The Agent Gambit (42 page)

A wind blew across the yard, straight down from Fornem's Gap, ice-toothed with winter, though it was barely fall. Zhena Trelu shivered and pulled her jacket close around her. "Wind gets colder every year," she muttered, and pulled herself up sharp. "Listen at you! Just the kind of poor-me you hate in Athna Brigsbee! Mooning the morning away like there wasn't any work to do!"

She snorted. There was always work to do. She bent creakily and gathered up the sweelims she had picked for the parlor-she liked a bit of color to rest her eyes on in the evening when she listened to the radio or read. "Let's go, Borril. Home!"

The wind sliced out of the gap again, but she refused to give it the satisfaction of a shiver. The signs all pointed to a bad winter. She sighed, her thoughts on the house she and Jerry had lived a lifetime in. The shutters needed mending; the chimney had to be cleaned and the tin inspected for corrosion-though what she could do about it if the whole roof was on the verge of falling in was more than she knew. It was a big, drafty old place, much too big for one old woman and her old dog. It had always been too big, really, even when there had been Jerrel and the boy and, later, the boy's zhena-and the dogs, of course. Always four or five dogs. Now there was only Borril, last of a tradition.

As if her thought had reached out and touched some chord within him, the dog suddenly bounded forward, giving tongue in mock ferocity, charging around the side of the house and out of sight.

"Borril!" she yelled, but any fool would know that that was useless. She picked up her pace and arrived at the corner of the house in time to hear Borril, in full stranger-at-the-gate alarm.

Across the barking cut a man's voice, speaking words Zhena Trelu understood to be foreign.

She rounded the corner and stopped in surprise.

Borril was between her and two strangers-barking and wagging his ridiculous puff of a tail. The taller of the two spoke again, sharply, and the barking subsided.

"Be quiet, dog!" Val Con snapped. "How dare you speak to us like that? Sit!"

Borril was confused. The tone was right, but the sounds were different than the sounds She used. He hesitated, then heard Her behind him and ran to Her side, relieved to be out of the situation.

"Borril, you bad dog! Sit!"

That was better. Borril sat, tail thumping on the ground.

"I
am
sorry," Zhena Trelu continued, trying not to stare. "Borril really is quite friendly. I hope he didn't frighten you."

Again, it was the taller who spoke, opening his hands and showing her empty palms. Zhena Trelu frowned. It did not take a genius to figure out that he did not understand what she was saying.

Sighing, she stepped forward.
"Stay,
Borril." As she moved, the two men came forward also, stopping when shock stopped her.

The shorter man was not a man at all. Not, that is, unless foreigners of whatever variety these were allowed a man the option of growing his hair long, braiding it, and wrapping it around his head liken vulgar copper crown. A woman, then, Zhena Trelu allowed. Or, more precisely, a girl. But dressed in such clothes!

Zhena Trelu was not a prude; she knew quite well what useful garments trousers were-especially working around the farm. But these . . .

First, they seemed to be made of leather-sleek, black leather. Second, they were skintight, hugging the girl's boy-flat belly and her-limbs-and neatly tucked into high black boots. The upper garment-a white shirt of some soft-looking fabric-was acceptable, though Zhena Trelu thought it might have been laced a little closer around that slender throat; and the loose leather vest was unexceptional. But what in the name of ice did a woman want to wear such a wide belt for? Unless it was to accentuate the impossible tininess of her waist?

"Am I
that
funny-looking?" Miri asked, and Zhena Trelu started, eyes going to her face.

No beauty, this one, with her face all sharp angles and freckles across the snubbed nose. The chin was square and willful, the full mouth incongruous. Her only claim to prettiness lay in a pair of very speaking gray eyes, at present resting with resigned irony on the other woman's face.

Zhena Trelu felt herself coloring. "I beg your pardon," she muttered. She moved her eyes from the girl to her companion-and found herself staring again.

Where the angles of the girl's face seemed all at odds with each other, the lines in her companion's face worked toward a cohesive whole. High cheeks curved smoothly to pointed chin; the nose was straight and not overlong; the mouth was generous and smiling, just a little. His hair was dark brown, chopped off blunt at the bottom of his ears, and one lock of it straggled across his forehead, over level dark brows and quite nearly into the startling green eyes. His skin was an odd golden color, except for the raw slash of a recent scar across his right cheek.

