Bactine (48 page)

Daniel nodded. "Be careful, sir. It is after all your throne that is at stake at the moment."

"My throne, Mr. Zacharias, is very solid. It has stood up to a wager before, and all of those have made it more stable. I do take it that you appreciate this information."

"I certainly do, sir. Thank you very much." With a grin, Daniel closed his hydger. Yes, the plan was in motion. Now everyone had to keep to it. That was the worrying bit.

-=-=-

Gaguran, in that time, was in the working chamber of Clelem, reporting on how the visit and the offer had gone.

"So he did accept your offer? That is good. Too bad that he knows nothing, or at least says nothing. That fat fox is one to be careful with."

"Yes, sir. There is something else. He offered me a position." Gaguran had to tell this. He had never held something from Clelem; history showed that he was bad at keeping secrets from that man.

"A position? Hmmm, interesting. You accepted of course?" Clelem smiled slyly, knowing that Gaguran would never do that.

"Of course I did nothing of the kind, Seigner, and I told Seigner Dogom ko Tzuy that as well. My loyalty is with you."

"And that is where it has to be, my valued Mr. Slindris." Clelem nodded slowly, writing tiny crosses on a piece of paper in front of him. "You are free to leave, now. I have business to attend to."

Gaguran nodded and left the office in silence, while Clelem was brooding on his plans. The Pricosine 2 was almost ready to be sailing. He needed a fresh crew.

Clelem's hydger rattled. He frowned at Huajo's sign. "My friend, good day."

"My friend," said Huajo. "I am grateful for your offer to let your serving man help me in finding your daughter. But something unfortunate has happened during his visit. I am, of course, not saying that your man is responsible for it, but the time in which it happened is too coincidental."

Clelem wondered about that. "What happened, my friend?"

"A very precious small object that was on my desk has disappeared since your man left my house. I had people search for it, but so far it has not been retrieved. I wonder if you could ask your serving man if he has seen the object. It is a ruby, set in silver, with a filligrain ship on it."

Clelem was genuinely surprised. Gaguran had never stolen anything. "I will ask him about it, my dear friend, and I will let you know about this as soon as I know more."

"More I cannot ask, my dear friend." Huajo nodded and ended the call. He dialled for Daniel again, to update him on the latest happenings.

Meanwhile, at Clelem's house, Gaguran was sent for.

"Sir?" Gaguran was quite surprised to be summoned again so quickly after being dismissed.

"I had a disturbing message from Dogom ko Tzuy," Clelem came straight to the point. "It seems that something which belongs to him disappeared after you left. Did you take something from him?"

"I did not, sir." Gaguran shook his head. "I wouldn't do such a thing."

Clelem was certain of that. Well, for the most part. Gaguran had been acting a bit strangely lately. "Good. We'll leave it at that for now. Thank you."

Gaguran left, confused.

Clelem saw him go and was still worried.

-=-=-

Daniel put the book aside and got up. He had been reading for a while and felt stiff in his joints. On a hunch, he walked into the corridor and walked a few steps. He gently knocked on a door.

"Yes?" Rayko was awake.

He entered and stayed by the door. "Hello. I just wanted to know how you are."

"Oh. You." Her face twitched, Daniel was not sure if it was from some pain or from seeing him. "I cope." She held a small handkerchief in her hands, toying thoughtlessly with a corner of it. "I think I have to thank you. For saving my life." Rayko kept her eyes on the handkerchief.

"I had to do something. I could not let you die there."

"Die? What do you mean?" Her eyes now were on him.

Oh, crap. He could kick himself. "Well, it did not look like someone was bringing you food and water there."

"True." She looked sad. After a while she looked at Daniel again. "How did you know I was there? Wherever that was anyway?"

"Lucky guess, I assume." Wrong, Daniel. So very wrong.

"Don't lie to me, Mr. Zacharias." Her tone was sharp, despite her situation. "You cannot lucky guess things like that."

"And I am not sure if you are ready to take the truth, Miss Dandra ko Galem."

"I will decide on that, Mr. Zacharias!"

She should not have spoken so forcefully. She squeezed her eyes shut and almost doubled over in pain.

Without thinking, Daniel reacted. He darted to the bed, and gently took Rayko by the shoulders. "Be careful, take it easy. Come, sit back up. You should not press down on your ribs like that," he whispered as he slowly guided her back into the pillows. He sat on the bed, watching her face relax slowly.

As her breathing relaxed, she opened her eyes and looked at him. Very slowly she reached for one of his hands and took it in her own small hand. Without looking, she said: "It was you, wasn't it? You are the preacher."

Daniel just looked at her.

"You are. Your hands... they are the same."

"I am not a real preacher," Daniel said. "The senator..."

"To me you are a preacher, Mr. Zacharias. A preacher always is there in time. And everyone can be a preacher." A few tears appeared in her eyes and slowly rolled down her cheek. "I'm sorry. I should not cry." She wiped the tears away.

"You should. You've been through a lot." Daniel held her hand, he could not let go. "This is not the life you should be leading."

"Nahmyo says," Rayko started, "that life is what comes to you, and you will be strong enough to take it."

"Yes, otherwise it won't come to you, I know," said Daniel. "She also says that there are times in which you must pull back and work on yourself. If you are not well, you have no business facing the challenges that are waiting for you."

Rayko did something remarkable. She smiled at him. "I told you. You are the preacher. You know this."

"I just read it this morning."

