Vergence (8 page)

Whatever they might think of her, the market, or Vergence, none of it ever showed in their faces. They were like men made from leather, bone, and iron, with faces cast to a common severe expression.

She cast about for something to do, something amusing. This was the worst time — just before the start of Tranquillity. The entire city seemed to go to sleep for days before and all the interesting people were either busy planning for the celebrations, or left before the closure stranded them. Not that Palona understood why anybody with a pinch of fun in them would want to miss the parades and parties.

She wiggled her toes to catch Jaquit's attention. They reclined on cushions, side by side, facing in opposite directions. Jaquit couldn't hear her, but they'd developed their own private sign language over the years, and Jaquit could read lips.

“
Rub … ?
” Palona signed.

Jaquit pouted and made a few half-hearted attempts before relenting, and even then she used only one hand. Always with Jaquit the defiance first.

She absent-mindedly massaged the heel of Jaquit's foot until she spied Lord Bae across the heads of the crowd, leading one of those horrible wagons he always seemed to insist on trundling around Vergence.

Palona reached out and tapped Elali on the top of his headdress. “Doctor Elali, I want to go that way. Tell them to be quick, I want to catch Lord Bae.”

Elali said something to the bearers, and they lumbered forward in an arc to head in the direction she'd pointed. If they were moving any faster than before, the difference was barely noticeable. Certainly Doctor Elali wasn't making any more effort to keep up than he had on the way to the market.

“Doctor Elali — they're not going fast enough, we're going to miss Bae.”

She reached out and tapped him on the head again, and this time when he looked up there was a momentary hint of something in his eyes. Nothing found its way into his pleasantly courteous expression, but it was enough to stop her tapping him again.

“
They're so lazy,
” Palona signed to Jaquit.

Lord Bae saw them as they approached and held up his hand to stop the wagon. The crowds parted easily ahead of her guards and the palanquin drew up alongside.

“Lord Bae,” she said, parting the side curtain again, “you can't imagine how relieved I am to see you here. It's a torment without decent company.”

Jaquit jabbed her sharply in her flank.

“Lady Palona, what a surprise.”

Bae removed his helmet, a magnificently sculptured construction with three metal tangs dividing from the chin and running up the face to the crest where they formed three short hornlike projections, one above each eye and the third above the nose. Finished with ornate decorations, and brightly polished.

Palona felt a twinge of disappointment. She thought Bae looked so much more impressive wearing it. Without it, he looked much younger, almost too young to be leading soldiers. He had a strong face, with dark hair and startlingly blue eyes, but spoilt any stature he might have achieved with a wide, almost childish expression.

An involuntary thrill seemed to pass through her guards at the sight of Bae's long triple-plaited hair. Palona could sense their approval, their desire to join Bae in cleansing this city of sin, their disappointment at the fate the three-faced god had decreed for them.

Not for the first time Palona wondered if she could persuade her uncle to re-employ the older Ulpitorian guards. They, at least, appreciated the opportunity to accompany her, carrying out their duties with humour, unlike the wooden fortitude she must now endure.

“Really Bae, I think you have been spending too much time with your soldiers if you must exclaim as if ambushed every time you meet a lady in the marketplace.”

“Oh no … lady Palona, I assure you … I didn't mean it … I didn't mean you were an unpleasant surprise,” he said, his grin fading.

Palona sighed. For some time, Bae had sought to beguile her with clumsy flattery and clumsier gifts, and she'd humoured his attentions because he was part of her uncle's circle. Besides, it never hurt to have conspicuous admirers, if they were at least barely tolerable.

“What prizes have you caught here?” Palona asked, looking at the three bedraggled figures in the wagon.

He puffed his chest out and grinned at her like a boy showing off his toys.

“This one, the Selerian,” he said, pointing at the beast-man with six hands. “He's been clearly identified as the thief seen stealing from the upper rooms of people's dwellings near the Claws—”

“It's a wonder people can tell them apart,” Palona said.

“Err … yes,” Bae said, looking uncomfortable. “And this one assaulted the guards.”

She realised he'd pointed at the scruffy one lying motionless on the floor. The man didn't look much like he'd been able to stand unaided for hours.

“How brave you must be, facing these dangers to make the city safe for us all. I don't know how you manage to look so calm afterwards.”

Next to her, Jaquit choked back laughter.

Bae frowned. “Is there somebody in there with you?”

“Just Jaquit,” Palona said, earning herself another jab in the flank.

He visibly relaxed. “Ah — Jaquit, your friend.”

“Yes Jaquit, my companion,” Palona said, presenting him with her sweetest smile. “But you were about to tell me of your adventures, how you managed to capture these villains.”

He started an excruciatingly detailed and fanciful account of how he'd personally risked his life to overcome each of his prisoners. Palona lost interest by the end of the first sentence. If he wasn't such a dolt, she thought, as she looked him over, he would notice and talk about something amusing. Sometimes Jaquit was lucky not to have to hear people droning on.

“
We should ask him to the Stilts Ball … do you think we should ask him?
” she signed to Jaquit.

Jaquit was maddeningly slow in responding. “
He's devoted enough.
”

“
We'll just have to stop him talking too much,
” she signed at Jaquit.

Bae was still busy describing his encounter with some caster. “ … and then I said to Brack—”

“That's really fascinating, but I must ask before I forget — I came to invite you to the ambassador's ball for the Festival of Stilts.”

“Er … stilts? Yes, it will be an honour.”

“Good, that's settled then. We were just heading home when we ambushed you.”

Palona was pleased to see Bae wince. She lent over to tap Doctor Elali on the head again, then let the concealing valance fall back into place.

