The Dreaming Void (49 page)

Her u-shadow established an ultrasecure link to Justine Burnelli. “I'm at the Anagaska clinic,” she said.

“And?”

“We were right; the raid was organized by a faction.”

“Any clues which one?”

“Well, Marius and the Delivery Man are hanging around outside, which implies they are as interested as we are.”

“Ergo, they didn't do it.”

“Don't be so sure. I've never known the Accelerators and the Conservatives to be so blatant before. More likely, one of them did it and the other is trying to expose or counter him. You know what they're like.”

“Whose memorycell were they after?”

“Now that's where it gets interesting: Inigo's.”

“Oh, my. Really?” said Justine. “I'm surprised Inigo left himself open to that level of exposure.”

“To be exact, Inigo pre–Living Dream. This is an old store.”

“How does that help anyone?”

“I'm not sure. The Conservatives will benefit if he returns and stops the Cleric Conservator's Pilgrimage project. But there's no way of telling if he will. He might just applaud and join the Pilgrimage himself.”

“If one of the factions full-cloned him, they'd be in possession of a puppet messiah. Very useful for endorsing your own agenda.”

“Except this won't be a full clone,” Paula said. “This is an early version.”

“I have a theory that might fit.”

“Go.”

“A full-clone early version would presumably be able to receive dreams from the Void just like the original, which would give its controllers a considerable advantage over their opposition.”

“You mean they'd be able to reach the supposed Last Dream?”

“More likely the new Skylord Dreams. Ethan still hasn't found the Second Dreamer despite a phenomenal amount of effort. Did you know Living Dream is modifying every gaiafield confluence nest it sponsors? And that's about eighty percent of the Greater Commonwealth. They're getting desperate; the new dreams are increasing. They're not just fragments anymore. Whole sequences are seeping into the gaiafield.”

“I don't think Living Dream is behind the raid.”

“They'd benefit enormously,” Justine said.

“Yes, but my u-shadow has identified the woman assisting Mr. Telfer. It's Living Dream's ex-Councillor, Corrie-Lyn, now persona non grata to Living Dream and wanted for several bodyloss charges on Ellezelin. The Commonwealth warrants are quite extensive. They also list an accomplice called Aaron, who shares the facial features of Mr. Telfer.”

“Now that is interesting. Any idea about Aaron alias Mr. Telfer?”

“No. But the pair of them transferred to a starship immediately after the clinic raid. There's only one starship unaccounted for on Anagaska right now, the
Artful Dodger.
”

“What's the history?”

“Standard private yacht, registered on Sholapur.”

“Oh, now we're getting somewhere. Sholapur. So in other words, we don't know who it belongs to.”

“Indeed. There's no real background available; however, the
Artful Dodger
was on Ellezelin until just after the ruckus at the Riasi fane.”

“Corrie-Lyn used to be Inigo's lover. Could she be pining for him? A full clone would be one way of getting him back.”

“No. She's a pawn. Telfer is using her to get to Inigo.”

“How does an out-of-date memorycell help them get closer to him? Enough people have tried to find him. He's probably left the Commonwealth entirely. Either he set off to get into the Void by himself or he's gone and joined Ozzie.”

“He hasn't joined Ozzie. I checked that fifteen years ago.”

“I was always envious of the life you lead,” Justine said. “All that glamorous danger and travel; there's something intoxicating about it to a sheltered little rich girl like me. How was Ozzie?”

“Like me, essentially unchanged.”

“Who do you think this Aaron character is working for?”

“As you say, there are a lot of factions and organizations that would benefit by finding Inigo. This raid simply tells us how urgent their pursuit is becoming. Nobody has been careless enough to show their hand until now.”

“So what's your next step?”

“This raid is only one aspect of a much larger process of political events. I think it's important to find the Second Dreamer before Living Dream does. That person will obviously play a huge part in determining the outcome of the Pilgrimage.”

“Wow. You still think big, don't you?”

“I always believed that solving a case is a holistic process. It's one of the few things I have remained true to in the last thousand years.”

“And what about Aaron and Corrie-Lyn?”

“That's the aspect I'll stay visible on. It won't take Investigator Halran long to identify Corrie-Lyn, and things will become quite public after that. If I start inquiring after the Second Dreamer, it will create too much interest amid the factions.”

“Would you like me to start looking for the Second Dreamer?”

“No. You're highly visible to the factions. Almost as much as myself. I think it would be best if you could keep an eye on the Delivery Man and Marius.”

“I'll do that. Who gets to track down the Second Dreamer, then?”

Paula smiled broadly, knowing how the faction agents out in the forest would focus on that and wonder. “The last person anyone would suspect, of course.”

The condition of the utility feed pipes in the third apartment was a lot worse than Araminta had expected. She had spent three unscheduled hours that morning tracing them through the walls and floor, supervising the bots as they ripped out the corroded tubes. It all made a great deal of mess, which meant more cleanup, which meant more time not spent preparing the wall frames for the new fittings, which pushed completion back just that little bit further.

Her u-shadow told her when it was eleven o'clock; that barely gave her enough time for a spore shower in the fourth apartment, where she was living. Two of the old shower's five nozzles were not working, and one of the remaining jets smelled funny. She just had time to apply some freshener and dress in smart trousers and jacket before the clients were due. The perfumed spray damping her skin gave her an unexpected flashback to the day she had found out that Laril had left Viotia and her liberal use of travel-clean back in those days. All of that gave her a guilty prod that she had not been back to Niks in ages.

