Empire of Bones (23 page)

And then it was as though she had swallowed a baited hook and was being reeled in, from the direction of one of the deserted temeni. A pointed face hung over the wall of the temenos, seemingly disembodied.

Anarres dashed blindly for the high wall, and just as she thought that she could not possi-bly leap up and climb it, the walls split open. A hand tightened around her arm as her rescuer dragged her through.

Sprawling on the soft earth inside the temenos wall, Anarres twisted round and saw that the wall had snapped neatly shut across the body of the
irHazh
, cutting it in half. Undeterred, the front end of the creature dragged itself toward Anarres until die wall extended a soft pseudopod and closed around it, draw-ing it inexorably backward. The smell of exuded enzymes filled the air as the pseudopod began to digest the
irHazh
.

Anarres was shaking so badly that she couldn't stand up, so her rescuer sat down beside her and they watched in silence as die house ate the hunter-mater.

"Probably not a bad thing," her rescuer remarked, quite cheerfully. "It hasn't fed for a bit, so…"

"Your house is carnivorous?" That explained the rank smell, Anarres thought.

"An
erychniss
. One of the very last ones. People don't grow diem these days. Fashions change."

"Aren't you afraid that it might eat
you
?"

The Natural gave a rueful smile. "I used to be a city botanist. I modified the pheromonal signatures of the group so diat the house wouldn't scent us as food; we'll have to do the same to you. Anyway, the modifications were supposed to make us taste bitter, and sure enough the house has never tried to consume any of us. We used to catch
hiroi
for it in-stead, but it doesn't eat much anymore—I think it's too old. Do you think you can stand up now?" He took Anarres by the arm and led her through the courtyard.

"What's your locative?" Anarres asked shakily.

"Naturals don't use locatives. I am Nowhere One. And who are you?" He smiled ruefully at her look of confusion. "Whoever you are, it seems that someone wants you dead."

THE temenos was in rather better condition than the rest of the neighborhood, but not by much. Its dome had shattered and lay open to the sky. The rest had been left to grow untended. Fronds of cells skeined from the walls to create a chlorophyll veil, but the air was fresh and damp. Nowhere One led Anarres across the inner garden. The sun was low now, creating a deep light and long shadows. The Naturals, some thirty people, were clustered around a pool of water: the well of the temenos. They looked up, startled, as Anarres stepped into the courtyard. A di-sheveled person stood up hastily.

"Who is this?"

"Someone in need of help," Nowhere One said, firmly.

"She's an
apsaral"

"I'd noticed," Nowhere One said with a reproving rattle of quills.

"You're wearing scale, aren't you?" the second Natural said to Anarres. "I'm afraid you'll have to deactivate it. We have nothing to hide from one another here."

"It's best if you do," Nowhere One said from behind her.

"All right," Anarres said, after a moment's pause. She turned off the scale. Immediately, she was assaulted by a tumult of unfamiliar emotions and impressions. Ideas which she had never had any thought of entertaining flooded through her mind, disturbing her with their force and novelty. With a gasp, she sat down hard on the nearest mat. The Naturals flocked round her with concern, until Nowhere One waved them back.

"Away, away. She isn't used to us. Not yet." To Anarres, he said, "You'd better come with me."

He took her firmly by the arm and led her into a side cham-ber. Anarres accompanied him gratefully.

Although she had been told that the Naturals had no leader, this individual seemed to possess some sort of authority, despite his uncouth appearance.

"Now," the Natural said, eyeing Anarres uncertainly. She no-ticed mat he was standing some distance away from her, pre-sumably to mitigate the effect of her carefully engineered pheromones. "Frankly, this isn't the kind of place that I'd expect an
apsara
to visit. And if someone sent an
irHazh
after you, you must have done something extreme. Want to tell me about it?"

Anarres gazed at him in her most appealing manner and decided to tell the truth. "I have a problem." She paused. "You see, a while ago, I did a little favor for the
/(haithoi
, something that maybe wasn't a very good thing to do, and—"

"You must know that it is the
kfiaithoi
who interpret Core commands where we are concerned. And who execute them. They are the caste whom we hold most directly responsible for our status as outcasts."

"I'd heard that." Anarres faltered. "But—"

"But you think we deserve it, don't you? Do you know why you think that?"

