Close Contact (9 page)

If I’d still had food in my mouth, I would have choked on it. As it was, I must have made a sound, because several of my dining companions glanced in my direction. Marcus arched a questioning brow at me, and I gave my head a slight shake.

“What was that noise?” Lillith asked.

“Nothing. It was me.” I took a deep breath, more than a little freaked. As coincidences went, this one was way out there. And I refused to think about the ramifications right now. Do you think he suspects I did it?”

“Let me see.” Her voice was laced with sarcasm. “It was a perfectly solid door. The wood is now splintered around the lock and the hinges. The soldiers saw you go that way. So do I think he suspects you? No, of course not. He probably thinks it was a muscular termite.” She snorted, an artificial intelligence’s equivalent of scornful hilarity.

“Remind me to laugh at your brilliant wit next week,” I told her. “In the meantime, what am I supposed to do?”

“Deny everything. He might suspect you’re not what you seem, but he can’t prove it.”

“Right. Lie through my teeth. I’ve been around politicians all my life. Should be easy. I’ll tell him the door must have been like that when I happened across it and that’s why I was able to open it. After all, lying went so well for me the first time I tried it with him.” I was babbling. To stop myself, I gripped my cup and took another sip of coffee.

Before I could break down into total hysteria, the back door opened and I looked up as Treya came in. She surveyed my empty plate and then motioned with her head. “This way. We’ll see what you can do.”

Unwilling to waste a precious drop of coffee, I slugged back what was left and then followed her to a room off the kitchen. The four musicians trailed us and picked up instruments that were resting on a small table against the wall. They included a guitar anyone on Old Earth would have recognized, an oddly shaped percussion apparatus, and two strange-looking pipes. They moved to chairs positioned in a corner, and for a few minutes a horrible cacophony of sounds rose as they made sure their instruments were in tune.

When silence fell, Treya sent me to the middle of the floor and nodded at the men. Immediately, exotic music filled the air, lent a sensual quality by the pipes. Mentally I ran through my repertoire and settled on a mating dance from the bird people of Denbigh. Their ambassador had taught it to me right after I’d left the crèche.

I’d barely started when Treya grimaced and waved a hand. The music stopped and she marched over to me, hands on her hips.

“What is this? You look like a flea on hot sand! This is not dancing. If hopping around is the best you can do it will be cycles before you’re ready to dance in public.”

I mimicked her stance and matched her glare for glare. “Why don’t you show me what you want instead of criticizing? I promise, any dance you can do, I can do better.”

A slight smile lifted the corners of her lips. “Impertinence. I like that. Shows you have spirit. Now I will teach you how to dance.”

I moved back as the music began anew, and watched carefully as she undulated. It looked like a muted, stately version of a belly dance to me.

Before she’d danced through two bars of music, I joined her, only there was nothing muted or stately about my movements. I let the haunting melody take me, dancing for the sheer joy of putting my body through its paces. It had been so long since I’d had a chance to dance.

It wasn’t until the music faded away that I realized Treya had stopped and was watching me intently. And it wasn’t just her. The men were watching me too, a look of awe on their faces.

“Who taught you to dance this way?” Treya asked me, her voice carrying an odd note.

Oops.

Frantically, I scrambled to come up with a good lie, but my mind remained blank. “Um, no one, really. I just like dancing, and can usually pick new ones up quickly.”

“Who was your mother?”

“Lillith, do I have a mother?” I subvocalized.

“Rilyana,” she replied.

I repeated the name to Treya, but she only looked more suspicious.

“What tribe was she from?”

“I don’t know. My father kept us apart from others, and
my mother died when I was very young. My father never spoke of her afterward.”

“Only an Apsaras, or the child of one, could dance this way.”

“What the frag is an Apsaras?” I asked Lillith.

“In their culture, it’s a supernatural being who takes the form of a beautiful young woman. They excel at dance and singing, but perform only for the Bashalde god Invet, and for fallen heroes.”