She gritted her teeth against stupid sentiment and went into the vestibule as the elevator brought her new clients up from the lobby. Danal and Mareble were dressed strangely. She wore a long skirt of wide-weave ginger cotton topped by a suede waistcoat with brass buttons that was worn over a plain white blouse. Sturdy brown boots were just visible below her swirling hem. Her thick raven hair was brushed back, its waves bound in simple elastic cloth bands. He wore leather trousers and boots similar to hers. A yellow jacket was almost hidden beneath a brown overcoat made of an oiled fabric.

Despite their historical appearance, Araminta could not help smiling as the elevator doors opened. There was something irrepressibly enthusiastic about them: youthful grins and the eager way they glanced around, the way they held hands the whole time.

“Welcome,” she said. The golden wood door to the showcase apartment swung open.

She had dressed the apartment with a simple two-tone color scheme in each room and had kept the furniture minimalist. The floor of the open-plan living room was an expensive ebony parquet. Artfully positioned tables and the chairs and settee were all reproduction Herfal style with sharp curves and metal-moiré legs, a popular fad three centuries earlier. The balcony was open, and it was a warm clear day outside, showing the park off to great effect.

Mareble drew a breath as they walked in. “It's fabulous,” she exclaimed. “Just what we're looking for.”

Danal chortled. “Forgive my wife; she obviously doesn't believe in showing our hand before negotiations.”

“I did the same thing with the original vendor,” Araminta confessed. “It's easy to become devoted to these apartments very quickly. I'm actually thinking about keeping one for myself.”

Mareble stood in front of the balcony door. “Would the one we're considering have the same view?”

“Apartment three is on the corner.” Araminta gestured along the balcony. “You get one aspect facing the park as well as a view westward across the city. The suspension bridge is visible that way.”

“How lovely.”

“Can we see it?” Danal asked.

“Not just yet. City health and safety codes won't let me take people into an accredited construction site.”
And it's a complete shambles, which might put you off.

“Construction site? Are there structural problems?”

“Absolutely not. The structure is perfectly sound. An independent deep scan survey file is registered at City Hall if you'd like to verify it. I'm just refurbishing and remodeling. Unfortunately, the city chooses to class that as construction because I'm replacing the electrics and utility feeds. It's just more filework for me, that's all.”

Danal gave a sympathetic sigh. “That sounds just like Ellezelin. Dear Lady, the Waterwalker never had to put in requests to the Orchard Palace if he wanted to get things done. Try telling that to our government.”

“Now, darling.” Mareble squeezed his hand more tightly. “He has a thing about bureaucrats,” she explained.

“We all do,” Araminta assured them.

“Thank you,” Danal said.

“So are you moving here from Ellezelin?” Araminta asked.

“Oh, yes,” they chorused happily.

“I'm a confluence nest technician,” Danal said. “There's a lot of work going on upgrading the whole gaiafield right now. It's especially important on Viotia.”

“Why is that?” Araminta asked.

“The Second Dreamer is here,” Mareble said. “We're sure of it. The last few dreams were so much more vivid than those first fragments. Don't you think?”

“I don't have gaiamotes,” Araminta said, keeping it light, as if it were some minor fault in an appliance she was going to get corrected, praying it would not make any difference to the deal. She needed their deposit on apartment three; they had not been as easy to sell as she had envisaged, and her suppliers were submitting payment demands.

Mareble and Danal both wore the same compassionate expression, as if they felt sorry for her, a concord that instantly reminded her of Mr. Bovey.

“The gaiafield is not something I could live without,” Mareble said quietly. “I can always sense Danal no matter where we are, even when we're planets apart; that kind of permanent emotional connection is so satisfying and reassuring.”

“And of course we know Inigo's Dreams. Intimately,” Danal said. He smiled with the placid bliss only the truly devout could achieve.

Araminta tried to replicate that mien of joy. “I didn't know you could tell where a dream came from,” she said, hoping that would divert them from her tragic defect. There was nothing the devout of any sect or ideology enjoyed more than making the benefits of their belief obvious to outsiders.

“That's the thing with the gaiafield,” Mareble explained earnestly. “It's not all clear and precise like the unisphere. Human thoughts are not digital; they're emotion. I had the
feeling
with the last few dreams of the Skylord; they were close to me. Now that the nests remember them, they've lost that aspect, not that they aren't still wonderful. We're all hoping that we'll experience the Skylord flying to Makkathran to collect the Waterwalker's soul. After everything he's done for the people of Querencia—and us—he deserves to rest within Odin's Sea.”

Something about Mareble's evocation made Araminta pause, as if it connected with some old recollection. That was stupid. “I see,” Araminta said. Her knowledge of the whole Waterwalker epic was sketchy at best; she certainly did not know any details. “That's why you want to live here?”

Mareble nodded eagerly. “I'm convinced the Second Dreamer is here. One day soon he'll reveal himself, and then the Pilgrimage can begin.”

“Will you join it?”

They smiled at each other and clasped hands again. “We hope so.”

“Well, at the risk of being crass, you won't find anywhere better to wait than here.”

“I think we can consider putting in an offer,” Danal said. “An uncomfortable number of our fellow followers are looking for property on Viotia. Living in a hotel is pleasant, but we'll be happy to move into a real home.”

“That I can fully appreciate.”

“We're prepared to offer you the full asking price, but we would need a guarantee that the apartment will be completed on time.”

“I can put my certificate on that file, yes.”