Downtime (33 page)

“He
doesn’t expect trouble soon,” Calla said, “or those ships would be aloft. Do
you have any feeling for how many there are? Especially those on guard outside.”

“Hundreds,
maybe a thousand or more,” Arria said grimly. “I don’t think I can sort out
that many.”

“As
long as you can tell when one of them comes near,” Calla said.

“I
can,” Arria said with certainty. “I won’t ever shut it out again. Not for
anyone.”

Calla
thought Arria sounded just a little angry, but perhaps that was healthy.
Timekeeper knew that Calla had been angry with Jason more than just a little
over the years, especially when she discovered he had not been honest with her.
Funny, though, that she felt at ease with Arria despite knowing that she loved
Jason and that, apparently in his own way, Jason loved her, too. In the past
months, no — years, she reminded herself — two years for Arria, the
girl had lost her shy fear of everyone and, perhaps just in these last two
days, she seemed to have acquired an understated pride. Calla realized that she
trusted her completely to warn her if any of Mahdi’s troops approached. It was
strange, because she wasn’t certain she even trusted Jason that much.

“Yes
you do,” Arria whispered. “You left all our fates in his hands. And I don’t
mean just those of us on Mutare.”

“I’m
not sure I like having my thoughts answered,” Calla said.

“Yes
you do,” Arria said almost gleefully. “You’re a shameless egoist.”

Calla
didn’t argue. She felt oddly at peace with Arria, somehow certain that she
never would come between her and Jason. Her certainty was, she was also sure,
due to Arria’s own assurance of Jason’s love for her. She could hardly wait for
him to say it again to her and to know what that would feel like without having
the slightest doubt marring her joy.

“There’s
a place down below where we can sleep safely at dawn,” Arria said. “I’ve been
here many times. Tonight I’ll see if I can zero in on some officer and find a
pattern in their guard rotation.”

Calla
shook her head, brought back to the here and now by Arria’s casual assessment
of duty. “You won’t find a pattern. It’s totally random, computer-generated.
The best we can hope for is to know where the stations are.”

“All
right, then,” Arria said. “But don’t worry, Calla. I can get them through. If
they can swim . . .”

Calla
nodded. Jason could swim. Anyone who had spent much time in the palatial baths
of Mercury Novus could swim. That meant Marmion could, too, even though she
didn’t have personal knowledge of his aquatic abilities. “It looks as if I don’t
have to do any worrying. You’re doing enough for both of us. What would you
have done if they could not swim?”

Arria
shrugged. “I can swim. A danae taught me.”

“Tonto?
But, we thought he died.”

“He’s
fine, wearing a completely new body. It is Tonto. Though Jason says we can’t
ever be sure, I am. He has knowledge of Jason, and he remembers Old Blue-eyes.
But then, Jason doesn’t have my abilities, and it’s his nature to doubt.”

Calla
smiled at knowing the impudent Tonto had survived after all. Jason had not
failed to save at least one of his danae friends. She looked beyond the ships
in the meadows to see the first glint of sunlight on the Amber Forest. “What’s
happening down there?” she asked Arria.

“Nothing.
It’s empty. They saw all the weaponry and fled. At least, most of them did. A
few are around to keep watch, and of course there’s some wild ones who don’t
know any better.”

“Do
you . . . understand them?” Calla asked.

“No,”
Arria said, sounding genuinely disappointed. “Not really. I recognize some of
their songs . . . psi songs. But I understand them even less
than I understand people.” She laughed, at herself, Calla thought. “I used to
think that I wanted to be one of them. I tried to save my father by making him
one of them. I would have caught another nymph to cocoon with me. I still think
that maybe one day . . . “ She shook her head. “Well, I think
maybe now I have a better chance at being a human person instead of a danae
person.”

“You
think they’re sentient?”

“I’m
sure of it.” Her gaze fixed on Calla. “They left, didn’t they? Even Tonto is
gone, and he stayed through the winter when the others would not. They’re
smarter than we are.”

“Or
they just know they’re more vulnerable. They can’t fight back.” Calla shook her
head sadly. “What about our people. Can you tell how they’re doing?”

Arria
sat silently, stonily. “They’re not there. Only D’Omaha and Stairnon.”

“Dead?”
Calla said, aghast. “All of them dead? Timekeeper, how could he kill so many in
such a short time? There’s no facilities for disposal of so many.”

