Dragon in Exile - eARC (12 page)

The next backed away, in a knife-fighter’s crouch, blade weaving, eyes wary.

Rys slid closer, seeking an opening in the other’s defense, and spun as the hiss warned him, thrusting his metal hand up to entangle the bola, ducking as the weights flashed past his head.

The kick landed well, in the center of his back. The knife flew from his fingers as strong arms went around him and held him open for the knife-fighter’s thrust.

He brought his heel down hard on his captor’s foot, and again, not minding the screams, taking all the thrust the brace could give him, the spin breaking the other’s hold, momentum sending him hard against the wall. Rys continued spinning, taking the edge of the knife on the metal arm.

The knife-fighter dropped the blade, and swung a fist, catching Rys in the side of head.

Light flared, ears rang; he dropped back a step; the other pressed his advantage, and there was the wall against his back.

He raised his metal arm, hand fisted, cocked back and ready to—

“No!”

The voice was familiar, especially at volume, and it was Udari who grabbed the knife-fighter and snatched him close, holding him with a blade laid across his throat, and Rafin who thrust forward, grabbing the metal arm above the elbow, and pinning it to the wall.

“Stop!” Rafin bellowed. “Tell me that you will stop!”

“I will,” Rys panted, “but they—”

“They are held by your brothers. You are safe, now, little one. Struggle no longer. So. I release you, yes?”

“Yes,” Rys agreed, and Rafin let him go, patting him on the shoulder in a way that was perhaps meant to be soothing, and turning him to face his four erstwhile pursuers, now each in the care of one of his brothers.

“
These
,” Garat said, “we have seen these several times. Why do you come to this district,
gadje
?” he snapped, shaking the man he held by the back of the neck.

“There’s—there’s a city down there, under the warehouses,” the man gasped. “We figured prolly you wanted to share.”

“Pah!” Rafin said. “We do not share with thieves.”

“So,” said the man with the crushed kneecap, “there
is
a city down there.”

“
We
are down there,” Rafin said. “And others much like us, only more fierce.”

“The Bosses have given us the place, which is
our
place,” Udari added. “Should we come to
your
place and sit down at your table? Will your wife share her bed with us?”

“We can find you,” Garat said. “We
will
find you. And we will watch you.”

“We will do these things,” Rafin said, sounding almost cheerful. “And maybe your food will taste a little strange, sometimes, only sometimes. And maybe your head will hurt—but not always. We will think on these matters, among brothers. But, I get ahead of myself! First, there is something you must know.” He put his hand on Rys’ shoulder.

“You think that I stopped my brother from striking you because I was afraid for him, eh?”

The knife-fighter swallowed, Udari’s blade lying sweet against his throat.

“Yes,” he croaked.

Rafin slapped his knee.

“I knew you for a fool! No! I stopped him because I did not want him to kill you. Not because I love
you
—I do not think I could love you, though you have some little skill with a knife—but because I love
him
, and I would not have him mourn your death.”

“
Death
,” one of the others muttered.

“You doubt?” Rafin asked. “Here, we will show you!”

He released Rys and stepped aside, reappearing in a moment with the long-stick one of the attackers had dropped.

“Ironwood,” Rafin said, hefting it. “Good. Now, you will see why I stopped this, my brother, from striking you with his fist.”

He placed his feet firmly, flexed his knees, and held the ironwood staff between his two gloved hands, across his body.

“Brother, I ask that you strike this staff as you had been about to strike the fool your brother embraces.”

Rys took a breath, looked ’round at the men who had been trying to kill him, and then into Udari’s face.

His most-loved brother smiled, and nodded slightly.

Rys folded his metal hand into a fist, cocked his arm back, snapped forward one step—and struck the staff.

Splinters flew as the ironwood shattered. Braced as he was, Rafin rocked back. One of his late attackers cursed in the local dialect.

Rafin turned slowly about, empty hands held high, slivers of ironwood caught in the palms of his gloves.

“
That
is what you must remember from this encounter,” Rafin said. “Now, we will return you to your places, and you will tell the tale of this night among your brothers. You will warn them that we will not be preyed upon. And that even the smallest of us is deadlier than you can know. Brothers, please.”

