softies of his country are like, - hope - never run across

a tough young oneH8After the bridge they went more slowlyG there was nothing so well defined as a path to guide them, only

narrow trails through the bent grass. Chulayen studied the outlines of the surrounding hills intently.

Jabrel flipped the curved alapriyanstyle dagger he carried upside down and revealed a primitivecompass concealed in the hilt. ?e and Chulayen stopped and conferred so often !aris began to wonder,

then to suspect, then to feel certain9

8<e=re lost.8

8*ot lost ,8 Jabrel said defensively, 8we Eust aren=t sure e&actly98

86o you know where we areI8

8<ell . . .8

86oes he know where this supposed back entrance to the caves isI8

8- . . . look outH8

Jabrel=s shoulder caught her in the midriff and knocked the breath out of her, sending them both

tumbling down among the stiff thorny bushes. A moment later Chulayen dove on top of them.

omething caught the hem of !aris=s long tunic and dragged it upward9 damn thorns 9and she had Eust time to think that Chulayen=s weight on top of Jabrel=s would drive the thorn bushes right into her

bare back9and now she heard the buing that had alerted JabrelG some kind of machine& 9but she

couldn=t see over his body pinning her down, wriggled sideways and got room to breathe again, no,more than that, falling into darkness9 he landed, hard, on something entirely composed of hard

knobbly lumps and sharp edges.

8A flitter,8 Jabrel said under his breath. 8Jods, they=re getting blatant about it, not even trying to hide

their smuggled technology anymoreH Stay down, !aris, if they see us9 !arisI8

The breath that had been knocked out of her body came back in, lovely beautiful o&ygen, and the bruises9well, one good thing about the dark, she couldn=t see the e&tent of the damage, but it didn=t

feel like anything was broken. he wasn=t even bleeding. !uch. Dust the one scraped elbow that had

found a rock face on the way down. 8- think,8 !aris called up, 8-=ve found it. The back way. -nto themcaves.8



After some discussions about how deep the hole was :8*ot bad,8 !aris reported, 8- didn=t break

nothing.8;, whether Chulayen and Jabrel could climb down rather than falling in :8Try climbing.

4alling=s not fun.8;, and whether there were passages leading into the interior of the mountain :8<hy

d=you think - said -=d found itI =Course there=s passagesH8; Jabrel first lowered Chulayen down the precipitous sides of the hole, then swung himself over, hung by his hands for a moment, and let himself

drop. A vigorous "arentsian curse helped !aris identify his shadowy form.

8)eckon you found the same ledge - did,8 she said, not without satisfaction. 8crape yer elbowI8

Jabrel didn=t deign to reply. ?e asked Chulayen something and got back an answer most of which!aris understoodG her alapriyan seemed to be improving rapidly with all the practice she got listening

to Jabrel and Chulayen. The little clerk didn=t think this was the back way that had been used by the

priests, and Jabrel agreed that there were probably easier entrances to the cave comple& somewhere

elseG however, the faint continual draft of air past their faces made this one seem as promising as anyother.

8?elp if we could see anything,8 !aris complained, and even as she finished speaking a faint glow lit

up Jabrel=s face. -t looked as though his cheek and forehead had intercepted the ledge on which !aris

had scraped her elbowG no wonder he was testy. "ut showing off his light source seemed to be cheering

him up.8"uilt in with the compass,8 he e&plained. 8#nly turns on when - twist this little knob on the side of the

hilt9seeI8 And he demonstrated by clicking the light on and off several times.

8The "ashir supplies his troops with magic lights also,8 Chulayen said9that was short and simpleenough that !aris could understand it, especially when the clerk also produced a glowing disk from the

folds of his sash.

8- thought you were Eust an office clerk,8 Jabrel said with suspicion.

8!y . . . friends . . . occasionally divert some military supplies,8 Chulayen e&plained.

!aris threw up her hands. 8This bunu worldH %verybody e&cept me is already carrying protech, and

who got arrested in 6harampal on suspicion of having outlander weaponsI !eH8

After some time crawling along the one useful passage leading from that deep hole, !aris wished

Jabrel and Chulayen had been carrying a little more prohibited technology. omething to map the cave

comple& would have been nice. he wasn=t entirely happy with following the faint breath of air moving

through the tunnel as evidence that somewhere up ahead were the larger caverns of which Chulayenhad spoken. till, it wasn=t like there=d been a lot of choices. The other apparent passages had been only

deep crevices with no openingsG if this one petered out they=d have to backtrack, climb out of the hole

she=d accidentally discovered, and look for another entrance.

"ack through that narrow bit where they had to crawl single file on their bellies through slimy puddles . . . he really, really hoped they were going the right way. Then she realied that once they got

to the crystal caves, they would have to find something they could steal that would be enough to get theattention of the authorities on )eerval, lift whateveritwas without being killed by the cave guards,then go back through that slimy tunnel, trek over the mountains, not get killed by @daran assassins,

find a boat back down the river to Balentin, not get killed by Barentsian assassins, get themselves to

)eerval from a planet whose only access station was Tasman, not get killed by Dohnivans . . . hemoaned softly to herself. They=d never make it. he might Eust as well lie down and die right here in the

tunnel, e&cept . . .

8<hat is wrongI8 Chulayen asked. ?e spoke slowly and clearly so that she could understand him.



8*othin= 8 !aris said. ?er alapriyan definitely wasn=t up to e&plaining all the ways they could die on

the way back. 8- . . . don=t like tunnels.8 #kay, so she=d slipped through narrower spaces in the

maintenance shafts on Tasman, but even there you could turn on the lights . . . and she knew her way

around Tasman.

8There is nothing to fear,8 Chulayen promised her. 8These mountains are very old. *othing will fall to

close our way.8

Jods, she hadn=t even thought to worry about that possibilityH

8And the crystal caves are . . . were . . . very beautiful,8 Chulayen went on. 8+ou and Jabrel will be the

first outlanders to see them. <alls lined with crystals, you understandI 5ight everywhere. -n darkness,one lights a candle first, and light dances everywhere.8

That was something good to think about while she crawled on hands and knees through the stinking

mud. After a while the passage opened up a little. They couldn=t stand up, but at least she didn=t have to

keep her head down where her nose was practically in the mud. o the smell should have been better . . . but instead, as they progressed, it got worse.

!uch worse.

-f the roof hadn=t raised up so that !aris could stand, she thought she would have thrown up. Chulayenstood up too, with a smothered groan of relief and a hand at the small of his back. Jabrel was too tallG

he had to walk in a halfcrouch that looked even more uncomfortable than crawling. till, the change of position must be some relief.

And that cloying, sickly sweet smell kept getting worse.

8<atch out for crevasses,8 Jabrel warned in a low voice. ?e angled his dagger hilt so that a faint light

showed the broken ground before them. !aris realied that the black areas weren=t Eust deep shadows but actual openings in the cave floor, falling down who knows how farI he certainly didn=t want to

find out. 4ortunately they were mostly narrow. he stepped across the openings carefully, holding

Chulayen=s hand for safety, then helped to balance him while he crossed each one.

8"igger ones coming up,8 Jabrel murmured, 8and we must be close now. omebody else has beenusing this part of the cave.8 ?is light illumined a roughly planed plank that bridged a wide crevasse

ahead.

8mells like something crawled in here to die,8 !aris muttered.

8!aybe somebody fell through.8 Jabrel dropped to his knees, then to his stomach. #ne hand over his

mouth and nose, he lowered his other hand with the light down into the gaping crevasse, then gaspedsuddenly and Eerked backward, gagging.

