At The Edge Of Space (Hanan Rebellion) (68 page)

“Most honorable sir,” said Kleph, rocking back on his heels and clasping his arms about his knees in a position the amaut found quite comfortable. “There is a word in our language:
shakhshoph.
It means the hiding-face. And, my poor lord, you have gotten quite a lot of
shakhshoph
since you arrived in our settlement. One is always that way with outsiders: it is only decency. Sometimes too it hides a lie. Pay no attention to words with my people. Watch carefully a man who will not face you squarely and beware most of all a man who is too polite.”

“Like yourself.”

Kleph managed a bow, a rocking forward and back. “Indeed, most honorable sir, but I am fortunately your most humble servant. Anyone in the colony will tell you of Kleph. I am a man of most insignificant birth; I am backworld and my manners want polish. I have come from the misfortune of my origin to an apprentice clerkship with the great
karsh
Gomek, to ship’s accountant, to my present most honored position. My lord must understand then that I am very reluctant to defy the orders of
bnesych
Gerlach. But we observe a simple rule, to choose a loyalty and stay by it. It is the single wisdom of our law.
Bnesych
Gerlach gave my service to the ship in the port, and as you serve the lord of that ship, I am interested in saving your life.”

“You—chose a remarkable way of demonstrating it.”

“They have injured you.” Kleph’s odd-feeling hand most unwelcomely patted Aiela’s neck and shoulder. “
Ai,
most honorable sir, had I the opportunity I would have shot the lot of them—but they will take the passes and disappear far into the uplands. If one wishes to corrupt, one simply must pay his debts like a gentleman. They are filthy animals, these humans, but they are not stupid: a few corpses discovered could make them all flee my employ in the future. But for the passes to get them clear of our lines, they will gladly do anything and suffer anything and seek my service gladly.”

“Like those that fired a shell among us at the port?”

Kleph lifted a hand in protest. “My lord, surely you have realized that was not my doing. But I am Master of Accounts, and so I know when men are moved and ships fly; and I have human servants, so I know when these things happen and do not get entered properly in the records. Therefore I am in danger. There are only two men on this world besides myself who can bypass the records: one is under-
bnesych
Yasht, and the other is
bnesych
Gerlach.”

“Who hired it done?”

“One or the other of them. No
shakhshoph.
It is what I told you: one chooses a loyalty and remains constant; it is the only way we know to survive—as for instance my own lords know where my loyalty in this matter must logically lie, and so I shall need to stay out of sight until the crisis is resolved: a cup of poisoned wine, some such thing—it is only reasonable to eliminate those men known to serve the opposition. I am highly expendable; I am not of this
karsh,
and therefore I was given to the lord in the port. I also was meant to be eliminated at the port; and now it is essential that we both be silenced.”

“Why?” Aiela had lost his power to be shocked. His mind simply could not grasp the turns of amaut logic.

“Why, my lord nas kame, if the population of this colony realizes the
bnesych
serves the other lord, it would split the colony into two factions, with most bloody result. We are not a fighting people, no, but one protects his own nest, after all—and the
bnesych
has many folk in this venture who are not of
karsh
Gomek: out-
karsh
folk, exiles, such as myself. Such loyalties can be lost quickly. There is always natural resentment toward a large
karsh
when it mismanages. And if it no longer appears the action at the port was on human initiative, it would be most, most distressing in some quarters.” He pressed his broad-tipped fingers to Aiela’s brow, where there was a swelling raised. “Ai, sir, I am sorry for your unhappy state, and I did try to find you before you wandered into a trap, but you were most elusive. When I knew you had entered the headquarters and when I saw the northside lights out, I acted and disposed my human agents at once, or you would be in the other lord’s hands before dawn.”

“Get me to the ship at the port,” Aiela said, “or get me a means to contact them, or there are going to be people hurt.”

“Sir?” asked Kleph, his squat face much distressed. He gulped several times in amaut sorrow. “O sir, and must the great lords blame those who are guiltless? See, here am I, out-
karsh,
helping you. Surely then your masters will understand that not all of us in this colony are to blame. Surely they will realize how faithfully we serve them.”

