The Diamond Deep (55 page)

They had worked out how to approach this on the train while they ate tomato and peppered protein paste sandwiches acquired in Exchange Four. Now, Onor's mouth tasted like dry fear and he had to force out the words. “We're here to see if this is a place where some of us can live. It's been hard to get work.”

The guard looked at them with narrowed eyes. “Hard everywhere. But there's no work here.” He turned his gaze to Evie's breasts. “People don't come here on purpose much, not when they're young and healthy.”

“There's a lot of us.”

Suspicion drained from the guard's features. “You came in from that ship. The
Fiery Beast
or something.”

“
The Creative Fire
,” Evie corrected him. “We can't use your technology. Mostly.”

“And you can't learn?”

“It's hard.”

The guard's face softened even more, and he grew a little tiny bit of a smile at the edge of his lips. It might have been touching if they didn't need to just get in as fast as possible. “We're allowed to check ourselves in, right?” Onor asked. “We checked.”

“Yes. But it's a mistake.”

Onor decided at add to their story. “We'll be bought out. We need to know what it's like in here, kind of like an advance guard.”

The guard looked puzzled. “You want a
tour
?”

“Yes,” Evie said.

“There's observation bays up above.”

“I've been there,” Onor said. “Will that really teach me what skills we need to live here?”

A shake of the guard's head. “Isn't that singer buying you free? Ruby?”

“If she can sing every day for the next year.”

“Is this the only way to get in?” Evie asked.

The guard stepped back. “Almost no one comes this way. The very old, sometimes. Enforcers can make sure they get food. Most people are sent here.”

Evie said, “Please,” again, her voice small.

“You don't have anything valuable with you?” the guard asked.

Evie shook her head. “Our slates.”

“Keep them close. Be careful of your clothes if you take them off. You're a little fine for this place. If you really do get out and then come back, bring trade goods.”

“Trade goods?” Onor asked.

“Things people want. Food. Drugs. Clothes.” He held out a slate to each of them, looking as if he were committing a crime by allowing them in. “Sign here to verify you are entering of your own free will and that you understand the cost of your stay.”

Taking the pen felt far more final than he had expected it to. His signature came out scrawled and almost unreadable.

The guard waved Onor and Evie through a doorway. “Your progress will be monitored. You will walk forward the whole way. If you turn around, credits will be added to the amount it takes to buy your freedom.”

“I will guide you,” Aleesi said in their ears.

“Last piece of advice,” the guard said. “It gets almost dark after dinner. You must be picked by then.”

“Picked?”

“By a gang. You'll see.”

At least they hadn't lost the earbugs. Onor still had an extra in his pocket, which he planned to give to Haric. Their footsteps echoed in the long corridor. The walls were scratched and dark and bare, the only adornment a long metal handrail that went all the way though.

At the end of the corridor, a metal door irised open into a small empty room.

Onor and Evie stepped in.

The door closed and the far one opened.

From above, the Brawl had looked big and confused. From here, it looked far, far worse. He realized he had half-expected to find Haric just on the far side of the door, waiting for them. Instead, three enforcer robots stood at strategic points, and a press of people they had never seen watched them step into the room.

Ruby sprawled bonelessly across the stage, breathing in great gasps of air, feeling the cool floor under her cheek and her right elbow and pressing against her calves. Her dress bunched tight across her chest, so it was hard to breathe.

She tried to push up, to stand and take her bows. She felt and heard the audience willing her to stand up.

Maybe if she could get a few breaths, a few moments.

She managed to get up on one arm so that it was bent at the elbow. The fabulous fiery braids that Jali had spent so much time on hung over her face as if hiding her from the room.

Applause mixed with the sounds of dismay and concern washed across her from near the front of the room, and calls for help for her. She heard Naveen's voice as he hurried onto the stage. He spoke to the audience. “Thank you! Thank you.”

Why didn't Naveen help her?

Arms folded around her while Naveen kept talking and the audience kept clapping. She felt herself lifted from the stage and managed to hold her head up and wrap her arms around her rescuer. The brush of lips against her forehead caused her to roll inward and let her cheek fall against Joel's chest. It wasn't possible that he was here, that he had picked her up. Not unless she was dying and he had come to lead her to the doorway all souls passed though.

