Carnelians (17 page)

“It was a joke,” Tide told him. He glared at Aliana. “A bad one.”

“Yeah, right.” It hadn’t been a joke. She crossed her arms and fought back the tears burning in her eyes. Damned if she’d cry.

Tide put his hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry, babe. I just don’t see any other options, at least not that I can help you with. I don’t have many resources.”

“That embassy isn’t what I expected,” Aliana said.

“Big,” Red said.

Tide looked around, studying the area. “You know, maybe this crowd could work in our favor. With all these people, we might be less conspicuous. Blend in.”

“I hope so,” Aliana said.

“All right.” He took a breath. “Let’s do it.”

The three of them set off together across the plaza, acting as if they were coming to hear the music. The man was singing in Highton:

You dehumanize us; your critics, they all died.

You answer defiance with massive genocide.

“Bad song,” Red said.

Tide had a strange look, and Aliana felt his discomfort. It wasn’t anger, exactly—

“Gods almighty,” she said. “Is it true? The Aristos committed genocide?”

Tide lowered his voice. “Aliana,
shut up
. Don’t ever ask that again.”

“Why not?” She knew he was right, but she was tired of people telling her not to think.

“Aristos kill you,” Red said.

She frowned at them both, but she said nothing more.

At the embassy, Tide headed for a smaller door to the left of the huge main entrance. They climbed the stairs while breezes pulled their clothes and blew their hair around their faces. Aliana’s pulse jumped. This was it. Almost there. She tried to neaten her wrinkled shirt, which wasn’t smart enough to smooth out its own cloth.

They came around a marble column and into view of a guard at the smaller door. Red froze, hanging back by the column. Aliana understood. She had seen officers in the police force of Muzeopolis, hard-edged men and women in blue uniforms with scuffed sidearms. They were nothing compared to this man. He was bigger, both in height and muscles, and he wore a black uniform with silver studs. A massive black gun rested in a holster on his hip, glittering like an Aristo’s hair.

“Bad,” Red said in a low voice.

Tide had kept going, but now he paused, looking around, and came back to them. “He’s just the honor guard. A Jagernaut Quaternary.”

“Jager-what?” Aliana asked.

“No!” Red backed away. “Not go!”

Tide caught his arm. “He won’t hurt you.”

“Jagernauts devil,” Red said.

“If Tide says he won’t hurt us, he won’t.” Aliana felt ready to burst. “And it’s ‘Jagernauts
are
devils.’ ” She had promised to help him with his speech, but she didn’t feel any more qualified to do that than to deal with this embassy.

“Can’t talk,” he said. “Too dumb.”

“You aren’t dumb. Quit saying that. You’re smart.”

Red glared at her. “Fine. Jagernauts
are
devils. I not go in there.”

“If you don’t go in there,” Tide told him, “I can’t help you.”

“Listen, Red,” Aliana said. “That guy can’t do anything to you.” She sincerely hoped that was true. “We can breeze right past him and he has to stay put. Wouldn’t you like that?”

He regarded her uncertainly. “I not go.”

“Well, suit yourself. You can stay here while we go inside.” She hoped the prospect of being left behind would change his mind, because the last thing she wanted to do was to go without him.

“Not leave me here,” Red told her.

“I don’t know what else to do if you won’t come with us,” she said.

“Not come.” After a moment, he added, “I won’t come.”

“If you’re here when Tide comes out, he can take you back to Muzeopolis.” She touched his cheek. “Take care of yourself, Red. I’ll miss you.”

“Aliana.” He took her hand. “Stay.”

“You’ll be all right.” As much a she wanted to keep holding him, she forced herself to let go of his hand. With a deep breath, she turned and set off for the archway. Footsteps came from behind her, and for one excellent moment she thought Red had changed his mind. But it was Tide who caught up with her.

The Jagernaut at the entrance was watching their entire exchange. Aliana tried not to notice his huge gun. She felt Red’s fear, both for himself and for her. It was tearing her apart. She couldn’t leave him defenseless; gods only knew what would happen.

“Wait!” Hurried footsteps sounded behind them.

Relief poured over Aliana as she turned around.

Red joined them, his glare all for her. “Not leave me.” He made it an accusation.

She took his hand and twined her fingers with his. “We’ll go together.”

