Lamarchos (10 page)

Pukili lowered his eyes. “We hear, si'a gikena.”

“It will be done?”

“It will be done.” He banged his staff in official assent and reluctantly the others of the Kauna followed his example.

“Good.”

“The woman Riyda. What do we do with her?” Pukili jabbed his staff in her ribs as she crouched in a miserable heap at his feet.

Aleytys frowned, aware that whatever she did or said, she had already destroyed a person. Now that it was too late, the result of her interference gave her a sick, dirty feeling. Somehow there must have been a better way to do this, a way of healing … healing.…

She wheeled and caught hold of Loahn's arm. “You're the injured here, it's for you to say. Do you want her cast out as you were?”

The boy watched the shaking huddled form, eyes implacable. Then he shrugged. “I serve you, si'a gikena. But I don't want that one making more trouble for me.”

“I cured your body, Loahn. If I can purge her soul, will you accept her into your house?”

“She was my father's wife. What th' hell, she's only a woman. Do what you want, si'a gikena.” Looking past his stepmother, he grinned at his half-brothers standing beside the Kauna, fifteen-year-old Keoki hiding his fear and uncertainty behind a scowl, Pima who was fourteen struggling to imitate him, Moke the youngest smiling shyly at him.

Loahn jumped down and faced Pukili. “My brothers had nothing to do with this lie,” he told the Firstman. “They are welcome in my house if they wish to return.” Ignoring Riyda he smiled at the boys. “Keoki, I need you, brother. Will you come?” He held out his hands. “We were never bad friends.”

Ignoring his mother as Loahn had, Keoki stepped up to his brother, hesitated a minute, then thrust his hands out with a wide grin that transformed his heavy sullen face. They grasped forearms, then hugged, laughing with a touch of hysteria. Pima and Moke ran to them and joined the happy wrestling match that ensued.

Keoki broke away and quieted his brothers. He knelt before Loahn and held out his hands palms pressed together. “I give you service, Elder brother.”

Pima and Moke knelt in their turn, performing the same simple ritual.

“Loahn.” He walked to the caravan and looked up at her, wondering what she wanted. “Take your brothers home, my friend. Leyilli can drive you.”

“I understand, si'a gikena. We will set aside rooms for you there.”

“You know our requirements.” She hesitated. “Loahn, I may be bringing Riyda back with me. I'm not sure, but make arrangements in case.” She swung down beside him, touched his arm affectionately, then walked back to the other caravan taking short nervous steps, reluctant to face Maissa. For the first time she really understood what Stavver had meant when he said he didn't trust Maissa. Damn this walking on eggs, she thought. She stopped and smiled pleasantly up at the unreadable mask turned to her. “Leyilli, I would be pleased if you would take the brothers to their home.”

Malice glinting in her eyes, Maissa smiled back at her, enjoying her discomfort. “Of course, si'a gikena.” Her hands tightened on the reins and Aleytys winced. Maissa chuckled. She handed the reins to Kale. “My house is theirs,” she said demurely.

Aleytys watched as Kale turned the horses and drove away, two young faces lively with curiosity peering at her through the back curtain. When they disappeared out the gate, she moved silently to Riyda and knelt beside her.

The dark woman lifted a haggard face. “Even my own sons.”

“You drove them away. The hate in you has soured things for you. If you change that, the rest will change.” Aleytys felt the curious crowd pushing in around her, staring down at the broken woman with the cruel enjoyment of that multi-segmented creature called Mob. “Send these away,” she snapped to the Kauna. “You stay as witnesses.” Cold blue-green eyes swept the dark avid faces. “Clear the square.”

The Kauna elders pressed the onlookers back until they were a thick sludge around the edges of the square where they squatted patiently, eyes on the little group by the tower. Aleytys nodded her satisfaction with the efforts of the elders then focused her attention once more on Riyda.

“Help me to help you, Riyda,” she murmured. She reached out to touch the woman.

Riyda jerked her head away. “Help you.…” Anger fought with fear. “Help you? When you've stolen everything from me?”

“You know that's not true.” Aleytys reached toward her again but Riyda knocked the hand away. “Do you really want to be outcast?”

“I want nothing from you.”

