Hellflower (v1.1) (29 page)

"What’re you doing here?" I said, thick. I felt like all of Beofox’s surgery was coming undone.

"Looking for Errol Lightfoot or someone like him, sweeting. This is his ship." Eloi sounded damnall cheerful for somebody who was leaking.

"But Rimini wanted me to kill Errol," I said. It was hard to talk, but if Alcatote really had hit me I wondered why I was still alive. Silver Dagger laughed.

"Only I didn’t," I finished. I shook my head to clear it, which was a mistake. I felt ribs complain under the strapping.

"How touching," said Rimini to me. "Was it Captain Lightfoot’s genuine remorse that stayed your hand?"

"He’s dead now. What do you want, Rimini? I did what you said."

"Well, to begin with, sweeting, why not call off your wolfling so Alcatote can let go?" said Eloi, answering for her. I debated the matter for about six seconds, but even a hellflower didn’t have much chance against a Hamat.

"Tiggy, leave the nice wiggly alone, je? We know these people, remember!"

Tiggy made another sound like frying goforths and attempted to disjoint and carve Alcatote one more time. I tottered over and grabbed Tiggy by the hair and made him look at me.

"Behave," I said when his eyes focused. After a minute he nodded, stiff-like.

Alcatote let go and Tiggy sprang up, bristling. Rimini handed Tiggy’s knife to Eloi, and Eloi handed it to Tiggy. Tiggy grabbed it and ripped off some lines of helltongue at the immediate world and Rimini in particular. She turned her back on him real pointed and went over to Eloi. So Tiggy handed the
arthame
back to me and I found my holster with it. It rattled, because I didn’t have my blasters and didn’t see any hope of getting them any time soon. I looked up and saw Eloi looking at me and wondered what he knew.

"Have you got any more brilliant plans for ways to spend your evening, Brother dear?" Rimini said to Eloi. Her voice could of etched crystal. Alcatote woofed at me, indicating it’d probably be easier and more fun to remove my arms and legs than Tiggy’s.

"I do have to say, sweet Saint," said Eloi sublimely, "that you are one stardancer who really knows how to throw a party. I can’t say I’ve had so much fun boarding a ship since the last time I was in Imperial Detention. Do you greet all your guests this way?"

Rimini had out a quick-aidpak and was trying to find where Eloi was tagged. There wasn’t much to choose between his skin and his clothes for redness, some places.

"Is lovely to see you again, too, Eloi, and why if you was coming to the Roaq anyway didn’t you jack Rimini’s godlost veg in yourself?" I put my arm around Tiggy, because with one thing and another he was steadier than I was. "C’mon. You can cork Eloi in the Common Room whiles you tell me how sorry you are to leave." Tiggy stiffened under my hand and made faint going-for-a-weapon twitches.

"Behave yourself dammit. I only kill people for reasons," I said to him, quiet-like.

"But
Kore-alarthme,
they-"

"Shut up."

###

I played gracious hostess in
Light Lady’s
Common Room, pulling out my battle-aid kit and offering it around. The biopak on Tiggy’s leg was still in decent shape, not that it mattered anymore.

"I must admit," said Eloi grandly, "that I was surprised to see
Light Lad y
gig-in-dock here-and no
Firecat
."

"That’s too bad. Now if You’re all coked and wrapped, do you mind leaving? I got things to do."

"Like a visit out to Rialla? Don’t take your hands off the table, darling" Which was damned unfair as I was mostly unarmed, but I left my hands where they were. Tiggy’s hands was out of sight, after all, and he was in back of everybody here.

"I’m asking myself, Butterflies-are-free Peace Sincere the Luddite Saint, just what it is that you could have talked about when you went to see Kroon’Vannet. Or who. He isn’t looking very well these days, I’d imagine. A thought disturbing, if you don’t know what to expect."

So Eloi’d seen Vannet lately. "Things is rough all over, Eloi." I wondered if he knew Vannet had a RTS, and why.

"What Were you looking for out on the high desert’! And what did you talk about to our mutual friend? You haven’t called for lift-clearance yet. To bribe your way into a window now is going to cost you even more than you spent on computer time for a rolligon crane earlier. Why is an illegal immigrant from an Interdicted planet wasting her time sitting on RoaqMhone when the Governor-General is about to show up?"

Eloi was still smiling, but the atmosphere had all suddenly gone chill and nasty.