8<hat is itI8 !aris whispered.

86on=t lookH8

Chulayen sFueeed past her and whispered something in alapriyan to Jabrel, then took the light and

lowered it at arm=s length into the crevasse, peering intently. <hen he straightened up he looked even

greener than before, but maybe that was Eust the effect of the dim light among the shadows of the cave.

#r the effect of the smell.

8- can look or you can tell me,8 !aris said, carefully taking the shallowest breaths she could, 8but -

ain=t going out on that plank until - know what=s underneath me.8

8"odies,8 Jabrel said reluctantly.



!aris supposed she had already known that, because she didn=t feel shocked or surprised. Dust cold.

8 is peopleI8 he Eerked her head at Chulayen.

8?e didn=t recognie anyone . . . There=s no way of telling for sure,8 Jabrel said. =They=ve been . . . their

heads are . . . - don=t understand it. <hy drag prisoners all the way up here Eust to e&ecute themI8 ?eturned to Chulayen and repeated the Fuestion, got back a long answer whispered so fast that !aris

couldn=t follow a word of it.

8?e doesn=t really know either, - don=t think,8 Jabrel told !aris. 8?e keeps saying that !eer !adee

told him they use the prisoners to make the bacteriomats and then they die.8

8- guess we got to go on, then,8 !aris concluded. 8@s seeing a heap of mangled bodies isn=t going tocount for evidence, is itI %ven if you had a rope and could get down there and bring one back . . .8

8-t might prove something,8 Jabrel said, 8or it might not, depending on what=s been done to the bodies.

@nfortunately, we do not have a rope.8 ?e didn=t sound that unhappy about it.

4or once !aris found it easy to obey Jabrel=s inEunction not to look down as she crossed the plank

across the crevasse. he really wished there were some way to turn off the gravity for that few seconds,though.

#n the far side of the crevasse things improved. A lot. The cave was high enough for even Jabrel tostand up in, and wide enough that they could walk side by side. -f you could call what they were doing

walking . Jabrel evidently figured they were getting close to where the action was, so he insisted onwhat he called 8slow advance mode,8 which was apparently a military term for sneaking up on some

place really slowly and carefully.

Accent on slowly.

4irst Jabrel twisted the hilt of his dagger so that only the faintest light came from it, barely enough toshow the uneven floor of the caveG and even that was shielded by his hand so that nobody in front of

them would be likely to see it. ?e would take three steps forward, then pause and listen. ?e=d motion to

Chulayen, who did the same thing, a lot more Fuietly than Jabrel. 5ast came !aris. Another pause to

listen. Then they repeated the whole thing.

After a minor eternity of threestepsandlisten, !aris realied that the cave was slowly getting

brighter. he could see sparkly bits on the sides of the passage, and long backcast shadows where

those bits stuck out. he tapped Jabrel on the shoulder and pointed to the shadows. ?e nodded

acknowledgment, twisted the light off and tucked his dagger back into the sash of his tunic.

!oving even more slowly than before, they came from the shadows of the crevasses to a world of

glittering lights. The walls around them flowered with crystalline shapes, some like sharpedged

flowers, some like stars, others like broken bits of space debris, with no recogniable form to them, but

a sense of some underlying purpose in their structure. The reflections from the crystal facets dancedand swam around them, making !aris so diy that it was hard to reason out the cause/ the light source

must come from torches somewhere ahead. Torches, people . . . they slowed even more. A murmur thathad at first seemed no more than the sighing of the cave now sounded like water, then like voices babbling indistinguishable syllables. Jabrel put his finger to his lips, listened intently, then turned to

Chulayen with brows lifted. Chulayen shook his headG !aris deduced that he, too, was unable to make

any sense out of what they were hearing. "ut at least it proved there were living people in the caves before them.

An outcropping of crystalencrusted stone partially blocked the way forward. They crowded behind it

and peered at what they could see of the lighted cave. The moving sparks of reflections from the crystal

walls were so confusing that it was hard to make out details even close to the torches affi&ed to the



walls at intervals, but it looked to !aris as if there was Eust one person walking around, and any

number sitting against the cave walls9shadow upon shadow, moaning and mumbling singsong

nonsense that chilled her even while she told herself that she couldn=t e1pect to understand 8alapriyan

mumbling. *o matter what the language, the tones were those of madness.

8#ne guard,8 she breathed to Jabrel, and he nodded. They moved back a few :agoniingly careful;

steps and held a whispered conference. <hat would be the best way to get rid of the guard so they

could free the prisonersI ?er appearance, or Jabrel=s, would be sure to alarm him. Could Chulayen pass as another guard for long enough to lure the man back here where they could capture himI ?elooked dismayed at the suggestion but said something that !aris thought would have sounded

snobbish, if he could have got enough intonation into his whispers.

8<hat=d he sayI <hat=s he going to doI8 she demanded under her breath as Chulayen inched toward

the cave opening again.

8?e says he isn=t dressed right to be a guard but if he tries really hard he thinks he can imitate a lower

class )ohini accent long enough to get the man back here.8

!aris nodded. 5ike she thought9snobbish. he remembered Jabrel=s brief e&planations about the

class differences between )udhrani and )ohini. ?mm. -f this Chulayen was )udhrani, and a @daran

government employee at that, what was he doing with the resistance movementI <as he leading theminto a trapI

Chulayen called out in alapriyan. The guard=s pacing stopped, and Jabrel didn=t seem to be worried

by whatever Chulayen had said, so probably it was all right. "ut the guard didn=t come toward them.Chulayen said something else and the guard took a step closer. <ould he9

8 Baba( Baba*i(8 A child=s cry of delight echoed from the walls of the cavern, and a small figure ran past

the guard, all the way to the outcropping of crystals that concealed their party. Chulayen leapt forward,

dropped to one knee and embraced the child, heedless of the torchlight falling upon his e&posed face.Tears glittered on his face as he rocked the child back and forth in his arms. ?is story had been true,

thenG !aris had been worrying about the wrong thing, as usual.

<hat she should have been worrying about was the number of guards. The first man, the one they=d

tried to lure back here, gave a shout9for helpI9and suddenly there were three, no, five men allcoming at them, the others must have been sleeping, and now they were really sunk9

8"ack hereH8 Jabrel pushed her unceremoniously back into the deepest crevice between the crystal

pillar and the cave wall, then strode forward into the torchlight and said something in alapriyan. The

guards seied him and Chulayen, tore the child from Chulayen=s arms, and dragged all three of themout of !aris=s sight.

They didn=t search further. he huddled in the crevice and alternated between wondering what to do

ne&t and cursing Jabrel. he=d recognied the alapriyan word for 8two8 in what he said, so

presumably it was something like 8-t=s Eust the two of us.8 *ice that they took his word for itH "ut what

was the good of leaving her free on her ownI Anybody would think he=d forgotten that she wasn=t a real6iplo with wonderful weapons and secret powers9Eust a Tasman scumsucker with no skills but lying

and evasion. 6emons take the man9if only they=d both hidden9well, okay, there probably wasn=t

room in here for both of themG it was a tight fit for her alone. o fine. e should have hidden and lether be captured, then rescuing them would=ve been his problem. Talk about getting noble and

chivalrous at the wrong momentH Dohnivans would have dived for cover without a second thought,

probably first pushing her out into the light to distract the guards, and . . . %ould you really prefer that I#kay. *o, she wouldn=t. Jabrel was worth a hundred of Dohnivans. ?e was brave, Chulayen was

honest, and she, !aris, was a nasty suspicious little liar who thought the worst of everyone until proven



wrong and who didn=t deserve to be the only one of them left free.