Shadows shifted. The man with the broken kneecap was flung, not gently, onto the back of the knife-fighter, who staggered under his weight.

“Brothers,” Udari said, and they turned with their captives, leaving Rys and Rafin alone.

“How are your hands, Brother?” Rys asked.

Rafin shrugged.

“They sting. Without the gloves, I would have broken fingers.”

Rys swallowed, thinking about the force of that blow, and what he might have done to knife fighter’s face.

“If you had not run, we would have come to your side sooner,” Rafin said.

“I did not want them to find the gate.”

“So said Pulka, and Udari, too.”

Rafin dropped a heavy arm around his shoulder, and pulled him into a rough hug.

“Come, now, Brother. Let us go home.”

* * *

“What do you want to try first?”

Quin was lying on his side across the wide bed, his head propped on his hand; Villy sat beside him, cross-legged, one hand on Quin’s knee.

“Do I need to go at them one at a time?” he asked. “I was thinking of a—” he frowned, fair brows pulling together, then smiled.

“I was thinking of a multi-strand approach.”

“Excellent,” Quin said. “A multi-strand approach lends itself well to the Trigrace curriculum. If we choose well, the strands will reinforce each other. So—” He smiled. “What do you want to try first?”

“Well, if you put it that way…Protocol lessons is important. We’re getting more Liadens and not-Surebleak folk coming in. My job’s to make them feel good, but if I stand too close, or not close enough, or if I touch what I shouldn’t, then the customer won’t be happy. And…if I can do or say some added little thing that makes them feel warm and homey—that’ll go a good way toward making them feel happy, already.”

Quin nodded.

“So, basic kinesics, with a concentration on Liaden protocols. What else?”

Villy looked aside, and it seemed to Quin that his pale skin had taken on a rosy tinge. He held his breath, wondering if he should notice the blush, or ignore it.

Finally, he said, softly, something he’d heard among Father’s staff when one was shy of offering an…unsophisticated notion.

“I promise not to laugh.”

Villy turned his head so fast, his hair fell into his eyes. He shook it back with a soft chuckle.

“That’s fair. I wanna go forward with my math, see?”

Well, of course he did. In Quin’s experience,
everyone
wished to go forward with their math.

“You will have to take a placement test,” he said; “so that your course of study will begin at the proper level. What else?”

“Is there something—broad? Something that’ll give me an overview, at the same time letting me figure out what else I’d like to know?”

“General Studies, Basic,” Quin said promptly. “That is a good choice.”

He rolled over onto his stomach, and reached down to the floor, where the portable computer sat.

“I will set up the basic curriculum,” he said. “It will take a few minutes. You may begin studying General Studies and Kinesics immediately. You must complete the tests before you may begin math.”

“Right,” Villy said, his hand on Quin’s shoulder now as he peered down at the computer screen. Quin set up Villy’s student account, with himself as tutor, moved the necessary modules, and showed Villy how to access the learning space.

“You may begin at will,” he said, rolling over onto his back. “I had notified Director Faro that I will be tutoring, so all the necessary files will be available to us.”

“That’s good,” Villy said, and then, “Quin?”

He looked up. “Yes.”

“Do you need a hug, sweetie? You’re still lookin’ peaky.”

He took stock, but all that came to him was that he was tired. However, Villy was a
hetaera
, and therefore sensitive to the needs of others.

“
Do
I need a hug?” he asked.

Villy frowned.

“I’m asking,” he said.

“And I am asking,” Quin answered. “You are the expert on pleasure and comfort in the room.”

Another frown, this one thoughtful, followed by a decisive nod.

“OK, then. The expert says, yeah, you could use a hug. Come on up here to the pillows.”

He obeyed, coming to rest on his side, his head on a pillow lightly scented with something agreeably sweet. The bed shifted, and he felt a long body press gently against his back. Villy settled one arm over his waist and gave a deep sigh. Without meaning to, Quin echoed it, feeling his muscles loosen.

“There we go,” Villy murmured. “You comfy, hon?”

“Yes,” Quin answered softly.

“Me, too. You don’t have to worry ’bout anything, right? Just relax, and let all that trouble go.”