He was dressed in the same sort of clothes as the girl, the clinging leather and the wide belt keeping no secrets regarding his own thinness.

Zhena Trelu frowned. The girl's skin was pale, doubly so when compared to the man's rich complexion. And they both looked tired. Skinny, too-never mind the outlandish clothes-and foreigners to top it all, without even a word of the language.

The wind sliced across the open lawn; the girl shivered-and that decided it. If the child was sickening for something she needed to be out of the wind. What was her zamir thinking of, to have her out in the chilly autumn weather with no jacket on and that shirt laced up so loose? Zhena Trelu glared at him, and one of his eyebrows rose slightly as he tipped his head, rather like Borril trying to puzzle out one of the rambling monologues she addressed no him.

"Well," she told the young zhena sharply, "you might as well come on in. There's soup for dinner to warm you up, and you can have a rest before you get on." She turned and marched up to the house, treading carefully on the creaky porch steps.

Realizing that he was in danger of being left behind, Borril jumped up and galloped across the lawn, taking the three wooden steps in a bumbling leap. Zhena Trelu, fidgeting with the chancy catch on the wind door, grumbled at him.

"Borril, sit
down,
you lame-witted creature.
Borril!"
she raised her voice as he jumped, almost knocking her down.

"Borril." From her back, a steady voice spoke, firm with command. Woman and dog turned to look.

The slender zamir stood on the second step, bent slightly forward, one golden hand extended. "Borril!" he repeated firmly. "Sit."

Zhena Trelu watched in fascination as the dog waggled forward and thrust his blunt nose into the outstretched hand. "Sit," stated the owner of the hand again.

Borril sat.

The man reached out and tugged lightly on a pointy ear, turning his head as the girl came to his side.

"Borril?" she asked, extending a wary hand. The silly creature
whuffed
and pushed his head forward. In careful imitation of her companion, she tugged on an ear. Borril flung himself onto his side in ecstasy, rolling his eyes and sighing soulfully. The girl threw back her head and laughed.

Zhena Trelu turned back to the catch and pulled the door wide.

"Well, come on," she snapped when they just stood there, staring at her from the second step. "And don't pretend you're not hungry. Doesn't look like you've had a full meal between you since last harvest-time." Irritably, she transferred the sweelims to the hand holding open the door and waved at her hesitant guests with the other.

After a moment, the man moved, coming silently up the last step and crossing the porch into the hall; the girl trailed him by half a step, and Zhena Trelu bit back a sharp lesson on manners. Did the girl think the house was a den of iniquity, that she sent her man in ahead?

They're foreigners, Estra, she reminded herself as she led them down the ball. You're going to have to make allowances.

She dumped the flowers into the sink, turned the flame up under the soup pot, and looked back to find them standing side by side just inside the door, looking around as if neither one had ever seen a kitchen before.

"Soup'll be ready in a couple minutes," she said, and sighed at the girl's blink and the man's uncomprehending head-tip.

Feeling an utter fool, she tapped herself on the chest. "Zhena Trelu," she announced, trying to say each word clearly and pitching her voice a little louder than normal.

The man's face altered, losing years as he grinned. "Zhena Trelu," he said, matching her cadence.

So, it works, she congratulated herself. She pointed at him, tipping her head in imitation of Borril.

He moved his shoulders, lips parting for an answer.

"Tell the truth, Liaden," Miri muttered at his side.

His eyes snapped to her face, both brows up. Smiling in rueful resignation of what he found there, he turned back to the old woman and bowed very slightly, fingers over heart. "Val Con yos'Phelium, Clan Korval."

Zhena Trelu stared, trying to sort the sounds. Valconyos Fellum Can Corevahl? What kind of name-no, wait. Corevahl? He was a foreigner, after all, with wind only knew
what
kind of barbaric accent. She pointed. "Corvill?"

The level brows twitched together, and he frowned, green eyes intent. "Korval," he agreed warily, though still thumping harder on the last syllable than the first.

"Corvill." Zhena Trelu decided, and pointed at the girl, who grinned and shrugged.