It was impossible to tell Kleph that the iduve did not understand the custom of service and reward, or that harm and help were one and the same to them. Aiela made up his mind to a half-truth. “I will speak for you,” he said, “maybe—if you help me.”

“Sir, what you ask is impossible just now, if you only under—”

“It had better not be impossible,” Aiela said.

Kleph rocked back and forth uncomfortably. “The port—these tunnels are not complete, nor shored properly all the way, and your—
hhhunhh
—size will not make the passage easy. But at this hour, honest folk will be abed, and no human mercenary would be down here; they fear such places.”

“Then take me to the port.” Aiela gathered his stiffening legs under him, straightening as much as he could in this lowceilinged chamber. Kleph scrambled up with much more agility and Aiela snatched at his collar, for it occurred to him Kleph could run away and leave him to die in these tunnels, lost in a dark maze of windings and pitfalls. He knew of a certainty that he could not best the creature in a fight or hold him if he were determined, but he intended to make it clear Kleph would have to harm him to avoid obeying him.

“You recovered my gun,” Aiela said. “Give it back.”

Kleph did not like it. He bubbled and boomed in his throat and twisted about unhappily, but he extracted the weapon from his belly-pocket and surrendered it. Aiela holstered it without letting go Kleph’s collar, and then pushed at the little fellow to start him moving. They came to tunnel after tunnel and Kleph chose his way without hesitation.

Light burst suddenly like a sun exploding, heat hit their faces, and the stench of ozone mingled with the flood of outside air. A shadow of manlike shape dropped from above into their red-hazed vision, and Aiela hauled back on Kleph to flee. But the pain of the
idoikkhe
paralyzed his arm and he collapsed to his knees, while beside him on his face Kleph groveled and gibbered in terror, his saucer eyes surely agony, for the amaut could scarcely bear noon daylight, let alone this.

“Aiela,” said a chill, familiar voice, and the
idoikkhe’s
touch was gentle now, a mere signature:
Ashakh.

Aiela expelled his breath in one quick sob of relief and picked himself up to face the iduve, who stood amid the rubble of the tunnel and in the beam of light from the street above.

What of the amaut?
asked the pulses of the
idoikkhe. Will you be rid of him?

“No,” Aiela said quickly.

A response in which I find no wisdom,
Ashakh replied. But he put the small hand weapon back in his belt and looked down on the amaut, coming closer. “Get up.”

Kleph obeyed, crouching low and bowing and bobbing in extreme agitation. The light at his wrist swung wildly, throwing hideous shadows, leaping up and down the rough walls. Ashakh was a darkness, dusky of complexion and clad in black, but his eyes cast an uncanny mirror-light of dim rose hue, damped when he moved his head.

This person was aiding you?
Ashakh asked.

“If Kleph is right,
bnesych
Gerlach was behind what happened at the port, and Kleph risked a great deal helping me.”

“Indeed,” mused Ashakh aloud. “Do you believe this?”

“I have reason to.”

“Kleph knows Weissmouth,” said Aiela, “and he will be willing to help us. Please,” he added, sweating, for the look on Ashakh’s grim face betokened a man in a hurry, and the iduve understood nothing of gratitude. He misliked being advocate for Kleph, but it was better than allowing the little fellow to be killed.

But Ashakh said no more of killing Kleph, and Aiela understood the implication: it was on his shoulders, and
vaikka
was his to pay if his judgment proved wrong.

“Yes, sir,” said Aiela. “What shall we do?”

“Have you a suggestion?”

“Get a ship and get the others out of Tejef’s hands.”

Ashakh frowned. “And have you a means to accomplish this?”

“No, sir.”

“Well, we shall go to the port, and this person will guide us.” Ashakh fixed the trembling amaut with a direct stare and Kleph scurried to get past him and take the lead. The tall iduve must bend to follow as they pursued their way through the winding passages.

