The Dark Lady

Copyright © 1987 by Mike Resnick

First published in The Dark Lady: A Romance of the Far Future, November 1987

ISBN

NOTICE: This ebook is copyrighted. It is licensed only for use by the original purchaser. Duplication of this ebook by beaming, email, network, disk, paper, or any other method is a violation of international copyright law and subjects the violator to severe fines and/or imprisonment.

She was old when the earth was young.

She stood atop Cemetery Ridge when Pickett made his charge, and she was there when the six hundred rode into the Valley of Death. She was at Pompeii when Mount Vesuvius blew, and she was in the forests of Siberia when the comet hit.

She hunted elephant with Selous and buffalo with Cody, and she was there the night the high wire broke beneath the Flying Wallendas. She was at the fall of Troy and the Little Bighorn, and she watched Manolete and Dominguez face the brave bulls in the bloodstained arenas of Madrid.

She was there when Man went out to the stars. She saw the Battle of Spica and the Siege of Sirius V, and she sat in Jimmy McSwain's corner the fatal night he fought Skullcracker Murchison. She rode the spaceways with the Angel, watched Billybuck Dancer die beneath the red sun of a distant world, and stood beside Santiago when Johnny One-Note gunned him down.

She has no name, no past, no present, no future. She wears only black, and though she has been seen by many men, she is known to only a handful of them. You'll see her— if you see her at all— just after you've taken your last breath. Then, before you exhale for the final time, she'll appear, silent and sad-eyed, and beckon to you.

She is the Dark Lady, and this is her story.

Where am I to begin?

This is not an epic saga, though it spans both millennia and star systems. Nor is it a story of passion and romance, though it was passion and romance that drove several of the participants to their doom. It is not even a tale of high adventure, though without high adventure there would be no tale to tell.

This is simply a true chronicle of events, and as such should be presented in the Language of Formal Narration. Were I to do so, however, I would be required to relate to you, in elegant order, all of my life experiences from the day of my birth, and this would give you a distorted view of my importance, since in truth I am little more than an onlooker who nonetheless managed to bring dishonor to his name, his House, and his race.

Therefore, I choose to speak to you in the Language of Informal Recital, and according to its rules, I shall begin my story at the last possible moment, which was, in fact, the first moment of my personal involvement.

That moment occurred as I climbed the broad titanium stairs of the Odysseus Art Gallery and, panting from my exertion in the thick, humid air, approached the front door of the vast, angular building. There were two attendants standing there, both clad in muted purple uniforms with glaring red stripes on their trouser legs, and I deemed it proper to address them in the Dialect of Honored Guests.

“Attention, my good man,” I said formally. “I must have directions to the site of the forthcoming auction.”

“Well, I'll be damned!” said the taller of the two attendants. “It not only wears shoes, but it talks, too!”

I immediately realized that I had chosen the incorrect form of address, and quickly changed to the Dialect of Supplication.

“Please, good sir,” I said, dimming my color and lowering my head in a gesture of submission. “A thousand pardons if I have offended. I humbly entreat you to aid me in reaching my destination.”

“That's a little more like it,” he grunted, and I relaxed somewhat as it became apparent that he had forgiven my social error. “Let's see your papers.”

I handed him my passport, invitation, and credentials, and waited in silence while he and his companion examined them.

Suddenly he looked up and stared at me.

“Leonardo?” he said dubiously.

“Yes, good sir.”

“What's someone like you doing with a human name?”

I pointed to my passport. “If you will notice, good sir, Leonardo is not my real name. I am a member of the House of Crsthionn.”

He looked where I indicated, tried twice to pronounce my Bjornn name, and finally gave up.

“Then what are you doing with an invitation for a Leonardo?”

“Leonardo is what I am called at my place of employ here on Far London, good sir.”

“You mean the place where you work?”

“Yes,” I said, remembering to nod my head in affirmation. “At my place of work. I am currently associated with the Claiborne Galleries.”

“You are, huh?” he said dubiously.

“Yes, good sir.” I bent over and hunched my shoulders together, a near-perfect posture of nonaggression. “May I pass now, please?”

He shook his head. “I don't have anything on my master list about an alien named Leonardo.”

I could have pointed out that Men were as alien to Far London as the Bjornn were, but it would have been inconsistent with the Dialect of Supplication, and I had already offended him once. Therefore I bent even lower.

“My papers are in order,” I said, staring at the gray titanium. “I beg of you, good sir: If I am not allowed to perform my function, the House of Crsthionn will be dishonored.”

“First we've got to determine what your function
is
,” he said. “There's about 200 million credits’ worth of artwork on display inside. My job is to make sure your function isn't to steal it.”

“Or maybe eat it,” added his companion with a smile.

“Please, good sirs,” I persisted. “If you will but summon Hector Rayburn or Tai Chong, they will attest to my identity and my right to be here.”

“We got a Rayburn or a Chong inside?” asked the attendant of his companion.

“Beats me,” replied the other one. “I can check on it.”

“Okay. You do that.” The attendant turned back to me. “All right now, Leo.”