Anarres considered this for a moment. "I suppose I'm not sure."

"People become Naturals for various reasons, Anarres. Some are naturally immune to the suppressants that everyone is given, depending on their caste. That usually becomes ap-parent in adolescence—-after all, children are reared in their family pens and it isn't too hard to control them with words. As soon as folk are certified as immune, they are sent to us. Some of us, however, turn into Naturals by default.

Perhaps we let our suppressant prescriptions slip, though that doesn't happen so often—you know how diligent the Prescriptors are with their seven-month checks."

"I was late once," Anarres said, remembering the Pre-scriptors who had visited her with their clicking, whispering voices and thin, probing fingers. "They came round to my house, and they were so
unpleasant
. They did all sorts of tests and made me pay a status-fine for being late."

"This society runs on that control, Anarres. People can't be allowed to think what they please. But sometimes folk slip through the net. My own prescription lapsed when I got stuck offworld for a spell—I was a botanist, doing research work on a colony world, and got lost in the backlands. Being in the wilderness gave me time to think about things, and gradually I noticed that thinking was becoming easier.

When at last they rescued me, I found myself lying about my prescription— I said I'd taken an emergency dose of suppressants with me. Once I got back here, it didn't take them long to find out the truth."

"But why does the Core have you cast out? Why doesn't it just have you modified?"

"Anarres, do you think every Natural is a criminal?" Nowhere One gave a small, grim smile. "The people you see here are gentle, intellectual, elderly, and ill. The real trouble-makers don't end up here. They're killed—as you so nearly were. But the Core permits us to live, with our miserable lives presented as a deterrent and an example. Now, tell me how
you
have come to the attention of the
khaithois
malice?"

Haltingly, Anarres told the Natural the whole sorry story. "And then an enforcer came to my house…"

Nowhere One was staring at her, not unkindly.

"And now you want our help."

"Yes."

"I'll have to discuss it with the others. We are a philosophi-cal group based on a mutually difficult biological situation, not a safe-house for fugitives—whatever our reputation might be.

However, I am intrigued by your story. Why do you think the
fyaithoi
wanted you to dispose of this person's First Body?"

"I don't really know. I was frightened of EsRavesh, and he promised that my family would have their status improved— as would I have, but my family was my main concern. Anyway, to answer your question, I suppose they wanted to delay my friend's return from this little colony he's had to go to."

"As we are
desqusai
ourselves, except for a few people from other castes, we are naturally concerned

with
'thaithoi
machi-nations. And after the tragedy on Arakrahali… Is it possible to contact this friend of yours?"

"I know where he can be reached. He's on a depth ship, or-biting the new colony. Do you have the means to contact him ?"

"We have one old communication device. Let me try and trace his current locative and I'll see if there's anything I can do," Nowhere One said. Anarres assessed him for a moment, trying to detect a lie, but the Natural was giving away noth-ing. She experienced a moment of envy toward someone who could guard his thoughts in such a way. But it couldn't be too harmful, surely, for him to know Sirru's location; after all, the
t{haithoi
themselves already knew perfectly well where he was.

"Now," Nowhere One cut into her thoughts. "If you are to stay here, you must do so on our terms. And that means no suppressants. When was your last prescription?"

"It's almost due," Anarres said.

The Natural gave her a narrow look. "So your suppres-sants must be wearing a little thin, if it's nearly time for your next dose. Do you think that might have something to do with the fact that you thought to evade the enforcer rather than simply open the door of your house?
Can
you think that?"

"I don't know." Her head hurt.

"Come with me," die Natural said, relenting.

Uncertainly, Anarres followed him. She could not quite grasp the concept of being a Natural. The thought was fright-ening and, moreover, painful.

"I don't think I want to do this," she said. The Natural turned and gripped her by the shoulders. She could tell that she was affecting him, and tried to rein in her pheromonal aura.

Nowhere One said, "I am taking you in because I am sorry for you, and because I suspect that you might be part of a wider problem that we need to know about. I told you—my caste, originally, is
desqusai
, like your own. As an
apsara
, you obviously possess higher status within that caste, but we still have a caste bond between us." He sighed. "Most Naturals seem to be
desqusai
these days. I have been making inquiries about things that are happening to the caste, but it isn't easy. As I've said, we don't have much technology—we've man-aged to get hold of equipment from ruined domes, but it's old. You might just be able to help us in some way. I know that be-coming like us might be a frightening thought and it may take time for you to adjust, but I don't think you'll regret it in the long run. After all," he added, "it's unlikely that you would have come this far if there was not some element of rebellion in your character already. Perhaps you're more of a Natural than you think."