!aris sighed9Fuietly9and prepared to see what she could do with her own skills. "eing a 6iplo and

probably able to call up reinforcements from )eerval would=ve been nice, but being Eust herself, she=d

have to rely on lying and evasion. %avesdropping would=ve been a good supplement, but she couldn=tfollow the guards= mumbling, slangfilled conversation. <ho was she kiddingI he could barely follow

a very slow, clear conversation in very basic alapriyan. -f she already knew what it was about.

"esides, she could barely hear the guards now . . .

A cold hand tugged at her arm. !aris started, cracked her head on something hard and sharp Eutting outof the crystal pillar, and9it was only the child.

<ho=d given them away to the guards, she reminded herself.

"ut probably not on purpose.

*ow the child9a little girl, she thought, with those long black braids9was whispering something

urgently. !aris bent down to hear. A lot of good that did9it was still bloody alapriyan. he fumbled

for words and managed something like 8*o understand, talk slow please.8

<hat she wouldn=t have given for a 6iplo=s language implant.

4inally the little girl calmed down enough to put it in words of one syllable for the dumb outlander.

8Juards gone now. <e get my baba*i. +ou come helpH8

!aris realied that the voices of the guards were Fuite inaudible nowG all she could hear was the

continual lowtoned babbling and moaning of, she supposed, the prisoners. -naudible didn=t necessarilymean gone. he risked a cautious peek around the crystal pillar and saw nobody standing, not even any

long shadows of standing men.

+eah, right. o maybe the guards were sitting down like everybody else.

The kid tugged more urgently. !aris dug in her heels and pulled right back, enough to get the girl=s

attention, then sFuatted down to bring their heads together. 8Jo slow,8 she whispered. 8Careful. *o talk

loud.8 he hated trying to talk this languageG it made her feel like an idiot. he added in Jalactic, morefor her own satisfaction than because she really thought she=d be able to communicate, 85ook, kid, you

are with an e1pert at sneaking around now. +ou Eust stay back and let me handle things, you hearI8 *otthat she had any idea how she was going to 8handle8 the situation, but at least she could scope it out

better if this kid would Eust calm down and stay put.

omething in her tone seemed to work9maybe it was Eust the universal Boice of Adult Authority9and

the little girl stayed Fuietly in the shelter of the crystal pillar while !aris slunk to the ne&t bit ofshadowy cover, thinking nobodyhereyoudon=tevenwanttolook thoughts to discourage anybody

who Eust might be looking.

The torchlight was some distance away, and anyway it did a terrible Eob of lighting this back part of the

caveG patches of crystals sparkled in occasional pools of light, surrounded by dark shadows. %ven ifsomebody saw a bit of movement, they=d probably take it for a crystal flashing in the wavering light.

And the irregular walls of the cave provided plenty of solid cover. !aris couldn=t have had a better

environment for sneaking up on somebody if she=d customordered it. Compared to following a markalong the brilliantly lit corridors of one of Tasman=s toppie levels, this was a piece of cake.

#f course, last time she=d tried to do that , she hadn=t been such a great success. "ut who=d have known

the mark would turn out to be a 6iploI A bunch of stupid alapriyan guards had to be easy in

comparison.

ow do you know theyre stupid&



!aris slipped from the shadows cast by a boulder sparkling with iridescent white snowflakes, across

the narrow cavern and into the shelter of a stalactite cluster that seemed to be dripping halfmelted

crystals. This isnt e1actly the kind of *ob that goes to the sharpest guys around , she answered the

carping voice in her head.

And speaking of 8around,8 where were all those guards who=d piled onto Jabrel and ChulayenI !aris

peered between two flows of crystal and sFuinted into the uneven light of the cavern where it opened

out ahead of her, carefully taking stock of every bit of information her senses could bring her.

Torches were fi&ed into the walls at head height every two or three meters. he avoided lookingdirectly at the flames. %ven the sparkling walls revealed by the torchlight were bright enough to mess

up her vision. he directed her gae down toward the cavern floor, where huddled dark shapes lined the

walls.

$eople. Chained to the wallsI *ot moving much, anyway. ?ere and there she saw a head or an armmoving in a kind of aimless flopping motion, that was all. ome of them were moaning or babblingG

nearly all the shapes looked wrong in some way that she couldn=t make out from here.

*one of them looked like Jabrel or Chulayen.

And they smelled9gods, how the place stankH +ou=d think they were sitting in pools of their owne&crement.

As she moved into the open space, so slowly it was more like flowing than walking, !aris saw thatwas e&actly what they were doing. The prisoners were chained by the neck to bolts driven deep into the

cavern walls. ome flopped so limply against their chains that they had to be unconscious or dead. Dust

before her, two chained bodies sat in the froen stiffness of death. "eyond them, a head wavered, fellforward into torchlight and revealed a gaping wound in the skull that e&posed the brain matter.

!aris swallowed hard and ordered her stomach to control itself. he couldn=t do anything about this,

not nowG she had to find Jabrel and Chulayen first. *o point in even thinking about what tortures were

being inflicted here what they might be doing right now to Gabrel dont think about that dont think"he managed a few more cautious steps and came to a halt right beside one of the torches. The

flickering downward light showed the bodies beneath all too clearly and she could not resist a horrified

look theres something growing out of his head dont look dont look . . .

8Ca9 !arisH8

Jabrel=s voice. 8Jo back, Ca9 !aris,8 he called. 8omething=s distracted the guards. This is yourchance to get away. Jo back the way we came.8

86emons fly away with the way we cameH8 !aris followed the voice, kept her eyes averted from the

parade of horrors against the cavern walls, finally came to where Jabrel and Chulayen were chained

but, not, thank Jod, tortured yet . . . she felt his head to make sure.

8This is an order,8 Jabrel said in an urgent undertone. 8+ou can=t save us. omeone must tell )eerval

what=s going on here.8

The chains were some kind of antiFue metal, actual links, nothing programmableG she felt for a keypad

or some device she could fiddle and cursed primitive worlds. 8!ebbe you forgot,8 she told Jabrelwhile feeling down the length of the chain to the wall bolt and back again, 8- ain=t in yer army. Anyway,

- don=t take orders from somebody as can=t even remember me right name.8 ?aH There was some kind

of a catch here, holding the chain tight around Jabrel=s neck.

8+ou=ll do what - tell you9arrghH <hose side are you on anywayI8 Jabrel complained. 8+ou trying tostrangle meI8 he had Eerked his head sideways and cut off the slack in the chain while trying to get a



view of the catch.

8The idea,8 !aris said between her teeth, 8is not without its attractions. Jimme your dagger.8

8Juards took it.8

8<ell, don=t you have anything useful in those sash pocketsI8 !aris dug into the recesses of her own

clothing and came up with a bone comb. That might work, if she broke off the inside teeth and used

one of the strong outside teeth as a probe. he twisted the chain Eust a little more, using it to break off part of the comb and turn it into a tool, and Jabrel made gagging noises.

8Dust hold on, - got to see what -=m doing,8 !aris muttered. $ush the long bone tooth into this opening,

feel gently, gently . . . Jabrel Eerked and she lost her grip on the catch. 8?old still H8

8*ot much point in picking the lock if -=m strangled first.8

!aris was beginning to think she couldn=t pick the lock anywayG the triangle of the bone tooth was too broad to slip deep enough into the catch. he could probably file it down on the metal of the bolt, but

that would take time . . .

teps at the mouth of the cave startled her. he crouched between Jabrel and Chulayen, trying to blend

in with the huddled prisoners.5ight blinded her for a moment9not torchlight, but a proper light that you switched on and offG likeJabrel=s dagger, only about a hundred times brighter. !aris blinked and sFuinted at the figure behind

the light. -t wasn=t a guard returning. !aybe worse9a tall, fairhaired woman who walked confidently,

as if she thought she owned the caverns, and openly carried a flash that was way beyond anything legalto have in alapriya.