As he murmured her name, he sounded distressed and soft all at once, and entirely unlike someone who was taking her away from the world. “Cloth. Get me a damp cloth!” he called as they passed through the great curtains and cut her off from her audience.

He clutched her tight to him and kissed her on the mouth, and only then did she believe he was real.

Ruby opened her eyes to her own familiar ceiling. Crisp sheets bunched around her legs. She shifted, testing. Her legs responded to her commands.

She shouldn't be here.

It took three breaths to remember her last moments on the stage, and being lifted up and carried behind the curtain. She closed her eyes and wished the memory away. But not her sweetheart. She could smell him and hear his breathing. She murmured his name. “Joel.”

A hand touched her cheek. “I should have been with you.”

“They needed you here.” She held out her hand, the movement slow and unsteady. “Help me stand.”

His fingers brushed the hair from her face. “Give it a minute.”

“Did I get . . . how did I get here?”

“Satyana's robot give you a painkiller. You slept the whole time I took you back.”

“You let them put me to sleep?”

“I wasn't giving you a choice about coming home.”

“I shouldn't have. I should be out there, working.” Her protest was weakened by how good to felt to be here, how much she loved Joel's fingertips on her lips and the sound of his voice. “What about Jali? KJ? Did they come home?”

“No. Satyana flew us home in a ship that barely had room for both of us.”

“Probably the
Honey
. Did she show you the private habs out there?”

He looked both angry and lost. “She showed me enough to demonstrate how much power we don't have.”

“I know.”

He stood, took her hand, and tugged her to a standing position. She swayed. Her stomach felt as if she'd been sick for days, but there were no knives of pain. She took a step toward the privy and almost lost her balance. Joel had to help her. She shook and her limbs only obeyed her under protest. She must look as weak as she felt. At least each step seemed a little more solid. By the time they'd crossed the room, she felt strong enough to shut the door with him outside. She stared into the mirror. Her face
had
thinned. She'd looked into mirrors before every concert, but she'd been looking at the clothes Jali draped over and around her and at the way her hair had been done. She'd been thinking about songs instead of sickness.

Surely she had another concert soon.

She had to look better by then. She couldn't imagine eating, but took a cup and water from the sink. Then another. She filled herself on an amazing amount of water.

A nightmare had fallen over her waking moments and it was all she could do not to fall to the floor under the weight of it.

Dying wasn't acceptable.

She managed to find a brush and get it through her hair, leaving a few of the toughest tangles until she found help for them. She needed Ani. Ani always had a comb. And a laugh.

A hot washcloth felt rough against her skin, but at least it reddened her cheeks.

As soon as she opened the door, Joel took her into his arms, clutching her tightly. His shirt was rough against her cheek and he smelled clean and felt like safety. He picked her up over a weak protest, and carried her to the bed, setting her down very carefully in the middle and sitting at the edge with a warm hand on her forearm. His voice sounded thick and a little hurt. “I talked to you almost every day. You didn't say anything.”

“I didn't know. I thought I was just tired. I am. Maybe. Just tired. If I rest I can go back.”

His only response was a stricken and disbelieving look that suggested she would never leave his direct protection again.

She could argue after she got strong again. “What did Satyana tell you?”

“That you're going to die.”

“She said maybe not. She said I could beat it.”

He smiled softly. “Of course you can.”

“I
can
.”

“I won't be able to stand it if I lose you.”

The tone in his voice devastated her, a softness colored by so much longing that she felt tight in her chest just looking at him. “Tell me about home. What's happened here while I was gone?”

“We talked every day.”

“I'm sure you kept all the sweetest bits from me.”

That made him smile. “The bar is doing well.”

“You told me that.”

“People from the rest of the
Deep
come a lot, now. Some of them say they want to help us make Koren pay for what she stole from us.” He looked serious, like he wanted to know what she thought.

“There's a bigger conspiracy. That's in trade for us helping them.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Satyana?”

“Yes.”

“She asked me a lot of questions about you last night, and about us. I didn't feel like I could answer them all.”

“Ix. Is Ix helping you?”

“Yes.” He hesitated. “You should rest a little. I'll go get you some food.” He stood up and planted a thoroughly chaste kiss on her forehead.

“You can do better than that.”

He could, and he did. He tasted like stim.

As he left, she felt sure there were things he hadn't told her.