Time's Dark Laughter Part 16

Aba stepped in, and the old man closed the door. "This way, Sire."

Aba followed him into the study and sat down, while the old servant went to get his master. The painting on the easel was almost finished now: the anguish in the weeping woman's face was almost palpable; the blood on the dying man's neck, almost wet; the shadow of the Vampire's beating wing, almost audible. Osi walked in, sipping a b.l.o.o.d.y Mary.

"Good morning, Sire Aba. Can I offer you anything?"

"Thank you Osi-Sire, no. I've just been told we are to leave within the hour. Without audience."

"So I have been told."

"I wish ... to say good-bye. To you."

"I have enjoyed our conversations a great deal. It pains me to see you go. These Neuromans are bloodless company."

"But we will see each other again, we-"

"Lie to me not."

"Hope is not a lie."

"Hope is a pa.s.sionate lie. And its greatest evil is that it occasionally comes true."

"Then think of me as the pa.s.sionate liar I am." Aba spoke in secret warning.

Osi replied, "Then go in good blood, friend."

There was an awkward silence for several moments, until Aba found the voice to say what he had come to say. "Before I go, Sire Osi, I would ask a favor. I would buy one of your harem-a girl, I think-a gift for my youngest harem boy. For his birthday."

Osi's violet eyes seemed to flame. "Buy her, you say? You insult me so? You call me friend and offer to pay me for such a-"

Aba laughed. "Sois gentil, calm yourself, Sire, and give me the wench."

Osi bowed. "Now that is more to the point. A gift, then, between friends. Now, whom did you have in mind?"

"Well, he's a young slave, fifteen summers this week, so the female I bring him should be experienced enough to be able to educate him, but not too old to play child's games. Say, thirty years."

"I have several such," nodded Osi. "What of coloring?"

"Well, his hak is dark and his skin light, though sunned. In his chest I've had sewn a giant ruby-it is his pride. Perhaps you have someone with red coloring to complement the jewel."

"Yes," nodded Osi hesitantly, suddenly thoughtful, suddenly alert.

Aba went on, half to himself. "Ollie is his name. He's the most temperamental boy I've ever had. And totally devoted to me. Why, do you know, he swore the day I left that if I wasn't back in time for his birthday party, he'd come find me? Such insolence, but he knows how strongly I feel about him-I let him get away with so much. He's even a bit addled, I think. He goes quite wild at tunes. Maybe if you could find someone with a heavier hand than I've got with him, someone who could teach him a little restraint-"

Osi held up his hand, then scratched his cheek. "I think ... I think I may have a surprise for you when you leave, Sire Aba."

It worked, then. Aba felt simultaneously elated and ashamed at the success of his ruse. Still, no meanness was intended; only a bit of guile, for a greater good.

"Well, we both have things to do, I'm sure," Osi said as he walked Aba to the door. "I shan't detain you. Your gift will be ready as you leave."

"I hope you will remember me without much rancor, Osi-Sire." They stood in the foyer.

"I will remember you not at all, young Sire." They looked at each other a long, curious moment, mixing emotions with then" respirations. Then Osi pulled Aba to him in a powerful embrace; kissed him open-mouthed, sensuously, seriously. Aba gave himself to the moment. When it pa.s.sed, they parted gently; Aba stepped into the hall, and Osi closed the door behind him.

"Wait here," croaked Ninjus.

Beauty, Aba, and D'Ursu stood in a large, bare room, facing the only door. Surrounding them were Elspeth, Fleur, Osi, Ninjus, and three other Vampire guards. Ninjus left and came back a moment later. With him were two more Neuroman guards, and between them walked a badly beaten Human-Ollie.

He recognized Beauty instantly, but held his tongue at an imperceptible sign from the Centaur.

Aba saw the sign, too. He leaped forward, shock pulling his features tight. "Ollie, what are you doing here! What have they done to you?"

Ollie caught Beauty's wink a second time, and immediately fell on his knees before Aba, hysterically weeping.

Aba turned to the ANGELs in a fury. "What is the meaning of this?" he screamed. He was letting himself play on his real feelings, now, for truly, the sight of such a badly beaten Human upset him greatly.

Ninjus stepped forward. "This one belongs to you?"

"He is my favorite," Aba hissed.

"He snuck in last night-he would not say how. He was with two others who escaped-he would not say who. Between them they killed seven of our citizens-he would not say why."