#ne of the arms dealers, come to inspect the bacteriomats they took in trade for their offworld

weaponsI ?ad to be9who else would be let past the guards like thatI 4or that matter, who else would

be foolhardy enough to Eust walk in like this, aloneI

#f course, she thought everybody in the cavern was chained to the wall.

!aris let her get two steps farther inG the light shone on a man Eust beyond Chulayen, and she heard thewoman make a gagging noise as though unprepared for the sight. #ow.

-t was a beautiful move, if she did say so herself, one that -ce %yes had taught her back on Tasman/

propelling herself straight out from the wall without worrying about the coming fall, arms out to grab

the arms trader around the knees and bring the woman down in, hopefully, a surprised and breathlessheap.

#f course, the way -ce %yes taught the move, you were supposed to wind up on top of your adversary,

not sFuashed between them and the floor. The e&tremely rocky and uneven floor, in this case.

4ortunately the arms trader was not only surprised but also considerably older than !aris, and slowG!aris managed to reverse their positions and got a knee resting on the older woman=s throat before the

trader had recovered from the shock of being knocked flying.

8Call off the guards,8 she said, 8or -=ll choke you now.8

The arms trader made a series of whooping, breathless noises. omeone else appeared behind her andcried out, 8AnnemariH8 Another woman, from the voice. <hat was this weapons consortium, anyway,

the first femalerun business on "arentsI

8-f you=re at all fond of Annemari,8 !aris said, 8you Eust stay right where you are. All - gotta do is lean

forward a little98



A point of light flickered, burst into a spreading network of lights and settled over both !aris and her

captive. -mmobilied, !aris looked up at the new arrival as she came forward. -t was like looking at

her own face9with a bit more mileage on it9olive skin, black eyes, artful mop of black curls.

8+ouI8 they both said at once.

8- thought you were a 6iplo,8 !aris said.

80ouve been pretending to be me, haven=t youI #f all the nerveH88#h, gods. -f there=s a Diplo in on this, Jabrel, there ain=t nobody we can go to for help.8

8+ou=ve got that right, anyway. +our guards are nice and secure in another tanglenet.8

8 My guardsI +ou got them bastards in a tanglenetI - thought you were with themH8

8Aren=t you working with themI8

A wheeing noise under !aris=s knee reminded her of her hostage. The tanglenet allowed neither of

them much freedom of movement, but she was able to draw her knee up a little and give the arms

dealer a chance to breathe9and to speak.

86elightful as it is to wander unchecked through this garden of bright images,8 the arms dealer said,

8perhaps a little e&planation would help here. Calandra, can you get this thing loose from meI8

8*ot without letting her free,8 said Calandra, Eerking her head at !aris.

8- suspect that won=t be a problem,8 said the arms dealer. 8Allow me to introduce myself.8

4or an old lady who=d Eust been knocked off her feet, half strangled, and caught in a tanglenet by her

own side, !aris had to admit that she did have an impressive degree of aplomb.

8-,8 said the arms dealer, 8am Annemari ilvan, of )eerval. The lady wielding the tanglefield

generator is 6iplomat Bissi. <e are here to investigate the source of the blackmarket bacteriomats

recently appearing in 4ederation worlds, and9if this is the source9to put an end to the trade.8

A chain clinked, off to the side. 85eutnant Jabrel %skelinen, "arents Trading ociety,8 Jabrel said.8!y companions and - are investigating allegations of illegal technology imported onto alapriya.8 ?e

looked pointedly at the tangler in Calandra Bissi=s hand.

8There=s a lot more illegal stuff than this floating around,8 the 6iplo said, but at least she switched off

the generator. !aris straightened with a sigh of relief, then offered her hand to the woman she=dknocked down, who was being a bit slower about getting up. #nce up, though, she stood erect, brushed

the dirt off her beautifully cut beige silk suit, and started talking as though she=d been in control of the

situation all along. !aris had to wonder what would get this woman rattled.

8-f what you say is accurate,8 she said, 8it would seem that we are all on the same side.8

8-f you got them guards in a tanglenet, you bet we=re on the same side,8 !aris said.

8<ithout wishing to give offense, have you any way to substantiate your statementsI8

!aris was still trying to parse that when Jabrel spoke up.

8!y companion let you up.8

8#nly after mine trapped her in a tanglefield net. Agreeing to break a stalemate is not the same as

active cooperation. After a war, it is not unusual to find that the entire civilian population of the

defeated country claims to have been secretly against their own leaders.8

8-f this is a war,8 Jabrel pointed out, 8it=s not e&actly over.8



8#h, yes, it is,8 said Annemari. 8Too much has been brought to 4ederation attention for anybody to

hush it up now.8 he thought briefly of the colleagues whose surprisingly large secret credit accounts

on Toussaint she=d discovered, back at the beginning of this investigation, and wondered how many of

them would have some serious e&plaining to do when all was uncovered. And how many of themwould have stopped her coming here if they=d known her plans. *o, she=d been right to act alone and

with no more authority than her title and a confident approach could give her . . . but this disheveled

young man in chains might be right, too. The war was only over if she could carry off her bluff a littlelonger.

8ChulenH8 a girl=s voice called, Eoyous.

8hatiH8

A alapriyan girl appeared behind Calandra and Annemari, ran to Chulayen and knelt beside him,

shooting off Fuestions like a machine gun. Chulayen answered at the same speed.

8<hat are they sayingI8 Annemari demanded of Calandra.

8-t=s all right,8 Calandra answered obliFuely. 8They really are part of the underground resistancemovement.8 he asked a sharp Fuestion in alapriyan and got a distracted agreement from Chulayen

and hati. 8And these two are with them.8 he pulled a slender laserknife out of the decorative barretteholding back her curls and used it to slice through Chulayen=s and Jabrel=s chains. As soon as Chulayenwas free, he grabbed for Annemari=s flash.

85et him have it,8 Jabrel said wearily. 8?e=s . . . looking for his family.8 ?e swallowed. 8+ou=re right.

This is the source of the bacteriomats. Chulayen tried to e&plain it to me on the way here, but my

alapriyan isn=t that good, and he didn=t really have the background to understand and e&plain it. "ut itseems that somebody has figured out a culture medium that works for bacteriomats. 5iving human

brains.8

The flash, in Chulayen=s hands, illuminated one scene out of nightmare after another/ sunken faces,

eyes glaed over with madness, wailing mouths. And, over and over again, opened skulls withgreenishgrey mats of slime ooing over the e&posed lobes.

8<e have to get medical help for these people.8 Annemari turned to Calandra. 8Can you transmit

directI8

8*ot from in here, no. -=ll have to go back to the surface.8

8TransmitI !edical helpI8 Jabrel seemed to be having as hard a time as !aris in keeping up. -t didn=thelp that they were talking over the moans of prisoners crying to be freed.

Annemari looked faintly amused. 8+ou didn=t think -=d go after a planetwide conspiracy without any

backup at all, did youI "ut the medical problems, those - was not anticipating.8 ?er lips tightened as

she looked where Chulayen knelt, holding what seemed to be a living corpse in his arms, a bag of bones held together by tightstretched skin.

8Anushka, Anushka,8 he mourned, then something in alapriyan. !aris recognied one of the wordsG

that was enough.

