‘What’s that?’ she called out.
‘The Floating Amphitheatre.’ The Lifegiver leaned over to shout above the engine noise. ‘A war memorial. For the dead from the Schism Wars.’
In the centre of Centre lay the collection of buildings and bureaucracies known as Government House, completely surrounded by a long blue wall topped with the web-like filaments of a sensor bank. From the jumble of what looked like squat office buildings and power stations Vida could pick out a columned white building with a peaked roof that she knew from school holos, the Chambers of Justice. She saw gardens tucked here and there, and long lawns bordering a narrow river. Just beyond the lawns sat a walled compound of squarish buildings with green-glazed roofs and pale tan walls, arranged round a circular plaza. The monk gestured at them.
‘Those buildings making up the eye are the headquarters of my order and an abbey for researchers. Lovely, yes?’
‘Very.’
Now that he’d clued her, she could see how the outer edges of the buildings were indeed staggered to form the shape of a huge eye. Just behind them rose the gold dome of the Cathedral of the Eye, a structure that she’d seen many times in pictures and holos, lying like half a sun with its protruding rays and sculpted corona.
The ‘hopper slid past and began dropping down toward an enormous compound. Although it stretched over an area as large as the entire hub of Pleasure Sect, it shone like a pool of water, built entirely of blueglass. Out of the lower storeys rose two gigantic fluted pillars joined by a half dozen hollow bridges - longtubes, Vida suddenly realized. The tops of the two pillars lay green and billowy, covered by elaborate roof parks, though on the pillar to her right she spotted a small landing field.
‘Those towers?’ she called out.
‘Parts of the colony ship, Se Vida. The ancients brought it down in pieces when they realized that the macroshunt had sealed over for good. In that one there,’ he pointed to the westward tower, ‘are the meeting rooms and offices and chambers for the Centre Council. In the other,’ he paused for a smile, ‘lies the brain of Government House. And the residence of the First Citizen.’
Somewhere in there, the Peronida and the Makeesa families lived and essentially ran the world. And she was to join them? For a moment she knew beyond doubt that she was really back in Pleasure, lost in some new interactive holonovel she’d forgotten buying. The airhopper spun about its axis and drifted into a flight lane, while dozens of other airhoppers scrambled out of its way. She felt so nauseated that her fantasy about the holonovel vanished.
‘Nearly there,’ the Lifegiver said cheerfully. ‘We’ve been given priority.’
They plunged through green trees, caught, and hovered, then landed delicately on the small strip. Vida let out her breath in a gasp.
‘Welcome,’ said the Lifegiver. ‘Welcome to Government House, Se L’Var.’
Through drooping frond-trees, heavy with pale blue fruit, the
Lifegivers led her toward a blueglass penthouse guarded by armed soldiers in grey uniforms. Vida moved in a daze, clutching Aleen’s green shimmercloak to her chest as if it were a shield. The flowered scents of the roof park overwhelmed her, made her skin tingle and her nose itch with confusion. Most of the species here she’d never seen. At the glittering pale doors leading inside, the pair of guards raised long silver cylinders in salute. What the tubes were Vida didn’t know.
Inside, the chamber gleamed with ranks of metal boxes, blueglass plates, glowing screens, and beeping regulators. One Lifegiver paused near the doors out; the other started toward a large obsidian table on a raised dais in the middle of the room. The tall Lifegiver smiled.
‘Well, Se Vida. There’s a small welcome planned for you.’
When he placed a hand on the black table, it flared with light. A revenant - a balding man with angular features and a thin little smile - appeared in the centre of the table. He wore the robes of a Lifegiver, but these glowed with rich crimson. The headband that circled his balding head contained sigils that Vida had never seen before.
‘Greetings, Se Vida L’Var.’ So - not a revenant after all, but a directed holo of a human being somewhere in Centre. ‘Welcome to your new home.’
‘I...’ Vida’s voice cracked; she knew she was blushing. ‘Hello. Who’re you?’
‘I am Roha. I have the honour of serving the citizens of Palace as their cardinal. I hope that we will be friends. Please join the First Citizen and me at your earliest convenience.’
‘Uh well, sure.’ All at once, she felt like an utter fool. ‘I mean, thank you, Your Eminence, for all your concern.’
She bowed and brought her thumbs together in the gesture of respect she had seen Aleen use on so many occasions.
‘Ah, interesting.’ The cardinal’s smile turned sharper still. ‘A student of the Schisms, then?
We shall have many fascinating talks, I’m sure.’
‘Thank you, Your Eminence.’