"That's irrelevant. You know this. 'You will know the things in time,' Nahmyo says."

Daniel laughed without sound. She was tricking him, he knew. "At least I knew this in time. As I knew in time where to find you."

She looked at him in a serious way. "Tell me, preacher... would I have died if you had not found me?"

Daniel had to force himself to say yes.

"I see..." Rayko said, in a sigh. "He must hate me very much."

"Your father." Daniel did not make it sound like a question.

"Yes..."

It did not happen often, but this evening was one where Gaguran was invited to share dinner with Clelem and Ugidra. At first Gaguran was still suspicious, as the talk with Clelem earlier that day had not been the smoothest of all, but the dinner went by nicely, and there was a pleasant atmosphere.

Due to that, the serving man was relaxing. The good wines that had been served had helped as well.

Clelem had talked about the problems at the shipyard, Ugidra had politely yawned behind her hand and Gaguran was sipping some of the special imported black port he liked so much. Something was off though, the mouse slowly formed his thoughts. Usually, when drinking this port, he could still feel his feet. And his hands. Slowly he put the glass on the table and looked at his fingers. They were all there. He was sure. At least, it looked like they were.

"My dear Mr. Slindris, why don't you drink up and go to your room," Clelem said with a smile. "You must have had a busy day."

Yes, that he had. Gaguran nodded, picked up the glass, with both hands to be safe, and emptied it. "I will... take my..." and what was that last word? As the glass fell over and rolled away from him, he remembered. "My leave." Gaguran did a valiant effort to get up and fell to the floor.

"You two, pick him up," he heard his boss say.

Two men, who Gaguran knew to be security persons, picked him up from the floor. "Hey.. hey..." he tried to retain some dignity as he was hanging from strong arms.

The men carried Gaguran through the house, towards his chamber, and threw him on the bed. A moment later Clelem came in.

"I think we need to have a little talk, Gaguran," Clelem said as he pulled up a chair. "About this." He held up something that was red and silver.

"Whuffe..." Gaguran tried to use the sound as an excuse for 'what is that?'. His mouth was not very cooperative all of a sudden.

"After our rather disconcerting talk about your visit to Dogom ko Tzuy and the fact that the man called something had gone missing, I took the liberty of searching your room. And this is what we found. In your coat pocket even. It is, as you can perhaps still see, a ruby with a silver ship on it. It matches the description of the missing item too closely to make this a mistake."

Clelem looked at the small object. "Really nice, I have to admit. I had not thought, dear man, that you had taste." He slowly put the ruby in his pocket. "Too bad you had no chance to enjoy it." He got up and patted the pocket. "I will see that this is returned to its rightful owner. And you, Mr. Slindris, should consider yourself without a job. I cannot have someone on my team who steals." The man turned and walked off.

The two men picked Gaguran from the bed and dragged him through the corridors, to a seldomly used exit. After a short and painful journey through the garden, they reached a spot that was not too far from the floater, but far enough to not get on it.

Gaguran was by now completely paralysed. There was nothing he could do when the two simply shoved him over the side of the hill. He fell, hit the ground and started tumbling down. Before he was halfway down the hill, he was unconscious.

Somewhere in the shrubbery a man saw Gaguran take the dive. He took a hydger and made a call.

-=-=-

"Mr. Zacharias, I wish you a good evening."

"Good evening to you, Seigner Dogom ko Tzuy. To what do I owe this late night call?" Daniel had not expected a call from the ship owner at all.

"It seems that Seigner Dandra ko Galem has officially ended the work contract with his serving man," Huajo said. "One of my operatives, who happened to be around, saw that the poor man was thrown down the hill without much ceremony."

"Thrown down?" Daniel could not believe it.

"Yes, very much so. He is at my house now, severely wounded and still unconscious. I thought you would like to know about this." Huajo had a satisfied expression on his face. "It seems that our plan is still in effect, be it with some special interludes."

"Obviously. Thank you for informing me, sir. I appreciate it. Do you think it would be reason enough for me to pay you a visit?"

Huajo shook his head. "As long as my guest is still not responsive, I would suggest you spare your feet, preacher. I will let you know when he is with the world again."

Daniel nodded. "In that case, you are right. Thank you, Seigner, and have a good night."

"Good night, Mr. Zacharias."

"I told you," Rayko said softly. "You are a preacher. The Seigner said it too."

Daniel was sitting next to her, on a couch in the living room. He had carried her over there, as she was fed up being in bed. "No, you are both wrong."

"They are both right," said the senator from his chair. "You are just not ready to admit it."

"By all means of good, sir, I am a trained soldier. That is far from being a preacher." Daniel closed the hydger and put it back on the table.

Rayko looked at Sygra and shook her head. "He is impossible. You are in luck, Daniel. I would kick your shins again if I could."

They had agreed to address each other less formally.

"And you have to be careful, young lady," Daniel tried to come back. "If I am a preacher, you may have to listen to what I am saying."

"Huh. Only when you are preaching. Not when you are spouting nonsense. So what did this message mean? Did my father tell the mouse that he could pack up and leave?"

"In a way, yes."

"Good thing that the Seigner has his spies everywhere," Rayko said. "For a change."

"Spies." Somehow Daniel was not surprised.

"Oh, you ignorant," said Sygra. "All the large ship owners have spies everywhere. It is a part of the game, I think you can say. They all are very distrustful among each other. If you are not inside that market, it can be very entertaining, Daniel."

Daniel failed to see the fun of that. "I don't like spies."