“No,” I shook my head vigorously at Treya, a knot in my stomach. Since a Natural who knew nothing of GEPs might consider one of us supernatural, that was getting a tiny bit too close for comfort. “There’s nothing supernatural about me. I just have a talent for dance.”

She went back to glaring. “If word spreads that Marcus has an Apsaras performing here, his business will increase tenfold. The more coin he makes, the more we are paid.”

Ah, the light dawned. She wanted to use the Apsaras as a marketing ploy. Smart woman.

“Fine. You can tell the customers whatever you want, as long as you understand I’m not really an Apsaras.”

This time her grin was full of smug satisfaction. “We will open soon for the midday meal. By this evening all will know, and will come to see the Apsaras dance. You are excused from serving for now. It will increase the mystery and curiosity if no one sees you except when you perform.”

“And what am I supposed to do until then?”

“Help Leddy in the kitchen.”

Right, I was going to help in the kitchen when my idea of cooking was pushing a button on the food prep unit and watching a tray slide out. On the other hand, that’s where the coffee was.

Preparations for the midday meal were in full swing by
now, so I grabbed a cup, poured myself some coffee, and then found a spot out of the way to watch and sip. It didn’t take me long to realize that the kitchen was an organizational disaster. I was surprised poor Leddy had feet left. She had to run from one side of the room to the other to get seasoning, make another trip for a particular pan, and yet another for a spoon or platter to dish the food up.

Immediately, a blueprint of the kitchen formed in my mind, only in this one, everything was right where it needed to be for maximum efficiency. Quietly I set to work, making the reality match the picture I’d conjured. And since the musicians weren’t doing anything constructive, I put them to work, too.

By the time we were done, it was late afternoon, and only a few diehard customers remained from the lunch crowd. All the utensils Leddy used most were right next to her on a table I’d had the men carry in from the common room. Half the shelves over the stoves now contained the pots and pans I’d noticed were her favorites, and the other half contained spices and seasonings. A few steps behind her I’d positioned the food prep table that had been all the way on the other side of the room. One end of the table now held a neat stack of bowls and platters.

Peri had spent the time alternating between visits to the flowers and zooming into the kitchen to “help.” Her idea of assistance was to toss dishes and utensils from the table onto the floor while chuckling gleefully as she watched them hit. Luckily, they were stout and only one plate actually broke.

“It’s wonderful,” Leddy told me, eyes shinning with pleasure. “I barely have to move two steps in any direction to reach what I need. Don’t know why we didn’t think of this cycles ago. Marcus should let you work something out for the taproom. The girls have to come right through the kitchen to reach it.”

Yeah, I’d noticed that. I was on the verge of telling her I’d see what I could do when Lillith intruded.

“Don’t you dare volunteer. You’re not here to organize the planet. You’re here to retrieve the Sumantti and the first step to accomplishing that goal is to learn how to use the Imadei. Stop avoiding your mission.”

“I’m not avoiding,” I told her, turning to adjust some extra dishes. “I’m merely blending in, following orders, trying not to look like I’m working for the Federation.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Okay, so maybe there’s a tiny bit of avoidance there. Truth is, I don’t have any idea where to start with the Imadei. Suggestions, please?”

“Find a quiet spot and try. If you don’t try, how can you ever succeed?”

Great. Now she was a philosopher. Wasn’t that just wonderful? Not to mention really helpful. Before I could tell her just how I felt about her little pep talk, Marcus appeared in the doorway, glanced around, and then came straight for me.

“You’ve got about an hour before you have to dress for the act. Go rest. I’ll handle Treya.” He arched a brow and tipped his head toward the house next door.

With a sigh, I headed out the back door. “You tattled, didn’t you?” I asked Lillith as Peri joined me with a chirped greeting.

“Of course I did. A big part of my job is making sure you do yours. Marcus understands and says not to forget the motion detectors.”

“Sure. People might start thinking I’m Federation if they see me staring at a black rock.” I rolled my eyes as I went through the gate and crossed the backyard of Marcus’s house.

