Trading in Futures (5 page)

His mother would have laughed aloud at such
obvious mummery. His delm--Korval Herself, she who held the future
and life of each clanmember in her sedately folded hands--merely
lifted an elegant golden eyebrow.

Daav schooled himself to stillness--small
challenge for one who was a scout--face yet averted. He did not
quite bite his lip, though the inclination was strong. Not all of
his present display was artifice; it was no inconsiderable thing to
bring Korval's Own Eye upon onself, true-son though he be.

A full Standard minute passed before Korval
shifted slightly in her chair.

"In the one face", she
said, reflectively, and in no higher mode than that of parent to
child, "the question of how long you might stand there, cowed and
silent, beguiles my closest interest. On the other face, it
is
Daav
before me,
and one cannot be certain but that this is a ploy engineered to rob
us both of the pleasure of attending Etgora's certain-to-be-tedious
evening gather." The mode shifted, and she was his delm once more,
chin up and eyes no warmer than ice.

"Elucidate this sudden unworthiness.
Briefly."

Mode required that a petitioner accept the
Delm's Word with a bow. Daav did so, forehead brushing knees, and
returned to the round-shouldered pose of inferiority.

"I have today received my quartershare
accounting from dea'Gauss and with it certain documents needful of
my attention. One of those documents was the Delm's Formal
Declaration of Heir, in which I discover myself named
Korval-in-future." He moved his shoulders, easing tension that was
born not only of the unnatural posture.

"The information amazes?" Korval-in-present
inquired. "Surely you are aware that you have been trained for the
duty since you had sense of language."

Daav inclined his head.
"But I was not trained alone. Er Thom has been at my side, schooled
as I was, word and gesture. We studied the same diary entries. We
learned our equations at the same board. All in accordance with
Delm's Wisdom--that two be conceived and trained to the duty, to
insure that Korval
would
have its delm, though yos'Phelium's genes twice
proved inadequate."

He paused, daring a quick
glance at his delm's face from beneath modestly lowered lashes. No
sign--of irritation, impatience, boredom. Or humor. Chi yos'Phelium
had been a Scout herself before duty called her to delmhood, forty
Standard years ago.
Her
face would reveal whatever she wished to
show.

"Er Thom," Daav murmured, "has a steady
nature; his understanding of our history and our present
necessities is entirely sound. Of course, he is a master
pilot--indeed, his skill over-reaches my--"

Korval raised her hand.

"A discussion of your foster-brother's
excellencies is extraneous to the topic." She lowered her hand.
"Daav yos'Phelium professes himself unworthy to assume the duty he
was bred and trained for, thus calling a Delm's Decision into
question--that is your chosen theme. Speak to it."

Daav took a deep breath, bowed. She was
correct - of course she was correct. A Delm could not be wrong, in
matters of Clan. That the Delm had mis-chosen her heir was no fault
of her judgement, but his own error, in withholding information she
required. He had intended to speak ere she had chosen, but he had
not expected her to have chosen so soon.

He came to his full height and met his
delm's chill eyes squarely.

"Perhaps, then, I should have put it that I
am unfit for the duty. While I am off Liad, performing even the
most tedious of tasks required by Scout Headquarters, my temper is
serene and my judgement sound. I am scarcely a day on the homeworld
and I am awash in anger. People annoy me to the edge of endurance.
Mode and measure grate my patience. I cannot say with any certainty
that my judgement is sound. Indeed, I fear it is dangerously
unsound." He bowed again, buying time, for this next was difficult,
for all it needed to be said.

"I had been to the Healers, last leave, and
asked that the distemper be mended."

"Ah," said Korval. "And was it so?"

Daav felt his lips twitch toward a
smile--most inappropriate when one was in conversation with one's
Delm--and straightened them with an effort..

"Master Healer Kestra," he said, "was
pleased to inform me that many people find Liadens irritating."

"So they do," his Delm agreed gravely. "Most
especially do yos'Pheliums who have not yet attained their
thirtieth name-day find Liadens annoying. If you will accept the
experience of one who is your elder, I will certify that the
annoyance does ease, with time."