This was an alarming thought, but she seemed to have lit-tle choice in the matter.

"All right," Anarres said, with considerable reluctance. "Help me to understand."

lo.

Varanasi/ temple 01 Du^a

"We'll leave tomorrow night, as soon as it's dark," Jaya said. She was leaning on a window still limed with bird droppings and age and gazing out across the expanse of the town. She lifted a hand and punched the warm marble, idly noting the absence of pain. "I wanted to go now, tonight. If only that damn boat hadn't taken so long to arrange, all because I let my networks slip. I hadn't realized how out of touch I was."

Rakh lifted the rifle so that the sun gleamed down its sights, ensuring that it was polished to his satisfaction. "It is worth taking time to get things right. The fort in Yamunotri is a good base, even if it is far away."

Their eyes met in memory; Kamal Rakh had died in Yamunotri. His brother said gruffly, "I had not asked you this before. I trust you, Jaya. I always have. But there is something I need to ask you now."

"Ask me," she said. "But you should be careful with that trust, Rakhi." She turned back to the town, a little falcon in the heights. "I let you down."

"No, not you. History let us down. It always does. You did what you could."

She was silent for a moment, then she said, "What did you want to ask me?"

"These—people. Sirru and the
rahsasa
. What do they want? Why are we helping them? And what did they do to you? When you left here, you looked old. And now—people have seen you, Jaya. Your pale hair, your golden eyes; die fact that you're young again. People are talking about a miracle. They're saying that diese aliens are gods. Shrines are going up all over the country-side, with the most imaginative artwork. Sirru sits by Krishna in a spaceship; Ir Yth and Lakshmi are depicted side by side."

"How inappropriate. Ir Yth's too much of a prude to hang out with the goddess of love, if you ask me."

Rakh smiled. "American fundamentalists are saying that the aliens are devils, that the last days are here.

And Shiv found a Japanese site devoted to alien fashions—-people have been dying their hair white and buying golden contact lenses. Everyone sees the aliens as the future, good or bad, but no one knows anything about them. Except you."

"Everyone's asked me what the aliens want. And I still don't know. They cured me—I don't know how. I think whatever genetic mutation allowed me to talk to the ship also made me prematurely aged, and they fixed my DNA and changed my eyes. But they won't tell me what they want. I searched and searched that ship, Rakhi, and I could find no answers—only more questions. I don't understand what Sirru tries to tell me, and I don't trust Ir Yth. And I keep asking myself:
Why me
? They sought me out because I could hear their ship, but what can I possibly do for them? If Sirru is re-ally some kind of envoy, why are they staying here? They don't seem to be in any hurry to do whatever they're going to do, and their ship is dead. Why aren't they seeking out… I don't know—politicians? Someone in power?"

"Perhaps they came simply to visit," Rakh said, but he clearly didn't believe it. Jaya gave him a level look.

"Oh, come on. No one does that. They may think they do, like the Westerners who used to come here in their sari petti-coats, going out half dressed and wondering why everyone stared at them, wearing T-shirts with gods whom they'll never worship or understand." She gave a small snort of genuine amusement. "No one comes 'just to visit,' Rakhi. Everyone comes to take. Everyone comes to
use
." She gripped the rough edges of the sill, eyes narrowed. "We have an opportunity, now, with these people, and we have to take it, before it's too late. Sooner or later all these rumors will coalesce and the Americans will send in troops, or the government here will lose patience. I don't know what the aliens are doing here, or what they're ca-pable of, and yes, it worries me. But there's the question of Selenge. How many people are still dying, Rakh? The aliens have a cure. They are a weapon that fate has placed in our hands. I know this. I can feel it. I just need to work out how that weapon is to be used."
My father's
lies: sound as if you know what you're do-ing and they might just believe you
. She turned to face him. "Tell me what's been happening today." The old command; they might still be on the walls of a ruined fortress, looking down over the northern passes. Rakh gave a small, rare smile.