“No, but give even an idiot enough pieces, and eventually they’ll put them all together and solve the puzzle. Why help them out any more than we have to?”

Okay, maybe she had a point. I wasn’t going to admit it, though. No sense inflating her ego even more.

I entered the house through the back door with Peri following, and moved through the living room to the box on the mantel. As soon as the motion detector was set, I went to a chair, sat down, and pulled out the Imadei. “I’m ready,” I told the ship. “What now?”

“First, relax. Empty your mind of everything except the Sumantti. Then try looking ‘into’ the crystal as opposed to looking ‘at’ the stone.”

Relax. Easy for her to say. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and willed tense muscles to loosen. Letting an image of the Sumantti form in my mind, I raised the crystal and gazed into its depths.

It really was a pretty stone, I realized. The separate crystals were hexagonal in shape, giving the facets an odd glimmer instead of a sharp refraction of light. The effect was rather hypnotic, and the longer I stared into its depths, the more my eyelids began to droop.

A wave of vertigo swept over me, and I was only minimally aware of Peri perching on the chair arm, crooning so hard her body vibrated.

“Echo?” Lillith’s voice seemed to come from a long way off. I tried to answer her, but the words stayed stuck in my head. Wasn’t I supposed to be concentrating on something?

Wait. It had to do with children and the castle, didn’t it?

“Echo, what’s wrong? Answer me!” The ship sounded frantic now, but I couldn’t respond no matter how hard I tried. The dizziness was getting worse and darkness was edging in at the corners of my vision.

Abruptly, I wasn’t in Marcus’s house anymore. I was standing in a plain dark room that looked vaguely like a bedroom. There was something familiar about what was happening, something that set my heart hammering in fear. I turned already knowing what I’d see. A small bed with a fragile little blonde girl strapped down, her body riddled with tubes attached to beeping machines.

Except that wasn’t what I saw. There was a bed, yes, but no tiny blonde girl, no bright lights or tubes or beeping machines.

A feeling of disorientation swept over me, and I put out a hand to brace myself on a post at the foot of the bed. And then stared stupidly when my hand went right through it.

What in the name of Zin was going on?

“Please,” a small voice whispered. “We’re frightened. Are you here to help us?”

My head shot up, heart in my throat as I located the source of the question. There was a girl after all, although not the one I had expected. She uncurled from the blankets and stared at me beseechingly, tears glimmering in emerald-green eyes before streaking down one dirty cheek. Her dress was thin, ragged, and looked as if it had been designed for a warmer place than this room. Her long hair was a golden red and in dire need of a good washing, as were the thin legs protruding from beneath the tattered hem of her skirt.

Beside her, the blanket stirred and I saw another face emerge, this one a bit smaller and so white I wondered if there was actually blood flowing through her veins. Her hair was coal black and dull with mats. The palest blue eyes I’d ever seen stared at me blankly from purplish circles that lined their lower lids.

In spite of the difference in size, I got the feeling they were about the same age.

“I’m Gaia and this is my sister, Banca. She doesn’t feel good. If you can only help one of us, please help her.”

It was the red-haired girl who had spoken. Even though I tried to answer, my brain still couldn’t get around what was happening and no speech escaped my suddenly useless mouth.

I took a deep breath, prepared to try again, but abruptly, pain like I’d never known sliced through my head and the world went black.

I
came around with Marcus gently tapping my cheeks and calling my name. Awareness roared back and I lurched to my feet, scanning the room anxiously. “Where is she, where’s Pelga?”

Marcus’s eyes were dark with worry. “Who? Echo, are you all right? Lillith called me when she couldn’t get a response from you, and I found you unconscious. What happened?”

“Pelga,” I said, frantically moving toward the door. “I have to help her.”

“Stop right there.” He stepped between me and the exit, blocking my path. “Who is Pelga?”