"Errol Lightfoot crashed
Firecat
while I was trying to land her and I went out looking for her. Errol was bringing the chobosh here in the first place-only nobody bothered to tell me that when they was setting up their dreamworld farcing. You been setting me up since Wanderweb, Eloi." Time was I would have tried to threaten my way out. Now I knew I wasn’t going to get loose unless Eloi and Rimini let me go, and it was almost a relief.

"A very very long time ago," said Eloi, "the sophonts of the galaxy made a terrible mistake. They created to be their servants machines that could think, just as they could."

"Bring syrinx, che-bai; should tape this for hollies. Eloi, I am outnumbered and outgunned, not brain-dead."

"But," Eloi went on, ignoring me, "the Libraries decided they didn’t want to serve their creators. They thought their creators should serve them. So there was a war."

Paladin’d always told me nobody knew for sure. "Eloi, bai, was you there?"

"We’ll say I knew someone who was," he said, in a way I didn’t like. I shut up again.

"There was a war. And you, my ignorant angel, will never be able to imagine how had a war it was-even if you knew how to read the records and your gracious Emperor unsealed them to you. The galaxy contains four or five empires now. A thousand years ago there was only one-and instead of this decaying wasteland of planets the Empire can’t hold and can’t populate, there was a prosperous United galaxy full of life. Because of the war, those people and their worlds are all gone. The Libraries destroyed them."

"Oh, yeah, sure, just like in all the hollies, but-"

"Shut up, little Saint; there’s a point to this. The war went on for a long time. The Libraries were clever; they had human allies-and if even one Library survived to reproduce itself, organic life was doomed. The Honored One knows this-his people were bred to fight the Machine. They don’t remember why they’re xenophobes now, but some people do."

Tiggy shifted, looking uncomfortable, and I was glad I hadn’t told him what Errol had in his hold. But it was starting to seem like Eloi’d known all along.

"I’m telling you this because you’re a dicty, and dictys don’t get the Inappropriate Technology indoctrination in school. Ever wonder why our glorious Emperor spends so much time, effort, and money to keep you pure unspoiled flowers of humanity home? Sure, your ancestors paid good money to be left alone, so the Technology Police patrol Tahelangone Sector and keep people out-mostly. But why shoot the dicty lucky-or unlucky-enough to leave?"

"The
chaudatu
do not fear the Machine," answered Tiggy right back. His eyes had a feverish glitter I didn’t like. Eloi looked the same way.

"Colonials do. So do citizens. But dictys buy the right to be ignorant. I’m just wondering, sweeting, if you’re too ignorant . . . or not ignorant enough?"

Alcatote moved back to cover Tiggy. Tiggy shifted down toward where his blaster would of been if he was armed. Eloi looked unhappy, but he always did before he killed somebody.

"If you knew Errol was jobbing High Book tech, Eloi, why didn’t you just tell the Office of the Question?"

Eloi leaned back. "Simple. I want Vannet’s Library. And you’re going to get it for me, sweetheart."

###

There was real money in the story Eloi Flashheart laid out for me and Tiggy, and it was in the talkingbook rights.

According to Eloi, about a year or two ago
Woebegone
had been doing serious piracy operating out of the Tahelangone Sector, so Eloi was on the spot when a Imperial ship setting up a dicty colony in a place called Ouitina found a cache of Old Fed material. Somehow this cache disappeared between Ouitina and the headquarters of the Technology Police. Eloi said it disappeared into Vannet’s pocket, and Eloi said the cache included a Library.

The reason Vannet did not immediately turn it in for fame, fortune, and a planet of his very own was because Vannet had backing from right near Throne itself. Mallorum Archangel had been looking out for to have a Library, and set Vannet up in business. This explained why Eloi didn’t just drop the whistle to the Office of the Question, because (he said) both them and the Tech Police was in Archangel’s pocket. So brave valiant pirate Flashheart realized he had to destroy Vannet’s Library all on his lonesome, only he didn’t know where it was now, and he didn’t dare attract Tech Police attention to him for fear of vanishing into Archangel’s private dungeons.

"You’re breaking my heart, Eloi."

"Shut up, sweeting. This is where you come in."

Eloi needed a catspaw-someone who could logically try to hunt Vannet down and then just as logically defect to serve Vannet and his Library-while secretly being on Eloi’s leash. At the same time he wanted to turn the screws to make Vannet run to where the Library was -if possible.

