Irsud (23 page)

“Madar!” She felt like crawling out of her own skin; there was no place inside where she felt comfortable. In a last desperate try for a fraction of peace she sent her mind dancing haphazardly through the mahazh in a deliberately disoriented maze pattern.……

“.… I accuse you.” The kipu flicked a finger in the face of a furiously angry cityqueen. “Asshrud.…”

A stabbing ache in her chest drove her away from there.

… to black tunics marching in anonymous mindless lockstep into wide-bodied lift.…

… the chunky kitchen master grunting in anger and a hiiri-form crouching before her, back bent under the clumsy slaps.…

… Gapp pacing some anonymous room, angry, petulant, flinging herself recklessly about.…

… skimmer floating to the roof with a deceptive delicacy.…

… Burash sitting hunch-shouldered, antennas drooping in dejection.…

… Kipu sitting back smiling in the midst of yelling chaos.…

“Burash!” She jerked upright nearly toppling from the limb. A sob exploded out of her, then another. And another. She held out her sore trembling soap-burned hands. “I could have found him before … if I'd just thought … I didn't have to do it … I didn't have to do it … I didn't have to do it.…” Rocking back and forth on the limb she laughed, sobbed, screamed, laughed again with great jerking sobs tearing through her. “I didn't have to do it.” “Aleytys!” Harskari's cool impatient voice tugged at her for a minute then sank in the whirling ocean of horror that held possession of her.

“Aleytys.” The voice came again, more demanding, louder. It pricked at her, repeating again and again until she had to answer.

“Harskari.” Calmer … a little … still weeping, face streaming, contorted, accusing. “I didn't have to do it If I'd just thought …”

“I know.” The voice was quiet and soft now, gently comforting, supportive, caressing. “Come, child, you'll catch pneumonia here. Think how good a hot bath will feel.”

Aleytys flinched away from her touch. “Humor me! Hah! You knew, didn't you. You knew I could have got them out without killing her.”

“What I know has nothing to do with the matter. You got what you asked for.” Harskari's voice was cool, scholarly, detached. Then, shockingly, she chuckled. “I was always a lousy mother. Come on, Leyta, climb out of the slough of self-indulgence. What is done … well, it's done. Regret is the most futile of all futile emotions we semi-sapiens manage to accumulate.”

Aleytys gasped. “Asshrud is dead!”

“So? It's done. Forget it.”

“It was unnecessary.”

“Was it?”

“Huh?” Aleytys jerked upright nearly falling out of the tree. She caught hold of the limb she was leaning on and regained her balance. “You know I could have got them out.”

“Crawl out of that self-pity.” Harskari's contralto deepened with contempt. “You wallow in that maudlin sentimentality until you lose sight of reality.”

Stung to action by Harskari's scorn, Aleytys scrambled out of the tree and marched across the grass to the mahazh. At the doorway, for just an instant, she hesitated, reluctant, overpoweringly reluctant, to go inside.

The amber eyes opened wide in cool derision.

Aleytys flounced her way inside to the bathroom. She slapped the hot water on, stuck her hand under, jerked it back, exclaiming with pain as the boiling hot water scalded her skin into bright red welts. Defiantly she healed the damage and moderated the heat. With sullen snapping movements she kicked off the muddy robe and plopped herself into the sunken tub, waiting for the water to rise high enough to cover her trembling body.

Harskari chuckled. “Watch it, Leyta; I doubt if even you can cure the common cold.”

Aleytys suddenly saw herself … pouting, petulant child sulking because her hand had been slapped … she burst out laughing. “Ahai, Harskari, even when I was four years old.…”

“Well, it was a shock.”

Aleytys siged and leaned back against the sloping end of the tub. “Why didn't you remind me that I could find them without the kipu, even get them out without her?”

“Can you?”

Aleytys stared at the water flooding over her toes, surprised. “I.…”

“Can you?”

“I could open the locks.”

“Yes.”

“I could find where they are.”

“Yes.”

“With you helping I could get to them and get them out.”

“Yes.”

“Then.…”

“Well?”

After a long pause Aleytys reached absently for the liquid soap and rubbed it over her arms and shoulders. “I don't know.” She stopped rubbing a minute. “I don't know what to do next.”