The
thin shoulders shrugged. “They aren’t there.”

“Maybe
he took them all up to the ships,” Calla said hopefully.

Arria
frowned. “I don’t think so.”

“How
far can you . . .”

“Not
that far,” Arria said, looking up. “Maybe less than a kilometer on my own, but
sometimes the psi-creatures relay things from farther away.”

“The
danae, you mean.”

“And
the insects and lots of other animals.” Arria half smiled. “It shouldn’t
surprise you so, Calla. If one psi-species evolved, others would, too. Ever
noticed how so many of them have no hearing organs?”

“I
didn’t,” Calla said, “but I recall that Jason commented on it in his reports.”

“And
some of them relay, especially things like psi-shock. I don’t think they’re
dead, Calla. I think I would have known if a full-scale slaughter were taking
place. But I can’t get that they’ve been taken to the ships. That leaves sleep.
Drug or machine induced sleep, dreamless sleep.”

“And
we’ll kill them all when we blow the bottom out of that lake,” Calla said. “Dear
Timekeeper.”

“What
are you going to do?”

“I
don’t know, yet,” Calla said. “Timekeeper knows I’ve never killed innocents who
were helpless.”

“You
destroyed seven other elixir plants. There were people in them.”

Calla
nodded. “Some who wouldn’t leave. I would like to think not any who couldn’t,
though my common sense tells me that’s probably not true.” Calla hugged her
head, feeling devastated. Many had already died by her hand, she knew that, but
at least their deaths were distant and she could rationalize that they had made
the choice themselves. And sometimes it had come down to simple arithmetic.
Lives lost now saved x times two or ten on the morrow. But sleeping civilians?
She never had faced that choice before.

“Others
have,” Arria said.

“I
know,” Calla said, feeling very weak and terribly tired. “Now it’s my turn, and
I can’t do it.”

“You’ve
already decided what to do. But I don’t understand how you can get our people
out even if you do go below.”

Calla
shrugged. “I don’t know yet either.”

“But
you’re determined to try.” Arria sighed. “I’ll help in whatever way I can.”

Calla
nodded. “Show me where to sleep. I’ll think better after I’ve had some sleep.”

It was only moments before dawn, the traditional time for
hanging traitors. The staging area in Round House was filled with Mahdi’s
officers, an audience assembled less to witness the hanging than to witness
Mahdi’s revenge. Calla would hang on the very gallows she had built for Mahdi.

D’Omaha
was standing next to Mahdi, already finding himself accustomed to being there.
Without any pomp or circumstance, Mahdi had declared himself emperor. D’Omaha
remembered being slightly amused when Mahdi had mentioned his intention of
doing so two years ago. He wasn’t amused now, and he didn’t find his own title
of Governor of All Elixir amusing. Calla, however, had laughed aloud and still
wore a sarcastic smile.

“Let’s
see if you can keep that expression on your face when the noose tightens,”
Mahdi said still savoring his contempt.

Calla’s
capture had excited Mahdi even more than taking the entire facility. D’Omaha understood,
for now Mahdi would have his revenge. D’Omaha regretted that Jason had not been
captured with her; he deserved some satisfaction, too.

“I
will give you one last chance,” Mahdi said to Calla. She was standing between
two husky guards. “Swear allegiance to me as emperor of all the known worlds
and I will spare you.”

Calla
turned her back on Mahdi, and in so doing she met D’Omaha’s eye. “You surprised
me,” she said. “I would not have believed you had a price that Mahdi could
name.”

Beside
him he could feel Stairnon shrivel with shame and Mahdi trembling anew with
anger. But D’Omaha just looked at her and shook his head; she could not affect
him. “I did what I had to do to save the remaining elixir for everyone. You
overstepped, you ran amok. It was quite probable that you would even destroy
this last facility to end a siege.” The comers of her mouth twitched. “That I
could not permit.”

Her
brown eyes fixed on him as she shook her head. “You always knew that I might;
you, Koh, all of you knew what the possibilities were. No, D’Omaha, you were
bought.”

“Of
course he was bought,” Mahdi interjected. The emperor was angry at being
ignored, and too arrogant to consider that D’Omaha might be enjoying some small
triumph with Calla where he could not. The emperor was also smart enough to
know how to get Calla’s attention despite all her resolve not to give it to him.
“I bought him with elixir, elixir for his wife!”

