Earthrise (Her Instruments Book 1) (18 page)

“I’ll do that,” Reese said. “
Earthrise
away.” She shook her head. “Am I going to have to deal with that all the way in-system?”

“Not only will you have to, but it’ll get worse,” Sascha said.

“Freedom preserve me,” Reese said. “You handle the landing, then.”

“Consider it done.”

“I hope you’ve packed your suitcase,” Irine added.

“Suitcase!”

“Well, of course! You don’t think the train will let you sleep in the ship, do you?”

“I admit I hadn’t thought that far ahead,” Reese said. She lifted a hand when Irine opened her mouth. “No, I won’t object. As long as we’re on a planet’s surface I might as well run maintenance on the air-scrubbers. It’s been a while since I bought us fresh air and we could use a recharge.”

“Fresh air from home to carry with us when we leave? That’s so romantic,” Irine said, bouncing again.

“It’s just common sense,” Reese said. “What’s our time-to-landing, Sascha?”

“Five hours, about.”

“Right. See you fluffies at the airlock.”

Five hours sounded like a comfortable span but by the time Reese had found the rest of the crew and advised them to prepare, chased down Allacazam, packed her own goods and finished another session of staring at her finances wondering where to find all the money she needed for the remaining repairs, the in-systems were firing against atmosphere. Reese gave up on the data tablet and instead smoothed down her vest and examined herself in the bathroom mirror. She didn’t look prepared to tangle with a city full of Harat-Shar. Then again, she never did, even on good days. Shaking her head she shouldered her duffle and headed to the airlock. The rest of the crew was already there, standing with their backs (or in Kis’eh’t’s case, side) to the wall.

“Well, Sascha... will you do the honors?”

“My pleasure,” he said, and keyed the airlock open. He shoved his shoulder into the door and forced its reluctant hinges.

The air that rushed in smelled of incense, exotic spices, burgeoning plant-life waxy with green life over an arid heat. Reese blinked several times, overwhelmed by the charge of it. She’d grown up in domes of carefully maintained, recycled air and graduated to ships with even less assertive supplies. She’d touched down on her share of planets and found them all complex to smell, but nothing so far could compete with this.

“Come on!” Irine said, and dashed outside. Sascha followed at a more casual pace. One by one they filed from the lock and Reese walked down last, shutting the door behind her.

Zhedeem looked the way it smelled but not the way Reese had imagined it. She’d envisioned a bustling metropolis full of the high-rises and parks of a typical Alliance city. Instead, the
Earthrise
had settled beside a town so low some of the buildings weren’t even a single story high. Hissing fountains and extensive gardens dominated the edges of the town, and past them Reese could see very little save more palms, more trees and the occasional edge of another low building.

The series of buildings they were standing next to were the tallest Reese could see: several half-story buildings and two with very small first stories. The gardens and fountains were a fortress of cool color against the burnished red sands upon which they stood. Even their shadows seemed hot. The house looked welcoming but also unreachable from the edge of the airlock. The sky was so very, very tall and the sand so very empty.

“Where’s the city?” Reese asked finally. Irascibility had always helped bar panic from the forefront of her mind, and if she looked too long at the vista her agoraphobia would send her straight back into the ship. “I thought this place was supposed to have several thousand people living in it.”

“It does,” Sascha said. “They’re mostly underground.” He hiked his bag higher on his shoulder and started down the hill toward the nearest buildings. Irine skipped after him, followed by Bryer and Kis’eh’t.

“I guess we can’t show up and not at least say ‘hi’ to everyone,” Reese said, watching their figures dwindle.

“I doubt the inhabitants of the household have noticed us yet,” Hirianthial said. He stood a comfortable distance away, holding Allacazam in his arms and looking supremely unruffled in his long-sleeved blouse, breeches and boots despite a heat that was already inspiring sweat on Reese. “The twins would be disappointed, though.”

“Yeah,” Reese said. “I guess they would be.” Still, she couldn’t bring herself to move. She waited for Hirianthial to say something about it, but surprisingly he remained silent. Nor did he fidget as she struggled with her fear that the sky would fall on her—or worse, never end.