8Jimme the laserknife,8 she demanded, all but snatching it out of Calandra=s hand. 8<e gotta cut that

one loose. That=s his wife. That=s why he came here.8

8<e shall free them all,8 Annemari said mildly, but !aris wasn=t waiting to hear. The laserknife slicedthrough metal chains as if it were cutting soycakesG Chulayen stood with the bag of bones in his arms

and said something else, urgently.



8Tell him we=re getting doctors, JabrelH8 he looked at Annemari. 8Aren=t weI8

8Can your medical staff in Balentin helpI <hich of them can you trustI8 Annemari demanded of

Jabrel.

?e shook his head. 8Some of Balentin is in it. - don=t know which ones9though - could make some

guesses. "ut there had to have been a doctor helping them do this butchery.8

8- think - know which one,8 said Annemari tightly. 86id you know that the "arents )esident in @darawas kicked out of surgical training for incompetence and unethical behaviorI - didn=t know that until -

happened to mention his name to the right person. ?e had been studying under *unia ?irvonen, the

leading neurosurgeon on )eerval. - would be willing to bet this is his work. Ask any of these people9 any who can talk,8 she corrected herself.

85orum.8 The thread of a voice was almost lost amid the moans of other prisoners, but Annemari heard

the name that had been in her mind, took the flash from Chulayen and illuminated a section of cave

wall where an emaciated man, taller and paler than the other prisoners, knelt in a puddle of filth.

8!ontoyasanaH8

85orum van Bechten . . . was the surgeon,8 #rlando !ontoyasana said weakly. ?is eyes rolled. 8-t=s

coming back.8

8%hat is coming backI8 Annemari knelt beside !ontoyasana and reached out a hand for the laserknife.

8)ainbow colors, they sound so sharp . . . -ntrinsic disharmonies . . . -=m not mad.8 !ontoyasana said.

8?allucinations. -nfection in the corte& . . . oh, it sounds so bright,8 he moaned, and his eyes rolled upinto the top of his head.

8<ould you believe there are no flitters on this entire world I8 Calandra burst back among them, her

tight dark curls crackling with frustrated energy. 8<e=ll have to ferry them back to Balentin one load at

a time. -t=ll take forever, but they=re making up a medical ward for them right now.8

8)eturn trip,8 !aris said. 86on=t waste it. +ou can bring back stuff we need here. $eople too.8

8<hat9oh, rightH Calandra, tell them we=re bringing in the first group there, and they should haveinflatable personnel carriers ready for you to bring back, and have them send a medic with whatever

antibiotics they=ve got and, oh, whatever emergency medical supplies they can think of. <e can start

treating people here while the flitter shuttles cases to Balentin. Calandra, send half our people back withthat first load, and tell them -=m putting 5eutnant %skelinen in commandG he knows the local situation.

5eutnant, you can draw a sidearm from one of my people, and if anybody in Balentin makes a move

you don=t like, you have my authority to neutralie them. Calandra, you go too. - want you to get on theansible to )eerval and tell them to send more flitters and a full division from %nforcementG the two

sFuads - brought with me won=t begin to do the Eob. <e=re going to place Balentin under military law

until this mess is sorted out . . . #h, hell . - need to keep somebody who speaks alapriyan here tointerpret for us.8

8- c=n try,8 !aris said shyly. 8-f they don=t talk too fast.8

8-=m not,8 Annemari said, 8too worried about understanding what they have to say. - Eust want to be sure

they understand me. Can you do that muchI Jood. tart with telling these people they are all9 all 9

going to be freed and cared for, and that those who put them there will never have power over themagain.8

-t took !aris a while to put that together in words from her e&tremely limited vocabulary, but perhaps,

she thought, it wasn=t such a bad idea to keep it simple. A lot of these people looked as if they were past

handling complicated concepts. They worked down the line together, Annemari cutting the chains,



!aris promising the freed prisoners they would be cared for, Calandra doing a rough triage on each

wasted body. 84or the first load we have to pick people who can sit in the flitter seats,8 she e&plained

when !aris wondered why she was choosing the healthiest prisoners to go first. 8After that we=ll have

carriers to immobilie them in comfortable positions, and we can start sending out the worst caseswhile the medics work on the others.8

!aris nodded. 8#kay, makes sense. "ut could you e&plain it to themI8

Calandra gave her a strange look. 8<hy don=t you give it a tryI +ou did well enough Eust now.8

he painfully constructed another couple of alapriyan sentences, e&plaining to the prisoners why most

of them would have to wait for a while. The verbs were all Eumbled up, wrong tense and mood, but the people who still looked sane seemed to understand her okay. And Calandra nodded as she went along.

8*ot bad,8 Calandra said when she finished. 8+ou know, - thought on Tasman that you were Eust some

gang kid trying to pick my credits, but maybe . . . are you a student or somethingI 5anguage

specialistI8

!aris felt her cheeks turning dark red. 8+ou were right on Tasman. - ain=t no student. Dust . . . well,6iplos are s=posed to have implants so they can speak the language where they=re going, rightI And -

was s=posed to be a 6iplo . . . so - studied real hard, every chance - got.88+ou did well.8

8*ot well enough,8 !aris said ruefully. 8 e caught on to me right away.8 he Eerked her head towardthe mouth of the cave, toward Jabrel.

86id he indeedI ?mm . . . - wonder why he brought you so far upcountry, thenI8

8<ell, maybe he didn=t catch on right at first,8 !aris allowed. 8?e thought mebbe - was some kinda

baby 6iplo, like somebody who=d been to the chool all right but hadn=t graduated yet.8

8 And you cheated the retinal and 6*A scans that were supposed to check for my -6,8 Calandra said

wonderingly. 8ometime you must tell me how you pulled that off.8

!aris didn=t really want to dub on her old pals on Tasman, so she murmured something noncommittaland pretended to be having a hard time making the alapriyan prisoners understand her. 4ortunately

they had nearly enough people to fill the flitter with its first loadG a few minutes later the flitter was

gone, and Calandra and Jabrel with it. !aris told herself that the sick empty feeling inside her wasrelief. *ow she wouldn=t have to evade Calandra=s Fuestions about how the Tasman gang had hacked

the 4ederation database. *ow she wouldn=t have to apologie to Jabrel for lying to him all along.

8#nly thing is,8 she muttered to herself, 8what do - do nowI8

8+ou can help get these people more comfortable,8 Annemari said at once, 8and as soon as the flitter is

back with medics, you can be a great deal of help by translating what they wish to ask the prisoners.8

And after that, whatI <ell, it wasn=t Annemari=s problem. <asn=t anybody=s problem but hers, really.

And she=d been taking care of herself long enough, she had no business feeling daunted by the prospect

now. he wasn=t going to be too popular here on alapriya, she didn=t suppose. And she could hardly go

back to her old life on Tasman. "ut with the redoubtable Annemari=s help, she could probably getthrough Tasman alive and go on to9well, anywhere else. ome place where nobody wanted to kill herG

that would have to do for a start.



Chapter Eighteen

Re&er"alThere were, of course, innumerable details to take care of. There were so many details that Annemariwas seriously tempted to retreat into geek mode and write a program to handle it all.

8*o computer program could possibly handle all the ethical and legal issues involved,8 %vert Cornelis

told her when she voiced this threat. They were back in the )eerval park, seated on Annemari=s new

favorite bench. @nlike the one in front of ?ans Doriink=s statue, it did not have such a good view of thecentral pond. "ut it had an e&cellent view of the new memorial statue of #rlando !ontoyasana.