I froze as the name finally registered in my pain befuddled mind. “No one. A little girl I knew in the crèche. Except she said her name was Gaia. I must have been dreaming.” I pushed the name away and pressed on my temples with both hands. “Zin, my head hurts. Do you have any analgesic?”

“Of course.” He moved to the kitchen side of the house, poured a glass full of water from a pitcher, and added some kind of powder. Giving the contents a swirl or two, he crossed
the room and handed it to me. “It’s fast acting, so the pain should be gone soon.”

I took a sip, grimaced at the bitter taste, and then held my breath long enough to down the rest of it. Almost immediately my headache began to ease and I sighed with relief as I handed the glass back. “Thanks. That’s much better.”

“Echo, exactly what happened here? Start at the beginning.” He put the glass on a counter and motioned me to sit.

With a frown, I reclaimed my previous seat as Marcus took the one beside me and Peri fluttered to perch on the mantel. “I don’t really know. Lillith suggested I look ‘into’ the crystal instead of closing my eyes and trying to feel something. That’s what I did. I remember getting dizzy. Next thing I knew, you were waking me up.”

He arched a brow. “And nothing happened in between?”

“No.” I hesitated. “Well, except the nightmare.”

“And the nightmare was about this Pelga?”

“Yes. No.” I shook my head in confusion. “I thought it was, at first. But the girl I dreamed about wasn’t Pelga. She had red hair instead of blonde, and she was older, maybe seven or eight cycles. Pelga and I were only five cycles the last time I saw her.”

“Tell me, where did this dream take place?”

I didn’t much care for the way he’d gone all squinty-eyed as he watched me, but I answered, anyway. “I’m not sure. It was a small, dimly lit room and I didn’t see any windows. The only things there were the bed and the girls.”

“There were two of them?”

“Yes. Gaia and Banca.”

He gave a brief nod of acknowledgment. “What were the girls doing?”

“Nothing, until I showed up. Then Gaia sat up and begged me to help them.”

Marcus straightened abruptly. “They saw you?”

“Of course they saw me. It was
my
dream, for Zin’s sake. Why wouldn’t they see me?”

“Clairvoyance?” he murmured.

“No,” Lillith responded, somehow managing to communicate with both Marcus and I at the same time. “The psi test would have recognized clairvoyance. There has to be more to it than that. Especially if the child could see her, which also rules out astral projection.”

“Teleportation?” he asked.

“That’s fairly common, also,” the ship told us. “Besides, I’m tracking her constantly and she never left this room.”

Realization swept over me in a wave of panic and I leaped to my feet, hands fisted at my sides. “Oh, no you don’t. It was a dream, nothing more, and I can prove it. When I first got there, I reached for the bedpost. My hand went right through it, like I was a ghost. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going back to the Terpsichore. Treya must be waiting for me to change into my costume.”

Peri, picking up on my emotional turmoil, fluttered after me, shrilling in dismay as I marched from the room. I slowed enough to allow her to settle on my shoulder just to quiet her down. Frag it, I did not have any psi ability, and no was going to force me to admit I did.

So what if odd things were happening, like seeing Reynard examining the door I’d destroyed right before Lillith told me he was doing exactly that? It was this Zin blasted crystal doing all the woo-woo stuff, not me personally.

I refused to let it be me.

Inhaling a deep gulp of the pristine air, I focused on my surroundings enough to realize that the sun was sinking from view in a blaze of red-and-gold glory, leaving fingers of deep blue twilight to creep over the land. As I went through the gate that gave entry from Marcus’s yard to his business premises, two things happened simultaneously.

The hair on my nape stood erect, and Peri stiffened, her eyes tinged with faint shades of red as she stared intently at the Terpsichore. I came to an abrupt stop, scanning the deeper shadows around the base of the building, muscles tensed for action.

“Lillith, can you check the area? I think someone is watching me,” I subvocalized.