Tide was watching them with a strange expression. It felt like . . . what? Loss? Jealousy? She couldn’t figure him out, and he was harder to read than most people. His thoughts felt oddly metallic.

Together, they went to the Jagernaut, who was watching them with what seemed more like curiosity than hostility. When they reached him, he spoke in accented Eubic. “Do you want to go inside?”

“They’ve come to see the Foreign Affairs officer for cross-cultural exceptions,” Tide said.

Aliana blinked. That certainly sounded odd. Foreign Affairs for what? Cross-dressers? Probably not, but she had no idea what it meant. The guard seemed to know. Although he had no outward reaction, surprise leaked out of his mind. She expected him to turn them away or at least ask for documents, but instead he simply ushered them inside. A quiet alarm beeped when they walked under the entrance arch, but the Jagernaut flicked several panels on the gauntlet he wore and the alarm stopped. They entered a wide hall with holo-pictures on the walls showing pastoral scenes far nicer than anything in Muzeopolis.

Red’s grip tightened on her hand. When Aliana glanced at him, he stared at her with fury.

“What?” she asked in a low voice.

You say he stay outside!

The words burst into Aliana’s
mind.
With a gasp, she froze. In the same instant, their guard stopped and swung around to them.

Tide continued for another step, then paused and turned back, his puzzled gaze going from Red to Aliana to the guard. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

Sorry,
Red thought in Aliana’s mind.
Too loud. I go away.
His mind receded from hers.

The Jagernaut spoke quietly to Red. “You’re strong. Maybe a seven on the Kyle scale.”

Tide’s gaze turned hard as he scowled at the Skolian. “You’re a psion?”

“All Jagernauts are,” the man said. He lifted his hand toward the corridor they had been following. “This way.”

Aliana didn’t know what to make of this, either Red yelling in her mind or the Jagernaut’s reaction. What scale? Whatever it meant, it seemed to work in their favor. She felt the change in the Jagernaut’s attitude as if a switch had toggled in his mind. He was no longer wary of Red. He wasn’t sure about her yet and Tide he definitely didn’t like.

Aliana caught something else, too, something unexpected. The Jagernaut was
nervous.
He had never dealt with a situation like this before. She picked up his mind more easily than she did with most people, except Red. The man knew he had to be careful, that the embassy was isolated in the midst of a hostile empire, and one very valuable member of that empire wanted help. Red was valuable to them! He would help Red. He didn’t know if they would help Aliana, though. But
she
knew. She was like Red. She needed to let this Jagernaut know. But how? Well, Red had yelled with his mind, and that seemed to work.

Aliana mustered all the mental force she could imagine and thought,
Help me, too!

“
Ah!
” Red pressed the heels of his hands to his temples.

The Jagernaut spun around, his mouth open. “Gods almighty!”

“What?” Tide again looked from Aliana to the Jagernaut to Red. “What’s going on?”

No one answered. Red was scowling at Aliana as if she had rudely screamed in his ear. The Jagernaut stared as if she had grown a second head.

Then, very clearly, the Jagernaut’s words came into her mind.
Can you hear me?

Aliana’s pulse jumped. “Yes,” she whispered.

“Yes?” Tide asked. “Yes what?”

Answer in your mind,
the Jagernaut thought to Aliana.

She tried to think more forcefully.
I don’t know how.

“Ach!” The Jagernaut winced. “Can you moderate that?”

“I don’t understand,” Aliana said.

“Neither do I,” Tide muttered.

“You too loud,” Red said, glaring at Aliana.

“Are you a provider?” the Skolian asked Aliana.

“No!” She crossed her arms and met his gaze defiantly.

“Were your parents?” the Jagernaut asked. “Is that why you have gold coloring?”

She wanted to sock him. Yet one more person going on about her skin.
Sex slave baby.
“The hell with you.”

“I don’t mean to offend you,” he said. “Can you tell me where your parents are?”

“My mother is dead,” she said shortly. “I never met my father. My stepfather is an asshole.”

The Jagernaut exhaled, then flicked more panels on his gauntlet and spoke its comm. “Quaternary Gainor here.”

A woman’s voice came out of the comm. “This is Lensmark. What’s up, Gainor?”

“I have three people asking for cross-cultural,” Gainor said.

