Alien Chronicles 2 - The Crimson Claw (10 page)

“Okal is right,” she said in apology. “The old teachings about the Eyes of Clarity were about harmony and peace, about different races working together. We should have only one enemy, the—”

“Shut up!” Elrabin said so sharply he startled her. “Just shut up,
now.”

Her eyes widened as her breath caught in her throat. “The collars—surveillance—is it on?”

A faint whine came from Elrabin’s throat. He circled the bathing chamber as though he could not be still. She could see his fur bristling around his neck, and within it gleamed a narrow, metal restraint collar, no wider than a filament.

Chilled suddenly, she wondered if they—if she—had gone too far. “Is it on?” she asked again.

Elrabin was still pacing and muttering to himself, rubbing his muzzle with both hands. Growling, he gave her an exasperated nod and strode out.

Ampris stared after him with her ears flat to her skull. She tugged at her own collar, wishing she could rip it off. Elrabin had not yet explained how he knew when the bugs in their collars came on. She had felt nothing, sensed nothing. How much, if any, of their conversation had been recorded? Would they be punished for anything they had said? It had been harmless talk, but when did anyone know which remark or question would offend a Viis? Elrabin’s display of fear worried her.

Sighing, she lifted her gaze and found the Phivean pointing at the massage table. Ampris climbed onto it, and the masseur set to work, finding all her sore and stiff spots. Moaning as he kneaded her muscles back into pliancy, Ampris sank into the luxury of his care.

After a while, Okal said, “Soothe yourself, Ampris.” His soft voice hissed to her, reassuring and calm as he applied pressure to a sore spot until the tightness melted away. “Your path is certain and sure. You see what others do not see. Clarity is yours.”

“I don’t feel much clarity,” Ampris said, her voice muffled as she spoke, facedown, into the towel. “I feel confused and afraid.”

“Many precious is the Eye,” Okal said. “This is truth you see?”

“Yes.”

“Trust the Eye, Ampris,” he said, working down her back. “Trust the Eye.”

She twisted her head to look at him. “What do you know? Please tell me. There is so much I would like to learn.”

Okal went on massaging without reply.

A wave of exhaustion washed over her, making it hard to think.

“I had the chance once to learn and I threw it away,” she said drowsily, thinking of the sivo data crystal the archivist Bish had given her long ago, a crystal she had not bothered to read completely. The knowledge it contained had been forbidden, and her possession of it had led to her expulsion from the palace. “What were you taught about the Eye, Okal? Who taught you? You knew immediately what it was. Most abiru don’t even recognize it. The Viis certainly don’t.”

“Viis do not see beyond what is Viis,” Okal said so softly she could barely hear him. “This is not a way of lasting.”

“Okal—”

“Session is finished.”

She lifted her head, but the Phivean was already leaving. “Okal!” she called after him, but he did not stop.

Slowly she sat up and gathered the loose folds of her robe around her. Her eyes were heavy. She wanted to sink down and sleep forever.

Yawning, she wandered into her bedchamber and found the coverlet turned back in readiness for her. She stumbled toward the bed, then heard a faint noise elsewhere and walked into the sitting room instead.

Elrabin crouched on the floor, sorting a stack of vids into separate piles. Even through her haze of fatigue, she could see his hands were shaking. Again, she wondered if they would be punished.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

Startled, he jerked and the stacks of vids tumbled together. Rising to his feet and turning to face her, Elrabin’s eyes were stony. “Grab the winks,” he said. “Tomorrow will be harder.”

She held out her hand in appeal. “Are we in trouble?”

“We are not permitted to discuss our betters,” Elrabin said, his voice stiff and cold.

Ampris understood he was speaking for the benefit of the activated surveillance. “I was wrong to forget that,” she said. “I won’t repeat my mistake.”

“You need sleep,” he said, his voice almost a growl. “I’ll go if there’s nothing else you require.”

He turned away as he spoke, but Ampris tapped his shoulder to stop him. “Wait,” she said, thinking quickly. She had too many questions to let him go just yet. “I—I want another bath. Fill the pool for me.”

Elrabin stared at her a moment, then blinked several times as though he understood. “Another bath? But—”

Ampris growled. “Do you question my request? Do it!”

“At once.”

Without further protest, he headed back into the bathing chamber. Ampris followed him, and stood watching while he turned on the water in the pool, the sink, and even the hygiene closet. With the noise of the water rushing around them, Elrabin turned around to face her.

