Ammonite Stars (Omnibus): Ammonite Galaxy #4-5 (4 page)

Then she shook her head. No! She would not go back to those times of doubt. She had done what had been necessary to save the donor apprentices, and if she hadn’t both Diva and Six would be dead. And it wasn’t her fault that her brother had tried to kill her either, even if – as things turned out – he had been the one to die, along with his accomplice Atheron.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” demanded Amanita.

“I … I’m sorry. I was just thinking that it was a pity.”

“A pity? Is that what you call it? My life is ruined, and you think it is a
pity
?”

“I’m sorry for my part in all this, Amanita, but I think you need help.”

“Oh, you would like that, wouldn’t you? I’m sure you would just love to get me shut away in the hospital on Cesis. Then what would you do? Take over my place on the 49
^th
floor? Take over the upbringing of my children? Oversee the building of the 50
^th
floor for Xenon 50? So that is your plan, is it? You want to take my children – the only things I have left – away from me.” The woman’s eyes opened wide: Grace saw them ringed with white, and half lifted her catana again, fearing an attack.

“You are wrong. Why should I want to take anything from you?”

“Why indeed?” Amanita spat the words out like bullets. “But can you deny that you have taken everything else away from me and mine?”

“Yes! Yes, I can. That is … I do!”

“You have been judged responsible. You will have to pay the price.”

Grace looked towards the door, wondering how to escape. “I … err … I think I ought to be going now.”

Amanita gave a cackle. “Yes, go now,” she said. “Go now, but know I shall be watching your every step, and one day – when you least expect it – I shall begin to carry out your sentencing.”

“You are mad!”

“And you will pay the price in full. Mark my words. I shall take from you what you have taken from me. One by one, just like you did. And who knows where I shall start?”

A shiver of premonition ran up Grace’s spine and then all the way down again. “Please don’t say that, Amanita. I am truly sorry for what has happened, but it really wasn’t all my fault.”

“Of course it was your fault. You had to go looking for more – you were never satisfied with being an ordinary Sellite. Oh no, you were
better
than us. You had to go
bare
planet, do things no other Sellite would dream of doing, didn’t you?”

Grace closed her eyes. She was suddenly feeling very shaky herself. She grasped the catana more firmly and held it up close in front of her as she made her own way to the door. “I am leaving now,” she said. “And I hope you will concentrate on bringing up your children, and not on avenging an invented wrong. Your husband was going to kill the donor apprentices – you know that.”

“As if a few donor apprentices mattered! What is it to me if a few dozen foreigners die? Why should I care? It’s not as if anybody would have known, would they?”

Grace bit her lip. “They have the same rights as anybody else to live.”

Amanita’s face went rigid. “Are you trying to tell me,” she said, “that my husband’s life was only worth the same as a couple of donor apprentices? That a no-name from Kwaide should have the same rights as the head of a Sellite house? Now I know that you are not in your right mind. You deserve everything that is going to happen to you! You have betrayed your own country – putting a few foreigners before family.”

Grace edged to the door. “I am sorry, Amanita,” she said, “but you already tried to kill me once, so I think it would be better if I left now.”

“I’m glad I didn’t succeed!”

“You are?”

“—Because now I can take my time. Savour it.” The Sellite widow looked dreamily around her. “You left me with plenty of time. Time on my own. Time to think. Time to plan. I don’t sleep well, and that gives me more time too.”

“You … err … you should see a doctor.”

“Oh, I have, don’t worry.”

Grace had her hand on the door knob, and was turning it silently. “Then you should tell him what you are feeling, what is happening to you. I think they would be able to help. After all, you want to take care of your family, don’t you?”

“I shall take very good care of my children. Xenon 50 shall be head of a flourishing house once more, as he should be. When I am done, our family will be on the rise again. There is no need for you to concern yourself with that!”

“I … I am glad.” Grace now had the door open and she slid through it, with relief, into the busy corridor beyond. “Goodbye, Amanita.”

As she was swept away by the press of Sellites still coming out of the meeting she thought that she could hear some final words of her sister-in-law, but the words were damped by the murmur of voices in the corridor, and she couldn’t be sure. Grace drew a ragged breath as she shut the door behind her, and swallowed. She closed her eyes for a second before making her way to the nearest orthotubes, and heading back to the 21
^st
skyrise.

AMANITA WAS VERY careful as she made her way down to the storage chamber, hidden under the Valhai Voting Dome. If it hadn’t been for the Kwaidian Elder who had approached her while she was on Xiantha, she would have had no idea that there could be valuable artifacts kept down here. But the Kwaidian, who had apparently been a valued colleague of Atheron, had been very explicit.

Once Grace had left, she had only had to wait a few minutes more until the hallways had emptied after the meeting. It had been a simple matter to convince the two guards to let her through. In fact, they were waiting behind her now to transport whatever she needed. They were both ex-employees of Atheron, colleagues of her dead husband. They could see no harm in helping the widow of an old friend. Such a shame that anything which had belonged to her husband should be left to rot down here. Amanita had put on a sadly grateful expression of sweetness, and thanked them for their service to Sell, tears coming to her eyes as she spoke of Xenon 49’s death.

