Voices of Chaos (14 page)

Khyriz gave him a human nod; the Duke's son shook himself at that shared outsider-gesture, and his whiskers eased nearer normal. "Your father is in the closed Council meeting?" the Prince asked. Zhik gestured assent. "And he left no one in the hallways or ramps to watch you?'' Another assent.

"You've tested your rooms recently?"

"The way you showed me, Khyriz. No devices of any kind in the bathing, one in the entry, among the vines. Another above the bedding."

"All right. You left your rooms as soon as he was gone?"

"No. I waited... I wasn't dressed, and I... I couldn't move at first. I... was afraid I would vomit, and then my attendant--Jild is
his,
of course, is Father's--Jild came with food and stayed to straighten the bedding. I... waited until he was gone, and I could see him on the walkway moving toward the new palace, so he could tell my father whatever ... whatever he learned in my rooms."

Khyriz spared a sympathetic thought, and a back-of-hand touch to his poor younger cousin.
Imagine being watched so closely; imagine being aware of
it.
But Zhik was learning: how to thwart tech intrusions to his rooms, and how to deal with spies. The Iron Duke would know nothing other than that a terrified Zhik had left his rooms, taking the "pet" with him.

"Go back," Khyriz said finally. "And think right now what you can say to ... to Ah-Naul in the entry, so your father will think you started out of the old palace toward your flitter, but thought at the last moment about getting a strong sleeping dose and dissolving it in... whatever is Ah-Naul's favorite drink."

Zhik made an unhappy little sound of protest, but a sharp gesture from his cousin cut him off. "Listen to me! You must

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do this so the Iron Duke will not wonder where you were, all this time!

Between when the servant left and when you returned to your chambers! He must think only that you were dithering on the ramps between your apartments and mine, trying to find a way around his order."

Zhik stared at him, his eyes all pupils. "But if he ... Khyriz, I didn't think, if he has devices here or in the hallway outside--!"

"There are none, I would know," Khyriz said grimly. "Return to your entry, sound upset... that will hardly surprise your father, who thinks you spineless and weak. Take Ah-Naul into your bathing, and make reasonably loud sounds, as if the Asha is drinking liquid, then lead him at once out and to your flitter. Set a course with the island flight-techs for a point north and east of here, a course that stays over open water. Thereafter, do not change course for at least an hour. Your flitter is clean?" he asked. Assent. "No

'bugs'?" Another assent. "Good. But check it again before you fly out. Once you are north of the Bright Peninsula, turn west and approach my estate as low as you can. You still have the skills to land in the tunnel?"

Zhik considered this briefly, then nodded, human style.

"I hope so," Khyriz murmured softly. Because of the off-winds that made landing on open ground so hazardous much of the year, Khyriz's estate boasted a landing ramp that descended immediately to an underground hangar. "Because I want you out of sight as soon as you touch down."

"But... but the weather for this whole part of the hemisphere is calm," Zhik protested. "I always check, because of the flitter." His father had given him the sleek little hover vehicle a year earlier.

"The weather doesn't matter," the Prince said. "The important thing is that I don't want your flitter seen on my grounds today, and it is imperative that
no
Asha be seen."

"Seen?"

"If someone who owes your father favors happened to be flying across that headland just as you and Ah-Naul left the flitter?"
If,
he thought dryly as Zhik's ears flickered. There were at least two small craft that flew over the headland on a

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regular basis; a royal with his own private lands expected such invasive actions. "Take no chances; fly the least-expected approach, come in fast and low, land, and get out of sight at once. Don't leave until full dark; your father won't expect you to return quickly."

"No. But once I land--?"

"Everything is provided for. My master of house will know you're coming; he'll find a place for Ah-Naul." Khyriz hesitated, finally shrugged a very human shrug.

There was more, of course; a lot more. But Zhikna was very much afraid of his father, and Ulfar could persuade anyone to talk, if the honored
zhez
thought a secret was being kept from him. The only son of the Iron Duke might talk in his sleep, or he might simply blurt out the truth.
He might have
been sent by the Iron Duke to test me, with Alexis and Magdalena coming....