Pukili ground the end of his staff in Riyda's ribs, drawing a grunt of pain from her. “Ungrateful bitch. You waste your time on her, si'a gikena.”

“Get back,” Aleytys exploded. “Fool! This is none of your concern. Back off and let me do what I must.”

Offended and a little frightened, Pukili retreated and stood frowning sourly at the two women.

Aleytys ignored him and spoke softly, soothingly to Riyda. “I am healer, woman. Hate is a sickness in you that is destroying you. Let me give you peace, Riyda.” She reached out again.

“Don't be afraid, Riyda. Let me help you. Look at me. Look into my face. See me, my poor wounded one.…” She crooned the words over and over until Riydal was staring dazedly at her. Slowly, carefully, she extended her hands until she touched the woman on the temples. Sliding her fingers around she pressed the palms of her hands on the woman's sweaty forehead.

She closed her eyes and let the black water flow through her fingers to wash over Riyda's sick and aching brain. Not knowing what to do, where to guide the flow she let it splash at random until the current began to race in a roaring torrent around a glowing thing like a hard cancerous knot. Around and around the black water rushed, eating away at the knot, eating and eating until at last the knot was gone. The torrent slowed to a trickle.

Aleytys opened her eyes feeling her heart thudding, her body shaking with exhaustion. Riyda lay flat on the pavement writhing slowly in small animal twitches, the intelligence drained from her face leaving it ugly, shapeless, inhuman. Sighing, weary to the marrow of her bones, Aleytys rocked up onto her knees and touched Riyda's shoulder. “Little one, it's a new world for you. Open your eyes and look at it.”

Riyda moaned as she opened her eyes. Stiffly she pushed herself onto her knees until she could straighten her back and face Aleytys. After a minute, she spread her open hand over her heart. A timid tentative smile twitched at her full lips. “It's gone,” she murmured.

Aleytys stumbled to her feet and held out her hands. Catching hold of Riyda's she pulled her erect.

Riyda looked around. When she saw the avid greedy eyes of her friends and relatives, dark blood flooded her face. She pressed her hands against her face. “I'm so ashamed. Ay-gikena, I'm so ashamed.”

“No need, little one.” Aleytys put her arm around Riyda's, trembling shoulders. “That was the hate. Don't worry, you've got a home still. Loahn wants you to hold house for him while he serves me. You don't need to fear him either, I'll take care of that.”

“How can I look at him after what I did? And them.…” She waved a frantic hand at the people in the square. “They all know.”

“Think this: Any one of them might have done the same. Koen, help me with her.” Aleytys tugged at Riyda, pulling her toward the caravan. Stavver slid down and together they got the stumbling weeping woman up the back stairs into the caravan and laid her down on the mattress.

For a minute Aleytys leaned back against Stavver, his hard healthy flesh a healing anodyne for her tattered spirit He wrapped his arms around her and held her with quiet affection. “All right now, Leyta?”

“Life keeps getting more complicated,” she sighed. “Well, let's get back to those idiots outside.”

“Think about this, love. When we get to Loahn's place you can have your bath.”

Chapter IX

On the way to the house Olelo murmured in her ear, “The first task is done, sister.”

“Oh, is it then?” She eyed the bouncing rumps of the trotting horses. “So. What's the second?”

“A little thing.”

Aleytys snorted skeptically. “And what is that little thing?”

“You are to curse the city Karkys and drive the Karkiskya off Lamarchos.”

PART II

Chapter I

Karkys rode the ridge, a heavy, basalt lump dark and massive against the whorls and streaks of pastel tints that made the sky a delicate wonder. Behind the city the ridge flattened into tableland where a number of slender needles were partially visible. Star ships. Beyond this the western horizon broke into gradually increasing waves of land until a wall of mountains melted dim and blue into the multicolored sky streaked with the hordes of aerial bacteria until it resembled a circus tent. As they came closer the clouds of dust from the unpaved road swirled up from beneath the hooves and wheels and feet to throw a softening veil over the harsh contours of the city.

Aleytys wiped the rag across her face, scrubbing away briefly the mixture of sweat and dust that prickled like nettles against her skin. “What a mess.”

“Soon over.” Stavver brushed fastidiously at his arms and frowned at the mob of humanity surrounding them. “We could do with a bit fewer bodies.”