“Are you addressing me, good sir?” I asked.

“Who else?”

“You have forgotten my name, good sir,” I said gently. “It is Leonardo.”

“A thousand pardons,” he said, imitating my tone of voice and bowing low. “Leonardo.” Suddenly he straightened up. “Suppose you go around to the east side of the building while we check this out. If either of them vouches for you, I'll send word to pass you through.”

“I am very anxious to join my associates, good sir,” I said. “Can I not wait right here?”

He shook his head. “You're causing a traffic problem.”

I looked behind me. There was no one in sight.

“A
potential
traffic problem,” he said when I turned back to him. I realized that I had somehow given offense to him again, and therefore ceased using the Dialect of Supplication.

“Will this take very long?” I asked.

“What happened to the ‘good sir'?” he asked, ignoring my question.

“It was obviously the improper form of address,” I answered. “I am trying to decide which dialect will not offend.”

“How about silence?” he suggested.

“I know of no wordless dialect,” I replied truthfully. “Won't you please answer my question?”

“What question?”

“How long will I be kept waiting?”

“How the hell should I know?” he replied irritably. “It all depends on how many Rayburns or Chongs there are inside.” He paused. “Look,” he added, “I'm just doing my job. Now go around to the east side like a nice boy or girl or whatever you are, and someone will let you know when you've been cleared.”

I turned around and climbed back down the steps. I was still unused to wearing shoes, and the slidewalk was moving so rapidly that I feared it might upset my balance, so I remained on the street, walked around to the east side of the multifaceted titanium and glass building, and found that it was deserted. I slowed my pace momentarily to admire a ceramic mosaic that was set into the metal wall at human eye level. Finally I came to a plain, unmarked door which was set into the building a tenth of a degree off center. It was locked.

I stood by the door and waited, feeling naked and somehow incomplete, as I always do when I am alone. I tried not to think of the warmth and security of the Family, but when you are the only member of your race on a strange world this is not always an easy thing to do. Five minutes passed, then ten more, and I was certain that with each passing second I was bringing further dishonor upon my Pattern Mother and my House, which made my own disappointment at the possibility of not being able to finally see one of the sculptures by the fabulous Morita seem pale and colorless by comparison.

Two human females passed by and stared openly at me. As they continued walking up the street, one of them whispered something to the other, and both of them began laughing.

And then, finally, Tai Chong stepped through the doorway and hurried over to me. “Leonardo,” she said when she had reached my side, “I'm so sorry about this mix-up!”

“It is all right now that you are here, Great Lady,” I replied, using the Dialect of Affinity, as I always did in her presence.

“Have you been waiting long?” she asked.

“No more than twenty minutes,” I said, hiding my hands behind me so that she could not see them until their color returned to normal.

“This is intolerable!” she said angrily. “I'll have the security guards’ jobs for this!”

“It was my own fault, Great Lady,” I said. “I offended them through my ignorance of the proper form of address.”

“Nonsense! They've been sending aliens around to this door all night.”

The thought came to me that the gallery should have employed less sensitive and more forgiving guards, but I said nothing, and at last Tai Chong reached for my hand to lead me inside.

“Your color has changed,” she noted as I reluctantly extended my fingers.

“I find it warm outside, Great Lady,” I lied, for since she had not learned to identify the Hue of Emotional Distress, I had no desire to cause her further consternation.

“I had no idea that extremes of temperature affected you so greatly,” she said sympathetically. “Would you like me to take you back to your hotel?”

“Please allow me to stay!” I said urgently, trying to control the panic in my voice.

“Well, certainly, if that's what you want,” she said, staring at me as my color became brighter still. “I was just concerned about you.”

“I thank you for your concern, Great Lady, but it is imperative that I proceed with my education and reflect credit upon my House.” I paused. “Also,” I added with a feeling of guilt, since I was addressing a personal consideration, “I have waited years for the opportunity to see a Morita sculpture.”

“Whatever you say,” she replied with a shrug. “But I'm still going to complain about the guards.”

“It was my fault, Great Lady.”

“I very much doubt it. By the way,” she added as we entered the building, “I thought you were going to start calling me by my given name.”

“I will make a renewed effort to remember, Great Lady,” I said.

“I notice you don't have any trouble with Mr. Rayburn's name.”

“He is not a Great Lady,” I explained.

She chuckled dryly. “Someday, Leonardo, I must pay a visit to your world, with all its Great Ladies and not-so-great gentlemen.”

Then we were in the main gallery, a large circular room with off-white ceramic walls and a faceted dome composed of bronzed solar glass, and the last of my discomfort vanished as I felt the warmth and closeness of the crowd. There were perhaps four hundred beings there, all brightly and elegantly clad, all but a handful of them human. Among the other races I discerned a Lodinite, three Ramorians, two Mollutei, a trio of feathered beings from the Quinellus Cluster, and off in a corner, proud and aloof, his gray, leathery arms folded across his narrow chest, was a Canphorite, whose glowing crystal medals proclaimed that he was a survivor of two armed uprisings against the human Oligarchy.