‘I have requested a friend of mine to help you in your first few days here. You’ll need to be shown around, introduced to people, that sort of thing. She should be - ah, here she comes.’
The inner doors slid open for a young woman, short and square-shouldered, her black hair piled in braids round her head. She wore a severe grey dress with a large white collar. She glanced Vida’s way, then bowed to the directed hologram.
‘My apologies, Your Eminence,’ she said. ‘I know I’m late.’
‘No harm done,’ the cardinal’s holo said. ‘My dear, this is Vida L’Var. Vida, may I present Samante Dinisa y Gossales?’
When Samante bowed to her, Vida held out her hand. Samante hesitated, then took it.
‘You honour me,’ she murmured, as they shook hands. ‘My thanks, Se L’Var.’
Vida wondered if she’d made some sort of gaffe, but she kept smiling. She could hear Aleen’s voice in her mind.
You know how to be charming. Use it.
‘No, you honour me, Se Dinisa. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your taking the time to welcome me.’
Samante glanced at the cardinal’s image.
‘I shall actually see you both in a moment,’ the holo said. ‘For now, farewell.’ The directed holo vanished.
‘Se Vida?’ The tall Lifegiver caught her attention. ‘We’ve got to log you into the defence grid. I’m sorry. This will take some time. For a start, we’ll register your genotype.’
‘Of course. I quite understand.’
‘May I have that cloak?’ He held out a hand. ‘Dinisa, are there new clothes waiting for Se Vida?’
‘Oh yes, the cardinal had one of the guest suites readied for her. I’ve provided some things that she can wear this afternoon.’
‘Excellent.’ The Lifegiver glanced at Vida. ‘Once you’ve changed, send that dress to me.’
‘Well, sure, but why?’ Vida handed him the cloak.
‘It’ll have to be destroyed, just like this will.’
‘What? No! I mean, that cloak was a present from someone.’
‘I’m sorry.’ He looked nothing of the sort. ‘But we’ve been informed that you have a dangerous enemy. We can’t risk any kind of tracker.’
‘I don’t understand.’
‘Government House has the best security system this world has ever seen, but I wouldn’t bet your life on it being foolproof. What if this enemy of yours had a contact in, well, let us just say, in your former location?’ The Lifegiver raised a scornful lip. ‘Sapients come and go through there all the time. If something we can’t find has been planted in your clothes -’
Samante nodded agreement.
‘He’s right, you know. I’ll have a servant bring that dress to him as soon as we’ve got you changed. There’s some lovely things waiting for you, Se L’Var. The cardinal told me to spare no expense.’
‘Well.’ Vida caught her breath. ‘Well, that was wonderful of him. Thank you.’
The Lifegiver smiled, then bundled the cloak and tossed it into a metal bin. As she followed him toward the bank of equipment, Vida realized, with a cold clutch round her heart, that she’d traded one prison for another.
* * *
‘I should have been consulted!’ Vanna spoke much too loudly for the small room. ‘Why wasn’t I?’
‘There was no time, Second Citizen.’ Cardinal Roha stepped back out of reach. ‘We weren’t even able to find Wan -’
‘Then you should have waited to bring that damn whore here.’
‘Madam, she’s not a prostitute. And I couldn’t leave her where she was.’
Karlo turned from the window and looked at them, merely looked, but they fell silent. In her pale blue Interstellar uniform Vanna stood in the middle of the crystalline blue reception chamber, facing off with Roha, while young Damo slumped miserably in a corner, as if he were trying to blend into the holostar-scape behind him.
‘Stand up straight!’ Karlo snapped at the boy, who did so fast. ‘Now. Our Vida will be here any minute. Let’s get a few things settled. Your Eminence, who’s going to be attending her?’
‘Samante Dinisa, First Citizen.’ Roha’s voice turned smooth, ingratiating. ‘She’s a licensed Interpreter, to begin with. And her family is absolutely loyal to the Peronidas.’
‘Are you sure of that?’ Vanna snapped.
‘Of course, Second Citizen.’
The cardinal bowed in a sweep and rustle of scarlet robes. Karlo considered his wife. Her head was nodding like a heavy flower in a wind.
‘I don’t like secrets, Roha,’ Vanna went on. ‘You should have told me about this girl years ago.’
The cardinal said nothing - what, after all, could he say to this ridiculous statement? Karlo decided to intervene.