But that was carrying matters too far, and Zhik was no actor. The past hour, he had been in true misery.
He's done enough for me, often without even
knowing it. I can't turn him aside now,
Khyriz thought tiredly.

He eased his way free of the mounds of pillows, cushions, and bolsters, stepped out of the pit, and shook his robes.

"Cousin," Zhik said quietly, "I owe you many great favors for this."

"Keep silent about this entire meeting between us, and you owe me nothing.

Remember, your friend's life will still be forfeit if your father learns what you've done."

"I... know."

"And so will yours, probably. And mine, if he learns--''

"He'll learn
nothing,"
Zhik broke in, so forcefully Khyriz blinked in astonishment and the Asha huddled even more tightly against his legs than ever. "You think I don't know how to guard my words and actions around my father? You think I didn't learn that from my first years?"

"Zhik, I know you aren't the foolish, weak creature your father thinks he has made, and his comrades see in you." I
hope you are not,
Khyriz added silently. "I merely remind you this is no game, but a dangerous situation. If you go on--''

"I must. If not, Ah-Naul is dead, the blame still mine. I will 93

be careful, Khyriz; my father sees in me only what he chose to create. If he saw beyond that, he might turn his attention to you, and to see ... what, Khyriz?''

The Prince considered this in momentary silence. Perhaps he
had
underestimated his young cousin all these years.
Perhaps. Don't
overestimate him now, not with so much at stake,
he told himself firmly and spread his hands in an Arekkhi shrug. "He would see what there is: one who wishes to remain unnoticed by your father. A sensible being, that is to say,"

he said easily. "Wait."

Khyriz forced himself to walk over to the ahla-Asha, and beckoned. The little being rose gracefully onto his hind feet and gazed up into the Prince's eyes.

The Asha's eyes were nearly round, dark gold flecked with darker brown.

But there was no sign of the least intelligence behind them. Khyriz kept his ears up with an effort, then laid a light finger on brown nose-fur, as if in blessing. "Go safely, both of you," he murmured and took a pace back, watching as his cousin led his companion back into the hal way. The door slid silently closed behind them.

The shuttle was over open water by the time the sun came up; Bhelan reduced airspeed twice during the next several minutes, fiddling with the wing angle as the machine dropped gently nearer blue-green waves. He still had plenty of speed to dump, Alexis thought judiciously, in order to land the machine upright on the Emperor's island in roughly another hour. She divided her attention between the world outside and the controls; Bhelan's ears flickered occasionally as he eyed her but he made no effort to disguise anything he did. I
was afraid they would be secretive with tech like this,
she thought. Perhaps no one had warned Bhelan--or they had and he counted on his status with the royal family to protect him.

She glanced in the other direction. Magdalena was quiet, her gaze fixed somewhere beyond the view-port, though at the moment there wasn't much to see but water and an occasional floating mat of grass-islands that formed around enormous plant-bladders broken loose from far below the surface. I 94

would like to see one of those up close, to walk on the surface of it.

So far as she knew, the islands were unique to the equatorial Arekkhi oceans: integrated life forms that bound together a-round long-streamered bladders that grew deep but broke off during storms to surface and tangle together. Thereafter, underwater plant-eaters (as intelligent as Earth's octopi, though they looked more like fat fish with flexible, paddle-shaped arms) plugged the spaces between the stems with leaves, branches, and other bits from the ocean floor so they could build nests just beneath the surface, while air-breathing swimmers vaguely reminiscent of otters layered the upper surface with floating bits: leaves, feathers, anything that came into their three-fingered grasp, so they could have a sunning platform between trips into the sea to find food. The flyers built the surface still higher and sturdier, giving themselves corner view-points from which to hunt.

The ship shuddered slightly, and Magdalena quietly caught her breath. Faint as the sound was, Bhelan turned his head to look at her, his ears flickering.

"Is the translator-she Magdalena well?" he asked. "This look with wide eyes, the Prince tells me in humans this means fright. I do not mean to frighten you," he added anxiously.

