Part 23 (1/2)

They rode the movalong to Founders' Green. At the edge of the park, looking into that soft green wildness, Rhani's fear returned. ”I can't go in there,” she said. ”I won't go in there.”

Dana nodded. Tersely he said, ”Better not.” They climbed the steps.

Rhani's feet were sore. She was shaking with fatigue. The door opened before they reached it, and Corrios came out to the step. Before she could speak, he bent and swept Rhani up in his arms. She put her head on his shoulder. His bulk was comforting. Swinging around, he carried her into the front hall.

The feel of the house restored Rhani's strength. Corrios seemed ready to carry her to her room. ”Put me down,” she said. She ignored the dull throbbing pain spreading in her right side. Amri and Binkie hovered near her. ”I'm all right. Dana has a cut on his face. Amri, bring us something to drink, and run a bath for me. Binkie, leave a message at the Clinic for Zed. No specifics, just say that I want him to call. And then get me a line to Officer Tsurada of the Abanat police.” She walked upstairs without help. Binkie babbled fatuously beside her: _Was she hurt, had she been alone, did she want a medic?_ ”Of course I wasn't alone,” she said. ”Dana was there.” She stripped off the torn, dirty sari and put on her robe.

The pendant bounced on her neck. Stupid, she told herself. You could have used it, at least. Irritated, she took it off. Amri brought a tray with a pitcher and gla.s.s, and went to run her bath. She was snuffling. Binkie leaned over the com-unit, struggling for self-control.

”Rhani-ka,” he said huskily, ”I have Officer Tsurada on display.” Rhani went to the screen. Sachiko Tsurada looked grimly back at her.

”Domna,” she said. ”My deep sympathy and regrets. I hope you are not badly injured.”

”No,” Rhani said. ”I was simply shaken up.”

”Can you tell me what your attackers looked like?”

”I'll try,” Rhani said, sitting in the chair. ”There were three of them, two men, one woman.” She tried to picture their faces, but the features she had seen so intimately in the strong sunlight came back to her now impossibly blurred. ”Wait,” she said, and told Binkie to find Dana. After a few moments he came to the bedroom. There was a white gel patch on his cheek. ”The police need to know what those people looked like,” she said.

He nodded. ”I'll try.” She let him have the chair. She was aching now, as if every muscle had been strained. She half-listened to Dana's description; ”Fair skin, dark hair, nose broken to the left. She was right handed. There might be some fingerprints on the shards of broken gla.s.s.”

Amri said, ”Rhani-ka, your bath is ready.”

Rhani tottered to the washroom. The mirrors were steamy. She slid her robe from her shoulders and handed it to Amri. The slave gasped. ”Rhani-ka, your side!” Rhani looked at herself in the clouded mirror. Her right side was blue from shoulder to hip. She lowered herself into the hot water, and had to clench her jaw tightly to keep from crying.

The heat eased the soreness. She leaned forward to let Amri soap her back. Her legs stung; they were sc.r.a.ped from her fall on the pavement. She lifted her hands to free her hair from its coils and remembered the wig. It was not there. She did not remember when, during the struggle, it had gone.

”Rhani-ka,” said Amri, ”your beautiful dress is all torn.”

”It doesn't matter,” Rhani said. She leaned against the wall of the tub.

She stayed in the bath until the water cooled. At last, moving slowly, she eased herself from the washroom. Her skin was reddened where it was not black and blue.

She drank a gla.s.s of fruit punch, savoring the sweetness of the cold drink. Probably, she thought, it would be good to eat. But she had no appet.i.te for food. Amri opened the bed for her, and she climbed between the sheets.

The face of the woman with the bottle slid waveringly into her mind.

”Yago b.i.t.c.h,” they had called her. She pictured the police hunting them through the streets. Tears sprang traitorously to life beneath her eyelids; she lay weeping, furious at her body's weakness. She was Rhani Yago, _Domna_ Rhani Yago, what was she doing, lying in her own bed crying like a child?

