Part 48 (1/2)

Pat Rin felt a frisson of horror He cleared his throat

”Nova?”

”Die dishonored,” she ainst the carpet ”Cursed and forgotten”

He caught his breath This was no play-acting He couldn't, off-hand, think of any swift-striking disease that caused hallucination There were recreational pharmaceuticals which produced vivid visions, but- ”Cursed,” Novathat Pat Rin knehich would produce that effect

Come to that, it was not unknown for Korval to produce Healers, though such talents usually did notNot that thisfitbore any resemblance to his limited experience of Healer talent

Dra, usually came with puberty And, surely, if one were dra, Nova looked distinctly unwell Her grief-locked face was pale, the black eyes screwed shut, now; and she was shi+vering, palainst the carpet

Clearly, whatever the probleht away to a place where she ht lie dohile he called a nostic kit on the floor and went forward When he reached the grieving girl, he knelt and put his hands, gently, on her shoulders

”Nova”

No reply Her shoulders were rigid under his fingers He could see the pulse beating, much too fast, at the base of her slender throat

Fear spiked Pat Rin-the child was ill! He made his decision, braced hi her with-The quiescent, grieving child exploded into a fury of fists and feet and screa with authority on his cheek

Pat Rin staggered and went down on a knee Nova broke free, rolled, and snapped to her feet, the carpet knife held in a blade-fighter's expert grip

Blindingly fast, she thrust Pat Rin threw hi to his feet and spinning, body falling into the crouch his defense teacher had drilled hie that did not come

Nova looked at him-perhaps she did look at him-and tossed the blade away, as if it were a stylus or so it as it bounced away, safely away, across the rug and onto the workrooht down froid, and smacked it shtened, forcing hi terrible was happening, and he was entirely out of his depth He should, he thought, call the Healers now And then he thought that he should-he

Perhaps persuasion would succeed where force had failed He took a breath and shook the hair that had come loose from the tail out of his face His cheek hurt and he wouldNo matter

He cleared his throat

”Nova?”

No answer Pat Rin sighed

”Cousin?”

She raised her head, her eyes were pointed in his direction

Ah, he thought No to parley this se into a win?

He shi+fted, and looked down at the carpet An old carpet, a treasure-a Quidian Tantara, the pattern as old as weaving itself How Luken would love this rug

Alas, he sorely missed Luken and his endless commonsense just now What would he do in this eldritchspirit in a tea box?

Pat Rin looked up

”Cousin,” he said again, to Nova's black and sightless eyes ”Iscarcely know you If you must treat with me this way, at least show respect to our common Clan and tell me clearly which melant'i you use”

He bowed flawlessly, the bow requesting instruction froed in her face; he'd at least been seen, if not recognized

”Melant'i gaaly, she swept a perfect bow: Head of line to child of another line”Lisha yos'Galan Clan Korval,” she said in that strange voice, and bowed again, leading with her hand to display the ring it did not bear ”Master Trader It is in this guise, Del Ben, that I beca with bel'Tarda”

Del Ben? The name struck an uneasy memory There had been a Del Ben yos'Phelium, many years back in the Line Indeed, Pat Rin recalled, there had been three Del Ben yos'Pheliums-and then no more, which waspeculiarof itself He re his studies of the Diaries and of lineage And he re it was odd that a yos'Phelium had died without issue, odder still that the death was not recorded,books between one page and the rest

Nova's black eyes flashed, she laughed, not kindly ”Look at you! Hardly sense enough to see to your wounds! Well, bleed your precious yos'Pheliu if you will, and live with the mark of it This-I am old I am slow I could never have touched the et by, just enough to cause trouble for others, just enough- ”Bah,” she said, interrupting herself with another bow: Cousin instructing cousin ”This one? Well, cuz, I had thought myself well beyond the time of my life where I must marry at contract But not only will I wed a bel'Tarda because of you, I will bring them into the Clan because of you”

Pat Rin froze-as this?

She swept on, a child chillingly, absolutely convincing in the role of Clan elder

”Ah, yes, sn them Do you know that the dea'Gauss and bel'Tarda's ht have, had you checked your weekly agendas, but when have you ever done so? Did you know that, between them, they decided that your life was insufficient to Balance the wrong done bel'Tarda?”

There was a laugh then, edgy and perhaps not quite sane ”Do you know that we are forbidden by Korval to kill you? But no matter, cuz, I am to both carry the bel'Tarda's heir, ill replace the man who suicided as a result of your extortion, and to oversee the rebuilding of their business-likely here on Liad!-since the heir and his heir died in the fire The only proper Balance is to offer our protection, bring them into Korval, and insure that their Line lives on For you-you nearly destroyed the whole of it!

And you?”

Another frightening bow, this one so complex it took even Pat Rin's well-trained eye a s news of a death in the House

Pat Rin, mesmerized, saw the play move on- ”You may see the Delm, if you dare, or you may choose a new name-one that lacks Korval, and one that lacks yos'Phelium You may eat while you are in this house, you may sleep in this house, youthem to me now If you will speak to the Delht, ” she said, spitting on the rug ”Re o beyond the outside door-it will not read and stor into the pose Pat Rin had seen before

”I shall take the rug!” Pat Rin announced with sudden fervor, not certain that she'd heardHe rolled it quickly, slung itago from Luken, and hustled it out into the hall, where he dumped it hurriedly on the back stairs to his loft room, and clicked the mechanical lock forcefully

He snatched the portable comm from its shelf and rushed back to the door of the display rooirl huddled in sobs a

His fingers moved on the comm's keypad and he wondered who they had called A faint chime came out of the speakeranother-and a wo crisply

”Solcintra Healer Hall Service?”

THE HEALERS-a plump, merry-faced man and a thin, stern woman-arrived The woainst the floor The ?”

”I took the carpet away, as she commanded,” he said ”I locked the carpet knife in a drawer”