“I suppose we really must go home now. The market's just deadly today,” she said to no-one in particular.

Shipboard

W
HEN EBRYN AND
Quentyn reached the deck they were greeted by a man introducing himself as Hui-ta, their steward. Of indeterminate age, dressed in elaborate sky blue robes with panels of songbird yellow accented in dark purple, he behaved with the courtesy and grace Ebryn might have expected from a royal diplomat. He guided them smoothly towards the guest quarters, near the prow of the vessel, where the cabins were organised into rosette-shaped clusters of six, accessed from a small common foyer.

Hui-ta gave Master Quentyn and Ebryn adjacent rooms. Once he'd helped Quentyn into his cabin, which took far longer than expected, he returned and gave Ebryn a brief overview of his own cabin, explaining how to work the catch on the shutters, demonstrated the use of the water faucet positioned above a shallow basin opposite the bunk, and showed him a hanging cord near the door to pull on if he needed assistance. Satisfied that Ebryn was settled, Hui-ta bowed himself out, promising to return after they'd cast off.

Ebryn lay back on his bunk and watched the wan evening light dissolve into darkness. After a while he noticed the cabin remained dimly lit, even as the sky beyond the ship turned black.

A soft glow came from shaped inlays in the panels on each side of the cabin. He ran his fingertips over the surface of the nearest, tracing the fine lines of power running through the wood. The patterns twisted back on themselves, vibrating like the strings on a lute, drawing together at a common point, a small bead under the surface, at the centre of the inlay.

When he tried to feel his way in, it deflected his senses. A quarter the size of the fingernail on his little finger, as impenetrable as diamond.

He was still examining the inlays when Hui-ta returned and tapped lightly on the door.

Ebryn slid the door back and Hui-ta bowed. “Master Ebryn, Captain Lim would be much honoured if you would grace him with your company at his banquet this evening.”

Ebryn hesitated. Faced with the resplendently dressed steward, he wished he'd thought to bring a formal set of clothes with him.

“Or you may desire to dine in your cabin?” Hui-ta said. “However — please may I assure you — the dinner is exclusively for the captain's selected guests.”

“I haven't anything proper to wear,” Ebryn said.

“Ah,” Hui-ta said. “There is no need for concern, master Ebryn. Our guests bound for Vergence are attired according to many customs. One of Captain Lim's guests this evening is wearing no apparel at all.” Hui-ta seemed to be working hard to suppress a smile.

“Will Master Quentyn be there?” Ebryn asked.

“I could not rouse Master Quentyn. I will try once more.”

Hui-ta knocked softly on the adjacent cabin door. “Master Quentyn?”

From behind the door came retching, followed by the sound of irregular splashing.

“Perhaps,” Hui-ta said, “I should try again later.”

When Ebryn reached Captain Lim's banquet he found it already well under way. There were a greater number of people at the reception than Ebryn had been expecting. Other than Captain Lim, he recognised none of them, which he thought made his late arrival more obvious, and more embarrassing.

All the guests stood in loose clumps around a single large table that had been made as a hollow circle with a segment removed so its shape resembled a horseshoe. Lim was near what would have been the head of the table, to his right, and would have been almost completely hidden by the large group surrounding him were it not for the enormous colourful hat he wore.

A number of servants were busy serving food, and replenishing drinks from the open space in the centre. From somewhere in the dark behind Lim a musician played an instrument that sounded like a reedy piccolo, and another a soft lute.

The polished surface of the table, made of a wood so dark it appeared almost black, reflected light from open oil lamps on posts around the perimeter of the dining area, and a single desultory blue were-light drifted aimlessly above the heads of some of those standing opposite.

With the sky empty of stars or moons, the air still and the ship steady beneath them, Ebryn could easily have imagined they were all at the centre of some great hall with the walls, and ceiling just beyond sight.

He guessed there must be no fewer than a hundred people standing around the table, mostly clustered towards the captain's end, although he found it hard to estimate in the half-light. He stood uncertainly on the outside of the gathering, wondering what he was supposed to do.

A few paces in front of him, on his right, stood a very large man, dressed in colourful red and yellow fabric that shimmered in the scratchy torchlight. To his left was another wearing an extraordinarily elaborate headdress of metal, beads, feathers and reflective stones.

The headdress wearer glanced at Ebryn for a moment, caught his eye, and quickly turned away. He had a brief impression of thin angular features with large dark eyes and a complexion the colour of pale wood, but so bedecked with jewellery he could not decide whether it was a man or a woman. Large disk-shaped gilt earrings nearly the size of his palm hung down from each ear, a hefty silvery nose ring ran through both nostrils, covering almost the entire upper lip, and a solid collar-piece as wide as a hand set with glittering stones covered shoulders, and upper chest.

A large brown fur covered creature with a wedge-shaped ferret-like head on the end of a long sinuous neck, and too many arms, stood on the far side of the circle.

It made great enthusiastic noises as it tore into a large haunch of meat with long sharp teeth, splattering the table and surrounding floor with stray fragments of flesh, meat juice, and spittle.

The space around the creature widened as its enthusiasm increased. A pale-faced young woman directly opposite Ebryn, standing nearest the creature, stepped further up the table, cradling a plate of food protectively, frowning with her nose scrunched up.

Ebryn found the variety of people around the table astounding — as if he'd stepped into a dream where people from all Ullvenards Travels had gathered together.

The spectacle of the travelling faire passing through Conant village in the summers, a brief breath of exotic places in the coloured ribbons and strange accents, paled before the riot of shapes, colours, styles of clothing, and mix of languages here.

One of the servants appeared in front of Ebryn, balancing a collection of containers on one arm, bobbing his head and nodding towards the table. “Chishiw.”