“Are we safe here?” she mouthed.

He gave her a wary nod.

She wanted to be sure and tapped her collar. “Even with these?”

“Yeah,” he said. “Transmission quality ain’t never too good. The noise of water really messes it up.”

“Good,” Ampris said in relief. “Now we can talk.”

“There’s been too much talking already,” he said. “When I give you a warning, Goldie, you gotta pay attention to me
at once.
Get that?”

She growled. “I hate these restrictions! Oh, to be free to say what I want when I want!”

His gaze held no sympathy. “Might as well wish to be Kaa. You ain’t going to get nowhere thinking like that.”

“Someday I will be free, Elrabin.”

“Sure you will,” he said with a smirk of pity. “Keep talking that way, and you’ll get the rod.”

“How do you know when surveillance is on?” she asked. “Your collar is different than mine. How do you—”

He held up his hand. “Secret, Goldie. I ain’t sharing that with no one, not even you.”

“But—”

“Forget it. Cost me plenty already to have my collar tampered with, but it’s worth it, see? Saved my hide several times.” He snarled at her in sudden hostility. “You say one word about this, and I’ll make sure you get stolen by the competitors.”

Ampris backed her ears. “You don’t have to threaten me,” she assured him. “I would never betray you.”

“Heard that one before,” he said bleakly.

She met his gaze. “It’s true,” she said. “I keep my word. You can trust me. After all, I trust you.”

“Drop it, okay?” he said, glancing away. He looked distinctly uncomfortable. “When folk start talking about trust, I know what’s coming.”

She looked at him, saw the ghosts of old hurts and betrayals swirling in his eyes. Pity filled her, but she stopped giving him the assurances he was afraid to believe in.

“Besides, Goldie,” he went on. “You ain’t going to be around long.”

“What do you mean?”

“You take stupid risks, unnecessary risks.”

She drew in a breath. “Ah, so you heard about what happened today.”

“I did. We all did.”

She heard criticism in his voice, and she didn’t like it. “That was a necessary risk.”

“Someone says you killed a Viis before. That’s why you got sent to the gladiators.”

Ampris sighed. That terrible day was going to follow her the rest of her life.

Elrabin watched her intently, panting a little. “You’re not denying it,” he said.

Still she said nothing. She wasn’t proud of what she’d done in the city of Malraaket. While a lowly household slave, she’d killed her owner’s steward in self-defense, and that did not justify pride.

“Now you’ve attacked the master here,” Elrabin said, shaking his head. “If you’re not careful, you’ll end up a rogue.”

“I was proving a point.”

He yipped caustically. “You’re lucky he didn’t have you flayed alive. Your hide could be a rug on his floor tonight.”

Grimly she said, “He got the message.”

“Maybe. You better not try that again.”

“I’m not stupid,” she said, annoyed.

“Then don’t do it again.”

Ampris lifted her head proudly. “Is the lecture over?”

“Yeah. Get some winks. I’m going.”

“Wait,” she said. “I have something else to discuss with you.”

“Getting late, Goldie,” he said.

“This won’t take long,” she replied, thinking of the stack of vids he’d left on the sitting room floor. “Do I have a real vid link that feeds off the main signal, or do I just have a player for those vids you were handling in the other room?”

Elrabin snarled something beneath his breath, and looked at her in suspicion. “It’s a real link. Why?”

“Can I link to data archives?” she asked in excitement. “Can I retrieve information from—”

“Stop!” he said, holding up his hands. “What’re you up to?”

“Freedom!” she said, panting eagerly. “Knowledge is the first step. The more information I know, the more truth I learn, and the better I can begin to—”

“No,” he said sharply, swiveling back his ears. “That’s it. I ain’t getting into this.”

“Listen to me,” Ampris said, moving to block his exit. She smiled into his hostile eyes, eager to convince him of all the possibilities just waiting for the two of them. “We can make a difference, Elrabin. I know we can. Opportunities are waiting to be grasped. The abiru folk need a leader, someone to give them a vision of hope.”

“Hope.” He spoke the word with flat contempt. “Don’t be stupid.”

“It’s not stupid to have a dream, a vision.”

“I don’t want to hear any treason jabber,” he said. “My, my, Goldie. Not only do you take risks with the master that’d make my fur turn white, but now you’ve turned out to be a crusader. Here you stand, making speeches, talking like an activator, a rebel, a traitor.”