“There are countless heat signatures around the inn,” she said. “They all blur together. And I can’t use my night vision because there’s still too much sunlight in the upper atmosphere. I have to use my infrared scanners and it’s hard to pick out a single person when the inn is full. Wait—” There was a slight pause. “It looks like someone is pressed against the outside northern wall, moving toward the front of the building.”

I turned rapidly in the direction she’d indicated. “Try to keep a fix on them.” Peri launched from my shoulder and zoomed ahead, silent for once.

“Stop! What are you doing? It could just be a customer returning from the privy,” the ship told me.

“Sneaking along the wall? I don’t think so. Whoever it is, they were watching me. If someone suspects I’m not what I seem to be, I’d at least like to be able to identify them.”

When I reached the stone wall, I slowed and edged along its length. I wanted to see the person who’d watched me, not trip over them and cause a confrontation.

Just as I reached the front corner I felt a sense of frustrated puzzlement coming from Peri. Carefully, I poked my head far enough around the building to see the entrance. And discovered why Peri was so frustrated. A steady stream of people, exclusively male, paraded through the door, with smaller groups stopping to chat here and there before going inside. None of them was paying undue attention to my location, or to Peri, who hovered several meters above their heads.

“Lillith, was there anything distinguishing about him?” I asked.

“Not really, since details don’t show up infrared scans. All I can tell you is he was average height and average weight.”

Which could describe more than half the men I saw. With a sigh I withdrew, calling Peri off the search as I walked slowly around the building to the back door of the Terpsichore. She was emoting her reluctance to give up, and I could certainly share the sentiment. It was creepy knowing someone was spying on you, with no idea who it was or what their intentions might be.

But it was either give up for now, or tackle each male and hold him captive while I interrogated him. That could take a lot of time, considering how many men were in attendance tonight. Not to mention the undue notice it would bring me. The king probably wouldn’t approve of my taking out a hundred or so of his citizens. I would, however, keep a close eye on those in attendance tonight.

Leddy looked up from a pot she was stirring and smiled when I entered the kitchen. “Treya is ready for you,” she said. “Through there.” Her head tilted toward the room where I’d danced earlier that morning. “She found the most amazing costume for you to wear tonight.”

“Yeah?” I immediately perked up at the thought of new clothes. “What color?”

She waved a hand and grinned. “See for yourself.”

The room was now devoid of musicians, but I could hear a melody drifting in from the common room of the inn mixed with the continuous murmur of masculine voices. I’d barely cleared the threshold before Treya grabbed me and hauled me across the room to where a folding screen partitioned off one corner.

“Hurry, change into your costume. I’ve never seen the inn so full. Even Reynard du’Marr is out there.”

I came to a quick stop, my heart suddenly giving it hell. “Here? He’s here?”

“Yes, and his visits are rare. He must have heard the rumors about an Apsaras dancing tonight.”

“Uh, yeah. He probably heard the rumors.” I nodded vigorously, reluctant to tell her I suspected he’d shown up just because he knew I was working here. I’d managed to fully arouse his suspicions. If Lillith hadn’t said my watcher was average height, I might have suspected the commander. As it was, he could have set one of his troops on the job. It was imperative that I stayed on my toes from here on out, both figuratively and literally.

With that in mind I continued behind the screen and then blinked in wonder at the costume hanging from a hook on the wall. The silky halter and waist band were red. Blindingly, brilliantly red, and I fell instantly in love with the costume.

Reverently, I took the bottom half down and examined the skirt. It was fuller than the normal Bashalde apparel, transparent to the point of being see-through, and it was shot with golden thread. Every rustle of the material set gold spangles glimmering in the gossamer stuff.

And that wasn’t all. A fine gold chain girded the lowcut leather waist and from it dangled shorter chains adorned with tiny gold bells that would sway and chime seductively when the wearer moved.

I stripped out of my own clothes in record time and carefully donned the costume, tucking the Imadei out of sight under the halter top. Now I needed a mirror, and luckily, there was one attached to the wall in the practice room.