"Miri."

"Meri?" Zhena Trelu asked, frowning.

"Miri," she corrected, refusing to look straight at Val Con, though a glance out of the corner of her eye showed him grinning widely.

"Meri," Zhena Trelu repeated, and brought her finger back to Val Con. "Corvill."

He inclined his head, murmured, "Zhena Trelu," and jerked his chin at the dog, curled on his rug next to the stove. "Borril."

"Well, that's fine. Now we're all introduced, and dinner's almost ready." The old woman went across to the stove, lifted the pot lid, and stirred the soup with a long wooden spoon. Going over to the cupboard. she pulled out three bowls and three plates, shoved them into the girl's hands, and waved at the table. "Set the table, Meri."

The girl turned hesitantly toward the table. From the depths of the cupboard, Zhena Trelu produced three glasses and three mismatched napkins, which she handed to the man. He took them without apparent confusion and headed for the table. Zhena Trelu nodded to herself and went back to the sink to rescue the languishing sweelims.

"Hello, Meri," Val Con murmured, setting the glasses by the bowls and plates she had laid out.

"Hello yourself, Corvill, my friend. Sounds like you rhyme with Borril. Speaking of which, what
is
Borril?" She looked up at him. "Besides ugly, I mean."

"Hmm?" He was considering the napkins-one each of white, green, and pink. "Borril is a dog, Miri-or, no," he corrected himself. "Borril is of the species that fills the watch-pet niche here." He smiled at her. "For all reasonable purposes, a dog."

"Oh." She looked at the napkins. "Who gets what color?"

"An excellent question. I was wondering the same." He placed them carefully in the center of the table. "We shall discover."

She grinned. "Clever. Something still missing though-oh." She turned and made her silent way across the kitchen to where the old woman was fussing with her flowers. "Zhena Trelu?"

Zhena Trelu started, nearly overturning the vase, and recovered with a breathless laugh. "Goodness, child, but you gave me a fright. What is it?"

Miri blinked at the unintelligible tirade, opened her mouth to ask for the missing items-and closed it again. The old lady wasn't going to understand any more than she was understood.

All right, Robertson, she directed herself. Use your brain-if you got one.

She looked about, then picked up the wooden spoon lying on the stove and showed it to Zhena Trelu. She turned and pointed at the table, beside which stood her partner, watching the proceedings with interest.

The old woman looked at the spoon, looked at the table, and then laughed. "Oh, is my memory going back on me! Silverware, is that it?" she asked the girl, who only smiled, uncomprehending.

Taking the spoon and putting it back where it belonged, Zhena Trelu went to the cupboard once more.
"Spoons,"
she said clearly.
"Knives. Forks."

"
Spoons."
the girl repeated obediently as each set was placed in her hands.
"Knives. Forks."

"That's right," Zhena Trelu said encouragingly. She made a sweeping motion with her hands, trying to indicate
all
the items the girl held.
"Silverware."

Meri's brows pulled together in a frown.
"Silverware,"
she said, and the other woman smiled and went back to arranging flowers.

"Spoons,"
Miri told Val Con, shoving them into his hand.
"Knives. Forks."
She frowned. "That all seems simple enough. You savvy
silverware,
boss?"

"Perhaps
knives, spoons,
and
forks
are separate names and
silverware
is the name for all together?"

"Not too bad, for a bald-headed guess."

He laughed softly. "But that is what being a Scout is-guessing, and then waiting to see if your guess was correct."

"Yeah?" She looked unconvinced. "Ain't the way I heard it."

"Ah,
you
heard we were heroes, risking our lives among savage peoples, magically able to speak any language we hear and never misunderstanding custom or intent." Mischief glinted in the bright green eyes.

"Naw. Way I heard it, only things Scouts're good for is drinking up fancy liquor and tellin' tall tales 'bout the dragons they killed."

"Alas, I am found out . . ."

"Meri! Corvill! Bring your bowls over here now. Soup's hot."

Miri grinned at him. "That's us-wonder what we're supposed to do now?"

He glanced over his shoulder in time to see the old woman pull a ladle from its hook over the stove. "Bowls, I think," he murmured, and picked up two, moving toward the stove with a deliberately heavy step.