8#h, -=m not so sure,8 Annemari said. 8<e humans haven=t been doing so well with the issues, you

know. A good neural network with intelligent heuristics . . . all right, all right, -=m Eust kiddingH8

8"reed a better bacteriomat to solve problems,8 %vert suggested, and then, when Annemari looked

interested, 8 #o( 5orum van Bechten=s brainchild has caused enough havoc already.8

)emembering what van Bechten had done with his blackmarket =mats, and how he=d cultured them,

sobered them both. The full number of victims of the faulty =mats would probably never be knownGmost families rich enough to buy illegal neurosurgery were also rich and powerful enough to conceal

the disasters that followed. Annemari would never know for sure Eust how many cases like Tomi#ksanen=s were discreetly locked away in closed wards for 8nervous problems.8 "ut the ones who=d

surfaced so far were enough fuel for a lifetime of nightmares. The =mats were indeed adaptable far

beyond the imaginations of anybody who=d worked with them. Jiven living human brains as a culturemedium, they absorbed and replicated not only the basic structure of the brain but the e&periences and

feelings processed by that particular brain while the =mats were growing on it. 4ear, terror, sensory

hallucinations, despair, fever, and insanity were carefully cultured in @dara=s limestone caverns,carefully harvested and transported and eventually transplanted, with e&Fuisitely careful neurosurgery,

inside the skulls of those desperate enough to pay any price for the promise of a repaired nervous

system. And once the =mat was fully adapted to its new habitat, it set about enthusiastically reproducingits store of raw emotions and insane hallucinations for its new home.

8$undarik Nahin threw himself over a cliff, when he realied the =mat transplant was making him

insane,8 Annemari said. 8?e must have been a brave man.8 <ith no knowledge of the medical science

underlying his 8cure,8 he had decided that 5orum van Bechten had implanted actual demons in his

head. ?e had clung to life through agoniing days of insanity and uncontrollable muscular twitches,using his everbriefer periods of clarity to write down what was happening to him and why. #nly when

the document was copied and safely deposited with two of his most trusted friends did he allow himself

the release of death.

That document, together with the eyewitness testimony of those who=d been in the 8cave of minds,8 provided enough information to Eustify the full 4ederation involvement that Annemari had asked

Calandra to demand. The subseFuent inFuiry had brought on a wave of suicides, disappearances, and

arrests of those not Fuick enough to take one of the other two ways out. The governing structure of the"arents Trading ociety was decimatedG four of the ?igh 4amilies that 8owned8 )eerval had fallenG

careers had been made and brokenG and the claim of "arents to the world of alapriya had been

unconditionally revoked.

8!ore e&hausting than terrible, really,8 Annemari said now, thinking back over the cataclysmic changesher attempt to get a transplant for *iklaas had brought on.

8"ut when you found out about Nahin, you must have been terribly worried about *iklaas. After all,



you=d left him at the clinic to get one of those same bacteriomat transplants9and - loaned you the

money for itH - would never have forgiven myself if they=d done that to him, Annemari.8

8#h, - wasn=t the least bit worried,8 Annemari told him. 8+ou see, - didn=t want them operating on

*iklaas while - was away.8

8+es, but how could you be sure they wouldn=t do Eust thatI8

8- blocked the funds transfer. +ou see,8 Annemari e&plained, 8you=re Fuite right, - couldn=t trust theCassilis Clinic to abide by my wish for them to delay surgery. "ut - felt -uite sure - could trust them

not to do an operation that hadn=t been paid for. After all, they weren=t e&actly in a position to recover

the cost from my 4ederation health insurance package.8

8*o tickee, no washeeI8

8omething like that.8 Actually Annemari had been almost suicidally worried about *iklaas once she

found out about the effects of the blackmarket =matsG what if her funds block hadn=t worked for some

reasonI "ut if she confessed that to %vert, he=d Eust go all protective on her again, and that was the last

thing she wanted. 8o you see,8 she told him with a smile almost brilliant enough to disguise her secretsadness, 8everything worked out all right. *iklaas didn=t get a blackmarket =mat, and - can give you

back your money.885eaving you e&actly where you were before all this started,8 %vert pointed out. 86on=t you think you

deserve better than that, AnnemariI 4or personally bringing down a threeworld criminal smuggling,torture, and prohibitedtechnology ringI8

Annemari shrugged. 8- also broke a few rules along the way, and nobody=s said anything about that

either. - sort of figured the 4ederation had decided it all worked out all right9- don=t get any rewards

but -=m also not going to get busted down to datatech for bringing flitters and other protech toalapriya.8

8They could not logically punish you for that,8 %vert pronounced, 8given that 5orum van Bechten and

his colleagues in the "arents Trading ociety were engaging in mass smuggling of far more destructive

protech devices.8

8 Dear %vert. And when has any government, anywhere, been logical I8

8This one certainly isn=t,8 %vert said, 8but with a little discussion in the right Fuarters, the right people

can occasionally see reason. -t has been decided that you are to receive the ?ero of the 4ederation

award.8

8#hI8

8-t=s a little silver star on a cobaltblue background,8 %vert told her, 8with the 4ederation logo inholographic rainbow silver over it.8

8That sounds very nice,8 Annemari said, 8-=m sure - have some evening outfits it=ll go with . . .8

8Annemari, don=t you ever ask the obvious FuestionI8

8Always, when - can think of it,8 Annemari said. 8-=m afraid this time the Fuestion escapes me.8

8Aren=t you interested in what goes with the awardI8

8A ceremony, presumably.8

8"etter than that.8

8A pensionI8



8"etter than that .8 %vert was openly grinning now. 86o you realie there have been only nine ?ero of

the 4ederation awards given in all of historyI +ou=re the tenth. And the other nine, like you, have been

the kind of insanely disinterested people who can=t really be rewarded by meeting the rich and famous,

or being granted a pension, or being given a sinecure diplomatic position, or any of the other plums agovernment likes to hand out as minor favors. o instead, the 4ederation, in its infinite wisdom,

decided that a ?ero of the 4ederation gets one free pass.8

8#ne whatI8

8-f, for instance,8 %vert e&plained, 8you should ever want to murder someone, you could trade in yoursilverandblue dress accessory for an acFuittal9in fact, you wouldn=t even have to go to trial. #r if

you wanted to get a dearly beloved relative off a Fuarantine world, or . . .8

Annemari felt something warm and beautiful glowing within her, bubbling with promise. 8Tell me,

%vert/ do you think a ?ero of the 4ederation could get somebody moved to the top of the =mattransplant list with her one free passI8

8- should think that would be well within the bounds of the rewards envisaged by the 4ederation,8

%vert said solemnly. 8-n fact, they will probably feel you are asking for too little. After all, the fifth

?ero of the 4ederation, ?ans Doriink, asked for sole possession of one of the moons of

6aedalus . . . and got it.8

8- don=t want the moon and the stars,8 Annemari said. 8#nly a chance for *iklaas.8

K K K

8<ho, meI8 Chulayen BaEEadara repeated.

8+ou cannot seem to say anything else these days,8 !adee commented. 8+es, Chulen, we want you to

take temporary care of the !inistry for 5ands and $roperties. There will be some significant changes inthe way the !inistry is organied, and somehow - doubt that the previous !inister and his subordinates

have the necessary . . . er . . . fle&ibility of mind.8

-f those changes were anything like those that had swept over @dara in the weeks since his return from

the Durgan Caves, Chulayen doubted that anybody was fle&ible enough to deal with them. Theconfiscation of the "ashir=s prohibited weapons had left his army powerless to resist revolts in

Thamboon and *arumalar. <hile he was reeling from those blows, the )ohini resistance had risen and

Fuickly toppled his regime. The "ashir and several of his ministers had fled, not Fuite believing in the

)ohini promises of amnesty for anyone who surrendered. And the old lady he=d first known as a beggarly pancake vendor was currently in charge of organiing an interim government to keep essential

state services running until elections could be organied for the new $eople=s 6emocracy of @dara.

