Reclamation (38 page)

The weird scene was attracting attention. Passersby, probably on their way to warehouses or ship docks, turned their heads to see what was going to happen next. A few of them actually stopped dead.

The children also got a look at who blocked their way.

“Murderers!” screeched Ri. The capsule shuddered in Arla’s arms as Ri threw herself against the side. This time her sister made no move to stop her. “Murderers!”

Some people in the gathering crowd must have had translator disks, judging from their expressions.

“These children seem to have a grievance against you,” remarked Arla slowly.

“Your body is Vitae property,” said Young One. “You have no legal recourse to grievance committee or to council.”

Arla shook her head. “I am not making a grievance. These two of the Shessel race are.”

It was an old trick. Hide behind a superior rank whenever you could.

“You killed our parent!” Ri’s voice rose so high Arla’s eardrums responded with pain. “You slashed the membrane, shut the power, you left our sisters for dead, you suffocated our family, you …”

“Ere, calm her!” ordered Arla. Ri was going to hurt herself if she kept up her pounding. Worse, her shuddering would make Arla drop the capsule.

Ere wound herself around her sister again, but with less success. The capsule shook in Arla’s arms and she began to feel the strain of holding it.

“I am going to take these children to the Shessel Embassy.” She shifted her grip on the capsule. “You are welcome to come along and make whatever claim you have in there. If I don’t get them there, there will be two more deaths, this time in front of witnesses, because I can’t hold them much longer and if I drop them, and if this casing cracks, they’ll smother.”

The Vitae said nothing.

“Or we can just start shouting for a security patrol and I can tell my story to them and then you can tell yours and the Shessel can add whatever they feel necessary.”
I am not a Notouch here, you bald, blind children, however hard you try
t
o make me one.
Then, a strange thought struck her.
But you run this world, why isn’t security here already, by your orders?
A tart, satisfied feeling warmed her stomach.
You’re doing something illegal, aren’t you? You CAN’T call security, can you?

Whatever it was the Vitae said to each other, the translator did not make any sense out of it. Arla watched the crowd behind the Vitae, and it was a real crowd now. They stood and stared. They said nothing. They didn’t move. They waited. These were the ones who ran their world and the crowd waited to see what they’d do.

Arla decided not to wait until the Vitae called her bluff. “Somebody get security!” she shouted to the crowd. “It’s a diplomatic incident and a murder call against the Vitae! Somebody get security!”

“Got it!” shouted a voice from the back of the gathering. “On the way! Five minutes!”

Arla smiled grimly. Some of these silent watchers wanted to rebel, all right, whether it meant the end of the world or not. Some of them were just waiting for the chance. Let the bald ones remember that!

“The Shessel will be taken to their Embassy,” said Tall One, “but you are our property. You will be taken by us.”

“Tell the patrol that. Tell them all about why these two are scared stiff of you.”

“They are children. They cannot give witness.”

“I can by Shessel law.” Ere pressed all her hands against the capsule side. “Our parent is dead. I am first-named and that makes me the voice of my family. I can give witness and name protectorates. I name Arla Stone.” She spread her mouth wide. Arla, for the first time, saw her needle-sharp teeth. “If we do not arrive at the Embassy in her hands, you are in violation of the treaty between the Shessel and this world and that is compounded on the crime of murder.”

“Murderers, murderers, murderers,” hissed Ri like she couldn’t make herself stop. By now, she probably couldn’t. “Murderers, murderers, murderers.”

“So, unless we all want to report to the patrol, you’re going to let me take these children out of here.” Arla shouldered the capsule again, grateful for the fact that Ri was confining herself to hissing and buzzing.

Arla started forward, right past the taller Vitae. He, she, or it, was speaking in the untranslated language, but she couldn’t tell to whom or what. They made no move to stop her, though, and she was glad. She was fairly sure the patrol would be on her side, but there would be endless Skyman formalities, and she had already lost too much time. “Ere, I am going to need your help.” Arla walked through the crowd. The bodies parted for her.

“Ah … all right. I’ll try.” The capsule wobbled precariously as Ere squirmed.