There came another deep, satisfied sigh, that Quin repeated, following it into sleep.

Chapter Thirteen

Jelaza Kazone

Surebleak

Everything considered, Miri thought, it had been an instructive interlude, starting with Pat Rin’s arrival last night, in a towering fury, and demanding immediate speech with the delm. Lucky for the delm, her and Val Con’d gone for a walk in the garden before heading upstairs, else the delm would’ve heard all about how Quin had only nearly escaped being an Object of Balance, and the members of the Liaden Council of Clans deserved, each one, nothing so rigidly proper as having each of
their
heirs threatened at gun point, while snuggled up in Val Con and Miri’s warm robes and fuzzy slippers.

Mad as Pat Rin was, that’s how cool Natesa’d been, but—well. Natesa didn’t get mad; she got even. Which was pretty much where Pat Rin stood, give or take an edged phrase or six—along with an extra dollop of outrage because the Council of Clans was in violation of the contract in which the terms of Korval’s exile were set out.

“An entire
katrain
of
qe’andra
to craft it, with an eye toward Balance between all parties! Read before the entire Council; every delm receiving a copy of the final contract with the instruction that it was a Document of Common Cause, and all members of all clans were to be made aware of its contents—And a woman walks into a rug shop on Surebleak Port with the express purpose of Balancing the death of her heir, dead of Korval’s necessity!”

Yeah, it had been quite the sound-and-light show.

The delm had Heard the whole business, including that Quin and Luken were overnighting at Audrey’s, an arrangement that struck Miri as particularly sensible; promised action after due thought, and all the rest of the formal rigamarole, which actually seemed to calm him down a considerable bit.

After all that, the delm left the room; the four of them shared a glass of wine, and so to bed.

Anyhow, a certain amount of temper was expected in the day-orders, it being a family of hotheads, and herself marrying like-to-like.

What she
hadn’t
expected was the spit-and-hiss they’d gotten from Ms. dea’Gauss when they’d brought her in after breakfast to dump the whole mess into her lap, which, her being Korval’s
qe’andra
, was exactly where it belonged.

“That is in clear violation of the terms negotiated!”

Those were fighting words, right there, and never mind the snap that fair shattered the polite coolness of the High Tongue, or the two spots of darker gold high on her cheekbones, which could only be attributable to anger.

Miri’d been nothing short of flabbergasted, but apparently Val Con had been expecting something like this.

“Indeed,” he’d said, keeping to mode; “it could hardly be plainer. We rely upon you to handle this matter in the most advantageous manner possible. Please draw upon House resources for whatever you may need. The pinbeam is of course open to your needs. A Korval ship and a pilot are yours to command at any hour, should you be required to travel to the homeworld.”

“Yes, thank you. First, I will send this information to our office on Liad. It may be possible that one of the elders dea’Gauss who remained with their clients on-world will be able to take this to the Council in proxy. If not…” She moved a hand in a sharp, off-with-their-heads gesture.

“I anticipate. First, the transmission. Then, whatever is necessary. They skirted the edge of honor and called for a skewed Balance at the beginning of this, when the delms lives were called in forfeit.

“That wiser heads prevailed does no honor to the Council, or to Liad. Korval chose not to contest the order of exile, and the
katrain
worked to restore some measure of correctness to the order and the terms. Had there been true Balance present in the proceedings, the Council of Clans would have commended Korval for its service to the homeworld; and the Captain, for his care of the passengers.”

“However,” Val Con said, his voice about as warm as a deep winter dawn; “that is not how matters fell out. We must play the cards in our hand.”

“Indeed, indeed. Forgive an unseemly passion. I will see this matter properly rectified.” She bowed, from servant to lord, and left them, the door closing softly behind her.

Miri sighed, gustily.

“And I thought Pat Rin’d gotten up a head of steam.”

Val Con looked to her.

“You think it an over-reaction?”

“Seems to me that what we got is one grief-struck mother deciding on the edge of the hour to hurt somebody just as bad as she got hurt. Pat Rin and Ms. dea’Gauss are acting like its a conspiracy on the part of the Council of Clans to unilaterally wipe us out.” She grinned. “Which, if it is, they gotta stand in line.”