"I..." Magdalena forced a laugh, but her voice was tight. "It isn't your flying.

I've only done a planet-landing once before, apologies."

"Everything is under control," Alexis assured her. "That just felt like an air pocket to me. I forgot about your first landing, though."

Magdalena nodded and bit her lip. I
would just as soon forget it: seventy cult
children and two terrified elderly women crammed into a too-small cabin with
uncomfortable or non-working straps, no view-ports or vid--and storm
weather to come down through.
They'd all been convinced the ship was crashing, and she could still remember how sore her throat was from screaming. The elders, who'd ridden down in comfort, had beaten all the children, days on end, for daring to doubt God would deliver them safely to their new home.

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She tried to set the grim memory aside; Alexis's hand clamped down on her forearm, and Bhelan was watching them both. She managed a smile. "It's fine... oh, look, Alexis," she added suddenly as movement below caught her eye. "It's a
gneris
come up to sun!"

The interrelator peered eagerly around her human companion as the small, sleekly furred beast heaved its front end onto a huge floating mat, then rolled sideways across it; before they could see it flip onto its back, though, the shuttle was across the mat and well beyond it. Alexis briefly tightened her hand on the translator's arm, and when Magdalena glanced at her, she mouthed, "Good job," and let go.

On her other side, Bhelan's ears were upright and still once more. He made another adjustment--
right wings, easing us down and dumping speed,
Alexis thought. The waves below were a little closer and passing under them a bit more slowly. And then, in the distance, she could see land: a tall bluff to the craft's right, a low, tree-covered expanse just ahead of them.

Bhelan's hands were suddenly moving very quickly, but now he was talking, too, letting Magdalena know what was going on. "We lose more speed now, so I can release the rear air-cushion and the hind rotors. In a very little--when we pass that small fishing boat, you see it?--there, you may feel a movement, but it is only the fore-rotor emerging from the nose. It will not open, of course, until after we begin the upending process, and I will tell you before that begins...."

Magdalena watched, bemused, as he worked rapidly, adjusting, shifting, occasionally leaning forward to give the red-enameled com a voice command. The flyer crossed low waves and open ground, heading toward a black patch of ground surrounded by brassy skeletal frames; they were now moving at normal flitter speed, barely two meters above the surface. Bhelan nodded a warning and Magdalena clamped both hands on the chair sides and closed her eyes as the craft swooped up and hovered for one seemingly endless moment. The ship then slowly, smoothly dropped straight toward the ground, guided

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by five rotors and Bhelan's skillful moving of the fins, slowed by the air cushion. Moments later, it stopped with a little jerk; the faint engine noises ceased entirely and the translator opened her eyes to see the frame coming up to clamp onto the ship. Once it was secured, the shuttle slowly leaned forward and gradually came to rest on its belly.

Bhelan nicked the last toggles to shut down the engines, and unsnapped his harness with the other hand. Alexis was already on her feet, gazing through the forward view-port. "Someone to greet us," she said. "No--three someones." Magdalena fumbled at the protective harness; it didn't help that her fingers were still trembling. Bhelan keyed the door open and bowed the interrelator though it--
a human bow he'd surely learned from Khyriz,
Magdalena thought as he turned to aid her from the harness.

"Khyriz gave me a private message for you," he murmured against Magdalena's ear; the low timbre of his voice so near her ear tickled. "That he will see you today, somehow."

She looked up at him, wide-eyed, then smiled. ' "Thank you for that message. I wonder who ..." Her voice trailed off as she got up to peer outside. She shrugged, then. "It isn't Khyriz; I guess we'll learn sooner if we go out, won't we?"

The air outside was still and hot; very muggy, especially to Magdalena, who hadn't been out of a controlled climate in three years.
Should have kept a
wide-brimmed hat with my hand luggage,
she thought. The air smelled faintly citrusy: like the elusive scent Khyriz used to soften his fur after bathing.

Someone was already beneath the shuttle with a hover-cart for the luggage, but she couldn't make out anything else: The difference between the sunlit landing area and the shadows beneath the ship was too great, and her eyes were still trying to adjust.