Part 9 (1/2)
”I see.” She looked away. Unfair. Unfair.
”Unfair.” He nodded. ”Yes, it is quite unfair, and yet I believe that these inequities of political fortune may yet balance themselves, before the race is run.”
”Are you always so telepathic?”
”I am not telepathic. Only sometimes, I can make a fairly good guess.”
”Better than fairly good. How do you do that?”
”As you have asked me if I am always so telepathic, I think I may ask you if you are always so inquisitive.”
”Afraid so.”
”I am glad to hear it. You satisfy my hopes, along with my expectations.”
Tell me your hopes, your expectations. She stifled the natural response. He was a Grewzian, after all. She stifled the natural response. He was a Grewzian, after all.
”I cannot account for all of this,” she compromised.
”All of-?”
”This. Such a meeting, in the middle of a great city, by mere chance. It's improbable.”
”You are displeased?”
”Only surprised.”
”The surprise does not appear to disagree with you. The color has come back into your face. Your eyes are clear and bright, very bright indeed, like night signals. You are looking quite wonderfully alive.”
”I am?” she asked, absurdly pleased, then recollected herself. ”But why are you here at all, Overcommander-Karsler? Shall I regard this meeting as coincidence alone?”
”No,” he replied, to her surprise. ”Not quite coincidence. I was attracted to this place, at this time, for reasons I can hardly define. Sometimes it happens that way-that is, there is the pull, the sense of nameless demand that draws me where it will, when it will. The purpose of such a summons is rarely apparent, but when it comes, it is not to be denied.”
”But how extraordinary,” she replied noncommittally, and sat silent for a moment, trying to decide whether or not she believed him. His remark bordered on the fantastic, yet he had no reason to lie, unless he simply sought to impress a credulous female.
”Yes, I agree-it sounds a very idle claim indeed,” Karsler conceded.
Luzelle managed to repress her guilty start, but felt the telltale color heat her cheeks. He'd needed no telepathy to divine her reaction-she knew from dismal lifelong experience that she had a face all too easy to read. She forced herself to meet his eyes, and saw that he was smiling-a smile of amus.e.m.e.nt that had nothing at all of mockery or superiority about it, unlike the sneers wont to bend the formerly-Exalted lips of Master Girays v'Alisante.
”But I wouldn't presume to dismiss it,” she told him, and found that she meant what she said. ”However it may have happened, I'm lucky to meet you here. But now I need impose on your patience and generosity no longer, for I'm quite recovered.”
”I believe that you are, or nearly so. I hope I do not presume too greatly in asking what you will do next?”
”Do?” She frowned, taken aback. ”Why, I hadn't really thought about it. Go back to the waterfront, I suppose. I need to buy a steamer ticket to Aeshno, and then-”
”It is not yet safe to return to the wharf. Quite likely, all civilians have been barred from the area. In any case all commercial enterprises there, including the ticketing agencies, are certain to be shut down for the next several hours, at the very least.”
”Well, then there must be someplace in town where I can book pa.s.sage. Perhaps through one of the better hotels-”
”I do not think so. I have already inquired at the Prendivet Hotel, without success. May I offer a suggestion?”
”Of course.”
”I left the grandlandsman in the restaurant at the Prendivet. Come back there with me now for lunch. The nourishment will do you good, I suspect. By the time you have finished eating, the wharf establishments may have reopened for business. If they have not, you may contemplate your next move at leisure, and in comfort. You lose nothing by the delay, for all the Grand Ellipse contestants present in Lanthi Ume are equally inconvenienced.”
Quite right. Everyone was in the same boat, or rather, not in the boat. There was some comfort in that. And lunch in Lanthi Ume with Karsler Stornzof-not an unattractive prospect, even if he was Grewzian. But he wasn't like the rest of them, she told herself firmly. Karsler was different.
”Is the Prendivet Hotel far from here?” Luzelle inquired.
”Not at all. A hired boat could carry us there in ten minutes. Or perhaps you would prefer to walk?”
”Yes, let's walk. That's always the best way to experience a new city. You just sort of absorb it through the soles of your feet.”
”I will take your word for it. I must confess, I've little experience in traveling for pleasure.”
”Oh, then you find such things frivolous?”
”I find such things-astonis.h.i.+ng.”
”You sound like a visitor from some other world.”
”That is not such a bad description.”
”What do you mean?”
”Ah, that is a solemn subject, best left for another day. For now, let us enjoy the city and its sights, let us-absorb through the soles of our feet.”
For a moment she half expected him to offer his arm, then reminded herself that the occasion was quasi-social at best. They moved off together, and the city around them was splendid in the sunlight, despite the conspicuous presence of foreign troops. Their conversation was innocuous-for by mutual unspoken consent they avoided potentially dangerous issues-but enjoyable, easy, and, to Luzelle, distinctly novel. She had encountered a variety of celebrated men in the course of her travels, but never one so genuinely unaware of the power of his own fame and appearance as Karsler Stornzof. He didn't seem to regard himself as a hero, as a celebrity, or indeed as anything more than an ordinary officer of the Grewzian Imperium. Hard to believe, yet she could detect nothing of false modesty in his att.i.tude. Similarly he appeared unconscious of the countless feminine eyes following him as he walked along the path.
And his effect on Luzelle Devaire?
This head is not easily turned, she a.s.sured herself. And I have a race to win. And I have a race to win.
They came to an intersection and he guided her to the left, along a narrow way lined with odd, old-fas.h.i.+oned little shops and booths. Her feet stopped of their own accord before one of them, and it took her consciousness a moment to understand why.
It was an ordinary p.a.w.nshop, small and dingy, indistinguishable from countless others of similar ilk infesting every major city. Certainly there was nothing distinctive to be glimpsed in the window display. Just the usual sad and dusty collection of other people's lost treasures; plenty of jewelry, watches, silver, china, crystal, musical instruments, expensive monogrammed shaving implements, ornaments, fancy spurs and whips, ornate ceremonial swords and daggers, a couple of big service revolvers...
It was the revolvers, she realized, that had halted her. Suddenly she was back again at Glozh Station, and the two Grewzian soldiers were dragging her from the platform. She could hear their voices and feel their hands on her, she could taste her own outraged fear, and she remembered her promise to herself that she would never again travel without a loaded pistol. Now was the time to fulfill that vow.
”You wish to enter?” Karsler asked.
”Yes.” She turned to look up at him, and forced herself to add, ”I mean to purchase a gun, for my own protection.”
Now she would have to endure his disapproval, or worse, his patronage. Beyond doubt he'd inform her that possession of a lethal weapon could only maximize her own danger. She wouldn't know how to handle a gun properly, or if by any chance she managed to learn, then the knowledge would hysterically flee her mind at some critical moment. She would end up shooting herself or some innocent bystander. Or else some male aggressor far stronger, quicker, and more resolute than she would simply take the weapon away from her, s.n.a.t.c.h it right out of her hand before she could remember to squeeze the trigger, and then where would she be? She had heard the entire condescending lecture more than once, and she was not inclined to listen to it again.
Karsler surprised her.
”That is a sound thought,” he observed, almost sadly. ”In such a world as this you must stand prepared to defend yourself. I cannot deny the necessity. Do you know much of handguns?”
”Not a great deal,” she admitted. ”But I'm thinking that those two there in the window look pretty useful.”