‘My dear marriage partner! The past is past. You made me some promises, remember?’ He waited for her to nod sulky agreement. ‘And, my dear Second Citizen, think of the propaganda value. The L’Vars had plenty of supporters. There’s been grumbling-’
‘But everyone thinks they were traitors,’ Damo put in. ‘I don’t understand. Everyone’s going to hate her.’
‘Damo, don’t interrupt,’ Karlo said. ‘Or you’ll be sent away.’
‘The boy’s got a point.’ Vanna smiled, a thin twitch of her lips that sent a tic spasming across her left cheek. ‘I wouldn’t call the L’Var name a valuable political commodity.’
‘The trials were thirteen years ago. People - the little people -they forget these things. We’ll spread her picture across the vid-screens, the poor orphan child saved by the cardinal’s generosity. It’s a good story, Roha.’
The cardinal bowed. Vanna considered.
‘And as for the people that matter,’ Karlo went on. ‘Well, some of them had a different opinion of the L’Vars than our Second Citizen does. This will shut them up. And then, of course, there’s the Cyberguild.’
‘Ah, yes.’ Vanna nodded, agreeing. ‘That’s true, isn’t it? We need the Cyberguild.’
‘We need them all.’ Karlo shot her a smile. ‘The cybermasters are going to be very pleased to have their precious L’Var genotype back again.’
‘Have you told them yet, First Citizen?’ the cardinal said. ‘Come off it, Roha!’ Vanna snapped. ‘I’m sure they knew all about this before I did.’ The cardinal forced a smile.
‘I’ll tell them officially later tonight,’ Karlo went on. ‘I invited the guildmaster to the public reception, and I’ll have a few words with him privately, too.’
The cardinal nodded, Vanna smiled. Damo started to speak, then gulped the words back.
‘What is it?’ Karlo said. ‘Don’t mumble.’
‘Yes, Se. Uh, well, it wasn’t anything much.’
‘You must have had something to say. Out with it.’
The boy bit his lip hard and stared at the floor. Karlo was about to order him to speak up, when the door slid open for a saccule servant, sashed shoulder-to-hip in maroon, carrying a silver tray and little cups, all marked with the L’Var crest, which it placed upon a low table at the back of the room. At the sight of the Stinker the cardinal gathered his robes like an old woman and stepped back out of its way. Ostentatiously, he swept a handkerchief from a pocket and held it to his nose with a strong waft of flowered scent. The cardinal’s disgust with all things non-human had served Karlo well, so far, but Karlo couldn’t help wondering if in the long run it would prove as dangerous as Vanna’s hatred of the L’Vars. To her he turned, smiling.
‘So tell me, my love,’ he said. ‘Didn’t you agree about the marriage?’
‘I see your reasons. That’s not the same thing as agreeing. But I don’t suppose I have any choice about it, anyway.’
‘Please don’t be difficult.’
‘Why shouldn’t I be difficult? You and the cardinal dig up this little whore from Pleasure and
-’
‘Madam, please!’ The cardinal stepped forward. ‘She’s unmarked. She never was a prostitute.’
‘This little cull, then. This bit of genetic trash.’
‘Vanna.’ Karlo did his best to sound soothing. ‘You agreed two minutes ago that -’
Vanna snarled. The sound was sharp, unmistakably animal. The saccule whimpered, shrinking back; Damo winced and went ashy, moving away from his lawmother. Karlo dismissed the servant with a point toward the door and laid a reassuring hand on the boy’s shoulder. Vanna sighed sharply, fighting the tremors that took over her hands as she raised them, claw-like, to push her hair back from her face.
‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered at last. ‘Yes, of course I agreed. Yes, of course you’re right.’
‘Vanna?’ Karlo said. ‘Should we call for a med tech?’
‘No.’ By sheer force of will she lifted her head smoothly, held it steady, seemed to be forcing the tremors down into her hands, which shook and fluttered like birds trapped in nets.
‘I do want to see this girl, this resurrected L’Var of yours.’
‘All right, then. Damn it all, where is she? And more to the point, where’s Wan?’
‘He was out hunting, sir,’ Damo said. ‘With Pero. They had to be called on the transmit. They’re back in Government House now though. I do know that.’
‘Good. I’m glad someone knows something around this place. Go see what’s holding him up.’
‘Yes sir.’ Damo glanced around, then started across the room to the comm unit built into the wall.
‘Don’t trace him, go find him!’ Karlo snapped. ‘Find him and bring him back here. Right now.’
Damo skittered out of the room fast. Karlo waited until the door slid closed behind the boy, then crossed the room in two swift strides. He grabbed Vanna’s forearms and dragged her close to stare into her eyes.