“Do they know—does the Orithain know,” Aiela asked, “what happened?”

We had a full account from Tesyel, who commands the base ship.
And then in un-Ashakh fashion, the iduve volunteered further conversation.
Chimele sent me to find you. I was puzzled at first by the direction of the signal, but remembering the amaut’s subterranean habits I resolved the matter—not without giving any persons trying to track us a sure indication of the direction of our flight. We had best make all possible haste. And I still mislike this small furtive person, Aiela-kameth.

“I can only decide as a kallia, sir.”

12

The touch of Rakhi’s mind came softly, most softly. It had hurt before, and Chaikhe accepted it cautiously, her nape hairs bristling at the male presence. She fought to subdue the rage that beat along her veins, and she felt Rakhi himself struggling against a very natural revulsion, for
chanokhia
forbade intimacy with a
katasathe.
She was for gift-giving and for honor, not for touching.

And there was his own distinctive
harachia,
a humorous, subdued presence. His
arastiethe
suffered terribly at close range, much more than hers did, for although folk judged Rakhi scandalously careless of his reputation, he was not really a person of
kutikkase
and his sense of
chanokhia
was keen in some regards. He cared most intensely what others thought of him, and found even the disapproval of a nas kame painful; but where others bristled and had recourse to the
idoikkhei
or engaged in petty
vaikka,
Rakhi laughed and turned inward. It was the shield of a nature as solitary in its own way as Ashakh’s, and of a man of surprising intelligence. Even Chimele scarcely understood how much Rakhi dreaded to be known, how much he loathed to be touched and to touch; but Chaikhe felt these things, and kept her distance.

“
Nasith,
” Rakhi voiced. He used this means, although other communication was swifter and carried sensory images as well; but this let him keep the essence of himself in reserve. “
Nasith,
Chimele is with me. She asks your state of health.”

“I am quite well,
nasith-toj.
”

“She advises you that Ashakh is presently attempting to recover the kameth Aiela. He has not communicated with you?”

“
Nasith,
I certainly would not have thought of violating Chimele’s direct order in this regard. No, nor would I accept it if he contacted me.”

But you are
iq
-sra through both lines,
he thought,
and Ashakh does as Ashakh pleases when he likes his orders as little as he likes the one that separated you. We shall have him to deal with sooner or later.
“Contact
bnesych
Gerlach and re-establish communications with the amaut authorities. Under no circumstance admit humans within your security. They do not know us, and they have a great
m’melakhia,
tempered with very little judgment of reality, as witness their actions against Khasif and Mejakh. They also have a certain tendency toward
arrhei-akita,
which makes
vaikka
upon the few no guarantee that the example will deter others. Many of their actions arise from logical processes based on biological facts we do not yet understand, or else from their ignorance of us. Remember Khasif and use appropriate discretion.”

“I will bear this in mind.”

“
Ashanome
has suffered
vaikka
at the hands of someone in Weissmouth in the matter of Khasif. Chimele puts the entire business into your capable hands,
nasith-tak.
Whatever the fate of Priamos as a whole, this
vaikka
must be paid. Look to it, for we have been disadvantaged under the witness of both
Mijanothe
and
Tashavodh.
”

“Does Chimele not suggest a means?” inquired Chaikhe, proud and anxious at once, for the
arastiethe
of
Ashanome
was a great burden to bear alone.

Chimele’s
harachia
came over Rakhi’s senses, a rather uncertain contact at the distance he preserved: her
takkhenois
was full of disturbance, so that Chaikhe shivered. “Tell Chaikhe that Weissmouth is hers, and what she does with those beings is hers to determine, but I forbid her to risk her loss to us without consulting me.”

“Tell Chimele I will handle the matter on those terms,” she said, uncomforted. Chimele’s disturbance lingered, upsetting her composure and making her stomach tight.

Chaikhe.
Rakhi let Chimele’s image fade. “Dawn is beginning in Weissmouth. I urge you make all possible haste.”