“I need you to keep me on the right path to the Embassy. We need crowded streets and residential areas. We can’t stay too long in deserted areas. We’re going to walk from here.”

“Walk!” whistled Ere. “But it’s miles and miles!”

“Any public transport we use might be rerouted by the Vitae,” Arla reminded her, “and I’m used to walking miles and miles.” She smiled and, with a patience that came from long necessity, stifled the pain in her aching knees and ankles. “Which is more than I’d say for those two behind us. They are behind us, aren’t they?” She felt the capsule shift again.

“Yes,” said Ere.

So, NOW they’re ready to chase me through the streets.
“Well, well, strangest caravan I’ve ever been a part of but we’re lucky, little ones, though you might not believe it. There are lines they are not quite ready to cross yet. We have a chance to get you home still.”

And to get me out of here, if your people will help someone who helped some of their own.

“We can follow this street for a long time,” said Ere. “Until it gets to the New Crescent Quarter Way.”

“Good.” Arla shifted her pace to a slower one, the ground-covering pace she could maintain for almost as long as she could keep breathing, even carrying a heavy load in a high wind. She’d walked like this for most of her life. Let the Vitae with their machines and their shuttles tag along behind.

“They’re still back there.”

“Of course they are,” said Arla. “And as long as they stay back there, we’re fine. It means they haven’t been told what else to do.”
I hope.

“Can you tell me what happened to you?” she said, partly to keep Ere from dwelling too long on the Vitae behind them, and partly to keep herself from doing the same.

She listened, all the while trying to bury her horror in anger.
What right? What right do these people have? If they were the Nameless Powers with the Servant at their side, they would still have no right!

“… but the air was gone and he fell and Sha and Dene were already down and Ri was screaming and the Vitae were gone and … and …”

“Shhh, all right. It’s all right,” Arla wished she could touch her. She didn’t even know if the Shessel could tolerate the touch of human beings, but she still wished it. “Are they still back there?”

“Yes.”

“All right. Try to rest. We’re on our way to safety.”

As fast as I can get us there,
she lengthened her stride.

The walkway crossed into one of the wild areas. The trees, too tall and too straight, swallowed the light and the weeds ate up the city sounds. Arla strained her ears. Traffic noise faded farther away with each step, except for the slow, steady hum from the Vitae’s transport. Arla risked a glance at the little patch of wilderness, wondering how much shelter it would afford if she had to run.

Maybe it won’t come to that. Maybe word will reach the Shessel and they’ll come looking for the children. Maybe …

Bracken rustled. The children whimpered, and Arla’s arm tightened around the capsule. She threw her gaze in every direction, trying to find the source of the new noise. The rustling increased. Arla forced herself to keep moving. About a half mile ahead, another inhabited stretch glowed like a beacon.

Behind and to the left, weeds and scrub parted and a sedan chair, one of the few private vehicles authorized for off-road travel, climbed gingerly out of the underbrush and with high-legged steps started angling toward Arla and her charges.

Arla watched the insectlike vehicle out of the corner of her eye, but kept on walking. It had its windscreen up and its weather hood down, so there was no telling who was in there. She tried to think what to do. The drone of the Vitae car wasn’t getting nearer, but the chair was. Fatigue clouded the edges of her mind and fear did nothing to clear it.

Abruptly, the chair halted and folded its legs. A human head and torso stuck out the side door.

“Arla!” shouted Perivar.

Relief sent Arla sprinting across the field before she remembered she was risking a huge fine for disturbance of a wilderness zone.

She skidded to a stop beside the chair, gouging the soil with her heels and doubling her fine. Iyal leaned out the driver’s side window and stared along with Perivar.

“What are you doing …” she began, but Perivar had seen the capsule and the Shessel children huddled inside.

“Murderer!” squeaked Ri.

What color he had drained out of Perivar’s face. “Where’s Kiv? The other kids?”

Arla glanced toward the road. The Vitae had stopped their vehicle, too, and one of them had poked a bald head out the window to get a clearer view of the field.

“No …” breathed Perivar.

“They’re dead,” said Arla. “The children say the Vitae are responsible. I see no reason to say otherwise.”

