Third Watch (28 page)

“What did she look like?” Ariin asked, this time with what Khorii felt was an unhealthy relish.

“Her eyes were sunken in her skull, their color faded and over-laid with milky spots. Her noble brow draped over them, and the skin of her face that was not deeply creased and folded was covered with red-blue lines, broken blood vessels, I suppose. Her flesh hung in wattles beneath her chin. Worst of all, her magnificent mane had been reduced to a few snowy strands poking from her skull. Even the melodious tones of her voice had been altered until it was so cracked I had difficulty understanding her orders.” Sona shuddered.

“Why would she turn into an old lady?” Khorii asked aloud, puzzled.

“The disease,” Ariin said.

“But she didn’t appear altered in the vid,” Khorii said.

“That was before she boarded the
Blanca,
” Elviiz reminded Khorii. “Possibly, although she did not immediately exhibit symptoms, as some others did not in the early stages, by the time she had infected those aboard the plague ship, her own energy was too diminished for her to maintain her young and vibrant shape. You have told me how our shapeshifting forebears never appear to age but have been alive while generations of our people have been born, lived their own comparatively long lives, and died. I suspect that their youthful appearance is itself a shape they can assume but that Akasa might have been unable to do so once the disease diminished her vitality.”

“The boy’s got something there,” Uncle Joh said. “I know I sure felt a lot older when I was sick.”

“You say this woman told you to go to another world—Odussia?” Mother asked. “How did you come to find us then?”

“We went there, as she said, lady,” Sona replied. “But no matter how early we arrived, Lord Grimalkin could not seem to take Lord Odus or any of the others into the future. It was as if time was broken, or at least as if the crono was malfunctioning—even when, in desperation, I borrowed a crono from another elder, the result was the same. It was truly heartrending to behold Lord Grimalkin’s efforts. Inevitably, he was prevented from stopping Lord Odus until the time came when he transformed into a cat, and I had to listen to his piteous cries, mewing his failure over and over again across many galaxies.”

Khorii shook her head, and said to Ariin, “It must be the way it was with Pircifir. Once one of them dies or perhaps when some profound change happens in their lives, it can’t be undone with intervention by crono, just relived.”

Ariin smiled rather terribly. “I wonder if turning into an aged hag qualifies as profound in Akasa’s case.”

Sona said, “We must find Lady Akasa and let her know we’ve failed. She had intended to return to Vhiliinyar when she traveled with the doomed ship, but after seeing what happened there, and suspecting that she might have been the cause, she dared not return there. So if she still lives and is not still drifting through space in her vessel, she would have returned to Odussia. Even if she cannot recover completely from her illness, we can at least offer her the comfort of her own home. It is still aboard my ship. Even though it was already aboard when Lord Grimalkin and I returned to Odussia, because of the incessant time loop we never had the opportunity to give it to her.”

“Certainly we must try to help her,” Mother agreed, casting a reproving look at Ariin. “And hope she can help us put an end to the harm she and this Odus have done.”

“L
et me get this straight,” Coco said. “You lot plan to return to the planet where you think the plague and these ship-eating beasties were invented?”

“Only Sona, the cat, and the Linyaari will go dirtside,” Uncle Joh told him. “Maak and Elviiz and I will stay aboard the
Condor.
”

Coco scratched, then shook his head. “And people say that our clans go looking for trouble…well, good luck, in any case, however…” he said with a speculative gleam in his eye. “Perhaps we should accompany you as well—after all, it would be a shame if something happened to you, and your ship was just left to drift.”

Aari and Khornya practically had to drag Joh, hurling verbal imprecations at Coco the entire way, onto the
Condor,
he was so incensed at the pirate captain’s suggestion.

Chapter 23

O
dussia, red and gold with veins and plains of blue-green, filled the viewscreen of Sona’s ship. Khorii’s family had transferred from the
Condor
to Sona’s Linyaari ship over Uncle Joh’s loud objections. Not even he, however, could deny that only the Linyaari were equipped to face the plague—again. However, he gained unexpected allies in the
Balakiire
’s crew, who said that they should be the ones to go instead.