Chulayen had a strong feeling that the elections wouldn=t make much difference to !adee=s plans. -f

she had half as strong an effect on the general )ohini populace as she had on him, she would simplytell them who they wanted to vote for and the !inisters she had chosen would be confirmed in office

by an overwhelming maEority. The )udhrani were too few to make a difference in a state with suffragefor all adults9and they grew fewer every day, as prominent families Fuietly disappeared from @dara tolive in careful retirement on some distant estate.

<hich meant that if he accepted this 8temporary8 appointment he would be in charge of the !inistry

for 5ands and $roperties while the entire @daran land ownership system was dismantled and

rearranged to give every )ohini9and those )udhrani who chose to stay9a working plot of cultivableland somewhere on the terraced hillsides of the mountain realm. Chulayen couldn=t see !adee settling

for anything less. And the magnitude of the task staggered him. The paperwork alone9



8Jrandmother, you want somebody older and more e&perienced for a position like that,8 he protested.

!adee nodded. 8This is true. @nfortunately, we do not have anybody older and more e&perienced. 4or

some reason, very few )ohini have any e&perience at all with government work. -=m afraid it=ll have to

be you, Chulen.8

8-f you can call our fine )udhrani gentleman a true )ohini,8 put in onchai, who was, as usual,lounging in a corner to provide a sarcastic counterpoint to !adee=s comments.

onchai=s little sister slapped his face and ran to take Chulayen=s hand before her brother could retaliate.

8And who are you to say who is a good )ohini, brotherI8 she demanded. 8?e has lost more to the

!inistry for 5oyalty than you can even imagine. <hy do not you take a wife, and get children, and seeall but one murdered for your part in the resistance, and then perhaps you can talk about )ohini and

)udhraniH8

onchai=s face reddened where hati had slapped him. 8+ou mean to hold it up to me that - could not

protect you from the "ashir=s lusts98

8- never asked for your protection,8 hati interrupted him. 8- served the )esistance, and - am proud ofit, even if you think our family shamed forever.8

8+ou will please remember that it is now my problem to find a decent marriage for you, and if youthink that will be easy now98

8ChildrenH8 !adee clapped her hands once and they fell silent, glaring at her like sulky childrenindeed. 8%nough of this foolish sFuabbling. +ou are both putting words into one another=s mouths.

hati, go to the outer roomsG somebody needs to amuse Chulen=s little daughter while we are settling

this matter of the !inistry. onchai, if you were doing your Eob as my recording clerk, you would not

have time to make so many sarcastic comments. *ow get to work, both of youH8

hati left, muttering things better not said clearly about her brother, and !adee turned to him.

8onchai, record Chulayen BaEEadara as !inister pro tem of 5ands and $roperties, and98

8<ait a minute,8 Chulayen began. 8- have not9- cannot9Jrandmother, at least give me some time to

settle my personal lifeH +ou know what long hours this position meansG - must find somebody to watchover *eena if - am to take it up. he has . . . nightmares,8 he finished lamely.

!adee cocked an ear toward the sounds of a clappingandsinging game in the outer room. 8#h, - think

hati will do well enough to take charge of *eena. After all, she is out of a Eob now.8

8omebody must be with *eena at night, and if - am to be !inister pro tem 98

8o hati will live in your house.8 !adee lifted an eyebrow. 8urely the !inister for 5ands and

$roperties has a household big enough to accommodate one small girlservantI8

8?er place is in my mother=s house, with me,8 onchai protested.

8Absolutely not,8 !adee told him. 86o you forget that ! live ne&t door to your motherI 6o you think -

wish to be disturbed by your childish Fuarreling all day and nightI8

he Fuashed Chulayen=s remaining protests without mercy and sent him away to begin the monumental

task of sorting through the previous !inister=s records, which had been left in some disarray.

8hati living in his household, caring for his daughter,8 onchai brooded. 8- don=t like it. +ou will havethose two married before they know what happened to them.8

8<eren=t you Eust complaining about the difficulty of finding a husband for herI top looking at the

dark side of everything, onchai. hati needs some time with a gentle man who can help her forget the



"ashir, and Chulen needs a girl to protect to help him forget Anusha. Trust !other !adee, she knows

best.8

8That sounds,8 onchai commented, 8remarkably like a campaign slogan.8

!adee smiled.

K K K

%lsewhere, similar rearrangements were taking place with similar complications and protests.

8-sn=t this slightly illegalI8 Calandra Bissi asked.

%vert Cornelis shook his head. 8alapriya is now a direct protectorate of )eerval. -t is definitely the4ederation=s Eob to provide liaisons with each of the independent tribal territories. And do you have any

idea how hard it is to find people who know anything about alapriya, have some concept of

4ederation law, are willing to work under primitive conditions, and have no ties whatsoever to"arentsI8

8<hat makes you think you=ve found one nowI -=m a 6iplo, not a bloody administrator. - don=t know

anything about running a stateH8

8- don=t have to ask you,8 %vert said simply. 8+ou took the 6iplomatic #ath to serve where assigned.8

8As a Diplo, not as a )esident or 5iaison or whatever you call itH8

8The oath doesn=t say anything about choosing your role. Annemari has ceded your services to myoffice on account of the emergency, and -=m assigning you to @dara.8 %vert smiled. 86on=t fret,

Calandra, you won=t be the only 6iplo stuck on alapriya. Anybody with a language download chip

who isn=t presently engaged on work of 4ederation security is in danger.8

8- don=t see why you can=t use "arents Trading ociety people. They weren=t all involved in the =matsforarms plot, you know.8

8#fficially,8 %vert said, 8no member of the "arents Trading ociety may act in any role whatsoever on

alapriya, public or private, until the special commission has officially investigated and e&oneratedthem. @nofficially, we=re reassigning the ones we=re sure of to administrative posts wherever we canslot them in, appointments to be confirmed and back pay made up only when the inFuiry has finished.

o if you think you have it bad . . .8

8*o pay until a 4ederation pecial Commission completes its inFuiry,8 Calandra said. 8That could be

years.8

8They should have cleaned their own house when they had the chance,8 %vert said. 8A few years onalapriya without pay or offworld lu&uries beats a 4ederation prison.8

8-=m not so sure of that,8 said Calandra, 8and anyway, what makes you think they=re going to have to do

without offworld lu&uriesI -t seems to me that the 4ederation needs to rethink its entire position on

cultural contamination. <hat did we learn from alapriya, anywayI That some "arentsians are greedyand corrupt and not to be trusted with powerI Jive me a break. ome of every group will be greedy

and corrupt and not to be trusted with power. !ost, probably. - think the real lesson is that you can=t

have contact with primitive cultures and not have an effect on them. +ou can=t Fuarantine technologylike a communicable disease. The primitive cultures of the 6ispersal are going to have culture shock

and a giant technical leap forward. The only Fuestion is whether the 4ederation e&erts some control

over the flow of technology, or puts down a blanket ban and leaves it to the criminals and smugglers.8

%vert=s smile grew broader. 8And - thought you didn=t know anything about governingI As soon asyou=re settled in @dara - want a position paper from you on that very subEect.8



8- haven=t agreed yet,8 Calandra warned him. 8<ould you rather have a cooperative 6iplo)esident or

one who does the absolute minimum reFuiredI8

8That,8 %vert said, 8rather depends on the price of the cooperation, doesn=t itI8

Calandra told him e&actly what it would cost.