It seemed to take forever to decide to make the first step. She wondered if the moment lasted as long for Hirianthial as it seemed to for her. Maybe living forever gave a person a different perspective on what a “long time” was. With a sigh, Reese trudged after the rest of the crew. By the time she reached the base of the hill her ankles and shins ached from walking over the unsteady sand and her body was so slick with sweat she no longer feared unsolicited hugs from Irine and Sascha’s family... no doubt she stank so fragrantly of hot human now that no one in her right mind would come near until she bathed.

Hirianthial, curse his eyes, looked remarkably fresh. On closer, surreptitious examination he was sweating, but it simply made him look glossy and vibrant rather than exhausted and untidy. She wondered where she could buy that trick.

The delineation between desert and garden was as sharp as the first brick beneath the gate that stood half-open. Reese passed into this wonderland of green and imagined that it felt cooler.

“Wonderful,” Hirianthial said behind her. “You can smell the water.”

“Is that what that is?” she asked, surprised, and sniffed. “I thought I was imagining it.”

“No,” he said. “The very plants sing of it.”

She glanced at him, decided to say nothing and moved on. The paths showed signs of meticulous care, pruned and swept, bordered by shining plants with new but not yet open blooms. The deeper into it Reese walked, the more she felt the change in the air, how it softened, became almost a caress. The best part was definitely how the plants shielded her from the panoramic view.

A trickling fountain proved to be the first in a set, each one growing larger and larger as they came closer to the house. The first was only big enough for a desultory plaque. The final depicted a woman with an infant at her breast, a tumbled urn at her feet dispensing the water into the basin.

“Reese!” Irine stood at the arch into the first of the buildings, built below the gardens and accessible from a set of five steps. “Come on, get out of the heat!”

“Do I look like I’m lingering?” Reese said. She joined the Harat-Shar, hoping for an enclosed space and air conditioning but the hall she entered was lined with windows set over the ground level. The fans on the ceilings whispered a soft
whuff-whuff
as they sent their breezes across the floor mosaics, but the place felt very exposed.

“Is the whole town like this?” Reese asked.

“Most of it,” Irine said. “Come on, I’ll introduce you to Father’s first wife.”

“Your mother?” Reese asked, following Irine with Hirianthial at her heels like a second shadow. A white shadow. She wished he wouldn’t do whatever it was he did that made her feel stalked, but also felt ridiculous telling someone who wouldn’t come within six feet of her that he was walking too close.

“Yes,” Irine said, then added, “One of them. If you mean my birth-mother, no. But she nursed me, as did a few of Father’s other wives.”

Reese touched her forehead. “Just be gentle with the culture shocks, okay?”

“I’ll try,” Irine said, laughing. “Look, here she is! Mazer, here is Reese, my captain!”

Beyond the entry hall was a smaller room... no less a chamber than the first, but with a circular couch in the center of it and several sideboards. Reese couldn’t imagine what use the room would be, since its size did not invite intimacy. Her crew proved that by being scattered around the room, uncertain of where to stand or sit. Only Sascha seemed to have found a place to settle, though the tense cant of his ears belied his slouch.

None of that mattered, though, because the woman sitting on one of the couch’s cushions made her want to turn and march right back to the
Earthrise
. She’d even risk Hirianthial’s curious gaze to do it, except the woman was already rising and offering her hands and it seemed too impolite to run now. With a sigh, Reese gave hers to the woman and said, “You’re the kind who knows everyone’s secrets within a few minutes of meeting them, aren’t you?”

The woman blinked several times, then grinned lazily. “Yes, but until this very day no one’s had the eggs to up and say it the moment they noticed.”

“Don’t try to make my life any harder, please,” Reese said. “I really appreciate being able to stay here, but if it means I’m going to have Harat-Shar crawling in my brain I have no problems going back to the ship and sleeping in my hammock.”

“Captain!” Irine exclaimed.

“Oh, hush, Irine,” the woman said. “Your mother can handle straight talking.” To Reese she said, “It’s never my intention to make people’s lives harder. I will do my best not to drive you away.”