As her body warmed she felt her mind clear as well. “So it wasn't useless … not completely.”

“No.”

“I think that was what hit me worst.” Luxuriating in the warm soothing soapy scented water she felt calm even happy after the intense depression of the morning.

“However—” Harskari's voice cut through the upward swing as it had the downward plunge. “I think we'd better get all of us out of this place within the week. Before the kipu wrings all the advantage she can get out of you and decides to cut her costs.”

CHAPTER XXI

“Damn.” Aleytys crouched in the only bit of shadow the open-faced cell provided, haunches stiff and cold on the grimy stone behind the end of the plank bunk. In the echoing corridor outside small knots of sabutim kept trickling by in both directions, grim-faced and intent on a series of errands that kept them shifting back and forth like busy ants.

Sitting on the bunk as partial cover for her, Burash glanced down. “It's been like that all night.”

“Think I don't know that?” She chuckled under her breath. “I've rheumatism of the ass from sitting on cold rock waiting for that pack of ants to break up long enough to let me get here. What time is it, anyway?”

“About an hour past midnight.”

“Don't they ever go to bed?”

“Something must have happened. An alert.”

“Ahai, Madar. I should have known.” She shivered. “My fault. I'll tell you later. It's not pretty.” She laid a trembling hand on his thigh, touching him to reassure herself. He covered it with one of his. “Let me think a minute,” she murmured.

She closed her eyes. “Harskari.”

“Yes?”

“Can you get us out of here?”

“Time shift?”

“Yes, or.…” With a silent chuckle she added, “Is there an easier way to do this? See, you've managed to teach me a little.”

Harskari chuckled. “I don't know,” Aleytys said thoughtfully. Her amber eyes narrowed and stared out. After a minute, Harskari sighed. “Given all circumstances, no. The best compromise between time limitations and necessity.…”

“Wait. Time limitations. You hinted that before. How long can you hold that no-time thing?”

“About a minute real-time. Not longer. Half-phasing is easier; that I can hold about five minutes, real-time.”

Aleytys frowned. “How.…”

“Later, child. When we have time.” The contralto voice sounded cool and amused. “How close is Aamunkoitta?”

“Five cells down.”

“Nakivas?”

“They have him in interrogation now, damn that bitch.” She gnawed on her lip and bounced up and down until the thin scattering of coarse dust over the stone squeaked in protest. “Ordinarily he's another five farther on.” She shuddered remembering suddenly the twitching pain-racked form of the hiiri. “Why the hell, with all that's going on.…”

“Yeah, I know.” She sighed and opened her eyes to find Burash watching her curiously.

She smiled at him. “Don't ask.”

He shook his head. “I'm confused enough without more.”

She stretched her aching legs out for a moment then pulled them back. “Well.”

“Well?”

“Hurry up and wait.”

“What?”

“Nakivas is being interrogated right now. We have to wait till they bring him back.”

“What if the kipu checks up on you?”

“I left a dummy in my bed. Besides, she's too busy right now to do more than sneak a peek to see if I'm still where I should be.”

“What about here?”

“No eyes here.”

“How do … never mind.” He settled a hand on her head and gently stroked her hair, running his fingers through the shining tresses.

Aleytys purred like a cat under his caressing hand. “I've missed you terribly,” she murmured.

“Leyta. Narami.…”

Time passed slowly as they sat in silence, speech unnecessary, even intrusive. Outside, the nayid traffic died down a bit, though it never quit completely, until finally the solid stamping arrogance of the interrogator's boots disturbed the gentle dream in the dank cell. Aleytys pulled her legs in and crouched lower. “They're bringing him,” she whispered.

As the close-bunched group stalked past, she took a quick look past Burash's knees. One of the group had a limp body tossed carelessly over a brawny shoulder. Nakivas. Barely alive. She felt the pain, the dead cold deep-buried corroding hatred, the stubborn will locked into staying alive, locked into frustrating the kipu.

They slung the body in the cell and came tramping back. To Aleytys' horror the kuulu-resh grunted the squad to a stop in front of Aamunkoitta's cell. She closed her eyes and extended her vision.