“Khornya and Aari may be weakened by their prior exposure,” Aunt Neeva argued. “They could be dooming themselves to permanent isolation.”

“On the other hand,” Elviiz countered, “although we have no evidence one way or the other, their previous infection may have conferred immunity on them that you do not have. And my sister must be among the first to go, of course, since she is able to detect the plague by sight. Our family has been divided too long already by this thing.” He’d looked around at the rest of them with an expression that on a human might have suggested modesty or shyness. “I am new at feeling the emotions of others, and cannot yet thought-talk as freely as the rest of you, but I think I can safely say that I speak for us all in stating that we wish to face this danger together.”

“Then we’ll go, too,” Neeva said.

“Me, too!” Mikaaye said, stepping past Coco to stand with Khorii’s family. “I will go with Khorii. Aari is only one male, and Elviiz cannot risk his inorganic parts being destroyed again by the inogres. The females will need another male to protect them.”

“You will not!” Coco commanded in an unnecessarily loud voice. “Don’t forget, you are still under my command, and besides our own people, we’ve got the rest of this useless lot, including the crew of my new ship, to take care of. I’m going to need a healer. In fact, I could use more than one.”

Melireenya surprised them all by saying softly, “Then let my son do what he thinks he must, and I will remain in his stead.”

Aunt Neeva took a general reading of the emotional atmosphere, and said, “Since my sister-daughter and her family wish to go, and Melireenya’s son wants to accompany them, Khaari and I will join our shipmate in tending the humans here, at least until such time as we may be needed to assist our friends in the completion of their mission.”

“And my first mates and I will take Elviiz—”

“And me!” Grandsire Rafik said. “I’m not letting my daughter and her family face this without going along for backup. Gil, Calum, and Hafiz would skin me alive.”

“You’re my hostage!” Coco objected. “You think I’m stupid enough to let the head of House Harakamian out of my piratical clutches?”

“You think it will matter if the inogres eat up everything in the universe that has never drawn a breath?” Grandsire asked.

Coco’s struggle between his sense of self-preservation and his avarice was clear to Khorii and the other Linyaari. Khorii felt Ariin give the pirate a little push. “Oh, well, it’s your funeral,” he said, and turned his back and strode to the house.

K
horii’s parents took over piloting duties for Sona, since their hands were better suited to the controls. Staying in constant communication with the
Condor
orbiting Odussia, the Linyaari ship prepared to land in the spot where the Friends’ settlement had been.

“The inogres have probably eaten all of the houses now,” Ariin speculated. “All of the Friends will have died of the plague, and Akasa will be old and out in the open, exposed to the elements. I wonder if it rains a lot on Odussia? What do you think? The blue-green looks like water.”

Khorii rolled her eyes at her sister’s persistent
ka
-Linyaari acrimony toward the people who had raised her, after their fashion. They weren’t very nice people, it was true, but they hadn’t actively mistreated her in the way the child slaves Mother had freed had been mistreated, for instance.

Khorii had spent much of the journey, shortened by Uncle Joh’s unconventional navigation techniques, trying to peel Khiindi off the bulkheads and prying his claws loose from everyone’s shipsuits and hair. He drove everyone mad racing around and ricocheting off every surface in the ship, yowling loudly all the while. This behavior was not helped by RK’s hissing and growling at him from the
Condor
’s com unit whenever Khiindi was on the bridge.

Father said, “When I learned that Grimalkin had been changed into Khiindi, I thought it a great improvement. I am not now so certain of that.”

Ariin snickered and patted Father’s shoulder in agreement.

Sona said, “The mighty Lord Grimalkin is frustrated by his inability to save us all from the foolishness of the other elders. He has always been the best of them,” she added fondly.

“Even I would have to agree with that,” Father said. “The others had no more feeling for me than they would have had for a beaker of acid. I’m sorry you had to endure the same treatment, Ariin. The brief encounter your mother had with them was not what I would call warm and nurturing either.”

“That is not their way,” Sona said. “Still, I shudder to think of seeing them all as I saw Lady Akasa. And I cannot help but wonder what has become of my fellow technicians. Although we are considered a lesser race—”

“By guess who,” Ariin put in.

