Part 40 (1/2)
Pirro Velesz was in worse case than Mona Luki or either of her sorry crew.
MIDDAY AT DIABLO'S. Too far from the city to hear the Temple chanting. Too close to the port to see anything but outworlders, half of them drunk and the other half out of luck, hunched over the bar like their last hope of salvation, eyes blurred like the middle of Jump.
Not one of them took note of us at all.Lil was jumping terrified-the move to the hot-pad in the middle of our night and the guilt that came with knowing she'd sold our s.h.i.+p, however unknowing, had her in a state already. The bar filled with chancy s.p.a.cers wired her even higher.
Pirro Velesz was nowhere to be seen.
Cly Nelbern found us a ringside table, ordered up a round of drinks and leaned back. She sipped from her gla.s.s now and then, and her hands were steady when she did, but for all of that I thought she looked tense and I tried not to think what she'd do, if she were forced into hunting him out.
The crowd thinned soon enough, as my drink sat untouched on the table. Lil's was long swallowed and Nelbern had all but finished her own.
She had just waved her hand for the waiter when there was a flicker at the doorway and a ripple of city-clothes in the corner of my eye. Nelbern came to her feet in one smooth flow, moving through the knot of patrons.
Lil charged to her feet the next second, wailing something inarticulate under her breath.
”Lillian!” I cried as she went by, but her eyes were full of anguish and she never heard me at all.
A circle had opened around them-Cly Nelbern and Pirro Velesz-a circle of the dead-eyed incurious, who turned back to drinking after a glance determined the business was none of theirs.
”Well?” I heard her say, as Lil pushed a way to his side.
”Well.” He looked tired, his shabby blue tunic draggled and dirty. He swayed where he stood and Lil put a hand under his elbow to steady him.
I saw a smile come and go on his face, like a whisper of might-have-been; then he reached in his sleeve and pulled out a thin white envelope of the kind used for dirtsider's mail and handed it to Cly Nelbern.
She shook her head toward a table and we moved that way, Lil bright in the reflection of the man's wan smile.
”So.” A purr of satisfaction as Nelbern opened the folder and pulled out a strip of film. ”The original?”
He nodded. ”As agreed.”
”Delightful. And I have payment for you.” She patted her own sleeve. Something in the gesture chilled me, and I saw Lil clutch after the man's arm, her eyes showing white at the edges.
It was then that I saw Her, in life as in dreaming, walking into that place in Her cleanness and her power, as if nothing evil could ever touch Her.
”Witch!” screamed one of the drunks at the bar, and threw a gla.s.s, which fell, stone-heavy, and broke on the floor at Her feet.
She turned Her head and there was silence at the bar; raised a hand and drew a sign in the fetid air. The silence s.h.i.+mmered, then broke apart, as the one who had thrown the gla.s.s lay his head upon the bar top and wailed.
She turned back then, fixed us with those eyes, which saw us and saw through us.
”Pirro Velesz.” Her voice was deep, not ungentle; I heard it in my heart.He licked his lips. ”Mercy, Lady.”
”Return what you have stolen.”
”Lady, I cannot.”
The smooth brow creased; then those eyes moved again, pinning Cly Nelbern.
”Return what you have stolen.”
The older woman smiled, and bowed a trifle, one hand over her heart. ”Why certainly, child,” she said agreeably, and reached into her sleeve.
Lil cried out-a single wild shriek of protest. The man flung out a hand, too late, to stop the throw. I jumped half-forward, not sure if my mark were Lil or Nelbern, and saw the knife arc silver-bright, straight for Moonhawk's breast.
It fell, as had the gla.s.s; there was a clatter of shards where it struck. Cly Nelbern was already moving, the s.h.i.+ne of another blade in her hand, swinging for an undercut that would take the girl out as Nelbern charged on- ”STOP!”.
The world rocked and the stars shook in their places. I froze where I was, unable to do otherwise, my muscles commanded by Her will, not mine. I saw Cly Nelbern fall, and Lil. I saw Pirro frozen upright like myself, and heard the silence; wondered if everyone in the bar were like froze...
Moonhawk lifted a hand, bangles tinkling like carnival, and pointed a slender finger at Pirro.
”Return what you have stolen.”
He moved, wooden-like, and went to his knees at Nelbern's side. He pulled the envelope from her belt, but tarried, his fingers straying to her wrist. Slowly, he stood and bowed to the girl.
”Lady, this woman is dead.”
The power s.h.i.+mmered, and I saw the girl through the G.o.ddess; frightened by what she had done, and saddened. She bent her head and when she raised it again, the girl was gone.
Pirro bowed, offered the envelope with its strip of film.
She took it and slipped it away, her eyes, black and brilliant, boring into his. In a moment, she had moved, turning like attention to me, so that I felt Her hovering over my soul; felt Her touch on my heart; felt, at last the loosening of Her will and blurted out: ”My sister is dead!”
The black eyes seared into me. ”Your sister is alive, Fiona Betany. Give thanks to the G.o.ddess and honor your gifts. All of them.”
She went to Lil then, and spoke two words which my ears somehow refused to hear. Then she reached down Her own hand to help my sister rise, and stepped back to survey the three of us.
”You will return to your s.h.i.+p and you will leave this world. You are forbidden to return, on pain of punishment from the Circle.”
She motioned, drawing burning signs within the air. ”Go now! Be prosperous and true.” A tip of a handtoward what had been Cly Nelbern. ”Leave that one here.”
She paused, looking at us with those eyes, that saw us and saw through us and forgave everything they saw.
”G.o.ddess bless,” she said. ”Now run!”
It might have been that easy, had the others not come just then: Temple robes of starry blue, cowls half-hiding faces that woke the echo of ”Recant!” within me. There were three, or five, or eight of them: Their magics so s.h.i.+mmered air and truth that I could not count the number.
”HOLD!” demanded one of the group, and, perforce, we did.
One witch pointed at me; I heard the word ”Talent!” and nothing else until a second witch pointed at Lil, and me, and Pirro and waved us all into a circle with the word ”Conspiracy” binding us together like rope.
A third s.n.a.t.c.hed open the envelope that Moonhawk had meekly given her and let out a smoking curse.
”They would have stolen the secret of the catalyst molecule!”