Aba turned back to Ollie. "Is this true?" he whispered fiercely.

Ollie threw himself prostrate at Aba's feet. "I didn't k-kill anyone, I s-swear I didn't," he choked out between sobs.

Aba turned back to the guards. "He's my youngest steward. He begged me not to leave him alone. I fear in my absence he fell into bad company and came looking for me. What his companions were after, I cannot say." His voice was a mixture of confusion, anger, and fear.

Ollie picked up his cue. "Y-you promised you wouldn't 1-leave me, Sire. I paid them to h-help me find you. From Ma'gas' they were, plain pirates. It was the riches of the castle they w-wanted, and made me help them once we was inside. It was you I wanted, Sire, only y-you." He grabbed Aba's ankles pitifully.

"Tell us how you got in the castle," said Osi, sternly but softly. "Tell Sire Aba."

"Tunnels, Sire. We came through the tunnels."

"The tunnels are all electrified," Ninjus said evenly. "How did you get past the wire screens?"

"They said they h-had a friend on the inside, Sire. They s-said the electricity was turned off for a few minutes, just when they cut their way through. They took me up as a hostage, Sire, in case they got cornered. They thought y-you wouldn't hurt me, because I told them about-about us. Sire, forgive me." He wept uncontrollably.

Aba shook his head in shame and dismay. "It is not mine to forgive," he said to the boy.

The ANGELs and Vampires conferred briefly. Ninjus looked repugnantly annoyed; Osi, bemused; Fleur, nonplused; Elspeth, dubious.

"Kill them all," growled Ninjus, "and throw 'em down the tubes."

"We should question them, really." Fleur raised the objection rather mildly.

"Let them go. All of them." Osi spoke with quiet force.

"Why?" grumbled Ninjus.

"It wouldn't be worth our while to antagonize Jarl at present. If he sent a force down on us now, it would be . . . too distracting. Besides, no harm had been done."

"No harm!" Ninjus boiled. "Seven dead and our security breached!"

"Then the intruders did us a favor to point up our weak spots without really compromising our projects. As for the dead, they've been properly punished, I think, for their stupidity." Osi smiled thinly at Ninjus, whom he disliked not only on general principles but on specifics of character as well.

Fleur said, "You're certain there's no other reason you're being so lenient, Osi? You're not having an affair with that gangly, awkward Vampire, are you?"

"He's not-" Osi hissed, then stopped himself. Calmly, he said, "I don't know to whom you refer."

Fleur displayed a sickly smile.

Elspeth muttered, "Glunog Osi dentak, nef Aba loroi, Jarl elesku orogro dor."

Fleur nodded. "Well, it's your decision, Osi. I'm sure the Queen will understand."

Osi raised his lip imperceptibly, the barest hint of ritual grin.

Ninjus turned to Aba. "This is neither forgiven nor forgotten. It is recorded and remarked." He made a fist. "And by Quark's Charm, under the ephemeral auspices of diplomatic immunity and the good graces of this council, it is reluctantly dismissed."

He turned on his heel and strode out the door, followed by the other council members. When only the four interlopers were left, D'Ursu turned to Beauty and said, "I think that means we can leave this stinking city."

And so, late in the morning, D'Ursu Magna, Beauty, Aba, with Ollie on Beauty's back, walked slowly out the main gates of The City With No Name and headed south along the coast.

CHAPTER 12: A Gathering of Clouds.

FLEUR, Elspeth, Osi, Ugo, and Ninjus sat at a small round table, looking grim.

"We have much to discuss," said Ninjus. "Something is happening."

"There's only one item of importance," Fleur said petulantly. "And that is surely the Queen."

"There are a mult.i.tude of items," corrected Ninjus, "which I will list." The others sat quietly listening. The Chief Security ANGEL proceeded. "There is the arrival of a Human, probably involved in the attack on the City five years ago, a Human sought by the Queen these five years. There is this Human's escape-"

"And likely death," added Fleur.

"-His escape down a disposal shaft, which was subsequently not repaired."

"Not repaired because the Queen would not permit a repair crew into her chambers."

"One of her moods?"