Daav bowed acceptance of an elder's wisdom.
"I would welcome instruction on how not to do a murder in the
interim."

Korval tipped her head, looking into his
eyes with such intensity he thought she must see into his secret
soul. It required effort, to neither flinch nor look away, but less
effort--noticeably less effort--than had been required, even five
years ago.

"As concerned as that," Korval murmured and
looked down at her folded hands, releasing him. She was silent for
a few moments, then looked back to his face.

"Very well. The Delm will take her Decision
under review."

Daav felt his knees give, and covered the
slight sag with a bow of gratitude.

"All very fine," said Korval. "But I will
not start you in the habit of questioning Delm's Decision."

"Of course not." He bowed again, every line
eloquent of respect.

"So very well-trained," Korval murmured,
rising from her chair. "It's nothing short of marvelous."

* * *

FROWNING, DAAV CONSIDERED the gun.

It was not a pretty gun, in the way meant by
those who admired jeweled grips and platinum-chased cylinders. It
was a functional gun, made to his own specifications and tuned by
Master Marksman Tey Dor himself. It was also small, and could be
hidden with equal ease in Daav's sleeve or his palm.

Etgora's evening-gather, now. It might
please his mother to dismiss this evening's affair as tedious, but
the papers forwarded by dea'Gauss had shown that it was not so long
ago that Clan Etgora and Clan Korval had come at odds--and when
Balance was done, it was Korval who showed the profit.

Etgora had pretensions. A clan with its
profit solidly in the star-trade, they had strained after High
House status, and fell but a hand's breadth short before the loss
to Korval set them a dozen Standard years further back from the
goal. There was bitterness in the House on that count, Daav did not
doubt.

However, if Etgora wished
to secure its teetering position as a high-tier Mid House, they
must show a smooth face to adversity.
Of
course
they would place Korval upon the
most-honored guest list. They could not do otherwise and
survive.

By the same logic of survival, Etgora would
take utmost care that no slight or insult befell Korval while she
was in their care.

Which meant that Daav, chancy tempered as he
knew himself to be, might safely leave his hideaway in its
custom-fitted box.

And yet....

"Might," he murmured, slipping the little
gun into his sleeve, "is not ought."

He glanced to the mirror, smoothed the
sleeve, twitched the lace at his throat, touched the sapphire in
his right ear and made an ironic bow. His reflection--black-browed,
lean and over-long--returned the salutation gracefully.

"Do
try
not to kill anyone tonight,
Daav," he told himself. "Murder would only make the evening more
tedious."

* * *

THEY WERE ADMITTED to Etgora's townhouse and
relieved of their cloaks by a supernaturally efficient servant, who
then bowed them into the care of a child of the House.

She had perhaps twelve Standards, hovering
between child and halfling, and holding herself just a bit stiffly
in her fine doorkeeper's silks.

"Kesa del'Fordan Clan Etgora," she said,
bowing prettily in the mode of Child of the House to Honored
Guests. She straightened, brown eyes solemn with duty, and waited
for them to respond, according to Code and custom.

"Chi yos'Phelium," his mother murmured,
bowing as Guest to House Child, "Korval."

The brown eyes widened slightly, but give
her grace, Daav thought; she did not make the error of looking down
to see Korval's ring of rank for herself. Instead, she inclined her
head, with composure commendable in one of twice her years, and
looked to Daav.

He likewise bowed, Guest to House Child, and
straightened without flourish.

"Daav yos'Phelium Clan Korval."

Kesa inclined her head once more and
completed the form.

"Ma'am and sir, be welcome in our house."
She paused, perhaps a heartbeat too long, then bowed. "If you would
care to walk with me, I will bring you to my father."

"Of your kindness," his mother murmured and
followed the child out of the welcoming parlor, Daav walking at the
rear, as befit one of lesser rank who was likewise his Delm's sole
protection in a House not their own.

Kesa led them down a short, left-tending
hallway, through an open gateway of carved sweetstone and out into
an enclosed garden, and the full force of the evening gather.