Perivar hit the door key, scrambling to get out before the door was even halfway open. Iyal touched the override control on her panel and it slid shut again.

“Perivar,” Iyal laid a big hand on his arm. “Don’t even think about it.”

Perivar pressed the key again, and again. “They killed … they took … they …”

“We’re in public, Perivar,” said Iyal.

“And we need to get these children to their people,” said Arla.

“Yeah, yeah.” He shook himself. “You’re right,” he looked at the children. “Gods, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know this would happen.”

“I know,” said Ere. “I don’t know about Ri, though.”

Perivar insisted on putting himself and the capsule on the luggage rack on the back of the chair. Arla, her arms aching, did not object, and neither did the children.

As soon as Arla strapped herself into the passenger’s seat, Iyal touched a series of controls. The chair stood up again. She steered it into the street. The speed of its stride rocked them back and forth. Arla looked behind them. The Vitae transport was still standing in the middle of the street.

“I guess they did not feel ready to explain themselves to the Shessel after all,” she murmured to Iyal.

“Well, they’d better be ready to explain themselves to the Diet. A lot of people are not happy.” Iyal spoke with a kind of quiet satisfaction and Arla wondered what had been happening to her since she had left the lab, what, four hours ago? Five?

Iyal must have seen the puzzled expression on her face. “Electronic communications, Arla, are wonderful things.”

In response to Iyal’s prodding, Arla related what had happened since she’d left the labs. In return, Iyal told her how she had woken up the Diet members who knew her family and had gotten enough votes together to call a counterdebate on the Vitae resolution. Then, when Perivar had called her from the docks where the
U-Kenai
was coming in with still more news, she had gone to meet him.

“Then Eric Born is here,” said Arla.

“No, he isn’t.” Iyal stared out the windscreen. “The Vitae got him.”

Arla felt like the ground had dropped away from her. All she could do was hang on to the door handle and listen to her own harsh breathing.

At last, Iyal walked them through the arched gates of the Shessel Embassy. She explained their reason for petitioning entry to the automated security system in a few shockingly blunt words. The gates opened to let them into the inner courtyard and white lines lit up along the pavement to guide them to the squared-off doors reserved for human entrance.

Perivar, his arms wrapped possessively around the capsule led them into the reception chamber and showed Arla and Iyal how to put on the oxygen tanks. Then he led them through the shimmering membrane that was the real entrance to the Embassy.

As soon as they crossed the threshold, Ere opened the capsule and lifted herself halfway out, sucking great long breaths of air. An inner door folded back and three Shessel flowed into the room, ringing the humans. Perivar set the capsule on the floor. Ri shoved past her sister and swarmed up into the arms of the smooth-skinned, earth-toned Shessel and clung there, shivering and keening.

“Can you help her?” pleaded Ere, climbing all the way out of the capsule.

“We’ll sedate her,” said the Shessel. “That’s all we can do for now.”

Ere shivered along the entire length of her body. “I need to talk to somebody. The Emissary Voice. I need …”

“We’re here.” Three more Shessel entered from one of the corridors and Ere made a beeline for the earth-toned one. He embraced her with all his arms.

“Kiv is with the Sky Fathers now and your sisters are waiting to be reborn,” he said. “I feel them. They wait and say how brave their sister is to go on. She will live for us until we can live again.”

“I know, I know.” Ere burrowed under the crook of his neck.

“Emissary,” said Perivar. “Ere says that it was murder, done by the Rhudolant Vitae.”

“There are two of their Ambassadors here,” said the squat, greenish Shessel. “They will answer.” He looked toward the Shessel who held Ri.

“Are you ready to speak with the voice of your family, Ere?” he asked. “The Vitae are already here.”

Ere nodded and let herself be put on the floor. She extended her neck to stretch herself as tall as possible.

The greenish one extended his neck toward the cluster of humans. “The Vitae claim property rights over Arla Stone. She will come with us so we can determine the legalities involved here.”

Arla swallowed and glanced around her. Nowhere to run. She would simply have to brave this out for now.

“I can add my witness to Ere’s,” said Perivar.