She walked slowly along the dusty passageways until she found Atheron’s old storeroom. When she finally reached it, and switched on an overhead light, she was disappointed. It was a small room, and held few signs of the now-deceased head of the teaching skyrise. There were no longer any canisters of the orange compound on the shelves, and all the chemicals she had expected to find had been cleared away.

Amanita’s shoulders sagged; it had been her hope that she would find some traces of the compound which had so nearly put an end to the orthogel entity. She had not given up the idea of attacking the dreadful Arcan being directly. Now, she knew, that would not be possible.

Then she spotted a large dark object propped up against one of the walls. It was the magnetic plate Atheron had used to trap Diva, made of a material which the orthogel alien couldn’t penetrate. A thrill of pleasure coursed through her thin body. Now,
this
… this she could use! Her husband had told her all about this plate. You could tie anybody to it, and the orthogel entity would be unable to find them, unable to help them.

Amanita was excited. Now she had a weapon she might be able to use. If it were not possible to attack the alien directly, this was something that would be effective against these people who were protected by it. She felt suddenly alive again; she could face the future. She had a purpose, and it was a truly noble one. How that girl would rue the day in which she had led Atheron and Xenon to their deaths!

But she had two children to think of – nobody must know that she had any part in it. The 256
^th
house had already lost too much; she could not risk the future of her children. No, she would have to be very circumspect about everything, so that her hand in the events which would occur could never be detected. Only the victims should know – at that very last, triumphant, moment – who had been the driving force behind their downfall. She could not risk taking this artifact to her own skyrise. The orthogel entity was monitoring her movements there, and could very well spot what she was moving.

Her shoulders deflated again. After all, it would have to be left here, down in the dusty rooms under the Valhai Voting Dome. But perhaps one day it would come in useful. Amanita thought carefully. She could not take it in the ortholifts – she knew that the orthogel entity was monitoring those too. And to leave it here would be dangerous. This was the first place those traitors would look if they wanted to destroy it. No, it would have to be moved.

She slid inside the small room, her eyes bright with expectation.

“Ah! Here it is! I was beginning to think that somebody had stolen it!”

The listening guards permitted themselves an indulgent smile. As if anybody could possibly have got past them!

She looked at the two burly guards, seeming suddenly more fragile. “This was one of my husband’s little projects. I wish we could put it somewhere that nobody could find it. I hate to think of anybody non-Sellite getting their hands on it, if you know what I mean?”

The sturdy guards did. They too had seen the growing influence of the orthogel entity over Valhai. They were old-school, and disapproved strongly about the direction the new government of young Mandalon 50 was taking them.

“It
does
look awfully heavy, though …” Amanita assumed an expression of doubt.

“Don’t you worry ma’am,” said one of the guards. “We can take it out for you.”

“Oh, no, I wouldn’t dream of asking that of you. It’s just that … oh, dear, I am not sure my children will be strong enough …”

“Now, you are not to worry about it any longer. It will only take us a moment.”

Amanita blinked away tears, smiling gratefully up at the two burly men. “How like my poor husband you are! How generous of your time!” She pulled out two small pouches, with two or three gemstones carefully secreted in each. “He would insist on rewarding such loyalty. He would have been so touched by your helping his widow! How kind it is of you!”

The two men reddened with pleasure. “There is no need for any of that!” one of them said.

“Oh, I insist.
He
would insist. Please take it … such a small acknowledgement of your inestimable help …”

“Well, if you – he – insists,” said the second guard heavily, taking one of the pouches from Amanita’s stretched-out hand and secreting it about his person. “Where do you want this taking, ma’am? To your skyrise?”

Amanita looked down at the floor, thinking quickly. “Oh no. It would only be a reminder of my poor dead husband. I was wondering if we could store it in one of those forgotten corridors under here, under the Dome … somewhere where it will be useful for future generations.” She smiled sadly at them. “You must know of somewhere tucked away from the hustle and bustle of the guards?”

They exchanged glances, and one of them nodded to the other. “Well, now that you come to mention it, ma’am, there is a corridor on the other side of the installation where nobody ever goes. It is one of the zones where there is almost no air supply, so even we don’t venture that way.”

“Oh, what a good idea! How clever you are to think of it! That would be about perfect. But would just the two of you be able to move it?”

“I’m sure we can manage. We have a trolley that we could balance it on – that will help a lot.”

“How marvelous! Shall I come with you?”

“As you wish, ma’am. We can show you exactly where it is on the map, if you prefer?”

Amanita thought. “As long as you can show me on a map, that will be fine. I will wait for you here.”

The men trundled off with their burden, and Amanita turned her attention back to Atheron’s old laboratory. Surely there was something else here that could be of use to her? Some small thing that had been overlooked in the hasty move to Xiantha? She used the time it took the guards to take the heavy plate to its new home to ransack every single storage space in the room.

At first it seemed that she was to be disappointed, but then she came across a tiny cold store, situated under one of the many shelves. It was locked, but she finally found a key in one of the wooden drawers, and the insulated door swung open easily.

Amanita smiled to herself, and slipped the two small sprays into her pocket. That was good. Clorohexanone gas. That might come in very handy one day.

The two guards came back to find her effusive in her thanks, and most insistent that they take two other small gemstones to add to their collection.

“Of course, no-one must ever know about this,” she said. “But I know I can rely on such loyal friends.”