Amri crept in. ”Rhani-ka, are you in pain? Can I get you something?”

”No,” Rhani said. She rubbed her face. ”Has Zed called yet?”

”Not yet, Rhani-ka.”

”Is Dana there?”

”I think he went downstairs again,” Amri said.

”I want him,” Rhani said.

”I'll go find him.”

”Thank you, Amri,” Rhani said. She struggled up. She wanted to be sitting up when he came in, sitting, and not crying. The door slid aside. He came into the bedroom. ”You sent for me, Rhani- ka.”

”Yes,” Rhani said. The traitor tears began to run down her nose again.

She didn't know what she wanted from him. Rea.s.surance ... the knowledge that he did not think less of her because she was helpless in a fight? ”d.a.m.n it, I -- ”

She had to stop, and blow her nose. He turned, and vanished into the washroom, to emerge carrying a wet cloth and a dry towel. Sitting on the bed, he wiped her face with the cloth and patted it dry, just as if she were four years old.

”Better?” he said.

There was neither reproach nor scorn in his voice. Rhani put her head back in the pillows, and her heart, which had been knocking against her rib cage like a demented pendulum, regained its equilibrium. Measuringly, she gazed at him. She knew what she wanted. ”Close the door,” she said. He left the bed and shut the door. She pulled the blanket to one side. Walking back to the bedside, he stood gazing at her. She moved in the big bed, making a place for him there.

”Come inside.”

He stripped. In the soft arrested daylight behind the curtains, his body looked hard and cold. But against hers it was warm. He touched her gently, cautious of her bruises. He wasn't clumsy. His weight on her was uncomfortable; she gestured, and he rolled, pulling her on top of him and easing himself into her in one motion. His hips lifted to meet her. Lowering her head, she began to stroke his chest with her hair. He teased her nipples with eager fingers, and she saw his lips soften and sigh with pleasure as she began to ride.

*Chapter Eleven*

After the loving, Dana rose and opened the curtains.

Light filled the dark room, spilling down the paneled walls. The afternoon bustle of tourists through the streets came faintly upward, noise without words, like the distant rus.h.i.+ng of a river. The house was quiet, except for the labor of the aircooling machine. But, Rhani thought, why do I think of rivers? The rivers run underground on Chabad.

Dana came back to the bed. He leaned over it to kiss her, and she stroked his hairless yellow chest, feeling for the heartbeat beneath the skin. The room smelled of s.e.x and s.e.m.e.n.

”I must go,” he said.

”Yes.” He bent to her, kissing her eyelids, cheeks, nose, ears. She captured his mouth and brought it to hers, enjoying the taste of him.

When she let him go, he dressed. Noiselessly he slid the door ajar. He closed it behind him. Rhani stretched and rolled onto her belly. She could still smell him in the creases of the sheets.

Her bruises ached. She watched the sunlight move on the dark wooden walls. Finally she rose, went to the washroom, and stepped into the shower. The water felt good except on her sc.r.a.pes. She returned to the bed and pulled it into some sort of order, straightening the covers and plumping the pillows. Then she got into it, knowing that she should be up and working, and not caring. The stillness of the big house was soporific.

Zed's step on the stair woke her from sleep. He was coming two at a time.

The room was cool. The sky outside the windows was a brilliant s.h.i.+mmering purple.

Zed slid her bedroom door aside without bothering to knock. He crossed to the bed. She lifted her hand to him. ”Zed-ka.”

He sat on the edge of the bed. He was wearing a green gown, tied at the throat. ”Did you come through the streets like that?” she asked.

”Yes. Clinic garb. Are you all right? I came as soon as I could. All the juniors are on Needle Row, or at the Barracks. I was working Emergency.” His face was drawn. ”I told Binkie not to tell you!” she said. ”He was only to tell you to call....”

”I have been calling,” he said. ”And calling. There's been no answer for six hours.”