K K K

Jabrel and !aris were still on alapriya, in Balentin. As one of the few "arents Trading ocietymembers who was known to be absolutely clear of any involvement with the =matsforarms trading

ring, Jabrel was temporarily filling three different e&ecutive positions and consulting daily with

4ederation committees on the reorganiation of alapriya as a direct protectorate. And he hadn=t made

a move toward !aris since they got back, which was e&tremely frustrating. -t seemed as though getting back to Balentin had reactivated all his proper "arents officerandagentleman training.

Jranted, they didn=t have a lot of privacy, but she could have stayed with him in his Fuarters, couldn=t

sheI -nstead, !aris was living at ?ouse toffelsen, now a sort of elegant boarding house for 4ederation

employeesG the toffelsens had departed Balentin rather hastily and without filing travel plans afterTasman. A number of their fellow ociety members had followed suitG Balentin was notably empty of

traditional colonial types, and notably full of )eerval bureaucrats whose climatecontrolled suits keptdisappearing, reFuiring them to indent for replacements on a continual basis.

8The alapriyans are taking to outworlder technology like a )udhrani bureaucrat to graft,8 Jabrelobserved of this trend one evening when they were taking a decorous walk down the long shaded

avenue that led from ?ouse toffelsen to the streets of Balentin. 8<hat do you suppose they=ll do when

the power packs run downI8

8They=re solarpowered,8 !aris told him. 8They won=t run down. And if they did, - e&pect thealapriyans would find a way to steal new power packs too. They don=t seem to be sufferin= from

whaddyacallit, culsomethingI8

8Culture shockI8

8)ighto. %&cept it is something shocking the way they get hold of them climate suits. Jood thing theclimate control unit for the office buildings ain=t portable.8

Jabrel coughed, seemed about to say something, then stopped.

8<hat is itI8

8-9oh, nothing.8

!aris regarded him with e&asperation. 8-t=s been =oh, nothing= for days now. -f you=ve come to your

senses and repented getting involved with a Tasman scumsucker, why don=t you come right out and say

soI8

8-f - didn=t want to be here with you, - wouldn=t have to,8 Jabrel pointed out. 8- could be too busy with

work. Actually - am too busy with workG you can=t imagine how many lies - have to tell before - can

sneak off to spend an hour with you.8

8Jood practice for you,8 !aris said heartlessly. 8Anyway, why do you work so hard to get a free houror two if we=re going to spend it walking up and down in the park like thisI8

Jabrel went dark red. 8-=m trying to treat you with respect. !aybe you aren=t used to that, but98

8?uh. - thought it wouldn=t take you long to remember what - was.8

8-98 Jabrel took a deep breath and stopped. 8!aris, are you trying to pick a Fuarrel with meI8



8*oH <ell, maybe. ort of.8 he was trying to break through the formal "arents courtesy that had

separated them since they got back to Balentin. Muarreling wouldn=t have been her preferred way to do

it, but she had to do something to find out how he really felt9and to break her news to him. Come to

think of it, Jabrel wasn=t the only one who=d been unnaturally reserved. he=d been keeping a lot backtoo. "ut she couldn=t keep it back any longer, not now that Calandra had confirmed it for herG the news

was about to bubble out of her. 8- . . . -=m not sure what you want.8

Jabrel regarded her with e&asperation. 8- want to marry you. - want everybody in Balentin to see that -respect you and am treating you like my promised wife. -=ve Eust been waiting until - knew what position - could offer you.8

86o you think - care about thatI8

8<ell, - doH8 Jabrel stopped shouting and controlled himself with a visible effort. 8And - Eust got

confirmation of it today. -f you happen to be interested. - can support a wife now.8

8+ou don=t need to support me. -=m getting a position too, so thereH8 #h, the Jod of !aEor 4uckups wassure on the Eob tonight. This wasn=t the way it was supposed to go. he had meant to tell him her news,

cry on his shoulder a bit about having to be separated for a while, get him to promise to wait for her.

?aving a fight wasn=t on the agenda at all.

Jabrel went on as if he hadn=t heard her, which was probably a good thing . . . or was itI !aybe theBalentin Jabrel couldnt hear the words 8Eob8 and 8girl8 in the same sentence. That would be a more

serious problem than the years of separation that lay ahead of them. 8-=ve Eust had formal confirmation

that when the 4ederation completes its takeover here, -=m to be posted as assistant to the new )esidentin @dara. The post carries a liberal allowance for lodging and dependents, so we can be married as soon

as my orders are cut.8

8<ell . . . there=s one problem,8 !aris said. 8-t looks like -=m going to have to go away for a while.8

8*ot back to TasmanI8

8#f course not, - couldn=t go back to that life even if - wanted to. They were gonna kill me, rememberI8

8+es, well. +our9um, =friends= aren=t operating out of there anymore, you know. +ou=d be perfectlysafe.8

The upheavals of the =matsforarms scandal had caused a much more thorough shaking up of Tasman

than the search for a disappeared 6iplo would have done. The disused tunnels that Dohnivans= gang had

made their home were mapped now, and filled with foam sealant. Dohnivans and eito had spacedthemselves rather than be arrestedG most of the rest of the gang were serving lengthy sentences on

distant prison worlds. !aris had been unable to find out what had happened to *y&G she hoped the

computer hacker had hacked herself a new identity and vanished into the databases of the 4ederation.

8<ell, where are you going, and for how longI - need to tell my family and set a date. They=ll want tocome here for the wedding. #r maybe we should be married on "arents,8 Jabrel mused. 8!y mother

would like that, and it would be cheaper for us to go there than for the whole clan to come out toalapriya . . .8

8<e=ve got time to work that out,8 !aris said uncomfortably.

8*ot all that much. - e&pect my posting will be finalied within a few weeks, and -=ll be e&pected to goright on upcountry when that happens. Jood thing, really, my mother won=t have a chance to make a

"ig ociety 6eal out of our wedding. There won=t be time.8

8@m . . . - e&pect she=ll have plenty of time,8 !aris said in a small voice.



8<hyI ?ow long are you going to be gone for, anywayI And you never did tell me where you=re

going.8

8-=m going,8 !aris informed him, 8to )eerval. - got a scholarship to 6iplo chool.8

8+ou whatI <hy didn=t you tell meI8

8- been tryin= to tell you, but you kept interruptingH The Calandra Bissi 6iplomatic cholarship,8 !aris

said dreamily. 8-magine, me, a Tasman scumsucker, learnin= all that stuff about other worlds andunarmed combat and political science and astrogation and diplomacy and languages and . . .8

8"ut you said you were going to stay here and marry me.8

8- want to go to school first.8

8- thought you loved meH8

8- do love youH "ut - don=t hardly know who =-= am, Jabrel, don=t you seeI 4irst - was what Dohnivans

wanted me to be, then - was trying to be Calandra, and now . . .8 !aris couldn=t find words for it. 8-never had no real education, you knowI And - never seen anywhere but Tasman and alapriya. And not

even the upper levels of Tasman. *ow - got a chance to learn something and be somebody. To be a real

person. <ith an -6 that ain=t a forgery, and skills that count for something. And . . .8 he was out ofwords to convince Jabrel. -f he hated her for going away to school, it would break her heart. "ut she

would go anyway.

8And you=re only seventeen,8 Jabrel said gently. 8- keep forgetting.8

Documents

Disappearing Act - 0743488539