“Good,” Reese said. “As Irine said, I’m Theresa Eddings, Captain of the
Earthrise
. You’ve met my crew?”

“Everyone but the fine fellow standing behind you, and the gentlecreature in his arms.”

“That would be Hirianthial Sarel Jisiensire and Allacazam,” Reese said.

“My name is Zhemala,” the woman said. “I am the first among Mascher’s wives and it will be my duty to see to your welfare. Though I may delegate that duty to my co-wives or children if the rest of the household demands me. If it pleases you, I’ll bring them out of the zenana for you to meet?”

“The zenana?” Reese asked, perplexed.

“Harem,” Hirianthial said from behind her.

“How do you know another word for a harem?” she asked him, irritated.

Zhemala laughed. “Obviously he is a well-read man. Or he’s worked with Harat-Shar before?”

“Intimately, Lady,” Hirianthial said with a dip of his head, “Though not, perhaps, in all the meanings of that word those coworkers would have liked.”

Reese wasn’t sure what annoyed her more, the fact that he was lady-ing someone besides her or that she was offended by it. If it got him off her back, well and good!

“Is this a literal harem?” Reese asked finally.

“What other kind is there?” Zhemala asked, her mouth widening in a grin. “Or do you think the costume is for show?”

“Why don’t we get them something to eat and drink and show them someplace they can relax while we figure out where to put them?” Sascha said from the floor. “They’re probably hot, Mazer.”

“Would you like to change into something more comfortable?” Zhemala asked.

“No,” Reese said. The last thing she needed was to let Irine dress her up in some version of her mother’s crazy outfit. She didn’t need to bare most of her belly, stomach, ribs and arms in front of anyone. “But the food and drink sounds very nice.”

Zhemala nodded. “Children, why don’t you take them to the Moon Patio? I’ll send some slaves with food and drink.”

“You must be kidding me,” Reese said.

“Not at all,” Zhemala said. “It is my pleasure to see you properly served. I will join you have arranging accommodations... all separate rooms, I presume?”

“Yes, please.”

She nodded and left at a pace both brisk and graceful. Reese stared after her for several minutes.

“Umm, Captain? Food is this way,” Sascha said, tugging on her arm.

“She was kidding about the slaves, right?” Reese asked.

“Of course not,” Irine said. “We buy slaves all the time.”

Reese said, “Slavery’s illegal.”

“Not here. We get special dispensation,” Irine said. “Just wait until you’ve had our marzipan pastries!”

“You guys walk ahead,” Reese said. “I need to take it slow. The heat, you know.”

Irine eyed her, then shrugged and skipped forward, pulling Kis’eh’t by an arm. Sascha followed her, with Bryer alongside.

“You’re not going to set them on fire, are you?” Reese asked the Eldritch, her voice hushed.

“What?” He blinked several times, then looked down at her. “Gracious Lady, no. Why would I do that?”

“Slaves!” Reese exclaimed.

Hirianthial laughed, a few soft puffs of breath. “Ask Irine more about Harat-Shariin slavery once we get to the table. It’s not a sin of the same magnitude as the illegal trade I was pursuing.”

She thought for certain he must be jesting, but he seemed at ease and in his arms Allacazam remained a contented blue-peach.

“Never fear, my lady... I shan’t feel compelled to take justice into my hands on behalf of the slaves of Harat-Sharii.” He bowed, ever-so-slightly, never removing his eyes from her face, and gestured up the hall. “After you.”

Unsettled, Reese followed the twins.

The Moon Garden was not a garden of night-blooming flowers, as Reese had expected from the name. Instead all of the carefully manicured plants, from the glossy dark shrubs lining the half-height stucco walls to the delicate ivy trained up the trellises, bloomed in shades of white and ivory and a blush-tinted cream. Their perfume was so dense it was not dispelled by the ceiling fan hung from the bottom of a balcony that projected from the roof, far over their heads. Between that far-away ceiling and the profusion of flowers and plants, the patio managed to feel far more enclosed than it actually was.