Etgora, Daav observed, as he followed his
mother and their guide down cunning, crowded walkways, was a Clan
which addressed its projects with energy. Challenged to display a
clean face to the world, it did not hesitate to bring the world
together immediately for the purpose.

A more conservative Clan, Daav thought, his
quick, Scout-trained eyes catching glimpses of an astonishing
number of High Houselings among the crowd, would have invited
Korval, of course, to this first gather since its failure, and
perhaps one or two others of the High Houses, at most. Not so
Etgora, who seemed to have formed the guest list almost entirely
from the Fifty, with a few taken from the ranks of the higher
Mid-Level Houses, for the purpose, Daav supposed, of filling out
odd numbers.

Progress along the pathways was slow, what
with so many acquaintances who must be acknowledged with a bow.
Both Daav and his mother several times had to duck under gay
strings of rainbow-colored streamers and the imported oddity of
Terran-made balloons.

At long last, they achieved the center of
the garden, where a man slightly younger and a good deal less
elegant than his mother was speaking with apparent ease to no other
than Lady yo'Lanna. Daav owned himself impressed. Lady yo'Lanna was
his mother's oldest friend among her peers in the High Houses, and
he held her in quite as much awe now as he had at six.

"Father," Kesa bent deeply, the full bow of
clanmember to Delm, and straightened self-consciously, shoulders
stiff beneath her finery.

"Your pardon, good ma'am," the gentleman
murmured, and, receiving Lady yo'Lanna's half-bow of permission,
turned to face them.

"Kesa, my child. Who have you brought
me?"

"Father, here is Chi yos'Phelium, Korval,
and Daav yos'Phelium Clan Korval," the child said in the very
proper mode of Introduction. She turned and bowed, House-Child to
Guests. "Honoreds, here is my father, Hin Ber del'Fordan,
Etgora."

So Kesa's father was Etgora Himself. It
explained much, Daav thought, from the unexpected youth of the door
guardian to her stiff determination to observe every mode
precisely.

"Korval, you do me honor!" Etgora swept the
bow between equals--theoretically true, between Delms, Daav thought
wryly--and augmented it with the trader's hand-sign for "master," a
nice touch, drawing on the common trading background of both Houses
while publically acknowledging Korval's superiority.

His mother, Daav saw, was inclined to be
amused by their host's little audacity. She bowed just short of
full Equal, accepting the master status Etgora acknowledged.

"To be welcome in the house of an ally is
joy," she said clearly into the sudden nearby silence. She
straightened and extended a hand to touch Daav's sleeve.

"One's son, Etgora."

"Lord yos'Phelium." The bow this time was
Delm to Child of an Ally's House: High Mode, indeed, but carried
well, and necessitating, alas, the rather tricksy Child of a Delm
to an Ally as the most precise response. He straightened in time to
see his mother incline her head to Lady yo'Lanna.

"Ilthiria, I find you well?"

"As well as one can be in this crush. Etgora
is proud of his achievement--and justly so!--but you and I know how
to value an empty garden."

Had he been less
well-trained, Daav would have winced in sympathy for Kesa's father.
Lady yo'Lanna, it seemed, was not
entirely
at one with her
host.

The pale eyes moved, pinning him. "Young
Daav, newly at leave from the Scouts."

He bowed, lightly. "I have no secrets from
you, ma'am."

"Do you not?" Her eyebrows rose. "Then come
to me tomorrow and whisper in my ear the tale of how a certain
mutual acquaintance came to break his arm in mid-Port evening
before last."

Damn
. He bowed again, aware of his mother's gaze on the side of
his suddenly warm face.

"If that is your wish, then how can I deny
you?"

"Very properly said," Etgora interjected.
"And who better to know Port gossip than a Scout, who are said to
have ears in every cranny?" He turned, spied his daughter, yet
standing stiffly to one side.

"Kesa, my jewel. Lord yos'Phelium will wish
to reacquaint himself with his age-mates, as he is just returned
from the Scouts. Pray show him to the Sunset Garden--and then you
may refresh yourself."