“Like a Progressionist,” Ampris said softly. Then she lifted her head with pride. “You didn’t think I had it in me, did you?”

“Going to get yourself killed,” he said flatly.

“No, I won’t. My beliefs are true—”

“Stop it,” he said angrily. “Truth . . . beliefs . . . bah! Are you crazy in the lid? You start preaching treason, Goldie, and the Viis will cut off your head and hang it on the gate for the birds to peck.”

Ampris thought of the trophy room in the Kaa’s mountain lodge and shuddered.

“Yeah,” Elrabin went on, “you think about that. Good and hard. Treason ain’t for the likes of you. It ain’t worth the risk.”

“Because of our collars?”

Exasperation flashed in his eyes. “Nah. They ain’t always on. But you trust folk too quick for your own good, Goldie. You got to be more careful.”

“I will.”

Elrabin rubbed his muzzle and snorted to himself. “I’m just trying to keep your head on your neck. I told you this place ain’t all it seems. The master
likes
to punish us, see? He speaks soft to you, and you think he’s decent, but you ain’t seen the cruelty yet.”

Ampris remembered how Halehl had whipped and berated Ylea for attacking her upon her arrival. That was nothing more than normal Viis punishment. She herself had received worse for her own transgressions.

“Don’t give me that look,” Elrabin was muttering. “You don’t want to believe me? Fine. So what you planning to do next? Go out and teach old Aaroun harvest songs to your teammates, just because they’re Aarouns and their genetics should make ’em trustworthy? You going to make your first converts to the cause with that bunch?”

“I do want to talk to them,” Ampris said, ignoring his sarcasm. “I’ve never been around my own kind much. I want to learn the Aaroun ways.”

“See?” he said, too shrilly. “No sense. Let me tell you about Aaroun ways. Ylea will slit your throat if she gets a chance. Not up here in the private quarters, because you’re guarded. But in the arena, she’ll turn on you and make it look like your opponent cut you down.”

“They can’t all be like her.”

“Why not?” he asked her in open exasperation.
“Why not?
Why look for the good in folk? Why waste your time? Why take the risk?”

Ampris let the silence spin out a moment beneath the rush of water around them, then she said in a quiet voice, “I don’t know yet what I’m supposed to be doing in this life, but I’m beginning to get an idea. Living in the palace got me a fine education. I can read and write and do higher mathematics. I know some history—both the real as well as the falsified versions. I understand music and art. I can read a basic star map and figure out where I am. I know how to survive court intrigues. I know protocol and I can speak Viis fluently. So what does that make me, Elrabin? A freak, or someone who sees what all abiru folk can be like if given the chance and opportunities?”

“No one gets a chance,” Elrabin said resentfully.

“There has to be a way to make chances,” Ampris said. “I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time, but we have to find a way to get around luck. We have to make our own opportunities, and show others how to do the same.”

“Save the speeches, Goldie,” Elrabin said with a jaw-cracking yawn. “There’s no one to hear.”

Hurt, Ampris backed her ears and swung away. Elrabin was so typical, so closed-minded and afraid to venture out, just like nearly all the others. He had many gifts and talents. He could be so much more than he was, if he would just believe in himself.

But then a voice rose up in the back of her mind, jeering at her. What did she expect Elrabin to be? He was a slave. He could not do as he pleased, go where he pleased, no more than she could. And besides, what was all her fine education for, except to make her aware of all the possibilities denied to her?

“The way I see it,” Elrabin said, startling her from her thoughts, “is we got to find us some rules here, Goldie.”

“What kind of rules?”

“Rules between me and you.”

She looked at him, trying to read his eyes and failing. “Explain.”

“I can’t trust you if I think you’re going to risk our necks by jabbering this junk at everyone you meet. So maybe we should just call it quits. You ask for another servant. Leave me out of this disaster you’re planning.”

Dismay filled her throat. “I thought we were friends.”

He wouldn’t meet her gaze. He was panting, and his fists were clenched. “Friends,” he muttered. “Yeah. Trouble is, you want to be friends with everyone. I hang with you, and you get your hide in trouble. Then I’m in trouble, too. You want to trust folk just ’cause they’re abiru, but there’s plenty of the abiru here who will run to turn in anything they overhear. Ruar is the biggest squealer in the place. And Okal—”