The kuulu-resh flashed a light into the cell, shining it directly onto Aamunkoitta's face. The hiiri opened her eyes, gasped, scrambled back against the wall trembling into momentary blind panic. The nayid pinned her there for a long minute with the light, chuckling like a rusty wheel. Then she snapped the light off, grunted the grinning squad of nayids into motion again.
Ahai Madar!
Aleytys thought.
If she does that here
.…

“Calmly, Aleytys. Animals like those smell fear.” The amber eyes blinked slowly. “Think. Make them not want to look in. Use your gift, Should I need to remind you again?”

“Panic.…” Aleytys leaned back and concentrated, gathering, then projecting negation in thundering waves.

“Moderation, Aleytys,” Harskari cut in hastily. “Make them feel vaguely uneasy, their minds will do the rest for you.”

“No steamroller then.” She moderated her emotive projection feverishly. Outside the stumping footsteps broke their rhythm briefly then speeded up to double time. She risked a glance around Burash and saw the black forms trotting past, sweat a pale sheen on their brutal blunt faces.

“Enough.” The sound was a thready whisper. Well, she thought, I wonder what other little gifts my mother passed on to me. Shaking her head she turned and touched the nayid on the knee. “Burash?”

“Yes, Leyta?” He sounded strange.

Aleytys jerked her head up. “What's wrong?”

“Nothing.” He pushed himself onto his feet. “What do you want me to do?”

“You sure you're all right?”

“Just a little overwhelmed. Like riding a cataract on a leaky raft.”

“Sorry. But.…”

“I know. Go ahead, Leyta. I'll keep up if it kills me.”

She laughed. “I know, love. Stand over by the door. I'm going to unlock Kitten's cell door and ours. See if you can spot a clear space so we can get there.”

“Right.” Relief at being something other than a passenger on the escape vibrated in the word. Aleytys tightened her mouth, angry at herself again. She swore a quiet but fervent oath that she would make sure he had a part in what followed.

Quickly she threw back the tumblers in the two locks. “That's done. Doors unlocked.” She touched his shoulder. “How about the traffic?”

“A space coming up, Leyta. Clear both ways for several minutes.”

“Sure?” When he nodded Aleytys closed her eyes. “Save it, Harskari, I think we won't need you this time,” she whispered.

Burash touched her arm. “The whole hall will be empty after those.” Three shadows sped past, nayid sabutim armed to the eyebrows.

As soon as the sound of their boots grinding on the stone died away, Aleytys jumped to her feet. “Go,” she whispered urgently.

Burash pushed the grating open and ran down the hall, counting as he ran. In front of the fifth cell he halted, pulled at the grating and slid aside, Aleytys on his heels.

Aamunkoitta was on her feet, surprise and fear in her face, terror suffocatingly thick around her.

“Kitten, we've come to take you out.” Aleytys broadcast soothing patterns of emotion but it was scarcely needed. Aamunkoitta reacted swiftly to the new situation, immediately excited. “Burash.” Aleytys slid behind the bunk, crouched out of sight. “How's the traffic outside?”

“Still clear.” His antennas strained erect, quivered, visibly searched. “At least another minute.”

Aamunkoitta rushed to the grate.

“Wait,” Aleytys said hastily.

Burash touched the hiiri on the shoulder. “Leyta has to unlock Burash's cell and make sure he's alone.”

“Nakivas!” Her small three-fingered hands pressed against her full lips. “Jumala! I forgot about him. I didn't even think of him.”

Burash laughed softly. “You had other things to think about. He's just down there.” He flicked a hand to the left.

“Burash, I'm finished.” Aleytys joined them at the door. “Is it safe to go?”

“Wait a moment.” Once again his antennas quivered intently. “No! Kitten, stand here, screen us as much as you can.” He stepped quickly back from the grating. “Leyta, you'd better get your magic working, there's a whole squad coming.”

Aleytys made a sharp impatient sound, then crouched behind the plank bed. “This damn stone gets colder every time I have to sit on it.” Burash knelt close behind her and held her against him. “Mh, naram, that feels.…”

“Mind on your business, narami.”