Aleytys laughed, then regretted it as the clogging dust swelled into her mouth. She spat, then spat again. “Phahh! I get your point. But we'll be lost among them.”

“I'd settle for a thinner cover.” He sneaked the rag off her lap and scrubbed at his face. “I haven't seen Loahn for a while. You send him off somewhere?”

“You were sleeping. He went ahead when we were way back down there. To get us a good place to camp. I sent Olelo with him to keep him out of trouble. With that stubble on his head someone'd probably try to kill him as outcast.”

“Mmmmm.”

A man on horseback trotted past, glanced curiously at them then vanished in the dust pall. Slowly, in a painfully drawn-out creeping forward, the line of wagons and complaining herds and plodding packtrains wound up the hillside. The noise was appalling.

The massive walls loomed higher and higher as they crept near.

“Formidable.” Aleytys raised her brows. “The four of us are supposed to get around that?”

Stavver shook his head. “That pile of stone isn't where the difficulty lies.” He leaned forward peering through the eddying dust. “The pinch is in the electronic gear concealed in those walls. The scanners by the gate will be taking apart everything that passes them. That's why my tools sit in Maissa's Vryhh-box. One smell of them.…” He laughed then spat in his turn, grunting in disgust.

Aleytys stared fascinated at the looming gate. Then she shook her head. “Anything more complicated than a crossbow makes my head ache.”

“Leave it to me, mountain girl. That's my business. Why I'm here.” He yawned, shielding his mouth with a hand, then stretched and groaned. “Another hour of this at least.”

“Ahai, Miks, seems like a year to go.”

He glanced at the sun's glow spot. “Since we started the climb at sunup, that's not so long.”

“It's just seeing the thing so close and not being about to get there.” She frowned and jerked her head toward the caravan behind. “Maissa. How's she taking the crawl?”

“She's a cat in her fastidiousness but she can take anything she has to when it helps her get what she wants. Her temper won't be at its best.” He chuckled. “Not that it's ever much to depend on.”

Aleytys frowned at the bobbing tails of the horses. “I understand now, Miks, what you meant about not knowing what she'd do next. She's crazy.”

“No.”

“Huh?”

“She functions. Her values are skewed at a wide angle from ours. In some societies that's the definition of insanity. But …”

“I should think so.”

Stavver shook his head. “On Immat'kri the children kill their elders when the old ones reach a certain age and eat them with tenderness and love.”

“Tenderness!”

His eyes were narrowed on her, his spine curved in an indolent arc as he leaned against the seat back. “It's their way. If you judged sanity by social norms, would you be the sane one there?” He nodded at the dusty anonymous forms crowding in around them. “Even here. If you weren't gikena, you'd be crazy to expect a man to take notice of what you thought. Maissa functions with a measure of success causing minimal damage in the society she chooses. What more do you want?”

“Ahai, Miks, it makes me dizzy.”

He smiled. “You'll get used to it, Lee. Besides it's not too likely you'll have to spend much time on any one world. But when you set foot off Star Street, you play by groundlings' rules if you're smart. Otherwise you'll be dead. Fast.”

Aleytys sighed. “Complicated.”

He wrapped long fingers around her hands, the warmth of his flesh comforting on hers. An angry wail came from behind the curtains. Stavver took the reins from her. “Your master calls.”

She stood and stretched, keeping her balance with the ease two weeks of riding had developed in her. Then she slipped around the seat and through the curtain.

A fine layer of dust lay over every flat surface. Aleytys pulled a clean rag from a drawer and dabbed at her breasts with it. Dropping the rag over her shoulder she picked up the baby and settled cross-legged on the bunk, back against the wall.

“Dirty face,” she murmured affectionately. She wiped the red and angry face with firm fingers. “Hungry, Sharli, Sharl-mi? One minute, one minute. Don't rush me, dirty face. There. That's better.” She lifted him to her breast, smiling dreamily as he began a vigorous sucking, hands and feet kneading at her body. She ran caressing fingers over the small head regretting briefly the shimmering coppery red of his natural hair, chuckling softly at his intense concentration on filling his belly. “You're going to be a survivor too, tough guy. Like your mother. Only better, you won't have the kinks in your soul.”