“Two,” Tide said. “I’m not staying. I was never here.”

The Jagernaut didn’t look surprised. “Make that two, commander. One is about seven on the scale. I don’t know about the other. Maybe even more than a nine.”

The woman’s voice cracked with tension. “Bring them to my office immediately.”

“Copy that, ma’am.”

“What’s going on?” Tide asked when Gainor lowered his arm.

“Secondary Lensmark is the ranking ISC officer at the embassy,” Gainor said. “She can expedite your visit.”

“I not provider,” Red said. Then he added, “I am not provider. Not anymore.”

“Not in here, you aren’t.” Gainor regarded him steadily. “The moment you went through that doorway, you were in Skolian territory. No one can own you here, young man.”

Aliana didn’t believe it, but at least this Jagernaut hadn’t threatened them. She caught an odd reaction from him, as if he thought,
There but for the grace of the gods go I.
She imagined a shroud over her mind, wishing she knew a more reliable way to cut out the moods and thoughts of other people. She picked up random bits and pieces, as if her mind were a ragged, leaky mesh.

They continued down graceful hallways, walking past polished stone sculptures, all of it oddly beautiful, as if the Skolians weren’t monsters. Nothing seemed horrific about this Jagernaut, either. Of course, she knew nothing about Jagernauts. Maybe he turned into a monster when the moon came out. Or something.

A realization came to Aliana. Red had denied being a provider. She hadn’t thought he could do that. Then again, he’d run away, which he supposedly couldn’t do, either. To her, a provider had always seemed like an incredibly expensive jewel owned by an Aristo, nothing you were allowed even to see, let alone touch. Red was turning her assumptions upside down.

They stopped at an archway, this one inlaid with blue and green mosaics designed to look like triangles around exploding gold suns.

“Nice,” Red said.

Gainor smiled, but Aliana felt his tension. It was so strange: she and Red scared this intimidating man. He didn’t consider them dangerous; if anything, he felt protective toward them. He feared what would happen to the embassy because they were here, but he never once thought of turning them away. She wished she understood better. Everything was off balance.

When Gainor turned to Tide, his demeanor changed. It was subtle, but she recognized the difference. Gainor distrusted Tide.

“If I take you in there with us,” Gainor told him, “Lensmark will want to question you.”

“I’ve nothing to tell her,” Tide said.

Gainor nodded, some understanding he and Tide seemed to share. Odd, because Gainor was Skolian and Tide was a Razer, so neither was human according to the Aristos. Yet they were alike somehow and both seemed more human to Aliana than the partial Aristos she’d met.

“Do you guys know each other?” she asked them.

Gainor shot her a baffled look. “Of course not.”

“Why do you ask?” Tide asked.

“I don’t know. You just seem to understand each other.”

Tide’s posture altered subtly, as if he were tensed to defend himself. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Uh—okay.” Why was he mad? Maybe he and Gainor understood each other because they were both military.

Oh. Of course. Tide didn’t want them to know he was a Razer. Well, he should trust her. She wouldn’t tell anyone.

“We’ve never met,” Gainor said.

Aliana felt the truth in his words. He was having the same effect on her as often happened with Red, heightening her erratic perception of moods. Apparently she could pick up thoughts on the surface of some people’s minds. It was distracting and confusing.

“You can learn to control it,” Gainor said.

“Control what?” Aliana felt as if she had wandered into the middle of a play where she didn’t know the plot or any of her lines.

“Your mind,” Gainor said. “Your Kyle abilities.”

“I don’t know what Kyle means.” She wished they would all stop looking at her.

“You will,” Gainor said.

Tide shifted his weight back and forth. “I should go.”

The Jagernaut nodded to him. “We’ll look after them.”

“Do you have to go, Tide?” Aliana asked. “Can’t you come with us?”

His voice softened. “I wish I could, babe. But I can’t.” He gave her a crooked smile. “You remember everything I taught you. You’re one hell of a fighter.”

“You bet.” She wanted to sound cocky, but it came out sad instead. She also wanted to hug him, but of course they never did that. They were too tough. That blurring of her sight, that was because the air in this bizarre place was bothering her eyes.

Tide started to raise his hand as if he would touch her. Then he let out a breath and turned to Red. “Good luck.”