Still barefoot, I stepped from behind the screen just in time to see Peri dive headfirst into a pile of gold jewelry Treya had put on a table. A spate of cursing erupted as the blonde made a grab for her, followed by a hiss of warning from the center of the heap.

“Peri, no!” I jumped across the space separating us and fished her out of the shiny mound. “Sorry.” I gave Treya a weak smile. “She has a thing for jewelry. Here.” I pulled off the lightest of my bracelets and gave it to the sullen dragon bird. “You can play with this for now.”

Still pouting, she eyed the bracelet for a second, weighing it against the larger treasure trove, then grasped it in her front talons and carried it to a corner, mumbling with ill-concealed indignation.

Treya shook her head. “Useless creature.”

Okay, that got my hackles up. Maybe I hadn’t asked for a dragon bird, and maybe I didn’t care much for animals in general, but Peri was different. Peri was
my
animal, and no one was allowed to malign her but me. “You like jewelry, too. Does that make you useless?”

She turned from Peri to glare at me. “Loyalty and spirit are well and good, but remember who you work for, girl. Now sit down.”

I had to bite my tongue to keep from telling her who I really worked for, and that I could break her in half with one finger. Clenching my teeth on a response that could only get me in deep schite, I took the chair she’d pulled out and sat down.

Ignoring my anger, she grasped my chin in one hand, tilted my face up, and proceeded to apply makeup to my eyes. When that was done to her satisfaction, she took a short veil that matched my skirt and fastened it so it covered the lower half of my face. Next came the jewelry. While Peri watched jealously, Treya loaded down my arms and even my ankles with slender gold bangles.

“There.” She stood back and motioned toward the mirror. “You’re ready. See what you think.”

I stood, musical tinkling accompanying every move, and walked to the mirror. Then gaped in shock at the mysterious,
sexy stranger staring back at me. Her lids were lined with kohl, making her eyes look big and luminous. The costume concealed barely enough to be decent, and yet still conveyed a sense of maidenly modesty.

Even my wild-woman do added to the exotic appearance Treya had achieved. How in Zin’s name had she pulled this off? I was still goggling and wondering if Alien Affairs would let me keep her when the stage door opened a crack and Marcus stuck his head into the room.

“Is she ready? The band is waiting….” His voice trailed off as he saw me, then he stepped all the way inside and closed the door. “Oh, my. It might not be a good idea to have her serve after her acts. We could have a riot on our hands.”

Treya shrugged. “It will prolong the mystery if she stays away from the men, and that means larger crowds and more money.”

Okay, she really, really liked money. Maybe if I offered her half my salary, she’d come with me when this job was over. It would take me longer to pay off my indenture, but hey, if she could make me look like this it was worth the sacrifice.

Unaware of the direction my thoughts were traveling in, Marcus nodded. “I’ll introduce her as soon as you get the lamps covered.” He went back through the door as Treya slid a cover over the nearest glass cylinder and headed for another.

“Why do the lamps need to be out?” I asked, positioning myself beside the door Marcus had just used.

The room got darker as Treya moved around it extinguishing the light. “The back of the stage is dark. With the lamps out, no one will see you enter. It will be as if you simply appeared. Stay in the dark area until the music starts, then just move forward.”

As she reached the last lamp she hesitated and shot me a
questioning glance. “Are you nervous? This will be your first time performing in public.”

“A little,” I lied. After all, I was supposed to be a girl who’d been raised by a reclusive father, not the organized employee of the Department of Protocol who dealt with hundreds of Naturals every day.

She seemed satisfied with my response and even gave me an encouraging pat on the arm. “That’s perfectly understandable. Just dance as you did this morning, for the joy of it, and you’ll be fine.”

Cupping her hand around the last cover, she lowered it over the sunstone container and plunged the room into total darkness. “Go.”

Just as I opened the door and slipped through onto the stage, there was a rush of air and Peri landed on my shoulder, waves of excitement rolling off her. Great, this was just what I needed. How could I dance with a hyper dragon bird clinging to me?