"Possibly. Or possibly she suspected reentry by that route. In any case, there is then the convenient arrival of a delegation from Jarl, proposing an alliance. There is the announcement by the Queen that she is pregnant- undoubtedly by the Human who escaped. Then there is another invasion of the castle-this time by three creatures who kill our guards and steal some spare parts. Two of these escape-one, we think, is an escaped Plugger; the other we don't know. The third is caught-obviously a runaway harem slave, as the jewel in his chest so brands him-and we are told he belongs to the Vampire who happens to be here on a diplomatic mission. This slave tells us that we have a castle spy, who cut electricity on our security system long enough to permit the thieves' entrance. Now, this is a lot to digest. Comments?"

"You think this is all part of a unified plot, do you?"

"There are too many coincidences to think otherwise."

"Perhaps." Osi spoke now. "But I trusted Aba, the Sire from Jarl. I thought his story-and his slave's-were self-corroborating, and perfectly believable. For the rest, you may be right."

"You're blinded by your infatuation with this young Sire," snorted Ugo.

"There is a castle conspiracy at the base of this," rasped Ninjus. "Mark my words. These breaches of security-"

"Stuff," said Fleur. "You see conspiracies between the day and the night."

"Do you deny-"

"I deny nothing. And by all means, brace up your security, ferret out your traitors, do whatever. We have but one problem, as far as I am concerned."

"Which is?"

"The Queen's child, of course. These other things, be they related or not-the appearance of the Human, the infiltration by a few scruffy saboteurs, a diplomatic mission that is either sincere or bogus-they are things easily dealt with and easily forgotten. They are minutiae. They are too insignificant to matter hi the sweep of what we will achieve in the next five years with the grace of our Queen. But this child-this is an unknown quant.i.ty. We don't know what it will be, how it will think, how it will affect our Queen's commitment to our goals. And we may well not have the control over it that we have over our Queen- we don't know what the nutritional requirements of the child will be. We are so close, now, to reaching total and virtually unheralded domination of this sector that we cannot afford any new, uncontrolled genotypes to enter the gene pool at this point. I tell you flatly, we have but one urgent problem: this child must not be." There was silence as the others nodded.

Immediately upon walking out the gates of the City, D'Ursu, Aba, Beauty, and Ollie walked south down the cliff path, found D'Ursu's boat still anch.o.r.ed in the south harbor, and sailed it first north, then west, to lull suspicious eyes from the castle. When it was dark, they turned again, this time south, and Ollie guided them, with some difficulty, to the Bookery caves.

There followed two days of rejoicing. The reunion of Jasmine, Beauty, Ollie, and Rose-after all the horror of the previous nights-was just the kernel of joy the little underground community needed, around which to coalesce and warm.

Beauty and Rose stayed more or less to themselves the first day. They had much to discuss. Rose wept a good deal of the time-for causing her beloved Centaur such pain, for separating herself so inexorably from him by her flight, for having feelings he couldn't understand.

Beauty was confused and frustrated. Now that Black-wind was dead, the object of much of his anger was gone, leaving the Centaur with a sort of helpless, empty love for Rose-the love he had always felt, but tempered now. He was painfully happy to see her; but now that he found she had left of her own will, his heart was a thing without substance. He could not but wish her well; yet for himself, he could find no direction. Still, he maintained his balance throughout, and it was well known-among the Centauri, at any rate-that balance without direction is always preferable to direction without balance.

Ollie, pot quite so selflessly disposed to Rose, spent his time actively ignoring her.

Rose wished she could explain to Beauty the convolutions of her soul-her yearnings, her bleak apprehensions, her gray dawns: dark corners that kept emerging under the light of the Plug. She could no longer keep her emotions sorted or the universe at bay.

Candlefire came to stand beside her the morning of the second day. "Join me," he said. He took a four-foot cable, plugged one end into his head, the other into Rose's. They quivered momentarily-almost fell-then walked, in perfect step, like reflections, into the darkness. shadow. It might have been an ominous vision, but Paula didn't feel scared. "Not lonely," she said. "I am alone."

"You seem alone," he amended. "And lonely."

She drew herself up defiantly. "I am a rock. I am an island."

He smiled affectionately in the darkness at her, though she could not see. He said, softly, " 'I have my books, and my poetry to protect me.'"

She caught her breath. "You-you know the Old Words!"

He shrugged modestly. "I've read many old books and papers. Some are quite beautiful."

"But you're a Vampire. There are no Vampire Scribes."

"I'm not a Scribe. I merely like to read."