“If
you believe that, you’re a bigger fool than I thought,” Calla said
contemptuously to Mahdi. “He could have stolen elixir for her. Who better
placed to do so than him? You think you bought him with elixir?” Calla shook
her head. “He’s decemvir. He’ll never let you know why he turned. And that,
Mahdi, ought to worry you.”

“Don’t
listen to her, sire,” D’Omaha said quickly when he saw the seeds of doubt take
root in Mahdi. “She’s determined to do as much damage as she can while she can.
Hang her and be done with it.” Behind him, Stairnon gasped at the brutality of
his words. He regretted that she was there to hear them.

“I
know what she’s doing, D’Omaha,” Mahdi said crossing his arms over his chest.
He looked at D’Omaha contemplatively. Then Mahdi gestured for the guards to
take Calla up the scaffolding, but he didn’t follow right away. “The bitch has
done her damage,” he said to D’Omaha. “Why did you do it?”

D’Omaha
said nothing, but put his arm around Stairnon and drew her forth.

Mahdi
looked at her from head to toe, met D’Omaha’s eyes with a doubtful expression.
Then the emperor of all the known worlds turned to follow his nemesis up the
ladder so that he could place the noose around her neck with his own hand.

D’Omaha
sighed and squeezed Stairnon. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

“Hush,”
D’Omaha said sternly. “You’re not to blame. You never were.”

She
was looking up at him, tears in her eyes. “I’ve been so afraid, but what’s so
awful is that I wasn’t afraid enough. It wasn’t for me, was it? It was the
helplessness, the lack of power. You never recovered from Jason humiliating
you.”

“Jason?”
D’Omaha smiled at Stairnon. She was trying so hard to understand. “It was
decided long before Jason. It was Macduhi who made me realize I could not live
forever without power, and it was Koh letting Calla keep command of the .
mission that convinced me I must do something to regain the power I had lost. I
just didn’t quite know what or how until Mahdi came along. Jason merely served
to reaffirm my determination.”

Stairnon
was wide-eyed, shaking her head in disbelief. “And for the sake of your pride
you’ll let your friend go to the gallows?”

“She
has to go, Stairnon,” he said as gently as he could. “You can see that. Calla’s
intractable. If we are to live, she cannot.”

“Nor
Jason?” Stairnon said.

“If
he’s caught, he’ll be hanged, too.”

“And
Marmion, and Arria, and Tierza, and . . . when will it stop, D’Omaha?
When will you hang me?”

“Stairnon!”

“Don’t
touch me,” she said sharply drawing away from him. “I have been so ashamed that
I have not had the courage not to drink the elixir. I knew it must be illicit,
and I knew that it was arrogant of you to take it for me. I was so frightened
that I would inadvertently betray you.”

“You
won’t have to feel ashamed or frightened anymore.”

“Won’t
I?” Stairnon looked up at the gallows. Mahdi was opening the noose with
exaggerated care. Stairnon pulled the shawl tight across her shoulders. “That
man will never be satisfied; Calla’s seen to that. He’s going to wonder why you
helped him, if not for the elixir. And if he ever realizes that it’s the very
same power he has that you want, he’ll put you on that gallows, too.”

She
was right. He reached for her again, and this time she didn’t shrink away from
him. She let him put his arm tightly around her and lead her away.

Jason and Marmion had kept to the forests and used the
trees to cover their trek from patrolling flyers. Thorny branches caught on the
packs they’d fashioned from Jinn’s supply of nymph cocoons, but the silk was
strong and did not tear. The branches snapped away to whip the man behind if he
were following too closely. They ate while walking, mostly greens that melted
away in their stomachs like water, but they also shared a tin of sweets they’d
found stashed in the bottom of Jinn’s explosives locker, perhaps one put aside
by Jinn for some special occasion. The food lockers had been empty, looted by
some passing miner or even by one of Jason’s own rangers.

They
slept in short naps, rousing themselves before they were fully rested, and
pressed onward. By the third day they were too tired to care about the welts
and abrasions their fatigue was earning them. That night they crept past the
Amber Forest. It was eerily still: No flash of rainbow wings to acknowledge
their passing, no curious eyes peeping out from behind the branches, frightened
out of their homes by alien warriors, of which Anwar Jason D’Estelle was as
much one as Ramnen Mahdi Swayman.