“There are, indeed, many before them,” he agreed. “And that is why we must be certain that all we are confronted with is one distraught mother. If the Council has failed of some portion of its agreements…If it has failed of ensuring that every clan member of every clan has been made aware of the facts of Korval’s exile; if it has failed to make plain that there are very real penalties attached to ignoring the guarantees the Council gave on behalf of all Liadens, then those matters must be rectified.”

He smiled.

“It would be best, if the line stabilized.”

It would be best
, she thought, but did not say,
if the line started to shrink
.

“Well.” She stood. “I told Kareen I’d talk to her this morning about this job we gave her. What’ve you got?”

“Mr. Brunner and I are scheduled to speak. He wishes to keep us abreast. Also, I have some papers to review on Shan’s behalf.”

She paused.

“They find the deed to that island he likes?”

“Ms. dea’Gauss believes so. If so, then we must suppose the Council of Bosses to be the heir to the Gilmour Agency. How convenient, that Pat Rin is in-House.”

She laughed.

“He might not think so.”

“Or he may. I believe there is a Council meeting this evening. If there is room on the agenda, we might have this settled quickly.”

“And, since we gotta be there anyway, to give the Road Boss report…”

“Exactly,” he said, and came to his feet. “Will you and Talizea do me the honor of joining me for lunch?”

“It sounds good. I’ll swing by and talk to Lizzie. If her schedule’s not too full, sure—we’ll both be there.”

“Excellent.”

He bent and kissed her lightly on the lips.

“Until soon,” he murmured, and left her.

* * *

Baker Quill jumped every time the door to her shop opened, which, given the fact that her shop was one of the best things about this end of the street, and got a lot of traffic, made for a lot of jumping.

Still, Bosil couldn’t blame her, with her ma havin’ got burnt out and then made an example. Boss Conrad and the rest of the Bosses, they didn’t allow none of that bidness no more…

…but, it was hard to remember that when a guy come in demanding the insurance. They was, Bosil thought, just too used to the old ways, yet. The new way, it looked pretty good, but, problem was…it was new. Hard to believe it was gonna stick around.

He’d tried to explain to the baker that there was Patrol all up and down the street, checking in with the other shopkeepers and asking them did a guy come in for insurance, and if the answer was yes, how come they hadn’t called the Boss or the Watch on it?

Prolly, Bosil thought, they’d been afraid—remembering the old ways. And there it was, right there, if the streeters didn’t start believing in the new ways, and actively
wanting
them to stick around, then…the old ways would come back.

He was thinking about that, and trying to work out how to get the streeters behind the new ways, when for all they knew, sooner or later Conrad would get retired, and the next Boss would start in, just like Moran—the guy Conrad’d retired—and the old ways would come back again, only worse…

Thinking about all that, he got took by surprise, some.

The bell over the door clanged, like it’d been doing all morning, and he didn’t even look up until he heard a man’s voice say.

“You got your insurance ready, Baker?”

“No, I ain’t,” she said, and Bosil heard her voice quaver, even as he slid off the stool he’d been perching on in the front corner of the bakery. “I ain’t paying you no insurance.”

“’S’at right?”

The guy was your typical insurance collector—big and mean and not too bright. Didn’t have to be bright to scare people and take their money.

“How come you ain’t payin’? Your little toy here not makin’ any money?”

“I ain’t paying on account of it’s illegal to collect insurance money.”

The guy blinked, and then laughed right out loud.

“
Illegal
? Says who?”

“Says Boss Conrad and the Council of Bosses,” Bosil said, bringing his gun up, and unhooking the binders from his belt. “You’re under arrest.”

The guy turned quick enough, gun in hand. He brought it up, not even bothering to aim. The pellet hit the window by Bosil’s head and shattered it.

Bosil ducked, throwing his arm up to shield his face from flying glass, and by the time he was in position again, the insurance guy had shot three baskets full of bread sticks and rolls off the shelves, and was aiming for the clock hanging on the front wall.

“Pay your insurance, or you get made an example,” he said over his shoulder to the baker. “That’s how it works.”