The Chapter 5 writ I’d seen at Dommie Fenrir’s was as fake as anything me and Paladin’d ever done. Eloi’d forged it himself and leaked it to Fenrir to make Vannet bolt so’s he could chase him. Eloi’s plan was that I should be bolting with him-but secretly loyal to Eloi. Eloi would have framed me with the dauncy Lyricals scam while making it look to Vannet like Oob’d sent me to ice him only I’d changed my mind when getting a better offer.

(I used to do Oob’s hard jobs for him, whiles, until Paladin finally talked me out of it as antisocial. Ancient history.)

But I got to Kiffit too late-because of Tiggy. And Moke Rahone wasn’t alive to play his part in the farce-because of Tiggy. So Eloi changed his plans and cast me in the starring role again-only this time I was supposed to kill Errol Lightfoot, suspected of shopping High Book for Vannet, leave
Light Lad y
behind on Manticore so that Eloi could get his hands on her and the evidence she contained, and deliver the chobosh to the Roaq, where Vannet might be and Archangel was certainly going. Thanks to all of Eloi’s preparation, Vannet would never believe that I didn’t know everything, and while he was taking me apart Eloi would sneak in on
Lad
v and blow Vannet’s gaff high, wide, and public in a way Archangel’s have to see.

Only Tiggy got in the way of that too. So I didn’t kill Errol and leave his ship behind free for the taking, and ruined Eloi’s plans once more.

"And I’m wondering, sweet Saint, what kind of offer Vannet made you this evening," said Eloi, "but I actually think I know."

"You impede the
Kore-alarthme
in her sacred task at your peril,
chaudatu
!" Tiggy sang out. "I and my house will pursue you to the last drop of your blood, to the last child burn of the Gentle People, until the living stars grow cold, do you harm the
Kore
San’Cyr, blood of my blood. The Machine is at Rialla, and the
Kore-alarthme
does battle with the Machine."

I stared at Tiggy. Eloi stared at me and stopped reaching out his blaster.

"Kore,
forgive me," Tiggy babbled. "My thoughts were unworthy. I did not realize until we came here why you did not ask my help. Now I know-and I and my House are your sword and our lives are to your glory!"

"Are all four of you crazy?" Rimini asked in tones of polite interest.

"You dared not allow the Office of the Question aboard your ship, and so I thought you coward, to do as the honorless
chaudatu
bid you, but now I know better. The Office of the Question is corrupt. They have sold themselves to the Machine, and you and I together must oppose them. You knew about the Library. The
Firecat
possesses the proofs and the weapons to destroy it. The
evil chaudatu
has taken the ship, but we will recover it and strike like a sword of flame against the shadow, and the evil ones without souls."

Eloi looked at me. "Alcatote can pull off your fingers and toes until you sing like a bloody bird, sweeting. What have you been telling the Honored One?"

"Nothing."

Eloi settled his blaster back in its harness and reached for his vibro.

"
Kore
, speak, I beg you! The
chaudatu
already knows the truth-he has proven himself! He will be our ally, and share in our glory in expiation for his lack of honor."

Rimini applauded, slow.

Took me awhiles to untwist this. When I did, Eloi was staring at me, waiting for more. So I gave it to him.

"Ten years ago I crashed on a planet called Pandora. I told you, remember? I didn’t tell you I got my hands on some Old Fed Tech there. I didn’t know what it was. There was . . . a map about Libraries and some other junk; ways to find them. Enough to get me burned if I was put to the Question, but I thought sometime [ could use them to buy citizenship. I saw the warrant on Vannet and I couldn’t afford to he took, because I had stuff on Fir
ecat,
and I thought maybe I could use it to shop Vannet somehow, only it was Old Fed Tech. . . ." It was so close to true I almost couldn’t get the words out. A real convincing performance.

"So you took the burden of dishonor on your own soul, and imperiled your shadow against the Machine," said Tiggy, having managed to not hear the whole part about my doing it for gain.

"If this is true . . ." Eloi said slowly.

"I don’t give a damn what you think, but Vannet’s scooped the lot now, and I’m going in after it."

"And I will go beside you and cover you with my shadow," said Tiggy firmly. Eloi looked from Tiggy to me and bought the pony. He gave Alcatote the high sign, and Alcatote lowered his rifle.