“—our fates are bound to theirs.”

As they drew nearer to the landing site, Sona seemed puzzled, then surprised and relieved. “All is well, Lord Grimalkin,” she addressed Khiindi. “It is better than when we left. Your fellow elders must surely be in their usual robust health, and it looks as if someone has learned or perhaps recalled something of the building trades in the meantime.”

None of the structures in the small city before them changed shapes but reminded Khorii of shorter versions of the time lab. They were mostly rectangular except that the sides met in a peak at the top. This was impressive on the taller structures in Kubiilikaan, but a bit pointless when the buildings were no more than two or three stories. The elders seemed to have picked this site for its resemblance to Kubiilikaan’s. As in that city, the main street led down to a vast expanse of water along which there was a broad path. Unlike in Kubiilikaan, this water was roiling and turbulent, foaming as it licked the edges of the path and littered it with seaweed and driftwood. Rocky prominences just offshore rose in wild, water-sculpted forms. Most looked larger than the city’s buildings, and one had a huge smooth hole in its middle that was big enough to fly a ship through. Far beyond these was a small mountainous bit of land. From the air, Khorii noted that it was covered in trees and that a haze hung over the central peak, obscuring it.

As there had once been in old Kubiilikaan, a brightly colored pavilion occupied the middle of the cross street leading down from the center of the town, its top billowing in the wind though its flaps were furled on two sides and tied to the stakes that gave it shape. Under the colorful cover another dance floor gleamed. The elders had not stopped enjoying their balls, apparently. The disasters that affected the rest of the universe seemed to have bypassed the very place from which they had originated.

As the ship landed, the audio sensors picked up the deep and sonorous vibrations of what sounded like a gong. People dressed like Sona ran out of several doorways at once. Each of them carried a white, flat object the size of one of Hafiz’s platters before him. Or possibly her. Difficult to tell from the uniforms.

They ringed the ship. Over the com unit another uniformed tech, male from the sound of his voice, said, “Unidentified Linyaari vessel, you do not have permission to land nor to disembark. You must leave at once or our enforcement technicians will take appropriate measures.”

“This is Sona, Bogan. Your mate’s sister Sona. I have returned with Lord Grimalkin in his frozen small cat form, his charge, Khorii, her parents, Khornya and Aari, and her twin once known to us as Narhii, but now called Ariin. Also a young male, Mikaaye, unaffiliated familially to the others but who makes noises indicating he is a prospective mate for Khorii.”

Khorii shot a glance at Mikaaye, whose starclad white skin had turned the color of the exotic roses in Uncle Hafiz’s garden. The back of her neck suddenly felt warm and her skin tingly. Mate? She wasn’t even sure she liked Mikaaye. What had made Sona think such a thing?

Meanwhile, Bogan’s face remained stern and unwelcoming. Sona said, “All are free of diseases, but we come at the summons of Lady Akasa. We also wish a word with Lord Odus regarding the scourge he loosed upon the galaxy.”

Bogan said, “The Lady Akasa no longer dwells among her fellows.”

“Where is she then?” Ariin demanded. “And Odus? Look here, it’s all very well for you to protect yourselves, but those two have incredible—” She was going to say “crimes to answer for,” but Khorii stopped her with a thought.

“Don’t. That’s not how to get him to tell us. Push him.”

“Right,”
her sister thought, and her lips curled into a smile worthy of RK before he attacked something.
“Tell us where they are,”
she commanded.

Bogan said, “In her current condition, the Lady Akasa has been deemed unfit to dwell among her fellows. She lives alone on the wooded island a few miles from shore.”

“And Odus?” Ariin asked.

“Lord Odus disappeared shortly before Lady Akasa left us, and returned changed. He had been working very hard on his experiments, and perhaps took a vacation among the humans and was, like the lady, damaged. Or perhaps he has taken refuge in a previous time and place and will return to us later. Without the time map that yet remains on Vhiliinyar, it is difficult to keep track of the elders.” Khorii wasn’t trying to read his thoughts, but his expression told her he was finding it extremely tedious even to try to keep track of them.