His mistake was that he didn’t
look
over his shoulder, too, so he never even saw the rolling pin she brought down on the back of his head with every ounce of strength in her.

Bosil jumped over to where he was crumpled up on the floor, grabbed the fallen gun, then got the guy’s hands bound behind his back.

“Sorry,” he said, then, to the baker, who was standing behind the counter, flour on her forehead, and her mouth pressed tight.

“Sorry, Ms. Quill; I shouldn’t’ve ducked.”

“Winda blows up in your face, ’course you’re gonna duck,” she said, still staring at the guy on the floor. “This is my shop. He don’t get to shoot up
my shop
. And he don’t get to make me a zample. I don’t care if it’s legal or not legal, or what the Boss does or says—
I ain’t havin’ it
!”

She looked like she was going to either laugh or cry, or maybe both. Either way, Bosil figured her for mostly all right, so he got on the comm to call the Street Patrol.

* * *

On Delgado, at the house on Leafydale Place which had belonged to Jen Sar Kiladi and which she had, for most of their life together, futilely tried to resist thinking of as “home”…

At Leafydale Place, Jen Sar had planted a garden in the walled yard adjacent to the house. It had been, so he had assured her, a minor affair, as gardens went: a few herbs, some vegetables, and other
useful plants
to Balance, as he had it, the flowers.

Being an avid and conscientious gardener, he had tended the
useful plants
well, and spared nothing to assure their good health.

But he had doted on his flowers.

They’d filled the tiny space, overflowing their beds, running wanton down the walkway, and climbing the rough stone wall that sought, vainly, to contain them. The mingled perfumes had been intoxicating on mid-summer days, when sunlight pooled inside the walls, turning one’s thoughts from scholarship to…more elemental activities.

She, born to a scholar-mother and raised inside the Wall—she’d known nothing of flowers. Jen Sar’s garden had been a revelation, unique in her experience, and, for everything she had known, in the galaxy.

But, here, at the house of Korval, she had found the model for Jen Sar’s tiny walled garden; many times larger, its boundaries marked by the walls of the house itself, its center dominated by an enormous tree.

There was a tree in their garden at home—a
paizon
tree, that gave sweet fruit the size of her palm. One of the
useful plants
; it resembled the giant at the center of Korval’s garden as closely as—as Delgado resembled Surebleak.

Kamele sighed, and pulled the borrowed sweater closer around her shoulders.

Certainly, her journey had been educational, and had given insight enough for a lifetime. What remained was to decide how she ought to proceed, now that she had found Daav yos’Phelium, returned to the family he had years ago forsaken, at the end of Jen Sar Kiladi’s sudden abandonment of his scholarly duties…

…and his
onagrata
of long-standing.

Of too-long-standing, by the mores and custom of Delgado. Kamele sighed again as she followed the path ’round another overgrown curve. There, before her, was a bank of what looked, to her untrained eye, to be bluebells, Theo’s favorite flower in Jen Sar’s garden.

Pausing, she smiled, and closed her eyes so that she could better enjoy their subtle fragrance.

The question remained, now that she knew—far from being coerced and held against his will by Clan Korval—that Jen Sar had gone home to stand with his son and family during their time of transition—what
ought
she to do?

Officially, she was on sabbatical. She could—she
should
—return to her studies. As much as she would like to see Jen Sar—Daav—again, it had come to her that perhaps he would not feel the same. She had never known him to be careless in his interpersonal dealings. Surely, then, he had ended their relationship so abruptly for a reason. She might guess that the reason had been to shield her from these “enemies” that Kareen spoke of so casually. A man who had lost his mother and a favorite cousin to foul play, and who had seen his lifemate murdered, might be careful of the safety of any others to whom he had formed…an attachment.

Intent upon her role of Avenging Scholar, she had undone his good work, and exposed herself to danger. Best, then, to fade back into academia, where she would be one scholar among a host; safe in anonymity. Bestleaze, where the primary sources for the paper she had in mind were located, was not a Safe World, but it was one of the major Research Universities, charged with the guardianship of many precious documents. No one was permitted inside who was not properly credentialed. She would be protected, there.