Part 27 (2/2)
Tsia stared after the other woman. ”I know it.”
He studied the landing pad carefully, watching the rain sheet across and the rivers run off in gray stretches. ”How did you know?” he asked quietly.
She looked at him. ”About the biochips?”
He nodded, ”My biogate. They stood out oddly from your field.”
He nodded again, slowly.
”Didn't you know they would?” she asked.
”I didn't think you had the resolution to distinguish them.”
”I distinguished them right away; I just didn't recognize them for what they were. Without the biocodes
etched in, they were open. They felt like bacteria in your body. Floating. I felt Bowdie's chips the same way, though much more faintly.”
”Jewel-like speckles in a black background?”
She looked at him in surprise.
”I've worked with other guides before you.”
”Nitpicker says a guide can feel a bacterium at thirty paces. Why didn't you think I would? Was it what I said back on the platform about my resolution?”
Doetzier looked at her for a moment. His words were soft. ”Your past is not that of a normal guide, is it,
Feather-nyefcz?”
There was something in his tone of voice... Tsia's guts tightened, and her eyes narrowed unconsciously.
”What do you mean, Doetzier?”
”There are things you should understand about your gate that you don't; and there are other things you've taught yourself that the guide guild has never known. Your past is different from that of other guides.” She watched him like a songbird does an encroaching snake, unaware that her lips were curled back from her teeth. An image rose in her head: the memory of a body whose throat was torn by Tsia's hands. White hair and violet eyes, blank and staring in flaccid horror. Her past. Her crime.
Doetzier watched the expressions haunt her eyes. He said softly, ”What would you do to be free of the past?”
”Free?” Of the fear? she echoed unconsciously.”You've been running for years-for a decade, Tsin-nyeka. Didn't you realize that, in your flight from what you feared, you became that which you most hated?”
She stared at him, unable to guess what he meant.”A victim.” He answered for her.”You don't know that, Doetzier. You don't know what I am.””I know you, Feather-guide. As well as I know my own sister.”Her throat tightened at the term, but her eyes glinted. ”Then tell me my name, if you know it.”For an instant, something like compa.s.sion flickered in his gaze. But his words were like bullets of ice.
”You are the rogue gate, Tsia Matsallen. The illegal guide of the Ciordani guild.”
She stared at him as if she stared at a corpse, long-dead, that rose up to touch her face. Her throat seemed to close; her breath cut off. The chill began in the bones of her toes and neck at the same time. ”Daughter of the guides Bayzon Matsallen and Ellyn Jadietz,” he went on. ”Granddaughter of the guide and First Dropper Caitriona. Descendant of the Sirian guide Nordon Kadya. Of Niamh, of Jacob, of Ciaran-”
”Enough.” Wren's voice stilled them both as he stepped between Tsia and the other man.
Tsia did not move. Her eyes, like those of Ruka's, stared at Doetzier as if she waited for his words to burn through her chest like a laze. ”You're the s.h.i.+eld.” Her voice was barely a whisper.
”Yes.”
”Here for me?”
”No.”
”For the biochips?”
He nodded.
”So you're customs, too.”
”Yes.” His voice was flat, but his eyes watched her closely, as if he were judging her responses to his
words. ”I know about your sister.” She was silent for a moment. ”And now you know about me. My gate. The cats.” A wall inside her seemed to break. Its bricks were fear, and its mortar antic.i.p.ation. He knew her past; he knew about her murder. And the meres, who had protected her, could no longer do that. The scent of the man was harsh in her nose. Wren's hand flashed out to steady her. Nitpicker's voice cut across Doetzier's expression. ”Her link,” the woman said quietly, as she moved back into the doorway, ”is clear and fully licensed.”
Doetzier did not bother to look at the pilot; his gaze was locked on Tsia. ”Her link,” he said, ”was stolen
from the art guild. She killed an artist to take it.” His eyes flicked to Wren's cold face. ”You're not surprised.”
Wren shrugged.
”You knew?”
”It didn't matter to me.” His statement, quiet as it was, was almost a challenge to the s.h.i.+eld.
”And you?” Doetzier turned to Nitpicker.
”Why should I care for her past?” the pilot returned coldly. ”She's been true to her guild. To my guild. I
owe her derori ka'eo. Ma'ke ka'eo.” The debt of honor between friends. She met his eyes steadily. ”As do you,” she added softly.His eyes narrowed. ”I acknowledge no such debt.”Tsia's eyes glinted. ”Then what is it now that you want?”
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